Privacy Policy
Last updated September 12, 2022
Thank you for choosing to be part of our community at PowerNotes LLC, doing business as PowerNotes (“PowerNotes”, “we”, “us”, or “our”). We are committed to protecting your personal information and your right to privacy. If you have any questions or concerns about our policy, or our practices with regards to your personal information, please contact us at contact@powernotes.com.
We take your privacy very seriously. In this privacy policy, we seek to explain to you in the clearest way possible what information we collect, how we use it, and what rights you have in relation to it. We hope you take some time to read through it carefully, as it is important. If there are any terms in this privacy policy that you do not agree with, please discontinue use of our Sites or Apps and our services.
This privacy policy applies to all information collected through our browser extensions, website (such as PowerNotes.com), mobile application, ("Apps"), and/or any related services, sales, marketing, or events (we refer to them collectively in this privacy policy as the "Services").
Please read this privacy policy carefully as it will help you make informed decisions about sharing your personal information with us.
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1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?
Personal information you disclose to us
In Short: We collect personal information that you provide to us such as name, email address, and password.
We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when registering for the Services or Apps, expressing an interest in obtaining information about us or our products and services, when participating in activities on the Services or Apps, or otherwise contacting us.
The personal information that we collect depends on the context of your interactions with us and the Services or Apps, the choices you make, and the products and features you use. The personal information we collect can include the following:
Personal Information Provided by You. We collect your name, email address, app usage, and other similar data.
Credentials. We store passwords created by users and similar security information used for authentication and account access.
Payment Data. We do NOT save any financial data necessary to process your payments. All payment data is stored by Braintree Payments. You may find their privacy policy link(s) here: https://www.braintreepayments.com/legal/braintree-privacy-policy.
Social Media Login Data. We provide you with the option to register using social media account details, like your Facebook, Google or school single-sign-on account. If you choose to register in this way, we will collect the Information described in the section called "HOW DO WE HANDLE YOUR SOCIAL LOGINS" below.
All personal information that you provide to us must be true, complete and accurate, and you must notify us of any changes to such personal information.
Information automatically collected
In Short: Some information – such as IP address and/or browser and device characteristics – is collected automatically when you visit our Services or Apps.
We automatically collect certain information when you visit, use, or navigate the Services or Apps. This information does not reveal your specific identity (like your name or contact information) but may include device and usage information, such as your IP address, browser and device characteristics, operating system, language preferences, referring URLs, device name, country, location, information about how and when you use our Services or Apps and other technical information. This information is primarily needed to maintain the security and operation of our Services or Apps, and for product improvement, our internal analytics, and reporting purposes.
Information collected through our browser extensions and add-ons
We automatically collect and store certain information as directed by you during the course of your use of the Services or Apps. This information can include content that you save along with URLs for such content, annotations that you make, topics that you create, and other information necessary for you to use the Services or Apps. This information is needed to provide our Services.
Information collected through our Apps
In Short: We may collect information regarding your mobile device, push notifications, when you use our apps.
If you use our Apps, we may also collect the following information:
Mobile Device Access. We may request access or permission to certain features from your mobile device, including your mobile device’s camera, storage, social media accounts, and other features. If you wish to change our access or permissions, you may do so in your device’s settings.
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2. HOW DO WE USE YOUR INFORMATION?
In Short: We process your information for purposes based on legitimate business interests, the fulfillment of our Services for you, compliance with our legal obligations, and/or your consent.
We use personal information collected via our Services or Apps for a variety of business purposes described below. We process your personal information for our legitimate business interests in order to perform the Services for you, with your consent, and/or for compliance with our legal obligations. We indicate the specific processing grounds we rely on next to each purpose listed below.
We use the information we collect or receive:
- To facilitate account creation and logon process. If you choose to link your account with us to a third party account (such as your Google or Facebook account), we use the information you allowed us to collect from those third parties to facilitate account creation and logon process for the performance of the Services.
- To send you marketing and promotional communications. We and/or our third party marketing partners may use the personal information you send to us for our marketing purposes, if this is in accordance with your marketing preferences. You can opt-out of our marketing emails at any time.
- To send administrative information to you. We may use your personal information to send you product, service, and new feature information, and/or information about changes to our terms, conditions, and policies.
- Administer prize draws and competitions. We may use your information to administer prize draws and competitions when you elect to participate in competitions.
- Request Feedback. We may use your information to request feedback and to contact you about your use of our Services or Apps.
- To enable user-to-user communications. We may use your information in order to enable user-to-user communications with each user's consent.
- To enforce our terms, conditions, and policies for Business Purposes and Legal Reasons.
- To respond to legal requests and prevent harm. If we receive a subpoena or other legal request, we may need to inspect the data we hold to determine how to respond.
- To manage user accounts. We may use your information for the purposes of managing your account and keeping it in working order.
- To respond to user inquiries/offer support to users. We may use your information to respond to your inquiries and solve any potential issues you might have with the use of our Services.
- For other Business Purposes. We may use your information for other Business Purposes, such as data analysis, identifying usage trends, determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns, and to evaluate and improve our Services or Apps, products, marketing, and your experience. We may use and store this information in aggregated and anonymized form so that it is not associated with individual end users and does not include personal information.
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3. WILL YOUR INFORMATION BE SHARED WITH ANYONE?
In Short: We only share information with your consent, to comply with laws, to provide you with Services, to protect your rights, or to fulfill business obligations.
We may process or share data based on the following legal basis:
- Consent: We may process your data if you have given us specific consent to use your personal information for a specific purpose.
- Legitimate Interests: We may process your data when it is reasonably necessary to achieve our legitimate business interests.
- Relationship with an educational institution: We may process your data when your usage of the Services is provided to you by your educational institution. In this case, your data may only be shared with faculty and administrators of your educational institution when it is reasonably necessary to achieve their legitimate educational interests.
- Performance of a Contract: Where we have entered into a contract with you, we may process your personal information to fulfill the terms of our contract.
- Legal Obligations: We may disclose your information where we are legally required to do so in order to comply with applicable law, governmental requests, a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process, such as in response to a court order or a subpoena (including in response to public authorities to meet national security or law enforcement requirements).
- Vital Interests: We may disclose your information where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding potential violations of our policies, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person and illegal activities, or as evidence in litigation in which we are involved.
More specifically, we may need to process your data or share your personal information in the following situations:
- Vendors, Consultants and Other Third-Party Service Providers. We may share your data with third party vendors, service providers, contractors, or agents who perform services for us or on our behalf and require access to such information to do that work. Examples include: payment processing, data analysis, email delivery, hosting services, customer service and marketing efforts. We may allow selected third parties to use tracking technology on the Services or Apps, which will enable them to collect data about how you interact with the Services or Apps over time. This information may be used to, among other things, analyze and track data, determine the popularity of certain content, and better understand online activity. Unless described in this Policy, we do not share, sell, rent, or trade any of your information with third parties for their promotional purposes. We have contracts in place with our data processors. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it. They will not share your personal information with any organisation apart from us. They will hold it securely and retain it for the period we instruct.
- Business Transfers. We may share or transfer your information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company.
- Other Users. When you share personal information (for example, by posting comments, contributions, or other content to the Services or Apps) or otherwise interact with public areas of the Services or Apps, such personal information may be viewed by all users and may be publicly distributed outside the Services or Apps in perpetuity.
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4. WHO WILL YOUR INFORMATION BE SHARED WITH?
In Short: We only share information with the following third parties.
We only share and disclose your information with the following third parties. We have categorized each party so that you may easily understand the purpose of our data collection and processing practices. If we have processed your data based on your consent and you wish to revoke your consent, please contact us.
- Cloud Computing Services
Amazon Web Services (AWS) and MongoDB - Communicate and Chat with Users
MailChimp and Postmark - Invoice and Billing
Braintree - Web and Mobile Analytics
MixPanel and Google Analytics - Website Performance Monitoring
Sentry - Mobile App Testing
TestFlight
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5. DO WE USE COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES?
In Short: We do use cookies to collect and store your information in a limited fashion.
We may use cookies on our website for maintaining user sessions, storing preferences, and providing a satisfactory user experience.
We do NOT use cookies and similar tracking technologies (like web beacons and pixels) to access or store information in our browser extensions or add-ons.
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6. HOW DO WE HANDLE YOUR SOCIAL LOGINS?
In Short: If you choose to register or log in to our services using a social media account, we may have access to certain information about you.
Our Services or Apps offer you the ability to register and login using your third party social media account details (like your Facebook or Google logins) or your school’s single-sign-on service. Where you choose to do this, we will receive certain profile information about you from your social media provider or school. The profile Information we receive may vary depending on the social media provider concerned, but will often include your name and email address as well as other information you choose to make public.
We will use the information we receive only for the purposes that are described in this privacy policy or that are otherwise made clear to you on the Services or Apps. Please note that we do not control, and are not responsible for, other uses of your personal information by your third party social media provider. We recommend that you review their privacy policy to understand how they collect, use, and share your personal information, and how you can set your privacy preferences on their sites and apps.
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7. HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?
In Short: We keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this privacy policy unless otherwise required by law.
We will only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as tax, accounting, or other legal requirements). No purpose in this policy will require us keeping your personal information for longer than the period of time in which users have an account with us plus the amount of time it takes for backups to be deleted.
When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymize it, or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.
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8. HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE?
In Short: We aim to protect your personal information through a system of organizational and technical security measures.
We encrypt user data in transit and when it is stored in the cloud, following industry best practices and OWASP recommended encryption algorithms. We also implement organizational security measures to prevent access by unauthorized individuals, and routinely perform audits to enforce these measures.
However, please also remember that we cannot guarantee that the internet itself is 100% secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, transmission of personal information to and from our Services or Apps is at your own risk. You should only access the services within a secure environment.
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9. DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM MINORS?
In Short: We do not knowingly collect data from or market to children under 18 years of age, unless you a student at one of our partner schools.
We do not knowingly solicit data from or market to children under 18 years of age. By using the Services or Apps, you represent that you are at least 18, or you are under 18 and a member of one of our partner institutions, or that you are the parent or guardian of such a minor and consent to such minor dependent’s use of the Services or Apps. If we learn that personal information from users less than 18 years of age has been collected, we will deactivate the account and take reasonable measures to promptly delete such data from our records, unless you are under 18 and a member of one of our partner institutions. If you become aware of any data we have collected from children under age 18, please contact us at contact@powernotes.com.
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10. WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?
In Short: You may review, change, or terminate your account at any time.
If you are resident in the European Economic Area and you believe we are unlawfully processing your personal information, you also have the right to complain to your local data protection supervisory authority. You can find their contact details here: http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/bodies/authorities/index_en.htm.
If you have questions or comments about your privacy rights, you may email us at contact@powernotes.com.
Account Information
If you would at any time like to review or change the information in your account, or terminate your account, you can:
- Contact us using the contact information provided below.
Upon your request to terminate your account, we will deactivate or delete your account and information from our active databases. However, some information may be retained in our files to prevent fraud, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, enforce our Terms of Use, and/or comply with legal requirements.
Opting out of email marketing: You can unsubscribe from our marketing email list at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the emails that we send or by contacting us using the details provided below. You will then be removed from the marketing email list – however, we will still need to send you service-related emails that are necessary for the administration and use of your account. To otherwise opt-out, you may:
- Contact us using the contact information provided below.
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11. DATA BREACH
A privacy breach occurs when there is unauthorized access to, or collection, use, disclosure, or disposal of personal information. You will be notified about data breaches when PowerNotes LLC believes you are likely to be at risk or serious harm. For example, a data breach may be likely to result in serious financial harm or harm to your mental or physical well-being. In the event that PowerNotes LLC becomes aware of a security breach which has resulted or may result in unauthorized access, use, or disclosure of personal information, PowerNotes LLC will promptly investigate the matter and notify the applicable Supervisory Authority not later than 72 hours after having become aware of it, unless the personal data breach is unlikely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons.
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12. CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURES
Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems and mobile applications include a Do-Not-Track (“DNT”) feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. No uniform technology standard for recognizing and implementing DNT signals has been finalized. As such, we do not currently respond to DNT browser signals or any other mechanism that automatically communicates your choice not to be tracked online. If a standard for online tracking is adopted that we must follow in the future, we will inform you about that practice in a revised version of this privacy policy. We do not track online browsing activity and only store browsing information when directed by the user during their use of our Services.
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13. DO CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?
In Short: Yes, if you are a resident of California, you are granted specific rights regarding access to your personal information.
California Civil Code Section 1798.83, also known as the “Shine The Light” law, permits our users who are California residents to request and obtain from us, once a year and free of charge, information about categories of personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes and the names and addresses of all third parties with which we shared personal information in the immediately preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please submit your request in writing to us using the contact information provided below.
If you are under 18 years of age, reside in California, and have a registered account with the Services or Apps, you have the right to request removal of unwanted data that you publicly post on the Services or Apps. To request removal of such data, please contact us using the contact information provided below, and include the email address associated with your account and a statement that you reside in California. We will make sure the data is not publicly displayed on the Services or Apps, but please be aware that the data may not be completely or comprehensively removed from our systems.
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14. DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS POLICY?
In Short: Yes, we will update this policy as necessary to stay compliant with relevant laws.
We may update this privacy policy from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated “Revised” date and the updated version will be effective as soon as it is accessible. If we make material changes to this privacy policy, we may notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to review this privacy policy frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.
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15. HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS POLICY?
If you have questions or comments about this policy, you may email us at contact@powernotes.com or by post to:
PowerNotes LLC820 West Jackson Blvd.Suite 350Chicago, IL 60607United States
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16. HOW CAN YOU REVIEW, UPDATE, OR DELETE THE DATA WE COLLECT FROM YOU?
Based on the laws of some countries, you may have the right to request access to the personal information we collect from you, change that information, or delete it in some circumstances. To request to review, update, or delete your personal information, please submit a request form by clicking here. We will respond to your request within 30 days.
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Licenses
Aspects of the PowerNotes auto-citation feature include software code developed by Zotero, including software code subject to the GNU Affero General Public License (“AGPL”). As applicable, the terms of the AGPL, found here, and information on obtaining access to the AGPL code used in this product, are available to you.
WRITTEN OFFER FOR AGPL SOURCE CODE: Certain free and open source software (“FOSS”) licenses require PowerNotes LLC to make available to recipients the source code corresponding to the FOSS binaries distributed under those licenses. Where such specific license terms entitle you to the source code of such software, PowerNotes LLC will provide to anyone upon written request via e-mail and/or traditional paper mail within three years after the distribution of the product by us the applicable source code via CD-ROM or USB drive for a nominal cost to cover shipping and media charges or access from a network server at no charge, as allowed under the AGPL.
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Please direct relevant inquiries to:
Email: contact@powernotes.com
Mail:
PowerNotes LLC, 820 West Jackson Blvd.
Suite 350
Chicago, IL 60607 United States