SmarterTools, Inc. (SmarterTools) is committed to safeguarding the privacy of our website visitors, license holders, customers, and service users. This policy describes how we handle personal data for which we are the controller. That is, where we determine why and how it is processed. This includes data about visitors to our website, license holders, billing contacts, and people who contact us directly.
Where you use a SmarterTools product to process personal data about your own employees, customers or end users — for example, the contents of a help desk ticket in SmarterTrack (Hosted on on-premises), or messages in a SmarterMail mailbox — you are the controller of that data and we act as your processor. We process it only on your documented instructions. If you are an individual seeking access to, correction of, or deletion of data held in a SmarterTools product operated by another organisation, please contact that organisation directly; we will refer such requests to them.
From whom do we process personal data?
We process personal data from visitors to our website, license holders, customers, and users of our services.
What personal data do we process and for what purposes? What is the legal basis for data processing?
We process your personal data because we ask you to provide them when doing business with us or using our services and/or because you provide them yourself.
We process the following personal data:
We process your personal data for the following purposes:
We process personal data on the following legal basis:
In principle, SmarterTools will process your personal data because this is necessary for the performance of a contract with you, for the establishment, exercise, and substantiation of legal claims, or based on consent granted by you. Any permission granted may be withdrawn at any time. SmarterTools may also be obliged to process your personal data based on a legal obligation, for example to demonstrate compliance with the rules of the GDPR. Furthermore, SmarterTools may process personal data on the grounds of its legitimate interest or that of a third party, such as direct marketing.
SmarterTools may occasionally send existing customers and/or those who have consented thereto information by e-mail about products and services of ours that we think you might like.
You have the right at any time to stop SmarterTools from contacting you for marketing purposes.
If you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes, you can easily opt out by either clicking the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any marketing email we send out, or by changing your Email Preferences in your SmarterTools account.
Processing Activities Summary
| Activity | Personal Data | Purpose and Legal Basis | Recipients | Retention |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Account, licensing and service delivery | Name, email, display name, account and license details | Provide the product(s) and account; perform the services provided | Infrastructure and support providers | Account term, or until opt-out or withdrawal of consent |
| Billing and payments | Contact and transaction data; payment details | Process purchases, refunds, and credits; contract and legal obligations | Payment service provider(s) | Applicable accounting, tax and dispute retention requirements |
| Support and diagnostics | Support request content, diagnostic and error data | Resolve support requests and improve documentation; contract and legitimate interests | Support providers and AI providers under written restrictions | Ticket data is stored for three (3) years; AI providers do not store data |
| Marketing and communication | Name, email and communication preferences | Send product information and service notices; consent or legitimate interests, as applicable | Email anc communication providers (all internal) | Account term, or until opt-out or withdrawal of consent |
| Website analytics | Online identifiers, cookie and usage information | Understand website performance; consent where required | Google Analytics 4; CookieYes | Event data retention is two (2) months; User data retention is fourteen (14) months |
In principle, SmarterTools will process your personal data because this is necessary for the performance of a contract with you, for the establishment, exercise, and substantiation of legal claims, or based on consent granted by you. Any permission granted may be withdrawn at any time. SmarterTools may also be obliged to process your personal data based on a legal obligation, for example to demonstrate compliance with the rules of the GDPR. Furthermore, SmarterTools may process personal data on the grounds of its legitimate interest or that of a third party, such as direct marketing.
SmarterTools may occasionally send existing customers and/or those who have consented thereto information by e-mail about products and services of ours that we think you might like.
You have the right at any time to stop SmarterTools from contacting you for marketing purposes.
If you no longer wish to be contacted for marketing purposes, you can easily opt out by either clicking the “Unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any marketing email we send out, or by changing your Email Preferences in your SmarterTools account.
Sharing with third parties
Except as described below, SmarterTools does not share your personal data with third parties, unless with your express consent, or when this is necessary for the execution of our agreement with you, to comply with a legal obligation or where this is necessary for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims.
We do not sell personal data and we do not share it with third parties for their own purposes. We do engage service providers who process personal data on our behalf and under our instructions. Each such provider is bound by a written data processing agreement that limits their use of the data to the performance of our contract and prohibits any other use. The categories of service providers we engage are:
How do we protect your personal data?
As stated, SmarterTools is committed to protecting the security of your personal data. We employ appropriate security measures to protect the loss, misuse, unauthorized access, unwanted disclosure, and unauthorized alteration of personal data we collect. For example, we store the personal information you provide on computer systems with limited access, which are in controlled facilities. When we transmit highly confidential information (such as a credit card number) over the internet we protect it using encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol. In addition, your access to such information is similarly protected. While on a secure page, site visitors will notice a security icon in the visitor's browser, the location of which is dependent upon the browser used.
How long do we store your personal data?
Personal data shall not be kept for longer than is strictly necessary for the purposes mentioned in this privacy policy or for a legitimate interest of SmarterTools. See Processing Activities Summary.
How we use artificial intelligence
We use artificial intelligence in a limited number of ways. This section explains each of them and what it means for your data.
Answering support enquiries. We operate an internal assistant that helps our staff research product questions, diagnose errors and draft responses. Content from support enquiries may be submitted to a third-party AI provider for this purpose. Before submission, we apply automated redaction designed to remove direct identifiers, including names, email addresses and IP addresses. Our AI provider is engaged under written terms that prohibit it from using submitted content to train or improve its models and that limit retention of that content. A human member of our support team reviews every response before it is sent to you. We do not use AI to make decisions about your potential issues without human involvement.
AI features in our products. SmarterMail and SmarterTrack include optional features that connect to an AI provider of your choosing. These features are turned off unless you enable them, and they work only when you supply credentials for your own account with that AI provider. When you use them, your data is transmitted from the product to the provider you selected, under your agreement with that provider and subject to that provider's privacy practices — not ours. If you operate SmarterMail or SmarterTrack on your own servers, we do not receive that data at all. If you use our hosted service, we transmit it at your instruction. We recommend reviewing your AI provider's privacy policy and data retention terms before enabling these features.
Creating content. We use AI tools to help draft and edit material for our website, blog, help documentation and marketing. Every piece of content is reviewed by a person for accuracy, tone and voice before it is published. No personal data is used in this process.
Building and securing our software. We use AI tools to assist our developers in writing code and in identifying potential security vulnerabilities. No code is released without human review, and all changes go through a full code review before they are approved and published. Customer personal data is not used in this process.
What we do not do. We do not sell your personal data. We do not use your personal data to train artificial intelligence models, and we do not permit our AI providers to do so. We do not make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects about you through solely automated means.
What are your data protection rights?
SmarterTools would like to make sure you are fully aware of your data protection rights. You are entitled to the following, if and insofar as the restrictions arising from the GDPR do not prevent it:
If you want to know which personal data SmarterTools processes, you can submit a request for access. Does it turn out that your details are incorrect, incomplete, or irrelevant? If so, you may submit an additional request to have the data amended or supplemented. Additionally, you are able to monitor and maintain any information SmarterTools has about you via the account you set up.
In addition, the data may be deleted at your request, insofar as this does not impede the performance of the current agreement with SmarterTools or a legitimate interest of SmarterTools and insofar as no legal obligation prevents this.
You can send a request for access, correction, deletion, data transfer of your personal data or request for cancellation of your consent or objection to the processing of your personal data to legal@smartertools.com To ensure the request has been made by you, we may ask you to send a copy of your ID or to identify yourself by other means. SmarterTools will respond to your request within four weeks.
You also have the right to file a complaint with the Dutch regulator, the Personal Data Authority, in case of faulty data processing. You can do this via the following link: Een tip of klacht indienen bij de AP | Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens
United States Privacy Rights. Depending on your U.S. state of residence and the applicability of state privacy law, you may have rights to know or access, correct, delete, receive a portable copy of, or opt out of certain processing of your personal information. SmarterTools does not sell personal information and does not share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising. To exercise an applicable privacy right, contact us at legal@smartertools.com. We will not discriminate against you for exercising an applicable privacy right. An authorized agent may submit a request where permitted by law, subject to verification of the agent's authority and, where appropriate, your identity.
California Notice. If the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CCPA), applies to SmarterTools' processing, the categories of personal information we collect, the sources, purposes, and categories of recipients are described in this policy. We process personal information for the business and commercial purposes described above. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined by the CCPA. California residents may submit a request by the methods described in the preceding paragraph; we will verify requests and respond as required by applicable law.
Data transfer outside EEA
SmarterTools stores personal data in the United States. Whenever we transfer personal data to the U.S., we do so in compliance with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF). SmarterTools complies with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF) and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF, as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce. SmarterTools has certified to the U.S. Department of Commerce that it adheres to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Principles (EU-U.S. DPF Principles) with regard to the processing of personal data received from the European Union and the United Kingdom in reliance on the EU-U.S. DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF. If there is any conflict between the terms in this privacy policy and the EU-U.S. DPF Principles the Principles shall govern. To learn more about the Data Privacy Framework (DPF) program, and to view our certification, please visit https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov/.
In compliance with the EU-US Data Privacy Framework Program’s Principles, SmarterTools commits to resolve complaints about your privacy and our collection or use of your personal information transferred to the United States pursuant to the DPF Principles. European Union individuals with DPF inquiries or complaints should first contact SmarterTools using the contact information shown below.
SmarterTools has further committed to refer unresolved privacy complaints under the DPF Principles to an independent dispute resolution mechanism, Data Privacy Framework Services, operated by BBB National Programs. If you do not receive timely acknowledgment of your complaint, or if your complaint is not satisfactorily addressed, please visit the BBB National Programs website for more information and to file a complaint. This service is provided free of charge to you. More information can be found at https://bbbprograms.org/programs/all-programs/dpf-consumers
If your DPF complaint cannot be resolved through the above channels, under certain conditions, you may invoke binding arbitration for some residual claims not resolved by other redress mechanisms. See the Data Privacy website for more information. SmarterTools subjects itself to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
What are cookies and how do we use them?
"Cookies" are files that contain an identifier -- generally a string of letters and numbers -- that are sent by a web server to a web browser, and then stored by that web browser. Every time the web browser requests a page from that web server, that identifier is sent to the web server to perform some function. "Persistent" cookies are stored for a set period based on the cookie's expiration date (or if the cookie is deleted by the user) whereas "Session" cookies expire at the end of a user's session, which is generally until the web browser is closed. We use both first-party session and persistent cookies to assist visitors to our website in performing legitimate interest tasks. This includes actions such as purchasing products or services from us, getting assistance from us via our help desk, etc. Typically, the cookies we use do not contain any information that is personally identifiable. In cases where such information may be present, we have done everything possible to keep such information obfuscated, such as the use of anonymization.
Our website uses the following types of cookies:
For further information, visit allaboutcookies.org.
How to manage cookies
You can set your browser not to accept cookies, and the above website tells you how to remove cookies from your browser. However, in a few cases, some of our website features may not function as a result.
The SmarterTools websites also offer a cookie “banner” that allows you to manage any cookies. This will allow you to only accept those cookies you are comfortable accepting.
Privacy policies of other websites
The SmarterTools website contains links to other websites. Our privacy policy applies only to our website, so if you click on a link to another website, you should read their privacy policy.
Changes to our privacy policy
SmarterTools keeps its privacy policy under regular review and places any updates on this web page. SmarterTools therefore advises you to consult this privacy policy regularly. The revision information is listed at the bottom of this page.
How to contact us
Should you wish to contact us relating to any of the above, or to exercise your rights regarding our processing of personal data, you may contact us:
Email us at:Rev. 20260830