Privacy Policy

Hello, we're Sounding Board Support LLC dba TechMachete (known by humans and client-friends as TechMachete). Here's how we protect your data and respect your privacy. This privacy notice is based on an open-sourced design from juro.com and stefaniapassera.com - get your own free privacy policy template at juro.com/contract-templates/privacy-policy-template

OUR ROLE IN YOUR PRIVACY

If you are a TechMachete customer or subscriber, or just visiting our website, this policy applies to you.

Our responsibilities

If you are a registered TechMachete customer or a visitor to our website we act as the ‘data controller’ of personal data. This means we determine how and why your data is processed.

Your responsibilities

  • Read this Privacy Policy
  • If you provide us with personal information about other people, or if others give us your information, we will only use that information for the specific reason for which it was provided to us. By submitting the information, you confirm that you have the right to authorise us to process it on your behalf in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

WHEN & HOW WE COLLECT DATA

From the first moment you interact with TechMachete, we are collecting data. Sometimes you provide us with data, sometimes data about you is collected automatically.

Here’s when and how we do this:

Data You Give

  • You opt-in to marketing messages
  • You fill out our contact form
  • You call us
  • You send an email to us
  • You schedule a consultation call
  • You sign up for subscription services
  • You buy our products
  • You chat with us for customer support
  • You provide payments through our payment processor
  • You provide us access to your systems

Data We Collect

  • You browse any page of our website
  • We identify you as a potential customer
  • We call you
  • You receive emails from us
  • You chat with us for customer support
  • You opt-in to marketing messages
  • You buy our products
  • You provide payments through our payment processor

TYPES OF DATA WE COLLECT

Contact details

Your name, address, telephone number, email address…

Financial information

Your partially redacted credit/debit card details via our third party payment processor

Data that identifies you

Your IP address, login information, browser type and version, time zone setting, browser plug-in types, geolocation information about where you might be, operating system and version, etc.

Data on how you use TechMachete

Your URL clickstreams (the path you take through our site), products/services viewed, page response times, download errors, how long you stay on our pages, what you do on those pages, how often, and other actions…

What about really sensitive data?

We don’t collect any “sensitive data” about you (like racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious/philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, genetic data, biometric data, health data, data about your sexual life or orientation, and offenses or alleged offenses) except when we have your specific consent, or when we have to to comply with the law.

What about children’s data?

TechMachete is a business-to-business service directed to and intended for use only by those who are 18 years of age or over. We do not target TechMachete at children, and we do not knowingly collect any personal data from any person under 16 years of age.

HOW & WHY WE USE YOUR DATA

Data protection law means that we can only use your data for certain reasons and where we have a legal basis to do so. Here are the reasons for which we process your data:

Keeping TechMachete running

Login and authentication, processing payments.

Legal Basis: Legitimate Interests

Improving TechMachete

Testing features, interacting with feedback platforms and questionnaires, managing landing pages, heat mapping our site, traffic optimization and data analysis and research.

Legal basis for this data usage: Legitimate Interests

Customer Support

Notifying you of any changes to our service, solving issues live or via email, chat support, or phone.

Legal basis for this data usage: Contract

Newsletter and event invitations (with your consent)

Sending you emails and messages about events and new features, products and services, and content.

Legal basis for this data usage: Consent

Marketing and selling TechMachete services

Identifying you as someone who might wish to work with TechMachete, contacting you to gauge your interest, discussing your challenges on a consulting call and entering into a service agreement with your business, marketing TechMachete to you and others (for example, featuring you in a case study or as a testimonial if you agree).

Legal basis for this data usage: Consent

Here is what each of these “legal bases” mean:

Consent*

You have given clear consent for you to process your personal data for a specific purpose.

*You can change your mind!

If you have previously given consent to our processing your data you can freely withdraw such consent at any time. You can do this by contacting us.

If you do withdraw your consent, and if we do not have another legal basis for processing your information, then we will stop processing your personal data. If we do have another legal basis for processing your information, then we may continue to do so subject to your legal rights.

Contract

Processing your data is necessary for a service agreement/contract you have with us, or because you have asked us to take specific steps before entering into that contract. Note: By paying us / agreeing to pay us, you’ve entered into a contract.

Legitimate interests

Processing your data is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party, provided those interests are not outweighed by your rights and interests. These legitimate interests are:

  • Gaining insights from your behavior on our website
  • Delivering, developing and improving TechMachete
  • Enabling us to enhance, customize or modify our services and communications.
  • Promoting and marketing TechMachete to potential business customers.
  • Determining whether marketing campaigns are effective.
  • Enhancing data security.

In each case, these legitimate interests are only valid if they are not outweighed by your rights and interests.

YOUR PRIVACY CHOICES & RIGHTS

You can choose not to provide us with personal data

If you choose to do this, you can continue to use the website and browse its pages, but we will not be able to process transactions without personal data.

You can turn off cookies

You can block cookies by activating a setting on your browser allowing you to refuse cookies, or by using the cookie tool on our website. You can also delete cookies through your browser settings. If you turn off cookies, you can continue to use the website, but certain services may not work effectively.

You can ask us not to use your data for marketing

We will inform you (before collecting your data) if we intend to use your data for marketing and if third parties are involved. You can opt out from marketing by contacting us.

You have the right to access information we hold about you

This includes the right to ask us supplementary information about:

  • The categories of data we’re processing
  • The purposes of data processing
  • The categories of third parties to whom the data may be disclosed
  • How long the data will be stored (or the criteria used to determine that period)
  • Your other rights regarding our use of your data

 

We will provide you with the information within one month of your request, unless doing so would adversely affect the rights and freedoms of other (e.g. another person’s confidentiality or intellectual property rights). We’ll tell you if we can’t meet your request for that reason.

You have the right to make us correct any inaccurate personal data about you

That explains it all.

You can object to us using your data for profiling you or making automated decisions about you

We may use your data to determine whether we should let you know information that might be relevant to you (for example, tailoring emails to you based on your behavior). Otherwise, the only circumstances in which we will do this is to provide the TechMachete services to you.

You have the right to be ‘forgotten’ by us

You can do this by asking us to erase any personal data we hold about you, if it is no longer necessary for us to hold the data for purposes of your work with TechMachete. This right doesn’t always apply (for example, if we have a contract with you), but we’ll tell you if this is the case when you ask us to erase your data.

You have the right to lodge a complaint regarding our use of your data

Please tell us first, so we have a chance to address your concerns. If we fail in this, you can lodge a complaint with a data protection authority.

HOW SECURE IS THE DATA WE COLLECT?

We have physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect.

And please remember:

You provide personal data at your own risk: unfortunately, no data transmission is guaranteed to be 100% secure

You are responsible for any usernames and passwords: keep them secret and safe and remember not to reuse!

If you believe your privacy has been breached, please contact us immediately.

WHERE DO WE STORE THE DATA?

The personal data we collect is processed in any data processing facilities operated by the third parties identified below.

THIRD PARTIES WHO PROCESS YOUR DATA

Tech businesses often use third parties to help them host their applications, communicate with customers, power their emails etc. We partner with third parties who we believe are the best in their field at what they do.

When we do this, sometimes it is necessary for us to share your data with them in order to get these services to work well. Your data is shared only when strictly necessary and according to the safeguards and good practices detailed in this Privacy Policy.

If you sign up to attend one of our events, we may share your name, work details and contact information with any sponsor of that event. If permitted by law, our sponsors may use that information to market their products and services to you.

Our third party tech providers include but are not limited to:

  • Stripe
  • Zoho
  • Google
  • Microsoft
  • WordPress
  • Ghost
  • Zapier
  • Password Managers

 

COOKIES

We use cookies. Unless you adjust your browser settings to refuse cookies, we (and these third parties) will issue cookies when you interact with TechMachete. These may be ‘session’ cookies, meaning they delete themselves when you leave TechMachete, or ‘persistent’ cookies which do not delete themselves and help us recognise you when you return so we can provide a tailored service.

How can I block cookies?

You can block cookies by activating a setting on your browser allowing you to refuse the setting of cookies. You can also delete cookies through your browser settings. If you use your browser settings to disable, reject, or block cookies (including essential cookies), certain parts of our website may not function fully. In some cases, our website may not be accessible at all. Please note that where third parties use cookies we have no control over how those third parties use those cookies.

Which specific cookies do we use?

The cookies you may receive through us include but may not be limited to:

  • Google
  • Ghost.org
  • Social Media cookies
  • Cookies from any referral program links we distribute

 

THANKS FOR READING

Well done for getting to the bottom of this policy. We have designed it with help from Stefania Passera to be as transparent, useful and engaging as possible. If you’d like to build a privacy notice like this one, we open-sourced the design which you can access for free – get the privacy policy template 🥳

Please don’t make this the last time you read it as we will post any changes on this page.

This policy was last updated on 16 April 2024