Our Privacy Policy
Privacy Principles
Last revised 1/15/2013
Abine Inc. is committed to collecting the least information necessary for our operations, and responsibly handling any information and data we do collect, whether personal information or non-personal browsing and site usage data.
We're dedicated to consumer privacy rights and support privacy policies that are understandable and easy to find. When possible, we'll use Mozilla's draft privacy policy icons to represent what that policy section says. We urge you to read this privacy policy now and revisit occasionally because we may update it.
We never sell your data. If we share your data, it's only with companies we've hired to do work for us. They'll never own it or be able to share it with anyone else. You retain ownership of your own data.
There are some things you may do that require us to share some data--for instance, when you buy one of our products with a your credit card. We have to share that payment to process the payment. Some of our other services (like DeleteMe) may also require some data sharing to provide the service. We try to do things ourselves but sometimes need to rely external companies. We make hard decisions about when to do so, always balancing the privacy risks against the benefits.
We won't provide your information unless we're compelled by law with a valid court order, which is a much higher standard than the usual "permitted by law." Companies don't have to tell you when someone requests your data, but we will try and inform you so you can be aware and take legal action if you choose.
Privacy Policy
Except as required by law, Abine, Inc.:
- will not track, store, or transmit information about users' behavioral data (to include web browsing activity) to any third party;
- will not sell your data to third parties;
- will not share your data unless it's with companies we've hired to do work for us, who will never own it, and who will never be able to share it with anyone else;
- will not share your data with third party advertisers (although we may market software or services to our users other than our own Abine software or services);
- will not deliver or help others deliver any targeted advertising to users;
- will only use and store data for the purpose that you provided it, or in ways that are obvious and necessary for the tools or services you're using;
- will only retain user information for a maximum of 6 months after a user has canceled a paid subscription (except for information that the transaction occurred), and 6 months for website visitors.
Privacy on our websites
Abine's goal is to help you regain control of your personal information online, and as such, we do not use tracking to collect any personal information on our website. Our privacy policy reflects this goal:
- We do not use persistent cookies generally on this site. The only time we use a persistent (i.e., non-session) cookie is when we deliver your download to you. We delete the cookie right after installation. If you still see a persistent cookie from us after, let us know because something went wrong!
- We log aggregate information about our site visitors, but it does not contain your name, email, or other personally-identifiable information. These logs are automatically generated for all websites and are not powered by online trackers.
- We may use session cookies from time to time. Session cookies expire when you close your browser. You can set your browser to refuse cookies by following these instructions.
- We won't share your data unless you are using specific services through us that require it, in which cases we share the minimum data required, retain our ownership of it, and don't allow it to be used for anything beyond the limited service provided, or when we are compelled by legal orders.
- We do not collect any personal information through our website alone. Even so, this website is not directed at individuals under 13 years of age in compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
- If you choose to sign up for our newsletters or receive emailed updates of our privacy blog, we'll occasionally send you emails with coupons, announcements, and Abine news.
- We'll sometimes link to other websites. You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party sites. Our privacy policy doesn't apply to these other websites, and we cannot control their activities.
Privacy in DoNotTrackMe (DNTMe)
We built DNTMe entirely around the principle of privacy, so DNTMe does not track any of your web activity. It has no ability to collect data about what sites you visit or any other web behavior. The tool can save your personal settings and preferences, but those are stored locally on your computer and not on our servers. The only communication our servers have with a DNTMe tool you've installed is to send new tracker-blocking rules or software versions when we update.
There are a few limited pieces of information we need to know to make sound decisions about the business and DNTMe:
- Information about your install of DNTMe, such as where you downloaded it, the original version you installed, the current version you have, and the month of your original install.
- Because there is a unique version of DNTMe for each browser (Safari, Chrome, Firefox, IE), we know how many installs there have been for each browser.
- On a daily basis, we know how many users we have of DNTMe and whether those users are based in or outside the US.
- Lastly, we know how many visits to abine.com come from the DNTMe tool, but we do not know if any given add-on user clicked anything or other personal details.
Privacy in MaskMe and PrivacySuite
All of your accounts, passwords, and other browsing activity is stored locally in an encrypted database that we do not have the ability to decrypt. It's encrypted using industry standard 128-bit AES encryption. If you choose to use the Sync feature to access your MaskMe data from any device, that means we're storing that data in an encrypted form on our servers - we can't read your passwords or see your accounts. You can view our chart to see exactly what data we have and how it's stored.
Our browser add-ons use unique identifiers that are not tied to you or your IP address and are used to help you receive software updates, as well as to validate masked email requests.
If you're using MaskMe Premium, we use specialty companies to process payments and phone calls and texts. These service providers will have access to some of your data only to process it, but they'll never own or share it with anyone else. Abine always retains ownership and control over it.
Privacy in DeleteMe
DeleteMe allows subscribers like you to request that third party websites, such as data brokers and information aggregators, remove or suppress your personal information from their websites. To fulfil your opt-out requests, we have to send your information to data brokers, which necessarily requires sharing your data with them.
We can't control how these third-party data brokers will treat your personal information, although it is only provided to them so they can opt you out of their public databases.
We may use outside service providers for required DeleteMe procedures, including but not limited to processing payments and helping us send mailed opt-outs. Because DeleteMe's removal list depends on the listed websites' opt-out procedures and business practices and is thus subject to change, the outside service providers we use may also change. Abine always maintains ownership and control of your data during these times, and we do not sell your information.
If you have any questions about this policy, please contact us at legal@getabine.com.
