INTRODUCTION
Your privacy is important to us.
This Privacy Policy describes the current policies and practices of Koumbit Networks (herein "Koumbit", "we", "us", "our") with respect to the collection, use and retention of personal information that we collect directly from you through our business tools (such as our website, our request and project management tracking systems, our accounting and billing software, our mailing lists listing customers and organizations using our various web hosting packages, our server monitoring and protection tools, as well as our social media network accounts, hereinafter the "Tools") or your use of the Tools.
The purpose of this policy is to meet the requirements of the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (RLRQ, c. P-39.1) and other applicable laws and standards regarding the collection, retention, use, disclosure, protection and access to personal information.
For the purposes of this policy, the expression "personal information" means any information concerning an individual that allows him or her to be identified directly or indirectly, such as his or her login identifier to the services, postal address, e-mail address, telephone number and any information of a financial nature.
COLLECTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
When you use the Tools, depending on the circumstances, we may collect the following personal information about you:
- last name, first name;
- preferred language of correspondence;
- contact information: mailing address, e-mail address and telephone number;
- purchase and payment information;
- subscription data (mailing lists for our various web hosting services, to inform you of maintenance work and/or possible service interruptions);
- data relating to your use of any or all of our Tools (including access to content, your preferences, your orders or textual data);
- the identifier and IP address used to connect to a service, for security purposes (for example, to block repeated attempts to connect with incorrect information);
- as well as statistical data provided by analysis applications for our website and for social networks.
If you need to limit the personal information that is communicated with Koumbit through our Tools (for privacy or security reasons, for example), you can contact us to outline the circumstances and make a special arrangement such as the systematic use of encrypted e-mail messages for all communications.
Those wishing to communicate with us in encrypted form can register our GPG key for e-mail communications with support@koumbit.org and info@koumbit.org. For more information on our GPG encryption key, please visit this page on our website: https://www.koumbit.org/en/content/our-pgp-keys
The personal information we collect is gathered by us or by our service providers (in the case of online payments) through forms and through the interactivity established between you and our Tools. We may also use, as described in the following sections, cookies and/or log files as well as information provided on our social networking accounts.
We collect, use and disclose your personal information primarily through the following means: request and project management tracking systems (communications may be initiated by e-mail, telephone or online chat on our website), accounting software, mailing list subscription(s) for our various web hosting services, social networks.
We use the information thus collected for the following purposes, whether via our Tools or third-party providers' services:
- to establish and confirm your identity when you ask us to make changes to your web hosting service(s) and/or for web development or support requests;
- to respond to your requests for information, to confirm the products and services you wish to purchase, to maintain the quality of our customer service and to prevent fraud;
- to communicate with you if you are using a technology (e.g. PHP programming language, Debian Operating System on your Virtual Private Server, Content Management System (CMS)) whose end-of-life has been announced for the near future and which should be updated for reasons of security, performance and compatibility with our hosting services;
- for service customization (e.g., to send you only the maintenance and/or service interruption communications that apply to the hosting services you use);
- to follow up on outstanding invoices;
- for any other purpose required by law.
INFORMATION RELATED TO COOKIES AND OTHER TECHNOLOGIES
COOKIES
We use browser cookies to improve the performance of our Tools and your experience. Cookies are small files stored in a file managed by your Web browser by the server on which the Tools are located or by third-party servers that make it possible to recognize a user of the Tools and personalize their content.
Technical cookies, which may also sometimes be referred to as HTML cookies, are used for navigation purposes and to facilitate your access to and use of the Tools. They are necessary for the transmission of communications or to provide the services you have requested; they ensure the quality of the online experience, personalization and retention of information for the duration of your session (e.g. content display language, continued connection to our request tracking tool, etc.).
The use of technical cookies enables safe and efficient use of our Tools. You can modify your browser settings to refuse cookies, just as you can clear your browser cache of all cookies at any time.
When you arrive on the website, upon your first visit, we will ask for your consent to use cookies via a floating banner that requires your approval by clicking on a button (consent valid for up to 6 months).
You can also manage cookies via your browser settings on your device. However, deleting cookies from your browser may remove any preferences you have set for our Tools, as well as any preferences you have set for other websites operated by third parties.
For further information and assistance, you can also consult the specific help page of the Internet browser you are using.
OTHER TECHNOLOGIES
We also use other technologies that enable us to track the use of our site and our social networking accounts. For example, the Koumbit website uses the open-source software Matomo to collect statistics on visits to its website, and social networking sites may incorporate tools to collect statistical data on visits and interactions.
Specifically, we may use these technologies to:
- collect information for the duration of your visit to our Tools;
- collect information to recognize your browser or device on each visit;
- analyze your behavior on our Tools so that we can continue to improve them;
Analytics or statistics software like Matomo may collect information such as:
- a partial and anonymous version of the Internet Protocol address (IP address);
- browser and device type;
- operating system;
- approximate country, region and city information;
- date and time of visit;
- the pages consulted;
- the originating (referring) and exiting web page;
- interactions with page content;
- the origin of your visit.
We do not use this information to identify you, but rather to understand trends in the use of our Tools and to improve our services.
INFORMATION PROVIDED ON SOCIAL NETWORKS
We collect information transmitted by social networking sites or applications when a visitor interacts with profiles owned or controlled by us on these social networking platforms. These sites or applications are governed by their own policies relating to your personal information, which may differ from ours and may also be applicable.
If you choose to interact with us through these social networks, you should first read the terms of service and privacy policies of these third-party service providers and the applications used to access them.
HOSTING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
For Tools that are installed and maintained by Koumbit, your personal information is hosted encrypted on servers located in Montreal (Tio'tia:ke - Mooniyang), Quebec, Canada. If you choose to pay an invoice online using PayPal or another online payment option, your personal information may be transferred, processed and stored outside Quebec or Canada, including in the United States - please consult the privacy policies of these services for more information.
RETENTION OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
We will retain in our computer systems all personal information collected for the duration of your use of our Tools, in particular to validate your identity in the event of requests concerning a modification to the services you use, or to follow up on the payment of invoices issued for your use of our services. If you stop using our services and Tools, partial information may be retained, such as your bill payment history and some of your previous communications with Koumbit. All such data can be deleted upon request.
SECURITY
The personal information we collect is kept in a secure environment. The people who work for us are required to respect the confidentiality of your information. To ensure the security of your personal information, we use the following measures:
- Secure Socket Layers (SSL) technology to access tools via HTTPS protocol;
- Use of secure online payment services;
- Internal access management policy to restrict access to authorized and concerned persons;
- Network monitoring software;
- Computer backup;
- Data encryption on hard disk;
- Firewalls.
We are committed to maintaining a high degree of confidentiality by incorporating the best practices to ensure the privacy of your transactions. We do not ask for sensitive personal information in our written correspondence with you, and we use secure strategies and means of communication for the transmission of sensitive data such as passwords. However, as no approach offers perfect security, an element of risk is always present when using the Internet to transmit personal information.
SPAM (UNSOLICITED EMAIL)
We comply with current legislation and regulations in regards with unsolicited email (spam). If you no longer wish to receive electronic communications from us, or if you feel that you have received inappropriate or unwanted communications, please follow the unsubscribe mechanism found in our electronic messages.
We may, however, still contact our users regarding products and services ordered from Koumbit, their requests for information or their personal information, all in accordance with applicable laws.
PRIVACY OFFICERS
The Koumbit collective has mandated the members of its Legal Committee to ensure the protection of personal information. This committee can be contacted by e-mail at the following address: legal@rt.koumbit.net
The members of the Legal Committee in charge of the protection of personal information are responsible for determining the purposes and means of processing personal information.
The members of the Legal Committee in charge of the protection of personal information undertake to protect the personal information collected, not to transmit it to third parties without your specific knowledge, and to respect the purposes for which the information was collected.
In addition, the members of the Legal Committee in charge of the protection of personal information undertake to notify you in the event of rectification or deletion of personal information, unless this would entail disproportionate formalities, costs or steps for us.
In the event that the integrity, confidentiality or security of your personal information is compromised, the members of the Legal Committee in charge of the protection of personal information undertake to inform you by any commercially reasonable means.
RIGHT OF OBJECTION AND WITHDRAWAL
We are committed to offering you the right to object and to withdraw your personal information.
The right to object is the possibility offered to Internet users to refuse to allow their personal information to be used for certain purposes mentioned at the time of collection.
The right to withdraw (right to be forgotten) is understood to be the possibility offered to Internet users to request that their personal information no longer appear, for example, in our registers.
We are also committed to granting a right of access and rectification or withdrawal to persons concerned who wish to consult, modify or even delete information concerning them.
In this respect, please contact us at the following address:
E-mail: legal@rt.koumbit.net
LINK TO OTHER SERVICES
The Tools may contain hyperlinks to third party websites ("Third Party Sites") that may take you away from the Tools. We provide these hyperlinks to enhance the usability of our Tools. Those Third Party Sites are not under our control. As such, we have no control over the privacy and confidentiality practices of Third Party Sites. As a result, any personal information that is transmitted through Third Party Sites is subject to the privacy policies of those Third Party Sites. It is your responsibility to familiarize yourself with these policies to ensure the protection of your personal information.
Please also note that this policy does not apply to personal information collected by the device (or its manufacturer) from which you use the Tools.
POLICY UPDATES
We reserve the right to modify this Policy to ensure compliance with applicable law. Consequently, you are invited to consult it regularly to keep yourself informed of the latest changes. However, in the event of a substantial modification to this policy, you will be informed by the publication of an article on the Koumbit website and/or by sending a message to the relevant customer mailing lists.
ACCEPTANCE OF POLICY
By using our Tools, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Policy and agree to its terms, specifically with respect to the collection and processing of your personal information and the use of cookies.
LEGISLATION AND COMMISSION D’ACCÈS À L’INFORMATION
We undertake to comply with the legislative provisions set out in the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector (RLRQ c. P-39.1).
If you are not satisfied with the way we respond to your requests or questions regarding the collection, retention, use or disclosure of your personal information, you may contact the Commission d'accès à l'information, a public body responsible for overseeing personal information practices in the private sector.
By telephone: 1 888 528-7741
By fax: 418 529-3102 or 514 844-6170
By e-mail: cai.communications@cai.gouv.qc.ca
By mail: Office 2.36
525, boul. East
Quebec City, Quebec G1R 5S9
or
Suite 18.200
500, boul. West
Montreal (Quebec) H2Z 1W7
Web site: https://www.cai.gouv.qc.ca/
