Desq Privacy Policy

Last Updated: 12th April 2022

We take your privacy very seriously. This privacy statement describes how your personal data is collected by Desq and the methods and purposes of processing personal data.

Desq provides a variety of products. The products mentioned in this statement include services, websites, software, applications, servers and hardware equipment produced by Desq.

Please read the product-specific details in this privacy statement, which provides necessary information that you need to understand concerning your privacy. This statement applies to the interaction between Desq and you, the following products and other products of Desq that are mentioned in this statement.

Personal data we collect

For the following purposes, including effective operations and providing you with the best product experience, Desq will collect the data that you provide to us, the interaction data between you and Desq and product usage data. You directly provide some of this data, for example, when you create a Desq account, enable preference synchronisation related features in Desq or make a purchase. Other data is collected by us through your interaction with the product, your usage and experience of the product and related communications.

For the purposes described below, we will rely on various legal reasons and permissions (sometimes referred to as “legal basis”) to process your data. These bases include obtaining your consent, balancing legitimate interests, signing and executing contracts and fulfilling legal obligations.

We may also obtain data from third parties. We protect data obtained from third parties in accordance with the practices described in this statement and any other restrictions imposed by the data source. These third-party sources change over time and may include:

Communication services, including email providers and social networks (provided that you allow us to access your data on such third-party services or networks).
Partners, we work with these partners to provide co-branding services or participate in joint marketing activities.
Publicly available sources, such as open government databases.

You have choices when it comes to the technology you use and the data you share. When you are asked to provide personal data, you can decline. Many of our products require some personal data to operate and provide you with a service. If you choose not to provide the data required to operate and provide you with a product or feature, you cannot use that product or feature. Likewise, where we need to collect personal data by law or to enter into or carry out a contract with you, and you do not provide the data, we will not be able to enter into the contract; or if this relates to an existing product you’re using, we may have to suspend or cancel it. We will notify you if this is the case at the time. Where providing the data is optional, and you choose not to share personal data, features like “available offers” that use the data will not work for you.

The data we collect depends on the context of your interactions with Desq and the choices you make (including your privacy settings), the products and features you use, your location, and applicable law.

The data we collect can include:

Name and contact data. Your surname and first name, profile picture, email address, mobile phone number and other similar contact data.
Credentials: encrypted passwords and similar security information used for authentication and account access.
Demographic statistics. Data about you, such as your gender, country/region, and preferred language.
Payment data: Necessary data to process payments, such as your payment method (such as Alipay and/or PayPal account), the identification number of the device or account corresponding to the payment item and the security code associated with your payment instrument.
Subscription and licensing data: Information about your subscriptions, licenses, and other entitlements.
Interactions. Data about your use of Desq products. In some cases, such as search queries, this is data you provide in order to make use of the products. In other cases, such as error reports, this is data we generate. Other examples of interactions data include:
Device and usage data. Data about your device and the product and features you use, including information about your hardware and software, how our products perform, as well as your settings. For example:
The manufacturer, model and related descriptive information of the hardware you are using.
The version number and related configuration information of the software product you are using.
Your choice of how you wish to utilise Desq software product (when available), such as your choice of “account type”.
The time and time-related information of Desq software products you use, such as the time when your account was first created, the time when you last logged in and the time when you last logged out.
Data about your device, your device configuration, and nearby networks. For example, data about the operating systems and other software installed on your device. In addition, IP address, device identifiers, regional and language settings, device location and information about WLAN access points near your device.
Data about the performance of the products and any problems you experience, including error reports. Error reports (sometimes called “crashdumps”) can include details of the software or hardware related to an error, contents of files opened when an error occurred, and data about other software on your device.
Data you provide when you contact Desq for help, such as the products you use, and other details that help us provide support. For example, contact or authentication data, the content of your chats and other communications with Desq, data about the condition of your device, and the products you use related to your help inquiry. When you contact us, such as for customer support, phone conversations or chat sessions with our representatives may be monitored and recorded.
Interactions with third party bots and skills available through Desq products.

How we use personal data

Desq uses the data we collect to provide you with rich and interactive experiences. In particular, we use data to:

Provide our products, which includes updating, securing, and troubleshooting, as well as providing support. It also includes sharing data, when it is required to provide the service or carry out the transactions you request.
Improve and develop our products.
Personalise our products and make recommendations.

We also use the data to operate our business, which includes analyzing our performance, meeting our legal obligations, developing our workforce, and doing research.

Our processing of personal data for these purposes includes both automated and manual (human) methods of processing. Our automated methods often are related to and supported by our manual methods. For example, our automated methods may include artificial intelligence (AI), which we think of as a set of technologies that enable computers to perceive, learn, reason, and assist in decision-making to solve problems in ways that are similar to what people do. To build, train, and improve the accuracy of our automated methods of processing (including AI), we manually review some of the predictions and inferences produced by the automated methods against the underlying data from which the predictions and inferences were made. This manual review may be conducted by employees or vendors who are working on Desq’s behalf.

When we process personal data about you, we do so with your consent and/or as required to provide the products you use, operate our business, meet our contractual and legal obligations, protect the security of our systems and our customers, or fulfill other legitimate interests of Desq as described in this section and in the Reasons we share personal data section of this privacy statement.

More on the purposes of processing:

Provide our products. We use data to operate our products and provide you with rich, interactive experiences. For example, if you register for a Desq account, it is necessary for us to store your identity information and credential information in the database so that you can complete the login next time. Additionally, as communications are a feature of various products, programs, and activities, we use data to contact you. For example, we may contact you via private message, direct email or other methods to notify you when your subscription is about to end or discuss your subscription. We also communicate with you to secure our products, for example by letting you know when product updates are available.
Product improvement. We use data to continually improve our products, including adding new features or capabilities. For example, we use error reports to improve security features, discover potential system problems and improve the experience of using products.
Personalisation. Many products include personalised features, such as recommendations that enhance your productivity and enjoyment. These features use automated processes to tailor your product experiences based on the data we have about you, such as inferences we make about you and your use of the product, activities, interests, and location. For example, depending on your settings, if you stream movies in a browser whilst using our Desq device, you may see a recommendation for an offer that might be interesting to you. If you have a Desq account, with your permission, we can sync your settings on several devices.
Product activation. We use data—such as device and application type, location, and unique device, application, network, and subscription identifiers—to activate products that require activation.
Product development. We use data to develop new products. For example, we use data, often de-identified, to better understand our customers’ computing and productivity needs which can shape the development of new products.
Customer support. We use data to troubleshoot and diagnose product problems, repair customers’ devices, and provide other customer care and support services, including to help us provide, improve, and secure the quality of our products, services, and training, and to investigate security incidents.
Help secure and troubleshoot. We use data to help secure and troubleshoot our products. This includes using data to protect the security and safety of our products and customers, detecting malware and malicious activities, troubleshooting performance and compatibility issues to help customers get the most out of their experiences, and notifying customers of updates to our products. This may include using automated systems to detect security and safety issues.
Safety and update. We use data we collect to develop product updates and security patches. For example, we may use information about your device’s capabilities, such as available memory, to provide you a software update or security patch. Updates and patches are intended to maximise your experience with our products, help you protect the privacy and security of your data, provide new features, and evaluate whether your device is ready to process such updates.
Promotional communications. We use data we collect to deliver promotional communications. You can sign up for email subscriptions and choose whether you wish to receive promotional communications from Desq by email, SMS, physical mail, and telephone. For information about managing your contact data, email subscriptions, and promotional communications, please refer to the How to access and control your personal data section of this privacy statement.
Relevant offers. Desq uses data to provide you with relevant and valuable information regarding our products. We analyse data from a variety of sources to predict the information that will be most interesting and relevant to you and deliver such information to you in a variety of ways. For example, we may predict your interest in cloud storage and communicate with you about Cloud storage vendors that may be of interest to you.
Prize promotions and events. We use your data to administer prize promotions and events held from time to time by Desq. For example, if you enter into a prize promotion, we may use your data to select a winner and provide the prize to you if you win.
Reporting and business operations. We use data to analyse our operations and perform business intelligence. This enables us to make informed decisions and report on the performance of our business.
Protecting rights and property. We use data to detect and prevent fraud, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, and protect our property. For example, we use data to confirm the validity of software licenses to reduce piracy. We may use automated processes to detect and prevent activities that violate our rights and the rights of others, such as fraud.
Legal compliance. We process data to comply with the law. For example, we use the age of our customers to assist us in meeting our obligations to protect children’s privacy. We also process contact information and credentials to help customers exercise their data protection rights.
Research. With appropriate technical and organisational measures to safeguard individuals’ rights and freedoms, we use data to conduct research, including for public interest and scientific purposes.

Reasons we share personal data

We share your personal data with your consent or as necessary to complete any transaction or provide any product you have requested or authorised. If you use a Desq product provided by an organisation you are affiliated with, such as an employer or school, or use an email address provided by such organisation to access Desq products, we share certain data, such as interaction data and diagnostic data to enable your organisation to manage the products. When you provide payment data to make a purchase, we will share payment data with banks and other entities that process payment transactions or provide other financial services, and for fraud prevention and credit risk reduction.

In addition, we share personal data among Desq-controlled affiliates and subsidiaries. We also share personal data with vendors or agents working on our behalf for the purposes described in this statement. For example, companies we’ve hired to provide customer service support or assist in protecting and securing our systems and services may need access to personal data to provide those functions. In such cases, these companies must abide by our data privacy and security requirements and are not allowed to use personal data they receive from us for any other purpose. We may also disclose personal data as part of a corporate transaction such as a merger or sale of assets.

Finally, we will retain, access, transfer, disclose, and preserve personal data when we have a good faith belief that doing so is necessary to do any of the following:

Comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal process, including from law enforcement or other government agencies.
Protect our customers, for example, to help prevent the loss of life or serious injury of anyone.
Operate and maintain the security of our products, including to prevent or stop an attack on our computer systems or networks.
Protect the rights or property of Desq, including enforcing the terms governing the use of the services. However, if we receive information indicating that someone is using our services to traffic in stolen intellectual or physical property of Desq, we will not inspect a customer’s private content ourselves, but we may refer the matter to law enforcement.
Please note that some of our products include links to or otherwise enable you to access products of third parties whose privacy practices differ from those of Desq. If you provide personal data to any of those products, your data is governed by their privacy policies.

How to access and control your personal data

You can also make choices about the collection and use of your data by Desq. You can control your personal data that Desq has obtained, and exercise your data protection rights, by contacting Desq or using various tools we provide. In some cases, your ability to access or control your personal data will be limited, as required or permitted by applicable law. How you can access or control your personal data will also depend on which products you use. For example, you can:

Choose whether you wish to receive promotional and product update emails from Desq.
Modify personal data through Desq account management dashboard, include deleting your account.

You can access and control your personal data that Desq has obtained with tools Desq provides to you, which are described below, for instance:

If Desq obtained your consent to use your personal data, you can withdraw that consent at any time.
You can request access to, erasure of, and updates to your personal data.

You may have these rights under applicable laws, including the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), but we offer them regardless of your location. In some cases, your ability to access or control your personal data will be limited, as required or permitted by applicable law. If your organisation, such as your employer, school, or service provider, provides you with access to and is administering your use of Desq products, contact your organisation to learn more about how to access and control your personal data.

You can access and control your personal data that Desq has obtained, and exercise your data protection rights, using various tools we provide. The tools most useful to you will depend on our interactions with you and your use of our products. Here is a general list of tools we provide to help you control your personal data; specific products may provide additional controls.

Desq website dashboard. You can modify your data in the Desq website in the Settings dashboard, as well as configure the method and frequency of how Desq should contact you.
Desq app. If you want to access, edit or delete your personal information and payment information associated with your Desq account, change your password, add security information or delete your account, you can visit the Desq account website.

Products provided by your organisation – Notice to end users

If you use a Desq product with an account provided by an organisation you are affiliated with, such as your work or school account, that organisation can:

Control and administer your Desq product and product account, including controlling privacy-related settings of the product or product account.
Access and process your data, including the interaction data, diagnostic data, and the contents of your communications and files associated with your Desq product and product accounts.
If you lose access to your work or school account (in event of change of employment, for example), you may lose access to products and the content associated with those products, including those you acquired on your own behalf, if you used your work or school account to sign in to such products.

Many Desq products are intended for use by organisations, such as schools and businesses. If your organisation provides you with access to Desq products, your use of the Desq products is subject to your organisation’s policies, if any. You should direct your privacy inquiries, including any requests to exercise your data protection rights, to your organisation’s administrator. When you use social features in Desq products, other users in your network may see some of your activity. To learn more about the social features and other functionality, please review documentation or help content specific to the Desq product. Desq is not responsible for the privacy or security practices of our customers, which may differ from those set forth in this privacy statement.

When you use a Desq product provided by your organisation, Desq’s processing of your personal data in connection with that product is governed by a contract between Desq and your organisation. Desq processes your personal data to provide the product to your organisation and you, and in some cases for Desq’s legitimate business operations. As mentioned above, if you have questions about Desq’s processing of your personal data in connection with providing products to your organisation, please contact your organisation. If you have questions about Desq’s legitimate business operations in connection with providing products to your organisation, please contact Desq.

For Desq products provided by your K-12 school, Desq will:

not collect or use student personal data beyond that needed for authorised educational or school purposes;
not sell or rent student personal data;
not use or share student personal data for advertising or similar commercial purposes, such as behavioral targeting of advertisements to students;
not build a personal profile of a student, other than for supporting authorised educational or school purposes or as authorised by the parent, guardian, or student of appropriate age; and
require that our vendors with whom student personal data is shared to deliver the educational service, if any, are obligated to implement these same commitments for student personal data.

Desq account

With a Desq account, you can sign in to Desq’ products, as well as selected partners. Personal data associated with your Desq account includes credentials, name and contact data, payment data, device and usage data, your contacts, information about your activities, and your interests and favourites. Signing in to your Desq account enables personalisation and consistent experiences across products and devices, permits you to use cloud data storage, allows you to make payments using payment instruments stored in your Desq account, and enables other features. There are three types of Desq account:

When you create your own Desq account tied to your personal mobile phone and email address, we refer to that account as a personal Desq account.
When you or your organisation (such as an employer or your school) create your Desq account tied to your email address provided by that organisation, we refer to that account as a work or school account.
When you or your service provider creates your Desq account tied to your email address with your service provider’s domain, we refer to that account as a third-party account.

Personal Desq account

The data associated with your personal Desq account, and how that data is used, depends on how you use the account.

Creating your Desq account. When you create a personal Desq account, you will be asked to provide certain personal data and we will assign a unique ID number to identify your account and associated information. While some products, such as those involving payment, require a real name, you can sign in to and use other Desq products without providing your real name. Note that if you use a work or school email address to create a personal Desq account, your employer or school may gain access to your data. In some cases, you will need to change the email address to a personal email address in order to continue accessing consumer-oriented products.
Signing in to Desq account. When you sign in to your Desq account, we create a record of your sign-in, which includes the date and time, information about the product you signed in to, your sign-in name, the unique number assigned to your account, a unique identifier assigned to your device, your IP address, and your operating system and browser version.
Signing in to other Desq products. Signing in to your account enables improved personalisation, provides seamless and consistent experiences across products and devices, permits you to access and use cloud data storage, allows you to make payments using payment instruments stored in your Desq account, and enables other enhanced features and settings. When you sign in to your account, you will stay signed in until you sign out. If you add your Desq account to a Desq device, Desq will automatically sign you into products that use Desq account when you access those products on that device. When you are signed in, some products will display your name or username and your profile photo (if you have added one to your profile) as part of your use of Desq products, including your avatar, nickname, social interactions, and your public email address.
Signing in to third-party products. If you sign in to a third-party product with your Desq account, you will share data with the third party in accordance with the third party’s privacy policy. The third party will also receive the version number assigned to your account (a new version number is assigned each time you change your sign-in data); and information that describes whether your account has been deactivated. If you share your profile data, the third party can display your name or user name and your profile photo (if you have added one to your profile) when you are signed in to that third-party product. If you chose to make payments to third-party merchants using your Desq account, Desq will pass information stored in your Desq account to the third party or its vendors (e.g., payment processors) as necessary to process your payment and fulfill your order (such as name, credit card number, billing and shipping addresses, and relevant contact information). The third party can use or share the data it receives when you sign in or make a purchase according to its own practices and policies. You should carefully review the privacy statement for each product you sign in to and each merchant you purchase from to determine how it will use the data it collects.

Work or school account

The data associated with a work or school account, and how it will be used, is generally similar to the use and collection of data associated with a personal Desq account. If you sign in to Desq products with a work or school account, note:

The owner of the domain associated with your email address may control and administer your account, and access and process your data, including the contents of your communications and files, including data stored in products provided to you by your organisation, and products you acquire by yourself.
Your use of the products is subject to your organisation’s policies, if any. You should consider both your organisation’s policies and whether you are comfortable enabling your organisation to access your data before you choose to use your work or school account to sign in to products you acquire for yourself.
If you lose access to your work or school account (if you change employers, for example), you may lose access to products, including content associated with those products, you acquired on your own behalf if you used your work or school account to sign in to such products.
Desq is not responsible for the privacy or security practices of your organisation, which may differ from those of Desq.
If your organisation is administering your use of Desq products, please direct your privacy inquiries, including any requests to exercise your data subject rights, to your administrator. See also the Notice to end users section of this privacy statement.
If you are uncertain whether your account is a work or school account, please contact your organisation.

Third party account

The data associated with a third-party Desq account, and how it will be used, is generally similar to the use and collection of data associated with a personal Desq account. Your service provider has control over your account, including the ability to access or delete your account. You should carefully review the terms the third party provided you to understand what it can do with your account.

Collection of data from children

When a Desq product collects age, and there is an age in your jurisdiction under which parental consent or authorisation is required to use the product, the product will either block users under that age or will ask them to provide consent or authorisation from a parent or guardian before they can use it. We will not knowingly ask children under that age to provide more data than is required to provide for the product.

Once parental consent or authorisation is granted, the child’s account is treated much like any other account. The child can access communication services and can freely communicate and share data with other users of all ages.

Parents or guardians can change or revoke the consent choices previously made, and review, edit, or request the deletion of the personal data of the children for whom they provided consent or authorisation. As the organiser of a family group, the parent or guardian can manage a child’s information and settings on their safety page and view and delete a child’s data on their privacy dashboard.

Enterprise and developer products

Enterprise and developer products are Desq’s products designed primarily for use by organisations and developers. They include:

Cloud services and components used by Desq enterprise solutions, such as enterprise management policy management services, enterprise remote desktop services, enterprise data visualisation and business intelligence services, etc.
The Desq open source project maintained by Desq and the required dependent software packages and code bases.

In the event of a conflict between this privacy statement and the terms of any agreement(s) between a customer and Desq for enterprise and developer products, the terms of those agreement(s) will control. You can also learn more about our Enterprise and Developer Products’ features and settings, including choices that impact your privacy or your end users’ privacy, in product documentation.

When a customer tries, purchases, uses, or subscribes to enterprise and developer products, or obtains support for or professional services with such products, Desq receives data from you and collects and generates data to provide the service (including improving, securing, and updating the service), conduct our legitimate business operations, and communicate with the customer. For example:

When a customer engages with a Desq sales representative, we collect the customer’s name and contact data, along with information about the customer’s organisation, to support that engagement.
When a customer interacts with a Desq support professional, we collect device and usage data or error reports to diagnose and resolve problems.
When a customer pays for products, we collect contact and payment data to process the payment.
When Desq sends communications to a customer, we use data to personalise the content of the communication.
When a customer engages with Desq for professional services, we collect the name and contact data of the customer’s designated point of contact and use information provided by the customer to perform the services that the customer has requested.
The enterprise and developer products enable you to purchase, subscribe to, or use other products and online services from Desq or third parties with different privacy practices, and those other products and online services are governed by their respective privacy statements and policies.

Other important privacy information

Security of personal data

Desq is committed to protecting the security of your personal data. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your personal data from unauthorised access, use, or disclosure. For example, we store the personal data you provide on computer systems that have limited access and are in controlled facilities. When we transmit highly confidential data (such as passwords) over the internet, we protect it through the use of encryption. Desq complies with applicable data protection laws, including applicable security breach notification laws.

Cookie

When you use some of the web services of Desq, we will store small data files called Cookies on your computer or mobile device. Cookies usually contain identifiers, site names, and some numbers and characters. We use this information to determine whether registered users have logged in, improve service/product quality and optimise user experience. If you do not want your personal information to be stored in a cookie, you can configure your browser and choose to disable the cookie function. You can manage or delete cookies according to your preferences. You can clear all cookies saved on your computer, and most web browsers have a feature to block cookies.

Where we store and process personal data

Personal data collected by Desq may be stored and processed in your region and in any other country/region where Desq or its affiliates, subsidiaries, or service providers operate facilities. Desq rents data centers in Frankfurt, San Francisco and Singapore. Typically, the primary storage location is the closest to the customer’s region, often with a backup to a data center in another region. The storage location(s) are chosen in order to operate efficiently, to improve performance, and to create redundancies in order to protect the data in the event of an outage or other problem.

Our retention of personal data

Desq retains personal data for as long as necessary to provide the products and fulfil the transactions you have requested, or for other legitimate purposes such as complying with our legal obligations, resolving disputes, and enforcing our agreements. Because these needs can vary for different data types, the context of our interactions with you or your use of products, actual retention periods can vary significantly.

Other criteria used to determine the retention periods include:

Do customers provide, create, or maintain the data with the expectation we will retain it until they affirmatively remove it?
Is there an automated control, such as in the Desq account setting dashboard, that enables the customer to access and delete the personal data at any time? If there is not, a shortened data retention time will generally be adopted.
Is the personal data of a sensitive type? If so, a shortened retention time would generally be adopted.
Has the user provided consent for a longer retention period? If so, we will retain data in accordance with your consent.
Is Desq subject to a legal, contractual, or similar obligation to retain or delete the data? Examples can include mandatory data retention laws in the applicable jurisdiction, government orders to preserve data relevant to an investigation, or data retained for the purposes of litigation. Conversely, if we are required by law to remove unlawful content, we will do so.

Preview or free-of-charge releases

Desq offers preview, insider, beta or other free-of-charge products and features to enable you to evaluate them while providing Desq with data about your use of the product, including feedback and device and usage data. As a result, previews can automatically collect additional data, provide fewer controls, and otherwise employ different privacy and security measures than those typically present in our products. If you participate in previews, we may contact you about your feedback or your interest in continuing to use the product after general release.

Changes to this privacy statement

We update this privacy statement when necessary to provide greater transparency or in response to:

Feedback from customers, regulators, industry, or other stakeholders.
Changes in our products.
Changes in our data processing activities or policies.

When we post changes to this statement, we will revise the “last updated” date at the top of the statement. If there are material changes to the statement, such as a change to the purposes of processing of personal data that is not consistent with the purpose for which it was originally collected, we will notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes before they take effect or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to periodically review this privacy statement to learn how Desq is protecting your information.

How to contact us

When you have any questions about these guidelines, you can send an email to privacy@desqapp.com for consultation. We have set up a full-time department for personal information protection and will solve your problems in a timely manner. We will respond to your reasonable request within 30 days.

To ensure security, we will ask you to verify your identity before processing your request. You need to provide a written request or prove your identity in other ways. However, in the following situations, in accordance with the requirements of laws and regulations, we will not be able to respond to your request:

Directly related to national security and national defense security;
Directly related to public safety, public health, and major public interests;
Directly related to criminal investigation, prosecution, trial, and execution of judgments;
There is sufficient evidence to show that you have subjective malice or abuse of power;
Responding to your request will cause serious damage to the legitimate rights and interests of you or other individuals or organisations.
Involving trade secrets.