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Privacy policy

Last updated: July 29, 2024

The privacy of your data—and it is your data, not ours!—is a big deal to us. In this policy, we lay out: what data we collect and why; how your data is handled; and your rights with respect to your data. We promise we never sell your data: never have, never will.

This policy is split into sections. For your convenience, links to each of those sections is as follows:

This policy applies to all products built and maintained by Houseboat Creative LLC.

This policy applies to our handling of information about site visitors, prospective customers, and customers and authorized users (in relation to their procurement of the services and management of their relationship with Houseboat Creative). We refer collectively to these categories of individuals as" you" throughout this policy.

However, this policy does not cover information about a customer’s end users that Houseboat Creative receives from a customer, or otherwise processes on a customer’s behalf, in connection with the services provided by Houseboat Creative to the customer pursuant to an applicable services agreement (including the content of messages of customer end users ("End User Communications")). Houseboat Creative processes End User Communications under the instructions of the relevant customer, which is the "data controller" or "business" (or occupies a similar role as defined in applicable privacy laws), as described in the applicable services agreement between such customer and Houseboat Creative. Houseboat Creative’s obligations as a "data processor" or "service provider" with respect to such information are defined in such services agreement and applicable data protection addendum and are not made part of this policy.

If you are a customer’s end user and you have questions about how your information is collected and processed through the services, please contact the organization who has provided your information to us for more information.

If you are a California resident, please click here(LINK TO our California Resident Notice at Collection which we can snag from here https://github.com/basecamp/policies/blob/master/privacy/regulations/ccpa/index.md?plain=1), which includes additional disclosures as required by California law.

What we collect and why

Our guiding principle is to collect only what we need. Here’s what that means in practice:

Identity and access

When you sign up for a Houseboat Creative product, we ask for identifying information such as your name, email address, and maybe a company name. That’s so you can personalize your new account, and we can send you product updates and other essential information. We may also send you optional surveys from time to time to help us understand how you use our products and to make improvements. We sometimes also give you the option to add a profile picture that displays in our products.

We’ll never sell your personal information to third parties, and we won’t use your name or company in marketing statements without your permission either.

Billing information

If you sign up for a paid Houseboat Creative product, you will be asked to provide your payment information and billing address. Credit card information is submitted directly to our payment processor and doesn’t hit Houseboat Creative servers. We store a record of the payment transaction, including the last 4 digits of the credit card number, for purposes of account history, invoicing, and billing support. We store your billing address so we can charge you for service, calculate any sales tax due, send you invoices, and detect fraudulent credit card transactions. We occasionally use aggregate billing information to guide our marketing efforts.

Product interactions

We do not store any of your information or data on our servers. The content that you upload or receive or maintain in your Houseboat Creative product accounts in Outlign are stored and handled by Outlign themselves, on their servers. You can read their Privacy Policy by clicking here (https://outlign.co/privacy-policy).

Advertising and Cookies

Houseboat Creative does not currently run contextual ads on various third-party platforms such as Google, Reddit, and LinkedIn.

Houseboat Creative uses Umami (https://umami.is) for web analytics. All data is anonymized with Umami, and no personal information is ever collected on users. We track our website's performance without needing opt-in cookie banners, providing you with a better and more trusted experience. Umami is GDRP and CCPA compliant by default.

Voluntary correspondence

When you email Houseboat Creative with a question or to ask for help, we keep that correspondence, including your email address, so that we have a history of past correspondence to reference if you reach out in the future.

We also store information you may volunteer, for example, written responses to surveys. If you agree to a customer interview, we may ask for your permission to record the conversation for future reference or use. We will only do so with your express consent.

When we access or disclose your information

We use some third-party platforms to provide our Services to you. You can view the privacy policies of the third-party platforms we use below:

We may access your data if required in order to respond to legal process (see "When required under applicable law" below).

If we are audited by a tax authority, we may be required to disclose billing-related information. If that happens, we will disclose only the minimum needed, such as billing addresses and tax exemption information.

Finally, if Houseboat Creative is acquired by or merges with another company — we don’t plan on that, but if it happens — we’ll notify you well before any of your personal information is transferred or becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

How we secure your data

Houseboat Creative does not collect or store any personal information on our own servers. We do, however, rely on the collection and storage of personal information and data through the previously mentioned third-party platforms we use to conduct our business. Please refer to the applicable policies for each platform to learn more about how they secure your data.

Data retention

We keep all of the previously mentioned information we collect for the time necessary for the purposes for which it is processed. The length of time for which we retain information depends on the purposes for which we collected and use it and your choices, after which time we may delete and/or aggregate it. We may also retain and use this information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. Through this policy, we have provided specific retention periods for certain types of information.

Location of site and data

The personal information we collect is stored and/or processed in the United States, or where we or our partners, affiliates, and third-party providers maintain facilities.

The countries to which we store, process, or transfer your personal information may not have the same data protection laws as the country in which you initially provided the information. If we transfer your personal information to third parties in other countries: (i) we will perform those transfers in accordance with the requirements of applicable law; and (ii) we will protect the transferred personal information in accordance with this privacy policy. By using our websites or Services and/or providing us with your personal information, you consent to this transfer.

When transferring personal data from the EU

The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) has issued guidance that personal data transferred out of the EU must be treated with the same level of protection that is granted under EU privacy law. UK law provides similar safeguards for UK user data that is transferred out of the UK. Accordingly, Houseboat Creative has adopted a data processing addendum with Standard Contractual Clauses to help ensure this protection. Houseboat Creative’ DPA is available at [https://basecamp.com/about/policies/privacy/regulations/basecamp-gdpr-dpa.pdf](https://basecamp.com/about/policies/privacy/regulations/basecamp-gdpr-dpa.pdf).]

Your Rights and Controlling Your Personal Information

Your choice: By providing personal information to us, you understand we will collect, hold, use, and disclose your personal information in accordance with this privacy policy. You do not have to provide personal information to us, however, if you do not, it may affect your use of our website or the products and/or services offered on or through it.

Information from third parties: If we receive personal information about you from a third party, we will protect it as set out in this privacy policy. If you are a third party providing personal information about somebody else, you represent and warrant that you have such person’s consent to provide the personal information to us.

Access: You may request details of the personal information that we hold about you.

Correction: If you believe that any information we hold about you is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant, or misleading, please contact us using the details provided in this privacy policy. We will take reasonable steps to correct any information found to be inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, or out of date.

Complaints: If you believe that we have breached a relevant data protection law and wish to make a complaint, please contact us using the details below and provide us with full details of the alleged breach. We will promptly investigate your complaint and respond to you, in writing, setting out the outcome of our investigation and the steps we will take to deal with your complaint. You also have the right to contact a regulatory body or data protection authority in relation to your complaint.

Limits of Our Policy

Our website may link to external sites that are not operated by us. Please be aware that we have no control over the content and policies of those sites, and cannot accept responsibility or liability for their respective privacy practices.

Changes and questions

We may update this policy as needed to comply with relevant regulations and reflect any new practices. Whenever we make a significant change to our policies, we will refresh the date at the top of this page and take any other appropriate steps to notify users.

Have any questions, comments, or concerns about this privacy policy, your data, or your rights with respect to your information? Please get in touch by emailing us at info@houseboat.studio and we’ll be happy to try to answer them!

Adapted from the Basecamp open-source policies / CC BY 4.0