Privacy Policy – Dr. Rana el Kaliouby

Affectiva, Inc. (“Affectiva”, “we”, “us”, “our”) has developed a unique type of emotion-sensing artificial intelligence software that is used in a variety of ways, including analyzing viewers reactions to digital content and analyzing emotions and cognitive states of drivers and passengers in automobiles. Through Affectiva’s software development kits (“SDKs”), developers can integrate Affectiva technology into a variety of applications.

This privacy policy describes the types of personal information we collect and process, how we use it, how long we keep it, when it is shared, how you can manage it, and how we secure it. Our agreements with customers may also include provisions related to use and retention of personal information which, with respect to those customers, would take precedence over the general rules specified in this Privacy Policy.

If you have questions or concerns about your privacy, please notify us by contacting privacy@affectiva.com.

What kinds of information do we collect?

We collect information related to individuals who access our products and services (our “Products”), such as our customers’ employees or others authorized by our customers to use our Products. This may include information to provide log-in credentials, to communicate with our customers and for billing and support purposes. This information may include names, email addresses, physical addresses, and phone numbers. For billing purposes, it may also include financial and payment processing information, including transaction information, bank or credit card account information, and authentication information. We also collect information related to individuals’ use of our Products.

We collect information related to persons who we believe might be interested in our Products and media and industry contacts for use in marketing and promotional activity. This information may include names, email addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, employer, and job title.

We collect video and audio recordings which our Products analyze to detect the emotions of the subjects of those recordings. This may include metadata related to such recordings, such as the location the recording was made. When our technology analyzes these recordings, data related to facial expressions and vocal expressions is created and stored, but such data is separated from any personal information by which the subjects could be identified.

We also receive information related to uses of our technology and video and audio recordings from app developers who use our SDKs to integrate Affectiva technology into their applications.

We collect information from visitors to our website, including the pages visited, how long individuals viewed each page, the devices used when visiting our website, and information from “cookies” (see below).

We also collect and retain personal information relating to our employees as necessary to run our business and personal information submitted by job applicants.

How do we use this information?

We use this information:

to communicate with our customers regarding their use of our Products,
to provide technical support to our customers,
to bill our customers and communicate with them regarding their accounts,
to provide information and engage in marketing activities regarding our Products,
to enable use of our Products, and
to improve our Products.

How long do we keep this information?

Information related to an individual associated with one of our customers is retained while the customer relationship is in place (and to complete any post-termination transactions or wind-down of activities) or until we are advised that the individual is no longer associated with that customer.

Information related to individuals who are contacted for marketing and promotional purposes is retained until they indicate they no longer wish to be contacted (e.g., unsubscribing from email solicitations).

Information related to individuals may also be deleted when the purpose for which the information was being used no longer exists.

When do we share personal information?

We do not sell or rent your personal information to third parties for purposes unconnected to our uses of the information described above. However, we may provide personal information to other parties to help us accomplish the uses described above. Such sharing of information includes:

parties which we contract with to help us provide the Products, including subcontractors, agents and third party service providers (such as data centers),
parties who assist us in our marketing and promotional programs, and
parties which assist us with payment processing services.

We provide the third parties with the minimum amount of personal information necessary to fulfill the terms of the predetermined service or transaction, and none of these third parties are permitted to use your personal information except for the purpose of providing a specific service on behalf of Affectiva. Affectiva is responsible for the processing of personal data it receives, under the Privacy Shield Framework, and subsequent transfers to a third party acting as an agent on its behalf. Affectiva complies with the Privacy Shield Principles for all onward transfers of personal data from the EU, including the onward transfer liability provisions.

We may also provide information to third parties in connection with legal matters, which includes:

providing information where we are legally obligated to do so (such as subpoenas or court orders), and
in connection with the investigation, prevention or assisting law enforcement with respect to suspected or known illegal activities, fraud, threats, violations of our terms of service, or as otherwise required by law.

How can I manage my personal information retained by Affectiva?

You are in control of whether or not you give us personal information, and you are free at any time to ask us to delete any personal information you have provided. EU individuals have the right to access their personal information. Upon request, and with consent of our customers, Affectiva will grant individuals access to personal information that it holds about them. Please contact us at account-updates@affectiva.com to access, edit or delete your personal information. Please note that in the event of a deletion, Affectiva may need to retain some personal information for the period of time necessary for legal proceedings, legal or audit requirements or for settling your account.

If you want to opt out from receiving promotional email from Affectiva, send an email including your name and email address to unsubscribe@affectiva.com. If you receive an email using the Affectiva name that you suspect might be spam, please contact us at privacy@affectiva.com.

To contact us via the postal service send a letter to:

Privacy Officer, Affectiva Inc.

294 Washington Street

Boston, MA 02108

How do we secure your information?

Affectiva is committed to protecting the Personal Information you share with us. We utilize a combination of industry-standard security technologies, procedures, and organizational measures to help protect your Personal Information from unauthorized access, use or disclosure.

When we transfer credit card information over the Internet, we protect it using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption technology. While we strive to protect your Personal Information, we cannot ensure the security of the information that you transmit to Affectiva, please make sure that you protect yourself by never sending Personal Data over an unsecure connection.

We strongly encourage you to take every possible precaution to protecting your Personal Information when you are on the Internet. Good methods of protecting private information include: change your passwords often, use a combination of letters and numbers when creating passwords, make sure you use a secure browser and protect emails though encryption.

Affectiva complies with the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework as set forth by the US Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information from European Union member countries. Affectiva has certified that it adheres to the Privacy Shield Principles of Notice, Choice, Accountability for Onward Transfer, Security, Data Integrity and Purpose Limitation, Access, and Recourse, Enforcement and Liability. If there is any conflict between the policies in this privacy policy and the Privacy Shield Principles, the Privacy Shield Principles shall govern. To learn more about the Privacy Shield program, and to view our certification page, please visit https://www.privacyshield.gov.

Provisions Specific to EU Citizens

Rights of EU Citizens Under the GDPR

If you are a citizen of the European Union you have certain rights relating to how others handle your personal information. These rights are:

The right to be informed how your personal information is being used.
The right of access your personal information and how it is processed.
The right to rectify personal information which is inaccurate or incomplete.
The right to erasure – also known as ‘the right to be forgotten’, this refers to an individual’s right to having their personal data deleted or removed.
The right to restrict processing, that is, the right to block or suppress processing of your personal data.
The right to data portability – this allows individuals to retain and reuse their personal data for their own purpose.
The right to object, in certain circumstances, to use of your personal data in a manner different from the purpose for which it was provided.
Right to prevent automated decision making or profiling based on your data without human intervention.

Identity of Data Controller

When an individual is providing personal information in connection with use of our Products in their capacity as an authorized user of a company which does business with Affectiva, the data controller is generally going to be that company. This will also be true where personal information is being collected by Affectiva in connection with use of a third party product which was developed using the Affectiva SDK.

If an individual is providing personal information directly to Affectiva, for example, as an Affectiva employee, a visitor to Affectiva’s website, or a party consenting to receive information regarding Affectiva and its Products, then Affectiva is generally going to be the data controller. In circumstances where Affectiva is the data controller, you can contact us at the email and physical addresses provided above in the section named “How can I manage my personal information retained by Affectiva?”

“Personal Information” is any information that can be used to identify an individual, and may include, but is not limited to, name, email address, postal or other physical address, credit or debit card number, title, and other information required to provide or deliver a Product, or carry out a transaction you have explicitly requested. If you give us Personal Information, we will treat it according to this policy.

Definition of the Parties Who Use Our Services and/or Access our Site:

Customers are companies that have licensed Affectiva’s technology for use in conjunction with products and services they offer to other companies or individuals. Examples of Affectiva Customers are advertising agencies and/or public relations firms that contract with us use Affectiva technology to analyze videos of individuals viewing advertisements and other digital content on behalf of their Clients. In the course of fulfilling our contractual obligations with our Customers, it will sometimes be necessary for us to receive and maintain personal contact information. Affectiva Customers may be granted access to protected areas of the website. In order to do so, they may need to activate an Affectiva Web account that requires the use and storage of some Personal Information.

Affectiva provides its market research Customers with both technical and non-technical support options. Affectiva also provides support to SDK developers. When you contact customer support (info@affectiva.com), technical support (affdex-support@affectiva.com), or SDK support (sdk@affectiva.com), your inquiry and relevant Personal Information will be added to a support database to enable an appropriate response. Affectiva may also store relevant Personal Information to manage Customer feedback.

Clients refers to the parties who are represented by our Customers. Affectiva does not have a direct relationship with these entities.

Individuals refers to the people who serve as data subjects for our Customers and/or their Clients. Facials videos of Individuals will be analyzed using Affectiva’s technology to evaluate the Individuals’ emotional response to advertisements or other digital content. Individuals may also provide personal information in connection with this activity. Most, if not all, of the individuals have been solicited by our Customers or their Clients and have entered into agreements with our Customers or their Clients which describe the terms under which they will act as data subjects. As with the Clients, we have no direct relationship with these Individuals and the identifying information they provide may be forwarded to us by our Customers. Occasionally, Individuals may come to our site of their own accord to investigate our product or learn more about our specific technology.

Individuals may also from time, to time, include our employees who serve as beta testers for quality control purposes. In the case of our employee data, nothing within this context is HR data that is subject to the employment relationship, and they are not part of any market studies conducted by our Customers.

Affectiva provides individuals the opportunity to contact us with job inquires by contacting jobs@affectiva.com. If you send Affectiva a resume or other documents containing Personal Information it may be entered into a recruitment database. You may receive inquiries from Affectiva or our affiliates in response to your inquiry.

Collection and use of your Personal Information

The reasons we collect and use your Personal Information are outlined below.

If you enroll under “Get more information”, You may receive periodic calls or emails from our team in order to facilitate your request. Affectiva may provide enrollees with the latest product announcements, software updates, software and system enhancements, special offers, and other information. Enrollees may also be contacted by Affectiva or its trusted partners with offers to participate in surveys aimed at improving our Products.

If you are an Affectiva Customer, you may provide us the names of individuals within your company, as well as physical addresses, payment information, email addresses and or telephone number. Affectiva may need to use this information to verify credit card information, process payments and to provide services and support. Affectiva may make use of a trusted third party to process your payment and in these cases we will share your billing information with that party. If you are an Affectiva Customer you may also receive product updates or other information from our team.

Affectiva offers Professional Services as well as software products. If you or your company have entered into an Affectiva Professional Services agreement please be aware that the terms of that agreement may include provisions that require the collection of Personal Information. These terms may take precedence over this Policy. We encourage all of our Customers to meet or exceed our standards for the protection of Personal Information. We will work with you to follow the highest integrity ethical standards, especially in the treatment of people as participants in data-collection studies. If you sign up under “Get more information”, Affectiva will try to send you the requested information. You may receive periodic calls or emails from our team in order to facilitate your request. Affectiva may provide enrollees with the latest product announcements, software updates, software and system enhancements, special offers, and other information. Enrollees may also be contacted by Affectiva or its trusted partners with offers to participate in surveys aimed at improving our Products.

CHOICE:

If you ever opted in to receive mail from Affectiva and now want to opt out, send an email including your name and email address to unsubscribe@affectiva.com. If you receive an email using the Affectiva name that you suspect might be spam, please contact us at privacy@affectiva.com.

To contact us via the postal service send a letter to:

Privacy Officer, Affectiva Inc.

294 Washington Street

Boston, MA 02108

Participating in opt-in video collection

Affectiva provides people with opportunities to participate in interactive web applications in which data will be collected. Data will never be collected without informed consent. The data may include a subset of the following categories:

Video from a participant’s web-cam

Affective data derived from video

Text data from survey responses

By Its nature, video data of Individuals is personal so Affectiva takes the process of recording participant video very seriously. Affectiva will never associate data with an Individual without the Individual’s consent. By default Affectiva will only use video data to analyze the Individual’s emotional reaction to content the Individual is viewing and to train its computer algorithms around measurement and communication of emotion and will not share video data that has not been anonymized with outside groups. On occasion, Affectiva provides people with an opportunity to explicitly opt-in to allow for their video data to be used in broader research or experimental purposes. Likewise, visitors to our website who view our demo, in which they are recorded watching a sample ad, will be explicitly cued to opt-in prior to the beginning of the session.

Anonymous information collection

In some instances, Affectiva may collect non-personal aggregate or demographic data through cookies, web logs, and web beacons. This information may be used to better understand and improve the usability, performance, and effectiveness of the website. Please read the “Cookies” section below for more information.

In addition, by using some of our Products, anonymous network information (not including Personal Information) may be transmitted back to us such as Product usage information. This information is transmitted back to us so we can determine how users are interacting with our Products, to assist us as we consistently improve our Products and to correct any problems that may occur.

Cookies web logs and web beacons

Like many websites, Affectiva uses technologies, such as cookies and web beacons, which allow us to make your visit to our website easier, more efficient and more valuable by providing you with a customized experience and recognizing you when you return.

Our cookies do not read personal data off of your hard disk or read cookie files created by other sites. The only Personal Information that a cookie can contain is that which you explicitly consent to supply. Accepting the cookies used on our website may give us access to information about your browsing behavior while on our web pages, which we may use to personalize your experience and track user traffic patterns. We do this in order to determine the usefulness of our website information based on the needs of our users, and to assess how effectively our navigational structure helps users reach needed sources of information. You may browse most of Affectiva’s website without accepting cookies from Affectiva; however, some website functionality may be lost by disabling cookies on your computer. Other Affectiva web pages, particularly those that require a login and password, require cookies and cannot be used when you have disabled cookies in your browser.

Web logs and web beacons are ways of gathering basic statistics and managing cookies, and do not extract any extra information from your computer. Turning off your browser’s cookies will prevent web logs and beacons from tracking your specific activity.

If you prefer not to receive cookies while browsing our website or via HTML-formatted emails, you can set your browser to prompt you before it accepts cookies or refuse the cookie when your browser alerts you to its presence. You can also refuse all cookies by turning them off in your browser. For additional information about cookies and other tracking technologies, including instructions for blocking their use, see http://privacy.getnetwise.org/browsing/tools.

Linked websites and third party services

Our websites and services may provide links to third-party websites and services that are outside our control and not covered by this policy. We encourage you to review the privacy policies posted on these (and all) sites you visit or services you use.

Children’s privacy

Affectiva’s website does not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under the age of 13, without parental consent. If we learn that we have collected Personal Information on a child under the age of 13, without parental consent, we will erase that data from our systems. Affectiva encourages parents and guardians to monitor the online activity of children in their care. Here are a few tips to help make a child’s online experience safer:

Teach children never to give Personal Information (such as name, address, phone number, school, etc.) unless supervised by a parent or responsible adult
Know the sites your children are visiting and which sites are appropriate
Review website privacy policies and be aware of how your child’s information is treated
We encourage you to visit the Federal Trade Commission’s website for information regarding initiatives designed to protect children’s privacy online.

Consent to the transfer, processing and storage of Personal Information:

We reserve the right to transfer your Personal Information gathered from our website (this includes video as well as demographic information) to any Affectiva affiliate worldwide, as well as to third parties acting on our behalf, for the purposes of processing or storage of data. By providing any of your Personal Information, you fully understand and consent to such transfer, processing and storage of such information.

Affectiva is required to disclose personal information to public authorities if they provide lawful requests for reasons of national security or law enforcement.

Accessing and updating your Personal Information

You are in control of whether or not you give us Personal Information, and you are free at any time to ask us to delete any personal information you have provided. EU individuals have the right to access their personal information. Upon request, and with consent of our Customers, Affectiva will grant individuals access to personal information that it holds about them. Please contact us at account-updates@affectiva.com to access, edit or delete your personal information. Please note that in the event of a deletion, Affectiva may need to retain some Personal Information for the period of time necessary for legal proceedings, legal requirements or for settling your account.

Unsubscribing

Affectiva does not give out your Personal Information without your prior consent. By signing up for email notifications you are consenting to being contacted by the Affectiva sales and marketing team or their representatives.

Each promotional email from Affectiva or from parties to whom Affectiva has given your email address with your prior consent includes instructions on how you can unsubscribe from that category of mailing or from receiving email from that third party.

You may also unsubscribe from Affectiva’s promotional emails by sending an email, including your name and email address to unsubscribe@affectiva.com, or a letter to:

Privacy Officer, Affectiva, Inc., 294 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02108

Affectiva will work diligently to update these settings in a timely manner: please allow 2-4 weeks for account updates to take effect. If you have additional questions regarding your information disclosure choices or Affectiva’s policies regarding receipt of promotional email, you may contact Affectiva by sending an email with your name and email address to privacy@affectiva.com.

Sharing your Personal Information

We do not sell or rent your Personal Information to others unless you have granted us permission to do so in advance. We may share your Personal Information within Affectiva and its affiliated companies and with third party service providers only for purposes of data processing or storage that are in accord with your informed consent. By using the products, Customers are consenting to the terms of this privacy policy.

If necessary to provide you with a Product or transaction you request, then we may also share your Personal Information with business partners, service vendors, authorized third-party agents or contractors.

We provide the third parties with the minimum amount of Personal Information necessary to fulfill the terms of the predetermined service or transaction, and no third parties are permitted to use your Personal Information except for the purpose of providing a specific service on behalf of Affectiva. Affectiva is responsible for the processing of personal data it receives, under the Privacy Shield Framework, and subsequently transfers to a third party acting as an agent on its behalf. Affectiva complies with the Privacy Shield Principles for all onward transfers of personal data from the EU, including the onward transfer liability provisions.

Under certain circumstances, Affectiva may be legally obligated to disclose your Personal Information (e.g. subpoenas, court orders, etc.). At our discretion, we also may elect to exercise our legal rights to defend against legal claims.

We may collect and possibly share Personal Information and any other additional information available to us in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of Affectiva’s Terms of Service, or as otherwise required by law.

While navigating Affectiva’s web site or computer-based Products, you may be directed to content or functionality that is hosted by a third-party supplier. When Personal Information is collected on behalf of Affectiva exclusively, Affectiva’s Privacy Policy will be referenced and will dictate how your Personal Information will be used. For other, non-Affectiva sites or services, the site or service provider’s privacy policy should be consulted.

We will ask for your consent before we use or share your Personal Information for any purpose other than the reason you provided it or as otherwise provided by this policy. In order to let us know your preferences, we will require an action on your part, such as checking the appropriate option, to indicate your consent.

Security of your Personal Information

Consent to the transfer, processing and storage of Personal Information:

We reserve the right to transfer your Personal Information gathered from our website to any Affectiva affiliate worldwide, as well as to third parties acting on our behalf, for the purposes of processing or storage. By providing any of your Personal Information, you fully understand and consent to such transfer, processing and storage of such information.

EU Privacy Shield

Affectiva is subject to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the FTC for its Privacy Shield compliance.

Affectiva may be required to disclose personal information to public authorities if they provide lawful requests for reasons of national security or law enforcement.

In compliance with the EU-US Privacy Shield Principles, Affectiva commits to resolve complaints about your privacy and our collection or use of your personal information. European Union individuals with inquiries or complaints regarding this privacy policy should first contact Affectiva at:

Privacy Officer, Affectiva, Inc., 294 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02108 (privacy@affectiva.com)

Affectiva has further committed to refer unresolved privacy complaints under the EU-US Privacy Shield Principles to BBB EU PRIVACY SHIELD, a non-profit alternative dispute resolution provider located in the United States and operated by the Council of Better Business Bureaus. If you do not receive timely acknowledgment of your complaint, or if your complaint is not satisfactorily addressed, please visit www.bbb.org/EU-privacy-shield/for-eu-consumers/ for more information and to file a complaint.

If your complaint is not resolved through these channels, under certain circumstances, EU individuals can invoke binding arbitration before a Privacy Shield Panel.

Updates to the Privacy Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If you choose to opt in to email notifications by emailing get-privacy@affectiva.com, you will be informed when changes take place. Whether or not you chose to receive notifications via email, our website will indicate when the policy has been altered. You may access the current version at any time by clicking on the “Privacy Policy” link at the footer on our website. Your continued use of the Affectiva website or Products thereafter, serves as binding confirmation that you agree with such changes.