Privacy Policy
Cognixion™ produces software applications and assistive devices (the "Services"). This Policy describes how we handle collection, use, and disclosure of information about how you use the Services. We use this information only for improving the Services. By using the Services, you agree to our use of this information in accordance with this policy.
Last updated on October 13, 2020.
Cognixion is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. If we ask you to provide information by which you can be identified when using our website, our mobile app, our services, or our products (collectively, our "Services"), we will use that information only in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
This Privacy Policy outlines how Cognixion generally handles your personal data. In connection with some of our Services, we will give you more specific information about our handling of your personal data, and we will, where appropriate, ask for your consent before handling your personal data. At the end of this policy, there is information on how to contact us if you have any questions or if you think anything is unclear.
1. What kind of personal data do we collect?
Depending on which Services you use, we collect and process different kinds of information from or about you.
Here's how:
Personal data and other information you (and others) give us. We collect the information that you (and others) give us when using our Services. For example:
When you register to use our Services, we may ask for information such as your name, email address, and phone number.
For many of our Services, you will have the opportunity to create a user profile (for example in one of our web-based Services), and add information to your profile after registration.
If you buy something from us, we collect information about the transaction. This can include your payment information, purchase activity, and delivery, and contact details.
When you communicate with us, you provide us with information such as your email address.
Depending on which Services you use, you have the option of submitting information about your physical features, such as information about your body and disabilities concerning your body, language, cognitive abilities, or other health-related data.
From time to time, we may collect information that is optional and is submitted voluntarily by the user, their guardian, or relative or a professional on the user's behalf. This optional information enables us to distinguish between a professional evaluator such as a teacher or clinician, and a potential end-user such as a student, patient, relative, or friend. Providing this optional information improves our ability to design appropriate features and provide support. For example, Age and Organizational data is provided voluntarily by each user and is optional and not required to use the basic service. It is recommended purely for improving their overall customer experience.
If you seek customer support for one of our Services, then it is sometimes necessary for us to access your personal information to be able to help you with your problem (for example if we need to remotely control your device to troubleshoot). In those cases, we will either delete the data once the support matter has been resolved (as in the remote control case), or store the data according to applicable retention routines within Cognixion if we find that either you or Cognixion has a legitimate interest in doing so.
We collect content and information about content that you create using our Services.
If you are using any of our Services that process biometric data, for example, eye tracking, facial recognition, motion detection, or bio-signals from sensors that contact your body, you will be explicitly prompted for consent to share upon activating those capabilities for the first time.
Currently, no personal face data is collected or stored off the device being used.
When using an Apple product for eye and head tracking, and facial recognition, it is purely used to enable you to move a cursor around the application and make selections.
The FaceData information provided by the TrueDepth camera includes screen coordinates to determine which button to highlight and to select, and detection of smile, blink, or time-lapsed gaze dwelling to trigger a selection. We do not collect or store your FaceData; therefore, do not share or disclose this data to any third parties.
Our Services do allow you to adjust various settings and parameters related to the quality and accuracy of these kinds of capabilities. The settings themselves are stored in your account and profile on our systems, but not the actual data itself.
Should you wish to access our Services on multiple devices, you can sign-into your account profile and your settings and data are made available to you. If you adjust your settings and preferences and data on one device, it will be available on the other.
Personal data and other information which is automatically collected about you when you use our services. We also collect information automatically when you are connected to our Services. Depending on how you access and use our Services, we collect information such as:
Information about how you access our Services, including information about the type of device that you're using, its configuration (such as your operating system and graphics processing unit), your browser, and how your device is performing.
Information about the features you interact with on our Services. For example, when you use our website, mobile apps, or devices, we may collect information on how often you use a certain feature, including from third parties.
Information about you and your social media profile if you choose to access our Services with a social media profile. Please note that the information you share within the scope of those social media services is not applicable to this Privacy policy.
Third parties may also collect information about you through the Services, or receive information collected about you through the Services, as described below.
Related companies. We may share your personal data within Cognixion business units including our subsidiaries, academic partners, and suppliers, in order to develop and improve our products and Services. Such information, however, is anonymized to the best extent possible.
Third-party companies. Some of our Services offer the opportunity to use a social media account as an access method to the Service. If you choose that access method, the social media platform will receive some information regarding you and the Services that we provide to you, and we will receive some types of information from the social media site. How that social media platform processes your information falls outside the scope of this Privacy policy.
We also collect, use, and share aggregated data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated data could be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data by law as this data will not directly or indirectly reveal your identity.
Our Services are not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.
Cookies
Our Services use cookies to distinguish you from other users. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you use our website and mobile app and also allows us to improve our site and app.
A cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer or mobile device if you agree. Cookies contain information that is transferred to your computer's or mobile device's hard drive.
We use the following cookies:
Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website or mobile app. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website or mobile app.
Analytical/performance cookies. They allow us to recognize and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website or mobile app when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website or mobile app works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
Functionality cookies. These are used to recognize you when you return to our website or mobile app. This enables us to personalize our content for you, and remember your preferences.
Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our website or mobile app, the pages you have visited, and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and mobile app, and the advertising displayed on it, more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.
You can set your browser or mobile app to refuse all or some browser cookies or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of our website or mobile app may become inaccessible or not function properly.
2. How do we use your personal data?
We use the information as set out below and to provide our Services to you and our partners.
Here's how:
To provide and personalize our Services. We use the information we collect to provide you with our Services. For example, we use this information to:
Provide you with hardware, content, games, apps, and other needs;
Create accounts and user profiles;
Communicate with you about our Services;
Provide technical support;
Notify you about updates to our Services; and
Customize your usage based on your activities, including the content, games, apps, and other experiences you interact with. This allows us to make our Services unique and relevant to you, for example by showing you content that is most relevant to you.
Enable you to change personal settings and preferences and store them for use on any device;
To provide you with usage data visualizations and charts such as awards and progress metrics;
Enable the app to adapt to your needs and become easier to use and more useful over time.
To improve and develop your experience and our Services. We also use the information that we collect to understand, develop, and improve our Services. For example, we use the information to:
Seek and analyze input and feedback about our Services;
Identify and address technical issues on our Services;
Conduct and learn from research about the ways in which people use our Services; and
Improve services offered by others, such as third parties that offer games, apps, and other content connected to our Services.
To promote our brand and Services. We use the information that we collect to send you promotional messages and content and otherwise market to you and offer our Services. We also use this information to measure how users respond to our marketing efforts. If you would like to opt-out of receiving marketing emails, then you can always do so by following the instructions in every such promotional message.
To promote safety and security. We use the personal data that we collect to help promote safety and security on and off our Services, such as by investigating suspicious activity or breaches of our terms or policies and protecting our or others’ rights or property.
3. How is personal data shared?
To provide and support our Services, information that we have about you is shared in certain circumstances. The following may access information about you when you and others use our Services.
Developers, support, and other online content providers on our Services. You can interact with third-party content, games, apps, and other experiences through our Services. We may share information about you with these partners so they can provide you with the experiences that you've requested, such as:
Information in your Cognixion profile and about how you use our Services. For example, we may provide a third-party games provider with your user id or similar, so that the games provider may deliver a game to you that you’ve purchased bundled with one of our products
Any other information that you choose to share with the third party through your use of the Services.
Sharing within related companies. Depending on which services you use, we share information with companies that are part of the same group of companies that Cognixion is part of, or that become part of that group, such as Cognixion Inc., our Canadian subsidiary.
Service providers. We share the information that we collect with vendors, service providers, researchers, and other partners, who work at our direction to support the Services (such as hosting our Services, fulfilling orders, facilitating payments, analyzing the way people use our Services, processing credit card payments, providing customer service or sending electronic communications for us).
Other parties in connection with certain business transactions. In the event that the ownership of Cognixion (or any portion of our assets) changes as a result of a merger, acquisition, or in the event of a bankruptcy, information from or about you or your device may be transferred to another company.
Law enforcement or legal requests. We share information with law enforcement or in response to legal requests in the circumstances outlined in Section 7 below.
We also share de-identified or aggregate data with others. “De-identified data” means information where we have removed personally identifiable data such as your name and other data that could reasonably be used to identify you. “Aggregate data” is data that has been combined with other data so that it doesn't identify any specific person. For example, we provide developers with aggregated statistics about the number of people from a particular region that use our Services, so developers can create content or features tailored for people in that market.
4. How the Cognixion companies work together
Cognixion shares infrastructure, systems, and technology with other Cognixion companies to provide an innovative, relevant, consistent, and safe experience across all Services that you use.
5. Third parties that provide content, marketing, or functionality on our services
Some of the content, marketing, and functionality on our Services may be provided by third parties that are not affiliated with us. For example, we work with companies that help us provide content or specialized functionality within the Service that you purchased.
6. Data retention and deletion
We store data that identifies you until it is no longer necessary to provide our Services, for example when you delete an account with us. This is a case-by-case determination that depends on things such as the nature of the data, why it is collected and processed, and relevant legal or operational retention needs. For example, we may retain certain purchase information for accounting and tax purposes even after you have deleted your account.
When you delete an account with us, we disassociate your personally identifiable information (PII) from the data you provided us with and the data we collected during your use of the Services. Neither you nor us will be able to relink such disassociated data with your PII after it has been disassociated. We retain the aggregate data as anonymous information.
7. How do we respond to legal requests and minimize harm?
We access, preserve, and share information with regulators, law enforcement, or others:
In response to a legal request where we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law in that jurisdiction, affects users in that jurisdiction and is consistent with internationally recognized standards.
When we have a good faith belief that it is necessary to: detect, prevent, and address fraud or other illegal activity; to protect Cognixion, our Services, you and others, including as part of investigations; or to prevent death or imminent bodily harm.
8. How we operate and transfer data as part of our global services
We share information globally, both internally within Cognixion and externally with our partners to fully provide the Services you are entitled to receive based on the Service you have purchased or subscribed to and/or otherwise are entitled to receive. Information controlled by Cognixion will be transferred or transmitted to, or stored and processed in the United States, Canada, and/or other countries outside of where you live for the purposes as described in this policy. These data transfers are necessary for us to globally operate and provide our Services to you. We utilize standard contract clauses commonly used in the countries we operate.
9. Changes to this policy
If we make changes to this Privacy Policy, we will provide notice of such changes as appropriate, such as by sending you an email notification to the address that you've provided, and/or providing notice through the Services. If we make an administrative change, we may update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this Privacy Policy.
The data privacy manager for Cognixion can be contacted at privacy@cognixion.com.
10. What is our legal basis for processing data?
The legal ground for processing personal data varies depending on the types of data and the situation. The legal grounds we rely on at Cognixion are the following:
If processing is necessary to fulfill our contract with you, i.e. what we are obliged to provide under the agreement between you and us. Our obligations to you vary depending on the Service you are using. For example, we may need to store your name and address to keep track of our warranty obligations to you.
With your consent, which you may withdraw at any time. For example, when you have given your consent for Cognixion to use your gesture, biosignal, and other personal data to develop our algorithms and thus our products.
It should be noted that a withdrawal of a consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing that has already been carried out based on that consent before its withdrawal.
As necessary to comply with our legal obligations. For example, Cognixion must store some purchase information to comply with tax and accounting regulations. The legal ground for this processing (storing) is therefore necessary for compliance with legal obligations.
Occasionally to protect your vital interests or those of others. On rare occasions, we may process your data if doing so is necessary to protect your vital interests. For example, in situations where there is an immediate risk to your health, we may share information with your caregiver.
As necessary for our (or others) legitimate interests. Cognixion has a legitimate interest in providing an innovative, personalized, safe, and profitable service to our existing and future users and partners, unless those interests are overridden by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms that require protection of personal data.
11. How can you exercise the rights provided to you under the GDPR?
If you reside in the European Union or certain other European countries, the General Data Protection Regulation may apply to the information that we collect from you, store, and process. Under the General Data Protection Regulation, you have the right to:
Access your data
You have the right to obtain from Cognixion a confirmation of whether or not personal data concerning you is being processed, and if that is the case, a right to access information including, but not limited to, the purpose of the processing and the categories of personal data that Cognixion has concerning you. By your request, Cognixion is required to provide you with a copy of undergoing processing of your personal data.
Rectify your data
If it comes to your knowledge that certain personal data of yours which is being processed by Cognixion is inaccurate, you have the right to obtain a rectification and in some cases a right to have incomplete data completed.
Port your data
If the legal ground for processing of personal data is based on either (i) consent or (ii) fulfillment of a contract between you and Cognixion, you have a right to receive data which you have provided us in a commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit such data to another controller.
Erase your data
You have the right to obtain from Cognixion the disassociation and erasure of your personally identifiable information (PII) when, for example, (i) the data no longer is necessary in relation to the purpose for which it was collected, (ii) if you withdraw consent, (iii) if you object to the processing and there are no overriding legitimate grounds for the processing, or (iv) if the personal data have been unlawfully processed.
Restrict and object to certain processing of your data
You have the right to restrict Cognixion from processing your data when, for example, (i) you contest the accuracy of the personal data, or (ii) if Cognixion no longer needs certain data for the purpose of processing.
To find out more about these rights, and how you can exercise them, contact Cognixion at privacy@cognixion.com or obtain information from the appropriate supervisory authority.
12. Contacting us
The data controller responsible for responding to your inquiry is Cognixion, which you can contact by email at privacy@cognixion.com or by postal mail at:
Attn: Data Protection Officer
Cognixion
3905 State Street, Suite 7-353
Santa Barbara, CA 93105
Alexa Related
13. How do I know when my device is recording? Is Alexa always listening?
Explore how Alexa and Echo devices work, and learn about the features and controls that protect your privacy.
To learn more about the Alexa Privacy Policy click here.