Emsisoft Privacy Policy

Legally binding version Practical version.
A summary of what it all means for you in practical, non-legally binding terms.
This Privacy Policy describes how Emsisoft collects, uses and discloses information, and what choices you have with respect to the information.

Updates in this version of the Privacy Policy reflect changes in data protection law.

When we refer to “Emsisoft”, we mean the Emsisoft entity that acts as the controller or processor of your information, as explained in more detail in the “Identifying the Data Controller and Processor” section below.

 A description our privacy policy. We have to use legal jargon here for legal compliance.

Table of Contents:

 

This helps you navigate the different sections.

Applicability Of This Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to Emsisoft’s software products and online platform, including the associated Emsisoft desktop and mobile applications (collectively, the “Services”), emsisoft.com and other Emsisoft websites (collectively, the “Websites”) and other interactions (e.g., customer service inquiries, etc.) you may have with Emsisoft. If you do not agree with the terms, do not access or use the Services, Websites or any other aspect of Emsisoft’s business.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to any third party applications or software that integrate with the Services through the Emsisoft platform (“Third Party Services”), or any other third party products, services or businesses. In addition, a separate terms agreement governs delivery, access and use of the Services (the “Customer Agreement”), including the processing of any files, messages or other content submitted through Services accounts (collectively, “Customer Data”). The organization (e.g., your employer or another entity or person) that entered into the Customer Agreement (“Customer”) controls their instance of the Services (their “Workspace”) and any associated Customer Data.

To support delivery of our Services, Emsisoft may engage and use data processors with access to certain Customer Data (each, a “Subprocessor”).

 

Our software and our websites process your data.

If you don’t agree with our terms, we are unfortunately unable to offer you our services.

We are not responsible for third parties that interact with our services.

You have to agree to our terms when using our services.

You are in control of your data that you create and send through our services.

We use third party services to run our infrastructure and they will have access to some of your data too.

Information We Collect And Receive

Emsisoft may collect and receive Customer Data (“Customer Data”) and other information and data (“Other Information”) in a variety of ways:

  • Customer Data. Customers or individuals granted access to a Workspace by a Customer (“Authorized Users”) may submit Customer Data to Emsisoft when using the Services:

 

Law says there are two types of data:

    1. Customer data, which includes all the information that you create using our services. This is controlled by you.
    2. Other data, which includes all information that is required for us to provide our services. This is controlled by us.

Typical use cases of Customer Data are as follows:
    1. Authorized User content. For example, messages sent to the customer support or other Authorized Users of the Services.
 When you send us or other Emsisoft users a message, we have to process that somewhere in our systems.
    1. Log data. For example, information about scanned, detected, alerted or quarantined objects and files on the Authorized User device.
 Our software logs a lot of stuff for you. MyEmsisoft shows you those logs. We’re not interested in your specific activities, but your logs do help us understand how our services are performing and what we can do to improve them.
    1. File data. For example, data files, and executable program files and modules submitted and processed for threat assessment.
 When you send us a program for malware analysis, our lab team will process it. We’re not interested in any of your personal documents. In the event you do so send us a personal document for examination, we will only look into its malware-related aspects.
    1. Settings data: For example, individual personalized configuration of the Services and license information.
 You are in control of your software settings but we process them. MyEmsisoft shows them to you and anyone you grant access to your account.
  • Other Information. Emsisoft also collects, generates and/or receives Other Information:
    1. Workspace and Account Information. To create or update a Workspace account, you or the Customer (e.g., your employer) supply Emsisoft with an email address, password, domain and/or similar account details.
 This is the data we require to operate our services.

To provide access to MyEmsisoft we need user account information like your name (feel free to use a nickname), email address, password hash (we don’t know your actual password, just a salted hash of it) and some general metadata.
    1. Usage Information.
      • Services Metadata. When an Authorized User interacts with the Services, metadata is generated that provides additional context about the way Authorized Users work. For example, Emsisoft logs the Workspaces, features, content and links you interact with, the types of files processed and what Third Party Services are used (if any).
 We need to know which parts of our software and website are used so we can make our services better. We’re not interested in your specific activities, but we do create general usage statistics that we use for further product planning.
      • Log data. As with most websites and technology services delivered over the Internet, our servers automatically collect information when you access or use our Websites or Services and record it in log files. This log data may include the Internet Protocol (IP) address, the address of the web page visited before using the Website or Services, browser type and settings, the date and time the Services were used, information about browser configuration and plugins, language preferences and cookie data.
 Our webservers write access logs. That’s what webservers do and probably always have done. They record which of our web pages you access (including your IP address). We do not care about these logs unless there is some error that needs to be investigated. They are deleted after a few weeks because they grow so big that we couldn’t find enough hard disks to store them for any longer.
      • Device information. Emsisoft collects information about devices accessing the Services, including type of device, what operating system is used, device settings, application IDs, unique device identifiers and crash data. Whether we collect some or all of this Other Information often depends on the type of device used and its settings.
 Our software sends us some general data about your computer, which allows us to create usage statistics that help us with further product planning.

In the event the software crashes, a detailed report of geeky developer information is sent to us that helps us spot the crashing line of code very quickly.

We also make use of a unique hardware identifier that authenticates your computer in our server systems. Without this information we wouldn’t, for example, be able to tell if a license is being used correctly, or if an attacker is flooding our systems with fake data.
      • Location information. We receive information from you, the Customer and other third-parties that helps us approximate your location. We may, for example, use a business address submitted by your employer, or an IP address received from your browser or device to determine approximate location. Emsisoft may also collect location information from devices in accordance with the consent process provided by your device.
 We store your location data. We’re not interested in anything more precise than the country you live in. We use this information for statistics and regional pricing.
    1. Cookie Information. Emsisoft uses cookies and similar technologies in our Websites and Services that help us collect Other Information. The Websites and Services may also include cookies and similar tracking technologies of third parties, which may collect Other Information about you via the Websites and Services and across other websites and online services. For more details about how we use these technologies, please see the section Cookies.
 We use cookies, just like everyone else.
    1. Third Party Services. Customer can choose to permit or restrict Third Party Services for their Workspace. Typically, Third Party Services are software that integrate with our Services, and Customer can permit its Authorized Users to enable and disable these integrations for their Workspace. Once enabled, the provider of a Third Party Service may share certain information with Emsisoft. For example, remote monitoring and management providers who offer services to remotely configure and monitor the Services. Authorized Users should check the privacy settings and notices in these Third Party Services to understand what data may be disclosed to Emsisoft. When a Third Party Service is enabled, Emsisoft is authorized to connect and access Other Information made available to Emsisoft in accordance with our agreement with the Third Party Provider. We do not, however, receive or store passwords for any of these Third Party Services when connecting them to the Services.
 Our systems have collaboration interfaces for other useful services. You can allow or block access for them.

We don’t give any of your sensitive data to third party services unless you specifically want us to.
    1. Contact Information. In accordance with the consent process provided by your device, any contact information that an Authorized User chooses to import (such as inviting additional Workspace users) is collected when using the Services.
 When you invite or grant access to new users, we process their data too.
    1. Third Party Data. Emsisoft may receive data about organizations, industries, Website visitors, marketing campaigns and other matters related to our business from parent corporation(s), affiliates and subsidiaries, our partners or others that we use to make our own information better or more useful. This data may be combined with Other Information we collect and might include aggregate level data, such as which IP addresses correspond to zip codes or countries. Or it might be more specific: for example, how well an online marketing or email campaign performed.
 We use some handy common tools to create statistics, such as Google Analytics. We generally trust that they treat your data carefully, otherwise we wouldn’t use them.
    1. Additional Information Provided to Emsisoft. We receive Other Information when it is submitted to our Websites or if you participate in a focus group, contest, activity or event, apply for a job, request support, interact with our social media accounts or otherwise communicate with Emsisoft.
 When you send us your personal data, we process it in our systems.
Generally, no one is under a statutory or contractual obligation to provide any Customer Data or Other Information (collectively, “Information”) to Emsisoft. However, certain Information is required by our systems to operate and, if some Information, such as Authorized User account and Workspace setup details, is not provided, we may be unable to provide the Services. We’re not forcing you to send us any of your personal information, but don’t be surprised if you can’t use our services if you don’t provide the minimum necessary data for our services to function properly. E.g. we obviously can’t create a user account for you without getting your email address.

How We Use Information

Customer Data will be used by Emsisoft in accordance with Customer’s instructions, including any applicable terms in the Customer Agreement and Customer’s use of Services functionality, and as required by applicable law. Emsisoft is a processor of Customer Data and Customer is the controller. Customer may, for example, use the Services to grant and remove access to a Workspace, assign roles and configure settings, access, modify, export, share and remove Customer Data and otherwise apply its policies to the Services.

Emsisoft uses Other Information in furtherance of our legitimate interests in operating our Services, Websites and business. More specifically, Emsisoft uses Other Information:

 

We process personal data to provide our services.
  • To provide, update, maintain and protect our Services, Websites and business. This includes use of Other Information to support delivery of the Services under a Customer Agreement, prevent or address service errors, security or technical issues, analyze and monitor usage, trends and other activities or at an Authorized User’s request.
  • As required by applicable law, legal process or regulation.
  • To communicate with you by responding to your requests, comments and questions. If you contact us, we may use your Other Information to respond.
  • To send emails and other communications. We may send you service, technical and other administrative emails, messages and other types of communications. We may also contact you to inform you about changes in our Services, our Services offerings, and important Services-related notices, such as security and fraud notices. These communications are considered part of the Services and you may not opt out of them. In addition, we sometimes send emails about new product features, promotional communications or other news about Emsisoft. These are marketing messages so you can control whether you receive them.
  • For billing, account management and other administrative matters. Emsisoft may need to contact you for invoicing, account management and other similar reasons. We use account data to administer accounts and keep track of billing and payments.
    Emsisoft does not process or store, at any time, credit card information. Payment processing is done by one of our third party providers as listed below.
  • To investigate and help prevent security issues and abuse.
 Some personal information is needed to operate our services.

If law requires us to store specific data, we have to abide.

If you send us a message, we store it and we may look up records of earlier conversations and your user account information.

We’ll send you newsletters and other emails if you subscribe to them.

If you buy on our site we keep some purchase information, mainly for accounting.

We never store any credit card data, only our e-commerce partners do and they comply with crazy high security standards.

We may look into user data to find security and abuse issues.
If Information is aggregated or de-identified so it is no longer reasonably associated with an identified or identifiable natural person, Emsisoft may use it for any business purpose. To the extent Information is associated with an identified or identifiable natural person and is protected as personal data under applicable data protection law, it is referred to in this Privacy Policy as “Personal Data.” We create statistics with aggregated and de-identified data that can not be linked back to you as a person and we will use those statistics for business purposes.

Data Retention

Emsisoft will retain Customer Data in accordance with Customer’s instructions, including any applicable terms in the Customer Agreement and Customer’s use of Services functionality, and as required by applicable law. Depending on the Services plan, Customer may be able to customize its retention settings and apply those customized settings at the Workspace level, channel level or other level. Customer may also apply different settings to messages, files or other types of Customer Data. The deletion of Customer Data and other use of the Services by Customer may result in the deletion and/or de-identification of certain associated Other Information. Emsisoft may retain Other Information pertaining to you for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. This may include keeping your Other Information after you have deactivated your account for the period of time needed for Emsisoft to pursue legitimate business interests, conduct audits, comply with (and demonstrate compliance with) legal obligations, resolve disputes and enforce our agreements.

 

We keep your data for as long as you want us to, provided that law or other serious reasons don’t require us to keep it longer.

How We Share And Disclose Information

This section describes how Emsisoft may share and disclose Information. Customers determine their own policies and practices for the sharing and disclosure of Information, and Emsisoft does not control how they or any other third parties choose to share or disclose Information.

 

In limited cases we share information with others, but we are not responsible for their data handling practices.
  • Customer’s Instructions. Emsisoft will solely share and disclose Customer Data in accordance with Customer’s instructions, including any applicable terms in the Customer Agreement and Customer’s use of Services functionality, and in compliance with applicable law and legal process.
 We only share data if you allow us to do so.
  • Displaying the Services. When an Authorized User submits Other Information, it may be displayed to other Authorized Users in the same or connected Workspaces. For example, an Authorized User’s email address may be displayed with their Workspace profile.
 When you share your Emsisoft user workspace with other users, they will see some of your personal data.
  • Customer Access. Owners, administrators, Authorized Users and other Customer representatives and personnel may be able to access, modify or restrict access to Other Information. This may include, for example, your employer using Service features to export logs of Workspace activity, or accessing or modifying your profile details.
 When you use a shared user workspace, we or other people you have authorized may access your personal data.
  • Third Party Service Providers and Partners. We may engage third party companies or individuals as service providers or business partners to process Other Information and support our business. These third parties may, for example, provide virtual computing services.
 We may outsource some of our technical infrastructure to other companies.
  • Third Party Services. Customer may enable or permit Authorized Users to enable Third Party Services. When enabled, Emsisoft may share Other Information with Third Party Services. Third Party Services are not owned or controlled by Emsisoft, and third parties that have been granted access to Other Information may have their own policies and practices for its collection and use. Please check the privacy settings and notices in these Third Party Services or contact the provider for any questions.
 We provide management interfaces for trusted partner businesses so they can access your user account, but only if you want them to.
  • During a Change to Emsisoft’s Business. If Emsisoft engages in a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, dissolution, reorganization, sale of some or all of Emsisoft’s assets or stock, financing, public offering of securities, acquisition of all or a portion of our business, a similar transaction or proceeding, or steps in contemplation of such activities (e.g. due diligence), some or all Other Information may be shared or transferred, subject to standard confidentiality arrangements.
 In the unlikely event that we sell the company, we’ll have to grant a potential buyer access to some data which may include your personal data. These people will have to sign a confidentiality agreement just like all our team members.
  • Aggregated or De-identified Data. We may disclose or use aggregated or de-identified Other Information for any purpose. For example, we may share aggregated or de-identified Other Information with prospects or partners for business or research purposes, such as telling a prospective Emsisoft customer the average amount of detected malware per user or data on the regional distribution of malware infections.
 We make statistics for all sorts of things and we may share them with the public.
  • To Comply with Laws. If we receive a request for information, we may disclose Other Information if we reasonably believe disclosure is in accordance with or required by any applicable law, regulation or legal process.
 We don’t like doing so, but if a court rules that we have to provide specific user data to them, we have to abide.
  • To enforce our rights, prevent fraud, and for safety. To protect and defend the rights, property or safety of Emsisoft or third parties, including enforcing contracts or policies, or in connection with investigating and preventing fraud or security issues.
 In the unexpected case that we have to fight for our rights, we may use your data to support our case.
  • With Consent. Emsisoft may share Other Information with third parties when we have consent to do so.
 If you specifically allow us to share your data, we may do so.

Subprocessors

Emsisoft currently uses third party Subprocessors to provide infrastructure services, and to help us provide customer support and email notifications. Prior to engaging any third party Subprocessor, Emsisoft performs diligence to evaluate their privacy, security and confidentiality practices, and executes an agreement implementing its applicable obligations.

Emsisoft may use the following Subprocessors to host Customer Data and Other Information or provide other infrastructure to perform other Service functions:

 

Our infrastructure relies on third parties, as follows:
Entity Name Subprocessing Activities Entity Country
Automattic Inc. Cloud Service Provider. We send them a calculated hash of your email address to request your gravatar image for your Emsisoft user account. United States
Avangate BV dba 2Checkout Payment Processing. They collect your name, email and other details required for order processing when you buy a license. Netherlands
Bitdefender SRL Service Provider. We send them your name and email address for Emsisoft Mobile Security license activation. Romania
Cleverbridge AG Payment Processing. They collect your name, email and other details required for order processing when you buy a license. Germany
CloudFlare, Inc. Content Delivery. They cache our websites world wide to protect and speed up delivery. Your personal information may be included in their infrastructure/server logfiles. United States
CookieYes Limited Cookie Consent. They provide the cookie consent banner and cookie settings for our websites. United Kingdom
Facebook Ireland Limited Cloud Service Provider. We use their user authentication platform and their messaging system (both optional services). We also use Facebook ads. Ireland
Google, Inc. Cloud Service Provider. We use Google Analytics, Google Docs and other Google services where we may use your personal information in internal team workflows. United States
Hetzner Online GmbH Server Hosting. High security data center that hosts our self-managed physical and virtual servers. Your personal information may be included in their infrastructure/routing logfiles. Germany
BunnyWay d.o.o. Content Delivery. They cache our downloads and updates world wide to protect and speed up delivery. Your personal information may be included in their infrastructure/server logfiles. Slovenia
Mailgun Technologies, Inc. Email Delivery. They deliver our emails which may contain your personal information. United States
Microsoft Corporation Cloud Service Provider. We use Office 365 and other Microsoft services where we may use your personal information in internal team workflows. United States
Slack Technologies, Inc. Team Communication. We use the Slack instant messenger where we may use your personal information in internal team workflows. United States
tawk.to Inc. Live chat. Provides the chat and support website widget. May store your personal information if it’s part of support conversations. United States
Xero Limited Accounting Provider. We use the Xero for bookkeeping. They collect your name, email and other details required for order processing when you buy a license. New Zealand
Zoho Corporation CRM Provider. We use the Zoho for customer relationship management, e.g. to process sales inquiries. We may use your personal information in internal team workflows. India

Cookies

In providing the Service, Emsisoft utilises “cookies”. A cookie is a small text file that is stored on your computer for record-keeping purposes. A cookie does not identify you personally or contain any other information about you but it does identify your computer.

We and some of our third party subprocessors may use a combination of “persistent cookies” (cookies that remain on your hard drive for an extended period of time) and “session ID cookies” (cookies that expire when you close your browser) on the Website to, for example, track overall site usage, and track and report on your use and interaction with ad impressions and ad services.

You can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie so that you will have an opportunity to either accept or reject it in each instance. However, you should note that refusing cookies may have a negative impact on the functionality and usability of the Website and Service. We do not respond to or honor “Do Not Track” requests at this time.

Cookie Policy and preferences.

Some of our third party subprocessors may support the following tools to opt-out from seeing targeted ads or performing user tracking:

 

We use cookies on our websites to recognize you when you return later.

You can disable cookies in your browser if you wish, but doing so may result in some of our services not working as described.

If you don’t want to be tracked by our marketing partners, unsubscribe on the sites listed on the left or block their cookies.

Links to Other Websites

Our Websites and Services may contain links to other websites that are not owned or controlled by Emsisoft. The provision of such links is for your convenience and does not signify our endorsement of such websites or locations or its contents. We have no control over, do not review, and are not responsible for the privacy policies of, or content displayed on, such other websites. Please be aware that the terms of this Privacy Policy do not apply to any outside websites.

 

We link to other websites but we are not responsible for their content.

Security

Emsisoft takes security of data very seriously. Emsisoft works hard to protect Other Information you provide from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access or disclosure. These steps take into account the sensitivity of the Other Information we collect, process and store, and the current state of technology.

Given the nature of communications and information processing technology, Emsisoft cannot guarantee that Information, during transmission through the Internet or while stored on our systems or otherwise in our care, will be absolutely safe from intrusion by others.

 

We do our best to protect your data but we acknowledge that software is never perfect and may contain errors which can lead to data leaks. That’s why we design our systems to always keep the least amount of data required for a particular functionality. Even if somebody manages to hack us, you wouldn’t be exposed to significant risk because we essentially avoid storing any sensitive data about you.

Age Limitations

To the extent prohibited by applicable law, Emsisoft does not allow use of our Services and Websites by anyone younger than 16 years old. If you learn that anyone younger than 16 has unlawfully provided us with personal data, please contact us and we will take steps to delete such information.

 

You need to be at least 16 years old to use our services.

Changes To This Privacy Policy

Emsisoft may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. Laws, regulations and industry standards evolve, which may make those changes necessary, or we may make changes to our business. We will post the changes to this page and encourage you to review our Privacy Policy to stay informed. If we make changes that materially alter your privacy rights, Emsisoft will provide additional notice, such as via email or through the Services. If you disagree with the changes to this Privacy Policy, you should deactivate your Services account. Contact the Customer Support if you wish to request the removal of Personal Data under their control.

 

This privacy policy may be updated from time to time to reflect the latest changes in our systems and in law.

We’ll let you know if we make significant changes.

Data Protection Officer

To communicate with our Data Protection Officer, please email [email protected].

 

If you have any questions regarding our privacy policy, write to us at [email protected].

Identifying The Data Controller And Processor

Data protection law in certain jurisdictions differentiates between the “controller” and “processor” of information. In general, Customer is the controller of Customer Data. In general, Emsisoft is the processor of Customer Data and the controller of Other Information.

 

GDPR requires us to let you know that there is data you are responsible for and data we are responsible for.

Your Rights

Individuals located in certain countries, including the European Economic Area, have certain statutory rights in relation to their personal data. Subject to any exemptions provided by law, you may have the right to request access to Information, as well as to seek to update, delete or correct this Information. You can usually do this using the settings and tools provided in your Services account. If you cannot use the settings and tools, contact customer support for additional access and assistance. Please check https://www.emsisoft.com/en/help/ for customer support information.

To the extent that Emsisoft’s processing of your Personal Data is subject to the General Data Protection Regulation, Emsisoft relies on its legitimate interests, described above, to process your data. Emsisoft may also process Other Information that constitutes your Personal Data for direct marketing purposes, and you have a right to object to Emsisoft’s use of your Personal Data for this purpose at any time.

 

GDPR requires us to let you know that you have a right to access, correct and delete your personal information.

You can disagree with our data processing. However, our services inherently rely on the processing of data, which means we’re unable to provide our services if you disagree with how we process data.

Transparency Report

We are publishing this Transparency Report on whether we have received governmental requests to disclose information about our customers, whether we have modified any parts of our software for the purpose of collecting information about our customers or for the purpose of bypassing detection of malicious software.

 

We believe it is important to let our users know in cases we are required to disclose information with governments.

As of today, January 31, 2024, we can confirm that:

  • Emsisoft has never modified its software for the purpose of collecting data due to political pressure.
  • Emsisoft has never modified its software to prevent detection of any malicious software due to political pressure.
  • Emsisoft has never received a request for information about a customer or customers from any government or governmental agency.
  

Contacting Emsisoft

Please feel free to contact Emsisoft if you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or Emsisoft’s practices, or if you are seeking to exercise any of your statutory rights. You may contact us at [email protected]

 

Additional Resources

Terms:
Emsisoft Terms of Service

Code of Ethics:

Emsisoft is committed to maintaining your privacy. We take pride in cultivating integrity and honesty in all we do and are convinced that treating our customers in an honest and respectful manner is the foundation of sustainable business.

Last updated October 24, 2023.

  

You might ask…

Where does Emsisoft store user information?
Our main user database is stored on our own servers at a Hetzner high security data center in Germany. Only our CEO has full access to it (with backup persons in case of an emergency).
How does Emsisoft store my credit card data?
We don’t store any credit card information, only our e-commerce partners do (Cleverbridge AG, 2Checkout Inc) and they comply with crazy high security standards.
What kind of personal information does Emsisoft store?
Generally the least amount of data required to operate our services. We only store information that you provide us, such as your name, email address and other data that you create or send through our systems. We have no use for your postal address, your exact location or even your real name. Feel free to use a nickname.
What kind of personal information does the software send to Emsisoft on a regular basis?
Your user account data and computer name (to verify your license), your public IP (as it defines your public communication endpoint), your operating system (to get you the right update files), your hardware identifier (a custom calculated hash value that uniquely identifies your computer in our systems for most communications).

Also optionally (you can disable these in the settings): the checksum value of files that were detected on your computer (to verify them against known false positives), the names of detected malware and blocked hosts (for statistics and quality assurance), and crash reports that contain extensive technical information of the computer’s current state during a software crash (allows us to find the crashing line of code quickly, may contain your Windows username and computer name), your software settings, logs and events if you are connected with MyEmsisoft (may contain your Windows username and computer name).
Which of my files are being sent to Emsisoft?
None without your knowledge. When the software finds a suspicious file (such as an .exe program file) that should be analyzed by the Emsisoft Lab, it asks for your permission to send it in. You can also submit files manually at any time.
Which of my computer activities does Emsisoft track?
Our software only logs activities that are relevant to your computer security, such as initial checks of newly installed programs that may be dangerous. We don’t track any documents that you use, unless they contain malware and trigger an alert. Different to other antivirus programs, our technology does not require the tracking of any website addresses that you navigate to.
Does Emsisoft provide a Data Processing Agreement?
Yes. Please download and sign the Emsisoft Data Processing Agreement.

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