Last updated: June 3, 2024
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 never sell your data.
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 Northsail Software Inc. including Sonar.
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 Northsail). 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 Northsail receives from a customer, or otherwise processes on a customer's behalf, in connection with the services provided by Northsail to the customer pursuant to an applicable services agreement (including the content of messages of customer end users ("End User Communications")). Northsail 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 Northsail. Northsail'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. .However, this policy does not cover information about a customer's end users that Northsail receives from a customer, or otherwise processes on a customer's behalf, in connection with the services provided by Northsail to the customer pursuant to an applicable services agreement (including the content of messages of customer end users ("End User Communications")). Northsail 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 Northsail. Northsail'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.
Our guiding principle is to collect only what we need. Here's what that means in practice:
When you sign up for a Northsail 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. With your consent, we will send you our newsletter and other updates. 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.
If you sign up for a paid Northsail 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 Northsail servers. 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.
We store on our servers the content that you upload or receive or maintain in your Northsail product accounts. This is so you can use our products as intended, for example, to create projects in Sonar or to receive email in Sonar. We keep this content as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we'll delete the content within 90 days.
For most of our products, we log the full IP address used to sign up a product account and retain that for use in mitigating future spammy signups. We also log all account access by full IP address for security and fraud prevention purposes, and we keep this login data for as long as your product account is active.
We collect information about your browsing activity for analytics and statistical purposes such as conversion rate testing and experimenting with new product designs. This includes, for example, your browser and operating system versions, your IP address, which web pages you visited and how long they took to load, and which website referred you to us. If you have an account and are signed in, these web analytics data are tied to your IP address and user account until your account is no longer active. The web analytics we use are described further in the Advertising and Cookies section.
Northsail occasionally runs ads on various third-party platforms such as Google. Users who click on one of our ads will be sent to the Sonar marketing site. Where permissible under law, we may load an ad-company script on their browsers that sets a third-party cookie and sends information to the ad network to enable evaluation of the effectiveness of our ads, e.g., which ad they clicked and which keyword triggered the ad, and whether they performed certain actions such as clicking a button or submitting a form.
We also use persistent first-party cookies and some third-party cookies to store certain preferences, make it easier for you to use our applications, and perform A/B testing as well as support some analytics.
A cookie is a piece of text stored by your browser. It may help remember login information and site preferences. It might also collect information such as your browser type, operating system, web pages visited, duration of visit, content viewed, and other click-stream data. You can adjust cookie retention settings and accept or block individual cookies in your browser settings, although our apps won't work and other aspects of our service may not function properly if you turn cookies off.
When you email Northsail 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.
We offer optional desktop and mobile apps for some of our products. Because of how the platforms are designed, our apps typically must request your consent before accessing contacts, calendar, camera, and other privacy-sensitive features of your device. Consent is always optional and our apps will function without it, though some features may be unavailable.
To provide products or services you've requested. We use some third-party subprocessors to help run our applications and provide the Services to you. You can view the third-party subprocessors we use for Sonar. We also use third-party processors for other business functions such as managing newsletter subscriptions, sending customer surveys, and providing our company storefront. You can view the list at Sonar Subprocessors.
We may disclose your information at your direction if you integrate a third-party service into your use of our products. For example, we may allow you, at your option, to connect your Email account to your Sonar account so that you can use Sonar to receive your email. Email that you receive through Sonar from your email address will be stored by both Sonar and your email provider and will be available to you from your email account as well as your Sonar account.
No Northsail human looks at your content except for limited purposes with your express permission, for example, if an error occurs that stops an automated process from working and requires manual intervention to fix. These are rare cases, and when they happen, we look for root cause solutions as much as possible to avoid them recurring. We may also access your data if required in order to respond to legal process (see "When required under applicable law" below).
To exclude you from seeing our ads. Where permissible by law and if you have a Sonar account, we may disclose a one-way hash of your email address with ad companies to exclude you from seeing our ads.
To help you troubleshoot or squash a software bug, with your permission. If at any point we need to access your content to help you with a support case, we will ask for your consent before proceeding.
To investigate, prevent, or take action regarding restricted uses. Accessing a customer's account when investigating potential abuse is a measure of last resort. We want to protect the privacy and safety of both our customers and the people reporting issues to us, and we do our best to balance those responsibilities throughout the process. If we discover you are using our products for a restricted purpose, we will take action as necessary, including notifying appropriate authorities where warranted.
Aggregated and de-identified data. We may aggregate and/or de-identify information collected through the services. We may use de-identified or aggregated data for any purpose, including marketing or analytics.
When required under applicable law. Northsail is a Canadian company with its main data infrastructure located in the U.S.
Finally, if Northsail 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.
At Northsail, we strive to apply the same data rights to all customers, regardless of their location. Some of these rights include:
Many of these rights can be exercised by signing in and updating your account information. Please note that certain information may be exempt from such requests under applicable law. For example, we need to retain certain information in order to provide our services to you.
In some cases, we also need to take reasonable steps to verify your identity before responding to a request, which may include, at a minimum, depending on the sensitivity of the information you are requesting and the type of request you are making, verifying your name and email address. If we are unable to verify you, we may be unable to respond to your requests. If you have questions about exercising these rights or need assistance, please contact us at privacy@sonar.sh or at Northsail Software Inc., 300-22 King Street South, Waterloo, ON, Canada, N2J 1N8. If an authorized agent is corresponding on your behalf, we will need written consent with a signature from the account holder before proceeding.
All data is encrypted via SSL/TLS when transmitted from our servers to your browser. The database backups are also encrypted. In addition, we go to great lengths to secure your data at rest.
With regard to products, such as Sonar, most data are not encrypted while they live in our database (since they need to be ready to send to you when you need them).
We keep your information 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.
Our products and other web properties are primarily housed in the United States. If you are located in Canada, the European Union, UK, or elsewhere outside of the United States, please be aware that any information you provide to us will be transferred to and stored in the United States. By using our websites or Services and/or providing us with your personal information, you consent to this transfer.
We may update this policy as needed to comply with relevant regulations and reflect any new practices. If we make significant changes, we will refresh the date at the top of this page.
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 privacy@sonar.sh.
Adapted from the Basecamp open-source policies / CC BY 4.0