Last Updated: May 11, 2021
Brainshark, Inc. (“Brainshark, “we,” or “us”) is committed to protecting the privacy of your information and wants you to be familiar with how we collect, use, and disclose information. This Privacy Policy describes our information and privacy practices with regard to our websites and applications.
1. Websites Covered
This Privacy Policy covers the information and privacy practices of Brainshark on all of its websites, including but not limited to https://www.brainshark.com, and all of its applications. including but not limited to mobile applications (collectively referred to as “Brainshark’s Websites” or “Websites”). The use of information collected through Brainshark’s services will be limited to the purpose of providing and enhancing the service for which the Customer has engaged Brainshark.
Brainshark’s Websites may contain links to third party sites that are not owned or controlled by Brainshark. Additionally, Brainshark’s services are used by customers to deliver video presentations that are embedded and linked within their own websites and third-party sites. Brainshark is not responsible for the information practices or content of its customers or third-party sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage you to be aware when you leave Brainshark’s Websites and to read the privacy policies of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This Privacy Policy applies only to information collected by Brainshark’s Websites.
2. Information Collected
Brainshark offers a variety of applications and services that are collectively referred to as the “Services.” Brainshark collects information from individuals who visit Brainshark’s Websites (“Visitors”) and individuals who register to use the Services (“Customers”). Customers include both paying subscribers as well as subscribers of its free services. Customers should refer to www.brainshark.com and Brainshark’s Terms and Conditions for the appropriate offering.
The types of information Brainshark collects may include:
- Information you provide to Brainshark - When expressing an interest in obtaining additional information about the Services or registering to use the Services, Brainshark may require you to provide personal contact information such as your name, your company name, your job title or role, your address, your phone number, and your email address.
- Website navigational information - Brainshark uses commonly used information-gathering tools, such as cookies and Web beacons, to collect information as you navigate Brainshark’s Websites (“Website Navigational Information”). This Website Navigational Information includes standard information from your web browser (such as browser type, version, and language), your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, and the actions you take on Brainshark’s Websites (such as, pages viewed, links clicked).
- Information you publish to Brainshark blogs or public portals - Brainshark’s Websites include public blogs and portals that allow Visitors to submit and publish comments.
- Billing information - Where Brainshark permits purchases to be made directly through its Websites, Brainshark may require you to provide billing information, such as your billing name, address, and email address.
- Information you provide to Customers - A capability of the Services allows Customers to request registration information from viewers of their video presentation content. For example, presentations created by our Customers may include a guest book registration form. Brainshark is not responsible for the information practices of its Customers, and does not access this information except with a Customer's permission to provide support and assistance.
3. Use of Information Collected
Brainshark uses data about Visitors and Customers to perform the following actions:
- To respond to your request - such as to create a Brainshark account, provide login information for a webinar for which you have registered, or provide technical support.
- For marketing purposes - Brainshark may use information that Visitors provide to contact them to further discuss their interest in the Services and to send them information regarding Brainshark or its Services.
- To improve Brainshark’s Websites and products - Brainshark may use Website Navigational Information to provide Visitors and Customers with relevant content and in the aggregate to identify trends and usage patterns.
- To deliver messages that help you use the Service – As part of helping its Customers use the Service effectively, Brainshark communicates with its Customers about new features and product releases, best practices, scheduled site maintenance notifications, customer events, and more. To increase the relevancy of this information, communications may be customized to your designated user role within an application (for example: administrator, author), the products or editions you have specifically licensed, or your usage of the application.
- To process your payment - Brainshark uses billing information solely to process payment for Services for which the Customer has provided that information. Brainshark utilizes a third-party payment service to process credit card payments. Credit card information is sent directly by you to the third-party payment service. Brainshark does not have access to your full credit card number and does not store such information in its own systems. Brainshark is not responsible for the third-party payment service’s information practices or compliance with any applicable laws.
- To deliver the features of the Service – Customers use the Services to create, share, and track online and mobile video presentations. As part of the sharing feature, Customers may provide the email address of an individual with whom they wish to share presentations via the Services. Brainshark uses this information only to provide the share function of the Services. Tracking information includes the date and time that a presentation was viewed, IP address and location, what portions of the presentation were viewed and in what order, and responses to interactive questions or surveys. Individuals may be associated with this tracking information, either through information they provide to the Customer, or by a unique identifier that the Customer has associated with an individual and has passed to a personalized presentation URL. Reporting and notification features enable Customers to receive tracking information via emailed reports or to pass data to their other systems. Brainshark does not use or access information about individuals that is collected by its Customers in their use of the Services except with such Customers’ permission in providing support and assistance. Brainshark does not sell this information.
4. Sharing of Information Collected
We will share your personal information with third parties only in the ways that are described in this Privacy Policy.
Unless described in this Privacy Policy, Brainshark does not share, sell, rent, or trade any information collected through its Websites or Services with third parties for their promotional purposes.
Brainshark occasionally partners with third parties who co-sponsor events with Brainshark (such as webinars and other live events). In these cases, both parties may share personal information that you provide when registering for the co-sponsored event to allow the co-sponsor to contact you regarding products, programs, services, and promotions that they believe may be of interest to you. While Brainshark chooses to partner with reputable third parties that respect your information, Brainshark is not responsible for the information practices of its third-party partners.
In certain situations, Brainshark may be required to disclose information in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.
We reserve the right to disclose your information as required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process.
In the event that Brainshark is a party to a merger with, or acquisition by, another company, or its assets are otherwise entirely or substantially acquired, your information will be among the assets transferred. You will be notified via email or prominent notice on our Websites, for thirty (30) days or the timeframe as defined and required by statute or regulation, of any such change in ownership or control of your personal information. Information concerning deletion or removal of your personal information or any changes that you wish to make to your personal information will be made available at that time.
5. Communications Preferences
Brainshark partners with third parties to either display advertising on our website or to manage our advertising on other sites. Our third-party partners may use technologies such as cookies to gather information about your activities on this site and other sites in order to provide you advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests. If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you interest-based ads, you may elect to turn off cookies or use your browser’s privacy settings to mask your identity, or you may opt-out by the following consumer choice mechanisms, please visit:
Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA)’s self-regulatory opt-out page (http://optout.aboutads.info/) and mobile application-based "AppChoices" download page (https://youradchoices.com/appchoices)
-European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (EDAA)'s consumer opt-out page (http://youronlinechoices.eu)
-Network Advertising Initiative (NAI)’s self-regulatory opt-out page (http://optout.networkadvertising.org/).
Please note you will continue to receive generic ads.
Brainshark offers Customers and Visitors who provide contact information a means to choose how Brainshark uses the information provided. Visitors and any recipients of marketing messages from Brainshark may click on the “unsubscribe” link located on the bottom of the Brainshark’s marketing emails. Customers can change their communication preferences at any time through their profile page when logged in to the Service or you can decide not to receive communications that help you use the Service.
Some email communications are part of the Services, such as the ability to receive reports or view notifications via email. For help in managing these emails, contact support@brainshark.com.
Customers do not have the option to cancel receiving transactional emails related to their account with Brainshark or the Services.
For certain editions of the Services, Brainshark may need to communicate with the primary business contact or site administrators of a Customer’s company.
6. Public Blogs, Portals, and Customer Articles
Brainshark’s Websites include public blogs, portals, and customer articles that allow Visitors to submit and post comments. Brainshark also provides portal solutions for its customers.
Any personal information you choose to submit in these forums may be read, collected, or used by others who visit these forums. Brainshark is not responsible for the personal information you choose to submit to public forums for posting. If you do not want information to be public, please do not post it to these forums. To request removal of your personal information from our blog, portals, or customer articles contact us at support@brainshark.com. In some cases, Brainshark may not be able to remove your personal information, but we will notify you via email if we are unable to do so and briefly explain the reasons.
Our blog is also managed by a third-party application that may require you to register to post a comment. We do not have access or control of the information posted to the blog managed by that third-party application. You will need to contact or login into the third-party application if you want the personal information that was posted to the comments section removed. To learn how the third-party application uses your information, please review their privacy policy.
7. Transfer of Information
Your information may be transferred to and maintained on information systems located outside of your state, province, or other governmental jurisdiction where the privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your jurisdiction. If you are located outside of the United States and choose to provide personal information to us, Brainshark transfers the information to the United States and processes it there. Regarding these data flows, Brainshark participates in the EU-U.S. and the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Frameworks (“Privacy Shield”), and is committed to applying the Privacy Shield Principles to all personal information received from countries in the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland in reliance on the Privacy Shield.
8. EU-U.S. and Swiss-US Privacy Shield
Brainshark complies with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework and the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Frameworks (Privacy Shield) as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information transferred from the European Union and the United Kingdom and Switzerland, to the United States in reliance on Privacy Shield. Brainshark has certified to the Department of Commerce that it adheres to the Privacy Shield Principles with respect to such information. If there is any conflict between the terms 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, please visit https://www.privacyshield.gov/.
Brainshark is responsible for the processing of personal data it receives, under each Privacy Shield Framework, and subsequently transfers to a third party acting as an agent on its behalf. Brainshark complies with the Privacy Shield Principles for all onward transfers of personal data from the EU and Switzerland, including the onward transfer liability provisions.
With respect to personal data received or transferred pursuant to the Privacy Shield Frameworks, Brainshark is subject to the regulatory enforcement powers of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. In certain situations, we may be required to disclose personal data in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements.
If you have an unresolved privacy or data use concern that we have not addressed satisfactorily, please contact our U.S.-based third party dispute resolution provider (free of charge) at https://feedback-form.truste.com/watchdog/request.
Under certain conditions, more fully described on the Privacy Shield website [https://www.privacyshield.gov/article?id=How-to-Submit-a-Complaint], you may invoke binding arbitration when other dispute resolution procedures have been exhausted.
9. Passive Collection
As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically. This information may include Internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, the files viewed on our site (e.g., HTML pages, graphics, etc.), operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data to analyze trends in the aggregate and administer the site.
10. Tracking Technologies
Brainshark and its partners use cookies or similar technologies to analyze trends, administer the website, track users’ movements around the website, and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. You can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level, but if you choose to disable cookies, it may limit your use of certain features or functions on our Websites or Services.
11. Childrens’ Privacy
Brainshark’s Websites and the Services are not directed to individuals under the age of 18. As Brainshark provides Services to businesses and business professionals, Brainshark does not knowingly contact or collect personal information from children under the age of 16. If an adult becomes aware that a child in their care has provided Brainshark with personal information, they should contact us at support@brainshark.com. If you believe that we have mistakenly or unintentionally collected such information, please notify us at the contact address below so that we may immediately delete the information from our servers.
12. Security
To prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, to maintain data accuracy, to allow only the appropriate exercise of Customers’ personal information while also protecting the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of Customers’ personal information, Brainshark employs a variety of industry standard security technologies. Security is provided on the data, application, and hosting level. The security infrastructure includes a physically secure data center, proven firewall protection, intrusion prevention measures, role-based authorization, and additional proprietary security measures. Additional security of Customer login and presentation content is provided as part of Brainshark's Services. Please refer to the products section of www.brainshark.com or contact Brainshark’s sales team for more information about included features and options that can be configured specifically for Customers’ needs. These options vary by the product licensed.
Brainshark limits access to Customers’ personal information and data to those Brainshark and third-party persons who have a specific business purpose for maintaining and processing such information. Brainshark employees and third-party persons who have access to Customers’ personal information are made aware of their responsibilities to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of that information and have been provided training or instructions on how to do so.
When you enter personal or sensitive information on Brainshark’s order forms, Brainshark will encrypt the transmission of that information using reasonable security.
If you have any questions about security on our Websites, you can contact us at support@brainshark.com.
13. Data Subjects’ Rights
Upon request, Brainshark will provide you with information about whether we hold, or process on behalf of a third party, any of your personal information. To request this information please contact us at support@brainshark.com.
You may access, correct, or request deletion of your personal information by logging in to your account, contacting us at support@brainshark.com or by completing this form.
Brainshark collects information under the direction of its Customers and has no direct relationship with the individuals whose personal information it processes. If you are an individual who would no longer like to be contacted by one of our Customers through the use of our Services, please contact the Customer that you interact with directly. An individual who seeks access, or who seeks to correct, amend, or delete inaccurate data should direct their query to the applicable Customer (the data controller). If requested to remove data, we will respond within a reasonable timeframe.
We may transfer personal information to companies that help us provide our Services. Transfers to subsequent third parties are covered by the service agreements with our Customers.
In certain circumstances we may be required by law to retain your personal information including personal information we process on behalf of our Customers or may need to retain your personal information in order to continue providing a Service.
14. Right to lodge a complaint
If you believe that Brainshark is not processing your personal information in accordance with the requirements set out herein or applicable EEA data protection laws, you can at any time lodge a complaint with the data protection authority of the EEA country in which you live.
For more information on how to contact the EU Data Protection Authorities, click here.
For more information on how to contact the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner, click here.
15. Additional Important Information
Sharing with Service Providers
We may share your information with third parties who provide services on our behalf to help with our business activities. These companies are authorized to use your personal information only as necessary to provide these services to us.
These services may include:
- Payment processing
- Providing customer service
- Sending marketing communications
Brainshark reserves the right to use or disclose information provided if required by judicial inquiry, court order, law, or regulation and/or Terms and Conditions or if Brainshark reasonably believes that use or disclosure is necessary to protect Brainshark’s rights.
16. Social Media Widgets
Brainshark’s Websites may include social media features, such as the Facebook “Like” button, and widgets, such as the “Share This” button or interactive mini-programs that run on our Websites. These features may collect your Internet protocol address, which page you are visiting on our Websites, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our Websites. Your interactions with these features or widgets are governed by the privacy statement of the company providing them.
17. Updates to this Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy periodically to reflect changes to our information and privacy practices. If we make any material changes, we will notify you by email (sent to the e-mail address specified in your account) or by means of a written notice on our Websites prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information about Brainshark’s information and privacy practices.
18. Contacting Us
Contact info@brainshark.com for questions regarding this Privacy Policy or the information and privacy practices of Brainshark’s Websites.
If you are a Customer and would like help managing your communication preferences, please contact support@brainshark.com.
Brainshark’s data protection officer is Craig Tata (privacy@brainshark.com)
Brainshark’s address is:
Brainshark, Inc.
130 Turner Street, Building 1, Suite 100
Waltham, MA 02453, USA
© 2021 Brainshark, Inc. All rights reserved. Brainshark and all other trademarks referenced herein are trademarks of Brainshark, Inc.