Introduction
We know it’s warfare in your inbox every day, because that’s how it is for us too. We want nothing to do with the scammers and phishermen of the world. So our aim is to take your privacy as seriously as our own. This document will hopefully clear up any questions you have about how we do that. Still got concerns? Let’s talk about it: [email protected].
What information do we collect?
We collect the same information most other companies do, so you won’t find anything out of the ordinary here. It’s basically 3 categories of stuff:
- We collect all the standard information that Google Analytics and Recaptcha collect when you visit our website. The data is aggregated and anonymized, so it doesn’t tell us you’re Susan in apartment 3B. All we see is maybe IP address and approximate geography (for example: 141 people from Chicago clicked a button).
- In order to serve ads that are actually relevant, we (like most companies) also use Google Analytics advertising features. This part does include cookies and personal identifiers, but it doesn’t mean we can see a list of names or addresses. Cookies track a user’s behavior across devices, but it remains anonymous to us. This can include information from a user’s Google account, search history, YouTube history, and data from other sites that partner with Google. This is in place so that if and when we do run promotions, we can target people who have actually shown interest in our content, visited our website, or have shown interest in related topics. This way we’re not wasting your time if you’re not interested in what we’re talking about.
- If you specifically opt in (say via a contact form), then we’ll have access to information you gave us. Usually that’s name, email address, company and title. If you send us these things, we’re assuming you WANT us to contact you for the reason you filled out the form. But if it was a misunderstanding, no hard feelings, just tell us and we’ll remove your info. We don’t share this info with any other companies.
How do we use the information we collect?
Here’s the short version:
We use the information to help us serve you better by tracking web traffic and targeting our marketing efforts. Unless you specifically opt in and tell us to contact you for help with a project, we don’t know who you are, what your contact info is, where you live, or anything weird like that. We simply look at graphs and charts to see what types of messaging and promotions resonate with our target audience. Then we tweak accordingly to add more value to our audience, and aim to show any promotions to those who are showing interest or are engaged with our content. That’s it.
Here’s the legal version:
| How we will use your personal information | Our legal basis for processing |
| Managing our relationship with our suppliers. | Legitimate interest – in cases where we process data of representatives or contacts of our suppliers who are legal entities, the processing of your data is necessary for our legitimate interest to communicate with our suppliers’ representatives in a customary, personal manner. Necessary for the performance of a contract – we use your personal data to liaise with you on matters relating to our relationship, if you, as our supplier, are a natural person. |
| Making decisions about procuring goods and services (e.g., determining payment or the terms of our contractual agreement(s) etc). | Legitimate interest – in cases where our supplier is a legal person, we use your personal data to keep our supplier updated throughout our relationship. Necessary for the performance of a contract – we use your personal data to assess your status as a new or existing supplier, and to keep you updated throughout our relationship. |
| Upholding our company’s economic interests and ensuring compliance and reporting (such as adhering to our policies, local legislation and managing allegations of fraud or misconduct). | To comply with our legal obligations – in cases where our supplier is a natural person, we use your personal data to investigate and prevent fraud or misconduct and to protect our economic interests. |
| To manage your visit to our offices. | Our legitimate interests for any other purposes required by law such as for example, compliance with fire protection regulations. |
| To keep you informed of news, updates and other information related to our business and that of other companies in our group. | Our legitimate interests – ensuring you receive information relevant to you related to the services we provide. Where required by local law, we will ask you for your consent before we process your data for information purposes. |
| Any other purposes required by law and authorities. | Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject. |
How Can I Opt Out?
If you don’t want our analytics to use any of the information from your Google account or history, we totally get it. You can opt out by declining cookies on the popup when our website first loads. If you don’t opt out, the cookies last 30 days. If you visit our site again after 30 days, you’ll have the option to opt out again. You may also access and/or delete data in My Activity.
Interacting with us via Social Media Channels
Primitive Spark is active on LinkedIn and occasionally on Instagram. If you follow us on these platforms, you can expect a couple of posts a week about product and UX topics, and maybe an occasional invite for an online event. If you dig it, stay tuned. If not, feel free to unfollow. We are grateful for our followers and use discretion to post useful things that we think our community would like and benefit from. We’d also like to hear from you if you have input on what we post.
If you follow us on Facebook or Twitter, you’ll hear crickets, because we’ve moved away from these platforms and no longer post there. But hey, you never know, maybe we’ll start again sometime, or maybe a new platform will come out.
Connecting people and referrals
One of the things we love to do is introduce people. There are some amazing people in our network, and sometimes we see an opportunity to help each other out. If we want to connect you with someone, we will ask you if you want to first. If not, no biggie. And Primitive Spark does not collect referral fees ever. We are grateful for the referrals we get from our network, and want to return the favor when we can.
Using our website
Our website has industry standard Google Analytics that uses cookies only for anonymized stats on what people in general visit. You can opt out of Google Analytics’ cookies for all sites (not just ours) here. We also use Google’s Recaptcha service to make sure bots don’t inundate our forms. This uses cookies too, but only to determine that you’re not a robot. You’re not, right? Anyway, Recaptcha has their own Privacy and Terms that you may want to look at. Primitive Spark does not collect or store ANY information from Recaptcha.
Applying for a job at Primitive Spark
When you apply to work with us, you’ll be sharing a lot of information with us, including everything you’d put in your resume and a job application. You might show us your portfolio site too. We’re going to keep all that information within our company. Nobody outside is going to even know that you applied for a job with us. It’s that simple.
If we are lucky enough to work with you as an employee, we will need to know some pretty sensitive information in order to be able to pay you and give you benefits. We’ll work hard to keep all that information out of the wrong hands. The right hands may need it for things like insurance and payroll. You’ll know a lot about us at that point too. We hold all of our teammates to rigorous standards of privacy about our coworkers, clients and partners.
Interacting with us as a client of Primitive Spark
We’ll get a lot more detailed about privacy and confidentiality when we work with you as a client. More often than not, we start by signing a mutual Non-Disclosure Agreement that means we aren’t sharing your trade secrets or intellectual property with anyone outside of our project team. We’ll also work with you to put a master services agreement in place so we agree on the details regarding privacy and confidentiality. We only want the information we need to do our work and nothing more. In most cases, we won’t even accept access to our clients’ highly sensitive data, such as customer financials, medical information or classified material.
Interacting with us as a supplier or partner to Primitive Spark
We often team up with other people and companies to collaborate on projects. If the client is Primitive Spark’s, those outside parties will be held to the same standards we hold ourselves to in terms of privacy and confidentiality. If Primitive Spark is a subcontractor for another company, we’ll conform to our rules AND theirs.
Do we pass your information to third parties?
The only third party we share information with is Google. Other than that, we don’t share your personal information with anyone without your permission. We won’t sell it, we won’t trade it and we won’t post it publicly.
Sharing our analytics data with Google allows feedback for Google to improve its products and services. This allows us to have better tools, which allows us to better serve you. Basically it’s all to help you have the best experience with us and only see relevant content.
If someone buys Primitive Spark, we’d make sure the new owner protects the privacy of your personal information. And don’t worry, we’re not planning on selling!
If the cops show up and demand information, we’re only going to share what we are required by law to disclose.
How long do we keep your information?
We only keep your personal information for as long as necessary. You shared it with us for a reason, and we’ll keep it to that reason.
How do we protect your information?
It’s an arms race to keep our systems secure. Know that we’re in it to win it, by keeping things protected with crazy strong passwords, keeping our software up to date with security patches, locking down our devices, not doing sensitive work on public wifi, changing passwords when the team members change, and adding to our arsenal of defenses as new threats emerge.
Children’s Privacy
We’re not trying to talk to kids or get their personal information. If you are under 18 and want to contact us about a massive project, please have an adult on your team get in touch.
Your rights
You are entitled to ask:
- for a copy of the personal information we have from you, and details about how we are using it;
- to fix any errors in your info;
- for us to provide your personal information directly to a third party; and
- to have your personal information removed from our systems.
Please contact us at [email protected] to do any of those things.
You also have the right to complain if you’re not happy with how we’ve handled your personal information. In the USA, the agency to contact is the Federal Trade Commission.
Responsible Disclosures
We dig it when people help us identify issues with our process. If you have some advice for us on how we can do better, be safer, or be more secure, please let us know!
How to contact us
Let’s talk about anything related to your personal information:: Primitive Spark, 703 Pier Ave, Suite B441, Hermosa Beach, CA 90254, USA, or by email at [email protected].
Changes to this privacy policy
Change happens. So we’ll be revising this policy to keep up to date with the times and the laws. If we do that, you’ll find it here on our website, so you may want to check in on us every now and then.
We appreciate you getting all the way to the end of our fine print!
