Privacy Policy
Company collecting personal data: pentacodes (also referred to as “we,” “us,” or “our”).
pentacodes is dedicated to establishing a trusting relationship with its users, based on respect for personal identity and information, by promoting the use of fair information practices. This privacy statement covers all Web properties owned and maintained by Spotcast, including but not limited to our primary website and our QuickBooks Support landing pages.
If users have questions or concerns regarding this statement, they should contact Spotcast Customer Support by email at contact@spotcast.com.
You can opt out of data collection for advertising, marketing communications, and related tracking practices at any time. Spotcast provides the following clear opt-out instructions:
Note: You cannot opt out of transactional emails such as invoices, order confirmations, or account/service notices while you remain a customer.
To opt out of applicable data collection, marketing use, or advertising practices related to your personal information, contact us at:
Please include your name, email address, and a clear description of your opt-out request. We will process valid requests in accordance with applicable law.
We collect and use personal information for the following purposes:
Where required by applicable Data Privacy Laws (including GDPR and similar laws), we process personal data based on one or more of the following legal bases: your consent; performance of a contract or steps taken at your request before entering a contract; our legitimate interests (such as improving our services, securing our sites, and marketing our offerings in a proportionate way); and compliance with a legal obligation.
Spotcast is the sole owner of the information collected on its web properties. Spotcast collects information from its users at several different points on our Websites.
In order to use Spotcast services at any level, and to access certain information or areas of the website, a user may be required to complete a registration form. During registration a user is required to give contact information (such as name, telephone number or an email address). We use this information to contact the user about products and services on our sites. It is optional for the customer to provide demographic information (such as income level and gender), but encouraged so we can provide a more personalized experience on our sites.
When a user purchases a product, we request information from the user on our order form. A user must provide contact information (such as name, email, and billing address) and financial information (such as credit card number, expiration date). This information is used for billing purposes and to fill customer’s orders. If we have trouble processing an order, the information is used to contact the user.
We store information that we collect through cookies and log files to create a profile of our users. A profile is stored information that we keep on individual users that details their viewing preferences. Consequently, collected information is tied to the user’s personally identifiable information to provide offers and improve the content of the site for the user. This profile is used to tailor a user’s visit to our Websites, and to direct pertinent marketing promotions to them. We do not share personally identifiable elements of your profile with other third parties. Your profile is shared in aggregate form only.
A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s computer tied to information about the user. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information while on our site. We use both session ID cookies and persistent cookies. For the session ID cookie, once users close the browser, the cookie simply terminates. A persistent cookie is a small text file stored on the user’s hard drive for an extended period of time. Persistent cookies can be removed by following Internet browser help file directions.
By setting a cookie on our site, users would not have to log in a password more than once, thereby saving time while on our site. If users reject the cookie, they may still use our site. The only drawback to this is that the user will be limited in some areas of our site. Persistent cookies enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site. See the “Profile” section, above.
We use cookies, pixels, tags, and similar technologies on our web properties to track individual end-user activity (such as pages visited, clicks, form submissions, and conversions) and to measure and improve our advertising and marketing. We share or disclose certain data with third-party advertising and analytics partners for advertising and marketing purposes, including ad delivery, conversion measurement, audience insights, and remarketing.
These partners may include, without limitation, Google (including Google Ads and Google Tag Manager), Microsoft Advertising (including Microsoft Universal Event Tracking / UET), and other analytics or advertising providers we engage from time to time.
Our websites use Microsoft Advertising tools, including Microsoft Universal Event Tracking (UET). Microsoft collects or receives personal data from users of our websites through these tools. This data may include online identifiers (such as cookie IDs), IP address, device and browser information, and information about how you interact with our pages and ads. Microsoft may use this information to provide us with advertising, analytics, and related services, and as otherwise described in Microsoft’s privacy practices.
For more information about how Microsoft processes personal data, please review the Microsoft Privacy Statement.
We also take steps to comply with Microsoft Advertising’s UET technical safeguards for sensitive data and related Microsoft Advertising requirements. We do not intentionally send sensitive personal data to Microsoft through UET.
How to opt out of Microsoft Advertising / UET tracking: Follow the step-by-step instructions in the Your Opt-Out Rights — How to Opt Out section above, including Microsoft’s ad settings at https://account.microsoft.com/privacy/ad-settings, or email us at contact@spotcast.com.
Like most Websites, our servers use log files to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses, etc. are not linked to personally identifiable information.
Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of Web users. The main difference between the two is that clear gifs are invisible on the page and are much smaller, about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Clear gifs are not tied to users’ personally identifiable information.
We also use clear gifs in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails the recipients have opened. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. If users would like to opt-out of these emails, please see the Opt-out section.
We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. If we learn that we have personal information on a child under the age of 13, we will delete that information from our systems. Spotcast encourages parents to go online with their kids. Here are a few tips to help make a child’s online experience safer:
Check out the FTC’s site for more tips on protecting children’s privacy online.
Subject to the legal exceptions listed in the Privacy Policy, Spotcast will not disclose to third parties contact information uploaded to our Websites by our users for the purpose of using Spotcast products or services.
We send all new customers welcoming emails and may communicate with them regarding our products and services. Visitors to our website that are not customers but provide Spotcast with contact information may receive emails from Spotcast that contain information about our products, special offers and other promotions. Established users will occasionally receive emails containing information about us, updates on new products, sales specials, information about other Spotcast products that are likely to be of interest to our users, and customer satisfaction questions. Visitors and Spotcast users may opt-out of such notices. Please see the Choice and Opt-out sections. We may contact former customers to gather feedback on the services.
We send all customers emails summarizing their order details including credit card charges. These emails are a part of the Spotcast online purchase process, and users cannot opt-out of receiving them, though they can deactivate their account. Information identifying the credit card is not included in these communications.
We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and regarding issues relating to their accounts. We reply via email or phone, in accordance with the users wishes.
Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our Web site. For example, Spotcast may disclose personal information to law enforcement, other government officials, or third parties in response to criminal or civil subpoenas. Sometimes, these requests come from our third party Internet, telecommunications and service providers all over the world who supply the network required for us to deliver our services. In order to maintain the integrity of our network, we often cooperate with requests from these third party providers and/or requests from law enforcement or other governmental officials directed to these providers.
We may share aggregated demographic information with our partners. This is not linked to any personally identifiable information.
We use an outside credit card processing company to bill users for goods and services. These companies do not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes.
In the event Spotcast goes through a business transition, such as a merger, or acquisition by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, users’ personal information will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred. Users will be notified prior to a change of ownership or control of their personal information. If as a result of the business transition, the users’ personally identifiable information will be used in a manner different from that stated at the time of collection they will be given a choice not to have their information used in this different manner, as described in the notification of changes section, below.
Clear opt-out instructions are provided at the top of this Privacy Policy. Please see Your Opt-Out Rights — How to Opt Out for full details. A summary is also provided below.
Spotcast users and visitors who do not wish to receive our promotional communications may opt-out from receiving these communications by clicking the opt-out / unsubscribe link included at the bottom of every promotional message, or by emailing us at contact@spotcast.com with the subject “Opt-Out Request.”
Spotcast users may not opt-out of receiving invoices, service announcements, and customer service communications, although they can deactivate their account.
Where we rely on your consent to process personal data (for example, for certain marketing cookies, newsletters, or promotional emails), you may give consent through the relevant form, cookie banner/settings (where available), or other clear affirmative action. You may withdraw consent at any time by:
Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.
You may opt out of applicable data collection, marketing communications, and advertising practices by:
Depending on your location, you may also have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to certain processing of your personal data, and to data portability. To exercise these rights, contact contact@spotcast.com.
Spotcast Websites contain links to other sites. Please be aware that Spotcast is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our sites and to read the privacy statements of each and every Web site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected on Spotcast Websites. Spotcast has advertising and affiliate relationships with dozens of third party sites that drive interested parties to our sites. Information that is collected on these sites does not fall within the auspices of this policy.
Spotcast takes every precaution to protect its user’s information. When users submit sensitive information via Spotcast Websites, their information is protected both online and off-line.
When our registration/order forms ask users to enter sensitive information (such as credit card number), that information is encrypted and is protected with the best encryption software in the industry – SSL. While on a secure page, such as our paid order form, the lock icon on the bottom of Web browsers such as Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer becomes locked, as opposed to un-locked, or open, when users are just ‘surfing’.
While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we also employ security measures to protect user-information off-line. All of our users’ information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerks or a customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information. Finally, the servers that store personally identifiable information are in a secure environment.
We will store your personal Transmissions on our servers for a limited time and will endeavor to purge old transmissions from its servers when the expiration period has run out (up to 365 days). We use industry-standard efforts to safeguard the confidentiality of your transmissions (as well as your personally identifiable information), such as firewalls and SSL technology. These are the same technologies that most websites use to safeguard credit card information and other personal information. However, that said, “perfect security” does not exist over telephone lines and the Internet and Spotcast accordingly accepts only limited liability for security breaches.
The time period for which we keep information varies according to what the information is used for. In some cases, there are legal requirements to keep data for a minimum period. Unless there is a specific legal requirement for us to keep the information, we will retain it for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the data was collected or for which it is to be further processed.
Depending on how you interact with us, the categories of personal data we may collect include: identity and contact details (name, email, phone, address); business information; billing and payment details; technical and usage data (IP address, device/browser data, pages viewed, clicks, referral URLs); marketing preferences; and communications you send to us.
Recipients of personal data may include: Spotcast affiliates and service providers (hosting, payment processors, CRM, email, customer support, and analytics providers); advertising partners such as Google and Microsoft; professional advisers; and authorities where required by law.
Because we operate internationally (including the USA, Canada, UAE, India, and Poland) and use global service providers, personal data may be transferred to and processed in countries other than your country of residence. Where required by law, we take appropriate safeguards for such transfers.
In order for Spotcast to properly fulfill its obligations to users and understand our customer demographics it is necessary for us to supplement the information we receive with information from 3rd party sources. Spotcast verifies the billing address on all credit card transactions and may obtain credit reports for some corporate customers. The information obtained from these third party sources is maintained in a manner consistent with Spotcast Privacy Policy.
If a user’s personally identifiable information changes (such as zip code, phone, email or postal address), or if a user no longer desires our service, we provide a way to correct, update or delete/deactivate users’ personally identifiable information by contacting Spotcast Customer Service at contact@spotcast.com.
If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes in this privacy statement, and other places we deem appropriate, so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We will use information in accordance with the privacy policy under which the information was collected.