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Privacy and Cookies Policy

Serif Statement of Privacy

Welcome to Affinity from Serif. Please read this Privacy Policy carefully as it explains how we collect and use your personal information in relation to Serif’s products, services, events and websites or applications that link to this Policy. It also describes your choices about the collection and use of your personal information.

If you are using Affinity Spotlight, please refer to the Serif Statement of Privacy available at the following address: https://affinityspotlight.com/privacy/.

We may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time without notice. When we do we will update the “Last Updated” date. It is therefore important that you regularly review this Privacy Policy to ensure you are updated as to any changes.

Where this document is translated into a language other than English, in the event of any dispute arising with respect to its interpretation, the English language version shall prevail.

Contact us

‘Serif’, ‘Affinity’ and ‘Affinity Spotlight’ are trading names of Serif (Europe) Ltd (“we”, “our” or “us”) registered in England number 2117968 with registered offices at: The Software Centre, 12 Wilford Ind Est, Nottingham NG11 7EP, UK. Telephone: UK - 0845 345 6770 Intl.- +44 115 914 2000. Unless otherwise specified, we are the data controller of your personal data.

If you have any queries relating to our use of your personal information or any other related data protection questions, you can contact our nominated Data Protection Officer at dataprotection@serif.com or write to us at Data Protection Officer, Serif (Europe) Ltd, 12 Wilford Ind Est, Nottingham NG11 7EP.

If you are not satisfied with any action taken by us or response given, you have the right to complain to Information Commissioner at ico.org.uk, or using their helpline telephone number: 0303 1231113.

In the event that Serif, its parent company or trading names and brands are subject to a change of ownership, the control and permissions that you have granted us with regard to your personal data will be transferred to the new owner.

Personal data we collect

Our Website:

  • When you visit Our Website, we use cookies (see below for more information about cookies) to collect website usage information such as the type and version of browser and operating system you use. Cookies are not used to store personal details such as your name and address.
  • When you sign up to receive our newsletters, or to take part in our free public betas, or download a free trial of our software, or make a purchase on Our Website, or sign up to the Affinity Forum, an account is created which may include your name, email address, IP address, and other personal data. Please do not share your username or account details with any third party.
  • When making a physical purchase, we may need to collect your shipping address. With your consent, we will also store some details related to your payment method to speed up your checkout experience in the future. You’ll be able to remove these details at any time via your account. When making any store purchase your IP address will be used to save your location/region for tax and statistical purposes.
  • We may use “image tracking” to ascertain whether you do or do not read our email communications.
  • If you: (a) complete one of our enquiry forms on Our Website; (b) enter into a contract with us for our services; (c) report a problem with Our Website; or (d) otherwise correspond with us, we may collect your name, address (including e-mail address), other contact details, phone numbers, identification and bank details.

Our applications:

  • Affinity applications collect some anonymous information, for example usage data, application name and version number, language and OS version but no personal data. This is used to ensure correct content is shown in the welcome screen of the applications and to help notify you of product updates. Using the “My Account” feature within the application collects additional personal information to facilitate the functions, including data about your hardware.
  • We will also collect crash report data, but only if you choose to submit it to us at the time.
  • In addition to this our beta versions of the applications will automatically send additional data to help diagnose issues including GFX card information, Direct X data, CPU info and platform patches.

Other information submitted by you:

  • Information related to transactions you conduct on the Websites and/or services, including when you choose to register for a webinar, event, or participate in a survey, or download special content, and your interactions with the Websites and/or services (for example when you provide feedback).

Why do we process and store your personal data?

  • Consent

    In some cases, we will process your personal data based on obtaining your express consent for us to do so, for example when signing up to receive our newsletter. Where this applies, we will always offer you the opportunity to withdraw your consent for this processing at any time.

  • Contract

    It may be necessary for us to capture and store your personal data to fulfil our contractual obligation to you. For example, we may need to retain a copy of your email address where it forms part of the product license you purchase from us.

  • Legitimate Interests

    Where we have legitimate reasons to process your personal data in ways which do not adversely affect your interests and rights, including:

    • To enable you to access and use Our Website, to provide access to your purchases and product keys, and to provide customer support where required.
    • To provide a personalised checkout experience on our store. We will use your country and geolocation data to display relevant services, and pricing in your local currency.
    • To personalise our communications with you.
    • To detect and prevent fraud and abuse of Our Website and store, and to help keep our services secure.
    • To improve the quality of your experience on Our Website. We are always working to improve Our Website and our products, and may use certain demographic information such as your account country and language preference to help us achieve this.

Who do we share your personal data with?

We may share your information, including personal information, with any member and authorised contractors of Serif.

We may share your personal data with third-party service providers for the purpose of providing the Websites or services to you, to facilitate Serif’s legitimate interests or if you consent, including:

Website Data

We store all personal data collected via Our Website on secure servers administered by Amazon Web Services, located in the Republic of Ireland (ROI).

We use Sentry for error and performance monitoring of our websites, and some personally identifiable data may be processed as part of that monitoring. Sentry, Inc. is an online global service provider. For more information on how Sentry processes personal data, please see Sentry’s Privacy Policy.

Payments Data

We use Digital River to process payments made via our store. When you make a payment, we will pass your order details to Digital River to enable them to complete the transaction. Digital River will store some of your details as a reference against your transaction in case we need to process a refund or provide support, and for fraud prevention purposes.

Digital River, Inc. and its subsidiaries is an online global reseller services provider. For more information, see Digital River’s Privacy Policy.

Any card payments processed prior to 7 November 2023 were processed (and stored) via our previous payment solutions provider Braintree.

Braintree is a U.S. based company certified under the EU-US Privacy Shield framework. For more information, see Braintree’s Privacy Policy.

Any card payments processed prior to 2 September 2019 were processed (and stored) via Stripe, which is also a U.S. based company certified under the EU-US Privacy Shield framework. See Stripe’s Privacy Policy for more information.

Email Communications

Some of our email communications are administered through MailChimp (www.mailchimp.com), and we may store some of your personal data - including your name, email address and contact preferences - on a MailChimp server. Mailchimp may process and store your data outside the EEA.

MailChimp is a U.S. based company and is certified under the EU-US Privacy Shield framework. For more information, see MailChimp Privacy Policy.

Law enforcement

We may share your personal data when we believe it is necessary to comply with applicable law or respond to valid legal process, including from law enforcement or other government agencies or protect us, our business or our users, or third parties, for example to enforce our terms of service, prevent spam or other unwanted communications and investigate or protect against fraud or to maintain the security of our Websites, products and services.

Your personal data rights

Access to your personal data:

If you have an Affinity Store account, you can access your personal data by visiting https://store.serif.com/account/.

You can also request and obtain details of the personal data we may hold about you by emailing us at dataprotection@serif.com, or writing to us at the following address:

Data Protection Manager
Serif
12 Wilford Ind Est
Nottingham
NG11 7EP

When contacting us, please quote your name and email address. We would be grateful if you could also provide brief details of the information required as this will help us to accurately respond to your request.

For the protection of all our customers, we will take all reasonable steps to confirm your identity before providing you with details of any personal data we may hold about you.

How can you make changes to your personal data?

If you find that that any of the personal data we hold for you is incorrect or incomplete, you have the right to request that we rectify these errors.

If you have an Affinity Store account, you can make changes to your personal data by visiting https://store.serif.com/account/ and navigating to your ‘Account Details’ page.

You can also request we update your personal data by emailing dataprotection@serif.com. Please include accurate information regarding the changes you wish to make, as this will help us in dealing with your request.

Your right to be forgotten

You can request that we delete your account and any personal data we have collected from you by emailing us at dataprotection@serif.com. Please provide your name and email address to help us with your request. Please note that we may not be able to delete your data if we are obliged to retain it to fulfil a legal or statutory obligation.

Please be aware that once deleted, your account will no longer be accessible and cannot be restored so you should ensure that anything that is accessed via your account that you wish to keep is backed up before proceeding.

How secure is your personal data?

We have implemented and we continually maintain a variety of technical and organisational measures to protect your personal data from unauthorised access and against unlawful processing, accidental loss, destruction, and damage.

It is important for you to remember to protect yourself against unauthorised access by guarding your password. For example, if you use a shared computer, make sure you logout or close your browser whenever you leave the computer.

Do we transfer personal data overseas?

The Internet is a global environment. Using the Internet to collect and process personal data involves the transmission of data on an international basis. Although the data we collect from you is stored in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), we may need to transfer data to our service providers who are located outside the EEA for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is transferred securely and in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Do we monitor and/or record communications?

Monitoring or recording of your calls, emails, and other communications may take place in accordance with UK law, and in particular for business purposes, such as for quality control and training, and in order to prevent or detect crime. Please visit the following website for further information: ico.org.uk.

Children

We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under the age of 13. If you are a parent or guardian of a child under the age of 13 and believe he or she has disclosed personal information to us, please contact us at dataprotection@serif.com.

Where processing of personal data is based on consent, if we learn that this data belongs to someone under the age of 13, we will cease processing and will take reasonable measures to delete the applicable information from our records, unless the consent is provided by a parent or guardian.

Cookies

Cookie: A cookie is a small text file that is placed on to your computer via your web browser when you visit a website. Cookies are used to save certain information and are only used to store data. They are not used to do anything harmful like start a process or infect your computer.

Our Website, like many others, stores and retrieves information on your browser using cookies. This information is used to make the site work as you expect it to. It is not personally identifiable to you, but it can be used to give you a more personalised web experience.

What cookies do we use?

There are a number of essential cookies that are stored as soon as you visit our website. There are also other non-essential cookies, including first-party ones from Google Analytics and third-party ones from other websites. Before these non-essential cookies are placed on your computer or device, you will be shown a cookie compliance statement, requesting your consent to set those cookies. By giving your consent, you are enabling us to provide you with the best possible experiences and services to you.

Essential Cookies used on Our Website

Essential Cookies are vital to enable you to browse around our websites. Without these Cookies, services like the ability to sign in, add items to cart, or complete purchase cannot be provided.

  • site_locale/preferred_locale/locale
    Stores your language preference. It is set whenever you change your language (or locale) or visit a page on the site that auto-redirects you to a localised version of the page. This cookie expires after 1 year.
  • serif_allow_analytics
    Stores a datestamp when you accept the Marketing and Analytics cookies. This cookie expires after 1 year.
  • serif_manage_cookies_viewed
    Stores a datestamp after you’ve saved a cookie settings preference. This cookie expires after 1 year.
  • session
    Enables the webserver to identify you the user and improve your browsing experience. This cookie expires at the end of your session.
  • shopping_session_id
    Stores a unique shopping reference that allows a user to create a basket over any website under the serif.com domain. This cookie expires at the end of your session.
  • __Host-known_login
    Stores a unique reference that allows us to recognise a device for security purposes. This cookie expires 3 months after the last successful sign-in session.

The following also set essential cookies in order to allow our Store checkout to function.

Cookies used on the Affinity Forum are listed on the Forum cookie page.

Cookies used on the Affinity Spotlight are listed on the Spotlight cookie page.

Non-essential Cookies

First party cookies identify unique users through individual sessions (visits). There are a few third-party websites that also use cookies on our behalf, like social networking sites. Google Analytics uses first party cookies and saves anonymous statistical data that we use to improve your experience on our site. If you consent to these cookies, basic mode of Google consent will be implemented.

ZoomInfo

We may use services provided by ZoomInfo to help identify businesses that visit our Volume Licensing pages.

ZoomInfo collects business contact and similar information related to individuals when they are working in their professional or employment capacity, and uses this information to create professional profiles of individuals and profiles of businesses.

See the ZoomInfo Privacy Policy for more information.

Webgains

We work together with cooperation partners who promote our products on various platforms on the Internet (“Affiliate Marketing”). The cooperation partners receive remuneration for this placement activity. To make sure we credit these partners appropriately, we work with Webgains to track relevant information (such as IP address, order details and transaction IDs) using cookies.

Removing cookies

Cookies don’t stay around forever and your web browser will eventually delete them. When a website stores a Cookie, it states how long the Cookie should stay on the computer for – this can be for the current visit only or for a period of time, for example one week. Our main Cookie Session_ID only stays on your computer while you are on Our Website. It is automatically removed when you leave Our Website.

You can choose to delete our, or any website’s, Cookies from your web browser at any time (for help on how to do this, go to www.aboutcookies.org.uk). You can also set your web browser to not accept any Cookies if you wish. You will still be able to view Our Website, but some of the personalised features may not work correctly.

How long we keep your personal data

We will retain your personal data for a commercially reasonable time and for as long as we have a valid purpose to do so. In particular, Serif will retain your personal data for the purpose of complying with its legal and audit obligations, and for backup and archival purposes.

Questions

If you have any questions about our Privacy and Cookies Policy, please get in touch.

Last Updated: 23 May 2024

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