Who We Are

At FileString, our goal is to help people and organizations track recipient usage of and maintain control over their confidential files after those files are shared. FileString is a cloud-based software service (meaning that the software is hosted on computer systems we host and manage) that enables people to share digital files and control and track what recipients do with those files. In order to provide this service to users, we need to collect and use some of your personal information. This Privacy Policy is meant to help you understand what information we collect about you, the reason we collect it, and the way we use it.

The Scope of this Privacy Policy

This privacy policy applies to:

• Visitors to the FileString website (www.filestring.com);
• Users who send or receive files via the FileString web application (app.filestring.com);
• Users who send or receive files via the FileString mobile applications for iPhones, iPads and Android phones and tablets;
• Users who interact with our Customer Support application by submitting requests for support and interacting with a support agent about those requests.

This Privacy Policy will collectively reference all people to whom this policy applies as “Users” and will collectively reference all FileString applications, websites, and services as the “FileString Platform”.

Your privacy matters to FileString so whether you are new to FileString or a long-time user, please do take the time to get to know our practices – and if you have any questions contact us through our website contact form.

The Information We Collect

We collect information to provide services to all of our Users – from basic stuff like allowing you to contact us through a form on our website, to more complex things like enabling you to share and protect your files and analyze and track how other people are using them. Below is a list of every type of information we capture about you and the way we capture it. We’ve broken this into categories that might help you better understand.

Information You Give Us

Website Contact Forms

Our website includes one or more forms through which you can submit comments or questions. In each form, we capture your name, email address, phone number, and your comments or questions.

Website Comments

When visitors leave comments on the FileString website, we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.

Surveys

From time to time, we conduct surveys of potential and current FileString Users. In those surveys, we might ask you for personal information or information that helps us profile you, in aggregate, with other Users so that we can segment our customers to better understand the needs and behaviors of distinct segments of users (i.e. Freelancers or Human Resources Professionals).

Service Sign-Up

When you sign up for the FileString service, you provide your name, avatar or image, email address – used as your username to sign into the service as well as the way of uniquely identifying you when other users send files to you – payment information, and a password that you create and can change whenever needed.

Customer Support Requests

If you need help while using the service, you may click on a link to access customer support and then provide your contact information to us along with a description of your question, request or problem. In the process of providing you support, we might correspond with you and capture additional information in that process.

Information We Gather While You’re Using the Service

Device information

We may collect information about the devices you use to access the FileString Platform including the device model, Internet Protocol (IP) address, type and version of your browser, version of operating system, identity of carrier and manufacturer, radio type (such as 4G), preferences and settings (such as preferred language), application installations, device identifiers, advertising identifiers, and push notification tokens. This information is associated with your FileString account and shown along with viewing data when you view files sent to you by other users via the FileString service.

Usage Information

When you use our website or software, we may automatically collect and store certain information in our secure database. This may include:

• Details of how you used our service, such as features you used and other users with whom you share files.
• Your MAC address, Device ID or IP address.
• Device event information such as crashes, system activity, hardware settings, browser type, browser language, and the date and time of your request.

Location Information

When viewing files you’ve received from other users via the FileString service, we track your location in order to illustrate to users not only who viewed their files but where recipients were located when viewing files.

Your Contacts

When you share files via FileString, you provide the email address of your intended recipients. This information is stored in our secure database to associate your file with your intended recipients even if those recipients have not yet signed up for the FileString service and/or viewed your file.

Cookies, Analytics and Third-Party Technologies

We collect information through the use of “cookies”, tracking pixels, data analytics tools such as Google Analytics, and other third party technologies to understand how you navigate through the FileString Platform and interact with FileString advertisements, to make your Lyft experience safer, to learn what functionality is popular, to improve your site experience, to serve you better ads on other sites, and to save your preferences. Cookies are small text files that web servers place on your device; they are designed to store basic information and to help websites and apps recognize your browser. We may use both session cookies and persistent cookies. A session cookie disappears after you close your browser. A persistent cookie remains after you close your browser and may be accessed every time you use the FileString Platform. You should consult your web browser(s) to modify your cookie settings. Please note that if you delete or choose not to accept cookies from us, you may miss out on certain features of the FileString Platform.

How We Use the Information We Collect

We use the information we collect from our service to provide, maintain, protect and improve the service and to protect FileString and our users. We may also use this information to offer you tailored services.

When you contact FileString, we may keep a record of your communication to help solve any issues you might be facing. We may use your email address to inform you about our service, such as letting you know about upcoming changes or improvements.

We use information collected from cookies and other technologies to improve your user experience and the overall quality of our services.

We will ask for your consent before using information for a purpose other than those that are set out in this Privacy Policy.

FileString may process personal information on our servers in many countries around the world. We may process your personal information on a server located outside the country where you live.

Information We Share

FileString NEVER sells your personal information or gives it to other companies other than as detailed below. We do share your information in the following ways.

Your File Recipients

When you share files, your name, email address and the file content itself are shared to your recipients. If you set permissions for one or more recipients that allow them to “reshare” your files, they may share those files to other “downstream” recipients who may also have access to your name and email address, and will have access to your file content.

Team Account Administrators

If your FileString user account was created as part of a “Team” account, the administrators who set up your user account will have access to your name, email address, avatar/picture, devices connected to your account, your file content, and statistics about your usage of the FileString service. Team account administrators also have access to features that enable them to reset your password, suspend or delete your account, reassign ownership of your content when they delete your account, and access and retain information about your account and usage of the service in order to satisfy applicable laws, regulations, legal proceedings or an enforceable government request.

Government Agencies

We will share personal information with companies, organizations or individuals outside of FileString if we have a good-faith belief that access, use, preservation or disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary to: Meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request; enforce applicable Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations; detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues; protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of FileString, our users or the public as required or permitted by law.

Partners (Aggregate Data Only)

We may share aggregated, non-personally identifiable information publicly and with our partners. For example, we may share information publicly to show trends about the general use of our services, or we may share information privately with partners in the course of doing business with those partners.

How Long We Keep Your Data

If you leave a comment on our website, the comment and metadata may be retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

For users that create a FileString account, we keep the information about you and your usage of the FileString service for as long as you remain a FileString user. Users can see, edit and delete personal information that is not required to deliver the FileString service and may request to delete their FileString account at any time.

Your Rights to Your Data

You may request at any time that FileString delete any data we have about you, including your FileString account. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal or security purposes.

How We Protect Your Data

We work hard to protect FileString and our users from unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of information we hold. In particular:

• We encrypt your personal information and your files within our service and software.
• We require user authentication to access your FileString account and FileString services.
• We review our information collection, storage and processing practices, including physical security measures, to guard against unauthorized access to systems.
• We restrict access to personal information to FileString employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to process it for us, and who are subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations and may be disciplined or terminated if they fail to meet these obligations.

Enforcement of this Privacy Policy

We regularly review our compliance with our Privacy Policy. When we receive formal written complaints, we will contact the person who made the complaint to follow up. We work with the appropriate regulatory authorities, including local data protection authorities, to resolve any complaints regarding the transfer of personal data that we cannot resolve with our users directly.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time. We will not reduce your rights under this Privacy Policy without your explicit consent. We will post any privacy policy changes on this page and, if the changes are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice (including, for certain services, email notification of privacy policy changes). We will also keep prior versions of this Privacy Policy in an archive for your review.