June 5, 2014 at 14:35Three Data Protection Acts at Evernote [update]
There are several basic principles in our work that are especially important for us, which we uphold and which play a decisive role in almost all decisions we make. In 2011, we set them out in the form of three data protection laws.
Over the past years, we have noticed positive developments in our industry towards greater transparency in the use of data, intentions and business models. We want to be at the forefront of this movement, so we decided it was time to update our three laws.
We do not own your data. Posting notes or other content on Evernote does not change their owner or legal status. If the data originally belonged to you, it remains yours after uploading to Evernote. Of course, if the data did not belong to you from the very beginning, adding it to Evernote will not make it yours. This applies to all our products and services.
Using our products, you give Evernote permission to perform certain actions with the data you uploaded for which you use our service. For example, you give us permission to back them up, send them over the network, index them for searches, show them on your devices, etc. Some of these operations may require the transfer of your data to our partners, such as your service provider, so that we can carry out service work. Before doing this, we always make sure that our agreements with partners protect your property rights.
You reserve all rights to your data, except as described above, when you give us permission to perform certain operations to ensure the operation of the Evernote service.
All information that you post on Evernote is private by default. We do not specialize in "big data" and do not try to make money on your information. Our systems automatically analyze your data to ensure that Evernote functions work, such as searching for and displaying similar notes, as well as to inform you about important functions and products that we think can make your work with Evernote better. We never share or sell your data with third parties for advertising purposes.
Our business model is old-fashioned: we only make money if you decide to pay for our wonderful product. This means that trust is our main asset, and maintaining the confidentiality of your data is a fundamental principle of our work.
Evernote has features that let you post some notes and share them with others, but this is a custom option and only you decide whether to use it or not. If you decide to associate an Evernote account with one of the applications of our many partners, then you may need to give your partner access to your data. We will explicitly inform you of what access rights to your account the partner application receives, and you can stop this access at any time.
In addition, we take many precautions to protect your data from accidental loss or theft. Everything that you put in Evernote is synchronized and stored in our secure data center with many backup servers, storage devices and backup systems located off-site. Data transmitted between Evernote clients and our servers (and various data centers) is encrypted. We offer industry-leading security technologies, such as two-factor authentication for all users, and are constantly looking for ways to improve data protection. We take all measures to protect your password, and no one at Evernote will ever ask you for it.
We support the industry’s efforts to promote full transparency regarding data requests from government agencies, and we have organized comprehensive legal processing of such requests. You will find more detailed information in our “Information Transparency Report” .
Despite the fact that millions of people store information important to them in Evernote, we still strive to provide the ability to easily and quickly extract data from the service. Evernote does not block hosted data. We give you the opportunity at any time to extract data from Evernote just as easily and conveniently as to place it there. Our computer applications allow you to export all your notes and their contents in a human-readable HTML format, as well as in a fully documented machine-readable XML format. We also have a fully open API that gives you access to all your data.
Our approach is based on the assertion that if you are confident in the possibility of leaving Evernote, then we will always try and create great products so that you stay. And we hope you stay for years and decades. To achieve this, we strive to invest in technologies that can make your data more accessible in the distant future.
This post is not a legal document, with its help we wanted to describe in simple language the main values of our business and our approach to your data. To keep up with the times, we will periodically update this document, but the basic principles will remain unchanged: your data belongs only to you, your data is private and your data is portable. Following these principles, we want to create a startup for one hundred years.
- Your data belongs only to you
- Your data is private.
- Your data is portable
Over the past years, we have noticed positive developments in our industry towards greater transparency in the use of data, intentions and business models. We want to be at the forefront of this movement, so we decided it was time to update our three laws.
1. Your data belongs only to you
We do not own your data. Posting notes or other content on Evernote does not change their owner or legal status. If the data originally belonged to you, it remains yours after uploading to Evernote. Of course, if the data did not belong to you from the very beginning, adding it to Evernote will not make it yours. This applies to all our products and services.
Using our products, you give Evernote permission to perform certain actions with the data you uploaded for which you use our service. For example, you give us permission to back them up, send them over the network, index them for searches, show them on your devices, etc. Some of these operations may require the transfer of your data to our partners, such as your service provider, so that we can carry out service work. Before doing this, we always make sure that our agreements with partners protect your property rights.
You reserve all rights to your data, except as described above, when you give us permission to perform certain operations to ensure the operation of the Evernote service.
2. Your data is private
All information that you post on Evernote is private by default. We do not specialize in "big data" and do not try to make money on your information. Our systems automatically analyze your data to ensure that Evernote functions work, such as searching for and displaying similar notes, as well as to inform you about important functions and products that we think can make your work with Evernote better. We never share or sell your data with third parties for advertising purposes.
Our business model is old-fashioned: we only make money if you decide to pay for our wonderful product. This means that trust is our main asset, and maintaining the confidentiality of your data is a fundamental principle of our work.
Evernote has features that let you post some notes and share them with others, but this is a custom option and only you decide whether to use it or not. If you decide to associate an Evernote account with one of the applications of our many partners, then you may need to give your partner access to your data. We will explicitly inform you of what access rights to your account the partner application receives, and you can stop this access at any time.
In addition, we take many precautions to protect your data from accidental loss or theft. Everything that you put in Evernote is synchronized and stored in our secure data center with many backup servers, storage devices and backup systems located off-site. Data transmitted between Evernote clients and our servers (and various data centers) is encrypted. We offer industry-leading security technologies, such as two-factor authentication for all users, and are constantly looking for ways to improve data protection. We take all measures to protect your password, and no one at Evernote will ever ask you for it.
We support the industry’s efforts to promote full transparency regarding data requests from government agencies, and we have organized comprehensive legal processing of such requests. You will find more detailed information in our “Information Transparency Report” .
3. Your data is portable
Despite the fact that millions of people store information important to them in Evernote, we still strive to provide the ability to easily and quickly extract data from the service. Evernote does not block hosted data. We give you the opportunity at any time to extract data from Evernote just as easily and conveniently as to place it there. Our computer applications allow you to export all your notes and their contents in a human-readable HTML format, as well as in a fully documented machine-readable XML format. We also have a fully open API that gives you access to all your data.
Our approach is based on the assertion that if you are confident in the possibility of leaving Evernote, then we will always try and create great products so that you stay. And we hope you stay for years and decades. To achieve this, we strive to invest in technologies that can make your data more accessible in the distant future.
This post is not a legal document, with its help we wanted to describe in simple language the main values of our business and our approach to your data. To keep up with the times, we will periodically update this document, but the basic principles will remain unchanged: your data belongs only to you, your data is private and your data is portable. Following these principles, we want to create a startup for one hundred years.
