Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

Last Update : 19/08/2024

Privacy & Security

APONTOR’s privacy policy covers the collection and use of personal information that may be obtained by APONTOR when you interact with APONTOR such as when you purchase a product on APONTOR.com, receive support from APONTOR, sign up for APONTOR email communications, or request a free download on our website.

Website Purchases

When you purchase a product on APONTOR.com, we collect and store the following personal information:

• First Name
• Last Name
• Email address
• Country
• Zip/Postal code

Your first name, last name, and email address is collected to identify you as a product owner. This is required for you to activate the product, receive proper support if you have any issues with the product, receive a refund if you are dissatisfied with your purchase, qualify for special upgrade pricing on future products, and receive pertinent information made available to product owners only (See Email Address below for more details). Because email addresses tend to change over time, having more than one piece of identifying information (First and Last Name) helps ensure we can properly identify you to receive all of the above listed benefits of being a product owner.

Your country of residence is used at the point of purchase to calculate and collect Value Added Tax (VAT) which is a legal requirement for merchants who sell products to customers residing in certain countries.

Your zip/postal code is used by a major merchant credit card processor to validate your identity and authorize the use of the payment method you selected. (See Payment Information below for more details.)

Website Purchase – Data Security & Storage

When completing a purchase on APONTOR.com, the above data is transmitted from your web browser to our web server using Secure Socket Layer encryption (https) and stored in our secure database protected by a firewall and accessible to authorized APONTOR personnel and technical consultants contracted to maintain APONTOR systems. SSL is used to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of the information you have submitted. APONTOR is fully PCI Compliant (Personal Card Industry), meaning APONTOR.com and the technology used to transmit and store your personal data meets stringent security standards defined by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council. APONTOR is also GDPR compliant meaning we adhere to the data privacy and security standards defined by the General Data Protection Regulation for EU countries that went into effect on May 25th, 2018.

While APONTOR strives to protect the personal information you submit to us, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As such, APONTOR cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us on our website or from within our products, and you do so at your own risk. Once your information has been received by APONTOR, all of the security standards put in place by APONTOR including SSL Certification, PCI Compliance, and GDPR compliance, mean that your data is protected and secured at a very high level.

In addition to the data listed above which is stored in a database owned and operated by APONTOR and only accessible to APONTOR authorized employees and technical contractors who maintain APONTOR systems, your email address is stored in an additional database that is secured, protected, and maintained by an industry-leading email service provider, for the purpose of delivering relevant email communications sent from APONTOR to APONTOR customers such as APONTOR Loyalty Rewards, software updates, and specials for product owners. Customers are provided with ability to subscribe or unsubscribe from any of these types of email communications (see section Your Email Address below). Customers also have the ability to completely remove their email address and other personal information from all databases used by APONTOR. To request removal from APONTOR databases, customers can send an email message to support@APONTOR.com from the email address in question, and removal will occur within 72 hours. Please note, since email addresses are used to activate and license most APONTOR products, ongoing usage of a product may require an offline activation code issued by APONTOR support, and your ability to re-install and activate the software in the future may be affected.

APONTOR does not offer, sell, or otherwise make available any of your data to third parties who are not contracted with APONTOR to maintain APONTOR systems.

Website Purchase – Payment Information

When purchasing a product on our website, the following additional information is transmitted via SSL technology to a major credit card processor for validation of your identity and availability of funds to cover the purchase.

• Credit Card Number
• CC expiration date
• Card Security Code

For software purchases, the above data is NOT processed by or stored in any APONTOR database. For membership purchases such as APONTOR Plus, only the credit card expiration date is stored in a APONTOR database, to alert customers about expiring memberships and prevent loss of membership benefits. When submitting payment information, which is encrypted and transmitted directly to the credit card processor, the card number is used to authorize and complete the transaction, and the zip/postal code and card security code are used to protect you against unauthorized usage of your credit card.

APONTOR also offers customers the ability to use PayPal to purchase products on our website. Personal data and account information associated with a customer’s PayPal account is not transmitted to APONTOR web servers and is not stored in any APONTOR database. This type of purchase is processed entirely on paypal.com and APONTOR maintains no responsibility for data protection or validity of your information when using this form of payment.

You’re Email Address

Email Collection & Storage

APONTOR may ask for your email address when interacting with us or using our products. When submitting an email address on our website, it is transmitted using SSL (https) and stored in a APONTOR database only accessible to authorized APONTOR employees and licensed technical contractors. Is also transmitted and stored securely in an additional database maintained by an industry-leading email service provider in strict accordance with GDPR laws. This email provider is contracted with APONTOR to provide services essential for APONTOR to communicate with our customers via email. The third party has no legal or other authorization to use or share your email address for any purpose.

A request for your email address can occur in each of the following cases on the APONTOR website:

• Purchasing a product
• Downloading a free product or trial
• Signing up to receive APONTOR emails in our Email Communication Center
• Requesting Customer Support

Only authorized APONTOR personnel and technical contractors licensed to maintain APONTOR systems can view your email address stored in APONTOR databases or modify usage permissions you grant or revoke. Automated processes are also available for you to quickly and easily remove consent or unsubscribe your email. Customers also have the ability to completely remove their email address and other personal information from all databases used by APONTOR. To request removal from APONTOR databases, customers can send an email message to support@APONTOR.com from the email address in question, and removal will occur within 72 hours. Please note, since email addresses are used to activate and license most APONTOR products, ongoing usage of a product may require an offline activation code issued by APONTOR support, and your ability to re-install and activate the software in the future may be affected.

APONTOR does not offer, sell, or otherwise make available any user-provided information to third parties other than those mentioned above. In the event APONTOR is ever acquired by third party ownership, your permission for said company to use any personal information of yours would be required prior to any such usage.

Email Usage & Consent

We provide customers and all those interested in our products the ability to change their email preferences, granting or removing email consent. You can opt-in, opt-out, or unsubscribe from receiving the following types of email communications:

• APONTOR News – includes a monthly newsletter, exclusive photography videos and tutorials, Loyalty Rewards for APONTOR product owners, and photography news
• APONTOR Special Offers – exclusive discounts on APONTOR products, free products, free presets, and other photography-related products or content.
• APONTOR Plus Notifications – Information about new APONTOR Plus content for APONTOR Plus Members only

You can choose the types of emails you would like to receive in our Email Communication Centre and can opt out by visiting our unsubscribe page or by clicking a link included at the bottom of any email you receive from APONTOR. When you change your email preferences, it may take up to 3 hours for the database process to complete.

Website visitors who request a free product download such as a trial version or presets are given a single, simple option to opt-in or opt-out of receiving APONTOR emails (News & Specials) and can opt out of these specific lists here. In accordance with GDPR, customers residing in EU countries who wish to opt-in to APONTOR emails must complete additional steps in order to start receiving APONTOR emails, including confirming their email address two additional times after submitting the initial request. You maintain exclusive rights to confirm or withdraw consent for APONTOR to use your email address for communications.

Email – Unsubscribing

We provide several methods to easily unsubscribe your email address from APONTOR lists, including:

• Clicking an unsubscribe link included at the bottom of any email sent from APONTOR
• Visiting our Unsubscribe page to opt out of specific lists or all lists
• Contacting Customer Support

For customers who no longer wish to receive APONTOR emails, we recommend using the opt-out check boxes associated with APONTOR News and APONTOR Special Offers on our Unsubscribe page, as opposed to the option to “unsubscribe from all APONTOR communications.” Opting out by list gives you the ability to re-subscribe at a future date if you change your mind and want to receive emails. Those who select “unsubscribe from all” method will be placed on our permanent opt out list, which means it will not be possible to re-subscribe the same email address in the future for any type of communication. Additionally, customers who report an APONTOR email as “spam” inside their email client or to their email service provider will also be placed on our permanent opt out list and the ability to re-subscribe will be permanently removed. APONTOR product owners (paid products only) who are opted out of all lists may occasionally receive emails from Customer Support regarding specific support incidents they reported or critical product updates that affect the functionality of the product they purchased.

Email – APONTOR Account, Product Activation, and Technical Emails

Most current APONTOR products require the creation of an APONTOR account, using an email address provided by you and a secure password defined by you that meets minimum requirements for security outlined during the account creation process. Your APONTOR password is encrypted on our web server and is not viewable by APONTOR personnel. You maintain sole ownership of your APONTOR login and password and can modify it at any time. This account serves as your software license for most products and is required for product activation and ongoing usage. APONTOR may use the email address associated with your APONTOR account to communicate critical technical information such as important software updates deemed essential to the functionality of your product. APONTOR authorized support representatives may also use this email address to follow up on technical support incidents reported by you. These types of communications do not include an automated “opt-out” process, but you can request removal of your email address from all technical communications by contacting APONTOR Support.

Email – Customer Service & Support

When you submit a customer support request on our support contact form, your email address and other data is sent to an industry-leading customer support and ticketing system and stored in a secure database. The information is used by the APONTOR support team to provide customer support services, to view a history of previously submitted tickets, and to identify any products you may have purchased in the past. This data is not used in any way by the third party service that provides the ticketing system. Submitting your email on this form does not add you to any APONTOR email lists used for any other purpose. You will be contacted by customer support agents with information relevant to the ticket you submitted and may receive related announcements pertaining to your ticket.

Application Usage Analytics

Some of our apps, with your consent, may collect information about the way you use them. This data is anonymized before it is sent to us and cannot be used to personally identify you.

You may opt out of usage analytics inside the product you are using by selecting No when you are asked about this information after installing the product.

We look only for broad patterns in the aggregated usage data, such as whether or not a particular feature is frequently used, or whether users in general prefer one setting over another. This helps us make informed decisions about the future development of our apps.

To be clear, we do not track individual user behavior in our apps. Additionally, we do not receive information from your device’s displays, cameras, or microphones.

Application-Specific Content

Some of our apps check to see if you are a member of APONTOR Plus based on the email address you provided to become a member and the email address used to activate the software product. This information is used to provide more specific information inside the product such as content for Plus members only and the ability to quickly access the Plus membership area of our website.

Software Updates

Some of our products periodically check to see if a new version of the software is available for download, so that you can be given the choice to download the new update if you wish. These updates provide new features and bug fixes for user-reported issues. You can choose to update at any time or ignore the updates.

Our Web Site and Cookies

APONTOR’s website utilizes visitor log files or cookies as well as hosted tracking with our website. The information collected with visitor cookies and through the hosted tracking is used to gain a better understanding of which sections of our site are most important to our users as well as identify possible navigation issues. This allows us to enhance your user experience in the future. The data collected from these visitor cookies and hosted tracking does not collect any personally identifiable information and is used in aggregate form only.

Protecting Your Personal Information

At times, APONTOR may hire other companies to provide limited services on our behalf. Such limited services include, but are not limited to, technical consultants, order fulfillment, and customer support. These companies will only be provided the information they need to perform the service, and they are strictly prohibited from using that information for any other purpose.

APONTOR may occasionally present a special contest or promotion sponsored by another company. You may be asked to provide personal information in order to qualify for a contest or promotion. You will be presented with the option to share or not share your data with a sponsor prior to your submission of personal information.

Finally, while we will make every effort to preserve the privacy of our users, at times we may be required by law to disclose personal information to authorities.