Powtoon Limited ("Powtoon", "we") is committed to maintaining the privacy of its users ("user", "you"). The following information describes how Powtoon collects and processes information about you when you use our website (the "Website") and Platform (as defined below).
Our privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) explains:
- What information we collect and why we collect it
- How we use that information
- Your rights with regard to the collection of such information
By using our Website and Platform, you agree to this Privacy Policy.
General
Powtoon provides a platform for creating animated presentations and videos ("Platform"). The Platform enables its users to customize animations for various purposes, such as education, marketing, and business communications ("Services"). The Website provides information on Powtoon, the Platform, and the Services and enables its users to sign up or log in to the Platform.
Device
Users can access the Website and Platform through various Devices. A “Device” is any digital device used to access the Website and Platform, including without limitation a desktop, laptop, mobile phone, tablet, or other consumer electronic device. This Privacy Policy governs your access to the Platform and Website, regardless of how you access them, and by using our Website, Platform and Services you consent to the collection, transfer, processing, storage, disclosure and other uses described in this Privacy Policy.
Collecting Information
Please note that the scope of this Privacy Policy is limited only to information collected by Powtoon through your use of its Website and Platform. Some information may be automatically collected, and some is collected when you interact with our Website and Platform. The type of information that may be automatically collected is non-personal information, which includes your session durations, the content you accessed on the Website and Platform, the frequency and scope of your use of the Website and Platform and information about your Device and internet connection including the operating system you use and browser type.
Information from which you can be personally identified may also be collected, including but not limited to your name, address, email address (hereinafter: “Personal Information”). Personal Information shall be collected only if received voluntarily from you, including, without limitation, via the following ways:
| DATA SETS | PURPOSE AND OPERATIONS | LAWFUL BASIS |
|---|---|---|
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Account Information: in order to create an account you will be requested to provide us your name and email address. In order to access your account, we will collect your username or email address and password. You may also use a Single Sign-On account (“SSO”) such as Google, Facebook, or other available SSO services. Signing in via the SSO will provide us with access to information these SSO services obtain about you such as name and email address, and all in accordance with your specific SSO’s privacy settings. You represent and warrant that you will not provide us with inaccurate, misleading or false information. |
We will use this data in order to:
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We process such data for the purpose of performing our contract with you, to provide the Services and to designate your account. Processing of your Personal Information for Direct Marketing purposes is made subject to our legitimate interest. You can opt-out at any time using the “unsubscribe” link within a marketing email or directly on your account communication settings page: https://www.powtoon.com/communication-settings/. |
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Payment Information: if you wish to Subscribe to the Services, you will be requested to provide customary billing information, such as name, and billing address. We will collect the transaction information, however we do not collect any payment method information (i.e., credit card number) as we use third-party subscription payment provider which collects this information directly on our Website |
We process this information to be able to provide subscription to our Services and process your payment. |
We process this information for the purpose of performing our contract with you. |
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Contact Information: If you voluntarily contact us for support regarding our Platform, Services and Website, this Privacy Policy or other inquiries, you may be required to provide us with certain information such as your name, email address, and the content you submitted to facilitate your inquiry. |
We process this information
to protect our legal interests, for example, in the event of any claims or in order to provide you with any further assistance (if applicable). |
When you are contacting us for support, we process information for the purpose of performing our contract with you. When we process information for purpose number 2, we process such information based on our legitimate interest. |
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Website and Platform Interaction, Marketing: When you interact with our Website and Platform, we collect certain online identifiers, such as Internet Protocol (IP) address and Browser Cookies, that may contain unique identifiers, (“Online Identifiers”). Further, we will collect (indirectly, through our external marketing or analytic tools) behavioral information: which may include the referring URL (that is, the webpage directing you to our website), information about your interactions with websites or ads linked to our platform during your session(“Usage Data”). |
Online Identifiers and Usage Data are used:
for analytic and marketing purposes: to understand how users use our Website and Platform and to measure effectiveness of some ads we use for user acquisition, in order to track conversions, build targeted audiences, and market our Services to people who have taken some action on the website. |
Online Identifiers which are collected through cookies we implement, which are strictly necessary for the proper and basic operation of the Services will be processed in our legitimate interest. Your Usage Data which are collected through third-party cookies, including any targeting and marketing cookies, will be processed based on your consent. |
Therefore, the actual processing operation per each purpose of use and lawful basis detailed in the table above, may differ. Such processing operation usually includes a set of operations, made by automated means, such as collection, storage, use, disclosure by transmission, erasure or destruction. In addition, we may use certain Personal Data to prevent potentially prohibited or illegal activities, fraud, misappropriation, infringements, identity thefts and any other misuse of the Services and to enforce our policies and agreements, as well as to protect the security or integrity of our databases and the Services, and to take precautions against legal liability. Such processing is based on our legitimate interests.
Disclosure of Information and Transfer of Data
We reasonably attempt to ensure that we never intentionally disclose any of your Personal Information, to any third party without having received your permission, except as provided for herein in this Privacy Policy or otherwise as permitted or required under law. In order to perform our contractual and other legal responsibilities or purposes, we need to share your Personal Information with third parties for the following purposes:
Service Providers – We may share certain information about you with third-party service providers that perform services on our behalf in connection with the Website, the Platform and the Services, such as cloud hosting providers, payment processors, our CRM provider, analytics and marketing service providers, etc. Analytics service providers set their own cookies or other identifiers on your Device, through which they can collect information about your usage of our Website and Platform. This helps us compile aggregated statistics about the effectiveness of our Platform, Website and Services. Where your Personal Data is shared with such third parties, we ensure that the third party will deal with your information only on our behalf and on our instructions and solely for our benefit (and not for its own benefit).
Affiliated Companies – We may share certain information with our affiliated companies, which will provide us with certain services as well as for internal compliance. In addition, certain information may also be shared with potential affiliated companies in the event of a potential business re-organization while we undergo certain due diligence processes. In such an event, those potential affiliated companies are bound by confidentiality obligations.
Additional purposes, as permitted or required by applicable law. We may disclose certain information to third parties (authorities, legal representatives, regulators, government entities, and law enforcement) to the extent permitted or required by applicable laws. We may disclose your information when we believe it is appropriate to do so to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person, violations of our Terms and Conditions or this Privacy Policy, or as evidence in litigation in which we are involved.
The above mentioned third parties may be located in countries other than your own. Transfers of your Information will be made in accordance with applicable laws. When Personal Information is transferred outside the country where it was originally collected, we will take the steps necessary (and to the extent required by applicable laws) to ensure that sufficient safeguards are provided to such data during its transfer and processing. Some of the measures implemented to safeguard your Personal Information include ensuring that the recipient is bound by specific contractual clauses approved by relevant data protection authorities to provide adequate protection for Personal Data. Where applicable, you can request a copy of the relevant contractual safeguards that we have put in place.
Your Rights
You have the right to access, modify, or delete your information and to object to its processing under certain circumstances. To exercise these rights, contact us at support@powtoon.com.
In some jurisdictions, in particular those located within the European Union (the “EU”) or within the European Economic Area (the “EEA”) or within the United Kingdom (the “UK”), or if the Privacy Protection Regulations (Provisions Regarding Information Transferred to Israel from the European Economic Area), 5783-2023 apply to you, you may be afforded specific rights regarding your Personal Information. Subject to such eligibility, you may have the following rights to:
- Request a rectification of your Personal Information where the information we hold about you is incorrect or incomplete.
- Object to the processing of your Personal Information for direct marketing purposes.
- Object to the processing of your Personal Information where our legal basis for that processing is that such processing is necessary for our legitimate interests.
- Object to automated decision-making (including profiling) in certain circumstances.
- Request the erasure of your Personal Information in certain circumstances, such as where processing is no longer necessary for the purpose it was originally collected for, and there is no compelling reason for us to continue to process or store it.
- Receive your Personal Information, or ask us to transfer it to another organization that you have provided to us, which we process by automated means, where our processing is either based on your consent or is necessary for the performance of a contract with you.
- When processing of your Personal Information is based on your consent, withdraw consent, subject to legal or contractual restrictions and reasonable notice.
If you wish to file a request regarding any of the above, you may contact us at: support@powtoon.com. If we decline to take action on your request, we shall inform you without undue delay as required under applicable laws. The notification will include a justification for declining to take action and instructions on how you may appeal, if applicable.
Notice to California Residents
This section is designated for California residents and is provided under the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (“California Privacy Laws”). It explains your privacy rights, provides “notice at collection”, and provides certain mandated disclosures about how we handle your Personal Information. This section uses certain terms that have the meanings given to them by the California Privacy Laws, unless otherwise specified. Please note that some of the disclosure obligations required under the California Privacy Laws are satisfied within other sections of this Privacy Policy.
The California Privacy Laws permit some users to request to exercise certain rights. If these rights are applicable to you, you are afforded with the following rights:
a. Right of access
You can request Powtoon for certain information about our practices with respect to your Personal Information. In particular, you can request to receive information on the following:
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The categories and specific pieces of your Personal Information that we have collected.
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The categories of sources from which we collected your Personal Information.
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The business or commercial purposes for which we collected or share your Personal Information.
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The categories of third parties with which we shared your Personal Information.
b. We do not sell your Personal Information
You can be rest assured that we do not sell your Personal Information.
c. Right to Limit Use and Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information
We do not share sensitive Personal Information for cross-context behavioral advertising and we do not sell sensitive Personal Information.
d. Exercising your California Law Rights
Please note that we will be required to verify your identity and request before an action is taken to exercise your rights. As a part of this process, government identification may be required. Moreover, you may designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf. We make our best efforts to respond to a verifiable consumer request within 45 days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to 90 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing. Any disclosures we provide, will only cover the 12 months period preceding your verifiable request’s receipt. If, for some reason, we cannot reply within such a time frame, our response will include an explanation for our inability to comply. If you wish to exercise your California Privacy Laws rights, please contact us at: support@powtoon.com.
e. Right of No Retaliation Following Opt-Out or Exercise of your Rights
If you choose to exercise your rights, we will not charge you different prices or provide different quality of our Services, unless those differences are related to your provision of your Personal Information. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your rights and unless permitted by the California Privacy Laws, we will not:
- Deny you goods or services.
- Charge you different prices or rates for goods or services, including through granting discounts or other benefits, or imposing penalties.
- Provide you with a different level or quality of goods or services.
- Suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.
Cookies
We use “cookies” and other technologies or files (collectively, “cookies”) to identify how visitors make use of this Website and Platform. This aggregated tracking information may be used to help us improve and enhance the Website and Platform experience for all of our visitors. In addition, cookies are used for adjusting the Website and Platform to your personal preferences. Cookies contain information such as the pages you visited, the length of time you stayed on the Website and Platform, the location from which you accessed the Website, Platform and more. If you would prefer not to have cookies stored on your Device, you may modify your browser settings to reject most cookies, or manually remove cookies that have been placed on your Device. However, by rejecting the cookies, you may be unable to fully access the offerings on this Website and Platform. To find out more about cookies, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.
Opt In or Opt Out
You are always in control of your data, and if you choose to receive information from us, or others, you can change your mind later. If, at any time, you would like to stop receiving such information or opt out of a feature, you may notify us by writing to support@powtoon.com. You should be aware, however, that it is not always possible to completely remove or modify information in our databases and servers, although we will always make reasonable efforts to do so upon your request.
Links to Other Websites
This Website and Platform may provide links to other websites. Please be aware that these other websites are not covered by our Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy does not cover the information practices exercised by other providers of products or services, advertisers or other websites, companies or individuals, which are not owned or controlled by Powtoon. We suggest that when linking to another website, you always read that website’s privacy policy before volunteering any personally identifiable information.
Data Security
We deploy industry standard measures to ensure the security, confidentiality, integrity and availability of the Personal Information we process. We maintain physical, technical and administrative safeguards, and test and update these periodically. We endeavor to restrict access to Personal Information on a ’need to know’ basis for the provision of Website, Platform and Services to you. No such measures are perfect or impenetrable. In the event of a security breach, we will take all reasonable action to minimize any harm. Although we will do our best to protect Personal Information, we cannot guarantee the security of data transmitted to us and transmission is at the users own risk.
Data Retention
Generally, Powtoon does not retain information longer than necessary to provide its Services and for its reasonable business and lawful needs. If you withdraw your consent to us processing your Personal Information, we will erase your Personal Information from our systems, unless the Personal Information is required for Powtoon to establish, exercise or defend against legal claims or it is necessary for the performance of the requested Services.
Children’s Privacy
We are proud that the Platform and Services is widely used in schools by children of all ages. As such, we are committed to safeguarding each child’s personal information, in compliance with but not limited to the following laws and regulations:
- The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)
- The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
- The New York State Education Law 2-d
Note to Parents
The COPPA and the regulations implementing it (the “COPPA Rule”), require that we inform parents and legal guardians about how we collect, use, and disclose Personal Information from children under 13 years of, and that we obtain the consent of parents and guardians in order for children to use certain features of our Platform, when we use the term “parent” below, we mean to include legal guardians.
Powtoon has developed this Platform to be an enjoyable experience for our users, including children. We recognize the need to provide further privacy protections with respect to Personal Information (as will be defined hereunder) that we may collect from children on our Platform and structured the features to minimize the requirement to collect Personal Information, and to maximize your control over the collection, use and disclosure of any Personal Information.
We encourage parents to be aware of and participate in their children’s online activities. We do not knowingly collect the Personal Information of children except as otherwise outlined in this Privacy Policy. Parents are requested to review this Privacy Policy and discuss its main features with their children in a manner that the child will understand. Parents must exercise the privacy rights of their children.
Student accounts
To protect children's privacy, their accounts are labeled internally at Powtoon as “student accounts” and are subject to all the requirements of the above laws. Specifically, with regards to Personal Information, our approach is to not collect or store personal information belonging to children that created a student account.
Student accounts are created when children sign up for our service in one of the following ways:
- By using their clever.com account
- By accepting an invitation from a teacher to join a Powtoon classroom group
- By signing up on our dedicated student signup page without providing personal information
- By signing up on our dedicated education signup page without providing personal information and choosing the student option in the signup form
- By accessing Powtoon through their school's learning management system (for example: Canvas)
No commercial use of data
Student account data is used exclusively to deliver Powtoon's services. No commercial use of student data is made.
Communications
To student accounts with email addresses (Google G Suite for Education), Powtoon will send only transactional emails that provide notification for events such as the completion of a video rendering process.
All transactional notifications from Powtoon to student account holders without email addresses take the form of on-site notifications. Powtoon refrains from sending any marketing or other non-transactional email messages to student account holders.
Access to content created in student accounts
Videos and presentations created by student account holders and which are published for viewing on the Powtoon platform, are published in private mode by default. These videos and presentations are not added to the Powtoon site map and not made available for indexing by search engines.
Google G Suite accounts for education
Many schools use Google G Suite for Education to issue "school use only" Google accounts to their students. These students may use their Google account to sign up for Powtoon on the education signup page. Powtoon will protect such accounts from disclosure and will use the email address associated with such accounts only for sending transactional email messages.
Data breach prevention and response plan
Data of children is, like all other data Powtoon controls, safeguarded according to industry standards and best practices. For more details, see Data Protection above. Furthermore, we make every reasonable effort to prevent data breaches and have a documented security incident management policy and procedure.
As we do not collect personal information from students, the risk of personal student information being extracted from our system is very low. If you want to be informed in the event of a data breach that affects student account data, you can register your institution to our breach notification list by emailing edu-privacy@powtoon.com with the subject line "registration to breach notification list". In this email, please include the name of your institution, your name and role, together with your contact information. In the unlikely event that such a breach will occur, we will inform all registered institutions within 72 hours of detecting the breach.
Questions Regarding Our Privacy Policy
If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy or the practices described above, you are always welcome to contact us at support@powtoon.com.
Revisions and Modifications to our Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to revise, amend, or modify this Privacy Policy at any time. When changing the policy, we will update this posting accordingly. Please review this Privacy Policy often so that you will remain updated regarding our current policies.
Governing Law and Jurisdiction
This Privacy Policy will be governed and interpreted pursuant to the laws of the United Kingdom without giving effect to its choice of law rules. You expressly agree that the exclusive jurisdiction for any claim or action arising out of or relating to this Privacy Policy shall be submitted to the competent courts in the United Kingdom, to the exclusion of any other jurisdiction.
This page was updated in January, 2025.
