Privacy policy

Introduction 

ASTER’ s privacy statement covers the following main areas: Notice, Privacy rights, Third-party links, Security, Cookies. These areas are described in detail below. Please keep in mind that our privacy practices may vary as required by local laws and policies.

Comments or questions about our privacy practices can be sent to: privacy_advocate@aster-technologies.com

Or contact: legal department

ASTER Technologies SAS
“Le Kléber”, Bât.B, 55 bis rue de Rennes
35 510 CESSON-SEVIGNE
France
Tel. +33 2 99 83 01 01

1. Notice

Who are we ?

When this Notice refers to “ASTER”, or “we”, “us” or “our”, this includes ASTER Technologies SAS and its family of related subsidiaries and affiliates located throughout the world. Additionally, ASTER has many: (a) “Service Providers,” which are data processors providing services to ASTER that are contractually limited in their usage of Personal Data; (b) “Business Partners,” which are un-related companies that ASTER engages with for specific business purposes or solutions like co-development, co-management, co-presenting, co-sponsoring, distributing, etc., and (c) “Channel Partners” which are un-related companies that are authorized resellers of ASTER products or services (Business Partners and Channel Partners are collectively referred to as “Partners”).

What information do we collect ?

During the course of your relationship with us, we may collect personal information to enable you to order products or services, download software updates, download collaterals, make requests, and register for customized communications programs. We may collect such personal information as :

• contact information – full name, email address, physical mailing address and country, telephone number, and user name;
• professional information – company name, department, job title, job description and related information, such as job function or reporting structure; company details, such as the size or number of employees; professional or trade publications to which you subscribe and related trainings attended;
• commercial transaction information – the types of products and services that interest you and that you have purchased; your purchasing requirements;
• financial information – billing and payment information;
• responses to surveys – information you provide in responding to a survey (including on a Site, via an app, social media, email, on the telephone, or otherwise), testimonials or other feedback related to the Services, which may be paired with your name, title, and/or company name; or comments or posts you publish on any Sites.

We may also Process Personal Data obtained through your access to the Sites, and your use of or access to the Services, including:

• location information – location signals originating from a device (where enabled); location information received or derived from social media networks, sensor or IP address data; and the country from which a request is received;
• cookies, pixels and beacons – information from cookies, web beacons, pixels, or from the internet, including your IP address, browser type, operating system, domain name, access times, which pages you visit within a Site, referring website addresses, how you use a Site (including the types of products and events that interest you, how you navigate through a Site, and articles you download);
• preferences – information related to your industry, your preferred communication type and types of products that may interest you based on your activity on the Sites;
• IP address, device identifiers, Internet activity, and Services log data – which may also be linked to your  registered email address, to enable our license compliance process and for support purposes;
• social media – we may receive Personal Data about you when you connect with another site (such as Facebook, WeChat, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.), and you may check your settings and review any data sharing polices of these sites;
• chat and call records – support logs, transcripts, and recordings and playbacks of any calls, videos, or chats for fraud detection, quality assurance, product improvements, sales, and training purposes;
• licensing – data regarding any unlicensed, theft or unauthorized access to or use of Services;
• marketing – we use third-party marketing services to send and track receipt of communications to our customers generally, and to analyze the pattern of those communications for trust and security purposes, as well as to gather data, such as inquiry and use data, to continue the marketing and promotion of Services that may interest to you, develop and send relevant communications based on your interaction with ASTER and displayed interest in ASTER Services, and assist us in better understanding our customers’ interests generally.

We may also Process Personal Data obtained from Service Providers and Partners. This may include:

• Information provided when you sign up for a sponsored, co-sponsored, or hosted event, webinar or when you access premium content (such as white papers, infographics, case studies, application brief, data sheet, etc.) including full name, job title or function, company name, department, email address, physical mailing address and country, telephone number, and event registration details; or
• Information provided when you purchase or register for the Services through an authorized re-seller, including your contact information, certain professional information, and products purchased.

Finally, we may utilize publicly accessible information or acquire limited information to verify the accuracy of any Personal Data collected and to support the growth and development of our business. Publicly accessible information may consist of data available on professional networking sites, trade groups, or social media platforms, which may include details such as your full name, job title or role, company name, industry, email address, physical address including country, and telephone number. Furthermore, we may receive data from third-party sources, which we purchase to validate and standardize account and contact information, identify potential customers, perform email and address validation, as well as facilitate sponsorship or event coordination.

To tailor our subsequent communications to you and improve our products and services, we may ask you to provide information regarding your personal or professional interests, demographics, experience with our products and contact preferences. Personal information may be required to determine access eligibility for certain restricted parts of our site.  Data collected on-line may be combined with information provided off-line.

How do we use the information ?

Our main objective in processing your Personal Data is to provide you or your employing entity with our Services. This includes processing your Personal Data to facilitate the sale/licensing and delivery of the Services, to ensure the provision of Services to you or your employing entity, and for purposes related to optimizing your or your employing entity’s usage of the Services.

In most cases, the lawful basis for ASTER’s use of your Personal Data will be the following: (a) the necessity of processing for the performance of our contractual obligations towards you or your employing entity, or to take steps at the request of you or your employing entity (in the latter case, we reasonably rely on your employing entity acting within their legal authority when instructing you to contact ASTER) (“Contract”); (b) the necessity of processing for our legitimate interests in conducting our business, including enhancing and improving our Services, provided that such interests do not override your rights and interests (“Legitimate Interests”); or (c) your prior explicit consent, on rare occasions (“Consent”). Additionally, there may be instances where we have a legal obligation to process your Personal Data (“Legal Obligation”). If the processing of your Personal Data is based on your Consent, you have the right to withdraw your Consent, and such withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing conducted prior to the withdrawal.

Uses of Personal Data can be attributed to the following lawful grounds:

To perform a Contract (or take steps at the request of you or your employing entity):

• To fulfil or meet the reason you provided the Personal Data (including in the course of the performance of your employment relationship with your employing entity).
• To provide the information, Services or support and related after-sales services and maintenance.
• To identify you and to contact you with Service updates, training or support options related to Services you or your employing entity have purchased.
• To plan, perform, and manage our relationship with you or your employing entity and to carry out any related administration.

To carry out our Legitimate Interests (unless prohibited by law):

• To identify you for the purposes of ensuring compliance with the terms of license agreements and preventing software piracy.
• To create, maintain, customize, and secure your or your employing entity’s account(s) with us.
• To communicate related to the Services, including using email, SMS, and social media platforms.
• For fraud detection and information security purposes.
• To monitor our sales and Services.
• To help maintain the safety, security, and integrity of our Sites, Services, databases, technology assets, and business.
• To improve our Services and to tailor and personalize our Sites.
• For accuracy and to verify information with third parties as needed (such as export compliance).
• To enforce this Notice, and our policies, terms of use, license agreements and other provisions related to the Services.
• To carry out research, including market research, statistical research on site traffic, and sales and other commercial information to assist us in improving the Services.
• To evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding.

With your Consent:

• To provide personalized, targeted, or location-based content, services, and advertising from us, our Affiliates or Partners.
• To promote our Services or the services of our Partners, where applicable, as described to you when collecting your Personal Data.

To fulfill a Legal Obligation:

• To identify you for compliance purposes, including usage, export and licensing.
• To detect, investigate and prevent activity potentially illegal, unlawful or harmful, as permitted-required by applicable law.
• To identify you and verify that both the Services and your or your employing entity’s use of the Services are appropriately licensed. As permitted by applicable law if we believe that any Services are unlicensed, we may also share data with other companies and organizations to counter software theft, as well as with law enforcement or other regulatory bodies.

Whom do we share the information with ?

Third Parties: We may disclose your Personal Data to third parties in order to enforce our policies, comply with legal obligations, ensure security, prevent fraud, protect public interests, or respond to requests from law enforcement, regulatory, judicial, or government authorities.

In certain cases, we may also disclose specific Personal Data in connection with ongoing or proposed litigation, or to safeguard our property, security, personnel, and other legitimate rights or interests as permitted by law.

During your interactions with us, you may have the option to provide consent to receive information, marketing offers, or to share your Personal Data, including on social media platforms. If you provide consent, your Personal Data will be used and shared as described at the time of obtaining consent, and it will be subject to the privacy policies and practices of any disclosed parties.

Service Providers: We share your Personal Data with our Service Providers who are involved in various activities, such as hosting our web servers, analyzing data on how our Services are used, delivering and monitoring marketing initiatives, providing customer support services, enforcing license terms, or processing payments. All Service Providers collect or access your Personal Data only as necessary to perform the specific service and are restricted in using your Personal Data for any other purposes.

We may utilize Google Analytics or Adwords on our Sites to gather statistics on site usage. This may involve the use of cookies, as explained further in our Cookie Policy. Google may combine the data it collects from these services with data collected from other sites and services, including Google Analytics, Google Translate, Google Maps, and YouTube. Please review Google’s privacy policy and account settings regarding the collection and use of data across its services.

Business Partners: When we collect your Personal Data that may be shared with Business Partners, or when we jointly collect your Personal Data with our Business Partners, additional notice will be provided at that time, providing further details about the data collection practices of each party. For instance, when you click on a hyperlink from our Site or an advertisement from us or our Business Partners, general purchase information, contact information, and details about your site usage may be shared with both parties for the purpose of analyzing and improving service delivery, customer experience, and marketing initiatives.

Channel Partners: Depending on your geographic location or product interest, we may disclose your Personal Data to Channel Partners to facilitate the sale and delivery of our Services to you. Channel Partners are authorized resellers of ASTER products and services.

Acquisition Companies: In the event that we or any of our subsidiaries are sold or if some of our assets are transferred to a third party, your Personal Data may also be transferred to that third party. The recipient will be contractually obligated to protect your Personal Data and process it in accordance with the purposes and methods of processing described in this document. If necessary, we will inform you of the name and contact information of the recipient.

It is possible that our customer database may be sold separately from the rest of the business, either in whole or in part. Potential purchasers and their advisors may have limited access to company data, including Personal Data, as part of a transaction. However, the use of your Personal Data will continue to be subject to this Notice. Similarly, in the unlikely event of liquidation or bankruptcy proceedings, your Personal Data may be shared with a successor in interest.

With respect to Personal Data collected within the territorial scope of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), international transfers of Personal Data comply with these laws, including the conclusion of data processing agreements with relevant parties, where necessary. If you have any questions regarding this matter or would like to see the legal instruments in place for specific third parties, please contact  privacy_advocate@aster-technologies.com

Where is your Personal Data processed ?

Your Personal Data may be processed and stored on our servers or on the servers of our Service Providers, both within and outside of France. This means that when we collect your Personal Data, it may be transferred and processed in other countries, including countries that have different data protection laws than the one in which you reside, such as the EU and the PRC. While the data protection laws in these countries may be less stringent, we will take appropriate measures to ensure that your Personal Data is protected in accordance with applicable data protection laws and this Notice.

To safeguard your Personal Data, we have implemented suitable safeguards, including contractual obligations and approved data transfer mechanisms as required by law, such as the GDPR and PIPL Standard Contractual Clauses, where applicable, with our Service Providers and Partners with whom we share Personal Data. By using our Services or visiting our Sites, you consent to the transfer and processing of your Personal Data as described above, unless such consent is not permitted or valid under applicable law. If you have any questions or concerns regarding these practices, please contact us at privacy_advocate@aster-technologies.com.

How long do we keep your information ?

While you have certain Data Subject Rights as outlined below, we will retain your Personal Data only for as long as it is necessary to fulfill the purposes stated in this Notice, in accordance with our retention policies, or as required by applicable law. This includes compliance with recordkeeping and other legal obligations. Once the applicable retention period expires, we may delete or anonymize your Personal Data. In cases where deletion or anonymization is not feasible or reasonable (such as when your Personal Data is stored in backup archives), we will securely store your Personal Data separately to prevent further processing until it can be deleted, anonymized, or destroyed. Please note that there may be residual information that remains in our backup files, databases, and other records, which will not be deleted or altered except in accordance with our retention policies.

2. Privacy rights

Various countries and jurisdictions, including the US, EU, and PRC, have specific legal requirements and privacy rights concerning Personal Data. We will comply with these restrictions and any requests you submit in accordance with applicable law. As an individual (referred to as “Data Subject” or “Individual”), you may have one or more of the following privacy rights under applicable law:

• The right to request the correction of inaccurate Personal Data.
• The right to request additional information about our data collection, use, and disclosure practices regarding your Personal Data.
• The right to access certain Personal Data.
• The right to delete certain Personal Data.
• The right to object to certain Processing, such as direct marketing.
• The right to request the restriction of certain processing.
• The right to request the portability of Personal Data.

If you wish to invoke your privacy rights, you can complete the provided form, contact privacy_advocate@aster-technologies.com, or call us at +33 2 99 83 01 01. We will comply with your requests as required by applicable law.

Upon receiving your request, we will validate your identity, which may involve providing certain information, depending on the nature of the request and your jurisdiction. We will match the information you provide with our records to verify your identity. If we can confirm your request, we will process it accordingly. In case we are unable to verify your request, we may ask for additional information to assist in the verification process.

Some privacy laws allow individuals to use authorized agents to make privacy rights requests. If an authorized agent is acting on your behalf, they must provide proof of your written permission (such as a power of attorney) to make the request. The authorized agent must follow the described process, including verifying their own identity and confirming their authority with you, the individual.

We will respond to your request within the timeframe required by applicable law. If we are unable to fully comply with your request, we will notify you and explain the reasons. We may require additional time or find certain requests excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. There are no fees for processing or responding to your request, unless it is excessive or manifestly unfounded.

Our responses will align with the applicable data protection laws. We may refuse requests that are unreasonably repetitive, require disproportionate technical effort, risk the privacy of others, may compromise an ongoing investigation, or are impractical. It is our policy to never discriminate against individuals for exercising their rights. If we process your Personal Data based on your consent, you can withdraw your consent at any time. Please note that withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of any prior processing that relied on consent or processing based on a different legal ground.

For residents in the European Economic Area, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection authority regarding our processing of your Personal Data. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority.

3. Third-party links

The Sites or Services may include links or references to websites operated by third parties. We do not have control over the privacy practices or content of these third-party sites and services, even if we provide links or references for your convenience. It is important that you review the policies and terms of use of any third-party site before using their services.

Please note that the servers used by third-party sites, including social media sites, may not have adequate security measures in place. While ASTER and our Service Providers take reasonable security precautions, it is important to understand that the internet is not entirely secure, and there is a possibility of unlawful or unauthorized access to private transmissions or data.

4. Security

ASTER is committed to ensuring the security of your personal information. To prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the appropriate use of personal information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure it.

5. Cookies

On occasion ASTER may use cookies and similar tracking technology (collectively referred to as “Cookies”) to help us analyze web traffic or to improve your web navigation experience. To facilitate the analysis, an ID is assigned to help us uniquely identify you each time you return to our web site. One of the major concerns about stored cookies is the fear that they contain personal information and information identifying you that could be accessed by other web sites. ASTER only stores a randomly chosen unique ID number and a context, both of which are meaningless to others, but help us uniquely identify you.

By gathering and remembering information about your preferences, the web application can:

• Tailor its operation to your needs, likes and dislikes
• Provide an automated log-in process as a convenience for previously registered customers. This insures that you will be accurately identified and linked with your registration data.
• Be placed on your computer to ensure you are not surveyed multiple times during your visit(s) to an ASTER web site. This cookie has a limited life span and will not personally identify you.

Cookies help us provide a better web experience by letting us monitor what’s working and what isn’t through site traffic analysis. ASTER wants to be sure you understand that accepting a cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any personal information about you, other than the data you chose to share with us. This practice is strictly enforced. While acknowledging the concerns that some visitors have about cookie usage, we believe that the benefit our webpage visitors gain from the use of cookies is worthwhile.

For further information about the types of Cookies we use, please see our Cookie policy