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Introduction

At Akounto (Hereinafter referred to as Akounto “we” “our platform” and “us”), we are dedicated to the privacy of our website visitors and users. We are committed to protecting and safeguarding your personal data. This privacy policy gives you an insight on how we collect and use your data to maximize your experience on our platform. It shows how we collect, use, protect the information collected and your rights regarding your privacy.

By using this website or any of our services, you consent to the use of your personal data in the manner contained in this Policy, to the extent permitted by law. Please read this Policy carefully and note that the English version of this Policy is binding, all other translations are only for convenience purposes.

This Privacy policy should be read and used together with our Terms of Use.

About Us

We are Akounto, a company registered in the Canada but operating services globally. We are an online platform that provides accounting tools and services to clients across the world. If you have any issue related to your privacy with regard to use of our platform, we can be contacted by email at legal@akounto.com. We have a dedicated team will respond to your email in a timely manner.

1. How we collect your information.

To enhance your experience using our platform, we may collect information from you in the following ways:

  • When you provide information to us either by accessing, using or purchasing our services, registering for our platform (including but not limited to when you connect our platform to your profile on a third-party platform with your registration details), request certain information from us or interact with us either online or offline in any manner whatsoever.
  • We also passively collect information when you use our service. This collection of information can be from information in your browser or device.
  • As you interact with any of our platforms, we may automatically collect technical information about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, server logs and other similar technologies. We may also receive technical information about you if you visit other websites or when you visit our sites and applications or use our applications on third-party sites or platforms using one or more devices which employs our cookies whether or not you are logged in or registered. To disable cookies, please refer to our cookies policy here.
  • In line with our cookies policy, wemay use cookies to track user traffic patterns in order to create user’s personalized/targeted services, offers, promotions, adverts, products, and capture trends, in accordance with our services. For safety and security purposes, service improvement, and data collection, we may use software that receives and records the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of the computer’s users used to interact/contact our platform.
  • We also collect information through analytics tools, including but not limited to Google Analytics, etc. This collection happens when you use any of our services or visit our platforms.
  • We may also use social media tools or third-party applications to collect information, especially when you join our platform or use our services through these third party or social media platforms. To prevent us from sharing your information with these third-party platforms, please do not access our services through them. It is also advisable that you read the privacypolicy of these third-party platforms to understand how your privacy is ensured by them.

2. Information we collect

Through the mediums stated in section 1, either from those provided to us by you, through third parties or through passive and automated means, we may collect the following information from you:

2.1. Accountants and clients

  • Information you provide to us about you and your business, such as your name, company name, email address, and phone number.
  • Information of others that we process at your direction, such as the names and contact information of your clients, employees, etc.
  • Information about how you access our Services and your account, including information about the device and browser you use, location, your network connection, your IP address, and details about how you browse our websites and platform.
  • Customer support information (such as questions and issues) and general feedback that you choose to provide (for example, app reviews).
  • Copies of government-issued identification about you or your business that you provide to us.
  • Anonymous information, such as pages visited, and time on the Sites. We do this to understand how the Sites are being used and what the engagement is like.
  • Information about your visits to and use of our platform including the referral source, length of visit, page views, and website navigation paths.
  • Information, such as your name and email address, that you enter to set up subscriptions to our emails, updates and/or newsletters.
  • Information contained in any communications that you send to us by email or through our website, including its communication content and metadata.
  • If you use our Tax service we may collect more specific information you provide us about you and your business, including:
  • personal characteristics (such as age, date of birth, gender, marital status, nationality);
  • government-issued identification (such as your social security number, driver’s license number, taxpayer identification number); and
  • professional and employment information (such as your occupation, employer identification number, corporate-held credit and debit card numbers, employment records and compensation information).

2.2. Visitors

  • Information about you that you provide to us about yourself, like your name, address, email address, and phone number.
  • Information about how you access and our Services, including information about the device and browser you use, your network connection, your IP address, and details about how you browse through our apps and sites, including search terms you may enter.
  • Information you provide to us for surveys, contests and events (such as webinars or in-person events), including your contact information, your business name and address, and general information about your organization that you choose to provide, such as annual company revenue, number of employees, and industry.

3. Cookies

To enhance your experience using our platform, we may collect information from you in the following ways:

  • Akounto utilizes “cookies” in connection with the use of our “Services”. This cookie notice provides information about how and when we use cookies and other similar tracking technologies on our platform and our website (collectively, our “Services”).
  • What are cookies? A cookie is a small text file that is transferred by a web server and stored on the hard drive of your computer or mobile device when you visit certain websites. Generally, cookies are used to make your browsing experience better by allowing a website to remember your actions and preferences (for example, your authentication status). Cookies also provide information on how people may use a website (for instance, whether it’s their first time visiting or if they are a frequent visitor).
  • What cookies do we use and why? We use a number of different cookies to provide you with our Services, to monitor usage and performance, to customize and improve your experience, andsend you information we think may be of interest to you based on your marketing preferences. The types of cookies we use are always changing. Check back regularly to make sure you stay up to date. If you think we’ve missed a cookie, please let us know.
  • Strictly Necessary Cookies. We use a small number of cookies that are necessary to allow you to use our Services. The use of these cookies is essential for our Services to work. For example, we use session cookies for the duration of a session to keep track of a user’s identity and authentication status.
  • Functional Cookies. We use third party tools to help customize our website and to remember choices you’ve made, some of which may use cookies or similar technology in order to function. For example, we use tools like Hello Bar and Proof to customize messaging for website visitors.
  • Analytics and Reporting Cookies. We use many tools to help us improve our Services and the overall user experience for our customers and website visitors. To this end, we use reporting and analytics cookies to collect information about how you use our website, and how often. For example, we use Google Analytics and other third-party analytics providers to help measure how users interact with our website content and product features. For more information on Google Analytics, visit Google’s information page.
  • Marketing and Advertising Cookies. We use a number of tools to help us with our marketing efforts, some of which may use cookies or similar technology. Marketing and advertising cookies are used on our marketing website to tailor marketing to you and your interests and provide you with a more personalized service in the future. These cookies remember that you visited our website and we may verify this information with third-parties, such as advertisers. Although these cookies can track your device’s visits to our website and other sites, they typically cannot personally identify you.
  • Social and Content Cookies. Social and content cookies are placed by many social media plugins (for example, the Facebook “like” button), and other tools meant to provide or improve the content on a website (for example, services that allow the playing of video files, or that create comments sections). We integrate some of these modules into our website to improve the experience of browsing and interacting with our content. Some of these third-party services may place cookies that are also used for things like behavioural advertising, analytics, and/or market research.
  • Opting out, removing or preventing of cookies. Most browsers give you the ability to manage cookies to suit your preferences. In some browsers you can set up rules to manage cookies on a site-by-site basis, giving you more fine-grained control over your privacy. This means you can disallow cookies from all sites except those that you trust. To customize your cookie management preferences for your browser, please consult the documentation that your browser manufacturer provides. For display advertising, you may opt out at any time by visiting your Google Ads Settings page or by installing and running the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. The Network Advertising Initiative has also developed a tool available here that may help you understand which third parties have currently enabled cookies for your browser and opt-out of those cookies. In addition, on your iPhone, iPad or Android, you can change your device settings to control whether you see online interest-based ads. Please keep in mind that removing or blocking cookies can negatively impact your user experience and parts of our website or Services may no longer be fully accessible.

4. Using the information collected from you.

Please note that the information we collect from you is categorized as follows:

  • Identifiers (name, email address, IP address, location information, profile photographs);
  • Internet and device information (browsing history; IP address, cookies, device details, browser information)
  • Legally protected information (if you reveal gender or race in public forums by your own volition);
  • Sensory information (if you call us, send an email, or leave a voicemail);
  • Usage Information (such as information about how you use our website(s), products, and services);
  • Marketing and communications information (This is tied to your preferences in receiving marketing from us and third parties and your communication preferences); and

  • Other information that identifies or can be reasonably linked to you.

    • We do not collect any special categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences. If you provide this information in our public forums, we will protect it to the best of our ability but please know that we will in no circumstance ask for these special category personal data information.
    • Not providing data may impact our ability to provide the services you request. It might also limit the use of our platform to its full potential. If you have an account with us, you may also review, change, or remove certain types of your information provided to us through your account settings.
    • In line with regulatory provisions, applicable laws, your preferences as set on our platform or third party platforms, we use information collected from you or related devices in the following manner or any other manner as stated on the relevant pages of our platform:

5. Disclosure of information collected from you.

Please note that the information we collect from you is categorized as follows:

  • For legal purposes which includes but are not limited to; complying with the requirements of the law such as subpoenas, search warrants, court orders, and other legal processes; responding to enquiries or requests from government, regulatory, law enforcement, public authorities, or content protection organizations; defending the legal rights, privacy, safety or property of Akounto, its subsidiaries, employees, agents, contractors or users; permitting us to pursue available remedies, commence, participate in or defend litigation, or limit the damages we may sustain; and to enforce this Policy or any applicable Terms of use are complied with.
  • To maximize our service to you, we might disclose information to our partners and service providers.
  • We may share your information with your consent, such as when you post personal information on platforms accessible to third parties, or you share your profile activities with third-party platforms.
  • If we sell or transfer any of our business or assets (including insolvency or bankruptcy proceedings), certain information about our clients may be a part of that sale or transfer. In the event such sale or transfer results in a material change to this Privacy Notice, we will notify you. The notification procedure will be the same as the procedure we use to notify you of a change to this Privacy Notice.
  • We may provide information to companies related by common ownership or control. These companies may use this information to support the products and services you request or market additional products and services to you.
  • We may disclose aggregate information compiled using information that does not identify you individually or personally. This may include, for example, the total number of visitors from a particular geographic area or the average user age.
  • Please note that once we share your personal information with another company, the information received by the other company is controlled by that company and becomes subject to the company’s privacy practices.
  • You can unsubscribe and stop the passing of your information through your account settings.

6. Security of your personal information.

  • We take reasonable technical and organizational precautions to prevent the loss, misuse, or alteration of your personal information.
  • We store all the personal information you provide on our secure (password- and firewall-protected) servers.
  • All electronic financial transactions entered into through our platform are protected by encryption technology.
  • You acknowledge that the transmission of information over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet, however, we undertake to take all reasonable steps to ensure the safety of your data.
  • You are responsible for keeping the password you use for accessing our website confidential; we will not ask you for your password (except when you log in to our website).
  • While we’ve taken steps to help protect your data, no method of electronic storage is completely secure and we cannot guarantee absolute security. We will notify you if there appears to be unauthorised access to your account and we may also restrict access to certain parts of our services until you verify that access was by an authorised user.
  • We may introduce security features to make your account more secure, such as two-step authentication. Depending on where you are in the world or what services you’re using, we may require you to adopt some of these features. Where we make the use of security features optional, you're responsible (meaning we’re not liable) for any consequences of not using those features. We strongly encourage you to use all optional security features.

7. Your use of others’personal information

  • In using our Services, you may provide us with the personal information of others (for example, the names and addresses of your accounting clients or employees). Legally speaking, we are only a “service provider” of such information.
  • As your service provider, we only process (collect, use, disclose, etc.) such information as directed by you for the exclusive purpose of providing you our Services. For example, we will never use your customers’ or employees’ information to independently market or advertise to them unless they are also using our Services directly. We also do not and will not “sell” your customers’ information.

8. Your rights and controls on your information.

Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. When it comes to marketing communications, you can ask us not to send you these at any time – just follow the unsubscribe instructions contained in the marketing communication.These rights are:

  • The right to request access to your personal data: this enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to make sure it’s correct and up to date.
  • Request erasure of your personal data: this enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
  • The right to object to processing of your personal data, where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms : You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

  • The right to request restriction of processing of your personal data : this enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios:

    • if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy;
    • where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it;
    • where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or
    • you have objected to our use of your data, but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
  • The right to request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party : we will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Please note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
  • Data breach notifications: Where we think there has been unauthorised access to personal data inside your subscription, we’ll let you know and give you information about what has happened. Depending on the nature of the unauthorised access, and the location of your affected contacts, you may be required to assess whether the unauthorised access must be reported to the contact and/or a relevant authority. We think you're best placed to make this decision, because you’ll have the most knowledge about the personal data stored in your subscription.

In ensuring that we address your requests:

  • You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive, or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in such circumstances.
  • We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
  • We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex, requires additional efforts or you have made several requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
  • For the purpose of this clause9, legitimate interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.

9. Amendments

We may update this Policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our website. You should check this page occasionally to ensure you understand any changes to this Policy. We may notify you of changes to this Policy by email or through email or any other choice of communications as set by you.

10. Child privacy

Our Services are not designed for use by individuals under the age of 18, please do not use the Services and/or submit any information through the Services. If you have reason to believe that a child under the age of 18 has provided personal information to us, through the Services, please contact us at legal@akounto.com, and we will delete that information from our databases to the extent required by law.

11. How long do we keep your information?

Akounto is a Canada company, serving persons and businesses globally, and as such, we and our third-party affiliates may be subject to various legal compliance and reporting obligations or where we have an ongoing business need to retain it, in accordance with our data retention policies and practices, that require us to retain your personal information for a specific period of time which may be beyond the time when you stop using the Services.

12. Updating or deleting your information

You may update or delete your information through your account. We may maintain a copy of the information in our records. Additionally, if you request, we permanently delete your account or information, we may still retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations.

13. GDPR; NY SHIELD ACT; CALIFORNIA CONSUMER PRIVACY ACT

If you live in certain jurisdictions, including without limitation, the European Union, the UK, New York or California, you may have the following rights over your information, among others:

  • You may request that we disclose to you the categories and specific pieces of information collected about you, the categories of sources from which we collected that information, and the purposes for which your information was collected.
  • You may also request that we delete information we collected from you.
  • You have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising your rights over your information.
  • As stated above, we do not sell your personal information.
  • You may submit a request to exercise your rights by emailing legal@akounto.com or calling us toll-free at +1-833-325-6868. When receiving a request, we will collect personal information to verify the identity of the individual making the request. Government identification may be required.
  • For any information on your privacy, any question, and these regulations, you can reach us at legal@akounto.com.

14. General Data Protection Regulation

  • Please be aware that the laws the Canada may not provide the same level of protection to your personal information as your home country. We have updated documentation, internal policies and procedures, and agreements to align with GDPR requirements applicable to us.
  • You should consult with your legal professional to understand your GDPR compliance obligations. If you are deemed a data controller, you are responsible for ensuring that you have a legitimate basis for the collection, processing, and transfer of the personal data you input into our Services. By using our Services, you represent to us that you have met your GDPR compliance obligations.
  • To exercise your rights, or if you otherwise have questions about the processing of your personal data, you may contact us at legal@akounto.com.

15. Contacting us

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions regarding Akounto’s Privacy Policy or our attitude to the protection of your information. You can reach us at legal@akounto.com or +1-833-325-6868.