Privacy Policy
This privacy policy (the “Privacy Policy”) is designed to inform you about the use of information that you provide to Makeblock Co., Ltd. (“Makeblock,” “we,” or “us”) through Makeblock’s website relating to DIY robotics construction and science, technology, engineering and mathematics education platform for makers, hobbyists, (“STEM”) learners, and educators, located at www.makeblock.com (“Site”) and the services, features, content, applications and products we offer (the “Application”).
This Privacy Policy covers the treatment of personally identifiable information (“Personal Data”) gathered when you are using or accessing the Application. This Privacy Policy is meant to help you understand what Personal Data we collect, why we collect it and what we do with it. This Privacy Policy should be read carefully prior to using the Site as it is important. It may be printed or downloaded at any time. The Privacy Policy will be stored at: www.makeblock.com/privacy-policy/.
Our Privacy Policy explains:
- What information we collect and why we collect it.
- How your information is used.
- How you can access and update your information.
We have tried to keep the wording of Privacy Policy as simple as possible. Please also visit our Terms and Conditions at https://www.makeblock.com/general-terms-conditions/ establishing the use, disclaimers, and limitations of liability governing the use of the Site.
This Privacy Policy applies to all of the services offered by Makeblock but excludes any external services that have separate privacy policies that do not incorporate this Privacy Policy. Our Privacy Policy also does not apply to other companies or organizations that advertise our products or services and that may use cookies and other technologies to serve and offer relevant ads.
Collection and use of Personal Data
Among the types of Personal Data that this Application collects, by itself or through third parties, there are in any case: cookies, usage data and email.
We collect Personal Data from you when you voluntarily choose to provide us with such information, such as when you agree to this when you visit the website, register for newsletters, sign up for forums or other user communities, make use of the Makeblock App, place orders, request information from Makeblock. We collect this Personal Data to provide better services to all of our customers.
We also collect Personal Data from you when you watch a video on YouTube, visit a website that uses interaction with our ads and content. This information includes device-specific information (such as your hardware model, operating system version, unique device identifiers, and mobile network information including phone number). We may associate your device or phone number with your Makeblock account. We collect this information to provide better services to all of our customers. Makeblock makes use of server logs, this processes your visiting record (when was the Site visited and from which IP address). The purpose of these server logs is to help maintain the servers and prevent malicious use (for example blocking an IP address if this is the source of a DDOS attack). Makeblock may use your location to provide the content of the Site in corresponding language and the GPS signal to establish a Bluetooth connection. This information is, however, not stored. No other Personal Data is processed by these server logs.
Such personal information may include information that can be used to identify and/or contact a natural person such as name, postal address, telephone number, email address, fax number, organization, job description, scope of business operations.
We use your Personal Data we collect to provide, maintain, protect and improve the Application and to protect our Site and our customers.
We maintain such Personal Data for internal purposes only, as well as to ensure that you receive any information that you may request from Makeblock, and to provide you with information on our products and services.
If you contact Makeblock, we keep a record of your communication to help solve any issues you might be facing. We may use your email address to inform you about our services, such as letting you know about upcoming changes or improvements to our products and services.
We will not sell, exchange, transfer or otherwise give your Personal Data to any third party without your explicit and informed consent subject to the exceptions elaborated below in the section of this Privacy Policy entitled “Disclosure of Personal Information”.
We will ask for your explicit and informed consent before using information for a purpose other than those set out in this Privacy Policy.
Makeblock processes Personal Data on servers in the European Union and in the United States and in some cases China or Japan.
Makeblock does not store or keep the Personal Data stored longer than necessary for the purposes for which the Personal Data was processed. Personal Data will be kept until a customer deletes their account. At the moment a customer deletes their Makeblock account, Makeblock will no longer be able to retrieve the Personal Data any longer.
Disclosure of Personal Data
As a general matter, we do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to third parties your Personal Data. We will share your Personal Data with companies, organizations or individuals outside of Makeblock with your explicit and informed consent to do so.
This does not apply to trusted third parties so designated by Makeblock, who assist us in operating the Site, conducting our business, or servicing you (“Trusted Third Parties”). Rather, we may transmit your Personal Data to Trusted Third Parties. We will only transmit your Personal Data to Trusted Third Parties following their agreement and commitment to keep all Personal Data confidential. This Personal Data is given to Trusted Third Parties based on our instructions and in compliance with our Privacy Policy and any other confidentiality and security measures.
We may also release your Personal Data when we believe such release is necessary comply with applicable law, enforce the Site’s policies, or protect Makeblock’s legal rights, property, or safety, or those of third parties. This may be the case:
- to comply with an applicable law or regulation, legal proceedings or any other enforceable governmental request or order.
- in case of an investigation of potential violations.
- to detect, prevent any type of fraud, security or technical issues.
Information that is not personally identifiable may be shared publicly, for example for statistics about our Site or Application.
If Makeblock is involved in any kind of merger, acquisition or sale, we will still ensure the confidentiality of any Personal Data.
Transfer of Personal Data outside the EU
Your Personal Data may be transferred to and stored in servers located in the United States and in some cases China (when you use the Application with Chinese settings) and Japan (related to customer service).
Cookies and use of Google Analytics
We use information collected from cookies (which are text files placed on your computer) and other technologies
Our websites use cookies to remember:
- Your preferences, such as the site language
- The items currently in your shopping cart
- Whether you have logged in to the website
Also, some videos embedded in our pages use a cookie to anonymously gather statistics on how you got there and what videos you visited.
Cookies (random-generated numbers to tell us that these visits are from the same anonymous user) are also stored by Google Analytics, the corporate service which measures how well our websites meet the needs of its users by analyzing how users use the site.
You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. However, please note that should you refuse the use of cookies, you may not be able to use certain features otherwise available on the Site.
The cookie-related information is not used to identify you personally. These cookies are not used for any purpose other than those described here.
Place of processing : USA – Privacy Policy – Opt-out.
You can opt-out of Google Analytics by installing Google’s opt-out browser add-on, and out of interest-based Google ads using Google’s Ads Settings.
Interaction with external social networks and platforms
The Site allows for direct interaction with external social networks or other external platform that are outside our control. The interaction and information obtained by this Application are always subject to the user’s privacy settings for each social network. We are not responsible for the security or privacy of any information collected by other websites or other services. Information collected by third parties, which may include such aspects as location data or contact details, is governed by their privacy practices. You should exercise caution, and review the privacy statements applicable to the third-party websites and services you use. If a service enabling interaction with social networks is installed it may still collect traffic data for the pages where the service is installed, even when customers do not use it.
The Facebook Like button and social widgets are services allowing interaction with the Facebook social network provided by Facebook, Inc.
Personal Data collected: Cookie and Usage Data.
Place of processing : USA – Privacy Policy.
To opt-out of activity-based ads in Facebook, visit your Facebook Ad Settings.
Alibaba Cloud
Alibaba Cloud is a cloud computing service created by Alibaba Cloud for building, testing, deploying and managing applications and services through a global network of Alibaba Cloud-managed data centers. Cloud computing is an information technology paradigm that enables access to shared pools of configurable system resources and the provision of services, often over the internet. Alibaba Cloud is used to support the Application. Your registered email address, name, published content and comments may be shared withAlibaba Cloud .
Personal Data collected: your registered email address, name, published content and comments.
Place of processing: Germany– Privacy Policy.
PayPal and similar providers
If you make a purchase on the Site, we may ask you for your credit card and billing information. This Personal Data is solely processed and handled by our payment providers such as PayPal, 2Checkout or BankTransfer. PayPal and similar providers are worldwide online payments systems that support online money transfers and operate as payment processor for Makeblock. Makeblock does not have any access to the Personal Data collected by payment providers.
Personal Data collected: credit card and billing information.
Place of processing: USA – Privacy Policy.
Zendesk
Zendesk offers supporting services to Makeblock with respect to customer support. If a Makeblock customer makes use of our customer support system, this information may be shared with Zendesk. Zendesk has their servers located in United States, Asia Pacific, and the European Union.
Personal Data collected: email address, phone number and customer support history.
Place of processing : Japan – Privacy Policy.
The Twitter Tweet button and social widgets are services allowing interaction with the Twitter social network provided by Twitter Inc.
Personal Data collected: Cookie and Usage Data.
Place of processing : USA – Privacy Policy.
If you would like to change the way data is collected about you in Twitter, visit Twitter account settings, Do Not Track browser setting, and the opt-out choices of Twitter’s ads.
This Application does not support “Do Not Track” requests. To determine whether any of the third party services it uses honor the “Do Not Track” requests, please read their privacy policies. If you do not want our advertising providers to use your visits to Twitter websites to show you personalized ads on our behalf, you can opt-out using your Do Not Track browser setting.
YouTube
YouTube is a video content visualization service provided by YouTube that allows this Application to incorporate content of this kind on its pages.
Personal Data collected: Cookie and Usage Data.
Place of processing : USA – Privacy Policy.
To opt-out activity-based ads on YouTube, visit your YouTube account settings.
Our Privacy Policy also does not apply to these external social networks and platforms. Our third-party advertising providers, including Google Analytics, also use these technologies for marketing on our behalf, including the delivery of interest-based ads and measurement of their performance.
Qiniu Cloud
Qiniu Cloud is a storage service (Content Delivery Service, or CDN) to host user-uploaded images. If a customer for example writes an article and inserts pictures into the article on the Application, these pictures will be uploaded to the Qiniu Cloud.
Personal Data collected: Uploaded pictures.
Place of processing : China – Privacy Policy.
Managing email addresses and sending messages
These services provided by third parties make it possible to manage a database of subscription based email contacts to communicate with customers via email. The services are used to collect data concerning the date and time when the mail is viewed by the customer, as well as when the user interacts with incoming mail, such as by clicking on links included in the email.
MailChimp
MailChimp is an email address management and message sending service provided by The Rocket Science Group, LLC d/b/a MailChimp, a State of Georgia limited liability company. MailChimp is a third party mailing service that sends emails to our customers on behalf of Makeblock. Personal data is stored until you opt-out of the mailing service.
Personal Data collected: Email address.
Place of processing : United States – Privacy Policy.
Security
We use a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your Personal Data. We take great care to ensure that your Personal Data is stored securely on our servers, and we follow the standards generally accepted in the industry to protect Personal Data submitted to us. In particular, we:
- we encrypt many of our services using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) when transmitting data. When a browser attempts to access a website that is secured by SSL, the browser and the web server establish a SSL connection, using keys. SSL creates a secure connection by establishing an encrypted connection.
- hashing is used when storing passwords. Hashing is a one-way function in which a hashed value cannot be reversed to obtain the password. Only an encryption key can decrypt the password. Only the hashed password is stored by Makeblock.
- we review our information collection, storage and processing practices, including physical security measures, to guard against unauthorized access to systems.
- we restrict access to Personal Data to our employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to process if for Makeblock and who are subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations.
It is important to note, however, that no method of transmission or storage via the internet is 100% secure, and thus we cannot absolutely guarantee the security of your Personal Data submitted via the Site.
We aim to maintain our services in a manner that protects Personal Data from accidental or malicious destruction. As a consequence, we may not immediately delete residual copies from our active servers and may not remove information from our backup systems. Makeblock uses the Cloud server services of providers such as Amazon and Microsoft. These providers also store the information in the United States. Upon deletion of an account, this Personal Data is inaccessible to Makeblock unless otherwise required by law.
Accessing and updating your Personal Data
We understand our customers have different privacy concerns. Our aim is to be clear about what Personal Data we collect in order for our customer to make informed decisions.
If the Personal Data is wrong or incomplete, we strive to give our customers ways to update it quickly or delete it by contacting us in the manner as described in the section of this Privacy Policy entitled “Contact Information.” This may not be the case if that information has to be kept for legal purposes.
Opting-out
We provide you with the opportunity to “opt-out” of having your Personal Data used for certain purposes.
These “opt-out” opportunities include, by way of example only, the possibility to opt-out receiving the Makeblock newsletters if you no longer wish to receive them, by following the instructions included in each communication, or by contacting us in the manner as described in the section of this Privacy Policy entitled “Contact Information.”
Changes to our Privacy Policy
We may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time as we add new features and services to the Application, as laws change, and as privacy and security practices evolve. We regularly review our compliance with our Privacy Policy. When we receive formal written complaints, we will contact the person who made the complaint to follow up. We work with the appropriate regulatory authorities, including local data protection authorities, to resolve any complaints that we cannot resolve with our customers directly.
Should we change our Privacy Policy, we will notify you of any material changes by posting them to the Site, and to other places that we deem appropriate for informing you thereof. It is strongly recommended to check this page often, referring to the date of the last modification listed at the bottom. In case of significant changes, you will be provided with a notice (such as an email notification). We will in any case not reduce your rights under this Privacy Policy without your explicit and informed consent.
If a user objects to any of the changes to this Privacy Policy, the user must cease using this Application and can request that Makeblock erase the Personal Data. Unless stated otherwise, the then-current Privacy Policy applies to all Personal Data Makeblock has about users.
All prior versions of this Privacy Policy will be kept in an archive for your review upon request.
Applicable law
By visiting this Site, you agree that the laws of the Netherlands, without regard to principles of conflict of laws, will govern this Privacy Policy.
The rights of users
Users have the right to withdraw their consent for the processing of Personal Data or the further processing of Personal Data by Makeblock at any time. A withdrawal should be sent to Makeblock at the contact information set out below.
In addition to the information contained in this Privacy Policy, you may be provided with additional and contextual information concerning particular services or the collection and processing of your Personal Data upon request.
Users have the right at any time, to know whether their Personal Data has been stored and can consult Makeblock to learn about their contents and origin, to verify their accuracy or to ask for them to be supplemented, cancelled, updated or corrected, or for their transformation into anonymous format or to block any data held in violation of the law, as well as to oppose their treatment for any and all legitimate reasons. Requests should be sent to Makeblock at the contact information set out below.
Users have the right to request to obtain and reuse their Personal Data for their own purposes across different services. Requests should be sent to Makeblock at the contact information set out below.
Users have the right to lodge a complaint against Makeblock with a supervisory authority.
More details concerning the collection or processing of Personal Data may be requested from Makeblock at any time. Please see the contact information at the end of this Privacy Policy.
Contact information
Makeblock is responsible for this Privacy Policy.
DATA CONTROLLER AND OWNER: Makeblock Co., Ltd.
Thank you for taking the time to read this Privacy Policy.
Copyright 2018 Makeblock Co., Ltd. All rights reserved.
Updated on 2018/03/29
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this Site, or your dealings with this Site, please contact us at https://www.makeblock.com/about-us/contact/