Privacy policy

Contact us at dpo@flipsnack.com with any inquiry regarding this privacy policy or our previous versions. 

1.1. Public information

All your public information can be viewed on your public profile, including your name, unique URL, and all the catalogs you have created and published publicly. In the event that you do not wish for your name to be displayed on your public profile, including your unique URL and any publicly published catalogs, you have the option to modify your workspace name on the settings page. You are responsible for the information you share on your profile and the content of your catalogs, so you should think carefully about what you want to publish publicly. For sensitive information that you wish to keep private or share with a limited group of individuals, we recommend publishing your content privately on Flipsnack.

If you update your public information on Flipsnack, it will automatically be updated on our website.

In addition to displaying your public information and your catalogs on Flipsnack, we also provide technology such as APIs and embeds to give you the option to make your catalogs available on other sites or platforms. Such embed codes and API integrations are not available to other publishers or site visitors of Flipsnack.

1.2. Contact information and password

We use your email address and password to authenticate your account and keep it secure, preventing fraud, abuses, and spam. We need your email to set up unique user accounts, to be able to get in touch with you, and to send you personalized messages. You can always modify your email address directly from your account, and you can reset your password at any time.

In addition, your password is non-reversible encrypted before being saved to the database for your protection, so it cannot be copied or stolen, even in case of a hacking attack. We also use your email address to get in touch with you and send you information about our services and market according to your country's laws. You can check your account settings if you wish to control the type of emails you receive from Flipsnack or unsubscribe from all email messages.

You can sign up for Flipsnack using another service: a Facebook or Google account. If you do, we will use information from that service to create your account, such as your email address and name. We do not collect any passwords at all for users who are using the Facebook Connect API, as well as for those connecting with Google API.

In order to personalize your new account, we will ask you to provide information such as your role, company name, and size.

If you email or contact us via live chat, we will keep your contact info and message to be able to send you a reply.

If you fill in a contact form or request to download a resource, you may be asked to provide personal data such as, but not limited to, your full name, your email address, and your consent to receive marketing communications and materials. We collect and process this kind of personal data for the purpose of providing the desired service or resource, studying your interests for marketing purposes, or for improving our website and platform.

If you leave comments or reply to comments on our blog, you are required to provide your name, your email address, and, optionally, your website URL. We require this personal data to ensure that you are a real person and avoid spam.

1.3. Payment information

You may provide payment information on our site when purchasing a premium subscription. We do not store payment information, such as debit/credit card number, CVV code, or PayPal address, on our database or servers. This information is processed and stored on the servers of our reliable and secure payment processors (Stripe and Braintree) in order to enable recurring payments to us. We will store your billing address should you require an invoice. We also store the card's expiration date so that we can send you a notification when your card is about to expire.

This way, you'll be able to experience uninterrupted premium services and keep your subscription active. If you wish to deactivate recurring payments or update your billing information, you can do so in Account Options. Our payment processors will automatically process your request to deactivate recurring payments, and your recurring payments will stop.

1.4. Additional information we receive about you

In addition to the data that you provide to us directly by either typing it in on our site or uploading it, we also use technology to track various aspects of site usage. All the data that we collect or track is needed to operate our services. We do not sell your information. Furthermore, we do not share your private information with anyone, except with trusted third-party service providers (listed in this privacy policy under third-party Service Providers), only if it's necessary for operating our services or because it's required by law.

Cookies. A cookie is a small file stored on your computer's hard drive, ready for future access when you return to our site. We use cookies to deliver web content specific to you and collect website usage data. Cookies contain session identification numbers that allow our systems to recall previous sessions for authentication efforts and assemble information from our gathered data. Cookies cannot pass viruses, harm your computer or pass on private information such as an email address without the user's intervention. You can configure your computer's browser to alert you when a site is attempting to send you a cookie and allow you to accept or refuse the cookie. In addition to cookies, we may use small bits of computer code called "one-pixel gifs," "clear GIFs," or "web beacons" embedded in web pages to monitor website activity.

Location. We get information about your signup and current location (country and city) from your IP address and device settings. (An IP address is a number assigned to your device by your Internet Service Provider when you are accessing the Internet.) In addition, you may receive personalized messages based on your location.

Link clicks. In order to operate our service, we keep track of how you interact with our site and what links you decide to click on. It may include links on the website, blog, help center, emails, ads, and live chat support.

Log activity. We receive information every time you view or interact with content on our site, even if you don't have an account. Log activity information covers a variety of data that is available to Flipsnack either through 3rds party service providers or collected directly by us: browser information, OS type, the device used, IP, chat activity, date, time, and duration for each site visit, referring web page, page visits, search terms, location, cookies, clicks, views and session duration for all site pages. We generally analyze data sets to make sure our services are fully functional and to ensure reliable and secure performance. We also use such information to better understand user needs, improve our site performance, and send relevant marketing messages that match your interests.

Embeds. If you view catalogs integrated on third-party websites via embed codes or white-labeled URLs, we may receive log data regarding your activity (what page you visited, session information, and how you interacted with the embedded flipbook). This type of data does not contain any personally identifiable information and is reported as an aggregate to us. We make this data available directly in the publisher's account under statistics and in Google Analytics (for premium users who are using the Analytics integration). This type of information is important for our users, who need to understand how their publications are performing in order to be able to optimize them or refine their marketing strategies.

Metadata. Metadata is information that provides details about other data, often generated as you use technology. It can include information such as the who, what, where, when, and how of various activities. In the context of Flipsnack, any content you upload or create may include metadata. For example, if you upload images or documents, these files might contain metadata such as the date and time they were created, geolocation, and technical details of the device used. We do not modify or strip metadata from content you upload, but you can remove this information prior to upload if you wish.

1.5 Automated decision-making, including profiling

As a responsible Service, we do not use any automated decision-making or profiling.

1.6 Legal basis for processing

If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (EEA) or United Kingdom (UK), all the processes undertaken by Flipsnack regarding your personal data are in accordance with European laws and regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The GDPR governs how Flipsnack may process your information and your rights in relation to it.

Flipsnack will collect and use your personal data only where:

• We need it in order to fulfill our contractual obligations when delivering the Service
• It is in our legitimate interest to develop and improve the Service
• You have given us your consent
• It is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations

Providing the personal data mentioned above is a contractual requirement. Without such data, it is not possible for you to enter into a contract with our company and subsequently start using Flipsnack. If you need any clarification regarding the provision of personal data - whether it is required by law, by a contract, or necessary for your usage of Flipsnack, please contact our Data Protection Officer.

1.7 Children's privacy and Flipsnack for Education

Our Service is not intended for people under the age of 13. If you are under the age of 13, please do not submit any personal information. If we become aware that any such information has been submitted, we will promptly delete such information and terminate the children's account.

Flipsnack for Education: Children under the age of 13 may use Flipsnack service under the supervision of the teacher or school representative. Educational Institutions are required to obtain parental consent regarding student data processing for the purposes mentioned in the present privacy policy. Educational institutions are granted full rights regarding students' data; therefore, to exercise these rights, please contact us at dpo@flipsnack.com. In order to protect children's data and privacy, Flipsnack will use reasonable means to verify Educational Institution's identity before granting access to personal data. Upon termination of the Educational Account, all the information will be deleted, including information held by any sub-processor. Flipsnack does not process student data for any other purpose than providing the service. Flipsnack for Education is compliant with the Student Online Personal Information Protection Act (SOPIPA), Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and New York Education Law § 2-D.

All data collected on Flipsnack is safe and secure. We will not make public any private information or content published privately on our site. We may, however, disclose your private personal data to a few reliable third-party service providers (processors) solely for the purpose of operating our services: to help us provide, analyze, and improve the service, including data storage, maintenance services, database management, web analytics, payment processing, and improvement of the site's functionality. These third parties have access to your information only for the purpose of performing these tasks on our behalf and under obligations similar to those in this Privacy Policy. If you are an EU resident, you need to be aware that the personal data we collect about you may be transferred to and processed by recipients outside the European Economic Area, some of which are certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and some not. We have taken all necessary measures to ensure that transfers out of the EEA are adequately protected as required by applicable data protection law. All these third-party apps that have access to your data have a GDPR-compliant privacy policy, and they will only use your data on our behalf and pursuant to our instructions.

We collect and share as little personal data as possible to function. Whenever you delete your account, we will initiate a process that will remove your data from all these processors, if possible. In some cases, it is physically impossible to distinctly identify specific users when data is used collectively for research and statistical purposes, or it may be needed for accounting purposes.

2.1. List of 3rd party service providers

We use trusted third-party companies from the USA, UK, Ireland, Romania, and other countries:

Development – Flipsnack has been developed and is maintained by Smartware SRL for Flipsnack LLC, which acts as the ultimate owner of the product. Smartware employees have access to some user data, which is needed to operate, maintain, and update the Flipsnack service, offer support, and run marketing campaigns. Employees' access to user data is controlled and limited.

Analytics – In order to understand the use of our service, we need to allow site analytics tools to access some information regarding your site usage. These tools are Google Analytics and Microsoft Clarity. The information we collect through these third-party services includes your IP address, your device type and Operating System, your Internet browser, your location, the pages on our website you have visited, the actions you've performed on these pages (including recordings of your interactions, such as movements, mouse clicks), and actions you've performed in our online app (such as the number of flipbooks you have created, upload and download history).

Advertising – We engage advertising tools and platforms (Google Ads, Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, Capterra, and G2Crowd) to run interest-based ads for Flipsnack or display relevant advertising to you while using Flipsnack Service. In order to run ads, we need to allow advertisers to get information about site visits and visitors through the use of cookies and other tracking methods, including Google Tag Manager. In addition, to measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns, we allow Supermetrics to access data regarding the performance of our ad campaigns. To opt out of Google's use of cookies, please visit the Google Advertising opt-out page. To opt out of targeted Facebook advertising, please visit this page. Please note, however, that this does not opt you out of being delivered advertising. You will continue to receive generic ads. To opt out of Google's use of cookies, please visit the Google Advertising opt-out page. To opt out of targeted Facebook advertising, please visit this page. Please note, however, that this does not opt you out of being delivered advertising. You will continue to receive generic ads.

CRM and email providers – Our business email addresses are managed by Google, so every email that you send to any employee will be accessed through Google Mail. We send out automated transactional emails (emails regarding account registration and payments) through Mailgun, which has access to the email addresses of end-users. Another CRM we use for the sales process is Hubspot. When you fill in the trial request form or meeting request with our sales agents, we will collect and store the information you provide in Hubspot CRM. Furthermore, we may also sync some user data from Intercom with Hubspot for qualified sales leads. For CRM and promotional emails, we use Intercom. In order to perform its marketing automation functions and customer relationship management tool, Intercom has to have access to various metrics and information regarding our users, including actions performed on our site. Intercom collects publicly available contact and social information related to you, such as your email address, company, job title, social network handles, and physical location, to optimize your user experience. For more information, please visit this page. If you would like to opt out of having this information collected by or submitted to Intercom, please contact us.

Payment processors and reports - We share your payment info with payment service providers (Stripe and Braintree) to process payments, prevent, detect and investigate frauds and for dispute resolutions (chargebacks, claims, refunds). We also use a third-party payment analytics tool (ChartMogul) to keep track of our business growth. ChartMogul has access to orders from Stripe, but it does not have access to credit card details.

Server storage and management - We use Amazon Web Services (AWS) for cloud services, database backup, and storage. All the data that Flipsnack collects directly through its service and all the content uploaded or created by users on Flipsnack are hosted on AWS.

Other than those who act on our behalf and except as explained in this Policy, the information you provide on Flipsnack will not be transferred to unrelated third parties unless we have your permission to do so. In addition, we allow you to control the disclosure of your non-public personal information to third parties for the marketing of third-party products and services (i.e., your consent is required for disclosure).

2.2. Change of ownership or business transfers

If all or part of the company is sold, merged, or transferred to another entity, the personal information you have provided to us may be transferred as part of that transaction. However, we will take steps to ensure that your personal information is used in a manner consistent with the provisions of our Policy. Additionally, you will be informed about any business transfer in a timely manner. You will have the option to limit the amount of such information or remove your personal data before it is transferred to another entity.

2.3. Legal entities

We must disclose information when requested to comply with court orders, judicial or other government subpoenas, warrants, orders, laws, regulations, or legal processes, to protect the safety of any person, to protect the safety or integrity of the platform, including the prevention of spam, abuse, malicious actors on our site, to explain why we have removed content or accounts from our site, to prevent fraud, technical issues or to protect the rights of our users.

We will retain your personal data that we collect as described in the previous sections of this Privacy Policy as long as necessary to provide you with our service. However, we provide you with all the tools and options you need to access, update, manage, limit, or delete the data associated with your account.

3.1. How to access and update your personal data

All your personal account information, as well as your public profile data, can be easily updated from Account Options by you directly.

You can ask us at any time whether or not we collect or process personal data about you and, if we do, request access to your personal data. You can also check this Privacy Policy to find out what personal data we collect from users and site visitors, the purpose of the collection, and who else has access to your data. If you have any questions regarding this or if you wish to make any changes to your personal data and are unable to do so directly for any reason, please contact us to help. At your request, we will rectify inaccurate personal data concerning you within 30 days of your request, but you will be asked to provide proof of identity before we do so.

3.2. Data retention & how to delete your data from Flipsnack

We will retain your personal data as long as your account is active. If you wish to delete all of your data from Flipsnack, please follow the instructions provided in this Help Center article: How to erase all your Flipsnack data. You may request that we delete the personal information we have collected from you by emailing privacy@flipsnack.com.

Please note that this request means you will have to delete your existing account and everything else stored in your account (flipbooks). This action is irreversible. Once you delete your Flipsnack account, we will take steps to remove your personal data from our systems and third-party processors within 30 days from the account deletion date. However, it does not apply to the extent needed to comply with legal or regulatory obligations to which Flipsnack is subject (e.g., taxation purposes).

Historical non-personal information used in reports, such as aggregated information like the number of visitors on a page, will not be affected by the deletion of an account because it's needed for business purposes, and it does not have any impact on the privacy of an individual.

3.3. How to opt out of email communications

You can adjust your email subscription or opt out of receiving marketing emails at any time by logging into your account and changing your settings in the Account Options - Notifications. We will, however, continue to send you emails with updates about significant changes that may severely affect the way you use the platform, changes in your account status, payment failures, and successes.

3.4. How to opt-out of personal information sharing with our partners

You can delete cookies from your computer at any time. You can set your Internet browser so that it will not allow cookies to be stored on your device; nevertheless, it may reduce the functionality of Flipsnack and may mean that certain features or content will not be available to you. Further information on how to prevent cookies from being stored on your device can be found on www.allaboutcookies.org under the 'manage cookies' section. Alternatively, you can access further information by going to the help menu within your Internet browser. To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics on the Flipsnack website, visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. We use multiple Google products (Google Analytics, Google Suite, Google Tag Manager, Google Ads) throughout our site and in iframe embed codes. Here is a link to Google's Privacy Policy page, where you'll also find more information on how to opt out of being tracked by Google.

3.5. How to object, restrict, or withdraw consent

When you sign up with Flipsnack, you implicitly agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, including how we collect, process, and use your personal data. If you wish to withdraw or limit your consent at any moment after that, you can do that with future effect. If you wish to withdraw or restrict your consent regarding the collection of any type of personal data, please email us at privacy@flipsnack.com with your request, and we will get back to you with a solution within 30 days from the date of your email or through your Account Details page. You have the right to ask us to restrict to processing of your personal data. In such a case, we will only process your data for certain purposes that are mandatory by law. However, please keep in mind that certain personal data is necessary for us to be able to manage your account, so its deletion may be conditioned by the deletion of your Flipsnack account.

3.6. How to download and port your files

You can request a file containing all your uploads on Flipsnack for the purpose of data portability. You may have to wait for up to 30 days for us to honor your request. The download file will contain all of your PDFs, which are currently in our archives. Please address your requests to privacy@flipsnack.com

3.7. "Users-of-Users" Personal Information

Flipsnack may collect, store, or process Personal Information on behalf of our Users (“Users-of-Users Information”).

In the context of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), Flipsnack shall be considered a “Processor” of such Users-of-Users Information for such purposes.

Our Users act as data “Controllers” of such Users-of-Users Information. They are responsible for the processing to be in the sense of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and any other applicable privacy and data protection legislation.

As a User, you are responsible for establishing an appropriate level of security for Users-of-Users Personal Information, obtaining the proper permissions and consent, meeting the notification obligations, and providing any requested data subject rights.

If you are a viewer, customer, or user of any of our Users and wish to make any requests or queries about data we process on behalf of one of our Users, please contact that User(s) (the Data Controller) directly. However, if you contact us, we will handle your request in a timely manner after we provide notice to the particular User(s).

We will retain Users-of-Users Information for as long as the User's account is active unless otherwise instructed by our User.

Personal Data, including personal data collected in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), Switzerland, or the United Kingdom ("UK"), may be stored and processed by us or our affiliates, agents, or third-party service providers elsewhere and by using the Site or disclosing such information to us, you consent to the transfer of information to the United States, where Flipsnack has its headquarters. In order to ensure that Personal Data transferred outside of the EEA meets the adequacy requirements, Flipsnack has implemented the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, which are incorporated into the Data Processing Addendum and are available here.

EU-US and Swiss-US Data Privacy Framework

While Flipsnack LLC participates in the EU-U.S Data Privacy Framework, the UK extension to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and the Swiss-U.S Data Privacy Framework and adheres to Data Privacy Framework Principles regarding the collection, use, sharing, and retention of personal data from the European Union, the UK, or Switzerland (as applicable), we will not rely on the UK extension to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and the Swiss-U.S Data Privacy Framework until they enter into force; however, we comply with these requirements in anticipation of their coming into effect.   

If you have a Data Privacy Framework-related complaint, please contact us. As part of our participation in the Data Privacy Framework, if you have a dispute with us about our adherence to the Principles, we will seek to resolve it through our internal complaint resolution process, alternatively through the EU Data Protection Authority, the Information Commissioner's Office or Swiss Data Protection Authority as an independent dispute resolution mechanism, and under certain conditions, more fully described on the Data Privacy Framework website, you may be entitled to invoke binding arbitration when other dispute resolution procedures have been exhausted

Flipsnack LLC is subject to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the US Federal Trade Commission. Under certain circumstances, Flipsnack LLC may be liable for the transfer of personal data from the EU to third parties outside the EU. If there is any conflict between the terms in this privacy policy and the EU-U.S. DPF Principles and/or the Swiss-U.S. DPF Principles, the Principles shall govern. Learn more about the EU-US Data Privacy Framework here.

If you have questions or if you need assistance regarding any information listed in this Privacy policy, please contact our data protection officer at dpo@flipsnack.com or write to us via mail:

Flipsnack LLC

Attn: Privacy Policy Inquiry

37310 Ruth Dr, Sterling Heights,

Michigan, 48312-1977, USA.

If you are located in the European Union, you can confidently contact our appointed representative: SC SMARTWARE SRL, with registered address at Saldabagiu de Munte, str. Petofi Sandor, nr. 345, Comuna Paleu, jud. Bihor, 417167, Romania, or by email at dpo@flipsnack.com,

or you can raise a concern with your local supervisory authority.

Our local representative in the United Kingdom is Flipsnack UK Limited  with registered address at 71-75, Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ, United Kingdom and can be contacted at uk.dpo@flipsnack.com.

6. California Consumer Privacy Rights

This section applies only if you are a California Resident. As a California Resident, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA).

6.1. Categories of personal information.

This privacy policy describe the categories of personal information collected about you and other related information such as the source of the information and the purpose of the collection, for more information, please see the section 1 - What information we collect and why.

6.2. Sharing your information.

Flipsnack does not sell your personal information pursuant to CCPA.

We do share your information with third-parties as described in the section 2- Who gets access to your data and why.

6.3. Your rights.

You have certain rights under the CCPA regarding the personal information we collect or maintain about you, such as the right to deletion and the right to request access. For more information on how to exercise your rights, please visit the How to manage your data on Flipsnack. Please be advised that you will not be discriminated against for exercising any of your privacy rights under CCPA. However, in order to protect your personal information, we may authenticate your request using the email address associated with your Flipsnack account.

Furthermore, it is possible to designated an authorised agent, however, we might require a written permission from you to make request on your behalf.

If you have any questions related to this privacy policy or you would like to exercise your rights under the CCPA, please contact us at dpo@flipsnack.com.

We may, on occasion, update our Policy. If we make any significant material changes to our Policy, we will post a notice about the change at a prominent location on our site and/ or email to the email address associated with your account. We encourage you to periodically review our site and this Policy for any changes. By continuing to access and use our service after you have received notification about these changes and after they become effective, you agree to be bound by our revised Privacy Policy.

Questions or comments regarding this privacy policy should be sent by email to dpo@flipsnack.com support or by mail to Flipsnack LLC, 37310 Ruth Dr, Sterling Heights, Michigan, 48312-1977, USA.