Privacy policy

 

 

Version May 11th, 2021

The Things Industries B.V. ("us", "we", or "our") operates the https://www.thethingsnetwork.org website, community pages, The Things Network platform and related services as the "Service". The Things Industries is also the holding company of The Things Network Foundation, a foundation registered with the chamber of commerce in The Netherlands.

This page informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use and disclosure of Personal Information when you use our Service.

We will not use nor share your information with anyone except as described in this Privacy Policy.

We use your Personal Information for providing and improving the Service. By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy. Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy, terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms of Service.

Information Collection And Use

While using our Service, we may ask you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you. Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to, your email address, name, other information ("Personal Information").

Here's the data that we associate to you, as well as the use that we make of it:

  • We store basic identity information to identify our users. This information can be edited on the Identity Server. We'll use your email to send you operational emails, and a newsletter from which you can unsubscribe. We use cookies to keep track of identified users.
  • We store the gateways that you have registered, as well as the information that you've entered (description, location, settings). We also store metadata received from the gateway, that includes packet statistics and location if you've configured your gateway to do so, to operate the network and to show you information about the state of your gateway. You can make your gateway data and metadata public or remove it from the gateway settings, in the console or using our CLI. If you've decided to make it public, we will also use it in our public gateway map, and make the location available from our public APIs.
  • We store the applications and devices that you have registered. We store and process packets, including metadata, received from those devices in order to operate the network. Applications and devices can be deleted from the application settings, in the console or using our CLI. Application and devices data is only accessible to you and collaborators you have added to your application.
  • We store, on an opt-in basis, the packets your devices have received on our storage integration, which can be enabled or disabled from the console.
  • We store your forum activity. Apart from the public data (e.g. posts and messages), we also store your activity on the forum (such as topics read). This is used to help us make better community moderation decisions.
  • We store your website activity using Google Analytics. This helps us understand where visitors come from and what they are looking for. The Google Analytics tools we use make use of cookies, that are stored on your devices.
  • We store names, physical addresses, email addresses and other company information of customers who are The Things Industries customers.

Apart from those specific data usages, we might also use this data to:

  • Improve the behavior of our LoRaWAN network server: We're using received metadata to build statistics on data transmission in several conditions (in different locations, with different transmission parameters, etc.) in order to improve the quality of our network server.
  • To troubleshoot issues that users are having.

We share data with the following parties:

  • The data from the devices you have registered is shared on an opt-in basis with the parties operating the integrations that you have enabled (e.g. IFTTT, LoRa Cloud, and such). Those integrations may store the data.
  • Visitor analytics are collected and processed by Google Analytics.
  • We use MailChimp and SendGrid to manage our email infrastructure.
  • We collaborate with regional partners to make The Things Network available in other regions of the globe. Those regional partners are running network servers with the same capabilities as ours. They process data of applications, devices and gateways that are registered on clusters they may operate. They do not have access to identity information, except for what is transited when using regional consoles. You can choose in a gateway's or application's settings to use a network server managed by the Things Network Foundation or by partners.
  • Our infrastructure providers. We use for example AWS to run our public community network server.

We do not sell any data to third parties.

Log Data

We may also collect information that your browser sends whenever you use our Service or when you access the Service by or through a mobile device ("Log Data").

This Log Data may include information such as your computer's Internet Protocol ("IP") address, browser type, browser version, the pages of our Service that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages and other statistics.

When you access the Service by or through a mobile device, this Log Data may include information such as the type of mobile device you use, your mobile device unique ID, the IP address of your mobile device, your mobile operating system, the type of mobile Internet browser you use and other statistics.

In addition, we may use third party services such as Google Analytics that collect, monitor and analyze this type of information in order to improve our Service's functionality. These third party service providers have their own privacy policies addressing how they use such information.

Cookies

Cookies are files with small amount of data, which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a website and stored on your computer.

We use cookies to collect information. You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our Service.

Service Providers

We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Service, to provide the Service on our behalf, to perform Service-related services or to assist us in analyzing how our Service is used.

These third parties have access to your Personal Information only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.

Communications

We may use your Personal Information to contact you with newsletters, marketing or promotional materials and other information that may be of interest to you. You may opt out of receiving any, or all, of these communications from us by following the unsubscribe link or instructions provided in any email we send or by contacting us.

Compliance With Laws

We will disclose your Personal Information where required to do so by law or subpoena or if we believe that such action is necessary to comply with the law and the reasonable requests of law enforcement or to protect the security or integrity of our Service.

Business Transaction

If The Things Industries B.V. is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, your Personal Information may be transferred. We will provide notice before your Personal Information is transferred and becomes subject to a different Privacy Policy.

Security

The security of your Personal Information is important to us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

International Transfer

Your information, including Personal Information, may be transferred to --- and maintained on --- computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from your jurisdiction.

If you are located outside Netherlands and choose to provide information to us, please note that we transfer the information, including Personal Information, to Netherlands and process it there.

Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer.

Links To Other Sites

Our Service may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third party link, you will be directed to that third party's site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit.

We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.

Children's Privacy

Our Service does not address anyone under the age of 13 ("Children").

We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your Children has provided us with Personal Information, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Information from a children under age 13 without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our servers.

Changes To This Privacy Policy

We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.

You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at privacy@thethingsnetwork.org, indicating the reference matter.

 

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