Legal
Privacy Policy
The short version
AnnotateIX is a desktop application. Your video, images and annotations never leave your computer. The only thing that goes over the network is licence activation and validation, and only if you activate a Pro licence. There is no analytics, no telemetry, and no account.
What stays on your device
All of the following is stored locally and is never transmitted to us:
- Your footage and projects. Video files you import, the constant-frame-rate proxies AnnotateIX generates, thumbnails, your annotations, and exported datasets. These live in the project folder you choose and nowhere else.
- Application data in
%AppData%\AnnotateIX:settings.json— the licence-server URL and purchase linklicense.json— your licence key, tier, expiry and the time of the last successful checkrecent-projects.json— names and paths of projects you have openedeula-accepted.json— the version of the agreement you accepted and whendebug.loganderror.log— diagnostic messages written when something fails
You can delete this folder at any time. Doing so removes your saved licence activation from this device; the activation remains recorded on our licence server until you deactivate it.
What is sent to us, and when
Only when you activate, deactivate or re-validate a Pro licence. AnnotateIX contacts our licence server at license.squidspark.com and sends:
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| Licence key | To identify the licence being activated or checked |
| Device identifier | A one-way hash of your Windows machine identifier, used to count and manage activations against your licence's device limit |
| Device name | Your computer's hostname, so you can recognise your devices in support requests |
| User info | Your Windows username, recorded against the activation for support and abuse handling |
| Product identifier | To confirm the key is for AnnotateIX |
| IP address | Recorded by the server with the activation, for rate limiting and abuse prevention |
Re-validation happens in the background at most once every seven days while the application is running, and sends only the licence key and product identifier.
We never send your video, frames, annotations, file names, project names or folder paths.
Why we collect it
We collect the above to supply and license the Software to you, to enforce the device limits of your licence, and to prevent licence abuse. Under PIPEDA we rely on your consent, which you give by activating a licence; under UK/EU GDPR, where it applies, our legal bases are performance of our contract with you and our legitimate interest in preventing licence abuse. We do not use this data for marketing or profiling, and we do not sell it.
Where it is stored
Our licence server and its database are operated by SquidSpark. Data may be processed on servers located outside Canada, and where that happens it is subject to the laws of the country where it is held, including lawful access by that country's authorities.
Retention
Activation records are kept for as long as the licence exists, plus a reasonable period afterwards for accounting and abuse prevention. Deactivating a device marks its activation inactive. Contact us to request deletion of activation records associated with your licence.
Sharing
We do not sell or rent personal information. We share it only with infrastructure providers who host the licence server on our behalf, and where required by law.
Your rights
You may request access to the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or withdraw your consent to our use of it (which means deactivating your licence). Depending on where you live you may also have rights to deletion, restriction, objection and portability. To exercise any of these, contact us at the address below.
If you are not satisfied with our response you may complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (www.priv.gc.ca), or to your local data-protection authority if you are outside Canada.
Children
AnnotateIX is a professional tool. It is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them.
Third-party components
AnnotateIX bundles FFmpeg to read and transcode video. FFmpeg runs locally on your machine and makes no network connections on our behalf.
Changes
If we change this policy we will update the version and date above and include the new policy in the next release of the Software.