Privacy Policy

Last updated: June 2019

INTRODUCTION.

Forward Thinking Systems LLC (“Forward Thinking Systems”, “we”, “us” or “our”) have an obligation to safeguard your personal information.  This  Privacy Policy (this “Privacy Policy”) describes how we process, collect, share and otherwise use personal information of individuals (“Personal Information”) when you use our services, applications, and products (collectively, “Services”) or use this website, www.ftsgps.com, and/or any other websites or subdomains of we own and operate (collectively, “Website”, “this Website” or the “Websites”).

Our collection, use, sharing and processing of Personal Information is also subject to the Terms of Service for our Website located at https://www.ftsgps.com/terms-of-use/ (“Terms of Service”).

To the extent required under applicable laws, for purposes of this Privacy Policy, we process your Personal Information as a “controller” under certain data protection laws, including, without limitation, the European Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).

1. ACCEPTANCE OF PRIVACY POLICY.

ALL USE OF OUR SERVICES AND WEBSITES IS GOVERNED BY THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND THE TERMS OF SERVICE AS WE MAY UPDATE OR MODIFY THEM FROM TIME TO TIME IN OUR DISCRETION.

PLEASE READ THIS PRIVACY POLICY CAREFULLY to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use our Services this Website and/or our other Websites.

BY ACCESSING OR USING OUR SERVICES, THIS WEBSITE AND/OR OUR OTHER WEBSITES, on behalf of yourself and/or your company or organization, you agree and consent to our practices, as described in this Privacy Policy, regarding the collection, use, processing and disclosure of your Personal Information. You are also agreeing to comply with the requirements contained herein.

This Privacy Policy may change from time to time. Your continued use of our Services or Website after we make changes to this Privacy Policy is deemed to be acceptance of those changes.  It is your responsibility to periodically check for updates.

2. PROCESSING ACTIVITIES COVERED.

2.1  Information to Which this Privacy Policy Applies.

This Privacy Policy applies to Personal Information collected, stored, processed, disclosed, shared and/or used  (generally, “processed”) by us when:

• • You visit our Websites that display or link to this Privacy Policy.
  • You use our Services that display or link to this Privacy Policy.
  • You provide information through your use of our Websites or Services.
  • You visit our branded social media pages.
  • You or we send or receive communications, including e-mail, text and/or other electronic messages.
  • You interact with our advertising and applications on third-party websites and services, if those applications or advertising include links to this Website.
  • You respond to any surveys that we might ask you to complete for research purposes or other purposes we may identify.
  • We collect such information by other means as described in this Privacy Policy.

2.2  Information to Which this Privacy Policy Does Not Apply.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected by:

• • Us offline or through any other means, including without limitation, on any third party website, or
  • Any third party, including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from or on this Website.

2.3.  Links.

Our Services or this Website may contain links to other websites, applications and services maintained by third parties.  The information practices of such other services, or of social media networks that host our branded social media pages are governed by third parties’ privacy policies or statements, which we encourage you to review to better understand such third parties’ privacy practices.

3. WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT AND HOW WE COLLECT IT.

3.1  Personal Information We Collect Directly from You.

The information we collect from you on or through our Services or Websites, which includes Personal Information, includes:

• • Information that you provide by filling in forms on our Websites or Services, which includes name, email address, and phone number. This includes other information provided at the time you request additional information or request services. We may also ask you for information when you report a problem with our Websites or Services.
  • Records and copies of your correspondence (including e-mail addresses), if you contact us.
  • Your responses to surveys that we might ask you to complete for research purposes.
  • Your search queries on our Websites.
  • When you use and interact with this Website, we automatically collect log files and other information about your device and your usage of this Website and other details of your visits to this Website, which may include traffic data, location data, other communication data, resources that you access and use on the Websites through cookies, web beacons or similar technologies, such as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses or other identifiers, which may qualify as Personal Information (please see Section 3.2, “Automatic Data Collection Technologies We Use” below).
  • When you use our Services, we automatically collect log files and other information about your device and your usage of our Services and other details of your visits to our Services, which may include traffic data, location data, other communication data, resources that you access and use on our Services through cookies, web beacons or similar technologies, such as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses or other identifiers, which may qualify as Personal Information (please see Section 3.2, “Automatic Data Collection Technologies We Use” below).

3.2   Automatic Data Collection Technologies We Use.

As you navigate through and interact with our Websites and Services, we use common information collection tools to automatically collect information.  The information we collect automatically is statistical data and may include Personal Information, or we may maintain it or associate it with Personal Information we collect in other ways or receive from third parties.  It helps us to improve our Websites and Services and to deliver a better and more personalized service, including by enabling us to estimate our audience size and usage patterns, store information about your preferences and use of our services, allow us to customize our Websites and Services and recognize you when you return to our Websites and Services, among other things. This information is collected through our use of cookies and other tracking technologies including:

• • Cookies (browser cookies) are small files of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Website. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Websites.
  • Flash Cookies. Certain features of our Websites or Services may use local stored objects (or Flash cookies) to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from and on our Websites. Flash cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as are used for browser cookies. For information about managing your privacy and security settings for Flash cookies, please see Section 5.2, “Choices about How We Use and Disclose Your Information”, below.
  • Log Files. When you access our Websites or Services, our servers automatically record information sent from your browser, which may include your web request, Internet Protocol address, domain names, referring Uniform Resource Locator, browser type, browser language, and operating system; the date and time of your request and access; and Cookies that may uniquely identify your browser (collectively, “Usage Data”). We may combine Usage Data with Personal Information in a manner that enables us to trace Usage Data to an individual user, and may collect, use, preserve and disclose Usage Data in any manner that we may collect, use, preserve and disclose Personal Information as provided herein (whether Usage Data is combined with any Personal Information or otherwise).
  • Web Beacons. Pages of our Websites and our e-mails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs. pixel tags and single-pixel gifs) that permit us, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an e-mail and for other related Website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain Website content and verifying system and server integrity).

3.3   Ways to Manage Cookies.

A. Browser Settings.

As stated above, you can control or disable cookies in your web browser. How you disable cookies depends on which browser you use. All modern browsers allow you to change your privacy settings to prevent websites from planting cookies.

These settings will typically be found in your browser’s “options” or “preferences” menu or by using ‘Help’ option. In order to understand these settings, the following links may be helpful.

• • • Internet Explorer – https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17479/windows-internet-explorer-11-change-security-privacy-settings#1TC=windows-7
    • Firefox – https://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/cookies-information-websites-store-on-your-computer?redirectlocale=en-US&redirectslug=Cookies
    • Chrome – https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en
    • Safari – https://support.apple.com/guide/safari/manage-cookies-and-website-data-sfri11471/mac

If you configure your browser to refuse to accept cookies, you may be unable to access certain parts of this Website and/or it may not function as intended.

4. WHY WE PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION.

We process information that we collect from and/or about you, including Personal Information to perform services for you, to pursue our legitimate interests, and for other purposes, including:

• • To provide our Services, Websites and their content to you and allow you to review our services.
  • To provide you with information, products or services that you request from us. Where we do not have an account with you or provide you with any Services, we process your Personal Information based on our legitimate interest to operate and administer our Websites and to provide you with content you access and may request.
  • To provide you with customer support and communication.
  • For analytical purposes, which may include generate and analyze statistics about your use of the Website for operational and/or security purposes, measurement of effectiveness of our marketing activities, performance improvements, research, testing and other business purposes.
  • To notify you about changes to our Website or services we offer or provide through one or more of the Websites.
  • To allow you to use participate in interactive features on our Website.
  • To promote the security of our Website by verifying accounts and activity, investigating suspicious activities and enforcing our Terms of Service and policies to the extent necessary for our legitimate interests in promoting the safety and security of the systems and applications used by our Websites and to protect our rights and the rights of others.
  • To develop and improve our Website.

To send you marketing information, service recommendations and other non-transactional communications about us and our affiliates and partners, including information about our services necessary for our legitimate interest in conducting direct marketing or to the extent you have provided your prior consent, including without limitation, through requests made by you or use of built-in convenience features of the services we provide to you.

• • To cooperate with public and government authorities, courts or regulators in accordance with our legal obligations under applicable laws to the extent this requires the processing or disclosure of Personal Information to protect our rights or is necessary for our legitimate interest in protecting against misuse or abuse of our Websites, protecting personal property or safety, pursuing remedies available to us and limiting our damages, complying with judicial proceedings, court orders or legal processes or to respond to lawful requests.
  • In any other way we may describe when you provide the information.
  • For any other purpose with your consent.

We may also use your information to contact you about our own and third-parties’ services that may be of interest to you. If you do not want us to use your information in this way, please send us an e-mail stating your request to [email protected].

5. HOW WE USE OR SHARE YOUR INFORMATION.

5.1. Disclosure of Your Information.

We may disclose Personal Information that we collect or you provide as described in this Privacy Policy or the Terms of Service:

• • To our subsidiaries and affiliates.
  • To contractors, service providers and other third parties we use to support our business. We may share Personal Information collected through our Services or Website with companies that perform services on our behalf, including companies that provide website development and hosting.
  • To a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution or other sale or transfer of all or any portion of Forward Thinking Systems’ assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation or similar proceeding, in which Personal Information held by Forward Thinking Systems, or its affiliates, about our Website or Services users is among the assets transferred.
  • To fulfill the purpose for which you provide it. For example, if you give us information regarding your areas of interest in our Services.
  • With third-party social media networks, advertising networks and websites, which may also act as separate controllers, so that we can market and advertise on such third-party platforms and websites.
  • For any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information.
  • With your consent.

We may also disclose your Personal Information:

• • To comply with any court order, law or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request. We may disclose your personal information when we believe disclosure is appropriate to comply with the law or respond to a court order or subpoena; to prevent or investigate a possible crime, such as fraud or identity theft; or to protect the rights, property or safety of ourselves or others.  We reserve the right to report to appropriate law enforcement, governmental authorities and other third parties any activities that we, in good faith, believe to be harmful or unlawful, with or without providing notice to you
  • To enforce or apply our Terms of Service and other agreements.
  • If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of Forward Thinking Systems, our customers or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

We may also disclose aggregated information about you and other users that does not identify you or any other individual, without restriction.

We will not otherwise distribute, sell, rent, transfer, or otherwise disclose your Personal Information to any third party, except as provided for in this Privacy Policy or with you consent.

5.2 Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information.

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the Personal Information you provide to us. We have created mechanisms to provide you with the following control over your Personal Information:

• • Tracking Technologies and Advertising. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when cookies are being sent. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this site may then be inaccessible or not function properly.
  • Disclosure of Your Information for Third-Party Advertising. If you do not want us to share your Personal Information with unaffiliated or non-agent third parties for promotional purposes, you can opt-out by sending us an e-mail stating your request to [email protected].
  • Links to Internet or Mobile Sites. Our Websites or Services may contain links to Internet or mobile sites not owned or operated by us, including to sites featuring companies, products, services or news that may be of interest or to pages that we maintain on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter or other social media sites.  You should review the privacy and other policies of other Internet and mobile site providers carefully, as these policies may be different than the policies of our Websites and Services.  We assume no responsibility or liability for any third party Internet or mobile site operator’s privacy practices.
  • Promotional Offers from the Us. If you do not wish to have your e-mail address/contact information used to promote our own or third parties’ products or services, you can opt-out by sending us an e-mail stating your request to [email protected]. If we have sent you a promotional e-mail, you may send us a return e-mail asking to be omitted from future e-mail distributions. This opt out does not apply to information provided to Forward Thinking Systems as a result of a product purchase, product service experience or other transactions.

We do not control third parties’ collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising. However these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used in this way.

5.3  Choices for Personal Information.

We will ask for your consent prior to collecting or using Personal Information for any purpose other than those described in this Privacy Policy or other supplementary privacy notices. You may be given the option to opt out of some of our data-collection practices. If we propose to use Personal Information for any purpose other than those described in this Privacy Policy or other supplementary privacy notices, we will provide you with an effective way to opt out of such use. Please note that declining to submit Personal Information for any service may prevent us from being able to provide that service to you.

6. STORAGE AND INTERNATIONAL TRANSFER OF PERSONAL INFORMATION.

The information that we collect from you may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside of your country of domicile. It may also be processed by employees, subcontractors and sub-processors (“Our Providers”) operating outside of your country of domicile who work for us, or on our behalf. Our Providers may be engaged in, among other things, the fulfilment of any requests and the provision of support services. By submitting your Personal Information, you agree to this transfer, storing or processing. We take steps we believe reasonably necessary so that your Personal Information is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Your Personal Information is currently processed and stored in the United States.

Please note, not all countries provide the same level of data protection.  In this event, we will ensure that the recipient of your Personal Information offers an adequate level of protection in the country in which it is processed.

7. DATA RETENTION AND SECURITY.

7.1   Data Retention.

We retain your Personal Information and information stored and collected through our Website and Services for as long as we have a business or tax need or as applicable laws, regulations, or government orders require. When your information is no longer necessary or relevant for the identified purpose or to fulfill a legal or business requirement, we will use reasonable commercial efforts to securely dispose of and destroy your information collected through the Website.

After expiry of the applicable retention periods, your Personal Information will be deleted. If there is any information that we are unable, for technical reasons, to delete entirely from our systems, we will put in place appropriate measures to prevent any further use of such Information.

7.2  Data Security.

We, or Our Providers on our behalf, follow generally accepted standards, including organizational, technical and physical measures to help safeguard against the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration and unauthorized disclosure of, or access to, the Personal Information we process or use. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on this Website and our Services.

Any transmission of Personal Information is at your own risk. If you have any questions about the security of our Websites or Services, please contact us by using the information in the “Contact Information” section, below.

8. YOUR RIGHTS.

8.1  Your Rights.

You have certain rights relating to your Personal Information, subject to local data protection laws. Depending on the applicable laws, these rights may include:

• • Right to Access. Making a request (sometimes referred to as a “data subject access request) to access your Personal Information at any time. This enables you to receive a copy of the Personal Information we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
  • Right to Correct or Rectify. Request correction of the Personal Information that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate Personal Information we hold about you corrected, although we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
  • Right to Erase/Delete. Request erasure/deletion/removal of your Personal Information. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove your Personal Information where we do not have a valid reason to continue to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your Personal Information where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing, where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your Personal Information to comply with local law. Please Note: we may not always be able to comply with your request for erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
  • Right to Object. Object to processing of your Personal Information where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a 3rd 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 Information 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.
  • Right to Restrict Our Processing. Request restriction of processing of your Personal Information. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your Personal Information in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the accuracy of the data; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) 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 (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to process it.
  • Right to Transfer. Request the transfer of your Personal Information to you or directly to another controller. This right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the Personal Information to perform a contract with you.  We will (unless there is an exemption) assist you by securely transferring your Personal Information directly to another controller where technically feasible or by providing you with a copy in a structured commonly used machine readable format.
  • Right to Withdraw Consent. Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on your consent to process your Personal Information. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

California residents are entitled once a year, free of charge, to request and obtain certain information regarding our disclosure, if any, of certain categories of Personal Information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year. We do not share Personal Information with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes.  California residents who have profiles on our Websites and are under the age of 18 are entitled, in accordance with California law, to request and obtain removal of content and information that they themselves post on our Websites.

8.2.  How to Exercise Your Rights.

To exercise your rights, please contact us by using the information in the “Contact Information” section, below. We try to respond to all legitimate requests within a reasonable time period and will contact you if we need additional information from you in order to honor your request. Occasionally it may take us longer than anticipated, taking into account the complexity and number of requests we receive. If you are an employee of a customer of ours, we recommend you contact your company’s system administrator for assistance in correcting or updating your information.

8.3.  Your Preferences for Email and SMS Marketing Communications.

If we process your Personal Information for the purpose of sending you marketing communications, you may manage your receipt of marketing and non-transactional communications from us by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link located on the bottom of our marketing emails, by replying or texting ‘STOP’ if you receive SMS communications or by turning off push notifications on our apps on your device. Additionally, you may unsubscribe here or by contacting us using the information in the “Contact Information” section below. Please note that opting out of marketing communications does not opt you out of receiving important business communications related to your current relationship with us, such as communications about our services being provided to you, service announcements or security information.

9. MISCELLANEOUS.

9.1  Changes To Our Privacy Policy.

We reserve the right, at any time, to change, modify, or revise this Privacy Policy and the privacy and security practices discussed herein. We will post any revised version of the Privacy Policy on our Websites. If we make any significant, material changes to the Privacy Policy, we will modify the date on which this Privacy Policy was last revised as set forth at the top of this Privacy Policy. You are responsible for periodically visiting our Websites and this Privacy Policy to check for any changes.  Continued use of our Websites or our Services following such changes constitutes your acknowledgment of them and agreement to be bound by their terms and conditions.

9.2  Children’s Privacy.

We are committed to protecting the privacy of children and encourages parents and guardians to take an active role in their children’s online activities and interests. Our Websites are not directed to children or designed to attract them. You must be at least 16 years of age to use our Websites and Services. We do not knowingly collect, use, or disclose Personal Information about users that are under 16 years of age. If we later learn that a user is under 16 years of age, we will remove that user’s Personal Information from our databases and prevent the user from further using our Websites and services. If you become aware that a user is under 16 years of age, please notify us immediately at [email protected]. If you are a user who is identified in this manner, we may require you to submit suitable proof of age, such as a copy of government-issued identification, in order to continue using our Websites or Services.

9.3  Monitoring and Enforcement.

In accordance with applicable laws, you may request access and raise concerns or complaints regarding your Personal Information processed by us with by contacting us: by email at [email protected].

If you file a complaint, we will investigate the matter or suspected failure to comply with this Privacy Policy. It is our practice to respond to you within 45 days of receiving the complaint. We will take all appropriate action to remedy any such issues.

Contact Information.

To ask questions or comment about this Privacy Policy and our privacy practices, contact us at: [email protected] or send to us at Forward Thinking Systems, LLC, 575 Jericho Turnpike, Suite 301, Jericho, New York 11753.  You may also call us at 1-866-221-1864.