Author Privacy Policy
Last Updated: July 9, 2024
Table of contents
1. What this Author Privacy Policy covers
Hootsuite Inc., Talkwalker S.à r.l., and their affiliates (collectively, “Hootsuite”) offer social listening and consumer intelligence services (referred to as “Listening Services”), allowing our customers to analyze publicly available information for brand monitoring and analytics purposes. This Author Privacy Policy provides information on how we collect, use, share, and otherwise process information about you that is published on websites, internet platforms, and other third-party sources, which we process as a controller in connection with the Listening Services.
Please refer to the Hootsuite Privacy Policy for information on how we process information about individuals who use our services, visit our websites, use our mobile applications, or otherwise interact directly with us.
2. Information we collect and how we use it
What information we collect
We only collect information that is publicly available. This includes information which has been published or made public by the authors and users of websites, internet platforms, and other third-party sources.
For our Listening Services, we process the following information:
Identification data (e.g., name, username, user id, geographical area)
Demographic data
Consumer feedback
Hobbies and interests
Professional and educational background
Pictures, audio, and videos
Any other brand-monitoring related information published by you on a publicly accessible website or third-party platform that provides us with data
Why we collect your information and how we use it
We process information about you to provide and improve our services. This includes providing public brand-related posts, trends, and statistics to our customers, allowing them to manage their brands and analyze related communications and topics.
We compile the information such as the top countries, interests, and demographic information of individuals engaging with a brand; and associated metrics such as the number of posts, followers, and impressions. We also display the posts that generate a high level of engagement, as well as information about the individuals posting the content (such as their X handle and general location). We may also infer certain information, such as sentiment, language, age range, gender, and general topics of interest based on publicly available data to present more insights to our customers.
Our data processing roles
When we are collecting and indexing publicly available information from websites, internet platforms, and other third-party sources in our database, and generating insights and statistics for the Listening Services, we act as a data controller.
The legal basis for processing your information is our legitimate interests in operating our business and providing these services to our customers. Our customers also have a legitimate interest to know what is published about their brands on the internet, in addition to what is being said about the brands in the traditional press, to gain insight into relevant news about its own company, including knowing about any issues which may affect their products and services in order to enable them to react to any issues, such as fake news or safety-related issues, to adapt their products or services offering, and to optimize the provision of their goods or services. Our customers also need to understand trends in their industries and seek publicly available information about their competitors to remain relevant in their industries.
However, where we provide our customers with the Listening Services in response to their instructions (e.g., search queries, filters and other parameters), we are acting as a data processor. In these cases, our customers are the data controllers and this means they are responsible for the processing of information about you. If you have questions about how your personal information is handled by one of our customers, please contact the relevant customer directly and refer to their privacy policies.
3. Who we share your information with
We may share your information with:
Customers, for the purpose of providing our Listening Services
Employees and authorized contractors, as necessary to fulfill their job responsibilities to provide and improve the Listening Services to our customers
Service Providers, authorized resellers and partners, to support business-specific functions such as providing, managing, selling, and securing the Listening Services
Successor and affiliated entities, including as part of a corporate transaction such as a merger or acquisition or sale of assets
Government authorities and other legal purposes, where we believe that it is reasonably necessary to comply with a law or regulation or if we are otherwise legally required to do so
Professional advisors, as necessary for audits, financial, regulatory reviews, or other legal matters
Our customers and other third parties, which may have access to your information, may process your information in accordance with the laws that apply to them and their own privacy policies.
4. How we safeguard your information
Hootsuite maintains industry standard security safeguards to protect your information. We also undertake security and privacy reviews of our service providers and enter into data protection agreements with them to ensure that they follow our stringent requirements to safeguard your information.
5. How long we retain your information
We retain information about you for as long as necessary to provide our Listening Services to our customers. If you request that we remove your personal information, we will delete any content containing your personal information, subject to our legal obligations to retain such data.
Please note that your information may continue to exist on the third-party platforms even after we delete it from our systems. You will need to contact the relevant third-party platform if you would like them to remove your information.
6. Your privacy rights
As an author, you have control over how your information is published on certain websites and internet platforms you use through the privacy settings provided by those platforms. These platforms may allow you to delete or amend your information or change the privacy settings to make your posts private, which will prevent any further collection of your information.
Depending on the data protection laws that apply to you, you may have the right to:
Access and obtain a copy of your information
Request correction of inaccurate information
Request deletion of your information
Request that we transfer your information to a third party in a machine-readable format
Object to our processing of your information, withdraw consent, or ask us to restrict the processing of your information
Opt out of certain disclosures of your information to third parties
You also have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising any of your rights. If you would like to exercise any of your rights, such as access, correction, or deletion of your information, please email our Privacy team for assistance. We will handle your request in a timely manner. We may also ask for additional information in order to confirm your identity. Please note that we may not always be able to immediately remove all your information if, for example, we are required by law to keep such data.
7. International data transfers
Our services are managed by Hootsuite’s headquarters in Canada and Talkwalker in Luxembourg. More specifically, our Listening Services are hosted and provided from within the European Economic Area (“EEA”). In addition, we use third-party service providers to process your information as part of providing our Listening Services and we may transfer your information to other countries where our third-party service providers are located.
We may transfer your information outside your country or jurisdiction, including to countries where the data protection laws are different from those of your country. Regardless of where your information is transferred, we will process your information with appropriate safeguards. As the European Commission considers Canada to be a country which provides adequate data protection, information about you may be lawfully transferred to Canada. We have also incorporated appropriate data transfer mechanisms amongst the Hootsuite corporate entities and with our service providers in accordance with European data protection laws.
8. How to contact us
If you have any questions, concerns or feedback, please email our Privacy team and Privacy Officer/Data Protection Officer here; or send a letter to either:
Hootsuite Inc.
111 East 5th Avenue
Vancouver, BC
Canada V5T 4L1
Attn: Hootsuite Privacy Team
Talkwalker S.à r.l.
33, avenue John F. Kennedy
L-1855 Luxembourg
Attn: Talkwalker Privacy Team
If we are unable to resolve your concerns, you also have the right to contact your local data protection authority.
9. Changes to this Author Privacy Policy
We may make changes to this Author Privacy Policy at any time to reflect updates to our services, applicable laws, and other factors. We encourage you to stay informed by reviewing this page periodically.