Who we are

We are Ancestral Systems, LLC, a company established in 2012 and located in the United States (Maryland) to support the needs of family history researchers.  Our main product is a software package called Clooz, which is thoroughly described on our website, https://clooz.com.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

What we collect

The personal information we collect, process, and store can be any of the following:

  • Name
  • Address (full address when purchasing a Clooz license; country only with Clooz trial licenses)
  • Phone number (when purchasing a Clooz license, at your option to provide)
  • Email Address

The collection of credit card or paypal account information is done through one of our credit card processors (Intuit, Stripe or paypal).   We do not collect, process, or store any credit card or paypal account information using our own software or servers.  However, these companies do retain transaction information on our (and your) behalf to be able to properly execute payments/charges, resolve transaction issues, and to be able to execute refunds when required.

Why we collect it

We only collect data required to support the services and access to products you request from us.  This includes:

  • Obtaining a Clooz serial number to be able to use the product on a trial basis for two weeks, under the terms of our License Agreement.  Our policy is to only allow one trial per email address.
  • Purchasing a Clooz license, per the terms of our License Agreement.  Your payment can be accomplished using a credit card or through a Paypal.com account.  Credit card or bank account information is entered using tools inserted onto the web page directly from our credit card gateway provider (Intuit.com; Quickbook Payments or Stripe.com).  We do not handle, process, or retain any account numbers.   When using Paypal, you are actually temporarily transferred to the paypal.com website to authorize the payment.   We see no information regarding your account information there.   The gateway providers do retain the transaction information to be able to properly execute payments/charges, resolve transaction issues, and to be able to execute refunds when required.  We do process and retain you name, address, and email address.   This establishes a record of who has obtained the Clooz serial number issued from the purchase.   When you purchase a license agreement, you must agree with the terms by checking a checkbox on the checkout form.   This establishes a contract relationship (the License Agreement) between us.  If we have reason to believe someone has violated the terms of their License Agreement, we need to know who that agreement was made with and have their contact information.   We also use this database of users to respond to requests from users who lost their serial number.
  • As part of the checkout page when purchasing a Clooz license, hardware and software information such as device and application data is collected to verify a human is making the purchase, versus a computer bot attempting to carry out fraudulent activity.   This data is provided to Google for analysis.  The information collected in connection with this process will be used for improving this security technology and for general security purposes.   It will not be used for personalized advertising by Google.
  • Knowing what country you live in allows us:
    • to adhere to United States export laws,
    • meet any international obligations, and
    • to make more informed decisions on what type of features need to be added to the software.
  • We provide support to users via email (support@clooz.com).   When you send an email to that address, it is forwarded to a third-party (Zendesk.com) which provides a service to initiate and track trouble tickets.   It is through this service that we respond to your email.   Your initial inquiry and our response is tracked for future reference (either in a follow-up related request, or in reviewing suggestions for new features made by users).  Your name (if your email message header included it) and your email address are retained in this database of support requests.
  • We provide the option for anyone to subscribe to our mailing list, to which we send occasional emails with information on how to use Clooz, news about upcoming changes to Clooz, and information on any sales promotions.   Subscribers sign up to receive this mail themselves, using a form provided by the mailing list provider (Constant Contact;  constantcontact.com).   We do not send emails to anyone who has not requested them.   Users can unsubscribe at any time, and their data (Name, Email, Country) is moved to our Unsubscribed list.  Subscribers not only need to opt-in to this list, they also need to send a confirmation response (double opt-in).
  • When Clooz checks for updates, the Clooz serial number and a Clooz installation code are provided to validate the installation.   Each Clooz installation on a users system is assigned an identification code.   This code is to identify excessive installations of the software which may be in violation of the License Agreement.
  • Capabilities may be added to Clooz to allow you to submit trouble reports to us when an error occurs.  You can also choose to include a log file with more detailed information about the Clooz installation, what Clooz was doing at the time, the error message, and information about the Windows configuration.  No personal information, or content of document information you are collecting in Clooz, will be included.  This additional information will allow us to improve our support and identify the causes of issues faster.
  • We have a product page setup on Facebook.com.   You do not need an account to view these sites.  Refer to Facebook to review their privacy policies:  https://www.facebook.com/privacy/explanation

We do not collect or acquire personal information regarding anyone outside the activities just mentioned.

Cookies and Embedded content from other websites

The Clooz.com website is constructed used some third-party tools that may utilize cookies.  These cookies permit the tools to function and provide you a smooth experience. We do not use these for marketing or tracking purposes. We will not link to other web sites or embed content that we have determined to make questionable use of this technology.

Some of the tools we use to build our website may use Google fonts.  We also store our training videos on Google’s YouTube.com web site.  Google’s privacy policy can be found here: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en

During the checkout process on the Clooz shopping pages, a tool may be used to  ensure a human is making the purchase versus a computer bot attempting to carry out fraudulent activity.   This test collects hardware and software information, such as device and application data and provides it to Google for analysis.   The information collected in connection with this process will be used for improving reCAPTCHA and for general security purposes.   It will not be used for personalized advertising by Google.

Who we share your data with

We strongly believe in your right to privacy, and do not share your data with any other entities except when required to provide the following services to you:

  • Obtaining payment from you when you purchase a Clooz license or other product.   When you use a credit card to purchase a Clooz license, your name and address are being provided to Intuit.com (Quickbook Payments) or Stripe.com to have your credit card account charged.  Actual credit card account information you enter is going directly into their systems.  Our web software does not process this data.  This process adheres to security standards established by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council, LLC (PCI Compliance level SAQ A-EP).  Intuit’s privacy policy can be found at:  https://security.intuit.com/index.php/privacy
  • When you purchase a Clooz license or other product using PayPal.com, you are transferred to their systems to handle that part of the purchase.  PayPal’s privacy policy can be found at: https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full
  • When you send an email to us for support (support@clooz.com), we automatically forward it to our trouble ticket tracking service provided to us by Zendesk.com.   Zendesk’s privacy policy can be found at: https://www.zendesk.co.uk/company/customers-partners/#privacy-policy
  • While we do not share any personal information with our mailing list provider (you provide it to them directly), they do process your name, email, and country on our behalf.   Constant Contact’s privacy policy can be found at: https://www.constantcontact.com/legal/service-provider
  • Our Clooz.com website is located on servers provided by a commercial website hosting provider.  You do not interact with them directly, and other than our software and databases being located on their systems, we do not share your data with them.

How long we retain your data

We retain the limited amount of your personal information (as described in the preceding sections) for an indefinite length of time to help us enforce the terms of the Clooz License Agreement you had agreed to.   See a further explanation of why we collect your personal information in the earlier section.

What rights you have over your data

If you have obtained a Clooz license, requested support, or joined our mailing list, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.  We need to maintain basic identification of all holders of Clooz License Agreements that are to remain valid.

If you believe there is an error in the personal information you have provided to us, such as changes in email address, etc., you can update the mailing list information yourself by finding the “update” link at the bottom of any mass mailings we send out.   Other changes of our registration database of licenses should be sent to support@clooz.com.

Your contact information

If you have the need to contact us regarding the processing of your personal information or our privacy policy in general, please send an email to support@clooz.com.

Additional information

How we protect your data

Ancestral Systems LLC will take reasonable precautions to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, unauthorized alteration, destruction or other malfeasance, and as dictated by any current or future agreements which may exist between the United States and the European Union.  The information is held on a server with restricted access.

We use industry-standard Secure Socket Layer (SSL) software to protect the security of your personal information during transmission, which encrypts all of the information you input.  Only employees or associates who need personal information to perform a specific job (i.e. customer services) are granted access to it.

Our web service provider maintains daily backup, daily vulnerability scans, firewall protection, denial of service protection, and other security features.

What data breach procedures we have in place

Due to the nature of the information and related technology, we cannot ensure or guarantee the security of your personal information and expressly disclaims any such obligation. If we learn of a security breach, then we will attempt to notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate steps.  We will also notify appropriate authorities.

What third parties we receive data from

We do not use or receive any personal information from third parties.   You are our only source when you send emails to us or fill in forms on our web site.