This is the privacy policy of Akouto Consulting Services Inc. and its subsidiaries.
This document was last updated on 19 January 2024.
Please read the following privacy policy to understand how we collect and use your personal data, for example when you contact us, visit or use one of our websites, mobile applications, portals, or other parts of our network (each a “Site”), or use our products and services, regardless of how you access them. This privacy policy also explains the rights available to you in respect of your personal data.
What personal data do we collect, how do we collect it, and why?
Data that you provide voluntarily to us
When you use our Site, products or services, or you otherwise communicate with us, we may ask you to provide certain personal data voluntarily, including but not limited to your name, company position, postal address, telephone number, mobile number, fax number, email address, credit card or other payment details, age or date of birth, account usernames, passwords, or gender. For example, we may ask you to provide some or all of this personal data when you register an account with us, subscribe to our marketing communications, purchase products or services, and/or submit enquiries to us. We use this information to create and administer your account, send you marketing communications, provide you with the products and services you request, and to respond to your enquiries. In general, the personal data that you are asked to provide, and the reasons why you are asked to provide it, will be made clear to you at the point we ask you to provide your personal data.
Data collected automatically
When you use our Site, products, or services, we may collect certain data automatically from your computers or devices (including mobile devices) or traffic on your network. The data we collect automatically may include your IP address (explained further below), device type, operating system details, unique device identification numbers (including mobile advertising identifiers), browser-type, browser language, operating system, geographic location (as explained further under the heading “Location information”) and other technical information. We may also collect data about how your device has interacted with our Site, products or services, including the pages or features accessed and links clicked, the amount of time spent on particular pages, mouse hovers, the date and time of the interaction, error logs, referring and exit pages and URLs, and similar information. Collecting this data enables us to better understand the visitors who use our Site, products, and services, including where they come from and what features are of interest to them. We use this information for our internal analytics purposes, and to improve the quality, relevance, and security of our Site, products and services.
For example, every time you connect to the Site, we store a log of your visit that shows the unique number your machine uses when it is connected to the Internet – its IP address. This log tells us what your machine has looked at, whether the page request was successful or not, and which browser your machine used to view the pages. This data is used for statistical purposes as well as to help customize the user experience as you browse the Site and subsequently interact with Akouto. This helps us to understand which areas of the Site are of particular interest, which pages are not being requested, and how many people are visiting the Site in total. It also helps us to determine which products and services may be of specific interest to you. We may also use this information to block IP addresses where there is a breach of the terms and conditions for use of the Site.
Some of the data may be collected automatically using tracking technologies, as explained further under the heading “Cookies and similar tracking technology”.
Data that we obtain from third party sources
From time to time, we may receive personal data about you from third party sources (including without limitation recruitment agencies, credit check agencies, agencies providing compliance checks, lead generation providers, resellers, and other partners who sell our products and services to you), but only where such third parties have confirmed that they have your consent or are otherwise legally permitted or required to disclose your personal data to us.
The types of information we collect from third parties include contact details, CVs, credit history, and order information, and we use the information we receive from these third parties to assess your suitability for a job position, carry out compliance checks required under applicable law (such as anti-bribery and corruption checks), make credit decisions, maintain and improve the accuracy of the records we hold about you, and market our products and services to you.
We also receive information from other members of the industry that forms part of or otherwise helps us to develop, test, and enhance our own product offering (for example spam lists, malicious URL lists, and sample viruses), some of which could contain personal data (where permitted by applicable law).
We may combine information that we collect from you with information about you that we obtain from such third parties.
Data collected through our products and services
We use data that we collect from products and services for the purposes for which you provided it, usage and audience counts, monitoring the performance and effectiveness of the products/services, monitoring compliance with our terms and conditions, enabling compatibility with third party operating systems/products/services, planning future roadmap strategy, planning product/service/feature lifecycles and retirements, conducting spam, threat and other scientific research, developing new products and services, enhancing existing products and services, troubleshooting product issues, generating statistics, reporting, and trend analysis. This may include incidental personal data (for example usernames, machine IDs, domain names, IP addresses, file names, and file paths).
Our products and services may collect further additional personal data about you beyond the data described in this privacy policy, or use your personal data in ways that are different to or in addition to those described in this privacy policy. Our End User License Agreement explains how our products and services collect and use personal data. Please review the relevant section of the End User License Agreement for the product or service you are using to ensure that you are fully informed.
Cookies and similar tracking technology
A cookie is a piece of text that gets entered into the memory of your browser by a website, allowing the website to store information on your machine and later retrieve it.
Our Site, products, and services may use cookies, unique device identifiers (like Apple ID For Advertisers on iOS devices, and Android Advertising ID on Android devices), and other tracking technologies (collectively, “Cookies”) to distinguish you from other users and better serve you when you return to the Site, product, or service, and to monitor and analyse the usage of the Site, product, or service. Cookies also enable us and our third party partners to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the onsite or in-product experience through content, features, and advertisements.
We, along with our service providers, may also use other Internet technologies, such as Flash technologies, Web beacons or pixel tags, and other similar technologies, to deliver or communicate with cookies and track your use of the Site, product, or service, as well as serve you ads and personalize/customize your experience when you are using our Site, product, or service and/or when you are on other websites where those cookies can be accessed. We may also include Web beacons in email messages, newsletters, and other electronic communications to determine whether the message has been opened and for other analytics, personalization, and advertising. As we adopt additional technologies, we may also gather additional information through other methods. This practice is explained further under the heading “Marketing and promotions”.
As explained above, we occasionally share information you have provided to us with service providers, who will de-identify the information and associate it with cookies that enable us to reach you. We may also help these service providers place their own cookies, by deploying a cookie that is associated with a ‘hashed’ value associated with interest-based or demographic data, to permit advertising to be directed to you on other websites, applications or services.
Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can modify your browser setting to decline cookies by visiting the Help portion of your browser’s toolbar. If you choose to decline cookies, please note that your ability to sign in, customize, or use some of the interactive features of our Site, product, or service may be impeded, and the advertisements you see may not be as relevant to you.
Location information
We may collect different types of information about your location, including general information (for example IP address or postal code) and more specific information (for example GPS-based functionality on mobile devices when used to access a Site, product, or service). This information may be used to customize the services provided to you, such as location-based information, advertising, and features. In order to do this, your location information may be shared with our agents, vendors, or advertisers. If you access the Services through a mobile device and you do not want your device to provide us with location-tracking information, you can disable the GPS or other location-tracking functions on your device, provided your device allows you to do this. See your device manufacturer’s instructions for further details.