Privacy Policy

This Tess Inc. (“Tess,” “we,” or “us”) privacy policy describes how we collect and use personal data you provide to us when visiting the Tess website or using our services.

If you choose to use our service, then you agree to the collection and use of information as described in this policy. We use the data we collect to provide and improve our service. We will not use or share your information with anyone except as described in this privacy policy. If you have any questions about this policy, please contact us at hello@tess.design.

We provide the service to users from the United States. If you are from outside the United States and use our service, please be aware that data protection laws in the United States may differ from those in the country where you are located, and your data may be subject to access requests from governments, courts, or law enforcement in the United States.

If you are a California resident, you may have certain rights as provided in the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”). For the CCPA-specific provisions of this policy, please see the CCPA section below.

Users can explore the website, view content, and create new digital media using our tools without providing any personal information. Our service only collects personal information about a user if the user registers for Tess by signing in.

For a better experience while using our service, we may require you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information. We retain and use that information as described in this privacy policy.

You agree that we may use the personal information you submit to us in order to:

• Accomplish our business purposes, including to deliver or provide our services, establish or maintain customer or business relationships, improve our services, provide access to Internet-based or e-commerce activities, perform accounting functions, and conduct other activities as necessary or appropriate in connection with our services.
• Market our products and services to you, including to send you information about products, services, or promotions (you may opt out of these promotional communications by following the opt-out instructions in each message).
• Send you service updates, announcements, and alerts related to our services, including notices of security incidents, downtime, or planned maintenance.

In addition, Tess may transfer or disclose personal data to our service providers under written contracts as needed for such service providers to perform services on our behalf, including to fulfill our obligations to you. Service providers and business partners that are provided information under this section will not use personal data for any other purpose. If we become aware that a business partner or service provider is processing your personal information in a way contrary to this privacy policy, we will take reasonable steps to prevent or stop such processing.

Last, we will, in our sole discretion, disclose your personal data to third parties in certain additional limited cases: (1) when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action against someone who may be causing injury to or interference with Tess’s rights or the rights of our customers or vendors; (2) when we believe in good faith that the law requires us to do so; (3) to a subsequent owner, co-owner, or operator of a site or applicable database in connection with a merger, consolidation, or restructuring, or the sale of substantially all our interests and/or assets, or other corporate change, including during the course of any due diligence process; and (4) in situations involving threats to the physical safety of any person.

The app also uses third party services that may collect information used to identify you. These third party services include but may not be limited to the Facebook and Google OAuth login. The terms of this privacy policy do not apply to the methods for collecting information used by such third parties or the use of the information they collect. You should review their privacy policies if you have questions about their use of your data. We make no representations regarding the policies or practices of third parties in connection with our services.

We may obtain various types of personal data about users of our services and non-customer website visitors. This data may include:

• Contact information (name, address, phone number, email address)
• Information about products ordered or provided
• Information collected through Internet-based and e-commerce activities such as from log files, cookies, clear gifs, images, and scripts
• Customer service and demographic data
• Information from our third-party service providers

We may also use certain tracking technologies to collect, store, or accumulate certain non-personally identifiable information concerning your use of our website, including your browsing history, preferences, internet addresses, unique identifiers, device types, device location, and other similar information.

When providing our services we may also collect the following information about your computer or other device, including:

• Device information, such as the operating system version, processor type, disk space, memory space, and number of drivers.
• Information about software on your computer, including the versions of certain software programs and when they were installed and/or upgraded.
• Information collected from logs, configuration files, registry keys, and other system or software-level information.

The data described in this section is generally anonymous and aggregated. However, if Tess needs to have further information to diagnose certain kinds of problems or to monitor your computer for certain events, we will ask you for permission to collect this additional information.

Whenever you use the service, in the case of an error in the services, we collect data and information (through third party products) on your phone called Log Data. This Log Data may include information such as your device Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, device name, operating system version, the configuration of the app when utilizing our service, the time and date of your use of the service, and other statistics.

Cookies are files with a small amount of data that are commonly used as an anonymous unique identifier. These are sent to your browser from the website that you visit and are stored on your device’s internal memory.

Our service does not use these “cookies” explicitly. However, our app may use third party code and libraries that use “cookies” to collect information and to improve their services. You have the option to either accept or refuse these cookies and know when a cookie is being sent to your device. If you choose to refuse our cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our service.

We may employ third-party companies and individuals due to the following reasons:

• To facilitate our Service;
• To provide the Service on our behalf;
• To perform Service-related services; or
• To assist us in analyzing how our Service is used.

We value your trust in providing us your data, and we use commercially reasonable and industry standard means of protecting it. However, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure and reliable, and we cannot guarantee its absolute security.

This Service may contain links to other sites. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that site. Note that we do not operate these external sites. Therefore, we strongly advise you to review the privacy policy of these websites. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites or services.

Tess is not a service directed towards children. Children under the age of 13 are not allowed to create an account on Tess or otherwise use the website unless explicitly permitted by a parent. We support the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and our goal is to minimize the information gathered from and disseminated about children under 13 while permitting them active access to creative tools. You must be over the age required by the laws of your country to create an account or otherwise use our service, or we need to have obtained verifiable consent from your parent or legal guardian. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13.

If a child creates an account using an authorized or managed Google or Facebook account, parents can review user data in My Account. Parents may also ask us to cease further collection of personal information from their children, or delete the personal information we have collected online from their children, in which case the child's account will be deleted. If parents have any questions or concerns about their child's use of the service, we encourage parents to contact us at hello@tess.design.

Users can delete individual content at any time by clicking the "⋮" button on a project in their Workspace and selecting "Delete". It will be permanently removed from viewing and public access immediately and removed from our servers within 7 days.

Users can delete entire Workspaces by navigating to the settings page of a Workspace and clicking "Delete Workspace." The projects within a deleted Workspace will be permanently removed from viewing and public access immediately and removed from our servers within 7 days.

Users can delete their entire account to remove all personal data, effective immediately. This option can be found on the user's Account Settings page.

Users can contact Tess Support to request data deletion on their behalf.

Along with the information in the privacy policy as a whole, the CCPA requires us to describe the information we collect in certain “categories.” The categories we collect now or in the future may include:

• Identifiers (such as real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, internet protocol address, email address, account name, or other similar identifiers)
• Commercial information (such as transaction data and account and management information)
• Internet or other network or device activity (such as browsing history and information on interaction with a website, application, or advertisement)
• Geolocation data (at an IP-based or city/state/zip level)
• Inference data about you drawn from the data in this section (based on user profile information)
• Legally protected classifications (such as age and gender)
• Other information that identifies or can be reasonably associated with you (e.g., information you voluntarily provide as you use our services, such as additional profile information or user-generated content)

We collect personal data directly from information you provide to us; indirectly from our affiliates, service providers, and other vendors; and indirectly through your interactions with websites or advertisements.

The following is a list of the business purposes for our collection of information.

• Provide the services you have requested, including invoicing and accounting
• Respond to your requests for information and provide you with more effective and efficient customer service
• Provide you with updates and information about our services
• Contact you by email, postal mail, or phone regarding our services and third- party products, services, surveys, research studies, promotions, special events and other subjects that we think may be of interest to you
• Customize the advertising and content you see via the services
• Help us better understand your interests and needs, and improve the services, including through research and reports, and test and create new products, features, and services
• Secure our websites and applications, and resolve technical issues being reported
• Comply with any procedures, laws, and regulations which apply to us where it is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of others
• Establish, exercise, or defend our legal rights where it is necessary for our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of others

We may share categories of personal information to accomplish the various business purposes above and as described throughout this privacy policy.

If you are a California resident, the CCPA allows you to make certain requests about your personal information. Specifically, the CCPA allows you to request us to:

• Inform you about the categories of personal information we collect or disclose about you and the categories of sources of such information
• Inform you about the business or commercial purpose for collecting personal information and the categories of third parties with whom we share/disclose personal information (which is also disclosed in this privacy policy)
• Provide you with the specific pieces of personal information we collect about you
• Delete personal information we have about you

Please note that certain information may be exempt from such requests under California law. For example, we need certain information in order to provide the services to you. You may only make such a request twice within a twelve-month period. Requests are generally free; however, we may charge a reasonable fee or deny your request if it is manifestly unfounded, excessive, or repetitive.

To make a CCPA request, please contact us at hello@tess.design. We will request information, which at a minimum will include your name and email address, to verify your identity. We may request additional information to verify your identity before responding to a request. Under the CCPA, you may have an authorized agent submit a request on your behalf, and we will collect certain authorization and verification information from the agent and you in such circumstances.

The CCPA further provides you with the right to receive information about the financial incentives that we offer to you, if any, and the right not to be discriminated against for exercising your rights under applicable law.

If you would like further information regarding your legal rights under California law, please contact us at hello@tess.design.

If you are a California resident, the CCPA provides you with the right to opt out of the "sale" of your "personal information." We may allow some of our advertising partners to collect certain pieces of information from our site visitors, such as device identifiers, cookies, advertising IDs, IP addresses, and usage activity, so that we and our partners can deliver ads that are more relevant to you. This type of information sharing with our advertising partners may be considered a "sale" under the CCPA. If you want to opt out of these activities, please contact us at hello@tess.design. Please note that some or all of the Services may not function if you choose to opt out of such activities.

If you are a California resident, California Civil Code Section 1798.83 allows you to request and obtain from us once a year, free of charge, information about the personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year. If applicable, this information would include a list of the categories of personal information that was shared and the names and addresses of all third parties with which we shared information in the immediately preceding twelve calendar months. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please submit your request in writing to our privacy inbox at hello@tess.design.

We may update our privacy policy from time to time. Thus, you are advised to review this page periodically for any changes. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new privacy policy on this page. These changes are effective immediately after they are posted on this page, and we will update the “Effective Date” shown at the beginning of this policy.

If you have any questions or suggestions about our privacy policy, do not hesitate to contact us at hello@tess.design.