Privacy policy

Terms and conditions

Protecting your privacy

Your privacy is critically important to us. At Thermetrics, we have a few fundamental principles, consistent with our core values around Relationships, Integrity, and Collaboration:

  • We are thoughtful about the personal information we ask you to provide and the personal information that we collect about you through the operation of our services.
  • We store personal information for only as long as we have a reason to keep it.
  • We help protect you from overreaching government demands for your personal information.
  • We aim for full transparency on how we gather, use, and share your personal information.

Below is our Privacy Policy, which incorporates and clarifies these principles.

Who We Are and What This Policy Covers

Howdy! We are Thermetrics and honored to be spending this time with you.  This policy applies to:

  • Our websites (including thermetrics.com and any related sites for spare parts or technical support);
  • Our other Thermetrics products, services, and features that are available on or through our websites 

This Privacy Policy also applies to information we collect when you apply for a job at Thermetrics. Throughout this Privacy Policy we’ll refer to our website, mobile applications, and other products and services collectively as “Services.”

Below we explain how we collect, use, and share information about you, along with the choices that you have with respect to that information.

Information We Collect

We only collect information about you if we have a legitimate reason to do so — for example, to provide our services, to communicate with you, or to make our services better. We collect this information from three sources: if and when you provide information to us, automatically through operating our Services, and from outside sources. Let’s go over the information that we collect.

Information You Provide to Us

It’s probably no surprise that we collect information that you provide to us directly. Here are some examples:

  • Basic account information: We ask for basic information from you in order to set up your account. 
  • Public profile information: If you have an account with us, we collect the information that you provide for your public profile. 
  • Payment and contact information: If you buy something from us, we’ll collect information to process those payments and contact you. We also keep a record of the purchases you’ve made. 
  • Content information: You might provide us with information about you in draft and published content (a blog post or comment that includes biographic information about you, or any media or files you upload).
  • Communications with us (hi there!): You may also provide us with information when you respond to surveys, communicate with our team about a support question, post a question in our public forums, or sign up for a newsletter. When you communicate with us via form, email, phone, WordPress.com comment, or otherwise, we store a copy of our communications
  • Job applicant information: If you apply for a job with us — awesome! You may provide us with information like your name, contact information, resume or CV, and work authorization verification as part of the application process.

Information We Collect Automatically

We also collect some information automatically:

  • Log information: Like most online service providers, we collect information that web browsers, mobile devices, and servers typically make available, including the browser type, IP address, unique device identifiers, language preference, referring site, the date and time of access, operating system, and mobile network information. We collect log information when you use our Services
  • Usage information: We collect information about your usage of our Services.
  • Location information: We may determine the approximate location of your device from your IP address. We collect and use this information to, for example, calculate how many people visit our Services from certain geographic regions.
  • Stored information: We may access information stored on your instrument by our ThermDAC software. We access this stored information through your device operating system’s permissions.
  • Information from cookies & other technologies: A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor’s computer, and that the visitor’s browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. Pixel tags (also called web beacons) are small blocks of code placed on websites and emails. Thermetrics uses cookies and other technologies like pixel tags to help us identify and track visitors, usage, and access preferences for our Services, as well as track and understand email campaign effectiveness and to deliver targeted ads. For more information about our use of cookies and other technologies for tracking, including how you can control the use of cookies, please see the section for Cookie Policy below.

Information We Collect from Other Sources

We may also get information about you from other sources. For example, if you purchase our products, we may receive payment and personal information such as your email address and phone number. The information we receive depends on which services you use or authorize and what options are available. Third-party services may also give us information, like mailing addresses for individuals who are not yet our customers (but we hope will be!). We use this information for marketing purposes like postcards and other mailers advertising our Services.

How and Why We Use Information

Purposes for Using Information

We use information about you for the purposes listed below:

  • To provide our Services. For example, to set up and maintain your account, provide customer service, process payments and orders, and verify purchaser information.
  • To provide appropriate technical support.  For example, to determine the configuration or performance metrics of your Thermetrics instrument.
  • To ensure quality, maintain safety, and improve our Services. For example, by providing automatic upgrades and new versions of our Services. Or, for example, by monitoring and analyzing how customers interact with our Services so we can create new features that we think our customers will enjoy.
  • To market our Services and measure, gauge, and improve the effectiveness of our marketing. For example, by targeting our marketing messages to groups of our customers, advertising our Services, analyzing the results of our marketing campaigns (like how many people purchased a paid plan after receiving a marketing message), and understanding and forecasting customer retention.
  • To protect our Services, our customers, and the public. For example, by detecting security incidents; detecting and protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity; fighting spam; complying with our legal obligations; and protecting the rights and property of Thermetrics and others, which may result in us, for example, declining a transaction or terminating Services.
  • To fix problems with our Services. For example, by monitoring, debugging, repairing, and preventing issues.
  • To customize the customer experience. For example, to personalize your experience by serving you relevant notifications and advertisements for our Services, recommending products or features we think you might find to be valuable.
  • To communicate with you. For example, by emailing you to ask for your feedback, share tips for getting the most out of our products, or keep you up to date on Thermetrics; texting you to verify your payment; or calling you to share offers and promotions that we think will be of interest to you. If you don’t want to hear from us, you can opt out of marketing communications at any time. (If you opt out, we’ll still send you important updates relating to your account.)
  • To recruit and hire new Staff. For example, by evaluating job applicants and communicating with them.

Legal Bases for Collecting and Using Information

A note here for those in the European Union about our legal grounds for processing information about you under EU data protection laws, which is that our use of your information is based on the grounds that: (1) The use is necessary in order to fulfill our commitments to you under the applicable terms of service or other agreements with you or is necessary to administer your account — for example, in order to enable access to support your device or charge you for a paid plan; or (2) The use is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation; or (3) The use is necessary in order to protect your vital interests or those of another person; or (4) We have a legitimate interest in using your information — for example, to provide and update our Services; to improve our Services so that we can offer you an even better customer experience; to safeguard our Services; to communicate with you; to measure, gauge, and improve the effectiveness of our advertising; and to understand our customer retention and attrition; to monitor and prevent any problems with our Services; and to personalize your experience; or (5) You have given us your consent — for example before we place certain cookies on your device and access and analyze them later on, as described in our Cookie Policy.

Sharing Information

How We Share Information

We share information about you in limited circumstances, and with appropriate safeguards on your privacy. These are spelled out below, as well as in the section below called Ads and Analytics Services Provided by Others:

  • Independent contractors: We may disclose information about you to our independent contractors who need the information to help us provide our Services or process the information on our behalf. We require our independent contractors to follow this Privacy Policy for any personal information that we share with them.
  • Third-party vendors: We may share information about you with third-party vendors who need the information in order to provide their services to us, or to provide their services to you or your site. This includes vendors that help us provide our Services to you (, Payment providers that process your credit and debit card information, payment providers you use for your own eCommerce operations, fraud prevention services that allow us to analyze fraudulent payment transactions, cloud storage services, postal and email delivery services that help us stay in touch with you, customer chat and email support services that help us communicate with you,; those that assist us with our marketing efforts (e.g., by providing tools for identifying a specific marketing target group or improving our marketing campaigns, and by placing ads to market our services); those that help us understand and enhance our Services (like analytics providers); those that make tools to help us run our operations (like programs that help us with task management, scheduling, word processing, email and other communications, and collaboration among our teams); other third-party tools that help us manage operations;), who may need information about you in order to, for example, provide technical or other support services to you. We require vendors to agree to privacy commitments in order to share information with them.
  • Legal and regulatory requirements: We may disclose information about you in response to a subpoena, court order, or other governmental request.
  • To protect rights, property, and others: We may disclose information about you when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of Thermetrics, third parties, or the public at large. For example, if we have a good faith belief that there is an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury, we may disclose information related to the emergency without delay.
  • Business transfers: In connection with any merger, sale of company assets, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company, or in the unlikely event that Thermetrics goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, customer information would likely be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. If any of these events were to happen, this Privacy Policy would continue to apply to your information and the party receiving your information may continue to use your information, but only consistent with this Privacy Policy.
  • With your consent: We may share and disclose information with your consent or at your direction.
  • Aggregated or de-identified information: We may share information that has been aggregated or de-identified, so that it can no longer reasonably be used to identify you. For instance, we may publish aggregate statistics about the use of our instruments or services,
  • Published support requests: If you send us a request for assistance (for example, via a support email or one of our other feedback mechanisms), we reserve the right to publish that request in order to clarify or respond to your request, or to help us support other customers.

We have a long-standing policy that we do not sell our customers’ data. We aren’t a data broker, we don’t sell your personal information to data brokers, and we don’t sell your information to other companies that want to spam you with marketing emails. Under a new California law, the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), some personalized advertising you see online and on our services might be considered a “sale” even though we don’t share information that identifies you personally, like your name or email address, as part of our advertising program.

Information Shared Publicly

Information that you choose to make public is — you guessed it — disclosed publicly. 

That means information like your public profile, posts, other content that you make public, and your “Likes” and comments on other websites are all available to others — and we hope they get a lot of views! 

How Long We Keep Information

We generally discard information about you when it’s no longer needed for the purposes for which we collect and use it — described in the section above on How and Why We Use Information — and we’re not legally required to keep it.

Security

While no online service is 100% secure, we work very hard to protect information about you against unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction, and take reasonable measures to do so. We monitor our Services for potential vulnerabilities and attacks. 

Choices

You have several choices available when it comes to information about you:

  • Limit the information that you provide: If you have an account with us, you can choose not to provide the optional account information, profile information, and transaction and billing information. Please keep in mind that if you do not provide this information, certain features of our Services may not be accessible.
  • Opt out of marketing communications: You may opt out of receiving promotional communications from us. Just follow the instructions in those communications or let us know. If you opt out of promotional communications, we may still send you other communications, like those about your account and legal notices.
  • Set your browser to reject cookies: At this time, Thermetrics does not respond to “do not track” signals across all of our Services. However, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies before using Thermetrics’ websites, with the drawback that certain features of Thermetrics’s websites may not function properly without the aid of cookies.

Your Rights

If you are located in certain parts of the world, including California and countries that fall under the scope of the European General Data Protection Regulation (aka the “GDPR”), you may have certain rights regarding your personal information, like the right to request access to or deletion of your data.

European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

If you are located in a country that falls under the scope of the GDPR, data protection laws give you certain rights with respect to your personal data, subject to any exemptions provided by the law, including the rights to:

  • Request access to your personal data;
  • Request correction or deletion of your personal data;
  • Object to our use and processing of your personal data;
  • Request that we limit our use and processing of your personal data; and
  • Request portability of your personal data.

You also have the right to make a complaint to a government supervisory authority.

California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)

The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) requires us to provide California residents with some additional information about the categories of personal information we collect and share, where we get that personal information, and how and why we use it. The CCPA also requires us to provide a list of the “categories” of personal information we collect, as that term is defined in the law, so, here it is.

  • Identifiers (like your name, contact and employer information, and device and online identifiers);
  • Commercial information (your billing information and purchase history, for example);
  • Internet or other electronic network activity information (such as your usage of our Services, like the actions you take as a visitor to the Thermetrics website);
  • Geolocation data (such as your location based on your IP address);
  • Audio, electronic, visual or similar information (such as your profile picture, if you uploaded one);
  • Professional or employment-related information (for example, your company and team information, or information you provide in a job application); and
  • Inferences we make (such as likelihood of future collaboration potential).

You can find more information about what we collect and sources of that information in the Information We Collect section above. We collect personal information for the business and commercial purposes described in the How and Why We Use Information section. And we share this information with the categories of third parties described in the Sharing Information section. If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the CCPA, subject to any exemptions provided by the law, including the right to:

  • Request to know the categories of personal information we collect, the categories of business or commercial purpose for collecting and using it, the categories of sources from which the information came, the categories of third parties we share it with, and the specific pieces of information we collect about you;
  • Request deletion of personal information we collect or maintain;
  • Opt out of any sale of personal information; and
  • Not receive discriminatory treatment for exercising your rights under the CCPA.

Contacting Us About These Rights

You can usually access, correct, or delete your personal data using your account settings and tools that we offer, but if you aren’t able to or you’d like to contact us about one of the other rights, scroll over to “Get in Touch” and let us know what seems amiss. When you contact us about one of your rights under this section, we’ll need to verify that you are the right person before we disclose or delete anything. For example, if you are a customer, we will need you to contact us from the email address associated with your account. You can also designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf by giving us written authorization. We may still require you to verify your identity with us.

How to Reach Us

If you have a question about this Privacy Policy, or you would like to contact us about any of the rights mentioned in the Your Rights section above, please contact us through our “Get in Touch” web form and or via email. These are the fastest ways to get a response to your inquiry, but you can also contact us by telephone at 1 206 456 9119

Other Things You Should Know (Keep Reading!)

Transferring Information

Because Thermetrics’s Services are offered worldwide, the information about you that we process when you use the Services in the EU may be used, stored, and/or accessed by individuals operating outside the European Economic Area (EEA) who work for us, other members of our group of companies, or third-party data processors. This is required for the purposes listed in the How and Why We Use Information section above. When providing information about you to entities outside the EEA, we will take appropriate measures to ensure that the recipient protects your personal information adequately in accordance with this Privacy Policy as required by applicable law. These measures include:

  • In the case of US based entities, entering into European Commission approved standard contractual arrangements with them, or ensuring they have signed up to the EU-US Privacy Shield; or
  • In the case of entities based in other countries outside the EEA, entering into European Commission approved standard contractual arrangements with them.

You can ask us for more information about the steps we take to protect your personal information when transferring it from the EU.

Privacy Policy Changes

Although most changes are likely to be minor, Thermetrics may change its Privacy Policy from time to time. Thermetrics encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. 

What are cookies?

Cookies are small pieces of data, stored in text files, that are stored on your computer or other device when websites are loaded in a browser. They are widely used to “remember” you and your preferences, either for a single visit (through a “session cookie”) or for multiple repeat visits (using a “persistent cookie”). They ensure a consistent and efficient experience for visitors, and perform essential functions such as allowing customers to register and remain logged in. Cookies may be set by the site that you are visiting (known as “first party cookies”), or by third parties, such as those who serve content or provide advertising or analytics services on the website (“third party cookies”).

Both websites and HTML emails may also contain other tracking technologies such as “web beacons” or “pixels.” These are typically small transparent images that provide us with statistics, for similar purposes as cookies. They are often used in conjunction with cookies, though they are not stored on your computer in the same way. As a result, if you disable cookies, web beacons may still load, but their functionality will be restricted.

How we use cookies

We use cookies for a number of different purposes. Some cookies are necessary for technical reasons; some enable a personalized experience for both visitors and registered customers; and some allow the display of advertising from selected third party networks. Some of these cookies may be set when a page is loaded, or when a visitor takes a particular action (clicking the “like” or “follow” button on a post, for example).

For more information on the choices you have about the cookies we use, please see the Controlling Cookies section below.

Where we place cookies

We set cookies in a number of different locations across our website  These can include:

  • In the administrative dashboards of our website.
  • On sites we host for our customers.
  • In the emails we send.

Types of Cookie

The table below explains the types of cookies we use on our websites and why we use them.

Category of cookiesWhy we use these cookies
Strictly NecessaryThese cookies are essential for websites on our services to perform their basic functions. These include those required to allow registered customers to authenticate and perform account related functions, as well as to save the contents of virtual “carts” on sites that have an ecommerce functionality.
FunctionalityThese cookies are used to store preferences set by customers such as account name, language, and location.
SecurityWe use these cookies to help identify and prevent potential security risks.
Analytics and PerformancePerformance cookies collect information on how customers interact with our websites, including what pages are visited most, as well as other analytical data. We use these details to improve how our websites function and to understand how customers interact with them.
AdvertisingThese cookies are used to display relevant advertising to visitors who use our services or visit websites we host or provide, as well as to understand and report on the efficacy of ads served on our websites. They track details such as the number of unique visitors, the number of times particular ads have been displayed, and the number of clicks the ads have received. They are also used to build customer profiles, including showing you ads based on products you’ve viewed or acts you have taken on our (and other) websites. These are set by Thermetrics and trusted third party networks, and are generally persistent in nature.
Third Party / Embedded ContentThese include social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter (through the use of sharing buttons), or embedded content from Youtube and Vimeo. As a result, cookies may be set by these third parties, and used by them to track your online activity. We have no direct control over the information that is collected by these cookies.

Examples

Below are examples of the cookies which may be set by Thermetrics, with explanations of their purpose. Please note that this is not an exhaustive list, but rather aims to be representative.

Advertising

CookiePurpose
adsTracks if a visitor has clicked an ad before.
  
wordpress_eliReduces the display of ads for repeat visitors.

Please also see the section below on third party advertisements that you may see on our sites or sites that use our services.

Analytics and Performance

CookiePurpose
  
_hjIncludedInSample mp_6d7c50ad560e01715a871a117a2fbd90_mixpanel optimizelyBuckets optimizelyEndCustomerId __hstc hubspotutk optimizelySegmentsGathers information that helps us understand how visitors interact with our websites, which allows us to create a better visitor experience.
abUsed for “AB testing” of new features.
nux_flow_nameIdentifies which customer signup flow was shown to the customer.
tk_ni / tk_ai / tk_qsGathers information for our own, first party analytics tool about how our services are used. A collection of internal metrics for customer activity, used to improve customer experience.
  
  
utma / utmb / utmc / utmt / utmz / ga / gat / gidGoogle Analytics. Gathers information that helps us understand how visitors interact with our websites, which allow us to create a better experience for our visitors. Our customers may also implement Google Analytics on their own websites.

Functionality

CookiePurpose
__stripe_sid / __stripe_midFor processing payment and to aid in fraud detection.
  
akm_mobileStores whether a customer has chosen to view the mobile version of a website.
botdlangUsed to track the language a customer has selected to view popular blogs in.
landingpage_currencyDefines the currency displayed in WordPress.com landing pages.
  
  
wordpress_logged_in*Checks whether or not the current visitor is a logged in WordPress.com customer.
wp-settings-{customer_id}Persists a customer’s wp-admin configuration.
wp_sharing_{id}Tracks whether or not a customer has already performed an action.

Strictly Necessary

CookiePurpose
country_codeUsed in order to determine whether or not the cookie banner should be shown. Set immediately on page load and retained for 6 hours to remember the visitor’s country.
sensitive_pixel_optionRemembers the state of visitor acceptance to the cookie banner. Only set when the visitor clicks Accept.
twostep_authSet when the customer is logged in using two factor authentication.
wordpress_test_cookieChecks if cookies are enabled to provide appropriate customer experience.

Controlling Cookies

Visitors may wish to restrict the use of cookies or completely prevent them from being set. Most browsers provide for ways to control cookie behavior such as the length of time they are stored – either through built-in functionality or by utilizing third party plugins. If you disable cookies, please be aware that some of the features of our service may not function correctly.

To find out more on how to manage and delete cookies, visit aboutcookies.org. For more details on your choices regarding use of your web browsing activity for interest-based advertising you may visit the following sites:

On a mobile device, you may also be to adjust your settings to limit tracking.  

For example, you can opt out of Google Analytics by installing Google’s opt-out browser add-on, or from Hotjar by using the Do Not Track header.

Consent for Advertising Cookies on Our Sites

You may see a “cookie banner” on our websites and dashboards. If you are visiting one of our sites from the EU, then we do not set, or allow our ad partners to set, cookies that are used to show you targeted ads before you click to accept. When you consent in this manner, we and our advertising partners may set advertising cookies on the site you are visiting and on our other websites, dashboards, and services, which we use to show you advertisements about our various Thermetrics products. We’ll display the banner to you periodically, just in case you change your mind.