Confluent, Inc. and its subsidiaries (“Confluent,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) understand that privacy is important to visitors to our websites (our “Sites”) and users of our products and services (our “Products”). This Privacy Notice ("Notice") explains how we collect, use, and share your personal information, and how you can exercise your privacy rights.
If you are unable to access this Notice due to a disability or any physical or mental impairment, please contact us using the contact details in the How to Contact Us Section and we will arrange to supply you with the information you need in an alternative format that you can access.
This Privacy Notice covers personal information we process:
(1) When you visit our Sites, and in the usual course of business, such as in connection with our events, sales, and marketing activities (collectively, "Visitors"); and
(2) When you register to or otherwise use Confluent Products whether as an individual, as an applicant, team member, or employee of our customers (collectively, "Users").
This Privacy Notice does not apply to Sites or Products that display or link to different privacy policies. This Notice also does not apply where Confluent processes personal information of our customers on their behalf; our collection and processing of such personal information is governed by our agreements with those customers.
Quick Links
We recommend that you read this Notice in full to ensure you are fully informed. However, to make it easier for you to review those parts of this Notice, which apply to you, we have divided up the document into the following sections:
Confluent is a company headquartered in Mountain View, California. Confluent is pioneering a fundamentally new category of data infrastructure focused on data in motion. Confluent’s cloud-native offering is the foundational platform for data in motion – designed to be the intelligent connective tissue enabling real-time data, from multiple sources, to constantly stream across the organization. With Confluent, organizations can create a central nervous system to innovate and win in a digital-first world.
2. PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT
The information we collect depends on the context of your interactions with Confluent and the choices you make (including your privacy settings), the Products and features you use, your location, and applicable law.
(i) Information You Provide to Us
WHEN YOU VISIT OUR SITES
Certain parts of our Sites may ask you to provide personal information voluntarily. We collect and store personal information that you directly provide us through our Site, through interactions on social media, participation in a survey or promotion, application for a job, when downloading white papers on our Sites, and at events. We will collect certain personal information so that we may fulfill your request or keep in touch in connection with our sales and marketing activities (always in accordance with your marketing preferences). Information we collect includes:
Contact information: your name, email address, phone number, mailing address, billing address, and usernames;
Demographic data: your job title, company name, city, state, and country;
Payment information: your credit card numbers and other payment information. Our third- party payment processors (like Stripe) collect this information if you purchase our Products, such as online training, cloud services, or software subscriptions; and
Content and communications: any data you enter into any ‘free text’ boxes on our forms; comments in our chat forms, and communications with us on social media and other platforms (like GitHub and Twitter), through phone, or messaging services (like Slack).
WHEN YOU USE OUR PRODUCTS
If you are a User, you or your employer, may provide certain personal information to us through the use of Confluent Products - for example, when you register for a Confluent account to access and use our Products, when you consult with customer support, or send us an email or communicate with us in any way. Personal information we collect may include:
Business contact information: such as your name, job title, organization, phone number, email address and country.
Marketing information: such as your contact preferences.
Account log-in credentials: such as your email or username and password when you sign up for an account with us and the unique User/ team ID assigned to you in our systems.
Troubleshooting and support data: such as personal information you provide or we otherwise access in connection with support queries we receive from Users. This may include, for example, contact or authentication data, the content of your chats and other communications with Confluent, and the product or service you are using related to your help inquiry.
(ii) Information We Collect Automatically.
WHEN YOU VISIT OUR SITES
When you visit our Sites or interact with our emails, we gather certain technical information from your browser or device automatically and store it in log files. In some (but not all) countries, including countries in the European Economic Area ("EEA"), UK and Switzerland, this information is considered personal information under data protection laws. To the extent that this automatically collected data includes, or is linked to, personal information, we will treat the data in accordance with this Privacy Notice.
This information we collect includes:
Geolocation data: Such as your geolocation data when you visit our Sites and use our Products. For example, we may derive your general location using IP address.
Identifiers and device information. Such as your device’s operating system, device identifier, customer ID and other device information, user agent string, Internet Protocol (IP) address, access times, browser type, and log data detailing your interactions with our Site (e.g., number of clicks, pages viewed, information searched for), and the website you visited before and after coming to our Site (i.e., referrer header) are logged automatically. When you submit a support ticket, we receive data from the user agent string of your browser, which includes device information, browser information, OS information, city, state, country, and IP address.
Information collected through social media and other platforms. We receive information about you when you engage with us through various third-party platforms, for example, by joining our Slack community or Google group, liking us on Facebook, connecting on LinkedIn, GitHub, or Meetup, following us on Twitter or Instagram, registering for training through Content Raven, or sharing content from our Site on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. The data we exchange with these third-party platforms may depend upon your privacy settings with these platforms. You should review and consider adjusting your privacy settings on third-party websites and services before engaging. Do not provide us with any sensitive personal data through these platforms. We are not responsible for the data protection and use practices of these third-party platforms. Please see their privacy policies to learn how they use your information.
For more information please see the “Our Use of Cookies and Other Technologies” and “Product telemetry data” sections below.
WHEN YOU USE OUR PRODUCTS
When you use our Products, we collect certain technical information from your browser or device automatically. This information includes:
Geolocation data: Depending on your device settings, we collect geolocation data when you use our Products. For example, we may derive your general location using IP address.
Product telemetry data: Such as telemetry data and other data about your usage, including your IP Address and other unique identifiers in combination with information about the version of our software you are running and how it is configured, to collect and aggregate certain diagnostic and analytics information. We may combine this information with information you provide when you download our Products or provide to customer support, including the name of your organization or company. You can turn off the collection of telemetry data as described in the “Choices” section below and as described further in the applicable product documentation including the More Information page.
Inferences. We infer new information about you and your company from data we collect, including using automated means to generate information about your likely preferences, your service and product needs or other characteristics. For example, we infer your city, state, and country location based on your IP address.
Information collected through social media and other platforms. We receive information about you when you engage with us through various third-party platforms, for example, by joining our Slack community or Google group, liking us on Facebook, connecting on LinkedIn, GitHub, or Meetup, following us on Twitter or Instagram, registering for training through Content Raven, or sharing content from our Site on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. The data we exchange with these third-party platforms may depend upon your privacy settings with these platforms. You should review and consider adjusting your privacy settings on third- party websites and services before engaging. Do not provide us with any sensitive personal data through these platforms. We are not responsible for the data protection and use practices of these third-party platforms. Please see their privacy policies to learn how they use your information.
(iii) Information We Collect from Third-party Sources.
We may occasionally receive your personal information from third party sources including our affiliates, marketing and research partners, and companies such as DiscoverOrg (contact database), Hootsuite (social media management platform), Kickfire (company database), and LinkedIn.
Users of our Products may also provide your personal information when they identify you as a billing, support, or technical contact, or when inviting you to use our Products or attend our events. If you integrate or link a third-party service with our Sites or Products, we may receive personal information about you from that third-party service based upon the settings and permissions you've established with such third party service, and that third party service's privacy practices.
The types of information we collect from third parties may include contact information, demographic data, and content and communications. We use this information to maintain and improve the accuracy of the records we hold about you, identify new customers, and provide a more tailored advertising experience. We may combine this information with other information we collect about you through our Sites and Products.
When you are asked to provide personal information, you may decline. But if you choose not to provide information that is necessary to provide certain Products, those Products may not be available or function correctly.
Finally, you have the option to create a Confluent Cloud account and log into such account using Google sign-in services. Google sign-in services will authenticate your identity and provide you with the option to share with us certain information, such as your full name, nickname, e-mail address and picture. Confluent receives this data from Google as part of the creation, authentication and authorization framework in connection to your Confluent Cloud account.
3. OUR USE OF COOKIES AND SIMILAR TECHNOLOGIES
Our Sites and related online services use cookies and similar technologies to enable certain functionality and help collect information about your visit. We use the following technologies, over which you have certain options:
“Cookies” are small text files, typically containing a unique string of letters and numbers, stored on your hard drive by a Site. When you return to the Site using the same browser, the Site can read the cookie and thereby gather information about your usage over time. Among other things, we use cookies and other technology to see which areas and features are popular and to count visits, which helps us to improve our Site, our Products, and your experience. Most Web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually set your browser to remove cookies and to reject cookies. If you choose to remove reject cookies, this could affect certain features or services of our Site or other Products. For specific opt out links and to manage your preferences in relation to first and third party cookies please see our Cookie Notice.
4. OUR USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
Confluent processes personal information for the following business purposes, and if you are a resident in the EEA or UK, on the legal basis identified below:
Providing our websites and Confluent Products: In reliance on our legitimate interest, we process your personal information to operate and administer our websites, and to provide, operate, and maintain the Confluent Products;
Communicating with you about the Confluent Products: We may send you service, technical and other administrative or technical email, messages and other types of notifications (such as distribution and product updates and product patches and fixes) in reliance on our legitimate interests in administering the Confluent Products and providing certain features. These communications are considered part of the Confluent Products and in most cases you cannot opt- out of them. If an opt-out is available, you will find that option within the communication itself;
Providing necessary functionality: We process your personal information in reliance on our legitimate interest to provide you with the necessary functionality required during your use of our websites and Confluent Products;
Transactional considerations: We process your personal information to complete transactions, and send you related information, including purchase confirmations and invoices, to perform our contract with you and to the extent necessary in reliance on our legitimate interest;
Handling contact and support requests: If you fill out a “Contact Us” web form or request support as a User, or if you contact us by other means including via a phone call, we process your personal information to perform our contract with you and/or (if we have not entered into a contract with you) to the extent it is necessary for our legitimate interest in fulfilling your requests and communicating with you;
Administering Events: We process your personal information to plan and host events or webinars for which you have registered or that you attend, including sending related communications to you, billing, registration and to connect you with other event attendees, to perform of our contract with you, or to the extent necessary for our legitimate interests in fulfilling your requests to attend any such events;
Developing and improving our websites and services: We process your personal information to analyze trends and to track your usage of and interactions with our websites to the extent it is necessary for our legitimate interest in developing, improving and troubleshooting our websites, marketing activities and the Confluent Products and providing you with more relevant content and service offerings, or where necessary, in reliance on your consent;
Sending marketing communications: We will process your personal information for marketing purposes in accordance with your preferences, such as to communicate with you via email, SMS or telephone about services, features, surveys, newsletters, promotions or events we think may be of interest to you and/or to provide other news or information about Confluent and/or our select partners, in each case in reliance on our legitimate interest in conducting direct marketing or where necessary with your consent. Please see the "Your Privacy Rights" section below, to learn how you can control the processing of your personal information by Confluent for marketing purposes;
Displaying personalized advertisements and content: We process your personal information to conduct marketing research, advertise to you, provide personalized information about us on and off our websites and to provide other personalized content based upon your activities and interests to the extent it is necessary for our legitimate interest in supporting our marketing activities or advertising the Confluent Products or, where necessary, to the extent you have provided your prior consent (please see the "Your Privacy Rights" section, below, to learn how you can control how the processing of your personal information for personalized advertising purposes);
Promoting the security of our websites and services: To the extent necessary for our legitimate interests in promoting the safety and security of our websites and services, we use your personal information to investigate and prevent fraudulent transactions, unauthorized access to the websites, Confluent Products, and other illegal activities;
For our business purposes, such as data analysis, audits, fraud monitoring and prevention, developing new products and features, enhancing, improving or modifying our products and services, identifying usage trends and expanding our business activities in reliance on our legitimate interests;
Complying with legal obligations: We process your personal information when cooperating with public and government authorities, courts or regulators in accordance with our legal obligations under applicable laws to the extent this requires the processing or disclosure of personal information to protect our rights or is necessary for our legitimate interest in protecting against misuse or abuse of our websites, the Confluent Products, protecting personal property or safety, pursuing remedies available to us and limiting our damages, complying with judicial proceedings, court orders or legal processes or to respond to lawful requests. As a U.S. company, Confluent is prohibited under U.S. laws and regulations from engaging in business, directly or indirectly, with certain countries and persons designated by the U.S. government. To comply with such laws and regulations, including for purposes of compliance with the Office of Foreign Assets Control guidelines and sanctions program, Confluent may request additional personal information and process such additional personal information for purposes of compliance with a legal obligation to which Confluent is subject.
Reviewing compliance with applicable usage terms: We process your personal information to review compliance with our contract with you or your organization (where applicable) to the extent that it is in our legitimate interest to ensure adherence to the relevant terms; and
Other purposes: We will process your personal information for other purposes about which we notify you in advance, or for which we receive your consent. In general, we collect and process personal information about you, as necessary to provide the Products you use, operate our Sites and business, meet our contractual and legal obligations, protect the security of our systems and our customers, or fulfil other legitimate interests as described in this Privacy Notice and in our notices to you.
5. SHARING OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
We may share or disclose your personal information to the following categories of recipients:
Among our affiliates. We may share your personal information with our affiliates, which include companies owned by or under common ownership of Confluent such as Confluent Europe Ltd., Confluent Germany GmbH, Confluent Singapore Pte. Ltd., Confluent Australia Pty Limited, Confluent India Private Limited, Confluent France SAS, Infinitem Canada Ltd, Confluent Sweden AB, Confluent Hong Kong Ltd., Confluent Israel Ltd., Confluent Japan Godo Kaisha, Confluent Malaysia Sdn. Bhd., Confluent Korea Limited, Confluent Spain, Sociedad Limitada, Confluent ME FZ-LLC and Confluent Federal, LLC, all of which will be required to use your personal information as described in this Privacy Notice.
Partners and other similar parties. We may share your personal information with our sponsors and co-sponsors of events, whose information we believe may be relevant to you. We may also share your personal information with research and advisory firms whose reports are offered through our Sites (subject to applicable laws).
Third-party vendors and other service providers. We may share your personal information with our third-party vendors and service providers that we use to provide services such as payment processing, reselling services, support ticket portals, secure transfer software, cloud hosting, video conference services, venues, marketing automation platforms, project management tools, registration services, learning management services, collaboration and communication tools (including surveys), data backup services, and professional services.
Business transfers. We may share your personal information with other parties in connection with a company transaction, such as a merger, sale of company assets or shares, reorganization, financing, change of control or acquisition of all or a portion of our business or assets by another company or third party, or in the event of a bankruptcy, dissolution, or related or similar proceedings.
Compliance with laws. We may share your personal information as required by law or subpoena or if we reasonably believe that such action is necessary to comply with the law or the reasonable requests of law enforcement.
Legal rights. We may share your personal information to enforce our Terms of Use or other agreements, to protect the security or integrity of our Sites and Products, or to exercise or protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Confluent, our customers, users, or others.
Advertising partners. We may partner with third party advertising networks, exchanges and social media platforms to display advertising on our websites or to manage and service advertising on other sites and we may share personal information with them for this purpose. Please see the section above "Our Use of Cookies and Similar Tracking Technologies" for further information.
6. YOUR CHOICES ABOUT PERSONAL INFORMATION
Depending on your location, your jurisdiction, and subject to applicable law, you may have the rights below with regard to the personal information we control about you. We will respond to your requests within the appropriate timeline under applicable law.
Communications preferences. You can stop receiving promotional emails from us by clicking on the “unsubscribe link” provided in such emails or by contacting us at the contact details set forth below. In addition, you can make changes to your preferences in our Preference Center. We make every effort to promptly process all unsubscribe requests. If you opt out, we may still send you transactional communications (e.g., non-promotional emails such as emails about training and events you registered to attend and technical or security notices).
Privacy Rights (EEA residents). EEA residents are afforded certain privacy rights by relevant privacy laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR")
European Data Protection Rights (EEA Residents)
If the processing of personal data about you is subject to European Union data protection law, you have certain rights with respect to that data:
You may request access to, and correction or erasure of, your personal information at anytime.
You can object to processing of your personal information, ask us to restrict processing of yourpersonal information or request portability of your personal information.
If the processing of personal information is based on your consent, you have a right to withdraw consent at any time for future processing. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent
You have the right to complain to a data protection authority about our collection and use of your personal information but we encourage you to first contact us with any questions or concerns. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority. Contact details for data protection authorities in the European Economic Area (“EEA“) are available at https://ec.europa.eu/justice/article-29/structure/data-protection-authorities/index_en.htm
Confluent does not engage in any automated decision making with User personal information.
You may exercise the rights above by using this form or by e-mailing us at privacy@confluent.io.
If you are a U.S. resident of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Utah, and Virginia, please review our U.S. State Data Privacy Notice here for additional information on the terms and rights available to U.S. residents in those states.
8. HOW WE STORE AND PROTECT PERSONAL INFORMATION
Storage and processing. Your information collected through the Sites and our Products may be stored and processed in any country in which Confluent or its subsidiaries, affiliates, or service providers maintain facilities including your region, the United States, United Kingdom, European Economic Area, Canada, Singapore, India, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, United Arab Emirates, Australia, amongst others. Our processing locations are chosen in order to operate efficiently, to improve performance, and to create redundancies in order to protect the data in the event of an outage or other problem. We take steps designed to ensure that the data we collect under this Privacy Notice is processed according to the provisions of this Privacy Notice and applicable law wherever the data is located.
9. CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY NOTICE
Confluent may modify or update this Privacy Notice from time to time to reflect the changes in our business and practices. Please review this page periodically. If we make any changes to this Privacy Notice, we will notify you by changing the "Last Updated" date above. If we make any material changes, we will provide you with additional notice or obtain consent as may be required by applicable law.
If you have any questions, complaints, or concerns about how your information is handled, please email us at privacy@confluent.io. Our main address is 899 West Evelyn, Mountain View, CA 94041, USA. Our EU representative’s contact information is Confluent Germany GmbH c/o Osborne Clarke, Innere Kanalstraße 15, D-50823 Cologne, Germany and may also be reached at privacy@confluent.io. Our United Kingdom representative’s contact information is Confluent Europe Ltd. - EMEA, 1 Bedford Street London WC2E 9HG and may also be reached at privacy@confluent.io.
If you would like to exercise any of your rights for yourself or on behalf of someone else, please use this form or e-mail us at privacy@confluent.io.