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Privacy notice

1. Why this Privacy Notice?

EXFO Inc. and its affiliates (collectively "EXFO" or "we") are committed to protecting the privacy and security of your data and personal information. This Privacy Notice ("Privacy Notice") describes EXFO's privacy policies and practices for protecting personal information that is collected, stored, used, disclosed and generally "Processed" in the course of our business.

“Personal Information" means any information relating to a natural person that can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person. Also corresponds to the term "Personal Data" as used in certain laws.

Please read the following carefully to understand our Personal Information practices. It is important that you read this Privacy Notice, as well as any other policies, notices or privacy statements we may provide on specific occasions, when we collect or process Personal Information about you, so that you know how and why we use that information. If you do not agree to this Privacy Notice, do not use EXFO's software services.

By accessing the websites and using EXFO's products, services including software, mobile applications, web applications or Customer Services distributed or hosted by EXFO, you accept and consent to the privacy practices described in this Privacy Notice.

2. What this policy applies to

This Privacy Notice applies to the collection and processing of Personal Information and other information by EXFO when:

a) EXFO quotes, accepts purchase orders, sends order acknowledgements, invoices, sells, licenses or delivers products, solutions or services;

b) The User (i) browses or uses any content, features, technologies or functions offered on our website www.EXFO.com or other websites, domains and pages operated by EXFO, (ii) uses EXFO's products, software or mobile applications or subscription services that are linked to this Privacy Notice and (iii) uses or accesses other services provided by EXFO online and offline, including our social media pages and newsletters; (hereinafter (i), (ii) and (iii) are collectively referred to as the "Web Services");

c) The User provides data for authentication to EXFO's mobile applications or cloud environments (hereinafter "Customer Services"), (ii) provides data collected by EXFO test units to Customer Services and (iii) transfers data from a mobile application to its workspace with Customer Services.

3. What personal information we collect

EXFO only collects personal information that is necessary for the purposes of its activities. The information EXFO may collect and process is as follows:

  • Identification (name, e-mail address, reseller identification number, User's contractor identification number, title, company name, number of employees);
  • Aggregated and anonymous statistics provided by third-party platforms (most commonly used devices and operating systems [for example, percentage of Android 6.x vs. Android 7.x], total number of installs and uninstalls, and total number of active users);
  • Test unit and network data (usage, status, network data, IP addresses, geolocation);
  • Data models generated by Customer Services (health of work, network quality, FTR metrics, user activity, results, work);
  • Transaction and order details ;
  • Your correspondence history with EXFO ;
  • Requests for quotations or inquiries or your interactions with customer service or technical support ;
  • Details of your visits to a site and your use of a Service, including, but not limited to, traffic data, location data, blogs and other communication data, search activity and the page, content, software or resources you access;
  • Information you provide on a Service, including information provided when registering for a Service, subscribing to a Service, posting material, reporting a problem, requesting additional services or when participating in a contest or promotion;
  • Your IP address, the web addresses of the sites from which you arrive and to which you then access and information about your connection, including your device's browser, operating system, platform type and Internet connection speed;
  • Details of transactions and orders, your correspondence history with us, requests for quotes or inquiries or when you contact customer service or technical support;
  • Information you provide on the blog, other online forums or through online surveys;
  • A log of visitors to our sites, which contains information about our individual registered users;
  • Email tracking information ;
  • Information collected through surveys, contests or for a specific activity (e.g. a newsletter);
  • Information gathered from blog and forum comments.

4. Why we collect your personal information

EXFO collects and processes your personal information for the purposes you have consented to or as permitted by law. The purposes for which EXFO collects your personal information are identified at the time of collection. You may also be informed of these purposes upon request. The following list generally describes, but is not limited to, the purposes for which EXFO collects your personal information:

  • To ensure that the content of our Web Services is presented in the most optimal way for you, whatever device you are using;
  • Activate the features you use, provide the Web Services you request or complete a subscription;
  • To measure and improve the performance and usability of our websites and Web Services, their content and functionality, as well as to personalize your overall experience and regionalize certain content on our sites;
  • To send you information based on your business relationship or transactions with us, to inform you of changes to our products or services, to our terms and conditions, and to provide customer support and respond to your requests;
  • To provide you with information about events, news, products or services that we think may be of interest to you, where you have consented to be contacted for these purposes;
  • To fulfill our contractual obligations with you, process e-commerce transactions and generally provide you with our products and services;
  • Allow you to participate in the interactive features of our Web Services, when you choose to do so;
  • To carry out any other activity compatible with the purpose for which the information was collected, to the extent permitted by applicable law;
  • Authenticating a user ;
  • Perform telemetry via third-party platforms (some platforms, such as the Google Play Store or Apple App Store, may collect aggregated and anonymous statistics, which may be governed by their respective privacy policies and terms and conditions ;
  • Analyze network data collected by test units and a Customer Service application to assess network quality, produce test reports and upload data to Customer Service software services (Users can save data collected by EXFO test units to transfer measured data to a Customer Service mobile application via a Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connection);
  • Generate data models (analytical models and report models) that can be shared between Users of the same company and with other Users after anonymization. A Customer Service provides a workspace for the User and for people belonging to the same company as the User. It enables versioning, reporting and comparison with existing models (local and global models);
  • Provide support for the operation of a Customer Service (following a support request submitted by the User for a problem encountered, a Customer Service may have access to the User's data contained in a Customer Service in order to resolve the problem encountered. The operation of a Customer Service may also bring EXFO into contact with the User's information);
  • To contact you, occasionally and for marketing purposes, to provide you with information on products and services related to a Customer Service that may be of interest to you;
  • To fulfill our contractual obligations with you, process e-commerce transactions and generally provide you with our products, solutions and services;
  • To carry out any other activity compatible with the purpose for which the information was collected, as permitted by applicable law.

We do not lend or sell Personal Information to anyone. We will never process Customers' Personal Information when these interests are overridden by Customers' fundamental interests and rights. Some of the processing purposes listed above overlap, and more than one purpose may justify our use of Customer Personal Information. More specifically, the Personal Information we collect from and about Customers is necessary to carry out any activity compatible with the purpose for which the information was collected, to the extent permitted by applicable law.

Registered user profile. The information we collect comes from you when you fill out a form to access premium content or when you create an EXFO, My EXFO or Supplier profile and fill out or update the "Your Profile" section. We also record details of your visits and contributions to Web Services and Customer Services.

Email tracking. Some of the e-mails we send use tracking so that we can tell how much traffic they generate to our Web Services. We use this information to calculate the open and click-through rates of our e-mails to try to improve them. Sometimes we use this information to send a new e-mail to people who didn't click the first time, or to send additional e-mails at a later date. If you want to be sure that none of your e-mail activities are tracked, you should unsubscribe from EXFO e-mails, which you can do via the form on our site, via the "Your preferences" section and by using the "Unsubscribe" link in all our e-mails.

Surveys and contests. From time to time, our Web Services may request information from Users through surveys, contests or for a particular activity (for example, a newsletter). Participation in such surveys or contests is entirely voluntary, which means that the decision to disclose personal information is left to the discretion of the User.

Blog and forum comments. To leave a comment in our public forums, you must be logged in as a user. If you use such forums, you should be aware, and hereby agree, that any personal information you submit may be read, collected or otherwise used by anyone who reads our forums. Once posted, you may not edit or delete public messages posted in our forums, other message areas or the comments area. We are not responsible for the use by third parties of personal information that is publicly visible on our sites.

5. How we collect your personal information

Directly to you

Most of the personal information we collect is that which you provide directly to us, including :

  • Through your interactions, use and experiences with a Customer Service. The data we collect depends on your interactions with the Customer Service and the choices you make, including your privacy settings and the features you use.
  • When you have a registered user profile and fill out a form to access premium content or when you create an EXFO, My EXFO or Supplier profile and fill out or update the "Your Profile" section. We also record details of your visits and contributions to the Web Services.
  • When you provide us with your business card or other contact details or communicate with us in any other way.

With third parties

We also obtain data about you from third-party platforms. Nevertheless, our aim is to collect as little Personal Information as possible in order to guarantee respect for the privacy of Users as well as the persons concerned by the measures.

Automatically generated and collected information

We use web analytics tools to automatically store usage information, such as the origin, number and frequency of visitors to our websites and Web Services and how they use its content and components. This data is used only in the aggregate by the analytics tool and helps us understand how to provide an optimal experience to as many Users as possible. When a User provides us with personally identifiable information, for example when you fill out a form, we may store it in our marketing databases in order to personalize your relationship with EXFO. We do this to recognize you and to collect data about your use of the Web Services (please see EXFO's Cookie Policy for more information).

6. How we collect and process your personal information

EXFO collects and processes your personal information only with your consent in accordance with applicable requirements, or without your consent in certain cases provided for by law, such as in the context of criminal or penal proceedings.

You may withdraw your consent at any time for your personal information to be used by EXFO to provide you with personalized offers or recommendations on its products and services or for secondary purposes. If you withdraw your consent, EXFO will stop using your personal information for this purpose.

About e-mail communications

When you fill in a form, you have the option of accepting or refusing e-mail communications. If you register, we may occasionally send promotional material or notifications about our products and services to the e-mail address you provided when you registered or in your account. To help make this promotional material more relevant to you, we may cross-reference it with personal and other information we collect.

These emails may contain information about EXFO, including relevant resources, product information, promotions and upcoming events, based on your profile or preferences. You may also receive e-mails from some of our approved third-party suppliers regarding EXFO products and services.

If, at any time, you no longer wish to receive promotional e-mails from us, you may "Unsubscribe" or "Change your preferences" on our Web sites and Services or use the links available at the bottom of each e-mail. You may also opt-out of being contacted by us at any time by referring to the contact information in Section 13 of this Privacy Notice.

When you are a registered user, there are certain service notification emails that you cannot unsubscribe from, such as renewal notices and change notices applicable to our products, services or policies.

We may give you the opportunity to subscribe to additional newsletters or alerts. You will be added to these lists only if you sign up via a form or checkbox on EXFO's sites and services, or by doing so in an offline paper form. If you no longer wish to receive such e-mail communications, you may unsubscribe by following the instructions included in each communication or by referring to the contact information in Section 13 of this Privacy Notice.

7. Who we share your personal information with

As a global organization, we may provide information about you to our affiliates and carefully selected third-party suppliers who work on our behalf, such as our distribution partners, distributors or service partners. EXFO is responsible for the management of Personal Information used in conjunction with these third parties. All of our third-party service providers and other EXFO group entities are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your Personal Information in accordance with EXFO's privacy practices. We do not authorize our third-party service providers to use your personal information for their own purposes. They may only process your personal information on our instructions and for specific business purposes, and are subject to confidentiality obligations. We or they may occasionally contact you by e-mail, post or telephone to provide you with information about products and services that may be of interest to you. If you are dissatisfied or have any questions regarding the use of your information by one of our third-party suppliers, please refer to the contact information in section 13 of this Privacy Notice.

We may be required to disclose or share your personal information in the following situations:

  • To comply with legal or regulatory obligations or to respond to public and government authorities;
  • To enforce or apply our Terms of Use or other terms and conditions relating to the provision of products, services and/or information and other agreements;
  • To protect the rights, property or safety of our employees, customers or third-party suppliers;
  • On the sale of one or more of our businesses or to any person to whom we may transfer our rights under any customer contract we have entered into with you.

8. How we store your personal information and for how long

EXFO will retain Users' Personal Information only as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purpose of satisfying any legal, accounting or reporting requirements. In determining the appropriate retention period for Personal Information, we take into account the amount, nature and sensitivity of the Personal Information, the potential risk of harm resulting from unauthorized use or disclosure of the Personal Information, the purposes for which we process the Personal Information and the possibility of achieving those purposes by other means, as well as applicable legal requirements.

In the context of Customer Services, data may be stored on the following systems:

  • EXFO test units and a Customer Service mobile application: data storage is managed locally by the User.
  • EXFO cloud environment: storage of Personal Information in the EXFO cloud environment can be managed by Users, corporate administrators and EXFO.

Following a deletion request made by a User on his workspace or via his company administrator, EXFO will delete Personal Information within thirty (30) days. Following the termination of a contract between EXFO and a Customer, EXFO will delete the Personal Information of individuals as well as company data that may contain Personal Information within thirty (30) days. Following a support request, EXFO will retain access to data for the duration of the support activity and will delete data that has been used outside the Exchange cloud environment to resolve issues within thirty (30) days.

Other contractual data between EXFO and the Customer that may be of administrative interest or subject to legal obligation may be stored in accordance with applicable legislation.

In certain circumstances, we may anonymize your personal information so that it can no longer be associated with you, in which case we may use this information without informing you. Once you are no longer a registered Customer, we will securely store and destroy your personal information in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. EXFO has a data retention policy and Customers are invited to contact EXFO at data.privacy@exfo.com for further details on data and personal information retention.

9. Location and transfer of your personal information

Files containing your personal information will be stored at EXFO's offices or on our servers and those of our third-party service providers acting on our behalf, which may be located in Canada, the European Union, the United States or other countries that may not have data protection and privacy laws equivalent to those in your country. By ordering or inquiring about EXFO's products, solutions and services or by providing us with personal information, you consent to the processing and transfer of such personal information in Canada, the European Union, the United States and other countries in the manner and for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice.

In determining the appropriate storage location for your Personal Information, we take into account the risk of harm resulting from unauthorized use or disclosure, the purposes for which the data is processed and applicable laws.

EXFO test units and the Customer Service mobile application store the data collected locally on the device. The data contained in a Customer Service solution is stored in a cloud environment. They benefit from security guarantees provided by third-party suppliers, in particular encryption of data in transit and at rest.

The assistance activity, which involves possible access to Personal Information, is carried out from a country guaranteeing an adequate level of protection with regard to the agreements concluded with the Customer and the legislation in force.

10. How we ensure the protection and security of your personal information 

EXFO employs security safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of your personal information to protect it against loss or theft, as well as unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification, in accordance with applicable legislation.

You should be aware that the transmission of information via the Internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of data transmitted to our sites, and transmission is at your own risk. In addition, we restrict access to your personal information to employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. We have procedures in place to deal with any suspected breach of data security and will notify you and any applicable regulatory body of a suspected breach where we are legally required to do so.

About your password

You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of any passwords you use to access certain parts of our Web sites and Services. Never share your EXFO password with a third party. If you do, you may lose substantial control over your personal information and may be subject to legally binding measures taken on your behalf. You may change your password at any time, and if your password has been compromised for any reason, you should change it immediately by visiting "Your Account" in the "Your Profile" section.

11. What are your rights regarding your Personal Information?

EXFO respects your legal rights with respect to your personal information and has procedures in place to deal with the following requests, which may be exercised at any time:

Right of Access - You have the right to request copies of your Personal Information from EXFO.

Right of correction - You have the right to ask EXFO to correct any information that you consider inaccurate. You also have the right to ask EXFO to complete any information that you consider incomplete.

Right to erasure or deletion - You have the right to ask EXFO to erase your Personal Information, under certain conditions.

Right to restrict processing - You have the right to ask EXFO to restrict the processing of your Personal Information, under certain conditions.

Right to object to processing - You have the right to object to the processing of your Personal Information by EXFO, under certain conditions.

Right to data portability - You have the right to ask EXFO to transfer the data we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.

Right to withdraw consent - You have the right to ask EXFO to withdraw your consent to the disclosure or use of your collected information under certain conditions.

If you make a request, we will use our best efforts within one month.

12. Connection indicators

Web Services and Customer Services use cookies (hereinafter "cookies") in various ways to enhance your experience on our website, including:

  • Keep you connected;
  • Understand how you use our Customer Service application;
  • Storage of User preferences ;
  • Error tracking and performance statistics.

Our Customer Service application uses the following types of cookies:

  • Functionality – The Customer Service application uses these cookies to recognize you on our Customer Service application and to remember your previously selected preferences. This may include your preferred language and location. A mixture of first-party and third-party cookies is used.

You may at any time accept or decline the use of cookies through the Web Services and Customer Service or set your browser not to accept cookies, but in some cases, certain functions of our Customer Service application may not work.

13. Who to contact for more information

If you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or for any other reason related to the protection of Personal Information, please contact EXFO through one of the following contacts:

Data protection Committee
data.privacy@exfo.com
EXFO Solutions SAS
Z.A.C. Airlande – 2 rue Jacqueline Auriol
Saint Jacques de la Lande
CS 69 123 - 35 091 Rennes cedex 9
France

Privacy Officer (Québec)
data.privacy@exfo.com
Philippe Morin
Chief Executive Officer
EXFO Inc.
400 Godin Avenue
Quebec, QC, G1M 2K2
Canada
1-800-663-3936

14. Revision of our Privacy Notice

EXFO reserves the right to periodically review and amend this Privacy Notice. This Privacy Notice was last updated in September 2023.