Policies and Procedures

Last Updated: July 12, 2024.

Please see our Privacy Snapshot for a high-level overview of our privacy practices.

Your privacy is extremely important to us, and we are committed to fair practices that protect your information. This Privacy Policy is provided to explain our information practices and the choices you can make about the way your information is collected and used. To make this notice easy to find, we make our policies and procedures available on every page of this website. 

This Privacy Policy describes the privacy practices of Help Scout PBC (referred to in these Terms of Service as “Help Scout”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) and how we handle personal information that we collect through our website (www.helpscout.com), our platform, our interactions with you, and the services accessible from the Help Scout website (which are collectively referred to in these Terms of Service as the “Help Scout Service”).

We treat all personal information covered by this Privacy Policy as pertaining to individuals acting as business representatives and not in their individual or household capacity. Only data that we are controllers of is in scope of this Privacy Policy. Data handled on behalf of our customers as processors falls within the scope of our Data Processing Addendum.

Personal information we collect

The information you provide us may include:

• Contact details, such as your first and last name, business email and mailing addresses, phone number, and professional title.

• Account information, such as your username and password, that you use to access our Services.

• Payment information needed to complete your transactions with us, including name, payment card information, and billing information. This information is processed by our payment service provider, Braintree, which handles your payment information per its privacy policy. Learn more here: https://www.paypal.com/us/legalhub/privacy-full. 

• Communications that we exchange with you when you contact us with questions, feedback, or for any other reason.

• Usage information, such as information about how you use our Services and interact with us, including any content you upload to our Services or otherwise submit to us, and information you provide when you use any interactive features of our Services.  

• Marketing data such as your preferences for receiving our marketing communications and details about your engagement with them.

• Other data not specifically listed here, which we will use as described in this Privacy Policy or as otherwise disclosed at the time of collection.

Automatic data collection

We, our service providers, and our advertising partners may automatically log and combine information about you, your computer or mobile device, and your interaction over time with our Services, online resources, and our communications, such as:

• Device data including your computer’s or mobile device’s operating system type and version, manufacturer and model, browser type, device type (e.g., phone or tablet), IP address, unique identifiers (including identifiers used for advertising purposes), language settings, and general location information such as city, state, or geographic area derived from the IP address.

• Online activity data such as pages or screens you viewed, how long you spent on a page or screen, the website you visited before browsing to our Services, navigation paths between pages or screens, information about your activity on a page or screen, access times, duration of access, and whether you have opened or otherwise engaged with our communications like our marketing emails.

We use this information to understand your interactions with our product better so we can learn what matters to you and continuously improve your experience with Help Scout.

We use the following tools to collect and store information about visitors to our site:

Cookies,  which are small text files in your browser that keep track of your preferences, help us understand how you use our site, and allow us to uniquely identify our visitors.

Local storage, which allows us to store more information at once anywhere on your device and not only in your browser.

Web beacons, which are tiny images, also known as pixel tags, that track when someone opens an email or visits a webpage and help us keep track of what our visitors find interesting. 

Information we obtain from other sources: 

• Third-party accounts. When you log into the Services through a third-party account, such as Google, we may collect certain information from your account (e.g., name, email address, user name), depending on the privacy permissions you have configured within that account.

• Social media information. We may maintain pages on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. When you visit or interact with our pages on those platforms, you or the platforms may provide us with information through the platform.

• Other sources. We may obtain personal information from other third parties, such as marketing partners, publicly-available sources, and data providers. 

How we use personal information

We use personal information for the following purposes or as otherwise described at the time of collection:

Providing our Services. We use personal information to operate, maintain, and provide you with our Services. In particular, we use personal information to perform our contractual obligations under our terms of use.

Communicating with you about our Services. It is in our legitimate business interests to use personal information to respond to your requests, provide customer support, and communicate with you about our Services, including by sending announcements, updates, security alerts, and support and administrative messages.

Improve, monitor, personalize, and protect our Services. It is in our legitimate business interests to improve and keep our Services safe for our users, which includes: 

• Understanding your needs and interests and personalizing your experience with the Services and our communications.

• Troubleshooting, testing, and conducting research to keep the Services secure.

• Investigating and protecting against fraudulent, harmful, unauthorized, or illegal activity.

Research and development. We may use personal information for research and development purposes in our legitimate business interests, including to analyze and improve the Services and our business. As part of these activities, we may create or use aggregated, de-identified, or otherwise anonymized data from the personal information we collect. We make personal information into anonymized data by removing information that makes the data personally identifiable to you. We may use this anonymized data and share it with third parties for our lawful business purposes to analyze and improve the Services and promote our business. 

Marketing and advertising. We, our service providers, and our third-party advertising partners may collect and use personal information for the following marketing and advertising purposes:

• Direct marketing. We may send you direct marketing communications, as permitted by law, including email. You may opt out of our marketing communications as described in the “Opt-out of marketing communications” section below.

• Interest-based advertising. We may engage our advertising partners, including third-party and social media companies, to display ads around the web. These companies may use cookies and similar technologies to collect information (including the automatically-collected data described above) about your interactions over time across our Services, our communications, and other online services and use that information to serve online ads that they think will interest you. In these cases, the privacy policy of our advertising partners may apply to their processing of your information. 

Except where consent is required, we undertake such marketing and advertising based on our legitimate business interests. Where we seek your consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time. 

Compliance and protection. We may use personal information to comply with legal obligations and to defend ourselves against legal claims or disputes, including to:

• Protect our, your, or others’ rights, privacy, safety, or property (including by making and defending legal claims).

• Audit our internal processes for compliance with legal and contractual requirements and internal policies.

• Enforce the terms and conditions that govern the Services.

• Prevent, identify, investigate, and deter fraudulent, harmful, unauthorized, unethical, or illegal activity, including cyberattacks and identity theft.

• Comply with applicable laws, lawful requests, and legal processes, such as responding to subpoenas or government authorities’ requests.

How we share personal information

We may share personal information with:

Service providers. Companies and individuals that provide services on our behalf or help us operate the Services or our business (such as hosting, information technology, email delivery, and website analytics services).

Professional advisors. Professional advisors, such as lawyers, auditors, bankers, and insurers, when necessary in the course of the professional services that they render to us.

Authorities and others. Law enforcement, government authorities, and private parties, as we believe in good faith, are necessary or appropriate for the compliance and protection purposes described above.

Business transferees. Acquirers and other relevant participants in business transactions (or negotiations for such transactions) involving a corporate divestiture, merger, consolidation, acquisition, reorganization, sale, or other disposition of all or any portion of the business or assets of, or equity interests in, Help Scout PBC (including, in connection with a bankruptcy or similar proceedings).

Advertising partners. Third-party advertising companies, including for the interest-based advertising purposes described above.

Privacy rights and choices

Opt-out of marketing communications. You may opt out of marketing-related emails and other communications by following the opt-out or unsubscribe instructions in the communications you receive, or by contacting us as instructed in the “How to Contact Us” section below. You may continue to receive Services-related and other non-marketing emails.

Online tracking opt-out. You can opt out of third-party cookies as described in our Cookie Policy.  

Personal information requests. We offer you choices that affect how we handle the personal information that we control. Depending on your location and the nature of your interactions with our Services, you may request the following in regards to your personal information: 

• Information about how we have collected and used personal information. We have made this information available to you without having to request it by including it in this Privacy Policy.

• Access to a copy of the personal information we collected about you. Where applicable, we will provide the information in a portable, machine-readable, readily usable format.

• Correction of personal information that is inaccurate or out of date.

• Deletion of personal information that we no longer need to provide the Services or for other lawful purposes.

• Opt out of the sharing or processing of your personal information for targeted advertising purposes. To exercise this right, you can visit the “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” link in the footer of our website.

• Additional rights, such as to object to and request that we restrict our use of personal information, and where applicable, you may withdraw your consent.

To make a request, please email us or write to us as instructed in the “How to Contact Us” section below. We may ask for specific information from you to help us confirm your identity. Depending on where you live, you may be entitled to empower an authorized agent to submit requests on your behalf. We will require authorized agents to confirm their identity and authority in accordance with applicable laws. You are entitled to exercise the rights described above free from discrimination.

Limits on your privacy rights and choices. In some instances your choices may be limited, such as when fulfilling your request would impair the rights of others, our ability to provide a service you have requested, or our ability to comply with our legal obligations and enforce our legal rights. If you are dissatisfied with how we address your request, you may submit a complaint by contacting us as instructed in the “How to Contact Us” section below. Depending on where you reside, you may have the right to complain to a data protection regulator where you live or work or where you feel a violation has occurred.

Other sites and services

Our Services may contain links to websites and other online services operated by third parties. In addition, our content may be integrated into web pages or other online services that are not associated with us. These links and integrations do not endorse or represent that we are affiliated with any third party. We do not control websites or online services operated by third parties and are not responsible for their actions. This Privacy Policy does not apply to such third-party sites or services.

Security

We use reasonable organizational, technical, and administrative measures designed to protect against unauthorized access, misuse, loss, disclosure, alteration, and destruction of personal information we maintain. Unfortunately, data transmission over the Internet cannot be guaranteed as completely secure. Therefore, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of personal information.

For more information about our security practices, please see our Security Policy.

Children’s privacy 

Our Services are not intended for children under 16 years of age. If we learn that we have collected personal information through the Services of a child under 16 without the consent of the child’s parent or guardian as required by law, we will delete it.

International data transfers

All personal information is provided directly to our website in the United States. We may also transfer personal information to our affiliates and service providers in the United States and other jurisdictions. Please note that such jurisdictions may not provide the same protections as the data protection laws in your home country.

When we engage in cross-border data transfers, we will ensure that relevant safeguards are in place to afford adequate protection for personal information, and we will comply with applicable data protection laws, in particular by relying on an EU Commission or UK government adequacy decision or on contractual protections for the transfer of personal information. For more information about how we transfer personal information internationally, please contact as instructed in the “How to Contact Us” section below.

Retention of personal information

Where required under applicable laws, we retain personal information only for as long as is necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected and processed, per our retention policies, and following applicable laws and regulatory obligations or until you withdraw your consent (where applicable). 

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of personal information, the purposes for which we use personal information, and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, as well as the applicable legal and regulatory requirements. 

Job applicants

When you visit the Careers portion of our websites, we collect the information you provide to us in connection with your job application. This includes but is not limited to business and personal contact information, professional credentials and skills, educational and work history, and other information included in a resume. This may also include diversity information that you voluntarily provide. We use this information based on our legitimate business interests to facilitate our recruitment activities and process employment applications by evaluating a job candidate for an employment activity, monitoring recruitment statistics, and responding to surveys. We may also use this information to provide improved administration of the Services and as otherwise necessary (i) to comply with relevant laws or to respond to subpoenas or warrants served on us, (ii) to protect and defend our or others’ rights or property, (iii) in connection with a legal investigation and (iv) to investigate or assist in preventing any violation or potential violation of the law, this Privacy Policy or our terms of use.

Changes to this privacy policy

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by updating the date of this Privacy Policy and posting it on the website, or as otherwise required by law. 

How to contact us

Help Scout PBC is the entity responsible for processing personal information under this Privacy Policy (as a controller, where provided under applicable law).

If you have any questions or comments about this Policy or our privacy practices, or if you would like to exercise your rights concerning your personal information, please contact us by email or write to us at: 

Attn: Privacy Agent

Help Scout PBC

68 Harrison Ave #605

PMB 78505

Boston, MA 02111

EEA and UK Representative Contact Information. For users in the EEA, we have appointed AgSense Solutions SL as our EU data representative and Thomas Graham as our UK data representative. You can contact our EU and UK representatives at privacy@helpscout.com. 

Our EU representative can be reached at:

Calle de Florentino Rodríguez Alonso, 

3628055 Madrid

España

Privacy Snapshot

The chart below provides a high-level snapshot of our privacy practices. You need to read the entire Privacy Policy for complete information.