Privacy Policy

Astound Business Solutions, LLC and its affiliates (collectively, “Astound Business”) understands how important personal privacy is to you, and we are committed to fully protecting your rights.  We have created this Privacy Policy to explain our approach to the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information we gather in connection with delivering our services or as you interact with the website(s) on which this statement is posted.  Additional information regarding the processing of personal information as part of a specific Astound Business service may be disclosed in the documentation associated with delivery of such services.

We encourage you to read this Privacy Policy and contact us with any questions.  By using our services or websites, you accept the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Types of Personal Information We Collect from You

Although our services are directed at businesses as opposed to individual consumers, we nevertheless obtain certain categories of personal information in connection with the delivery of our business solutions services.  “Personal information” includes information that relates to or is reasonably capable of being associated with an identifiable natural person.  The personal information we collect typically relates to our customers’ employees and agents and, depending on the services being delivered, may relate to other individuals that use or interact with our customers’ products and services (e.g., our customer’s end user customers).

The categories of personal information we may collect in the delivery of our services include the following:

Contact and Account Information:  We collect the name and contact information (e.g., name, company, title / position, email address, phone number, physical address) of the individual employees or agents of our customers with whom we interact.

Identification Information: In certain cases (e.g., if your business is a sole proprietorship), it may be necessary for us to request your social security number, driver’s license number, or date of birth.

Network Data:  Astound Business gathers information generated on our network, primarily through system logging and data flow management systems.  Network data includes, for example, traffic volumes, beginning and ending points of transmissions, IP addresses and domain names, the types of applications being used to send traffic across our network, and the activities conducted on our network.  We may also gather details such as the number and types of devices connected and the method of connection (e.g., Wi-Fi versus wired).

CPNI: We collect telephone account information called Customer Proprietary Network Information (“CPNI”) in connection with telephone services, including hosted voice services, that customers purchase from Astound Business.  CPNI includes quantity, technical configuration, type, call history, usage, and billing information related to the telephone services purchased by a customer.  Customers have the right, and Astound Business has a duty, under federal law, to protect the confidentiality of CPNI.

Other: Any other personal information you chose to provide to us.

Please note:  Astound Business customers are responsible for ensuring that any personal information transmitted by them using Astound Business infrastructure and bandwidth services that permit customers to transport data (e.g., dedicated Internet access, IP transit, Ethernet transport, wavelengths, etc.) is appropriately protected and compliant with current privacy legislation.  Although personal information collected by our customers may be moving across and through Astound Business’s network infrastructure in connection with our customers’ use of our communications services, Astound Business is NOT acting as a processor of or service provider with respect to such information.  In these contexts, Astound Business does not possess any direct or administrative access to any personal information that is transmitted by an Astound Business customer across and through our communication infrastructure.  This separation is maintained through both technological and security controls implemented on our service architecture.

In addition to the personal information collected as part of the delivery of our services, Astound Business utilizes websites for the display of company information as well as to market and transact Astound Business services.  Customers, prospective customers and other website visitors interact with various functions on these pages that may require the collection and use of personal information to complete those functions.  Categories of personal information we may collect from website visitors include the following:

Website Activity Information:  If you fill out a form, submit a request or query, complete a survey, provide feedback, enter a contest or other promotion, or otherwise interact via our website portals, we collect the information you submit through our website portals.

Background / Pre-Employment Information:  If you respond to a job posting or otherwise apply for employment via our websites, we may collect information about degrees and/or certifications you have earned, where you attended school, any licenses you hold, your membership in professional associations, employment history and similar background information.  We may collect other information necessary to retain you as an employee, such as your Social Security Number.

Technical Information:  We may collect information about your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our websites, the URL or advertisement that referred you to our websites, your IP address, your web browser and operating system, your browsing actions and click activity, your traffic data, your general location data, the resources that you access and use on the websites, the date/time at which you visit our websites and other similar information.

Astound Business also may use one or more advertising network providers and/or other audience segmenting technology providers to help present advertisements or other content on its websites and other websites that display Astound Business advertisements.  These providers use cookies, web beacons, or similar technologies on your computer or mobile or other device to serve you advertisements or content tailored to interests you have shown by browsing on this and other websites you have visited.  It also helps determine whether you have seen a particular advertisement or content before, which helps avoid sending you duplicate ads.  In doing so, these providers collect non-personally identifiable information such as your browser type, your operating system, web pages visited, time of visits, content viewed, ads viewed, and other click stream data.  The use of cookies, web beacons, or similar technologies by these providers is subject to their own privacy policies, not Astound Business’s Privacy Policy for this website.  Consistent with best practices in Internet advertising, the ad networks we work with enable you to opt-out of their use of cookies or web beacons.  To do so, please visit: the Network Advertising Initiative’s opt-out page: https://optout.networkadvertising.org/?c=1.

How We Collect Information From You

There are two ways in which we collect personal information:

Directly From You or Astound Business Customers with Whom You have a Relationship:  We collect personal information that you provide us directly, such as by filling out a form, submitting a request or query, sending us an email, responding to a survey, entering a contest, applying for a job, purchasing products or services, or otherwise affirmatively interacting with us or our services.  Additionally, personal information about you may be provided to us by our customers, which are typically your employer or a business with which you have a relationship.  Our customers are responsible for ensuring that any personal information submitted to Astound Business has been obtained by them in accordance with all relevant data protection requirements.  Where applicable, Astound Business customers warrant that they have obtained any required consent from the data subject prior to providing personal information to Astound Business.

We Collect the Information Automatically:  We collect certain types of personal information automatically as you navigate through and interact with our websites.  We may use cookies, flash cookies, clear GIFs, web beacons / pixels, or other automated technologies to collect the technical information described above.  The cookies Astound Business uses do not directly identify users of our websites as particular persons.  Rather, they contain information sufficient to simplify and improve a user’s experience on our website.

The “help” portion on the toolbar of most browsers will tell you how to disable or prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you are to receive a new cookie, or how to delete cookies that have already been sent.  However, as cookies allow your user experience to be enhanced, and expedite login on Astound Business websites, we recommend that you leave them turned on.  Some web browsers may allow you to enable a “do-not-track” feature that alerts the websites you visit that you do not want your online activities to be tracked.  Our websites may not recognize or respond to such “do-not-track” browser settings or signals.

How We Use Your Personal Information

We use the personal information we collect for multiple purposes, including:

Delivering Our Services:  We use personal information as necessary for the performance of our contracts with customers.  For example, contact information is needed to install and manage the delivery of Astound Business services to our customers, to provide technical support, troubleshooting and service incident resolution, for ongoing contract administration and renewals, to provide notices and service or upgrade announcements, to address billing and payment inquiries, and so forth.

Responding to You:  When you submit a request or query to us, we use your personal information to respond to your request or query and provide you with the information, products, services or technical support that you requested.

Presenting Our Website to You:  We use personal information collected through our websites to streamline and personalize your experience on our websites.  We store personal information about your preferences so you do not have to re-enter them, to avoid showing you the same offers repeatedly, and to tailor content, offers and the display of products and services on the websites to match your individual interests.

Protecting Network Assets:  We use network information we gather to protect our network assets.  For example, we monitor data to check for viruses, to control spam, to prevent attacks that might disable our services, to ensure that user traffic does not violate customer agreements or our acceptable use policies, and to guard against other inappropriate or illegal activity.  This typically involves looking at logs and other non-personally identifiable network information.  In certain cases, however, we may need to look into network information details (such as specific websites being visited, files being transmitted, or application being used) for the purposes described above, particularly when we are concerned about fraud or harassment, need to repair a problem we detect or that a customer contacts us about, or we are required or authorized by law to provide the content of network traffic to law enforcement.  Unless there is a particular business need, most network access data we obtain that is attributable to a particular user is kept only for a matter of hours or days.  We may retain data for longer if, for example, it relates to concerns we have about harm to our network or if we are studying the impact of certain applications used on our networks.  Logs reflecting the total amounts of data transmitted, and the date, time, and duration of access to our network by a customer or its end users, including associated IP addresses, are retained for longer.

Improving Our Product and Service Offerings:  We use feedback and queries submitted to us and technical information collected to improve our product and service offerings, as well as our website content.

Evaluating Our Marketing Approaches:  We analyze personal information from our website users to evaluate, inform and adjust our advertising and marketing approaches.

Customer Proprietary Network Information: CPNI may be useful to tailor services to you and to enhance Astound Business’s ability to meet your needs.  You expressly authorize Astound Business, its affiliates, or its sales representatives to use CPNI to determine if you could benefit from other services offered by Astound Business and its affiliates, and market them to you.  You may withdraw your authorization at any time by informing Astound Business in writing.  Any such withdrawal will not affect the quality of services provided to you.

Other Legitimate Purposes:  We use your personal information to fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it.  For instance, if you enter a contest via our websites, we will use the personal information you provide to include you in the contest.  If you apply for a job posting via our websites, we will use the personal information you provide to process and evaluate your employment application.  We may also use your personal information for other legitimate purposes permitted by applicable law including in ways you can reasonably anticipate based on your relationship with us or that are needed in furtherance of the provision of a product or service requested by you or the performance of our contract with you.

When We Disclose Your Personal Information

We may disclose your personal information as follows:

• With your consent;
• To our subsidiaries and affiliates, contractors, service providers and other third parties we use to support our business operations;
• To a buyer or other successor of Astound Business in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets;
• As required by law or legal process;
• If we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property or safety of Astound Business, our customers or other persons; and
• For other legitimate purposes permitted by applicable law.

We do not share your personal information with unaffiliated or non-agent third parties for promotional purposes.

Retention of Personal Information

Astound Business retains and uses personal information as required to accomplish the purposes for which it was collected or as necessary to resolve disputes, enforce contracts and/or comply with our legal obligations.

Security of Your Personal Information

We use commercially reasonable measures to protect against the loss, misuse, and alteration of the personal information we collect, including through the use of appropriate administrative, technical, and physical safeguards.  Unfortunately, no transmission of data over the Internet is completely secure.  Although we do our best to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted using our websites.  You use our websites and provide us with your personal information at your own risk.  We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on our websites.

Minors

Our services and websites are intended for a general audience.  Astound Business does not knowingly collect any personal information from children under the age of 16.  If you are under 16, do not use or provide any personal information through our websites or services.  Astound Business will delete any personal information later determined by us to have been collected from an individual under the age of 16.  If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 16, please contact us using the contact information provided below.

External Links and Third-Party Content

Our websites may provide links to other websites operated by third-parties that are outside our control.  Cookies may also be placed on your system by websites that are not operated by Astound Business.  Such third-party websites and activities are not covered by this Privacy Policy.  Astound Business is not liable for any information, content, products, services, software or other materials available on or through an external website or delivered by a third party.  The use of external websites including any information or content found on such websites is subject to and governed by the terms and conditions of such websites.  We encourage you to review the privacy policies posted on any third-party website you visit.

Information for California Residents

If you are a California resident, please review these additional privacy disclosures, which provide a summary of how we collect, use, and disclose personal information about you and explain your rights under California law.

We collect the personal information described in the Privacy Policy section above titled: Types of Personal Information We Collect from You.  In the prior 12 months, we may have collected the following categories of personal information:

• Identifiers, such as name, associated account number(s), email address, mailing address, cookie and device identifiers, and IP address.
• Demographic information, such as your gender and age, indirectly if you provide us with other information that reveals this category of data, such as your date of birth.
• Commercial information, such as records of purchases and payment information.
• Internet or other electronic network activity information, such as log data and information about the devices and computers you use to access our websites or services.
• Geolocation data, for example, to provide access to local programming or to administer our services (except in some cases where you have turned off your location services).
• Audio, electronic, or similar information, such as recorded conversations with our customer service agents or click activity on our websites.
• Professional or employment-related information, such as who your employer is if you represent an Astound Business customer or your employment history if you apply for a job with us.
• Education information if required in connection with a job application.
• Other information you provide, such as responses to surveys or messages to customer service.
• Inferences drawn from any of the above, including the website content or ads that may be of interest to you.

We collect these categories of personal information from you, your devices, third parties, or as otherwise described in our Privacy Policy.  We use and disclose these categories of personal information for the business purposes also described in our Privacy Policy.

Your Rights as a California Resident

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), California residents have the right to request access to or deletion of their personal information, to request additional details about our information practices, to opt out of the “sale” of personal information (if applicable), and to not be discriminated against for exercising their rights.  To request to exercise your access or deletion rights, please email us at ccpa@astound.com or call us toll-free at 1-833-249-2786. Upon receipt of your request to exercise your rights to access or delete your personal information, we will verify your identity to protect your security and privacy.  If we are unable to appropriately verify your identity, we may ask you to contact us to provide additional information or explain why we are unable to complete your request.  Note that even if we honor your request to delete your information, we may retain certain information as required or permitted by law.

Astound Business does not presently and does not intend in the future to sell your personal information.

Questions?

Please direct any questions or comments you may have about this Privacy Policy or Astound Business’s privacy practices to:

Bree Urban
Chief Legal Counsel, Business Solutions
650 College Road East, Suite 3100
Princeton, NJ 08540
privacy@astound.com

Updates to this Website User Privacy Policy

We may modify this Privacy Policy at any time.  Such changes, modifications, additions or deletions shall become effective immediately upon posting.  By using our services or websites, you acknowledge and agree that it is your responsibility to review this Privacy Policy periodically so that you are aware of any modifications.  If you find any modifications unacceptable, you must not use our services or websites.  Your continued use of our services or website following any updates to this Privacy Policy shall constitute your acceptance of and consent to the changes.

Last Updated:  December 6, 2021