Here at Ablebits we strive to protect the safety of your data. Below you will find out what data may be collected, when, and for what purposes exactly.
In the case with free add-ons for Google Drive, Sheets, Docs, and Forms, we do not collect any personal data from you at all.
When it comes to paid add-ons, we get the email address you provide when ordering a subscription. We do not store your email address in plain text though. It is hashed and cannot be reversed back, so there's no way to get your email address as is. We use your hashed email address for licensing purposes and if you contact us for assistance.
All your files are stored under your Google account on Google servers. The source code of our add-ons is reviewed and approved by Google. It is running on Google servers and in your browser only. No other programs, computers and people, servers and services, whether ours or third-party, have access to your files.
So, you can be absolutely sure your files are transferred between your machine and Google servers. This process is managed, controlled, and secured by Google and you solely.
Each add-on you install requires certain permissions. They are standard and created by Google:
Such tools as Remove Duplicates, Combine Sheets, Merge Sheets, etc. may access your Google Drive only when you ask them to copy or move the results to a new spreadsheet or when you pick files from your Google Drive to combine.
This permission allows our add-ons to process the data in your files (change case, merge and split records, find duplicates, build navigation panes, etc.) strictly in accordance with the options you choose. Your files are being processed within Google Workspace services exclusively.
Once in a while, the add-ons check if your Google account has an active subscription. For that, the tools send only your irreversible hashed email address and the license key (if you have one) to our licensing service.
This service permission allows add-ons to save the settings you select solely on Google server. This way, each checkbox you check/uncheck will remain the same the next time you run the tool.
This one is required so you could see our icons, pictures, and other static resources that we store on Amazon Content Delivery Network.
All your orders and payments are handled by secure e-commerce service 2Checkout. Thus, we do not have any access to your payment information such as bank account details, credit cards, addresses, etc.
We do not collect any personal information if you download and use the trial version of Ablebits desktop add-ins (e.g. tools for Excel, Outlook, and Word). Once you get your license, we will collect only data you provide while purchasing it, specifically your full name and email address. If you enter your company name in the additional field, it will be saved to our database as well. Your name, email address, and company name are used for licensing purposes only.
All our Office add-ins are run on your computers and process your Office files locally. We do not collect or transfer your data to our or third-party servers or services, that can be insured by any network traffic monitoring tool. The source code of our add-ins is regularly reviewed, as well as the add-in binary consistency is secured by the digital code signing certificates.
So, you can be absolutely sure that no programs, computers and people, servers and services, whether ours or third-party, have access to your files through our add-ins.
All orders are processed by e-commerce provider Digital River GmbH. Hence, we will not have any access to your payment information such as bank account details, credit cards, addresses, etc.
While installing the add-in, you will see the Share anonymous usage statistics checkbox. It means that when you interact with our products, we may collect information that cannot be linked back to you. This statistical data is not tied to any personal information and is completely anonymous.
We use the activation procedure to check if the number of your activations does not exceed the number of purchased licenses. When you activate your license, you will be asked to enter your name or your company name if it's a business license. It will be saved to our records and associated with your license key and a unique identifier of your computer (we call it hardware ID). Hardware ID lets you not bother contacting us when you update or reinstall our products on your device.
When you visit Ablebits.com, none of your personal data (by which you may be identified) is collected.
To comment on a blog post, on the forum, or in the Docs area, you will be asked to enter your name and email address. This information is collected by the Ablebits website engine so we could contact you.
We use Google Analytics to collect information concerning visitor and user behavior on our website and regarding the usage of our products and services. This data is not tied to any personal information and is absolutely anonymous.
Responses
Hi, why does Power Tools for Google Docs ask permission to "See and download all your Google Drive files"? o.O
Hi Marcus,
Thank you for contacting us and for your question.
We do not store, collect, or share your personal data or the information from your files. Please check our Privacy Policy for more details: https://www.ablebits.com/docs/ablebits-privacy-policy/
All the permissions are standard and created by Google. As for the one you are referring to, such tools as Remove Duplicates and Combine Sheets may access your Google Drive only when you ask them to copy or move the results to a new spreadsheet or when you pick files from your Google Drive to combine.
OK, thank you for the clarification. 🙂
How do I remove the add-in pls?
Hello Casey,
Thank you for contacting us.
If you want to uninstall our add-in, please follow the steps described here.
I I use the add-in on my sheet and then share that sheet with others will they need to buy a licence to be able to see the results of my use of Power Tools?
Hello Chris,
Thank you for your question. In this case other users can see and edit the result of add-ons work but won't be able to use Power Tools. Thank you.