Privacy Policy

Effective Date: July 3, 2017 – What’s New >>

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Introduction

As we state in our 3 Laws of Data Protection, we are committed to protecting the privacy of your data. This Privacy Policy explains more specifically what information Evernote Corporation and its Group Companies (together, “Evernote,” “we” or “us”) collect and receive from Account Holders and End Users (“you”) through Evernote’s websites and applications, which we refer to collectively as “the Service.” The Service includes the Evernote Software.

Please note, if you use Evernote Basic, Plus, or Premium, you are both the Account Holder and End User of an Evernote service account. If you use Evernote Business, the Account Holder is the Customer who has contracted with Evernote as defined in our Evernote Business Agreement and the End Users are the individuals whose user accounts are linked to that Evernote Business account. You can find these and other defined terms used in this policy in our Glossary at the end of this page.

Although significant changes are rare, this policy may be amended as new features, technology, or legal requirements arise, so please check back from time to time. We’ll notify you if we make a significant change and, where required, seek your consent. 

What information does Evernote collect and receive? 

We built Evernote to help you remember and organize your ideas, thoughts, and memories. That means you can input, upload, or store in Evernote any text, images, and other data that you choose (collectively, “Content”). We also collect and receive the following types of information:

• Basic subscriber information. To open your account and process payments, we collect and receive basic information like your email address and, depending on how you purchase a subscription to Evernote Plus, Evernote Premium or Evernote Business (each a “Paid Service”), your billing address and other payment information.  
• Log data. When you use Evernote, we collect data to understand how you and others access and use the Service, as well as information about actions you take when using the Service (such as the act of creating a note or sharing a note). This includes the use of cookies, tracking pixels, and similar analytics technologies, as described more fully in our Cookie Information page. This information helps us provide the Service to you, learn how the Service is used, and identify and suggest ways we can make the Service more useful to you.             
• Location information. We collect the IP address you use to connect to the Service, and — if you choose to share it — your location information from a mobile device. This helps us localize the Service for you and, depending on your location settings, allows us to show you relevant content accessible from your account.
• Device information. We collect information about the number and type of devices you use to connect to the Service, as well as information about the operating systems on those devices (e.g., iOS, Android, Windows) to ensure the Service works as expected for you. Learn more about information our applications collect from your device on our Data Usage page.

We also may link your subscriber information with data we receive from our partners and other third parties to help understand your needs and provide you with a better experience.  For example, if you create or log into an Evernote account using your Google Apps credentials via single sign-on, we will have access to certain information such as your name and email address as authorized in your Google Apps profile settings.

How does Evernote use my information?

We have specific rules for how and when we use the information we collect and receive. We describe these below.

What does Evernote do with my information?

We are committed to protecting the privacy of your information. Below, we describe the ways in which we use the information we collect and receive to provide, maintain, and improve the Service; to provide troubleshooting and customer support; to protect the Service for all our users; to contact you; and to administer Evernote Business accounts. 

• We use a number of technologies to help you get the most out of the Service. Our systems automatically analyze your data to power Evernote features and to continually improve the Service for you in a way that does not require anyone to look at your Content. This may include, for example:
• Making sure you find what you’re looking for when you search your account.
• Showing you information most relevant to how you are or could be using the Service at a specific time or location.
• Suggesting actions for you to take based on information you’ve stored.
• Suggesting Evernote service features or products to you that we think will help you get the most out of our Service.
• For Evernote Business users, recommending people for you to collaborate with.
• To provide troubleshooting and customer support, our Customer Support team may need to access your information, such as your account email address and information about the Evernote application you are using, subject to the protections described above.  
• As part of our efforts to protect your account and the functionality of the Service, our systems may analyze the emails you send to and from your Evernote account and the notes you share to detect spam, malware, or other potential security concerns. If we determine that such material constitutes a Terms of Service or User Guidelines violation, we may block delivery of or unshare the problematic material, much like a spam filter works for your email inbox.
  Learn more about steps you can take to protect your account, such as using strong passwords, two-step verification, and encryption.
• In accordance with your communication preferences, we’ll occasionally contact you to announce new products and features we build for you, share tips for using Evernote to get more done, make special offers, and provide information about how Evernote works with products and services from our business partners.

• If you are an End User of an Evernote Business account, please note that the Account Holder of your Evernote Business account (such as your employer or organization) may have established its own rules regarding End Users’ access, use, disclosure, or retention of data stored in that account. Also note that while an Administrator of an Evernote Business account has access to the End User accounts linked to that Evernote Business account, an Administrator cannot access an End User’s personal Evernote account. You can find more information on how your personal Evernote service account works with your Evernote Business account here.

Would someone at Evernote ever view my Content?

You have control over who sees your Content. We limit the use of your Content to make sure that no one at Evernote can view it unless you expressly give us permission or it’s necessary to comply with our legal obligations. Specifically:

• To help refine or improve the technology, we may ask you for permission to review portions of your Content. For example, if a new feature suggests related notes that are relevant to your Content, we may give you an opportunity to provide us feedback on how well the feature is performing along with a sample of the Content in question, so we can make sure this feature provides appropriately tailored suggestions. Such access to your Content is done only with your express permission and is subject to strict confidentiality rules and data access controls. Choosing to give us such permission is completely voluntary.
• If you contact our Customer Support team for help with specific pieces of Content in your account (for example, if you can’t find a note you believe should be in your account), we may ask for your temporary permission to look at your Content. This permission terminates when the issue is resolved.

• If we become aware of a potential violation of our a Terms of Service or User Guidelines, we may suspend or close your account until the problematic material is removed. Under such a circumstance, we would only look at the Content in your account if you give us consent or if necessary to comply with our legal obligations, including to protect the safety of you or any other person.

To test and improve our product offerings for our users, we use aggregated data that does not contain any personal information, does not identify any person, and cannot be connected to any specific user. This policy is not intended to apply to such anonymized/de-identified data.

How does Evernote share or disclose my information?

Evernote is not in the business of selling or renting your information. Here are instances when we may disclose your information — and then only the minimum information necessary:

• We share your information with Service Providers who process data on our behalf, such as credit card processors and customer management systems. For example, these Service Providers help us:
• Operate, develop, and improve the features and functionality of the Service
• Complete your payment transactions
• Fulfill your sales and support requests
• Communicate with you as described elsewhere in this policy

We require these providers to agree to strict data protection requirements in keeping with our privacy policy standards and our commitments under our EU-US Privacy Shield and Swiss-US Privacy Shield certifications as discussed below.

We do not share your information with any third parties for their own advertising purposes.

• Your Content is private unless you decide you want to share it. You may choose to share using public links or through any of the Service’s features that allow you to share or collaborate on Content (“Collaboration Features”). If you choose to share, we may need to take steps to facilitate your collaboration.  

• In the event of a merger, sale, or reorganization of all or part of our business, information covered by this policy may be transferred in connection with that deal.  
• As described on our Cookie Information page, we contract with third-party advertising networks in order to deliver relevant Evernote advertisements to you across the Internet and to manage our communications with you. We do not use your Content for these purposes. In addition, we may share with partners or Service Providers a hashed identifier to serve you relevant Evernote ads when you visit partners’ and providers’ websites, applications or platforms. We may, for instance, participate in the Twitter Tailored Audience and Facebook Custom Audience services. To learn more about the privacy controls that Twitter and Facebook offer and honor for those respective services, please visit here for Twitter and here for Facebook. You may opt out of certain ad targeting and retargeting services by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page, or the Network Advertising Initiative’s opt-out page.
• We also may share information about you with third parties whenever you consent to or direct such sharing. This includes, for example, if you connect your Evernote account with a third-party app in our App Center.

How does Evernote respond to legal requests for my information?

We vigilantly protect the privacy of your account. We will not disclose your information to law enforcement or other governmental authorities unless we believe it is required to comply with warrants, court orders, subpoenas, or other lawful government requests. This may include responding to legal requests from jurisdictions outside of the United States where we have a good faith belief that the response is required by law in that jurisdiction, affects users in that jurisdiction, and is consistent with internationally recognized standards of due process.

We narrowly interpret all information requests, and we only disclose Content in your account that is specifically responsive to a government warrant or where you have provided your explicit consent. In accordance with our user notice policy, we will notify you if we believe we are compelled to comply with a third party’s legal demand for your information, and we routinely push back on government orders to delay user notice that we view as overly broad. You can find more information in our current Transparency Report.

In addition, in rare cases, we may share your information as necessary to investigate or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, or potential threats against persons, property or the systems on which we operate the Service, or as otherwise necessary to comply with our legal obligations.

How can I manage my information stored in Evernote?

Consistent with our first law of data protection—your data is yours—in most cases, you can manage your information simply by logging into your account and editing your information directly within the Evernote service.

However, if you prefer, you can contact us at compliance@evernote.com to ask us to provide access to, correct, update, or delete your personal information. Please note that we may ask you for proof of account ownership and/or identity before fulfilling your request. We will comply with such requests to the extent required by applicable law or the US-Swiss Privacy Shield and US-EU Privacy Shield.

What happens if I want to stop using Evernote?

You can delete your Content at any time, and you can stop using the Evernote service at any time. And as we promise in our third law of data protection, your data is portable. You can export your notes at any time, as explained here.

If you delete your Content and then sync, it will no longer be accessible to you or others who may access the Service. The Evernote service’s back-up systems may retain residual copies of your deleted Content for up to one year due to the nature of those systems’ operations.

Evernote provides you with features that allow you to communicate and collaborate with other users. Please note that deleting your copy of these communications (such as messages) won't delete copies existing in the accounts of people you were interacting with.

What happens if Evernote closes my account?

If Evernote deactivates your account due to a TOS violation, then you may contact us to request deletion of your Content, and we will evaluate such requests on a case by case basis, pursuant to our legal obligations.

Where does Evernote store my information?

When you use Evernote Software on your computing device, such as by using one of our downloadable applications, some of your data will be stored locally on that device.

When you sync your computing device with the Service, that data will be replicated on servers maintained in the United States. This means that if you store information in or submit data to the Evernote website or Evernote Software and sync such Evernote Software with the Evernote service, you acknowledge your personal information will be transmitted to, hosted, and accessed in the United States.

Data privacy laws or regulations in your home country may differ from those in the United States. We will collect, store, and use your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable laws, wherever it is processed.

Which Evernote company is my data controller?

If you live in Brazil, your data controller is Evernote do Brasil Serviços de Aplicaçōes Ltda. (“Evernote Brasil”). If you live in the United States and Canada, your data controller is Evernote Corporation (headquartered in California). If you live anywhere else, your data controller is Switzerland-based Evernote GmbH.

How does Evernote comply with data transfer rules?

If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (“EEA”) or Switzerland, please note that we use standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission to transfer your personal Information from the EEA or Switzerland to the United States and other countries.

In addition, Evernote Corporation has certified its compliance with the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework and the Swiss-US Privacy Shield Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information from EU member countries and Switzerland.