Privacy Policy

Please view our new privacy policy, which will become effective July 3, 2017. 

Evernote values your privacy. We make this clear in our 3 Laws of Data Protection. This Privacy Policy explains more specifically what information Evernote Corporation and its affiliated companies (together, “Evernote” or “we” and sometimes “us”) collect about you and why, what we may do with that information and how we handle your Content.

What is the Scope of This Privacy Policy?

This Privacy Policy is incorporated into the Evernote Terms of Service and applies to the information obtained by us through your use of the Service. Capitalized terms used in this Privacy Policy and not otherwise defined shall have the meanings provided for those terms in the Terms of Service.

Will This Privacy Policy Ever Change?

As Evernote evolves, we may need to update this Policy to keep pace with changes in the Service, our business and laws applicable to us and you; we will, however, always maintain our commitment to respect your privacy. We will post any revisions to this Policy, along with their effective date, in an easy to find area of our web site, so we recommend that you periodically check back here to stay informed of any changes. As long as you continue to use the Service, you are bound by the terms of the Privacy Policy. If you disagree with any changes to this Policy and do not wish your information to be subject to a revised Policy, you will need to close your account and/or stop using the Service.

For material changes that impact the collection, use, disclosure or retention of personal information, or for other changes where obtaining your prior consent may be required by applicable law, we will provide notice by sending you an email at the address we have on file for you prior to any changes.

I. Information Collection and Use

What Information Does Evernote Collect about Me and Why?

In order to set up an account, we will ask you to input a limited amount of personal information (like email address and payment details, if you pay us), and we will also collect some information in the background (like device type, operating system, etc.) as part of our efforts to understand how you and others access and use the Service. And of course we store the Content you add to your account.

In general, we process your information and Content in ways that will help you get the most out of your use of your account, will help us improve our Service for you and everyone, and will enable us to tell you about aspects of the Service that we think will benefit you. You can read more about how we process your Content in our “What Does Evernote Do with My Content?” section. In the chart below, we have listed the categories of non-Content information we collect and how we use that information.

If you register for or maintain an Evernote service account:

Additional information we collect in connection with Evernote Business accounts:

If you use our Web Clipper browser extension or "Save to Evernote" button:

Please Note: If you have installed the Web Clipper, then when you visit certain websites it may notify you of available integrations with the Evernote service or about products, services or features that we think will help you get more out of the Evernote service. The Web Clipper does not create a record of your browsing activity.

If you visit an Evernote website:

When you access the Service via an Evernote Software application, that application will request access to certain information on your computing device. For more information on these application permissions, please visit our Data Usage page.

What Tracking Information Does Evernote Collect about Me or My Devices?

Evernote uses cookies, tracking pixels and similar technologies on our Service to collect information that helps us provide our Service to you and to learn how our Service is used. We also use these technologies to help deliver promotional messages and ads for relevant Evernote products and services. For more information about these uses and your options, please visit our Cookie Information page.

What is Evernote’s Approach to Information Collected from Children?

Evernote does not knowingly collect personal information from children without parental consent. If we learn that we have inadvertently obtained information in violation of applicable laws prohibiting collection of information from children without such consent, we will promptly delete it. For more information on Evernote’s approach to use of the Service by children, and our compliance with the US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”), please see the section of our Terms of Service entitled, “Can Kids Use Evernote?”

Will Evernote Contact Me?

From time to time, where it is in accordance with your communication preferences, we may contact you via email with information about product announcements, service offerings that we think may be beneficial to you, software updates and special offers. We also may contact you with information about products and services from our business partners. You may opt out of such communications at any time by following the opt-out instructions provided in emails or by logging into your Evernote service account via our web site at www.evernote.com and going to Settings > Personal Settings > Contact Preferences and changing your contact preferences.

You will continue to receive essential Service-related and account-related information, even if you unsubscribe from promotional emails.

We will also contact you through in-app notifications. You can turn off these notifications through your device settings.

In addition, if someone uses an email address, telephone number, social media profile, or other identifying information not associated with your Evernote service account to contact you through Evernote’s Collaboration Features, then Evernote will contact you on the sender’s behalf using the method chosen by the sender.

If you sign up for two-step verification on your Evernote service account, then depending on the verification method you choose, we may use a third-party provider to send a verification code via text message to the phone number you provide.

II. Information Access and Disclosure

Does Evernote Share My Personal Information or Content?

Evernote is not in the business of selling or renting your information. Outside of actions you take within the Service to communicate via Evernote’s Collaboration Features, or to authorize third-party applications, we only disclose your information - and then only the minimum information necessary - when:

• We have your explicit consent to share the information.
• We need to share your information with Service Providers who process data on our behalf in order to operate and improve the features and functionality of the Service; complete your payment transactions; fulfill your product or service requests, including sales, delivery and support requests; and help us communicate with you as described elsewhere in this policy; these providers are subject to strict data protection requirements in keeping with our commitments under our US-Switzerland Safe Harbor certification as discussed below.
• We need to share your information with resellers of a Paid Service or product in order to ensure accuracy in the payment for such Paid Service or product, the management of your account and the delivery of your purchase and related support services.
• We believe it is necessary to investigate potential violations of our Terms of Service, to enforce the Terms of Service, or where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud or potential threats against persons, property or the systems on which we operate the Service.
• We determine that the access, preservation or disclosure of information is required or permitted by law to protect the rights, property or personal safety of Evernote and users of the Service, or is required to comply with applicable laws, including compliance with warrants, court orders, subpoenas, legal process, or other lawful government requests (including in response to public authorities to meet national security or law enforcement requirements).
• We do so in connection with the sale or reorganization of all or part of our business, as permitted by applicable law.

Some third parties’ embedded content or plugins on the Service, such as Facebook “Like” buttons, may allow their operators to learn that you have visited our website, and they may combine this information with other, identifiable information they have collected about your visits to other websites or online services. For more information with additional examples, see the “Social Media Features” section of our Cookie Information page.

We do not share your account information or user activity history with third parties for the purpose of enabling them to deliver their advertisements to you. 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.

In addition, we may share with partners or Service Providers a hashed identifier derived from the personal information you have submitted to us (such as your email address) to serve you 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 a hashed identifier derived from the personal information you have submitted to us (such as your email address) with Service Providers who help us manage and track the effectiveness of our marketing efforts.

If I’m a Member of an Evernote Business Account, Can My Account Administrator See Any of My Data?

An Administrator (“Admin”) of an Evernote Business account has access to all Notes you create in any Notebook associated with that Evernote Business account. The Admin also can see the Evernote Business Notes or Notebooks you’ve shared and with whom you have shared this Content. (The Admin will see the profile name for other members of the Evernote Business account or the contact information for people who are not in the Evernote Business account). An Admin cannot access any of the Notes in your personal account or any of your Work Chat Content, however. If domain auto-approval is turned off for your Evernote Business account and your personal Evernote service account is associated with your Evernote Business account’s email domain (e.g., [username]@widgets.com), then when you send a Work Chat to someone else with an email address on the same email domain as you, then the Admin will know that you sent the Work Chat message but will not be able to view the Content of that message. We do this so an Admin knows who else in your organization may need to be invited to join the Evernote Business account.

For more information on how your personal Evernote service account works with your Evernote Business account, please review our Help & Learning article on this subject entitled “Are a user's personal notebooks or personal information accessible by other Evernote Business users or Admins?”.

What Information Does Evernote Share When I Use Collaboration Features?

The Evernote service has a number of Collaboration Features, and when you use these features to collaborate with others, some of the personal information you provide to Evernote, including your status as an Evernote service user, may be visible to these other users:

• If you share a Note or Notebook, or if you join a shared Note or Notebook, then anyone who has access to that Note or Notebook may see your user profile. (If you have not added any profile information, then you will be identified solely by the email address associated with your Evernote service Account.)
• If you initiate or respond to a Work Chat message, then the person with whom you are chatting will be able to view your profile.
• In a group Work Chat where you are a recipient of a message but you have not responded, only other Evernote service users you are connected to will see your user profile. Other people in the group chat will only see the information the sender used when sending you the Work Chat message (e.g., email address or telephone number).
• If you are an Evernote Business user, other members of your Evernote Business account will see your full Evernote Business account profile. But Evernote service users who are not in your Evernote Business account will only see your profile name and image.

In addition, anyone who has access to a shared Notebook will be able to see – for each Note in that Notebook – the Note contents, information about where and when the Note was created, as well as the Note history, tags and reminders associated with a particular Note. But when Notes are shared via Work Chat, people with access to the Note will only see the Note contents, plus information about where and when the Note was created.

What Gets Shared When I Use Third Party Apps with My Evernote Account?

Some third-party applications and services that work with our Service may ask for permission to access your Content or other information about your account. Those applications will provide you with notice and request your consent in order to obtain such access or information. Please consider your selection of such applications and services, and your permissions, carefully. We encourage you to review each party’s contract terms and privacy policy. To learn more about some of these applications and what data they may access, visit our Third Party Application Permissions page.

Do Evernote Employees Access or Review My Notes?

As a rule, Evernote employees do not monitor or view your personal information or Content stored in the Service, but we list below the limited circumstances in which our employees may need to access or review your personal information or account Content:

• We believe our Terms of Service has been violated and confirmation is required or we otherwise have an obligation to review your account Content as described in our Terms of Service;
• We need to do so for troubleshooting purposes;
• Where necessary to protect the rights, property or personal safety of Evernote and its users (including to protect against potential spam, malware or other security concerns); or
• In order to comply with our legal obligations, such as responding to warrants, court orders or other legal process. We vigilantly protect the privacy of your account Content and, whenever we determine it possible, we provide you with notice if we believe we are compelled to comply with a third party’s request for information about your account. Please visit our Information for Authorities page for more information.

What does Evernote do with my Content?

Evernote also uses a number of technologies to help you get the most out of the Service. Our systems automatically analyze your data, including your account Content, in order to power Evernote features and to continually improve the Service for you. This may include, for example:

• Making search work the way you want it to;
• Showing you information most relevant to how you are using the Service at a specific time or location;
• Detecting when it looks like you’re making a list and suggest features or tips that might be useful;
• Showing you information relevant to a note you are creating or reviewing. The information we show you may include Notes from your own account, Notes from accounts you are connected to through Evernote Business or Collaboration Features, and third party content that you have elected to receive.

We believe features like these will enhance your experience using the Service. In addition, we may suggest Evernote service features or products to you that we think will help you get the most out of our Service. We do not share your account Content with anyone for advertising purposes.

In addition, as part of our efforts to protect your account and the functionality of the Service, our automated systems may analyze the emails you send to and from your Evernote service account to detect spam, malware or other potential security concerns and may block delivery of such emails.

Does Evernote Ever Make Any of My Personal Information or Content Public?

No. Please note, however, that certain portions of the Service, such as user notebooks designated as “public” and our user forum, are open to any online viewer. Any information that you post in these locations can be read, collected and used by anyone and could enable others to send you unsolicited messages. Evernote enables you to determine whether or not to post personal or otherwise sensitive information to publicly accessible areas of our site, so you should carefully consider how you use the Service. Evernote is not responsible for any publication or use of any Personal Information you choose to post in these locations.

III. Data Storage and Transfer

Which Evernote Company is my Data Controller?

If you live anywhere other than the United States, Canada or Brazil, please note that not only is Switzerland-based Evernote GmbH the data controller for all information associated with your Evernote service account, but Evernote GmbH is also the data controller for any payment, order, shipping and other information you may have provided if you purchased an item from the Evernote Market, even though such order may have been placed with and fulfilled by U.S.-based Evernote Corporation, as described in our Commercial Terms.

Where Is My Data Stored and Processed?

When you use Evernote Software on your computing device, such as by using one of our downloadable applications, Content you save will be stored locally on that device. When you sync your computing device with the Service, that Content will be replicated on servers we and our Service Providers maintain 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 information, including Personal Information and Content, 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; however, we will collect, store and use your Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable laws, wherever it is processed.

As described above, if you are a resident of the European Economic Area (“EEA”) or Switzerland, Evernote GmbH is the data controller of your information. As such, when Evernote GmbH transfers your data to Evernote Corporation, it does so in compliance with the US-Swiss Safe Harbor Framework as set forth by the US Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use and retention of personal information. Evernote Corporation has certified that we adhere to the Safe Harbor Privacy Principles of notice, choice, onward transfer, security, data integrity, access and enforcement. To learn more about the US-Swiss Safe Harbor program, and to view our certification page, please visit http://www.export.gov/safeharbor.

If you have any questions or concerns about our US-Swiss Safe Harbor program, please contact us using the details in the "Contact Us" section below.

A Special Note to Customers in Japan

If you live in Japan, please note that Evernote GmbH is the data controller for all information associated with your Evernote service account, but Evernote GmbH also has contractual relationships with third party resellers for the Japan market permitting joint use of your personal information with such third parties (including addresses, names, telephone numbers, email addresses, credit card information, as well as the details of shopping transactions in the Evernote Market, subscriptions for a Paid Service and related customer support inquiries). Information about our Japan reseller for a Paid Service will be provided to you as part of a contract such reseller will provide to you.

How Can I Access or Correct Information Evernote Holds About Me?

If you wish to (i) access any Personal Information that we hold about you; (ii) request that we correct, amend or delete the Personal Information that we hold about you; or (iii) request that we not use or stop using your Personal Information for marketing purposes, you may contact us via email at compliance AT evernote DOT com. We will comply with such requests to the extent required by applicable law or US-Swiss Safe Harbor Principles, and subject to any limitations in our systems.

How Secure Is My Data?

Evernote is committed to protecting the security of your information and takes reasonable precautions to protect it. Our Security Overview provides a detailed description of our security program. By using the Evernote service, you agree that our security practices as defined in our Security Overview are sufficient.

We use industry standard encryption to protect your data in transit. This is commonly referred to as transport layer security (“TLS”) or secure socket layer (“SSL”) technology. However, internet data transmissions, cannot be guaranteed to be 100% secure, and we cannot ensure the security of information during its transmission between you and us. Accordingly, you acknowledge that when you transport such information, you do so at your own risk.

If Evernote learns of a security system breach, we may attempt to notify you and provide information on protective steps, if available, through the email address that you have provided to us or by posting a notice on our web site and/or via other communication platforms. Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive such notices in writing.

IV. Information Deletion

What Happens If I Want to Stop Using Evernote?

You can delete Note Content at any time, and you can stop using the Evernote service at any time. If you deactivate your account, the Content in your account will not be deleted unless you purposely delete that information, and sync your account before you deactivate your account. Learn how to delete your Content here. Learn how to remove your account and account credentials here. If you delete information and material from a notebook and then sync your account, it will no longer be accessible to you or others who may access the Service. The Evernote service’s back-up and archiving systems may retain residual copies of your deleted Content for up to one year due to the nature of those systems’ operations.

If you delete your copy of a Work Chat message, this action can't be undone. Please note that deleting your copy of a Work Chat message from your own Evernote account won’t delete those messages from the accounts of the people with whom you were chatting.

What Happens If Evernote Closes My Account?

If Evernote deactivates your Evernote service account due to a Terms of Service violation, then you may contact Evernote to request deletion of your data, and Evernote will evaluate such requests on a case by case basis, pursuant to our legal obligations.

V. Contact Us

How Can I Contact Evernote?

Evernote welcomes your feedback regarding this Privacy Policy. If you have questions, comments or concerns about this Policy or our US-Swiss Safe Harbor certification, please contact us by email at privacy AT Evernote DOT com or postal mail at:

EVERNOTE CORPORATION
305 Walnut Street
Redwood City,
California 94063 USA,
Attention: Privacy Team

EVERNOTE GMBH
Walchestrasse
98006 Zurich,
Switzerland,
Attention: Privacy Team

EVERNOTE DO BRASIL SERVICOS DE APLICACOES LTDA
Avenida Paulista, no 2.300
Andar Pilotis
Edifício São Luiz Gonzaga
CEP: 01310-300,
São Paulo/SPBrasil,  
Attention: Privacy Team