Effective Date: December 1, 2016
This policy describes the type of information that Telmate LLC (“Telmate” or “we”) will collect through your use of the Telmate.com and GettingOut.com websites, and their corresponding products and services. This policy does not apply to information collected about you through any other means, including information collected by third parties or through offline means. Any and all purchasers or user of Telmate products and services, as well as visitors and users to our website, are subject to this privacy policy.
This policy applies to inmates, as well as to friends and families who access Telmate’s services in order to contact or provide funds to inmates. Please read this policy carefully to understand our practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our practices, please do not use our sites or services. By accessing or using Telmate’s sites or services, or by clicking the “accept” button when you register to use a Service, you consent to Telmate’s use of your personal information as described in this policy. This policy may change from time to time, and your continued use of the sites or any service after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check the policy periodically for updates.
This policy covers:
This Privacy Policy is part of, and is governed by, the Telmate Terms and Conditions.
A. Data Ownership; Disclosure to Government Authorities
The correctional facility where an inmate is located, not Telmate, owns the data related to your communications with an inmate. This includes (without limitation) (i) the content of voice and video calls, voicemails, text and picture messages, and any other types of communications, (ii) the location of the device from which the communication was made, (iii) and all other data associated with such communication, including your account data. Telmate has no control over how each correctional facility uses or discloses such data. This policy applies only to Telmate’s activities, and not to the activities of any subsequent or downstream user of the data. Correctional facilities’ use and disclosure of your personal information is subject to their own policies.
Telmate shares your data (and access to such data) with law enforcement and correctional facilities (federal, state, county and local), as well as investigative or public safety entities (public and private) and the agents of such parties (collectively, “Law Enforcement”). You should assume that all communications will be accessed, reviewed, analyzed, searched, scrutinized, rendered searchable, compiled, assembled, accumulated, stored, used, and transferred by Telmate and Law Enforcement. As such, you expressly acknowledge that you use the services without any reasonable expectation that the contents of these communications are, or will remain, private or protected by any legal privilege.
By using a site or service, you agree, understand, and consent for Telmate to:
B. Consent to Collection of Biometric Data
Telmate converts inmates’ voice recordings into a sound spectrogram, which is used as a voiceprint to verify the inmate’s identity and for other law enforcement purposes. In addition, Telmate may collect voiceprints of visitors and share them with Law Enforcement.
Telmate may use software to recognize geometrical patterns that comprise the digital image of a face, a process known as facial recognition. Telmate may use facial recognition to compare known faces against a new face to determine a probable match. Telmate employees may also visually compare images it collects (and share such comparisons with Law Enforcement) for identity verification and other security purposes.
Both the voiceprints and the facial geometries are types of biometric data captured by Telmate.
By signing up for an account or using a service, you expressly consent to Telmate’s collection, use and disclosure of your communications, including your biometric data.
C. Information Telmate Collects
We collect information from you in two ways. First, you provide us with certain information when you register for and use our services. Second, we collect certain data automatically as you interact with our sites and services.
We may collect information from you when you register to use the services, make purchases on our sites, or send any communication or correspondence, by any means, to any of our employees or agents. We directly collect the following types of information that you provide to us:
You may be able to set your browser to reject cookies or to notify you when you are sent a cookie. Not all features of the sites or services will function as intended if you reject cookies.
The information we collect automatically is statistical data and may include personal information, or we may maintain it or associate it with personal information we collect in other ways or receive from third parties.
D. Do Not Track Requests
Your Internet browser and mobile device may allow you to adjust your browser settings so that “do not track” requests are sent to the websites that you visit. Telmate does not track its users over time and across third party websites to provide targeted advertising and therefore does not respond to Do Not Track signals.
E. How We Use the Information We Collect
We may use information collected from or about you for any of the following purposes:
We may also combine information we collect about you through the Service with other information about you that we receive from third party sources. By way of example and not limitation, we may use a change of address or other list service to ensure that our records for your account are accurate.
F. How We Share Your Information with Third Parties
We may share the information we collect in connection with the sites or services with the following third parties:
We share your data with Law Enforcement, as described in Section A above.
We may share your personal information with our third party distributors, vendors, suppliers and other service providers who provide services to us or on our behalf, such as operating and supporting the Service, analyzing data, performing marketing or consulting services, assisting us with the preparation and mailing of our business and marketing communications, and with service processing and fulfillment functions. For example, we may disclose your billing information to payment processors when you add money to your account or conduct other financial transactions through the services.
We may also share your information with third parties who conduct marketing studies and data analytics. These third parties may combine your information with the information of other consumers for purposes of conducting these studies and/or analytics.
We may share some or all of your information with our parent company, subsidiaries and corporate affiliates, joint venturers, or other companies that are or may become under common control with us. We will require these entities to comply with the terms of this Privacy Policy with regard to their use of your information.
In the event of a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy or other sale of all or a portion of our assets, any user information owned or controlled by us may be one of the assets transferred to third parties. We reserve the right, as part of this type of transaction, to transfer or assign your information and other information we have collected from users of the Service to third parties. Other than to the extent ordered by a bankruptcy or other court or otherwise agreed to by you, the use and disclosure of all transferred user information will be subject to this Privacy Policy. However, any information you submit or that is collected after this type of transfer may be subject to a new privacy policy adopted by the successor entity.
We may disclose your information to government authorities or third parties if:
We may share information relating to your use of the service with any third party on an anonymous, aggregate basis. While this information will not identify you personally, in some instances these third parties may be able to combine this aggregate information with other data they have about you, or that they receive from third parties, in a manner that allows them to identify you personally.
G. Your Choices
Because safety and security are Telmate’s top priority, you may not opt out of the sharing of your communications with Law Enforcement, and all data associated with your communications. If you do not consent to the collection, use and disclosure of this type of data, please do not use the sites or services.
You may choose not to share your location details with us by adjusting your location services settings. For instructions on changing the relevant settings, please contact your service provider or mobile device manufacturer. If you choose not to share your location details with us, you may be denied access to certain sites or services, or parts of them.
H. How We Protect Your Information
Telmate complies with all required PCI standards (https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/) regarding our treatment of payment card data. Additionally, we have implemented commercially reasonable measures designed to secure your personal information from unauthorized access, use, alteration and disclosure. However, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. We cannot guarantee the security of your personal information transmitted via our sites or services. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the sites or services.
I. Correcting/Updating Your Information
If your name, email address, mailing address, telephone number, other contact information or financial information that you provide to us changes, you may update the information by contacting our Customer Service team at customerservice@telmate.com.
J. No Use by Children
We regret that the services are not available to persons under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect contact information from children under the age of 13 without verifiable parental consent. If we become aware that a Visitor under the age of 13 has submitted personal information without verifiable parental consent, we will remove his or her information from our files. We understand that children may not fully understand all of the provisions of this Privacy Policy or make informed decisions about the choices that are made available to adult users of the Site. We encourage parents and guardians to spend time with their children online and to be familiar with the websites they visit.
K. Use of Information Outside of Your Country of Residence
The sites and services are directed to users located in the United States. If you are located outside of the United States and choose to use the sites or services or provide your information to us, you should be aware that we may transfer your information to the United States and process it there. The privacy laws in the United States may not be as protective as those in your jurisdiction. Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of information to us through the Site or in connection with the services represents your agreement to the transfer of your information to the United States.
L. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We will occasionally update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our practices and services. We will post any material changes to this Privacy Policy on the sites with a notice advising of changes, and we will notify you by email to the primary email address specified in your account.
M. Release
By accessing and using our website, equipment, and services, you hereby release and forever discharge Telmate, all applicable Law Enforcement Officials and the correctional facility from any and all liability, expense, cost or remedy which may arise as a result of your use of our websites and services as well as the use of the Data in the manner described herein.
N. Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our use of the information we collect, you may contact us by email at customerservice@telmate.com.