Altair Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy describes how Altair Engineering Inc. collects and uses Personal Information about you through the use of our Websites and our products and services.

Altair Engineering Inc., its subsidiaries, and affiliates ("Altair " or "We ") respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it through our compliance with this policy.

This Privacy Policy (our “Privacy Policy”) describes the types of information we may collect from you or which you may provide to us when you license or use our software, visit websites that we own and operate, including but not limited to altair.com, altairone.com, community.altair.com, events.altair.com, help.altair.com, learn.altair.com, web.altair.com, toggled.com, thearender.com, kerkythea.net, openmatrix.org, openradioss.org, openpbs.org, cambridgesemantics.com, concept.de, efatigue.com, omniquest.com, powersimtech.com, rapidminer.com, community.rapidminer.com, and other websites owned or operated by Altair, including local websites in your country (collectively, our “websites”), attend or participate in a trade show, marketing event, or through an agreement entered into between Altair and you and/or your employer. The Privacy Policy also describes how we collect, use, maintain, protect, and may disclose such information.

This policy applies to information we collect:

  • on our Websites, including but not limited to comments and forums on our Websites;
  • in email, text, and other electronic messages between you and Altair, including on or through our Websites;
  • that you provide at marketing, trade shows, training registrations, and other similar events; and
  • that you or your employer provides as part of an agreement between you or your employer and Altair for our products and services.

It does not apply to information collected by:

  • any third party, including through any application or content (including advertising) that may link to or be accessible from or on the Websites.

Please read this policy carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, your choice is not to use our Websites or our products and services. By accessing or using our Websites, you agree to this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy may change from time to time (see Changes to Our Privacy Policy). Your continued use of our Websites or our products and services after we make changes is deemed to be acceptance of those changes, so please check this Privacy Policy periodically for updates.

2. Data Controller, Data Protection Officer, and Representative

Altair Engineering Inc. is the data controller of the Personal Data you provide on the Websites. If you enter an agreement with a specific Altair affiliate or subsidiary, then that affiliate or subsidiary may be the controller of your Personal Data and Altair Engineering Inc. may be a co-controller with that entity.

Altair Engineering Inc. is the data controller of your Personal Data that you provide on the Websites. The specific Altair affiliate company or subsidiary that you contract with or that collects your Personal Data is the data controller for your Personal Data when we obtain it from all other sources and Altair Engineering Inc. may be the co-controller under applicable international, federal, state, or local privacy laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation ("Applicable Privacy Laws ") for this data. Altair or its Data Protection Officer may be contacted in any manner set forth below in the "Contact Information " Section of this Privacy Policy.

3. Children Under the Age of 18

Our Websites and products and services are not intended for children under the age of 18 and children under the age of 18 are not permitted to use our Websites or our products and services. We will remove any information about a child under the age of 18 if we become aware of it.

Our Websites and our products and services are not intended for children under 18 years of age. No one under age 18 may provide any information to Altair either on the Website or otherwise. We do not knowingly collect Personal Data from children under 18. If you are under 18, do not use or provide any information to Altair, either offline or on the Websites or on or through any of its features. If we learn we have collected or received Personal Data from a child under 18 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information. If you believe we might have any information from or about a child under 18, please contact us as described in the "Contact Information. "

4. Information We Collect About You and How We Collect It

We collect different types of information about you, including information that may directly identify you, information that is about you but individually does not personally identify you, and information that we combine with our other users. This includes information that we collect directly from you or through automated collection technologies.

Generally

We collect several types of information from and about users of our Websites and our products and services. Generally, we collect information:

  • by which you may be personally identified. Specifically, we collect your name, postal address (if you are an individual using our products and services or accessing our Websites), e-mail address, telephone number(s), financial account information (for payment only), username, and password ("Personal Data ");
  • that is about you but individually does not identify you. Specifically, we collect your job title, employer name and contact information, and unique identifiers (serial numbers) that identify your computer equipment (for licensing purposes), IP addresses, internet service provider, make and model of the equipment you use to access our Websites or to use our products and services, and usage details of your use of our Websites, products, and services; and
  • that is combined with other users of our Websites, products, and services. Specifically, we collect usage statistics about your use of our Websites, products, and services and combine this with similar data collected from our other users.

We collect this information:

  • directly from you when you provide it to us;
  • automatically as you navigate through our Websites. Information collected automatically includes information collected through cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies (as further described below); and
  • from third parties, for example, our business partners such as resellers and other third parties that helps us provide our products and services to you.

Information You Provide to Us

The information we collect is:

  • information that you provide by filling in forms on our Websites. Specifically, this information is provided at the time of requesting further information from us, including information that you provide when requesting support from us;
  • information that you or your employer provides as part of an agreement for our goods and services; and
  • records and copies of your correspondence (including email addresses), if you contact us for support.

The Personal Data we collect from you is required to enter into a contract with Altair, for Altair to perform under the contract, and for Altair to provide you with our products and services. If you refuse to provide such Personal Data or withdraw your consent to our processing of Personal Data, then in some cases we may not be able to enter into the contract or fulfill our obligations to you under it.

You also may provide information to be published or displayed (hereinafter, "posted ") on public areas of the Website or transmitted to other users of the Website or third parties (collectively, "User Contributions "). Your User Contributions are posted on and transmitted to others at your own risk. Although we limit access to certain pages, please be aware that no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. Additionally, we cannot control the actions of other users of the Website with whom you may choose to share your User Contributions. Therefore, we cannot and do not guarantee that your User Contributions will not be viewed by unauthorized persons.

Information We Collect Through Automatic Data Collection Technologies

As you navigate through and interact with our Websites, with your permission we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect certain information about your equipment, browsing actions, and patterns:

  • details of your visits to our Websites, specifically traffic data, logs, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on the Websites.
  • Information about your computer and internet connection, specifically your IP address, operating system, and browser type.

The information we collect automatically may include Personal Data or we may maintain it or associate it with Personal Data we collect in other ways or receive from third parties. It helps us to improve our Websites and to deliver a better and more personalized service by enabling us to:

  • estimate our audience size and usage patterns;
  • store information about your preferences, allowing us to customize our Websites according to your individual interests;
  • speed up your searches and other similar functions available on our Websites; and
  • recognize you when you return to our Websites.

To learn more about automatic data collection technologies we use, please see our Cookie Policy.

5. Lawful Basis for Processing Your Personal Data

We have a lawful basis for our processing of your Personal Data, including processing for our legitimate interests (when balanced against your rights and freedoms), to fulfill our obligations to you under our contract with you (or your employer), as required by law, and with your consent.

If you are in the European Union, the processing of your Personal Data is lawful only if it is permitted under the applicable data protection laws. We have a lawful basis for each of our processing activities (except when an exception applies as described below):

  • Legitimate Interests. We will process your Personal Data as necessary for our legitimate interests. Our legitimate interests are balanced against your rights and freedoms and we do not process your Personal Data if your rights and freedoms outweigh our legitimate interests. Specifically, we process your Personal Data pursuant to our legitimate interests to: facilitate communication between Altair and you; improve our Websites, products, and services; safeguard our IT infrastructure and intellectual property; detect and prevent fraud and other crime; promote our business; to provide you with information that you request from us; and check your credit and perform risk assessments;
  • To Fulfill Our Obligations to You Under Our Contract. We process your Personal Data in order to fulfill our obligations to you pursuant to our contract with you to deliver our goods and services to you.
  • As Required by Law. We may also process your Personal Data when we are required to by law; to comply with government inspection, audits, and other valid requests from government or other public authorities; to comply with US export regulations; to respond to legal process such as subpoenas when we have a good faith belief that such requests meet the applicable legal standards; or as necessary for us to protect our interests or otherwise pursue our legal rights and remedies (for instance, when necessary to prevent or detect fraud, attacks against our network, or other criminal and tortious activities), defend litigation, and manage complaints or claims; and
  • Consent. By using our Websites or entering an agreement for Altair to provide you our products and services, you consent to our collection, use, and sharing of your Personal Data as described in this privacy policy. If you do not consent to this privacy policy, please do not use the Websites or enter into an agreement with Altair. We may also, from time to time, request your consent to process your Personal Data in a manner not described above. The purpose and nature of this processing will be described at the time we seek your consent. Except in extreme cases that require immediate processing, your consent for these additional purposes is completely optional and you are under no obligation to provide consent.

6. Special Categories of Information

We generally do not process any special categories of Personal Data.

Altair does not ask you to provide, and we do not knowingly collect, any special categories of Personal Data from you.

7. Automated Decisions Making

We generally do not use any automated decision making processes on your Personal Data.

Altair does not use your Personal Data with any automated decision making process.

8. How We Use Your Information

We use your Personal Data for various purposes described below, including to provide you with information you request from us, provide you our services, notify you of changes, and for other purposes with your consent.

We use information that we collect about you or that you provide to us, including any Personal Data:

  • to provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us (including license keys necessary to use our products and services you install on your own computers and networks);
  • permit you to exchange files with Altair related to the products and services you license or subscribe to from us;
  • invoice you for our products and services that you license or subscribe to;
  • to fulfill any other purpose for which you provide it;
  • to carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us, including for troubleshooting, support, billing and collection;
  • to notify you about changes to our Websites or any products or services we offer or provide though them;
  • in any other way we may describe when you provide the information;
  • for any purpose required by law; and
  • for any other purpose with your consent.

With your consent, we may also use your information to contact you about our own goods and services that may be of interest to you. If you wish to consent to this use, please check the relevant box located on the form on which we collect your data. If you wish to change your choice, you may do so at any time by navigating to the Websites, clicking the "Cookie Consent " link at the bottom of the page and adjusting our user preferences in your account profile by checking or unchecking the relevant boxes or by sending us an email stating your request at [email protected]. For more information, see Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information.

9. Disclosure of Your Information

We do not sell your Personal Data. We only share and disclose your personal data to a few third parties, including our subsidiaries and affiliates, contractors and other service providers that help us provide you with our goods and services, in the event we merge, acquire, or are acquired by a third party, and to comply with a lawful order or to enforce our rights.

We do not share, sell, or otherwise disclose your Personal Data for purposes other than those outlined in this Privacy Policy. However, we may disclose aggregated information about our users, and information that does not identify any individual, without restriction.

We may disclose Personal Data that we collect or you provide as described in this privacy policy:

  • to our subsidiaries, affiliates and resellers who provide or support our Websites or our products and services;
  • to contractors, service providers, and other third parties we use to support our business and who are bound by contractual obligations to keep Personal Data confidential and use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them. Specifically, these entities provide IT and infrastructure support services (including hosting providers to the extent necessary to provide their hosting services), shipping, billing and collections, and other similar business services;
  • to a buyer or other successor in the event of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Altair Engineering Inc.’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Data held by Altair Engineering Inc. about our customers is among the assets transferred;
  • to fulfill the purpose for which you provide it. For example, if you give us Personal Data through the "contact us " feature of the Websites or to open a troubleshooting ticket, we will transmit the contents of that email and your email address to the appropriate Altair organization to answer your request;
  • for any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide the information;
  • to your employer and/or the administrator for your account; and
  • with your consent.

We may also disclose your Personal Data to third parties:

  • to comply with any court order, law, or legal process, including to respond to any government or regulatory request (when we have a good-faith basis to believe that such court order or legal process meets the applicable legal standards);
  • to enforce or apply our Terms of Use and other agreements, including for billing and collection purposes; and
  • if we believe disclosure is necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of Altair Engineering Inc., our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with law enforcement and with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

10. Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information

We offer you choices to opt out of receiving promotional offers from Altair.

We strive to provide you with choices regarding the Personal Data you provide to us. We have created the following mechanisms to provide you with control over your Personal Data:

  • Promotional Offers from Altair. We will only use your contact information to promote our own or third party products and services with your express consent. If you wish to consent to such use, you can check the relevant box located on the form on which we collect your Personal Data or otherwise seek such consent. If you wish to change your choice, you may do so at any time by logging into the Websites and adjusting your user preferences in your account profile by checking or unchecking the relevant boxes or by sending us an email stating your request to [email protected]. If we have sent you a promotional email, you may send us a return email asking to be omitted from future email distributions. This opt out does not apply to information provided to the Altair as a result of a product purchase, warranty registration, product service experience or other transactions.

11. Your Rights Regarding Your Information and Accessing and Correcting Your Information

You may have certain rights under Applicable Privacy Laws, including the right to access and update your Personal Data, restrict how it is used, transfer certain Personal Data to another controller, withdraw your consent at any time, and the right to have us erase certain Personal Data about you. You also have the right to complain to a supervisory authority about our processing of your Personal Data.

Applicable data protection laws may provide you with certain rights with regards to our processing of your Personal Data.

  • Access and Update. You can review and change your Personal Data by logging into the Websites and visiting the "Edit Profile " page. You may also request access and notify us through the contact information listed in Section 17 of this Privacy Policy in regards to any changes or errors in any Personal Data we have about you to ensure that it is complete, accurate, and as current as possible. Please note that we may not be able to accommodate your request if we believe it would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect. You can manage your subscription preferences at altair.com/email-newsletter or visit altair.com/unsubscribe to opt out of all marketing email communications.
  • Restrictions. You have the right to restrict our processing of your Personal Data under certain circumstances. In particular, you can request we restrict our use of it if you contest its accuracy, if the processing of your Personal Data is determined to be unlawful, or if we no longer need your Personal Data for processing, but we have retained it as permitted by law.
  • Portability. To the extent the Personal Data you provide Altair is processed based on your consent, you have the right to request that we provide you a copy of, or access to, all or part of such Personal Data in structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. You also have the right to request that we transmit this Personal Data to another controller, when technically feasible.
  • Withdrawal of Consent. To the extent that our processing of your Personal Data is based on your consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time by closing your account. Withdrawing your consent will not, however, affect the lawfulness of the processing based on your consent before its withdrawal, and will not affect the lawfulness of our continued processing that is based on any other lawful basis for processing your Personal Data.
  • Right to be Forgotten. You have the right to request that we delete all of your Personal Data. We cannot delete your Personal Data except by also deleting your user account, and we will only delete your account when we no longer have a lawful basis for processing your Personal Data or after a final determination that your Personal Data was unlawfully processed. We may not accommodate a request to erase information if we believe the deletion would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect. In all other cases, we will retain your Personal Data as set forth in this policy. In addition, we cannot completely delete your Personal Data as some data may rest in previous backups. These will be retained for the periods set forth in our disaster recovery policies. If you delete your User Contributions from the Website, copies of your User Contributions may remain viewable in cached and archived pages, or might have been copied or stored by other Websites users. Proper access and use of information provided on the Website, including User Contributions, is governed by our Terms of Use.
  • Complaints. You have the right to lodge a complaint with the applicable supervisory authority in the country you live in, the country you work in, or the country where you believe your rights under applicable data protection laws have been violated. However, before doing so, we request that you contact us directly in order to give us an opportunity to work directly with you to resolve any concerns about your privacy.
  • How You May Exercise Your Rights. You may exercise any of the above rights by contacting us through any of the methods below and through the live chat feature of our Websites. If you contact us to exercise any of the foregoing rights, we may ask you for additional information to verify your identity. We reserve the right to limit or deny your request if you have failed to provide sufficient information to verify your identity or to satisfy our legal and business requirements.

12. Do Not Track Signals

We currently do not honor do-not-track signals sent by some browsers.

We also may use automated data collection technologies to collect information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or other online services (behavioral tracking) as more fully described in our Cookie Policy. Some web browsers permit you to broadcast a signal to websites and online services indicating a preference that they "do not track " your online activities. At this time, we do not honor such signals and we do not modify what information we collect or how we use that information based upon whether such signal is broadcast or received.

13. Data Security

Information transmitted over the Internet is not completely secure, but we do our best to protect your Personal Data. You can help protect your Personal Data and other information by keeping your password to our Websites confidential.

We have implemented measures designed to secure your Personal Data from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure.

The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our Websites, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone. We urge you to be careful about giving out information in public areas of the Websites like message boards. The information you share in public areas may be viewed by any user of the Websites.

Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee the security of your Personal Data transmitted to our Websites. Any transmission of Personal Data is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Websites.

14. Consent to Processing of Personal Data in Other Countries Outside the European Economic Area

We may process your Personal Data outside of your home country, including to the United States. We only do this when we are legally permitted to and when we have appropriate safeguards in place to protect your Personal Data.

If you are a resident of the European Economic Area ("EEA "), in order to provide our Websites, products, and services to you, we may send and store your Personal Data outside of the EEA, including to the United States. Accordingly, your Personal Data may be transferred outside the country where you reside or are located, including to countries that may not or do not provide an adequate level of protection for your Personal Data.

Your Personal Data is transferred by Altair to another country only if it is required or permitted under applicable data protection law and provided that there are appropriate safeguards in place to protect your Personal Data. By using our Websites or our products and services, you represent that you have read and understood the above and hereby consent to the storage and processing of Personal Data that you provide directly to us on our Website. To ensure your Personal Data (other than Personal Data you provide directly to us on our Website) is treated in accordance with this Privacy Policy, Altair uses Data Protection Agreements between Altair and all other recipients of your data that include, where applicable, the Standard Contractual Clauses adopted by the European Commission (the "Standard Contractual Clauses "). The European Commission has determined that the transfer of Personal Data pursuant to the Standard Contractual Clauses provides for an adequate level of protection of your Personal Data. Under these Standard Contractual Clauses, you have the same rights as if your data was not transferred to such third party.

Altair also uses the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework to transfer information between its subsidiaries and affiliates located in the EEA or in the United Kingdom or in Switzerland to the United States. The European Commission has determined that the transfer of Personal Data pursuant to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and the Standard Contractual Clauses provides for an adequate level of protection of your Personal Data. Under these Standard Contractual Clauses, you have the same rights as if your data was not transferred to such third party. The EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework may provide you with additional rights, including additional rights available to you to resolve a dispute related to the transfer of your information to Altair entities in the United States. You may learn more about your rights under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework at Data Privacy Framework.

You may request a copy of the Data Protection Agreement by contacting us through the contact methods below.

15. Data Retention Periods

We retain your Personal as long as you keep your account open. We may keep your Personal Data for a time after you close your account, including when it is stored on our backups, and for as long as necessary to comply with any legal requirements or to protect our legal interests.

Altair will retain your Personal Data for the entire time that you keep your account open. After you close your account, we may retain your Personal Data:

  • for as long as necessary to comply with any legal requirement;
  • on our backup and disaster recovery systems in accordance with our backup and disaster recovery policies and procedures;
  • for as long as necessary to protect our legal interests or otherwise pursue our legal rights and remedies; and
  • for data that has been aggregated or otherwise rendered anonymous in such a manner that you are no longer identifiable, indefinitely.

16. Changes to Our Privacy Policy

We will post any changes to our Privacy Policy on our Websites. If we make material changes to our Privacy Policy, we will notify you through your email address and invite you to review the changes.

We may change this Privacy Policy at any time. It is our policy to post any changes we make to our Privacy Policy on our Websites with a notice that the Privacy Policy has been updated on the Websites' home page. If we make material changes to how we treat our users' Personal Data, we will notify you by email to the primary email address specified in your account and/or through a notice on the Websites' home pages. The date this Privacy Policy was last revised is identified at the top of the page. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date active and deliverable email address for you, and for periodically visiting our Websites and this Privacy Policy to check for any changes.

17. Contact Information

You may contact us directly or through our Data Protection Officer through any of the contact methods below.

If you have any questions, concerns, complaints or suggestions regarding our Privacy Policy, have any requests related to your Personal Data pursuant to applicable laws, or otherwise need to contact us, you must contact us at the contact information below or through the "Contact Us " page on our Websites.

To Contact Altair (Controller)
Altair Engineering Inc.
1820 E. Big Beaver Road
Troy, MI 48083 USA
248-614-2400
[email protected]

To Contact Our Data Protection Officer
Raoul Maitra
1820 E. Big Beaver Road
Troy, MI 48083 USA
248-614-2400 EXT. 453
[email protected]

18. Photography, Audio and Video Recording

We may take photos, videos and/or audio recordings at our events, which may feature attendees, speakers, sponsors or exhibitors.

By attending an Altair hosted or sponsored event at an Altair facility or a third party’s venue (each an “Event”), you acknowledge and agree that the Event (or any part of it) may be photographed or recorded by us or our partners. You agree to permit us, or any third party licensed by us, to use, distribute, broadcast, or otherwise globally disseminate your likeness, name, voice and words in perpetuity in television, radio, film, newspapers, magazines and other media now available and hereafter developed, both before, during and any time after the Event, and in any form, without any further approval from you or any payment to you. This grant includes, but is not limited to, the right to edit the media, the right to use the media (alone or together with other information), and the right to allow others to use or distribute the media. We agree not to intentionally use your name, picture, portrait, photograph, voice, pose, movement, activity and/or likeness in any form or manner that would demean you or your employer, and will not alter the substance of any statements made by you in a manner that materially changes the intent of such statements.

19. California Consumer Privacy Act

California citizens may contact us to exercise your rights under the CCPA.

To exercise your rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) please contact us at [email protected].

Last revised May 22, 2024