Privacy Policy

OpenDNS knows that you care about how your personal information is used and shared, and we take your privacy seriously as detailed in this Privacy Policy.

This privacy policy ("Privacy Policy") covers the website www.opendns.com, which is owned and operated by OpenDNS, Incorporated ("OpenDNS", "we", "us", "our"), and all associated services provided by OpenDNS. This Privacy Policy covers OpenDNS' treatment of personal information that it gathers when you access or use this website or services. By visiting our website, submitting information or using any of our services, you are accepting the practices outlined in this Privacy Policy.

OpenDNS is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent, organization whose mission is to build user's trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices. Because this website wants to demonstrate its commitment to your privacy, it has agreed to disclose its information practices and have its privacy practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, you should first contact contact@opendns.com or at the address set forth below. If contacting us does not resolve your complaint, you may raise your complaint with TRUSTe by Internet at http://watchdog.truste.com/pvr.php?page=complaint&url=www.opendns.com, by mail at WatchDog Complaints, TRUSTe, 55 2nd St, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA, USA 94105, by phone at 415-520-3400, or by fax at 415-520-3420. If you are mailing TRUSTe to lodge a complaint, you must include the following information: the name of company, the alleged privacy violation, your contact information, and whether you would like the particulars of your complaint shared with the company. For information about TRUSTe or the operation of TRUSTe's dispute resolution process, see http://watchdog.truste.com/pvr.php?page=complaint&url=www.opendns.com or request this information from TRUSTe at any of the addresses listed above. The TRUSTe dispute resolution process shall be conducted in English.

OpenDNS complies with the EU Safe Harbor framework as set forth by the Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of data from the European Union.

The TRUSTe program only covers information that is collected through this website and the services available through this website, and does not cover information that may be collected through any software downloaded from this website.

Information We Collect and How We Use The Information

DNS Services Customers
OpenDNS runs a Domain Name System (DNS) service. DNS translates a domain name (e.g., www.example.com) into the corresponding numerical address (e.g., 192.0.34.166) that allows your system to access the domain over the network. OpenDNS' DNS service collects the date and time of each DNS request and the domain name requested ("Statistics"). Statistics are not personally identifiable but are correlated to your IP address and your account if you have signed up for one. OpenDNS uses Statistics to provide you with the DNS service and for internal analysis.

In addition, OpenDNS also collects potentially personally-identifying information like the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses from which DNS requests are made. For its DNS services, OpenDNS temporarily stores logs to monitor and improve our quality of service, and to collect high-level aggregate Statistics. For customers without an account, OpenDNS generally removes the IP address from its logs within 2 business days, except for backup or archival copies which are not generally accessed in the normal course of business. For customers with an account, such Statistics and data may be stored for as long as the account is open (although, customers with an account may also choose, at any time, to have DNS data purged automatically from within their account).

For customers using OpenDNS optional features such as "Shortcuts", typo correction and content filtering, DNS requests for certain domains may be directed through an HTTP proxy or other server. The data from the HTTP proxy or other server is generally kept for approximately 24 hours for technical reasons, except for backup or archival copies which are not generally accessed in the normal course of business.

Additional Information You Provide To Us and Your DNS Services Account Information

We may receive and store any information you enter on our website or provide to us in any other way. For example, in order to use certain services or functions of our websites, such as the OpenDNS Community or OpenDNS Dashboard or to subscribe to RSS feeds from our website or to set up an account, open a support ticket, request more information, to attend a webinar or request white papers you may be required to register with a username, email address and password on the OpenDNS website. OpenDNS collects such information and uses such information only insofar as is it deems reasonably necessary or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the user's interaction with OpenDNS, such as, to enable you to submit postings to the forums and for us to manage your account and send you notices regarding your account.

If you use our tell a friend functionality, we may also collect your friend's email address and any personally identifiable information that you voluntarily include in your email message to your friend and we will use such information solely to send the one time email to your friend. We store the information for the purpose of tracking the success of the referral program.

If you submit a lead to the OpenDNS website, we may collect your name, company name, phone number, email address and address and we may use this information to provide you with notices regarding products and services you may wish to purchase in the future and for internal analysis.

For our paid products, we also collect your billing information such as your credit card number and billing address to enable us to bill you for our services.

You can always refuse to supply personally-identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent you from engaging in certain activities.

Aggregate Information
OpenDNS may aggregate non-personally-identifying information about the behavior of visitors to its websites and customers of its DNS services. For example, OpenDNS may monitor which domains are most requested by its customers, or how many phishing attempts were blocked by its services. OpenDNS may display this information publicly or provide it to others in a non-personally identifiable aggregated form (e.g. statistical form). We may also receive and store certain other types of non-personally identifiable information whenever you interact with us, including, without limitation, the sort of information that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. OpenDNS' purpose in collecting such information is to better understand how OpenDNS' visitors use its websites. From time to time, OpenDNS may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on trends in the usage of its website. OpenDNS also collects potentially personally-identifying information like the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of website visitors and the Statistics as described above.

Cookies
A cookie is a string of information that a website stores on a visitor's computer, and that the visitor's browser provides to the website each time the visitor returns. OpenDNS uses cookies to help OpenDNS identify and track visitors, their usage of OpenDNS websites, and their website access preferences. OpenDNS visitors who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers should set their browsers to refuse cookies before using OpenDNS's websites, with the drawback that certain features of OpenDNS's websites may not function properly without the aid of cookies. We do not link the information we store in cookies to any personally identifiable information you submit while on our website.

OpenDNS does not control cookies in third party ads, and online visitors are encouraged to check the privacy policies of advertisers and/or ad services to learn about their use of cookies and other technology. The ads appearing on OpenDNS sites may be delivered to you by third-party advertising companies. These companies may use information about your visits to these and other web sites in order to provide advertisements on the OpenDNS sites and other sites about goods and services that may be of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, please visit the following web site http://www.networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp.

Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs)
Our third party advertising partners employ a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs), that help us better manage content on our website by informing us what content is effective. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of Web users. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user's computer hard drive, clear gifs are embedded invisibly on Web pages and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. We do not tie the information gathered by clear gifs to our customers' personally identifiable information.

Deleting an OpenDNS account.

All statistics and logs collected on behalf of an account holder are purged upon deletion of an OpenDNS account, although OpenDNS may retain such information for longer periods of time as part of its archival and back-up emergency systems. Information on such archival and back-up systems is stored and is not accessed in the course of normal business information. If your OpenDNS account is deleted, your postings to the OpenDNS websites (such as, in the OpenDNS Community) will still be available on the OpenDNS websites but they will only be associated with a random identifier in place of your name. You should be aware, however, that third party search engine results may still show your postings with your username if they have stored such information in their cached web pages or indices.

Updating, Correcting, or Deleting Personally Identifiable Information

If your personally identifiable information changes, or if you no longer desire our service, you may correct, update, or delete it by making the change within your edit account information page or by emailing our Customer Support at contact@opendns.com. We will respond to your request to access within 30 days.

Disclosure of Personally-Identifying Information

We do not share, rent, trade or sell your personal information with third parties, other than as described below:

Personnel/Agents
OpenDNS discloses potentially personally-identifying such as Internet Protocol (IP) addresses from which DNS requests are made and personally-identifying information only to those of its employees and contractors performing services on OpenDNS' behalf (such as billing agents) that (i) need to know that information in order to process it on OpenDNS' behalf or to provide services available at or through OpenDNS' websites and services, and (ii) have agreed not to disclose it to others.

Third Party Service Providers
We work with one or more third party advertising, search, and security providers. When a website visitor searches on OpenDNS, the IP address and query are shared with OpenDNS' advertising, search and security providers but OpenDNS does not provide them with any information that enables them to associate or identify these IP addresses and/or search requests with any individual. We require our advertising, search and security provider(s) to provide the same level of privacy protection that we do. Additionally, we may provide your personally identifiable information to our third party billing service providers that assist us in billing for our services and such service providers are not permitted to store, retain or use your personally identifiable information except for the sole purpose of processing your payment on our behalf.

Public Forums
OpenDNS may provide bulletin boards, blogs, or community forums on its site. Any personally identifiable information you choose to submit in such a forum may be read, collected, or used by others who visit these forums, and may be used by such third parties to send you unsolicited messages. OpenDNS is not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit in these forums.

Customer Testimonials
We post customer testimonials on our web site which may contain personally identifiable information. We do obtain the customer's consent via email prior to posting the testimonial to post their name along with their testimonial.

Business Transfers
If OpenDNS or substantially all of its assets were transferred or acquired (for example, in the case of a merger or acquisition) customer information would likely be one of the assets that is transferred to or acquired by a third party.

Other Disclosures
OpenDNS may disclose potentially personally-identifying and personally-identifying information when OpenDNS believes in good faith that release is required by law and when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or when OpenDNS believes in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to cooperate in a law enforcement investigation or to protect the property or rights of OpenDNS, third parties or the public at large.

Third Parties
This policy does not apply to the practices of third parties that OpenDNS does not own or control, or to individuals that OpenDNS does not employ or manage. OpenDNS websites may permit you to link to other websites on the Internet, and other websites may contain links to the OpenDNS websites. These other websites are not under OpenDNS control. The privacy and security practices of websites linked to or from the OpenDNS website are not covered by this Privacy Policy, and OpenDNS is not responsible for the privacy or security practices or the content of such websites.

Children's Privacy
OpenDNS recognizes the privacy interests of children and we encourage parents and guardians to take an active role in their children's online activities and interests. Our sites and services are intended for a general audience. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under the age of 13.

Data Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, personnel and physical measures to safeguard your personal information in our possession against loss, theft and unauthorized use, disclosure or modification. We store personal information provided by our online visitors in a database that is accessible by authorized employees only on a need-to-know basis, in a secure physical environment behind a firewall or other server security method. A password will be required from you and any authorized OpenDNS employee who has access to your data prior to gaining access. In addition, we also use reasonable methods to make sure your personal information is accurate, up-to-date and appropriately complete. The security of your personal information is important to us. When you enter sensitive information (such as credit card number) on our registration or order forms, we encrypt that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL).

While OpenDNS takes precautions against possible breaches of the OpenDNS sites and customer databases, no website or internet transmission is absolutely secure. Accordingly, OpenDNS cannot guarantee that unauthorized access, hacking, data loss, or other breaches will never occur. Your use of the OpenDNS sites and services is at your own risk. We urge you to take steps to keep your personal information safe by memorizing your password or keeping it in a safe place (separate from your account information), logging out of your user account, and closing your web browser.

Communications

If you are a registered member of an OpenDNS website and have supplied your email address, OpenDNS may occasionally send you an email to tell you about new features, solicit your feedback, or just keep you up to date with what's going on with OpenDNS and our products. We primarily use our corporate blog and website to communicate this type of information, so we expect to keep this type of email to a minimum. If you are a registered member of an OpenDNS website and do not wish to receive such emails, please follow the instructions included in each email sent. If you send us a request (for example via a support email or via one of our feedback mechanisms), we reserve the right to publish it in our Knowledge Base on our website in order to help us clarify or respond to your request or to help us support other users.

You may also sign up for email updates on your own, the types of emails that we send tell you about new features and keep you up to date with what's going on with OpenDNS and our products. If you do not wish to receive such emails, please follow the instructions included in each email sent.

Privacy Policy Changes

If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this privacy statement, the home page, and other places we deem appropriate so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.

We reserve the right to modify this privacy policy at any time, so please review it frequently. If we make changes to this policy, we will notify you with a change notice on the homepage of this website and the OpenDNS blog at http://blog.opendns.com/ and we may send an email to registered using to notify them of the change.

General Terms and Conditions Of Use

The terms of this Privacy Policy are incorporated into our general terms of use. Please review our terms of use at http://www.opendns.com/terms/.

Questions

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, you may also write to us at:

OpenDNS
410 Townsend St, Suite 250
San Francisco, CA 94107

OpenDNS' full contact information, including location, may be found on our Contact page at http://www.opendns.com/about/contact/.

Effective Date of This Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy was first effective as of July 22, 2007.
This Privacy Policy was last updated on February 11, 2010.