Our Privacy and Data Collection Practices

Like most online businesses, Platypus ISP Billing (“Platypus”) collects and processes information on behalf of and about our customers. We want to help our customers understand what data we collect, how we use the data we collect, who we share this data with, and how we secure and protect this data.

The purpose of this document is to share these details with our customers and anyone else interested in how we collect and process personal data.

Whenever we refer to “Platypus” in this document, we are referring to the ISP billing services provided by Tucows, Inc. via the website ispbilling.com. Tucows is a publicly-traded Internet company serving thousands of businesses and millions of Internet users worldwide since 1994.

We've tried really hard to keep this document simple and readable and if you have any suggestions for how we can improve it, please do let us know.

Account Information

When you purchase services through Platypus, we create an account for you. This account makes it easier for you to track and manage your purchases with us. For the purpose of creating your account, we collect what we call "account data".

Account data includes:

  • the name of the account holder (you); 
  • your mailing address;
  • your phone number; and
  • email address.

We also collect data necessary to process your payment, or what we call “payment data”. Payment data may include some of your account data as well as:

  • if you choose to pay by credit card, your credit card number, expiry, and verification code;
  • if you choose to pay by bank draft/echeck, your bank account information; and

This information is not stored in our system but transmitted as described below in order to process your payment.

Our use of your account and payment data

Platypus only uses your data for the purpose of facilitating the management of your account and billing for your purchases.

We share this data programmatically with IPPay, for the purpose of billing your credit card.

Platypus relies on tokens generated by IPPay to trigger billable events. We retain the industry-normal first digit and last four digits of the credit card, the type of credit card, and the name associated with the credit card for internal tracking and audit purposes. The data is stored securely and is not usable for any billing or charging purposes. IPPay will never use your data for their own purposes without our explicit consent or notice to us.

Platypus may share your account data with law enforcement agencies on a case-by-case basis, if necessary as part of a legal investigation. We may notify you if this happens, depending on the circumstances. Platypus may also share your account data with a third party following an order from a court of competent jurisdiction related to a lawsuit or investigation. We evaluate these requests on a case-by-case basis and we will notify you as appropriate.

We may use your account data to contact you concerning your account or for verification purposes to make sure no one else is accessing your account.

Platypus may share your account data with the exception working under our instruction following levels of security at least as rigorous as those followed by us and does not share your account data with any other party for any other reason.

We never sell this information.

Location of Data Collection and Processing

Your account data are collected and processed by us in Starkville, MS. When necessary for the services your have requested from us, your data may also be processed elsewhere, within or outside of Canada, in accord with legal regulations.

Customer Service Information

We use a third party service, Zendesk, to help us manage all of our customer service interactions. Any information you send to use via email is usually stored and tracked in our Zendesk system. We also use Zendesk to log information when you call us for assistance. None of this information is accessible by any other party.

Data Analytics

We collect and aggregate data concerning how people use the website at www.ispbilling.com. When you visit our websites, our web servers temporarily record the domain name or IP address of your computer, the file requested (file name and URL) by the client, the http response code, and the website from which you are visiting us. The recorded data is used for data security purposes, particularly to protect against attempted attacks on our server, and for statistical analysis. We do not use it to create individual user profiles nor do we share this information with third parties. Some of the data is associated with your account but is not personally identifiable to any third-party. Here is a list of the third party services that Platypus uses:

  • American Express
  • AWS (Amazon Web Services)
  • Bluesnap
  • Datadog
  • DENIC Data Escrow Services
  • Fivetran
  • Iron Mountain Data Escrow Services
  • Kibana
  • Looker
  • Mailchimp
  • Mandrill
  • PayPal
  • Pentaho
  • Sage (Intacct)
  • Snowflake
  • Stripe
  • Zendesk

Cookies

We use cookies for certain services. These are small text files that are stored on your computer. They enable the system to tell if you repeatedly visit websites from the same computer.

Session cookies are cookies that are only saved on your computer for the duration of a single Internet session. They do not contain any personal data. For some offerings we use persistent cookies that support the services for future sessions. These cookies remain valid until you delete them or until the deletion period configured in your client is reached. You can set your browser to prevent cookies being stored or to delete cookies at the end of your Internet session. Please remember that, in this case, you may not have access to the full range of functions offered by our website.

Data Security and Retention

We follow generally accepted standards to store and protect the personal data we collect, both during transmission and once received and stored. We use encryption where appropriate.

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary to provide the services you have purchased from us, and we may retain that information for legal or business purposes after termination of the services. These post-service retention periods are either mandated by law or contract and are necessary for preserving, resolving, defending, or enforcing our legal and contractual rights or are needed to maintain accurate business and financial records.

If you have any questions about the security or retention of your personal data, you can contact us by email at platypus@tucows.com or by giving us a phone call at 888-752-8978 or 662-324-5816 (M-F, 8AM-5PM Central).

Data Access and Correction

You may view the personal information we have about you inside your account. You also may request, free of charge, information on the scope, origin, and recipients of any stored data as well as the purpose of storage. You may request that incorrect data be corrected at any time, or you may correct any data elements inside your account to which you have access.

Age Restrictions

We do not target our services to persons under the age of 18. If you know of, or have reason to believe, anyone under the age of 18 has provided us with any personal data, please contact us.

Changes in our Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. If we decide to change our Privacy Policy, we will post those changes here, among other places we think you are likely to visit. We will place a date on any new privacy policy with material changes, so you will be able to see the last revision date.

Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns or complaints about our Privacy Policy, our practices or our Services, you may contact us by email at platypus@tucows.com. In the alternative, you may contact us by either of the following means:

By Mail:

421-2 Dr Martin Luther King Jr Dr E
Starkville, MS 39759

888-752-8978 / 662-324-5816