Terms and Policies

Ancestral Systems Refund Policy

We stand behind our products.  When you purchase a product directly from us, you receive an automatic 100% guarantee of a full refund of your purchase price for 30 days following the date of purchase.

Should you desire a full refund within the 30 day period, please contact us at Support.  Be sure to provide sufficient detail (your name, product, purchase date, purchase price) so that we may quickly and correctly process your refund.  All refunds will return your purchase price to the original credit card account from which the purchase price was drawn.  NO CASH REFUNDS can be provided.  Refund of purchases through resellers are only possible when provided by the reseller.

Clooz Updates and Support Policy

Clooz provides a capability to update itself automatically as new releases become available.   When a new release is available, the software will notify you, and allow you to approve its implementation.   This behavior can be turned on/off in the Options form found in the Edit Menu.

Clooz users can receive help in resolving issues associated with installation or operation of the program, as well as asking questions about its use or even suggesting further enhancements by sending an email to support@clooz.com.    Responses to incoming messages usually occurs within the same day.  Phone support is not available. 

Note:  The update renewal program (annual subscription covering all updates) has been terminated as of 2 August, 2017, and replaced with the following policy:

Future software updates to Clooz (including and through version 4) will now be free of charge for all users who had active update support as of July 23, 2016, or purchased Clooz after that date.   It is no longer necessary to annually renew update support.   Development of the next major release of Clooz, Version 4, has taken much longer than anticipated, and updates have been slow in coming.   Ancestral Systems will now return to the more common practice of charging for major upgrades, beginning with Version 5.

If you are running Clooz version 3.5.23, and Clooz says your update support has expired, then you will need to first uninstall Clooz using the standard Windows Control Panel feature to uninstall programs.   Then download the 3.5.24 (or later) version from http://cloozsetups.ancestralsystems.com and run the setup program.   Use the password and serial number most recently emailed to you when you purchased or renewed Clooz.  Contact support@clooz.com if you have any problems.

Users whose update support had expired prior to July 23, 2016, will need to purchase a new license in order to receive future updates.  Contact support@clooz.com to obtain a discount.

Clooz versions 3.5.24 and later will recognize existing serial numbers and this change in policy.  Always use the latest serial number you were issued.

Privacy Policy

Who we are

We are Ancestral Systems, LLC, a company established in 2012 and located in the United States (Maryland) to support the needs of family history researchers.  Our main product is a software package called Clooz, which is thoroughly described on our website, https://clooz.com.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

What we collect

The personal information we collect, process, and store can be any of the following:

  • Name
  • Address (full address when purchasing a Clooz license; country only with Clooz trial licenses)
  • Phone number (when purchasing a Clooz license, at your option to provide)
  • Email Address

The collection of credit card or paypal account information is done through our credit card processor or paypal.   We do not collect, process, or store any credit card or paypal account information using our own software or servers.  However, these companies do retain transaction information on our (and your) behalf to be able to properly execute payments/charges, resolve transaction issues, and to be able to execute refunds when required.

Why we collect it

We only collect data required to support the services and access to products you request from us.  This includes:

  • Obtaining a Clooz serial number to be able to use the product on a trial basis for two weeks, under the terms of our License Agreement.  Our policy is to only allow one trial per email address.
  • Purchasing a Clooz license, per the terms of our License Agreement.  Your payment can be accomplished using a credit card, issuing an electronic check (direct withdraw from your U.S. bank account, or through a Paypal.com account.  Credit card or bank account information is entered using tools inserted onto the web page directly from our credit card gateway provider (Intuit.com; Quickbook Payments).  We do not handle, process, or retain any account numbers.   When using Paypal, you are actually temporarily transferred to the paypal.com website to authorize the payment.   We see no information regarding your account information there.   Intuit and Paypal do retain the transaction information to be able to properly execute payments/charges, resolve transaction issues, and to be able to execute refunds when required.  We do process and retain you name, address, and email address (and optionally your phone number if you choose to provide it).   This establishes a record of who has obtained the Clooz serial number issued from the purchase.   When you purchase a license agreement, you must agree with the terms by checking a checkbox on the checkout form.   This establishes a contract relationship (the License Agreement) between us.  If we have reason to believe someone has violated the terms of their License Agreement, we need to know who that agreement was made with and have their contact information.   We also use this database of users to respond to requests from users who lost their serial number.
  • Knowing what country you live in allows us:
    • to adhere to United States export laws,
    • meet any international obligations, and
    • to make more informed decisions on what type of features need to be added to the software.
  • We provide support to users via email (support@clooz.com).   When you send an email to that address, it is forwarded to a third-party (Zendesk.com) which provides a service to initiate and track trouble tickets.   It is through this service that we respond to your email.   Your initial inquiry and our response is tracked for future reference (either in a follow-up related request, or in reviewing suggestions for new features made by users).  Your name (if your email message header included it) and your email address are retained in this database of support requests.
  • We provide the option for anyone to subscribe to our mailing list, to which we send occasional emails with information on how to use Clooz, news about upcoming changes to Clooz, and information on any sales promotions.   Subscribers sign up to receive this mail themselves, using a form provided by the mailing list provider (Constant Contact;  constantcontact.com).   We do not send emails to anyone who has not requested them.   Users can unsubscribe at any time, and their data (Name, Email, Country) is moved to our Unsubscribed list.  Subscribers not only need to opt-in to this list, they also need to send a confirmation response (double opt-in).
  • When Clooz checks for updates, the Clooz serial number and a Clooz installation code are provided to validate the installation.   Each Clooz installation on a users system is assigned an identification code.   This code is to identify excessive installations of the software which may be in violation of the License Agreement.
  • Capabilities may be added to Clooz to allow you to submit trouble reports to us when an error occurs.  You can also choose to include a log file with more detailed information about the Clooz installation, what Clooz was doing at the time, the error message, and information about the Windows configuration.  No personal information, or content of document information you are collecting in Clooz, will be included.  This additional information will allow us to improve our support and identify the causes of issues faster.
  • We do have product pages setup on Facebook.com and Google.com.   You do not need an account to view these sites.  Refer to these other companies to review their privacy policies:  https://www.facebook.com/privacy/explanation and  https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en

We do not collect or acquire personal information regarding anyone outside the activities just mentioned.

Cookies and Embedded content from other websites

The Clooz.com website does not utilize cookies.  We will not link to other web sites or embed content that we have determined to make questionable use of this technology.

Some of the tools we use to build our website may use Google fonts.  We also store our training videos on Google's YouTube.com web site.  Google's privacy policy can be found here: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en

 

Who we share your data with

We strongly believe in your right to privacy, and do not share your data with any other entities except when required to provide the following services to you:

  • Obtaining payment from you when you purchase a Clooz license or other product.   When you use a credit card or electronic check to purchase a Clooz license, your name and address are being provided to Intuit.com (Quickbook Payments) to have your credit card account charged.  Actual credit card account information you enter is going directly into their systems.  Our web software does not process this data.  This process adheres to security standards established by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Security Standards Council, LLC (PCI Compliance level SAQ A-EP).  Intuit's privacy policy can be found at:  https://security.intuit.com/index.php/privacy
  • When you purchase a Clooz license or other product using PayPal.com, you are transferred to their systems to handle that part of the purchase.  PayPal's privacy policy can be found at: https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full
  • When you send an email to us for support (support@clooz.com), we automatically forward it to our trouble ticket tracking service provided to us by Zendesk.com.   Zendesk's privacy policy can be found at: https://www.zendesk.co.uk/company/customers-partners/#privacy-policy
  • While we do not share any personal information with our mailing list provider (you provide it to them directly), they do process your name, email, and country on our behalf.   Constant Contact's privacy policy can be found at: https://www.constantcontact.com/legal/service-provider
  • Our Clooz.com website is located on servers provided by a commercial website hosting provider.  You do not interact with them directly, and other than our software and databases being located on their systems, we do not share your data with them.

How long we retain your data

We retain the limited amount of your personal information (as described in the preceding sections) for an indefinite length of time to help us enforce the terms of the Clooz License Agreement you had agreed to.   See a further explanation of why we collect your personal information in the earlier section.

What rights you have over your data

If you have obtained a Clooz license, requested support, or joined our mailing list, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.  We need to maintain basic identification of all holders of Clooz License Agreements that are to remain valid.

If you believe there is an error in the personal information you have provided to us, such as changes in email address, etc., you can update the mailing list information yourself by finding the "update" link at the bottom of any mass mailings we send out.   Other changes of our registration database of licenses should be sent to support@clooz.com.

Your contact information

If you have the need to contact us regarding the processing of your personal information or our privacy policy in general, please send an email to support@clooz.com.

Additional information

How we protect your data

Ancestral Systems LLC will take reasonable precautions to protect your personal information from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, unauthorized alteration, destruction or other malfeasance, and as dictated by any current or future agreements which may exist between the United States and the European Union.  The information is held on a server with restricted access.

We use industry-standard Secure Socket Layer (SSL) software to protect the security of your personal information during transmission, which encrypts all of the information you input.  Only employees or associates who need personal information to perform a specific job (i.e. customer services) are granted access to it.

Our web service provider maintains daily backup, daily vulnerability scans, firewall protection, denial of service protection, and other security features.

What data breach procedures we have in place

Due to the nature of the information and related technology, we cannot ensure or guarantee the security of your personal information and expressly disclaims any such obligation. If we learn of a security breach, then we will attempt to notify you electronically so that you can take appropriate steps.  We will also notify appropriate authorities.

What third parties we receive data from

We do not use or receive any personal information from third parties.   You are our only source when you send emails to us or fill in forms on our web site.

CLOOZ End User License Agreement

License Grant

"You" means the person or company who is being licensed to use the Software or Documentation. "We," "us" and "our" means Ancestral Systems, LLC, 6326 Golden Star Place, Columbia, Maryland 21044, United States of America.

We hereby grant you a nonexclusive license to use a copy of the Software on any computer owned by you for your own individual business or personal purposes, and your use alone. Only the individual license holder (and their immediate household members) is authorized to use the Software. Multiple individuals in a business or organizational environment require separate licenses for each person, unless you obtain an exemption from us. In return, you agree to use the Software only on your System, on its temporary replacement, or on a subsequent System that replaces your System.

Title

We remain the owner of all right, title and interest in the Software and related explanatory written materials ("Documentation").

Archival or Backup Copies

You may copy the Software for backup and archival purposes, provided that the original and each copy is kept in your possession and that your installation and use of the Software does not exceed that allowed in the "License Grant" section above.

Things You May Not Do

The Software and Documentation are protected by United States copyright laws and international treaties. You must treat the Software and Documentation like any other copyrighted material—for example, a book. You may not:

  • copy the Documentation (other than for your own personal use in reading the documentation),
  • copy the Software except to make archival or backup copies as provided above,
  • modify or adapt the Software or merge it into another program,
  • reverse engineer, disassemble, decompile or make any attempt to discover the source code of the Software,
  • place the Software onto a server so that it is accessible via a public network such as the Internet, or
  • sublicense, rent, lease or lend any portion of the Software or Documentation.

Transfers

You may transfer all your rights to use the Software and Documentation to another person or legal entity provided you transfer this Agreement, the Software and Documentation, including all copies, updates and prior versions to such person or entity and that you retain no copies, including copies stored on computer. You agree to notify us at support@clooz.com of the transfer, and provide the new owners name, email address, and country of residence.

Support

We agree to provide you with free e-mail support in the installation and use of the Software by writing support@clooz.com. This support is effective from the date you purchase the Software.

Software Updates

Occasionally, updated versions of the Software are made available from our Internet web server (see the full update policy on clooz.com to determine what you are eligible to receive). The Software running on your system checks for the availability of a new update each time it is started. This feature can be disabled in the Software (Options control). We may include your serial number and/or other identifying parameters of the Software (such as version number) in what is sent as part of this check for updates in order to validate your license and determine your right to receive updates. No personal information of any kind or other data stored on your system is ever included in this transmission.

Limited Warranty

We warrant that for a period of 90 days after delivery of this copy of the Software to you:

  • the media on which this copy of the Software is provided to you will be free from defects in materials and workmanship under normal use,
  • the user manual and documentation provided with the Software are substantially complete and contain the information we consider to be necessary for the use of the Software, and
  • the Software will perform in substantial accordance with the Documentation.

We do not warrant that the functions of the Software will necessarily meet your requirements, or that operation of the Software will in all cases be uninterrupted or error-free. We do not warrant Software that has been altered or modified by anyone other than us.   Any modifications of the Software made by you or anybody other than us, will void our warranty responsibilities. You agree that this warranty does not require us to customize the Software, develop new features, or modify the Software for specific computer hardware.

To the extent permitted by applicable law, THE FOREGOING LIMITED WARRANTY IS IN LIEU OF ALL OTHER WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AND WE DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTY OF TITLE, NONINFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, regardless of whether we know or had reason to know of your particular needs. No employee, agent, dealer or distributor of ours is authorized to modify this limited warranty, nor to make any additional warranties.

SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

Limited Remedy

Our entire liability and your exclusive remedy for breach of the foregoing warranty shall be, at our option, to either:

  • return the price you paid, or
  • repair or replace the Software or media that does not meet the foregoing warranty if it is returned to us with a copy of your receipt.

IN NO EVENT WILL WE BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING ANY LOST PROFITS, LOST SAVINGS, OR OTHER INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING FROM THE USE OR THE INABILITY TO USE THE SOFTWARE (EVEN IF WE OR AN AUTHORIZED DEALER OR DISTRIBUTOR HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF THESE DAMAGES), OR FOR ANY CLAIM BY ANY OTHER PARTY.

SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE LIMITATION MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

Term and Termination

This license agreement takes effect upon your use of the software and remains effective until terminated. You may terminate it at any time by destroying all copies of the Software and Documentation in your possession. It will also automatically terminate if you fail to comply with any term or condition of this license agreement. You agree on termination of this license to destroy all copies of the Software and Documentation in your possession.

Confidentiality

The Software contains trade secrets and proprietary know-how that belong to us and it is being made available to you in strict confidence. ANY USE OR DISCLOSURE OF THE SOFTWARE, OR OF ITS ALGORITHMS, PROTOCOLS OR INTERFACES, OTHER THAN IN STRICT ACCORDANCE WITH THIS LICENSE AGREEMENT, MAY BE ACTIONABLE AS A VIOLATION OF OUR TRADE SECRET RIGHTS.

General Provisions

  1. This written license agreement is the exclusive agreement between you and us concerning the Software and Documentation and supersedes any prior purchase order, communication, advertising or representation concerning the Software.
  2. This license agreement may be modified only by a writing signed by you and us.
  3. In the event of litigation between you and us concerning the Software or Documentation, the prevailing party in the litigation will be entitled to recover attorney fees and expenses from the other party.
  4. This license agreement is governed by the laws of the State of Maryland.
  5. You agree that the Software will not be shipped, transferred or exported into any country or used in any manner prohibited by the United States Export Administration Act or any other export laws, restrictions or regulations.