Privacy Policy

This Privacy Statement for Otto Products and Services (“Privacy Statement”) describes information that Home Otto.Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates (collectively, “Otto”) collect, use, share, and store, including personal information (i.e., information that personally identifies you, such as your name, email address or billing information, or other data that can be reasonably used to infer this information).

This document focuses on information related to the operation of Otto products and services. In this Privacy Statement, the expression “Otto Products” also includes our Web Apps, Mobile Apps, and Subscription Services as defined in our Terms of Service.

Our Promise:

1. We will be transparent about the different types of information we collect and how we use them.
2. We will ask your permission before sharing your personal information with third parties for purposes other than at your request or to provide Otto’s Products, and to do so only when we think they will provide you with a welcome additional service.
3. We will use best-in-class data security tools to keep your data safe and protect the Otto Products from unauthorized access.

Your Consent:

Consent to data collection and processing. By using Otto Products, you agree to allow us to collect and process information as described in this Privacy Statement.

Consent to data export. Your personal information may be collected, processed and stored by Otto or its service providers in the United States and other countries where our servers reside. Please be aware that the privacy protections and legal requirements, including the rights of authorities to access your personal information, in some of these countries may not be equivalent to those in your country. If you are using Otto Products in the European Union or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, you consent to the transfer of your personal data to the United States and other countries where Otto operates servers.

What information does Otto collect?

• Setup information from the user, and the home builder.
• The design and blueprint data of your home
• Environmental data from lights, locks, thermostat, and sensors
• Direct adjustments to the device, including but not limited to, light levels, lock state, temperature.
• Heating and cooling usage information
• Technical information from the device

Setup information you provide: When you move into your new home, otto has been installed and setup by your builder. All aspects of your home including the design and layout have been pre-programmed into the system. This information helps us to customize your experience by, for example, retrieving information for your neighbourhood or by enabling Home/Away Assist to automatically switch the behaviour of Otto products in your home when you leave and when you come back. In addition, the Otto pulls information directly from the lights, locks, thermostat, and other hardware.

Environmental data: We collect data from several sensors built into the Otto System. These sensors collect data such as current temperature, humidity, lighting being used, location of users, video & audio, and ambient light in the room. They can also sense whether something in the room is moving. This helps your Otto Learning System keep you comfortable when you are at home and protect and save energy when you are away.

Direct adjustments to the devices: If you change settings like temperature on the Otto, records and feeds that information to the Otto algorithms to learn your desired comfort level in different situations.

Heating and cooling usage information: Every time your system turns on and off, Otto records the time and duration during which your system was on in order to offer you features such as usage history.

Lighting Information: Every time you turn a light switch on or off, Otto records the time and duration during which the light was on in order to offer you features such as usage history.

Locking Information: Every time you lock, unlock, and open or close a door, Otto records the time and duration during which the door was used in order to offer you features such as access control, security alerts, and automatic locking when you leave.

Technical information from the device: In order to improve your experience over time and help troubleshoot any problem you may encounter with the Otto Learning System, we record your Otto System model and serial number, software version, and technical information such as battery charge level.

Otto Camera’s collect:

• Setup information you provide
• Environmental data from Otto Camera sensors
• Video and audio signals and data
• Technical information from the device
• Shared content

Environmental data from the camera’s sensors: We collect data from several sensors built into Otto Camera. These sensors collect data such as device temperature and ambient light in the room. By recording this information, Otto Camera can know, for instance, whether it’s dark and it should turn on night vision.

Video and audio signals and data: When you enable the recording or streaming features of your Otto Camera, we may record and process video and/or audio recordings from the device, subject to your configuration and settings. This may include capturing and emailing to you portions of this data as part of a notification or analyzing the data to identify motion or other events. We may process information from your Otto Camera so that we can send you alerts when something happens. In addition, if you have the recording features enabled, we will capture, process and retain video and audio data recordings from your device for the duration of your recording subscription period (for example, 10 or 30 days) and you will be able to access those recordings using the Services during that time.

Technical information from the device: In order to improve your experience over time and help troubleshoot any problem you may encounter with Otto Camera, we record your Otto Camera model and serial number, software version, and technical information such as Wi-Fi signal strength.

Saved and Shared Content: You may save and may choose to share certain content like video clips, live video streams, images, captions, and comments for other people to access using the Services. We will collect and store information that will allow us to save or share your content as directed by you through the Services.
Data protection and privacy laws in your country may impose certain responsibilities on you and your use of Otto Camera. You (not Otto) are responsible for ensuring that you comply with any applicable laws when you use Otto Camera. For example, you may need to display a notice that alerts visitors to your home that you are using Otto Camera. Note in particular that recording and sharing clips that involve other people may affect their privacy and data protection rights.

Otto logs.

What additional information does Otto collect and store when a user connects a Otto Product to the Internet or creates an account?

Wi-Fi Network Information: To connect your Otto Product to our Services, or to access your Otto Product over the Internet from a computer, a smartphone or a tablet, you will need to connect it to your Wi-Fi network. During setup, the Otto Product will ask for your Wi-Fi network name (SSID) and password to connect to the Internet. It will save this information on the device, along with your IP address, so that you can access it and control it from your computer, smartphone or tablet, and so that it can communicate with Otto servers and download software updates.

Once connected to your Wi-Fi network, your Otto Product regularly sends the data described in this Privacy Statement (excluding your Wi-Fi password) to Otto to provide you with the Services.

Additional Authorized Users: Otto may provide you with the ability to enable additional authorized users to access your account. If you do so, the additional authorized users may control and view all of your devices, content, and Works with Otto connections. Invited users may also add additional authorized users to your account, so be careful to add only those you trust. An invited user must have or create a Otto account, and information about invited users (like email address, name, or changes to product settings) will be stored with your account.

Email Addresses: When you create a Otto account, we collect and store your email address. From that point forward, your email address is used for communications from Otto. In addition, Otto may provide you with the ability to enable individuals to access your account as additional authorized users, or to invite other individuals such as friends or family to share access to your content such as recorded video footage. We will ask you for the email address of any such individuals and automatically send an email invitation on your behalf. Otto stores this information to send this email, to register your friend if your invitation is accepted, and to track the success of our invitation services.

Basic Profile Information: Your account allows you to provide certain basic profile information like your name and profile photo. Names and profile photos may be shown to others in connection with the Services. For example, if you invite someone as an additional authorized user, he or she will be able to see your name and photo. You should only use photos you are willing to make public.

Mobile location data: You may choose to enable features like Home/Away Assist or device pairing. If you do this, you’ll be asked to share location data from your mobile device or from additional authorized users. This data may be processed or combined with data from other products to enhance features like Home & Away.

Bluetooth data: Bluetooth may broadcast an identifying signal wirelessly. This is used to connect with your Bluetooth-enabled devices (such as a smartphone or tablet) in order to deliver features like easy setup.

How does Otto use the information it collects?

We use this information to provide, develop and improve Otto Products and services, including to make assessments and recommendations about products, safety, or energy use. We may use your contact details to send you this information, or to ask you to participate in surveys about your Otto use, and to send you other communications from Otto.

We may also use this information in an aggregated, non-identified form for research purposes and to help us make sales, marketing, and business decisions. We may use service providers to perform some of these functions. Those service providers are restricted from sharing your information for any other purpose.

We use industry-standard methods to keep this information safe and secure while it is transmitted over your home network and through the Internet to our servers. Depending on your location and type of data, Otto may process your personal information on servers that are not in your home country.

In what circumstances does Otto share my information?

Under no circumstance do we share personal information for any commercial or marketing purpose unrelated to the activation and delivery of Otto Products and services without asking you first. Period. We do not rent or sell our customer lists.

The following are the limited situations where we may share personal information:

• With your explicit consent: We may share personal information when we have your consent. One example of this would be if you invite another user to access the Products on your account as an additional authorized user. Another example is if you sign up for programs offered by our partners (e.g., energy or insurance companies); if you do this, we may share certain information with the partner. This could include things like your enrolment information and the activation status of your device. Similarly, when you connect third-party devices and services to your Otto Products through the Works with Otto program, you are shown information about any proposed exchange of data. Your explicit consent is required to allow these exchanges on your behalf and you can change your mind at any time.
• For external processing: We have vendors, service providers, and technicians who help with some of our processing and storage, including helping to answer your questions. They may also assist with monitoring our servers for technical problems.

These technicians (as well as Otto employees) can access certain information about you or your account in line with this work but these technicians are not allowed to use this data for non-Otto purposes. We also have strict policies and technical barriers in place to prevent unauthorized employee access to video data.

• As part of business transitions: Upon the sale or transfer of the company and/or all or part of its assets, your personal information may be among the items sold or transferred. We will request a purchaser to treat our data under the privacy statement in place at the time of its collection.
• For legal reasons: We may provide information to a third party if we believe in good faith that we are required to do so for legal reasons. For example, to respond to legal process, or comply with state and federal laws (or the applicable laws of foreign countries other than the United States).

We may share non-personal information. For example, we may publish trends about energy use. This information may also be shared with other users to help them better understand their energy usage compared to others in the Otto community, raise awareness about safety issues, or help us generally improve our system. We may also share non-personal information with our partners, for example, if they are interested in providing demand-response services or other incentive programs. We take steps to keep this non-personal information from being associated with you and we require our partners to do the same.

As described above, some information is processed and stored directly on the Otto device. All personal information is encrypted as it is transmitted to Otto and cannot easily be accessed.

You can access, amend or delete your personal information from Otto’s servers through the controls in your account. Because of the way we maintain certain Services, after your information is deleted, backup copies may linger for some time before they are deleted, and we may retain certain data for a longer period of time if we are required to do so for legal reasons.

Please note that this Privacy Statement may change from time to time. We will provide notice of any changes on the website or by contacting you.

If you have any questions, please contact us at privacy@homeotto.ca