Qt Group Privacy Policy

last updated: 23.05.2024

1. WHAT THIS POLICY COVERS 

This Privacy Policy applies to the information and data collected by The Qt Company Oy and its relevant subsidiaries and affiliates (“Qt Group”, “We” or “Qt”) when you interact with our websites, products and (“Services”), including offsite services that link to this Privacy Policy. The Qt Group is committed to protecting the privacy of its users, those visiting the Qt Group’s web pages (“Site”), and people interacting with the Qt Group. Any personal data processed by Qt Group through its web pages or related to the downloading or use of the products or services of the Qt Group is processed only pursuant to applicable data protection legislation.

This Privacy Policy applies where the Qt Group is the “data controller” and is generally responsible for and controls the processing of your Personal Data collected through our Site, the Qt services and about our general business contacts.

This Privacy Policy does not apply in the following scenarios:

• Qt Group as “Data Processor.” This Privacy Policy does not apply to Personal Data processed by Qt Group on behalf of our customers who utilize Qt Insights Services. The Qt Group is not responsible for the privacy or data security practices of our customers, which may differ from those explained in this Privacy Policy. Please contact that customer directly if you have any questions about how it processes your Personal Data (if any) for its own purposes.
• Employee & recruiting data. This Privacy Policy also does not apply to the Qt Group’s processing of employee data or recruiting data.  If you are an applicant of Qt Group, please reach out to [email protected] to learn more about candidate privacy policies which are provided with all Qt Group job listings. Qt employees should consult internal Qt policies and notices and can reach out to their regional HR contact for more information.

2. PURPOSE OF PROCESSING

There can be various legal bases for the processing of personal information. Below, you can find legal bases under which the Qt Group processes personal data covered by this policy and the duration of such processing.

• Legitimate Interests. Where applicable, Qt Group may process Personal Data based on our legitimate interests, we generally will retain such information for a reasonable period of time based on the particular interest, taking into account the fundamental interests and the rights and freedoms of data subjects. 
• Consent. Where Qt Group processes your Personal Data based on your consent, we will retain the information until you withdraw your consent or until there is no longer a need for processing, whichever occurs first.
• Perform a Contract.  Where the Qt Group processes Personal Data based on a contract with you, the Qt Group typically will retain the information for the duration of the contract plus the additional limited period of time necessary to comply with law or a statute of limitations for legal claims under the contractual relationship.
• Legal Obligation. Where we are processing Personal Data based on a legal obligation, the Qt Group will retain the information for the period of time necessary to fulfill the legal obligation. 

In all cases, the Qt Group also considers the amount, nature and sensitivity of the Personal Data, as well as the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of such Personal Data.

3. PROCESSING ACTIVITIES

• Providing the Services: The Qt Group uses data collected to operate and provide Qt services and sites. The Qt Group processes user personal data in reliance on its legitimate interests (as set forth in the General Data Protection Regulation (EU 2016/679) article 6.1(f)) in operating, improving, and providing you with the Qt services and sites you access and/or request. This can include providing Services via Qt web shop or evaluation license processes. Qt Group collects payment and billing information when you register for certain paid Services. If using services such as our web shop, you may provide payment information, such as payment card details, which we collect via secure payment processing services of a third-party service provider.
• Account and Administrative Communications: The Qt Group may use personal data to send you information related to Qt services such as confirmations, invoices, expiration and renewal notices, technical notices, service updates, security alerts, and support messages to perform Qt’s contract with you, or in reliance on Qt’s legitimate interests in administering our services.
• Providing Customer Support: Personal data in account information may be used to provide support services, including to help provide, improve, and secure the quality of Qt Services and Sites, or to investigate security incidents in reliance on our legitimate interests.
• Handling Contact Requests: If you fill out a web form, request support, or contact the Qt Group by other means (including via telephone or chatbot function), the Qt Group may use your information to respond to your contact mechanism, perform our contract with you, or, if Qt does not have a contract with you, where applicable, in reliance on Qt’s legitimate interests in responding to your request(s) and communicating with you.
• Improving and Developing the Sites: Like with most websites, the Qt Group collects information when users interact with the Sites. The Qt Group uses cookie data and usage data to improve the Sites in reliance on our legitimate interests in developing and improving the Sites, or with your consent.
• Marketing Communications: In certain instances, the Qt Group uses personal data collected to reach out to you about Qt Group services we think might be of interest to you. This information is provided where you have provided your prior consent or when you ask to be contacted by Qt (for example, in relation to a demonstration or event). Please see the Marketing section below to learn how you can control the processing of your Personal Data by the Qt Group for marketing purposes.
• Securing the Services: The Qt Group may process personal data and cookie data for the purposes of maintaining the safety and security of our Sites and Services, including verifying accounts, investigating suspicious activity, and enforcing Qt Group terms and policies, in reliance on Qt’s legitimate interest of promoting the safety and security of our Sites and Services, systems and applications, and in protecting our rights and the rights of others. The Qt Group may among other things provide to a company lists of downloads of Qt products using an IP-address linked to the company or in relation to which the name of the company has been provided by a Qt user. This can include names and company-related email addresses of users that register as users of that specified company. This information allows your company or institution to make decisions about things like open-source license compliance, purchasing more licenses, additional modules, or features.
• Complying with Legal Obligations: The Qt Group may process Personal Data when cooperating with public and government authorities, courts or regulators in accordance with our legal obligations under applicable laws, to the extent this is required and necessary (e.g., complying with court orders or judicial processes).

4. INFORMATION COLLECTED

The Qt Group may process personal data that:

• a user actively provides during account creation or otherwise in response to forms or questionnaires, interactions with any chat or chatbot functions, interactions on community forums, or sales inquiries and transactions such as the name and physical address, email addresses, telephone numbers, job title, and employer of a user; 
• is available from third parties related to or relevant for the use or licensing of the products and services of the Qt Group, or is related to the use of the website, products or Services of the Qt Group such as download history and IP address as well as information on the users’ activities while using the website, products or Services. 
• In addition to the data submitted to the Qt Group via the web pages of the Qt Group, Qt may collect data about visits to Qt Group pages and/or the use of Qt websites, products or services to improve, develop and test the Qt websites, products and/or services, as well as for data and product security and related purposes. To the extent reasonably possible, data regarding visits to the Qt Group website and use of the Qt Group website, products or services is anonymised or pseudonymised.

5. RETENTION PERIOD

Qt Group retains personal data for as long as we reasonably require it for legal or business purposes, taking into consideration local laws, and contractual obligations. These considerations include the nature of the personal information collected and the purposes for which it was collected.

6. DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL DATA

The Qt Group does not sell personal data to third parties. The Qt Group may engage service providers to process personal data, including to provide website-related services, such as any chatbot function. Qt may, for its legitimate business purposes, as set out in this Privacy Policy, and subject to the limitations of the applicable law, transfer such personal data to third parties to the extent such transfers are reasonably necessary for the business purposes of the Qt Group. If you make any purchases via the Qt Group web shop, we use a third-party service provider to process payment information.  You may receive a list of third parties with whom the Qt Group shared your information by sending a request to the contact details listed at the end of this document.

7. TRANSFERS OUTSIDE EU/EAA REGION

Given the global nature of the Qt Group’s business, processing data for the above purposes may involve a cross-border transfer of data provided to Qt from the European Union or European Economic Area (“EU/EEA”) to a location outside the EU/EEA. Any cross-border transfer of the data including any transfers outside the EU/EEA will be carried out in compliance with applicable laws. Where EU/EEA personal data is transferred outside of the EU/EEA to a jurisdiction not subject to an adequacy decision of the European Commission, the primary transfer mechanism used shall be the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses. You may obtain a copy of the relevant Standard Contractual Clauses (where applicable) by contacting Qt Group using the details set out at the end of this policy.

CHINA: 

With regard to a cross border transfer of data from Mainland China to a location outside of Mainland China, Qt Group will enforce the legal mechanism according to China’s PIPL, for the information to be provided as required by the PIPL, please see below:

Information on the onward data transfers from the recipient to another recipient outside of China can be obtained by reaching out to [email protected]. 

Regarding your data protection rights, you can find how to exercise your rights under Section 14 INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS.

8. MARKETING

The Qt Group processes your personal data to send you marketing information, product recommendations and other non-transactional communications (e.g. marketing newsletters) about Qt and our selected partners in accordance with your marketing preferences and our legitimate interest in conducting marketing. For the purpose of sending marketing news and information, the Qt Group will ask for your consent in a form to “Send me news about topics related to the Qt product offering” or a similar wording. By ticking or clicking such consent you will receive emails and other electronic communications from the Qt Group regarding news and information on its products and services, including offers that the Qt Group makes for such products and services, invitations to participate in events or surveys. You may opt-out of receiving such news and information at any time. You can opt-out of receiving marketing communications by clicking the “Unsubscribe” or “Manage Preferences” links at the bottom of any Qt marketing email you receive from us or on the Qt website. If you have other contact with the Qt Group (e.g., as an account holder), we may still communicate with you regarding such things as security updates, product functionality, responses to service requests, or other transactional, non-marketing purposes.

9. CHAT FUNCTIONALITY

In certain regions, web site users can initiate a dialogue with the Qt Group chat assistant via our website to obtain information about Qt Group products, services and information (“chat function”). The chat assistant, also known as a chatbot, is a computer program that interprets written text and automatically responds to enquiries in text. You can decide whether or not to use the chatbot functionality, as well as how much (if any) information you share with the chatbot functionality. If you provide personal information to the chatbot functionality, Qt Group will use such information for the processing purposes listed above in this policy (as applicable). Do not submit any sensitive personal information to the chatbot functionality. 

10. DATA SECURITY

The Qt Group will keep your data secure by taking appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect against its unauthorised or unlawful processing and against its accidental loss, destruction or damage. The Qt Group strives to protect your personal data, but we cannot guarantee the security of your data which is transmitted to our website, applications or services or to other website, applications and services via an internet or similar connection. If we have given you (or you have chosen) a password to access certain areas of our websites, applications or services, keep this password safe and secure.

11. GROUP ENTITIES AND BUSINESS TRANSACTIONS

Qt Group Entities. Qt Group is comprised of The Qt Company Oyj and its subsidiaries globally. Personal data may be made available to teams and functions, if necessary, to provide, improve and develop our services and comply with our legal obligations. All our employees and contractors are required to process personal data in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy, as well as applicable law and Qt Group company policies. More information on Qt Group companies can be found in the Qt Group annual report. 

Business Transactions. We may disclose your personal data to any prospective seller or buyer of Qt Group business or assets. Additionally, if a Qt Group entity is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, personal data may be among the transferred assets. If a Qt Group entity or its assets are acquired, the acquiring company would possess your personal data and that company would assume the rights and obligations regarding your personal data as described herein. If this occurs, we will notify you via email and/or a prominent notice on our website of change in ownership, use of personal data and choices you may have regarding personal data.

12. AGE RESTRICTIONS

Qt Group Services and sites are not directed at individuals under eighteen (18). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. Do not use Qt Group Services if you are younger than 18. If we become aware that anyone under 18 has provided us with personal information, Qt Group will take steps to delete that information.

13. QT COMMUNITY FORUMS AND PORTALS.

Any personal data you choose to post, share, upload, or make available on Qt forums, at events, or in similar Qt community spaces is public and visible to others. We may use information shared, posted, uploaded, or made available to improve our website, products and services. 

14. INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS

According to the applicable data protection laws and regulations (e.g., EU General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679), China’s Personal Information Protection Law(2021), etc. ), you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right of access to your personal data 
• Right to request rectification of incomplete or incorrect personal data 
• Right to object to or restrict the processing of personal data and to object to automated decision-making
• Right to request erasure of personal data 
• Right to transfer personal data to another controller 
• The right to opt out of receiving electronic direct marketing communications from us: All electronic direct marketing communications that you may receive from us, such as e-mail messages and SMS-messages, give you an option of not receiving such communications from us in the future.

Under the GDPR and certain other laws , you are entitled to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority concerning the processing activities carried out by us. Such complaint may be lodged in particular, in the member state of your habitual residence or place of work or where the alleged infringement took place. If you have any questions or wish to exercise your rights, Qt can be contacted via email at [email protected]. We will use all reasonably available resources to respond to any such request without undue delay.

The Qt Company Oy is a Finnish limited liability company with a Business ID 2637805-2, having its domicile in Espoo, Finland.

Postal address:
     The Qt Company Oy
     Miestentie 7
     02150 Espoo
     Finland

Regarding China, The Qt Company , Ltd.（“科尤特软件（上海）有限公司） is a Chinese limited company with a business number 91310115321643031F, having its domicile in Shanghai, China.

Postal address:
     Qt Company, Ltd.
     Units 3306-3307, 33/F, No. 3 Hongqiao Road,
     Xuhui District, Shanghai
     China

California Privacy Rights: 

This subsection is applicable to California residents. Additional details on the data collected, purposes of processing, retention periods, and other information about your data can be found throughout this Privacy Policy.

The Qt Group will not discriminate against any consumer for exercising their rights under California Privacy Legislation (the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act).

California residents may choose to exercise the following rights (subject to certain limitations of law):

• The right to know (upon verification of your identity) the information relating to your personal information that the Qt Group has collected or disclosed in the last twelve (12) months, including the categories of personal information that Qt Group has collected, used, or disclosed to third parties for a business purpose, and the specific pieces of personal information that we have collected about you;
• The right to request deletion of personal information the Qt Group has collected about you;  
• The right to not provide Personal Data to the Qt Group by refraining from submitting Personal Data to Qt. This Privacy Policy provides information on whether and why it is necessary to provide such personal data to us, as well as the consequences of failing to do so. If you do not provide Personal Data, you may not be able to benefit from Qt’s services, and the Qt Group may not be able to provide you with Qt Group services if that information is necessary to provide you with them, or if we are legally or contractually required to collect that information in relation to the provision of such product or service.
• The right to opt out of the collection and use of certain information, when you visit our websites or use our apps. For example, you can exercise your choice regarding the use of cookies and similar technologies via the cookie consent tool used on the Qt Site.
• To opt out of certain uses of information, collected when you visit third-party websites and interact with Qt ads. The Qt Group may use service providers to serve ads on third-party websites. These ads may be customized and served based on the use of data the Qt Group and its partners have collected on our websites and apps.
• To tell Qt Group not to send you marketing emails by clicking on the unsubscribe link within the marketing emails you receive from us or by contacting us as indicated in this Privacy Policy.

If you are an authorized agent making a request on behalf of a consumer pursuant to the California Privacy Rights Act, Qt Group may ask you to provide information verifying you have proper authority to make the request on behalf of the consumer or we may ask the consumer to verify their identity with the Qt Group directly.

15. COOKIE POLICY

1. Cookies on our Website

Cookies are small text files that are stored in your computer’s memory and hard drive when you visit certain web pages. They are used to enable websites to function or to provide information to the owners of a website. Web beacons (also called “pixel tags”) are electronic images placed on a website that typically help us access certain cookies on the website, enable us to count visitors on our websites and improve our services. Web beacons also collect information about visits from individual IP-addresses.  

The Qt Group uses both session and persistent cookies. Session cookies are cookies that disappear from your device or browser when you turn off your computer. Persistent cookies stay on your device even after you’ve turned it off. The cookies on our websites fall into a few categories: (1) Required Cookies, (2) Functional Cookies, (3) Analytics Cookies, and (4) Advertising Cookies. You can learn more about each category and type of cookie, via our cookie consent tool—accessible by clicking on the “Manage Preferences” link on the Qt website you are visiting.

Website cookies help the Qt Group to provide customized services and information, gather information about how and when pages in our websites are visited, what our users’ technology preferences are and whether our websites are functioning properly.

On our password-protected sites, the website may use cookies or other technology to help the Qt Group authenticate you, store and recognize configuration and user attributes, facilitate your navigation of the website and customize its content.

Please note that Required Cookies cannot be disabled and if you decide to opt-out of Functional Cookies, certain functionality of our websites or your account may be impacted. If you do not wish to use Required Cookies, do not access the Qt Group websites.

2. Types of Cookies

 In general terms, Qt Group uses cookies as follows:

Required: Required cookies are necessary for basic website functionality. Some examples include: session cookies needed to transmit the website, authentication cookies, and security cookies. If you have chosen to identify yourself to us, we may place a cookie on your browser that allows us to uniquely identify you when you are logged into the websites and to process your online transactions and requests. 
Functional: Functional cookies enhance functions, performance, and services on a website. Some cookies on our websites are activated when visitors to our sites make a choice about their usage of the website. Our websites then use the settings preferences of the user in relation to future visits. This allows the Qt Group to tailor the experience on our websites to the individual user. 
Analytics:  Analytics cookies allow the Qt Group to recognize, measure and track visitors to our websites. This helps us to develop the way our websites function, by determining whether site visitors can find information easily, or by identifying the aspects of websites that are of the most interest to them, for example.
Advertising: Advertising cookies track activity across websites in order to understand a viewer’s interests and to direct marketing towards them. The Qt Group may use advertising cookies depending on how you enable cookie setting in your use of Qt Group webpages. The Qt Group may also use advertising cookies to deliver marketing campaigns and track the performance of the campaign (e.g., that a visitor to a Qt Group website page then made a Qt purchase). Marketing cookies are limited to Qt Group websites and are not used in the Qt Group services.

3. Controlling your cookie preferences

You can update your cookie preferences at any time. The instructions for removing cookies from your computer or mobile device depend on the operating system and web browser you use. Please note that withdrawing your agreement to the use of cookies will mean that certain website functionalities are then not usable or are more difficult to use.

Consent Tool: The Qt Group uses OneTrust as a cookie consent tool. You can utilize OneTrust to customize your cookie preferences. When you visit Qt Group websites for the first time, a cookie consent banner will appear and ask you to customize your cookie preferences. If you decide to change your preferences at a later date, you can easily do so by clicking on the “Manage Preferences” link of the site you are visiting. 
Browser Settings: You can use your browser settings to opt out of Functional Cookies and Advertising & Analytics Cookies. For more information on how to do that, visit OneTrust.  
“Do not track” Settings: Some browsers allow a “do not track” setting that requests that a web application disable its tracking of an individual user. To set up do not track, you can visit the All About DNT page. 
Further information about cookies: If you would like to find out more about cookies in general and how to manage them, please visit www.allaboutcookies.org. 

16. CHANGES TO THE PRIVACY POLICY

The Qt Group may update its Privacy Policy from time to time. If any change materially impacts your rights or the obligations of Qt Group under this Policy, we will post a prominent notice on the Qt Group website notifying users when it is updated.