Privacy policy - statement

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**Privacy means EVERYTHING to us!

NO PERSONAL INFORMATION IS COLLECTED OR SHARED** **When you purchase smartwatches, phones, use devices that listen for commands or sign up with online services over the Internet, you often have to click on AGREE at some point to use the product or service. By doing so, chances are extremely high that you have just given that company your blessings to log, mine and buy (to corroborate) and sell all personal information you generate when using those products or services.

Countless companies engage in what is known as profiling, the buying and selling of your habits, likes, dislikes, what and how you use the devices and services that you have. All of this data is bought and sold like a commodity and shared between companies giving a wildly accurate picture of who you are, what your interests are, where you frequent and much more.

You should understand why we do NOT collect personal information

PROFILING IS A TERRIBLE PRACTICE

Agreements will typically say that your data will be used to better serve you ads and other information but the fact that those companies are buying and selling each other's data means what you originally signed is lost as your data moves around different companies which you have never signed agreements with. You then have lost total control of your data. Worse, all of the data being shared means filling in the missing pieces about your life that each company is missing. This is a terrible practice yet people keep clicking on AGREE because they want to use those products and services.

We believe that businesses need to get back to the basics, earn your money the old fashioned way, by offering great services and earning your keep.

THE AGENT

The software known as the agent is installed on a PC, server or embedded device on a local network. The agent is the source of the test and our networks are the destination of the tests. The agent tests Internet connectivity from your location, through your provider, to their higher-level provider and so on until it reaches our network. The agent recognizes if it cannot reach our network and begins a process to determine when, where, why and with whom the problem is based entirely on standard well-known TCP/IP protocols. Our code uses standard tests with a mix of customized tests and algorithms to determine what the problem is, log all info possible about it then display that information in your dashboard.

The agent does not and cannot monitor personal data

Agents are installed as a ‘client’ on your network and do not have access to anything other than basic TCP/IP connectivity on that device alone. The software does not do any packet inspections of any sort what so ever. Agents are not able to view packets from other activities on your network because the data flowing on your network is not flowing through the agent making it impossible for the agent to monitor anything other than its connectivity data. In modern hardware, what you connect the agent to is likely what is known as a switched port where each device has no access to other devices unless you have configured them to communicate together.

No matter if the agent is installed on your PC or if you purchased one of our hardware devices, the code is identical in functionality. The hardware agent gives you additional features that are meant to encourage you to purchase our hardware agent and to hopefully enjoy and benefit from using our service.

What we collect and why

Echo Networks is not interested in personal activity, only how your Internet services, provider and higher-level providers are performing. The service is about troubleshooting Internet/IP connectivity only and not how Internet services are used.

Echo Networks collects Internet connectivity data only. All information being collected is shown in your dashboard. Details include your local network IP, your public IP and your provider's IPs which are used to generate reports for your control panel.

Reports show when problems are on your local network, with your provider and beyond. Without your local network and provider IP, the agent cannot determine where any connectivity problems are coming from. Connectivity data collected is aggregated to show you where your problems are and if others in your area are experiencing issues also, with their own or the same provider that you are using.

The same information you see for your agents is corroborated with other agents in your area and in some cases, a wider range to show when problems are with the local network or if others in the same area are experiencing similar issues. Some of this data may be shared for analysis by external third party analytics companies to gather information about various areas, providers and other metrics that can be used to help Internet providers find and repair problems and to gather data on overall Internet performances.

The street address is not public: You enter a street address for the agent so that your reports are accurate in time zone and so that location information is standardized across all agents which are being used on the service. Location information is used by algorithms to correlate data that show you exactly where, when and with whom problems are including if neighbors are experiencing similar trouble.

The street address and/or sign up information are considered personal information and are never shared. Other than a map showing other locations experiencing similar issues in your area, corroborated information does not include your public IP or any personal information, only the connectivity issue you may be sharing with others in your area.

Account details are not shared: Account information and IPs are the only information that we store. We do not share, sell or otherwise make available personal details such as an address, phone, email details.

Sharing your findings

Feel free to share your reports with others, on your provider's social media pages, anywhere that could help you or others. Your reports will never show your actual address, only a map location where the agent is installed.

Profiling

Echo Networks will not engage in profiling, monitoring, logging what you do or where you visit when using the Internet. This would be not only against our principals and would violate the trust between our company and our members when we very specifically say we will not and cannot monitor use, only performance. We even offer a DNS server on our optional hardware agent to give you a bit of extra privacy by not having to use your providers DNS servers. Your own, private DNS server.

Echo Networks feels that profiling personal information is a practice that is shredding privacy from everyone using the Internet. We refuse to take part in personal profiling and believe that businesses should earn their keep by offering great services and not by partaking in the buying and selling of consumer information which should be kept private.

Please feel free to contact us about our privacy statement and/or any other aspect of our service.**