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Article 3 min read

Zendesk legal terms update 2020

By Hasani Caraway, Vice President, General Counsel

Last updated September 21, 2021

Following the comprehensive improvements to our Master Subscription Agreement (“MSA”) that were announced last December, we continue to improve our MSA to make it shorter and easier to read.

In particular, and in line with an approach that is common in the industry, we have moved our product specific information, which we call, “Service-Specific Terms” (formerly Exhibit A) to the following link: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047508453. Subscribers can now find the information in a single stand-alone location.

A summary of the key updates is below. If you would like more information about our legal terms, please visit our Customers and Partners Website. If you would like more information about our privacy and security practices, please visit our Privacy and Data Protection Website.

For new subscribers, this updated MSA will become effective on June 2, 2020. For existing subscribers, this is your advance notice that the new Master Subscription Agreement will apply to your use of the Services starting July 2, 2020.

For subscribers that have purchased a subscription to our Services through an authorized reseller partner, we have made the equivalent changes to our Reseller Subscription Services Agreement, which are also effective as of June 2, 2020 for new subscribers and July 2, 2020 for existing subscribers.

KEY MSA CHANGES (TERMS):

  • In Section 2.3 we shortened the list of restricted uses for our platform. This will hopefully make it easier for you to clearly understand what you can, and cannot do, using our great Services.

  • Zendesk has modified the MSA to provide a direct link to Zendesk’s signature-ready CCPA Addendum.

  • We clarified our role in processing Agents’ personal information, and the rules applicable to Zendesk in this capacity: see the brand new Section 7.6.

  • The new Section 16 is trimmed – only one subsection. We moved several of its provisions where they belonged: into our Privacy Policy.
  • We shortened the provision on export compliance – Section 19.

  • We adjusted some minor inconsistencies in the Definitions section.

  • Last, but by no means least, as outlined above we have moved the Service Specific Terms Exhibit online, to the following link: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047508453. We are sure our customers will appreciate how this change improved the accessibility of our MSA.

KEY CHANGES (PRODUCT)

We have introduced a section in a newly created web-page with the Service-Specific Terms addressing specifically Zendesk Support Suite and Zendesk Sales Suite; our bundled offerings bringing together Zendesk’s powerful tools.

DATA PROCESSING AGREEMENT

We reviewed our Data Processing Agreement (“DPA”) to better describe Zendesk processes and procedures, again in an effort to simplify our agreements. We also did some formatting changes to match the structure of our DPA with our MSA..

BUSINESS ASSOCIATE AGREEMENT

We decided to have a uniform structure that aligns with the structure of our MSA. So, we reformatted our BAA. Moreover, we have added an Exhibit A with a list of all the Services specifically covered by the BAA. This makes it easier for current and prospective subscribers to understand which Services and Service Plans are included.

PRIVACY POLICY

Zendesk has modified its Privacy Policy to better describe our privacy practices. In particular, we have:

  • Eliminated a few paragraphs that were redundant with information widely available in our Cookie Policy.
  • Explained when, and how, we may use anonymized or aggregated personal information for marketing or analytics purposes.

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