Data Privacy and Security

Summary:

Transana Basic and Transana Professional are computer applications that runs on the user’s computer. Data brought in to the program is stored on the user’s computer and is not shared with Transana.com or any other parties by the software.

The one exception to this is if the user chooses the Speechmatics or Deepgram tools for automated transcription, in which case audio data is shared with the company providing the requested service. The user must approve this data sharing each time the tool is used, and data shared this way is subject to the privacy policies described on the Speechmatics.com or Deepgram.com web sites. (The Faster Whisper tool for automated transcription handles all processing on the user’s computer and does not share data.)

Details:

There are three categories of data one works with in Transana, raw data files, Transana’s database, and intermediary files created by Transana to accomplish specific analytic tasks.

Raw data files are the text, PDF, still image, audio, and video files the user brings in to Transana for analysis. The user identifies files on their computer, perhaps on a hard drive or network share, for analysis. Transana copies plain text data into its database (more on that below) but stores only a link to the file (file name and full path) on the user computer system for PDFs, still image files, audio files, and video files. These data files remain on their computer under your control. No user data files are shared with Transana.com.

Transana’s database stores all analytic information entered into Transana. It includes a copy of text-only data and all transcripts (including embedded images) of media files, but only file names for PDFs, stand-alone still image files, audio files, and video files. The database includes all organizational information, coding and categorization data, and all notes written in Transana. In Transana Professional, the file containing this database information is stored on the user’s computer. By default, the file is stored with the user’s other data in the user profile’s data storage location defined by the operating system, although the user may change a configuration setting to alter this location. No database information is shared with Transana.com.

Transana creates intermediary files to accomplish certain analytic tasks.

• Transana extracts a low-quality copy of the audio from media files to create a waveform visualization. These files are stored on the user’s system in the configurable waveforms directory, which is by default within the user’s profile data storage location defined by the operating system.
• Transana extracts audio from media files for the creation of automated transcripts when requested. A copy of this audio is stored within the user-configured waveforms directory.
• If the Faster Whisper tool is selected, the audio file is processed for automated transcription on the user’s computer and is not shared.
• If the Speechmatics tool is selected, the audio file is shared with Speechmatics.com and is subject to the privacy policy put in place by that company. The user must approve this data sharing every time the tool is used. This data is not shared with Transana.com.
• If the Deepgram tool is selected, the audio file is shared with Deepgram.com and is subject to the privacy policy put in place by that company. The user must approve this data sharing every time the tool is used. This data is not shared with Transana.com.