Last Updated: February 10, 2012
Crowd Science, Inc. (“Crowd Science”) is committed to following all applicable privacy laws and regulations and keeping you informed of how it might use any information it collects or otherwise receives about you. The following Privacy Policy is part of that commitment.
Collection and Use Practices for CrowdScience.com
Information Collection & Use
We collect the following kinds of personal information on our website and from our Clients:
- Contact Information such as name, email address, mailing address, phone number
- Unique Identifiers such as user name, account number, password
- Account and Profile Information
- Support Request Information
We use this information to
- Send you requested product or service information
- Respond to customer service requests
- Administer your account
- Send you a newsletter
- Send you marketing communications
- Webinar Registration
- Support Fulfillment
No personally identifiable information is automatically collected from visitors to this website. In the event that Crowd Science requests any such information from you, it will only be collected if you provide it on a voluntary basis, and Crowd Science will alert you in advance of the use to which such information will be put and to whom it may be provided.
Public Forums
Our website offers publicly accessible blog. You should be aware that any information you provide in these areas may be read, collected, and used by others who access them.
Customer Testimonials
With your consent we may post your testimonial along with your name.
Social Media and Widgets
Our website includes Social Media Features, such as the Facebook “Like” button and Widgets, such as the ”Share This” button or interactive mini-programs that run on our website. These features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our website, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social Media features and Widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on our website. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing it.
OpenID
You can log into our website using an Open ID provider. This service will authenticate your identity and provide you the option to share certain personal information with us such as your name and email address to pre-populate our sign up form.
Non-Personally Identifiable Information
Certain non-personal information (such as the domain name of the visitor’s Internet service provider) is collected in the normal operation of Crowd Science’s Internet servers. This information is primarily used for internal purposes, and only in non-personally identifiable form. However, Crowd Science may, from time to time, provide this information in aggregated, non-personally identifiable form to other parties for marketing, advertising or other use.
Third Party Websites
The Crowd Science website may contain links to certain other websites which enable you to visit other sites through your internet browser. Crowd Science is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of any other websites. Before interacting with any website, you should be sure you are comfortable with its privacy practices.
Communications from the Site
Special Offers and Updates
We will occasionally send you information on products, services, special deals, promotions. Out of respect for your privacy, we present the option not to receive these types of communications. Please see the “Choice and Opt-out.”
Newsletters
If you wish to subscribe to our newsletter(s), we will use your name and email address to send the newsletter to you. Out of respect for your privacy, we provide you a way to unsubscribe. Please see the “Choice and Opt-out” section.
Service-related Announcements
We will send you strictly service-related announcements on rare occasions when it is necessary to do so. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance, we might send you an email.
Generally, you may not opt-out of these communications, which are not promotional in nature. If you do not wish to receive them, you have the option to deactivate your account.
Choice/Opt-out
We provide you the opportunity to ‘opt-out’ of having your personally identifiable information used for certain purposes. If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter and promotional communications, you may opt-out of receiving them by following the instructions included in each newsletter or communication or by visiting http://pages.crowdscience.com/UnsubscribePage.html.
You will be notified when your personal information is collected by any third party that is not our agent/service provider, so you can make an informed choice as to whether or not to share your information with that party.
Service Providers
We may provide your personal information tocompanies that provide services to help us with our business activities such as marketing or email services. These companies are authorized to use your personal information only as necessary to provide these services to us.
Information Sharing
We will share your personal information with third parties only in the ways that are described in this privacy policy. We do not share your personally identifiable information with third parties for their own marketing purposes.
Legal Disclosure
We may also disclose your personal information
- as required by law, such as to comply with a subpoena, or similar legal process
- when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to a government request,
- to any other third party with your prior consent to do so.
- if Crowd Science is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, you will be notified via email and/or a prominent notice on our Web site of any change in ownership or uses of your personal information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your personal information,
- to any other third party with your prior consent to do so
Access to Personally Identifiable Information submitted on our website or Service Platform
If your personally information changes, you may correct or request deletion of this information by contacting us at info@crowdscience.com. To request removal of your personal information from our blog or the removal of a testimonial contact us at info@crowdscience.com. In some cases, we may not be able to remove your personal information, in which case we will let you know if we are unable to do so and why. We will respond to all access requests within 30 days.
Coppa Compliance
Our website and Services are not intended for anyone under the age of 13. If you feel we have collected information from anyone under the age of 13, parents/legal guardians should contact Crowd Science at privacy@crowdscience.com.
Service Platform Collection and Use Practices
Crowd Science may transfer personal information to companies that help us provide our service. Transfers to subsequent third parties are covered by the provisions in this Policy regarding notice and choice and the service agreements with our Clients.
General Privacy Practices
Tracking Technologies
Cookies
A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user’s computer for record-keeping purposes. We use cookies on this website, Service Platform, and within Surveys (see “Note To Survey Participants” below). We do not link the information we store in cookies to any personally identifiable information.
We use both session ID cookies and/or persistent cookies. We use session cookies to make it easier for you to navigate our site. A session ID cookie expires when you close you browser. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time.
We set a persistent cookie to store your passwords, so you don’t have to enter it more than once. Persistent cookies also enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site.
If you reject cookies, you may still use our site, but your ability to use some areas of our site, such as Surveys or the Service Platform, will be limited.
Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs)
We employ a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs). Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of Web users. We use clear gifs in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails have been opened by recipients. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. If you would like to opt-out of these emails, please see “Choice and Opt-out.”
Third Party Tracking Technologies
The use of cookies or clear gifs by third parties is not covered by our privacy statement. We do not have access or control over these cookies.
Data Retention
We will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services. If you wish to cancel your account or request that we no longer use your information to provide you services contact us at privacy@crowdscience.com. In addition,Crowd Science will retain personal data we collect on our Service Platform and data that we process on behalf of our Clients for as long as needed provide services to our Client. Crowd Science will retain and use all personal information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
Security
The security of your personal information and our clients’ information is important to us. When you enter sensitive information (such as login credentials) we encrypt the transmission of that information using secure socket layer technology (SSL).
We follow generally accepted standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once we receive it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure, however. Therefore, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. If you have any questions about security on our Web site, you can contact privacy@crowdscience.com.
Acceptance of Privacy Policy
By using this site or our Service Platform, you signify your assent to this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms of this policy, please do not use this website or Service Platform. Crowd Science reserves the right, at its discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove portions of this Privacy Policy at any time. Please check this page periodically for changes. If we make any material changes, we will notify you by email (sent to the e-mail address specified in your account) or by means of a notice on this website or Service Platform prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, you may email us at privacy@crowdscience.comor write to Privacy Policy, Crowd Science, Inc., 1735 Technology Drive, Ste. 780, San Jose, CA 95110.
Note to survey participants: Use and handling of all information gathered in our surveys is governed by Crowd Science’s Policies Regarding Collection, Protection and Use of Individual Survey Data, which is presented to and accepted by each individual survey participant. If you would like to opt out of future survey research, please visit http://app.crowdscience.com/optout/.
