Dedicated Systems Experts SA PRIVACY STATEMENT
Dedicated Systems Experts SA (“DSE”) recognizes the importance of protecting the privacy of all information provided by users of our web sites, subscribers to our magazines, recipients of our e-mail newsletter and magazine and all of our customers. We created this policy with a fundamental respect for our users right to privacy and to guide our relationships with our users. This privacy statement discloses the privacy practices for all products and services owned by DSE.
INFORMATION COLLECTION AND USE
DSE collects information from our website users, subscribers and customers. In this section of our privacy policy, we will describe the type of information we collect and how we use it to provide better services to our customers.
Registration and Ordering
When using some portions of our websites and signing up for certain selected services (such as free evaluation reports) users must first register. During registration, users are required to give their contact information (such as name, e-mail address, and other related information). We also may collect demographic information (such as job title and purchasing responsibilities, company information and professional certification). For internal purposes, we use this information to communicate with users and provide requested services, and, for our website visitors, to provide a more personalized experience on our sites. We use aggregate demographic information about our audience to improve our service, for marketing purposes and/or industry reporting purposes.
E-mail Newsletter and Magazine
If users wish to subscribe to our e-mail newsletter and magazine, we ask for contact information (such as name, e-mail address and, occasionally, demographic information). We use this information in the same way as we use contact information in the registration and ordering process described above. Recipients of our newsletter can unsubscribe using the instructions listed in the e-mail newsletter or magazine.
Surveys and Contests
From time to time we invite users to provide information via surveys or contests. Participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether to disclose requested contact information (such as name and mailing address) and demographic information or job title. In addition to other uses set forth in this policy, contact information collected in connection with surveys and contests is used to notify the winners and award prizes, to monitor or improve the use and satisfaction of the site, and may be shared with sponsors of such surveys or contests.
Tell-A-Friend
If users elect to use our referral service for informing a friend about our sites and services, we may ask them for the friend’s name, job title and e-mail address. DSE will store and use this information to send the friend an invitation. This information may also be used to provide information about our company and related products and services. The friend may contact us as specified in the tell-a-friend message to request that no further communications be sent.
Communications with Us
We have features where users can submit information to us (such as feedback forms, participation in the VirtualPressRoom(tm), the e-Magazine, the buyers guides). Letters to the editor and similar submissions may be made public. Requests for service, support or information may be forwarded as needed to best respond to a specific request. We may retain e-mails and other information sent to us for our internal administrative purposes, and to help us to serve customers better.
Communications from Us: Service Updates, Special Offers
In order to best serve our customers; we may send updates that contain important information about our sites and services. For example, we send new members a welcoming message, and verify password and username for our password-protected portions of our site. We may also communicate with a user to provide requested services and for account-related issues via e-mail, phone or regular mail.
We offer our users the option to receive information about our company, related products and services. Users can choose not to receive these communications, as set forth in our Permission section below.
Automatic Data Collection
Our web sites have features that automatically collect information from users, to deliver content specific to users’ interests and to honour their preferences. This information assists us in creating sites that will serve the needs of our users.
We use “cookies,” a piece of data stored on the user’s hard drive containing information about the user. Cookies benefit the user by requiring login only once, thereby saving time while on our site. If users reject the cookies, they may be limited in the use of some areas of our site. Additionally, we may note some of the pages the user visits on our site through different means. The use of cookies enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our sites.
Some of our business affiliates use cookies on our sites in ads or promotions. However, we have no access to or control over these business affiliates’ cookies; we urge users to read their privacy policies for information.
For our internal purposes, we gather date, time, browser type, navigation history and IP address of all visitors to our site. This information does not contain anything that can identify users personally. We use this information for our internal security audit log, trend analysis and system administration, and to gather broad demographic information about our user base for aggregate use.
We may combine demographic information supplied by a subscriber at registration with site usage data to provide general profiles, in aggregate non-personally identifiable form, about our users and their preferences in the content of the site and advertising. We may share this composite information with our advertisers and business affiliates to help them better understand our services.
WITH WHOM YOUR INFORMATION IS SHARED
When we have co-branded, customized, private label, powered by or sponsored products and services, or when we join with other parties to provide specific services, we may share (provide and receive) personal information with them. We do not share credit card information with such third parties.
In particular, please note that information collected in connection with evaluation report download will be shared with the sponsor of the evaluation report. These sponsors will use the information according to their own privacy policies, and we urge participants to read those policies and be aware of their privacy practices before registering.
Information may be shared with selected advertisers if a user affirmatively clicks through on a link/ad to such advertiser at those sites or in e-mails.
On occasion, we may provide targeted lists of names and offline and online contact information for marketing purposes to third parties, subject to our Permission policies. We give users the option of not having their name or contact information disclosed to third parties, as set forth in the Permission section.
Other than as set forth above, we do not share personally identifiable information with other companies, apart from those acting as our agents in providing our product(s)/service(s), and which agree to use it only for that purpose and to keep the information secure and confidential. Also, our parent, subsidiary and affiliate companies, entities into which our company may be merged, or entities to which any of our assets, products, sites or operations may be transferred, will be able to use personal information. We will also disclose information we maintain when required to do so by law, for example, in response to a court order or a subpoena or other legal obligation, in response to a law enforcement agency’s request, or in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be causing injury to or interference with (either intentionally or unintentionally) our rights or property.
We may share aggregate information, which is not personally identifiable, with others. This information may include usage and demographic data, but it will not include personal information.
CORRECTION/UPDATING PERSONAL INFORMATION
If a user’s personally identifiable information changes, or if a user no longer desires our product(s)/service(s), we provide a way to correct or update that user’s personal data. The user should contact Customer Support for the applicable product or service.
PERMISSION
Our users are given the opportunity to choose whether to receive information from our affiliates and us not directly related to the registered services. Users also have the opportunity to choose whether to have personal information shared with third parties for marketing purposes. If permission is not requested, we do not share information with third parties. Instructions for how to exercise this choice are contained in e-mails sent by us, on our product websites and in each of our publications. In addition, users can contact us to request for a change they are not capable of doing themselves online. Please note that we will endeavour to implement requests within a reasonable time, although for a time users may continue to receive mailings, etc., transmitted based on information released prior to the implementation of the request. Users will continue to receive information directly related to their registered services, so they always are kept informed.
SECURITY
We use reasonable precautions to protect our users’ personal information and to store it securely. Sensitive information that is transmitted to us online (such as credit card number) is encrypted and is transmitted to us or the credit card company securely. In addition, access to all of our users’ information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is restricted. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, a billing clerk or a customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information. Finally, the servers on which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.
LINKS
Our web sites contain links to other sites. DSE is not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each web site to which we may link that may collect personally identifiable information.
NOTIFICATION and CHANGES
If we change our privacy policy, we will post those changes on this page so our users are aware of what information we collect, how we use it and under which circumstances, if any, we disclose it. Users should check this policy frequently to keep abreast of any changes.