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IEEE Privacy Policy

At IEEE, we respect your privacy. We want to ensure that you get the information, content, and experiences that matter most to you. IEEE is committed to protecting the privacy of its members, customers, volunteers, and other contacts.

Scope

This privacy policy applies to all personal data processed by full-time and part-time employees, volunteers when acting on behalf of IEEE, contractors and partners doing business on behalf of IEEE, as well as all legal entities, all operating locations in all countries, and all business processes conducted by IEEE.

Information collected

What information do we collect?

IEEE collects the following personal data in line with the use purposes explained in a subsequent section:

- Your name and contact details
- Date of birth
- Online profile data/usage
- Emergency contact information
- Social media profile information
- Copies of identification documents
- Education and professional information
- Communication information including IEEE Online Support and Contact Center communications
- Purchasing and payment information
- Registration and participation in IEEE events and activities
- Subscription preferences
- Information about the device(s) you use
- Information about service usage
- Cookies
- Authentication data
- Location information
- Author and peer review information
- Other information you upload or provide to us

How do we use your information?

IEEE uses (and, where specified, shares) your personal information for the following purposes:

To process transactions. IEEE uses personal information such as name, physical address, telephone number, email address, and company/institution to engage in interactions with you, including contacting you about your order, donation, subscription, event participation, or membership. We use financial/credit card and payment information to process your order and may need to share some of this information with delivery services, credit card clearing houses, and other third parties to complete the transaction.

To provide support or other services. IEEE may use your personal information to provide you with support or other services that you have ordered or requested. IEEE may also use your personal information to respond directly to your requests for information, including registrations for newsletters, webinars, or other specific requests, or pass your contact information to the appropriate IEEE distributor or reseller for further follow-up related to your interests.

To provide information based on your needs and respond to your requests. IEEE may use your personal information to provide you with notices of new product releases and service developments.

To provide online forums and social networks. Some services available on the websites permit you to participate in interactive discussions, post comments, opportunities, or other content to a bulletin board or exchange, or otherwise engage in networking activities. Some of these services are moderated; all may be accessed for technical reasons (for example, for improvements or fixes). IEEE does not control the content that users post to these forums or social networks. You should carefully consider whether you wish to submit personal information to these forums or social networks and tailor any content you submit appropriately and in accordance with the relevant terms of use. You should also review any additional terms and conditions that may govern your use of these services, including terms related to sharing your personal information and receiving communications.

To administer products. IEEE may contact you if you purchase products to confirm certain information about your order (for example, that you did not experience problems in the download process). We may also use this information to confirm compliance with licensing and other terms of use and may share it with your company/institution.

To select content, improve quality, and facilitate use of the websites. IEEE may use your personal information, including the information gathered as a result of site navigation and electronic protocols and cookies (including third-party cookies), to help create and personalize website content, improve website quality, track marketing campaign responsiveness, evaluate page response rates, conduct usability testing, and facilitate your use of the websites (for example, to facilitate navigation and the login process, avoid duplicate data entry, enhance security, keep track of shopping cart additions, and preserve order information between sessions).

To serve personalized advertising to you. We don't share your information with advertisers without your consent. We allow advertisers to choose the characteristics of users who will see their advertisements, and we may use any of the non-personally-identifiable attributes we have collected to select the appropriate audience for those advertisements. When you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement, there is a possibility that the advertiser may place a cookie in your browser and that your attributes meet the criteria the advertiser selected.

To assess usage of IEEE products and services. IEEE may track your usage of IEEE products and services (e.g., IEEE Xplore) to determine your level of usage, and those usage statistics may be made available to IEEE’s content licensors and your company/institution.

To communicate with you about a meeting, conference, or event. We may communicate with you about a meeting, conference, or event hosted or co-sponsored by IEEE or one of our business associates. This may include information about the event's content, event logistics, payment, updates, and additional information related to the event. Information you provide when registering for or participating in a conference managed or co-sponsored by parties, other than or in addition to IEEE may be shared with those parties, and the treatment of such information is further subject to the privacy policies of those parties. IEEE and its conference co-sponsors may contact you after the event about the event, subsequent iterations of the event and related events. Please note that IEEE conference, meeting or event organizers, co-sponsors, exhibitors, and other third parties may directly request your personal information at their conference booths or presentations. Providing your information to them is optional, and you should review their privacy policies to address your particular needs and concerns about how they will treat your personal information.

To consider you for a higher member grade or an IEEE award. IEEE may use personal information such as your name, education, work history, and volunteer activities to consider you for a higher member grade or for an IEEE award. IEEE may need to share this information with your nominators, references, judges, and others parties involved in evaluating your eligibility.

To include you in IEEE Member Directories. If you are an active member of IEEE, one of its Societies, or IEEE Standards Association, at your request, we may include your information in IEEE Member Directory in IEEE Collabratec, and, if applicable, the Fellows Directory and IEEE Society Directories. We may also enable private member to member messaging (your email address is never shared). Active members can customize their member directories visibility preferences any time in account settings.

To document standards development participation. If you are a participant in IEEE standards development, IEEE uses your personal information to comply with policies and procedures, legal and accreditation requirements, and evaluation of patent claims by patent offices. IEEE must capture your personal data for these purposes, and provides information about activities related to standards development groups in which you participate. IEEE standards development participation is documented through various methods, e.g., rosters, submission documents, email reflectors, records of meeting attendance, responses to ballots, publicly available participation lists, and declaration of affiliations.

To assist in your participation in IEEE activities. IEEE will communicate with you, if you are participating in certain IEEE activities such as IEEE conferences, authoring or reviewing an IEEE periodical article, or IEEE humanitarian activities. IEEE may send you information such as newsletters related to those activities.

To update you on relevant IEEE benefits, programs, and opportunities. IEEE may communicate with you regarding relevant IEEE benefits, programs, and opportunities available to you, through your membership(s) with IEEE.

To engage with third parties. IEEE may share your personal data with third parties in connection with services that these individuals or entities perform for or with IEEE. These third parties are restricted from using this data in any way other than to provide services for IEEE or for the collaboration in which they and IEEE are contractually engaged (for example, hosting an IEEE database or engaging in data processing on IEEE’s behalf, or mailing you information that you requested). These third parties are carefully selected by IEEE and obligated to keep your data secure. From time to time, we may also share your information with third parties whom we think might provide content, products, or services of interest to you.

To protect IEEE content and services. We may use your information to prevent potentially illegal activities and to enforce our terms and conditions. We also use a variety of technological systems to detect and address anomalous activity and to screen content to prevent abuse, such as spam. These efforts may, on occasion, result in a temporary or permanent suspension or termination of some functions for some users

To get feedback or input from you. In order to deliver products and services of most interest to our customers, from time to time, we may ask members, customers, volunteers, and website visitors to provide us input and feedback (for example through surveys, usability studies, focus groups).

To protect IEEE information assets as well as your own personal data. The IEEE Information Security Program protects the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of IEEE information assets by following a risk management approach based on policies, standards, guidelines, and procedures to meet security objectives while supporting business and operational goals.

How can you control your information?

You can control the information we have about you and how we use it in several ways.

If you are a registered user, you can review, revise, and correct the personal data that you have provided to IEEE via IEEE Account/MyProfile.
Use the unsubscribe method provided in our various communications

Personal data about minors and children

IEEE does not knowingly collect data from or about children under 16 without the permission of parent(s)/guardian(s). If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 16, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under age 16, please contact us.

How will you know if the Privacy Policy is changed?

IEEE may update its Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make any material changes we will notify you by email if you have an IEEE Account, or by means of a notice on this website prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.

Technical and regulatory information

Logging practices

IEEE automatically records the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of visitors. The IP address is a unique number assigned to every computer on the internet. Generally, an IP address changes each time you connect to the internet (it is a "dynamic" address). Note, however, that if you have a broadband connection, depending on your individual circumstance, the IP address that we collect may contain information that could be deemed identifiable. This is because, with some broadband connections, your IP address doesn't change (it is "static") and could be associated with your personal computer.

As well as recording the IP addresses of users, IEEE may also keep track of sites that users visited immediately prior to visiting IEEE's website and the search terms they used to find it. We keep track of the pages visited on IEEE's website, the amount of time spent on those pages and the types of searches done on them. Your searches remain confidential and anonymous. IEEE uses this information only for statistical purposes to find out which pages users find most useful and to improve the website.

IEEE also captures and stores information that you transmit. This may include:

Browser/Device type/version
Operating system used
Media Access Control (MAC) address
Date and time of the server request
Volume of data transferred

External links behavior

Some of IEEE's websites link to other sites created and maintained by other public- and/or private-sector organizations. IEEE provides these links solely for your information and convenience. When you transfer to an outside website, you are leaving the IEEE domain, and IEEE's information management policies no longer apply. IEEE encourages you to read the privacy statement of each external website that you visit before you provide any personal data.

Cookies and web beacons

Cookies and web beacons are electronic placeholders that are placed on your device by websites to track your individual movements on that website over time. IEEE uses both session-based cookies (which last only for the duration of the user's session) and persistent cookies (which remain on your device and provides information about the session you are in and waits for the next time you use that site again).

These cookies and web beacons provide useful information to IEEE, enabling us to recognize repeat users, facilitate the user's access to and use of our sites, allows us to track usage behavior, and to balance the usage of our websites on all IEEE web servers.

Tracking cookies, third-party cookies, and other technologies such as web beacons may be used to process additional information, enable non-core functionalities on the IEEE website and enable third-party functions (such as a social media "share" link). We may also include web beacons and other similar technology in promotional email messages to determine whether the messages have been opened.

Do Not Track (DNT)

The online advertising industry has self-regulatory initiatives designed to provide consumers a choice in the types of ads they may see online and to conveniently opt-out from online behavioral ads served by some or all of the companies participating in these programs. Our websites do not respond to DNT consumer browser settings.

Collaboration with authorities

IEEE has appointed and mandated a privacy officer who represents the regulatory authorities inside the IEEE organization, and in return represents the IEEE organization to regulatory authorities.

The IEEE privacy officer will ensure proper communication with the relevant regulatory authority for privacy. The privacy officer will lead investigative action, complaint handling and data breach notification. The privacy officer will also monitor regulatory changes and consult the regulatory authority where implementation of a regulatory or technological change leads to doubt.

Transfer of information to other countries

As a global organization, IEEE engages in a number of international activities. In connection with the management of those activities, IEEE may transfer information to other countries. By submitting your information to IEEE via the websites, or in connection with your interactions with IEEE offline, you consent to such transfers and to the processing of this information in other countries.

Responses to legal requests

IEEE reserves the right to share your information to respond to duly authorized information requests of governmental authorities or where required by law.

In the event of bankruptcy, merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets, your information may be sold or transferred as part of that transaction. The promises in this privacy policy will apply to your information as transferred to the new entity.

Your European Union privacy rights

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation EU 2016/679) (also known as GDPR), if you are an individual protected by the GDPR you may have certain rights as a data subject. To request information about or avail yourself of those rights, please send an email to privacy@ieee.org with "GDPR Request" in the subject line. In the email please describe, with specificity, the GDPR right you are requesting assistance with. Please note additional information may be requested prior to initiation of a request and that IEEE reserves the right to charge a fee with respect to certain requests. Upon IEEE’s completion of its review you will be notified if your request has been granted, denied, or exemptions apply.

Your California privacy rights

Under California Civil Code Section 1798.83 (also known as S.B. 27), if you are a California resident and your business relationship with IEEE is primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, you may request certain data regarding IEEE’s disclosure, if any, of personal information to third parties for the third-parties’ direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an email to privacy@ieee.org with "Request for California Privacy Information" in the subject line. You may make such a request up to once per calendar year. If applicable, we will provide you, by email, a list of the categories of personal information disclosed to third parties for their direct marketing purposes during the immediately preceding calendar year, along with the third parties' names and addresses. Please note that not all personal information sharing is covered by S.B. 27's requirements.

How do I contact you if there is an issue?

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or about the use of your personal information, please feel free to contact us by email at privacy@ieee.org.

Date
23 April 2018
Ver 2.0

Contact Information:
privacy@ieee.org
IEEE
445 Hoes Lane
Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA

IEEE Privacy Policy

Scope

Information collected

Technical and regulatory information

Contact

Organization

Initiative