This is the privacy policy ("policy") for biomedcentral.com which is run and provided by BioMed Central Limited (we, us and our). BioMed Central Limited is located at The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London N1 9XW. We can also be contacted at info@biomedcentral.com.
We will only use the personal data gathered over this website as set out in this policy. Below you will find information on how we use your personal data, for which purposes your personal data is used, with whom it is shared and what control and information rights you may have.
I. Summary of our processing activities
We publish scholarly journals, proceedings, news and data. This material is freely available. The following summary offers a quick overview of the data processing activities that are undertaken on our website. You will find more detailed information under the indicated sections below.
- When you visit our website for informational reasons without setting up an account, only limited personal data will be processed to provide you with the website itself (see III).
- If you are identified as belonging to a customer organisation then we collect information in order to be able to provide usage reporting to that customer.
- In case you register for one our services or subscribe to our article alerts or newsletters, further personal data will be processed in the scope of such services (see IV, V and VI).
- Furthermore, your personal data will be used to provide you with relevant advertising for our services and products (see VIII) and for statistical analysis that helps us to improve our website (see IX). Additionally, we improve your website experience with third party content (see X).
- Your personal data may be disclosed to third parties (see XI) that might be located outside your country of residence; potentially, different data protection standards may apply (see XII).
- We have implemented appropriate safeguards to secure your personal data (see XIII) and retain your personal data only as long as necessary (see XIV).
- Under the legislation applicable to you, you may be entitled to exercise certain rights with regard to the processing of your personal data (see XV).
II. Definitions
Personal data: means any information relating to a natural person who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, or an online identifier.
Processing: means any operation which is performed on personal data, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring,storage, adaptation or any kind of disclosure or other use.
III. Informational use of the website
When you visit our website for informational reasons, i.e. without registering for any of our provided services listed under IV and without providing us with personal data in any other form, we may automatically collect additional information about you which will contain personal data only in limited cases and which is automatically recognised by our server, such as:
- your IP address
- your device type, name and IDs
- the date and time of your requests
- the content of your requests
- information on your browser version
- your screen resolution
- information on your operating system, including language settings.
We use such information only to assist us in providing an effective service (e.g. to adapt our website to the needs of your device or to allow you to log in to our website), and to collect broad demographic information for anonymised, aggregated use.
If you are identified by IP or equivalent method as belonging to a customer organisation such as university or a company then we will also collect the identity of that organisation and use it to create usage reports which show the organisation how much of the content we publish is being read by their students, members or employees. This information does not contain anything related to a personal login unless (a) you are a nominated administrator for that organisation or (b) your organisation specifically requires it as a part of a usage-based access contract.
The personal data automatically collected is necessary for us to provide the website, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR, and for our legitimate interest to guarantee the website's stability and security, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR.
IV. Registration for our services
If you need to create a personal login with us then we will store and process the following:
- Information (such as your name, user name and email address) that is provided by registration
- Information in connection with an account sign-in facility (e.g. log-in and password details)
- Communications sent by you (e.g. via e-mail or website communication forms)
- The information that is necessary for the performance of the service is labelled accordingly. All further information is provided voluntarily.
We will process the personal data you provide to:
- Identify you at sign-in
- Provide you with the services and information offered through the website or which you request
- Administer your account
- Communicate with you
- Behavioural Advertising and profiling
- Provide access (where appropriate) to other Springer Nature group content if you so request.
- For this, the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR. The use of your personal data for behavioural advertising and profiling is done for the legitimate interest to improve your experience while using the website, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR.
We use the personal data and contact data you provide by registration to inform you directly about our additional products and services. The use of your personal data for directly advertising related products and services is a legitimate interest for us as a provider of this website, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR.
You can object to the use of your personal data for direct marketing at any time. We will then refrain from any processing to the extent it is related to such purposes. You may opt-out of direct marketing via opt-out links in any marketing communication or via user profile pages on the website (where available). You can also inform us about your objection by contacting our Data Protection Office at dataprotection@springernature.com.
We offer notification services such as table-of-contents or new article alerts. This service is provided by means of a double-opt-in. Thus, you will receive an email containing a link by which you can confirm that you are the owner of the email address and wish to be notified via our email service. You can end this service by opting out via the link provided in each notification email. This notification service is based on your consent, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR.
Registration data is kept until such time as an account deletion request is made. If such a request is received we will erase your data within 30 days. Statutory storage obligations or the need for legal actions that may arise from misconduct within the services or payment problems can lead to a longer retention of your personal data. In this case, we will inform you accordingly.
V. Information about the specific uses that require registration
Blogs
You can publicly comment on our blogs where we post a variety of articles to inform you about our activities. When posting a comment your name or user name will be made public. To be able to comment on our blogs you will have to register as described in IV.
In addition to the extent of processing described under IV, when you post a comment we will retain some of your personal data such as your IP address and name and other metadata such as time of posting. This is necessary to defend ourselves from possible liability claims that may arise from unlawful comments posted by you and reflects our legitimate interest with regard to the legal justification of this processing activity in Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR.
We reserve the right to delete comments that are off-topic, spam, abusive, use excessive foul language, include ad hominem attacks or offend against legal regulations.
Article Alerts and Newsletters
With your email address you can subscribe to article alerts and newsletters that provides you with the latest news about our products and services if you consent to receiving such alerts and newsletters. The legal basis for this processing is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. Your email address will be retained as long as you subscribe to our alerts and newsletters.
This service is provided by means of a double-opt-in. Thus, you will receive an email containing a link by which you can confirm that you are the owner of the email address and wish to be notified via our email service. When your subscription is not confirmed, the personal data you provided will not be processed for any purpose.
You can unsubscribe from this service by opting out via the link provided in each newsletter.
VI. Automated decision making
We do not use your personal data for automated decision making which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you, however we do use your personal data to offer you content and services which we believe may be of interest.
VII. Online advertising
We present online advertising provided using the services of Google AdExchange, Google AdSense, Sovrn OnScroll. Respective advertisement is labelled as"ADVERTISEMENT" or "AdChoices". In order to do so, we collect statistical information about you that will be processed by Salesforce DMP, Oracle MOAT, Google Analytics, Google DFP, Google AdExchange, Google AdSense, Sovrn OnScroll. This processing is based on Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR and represents our legitimate interest to improve your website experience and to promote our products and services. The above providers will be automatically informed about your visit on our website. For such purpose, a web beacon is used to place a cookie on your computer.
Please note that we neither have the control of the extent of personal data that is collected by
the respective plug-in provider nor do we know the processing's purpose or the period your
personal data will be retained.
Your personal data will be transferred to and processed inside and outside of the EEA. For further information about the potential risks of a cross border data transfer refer to Section XII.
It is possible that the above providers may disclose your personal data to its business partners, third parties or authorities.
You can prevent the installation of such a cookie (i) by a respective setting of your browser that blocks the installation of third party cookies, (ii) by deactivating the interest-related advertising under http://www.google.com/ads/preferences, (iii) generally blocking cookies under http://www.google.com/settings/ads/plugin or (iv) by deselecting the option for tracking cookies via the Springer Nature cookie preference centre.
Further information about the processing of your personal data in the provider's course of operation is provided by its privacy policy. Moreover, you will be provided with further information with regard to your rights and settings concerning privacy.
You can access the provider’s privacy policy by following these links:
Google
AdExchange
Google AdSense
Sovrn
OnScroll
Salesforce DMP
Oracle
MOAT
Google Analytics
Google
DFP
Google AdWords Remarketing and Facebook Custom Audience
In this Website, we use the remarketing or “Similar audiences” feature of AdWords offered by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA, hereinafter referred to as “Google”
Google uses Cookies/tracking technologies, i.e., text files that are stored on your computer and that allow us to analyze your use of our Website. Information generated by Cookies/tracking technology on your use of this Website (including your IP address) will be transferred to a Google server in the U.S. and stored on that server. After that, that last three digits of the IP address will be deleted by Google so that it is no longer possible to clearly match this IP address with personal data. Google has obtained a Privacy Shield Certification and agreed to compliance with thePrivacy Shield Treaty between the EU and the U.S. on the collection, use and storageof personal data from EU member states, as published by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Google will use this information to analyze your use of the Website, to create website activity reports for the website operators and to provide additional services in connection with the use of the Website and the Internet. Furthermore, Google may transfer this information to third parties, if it is required to do so in accordance with statutory provisions or if third parties process data on behalf of Google.
Third party providers, including Google, place advertisements on websites on the Internet. Third party providers, including Google, use stored Cookies/tracking information to place advertisements based on previous visits of a user on this Website.
For additional information on the anonymous analysis of your search behavior please refer to:
- https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=de
- http://www.google.com/policies/technologies/ads/
You may object to data collection and storage for the purpose of remarketing at any time - this objection will be effective for the future, but not retroactively - by deactivating interest-based advertising in Google or by deactivating the services on the website of the Network Advertising Initiative. Note: in that case, you may not be able to use all features of this Website anymore. By using this Website, you grant your consent to the processing of data collected about you by Google in the manner and for the purpose described above.
Furthermore, this Website uses retargeting tags and Custom Audience of Facebook Inc., 1601 South California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304 U.S., hereinafter referred to as “Facebook”.
When you visit our web pages, remarketing tags will build a direct connection between your browser and the Facebook server. This way, Facebook learns that you have visited our web page with your IP address. This will enable Facebook to match your visit of our pages with your user account. The information obtained this way can be used to display Facebook ads. Please note that we as the provider of the webpages do not receive any information on the contents of data transferred and their use by Facebook.
With regard to the use of Custom Audience we would like to point out that Facebook and third parties use cookies, web beacons or similar technologies to collect or gather information on this Website. Based on the data gained we can make our Facebook activities more efficient and, e.g., arrange for contents or ads to be shown only to visitors of our Website. The data collected this way will encrypted and transferred to Facebook and is anonymous for us, e.g., we cannot see personal data of individual users.
For further information on the privacy policy of Facebook and Custom Audience please refer to https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/ or https://www.facebook.com/business/a/online-sales/custom-audiences-website.
If you do not wish your data to be collected via Custom Audience, you can deactivate Custom Audience using this link.
VIII. Analytics
For statistical analyses we use web analytics services such as Google Analytics to collect information about the use of this site.
General tracking information
The tools collect information such as
- Device and browser information (operating system information, Mobile device identifier, mobile operating system, etc.)
- IP address
- Page accessed, URL click stream (the chronological order of our internet sites you visited)
- Geographic location
- Time of visit
- Referring site, application, or service.
We use the information we get from the providers only to determine the most useful information you are looking for, and to improve and optimise this website. We do not combine the information collected through the use of the tools with personal data.
Depending on the provider the information generated about your use of the website may be transferred to and processed in third countries, e.g. the United States. For further information about the potential risks of a cross border data transfer please refer to section XII. The tools collect only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit this site, rather than your name or any other identifying information. The provider will use this information in order to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activities and to provide other services relating to website and internet use to us.
The legal basis for this processing is Art. 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR and represents our legitimate interest to analyse our website's traffic to improve the user's experience and to optimise the website in general.
Google Analytics / Google Tag Manager
We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA ("Google"). On our behalf Google will use the information generated by a cookie for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet activity in connection with the use of the website.
We have activated the IP-anonymisation within the Google Analytics service, and your IP address will be truncated within the area of member states of the European Union or other parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases the whole IP address will be first transferred to a Google server in the USA and truncated there. The IP-address your browser conveys within the scope of Google Analytics will not be associated with any other data held by Google.
You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser; however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. In addition to that you may prevent the collection of the information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including you IP address) and the processing of this data by Google if you download and install the browser plug-in available at the following link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
IX. Third party content and social media plug-ins
1. Social media plug-ins
We use the following social media plug-ins: Facebook, Google+, Twitter. This allows you to communicate with such services and like or comment from our website. Social media plug-ins enable a direct communication between your device and the servers of the social media provider, allowing the social media provider to communicate with you and collect information about you browsing our website. This processing is based on Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR and represents our legitimate interest to improve your website experience and to optimise our services.
Transfer of personal data takes places whether you have an account with the provider or not.
Please note that we neither have the control of the extent of personal data that is collected by the respective plug-in provider nor do we know the processing’s purpose or the period your personal data will be retained.
Further information about the processing of your personal data in the provider’s course of operation is provided via their respective privacy policy. Moreover, you will be provided with further information with regard to your rights and setting concerning privacy.
a) Facebook Social Plugins
We use so-called social plugins („plugins“) of the social networking site facebook.com provided by Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA ("Facebook"). The plugins can be identified by one of Facebook’s logos (white “f” on blue tile or a “thumps-up”-sign) or by the additional text “Facebook Social Plugin”. The list of Facebook Social Plugins and their appearance can be accessed via: http://developers.facebook.com/plugins.
If a user visits one of the websites using such a plugin, the user’s browser directly connects to Facebook’s servers. The plugin and its content are made available directly on Facebook’s servers and included in the website by the user’s browser.
Due to the integration of the plugin Facebook collects the information that a user is visiting the corresponding website. If the user is logged in on Facebook at the moment he or she visits the website, Facebook may be able to connect the visit on the website to the user’s Facebook account. If the user interacts with the plugin – for example if he or she presses the like button or comments on something – the user’s browser transmits this information to Facebook. Facebook stores this information. If a user is not a member of Facebook, Facebook may collect and store the user’s IP-address. Facebook states that it only collects anonymized IP-addresses in Germany.
The reason for and scope of the data acquisition and information about the way in which the data is processed and used by Facebook, as well as the user’s rights in this respect and settings options for protecting the users privacy can be found under: http://www.facebook.com/policy.php.
If the user is a member of Facebook and does not wish Facebook to collect personal data via this homepage and to link this with his data stored on Facebook, the user needs to log off from Facebook before going to this homepage.
The user may also block Facebook’s plugins using add-ons for the user’s browser, for example the „Facebook Blocker“.
b) Google’s +1-button
We use the “+1”-button of the social network Google Plus provided by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States (“Google”). The button is market using the sign “+1” on a white or colored background.
If a user visits one of the websites using such a button, the user’s browser directly connects to Google’s servers. The “+1”-button and its content are loaded directly from Google’s servers and included in the website by the user’s browser. According to Google’s statements, personal data is only collected, if a user that is a Google Plus member and logged in on the network at the time of clicking on the “+1”-button.
The reason for and scope of the data acquisition and information about the way in which the data is processed and used by Google, as well as the user’s rights in this respect and settings options for protecting the users privacy can be found in Google’s privacy statement relating to the “+1”-button: http://www.google.com/intl/de/+/policy/+1button.html.
c) Twitter
We use the twitter-button. The button is provided by Twitter Inc., 795 Folsom St., Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA. (“Twitter”) The buttons are marked using the text “Twitter” or “Follow” and a stylized blue bird. The button enables the user to share an article or a website of this homepage on Twitter or to follow the provider on Twitter.
If a user visits one of the websites using such a button, the user’s browser directly connects to Twitter’s servers. The Twitter-button and its content are loaded directly from Twitter’s servers and included in the website by the user’s browser. According to the provider’s knowledge, Twitter collects the user IP-address and the website’s URL when the button is loaded from Twitter’s servers. However, this data is only be used for loading and displaying the Twitter-button.
Further information can be found in Twitter’s privacy statement under: https://twitter.com/privacy.
Should you have any questions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us via the e-mail address dataprotection@springer.com.
X. Information sharing
Where personal data is disclosed to the following third parties for the purposes mentioned above the legal basis for the transfer of your personal data is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b and f GDPR. Some of the recipients may reside outside the EEA. For further information about cross border transfer in general and transfers outside of the EEA see XII.
We may disclose anonymous aggregate statistics about users of the website in order to describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers and other reputable third parties and for other lawful purposes, but these statistics will include no personal data.
We may disclose your personal data to contractors who assist us in providing the services we offer through the website. Such a transfer will be based on data processing agreements. Therefore, our contractors will only use your personal data to the extent necessary to perform their functions and will be contractually bound to process your personal data only on our behalf and in compliance with our requests.
In the event that we undergo re-organisation or are sold to a third party, any personal data we hold about you may be transferred to that re-organised entity or third party in compliance with applicable law.
We may disclose your personal data if legally entitled or required to do so (for example if required by law or by a court order).
XI. Cross border data transfers
Within the scope of our information sharing activities set out above, your personal data may be transferred to other countries (including countries outside the EEA) which may have different data protection standards from your country of residence. Please note that data processed in a foreign country may be subject to foreign laws and accessible to foreign governments, courts, law enforcement, and regulatory agencies. However, we will endeavour to take reasonable measures to maintain an adequate level of data protection when sharing your personal data with such countries.
In the case of a transfer outside of the EEA, this transfer is safeguarded by privacy the Privacy Shield and EU Model Clauses. You can find further information about the aforementioned safeguards by following this link https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection_en
XII. Security
We have reasonable state of the art security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of personal data under our control. For example, our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorised personnel have access to personal data. Whilst we cannot ensure or guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration of information will never occur, we use all reasonable efforts to prevent it.
You should bear in mind that submission of information over the internet is never entirely secure. We cannot guarantee the security of information you submit via our website whilst it is in transit over the internet and any such submission is at your own risk.
XIII. Data retention
We strive to keep our processing activities with respect to your personal data as limited as possible. In the absence of specific retention periods set out in this policy, your personal data will be retained only for as long as we need it to fulfil the purpose for which we have collected it and, if applicable, as long as required by statutory retention requirements.
XIV. Your rights
Under the legislation applicable to you, you may be entitled to exercise some or all of the following rights:
- require (i) information as to whether your personal data is retained and (ii) access to and/or duplicates of your personal data retained, including the purposes of the processing, the categories of personal data concerned, and the data recipients as well as potential retention period;
- request rectification, removal or restriction of your personal data, e.g. because (i) it is incomplete or inaccurate, (ii) it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, or (iii) the consent on which the processing was based has been withdrawn;
- refuse to provide and -- without impact to data processing activities that have taken place before such withdrawal -- withdraw your consent to processing of your personal data at any time;
- object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, that your personal data shall be subject to a processing. In this case, please provide us with information about your particular situation. After the assessment of the facts presented by you we will either stop processing your personal data or present you our compelling legitimate grounds for an ongoing processing;
- take legal actions in relation to any potential breach of your rights regarding the processing of your personal data, as well as to lodge complaints before the competent data protection regulators;
- require (i) to receive the personal data concerning you, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and (ii) to transmit those data to another controller without hindrance from our side; where technically feasible you shall have the right to have the personal data transmitted directly from us to another controller; and/or
- not to be subject to any automated decision making, including profiling (automatic decisions based on data processing by automatic means, for the purpose of assessing several personal aspects) which produce legal effects on you or affects you with similar significance.
You may (i) exercise the rights referred to above or (ii) pose any questions or (iii) make any complaints regarding our data processing by contacting us using the contact details set out below.
XV. Contacting us
Please submit any questions, concerns or comments you have about this privacy policy or any requests concerning your personal data by email to our Group Data Protection Officer. You can contact our Group Data Protection Officer via dataprotection@springernature.com
The information you provide when contacting us at dataprotection@springernature.com will be processed to handle your request and will be erased when your request is completed. Alternatively, we will restrict the processing of the respective information in accordance with statutory retention requirements.
XVI. Amendments to this policy
We reserve the right to change this policy from time to time by updating our website
respectively. Please visit the website regularly and check our respective current privacy
policy. This policy was last updated on 02/07/2019.