Privacy Policy : TechValidate

TechValidate Privacy Policy

Welcome to the TechValidate, Inc. ("TechValidate") Privacy Policy.

TechValidate is a technology research network that captures and verifies IT professional experiences and use of a particular vendor's products (the "Program").

TechValidate collects and processes IT professional responses to create "TechFacts" – translations of IT professional responses into approved interactive charts, statements, statistics, case studies and other forms. Only the vendor can see the source of the IT professional's responses. All TechFacts produced by TechValidate are guaranteed to be anonymous – an IT professional's name or company affiliation will not be shown to the public.

TechValidate provides this Privacy Policy to inform you of our policies and procedures regarding the collection, use and disclosure of personal information we receive when you visit and use www.TechValidate.com (the "Site") (whether as a registered user or a non-registered visitor), when you participate in the Program (as an IT vendor or an IT professional), or when you access, download, purchase or use any information, services, products, hardware or software or other content (including but not limited to TechFacts) appearing on the Site or offered by TechValidate (collectively, the "Services").

This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time. We will notify you of any material changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on the Site or through a message sent to your registered email address. Unless we provide you with separate notice and an opportunity to opt out, information will be treated in accordance with the policy that was in place when the information was collected.

Information Collection and Use

Our primary goals in collecting information are to provide and improve our Site, Program and Services, to administer any registration or account and to enable users to enjoy, easily navigate and use the Site, Program and Services.

(a) Vendor Personal Information.

In order to participate in the Program (whether for a trial evaluation or a full subscription), vendors will be required to register with TechValidate and create an account. During this registration process, and from time to time thereafter, TechValidate will collect certain personally identifiable information from Vendors that can be used to contact or identify the Vendor in order to administer the Vendor's account ("Vendor Personal Information"). Vendor Personal Information includes, but is not limited to, Vendor's name, company name, address, email address, telephone and fax numbers, Vendor account password, domain address, PayPal email address and other personal information listed in the account registration form.
TechValidate's primary goal in collecting Vendor Personal Information is to enable TechValidate to process, validate and verify a Vendor's identity, to contact and communicate with such Vendor regarding the Program or activities relevant to Vendors, to provide Vendors with a smooth and efficient experience of the Program, to process fees and charge vendors for participation in the Program or for any Services they have selected, to administer any Vendor inquiries and to contact Vendors about modifications to the status of any Vendor TechFacts or about any new or existing products and services that might be of interest to Vendors.
Some of Vendor's information (including name, company logo, address and other contact information) may be displayed in the TechFacts associated with such Vendor and will be available to the public via the Site. Vendor hereby consents to such limited display of information via the Site under the Program.
As requested by Vendor, TechValidate will contact and communicate with Vendor's designated IT professionals to inquire about such IT professionals' experiences with Vendor and Vendor's products and services. TechValidate will share some of Vendor's information (including name, address, other contact information and Vendor's products and services to be reviewed by the IT professional) with such designated IT professionals.

(b) IT Professional Personal Information.

Under the Program, Vendors provide TechValidate with IT professional contact information and request that TechValidate contact IT professionals on their behalf. Such "IT Professional Personal Information" means information about an IT professional that can be used to contact or identify them. IT Professional Personal Information may include, but is not limited to, the IT professional's company name, individual contact name, business phone number, and email and business addresses. TechValidate requires that vendors do not breach any obligations they have to IT professionals in providing such contact information for these purposes and that they comply with all laws relating to privacy in disclosing such information to TechValidate.
TechValidate uses IT Professional Personal Information to process, validate and verify a IT professional's identity, to contact and communicate with that IT professional regarding the IT professional's experiences with vendor and vendor's products and services or activities relevant to the IT professional, to provide the IT professional with a smooth and efficient experience of the Program, and to contact and communicate with the IT professional about modifications to the status of any TechFacts or about any new or existing products and services that might be of interest to the IT professional.
If an IT professional has visited the Site solely to respond to a questionnaire about a particular Vendor, and his activities on the Site are limited to responding to that questionnaire, TechValidate will not share that individual's IT Professional Personal Information with any other Vendor. However, an IT professional may choose to provide IT Professional Personal Information themselves (for instance, in order to view certain assets such as whitepapers, videos, or other information), either by visiting the Site on their own, or by browsing the Site after completing a questionnaire – in that case, TechValidate may share that information with other Vendors as detailed herein. If, as an IT professional, you do not want your Personal Information disclosed, do not view any protected assets.
TechFacts are anonymous, meaning that no IT Professional Personal Information will be displayed in a TechFact.

(c) Viewing TechFacts.

TechValidate assigns a unique TechValidate identification number (a "TVID") to each TechFact. The TVID will appear on each copy of the TechFact. At any time, anyone may visit the Site, enter in the TVID number and view a copy of the TechFact, check on the status of the TechFact (e.g., whether it is "valid", "invalid" or "expired"), check the date such TechFact was generated, find information about the industry and size of the business that the TechFact was based on, and confirm whether the TechFact has been updated with additional information or has been replaced by a newer TechFact. In addition to viewing specific TechFacts by entering a TVID, visitors can browse the Site and view TechFacts that have been selected by TechValidate to be displayed on the Site.
The Site is designed so that visitors may look up and view TechFacts without the collection of any personally identifiable information (except for such visitor's internet protocol (IP) address).

(d) Log Data.

When you visit the Site, whether as a registered vendor, IT professional or a visitor just browsing the Site, our servers automatically record and collect information that your browser sends whenever you visit a website ("Log Data"). This Log Data may include information such as your computer's Internet Protocol ("IP") address, the geographic location of the IP address you are using to access the Internet, browser and platform type, referring/exit pages, pages of our Site that you visit, the time spent on those pages, information you search for on our Site, access times and dates, and other statistics.
We use this Log Data to monitor and analyze use of the Site and the Service and for internal purposes such as to administer, improve and customize the Site, to help TechValidate understand and analyze how the Site is being used, to track aggregate Site usage, to provide technical administration, to increase the Site's functionality and user-friendliness and to better tailor the Site to our visitors' needs. We do not treat Log Data as personal information or use it in association with other personal information, though we may aggregate, analyze and evaluate such information to attempt to provide you with a better experience, to improve the quality and value of the Services and to analyze and understand how our Site and the Services are used.

(e) Cookies.

Like many websites, we use "cookies" to collect information. A cookie is a small data file that we transfer to your computer's hard disk for record-keeping purposes. We use cookies for two purposes. First, we utilize persistent cookies to save your last logged email address for future logins to the Site. Second, we utilize session ID cookies to enable certain features of the Site, to better understand how you interact with the Site and to monitor aggregate usage by TechValidate users and web traffic routing on the Site. Unlike persistent cookies, session cookies are deleted from your computer when you log off from the Site and Service and then close your browser.
You can instruct your browser, by changing its options, to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the websites you visit. If you do not accept cookies, however, you may not be able to use all portions of the Sites or all (or any) functionality of the Services.

(f) Communications with TechValidate.

If you contact us by email through the Site, through participation in the Program, through use of the Services or otherwise, we may keep a record of your contact information and correspondence, and may use your email address, and any information that you provide to us in your message, to respond to you.
TechValidate may contact you with TechValidate newsletters, marketing or promotional materials and other information that may be of interest to you. If you decide at any time that you no longer wish to receive such communications from TechValidate, you may follow the unsubscribe instructions provided in any of the communications (or update your account preferences if you have a registered TechValidate account).
TechValidate may also request that you provide personal information when you request promotional information, when you complete IT professional surveys, when you participate in contests. Finally, when you apply for a job and provide us with personal information, we will collect such information and use in the application process. If you decide at any time that you no longer wish to receive such communications from us, please follow the unsubscribe instructions provided in any of the communications or update your "user preferences" information. (See "Changing or Deleting Information" below.)

(g) Phishing.

Identity theft and the practice currently known as "phishing" are of great concern to TechValidate. Safeguarding information to help protect you from identity theft is a top priority. We do not and will not, at any time, request your credit card information, your account ID, login password, or national identification numbers in a non-secure or unsolicited e-mail or telephone communication. For more information about phishing, visit the Federal Trade Commission's website.

Information Sharing and Disclosure

We do not share Vendor Personal Information, IT Professional Personal Information, non-identifying information or Log Data with third parties except as follows:

Service Providers. We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our Sites and Services, to provide the Sites and Services on our behalf, to perform Site-related services (e.g., without limitation, bill or credit card payment processing, maintenance services, database management, web analytics and improvement of the Sites' features) or to assist us in analyzing how our Sites and Services are used. These third parties have access to Vendor Personal Information, IT Professional Personal Information, non-identifying information and Log Data only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.
Aggregate Information and Non-Identifying Information. We may share aggregated non-identifying information and Log Data that does not include Vendor Personal Information or IT Professional Personal Information, and we may otherwise disclose non-identifying information and Log Data with third parties (including media, suppliers, research companies and other organizations) for industry analysis, demographic profiling and other purposes. Any aggregated information shared in these contexts will not contain Vendor Personal Information or IT Professional Personal Information. Notwithstanding the foregoing, TechValidate may identify vendors (and vendor product names) in various TechValidate presentations, on the Site, and in TechValidate marketing materials, customer lists and financial reports, which may or may not be associated with aggregated non-identifying information and Log Data.
Compliance with Laws and Law Enforcement. TechValidate cooperates with government and law enforcement officials and private parties to enforce and comply with the law. We will disclose any information about you to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to respond to claims and legal process (including but not limited to subpoenas), to protect the property and rights of TechValidate or a third party, to protect the safety of the public or any person, or to prevent or stop activity we may consider to be, or to pose a risk of being, any illegal, unethical or legally actionable activity.
Business Transfers. TechValidate may sell, transfer or otherwise share some or all of its assets, including Vendor Personal Information and IT Professional Personal Information, in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets or in the event of bankruptcy.

As a vendor or IT professional, you will have the opportunity to opt out of any such transfer if the new entity's planned processing of your Vendor Personal Information or IT Professional Personal Information (as applicable) differs materially from that set forth in this Privacy Policy.

In addition, as a vendor, you will have the opportunity to opt out of any transfer of your IT Professional Personal Information if the new entity is a competitor in your line of business.

Changing or Deleting Your Information

All registered users of our Site, Program and Services may review, update, correct or delete the personal information in their registration profile by contacting us. If you completely delete all such information, then your account may become deactivated. If you would like us to delete your record in our system, please contact us and we will attempt to accommodate your request if we do not have any legal obligation to retain the record. See below for privacy contact information. From time to time, we may contact you by mail, email or telephone to tell you about additional products or services that we or third parties may offer. If you do not wish to receive such calls or promotional materials, please contact us and we will attempt to accommodate your request.

Security

TechValidate is concerned with safeguarding your information. We employ a variety of industry-standard administrative, physical and electronic security measures designed to protect your information from unauthorized access.

We will make any legally required disclosures of any breach of the security, confidentiality or integrity of your unencrypted electronically stored "personal data" (as defined in applicable state statutes on security breach notification) to you via email or conspicuous posting on the Site in the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay, insofar as consistent with (i) the legitimate needs of law enforcement or (ii) any measures necessary to determine the scope of the breach and restore the reasonable integrity of the data system.

International Transfers

Your information may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your jurisdiction. If you are located outside the United States and choose to provide information to us, TechValidate transfers Vendor Personal Information and IT Professional Personal Information to the United States and processes it there. Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer.

Links to Other Sites

Our Site contains links to other websites. If you choose to visit an advertiser by "clicking on" a banner ad or other type of advertisement, or click on another third party link, you will be directed to that third party's website. The fact that the Site permits you to link to a website or present a banner ad or other type of advertisement is not an endorsement, authorization or representation of our affiliation with that third party, nor is it an endorsement of their privacy or information security policies or practices. We do not exercise control over third party websites. These other websites may place their own cookies or other files on your computer, collect data or solicit personal information from you. Other sites follow different rules regarding the use or disclosure of the personal information you submit to them. We encourage you to read the privacy policies or statements of the other websites you visit.

Our Policy Towards Children

The Site and use of the Program and Services are not directed to children under eighteen (18) years. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under thirteen (13). If a parent or guardian becomes aware that his or her child has provided us with personal information without their consent, he or she should contact us at privacy@TechValidate.com. If we become aware that a child under thirteen (13) has provided us with personal information, we will delete such information from our files.

Contacting Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at privacy@TechValidate.com or write to us at: TechValidate Software, Inc., 5424 Sunol Boulevard #10-167, Pleasanton, CA 94566.

Effective: May 15, 2009