Introduction
The Berkman Letter, together with its affiliates and Berkman LLC (“Berkman”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) is committed to respecting your privacy. That is why we have established this Privacy Policy. Our intention is to treat your information with care and consideration. If you have questions or concerns regarding this policy, you should contact us at editor@berkmanletter.com.
We want you to know that we are not in the business of selling or renting individuals' personal data to other companies.
Key Terms
Berkman maintains the Berkman Letter website (“Site”) and related services including without limitation The Berkman Letter (“Services”).
Application of Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy contains Berkman’s handling of personally identifiable information that is gathered when you are using the Services. This policy does not cover or apply to the practices of organizations that Berkman does not own or control, information collected offline, or to non-Berkman employees.
If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, you may not use the Services.
Personal information we collect
What information we collect
Berkman collects information from your browser including your IP address, browser type, referrer page, domain name, access time, entry page, exit page, operating system type, and search engine keywords used.
We collect information about you when you submit a request form for more information, in which case we only collect the information which you provide to us, such as your email address.
How we collect information
We use cookies and similar technologies to provide information to Visitors. Cookies and similar technologies allow the browser to remember information about your interaction with the Services. Our cookies only collect anonymous data and do not allow us to identify you individually.
Cookies support authentication and personalization of our Site and Services. Cookies also allow us to understand how Visitors and Users use our Site and Services so that we can improve them. We use third party cookies, like Google Analytics, the assist us with monitoring our Site and Services.
Cookies are identifiers usually sent through your browser to reside temporarily or permanently on your computer's hard drive. The Site and our Services use cookies tied to personally identifiable information for their operation.
Google Analytics uses a first-party cookie and JavaScript code to collect information about visitors using the Services. Google Analytics anonymously tracks how our visitors interact with this website, including where they came from, what they did on the site, and whether they completed any transactions.
You can modify your browser settings to block cookies on our Site and Services. Doing so may adversely affect your use of the Site and Services.
We also collect information that you provide to us in forms on the Site. We design those forms to collect the least amount of data necessary to provide you with the support, information, or Services you want.
This Site does not offer information intended to attract children. We do not knowingly solicit personal information from children under the age of 13. Children under the age of 13 are expressly prohibited from using our services.
How we use personal information
We use the information we collect to measure our business success, to identify the most effective ways to present content to you, and to contact you about new content. Additionally, if you have chosen to receive email communications, you will receive our infrequent news and announcements.
We do not market third party services or products to you.
We use personal information about you to:
- Communicate with you. We use information to send you emails about Services and the Site.
- Promote content. We promote content on the Site to you as emails based on our understanding of your interests. You can unsubscribe from those emails at any time.
- Improve the Site and Services. We analyze data about your use of the Site and our Services to improve the Site, our Services, and marketing.
- Secure our Services and data. We analyze data and communicate with you to protect data and our Services.
- Comply with law. We share data to comply with applicable legal requirements.
We process your personal information for those purposes under one or more of the following circumstances: - You consent to processing your data. You can change your mind and inform us of your preference.
- We have a legal obligation to use your personal information to comply with the law.
- We have a legitimate interest in using your personal information such as, providing you with information about the Site or Services, to improve security of the Site or Services, and to anonymize information for our use.
- We analyze your information to develop techniques to protect your information.
How we share information
Berkman uses third party providers to deliver the Site and Services to Visitors. Each third party provider has represented that the services it provides to us comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) for citizens of the European Union, EU-U.S. or Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Frameworks (“Privacy Shield”), and/or United States privacy laws.
We do not sell, rent, license, or otherwise share your information for marketing or advertising purposes to any third party.
It is only under the following circumstances that we may send your information to other companies or people:
- When we have your consent to share the information.
- In the event the information disrupts the performance of Berkman' servers or causes server-wide outages.
- When we need to share your information to provide you with a service or product you are requesting.
- When we need to send the information to companies that work on our behalf to process an order you have made. Note that these companies are not allowed to use your information for any reason other than to support us in assisting you.
- When we conform to edicts of the law, to respond to subpoenas, court orders, or other legal processes.
- When you have violated our Terms of Service for the Service you are using or have used.
- When we act under exigent circumstances to protect the personal safety of our customers or the public.
- When we need to protect and defend the rights or property of Berkman.
- From time to time we may share aggregate data about our customers with other companies. In such cases no personally identifiable data will be made available to third parties.
- By using our Site and our Services and providing us with your personal data, you consent to this transfer of your personal data, to the extent permitted by law.
From time to time, we post customer testimonials on this Site that may include their name, logo, graphic, sound or image. We obtain your consent prior to posting their testimonials on this site. We are not responsible for the personal information a user elects to disclose in their testimonial.
When users elect to register their information to communicate in our forums, please be advised we are not responsible for the personal information users elect to share over this public platform. Please be advised that any personal information disclosed can be used to send you unsolicited messages by other members of this forum.
Your rights and choices
Where applicable law requires and subject to relevant exceptions, you may have the right to access, update, change, or delete personal information.
As a Visitor to the site or user of our Services, you may also contact us directly to request access, edit, change, or delete personal information at editor@berkmanletter.com.
You can also elect not to receive marketing communications by following the unsubscribe instruction in such communications. Please note that, for technical reasons, there is likely to be a delay in deleting your personal Information from our systems when you ask us to delete it. We also will retain personal Information in order to comply with the law, protect our and others’ rights, resolve disputes or enforce our legal terms or policies, to the extent permitted under applicable law.
Additionally, if we rely on consent for the processing of your personal information, you have the right to withdraw it at any time and free of charge. When you do so, this will not affect the lawfulness of the processing before your consent withdrawal.
How we protect your information
All communications between you and Berkman servers are encrypted with an industry-standard Secure Socket Layers protocol. Data on our servers is encrypted with industry standard technologies and protocols to protect your information against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, or misuse.
We employ additional security measures like firewalls, routine backups, fail over solutions, and redundancies.
How we retain your personal information
We retain personal information for as long as necessary to achieve the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, for example, to comply with our legal obligations, to protect us in the event of disputes and to enforce our agreements and to protect our and others’ interests.
The precise periods for which we keep your personal information vary depending on the nature of the information and why we need it. Factors we consider in determining these periods include the minimum required retention period prescribed by law or recommended as best practice, the period during which a claim can be made with respect to an agreement or other matter, whether the personal information has been aggregated or obscured, and other relevant criteria.
You may delete your Account by contacting us at editor@berkmanletter.com and we will delete the personal information it holds about you (unless we need to retain it for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy).
Please note that in the course of providing the Services, we collect and maintain aggregated, anonymized or de-personalized information which we may retain indefinitely.
Data transfers
Personal information stored as part of our Services may be transferred to countries other than where you live, which have different data protection laws. Our Services and data are hosted on servers in the United States.
We rely on a number of means to transfer personal information which is subject to the European General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), including transfer of data:
- to companies which have certified their compliance with the EU-US or Swiss-US Privacy Shield Frameworks (individually and collectives, the “Privacy Shield”),
- to recipients which have an approved contract for the transfer of personal data outside the EU, and
- to recipients which are in a country that the relevant European authority has confirmed offers an adequate level of protection.
Our service providers and suppliers which handle personal information have certified compliance with the Privacy Shield.
Links to other sites
Our website contains links to information on other websites. We do not have any control over these other websites, and therefore we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information that you provide while visiting those sites. THOSE SITES ARE NOT GOVERNED BY THIS PRIVACY POLICY, and if you have questions about how a site uses your information, you should consult that site's Privacy Policy.
Updates to Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to update this Privacy Policy from time to time, with or without notice. Your use of our Services constitutes consent with the then current Privacy Policy.
How to contact us
All questions about the Privacy Policy or our Services should be directed to editor@berkmanletter.com.