Privacy Policy

(Period: October 17 – Current)

As you use our services, we want you to be clear how we’re using information and the ways in which you can protect your privacy, and we’ve tried to keep it as simple as possible.

Our Privacy Policy explains:

• What information we collect and why we collect it
• How we use that information
• The choices we offer, including how to access and update information

Your privacy matters to us, so whether you are new to Minerva’s data lab (MDL) or a long-time user, please do take the time to get to know our practices and if you have any questions contact us.

Information that we collect

We collect information to provide better services to all of our users – from basics, such as where you’re based (i.e. which language you speak) to more complex things, such as which features you find most useful (so we know which bits to improve first). We collect information in three ways:

• Information that you give us. For example, many of our services require you to sign up for an Account. When you do, we’ll ask for personal information, such as your name and email address
• Information that we get from your use of our services. We may collect information about when and how you use, view and interact with our services and programs. This information includes
  
  • Device information
    • We may collect device-specific information (such as your operating system version, web browser version)
  • Log information
    
    • When you use our services we may automatically collect and store certain information in server logs. This may include:
    • details of how you used our service
    • Internet protocol address
    • device event information, such as crashes, system activity, hardware settings, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and referral URL
    • cookies that may uniquely identify your browser or your MDL Account
• Cookies and anonymous identifiers
  
  • We may use various technologies to collect and store information when you visit a MDL service, which may include one or more cookies or anonymous identifiers sent to your device
  • Public information. We may collect information from the public domain, such as what publications you have made

How we use information that we collect

We use the information that we collect from all of our services to provide, maintain, protect and improve them, to develop new ones and to protect MDL and our users.

When you contact MDL, we may keep a record of your communication to help resolve any issues that you might be facing. We may use your email address to inform you about our services, such as letting you know about upcoming changes or improvements.

We use information collected from cookies and other technologies to improve your user experience and the overall quality of our services. For example, by saving your location, we may be able to provide our services in your preferred language.

We will ask for your consent before using information for a purpose other than those set out in this Privacy Policy.

MDL may process personal information on our servers in many countries around the world. We may process your personal information on a server located outside the country where you live.

Transparency and choice

People have different privacy concerns. Our goal is to be clear about what information we collect, so that you can make meaningful choices about how it is used. For example, you can:

• Review and control certain types of information tied to your MDL Account
• Control who you share information with
• Take information out of many of our services

You may also set your browser to block all cookies, including cookies associated with our services, or to indicate when a cookie is being set by us. However, it’s important to remember that many of our services may not function properly if your cookies are disabled. For example, we may not remember your language preferences

Information that you share

Many of our services let you share information with others. Our services provide you with different options for sharing and removing your content.

Accessing and updating your personal information

Whenever you use our services, we aim to provide you with access to your personal information. If that information is wrong, we strive to give you ways to update it quickly or to delete it – unless we have to keep that information for legitimate business or legal purposes. When updating your personal information, we may ask you to verify your identity before we can act on your request.

We may reject requests that are unreasonably repetitive, require disproportionate technical effort (for example, developing a new system or fundamentally changing an existing practice), risk the privacy of others or would be extremely impractical (for instance, requests concerning information residing on backup tapes).

Where we can provide information access and correction, we will do so free of charge, except where it would require a disproportionate effort. We aim to maintain our services in a manner that protects information from accidental or malicious destruction. Because of this, after you delete information from our services, we may not immediately delete residual copies from our active servers and may not remove information from our backup systems.

Information that we share

We do not share personal information with companies, organisations and individuals outside MDL unless one of the following circumstances applies:

• With your consent
  • We will share personal information with companies, organisations or individuals outside MDL when we have your consent to do so. We require opt-in consent for the sharing of any sensitive personal information
• With domain administrators
  
  • If your MDL Account is managed for you by a domain administrator then your domain administrator and resellers who provide user support to your organisation will have access to your MDL Account information (including your emails and other data). Your domain administrator may be able to:
    • view statistics regarding your Account, such as statistics regarding applications that you use
    • change your Account password
    • suspend or terminate your Account access
    • access or retain information stored as part of your Account
    • receive your Account information in order to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request
    • restrict your ability to delete or edit information or privacy settings

Please refer to your domain administrator’s privacy policy for more information

• For external processing
  • We provide personal information to our affiliates or other trusted businesses or persons to process it for us, based on our instructions and in compliance with our Privacy Policy and any other appropriate confidentiality and security measures
• For legal reasons
  
  • We will share personal information with companies, organisations or individuals outside MDL if we have a belief in good faith that access, use, preservation or disclosure of the information is reasonably necessary to:
  • meet any applicable law, regulation, legal process or enforceable governmental request
  • enforce applicable Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations
  • detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues
  • protect against harm to the rights, property or safety of MDL, our users or the public, as required or permitted by law

We may share aggregated, non-personally identifiable information publicly and with our partners, such as publishers, advertisers or connected sites. For example, we may share information publicly to show trends about the general use of our services.

If MDL is involved in a merger, acquisition or asset sale, we will continue to ensure the confidentiality of any personal information and give affected users notice, including the option to terminate their account, before personal information is transferred or becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

Information security

We work hard to protect MDL and our users from unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of information that we hold. In particular:

• We encrypt many of our services using SSL
• We may offer you two-step verification when you access your MDL Account
• We review our information collection, storage and processing practices, including physical security measures, to guard against unauthorized access to systems
• We restrict access to personal information to MDL employees, contractors and agents who need to know that information in order to process it for us and who are subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations. They may be disciplined or their contract terminated if they fail to meet these obligations

Application

Our Privacy Policy applies to all of the services offered by MDL and its affiliates.

By using the MDL website you agree to these terms and conditions.

Enforcement

We regularly review our compliance with our Privacy Policy. When we receive formal written complaints, we will contact the person who made the complaint to follow up. We work with the appropriate regulatory authorities, including local data protection authorities, to resolve any complaints regarding the transfer of personal data that we cannot resolve with our users directly.

MDL is a company based in Scotland and any subsequent disputes or claims arising from the use of this site must be made and settled under Scottish law.

Copyright

All website design, text, graphics, the selection and arrangement thereof, and all software compilations, underlying source code, software (including applets) and all other material on this site are copyright to MDL and are the intellectual property of MDL with the exception of the images associated with the features, content pages and news sections.

All images that are not the copyright of MDL have been sourced from the public domain. Whilst MDL have made every effort to ensure that such images are in the public domain, if you consider that any images are in fact your property, please contact us immediately and we will arrange for such images to be removed.

Unless we state otherwise, you may view, download and print content on our site for domestic and personal purposes to place a request or to use this site as a resource. Any other use of the materials on this site including reproduction for purposes other than those noted above, modification, distribution or republication, without the prior written consent of MDL is strictly prohibited.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify MDL and its related companies, affiliates, employees, agents and representatives, and to hold them harmless from any and all damages, losses, taxes, duties, fees, expenses, claims and liabilities (including legal fees) ("Claims") that may arise from the use of the MDL website.

Disclaimer

By using this site you accept that it is at your own risk. MDL accepts no liability arising from errors (including typographical errors) contained in, or any omissions from, this website.

Changes

Our Privacy Policy may change from time to time. We will not reduce your rights under this Privacy Policy without your explicit consent. We will post any Privacy Policy changes on this page and, if the changes are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice (including, for certain services, email notification of Privacy Policy changes). We will also keep prior versions of this Privacy Policy in an archive for your review.