Last updated: May 26, 2024

This privacy policy sets out how ZME Science uses and protects any information that you give ZME Science when you use this website.

ZME Science is committed to ensuring that your privacy is protected. Should we ask you to provide certain information by which you can be identified when using this website, then you can be assured that it will only be used in accordance with this privacy statement.

This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) describes and governs the information collection, use, and sharing practices of ZME Science and its divisions as may change from time to time (collectively, “ZME Science,” “we,” “us,” and “our”) with respect to ZME Science, mobile applications, newsletter, and other digital and interactive services that link to this Privacy Policy (together, the “Services”).

Before you submit any data to our Services, please carefully review this Policy along with our terms of use and any other relevant documents to understand our practices regarding your information.

Also, please note that this policy applies to ZME Science and not any third party sites to which ZME Science may link, except if otherwise mentioned.

The policy also applies regardless of the device used to access our Services, be it a personal computer, mobile device, consumer electronics device, or any other technology or software known today or developed in the future. Some services affiliated with ZME Science may subscribe to a different privacy policy.

For the purpose of data protection applicable in different parts of the world, ZME Science will be a ‘data controller’ (or such equivalent or replacement terminology as appropriate) for the information you provide through the Services. There may be other controllers as well (e.g., advertisers), and we encourage you to consult their privacy policies to learn more about their privacy practices.

For all matters related to the Privacy Policy and other relevant inquiries, please refer to the Contact Page, linked here. All matters will be replied to as soon as possible, within a maximum limit of 30 days.

Data that we collect directly

We may collect the following information:

We may collect information from you during your use of our Services, when you:

• Fill in forms;
• Read articles;
• Search for an article;
• Make a purchase or place an order;
• Complete a survey or provide us with feedback;
• Subscribe to a service or request certain features (e.g., newsletters, updates, and other products);
• Use certain features that require your information to function (e.g., vendor price quotes or using our mobile apps to scan and search for products, find coupons, and promotions);
• Communicate with us by phone, e-mail or otherwise;
• Post user-generated content, including comments, to or on any of our Services using all existing platform;

The information ZME Science or third party collaborators might collect might include but is not limited to:

• name;
• contact information including email address;
• demographic information such as postcode, preferences, and interests;
• other information relevant to customer surveys and/or offers.

Data that is collected passively

1. Device / Service usage information

We may automatically collect certain information about the computer or devices (including mobile devices or tablets, as well as other technology which may not have been invented yet) you use to access the Services.

We may collect and analyze information such as (a) IP addresses, geolocation information, unique device identifiers, IMEI and TCP/IP address, and other information about your computer or device(s), browser types, browser language, operating system, mobile device carrier information, the state or country from which you accessed the Services; and (b) information related to the ways in which you interact with the Services, such as: referring and exit web pages and URLs, platform type, the number of clicks, domain names, landing pages, pages and content (such as advertisements) viewed and the order of those pages, statistical information about the use of the Services (such as barcodes scanned through certain of our mobile apps), the amount of time spent on particular pages, the date and time you used the Services, the frequency of your use of the Services, error logs, and other similar information. As described further below, we may use third-party analytics providers and technologies, including cookies and similar tools, to assist in collecting this information.

We may also collect information from your browser or device. This includes but is not limited to your operating system, plug-ins, system fonts, resolution and other data, for purposes of creating a unique profile or “fingerprint” of your browser or device. We may use this profile or fingerprint to understand and analyze how you interact with the Services, to customize content or advertising to you through the Services, to monitor against fraud or misuse of the Services, or in other ways consistent with this Privacy Policy. This also contributes to the improvement of the overall user experiences.

2. Location

We and our service providers may collect both direct and indirect Location data (e.g., IP address, zip code). The Services use this location information to provide customized location-based services, content, promotional offers and other information that may be of interest to you.

We may also use location information to improve the functionality of the Services.

3. Cookies and other electronic tags

ZME Science and our service providers may also collect data about your use of the Services through the use of Internet server logs, cookies and/or tracking pixels. A web server log is a file where website activity is stored to distinguish you from other users of our website. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your computer when you visit a website, that enables us to: (i) recognize your computer; (ii) store your preferences and settings; (iii) understand the web pages of the Services you have visited; (iv), enhance your user experience by delivering content specific to your interests; (v) perform searches and analytics; and (vi) assist with security administrative functions.

Some cookies are placed in your browser cache while those associated with Flash technologies are stored with your Adobe Flash Player files. Tracking pixels (sometimes referred to as web beacons or clear GIFs) are tiny electronic tags with a unique identifier embedded in websites, online ads and/or email, and that are designed to provide usage information like ad impressions or clicks, measure popularity of the Services and associated advertising, and to access user cookies. As we adopt additional technologies, we may also gather additional information through other methods.

We and our service providers use the following cookies:

• Strictly necessary cookies. These are cookies that are required for the operation of our website. They include, for example, cookies that enable you to log into secure areas of our website, use a shopping cart or make use of e-billing services.
• Analytical/performance cookies. They allow us to recognise and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our website when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our website works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
• Functionality cookies. These are used to recognise you when you return to our website. This enables us to personalise our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region).
• Targeting cookies. These cookies record your visit to our website, the pages you have visited and the links you have followed. We will use this information to make our website and the advertising displayed on it more relevant to your interests. We may also share this information with third parties for this purpose.

Your usage of the website without changing your browser cookies settings will indicate your consent understanding of our use of cookies in accordance with this section of this Policy. You can change your cookie settings at any time. Please note that you can change your settings to notify you when a cookie is being set or updated, or to block cookies altogether.

Social Media data

If you access the services through a third-party Social Media or other log-in you may allow us to have access to and store certain information on your social network profile. This may include any information stored on the social media platform, including but not limited to your first name, last name, gender, general location, a link to your profile, your time zone, birthday, profile picture.

We may also collect your information if you sign up for one of our promotions or submit information to us through social media sites.

What we do with the information we gather

We use this information to understand your needs and provide you with better Service, and in particular for the following reasons:

• For the purpose you provided it;
• To carry out our obligations arising from any contracts entered into between you and us;
• To send account information or alerts;
• To notify you about new features, offerings, changes in the Services, show you news;
• To administer giveaways;
• To analyze and improve our Services;
• To process your inquiries and respond to them;
• To analyze and improve the content offered in the services;
• To measure and understand the effectiveness of our advertising;
• To keep our website safe and secure;
• To use IP addresses to identify the location of users, to block disruptive use, to establish the number of visits from different countries and to determine the jurisdiction in which you are accessing the Services;
• For internal record keeping;
• We may use the information to improve our products and services;
• We may periodically send promotional emails about new products, special offers or other information which we think you may find interesting using the email address which you have provided;
• From time to time, we may also use your information to contact you for market research purposes. We may contact you by email, phone, fax or mail. We may use the information to customize the website according to your interests.

We use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Website. These companies may use information (not including your name, address email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, visit www.networkadvertising.org.

Please note that we may combine information that we collect from you and about you (including automatically-collected information) with information we obtain about you from our affiliates and/or non-affiliated third parties, and use such combined information in accordance with this Policy.

We may aggregate and/or de-identify information collected through the Services. We may use de-identified and/or aggregated data for any purpose, including without limitation for research and marketing purposes, and may also share such data with any third parties, including advertisers, promotional partners, sponsors, event promoters, and/or others.

If you ever provide to us any information that classifies as ‘sensitive personal information’ (for example racial or ethnical origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, trade union membership, physical or mental health, sexual life, criminal proceedings and offences), we will only use this information to provide the Service you require in accordance with this Policy and we will ask for your explicit consent to such processing.

You do not have a statutory or contractual obligation to provide us with your information; however, if you do not provide us with your information, we may not be able to provide you with the Services you have requested or you may be limited in your use of our Services (e.g., if you do not provide us with your email address, we will not be able to send you newsletters). The data is stored for up to 12 months.

When you use our site or services, we share information that we collect from you, such as your email (in hashed form), IP address or information about your browser or operating system, with our identity partners/service providers, including LiveRamp Inc. LiveRamp returns an online identification code that we may store in our first-party cookie for our use in online, in-app, and cross-channel advertising and it may be shared with advertising companies to enable interest-based and targeted advertising. To opt-out of this use, please click here.

Mediavine Programmatic Advertising (Ver 1.1)

The Website works with Mediavine to manage third-party interest-based advertising appearing on the Website. Mediavine serves content and advertisements when you visit the Website, which may use first and third-party cookies. A cookie is a small text file which is sent to your computer or mobile device (referred to in this policy as a “device”) by the web server so that a website can remember some information about your browsing activity on the Website.

First party cookies are created by the website that you are visiting. A third-party cookie is frequently used in behavioral advertising and analytics and is created by a domain other than the website you are visiting. Third-party cookies, tags, pixels, beacons and other similar technologies (collectively, “Tags”) may be placed on the Website to monitor interaction with advertising content and to target and optimize advertising. Each internet browser has functionality so that you can block both first and third-party cookies and clear your browser’s cache. The “help” feature of the menu bar on most browsers will tell you how to stop accepting new cookies, how to receive notification of new cookies, how to disable existing cookies and how to clear your browser’s cache. For more information about cookies and how to disable them, you can consult the information at All About Cookies.

Without cookies you may not be able to take full advantage of the Website content and features. Please note that rejecting cookies does not mean that you will no longer see ads when you visit our Site. In the event you opt-out, you will still see non-personalized advertisements on the Website.

The Website collects the following data using a cookie when serving personalized ads:

• IP Address
• Operating System type
• Operating System version
• Device Type
• Language of the website
• Web browser type
• Email (in hashed form)

Mediavine Partners (companies listed below with whom Mediavine shares data) may also use this data to link to other end user information the partner has independently collected to deliver targeted advertisements. Mediavine Partners may also separately collect data about end users from other sources, such as advertising IDs or pixels, and link that data to data collected from Mediavine publishers in order to provide interest-based advertising across your online experience, including devices, browsers and apps. This data includes usage data, cookie information, device information, information about interactions between users and advertisements and websites, geolocation data, traffic data, and information about a visitor’s referral source to a particular website. Mediavine Partners may also create unique IDs to create audience segments, which are used to provide targeted advertising.

If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices to opt-in or opt-out of this data collection, please visit National Advertising Initiative opt out page. You may also visit Digital Advertising Alliance website and Network Advertising Initiative website to learn more information about interest-based advertising. You may download the AppChoices app at Digital Advertising Alliance’s AppChoices app to opt out in connection with mobile apps, or use the platform controls on your mobile device to opt out.

For specific information about Mediavine Partners, the data each collects and their data collection and privacy policies, please visit Mediavine Partners.

Disclosing data

We may disclose data between members of our Services and/or any affiliated or non-affiliated parties based on:

• Consent. We may disclose your information to any third parties based on your consent to do so.
• Service Providers. We may provide access to or share your information with select third parties who perform services on our behalf and for any other legitimate business purpose. These third parties provide a variety of services to us, including without limitation billing, sales, marketing, advertising, market research, customer support, fulfillment, data storage, analysis and processing, and legal services.
• Business Partners. We may provide your information to individuals and companies with whom we have business relationships to provide you with special coupons, discounts, or promotions, or to offer products and services to you for purchase. We encourage these partners to adopt and post privacy policies. However, the use of your Information by such parties is governed by the privacy policies of such parties and is not subject to our control.
• Protection of ZME Science and Others. By using the Services, you acknowledge, consent and agree that we may access, preserve and disclose your information, including, but not limited to, any user content, if required to do so by law or in a good faith belief that such access, preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal process; (b) enforce our Terms of Service, this Policy, or other contracts with you, including investigation of potential violations thereof; (c) respond to claims that any content violates the rights of third parties; (d) respond to your requests for customer service; and/or (e) protect the rights, property or personal safety of ZME Science, its agents and affiliates, its users and/or the public. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection, and spam/malware prevention, and similar purposes.
• Public Forums. Our Services offer publicly accessible blogs and community forums. You should be aware that any information you provide in these areas may be read, collected, and used by others who access them. Please also remember that if you choose to provide information on public features of the Services, individuals reading such information may use or disclose it to other individuals or entities without our control and without your knowledge, and search engines may index that information. We therefore urge you to think carefully about what you choose to disclose publicly and make sure it’s information you want to share with the public.

Security

We are committed to ensuring that your information is secure. In order to prevent unauthorized access or disclosure we have put in place suitable physical, electronic and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect online.

We have implemented administrative, technical, and physical security measures to protect against the loss, misuse and/or alteration of your information. These safeguards vary based on the sensitivity of the information that we collect and store. All information you provide to us is stored on secure servers.

However, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure, and although we will do our best to protect your information, we cannot and do not guarantee that the measures we take will prevent every unauthorized attempt to access, use, or disclose your information since despite our efforts, as no Internet and/or other electronic transmissions can be completely secure and any transmission is at your own risk.

If you have an account on ZME Science, you are responsible for maintaining the integrity of your username and password. We recommend changing passwords periodically. . You may not provide these account credentials to any third party. If you believe that your account username and/or password have been stolen or been made known to others, you must contact us immediately as described below and change your password immediately. We are not responsible if someone else accesses your account through information that they have obtained from you. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we disclaim all liability and responsibility for any damages you may suffer due to any loss, unauthorised access, misuse or alterations of any information you submit to the Service.

How we use cookies

This reiterates and emphasizes the points made above. A cookie is a small file which asks permission to be placed on your computer’s hard drive. Once you agree, the file is added and the cookie helps analyze web traffic or lets you know when you visit a particular site. Cookies allow web applications to respond to you as an individual. The web application can tailor its operations to your needs, likes and dislikes by gathering and remembering information about your preferences.

We use traffic log cookies to identify which pages are being used. This helps us analyze data about webpage traffic and improve our website in order to tailor it to customer needs. We only use this information for statistical analysis purposes and then the data is removed from the system.

Overall, cookies help us provide you with a better website, by enabling us to monitor which pages you find useful and which you do not. A cookie in no way gives us access to your computer or any information about you, other than the data you choose to share with us.

You can choose to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. This may prevent you from taking full advantage of the website.

Notwithstanding any other provision, we partner with third parties that collect information across various channels, including offline and online, for purposes of delivering more relevant advertising to you or your business. Our partners may place or recognize a cookie on your computer, device, or directly in our emails/communications, and we may share personal information with them if you have submitted such information to us, such as your name, postal address, email address, or device ID. Our partners may link the hashed or obfuscated personal information we share with them to the cookie stored on your browser or device, and they may collect information such as your IP address, browser or operating system type and version, and demographic or inferred-interest information. Our partners use this information to recognize you across different channels and platforms, including but not limited to, computers, mobile devices, and Smart TVs, over time for advertising, analytics, attribution, and reporting purposes. For example, our partners may deliver an ad to you in your web browser based on a purchase you made in a physical retail store, or they may send a personalized marketing email to you based on the fact that you visited a particular website. Your data may be transferred outside of the country from which it was originally collected. To learn more about interest-based advertising in general and to opt out, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices. To opt-out of the use of your mobile device ID for targeted advertising, please see http://www.aboutads.info/appchoices.

Personalized content and ad serving

1. Analytics

We may use third-party web analytics services on our Services, such as those of Google Analytics provided byGoogle, Inc. (“Google”). These service providers use the sort of technology previously described in the “Cookies and other electronic technologies” section to help us analyze how users use the Services, including by noting the third-party website from which you arrive, and provide certain features to you. For example, the Google Trusted Store badge displayed on some of the Services is served to you through the use of cookies. The information (including your IP address) collected by the technology will be disclosed to or collected directly by these service providers, who use the information to evaluate your use of the Services. We also use Google Analytics for certain purposes related to advertising, as described in the following section.

Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.

To prevent Google Analytics from using your information for analytics, you may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. Visit Google’s Privacy Policy for more information.

If you receive emails from us, we may use certain tools, such as clear GIFs to capture data such as when you open our message or click on any links or banners our email contains. This data allows us to gauge the effectiveness of our communications and marketing campaigns.

2. Tailored mobile and desktop advertising

The advertisements you see while using our Services may be personalized through the use of third-party advertising technologies that allow for the delivery of relevant content and advertising on the Services, as well as other websites you visit and other applications you use. The ads may be based on various factors such as the content of the page you are visiting, the information you provide such as your age and gender, your searches, demographic data, user-generated content, and other information we collect from you. These ads may be based on your current activity or your activity over time and across other websites and online services and may be tailored to your interests.

Also, third parties whose products or services are accessible or advertised via the Services may place cookies or other tracking technologies on your computer, mobile phone, or other device to collect information about your use of the Services in order to (i) inform, optimize, and serve ads based on past visits to our websites and other sites and (ii) report how our ad impressions, other uses of ad services, and interactions with these ad impressions and ad services are related to visits to our websites and use of our Services. We also allow other third parties (e.g., ad networks and ad servers such as Google DoubleClick and others) to serve tailored ads to you on the Services, other sites, and in other applications, and to access their own cookies or other tracking technologies on your computer, mobile phone, or other device you use to access the Services. We also may share with third-party advertisers a hashed version of your email address, solely in non-human readable form and content that you share publicly when using the services (e.g., user-generated content) for purposes of delivering tailored advertising. We neither have access to, nor does this Policy govern, the use of cookies or other tracking technologies that may be placed on your computer, mobile phone, or other devices you use to access the Services by non-affiliated, third-party ad technology, ad servers, ad networks or any other non-affiliated third parties.

Google and its partners — through Double Click and Ad Exchange technologies — use cookies to serve ads based on your visit to our website and/or other sites on the Internet. You may opt out of the use of this cookie by changing your privacy settings (top of this page) or by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy.

You may receive tailored advertising on your computer through a web browser. If you are interested in more information about tailored browser advertising and how you can generally control cookies from being put on your computer to deliver tailored advertising, you may visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s Consumer Opt-Out link, the Digital Advertising Alliance’s Consumer Opt-Out link , the opt-out page of the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance, or TrustArc’s Preference Manager to opt-out of receiving tailored advertising from companies that participate in those programs.

Your rights and choices

We strongly encourage you to review this Policy if using our Services. For additional information or questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.

If you would like to opt out of any of the Services, you are free to do so at any point, without providing motivation. For unsubscribing from email newsletters, you can do this by going to the unsubscribe link provided at the bottom of the email, thus opting out of receiving future emails. You may also contact us if you require assistance.

Individuals in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and many other jurisdictions have certain legal rights to obtain confirmation of whether we hold personal data about them, to access personal data we hold about them, and to obtain its correction, update, amendment, or deletion in appropriate circumstances. You may also have rights to object to our handling of your personal data, restrict our processing of your personal data, and to withdraw any consent you have provided. To exercise these rights, please contact us as. Our security procedures mean that we may request proof of identity before we reveal information. This proof of identity will typically take the form of your e-mail address and any password submitted upon registration. While we strongly encourage you to first raise any questions or concerns about your personal data with us, you also have a right to contact the relevant supervisory authority.

Please note that the rights discussed here are subject to significant limitations and exceptions under applicable law (e.g., objections to the processing of personal data, and withdrawals of consent, typically will not have retroactive effect).

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. However, once you have used these links to leave our site, you should note that we do not have any control over that other website. Therefore, we cannot be responsible for the protection and privacy of any information which you provide whilst visiting such sites and such sites are not governed by this privacy statement. You should exercise caution and look at the privacy statement applicable to the website in question.

Some of these links may be affiliate marketing links encoded by third parties. This means that we may earn a commission when you click on or make purchases via affiliate links, and affiliate partners may use cookies to understand your use of the Services. The Services may also include widgets and social media features such as the Facebook “Like” button, which are interactive mini-programs that provide specific services from another company (e.g., displaying the news, opinions, music, etc.). Information such as your email address may be collected through these features. These features may collect your IP address and set cookies to enable them to function properly. We are not responsible for nor do we endorse the privacy practices or the content of such third-party services. Any information you provide via those services is subject to their applicable privacy policies and is not covered by this Policy.

Data Retention

We will keep your information only for as long as is reasonably necessary for the purpose that it has been processed, taking into account any legal requirements under Applicable Law. For the avoidance of doubt, we will retain your information to continue offering the Services to you. If you terminate your account, any association between your account and information we store will no longer be accessible through your account. However, if you have engaged in any public sharing prior to termination, that information will remain on our services and accessible to the public. We will also retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. Information may persist in copies made for backup and business continuity purposes for additional time.

Data from Children

The Services are not directed to children under the age of 13. If we discover we have received any “personal information” (as defined under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) from a child under the age of 13 in violation of this Policy, we will take reasonable steps to delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe we have any information from or about anyone under the age of 13, please contact us.

Changes to this policy

We retain the right to change this Policy at any time to reflect changes in national or international law, as well as to reflect any shifts in our Organization and Services. Please check this page periodically for changes. Your continued use of the Services following the posting of changes to this Policy will mean you accept those changes.

Questions

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.