Privacy Policy

The academics GmbH ("academics"), has created this privacy policy in order to demonstrate its firm commitment to privacy. The following discloses academics' information gathering and dissemination practices for the information collected through this web site. We encourage you to read this Policy before using this Site. Your use of this web site signifies that you agree with all terms of this Policy, so please do not use this Site if you disagree with any part of this Policy.

PRIVACY STATEMENT

I. academics' collection and use of information

A. Personally identifiable information

We will collect personally identifiable information about you, such as your name and email address, when you provide it to us while on this Site such as when you create an account, sign up for newsletters, participate in a survey, contact customer service or otherwise interact with this website. Your personally identifiable information may be used by us for all legal purposes, which may include, but are not limited to, responding to your requests, processing your transactions, for administrative purposes such as conducting contests, tracking which parts of the Site are of interest to you, processing prizes. We may use your personally identifiable information for internal business purposes, such as optimizing Site experiences and analyzing and managing our businesses.

B. Passive collection of non-personal information

This Site often requires the use of encrypted or non-encrypted cookies. Cookies are data that a web server transfers to an individual's computer for recordkeeping purposes. Cookies are an industry standard used by most web sites, and help facilitate users' ongoing access to and use of a particular web site, for example by providing information used to deliver content specific to your interests and for other purposes, such as security and other account administrative functions, and which may track personal identifying information.
Cookies do not cause damage to your computer systems or files, and only the web site that transferred a particular cookie to you can read, modify or delete such cookie. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there are simple procedures in most browsers that allow you to delete existing cookies, to automatically decline cookies, or to be given the choice of declining or accepting the transfer of particular cookies to your computer. Please refer to your browser instructions or help screen to learn more about these functions. You should note, however, that declining cookies may make it difficult or impossible for you to use portions of the Site.
Some uses of cookies in connection with the site may be under the control of unaffiliated entities that academics retains for the management of certain programs and fulfillment of specific visitor/customer requests. academics requires these entities to confine their use of cookies to the uses permitted by this Policy, but academics cannot be responsible for third party uses of cookies.
The site may use so-called "pixel tags" to compile aggregate statistics about Site usage and response rates. Pixel Tags allow us to count users who have visited certain pages of the Site, to deliver branded services, and to help determine the effectiveness of promotional or advertising campaigns. When used in HTML-formatted email messages, Pixel Tags can tell the sender whether and when the email has been opened.

academics also collects "referrers" information, IP addresses and various environmental variables.

• A "referrer" is information the Web browser passes along to our web servers that references the URL from which you came.
  
• The "IP address" is a number used by computers on the network to identify your computer so that data can be transmitted to you.
  
• "Environmental variables" include, among other things, the domain from which you access the Internet, the time you accessed this site, type of Web browsers and operating system or platform used, the Internet address of the web site you left to visit this Site, the names of the pages you visit while at this site, and the Internet address of the web site you then visit.
  

This information is collected for academics internal use such as to enhance web site security, to detect broad demographic trends, to assist academics in providing content tailored to your interests, and to otherwise enhance your experience on this Site. This information may also be shared with third parties on an aggregate and non-personally identifiable basis.

II. Disclosure of information to third parties

Any personal data relating to you will be used by us or by a company we have commissioned to do our data processing. We will only share your information with a third party if this is in accordance with current data protection legislation and only then if it serves a legitimate interest that is not outweighed by your need for protection. Furthermore, we will not share your information with third parties unless you have given us express permission to do so. We appreciate the trust you have placed in us, and will take the greatest care to protect your personal data.

III. Links and third parties' privacy practices

This Site may contain links to other sites which are not operated by academics. ACADEMICS IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PRIVACY PRACTICES OR THE CONTENT OF SUCH OTHER WEB SITES, INCLUDING WEB SITES OPERATED BY AFFILIATED ENTITIES. We provide such links only as a convenience, and the inclusion of a link on the site does not imply endorsement of the linked site by academics. If you provide any personally identifiable information through any such third party web site, your transaction will occur on such third party's web site (and not on this site) and the personally identifiable information you provide will be collected by, and controlled by the privacy policy of, that third party. academics recommends that you review the privacy policy of third party web sites arrived at from links on this site.