Astound Research Privacy Notice
Effective Date: January 1, 2023
This Privacy Notice (the “Privacy Notice” or “Notice”) of Astound Research (“Astound, ”“our,” or “we”) describes our privacy practices regarding personal information we collect via our website and other online services which post this Privacy Notice (collectively, our “Services”). Our Services include the provision of a research funding marketplace that enables research and similar collaborations between organizations and companies seeking research expertise (the “Industry Participants”) from university academics with experience across a broad spectrum of disciplines (the “Academics”). Our SaaS services (the “Platform”) include web pages and functionality that permit universities to list Academics who may be interested and available to support particular Industry Participants. We collect information that website visitors and Academics choose to give us, that universities provide to us, and other information that may be automatically collected from your use of our Services, including from your device. This Privacy Notice does not govern the use and/or storage of the Academics’ personal information by their respective university. If you are anAcademic, you should contact your university to understand their privacy practices and to exercise any applicable data rights regarding their use of your information.
This Privacy Notice does not apply to information that cannot be identified to any individual, household, or their devices. We are not responsible for third parties’ privacy practices. You should refer to these third parties to better understand their privacy practices. If you are a resident of the United Kingdom or European Economic Area, please see our additional UK/EEA addendum, below.
Information We Collect
How We Use Information We Collect
How We Secure InformationHow
We Share Information
What Choices Do I Have?
Updates to Our Privacy Notice Contact
Information
Information We Collect
To provide our Services, we collect personal information from a variety of sources, including:
Directly from you when you provide it to us.
From or on behalf of Industry Participants, or universities, or colleges or other academic institutions (which we may generally refer to as our university clients).
Automatically as you utilize the Services.
Information directly from you.
The information we collect on our Platform or other Services may include: Information that you provide by filling in forms on our website, submitting correspondence, registrations you complete and submit, or any other activity through which you identify yourself to us. If you are a website visitor, you may be required to provide your name and email address. We may collect a username and password (if you choose to become a registered user of the Platform).
Information from or on behalf of our clients.
Our clients may provide a User’s personal information to us to facilitate use of the Services. The information they provide may include information such as name, educational profile, institutional affiliation, research papers, area of specialization, resume or CV, and other information.
Information we collect through automatic data collection technologies.
We may collect data regarding your use of our Platform or other Services through cookies, web beacons, and other automatically collected information. This data may include your IP address, date and time you access our Platform or other Services and the pages and content you access during your visit, websites that you link to or from, emails from us that you open, and the links you click on within those emails. We may also collect information from your mobile device or your computer about how you interact with our Platform or other Services, including IP address, operating system, and browser type. This information helps us address customer support issues, provide you with a personalized experience, prevent fraudulent use of our services, and manage the Services we provide you, including gathering aggregated data about engagement. Cookies are small identifiers sent from a web server that are stored on your device for the purpose of identifying your browser or storing information or settings in your browser. Cookies may also be used to personalize your visit by storing your preferences or displaying content based upon what you have viewed through our Platform or other Services. Web beacons or pixel tags connect web pages to web servers and their cookies. We and others may use these and similar technologies on our services and other websites, including to provide advertising or other targeted content or to understand our Platform or other Service’s audience.
Other parties may collect personally identifiable information about your online activities over time and across third-party websites when you use our Platform or other Services. We do not respond to “do not track” signals or other mechanisms that provide consumers the ability to exercise choice regarding the collection of personally identifiable information about an individual consumer’s online activities over time and across third-party websites or online services.
How We Use Information We Collect
We may use data we collect for a variety of purposes, including the following (which includes activity on behalf of our business clients):
To provide our Platform to Industry and Academic Participants.
To create profiles of Users to list on our Platform.
To facilitate matching between Industry Participants and Academics in support of research and similar activities, and to provide reports and analysis of the same.
To maintain, analyze, customize, measure, and improve our Services, which includes generating internal reports about the use of our Services.
To send transactional communications, including requests for information, responses to requests for information, and other Service updates.
To provide customer support.
To communicate with you and our customers, including about products updates and offerings that we think they may be interested in.
For account management, finance, dispute resolution, and reporting purposes.
To monitor and enforce our legal terms or similar terms.
For internal business reasons, including internal audits or investigations, company research, insurance purposes.
To comply with law and satisfy our regulatory compliance obligations.
To detect and prevent fraud and other prohibited, illicit or illegal activity, and to protect you, others, and ourselves.
For other purposes permitted by law or to which you consent.
Please note that we may combine the information we gather about you in identifiable form, including information from third parties. We may use this information, for example, to improveand personalize our Platform and other Services, content, [and advertising].
How We Secure Information
We are committed to maintaining measures to protect the security of your information. Of course, despite these measures, no network or system is ever entirely secure. Any transmission of personal information is at your own risk. We cannot guarantee the security of networks and systems that we operate or that are operated on our behalf.
How We Share Information
We may share your information with third parties as permitted or required by law or as directed
or authorized by you. For example, we may share information about you:
With our clients if your information is collected through our Platform on their behalf.
With vendors, service providers, and other third parties, including our website host.
With our professional advisors who provide legal, compliance, accounting, banking, or consulting services.
To comply with our legal obligations or to protect the interests, property, or legal rights of you, ourselves, or third parties.
With law enforcement, officials, or other third parties when we are compelled to do so by a subpoena, court order, or similar law enforcement request, or when we believe in good faith that the disclosure of personal information is necessary to prevent physical harm or financial loss, to report suspected illegal activity, or to investigate violations of this
Privacy Notice or applicable terms.
With companies or other entities in connection with, or during the negotiation of, any merger, sale of company stock or assets, financing, acquisition, divestiture, or dissolution of all or a portion of our business.
For other legal purposes, such as to enforce our legal terms, or to exercise or defend legal claims.
With your direction or consent.
What Choices Do I Have?
Updating your personal information. You may review and change certain personal information by logging into the Platform and visiting your account profile page. You may need to contactyour affiliated university directly to change other account information under their control.
Other data rights. You may have other rights with respect to your data (such as access, correction, or deletion). To exercise these rights, you should contact the university or organization that you are affiliated with directly.
Marketing communications.
We may send you marketing communication to promote our own products or services. You may opt out of receiving marketing emails, by following the unsubscribe link in each email, or by contacting us at [info@astoundresearch.com]. Please note that you may continue to receive non-marketing emails from us after you opt-out.
Cookies. You have a number of choices regarding certain cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you may modify your browser’s setting to notify you of cookie
placement or decline cookies. If you choose to decline cookies, certain features of our website may not function properly as a result.
Third-Party Advertising. We do not control third parties' collection or use of your information to serve interest-based advertising. However these third parties may provide you with ways to choose not to have your information collected or used in this way.
Updates to Our Privacy Notice
We may update this Privacy Notice from time to time in order to provide clarification or notice of changes to our practices. If we make changes, we will revise the Effective Date at the top of this
Privacy Notice. Changes to this Privacy Notice will be effective once they are posted unless otherwise indicated.
Contact Us
If you have any questions or concern about this privacy notice or the privacy practices at Astound Research, please contact us at info@astoundresearch.com.
United Kingdom and European Economic Area Privacy Notice
If you are a resident of the United Kingdom or European Economic Area (EEA), the following additional provisions apply to our processing of your personal information. For these residents,
the provisions of this EEA Addendum prevail over any conflicting provision in our Astound Research Privacy Notice.
Information We Obtain
We may collect, use, store and transfer certain personal information in order to provide our Platform and other Services, such as your name, email address, mailing address, and phone number. For a complete list of the personal data we collect and how we collect this personal data, please see the Information We Collect section in our Privacy Notice. Where such information is required, we may be unable to provide you with our services unless you provide us with this information.
As you interact with our Services, we will automatically collect technical personal data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies and other similar technologies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of our Services may become inaccessible or not function properly.
We do not engage in automated decision-making, including profiling.
How We Use the Information We Obtain
The legal bases for which we collect, use, transfer or disclose your personal information include (i) where we have your consent, (ii) where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you, (iii) our legitimate interests; and (iv) where we need to comply with a legal obligation.
Please note that if you choose to withdraw your consent, you may not be able to participate in or benefit from our programs, services and initiatives for which you provided consent. We may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. The purposes for which we process your personal information are included in the How We Use the Information We Gather section in the Privacy Notice. We also may use the information we obtain about you in other ways for which we provide specific notice at the time of collection. Under some laws we may be allowed to process information until you object to such processing by opting out, without having to rely on consent or any other of the legal bases above. We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose.
Disclosures of Your Information
To learn more about the other categories of third parties to who your personal information is disclosed, see the How We Share Information section in the Privacy Notice.
Data Retention
All personal information is retained according to our internal policies. Your personal information will not be stored for longer than necessary for the purposes for which they were collected, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or reporting requirements. We may retain your personal data for a longer period in the event of a complaint or if we reasonably believe there is a prospect of litigation in respect to our relationship with you. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal,
regulatory, tax, accounting or other requirements.
We will take into account the length of time your personal data is required to:
Continue to develop, tailor, upgrade, and improve our Services;
Maintain business records for analysis and/or audit purposes;
Comply with record retention requirements under the law;
Defend or bring any existing or potential legal claims; or
Address any complaints regarding the Services.
We may use any aggregated data derived from or incorporating your personal information after you update or delete it, but not in a manner that would identify you personally. Once the retention period expires, personal information shall be deleted. Therefore, the right to access, the right to erasure, the right to rectification, and the right to data portability cannot be enforced after the expiration of the retention period.
Your Rights
If you are a resident of the EEA, you have certain data rights and we aim to take reasonable steps to allow you to correct, amend, delete, or limit the use of your personal information. If you wish to be informed what personal information we hold about you and if you want it to be removed from our systems, please contact us. In certain circumstances, you have the following data rights:
You have the right to withdraw consent where you have previously given your consent to the processing of your personal information. To the extent that the legal basis for our processing of your personal information is consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal.
You have the right to learn if your personal information is being processed by us, obtain disclosure regarding certain aspects of the processing, and obtain a copy of your personal information undergoing processing.
You have the right to verify the accuracy of your information and ask for it to be updated or corrected. You also have the right to request us to complete the personal information you believe is incomplete.
You have the right to object to the processing of your information if the processing is carried out on the legal basis of our legitimate interest, necessary to perform tasks in the public interest, or in the exercise of an official authority vested in us. Where personal information is processed for the public interest, in the exercise of an official authority vested in us, or for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us, you may object to such processing by providing a ground related to your particular situation to justify the objection.
You have the right, under certain circumstances, to restrict the processing of your personal information. These circumstances include: the accuracy of your personal information is contested by you and we must verify its accuracy; the processing is unlawful, but you oppose the erasure of your personal information and request the restriction of its use instead; we no longer need your personal information for the purposes of processing, but you require it to establish, exercise or defend your legal claims; you have objected to processing pending the verification of whether our legitimate grounds override your legitimate grounds. Where processing has been restricted, such personal information will be marked accordingly and, with the exception of storage, will be processed only with your consent or for the establishment, to exercise or defense of legal claims, for the protection of the rights of another natural, or legal person or for reasons of important public interest.
You have the right, under certain circumstances, to obtain the erasure of your personal information from us. These circumstances include: the personal information is no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which it was collected or otherwise processed; you withdraw consent to consent-based processing; you object to the processing under certain rules of applicable data protection law; the processing is for direct marketing purposes; and the personal data have been unlawfully processed. However, there are exclusions of the right to erasure such as where processing is necessary: for exercising the right of freedom of expression and information; for compliance with a legal obligation; or for the establishment, to exercise or defense of legal claims.
You have the right to receive your personal information that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and, if technically feasible, to have it transmitted to another controller without any hindrance from us, provided that such transmission does not adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others.
You have the right to complain to a data protection authority about our collection and use of your personal information. If you are not satisfied with the outcome of your complaint directly with us, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. To find your relevant data protection authority and their contact details, please see the list at:https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority in the EEA. This provision is applicable provided that your personal information is processed by automated means and that the processing is based on your consent, on a contract which you are part of, or on pre-contractual obligations thereof.
You may exercise these rights free of charge unless the request is unfounded, excessive, or otherwise unreasonable, for instance because it is repetitive. In some situations, we may refuseto act or may impose limitations on your rights, as permitted by law. Before Astound Research is able to provide you with any information or correct any inaccuracies, we may ask you to verify your identity and/or provide other details to help us respond to your request. For the exercise of your rights, please contact us using the contact information provided in the Contact Us section of the Privacy Notice. In all cases, you have a right to file a complaint with the relevant Data Protection Authority (DPA). We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach your DPA, so please contact us in the first instance.
International Data Transfers
We may transfer and store your personal information to countries outside of the EEA. Where these transfers are to countries that have not been found by or the European Commission to provide adequate protection, such as the United States, Astound Research takes necessary contractual measures to ensure that your personal information receives an adequate level of protection (including, for example, standard contractual clauses). For further information about Astound Research’s international data transfer practices, and to consult the said contractual measures, please contact us using the contact details in the Contact Us section of the Privacy Notice.
Identity of Controller
Astound Research, whose mailing address is 1461 Blenheim Place, Birmingham, Alabama 35213, is the data controller for our Services. You can contact us at info@astoundresearch.com.