Version: January 7, 2020 | You may contact us for previous versions of the Privacy Policy.
In a nutshell:
● Academic institutions, research
institutions, research funds institutions, and publishers worldwide trust
Proofiger with ensuring the integrity and quality of their scientific articles.
It’s our privilege and duty to protect our customers’ data and yours.
● Proofiger develops and operates the
Proofig Platform that analyzes images in scientific research articles using our
proprietary technology. While we aim to minimize the personal information we process on behalf of our customers,
personally identifiable information might be processed by Proofiger. Proofiger
processes such information according to its customers’ directions and does not
use any such personal data for its own purposes.
● If you’re a user of the Platform on
behalf of one of our customers, or if your personal data appear in any Article
on the Platform, please approach the relevant Proofiger customer (e.g.
university, institution, or publisher) regarding any question or request
involving your data.
● Like most businesses, we also collect
and process personal information of our website visitors, business contacts,
customers, and their users.
● We respect your rights regarding your
personal information.
● Have a question and can't find an
answer? Contact us, we're here to help: privacy@proofig.com
Now in more detail:
We are Proofiger
Ltd. - simply referenced here as “Proofiger”. You can find our contact details below.
Proofiger’s Software as a Service solution - referred to as “Proofig” or the “Platform” -
is used by universities, research institutions, publishers, and less frequently
by individual customers - our “Customers”
- to review scientific articles and other manuscripts (generally referred to as
“Articles” in this policy) and
identify potential integrity and quality issues, such as image duplication and
alteration.
Our Customers decide the purposes for which they use Proofig, as well as the means for collecting data. Our Customers control the data processed on their behalf on Proofig, nominate the Platform’s “End-Users” on their account (e.g. authors, editors, and reviewers of Articles and reports), and they are responsible under our Terms of Use or other agreements for handling any data rights and data requests as Data Controllers.
To make
things clear with an example: if you’re an editor working for a publisher and
you review articles on Proofig on the publisher’s behalf, then you are a End-User, the publisher is our Customer and has full control over your
personal data, and we process your personal data on the publisher’s behalf and
according to its instructions. If you’re
an End-User and have any issue regarding your personal information, please
contact the publisher first!
In addition, we also operate our “Website” - Proofig.com - and collect personal data of Visitors. Some Visitors and other people who communicate with us, become our business Contacts or Customers. We collect and process various personal information regarding our Visitors, Contacts, and Customers, and we are the Data Controllers for such personal data.
If you are a Visitor, Contact or Customer of ours and
have any issue regarding your personal information that we control, please contact us
(details below).
If you’re a Contact or Customer of ours, there might be several ways in which we receive your personal data:
1) When you share it with us directly, through your communication with us on the Website’s contact forms, by email, phone, or facsimile, in conferences, meetings, or via any other communication channel
2) When other Customers, Contacts, business partners, or third parties, share your information with us, based on their interaction with you, their purposes, their legal bases, and their privacy policy. In such cases, we take responsibility for controlling only the personal data that we have received.
3) We might augment the personal data we have about you with the information you provided us directly, information others have provided us about you, and data we’ve collected about you from your use of our Website (see below).
If you’re an End-User, we have limited personal information about you, which we received in one of two ways:
1) Our
Customer provided us with your personal data.
2) You
provided us personal data directly through your use of
Proofig.
If you’re a Visitor to our Website, we might receive some personal data through your device, operating system, and browser, and various hosting, tracking, analytics and advertising technologies used on our Website, such as cookies (see below), Amazon Web Services, Website hosting providers like Wix, Analytics and Advertising technologies by Google, Facebook, LinkedIn, and others, Customer support services, and other technologies. Our Website does not currently respond to “Do Not Track” signals sent by your browser or device.
If you’re a Contact or Customer of ours, we may collect and process these types of personal data about you:
● Identification and Account information, such as full name, identification number, gender, profile photo, username and password
● Contact details, such as country/time zone, work and home addresses, phone numbers, and email address
● Work-related information, such as organization, division, department, role, educational information, and title information
● Social networking information you’ve shared with us
● Payment information, such as bank account number, or other billing information
● Any personal data contained in any photos, media, and other files sent to us
● Any other personal data you provide us on any communication channel, such as email correspondence, customer support, and product feedback.
On the Proofig Platform, various types of personal data might be processed. Our Customers decide what data to share about their End-Users. These are the types of personal data about End-Users that we may process on Customers’ behalf:
● Identification information, such as full name, identification number, gender, profile photo, username and password
● Contact details, such as phone numbers and email address
● Work-related information, such as organization, division, department, role, educational information, and title information
● Any other personal data our Customers share with Proofiger
We also collect and process these types of non-identifiable personal data about anyone using our Website and the Proofig Platform:
● Usage, logs, analytics, and other device- and technical data collected when you use our Website or Proofig, including device information and identification numbers, operating system information, IP address, browser and session information, browsing history and referrals, cookies information, web beacons, advertising identification numbers, language information, connectivity information, configuration information, metadata of files, and usage information (such as screen views, clicks, and usage time).
While some Articles submitted for the Platform’s review might include pictures of people (data subjects), Proofiger makes no attempt whatsoever to personally identify any people appearing in such images.
Proofiger is a technology platform for review of scientific content and is not intended for children. We do not knowingly collect or process information about children.
Please contact us (contact details below) if you have any concern with respect to Children’s personal data on the Proofig Platform.
A cookie is a small data file that your browser saves on your computer or mobile device. We use cookies to collect information and provide our services. We may use cookies to enable certain features, understand how you interact with us, monitor your usage of our Website, products and services, and personalize your experience and advertising displayed to you. You can set your browser to prevent the use of cookies. If you don’t accept cookies, our Website and the Proofig Platform might not function properly.
Proofig
Platform
The purposes for the processing of personal data on the Proofig Platform are determined by our Customers. A Customer may set End-Users to perform various activities, such as submit an Article for analysis, review the analysis report, accept or reject suspected issues in an Article, define End-Users as an administrator, etc. Each Customer might use Proofiger for different purposes. Such purposes might include improving the quality of academic research, maintaining the reputation of academic publications, and more.
If you’re an End-User, we collect and use your personal data to provide our services to our Customers, according to their instructions and settings, so they can achieve their respective purposes.
Our purpose in processing data on the Platform is to provide our services to the Customers according to our Terms of Use and/or agreements with them and applicable law. We also use of the data collected on the Platform to ensure our products and services are working as intended; to analyze, measure and understand how our services are used; to improve our products and services; to develop new features, products, and services; to protect our company, staff, and Customers; and to comply with any applicable law and assist law enforcement agencies under any applicable law.
We may use anonymous, statistical or
aggregated information collected on the Platform, in a form that does not
enable the identification of a specific End-User or individual, by posting,
disseminating, transmitting or otherwise communicating or making available such
information to customers, vendors, partners and any other third party. For
example, we may disclose the industry average of image duplications found in
academic articles.
We also process usage and analytics information, as well as some statistical and aggregate data derived from personal data, for the improvement and further development of Proofiger technology or for research purposes.
Website,
Customers, Contacts and Visitors
If you’re a Customer, Contact, or Visitor on our Website, we may process your personal data for our own business purposes, including:
1) Delivering our products and services, improving them, and developing new features, products, and services
2) Providing information about our company, products, and services
3) Providing customer support, billing, and invoicing
4) Contacting you via any communication channel, including email, phone, SMS, and other messaging platforms
5) Analyzing and optimizing Website and the Proofig Platform traffic and usage
6) Protecting our company, staff, Customers, and systems
7) Online advertising in all forms and channels, including targeting you and others who share similar characteristics as you (lookalikes) online on search engines, websites, apps, messaging platforms, social networking platforms, and offline
8) Direct Marketing in all forms and channels,
including email, SMS, messaging, postal service, and more; you can always
opt-out from Direct Marketing by unsubscribing yourself through links on any
communication or by contacting us and notifying us accordingly.
Proofig
Platform
As Data Controllers, our Customers usually process personal data on Proofiger (and we process such data as a data processor on behalf of our Customers and according to their instructions) based on any or some of the following legal bases:
1) Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is a party (for example, a contract between a publication house and a reviewer for the review of articles on the Platform) or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract;
2) Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest, such as maintaining the integrity and quality of academic research;
3) Processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by our Customer or by a third party, for example: conducting their business as academic institutions or publishers, and providing their products and services; etc.
4) The data subject (End-User) has given consent (for example, in work agreements or contractor agreements) to the processing of his or her personal data for specific purposes communicated by the Customer in such agreements or in its respective Privacy Policy.
As Data Processors, we process personal data on the Platform based on the following legal bases:
1) Processing is necessary for the performance of our contracts with our Customers or our partners;
2) Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject as data processors, for example data protection and privacy regulation;
3) Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest, such as maintaining the integrity and quality of academic research;
4) Processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us, such as the conduct of our business and the purposes for which we process personal data as detailed in this Privacy Policy;
5) The data subject (End-User) has given us consent (for example, when logging in to the Platform) to the processing of his or her personal data for the specific purposes communicated in this policy.
Website,
Customers, Contacts, and Visitors
As Data Controllers for our Customers, Contacts and Visitors’ personal data, we process personal data based on any or some of the following legal bases:
Proofig
Platform
For the delivery of our services, we share all End-User and Platform data on the Platform with the Customer who is the Data Controller with respect to such data. Our Customers may select to share the information with others, as stated in their respective Privacy Policies.
Customers,
Contacts, and Visitors
We process your details on our servers and computers, cloud hosting services (such as Google and Amazon), support systems and services, billing systems, SMS gateways, Email and SMS communication services, and backup systems. We may share some of your details with our staff, subsidiaries, affiliates, contractors, consultants, resellers, and other third-party business partners for research and analysis, cooperation opportunities, joint promotions, sales, and events.
Everybody
We may share data with our staff, subsidiaries, affiliates, and contractors for the provision of our services and our operations.
We use additional processors around the world for various processing activities needed for the performance of our Website, Proofiger technology, our products and services, our operations, and our business, and share information with such processors on a need basis. Such processors include hosting and backup providers (such as Amazon and Google), analytics providers (such as Google), website technology (such as AWS and Wix), advertising technology (such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn), telecommunication services, security technology (such as Cloudflare), and more. We limit the information we share with each processor based on the business need in using such processor, to protect your information while still effectively benefiting from the services of such processor.
We may also share non-personally identifiable information and aggregate information for any purpose. Such data is not personal data, and its sharing cannot be used to identify you.
We may need to share your information with law enforcement agencies, courts of law, and other governmental organizations, if ordered to do so by competent bodies and according to applicable law.
Mergers and Acquisitions
If we are involved with a merger, asset sale, financing, liquidation, bankruptcy, or the acquisition of all or part of our business to another company, we may share your information with that company and its advisors before and after the transaction date.
We take information security very seriously. To begin with, we limit personal data collection to the minimum required to provide the optimal value to both Customers and End-Users. We do not currently parse or analyze texts in Articles. We do not attempt to identify any individual whose image might appear in an Article.
We implement the state of the art security standards to prevent unauthorized or excessive access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information. We encrypt all major data communication transmissions to avoid interception and securely backup the information on the Platform to avoid data loss. We also implement appropriate organizational measures to protect your information.
We apply our security standards also when
working with business and technology partners. We only select and contract with
processors and third parties who use appropriate security measures and provide sufficient guarantees, including technical and
organizational measures, to ensure the appropriate protection of the data we
entrust with them. Unfortunately, although we make every effort to keep your
data safe, we cannot fully ensure or warrant the security of your personal information.
Most of our information is stored over the cloud on Amazon Web Services in the U.S. and Europe. Amazon takes extreme measures with respect to privacy and data security. Read more about Amazon’s measures here. Our R&D and customer support are located in Israel.
At the same time, our business is international - we serve Customers that make use of Proofiger technology around the world and we utilize additional processors and service providers in various countries. Therefore, we transfer, store or otherwise process your personal information in other countries. We take appropriate safeguards in the selection of our processing vendors around the world to require that your personal information is well protected. Despite our efforts, it may be the case that a country where your personal information is processed has different, or less protective, data protection and privacy regulation than the country you live in.
We keep personal information we collect for different periods, depending on the type of information, for example: the period of our contract with our Customers (including a post-termination period as agreed with our Customers), legal requirements regarding certain types of data, and other factors. Generally speaking, we will retain your personal information for a period reasonably needed to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. We will also retain your personal information for as long as necessary to resolve disputes, enforce our rights and agreements, and protect our staff and Customers.
If we no longer need your information for the purposes mentioned in this Privacy Policy, we will delete or anonymize it. On certain occasions we might not be able to fully delete or anonymize your personal information due to technical or operational reasons, for example deleting from backup storage and archives. In such cases, we shall take reasonable measures to secure any information still maintained by us according to our standard data security practices.
Please be aware, that our Customers may also retain on their own systems and computers copies of personal data collected through the Proofig Platform, even after we completed the provision of our services, ended our contractual relationships, and deleted or anonymized any data related to Customers’ accounts on the Platform. Such data retention by Customers is subject to their Privacy Policy, purposes, legal bases, agreements with data subjects, and any applicable law. We take no responsibility over Customers’ use of personal data outside of the Proofig Platform.
If you’re an End-User using the Proofig Platform, please
approach our relevant Customer (the university, institution, or publisher that asked you
to use our Platform) to exercise any
rights you may have, as they are the Data Controllers of your personal information.
Otherwise, please contact us (details below).
According to the data protection and privacy regulation where you live, you may have certain rights with respect to your personal information.
Your rights may include, under certain terms and conditions set in the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or other applicable law:
● Right of Access to your personal data processed by us;
● Right to Rectification of inaccurate or incomplete personal data;
● Right to Erasure of your personal data (“Right to be Forgotten”);
● Right to Restriction of Processing for a certain period or under certain conditions;
● Right to Data Portability of your personal data to another data controller in a structured format;
● Right to Object the processing of your personal data. Specifically, you have the right to object further processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes;
● Right Not To Be Subject to a Decision Based Solely on Automated Decision-Making. We do not make any decisions with legal effect based solely on automated decision-making;
● Right to File a Complaint with the applicable data protection authority in your country.
After deletion or anonymization of your personal data following its retention period, the rights to access, erasure, rectification, and data portability cannot be enforced.
Your personal information is processed based
on several legal bases, sometimes including your consent. You can withdraw your
consent at any time. Other legal bases, including statutory or contractual
requirements that apply to you or our Customer might remain intact even
following the withdrawal of your consent.
Occasionally, we change this Privacy Policy to accommodate product and service development, industry standards, or new regulation. If we have your contact details, we will let you know personally if such changes are material, and seek consent for the updated Privacy Policy where required and as needed.
Please read the latest Privacy Policy available here from time to time. Note that we may require your consent to our up-to-date Terms of Use and Privacy Policy whenever you use our Website or the Proofig Platform. If you do not agree to these terms and policy, please do not use our services.
If you’re an End-User using the Proofig Platform, please
contact the relevant Proofiger Customer (e.g. university, institution, or
publisher) first with any issue, as they are the Data Controllers of your
personal information.
You can contact us with any question or concern you have at:
Proofiger Ltd.
15 Carmel St., Rehovot, Israel
Email: privacy@proofig.com