Introduction

HBS Research is committed to respecting your rights with respect to privacy. This document details all the measures put in place to ensure that the personal data you communicate to us when you visit our web sites is protected. It presents the different types of information that we are likely to ask you for, what we do with it and any restrictions that you may legally issue. It also describes the methods applied for guaranteeing the security of your personal data and how you can review and correct it. By visiting our web sites, you authorise us to collect and use personal data in accordance with the terms and conditions described in this privacy statement.

Methods of collecting information

Information transmitted directly by you

As a general rule, you are free to visit the HBS Research web sites without having to enter any personal data. On some pages, however, personal details need to be supplied so that we can provide the service or transaction you have requested. These are the different types of information that you might be asked to supply:

You are in no way obliged to provide this information, but we may not always be able to satisfy service or transaction requests without certain information.

Information collected automatically.

We collect information each time you visit our sites. We take note in particular of the pages you consult, the number of bytes transferred, the links you click on, the documents you access and various other actions carried out from the HBS-Research sites. On the sites you access with a user ID, we sometimes link this information to your identity in order to determine the products and services that are most likely to interest you. We also collect certain standard pieces of data transmitted by your browser to each web site you visit. This may involve in particular your IP (Internet Protocol) address, the type of browser you are using, its features and its language, your operating system, the date and time of the visit, or even the web site through which you connected to our site. We do not connect this information to your identity.

What we do with the information

Services and transactions.

We use your personal data solely for the purpose of carrying out the services or transactions that you have requested: sending information about HBS-Research products, recording products bought, replacing product reference manuals, responding to customer service requests, making it simpler to access our web sites, etc. In order to meet your needs better in your interactions with HBS-Research, the information collected by our web sites may be combined with information collected by other means.

Improving the web sites.

Your personal data contributes to improving our web sites and the related HBS-Research products and services. It also helps make it easier to consult our web sites (because you do not have to enter the same information every time, or by personalising their content according to your preferences or centres of interest).

Communications.

With your agreement, we reserve the right to use your personal data collected through our web sites for the purpose of announcing the availability of HBS-Research products or services. When information likely to be used to keep you informed of our products and services is collected, we always give you the choice of refusing this offer. You will not then receive any communication of this type. Furthermore, each e-mail we send you contains a link to an unsubscribe service, allowing you to automatically stop receiving this type of communication. If you choose to unsubscribe, you will be removed from the corresponding mailing list within the following 10 working days.

Using cookies and web tags

Cookies are the small files that web sites write to your hard disk or download into your browser's memory. We can use this information to evaluate the number of times you have visited our site, calculate the number of visitors to the site, determine and analyse our sites' impact and measure the effectiveness of in-line advertisements, record personal data such as your preferences and store practical technical data with a view to your next interactions with our web sites. We sometimes use session cookies (which are deleted at the end of the browser session) to record your user ID (elements of your user profile) in order to facilitate your operations on our web sites (especially concerning information searches and the placing of orders) and for keeping other information used in administering the session. You are free to accept or refuse the cookies. Most Internet browsers automatically accept cookies, but generally you just need to change some of the parameters in order to refuse cookies or to be notified when cookies are stored on your computer. If you disable the storing of cookies, you risk not being able to benefit from all of the features of the HBS-Research web sites or the other web sites you visit. Our sites can also contain electronic images called web tags (or pixel GIFs), which allow us to count the number of users visiting these pages. We might include these web tags in newsletters or promotional e-mails in order to find out if you have opened these messages or performed any action whatsoever.

Divulging your personal data

Except for the cases mentioned above, the personal data you provide HBS-Research with through our web sites will not be passed on by HBS-Research or its subsidiaries and associated companies without your consent.

Divulging data to service providers.

HBS-Research concludes contracts with other companies in order for them to perform services in our name, relating, for example, to hosting web sites, publishing information, processing transactions or analysing our web sites. We provide these companies solely with the elements of personal data that they need in order to carry out these services. Under no circumstances do these companies or their employees have the right to use this personal data for any other purpose whatsoever.

Divulging data for other reasons.

We reserve the right to divulge personal data when this is required by law or if we deem, in good faith, that is is essential in order to comply with legal or regulatory obligations that are imposed on us, to defend and enforce our property rights or other rights, and in emergency situations with a view to ensuring the safety of individuals.

Security

HBS-Research is committed to ensuring that your personal data is protected by every means it has. We use various securisation procedures and technologies aimed at protecting your personal data and stopping unauthorised persons accessing, using or divulging this data. When you log in to one of our sites, access data that is yours or specific to your company, or undertake a commercial transaction, we apply standard protection technologies, such as the SSL (Secure Socket Layer) protocol, in order to encode the information transmitted via Internet. For any other site you access, it is your responsibility to make sure that your password is completely secured and to be careful not to reveal this information to other people. When you browse a site or pass from one site to another, if the connection mechanism is the same we will check your identity by means of an encoded cookie placed on your computer.

Checking your personal data

In certain cases, you have the possibility of examining and correcting the personal data provided through our web sites by going directly to the page where you entered this data. In any event, you have the right to ask to consult and correct your personal data collected from our web sites, or to forbid HBS-Research from using this data, by filling out our contact form. Before giving you access to your personal data, we take care as a basic principle to check your identity. So that the information we have is as accurate as possible, please notify us when your postal address, telephone number, or e-mail address changes.

Links to other sites

Our web sites may contain links sending you to other sites (such as those of HBS-Research's partners, professional organisations or government organisations) or posting sites. Even though we make every effort to establish links only to sites that share the same commitments and standards as us with respect to protecting your privacy, we can not be held responsible for the content of other sites, the level of security, or the privacy procedures applied.

Implementing this privacy statement

If you have any question relating to this statement or the processing of your personal data, please contact us by means of the contact form. We will do our utmost to respond to your request quickly and find an equitable solution to the problem.

Changes to this privacy statement

This privacy statement may be updated from time to time by HBS-Research. In that case, we will highlight the "last update" date above and below the privacy statement. We will systematically ask for your consent if the update to the privacy statement makes any changes whatsoever to the rights of use for your personal data, compared to the dispositions set forth in the current privacy statement, when information is collected.