Privacy Policy

At the IEEE Foundation, we respect your privacy. We want to ensure that you receive the information, content, and experiences that matter most to you. The IEEE Foundation is committed to protecting the privacy of its donors, program beneficiaries, volunteers, grantees, and other contacts.

Scope
This privacy policy applies to all personal data processed by full-time and part-time employees, and volunteers when acting on behalf of the IEEE Foundation, contractors and partners doing business on behalf of the IEEE Foundation, as well as all business processes conducted by the IEEE Foundation.

What Information Do We Collect?
The IEEE Foundation collects the following personal data in line with the use purposes explained in a subsequent section:

  • Your name and contact details
  • Date of birth
  • Online profile data/usage
  • Social media profile information
  • Copies of identification documents
  • Education and professional information
  • Communication information
  • Donation and payment information
  • Registration and participation in IEEE Foundation events and activities
  • Subscription preferences
  • Information about service usage
  • Cookies
    Authentication data
  • Location information
  • Other information you upload or provide to us

How Do We Use Your Information?
The IEEE Foundation uses (and, where specified, shares) your personal information for the following purposes:

  • To process transactions. The IEEE Foundation uses personal information such as name, physical address, telephone number, email address, and company/institution to engage in interactions with you, including contacting you about your donation, subscription, or event participation. Upon your authorization, we use financial/credit card and payment information to process your donation and may need to share some of this information with delivery services, credit card clearing houses, and other third parties to complete the transaction.
  • To provide support or other services. The IEEE Foundation may use your personal information to provide you with support or other services that you requested. The IEEE Foundation may also use your personal information to respond directly to your requests for information, including registrations for newsletters, webinars, or other specific requests, or share your contact information to the appropriate IEEE Foundation partner for further follow-up related to your interests.
  • To provide information based on your needs and respond to your requests. The IEEE Foundation may use your personal information, including information we have from third parties, to provide you with notices of new program releases and service developments.
  • To provide online forums and social networks. Some services available on the website permit you to participate in interactive discussions, post comments, opportunities, or other content to a bulletin board or exchange, or otherwise engage in networking activities. Some of these services are moderated; all may be accessed for technical reasons (for example, for improvements or fixes). The IEEE Foundation does not control the content that users post to these forums or social networks. You should carefully consider whether you wish to submit personal information to these forums or social networks and tailor any content you submit appropriately and in accordance with the relevant terms of use. You should also review any additional terms and conditions that may govern your use of these services, including terms related to sharing your personal information and receiving communications.
  • To select content, improve quality, and facilitate use of the websites. The IEEE Foundation may use your personal information, including the information gathered as a result of site navigation and electronic protocols and cookies (including third-party cookies), to help create and personalize website content, improve website quality, track marketing campaign responsiveness, evaluate page response rates, conduct usability testing, and facilitate your use of the websites (for example, to facilitate navigation and the login process, avoid duplicate data entry, enhance security, keep track of shopping cart additions, and preserve order information between sessions).
  • To serve personalized advertising to you. We don't share your information with advertisers without your consent. We allow advertisers to choose the characteristics of users who will see their advertisements, and we may use any of the non-personally-identifiable attributes we have collected to select the appropriate audience for those advertisements. When you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement, there is a possibility that the advertiser may place a cookie in your browser and that your attributes meet the criteria the advertiser selected.
  • To communicate with you about a meeting, conference, or event. We may communicate with you about a meeting, conference, or event hosted or co-sponsored by the IEEE Foundation or one of our business associates. This may include information about the event's content, event logistics, payment, updates, and additional information related to the event. Information you provide when registering for or participating in a conference managed or co-sponsored by parties, other than or in addition to the IEEE Foundation may be shared with those parties, and the treatment of such information is further subject to the privacy policies of those parties. The IEEE Foundation and its conference co-sponsors may contact you after the event about the event, subsequent iterations of the event and related events. Please note that the IEEE Foundation conference, meeting or event organizers, co-sponsors, exhibitors, and other third parties may directly request your personal information at their conference booths or presentations. Providing your information to them is optional, and you should review their privacy policies to address your particular needs and concerns about how they will treat your personal information.
  • To include you in the IEEE Foundation Donor Directories. If you are an active donor to the IEEE Foundation, we may include your information in the rosters associated with the IEEE Foundation donor recognition groups.
  • To assist in your participation in IEEE Foundation supported activities. The IEEE Foundation will communicate with you, if you are participating in activities. IEEE Foundation may send you information such as newsletters and communication related to those activities.
  • To engage with third parties. The IEEE Foundation may share your personal data with third parties in connection with services that these individuals or entities perform for or with the IEEE Foundation. These third parties are restricted from using this data in any way other than to provide services for the IEEE Foundation or for the collaboration in which they and the IEEE Foundation are contractually engaged (for example, hosting an IEEE Foundation database or engaging in data processing on the IEEE Foundation’s behalf, or mailing you information that you requested). These third parties are carefully selected by the IEEE Foundation and obligated to keep your data secure. We may also share your information with third parties whom we think might provide content, products, or services of interest to you.
  • To protect the IEEE Foundation content and services. We may use your information to prevent potentially illegal activities and to enforce our terms and conditions. We also use a variety of technological systems to detect and address anomalous activity and to screen content to prevent abuse, such as spam. These efforts may, on occasion, result in a temporary or permanent suspension or termination of some functions for some users.
  • To get feedback or input from you. In order to deliver products and services of most interest to our donors, from time to time, we may ask donors, program beneficiaries, volunteers, grantees, and website visitors to provide us input and feedback (for example through surveys, usability studies, focus groups).
  • To protect the IEEE Foundation information assets as well as your own personal data. The IEEE Information Security Program is leveraged to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of IEEE Foundation information assets by following a risk management approach based on policies, standards, guidelines, and procedures to meet security objectives while supporting business and operational goals.

How Can You Control Your Information?
You can control the information we have about you and how we use it in several ways.

  • If you are a registered user, you can review, revise, and correct the personal data that you have provided to the IEEE Foundation by logging into our online community.
  • Use the unsubscribe method provided in our various communications

Personal Data about Minors and Children
The IEEE Foundation does not knowingly collect data from or about children under 16 without the permission of parent(s)/guardian(s). If we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under 16, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under age 16, please contact us.

How Will You Know if the Privacy Policy Is Changed?
The IEEE Foundation may update its Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make any material changes we will notify you by email, or by means of a notice on this website prior to the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.

Technical and Regulatory Information

Logging Practices
The IEEE Foundation automatically records the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of visitors. The IP address is a unique number assigned to every computer on the internet. Generally, an IP address changes each time you connect to the internet (it is a "dynamic" address). Note, however, that if you have a broadband connection, depending on your individual circumstance, the IP address that we collect may contain information that could be deemed identifiable. This is because, with some broadband connections, your IP address doesn't change (it is "static") and could be associated with your personal computer.

As well as recording the IP addresses of users, the IEEE Foundation may also keep track of sites that users visited immediately prior to visiting the IEEE Foundation’s website and the search terms they used to find it. We keep track of the pages visited on the IEEE Foundation's website, the amount of time spent on those pages and the types of searches done on them. Your searches remain confidential and anonymous. The IEEE Foundation uses this information only for statistical purposes to find out which pages users find most useful and to improve the website.

The IEEE Foundation also captures and stores information that you transmit. This may include:

  • Browser/Device type/version
  • Operating system used
  • Media Access Control (MAC) address
  • Date and time of the server request
  • Volume of data transferred

External Links Behavior
The IEEE Foundation's website links to other sites created and maintained by other public and/or private-sector organizations. The IEEE Foundation provides these links solely for your information and convenience. When you transfer to an outside website, you are leaving the IEEE Foundation domain, and the IEEE Foundation's information management policies no longer apply. The IEEE Foundation encourages you to read the privacy statement of each external website that you visit before you provide any personal data.

Cookies and Web Beacons
Cookies and web beacons are electronic placeholders that are placed on your device by websites to track your individual movements on that website over time. The IEEE Foundation uses both session-based cookies (which last only for the duration of the user's session) and persistent cookies (which remain on your device and provides information about the session you are in and waits for the next time you use that site again).

These cookies and web beacons provide useful information to the IEEE Foundation, enabling us to recognize repeat users, facilitate the user's access to and use of our sites, and allows us to track usage behavior, and to balance the usage of our website.

Tracking cookies, third-party cookies, and other technologies such as web beacons may be used to process additional information, enable non-core functionalities on the IEEE Foundation website and enable third-party functions (such as a social media "share" link). We may also include web beacons and other similar technology in promotional email messages to determine whether the messages have been opened.

Do Not Track (DNT)
The online advertising industry has self-regulatory initiatives designed to provide consumers a choice in the types of ads they may see online and to conveniently opt-out from online behavioral ads served by some or all of the companies participating in these programs. Our websites do not respond to DNT consumer browser settings.

Collaboration with Authorities
The IEEE Foundation has appointed and mandated a privacy officer who represents the regulatory authorities inside the IEEE Foundation, and in return represents the IEEE Foundation organization to regulatory authorities.

The IEEE Foundation privacy officer will ensure proper communication with the relevant regulatory authority for privacy. The privacy officer will lead investigative action, complaint handling and data breach notification. The privacy officer will also monitor regulatory changes and consult the regulatory authority where implementation of a regulatory or technological change leads to doubt.

Transfer of Information to Other Countries
As a global organization, the IEEE Foundation engages in a number of international activities. In connection with the management of those activities, the IEEE Foundation may transfer information to other countries. By submitting your information to the IEEE Foundation via the websites, or in connection with your interactions with the IEEE Foundation offline, you consent to such transfers and to the processing of this information in other countries.

Responses to Legal Requests
The IEEE Foundation reserves the right to share your information to respond to duly authorized information requests of governmental authorities or where required by law.

In the event of bankruptcy, merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets, your information may be sold or transferred as part of that transaction. The promises in this privacy policy will apply to your information as transferred to the new entity.

Your European Union Privacy Rights
Under the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation EU 2016/679) (also known as GDPR), if you are an individual protected by the GDPR you may have certain rights as a data subject. To request information about or avail yourself of those rights, please send an email to privacy@ieee.org with "GDPR Request" in the subject line. In the email please describe, with specificity, the GDPR right you are requesting assistance with. Please note additional information may be requested prior to initiation of a request and that the IEEE Foundation reserves the right to charge a fee with respect to certain requests. Upon the IEEE Foundation’s completion of its review you will be notified if your request has been granted, denied, or exemptions apply.

Your California Privacy Rights
Under California Civil Code Section 1798.83 (also known as S.B. 27), if you are a California resident and your business relationship with the IEEE Foundation is primarily for personal, family, or household purposes, you may request certain data regarding IEEE Foundation’s disclosure, if any, of personal information to third parties for the third-parties’ direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an email to privacy@ieee.org with "Request for California Privacy Information" in the subject line. You may make such a request up to once per calendar year. If applicable, we will provide you, by email, a list of the categories of personal information disclosed to third parties for their direct marketing purposes during the immediately preceding calendar year, along with the third parties' names and addresses. Please note that not all personal information sharing is covered by S.B. 27's requirements.

How Do I Contact You If There Is an Issue?
If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or about the use of your personal information, please feel free to contact us by email at privacy@ieee.org.

17 May 2018
Ver 2.0

Contact Information
privacy@ieee.org
IEEE Foundation
445 Hoes Lane
Piscataway, NJ 08854 USA