Privacy Policy
Privacy Policy
Effective as of May 16, 2023
Please click here to view the previous version of our Privacy Policy.
This “Privacy Policy” describes the privacy practices of System Inc. and our subsidiaries and affiliates (collectively, “System”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) in connection with the www.system.com website and any other website or digital property that we own or control and which posts or links to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Website Service”), and the rights and choices available to individuals with respect to their information.
System may provide additional or supplemental privacy policies to individuals for specific products or services that we offer at the time we collect personal information. These supplemental privacy policies will govern how we may process the information in the context of the specific product or service. We provide important information for individuals located in the European Union, European Economic Area, and United Kingdom (collectively, “Europe” or “European”) below.
Table of Contents
Personal Information We Collect
Information you provide to us. Personal information you may provide to us through theWebsite Service or otherwise includes:
Business and personal contact information, such as your first and last name, email and mailing addresses, phone number, professional title and company or organization name.
Content you choose to add or upload to theWebsite Service, such as text, images, audio, and video, along with the metadata associated with the files you upload.
Profile information,, such as your username and password that you may set to establish an online account with us, your photograph, interests, and preferences.
Communications data based on our exchanges with you, including when you contact us through the Service, communicate with us via email, social media, or otherwise.
Transactional data, such as information relating to or needed to complete your orders on or through the Service, including order numbers and transaction history.
Payment data needed to complete transactions, including payment card information or bank account number.
Registration information, such as information that may be related to a service, an account or an event for which you register.
Feedback or correspondence, , such as information you provide when you contact us with questions, feedback, or otherwise correspond with us online.
Demographic Information, such as your city, state, country of residence, and postal code.
Usage information, such as information about how you use the Website Service and interact with us, including information associated with any content you upload to the websites or otherwise submit to us, and information you provide when you use any interactive features of the Website Service.
Marketing information, such as your preferences for receiving communications about our activities, events, and publications, and details about how you engage with our communications.
Other information that we may collect which is not specifically listed here, but which we will use in accordance with this Privacy Policy or as otherwise disclosed at the time of collection.
Third party sources
We may combine personal information we receive from you with personal information falling within one of the categories identified above that we obtain from other sources, such as:
Public sources, such as government agencies, public records, social media platforms, and other publicly available sources.
Data providers, such as information services and data licensors
Partners, such marketing partners and event co-sponsors.
Other System users. Users may do this through multiple modes such as through a third-party managed digital object identifier (DOI). System users may make your name, work or educational affiliation, open researcher and contributor ID (ORCID) available on the Website Service in the context of your work.
Service providers that provide services on our behalf or help us operate the Website Service or our business.
Third-party services, such as social media services, that you use to log into, or otherwise link to, your Website Service account. This data may include your username, profile picture and other information associated with your account on that third-party service that is made available to us based on your account settings on that service.
Cookies and Other Information Collected by Automated Means
We, our service providers, and our business partners may automatically log information about you, your computer or mobile device, and activity occurring on or through the Website Service, such as:
Device data, such as your computer or mobile device’s operating system type and version, manufacturer and model, browser type, screen resolution, RAM and disk size, CPU usage, device type (e.g., phone, tablet), IP address, unique identifiers (including identifiers used for advertising purposes), language settings, mobile device carrier, radio/network information (e.g., Wi-Fi, LTE, 3G), and general location information such as city, state or geographic area.
Online activity data, such as pages or screens you viewed, how long you spent on a page or screen, the website you visited before browsing to the Service, navigation paths between pages or screens, information about your activity on a page or screen, access times and duration of access, and whether you have opened our emails or clicked links within them.
Communication interaction data such as your interactions with our email, text or other communications (e.g., whether you open and/or forward emails) – we may do this through use of pixel tags (which are also known as clear GIFs), which may be embedded invisibly in our emails.
On our webpages, this information is collected using cookies, browser web storage (also known as locally stored objects, or “LSOs”), web beacons, and similar technologies, and our emails may also contain web beacons. See our Cookie Policy for more information.
How We Use Your Personal Information
We use your personal information for the following purposes and as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy or at the time of collection:
To operate our business. We use your personal information to:
provide, operate and improve the Website Service and our business;
provide information about our products and services;
establish and maintain your user profile on the Website Service;
facilitate your login to the Website Service via third-party identity and access management providers, such as Google;
enable security features of the Website Service, such as by sending you security codes via email or SMS, and remembering devices from which you have previously logged in;
communicate with you about the Website Service, including by sending you announcements, updates, security alerts, and support and administrative messages;
communicate with you about events or contests in which you participate;
understand your needs and interests, and personalize your experience with the Website Service and our communications;
provide support and maintenance for the Website Service; and
respond to your requests, questions and feedback.
For research and development. We analyze use of the Website Service to improve the Website Service and to develop new products and services, including by studying user demographics and use of the Website Service.
To send you marketing and promotional communications. We may send you System-related marketing communications. You will have the ability to opt-out of our marketing and promotional communications as described in the Opt out of marketing section below.
Compliance and protection. We may use your personal information to:
comply with applicable laws, lawful requests, and legal process, such as to respond to subpoenas, investigations or requests from government authorities;
protect our, your or others’ rights, privacy, safety or property (including by making and defending legal claims);
audit our internal processes for compliance with legal and contractual requirements or our internal policies;
enforce the terms and conditions that govern the Service; and
prevent, identify, investigate and deter fraudulent, harmful, unauthorized, unethical or illegal activity, including cyberattacks and identity theft.
Data sharing in the context of corporate events, we may share certain personal information in the context of actual or prospective corporate events – for more information, see How we share your personal information, below.
With your consent. In some cases we may specifically ask for your consent to collect, use or share your personal information, such as when required by law.
To create anonymous, aggregated or de-identified data. We may create anonymous, aggregated or de-identified data from your personal information and other individuals whose personal information we collect. We make personal information into anonymous, aggregated or de-identified data by removing information that makes the data personally identifiable to you. We may use this anonymous, aggregated or de-identified data and share it with third parties for our lawful business purposes, including to analyze and improve the Website Service and promote our business.. In some cases we may specifically ask for your consent to collect, use or share your personal information, such as when required by law.
To create anonymous, aggregated or de-identified data. We may create anonymous, aggregated or de-identified data from your personal information and other individuals whose personal information we collect. We make personal information into anonymous, aggregated or de-identified data by removing information that makes the data personally identifiable to you. We may use this anonymous, aggregated or de-identified data and share it with third parties for our lawful business purposes, including to analyze and improve the Website Service and promote our business.
Information provided by other users on the platform
System users might add metadata and/or information that identifies or is identifiable to you or one of your published works. Users may do this through multiple modes such as through a third-party managed digital object identifier (DOI). System users may make your name, work or educational affiliation, open researcher and contributor ID (ORCID) available on the Website Service in the context of your work.
Information we obtain from social media platforms
We may maintain pages for System on social media platforms, such as LinkedIn, Google, Instagram, and other third-party platforms. When you visit or interact with our pages on those platforms, the platform provider’s privacy policy will apply to your interactions and their collection, use and processing of your personal information. You or the platforms may provide us with information through the platform, and we will treat such information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
If you choose to login to theWebsite Service via a third-party platform or social media network, or otherwise connect your account on the third-party platform or network to your account through the Website Service, we may collect information from that platform or network. For example, this information may include your Google username, user ID, and profile picture. You may also have the opportunity to provide us with additional information via the third-party platform or network, such as a list of your connections and your email address. You can read more about your privacy choices in the “Third party platforms or social media networks” portion of the “Your Choices” section.
Information we obtain from other third parties
We may receive personal information about you from third-party sources. For example, a business partner may share your contact information with us if you have expressed interest in learning specifically about our products or services, or the types of products or services we offer. We may obtain your personal information from other third parties, such as marketing partners, publicly-available sources and data providers.
Cookies and Other Information Collected by Automated Means
We, our service providers, and our business partners may automatically log information about you, your computer or mobile device, and activity occurring on or through theWebsite Service. The information that may be collected automatically includes your computer or mobile device operating system type and version number, manufacturer and model, device identifier (such as the Google Advertising ID or Apple ID for Advertising), browser type, screen resolution, IP address, the website you visited before browsing to our website, general location information such as city, state or geographic area; and information about your use of and actions on theWebsite Service, such as pages or screens you viewed, how long you spent on a page or screen, navigation paths between pages or screens, information about your activity on a page or screen, access times, and length of access. Our service providers and business partners may collect this type of information over time and across third-party websites and mobile applications.
On our webpages, this information is collected using cookies, browser web storage (also known as locally stored objects, or “LSOs”), web beacons, and similar technologies, and our emails may also contain web beacons. See our Cookie Policy for more information.
How We Use Your Personal Information
We use your personal information for the following purposes and as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy or at the time of collection:
To operate our business. We use your personal information to:
provide, operate and improve the Website Service and our business;
provide information about our products and services;
establish and maintain your user profile on the Website Service;
facilitate your login to the Website Service via third-party identity and access management providers, such as Google;
enable security features of the Website Service, such as by sending you security codes via email or SMS, and remembering devices from which you have previously logged in;
communicate with you about the Website Service, including by sending you announcements, updates, security alerts, and support and administrative messages;
communicate with you about events or contests in which you participate;
understand your needs and interests, and personalize your experience with the Website Service and our communications;
provide support and maintenance for the Website Service; and
respond to your requests, questions and feedback.
For research and development. We analyze use of the Website Service to improve the Website Service and to develop new products and services, including by studying user demographics and use of theWebsite Service.
To send you marketing and promotional communications. We may send you System-related marketing communications. You will have the ability to opt-out of our marketing and promotional communications as described in the Opt out of marketing section below.
Compliance and protection. We may use your personal information to:
comply with applicable laws, lawful requests, and legal process, such as to respond to subpoenas, investigations or requests from government authorities;
protect our, your or others’ rights, privacy, safety or property (including by making and defending legal claims);
audit our internal processes for compliance with legal and contractual requirements or our internal policies;
enforce the terms and conditions that govern the Service; and
prevent, identify, investigate and deter fraudulent, harmful, unauthorized, unethical or illegal activity, including cyberattacks and identity theft.
Data sharing in the context of corporate events, we may share certain personal information in the context of actual or prospective corporate events – for more information, see How we share your personal information, below.
With your consent. In some cases we may specifically ask for your consent to collect, use or share your personal information, such as when required by law.
To create anonymous, aggregated or de-identified data. We may create anonymous, aggregated or de-identified data from your personal information and other individuals whose personal information we collect. We make personal information into anonymous, aggregated or de-identified data by removing information that makes the data personally identifiable to you. We may use this anonymous, aggregated or de-identified data and share it with third parties for our lawful business purposes, including to analyze and improve the Website Service and promote our business.
How We Share Your Personal Information
Affiliates. We may share your personal information within our corporate family for purposes consistent with this Privacy Policy.
Service providers. We may share your personal information with third party companies and individuals that provide services on our behalf or help us operate the Website Service (such as customer support, hosting, analytics, email delivery, marketing, and database management services). We take commercial reasonable steps to conduct diligence when selecting service providers and endeavor to impose contractual terms consistent with this Privacy Policy and requiring such service providers to implement reasonable security measures designed to protect any personal information they process on our behalf.
Payment processors. Any payment card information you use to make a purchase on the Service is collected and processed directly by our payment processors, such as Stripe. Stripe may use your payment data in accordance with its privacy policy, https://stripe.com/privacy.
Partners. Third parties with whom we partner, including parties with whom we co-sponsor events or promotions, with whom we jointly offer products or services, or whose products or services may be of interest to you.
Professional advisors. We may disclose your personal information to professional advisors, such as lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers, where necessary in the course of the professional services that they render to us.
For compliance, fraud prevention and safety. We may share your personal information for the compliance, fraud prevention and safety purposes described above.
Business transferees. We may disclose personal information in the context of actual or prospective business transactions (e.g., investments in System, financing of System, public stock offerings, or the sale, transfer or merger of all or part of our business, assets or shares), for example, we may need to share certain personal information with prospective counterparties and their advisers. We may also disclose your personal information to an acquirer, successor, or assignee of System as part of any merger, acquisition, sale of assets, or similar transaction, and/or in the event of an insolvency, bankruptcy, or receivership in which personal information is transferred to one or more third parties as one of our business assets.
Your Choices
In this section, we describe the rights and choices available to all users. Users who are located within Europe can find additional information about their rights below.
Access or Update Your Information. If you have registered for an account with us, you may review and update certain personal information in your account profile by logging into the account.
Opt out of marketing communications. You may opt out of marketing-related emails by following the opt-out or unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of the email, or by contacting us at privacy@system.com. You may continue to receive service-related and other non-marketing emails.
Cookies & Browser Web Storage. We may allow service providers and other third parties to use cookies and similar technologies to track your browsing activity over time and across the Website Service and third party websites. For more details, see our Cookie Policy.
Privacy settings. We may make available certain privacy settings on the Website Service such as options to control certain information that is displayed publicly or to other users.
Do Not Track. Some Internet browsers may be configured to send “Do Not Track” signals to the online services that you visit. We currently do not respond to “Do Not Track” signals. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” please visit http://www.allaboutdnt.com.
Choosing not to share your personal information. Where we are required by law to collect your personal information, or where we need your personal information in order to provide the Website Service to you, if you do not provide this information when requested (or you later ask to delete it), we may not be able to provide you with our services. We will tell you what information you must provide to receive the Website Service by designating it as required at the time of collection or through other appropriate means.
Third-party platforms or social media networks. If you choose to connect to the Website Service via a third-party platform or social media network, you may have the ability to limit the information that we may obtain from the third-party at the time you login to the Website Service using the third-party’s authentication service or otherwise connect your account. Subsequently, you may be able to control your settings through the third-party’s platform or service. If you withdraw our ability to access certain information from a third-party platform or social media network, that choice will not apply to information that we have already received from that third-party.
Other Sites, Mobile Applications and Services
The Website Service may contain links to other websites and other online services operated by third parties. These links are not an endorsement of, or representation that we are affiliated with, any third party. In addition, our content may be included on web pages or in mobile applications or online services that are not associated with us. We do not control third party websites or online services, and we are not responsible for their actions. Other websites and services follow different rules regarding the collection, use and sharing of your personal information. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of the other websites and mobile applications and online services you use.
Security Practices
The security of your personal information is important to us. We employ a number of organizational, technical and physical safeguards designed to protect the personal information we collect. However, security risk is inherent in all internet and information technologies and we cannot guarantee the security of your personal information.
International Data Transfers
We are headquartered in the United States and may have service providers in other countries, and your personal information may be transferred to the United States or other locations outside of your state, province, or country where privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your state, province, or country. European users should read the important information provided below about transfer of personal information outside of Europe.
Children
The Website Service is not intended for use by anyone under 18 years of age. If you are a parent or guardian of a child from whom you believe we have collected personal information in a manner prohibited by law, please contact us. If we learn that we have collected personal information through the Service from a child without the consent of the child’s parent or guardian as required by law, we will comply with applicable legal requirements to delete the information.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by updating the date of this Privacy Policy and posting it on the Website Service. We may, and if required by law will, also provide notification of changes in another way that we believe is reasonably likely to reach you, such as via e-mail (if you have an account where we have your contact information) or another manner through the Website Service. Any modifications to this Privacy Policy will be effective upon our posting the new terms and/or upon implementation of the new changes on the Website Service (or as otherwise indicated at the time of posting). In all cases, your continued use of the Website Service after the posting of any modified Privacy Policy indicates your acceptance of the terms of the modified Privacy Policy.
How to Contact Us
Please direct any questions or comments about this Policy or privacy practices to privacy@system.com. You may also write to us via postal mail at:
System Inc.
Attn: Legal – Privacy
123 Lafayette Street, 4th Floor New York NY 10013
Notice to European Users
The information provided in this “Notice to European Users” section applies only to individuals in Europe.
Personal information. References to “personal information” in this Privacy Policy are equivalent to “personal data” governed by European data protection laws.
Controller. System Inc. is the controller of your personal information covered by this Privacy Policy for purposes of European data protection legislation.
Legal bases for processing. We use your personal information only as permitted by law. Our legal bases for processing the personal information described in this Privacy Policy are described in the table below.
Where we need to perform a contract, we are about to enter into or have entered into with you (“Contractual Necessity”).
Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests (“Legitimate Interests”). More detail about the specific legitimate interests pursued in respect of each Purpose we use your personal information for is set out in the table below.
Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation (“Compliance with Law”).
Where we have your specific consent to carry out the processing for the Purpose in question (“Consent”).
We have set out below, in a table format, the legal bases we rely on in respect of the relevant Purposes for which we use your personal information – for more information on these Purposes and the data types involved, see ‘How we use your personal information’.
Use for new purposes. We may use your personal information for reasons not described in this Privacy Policy where permitted by law and the reason is compatible with the purpose for which we collected it. If we need to use your personal information for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and explain the applicable legal basis.
Sensitive personal information. We ask that you not provide us with any sensitive personal information (e.g., information related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or other beliefs, health, biometrics or genetic characteristics, criminal background or trade union membership) on or through the Website Service, or otherwise to us. If you provide us with any sensitive personal information to us when you use the Website Service, you must consent to our processing and use of such sensitive personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. If you do not consent to our processing and use of such sensitive personal information, you must not submit such sensitive personal information through our Website Service.
Retention
We retain personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements, to establish or defend legal claims, or for fraud prevention purposes. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements. When we no longer require the personal information we have collected about you, we will either delete or anonymize it or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible. If we anonymize your personal information (so that it can no longer be associated with you), we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
Your rights
European data protection laws give you certain rights regarding your personal information. If you are located within Europe, you may ask us to take the following actions in relation to your personal information that we hold:
Access. Provide you with information about our processing of your personal information and give you access to your personal information.
Correct. Update or correct inaccuracies in your personal information.
Delete. Delete your personal information.
Transfer. Transfer a machine-readable copy of your personal information to you or a third party of your choice.
Restrict. Restrict the processing of your personal information.
Object. Object to our reliance on our legitimate interests as the basis of our processing of your personal information that impacts your rights.
You may submit these requests by email to privacy@system.com or our postal address provided above. We may request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and process your request. Applicable law may require or permit us to decline your request. If we decline your request, we will tell you why, subject to legal restrictions. If you would like to submit a complaint about our use of your personal information or our response to your requests regarding your personal information, you may contact us or submit a complaint to the data protection regulator in your jurisdiction. You can find your data protection regulator here.
Cross-Border Data Transfer
If we transfer your personal information out of Europe to a country not deemed by competent regulators to provide an adequate level of personal information protection, the transfer will be performed:
pursuant to the recipient’s compliance with standard contractual clauses or Binding Corporate Rules;
pursuant to the consent of the individual to whom the personal information pertains; or
as otherwise permitted or required by applicable European requirements.
You may contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal information out of Europe.
Cookie Policy
This Cookie Policy explains how System Inc. (“System”, “we”, “us” or “our”) uses cookies and similar technologies in connection with the www.system.com website and any other website that we own or control and which posts or links to this Cookie Policy (collectively, the “ Sites”).
What are cookies?
Cookies are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies serve different purposes, like helping us understand how a site is being used, letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences and generally improving your browsing experience. Our Sites may use both session cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent cookies (which stay on your computer or mobile device until you delete them). We use two broad categories of cookies: (1) first party cookies, served directly by us to your computer or mobile device, which we use to recognize your computer or mobile device when it revisits our Sites; and (2) third party cookies, which are served by service providers or business partners on our Sites, and can be used by these parties to recognize your computer or mobile device when it visits other websites. Third party cookies can be used for a variety of purposes, including site analytics, advertising and social media features.
What types of cookies and similar tracking technologies does System use on the Sites?
On the Sites, we use cookies and other tracking technologies in the following categories described in the table below.
Other technologies
In addition to cookies, our Sites may use other technologies, such as pixel tags, to collect information automatically.
Browser Web Storage
We may use browser web storage (including via HTML5), also known as locally stored objects (“LSOs”), for similar purposes as cookies. Browser web storage enables the storage of a larger amount of data than cookies. Your web browser may provide functionality to clear your browser web storage.
Web Beacons
We may also use web beacons (which are also known as pixel tags and clear GIFs) on our Sites and in our HTML formatted emails to track the actions of users on our Sites and interactions with our emails. Unlike cookies, which are stored on the hard drive of your computer or mobile device by a website, pixel tags are embedded invisibly on webpages or within HTML formatted emails. Pixel tags are used to demonstrate that a webpage was accessed or that certain content was viewed, typically to measure the success of our marketing campaigns or engagement with our emails and to compile statistics about usage of the Sites, so that we can manage our content more effectively.
Your choices
Most browsers let you remove or reject cookies. To do this, follow the instructions in your browser settings. Many browsers accept cookies by default until you change your settings. Please note that if you set your browser to disable cookies, the Sites may not work properly.
For more information about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set on your computer or mobile device and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org. If you do not accept our cookies, you may experience some inconvenience in your use of our Sites. For example, we may not be able to recognize your computer or mobile device and you may need to log in every time you visit our Sites.
Users may opt out of receiving targeted advertising on websites through members of the Network Advertising Initiative by clicking here or the Digital Advertising Alliance by clicking here. European users may opt out of receiving targeted advertising on websites through members of the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance by clicking here, selecting the user’s country, and then clicking “Choices” (or similarly-titled link). Please note that we also may work with companies that offer their own opt-out mechanisms and may not participate in the opt-out mechanisms that we linked above.
If you choose to opt-out of targeted advertisements, you will still see advertisements online but they may not be relevant to you. Even if you do choose to opt out, not all companies that serve online behavioral advertising are included in this list, and so you may still receive some cookies and tailored advertisements from companies that are not listed.
For more information about how we collect, use and share your information, see our Privacy Policy.
Changes
Information about the cookies we use may be updated from time to time, so please check back on a regular basis for any changes.
Questions
If you have any questions about this Cookie Policy, please contact us by email at privacy@system.com.
Last modified May 4, 2023
Last updated