Darcy Partners Privacy Policy

Effective Date: August 1, 2020

Darcy Partners is committed to protecting your information. Please read this Privacy Policy (“Policy“) carefully as it sets out important information on how Darcy Partners, LLC (”Darcy” or ”we” or “us”) collects and uses personal information and your choices and rights regarding our use of your personal information.

INTRODUCTION

This Policy describes our practices when using your personal information when you:

express an interest in or sign up for a Darcy conference, event, or another Darcy product or service, including newsletters, apps, webinars, or e-books, or activate a Darcy user account or license;
attend a Darcy conference or event;
provide information in response to a survey or diagnostic that we conduct; or
visit or use a public or member-based Darcy website, digital service, application, or social media site (e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook, or Twitter).

Information that you provide to us may be governed by a separate, more specific confidentiality agreement or notice. In the event of any conflict between such terms and this Policy, the terms of the more specific agreement or notice shall take precedence.

This Policy applies whether you provide information directly to us or we obtain it from a third party, such as your employer.

1. INFORMATION THAT WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

1.1 Data collection and use

1.1.1 Directly provided or gathered information

We collect information directly from you, from your employer, or from public resources such as LinkedIn, other internet sites, public records, or commercially available marketing lists and registries.

What information we collect:

Personal information such as name, company, job title, physical address, email address, phone number, profile photograph, biographical details, and professional interests;
Communications with you;
Photo, audio, or video recordings of your conference presentations, Q&A discussions, and other participation in Darcy events; and
Information you provide when posting content on social media sites.

How we use this information:

To facilitate our business through communication with our clients and business contacts, for example, to provide details about conferences or webinars;
To conduct internal analysis and research to help us improve our services;
To enable you to attend our Forums;
To conduct our Forums;
To analyze attendee interests and interactions with the Forum and its content;
To provide recordings of certain Forum sessions to interested business contacts through our website or social media sites;
To administer our website, investigate any complaints, and provide customer service;
To monitor social media content and manage relations with our clients; and
To market our products and services and promote our business and brand.

Why we use this information:

It is necessary to perform our obligations or exercise our contractual rights;
It is necessary to comply with applicable laws or regulations;
We have a legitimate business interest to:
- Manage and promote our business and brand;
- Provide and improve our services;
- Operate our business; and
- Collect relevant information for hospitality and health and safety purposes.

We have your consent (where required under applicable law) to use your information for marketing. Where we rely on your consent, you have the right to withdraw consent by contacting us.

1.1.2 Website and app usage

We collect information directly from users of our public and membership websites, our apps, and our social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

What information we collect:

Information you provide when you enter information on our website, such as when you provide contact details, answer online questionnaires, or feedback forms;
Information you provide when you subscribe to email newsletters such as name, email address, and job title;
Information you provide when registering for an account, such as name, company, job title, physical address, email address, phone number, profile photograph, biographical details, and professional interests;
Where you have an online or member account, log-in credentials and information about your use of and preferences for these services;
Details of browsing and interactions with our website and applications;
Information captured in our web logs such as device information (e.g. device brand and model, screen dimensions), unique identification numbers (e.g. IP address and device ID), browser information (e.g URL, browser type, pages visited, date/time of access), geo-location and other device-specific information, and Internet connection information; and
Information captured by cookies and website tracking technologies including Google Analytics.

How we use this information:

To enable us to recognize you and remember your sign-in details as you move around our website and apps;
To enable you to access your Darcy accounts across our website and apps;
To enable you to use our website and apps across multiple devices;
To personalize your experience of our website and apps;
To administer our website and apps;
To enable peer networking opportunities based on your background and experience;
To provide more customized client service;
To investigate complaints;
To monitor and improve our website, apps, and social media content; and
To manage relations with our clients and promote our business and brand.

Why we use this information:

It is necessary to perform our obligations or exercise our contractual rights;
It is necessary to comply with applicable laws or regulations;
We have a legitimate business interest to:
- Manage and promote our business and brand through our website, apps, and social media tools;
- Provide and improve our services including our website and our apps;
- Monitor, investigate and report any attempts to breach the security of our website; and
- Operate our business.

1.1.3 Surveys and diagnostics

We collect information from you if you participate in a Darcy survey or diagnostics.

What information we collect:

Personal information such as name and title, contact details, and company name; and
Responses to survey or diagnostic questions.

How we use this information:

To validate and analyze survey and diagnostics;
To conduct general research, including creating or updating aggregate benchmark data sets and reports;
To provide our services; and
To develop new products and services.

Why we use this information:

It is necessary to perform our obligations or exercise our contractual rights;
It is necessary to comply with applicable laws or regulations;
We have a legitimate business interest to:
- Provide and update benchmark data and analysis;
- Validate and update our products and services; and
- Operate our business.

1.2 Special categories of information

Certain types of personal information may be more sensitive than others. This includes information about health, disability, race, ethnicity, criminal offences (or alleged offences), political opinions, biometric information, or religion. It is voluntary for you to disclose this information, but where we collect and receive these types of information about you, we have identified the type of special information, how we use it, and why.

1.2.1 Event attendance

What information we collect:

Dietary requirements that may imply specific religious beliefs or medical conditions; and
Any physical or mental disability or impairment you may disclose to us.

How we use this information:

To provide hospitality that is suitable for attendees of our conferences.

Why we use this information:

We have a legitimate business interest to:
- operate our business; and
- to provide the best possible experience for participants in our events.
You have consented by providing us with the information. Where we rely on your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent by contacting us.

1.3 Further information

For more information regarding our legitimate interests as applied to your personal information, please contact us.

Our websites and online services are for individuals who are at least 18 years old. Our online services are not designed to be used by individuals under the age of 18.

In certain circumstances, if you do not provide personal information which is required (for example, to register for a Darcy app or event), we will not be able to perform our contractual obligations or provide you with products and services. When this is the case, we will make it clear.

Recorded Communications with Darcy

We may ask to record calls for training, quality and research purposes. All recordings will be treated as confidential. If you do not want us to record your call, you will be given a chance to opt out. If your call is already in progress, you may ask us to turn off the recording at the start of the call.

Communication with Colleagues

You may use functionality on some of our sites or apps to send information from Darcy to your colleagues. In order to fulfil this request, we will ask you for your and your colleagues’ names and email addresses. Please be aware that your name and email address may be included in the communication sent to your colleague.

My Content

The My Content feature of the Darcy site or apps allows clients to save content available to a list, add labels, tags, and notes to saved content, and share content and notes with other clients. We may review information about your use of My Content, including the content you save, folders you create, any labels, tags, or notes you add, and any content that you share. We may use that information to recommend content, tools, or other Darcy services to you. Information about your use of My Content will only be accessible to Darcy and will not be visible to others unless you choose to share it.

2. WHEN WE DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We may disclose your personal information to third parties as follows:

When we have your consent to do so, e.g., when you have asked us to share your information with a Forum presenter;
To third parties who work on our behalf to service or maintain business contact databases and other IT systems, e.g., suppliers of the IT systems which we use to process personal information, or who provide other technical services, such as printing;
To third parties providing services to us or on our behalf who have a need to access your information, e.g., our professional advisors (e.g. auditors and lawyers) or venues for our conferences;
To comply with applicable laws, protect rights, safety and property, and respond to lawful requests from public authorities (e.g., disclosing data in appropriate situations for national security or law enforcement purposes);
If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, financing due diligence, reorganization, bankruptcy, receivership, sale of our assets, or transition of service to another provider, your information may be transferred or sold as part of such a transaction as permitted by law and/or contract.

Your personal information may be shared if we anonymize and/or aggregate it, as in these circumstances the information will cease to be personal information.

Third-party marketing

We do not share your personal information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes, unless we give you the choice (opt-in or opt-out) before sharing with those third parties.

Utilization Information

We may share information with our clients about how their employees use the sites, apps, services, and resources available to them (e.g., how employees used certain features of the sites, utilization trends, which content and features were most popular with the client’s employees).

3. DATA SUBJECT RIGHTS

In certain circumstances, you have certain rights regarding your personal information. A summary of each right and how you can exercise it is set out below. To exercise any of these rights, please contact us. Such requests should include information to allow us to verify your identity (e.g., your name and email address).

Where we receive your request to exercise one of these rights, we will respond without undue delay and in any event within one month of receiving your request. This may be extended by an additional two months in certain circumstances, e.g., where requests are complex or numerous.

We will provide information requested free of charge, except where requests are unfounded or excessive, e.g. because of their repetitive character. In these circumstances we may charge a reasonable fee or may refuse to act on the request. We will advise you of any fees prior to proceeding with a request.

We may ask for additional information to verify your identity before carrying out a request.

Here are your rights, and how you can exercise them.

Right to access and/or correct your personal information

You have the right to access personal information we hold about you and to be provided with a copy of the information (in most circumstances). You also have the right to correct any information we may hold about you that is inaccurate or incomplete.

Right to restrict use of your personal information

You have the right to ask us to suspend processing of your personal information where:

the processing is unlawful but you want us to restrict use of the data instead of deleting it;
you contest the accuracy of your personal information — the restriction will apply until we have verified the accuracy or corrected your personal information;
we no longer require the personal information for the purposes of processing, but are required to keep it in connection with a legal claim;
you have exercised your right to object to the processing — the restriction will apply until we have taken steps to verify whether we have compelling legitimate grounds to continue processing.

Right to request deletion of your personal information

You have the right to ask us to delete your personal information in certain circumstances. If you want to opt-out from receiving marketing communications, the best way to do so is to allow us to retain your information with a “do not contact” tag so we know not to contact you in the future.

There are also certain exceptions where we may refuse a request for erasure, for example, where the personal information is required to comply with a legal obligation or for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.

Right to object to processing of your personal information

You may object to our use of your personal information for marketing purposes. You may also object to processing of your personal information in cases where we have used legitimate interests as the basis for processing.

In such cases, we will stop processing your personal information until we verify that we have compelling legitimate grounds for processing that outweigh your interests, rights, and freedoms in asking us to stop processing the data, or in limited cases where we need to continue processing the data for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims.

Right to data portability

In most cases, you have the right to receive all personal information you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format and to transmit this data to another data controller, where technically feasible.

Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority

If you object to our processing of your personal information, you have the right to complain to the data protection authority (“DPA”) in the country where you reside, where you work, or where the alleged infringement of data protection laws has taken place.

We agree that any disputes regarding our privacy policies and related actions regarding personal information from data subjects in the EU can be heard by a DPA and we will be subject to the determination of those bodies (as further explained in the Privacy Shield Principles). Please contact us to be directed to the relevant DPA.

In certain circumstances after they have first tried to resolve the dispute directly with us and with the DPA, data subjects in the EU may be able to invoke binding arbitration of disputes by the Privacy Shield arbitration panel.

Right to withdraw consent

You may withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal information. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

4. INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

Darcy is a United States company and processes personal information on servers in the United States of America and in other countries. We may transfer, maintain, or process personal information on servers or databases outside your own country and outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”). Some of these countries may not have the equivalent level of protection under their data protection laws as in the EEA.

If you are visiting from the European Union (“EU”) or other regions with laws governing data collection and use, please note that by using our site, apps, or services, making an inquiry, availing yourself of any service, or otherwise providing us with personal information, you will be exporting personal information outside of the EEA to the United States and processing it globally.

Darcy will take reasonable steps to ensure that personal information is protected and that any such transfers comply with applicable law.

Darcy and its service providers abide by the European Union (“EU”) Commission Approved Standard Contractual Clauses for the transfer of data outside the European Economic Area. All Darcy providers are required to comply with our data protection policies and procedures, applicable laws, and the terms of our client and member contracts governing the collection and use of information.

5. RETENTION PERIODS

We will retain your personal information for as long as required to perform the purposes for which the data was collected, depending on the legal basis for which that data was obtained and/or whether additional legal/regulatory obligations require us to retain it.

In general terms, this will mean that your personal information will be kept for the duration of our relationship with you and:

the period required by tax and company laws and regulations; and
as long as it is necessary for you to be able to bring a claim against us and for us to be able to defend ourselves against any legal claims. This will generally be the length of the relationship plus the length of any applicable statutory limitation period under local laws.

6. MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS

We will respect your wishes not to receive marketing communications. You can change your marketing preferences by contacting us. If you gave us your email address to receive marketing communications, you can opt out at any time by using the unsubscribe links or instructions included at the bottom of our emails. Please note that we will continue to send you service-related communications regardless of any opt-out request. We will not sell or share your information or information with third parties for their own promotional or marketing purposes unless you give us consent to do so and where permitted by applicable law.

If we want to use your information for a purpose not described in this Policy, we will first get your consent to do so.

7. SECURITY

We have implemented administrative, technical, and physical security measures to help prevent unauthorized access. Despite these measures, no data transmission over the Internet can be entirely secure, and we cannot guarantee or warrant the security of any information you transmit via our websites or apps. Please note that you are responsible for maintaining the security of your credentials used to access any Darcy service or account, and you must report suspected unauthorized activity to us.

We make reasonable efforts to restrict access to information to only those employees, contractors, and agents who need such access in order to operate, develop, improve, or deliver our programs, products, and services.

By using our site, apps, or services, or by providing personal information to us, you agree that we may communicate with you electronically regarding your use of our services. If we learn of a security system’s breach, we may attempt to notify you electronically by sending an email to you. You may have a legal right to receive this notice in writing. To receive free written notice of a security breach (or to withdraw your consent from receiving electronic notices), please contact us.

8. COOKIES AND SIMILAR TECHNOLOGIES

Darcy uses cookies, which are alphanumeric identifiers in the form of text files that are stored on your computer, to make our services easier to use and to protect you and us. For example, we use them to store your login ID (but never your password) to make it easier for you to login whenever you come back to our site or apps. We also use them to remember the last application page you visited. You can remove or block cookies using the settings in your browser, but in some cases that may impact your ability to use our services.

Some of our website pages may contain electronic images known as web beacons (also known as clear gifs, tags or pixels) that allow us to count users who have visited our pages. Web beacons collect only limited information, e.g. a cookie number, time and date of a page view, and a description of the page on which the web beacon resides. These beacons do not carry any information that could directly identify you.

We may also include web beacons in e-mail messages or newsletters to track whether you open the messages. We use this information to customize our services and measure the overall effectiveness of our content, communications, and other services we provide.

In addition, we use Google Analytics to monitor and analyze Service usage. More information on how Google uses data when you use services like ours can be found at www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners.

10. MISCELLANEOUS

10.1 Links

We may provide links to other websites or resources that are not part of Darcy’s products, programs, or services. Darcy does not control these websites or their privacy practices, and any information you provide to other sites is subject to the privacy policies of those sites and not this Policy.

10.2 California Privacy Rights

Darcy does not share your Personal Data with third parties for their direct marketing purposes, as defined by California Civil Code Section 1798.83, unless we give you choice (opt-in or opt-out) before sharing with those third parties. If you are a California resident and you have questions about our practices with respect to sharing information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes and your ability to exercise choice, please contact us via US Mail at the address listed below. You must put the statement “Your California Privacy Rights” in the body of your request, as well as your name, street address, city, state, and zip code. In the body of your request, please provide enough information for us to determine if this applies to you. Please note that we will not accept inquiries via the telephone, email, or by facsimile, and we are not responsible for notices that are not labelled or sent properly, or that do not have complete information.

10.3 Do Not Track

Do Not Track (“DNT”) is a privacy preference that users can set in certain web browsers. We do not recognize or respond to browser-related DNT signals, as the industry is currently working toward a common approach to responding to DNT. More information about Do Not Track can be found at allaboutdnt.com.

Because we may link to social media sites, and from time to time may include third-party advertisements, other parties may collect your personally identifiable information about your online activities over time and across different web sites.

Please note that not all tracking will stop even if you delete cookies.

10.4 Limitation of Liability

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHALL DARCY BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT OR INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES THAT MAY ARISE FROM A CLAIM OF BREACH OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY. Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of liability for consequential or incidental damages. In such jurisdictions, our liability is limited to the greatest extent permitted by law, or $10, whichever is less.

10.5 Changes to this Policy

From time to time, we may change and/or update this Policy. If this Policy changes in any way, we will post an updated version on this website. We recommend you regularly review this website to ensure that you are always aware of our information practices and any changes to such. Any changes to this Policy will go into effect on posting to this page. The effective date of this notice and any revised or changed notice may be found on this page, on the upper left corner of the notice. Any changes will be effective only after the effective date of the change and will not affect any dispute arising prior to the effective date of the change.

How to Contact Us

Questions, comments, and requests regarding this Policy should be addressed to Darcy’s Privacy & Data Protection manager via email to privacy@darcypartners.com or via US mail to:

Privacy & Data Protection
Darcy Partners, LLC
c/o J. Terrell Consulting Firm, LLC
9894 Bissonnet, Suite 445
Houston, Texas 77036