privacystatement
The diff contains no previous text — every line is marked as newly added — so this is effectively the first full capture of Springer Nature's SpringerNatureLink privacy policy rather than a line-by-line comparison. The policy itself says it was last updated on 5 August 2026, which falls between the two fetch dates, so a real update likely happened, but the old wording isn't available to compare against. Below is what the current policy actually says on the points that matter most to readers: it collects browsing, device and video-viewing data, shares hashed email addresses with big advertising platforms (with consent), sends anything you type into the "Ask about this article" tool to OpenAI, reports your reading activity back to your university or employer, keeps purchase records for ten years, sends data outside the EEA, and can change the policy at any time by posting a new version.
Video viewing habits shared with advertisers
If you watch video on the site, they can pass along information that identifies you as the person who watched a specific video — not just anonymous stats — to outside companies for advertising and marketing. Because it names you, this is more sensitive than general traffic data.
“we may share information that identifies you as having viewed particular video content with service providers that enable video functionality, personalization, and usage analysis and third parties for advertising and marketing, as well as editorial purposes”
What you can do — Reject non-essential cookies via the "Your privacy choices/Manage cookies" link in the page footer, and avoid signing in before watching videos.
DATA SHARING
Your email address is uploaded to Meta, Google, LinkedIn and other ad platforms
They scramble (hash) your email and send it to big advertising platforms so those platforms can match you to your existing account and show you Springer Nature ads. It needs your consent, and only works if you already have an account with that platform, but it links your academic reading to your social media and search profiles.
“This targeting method may be used on the following third-party advertising platforms: Meta, Google, LinkedIn, ResearchGate, Microsoft ads and Criteo.”
What you can do — Email onlineservice@springernature.com and ask that your consent for email-based ad targeting be withdrawn.
DATA SHARING
AI tool sends whatever you type to OpenAI
The "Ask about this article" feature passes your questions and any text you enter to OpenAI and Langfuse. They are described as processors working on Springer Nature's behalf, but your input still leaves the company's systems.
“This service uses third-party AI functionality. If you use this service, any data you input will be processed by our partners”
What you can do — Don't paste anything personal, confidential or unpublished into the "Ask about this article" box.
DATA COLLECTION
Your reading activity can be reported back to your university or employer
If you get access through an institution, they build usage reports that can include your downloads, your IP address and sometimes your email address, and share them with whoever pays for your access. Normally it's anonymous, but not if you're an admin or if your institution has a usage-based contract.
“We may share the usage data with licensee under whose license you are accessing and using our services, (e.g. your employer, the institution you are a member to, your university etc. "Licensee").”
What you can do — You can object to your usage data being sent to your institution at any time, without giving a reason, by emailing onlineservice@springernature.com.
DATA SHARING
Policy can change any time with no notice to you
They can rewrite this privacy policy just by posting a new version on the website. There's no promise to email you or ask again for your permission — you're expected to keep checking the page yourself.
“We reserve the right to change this policy from time to time by updating our website respectively. Please visit the website regularly and check our respective current privacy policy.”
What you can do — Check the "last updated" date at the top of the policy occasionally, especially before making a purchase or submitting a manuscript.
UNILATERAL CHANGES
Purchase records kept for ten years; peer-review material archived long-term
Even after you delete your account, order, address and payment information stays on file for ten years to meet legal accounting rules (with limited processing after two years). Manuscript and review content moves into long-term restricted archives 12 months after a decision.
“By statutory law we are required to retain the provided financial data in relation to transactions (including address, payment and order information) for ten years.”
What you can do — Request account deletion through the Data Protection Officer via the support portal — they say they'll erase account data within 30 days, apart from records they must legally keep.
DATA RETENTION
Data sent abroad, where foreign authorities may reach it
Your information can be transferred to countries with weaker privacy laws, and the policy openly says foreign governments, courts and police may be able to get at it. They rely on standard EU contract clauses as protection.
“Please note that data processed in a foreign country may be subject to foreign laws and accessible to foreign governments, courts, law enforcement, and regulatory agencies.”
DATA SHARING
Your account could move to a buyer if the company is sold
If Springer Nature is reorganised or sold, your personal data goes to the new owner. You aren't given a chance to refuse.
“In the event that we undergo re-organisation or are sold to a third party, any personal data we hold about you may be transferred to that re-organised entity or third party in compliance with applicable law.”
DATA SHARING
Marketing emails can be sent without asking you first
They may email you about products and events based on "legitimate interest" alone if you already have a relationship with them — meaning you can get marketing you never opted into, though you can stop it.
“Our legitimate interest, where we have an existing relationship with you and the content is relevant to your professional interests.”
What you can do — Use the unsubscribe link in any email, or email customerservice@springernature.com to object to marketing based on legitimate interest.
OTHER
No guarantee your data stays safe in transit
They say they use reasonable security but won't guarantee it, and that anything you send over the internet is at your own risk.
“We cannot guarantee the security of information you submit via our website whilst it is in transit over the internet and any such submission is at your own risk.”
LIABILITY LIMITS
| 1 | ## Privacy policy | |
| 2 | ||
| 3 | This policy was last updated on 5th August 2026. | |
+ ADDEDFull policy captured for the first time (no prior text to compare) The whole privacy policy appears as new in this comparison, so nothing can be identified as a specific edit. The document states it was last updated on 5 August 2026. | ||
| 4 | ||
| 5 | This is the privacy policy ("policy") for _SpringerNatureLink_ which is run and provided by Springer Nature Limited (**we, us** and **our**). Springer Nature Limited is located at The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London N1 9XW. We can also be contacted at [https://support.nature.com/en/support/home](https://support.nature.com/en/support/home) | |
| 6 | ||
| 7 | We will only use the personal data gathered over this website as set out in this policy. Below you will find information on how we use your personal data, for which purposes your personal data is used, with whom it is shared and what control and information rights you may have. | |
| 8 | ||
| 9 | ## I. Summary of our processing activities | |
| 10 | ||
| 11 | We publish scholarly journals, books, news and data. Some of this material is freely available; some of it is only available to subscribers. The following summary offers a quick overview of the data processing activities that are undertaken on our website. You will find more detailed information under the indicated sections below. | |
| 12 | ||
| 13 | - When you visit our website for informational reasons without setting up an account, only limited personal data will be processed to provide you with the website itself (see III). | |
| 14 | - If you are identified as belonging to a customer organisation then we collect information in order to be able to provide usage reporting to that customer. | |
| 15 | - In case you register for one of our services, use the submission and peer review systems or subscribe to our newsletters, further personal data will be processed in the scope of such services (see IV and V). | |
| 16 | - Furthermore, your personal data will be used to provide you with relevant advertising for our services and products (see VII) and for statistical analysis that helps us to improve our website (see VIII). Additionally, we improve your website experience with third party content (see IX). | |
| 17 | - Your personal data may be disclosed to third parties (see X) that might be located outside your country of residence; potentially, different data protection standards may apply (see XII). | |
| 18 | - We have implemented appropriate safeguards to secure your personal data (see XIII) and retain your personal data only as long as necessary (see XIII). | |
| 19 | - Under the legislation applicable to you, you may be entitled to exercise certain rights with regard to the processing of your personal data (see XIV). | |
| 20 | - When you view on-demand video on our websites, we may collect your viewing and usage information, and we may share information that identifies you as having viewed particular video content with service providers that enable video functionality, personalization, and usage analysis and third parties for advertising and marketing, as well as editorial purposes. | |
+ ADDEDVideo viewing is tracked and can be shared with advertisers If you watch on-demand video on the site, they record what you watched and may share information identifying you as having watched it with service providers and with third parties for advertising, marketing and editorial use. | ||
| 21 | ||
| 22 | ## II. Definitions | |
| 23 | ||
| 24 | - **Personal data**: means any information relating to a natural person who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, or an online identifier. | |
| 25 | - **Processing**: means any operation which is performed on personal data, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or any kind of disclosure or other use. | |
| 26 | ||
| 27 | ## III. Informational use of the website | |
| 28 | ||
| 29 | When you visit our website for informational reasons, i.e. without registering for any of our provided services listed under IV and without providing us with personal data in any other form, we may automatically collect additional information about you which will contain personal data only in limited cases and which is automatically recognised by our server. | |
| 30 | ||
| 31 | Examples might include: | |
| 32 | ||
| 33 | - your IP address; | |
| 34 | - your device type, name and IDs; | |
| 35 | - the date and time of your requests; | |
| 36 | - the content of your requests; | |
| 37 | - information on your browser version; | |
| 38 | - your screen resolution; | |
| 39 | - information on your operating system, including language settings. | |
| 40 | - information about video content that you viewed. | |
| 41 | ||
| 42 | We use such information only to assist us in providing an effective service (e.g. to adapt our website to the needs of your device or to allow you to log in to our website), and to collect broad demographic information for anonymised, aggregated use. | |
| 43 | ||
| 44 | If you are identified by IP or equivalent method as belonging to a customer organisation such as university or a company then we will also collect the identity of that organisation and use it to create usage reports which show the organisation how much of the content we publish is being read by their students, members or employees. This information does not contain anything related to a personal login unless (a) you are a nominated administrator for that organisation or (b) your organisation specifically requires it as a part of a usage-based access contract. | |
| 45 | ||
| 46 | The personal data automatically collected is necessary for us to provide the website, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR, and for our legitimate interest to guarantee the website's stability and security, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR. | |
| 47 | ||
| 48 | ## IV. Registration for our services | |
| 49 | ||
| 50 | Access to subscription content is provided via a variety of mechanisms such as IP site licenses, login via third party federated identity providers or by a personal account with us. Using the federated authentication method institutional selection data may be stored locally in your browser and shared with third party websites that you visit to ease the process of institutional authentication. If your access to our content is provided by an organisation or an institution like a university or a company then they choose the access method on your behalf. A personal account is required to purchase content directly from us, or to receive personal services like newsletters and alerts. | |
| 51 | ||
| 52 | If you need to create a personal login with us then we will store and process the following: | |
| 53 | ||
| 54 | - Information (such as your name, telephone number, user name and email address) that is provided by registration; | |
| 55 | - Information in connection with an account sign-in facility (e.g. log-in and password details); | |
| 56 | - Communications sent by you (e.g. via e-mail or website communication forms). | |
| 57 | ||
| 58 | The information that is necessary for the performance of the service is labelled accordingly. All further information is provided voluntarily. | |
| 59 | ||
| 60 | We will process the personal data you provide to: | |
| 61 | ||
| 62 | - Identify you at sign-in; | |
| 63 | - Provide you with the services and information offered through the website or which you request; | |
| 64 | - Administer your account; | |
| 65 | - Communicate with you; | |
| 66 | - (behavioural) Advertising and profiling; | |
| 67 | - Facilitate attendance of a conference; | |
| 68 | - Manage manuscript submissions; | |
| 69 | - Provide access (where appropriate) to other Springer Nature group content if you so request | |
| 70 | ||
| 71 | For this, the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR. The use of your personal data for behavioural advertising and profiling is done with consent, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. | |
| 72 | ||
| 73 | We use the personal data and contact data you provide by registration to inform you directly about our additional products and services. The use of your personal data for directly advertising related products and services is with consent, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. | |
| 74 | ||
| 75 | You can object to the use of your personal data for direct marketing at any time. We will then refrain from any processing to the extent it is related to such purposes. You may opt-out of direct marketing via opt-out links in any marketing communication or via user profile pages on the website (where available). You can also inform us about your objection by contacting our Data Protection Office at [dataprotection@springernature.com](mailto:dataprotection@springernature.com). | |
| 76 | ||
| 77 | We offer notification services such as table-of-contents or new book alerts. This service is provided by means of a double-opt-in. Thus, you will receive an email containing a link by which you can confirm that you are the owner of the email address and wish to be notified via our email service. You can end this service by opting out via the link provided in each notification email. This notification service is based on your consent, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. | |
| 78 | ||
| 79 | Registration data is kept until such time as an account deletion request is made. If such a request is received we will erase your data within 30 days. Statutory storage obligations or the need for legal actions that may arise from misconduct within the services or payment problems can lead to a longer retention of your personal data. In this case, we will inform you accordingly. | |
| 80 | ||
| 81 | ## V. Information about the specific uses that require registration/identification | |
| 82 | ||
| 83 | ### 1\. Blogs | |
| 84 | ||
| 85 | You can publicly comment on our blog where we post a variety of articles to inform you about our activities. When posting a comment your name or user name will be made public. To be able to comment on our blog you will have to register as described in IV. | |
| 86 | ||
| 87 | In addition to the extent of processing described under IV, when you post a comment we will retain some of your personal data such as your IP address and name and other metadata such as time of posting. This is necessary to defend ourselves from possible liability claims that may arise from unlawful comments posted by you and reflects our legitimate interest with regard to the legal justification of this processing activity in Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR. | |
| 88 | ||
| 89 | We reserve the right to delete comments that are off-topic, spam, abusive, use excessive foul language, include ad hominem attacks or offend against legal regulations. | |
| 90 | ||
| 91 | ### 2\. Web shop | |
| 92 | ||
| 93 | For the use of our web shop you have to set up an account as described under IV. Your customer account retains your personal data for future purchases. You can delete the personal data as well as the account in your account's settings. This processing is based on Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b. | |
| 94 | ||
| 95 | By statutory law we are required to retain the provided financial data in relation to transactions (including address, payment and order information) for ten years. However, after 2 years we will restrict the processing of your personal data to comply with the statutory requirements and will not process the personal data any further. Regarding this, the retention of your personal data is based on Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. c GDPR. | |
+ ADDEDRetention periods vary by service Account data is deleted within 30 days of a deletion request, but purchase and payment records are kept ten years (with processing restricted after two), customer-service records about three years, and peer-review content goes into long-term limited-access archiving 12 months after a decision. | ||
| 96 | ||
| 97 | When purchasing a product that requires shipping we may share the delivery data with a Contractor to provide shipment tracking to you. Such a transfer will be based on data processing agreements in accordance with Article 28 of the GDPR. Therefore, our Contractors will only use your personal data to the extent necessary to perform their functions and will be contractually bound to process your personal data only on our behalf and in compliance with our requests. | |
| 98 | ||
| 99 | ### 3\. Article alerts and newsletters | |
| 100 | ||
| 101 | With your email address you can subscribe to our newsletters that provide you with the latest news about our products and services if you consent to receiving such newsletters. The legal basis for this processing is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. Your email address will be retained as long as you subscribe to our newsletters. | |
| 102 | ||
| 103 | You can unsubscribe from this service by opting out via the link provided in each newsletter. | |
| 104 | ||
| 105 | You can sign up for newsletters and request to be contacted about our products and services via Facebook. For this purpose, we are using Facebook Lead Ads, a service of Meta Platforms Inc, 1 Hacker Way Menlo Park, California 94025, USA ("Meta"). Lead Ads makes it even easier for you to sign up to newsletters and request to be contacted as the form will already be pre-populated via Facebook with your data and you only need to submit the form. Of course, you have the opportunity to amend and review the data before submission. For more information on how lead ads works see here - [https://www.facebook.com/business/ads/lead-ads](https://www.facebook.com/business/ads/lead-ads). | |
| 106 | ||
| 107 | The legal basis for this processing is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. Your email address will be retained as long as you subscribe to our newsletters or until you request the removal of your email address. | |
| 108 | ||
| 109 | You can unsubscribe from newsletters by opting out via the link provided in each newsletter. If you inquired about a product or service and no longer wish to be contacted, you can email [onlineservice@springernature.com](mailto:onlineservice@springernature.com), citing the name of the product or service, and request that your email address be removed. | |
| 110 | ||
| 111 | ### 4\. Manuscript submission and Peer Review | |
| 112 | ||
| 113 | Our Submission and Peer Review System offers the services of peer review, content preparation and proofing, publication and dissemination of research. In order to use the aforementioned services you have to set up an initial account. Where optional paid services may be engaged, you will be prompted to set up an additional, or enhance an existing account. | |
| 114 | ||
| 115 | With regard to the registration of an account and its subsequent use, we process the following information. | |
| 116 | ||
| 117 | - Information that is provided by registration such as your name, user name and email address. | |
| 118 | - Information in connection with an account sign-in facility, e.g. log-in and password details; | |
| 119 | - Communications sent by you, e.g. via e-mail or website communication forms. | |
| 120 | - Content files and covering letters provided by you | |
| 121 | - Grants, funding, membership, institution, society, committee registration | |
| 122 | - Billing or invoicing information | |
| 123 | - Information received from societies we work with, e.g. address, name, email address | |
| 124 | ||
| 125 | The information that is necessary for the performance of the service is labelled accordingly. | |
| 126 | ||
| 127 | We will process the personal data you provide in order to: | |
| 128 | ||
| 129 | - Identify you at sign-in; | |
| 130 | - Administer your account; | |
| 131 | - Provide you with the services and information offered through the Submission and Peer Review System or which you additionally request; | |
| 132 | - Communicate with you; | |
| 133 | - Process payments | |
| 134 | - Provide information to you as an Author about other publishing opportunities, with the Springer Nature group, you can stop these communications at any time by clicking the link in each email or contacting customer services; | |
| 135 | - Communicate with you in your capacity as a current or potential Peer Reviewer, Editorial Board Member, or external Editor to provide information about the journal (s) and content you have worked on; you can stop these communications to you as a Peer Reviewer, Editorial Board Member, or external Editor at any time by clicking the link in each email or contacting Customer Service at [https://support.nature.com/en/support/home](https://support.nature.com/en/support/home). Stopping these communications will not affect your status as Peer Reviewer, Editorial Board Member or external Editor with respect to the journal. | |
| 136 | - Create a profile of your publication record based on publicly available data, such as published books and articles, citations and grants awarded. This information will not be used to determine article acceptance, nor will it be used for automated decision making (see section VI for more information on automated decision making). This information will be used to personalise communications and provide you with the latest news about our products and services; | |
| 137 | - To ensure the accuracy of content attribution and the quality and integrity of the peer review process | |
| 138 | - Provide you with e-alerts | |
| 139 | - Offer to transfer your submission to an alternative Springer Nature title if applicable | |
| 140 | - Authorise and process Article Publication Charges (APCs) | |
| 141 | ||
| 142 | As an author, we'll highlight publishing opportunities in the form of recommendations via our Researcher Home website. We'll use your publishing history to do this. You can opt out of these recommendations at any time by emailing [https://support.nature.com/en/support/home](https://support.nature.com/en/support/home). | |
| 143 | ||
| 144 | For this, the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR, and for our legitimate interest in optimizing our services and preventing fraud, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR. | |
| 145 | ||
| 146 | Your personal account registration data is, in the absence of exceptions within the specific services mentioned, retained for as long as your account is used. Non-activity is defined at a minimum of three years, to facilitate ease-of-return for account holders. Content and communications, associated with submissions, reviews or decisions made by an account holder is held for a period of 12 months following final decision before being stored within long term limited-access archiving. Content may be engaged in relation to the services provided and in the interests of the integrity of published material. Such a decision will be made under the oversight of the Springer Nature Research Integrity Group. The need for legal actions within the services or payment problems can lead to a longer retention of your personal data. | |
| 147 | ||
| 148 | In order to ensure the high quality of our journals and publications as well as the significance of the scientific research published, we have implemented a peer review procedure. | |
| 149 | ||
| 150 | In order to find and contact suitable and qualified peer reviewers within the relevant research community, editorial team members may process some of your basic personal data (i.e. Email address, name and research interest) to register you for our Peer Review System. The legal basis for processing your personal data is our and the Publisher's or the respective editor's legitimate interest in finding and contacting suitable and qualified peer reviewers to ensure the high level of papers and articles published in our journals, Art. 6 (1) sent. 1 lit. f GDPR. | |
| 151 | ||
| 152 | As a Peer Reviewer or external Editorial Board Member we will contact you from time to time about the journal(s) and content that you have worked on, Art. 6 (1) sent. 1 lit. f. | |
| 153 | ||
| 154 | If you do not wish to be contacted any longer, you can contact us via our [support portal](https://support.springernature.com/). Please note that we may keep some of your personal data to recall your explicit wish to not be contacted for any peer review procedure in the future and thus, to prevent any future processing of your data in this regard. The legal basis for this is our and your legitimate interest in recalling your wish and preventing any future contacting, Article 6 (1) sent. 1 lit. f GDPR. | |
| 155 | ||
| 156 | ### 5\. Author and instructor services | |
| 157 | ||
| 158 | If you use the author and instructor services the required data are retained for the duration of the process plus a security period. Regarding this, the retention of your personal data is based on Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR. | |
| 159 | ||
| 160 | If you have qualified for an author discount for purchasing books, the retention periods of the web shop are applicable (see above). | |
| 161 | ||
| 162 | To request a free online review copy of a book we use the contact data in your account to process the request. | |
| 163 | ||
| 164 | ### 6\. Customer service | |
| 165 | ||
| 166 | If you contact us by either | |
| 167 | ||
| 168 | - e-mail or physical mail | |
| 169 | - telephone or fax | |
| 170 | - Chat/messaging support | |
| 171 | - through a website communication or submission form | |
| 172 | ||
| 173 | we will process the personal data you provide to process and fulfil your request. For this, the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a and b GDPR. | |
| 174 | ||
| 175 | To provide the requested service your data may be stored in a ticketing system and/or on a support platform to enable data access by the relevant customer support team member. Where appropriate the data will also be forwarded to a different team to fulfil the request (e.g. to update your data) or be used on physical data records, e.g. invoices. | |
| 176 | ||
| 177 | We use Freshdesk (provided by Freshworks GmbH, Neue Grünstraße 17, 10179 Berlin, Germany) as a ticketing system to store and process your requests. Depending on the region you call from and team providing support we use different telephony solutions. For the most part, customers contacting customer service are directed to our level 1 teams at our Philippines-based data processor Straive (77 Robinson Road, # 13-00 Singapore 068896), if necessary, the service ticket is forwarded to a local level 2 Springer Nature Customer Service team or another relevant team at Springer Nature. | |
| 178 | ||
| 179 | We do not process any sensitive data unless provided by you because you e.g. need support in coping with access issues due to a disability or reveal any protected characteristics during communication. For this, the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. | |
| 180 | ||
| 181 | We share anonymous, aggregated data within the business. We forward emails internally, or provide access to tickets for other teams to e.g. share positive feedback with a stakeholder, or for review by internal teams seeking to improve the products and services. For this the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR and represents our legitimate interest to improve our service quality and provide tailored solutions to the customers. | |
| 182 | ||
| 183 | We store your data until completion of the request and, if applicable, as long as required by statutory retention requirements (e.g. for 3 years after completion to prove adequate handling of service requests or subject access requests made under the GDPR). | |
| 184 | ||
| 185 | ### 7\. Ask about this article | |
| 186 | ||
| 187 | This service uses third-party AI functionality. If you use this service, any data you input will be processed by our partners [Langfuse](https://langfuse.com/privacy) and [OpenAI](https://openai.com/policies/row-privacy-policy/), who act as Data Processors on our behalf. This use of the data you input is done with your consent, Article 6 sec. 1 sein nt. 1 lit. a GDPR. | |
+ ADDED"Ask about this article" sends your input to OpenAI Anything you type into the AI question tool is passed to outside AI companies (Langfuse and OpenAI) acting on Springer Nature's behalf. Using the tool counts as your consent. | ||
| 188 | ||
| 189 | ### 8\. Use of Email for Marketing & Communications | |
| 190 | ||
| 191 | We may collect and use your email address to send you marketing & communications related to our products, services, or events. This may occur when you provide your details through one of our platforms (e.g., event registration, product sign-up, or journal submission). We process your data based on either: | |
| 192 | ||
| 193 | - Your explicit consent, where you have opted in to receive such communications; or | |
| 194 | - Our legitimate interest, where we have an existing relationship with you and the content is relevant to your professional interests. | |
+ ADDEDMarketing emails can be sent without your consent in some cases They may email you marketing either because you opted in, or simply because you already have a relationship with them and they judge the content relevant to your work. | ||
| 195 | ||
| 196 | Your email address is securely transferred to our marketing platform (Braze) via encrypted channels and stored in secure cloud environments (Google Cloud Platform - including but not limited to Google BigQuery and Google Cloud Storage). Data is held for only as long as needed to facilitate our marketing campaigns, then deleted. If you choose to unsubscribe, we will retain only the minimal information necessary to ensure you are not contacted again. | |
| 197 | ||
| 198 | You have the right to: | |
| 199 | ||
| 200 | - Withdraw your consent at any time. | |
| 201 | - Request deletion of your data. | |
| 202 | - Object to processing based on legitimate interest. | |
| 203 | ||
| 204 | You can withdraw consent, or object to processing at any time using the opt-out/unsubscribe link in our footer of any email sent. Alternatively, you can email us at [customerservice@springernature.com](mailto:customerservice@springernature.com) for any of the above. | |
| 205 | ||
| 206 | We may share your email address with trusted third-party service providers who support our marketing operations, including: | |
| 207 | ||
| 208 | - [Retool](https://retool.com/) (internal tool interface), | |
| 209 | - [Google Cloud Platform](https://cloud.google.com/) (data storage and processing), | |
| 210 | - [Braze](https://www.braze.com/) (email delivery platform). | |
| 211 | ||
| 212 | These providers are contractually bound to protect your data and may only process it on our instructions. | |
| 213 | ||
| 214 | ### Verwendung von E-Mail für Marketing & Kommunikation | |
| 215 | ||
| 216 | Wir erfassen und verarbeiten Ihre E-Mail-Adresse, um Ihnen Marketing- und Kommunikationsinhalte zu unseren Produkten, Dienstleistungen oder Veranstaltungen zu senden. Dies erfolgt, wenn Sie Ihre Daten über eine unserer Plattformen bereitstellen (z. B. Eventregistrierung, Produktanmeldung oder Einreichung eines Zeitschriftenartikels). | |
| 217 | ||
| 218 | Wir verarbeiten Ihre Daten auf Grundlage | |
| 219 | ||
| 220 | - Ihrer ausdrücklichen Einwilligung, wenn Sie dem Erhalt solcher Mitteilungen zugestimmt haben, oder | |
| 221 | - unserem berechtigten Interesse, wenn bereits eine Geschäftsbeziehung zu Ihnen besteht und die Inhalte für Ihre beruflichen Interessen relevant sind. | |
| 222 | ||
| 223 | Ihre E-Mail-Adresse wird über verschlüsselte Kanäle sicher an unsere Marketingplattform (Braze) übertragen und in sicheren Cloud-Umgebungen gespeichert (Google Cloud Platform - einschließlich, aber nicht beschränkt auf Google BigQuery und Google Cloud Storage). Die Daten werden nur so lange aufbewahrt, wie es für die Durchführung unserer Marketingkampagnen erforderlich ist und anschließend gelöscht. Wenn Sie sich abmelden, speichern wir nur die minimal erforderlichen Informationen, um sicherzustellen, dass Sie nicht erneut kontaktiert werden. | |
| 224 | ||
| 225 | Sie haben das Recht: | |
| 226 | ||
| 227 | - Ihre Einwilligung jederzeit zu widerrufen. | |
| 228 | - Die Löschung Ihrer Daten zu verlangen. | |
| 229 | - Der Verarbeitung aufgrund berechtigten Interesses zu widersprechen. | |
| 230 | ||
| 231 | Sie können Ihre Einwilligung widerrufen oder der Verarbeitung jederzeit über den Abmelde-/Opt-out-Link im Footer jeder von uns gesendeten E-Mail widersprechen. Alternativ können Sie uns für die oben genannten Anliegen unter [customerservice@springernature.com](mailto:customerservice@springernature.com) kontaktieren. | |
| 232 | ||
| 233 | Wir teilen Ihre E-Mail-Adresse mit vertrauenswürdigen Drittanbietern , die unsere Marketingaktivitäten unterstützen, darunter: | |
| 234 | ||
| 235 | - [Retool](https://retool.com/) (interne Werkzeugschnittstelle), | |
| 236 | - [Google Cloud Platform](https://cloud.google.com/) (Datenspeicherung und -verarbeitung), | |
| 237 | - [Braze](https://www.braze.com/) (E-Mail-Versandplattform). | |
| 238 | ||
| 239 | Diese Anbieter sind vertraglich verpflichtet, Ihre Daten zu schützen und dürfen sie nur gemäß unseren Anweisungen verarbeiten. | |
| 240 | ||
| 241 | ### マーケティングおよびコミュニケーションにおけるメールの利用 | |
| 242 | ||
| 243 | 当社は、製品、サービス、またはイベントに関連するマーケティングやコミュニケーションをお送りするために、あなたのメールアドレスを収集・利用する場合があります。これは、イベント登録、製品のサインアップ、またはジャーナル投稿など、当社のプラットフォームを通じて情報をご提供いただいた際に発生することがあります。 | |
| 244 | ||
| 245 | 当社は、以下のいずれかの法的根拠に基づいてデータを処理します: | |
| 246 | ||
| 247 | - あなたがそのようなコミュニケーションの受信に同意した場合の明示的な同意 | |
| 248 | - あなたとの既存の関係があり、コンテンツがあなたの職業上の関心に関連する場合の正当な利益 | |
| 249 | ||
| 250 | あなたのメールアドレスは、暗号化されたチャネルを通じて当社のマーケティングプラットフォーム（Braze）に安全に転送され、セキュアなクラウド環境（Google Cloud Platform - Google BigQueryやGoogle Cloud Storageを含むがこれに限定されない）に保存されます。データはマーケティングキャンペーンの実施に必要な期間のみ保持され、その後削除されます。購読解除を選択された場合、再度ご連絡しないために必要な最小限の情報のみを保持します。 | |
| 251 | ||
| 252 | あなたには以下の権利があります： | |
| 253 | ||
| 254 | - いつでも同意を撤回する権利 | |
| 255 | - データの削除を要求する権利 | |
| 256 | - 正当な利益に基づく処理に異議を唱える権利 | |
| 257 | ||
| 258 | 同意の撤回や処理への異議は、当社が送信するすべてのメールのフッターにあるオプトアウト／購読解除リンクからいつでも行えます。あるいは [customerservice@springernature.com](mailto:customerservice@springernature.com) までメールでご連絡ください。 | |
| 259 | ||
| 260 | 当社は、マーケティング業務を支援する信頼できる第三者サービスプロバイダーとあなたのメールアドレスを共有する場合があります。これには以下が含まれます： | |
| 261 | ||
| 262 | - [Retool](https://retool.com/) (社内ツールインターフェース) | |
| 263 | - [Google Cloud Platform](https://cloud.google.com/) (データ保存および処理) | |
| 264 | - [Braze](https://www.braze.com/) (メール配信プラットフォーム) | |
| 265 | ||
| 266 | これらのプロバイダーは、あなたのデータを保護する契約上の義務を負い、当社の指示に従ってのみ処理を行います。 | |
| 267 | ||
| 268 | ## VI. Automated decision making | |
| 269 | ||
| 270 | We do not use your personal data for automated decision making which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you; however we do use your personal data to offer you content and services which we believe may be of interest. | |
| 271 | ||
| 272 | ## VII. Online advertising, e-commerce and related tools | |
| 273 | ||
| 274 | The cookies and web beacons enable our service providers to collect information about you and your surfing behaviour, e.g. IP address, browser information, information on user activities, including video content that you viewed, and click data, and to recognize visitors to our website under a pseudonym and only display products that are likely to be of interest to our visitors. Most of the tools use pseudonymised or aggregated data, e.g. shortened IP addresses. The data is used to analyse the use of our website and, thereby, improve and optimize the website and to display advertising tailored to your needs. We collect this data (to improve your website experience and to promote our products and services). You can update your preferences via the "Your privacy choices/Manage cookies" link in the page footer. | |
| 275 | ||
| 276 | Personal data collected via first party cookies is based on consent, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR, to improve your website experience and promote our products and services. We collect this data via a cookie management tool; you can update your preferences via the "Your privacy choices/Manage cookies" link in the page footer. | |
| 277 | ||
| 278 | Personal data collected via third party targeting cookies is based on your consent, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit GDPR. You can update your preferences via the "Your Privacy Choices/Manage Cookies" link in the page footer. | |
| 279 | ||
| 280 | Please note that we neither have the control of the extent of personal data that is collected by the respective plug-in provider nor do we know the processing's purpose or the period your personal data will be retained. Your personal data will be transferred to and processed inside and outside of the EEA. For further information about the potential risks of a cross border data transfer refer to XI. | |
| 281 | ||
| 282 | It is possible that the above providers may disclose your personal data to its business partners, third parties or authorities. | |
| 283 | ||
| 284 | You can prevent the installation of such a cookie (i) by a respective setting of your browser that blocks the installation of third party cookies, (ii) by deactivating the interest-related advertising under [https://www.google.co.uk/ads/preferences](https://www.google.co.uk/ads/preferences), (iii) generally blocking cookies under [https://www.google.co.uk/settings/ads/plugin](https://www.google.co.uk/settings/ads/plugin) or (iv) by deselecting the option for tracking cookies via the Springer Nature cookie preference centre. | |
| 285 | ||
| 286 | ### Google AdWords Remarketing and Facebook Custom Audience | |
| 287 | ||
| 288 | In this Website, we use the remarketing or "Similar audiences" feature of AdWords offered by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA, hereinafter referred to as "Google" | |
| 289 | ||
| 290 | Google uses Cookies/tracking technologies, i.e., text files that are stored on your computer and that allow us to analyze your use of our Website. Information generated by Cookies/tracking technology on your use of this Website (including your IP address) will be transferred to a Google server in the U.S. and stored on that server. After that, the last three digits of the IP address will be deleted by Google so that it is no longer possible to clearly match this IP address with personal data. Google will use this information to analyze your use of the Website, to create website activity reports for the website operators and to provide additional services in connection with the use of the Website and the Internet. Furthermore, Google may transfer this information to third parties, if it is required to do so in accordance with statutory provisions or if third parties process data on behalf of Google. | |
| 291 | ||
| 292 | Third party providers, including Google, place advertisements on websites on the Internet. Third party providers, including Google, use stored Cookies/tracking information to place advertisements based on previous visits of a user on this Website. | |
| 293 | ||
| 294 | For additional information on the anonymous analysis of your search behaviour please refer to: | |
| 295 | ||
| 296 | - [https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=de](https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245) | |
| 297 | - [http://www.google.com/policies/technologies/ads/](http://www.google.com/policies/technologies/ads/) | |
| 298 | ||
| 299 | You may object to data collection and storage for the purpose of remarketing at any time - this objection will be effective for the future, but not retroactively - by deactivating interest-based advertising in Google or by deactivating the services on the website of the Network Advertising Initiative. Note: in that case, you may not be able to use all features of this Website anymore. By using this Website, you grant your consent to the processing of data collected about you by Google in the manner and for the purpose described above. | |
| 300 | ||
| 301 | Furthermore, this Website uses retargeting tags and Custom Audience, a service of Meta Platforms Inc, 1 Hacker Way Menlo Park, California 94025, USA ("Meta"). | |
| 302 | ||
| 303 | When you visit our web pages, remarketing tags will build a direct connection between your browser and the Facebook server. This way, Facebook learns that you have visited our web page with your IP address. This will enable Facebook to match your visit of our pages with your user account. The information obtained this way can be used to display Facebook ads. Please note that we as the provider of the webpages do not receive any information on the contents of data transferred and their use by Facebook. | |
| 304 | ||
| 305 | With regard to the use of Custom Audience we would like to point out that Facebook and third parties use cookies, web beacons or similar technologies to collect or gather information on this Website. Based on the data gained we can make our Facebook activities more efficient and, e.g., arrange for contents or ads to be shown only to visitors of our Website. The data collected this way will be encrypted and transferred to Facebook and is anonymous for us, e.g., we cannot see personal data of individual users. | |
| 306 | ||
| 307 | For further information on the privacy policy of Facebook and Custom Audience please refer to [https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/](https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/) or [https://www.facebook.com/business/a/online-sales/custom-audiences-website](https://www.facebook.com/business/a/online-sales/custom-audiences-website). | |
| 308 | ||
| 309 | If you do not wish your data to be collected via Custom Audience, you can deactivate Custom Audience using this link. | |
| 310 | ||
| 311 | ### HubSpot and SAP Marketing Cloud (SMC) | |
| 312 | ||
| 313 | [HubSpot](https://www.hubspot.com/) and [SMC](https://help.sap.com/docs/SAP_MARKETING_CLOUD) use cookies, Google Analytics, and a pseudonymized user ID to aggregate user behaviour on the website and in emails in order to personalize the content that is provided to newsletter subscribers. Google Analytics does not receive individual email addresses or other personal data, only a number. That number can only be connected to a specific user on Springer Nature's systems. The legal basis for this process is your consent to the use of cookies on our website (Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR.). You can always unsubscribe from this process by rejecting the cookies that measure website use. | |
| 314 | ||
| 315 | ### Hotjar | |
| 316 | ||
| 317 | Hotjar is a behaviour and analytics software provided by Hotjar LTD, Dragonara Business Centre, 5th Floor, Dragonara Road, Paceville St Julian's STJ 3141 Malta. We use Hotjar in order to better understand our users' needs and to optimize our service and experience. Hotjar is a technology service that helps us better understand our users' experience (e.g. how much time they spend on which pages, which links they choose to click, what users do and don't like, etc.) and this enables us to build and maintain our service with user feedback. Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data on our users' behaviour and their devices and may include recording of sample behaviours. This includes a device's IP address (processed during your session and stored in a de-identified form), device screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), browser information, geographic location (country only), and the preferred language used to display our website. Hotjar stores this information on our behalf in a pseudonymized user profile. Hotjar is contractually forbidden to sell any of the data collected on our behalf. The legal basis for this processing is Art. 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR and reflects your consent to non-essential cookies. | |
+ ADDEDWide list of tracking and marketing tools named The policy names the analytics, advertising and marketing tools used, including Google Analytics, Google Ads remarketing, Meta Custom Audiences, Hotjar (which can record sample behaviour), Amplitude, Twilio Segment, Permutive, HubSpot, Salesforce and Braze. Most run only if you accept non-essential cookies. | ||
| 318 | ||
| 319 | ### Amplitude | |
| 320 | ||
| 321 | [Amplitude](https://amplitude.com/privacy) provides analytics and event-tracking software. We use Amplitude to better understand user behaviour (e.g. which pages they visit, and which links they click). This helps us to optimise online service and user experience. Amplitude uses cookies to collect data on user behaviour. This includes browsing activity, history, location, operating system, language, device information, and IP addresses amongst others. Amplitude acts as a data processor on our behalf and we have a data processing agreement in place to support this. The legal basis for this processing is Art. 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR and reflects user consent to non-essential cookies. User consent can be removed by rejecting non-essential cookies in the privacy preference centre. | |
| 322 | ||
| 323 | ### Twilio Segment | |
| 324 | ||
| 325 | Twilio Segment is a Customer Data Platform, which facilitates the aggregation of user data from different systems. We use Segment to better understand the touchpoints our customers have across the Springer Nature landscape and facilitate more personalized marketing, including support for eCommerce-related use cases such as improving user experience and engagement with shopping activities. The personal data shared with Twilio is for the most part based on consent and in other cases legitimate interest, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a and f GDPR. For more information on how Twilio Segment processes personal data, see their privacy policy [here](https://www.twilio.com/en-us/legal/privacy). | |
| 326 | ||
| 327 | ### Permutive | |
| 328 | ||
| 329 | This Website uses services provided by Permutive Ltd., 1 Granary Square, London N1C 4AA, United Kingdom ("Permutive") to support personalized advertising and content delivery. Permutive collects and processes pseudonymised data about user browsing behavior on our website in real time. This data is used to segment users into interest-based groups or "topics," and to track engagement with eCommerce features such as product views and shopping activity. These insights enable us to deliver more relevant internal advertisements and content tailored to user preferences and shopping intent. | |
| 330 | ||
| 331 | Permutive operates using first-party technology, which means data is processed directly within the user's browser without being shared externally. The segmentation and targeting are based on pseudonymised identifiers and do not involve direct identification of individuals. | |
| 332 | ||
| 333 | The processing of personal data by Permutive is based on your consent, in accordance with Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. You can manage your preferences at any time via the "Your Privacy Choices/Manage cookies" link in the page footer. | |
| 334 | ||
| 335 | ### Targeted online advertising using email address and third-party advertising platforms | |
| 336 | ||
| 337 | With your consent, we may occasionally run online advertising activities targeting you specifically by utilising personal information you have shared with us, namely your email address. This allows us to advertise in the most relevant way, promoting products, services and opportunities that we deem beneficial to you. | |
| 338 | ||
| 339 | The legal basis for this processing is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR, consent to the use of your email address for this purpose, including its transfer to third party advertising platforms. | |
| 340 | ||
| 341 | This targeting method may be used on the following third-party advertising platforms: Meta, Google, LinkedIn, ResearchGate, Microsoft ads and Criteo. | |
+ ADDEDYour email address can be used to target ads on outside platforms With your consent, they upload your email address (scrambled) to major ad platforms so those platforms can show you ads if they already recognise you as a user. | ||
| 342 | ||
| 343 | Your personal data may be transferred outside of the EU to countries with varying data protection regulations. | |
| 344 | ||
| 345 | To enable this, your personal data is shared in an encrypted form (hashed data). This means that you can only be identified by these companies if you have previously registered with them, adhering to their data processing terms and conditions. If you haven't, your personal data will remain encrypted, protecting you from any identification thus not allowing this type of targeting method. In the same way, only personal data already shared with these platforms will be matched. | |
| 346 | ||
| 347 | Depending on the platform, ads can be served on social media feeds, on third party websites/mobile applications or as sponsored links on search engines results pages. If you no longer wish your personal data to be used in this manner, you can email [onlineservice@springernature.com](mailto:onlineservice@springernature.com), and request that your consent be removed. | |
| 348 | ||
| 349 | Equally, you can stop emails by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any email you receive. Related digital advertising can also be stopped directly via the third-party platform. | |
| 350 | ||
| 351 | ### Salesforce | |
| 352 | ||
| 353 | Throughout this website we use Salesforce to collect and process your personal data via forms. In these cases, the data you provide will only be used for the purpose of collection, for example, to contact you about the service or product of interest. We will not use the data for anything unrelated to this request. Salesforce act as a data processor on our behalf and we have a data processing agreement in place to support this arrangement. For more information on how Salesforce processes personal data see their privacy policy [here](https://www.salesforce.com/company/legal/privacy/). | |
| 354 | ||
| 355 | ### Braze | |
| 356 | ||
| 357 | We use Braze, customer engagement platform, to deliver personalized communications such as emails and on-site communication and improve communication relevance. Braze processes user data on our behalf to help tailor content based on user interactions and preferences. All data is handled securely and in accordance with applicable data protection laws; Braze acts as a data processor and does not use Springer Nature controlled data for its own purposes. See Braze's privacy policy[here](https://www.braze.com/company/legal/privacy). | |
| 358 | ||
| 359 | ## VIII. Analytics | |
| 360 | ||
| 361 | ### Our Consent Management Platform | |
| 362 | ||
| 363 | On this website we use a Consent Management Platform ("CMP") developed by Springer Nature to provide information about the cookies and other tracking technology used on our website and to manage user preferences on that behalf. | |
| 364 | ||
| 365 | Our CMP places the following cookie on your computer: | |
| 366 | ||
| 367 | sncc | |
| 368 | ||
| 369 | This allows us to identify if the cookie banner is displayed, which choices you made and how to act upon those choices (Opt-in or Opt-out of cookie categories). This cookie is necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. This is usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences. Please click here to review your current settings. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information. | |
| 370 | ||
| 371 | You can set your browser to block these cookies, but some parts of the site may then not perform as designed. | |
| 372 | ||
| 373 | Our CMP will also automatically collect additional information about you which will contain personal data only in limited cases and which is automatically recognised by our server (as per Section III, above). It is used to collect broad demographic information based on your IP address for anonymised, aggregated use. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest in optimising our service by monitoring the effectiveness of our CMP, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR. | |
| 374 | ||
| 375 | For statistical analyses we use web analytics services such as Google Analytics, collect information about the use of this site. | |
| 376 | ||
| 377 | ### General tracking information | |
| 378 | ||
| 379 | The tools collect information such as: | |
| 380 | ||
| 381 | - Device and browser information (operating system information, Mobile device identifier, mobile operating system, etc.) | |
| 382 | - IP address | |
| 383 | - Page accessed, URL click stream (the chronological order of our internet sites you visited) | |
| 384 | - Geographic location | |
| 385 | - Time of visit | |
| 386 | - Referring site, application, or service | |
| 387 | - Information about video content that you viewed | |
| 388 | ||
| 389 | We use the information we get from the providers to determine the most useful information you are looking for, and to improve and optimise this website. | |
| 390 | ||
| 391 | We will track your behaviour online for the purposes described above; this data will not be shared outside of Springer Nature. You can [stop this tracking here](https://link.springer.com/cookiepolicy). | |
| 392 | The legal basis for this processing via Google Analytics is consent, Art. 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit.a GDPR, to analyse our website's traffic, improve the user's experience and optimise the website in general. | |
| 393 | ||
| 394 | We do not share information on your web behaviour with any 3rd party providers without your explicit consent. Consent is provided by clicking the appropriate button on the web banner that appears on your first visit to the website. The legal basis for this processing is Art. 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR and represents you consent to accepting personalised advertisement cookies. | |
| 395 | ||
| 396 | Depending on the provider the information generated about your use of the website may be transferred to and processed in third countries, e.g. the United States. For further information about the potential risks of a cross border data transfer please refer to section XI. The tools collect only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit this site, rather than your name or any other identifying information. The provider will use this information in order to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activities and to provide other services relating to website and internet use to us. | |
| 397 | ||
| 398 | ### Google Analytics | |
| 399 | ||
| 400 | The processing affects the following data categories: | |
| 401 | ||
| 402 | - IP addresses | |
| 403 | - Online identifiers (including cookie identifiers) | |
| 404 | - Device identifiers | |
| 405 | - Technical characteristics of users (e.g., browser type and version, device type, operating system) | |
| 406 | - Measurement of user behavior (e.g., views of individual pages / content, views of content from different areas, session duration / dwell time, bounce rate | |
| 407 | - Use of individual website functionalities (e.g. timetable information, search queries, downloads) | |
| 408 | - Referral URL | |
| 409 | ||
| 410 | We use the addition "\_gat.\_anonymizeIp" for web analysis via Google Analytics. By means of this add-on, your IP address is shortened and anonymized by Google before transmission to the USA if our website is accessed from a member state of the European Union or the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and shortened there. | |
| 411 | ||
| 412 | The legal basis for the data transfer is Art. 28 GDPR in conjunction with the data processing agreement. The transfer of your personal data is subject to your consent according to Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. You can consent to the processing of your data by Google Analytics using our Consent Manager, prevent the collection of your data or revoke consent once given. For revocation, call up the cookie settings again at the bottom of our website. | |
| 413 | ||
| 414 | The information processed by Google about your use of this website may be transmitted to a Google server outside the EEA and processed there. The cross-border transfer is safeguarded by the Standard Contractual Clauses 2021. Your personal data will be anonymized by Google 14 months after your last activity, unless there is a legal obligation to retain it. | |
| 415 | ||
| 416 | You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser or by amending your preferences. In addition to that you may prevent the collection of the information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including you IP address) and the processing of this data by Google if you download and install the browser plug-in available at the following link: [http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout](http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout). You can access the Google Analytics privacy policy [here](https://policies.google.com/privacy). | |
| 417 | ||
| 418 | ### SpeedCurve | |
| 419 | ||
| 420 | ## IX. Third party content and social media plug-ins | |
| 421 | ||
| 422 | This website may contain links to third party websites. We are not responsible for the content and the data collection on respective third party websites; please check the privacy policy of respective websites for information of respective websites' data processing activities. | |
| 423 | ||
| 424 | ### 1\. Social media plug-ins | |
| 425 | ||
| 426 | We use the following social media plug-ins: Facebook, X. This allows you to communicate with such services and like or comment from our website. Social media plug-ins enable a direct communication between your device and the servers of the social media provider, allowing the social media provider to communicate with you and collect information about you browsing our website. This processing is based on Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR and represents our legitimate interest to improve your website experience and to optimise our services. | |
| 427 | ||
| 428 | Please note that we neither have the control of the extent of personal data that is collected by the respective plug-in provider nor do we know the processing's purpose or the period your personal data will be retained. | |
| 429 | ||
| 430 | Further information about the processing of your personal data in the provider's course of operation is provided via their respective privacy policy. Moreover, you will be provided with further information with regard to your rights and setting concerning privacy. | |
| 431 | ||
| 432 | ### a) Facebook Social Plugins | |
| 433 | ||
| 434 | We use so-called social plugins ("plugins") of the social networking site facebook.com a service of Meta Platforms Inc, 1 Hacker Way Menlo Park, California 94025, USA ("Meta"). The plugins can be identified by one of Facebook's logos (white "f" on blue tile or a "thumps-up"-sign) or by the additional text "Facebook Social Plugin". The list of Facebook Social Plugins and their appearance can be accessed via: [http://developers.facebook.com/plugins](http://developers.facebook.com/plugins). | |
| 435 | ||
| 436 | If a user visits one of the websites using such a plugin, the user's browser directly connects to Facebook's servers. The plugin and its content are made available directly on Facebook's servers and included in the website by the user's browser. | |
| 437 | ||
| 438 | Due to the integration of the plugin Facebook collects the information that a user is visiting the corresponding website. If the user is logged in on Facebook at the moment he or she visits the website, Facebook may be able to connect the visit on the website to the user's Facebook account. If the user interacts with the plugin - for example if he or she presses the like button or comments on something - the user's browser transmits this information to Facebook. Facebook stores this information. If a user is not a member of Facebook, Facebook may collect and store the user's IP-address. Facebook states that it only collects anonymized IP-addresses in Germany. | |
| 439 | ||
| 440 | The reason for and scope of the data acquisition and information about the way in which the data is processed and used by Facebook, as well as the user's rights in this respect and settings options for protecting the users privacy can be found under: [https://www.facebook.com/policy.php](https://www.facebook.com/policy.php). | |
| 441 | ||
| 442 | If the user is a member of Facebook and does not wish Facebook to collect personal data via this homepage and to link this with his data stored on Facebook, the user needs to log off from Facebook before going to this homepage. | |
| 443 | ||
| 444 | The user may also block Facebook's plugins using add-ons for the user's browser, for example the "Facebook Blocker". | |
| 445 | ||
| 446 | ### b) X | |
| 447 | ||
| 448 | We use the X-button. The button is provided by X Inc., 795 Folsom St., Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA. ("X") The buttons are marked using the text "X" or "Follow" and a stylized blue bird. The button enables the user to share an article or a website of this homepage on X or to follow the provider on X. | |
| 449 | ||
| 450 | If a user visits one of the websites using such a button, the user's browser directly connects to X's servers. The X-button and its content are loaded directly from X's servers and included in the website by the user's browser. According to the provider's knowledge, X collects the user IP-address and the website's URL when the button is loaded from X's servers. However, this data is only be used for loading and displaying the X-button. | |
| 451 | ||
| 452 | Further information can be found in X's privacy statement under: [https://x.com/en/privacy](https://x.com/en/privacy). | |
| 453 | ||
| 454 | Should you have any questions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us via the email address [dataprotection@springer.com](mailto:dataprotection@springer.com). | |
| 455 | ||
| 456 | ## X. Information sharing | |
| 457 | ||
| 458 | Where personal data is disclosed to third parties for the purposes mentioned above the legal basis for the transfer of your personal data is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b and f GDPR. Some of the recipients may reside outside the EEA. For further information about cross border transfer in general and transfers outside of the EEA see section on _Cross border data transfers._ | |
| 459 | ||
| 460 | We may disclose your personal data to contractors/data processors who assist us in providing the services we offer through the website. Such a transfer will be based on data processing agreements (Art. 28 GDPR). Therefore, our contractors will only use your personal data to the extent necessary to perform their functions and will be contractually bound to process your personal data only on our behalf and in compliance with our requests. | |
| 461 | ||
| 462 | In the event that we undergo re-organisation or are sold to a third party, any personal data we hold about you may be transferred to that re-organised entity or third party in compliance with applicable law. | |
| 463 | ||
| 464 | We may disclose your personal data if legally entitled or required to do so (for example if required by law or by a court order). The legal basis for this will be Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. c GDPR (in conjunction with the respective national law). | |
| 465 | ||
| 466 | ### 1.Peer Review and Author Services | |
| 467 | ||
| 468 | In the course of providing our peer review services, your data may be accessed by different members of the editorial team such as editors and assistant to the editorial office. To determine the locations of the Editorial board members, you may refer to a journal's homepage. Granting access to your personal data and the respective processing activity will be based on our and the legitimate interest of the respective society publishing the Journal in successfully publishing high quality articles and papers and ensuring the quality and significance of the respective research published in our journals, products and databases, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR. In order to do so we and/or the respective society may process your personal data to find, contact and evaluate suitable and qualified peer reviewers within the relevant research community. | |
| 469 | ||
| 470 | This also includes data sharing between us and the respective society. For example, we may share reviewer and author data to publish the journal. | |
| 471 | ||
| 472 | Please note that the society and we are independently responsible for the respective data processing conducted. We neither have the control of the extent to which personal data is processed by the respective society nor do we control the processing purpose or the period your personal data will be retained. It is also possible that the above-mentioned societies may disclose your personal data to their business partners, third parties or authorities. For further information on the data processing under the society's control please refer to the respective society's privacy notice. | |
| 473 | ||
| 474 | We provide TOC (table of content) alerts to members as part of the services they are entitled to under their membership with the society. This is a core element of the overall service and to this end your personal (i.e. name and email address) data is transferred to Springer Nature by the society. The legal basis for processing is Art. 6 (1) 1 lit. b GDPR. Individual members may opt-out of TOC alerts at any time via our [support portal](https://support.springernature.com/) or using the unsubscribe link in every email. This applies equally to Book Series Partners, in the event that book volume alerts are sent to a Series Partner's registered recipients. | |
| 475 | ||
| 476 | Your personal data will be transferred to and processed inside and outside of the EEA. For further information on cross border data transfer, please refer to section on _Cross border data transfers_. | |
| 477 | ||
| 478 | As an author we'll share your personal data with third parties, like your institution or employer. This is required to manage and approve payment of associated Article Publication Charges (APCs) in order to fulfill the publication of your manuscript. The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) 1 lit. b GDPR. | |
| 479 | ||
| 480 | By submitting your article for consideration, you acknowledge that if you are recognised as affiliated to an institution or funder with a Springer Nature open access agreement, your name and contact details may be shared with a representative from that institution or funder in order for us to verify whether they agree to cover, in full or in part, the article processing charge (APC) that is payable upon editorial acceptance of submitted articles. For this, the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR, to fulfil our contractual obligations to you. | |
| 481 | ||
| 482 | Should you choose not to follow the open access route to publication we may still share your personal data with the institution or funder you're affiliated with. Importantly we will only do this post publication to ensure there's no bearing on the evaluation of your submission prior to acceptance. The legal basis to share your data in this instance is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR, our legitimate interest to develop and improve our open access program to the benefit of authors and the scientific community generally. | |
| 483 | ||
| 484 | Customer service, administrative, operational and systems support is provided by other entities of the Springer Nature Group and third party contractors (together "Contractors"). We may disclose your personal data to Contractors who assist us in providing the services we offer through the Submission and Peer Review System. Such a transfer will be based on data processing agreements in accordance with Article 28 of the GDPR. Therefore, our Contractors will only use your personal data to the extent necessary to perform their functions and will be contractually bound to process your personal data only on our behalf and in compliance with our requests. Further services, provided by third party technology and service providers, are similarly bound by data processing agreements. | |
| 485 | ||
| 486 | ### 2\. Usage Reports | |
| 487 | ||
| 488 | We may disclose anonymous aggregate statistics about users of the website in order to describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers and other reputable third parties and for other lawful purposes, but these statistics will include no personal data. We also supply standardized usage reports to institutional customers, also known as Counter Reports. For more information on Counter Reports - [https://www.projectcounter.org/code-of-practice-sections/usage-reports/](https://www.projectcounter.org/code-of-practice-sections/usage-reports/) | |
| 489 | ||
| 490 | **In addition to the above mentioned anonymous reports and by special arrangement:** | |
| 491 | ||
| 492 | When you read research journals and eBooks or use database products, we will process your personal data to create usage reports. For journals and eBooks this will include your full text HTML and PDF downloads, your IP address and potentially your email address. This data is necessary for the usage report as it provides information on the usage and overall interest in a particular journal or group of journals or eBooks. | |
+ ADDEDYour reading activity is reported to your university or employer If your access comes through an institution, they build usage reports that can include your downloads, IP address and sometimes your email address, and share them with that institution. | ||
| 493 | ||
| 494 | The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) 1 lit. f GDPR. We have a legitimate interest to assess and evaluate the use of our content to be able to improve our services. We will retain this data securely for ongoing internal analysis and future reference. | |
| 495 | ||
| 496 | We may share the usage data with licensee under whose license you are accessing and using our services, (e.g. your employer, the institution you are a member to, your university etc. "Licensee"). The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) 1 lit. f GDPR. The Licensee has a legitimate interest in using the usage data to assess and evaluate the economic efficiency of its license for our content. Based on this evaluation, the Licensee will be able to determine e.g. the necessity to obtain more licenses or reduce the number of licenses or to allocate costs internally. Further, the usage data may allow the Licensee to request contributions or funding. The Licensee is contractually limited to use using the usage data for no other purposes than these economic efficiency assessment purposes. | |
| 497 | ||
| 498 | In addition, we ourselves have a legitimate interest in enabling the Licensee to use the usage data to conduct respective evaluation and assessments is also in our interest as it makes our service more attractive for the Licensees. | |
| 499 | ||
| 500 | If the Licensee resides outside the EEA, the transfer is safeguarded by a Commission's adequacy decision or EU Standard Contractual Clauses. You can find further information about the aforementioned safeguards by contacting [onlineservice@springernature.com](mailto:onlineservice@springernature.com). | |
| 501 | ||
| 502 | You may object to the transfer of the usage data to the Licensee at any time without reason by sending an email to [onlineservice@springernature.com](mailto:onlineservice@springernature.com). | |
| 503 | ||
| 504 | ## XI. Cross border data transfers | |
| 505 | ||
| 506 | Within the scope of our information sharing activities set out above, your personal data may be transferred to other countries (including countries outside the EEA) which may have different data protection standards from your country of residence. Please note that data processed in a foreign country may be subject to foreign laws and accessible to foreign governments, courts, law enforcement, and regulatory agencies. However, we will endeavour to take reasonable measures to maintain an adequate level of data protection when sharing your personal data with such countries. | |
+ ADDEDData can go to countries with weaker privacy protection Your data may be sent outside the EEA, where foreign governments and law enforcement may be able to access it. They rely on EU standard contract clauses as a safeguard. | ||
| 507 | ||
| 508 | In the case of a transfer outside of the EEA, this transfer is safeguarded by the EU Model Clauses in accordance with Article 46 GDPR. You can find further information about the aforementioned safeguards by following this link [https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection\_en](https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection_en) or contact our Group Data Protection Officer via our [support portal](https://support.springernature.com/). | |
| 509 | ||
| 510 | ## XII. Security | |
| 511 | ||
| 512 | We have reasonable state of the art security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of personal data under our control. For example, our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorised personnel have access to personal data. Whilst we cannot ensure or guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration of information will never occur, we use all reasonable efforts to prevent it. | |
| 513 | ||
| 514 | You should bear in mind that submission of information over the internet is never entirely secure. We cannot guarantee the security of information you submit via our website whilst it is in transit over the internet and any such submission is at your own risk. | |
| 515 | ||
| 516 | ## XIII. Data retention | |
| 517 | ||
| 518 | We strive to keep our processing activities with respect to your personal data as limited as possible. In the absence of specific retention periods set out in this policy, your personal data will be retained only for as long as we need it to fulfil the purpose for which we have collected it and, if applicable, as long as required by statutory retention requirements. | |
| 519 | ||
| 520 | ## XIV. Your rights | |
| 521 | ||
| 522 | Under the legislation applicable to you, you may be entitled to exercise some or all of the following rights: | |
+ ADDEDClear list of your privacy rights and opt-outs The policy sets out rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, object and port your data, plus unsubscribe links, a cookie preference centre, and contact routes for the Data Protection Officer. This part works in your favour. | ||
| 523 | ||
| 524 | 1. require (i) information as to whether your personal data is retained and (ii) access to and/or duplicates of your personal data retained, including the purposes of the processing, the categories of personal data concerned, and the data recipients as well as potential retention periods; | |
| 525 | 2. request rectification, removal or restriction of your personal data, e.g. because (i) it is incomplete or inaccurate, (ii) it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, or (iii) the consent on which the processing was based has been withdrawn; | |
| 526 | 3. refuse to provide and - without impact to data processing activities that have taken place before such withdrawal - withdraw your consent to processing of your personal data at any time; | |
| 527 | 4. object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, that your personal data shall be subject to a processing. In this case, please provide us with information about your particular situation. After the assessment of the facts presented by you we will either stop processing your personal data or present you our compelling legitimate grounds for an ongoing processing; | |
| 528 | 5. take legal actions in relation to any potential breach of your rights regarding the processing of your personal data, as well as to lodge complaints before the competent data protection regulators; | |
| 529 | 6. require (i) to receive the personal data concerning you, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and (ii) to transmit those data to another controller without hindrance from our side; where technically feasible you shall have the right to have the personal data transmitted directly from us to another controller; and/or | |
| 530 | 7. not to be subject to any automated decision making, including profiling (automatic decisions based on data processing by automatic means, for the purpose of assessing several personal aspects) which produce legal effects on you or affects you with similar significance. | |
| 531 | ||
| 532 | You may (i) exercise the rights referred to above or (ii) pose any questions or (iii) make any complaints regarding our data processing by contacting us using the contact details set out below. | |
| 533 | ||
| 534 | ## XIV. Contacting us | |
| 535 | ||
| 536 | Please submit any questions, concerns or comments you have about this privacy policy or any requests concerning your personal data by email to our Group Data Protection Officer. You can contact our Group Data Protection Officer via our [support portal](https://support.springernature.com/). | |
| 537 | ||
| 538 | The information you provide when contacting us via our [support portal](https://support.springernature.com/) will be processed to handle your request and will be erased when your request is completed. Alternatively, we will restrict the processing of the respective information in accordance with statutory retention requirements. | |
| 539 | ||
| 540 | ## XV. Amendments to this policy | |
| 541 | ||
| 542 | We reserve the right to change this policy from time to time by updating our website respectively. Please visit the website regularly and check our respective current privacy policy. This policy was last updated on 5th August 2026. | |
+ ADDEDThe policy can be changed at any time without notifying you Springer Nature can update the policy by posting a new version on the site; it is on you to check back for changes. | ||