NewsCred Product Privacy and Cookie Policy

Last Updated: March 1st, 2020

NewsCred, Inc., d/b/a Welcome Software, values and respects its customers’ privacy. “NewsCred”, “we”, “ours”, and “us” refers to NewsCred, Inc. and any of our affiliates. “Customers, “you”, and “your” refers to any customer purchasing Services from NewsCred. “Services” refers to our proprietary software, content, and professional services, which are purchased by our customers. This Privacy and Cookie Policy (this “Policy” “Privacy Policy”) describes the types of personal data we collect from your website, how we use the information, with whom we share it, and the choices you can make about our collection, use and disclosure of the information. We also describe the measures we take to protect the security of the information and how to contact us about our privacy practices.

For the purposes of this Policy, “personal data” or “personal information” shall have the meaning given to such terms by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). NewsCred commits to cooperate with EU data protection authorities (“DPAs”) and the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (“FDPIC”) and comply with the advice given by such authorities with regard to data transferred from the EU and Switzerland.

This Policy covers the information we collect about you and your website visitors when you access our software or publish content via our software. For information on personal data that we collect from our public website visitors, we maintain a separate Privacy Policy.

Being transparent is important to us. Please read the following carefully to understand our views and practices regarding your personal data and how we will treat it. We will only process your personal data in accordance with applicable data protection and privacy laws, and subject to your consent. If you do not accept this Policy, you should not access or use our Services or interact with any other aspect of our business.

For the purpose of EU data protection legislation, the data controller is NewsCred, Inc., of 386 Park Avenue South, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10016.

Legal Basis for Processing Personal Data

Our legal basis for processing personal information is Article 6, subsection 1(b) of the GDPR, because tracking such data is necessary for the performance of our contract with customers to provide our Services. 

Information We Collect

From you

NewsCred obtains personal data about you when you provide such information in the course of various interactions, including:
– Visiting our public website(s) or logging into our gated software
– Communicating with us via telephone or e-mail, such as contacting customer support
– Engaging with our content via social media
– Participating in events or promotions

From others

We also may obtain personal information about you from our business partners, clients, and other third parties.

Automatically from cookies

We automatically log information about you and your computer or mobile device. For example, we log your IP address and unique cookie ID using cookies. Please refer to the sections on Cookies below.

From your website visitors

In order to provide you with analytics metrics, NewsCred collects IP addresses and cookie IDs from your website visitors when they view content that you’ve published via our software. 

When your website visitors interact with your content, the types of information that may be collected via a cookie includes the following:
1. your computer’s Internet Protocol (IP) address;
2. your browser type and operating system;
3. search terms that you use to reach the site;
4. the web pages you were visiting immediately before and after you came to the site;
5. dates and times of visits to the site;
6. information on actions taken on the site (such as page views and site navigation patterns);
7. amount of time spent viewing certain pages or screens;
8. standard server log information;
9. social actions taken with respect to the content on the site, including but not limited to likes and shares on LinkedIn and Facebook; and/or
10. advertisement interaction and viewing data, such as ad click-through rates and information about how many times you viewed a particular ad.

We collect no other personal information from you except that which is explicitly stated herein. 

COOKIES

We may collect information using “cookies”. Cookies are small data files stored on the hard drive of your computer or mobile device by a website. We may use both session cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent cookies (which stay on your computer or mobile device until you delete them) to provide you with a more personal and interactive experience on our software. We use two broad categories of cookies: (1) first-party cookies, served directly by us to your computer or mobile device, which are used only by us to recognize your computer or mobile device when it revisits our Site; and (2) third-party cookies, which are served by service providers on our software, and can be used by such service providers to recognize your computer or mobile device when it visits other websites.

Cookies we use

Our software uses the following types of cookies for the purposes set out below:

Essential Cookies: These cookies are essential to provide you with services available through our site and to enable you to use some of its features. Without these cookies, the services that you have asked for cannot be provided, and we only use these cookies to provide you with those services.

Functionality Cookies: These cookies allow our us to remember choices you make when you use our site, such as remembering your language preferences, and remembering your login details. The purpose of these cookies is to provide you with a more personal experience and to avoid you having to re-enter your preferences every time you visit our site.

Analytics and Performance Cookies: These cookies are used to collect information about traffic to your website. The information gathered does not identify any individual visitor. The information is aggregated and therefore anonymous. It includes the number of visitors to your site, the websites that referred them to your site, the pages that they visited on your site, what time of day they visited your site, whether they have visited your site before, and other similar information. We use this information to provide you with more powerful content-level performance metrics and help you run a stronger content hub overall. 

We use Google Analytics for this purpose. Google Analytics uses its own cookies. You can find out more information about Google Analytics cookies here: 

https://developers.google.com/analytics/resources/concepts/gaConceptsCookies.

You can find out more about how Google protects your data here: 

www.google.com/analytics/learn/privacy.html.

You can prevent the use of Google Analytics by downloading and installing the browser plugin available via this link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en-GB

Social Media Cookies: These cookies are used when your website visitors share information using a social media sharing button or “like” button on rour site or engage with your content on or through a social networking website
such as Facebook or LinkedIn. The social network will record that you have done this.

Disabling cookies

You may opt out of cookies on NewsCred’s software by downloading the plugin located at https://www.ghostery.com/en/download. However, if you refuse cookies, you may be unable to access certain parts of these websites or be unable to use some of our services.

You can also typically remove or reject cookies via your browser settings. In order to do this, follow the instructions provided by your browser (usually located within the “settings”, “help” “tools” or “edit” facility). Many browsers are set to accept cookies until you change your settings.

Further information about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set on your computer or mobile device and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org and www.youronlinechoices.com.uk.

Pixel tags

We also use tracking pixels through img tags on your website to track the visitors’ actions. Such tags are embedded within each particular page of the website. Pixel tags allow us to measure the performance of your content and gather statistics about overall website usage. Pixel tags only track IP addresses for the sole purpose of counting unique visitors.

We will not share, sell, or otherwise distribute your or your website visitors’ personal data to any third parties, except as outlined herein and absolutely necessary.

Business Communications

You may provide your email address to us or other contact information to receive industry news, intelligence, information about NewsCred products and services, and other business communications. You may opt out of our email marketing communications using the link at the bottom of each email. Please note that even if you opt out, you may continue to receive certain email communications from us regarding your relationship with NewsCred, such as updated terms. 

Business Transitions

In the event NewsCred goes through a business transition, such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of a portion of its assets, users’ personal data will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred.

Disclosure

Only in order to maintain our website or deliver our Services, we may share limited information about you with our third-party service providers, business partners, and clients. Such disclosures will be governed by required data protection agreements with those third parties. NewsCred will never sell personal data to any third parties.  NewsCred also may need to disclose personal data when required by law and/or when we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a) a current judicial proceeding, b) a court order or c) legal process served on NewsCred.

Information Security

All data is encrypted. NewsCred has technical, administrative and physical safeguards in place to help protect against unauthorized access to, use or disclosure of user information we maintain. We recognize, however, that no program is one hundred percent secure and we cannot guarantee that our safeguards will prevent every unauthorized attempt to access, use or disclose personal data. If you become aware of a security issue, please email us at legal [at] newscred [dot] com. We will work with you to address any problems.

Your Rights and Choices

You may withdraw any consent you previously provided to us, or object at any time on legitimate grounds, to the processing of your personal data, including the sharing of your information with third parties, by emailing privacy [at] newscred [dot] com. We will apply your preferences going forward. However, withdrawing your consent to NewsCred’s use or disclosure of your or your website visitors’ personal data will mean that you cannot take advantage of certain NewsCred products or services, namely our valuable analytics tool. 

You may also access the information we hold about you and your website visitors. If you wish to exercise this right, please contact us at privacy [at] newscred [dot] com. You can contact us to update or correct any inaccuracies in the personal data we hold about you. In your request, please make clear what personal data you would like to have changed, whether you would like to have your personal data that you have provided to us suppressed from our database or otherwise let us know what limitations you would like to put on our use of your personal data that you have provided to us. For your protection, we may only implement requests with respect to the personal data associated with the particular email address that you use to send us your request, and we may need to verify your identity before implementing your request. We will try to comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable.

Data Retention

We will retain your personal data for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Policy unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law. You have every right to request that we delete your data altogether.

Data Transfers

This is a U.S. software subject to U.S. laws, including those governing the privacy and security of your information. When we obtain personal data about you, we may process the information outside of the country in which you are located, including in the United States. Please note that all data is stored on Amazon Web Servers in the United States. The countries in which we process the information may not have the same data protection laws as the country in which you are located. By using this site, you agree to the transfer, storing or processing of your personal data to the United States. We will protect your information as described in this Privacy Policy.

NewsCred complies with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework and Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information transferred from the European Union and Switzerland to the United States. NewsCred has certified to the Department of Commerce that it adheres to the Privacy Shield Principles. If there is any conflict between the terms in this Privacy Policy and the Privacy Shield Principles, the Privacy Shield Principles shall govern. To learn more about the Privacy Shield program, and to view our certification, please visit https://www.privacyshield.gov/.

In compliance with the Privacy Shield Principles, NewsCred commits to resolve complaints about our collection or use of your personal information. EU and Swiss individuals with inquiries or complaints regarding our Privacy Shield policy should first contact NewsCred at: [email protected] and/or 212-989-4100.

NewsCred has further committed to refer unresolved Privacy Shield complaints to EU data protection authorities, an alternative dispute resolution provider located in the EU. If you do not receive timely acknowledgment of your complaint from us, or if we have not addressed your complaint to your satisfaction, please contact or visit the EU data protection authorities for more information or to file a complaint. The services of the EU data protection authorities are provided at no cost to you.

NewsCred is subject to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”). As such, we will be held liable for any personal data breaches or transfers. We may be required to disclose personal data in response to lawful requests by the FTC or other public authorities. You have every right to invoke binding arbitration in certain limited circumstances.

As provided herein, NewsCred also complies with the GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act.

Children

This website and our Services are not intended for or targeted at children under the age of 16, and we do not knowingly or intentionally collect information about children under the age of 16. 

Notification of Changes

Whenever NewsCred changes this Product Privacy Policy, we will issue an updated policy via e-mail and/or our website so our customers are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it.