Privacy Policy

General

This privacy statement (together with our website Terms of Use and any additional data privacy notices on our websites or in targeted e-mails) explains how QMC Cares collects and uses the personal data of our website visitors and client and business contacts. Any changes we may make to our privacy statement in the future will be posted on this page.. That’s it in a nutshell. The short of it is—we are interested in maintaining your privacy while creating valuable, robust websites, giving you the best user experience possible, and in some cases developing a personal relationship with you to provide you with customized services and information. If you have any questions now or during your visit, please contact us using our Contact Us form. This privacy policy is effective July 6, 2016.

What personal data do we collect ?

Each section of this privacy statement explains the types of personal data that we collect and use at our websites, and in connection with our marketing activities.

Will we share your personal data with outside parties ?

We will not sell personal data to third parties. We generally only share personal data with our contracted service providers and advisors. However, there will be other times when we need to share or disclose personal data you provide for a specific purpose, for example:.

• In the case of an event where we need to provide our caterer with meal preference information or we are running a joint event and have informed you that the data will be shared with our partners. But again, we will notify you as to why we are asking for specific information and it is completely up to you whether you want to provide it.
• We may need to disclose your personal data to third parties in the event that we sell or liquidate any part of our business or assets;.
• We will disclose or share your personal data to comply with any legal obligation, or to enforce or apply our Terms of Use; or to protect the rights, property, or safety of QMC Cares, our clients, or others.

What about sensitive personal data ?

We do not generally seek to collect sensitive personal data through this site. In the limited cases where we do seek to collect such data, we will do this in accordance with local data privacy law requirements. If you choose to provide us with unsolicited sensitive personal data, you consent to our using the data, subject to applicable law as described in this privacy policy. The term “sensitive personal data” refers to the various categories of personal data identified by European and other data privacy laws as requiring special treatment, including in some circumstances the need to obtain explicit consent. These categories may include personal identity numbers, financial account information, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious, philosophical or other similar beliefs, membership of a trade union or profession or trade association, physical or mental health, biometric or genetic data, sexual life, or criminal record (including information about suspected criminal activities).

What about security ?

We take appropriate steps to maintain the security of personal data collected via QMC Cares’ websites. You should understand that the open nature of the Internet is such that information and personal data may flow over networks connecting you to our systems without security measures and may be accessed and used by people other than those for whom the data is intended. Our site may, from time to time, contain links to and from the sites of our partner networks, advertisers and affiliates. If you follow a link to any of these sites, please note that these sites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies or sites. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these sites.

Your rights

You are entitled to know whether we hold personal data about you and, if we do, to have access to that personal data and require it to be corrected if it is inaccurate. You can do this by using our Contact Us form. You can exercise your right to prevent marketing communications to you by checking certain boxes on the forms we use to collect your personal data, or by utilizing opt-out mechanisms in e-mails we send to you. You can also exercise the right to discontinue marketing communications to you, or to have your personal data removed from our customer relationship management (CRM) databases at any time by using our Contact Us form.

I have a question or complaint

If you can’t find what you’re looking for here, or have a concern about our use of your personal data, please use the Contact Us form.

Websites

This site is administered by QMC Cares.

Your privacy on QMC Cares’ websites

The primary purpose of QMC Cares’ website is to be a dynamic resource and business tool to help you learn more about QMC Cares. We want you to feel secure when visiting our website and are committed to maintaining your privacy when doing so.

Your privacy on QMC Cares’ websites

The primary purpose of QMC Cares’ website is to be a dynamic resource and business tool to help you learn more about QMC Cares. We want you to feel secure when visiting our website and are committed to maintaining your privacy when doing so.

What information do we gather ?

QMC Cares collects information at its websites in two ways: (1) directly (for example, when you provide information to sign up for a newsletter or register to comment on a forum website); and (2) indirectly (for example, through our website’s technology). We may collect and process the following information:

• Information that you provide by filling in forms on our website. This includes registering to use the website, subscribing to services, newsletters and alerts, registering for a conference or requesting a white paper or further information. Pages that collect this type of information may provide further information as to why your data is needed and how it will be used. It is completely up to you whether you want to provide it.
• If you contact us, we may keep a record of that correspondence.
• We may ask you to complete surveys that we use for research purposes, although you do not have to respond to them.
• Any postings, comments or other content that you upload or post to an QMC Cares’ website.
• Our website collects information about your computer, including (where available) your IP address, operating system and browser type, for system administration, to filter traffic, to look up user domains and to report on statistics.
• Details of your visits to our website, the pages you view and resources you access or download, including but not limited to, traffic data, location data, weblogs and other communication data). Please see the Cookies section below for more information.

When this information relates to or identifies you, we will treat it as “personal data.

How do we use information that we collect from the site ?

We use personal data to provide you with information you request, process online job applications, and for other purposes which we would describe to you at the point where it is collected or which will be obvious to you. For example:

• To fulfill your requests for white papers, articles, newsletters or other content.
• For surveys or research questionnaires.
• To personalize your experience at our website.
• To contact you for marketing purposes where you have agreed to this.

We analyze your IP and browser information to determine what is most effective about our website, to help us identify ways to improve it and make it more effective. Please see the Cookies section below for more information.

COOKIES and OTHER TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES

What are cookies ?

Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognizes that cookie. Cookies are useful because they allow a website to recognize a user’s device. You can find more information about cookies at all about cookies For a video about cookies visit google cookies. Cookies do many different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improving the user experience. They can also help to ensure that the advertisements and other content you see online are more relevant to you and your interests. They can be set by the website that you are visiting (known as first party cookies) or by another entity such as an advertising network (known as third party cookies).The cookies used on this website have been categorized on the basis of the four categories found in the ICC UK Cookie guide. A list of all the cookies used on this website by category is set out below. Within the four categories, cookies can either be session or persistent. Session cookies are temporary and once you close the browser window they are deleted from your device. Persistent cookies remain on your device for a longer period and are used by the website to recognize your device when you return.

What other tracking technology do we use ?

We may also use web beacons or other technologies for similar purposes and we may include these in marketing e-mail messages or our newsletters to determine whether messages have been opened and links clicked on. Web beacons do not place information on your device, but may work in conjunction with cookies to monitor website activity.

What if I don’t want cookies ?

By using our website you agree that we can place cookies on your device as explained below. If you want to remove existing cookies from your device you can do this using your browser options. If you want to block future cookies being placed on your device you can change your browser settings to do this. When you review your browser settings or options, you can identify the QMC Cares cookies by the fact they include “QMC Cares” in the name. For more information on managing cookies see, Current “Do Not Track” initiatives are not recognized by our website. Please bear in mind that deleting and blocking cookies will have an impact on your user experience as parts of the website may no longer work. Unless you have adjusted your browser settings to block cookies, our system will issue cookies as soon as you visit our website or click a link in a targeted email we have sent you, even if you have previously deleted our cookies. You cannot remove or block web beacons or personalized URLs, as they form part of the content of web pages and emails rather than placing information on your device. But, as they work in conjunction with cookies, turning off cookies will also prevent any web beacons from tracking your user activity on our site. The web beacon will still account for an anonymous visit, but your unique information will not be recorded.

What types of cookies are there and which ones does the website use ?

Strictly necessary cookies – These cookies are essential to enable you to move around the site and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of the website. Without these cookies services you have asked for cannot be provided. We categorize the following cookies as strictly necessary:

• Registered Visitor Cookie – A unique identifier given to each registered user, used to recognize them through their visit and when they return to the website. (see also Functionality cookies below). Performance cookies – These cookies collect information about how visitors use a website, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. These cookies don’t collect information that identifies a visitor. All information these cookies collect is anonymous and is only used to improve how a website works.
• Referrer URL (internal page) – Used to store the URL of the previous page visited. Allows us to track how visitors navigate through our website.
• Referrer URL (external page, including if you click on links on QMC Cares social media pages) Used to store the URL which refers a visitor to our website so we may understand what URLs are referring visitors to our website.
• URL history – Used to store the page visited by a user before that user submits a form. Also, used to display recently viewed articles to each visitor.
• Unregistered Visitor Cookie – A unique identifier given to each visitor to allow analysis on how unregistered visitors use our website.
• Session management cookies – These cookies allow us to follow the actions of a user during a browser session. A browser session starts when a user opens the browser window and finishes when they close their browser window. Our session management cookies are created temporarily. Once you close your browser, our session management cookies are deleted.

Functionality cookies

These cookies allow a website to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language or the region you are in) and provide enhanced, more personal features. For instance, a website may be able to provide you with local information or news by storing in a cookie the region in which you are currently located. These cookies can also be used to remember changes you have made to text size, font and other parts of web pages that you can customize. They may also be used to provide services you have asked for such as watching a video or commenting on a blog. These cookies cannot track your browsing activity on other websites. They don’t gather any information about you that could be used for advertising or remembering where you’ve been on the internet outside our website.

• Recently viewed pages – Stores pages visited by the user on our website and displays them in right hand navigation for easy reference.
• Search history – Stores searches on our website conducted by the user and displays them for the user in the right hand navigation for easy reference.
• Registered Visitor Cookie – A unique identifier given to each registered user to our website, used to serve them content and offers based on their profiles. Also used for analysis and marketing purposes (See also: Strictly necessary cookies above and Use of cookies for marketing and analytics below).

Targeting cookies – These cookies are used to: (1) deliver advertisements that are targeted to be relevant to you, (2) limit the number of times you see an advertisement, and (3) help measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign. They are usually placed by advertising networks with the website operator’s permission. They remember that you have visited a website and this information is shared with other organizations such as advertisers. Quite often they will be linked to website functionality provided by the other organization. At QMC Cares we do not have third party advertising on our website so we do not use these targeting cookies on our website. (See Use of cookies for marketing and analytics below for how we may use these on third party websites). Third party social media websites may log information about you, for example if you click an “Add This” or “Like” button for a social media website while on our website. We do not control such websites or their activities. You may be able to find information about social media websites on the websites themselves. We recommend you read the terms of use and privacy policy of such websites before using them.

Use of cookies for marketing and analytics –

We may use information collected from our cookies to identify user behavior and to serve content and offers based on your profile, and for the other purposes described below. Some of the cookies we use don’t collect information that identifies a visitor.

• Performance cookies (see above)
• If you click on an QMC Cares advertisement on a non-QMC Cares website, a cookie may be used to log which website you are on, to ensure our advertisements are served effectively and to measure whether our advertisements are viewed. QMC Cares may use service providers such as Doubleclick, MediaMind, www.DidIt.com and others for these purposes
• We partner with ShareThis on our website. ShareThis is a widget on the website that enables users to share content from the website with others through social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. ShareThis includes cookies on the website which collect information on how users use the website and associate users with topics of interest, based on the content they share. This data will be used for analytics on the website (creating statistics as to what is most popular and how many people are sharing particular content) and to determine how to target advertising on other external websites. ShareThis may share its analytical data with QMC Cares. ShareThis does not use personal identifiers of users (such as names and e-mail addresses) for these purposes and identification is solely by an anonymous identifier. For further information about ShareThis, the cookies it uses and how to opt out of ShareThis cookies, please refer to their website [www.sharethis.com/privacy].
• In other cases we can associate cookie information (including information from cookies placed via our advertisements on third party sites) with an identifiable individual.
  • If a user is a registered user (see RegisteredVisitorCookie above)
  • If we send you a targeted email which includes web beacons, cookies or similar technologies we will know whether you open, read, or delete the message.
  • When you click a link in a marketing e-mail you receive from QMC Cares, we will also use a cookie to log what pages you view and what content you download from our websites, even if you are not registered at or signed into our site.

  Non-cookie tracking technologies –QMC Cares also employs technologies that perform similar functions to cookies, but that may not respond to browser settings intended for use with cookies. These include personalized URLs (PURLs), web beacons, and other similar technologies.

  Marketing

  QMC Cares uses personal data of our clients and other business contacts in various ways to develop and strengthen our client and business relationships, provide information about our company, services and publications and communicate about and market our services. In general, QMC Cares is a business-to-business company, and does not typically market to consumers or the general public. Rather, our marketing activities are targeted to relevant individuals we identify as decision makers at current or potential client companies. The following describes our use of personal data for marketing purposes:

  Sources of Marketing Data.

  The bulk of the personal data we collect and use for marketing purposes relates to individuals employees of our clients and other companies with which we have an existing business relationship. We may also obtain contact information from public sources, including content made public at social media websites, to make an initial contact with a relevant individual at a client or other company.

  Targeted E-mail.

  We send commercial e-mail to individuals at our client or other companies with whom we want to develop or maintain a business relationship. Our targeted e-mail messages typically include web beacons, cookies, and similar technologies that allow us to know whether you open, read, or delete the message, and links you may click. When you click a link in a marketing e-mail you receive from QMC Cares, we will also use a cookie to log what pages you view and what content you download from our websites, even if you are not registered at or signed into our site. Targeted e-mails from QMC Cares may include additional data privacy information, as required by applicable laws.

  Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Databases.

  Like all large companies, QMC Cares uses customer relationship management (CRM) database technology to manage and track our marketing efforts. Our CRM databases include personal data belonging to individuals at our client and other companies with whom we already have a business relationship or want to develop one. The personal data used for these purposes includes relevant business information, such as: contact data, publicly available information (e.g. board membership, published articles, press releases, your public posts on social media sites if relevant for business purpose), your responses to targeted e-mail (including web activity following links from our e-mails), website activity of registered users of our website, and other business information included by QMC Cares sales professionals based on their personal interactions with you.

  Combining Data from Multiple Sources.

  As described above, we may combine data from publicly available sources, and from our e-mail, website, and personal interactions with you. We combine this data to better understand your needs and the needs of your company, to assess the suitability of our service offerings for your needs, and to perform the other activities described throughout this privacy statement.