Legal

Privacy Policy

Effective May 23, 2023

Spiceworks, Inc. and its affiliates ("Spiceworks") delivers trusted content and tools that help consumers, small businesses and enterprises decide and act on important technology decisions.  Spiceworks values your privacy and is committed to protecting the privacy of your information.

This Privacy Policy (or "policy") describes how Spiceworks uses the personal information you provide and the rights you have. We have created this Privacy Portal to help you exercise your rights.

1. Privacy Policy Overview
2. Information We Collect, Receive and Create About You
3. Data Processing and Retention
4. Sensitive Personal Information
5. Direct Marketing
6. Behavioral Advertising
7. Cookies
8. Information We Share With Third Parties
9. International Transfers of Information
10. Data Security and Breach Handling
11. Data Retention
12. Your Rights With Respect to Your Personal Information
13. How to Change Your Preferences
14. Contact Details
15. Children
16. How this Privacy Policy May Change

2. Information we Collect, Receive and Create about You 

We may collect or obtain information about you when you sign up, when you create profiles, pages or contributions, when you use and interact with our services and when you make your personal information public. In some cases, we may also receive information about you from third parties.

Data you provide when you sign up: This is, for example, username, password, subscription information, and basic information about any other accounts you choose to associate with your registration, like your LinkedIn, Facebook, or Google account.

Data you provide when you create profiles, pages or contributions: This is user generated contributions, such as the contents of profiles, including your profile name, contact details and any demographic information you choose to provide; as well as any comments and posts made in forums. We seek to provide users with an opportunity to be a part of an online community and communicate and share with others. This can include personal information that users choose to share. We encourage all of our users to make conscious choices about what they share online. Spiceworks, including its affiliates, subsidiaries and/or parent company, is not responsible for the information you disclose to the public using our services.

Inferences: We may infer data about you based on your interests, where you live, what language(s) you speak, and other data we have access to.

Data we collect through your use of our services: We make and keep records when we provide you support or assistance on our services. We may also collect information about how you interact with our various services (or parts of our services) or third party content you see on our apps and sites. We also collect data on how you interact with the ads you see.

Data we receive from third parties: In some cases, we may receive information about you from third parties, for example, social networking sites. Please note that this policy does not cover the practices of third parties, including those that may disclose information to Ziff Davis.

3. Data Processing and Retention

We process your personal information in order to provide you the best experience of our services. We may also process your Information where the processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal rights.

Below is a chart stating which categories of your personal information we process for which purposes specifically, and how long we retain that data. Our processing of your data is subject to your use of our service, your privacy preferences, and your account settings choices.

Personal Information We may Process the following categories of Personal Information about you.

4. Sensitive Personal Information

We may process your precise location data where we have, in accordance with applicable law, obtained your consent prior to processing your sensitive personal information.

We do not seek to collect or process other sensitive personal information, such as, race or ethnicity, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, physical or mental health, or sex life. Where users choose to disclose sensitive personal information within profiles, contributions or other free-text fields available through Spiceworks, we do not use the sensitive information for any additional purpose without consent, unless required to comply with laws, or prevent crimes.

5. Direct Marketing

We may use the contact details you provided us to reach out to you with information regarding services that may be of interest to you, for example, upcoming promotions. You may unsubscribe from the Spiceworks newsletter and email lists at any time by following the unsubscribe instructions included in every email we send or you can manage your email subscriptions at any time by editing your personal profile. We will not send you any emails from a list you unsubscribed from, but we may continue to contact you to the extent necessary for the purposes of other Services you have requested or for additional emails you have signed up for.

6. Behavioral Advertising

Spiceworks and third parties, subject to your privacy choices and settings, may collect data about your behavior while using our services in order to provide you with more relevant interest-based advertising on other websites and applications, as well as our partners' platforms and media channels. If you do not wish to receive this advertising, you can change your preferences by clicking here.

7. Cookies

We may collect information about you through the use of cookies and similar technologies on our sites and apps, or your devices. We also may permit our third-party service providers to perform various analytics functions and to provide you with more relevant or interest-based advertisements using cookies.

Some third parties may choose to use their own cookies for the purposes of collecting information relating to the viewing of their advertising. To learn more about how we use cookies, and to manage your preferences, please see our Cookie Policy. This policy, and our Cookie Policy, are only intended to cover the use of cookies as they relate to Spiceworks businesses.

8. Information We Share with Third Parties

Ziff Davis Companies: Spiceworks is owned by Ziff Davis Inc, a holding company which owns many brands in the areas of technology, shopping, entertainment, health, parenting, and connectivity. We share your information with other businesses owned by Ziff Davis, Inc. ( "Ziff Davis Companies") to assist us in the operation of our services, improve them, and further develop them.

We also share information with other Ziff Davis Companies for the purposes of targeted advertising. If you would like to opt out of the sale or sharing of your data with other Ziff Davis Companies, you can do so via our Privacy Portal.   

Other Third Parties: We may also share your personal information with the following:

9. International Transfers of Information

We may transfer your information to recipients in other countries. LMG, by way of its parent company Ziff Davis, Inc., participates in the E.U.-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, the UK extension to the EU-U.S. DPF, the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Framework and the APEC Cross Border Privacy Rules System. Where we transfer information from the European Economic Area ("EEA") to a recipient outside the EEA that is not in an adequate jurisdiction, we do so on the basis of standard contractual clauses.

Because of the international nature of our business, we may need to transfer your information within the Ziff Davis group of companies, and to third parties as noted above, in connection with the purposes set out in this Policy. For this reason, we may transfer your information to other countries that may have different laws and data protection compliance requirements to those that apply in the country in which you are located. We remain liable under the DPF Principles if any third parties that we transfer your personal information to process it in a manner inconsistent with the DPF Principles, unless we prove that we are not responsible for the event giving rise to the damage.

LMG and its associated affiliates and subsidiaries complies with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF) and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF, and the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (Swiss-U.S. DPF) as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce. LMG has certified to the U.S. Department of Commerce that it adheres to the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Principles (EU-U.S. DPF Principles) with regard to the processing of personal data received from the European Union and the United Kingdom in reliance on the EU-U.S. DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF. LMG has certified to the U.S. Department of Commerce that it adheres to the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Principles (Swiss-U.S. DPF Principles) with regard to the processing of personal data received from Switzerland in reliance on the Swiss-U.S. DPF. If there is any conflict between the terms in this privacy policy and the EU-U.S. DPF Principles and/or the Swiss-U.S. DPF Principles, the Principles shall govern. To learn more about the Data Privacy Framework (DPF) program, and to view our certification, please visit https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov.

We are committed to staying current with developments related to the Data Privacy Framework and may update our transfer mechanisms and safeguards as necessary to remain compliant. Any updates will be reflected in this Privacy Policy.

If you are a European individual with a privacy related complaint, concern or question about LMG's privacy practices, please contact us through our privacy portal. Under certain conditions, more fully described on the Data Privacy Framework website, European individuals may invoke binding arbitration when other dispute resolution procedures have been exhausted.

Where we transfer your personal information from the EEA to recipients located outside the EEA who are not in a jurisdiction that has been formally designated by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of protection for information, we do so on the basis of standard contractual clauses. You may request a copy of the relevant standard contractual clauses using our privacy portal. Please note that when you transfer any personal information directly to an entity established outside the EEA, we are not responsible for that transfer of your information. We will nevertheless process your information, from the point at which we receive the data, in accordance with the provisions of this policy.

Enforcement Authority
The Federal Trade Commission has jurisdiction over our compliance with the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (EU-U.S. DPF) and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF, and the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (Swiss-U.S. DPF).

Complaints Mechanism
In compliance with the EU-U.S. DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF and the Swiss-U.S. DPF, LMG commits to resolve DPF Principles-related complaints about our collection and use of your personal information. EU and UK individuals and Swiss individuals with inquiries or complaints regarding our handling of personal data received in reliance on the EU-U.S. DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF, and the Swiss-U.S. DPF should first contact LMG at privacy@spiceworks.com.

In compliance with the EU-U.S. DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF and the Swiss-U.S. DPF, LMG commits to refer unresolved complaints concerning our handling of personal data received in reliance on the EU-U.S. DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF and the Swiss-U.S. DPF to TrustArc, an alternative dispute resolution provider. The services of Trustarc are provided at no cost to you. For further information please visit https://trustarc.com/dispute-resolution/.

Under certain conditions, a binding arbitration option may be available to you in order to address complaints not resolved by any other means. For further information, please see Annex I of the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework Principles at: https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov/framework-article/ANNEX-I-introduction.

In compliance with the EU-U.S. DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF and the Swiss-U.S. DPF, LMG commits to cooperate and comply respectively with the advice of the panel established by the EU data protection authorities (DPAs) and the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) with regard to unresolved complaints concerning our handling of human resources data received in reliance on the EU-U.S. DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF and the Swiss-U.S. DPF in the context of the employment relationship.

For a list of our subsidiaries and affiliates who also adhere to the DPF Principles, please click here.

Our privacy practices described in this Policy comply with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ("APEC") Cross Border Privacy Rules System. To learn more about this program, please click here.

10. Data Security and Breach Handling

We implement appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect your personal information against unlawful destruction, loss alteration, misuse, or unauthorized access while in our possession. All parties we contract with must agree to provide reasonable data security measures for the customer information we share with them, in compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

If we learn of a security breach that affects our users, we may send an email or other direct communication to you, or post a blog to notify the public on our Help and Support Security Center. If you have any reason to believe that your data with us has been compromised (for example, there has been unauthorized access to your account), please contact us at  privacy@spiceworks.com.

11. Data Retention

We will retain your personal information for as long as is necessary in connection with the purposes set out in this policy, and in accordance with applicable laws. For more details on how long data is retained see the table in Section 3.

12. Your Rights With Respect to Your Personal Information

Many privacy regulations afford consumers a number of specific rights. The EEA, Brazil, California, Colorado, Virginia, and several other U.S. states grant specific rights to people living under their jurisdiction. ZMG aims to treat all our customers fairly affording users in all other regions similar privileges.

Your rights: 

• • Right to Withdraw Consent: Where you are requested to consent to the processing of your personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

• • Right to Know: You have a right to know what personal information we collect, process, and share or sell. This policy is meant to provide transparency with regard to your data. If you have additional questions, you can email us at privacy@spiceworks.com.

• • Right of Access: You can request a copy of the personal information we have collected about you from us.

• • Right to Delete/Erase: You can request us to delete all the information we have collected about you. It is important to note that by exercising your right to deletion you may lose access to your account and any purchases, points or features associated with it. If you wish to cancel your account you may reach us as community@spiceworks.com or to request that we no longer use some or all of your information to provide you services, contact us at privacy@spiceworks.com.

• • Right to Request Rectification: If you find that any of your information that we are processing is inaccurate, you can contact us to have your information corrected. In response, we will cancel or remove your information but may retain and use copies of your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. For certain requests, we may require additional information.

• • Right to Opt-out of the Sale or Sharing for Targeted Ads: Under some circumstances we may sell or share the personal data you provide to us to provide ads to you that align with your interests. If you would prefer not to have your data sold or shared, you can opt-out of selling or sharing by submitting a request via Privacy Portal or by emailing privacy@spiceworks.com. We may ask for additional information to verify your request.

• • Right to Object to the Processing: You can object to our processing of your personal information via our Privacy Portal, under certain circumstances. By objecting to processing, you may not be able to access some or all of our services. This right is limited to personal data processed for commercial purposes.

• • Right to Object to the Use of Sensitive Personal Information: You have the right to object to our use of your sensitive personal information. Sensitive personal information is information about your health, race, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, political opinions or philosophical beliefs. You should always be mindful about the personal information you share online, especially when it is sensitive in nature.

• • Right to Object to Automated Processing: You have a right to object to the processing of your data for the purposes of automated decision making about you.

• • Right to Complain (EU,UK, Switzerland): Should you wish to raise a complaint about the collection or use of your information, you have the right to do so without prejudice to any other rights you may have. You may lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

• • Right to not be Discriminated Against: You have a right to not be discriminated against by ZMG for exercising your rights.

• • Right to an Authorized Agent (CA): If you would like to make a request on behalf of a California consumer who is a current or former customer, please provide an email from the email address we have on file for the customer authorizing the request. You may also make a request under the California Consumer Privacy Act on behalf of a California consumer if you provide (1) a signed, written permission from the consumer to act on your behalf, and the consumer verifies their own identity directly with us; or (2) proof that the consumer has provided you with power of attorney pursuant to Probate Code sections 4000 to 4465. We may deny a request from an agent that does not submit proof that they have been authorized by the consumer to act on their behalf.

In order to make privacy requests please visit our Privacy Portal and fill out the form. You can also email us at privacy@spiceworks.com. Our contact information can be found in the "Contact Details" section below.

You may be required to verify your identity before we can give effect to these rights. If you are making a request on behalf of a user, we require a signed authorization letter from the consumer. 

13. How to Change Your Preferences

Access to Your Personal Information. Upon request Ziff Davis will provide you with information about whether we hold any of your personal information. You may access, correct, or request deletion of your personal information by logging into your account, contacting us through our Privacy Portal, or emailing us at privacy@spiceworks.com, regardless of your citizenship or location. We will respond to your request within a reasonable timeframe.

Your Newsletter and Email Subscriptions. You can opt out or unsubscribe to a newsletter or other email list at any time by following the instructions at the end of the newsletters or emails you receive. Please allow five to ten business days for changes to take effect. On some Services, member service-related communications are an integral part of such Services to which you subscribe and you may continue to receive emails as part of that particular portion of the Services unless you cancel your account, even if you opt out of the newsletters or email list. If you have provided more than one email address to us, you may continue to be contacted unless you request to unsubscribe each email address you have provided.

Direct Mailings, Push Notifications, and Unsubscribing.  Where you have consented to receive marketing communications from us, we will send you emails and/or push notifications (depending on what you have consented to).  You may withdraw your consent for email marketing communications (i.e. unsubscribe) at any time by (i) clicking the "Unsubscribe" link in a marketing communication email we send you; or (ii) using the "Notifications" or "Settings" page in the account area.   You may withdraw your consent for web-related notifications (i.e. unsubscribe) at any time through your browser settings.  You may also withdraw your consent by emailing our support team(s) at the email addresses below.  Please allow two working days for this instruction to take effect in all of our systems.

Opting Out of Tracking. Currently, our Services do not recognize browser do-not-track signals. However, you may manage how your browser handles cookies and related technologies by adjusting its privacy and security settings. Browsers are different, so refer to instructions related to your browser to learn about cookie-related and other privacy and security settings that may be available. The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your computer from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. You can opt-out of being targeted by certain third party advertising companies by visiting the following links: IAB opt-out platform, Network Advertising Initiative,  Omniture, Digital Advertising Alliance, PrivacyChoice, BlueKai, and European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance.

Social Media.  You can manage the sharing of certain personal data when you register with us through a social media platform or application, such as through Facebook Connect or Google.  Please refer to the privacy settings of the social media platform or application to determine how you may adjust our permissions and manage the interactivity between us and your social media account. By registering with us through a social media platform, you grant us permission to access all of the elements of your social network profile information that you have chosen to share with us and to use it in accordance with the social media platform's terms of use and this privacy notice.

Location Based Services. You may opt-out of having your Precise Location Data collected by Ziff Davis at any time by editing the appropriate setting on your mobile device (which is usually located in the Settings area of your device).

California Residents. In accordance with the California Online Privacy Protection Act, we may collect Personal Information about your online activities when you use the Services. While we give our users many avenues to opt out of providing Personal Information, we do not respond to Web browsers' "do not track" signals. California's "Shine the Light" law, Civil Code Section 1798.83, permits our users who are California residents to periodically request and obtain certain information about any Personal Information disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes. If you are a California resident and wish to make such a request or if you wish for us to refrain from gathering your Personal Information, please submit your request in writing to the contact details set out in Section 14 below.

EU Residents. GDPR provides certain rights for EU residents. You may decline to share certain information with us, in which case we may not be able to provide some of the features and functionality of the Services. These rights include, in accordance with applicable law, the right to object to or request the restriction of processing of your information, and to request access to, rectification, erasure and portability of your own information. Where we process your information on the basis of your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent (noting that such withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of any Processing performed prior to the date on which we receive notice of such withdrawal, and does not prevent the Processing of your Personal Information in reliance upon any other available legal bases). Requests should be submitted by contacting us using the Privacy Portal. If you have any further questions upon receipt of your completed DSAR or if you would like to appeal in case your DSAR is denied, please resubmit a DSAR request using the DSAR form at  Privacy Portal and indicate it is an appeal, or email us at privacy@spiceworks.com.  If you are an EU resident and have any unresolved privacy concern, you have the right to contact the appropriate EU Supervisory Authority and lodge a complaint.

Contact and Complaints.  If you are in the UK or EEA, you have the right to make a complaint to the relevant supervisory authority in your country, the details of which are available via the links below.  We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach a supervisory authority, so please contact us in the first instance.  Questions, comments and requests regarding this Privacy Policy are welcomed and may be addressed by (i) writing to us via the contact details set out in Section 14 below; or, (ii) email to privacy@spiceworks.com with the words "FAO: the Legal Department" at the start of the message or directly to our DPO, who can be contacted at dpo@spiceworks.com.

• • UK: www.ico.org.uk

• • EEA: https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en.

14. Contact Details

You may contact us at the addresses set out below or by emailing privacy@spiceworks.com.

Ziff Davis

Attention: Legal Department

114 Fifth Avenue, 15th Floor

New York, NY 10011

If you are an EU resident, you may contact our Data Protection Officer at dpo@spiceworks.com or submit GDPR related inquiries to our Privacy Portal.

If you have any comments, questions or concerns about any of the information in this Privacy Policy, or any other issues relating to the processing of your personal information carried out by us, or on our behalf, please contact:

Ziff Davis

Attention: Legal Department

114 Fifth Avenue, 15th Floor

New York, NY 10011

privacy@spiceworks.com

Our Data Protection Officer may be contacted at dpo@spiceworks.com. To exercise your privacy rights, please use our Privacy Portal.

15. Children

These services are not intended for use by children, especially those under 16. We reserve the right to remove a user's account at any time, when necessary, if we discover that a user is under the required age limit for the service. If you have reason to believe we have collected personal information from someone under 16, please report it to us so we can take appropriate steps to rectify this.