Privacy policy

Welcome to the HelpLeft Privacy Policy. Protecting your personal data while it is in our care is both an honor and a great responsibility. We have provided the information below to help you understand how your personal data may be collected, used and disclosed by HelpLeft, and how to exercise your choices with respect to your personal data. If you are looking for more information about your privacy rights and how to exercise them, you can jump to the "Your Rights" section below.

By using HelpLeft's websites, apps, or other online services that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, "Sites"), you are subject to the terms and conditions of this Policy. When we say "HelpLeft," "our," "we," or "us," we mean HelpLeft Inc. There may be instances when we offer different or additional privacy terms specific to a product, application, or service. If those terms conflict with this Privacy Policy, the terms specific to the product, application, or service apply instead.

Information we collect

When you interact with us or our Sites, HelpLeft may collect personal data about you in the following ways: directly from you; through automated technologies such as cookies; and from other sources, such as our business partners and data processors.

Information collected through automated technologies

We may automatically collect certain information when you use our Sites, either directly or through our third-party analytics providers. This information may include Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type and settings, device identifier details, internet service provider (ISP), referring and exit pages, the Site content you interacted with, operating system, clickstream data, location data, or other usage information. We (and third parties acting on our behalf) may collect this information through certain tracking technologies, including first and third-party cookies, web beacons (also known as tracking pixels or pixel tags), embedded scripts, location-identifying technologies, device recognition technologies, and session replay software. We may combine the information collected through these technologies with other information we collect about you.

We do not sell your personal information. HelpLeft uses this information to enable Site functionality, understand Site interaction trends, gather demographic insights about our user base, personalize your experience on our Sites, and otherwise administer and improve our Sites and services. While we do not currently respond to "do not track" browser signals, you have several options to exercise choices about cookies and tracking technologies. For more information about cookies and tracking technologies on our Sites and how to control their use on your devices, please read our Cookies and Tracking Technologies Policy.

Information we receive from other sources

HelpLeft may receive information about you from third parties such as: business partners and data processors in technical, payment and/or delivery services; advertising, marketing, digital and social media agencies; data brokers; analytics providers; academic institutions; journal owners, societies and similar organizations; search information providers; third parties who may recommend you as a potential author, reviewer, editor or contributor; and credit reference agencies.

HelpLeft may also receive information about you from publicly accessible content, such as public databases or social media platforms. When we do collect publicly available data about you, we will honor this Privacy Policy when we store and process it.

If you choose to register and sign in by using a social media or other third-party account as an identity service (such as your Facebook or Google account), the authentication of your account is managed by that third party. HelpLeft will collect your name, email address and any other information that you agree to share with us at the time you give permission for your HelpLeft account to be linked to your third-party account.

You should be aware that personal data (such as your name, social media handle, image, avatar, email address, or other identifier) that you voluntarily make publicly available by posting online to other users (e.g., on social media, forums, comments, or in chat rooms) could be collected and disclosed by others. HelpLeft cannot prevent or monitor the collection or disclosure of publicly available personal data you post online.

Use of your information

Depending on how you interact with HelpLeft, and with your prior consent where necessary, HelpLeft may use your personal data for purposes of:

Performing any contract or other transaction we enter into with you;
Providing, activating, managing and supporting our products or services;
Notifying you about changes or updates to our Sites, products, or services;
Communicating with you about our or our partners' programs or events (including webinars, conferences, or promotional activities such as sweepstakes, contests, or surveys);
Marketing our Sites, products, or services to you (including by delivering commercial emails, newsletters, targeted advertising, phone calls, and/or SMS messages);
Operating, evaluating and improving our business (including enhancing and personalizing our Sites, services, products and communications; developing new Sites, services and products; and assessing the effectiveness of our promotions and advertising);
Performing data analytics for internal research or other business purposes;
Responding to your inquiries, requests, or other comments;
Our initiatives such as Open Access, Open Science, or diversity and inclusion initiatives (for example, we may use information such as inferred gender to analyze representation and improve equitable outcomes);
Detecting fraud, investigating suspicious activity (e.g., violations of our Terms of Use) and otherwise keeping our Sites safe and secure; and/or
Complying with our legal or regulatory obligations.

In addition, we may use your personal data for other purposes that we may notify you of from time to time where we have a legitimate business interest, your prior consent, or another lawful basis to do so. We use the information collected through automated technologies for the purposes described in the "Information Collected Through Automated Technologies" section above.

HelpLeft may aggregate or de-identify information so that it can no longer identify you. Subject to applicable laws, HelpLeft may use this aggregated or de-identified information for analytical purposes, such as developing and improving our products and services, identifying industry trends and developments, and benchmarking. Where permitted by law, we may share aggregated or de-identified information with third parties.

Sharing of your information

We may share your personal data as follows:

Within HelpLeft. We may share your personal data with our subsidiary and affiliate companies for the purposes described in the "Use of Your Information" section above.

With our service providers. We may share your personal data with service providers that perform services on our behalf, including administrative, information technology, website and platform hosting, editing, production, payment, business management, analytics, content management, indexing, archiving, lead generation, and marketing services. Before we share your personal data with any service provider, they must agree to comply with applicable laws, maintain strong data security, and only process personal data as we instruct.

With partner organizations. We may share your personal data with certain partners, including:

Where a third party such as an academic institution, school, employer, business or other entity has provided you with access to a HelpLeft product or service (such as through an integration or access code or by other means), we may share information regarding your usage of the product or service, results of assessments taken, and other information you input into the product or service;
Where you have participated in a program or event in which we partner with third parties (such as a webinar, conference or promotional event), we may share your information with the sponsor of the activity;
Where you have access to our content or Sites, elected to receive electronic alerts about journals, or your contribution to one of our journals or other works has been accepted for publication, we may share your information with the organization(s) associated with such content or Sites (for example, the journal owner or a society);
Where you a declare an affiliation to a funder, institution, and/or consortia (or the like), we may share your information with that organization and their service providers, at their request, necessary to the fulfilment of any of our services of which that organization is customer;
Where your information is part of the published content to which HelpLeft is providing access;
Where we have partnered with advertising partners to serve ads and/or collect certain information when you visit our Sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services likely to be of greater interest to you; and/or
Where, even if not described above, you have consented to such disclosure or we have a legitimate business interest in making the disclosure.
With other third parties. We may share your personal data where we have a good faith belief that disclosure is necessary to comply with the law or with legal process, to protect and defend our rights and property, to protect the safety or property of our users or the general public, or protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our Sites and services. We may also share your personal data in connection with a corporate transaction, such as a transfer of a journal or other assets, merger, acquisition, consolidation, change of control, or other corporate combination.

Cross-border transfers
We may transfer, store or process your personal data in your region or another country where HelpLeft or its service providers operate, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Singapore, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, the Philippines and China. These countries may have privacy laws that do not provide the same level of protection as those of your country of residence. We will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your personal data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and all applicable data protection laws. If we transfer your personal data out of the European Economic Area, we implement appropriate safeguards in accordance with applicable law (such as the EU Standard Contractual Clauses).

Retention of your information

We retain your personal data for as long as necessary to carry out the purposes described above and for any additional period that may be required by law.

Security
The security, integrity, and confidentiality of your personal data is important to HelpLeft. We store most information about you in computer systems and databases operated by us or our service providers. Some information about you is recorded in paper files that we store securely. We have implemented technical, administrative, and physical security measures that are designed to protect personal data throughout our systems from unauthorized access, disclosure, use, and modification. We regularly review our security procedures to consider appropriate new technology and methods. Please be aware that, despite our best efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable.

Links to third-party websites

HelpLeft's Sites or services may include links to third-party websites not owned by HelpLeft. When using such links, please be aware that any third-party website is subject to its own privacy and data protection policies and is not covered by this Privacy Policy.

Children and students

If you are a minor under applicable law, you should not use HelpLeft's Sites or services for any purpose without first obtaining consent from your parent or guardian. We do not knowingly collect, use or disclose information from or about a child under 13 years old without the prior consent of their parent or guardian. If you would like to review any personal data that we have collected online from your child, request to delete such information, request that there be no further collection or use of your child's information, or if you have questions about these information practices, you may contact us at privacy@HelpLeft.com.

Your rights
You have the right to request to:

Access the personal data we have about you;
Receive an electronic copy of the personal data we have about you;
Rectify any errors in your personal data;
Delete your personal data; and
Restrict or object to how we process personal data about you.
If you submit a request which cannot be fully or partially fulfilled for legal or technical reasons, an explanation for this limitation will be provided. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. You will not receive discriminatory treatment by us for the exercise of any of your rights.

To exercise your rights, you may submit a request to us by email at privacy@HelpLeft.com . Only you, your authorized representative, or you on behalf of your minor child may submit a request. For the protection of all individuals' personal data, we will only process your request if we can reasonably verify that you are, or are the authorized representative of, the person whose personal data we hold.

If at any point you wish to review or change your preferences regarding marketing communications, you can use the "opt-out" or unsubscribe mechanism or other means provided within the communications that you receive from us, or submit an email request to privacy@HelpLeft.com. Note that you may still receive transactional communications from HelpLeft if you engage with our products or services.

Contact us

If you have any comments, requests, or questions, please email us at privacy@HelpLeft.com. You may contact HelpLeft's Data Protection Officer using the details found here: Data Protection Contacts.

Updates to this privacy policy
We periodically update this Privacy Policy. Any changes to the Privacy Policy will be posted on this page and will become effective as of the Effective Date above. If we make a material change in the way we collect, use or share your personal data, we will post a prominent notice or provide other notice as required by law. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.