Private Policy
By using our Services, you are accepting the practices described in our Privacy Policy, including our use of cookies and similar online tools. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use TheSharpGroup.com. We reserve the right to modify or amend the terms of our privacy policy from time to time without notice. Your continued use of our Services following the posting of changes to these terms will mean you accept those changes. If we intend to apply the modifications or amendments to this Privacy Policy retroactively or to personal information already in our possession, we will provide you with notice of the modifications or amendments and seek your consent for such use.
Please note that our Services are under constant development. This Privacy Policy may therefore be modified and updated on an ongoing basis. Please check back to this page regularly.
WHAT INFORMATION IS COLLECTED
When you use the Services, we may collect several types of information about you and/or your use of the Services. For example, we may collect information that you provide to us, information that we collect through your use of the Services, and information that we collect from publicly available sources or third parties.
Information About Your Use of the Services. We may collect information about your use of the Services such as:
- Device information: We may collect your computer or mobile device model, IP address, other unique device identifiers, operating system version, browser type, language, and settings, and device type and settings.
- Usage information: We may collect information about the Services you use, the time, date, and duration of your use of the Services, referral information, your interaction with content offered through the Services, search terms used, our referring website, and software crash reports. We also collect information stored using cookies, mobile ad identifiers, and similar technologies set on your device. Our servers may automatically keep an activity log of your use of the Services. We may collect such usage information at the individual or aggregate level.
- Location information: We collect and store your device’s source IP address, which may disclose the general location of your device at the time you access the Services. Advertisements and certain content may be directed to you based on this data.
Information From Third Parties. We may receive information about you from third parties and combine it with information we receive from or about you. For example:
- Information from social media websites: When you interact with any THESHARPGROUP.COM property page or account on a social media platform, such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, or LinkedIn, we may collect the personal information that you or the platform make available to us on that page or account, including your social media account ID and/or user name associated with that social media service, your profile picture, email address, friends list or information about the people and groups you are connected to and how you interact with them, and any information you have made public in connection with that social media service. The information we obtain depends on your privacy settings on the applicable social media service; we will comply with the privacy policies of the social media platform and we will only collect and store such personal information that we are permitted to collect by those social media platforms. When you access the Services through social media services or when you connect the Services to social media services, you are authorizing THESHARPGROUP.COM to collect, store, and use such information and content in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
- Information from publicly or commercially available sources: Certain third parties make available information, collected both online and offline, such as demographic information, additional contact information, group affiliations, occupational information, and educational background.
- Other Information We Collect. We also may collect other information about you, your device, or your use of the Services in ways that we describe to you at the point of collection or otherwise with your consent. You may choose not to provide us with certain types of information, but doing so may affect your experience in using the Services.
HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION
We use your information to help us personalize and continually improve your experience using the Services in the ways described below, as well as in other ways to which you consent or at your direction.
Providing the Services You Request. We use your information to process your subscriptions or memberships, enable you to login to some of the Sites, send you electronic newsletters, post content you submit, administer loyalty programs, and enable your participation in features of the Services. To enable us to provide these Services, we may use the information we collect to identify you across sessions, browsers, and/or devices.
Delivering Advertising. We may use your information to facilitate the delivery of targeted advertising (including interest-based advertising),promotions, and offers, on behalf of ourselves and our third party advertisers, both on our websites and elsewhere. Please see the “Third Parties” and “Privacy Choices” sections of this Privacy Policy for further information about our and third parties’ use of cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies to provide you relevant ads, as well as information about how to disable cookies and make other choices related to targeted advertising. We may also use your information to measure and report on the delivery of advertisements.
Learning about Our Users and Services. We conduct research on our users’ demographics, interests and behavior, including performing statistical analysis of our users, their use of the Services, and their purchasing patterns. We do this to optimize and improve the Services, our products, and our operations.
Protecting Our Rights and Others’ Rights. We may use your personal information as we believe is necessary to detect, investigate, and prevent activities that may violate our policies or may be illegal; to protect, enforce, or defend the legal rights, privacy, safety, or property of THESHARPGROUP.COM, its employees, agents, or users; or as required by law.
We may use the information from one aspect of the Services for other aspects of Services, and we may combine information gathered from multiple aspects of the Services into a single user record. We also may use or combine information that we collect offline or we collect or receive from third-party sources for many reasons, including to enhance, expand, and check the accuracy of our records. Additionally, data collected from a particular computer, browser or device may be used with another computer, browser or device that is linked to the computer, browser or device on which such data was collected.
HOW WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION
As described below, our information-sharing practices vary based on the type of information and the type of recipient.
Third Party Subscription Providers. If your subscription is provided in whole or in part by your employer or other third party, we may share with them information about your access and use of your subscription. If you have a subscription associated with a professor or school, we may notify your professor or school to confirm your subscription, access or use. When providing this information, we may reveal limited amounts of your personal information such as your name or email address.
Third-Party Service Providers. Third party agents and vendors perform functions on our behalf, including, but not limited to, hosting, content syndication, content management tools, social media integration, marketing, analytics, product development or support, sending email or text messages, billing or payment processing, fulfilling orders, delivering subscriptions, auditing, and customer service. These entities may have access to personal information if needed to perform their functions. If such access is required, the third parties will be obligated to maintain the confidentiality and security of that personal information. They are restricted from using, selling, distributing or altering this data in any way other than to provide the requested services to THESHARPGROUP.COM.
Third Party Content or Advertising Partners. When you use our Services, third parties that provide content, advertising, or functionality to the Services, as well as social media services, may collect or receive information about you and/or your use of the Services, including through the use of cookies, beacons, and similar technologies. These third parties may use your information to provide you with advertising that is based on your interests and to measure and analyze ad performance, on our Services or other websites or platforms, and combine it with information collected across different websites, online services, and other devices. These third parties’ use of your information will be based on their own privacy policies.
Third Party Providers of Co-Branded Services. We may offer co-branded services or features, such as conferences, events, contests, sweepstakes or other promotions together with a third party (“Co-Branded Services”). These Co-Branded Services may be hosted by THESHARPGROUP.COM or on the third party’s services. By virtue of these relationships, we may share the information you submit in connection with the Co-Branded Service with the third party. The third party’s use of your information will be governed by the third party’s privacy policy.
Aggregate or Anonymous Information. We also may share other information with third parties in a manner that does not identify particular users. For instance, we may share such information to help us determine how parts of Services are used, so that we may improve our services. We will also may share aggregate information with our partners and other third parties about how our users collective demographics or how they collectively use our Services. We also may share aggregate information with our partners about how many advertising impressions were delivered.
Assignment. In the event of a corporate change in control (for instance, a sale or merger),THESHARPGROUP.COM may transfer your personal information to the new party in control or the party acquiring assets. In such circumstances, we would seek to ensure the acquiring party follows the practices described in this Privacy Policy. We cannot promise, however, that an acquiring company or the merged company will have the same privacy practices or treat your information the same as described in this privacy policy.
Law Enforcement, Legal Process, and Emergency Situations. In some cases, we may use or disclose your personal information to a third party if we are required to do so by law or if we in good faith believe that such action is necessary to comply with the law or legal process; to protect and defend our rights or to prevent misuse of our Services; or to protect the personal safety of our employees, agents, partners, the users of the Services, or the public.
With Your Consent or At Your Direction. In addition to the sharing described in this Privacy Policy, we may share your information with third parties whenever you consent to or direct such sharing.
The Services may link to third-party websites and services that are outside our control. We are not responsible for the security or privacy of any information collected by these third parties, which operate pursuant to their respective privacy policies.
ONLINE TRACKING
When you use our Services, we and our third party partners (which provide content, advertising, functionality, measurements, or analytics for our Services) may use cookies, web beacons, and other similar technologies to track your use of the Services.
What Are Cookies? Cookies are small text files that are stored in your device’s browser when you visit a website. Cookies make it possible to recognize you as the same user across one or more browsing sessions, and across one or more websites. We and third parties use cookies for a variety of purposes, including remembering your sign-in credentials and preferences so that you do not have to input them each time you use the Services; allowing us and third parties to customize your experience using the Services, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you on our websites and elsewhere online; and allowing us and third parties to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our Services and your experience.
What are Beacons? Web beacons (also called “web tags” or “pixels”) are tiny graphics or scripts that communicate information from your device to a server. Beacons can be embedded in online or mobile content, videos, advertisements, or emails. They allow a server to read certain types of information from your device, such as when you viewed the beacon (and thus the content in which it is embedded) and the IP address of the device on which you viewed the beacon. We and third parties use beacons for a variety of purposes, including to analyze the use of our Services and (in conjunction with cookies) to provide content and ads that are more relevant to you.
THIRD PARTIES
We rely on third parties to provide many features of our Services using data about your use of our Services and of other websites. These third parties may use cookies, web beacons, or other technologies to collect and process your personal data for the purposes of information storage and access; personalization of our Services; measurement of and analytics regarding the use of our Services; content selection, delivery, and reporting; and advertising selection, targeting, delivery, and reporting.
For instance, third party analytics services use cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies to collect information such as your IP address, time of visit, whether you are a return visitor, and any referring website, in order to help us analyze how users interact with and use the Services, compile reports on the Services’ activity, and provide other data and insights related to the Services’ usage.
We also allow our third party partners, third party ad serving networks, and unaffiliated advertisers (collectively, “Advertisers”) to use cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies to provide ads about goods and services that may be of interest to you. Advertisers may place a separate cookie on your computer, mobile device, or browser, or utilize other data collection and tracking technologies, to collect information such as your IP address, browser type, server being used, area code and zip code associated with your server, and whether you respond to particular ads. Advertisers may collect information about your online activities over time, across different computers, devices, and browsers, and across different websites and other online services. Advertisers may use this information to provide interest-based advertising or other targeted content. We may not have access to these cookies, although we may use statistical information arising from the cookies provided by these third parties to customize content and for the other purposes described above. Advertisers may also transfer this information to other parties where required to do so by law, or where such other parties process the information on their behalf.
We will not provide Advertisers with access to your name, address, e-mail address, or telephone number without your consent. Advertisers may use persistent identifiers, however, to track your internet usage across other websites in their networks beyond our Services. Though we restrict any attempts to re-identify this information, Advertisers may nonetheless be able to do so by combining information they collect about you when you use the Services with information about you obtained from other sources.
In general, the information collected and generated by third parties is processed and stored by the third parties and will be subject to their respective privacy policies (which we do not control and for which we are not responsible). We do not control these third parties’ tracking technologies or the information they may collect.
Below is a list of the third party data processing partners with which we have a direct relationship, grouped by the type of data processing they provide to us and linked to their respective privacy policies (which may provide more information about their use of your data and how to exercise your rights to opt-out of that usage). Please note that this list does not include advertisers (with whom we have no direct relationship) who advertise on our websites through ad serving networks. This list was last updated on May 28, 2018; because our Services are under constant development, it may be modified and updated on an ongoing basis.
