HCS Technical Services Privacy Policy

HCS Technical Services (HCS, we, us, or our) is committed to protecting the privacy of the information you share with us when you access and use our websites, applications, products, events, services, and other offerings (services). This policy describes how we collect, use, and share the personally identifiable information (PII) you provide to us when you register or contract with us to receive a service.

This policy may be supplemented by additional privacy terms or notices disclosed to you in connection with your registration for or receipt of services.

Information Collection

We collect PII and/or anonymous information from you in the course of your use of the service. That includes information you provide to us when you subscribe or register for any of our digital, in-person, or printed products, services, events, or offerings; sign up for newsletters or promotions; participate in a survey; purchase a product or service; use one of our mobile applications; post comments; and/or otherwise communicate with us or interact with the services.

Once you have registered or otherwise interacted with us, we create a profile for you. We keep your profile up to date by adding information about your registrations or subscriptions, the events you attend, the content you access, how you interact with our offerings, and the like. In order to offer you a more consistent obtained through other HCS services.

We also may receive information about you from external sources that are not affiliated with HCS and add that to the information you have provided to us. For example, we may expand our communities by acquiring names and contact details from other sources with authorizations to share it with third parties.

Automatic Collection Technologies

Like most website operators, we use cookies (small data files stored on your computer by your web browser upon visiting a website), web beacons, and similar technologies to operate our services efficiently and as intended. Through these technologies we gather information about you, such as your browser type, operating system, IP address, mobile device identification number, and navigation history. We may also use these technologies to gather information about your interactions with our services, such as the time and date when you viewed or used a page or item of content or functionality, which advertisements you have clicked on and whether you filled out an online form. When you receive newsletters or promotional emails from HCS, we use web beacons, customized links or similar technologies to determine whether the email has been opened and which links you click, in order to provide you more focused email communications or other information.

We use information gathered through these tools for our internal security audit log, for trend analysis and system administration, to gather broad information about our audiences and their geographic locations, and to otherwise improve the services. By allowing us to understand how you use our services, these tools can help us provide you with a better, more relevant online experience.

We may also employ web beacons from companies not owned by or affiliated with HCS (third parties) in order to help us compile aggregated statistics regarding the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns or other operations of our services. In addition, we may work with third-party advertising companies to target and serve advertising you see on the services or on third-party sites based on preferences gleaned from such technologies.

You may set your browser to block all cookies, including HCS’s, while using our services (in which case some aspects of the services may not function properly), or you may set your browser to block third-party cookies and allow first-party cookies, which would allow us (but not third parties) to collect such information. In addition, some browsers may allow you to block certain web beacons and similar tracking codes. Please refer to your browser’s documentation if you wish to block some or all cookies, web beacons, and/or similar tools.

We reserve the right to use new technologies, as they become available, to gather additional, relevant information from our users and improve our services and your experience of them.

How We Use Your Information

We may use information about you:

• To provide you with services and information that you have requested from us or that we think may be of interest to you.
• To send account notices or otherwise manage your account, respond to requests, inquiries, comments or concerns.
• To offer you customized content and individualized personalization of the services to make them more relevant to your professional interests and responsibilities.
• To ask for your input to help in our research about our services.
• To contact you with information about, and provide invitations for, products, services, events and research opportunities – ours and other companies’ – directed at your professional interests and responsibilities.
• To give suppliers in our communities a limited opportunity to find you: We make contact data, including email addresses, available in certain of our subscription-only databases. If you wish to find out whether contact information about you is in a database or to have data removed, please email us at [email protected].
• For any other purpose that we disclose when you give us the information.

Consent

By using HCS's services (for example, when you register for an account, purchase a product or service, enter a contest or promotion, communicate with us, or use interactive portions of our sites and applications), you consent to our collection, use and sharing of your PII as described in this policy. In some cases we may also ask you to confirm your knowledge of the terms of this policy; however, we are not obligated to do so.

Your Choices

You may opt-out of our email marketing lists by following the directions at the bottom of our emails. Please note that HCS has a number of brands and products and we allow you to opt-out selectively. To remove a specific email address from all of HCS’s marketing communications, you may send a request to [email protected]. If you wish to remove your email address only from a specific brand, please use the opt-out mechanism provided in emails you receive from such brand or contact the brand directly.

You may receive email marketing messages from us about other companies’ offerings as part of a business partner marketing program. To opt-out of a business partner marketing email program, you may follow the instructions at the bottom of any email we send you as part of the program.

Please note that opting-out of promotional mailings will not affect delivery of your subscription-based products.

To remove a specific phone number or fax number from a specific brand’s marketing communications, please follow the opt-out directions provided during/in those communications. To remove a specific phone/fax number from all of HCS’s marketing communications, you may send a request to [email protected].

Certain third parties may also employ cookies, web beacons, and/or similar technologies on our Services. Information collected through such third-party tools is gathered directly by such third party, not by HCS, and is subject to such third party’s applicable privacy policy. HCS has no control over such third-party tools. These third parties include but are not limited to analytics partners who help us better understand how our users are interacting with our Services and advertising, providers of widgets and other third-party applications that may appear in our Services, advertiser servers, advertiser networks, advertiser agencies, and advertisers.

You may visit these third parties’ sites to learn more about their privacy practices. In addition, as noted above, you may set your browser to block third-party cookies. Finally, you may visit the industry websites described in the next section to learn more about the privacy practices of a wide range of ad networks and data companies and to exercise certain opt-out options made available there.

Disclosure of Your Information

HCS contracts with other companies to provide certain services on our behalf, including customer service, credit card and billing processing, shipping, subscription fulfillment, research, analytics, list cleansing, postal mailings, email and fax deployment, telemarketing, and other information and business services. We only provide these companies with the relevant information required to perform their services and they are explicitly restricted from using any data received from us for their own marketing purposes.

We may also provide your information to third parties for marketing and/or analytical purposes as further described below:

Sponsors and Gated Resources

• From time to time our sponsors wish to contact our subscribers and customers who have indicated an interest in their products, services or events. If you register for or access services offered by these vendors, you choose to share your name and contact details directly with those vendors so that they may contact you. For example, if you register for a vendor-branded (or co-branded with us) resource, we will collect your registration information on behalf of that vendor for its own use. We may also keep a copy of that data for our own use, consistent with this privacy policy. We may provide a link to the vendor’s privacy policy (as well as to this policy) on the registration page.
  
  Similarly, if you access third-party resources in certain registration-only, or “gated” websites, resource centers, or directory services on our websites, we may share your registration information when you access or click on a link to technical resources provided or sponsored by another company. This includes third-party resources sold through our online stores. In addition, we may share your contact information with sponsors of a particular e-newsletter if you click on their information or offerings. If you do not wish to have your information shared, you will be given an opportunity within the e-newsletter to opt-out.
  
  When you register for an in-person or digital event, we will provide your registration information to the sponsor(s) of such event. We may also provide your information to sponsors of special sessions within the larger event.
  
  If you want to know how a vendor or advertiser will use data about you, we urge you to check that vendor’s or advertiser’s privacy policy. As noted above, your registration for and log-on to any of the above Services constitutes your consent to be put in touch directly with any vendors you select. The vendor’s or advertiser’s privacy policies will control their use of your information and you should review those policies.

Community/Public Sites

• In order to improve our offerings and offer you additional services and products, we may share with other HCS subscribers, including those participating in discussions in our forums, communities or other publicly accessible interactions, certain of the information you have provided to us previously or may provide to us in the future. We may also make available information about you that we have obtained from external sources. These subscribers may contact you on occasion and offer you additional products or services.
  
  In addition, you may choose to participate in online membership communities on our sites that allow you to create and publish your profile and other information about you, including PII. These communities may provide privacy controls that allow you to choose how much of your profile and other information to make public or to share with others within the community. You are and will remain responsible for locating the privacy controls (usually available on the page from which you can edit your profile), understanding how those controls, including default settings, work, and protecting the information you provide. By participating in these online membership communities you may be contacted by other participants using the information provided.
  
  Some of our apps allow you to make information available to others who are also using the same app – for example, at an in-person event. We recommend that you review and understand how the app will work, what access it may have to your social media or other accounts, and what choices you may have.

Licensing

• We may also license certain information to resellers and third-party businesses which we have authorized for marketing and/or analytical purposes.
  
  Please follow the directions here to opt-out of having your information shared for any of these purposes.
  
  HCS also shares the information it gathers in a compiled format with advertisers and other business partners. The compiled format does not include PII

Third-Party Advertising Technologies

• We use third-party advertising, data analytics and online targeting companies to serve ads when you visit our sites or use our applications. We may also provide your PII to these third parties to allow them to more effectively target advertising to you. These companies are obligated to protect your information, but you may opt-out of this sharing through the process described here.
  
  When advertisements are displayed to you on our sites and applications, one or more persistent cookies will be placed on your computer or device by us or a third party. Some of these third parties may use information (including PII) about your visits to this site and other websites and usage of applications in order to provide data and targeting recommendations. This may result in your receipt of advertisements about goods and services anticipated to be of interest to you. Please note that we do not control cookies and other data collection technologies that the ad servers may allow or that their advertisers may use. As discussed above, this may result in your receipt of advertisements about goods and services of anticipated interest to you served by these ad servers on third-party sites based on your use of HCS’s services.
  
  Many of the third-party advertising and data companies that serve ads on our sites are members of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) and/or the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA). NAI offers a tool which allows you to opt-out of behavioral advertising by NAI members at http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/ and the DAA offers a similar opt-out tool at http://www.aboutads.info/choices/. Visit their websites for useful information about ad networks and for a single place to turn off targeted ad serving. In addition, you may set your browser to block third-party cookies.
  
  We do not currently recognize automated browser signals regarding tracking mechanisms, such as “do not track” instructions.

Mobile Devices

• Mobile marketing campaigns may involve you sending an email from your mobile device to HCS or a third-party campaign operator. An email or other response will then be sent to your mobile device. Opting to participate in this type of campaign is your choice. When you engage in these mobile marketing campaigns, HCS and the third-party campaign operator may collect and use your cell phone number, the name of your wireless service provider, images that you send using your cell phone as part of the campaign, and other relevant information.

Correcting and Updating Your Information

If you are a registered user, you can access your account information and make corrections or updates upon log-in. The accuracy of such information is solely your responsibility. You may also separately contact us to request access to other PII about you which is in our possession. If you request to deactivate your account or delete your PII, we will endeavor to fulfill your request but some PII may persist in backup copies for a certain period of time and may be retained as necessary for legitimate business purposes or to comply with our legal obligations.

Cross-Border Information Transfer

You acknowledge that HCS is located in the United States of America (U.S.) and will process and store your information in the U.S. In addition, we may use service providers located outside of the U.S. or which process or store information on our behalf outside of the U.S. By providing us with your information, you consent to the transfer of your information to countries outside of your country of residence, which may have different personal data protection rules than in your country. HCS complies with the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework and the U.S.-Swiss Safe Harbor Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information from EU member countries and Switzerland. HCS has self-certified that it adheres to the Safe Harbor Privacy Principles of notice, choice, onward transfer, security, data integrity, access, and enforcement. To learn more about the Safe Harbor program, please visit http://www.export.gov/safeharbor/.

Information Security

We use a variety of technical, physical, and administrative security measures to secure the confidentiality of your PII and to protect it from loss, misuse, alteration, and destruction. However, due to the design of the Internet and other factors outside our control, we cannot guarantee that communications between you and our servers will be free from unauthorized access by third parties or by government agencies. You remain responsible for protecting your user name and passwords and for the security of information in transit to us over the Internet.

Other Important Information

HCS reserves the right to access and disclose PII to comply with applicable laws, government requests, court orders and other legal requirements, or to investigate alleged or suspected fraud or violations of the terms and conditions governing our services.

In the case of a sale, change of ownership or merger involving HCS or any business that is part of HCS, your contact information associated with HCS or that business would or could be one of the transferred assets. Courts of equity, such as U.S. Bankruptcy Courts, might have the authority under certain circumstances to permit PII to be shared or transferred to third parties without your permission.

Our services are directed to business professionals. They are not intended for children under the age of thirteen.

You agree that the laws of the State of California shall govern any dispute, including those arising from HCS’s use of PII or otherwise relating to privacy.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

As new products and services are offered or as existing products and services are improved, we may need to update this policy. When we do so we will post the changes here. For material changes we may also email our registered users with the new details. We encourage you to review this policy from time to time to stay informed about how we are protecting the PII you provide. Your continued use of our Services covered by this policy constitutes your consent to the practices in place at the time of your use. This policy was last updated on April 27, 2017.

How to Contact Us

If you have any questions, comments, or requests regarding this policy or our processing of your information, please contact [email protected] or write/call us at:

• HCS Technical Services
• 120 Riverwalk Dr. STE 310
• San Marcos TX 78666
• Phone: 512 396 8324

If you have any complaints regarding our compliance with the Safe Harbor Definitions, you should first contact us (with the information listed above). If contacting us does not resolve your complaint, you may raise your complaint with TRUSTe via their online page, accessible here. Please click here for fax and postal mail information. Please note, that TRUSTe’s Dispute Resolution process is only available in English.

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Intellectual Property Statement & Disclaimer

Copyright & Trademarks

All rights reserved. All content (texts, trademarks, illustrations, photos, graphics, files, designs, arrangements etc.) on this website of HCS are protected by copyright and other protective laws. The contents of this website are to be used only in accordance with Internet Regulations.

Regarding Marketing Consent for Photograph & Publicity of HCS

It is understood and consented that every guest, event attendee, or student unequivocally provides HCS, and its associated employees, agents and subcontractor’s perpetual permission and/or license to use my name, likeness, image, voice, and/or appearance as such may be embodied in any pictures, photos, video recordings, audio-tapes/audio-recordings, digital images, and the like, taken or made on behalf of HCS events and activities. It is further consented that each guest, event attendee or student unconditionally agrees that HCS have complete ownership of such pictures, etc., including the entire copyright, and may use them for any purpose consistent with HCS’s marketing strategy. These uses include, but are not limited to illustrations, bulletins, exhibitions, videotapes, reprints, reproductions, publications, advertisements, and any promotional or educational materials in any medium now known or later developed, including the Internet.

Ultimately each guest, event attendee and/or student acknowledges that no compensation, etc. for the use of such pictures, et. al. is inured or expected out of the result of such use and hereby release HCS with its associated employees, agents and subcontractor’s from any and all claims which arise out of or are in any way connected with such use. In any situation where an individual does not want their name, likeness, image, voice and/or appearances used in connection with a marketed material – a request can be sent to: [email protected], whereby the submitting party must provide details and examples of the material in question for review by HCS. Based upon the nature of the marketing material, immediate revocation may be defined as “commercially unfeasible” and in such cases, both the party and HCS agree to work to a mutually agreeable timeframe for removal of such material.

Internet Regulations

Without the explicit written permission of HCS it is prohibited to integrate in whole, or in part, any of the protected contents published on these websites into other programs or other web sites or to use them by any other means. This website can contain elements that are protected by copyright and by other laws that are subject to the copyright or other rights of third parties and that are correspondingly protected for these third parties.

Any unauthorized use of Intellectual Property on this site, or otherwise clearly noted as being from HCS, will cause HCS to pursue legal remedy of said breach; to the fullest extent the law may allow.