Privacy Policy | Crozdesk

1. About This Privacy Policy

Last updated: Dec 10, 2021

Welcome to Crozdesk! Thank you for using our service. The Crozdesk service is fully owned and operated by Crozdesk Ltd. For the purposes of this Privacy Policy, the Terms of Use, and the Vendor Policy, Crozdesk and Crozdesk Ltd will be used interchangeably. Additionally, the business and all employees will be referred to as ”we" or "us" as well as the “team” or "company". Furthermore, the “user” and “you” will be used interchangeably and both refer to any person or entity using the Crozdesk service or any of it’s subsites, subdomains, and/or product components.

The following Privacy Policy applies to any interactions a user has with https://crozdesk.com and any sub-sites thereof, including, but not limited to, any service components, web resources, and/or content found on our sites (referred to as the "website") and governs the privacy of its users who choose to use it. The Privacy Policy also includes our Terms of Use and Vendor Policy where applicable.

The Privacy Policy sets out the different areas where user privacy is concerned and outlines the obligations and requirements of the user, the website, and the website owners. The ways that this website processes, stores, and protects user data and information will also be detailed within this policy.

By using the site, providing personal or company information upon registration, filling in a contact form, submitting a review, downloading a white paper document, or engaging with the website in any other way, users explicitly accept this Privacy Policy.

This website and its owners take a proactive approach to user privacy and ensure the necessary steps are taken to protect the privacy of its users throughout their visiting experience. This website complies with all UK national laws and GDPR requirements for user privacy.

2. The Ways That We Use Personal Data

What Personal Data Do We Collect?

This Privacy Policy provides information about the types of personal data that we collect. Personal data refers to any information that can be used to identify the users providing it.

Whenever a user visits the website, we receive the following information:

Technical information regarding the ways in which users interact with the website. This includes the IP (internet protocol) address used to connect to the user’s computer to the internet, the operating system used by the user’s computer, the type and version of browser used to access the Crozdesk website, browser plug-ins and extensions present on the browser, and time zone settings.
Interaction information regarding a user’s actions when on the Crozdesk website, as well as how they got to the website and where they go after leaving the website.
Personalization information collected both from our website and based upon the existing cookies a user has stored in their internet browser.

When a user registers or logs into an account on the website, they must verify their identity through logging in via their LinkedIn profile details. Through LinkedIn, we collect the following profile information:

Name
Email address
Profile URL
Profile picture
Job title
Company name
Company size
Company industry

Once an account has been created on our website, the user can also optionally select the software solutions they use.

If a user would like to download one of our white paper documents, they must first provide the following information via webform:

Name
Company name
Email address
Phone number

If a user would like to take advantage of our software recommendation or advisory services, they must provide some of the following information via webform:

Name
Company name
Company size
Company industry
Software requirements
Email address
Phone number

If a user would like to list their company's products via the vendor panel, they must provide some of the following information via webform:

Name
Company name
Product descriptions, screenshots and other details
Email address
Phone number
Payment data for premium services

These forms contain fields specified with an asterisk (*) that must be filled in, as they are mandatory and necessary. Failing to submit this information will result in not being able to download the desired document and benefit from the requested Crozdesk services. Users are also advised that any inaccuracy, falsity, mistake, or error in any submitted personal data and information is their exclusive responsibility. We also advise users to inform Crozdesk of any change in their personal data so as to keep up-to-date, error-free profiles.

How Do We Collect Personal Data?

Data is collected in a range of ways, both by us and our partners.

The data collected directly from users includes:

Information such as website registration details.
Information submitted by the user when downloading one of our white paper documents or filling out a software advisory service form.

The data collected from the user’s device and browser used to access the Crozdesk website includes:

General information that is gathered from most browsers and devices, such as user IP addresses and cookies. See the previous section for a comprehensive list.

The data collected from other sources includes:

Personal data that is generated through the distribution of software buyer guides, our research reports, and other white paper documents across our partner network. The information we receive includes the user’s name, email address, phone number, company name, and the topics they are interested in, depending on which document is downloaded. In some cases, additional user-provided information may be passed on to us.
As aforementioned, the LinkedIn account details used to verify and sign in with an account are collected, including the personal information that LinkedIn supplies us with. All of the terms and conditions set out in this Privacy Policy are not applicable to the LinkedIn platform, therefore to understand how LinkedIn processes and handles your data, please visit their privacy policy.

How Do We Use Personal Data and Why?

Personal data is used for various reasons relating to the software comparison service we provide. The following core reasons set out what we do with user data:

Business relationships:

For the purpose of providing lead generation campaigns to our clients, we may supply user information that is gathered on download of our white papers, reports, or buyer guides, as long as legitimate interest for the client's software can be assumed. All users are made aware that they may be contacted by sales representatives of the companies we work with should this be the case. Additionally, for those that opt-in, we may also contact users via phone to offer software selection advice.
When a user on our website follows a hyperlink to a partner website, their browser may indicate this journey to both sites.
When a user consumes content on our site or some of our partner sites, we may use their IP address and cookies or similar technologies (in some cases) to collect anonymous user profiles that indicate organizational interest in specific types of products or services. We may then provide this account-level data to our clients for general analytics, marketing or advertising purposes. However, we do not provide user-level browsing data or IP address data directly to clients. If you would like to opt out of this, please contact us providing your IP address. You can opt out retroactively and/or going forward and request any past data collected about your IP address to be permanently deleted.

Marketing:

We will send promotional emails to users based on their Crozdesk account preferences (that can be changed in the account settings). This includes an email newsletter program, notifications regarding review rewards, as well as changes to administrative information such as terms, conditions, and policies.
All email subscriptions are taken in compliance with UK Spam Laws detailed in the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003. All personal details related to subscriptions are held securely and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. Email addresses and names might be stored and used through a third-party application, such as MailChimp.
Email marketing campaigns published by this website or its owners may contain tracking facilities within the actual email. Subscriber activity is tracked and stored in a database for future analysis and evaluation. Such tracked activity may include: the opening of emails; forwarding of emails; the clicking of links within the email content; as well as times, dates, and frequency of activity. This does not constitute a comprehensive list. This information is used to refine future email campaigns and supply the user with more relevant content, based on their activity. In compliance with UK Spam Laws and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003, subscribers are given the opportunity to unsubscribe at any time through an automated system. This process is detailed in the footer of each email campaign. If an automated unsubscription system is unavailable, clear instructions on how to cancel a subscription will be detailed instead. Should an error occur and no link or instructions are displayed, users are advised to contact Crozdesk through a reasonable channel and the subscription will be canceled manually.
Internally, personal data is used and shared between our team to measure the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. This allows us to know what users respond positively to and allows us to place more focus on that particular vertical.

Administration:

Ensures that website content is delivered and presented in the most efficient way for each user’s specific device and it’s settings.
To manage, monitor, and improve the website, as well as for internal operations. This includes troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, and statistical evaluation. Thereafter, the insights can be used for internal business applications, including analysing and managing our business processes and performance, conducting audits, developing new services, improving our current services, improving the website, and identifying usage trends.

Security and legal compliance:

To help keep the website safe and secure.
To detect and prevent fraud and other illegal activities.
To ensure full compliance with the legal infrastructure of a range of countries, both domestically and internationally.

Data transfer:

Whenever we send (or permit a third party to send) personal data outside of the UK, we will make sure that we take necessary steps to protect the user as required by domestic UK laws and GDPR compliance.
Certain personal data may be shared with third-party service providers, which may be located outside of the EU where data protection laws are different. As such, Crozdesk has implemented appropriate safeguards in this process for your personal data.
Where the user has provided consent, we may share personal data with third-party software providers, as well as by extension with their third-party data controllers. This is generally related to user-vendor introduction campaigns, where users consent to receive introductory pitches connecting them with software providers.

Third-party links and sponsored advertising:

The website may contain links to other third-party sites that are not covered by this Privacy Policy. We do not own and have no responsibility for these sites. Any data that is submitted to other third party sites should only be submitted after the user has checked each sites’ individual policy.
Sponsored links and adverts will typically be served through Crozdesk advertising partners, who may have detailed privacy policies relating directly to the adverts they serve. Clicking on any such adverts will generally send users to the advertisers’ website through a referral program, which may use cookies and might track the number of referrals sent from this website. To find out more about our policy regarding cookies, see further below.
Although this website only intends to include quality, safe, and relevant external links, users are advised to adopt a policy of caution before clicking any external web links mentioned throughout this website (including clickable text, banners, and image links to other websites). The owners of this website cannot verify or give any guarantees in relation to the content of any externally linked website despite their best efforts. Users should therefore note that clicking on external links is done at their own risk. This website and its owners cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links.

How Do We Share Personal Data

Internally:

Personal data may be shared with any member of our team, as long as it is related to the business relationship we possess with the affected user.

Externally:

In order to deliver our services at optimal efficiency to users, this data may be communicated with our partners where necessary to help fulfil their obligations to aid our services. In the case we do share data, we will ensure that it is handled in accordance with the domestic legislation of both the UK and the host country of the third party, as well as being GDPR compliant. Furthermore, we will make sure that these third party entities only utilise user personal data for the purpose of providing the agreed relevant services to us. As such, this will only be to confer the benefits of doing so to the end user and is only where we are not able to either commercially or capably provide such services ourselves.
As part of software advisory services or software marketing programs it is sometimes necessary to collect express user permission for their professional and/or personal data to be shared with relevant third-parties, especially (but not exclusively) in cases where users are requesting software vendor introductions or further information from vendors to aid during their research process. Some of these partners may be located outside of the UK and the European Union. Crozdesk provides opt-out facilities from any associated marketing communications, but third-parties that data has been shared with prior to the user opting-out may require additional opt-out notifications as well.
When working with online advertising networks we may need to disclose personal data to help tailor, deliver, and gauge personalized advertisements, such as through using browser cookies.
In the event that we are subject to legal obligations, including but not limited to the detection and prevention of crime, we may need to disclose requested personal data to either law enforcement agencies or other public authorities.
Should we ever sell or attempt to sell the company, or any component thereof, personal data may need to be disclosed to prospective buyers.

3. Cookies

What Are Cookies

As is common practice with most professional websites this site uses cookies, which are tiny files that are downloaded to your computer, to improve your experience. This section describes what information they gather, how we use them and why we sometimes need to store these cookies. We will also share how you can prevent these cookies from being stored however this may downgrade or 'break' certain elements of the sites functionality.

How We Use Cookies

We use cookies for a variety of reasons detailed below. Unfortunately in most cases there are no industry standard options for disabling cookies without completely disabling the functionality and features they add to this site. It is recommended that you leave on all cookies if you are not sure whether you need them or not in case they are used to provide a service that you use.

Disabling Cookies

You can prevent the setting of cookies by adjusting the settings on your browser (see your browser Help for how to do this). Be aware that disabling cookies will affect the functionality of this and many other websites that you visit. You can view our cookie declaration, manage the cookies on this site and opt-out of (non-essential) cookies here. Disabling cookies will usually result in also disabling certain functionality and features of this site.

The Cookies We Set

Account related cookies

If you create an account with us then we will use cookies for the management of the signup process and general administration. These cookies will usually be deleted when you log out however in some cases they may remain afterwards to remember your site preferences when logged out.
Login related cookies

We use cookies when you are logged in so that we can remember this fact. This prevents you from having to log in every single time you visit a new page. These cookies are typically removed or cleared when you log out to ensure that you can only access restricted features and areas when logged in.
Surveys related cookies

From time to time we offer user surveys and questionnaires to provide you with interesting insights, helpful tools, or to understand our user base more accurately. These surveys may use cookies to remember who has already taken part in a survey or to provide you with accurate results after you change pages.
Forms related cookies

When you submit data through a form such as those found on contact pages or our buyer advice forms cookies may be set to remember your user details for future correspondence.
Site preferences cookies

In order to provide you with a great experience on this site we provide the functionality to set your preferences for how this site runs when you use it. In order to remember your preferences we need to set cookies so that this information can be called whenever you interact with a page is affected by your preferences.

Third Party Cookies

In some special cases we also use cookies provided by trusted third parties. The following section details which third party cookies you might encounter through this site.

This site uses Google Analytics which is one of the most widespread and trusted analytics solution on the web for helping us to understand how you use the site and ways that we can improve your experience. These cookies may track things such as how long you spend on the site and the pages that you visit so we can continue to produce engaging content.

For more information on Google Analytics cookies, see the official Google Analytics page.
Third party analytics are used to track and measure usage of this site so that we can continue to produce engaging content. These cookies may track things such as how long you spend on the site or pages you visit which helps us to understand how we can improve the site for you.
From time to time we test new features and make subtle changes to the way that the site is delivered. When we are still testing new features these cookies may be used to ensure that you receive a consistent experience whilst on the site whilst ensuring we understand which optimisations our users appreciate the most.
The Google AdSense service we use to serve advertising uses a DoubleClick cookie to serve more relevant ads across the web and limit the number of times that a given ad is shown to you.

For more information on Google AdSense see the official Google AdSense privacy FAQ.
We run marketing campaigns on behalf of our customers to offset the costs of running this site and provide funding for further development. The behavioural marketing cookies used by this site are designed to ensure that we provide you with the most relevant marketing campaigns possible by anonymously tracking your interests and presenting similar things that may be of interest.
Several partners advertise on our behalf and affiliate tracking cookies simply allow us to see if our customers have come to the site through one of our partner sites so that we can credit them appropriately and where applicable allow our affiliate partners to provide any bonus that they may provide you for making a purchase.
We also use social media buttons and/or plugins on this site that allow you to connect with your social network in various ways. For these to work the following social media sites including: Linkedin.com, will set cookies through our site which may be used to enhance your profile on their site or contribute to the data they hold for various purposes outlined in their respective privacy policies.

Please consult our cookie declaration & settings for more information or contact us if you have additional questions.

B2B MG Collaboration

Crozdesk works together with B2B Media Group Berlin GmbH ("B2B MG", formally formerly “Aumago GmbH”), Berlin, a target group marketer. B2B MG uses so-called cookies, a text file which is stored in the browser of the computer. Pseudonymous usage data is collected in the form of cookie IDs and advertising IDs. Furthermore, so-called web beacons (invisible graphics) can be used. As far as IP addresses are collected, they are stored anonymously by deleting the last number block.

B2B MG assumes an interest in a specific B2B industry or topics based on the surfing behavior of the user (e.g. visited website, categories, product pages, read content) and uses this information on behalf of Crozdesk to target specific, usage-based online advertising to these users on the internet. In this respect, the cookies can be synchronized with other technology platforms via a so-called cookie matching function. The current list of matching partners can be found under the following link and more information on the cookies can be found in Crozdesk's Cookie Declaration here.

The cookies are either B2B MG cookies or cookies from service providers that B2B MG uses such as The ADEX GmbH or B2B Media Group EMEA GmbH. The user may at any time declare their opt-out and thus object to the cookie tracking in this regard: ADEX Opt-out link, B2B Media Group Opt-out link. This will set a so-called opt-out cookie. The opt-out cookie requires that a setting in the browser does not prevent the storage of cookies or delete the cookie. After deleting the opt-out cookie, the user must repeat the objection. Alternatively, the user can delete the cookies directly in the browser, set browser settings to do-not-track from the beginning or manage their cookie preferences here. If you wish to obtain information about the information stored in your cookie, either send us your cookie ID or send it to B2B Media Group Berlin GmbH, Savignyplatz 9/10, 10623 Berlin or to [email protected].

4. Social Media

Communication, engagement, and actions taken through external social media platforms that this website and its owners participate on are circumscribed to the terms and conditions as well as the privacy policies held with each social media platform. Users are advised to use social media platforms wisely and communicate/engage with them with due care and caution in regards to their own privacy and personal details. This website and its owners will never ask for personal or sensitive information through social media platforms. Crozdesk always encourages primary communication channels such as telephone or email to discuss sensitive details with users.

This website may use social sharing buttons which help share web content directly from web pages to any social media platform. Users are advised that the use of such buttons is done at their own discretion. They should also note that social media platforms may track and save their request to share a web page through their own social media accounts.

Additionally, this website and its owners may share web links to any relevant web pages through any of their social media platform accounts. Despite the best efforts to ensure only genuine URLs are published, many social media platforms are prone to spam and hacking and, by default, some of them shorten lengthy URLs (web addresses). This website and its owners cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any shortened links. Users are therefore advised to take caution and good judgement before clicking any shortened URLs published on social media platforms by this website and its owners.

5. Contact Us

Each user has the right to contact us regarding our handling of personal data. Users contacting this website and/or its owners do so at their own discretion and provide any personal details at their own risk. Their personal information is kept private and stored securely until a time when it is no longer required or has no use, as detailed in the Data Protection Act 1998. Every effort has been made to ensure a safe and secure form for the email submission process.

Users can submit any queries and requests via our contact us page. Each user has the right to:

Request that personal data is not used for direct marketing purposes or any other reason that concerns the user.
Request to receive all personal data that we hold about the relevant user, as well as what we do with such data.
Provide amendments to any incorrect personal data.
Request that we stop using the personal data of the affected user.
Request that we delete personal data of the affected user.
Be excluded from automated processing services (e.g. computers running algorithms).

This policy may be changed or updated from time to time without notification of existing and/or new users. It is the users responsibility to check this page regularly to ensure that they are still in full agreement with the policies set out on this and other Crozdesk pages.