What are the privacy considerations when using Nature Navigator?

This is the privacy policy (“policy”) for navigator.nature.com which is run and provided by Springer Nature Limited (we, us and our). Springer Nature Limited is located at The Campus, 4 Crinan Street, London N1 9XW. We can also be contacted at [email protected]. We will only use the personal data gathered over this website as set out in this policy. Below you will find information on how we use your personal data, for which purposes your personal data is used, with whom it is shared and what control and information rights you may have.

We will only use the personal data gathered over this website as set out in this policy. Below you will find information on how we use your personal data, for which purposes your personal data is used, with whom it is shared and what control and information rights you may have.

I. Summary of our processing activities

We enable access to portfolio collections regarding a specific research topic. Some of this material is freely available; some of it is only available to subscribers. The following summary offers a quick overview of the data processing activities that are undertaken on our website. You will find more detailed information under the indicated sections below.

• When you visit our website for informational reasons without setting up an account, only limited personal data will be processed to provide you with the website itself (see III).

• If you are identified as belonging to a customer organisation then we collect information in order to be able to provide usage reporting to that customer.

• In case you register for our services, further personal data will be processed in the scope of such services (see IV and V).

• Furthermore, your personal data will be used for statistical analysis that helps us to improve our website (see VIII).

• Your personal data may be disclosed to third parties (see IX) that might be located outside your country of residence; potentially, different data protection standards may apply (see X).

• We have implemented appropriate safeguards to secure your personal data (see XI) and retain your personal data only as long as necessary (see XII).

• Under the legislation applicable to you, you may be entitled to exercise certain rights with regard to the processing of your personal data (see XIII).

II. Definitions

• Personal data: means any information relating to a natural person who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, or an online identifier.

• Processing: means any operation which is performed on personal data, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or any kind of disclosure or other use.

III. Informational use of the website

When you visit our website for informational reasons, i.e. without registering for any of our provided services listed under IV and without providing us with personal data in any other form, we may automatically collect information about you which will contain personal data only in limited cases and which is automatically recognised by our server, such as:

• your IP address;

• your device type, name and IDs;

• the date and time of your requests;

• the content of your requests;

• information on your browser version;

• your screen resolution;

• information on your operating system, including language settings.

We use such information only to assist us in providing an effective service (e.g. to adapt our website to the needs of your device or to allow you to log in to our website), and to collect broad demographic information for anonymised, aggregated use.

If you are identified by IP or equivalent method as belonging to a customer organisation such as university or a company then we will also collect the identity of that organisation and use it to create usage reports which show the organisation how much of the content we publish is being read by their students, members or employees. This information does not contain anything related to a personal login unless (a) you are a nominated administrator for that organisation or (b) your organisation specifically requires it as a part of a usage-based access contract.

The personal data automatically collected is necessary for us to provide the website, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR, and for our legitimate interest to guarantee the website’s stability and security, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR.

IV. Registration for our services

Access to our service and content is provided via a variety of mechanisms such as a personal account and eventually IP site licenses, login via third party federated identity providers or other. Using the federated authentication method institutional selection data may be stored locally in your browser and shared with third party websites that you visit to ease the process of institutional authentication. If your access to our content is provided by an organisation or an institution like a university or a company then they may choose the access method on your behalf. A personal account is always required to use the service, including viewing and creating content, or to receive personal services like newsletters and alerts.

If you need to create a personal login with us then we will store and process the following:

• Information (such as your name, user name and email address) that is provided by registration;

• Information in connection with an account sign-in facility (e.g. log-in and password details);

• Information on your affiliation and connections to customers (e.g. through IP or additional information provided by you);

• Communications sent by you (e.g. via e-mail or website communication forms)

The information that is necessary for the performance of the service is labelled accordingly. All further information is provided voluntarily.

We will process the personal data you provide to:

• Identify you at sign-in;

• Provide you with the services and information offered through the website or which you request;

• Entitle you to sub-services and content available through your organisational affiliation

• Administer your account;

• Communicate with you;

• Provide access (where appropriate) to other Springer Nature group content if you so request

For this, the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR.

We use the personal data and contact data you provide by registration to inform you directly about our additional products and services. The use of your personal data for directly advertising related products and services or for behavioural advertising and profiling is with consent, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR.

You can object to the use of your personal data for direct marketing at any time. We will then refrain from any processing to the extent it is related to such purposes. You may opt-out of direct marketing via opt-out links in any marketing communication or via user profile pages on the website (where available). You can also inform us about your objection by contacting our customer service at [email protected].

Registration data is kept until such time as an account deletion request is made. If such a request is received we will erase your data within 30 days. Statutory storage obligations or the need for legal actions that may arise from misconduct within the services or payment problems can lead to a longer retention of your personal data. In this case, we will inform you accordingly.

V. Information about the specific uses that require registration/identification

Nature Research Intelligence processes published personal data collected by research data aggregators such as Dimensions, Crossref, OpenAlex and others in order to generate aggregated research overviews of different research fields and topics. This includes data categories such as:

• identification data (which may include name, ORCID iD),

• affiliation and entity type (e.g. academic, government, industry).

You can be part of these data collections as an author because of your publication history with a scientific publisher (exceeding Springer Nature). The use of your personal data in relation to our generation of research overviews is based on our legitimate interest to develop our products and services that benefit the research community by providing them with research intelligence.

Please refer to our more detailed and non-technical description of this processing on this webpage.

1. Creating, accessing, personalising, and saving content
   To use these services in parts or total you might have to set up an account as described under IV. You can delete the personal data as well as the account in your account’s settings. This processing is based on Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b.
   
   When creating any content on the service you are stored as the creator of that content. We might contact you with respect to the content you created to ensure that it is working correctly, clarify questions, improve it or delete it. Furthermore, we reserve the right to display data that identifies (such as, but not limited to your name and affiliation) you as the creator to other users of your organisation as well as other organisations. When creating content, you will need to specify on behalf of which of your affiliated organisations you create the content. Access to content you created is subject to the entitlement agreement with the selected organisation.
   
   When accessing content we use your account and its affiliation to organisations to ensure that you are entitled to view the respective content.
   
   When personalising and/or saving content within the system, we need to store your account identifier against the respective content. In case, you share any of such personalised and/or saved content with selected users or organisations we might display information such as your name to the users with whom the content is shared.

2. Interest management and prospecting
   We process your data, such as your name, job title and affiliation where available, to analyse the interest in our service. Based on your registration type and usage we might contact you to improve your experience of the service or offer you additional services. This processing is based on Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR.
   
   In addition, your anonymised data (unless you consent to full disclosure of your data) might be used in conversation with your affiliated organisation during prospecting and evaluation of new services.

3. Customer service
   If you contact us by either

   • e-mail or physical mail

   • telephone or fax

   • Chat/messaging support

   • through a website communication or submission form

4. we will process the personal data you provide to process and fulfil your request. For this, the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a and b GDPR.

To provide the requested service your data may be stored in a ticketing system and/or on a support platform to enable data access by the relevant customer support team member. Where appropriate the data will also be forwarded to a different team to fulfil the request (e.g. to update your data) or be used on physical data records, e.g. invoices.

We use different systems as a ticketing system to store and process your requests.

• Freshdesk (provided by Freshworks GmbH, Neue Grünstraße 17, 10179 Berlin, Germany)

• Featurebase (provided by Cordnet OU, Kaluri tee 4, Viimsi, Harjumaa 74001, Estonia)

• Depending on the region you call from and team providing support we use different telephony solutions. For the most part, users contacting customer service are directed to our level 1 teams at our Philippines-based data processor Straive (77 Robinson Road, # 13-00 Singapore 068896), if necessary, the service ticket is forwarded to a local level 2 Springer Nature Customer Service team or another relevant team at Springer Nature.

We do not process any sensitive data unless provided by you because you e.g. need support in coping with access issues due to a disability or reveal any protected characteristics during communication. For this, the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR.

We share anonymous, aggregated data within the business. We forward emails internally, or provide access to tickets for other teams to e.g. share positive feedback with a stakeholder, or for review by internal teams seeking to improve the products and services. For this the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR and represents our legitimate interest to improve our service quality and provide tailored solutions to the users.

We store your data until completion of the request and, if applicable, as long as required by statutory retention requirements (e.g. for 3 years after completion to prove adequate handling of service requests or subject access requests made under the GDPR).

VI. Automated decision making

We do not use your personal data for automated decision making which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you; however we do use your personal data to offer you content and services which we believe may be of interest.

VII. Online advertising, e-commerce and related tools

1. SAP Marketing Cloud (SMC)

2. SMC uses cookies, Google Analytics, and a pseudonymized user ID to aggregate user behavior on the website and in emails in order to personalize the content that is provided to newsletter subscribers. Google Analytics does not receive individual email addresses or other personal data, only a number. That number can only be connected to a specific user on Springer Nature's own SMC system. The legal basis for this process is your consent to the use of cookies on our website (Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR.). You can always unsubscribe from this process by rejecting the cookies that measure website use.Faculty AI

We work with Faculty AI, Level 6, 160 Old Street, London, EC1V 9BW, UK, to provide you with personalised content surfaced online as well as in email form. We base this on previous activity on our website in conjunction with non-essential cookies you’ve accepted via our CMP. Faculty AI act as a data processor on our behalf and we have data processing agreement in place to support this. For this activity the legal basis to process your data is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. This reflects your consent to non-essential cookies that help with communications and marketing. You can update or withdraw your consent by clicking Your Privacy Choices/Manage cookies in the page footer.

VIII. Analytics

1. Our Consent Management Platform

2. On this website we use a Consent Management Platform ("CMP") developed by Springer Nature to provide information about the cookies and other tracking technology used on our website and to manage user preferences on that behalf.
   
   Our CMP places the following cookie on your computer: - sncc
   
   This allows us to identify if the cookie banner is displayed, which choices you made and how to act upon those choices (Opt-in or Opt-out of cookie categories). This cookie is necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. This is usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable information.
   
   You can set your browser to block non-essential cookies, but some parts of the site may then not perform as designed. Click on the “Your Privacy Choices/Manage cookies” link in the footer of the page to review and change your current settings.
   
   Our CMP will also automatically collect additional information about you which will contain personal data only in limited cases and which is automatically recognised by our server (as per Section III, above). It is used to collect broad demographic information based on your IP address for anonymised, aggregated use. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest in optimising our service by monitoring the effectiveness of our CMP, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR.
   For statistical analyses we use web analytics services such as Google Analytics, collect information about the use of this site.
   General tracking information

3. The tools collect information such as:

   • Device and browser information (operating system information, Mobile device identifier, mobile operating system, etc.)

   • IP address

   • Page accessed, URL click stream (the chronological order of our internet sites you visited)

   • Geographic location

   • Time of visit

   • Referring site, application, or service

4. We use the information we get from the providers to determine the most useful information you are looking for, and to improve and optimise this website.
   
   We will track your behaviour online for the purposes described above; this data will not be shared outside of Springer Nature. You can stop this tracking by clicking on the “Your Privacy Choices/Manage cookies” link in the footer of the page. The legal basis for this processing via Google Analytics is consent, Art. 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit.a GDPR, to analyse our website’s traffic, improve the user’s experience and optimise the website in general.
   
   We will track your behaviour online for the purposes described above; this data will not be shared outside of Springer Nature. You can stop this tracking by clicking on the “Your Privacy Choices/Manage cookies” link in the footer of the page. The legal basis for this processing via Google Analytics is consent, Art. 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit.a GDPR, to analyse our website’s traffic, improve the user’s experience and optimise the website in general.
   
   Depending on the provider the information generated about your use of the website may be transferred to and processed in third countries, e.g. the United States. For further information about the potential risks of a cross border data transfer please refer to section XI. The tools collect only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit this site, rather than your name or any other identifying information. The provider will use this information in order to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activities and to provide other services relating to website and internet use to us.
   Google Analytics

5. We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland (“Google”). The cookie set by Google Analytics on your device causes your web browser to transmit corresponding information to Google each time our website is called up. For example, Google Analytics collects data about the website from which a data subject has accessed a website (so-called referrer URL), which subpages of the website have been accessed or how often and for how long a subpage has been viewed. On our behalf Google will use the information generated by the cookie for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet activity in connection with the use of the website and according to your consent preferences. The processing affects the following data categories:
   
   

   • IP addresses

   • Online identifiers (including cookie identifiers)

   • Device identifiers

   • Technical characteristics of users (e.g., browser type and version, device type, operating system)

   • Measurement of user behavior (e.g., views of individual pages / content, views of content from different areas, session duration / dwell time, bounce rate

   • Use of individual website functionalities (e.g. timetable information, search queries, downloads)

   • Referral URL

We use the addition "_gat._anonymizeIp" for web analysis via Google Analytics. By means of this add-on, your IP address is shortened and anonymized by Google before transmission to the USA if our website is accessed from a member state of the European Union or the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and shortened there.
The legal basis for the data transfer is Art. 28 GDPR in conjunction with the data processing agreement. The transfer of your personal data is subject to your consent according to Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. You can consent to the processing of your data by Google Analytics using our Consent Manager, prevent the collection of your data or revoke consent once given. For revocation, call up the cookie settings again at the bottom of our website.
The information processed by Google about your use of this website may be transmitted to a Google server outside the EEA and processed there. The cross-border transfer is safeguarded by the Standard Contractual Clauses 2021. Your personal data will be anonymized by Google 14 months after your last activity, unless there is a legal obligation to retain it.
You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser or by amending your preferences. In addition to that you may prevent the collection of the information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including you IP address) and the processing of this data by Google if you download and install the browser plug-in available at the following link:http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. You can access the Google Analytics privacy policy here

In addition to the above, we use historic pseudonymised Google Analytics data to recommend content to you based on your website activity, particularly suggesting articles that may be of interest. We work with Faculty AI, Level 6, 160 Old Street, London, EC1V 9BW, UK, who act as a data processor on our behalf in this activity, a data processing agreement is in place to support this. The data transfer to Faculty AI in the UK is secured by the adequacy decision of the EU Commission. Faculty AI are an AI service delivery company, find out more about Faculty AI here. The legal basis to process your data in this instance is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR, our legitimate interest to improve and increase the use of our website as well as your interest in discovering content that is relevant to you.

IX. Third party content and information sharing

1. Third parties
   
   This website may contain links to third party websites. We are not responsible for the content and the data collection on respective third party websites; please check the privacy policy of respective websites for information of respective websites’ data processing activities.

2. Data Sharing
   
   Where personal data is disclosed to third parties for the purposes mentioned above the legal basis for the transfer of your personal data is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b and f GDPR. Some of the recipients may reside outside the EEA. For further information about cross border transfer in general and transfers outside of the EEA see section on Cross border data transfers.
   
   We may disclose your personal data to contractors who assist us in providing the services we offer through the website. Such a transfer will be based on data processing agreements (Art. 28 GDPR). Therefore, our contractors will only use your personal data to the extent necessary to perform their functions and will be contractually bound to process your personal data only on our behalf and in compliance with our requests. In the event that we undergo re-organisation or are sold to a third party, any personal data we hold about you may be transferred to that re-organised entity or third party in compliance with applicable law.
   
   We may disclose your personal data if legally entitled or required to do so (for example if required by law or by a court order). The legal basis for this will be Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. c GDPR (in conjunction with the respective national law).

3. Usage Reports
   
   We may disclose anonymous aggregate statistics about users of the website in order to describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers and other reputable third parties and for other lawful purposes, but these statistics will include no personal data. We also supply standardized usage reports to institutional customers, also known as Counter Reports. For more information on Counter Reports - https://www.projectcounter.org/code-of-practice-sections/usage-reports/
   
   In addition to the above mentioned anonymous reports and by special arrangement:
   
   When you access portfolio content, we will process your personal data to create usage reports. This will include your full text HTML and PDF downloads, your IP address and potentially your email address. This data is necessary for the usage report as it provides information on the usage and overall interest in a particular topic.
   
   The legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR. We have a legitimate interest to assess and evaluate the use of our content to be able to improve our services. We will retain this data securely for ongoing internal analysis and future reference.
   
   We may share the usage data with licensee under whose license you are accessing and using our services, (e.g. your employer, the institution you are a member to, your university etc. “Licensee”). The legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR. The Licensee has a legitimate interest in using the usage data to assess and evaluate the economic efficiency of its license for our content. Based on this evaluation, the Licensee will be able to determine e.g. the necessity to obtain more licenses or reduce the number of licenses or to allocate costs internally. Further, the usage data may allow the Licensee to request contributions or funding. The Licensee is contractually limited to using the usage data for no other purposes than these economic efficiency assessment purposes.
   
   In addition, we ourselves have a legitimate interest in enabling the Licensee to use the usage data to conduct respective evaluation and assessments is also in our interest as it makes our service more attractive for the Licensees.
   
   If the Licensee resides outside the EEA, the transfer is safeguarded by a Commission’s adequacy decision such as EU Standard Contractual Clauses. You can find further information about the aforementioned safeguards by contacting us here: Submit a ticket : Springer Nature Support 
   
   You may object to the transfer of the usage data to the Licensee at any time without reason by contacting us here: Submit a ticket : Springer Nature Support 

X. Cross border data transfers

Within the scope of our information sharing activities set out above, your personal data may be transferred to other countries (including countries outside the EEA) which may have different data protection standards from your country of residence. Please note that data processed in a foreign country may be subject to foreign laws and accessible to foreign governments, courts, law enforcement, and regulatory agencies. However, we will endeavour to take reasonable measures to maintain an adequate level of data protection when sharing your personal data with such countries.

In the case of a transfer outside of the EEA, this transfer is safeguarded by EU Model Clauses in accordance with Article 46 GDPR. You can find further information about the aforementioned safeguards by following this link https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection_en or contact our Group Data Protection Officer via [email protected] for specific information on respective safeguards.

XI. Security

We have reasonable state of the art security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of personal data under our control. For example, our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorised personnel have access to personal data. Whilst we cannot ensure or guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration of information will never occur, we use all reasonable efforts to prevent it.

You should bear in mind that submission of information over the internet is never entirely secure. We cannot guarantee the security of information you submit via our website whilst it is in transit over the internet and any such submission is at your own risk.

XII. Data retention

We strive to keep our processing activities with respect to your personal data as limited as possible. In the absence of specific retention periods set out in this policy, your personal data will be retained only for as long as we need it to fulfil the purpose for which we have collected it and, if applicable, as long as required by statutory retention requirements.

XIII. Your rights

Under the legislation applicable to you, you may be entitled to exercise some or all of the following rights:

1. require (i) information as to whether your personal data is retained and (ii) access to and/or duplicates of your personal data retained, including the purposes of the processing, the categories of personal data concerned, and the data recipients as well as potential retention periods;

2. request rectification, removal or restriction of your personal data, e.g. because (i) it is incomplete or inaccurate, (ii) it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, or (iii) the consent on which the processing was based has been withdrawn;

3. refuse to provide and – without impact to data processing activities that have taken place before such withdrawal – withdraw your consent to processing of your personal data at any time;

4. object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, that your personal data shall be subject to a processing. In this case, please provide us with information about your particular situation. After the assessment of the facts presented by you we will either stop processing your personal data or present you our compelling legitimate grounds for an ongoing processing;

5. take legal actions in relation to any potential breach of your rights regarding the processing of your personal data, as well as to lodge complaints before the competent data protection regulators;

6. require (i) to receive the personal data concerning you, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and (ii) to transmit those data to another controller without hindrance from our side; where technically feasible you shall have the right to have the personal data transmitted directly from us to another controller; and/or

7. not to be subject to any automated decision making, including profiling (automatic decisions based on data processing by automatic means, for the purpose of assessing several personal aspects) which produce legal effects on you or affect you with similar significance.

You may (i) exercise the rights referred to above or (ii) pose any questions or (iii) make any complaints regarding our data processing by contacting us using the contact details set out below.

XIV. Contacting us

Please submit any questions, concerns or comments you have about this privacy policy or any requests concerning your personal data by email to our Group Data Protection Officer. You can contact our Group Data Protection Officer via [email protected]

The information you provide when contacting us at [email protected] will be processed to handle your request and will be erased when your request is completed. Alternatively, we will restrict the processing of the respective information in accordance with statutory retention requirements.

XV. Amendments to this policy

We reserve the right to change this policy from time to time by updating our website respectively. Please visit the website regularly and check our respective current privacy policy.