Privacy and Security

PRIVACY

This is the privacy policy (“Policy”) for www.americanenglishediting.com (“the Website”), which are operated by American English Editing, Norman, OK, USA (“we,” “us,” and “our”). The Policy provides information on the personal data we collect and how we collect it, the purposes for which we use your personal data, the circumstances under which we share your personal data with others, and what control and information rights you may have.

I. Summary of our processing activities

The following summary provides you with a quick overview of the processing activities that are undertaken on our website. You will find more detailed information under the indicated sections below.

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

In case you contact us to request information or resources, register for an account, subscribe to our newsletter, or purchase our services, further personal data will be processed in the scope of such services (see Sections IV, V, VI and VII).

The Websites use cookies and other similar technologies through which we and third parties with whom we work may collect information that we use to analyze use of the Websites, improve our Websites, and serve you content that you may be interested in, including our advertisements, on our Website and elsewhere on the internet (see Section VIII)

Our websites may include links to third-party websites and other content (see Section IX).

We may disclose your personal data to third parties to accomplish the purposes described in this Policy and for other purposes as described in Section X.

The Websites are operated from the United States, and we may transfer your personal data collected through the Websites to countries that may have different data protection standards from your country of residence (see Section XI).

We have implemented appropriate safeguards to secure your personal data (see Section XII) and retain your personal data only as long as necessary to perform the purposes for which we have collected it (see Section 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 Section XIV).

II. Definitions

Personal data means any information relating to a natural person who can be identified, directly or indirectly, 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, organization, structuring, storage, adaptation, or any type of disclosure or other use.

III. Informational use of the website

When you visit our Websites for informational reasons, i.e., without registering for an account, placing an order for our services, or submitting personal data to us in connection with a request for information or other resources, we may automatically collect certain personal data and information about your device, including:

Your IP address

The website from which you were directed to our site

The date and time of your requests

Your device type, screen resolution, and browser version

Your internet service provider

Information on your operating system, including language settings

Information on the pages you have visited on our Websites

We use this information to assist us in providing and operating the Websites (e.g., to adapt our Websites to the needs of your device or to allow you to log in to our Websites) and to collect usage information for anonymized, aggregated use. We base this processing on our legitimate interest in operating, administering, and ensuring the stability and security of the Websites and on providing you with the necessary functionality required for your use of the Websites.

IV. Requests

You may contact us through the Websites to request information, communicate with us about our services, or obtain access to other resources we make available through the Websites without registering for an account. When you contact us, we ask you to provide certain personal data to help us respond to your request, including:

Name and address (including title)

Email address

Phone number

Company and organization type

Occupation and/or area of interest

Country your company/organization is located in

The information you provide when contacting us will be processed to communicate with you, provide you with the services or resources that you request, and help us improve our customer service. The information may also be archived for later reference. We base this processing on our legitimate interests in fulfilling your requests, communicating with you, and providing quality support and customer service.

V. Registration for an account

Our Websites offer you the opportunity to register for an account, which is used to facilitate our provision of services to you. When you register for an account through the Websites, we collect and store the following required personal data:

Name

Email address

Country

Position

Institution/company

Currency

Preferred Language

Password

The above information is necessary for our performance of our services and is labeled accordingly. You may also provide additional personal data voluntarily, including:

Secondary email

Phone number

ORCID

Physical address

City

Place of Work

Type of organization

Sharing this information with us is optional and helps us provide you with better service. These fields may be deleted at any time by visiting your account page and making the entry blank.

We will process the personal data you provide when you register for an account for the following purposes:

Providing and managing your services purchased through the Websites

Identifying you at sign-in

Facilitating your participation in our rewards programs

Administering your account

Communicating with you about services you purchase through the Websites

Our legal bases for this processing include our performance of our agreements with you, our compliance with legal obligations, and our legitimate interest in managing our relationship with you and facilitating your use of our services.

Personal data associated with your account are generally retained for as long as your user account is active. After deletion of your account, your personal data will be erased within one month. Statutory storage obligations or the need to retain your personal data in connection with 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.

VI. Information about the specific uses that require registration – Paid Services

When you purchase services from us, including our editing, translation, and other services, you will be required to set up an account and provide the personal data described in Section V.

We will also collect additional information, which may include personal data, that is necessary for us to process your order and perform the services, including your manuscript and other files that are part of your submission, and your payment details and other related order information.

We retain this information in your customer account in order to communicate with you during a submission, process complaints and enable re-edits, provide you access to your completed submissions whenever you need them, and answer questions and complaints by viewing the completed work.

To comply with taxation and other laws that apply in the jurisdictions in which we operate, we may maintain certain financial information in relation to transactions (including address, payment, and order information) for up to 10 years.

Our legal bases for this processing include our performance of our agreements with you, our compliance with legal obligations, and our legitimate interest in communicating with you and in providing quality support and customer service.

VII. Newsletter and Marketing E-mail Communications

You can subscribe to our newsletter and other marketing email communications that provide you with the latest news about our services, special offers, and exclusive discounts.

If you sign up for newsletters on our website, you will receive an email containing a link by which you can confirm that you are the owner of the email address and wish to be notified via our email service. If your subscription is not confirmed within 96 hours after the confirmation mail has been requested, the personal data you provided will not be processed for any purpose and will be automatically erased.

If you create a free customer account on our website, you can sign up for marketing emails as follows:

If you are from an EU/EEA country, you may opt in to the email by checking a box at account registration to provide consent. In this case, there will not be a double-opt-in email because you are registering for an account.

If you are not from an EU/EEA country, you opt in to receive communications by signing up for a free account.

The legal basis for these processing activities is your consent. You can unsubscribe from our marketing emails by opting out via the link provided in each email. You can also email us using the contact information below to request that your email address be removed.

VIII. Cookies and other similar technologies

Our Websites use cookies and other similar technologies to collect information about your browsing activity. A cookie is a data file that is placed by a website operator on the hard drive of a visitor to their site. We and third parties with whom we work may set cookies on your device or use other technologies such as web beacons to collect information such as:

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

IP address

Pages accessed and URL click stream (the chronological order of our internet sites that you visited)

Geographic location

Time of visit

Referring site, application, or service

We use the information collected through cookies and other similar technologies to analyze the use of our Websites, determine the most useful information for you, improve and optimize the Websites, and serve you content that you may be interested in, including our advertisements, on our Website and elsewhere on the internet. Our analytics service providers—including Google as described below—will use the information they collect in order to evaluate your use of the Websites on our behalf, to compile reports on Website activities, and to provide other services relating to Website and internet use to us.

These services do not collect your name or any other identifying information beyond the information described above. Third parties with whom we work, however, may use cookies to collect the information described above over time and across different websites when you visit our Websites

At this time, our Websites to not respond to browser “do not track” signals, but you may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser; however, please note that if you do this, you may not be able to use the full functionality of the Websites.

The legal basis for this processing is, to the extent you have provided it, your consent, and our legitimate interest in analyzing the use of our Websites to improve user experience and to optimize the Websites, and in promoting our products and services.

Google Analytics / Google Tag Manager

We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (“Google”). On our behalf, Google will use the information generated by a cookie for the purpose of evaluating your use of the Websites, compiling reports on Website activity, and providing other services relating to Website activity and internet activity in connection with the use of the Websites. You can learn more about how Google uses data by visiting www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/.

You may prevent the collection of the information generated by the Google cookie about your use of the Websites (including your 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.

IX. Third party content and social media plug-ins

The Websites may contain links to third party websites, including social media networks. We are not responsible for the content and the data collection on these third party websites; please check their privacy policies for information on their data processing activities.

X. Information sharing

We may share your personal data with other parties as described in this Section for the purposes outlined above and as further described below. The legal bases for these transfers include our performance of our agreements with you and our legitimate interests described above. 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 XI.

Our affiliated companies

We may share your personal data with our affiliated companies as necessary to accomplish the purposes described above.

Our agents and business partners

We employ other companies and individuals to administer, service, or process customer transactions. Examples of such activities include order fulfillment, order delivery, credit card payment processing, and customer service support. It may also be necessary for us to share personal information you have included in your manuscripts and files with independent contractors whom we work with to edit or translate your documents.

Business reorganization/sale

In the event that we undergo re-organization or are sold to a third party (in whole or part), any personal data we hold about you may be transferred to that re-organized entity or third party subject to the terms of this Policy.

Compliance & protection

We may release your personal data to other third parties when we believe, in our reasonable judgment, that such release is appropriate to (i) protect the security and integrity of our Websites; (ii) protect our rights and property and the rights and property of others; (iii) take precautions against liability; (iv) comply with legal requirements or respond to judicial process; and (vii) provide information, to the extent legally permitted, to law enforcement agencies or for investigations on matters related to public safety.

XI. Cross border data transfers

The Websites are hosted and operated from within the United States. As part of the information sharing activities set out above, your personal data may be transferred to other countries (including countries outside the EEA) that 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 endeavor to take reasonable measures to maintain an adequate level of data protection when sharing your personal data with such countries.

XII. Security

We have reasonable security measures in place that are designed 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 we employ measures that are designed to ensure that only authorized personnel have access to personal data. While we cannot ensure or guarantee that loss, misuse, or alteration of information will never occur, we use 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 Websites while it is in transit over the internet, and any such submission is at your own risk.

XIII. Data retention

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.

XIV. Your rights

If you reside in a country within the EU/EEA, you are entitled to exercise some or all of the following rights:

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, the data recipients, and potential retention periods;

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;

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;

object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, that your personal data shall be subject to 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 ongoing processing;

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;

request (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

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) that produce legal effects on you or affect you with similar significance.

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

XV. Contacting us

Please submit any questions, concerns, or comments you have about this Policy or any requests concerning your personal data by email to russ@americanenglishediting.com.

Russell Doughty, Norman, OK (Phone) (918) 699-9215 Email: russ@americanenglishediting.com

XVI. Amendments to this policy

We reserve the right to change this Policy from time to time by updating our Websites. Please visit the Websites regularly and check our current Privacy Policy. This Policy was last updated on December 8, 2022.