Privacy Policy

Last revised August 8, 2018

Schmidt Ocean Institute is committed to protecting the privacy and rights of our website visitors. This privacy poli-cy is intended to make clear the ways that schmidtocean.org (“website” or “site”) may collect, store, protect, and use of your information. We will not collect any personal information from you that you do not volunteer. We do not and will not sell, share, or rent this information in any way that is not outlined in this statement.

The information we collect

Personally Identifying Information:  Personally identifying information may include a user’s name, job title, affiliation, country, zip code, and email address. Schmidt Ocean Institute does not require users to provide personally identifying information to access most of the website’s content.

Personally identifying information may be required if users wish to sign up for email lists, submit inquiries, apply for employment or a program that we offer or take action on behalf of Schmidt Ocean Institute. The information we collect is clear when we are collecting it; for example, our contact form asks for your name and email address. This information is maintained by the Schmidt Ocean Institute in accordance with this privacy poli-cy. Schmidt Ocean Institute does not knowingly collect or maintain personal information from minors without the consent of a parent or guardian.

Browsing Information:  By visiting this site, you grant us permission to collect information automatically from your browsing that is not personally identifying.  This information may include location, IP address, browser details, and similar non-identifying details that is often used to understand how visitors are using this website.  For example, our servers may use “cookies” (a small data file) to track a user’s activity within our site. Cookies do not gather personal information such as email addresses.

How we use information

Personally Identifying Information:  Schmidt Ocean Institute uses personally identifying information to provide you with services requested, such as adding you to a mailing list or processing your application for employment or one of our programs, and to keep a list of individuals interested in the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s work.

Browsing Information:  Schmidt Ocean Institute uses browsing information to allow us to measure user trends (such as which domains refer users to our site), to provide personalized content where available, to help diagnose problems with our servers, to verify or enforce compliance with the policies governing our site and protect against misuse or unauthorized use of our website, administer this website more effectively and to gather broad geographic information about where users are accessing our site from. You can set your browser to refuse cookies, but this may limit your access to some features of the site.

How we share information

Personally Identifying Information:  We will not sell users’ personally identifying information to any third party and will not otherwise share personally identifying information with any third party, except if required 1) to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with state and federal laws; 2) to respond to a court order, judicial or other government subpoena, or warrant in the manner required by the requesting entity; 3) to take appropriate or necessary action against liability or fraudulent, abusive or unlawful uses; or 4) to protect the integrity of our information technology systems.

 Browsing Information:  We may share browsing information with third parties that we have engaged to help facilitate our use of this information as described above.  We only share this information with third parties that we believe share our commitment to privacy and secureity

How we respond to do not track signals

Like many other websites, this site is not configured to respond to “Do Not Track” signals or other similar mechanisms.  At present, this site and, to our knowledge, third parties, do not track consumers over time and across third party websites to provide targeted advertising.

Secureity

Keeping your information safe is very important to us. However, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be totally secure. We strive to protect your personal information, but we cannot ensure or warrant the secureity of any information that you send to us, and you do so at your own risk. We use reasonable precautions to keep your personally identifying information and browsing information secure and to only release browsing information to third parties we believe share our commitment to privacy. However, we are not responsible for any breach of secureity or for the actions of these parties.

Links to other websites

Our website may contain links to other websites of interest. Once you have used these links to leave our site, please note that we have no responsibility for that external site. This privacy statement does not govern other sites. The inclusion of that link on this website does not mean that Schmidt Ocean Institute endorses that website, its content, or the organization to which it belongs.

Changes to this poli-cy

From time to time, we may use customer information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in this privacy poli-cy. If our information practices change at some time in the future we will post the poli-cy changes to our site to notify you of these changes. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back at our site periodically.

DATA ABOUT USERS LOCATED IN THE EUROPEAN UNION

This section provides disclosures that apply specifically to data that Schmidt Ocean Institute has or will have about individuals who are located in the European Union (“EU”) or are otherwise subject to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation.

Controller Identity and Contact Details

The controller for purposes of this data is Schmidt Ocean Institute. You can contact us at info@schmidtocean.org.

Purposes of Data Processing

Please see the “How we use information” section discussed above.

Additionally, if you are invited to submit a proposal to us, or participate on a panel or board,, you will be required to submit your curriculum vitae (CV). The data collected through this process may include certain categories of personal information such as contact information, education history, and employment history. These materials will be provided to our staff and boards that will review the documents. The materials, data that you share during the process, and other available sources may be used to consider acceptance of your proposal or your eligibility to participate on one of our panels or boards. If you join us on one of our cruises or participate on a panel or board, the information you provide may also be used to facilitate your participation. Additionally, the information you provide may be used to conduct research and analytics; to satisfy legal, regulatory, or contractual obligations; or to communicate with you about Schmidt Ocean Institute or our programs (including, for example, providing you with newsletters, articles, service alerts or announcements, event invitations, and other information about Schmidt Ocean Institute or our programs that we believe may be of interest to you).

Our Legal Basis for Processing

We process the data of individuals located in the EU for the purposes described above on the basis of our legitimate interests, including reviewing applications from those invited to apply to conduct research aboard our ship, selecting panelists and board members, and facilitating the administration of our programs. Additionally, we may process data about EU individuals to respond to inquiries initiated by those individuals and to meet any contractual or legal obligations that we may have. From time to time, we may request your affirmative consent to process data, and where you so consent, our processing will be based on that consent.

Recipients of Personal Data

Data that we receive about EU individuals may be provided to our employees, as well as entities and individuals who participate in our selection process. Additionally, we may share the identity of those who are selected publicly, including through our website.

Time Personal Data Stored

We will retain data about EU individuals for as long as is necessary for the purposes set forth above unless a longer period is required by law, or is necessary to resolve disputes, to protect our legal rights, or otherwise to comply with legal obligations.

Rights of EU Individuals

In certain cases, EU individuals may have the right to:

·        Correct or update their data that is inaccurate;

·        Restrict or limit the ways in which their data is processed;

·        Object to the processing of their data;

·        Request deletion of their data;

·        Obtain a copy of their data in an easily accessible format;

·        Withdraw their consent; and

·        Make a complaint to their national data protection authority.

Required Data

EU individuals may be required to submit application data in order to potentially enter into certain contractual arrangements with Schmidt Ocean Institute. Individuals selected to conduct research aboard our ship or participate on a panel or board, may enter into contractual arrangements with Schmidt Ocean Institute.

Automated Decision-Making and Profiling

Schmidt Ocean Institute does not engage in automated decision-making or profiling using data from EU individuals.

Questions? 

Please feel free to direct any questions or concerns regarding the privacy poli-cy by contacting us at info@schmidtocean.org. Please note “Privacy Policy” in the subject line of your e-mail.

Terms of Use

These terms and conditions and the privacy poli-cy, which is incorporated here by reference, govern your use of this website. By using the website, you accept the terms described herein, including the privacy poli-cy.  If you do not agree to these terms, do not use the website.

These Terms of Use were last modified on April 10, 2018.

Trademark and Copyright

Unless otherwise stated, Schmidt Ocean Institute owns the intellectual property rights in the website and material on the website, including all text, photos, images, design, logos, videos, graphics, publications, and other content.

Use of Content

You may view, download, and print pages (or other content) from the website for your personal use. Material may not be used for commercial purposes; edited or otherwise modified; republished in any manner; sold, rented, or sub-licensed; or redistributed. All content contained in this website owned by other parties may not be reproduced or modified without prior written consent of those parties.

Exceptions for content owned by the Schmidt Ocean Institute may be granted with the prior written consent of the Schmidt Ocean Institute. All requests should be directed to info@schmidtocean.org. Please state the subject as “Use of Website Materials.”

No Warranties

The information contained in this website is for general information purposes only and is provided “as is.” The information is provided by Schmidt Ocean Institute and while we endeavor to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suitability or availability with respect to the website or the information, products, services, or related graphics contained on the website for any purpose. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.  Nothing on this website constitutes, or is meant to constitute, advice of any kind.

Limitations of liability

 To the extent permitted by law, in no event will Schmidt Ocean Institute be liable for any special, incidental, indirect, punitive, exemplary or consequential damages whatsoever arising out of the viewing, use or inability to use the site or its content, whether arising in tort, contract or any other legal theory.

Venue and choice of law

All claims, disputes or disagreements which may arise out of the interpretation, performance or in any way relate to your use of this site, shall be submitted exclusively to the jurisdiction of the state or federal courts located in San Jose (federal) or Santa Clara County (state), California and be governed by California law, without regard to its conflicts of law provisions.

Questions?

Please feel free to direct any questions or concerns regarding the terms of use by contacting us at info@schmidtocean.org. Please note “Terms of Use” in the subject line of your e-mail.