Privacy Policy

Welcome to OpenTech. We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal information. This privacy policy outlines how we handle your data to provide transparency, comply with GDPR, and ensure that your privacy is prioritized.

Our Commitment to Your Privacy

We understand that your time is valuable, and we are dedicated to respecting it. At OpenTech, we prioritize the privacy and preferences of engineering professionals who are building the future of technology.

Our Promise to You

We promise that registrants at OpenTech will not receive unsolicited emails or advertisements. We use your email primarily to share updates when new content is available and, once a week, to send a popular piece of content that is generating significant interest.

What Do We Use Your Information For?

We may use the information we collect from you in the following ways:

• To personalize your experience: Your information helps us respond more effectively to your individual needs.
• To improve our website: We continually strive to enhance our offerings based on feedback and interactions.
• To administer contests, promotions, surveys, or other site features: We may use your information to facilitate your participation.
• To send periodic emails: The email address you provide may be used to send updates, respond to inquiries, and address other requests or questions.
• To share with sponsors: We may share your information with event sponsors or relevant presenters to facilitate engagement and content delivery.

Comments

When visitors leave comments on our site, we collect the data shown in the comments form, along with the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent to assist with spam detection.

We may provide an anonymized string created from your email address (known as a hash) to the Gravatar service to check if you are using it. You can review Gravatar’s privacy policy here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. Once your comment is approved, your profile picture is publicly visible in relation to your comment.

Cookies

• Comments: If you leave a comment, you can choose to save your name, email, and website in cookies for convenience, so you won’t need to re-enter these details for future comments. These cookies will remain for one year.

• Login Page: When you visit our login page, a temporary cookie will check if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie does not store personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

• User Login: When you log in, cookies are set to save your login details and screen display preferences. Login cookies remain for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. Selecting “Remember Me” extends your login for two weeks. Logging out removes the login cookies.

• Content Edits: If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie is stored in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and expires after one day.

Embedded Content from Other Websites

Our articles may include embedded content (e.g., videos, images, or articles) from other websites. This content behaves as if you visited the other site directly, meaning these sites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interactions with that content if you have an account and are logged in to those sites.

How We Share Your Data

We may share your data with sponsors or relevant presenters of each webinar, video, or other content you access. When you submit a form, your IP address may be included with the submission.

We may also share data with third parties who help us operate our website or events, conduct our business, or support you, provided they agree to keep this information confidential. We may release your information when necessary to comply with legal obligations, enforce our site policies, or protect our rights, property, or safety, as well as that of others.

Our Legal Basis for Processing Your Data (GDPR Compliance)

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we process personal data based on one or more of the following legal grounds:

• Consent: We may process your data if you have given us explicit consent for a specific purpose (e.g., receiving newsletters).
• Legitimate Interests: We process your data to provide services that are beneficial to our business and in a way that respects your rights (e.g., for internal analytics or improving website functionality).
• Contractual Necessity: Processing may be necessary to fulfill a contract with you, such as when you register for our services.
• Legal Obligation: We may process data to comply with legal obligations.

Your Rights Under GDPR

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), you have specific rights regarding your personal data:

• Right to Access: Request a copy of your personal data.
• Right to Rectification: Request corrections to inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Right to Erasure (Right to Be Forgotten): Request deletion of personal data under certain conditions.
• Right to Restriction of Processing: Request restricted processing of your personal data in certain situations.
• Right to Data Portability: Receive a copy of your data in a commonly used format for transfer to another service.
• Right to Object: Object to data processing in certain cases, including for direct marketing.
• Right to Withdraw Consent: Withdraw your consent for data processing at any time if processing is based on consent.

To exercise these rights, please contact us using the information below. We will respond within 30 days.

Data Transfers Outside the EEA

If we transfer personal data from the EEA to countries outside the EEA, we ensure adequate safeguards are in place to protect your data, such as Standard Contractual Clauses or other legally accepted mechanisms.

Automated Decision-Making and Profiling

We do not use personal data for automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal effects or similarly significant effects on individuals.

Data Retention

• Comments: If you leave a comment, it and its metadata are retained indefinitely to recognize and approve follow-up comments automatically.

• User Profiles: For registered users, we store the personal information provided in the user profile. Users can view, edit, or delete their personal information anytime, except for their username. Site administrators can also view and manage this information.

Where We Send Your Data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service to ensure a secure and spam-free experience.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this privacy policy periodically to reflect changes in our practices or for other operational, legal, or regulatory reasons. When we make changes, we will post the updated policy on this page, along with the revision date, and, if necessary, notify you via email or website notice.