Privacy Policy

Updated on: 26 April 2022

Privacy Policy

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data. In this privacy policy, we will inform you i) how we collect and use your personal data and ii) about your privacy rights.

Purpose

The goal of this policy is to give you information about how the OGC collects and processes your personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR).

It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy policy or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing your personal data so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy notice supplements all other notices.

The Open Geospatial Consortium is made up of the following legal entities:

Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc., 2300 Wilson Blvd, Suite 700, #1026, Arlington, VA 22201, USA.
OGC Europe iVZW: Technologielaan 3, B – 3001 Heverlee, Belgium.
Open Geospatial Consortium Europe, Ltd, 275 New North Road, Suite 1786, London, N1 7AA, UK.

This privacy notice is issued on behalf of the above entities, hereinafter referred to as “OGC”.

Introduction

This privacy policy will help you understand what information we collect and use at OGC, and the choices you have associated with that information. When we refer to “OGC,” “we,” “our,” or “us” in this policy, we are referring to Open Geospatial Consortium, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates, which provide the Services to you. The “Services” refers to the applications, services, and websites (marketing and product) provided by OGC. OGC may, from time to time, introduce new products and services. To the extent that these new products and services affect this policy, we will notify you as described in Section 8 below. This privacy policy covers the digital properties listed here. The use of information collected through our service shall be limited to the purpose of providing the services for our customers and as specified herein.

Contents:

Information We Collect and Receive
Use of the Information We Collect and Receive
Analytics, Cookies and Other Web Site Technologies
Information Sharing
Communicating
Accessing Your Data
Security
Your Legal Rights
Policy Changes/Contacting Us

Information We Collect and Receive

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data). We may collect, use, and store different kinds of personal data to provide you Services as follows:

Customer Account and Registration Data:

This includes information you provide to create your account with us or to register for events, webinars, surveys, etc. and may include, first and last name, billing information, a password and a valid email address.

Service Data (including Session and Usage data):

When you use our Services, we receive information generated through the use of the Service, either entered by you or others who use the Services with you, for example, schedules, attendee info, etc., or from the Service infrastructure itself, for example, duration of session, use of webcams, connection information, etc. We may also collect usage and log data about how the services are accessed and used, including information about the device you are using the Services on, IP addresses, location information, language settings, what operating system you are using, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data to help us support the Services.

Third Party Data: We may receive information about you from other sources, including publicly available databases or third parties from whom we have purchased data, and combine this data with information we already have about you. We may also receive information from other affiliated companies that are a part of our corporate group. This helps us to update, expand and analyze our records, identify new prospects for marketing, and provide products and services that may be of interest to you.

Location Information: We collect your location-based information for the purpose of providing and supporting the service and for fraud prevention and security monitoring. If you wish to opt-out of the collection and use of your collection information, you may do so by turning it off on your device settings.

Device Information: When you use our Services, we automatically collect information on the type of device you use, operating system version, and the device identifier (or “UDID”).

Use of the Information We Collect and Receive

OGC may access (which may include, with your consent, limited viewing or listening) and use the data we collect as necessary (a) to provide and maintain the Services; (b) to address and respond to service, security, and customer support issues; (c) to detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, unlawful, or technical issues; (d) as required by law; (e) to fulfill our contracts; (f) to improve and enhance the Services; (g) to provide analysis or valuable information back to our Customers and users.

Some specific examples of how we use the information:

Create and administer your account
Send you an order confirmation
Facilitate and improve the usage of the services you have ordered
Assess the needs of your business to determine suitable products
Send you product updates, marketing communication, and service information
Respond to customer inquiries and support requests
Conduct research and analysis
Display content based upon your interests
Analyze data, including through automated systems and machine learning to improve our services and/or your experience
Provide you information about your use of the services and benchmarks, insights and suggestions for improvements
Market services of our third-party business partners

OGC also collects and stores meeting attendee information to fulfill our obligation to our customers and provide the Services. With your consent, we may also directly provide product and other OGC related information to attendees. OGC will retain your information as long as your account with us is active, to comply with our legal obligations, to resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

Analytics, Cookies and Other Web Site Technologies

OGC continuously improves its websites and products through the use of various third-party web analytics tools, which help us understand how visitors use our websites, desktop tools, and mobile applications; what they like and dislike; and where they may have problems. While we maintain ownership of this data, we do not share this type of data about individual users with third parties.

Geolocation and Other Data:

We may utilize precise Geolocation data but only if you specifically opt-in to collection of that data in connection with a particular service. We also use information such as IP addresses to determine the general geographic locations areas of our visitors. The web beacons used in conjunction with these web analytics tools may gather data such as what browser or operating system a person uses, as well as, domain names, MIME types, and what content, products and services are reviewed or downloaded when visiting or registering for services at one of our websites or using one of our mobile applications.

Google Analytics and Adobe Marketing Cloud:

We use Google Analytics as described in “How Google uses data when you use our partners’ sites or apps.” You can prevent your data from being used by Google Analytics on websites by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on here. We also employ IP address masking, a technique used to truncate IP addresses collected by Google Analytics and store them in an abbreviated form to prevent them from being traced back to individual users. Portions of our website may also use Google Analytics for Display Advertisers including DoubleClick or Dynamic Remarketing which provide interest-based ads based on your visit to this or other websites. You can use Ads Settings to manage the Google ads you see and opt-out of interest-based ads. We also use Adobe Marketing Cloud as described here. You can opt-out of use of this information as described below.

Tracking Technologies:

OGC and its partners use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track user traffic patterns and hold certain registration information. Tracking technologies also used are beacons, tags and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze our service. If you wish to not have the information these technologies collect used for the purpose of serving you targeted ads, you may opt-out here, or if located in the European Union, click here. The Help menu on the menu bar of most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie and how to disable cookies altogether. You can still review the website if you choose to set your browser to refuse all cookies; however, you must enable cookies to establish an account and to install the Services. To manage Flash cookies, please click here.

Examples of Cookies We Use:

Cookie Type	Purpose	Description
Session Cookies	We use these cookies to operate our websites.	Some cookies are essential for the operation of OGC websites. If a user chooses to disable these cookies, the user will not be able to access all of the content and features.
Preference Cookies	We use these cookies to remember your preferences.	When you register at an OGC website, we use cookies to store unique, randomly assigned user IDs that we generate for administrative purposes. These cookies enable you to enter the OGC sites without having to log on each time.
Advertising Cookies	These cookies are used to serve you with advertisements that may be relevant to you and your interests.	We use cookies to make advertising more engaging to users, as well as to assist in reporting on marketing program performance and analytics
Security Cookies	These cookies are used for general security purposes and user authentication.	We use security cookies to authenticate users, prevent fraudulent use of login credentials, and protect user data from access by unauthorized parties.

Mobile Analytics:

We use mobile analytics software to allow us to better understand the functionality of our mobile software on your phone. This software may record information such as how often you use the application, the events that occur within the application, aggregated usage, performance data, and where the application was downloaded from. We do not link the information we store within the analytics software to any personally identifiable information you submit within the mobile application.

Social Media:

Our sites include social media features, such as Facebook, Google and Twitter “share” buttons. These features may collect your IP address, which page you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. These services will also authenticate your identity and provide you the option to share certain personal information with us such as your name and email address to pre-populate our sign-up form or provide feedback. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing them.

Information Sharing

Ensuring your privacy is important to us. We do not share your personal data with third parties except as described in this privacy policy. We may share your personal information with (a) third-party service providers; (b) business partners; (c) affiliated companies within our corporate structure; and (d) as needed for legal purposes. Third-party service providers have access to personal information only as needed to perform their functions and they must process the personal information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Additionally, we may share the names and contact information of our members and their member representatives in accordance with our Bylaws and as otherwise may at any time be required or permitted by the Delaware General Corporation Law.

Examples of how we may share information with service providers include:

Fulfilling orders and providing the services
Payment processing and fraud prevention
Providing customer support
Sending marketing communications
Conducting research and analysis
Providing cloud computing infrastructure

Examples of how we may disclose data for legal reasons include:

As part of a merger, sale of company assets, financing or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company where customer information will be one of the transferred assets.
As required by law, for example, to comply with a valid subpoena or other legal process; when we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, or to protect your safety (or the safety of others); to investigate fraud; or to respond to a government request.
We may also disclose your personal information to any third party with your prior consent.

Communications

OGC may need to communicate with you for a variety of different reasons, including:

Responding to your questions and requests. If you contact us with a problem or question, we will use your information to respond.
Sending you Service and administrative emails and messages. We may contact you to inform you about changes in our Services, our Service offerings, and important Service related notices, such as billing, security and fraud notices. These emails and messages are considered a necessary part of the Services and you may not opt-out of them.
Sending emails about new products or other news about OGC that we think you’d like to hear about either from us or from our business partners. You can always opt out of these types of messages at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link at the bottom of each communication.
Conducting surveys. We may use the information gathered in the surveys to enhance and personalize our products, services, and websites.
Offering referral programs and incentives, which allow you to utilize email, text, or URL links that you can share with friends or colleagues.

Accessing Your Data

Our customers can always review, update or change personal information from within their account. OGC will also, when you request, provide you with information about whether we hold, or process on behalf of a third party, any of your personal information. P

We may also collect information on behalf of our customers, to provide the services, and we may not have a direct relationship with the individuals whose personal data is processed.

We may transfer personal information to companies that help us provide our service, and when we do, these transfers to subsequent third parties are covered by appropriate transfer agreements. We will retain personal data we process on behalf of our customer as needed to provide services to our customer. Also, we will retain this personal information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

OGC is headquartered in the United States of America and maintains a global infrastructure. Information that we collect and maintain may be transferred to, or controlled and processed in, the United States and/or other countries around the world. When you provide us with information, or use our website(s) and services, you consent to this transfer. We will protect the privacy and security of personal information we collect in accordance with this privacy policy, regardless of where it is processed or stored.

Security

OGC follows generally accepted standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission. However, once it is received, no security measure is perfect. We recommend safeguarding your password, as it is one of the easiest ways you can manage the security of your own account – remember that if you lose control over your password, you may lose control over your personal information.

Your Legal Rights

You have the legal rights to:

Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.

Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.

Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons, in which case we will notify you at the time of your request.

Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.

Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data’s accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.

Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent.

If you have any questions about the OGC privacy policy contact us.