Privacy Policy

1. Privacy and Data Security Policy

1.1 Introduction

This privacy policy applies to your use of the websites (collectively referred to as the “Website”), operated by The European Society for Minimally Invasive Neurologically Therapy, a Swiss-based not-for-profit corporation, referred to interchangeably hereafter as “ESMINT”.

The “Website” includes, without limitation, the ESMINT website/portal (www.ESMINT.eu) the EJMINT website and any other online platforms used by ESMINT which could require your personal data.  ESMINT respects your privacy and is committed to protecting the confidentiality of your personal information. This policy explains how ESMINT collects and uses Member, customer and site visitor information, and how it protects your privacy. It also explains how you can manage your own personal information held by ESMINT in the ‘My ESMINT’ area on the ESMINT website.  

This policy applies to personal information held about individuals. It does not apply to information ESMINT holds about companies and other organisations. It is in addition to any specific policies concerning specific products or services. It does not supersede the ESMINT terms and conditions which govern the use of the ESMINT Website. ESMINT reserves the right to amend this privacy policy at its sole discretion, without prior notice, at any time, with the proviso that details of the amendments are published on the ESMINT Web Site. They become effective from the time of posting. ESMINT is the sole owner of the Website and as such is the sole owner of any information collected through the Website.  ESMINT is committed to the following standards, on a commercially reasonable basis:

To collect and use only the minimum information necessary for us to deliver high quality service to users, to administer our business, and to inform you of ESMINT products & services
To protect the information our visitors share with us, maintaining strong standards of security and confidentiality,
To require any other organisation that we retain or engage to provide support services to us to conform to our privacy standards, and
To keep visitor files, if any, complete, up to date, and accurate.

Some features on the Website may require you to register as a user and to receive our authorisation before you can use those particular features. Whether you are an individual or a corporation, partnership, or other form of commercial enterprise, in order for you obtain our authorisation to use those features and to be considered a registered user, you may be required to provide us with certain information about you or your business and, if a business, any or all individuals you designate to represent that business in connection with your use of the Website (e.g. names, addresses, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, and other Personally Identifiable Information of each individual who will use the Website). Once we have authorised you as a registered user, we may provide you with a customer identification number and you will select a unique username and password.  

Generally, you will be able to change your password and any personal data you have given us. Please note that submitting information to us is not a guarantee or assurance that we will grant authorisation to you or permit you, or anyone you designate, to use any or all of the services of the Website. If for any reason you are not granted authorisation we will retain the information you submit to us only in order to communicate with you regarding your application; we may, however, request additional or follow-up information for audit purposes or as may be required by law or regulation.

  If you are submitting information on behalf of others for registration purposes or otherwise, you represent that you have their permission, agreement and full authorization to provide this information to us. We reserve the right (a) to ask you to provide evidence of your authority at any time during, or even after, the submission process and (b) to contact those individuals to confirm your authority at any time. If we determine that your authority has not been properly obtained, we may immediately and without notice to you discontinue your authorised use of those features of the Website for which you have registered.

1.2 How ESMINT collects personal information

ESMINT is a professional non profit society which combines a wide range of activities in the field of Minimally Invasive Neurologically Therapy

Provision of Membership Services
Collection and dissemination of scientific information
Provision of Products and Services

The sources of personal information received by ESMINT are:

The individuals themselves
Third parties acting on behalf of individuals (eg. an agent or secretary arranging registration for an ESMINT organised meeting or event; the submission of abstracts for events by third parties, etc)

ESMINT may collect personal information in the following ways:

When you register personal details when creating or updating a ‘My ESMINT’ account on ESMINT Web Site
When you, or an agent on your behalf, enter personal details on a form (electronic or paper) requesting an ESMINT product or service (eg when registering for an ESMINT organised meeting or event)
When you, or someone on your behalf, submits proposals or content in connection with scientific sessions at an ESMINT organised meeting or event (eg Abstract submission)
When you enter personal details on a form applying to become an ESMINT member or to apply for affiliate membership through an affiliate Society
When you subscribe to an ESMINT newsletter or other electronic communication
When you participate in a survey, questionnaire or competition
When you subscribe to ESMINT for submitting a scientific paper

1.3 What personal information is collected by ESMINT

1.3.1 Mandatory Personal Information

As a general rule, to enable ESMINT to correctly identify you, to provide you with the products and services you have requested and to communicate with you, the following minimum information must be provided in order for your order, request, application, etc. to be processed:

Title
First Name(s)
Last Name(s)
Full Postal Address (work)
Email address
Gender

(additional information can be added by the society)

1.3.2 Optional Personal Information

Other personal information may be requested to help identification (eg date of birth, nationality by country, etc.) or to enable ESMINT to understand your profile so you can be provided with better and more appropriate products and services (eg Professional Interests and Topics of Interest).

1.3.3 Credit Card Information

Credit Card information, along with other information related to specific transactions, is collected at the time of your order, request or application, and is used only for the purposes of that particular transaction. For your protection, the Credit Card information is not retained in ESMINT system for later use for other transactions. The record of the transaction is kept for 10 years for legal and audit reasons.  ESMINT takes every precaution to ensure that this information is stored in a safe location and that it cannot be accessed by unauthorised parties. For further information about security,

1.3.4 Email address information

Your email address is mandatory when you use the ESMINT Web Site
Electronic communication is for most purposes ESMINT’s preferred method of communication because it is generally convenient, rapid, environmentally friendly and efficient
You are required to supply your email address when you create your ‘My ESMINT’ account on ESMINT Web Site, which enables you to access a variety of services online.
Please note that each email address must be unique and that you are not allowed to share email addresses with another person.

1.3.4.1 Unique Email Address

For your convenience and security, your email address is unique to you in the system. (ESMINT does not permit two different persons to have the same email address in the system). You are strongly recommended to use an email address which is personal to you and that is not shared with others. This is to ensure that communications which are sent to you personally are not read by others, and that others do not gain access to the information in your ‘My ESMINT’ account. Furthermore, ESMINT may use your email address to communicate with you about value added products linked either to your membership or your congress attendance.  

Your unique email permits automated retrieval of your login details, which are sent to your personal email address.

1.4 How ESMINT uses personal information

Personal information is needed by ESMINT to enable it to properly manage its member and customer files. These files are used to enable ESMINT to fulfil its role in providing a wide range of services to its members, contributors and customers. The personal information which you supply may be specifically used to:

Enable ESMINT to provide you with the products or services you request
Enable ESMINT to communicate with you about specific matters regarding your transaction, eg. Registration for a meeting or event, abstract submission, grading, membership...
Enable ESMINT to send you information about ESMINT activities which it believes may interest you

Listed below are some of the security procedures that ESMINT uses to protect your privacy:

A personal username and a password is required in order for users to access their personal data
Uses firewalls to protect information held in our servers.
Closely monitors the limited number of ESMINT employees who have access to your data
Requires all ESMINT employees to abide by our Privacy Policy and be subject to disciplinary action if they violate it.
Backs-up our systems to protect the integrity of your data.

Email privacy

ESMINT respects the privacy of personal email addresses and complies with the current legislation on email communication (according to the Swiss Data Protection Act and the Tele Service Data Protection Act). The objective is not to send you unwanted messages, and your email details will not be passed on to any other individual or organisation without your explicit permission except in the case of conference/meeting registration – see Registration Terms and Conditions.  Without your specific ok to receive e-campaigns from ESMINT you may receive emails concerning:

Products and services similar to those you have already received from ESMINT
If you are an ESMINT Member, you will receive email newsletters as part of your membership benefits – you may opt out from these newsletters at any time
Transactional messages linked to the following (non-exhaustive) list of transactions: your registration for an event, submission of abstracts, application for grants or fellowships, membership dues, etc.

You can manage the extent to which ESMINT communicates with you by using the 'My Alerts' tab in your ‘MY ACCOUNT’ pages. If you decide that you do wish to receive email communications from ESMINT you can select which categories of news interest you. All mailings categories offer you the possibility to unsubscribe by deselecting the alert category. If you indicate that you do not wish to receive ESMINT generated emails you will only receive emails directly related to the transactions you have with ESMINT (eg confirmation of registration, membership renewal, etc.) and other necessary individual communications.

1.4.1 How long personal information is kept

Personal information supplied during a transaction with ESMINT: As a general rule, personal information is kept for 10 years as from the moment of transacting with ESMINT.
This limit does not apply to ESMINT Committee members, whose personal information is kept for indefinitely.

1.4.2 Disclosure of information and marketing

ESMINT complies with Swiss and EC directives (Switzerland and the Swiss data protection legislation are both recognized to be compliant with EC Directive 95/46/EC) and takes all reasonable care to prevent any unauthorised access to your personal data. ESMINT staff and contractors have a responsibility to keep your information confidential. 

ESMINT may supply your information to its contractors to perform specific services (such as to the publishers to deliver ESMINT journals, etc.). Otherwise, ESMINT does not disclose personal information to any other person or organisation without your consent. 

1.5 ‘My ESMINT’ – Managing your contact with ESMINT

1.5.1 Access to Personalised Services

You do not need to register to access most of ESMINT Web Site, but you do have to register to use personal services online and access certain web content.
The details you provide ESMINT may be combined with information from other ESMINT records to:

provide you with online services like the ESMINT Alerts service
save you having to keep giving the same information for different ESMINT services
allow you to access specific web content reserved for ‘My ESMINT’ users
help you to get more out of ESMINT by keeping you up to date about ESMINT activities, scientific developments, and products and services by email

1.5.2 Accessing your personal information

You may at any time manage your personal information held by ESMINT by accessing the ‘MY ACCOUNT’ pages or by visiting the 'MyUserArea' administration pages, hosted on the separate domain at https://esociety.netkey.at/congressorg.ch/esmint/myuserarea/.

If you are an ESMINT Member, a record will already exist for you which you can potentially access by logging in online through:

use of your existing login details (username and password)
the ‘Retrieve your Login’ feature which, if your email address is recognised, will automatically send details of your username and a newly generated password (for your protection) to the email address given

Please note that ESMINT does not permit more than one ‘My ESMINT’ account per person to ensure accuracy in communication. So, if an account already exists for you in the ESMINT system, your new account will be matched to it, within a reasonable timeframe, but longer during or after ESMINT organised conference/meeting periods for technical reasons.

If you do happen to create a second account, then you should be aware that ESMINT will merge your membership and other information regarding products and services used between your accounts, and your contact details held by ESMINT will be replaced by the new ones you entered.

1.5.3 Managing your personal information

You have the absolute right to access, amend, and oppose the use of your personal data. By accessing the ‘My ESMINT’ area, you have direct control over the information in your personal profile. You can access and change this information at any time from your ‘My ESMINT’ homepage. Once logged in to your ‘My ESMINT’ account, you can easily view and update your personal details, email address and password. Usernames are unique and cannot be updated. Additionally, you may choose whether or not you wish to be kept informed by email of ESMINT activities, products and services by using the 'My Alerts' tab in your ‘MY ACCOUNT’ pages.

ESMINT also asks you to provide optional information about your professional activities and interests in order to understand your needs better, and improve the services it offers to you and to the neuro community in general.

Your Rights in Specific Uses and Disclosures of your personal data  

When you register, you may be asked whether you want to receive special announcements and future newsletters by email. If you check “yes” but change your mind at any time in the future and no longer wish to receive our newsletter and other special announcements by email you will be able to of these services by: (a) going to your profile page within the applicable ESMINT service; and/or (b) following the directions included at the bottom of any newsletter issue; and we will take you off the applicable list. You may also give you ok to receive communications from us at the point of registration or by similarly following the instructions above.
In most cases, the tools that collect and store personal data allow you to correct, update or review that information (and any preferences) by logging-in to the specific service and making the desired changes to your registration information. In most cases you may also withdraw your registration sending us an email at office@ESMINT.eu. If you withdraw your account registration from the Website your personal data may not be deleted from our records and we may use that data for internal purposes.

Right of access to your ESMINT information

If you would like to know exactly what personal information ESMINT holds about you, you are entitled to obtain it. If it transpires that the information is inaccurate, or you wish to oppose its use in future, ESMINT will make the necessary amendments and confirm that these have been made. Please contact ESMINT in either of the following ways:

By sending an email to:
Office@esmint.eu
By writing to:
European Society for Minimally Invasive Neurologically Therapy 
Flughofstrasse 54
8152 Zürich-Glattbrugg 
Switzerland

2. Data security

To protect your information, ESMINT uses an industry standard security protocol called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) to encrypt the transmission of sensitive information between you and our website.   SSL is used, for example, when you login or when you make a credit card payment. To know if transmissions are encrypted, look for the lock on your web browser or check that the URL starts with https://. Despite ESMINT’s efforts to protect your personal data, there is always some risk that an unauthorized third party may find a way around our security systems or that transmissions of information over the Internet will be intercepted. ESMINT is not responsible or liable for any loss or damage of any sort arising from or relating to any breach of our security or interception of your transmissions (see Terms of Use).

2.1 Use of Cookies

Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to your computer’s hard disk for record keeping purposes. They are small text files that a website can use to recognise repeat users and facilitate their ongoing access to, and use of, the site. They do not pose a threat to your system or files. The use of cookies is an industry standard, and many websites use them to provide useful features. Cookies in and of themselves do not personally identify users. Most browsers are set initially to accept cookies. You can set your computer to reject cookies. However, if you do choose to disable cookies, you will not be able to enjoy the full range of online services available through the ‘My ESMINT’ area.

2.2 Use of web analytics

As a website gathers individual pieces of Non-Personal Information from its users, it may combine similar data from many or all the users of the website into one big “batch”. This sort of statistical information is called aggregate data because it reflects the habits and characteristics of a large group of anonymous people. Websites may use aggregate data or share it with business partners so that the information and services they provide best meet the needs of the users. Aggregate data also helps advertisers and sponsors on the Web know how effectively they are reaching and meeting the needs of their target audience.  Click Stream Information. A record of all the pages you have visited during your visit to a particular website or the services you accessed from the site or from an email. Click Stream Information is associated with your browser and not with you personally. It records the archives of your browser.

3. Conclusion

If you have any further questions about the ESMINT Privacy and Security Policy or its implementation, or if at any time you believe that ESMINT has not adhered to the principles stated in this Policy, please contact us by sending us an email at office@esmint.eu.