Privacy Policy
Black Swan Analysis Limited Privacy Policy
LAST UPDATED: May 17, 2012
Black Swan Analysis Limited ("Black Swan Analysis," "we," "us") is concerned about privacy issues and wants you to be familiar with how we collect, use and disclose Personally Identifiable Information (as defined below). This Privacy Policy (the "Policy") describes our practices in connection with Personally Identifiable Information that we collect through this website (the "Site") and by other means. Please note that the Black Swan Analysis Limited entity that is the applicable data controller for this Site is listed in “Contacting Us” Section 6 below.
By providing Personally Identifiable Information to Black Swan Analysis Limited, you agree to the terms and conditions of this Policy. If you do not agree to the terms and conditions of this Policy, please do not provide any Personally Identifiable Information to Black Swan Analysis Limited. We reserve the right to change this Policy without prior notice. You can determine when this Policy was last revised by referring to the "Last Updated" legend at the top of this page. Any changes to our Policy will become effective upon our posting of the revised Policy on the Site. Use of the Site following such changes constitutes your acceptance of the revised Policy then in effect.
1. What Types of Information Does Black Swan Analysis Collect?
Black Swan Analysis gathers three basic types of information: "Personally Identifiable Information" (or "PII"), "Non-Personally Identifiable Information" (or "Non-PII") and “IP Addresses”. Personally Identifiable Information is information that identifies you as an individual. Non-Personally Identifiable Information is aggregated information, demographic information and any other information that does not reveal your specific identity. An IP Address is the Internet Protocol address of the computer that you are using.
a. Personally Identifiable Information. You do not have to provide PII to Black Swan Analysis to use this Site. However, in order for you to use certain of our services (e.g., to become a customer or provide us information) or use the Site (e.g., to contact us through the Site) we may require that you furnish PII. We collect PII from you, such as your name, postal address, telephone number, email address, credit card number or other payment account number (including the three (3) or four (4) digit validation code for your credit card), only when you voluntarily provide it to us (e.g., through the Site or in direct communication with our sales representatives). We also collect PII from you when you participate in our studies and research such as: your name, your employer, business contact information, professional qualifications, areas of research, and your years of experience. We also may collect similar information from third parties. We may also collect your name and business contact information from your employer in order to allow you to access the Site.
b. Non-Personally Identifiable Information. Black Swan Analysis and third parties with whom Black Swan Analysis has contracted to provide services to Black Swan Analysis may collect Non-PII from you. Non-PII is generally collected from four different sources: environmental variables, cookies, pixel tags and other similar technologies and information that you voluntarily provide. We may also receive Non-PII (such as aggregated health information, including patient gender, and information on medical procedures and diagnoses) from our customers and from third parties.
i. Environmental Variables. We and our service providers may also collect certain environmental variables, such as your MAC address, computer type (Windows or Macintosh), screen resolution, OS version, Internet browser, and Internet browser version. These environmental variables are collected by most browsers, and can be used to optimize your experience on the Site.
ii. Cookies. We and our service providers may use “cookies” on the Site. Cookies are data that a web server transfers to an individual's computer for recordkeeping and other purposes. We use cookies and other technologies to, among other things, better serve you with more tailored information and facilitate your ongoing access to and use of our Site. If you do not want information collected through the use of cookies, there is a simple procedure in most browsers that allows you to automatically decline cookies, or to be given the choice of declining or accepting the transfer of a particular cookie, or cookies from a particular website, to your computer. To learn more about cookies, please visithttp://www.allaboutcookies.org/.
iii. Pixel Tags. We and our service providers may also use so-called "pixel tags," "web beacons," "clear GIFs" or similar means (collectively, "Pixel Tags") in connection with some Site pages and HTML-formatted email messages to, among other things, track the actions of Site users and email recipients, to determine the success of marketing campaigns and to compile aggregate statistics about Site usage and response rates.
iv. Information That You Voluntarily Provide. Black Swan Analysis also collects Non-PII (e.g., your interests, your geographic location, anonymous data provided as part of our research etc.) when you voluntarily provide such information to us. Such information constitutes Non-PII because, unless combined with PII, it does not personally identify you or any other individual. Additionally, we may aggregate PII in a manner such that the end-product does not personally identify you or any other individual, for example, by using PII to calculate the percentage of our users who have a particular telephone area code or aggregating data to understand disease patterns. Such aggregate information is considered Non-PII for purposes of this Policy.
c. IP Addresses. Your IP Address is a number that is automatically assigned to the computer that you are using by your Internet Service Provider (ISP). This number is identified and logged automatically in our server log files whenever users visit the Site, along with the time(s) of such visit(s) and the page(s) that were visited. Collecting IP Addresses is standard practice on the Internet and is done automatically by many websites.
2. How Does Black Swan Analysis Use Information Collected?
a. Personally Identifiable Information. We may use PII about you in the following ways. If we intend to use your information for a purpose that is incompatible with these purposes or if we intend to disclose it to a type of third party not previously identified in this Policy, we will notify you and offer you the opportunity to opt out of such uses and/or disclosures.
i. Fulfillment of Requests. Black Swan Analysis may use PII about you to fulfill your requests such as to permit you to use certain features of the Site or to complete your purchases. We may also use the PII you provide to fulfill the purpose for which it is provided (e.g., to provide services to you and/or your employer, to conduct surveys, to set up and conduct research interviews, or to conduct audits).
ii. Administrative Communications. From time to time, in our sole discretion, we may use PII about you to send you important information, changes to our terms, conditions, and policies and/or other administrative information. Because this information may be important, you may not opt-out of receiving such communications.
iii. Other Communications. Depending on your choice, Black Swan Analysis and the Affiliated Entities may use PII about you to inform you of products, programs, services and surveys that we believe may be of interest to you.
iv. Purchases. When you make a purchase from us, we may collect your credit card number or other payment account number, billing address and other information related to such purchase (collectively, "Payment Information") from you, and may use such Payment Information in order to fulfill your purchase.
v. Research. We use the information we collect to conduct surveys, to identify and recruit individuals to participate in our research programs, to interview individuals relating to our research, to create directories and compile databases of contact information, and to provide payment to individuals who receive honoraria.
vi. Careers. If you apply for employment with Black Swan Analysis, any PII about you which is obtained by us during the application process may be used and retained by us for purposes of considering your application for employment, as well as for more general management and research purposes.
vii. Internal Business Purposes. We may also use PII about you for our internal business purposes, such as data analysis, audits, developing new products, enhancing our website, improving our services, identifying usage trends and determining the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns.
b. Non-Personally Identifiable Information. Because Non-PII does not personally identify you or any other individual, we may use such information for any purpose. In addition, we reserve the right to share such Non‑PII, which does not personally identify you or any other individual, with Affiliated Entities, our customers and other third parties, for any purpose. For example, we may use aggregated health information to publish reports on particular topics. In some instances, we may combine Non-PII with PII (such as embedding email addresses in cookies). If we do combine any Non-PII with PII, the combined information will be treated by us as PII hereunder as long as it is so combined (see Section 2.a above).
c. IP Addresses. We use IP addresses for purposes such as calculating Site usage levels, helping diagnose server problems, ensuring appropriate access rights by authorized users, facilitating site security, and administering the Site. We may also use and disclose PII for all the purposes set forth in Section 2(a) above and Section 3 below. Please note that we treat IP Addresses, server log files and related information as Non-PII, except where we are required to do otherwise under applicable law.
3. How Is Personally Identifiable Information Disclosed?
a. Affiliated Entities. We may share PII with our Affiliated Entities which are listed in Section 6 so that they may use such PII for the purposes described in this policy. The Black Swan Analysis entity listed in Section 6, “Contacting Us,” that is the applicable data controller for this Site is the party responsible for the management of the jointly-used PII from this Site.
b. Third Party Service Providers. We work with third parties who provide services such as data analysis, surveys, research, payment processing, order fulfillment, infrastructure provision, IT services, customer service, email delivery services, credit card processing, honorarium payment, and other similar services. We may share PII about you with third parties for the purpose of enabling these third parties to provide services (for example, if you choose to make a purchase through the Site, we may share your Payment Information or other PII with our third party service providers to fulfill your purchase, including, without limitation, to process your credit card or payment account number or to ship products to you). These service providers are given access to PII needed to perform their functions, but are restricted from using the PII for purposes other than providing services for us.
c. Research Studies, Reports and Products. In our research studies that involve interviews, we may include the names and affiliations of individuals who participate in interviews in our reports and products, but we do not attribute statements to individuals. When we conduct on-line surveys for research studies, we do not include PII about individuals who participate in those surveys in our reports and products without their consent. We do not share PII about individuals who participate in our surveys and interviews with third parties for marketing purposes.
d. Third Party Communications. Depending on the choices you have made, we may share PII about you with third parties to allow them to contact you regarding products, programs, services and promotions that they believe may be of interest to you.
e. Assignment. In the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of Black Swan Analysis’ business, assets or stock (including without limitation in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings), we may transfer any and all information that we collect from site users or off-line to an Affiliated Entity or a third party.
f. Law enforcement; emergencies; compliance. We may disclose PII about you to others as we believe to be appropriate: (i) under applicable law including laws outside your country of residence; (ii) to comply with legal process (iii) to respond to requests from public and government authorities including public and government authorities outside your country of residence; (iv) to enforce our terms and conditions; (v) to protect our operations or those of any Affiliated Entities; (vi) to protect the rights, privacy, safety or property of Black Swan Analysis, the Affiliated Entities, you or others; and (vii) to permit us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.
4. Choice.
a. Opt-Out. If you change your mind and no longer wish to receive marketing-related emails from us on a going-forward basis, or if you would prefer that we do not share PII about you on a going-forward basis with our affiliates and/or with third parties for such affiliates’ and/or third parties’ marketing purposes, you may opt-out of receiving such marketing-related emails or from such sharing by emailing us at or by sending us a letter to the following address at the address indicated in Section 6.
In your correspondence, please specify clearly which of the following choices you are making:
i. Opting-out of receiving marketing-related emails from Black Swan Analysis;
ii. Opting out of allowing Black Swan Analysis to share PII about you with Black Swan Analysis’ affiliates (including its parent and subsidiaries) for their marketing purposes; and/or
iii. Opting out of allowing Black Swan Analysis to share PII about you with selected third-parties for their marketing purposes.
We will endeavour to comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable. Please note that if you opt-out as described above, we will not be able to remove PII about you from the databases of Affiliated Entities or third parties with which we have already shared PII about you as of the date that we implement your opt-out request. If you wish to cease receiving marketing-related emails from such Affiliated Entities or third parties, please contact such Affiliated Entities or third parties directly or utilize any opt-out mechanisms set forth in their respective privacy policies or marketing-related emails.
b. Changing or Suppressing PII. If you would like to review, correct, update or suppress PII about you that has been previously provided to us, you may contact us by emailing us at or by sending us a letter to at the address in Section 6.
For your protection, we will only implement such requests with respect to the PII associated with the particular email address that you use to send us your request, and we may need to verify your identity before implementing your request.
In each event, you must clearly indicate the information that you wish to have changed, or that you wish to have your PII suppressed from our database or the limitations you wish to put on our use of your PII. We will endeavor to comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable. We may need to retain certain information for recordkeeping purposes, and there may also be residual information that will remain within our databases and other records, which will not be removed. Finally, we are not responsible for removing or suppressing information from any published research or from the databases of third parties with whom we have already shared your PII, or limiting their use of your PII.
5. Other Important Notices Regarding Our Privacy Practices.
a. Third Party Sites. The Site may contain links to third party websites. These linked sites (including without limitation the websites of Affiliated Entities) are not under Black Swan Analysis’ control and we are not responsible for the privacy practices or the contents of any such linked site, or any link contained in any linked site. We provide such links only as a convenience, and the inclusion of a link on the Site does not imply endorsement of the linked site by Black Swan Analysis or any Affiliated Entities. If you provide any PII through any such third party website, your transaction will occur on such third party's website (not this Site) and the PII you provide will be collected by, and controlled by the privacy policy of, that third party. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the privacy policies and practices of any such third parties. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS POLICY DOES NOT ADDRESS THE PRIVACY OR INFORMATION PRACTICES OF ANY THIRD PARTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE AFFILIATED ENTITIES.
b. Security. We use reasonable organizational, technical and administrative measures to protect PII under our control. Security measures and tools are in place to help protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or data storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Please do not send us sensitive information through email. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure (for example, if you feel that the security of any account you might have with us has been compromised), you must immediately notify us of the problem by contacting us in accordance with Section 6 ("Contacting Us,") below (note that if you choose to notify us via physical mail, this will delay the time it takes for us to respond to the problem).
c. Data Integrity and Retention. We take reasonable steps to ensure that Personal Information we process is reliable for its intended use, accurate, and complete as necessary to carry out the purposes described in this Notice. We will retain PII about you for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Policy unless a longer retention period is required by law.
d. Note Regarding the Use of the Site by Children: The Site is not directed to individuals under the age of thirteen (13), and we request that such individuals do not provide PII through the Site.
e. Jurisdictional Issues. Those who choose to access the Site do so at their own initiative and are responsible for complying with all local laws, rules and regulations. We may limit the Site's availability, in whole or in part, to any person, geographic area or jurisdiction we choose, at any time and in our sole discretion. By using the Site and submitting any PII, you consent to the transfer of PII to other countries, such as the United Kingdom, which may provide a different level of data security than in your country of residence.
6. Contacting Us. If you have any questions regarding this Policy, please contact Black Swan Analysis entity at the address below:
Contact Information:
Black Swan Analysis Limited
Moorbridge Court
29-41 Moorbridge Road
Maidenhead, Berkshire
SL6 8LT UK
Please note that email communications will not necessarily be secure; accordingly you should not include credit card information in your email correspondence with us.
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