Privacy Policy

Certain data will be processed: 

• when you access the Service
• to resolve the technical request of your device
• to display the site
• to maintain the safety and security of our systems 

This data is stored in so-called logs and can comprise the following:

• IP addresses 
• your mobile device's Identifier for Advertising (IDFA)
• the type of computer or mobile device you are using, including the operating system and version
• the browser type you are using and your country
• referring and exit pages and URLs
• platform type
• the number of clicks on a page or feature, pages viewed and the order of those pages, the amount of time spent on particular pages or parts of pages
• domain names
• information collected for performance purposes (for example, average load, render time of pages, etc.)
  

Even though IP addresses and mobile identifiers are generally considered personal data, we cannot derive any conclusions about your identity from such data. 

All of our pages are secured using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) technology, which encrypts data transmitted between our servers and your end devices. We also apply other suitable technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data.

If you choose to create a Member account on our Service, you will be required to provide your first and last name, email address, and a password. In some circumstances, you may be required to present additional information to demonstrate that you meet our registration criteria. You can also associate certain information we present to you with your account where that information belongs to you, such as your articles. 

During the registration process or when updating your profile, you can choose to provide other information that can be used to identify and/or contact you. For example, you can include a profile picture (including from a selection of online images suggested to you), your personal website, or your location. You may be able or be required to provide additional information, including, for example, your occupation, research vita, education, authorship, expertise or interests, memberships, academic degrees, and previous and current roles and activities.

You can choose to log in to your ResearchGate account using your Google account’s credentials. If you do, Google will share with ResearchGate and we will store your name and email address. Find out more about the data processing and disclosure of the data by Google here. If you’d like to remove the connection between ResearchGate and Google, please refer to your Google settings.

You can interact with our Service in various ways. We process your interactions, which may include, for example, visiting other Members’ profiles or following them, following or publishing in journals, or accessing, requesting, reading, recommending, following, or sharing research. We also process the research that you add to your profile, as well as the research you cited or that cited you. And we process bibliographical data and other information pertaining to your research works.

When you communicate with us, you may provide us with your name, contact details, and other personal data as part of your communication, as well as the content of your message itself. Similarly, when we communicate with you, we will process your personal data, such as your email address. For some of our emails, we also process information indicating whether you have opened or interacted with the email.

Many communications that you initiate through our Service (for example, sending an invitation to a non-member) will list your name in the header of the message. Other communications that you initiate through the Service, like a request for a full-text, will list your name as the initiator but will not include your email address. Once you have mutually connected with an individual, the contact information you choose to include in your Member profile will be accessible to that individual.

When using the Service, you may encounter a lead collection form. Typically, such a form is presented on behalf of a third-party advertising partner, and offers you the opportunity to benefit from a service or offer presented by ResearchGate on that third party’s behalf. By completing the form, you may disclose personal data to ResearchGate and allow us to pass it on to the relevant third party. The nature of personal data will depend on the particular service or offer but could include your name, email address, affiliation, further publicly available information from your profile, and/or information about your activity on the Service relating to that third party’s sponsored content. We do not disclose any of this personal data to any third party unless you explicitly allow us to do so.

The personal data you provide in connection with registering for your Member account will be used to create, maintain, and secure your account and to suggest information to add to your profile (for example, research or images that may belong to you). By creating a Member account, you will benefit from functionalities and services that are not available to Visitors. Any personal data you provide in addition to the required data to register for an account facilitates your ability to get into contact with other Members (including recruiters), promote yourself and your research, and receive relevant recommendations.

Because ResearchGate is a professional network, when you create an account your public profile is automatically enabled. This means that your account can be viewed by Visitors and indexed by search engines. If you want your profile to be visible to Members only, you can disable your public profile at any time from your Privacy Settings. You can also determine the level of detail you disclose to other Members, for example from your Privacy Settings, and by choosing how much information to add to your profile. Your profile can be found by other Members using our search functionalities (including by recruiters using Candidate Search - see section 3.6 (Candidate Search) below) and may be recommended to them for example as a follow suggestion. Your choices regarding the details you want to disclose to other Members will be respected in such features.  

This processing is necessary for the performance of the contract and its legal basis is Art. 6 (1)(b) GDPR.

We process your personal data, including your profile information (such as your skills, disciplines, work, ResearchGate network and connections, and similarities with other Members), and your and others’ activities on the Service to provide the Service in a way that is tailored to your interests. For example, we provide dynamic web pages that are individually adapted to you. We may present recommendations, such as research items that are suggested for you or other researchers to follow. Your profile and content may similarly be recommended to other Members and appear in their experience, for example in their home feed. We derive learnings from Members’ interactions with tailored content and suggestions and subsequently take them into account to improve the experience. In some cases, we may take data such as your location, current IP address, and affiliation into account to determine which content may be more relevant to you or to tailor the availability of specific content based on a determination as to whether you are entitled or eligible to access that content.  For more details about how we make recommendations to you, and how you can influence these recommendations, see our Help Center.

Insofar as the processing is necessary for the performance of our contractual relationship, Art. 6 (1)(b) GDPR is the legal basis. Otherwise, we have a legitimate interest in processing this data in accordance with Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR. We have a legitimate interest in providing the best user experience based on individual needs.

Depending on how you communicate with us, we may use your name, email address, telephone number, and additional information relating to your inquiry, such as the content of your previous correspondence or your account information, to respond to you and provide assistance. 

Insofar as the processing is necessary for the performance of a contract or in order to take steps prior to entering into a contract, Art. 6 (1)(b) GDPR is the legal basis. Otherwise, we have a legitimate interest in processing this data in accordance with Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR. As a public-facing company, we have a legitimate interest in being able to receive, process, and respond to inquiries. 

Provided you have not opted out or indicated that you do not want to receive transactional emails or push notifications from us, we will use your email address or the push notification capabilities of your mobile device to send you emails or push notifications about relevant developments on the Service or information relevant to your account.

You can opt out of receiving transactional emails or push notifications at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link within an email, visiting your Email Settings, or using the relevant settings in your mobile application. 

We will also process information about your interactions with such emails and notifications (for example, whether you opened the email and/or clicked on content within the email) for a better understanding of your preferences and interests and tailoring our communications to your needs.   

Insofar as sending of transactional emails is necessary for the performance of our contractual relationship Art. 6 (1)(b) GDPR is the legal basis. Otherwise, we have a legitimate interest in processing this data in accordance with Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest in this regard is to keep you informed about relevant developments regarding ResearchGate and your account. Additionally, we have a legitimate interest in the processing of interactions with transactional emails to better understand how these emails are used and to improve them accordingly.

If you are a customer or potential customer of our business solutions, including our marketing, publisher, or scientific recruitment solutions, you may register to receive a newsletter from us or fill out a form to request that we contact you. In such case, we may process any personal data you provide, such as your name and email address, company name, business telephone number, type of enquiry, as well as any notes you might have left for us. 

Our legal basis for sending you a newsletter in these circumstances is your consent in accordance with Art. 6 (1)(a) GDPR. You can withdraw your consent at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any such email you receive. 

Insofar as the processing of your request form is necessary for the performance of our contract or in order to take steps prior to entering into a contract, Art. 6 (1)(b) GDPR is the legal basis. Otherwise, we have a legitimate interest in processing this data in accordance with Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest in this regard is to get in touch with potential customers and maintain business contacts.

Recruiters with an account on the Service may be able to search for and contact you using our Candidate Search feature. Your inclusion in Candidate Search, including being contacted by recruiters, is fully under your control. You can choose to block specific recruiters or opt out from being included in Candidate Search and contacted by any recruiters by changing your Privacy Settings at any time. 

If you are included in Candidate Search, a limited amount of your profile information may be visible to recruiters. You can find out which profile information recruiters can see in our Help Center. If the information on your profile matches the search criteria entered by a recruiter in the Candidate Search feature, this limited version of your profile may show up in their search results. Recruiters may choose to contact you through the messaging functionality provided within the feature. 

We have a legitimate interest in processing this data in accordance with Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest in this regard is to provide you with relevant career opportunities.

We process your personal data in order to avoid its accidental or unlawful destruction, as well as its loss, alteration, or unauthorized disclosure. For example, we process the number of profile pages you and others view so as to detect and prevent data harvesting. 

Insofar as the processing is necessary for compliance with our legal obligation to secure data from unauthorized loss and alteration, Art. 6 (1)(c) GDPR is the legal basis. Otherwise, we have a legitimate interest in processing this data in accordance with Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in maintaining the security of your personal data.

As a Member or Visitor, you may be asked to participate in user research, such as a user interview or survey. Participation is voluntary. If you participate, the data processed will depend on the interview or survey in question. Usually, your email address and name will be processed, but it could also be the case that no personal data is processed. In each case, we will specifically inform you about the required data. We will use the generated data to learn more about our Members and Visitors, so that we can improve our Service. 

Where we request consent, the legal basis is in accordance with Art. 6 (1)(a) GDPR. In all other cases, conducting user surveys is in our legitimate interest pursuant to Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in improving our services through user feedback.

Your interaction with and interest in other Members’ work is as valuable to them as it is to you. Therefore, we process information about reads of your work and your interaction with other Members' work (for example, your interaction with publication information, full texts, or questions). We use this information to provide Members with insights about interactions with their work. For example, we may show read statistics on publication and author levels that contain information about the number of reads in a given timeframe, countries and institutions of the readers, or, subject to both Members’ Privacy Settings, information about readers’ ResearchGate profiles. Where Members’ Privacy Settings allow more than anonymous statistics to be provided, the additional level of detail allows Members to get into contact with readers of their work. 

Insofar as the processing is necessary for the performance of our contractual relationship, Art. 6 (1)(b) GDPR is the legal basis. Otherwise, we have a legitimate interest in processing this data in accordance with Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR. Where we rely on our legitimate interest to offer these internal activity insights, we believe our aim to provide you and fellow ResearchGate Members with statistics, and, where applicable, additional details about interactions, does not conflict with your expectations, interests, and rights. The described data processing, which is limited, is appropriate to achieve the desired objective of helping Members understand how their work is consumed and received.

We generate statistics for internal purposes in order to constantly improve the Service and its features. We also conduct research and development to maintain quality and improve our Service and the User experience. 

Our legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest pursuant to Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR. We have a legitimate interest in assessing and evaluating the traffic on our site to improve our Service. Such improvement is also in the interest of our Users as it allows them to always benefit from the best Service we can offer.

We may process personal data collected from publicly available sources or extracted from content provided by partners and match it with Members so that we can generate aggregated and/or de-identified information and analysis, for example, regarding interactions with a certain journal. We may use such aggregated and de-identified information for any purpose, including without limitation for research and marketing purposes and to improve our Service, and may also disclose such aggregated and de-identified information to any third parties, including our advertising or publisher partners.

Our legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest pursuant to Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR. We have a legitimate interest in creating reports and analysis, developing marketing materials, understanding our Members better, and sharing this understanding with selected partners. Such aggregated and de-identified information does not include any personal data.

To the extent permitted by data protection laws, we may use your data for new purposes, such as conducting data analyses, further developing our Service and content, product development, optimization of business processes, and evaluation of service providers. We will only use your personal data for such new purposes where the new purposes were not yet determined or foreseeable at the time that your data was collected, and the new purposes are compatible with the purposes for which the data was originally collected. For example, new legal or technical developments and novel business models and services may lead to new processing purposes.

We may obtain a variety of information about Authors from publicly available sources, such as information regarding published research, the research itself (which may include personal data), and other functions or references of an Author related to a research item. We may also process information related to an Author to create a record of their body of scientific contributions or to try and understand professional connections between Authors and Members. 

When we collect publicly available materials, we do not have a way of ensuring that personal data contained in such materials has been processed in accordance with applicable laws. However, if you notify us that your personal data contained in such materials is inaccurate or has been processed in violation of applicable data protection laws, we may delete it upon verification of your identity. Our Help Center provides information about how to report content to us. Public data that we process about an Author may be associated with an account if the Author chooses to become a Member. 

Our legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest pursuant to Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR. The data processed is publicly available data and we need to process it in order to provide a correct and complete scientific picture. Our legitimate interest is to provide a comprehensive and accurate repository of scientific work, contributions, and success. Without processing additional public data, we could not achieve these aims. Furthermore, since we offer the possibility to connect this data with an account, we provide Members a convenient way to establish an account that is as complete as possible, without the effort of manually adding the information themselves.

Our partners provide us with scientific publications and related data which may contain personal data. We make this content available on our Service in accordance with their instructions. We process certain personal data contained in this content, such as the names of the Authors.

In some scenarios, Authors can take on tasks, roles, or responsibilities for a third-party partner on the Service. For example, an Author might be identified by a partner as being a speaker at a webinar we promote on that partner’s behalf, or by a publisher as being an editor of a journal that we host on that publisher’s behalf. To enable us to display these roles, tasks, or responsibilities on the Service and, where applicable, connect them with Members’ profiles, ResearchGate’s partners might provide data of those Authors or Members to us. We contractually oblige our partners to, if required, obtain all necessary consents and inform you prior to sharing any personal data with us. We will treat such data in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

The legal basis for these data processing activities is our legitimate interest pursuant to Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is to provide a comprehensive and accurate repository of scientific work and related tasks and roles that are provided to us by our partners. Furthermore, since we offer the possibility to connect this data with an account, we provide Members a convenient way to establish an account that is as complete as possible, without the effort of manually adding the information themselves.

We and service providers acting on our behalf store log files and use technologies such as cookies, web beacons, and pixels to collect information relating to you and your use of the Service. 

Cookies are small files that enable us to store and collect specific information related to you and your use of the Service on your computer or other end devices. They help us to analyze the number of people who use the Service, usage frequency, User behavior, and advertising effectiveness, to increase security and tailor our Service and advertisements to your needs and preferences.

• We use so-called session cookies which are automatically deleted after your session on the website ends. 
• We use persistent cookies to record information about repeat Users of the Service. Persistent cookies are designed to help us continually improve the products and services we offer and ensure the quality of our Service. Persistent cookies remain for a certain predefined period and are recognized by us when you return to the Service (or one of our partner sites).

You can edit the settings of your browser to prevent cookies from being stored, limit the storage of cookies to certain websites, or such that your browser informs you every time a cookie is sent. You can also delete cookies at any time. However, please note that if cookies are deactivated you will not be able to take advantage of some of ResearchGate’s features. To learn how to delete cookies with the help of your browser, please consult your browser’s help materials.

In addition to cookies, we use so-called pixels, web beacons, clear GIFs, and other similar mechanisms (“Pixels”). A Pixel is an image file or link to an image file added to the website code (but not sent to your end device) or built into an email. Pixels are largely used for the same reasons as cookies, namely to analyze the number of people who use our Service or, if the User's email program allows HTML, to determine whether and when an email was opened. Pixels help us to check and optimize the effectiveness of our Service and offers as well as advertising campaigns served on the Service or sent to you via email. Pixels do not provide us with personal data. Pixels are usually used in conjunction with cookies. If you have deactivated the use of cookies in your browser, then Pixels will only report an anonymous website visit.

All information about cookies and comparable technologies that we only use with your consent under Art. 6 (1)(a) GDPR and the possibility to change your settings for cookies and similar technologies can be found here. 

Some cookies are essential to the operation of our website and we have a legitimate interest pursuant to Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR in using them. Our legitimate interest in this regard is based on the respective purpose of the cookie. These are listed in the cookie table below.

When we and our affiliated ad networks display advertisements on our Service, the following types of data may be used:

• performance data (such as the number of clicks on an advertisement) 
• certain technical information (for example, IP addresses, cookie IDs, non-persistent device identifiers such as Identifiers for Advertising (IDFAs)
• your ResearchGate profile information, activity, interaction with and consumption of content, including sponsored content and emails, and/or contextual information

We and our affiliated ad networks may collect this information through the use of tracking technologies like browser cookies and pixels (see explanations in section 5 (How we use technologies like cookies and pixels) above) and may use a single tracking technology or multiple tracking technologies at the same time. The information collected may be used to:

• measure how effective advertisements are
• offer you targeted advertising to personalize your experience by showing you advertisements that are more relevant to you
• undertake web analytics to analyze traffic and other User activity to improve your experience

Third-party advertisements on the Service may contain links to third-party properties that are not owned or controlled by ResearchGate. We recommend that you proceed with caution when leaving the Service, and review any applicable terms and privacy policies. ResearchGate is not responsible for any third party, or its affiliates or agents, failing to use your personal data in accordance with such third party's privacy policy, or any contractual or other legal obligations to which such third party, its affiliates or agents, may be subject.

Where we request consent, that is the legal basis for the display of advertising under Art. 6 (1)(a) GDPR. Details on data processing, our affiliated advertising networks, and the possibility of changing your settings for cookies and similar technologies can be found here. In all other cases, the display of advertising is in our legitimate interest under Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in our economic interest in conducting direct marketing and displaying interest-based advertising.

We aim to suggest academic and career opportunities that are most relevant to our Members. In this context, we use, whether separately or combined, the personal data you provide, we collect, or we infer from your use of the Service and the Internet and contextual information about the page you are currently visiting. This enables us to display suggestions, such as publishing and job opportunities, that are relevant to your scientific field, experience, institution, and research. 

Our legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest under Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR. We aim to display the most relevant and helpful academic and career opportunities to you. To do this, we must take your interests, journey, and some of your personal data into account. We take great care in choosing the right partners and limiting the personal data we process. The personal data that we process for this purpose will not be shared with any third party except our technical service providers (see section 7 (Service providers) below). Given that we limit the data processed, do not share it with third parties, and process your personal data to display only academic and career opportunities to you, we believe that it is our legitimate interest to monetize our platform. Our Service is a contribution to researchers, research, and science as a whole. Among other things, we make worldwide collaboration possible and facilitate the solving of important scientific questions. Our mission is an important one, but this mission must be financed.

We may use your email address to send you emails sponsored by our partners. We will also process information about your interaction with such emails, for example, whether you opened the email and/or clicked on content within the email.

Where we request consent, that is the legal basis for sending you sponsored emails under Art. 6 (1)(a) GDPR. You can unsubscribe from receiving sponsored emails at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link within any such email or visiting your Email Settings. In all other cases, the sending of sponsored emails is in our legitimate interest under Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR. It is our legitimate interest to make the Service as useful and meaningful to you as possible, which may include helping you discover new products, offers, and services. In addition, these email campaigns help us monetize our Service so that we can continue our mission of making research accessible to all.

The following service providers and third parties that we use to provide the Service may process your personal data:

‍Aptum Technologies (UK) Limited, Building 5000, Langstone Technology Park, Havant, PO9 1SA, United Kingdom
Aptum operates our servers located in Canada. Both Canada and the United Kingdom have adopted an adequacy decision that ensures an adequate level of data protection according to EU standards. For more information regarding Aptum and its data processing, see its Privacy Policy.

‍Cloudflare, Inc., 101 Townsend St., San Francisco, CA 94107, USA
Cloudflare helps us to provide our Service in the fastest possible way by “copying” our Service and putting it on servers that are geographically as close as possible to your current location. Cloudflare also blocks threats and abusive bots and crawlers that negatively affect our bandwidth and server resources. Data is transferred to Cloudflare based on the European Commission's adequacy decision, the Data Privacy Framework. In addition, we have concluded Standard Contractual Clauses with Cloudflare. For more information regarding Cloudflare and its data processing, see its Privacy Policy. 

‍Google Cloud Platform, provided by Google Cloud EMEA Limited, 70 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland
We use Google Cloud Platform to provide the technical infrastructure necessary to enable our services. For more information about Google Cloud Platform and its data processing, see its Privacy Policy.

‍Google Custom Search, provided by Google Ireland Ltd, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
We use Google Custom Search to suggest profile pictures when you register for your ResearchGate account. For more information regarding Google Custom Search and its data processing, see its Privacy Policy.

‍Pinecone Systems, Inc., 548 Market St, Suite 19327, San Francisco, CA 94104, USA
We use Pinecone to customize our Service and provide you with relevant suggestions. We have concluded a data processing agreement and Standard Contractual Clauses with Pinecone. 

‍Posthog Inc., 2261 Market Street, Unit 4008, San Francisco, CA 94114 USA
Posthog is a tool for supporting multiple facets of software product development. Posthog allows us to control the release of new features and helps us to conduct so-called A/B testing where we expose two versions of the same product feature to a set of Members to understand which version is better. Additionally, it captures and processes anonymized Members’ behavior on the Service. If you have granted your explicit consent, your ResearchGate account will be associated with your data stored with Posthog. Furthermore, additional Posthog features will be enabled such as session recordings and survey tooling. We have concluded Standard Contractual Clauses with Posthog and contractually obliged Posthog to host our data exclusively in the EU. For more information regarding Posthog and its data processing, see its Privacy Policy. 

‍Salesforce.com Germany GmbH, Erika-Mann-Straße 31-37, 80636 Munich, Germany 
We use Salesforce for customer relationship management for our Services. For further information about Salesforce’s data processing, see its Privacy Policy.  

‍SurveyMonkey, operated by Momentive Europe UC, 2 Shelbourne Buildings, Second Floor, Shelbourne Road, Dublin 4, Ireland
SurveyMonkey helps us to conduct surveys. SurveyMonkey hosts the surveys on our behalf, processes any data entered, and provides us with survey answers, aggregations, and reports concerning those surveys. For more information regarding SurveyMonkey and its data processing, see its Privacy Policy.

‍Webflow Inc.,398 11th St., Floor 2, San Francisco, CA 94103 California 
Some of our websites are hosted and built with the help of Webflow, a cloud-based service that allows us to create and host websites and manage their content. Webflow will process personal data such as your IP address once you are browsing on a page built with Webflow. Data is transferred to Webflow based on the European Commission's adequacy decision, the Data Privacy Framework. In addition, we have concluded Standard Contractual Clauses with Webflow. For more information regarding Webflow and its data processing, see its Privacy Policy.

‍Zendesk Inc., 1019 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA
‍We use the services of Zendesk for our email addresses intended to receive general, external inquiries (such as press, support, privacy, or copyright inquiries). We also use Zendesk to process incoming inquiries that have been sent to us using our contact forms. Zendesk is a platform that helps organizations understand, structure, and prioritize incoming inquiries of users, customers, or otherwise interested parties. Zendesk aggregates data already known to us, data about earlier communications with you, and data supporting your current inquiry. This data may also be allocated to your Member account if you have one. We have contractually agreed with Zendesk that personal data will be hosted in the EU. Still, Zendesk is a US corporation and reserves the right to process personal data in the US where this is required for support or service purposes required by us. Where personal data is processed outside of the EU, we concluded Standard Contractual Clauses under Art. 46 GDPR with Zendesk. Furthermore, Zendesk adopted Binding Corporate Rules which were approved by the European Commission in accordance with Art. 47 GDPR. You can find these here. For more information regarding Zendesk and its data processing, see its Privacy Policy.

We additionally provide information about the following third parties:

• In the course of obtaining technical, business, tax, legal, and similar services, we may provide access to or disclose data to selected third-party advisors, agents, and consultants. These third parties provide a variety of services, including consulting, data hosting and storage, advertising and marketing, website content and features, analytics, research, customer service, security, fraud prevention, tax, and legal services.
• Where applicable, your data may be processed by third parties listed in our consent modal. These parties might be advertisers or companies that help us disseminate advertisements, measure the performance of advertisements, and/or analyze your use of the Service. These third parties will not receive data that directly personally identifies you. The data disclosed is limited to identifiers such as IP addresses and cookie IDs. Your name, email address, and other directly identifying data will only be disclosed to these third parties if you explicitly allow us to disclose this data. Find out more here.
• We may disclose the information we collect to our affiliates and subsidiaries under common ownership or control for the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy.
• We may disclose personal data in response to legal processes or when the law requires it (for example, in response to a court order or an order from a relevant national judicial or administrative authority under Art. 10 Regulation (EU) 2022/2065) or, to the extent permitted by applicable law, to protect the rights, property, or safety of ResearchGate, the Service, Users of the Service (including you), and others.
• We may share information about you in connection with a sale or merger or in preparation of such transaction. Another company that buys us or part of our business has the right to use your information, but only to the extent permitted by law and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. 
• We may include embedded content in our Service that is stored with third parties and can be accessed directly from our site. This includes content from:
  
  YouTube, provided by YouTube LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., San Bruno, CA 94043, USA and for Users from the European Economic Area by Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland. For more information regarding YouTube and its data processing, see its Privacy Policy.
  
  Vimeo, provided by Vimeo Inc., 555 West 18th Street, NY 10001, USA. For more information regarding Vimeo and its data processing, see its Privacy Policy.
  
  SlideShare, provided by Scribd Inc., 333 Bush St., San Francisco, CA 94104, USA. For more information regarding SlideShare and its data processing, see its Privacy Policy.
  
  RockContent, provided by Visually, Inc., 163 2nd Street, Unit 300, San Francisco, CA 94105, USA. For more information regarding RockContent and its data processing, see its Privacy Policy.

We maintain an online presence in other social networks to provide information about our services and maintain contact with customers and other interested parties. When you visit our presence on other social networks, those networks may also process your personal data for their own purposes. For example, if you visit our company page on Facebook, Facebook may process your personal data for its own purposes.

The legal basis for data processing is Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR, based on our legitimate interest in effective communication with users and customers. In addition, Art. 6 (1)(b) constitutes the legal basis if the communication concerns contractual or pre-contractual steps. The data may be processed on the basis of your consent under Art. 6 (1)(a). Otherwise, the legal basis for the processing carried out by the social networks under their control can be found in their respective privacy policies.

We have a presence on the following social networks:

‍Facebook and Instagram (Meta Platforms Inc. 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, California, 94025, USA; for European Economic Area and Switzerland: Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd, Serpentine Avenue, Block J, Dublin 4, Ireland) 
ResearchGate's Facebook and Instagram pages are operated based on an agreement on joint controllership under data protection law. You can find more information about data processing at Meta in its Privacy Policy.

‍X (X Corp., 1355 Market Street, Suite 900, San Francisco, California, 94103, USA; for European Economic Area and Switzerland: Twitter International Unlimited Company, One Cumberland Place, Fenian Street Dublin 2, D02 AX07, Ireland)
You can find more information about data processing at X in its Privacy Policy.

‍LinkedIn (LinkedIn Corp., 1000 W. Maude Avenue, Sunnyvale, California, 94085, USA; for European Economic Area and Switzerland: LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, Wilton Plaza, Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland)
‍ResearchGate's LinkedIn page is operated based on an agreement on joint controllership under data protection law. You can find more information about data processing at LinkedIn in its Privacy Policy.

If you find content on ResearchGate that you think violates ResearchGate's policies or the law, you can report it to us. Find out how to report content here. Generally, you will be asked to provide your name and email address as part of your report. We may use this information to ask you follow-up questions or to provide updates about your report. In some cases, where necessary and appropriate, we may also provide this information to the person who added the content you reported. For example, if you report a copyright infringement, we normally provide the copyright owner's name and email address to the reported party so they can understand the claim and reach out to the copyright owner with any questions.

The legal basis for this data processing is Art. 6 (1)(c) GDPR in conjunction with the relevant provisions of the Digital Services Act (DSA), in particular Art. 16 and 17 DSA.

Some of the service providers with which your personal data may be shared are located outside of the European Economic Area. In some of these countries, the level of data protection does not correspond with that of the European Union. 

Where this is the case and the European Commission has not issued an adequacy decision (Art. 45 GDPR) for the country, we have taken appropriate measures to ensure an adequate level of data protection for data transfer. These measures include, among others, the Standard Contractual Clauses of the European Union or binding internal data protection regulations. If these measures are not applicable we base the data transfer on the exceptions under Art. 49 GDPR, especially on your consent or the necessity of the transfer for the performance of our contract with you.

For Members, we generally store your personal data as long as your account is active.

Provided you can access your account, you can delete it yourself in your Account Settings at any time. If you request that we delete your account for you, we might ask for proof of identity before doing so, to protect you and others from accidental or unauthorized account deletion. Should there be doubts about your identity, we may not delete your account but instead remove it from public view until you can clearly verify your identity.

We reserve the right to delete accounts that are inactive for at least one year or where the contact email address for the account is no longer operational. We will attempt to notify you before doing so.

If you delete your account, it will be deleted from our productive systems and you won't be able to reactivate it later.

We may keep personal data if it is strictly necessary to comply with any legal or regulatory obligations, defend disputes, enforce our Terms of Service, and/or take other actions otherwise permitted by law.

In addition to your rights to withdraw any consent you may have granted or exercise any opt-out option we provide, you may be entitled to exercise some or all of the following rights: 

• Right of access in accordance with Art. 15 GDPR. In particular, you can obtain information about the purposes of processing, categories of personal data, categories of recipients to whom your data has been or will be disclosed, planned storage period, and the origin of your data if it was not obtained directly from you.
• Right to correct inaccurate or complete incomplete personal data according to Art. 16 GDPR. 
• Right to delete your personal data stored with us in accordance with Art. 17 GDPR, subject to legal or contractual retention periods or other legal obligations or rights that must be observed. 
• Right to restrict the processing of your personal data in accordance with Art. 18 GDPR in the event that: you contest the accuracy of the data; the processing is unlawful but you oppose its deletion; we no longer need the personal data for the purposes of the processing but you need it for your assertion; it may be relevant to exercise or defend legal claims; or you have lodged an objection to the processing in accordance with Art. 21 GDPR.
• Right to data portability in accordance with Art. 20 GDPR, to receive the stored personal data concerning you in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, or request the transfer of this data to another responsible party.
• Right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority responsible for us or any other competent supervisory authority in a Member State, in particular with the supervisory authority responsible for you. The supervisory authority competent for ResearchGate is: Berliner Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit (Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information), Alt-Moabit 59-61, 10555 Berlin, Germany.

You may exercise the rights referred to above, pose any related questions, or make any complaints regarding data processing by contacting us here.

The same and/or similar rights as laid out in this section might also be available to you under other jurisdictions, i.e. beyond the GDPR.

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please email our privacy team at privacy[at]researchgate.net or contact us here. 

To directly contact our data protection officer, please send a letter to: 

Data Protection Officer
ResearchGate GmbH
Chausseestr. 20
10115 Berlin 
Germany

You can find additional information about security and privacy in our Help Center here.

Representation for data subjects in the UK

We value your privacy and your rights as a data subject and have therefore appointed our UK subsidiary as our privacy representative and your point of contact. If you want to contact us via our representative or make use of your data subject rights, please contact:

RESEARCHGATE LIMITED
1 The Green, Richmond
Kemp House 160 City Road
TW9 1PL
UNITED KINGDOM
uk-representative[at]researchgate.net

We will consider all requests and provide our response within the time period stated by applicable law and as otherwise required by applicable law. Please note, however, that certain information may be exempt from such requests in some circumstances, which may include if we need to keep processing your information for our legitimate business interests or to comply with a legal obligation. We may request you provide us with the information necessary to confirm your identity before responding to your request. You have a right to submit your request via an agent if the agent has your written permission. In such circumstances, we may still need to verify your identity separately. Depending on applicable law, you may have the right to appeal our decision to deny your request. If we deny your request, we will provide you with information on how to appeal the decision, if applicable, in our communications with you.

As explained in section 6 (Sponsored content on ResearchGate), we allow certain third-party advertising providers to collect information about your device and online browsing activities for targeted advertising and related purposes, so that we can provide you with more relevant and tailored ads. This disclosure of your information to these third parties may be considered a “sale” of personal information under applicable laws in the United States or the "processing" or "sharing" of personal information for targeted advertising purposes.

You can opt out of our online disclosure of your personal information through cookie and pixel technology for purposes that could be considered “sales” for third parties' own commercial purposes, or “sharing” for purposes of targeted advertising. To do so, please click here. You can also submit a request to opt out of our disclosure of information other than through cookies or pixels that are subject to applicable opt-out rights by emailing us at privacy[at]researchgate.net.

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act and its associated amendments (“CCPA”) require us to provide you with the following additional information about: 

• The purpose for which we use each category of “personal information” (as defined in the CCPA) we collect. 
• The categories of third parties to which we: (a) disclose such personal information for a business purpose; (b) “share” personal information for “cross-context behavioral advertising”; and/or (c) “sell” such personal information. 

Under the CCPA, “sharing” is defined as the targeting of advertising to a consumer based on that consumer’s personal information obtained from the consumer’s activity across websites, and “selling” is defined as the disclosure of personal information to third parties in exchange for monetary or other valuable consideration.  

Our use of third-party online advertising services, which are described in detail in section 6 (Sponsored content on ResearchGate) above, may result in the disclosure of online identifiers (for example, cookie data, IP addresses, device identifiers, and usage information) in a way that may be considered a “sale” or "sharing" under the CCPA.

We source, use, and disclose the categories of personal information we collect from and about you consistent with the various business purposes we describe throughout this Privacy Policy. See section 2 (Data we process), section 3 (How we use data), section 4 (How we use relevant publicly available data and data provided by our partners), section 5 (How we use technologies like cookies and pixels), section 6 (Sponsored content on ResearchGate), and section 7 (Service providers) for more information.

A) Your choices regarding "sharing" and "selling"

You have the right to opt out of our “sharing” or “selling” of your personal information for purposes of online analytics and advertising through the use of cookies or pixels by clicking here. To opt out of the offline disclosure of your information to third parties for purposes other than through cookies or pixels, please email us at privacy[at]researchgate.net.

B) Other CCPA rights

If we ever offer any financial incentives in exchange for your personal information, we will provide you with appropriate information about such incentives. 

The CCPA also allows you to limit the use or disclosure of your “sensitive personal information” (as defined in the CCPA) if your sensitive personal information is used for certain purposes. We do not use or disclose such information other than for disclosed and permitted business purposes for which there is no right to limit the use or disclosure under the applicable law.   

In addition to the specific rights you have under California law as described in this section, you may have more general rights under the GDPR. See section 12 (Data subject rights) above for more information.

C) Retention of your personal information

Please see section 11 (Deleting your account and retention of personal data) above.

Please see section 13 (Contact information) above.