Privacy Notice
Last Updated: 24th July 2024
Gates Open Research is an open access publishing platform controlled by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (“Foundation”). This website, https://GatesOpenResearch.org (“Website”), is hosted and operated by F1000 Research Limited (“Service Provider”) on behalf of the Foundation.
The Foundation and the Service Provider take privacy very seriously. This statement explains how the Foundation and the Service Provider use the personal information you provide to us when you use this Website.
USE OF THIS WEBSITE IS SUBJECT TO THE GATES OPEN RESEARCH GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS, INCLUDING THIS PRIVACY POLICY. PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS WEBSITE OR PROVIDE ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION ON THIS WEBSITE IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY. TERMS USED BUT NOT DEFINED IN THIS POLICY HAVE THE DEFINITIONS PROVIDED IN THE GENERAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS.
1. Who is the data controller
As Gates Open Research is controlled by the Foundation but operated on its behalf by F1000 Research Limited the data controllers are the Foundation and the Service Provider.
2. What is the legal basis for processing personal information?
Gates Open Research relies on a number of legal bases to collect, use, and share your information, including:
- as needed to provide its services, such as when it uses your information to fulfill the services you require, to settle disputes, or to provide customer support;
- when you have provided your affirmative consent, which you may revoke at any time, such as by signing up for our mailing list;
- if necessary to comply with a legal obligation or court order or in connection with a legal claim, such as retaining information about your purchases if required by tax law; and
- as necessary for the purpose of our legitimate interests provided those legitimate interests are not overridden by your rights or interests.
3. What personal information does the Website ask users to supply, and why?
In general, we use personal information we collect for the purpose of making Gates Open Research available to you and others. Specifically, we may use your personal information to:
- fulfill our obligations to you and to respond to any questions or requests;
- contact you about material changes in our Website terms or policies;
- contact you via email if you have opted in to receiving communication via email;
- host and operate the Website; and
- comply with the law or in good faith belief that such action is necessary to conform with the requirements of law or to comply with a subpoena or other legal process served on us.
You should assume that we will use all information for all lawful purposes. Subject to applicable law, we reserve the right to make all lawful, worldwide uses of personal information, including without limitation, to: collect, use, access (or bar access), process, fulfill, disclose, display, share, respond to legal process or otherwise exercise our rights under applicable law, transfer, store, verify, enforce, delete, and otherwise deal with personal information, and information other than personal information.
The Website will ask you to provide your name and contact information when you register on the Website to enable the Service Provider to set up and manage your user account. However, registration is optional and you may view content on publicly-available parts of the Website without registering.
Some aspects of the service available on this Website requires the use of cookies, and the supply of information such as name, email, speciality, funder, institution, qualification and phone number. This is necessary for security reasons and to be able to provide our services. Users may submit further personal information (e.g., details of research and areas of interest) in order to take advantage of present and future personalization facilities on this Website.
When you visit the Website we may collect information about your online browsing behaviour and any equipment or software you have used to access our site including your IP address, device identifiers and the type of browser you use.
In accordance with European Union guidelines, registrants may decline to provide the information requested. They should be advised, however, that we may be unable to deliver all the services available at the Website unless at least the information necessary to enable fulfilment of the service, security and identification purposes is provided.
4. What further information does the Website automatically track, and why?
When you visit the Website we may automatically collect certain types of technical information. Some examples of automatic information we may collect are as follows:
- We may record your internet service provider's address, your internet protocol or IP address, the web page from which you came, your web browser software, the type of handheld or mobile device used to link to the web page, the date and time of your access, and the language settings on your web browser;
- We may collect a record of your activity or your "clickstream" while visiting the Site; and
- We may use web beacons, match scripts, pixel tags or similar technologies that allow us to know if a particular web page was visited, an e-mail opened, links in the email utilized or if the advertisements on the Sites or other sites were effective. In some instances, these technologies may allow us to match activities with particular users.
This information is used for site administration and internal operations (i.e. troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes). This enables us to improve the Website to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your device, to allow you to participate in interactive features of its services when you choose to do so, and as part of our efforts to keep the Website safe and secure.
See below regarding how we may use cookies to automatically collect information about how you use the Website.
5. Does the Website recognize “Do Not Track”?
Do Not Track (DNT) is a privacy preference that users can set in some web browsers, allowing users to opt out of tracking by websites and online services. At the present time, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has not yet established universal standards for recognizable DNT signals and therefore, this Website does not recognize DNT.
6. How does the Website collect and use your personal information?
The Website collects your email address when you register to receive e-mail alerts. We use this to send you the relevant email alert that you have requested with the described frequency.
The Website collects the following information when you register with the Website; name, address, organisation, county and email address. We use this to contact you to confirm registration, to identify you and provide our services, administration and to resolve issues through our help desk.
The Website collects the following information when you register to make comments on the Website; name, address, organisation, county and email address. We use this to enable you to post comments on the Website, contact you to confirm registration, to identify you and provide our services, administration, to resolve issues through our help desk and investigatory purposes should the need arise.
The Website uses your personal information to personalise the experience you have of the Website, enable your details to be moved across the tools on the site to accelerate the process of completing any information requirements and for market research.
We will use your personal information to review it in order to ensure we do not keep it any longer than is legally permitted.
7. What is the Website’s policy on sharing email addresses with third parties?
Your email address will only be shared with third parties with your explicit consent.
8. What is Gates Open Research's policy on emailing its registered users?
If you have opted to receive emails from Gates Open Research we may contact you from time to time to communicate updates relating to Gates Open Research and this Website, including changes to the Foundation’s Open Access Policy, Website terms and conditions, and the Privacy Notice. You may opt out from receiving such emails when registering, or at any time thereafter by responding to such an email or contacting customer services on info@gatesopenresearch.org.
9. How does the Website use cookies?
The Website uses cookies to capture information about this Website’s visitors. The Website uses "cookies," which are small pieces of information stored by your browser or other application on your computer's browser or hard drive. The cookies are used to connect your computer with information stored about your online activity, searches, and preferences both within the same website visit and from one visit to the next on this and/or other websites. Some examples of this data include your account preferences, user specific information on pages accessed, searched terms or addresses entered, and previous visits to the site.
The Website also uses third party products that set cookies, for example: Google Analytics, which helps us monitor site usage and therefore improve user experience.
For a list of the cookies we use on the Website click here.
By continuing to use the Website you consent to the relevant cookies being set on your device.
10. Control of cookies
The "help" portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive new cookies or how to disable cookies altogether. Neither the Foundation nor the Service Provider control, and do not guarantee the effectiveness of, browser-based tools for managing cookies.
Your browser need not be set to accept cookies if you just wish to browse and view material on Gates Open Research.
If you register on the Website and opt to receive email communication relating to Gates Open Research or this Website, the Website requires the use of cookies to remember you and your preferences.
You may decline to set your browser to accept cookies when requested but you should be aware that we may be unable to deliver some of our services without this information. This may also mean that any preferences you set on the Website will be lost or you will not be able to use the auto login or remember me facility at login.
For general information about cookies, and how to control and disable them, please visit www.allaboutcookies.org.
11. Information you provide about others
Do not supply personal information about others unless you are authorized or required to do so by applicable law or contract and you consent to the General Terms and Conditions, including this Privacy Policy and any additional Terms and Conditions as applicable, on behalf of yourself and the “data subject” (the person about whom you supply personal information). Before supplying personal information about others (except as otherwise allowed by law or contract), you must make available for the data subject’s review, and obtain their written consent to, the General Terms and Conditions, including this Privacy Policy and any additional Terms and Conditions as applicable. By submitting any personal information about others, you represent and warrant that you are authorized to do so and that you did all of the foregoing before submitting the information. If applicable law allows you to supply the information without doing the foregoing, you represent and warrant that you have abided by that law and that it allows us to receive and disclose the information under this Privacy Policy without any further action on our part. You agree to indemnify, defend and hold us harmless against any failure by you to comply with this paragraph.
12. Information security
We use industry-standard security techniques on the Website to help protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of information collected from you at the Website. When you access your registration information or transmit personally information to the Website, that information is stored on servers that the Website has attempted to secure from unauthorized access or intrusion. “Secure Socket Layer” software encrypts personal information you transmit to the Websites. However, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot ensure the security of the information you transmit to us. In this regard, we urge you to take every precaution to protect your personal information while you are on the Internet. At a minimum, we encourage you to make sure that you are using a secure browser as you surf the Internet.
13. Your particular consents
In addition to consenting to the General Terms and Conditions, including this Privacy Policy, the Foundation is interested in letting you know about, and receiving your particular consent to, a few activities relating to personal information that will help us to deal with personal information that is disclosed in furtherance of our mission, operations and programs. These are described immediately below.
- Consent to international transfer and disclosure of personal information. You agree that the Foundation and the Service Provider may disclose and transfer your personal information worldwide (including outside the European Economic Area, if you are based in the European Economic Area) for any purpose relating to hosting and operating this Website, your use, registration, publication, or submission of comments.
- Consent to electronic notice if there is a security breach. If the Foundation or the Service Provider is required to provide notice of unauthorized access or other invasion of certain security systems, you agree that we may do so when required (or voluntarily) by posting notice on our Website or sending notice to any email address we have for you, in our good faith discretion. You agree that notice to you will count as notice to others for whom you are acting, and agree to pass the notice on to them.
14. Your ability to update personal information
All communications from the Website will include clear instructions on how to tell us that you wish to cease receiving further communications (unsubscribe).
The Foundation and the Service Provider endeavor to keep your personal information accurate and up to date. If you registered to use the Website and the personal information you provided has changed, you may update that information via My Account or by emailing info@gatesopenresearch.org.
You also have the right to ask us to (a) rectify inaccurate or incomplete personal information, (b) delete your personal data from the Website’s systems, (c) limit the way in which we can use your personal data, (d) move, copy or transfer your personal information and (e) object to our use of your personal information.
To exercise any of these rights, make enquiries about what personal information about you the Foundation and/or the Service Provider retains, or make a complaint about our use of your personal data, please contact us by email at info@gatesopenresearch.org or write to us at Managing Director, F1000 Research Limited, 240 Blackfriars Rd, London, SE1 8BU, UK.
If you are not satisfied with any complaint you may make about how your personal information is handled then you may be able to refer your matter to the Information Commissioner’s office.
15. Retention of your personal information
Unless we are required or permitted by law to keep information for a longer period we will only keep your personal information for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes for having that data as explained in the consent you granted or in our privacy policy or until you request us to delete it. However, even if we delete your personal data it may remain on back-up systems or in our archive for security and to enable us to fulfill our legal, regulatory and tax obligations.
We may discard personal information in our discretion, so you should retain your own records, and not rely upon our storage of any personal information or other data.
16. Children
This Website does not knowingly solicit or collect personal information online from children under the age of 13 without prior verifiable parental consent. Anyone aged under 16 who wishes to provide personal information to us must first obtain their parent or guardians' consent. If the we learn that a child under the age of 16 has submitted personal information online without parental consent, we will take all reasonable measures to delete such information from our databases and to not use such information for any purpose (except where necessary to protect the safety of the child or others as required or allowed by law). If you become aware of any personal information we have collected from children under 16, please contact us at info@gatesopenresearch.org.
17. Legal responsibilities
We reserve the right to disclose your personal information if required to do so by law, or in the good faith and belief that such action is reasonably necessary to comply with legal process, respond to claims, or protect the rights, property or safety of the Foundation, the Service Provider, and their respective affiliates, employees, agents, suppliers, or contractors.
18. Who should I contact if I have any questions or concerns about my privacy?
If you have any questions or concerns about your privacy and Gates Open Research, please contact our customer service team on info@gatesopenresearch.org.
19. Conflict; Enforcement of this Privacy Policy; Third Party Beneficiaries
If there is a conflict between any Terms and Conditions on this Website and this Privacy Policy, the latest version of this Privacy Policy will control. If you think the Foundation and/or the Service Provider are in default, you may contact the Foundation by writing to the Address for Legal Notices below. There are no third party beneficiaries of this Policy.
Address for Legal Notices:
Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
P.O. Box 23350
Seattle, WA 98102
Attn: Legal
20. Updates to this Privacy Policy
We may amend all or part of this Privacy Policy in the same way that we make amendments to our Terms of Use and such amended versions will be posted on this page. When we do so, we will change the date at the top of the Privacy Policy. We encourage you to return to this page to check for any updates or changes.