Informed Consent Agreement

By filling out the form on this page and clicking the Submit button in the form on the right (which will create an account for yourself to use Conference Maker^®), you have indicated your agreement and understanding of the following terms of use. If you disagree with these terms, do not proceed further.

1. In order to protect your personal information and privacy and meet the requirements of the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) the company that owns and operates the Conference Maker^® software, Techno Luddites, Inc. (hereafter abbreviated as TL), complies with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information transferred from the European Union to the United States. TL has certified to the Department of Commerce that it adheres to the Privacy Shield Principles. If there is any conflict between the terms in this privacy policy and the Privacy Shield Principles, the Privacy Shield Principles shall govern. To learn more about the Privacy Shield program, and to view our certification, please visit https://www.privacyshield.gov/. In compliance with the Privacy Shield Principles, TL commits to resolve complaints about our collection or use of your personal information. EU individuals with inquiries or complaints regarding our Privacy Shield policy should first contact TL at: technoluddites@technoluddites.com. TL has further committed to cooperate with the panel established by the EU data protection authorities (DPAs) with regard to unresolved Privacy Shield complaints concerning data transferred from the EU. You have an arbitration option for residual claims, if you believe TL has violated its obligations in Annex I in the Privacy Shield Principles.

2. I affirm that the information on this form is my own contact information and I am not creating an account on the behalf of someone else. I understand after being granted an account and login access to Conference Maker^® I have the right to unilaterally delete my account and information associated with my user ID from any Conference Maker^® that I have logged into, and I can login to any instance of Conference Maker^® to change/update my information at any time. The following items on the signup form on the right such as my mailing address, email address, and phone number constitute personal information which are subject to special protections including my right to opt out of any sharing of this information under the Privacy Shield Framework.

3. Specifically, I have the right to opt out by not providing this personal information on the sign-up form. However my email address is a required field on the form to enable an automatically generated password to be emailed back to me in case I forget my password. I have the right to opt out and prevent the company that owns and operates the Conference Maker^® software, TL, from sharing my information with other organizations or third parties. TL does not sell or share any of my contact information with other companies. However unless I choose to opt out, TL does allow the sharing of the contact information I provide on this form with users of the related web-based software and services that TL owns and operates: Editorial Express^® (for online editorial management of academic journals) and Head Hunter^® (for recruitment of academic personnel). The journals and organizations that use these other software products are able to search a database containing the information that I have provided in this form and (except for my password) import this information for their own use, which may include contacting me to review articles for academic journals that use the Editorial Express^® software, or be added as a user or recruiting candidate in the Head Hunter^® software, or to be added as a registered user to other conferences where I may not have explicitly registered for, but have been added as a coauthor of a paper, or as a potential member of the Program Committee, or for some other role (discussant, session chair, etc) in Conference Maker^®. Hereafer we refer to these as authorized third parties.

4. The authorized third parties use these software services provided by TL under contractual terms that also comply with notification and choice principles of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework. These authorized third parties have agreed to respect my right to opt out of the sharing of my contact information, even if I should decide to opt out at a later date. This right is also enforced via the software TL provides on a contractual basis to these parties, which suppresses my personal information from their databases if I subsequently choose to opt out of information sharing. However if I do not opt out I understand that of these authorized third parties may use the contact information I enter on this form for their own purposes, which may include purposes besides organizing the particular conferences where my information (both confidential and non confidential) is stored, a result of my voluntary decisions to login to these conferences and enter or upload information via the Conference Maker^® software. I understand that the contracts TL has with these authorized third parties that allow them to search/download my personal information are only for the limited and specified purposes of academic publishing and recruiting, and these contracts respect my privacy and the informed consent provided here with the same level of protection as the Privacy Shield principles in this agreement. Techno Luddites accepts full responsibility for the processing of personal information it receives and subsequently transfers to any authorized third party acting as an agent on its behalf and is liable for damages if one of these authorized third parties processes such personal information in a manner inconsistent with the Privacy Shield Principles, unless Techno Luddites, Inc. can prove that unauthorized parties obtained information without permission, or Techno Luddites can prove that it is not responsible for the event giving rise to the damage.

5. The authorized third parties are contractually obligated to notify TL if they are unwilling or unable to comply with the Privacy Shield principles and in such cases TL has contractual authority to take all feasible actions to protect my personal information from unauthorized disclosure or dissemination. However, I agree that TL cannot fully control how the various organizations or individuals who have contractual rights to use the Conference Maker^®, Editorial Express^® and Head Hunter^® software might use my information. Therefore I hold TL harmless and release it from any liability for any damage I may incur as a result of intentional or unintentional misuse by authorized or unauthorized users of any information I provide on this form and via my use of the Conference Maker^® software. I understand that TL will notify me immediately if it becomes aware of any data breach or transfer of my personal information to unauthorized third parties, or if TL becomes aware that any of the authorized third parties who possess copies of my personal information are unable to comply with Privacy Shield principles. In either case TL will inform me of the actions it is taking to remediate the problem and prevent the unauthorized dissemination and access of my personal information, and if I have a claim, to advise me on my rights to Recourse, Enforcement and Liability and binding arbitration of claims as set forth in Annex 1 of the Privacy Shield Framework.

6. I understand that even if I have chosen to opt out of the sharing of my information, a copy of my contact information is imported and stored in each Conference Maker^® database of each conference I login to. For each conference that I login to with the user ID I provide on the form at the right, I provide consent to the organizers of that conference to access the personal information I provide on this form, and organizers can choose privacy settings that may enable me to prevent selected other users with login access to Conference Maker^® from viewing my information. At any time after first logging into any Conference Maker^® with my user ID, I have the right to delete my account and information in the corresponding Conference Maker^® databaser. I can also email support@technoluddites.com to request that my information be globally deleted from all Conference Maker^® databases where copies of my information associated with my user ID appear, and prohibit future use of the master copy of my contact information in the central database maintained by TL, which also prohibits me from future logins to Conference Maker^® using my user ID.

7. If I do not initially choose to opt out but I subsequently decide to opt out after agreeing to create this account, I understand that some of my contact information may have been imported to Conference Maker^® databases, or Editorial Express^® or Head Hunter^® databases in the interim period before I chose to opt out. In such a case, though my contact information will not be deleted from the Editorial Express^® or Head Hunter^® databases that have imported my information prior to my decision to opt out, my personal information in these databases will be suppressed and I have the right to be informed by TL about which of these databases and third parties named above uploaded copies of my contact information associated with my user ID. If I wish to have my contact information associated with my user ID entirely deleted from these databases, TL will contact the authorized third parties to relay this request, but I understand that TL cannot compel these authorized third parties to delete their own private copies of my contact information. I agree to hold TL harmless for any failure of these third parties to delete my contact information. Having been so informed, if I have any concerns about the sharing of my contact information I can choose either not to sign up for an account, or to sign up with the opt out provision selected. In that case, no third parties will be able to search for, view, or import the contact information I provide via the user ID on the form at right until such time as I decide to reverse this opt out decision. However even if I opt out of information sharing, I understand and agree that the contact information I provide on this form will be imported to any of the specific Conference Maker^® databases I choose to login to with the user ID I have chosen on this form.

8. I agree that none of the information on this form constitutes sensitive information or confidential information on me. However if I use Conference Maker^® to submit a paper, or serve as an administrator or Program Committee Member or in any other role, some information I might upload into the Conference Maker^® software may constitute confidential information, such as a submission I may designate as a private submission, or comments or decisions I might make on submissions by others if I am a reviewer/grader or a Program Committee member of a conference. Any such confidential information I provide in this manner will only reside in the Conference Maker^® databases where I have uploaded or provided this information. I authorize only the organizers and users of the specific conferences that I provided any such confidential information to see and use this information, but none of this confidential information will be shared with any of the third parties named above (e.g. other conferences, academic journals that use Editorial Express^®, or organizations that use Head Hunter^® for academic recruiting) without my consent.

9. I have the right to delete any confidential information that I have uploaded to any conference organized using the Conference Maker^® software. When I delete this information it will be deleted from the Conference Maker^® database to which I provided this information. I am aware that authorized parties including the organizers and users of conferences that use the Conference Maker^® software have the right to view and download this information, TL cannot guarantee that deletion of this information from Conference Maker^® will also guarantee the deletion of the information that third parties may have already downloaded and stored elsewhere. I agree that it is my responsibility to contact other organizations (such as organizers of conferences) to make sure they delete any independently stored copy of confidential information I wish to be deleted. Note that as a U.S. corporation, TL is subject to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the U.S. Courts that may have jurisdiction over any disputes or legal or national security issues that involve TL, and thus TL may be legally compelled to provide confidential information that I have uploaded to Conference Maker^® and have not deleted in certain circumstances when required by U.S. law.

10. I understand that while all reasonable attempts will be taken to assure that any confidential information I submit to Conference Maker^® is kept confidential (except to those parties who are intended and authorized by me to view such information) it is not possible to provide an absolute guarantee that any such confidential information cannot not be seen or accessed by unauthorized users. I agree to hold the company that develops and maintains the Conference Maker^® software, TL, as well as any organization or individuals that have valid agreements to use the Conference Maker^® software to organize conferences or events harmless and exempt from any liability for damage to me in the event of any release of confidential or personal information that I have provided via my use of the Conference Maker^® software.