Privacy Notice for influencers in the North American Precis Syndicate media database

Introduction

This Privacy Notice is for the individual influencers included in the North American Precis Syndicate media database. We at North American Precis Syndicate are committed to letting you know how we deal with your personal data, to giving you control over how it is used, and to protecting it.  Here you will find information about what sort of information we hold about you, how and why we collect it, how we use it, and how we keep it secure. This Privacy Notice also tells you about your rights, how you can exercise those rights, and how the law protects you.  Finally, it tells you how you can exercise your preferences to manage the information we have about you, and, if for any reason you do not want to be in our media database, how to ask us to take you out.

About North American Precis Syndicate:

North American Precis Syndicate is a communications company that enables our customers to identify and connect with influencers; distribute meaningful communications to those influencers; and measure the impact of those communications.  Our customers do this using a number of our different services that allow them access to our media database.

North American Precis Syndicate is the data controller and is responsible for your personal data (collectively referred to as North American Precis Syndicate, "we", "us", or "our" in this Privacy Notice). Our full contact details are as follows:

U.S.

501 5^th Avenue, 9^th Floor

New York, NY  10017

USA

Journalist and Influencer hotline: 800-222-5551

If at any time you have any questions about this Privacy Notice or the way we use your personal data please contact our Data Protection Officer by email at info@napsnet.com.

The Media Database

Our media database is a repository of information (and in particular contact information) relating to influencers like you. We call you an "influencer" because you have the ability to influence the behavior and opinions of others. This term includes traditional journalists working for news publications (print and online), freelance journalists, and other influencers including social media influencers on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other platforms. The media database is accessed by our subscription customers via one of our customer-facing platforms.

What personal information we collect

We limit the information that we collect for use in the media database to that which we think is likely to enable our customers to engage with you in a meaningful and targeted way.  The information includes basic information such as your name and contact details, your job title, public social media profiles, areas of interest to you, and possibly some brief biographical information about your career history. 

The types of personal data we collect:

We only collect data that is necessary to conduct our business. We collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of data about you which may include some or all of the following:

• Prefix and name
• Gender
• Job title
• Educational history
• Employment history
• Work address
• Telephone number
• Fax number
• Work email address
• Personal email address (if provided to us by you)
• Twitter handle
• Profile Picture
• Link to LinkedIn profile
• Other social media handles/channels such as Instagram
• Number of social media followers
• Social media profile picture
• Pitch preference (ie. how you wish to be contacted)
• Topics: (ie. subject matters you wish to write above)
• Target groups

We do not hold any sensitive personal data about you (such as data about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union memberships, data about your health, genetic and, biometric data) unless you have clearly put such data into the public domain yourself (e.g. you have made such information available to the public by writing about it or by posting it on your social media profile).

How we collect your personal data

The vast majority of the information we hold about you is obtained from publicly available sources or directly from you. This includes your publicly available social media profiles and websites, information about you that is published by your employer (e.g. on your publication's own website) and information from articles you may have written. This information is gathered by our experienced research teams. 

We collect your data either directly from you, or from publicly available sources such as:

• Articles or blogs you may have written
• Vlogs you may have created
• Your own website
• Your employer's websites
• Your publisher's website
• Your publicly available social media profiles (including, for example, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn)
• Telephone conversations which may be recorded by us to help us improve our training and quality
• Other publicly available online sources

We also collect data from other sources including:

• Other influencers (who may, for example, tell us if you have changed jobs, but we will not publish that information until we have independently verified it)
• Our customers
• Your employer (if you are employed)
• Your line manager or press team tell us

Verification

Depending on the circumstances, once your profile is made live in the media database, we will usually verify that your contact details are correct via either contacting you or your employer directly or checking against your social media profile or websites you appear on.

North American Precis Syndicate runs a verification schedule to contact Influencers to ensure that their profile information is up to date and correct. Updates are also provided by Influencers themselves, either by emailing global research teams or visiting: 

http://mynewstouse.com/forms/media-survey/

The purposes for which we will use your personal data

Using this information we then create an influencer profile for you and include it in our media database.

We allow our customers access to our media database via one of our online platforms so that they can view your profile and send you information that they think you might be interested in. This is also beneficial for you as it means you receive targeted news and other information that may be helpful for you. Our primary role is to facilitate the efficient communication between our customer and influencers.

As well as using our media database to simply send communications to influencers, our customers can also use our media database functionality to create their own lists of influencers, add their own data about influencers (which only they can access), and monitor your interaction with the communications that they send you (for example, whether you have opened an email sent via one of our customer facing platforms or clicked on any links contained in that email).

One of the main purpose for using your personal data is to create a repository of data regarding influencers (the media database), and make that media database available to our customers on a paying basis. Depending on which service our customers are signed up for, your personal data may also be processed in one or more of the following ways:

• Browsing the media database: our customers can browse the media database via one of our online platforms.
• Sending out feature news releases: our customers can send you feature news releases, emails or other communications (e.g. direct messages on social media) about things they think you might be interested in.
• Creating lists: Our customers can create lists of influencers. Using one of our customer-facing platforms our customers can search for influencers with that particular interest, create and save a list of those influencers, and then send a feature news release to those influencers on the list.
• Exporting influencer data: our customers can export influencer data from our media database provided they use that data in accordance with all applicable laws.
• Wholesale access to data: some of our customers can purchase wholesale access to the data stored in our media database to re-sell via their own platforms and products.
• Media Monitoring: our customers can browse, by keyword search, publications and social media platforms via one of our online platforms.  This functionality is not limited to content written by contacts on the media database
• Profiling and Tracking
• Maintaining the administration of our media database.
• Maintaining contact, handling inquiries, complaints and disputes.
• Compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.

Legal basis for processing your personal data

We process your personal data in order to provide our services to our customers. We believe that it is in our legitimate business interests to do so. Processing your data in this way also benefits you as an influencer and also our customers. You will receive focused information from our customers, often ahead of general release, giving you material to write about that is relevant to you and your audience. Our customers are able to communicate more efficiently to influencers who are likely to want to hear what they have to say. We consider and balance any potential negative impact on you and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where we believe that our interests are overridden by any unwarranted adverse impact on you. If at any time you want us to remove you from our media database please email us at info@napsnet.com and we will process this request as soon as possible.

We may also use your personal data in the following ways:

• Media requests: Influencers are free to use our systems and ask for help sourcing upcoming stories or customers who can speak to a specific topic. For example, an influencer writing about EU electric car developments might request to hear from motor industry experts in Europe. The request will be sent to our customers who have signed up to receive them. Customers will email the influencer directly if they can help. Generally, our media request service is used by journalists who want to be connected to our customers.
• Alerts: Influencers in the media database can also request to receive updates on changes to other contacts within the media database, typically changes to roles or moves within the industry. These alerts are then distributed to influencers via an "alerts newsletter" by our research team.
• Marketing: Influencers can also receive surveys or invitations to events from North American Precis Syndicate.

How to have your profile amended or removed

We want you to be in control, so if at any time you want to see or amend your influencer profile, please email us at info@napsnet.com Similarly, if at any time you want us to take you out of our media database altogether please email us at info@napsnet.com and we will process your request as soon as possible.

Children

Our media database is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect personal data relating to children. If you are under the age of 16, please let us know and we will take you out of our media database.

How we use your personal data for profiling and tracking

We may use your personal data for automated profiling purposes. The profiling we conduct and how it is used is limited. We use profiling to evaluate (amongst other things) your personal preferences, interests, behavior and audience and make this available to our customers in response to particular inquiries that they may make through one of our platforms. We may, for example, use profiling to help our customers understand what subjects you like to talk about (which is apparent from the nature of the content you produce) and the extent of your audience (apparent from the number of social media followers you have). This in turn helps our customers direct their communications to you more efficiently and effectively.  The results of this profiling are available in your own profile on the media database. 

You have the right to object to us profiling with your personal data. If you would like us to stop profiling with your personal data, then please contact us at info@napsnet.com and we will remove you from the media database

In common with many of our competitors and other online service providers, we also carry out some monitoring of your engagement with the email content that you are sent by us and by our customers using the North American Precis Syndicate email platform.  This may include placing a cookie on email content that you are sent. 

Profiling

We combine the personal data from your influencer profile with the publicly available content that you have produced and then present this information to our customers through one of our customer facing platforms. Using profiling, our customers are then able to search these two publicly available data sets and:

• Understand what subjects you are interested in
• View and evaluate your content
• Understand your audience and its location
• We do not make any automated decisions based on profiling. The profiling we do enables our customers to better identify influencers that are interested in the communications our customers want to send. 

Tracking

North American Precis Syndicate emails may contain a small, invisible, one pixel image which can be used to let the sender (our customer) know when the email is opened.  If the email recipient has images enabled on their device, when the email is opened, a message (an automatic request) is sent to our server requesting the image. That request is logged by us and tells us, or our customer, that the email has been opened.  A similar process may be used in relation to links or attachments in the email, with a request being sent to us for the content that is accessible via the links or attachments, thus telling us that the link or attachment has been accessed. This helps our customers understand what content interests you, and tailor future communications accordingly.

You benefit from receiving targeted and focused information from our customers on issues which are of interest to you, as specifically identified by you or through the content of your published materials.  Additionally, if you so wish, you can take advantage of related services (for example Media Requests and Alerts) offered by North American Precis Syndicate.

However, if you do not wish this to happen then you can opt-out at any time by emailing info@napsnet.com.

How we share your personal data and who we share it with

We may share your personal data with our customers, employees within our company, and other parties detailed below. We may also transfer your personal data outside of the European Economic Area (EEA), but only when specific safeguards have been put in place in order to protect your personal data.

We may share your personal data with one or all of the following:

• Customers: our customers are typically communications and marketing departments within businesses or other institutions, or PR agencies. Our customers come from all sectors.
• We share your data by allowing them access to the media database through our various online platforms.
• Internal Third Parties
• External Third Parties: 
• Service providers who work on behalf of North American Precis Syndicate for the performance of any contract we enter into with them, for example: IT support.
• Professional advisors including lawyers, accountants and insurers where we need to do so in order to comply with our legal obligations or for other business reasons.
• Authorities who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.
  
  
• Other Third Parties:
• Customers who purchase wholesale access to the data in our media database to re-sell via their own platforms and products.

We may also share your personal data with third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with binding contractual obligations which satisfy the requirements of the data protection legislation.

International Transfers

We may share your personal data with entities within North American Precis Syndicate. This may involve transferring your personal data outside of the European Economic Area (EEA). Some of the third parties to whom we may transfer your personal data (including some of our customers) are also based outside of the EEA, so their processing of your personal data will likewise involve a transfer outside the EEA. Where your personal data is transferred outside of the EEA we do so in accordance with model contracts approved by the European Commission to ensure that there is an adequate level of protection for your personal data.

Our security measures

We are committed to protecting your personal data. We put in place safeguards including robust and appropriate technologies, processes, and contractual arrangements, so that the data we have about you is protected from unauthorized access and improper use, and we will also not keep your personal data for longer than is necessary.

The safeguards we have put in place to protect your personal data include:

• Technical and Organizational Measures

How long will we use your personal data?

We will keep your personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy notice and to fulfill our legal obligations, but not longer than seven years after you ask to stop receiving communications. We will not keep more data than we need.

Your rights

Under certain circumstances, if you reside in the EU or if your data is processed in connection with one of our European businesses, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data, including the right of access; the right to rectification; the right to erasure; the right to restrict processing; the right to data portability; and the right to object. If you wish to exercise your rights please contact info@napsnet.com.

We respect and honor these rights and will help you to exercise them insofar as we are able. These rights are not absolute – in some cases they will not apply to you, or to the particular use that we are making of your data, and there are exceptions (for example if we have to process the data to comply with our own legal obligations) but if that is the case we will let you know.

Your rights include the right to:

• Access your personal information (via what is commonly known as a "data subject access request").
• Require us to correct any mistakes in your information which we hold.
• Require the erasure of personal information concerning you in certain situations.
• Receive the personal information concerning you which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to a third party in certain situations.
• Object at any time to processing of personal information concerning you for direct marketing.
• Object to decisions being taken by automated means (including profiling) which produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you.
• Object in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal information.
• Otherwise restrict our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

For further information on each of these rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individual rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues. We hope that we would be able to resolve any concerns that you may have before you approach the ICO so please do contact us in the first instance.