Cisco Online Privacy Statement

REVISED AND POSTED AS OF: JUNE 2, 2010. Please note this version does not substantively change the way we treat personal information compared to the previous version of the privacy statement available here.

Cisco Systems, Inc. and its subsidiaries (including Cisco Consumer Products LLC, Cisco WebEx LLC, and Pure Digital Technologies LLC) (collectively “Cisco") are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring you have a positive experience on our websites and in using our products and services referenced at the right (“Solutions").

TRUSTe Certification

Cisco Systems, Inc. is a licensee of the TRUSTe Privacy Program. TRUSTe is an independent, organization whose mission is to build user’s trust and confidence in the Internet by promoting the use of fair information practices. Because we want to demonstrate commitment to your privacy, we have agreed to disclose our information practices and have our privacy practices reviewed for compliance by TRUSTe.

If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first send an email to privacy@cisco.com. If you do not receive acknowledgement of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should contact TRUSTe at http://watchdog.truste.com/pvr.php?page=complaint&url=.

TRUSTe will then serve as a liaison with us to resolve your concerns.

The TRUSTe program only covers information that is collected through this Web site, and does not cover information that may be collected through any software downloaded from these Web sites.

This Privacy Statement contains the following sections:

 

What this Privacy Statement Covers

This Cisco Privacy Statement is applicable worldwide and covers how Cisco treats personal information collected by us through the majority of our websites, through Cisco Solutions, and offline. It does not apply to those sites that do not display or link to this Privacy Statement or that have their own privacy statements (including those listed at the right). In addition, there may be supplemental information for particular Solutions as listed at the right (“Supplements"). Please read the Cisco Privacy Statement below, the Supplements and those privacy statements of all the websites you visit.

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Collection of Your Personal Information

We will always tell you before we collect any Personal Information from you and will inform you of the purpose of the collection. “Personal Information" is any information that can be used to identify an individual, and may include, but is not limited to, name, email address, postal or other physical address, credit or debit card number, title, occupation, and other information required to provide a Solution, or carry out a transaction that you have requested. On some of our websites, we may collect third party Personal Information such as name, email and phone number, and we will assume that you have the third party's permission to provide us the information. This information is only collected and used for the purpose it was intended. Some of the reasons we collect your Personal Information include:

  • registration for an account or Solution
  • requesting information about us or our Solutions
  • use of certain features of our Solutions
  • requesting service and support for our Solutions and providing such support
  • placement of a transaction or order
  • registration to attend a seminar or webinar
  • participation in an online survey
  • submission of an entry for a sweepstakes or other promotion
  • participation in discussion groups or forum
  • collaboration efforts
  • registration to membership programs or newsletter subscriptions
  • when you apply for a job
  • customizing the advertising and content you see
  • during testing admissions process and when a computer based certification test is administered to you. For more information about online testing, click here.
  • provision of anonymous reporting for internal and external clients

 

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Uses of Your Personal Information

We will only use your Personal Information in the way we specified when it was collected. We will not subsequently change the way your Personal Information is used without your consent. Some of the ways we may use your Personal Information include to:

  • process your orders and deliver the Solutions that you have ordered.
  • keep you up to date on the latest Solution announcements, software updates, software upgrades, system enhancements, special offers, and other information, provided that you can edit your marketing preferences at any time as described below. This may occasionally include information from other companies about products and services that can add value to your Cisco Solutions.
  • provide support and assistance for our Solutions, including the provision of security patches (if applicable).
  • provide the ability to create personal profile areas and view protected content.
  • provide the ability to contact you, and provide you with shipping and billing information.
  • provide customer feedback and support.
  • provide and administer contests, sweepstakes or other marketing or promotional activities on our websites.
  • conduct questionnaires and surveys in order to provide better products and services to our customers and end users. Your completion of any questionnaires is voluntary.
  • support recruitment inquiries (for more information, please see the worldwide Candidate Privacy Policy).
  • understand more about you, so we can personalize newsletters and websites to your preferences. For example, allow you the opportunity to request specific information on products and services that may be of interest to you.
  • allow you to forward information to another individual, such as a friend or co-worker who you believe is interested in receiving the information. Cisco does not store the personal information of the third party. We use the email address and contact name (if applicable) for the sole purpose of sending a one-time email on your behalf.
  • meet contract obligations.
  • administer and process your certification exams.

 

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Access to and Accuracy of Your Personal Information

We need your help in keeping your Personal Information accurate and up to date. Please notify us of any changes to your Personal Information.

You may have the ability to view or edit your Personal Information online. In order to help prevent your Personal Information from being viewed by others, you will be required to sign in with your credentials (for example, email address and password). The appropriate method(s) for accessing your Personal Information will depend on which websites or Solutions you have used.

 

Some Cisco websites or Solutions may collect Personal Information that is not accessible via the links above. However, in such cases, you may be able to access that information through alternative means of access described by the Solution. For example, if you are a registered user of any of the WebEx services, you may make these updates online.

For a list of entities that may be considered data controllers from time to time and where you can exercise your rights of access and request corrections or deactivations under applicable data protection laws, click here.

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Communication Preferences

Each promotional email from us includes instructions on how you can unsubscribe from that particular mailing. You may also unsubscribe from various promotional communications by sending a message using the contact information below. Please be sure to include your name, email address and specific relevant information about the material that you no longer wish to receive to: Cisco Systems, Inc., Legal Department, 170 West Tasman Dr., San Jose, CA 95134, USA; Email: privacy@cisco.com.

These choices do not apply to the receipt of mandatory service communications that are considered part of certain Solutions, which you may receive periodically unless you cancel the Solution in accordance with its terms and conditions.

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Non-personal/Anonymous Information Collection

In some instances, Cisco may collect non-personal (aggregate or demographic) data through cookies, web logs, and web beacons. This information is used to better understand and improve the usability, performance, and effectiveness of the website. Please read the “Cookies" section below for more information.

In addition, by using some of our Solutions, anonymous network information may be transmitted back to us such as: the health of the Solution and types of devices attached to the network. With this information we can determine how users are interacting with the Solution, to assist us with improving it, and to provide alerts via the Solution of available software updates/upgrades.

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Sharing Your Personal Information

We do not sell, rent, share or trade your Personal Information to third parties for marketing purposes unless you have granted us permission to do so.

We may share your Personal Information within Cisco or any of our worldwide subsidiaries for purposes of data processing or storage.

We may also share your Personal Information with business partners, service vendors, authorized third-party agents or contractors in order to provide a requested service or transaction, including processing and shipping orders, processing credit card transactions, hosting websites, hosting event and seminar registration and providing customer support. We only provide these third parties with the minimum amount of Personal Information necessary to complete/provide the requested service or transaction, and the third parties are not permitted to use your Personal Information except for the limited purpose of completing/providing the requested service or transaction.

We may respond to subpoenas, court orders, or legal process by disclosing your Personal Information and other related information, if necessary. We also may choose to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims and use your Personal Information in this regard as appropriate.

We may collect and possibly share Personal Information and any other additional information available to us in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected or potential fraud, brand protection matters (such as gray market sales or use of Cisco's trademark without a license), situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of Cisco’s terms of use, or as otherwise required by law.

While navigating our websites or Solutions you may be directed to content or functionality that is hosted by a third-party supplier. This may be done to host special events, such as contests. When information is collected on behalf of Cisco exclusively, this Cisco Privacy Statement will be referenced on the website and will govern how your information is used. For other, non-Cisco websites, the website owner’s privacy statement will be referenced.

We will ask for your consent before we use or share your information for any purpose other than the reason you provided it or as otherwise provided by this Cisco Privacy Statement. To let us know your preferences, we will require an action on your part, such as checking the appropriate option, to indicate your consent.

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Security of Your Personal Information

Cisco is committed to protecting the Personal Information you share with us. When we transfer sensitive personal data (for example, credit card information) over the Internet, we protect it using Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption technology.

We utilize a combination of industry-standard security technologies, procedures, and organizational measures to help protect your Personal Information from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. However, no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Information, we cannot guarantee its security.

We recommend you to take every precaution in protecting your Personal Information when you are on the Internet. For example, change your passwords often, use a combination of letters and numbers when creating passwords, and make sure you use a secure browser. Please visit the Linksys website for more tips for using security features when connected to the Internet using a router.

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Use of Cookies and other Web Technologies

Like many websites, Cisco uses automatic data collection tools, such as cookies, embedded web links and web beacons. These tools collect certain standard information that your browser sends to our website such as your browser type and the address of the website from which you arrived at our website. They may also collect information about your Internet Protocol (IP) address (a number automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the Web, allowing Web servers to locate and identify your computer, which is a unique address assigned to your PC by your Internet Service Provider or Information Systems Department on a TCP/IP network) and clickstream behavior (for example, the pages you view and the links you click). These tools help make your visit to our website easier, more efficient and more valuable by providing you with a customized experience and recognizing you when you return. To learn more, read Cisco’s Use of Automatic Data Collection Tools.

Our website includes widgets, which are interactive mini-programs that run on our site to provide specific services from another company (e.g. displaying the news, opinions, music, etc). Personal information, such as your email address, may be collected through the widget. Cookies may also be set by the widget to enable it to function properly. Information collected by this widget is governed by the privacy policy of the company that created it. Our widget may have an import contacts feature to help you email your contacts. At your request we will search your email address book to help you import your contacts to our website.

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Supplementing Information

From time to time we may supplement Personal Information collected on our website with information from other commercially available sources that we deem credible, such as business contact databases. This is to help us maintain the accuracy of the information we collect and help us provide a better service.

Linked Websites

Our websites and Solutions may provide links to other third-party websites and services which are outside our control and not covered by this Cisco Privacy Statement. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage you to review the privacy statements posted on these (and all) sites you visit.

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Forums/Chat Rooms

If you participate in a discussion forum or chat room on a Cisco website, you should be aware that the personal and other information you provide there will be made broadly available to others, and can be read, collected or used by other users of these forums, potentially inside or outside Cisco, who have access to that discussion forum or chat room. This personal information collected could also be used to send you unsolicited messages. Also, please recognize that individual forums and chat rooms may have additional rules and conditions. Each participant’s opinion on a forum or chat room is his or her own and should not be considered as reflecting the opinion of Cisco. We are not responsible for the Personal Information or any other information you choose to submit in these forums.

We post customer testimonials/comments/reviews which may contain personal information including name, title and photograph. We do obtain the customer's consent via email prior to posting the testimonial to post their name along with their testimonial.

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Children’s Privacy

Cisco does not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under the age of 13. If we learn that we have collected Personal Information on a child under the age of 13, we will delete that data from our systems. Cisco encourages parents and guardians to go online with their children. Here are a few tips to help make a child’s online experience safer:

  • Teach children never to give Personal Information (such as name, address, phone number, school, etc.) unless supervised by a parent or responsible adult.
  • Know the sites your children are visiting and which sites are appropriate.
  • Look for website privacy policies and know how your child’s information is treated.

 

Please visit the FTC’s website for more tips on protecting children’s privacy online.

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We may transfer your Personal Information to Cisco in the United States of America, to any Cisco subsidiary worldwide, or to third parties acting on our behalf, for the purposes of processing or storage, and by providing any Personal Information to us you fully understand and unambiguously consent to the transfer, processing and storage of such information in the United States of America.

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Your California Privacy Rights

Residents of the State of California, under California Civil Code § 1798.83, have the right to request from companies conducting business in California a list of all third parties to which the company has disclosed Personal Information during the preceding year for direct marketing purposes. Alternatively, the law provides that if the company has a privacy policy that gives either an Opt-out or Opt-in choice for use of your Personal Information by third parties (such as advertisers) for marketing purposes, the company may instead provide you with information on how to exercise your disclosure choice options.

Cisco qualifies for the alternative option. We have a comprehensive privacy statement, and provide you with details on how you may either Opt-out or Opt-in to the use of your Personal Information by third parties for direct marketing purposes. Therefore, we are not required to maintain or disclose a list of the third parties that received your Personal Information for marketing purposes during the preceding year.

If you are a California resident and request information about how to exercise your third party disclosure choices, you must send a request to privacy@cisco.com.

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Questions or comments?

We value your opinions. Should you have any privacy-related questions or comments related to this Cisco Privacy Statement, please send an email to privacy@cisco.com.

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Updates to this Cisco Privacy Statement

Cisco may update this privacy statement at any time, so please review it frequently. We will post a notice to this policy and the home page link whenever this privacy statement is materially changed so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. Your continued use of the Cisco website after any change will signify and confirm your assent to those changes.

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Learn more about Data Privacy

Powering the Human Network means protecting it as well. Protecting the privacy of you and your family is important to Cisco. To help you understand how to protect your privacy, Cisco has published some helpful guidelines, both in commemoration of Data Privacy Day and on-going at Online Privacy Portal.