Conference Management Tool Privacy Statement
(last updated: March 2009)

Microsoft is committed to protecting your privacy. This privacy statement explains data collection and use practices of the Conference Management Tool (CMT) site (the “Site”); it does not apply to other online or offline Microsoft sites, products or services. By using the Site, you are consenting to the information collection and use practices described in this privacy statement.

Collection of Your Personal Information

Your submissions as the “Author”, as such term is defined in the Terms of Use (TOU), (including but not limited to, any documents, papers and other files you upload) to this Site may contain information that personally identifies you. That information will be governed by the terms of this Privacy Statement. 

These documents and files may be downloaded by “Reviewers” and “Administrations”, as such terms are defined in the TOU.  Microsoft (“we”) may also ask you for additional information we need that personally identifies you or allows us to contact you such as name and e-mail address.

The Site may also collect certain information about your visit, such as the name of the Internet service provider and the Internet Protocol (IP) address through which you access the Internet; the date and time you access the Site; the pages that you access while at the Site and the Internet address of the Web site from which you linked directly to our Site. This information is used for the operation and improvement of the Site. 

Use of Your Personal Information

The personal information collected on this Site will be used to operate the Site and to provide the service(s) or carry out the transaction(s) that are consistent with the purpose of this site.

In support of these uses, Microsoft may also use personal information to provide you with more effective customer service, to improve the Site and to make the Site easier to use by eliminating the need for you to repeatedly enter the same information or by customizing the Site to your particular preference or interests.

We may use your personal information to provide you with important information about the CMT service that you are using, including critical updates and notifications.

Personal information collected on the Site may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Microsoft or its affiliates, subsidiaries or agents maintain facilities, and by using the Site, you consent to any such transfer of information outside of your country. Microsoft abides by the safe harbor framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of data from the European Union.

Sharing of Your Personal Information
Except as otherwise described in this statement, personal information you provide on the Site will not be shared outside of Microsoft and its controlled subsidiaries and affiliates without your permission, except with Reviewers and Administrators. In the event you provide the Site explicit permission to share your submissions with third-party services, such as archiving services or plagiarism check services, your personal information may be shared with any such third-party services, and you should check the privacy statement provided by such third-party services.

We occasionally hire other companies to provide other limited services on our behalf, such as handling the processing and delivery of mailings, providing customer support, hosting websites, processing transactions, or performing statistical analysis of our services. Those service providers will be permitted to obtain only the personal information they need to deliver the service. They are required to maintain the confidentiality of the information and are prohibited from using it for any other purpose. However, for credit card processing, our fraud detection vendors may use aggregate data to help improve their service. This helps them more accurately detect fraudulent uses of credit cards.

We may access or disclose information about you, including the content of your communications, in order to: (a) comply with the law or respond to lawful requests or legal process; (b) protect the rights or property of Microsoft or our customers, including the enforcement of our agreements or policies governing your use of the services; or (c) act on a good faith belief that such access or disclosure is necessary to protect the personal safety of Microsoft employees, customers or the public.

Please be aware that this privacy statement and any choices you make on the Site will not necessarily apply to personal information you may have provided to Microsoft in the context of other, separately operated, Microsoft products or services.

Access to Your Personal Information
You can review and edit the personal information you provided at this Site, during your registration, by logging into CMT and editing your personal information profile or by sending email to cmt@microsoft.com.

Security of Your Personal Information
Microsoft is committed to protecting the security of your personal information. We use a variety of security technologies and procedures to help protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. For example, we store the personal information you provide on computer servers with limited access that are located in controlled facilities. Additionally, when we transmit sensitive personal information (such as a credit card number) over the Internet, we protect it through the use of encryption, such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) protocol.

If a password is used to help protect your accounts and personal information, it is your responsibility to keep your password confidential. Do not share this information with anyone. If you are sharing a computer with anyone you should always log out before leaving a site or service to protect access to your information from subsequent users.

Use of Cookies
We use cookies on this Site to ensure the integrity of the registration process and to personalize the Site.  A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can only be read by a Web server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. For example, if you personalize a web page, or navigate within a site, a cookie helps the site to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. This simplifies the process of delivering relevant content, eases site navigation, and so on. When you return to the web site, the information you previously provided can be retrieved, so you can easily use the site's features that you customized.

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. If you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of this or other web sites you visit.

If you choose to accept cookies, you also have the ability to later delete cookies that you have accepted. In Internet Explorer 7, you can delete cookies by selecting “Tools”, “Delete browsing history” and clicking the “Delete Cookies” button. If you choose to delete cookies, any settings and preferences controlled by those cookies, including advertising preferences, will be deleted and may need to be recreated.

Controlling Unsolicited E-mail ("Spam")
Microsoft is concerned about controlling unsolicited commercial e-mail, or "spam." Microsoft has a strict Anti-Spam Policy prohibiting the use of a Windows Live Hotmail or other Microsoft-provided e-mail account to send spam. Microsoft will not sell, lease or rent its e-mail subscriber lists to third parties. While Microsoft continues to actively review and implement new technology, such as expanded filtering features, there is no currently available technology that will totally prevent the sending and receiving of unsolicited e-mail. Using junk e-mail tools and being cautious about the sharing of your e-mail address while online will help reduce the amount of unsolicited e-mail you receive.

Changes to this Privacy Statement
We may occasionally update this privacy statement. When we do, we will also revise the "last updated" date at the top of the privacy statement. For material changes to this privacy statement, we will notify you either by placing a prominent notice on the home page of our web site (http://cmt.research.microsoft.com/cmt) or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to periodically review this privacy statement to stay informed about how we are helping to protect the personal information we collect. Your continued use of the service constitutes your agreement to this privacy statement and any updates.

Contact Information
Microsoft welcomes your comments regarding this privacy statement. If you believe that Microsoft has not adhered to this privacy statement, please contact us by e-mail at cmt@microsoft.com and we will use commercially reasonable efforts to promptly determine and remedy the problem.