Privacy Statement
Privacy Statement
This Privacy Statement applies to personal data collected, used, and stored by The Next Web B.V. having its registered office at Singel 542 1017 AZ Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and registered with the Chamber of Commerce under number 63750120 and its affiliated companies, hereinafter “TNW”.
TNW takes your privacy seriously. We do everything we can to convey the information on our Platform with the greatest possible accuracy. This Privacy Statement explains the types of personal data we collect from and about you, as a user of TNW’s services (hereinafter the “Services”), and how we use, disclose and protect that data as well as your ability to control certain uses of it.
TNW Services
This Privacy Statement is applicable to users of the Services consisting of:
- TNW online and in-person Events, such as the yearly flagship tech event in Amsterdam.
- The Event website (https://thenextweb.com/confere...) and any relating subdomains
- TNW social media channels/pages and blogs on for example Instagram and Twitter.
- TNW Platform (https://thenextweb.com) and any related subdomains
- TNW Spaces that offers curated spaces for fast growing tech startups and talent.
- TNW Accounts that you create when you for example attend the flagship tech event.
- TNW & Event communication with news regarding TNW or events organized by TNW.
What is personal data?
Personal data means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. This includes, for example, your name, telephone number, address, and email address.
What personal data do we collect?
We collect personal data about you from a variety of sources, such as:
Information we collect directly from you
This is the personal data you provide us when using our Services. For example when you sign up to receive our newsletter, participate in a referral program, register to attend an Event or when you create an account. This type of information may include your name, email address, user name, telephone number, date of birth, user-generated content, post and other content you submit to our Services, and any other information you provide voluntarily to us.
When you create a TNW Account, we may use device IDs, cookies, and other signals to associate accounts and/or devices with you.
Information we collect from your use of our Platform
We may use cookies and similar technologies to collect information when you visit our Platform, use our online services and interact with our online advertisements. This type of information may include your type of browser or device, details of the web pages you have viewed, links you clicked on, your IP address, sites clicked on before coming to our websites, and any other information you choose to share. For more information on cookies and how to manage them, please see our Cookie Statement.
Upon your request, we may use information from a social sign-on using your Google or LinkedIn credentials to create an account or log on. This type of information includes your first name, last name, e-mail address and profile image.
Information we collect from attendees
TNW provides attendees with a third party networking application for the purpose of making connections with other attendees. For example, the profile information provided by you to TNW, such as your name, email address and company name, will be accessible to other attendees of an Event, subject to your settings in the third party networking application.
The QR code scanning functionality on the Event badge is activated by default. You can provide your profile information to other attendees and partners by allowing them to scan the QR code on your Event badge at the Event and/or by clicking “connect” or accepting the connection request on the third party networking application with another attendee or partner. If this occurs you may consent to the sharing of your contact information with an attendee or partner. Consent may be withdrawn at any time. For further information please see the privacy policy of our partners.
Information we collect from other sources
We may collect information from other sources if you have given permission for that information to be shared. For example information from your social media accounts, public databases and marketing companies. This type of information may include your name, postal address, telephone number, email address, household information, consumer and market research data, purchase behaviour and preferences, and information about your lifestyle such as your hobbies and interests. The aforementioned processing of personal data may also be based on legitimate interests of TNW.
For which purposes do we use your personal data?
We will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
- Where we need to meet our contractual obligations and provide you with the required Service or information.
- Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party). We take due care to balance our interest against your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms.
- Where we need to comply with a legal obligation. For example, we process and retain customer invoice information to comply with financial regulations.
- Where you have consented to the processing which consent may be withdrawn at any time. For example when you use the unsubscribe link in a marketing email to unsubscribe from receiving mailings from TNW. The withdrawal of consent shall not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.
The following purposes are examples of how we may use the personal data we collect:
- Provide your name, job title, company name and other related information provided at registration to third party networking applications, facilitate information sharing with other attendees and partners depending on your settings (private, public or connections only) and provide you with relevant connections and content during the Event;
- Determine the popularity of certain sessions and content during an Event;
- Provide you with Services that you request from us;
- Communicate regularly with you to inform you about service updates, content, special offers, and advertisements that may be of interest to you;
- Contact you if this is required to perform our Services;
- Inform you about changes in our Services and our Platform;
- Send you an invoice for our Services;
- Resolve consumer issues and issues with our Services;
- Improve your customer experience on our websites and Platform;
- Do research and analysis to maintain, protect, develop and improve our networks and Services;
- Deliver customized content or advertising such as personalised offers for products and services that may be of interest to you;
- Connect you with other attendees and TNW’s partners during the Event; Participate in our online communities, including our social media channel/pages and blogs;
- Store your preferences for future interactions and communications from us;
- Create external marketing & analytics reports;
- Market our Services and use and distribute footage and photographs in order to highlight your participation in our Services and for other legitimate business purposes;
- Prevent illegal activities, suspected fraud and potential threats to our network; and
- Analyse the characteristics of our customers at an aggregated level and customer utilization of our Services in order to understand customer and market needs, to improve our existing Services, to design new Services, and for business development.
- Connect data regarding usage behaviour with data from our Events for the purpose of personalization and analysis (for example, to suggest talks to you based on your reading interests).
Will we share your personal data with other parties?
We may disclose your personal data to third parties if needed to provide the Services, which third parties will process your personal data in conformance with this Privacy Statement.
We may also disclose your personal data:
- To our affiliates or subsidiaries which may involve the processing of personal data by one entity on behalf of another.
- We may also disclose your information to comply with applicable laws, court orders or other valid legal processes, and to enforce or apply our terms and agreements, or any of our other rights.
- We have contracts in place with suppliers who process data to provide these Services and they can only use your personal data under our instruction.
- When we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, protect your safety, or the safety of others.
- If we sell a business or part of a business to another company then the transfer of ownership could include the transfer of your personal data directly related to that business to the purchasing company. We would require the buyer to treat your personal information in accordance with applicable privacy laws and regulations.
- To any third party in order to fulfil the agreement between you and TNW, such as the networking application Grip (TOS, Privacy Policy for TNW Events related services), or Hubspot and PostHog for managing emails, and connecting usage behavior with accounts data.
- To any other third party (for example speakers, sponsoring companies, and other attendees at the Event).
- We also share aggregated, non-identifiable information with third parties. Before sharing this information, we ensure that it cannot identify you as an individual. For example, we regularly release information about the size and growth of our audiences.
We operate a global business, so your personal information may be stored and processed outside the Netherland and the European Economic Area (EEA). Some of the non-EEA countries are recognized by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of data protection according to EEA Standards. For transfer from the EEA to countries not considered adequate by the European Commission, TNW has in place safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses. To request a copy of the clauses, please contact us.
Special information for parents
We understand the importance of protecting children’s privacy and do not intend for our Platform to be used by anyone under the age of 16. If you are under 16 years old and you wish to use our Platform in any way which requires you to submit your personal data, please get your parent or legal guardian to do so on your behalf. If you are a parent or legal guardian and believe we may have collected personal data about a child, please contact us as described in this Privacy Statement.
Marketing communications
Where you give us permission to receive marketing communications from us, we will use your personal information for outreach and marketing, such as to send you information about our future Events. If you do not wish to receive these communications any longer, you can use the unsubscribe link in every newsletter or contact us.
How do we protect the personal data?
The collection, use and disclosure of personal data collected through the Platform is safeguarded by technological and organisational security measures with the objective to protect the personal data against loss, use and unauthorised or accidental access and alteration. These measures are continually improved in line with technological developments.
In particular: (i) we encrypt many of our Services using SSL (ii) we review our information collection, storage and processing practices, from time to time to guard our systems against unauthorized access, and (iii) we restrict access to personal information to our employees and third parties we work with on a need-to-know basis, who are subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations and may be disciplined or terminated if they fail to meet these obligations.
We will not retain your personal data longer than necessary for the purposes mentioned above. If you use our Services we will retain your data for a period of two (2) years, unless there is a legal obligation to retain your data for a longer period of time. After your personal data is no longer necessary, it will be anonymised, pseudomized or deleted.
Your Privacy rights
You are entitled to know whether we hold personal data about you and, if we do, to have a copy of that information. Furthermore, you have the right to data restriction and you can request us to correct, update or delete your personal data in our records and/or inform us about any misuse of your personal data. To the extent required under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have the right to data portability.
You can exercise these rights be sending an email to privacy@thenextweb.com
Links to other websites
Our Platform may contain links and embedded scripts to other websites. Please note that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of third party websites. This Privacy Statement applies solely to personal data collected, used and restored in connection with the use of our Platform.
Changes of the Privacy Statement
This Privacy Statement may be changed from time to time. If we make any substantial changes to this Privacy Statement and the way we use your personal data, we will provide appropriate notice to you. Please check our Privacy Statement frequently to stay informed about how we use your personal data.
The new Privacy Statement will be effective immediately upon posting. By continuing to access our websites or to make use of Services, you agree to be bound by the revised Privacy Statement.
This Privacy Statement was last updated on 11 July 2023.
How can you contact us?
If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Statement or your privacy, you can contact us at: privacy@thenextweb.com
The Next Web B.V.
Singel 542
1017 AZ Amsterdam
If you have any complaints about our Privacy Statement or the way TNW processes your personal data, you can submit a complaint with the competent Data Protection Authority. In the Netherlands this is the Dutch Data Protection Authority. More information can be found on their website: https://autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl/.