Privacy Policy
Sapphire Ventures, LLC (“Sapphire Ventures”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) values your privacy and created this privacy notice (“Notice”) to demonstrate our firm commitment to privacy. Sapphire Ventures invests in growth-stage technology companies and early-stage venture funds and offers a platform for business development. This Notice describes how we collect, use, and disclose personal information that we obtain about users of our website www.sapphireventures.com and related services.
How We Use Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies
Information We Collect
We collect information about you directly from you, from third parties, and automatically through your use of our Services. We may combine the information we collect from these various sources.
Registration Information. We collect information (including personal information) about you directly from you. For example, we collect information from you when you subscribe to our newsletter or register for events, including your name, email address and other contact details.
Communications. When you email, call us or otherwise communicate with us – either through our general contact details or directly with our staff – and in our other communications with you, we keep track of these interactions, which helps us to respond accordingly and better understand and improve how we engage with our network.
Your Content. When you submit comments and other content, for example in our blogs, we maintain a copy of this content, as well as information about when you posted the content. We also collect and process information about your use of our services, for example, information you volunteer to us about you and your interests when you participate in our online surveys or discussion groups.
Usage and Device Information. We automatically collect information about your use of our Services through cookies, log files, web beacons and other methods, including log files, IP address, device identifiers, location information, advertising ID, location info, browser type, device type, domain name, the website that led you to our Services, the website to which you go after leaving our Services, the dates and times you access our Services, and the links you click and your other activities within the Services.
How We Use Information
We may use your information, including personal information for the following purposes:
Improving Our Website. to provide and maintain information on our website; to improve our website experience; to develop new features or products for you; to authenticate users; to perform technical operations, such as updating software; to respond to your inquiries or communicate with you about your requests, and for other business and support purposes.
Personalizing Content. we may use the information we collect about you to personalize the content we display to you, improve the reach of our marketing and advertising and to personalize other marketing and promotional content in order to help Sapphire Ventures deliver a consistent and personalized experience.
Marketing and Communications. to communicate with you about our firm, including to contact you by email, phone, or direct mail about events, updates, news and newsletters, promotions, and other information we think may interest you; and for other informational, marketing, or promotional purposes. We also use information related to our interactions with you to ensure that we respond accordingly and to better understand and improve how we engage with you and others in our network. Please see the “Your Choices” section for more information about how to change your communications preferences.
Research and Analytics. to monitor, analyze and understand usage and activity trends, to conduct analytics, and for other research, analytical, and statistical purposes.
Protecting Rights and Interests. to protect the safety, rights, property, or security of Sapphire Ventures, our services, any third party, or the general public; to detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues; to prevent or stop activity that we consider to be, or to pose a risk of being, an illegal, unethical, or legally actionable activity; to use as evidence in litigation; and to enforce this Notice or our Terms of Use.
Legal Compliance. to comply with applicable legal or regulatory obligations, including as part of a judicial proceeding; to respond to a subpoena, warrant, court order, or other legal processes; or as part of an investigation or request, whether formal or informal, from law enforcement or a governmental authority.
How We Disclose Information
We do not sell or rent your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes. We may disclose your information, including personal information as described to you at the time of collection or disclosure or as follows:
Affiliates. we may share your personal information within the Sapphire Ventures Group of companies.
Service Providers. we may disclose your information to our vendors, service providers, agents, or others who perform functions on our behalf. For example, we may disclose your information to third-party service providers – for example, those that provide data storage services or host our customer relationship management and other business systems and others.
Business Transfers. we may disclose your information to another entity in connection with an acquisition or merger, sale or transfer of a business unit or assets, bankruptcy proceeding, or as part of any other similar business transfer, including during negotiations related to such transactions.
Protecting Rights and Interests. we may disclose your information to protect the safety, rights, property, or security of Sapphire Ventures, our services, any third party, or the general public; to detect, prevent, or otherwise address fraud, security, or technical issues; to prevent or stop activity which Sapphire Ventures, in its sole discretion, may consider to be, or to pose a risk of being, an illegal, unethical, or legally actionable activity; to use as evidence in litigation; and to enforce this Notice or our Terms of Use.
Legal Compliance. we may disclose your information to comply with applicable legal or regulatory obligations, including as part of a judicial proceeding; in response to a subpoena, warrant, court order, or other legal processes; or as part of an investigation or request, whether formal or informal, from law enforcement or a government official.
Aggregate and De-Identified Information. we may disclose aggregate, anonymous, or de-identified information about users for marketing, advertising, research, compliance, or other purposes.
Cookies and Other Tracking Mechanisms
We and our service providers may use cookies, pixels, javascript, and other tracking mechanisms to track information about your use of our website and to deliver personalized content. We or our service providers may combine this information with other information, including personal information, we collect about you.
Cookies. Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer’s hard drive through your web browser for record-keeping purposes. Some cookies allow us to make it easier for you to navigate our website, while others are used to enable a faster log-in process or to allow us to track your activities while using our website. Most browsers automatically accept cookies but allow you to control cookies through their settings if you prefer to block cookies for the future. The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your computer from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. However, if you limit the ability of websites to set cookies, we may not be able to provide you with the full user experience and you may not be able to save customized settings, such as login information.
Clear GIFs, pixel tags and other technologies. Clear GIFs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on your computer’s hard drive, clear GIFs are embedded invisibly on web pages. We may use clear GIFs (also referred to as web beacons, web bugs or pixel tags), in connection with our Services to, among other things, track the activities users of our Services, help us manage content, and compile statistics about usage of our Services. We and our third-party service providers also use clear GIFs in HTML emails to our customers, to help us track email response rates, identify when our emails are viewed, and track whether our emails are forwarded.
Do-Not-Track Signals. Our Site does not currently respond to do-not-track signals. For more information about do-not-track signals, please click here. You may, however, disable certain tracking as discussed in above (e.g., by disabling cookies).
Third-Party Analytics
We may use third-party analytics companies, for example, Google Analytics, to evaluate the use of our services. We use these tools to help us understand the use of, and to improve, our services, performance, ad campaigns, and user experiences. These entities may use cookies and other tracking technologies, such as web beacons or local storage objects (LSOs), to perform their services.
Third-Party Ad Networks
We work with third-party ad networks, ad exchanges, channel partners, measurement services and others (“third party ad companies”) – including Google Ads/DoubleClick (more info and opt-out choices here) – to display more relevant advertising on our Services, and to manage our advertising on third-party sites, mobile apps and online services. In order to display more relevant ads on our behalf and others, we and these third-party ad companies may use cookies, pixels tags, and other tools to collect browsing and activity information on our Services, on third-party sites and across different devices, which may be linked with certain offline data they may also collect IP address, device ID, cookie and advertising IDs, and other identifiers, general location information, and, with your consent, your device’s geolocation information. These third party ad companies may use this information to provide you more relevant ads and content and to evaluate the success of such ads and content. As a result, our ads may be displayed to you on a search results page or on third-party sites.
More information about targeted advertising, and how to opt-out of receiving targeted ads from many third-party ad networks (including Google), more information is available to U.S. users through at www.aboutads.info/choices (Digital Advertising Alliance).
Opting out of participating ad networks does not opt you out of being served to advertise. You may continue to receive generic or “contextual” ads on our Services. You may also continue to receive targeted ads on other websites, from companies that do not participate in the above programs. Please note, that many opt-out mechanisms are cookie based; so, if you delete cookies, block cookies or use another device, your opt-out will no longer be effective.
Third-Party Sites and Widgets
This site may contain links to other websites with privacy practices that may differ from ours. Sapphire Ventures is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of other websites or any information you submit to a third-party website outside the Sapphire Ventures Group of companies. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy policy of any website you visit.
Our Sites also may include social media features and widgets (collectively “Widgets”), such as a “share this” or “like” button or other interactive mini-programs that run on our Services. Widgets can be used to provide you specific services from other companies (e.g., displaying the news, opinions, etc.). These third-party sites may collect your IP address and certain information through the Widgets. Cookies may also be set by the Widgets to enable them to function properly. Widgets displayed on our Sites are hosted by the relevant third party and are subject to the privacy policies of the third-party company providing the Widget, and not this Notice.
International Transfers of Personal Data
Sapphire Ventures is headquartered in the US. The personal data that we collect from you may be transferred to, accessed or stored in and subject to requests from law enforcement in the United States, and other jurisdictions in which we (or our service providers) operate. Some of these jurisdictions, including the United States, may not provide equivalent levels of data protection as your home jurisdiction. We will take steps to ensure that your personal information receives an adequate level of protection in the jurisdictions in which we process it, including through appropriate written data processing terms and/or data transfer agreements where required.
Security
Sapphire Ventures is committed to protecting your personal information. Sapphire Ventures has implemented security measures to help protect your personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure. However, please note that no transmission over the Internet is 100% safe.
Retention
Sapphire Ventures will generally not retain your personal information longer than is necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected or as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, maintain appropriate business records and to enforce our agreements. We may retain personal data for longer where required by our regulatory obligations, professional indemnity obligations or where we believe it is necessary to establish, defend or protect our legal rights and interests or those of others.
Children
Our Services are not targeted to children under thirteen (13) years of age and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we discover that a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, we will promptly delete such personal information from our systems.
Access and Choices
Access, Amend and Correct. You may access and update much of your personal information by emailing us at [email protected], to request the correction of any inaccurate information you have submitted to us, to request deletion of or object to the processing of your personal information. Please note that we may retain certain information about you as required by law or as permitted by law for legitimate business purposes. For example, if you request that we delete your information but we believe that you have violated our Terms of Use we may retain information about you in order to attempt to resolve the issue before deleting it. We may also maintain copies of certain information as a part of our backup and archiving procedures.
Marketing Choices. You may choose not to receive any more emails at any time by following the opt-out instructions contained in our email. Please note that it may take up to ten (10) business days for us to process opt-out requests. If you opt out of receiving emails about recommendations or other information we think may interest you, we may still send you emails about your account or any requests you have made with us.
Changes to this Notice
This Notice is current as of the Effective Date set forth above. We may change this Notice from time to time, so please be sure to check back periodically. We will post any changes to this Notice on our website, and will take steps to notify website users of material changes, such as via email or a prominent notice on the website.
Contact Us
If you have any concerns or questions about this Notice or how we handle your personal information, please contact us at [email protected].