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Last update: 2022, January 14^th

You should read this privacy policy carefully to ensure that you are fully informed about what personal data we hold about you and how we use it.

FRS respects your privacy and ensures that all personal data is processed in accordance with the applicable laws and regulations on data privacy, notably the general data protection regulation 2016/679 (hereinafter “GDPR”). This privacy policy (hereinafter the “policy”) applies to the collection and use of your personal data (as defined below) by FRS collected through a platform when you access and use the services.

Unless otherwise defined in this policy, the terms used in this policy have the same meaning as in our terms of use. In this context, “personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (a “data subject”); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.

For the purposes of this policy, as a data subject and user of the platform and services, you shall be hereinafter referred to as ‘’you’’.

Fondation pour la recherche stratégique (or “FRS”) is a French “association déclarée, reconnue d’utilité publique” registered in the French register of associations under the number 394.095.533, acts as a data controller in the processing of your personal data (i.e. it determines the purposes and means of the processing). FRS shall hereinafter be referred to as ‘’we’’ or “our” or ”us”.

1.      What are our commitments?

We process all your personal data in accordance with the terms of this policy and in compliance with applicable laws and regulations. In particular, we are committed to ensuring that the personal data we collect is:

• processed in a fair, lawful, and transparent manner,
• used in accordance with the purposes for which it was collected,
• stored in such a way as to ensure its security and confidentiality,
• updated as regularly as possible. 

2.      What personal data do we collect?

We collect and process the following categories of data when you use the platform or the services:

• IP and MAC addresses, mobile device's identifier for advertising (IDFA);
• the types of browser you are using, and your country;
• identification data: such as your name, your surname, e-mail address, position, institute, etc.;
• profile data: profile image, short bio, city, country, thematic expertise, geographic expertise, fields of specialization, cv, etc.;
• feeds data: thematic interests, regional interests, events & resources;
• institute data: institute, country, address, postal code, city, phone, etc.
• the number of clicks on a page or feature, pages viewed and the order of those pages, the amount of time spent on particular pages or parts of pages;
• referring and exit pages and URLs;
• information collected for performance purposes (e.g. average load, render time of pages, etc.).

We also use cookies, for any further information concerning the processing or personal data with cookies, please refer to the cookies policy.

3.      How do we use your personal data?

No personal data is collected without your knowledge, nor is it processed for purposes of which you have not been informed. We process your personal data in order to:

• provide and improve our services, and give you access to the platform;
• ensure network and information security, and prevent, detect, process and investigate malfunctions, incidents, fraudulent or other illegal activities, or mitigate the risk of occurrence of the aforementioned events;
• create statistics on access channels and the use of our service;
• enforce obligations owed to us, and contractual terms and conditions; and
• ensure relationship and follow-up you may need, and send you newsletters and other information relating to the EU non-proliferation and disarmament consortium.

Generally speaking, we may, pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR use your data based on our legitimate interests. The data processed is very basic data, and does not contain directly identifiable information about you. We have a legitimate interest in being able to provide a functioning, reliable and accessible website and resolve your server-request in an appropriate manner.

However, during the registration process or when updating your profile, you can choose to provide information about you that can be used to identify or contact you, including for example, a profile picture, your Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google account handle or your city of residence. You may also be invited or required to provide information about you, including, for example, demographic information, such as occupation, and research vita, education, authorship of articles, academic or research expertise or interests, conferences you have attended, groups of which you are a member, information regarding your professional and academic career, academic degree, your previous roles and jobs, and current activities and interests. Our legal basis for this processing this data is Art. 6 (1)(b) GDPR.

Also, based on the personal data you provide, we process contact and bibliographical data, information pertaining to your work in order to provide our recommendation features. When you choose to benefit from a service or offer presented by FRS on behalf of a third party, you may share personal data with FRS to enable us to pass it on to the third party. Our legal basis for this processing is Art. 6 (1)(a) or (f) GDPR. We have a legitimate interest in being able to receive, process, and respond to enquiries. Where you have provided your prior consent to receiving sponsored emails, we will use your email address to send you such emails. Where legally allowed, we will also use your email address to send you sponsored emails without your prior consent. In any case, you can opt out from receiving sponsored emails at any time by clicking the "unsubscribe" link within an email.

Also, pursuant to Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR we may use your data to comply with legal obligations, e.g. to observe retention periods required by trade or tax law or to comply with obligations to disclose data based on a legally binding court decision or official order.

We do not engage in automated individual decision-making, including profiling (according to Art. 22 (1) and (4) GDPR).

4.      Do we share your personal data?

FRS does not sell any of your personal data. As part of our processing activities, we might communicate your personal data to the following categories of recipients:

• our suppliers, service providers, agents and contractors assisting us in meeting the purposes identified herein (e.g. IT service providers hosting your personal data on our behalf, our legal counsels, etc.); and
• competent courts, public authorities, government bodies and law enforcement forces (in particular, where we must respond to legal or regulatory requests). in this case, we undertake, as far as possible, to notify you (unless we are not authorized to do so in view of any legal, regulatory or judicial obligations which may be incumbent on us).

We might also offer features that provide information about instances where you or your publicly available work on our services are mentioned on third-party websites, platforms, or services. For example, when your work is mentioned on social media or other external platforms/websites/blogs, we might gather these mentions, potentially including surrounding context, and enrich insights about your work with them.

In any event, and disregarding the recipient at stake, we communicate your personal data on a strict need-to-know basis and only to the extent necessary for meeting the processing purposes identified in this policy. We always ensure that appropriate technical and organizational security measures have been taken.

5.      Do we transfer your personal data outside the EEA?

The personal data that FRS collects from you and that you provide to FRS is processed in France and stored on servers in France.

Some of the third parties with whom your personal data will be shared are located outside of the European Economic Area (EEA), in countries whose data protection laws may not be as extensive as those which apply to us. If we transfer your personal data to countries outside of the EEA or which do not offer adequate and similar protection, we will ensure that we do this in accordance with applicable data protection regulations (for example, by putting in place an appropriate data transfer instrument such as the European Standard Contractual Clauses).

6.      How do we keep your personal data secure?

We are committed to ensuring the security of your personal data. To keep your personal data secure, we have implemented technical and organizational measures designed to protect your personal data against the risk of accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of, or access to your personal data.

All of our pages are secured using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) technology, which encrypts data transmitted between our servers and your end devices. We also apply other suitable technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data.

We review such measures on a regular basis to check that they remain adequate and relevant to secure your personal data. When we engage a third party (including our service providers) to collect or otherwise process personal data on our behalf, the third party will be selected carefully and required to use appropriate security measures to protect the confidentiality and security of personal data.

7.      For how long will your personal data be retained?

For members, we generally store their personal data as long as their account is active. We will retain personal data from closed or inactive accounts to the extent and as long as it is necessary and relevant for our operations or to comply with law, prevent fraud, collect any fees owed, resolve disputes, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, or take other actions otherwise permitted by law. In general, personal data from closed or inactive accounts will be deleted or anonymized from our system backups one year after the account is closed or deactivated.

In all other cases, we delete your personal data with the exception of such data that we are required to retain for the purpose of contractual or statutory (e.g., taxation or commercial law) retention periods. In particular, we keep payment and invoice related information or support inquiries to the extent required by trade and tax law for the statutory retention periods (ten years).

8.      What are your rights in relation to your personal data?

As a data subject, you benefit from various rights in accordance with the applicable data protection legislation, and notably the GDPR, as follows:

• right to request access to your personal data as well as to request rectification or erasure thereof (whenever possible) in accordance with Art. 15 and 16 GDPR;
• right to obtain deletion of your personal data stored with us in accordance with Art. 17 GDPR, subject to legal or contractual retention periods or other legal obligations or rights which must be observed
• right to restrict the processing carried out with your personal data or to object to such processing based on legitime interest in accordance with Art. 18 GDPR;
• right to portability of your personal data in accordance with Art. 20 GDPR; you will then be provided with a copy of your personal data;
• right to specify guidelines on the use of your personal data after your death;
• right to object to all types of processing that are based on Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interests), based on grounds relating to your particular situation, Art. 21(1) GDPR. To the extent we process your personal data pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR for direct marketing purposes, you can object to such processing at any time without giving a particular reason.
• right to lodge a complaint with your competent supervisory authority. Your competent authority is the authority at your usual place of residence or the authority competent for us.

You can exercise your rights by contacting us with the contact details specified in section 11. In this regard, your request to exercise your rights must include your name, first name and email address. You should also specify the address to which the reply should be sent.

We will provide you with a response within one (1) month upon receipt of your request, unless there are particular circumstances. As part of our response to your request, you may be asked to provide further information to confirm your identity or to facilitate locating the personal data associated to your request.

In any event, please note that you are entitled to lodge a complaint with the French data protection authority (CNIL) in the event you consider that the processing activities We carry out with your personal data are unlawful.

10. Updates to the policy

We will update this policy from time to time, notably in response to new legal, technical or business developments. When We make any material change to this policy, we will take appropriate measures to inform you accordingly, for example by email or by posting a prominent notice on platform prior to the changes become effective. We will then update the effective date at the top of the privacy policy.

11. How can you contact us?

Should You have any questions or requests regarding the processing activities we carry out with your personal data under this policy, including the exercise of your rights detailed above, please feel free to contact us with the contact details below:

• Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique, 55 rue Raspail, Levallois-Perret 92300 France
• contact@frstrategie.org

Last update: 2022, January 14^th

This platform was developed by the Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique (hereinafter “FRS”, “we” or “us”) to enable collaboration, sharing of content and communication among scientists, researchers, authors, institutions and other professionals members of the EU non-proliferation and disarmament consortium (hereinafter the “user”, “member” or “you”).

 We provide you with services a platform which are governed by these terms of use, as an information society service in the meaning of article 1(b) of directive EU 2015/1535. The services provided on the platform include, but are not limited to, content sharing, a calendar of events, a directory of members, a research module, system of reminders and transmission of messages to members, etc. You can share your professional identities and credentials, display your academic publications, engage and collaborate with networks, exchange knowledge and professional insights, post and view relevant content, and discover business and career opportunities.

1.      Acceptance of the terms of use

Any access, view, and use of the services or the platform, is subject to compliance with all of these terms of use. By ticking the “I have read and accept the terms of use” box, the user acknowledges that he has read and understood them and is confirming its agreement to be bound by the current version of these terms of use. If you do not agree to be bound by these terms, you are not authorized to access to, view or use the services or the platform.

 The FRS reserves the right to add, modify or remove and more generally update at any time, all or part of these terms of use. Any material change of these terms of use shall be notified to the user by e-mail. The user shall read the new version of the terms of use and acknowledges that he has read and understood them and is confirming its agreement to be bound by the new version of the terms of use by continuing to use of the platform. The last version of the terms of use is specified hereinabove for your reference.

 You access to the Platform may be suspended or revoked by FRS at any time for failure to abide by these terms of use. In the event of a violation of any provision of these terms of use or more generally in the event of any violation of any laws and regulations by you, FRS reserves the right to take any appropriate measure including:

• suspending access to the services and the platform;
• terminating the contractual relationship with you;
• deleting any content put on line on the platform;
• informing any authority concerned;
• initiating any legal action.

2.      Registration

The services may only be accessed and viewed only by the users registered on the platform in accordance with these terms of use.

 The user of the platform may be a natural or legal person provided that he/she is member of the EU non-proliferation and disarmament consortium.

 The user shall provide his/her full identity on the platform (title, first name, last name, position, institute, profile, feeds, etc.), a valid email address as well as any mandatory information that is necessary for the registration of the online account (hereinafter the “account”).  

 Any information must be updated as and when needed by you in order for the FRS to send you notices or any other information to your e-mail address or through your account.

Each user shall have a password. The password is personal and cannot be shared with other users. The user is solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of its password and for all activities that occur under its username and password. You agree to report immediately to the FRS if you become aware of or have reason to believe that there is any unauthorized use of your account or any other breach of security to the contact address provided on the platform.

 The FRS is in no way liable for any claims related to the use or misuse of your username and password due to the activities of any third party outside of our control or due to your failure to maintain their confidentiality and security.

 In the context of the provision the services and the platform, some of your personal data may be collected and processed. For any further information concerning the processing of personal data, please refer to the privacy policy.

3.      Warranty

The services and platform have been carefully created and checked at best of knowledge. However, all warranties, terms and conditions of satisfactory quality and fitness for purpose are excluded to the fullest permitted by law.

 The Services and the platform are provided on an "as is", and "as available" basis and without any further warranties of any kind. FRS does not warrant that the platform or the services will meet your expectations and needs. FRS makes no warranties, representations or undertakings whatsoever with respect to the platform and the services.

The services or the platform may be updated or corrected by FRS in order to carry out checks, in particular, to verify the accessibility, security, functioning of the platform or the services. Therefore, FRS reserves the right to interrupt access to the platform or the services momentarily. Similarly, FRS may not be held responsible for momentary difficulties or impossibilities in accessing the platform or the services, the origin of which are external to it, are due to force majeure, or disruptions in telecommunications network.

You are informed and accept that the implementation of the services requires You to be connected to the Internet and that the quality of the platform and services depends directly on this connection, for which you are solely responsible.

Since you will use, access and operate this platform via third party telecommunications networks, you acknowledge that FRS cannot guarantee the availability at all times of the platform or the services, nor the fact that the platform and the services will be uninterrupted or error free. Similarly, it cannot guarantee that the transmission of any information over such telecommunications networks will be secure at all times.

4.      Limitation of liability

FRS is only bound by an obligation of means with regard to its commitments under the terms of use.

 You acknowledge that FRS shall be liable only in cases of direct damages, or claims arising due to the gross negligence or willful misconduct of FRS or physical injuries, as the case may be. FRS shall not be liable to you for any failure in the delivery of the services or the platform due to a cause beyond FRS reasonable control, a third party’s default or your failure to comply with any of your obligations. In any case, FRS’s liability cannot exceed 1000 euros.

 Additionally, FRS shall not be liable for any indirect damages such as interruption of telecommunication networks or power outage, or for any claim or demand of any nature or kind arising out of, or in connection with, these terms of use or the performance or breach thereof. FRS shall not be liable for any loss, damage, or claim arising from any act or omission occurring through any unauthorized use of the services or the platform.

 FRS shall not be liable for damages, delay, non-performance resulting from an event of force majeure as defined by article 1218 of the French civil code and as specified from time to time by the case law of the French courts. The obligations of the party (you or FRS) that is the victim of the force majeure event will, initially, be suspended without it incurring any liability. The party invoking it undertakes to notify the other, by any means at its disposal and as soon as possible. It shall indicate the event constituting the force majeure, its foreseeable duration as well as the obligations which it considers it can no longer ensure the execution. It shall also indicate the means it intends to use to limit the consequences of the force majeure. If the force majeure event prevents the victim party from performing an essential obligation under the terms of use for more than 1 month, the contractual relationship may be automatically terminated by the other party. No compensation may be claimed by either party.

5.      Content

The platform or the services may contain views, opinion, statements and recommendations of various information, FRS does not represent of endorse the accuracy, correctness or reliability of any advice, opinion, statement, or other information displayed, uploaded or distributed through the platform or the services. Any link, photos, videos, texts or any content whatever provided by any user in the Services is not intended to be, nor should be construed as, an endorsement of any kind by us.

 Our services consist largely of information uploaded by or stored upon the request of members. FRS does not manually or automatically preview or review or filter such information. Therefore, FRS does not and cannot have current knowledge of possible infringements, inappropriate content, or violations of law caused by information that is uploaded by or stored upon the request of members. FRS is not liable for such information (digital millennium copyright act, 17 U.S.C. section 512; article 14 of directive 2000/31/EC). FRS will, upon obtaining knowledge about or becoming aware of such infringements, act expeditiously to remove or disable access to such information

 FRS sources bibliographical information from various publicly available sources. FRS does so to enrich the platform with information in order to promote scientific discourse by adding even more relevant information to the platform. To the extent that content collected from third-party sources, including personal data, is made available by FRS on the Services, FRS is unable to control the legitimacy or accuracy of such content.

 FRS is not liable for the content (texts, photos, videos, links, etc.) published on the platform by the users. FRS shall not be held liable for any inadequacy, insufficiency, inaccuracy, error or defect of any kind in the services, tools or data provided as part of the services or the platform. FRS shall not be liable for any damage suffered by the user or any third party resulting from the use of the services or platform.

 The user assumes all responsibility for the access and the use of the services or the platform. You are solely responsible for the information and content uploaded through the platform. You guarantee FRS that you have all the rights and authorizations necessary to provide such information and content.

 You undertake to provide only content that does not infringe public order, good morals, third-party’s rights (including without limitation any privacy rights, publicity rights, patent, copyrights, contract rights, or any other intellectual property or proprietary rights), legislative or regulatory provision and, more generally, is in no way likely to engage FRS’s civil or criminal liability. You also agree not to share the following; this list is not exhaustive:

• content which is obscene, indecent, shocking, defamatory, insulting, violent, racist, xenophobic or revisionist;
• content which infringes intellectual property rights;
• content damaging to the image of FRS or a third party;
•  content which is dishonest, misleading or proposes or promotes illegal, fraudulent or misleading activities;
• and, more generally, content likely to infringe the rights of third parties or be prejudicial to third parties, in whatever way and in whatever form.

6.      Intellectual property rights

 As a member, when you post full-text articles or supplementary materials on the platform, you do not transfer or assign copyright to us. Rather, you make the content available to the public through the platform. You retain the right to remove such content from the platform at any time, or to archive your content so it is available only to you and your co-author(s). You may also remove content from appearing on your profile page.

 Except as otherwise provided herein or in a separate agreement entered into between you and FRS, you acknowledge and agree that you have no right to modify, edit, copy, sell, disseminate, distribute, duplicate, lease, reproduce, make available to the public, create derivative works of, reverse engineer, alter, enhance or in any way exploit all or part of the platform or the services in any manner or medium. You shall not remove any copyright notice or author designation from any part of the services or the platform.

The platform, services, systems, software, structures, databases, logos, brands and contents of any nature (text, images, visuals, music, logos, brands, databases, etc.) operated by the FRS within the services or the platform are protected by all intellectual property rights or rights of database producers. Such rights shall remain the property of FRS or their owners. Any disassembling, decompilation, deciphering, extractions, reverse engineering, reutilisations, copies and, more generally, any acts of reproduction, representation, publication and use of any of these elements, in whole in part, without owners' authorization are strictly prohibited and may be the subject of judicial proceedings. You must abide by all copyright notices and restrictions contained on the services or the platform.

In any event, you undertake to use the platform and services in a way that complies with all laws, regulations applicable in your country and these terms of use. You must not use the platform and the services in a manner that constitutes an infringement of FRS rights or a third party’s rights or that has not been expressly authorized by FRS. You represent and warrant that you hold all necessary intellectual property rights on the data, content and files you use or share on the platform and will indemnify and hold FRS harmless against any claim, action or complaint of a third party in this respect.

7.      Applicable law and jurisdiction

The terms of use shall be governed by French law, except for its conflicts of laws principles and the CISG (United Nations convention on the international sale of goods). 

If the user is a consumer in the sense of article 6 of EU regulation 593/2008 and has their habitual residence outside of France, provisions which, in the absence of choice, would have been applicable and which cannot, by virtue of law, be derogated from by agreement, shall remain unaffected.

The courts of the Republic of France shall have sole jurisdiction over any disputes arising out of or in connection with these terms of use. This does not apply if the user is a consumer in the sense of article 17 of EU regulation 1215/2012 and is residing in a member State of the EU; in this case the international jurisdiction is governed by article 18 of EU regulation 1215/2012.

If the user (i) is a merchant, a legal person under public law, or special funds under public law, and is either a resident of France or resides outside of the European Union (EU), or (ii) is resident of another member State of the EU and is not a consumer in the sense of article 17 of EU regulation 1215/2012, or (iii) has its residence outside of the EU, the courts of Paris, France, shall have sole jurisdiction over any disputes arising out of or in connection with these terms of use.

8.      Miscellaneous

If any of these terms of use are determined to be illegal, invalid or otherwise unenforceable by reason of the laws of any state or country in which these terms of use are intended to be effective, then to the extent that any term is illegal, invalid or unenforceable, it shall be severed and deleted from these terms of use and the remaining terms of use shall survive and continue to be binding and enforceable.

The failure of FRS to exercise or enforce any right or provision of this terms of use shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

You may not assign any of your rights or obligations under these terms of use to any other person. We may assign our rights or obligations under these terms of use at any time and without your prior consent.

Except if you have entered into a separate agreement with FRS, these terms of use constitute the entire agreement between you and FRS with respect to your access and use of the services and the platform, superseding any prior agreements between you and FRS regarding your access and use of the services or the platform.