Privacy Policy

Last Updated: 05/25/2018

dotCMS takes your privacy seriously and is committed to protecting the privacy of our customers and site visitors. This privacy policy details why we collect your information, what information we collect, how we use it, and how long we store it. This policy also informs you how you can make requests related to this policy and any information we have collected about you.

For the underlying foundation of our privacy framework, view our Generally Accepted Privacy Principles.

Who We Are

When we refer to dotCMS, we include all of the following United States legal entities:

  • dotCMS Holdings, LLC
  • dotCMS Services LLC
  • dotCMS LLC

When and Why We Collect Information

When we collect it Why we collect it
When you request
our content or
marketing information
  • To ensure that you receive the requested content
  • To follow up on the effectiveness of the content for marketing purposes
When you request
a price quote for our
products or services
  • To identify appropriate products and services for your needs, so we can provide an accurate quote
  • To help answer your questions and direct you to appropriate content on our site
  • To follow up to ensure you have information needed to make a decision
When you contact us
  • To respond to your request
  • To follow up on the resolution
When you create an account
on our website
  • To implement security controls
  • To ensure the quality of submitted content
When you buy or use our
software or services
  • To enable us to deliver our services
  • To solicit feedback to help improve our software and services
  • To send you important operational information
  • For contractual purposes
  • To meet legal and regulatory requirements
When you enter a contractual
agreement with us
(such as a partner
or vendor agreement)
  • To fulfill our contractual obligations to you
  • To meet our legal and regulatory requirements
When required by law or otherwise necessary
  • To detect, prevent, or mitigate criminal or fraudulent activity

What Information We Collect

  • For most requests, we collect name, email, and country.
  • For requests where additional information is helpful or necessary to fulfill your request, we may collect company, job title, address, phone number, and specific information about your request.
  • We may collect other data you have voluntarily provided when contacting us, such as when using the contact or product download forms on our website.
  • We collect data that you provide via other online requests including but not limited to event attendance requests, support requests, and job applications.
  • We may collect anonymous information sent by your browser when you visit our websites, such as IP address, non-specific geolocation information derived from your IP address, operating system, device platform, and browser version. If you identify yourself by filling out a form, some behavioral data (such as what topics you have viewed on our site) may be connected to your personal information.
  • We host publicly accessible forums including a Codeshare Repository, User Forum, and Source code repository.
    • If you directly disclose any information through our public forums, this information is public and may be collected and used by others.
    • The dotCMS user forum is hosted on Google Groups, and the dotCMS source code repository is hosted on Github; any information you provide in these forums may be collected and used by these respective platforms.
    • For more information on how Google uses your information, please see the Google Privacy Site.
    • For more information on how Github uses your information, please see the Github Privacy Statement.

How We Use Information

  • If you have requested information about a product or service, or have participated in a marketing event, we may use your personal information to provide you supplemental information about the requested information or event, and to follow up on the effectiveness of the information or event.
  • If you explicitly have opted-in to receive marketing communications from us, we may use your contact information to send you marketing communications.
  • If you are a non-EU individual and have registered to access one of our content marketing assets or a webinar, we may use your contact information to send you marketing communications.
  • If you are a dotCMS customer or partner, we may use your information to send you updates and information about the products and services you use, and information about related products and services which may be of benefit to you. We may also contact you to request feedback about our products and services in the form of email, online, or phone surveys.

Information Tracking Technologies

We may use a number of technologies which collect, store, and process your information or information about your behavior when using our website.

  • Cookies: dotCMS uses cookies to identify unique users, remember how many times you've visited our website, and allow us to respond to your requests for information and use of other features on our site.
    • Cookies are generally not required for the operation of the website. However for certain functions of our website (such as pages that require a login), cookies are required for the website to work properly.
    • For more information on how we use cookies, please see our How We Use Cookies page.
  • Website Analytics: dotCMS uses Google Analytics to analyze site usage and performance, in order to evaluate the usage and popularity of our site and content, identify potential site issues, and maintain site availability.
    • Analytics data is processed and used in aggregate so that it does not reveal the personal information or behavior of specific individual users.
  • Personalization Features: The dotCMS product provides personalization features that may perform session-based recording of your content preferences, and dotCMS may use this feature to improve your experience with our site by presenting you with content that is related to your previous selections.
    • This information is pseudonymized to prevent it from being associated with your personal information, and is not stored or used by dotCMS once your browser session is closed.

What Information We Share

  • We never sell or rent your personal information to third parties.
  • If you have given us your explicit permission, we may share your personal information with select partners.
  • We may share information with vendors (processors and sub-processors) that act on our behalf, such as services we use to store and manage our data, process financial transactions, and provide communications services.
    • In all cases where your information is shared with a third party vendor, dotCMS explicitly requires them to acknowledge this privacy policy and ensure their adherence to it through a data processing agreement.
    • These vendors may be based in countries outside the European Union, including the United States.
  • dotCMS operations exist in multiple countries and regions. Information we collect may be transferred and stored in the United States, United Kingdom, or European Union. dotCMS employees, processors, or sub-processors may access the information in any of these locations from other countries.

How Long We Keep Information

We keep your information only for as long as it is needed to fulfill our commitments to you, or to adhere to legal, contractual, or regulatory requirements.

  • We keep the information on dotCMS customers and partners for the duration of our business relationship. In addition, certain information may be kept longer for both business and legal purposes; for example contracts will be kept for business and tax records even when no longer active.
  • If you have requested to receive marketing communications, we will keep your personal information for as long as you choose to receive communications from us. You may request to have us remove your information at any time.
  • If you have registered for an account to contribute to our Codeshare site, your personal information will be retained by dotCMS until you explicitly request for us to remove it.
  • If you have registered for an account to contribute to our User forum or Code repository, your personal information will be retained by the vendors that host those sites according to their own policies and guidelines, and any information you have provided to register with those sites is not accessible to or removable by dotCMS.
  • If you are a GDPR data subject and have submitted a valid request to exercise your right to be forgotten, we will delete your data within 30 days of the request.

Your Information Choices

  • No matter what your relationship with us is, you can choose to stop receiving marketing communications at any time (even if we have a business relationship with you as a customer or partner).
  • You can request a copy of your personal information and you can ask us to update any incorrect information.
  • You can ask to have your personal information removed, or in some cases request that we limit our processing of your personal information. Our ability to respond to these requests may be limited when we need to keep your information for contractual, legal, or regulatory reasons.
  • For residents of California, special privacy rights apply.

For information on how to opt-out of dotCMS marketing communications, please see How to Opt Out of dotCMS Marketing Communications, below.
For information on how to submit an information request, please see Contact Us, below.

Sites Hosted on dotCMS Cloud

  • dotCMS provides services hosting the sites and applications of our customers in the cloud. The sites and applications built by our customers may be used to collect personal information.
  • In cases where customer sites and applications collect and process information, the customer controls the collection and use of data, and dotCMS acts as a processor with no knowledge or control of the data collected or how it is processed.
  • If you would like information about any communication you received by, or how your information is used by a site or application hosted on the dotCMS cloud service, please contact the owner of the site or application, or the sender of the communication.
  • If you believe any of our customers has engaged in unsolicited sending of mass email (or SPAM) and that they are using dotCMS products or services to do so, please contact us at privacy@dotcms.com.

How to Contact Us

To request information about dotCMS privacy policies, details of information we keep on you, or removal of your personal information, please contact:

dotCMS LLC
3059 Grand Ave, Suite 300
Miami, FL USA 33133
email: privacy@dotcms.com

Additional Information About This Policy

Additional Detail on What Information We Collect

In addition to the information detailed above, this section describes in more specific detail what information we collect when you take certain actions when interacting with us and our web properties.

Information We Collect when you Browse Our Site

When you browse our site, we do not attempt to identify you and we have no way of identifying you unless you willingly identify yourself by explicitly providing us with your information. The following information is collected when you choose to supply it to us.

  • On our websites, we include a number of scripts from third-party vendors. These scripts may gather data for web statistics, they may be used for interest-based advertising on other services (such as Google, Facebook, or LinkedIn), and they may offer additional functionality to the web sites (such as chat).
  • The third-party websites and scripts may use cookies or local storage. Cookies and local storage can be used to identify a returning visitor. Cookies and local storage in themselves to not identify you as an individual but may be used to associate your information and browsing habits with your personal information; for example if you are using Facebook and then visit our website, Facebook may collect information about your visit to our site and associate it with your Facebook account.
Information Other Vendors May Collect on Our Behalf When You Browse Our Site
  • Olark: We use Olark to provide chat functionality on our website.
    • Any personal information you enter in while using the chat feature is stored by Olark and is transfered to us to enable us to respond to your request.
    • For more information on how Olark handles your information, please read the Olark Privacy Policy.
  • Hubspot: We use Hubspot to manage content requests, webinar registrations, and other information requests on our website, to collect and store consent choices, and to send consent-based email communications.
    • When you an information request via a form on our website, your information is sent to Hubspot and Hubspot may store one or more cookies on your computer to identify you.
    • For more information on how Hubspot handles your information, please read the Hubspot Privacy Policy.
Information Other Vendors May Collect Anonymously on Our Behalf When You Browse Our Site
  • Google Analytics: We use Google Analytics to analyze the performance of our websites and follow up on the effectiveness of our marketing efforts.
    • Google Analytics allow us to analyze data in aggregate; we do not collect or store any personal information in Google Analytics.
    • For more information on how Google handles your information, please read the Google Privacy Policy.

If you wish to opt-out of marketing communications from dotCMS, please see How to Opt-Out of Marketing Communications, below.

If you wish to opt-out of web tracking technologies which may deliver dotCMS advertising to you when you browse the web, please see How to Opt-Out of Web Tracking, below.

Information We Collect When You Submit a Form on Our Site

  • When you submit a form on our website, we collect the information that is listed in the form –  most often only your name, email address, and country or geographic region.
    • If you are based in a country within the European Union, you will also have the option to opt in to our marketing communications (the default is to not send you communications; you must explicitly request it).
    • If you are a non-EU individual, you will be included on our marketing communications by default if you sign up to receive any content on our site or to attend a webinar or demo.
  • By submitting a form on our website, you confirm that you have you have read and accept this privacy policy, and that you understand that data will be collected and processed in the manner and for the purposes outlined in this policy.
  • If you open or click a link in an email we have sent you in response to you filling out a form, including email newsletter, that information will be connected to your profile. We may do this to verify your email address, monitor the use of our products and services, or follow up on the usefulness of our products, services, or marketing.
  • If you use any of our forums, the information you enter will be stored for the purpose of publishing it to the discussion forum, and may be published on the dotCMS website and/or the appropriate vendors' website.

Information We Collect When You Participate at a dotCMS Event

  • When you register for an event, we may direct you to the website of our event registration vendor. In this case, the information you enter in the form is shared with us for managing and following up on the event.
  • Even if you sign up on an external website (such as that of our event management vendor, for example Eventbrite), your data will be processed by us for the purpose of managing the event and for following up on your participation. You may also have the option to opt in to our newsletter or other marketing communication.

Information We Collect When You Register with us at a Trade Show or Industry Event

  • If you meet us at a trade show or industry event, you may choose to provide your information for us to follow up with you, to participate in an on-site event, or to request product or marketing information from us. We will collect the information you provide to us from any materials you give us (such as a business card), verbally, or in a form we may provide for you.
  • When you register for some industry events, you may consent to sharing your personal information with event vendors when signing up for the event; in this case, we will collect the information about you which is provided by the event sponsors to us.

How to Opt Out of dotCMS Marketing Communications

  • If you no longer wish to receive marketing communications from us, you can unsubscribe by doing either of the following:
    • Click the Unsubscribe link which is included in all marketing emails we send.
    • Send an email to privacy@dotcms.com with your request, from the email account you wish to have removed.
    • Visit the Opt-Out Page on the dotCMS site to be removed from all marketing communications.
  • Important Note:
    • Opting out of marketing communications from us ensures that we will no longer send you any marketing communcations via email or postal mail.
    • However dotCMS does not control which ads are presented to you by other online services such as Google or Facebook; therefore even after opting out of dotCMS marketing communications, you may still see ads from us presented to you by other vendors.
      • Depending on how other vendors identify you and your preferences, you may be able to remove dotCMS ads presented by other vendors by opt out of web tracking; please see below for more information.

How to Opt Out of Web Tracking

Web tracking is a technology that uses cookies to identify your behaviors and preferences, and then use that information later – even on a totally different website – to identify you or provide you customized content (such as advertising) based on that information. For example, if you click on an ad in a search engine, the search engine may write a web tracking cookie to record your preference for that ad and later use it to present similar ads or additional ads from the same company.

You can opt out of web tracking in several different ways:

  • Block third-party cookies and prevent cross-domain tracking in your browser.
    • This helps prevent the use of many (but not all) web tracking cookies which may be set by third-party scripts.
  • Configure your browser to send a "Do Not Track" request when you access websites.
    • The "Do Not Track" header is a feature the instructs websites to not track the pages you visit and choices you make in a way that can be connected to your personal information.
    • Note that not all websites may honor this request, and even websites which honor this request may still collect your data as anonymous data (not tied to your personal information).
  • Register on sites that record your desire not be served interest-based advertising.
    • You may register at the DAA opt-out page and the NAI consumer opt-out page.
    • Many online advertisers will not serve advertisements to users that have registered with these sites.
    • Note that both of these sites use cookies to register your choice not to be served advertising, and those cookies must be accessed by online advertisers for them to recognize and respect your request.
  • Opt out from individual services which provide online advertising.
    • If you see ads from dotCMS or any other ads you do not wish to see on a specific online platform, you may, in many cases, opt-out from receiving all ads or change your ad preferences using the specific tools provided by that platform. The following provides information on how to opt-out of ads on the platforms dotCMS uses for online advertising:
    Platform Instructions
    Facebook For instructions on how to turn off interest-based ads in Facebook please see https://www.facebook.com/help/568137493302217
    Google (including Google AdWords, Doubleclick, and Google Analytics)
    Microsoft Bing To turn off interest-based ads in Microsoft Bing and other Microsoft sites please see https://choice.microsoft.com/.

Additional Rights and Terms

In addition to all the terms detailed above, the following additional terms apply under the conditions specified in each term:

  • Compelled Disclosure:
    • dotCMS may disclose Personal Data as required by lawful requests from public authorities, including required responses to legal, regulatory, and law enforcement actions.
  • California Privacy Rights:
    • The California “Shine the Light” law gives individuals in California the right to either receive specific details about how certain types of their information are shared with third parties, or to opt out of having thier information shared in this way.
    • dotCMS may share Personal Data (as defined by this law) with third parties and/or affiliates. If you are a California resident and wish to obtain information about our compliance with this law, please e‐mail or write to us at the addresses specified in the Contact Information section below.
      • Requests must include “California Privacy Rights Request” in the first line of the description and include your name, street address, city, state, and ZIP code.
      • Please note that dotCMS is not required to respond to requests made by means other than through the provided e‐mail address or mail address.
  • Onward Transfer:
    • If dotCMS transfers data to a third party acting on behalf of dotCMS, we will:
      • Transfer the data only for limited and specified purposes.
      • Ensure that the third party is obligated to provide at least the same level of privacy protection as is required by this policy.
      • Take reasonable and appropriate steps to ensure that the third party effectively processes the Personal Data transferred in a manner consistent with this policy.
      • Require the third party to notify us if it can no longer meet its obligations in a manner consistent with this policy.
      • If it becomes necessary, take reasonable and appropriate steps to stop and remediate unauthorized processing