SolidWorks Privacy Policy

SolidWorks Privacy Policy

SolidWorks Corporation would like to thank you for visiting our website. We know many visitors have questions regarding the privacy of their interactions with SolidWorks. We hope this privacy policy statement will answer any questions you may have, but if it does not, please feel free to contact us at the email address or postal address shown below.

Please note that most of SolidWorks’ products are sophisticated computer-aided design software products aimed at mechanical engineers and other manufacturing and design professionals. The SolidWorks products generally cost thousands of Dollars/Euros per license and SolidWorks does not consider them to be consumer products. The Cosmic Blobs product is a consumer product and is subject to a separate privacy policy posted at http://www.cosmicblobs.com/privacy.html. This privacy policy does not cover the Cosmic Blobs line of business.

This statement is organized as follows:

Contents

A. Online Privacy/ Marketing Contacts and Privacy/ License Activation and/or License Registration and Privacy

Information collected about online visitors

Entities collecting information

Information collected via marketing activities

Information collected via license activation and/or license registration

The Use of Personal Information Collected

3D ContentCentral and 3DPartStream.NET Services and Other services requiring registration

Updating Personal Information and “Opting Out”

Changes to This Policy

B. Certified SolidWorks Professional Directory and Other Community Sites and Public Lists

C. Purchasing Items or Services from the SolidWorks Site

D. Third Party Sites

E. Technical Support, Special Cases and Privacy

Information Collected in Connection with Technical Support and the Use of that Information

Special Cases

A. Online Privacy/ Marketing Contacts and Privacy/ License Activation and/or License Registration and Privacy

Information Collected from Online Visitors

In general, you can visit the SolidWorks website without telling us who you are or revealing any personal information about yourself, such as your name, phone number or postal or email address. Our web server collects IP addresses to obtain certain aggregate information concerning the use of our website. An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you’re surfing the web. We do not link IP addresses to any personally identifiable information. Therefore you can remain anonymous when you visit our website.

Our web servers also collect information such as number of visits, average time spent on the site, pages viewed, etc., but this information is not traceable back to an individual user. SolidWorks uses this information to analyze how people use our site and generate ideas on how the site might be improved.

Some of our web pages utilize “cookies” so that we can better serve you with tailored information when you return to our site. Cookies are identifiers that a web site can send to your browser to keep on your computer to facilitate your next visit to our site. It may do such things as store the fact that you have registered for a seminar so that the next time you visit the site we recognize you are a registrant. You can, if you wish, set your browser to notify you when you are sent a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether or not to accept it.

Occasionally you may be asked to give use more specific information about yourself, such as when you download software, register for a seminar or other event, respond to a survey or enter a contest from our website. Supplying such information to us is optional, but you may be unable to complete certain transactions without giving such information.

Entities collecting personal information. The information provided at this site is collected by SolidWorks Corporation, 300 Baker Avenue, Concord, MA 01742. Its telephone number is (978) 371-5011.

Information Collected via Marketing Activities

SolidWorks conducts many different marketing activities by which it may collect your personal information. For example, we collect contact information at trade shows, we rent email and physical mail addresses for marketing campaigns, we invite the public to download free software from our website in return for providing us contact information, we run contests for which participants provide basic information on registration, and we obtain addresses from publications that target the industries from which we hope to attract customers. When we rent lists of names and addresses, we rent them from entities that provide only names of individuals who have “opted in” to receive communications from companies such as SolidWorks and we typically do not receive the actual contact information but only the ability to send an email or mailing to the contact from a bonded mailhouse.

Information Collected via License Activation and/or License Registration

At the time customers register or activate their license of SolidWorks software, SolidWorks collects information such as Company name, shipping address, contact name, contact email address, telephone number, title, role, products designed, primary CAD product in use and industry sector. SolidWorks requests this information because it believes it is important to understand who its customers are and how to contact them with relevant product information. In some circumstances, SolidWorks may be obligated to make this information available to third parties who license to SolidWorks technology that is included in the products being activated. If SolidWorks receives an inquiry from a person at the licensee company as to which individual at the company has activated a given license, SolidWorks will supply the contact name in response to enable the company to understand where its licenses are being used.

The Use of Personal Information

SolidWorks may use the personal information you provide us for a variety of purposes, including registration, authentication and marketing. We may use the information to inform you of special offers, contests, upgrades and other SolidWorks products and services that may be of interest to you. When you are a customer of SolidWorks products or services, we may use your personal information to contact you for a wide array of customer relation/customer service purposes, such as to inquire whether you intend to renew subscription service agreements or other contracts with SolidWorks or to request that you respond to a survey concerning our products and services or to address a question regarding an order.

Since SolidWorks resellers are our primary sales channel and provide the first line of support to our customers, we share personal contact information with the reseller assigned to a particular customer or prospect.

We may also provide you with materials concerning the products and/or services of other third parties we think may be of interest to you. We may do this by emailing information to you or providing your name and address to a bonded mailhouse that mails information on behalf of a third party. The bonded mailhouse is prohibited from providing the third party with your name and contact information and is obligated to either return the information to us or destroy the list following the mailing. Unless we inform you otherwise at the point at which we collect your information, we will not provide your personal contact information directly to a third party not otherwise described herein.

SolidWorks products (other than Cosmic Blobs, which is subject to a separate privacy policy) are not marketed to children under the age of 13 and SolidWorks does not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. SolidWorks is committed to protecting the privacy of children and if SolidWorks becomes aware that such information was collected, it will treat that information as sensitive.

If you do not wish to receive information about additional SolidWorks products or services or those of its partners and other companies, please let us know (contact information below) and we will respect your wishes. Emails we distribute describing offers we think may be of interest to you also contain instructions as to how you can opt-out of future emails.

SolidWorks stores the personal data of web site visitors and customers indefinitely and may maintain and process such information directly or indirectly in one or more databases in the United States and elsewhere. We may hire other companies to provide services on our behalf that may involve the storage and use of your personal information, such as for delivering mailings or emails. Any such company or third party is required to maintain the confidentiality of that information and is prohibited from using that information for any purpose other than as authorized by us. If you provide personal information to SolidWorks, you agree and consent to SolidWorks' storage and usage of this information anywhere that SolidWorks and its affiliates maintain offices (around the world), for a variety of purposes, including those described above.

SolidWorks may also disclose such personal information if required by law or if SolidWorks believes in good faith that such disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with legal process (for example, a warrant or subpoena or other court order) or protect the rights, property or personal safety of SolidWorks, our customers or the public.

3D ContentCentral and 3DPartStream.NET services and Other Services Requiring Registration

SolidWorks hosts a 3D catalog at www.3DContentCentral.com. From this site, public users can find 3D models of products distributed by the manufacturers identified therein. 3D ContentCentral has its own privacy policy, see http://www.3dcontentcentral.com/ for the complete policy. In general, a user must register at the 3D ContentCentral site or at another site that is “Powered by 3DPartStream.NET” in order to view the models. SolidWorks may pass the information it collects upon registration, which may include personal information, to the manufacturers whose models the user accesses and/or downloads. This requirement to share information regarding the users who access the various manufacturer’s models is often a requirement of the agreement under which those manufacturers make their models available to 3D ContentCentral and/or 3DPartStream.Net. From time to time SolidWorks may create other services requiring registration that may operate under similar policies.

Updating Personal Information and “Opting Out”

SolidWorks wants to ensure that the information it collects is accurate. You may notify us of any change to your address, phone number, email address or other information by sending us an email message at privacy@solidworks.com or by notifying us in writing at

SolidWorks Corporation

300 Baker Avenue

Concord, MA 01742

Attn: Legal Department

You may set or change your communication preferences by visiting www.solidworks.com/preferences.

If at any time you wish to “opt out” of receiving information from SolidWorks or its partners or other companies, please notify us by sending us an email or written message to the addresses shown above or by emailing us at remove@solidworks.com . Please note that due to lead times on certain mailings and other contacts, you may continue to receive contacts for a period following your “opt out” notification.

Changes to this Policy

SolidWorks may change this policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted to this site, so we encourage you to review our privacy policy from time to time.

B. Certified SolidWorks Professional Directory and Other Public Lists/ Community Sections of Website, including Discussion Forum

Many SolidWorks users gain valuable professional and commercial exposure by being included in lists on the SolidWorks website that identify individuals who have become Certified SolidWorks Professionals or who have other recognized credentials or skills. SolidWorks makes this information available publicly to users of its website as a service to the individual. If you are eligible to be included in such a list but do not wish your personal information to be included, please contact SolidWorks at the location identified under the heading Updating Personal Information and “Opting Out” above.

SolidWorks provides various Community activities to its users, including Discussion Forums (See the Community page under Services at the SolidWorks website). Participation in these activities is voluntary and it is very likely that personal information will be exposed to other members of the Community if you participate. Some users prefer to participate using pseudonyms, but email addresses are required. SolidWorks takes no responsibility for maintaining the privacy of any personal information you make available to members of any Community identified in this section of the website.

C. Purchasing Items or Services from the SolidWorks Site.

If you wish to purchase items [including software] or services [such as certification training] from the site, we require your personal information such as your full name, billing address, telephone number, email address and credit card number/expiration date. Collection and processing of information related to this purchase activity may be conducted by a third party fulfillment house which is obligated to maintain the confidentiality of the information. We work to protect the security of your information during transmission by using Secure Sockets Layer [SSL] software, which encrypts information you input. We may also store information regarding your purchase [not credit card information but information as to what you ordered and whether and when it was fulfilled and your contact information] in order to answers questions and resolve issues that may arise later.

At the time the order is placed we may ask you to “opt in” for further contact regarding such things as sales and special offers and we may contact you following that “opt in” permission. If you opt in we may also share your information with other companies and organizations whose products we think may be of interest to you so that they may contact you. If you do not opt in we will not contact you regarding other offers, but please be aware that if you have given us your personal information pursuant to other SolidWorks marketing activities, we may contact you.

D. Third Party Sites

This website contains links to websites owned and maintained by other companies. Such websites may also collect personal information and such collection of personal information will be subject to the privacy policies of the site and company at which it is collected. SolidWorks is not responsible for the content or privacy practices of any non-SolidWorks website. Please review the privacy policy of such other sites before providing them with your personal information.

E. Technical Support, Special Cases and Privacy

Information Collected in Connection with Technical Support and the Use of that Information

Generally, SolidWorks’ technical support group can obtain customer contact information via the serial number and registration data it maintains in its customer database. SolidWorks may use this contact information to respond to support inquiries and/or to request additional information from the customer.

Occasionally SolidWorks must obtain files and/or model information to assist it in diagnosing their technical support issues. SolidWorks may share model and file information provided by a customer with a licensor of technology that is included in the SolidWorks product if SolidWorks considers that appropriate to assist it in diagnosing or resolving a customer problem. All of such licensors are also contractually obligated to protect the confidentiality of customer models and files.

Some third party software that interoperates with the SolidWorks software, such as the Microsoft VISTA operating system software, may request data from your system in order to assist it in diagnosing issues. You will be informed of the need for this information and may choose whether to provide it to the third party. The third party will be responsible for any privacy issues related to the information you provide it.

SolidWorks also maintains many of the customer files in a database it uses to conduct regression tests and other tests of later releases of the SolidWorks software.

Special Cases.

SolidWorks’ Remote Support Functionality. For those customers with difficult-to-diagnose issues, SolidWorks has added a remote support functionality that enables SolidWorks to view a customer computer remotely via the internet in real-time. This functionality is used only when authorized by the customer and while the customer is at the computer. The functionality enhances the customer’s ability to explain and “show” the problem being experienced.

The customer initiates a secure connection with a SolidWorks support engineers, enabling them to either view or take control of the customer’s system. In order to create this connection, the customer will download a small client (460KB) to his or her system that will communicate with the SolidWorks engineer’s computer. This connection will be encrypted via a 168-bit secured socket layer to ensure that no data transmitted between the customer system and the SolidWorks engineer is compromised.

The customer retains full control of his or her system throughout the session. If at any time during this session the customer wishes to terminate the remote connection, he or she may do so and upon termination the client will be completely removed from the customer’s system, and the SolidWorks engineer will no longer be able to view or access the customer’s system.

SolidWorks treats all information it receives during a remote support session as confidential and proprietary customer information received for technical support purposes (see Information Collected in Connection with Technical Support and the Use of that Information above).

Performance Feedback Email Tool. The SolidWorks products include a feedback tool which, if turned on, sends reliability and usage information to SolidWorks via email or HTTP. The feedback tool is turned off unless turned on by the user and it may be turned off and on repeatedly at the option of the user. This data is used only for quality and product improvement purposes and helps give SolidWorks an idea of the relative value of various functionalities within its products. The data does not include any user model data or any information that could be used to re-create models and is reviewed by SolidWorks in the aggregate.

We hope this policy statement helps you understand SolidWorks’ practices with respect to your personal and business information. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us as indicated above under the heading “Updating Personal Information and “Opting Out”.

Rev. January 2008