Menu

COMSOL Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy describes the collection and processing of personal data by or for COMSOL in connection with its websites (the “Site”), its software products, its applications, its events, and its other interactions, communications, and activities. If you do not agree with these terms, please do not access or use the Site or otherwise provide COMSOL with your personal data.

The Site is owned and operated by COMSOL AB, and COMSOL software products are published by COMSOL AB. COMSOL AB is a corporation duly organized and existing under the laws of Sweden, registered in the Swedish Company Register under registration number 556404-8675, having its principal place of business at Tegnérgatan 23, SE-111 40 Stockholm, Sweden. COMSOL AB and its subsidiaries and affiliates are referred to collectively in this Privacy Policy as “COMSOL”. This Privacy Policy applies to COMSOL and their successors and assigns.

Please note that COMSOL is not responsible for the content or privacy practices of third party websites to which https://www.comsol.com or any other COMSOL website, software product, and/or application may link to or from. Nor is COMSOL responsible for the privacy practices of any distributor, Certified Consultant, or other third party having a relationship with COMSOL, except with respect to their authorized activities in processing data on behalf of COMSOL.

Collection of Data

COMSOL collects certain data from visitors and contributors to the Site and through email and other interactions and mechanisms in order to use certain features on the Site or to participate in certain activities. This data depends on your interaction with us and what functionality you use and may include:

  • First and last name
  • Company/University
  • Title
  • Department
  • Postal address
  • Phone number
  • Fax
  • Email address
  • Your password in a hashed form
  • Pages visited
  • Time, date, and duration of visit
  • Browser, device, and operating system you are using
  • HTTP headers
  • Cookies, web beacons, local and session storage, and conversion tracking
  • IP and MAC addresses or other information identifying your computer or device
  • Marketing material you choose to receive
  • Model and other files downloaded by you
  • Records of online events attended by you or for which you have registered, including videos you have watched
  • Records of meetings and other personal interactions
  • Descriptions, model and other files, comments, and other data, including log files, associated with simulating your applications using COMSOL products, often for the purpose of providing pre- and post-sales support to you or because you want the material presented and/or published
  • Copies or summaries of communications between you, COMSOL, COMSOL’s partners, and other third parties for the purposes of providing pre- and post-sales support to you
  • Resumes, communications, and other information about yourself if you are applying for employment
  • Images and videos of you
  • Licensing, installation, and product information associated with you as a user
  • Records of accepting terms and conditions
  • Data for financial and transactional purposes between you and COMSOL
  • Any other personal data as may be relevant for the purposes below

You may decide whether or not to provide all or part of the requested data, however, if you choose not to provide all or part of the requested information, you may not be able to access certain functions or pages on the Site, and you may not be able to participate in certain events or obtain certain services.

Certain communications, information, and downloadable files that you have submitted to the Site may be publicly available for third parties to view, download, and comment on, depending on the forum in which you decide to share this information.

AWS Canonical ID

For those who use our software on servers of Amazon Web Services (AWS): AWS assigns each account a form of identification referred to as a “canonical user ID” when you register for an AWS account. COMSOL maintains downloadable images of the latest version of its products on AWS for you to simplify the download and installation of them on to this platform. To enable this, COMSOL stores your AWS canonical user ID on COMSOL’s Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) on AWS. Apart from you submitting your canonical user ID as part of your download and installation process, and COMSOL then submitting it to AWS to identify you as a valid AWS account holder, COMSOL will not store or otherwise use your AWS canonical ID. For more information about Amazon Web Services’ privacy policy, please see: https://aws.amazon.com/privacy/?nc1=f_pr.

Data Concerning Children

COMSOL’s products and services are not marketed to children under the age of sixteen (16) years old. COMSOL does not knowingly collect or process data from any persons under the age of sixteen (16) years old. If COMSOL becomes aware that it has collected personal data from such a child, COMSOL will remove such personal data from their systems.

Use of Data

COMSOL’s purpose in collecting and processing your data is to provide you with access to assets and/or services that you request or that we believe will enhance your experiences with COMSOL and its products. If you have contact with COMSOL as a representative for your organization, COMSOL will process your personal data in order to be able to fulfil COMSOL’s commitment to your organization. We may also use your data for the following purposes:

  • To provide you with personalized access to and tailored content on the Site;
  • To enable COMSOL to detect and prevent potentially illegitimate or harmful activities on the Site, including inappropriate comments or unlawfully uploaded files;
  • To enable you to request and receive information about COMSOL, its events, and its products;
  • To enhance your interaction with the Site by storing and subsequently presenting, when you next visit the Site, such data you submit through forms, support services, and other ways for transferring data;
  • To facilitate and control access to your personal data;
  • To allow you to download and install software, software updates, and trial versions of the software, as well as documentation and other materials made available by COMSOL or other third parties associated with COMSOL;
  • To provide accurate threading in the Site’s comment fields and discussion forums;
  • To enable you to register for, and to track your participation in a webinar, workshop, conference, or other event hosted by COMSOL or third parties associated with COMSOL;
  • To enable any independent reseller who may be responsible for selling licenses to our software and providing support in your territory to serve you;
  • To enable you to submit material for publication on the Site and in other media;
  • To provide technical assistance and targeted documentation suited to your particular needs;
  • To enable COMSOL to promote its services or the services of its partners and other third parties associated with COMSOL;
  • To enable trusted third parties associated with COMSOL to contact you in accordance with your preferences and/or to obtain your consent to communicate with you in accordance with their privacy policies;
  • To process an employment application from you;
  • To enable COMSOL to evaluate the user experience of the Site and any potential areas for improvement, including performing quality assurance tasks;
  • To enable COMSOL to manage its business relationships, such as sales opportunities, commercial offers, and contracts;
  • To enable COMSOL to deliver products or materials through postal services, courier companies, and other means of shipping;
  • To enable COMSOL to manage its research and development activities, including bug reports, feature requests, feedback on quality, and performance testing;
  • To conduct internal audits and investigations;
  • To conduct assessments to identify conflicts of interest;
  • To disclose data to governmental institutions or supervisory authorities as applicable in all countries in which COMSOL operates;
  • For record keeping and reporting obligations, compliance with government inspections/ audits, responding to requests from government or other public authorities, and responding to legal processes such as subpoenas;
  • To establish, exercise, manage, and/or defend against legal claims that COMSOL may have or may be subjected to; and
  • Any other purposes associated with the purpose of carrying out the business of COMSOL.

The legal basis on which COMSOL relies for the above use of your data includes:

  • Processing of your personal data where you have given consent for one or more specific purposes;
  • Processing of your personal data that is necessary for performing a contract to which you are party;
  • Processing of your personal data that is necessary to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract;
  • Processing of your personal data that is necessary for COMSOL to comply with a legal obligation; and
  • Processing of your personal data that is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests of COMSOL or a third party, except where those interests are overridden by your fundamental rights and freedoms which require protection of personal data.

COMSOL allows you to tailor email communications you receive from COMSOL according to a number of preferences, which promote COMSOL software, services, and events, and that can be selected and changed at https://www.comsol.com/preferences. Further, if you do not wish to receive certain emails or any emails at all then you can also visit https://www.comsol.com/preferences to select the Unsubscribe option. You may only change your preferences using this link if you are logged-in to your COMSOL Access account, https://www.comsol.com/access. Alternatively, your preferences can also be reached through the appropriate links in emails from COMSOL or by contacting the Privacy Manager at privacy@comsol.com. Note, as long as you continue to be an end user of, license holder of, or administrator for a license of COMSOL software, or are participating in the process of becoming an end user, license holder, or license administrator, you are not permitted to unsubscribe from or opt-out of emails and messages regarding your software licenses and the transactional processes, changes, updates, and technical and security notices regarding them, or other emails and messages regarding the support, maintenance, and use of the software.

Data Security

COMSOL uses recognized technology and tools to protect the security of your data. Yet, due to the fact that no security system is impenetrable, COMSOL cannot completely and entirely guarantee the data security of COMSOL’s security systems. If these systems are breached and your data is compromised as a result of this, we will take reasonable steps to investigate the breach and, where appropriate, notify you about which data may have been compromised. COMSOL will also take other steps to address the breach in accordance with any applicable laws and regulations.

Transfer of Data

COMSOL AB, its affiliates, and subsidiaries are the parties responsible for the management of COMSOL’s jointly-used storage of personal data. Contact information for COMSOL AB can be found at the bottom of this policy. As a global organization, the data you provide to COMSOL may be transferred to or used by affiliates or subsidiaries of COMSOL AB and trusted external parties for the purposes described above, including locations outside the European Economic Area, such as those listed at: https://www.comsol.com/contact. The COMSOL organization has established various safeguards to protect your data, including a Data Protection Agreement adopting the approved European Commission contractual clauses and various technical and organizational measures. A copy of these safeguards taken by COMSOL AB may be obtained by submitting your request to the address identified below for COMSOL’s Privacy Manager. COMSOL also requires external parties to whom COMSOL may transfer personal data, such as COMSOL’s independent distributors and COMSOL Certified Consultants, to join this Data Protection Agreement to secure any data transferred between COMSOL and these organizations.

Data Storage Retention

All data that is collected will be stored only as long as is necessary to accomplish the purpose for which it is collected, or as long as is permitted or required by applicable law. Periodically, COMSOL will review its data processing systems to determine whether or not the purposes for the collection and processing of your data remain valid. That determination will be based on factors that include whether or not you are still in contact with COMSOL, whether or not any requests made by you to COMSOL have been fulfilled (including any follow-up tasks), whether or not you have subscribed to receive information from COMSOL, whether or not there is a contractual relationship between you and COMSOL (such as you or your organization owning a license to COMSOL software you are eligible to use, you or your organization having purchased a training course you are eligible to attend, you having signed up for a COMSOL Access account, or you having registered for a COMSOL event), and whether or not there is a contractual or legal basis for continuing to retain your data. Based on that review and any notifications received from data subjects, COMSOL will update its systems. For more information on the purpose for which information is collected, please see Use of Data.

Cookies, web beacons, local storage, and conversion tracking

The Site stores cookies and web beacons on your web browser, and makes use of web storage and conversion tracking functionality.

Cookies are simple text files containing a string that functions as an identifier of stored data on COMSOL’s servers that is used to retrieve, employ, and present it on the Site. COMSOL uses their own cookies to improve functionality of the Site as well as your user experience. This may include automatically logging you in to access certain functionality, automatically populating forms, automatically presenting relevant and tailored content for your needs, and automatically remembering your email and other web-based preferences. The storage and use of cookies also allow COMSOL to filter out spam, bots and other malicious users and uses of the Site. These COMSOL cookies may be session cookies, which are cookies that are erased when you close your browser, or cookies that have up to a five (5) year retention period. All COMSOL cookie information is controlled by COMSOL and accessed only by COMSOL.

COMSOL also uses third party cookies on its Site for functionality, enhancing user experience, tailored online advertising, and marketing. The information about third party cookies is controlled by and accessible by those third parties. Third party cookies may be session or permanent cookies. For more information on those third party cookies, including how to disable those non-essential cookies and the privacy policies of those third parties, please see Third Party Tools below.

Similar to cookies, web storage is used to store browsing-relevant data on a local database within your browser. It is used to remember the state your browsing history was in the last time you were on the Site. This includes remembering view preferences such as your last sorting of lists, allowing your videos to continue playing from where they last left off, and recovering your in-progress comments or posts on the Site’s forums.

COMSOL may also use web beacons on the Site or in emails sent to you. These are HTML elements, for example images, loaded from a web server passing along an identifier with the load request. Web beacons are used to monitor your navigation when visiting the Site or when opening specific emails.

COMSOL also uses conversion tracking (also known as tracking links) in emails or on the Site or third-party sites to record and transmit which link, element, or component on a webpage or in an email was used by you.

These tools make it possible for us to improve the effectiveness of our messages and provide you with better tailored information on the Site and in email communications. You can configure your browser to deny the storage and/or and use of cookies, web beacons, local storage, and conversion tracking. Some webpages and features on the Site may not be made available or able to function if storage and/or use of this data are denied. For more information on how third-parties store and use data accessed through cookies, web beacons, local storage, and conversion tracking, see the section on Third Party Tools, Sites, and Services.

Third Party Tools, Sites, and Services

COMSOL uses third-party tools including, but not limited to, Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reports, Wistia, HotJar, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Yandex, VKontakte, and Baidu for the collection, analysis, and/or use of data associated with browsing activity and the type and origin of software and hardware used to engage in that activity. This data is stored on COMSOL’s or the third-party tools’ web servers.

If you have chosen to enable Google to associate your browsing history and other data with your Google Account, Google will collect Google-authenticated identifiers associated with your Google Account and will temporarily connect these identifiers to your Google Analytics data in order to improve the effectiveness of COMSOL messages and provide you with better tailored information on the Site and in email communications. COMSOL may also share your analytics data with third-party contractors who help analyze the data and improve the Site. For more information concerning the use of cookies by Google, please see: https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/types.

You can prevent these tools from storing and analyzing your browsing history by: disabling cookies and other means of storing data through your browser’s settings; by using the Google Analytics’ Opt-out Browser Add-on available at: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout; or by using the disabling features supported by other third-party tools.

COMSOL advertises and markets itself, its products, and services on different sites across the internet through using cookies and browsing histories collated and applied by third-party tools that include, but are not limited to, Google Adwords. Most of these third-party tools allow you to opt-out of remarketing and tailored online advertising through using the Do Not Track functionality in your web browser or through other methods specified by your browser and/or the respective third-party tool. In particular, you can opt out of Google’s tailored ad serving by visiting Google’s Ads Settings at: http://www.google.com/settings/ads. For more information about the privacy policies of Google, Google Adwords, and Google+, please see: https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy.

The Site also incorporates “Like" buttons associated with social media sites including, but not limited to, Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn that, if you are logged in to one of these sites, will transfer the link (URL) that you “liked” to your account or page on that respective social media site.

The data collected and stored by these third-party tools is not used by COMSOL to identify you or connect personally identifiable data to you. Further, the providers of these third-party tools are limited in their ability to use and share information they collect by their terms and privacy policies. Aside from the links given above, the tools mentioned in this Policy can be seen at:
http://www.google.com/analytics/learn/privacy.html;
https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy;
http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy; http://wistia.com/privacy;
https://www.hotjar.com/privacy; https://yandex.com/legal/privacy; https://vk.com/privacy;
https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy; http://www.baidu.com/duty/yinsiquan.html;
https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy; and https://twitter.com/en/privacy.

COMSOL also uses VisitorTrack to identify companies and institutions accessing the COMSOL website and provide contact information for individuals at those companies and institutions. The provider of VisitorTrack, Netfactor, collects this information pursuant to their privacy policy available at: http://netfactor.com/privacy-policy.

Additionally, the Site includes images from Google Maps to show the location of some of our events. Your use of Google Maps is subject to the then-current Google Maps/ Google Earth Additional Terms of Service at https://maps.google.com/help/terms_maps.html and Google Privacy Policy at https://www.google.com/policies/privacy.

For more information on data transfers, please see the Transfer of Data section.

Your Rights to Your Personal Data

You have the right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data, including the types of data collected, the purposes for which it is used, and the length of time it will be retained or the criteria to be applied in determining how long it will be retained. You have the right to access your personal data and have it corrected if it is wrong or incomplete. You have the right to restrict the processing of your data where the accuracy of your personal data is contested, where the processing is unlawful, and where we no longer need the personal data for the purposes for which we have processed it. You have the right to request that COMSOL disclose to you: (i) the categories of personal data that COMSOL has collected about you; (ii) the categories of sources from which your personal data is collected; (iii) the business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling, or sharing your personal data; (iv) the categories of third parties to whom COMSOL discloses your personal data; (v) the specific pieces of personal data that COMSOL has collected about you; (vi) the categories of personal data sold or shared, along with the categories of third parties to whom your personal data was sold or shared or the fact that your personal data was not shared. You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data and also restrict its processing in those instances where we undertook processing of it in carrying out a task in the public interest or where necessary for our legitimate interest where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing. You have the right to withdraw consent that you have given to the collection and processing of your personal data at any time. If you do withdraw your consent to the collection and processing of your personal data, that withdrawal shall not affect the lawfulness of any processing by us that is based on the consent you have given before you withdrew it. You also have the right to obtain the deletion of your data when it is no longer relevant to the purposes for which it was collected or processed, when you have withdrawn consent and there is no basis for us to continue processing, when you have objected to further processing and there is no compelling interest for continued processing, and when the data was unlawfully processed.

You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal affects concerning you or similarly affecting you, except where there is a lawful basis for continued processing. You have the right to receive personal data in a structured, commonly used, and machine readable form for the purpose of data portability in those instances where we process by automated means personal data that you have provided.

You have the right not to be discriminated against for exercising your rights with respect to data privacy, including by the denial of goods or services to you, the charging of different prices or rates for goods or services, the provision of different level or quality of goods or services to you, or the suggestion that you will receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level of quality for goods or services.

These rights may be exercised by using the tools we offer on the Site or by contacting COMSOL AB with your specific request through the methods described below. COMSOL will address any such requests in a timely manner. In certain cases, COMSOL may ask you to verify your identity before acting on your request. If you are unsatisfied with COMSOL’s response, you may refer your complaint to the relevant supervisory authority in your jurisdiction.

Terms of Use

COMSOL’s software and applications and certain of its events and services, as well as the Site, are subject to additional terms, including, but not limited to, the COMSOL Software License Agreement and the COMSOL Application License, see https://www.comsol.com/sla.

Conversion Tracking Cookies for COMSOL Access Members

If you use a COMSOL Access account to register for events, download software, or obtain other content from us, we use a “Conversion Tracking” cookie to record which events you attended, what you downloaded, and what other content you may have obtained. We do this to better address your needs in connection with the item we are providing you.

Contact

COMSOL AB and its subsidiary, COMSOL, Inc., are the jointly responsible data controllers for personal data collected as described in this Privacy Policy. COMSOL AB’s other subsidiaries, affiliates, and authorized resellers are processors of data pursuant to this Privacy Policy. To find the COMSOL subsidiary, affiliate, or authorized reseller in your country, see: https://www.comsol.com/contact.

COMSOL AB is located at:

COMSOL AB
Attn: Data Protection
Tegnergatan 23
SE-111 40 Stockholm
SWEDEN
privacy@comsol.com
+46 8 412 9500

COMSOL, Inc. is located at:

COMSOL, Inc.
Attn: Data Protection
100 District Ave.
Burlington, MA 01803
USA
privacy@comsol.com
+1 781 273 3322

COMSOL AB’s Privacy Manager shall be responsible for the compliance with this Privacy Policy and applicable law by COMSOL AB, its subsidiaries, and its affiliates. If you have a privacy concern, complaint, or question for COMSOL, please contact the Privacy Manager at privacy@comsol.com. Requests pursuant to the California Consumer Protection Act may also be submitted at the toll-free phone number +1 866-979-0819. COMSOL and the Privacy Manager will attempt to resolve concerns, complaints, and questions regarding the use and disclosure of personal data in accordance with the principles contained in this Privacy Policy.

Last revision date: June 22, 2023