Elsevier Privacy Principles
Our commitment to data privacy
Elsevier’s commitment to responsible data privacy and security practices is based on what our community of users and customers expects of us. Our Privacy Principles listed below, publicly unveiled in January 2016, guide our approach to collecting and handling personal data.
Elsevier’s Privacy Principles
At Elsevier, we recognize that the proper handling of personal data is very important. We also know that this data can be leveraged to deliver tremendous value to our users. The volume of science, technical, and medical materials available today means it’s vital that researchers and professionals can access the information they need quickly and easily. This is why Elsevier has developed powerful online tools that are tailored to meet the needs of individual users. Whether you are an undergraduate, a principal investigator, a nurse practitioner, or a medical doctor, our products and services are designed to help you work as efficiently and effectively as possible.
For example, Article Recommender in ScienceDirect suggests articles that are relevant to the individual user based on what they’re reading. To make these recommendations, data from millions of other researchers who’ve read the same article is anonymized, aggregated and analyzed in milliseconds, resulting in suggestions that save that person a significant amount of time.
We can deliver these highly-optimized solutions thanks to the ability to combine our own information with the user data. This not only benefits the individual researcher or professional but also their colleagues and institutions and ultimately the society.
Elsevier is committed to the highest data privacy and security standards when delivering these solutions and follows five Privacy Principles:
Value: We collect and use personal information to facilitate efficiency and productivity in research, healthcare and education.
Transparency: We tell users about the personal information we collect, including how and why we will use and share it.
Choice: Users are given choice over the collection, use and sharing of their personal information.
Anonymization: We depersonalize and aggregate personal information where individual identification is not necessary.
Accountability: We are committed to acting as a responsible steward of personal information.
Elsevier and legal compliance
As a leading provider of information and analytics, Elsevier has long recognized the importance of privacy and data protection. Elsevier’s privacy program, established over 15 years ago and led by our Data Protection Officer, is global and holistic in scope. Privacy governance is supported by a cross-functional council of senior leaders from across Elsevier as well as by the RELX Privacy Office.
Elsevier views compliance with emerging privacy laws as building on this commitment to responsible data privacy and security practices. As part of our privacy program, we evaluate, and where necessary require enhancements to, our products, services and practices to ensure that we treat personal data in line with applicable privacy laws, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and with what the community expects of us.
Questions
If you have any questions about Elsevier’s privacy program, please reach out to your Elsevier contact or Data Protection Officer at https://www.elsevier.com/legal/privacy-policy/data-request.