Privacy Policy

DATED 2026-01-22 · VERSION 20260201_rev01 · COMPARED WITH 20251201_rev01 · ARCHIVE SNAPSHOT

Full text changes — 20251201_rev01 to 20260201_rev01

COLOUR MARKS THE SEVERITY OF A FLAGGED CLAUSE · + AND − MARK ADDED AND REMOVED

1This policy was last updated on 10/14/2025.
1This policy was last updated on 1/22/2026.
22
33This is the privacy policy ("policy") for _scientificamerican.com_ and the Scientific American mobile apps (collectively our "web properties"), which are operated and provided by Springer Nature America, Inc. (**we**, **us** and **our**). Springer Nature America, Inc. (_Scientific American)_ is located at 1 New York Plaza New York, NY 10004_._ We can also be contacted at sadigital@sciam.com.
44
55We will only use the personal data gathered over this website as set out in this policy. Below you will find information on how we use your personal data, for which purposes your personal data is used, with whom it is shared and what control and information rights you may have.
66
77I. Summary of our processing activities
88
99We publish magazines, eBooks, news and data. Some of this material is freely available, some of it is only available to subscribers. The following summary offers a quick overview of the data processing activities that are undertaken on our website. You will find more detailed information under the indicated sections below.
1010
1111- When you visit our web properties for informational reasons without setting up an account, only limited personal data will be processed in order to service your request (see III).
1212
13- When you view on-demand video on our websites, we may collect your viewing and usage information, and we may share information that identifies you as having viewed particular video content with service providers that enable video functionality, personalization, and usage analysis and third parties for advertising and marketing, as well as editorial purposes.
14
1315- If you are identified as belonging to a customer organization then we collect information in order to be able to provide usage reporting to that customer.
1416
1517- If you register for one of our services or subscribe to our newsletters, further personal data will be processed in the scope of such services (see IV and V).
1618
1719- Furthermore, your personal data will be used to provide you with relevant advertising for our services and products (see VII) and for statistical analysis that helps us to monitor the performance of our internet properties, improve those properties, and personalize your experience (see VIII). Additionally, we improve your website experience with third party content (see IX).
1820
3739When you visit our web properties for informational reasons, i.e. without registering for any of our provided services listed under IV and without providing us with personal data in any other form, we may automatically collect additional information about you which will contain personal data only in limited cases and which is automatically recognized by our server, such as:
3840
3941_Examples might include:_
4042
4143_\- your IP address;_
4244
45_\- information about video content that you viewed;_
46
4347_\- your device type, name and IDs;_
4448
4549_\- the date and time of your requests;_
4650
4751_\- the content of your requests;_
4852
147151VI. Automated decision making
148152
149153We do not use your personal data for automated decision making which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you, however we do use your personal data to offer you content and services which we believe may be of interest and to improve your experience on our web properties.
150154
151155VII. Online advertising, e-commerce and related tools
152156
153The cookies and web beacons enable our service providers to collect information about you and your behavior, e.g. IP address, browser information, information on user activities and click data, and to recognize visitors to our website under a pseudonym and only display products that are likely to be of interest to our visitors. Most of the tools use pseudonymised or aggregated data, e.g. shortened IP addresses. The data is used to analyze the use of our website and, thereby, improve and optimize the website and to display advertising tailored to your needs. We collect this data (to improve your website experience and to promote our products and services). You can update your preferences via the "Use of cookies/Do not sell my data" link in the page footer.
157The cookies and web beacons enable our service providers to collect information about you and your behavior, e.g. IP address, browser information, information on user activities, including video content that you viewed, and click data, and to recognize visitors to our website under a pseudonym and only display products that are likely to be of interest to our visitors. Most of the tools use pseudonymised or aggregated data, e.g. shortened IP addresses. The data is used to analyze the use of our website and, thereby, improve and optimize the website and to display advertising tailored to your needs. We collect this data (to improve your website experience and to promote our products and services). You can update your preferences via the "Use of cookies/Do not sell my data" link in the page footer.
154158
155159Personal data collected via first party cookies is based on consent, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR, to improve your website experience and promote our products and services. We collect this data via a cookie management tool; you can update your preferences via the "Use of cookies/Do not sell my data" link in the page footer.
156160
157161Personal data collected via third party targeting cookies is based on your consent, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. You can update your preferences via the "Use of cookies/Do not sell my data" link in the page footer.
158162
159163Please note that we neither have the control of the extent of personal data that is collected by the respective plug-in provider nor do we know the processing's purpose or the period your personal data will be retained. Your personal data will be transferred to and processed inside and outside of the EEA.
318322For statistical analyses we use web analytics services such as Google Analytics, to collect information about the use of this site.
319323
320324**General tracking information**
321325
322326_The tools collect information such as:_
323327
328_\- Information about video content that you viewed_
329
324330_\- Device and browser information (operating system information, Mobile device identifier, mobile operating system, etc.)_
325331
326332_\- IP address_
327333
328334_\- Asset accessed, URL click stream (the chronological order of our internet sites you visited)_
329335
481487Please submit any questions, concerns or comments you have about this privacy policy or any requests concerning your personal data by email to our Group Data Protection Officer. You can contact our Group Data Protection Officer via dataprotection@springernature.com.
482488
483489The information you provide when contacting us at dataprotection@springernature.com will be processed to handle your request and will be erased when your request is completed. Alternatively, we will restrict the processing of the respective information in accordance with statutory retention requirements.
484490
485491XVII. Amendments to this policy
486492
487We reserve the right to change this policy from time to time by updating our web properties respectively. Please visit our web properties and check our respective current privacy policy. This policy was last updated on 10/14/2025.
493We reserve the right to change this policy from time to time by updating our web properties respectively. Please visit our web properties and check our respective current privacy policy. This policy was last updated on 1/22/2026.