Cision has published this Privacy Notice to inform its customers (Expert Sources) and Journalists about how it uses their personally data and associated information that may be collected when they use Cision’s Help A Reporter Out (HARO) service via HelpaReporter.com.

The Help a Reporter Out Service

This service creates a community where Journalists can use our systems to ask for help sourcing upcoming stories by connecting with customers who can speak to a specific topic. For example, a Journalist writing about EU electric car developments might request to hear from motor industry experts in Europe.

The request will be sent to our Expert Sources, who are customers who have registered to receive them. Expert Sources will email the Journalist via the anonymous email generated for your query by the HARO system if they can help. Generally, our media request service is used by Journalists who want to be connected to our Expert Sources.

HelpAReporter.com is owned and run by Cision US Inc. (a Cision Company) (“HelpAReporter.com”, “HelpAReporter”, “HARO”, “us”). 

To contact us with questions about this privacy policy, write to:
Cision, 12051 Indian Creek Ct., Beltsville, MD 20705

Email: Privacy@cision.com
Call Privacy toll-free number: 877-297-8921 (US) – privacy calls only

Journalists

These are professional journalists who are seeking content on specific topics and want to ask for help from Cision’s community of customers who have registered as Expert Sources to provide content on these topics.

What personal data we collect

If you become a HARO Journalist member, an account will be created for you when you submit a query (request for sources), which may contain:

  • Your name
  • Your job title
  • Your company name
  • Your company or personal website
  • Email address
  • Password

Additionally, each time you submit a query (a request for expert sources), we may request that you include the following information:

  • Media Outlet name
  • Outlet URL
  • Summary of query (like a headline)
  • Query text
  • Query Requirements
  • Category of the query
  • Deadline of query
  • Optionally, when you'd like us to publish the query

We also retain a history of the past queries that you submitted.

How we collect your personal data

If you become a HARO Journalist member, we will collect your personal data from you directly via our web form when you submit a query (Expert Source Request).

If you choose to, your name and outlet name will be displayed in the emails we send out to the Expert Sources listing your request for information.

HARO may also collect Personal Information from your usage of the HelpaReporter.com website. We use data collection devices such as “cookies” on certain pages of our websites. “Cookies” are small files placed on your hard drive that assist us in providing customized services.

We may also gather certain information about your visit automatically, such as your IP address, the date and time you access a given page, and the pages you visit.

Please note that your personal data will be stored and processed on our computers in the United States.

The purposes for which we will use your personal data

We will pass your request for help to our registered community of Expert Sources who may then decide to respond to you by way of the anonymous email that is generated for your query by the HARO system.  Please note that HARO never shares your direct email with expert sources.

Summary: Supporting UK food and drink

Name: If you choose to share it

Category: UK

Email: query-arrr@helpareporter.net

Media Outlet: Anonymous or your media outlet if you choose

Deadline: 12:00 PM EST - 13 May

Query:

Many artisan UK food and drink producers have had a tough time
in recent weeks and months. We'd like to change that and raise
the profile of select suppliers in a piece we are doing for a
leading online travel publication.

Requirements:

Preference will be given to quality merchandise and, whilst we
are looking for UK suppliers, we are interested to also offer
coverage that is representative of all corners of the world (eg.
a UK supplier of high-quality Indian spices, etc.)

We will also use your data to send you autoreplies in response to actions, such as when an expert source first signs up an account, or when a journalist submits a query into the system.

We may sometimes use your personal data as a starting point to build a profile of you on our media database. If we do this, we will notify you directly to confirm your profile information is correct and explain your rights around this, including the right to instruct that we ‘do not sell my personal information.’

If you have also registered as an Expert Source and have purchased a paid package, we use financial information, including your name, address, and other information to bill you for use of our Services. These may include enrolling as a member of HARO or engaging in any other kind of activity or transaction that uses financial information on the website.

To do this, we may pass your financial information to our third-party service providers (credit card companies and banking institutions) to support and process any transactions.

We may use information outlined above in the “What Personal Data We Collect” section and the other information we obtain from your current and past activities on the websites to;

  • resolve disputes (such as notifying an Expert Source if a journalist reports that they received an off-topic pitch from them; or updating a Journalist if they request payment for covering their brand or story)
  • troubleshoot problems (such as when an Expert Source who reports they are not receiving the HARO daily emails, or a Journalist needs a query edited before it is emailed out)
  • enforce our Terms of Service (such as the examples provided under “resolve disputes” above, or if a member is caught re-selling the queries or the information passed through HARO)
  • At times, we may review the data of multiple members to identify problems or resolve disputes. (such as resolving any of the disputes noted under “resolve disputes” above)

With your permission, obtained via our cookie consent tool, we may use personal data about you to analyze website usage to improve our content and service offerings. For example, to see what features are popular or not which then informs us how to customize our website’s content, layout, and service.

We may use your information to contact you and to deliver information to you such as administrative notices, service offerings, and communications relevant to your use of the website.

We will use your email address to forward responses to your request, but Expert Sources will not see it.

Legal basis for processing your personal data

We process your personal data in order to provide our services to our customers. We believe that it is in our legitimate business interests to do so. Processing your data in this way also benefits you as a Journalist and our Expert Sources (customers) by creating a community. You will receive focused information from our customers, giving you material to write about that is relevant to you and your audience. Our customers are able to communicate more efficiently to Journalists who are likely to want to hear what they have to say. We consider and balance any potential negative impact on you and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where we believe that our interests are overridden by any unwarranted adverse impact on you. If at any time you want to be removed from HARO, you can do so by logging into your account and deleting it, or by emailing us at urgent@helpareporter.com and we will process this request as soon as possible.

Our primary goal in collecting personal information is to provide you with a smooth, efficient, and customized experience.

How we share your personal data and who we share it with

We will only share your personal data via emails we send out to the registered Expert Source members, listing your request for information.

Summary: Supporting UK food and drink

Name: If you choose to share it

Category: UK

Email: query-arrr@helpareporter.net

Media Outlet: Anonymous or your media outlet if you choose

Deadline: 12:00 PM EST - 13 May

Query:

Many artisan UK food and drink producers have had a tough time
in recent weeks and months. We'd like to change that and raise
the profile of select suppliers in a piece we are doing for a
leading online travel publication.

Requirements:

Preference will be given to quality merchandise and, whilst we
are looking for UK suppliers, we are interested to also offer
coverage that is representative of all corners of the world (eg.
a UK supplier of high quality Indian spices, etc.)

We may share your personal data with our customers, companies within the Cision Group, and other parties detailed below. If you are based in the European Union, we may also transfer your personal data outside of the European Economic Area (EEA), but only when the required safeguards have been put in place in order to protect your personal data.

We may share your personal data with one or all of the following:

  • Customers: our customers are typically communications and marketing departments within businesses or other institutions, or PR agencies. Our customers come from all sectors.
    • We may share your data by allowing them access to the media database through our various online platforms.
  • Internal Third Parties: these include other companies within the Cision group of companies such as Cision, PR Newswire, Cision SA, CEDROM, TrendKite, Falcon IO and Prime.  Cision Legal Entities
  • External Third Parties: 
    • Service providers who work on behalf of the Cision group of companies for the performance of any contract we enter into with them, for example: IT support in each country.
    • Professional advisors including lawyers, accountants and insurers where we need to do so in order to comply with our legal obligations or for other business reasons.
    • Authorities who require reporting of processing activities in certain circumstances.

HARO will share your personal data with other entities if HARO is required to respond to court orders, subpoenas, or other legal process.

HARO may also use customer identifiable information to investigate and help prevent potentially unlawful activity or activity that threatens HelpaReporter.com’s users or otherwise violates the Terms of Service agreement.

Expert Sources

These are paying commercial customers who have signed up to be part of Cision’s community to provide content in response to requests for help from Journalists.

What personal data we collect

If you become a HARO Expert Source member, we will create an account for you, at HelpaReporter.com, which will contain but is not limited to:

  • Your name
  • Email address
  • Phone number
  • Country
  • State
  • Metro area
  • Company name
  • Company annual revenue
  • Your title
  • Password
  • Your credit card and/or bank account billing information.
  • Browsing activity on the HARO website (IP address, pages visited, dates, times and lengths of page visits)

How we collect your personal data

If you become a HARO Expert Resource, we will create an account for you, at HelpaReporter.com, which will contain your name, e-mail, and other identifying information.

HARO may also collect Personal Information from your usage of the HelpaReporter.com website. We use data collection devices such as “cookies” on certain pages of our websites. “Cookies” are small files placed on your hard drive that assist us in providing customized services.

Please note that your personal data will be stored and processed on our computers in the United States.

The purposes for which we will use your personal data

We may use the information you provide us in your account to

  • Send you emails which contain a list of journalists’ queries (ie the stories journalists are working on and need expert information and commentary for).
  • Send you autoreplies in response to actions, such as when an expert source first signs up an account, or when a journalist submits a query into the system - autoreplies are sent to them.
  • We use cookies to identify return users, so that they need not log in each time they arrive. We also offer certain features that are only available through the use of a cookie. Cookies can also help us provide information which is targeted to your interests. We use this information to determine our members’ demographics, interest, and behavior to better understand and serve you and our community.
  • HelpaReporter.com’s servers automatically gather information about which pages are visited within the HelpAReporter.com site.  HARO does not use that information except in the aggregate. This information helps us identify the type of website content or features our customers value most. We may use suppliers to assist us in collecting, using, or otherwise processing for our benefit the aggregated, non- personal information obtained through the site.
  • If you have purchased a paid package, we use financial information, including your name, address, and other information to bill you for use of our Services such as enrolling as a member of a HARO or engaging in any other kind of activity or transaction that uses financial information on the website.
  • In these instances, we may pass your financial information to our service providers and to such third parties (credit card companies and banking institutions) as we determine necessary to support and process your activities and transactions
  • We use information in your HARO profile, as well as the other information we obtain from your current and past activities on the websites to;
    • resolve disputes (such as notifying Expert Source if a journalist reports that they received an off-topic pitch from them; or updating a Journalist if they request payment for covering their brand or story)
    • troubleshoot problems (such as when an Expert Source who reports they are not receiving the HARO daily emails, or a Journalist who needs a query edited before it is emailed out)
    • enforce our Terms of Service (such as the examples provided under “resolve disputes” above, or if a member is caught re-selling the queries or the information passed through HARO)
    • At times, we may review the data of multiple members to identify problems or resolve disputes. (such as resolving any of the disputes noted under “resolve disputes” above))
  • We may use personal data about you to analyze website usage, improve our content and service offerings, and customize our website’s content, layout, and service. Mention Cookie consent tool. These uses improve our websites and may better tailor them to meet your needs.
  • We may use your information to contact you and to deliver information to you such as administrative notices, service offerings, and communications relevant to your use of the website.
  • We may use your email address to send marketing information relating to HARO, Cision, or Cision’s subsidiaries or affiliates.

Legal basis for processing your personal data

We process your personal data in order to provide our services to our customers. We believe that it is in our legitimate business interests to do so. Processing your data in this way also benefits you as a Journalist and our Expert Sources (customers) by creating a community. You will receive focused information from our customers, giving you material to write about that is relevant to you and your audience. Our customers are able to communicate more efficiently to Journalists who are likely to want to hear what they have to say. We consider and balance any potential negative impact on you and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where we believe that our interests are overridden by any unwarranted adverse impact on you. If at any time you want to be removed from HARO, you can do so by logging into your account and deleting it, or by emailing us at urgent@helpareporter.com and we will process this request as soon as possible.

By accepting this Privacy Policy, you agree that, with respect to other members’ personal data that you obtain through the services, Cision hereby grants to you a license to use such information only for:

(a) HARO’s related communications that are not unsolicited commercial messages, that is, responses to the specific Request for Information and

(b) any other purpose to which such member expressly agrees.

In addition, under no circumstances, except as defined in this Privacy Notice, may you disclose personal data or confidential information about another member (including Journalist) to any third party without our consent and the consent of such other member.

Cision and our HARO members do not tolerate spam.

Therefore, without limiting the foregoing, you are not licensed to add a HARO member to your mail list (email or physical mail) without their express consent after adequate disclosure. Further, you may only send a relevant response to a specific request for information and not use such information for any other purpose.

International Transfers

We may share your personal data with entities within the Cision group of companies.  For those who reside in the European Economic Area (EEA), please note that this may involve transferring your personal data outside of the EEA. Some of the third parties to whom we may transfer your personal data (including some of our customers) are also based outside of the EEA, so their processing of your personal data will likewise involve a transfer outside the EEA. Where your personal data is transferred outside of the EEA we do so in accordance with model contracts approved by the European Commission to ensure that there is an adequate level of protection for your personal data.

Our security measures

We are committed to protecting your personal data. We put in place safeguards including robust and appropriate technologies, processes, and contractual arrangements, so that the data we have about you is protected from unauthorized access and improper use, and we will also not keep your personal data for longer than is necessary.

The safeguards we have put in place to protect your personal data include:

How long will we use your personal data?

We will keep your personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy notice and to fulfill our legal obligations, but not longer than seven years after you ask to stop receiving communications. We will not keep more data than we need.

Your rights

Under certain circumstances, if you reside in the EU or if your data is processed in connection with one of our European businesses, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data, including the right of access; the right to rectification; the right to erasure; the right to restrict processing; the right to data portability; and the right to object. If you wish to exercise your rights please contact privacy@cision.com

We respect and honor these rights and will help you to exercise them insofar as we are able. These rights are not absolute – in some cases they will not apply to you, or to the particular use that we are making of your data, and there are exceptions (for example if we have to process the data to comply with our own legal obligations) but if that is the case we will let you know.

Your rights include the right to:

  • Access your personal information (via what is commonly known as a "data subject access request").
  • Require us to correct any mistakes in your information which we hold.
  • Require the erasure of personal information concerning you in certain situations by submitting a Data Subject Request.
  • Receive the personal information concerning you which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to a third party in certain situations.
  • Object at any time to processing of personal information concerning you for direct marketing.
  • Object to decisions being taken by automated means (including profiling) which produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you.
  • Object in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal information.
  • Otherwise restrict our processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.

For further information on each of these rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the Guidance from the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on individual rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

You also have the right to make a complaint at any time to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues. We hope that we would be able to resolve any concerns that you may have before you approach the ICO so please do contact us in the first instance.

EU Supervisory Authority list

California Residents’ Rights
California law grants California residents certain rights and imposes restrictions on particular business practices as set forth below. California consumers have the right to request that we disclose what personal information we collect, use, disclose, and sell about you. Any California Resident, including any Influencers, who are part of our media database, may inquire about the personal information we collect about them, request deletion of personal records, and/ or seek to opt out of sales of their personal information through the Do Not Sell provision listed below in this section.  For more information about our Influencer collection practices, visit  https://gdpr.cision.com/dataprivacynotice_influencers 

Do-Not-Sell.  California residents have the right to opt-out of our sale of their personal information. 

Opt-out rights can be exercised via our Do-Not-Sell options: email Privacy@cision.com, call toll-free on877-297-8921 or visit  our website here. We do not sell personal information about residents who we know are younger than 16 years old without opt-in consent. 

Verifiable Requests for Copy, Deletion and Right to Know. Subject to certain exceptions, California consumers have the right to make the following requests, at no charge, up to twice every 12 months. Please see Submitting Requests section below for instructions about how to exercise your rights: 

Deletion: The right to request deletion of their personal information that we have collected about them, subject to certain exemptions, and to have such personal information deleted, except where necessary that we maintain such personal information in order to: 

  • Complete the transaction for which the personal information was collected, provide a good or service requested by the consumer, or reasonably anticipated within the context of a business’s ongoing business relationship with the consumer, or otherwise perform a contract between the business and the consumer. 
  • Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity; or prosecute those responsible for that activity. 
  • Debug to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality. 
  • Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise his or her right of free speech, or exercise another right provided for by law. 
  • Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act pursuant to Chapter 3.6 (commencing with Section 1546) of Title 12 of Part 2 of the Penal Code. 
  • Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when the businesses’ deletion of the information is likely to render impossible or seriously impair the achievement of such research, if the consumer has provided informed consent. 
  • Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with the expectations of the consumer based on the consumer’s relationship with the business. 
  • Comply with a legal obligation. 
  • Otherwise use the consumer’s personal information, internally, in a lawful manner that is compatible with the context in which the consumer provided the information. 

Copy: The right to request a copy of the specific pieces of personal information that we have collected about them in the prior 12 months. 

Right to Know (Collection): Where we have collected their personal information, the right to request that we disclose certain information about how we have handled their personal information in the prior 12 months, including: the categories of personal information collected; categories of sources of personal information; business and/or commercial purposes for collecting and selling their personal information; and the categories of third parties/with whom we have disclosed or shared their personal information. 

Right to Know (Disclosure and Sale): Where we have sold or disclosed for a business purpose their personal information, the right to request that we disclose certain information about how we have handled their personal information in the prior 12 months, including: the categories of personal information collected; categories of third parties to whom the consumer’s personal information has been sold and the specific categories of personal information sold to each category of third party; categories of third parties to whom personal information has been disclosed; and the categories personal information that we have disclosed or shared with a third party for a business purpose. 

Submitting Requests. You may exercise your rights by doing one of the following: 

We will respond to your Copy and Right to Know requests within 45 days. 

When you submit your request, we will take steps to attempt to verify your identity. We will seek to match the information in your request to the personal information we maintain about you. As part of our verification process, we may ask you to submit additional information, use identity verification services to assist us, or if you have set up an account on our website, we may ask you to sign in to your account as part of our identity verification process. Please understand that, depending on the type of request you submit, to protect the privacy and security of your personal information, we will only complete your request when we are satisfied that we have verified your identity to a reasonably degree of certainty. 

Authorized Agents. The CCPA allows California consumers to designate an authorized agent to exercise their rights under CCPA.  If Cision receives a request from an agent, then Cision has the right to verify with the data subject that the data subject indeed wants to take the action requested by the agent and will do so by contacting the data subject directly. 

Incentives and Discrimination. The CCPA prohibits discrimination against California residents for exercising their rights under the CCPA and imposes requirements on any financial incentives offered to California residents related to their personal information.  

Discrimination: If consumers exercise their rights under CCPA, businesses may not discriminate against them including by denying or providing a different level or quality of goods or services or charging or suggesting that a business will charge different prices or rates or impose penalties, unless doing so is reasonably related to the value provided to the consumer by the consumer’s data. 

Disclosure of Incentives: If businesses offer any financial incentives for the collection, sale or deletion of their personal information, residents have the right to be notified of any financial incentives offers and their material terms, the right not be included in such offers without prior informed opt-in consent, and the right to be able to opt-out of such offers at any time. Businesses may not offer unjust, unreasonable, coercive or usurious financial incentives. We do not offer any incentives at this time. You can opt-out of Cision selling you personal information at any time by emailing Privacy@cision.com or calling toll-free on 877-297-8921.

California Privacy Rights under California’s Shine-the-Light Law 
Under California’s “Shine the Light” law (Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.83), California residents who provide us certain personal information are entitled to request and obtain from us, free of charge, information about the personal information (if any) we have shared with third parties for their own direct marketing use.  Such requests may be made once per calendar year for information about any relevant third party sharing in the prior calendar year. California residents who would like to make such a request may submit a request in writing to Privacy@cision.comor through our Resident Rights page here. 

The request should attest to the fact that the requester is a California resident, and provide a current California address.   

California Privacy Rights Statistics
Businesses subject to CCPA who process the personal information of 4 million California consumers are required to make available certain statistical information about the number of privacy rights request they receive. For information about the number of CCPA privacy rights requests we handle, please email Privacy@cision.com. 

Contact Us
If you have questions about our privacy practices or would like to make a complaint, please contact us at Privacy@cision.com 

This privacy notice was last updated on 5th June 2020