Cisco Online Privacy Statement

Cisco Systems, Inc. and its subsidiaries (collectively “Cisco”) are committed to protecting your privacy and ensuring you have a positive experience on our websites and in using our products and services ("Solution" or “Solutions”). This Privacy Statement applies to Cisco websites that link to this Statement but does not apply to those Cisco websites that have their own privacy statement. Our personal information handling practices are described below, in the supplements on the right, and in notices at the point of collection.

TRUSTe Certification

Cisco Systems, Inc. has been awarded TRUSTe's Privacy Seal signifying that this privacy policy and practices have been reviewed by TRUSTe for compliance with TRUSTe's program requirements including transparency, accountability and choice regarding the collection and use of your personal information. The TRUSTe program only covers information that is collected through the websites www.cisco.com, www.webex.com, and www.theflip.com. , and does not cover information that may be collected through any software downloaded from these websites. TRUSTe's mission, as an independent third party, is to accelerate online trust among consumers and organizations globally through its leading privacy trustmark and innovative trust solutions. If you have questions or complaints regarding our privacy policy or practices, please contact us at privacy@cisco.com. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact TRUSTe here. Cisco complies with the U.S. – E.U. Safe Harbor framework and the U.S. - Swiss Safe Harbor framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal data from European Union member countries and Switzerland. Cisco has certified that it adheres to the Safe Harbor Privacy Principles of notice, choice, onward transfer, security, data integrity, access, and enforcement. To learn more about the Safe Harbor program, and to view Cisco’s certification, please visit http://www.export.gov/safeharbor/.

Collection of Your Personal Information

We will inform you of the purpose for collecting personal information when we collect it from you and keep it to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, as required by applicable laws or for legitimate purposes. “Personal Information” is any information that can be used to identify an individual, and may include name, address, email address, phone number or payment card number. We collect Personal Information for a variety of reasons, such as processing your order, providing you with a newsletter subscription, enabling the use of certain features of our Solutions, personalizing your experience, managing a job application, or during the testing admissions process when a computer based certification test is administered to you (for more information about online testing, click here). We may combine the information we collect from you with information obtained from other sources to help us improve its overall accuracy and completenes, and to help us better tailor our interactions with you.

If you choose to provide third party Personal Information (such as name, email and phone number), we will assume that you have the third party's permission to provide us the information. Examples include forwarding reference material to a friend or job referrals. This information will not be used for any other purpose.

In some instances, Cisco may collect non-personal (aggregate or demographic) data through cookies, web logs, web beacons and other similar applications. This information is used to better understand and improve the usability, performance, and effectiveness of the website. Please read the “Cookies” section below for more information. In addition, by using some of our Solutions, anonymous network information may be transmitted to us such as the performance of the Solution and types of devices attached to the network. With this information we can determine how users are interacting with the Solution, to assist us with improving it, to manage your network, and to provide alerts via the Solution of available software updates/upgrades.

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Uses of Your Personal Information

We will only use your Personal Information in the way we specified when it was collected. We will not subsequently change the way your Personal Information is used without first asking for your permission. Some of the ways we may use Personal Information include to deliver a Solution that you have requested, support our Solutions, contact you for customer satisfaction surveys, personalize websites and newsletters to your preferences, administer and process your certification exams, or communicate for marketing purposes. You can edit your preferences at any time (see Your Choices and Selecting Your Communication Preferences below).

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Access to and Accuracy of Your Personal Information

We need your help in keeping your Personal Information accurate and up to date so please notify us of any changes to your Personal Information. To update your Personal Information and communication preferences, you can contact privacy@cisco.com. In addition, you may have the ability to view or edit your personal information online, including:

• Cisco.com – You can access and update your profile using the Cisco Profile Management Tool. You may also make these updates or request deactivation of your website profile by sending an email to web-help@cisco.com.
• Home.cisco.com (formerly Linksysbycisco.com) – You can access and update your profile by signing into your Online Account at http://home.cisco.com/. You may also make these updates or request deactivation of your website profile by sending an email to privacy@linksys.com.
• Webex.com - You can access and update your profile by signing into your user online account at http://try.webex.com/mk/get/profile. You may also make these updates or request deactivation of your website profile by sending an email to privacy@webex.com.
• TheFlip.com - You can access and update your profile by signing into your user online account at http://puredigital2.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/puredigital2.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php. You may also make these updates or request deactivation of your website profile by sending an email to remove@theflip.com.

We make good faith efforts to honor your reasonable request to access and correct your data if it is inaccurate or delete the data if we are not required to retain it by law or for legitimate purposes. We will respond to your request to access within 30 days.

For a list of Cisco entities that may be considered data controllers from time to time and where you can exercise your rights of access and request corrections or deactivations under applicable data protection laws, click here.

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Your Choices and Selecting Your Communication Preferences

We give you the choice of receiving a variety of information that complements our Solutions. You can manage your communication preferences and unsubscribe using one of the following methods:

• Each promotional email from us includes instructions on how you can unsubscribe from that particular mailing.
• Sending a message via email at privacy@cisco.com or via mail to Cisco Systems, Inc., Legal Department, 170 West Tasman Dr., San Jose, CA 95134, USA. Please be sure to include your name, email address and specific relevant information about the material that you no longer wish to receive.

These choices do not apply to the receipt of mandatory service communications that are considered part of certain Solutions, which you may receive periodically unless you cancel the Solution in accordance with its terms and conditions.

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Sharing Your Personal Information

We do not sell or share your Personal Information to third parties for marketing purposes unless you have granted us permission to do so. We will ask for your consent before we use or share your information for any purpose other than the reason you provided it or as otherwise provided by this Privacy Statement. We may share Personal Information in the following ways:

• Within Cisco or with any of our worldwide subsidiaries for purposes of data processing or storage.
• With business partners, service vendors, authorized third-party agents or contractors to provide a requested service or transaction, including processing orders and credit card transactions, hosting websites, hosting seminar registration and providing customer support. We only provide these third parties with the minimum amount of Personal Information necessary to complete/provide the requested service or transaction. We do not allow third parties to use your Personal Information for a different purpose.
• To comply with the law or legal process (such as responding to subpoenas or court orders) and to exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims.
• To investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected or potential fraud, brand protection matters (such as gray market sales or use of Cisco's trademark without a license), situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of Cisco’s terms of use, or as otherwise required by law.

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Security of Your Personal Information

We are committed to protecting the Personal Information you share with us and utilize a combination of industry-standard security technologies, procedures, and organizational measures to help protect your Personal Information from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. We recommend you to take every precaution in protecting your Personal Information when you are on the Internet. For example, change your passwords often, use a combination of letters and numbers when creating passwords, and make sure you use a secure browser. When you enter sensitive information on our forms, we encrypt this data using SSL or other technologies. Please visit our Learning Center for more tips for using security features when connected to the Internet using a router.

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Retention of Personal Information

We will only retain your Personal Information to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected or as required for legitimate purposes or permitted by law.

Use of Cookies and other Web Technologies

Like many websites, Cisco uses automatic data collection tools, such as cookies, embedded web links and web beacons. These tools collect certain standard information that your browser sends to our website such as your browser type and the address of the website from which you arrived at our website. They may also collect information about your Internet Protocol (IP) address (a number automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the Web, allowing Web servers to locate and identify your computer, which is a unique address assigned to your PC by your Internet Service Provider or Information Systems Department on a TCP/IP network) and clickstream behavior (for example, the pages you view and the links you click). These tools help make your visit to our website easier, more efficient and more valuable by providing you with a customized experience and recognizing you when you return. To learn more, read Cisco’s Use of Automatic Data Collection Tools.

Our website includes widgets, which are interactive mini-programs that run on our site to provide specific services from another company (e.g. displaying the news, opinions, music, etc). Personal information, such as your email address, may be collected through the widget. Cookies may also be set by the widget to enable it to function properly. Information collected by this widget is governed by the privacy policy of the company that created it. Our widget may have an import contacts feature to help you email your contacts. At your request, we will search your email address book to help you import your contacts to our website.

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Linked Websites

We may provide links to other third-party websites and services which are outside our control and not covered by this Privacy Statement. We encourage you to review the privacy statements posted on those websites (and all websites) you visit.

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Forums/Chat Rooms

If you participate in a discussion forum or chat room on a Cisco website, you should be aware that the information you provide there will be made broadly available to others, and can be read, collected or used by other users of these forums, potentially inside or outside Cisco, who have access to that discussion forum or chat room. This information could also be used to send you unsolicited messages. Also, please recognize that individual forums and chat rooms may have additional rules and conditions. Each participant’s opinion on a forum or chat room is his or her own and should not be considered as reflecting the opinion of Cisco. We are not responsible for the Personal Information or any other information you choose to submit in these forums.

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Children’s Privacy

Cisco does not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under the age of 13. If we learn that we have collected Personal Information of a child under the age of 13, we will delete that data from our systems. Please note that the Personal Information collected by Cisco Networking Academy (NetAcad) is subject to the privacy statement posted on the NetAcad websites along with any applicable privacy supplement.

Cisco encourages parents and guardians to go online with their children. Here are a few tips to help make a child’s online experience safer:

• Teach children never to give Personal Information (such as name, address, phone number, school, etc.) unless supervised by a parent or responsible adult.
• Know the sites your children are visiting and which sites are appropriate.
• Look for website privacy policies and know how your child’s information is treated.

For more tips on protecting children’s privacy online, please see Cisco’s Online Privacy Portal here or FTC’s website here.

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Consent to Transfer, Processing and Storage of Personal Information

As Cisco is a global organization, we may transfer your Personal Information to Cisco in the United States of America, to any Cisco subsidiary worldwide, or to third parties acting on our behalf, for the purposes of processing or storage. By providing any Personal Information to us, you fully understand and unambiguously consent to the transfer, processing and storage of such information outside of your country of residence where data protection standards may be different. Our Privacy Statement and our practices are designed to provide a globally consistent level of protection for Personal Information all over the world. This means that even in countries whose laws provide for less protection for your information, Cisco will still handle your information in the manner described here.

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Your California Privacy Rights

Residents of the State of California, under California Civil Code § 1798.83, have the right to request from companies conducting business in California a list of all third parties to which the company has disclosed Personal Information during the preceding year for direct marketing purposes. Alternatively, the law provides that if the company has a privacy policy that gives either an Opt-out or Opt-in choice for use of your Personal Information by third parties (such as advertisers) for marketing purposes, the company may instead provide you with information on how to exercise your disclosure choice options.

Cisco qualifies for the alternative option. We have a comprehensive privacy statement, and provide you with details on how you may either Opt-out or Opt-in to the use of your Personal Information by third parties for direct marketing purposes. Therefore, we are not required to maintain or disclose a list of the third parties that received your Personal Information for marketing purposes during the preceding year.

If you are a California resident and request information about how to exercise your third party disclosure choices, please send a request to privacy@cisco.com.

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How to Contact Us

We value your opinions. Should you have any privacy-related questions or comments related to this Privacy Statement, please send an email to privacy@cisco.com.

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Updates to this Cisco Privacy Statement

We may update this Privacy Statement at any time, so please review it frequently. If we change our Privacy Statement, we will post the revised version here, with an updated revision date. If we make significant changes to our Privacy Statement, we may also notify you by other means prior to the changes taking effect, such as sending an email or posting a notice on our website.

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REVISED AND POSTED AS OF: JANUARY 31, 2012. Please note this version does not substantively change the way we treat personal information compared to the previous version of the privacy statement available here.