Effective Date: April 1, 2017

General Information

VMware respects the privacy of our customers, business partners and other visitors to our websites. We recognize the need for appropriate protections and management of your personal information that you provide to us. VMware has therefore established this Privacy Policy to assist you to understand what personal information we collect and how that personal information is used. This Privacy Policy applies to data collected by VMware Inc. and its related entities in your jurisdiction ("VMware") through the vmware.com website, the My VMware mobile application, and other webpages which we operate and in which we post a direct link to this policy.

EU-US Safe Harbor

VMware adheres to the EU-US Safe Harbor Privacy Principles, as described in more detail in our General Safe Harbor Privacy Notice. If you are a website visitor from the European Economic Area or Switzerland, your personal information will be processed by VMware in line with this Privacy Policy and the General Safe Harbor Privacy Notice.

What personal information does VMware collect?

On VMware web sites you can order products or services, register products, request information, subscribe to marketing or support materials, register to a secure extranet site to obtain access to product information, support, services and training, or apply for jobs at VMware. VMware may collect information about individuals such as their name, address, telephone number or email address, user IDs and passwords, billing and transaction information, credit card or other financial information and contact preferences. Additionally, VMware may collect information about your interactions and experiences on our websites, such as which pages you visit, what content you view and how often you come to our sites. Personal information collected online may be supplemented with information you provide to VMware through other VMware services, as well as other sources such as trade shows or seminars, and other data appending methods such as spot tags, tracking and cookies as referenced below.

How does VMware use personal information?

VMware will use personal information to provide customers, business partners and website visitors with information, special offerings, sales alerts and services and to help us better understand your needs and interests. Specifically, we use your information to help you complete a transaction or order; to communicate with you; to deliver products/services to you; to improve our products, services, offerings, performance of our websites and the overall visitor experience; to bill you for products/services you purchased; and to provide ongoing service and support. If you do not provide us with your personal information, we may be unable to complete these functions. We may also pass on your information to a third party, such as a partner, if you have asked us to do so. Occasionally we may use your information to contact you to complete surveys that we use for marketing and quality assurance purposes.

With whom does VMware share personal information?

VMware contracts with third party service providers and suppliers (including distributors and resellers) to deliver certain products, services and customer solutions. VMware may share personal information with its service providers and suppliers to the extent needed to deliver the service or respond to requests for information on products or services or otherwise support the customers' business needs. Third party service providers and suppliers receiving personal information are expected to apply the same level of privacy protection as contained in this Privacy Policy. They are required to keep confidential the personal information received from VMware and may not use it for any purpose other than as originally intended.

Some VMware services may be co-branded and offered in conjunction with another company. If you register for or use such services, both VMware and the other company may receive information collected in conjunction with the co-branded services.

Except as described in this Privacy Policy, VMware is not in the business of selling or renting your information to others and will not share personally identifiable information with other third parties without your permission, unless required by, or in connection with, law enforcement action, subpoena or other litigation, or applicable law or in connection with a prospective or actual sale, merger, transfer or other reorganization of all or parts of our business, or within the group of affiliated VMware companies, if and to the extent legally permissible.

We reserve the right to fully use and disclose any information that is not in personally identifiable form.

Transfer of Your Information to Other Countries

Given that the Internet is a global environment and VMware a global business, using the Internet to collect and process your information necessarily involves the transmission and storage of data on an international basis. Therefore, by using our website and applications and communicating electronically with us, you acknowledge our processing of your information in this way. In addition, we may share your information with other VMware affiliates, subsidiaries and service providers for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, some of whom may be based in international territories (e.g. the United States, Canada, India, and Ireland) which have data protection standards that are different to those in your country of residence. However, we will take steps to ensure that all information collected through our website and applications is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. 

VMware recognizes the Safe Harbor framework for the transfer of personal data to the USA has been invalidated by the European Court of Justice. We will take adequate contractual or other steps to protect the relevant personal data in accordance with European and/or Swiss data protection law. Additionally, VMware's self-certification commitments remain and we continue to comply with the principles under the US-EU Safe Harbor and US- Swiss Safe Harbor framework. For further information on Safe Harbor and its status, please visit https://safeharbor.export.gov/list.aspx.

Communication Preferences

If you would like to receive or unsubscribe from receiving marketing communications, please click here http://info.vmware.com/content/subscription.

Access and Correction

If you would like to request access to or have a correction made to personal information that we may have collected from you (possibly subject to handling fees), please contact privacy@vmware.com. To protect your privacy and security, we may take steps to verify your identity, such as a password and user ID, before granting access to data.

We will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services. If you wish to cancel your account or request that we no longer use your information to provide you services contact us at privacy@vmware.com. We will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.

Security of Personal Information

VMware is committed to taking reasonable efforts to secure the personal data you choose to provide us. To protect the privacy of any personal information you may have provided, VMware employs industry-standard controls including physical access controls, encryption, Internet firewalls, intrusion detection, and network monitoring. In addition, access to confidential information is limited to those individuals and agents having a need to know.

Forums and Blogs

Some of VMware's websites allow our users to publish content via discussion forums, blogs, user-editable documents, and commenting systems. Any information that is disclosed in these forums becomes public information which could be read, collected or used by other users to send you unsolicited messages. We are not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit in these forums. You should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information.

VMware may, from time to time, send an email regarding our products and services to users who have posted to our discussion forums, blogs, user-editable documents, and commenting systems. Each participant's opinion expressed is his or her own and should not be considered as reflecting the opinion of VMware. Note also that your use of these online communication tools is subject to our Terms of Use, which contain disclaimers, limitations of liability and a choice of California law. Personal information given to VMware may be transferred across state and country borders for data consolidation, storage and simplified information management.

Cookies, Logging and Spotlight Tags

VMware uses cookies on some of its web sites. Information collected by cookies (as described below) may be tagged to your personal information, including your contact information, device information or other personal information which you have provided to VMware.

Cookies are small amounts of data sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer’s hard drive. Cookies can help a website recognize repeat users and allow a website to track web usage behavior. Cookies work by assigning a number to the user that has no meaning outside of the assigning website. If a cookie is placed, thereafter when you visit a web site, a message is sent back to the web server by the browser accessing the web site. You can set your browser to notify you when you are sent a cookie, and you may also elect not to accept cookies by changing the designated settings on your web browser. However, not utilizing cookies may prevent you from using certain functions and features of web sites.

VMware uses some cookies that are strictly necessary for the delivery of services on our website. Cookies that are strictly necessary allow us to improve the safety and security of our website, authenticate account users, allow you to access your private accounts on our site, allow you to sign into many portals with the use of only one login, balance the traffic on our site, and remember information that you have submitted on forms when you request services on our site.

VMware also uses cookies to improve our services and personalize your web-browsing experience, such as by gaining a better understanding of your interests and requirements regarding our website. Cookies that VMware uses to improve your website experience may remember your language and site preferences, invite you to participate in surveys and evaluations, show you when you are logged into our system and allow you to remain logged-in for a period of time, provide you with support services including our live chat service, remember your login information, and prepopulate forms that you have already completed.

VMware also uses 'performance' cookies that collect information about how you use and navigate through our websites, including which pages and content you visit, and if you experience any errors. These cookies provide statistics on how our website is used and how often you visit our site. Performance cookies help us improve our website by measuring any errors, test different designs on our site, and help us measure the traffic on our site so that we can optimize our content accordingly.

Some VMware pages use cookies that permit select third party partners, including Google, Adobe, Oracle and Demandbase, to serve you VMware-related content, including VMware advertisements, on their sites or elsewhere on the Internet. This is based on your prior visits to our site. Additionally, third parties may use cookies to allow you to link to social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, collect information about page visits, and may analyze your activity and your purchase selections in our online store. As noted above, you can set your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether to accept it. You can control whether or not these cookies are used, but preventing them may stop us from offering you some services. Alternatively you may use the third parties' own tools to prevent these cookies. You may also opt out of Google's use of cookies by visiting http://www.google.com/privacy/ads/, and you may opt out of Adobe’s use of cookies and web beacons by visiting http://www.adobe.com/privacy/opt-out.html#4  

As is true of most websites, VMware collects and/or logs Internet Protocol addresses, Internet domain names, the web browser and operating system used to access the VMware web site, the website visitor’s location, the files visited, the time spent in each file, and the time and date of each visit. VMware collects these through the use of log files and web beacons.

Links to Non-VMware Websites and Third Parties

The VMware web sites may provide links to third-party web sites for your convenience and information. If you access those links, you will leave the VMware website. VMware does not control those sites or their privacy practices, which may differ from VMware policy. We do not endorse or make any representations about third party web sites. The personal data you choose to give to unrelated third parties is not covered by the VMware Privacy Policy. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any company before submitting your personal information. Some third party companies may choose to share their personal data with VMware; that sharing is governed by that third party company's privacy policy.

Hosted Data

VMware's obligations with respect to personal data that may be accessed due to VMware's role as a cloud services and Infrastructure-as-a-Service provider, such as personal data stored or transferred by customers through VMware's hosted service offerings, including VMware vCloud® Air™ , are defined in our agreements with our customers and are not governed by this Privacy Policy.

Contact Information and Complaints Process

If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy or believe that the privacy of your personal information has not been respected, you may submit a complaint in writing to the attention of VMware's Office of the General Counsel, 3401 Hillview Ave, Palo Alto, California, 94304 or email: privacy@vmware.com. If you have an unresolved privacy or data use concern that we have not addressed satisfactorily, please contact our U.S.-based third party dispute resolution provider (free of charge) at https://feedback-form.truste.com/watchdog/request. You may also contact the competent local data protection authority.

In order for us to deal with your complaint, you will need to provide us with sufficient details regarding your complaint together with any supporting evidence.

We will refer your complaint to our Privacy Team who will investigate the issue and determine the steps that we will undertake to resolve your complaint. We will contact you if we require any additional information from you.

Changes to this Policy

VMware will review and update this Privacy Policy periodically and will note the date of its most recent revision above. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes prior to implementing the changes or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy frequently to be informed of how VMware is protecting your information.