Legal, privacy and terms of use

ChipNConnect is a professional digital networking platform promoted and managed by the Asociación Española de la Industria de Semiconductores (AESEMI).

As a general rule, AESEMI acts as the data controller for personal data processed directly through ChipNConnect. If a specific feature involves another entity acting in a different legal capacity, the corresponding additional information will be provided.

Purpose of the platform

ChipNConnect is designed to facilitate professional discovery and connections between individuals and organisations within the technology and semiconductor ecosystem. Among other features, it may allow users to create a professional profile, discover other profiles, express interest, create connections where interest is mutual, exchange messages, participate in groups, arrange meetings, reserve spaces associated with events, use an NFC/QR digital card, publish professional content and take part in opportunities or activities.

The availability of specific features may vary depending on the event, user type, platform configuration or technical evolution of the service.

Professional nature of the service

A suggestion, connection or match does not constitute a recommendation, certification, guarantee or endorsement by AESEMI of any person, company, opportunity or professional relationship. Each user must independently assess the information and opportunities received through the platform.

02 · Account & access

Certain features require an account. Users must provide accurate, up-to-date and non-misleading information, keep their credentials confidential and report any reasonable suspicion of unauthorised access.

It is not permitted to create accounts using false identities, impersonate third parties, use email addresses without authorisation, create accounts intended to circumvent blocks or security measures, or automate interactions without authorisation.

Passwords and authentication

Where ChipNConnect uses passwords, they will be stored using appropriate cryptographic mechanisms designed to prevent storage in plain text. The platform may also use one-time codes, email confirmations or other authentication and security mechanisms.

Verification

ChipNConnect may verify that a person controls an email address by means of a confirmation code or link. Certain profiles may also receive a verification status, for example where the address belongs to a domain previously recognised as belonging to an organisation in the ecosystem.

Verification only confirms the specific check indicated by the platform. It does not mean that AESEMI has comprehensively verified the person's legal identity, experience, job title, authority to represent an organisation, solvency or the accuracy of every statement contained in a profile.

Minimum age

ChipNConnect is intended for adults and registration is restricted to persons aged 18 or over. If AESEMI has reasonable grounds to believe that an account belongs to a minor, it may take the measures necessary to assess the situation and, where appropriate, suspend or delete the account.

03 · Privacy policy

AESEMI processes personal data in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (GDPR), Organic Law 3/2018 (LOPDGDD), Law 34/2002 (LSSI-CE) and any other rules applicable to each specific feature.

The principles of lawfulness, transparency, data minimisation, purpose limitation, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity, confidentiality, data protection by design and data protection by default apply.

Account data

We may process your first name, surname, email address, username, language, internal identifier, account status, registration date, activity date and the information necessary to verify, recover or protect the account.

Professional profile

Depending on what the user chooses to complete, the profile may include a photograph, job title, organisation, biography, professional areas, technologies, value-chain position, interests, what the user is looking for, what the user offers, professional links, website, LinkedIn and telephone number. Optional fields may be removed or modified from the account where the relevant functionality allows this.

Networking interactions

The platform may record profiles you are interested in, profiles you have dismissed or saved, matches, connections, participation in groups, saved events and other preferences required to provide the requested functions.

Messages and groups

To provide messaging functionality, we may process the sender, recipient, date, conversation, message content and the technical status information required for the service. In groups, membership, role, posts and messages made by members may be processed.

Meetings and reservations

To organise meetings, we may process participants, date, time, duration, room, format, acceptance status and the information users provide to coordinate the meeting. Where a room reservation is involved, staff responsible for the event may access the operational data necessary to manage the space and time slot.

Shared contact details

Your email address and telephone number do not have to be displayed publicly. Where a user chooses to share a contact detail with a specific connection, ChipNConnect may record which type of information was shared, with whom and when, in order to provide and maintain traceability for that feature.

Events, opportunities and content

We may process information about event registration or association, event codes, meetings, published content, opportunities, responses to opportunities, company profiles and the declared relationship between an individual and an organisation.

Security and moderation

We may process information relating to access attempts, anti-abuse measures, blocks, reports and moderation actions. Temporary counters and derived or pseudonymised identifiers may be used to limit repeated access or verification attempts. Ordinary security logs relating to incidents or anomalous access will generally be retained for a maximum of 90 days, unless they need to be kept for longer to investigate an incident, handle a claim, comply with a legal obligation or defend legal rights.

Notifications

ChipNConnect may send communications required to provide the service, such as access codes, verification notices, security alerts, meeting notices, reservation notices and significant account changes. Promotional or optional communications will be handled separately where consent is required.

Special categories of personal data

ChipNConnect is not designed to collect special categories of personal data — for example, information concerning health, racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, trade-union membership, genetic data, biometric data used for unique identification, sex life or sexual orientation. Users should avoid entering this type of information unless there is a specific feature, a legitimate need and the corresponding prior information and safeguards.

04 · Networking

ChipNConnect may rank or suggest profiles according to professional criteria such as declared interests, technologies, needs and capabilities, position in the value chain or participation in the same event.

These suggestions are intended to facilitate professional discovery. They do not, by themselves, produce legal effects or similarly significant decisions concerning the user. ChipNConnect does not automatically decide who should be hired, funded, admitted, sanctioned or selected.

Interest, dismissal and saved profiles

Unilateral signals such as “I'm interested”, dismissing or saving a profile are treated as private within the normal operation of the platform. The other person will only be informed of the interest where the logic of the feature establishes a mutual connection or match.

Visibility

Where these options are available, users may restrict the visibility of their profile, pause it, hide it from certain suggestions or remove optional information. Pausing a profile does not necessarily mean deleting the account or relationships created previously.

05 · Events & NFC/QR

ChipNConnect may associate an account with one or more events in order to enable networking, meetings, accreditation or access features. In that context, registration, attendance or interest data, access codes, meetings and reservations may be processed.

Digital card and NFC/QR media

A card, wristband, accreditation, QR code or other compatible medium may be linked to an account identifier to facilitate access to the professional profile. The purpose is for the medium to act as a key or link to the profile rather than as an independent store of unnecessary personal information.

The digital card will display the fields enabled for that feature. If ChipNConnect counts card openings, this metric may be limited to the number of accesses without necessarily identifying the specific person who opened it.

Loss or replacement

If a physical medium linked to the account is lost or is no longer under the user's control, AESEMI should be informed so that it can be revoked, unlinked or reassigned where necessary.

06 · Messages & content

ChipNConnect may allow users to publish professional information, messages, opportunities, comments, profiles, links, images or other content. The person publishing content is responsible for having the necessary rights and authorisations and for not including unlawful or confidential information without permission.

Users may not publish content that infringes third-party rights, intellectual or industrial property rights, trade secrets, confidentiality obligations or data-protection rules, or content that is fraudulent, threatening, harassing, malicious or intended to distribute spam.

Rights in user content

Users retain the rights they hold in the content they contribute. By publishing it, they grant AESEMI only the non-exclusive technical permissions necessary to host it, display it to persons who should have access, adapt it technically to devices, maintain operational copies and provide the requested functionality for as long as necessary.

Exceptional access to messages

The content of communications is not used for behavioural advertising. Access by authorised staff must be limited to situations where it is necessary to provide support, investigate a report or incident, protect security, comply with a legal obligation or defend legitimate rights.

07 · Recipients

Other users

Other users may only access information that is available to them according to the privacy settings, feature being used, existence of a connection, shared group or event, and any voluntary actions taken to share information.

AESEMI

Authorised AESEMI personnel may access the information necessary to administer the platform and events, provide support, manage incidents, apply security and moderation measures or comply with legal obligations. Access must be limited according to the person's functions.

Technology providers

AESEMI may use providers of hosting, infrastructure, storage, backups, email, automation, maintenance, support and security services. Where those providers process personal data on behalf of AESEMI, they must act as data processors subject to the contractual safeguards required by applicable law.

AESEMI does not sell the personal data of ChipNConnect users.

Authorities and legal obligations

Personal data may be disclosed to courts, law-enforcement bodies, administrative authorities or data-protection authorities where there is a legal obligation, a valid request or another sufficient legal basis.

International transfers

Where the use of a provider involves an international transfer of personal data outside the European Economic Area, AESEMI will use the applicable legal mechanism, such as an adequacy decision of the European Commission, Standard Contractual Clauses or another safeguard permitted under Articles 44 et seq. of the GDPR. Where appropriate, supplementary measures will be adopted according to the risk involved.

Further information about the safeguards used may be requested by writing to contact@aesemi.org.

08 · Data retention

Personal data will be retained only for as long as necessary for the relevant purpose and, afterwards, for any period required to comply with legal obligations or address potential liabilities.

Account deletion

When a user deletes their account or requests erasure, data that is no longer necessary will be deleted, anonymised or disassociated. Certain minimum information may remain blocked where required to comply with legal obligations, manage claims, investigate incidents or defend rights.

Deleting an account does not necessarily require deletion of information created by other people or data that must be preserved temporarily for legal or security reasons.

09 · Security & moderation

AESEMI will apply technical and organisational measures appropriate to the risk in order to protect the confidentiality, integrity and availability of personal data and restrict unauthorised access. The specific measures may evolve with the platform and will not be disclosed at a level of detail that could facilitate circumvention.

Blocking users

ChipNConnect may allow users to block other users. Blocking may prevent new messages, connections or mutual appearances in certain recommendations, depending on the configuration of the platform.

Reports

Users may report fake profiles, impersonation, harassment, spam, fraud, abuse, potentially unlawful content or breaches of these terms. To assess a report, AESEMI may process the identity of the accounts involved, the reason, the description, related content and the actions taken.

Moderation measures

Depending on the facts and their seriousness, AESEMI may warn the user, restrict features, hide or remove content, temporarily suspend an account or close it. Measures will be proportionate and, where legally required, the affected user will be informed of the reasons and available means of redress.

Security incidents

Where a personal-data breach occurs, AESEMI will assess its nature and risk and make the notifications required by the GDPR to the supervisory authority and, where applicable, to the affected individuals.

10 · Cookies & storage

ChipNConnect may use cookies, local storage, session storage, cache and equivalent mechanisms required to maintain authentication, protect the service, remember preferences or provide expressly requested features.

Strictly necessary technologies

Technologies strictly necessary to maintain a session, authenticate the user, protect forms or remember essential settings may be used without prior consent where permitted by applicable law.

Preferences

The browser may store information such as language, light or dark mode, guides already displayed or other interface preferences. Where a preference technology is not strictly necessary and requires consent, the relevant consent mechanism will apply.

Analytics and advertising

ChipNConnect does not use behavioural-advertising cookies or identifiers for the purpose of selling advertising profiles to third parties. If analytics cookies, advertising cookies or any other non-essential technology requiring consent are introduced in the future, they will not be activated before the user has had the opportunity to validly accept or reject their use.

Where a consent panel is provided, the options to accept and reject non-essential cookies will be presented clearly and with an equivalent level of accessibility.

11 · Rights

Subject to the conditions and requirements established by applicable law, you may exercise the following rights:

• access to your personal data;
• rectification of inaccurate or incomplete data;
• erasure where applicable;
• restriction of processing;
• objection to certain processing activities;
• data portability, where applicable;
• withdrawal of consent at any time in relation to processing based on consent.

Withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before its withdrawal.

Where ChipNConnect offers self-service tools, you may be able to edit your profile, manage its visibility, download information or request account deletion directly from the platform.

How to exercise your rights

You may write to contact@aesemi.org. Where there are reasonable doubts as to the identity of the person making the request, AESEMI may ask for additional information solely for identity-verification purposes.

Right to lodge a complaint

If you believe that the processing of your personal data does not comply with applicable law, you may lodge a complaint with the Spanish Data Protection Agency (Agencia Española de Protección de Datos — AEPD).

12 · Terms of use

ChipNConnect must be used lawfully, professionally and respectfully. Among other activities, users must not:

• harass, threaten, discriminate against or impersonate other people;
• engage in fraud, phishing or spam, or distribute malware;
• attempt to gain unauthorised access to accounts, conversations, groups, systems or databases;
• circumvent security controls, blocks or suspensions;
• extract profiles or data on a large scale through scraping or unauthorised automation;
• sell or reuse contact details for purposes incompatible with the context in which they were shared;
• publish unlawful content or infringe intellectual-property rights, trade secrets, confidentiality obligations or third-party rights;
• use bots or automated interaction systems without express authorisation.

Contact details obtained through the platform

The fact that a person voluntarily shares an email address or telephone number through a connection does not authorise its use for any purpose whatsoever. The information must be used in a manner compatible with the professional context in which it was shared and with applicable law.

13 · Intellectual property & liability

Unless otherwise indicated, the software, design, interface, documentation, original texts, visual identity, logos and other proprietary elements of ChipNConnect belong to AESEMI or are lawfully used under licence or authorisation. Trademarks and content provided by third parties belong to their respective owners.

External links

Profiles may include links to LinkedIn, corporate websites or other services. AESEMI does not necessarily control their content, availability or privacy practices, and the applicable terms should therefore be reviewed when leaving ChipNConnect.

Availability

AESEMI will seek to keep the service available and secure, although interruptions may occur due to maintenance, updates, incidents, provider issues or circumstances beyond its reasonable control.

Relationships between users

AESEMI provides networking infrastructure but does not guarantee that a user will respond, that a meeting will take place, that an opportunity will lead to an agreement, or that the information contained in a profile is suitable for a professional, commercial, technical or investment decision.

Nothing in these terms is intended to exclude or limit rights or liabilities that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited under applicable law.

14 · Changes & contact

AESEMI may update this document where ChipNConnect's features, technologies, data-processing activities or legal requirements change.

Relevant changes will be communicated in an appropriate manner. Where a new processing activity requires consent, that consent will be requested specifically. The privacy policy is informational in nature, and updating it does not by itself turn silence or mere continued use of the platform into consent for new processing activities that legally require a valid expression of the user's wishes.

Where acceptance of new Terms of Use is required, ChipNConnect may record the version accepted and the date, retaining only the information necessary to demonstrate that relationship.

Governing law and jurisdiction

These terms are governed by Spanish law and, where applicable, the law of the European Union. Any dispute will be submitted to the courts and tribunals having jurisdiction under the legally applicable rules, without limiting any mandatory rights available to the individual concerned.