NETSCOUT Systems, Inc. Privacy Policy

Last updated and effective: December 18, 2024

This Privacy Policy explains how information about you is collected, used, disclosed and/or otherwise processed online and offline by NetScout Systems, Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliated companies (“NetScout”) (collectively, “we”, “our” or “us”) when you:

• Use our website (www.netscout.com or the “Site”), mobile applications, online products and services provided by us, or our maintenance and professional services (collectively the “Services”);
• Request quotes, services, support, downloads, trials, white papers or information;
• Place orders for products or Services or register for events or webinars;
• Apply for credit or financing;
• Participate in surveys, sweepstakes or other promotional activities online or in any other venue;
• Subscribe to newsletters, programs, promotional emails or other materials;

Changes to This Privacy Policy

To the extent permitted by applicable law, we reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you by revising the “Last Updated and Effective” date and, in some cases, we may provide you with additional notice (such as by adding a statement to our homepage or by sending you a notification using contact information you have provided). Your continued use of our Sites and Services or continued interaction with us after the effective date of the revised Privacy Policy (or such other act as specified in the revised Privacy Policy) will, to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, constitute your consent to those changes. However, we will provide notice and obtain your consent (opt-in or opt-out) if required by law. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy whenever you access the Sites and Services to stay informed about our personal information handling practices, your rights regarding your personal information, and the ways you can help protect your privacy.

General Audience

The Site is for general audiences and is not intended for use by anyone younger than the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from individuals younger than age 18.

Collection of Information

We collect information from you when you interact with us through our Sites or Services, such as your name and contact information. Some of this information may be considered personal information under various applicable laws. We consider information that identifies you as a specific individual (such as your name, phone number, and email address) to be personal information and we treat additional information, such as IP addresses and cookie identifiers, as personal information where required by applicable law. You may also provide demographic information (your age or gender) and information about your interests and preferences. If we combine other information with personal information, we will treat it as personal information under this Privacy Policy. In addition, some services on the Site allow you to pay online, and therefore require that you supply us with information associated with your credit card, banking account, or other accepted form of payment.

Note that we may de-identify personal information we have collected about you. For example, we may use a mathematical process (commonly known as a hash function) to convert information into a code. The code does not identify you directly, but it may be used to connect your activity and interests.

California residents, please see the “Notice to California Residents” section below for additional information on our information collection, use, and sharing practices.
Information You Provide to Us

Information You Provide to Us

We may ask you to provide certain information to us when you use the Sites or Services. For example, you may provide personal information to us when you use or access our Services, including any interactive areas of our Services, participate in a contest or promotion, complete a product or Services-related survey, sign up to receive one of our newsletters, communicate with us via third-party social media sites, request customer support, or register to a secure extranet site to obtain access to webinars, product information, support, Services and training, or otherwise communicate with us. The types of information we may collect include your name, email address, account username, password and/or responses to security questions, address, phone number, device and tool information related to your account (e.g., serial number and date purchased), payment information, service activation codes, photographs, videos, diagrams, notes, and any other information you choose to provide.

Community Forums

NetScout’s Site may also provide online newsgroups, chat forums and blogs for our users. Any information that you disclose in these forums could become public information, which could be read, collected or used by other users. If you choose to voluntarily disclose personal information, that information will be considered public information and the protections of this Privacy Policy will not apply. You should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information in such cases. Your use of our Site is also subject to the Terms of Use. Please review the Terms of Use (https://www.netscout.com/legal/terms-and-conditions/) for additional detail regarding your use of our Site.

Information We Collect Automatically When You Use the Services

When you access or use our Services, we may automatically collect certain information, which could include personal information, such as:

• Log Information: We log information about your use of the Services, including your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, the type of browser you use, access times, pages viewed, number of clicks, and the pages you visited before navigating to our Services.
• Device Information: We collect information about the computer or mobile device you use to access our Services, or information about certain NetScout tools or devices you use, including the hardware model, MAC address, operating system and version, unique device identifiers and mobile network information.
• Network Information: We may collect information about your network, such as information about connected devices, nodes, configurations, connection speeds and network and application performance.
• Location Information: If you have given us your prior permission (or as otherwise permitted pursuant to applicable law), we may collect information about the location of your mobile device, or NetScout device or tool, each time you access or use one of our mobile applications, devices or tools. We may also be able to collect or infer your approximate location through information we collect, such as an IP address. For more details, please see “Your Choices” below.
• Usage Information: We, and our third-party service providers (including advertisers and analytics providers), may use a variety of technologies that automatically or passively collect certain usage information whenever you use our Site, products and Services (“Usage Information”). Usage Information may include the browser and operating system you are using, the URL or advertisement that referred you to our Site, the search engine search terms that led you to our Site (if applicable), and other information such as how often the Site, products and/or Services are used, the duration and quality of use, the types of use (e.g. data creation, storage, access, deletion), calibration data, project configuration data and operator data.
• Information Collected by Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies: Cookies and other tracking technologies such as web beacons/tags, local shared objects (collectively, “Cookies”) are used to enhance your experience by allowing us to tailor our content based on your interests and distinguish you from other users of our Services.
• Cookies. Cookies consist of small files of letters and numbers that we store on your browser or the hard drive of your device. Information collected by Cookies may be tagged to your contact information, device information or other personal information that you have provided to NetScout. For instance, Cookies can contain information, such as your user ID or preferences, which we use to personalize content, track the pages you’ve visited, or to save your password so you do not have to re-enter it each time you visit our Services. We use the following types of Cookies:
  • Strictly Necessary Cookies. These are Cookies necessary to make our Services function as intended. They include, for example, Cookies that enable you to use a shopping cart.
  • Functionality Cookies. These Cookies enable us to personalize our content for you, greet you by name and remember your preferences (for example, your choice of language or region). They may also be used to recognize you when you return to our Services.
  • Analytical/Performance Cookies. These Cookies allow us to recognize and count the number of visitors to, and to see how visitors move around, our Services. This helps us to improve the way our Services work, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.
  • Third-party Advertising Cookies. We may allow third parties to place Cookies on your device for advertising and analytics purposes. For information on how to opt-out of these cookies, click here

You can learn more about Cookies by visiting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie; and opt-out of certain Cookies by visiting your browser or device settings, including in some cases to prevent their installation altogether. Although rejecting certain Cookies will not interfere with your ability to interact with most of our Services, certain functions and/or Services might be unavailable to you if you reject certain Cookies.

NetScout uses and allows certain third-party Cookies on our Site to help us understand what product information is of most interest to you, to send advertisements tailored to your interests (interest-based advertising), and to measure the effectiveness of such advertising and other information. These third-party Cookies collect and analyze certain types of personal information, including IP address, browser type, system language, screen resolution metrics, ISP, pages visited and URLs of web pages that referred visitors to the Site, OS version, Geo Location, time zone, date time stamp, time spent on pages, and clickstream data session information and other similar information. The third-party Cookies may collect such personal information on our Site and combine the information collected with other information from other websites and/or other online or mobile products and services you may use or visit.

Please see below for additional information on Third Party Analytics and Advertising Companies and the tracking technologies they use and your choices.

• Web Beacons. We may also use web beacons (small graphic images or other web programming code, also known as "1x1 GIFs" or "clear GIFs") and similar technologies on our Sites and within our communications to you. Web beacons can recognize certain types of information on your computer such as cookies, the time and date a page is viewed, and a description of the page where the web beacon is placed. Web beacons or similar technologies may be used for a number of purposes, including, without limitation, to count visitors to the Sites, to monitor how users navigate the Sites, to count how many e-mails that were sent were actually opened or to count how many particular articles or links were actually viewed and to improve your experience on the Sites, including to provide you with content customized to your interests. Our web beacons may collect some contact information (for example, the email address associated with an email message that contains a web beacon).
• Embedded Scripts. An embedded script is programming code that is designed to collect information about your interactions with the Sites, such as the links you click on. The code is temporarily downloaded onto your device from our web server or a third-party service provider, is active only while you are connected to the Sites and is deactivated or deleted thereafter.

Do Not Track

Some Internet browsers may be configured to send “Do Not Track” signals to the online services that you visit. There is no consensus among industry participants as to what “Do Not Track” means in this context. Like many websites and online services, we do not alter our practices when we receive a “Do Not Track” signal from a visitor’s browser, except as specifically required by law. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” please visit www.allaboutdnt.com.

Use of Information

Where we need specific consent to a form of processing under applicable law, such as the collection of personal information regarding your location, or the use of your personal information for marketing, we will obtain such consent in the manner described in this Privacy Policy or as otherwise required by law.

We may use your personal information as follows:

• To provide, maintain and improve our products and Services or otherwise for internal business purposes;
• To provide and deliver the products and Services you request, process transactions and send you related information, including confirmations and invoices;
• To resolve technical issues related to products and Services, and send you technical notices, updates, security alerts and support and administrative messages;
• To respond to your comments, questions and requests, and provide customer service;
• To communicate with you about products, services, offers, free trials, surveys, contests, promotions, rewards and events offered by us and others regarding the Services, and provide news and information we think will be of interest to you, including through electronic communications with your consent or where otherwise permitted by applicable law; (please see “Your Choices” below);
• To monitor and analyze trends, usage and activities in connection with our products, Services and related tools and those of third parties, with your consent or where otherwise permitted by applicable law;
• To personalize and improve our products and Services, and provide advertisements, content or features that match your user profile(s) or interests, with your consent or where otherwise permitted by applicable law;
• To process and deliver contest entries and rewards;
• To link or combine with information we get from others to help understand your needs and provide you with better service, with your consent or where otherwise permitted by applicable law; and
• To carry out any other purpose which is compatible with the purpose for which the information was collected or otherwise as disclosed to you at the time you provide your information or with your consent.

In order to process your personal information, we may rely on your consent, our legitimate interest in customizing and providing our products and Services, and the need to process your personal information in order to provide our products and Services to you, as our legal basis (where required) for collecting your personal information.

Location and Transfer of Personal Data

Your personal information will be stored at our offices or on our servers and those of our Service Providers (defined below), which may be in the United States or other countries in which we do business and whose data protection laws may differ from the jurisdiction in which you live.

If you are in the European Economic Area / United Kingdom / Switzerland

Transfers of users’ personal data who are located in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), the United Kingdom (“UK”) and Switzerland to the US and other non-UK / EEA / Swiss jurisdictions (as applicable) will be made pursuant to appropriate safeguards, including:

a)    ensuring that the personal data is transferred to countries recognized by the European Commission, the UK Secretary of State or under Swiss law (as applicable) as offering an equivalent level of protection; or

b)    ensuring that such transfer is to a third party who uses appropriate safeguards in respect of the processing in question, including but not limited to the standard contractual clauses (including as amended in compliance with the requirements under UK and Swiss law), which are recognized as offering adequate protection for the rights and freedoms of data subjects, as determined by the European Commission, the UK Secretary of State or under Swiss law (as applicable).

We may transfer your personal data to, or store your personal data in, the following countries:

Data Privacy Framework (DPF)

NetScout Systems, Inc. and its U.S. affiliates and subsidiaries, including: Arbor Networks, Inc.; NetScout Systems Federal Corp.; NetScout Systems Security Corp.; NetScout Systems Texas, LLC.; and Newfield Wireless (collectively, “NetScout,” “we,” “our” or “us”) complies with the Data Privacy Framework Program, including the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, and the U.K. Extension and the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (as applicable) (the “DPF”) as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information transferred from the EEA, UK and Switzerland to the United States.

NetScout has certified to the Department of Commerce (“DOC”) that it adheres to the DPF and is included in the DOC’s Data Privacy Framework List. If there is any conflict between the terms in this privacy policy and the DPF, the DPF shall govern. To learn more about the DPF, and to view our certification, please visit https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov/

We are responsible for the processing of personal information we receive under the DPF or subsequently transfer to a third party acting as an agent on our behalf. We comply with the DPF for all onward transfers of personal information from the EEA (and as applicable, UK and Switzerland). We remain liable under the DPF if third-party agents that we engage to process personal data on our behalf do so in a manner inconsistent with the DPF, unless we prove that we are not responsible for the event giving rise to the damage.

In certain situations, we may be required to disclose personal information in response to lawful requests by public or government authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. With respect to personal data received or transferred pursuant to the DPF, NetScout is subject to the regulatory investigation and enforcement powers of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Pursuant to the DPF, EEA (and as applicable, UK and Swiss) individuals have the right to obtain our confirmation of whether we maintain personal information relating to you in the United States. Upon request, we will provide you with access to the personal information that we hold about you. You may also correct, amend, or delete the personal information we hold about you. An individual who seeks access, or who seeks to correct, amend, or delete inaccurate data received in or transferred to the United States under the DPF, should direct their query here. If requested to remove data, we will respond within a reasonable timeframe.

We will provide an individual opt-out choice, or opt-in for sensitive data, before we share your data with third parties other than our agents, or before we use it for a purpose other than which it was originally collected or subsequently authorized. To request to limit the use and disclosure of your personal information, please submit a written request hre. Applicable law allows certain exceptions to your ability to opt out, but where applicable law permits us to retain and continue to use your personal data and we do so, we will do so only to the extent permitted or required by law. If you contact us to opt out, we will explain the options available and comply with your request as required by the DPF principles and applicable law.

In compliance with the DPF principles, NetScout commits to resolve complaints about our collection or use of your personal information. EEA (and as applicable, UK and Swiss) individuals with inquiries or complaints regarding our DPF policy should first contact NetScout here.

If your complaint involves human resources data transferred to the United States from the EEA (and as applicable, the UK and/or Switzerland) in the context of the employment relationship, and NetScout does not address it satisfactorily, NetScout commits: (a) to cooperate with the panel established by the EU data protection authorities (DPA Panel), and, as applicable the UK Information Commissioner’s Office, and/or the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner; and (b) to reasonably comply with the advice given by the DPA panel and/or Commissioner, as applicable with regard to such human resources data. To pursue an unresolved human resources complaint, you should contact the state or national data protection or labor authority in the appropriate jurisdiction. Contact details for the EU data protection authorities can be found at https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en.

In compliance with the EU-U.S. DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF and the Swiss-U.S. DPF, NetScout commits to refer unresolved complaints concerning our handling of personal data received in reliance on the EU-U.S. DPF and the UK Extension to the EU-U.S. DPF and the Swiss-U.S. DPF to the BBB National Programs Dispute Resolution Process, an alternative dispute resolution provider based in the United States. If you do not receive timely acknowledgment of your DPF Principles-related complaint from us, or if we have not addressed your DPF Principles-related complaint to your satisfaction, please visit https://bbbprograms.org/programs/all-programs/dpf-consumers/ProcessForConsumers for more information or to file a complaint. Recourse to the BBB National Programs is provided at no cost to you. If your complaint cannot be resolved through the above channels, under certain conditions, you may invoke binding arbitration for some residual claims not resolved by other redress mechanisms. Further information can be found here: https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov/framework-article/ANNEX-I-introduction.

Sharing of Information

NetScout may share non-personal information, which may include Usage Information and hashed, aggregated or otherwise de-identified data, with third parties. NetScout does not share your personal information with unaffiliated third parties for their own marketing purposes without your consent (which may consist of offering you the opportunity to either opt-in or opt-out of such sharing). We may share the information we have collected about you, including personal information, as disclosed at the time you provide us with information or with your consent, and as described below or elsewhere in this Privacy Policy – all as permitted by applicable law.

When you Consent to Sharing or Request that We Share Your Information

We may share your personal information with your consent or at your direction, such as through an external application programming interface (“API”). The Site may also contain registration forms or other features that provide you the ability to opt-in or opt-out of sharing information about you with one or more third parties. If you agree at that time to have your personal information shared, your personal information will be disclosed to that third party (or parties) and will be subject to the privacy policy and practices of that third party. We are not responsible for the privacy policies and practices of third parties, and, if you later decide that you no longer want to receive communications from a third party, you will need to contact that third party directly. You also may request, sometimes through your use of an interactive feature, a widget or third-party application, that we share information about you or your use of the Sites with a third party, and we will typically do so under those circumstances.

Third Party Service Providers

NetScout contracts with business partners, suppliers, service providers, authorized third-party agents or contractors (“Service Providers”) in order to provide requested products, Services or transactions, including processing orders, processing credit card transactions, hosting websites, hosting event and seminar registrations, and providing customer support. NetScout may share personal information with its Service Providers (or allow them to collect information from or about you) to the extent needed to deliver the products or Services or respond to requests for information on products or Services or otherwise support your business needs or interests. In these instances, they may contact you directly regarding such products or services. We will only provide these Service Providers with the minimum amount of personal information necessary to complete the requested service or transaction and we require that they treat personal information consistent with the terms contained in this Privacy Policy. Unless otherwise dictated by law or agreement, NetScout is not responsible for any improper use by such Service Providers.

Affiliates and Subsidiaries

We may share your personal information with our affiliates and subsidiaries worldwide for data processing or storage purposes, or as otherwise outlined in this Privacy Policy.

Distributors, Resellers and Other Partners

We may share your personal information with distributors, resellers, channel partners and others in connection with the sale and marketing of products and services offered by NetScout or on behalf of NetScout with your prior permission or where otherwise permitted by applicable law (please see “Your Privacy Rights” below for more information about your choices with respect to this type of sharing).

Administrative or Legal Reasons

We may share your personal information in response to a request for information if we believe disclosure is in accordance with any applicable law, regulation or legal process, if we believe your actions are inconsistent with the spirit or language of our user agreements or policies, or to protect our rights, property and safety and the rights, property and safety of others, or as otherwise required or permitted by any applicable law, rule or regulation.

Sweepstakes, Contests and Promotions

We may share your personal information in connection with sweepstakes, contests or other promotions that may require registration and otherwise in connection with administration of such promotion, including winner selection, prize fulfillment or as specified in the promotion’s official rules and share your personal information that may be collected.

Where necessary in connection with, or during negotiations of (including due diligence), any merger, sale of company assets, financing or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company, subject to our taking such further steps as may be required by applicable law.

Third Party Analytics Providers and Advertising Companies

The Site may contain content served by third parties, including videos and advertisements, and we work with third party service providers to serve NetScout advertisements elsewhere online. In connection with serving content and providing analytics and advertising services, third parties may collect certain information about your visits to this or other web sites, and we may receive information regarding the use of the Sites and the effectiveness of our advertisements. These third parties may set and access their own tracking technologies on your device (including cookies and web beacons) and may otherwise collect or have access to information about your visits to and activity on the Service as well as other web sites or online services. Some of these parties may collect personal information from you over time when you visit the Site.

Cookies and web beacons used by us and on the Site, including those set by third party network advertisers, may be used to, among other things, target advertisements, prevent you from seeing the same advertisements too many times and to conduct research regarding the usefulness of certain advertisements to you. We may share Usage Information about visitors with third party advertising companies, analytics providers and other third parties for similar purposes. While we may use a variety of service providers to perform advertising and analytics services, some of these companies are members of the Network Advertising Initiative ("NAI”) or the Digital Advertising Alliance ("DAA") Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. You may want to visit https://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp, which provides information regarding targeted advertising and the "opt-out" procedures of NAI members. You may also want to visit or https://www.aboutads.info/choices/, which provides information regarding targeted advertising and offers an “opt-out” by participating companies in the DAA Self-Regulatory Program. To learn more and make choices about interest-based advertisements from participating third parties in jurisdictions outside of the United States, please visit the Canadian DAA online choice page at https://youradchoices.ca/choices/, the European DAA online choice page at https://youronlinechoices.eu and Australian DAA online choice page at https://www.youronlinechoices.com.au/opt-out/.

For mobile apps, you may be able to limit certain advertising practices using the settings on your phone, tablet or other mobile device. Also, on most mobile devices, you can install the DAA's AppChoices app to make choices about cross-app interest-based advertisements from participating third parties. You may review additional information on opting out of mobile devices at https://www.networkadvertising.org/mobile-choice/.

Please note opting out through these mechanisms does not opt you out of being served advertising. You will continue to receive generic ads while online.

If you are a California resident, please see our “Notice to California Residents” section below regarding additional rights you have, including how to exercise your “Do Not Sell” right.

Social Sharing Features

The Services may offer social sharing features and other integrated tools (such as the Facebook “Like” button, and the LinkedIn and Twitter “Follow” buttons), which let you share actions you take on our Services with other media, and vice versa. The use of such features enables the sharing of information with your friends or the public, depending on the settings you establish with the entity that provides the social sharing feature. Doing so may allow us to collect (or the third party to share) information about you, including without limitation personal information. We may also receive information about you if other users of social media give us access to their profiles and you are one of their “connections.” The information we collect is subject to this privacy policy. For more information about the purpose and scope of data collection and processing in connection with social sharing features, please visit the privacy policies of the entities that provide these features. We accept no responsibility for the privacy practices of these entities.

If you choose to use our referral service to tell a friend about a page on netscout.com, we will ask you for your friend’s name and email address, which we understand you are authorized to provide. We will automatically send your friend a one-time email inviting him or her to visit the Site. NetScout does not store this information.

Third Party Content and Links to Other Sites

Third parties may host or serve certain content on the Site. The Site may also contain links to third party web sites or features that NetScout does not control. Third parties whose content appears on the Sites may collect information about you through the use of their own cookies and web beacons, may independently collect or solicit personal information, and may have the ability to track your use of their sites and services. Likewise, NetScout widgets or other NetScout content may be included on third parties’ web pages and web sites that are not associated with NetScout and over which we have no control. NetScout may collect Usage Information through NetScout content appearing on third-party sites.

NetScout is not responsible for the privacy practices employed by any third party, and our hosting of third-party content, linking to third party websites, or the appearance of NetScout content on third party websites does not constitute sponsorship or endorsement of the content or business practices of those third parties.

Security

The security of your personal information is very important to NetScout. We have in place physical, administrative, and technical safeguards designed to protect your personal information. In addition, NetScout uses standard security protocols and mechanisms to exchange the transmission of sensitive information, such as credit card details.

While we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot ensure the security of the information you transmit. We recommend you 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 use a secure browser.

Changing Your Preferences and Access, Updating or Deleting Your Personal Information

If you choose to not provide certain personal information, you may not be able to proceed with the activity or receive the benefit for which the personal information is being requested.

You can always unsubscribe or choose your preferred method of communication from us by following the specific instructions in the email you receive. Or you may opt-in to receiving communications by using the Communications Preference Center. You may also choose to opt out of NetScout contacting you for marketing purposes by email, postal mail, fax and/or phone by submitting a Consumer and Data Subject Request Web Form here, by calling us at 1-800-357-7666, or writing to us at 310 Littleton Road, Westford, MA 01866. If you opt out, we may still send you non-marketing communications, such as those about your account or our ongoing business relations. In countries where required by law, NetScout will offer you the opportunity to opt-in before promotional materials are sent to you. This will not apply to the receipt of mandatory communications that are considered part of certain NetScout Services, which you may receive periodically unless you cancel the Service.

You are responsible for maintaining the accuracy of the information you submit to us, such as your contact information. NetScout strives to keep your personal information accurate. We have implemented technology, management processes and policies to maintain personal information integrity. We will provide you with access to your personal information when reasonable, or in accordance with relevant laws, including making reasonable effort to provide you with online access and the opportunity to change your personal information. To protect your privacy and security, we will take steps to verify your identity before granting access or making changes to your personal information. Requests to delete personal information are subject to any applicable legal and ethical reporting or document retention obligations. To request access, deletion and/or correction of your information, you can do so by logging into your online account or submitting a Consumer and Data Subject Request Web Form here, or by contacting us by phone at 1-800-357-7666, 978-614-4000, or by mail at NetScout Systems, Inc., Data Privacy Office, 310 Littleton Road, Westford, MA, USA, 01866. When contacting us, please provide your name, title, company name, and email address. Your request will be answered within a reasonable timeframe, consistent with applicable law. Please note that we may charge a small fee for complying with the above requests where permitted by applicable law. In addition to the above rights, depending on your location, you may have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

California residents, please see our “Notice to California Residents” section below for additional information about California privacy rights.

Third Party Marketing Opt-Out

As described above, we may share personal information with third parties for marketing purposes in relation to our products and Services with your prior permission or where otherwise permitted by applicable law. To opt out of having your personal information shared in this way, please submit a Consumer and Data Subject Request Web Form here.

California residents, please see our “Notice to California Residents” section below for additional information about California privacy rights.

Account Information

If you wish to deactivate or delete your account, please submit a Consumer and Data Subject Request Web Form here, but note that we may retain certain personal information as required by law or for legitimate business purposes. We may also retain cached or archived copies of personal information for a reasonable period.

California residents, please see our “Notice to California Residents” section below for additional information about California privacy rights.

Location Information

As described above, we may collect location information when you use certain NetScout devices or tools. You may choose not to share location information through the account settings on your device. If you deactivate the collection of location information, certain features of our devices or tools may no longer function.

Push Notifications/Alerts/SMS OR MMS Messages

With your consent, we may send push notifications or alerts to your mobile device for updates and communications related to the Services. You can deactivate these messages at any time by changing the notification settings on your mobile device. If you sign up to receive SMS or MMS messages that may be offered on the Site, you may unsubscribe from any text messages received by replying “STOP”.

Retention

We will retain your personal information in accordance with our data retention policies and for as long as we feel necessary for our business purposes, unless otherwise required by law or you request that we delete it.

European Residents

Depending on your country of residence, you have certain rights under applicable data protection laws in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, including the General Data Protection Regulation, the UK Data Protection Act 2018, and the Swiss Federal Data Protection Act. Similar laws apply in several other countries.

Under these data protection laws, you can access information about you and update or correct it. In some cases, you can also ask us to erase it, restrict or stop processing, or provide data in a “portable” form, if feasible. You may withdraw consent (“opt out”) if you have previously consented to any particular use of your information, such as receiving marketing emails or text messages. For all such requests, please submit a Consumer and Data Subject Request Web Form here.

If you reside in the EEA, United Kingdom, or Switzerland, you have the right to make a complaint to your national data protection supervisory authority.

Contact Us

If you have questions regarding our compliance with this Privacy Policy please contact us by making a written submission to Data Privacy Office, 310 Littleton Road, Westford, MA, USA, 01866 or send an email to MBdataprivacy@netscout.com

Notice to California Residents

California Privacy Notice

This California Privacy Notice is effective as of December 1, 2022

This notice supplements NetScout’s privacy policy and applies only to California residents. This notice provides you with necessary information about the personal information we collect from you, how this information may be used by NetScout, your privacy rights, and NetScout’s obligations in accordance with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) and the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (“CPRA”).

Categories of Information We Collect
In the preceding 12-months, we have collected the following categories of personal information:

Please note that the following is not personal information: (i) “Aggregated information” that relates to a group or category of consumers, from which consumer identities have been removed, that is not linked or reasonably linkable to any consumer or household, including via a device; (ii) “Deidentified information” that cannot reasonably identify, relate to, describe, be capable of being associated with, or be linked, directly or indirectly, to you, provided that we have: (1) implemented technical safeguards that prohibit reidentification of your information; (2) implemented business processes that specifically prohibit reidentification of the information; (3) have business processes to prevent inadvertent release of deidentified information; and (4) make no attempt to reidentify the information; and (iii) information that is publicly available from government records.

SOURCES OF THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We obtain the categories of personal information listed above from the following categories of sources:

Directly from you. For example, you may provide personal information to us when you use or access our Services, including any interactive areas of our Services, participate in a contest or promotion, complete a product or Services-related survey, sign up to receive one of our newsletters, communicate with us via third-party social media sites, request customer support, or register to a secure extranet site to obtain access to webinars, product information, support, Services and training or otherwise communicate with us.

Indirectly from you. For example, through information we collect from consumers in the course of providing Services to them. When you use or access our Services, we may automatically collect certain information which could include personal information, such as:

• Log Information: We log information about your use of the Services, including your Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, the type of browser you use, access times, pages viewed, number of clicks, and the pages you visited before navigating to our Services.
• Device Information:We collect information about the computer or mobile device you use to access our Services, or information about certain NetScout tools or devices you use, including the hardware model, MAC address, operating system and version, unique device identifiers and mobile network information.
• Network Information: We may collect information about your network, such as information about connected devices, nodes, configurations, connection speeds and network and application performance.
• Location Information: If you have given us your prior permission (or as otherwise permitted pursuant to applicable law), we may collect information about the location of your mobile device, or NetScout device or tool, each time you access or use one of our mobile applications, devices or tools. We may also be able to collect or infer your approximate location through information we collect, such as an IP address. For more details, please see “Your Choices” below.
• Usage Information: We, and our third-party service providers (including advertisers and analytics providers), may use a variety of technologies that automatically or passively collect certain usage information whenever you use our Site, products and Services (“Usage Information”). Usage Information may include the browser and operating system you are using, the URL or advertisement that referred you to our Site, the search engine search terms that led you to our Site (if applicable), and other information such as how often the Site, products and/or Services are used, the duration and quality of use, the types of use (e.g. data creation, storage, access, deletion), calibration data, project configuration data and operator data.
• Information Collected by Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies: Cookies and other tracking technologies such as web beacons/tags, local shared objects (collectively, “Cookies”) are used to enhance your experience by allowing us to tailor our content based on your interests and distinguish you from other users of our Services.

From third-parties that interact with us in connection with the services we perform including to provide marketing materials.

How We Use Your Personal Information

We may use or disclose personal information we collect for one or more of the following operational or other notified purpose (“business purpose”):

• To fulfill or meet the reason for which the information is provided.
• To provide you with information, products or services that you request from us.
• To provide you with email alerts, event registrations or other notices concerning our products or services, or events or news, that may be of interest to you.
• To improve our website and present its contents to you.
• To detect security incidents, protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, and prosecuting those responsible for that activity.
• To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order, or governmental regulations.
• As described to you when collecting your personal information.

We will not collect additional categories of personal information or use the personal information we collected for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing you notice.

Disclosure of Personal Information to Third Parties

We disclose your personal information to a third party for a business purpose or commercial purpose. When we disclose personal information for a business or commercial purpose, we enter a contract that describes the purpose and requires the recipient to keep that personal information confidential and not to use it for any purpose except performing the contract.
In the preceding 12-months, we have disclosed the following categories of personal information for a business or commercial purpose:

• Identifiers
• California Customer Records personal information categories

We disclose your personal information for a business or commercial purpose to the following categories of third-parties:

• Our third-party service providers

Your Rights and Choices

This section describes your rights and choices regarding how we collect, share, use, and protect your personal information, how to exercise those rights, and limits and exceptions to your rights and choices. Please note that these rights are not absolute, and we may be entitled to refuse requests, wholly or partly, where exceptions under applicable law apply.

Rights to Know, Access and Data Portability

You have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your personal information over the past 12 months from the date we receive your request. Once we receive and confirm your request and verify that the request is coming from you or someone authorized to make the request on your behalf, we will disclose to you or your representative:

• The categories of personal information we collected about you.
• The categories of sources for the personal information we collected about you.
• Our business or commercial purpose for collecting that personal information.
• The categories of third parties to whom we disclosed the category of personal information for a business or commercial purpose.
• The business or commercial purpose for which we disclosed the category of personal information.
• The specific pieces of personal information we collected about you in a form that you can take with you (also called a “data portability request”).

Right to Delete

In certain circumstances, you have the right to request the erasure of your personal information. Upon verifying the validity of a deletion request, we will delete your personal information from our records, and instruct any service providers or third parties to delete your information, when applicable.

Right to Correct / Right to Rectification

In certain circumstances, you have the right to request correction of inaccurate personal information. Upon verifying the validity of a verifiable correction request, we will use commercially reasonably efforts to correct your personal information as directed, taking into account the nature of the personal information and the purposes of maintaining your personal information.

Exercising Your Rights

If you are a California resident, you can exercise any of your rights as described in this notice and under applicable privacy laws by using the contact information provided in this notice. We will not discriminate against you for exercising such rights. Except as described in this notice or provided for under applicable privacy laws, there is no charge to exercise your legal rights.

However, if your requests are manifestly unfounded or excessive, in particular because of their repetitive character, we may:

• Charge a reasonable fee taking in account the administrative costs of providing the information or taking the action requested; or
• Refuse to act on the request and notify you of the reason for refusing the request.

You may only make a verifiable consumer request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period.

Verifying Consumer Requests

When you make a request to us, we will ask for information to allow us to match our records. When we have reasonable doubts concerning the identity of the person making the request, we may request additional information necessary to confirm their identify. Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us.

Response Timing and Format

We endeavor to respond to a verifiable consumer request within 45 days of its receipt. If we require more time (up to 90 days), we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing.
Any disclosures we provide will cover the 12-month period preceding the verifiable consumer request’s receipt. The response we provide will also explain the reasons we cannot comply with a request, if applicable. For data portability requests, we will select a format to provide your personal information that is readily useable and should allow you to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.

Opt-Out of The Sale of Personal Information

If you are a California resident and would like to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information, please use the following link Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information.

Under CPRA, sale of personal information means, “selling, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means, a consumer’s personal information by the business to a third party for monetary or other valuable consideration.”

We do not sell your personal information for monetary consideration.

Under CPRA, sharing of personal information means, “sharing, renting, releasing, disclosing, disseminating, making available, transferring, or otherwise communicating orally, in writing, or by electronic or other means, a consumer’s personal information by the business to a third party for cross-context behavioral advertising, whether or not for monetary or other valuable consideration, including transactions between a business and a third party for cross-context behavioral advertising for the benefit of a business in which no money is exchanged.”

Limit the Use of Sensitive Personal Information

If you are a California resident and would like to limit the use of Sensitive Personal Information, please use the following link: Limit the Use of Sensitive Data.
Sensitive Personal Information is defined under the CPRA as personal information that reveals:

• Social security number, driver’s license, state identification card, or passport number
• Account login, financial account, debit card, or credit card number in combination with any required security or access code, password, or credentials allowing access to an account
• Precise geolocation
• Racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, or union membership
• Mail, email, and text message content, unless the business is the intended recipient of the communication
• Genetic data
• Biometric information processed for the purposes of identifying a consumer
• Personal information collected and analyzed concerning a consumer’s health, sex life, or sexual orientation.

Link to Third-Party Websites

We may provide links to websites that are owned or operated by other companies ("third-party websites"). When you use a link online to visit a third-party website, you will be subject to that website’s privacy and security practices, which may differ from ours. You should familiarize yourself with the privacy policy, terms of use and security practices of the linked third-party website before providing any information on that website. We are not responsible for the third-party website’s use, collection, sale or sharing of your personal information.

Contact for More Information

You can contact us for more information by writing us at NetScout Systems, Inc., Data Privacy Office, 310 Littleton Road, Westford, MA, USA, 01866 or submitting a Consumer and Data Subject Request Web Form here.