Artech Employee Online Forum Policy

1. Introduction

One of the goals of Artech, L.L.C., Artech Technology Canada Limited, and all subsidiaries and operating companies thereof (collectively “Artech”), is to provide a welcoming and supportive working environment for all Artech employees, consultants, and contractors. In furtherance of this goal, Artech intends to establish an online forum community wherein all Artech employees, consultants, and contractors can communicate with one another, as well as receive important news and messages from Artech (the “Forums”). Artech has adopted this Employee Online Forum Policy (the “Policy”) to guide our employees, consultants, and contractors in participating in Forums in way that allows for a safe and productive experience for all participants. Artech recognizes that protecting the welfare of its personnel is a critical responsibility that must be taken seriously at all times. Accordingly, compliance with this Policy is mandatory.

The purpose of the Policy is to:

• Define standards and practices for maintaining a safe and enjoyable Forums environment.
• Assign accountability for the standards and practices herein.

The IT, TMS, Human Resources and Marketing team (the “Forum Manager/s”) is hereby delegated authority to manage the Forums, as well as for developing and implementing any additional procedural guidance for ensuring that the responsibilities under this Policy are communicated and enforced. All such procedural guidance shall be approved by Artech’s General Counsel prior to implementation.

References in the Policy to United States’ municipal, state, and Federal law, regulations, or requirements shall be deemed to include all applicable municipal, regional, provincial, and national Canadian law or other international law where appropriate.

If you have any questions about this Policy, please contact the Forum Manager or Artech’s General Counsel.

2. Policy Statement

The Forums shall be open to all Artech employees, consultants, and contractors. While Artech encourages open discussion, we may occasionally remove posts that don’t fit our community guidelines. Please remember that the Forums contain the opinions and views of other users. Although we are moderating the Forums to help ensure that users’ posts comply with this Policy, we cannot be responsible for the accuracy or reliability of any comments or materials posted by users. Moreover, the presence of any information posted by any user on the Forums does not constitute approval or endorsement of same by Artech.

Please treat the community and your fellow participants with respect – even if you disagree with a post or comment. Do not post any content or comments that may be inappropriate, offensive, profane, culturally, racially, gender, or socially insensitive, disruptive, harassing, or defamatory.
For the benefit of lively discussion, we ask that all posts remain on topic. This means that comments should relate to the topic that is being discussed within that post. While we welcome reasonable suggestions or critiques, we may delete negative comments about Artech and/or our employees, clients, suppliers, vendors, and competitors that aren’t relevant, accurate, or don’t add to the overall experience. Off topic post, or inappropriate posts, may be hidden, moved, or removed without notice

A. Artech social media and reasonable use policy.

This Policy provides guidance for employee use of all social media, including but not limited to the Forums, as well as blogs, wikis, microblogs, message boards, chat rooms, electronic newsletters, online forums, social networking sites, and other sites and services that permit users to share information with others in a contemporaneous manner. The following rules apply to (a) participation in the Artech employee online forum community; (b) professional use of social media on behalf of Artech; and (c) personal use of social media when referencing Artech or any client, vendor, supplier, or business partner thereof.

1. Employees need to know and adhere to Artech’s Employee Handbook, IT Security Policy, and PII Policy and other company policies when using social media in reference to Artech or any client, vendor, supplier, or business partner thereof.

2. Employees should be aware of the effect their actions may have on their images, as well as Artech’s image. The information that employees post or publish may be public information for a long time.

3. Employees should be aware that Artech reserves the right to review and observe all content and information made available by employees through social media. Employees should use their best judgment in posting material that is neither inappropriate nor harmful to Artech or any client, vendor, supplier, or business partner thereof.

4. Although not an exclusive list, some specific examples of prohibited social media conduct include posting commentary, content, or images that are defamatory, pornographic, proprietary, harassing, libelous, or that can create a hostile work environment.

5. Employees are not to publish, post or release any information that is considered confidential or not public. If there are questions about what is considered confidential, employees should check with the Forum Manager and/or their immediate manager.

6. Social media networks, blogs and other types of online content sometimes generate press and media attention or legal questions. Employees should not provide any response and should immediately refer these inquiries to Artech’s General Counsel and the Forum Manager.
7. If employees find encounter a situation while using social media that threatens to become antagonistic, employees should disengage from the dialogue in a polite manner and seek the advice of their immediate manager, who shall escalate the matter to the Forum Manager as required.

8. Employees must get prior written permission from the Forum Manager before referring to or posting images of current or former Artech employees, clients, vendors, or suppliers. Additionally, employees must get prior written permission from Artech’s General Counsel before referring to or posting a third party’s copyrights, copyrighted material, trademarks, service marks or other intellectual property.

9. Social media use shouldn’t interfere with employee’s responsibilities at Artech. Artech’s computer systems are to be used for business purposes only. When using Artech’s computer systems, use of social media for business purposes (ex: Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn) may be authorized by Artech IT upon request of your manager, but personal use of social media networks or personal blogging of online content is discouraged and could result in disciplinary action.

10. Subject to applicable law, after‐hours online activity that violates Artech’s Code of Conduct or any other company policy may subject an employee to disciplinary action or termination.

11. If employees publish content after‐hours that involves work or subjects associated with Artech, a disclaimer must be used, such as this: “The postings on this site are my own and may not represent Artech’s positions, strategies or opinions.”

12. It is highly recommended that employees keep Artech related social media accounts separate from personal accounts, if practical.

B. Basic Forums guidelines.

1. Artech is not responsible for views expressed other than our own.

2. Please treat the community and your fellow participants with respect – even if you disagree with a post or comment. Do not post any content or comments that may be inappropriate, offensive, profane, culturally, racially, gender, or socially insensitive, disruptive, harassing, or defamatory.

3. Forums participants are responsible for their comments or posts. The opinions, statements and viewpoints expressed by Forums participants do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Artech or constitute an official position of Artech.

4. Artech is not responsible for, and does not validate any opinions, assertions or forward-looking statements expressed in, any user comments.

5. Artech expects conversations to follow the rules of polite discourse and we ask that participants treat each other, as well as our employees, with respect.

6. Stay on topic.

7. Submit your own original content, and avoid posting content that you know or suspect to be false.

8. Do not post someone else’s copyrighted work unless you have permission.

9. Anything posted to the Forums can and may be used for any purpose we deem, including commercial interests.

10. Never post anything you wish to be kept confidential or expect to be compensated for. No user will be compensated by Artech for anything posted in the Forums.

11. Never post personal, identifying, or confidential information such as yours or anyone else’s account number, address, phone number, email address, or social security number.

12. The Forums are moderated by [Artech employees or a third-party service retained by Artech]. We will make every effort to respond in a timely manner; however, we cannot guarantee that we’ll reply to every comment.

C. Monitoring And Moderation Policies

Although Forum accounts and postings are monitored by Artech to ensure that they comply with this Policy, Artech has no obligation to accept, display, review, monitor, or maintain any content posted to the Forums, but does reserve the right to monitor, prohibit, restrict, block, suspend, terminate, delete, or discontinue access to the Forums, at any time, without notice and for any reason, in its sole discretion. Artech also reserves the right to delete comments or posts that we deem are abusive, inflammatory, or otherwise inappropriate. Broader community guidelines include:

1. The Forums are a place for conversations between Artech employees, and are not a substitute channel for services or general questions. Please visit www.artech.com for more information about Artech or its services.

2. Do not post or transmit material you do not have the right to post or transmit under law (such as copyright, trade secrets, or securities) or due to your personal contractual or fiduciary relationships.

3. The Forums may not be used for the submission of any claim, demand, informal or formal complaint, or any other form of legal and/or administrative notice or process, or for the exhaustion of any legal and/or administrative remedy.

4. Artech reserves the right to ban any user from our page without prior written notice or consent for violations of any Policies. Any comment(s) posted which we deem to be criminal in nature, or instigates or implies violence toward oneself or another may be reported to the proper authorities.

D. Removal Of Posts / Banning of Users

The Forum Manager and its moderators will try their best to review every comment or post, and thus Artech reserves the right to remove any that violate this Policy or that, in our sole discretion, we otherwise consider objectionable. We may also ban offenders from our communities. As such, we may delete comments or posts that we deem to be:

1. Profane, obscene, inappropriate, disruptive, or unrelated to the topic and conversation.

2. Indecent, sexually explicit, or pornographic material of any kind — including masked profanity where symbols, initials, intentional misspellings or other characters are used to suggest profane language.

3. Threats; personal attacks; abusive, defamatory, derogatory, ad hominem attacks, or inflammatory language; or stalking or harassment of any individual, entity or organization.

4. Impersonating any person or entity or falsely state or otherwise misrepresenting an affiliation with a person or entity.

5. Discriminatory or containing hateful speech of any kind regarding age, ethnicity, gender, race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, political affiliations, disability, or other characteristics.

6. False, inaccurate, libelous, or otherwise misleading in any way.

7. Spam, or content containing or linking to any kind of virus, malware, spyware, or similar program that could cause harm to a user’s computer.

8. Repeated or identical posts.

9. Solicitations or content that promote commercial interests, campaigns, causes or political views.

10. Any posts which might constitute a criminal offense or give rise to civil liability, or that otherwise violates local, national, or international laws or regulations.

11. Any posts which might identify matters that are currently the subject of legal proceedings or would break a court’s non-publication order.

E. Suspension/Termination/Reporting to Authority

1. We take our responsibility to our online community and to our customers very seriously, with the utmost priority being yours and our safety. Therefore, any comment(s) posted which we deem to be criminal in nature, or instigates or implies violence toward oneself or another may be reported to the proper authorities.

2. Our Forum Managers are not permitted to discuss or respond to comments about security threats as well as threatened or current litigation against the company. We will escalate them to our legal counsel, and may remove any such posts if we see them.

3. In certain instances, we may also suspend, terminate, or ban certain repeat offenders and/or those committing significant violations of this Policy. When appropriate, we may also, on our own or as required by the platforms rules or law, be required to refer and/or work with the applicable platform and/or the appropriate authorities to review and or pursue certain violations.

4. If you wish to report or flag a user post/comment as inappropriate yourself, please follow the then current published procedures of Forums where the post originated.

F. Spam, Links, and Online Safety

Your posts should never contain any unauthorized and/or unsolicited advertising, spam, hyperlinks, or content protected by copyright, trademark, or other rights. For your online safety, we strongly encourage you to avoid opening any third party-provided hyperlinks posted to our property or the platform you are viewing the post upon unless you trust the source of that post.

G. Copyright And Intellectual Property Policies

1. By submitting any content to the Forums, you warrant and represent that you are the copyright owner of the content or that the copyright owner of the content has granted you permission to use such content consistent with the manner and purpose of your use.
2. Using the Forums to distribute unauthorized copies of copyrighted material, including photos, artwork, text, recordings, designs, computer programs or derivative works of such programs is strictly prohibited and subject to removal.

3. Infringement on any party’s copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret, intellectual property, or other proprietary rights, or right of publicity or privacy is strictly prohibited and is your sole responsibility.

4. Artech and its logo are trademarks of Artech. You agree not to use or display trademarks without the prior written consent of Artech.

H. Ownership and License of the Content You Post

By posting any content on the Forums, you grant to Artech the irrevocable, perpetual and unrestricted right to reproduce, distribute, publish, and display, edit or modify such content, and to use, and to authorize or license third parties to use, such content, or portions or elements thereof, for any Artech purpose, in any and all manner and media known or hereafter devised, and for any and all purposes, including commercial purposes, world-wide, without any obligation or compensation to you of any kind. Artech has the right to create derivative works from any or all of the content (“Derivative Works”), and such Derivative Works shall be the sole and exclusive property of Artech. You disclaim all rights, title or interests you may have in such Derivative Works, and fully assign, convey and transfer any and all rights that you have or may have in the Derivative Works exclusively to Artech. You represent that to the best of your knowledge you own or have the permission to make such posts and grant the above rights to us. Therefore, please do not submit any ideas or materials that you wish to keep confidential or for which you expect to receive compensation.

I. Links To Third-Party Sites

Artech may occasionally post links to third-party sites when we believe the general information could be helpful. Please note that this does not in any way constitute an official endorsement of the site or company nor does it mean we have performed a comprehensive validation of the content.

J. Paid Endorsements and Sponsorships

Artech will disclose when we have provided compensation or sponsorship to individuals or organizations to provide an endorsement or testimonial of our products or services.

3. Privacy Policies

A. Protect Your Personal Information

The Forums are available to all Artech employees. To protect your privacy and the privacy of others, no information you consider confidential should be posted to this site, including personally identifiable information (“PII”) such as social security numbers, full account numbers, phone numbers or e-mail addresses in any comment or post. You should comply at all times with the terms of Artech PII Policy. If you do include personally identifiable information in your comment, your comment or post may be deleted. Please don’t share personal information about you, your family, or others on the Forums.

B. Privacy Policies

1. Artech may disclose information about your communications and activities with Artech and/or in relation to the Forums in response to lawful requests by governmental authorities or for the protection of Artech’s rights or the rights of third parties as Artech may deem appropriate in its reasonable discretion. In the event that Artech exercises any of its rights hereunder for any reason, Artech will have no liability to you.

2. Artech is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, appropriateness, legality or applicability of the materials or anything said, depicted or written by users, including without limitation any information obtained by using the Forums.

4. Disclaimer, Choice of Law and Forum, and Limitation of Liability

1. Artech does not necessarily endorse or espouse any content or materials, or any views, opinion, recommendation, or advice expressed on or in the Forums, or as are or may be developed by people or parties in any social media platform. Artech neither endorses nor assumes responsibility for the content of any site linked to the Forums.

2. Artech neither assumes nor bears any responsibility or liability to you or any third party as a result of your activities, and you are solely responsible for any activities you do in connection with or via the Forums or any other social media platform

3. You understand and agree that Artech is under no obligation to use, display or acknowledge any content you submit, and Artech reserves the right to remove or to refuse to post any content or submission for any reason. You acknowledge that you, not Artech, are responsible for the content and for compliance with these Terms.

4. By posting any content on the Forums, you represent and warrant that you are the sole creator and owner of any intellectual property rights in the content, and/or that you own or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents and permissions to use and authorize Artech to use all patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, or other proprietary rights in and to any and all of your entries of content, to enable inclusion and use of your entries and content in the manner contemplated in this Policy.

5. You fully release Artech from any and all claims that may arise regarding your use of or participation on the Forums and/or the use, accessing or posting of the content.

6. You agree that any claim or dispute relating to your posting of any Content on the Forums shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New Jersey, USA, without regard to its conflict of laws provisions. You further agree to be bound and shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state or federal courts located in the State of Jersey, located in or serving as a recognized venue for the County of Morris.

7. Artech reserves the right to change this Policy at any time in its sole discretion and without notice.

8. You expressly understand and agree that Artech shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or exemplary damages, including without limitation, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data loss, or other losses (even if Artech has been advised of the possibility of such damages) resulting from: (i) the use or inability to use the Forums, (ii) the cost of procurement of any substitute products and/or services resulting from any products, data, information or services obtained or which you were unable to obtain or transactions effected or failed to be effected, (iii) any link provided in connection with the Forums, or (iv) any matter otherwise related to your use of the Forums.

5. Scope of Policy

This Policy applies to Artech’s operations globally, including all legal entities worldwide owned or controlled by Artech, and to all officers, employees, contractors, and other third parties acting on behalf of Artech.

6. Monitoring, Compliance and Enforcement

A. Artech has designated responsibility for oversight of the Policy and the implementation thereof to the Forum Managers, subject to the review of Artech’s General Counsel.

B. The Forum Managers shall have operational oversight responsibility for monitoring and administration of the Forums.

C. Artech views compliance to be of the utmost importance. An employee, consultant, or contractor found to be in violation of this Policy may be subject to disciplinary action under the company’s discipline policy as deemed appropriate based on the facts and circumstances giving rise to the violation, up to and including termination. Training as to this Policy and potential violations and disciplinary actions shall be incorporated in Artech’s onboarding and refresher training to reinforce Artech’s continuing commitment to ensuring that effective risk management is maintained throughout the company so as to avoid or minimize exposure to significant financial loss and/or reputational harm.

7. Related Policies

Other Company policies may be relevant to implementing this Policy. You should familiarize yourself with these policies, including:
· Artech’s corporate employee handbook;
· Artech’s contractor handbook;
· Artech PII Policy;
· Artech IT security policy

8. Disclaimer of Restrictions on Employees’ Rights

This Policy is not intended to restrict communications or actions protected or required by state or federal law.

9. Regulatory Requirements

It is the policy of Artech to comply with any international, federal, or state statute and reporting regulations. Artech has delegated the responsibility for risk management to the Forum Managers noted in this Policy. Artech’s General Counsel shall be the sole entity named to oversee all regulatory reporting compliance issues. If any provision of this Policy conflicts with a statutory requirement of international, federal, or state law, the Policy provision(s) that conflict shall be superseded.

10. Amendment and Revision

This Policy may be revised from time to time. Any changes must be approved by Artech’s General Counsel.