Privacy Policy

Which personal data does Siemens Healthineers process?

You can subscribe to various newsletters and opt-in to receive marketing material that you can adapt to your interests on our website or in person at a trade fair. You may also request or download marketing information about products and services, such as brochures or white papers, or request a demo version of certain services, or a quote on our products.

We provide you with marketing information in a variety of ways, such as through the use of electronic communications, widgets, pop-ups, or other notifications.

When you request information, Siemens Healthineers processes the following personal data:

• Contact information such as first and last name, title, email address, phone number, country, address.
• Information about your occupation, such as job function, organization, areas of interest, and preferences (e.g., products or clinical specialties and diseases).
• IP address, timestamp, consents and preferences given.

If you wish to receive our regular marketing communications (e.g. newsletters, direct mail, invitations to webinars and events or product information), we also process the following information using cookies, beacons and pixels or similar technologies:

• Information about your interactions with us, either on a statistically aggregated level or on an individual level, such as when you opened an email, whether you shared an email with a third party, which post you read, or when you downloaded a document through one of our platforms.

For what purposes does Siemens Healthineers use my data?

Siemens Healthineers uses this personal data to provide you with the information you have requested. In addition, we process your data for verification purposes. If you consent, we use cookies, beacons or pixels to understand if and when a newsletter has been opened, what content has been read or shared with other people. We use this information to customize our offerings in general and to tailor our communication with you to your interests. We also send you satisfaction surveys.

We use in general the so-called double opt-in process for the initial registration to our regular communication offer to verify your consent. Once you have registered, you will receive an e-mail from us at the e-mail address you have provided with a request to confirm via a link that you are the owner of the e-mail address you have provided and that you would like to receive our regular marketing communications. In each communication sent, you will find an unsubscribe link in the footer that you can use to withdraw your consent. In order to be able to process your revocation, we process your personal data.

Which legal basis does Siemens Healthineers rely on?

The legal basis for sending newsletters and other regular marketing communications in general is your consent (Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR). The provision of requested materials is also in our legitimate interest in maintaining and improving business relationships with our customers (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR). If your request is aimed at concluding a contract, we process your personal data for the performance of a contract or for the preparation of a contract (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR). Your data is also stored in order to comply with our obligation to provide evidence (Art. 6 (1) (c) GDPR).

When will my data be deleted?

In general, we only store personal data until the respective purpose for which the data was collected has been achieved and storage is not required for evidence purposes. If you do not confirm your consent via the confirmation link as part of the double opt-in process, your data, which we have stored in connection with your registration, will be deleted accordingly. If you have given us your consent for a processing, the data related to the granting of your consent will be stored within the scope of the statute of limitations until revoked (e.g. unsubscribe from marketing material) or at the latest for the duration of the processing process and after its completion.

Which personal data does Siemens Healthineers process?

In order to personalize our communication and tailor it to you, we process data such as:

• Contact information such as first and last name, title, email address, phone number, country.
• Information about your occupation, such as job function, organization, areas of interest, and preferences (e.g., products or clinical specialties).
• IP address, timestamp and consents given.
• Activity data, e.g. attendance and duration of events you have attended, interactions you have had with us, documents you have downloaded.
• Information about our business relationship with you.
• Other information that you voluntarily provide, such as through web forms or personal communications.

For what purposes does Siemens Healthineers use my data?

Siemens Healthineers processes the information described above in order to identify your personal interest in our products and services and your business needs, and to improve our personal communications with you. We determine your current use of our products or services, your participation in and use of Siemens Healthineers offers, such as our websites, your participation in events, or your requests for marketing communications or newsletters, and your open and click behavior. This data is collected and sorted from various sources through which you interact with us, then combined and divided into segments (groups with certain common characteristics). Through the subsequent analysis and consolidation of the data, our offer and our contact are aligned with the interests determined for you and your profile created by us. For this purpose, we may also use artificial intelligence, which helps us to better understand the interaction of our contacts and to measure the success of our offerings.

For example, the content of our marketing material provided to you will be based on your participation in events, your interaction with us and your product-specific interests, which we determine from the data about our business relationship with you. If we already have information about you, we may request missing data in order to complete your profile step-by-step.

If you have consented to the use of cookies in accordance with our Cookie Notice, we can further personalize the offer for you based on your profile by processing the data collected by means of cookies or similar technologies.

We may also use your personal information to improve our business activities, such as to gain insights into our business, develop marketing strategies, and improve our products and services. In order to statistically evaluate the use of our services, we collect statistical data in aggregated form, which provides us with insights into the use of our services and interactions with our content. We process this data for statistical analysis with the aim of learning more about the users of our services and tailoring our content to the needs and interests of our users in the best possible way. Dashboards are created in aggregated form to show the success of campaigns and adapt market strategies based on the findings.

In addition to the information, you provide to us or that we collect as described above, we may also collect personal data from third party sources, such as publicly available sources, e.g., business-oriented social networks or information brokers, that are authorized to share information with us. In addition, we also use the services of market research institutes that prepare certain information for us.

Which legal basis does Siemens Healthineers rely on?

The legal basis for the processing of your personal data for personalization is your consent (Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR) or our legitimate interest in maintaining and optimizing business relationships with our customers (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR) and customer contacts.

When will my data be deleted?

If you have given us your consent for a processing, the data related to the granting of your consent will be stored within the scope of the statute of limitations until revoked or at the latest for the duration of the processing process and after its completion.

Which personal data does Siemens Healthineers process?

Siemens Healthineers offers various events such as webinars, webcasts, expert talks, management meetings, tradeshows, (press) conferences, or events specifically for journalists, analysts or investors, that can take place online and/or on-site. If you register and participate in one of our events, Siemens Healthineers may process the following categories of personal data about you:

• Contact information, such as name, gender, title, email address, phone number, preferred method of communication, preferred language.
• Information relating to your profession, such as function, position, company/institution, media/publisher, organization you represent, education, country/region, expertise, areas of interest (e.g. products, processes, trends in healthcare).
• Activity data, such as events you have participated in, interactions you have had with us, documents you downloaded.
• User Content, such as posts, comments, photos, videos, audio, or other content generated by you.
• Travel information, such as travel plans or preferences, e.g. regarding your accommodation.
• Photos and videos taken by Siemens Healthineers or third parties contracted by Siemens Healthineers.
• Other information voluntarily provided by you, e.g., via web forms or personal communications.

In addition, we collect data for aggregated statistics, part of these statistics are the number of registrations, booking information and viewer numbers across all participants for an event.

For what purposes does Siemens Healthineers use my data?

We use your personal data to plan, organize, execute and improve events, this includes for example:

• Ensuring your participation and access to the event, e.g., identify you as a participant, reserve your place, send you event-related communication or issue certificates of participation upon request.
• Organizing the event, e.g., adapting the event to your interest or contacting you on a personalized basis during and after the event. This may include sending automated and manual emails, as well as calls from Siemens Healthineers representatives or designated agents.
• Ensuring technical requirements, e.g., size the platform and streaming activity to provide a stable service.
• Documenting an event internally and externally as well as in press and marketing activities, e.g., on the Siemens Healthineers intranet, on the Siemens Healthineers website, in social media or print media.
• Settling the event, as some personal data is required for tax and accounting purposes, e.g., internal accounting such as the charging of costs, accommodation, or provision costs in connection with the event. This also includes other activities that are required of us by law, such as internal documentation based on compliance regulations.
• Personalizing your event experience, e.g., customizing future events to your interests, presenting more relevant content according to your areas of interest, making suggestions to complete or improve your preferences.
• Conducting analytics, e.g., using data to understand the effectiveness of existing events, measure attendance and engagement with an event, its processes, and its contents, improve our future event portfolio, evaluate, and optimize our services, review technical requirements (streaming quality, download rates, etc.).
• Conducting advertising or marketing activities, e.g., displaying ads, sending marketing communications.

Information on the internet is accessible worldwide and can be found using search engines. It can also be linked to other information and used to create personality profiles. Information posted on the internet can easily be copied and redistributed. There are specialized archiving services that permanently document the state of certain websites on specific dates. This means that information published on the internet can still be found elsewhere even after it has been deleted from the original website.

Which legal basis does Siemens Healthineers rely on?

Siemens Healthineers will process your personal data with your consent (Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR), to perform a contract, take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR) or to comply with a legal obligation (Art. 6 (1) (c) GDPR).

In some cases, we process your personal data based on our legitimate business interests (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR):

• Regarding ensuring technical requirements, it is our legitimate business interest to ensure the functionality and the technical stability of our events.
• Regarding conducting analytics, it is our legitimate business interest to improve our event portfolio, provide participants with relevant information and maintain contact, establish, and expand a long-term business relationship and gain new potential customers.
• Regarding events for journalists, analysts, and investors we process your personal data based on our legitimate interest in carrying out public relations.
• Regarding event photos and videos, we process your personal data based on our legitimate interest to document our events and support marketing activities.

When will my data be deleted?

Unless otherwise agreed in a declaration of consent we process the data for up to four months after the end of the event or your last interaction with us or two years after your last activity within the account you created on our event platform. To fulfil our tax and accounting obligations, we store relevant data for ten years, starting with the next fiscal year after the event.

If photos and videos of the event are of historical value, they are archived permanently for future use in historical publications, such as publications on company history.

Controller for the processing of personal data within the meaning of Art. 4 Nr. 7 GDPR

a) are we, insofar as your personal data processed in connection with the use of our social media channels are processed for our purposes, such as the provision of the social media channels and the evaluation of the use of content offered there, including user and interaction data generated in the process;

b) the relevant service provider for

who takes over the technical and administrative operation of the online service on which the social media channel is operated, insofar as your personal data processed in connection with the use of our social media channel is also or exclusively for the service provider's own purposes, such as the technical and administrative provision of its own online services, including the storage and evaluation of user data generated in the process, processed.

Insofar as the data processing in the context of the provision and use of our social media channels is carried out on the basis of a joint controllership by us and the respective service provider in accordance with Art. 26 (1) GDPR, such as in particular the data evaluation for statistical purposes, we have concluded an joint controller agreement with the service provider in accordance with the legal requirements, which you can view here:

• Meta: https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms/page_controller_addendum
• LinkedIn: https://legal.linkedin.com/pages-joint-controller-addendum

Which personal data does Siemens Healthineers process?

If you subscribe to or follow our social media channels, the service provider will add your profile to the subscriber list of the respective social media channel. This list will be shared with us, and we will have access to your publicly available personal data, i.e. only information that you disclose about yourself in the public area of your profile. Depending on the social media channel, this can include e.g. your:

• First and last name or username,
• Location
• Job title
• Company
• E-mail address
• Profile picture

Depending on the privacy settings of your user account with the respective service provider, the service providers may also use other information stored in your user account

• Information about your profile,
• Your preferences (e.g. recommendations such as "likes");
• Your interactions (e.g. posts) and
• Your contacts (e.g. your Network)

with us.

You can limit the sharing of profile data with third parties in the privacy settings of your respective user account. For more information about what information the respective service provider shares with us, please refer to your user account's privacy settings, terms of use and privacy notice of the service provider.

Our social media channels offer you the opportunity to react to, comment on, recommend and send us public and, where possible, private messages. We use your interaction and profile data to enable you to use our social media channels interactively and to communicate with you via our social media channels. Please note that your public interaction on our social media channels in connection with your username leads to a direct personal assignment and is also visible to other users of the social media channel.

As a rule, we have no influence on the interactive functionalities and visibility of your public interaction and profile data on our social media channels. Please carefully check what personal data you provide to us in connection with the use of our social media channels. In particular, your health data may also be processed if you provide corresponding information about your health, e.g. in public comments or in private messages. As a general rule, we recommend that you publish as little personal data as possible (especially in relation to your health) on our social media channels.

In order to statistically evaluate the use of our social media channels, we collect statistical data in aggregated form, which provides us with insights into the use of our social media channels and the interaction with the content provided there (so-called "insights data"). We process Insights data exclusively for the statistical analysis of user behavior with the aim of learning more about the users of our social media channels and aligning our content with the needs and interests of our users in the best possible way. We do not have access to the underlying usage data. Insights data can therefore not be used to draw any conclusions about your person. It is therefore not possible for us to link this data to your user account.

For what purpose does Siemens Healthineers use my data?

We process your personal data for the purpose of providing the social media channels and for evaluating the use of content offered there, including user and interaction data generated in the process, in particular for the purpose of

• Presentation of the content we offer via our social media channels and to carry out marketing campaigns such as e.g. running advertising campaigns;
• Interaction between us and users of our social media channels, such as by means of direct messages, commenting, recommending or sharing content, or to respond to your inquiries or requests. Respond to your concerns;
• Analyzing usage patterns and measuring the reach of our content offered on social media channels.

You are not obliged to provide us with your personal data. However, this may be necessary for individual functionalities of our profiles in social networks. These functionalities will not be available to you, or only to a limited extent, if you do not provide us with your personal data.

Which personal data is processed by social networks and for what purposes?

When you visit our profiles on social networks, your personal data will not only be collected, used and stored by us, but also by the operators of the respective social network. This also happens if you do not have a profile in the respective social network or are not logged into it during your visit to our profile. We have no influence on the processing and further use of this data, as the respective provider of the social network alone determines the processing. To what extent, where and for how long the data is stored, to what extent the data is linked and evaluated and to whom the data is passed on, is determined by the respective social media provider. The individual data processing operations and their scope differ depending on the operator of the respective social network and they cannot be described by us. For details on the collection and storage of your personal data as well as on the type, scope and purpose of their use by the operator of the respective social network, please refer to the privacy policy of the respective operator:

• Facebook: https://facebook.com/about/privacy/your-info
• Instagram: https://help.instagram.com/155833707900388
• YouTube: https://policies.google.com/privacy
• X (formerly Twitter): https://twitter.com/en/privacy
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy
• Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/policies/privacy-policy

You will also find information on how to exercise your data protection rights vis-à-vis the respective service provider and how to restrict the processing of your personal data.

Due to the existing agreements with the social network providers, it is recommended to request information and assert further data subject's rights directly with the providers. Only the operators of the social network have access to the necessary information via the direct access possibilities, can take necessary measures and provide information directly. However, you can also send inquiries to us. We are ready to assist you at any time, as well as to fulfill our obligations as a controller.

Leveraging LinkedIn Lead Generation

As part of the acquisition of new customers, we use the Lead Gen service of LinkedIn.

With the use of the LinkedIn Lead Gen Forms service, we offer interested parties a function with which they can provide us with their e-mail address or other user information as a user of LinkedIn as part of the acquisition of new customers. We use this functionality to address interested parties in a more targeted manner. As part of our advertising activities, we also offer product information or white papers for download.

LinkedIn uses forms for lead generation, and other functions and content of the LinkedIn service can also be integrated. If you are a member of the LinkedIn platform, LinkedIn can link the access to the above-mentioned content and functions to the profiles of the users there.

You can find more information about LinkedIn's data protection and lead gen ads here: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy or https://business.linkedin.com/marketing-solutions/native-advertising/lead-gen-ads

Leveraging Reddit Lead Generation Advertising (Lead Gen Ads)

As part of the acquisition of new customers, we use the Lead Gen Ads service of Reddit.

With the use of the Reddit Lead Gen Ads Forms service, we offer interested parties a function with which they can provide us with their e-mail address or other user information as a user of Reddit as part of the acquisition of new customers. We use this functionality to address interested parties in a more targeted manner. As part of our advertising activities, we also offer product information or white papers for download.

Reddit uses forms for lead generation, and other functions and content of the Reddit service can also be integrated. If you are a member of the Reddit platform, Reddit can link the access to the above-mentioned content and functions to the profiles of the users there.

You can find more information about Reddit's data protection and Lead Gen Ads here: https://www.reddit.com/policies/privacy-policy

Use of Social Listening

We do so-called social listening. Social listening is the process of identifying and evaluating what is being said about a company, individual, product, or brand on publicly accessible websites and social media platforms. We only use social listening services for publicly available content.

We use social listening to:

• better understand how our products, services and corporate brands are perceived;
• identify sentiments and market trends, as well as the needs of our customers or other stakeholders;
• Improve our services and products.

To this end,

• keyword searches on publicly accessible websites and social media channels are performed;
• conversation volume is analyzed when users interact with our brands or topics of within our industry;
• conversation streams are searched, filtered, and analyzed;
• publicly available opinions, statements, or other interactions on social media channels of certain individuals or organizations that are important to us and our company are monitored.

For this purpose, we use the providers Runtime Collective Limited (Brandwatch), Sovereign House, Church Street, 1st Floor, Brighton, BN1 1UJ, United Kingdom, among others. If you post information on publicly available websites or social media platforms (e.g., X/Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, etc.), Brandwatch may collect personal information about you. This is because Brandwatch operates a service that collects, analyzes, and feeds publicly available information from the Internet into a database, and provides us with access to its database and analytics features.

For details on the collection and storage of your personal data, as well as the nature, scope and purpose of its use by Brandwatch, please refer to Brandwatch's Privacy Policy: https://www.brandwatch.com/legal/author-privacy-policy/

Which legal basis does Siemens Healthineers rely on?

If you provide us with personal data by contacting us, e.g. by commenting on or sharing one of our posts, we process your data in accordance with Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR for the purpose of fulfilling a contract or for taking pre-contractual measures at your request or pursuant to Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR on the basis of our legitimate interest in answering your inquiry or interacting with you in the context of a Social media platform. The processing may also be necessary to assert claims against you or third parties or to process your claims against us. In doing so, we process the data that you provide us directly with regard to your enquiry as well as – if necessary for the stated purposes – your publicly visible data.

Furthermore, we may be obliged to process your data for legal reasons, e.g. if you make criminal statements. The legal basis is then Art. 6 (1)( c) GDPR in conjunction with the respective relevant law.

The processing of user data is carried out in accordance with Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR on the basis of our legitimate interests in providing users with targeted information about us and our services as well as in the optimal design of our social media presences and effective communication with users. If users are asked for consent to data processing by the respective providers of the social media platforms (e.g. when registering by ticking a checkbox or confirming a corresponding button), the legal basis for the processing is the underlying consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR).

When will my data be deleted?

In general, we only store personal data until the respective purpose for which the data was collected has been fulfilled. In the context of a business relationship with you, we store your personal data for as long as the business relationship lasts, this also includes the initiation and execution of a contract as well as the regular statute of limitations. In addition, we store the data if and to the extent that we are subject to statutory retention obligations. These can result, for example, from commercial or tax laws. If you have given us your consent for a processing, the data related to the granting of your consent will be stored within the scope of the statute of limitations until revoked or at the latest for the duration of the processing process and after its completion.

We have no influence on the processing, the further use of your data and on deletion periods by the respective providers of the social networks, as the providers alone determine the processing.

Which personal data does Siemens Healthineers process?

You can contact us in various ways, e.g., directly via contact forms, on trade fairs, on social media, in a chat on our website or via email. You can also provide us with comments and feedback by participating in surveys.

Siemens Healthineers processes the following personal data about you:

• Contact information you provide to us, such as your first and last name, email address, zip code or phone number.
• Other information you provide in a support request or message.

For what purposes does Siemens Healthineers use my data?

Siemens Healthineers processes your personal data to respond to your inquiry, clarify your request, and process your comments and feedback. To the extent that these requests or inquiries have accounting or contractual significance, we will add them to the other contractual documents already associated with your company's account. In addition, Siemens Healthineers processes the data in order to be able to assign your request to the right contact person.

Which legal basis does Siemens Healthineers rely on?

The legal basis for the processing of your personal data is our legitimate interest in maintaining business relationships with our customers (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR). If your request is aimed at concluding a contract, we process your personal data for the performance of a contract or for the preparation of a contract (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR). For the fulfilment of accounting obligations, which constitute a legal obligation, the legal basis is Art. 6 (1) (c) GDPR.

When will my data be deleted?

As a matter of principle, we only store personal data until the respective purpose for which the data was collected has been achieved and storage for evidence purposes is no longer required. A longer retention period may result from commercial or tax law requirements.

Which personal data does Siemens Healthineers process?

When you use our websites, Siemens Healthineers processes information that is technically necessary for communication and that can also be sent to us automatically from your browser or device, e.g. IP address, device type, browser type, pages visited, date and time of the request, or that is transmitted to us through cookies.

For what purpose does Siemens Healthineers use my data?

We process this information to enable you to visit the websites, to improve and accelerate the presentation of the websites, to adapt and prepare the information offered for specific target groups and to design the websites according to user preferences. On the one hand, this means aligning our web pages and the user-friendly design of our Internet offering with the actual use of our Internet pages, and on the other hand, monitoring the utilization of our technical infrastructure, especially with regard to cybersecurity aspects. In order to determine whether you already have an account with us and to direct you accordingly to the correct website, your e-mail address and country may be requested in order to be able to make a comparison with the database.

In addition, we process this information to ensure compliance with our Terms of Use, to exercise or defend ourselves against legal claims, and to prevent and counter fraudulent and similar actions, including attacks on our IT infrastructure.

To see and interact with advanced content objects such as 3D or augmented or virtual reality, Siemens Healthineers may process personal data in form of IP address, cookies, and browser information, which is technically required to deliver the necessary data directly from optimized hosting environments.

Which legal basis does Siemens Healthineers rely on?

The legal basis for the processing is the safeguarding of the legitimate interests of Siemens Healthineers as the website operator (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR) or your consent (Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR), collected via the website's cookie banner.

When will my data be deleted?

Pseudonymized log files containing the above information will be deleted within seven days of their creation.

Which personal data does Siemens Healthineers process?

For your registration and use of our online services such as the event platform we use a central single sign-on service using the same access data across all offerings of Siemens Healthineers. After the registration, you can easily switch between the applications for which you are authorized.

In order to use the single sign-on service for our online services first name, last name, e-mail address, preferred language, country and company/institution collected.

For what purpose does Siemens Healthineers use my data?

This personal data is used to provide a secure and standardized authentication and authorization mechanism for our various services. In order to determine whether you already have an account with us and to direct you accordingly to the correct website, your e-mail address and country may be requested in order to be able to make a comparison with the database. If you have given your consent, we will also analyze your interaction with Siemens Healthineers.

Which legal basis does Siemens Healthineers rely on?

The legal basis for the processing is your consent (Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR) and the protection of the legitimate interests of Siemens Healthineers as the website operator (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR). If the creation of an account is related to the conclusion of a contract, we process your personal data for the performance of a contract or for the preparation of a contract (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR).

When will my data be deleted?

Your account and associated personal information will be stored for two years after your last activity.

Which personal data does Siemens Healthineers process?

In order to provide a Marketing Consent & Preference Center, we process your personal data to manage the consents and preferences given to us. In particular, your

• Contact details, such as name, email address
• Timestamp
• Language
• Consent Texts and the respective Marketing Privacy Notice
• Your self-selected preferences
• IP address.
• User ID (XIA account for online services)

is processed.

For what purpose does Siemens Healthineers use my data?

This personal data will be processed in order to verify your identity. The processing is also carried out to manage your consents and preferences, as well as to comply with obligations to provide evidence, documentation and transparency. In addition, Siemens Healthineers wants to ensure that the processing corresponds to your consent. In this way, we create the opportunity for you to easily access your data and adjust it if necessary.

In order to determine whether you already have an account with Siemens Healthineers and to be able to redirect you to the correct website, your e-mail address and country will be compared. Otherwise, there would be a risk that your data could not be processed correctly.

Which legal basis does Siemens Healthineers rely on?

The legal basis for the processing is your consent (Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR) and our legal obligation (Art. 6 (1) (c) GDPR) to be able to prove the consent and a legal basis. The comparison of your e-mail address is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by Siemens Healthineers as the website operator (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR).

When will my data be deleted?

If you have given us your consent for a processing, the data related to the granting of your consent will be stored within the scope of the statute of limitations until revoked (e.g. unsubscribe from marketing material) or at the latest for the duration of the processing process and after its completion. The metadata of your consent will be stored after revocation of consent for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims in order to comply with the obligations to provide evidence and the burden of proof.