Facts you should know
At Genetiq Biosafety Management Ltd (referred to as "Genetiq®", "we", "us" or "our") we recognise the importance of protecting the privacy of certain general information ("data") and specific personal information ("Personal Data") collected about our clients and customers (referred to as "Clients", "Customers", "you", or "your") and consequently respect your privacy. This privacy statement discloses what information we gather, how we use it, and how to correct or change it. At Genetiq® it is our intention to give you an understanding about how we collect your information and the use we make of it in the course of our business.
Genetiq® has reviewed its policies, processes, procedures and practices to ensure that they meet legislation introduced within both the EU (such as the EU Data Protection Directive (95/46/EC) and the EU Telecommunications Data Protection Directive (97/66/EC))and the UK (such as the Data Protection Act 1998, the Telecommunications (Data Protection and Privacy) (Direct Marketing) Regulations 1998, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 and the Telecommunications (Lawful Business Practice) (Interception of Communications) Regulations 2000), and we will continue to ensure that our policies, processes, procedures and practices comply in all respects with any future laws and regulations in relation to your privacy.
The purpose of this policy is to protect your interests in this respect.
1. Fair and lawful information-handling
We will process all data that we collect and hold on you fairly and in accordance with applicable law. As further explained in this privacy policy, we will ensure the quality and security of your data and we will fully respect your rights, interests and fundamental freedoms with regard to your data.
2. Legitimate purposes
We will only collect, record, process and store data which are needed to fulfil our contractual obligations towards our clients and customers, to serve other legitimate business interests such as credit assessment or marketing; or to comply with legal requirements.
We may disclose to third parties authorised by us only for the purpose of verification of details relating to your data held by us for legitimate purposes such as credit checks.
3. Data quality
We will employ effective procedures and safeguards to ensure that data we hold on you are adequate, relevant and not excessive in relation to the purposes for which they were obtained, as well as accurate and up-to-date. Where we become aware of any inaccuracies in data we hold, we will correct and, where appropriate, delete incorrect data.
Retention periods are in place to ensure that data are only stored whilst they are required for the purposes in question or to meet legal and regulatory requirements. Where data are no longer required, we will ensure that they are disposed of in a secure manner.
4. Information to you
When we collect data from you, we will identify ourselves and inform you of the purpose(s) for which we are collecting data. If we have obtained data on you other than directly from you, we will inform you of this as soon as practicable after we have entered data in our files or computers (unless you were already aware of the fact).
We may also record or monitor telephone calls to and from Genetiq® for staff training and quality control purposes.
5. Your rights
You have the right to require us to cease the communication of advertising or marketing materials to you, and we will ensure that your request is complied with.
You have the right to see all data that we hold on you. Should you wish to have access to all or a particular part of your data, please contact the Data Protection Co-ordinator at services@genetiq.co.uk or by tel No. 0775 246 1108. Such access will be granted in accordance with the requirements of applicable national legislation and subject to any discretionary allowance for Genetiq® to make a charge payable by you to cover our administration costs incurred in providing you with such data. Such payment is to be made on application for access to your data and is to be no more than the maximum stipulated by applicable national legislation. The information will be forwarded to you within an appropriate period of time in accordance with applicable national legislation, but in any event no more than 40 days from the date of such request for access.
Where any discrepancies are discovered following your enquiry, we will take immediate steps to validate and, where appropriate, correct our records. We will confirm the actions taken in writing to you within an appropriate period of time in accordance with applicable national legislation, but in any event no more than 40 days after receiving your request to amend our records.
For those clients and customers with active secure site registration, your personal details can be accessed via your on-line registration and your personal details that we hold can be amended and updated by yourself at any time.
If a client wishes to update personal data or objects to any usage provided herein for any reason, he/she may email the requested change to services@genetiq.co.uk.
6. Security of information
We will only provide access to data on you to those of our employees who need such access in order to carry out any necessary processing. We have taken appropriate steps to ensure the security of data, whether it is stored in computer systems, paper files or other storage media. We expect the same high standards of security and confidentiality of any third party we engage to process data for us.
7. Transfer of information outside the EEA
Personal data will not be transferred by Genetiq® outside the EU or EEA.
8. Direct marketing
We may market to you directly through any media to keep you informed of services and information that may be of interest to you (unless you e-mail us asking us not to do so at services@genetiq.co.uk or you have done so previously and such exclusion is still operative). (If you use more than one e-mail address to communicate with us, please notify us of each e-mail account you use.)
We, and/or third parties authorised by us, may make contact with you by post, e-mail, telephone (including automated dialling equipment), facsimile transmissions, and/or pre-recorded messages for the purposes set out herein (unless you notify us either in writing or by telephone, fax or e-mail that you object to being contacted in a particular stated way and/or by third parties authorised by us, or you have done so previously and such objection is still operative). (If you use more than one e-mail address to communicate with us, please notify us of each e-mail account you use.)
We, and/or third parties authorised by us, will always act according to your wishes and preferences. Whenever we, and/or third parties authorised by us, directly market to you by telephone or fax, we, and/or third parties authorised by us, will comply beforehand with the requirements of applicable national legislation under and by which you have recorded your desire not to be contacted by telephone and/or fax, as the case may be, for the purposes of direct marketing by any organisation. If you have notified such desire according to the laws of your country of domicile, then we, and/third parties authorised by us, will not call or fax you unless you subsequently notify us directly (by e-mail at services@genetiq.co.uk) that this no longer applies or at least does not apply to third parties authorised by us. (If you use more than one e-mail address to communicate with us, please notify us of each e-mail account you use.)
9. Internet
Genetiq® is the sole controller in the EEA/EU Member States of all data held in relation to your use of any of our web sites and all processing of data relating to your requirements and requests is therefore subject to and in accordance with the EU Directives and subject additionally to the data protection laws and regulations of your country of domicile. If no such laws and regulations exist in your country of domicile, then all processing of data relating to your requirements and requests is subject to United Kingdom data protection laws and regulations only. Where any local country's laws and regulations relating to data protection and privacy conflict with or are inconsistent with the EU Directives, then the EU Directives shall prevail.
Genetiq® gathers two types of information about our clients & customers: data that is provided by clients through on-line registration of any of our secure web sites; and data Genetiq® gathers through aggregated tracking, mainly by tallying page views throughout this web site or any other web site owned, controlled or managed by Genetiq® . Such information enables us to tailor our content to fit client and customers' needs better and to help third party content providers, agents, subcontractors, suppliers, merchants, advertisers and sponsors (collectively known as "providers") that have licensed their content on any of our web sites or the right to market their products and/or services to understand our client base. However, be assured that Genetiq® will not disclose personal data to any third party without your consent, except as may be noted in this privacy policy.
10. On-line registration
We collect data by specifically requesting it from you. Generally, this occurs when you register with us for access to the secure area of the website. For example, we may need to know your name, e-mail address, mailing address and contact telephone number, facsimile number and other related information. This allows us to communicate with you and to process and fulfil your requirements and requests including your payment monies due to us. Usually, we use your data to maintain our customer records, operate our web sites and to deliver services and reports that you require.
We will maintain records relating to your use of any of our web sites (including information about you provided by yourself, or by providers, or other third parties authorised by us). We shall be entitled to process those data for the purpose of providing you with a service and reports, for our administration purposes, market analyses and operational reviews, and to keep you informed of Genetiq's work that may be of interest (unless you email us at services@genetiq.co.uk asking us to exclude you from such further contact or you have done so previously and such exclusion is still operative). (If you use more than one e-mail address to communicate with us, please notify us of each e-mail account you use.) We shall be entitled to disclose to our Providers, or other third parties authorised by us, such information as may be necessary to provide you with our services and reports or for the purpose of verification of details relating to any requests for information on-line you may make to Genetiq® .
11. Use of Internet Protocol ("IP") Addresses
An IP address is a unique number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the World Wide Web (otherwise known as the "Internet"), so that your computer can be identified by the main computers, known as "Web servers", that "serve up" web pages.
Genetiq® collects IP addresses for the purposes of system administration, to report aggregated information to Providers, or to other third parties authorised by us, and to audit the use of our web sites. When clients and customers request pages from our web site, our web server logs the Clients' IP address. For general use of the our web sites, we do not normally link IP addresses to anything personally identifiable, which means that a Clients session will be logged, but the Client will remain anonymous to us. We can and will use IP addresses to identify a Client when we feel it is necessary to enforce compliance with our web sites' terms of use or terms of service, or to protect our service or any of our web sites.
12. Secure Site Users
A personally identifiable log is maintained of activity undertaken within the secure site of our web sites for the purposes of system administration and to monitor the usage.
13. Use of Cookies
What are cookies? Cookies are small pieces of information that a web site sends to your computer for record-keeping purposes, which information is stored in a file on your computer. Cookies make web-surfing easier for you by saving your preferences so that, for example, we can use the saved information to facilitate your use of our web sites when you return to them. Cookies do not tell us your individual identity unless you have chosen to provide it to us. We never save passwords or credit card information in cookies. The use of cookies is an industry standard and, as such, you will find that most major web sites use them.
By showing how and when client use the Genetiq® web site or any other web site owned, controlled or managed by Genetiq® , cookies help us to determine which areas are popular and which are not. Many improvements and updates to our web sites are based on such data as total numbers of visitors and pages viewed. This information is most easily tracked with cookies. We use the information from cookies to provide services better tailored to our clients' needs.
Most cookies expire after a defined period of time, or you can delete your cookie file at any time. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies. You can re-set you browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, note that some parts of our web may not function properly or may be considerably slower if you refuse cookies. For example, without cookies you may have difficulty completing on-line transactions.
Genetiq® , and its Providers, or other third parties authorised by us, have two primary uses for cookies. Firstly, we use them to specify your preferences. For example, you can specify keywords across several web pages so you do not have to tell us repeatedly about the vectors and genes that you are interested in finding out more information about. Secondly, we use cookies to track client web site usage trends and patterns. This helps us to understand our clients' needs better and improve our services and reports that our clients find valuable. While both of these activities depend on the use of cookies, you have the option of disabling cookies via your browser preferences.
You may occasionally receive cookies from Providers or other third parties authorised by us. Genetiq® does not control these cookies. The use of advertising cookies sent by third party web servers is standard in the Internet industry.
14. With whom does Genetiq ® share my information?
As a general rule, Genetiq® will not disclose any personal data that you submit to us about you in a manner that connects you with the personal data, except when we have your permission or under special circumstances, such as when we believe in good faith that the law requires it or under the circumstances described below. The following describes some of the ways that your personal data may be disclosed:
Aggregate Data: We may monitor traffic patterns and usage of our web sites to help us develop its design and layout. We may also use personal data that we collect to occasionally notify you about important functionality changes to our any of our web sites, and to notify you of new services and reports that we think you will find valuable and of interest. Also, we may keep track of what portions of our web site clients are visiting and other client statistics, such as aggregate information about volumes of reports requested, frequency of vectors and genes of interest selected and traffic patterns and usage of our web sites, which may be provided to reputable third parties authorised by us, in order to help us create a better experience for users of our web sites.
Other: We may also disclose account data of clients in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this data is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be violating Genetiq's terms of use (general and secure site) or may be causing injury to or interference (either intentionally or unintentionally) with any of Genetiq's rights or property, our other clients, or anyone else. Genetiq® may disclose or access account data when we believe in good faith that the law requires it and for administrative and other purposes that we deem necessary to maintain, service, and improve our services and reports to our clients.
15. Links to a third party web site
You should be aware that when you are on Genetiq's web site or any other web site owned, controlled or managed by Genetiq® , you could hyperlink or be directed to other web sites that are beyond our control. For example, if you make payments via PayPal or if you "click" on a banner advertisement or a Genetiq® web site search result, the "click" may transfer you off the Genetiq® web site. These other web sites may include web sites of providers, or other third parties authorised by us and may send their own cookies to clients, and collect or solicit data and personal data.
Genetiq® does not control such third party web sites and, therefore, are not responsible for their content or the hyperlinks or advertising they choose to place on such web sites. Genetiq's hyperlinks to these third party web sites does not imply any endorsement of the material on such web sites or any association with their operators. Genetiq's policy does not extend to anything that is inherent in the operation of the Internet, which is beyond Genetiq's control.
Please keep in mind that whenever you give out information on-line (for example, via message or bulletin boards or chat rooms) that information can be collected and used by people you do not know. While Genetiq® strives to protect their clients data and personal data, as well as privacy, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you disclose on-line, and you disclose such information at your own risk.
We will not send you e-mails that you do not want, but we cannot guarantee that providers, or other third parties authorised by us, to whom your details are sent will not do so.
16. Is my information secure from others using any Genetiq ® web site?
The security of all data associated with our clients is an important concern to us. We exercise a high degree of care, skill and due diligence in providing secure transmission of your data and personal data from your computer to our web server. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet is 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your data and personal data, Genetiq® cannot ensure and do not warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or from our on-line services and reports, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission, Genetiq® uses industry standard efforts to safeguard the confidentiality of your data and personal data, such as firewalls, secure servers and Secure Sockets Layer. When you use our web sites for transactional purposes we use Paypal which is an officially recognised trusted third party that authenticates and certifies the security of our web sites and encrypts financial transactions. However, "perfect security" does not exist on and in the use of the Internet.
If at any time you feel that Genetiq® has not adhered to the principles, processes, procedures and practices contained in this privacy policy, please either notify us in writing or by telephone, fax or e-mail and we will use all commercially reasonable efforts to determine and correct the problem promptly. Genetiq® welcomes your questions and comments about privacy.
YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE TERMS
By using this web site or any other web site owned, controlled or managed by Genetiq ® , you signify your agreement to Genetiq's privacy policy. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS PRIVACY POLICY, PLEASE DO NOT USE ANY OF OUR WEB SITES. Your continued use of Genetiq's web site following the posting of changes to these terms will mean that you accept those changes.