Privacy Statement

Privacy Statement

PURPOSE OF THIS POLICY - PLEASE READ CAREFULLY

TÜV SÜD America, Inc. ("TÜV SÜD", "us", "we" or "our") is committed to protecting the privacy of the users ("user", "you" or "your") of its web site ("Site") and various services offered through the website ("Services"). This privacy policy ("Privacy Policy") is designed to assist you in understanding how we collect, use, share, safeguard, retain and dispose of the information you provide to us and in making informed decisions when using the Site and Services. This Privacy Policy applies to the Site and Services and governs data collection and usage through the Site and Services. The United States has data protection laws that may not be consistent with those of other countries. If you are a natural person (individual) located in the European Union or European Economic Area, the terms of Addendum A attached hereto and incorporated herein by reference, will apply to you to the extent required under applicable law. Where the General Data Protection Regulation applies to our processing of your personal data, Addendum A will govern in the case of any inconsistency between Addendum A and this Privacy Policy as to the subject matter of the inconsistency.

ACCEPTANCE

By accessing, browsing and/or using the Site or Services, including all content, software, functions, services, materials and information made available on or accessed through the Site or Services, you acknowledge that you have read, understood and agree to be bound by this Privacy Policy. Any information provided by or through the Site and Services will be treated in accordance with this Privacy Policy. By using the Site and Services, you consent to the processing of data about you in the manner and for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy. Please read it in its entirety.

WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

In order for you to register as a user and access certain portions of our Site and Services, and if you communicate with us by e-mail or otherwise complete online forms or the like, we may require you to provide us or our authorized third party suppliers with information that personally identifies you, such as your name, mailing address, e-mail address, home and/or business telephone numbers, social security number, bank account number, credit card or debit card number, as well as any account number that we assign to you ("Personal Information") which may be retained and used by us and our affiliates and our and our affiliates’ authorized third parties, including service providers, as described in this Privacy Policy.

You may choose not to provide us with any Personal Information. In such an event, you will not be able to access or use those portions of the Site and Services or participate in certain online activities or Services that require your Personal Information. You may still use the Site and Services to browse information about the Site and Services and related services.

Through the use of cookie technology or otherwise (including local storage such as HTML5 localStorage), we, or service providers acting on our behalf, may track and collect information from your computer, tablet, mobile phone or other device used to access the Site and/or Services, as well as related software, when you visit the Site and Services, for the purposes described in the next section describing how we collect your Personal Information. This information may include: (i) your IP address, (ii) IP demographics (location, language, country of origin, etc.), (iii) domain server, (iv) computer or device identifiers, (v) type of web browser, (vi) access times, pages visited; and (viii) referring web sites addresses (collectively "Traffic Data"). For more information about cookies and other similar technologies that we use, please see the next section that discusses how we collect your Personal Information.

HOW AND WHY WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We collect information about you in ways and for the purposes discussed below.

We collect information about you through the information you provide to us, either directly or indirectly through our third-party service providers to provide the Services you request from us, including the use of the Site. Additionally, we may collect information about you from third party sources such as credit bureaus and other background check entities for the purposes of checking creditworthiness to conduct a transaction or potential employment candidacy to help enable us to make sound hiring decisions.

We, and our service providers acting on our behalf, also collect certain information about you and your Site and Services activities through the use of various technologies and for the purposes described below.

Cookies are small text or data files that are placed on your computer or other device that you use to access our Site or Services. Cookies provide a sort of memory for web pages. We use cookies in four ways (each of which is described in more detail below):

(1) Necessary Cookies: These cookies are necessary to provide use of the Site itself as well as other Services requested by you.

(2) User Experience Cookies: These cookies improve/enhance your user experience of our Site by enabling the Site to remember information that changes the way the Site behaves or looks, such as by setting your language preference, remembering your name or location, keeping you logged in, or providing enhanced or more personalized features. Please note that where you specifically request the relevant function that requires such cookies, we will treat that processing as necessary.

(3) Analytical Cookies: These cookies collect information about your use of our Site to analyze certain of your activities to help us understand how visitors interact with our Site, including estimating the number of unique visitors to our Site and to specific pages within the Site, to detect the most preeminent search engine keywords that lead to our Site and to specific pages within the Site, to identify Site navigation issues, and to see how visitors move around the Site.

(4) Marketing Cookies: These cookies are used to track Site visitors/users across third-party web sites, including tracking browsing habits such as what pages a visitor/user visits, what items are viewed and how many times, and to display ads and provide focused advertising for goods or services that might be relevant or of interest to the particular visitor/user.

Cookies may be distinguished by who is setting the cookie on your device when you visit our website. A "first party cookie" refers to cookies set by us as the controller or operator of the Site or a processor acting on our behalf. On the other hand, a "third party cookie" refers to cookies that are set by other controllers that do not operate our site.

Also, cookies are sometimes characterized by their duration. A "session cookie" is a cookie that is automatically deleted from your computer or device when you close your browser, whereas a "persistent cookie" is a cookie that remains stored in your computer or device until a defined expiration date (and sometimes for a number of years).

You may be able to adjust your cookies preferences and even to remove and disallow cookies through your browser settings. Typically, you can delete all cookies that are already on your computer and you may be able to set most browsers to prevent cookies from being placed. If you do this, however, you may have to manually adjust some preferences every time you visit the Site and some Services and functionalities may not work. While you may be able to adjust your browser settings to remove Necessary Cookies, these cookies are not optional if you wish to use the features of the Site or Services to which they relate. On the other hand, the other cookies identified above are optional. We recommend their use in order to provide certain benefits to you. You may be able to remove persistent cookies by following the directions provided in your Internet browser’s "HELP" file.

You may choose not to consent to non-necessary cookies (see description in sections (2) through (4) above). In such an event, you can still access and use portions of the Site and/or Services. You, however, will not be able to access or use those portions of the Site and/or Services or participate in certain online activities that require your Personal Information. You may still use the Site, and where applicable the Services, to browse information about products or services.

We use web beacons (small pieces of data that are embedded in images on the pages of web sites) and auditing software to track page views and entry and exit points to and from e-mails. In addition, we use web beacons, cookies, customized links and/or similar technologies to determine whether any e-mails or electronic publications sent by us to those who have requested them from us have been opened and which links are clicked. Any data collected using web beacons will only be used in an aggregate form and will not contain any Personal Information.

Local storage (e.g., HTML5 localStorage), also known as web storage, is a mechanism by which web applications and pages can store data locally in your browser to eliminate the need to be sent to the server with each request (unlike cookies). One or more of our service providers may use local storage through our website to store data on your browser and track certain of your activities. Please note that local storage data may remain in your browser indefinitely. It does not get cleared when you close your browser; rather, you would need to specifically remove the same using the appropriate functionality within your browser.

We use Google Analytics (or similar web traffic analytic tools) to help analyze how users use the Site and Services and to optimize our Site and Services based on that data. Such tools use information generated by cookies about your use of the web site (including IP address), which is transmitted to Google (or other analytics provider). This information is then used to evaluate users' use of the Site and Services and to compile statistical reports on web site activity for us.

Google Analytics and our other third-party service providers may collect Personal Information about you for their own purposes and you should review their privacy policies to understand how they collect and use your Personal Information.

WHAT WE DO WITH PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

Except as otherwise provided in this Privacy Policy, or any agreements you enter into with us, we will keep your Personal Information private and will not share it with third parties, unless such disclosure is necessary to: (a) comply with applicable laws, regulations, rules and the like, or legal process served on us; (b) provide you the products, services and/or information that you have requested; (c) protect our rights and/or property; (d) enforce our rights; (e) protect the interests of other users of the Site and Services or any other person; (f) operate or conduct maintenance and repair of our equipment; and/or (g) detect, prevent and/or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues, as authorized by law.

In general, we will use Personal Information only for the purpose for which such information was provided to us, including providing support, Services or products as applicable. We may also use Personal Information to (a) to verify the information you provided to us; (b) to provide you with the information that you have requested; (c) to respond to your inquiries; (d) to contact you when necessary; (e) to send you information about us, including information related to our products, services, programs or promotional activities, or about third party products, services, programs or promotional activities that may be of interest to you. If you sign up or subscribe to our newsletter(s) or publications, we will use your name and e-mail address to send the newsletter(s) or publications to you.

We may share your Personal Information with our parent company and affiliates, and with third parties that provide services to us and our parent company and affiliates (including, handling and delivering of e-mail communications and publications, payment processing, user submitted information processing and/or storage, and web site hosting) as reasonably necessary for them to provide those services.

We may use Traffic Data to analyze trends, administer the Site and Services, track users’ movements, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. We may provide Traffic Data and/or other aggregate non-personally identifying information to third parties.

Any and all information or material you transmit, post or upload to or through the Site and/or Services that is not required for your use of the Site and/or Services or receipt of any services or products, by any means including, without limitation, by message boards, chat rooms or similar discussion forums, blogs, wiki pages or otherwise ("Submissions"), will be treated as non-confidential and non-proprietary, and may be disseminated or used by us for any purpose and in any way without any compensation. By making a Submission to or through the Site and/or Services you: (a) agree that we are free to use any ideas, concepts or know-how contained in any Submission, and (b) automatically grant us an unrestricted, perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, license to use, reproduce, display, publicly perform, modify, transmit and distribute such Submission, alone or as part of other works in any form, media, or technology whether now known or hereafter developed.

Please be aware that with regard to Submissions, any Personal Information you submit can be read, collected, or used by other users of these forums, and could be used to send you unsolicited messages or for other purposes. We are not responsible for the Personal Information you choose to submit in these forums.

Notwithstanding any of the foregoing, we may transfer, sell or assign information concerning the Site and/or Services and your use of the Site and Services, including without limitation, Personal Information, to third parties, as a result of the sale, merger, consolidation, change in control, transfer of substantial assets, or reorganization or liquidation of us.

HOW WE PROTECT PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

The Site and Services have security measures in place intended to protect against the loss, unauthorized access to, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. We take reasonable administrative, technical, and physical measures to safeguard against unauthorized access or disclosure, and accidental loss or alteration, of the Personal Information we collect.

Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your Personal Information, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or from our Site and Services, and you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your transmission, we make reasonable efforts to ensure security on our systems.

In the event that there is ever a breach of security regarding your Personal Information, we intend to comply with applicable laws regarding notification and disclosure to you and to the appropriate authorities of the circumstances surrounding the breach.

HOW LONG WE RETAIN PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

As a general rule we only retain your personal information for as long as necessary for the purposes for which we collect it or as otherwise required under applicable law.

THIRD PARTY LINKS

Our Site and/or Services may contain links to third party service providers and third-party web sites. For example, our payment processor is a third party and we provide the link to that processor for your convenience in completing a payment transaction. In addition, to the extent that you participate in our online training services, our content is available on a third-party site and platform.

If you access any third-party web site links, you will leave the Site and Services. We do not control those sites or their privacy practices, which may differ from our practices. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of linked third party sites. We do not make any warranty or representation regarding, nor do we endorse, any linked third-party web sites or the information or content appearing thereon or any of the products or services described thereon, or the accuracy of the same. The personal information you choose to provide to or that is collected by these third parties is not covered by our Privacy Policy. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any third party before submitting your personal information. If you decide to access linked third-party web sites, you do so at your own risk.

CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 13; NOTICE TO PARENTS AND LEGAL GUARDIANS

We are committed to protecting the on-line privacy of children – that is, individuals under 13 years of age ("Child" or "Children"). In accordance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), we will not knowingly collect any Personal Information from or provide any services or products to Children.

DO NOT TRACK

We do not respond to Do Not Track signals/requests.

OPT-OUT/DISCONTINUE

If you sign up/subscribe to our newsletter(s) or other publications (if any) and you no longer wish to receive the same, you may unsubscribe by following the opt-out/unsubscribe link located within each newsletter or other publication.
If you do not wish to receive information or other material from us other than newsletter(s) or publications, you may "opt-out" of receiving these communications by contacting us at [email protected].

CORRECTIONS; UPDATES

If you wish to change or modify information that you previously provided to us, you may do so by sending us an e-mail at [email protected]. We will use reasonable efforts to ensure that your information is corrected or updated in our records.

METHOD OF DISPOSAL OF PERSONAL INFORMATION

We dispose of Personal Information securely and safely.

NOTIFICATION OF CHANGES

We may change our Privacy Policy at any time by updating this posting. Changes to our Privacy Policy will be effective when posted and the new effective date will be identified. Your continued use of the Site and Services signifies assent to these changes.

CONTACT US

If you have any questions or concerns regarding our Privacy Policy, the practices of our service providers, or any questions about the security at our Site and Services, you can send an e-mail and contact us at [email protected].

SPECIAL PRIVACY NOTIFICATION FOR CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS

Users who reside in California and have provided any of your "personal information" (as described under applicable California law) to us have the right to receive: (a) the name and address of any third party to whom we may have disclosed, during the immediately preceding calendar year, such personal information for that party’s direct marketing purposes, along with information describing the nature of that third party’s business; and (b) a description of the categories of such personal information disclosed. To obtain this information, please either (1) mail your request to:

TÜV SÜD America Inc.
Local Data Protection Coordinator
401 Edgewater Place, Suite 500
Wakefield, MA 01880
or (2) e-mail your request to [email protected].

This request may be made no more than once per calendar year. We reserve our right not to respond to requests submitted other than to the address(es) specified in this paragraph.

Please review our full Privacy Policy which is located here: https://www.tuvsud.com/en-us/privacy-statement.

SPECIAL NOTIFICATION FOR PERSONS LOCATED IN THE EU AND EEA

If you are a natural person (individual) located in the European Union or European Economic Area, the terms of our EU/EEA Privacy Policy attached hereto as Addendum A and incorporated herein by reference, will apply to you to the extent required by applicable law. Where the General Data Protection Regulation applies to our processing of your personal data, the EU/EEA Privacy Policy Addendum will govern to the extent of any inconsistency between the EU/EEA Privacy Policy Addendum and this Privacy Policy.

CONTACT INFORMATION:
TÜV SÜD America Inc.
Maureen Juaire, Senior Legal Counsel
Address: 401 Edgewater Place, Suite 500, Wakefield, MA 01880
Telephone number: 978-573-2676
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.tuvsud.com/en-us

This Privacy Policy, as revised, is effective as of October 7, 2020, and supersedes and replaces any prior Privacy Policy.

ADDENDUM A TO PRIVACY POLICY – EU/EEA Privacy Policy

If you are a natural person (individual) located in the European Union ("EU") or the European Economic Area ("EEA"), a law known as the General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") applies to our processing of your Personal Data. You can view the entire regulation here (https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:32016R0679&from=EN); we use the English version but the regulation is available in other language versions as shown on the europa.eu website). "Personal Data" means any information relating to you that would allow us to identify you either directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to your physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity. Please note that our notification obligations under Articles 13 and 14 of the GDPR do not apply where you already have the information identified therein.

With regard to your Personal Data obtained from you that we collect/process, you have the following rights under the GDPR, and references to Articles herein are to Articles in the GDPR. Please note that your rights may be limited under certain circumstances as provided for under applicable law(s) including, but not limited to, the GDPR (see, e.g., Article 13(4) and Article 14(5)).

1. You have the right to request from us access to your Personal Data and to obtain a copy of the same (we may charge a reasonable fee based on administrative costs for additional copies);

2. You have the right to request from us rectification (correction) of your Personal Data, and, taking into account the purposes of the processing, you have the right to have your Personal Data completed, including by means of a supplementary statement;

3. You have the right to request from us erasure of Personal Data concerning you where one or more of the following circumstances applies: (a) the Personal Data is no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which it was collected or otherwise processed, (b) you withdraw your consent on which the processing was based and there is no other legal ground for the processing, (c) you object to the processing pursuant to Article 21(1) and there are no overriding legitimate grounds for the processing, or you object to the processing pursuant to Article 21(2), (d) the Personal Data has been unlawfully processed, (e) the Personal Data has to be erased for compliance with a legal obligation in the European Union or a member state to which we are subject, or (f) the Personal Data has been collected in relation to the offer of information society services referred to in Article 8(1).;

4. You have the right to request from us restriction on processing of Personal Data concerning you where one or more of the following circumstances applies: (a) you contest the accuracy of the data, for a period of time enabling us to verify the accuracy of the Personal Data, (b) where the processing is unlawful and you oppose erasure of the Personal Data and request restriction of the use of the Personal Data instead, (c) we no longer need the Personal Data for the purposes of the processing, but the Personal Data is required by you for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims, or (d) you have objected to processing pursuant to Article 21(1) pending the verification whether our legitimate grounds for processing the Personal Data override yours; moreover, we will inform you before the restriction of processing is lifted;

5. You have the right to object to the processing of Personal Data concerning you as follows: (a) at any time as to processing of Personal Data which is based on points (e) (carrying out a task in the public interest or exercise of official authority vested in us) or (f) (necessary for our legitimate interests or those of a third party) of Article 6(1), including profiling based on those provisions, on grounds relating to your particular situation; in such case, we will no longer process the Personal Data unless we demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which overrides your interests, rights and freedoms, or for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims, (b) at any time where Personal Data is processed for direct marketing purposes, which includes profiling to the extent that it is related to such direct marketing, (c) in the context of the use of information society services, and in such case you may exercise your right to object by automated means using technical specifications, (d) on grounds relating to your particular situation, where the Personal Data is processed for scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes pursuant to Article 89(1), unless the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out for reasons of public interest;

6. You have the right to data portability (that is, the right to receive the Personal Data concerning you which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and you have the right to transmit such Personal Data to another controller without hindrance from us), where the processing is based on your consent and the processing is carried out by automated means; in connection with this right, you have the right to have the Personal Data transmitted directly from us to another controller, where technically feasible;

7. Where our processing of your data is based upon your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time (but your withdrawal of consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing of your Personal Data based on any consent given by you before your withdrawal of consent);

8. You have the right to lodge a complaint with the appropriate supervisory authority;

9. You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you. However, the foregoing right will not apply if our decision: (a) is necessary for entering into, or performance of, a contract between you and us, (b) is authorized by European Union or Member State law to which we are subject and which also provides suitable measures to safeguard your rights and freedoms and legitimate interests, or (c) is based on your explicit consent. In cases referred to in points (a) and (c), you may obtain human intervention on our part to express your point of view and to contest the decision by submitting an email to us at [email protected]. (see Article 22).

With regard to your Personal Data not obtained from you that we collect/process (that is Personal Data about you collected from a source other than you directly), in addition to the rights and limitations set forth above, our obligation to provide the required information may be subject to further limitations as set forth in Article 14.

We might transfer some or all of your Personal Data to a third country or international organization which has not received an adequacy decision by the Commission (meaning that such third country or international organization has not been determined by the Commission to ensure an adequate level of protection).

--WITHDRAWING YOUR CONSENT--

Please note that where you have the right to withdraw your consent you may do so by contacting the Local Data Protection Coordinator at [email protected]. Similarly, where you wish to exercise other rights you have under the GDPR as to which we must first receive notice, please contact us at [email protected] with your specific request(s).

For general inquiries and other requests or questions, you may contact us at the email address or telephone number listed in our contact information directly below.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Controller:
Name: TÜV SÜD America Inc.
Address: 401 Edgewater Place, Suite 500, Wakefield, MA 01880
Telephone number: 978-573-2500
Email address: [email protected]
Website: www.tuvsud.com/en-us


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