The Smithers Group Inc. and members of The Smithers Group (listed at the end of this notice) respect your right to privacy. This Privacy Notice explains who we are, how we collect, share and use personal information about you, and your legal rights related to data protection. This Privacy Notice only applies to personal information that we collect online at www.smithers.com and related sites.

If you have any questions or concerns about our use of your personal data, then please contact us at privacy@smithers.com 

Who are The Smithers Group Inc.?

Smithers is an independent global leader in delivering trusted solutions by integrating science, technology, and business expertise. Our companies are innovative in adding value throughout the life cycle of our clients’ products, utilizing testing, consulting, information, and compliance services. 
Find out more about us

What data do we collect?

From time to time you will be asked to submit your personal information online in order to receive or use services on our websites. For example, placing an order online, registering for an event, downloading information or updating your preferences. You may also provide your personal information offline, in order for us to service you with quotations, make telephone contact and occasionally email you with value-added content and promotional material which may be of interest to you and your business. By providing your personal information, you enable Smithers to provide you with the services you require. Smithers are committed to ensuring that the information we collect and use is appropriate for this purpose, and will process (collect, store and use) the information you provide in a manner compatible with the governing data protection laws. Smithers will endeavor to keep your information accurate and up to date, and not retain for longer than is necessary.

When you visit our websites, we may collect certain information automatically from your device. In some countries, including countries in the European Economic Area, some of this information may be considered personal information under applicable data protection laws.

Specifically, the information we collect automatically may include information like your IP address, device type, browser-type, broad geographic location (e.g. country or city-level location) and other technical information. We may also collect information about how your device has interacted with our website, including the pages accessed and links clicked. 

Collecting this information enables us to better understand the visitors who come to our Website, where they come from, and what content on our Website is of interest to them. We use this information to improve the quality and relevance of the digital services that we provide.

Some of this information may be collected using cookies and similar tracking technology.

Legal Basis for Processing Your Personal Data

If you are a visitor from the European Economic Area, our legal basis for collecting and using the personal information described above will depend on the personal information concerned and the specific context in which we collect it. 

We will normally collect personal information from you only where we have your consent to do so, where we need the personal information to perform a contract with you, or where the processing is in our legitimate interests to promote the testing, consulting, information, and compliance services and/or products offered by Smithers.

We may have other legitimate interests and if appropriate, we will make it clear to you at the relevant time what those legitimate interests are. Where we do process your information in reliance on our legitimate interests, we will consider any consequences or impact it may have on you and will not rely on legitimate interests grounds if we think that our interests are outweighed by any negative impact the activities may have on you.

In some cases, we may also have a legal obligation to collect personal information from you or may otherwise need the personal information to protect your vital interests or those of another person.

Consent

Through agreeing to this privacy notice you are consenting to Smithers processing your personal data for the purposes outlined. You can withdraw consent at any time by emailing us at privacy@smithers.com 

Will Smithers share my data?

A Smithers member company may on occasion transfer your personal information to another Smithers member company, in some cases outside the European Economic Area, in furtherance of the legitimate interests identified above. Smithers member companies are obligated by agreement amongst themselves to protect such information and comply with applicable privacy laws. Smithers may also transfer your personal information to a third party exclusively to process work on its behalf. Smithers requires these parties to agree to process this information based on our instructions and requirements consistent with this Privacy Notice and the governing Data Protection Law. Smithers does not broker information gained through an engagement without your consent. However, Smithers may disclose personal information to meet legal obligations, regulations or valid governmental request. Smithers may also enforce its terms and conditions, including investigating potential violations of its terms and conditions to detect, prevent, or mitigate fraud or security or technical issues; or to protect against imminent harm to the rights, property or safety of Smithers, its clients and or the wider community.

How will Smithers protect my data and keep it secure?

Smithers follow strict procedures to ensure that your personal and financial information remain secure. To prevent unauthorised access or disclosure of your information, we have put in place stringent security and best practice processes to ensure that your information is protected online.

All Smithers websites are hosted on the Microsoft Azure platform, allowing Smithers to leverage a suite of industry-leading security, privacy and compliance tools. The Azure platform has more data protection certifications than any other cloud-based hosting provider and is compliant with a series of international and industry-specific data protection standards,

Smithers use secure socket layer (SSL) to encrypt all of your personal and financial information during transactional processes. We work with an approved Qualified Security Assessor (QSA) to ensure the latest security requirements are implemented and all servers are scanned and audited regularly to ensure we remain compliant with Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards (DSS).

How long will Smithers keep my data for?

Smithers retain personal information we collect from you where we have an ongoing legitimate business need to do so (for example, to provide you with a service you have requested or to comply with applicable legal, tax or accounting requirements). 

Smithers will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes for which we collected it and in accordance with the time periods found in our Data Retention Policy. You can request a copy of the Data Retention Policy by emailing us at privacy@smithers.com

Your Legal Data Protection Rights

At any point while we are in possession of or processing your personal data, you, the data subject, have the following rights:

• If you wish to correct or update of your personal information, you can do so at any time by contacting us privacy@smithers.com
• You have the right to request that we delete all information that we hold about you, and the right to request a copy of the data we hold on you via a formal Subject Access Request. You can do so at any time by contacting us at privacy@smithers.com
• If you are a resident within the EEA, you can object to processing of your personal information, ask us to restrict processing of your personal information or request portability of your personal information. You can exercise these rights by contacting us at privacy@smithers.com
• You have the right to opt-out of marketing communications we send you at any time.You can exercise this right by clicking on the “unsubscribe” or “opt-out” link in the marketing e-mails we send you. To opt-out of other forms of marketing (such as postal marketing or telemarketing), then please contact us at privacy@smithers.com
• If we collect and process your personal information with your consent then you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.

All of the above requests will be forwarded on should there be a third party involved in the processing of your personal data. In the event that Smithers refuses your request under rights of access, we will provide you with a reason as to why, which you have a right to legally challenge.

Complaints

In the event that you wish to make a complaint about how your personal data is being processed by Smithers (or third parties as described above), or how your complaint has been handled, you can contact us at 
 privacy@smithers.com,  or at the postal addresses listed below.  If you do not get a response within 30 days, you are entitled to complain direct to the United Kingdom’s Supervisory Authority, The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

Written requests to the Data Protection Representative may be sent to:

Pharmaceutical Development Services

108 Woodfield Drive
Harrogate
North Yorkshire HG1 4LS

Environmental Risk Sciences

108 Woodfield Drive
Harrogate
North Yorkshire HG1 4LS

Materials Science and Engineering/Quality Assessments

Shrewsbury Road
Shawbury
Shropshire SY4 4NR
 

Smithers Information/ The Smithers Group, Inc.

Cleeve Road
Leatherhead
Surrey KT22 7RU
 

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)

Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow SK9 5AF

Telephone: +44 (0) 303 123 1113
 

Smithers will respond to all requests we receive from individuals wishing to exercise their data protection rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws.
 

Last Updated May, 2018.