Privacy Policy

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1. Introduction

We are committed to safeguarding the privacy of our customers, suppliers and website visitors.

This policy applies where we are acting as a data controller with respect to the personal data of our customers, suppliers and website visitors; in other words, where we determine the purposes and means of the processing of that personal data.

By using our website and agreeing to this policy, you consent to our use of cookies in accordance with the terms of this policy.

2. How we use your personal data

In this Section we have set out:

  • The general categories of personal data that we may process;
  • In the case of personal data that we did not obtain directly from you, the source and specific categories of that data;
  • The purposes for which we may process personal data; and
  • The legal bases of the processing.

We may process data about your use of our website and services (“usage data“). The usage data may include your IP address, geographical location, browser type and version, operating system, referral source, length of visit, page views and website navigation paths, as well as information about the timing, frequency and pattern of your service use. The source of the usage data is our analytics tracking system. This usage data may be processed for the purposes of analysing the use of the website and services. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely monitoring and improving our website, services and products.

We may process information contained in any enquiry you submit to us regarding goods and/or services (“enquiry data“). The enquiry data may be processed for the purposes of offering, marketing and selling relevant goods and/or services to you. The legal basis for this processing is legitimate interest.

We may process information that you provide to us for the purpose of subscribing to our email notifications and/or newsletters (“notification data“). The notification data may be processed for the purposes of sending you the relevant notifications and/or newsletters. The legal basis for this processing is the performance of a contract between you and us and/or taking steps, at your request, to enter into such a contract.

We may process information contained in or relating to any communication that you send to us (“correspondence data“). The correspondence data may include the communication content and metadata associated with the communication. Our website will generate the metadata associated with communications made using the website contact forms. The correspondence data may be processed for the purposes of communicating with you and record-keeping. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the proper administration of our website and business and communications with users.

We may process your name and business contact details. This data may include your name, gender, business email address and telephone numbers. The source of this data is Biral research using publicly available data sources, data directly provided at conferences and exhibitions, data directly provided by your employer or a colleague. This data may be processed for the purposes of sending you relevant notifications and/or newsletters. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the proper administration of our website and business and communications with potential user and suppliers.

We may process any of your personal data identified in this policy where necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure. The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interests, namely the protection and assertion of our legal rights, your legal rights and the legal rights of others.

In addition to the specific purposes for which we may process your personal data set out in this Section, we may also process any of your personal data where such processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.

3. Providing your personal data to others

We may disclose your personal data to our insurers and/or professional advisers insofar as reasonably necessary for the purposes of obtaining or maintaining insurance coverage, managing risks, obtaining professional advice, or the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure.

We may disclose your name, job title, email address, telephone number and business address to our suppliers or subcontractors insofar as reasonably necessary for the provision of goods and services.

We may disclose your enquiry data to one or more of those selected third party suppliers of goods and services identified on our website for the purpose of enabling them to contact you so that they can offer, market and sell to you relevant goods and/or services. Each such third party will act as a data controller in relation to the enquiry data that we supply to it; and upon contacting you, each such third party will supply to you a copy of its own privacy policy, which will govern that third party’s use of your personal data.

In addition to the specific disclosures of personal data set out in this Section, we may disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person. We may also disclose your personal data where such disclosure is necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims, whether in court proceedings or in an administrative or out-of-court procedure.

4. International transfers of your personal data

In this Section, we provide information about the circumstances in which your personal data may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA).

Some of our suppliers, agents and subcontractors are situated in countries outside of the European Economic Area. Transfers to these countries will be protected by appropriate safeguards, namely only limited personal data consisting of name, job title, business email address, business telephone numbers and business address to be supplied for the purposes of fulfilling a contract or providing technical or sales assistance.

You acknowledge that personal data that you submit for publication through our website or services may be available, via the internet, around the world. We cannot prevent the use (or misuse) of such personal data by others.

5. Retaining and deleting personal data

This Section sets out our data retention policies and procedure, which are designed to help ensure that we comply with our legal obligations in relation to the retention and deletion of personal data.

Personal data that we process for any purpose or purposes shall not be kept for longer than is necessary for that purpose or those purposes.

We will retain your personal data as follows:

  • Name, job title and contact details will be retained for a minimum period of 1 year following the date of first contact, and for a maximum period of 5 years following the date of last contact for individuals whose employer has not purchased or supplied goods or services.
  • Name, job title and contact details will be retained for a minimum period of 5 years following the date of first contact, and for a maximum period of 25 years following the date of last contact for individuals whose employer has purchased or supplied goods or services. The service life of Biral products can be in excess of 25 years.

Notwithstanding the other provisions of this Section, we may retain your personal data where such retention is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject, or in order to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of another natural person.

6. Security of personal data

We will take appropriate technical and organisational precautions to secure your personal data and to prevent the loss, misuse or alteration of your personal data.

We will store all your personal data on secure servers, personal computers and mobile devices, and in secure manual record-keeping systems.

You acknowledge that the transmission of unencrypted (or inadequately encrypted) data over the internet is inherently insecure, and we cannot guarantee the security of data sent over the internet.

7. Amendments

We may update this policy from time to time by publishing a new version on our website.

You should check this page occasionally to ensure you are happy with any changes to this policy.

8. Your Personal Data Rights

In this section, we have summarised the rights that you have under data protection law. Some of the rights are complex, and not all of the details have been included in our summaries. Accordingly, you should read the relevant laws and guidance from the regulatory authorities for a full explanation of these rights.

8.1 Your Principle Rights

Your principal rights under data protection law are:

  • The right to access;
  • The right to rectification;
  • The right to erasure;
  • The right to restrict processing;
  • The right to object to processing;
  • The right to data portability;
  • The right to complain to a supervisory authority; and
  • The right to withdraw consent.

8.2 Right of Access

You have the right to confirmation as to whether or not we process your personal data and, where we do, access to the personal data, together with certain additional information. That additional information includes details of the purposes of the processing, the categories of personal data concerned and the recipients of the personal data. Providing the rights and freedoms of others are not affected, we will supply to you a copy of your personal data. The first copy will be provided free of charge, but additional copies may be subject to a reasonable fee. To request access to your data please contact us using one of the methods shown in section 15.

8.3 Right of Rectification

You have the right to have any inaccurate personal data about you rectified and, taking into account the purposes of the processing, to have any incomplete personal data about you completed.

8.4 Right of Erasure

In some circumstances you have the right to the erasure of your personal data without undue delay. Those circumstances include: the personal data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed; you object to the processing under certain rules of applicable data protection law; the processing is for direct marketing purposes; and the personal data have been unlawfully processed. However, there are exclusions of the right to erasure. The general exclusions include where processing is necessary: for exercising the right of freedom of expression and information; for compliance with a legal obligation; or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

8.6 Right to Object Processing

You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data on grounds relating to your particular situation, but only to the extent that the legal basis for the processing is that the processing is necessary for: the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of any official authority vested in us; or the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us or by a third party. If you make such an objection, we will cease to process the personal information unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms, or the processing is for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes (including profiling for direct marketing purposes). If you make such an objection, we will cease to process your personal data for this purpose.

You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data for scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes on grounds relating to your particular situation, unless the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out for reasons of public interest.

8.7 Right to Data Portability

To the extent that the legal basis for our processing of your personal data is, that the processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are party or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract, and such processing is carried out by automated means, you have the right to receive your personal data from us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. However, this right does not apply where it would adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others.

8.8 Right to Complain to a Supervisory Authority

If you consider that our processing of your personal information infringes data protection laws, you have a legal right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority responsible for data protection. You may do so in the EU member state of your habitual residence, your place of work or the place of the alleged infringement.

8.9 Right to Withdraw Consent

To the extent that the legal basis for our processing of your personal information is consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. Withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal. Biral does not use consent as a legal basis for data processing.

8.10 Exercising your Rights

You may exercise any of your rights in relation to your personal data by contacting us using the methods shown in section 15, in addition to the other methods specified in this section.

9. Third Party Websites

Our website includes hyperlinks to, and details of, third party websites.

We have no control over, and are not responsible for, the privacy policies and practices of third parties.

10. Personal Data of Children

Our website and services are targeted at persons over the age of 18.

If we have reason to believe that we hold personal data of a person under that age in our databases, we will delete that personal data.

11. Updating Information

Please let us know if the personal information that we hold about you needs to be corrected or updated.

You can contact us using the information provided in section 15.

12. About Cookies

A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.

Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies: a persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiry date, unless deleted by the user before the expiry date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.

Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but personal information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.

13. Cookies that we use

We use cookies for the following purposes:

  • Analysis – we use cookies to help us to analyse the use and performance of our website and services. Cookies used for this purpose are:
    • Google Analytics cookies: To analyse the usage of our website to assist with the development and promotion of products and services.
  • Live Traffic cookie: To determine if someone is a human or bot, identify repeat visitors and display this in the Live Traffic feed.
  • Country Blocking: To control bypass Country Blocking.
  • Session cookie: To remember if someone is a logged in user (confirming which user role they have) to prevent them from getting blocked by accident while working in an administration role.

14. Managing Cookies

Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies and to delete cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser, and from version to version. You can however obtain up-to-date information about blocking and deleting cookies via these links:

  • https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?hl=en (Chrome);
  • https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences (Firefox);
  • http://www.opera.com/help/tutorials/security/cookies/ (Opera);
  • https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies (Internet Explorer);
  • https://support.apple.com/kb/PH21411 (Safari); and
  • https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10-microsoft-edge-and-privacy (Edge).

Blocking all cookies will have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites.

15. Our Details

The website is owned and operated by Bristol Industrial and Research Associates Limited (BIRAL).

We are registered in England and Wales under registration number 1210956, and our registered office is at Unit 8, Harbour Road, Portishead, Bristol, BS20 7BL.

Our principal place of business is at Unit 8, Harbour Road, Portishead, Bristol, BS20 7BL.

You can contact us:

  • By post, to the postal address given above;
  • Using our website contact form;
  • By telephone, on +44 (0)1275 847787
  • By email, using enquiries@biral.com

16. Data Protection Registration

We are registered as a data controller with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office.

Our data protection registration number is Z5407148.