Website Privacy Notice

Most of our services do not require any form of registration, allowing you to visit our website without telling us who you are. However, some services and communications may require you to voluntarily provide us with personal data, which may include identification data and contact details, professional data in the context of a job application, and website usage data, which is collected automatically, when you visit our website. If you do not provide such data, we may not be able to provide services or information to you or enter into commercial engagements with you.

BD processes the personal data it collects depending on the relationship that you have with us. Unless the processing of your personal data is required or permitted by applicable law, for example the obligation to provide information to authorities in case of adverse events related to our products, or explicitly authorized by you, BD may process your personal data only as far as necessary to fulfill a contractual relationship with you, and for its legitimate business interests, such as responding to your requests and inquiries, running and maintaining our website, conducting analysis on the usage of our website, preserving our economic interests, and ensuring compliance with internal policies and applicable laws. Additionally, we may process your personal data to personalize the content of our website based on information we have collected based on your consent.

 1.1   Personal data that is automatically collected when you visit our website

BD uses common, automated data collection technologies, such as Cookies or internet tags, to assess how our website is used, to personalize your experience, and to deliver content tailored to your interests. Through these technologies, some information may be collected automatically, when you visit our website, including:

• Usage data, such as your device ID, including your IP address, which is a unique number assigned to your computer; your login information, browser and devise information, including the operating system and platform, time zone setting, browser plug-in types and versions; information about your visit and online activities, such as page response times, download errors, length of visits of certain pages, page interaction information. 
• Geolocation data and other information collected through Cookies and other tracking technologies (i.e. Web-Beacons and Pixels), subject to your explicit consent and as described in section 5.

We process this information for the following purposes and based on the following legal bases:

To run and maintain our website

We process usage data in our legitimate interest to enable the use of our website (connection establishment), to maintain our website, permanently ensure system security and stability, to fix technical problems, defend against attacks on the infrastructure, to perform analyses in the case of cyber attacks, audits, fraud monitoring and prevention, and to compile aggregated visitor statistics.

To perform website analytics and tracking

We process geolocation data and other information subject to your explicit consent together with usage data to better understand how our products and services impact you, to track and respond to safety concerns and to further develop and improve the quality and functionality of our products and services, identify usage trends and determine the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns, conduct surveys, improve the contents of our website, and to compile aggregated statistics about the usage or our website. For further information on how we use Cookies and tracking technologies, please read section 5 of this Privacy Notice and our Cookie Policy.

To identify your general geographic area

When you visit the BD.com site, the site automatically derives your geographic area based on your IP address and redirects you automatically to your local BD website.

Personal Data provided by you

BD collects personal data directly from you when you sign up for a service, subscribe for a newsletter, enter into a contract with us, submit an application to us, send us a question, make a product complaint, or otherwise interact with us. The type of personal data we collect depends on the interactions you have with us and the BD services you use, and may include information, such as:

• Identification data and contact details, such as name, first name, last name, gender, business email and/or postal address, fixed and/or mobile phone number; age, date of birth, country of origin or residence, username, passwords and other information used for authentication and BD account access.
• Information regarding your utilization, responses and preferences, such as communication preferences, channels, preferred languages.
• Financial or payment data, such as credit card details, bank account details, VAT or other tax identification number, dates and amounts of payments made or received.
• Other personal data necessary to administer certain online services, such as login ID, security questions and answers, or encrypted passwords; or provided by you, for example through our contact forms, including the content of your message when you make an inquiry, report an adverse event or product complaint, respond to a survey, or when you subscribe to one of our mailing lists (your interests).
• Special categories of data, such as data relating to your health or religion, are generally not collected by BD. However, in some circumstances the provision of special categories of data may be necessary, for example, health related information in cases of product claims or when applying for a job where such information is required to comply with applicable laws, such as labor laws, or subject to your explicit consent.

We process this information for the following purposes and based on the following legal bases:

Creating a user account

For the use of some services, you may be asked to create a user account, for example, when you visit a page, whose content is restricted to health care professionals. When registering, you need to provide your identification data and contact details. We process this information, based on our legitimate interest, only to enable you to access the content specifically relevant to you, in compliance with applicable laws, such as local medical laws.

Responding to your requests and inquires, and complaints

We process the data you submit to us via our contact forms to respond to your requests and inquires via mail, email, telephone, SMS text messaging or other channels, for example when you have a question or complaint related to a product or application, submit a medical information request or a safety concern, or would like to request samples, a quote or demo, or subscribe to our marketing communications mailing list.

We process your personal data for these purposes based on our legitimate interest, or, if applicable, contractual obligation, to respond to your request and get in touch with you. If you submit special categories of data with your request, we process this information based on your explicit consent. In case of an adverse event reporting or complaint, we process your personal data to comply with our legal reporting obligations.

Delivering products and services

We process your personal data provided when placing an order to provide you with the products and services ordered and for billing you for these products and services, based on the contractual relationship with you. We further use this data (including information on order history), based on our legitimate interest to improve our products and services by conducting surveys, increase customer satisfaction and our reputation by understanding your preferences and interests, and for marketing purposes. For further information on how we process customer personal data, please read the Data Privacy Notice for Customers.

Preserving our economic interests

We process your personal data, as necessary and based on our legitimate interest, to preserve the company’s economic interests, remain competitive in the market, and ensure compliance and reporting, such as (a) complying with our policies, legal and regulatory requirements, including money laundering, anti-bribery, and anti-corruption laws and regulations, (b) enforcing our terms and conditions, (c) protecting our operations or those of any of our affiliates, (d) protecting our rights, privacy, safety, or property, and that of our affiliates, you, or others, (e) preventing, monitoring and managing cases of alleged misconduct or fraud, misuse of IT systems, physical security, data loss, IT and network security, (f) conducting internal investigations, audits, and (g) defending litigation. 

Performing marketing activities/newsletters

We process your personal data, including your identification data and contact details as well as information about your utilization, responses and preferences, and other personal data you submit to us, as necessary and based on your consent, to market products and services which we think may be of interest to you or to communicate with you for other purposes about which we inform you when we collect your personal data. When subscribing to our marketing communications, you will need to provide your name and email address. You can unsubscribe from marketing communications by clicking the “Unsubscribe” link included in each message.

Managing job applications

We process your personal data that you submit when applying for a position at BD to take steps at your request prior to entering into a potential contract with you and based on your consent, to administer your job application and assess your suitability for the relevant position for which you applied. 

Complying with legal obligations applicable to BD

We process your personal data, as necessary, to comply with legal obligations applicable to us, such as labor laws requirements, transparency requirements, or adverse event reporting requirements.

Where BD is using your personal data in order to comply with legal obligations applicable to us, we are required to do so, as this affects the way in which we are running our business. In addition this will help us to make our products and services as safe as they can be. BD processes this personal data in line with the measures to protect your personal data as highlighted in this privacy notice.

Where required by law, we will obtain consent to allow us to process your personal for one or more purposes set out in this privacy notice.

Live Chats

BD also processes the data you provide to us when you use our live chat feature (chatbot). We may use live chat to answer your inquiries about our products, our career paths, or our website, as well as to provide technical support, and may also process this data to improve our products and services. When you use the live chat, some information is automatically collected via specific Cookies, such as your IP address, country of origin, and your message. In cases where we need to contact you with additional information, we will need your contact information, such as your name (although a pseudonym is sufficient) and your email address. Before you can use the live chat function, you must consent to the collection and processing of your personal data.

If our processing is based on your consent, you may at any time withdraw your consent by contacting us as described in section 8. Please note that the withdrawal of your consent does not affect the lawfulness of prior processing based on consent.

In some cases (I.e. the career path live chat) we are working with data processors and certain third-party providers to process your personal data as outlined in section 2. All processing of such personal data will be in line with the purposes and measures outlined in this Privacy Notice.

Depending on the interactions you have with us, please consult the specific privacy notices as listed above.

 1.2   Personal Data we collect from other sources

To the extent permitted by applicable law, and as necessary for fulfilling our legitimate business interest, we may collect or receive additional information about you from publicly available sources, such as the Internet (I.e social media), or third parties.

For example, we may receive background check information when you apply for a position at BD (only with your explicit consent), or fraud warnings from service providers to fulfill our legitimate interest in fraud prevention. We may also monitor conversations on public social media platforms about our products and services, and collect information, such as comments, photos, videos, blogs, etc, to the extent necessary to better understand how consumers and healthcare professionals experience our products, and BD’s reputation, and to identify social media influencers. This includes the collection of data on how users on social media comment about BD as a company or about specific campaigns. We may further combine the information collected from various sources to better understand your interests and needs. The information may also be used to identify and engage with key stakeholders and/or to understand relevant topics, how they are perceived, positively or negatively, to adapt our communication and identify new topics. This may include the engagement of data processors and certain other third parties as outlined in section 2.

We take appropriate technical and organizational measures to secure your personal data from unauthorized access, loss and misuse. These measures include instructions to employees, access regulations and restrictions as well as the encryption of data carriers. 

When you access our website, we ask you to consent (opt-in) to the collection and use of Cookies (other than strictly necessary cookies for the website to function) and tracking technologies.

5.1. Cookies

Our Digital Properties (and authorized third parties) uses Cookies (small text files placed on your computer) and other tracking technologies to collect information - either directly or through third parties - about you, your device, and how you interact with our Digital Properties over time and across websites to provide our services and store your preferences and  enable you to sign in to websites or applications, provide interest-based marketing, combat fraud, and analyze how our services are performing, and as further described in our are small text files placed on your computer. We collect this information, either directly or through third parties, to provide our services and store your preferences and  enable you to sign in to websites or applications, provide interest-based marketing, combat fraud, and analyze how our services are performing. For further information about our use of Cookies, consult our Cookie Policy. Our Preference Center lists the applied Cookies described in our Cookie Policy and provides information regarding cookie provider, information collected and purpose of such data collection.

5.2. Google Analytics

We use web analytics services, such as Google Analytics to collect website analytics. Google Analytics uses Cookies and similar technologies to analyze how users use the domains and provide other services related to the website and internet use. The information generated about your website usage, including your anonymized IP address, is transmitted to Google Analytics and stored on servers in the US. Google will use this information to evaluate your use of the website (without knowing who you are), to compile statistical reports on website activity, and to provide other services related to the website and the internet use activity. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf.

As with all our Cookies, Google Analytics is only activated with your consent. You may give or withdraw your consent at any time by using the Cookie Settings on the BD website. For further information, please consult our Cookie Policy. You may also deactivate Google Analytics by following the instructions provided at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. 

For general information about managing Cookies, please go to http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/index.html.

Besides Google Analytics, we may use a number of technologies offered by different providers to support website analytics and user tracking, including technologies offered by the providers listed below. 

5.3. Social Networks

We maintain BD pages in the social networks Meta, LinkedIn and X to inform about our services and news and to communicate with active customers. The respective social network collects your personal data, especially by means of Cookies, which are usually used for market research and advertising purposes. The processing may take place outside the European Union.

If you visit one of our social media sites, we are jointly responsible with the operator of the social media platform for the data processing. You can assert your rights as defined in section 8 both against us and/or against the operator of the respective social media portal. If you contact us and not the social media portal, we will inform the relevant portal about your question or complaint and provide them with the required information to respond to your request.

Please note that despite the joint responsibility, we do not have any influence on the data processing procedures of the social media portals. For further information, please refer to the terms of use and privacy policies of the respective social media portals. We do not know how the platforms use the data from visits to the website for their own purposes or how long the data is stored by the platforms or passed on to third parties. The primary responsibility for the processing of the data lies by the responsible social media portal which complies with the obligations under applicable data protection law.

For further information, please refer to the terms of use and privacy policies of the respective social media portals:

Meta: We have a profile on Facebook and Instagram. The provider is Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd., 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland. We have concluded a separate agreement for this (see https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms/information_about_page_insights_data).

You can adjust your advertising settings independently in your user account by the following link: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads. Details on how Facebook processes personal data, including the legal basis as well as your rights, can be found in the privacy notice of Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/.

For our social media presence on Facebook and Instagram, where the GDPR is applicable, we are jointly responsible with Meta Platforms Ireland. Meta Ireland will be primarily responsible for ensuring the rights of data subjects according to the applicable Joint Controller Addendum. If you contact us, as defined in section 8, to exercise your rights concerning the processing of your personal data by Meta Ireland, we will inform and cooperate with Meta Ireland to enable Meta Ireland or us to respond to your request.

X: We use the short message service X. The provider is in the EEA or the UK: Twitter International Company, One Cumberland Place, Fenian Street, Dublin 2, D02 AX07, Ireland, and outside the EEA and the UK: Twitter Inc, 1355 Market Street, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA. You can adjust your X privacy settings independently in your user account by the following link: https://twitter.com/personalization. Details can be found in the privacy notice of X: https://twitter.com/de/privacy.

For our social media presence on X, where the GDPR is applicable, we are jointly responsible with X. If you contact us, as defined in section 8, to exercise your rights concerning the processing of your personal data by X, we will inform and cooperate with X to enable X or us to respond to your request.

LinkedIn: We use the employment-oriented service LinkedIn. The provider is in the EEA or the UK: LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, Gardner House, 2 Wilton Pl, Dublin 2, D02 CA30, Ireland, and outside the EEA and the UK: LinkedIn Inc, 1000 W. Maude Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94085, USA. We have concluded a separate agreement for this (see https://legal.linkedin.com/pages-joint-controller-addendum) You can adjust your LinkedIn privacy settings independently in your user account by the following link: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/66/managing-your-account-and-privacy-settings-overview?lang=en

Details can be found in the privacy policy of LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy?trk=d_org_guest_company_overview_footer-privacy-policy.

For our social media presence on Linkedin, where the GDPR is applicable, we are jointly responsible with Linkedin Ireland. If you contact us, as defined in section 8, to exercise your rights concerning the processing of your personal data by Linkedin, we will inform and cooperate with Linkedin to enable Linkedin or us to respond to your request. 

YouTube: We use the video hosting service YouTube. The provider is YouTube (belonging to Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheater Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). You can adjust your YouTube privacy settings independently in your user account by the following link: https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/2801895?hl=de&ref_topic=9386940. Details can be found in the privacy notice of YouTube: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en.

For our social media presence on YouTube, where the GDPR is applicable, we are jointly responsible with YouTube. If you contact us, as defined in section 8, to exercise your rights concerning the processing of your personal data by YouTube, we will, where necessary, inform and cooperate with YouTube to enable YouTube or us to respond to your request.

5.4. Social Plug-ins

Our website incorporates social plug-ins, buttons from social media networks including Meta, LinkedIn, YouTube, X and Instagram that allow you to access our social media pages (Section 5.2 herein) directly via our website.

You can recognize these social plug-ins on our website transparently since they appear as icon of the respective social media platform. To ensure that you have full data control, the buttons used establish direct contact between the respective social network and the visitor only when you actively click on the button.

Due to the embedding of such social plug-ins, we are responsible for the data collection that takes place on our website by the means of such social plug-ins. We therefore obtain your consent for data collection through social plug-ins with our consent cookie banner. To ensure that you have full data control, the data collection takes place only and as soon as you visit our website and agree to the respective data collection via our consent cookie banner.

By activating the social media plug-in, you consent to the transmission of the following data to the social media operators: IP address, browser information, operating system, screen resolution, installed browser plug-ins such as Adobe Flash Player, previous website if you followed a link (referrer), the URL of the current website, etc. You further explicitly consent to the transmission of your data cross-border, including to the US.

The next time you visit the website, the social media plug-ins remain active if you have given us your consent. However, you can withdraw your consent at any time in the Preference Center. Such a withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of the processing prior to the consent withdrawal.  

According to applicable data protection law and under the conditions and within the limits set forth in law, you may exercise the following rights: 

• the right to withdraw your consent: if, in accordance with applicable law, you have declared your consent regarding certain types of processing activities (in particular regarding the receipt of direct marketing communications via email, SMS/MMS, fax, and telephone), you can withdraw this consent at any time with respect to future processing by using the methods mentioned in the original or any related communication (e.g. for newsletters by clicking on the link “Unsubscribe” at the bottom of a marketing email or otherwise by contacting our Data Protection Officer via email, mail or phone as described in section 8 of this Privacy Notice). Such a withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of the processing prior to the consent withdrawal. You can also withdraw your consent by contacting us as set out below;
• the right to request access to your personal data, respectively to obtain from us confirmation as to whether or not personal data concerning you is processed, and, where that is the case, to request access to the personal data;
• the right to request rectification of inaccurate personal data concerning you;
• the right to request erasure of your personal data, under certain conditions;
• the right to request restriction of processing, under certain conditions. In this case, the respective data will be marked and may only be processed for specific purposes as defined by law;
• the right to request data portability: As provided by applicable data protection law, you may – in cases where processing is based on consent or the performance of a contract, and the processing is carried out through automated means – have 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 may have the right to transmit those data to another entity without hindrance from us;
• the right to object: Under certain circumstances, you have the right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, at any time to the processing of your personal data by us and in such circumstances, we are required to cease processing your personal data. If you have a right to object and if you exercise this right, your personal data will no longer be processed for such purposes by us.

To exercise your rights please complete this form or contact us as described in section 8 below. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority in the relevant Member State (for example, the place where you live or work - contact details can be found here or, the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection is applicable, here).