Privacy Policy

Thermo Fisher Scientific Online Privacy Statement (effective as of ... 2014)

Thank you for visiting.

We take the protection of your personal data very seriously. Therefore, this Statement discloses the information practices for Thermo Fisher Scientific and our affiliates’ (hereinafter called ‘We’) Websites, including what type of information is gathered and tracked, how the information is used, and with whom the information is shared. It also describes how cookies, web beacons and other technologies may be used.

This Statement applies to Thermo Fisher Scientific Websites that link to this Statement but does not apply to those Thermo Fisher Scientific Websites that have their own Privacy Statement

By visiting our Websites, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Collection and Processing of Personal Data through our Website

When you are visiting our Website, you are able to decide whether you want to disclose personal data. In our view, personal data are individual details about the personal or factual circumstances of an identified or identifiable natural person.

You can use our Website without disclosing your personal data. You are not required to provide personal information as a condition of using our Website, except as may be necessary to provide you a product or service at your request. When you use our Website, data may be stored for various security purposes. This data may include the name of your internet service provider, the Website that you used to link to our Website, the Websites that you visit from our Website and your IP-Address. This data could possibly lead to your identification, but we do not use it to do so. We do use the data from time to time for statistical purposes, but maintain the anonymity of each individual user so that the person cannot be identified. In cases when personal data is provided to others to provide you products or services you have requested, or for other purposes you have authorized, we rely on technical and organizational means to assure that applicable data security regulations are followed.

We collect personal data – such as your name, company name, account numbers, postal addresses, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, fax numbers, wireless device addresses (including text message addresses), gender, credit card and other payment information, purchase, Website browsing and transaction history, web Website credentials, answers to security questions, job history and application information, and industry segments, job roles and functions – only when you provide it to us, through registration, signing up for a newsletter, completion of forms or e-mails, as part of an order for products or services, inquiries or requests about materials being ordered and similar situations in which you have chosen to provide the information to us. If applicable, we may also ask you to provide information regarding the analytical instrumentation in your laboratory.

Our database and its contents remain at our company and stay with data processors or servers acting on our behalf and responsible to us. Your personal data will not be passed on by us or by our agents for use by third parties in any form whatsoever, unless we have obtained your consent or are legally required to do so.

We will retain control of and responsibility for the use of any personal data you disclose to us. Some of this data may be stored or processed at computers located in other jurisdictions, such as the United States, whose data protection laws may differ from the jurisdiction in which you live. In such cases, we will ensure that appropriate protections are in place to require the data processor in that country to maintain protections on the data that are equivalent to those that apply in the country in which you live.

Use of Cookies and Similar Technologies

We may also collect information relating to your use of our Websites through the use of various technologies. For example, we may log certain information that your browser sends us, such as your IP address, browser type and language, access time, and referring Website addresses, and we may collect information about the pages you view within our Websites and other actions you take while visiting us. We may also use such technologies to determine whether you've opened an e-mail or clicked on a link contained in an e-mail. Collecting information in this manner allows us to collect statistics about the usage and effectiveness of our Websites, our software products, personalise your experience and tailor our interactions with you.

In this context, we use...

  • ...Cookies to record the preferences of visitors, to enable us to optimize the design of our web Website. Cookies are small data files stored on your computer or device at the request of a Web Website.  A cookie assigns a unique numerical identifier to your Web browser, and may enable us to recognize you as the same user who was at our Website in the past, and relate your use of the Website to other information about you, such as your Website usage information and Personal Information.  Cookies may also be used to enhance your experience on the Website and to store your preferences (for example, by storing your username so you can log in easily, keeping you logged into the Website after you have provided your password, and storing the contents of your shopping cart as you browse) or to collect general usage and aggregated statistical information and detect and prevent fraud. Most browsers can be set to detect cookies and give you an opportunity to reject them, but refusing cookies may, in some cases, inhibit or preclude your use of the Website or its features.

Most browsers, by default, automatically permit cookies, but also give you the ability to control the majority of cookies, including whether or not to accept them and how to remove them. Look under the heading "Tools" (or similar heading) in your particular browser for information about controlling cookies. You can set your browser in most instances to notify you before you receive a cookie, giving you the chance to decide whether to accept it or not. You can also generally set your browser to turn off cookies.

Some of our Websites may also use Web Beacon or other technologies to better tailor those Websites to provide better customer service. These technologies may be in use on a number of pages across our Websites. When a visitor accesses these pages, a non-identifiable notice of that visit is generated which may be processed by us or by our suppliers. These Web beacons usually work in conjunction with cookies. If you don't want your cookie information to be associated with your visits to these pages or use of these products, you can set your browser to turn off cookies or turn off cookies in the product itself, respectively. If you turn off cookies, Web beacon and other technologies will still detect visits to these pages; however, they will not be associated with information otherwise stored in cookies.

  • ...local shared objects, such as “Flash cookies”. They may be stored on your computer or device using a media player or other software installed on your computer or device.  Local shared objects operate a lot like cookies, but cannot be managed in the same way.  Depending on how local shared objects are enabled on your computer or device, you may be able to manage them using software settings.  For information on managing Flash cookies, for example, click here.
  • ...HTML5 (the language some Websites are coded in) - it may be used to store information on your computer or device about your Website usage activities.  This information can be retrieved by us to determine how our Website is being used by our visitors, how it can be improved, and to customize it for our users.
  • ...Cache cookies, such as eTags, may be used to identify your computer or device as the same computer or device that visited our Website or another web Website in the past.
  • ...Browser history sniffing may be used to enable us to detect whether you have visited a Website of ours or of someone else’s in the past by determining whether its URL is located in the list of URLs stored in your Web browser’s history file.
  • ...Browser fingerprinting - it can enable us to recognize your computer or device as the same one that has been used to visit our Website in the past based on various detectable information from your computer or device that, together, can be used as a “fingerprint” of your computer or device.
  • ...Pixel tags (also known as a “clear GIF” or “web beacon”) – it’s a tiny image – typically just one-pixel – that can be placed on a Web page or in our electronic communications to you in order to help us measure the effectiveness of our content by, for example, counting the number of individuals who visit us online or verifying whether you’ve opened one of our emails or seen one of our Web pages.
  • ...eTracker Technology to collect visitor behaviour data. This data is collected anonymously as well to be used for marketing and optimization purposes. All visitor data is saved using an anonymous user ID and can be aggregated to a usage profile.


Use of Adobe Analytics

We may also use Adobe Analytics, a web analysis service of the Adobe Systems Inc. (San Jose, California, USA – “Adobe”). Adobe Analytics uses Cookies. The information generated by these cookies concerning your use of this Website (including your IP address) will be passed on to a Adobe server based in the USA and saved there. In case of an activation of the IP-anonymization on this Website, your IP-address will be shortened by Adobe within the member states of the European Union or in other contractual states of the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the complete IP-address be transmitted to a Adobe-server in the USA and shortened then and there. Adobe will use this information on behalf of this Website’s provider for the purpose of evaluating your Website to gather reports concerning the Website’s activities and to furthermore provide services around this Website. Adobe Analytics does not combine your transmitted IP-address data with other data collected by Adobe. You can prevent the storage of cookies by a specific setting in your browser-software; however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this Website.

Freedom of Choice

You can furthermore prevent the collection of your data (including your IP-address) by Google as well as the processing of that data by Google by downloading and installing the following browser-plugin: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=eng.


Use of Google Remarketing-Tag

On our Websites, technologies by Google (Google Remarketing-Tag) are used to collect and store data for marketing purposes. With these data, anonymized user profiles can be created and stored in cookies. This Website is advertising via third-party vendors, including Google, who use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to our Website. The collected data, gathered by the Remarketing-Tag function, will – without your consent – not be used to personally identify you as a visitor of this Website. Also, personal data will not be combined with the anonymized user profile.

Freedom of Choice

You can deactivate the utilization of cookies by selecting the Website http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/technologies/ads/ and by clicking on the "opt out"-button.

Alternatively, you may find the deactivation Website of the Network Advertising Initiative here: http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.

Further remarks in regards to Google regulations can be found here: http://www.google.com/intl/eng/privacy.


Use of Plug-ins

The like-buttons installed on our Website in connection with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube und Google Plus enable an exchange of data with the corresponding online platforms of providers. They enable Facebook users, Twitter users or YouTube users to simply and directly undertake a linking of their profile with our online offer. Data stated in each profile or other data of Facebook, Twitter or YouTube users will under no circumstances be transferred to us.

A use of the data generated/transferred by you through the use of the function of the like-buttons is affected solely by the operators of the online offers connected via the like-buttons in each case. We offer these functionalities exclusively as a special service for the users of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Please inform yourself on the Website of each Website operator about the data protection standards and instructions for the use of the corresponding offers (developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/; twitter.com/privacy; www.youtube.com; https://developers.google.com/+/web/buttons-policy).

Purposes of use of your Personal Data

The data we collect will only be used for the purpose of supplying you with the requested products or services or for other purposes for which you have given your consent, except where otherwise provided by law.


Right of access and correction

You have the right to review and amend any personal data stored in our system if you believe it may be out of date or incorrect. Just send an e-mail to the address given in the imprint or contact the Data Security Officer at the address below.


Right of cancellation

You have the right at any time to withdraw your consent to the use of your personal data in the future. Just send an e-mail to the address given in the imprint or contact us at the address below.


Data retention

We only retain personal data for as long as is necessary for us to render a service you have requested or to which you have given your consent, except where otherwise provided by law (e.g. in connection with pending litigation).


Security

While we endeavour to protect the security and integrity of sensitive Personal Information collected via this Website through adequate technical and organizational measures, due to the inherent nature of the Internet as an open global communications vehicle, we cannot guarantee that any information, during transmission through the Internet or while stored on our system or otherwise in our care, will be absolutely safe from intrusion by others, such as hackers.

If you correspond with us by e-mail, text message, or using Web forms like a “contact us” feature on our Website, you should be aware that your transmission might not be secure.  A third party could view the information you send in transit by such means.  We will have no liability for disclosure of your information due to errors or unauthorized acts of third parties during or after transmission.

If you create an account on our Website, you are responsible for maintaining the strict confidentiality of your account password, and you shall be responsible for any activity that occurs using your account credentials, whether or not you authorized such activity.  Please notify us of any unauthorized use of your password or account or any other breach of security.

If we believe that the security of your Personal Information in our care may have been compromised, we may seek to notify you of that development.  If a notification is appropriate, we will endeavour to notify you as promptly as possible under the circumstances.  If we have your e-mail address, we may notify you by e-mail.  You consent to our use of e-mail as a means of such notification.  If you prefer for us to use the U.S. Postal Service to notify you in this situation, please e-mail us at privacy@thermofisher.com.


Children

We will not knowingly collect personal data from children without insisting that they seek prior parental consent if required by applicable law. We will only use or disclose personal data about a child to the extent permitted by law, to seek parental consent pursuant to local law and regulations or to protect a child. The definition of "child" or "children" should take into account applicable laws as well as national and regional cultural customs.


“Linked-To” Websites

The Website may contain links, banners, widgets or advertisements that lead to other Websites. We are not responsible for these other Websites, and so their posted privacy policies (not this Policy) will govern the collection and use of your information on them.  We encourage you to read the privacy statements of each Website after leaving the Website to learn about how your information is treated by others.


Changes to this Privacy Policy

We keep this Policy under regular review and may change it from time to time. Please check back frequently to be informed of any changes.


Contact Us

For more information, questions, comments or complaints regarding Data Privacy, you may contact us at

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc.
81 Wyman Street
Waltham, MA U.S.A.
e-mail: privacy@thermofisher.com