Welcome to Bio-Rad’s Website Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy outlines the data processing and privacy practices of Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. and its Canadian subsidiaries (“Bio-Rad”). This Privacy Policy outlines Bio-Rad’s practices regarding the collection and use of individually identifiable information (“Personal Data”) that Bio-Rad collects about you on or via www.bio-rad.com and www.bio-rad.ca (collectively, the “Site”). This Policy does not apply to other data or processing practices, such as data collected offline or via other web pages (which may have their own privacy statements). If and when our Privacy Policy changes in any material or substantive way (such as any new uses of your Personal Data), the revised Privacy Policy will be posted on this Site and the Effective Date will be updated.

1. We May Collect Personal Data When You Browse the Site

When you visit the Site, we use cookies to store your preferences, to alert you to new areas that we think might be of interest to you, and to record past activity at the Site in order to provide better service. We also use cookies to store your country selection so that when you revisit the Site, the cookie recognizes your country and you do not need to select it again. You must enable cookies in your browser settings to use the Site. Cookies are small data files that our servers place on your computer’s hard drive via your internet browser. Cookies will collect and process your IP address and domain name. Information provided by cookies can be read or modified afterwards only by Bio-Rad during your subsequent visits to our Site. You may configure your browser to notify you when it is about to place a cookie on your machine and you can then decide if you want to accept the cookie or not. The exact procedure will vary from browser to browser. The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. However, if you choose not to accept cookies, you will not be able to use the Site. Bio-Rad generally stores cookies for one year after your last visit to the Site.

2. We Collect Personal Data When You Complete Online Forms

You may access the vast majority of the information on our Site without having to fill out an online collection form. There are areas of the Site that require you to register or complete forms so that we can provide you with services or items you request; for instance, online purchasing, online quote requests, event/seminar registrations, and software downloads. Information that you provide on these online forms may include your name, address, phone number, fax number, email address, and your interests in certain Bio-Rad products, product lines, or services. If you avail yourself of the benefits of full registration in countries where we offer e-commerce, you will also need to provide payment information and a valid Bio-Rad account number. We do not collect any sensitive data such as health-related information. Our collection of Personal Data when you complete any online registration or other Personal Data collection form at this Site is subject to this Privacy Policy.

3. How We Use Personal Data You Provide

The Personal Data you provide through online collection forms may be used by Bio-Rad to provide you with the products, materials, and services you request, as well as:

  • To improve, maintain, and protect our Site and to ensure that the content is relevant to your needs and preferences;
  • To enable you to view the local list prices (available for selected countries) and post your comments on our bulletin boards;
  • To respond to any other inquiries or requests that you might make;
  • To notify you about updates to our Site;
  • To conduct market, customer, and general business analysis for Bio-Rad’s internal use; and
  • To improve and/or develop our products, materials, and services.

The Personal Data, if any, collected through cookies may be used by Bio-Rad as set forth in Section 1 of this Privacy Policy.

4. Categories of Recipients to Which Your Personal Data May Be Transmitted

Your Personal Data is held in confidence and never provided to any organization outside of the Bio-Rad group except as noted in this Privacy Policy. We may provide Personal Data to third parties in connection with fulfilling or processing your specific requests. For example, if you purchase products online using a credit card, we will contact that credit card company or its third-party service provider to process the order, and we will use a third-party shipping company to ship your order or other requested items such as our print catalog or literature. To enhance security, your credit card number is encrypted as it is transmitted over the Internet. We do not provide Personal Data that you supply to us to third parties for their own marketing purposes. We may provide Personal Data on a reasonable need-to-know basis to third parties bound by nondisclosure obligations. These third parties may be assisting us with the maintenance, protection, or operation of our Site and may work in connection with website, market, or business analysis conducted on our behalf for our use only. We may also provide Personal Data to third parties, who are bound by nondisclosure obligations, assisting us with marketing functions and data management. Any changes in these categories of recipients will be made only after the notification process set forth in the beginning of this Privacy Policy. We may share Personal Data with law enforcement or other entities as required or permitted by law. Personal Data may also be disclosed to third parties, who are bound by nondisclosure obligations, in connection with a Bio-Rad merger, acquisition, or sale. We may monitor internally, or using third-party tools, how a user accesses or navigates the Site by tracking IP addresses or other “click stream data”. In order to improve this Site and our service to you, we currently use the Webtrends On Demand product to track Site usage. The On Demand product enables us to evaluate Site traffic and navigation data so that we can, for instance, see which pages of our Site are visited frequently, and which are not. You can find Webtrends On Demand Privacy Policy here: ondemand.webtrends.com We may also use or provide nonidentifiable data to third parties in order to perform market or business analysis, on our behalf and for our internal use. This ultimately helps us to improve our services to you. If you choose to register at our Site, you must provide your consent to the terms of this Privacy Policy, and therefore, to Bio-Rad’s disclosure of your Personal Data to the third parties, for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. Bio-Rad uses and discloses information only in connection with legitimate business purposes, and therefore, if you do not consent, you will not be able to register at our Site.

5. Transfer to Recipients Outside of Your Home Country

Some of our subsidiaries, affiliates, agents, or recipients outlined above are located or operate outside of your home country, and therefore, we may need to transfer your Personal Data outside of your home country for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. The data protection laws in these countries may not provide an equivalent level of protection to those in your home country, but the recipients will abide by this Privacy Policy, as well as any other applicable laws. If you choose to register at our Site, you must provide your consent to the terms of this Privacy Policy, including this paragraph. Please note that if you do not consent, you will not be able to register at our Site.

6. Personal Data Storage

The Personal Data you provide to us is retained for the term reasonably necessary to process your requests as described herein; however, we may need to retain archival copies of Personal Data as required by applicable laws. In such cases, your Personal Data will be stored in a readable format only, so that no further processing activities may be conducted.

7. Bulletin Boards

Bio-Rad encourages you to share your comments and questions with us and other users at our bulletin boards; however, any material, information, or other communication that you post to a bulletin board as a “comment” will be considered nonconfidential and nonproprietary. Please do not post on any bulletin board any personally identifiable information or any other information that you wish to keep confidential.

8. We May Contact You

Email If you choose to register at our Site, we will request your explicit consent to receive emails from Bio-Rad. If you do not wish to receive emails from us, please leave the box unchecked. If you have given your consent to receive emails, each time we send you an email, it will give you the option to opt out of receiving future emails. No Ad Servers We do not partner with or have special relationships with any ad server companies and no third-party banner ads will appear on our website.

9. Your Right to Access and Rectify Your Personal Data

If you are a registered user, you have, among other rights set forth by applicable law, the following rights: you can revoke your consent(s) or enforce your rights by contacting your local office or submitting an email through Feedback & Suggestions, and you can access, modify/update, or delete your Personal Data at anytime. Access to your information is available once you log in; simply go to your Profile page and modify your Personal Data as desired. If for any reason you are unable to access or modify your Personal Data, you can contact your local office or submit an email through Feedback & Suggestions, located on the Contact Us page. If you do not wish for your Personal Data to be processed, transferred, and/or used as set forth in this Privacy Policy, please do not provide your consent to the terms of this Privacy Policy during the registration process, or provide such Personal Data to Bio-Rad.

10. Security

We maintain physical, technical, and organizational safeguards to protect your Personal Data from unauthorized or inappropriate access. Further, we always use industry-standard encryption technologies when transferring and receiving Personal Data exchanged with our Site. Our servers hosting your Personal Data are located in California, USA.

11. Children

This Site is not intended for persons under 18 years of age. However, we do offer certain classroom and teacher materials through our educational programs; teachers and their students may use this Site and the materials that we provide through our educational programs at their own discretion. We do not knowingly solicit or collect personal information from or about children or minors, and we do not knowingly market our products or services to children or minors. Effective January 30, 2011