Privacy Statement

This Privacy Statement outlines how personal information about you is collected, used, disclosed and otherwise processed by Bayer Inc. (“Bayer”) with respect to your use and interaction with Bayer via this website (the “website”) as well as through other online activities involving Bayer products and services (“Services”). This Privacy Statement also applies to the personal information we collect offline, such as when you call us or interact with Bayer in person, such as at an industry event or at a place of business.

1. What is personal information?

Personal information is information about an identifiable individual. Personal information does not generally include business names and business contact information used in a commercial context.

You can use our website without disclosing your personal information. 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 visit our website, Bayer collects technical data including 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 if combined with other information that would identify you, 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. Aggregated, statistical or de-identified data is not personal information. See section 9 – Use of cookies and technical data for more information.

2. Consent to collection of personal information

By using this website or other Services and by voluntarily submitting your personal information to us, you are consenting to the practices in this Privacy Statement and any applicable terms of use. If you are submitting the personal information of others, such as patients, you are responsible for obtaining their consent to the disclosure of their information to Bayer, as may be required by law.

In cases when personal information 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.

3. How do we collect your personal information?

Generally, we only collect personal information when you provide it to us, through registration, 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 you do not want your personal information collected, do not provide it to us.

Bayer may also collect personal information about you from our sales, advertising and business partners. We may also collect data about you that is publicly available in online directories or other websites. If you interact with our website or other digital features, we may automatically collect technical data about you. This data may be combined and enriched with other identifiable information. See section 9 – Use of cookies and technical data for more information.

4. What type of personal information do we collect?

Examples of personal information we collect and use are:

Contact information, such as full name, email address, telephone number and mailing address
Usernames and passwords
Business and professional information, such as title, practice, specialty, education, certification, accreditation, association
Expertise and special interests, such as degrees, therapeutic specialty, specific disease expertise, practice setting, years of practice, department
Banking and other information as required to pay honorariums and make travel arrangements
Demographic information including age, gender, images and videos
Consumer and professional preferences and comments, including with respect to Bayer Services
Clinical trial data, including demographic, medical and health information of patients
Data that must be reported to Health Canada and other regulatory bodies
Sensitive health and patient data provided to Bayer through adverse event reports, recalls or other notifications
Information submitted through Bayer chat boards, health centers, consumer and professional contact forms and call lines
Information you provide when you cantact us, provide feedback, make a complaint or other inquiry

5. How do we use your personal information?

The personal information we collect will be used for the purpose of supplying you with the requested Services or for other purposes for which you have given your consent, except where otherwise provided by law. For health care professionals, researchers, scientists and other professionals, the information we collect is primarily to continue and improve our client relationship with you. The information collected assists in maintaining our client relationship management databases, including with Bayer Global. Other purposes may include:

Creating and managing your user account
Providing our programs, clinical trials, research programs and events
Providing you with approved medical or scientific information
Administering travel arrangements to industry events provided by Bayer and our partners
Meeting our obligations required by applicable laws, i.e. reporting to Health Canada, enforcing our terms
Analyzing the accuracy and effectiveness or our website and Services, including administering, troubleshooting and enhancing the website and Services
Analyzing data, identifying trends and issues and creating statistical reports
Administering contests, promotions and surveys
Testing and analyzing our Services for efficacy, safety and enhancements
Establishing and maintaining our business relationship with you
Responding to inquiries, complaints and other communications
Identifying the unauthorized external transfer of our data assets (including intellectual property) from within Bayer

The data we collect will also be used to improve the content of our website, and may be used to contact you via e-mail or by regular mail, to provide you with information that we believe to be of interest to you, process and store the information provided so that we are able to better understand your needs and how we can improve our products and services and to provide you with health-related information or services that we believe would be of interest to you.

6. Do we share or disclose your personal information?

Bayer may share and disclose personal information and technical data in the following circumstances:

Bayer Network: Bayer is part of the Bayer Group - a global company. Bayer may transfer any information received to one or more of its affiliated companies in other countries and regions of the world. We do not sell or transfer the information you send to us to others outside of our company.

Service Providers: Like many businesses, Bayer uses third-party service providers to assist in administering and providing the website and our Services. Providers assist Bayer in data storage and security, website hosting, marketing, customer service, mailing, etc. Your personal information will not be passed on by our service providers for use by third parties in any form whatsoever, unless we have obtained your consent or are legally required to do so.

Legal Requests and Obligations: Bayer may disclose personal information when required by law, such as to respond to court orders, subpoenas or other legal processes by authorities with jurisdiction. Bayer may also disclose personal information to meet its obligations to health and drug regulators.

Business Transfer: Bayer may transfer or assign your personal information as a result of, or in connection with a merger, consolidation, change in control, transfer of assets, bankruptcy, reorganization, liquidation or other business transaction.

7. Where is your personal information stored?

The database and its contents remain at our company and stay with data processors or servers acting on our behalf and responsible to us.

Some of this data may be stored or processed at computers located in other jurisdictions, such as the United States and Europe, whose data protection laws may differ from Canadian laws. Subject to applicable laws in such other jurisdictions, 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 Canada.

8. How long is your personal information retained?

We only retain personal information 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).

9. Use of cookies and technical data

Like many websites, Bayer automatically collects technical data when you visit and use our website.

a) What are cookies?

This Website uses so-called “cookies”. Cookies are small text files that are stored in the memory of your terminal via your browser. They store certain information (e.g., your preferred language or site settings) which your browser may (depending on the lifespan of the cookie) retransmit to us upon your next visit to our Website.

b) What cookies do we use?

We differentiate between two main-categories of cookies: (1) strictly necessary, which are essential to browse the website and use its features, and (2) optional cookies (e.g., analytic cookies, targeting cookies, functional cookies) used for e.g. website analysis, website personalization and marketing purposes.

c) Subject to your consent

We only use optional cookies if we have obtained your prior consent. Upon your first access to our Website, a banner will appear, asking you to give us your consent to the setting of optional cookies. If your consent is given, we will place a cookie on your computer and the banner will not appear again as long as the cookie is active. After expiration of the cookie’s lifespan, or if you actively delete the cookie, the banner will reappear upon your next visit to our Website and again ask for your consent.

d) How to prevent the setting of cookies

Of course, you may use our website without any cookies being set. In your browser, you can at any time configure or completely deactivate the use of cookies. This may, however, lead to a restriction of the functions or have adverse effects on the user-friendliness of our website. You may at any time object to the setting of optional cookies by using the respective objection option indicated in the Privacy Preference Center.

10. Website Analysis and Online Behavioral Advertising

Website Analysis with Google

On our Website we use a web analysis service of Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States (“Google”).

Google will analyze your use of our Website on our behalf. To this purpose we use the cookies described in more detail in the Privacy Preference Center. The information collected by Google in connection with your use of our Website (e.g. the referring URL, our webpages visited by you, your browser type, your language settings, your operating system, your screen resolution) will be transmitted to a server of Google in the US, where it will be stored and analyzed. The respective results will then be made available to us in anonymized form. Your usage data will not be connected to your full IP address during this process. We have activated on our Website the IP anonymizing function offered by Google, which will delete the last 8 bits (type IPv4) or the last 80 bits (type IPv6) of your IP address after each data transfer to Google. Moreover, by concluding specific agreements with Google we ensure that an adequate level of data protection is maintained with respect to the processing of personal data by Google in the US.

You may withdraw your consent to the use of web analysis at any time, either by downloading and installing the provided Google Browser Plugin or by administrating your consents in the Privacy Preference Center, in which case an opt-out cookie will be placed. Both options will prevent the application of web analysis only as long as you use the browser on which you installed the plugin and do not delete the opt-out cookie.

Further information on Google Analytics is available in the Google Analytics Terms of Use, the Privacy and Data Protection Guidelines of Google Analytics and in the Google Privacy Policy.

11. How is my personal information kept secure?

Bayer uses technical and organizational security precautions to protect your personal information from manipulation, loss, destruction or unauthorized access, use, disclosure or alteration. Third parties that process personal information on our behalf are contractually obligated to safeguard personal information and only use the information provided to them for the purposes outlined in this Privacy Statement.

Our security procedures are continuously revised based on new technological developments.

12. Children

In light of the importance of protecting children's privacy, we do not collect, process or use on our website any personal information relating to an individual whom we know to be under 13 years old without the prior, verifiable consent of his or her legal representative. Such legal representative has the right, upon request, to view the personal information provided by the child and/or to require that it be deleted.

Bayer does not intend this website for child audiences and has no intention of collecting personally identifiable information (such as name, address, telephone number) from children under 18 years old. If you discover that your child has provided us with personally identifiable information, we ask that a parent or guardian of the child contact us at privacycanada@bayer.com to have this information deleted from our records.

13. External services or content on our website

We include third-party services and/or content on our website. When you use such third-party services or when third-party content is displayed, communication data are exchanged between you and the respective provider for technical reasons.

The respective provider of the services or content may also process your data for own additional purposes. To the best of our knowledge, we have configured the services and content of providers known to process personal data for own purposes in such a way that either any communication for other purposes than to present their services or content on our website is blocked, or communication only takes place once you have actively opted to use the respective service. However, since we have no control over data collected and processed by third parties, we are not in a position to provide binding information regarding the scope and purpose of such processing of your personal data.

For further information regarding the scope and purpose of such processing of your personal data, please consult the privacy statements of the providers whose services and/or content we include and who are responsible for the protection of your personal data in this context:

14. Information on side effects and quality complaints

This website is not intended or designed for communications regarding side effects, lack of therapeutic effect, medication errors, grey market products/counterfeit medicine, incorrect or off-label use, quality complaints and/or other issues regarding the safeness or quality of Bayer products. If you wish to report side effects or make a quality complaint, please contact your health care professional (e.g. physician or pharmacist), your local health authority, or use our website to report undesirable side effects.

Nevertheless, if you report to us undesirable side effects or other issues regarding the safeness or quality of Bayer products, we will be legally bound to deal with your communication and may have to contact you for clarification purposes. Subsequently, we may have to notify the competent health authorities of the issues reported by you. In this context, your information will be forwarded in pseudonymized form, i.e., no information by which you may be directly identified will be passed on. We may also have to forward these pseudonymized notifications to our group companies and cooperation partners, to the extent these are likewise obliged to notify their respectively competent health authorities.

Further information about data privacy and side effect reporting are available in the Bayer Privacy Statement for Pharmacovigilance Data.

15. Information regarding your rights

Right to update your information: If you have an account with Bayer, you can update or make changes to your personal information by logging into your profile. If you do not have a profile with Bayer, please contact the data privacy officer, see contact details in section 16.

Right to access your personal data stored by us: We will provide you with access to your personal information that is in our possession, subject to certain exceptions, including data that is referenced to another individual’s personal information that we cannot sever, or information subject to solicitor-client privilege, or other legal restrictions that may prevent us from fulfilling your access request.

Right to object to a processing for reasons of our own legitimate interest, public interest, or profiling, unless we can proof that compelling, warranted reasons superseding your interests, rights and freedom exist, or that such processing is done for purposes of the assertion, exercise or defense of legal claims.
Right to data portability, in provinces where this is allowed.
Right to file a complaint with a data protection authority, in case it exists.
Right to opt-out:
- Interest-based advertising: If you no longer with to participate in the services offered through these solutions, you can opt-out of this activity by visiting the following websites:
  1. Network Advertising Initiative at http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/, and
  2. Digital Advertising Association of Canada at http://youradchoices.ca/choices/.If you opt-out, please note you may still receive ads from Bayer, but they are not part of targeted advertising.
- Opt-out of promotional communications: In the event you wish to unsubscribe from receiving promotional communications from Bayer, you may opt-out by:
  1. Removing yourself by clicking “unsubscribe” at the bottom of an email we send you, or
  2. Contact the data privacy officer, see contact details in section 16.
- If you opt-out of receiving marketing-related emails from us, we may still send you important administrative messages, such as notifications regarding our business relationship with you, important notices regarding our Services, or as otherwise consistent with applicable law.
Right of Cancellation: You have the right at any time to withdraw your consent to the use of your personal information in the future.

If you wish to exercise your rights, please address your request to the contact indicated below.

16. Contact us

For any questions you may have with respect to data privacy, please feel free to contact Bayer via email at privacycanada@bayer.com or contact our privacy officer at the following address:

Bayer Inc., Canada
2920 Matheson Boulevard East
Mississauga, Ontario L4W 5R6

17. Amendment of Privacy Statement

We may update our Privacy Statement from time to time. Updates of our Privacy Statement will be published on our website. Any amendments become effective upon publication on our website. We therefore recommend that you regularly visit the site to keep yourself informed on possible updates. The constant development of the internet requires occasional adjustments to our Privacy Statement. We retain the right to make changes when necessary.

Last updated: September 30^th, 2022.