Privacy Statement
Last updated: July 15, 2024
This Privacy Statement outlines how Bayer Inc. (“Bayer”, “we”) collects, uses, discloses or otherwise processes the personal information of Healthcare Professionals, Patients and Business Partners (collectively, "you", "your").
“Personal information” means any information that relates to a natural person and that, alone or in combination with other information, directly or indirectly allows that person to be identified.
“Business Partner” refers generally to individuals who engage with Bayer, but are not Patients or Healthcare Professionals, including Bayer’s customers, vendors, employment applicants and other business partners.
“Healthcare Professionals” include physicians, pharmacists, researchers, nurses, and other healthcare professionals that engage with Bayer, including our products and services.
"Patient" means patients of Healthcare Professionals.
"Services" means Bayer's products and services, including:
- our websites, online services, systems and tools (the "Website"),
- our pharmaceutical and life science products and services, and
- online and offline activities through which we engage with you in relation to Bayer’s products and services.
This Privacy Statement applies with respect to your interactions with Bayer, both online and off-line, in relation to the Services, including:
- via the Website,
- through other online activities involving Bayer’s products and services, such as when you contact us or consent to be contacted by us electronically, and
- through offline activities, such as when you call us or interact with Bayer in person, for instance, at an industry event or at a place of business.
This Privacy Statement also provides details about how you can exercise your privacy rights.
This Privacy Statement does not apply to Bayer CropScience Canada or Bayer’s US and Canada Technology Use Guides, which have their own privacy statements, located https://www.cropscience.bayer.ca/privacy-statement and https://tug.bayer.com/privacy-statement/.
Our Website may be linked from another website or have links to other websites such as social media platforms. This Privacy Statement does not cover, and we are not responsible for, the privacy policies and practices of other third-party websites, including from any provided links. If you would like information on any other party’s privacy policy, you should contact that party directly, and we encourage you to do so.
Should you have questions or queries regarding the processing of your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer at privacycanada@bayer.com or the other contact details provided below.
You can navigate to any of the sections in this Privacy Statement by using the links below:
3. Processing of Information Related to the Website
4. Processing of Information of Healthcare Professionals
5. Processing of Information of Patients
6. Processing of Information of Business Partners
8. Sharing Personal Information and Recipients of Personal Information
9. Transfers of Information to Other Jurisdictions
10. Protection of Personal Information
We will collect, use or disclose your personal information only with your consent, or where we are permitted or required by law to do otherwise.
In some cases, particularly where the personal information is sensitive personal information (for instance, health and financial data, ethnic and racial origins, political opinions, genetic and biometric data, an individual’s sex life or sexual orientation, and religious or philosophical beliefs will almost always be considered sensitive), we will ask you for your express consent. You provide express consent by making a positive indication you consent. For instance, you may provide your signature, check a box, click a button or make some other affirmative action.
Not all consent is express. In some cases, we are permitted to imply your consent or the law presumes that you have consented. For example, where we provide you with a description of how we will handle your information and you elect to provide it to us, we are allowed to imply or presume consent to the use and disclosure of your personal information for the purposes it was collected and of which you were informed.
By using this Website or other Services and by voluntarily submitting your personal information to us, you are consenting to Bayer using your personal information in the ways set out in this Privacy Statement. If you do not agree with how we process your personal information, please do not use our Services.
If you are a Healthcare Professional submitting the personal information of others, such as Patients, you are responsible for obtaining Patients' appropriate and valid consent to the disclosure of their information to Bayer, as may be required by law.
Your consent will remain valid for the period necessary to achieve the purposes for which it was collected and in accordance with our retention policies, unless you withdraw your consent before that time. In rare cases, we are not required to obtain consent to use your personal information. We may use your personal information without consent where authorized by law.
3. Processing of Information Related to the Website
Whether you are a Healthcare Professional, Business Partner or Patient, when you use the Services provided on this Website, we will process your personal information.
The way in which Bayer will process your personal information will vary based on how you engage with the Website and Services. This section explains the different ways in which Bayer processes personal information for the operation of the Services provided on this Website. Note that there are also rules about what you may or may not do on our Website, and these are set out in our conditions of use [https://www.bayer.com/en/ca/canada-general-conditions-of-use].
We only retain personal information for as long as is necessary for us to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected or to comply with legal or regulatory requirements.
Under certain circumstances, your personal information may also be kept longer, e.g., in connection with a litigation hold, in which case we are obliged by law to preserve information until the litigation is finally resolved).
We only retain personal information for as long as is necessary for us to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected or to comply with legal or regulatory requirements.
Under certain circumstances, your personal information may also be kept longer, e.g., in connection with a litigation hold, in which case we are obliged by law to preserve information until the litigation is finally resolved).
We only retain personal information for as long as is necessary for us to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected or to comply with legal or regulatory requirements.
Under certain circumstances, your personal information may also be kept longer, e.g., in connection with a litigation hold, in which case we are obliged by law to preserve information until the litigation is finally resolved).
8. Sharing Personal Information and Recipients of Personal Information
Bayer may share and disclose personal information collected from you, from third parties and via automated means 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. Service providers assist Bayer in data storage and security, website hosting, marketing, data analytics, customer service, mailing, payment processing.
Bayer has contracts in place with its service providers that prohibit them from using personal information for anything other than providing their services to Bayer. The contracts also prohibit our service providers from passing on your personal information for use by third parties in any form whatsoever, unless we have obtained your consent or are legally required to do so.
Business Transfer: As permitted by law, 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.
Legal Requests and Obligations: Bayer may disclose personal information when required or permitted 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.
Bayer may share aggregate and non-identifiable data sets for any purpose, including with business partners to use for their own purposes, as described in this Privacy Statement and permitted under applicable laws. Where such data is derived from personal information, Bayer implements contractual controls to ensure that recipients maintain and use such data only in non-identifiable form and do not attempt to re-identify the data.
9. Transfers of Information to Other Jurisdictions
Your personal information may be stored or processed outside of Canada or Quebec, such as the United States and Europe. The data protection laws of these jurisdictions may differ from Canadian or Quebec laws and may permit access by public authorities for law enforcement, surveillance or other purposes. 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.
10. Protection of Personal Information
Bayer uses physical, 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.
Bayer has established and implemented governance policies and practices regarding the protection of personal information. These policies and practices are proportionate to the nature and scope of our activities and are approved by our Privacy Officer.
For instance, Bayer:
- follows internationally recognized standards for cybersecurity and information security, and requires that personal information at the end of its lifecycle be securely destroyed;
- has policies in place which define the roles and responsibilities of the members of its personnel throughout the life cycle of the information, including role-based access and retention periods,
- ensures that all personnel complete privacy training; and
- provides a process for dealing with complaints regarding the protection of personal information (see section 14 of this Privacy Statement)
Bayer uses physical, 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.
Bayer has established and implemented governance policies and practices regarding the protection of personal information. These policies and practices are proportionate to the nature and scope of our activities and are approved by our Privacy Officer.
For instance, Bayer:
- follows internationally recognized standards for cybersecurity and information security, and requires that personal information at the end of its lifecycle be securely destroyed;
- has policies in place which define the roles and responsibilities of the members of its personnel throughout the life cycle of the information, including role-based access and retention periods,
- ensures that all personnel complete privacy training; and
- provides a process for dealing with complaints regarding the protection of personal information (see section 14 of this Privacy Statement)
We do not use automated decision-making within the meaning of Canadian privacy law. We do engage in profiling of Healthcare Professionals, as described above (see section 4.2). If we make use of automated decision-making or profiling, you will also be informed through a separate privacy notice.
In order to protect 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 fourteen (14) 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.
If you are providing us with personal information of individuals under the age of fourteen (14) you represent that you have the appropriate authority to do so, and that you can demonstrate such authority to Bayer upon request.
If you are a parent or guardian who has discovered that your minor child has provided us with personal information, we ask that you contact us at privacycanada@bayer.com to have this information deleted from our records.
13. Obligation to Provide Personal Information
In general, Patients, Healthcare Professionals and Business Partners are neither contractually nor statutorily required to provide personal information to Bayer for the above purposes. However your decision to not provide your personal information may reduce features and functionalities available to you, make it impossible to use our information and Services, or result in the denial of access to our Services and/or exclusion from our business activities to the extent the processing of your personal information is key in these contexts.
The information required for registration on our Website or for contacting us is marked as mandatory in the corresponding area (e.g., a contact form) of the Website; if you do not provide this mandatory information, we cannot enable you to use these functionalities.
Right of access: You have the right to obtain information on the processing of your personal information and in some cases, to receive a copy of this data. If you have an account with Bayer, you can update or make changes to your personal information by logging into your profile.
Right to rectification: You have the right to request that we correct or complete your inadequate, incomplete or inaccurate personal information.
Right to erasure: Under certain circumstances, you have the right to request that we delete your personal information.
Right to request information: You have the right to request information about data processing, including what personal information was collected from you and how it is being processed.
Right to be forgotten: You have the right to request that we cease disseminating your personal information or have hyperlinks associated with your name and that provide access to personal information, de-indexed in certain circumstances.
Right to complain: You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority against the processing of your personal information if you believe that the processing of your personal information violates data protection regulations.
Right to withdraw consent: In circumstances where you granted us your consent to process your personal information, you may withdraw your consent:
- to the use of your personal information in the future, and
- to the communication of your information to third parties.
We will then stop the processing of your personal information, subject to legally permissible exceptions. Please note that your withdrawal has effect for future processing operations only.
If you withdraw your consent, you may no longer be able to use the Services affected by the withdrawal. Apart from that, you will not suffer any further disadvantages.
You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
If you wish to know what information we have in our files about you, ask a question about the information in your file or request a change to the information in your file, please contact:
Privacy Officer
Bayer Inc.
Canada L4W 5R6
Email: privacycanada@bayer.com
Bayer may change certain parts to this Privacy Statement from time to time, so be sure to check this Privacy Statement regularly. Any changes to this Privacy Statement will be communicated promptly on this page. Please contact the Website administrator with any problems, questions or suggestions that you may have. We retain the right to make changes when necessary.