Privacy policy statement

1.0 Introduction

At Confocal NL (Confocal.nl B.V.) we are committed to respecting and upholding our privacy obligations in compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 (GDPR) and other relevant regulations, such as the Dutch Telecommunications Act. This Privacy Statement outlines Confocal NL’s procedures to ensure compliance with the GDPR and applicable national and international laws concerning the processing of personal data. It establishes rules aimed at protecting customers in relation to their personal data, with the most fundamental principle being the right to have personal data protected. This Privacy Statement has been developed in accordance with the GDPR and applies to all services provided by Confocal NL. These services include but are not limited to, the use of our products, marketing activities, business development, sales processes, maintenance procedures, customer contract fulfilment, and recruitment. Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and Confocal NL’s legitimate interests may expand to encompass additional categories in the future.

All personal information disclosed to Confocal NL is governed by the following data protection principles: data processing and collection will be lawful, fair, confidential, accurate, and limited to what is necessary. For data to be processed lawfully, it must be done for a specific purpose and primarily based on the consent of the data subject. The data subject has the right to withdraw consent at any time. However, the withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of any processing that occurred based on consent prior to its withdrawal. This document outlines the reasons why Confocal NL collects personal information, when and how that information is used, how it is kept safe, the conditions under which it may be disclosed to other parties, and how a data subject can access their stored data or exercise their rights under the GDPR.

All data subjects have the right to have their personal data completely erased without undue delay, provided they can demonstrate that the data is no longer necessary for its original purpose, that they have withdrawn their consent, or that the data was unlawfully processed. Additionally, data subjects have the right to rectify any incorrect personal data, which requires Confocal NL to correct any inaccuracies promptly. Data subjects also have the right to be informed upon request whether their data is being processed and to access personal information concerning themselves. If a data subject objects to processing for marketing purposes, Confocal NL is obligated to cease such processing in compliance with the GDPR.

2.0 About Confocal NL

Confocal NL specializes in developing and delivering confocal microscopy systems for the life sciences. Our headquarters, Confocal NL B.V., is located in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and we operate globally. As the data controller responsible for your privacy and the processing of your personal data, Confocal NL is available for contact via email at info@confocalnl.com.

3.0 Your Personal Data

This Privacy Statement applies to all our services and the processing of your personal data. Confocal NL will use your personal data for the purposes outlined below. We will specify the categories of personal data involved, the specific purposes for processing, and the legal basis we rely on for each purpose. Confocal NL will not process your personal data for any purposes other than those described in this Privacy Statement. Additionally, your personal data will not be stored for longer than necessary for these purposes, unless required by law.

3.1 How Confocal NL uses personal data / Legitimate interests pursued by Confocal NL 

Confocal NL collects personal data for one or more legitimate business interests:

1. To execute any contract, including the management of services, products, and materials to and from Confocal NL, as well as the delivery of services.
2. To provide potential customers with the requested information, brochures, scientific content, or to connect with one of our experts.
3. To track attendance for workshops, webinars, and events.
4. To provide potential customers with information about our latest publications, product developments, and events. If you do not wish to receive these emails, you can opt-out by following the instructions included in the email.
5. To show promoted content to potential customers that Confocal NL considers relevant based on their prior website activity.
6. For marketing purposes, we may use your information to:
   1. develop and improve our products and services;
   2. conduct organizational analysis and development, management reporting, and corporate or financial transactions like acquisitions and divestitures;
   3. comply with statutory or legal requirements, which may include disclosing personal data to government institutions or supervisory authorities, as well as exercising or defending legal claims.

Application notes, brochures, flyers, posters, images, and newsletters

On our website, www.confocalnl.com, you can download several brochures or flyers about our products. To do so, you can provide your first and last name, the name of your organization,  your position, and your email address. This information will be used to send you the requested brochures or flyers, as well as personalized emails from our Application Scientists and Account Managers.

You can choose to receive marketing emails about our new products, special offers, workshops, and other relevant information. If you decide you no longer want to receive these emails, you can opt-out or unsubscribe at any time. To do this, simply click the “unsubscribe” button located in the footer of each email, or send an email to privacy@confocalnl.com. Once you withdraw your consent, Confocal NL will remove your email address from our mailing list as quickly as possible, within a maximum of 15 working days.

Seminars, webinars & workshops

Confocal NL collects data on individuals who attend our seminars, webinars and workshops for future marketing purposes. The personal information we gather includes your full name, email address, and social media accounts. Additionally, attendees may choose to provide us with more details about their research fields, applications, and reasons for attending the workshop. This information will be used to send you personalized emails regarding topics that may interest you, as well as to verify your attendance at the workshop or webinar location.

Contact

For more information, a product demonstration, or a quote, please reach out to us using the contact form on our website. We will require your first and last name, your country, and an email address. Additionally, you may choose to share the university or laboratory you are associated with, and if you prefer to be contacted by phone, you can provide your phone number as well.

Cookies and similar techniques

The website www.confocalnl.com utilizes cookies and similar technologies. Further details about these cookies and similar technologies used on our other websites can be found in paragraph 7.

4.0 Sharing your information

We do not sell your personal data to any third parties, including your name, address, email address, or credit card information. Earning and maintaining your trust is essential to us, and we believe this principle is crucial. However, we do share your data with specific categories of companies that are necessary for us to provide our services to you, as outlined in this statement:

• Companies that facilitate your purchases include payment service providers, order packers, and delivery companies.
• Service providers such as marketing agencies, advertising partners, and website hosts assist us in running our business.
• Our distributors, agents, subcontractors, or other associated organizations provide services to you on our behalf.
• We may share aggregated and anonymized information and analytics about our customers with third parties, ensuring that it does not identify you.

We use Active Campaign as our marketing automation platform to send marketing emails. When you register for our newsletter subscription list, the information you provide is transferred to these platforms and processed in accordance with their Privacy Policy and Terms.

We also use Active Campaign as our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software for Sales, Business Development, and Marketing. This platform allows us to store all the information we collect about you in order to provide optimal service. For details on the type of information we collect and store in Salesforce, please refer to paragraph 8. The information we gather is transferred to Salesforce for processing in accordance with their Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

We will disclose your personal information if required by law or if we believe, as a company, that such disclosure is necessary to protect the rights of Confocal NL and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process. However, we will make every effort to ensure that your privacy rights are protected.

Confocal NL may transfer some of your personal data to countries outside of the European Union, as some of these parties are located outside of the EU. In such cases,

Confocal NL will ensure that there is an adequacy decision from the European Commission or that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal data adequately. If you would like to obtain a copy or details of these guarantees and safeguards, please send an email to info@confocanl.com.

5.0 Our legal basis for collecting personal data

In this Privacy Statement, we explain that we may collect and process your personal data based on one of the following: your consent, the terms of contracts and their fulfilment, or a legitimate interest of Confocal NL or a third party.

5.1 Collecting personal data based on consents

We will collect personal data based on your consent through the use of “Consent Forms.” These forms will document the consent you provide. Your consent will be securely stored in our systems to ensure we can always demonstrate that consent was given.

5.2 Collecting personal data based on contracts

We utilize personal information to fulfil our obligations under contracts and agreements with customers, partners, and suppliers.

5.3 Collecting personal data based on legitimate interest

We may use personal data when it is deemed to be of legitimate interest and when the privacy interests of the individuals do not take precedence. Typically, we conduct an assessment to establish the legal basis for data collection, which includes identifying a mutual interest between Confocal NL and the individual. This legal basis primarily pertains to our sales and marketing activities, to which you always have the right to object.

6.0 How long do we keep your personal data?

We retain personal data only as long as necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected. This includes the need to respond to your inquiries, resolve any issues, comply with legal or tax obligations, address legal claims or complaints, and ensure overall security. Consequently, we may keep your personal data for a reasonable time after your last interaction with us. Once we determine that the personal data is no longer needed, we will securely delete it. In cases where we process data for statistical purposes, the data will be anonymized to protect your privacy.

You can find more regarding the deletion of your personal data in paragraph 9.

7.0 The use of cookies & similar techniques

The website www.confocalnl.com uses cookies, which are small text files placed on your device, to enhance your user experience. In general, we use cookies to improve your browsing experience. The information collected through cookies helps the website function more efficiently, allows us to measure how users interact with our site and its content, evaluates the effectiveness of our website, and helps detect and prevent security threats and abuse.

Functional cookies are essential for using this website. They help us remember certain preferences, such as preventing you from seeing the same message multiple times, recognizing the device type you are using to access our website, or remembering your language preferences. Generally, these cookies do not store any personal information.

Analytical Cookies collect anonymous information about how our website is used through Google Analytics. The insights we gain from this data help us improve our website. These cookies have a minimal impact on your privacy because we have a processing agreement with Google. We mask the last octet of your IP address, do not share any data beyond the purposes mentioned, and do not use any other Google services in conjunction with these cookies.

Third-Party Cookies are some cookies on our website that may be set by third-party service providers. These cookies allow those providers to collect and analyse information about your interactions with our website. The use of these cookies is governed by the privacy policies of the respective providers.

If you prefer not to use cookies on this website or others, the best way to do so is by disabling cookies in your browser settings. We recommend checking the Help section of your browser or visiting the About Cookies website, which provides guidance for all modern browsers.

Additionally, we will automatically process your IP address when you use our contact forms on the website to prevent any fraudulent activities.

Updates to This Cookie Statement: We may update this Cookie Statement periodically. The date of the most recent revision will be displayed at the top of this statement. Any changes will take effect as soon as we publish the updated statement.

For a full list of the cookies used on this website, please see the overview under “Cookie settings”.

8.0 Security

We are dedicated to keeping your information secure. To prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, we have implemented appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to protect and safeguard the information we collect online.

• All employees at Confocal NL use computers that are encrypted for security purposes.
• We keep all company-related documents in a secure cloud-based storage system that meets all necessary security standards.
• We store personal data in our business development system and marketing automation software. Both systems have strict security measures in place to protect company data from breaches.
• We store the personal data of our applicants in our recruitment software. Additionally, all employees who handle or utilize personal data are required to maintain confidentiality.
• Data transmitted on our website is encrypted using SSL (TLS) for enhanced security.
• No method of transmission or electronic storage is completely secure; thus, we cannot guarantee its full security.

9.0 Your rights to your personal data

You have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• The right to confirm whether your personal data is being processed by Confocal NL and to request a copy of the personal data they hold about you.
• The right to request that Confocal NL corrects any inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated personal data. 
• You have the right to request the deletion of your personal data when it is no longer necessary for Confocal NL to retain it. This includes situations where you have withdrawn your consent, objected to the processing of your data, the processing has been deemed unlawful, or if there is a legal obligation for Confocal NL to erase the data.
• You have the right to withdraw your consent for personal data processing at any time. For example, if you no longer wish to receive e-marketing communications, you can easily manage your subscriptions using the link provided in our emails. Please be aware that even if you withdraw your consent for e-marketing, you may still receive essential system messages and administrative communications from Confocal NL, such as order confirmations, system notifications, and updates regarding your account activities.
• The right to request that Confocal NL provide your personal data, and, if possible, to transfer this information directly (in a portable format) to another data controller when the processing is based on consent or contract.
• The right to request a restriction on further processing of your personal data, in the event of a dispute regarding the accuracy or legality of that processing.
• The right to object to personal data processing based on legitimate interest or direct marketing.

For any questions regarding your privacy rights, please send an email to info@confocalnl.com.

10.0 Changes to this Privacy Statement

Confocal NL reserves the right to update this Privacy Statement at any time. The most current version will always be available on our websites. We encourage you to review this Privacy Statement periodically to ensure you are comfortable with any changes. If there are any significant modifications to this Statement, we will notify you before they take effect. If you have any unresolved concerns regarding your privacy or data use that we have not adequately addressed, please contact us by sending an email to info@confocalnl.com.

11.0 Your right to complain with a supervisory authority

If you are dissatisfied with how your personal data has been processed or if you are dissatisfied with our response to your request, please first contact info@confocalnl.com. If you still feel unsatisfied after that, you have the right to reach out directly to your national supervisory authority for a decision and to file a complaint.

12.0 Transfer of data between countries and strategic partners

Confocal NL is committed to upholding the fundamental principles for transferring personal data. These principles include the right to be protected by appropriate safeguards, ensuring that individuals whose data is shared for processing have enforceable data protection rights and access to effective legal remedies. If Confocal NL transfers personal data to a third country where international organizations do not provide an adequate level of data protection, it will implement measures to compensate for this lack of protection by establishing appropriate safeguards for the data subject.