Microbiome Labs UK. Ltd. Revised privacy notice and policies, GDPR May 2022
INTRODUCTION
This privacy notice provides you with details of how we collect and process your personal data through your use of our business processes and websites, including www.microbiomelabs.co.uk
This includes any information that you may provide through our site when you purchase a product or service, sign up to our newsletter, register for a webinar or other training event, request information and sign up at various practitioner events, conferences and trade shows, or take part in a prize draw, award or competition where Microbiome Labs UK Ltd or TMC Ventures is giving away free products or making promotions from any of our brand ranges.
By providing us with your data, you warrant to us that you are over 13 years of age.
Our Business is called Microbiome Labs UK Ltd. However, you may also know us as TMC Ventures Europe.
The owners of Microbiome Labs UK Ltd. are TMC Ventures Europe Ltd, Arnie Liepa & Susan Warris-Liepa. We are responsible for your personal data (referred to as “we”, “us” or “our” in this privacy notice).
We have appointed a Data Protection Officer who is in charge of privacy related matters for us. If you have any questions about this privacy notice, please contact the Data Protection Officer using the details set out below.
Contact Details
The Data Protection Officer, email questions to: [email protected]
WHAT DATA MAY WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU?
Personal data means any information capable of identifying an individual. It does not include anonymised data.
We may process certain types of personal data about you as follows:
Identity Data may include your first name, maiden name, last name, username, marital status, title, date of birth and gender.
Contact Data may include your billing address, delivery address, email address and telephone numbers.
Financial Data may include your bank account and payment card details.
Transaction Data may include details about payments between us and other details of purchases made by you.
Technical Data may include your login data, internet protocol addresses, browser type and version, browser plug-in types and versions, time zone setting and location, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this site.
Profile Data may include your username and password, purchases or orders, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
Usage Data may include information about how you use our website, products and services.
Marketing and Communications Data may include your preferences in receiving marketing communications from us and our third parties and your communication preferences.
We may also process Aggregated Data from your personal data but this data does not reveal your identity and as such in itself is not personal data. An example of this is where we review your Usage Data to work out the percentage of website users using a specific feature of our site. If we link the Aggregated Data with your personal data so that you can be identified from it, then it is treated as personal data.
Sensitive Data
Unless required for inclusion in personalised test results such as BiomeFX we do not collect any Sensitive Data about you.
Sensitive Data refers to data that includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data. We do not collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.
Where we are required to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of the contract between us and you do not provide us with that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract (for example, to deliver goods or services to you). If you don’t provide us with the requested data, we may have to cancel a product or service you have ordered but if we do, we will notify you at the time.
HOW WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL DATA
We collect data about you through a variety of different methods including:
Direct interactions: You may provide data by filling in forms on our site (or otherwise) or by communicating with us by post, phone, email or otherwise, including when you:
order our products or services
create an account on our site
subscribe to our service or publications
request resources or marketing be sent to you
enter a competition, prize draw, promotion or survey
Register for educational information at a conference
Visit us and provide your personal contact information at a trade show or similar
give us feedback.
Automated technologies or interactions: As you use our site, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and usage patterns. We collect this data by using cookies, server logs and similar technologies. We may also receive Technical Data about you if you visit other websites that use our cookies.
Third parties or publicly available sources: We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below
Publications where you have entered a competition by us, listings in trade show and event brochures and publications.
Analytics providers such as Google based outside the EU
Search information providers such as Response Source based inside the EU
Contact, Financial and Transaction Data from providers of technical, payment and delivery services [such as Stripe/Paypal]
Identity and Contact Data from publicly availably sources such as Companies House and the Electoral Register based inside the EU
Where you have given us your name and email address either on a handwritten list at for example an event, or have handed us your business card
From Third Parties where you have may have registered a specific interest in any of our products, or ordered our products from a third party with whom we do or have done business
HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA
We will only use your personal data as legally permitted. The most common uses of your personal data are:
Where we need to perform the contract between us
Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation
To continue supplying you with reasonable amounts of information about products, services, or educational events including new products and any special offers or promotion
Generally, we do not rely on consent as a legal ground for processing your personal data, other than in relation to sending marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by emailing us at [email protected] or, if received by email, simply click on unsubscribePurposes for processing your personal data
We may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground, depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data.
You will receive marketing communications from us if you have:
requested information from us or purchased goods or services from us; or
if you provided us with your details when you entered a competition or registered for a promotion or free resources; and
in each case, you have not opted out of receiving ongoing communications
You can ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by emailing us at [email protected]
Where you opt out of receiving our marketing communications, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a product/service purchase, warranty registration, product/service experience or other transactions.
Change of purpose
We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to find out more about how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please email us at [email protected]
If we need to use your personal data for a purpose unrelated to the purpose for which we collected the data, we will notify you and we will explain the legal ground of processing.
We may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent where this is required or permitted by law.
DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA
With the exception of data related to personalised testing such as BiomeFX, your information is only used by Microbiome Labs UK Ltd, TMC Ventures Europe Ltd, and TMC Ventures Inc.
Our policy is to never share your personal data with any third party for their marketing purposes.
Should that policy ever change we will proactively contact you and ask for your express permission before sharing any data with any 3rd parties.
INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS
We may share your personal data within the TMC Ventures group of companies which may involve transferring your data outside the UK & European Economic Area (EEA)
Transfer to Countries outside of the UK & European Economic Area (EEA) do not always offer the same levels of protection to your personal data, so European law has prohibited transfers of personal data outside of the UK & EEA unless the transfer meets certain criteria.
Our third parties service provider is based outside the European Economic Area (EEA) so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the EEA.
Also, the detailed testing and analysis of BiomeFX stool tests is carried out by CosmosID. Their testing labs are based in the United States Of America. By purchasing BiomeFX and completing registration, any UK or EU Clients choosing to use this service give specific Consent to sharing their data outside the EEA.
In addition to giving this Consent, the sharing of data is a requirement in order to fulfil the Contract of BiomeFX analysis and client feedback. This is also considered a Legitimate Interest.
Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA, we do our best to ensure a similar degree of security of data by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:
We will only transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission; or
Where we use certain service providers, we may use specific contracts or codes of conduct or certification mechanisms approved by the European Commission which give personal data the same protection it has in Europe; or
Where we use providers based in the United States, we may transfer data to them if they are part of the EU-US Privacy Shield which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between the Europe and the US.
If none of the above safeguards is available, we may request your explicit consent to the specific transfer. You will have the right to withdraw this consent at any time.
DATA SECURITY
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed.
In addition, we strictly limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know such data. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
DATA RETENTION
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
By law we have to keep basic information about our customers (including Contact, Identity, Financial and Transaction Data) for six years after they cease being customers for tax purposes.
In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see below for further information.
In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
YOUR LEGAL RIGHTS
Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. These include the right to:
Request access to your personal data.
Request correction of your personal data.
Request erasure of your personal data.
Object to processing of your personal data.
Request restriction of processing your personal data.
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please email us at [email protected]
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
THIRD-PARTY LINKS
At time of this publication (May 2022) NONE of our websites have links to any third-party websites, plug-ins and applications other than for secure payment processing.
Your information is only connected with Microbiome Labs UK Ltd, TMC Ventures Europe Ltd, our warehouse shipping software and payment providers such as PayPal and Stripe.
At some future point, if links to other websites are established, clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you.
We would not control any potential future third-party websites and would not be responsible for their privacy statements. If you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.
COOKIES
You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see HERE
This notice and policy is effective MAY 2022, in compliance with GDPR
