PI UK Privacy Policy

Updated May 2018

PI treats the personal data† of its customers and website users seriously. We take appropriate security measures to safeguard your data. This privacy policy explains how we collect, process and manage the personal data that you may share with us. When we process your personal data, PI is a Data Controller. You will also learn how you can verify this information and how to request deletion of these data from PI.

 

†Personal data means any information that may be used to identify an individual including but not limited to a first and last name, a physical address and an email address or other contact information.

 

In the context of the General Data Protection Regulation we use "legitimate interests", "legal obligation" and "consent" as the lawful bases for the processing of your personal data, depending on the circumstances of the processing.

 

We collect, use and retain personal information only in the interests of providing our goods and services to customers, for procuring goods and services from our suppliers, and to fulfil our duties and obligations as an employer. We do not process any special categories of personal data as defined by the General Data Protection Regulation.

 

This information on data protection does not apply to third party websites which can be reached via links on the PI website.

The corporate purpose of the enterprise is the development and manufacturing of micro- and nanopositioning technology which are used worldwide in the semi-conductor and telecommunications industries, in research and measurement labs, in medical technology and machine engineering. Our activities focus on the entire range of micro- and nanopositioning across all kinds of applications. A core technology is the piezo technology.

Our processing of personal data is proportionate and necessary for the provision of our goods and services to customers, to the procurement of goods and services from our suppliers, to the storage of business correspondence and technical information in relation to enquiries, to the administration of customer and supplier accounts, and to the administration of staff. We process only the minimum amount of personal data necessary in each case. We process no essentially sensitive private information other than for employee related matters; personal data from customers and suppliers is limited to business-related details.

 

We process personal data under three lawful bases:

We process your personal data under the lawful basis of our legitimate business interests in ways that would be reasonably expected by individuals who contact us in the interests of purchasing our goods and/or services, or who are interested in offering their own goods and/or services to us.

 

1. Legitimate Interests

We process your personal data under the lawful basis of our legitimate business interests in ways that would be reasonably expected by individuals who contact us in the interests of purchasing our goods and/or services, or who are interested in offering their own goods and/or services to us.

Specifically, we hold a record of your name, address and email as a minimum, and may also include your telephone and fax number if provided by you, and a note of your general area or areas of interest. These records are held in our databases, which also store our electronic communications with you (including attachments), accounting/invoicing information, and scanned records of printed materials sent to you or received from you, to form a historical record of our mutual correspondence.

2. Consent

For individuals who choose to sign up to receive our email newsletter, complete a contact form or complete a quote list request form, we process your personal data under the lawful basis of consent.

The minimum information collected for the newsletter is your last name, salutation, company and email (provided by you), IP address and time stamp (both collected automatically); you may optionally provide your first name. Your consent for us to send you our newsletter can be withdrawn by you at any time by unsubscribing.

The minimum information collected for contact forms and quote lists request form is your name, email, address, company/organisation (all provided by you), IP address and time stamp (both collected automatically); you may optionally provide your telephone number. You may delete your account at any time.

If you provide personal data to us on your own initiative, we will not use, process or forward these data beyond the extent that is admissible by law or to which you have given your consent. Beyond this, we shall pass on your data only if we are obligated to do so by official directives or court orders.

3. Legal Obligation

PI has certain legal obligations relating to the employment of staff, which requires us to process staff-related personal financial data and to transfer that data to HMRC. We process this data under the lawful basis of legal obligation.

When you visit our websites, certain data is automatically stored on our servers for system administration, statistical or backup purposes. The data concerned are the name of your internet service provider, possibly your IP address, the version of your browser software, the operating system of the computer from where our site has been accessed, the website from where you are visiting us, and possibly the search words you have used to find our website. Under certain circumstances, these data might permit to track the person who visited the website. Personal data, however, are not exploited in this connection. Exploitation of these data is generally anonymous. If PI forwards data to external service providers, technical and organizational measures are taken that ensure that the forwarding is done is accordance with the statutory provisions on data privacy.

Any modification of our privacy policy shall be published on this website, you can at any time obtain information on what data we store and how we collect and use them.

Like most websites, ours uses cookies. Cookies are small text files that are placed on your computer or mobile phone when you browse websites. A cookie will typically contain the name of the domain from which the cookie has come, the "lifetime" of the cookie, and a value, usually a randomly generated unique number to recognize you as a unique visitor. Cookies cannot be used by themselves to identify you. If cookies are not accepted by you, the website may not operate with its full functionality.

 

How we use cookies on our site and what information we collect

We use cookies to make it easier for you to use our Internet pages. Cookies can help a website to arrange content to match your preferred interests more quickly, and store your settings during and between visits. This can save you having to login every time you visit our site. We use cookies to improve the speed and security of the site, to confirm that it operates with various browsers and operating systems, to allow you to share pages with social networks, and to make our marketing more efficient by compiling anonymous aggregated statistics that allow us to understand how users use our site and to help us improve the structure of our website. We cannot identify you personally in this way.

 

Third party cookies

Third parties also serve cookies via this site. On many of our pages you will see social buttons that enable you, among other functions, to share our web pages. For these buttons to work, the services to which they apply will be collecting information. Therefore you may wish to check the respective privacy policies of each service to see how they use your information and to find out how to opt out or delete it. We also use external web services to show videos, and such embedded content will also be collecting information on your usage. If you are not logged in to these services, only anonymous data will be collected. Third-party cookies are used for the following purposes:

 

  • to tailor content to your preferences
  • to count the number of anonymous users of our site
  • If you do not agree with the use of cookies, then we would ask you not to use the site or the information provided within it.

 

Granting us permission to use cookies

Most browsers accept cookies automatically. You can prevent this by modifying the settings of your browser. If the settings on your browser that you are using to view this website are adjusted to accept cookies, we take this and your continued use of our website to mean that you accept our use of cookies.

 

Disabling/enabling cookies

You have the ability to accept or decline cookies by modifying the settings in your browser. However, we explicitly point out that you may then be no longer able to use all functions of the PI website to the full extent if cookies are disabled.

You can remove cookies stored on your computer at any time by deleting the temporary Internet files (e.g. browser bar > Tools > Internet options).

 

What can I do to manage cookies stored on my computer?

There are a number of ways to manage cookies. If you use different computers in different locations you will need to ensure that each browser is adjusted to suit your cookie preferences. Some modern browsers have a feature that will analyse website privacy policies and allow a user to control their privacy needs. You can delete any cookies that have been installed in the cookie folder of your browser. See your browser's Help documentation for information on how to do this.

When you submit your data through our website you have the option to opt-in and give your consent to receive our e-newsletter and press-release mailings. These electronic mailings comply with both the GDPR and Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). Each electronic mailing provides the link to unsubscribe at any time.

Most emails that we send you have no tracking at all, but the newsletter emails sent to registered subscribers do contain tracking so that we can tell how much traffic the newsletter sends to our site. This data is not anonymous, so we can tell if someone has opened and clicked within the email. We rarely use this information at a personal level, but if you do not wish to be tracked, you can unsubscribe from the newsletter mailing list yet still enjoy our news by reading it here.

Some of our web pages may contain electronic images known as Web Beacons (also known as clear GIFs) that allow us to count users who have visited these pages. Web beacons collect only limited information, such as a cookie number, time and date of a page view, and a description of the page on which the beacon resides.

It may be possible that social plug-ins ("plug-ins") of the social network facebook.com operated by Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA ("Facebook") are used on the PI Internet pages. This relates in particular to the "Like" button of Facebook.

When you visit one of our Internet pages that includes such a plug-in, your browser will establish a direct connection to the Facebook servers. Facebook will transmit the content of the plug-in directly to your browser, which will include it into the Internet page. By the integration of the plug-ins, Facebook will receive the information that you have accessed the Internet page concerned. If you are logged in into your Facebook account while visiting the website, Facebook can assign the visit to your Facebook account. When you interact with the plug-ins, e.g. by pressing the "Like" button" or writing a comment, the corresponding information will be transmitted directly to Facebook by your browser and stored there.

For the purpose and the scope of the data collection and the further processing and use of the data by Facebook as well as your rights and the setting options for protecting your privacy, please refer to the data protection information of Facebook.

If you do not want that Facebook assigns the visit on our website to your Facebook account, you have to log out of Facebook before visiting our website.

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analysing service of Google Inc. ("Google"). Google Analytics uses cookies that permit an analysis of how you have used the website. The information concerning your use of this website (including your IP address) created by the cookie is transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. But if the IP anonymization is activated on this website, the IP address will be truncated before it is transmitted within the member states of the European Union or other states that are contracting parties of the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and truncated there. Google will use this information in order to evaluate your use of the website, to prepare reports about the website activities for the website operators and to provide further services connected to the use of the website and the Internet. Google might also transmit this information to a third party as far as this is legally required or if third parties process these data on behalf of Google.

In no case shall Google establish a connection between your IP address with other data stored by Google.

Most browsers accept cookies automatically. You can prevent this by modifying the settings of your browser. But we explicitly point out that you may then be no longer able to use all functions of the PI website to the full extent.

By using this website, you consent to the processing of the data collected about you by Google in the way and for the purpose described above.

Another possibility to prevent the transmission of data to Google Analytics: >> Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-ons.

You can deactivate the function of having your data recorded by Google Analytics by clicking on the following link. An opt-out cookie will be set that prevents your data from being recorded when visiting this website: >> Deactivate Google Analytics

Our website contains links to other websites. We have no control of websites outside the physikinstrumente.co.uk domain. If you provide personal information to a website to which we link, we are not responsible for its protection and privacy. Always be wary when submitting data to websites, and read the site's privacy policy fully.

Information provided by you

You provide us with personal data directly through contact with us by email, telephone, fax, personal interaction at a trade show or conference, submission of an enquiry on our website, or subscription to our newsletter. This information may include name, position, address, email address, telephone number and fax number, but the set of information collected varies with the circumstances. For email newsletter subscriptions and contact form submissions, we also collect IP address and time stamp.

We may also keep information contained in any correspondence you may have with us via email (including attached documents) or received from you by fax, post or other delivery mechanisms. We do not record telephone conversations, but may make a written note of the substantive points.

 

Information we obtain from other sources

We obtain information from suppliers whose products we place on the market in our appointed sales territories, where you have requested information from the supplier by email, telephone, fax, personal interaction at a trade show or conference, or submission of an enquiry on their website. Our purpose in using this information as provided to us by the supplier is to respond to your enquiry in a satisfactory manner. We use information obtained in this way in the same way as if it had been provided to us by you directly.

 

Personal Data of Children

PI does not want to collect any personal data of persons under the age of 14. Should it be required, PI shall explicitly point out to children, wherever appropriate, that they should not send any personal information to PI.

 

Sensitive Personal Information

 We do not seek to collect sensitive personal information (i.e. information relating to race or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or other beliefs, trade union membership, physical or mental health, sexual orientation or criminal records). We ask that you do not provide such information to us.

 

Recruitment Process

PI (Physik Instrumente) Ltd processes your data when it is in our legitimate interests to do this and when these interests are not overridden by your data protection rights.

Information submitted by yourself when applying for a position or making a speculative application is only used for recruitment and employment purposes. We use this data to determine your suitability for employment and to decide to whom to offer a job. 

We will retain your data on our secure data base and we have in place suitable electronic and access control mechanisms. Access to your data will be restricted to the team involved with the recruitment process.

If your application is unsuccessful your data will be held for a maximum of six months after which it will be destroyed. 

If you application is successful this data will be held on your personal record.   

You may contact us at any time to request to see the information that we hold on you. Following your request we will either delete or make appropriate changes to your data if you so wish. If you would like to make such a request please contact uk-jobs@pi.ws.

We use your data to allow us to conduct a business relationship with you, including response to technical or commercial enquiries, provision of quotations at your request, supply of goods and services, formation of contracts, records of end user statements where appropriate for export control, provision of invoices, payment processing, provision of appropriate marketing information for products that align with your areas of interest or previous purchases, and other similar business related matters. We retain the data as a resource for future reference regarding your enquiries and purchasing history. We protect your personal data according to our internal policies in a manner that is consistent with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation concerning data protection. The emphasis of these policies is to ensure that your data remains secure against loss or unauthorized access to the fullest reasonable extent possible within our organisation. Our use of your personal data is proportionate and has a minimal impact on your privacy.

 

 

Safety

PI shall keep all your data safe and take any precautionary measures to protect your data against loss, misuse or being modified. Contractors of PI who are given access to your data in order to provide services for you on behalf of PI shall be contractually obligated to keep these data in secrecy and shall not be permitted to use these data for any other than the intended purpose.

 

 

Do we use your personal data for marketing purposes?

In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation, the processing of personal data for direct marketing purposes may be regarded as carried out for a legitimate interest. From time to time we may use your details to send you marketing information appropriate to the category or categories of product interest as expressed by you in previous interactions with our company. Your data subject rights will be respected. We acknowledge that the right to object to direct marketing is absolute and we must stop processing your data for this purpose if you object.

Third parties also serve cookies via this site. On many of our pages you will see social buttons that enable you, among other functions, to share our web pages. For these buttons to work, the services to which they apply will be collecting information. Therefore you may wish to check the respective privacy policies of each service to see how they use your information and to find out how to opt out or delete it. We also use external web services, for example YouTube, to show videos, and such embedded content will also be collecting information on your usage. If you are not logged in to these services, only anonymous data will be collected. 

We do not sell or buy mailing lists. We keep information about you confidential and will disclose your information to third parties only:

  • for delivery of goods and services (for example, providing your name and address to a courier company);
  • for compliance with export controls;
  • where you contact us from outside our appointed sales territory and we pass your details to one of our associated suppliers or their representative serving your location in order that your enquiry may be dealt with appropriately;
  • where we are required by legal or crime prevention agencies, regulatory authorities or fraud prevention agencies for the purposes of fraud prevention and to comply with legal and regulatory issues and disclosures.

 

Transfer of your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA)

For the purposes of complying with the export controls applicable to some of our suppliers located outside the EEA, we do where necessary as part of due diligence transfer your name, address, email and telephone number to those suppliers in order to permit the release of goods that you have ordered from us. We may also request that you complete an end user statement to describe your intended use of certain goods, including your personal details, and this end user statement may also be transferred outside the EEA. We ensure that the receiving suppliers maintain adequate safeguards to protect your personal data.

 

How long do we keep information about you?

 

We keep information until you request its removal or we have had no contact with you for a period that we redefine from time to time but which may be up to ten years. This takes into account our need to meet any legal, statutory and regulatory obligations. These reasons can vary depending on the type of information. Information which is no longer required will be disposed of.

The General Data Protection Regulation grants you the right to access particular personal data that we hold about you via a subject access request. We shall respond within one month of receiving the request and will provide you with details of the personal data we hold about you, including the following:

  • the source of the information;
  • the purposes for processing the information;
  • third parties with whom we are sharing the information.

You have the right to obtain from us, without undue delay, the rectification of inaccurate personal data we hold concerning you. Taking into account the purposes of the processing, you have the right to have incomplete personal data completed, including by means of providing a supplementary statement.

You have the right to obtain from us the erasure of personal data concerning you without undue delay, except where your data has been processed under the lawful basis of "legal obligation" (this basis applies to employees only).

Subject to exemptions, you have the right to obtain from us restriction of processing where one of the following applies:

  • the accuracy of the personal data is contested by you and is restricted until the accuracy of the data has been verified;
  • the processing is unlawful and you oppose the erasure of the personal data and instead request the restriction in its use;
  • we no longer need the personal data for the purposes of processing, but it is required by you for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims;
  • you have objected to processing of your personal data pending the verification of whether there are legitimate grounds for us to override these objections.

We shall communicate any rectification or erasure of personal data or restriction of processing as described above to each recipient to whom the personal data has been disclosed, unless this proves impossible or involves disproportionate effort. We shall provide you with information about those recipients it you request it.

Except where data is processed under the lawful basis of "legal obligation" or "consent", you have the right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, at any time to the processing of personal data concerning you unless this relates to processing that is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or an exercise of official authority vested in us. We shall no longer process the personal data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing, which override your interests, rights and freedoms, or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. If you object on the grounds of direct marketing, this overrides our legitimate interests and we shall stop processing as soon as your objection on these grounds is received.

Where we process your data under the lawful basis of "consent" (that is, where you have chosen to receive our newsletter or have sent a contact form or quote request form), you have the right to receive your personal data, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and have the right to transmit this data to another data controller. Where we process your data under the lawful basis of "legitimate interests" or "legal obligation", the right to data portability does not apply.

We do not carry out any automated processing of your personal data; hence we make no decisions based on such processing.

If you would like to invoke any of the above data subject rights, please write to us at PI (Physik Instrumente) Ltd. UK, Trent House, University Way, Cranfield Technology Park, Cranfield, Bedford, MK43 0AN, United Kingdom, UK, or email uk@pi.ws

In order to provide the highest level of customer service possible, we need to keep accurate personal data about you. We take reasonable steps to ensure the accuracy of any personal data or sensitive information we obtain. We ensure that the source of any personal data or sensitive information is clear and we carefully consider any challenges to the accuracy of the information. We also consider when it is necessary to update the information, such as name or address changes, and you can help us by informing us of these changes when they occur. To update your personal information, please write to us at PI (Physik Instrumente) Ltd. UK, Trent House, University Way, Cranfield Technology Park, Cranfield, Bedford, MK43 0AN, United Kingdom, UK, or email uk@pi.ws

Questions and queries

If you have any questions or queries which are not answered by this privacy policy, or have any potential concerns about how we may use the personal data we hold, please write to us at PI (Physik Instrumente) Ltd. UK, Trent House, University Way, Cranfield Technology Park, Cranfield, Bedford, MK43 0AN, United Kingdom, UK, or email uk@pi.ws

 

Policy changes

This privacy policy is reviewed regularly to make sure that we continue to meet the highest standards, and to protect your privacy. We reserve the right to update, modify or amend this policy. We recommend that you review this privacy policy from time to time to ensure you are aware of any changes. We shall not significantly change how we use information you have already given to us without your prior agreement.

 

If you have a complaint

If you have a complaint regarding the use of your personal data or sensitive information, please write to us at PI (Physik Instrumente) Ltd. UK, Trent House, University Way, Cranfield Technology Park, Cranfield, Bedford , MK43 0AN , United Kingdom, UK, or email uk@pi.ws

If your complaint is not resolved to your satisfaction and you wish to make a formal complaint to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), you can make contact using the details at ico.org.uk

You also have the right to judicial remedy against a legally binding decision of the ICO where you consider that your rights under the General Data Protection Regulation have been infringed as a result of the processing of your personal data. You have the right to appoint a third party to lodge the complaint on your behalf and exercise your right to seek compensation.

 

Contact Us

 

If you have any questions about this privacy Policy and practices of this site you can contact us at uk@pi.ws.