Sierra Privacy Policy

Data Protection Policy and Privacy Notice 

Updated & Effective May 23, 2018 

Purpose of This Privacy Notice 

Sierra Instruments, Inc. and Sierra-CP Engineering Ltd. (Sierra) recognizes the importance of safeguarding personal privacy. Our policy is to comply with the Data Protection Acts 1998 and 2018 ('the Act'), whichever is in force, in all respects and the new GDPR rule effective May 25, 2018.

This privacy notice aims to give you information on how Sierra and all its divisions collects and processes your personal data when you contact this company with the intent of buying goods or services from it or supplying goods or services to it. It also describes options we provide for you to access, update or otherwise take control of your personal data that we process.

It is important that you read this privacy notice so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data.
 

Why do we hold data we collect about you? 

  1. The information we hold, and process will be used for our management and administrative use only. We will keep and use it to enable us to run the business and manage our relationship with you effectively, lawfully and appropriately. If you do not provide this data, we may be unable in some circumstances to comply with our contractual obligations and we will tell you about the implications of that decision.
     
  2. As a company pursuing commercial activities in the flow measurement and engineering sector activities, we may sometimes need to process your data to pursue our legitimate business interests, for example to prevent fraud, administrative purposes or reporting potential crimes. The nature of our legitimate interests is securing and executing contracts related to  the services we provide.
     
  3. Much of the information considered personal data that we collect will have been provided by you (see samples below), but some may come from other internal sources, such as a fellow employee, or in some cases, external sources.
    • create an account or purchase any of our Services (ex: billing information, including name, address, credit card number, government identification);
    • request assistance from our customer support team (ex: phone number, email); 
    • complete a web form (ex: RFQ, RMA, Contact us, etc.) or request newsletters or other information from us (ex: email); or
    • participate in contests and surveys, apply for a job, or otherwise participate in activities we promote that might require information about you
We also collect additional information when delivering our Services to you to ensure necessary and optimal performance. Examples of data we collect, and store include: Software, Account, License Key, Name, email, city, state, country, phone, date of action, action (upload gas mixture), details (actual gas mixture- information is encrypted), and any feedback you provide to us. 

 
  1. Sierra uses the information we collect based in part on which services you use, how you use them, and preferences you have communicated to us.  When ordering or registering on our site, as appropriate, you may be asked to enter your name, email address, phone number or other details to help you with your experience. We collect information from you when you register on our site, place an order, subscribe to a newsletter, fill out a form or enter information on our site.

 
We have set out below a table showing descriptions of the ways in which we plan to use your personal data.

 

Category Purpose & Usage of Data
Customers and potential customers
  1. To administer and manage our relationship with you, including to set up and maintain your account
  2. To respond to enquiries received from you
  3. To process orders from you for goods and services
  4. To make suggestions and recommendations to you about goods and services that may be of interest to you via email or written communication
  5. To make checks of credit agencies from time to time
  6. To recover overdue debts due to us
  7. To improve and optimize the operation of our services including our website and mobile aps.
  8. To market, promote and drive engagement with the Services: We use your contact information and information about how you use the Services to send promotional communications that may be of specific interest to you, including by email and by displaying Sierra ads on other companies' websites and applications, as well as on platforms like Facebook and Google.  These communications are aimed at driving engagement and maximizing what you get out of the Services, including information about new features, survey requests, newsletters, and events we think may be of interest to you.  We also communicate with you about new product offers, promotions and contests.
  9. Detect and prevent fraud and abuse of our Services and systems
  10. Collecting aggregate statistics about use of the Services
Suppliers, Reps, Distributors, and potential suppliers
  1. To administer and manage our relationship with you, including to set up and maintain your account
  2. To send requests for quotation to you
  3. To place orders on you for goods and services
  4. To make checks of credit agencies from time to time
  5. To recover any monies due to us under a contract


 

What kinds of personal information about you do we process? 

  • Personal and contact details, such as job title, full name, contact details, contact details history, and other data collected that could directly or indirectly identify you.
     
  • Records of your contact with us such as via the phone or via email. If Sierra had a prospective buyer to acquire it, or substantially most of its assets, then personal data relating to customers and suppliers would be disclosed to that party Any authority which we are required by law to disclose personal data to (for example, the Inland Revenue, the Health and Safety Executive etc).
     
  • Data about usage of Services is automatically collected when you use and interact with our Services, including metadata, log files, cookie/device IDs and location information. This information includes specific data about your interactions with the features, content and links (including those of third-parties, such as social media plugins) contained within the Services, Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type and settings, the date and time the Services were used, information about browser configuration and plugins, language preferences and cookie data, information about devices accessing the Services, including type of device, what operating system is used, device settings, application IDs, unique device identifiers and error data, and some of this data collected might be capable of and be used to approximate your location. In addition to content-related information described in "Why do we hold data we collect about you," above. 
     
  • Cookie & Other Tracking Technologies: Sierra and our third-party partners, such as our advertising and analytics partners, use cookies and other tracking technologies.
    Cookies and similar technologies on our websites and our mobile applications allow us to track your browsing behavior, links clicked, items purchased, your device type, and to collect various data, including analytics, about how you use and interact with our Services. This allows us to provide you with more relevant product offerings, a better experience on our sites and mobile applications, and to collect, analyze and improve the performance of our Services. We may also collect your location (IP address) so that we can personalize our Services. 

To whom might we disclose your personal data? 

We share information with contracted third parties that help us operate, provide, improve, integrate, customize, support and market our Services, or where we are legally obliged to do so or where we need to comply with our contractual duties to you.  We may share your personal data with affiliated companies within our corporate family, with third parties with which we have partnered to allow you to integrate their services into our own Services, and with trusted third-party service providers as necessary for them to perform services on our behalf, such as:
  • Processing credit card payments
  • Serving advertisements
  • Conducting contests or surveys
  • Performing analysis of our Services and customers demographics
  • Communicating with you, such as by way email or survey delivery
  • Customer relationship management
  • Individuals who are legally entitled to the information.
  • Professional services such as insurance, health or legal services. (employees only)
  • If Sierra had a prospective buyer to acquire it, or substantially most of its assets, then personal data relating to customers and suppliers would be disclosed to that party
  • Any authority which we are required by law to disclose personal data to (for example, the Inland Revenue, the Health and Safety Executive etc.).
Transfer of personal data abroad.  If you utilize our Services from a country other than the country where our servers are located, your communications with us may result in transferring your personal data across international borders. Also, when you call us or initiate a chat, we may provide you with support from one of our global locations outside your country of origin. In these cases, your personal data is handled according to this Privacy Policy.
 

Publication on the Internet

Generally, no personal data would be on the Company’s website without express consent from the individual concerned or the employer of that individual.

Storage and Security of Personal Data

Sierra takes access to and security of all data very seriously and will ensure that adequate technical and organizational security measures are taken so that privacy is preserved whenever and wherever processing of personal data takes place.  
We use data hosting service providers in the United States, China, and the Netherlands to host the information we collect, and we use technical measures to secure your data.
 
While we implement safeguards designed to protect your information, no security system is impenetrable and due to the inherent nature of the Internet, we cannot guarantee that data, during transmission through the Internet or while stored on our systems or otherwise in our care, is absolutely safe from intrusion by others.
 
  • How long we keep information we collect about you depends on the type of information, as described in further detail below.  After such time, we will either delete or anonymize your information or, if this is not possible (for example, because the information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your information and isolate it from any further use until deletion is possible. Note: Your personal data/account information will be stored for the lifetime of the product you purchase. If you request your information to be deleted or forgotten we will do this, but your product warranty will no longer be valid as we will not able to confirm its existence.

Access to Personal Data

  1. Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and The Data Protection Act 2018(DPA) you have a number of rights with regard to your personal data. You have the right to request access to and rectification or erasure of your personal data, the right to restrict processing, and object to processing as well as in certain circumstances the right to data portability.
  2. If you have provided consent for the processing of your data, you have the right (in certain circumstances) to withdraw that consent at any time which will not affect the lawfulness of the processing before your consent was withdrawn.
  3. You have the right to lodge a complaint to the Information Commissioners’ Office if you believe that we have not complied with the requirements of the GDPR or DPA 18 with regard to your personal data.

Identity and Contact Details of Controller

Sierra is the controller and processor of data for the purposes of the DPA and GDPR. We also have reps that act as processors of your personal information to deliver services.

If you have any concerns as to how your data is processed you can contact the following:
Sierra Instruments, Inc. , Kam Bansal, Data Protection Officer (DPO) at gdpr@sierrainstruments.com
Sierra-CP Engineering Ltd, Peter Martin, Financial Controller, info@sierra-cp.com