Privacy Policy

Effective date: October 26, 2021

Please Note: Our Privacy Policy has changed. View updated Privacy Policy.

We at Benchling (“Benchling”, “we”, “us” or “our”) provide this privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”), which describes how we collect information, and how we use, disclose and share such information about users of our Services. Please read the following to learn more about our Privacy Policy. By using or accessing the Services in any manner, you acknowledge the practices and policies outlined in this Privacy Policy. If you do not want information about you used as described in this Privacy Policy, please do not access or use the Services.

If you are a resident of the European Union ("EU"), United Kingdom, Lichtenstein, Norway, or Iceland, you may have additional rights under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (the "GDPR") with respect to your Personal Data.

Remember that your use of Benchling's Services is at all times subject to the Terms of Use, which references this Privacy Policy. Any terms we use in this Privacy Policy without defining them have the definitions given to them in the Terms of Use.

What does this Privacy Policy cover?

This Privacy Policy covers our treatment of information, including personally identifiable information ( "Personal Information" or "Personal Data"), that we process in relation to your use of our Services, but not to the practices of companies we don't own or control, or people that we don't manage. We gather various types of information from our users, as explained in more detail below, and we use this information in connection with our Services, including to personalize, provide, and improve our Services, to allow you to set up a user account and profile, to contact you and allow other users to contact you, to fulfill your requests for certain products and services, and to analyze how you use the Services, including through the use of machine learning technology. In certain cases, we may also share some Personal Information with third parties, but only as described below.

As noted in the Terms of Use, we do not knowingly collect or solicit Personal Information from anyone under the age of 16. If you are under 16, please do not attempt to register for the Services or send any information about yourself to us. If we learn that we have collected Personal Information from a child under age 16, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that a child under 16 may have provided us Personal Information, please contact us at privacy@benchling.com.

Will Benchling ever change this Privacy Policy?

We're constantly trying to improve our Services, so we may need to change this Privacy Policy from time to time as well, but we will alert you to changes by placing a notice on the Benchling website, by sending you an email, and/or by some other meansas required by applicable law. The updated Privacy Policy will be effective as of the time of posting, or such later date as may be specified in the updated Privacy Policy. If you use the Services after any changes to the Privacy Policy are effective, that means you agree to all of the changes.

What information does Benchling collect and how do we use it?

Information You Provide to Us

In order to provide you with the Services, we may ask you to provide us with certain details or information. Based on our current practices (and including our practices over the past 12 months, we collect the following categories of information about you:

For job application purposes, you may provide us, or we may receive from third parties, additional forms of Personal Information, including sensitive Personal Information, through background checks (e.g., financial, employment and educational information), from publicly-available websites and sources (e.g., LinkedIn), and through and as a result of interviews we conduct with you (e.g. feedback about your application process).

You can always choose to not disclose information to us, but keep in mind some information may be needed to register with us, take advantage of some of our features, or receive the Services.

You may be able to add, update, or delete information. When you update information, however, we may maintain a copy of the unrevised information in our records. You may request deletion of your account by emailing privacy@benchling.com. Some information may remain in our records after your deletion of such information from your account. We may use any aggregated data derived from or incorporating your Personal Information after you update or delete it, but not in a manner that would identify you personally.

Information Collected From Third Parties

Based on our current practices (and including our practices over the past 12 months), we may collect information about you from third parties, including:

Information Collected Automatically

Whenever you interact with our Services, we automatically receive and record information about your interaction with the Services (“Usage Data”). Based on our current practices including our practices over the past 12 months, we may use cookies, web beacons/clear gifs, and other similar technologies. Usage Data may include:

We may use Usage Data to customize content for you that we think you might like, based on your usage patterns. We may also use it to improve the Services — for example, this data can tell us how often users use a particular feature of the Services, and we can use that knowledge to make the Services interesting to as many users as possible.

Will Benchling share Personal Information?

Based on our current practices (and including our practices over the last 12 months), we may share Personal Information about you as set forth below:

Information That's Been De-Identified and/or Aggregated

We may de-identify Personal Information about you so that you are not identified as an individual, and provide that information to our partners. We may also provide aggregate Usage Data to our partners (or allow partners to collect such information from you), who may use such information to understand how often and in what ways people use our Services, so that they, too, can provide you with an optimal online experience.

Ad Networks

We may deliver a file to you through the Services (known as a "web beacon") from third party ad networks. Web beacons allow third party ad networks to provide anonymized, aggregated auditing, research and reporting for us. Web beacons also enable ad networks to serve targeted advertisements to you when you visit other websites. Because your web browser must request these advertisements and web beacons from the ad network's servers, these companies can view, edit, or set their own cookies, just as if you had requested a web page from their site. Our Services currently do not allow third parties to conduct web beacon tracking and serve targeted advertisements to you through our Services when you visit our websites, but you also need to opt out of web beacon tracking conducted by third parties through our Services by adjusting the Do Not Track settings on your browser. Please note that we don't control whether or how these third parties comply with Do Not Track requests.

Service Providers

We employ other companies and people to perform tasks on our behalf and need to share information about you with them to provide products or services to you; for example, we may use cloud infrastructure provider to host and operate the Services. Unless we tell you differently, our service providers do not have the right to use the Personal Information we share with them beyond what is necessary to assist us and in accordance with applicable law.

Other Users of the Services

Certain user profile information, including your name, location, and any video, or image or that such user has uploaded to the Services, may be displayed to other users to facilitate user interaction within the Services or address your request for our Services. Please remember that any content you upload to your public user profile, along with any Personal Information or content that you voluntarily disclose online in a manner other users can view (on discussion boards, in messages and chat areas, etc.) becomes publicly available, and can be collected and used by anyone.

Business Transfers

We may choose to buy or sell assets, and may share and/or transfer information in connection with the evaluation of and entry into such transactions. Also, if we (or our assets) are acquired, or if we go out of business, enter bankruptcy, or go through some other change of control, such information could be one of the assets transferred to or acquired by a third party.

Protection of Benchling and Others

We reserve the right to access, read, preserve, and disclose any information that we reasonably believe is necessary to comply with law or court order; enforce or apply our Terms of Use and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of Benchling, our employees, our users, or others.

Cookies and other Similar Technologies

First Party Cookies

"Cookies" are identifiers we transfer to your browser or device that allow us to recognize your browser or device and tell us how and when pages and features in our Services are visited and by how many people. Through cookies we place on your browser or device, we may collect information about your online activity after you leave our Services. Just like any other Usage Data we collect, this information allows us to improve the Services and customize your experience, and otherwise as described in this Privacy Policy. You may be able to change the preferences on your browser or device to prevent or limit your device's acceptance of cookies, but this may prevent you from taking advantage of some of our features.

Third Party Cookies

If you click on a link to a third party website or service, a third party may also transmit cookies to you. This Privacy Policy does not cover the use of cookies by any third parties, and we aren't responsible for their privacy policies and practices. Please be aware that cookies placed by third parties may continue to track your activities online even after you have left our Services, and those third parties may not honor "Do Not Track" requests you have set using your browser or device.

Opting Out

You may control the way in which your devices permit the use of cookies and similar technologies. If you so choose, you may block or delete our cookies from your browser; however, blocking or deleting cookies may cause some of the Services, including general functionality, to work incorrectly. See Section XII for more information on how to opt out of behavioral advertising.

Do Not Track

Your browser may offer you a "Do Not Track" option, which allows you to signal to operators of websites and web applications and services (including behavioral advertising services) that you do not wish such operators to track certain of your online activities over time and across different websites. Our Services do not support Do Not Track requests at this time. To learn more about “Do Not Track” signals, you can visit https://allaboutdnt.com/.

California Privacy

UNDER CALIFORNIA CIVIL CODE SECTIONS 1798.83-1798.84, CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS ARE ENTITLED TO CONTACT US TO PREVENT DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION TO THIRD PARTIES FOR SUCH THIRD PARTIES' DIRECT MARKETING PURPOSES; IN ORDER TO SUBMIT SUCH A REQUEST, PLEASE CONTACT US AT PRIVACY@BENCHLING.COM.

The California Consumer Privacy Act. In the preceding 12 months, we collected and disclosed for a business purpose the categories of personal information about California consumers described above in this Privacy Policy:

Sources of Information. In the preceding 12 months, we received personal information from the sources described above and in Section IV of this Privacy Policy.

Purposes for Collection, Use, and Sharing. We use and disclose the personal information we collect for our commercial purposes, as further described in this Privacy Policy, including for our business purposes:

Your Rights. Where applicable, if you are a California resident you may have the following rights under CCPA in relation to “personal information” we have collected about you as defined in the CCPA; these rights are, to the extent required by the CCPA and subject to verification and any applicable exceptions:

To make a request in relation to the above rights, please click here. To fulfill your request, we will need to verify your identity and possibly ask for additional information and documents.

Only you, or someone legally authorized to act on your behalf, may make a request related to personal information collected about you. To designate an authorized agent, the authorized agent must provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify that they have been authorized by you to act on their behalf.

If you would like to exercise your rights discussed in this section, please contact us at the information below.

Social Features

Certain features of the Services may permit you to initiate interactions between the Services and third-party services or platforms, such as social networks (“Social Features”). Social Features include features that allow you to click and access the Company’s pages on certain third-party platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, and from there to “like” or “share” our content on those platforms. Use of Social Features may entail a third party’s collection and/or use of your information. If you use Social Features or similar third-party services, information you post or otherwise make accessible may be publicly displayed by the third-party service you are using. Both the Company and the third party may have access to information about you and your use of both the Services and the third-party service. For more information on third-party websites, services, and platforms, see Section IX.

Third party website and links

Our Services may contain links to other online platforms operated by third parties. We do not control such other online platforms and are not responsible for their content, their privacy policies, or their use of your information. Information you provide on public or semi-public venues, including information you share on third-party social networking platforms (such as Facebook or Twitter) may also be viewable by other users of the Services and/or users of those third-party online platforms without limitation as to its use by us or by a third party. Our inclusion of such links does not, by itself, imply any endorsement of the content on such platforms or of their owners or operators except as disclosed on the Services. We expressly disclaim any and all liability for the actions of third parties, including but without limitation to actions relating to the use and/or disclosure of personal information by third parties. Any information submitted by you directly to these third parties is subject to that third party’s privacy policy.

Is Personal Information about me secure?

Your account is protected by a password for your privacy and security. If you access your account via a third party site or service, you may have additional or different sign-on protections via that third party site or service. As noted above, you must prevent unauthorized access to your account and Personal Information, for example, by selecting and protecting your password and/or other sign-on mechanism appropriately and limiting access to your computer or device and browser by signing off after you have finished accessing your account.

We endeavor to protect the privacy of your account and other Personal Information we hold in our records, but unfortunately, we cannot guarantee complete security. Unauthorized entry or use, hardware or software failure, and other factors, may compromise the security of user information at any time.

What Personal Information can I access?

Through your account settings, you may access, and, in some cases, edit or delete the following information you've provided to us:

THE INFORMATION YOU CAN VIEW, UPDATE, AND DELETE MAY CHANGE AS THE SERVICES CHANGE. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT VIEWING OR UPDATING INFORMATION WE HAVE ON FILE ABOUT YOU, PLEASE CONTACT US AT PRIVACY@BENCHLING.COM.

Opting out of behavioral advertising and Tracking Technologies

You can opt-out of certain Behavioral Advertising activities by doing one or more of the following. Please note that you will need to opt-out of each browser and device for which you desire to apply these opt-out features.

Please note the following with respect to opting out of Behavioral Advertising:

EU or UK Privacy Rights

How Do We Use Your Personal Data?

We process Personal Data as further described in this Privacy Policy, and to operate, improve, understand and personalize our Services. For example, we use Personal Data to:

We will only process your Personal Data if we have a lawful basis for doing so. Lawful bases for processing include consent, contractual necessity and our "legitimate interests" or the legitimate interest of others, as further described below.

Examples of these legitimate interests include:

What Rights Do You Have Regarding Your Personal Data?

You have certain rights with respect to your Personal Data, including those set forth below. For more information about these rights, or to submit a request, please email privacy@benchling.com, or click here. Please note that in some circumstances, we may not be able to fully comply with your request, such as if it is frivolous or extremely impractical, if it jeopardizes the rights of others, or if it is not required by law, but in those circumstances, we will still respond to notify you of such a decision. In some cases, we may also need to you to provide us with additional information, which may include Personal Data, if necessary to verify your identity and the nature of your request.

Transfers of Personal Data

You authorize Benchling to transfer, store and process your information to and in the U.S., and possibly other countries. We require that the recipient of your Personal Data offers an adequate level of data protection, for example, if required, standard contractual clauses for the transfer of data as approved by the European Commission.

Benchling has certified to the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework and the Swiss-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection and use of Personal Data transferred from the EU. For more information about the Privacy Shield Program, and to view Benchling's certification, please visit www.privacyshield.gov/list. Although Privacy Shield has been overturned as a mechanism for validating the cross-border transfer of data from the EU and Switzerland, Benchling remains committed to the Privacy Shield Principles with respect to all Personal Data received from within the EU or Switzerland in reliance on the Privacy Shield. enforcement and liability with respect to all Personal Data received from within the EU or Switzerland in reliance on the Privacy Shield. The Privacy Shield Principles require that we remain potentially liable if any third party processing Personal Data on our behalf fails to comply with these Privacy Shield Principles (except to the extent we are not responsible for the event giving rise to any alleged damage). Benchling's compliance with the Privacy Shield is subject to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.

Please contact us as set forth below with any privacy questions or concerns. If you have an unresolved Privacy Shield-related privacy concern, you may also resolve it through JAMS, an alternative dispute resolution provider. You can visit https://www.jamsadr.com/eu-us-privacy-shield for more information or to file a complaint, at no cost to you. Under certain conditions, you may also be entitled to invoke binding arbitration for complaints not resolved by other means.

What if I have questions?

If you have any questions or concerns regarding our privacy policies, please contact us using the following information.

Name: Benchling, Inc.

Physical address: 680 Folsom St, 8th Floor San Francisco, CA, 94107

Email address: privacy@benchling.com

Designated representative and contact information:

Email address: benchling@gdpr-rep.com

DP-Dock GmbH Ballindamm 39 20095 Hamburg Tel: +49 (0) 40 99999 - 3430 Fax: +49 (0) 40 99999 - 3332 www.dp-dock.com