Privacy Policy
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:
Personal Information such as your name, email address, and phone number. For example, we collect such information when you register for an account, provide information within your account settings, display your user profile information, or communicate with us. We collect this information to provide you with the Services, personalize the Services for you, improve and enhance our Services, market to you, and conduct research and analytics.
Account information, including username, password, your affiliated company/ institution name, profile picture, avatar picture, and security questions. We collect account information to maintain and secure your account with us, provide you with the Services, and personalize the Services based on your preferences and interactions. If you choose to use the Services and register an account, you are responsible for keeping your account credentials safe. We highly recommend that you do not share your username, password, or other access details with anyone else. If you believe your account has been compromised, please contact us immediately.
Product interaction and feedback, such as search queries within the Services, applications used within the Services, and workflows created and used. We collect product interaction and feedback to provide you with the Services, improve and enhance our Services, and conduct research and analytics.
Any information you choose to include in communications with us or other users of the platform and Services, for example, when sending a message, submitting information through a webform, or collaborating with other users within the Services.
Any other information arising from your use of the Services.
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:
Other users of the Service, for example, when another user provides us with information about you for us to invite you to the Services or collaborate with you in the Services.
Third-party applications, for examples when you choose to upload or transfer information (e.g., documents) either from a third party application into the Services, or vice versa.
Single Sign-on Services (e.g., Okta) and email service providers, if you provide your third-party account credentials to us or otherwise sign in to the Services through a third party site or service, you understand some content and/or information in those accounts ("Third Party Account Information") may be transmitted into your account with us, and that Third Party Account Information transmitted to our Services is covered by this Privacy Policy; for example, your email address if you sign in with Google. Certain information may be required to register with us or to take advantage of some of our features. This information is used to maintain your account and login information.
We may also collect information about you (e.g, your education, company, title, email address) from publicly available third-party sites, and contact you based on such information.
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:
Log data
Web browser information
Device type, such as your phone, computer, or tablet
IP address
Geolocation data
Unique device identifier
Date and time stamps, such as the date and time you first accessed the Services
Operating system
Page view statistics
Language of device
Other information regarding your interaction with the Services, such as when you open an email, clickstream data and ad impressions
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:
Auditing related to our interactions with you;
Legal compliance;
Detecting security incidents, protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, and necessary prosecution;
Debugging;
Performing services (for us or our service provider);
Internal research for machine learning and technological improvement;
Internal operations;
Activities to maintain and improve our services; and
Other one-time or short-term uses.
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:
Right to Know/Access: You have the right to request that we disclose to you personal information about you that we collect, use and disclose.
Right to Delete: You have the right to request that we delete the personal information.
Freedom from Discrimination: You have the right to be free from unlawful discrimination for exercising any of the rights above.
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:
Name and password
Email address
Location
Company / institution / lab
Website URL
Avatar image or profile picture
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.
Service Provider Opt Out: You can opt-out directly from some Advertising Service Providers and providers of Tracking Tools by using their opt-out tools. Some of these service providers, and links to their opt-out tools, are:
Google Analytics: with a privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites and opt out at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
Industry Opt Out Tools: Some Advertising Service Providers or providers of Tracking Tools may participate in the Network Advertising Initiative's (NAI) Opt-Out Tool (https://optout.networkadvertising.org/?c=1) and/or the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) Consumer Choice Page (http://www.aboutads.info/choices/), and you can opt-out of certain services and learn more about your choices by visiting the links included there. Users in the EU can visit http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/ for more information about your choices and to opt out of participating service providers.
Web Browser Controls: You can prevent the use of certain Tracking Tools, such as cookies, on a device-by-device basis using the controls in your web browser. These controls can be found in the Tools > Internet Options (or similar) menu for your browser, or as otherwise directed by your browser's support feature. Through your web browser, you may be able to:
Delete existing Tracking Tools
Disable future Tracking Tools
Set your browser to provide you with a warning each time a cookie or certain other Tracking Tools are being set
Please note the following with respect to opting out of Behavioral Advertising:
Some opt-out features are cookie-based, meaning that when you use these opt-out features, an "opt-out" cookie will be placed on your computer or other device indicating that you do not want to receive Behavioral Advertising from certain companies. If you delete your cookies, use a different browser, or use a different device, you will need to renew your opt-out choice.
Opting-out of Behavioral Advertising does not mean that you will no longer receive online ads. It only means that such ads will no longer be tailored to your specific viewing habits or interests. You may continue to see ads on and about the Service.
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:
Create and manage user accounts
Communicate with you about the Services
Contact you about Service announcements, updates or offers
Provide support and assistance for the Services
Log and analyze product usage to fix bugs and improve the Services
Comply with our legal or contractual obligations
Protect against or deter fraudulent, illegal or harmful actions
Enforce our Terms of Use
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.
Contractual Necessity: We process the following categories of Personal Data as a matter of "contractual necessity", meaning that we need to process the data to perform under our Terms of Service with you, which enables us to provide you with the Services. When we process data due to contractual necessity, failure to provide such Personal Data will result in your inability to use some or all portions of the Services that require such data.
User account data (e.g., Name, Address, Email, Phone)
Legitimate Interest: We process the following categories of Personal Data when we believe it furthers the legitimate interest of us or third parties.
User account data
User machine data
Product analytics data
Candidate and applicant data
Examples of these legitimate interests include:
Operation and improvement of our business, products and services
Provision of customer support
Marketing and promotion of our products and services
Protection from fraud or security threats
Completion of corporate transactions
Recruiting and hiring
Consent: In some cases, we process Personal Data based on the consent you expressly grant to us at the time we collect such data. When we process Personal Data based on your consent, it will be expressly indicated to you at the point and time of collection.
Other Processing Grounds: From time to time we may also need to process Personal Data to comply with a legal obligation, if it is necessary to protect the vital interests of you or other data subjects, or if it is necessary for a task carried out in the public interest.
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.
Access: You can request more information about the Personal Data we hold about you and request a copy of such Personal Data. You can also access certain types of your Personal Data by emailing privacy@benchling.com.
Rectification: If you believe that any Personal Data we are holding about you is incorrect or incomplete, you can request that we correct or supplement such data. You can also correct some of this information directly by updating your Benchling profile. You can correct some of this information directly by emailing privacy@benchling.com.
Erasure: You can request that we erase some or all of your Personal Data from our systems.
Withdrawal of Consent: If we are processing your Personal Data based on your consent (as indicated at the time of collection of such data), you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. Please note, however, that if you exercise this right, you may have to then provide express consent on a case-by-case basis for the use or disclosure of certain of your Personal Data, if such use or disclosure is necessary to enable you to utilize some or all of our Services.
Portability: You can ask for a copy of your Personal Data in a machine-readable format. You can also request that we transmit the data to another controller where technically feasible.
Objection: You can contact us to let us know that you object to the further use or disclosure of your Personal Data for certain purposes, such as for direct marketing purposes.
Restriction of Processing: You can ask us to restrict further processing of your Personal Data.
Right to File Complaint: You have the right to lodge a complaint about Benchling's practices with respect to your Personal Data with the supervisory authority of your country or EU Member State.
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