Privacy Policy

Effective date: June 29, 2023

View the prior version of our Privacy Policy here.

At Benchling, Inc. (“Benchling,” “we,” “our,” or “us”) privacy is in our DNA. One of our core values is “empower through information,” and we intend to exemplify this value in our Privacy Policy. As such, we will provide you with clear, detailed, and easy-to-understand information about Benchling’s privacy practices and how we process information about you, that directly identifies you, or that makes you identifiable (“Personal Information”)when you use the Benchling Application Services (the “Services”), Benchling’s educational platform (“Benchling Learning Labs”), participate in the Benchling’s community platform (the “Benchling Community”) or when you visit our websites, such as benchling.com (the “Sites”) or when you are our business contact.

Contents of this Privacy Policy:

What does this Privacy Policy Cover?

This Privacy Policy is applicable when you use our Services, Benchling Learning Labs, or participate in the Benchling Community, when you visit our Sites, or if you are a business contact.

What Personal Information does Benchling collect?

Some Personal Information you share with us directly, some information we collect automatically, and some information we collect from third parties. This section sets forth the categories of data we collect.

Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Benchling uses common information-gathering tools such as cookies, web beacons, pixels and other similar tracking technologies to automatically collect information as you navigate our Sites, use our Services, or interact with emails we send you.  You can manage these technologies easily using our Cookie Consent Manager on our Sites.

How we use your Personal Information

Benchling uses Personal Information for a variety of purposes and on the legal bases described in this section.

How long Benchling stores your Personal Information

Benchling will store the Personal Information we collect about you for no longer than necessary for the purposes in which it was collected, in accordance with our legal obligations and legitimate business interests.  Read this section to understand the criteria used to determine the period for which we store Personal Information.

How Benchling shares Personal Information

In order to better provide the Services, Benchling Learning Labs, and/or the Benchling Community, to operate our sites, and for our other legitimate business purposes, Benchling may share your Personal Information with third parties.   Read this section to understand when Benchling shares your Personal Information.

How to make choices about your Personal Information

No matter where you are in the world, Benchling provides you with various ways to make choices about your Personal Information, such as accessing it, correcting it, deleting it, or updating your choices about how it is used.

International data transfers

Benchling relies on Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) as our primary data transfer mechanism.

California Privacy

California residents should read this section.

Benchling Security Information

Benchling is committed to maintaining reasonable and appropriate security measures to ensure that your Personal Information is protected both online and offline.  Read this section to learn more about our security measures and how you can better protect your account.

Contact us

This section includes our physical addresses, email address, and information about how to contact our designated EU & UK representative.

Updates

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time.  We will inform you if we make any material changes. 

What does this Privacy Policy cover?

This Privacy Policy applies where Benchling is the “data controller” and is generally responsible for and controls the processing of your Personal Information collected through our Site, the Services and about our general business contacts.

This Privacy Policy does not apply in the following scenarios:

What Personal Information does Benchling collect?

Some Personal Information you share with us directly, some information we collect automatically, and some information we collect from third parties. This section sets forth the categories of data we collect from you.

Information you provide directly to us through the Services, Benchling Learning Labs, or the Benchling Community

In order to provide you with the Services, Benchling Learning Labs or the Benchling Community (as applicable), we may ask you to provide us with certain details or information (“Account Data”), including:

Information we collect from third parties for the purposes of providing the Services or the Benchling Community

When you use the Services or when you participate in the Benchling Community, we may also collect information about you from third parties (“Third Party Data”), including:

Information you provide directly to us through the Sites or Benchling events

Information we collect from third parties relating to Benchling events

Information we collect from and about our visitors, vendors and other business partners

Information Benchling collects automatically.

Whenever you interact with our Services, Benchling Learning Labs, or the Benchling Community, we may automatically collectreceive and record information about your interaction with the Services, including your IP address (“Usage Data”). Additionally, Benchling and our service providers acting on our behalf use common information-gathering tools such as cookies, web beacons, pixels and other similar tracking technologies to automatically collect information as you navigate our Sites or when you interact with emails we sent to you (“Cookie Data”).  The next section contains more detailed information with respect to Benchling’s use of cookies and other tracking technologies.

The categories of information we may automatically collect include your:

Cookies and tracking technologies

What are cookies?

A cookie is a piece of data contained in a very small text file that is stored in your browser or elsewhere on your hard drive. Cookies allow Benchling to identify your device as you navigate our Sites. This makes navigating and interacting with our Sites more efficient, easy and meaningful for you.

By themselves, cookies do not identify you specifically. Rather, they recognize your web browser. So, unless you identify yourself specifically to Benchling, we don’t know who you are just because you visited our website.

Benchling uses both session and persistent cookies. Session cookies are cookies that disappear from your device or browser when you turn off your computer. Persistent cookies stay on your device even after you’ve turned it off. Additionally, the cookies on our websites fall into three categories: (1) Essential Cookies, (2) Functional Cookies, (3) Analytics Cookies, and (4) Advertising Cookies. To learn more about each category of cookie, you can visit our cookie consent tool by clicking on the “Preferences” link on the bottom right of the Benchling website you are visiting.

How Benchling uses Cookie Data

We use Cookie Data to understand how you are using the Sites and which pages and features of the website are most popular. This information ensures our Sites are able to operate and helps us understand how we can improve our Sites and Services, track performance of our advertisements, and better market to you.

We may also collect publicly available information about you that we have gathered through services like LinkedIn. We use this information to help understand our customer base better and to reach out to potential customers.

Web beacons

Benchling also uses web beacons to gather data about your use of our Site and how you interact with emails we have sent to you. Web beacons are clear electronic images that can recognize certain types of data on your computer, like when you view a particular website tied to the web beacon, and a description of a website tied to the web beacon. Additionally, we may put web beacons in marketing emails that notify us when you click on a link in the email that directs you to a Benchling website. We use web beacons to operate and improve our Sites, Services and email communications to you.

How to control and delete cookies

How we use your Personal Information

This section describes the purpose for which your Personal Information is processed by Benchling, and where required in certain regions such as Europe, also the legal basis for that processing.

How long Benchling stores your Personal Information

Benchling will store the Personal Information we collect about you for no longer than necessary for the purposes in which it was collected. The criteria used to determine the period for which we store Personal Information varies depending on the legal basis under which we process that Personal Information:

We may need to apply a “legal hold” that retains information beyond our typical retention period where we face threat of legal claim. In that case, we will retain the information until the hold is removed, which typically means the claim or threat of claim has been resolved.

In all cases, in addition to the purposes and legal bases, we consider the amount, nature and sensitivity of the Personal Information, as well as the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your Personal Information.

How Benchling shares Personal Information

In order to provide our Services, deliver our Sites and conduct our activities described in this Privacy Policy, we may share your Personal Information with the following third parties:

How to make choices about your Personal Information

You have the following self-service options and other ways to reach out to us to make choices about how your Personal Information is processed:

Depending on the region you are located and how you interact with Benchling, you may have additional rights such as:

We respond to all requests we receive from individuals wishing to exercise their data protection rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws. In some scenarios we may need to verify your identity to protect your Personal Information.

International Data Transfers

Benchling primarily operates in the United States, so by accessing the Services, Benchling Learning Labs, the Benchling Community, or visiting our Sites, your Personal Information may be transferred to, stored, or processed in the United States and maintained on computers or servers located outside of your state, province, country, or other jurisdiction where the privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your jurisdiction. 

However, we take appropriate safeguards to ensure that your Personal Information remains protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable data protection laws. If you are located in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom or Switzerland these safeguards include transferring your information to a country that the relevant authorities have determined provide an adequate level of protection for personal information, or by implementing Standard Contractual Clauses with our customers, third party service providers and partners. You can learn more about Benchling’s technical and organizational safeguards here.

Privacy Shield.

While Benchling does not rely on Privacy Shield for cross-border data transfers, we continue to comply with the framework as a matter of good practice, including its dispute resolution process.

Benchling has been certified with 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 Information transferred from the EEA, UK and/or Switzerland to the United States, respectively. Benchling has certified that it adheres to the Privacy Shield principles of notice, choice, onward transfer, security, data integrity, access and enforcement for such Personal Information. To learn more about the Privacy Shield, view a list of entities who have current certification under Privacy Shield, or to view Benchling’s certification, please visit http://www.privacyshield.gov/list. As required under the principles, when Benchling receives Personal Information under the Privacy Shield and then transfers it to a third-party service provider acting as an agent on Benchling’s behalf, Benchling has certain liability under Privacy Shield if both (i) the agent processing the information in a manner inconsistent with the Privacy Shield and (ii) Benchling is responsible for the event giving rise to the damage.

If you have any questions or concerns about Benchling’s privacy practices, please contact us at the addresses listed below in the section titled “Contact Us.” If you have any unresolved Privacy Shield-related concerns, 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.

California Privacy

Collection and Use of Personal Information

We collect Personal Information from and about you for a variety of purposes, as described in the sections above “What Personal Information Does Benchling Collect”. In the last twelve months, we have collected the following categories of Personal Information:

We collect this information directly from you, from your browser or device when you visit our Sites, or from third parties that you permit to share information with us.

Disclosure of Personal Information

We share Personal Information with third parties for business purposes. The categories of third parties to whom we disclose your Personal Information for a business purpose include: (i) other affiliates in our family of companies; (ii) our service providers and advisors; (iii) advertising and analytics providers; (vii) social networks.

Right to Opt-Out of Sale of Personal Information

Like many providers of online services, Benchling relies on advertising cookies to support the operation and development of our Sites. Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, this type of sharing of data may constitute a “sale” of data. You can opt out of the “sale” of your Personal Information using our Cookie Consent Manager. Please see the section titled “Cookies and tracking technologies” above to understand how to do this.

Your California Privacy Rights

If you are a California resident, you may be able to exercise the following rights (subject to certain limitations at law):

You also have the right to be free of discrimination for exercising these rights. However, please note that if the exercise of these rights limits our ability to process Personal Information (such as in the case of a deletion request), we may no longer be able to provide you with the Services or engage with you in the same manner.

How to Exercise your California Privacy Rights

You may submit a request to exercise your California Privacy Rights by emailing us at privacy@benchling.com or by clicking 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.

Information from Children

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.

Benchling security information

Benchling employs technical, organizational and physical safeguards designed to protect the Personal Information we collect. However, security risk is inherent in all internet and information technologies and we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your Personal Information.

You should take steps to protect against unauthorized access to your password, phone, and computer by, among other things, signing off after using a shared computer, choosing a complex password that nobody else knows or can easily guess, and keeping your login credentials private and secure.

Please note that we may collect and use your Personal Information to detect, prevent, or investigate security incidents, fraud, or abuse and misuse of our sites, the Services, Benchling Learning Labs, and/or the Benchling Community.

Contact us

If you have any questions or concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

Benchling, Inc. 680 Folsom St., Floor 8 San Francisco, CA, 94107 privacy@benchling.com

Designated Representative & Contact Information:

Individuals and data protection supervisory authorities in the EEA and the UK may contact our data protection representatives:

EU: DP-Dock GmbH Attn: Benchling, Inc. Ballindamm 39, 20095 Hamburg, Germany www.dp-dock.com benchling@gdpr-rep.com

UK: DP Data Protection Services UK Ltd. Attn: Benchling, Inc., 16 Great Queen Street Covent Garden, London, WC2B 5AH, United Kingdom www.dp-dock.com benchling@gdpr-rep.com

Updates

We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time, and if we do, the most current version will be available at www.benchling.com/privacy-policy with the date indicating when it was last updated. These changes might be minor, such as updating an address or fixing a typo, or they may be material, such as changes that affect your rights. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy that affect your rights, we will notify you by placing a notice on the Benchling website, by sending you an email, and/or by some other means as required by applicable law.