Privacy Statement

1. General Information

Welcome - you are visiting a Canadian website (the “Website”), administered by Bayer CropScience Inc. and its Canadian affiliate entities (“Bayer”, “we”). This Website is intended for Canadian residents only and is subject to all applicable Canadian laws.

This Privacy Statement outlines how Bayer collects, uses, discloses or otherwise processes the personal information of individuals who engage with Bayer, including growers, retailers, agronomists, researchers, scientists, vendors, employment applicants and other business partners (collectively, "you", "your").

“Personal Information” means any information that relates to a natural person and that, alone or in combination with other information, directly or indirectly allows that person to be identified.

"Services" means Bayer's products and services, including:

• our websites, online services, systems and tools (the "Website"),
• our agricultural products and services, and
• online and offline activities through which we engage with you in relation to Bayer’s products and services.

This Privacy Statement applies with respect to your interactions with Bayer, both online and off-line, in relation to the Services, including:

• via the Website,
• through other online activities involving Bayer’s products and services, such as when you contact us or consent to be contacted by us electronically, and
• through offline activities, such as when you call us or interact with Bayer in person, for instance, at an industry event or at a place of business.

This Privacy Statement also provides details about how you can exercise your privacy rights.

This Privacy Statement is specific to Bayer CropScience Inc. and does not apply to Bayer Inc. or Bayer’s US and Canada Technology Use Guides, which have their own privacy statements, located https://www.bayer.com/en/ca/canada-privacy-statement and https://tug.bayer.com/privacy-statement/, respectively.

Our Website may be linked from another website or have links to other websites such as social media platforms. This Privacy Statement does not cover, and we are not responsible for, the privacy policies and practices of other third-party websites, including from any provided links. If you would like information on any other party’s privacy policy, you should contact that party directly, and we encourage you to do so.

Should you have questions or queries regarding the processing of your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer at privacycanada@bayer.com or the other contact details provided below.

You can navigate to any of the sections in this Privacy Statement by using the links below:

1. General Information
2. Consent
3. Processing of Information Related to the Website
4. Processing of Information Related to Your Business Relationship With Us
5. Retention
6. Sharing Personal Information and Recipients of Personal Information
7. Transfers of Information to Other Jurisdictions
8. Protection of Personal Information
9. Automated Decision Making
10. Minors
11. Obligation to Provide Personal Information
12. Your Privacy Rights
13. Contact us
14. Changes

2. Consent

We will collect, use or disclose your personal information only with your consent, or where we are permitted or required by law to do otherwise.

In some cases, particularly where the personal information is sensitive personal information, such as financial data, we will ask you for your express consent. You provide express consent by making a positive indication you consent. For instance, you may provide your signature, check a box, click a button or make some other affirmative action.

Not all consent is express. In some cases, we are permitted to imply your consent or the law presumes that you have consented. For example, where we provide you with a description of how we will handle your information and you elect to provide it to us, we are allowed to imply or presume consent to the use and disclosure of your personal information for the purposes it was collected and of which you were informed.

By using this Website or other Services and by voluntarily submitting your personal information to us, you are consenting to Bayer using your personal information in the ways set out in this Privacy Statement. If you do not agree with how we process your personal information, please do not use our Services.

If you are submitting the personal information of others, you are responsible for obtaining their appropriate and valid consent to the disclosure of their information to Bayer, as may be required by law.

Your consent will remain valid for the period necessary to achieve the purposes for which it was collected and in accordance with our retention policies, unless you withdraw your consent before that time. In rare cases, we are not required to obtain consent to use your personal information. We may use your personal information without consent where authorized by law.

3. Processing of Information Related to the Website

When you use the Services provided on this Website, we will process your personal information.

The way in which Bayer will process your personal information will vary based on how you engage with the Website and Services. This section explains the different ways in which Bayer processes personal information for the operation of the Services provided on this Website. Note that there are also rules about what you may or may not do on our Website, and these are set out in our terms and conditions of use: https://www.cropscience.bayer.ca/general-terms-of-use.

3.2 Website: Automatically Collected Information

Like many websites, Bayer automatically collects certain technical data when you visit and use our website. Whenever you access our Services, you automatically transfer personal information to our servers for technical reasons. This automatically captured data may include:

• IP address of the requesting device;
• Date and time of your access;
• Name and URL of the retrieved file;
• Transferred data volume;
• Access status (file transferred, file not found, etc.);
• Identification data of the browser, language settings, and operating system used;
• Name of the provider of user's internet access; and
• Website from which access is made.

We collect this data for the purpose of presenting our Website and to ensure its technical stability and security. This automatically collected data may be combined and enriched with other identifiable information collected from other sources.

This section explains the different circumstances in which Bayer may use or disclose this automatically collected personal information for the operation of the Services provided on this Website. Additional information regarding Bayer’s use of cookies is provided in Section 3.3 – Website: Information About Cookies.

3.3 Website: Information About Cookies

3.3.1 What Are Cookies?

Cookies, scripts, pixel tags, etags, web beacons and other similar technologies (“cookies”) are small bits of data that are stored on your computer that enable our Website to provide the Services to you. We use cookies to collect information on how users navigate our website, personalize content and provide targeted advertisements through third-party advertising networks when you visit other sites. There are two types of cookies used on our sites:

• Persistent cookies: these may be used if you log on to restricted areas of our Website to remember who you are. For example, persistent cookies are used to remember information such as settings, preferences, or sign-on credentials when your return to a website.
• Session cookies: these may be used for anonymous identification of a website visit for technical purposes only. Session cookies are stored only temporarily during the browsing sessions and are deleted once the browser is closed. An example of a session cookie is the shopping cart on e-commerce websites.

3.3.2 What Information is Collected by Cookies?

The personal information we collect using cookies could include information like region, as inferred from your IP address, your age range and demographics, language preferences, etc. to be able to provide you a more personalized experience and deliver content more relevant to your interests. This is done primarily using "targeting cookies". Bayer has set certain targeting cookies on the Website, referred to as first-party cookies. Third party targeting cookies, which are cookies from a domain different than the Website, are also used to enable targeted advertising.

3.3.3 Which Cookies Are Used, For What Purposes, And What Are My Options?

The following targeting cookies are used on the Website:

• Google Analytics cookies: Google Analytics is a web analytics service that provides statistics and analytical tools for tracking and marketing purposes. We use Google Analytics on our Website to analyze how users use the Website, and to serve relevant advertisements to you on other websites.
  
  Google Analytics may collect information such as user location as inferred from IP address, the amount of time a visitor spends on our Website, which pages are more frequently accessed, how the Website is accessed (either directly, a search engine, or from a link), what sort of software is used (e.g. operating system, browser type, etc.), as well as demographics and language preferences. For more information on how Google Analytics collects and processes information, please visit: www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/.
  
  For information about how to opt out of having your information used by Google Analytics, visit: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/.
  
  
• Adobe Analytics: We use Adobe Analytics to collect data regarding your use of the Website and your interactions with online advertising. Adobe Analytics uses cookies and similar technologies, such as web beacons (also known as tags or pixels) to enable Bayer to collect this information through the service. You can manage our use of Adobe Analytics cookies and “opt out” by modifying your Cookie Settings below, or adjusting your browser settings.
  
  More information on Adobe’s privacy practices in connection with the Adobe Analytics service is available by visiting https://www.adobe.com/privacy/experience-cloud.html.
  
  
• Trade Desk Cookies: We use Trade Desk, a targeted advertising service, provided by our partner, The Trade Desk, Inc., in order to collect data regarding your behaviour on the Website, including the pages you visit, and the advertisements you interact with. We may share this information with The Trade Desk in order to target advertising to you on other websites based on your behaviour.
  
  Further information on Trade Desk and how it collects and processes information is available at https://www.thetradedesk.com/general/privacy-policy.
  
  You may withdraw your consent to Trade Desk’s analysis of your use of the Website at any time by visiting http://www.adsrvr.org/. You may also adjust your settings by managing the cookies used by Bayer at the link below.

Analytics cookies are also used on the website, including the following:

• Mouseflow Cookies: This Website uses Mouseflow: a website analytics tool that provides session replay, heatmaps, funnels, form analytics, feedback campaigns, and similar features/functionality. Mouseflow may record your clicks, mouse movements, scrolling, form fills (keystrokes) in non-excluded fields, pages visited and content, time on site, browser, operating system, device type (desktop/tablet/phone), screen resolution, visitor type (first time/returning), referrer, IP address, location (city/country), language, and similar meta data. Mouseflow does not collect any information on pages where it is not installed, nor does it track or collect information outside your web browser. If you'd like to opt-out, you can do so at https://mouseflow.com/opt-out.
  
  If you'd like to obtain a copy of your data, make a correction, or have it erased, please contact us first or, as a secondary option, contact Mouseflow at privacy@mouseflow.com.

Because an industry-standard Do-Not-Track protocol is not yet established, Bayer’s information collection and disclosure practices and the choices it offers to consumers will continue to operate as described in this Privacy Statement regardless of a “do not track” choice made by the consumer.

You can manage your cookie selections and “opt out” by visiting the Cookie Settings link located at the bottom of each page of this Website.

When you opt out, an opt-out cookie will be placed, which will operationalize your withdrawal of consent, as long as you use the browser on which you made your choice and do not delete the opt-out cookie.

In addition, most browsers are set up to accept cookies automatically. You can deactivate the storing of cookies or adjust your browser to inform you before the cookie is stored on your computer.

Please be aware that if cookies are disabled, your experience on the Website may be diminished, and not all features of the Website may operate as intended.

4. Processing of Information Related to Your Business Relationship With Us

4.1 Collection of Your Personal Information

We primarily collect your personal information when you provide it to us in the course of your business relationship with us, including as part of initiating a contract with us, placing an order for products or services, participating in our grower programs, in registering for our distribution lists, in e-mails, inquiries or requests about our Services, and similar situations in which you may choose to provide the information to us.

The specific information you might choose to provide to us will depend on the manner in which you engage with us, and could include your name, contact information, image, demographic information, professional and career information, your expertise and special interests, information about your farming practices, information about your use and engagement with our Services, events and programs, information about your online engagement, financial and payment information, or communication preferences. If you do not want your personal information collected, do not provide it to us.

Generally, we collect your information for the following purposes:

• Establishing, maintaining and improving our business relationship with you,
• supplying you with the requested Services, or
• for other purposes for which you have given your consent, except where otherwise prohibited by law.

4.2 Processing of Your Personal Information

The specific manner in which we process your personal information will depend on your relationship with us. Bayer may process your personal information for the following purposes.

5. Retention

We only retain personal information for as long as is necessary for us to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected or to comply with legal or regulatory requirements.

Under certain circumstances, your personal information may also be kept longer (e.g., in connection with a litigation hold, in which case we are obliged by law to preserve information until the litigation is finally resolved).

6. Sharing Personal Information and Recipients of Personal Information

Bayer may share and disclose personal information collected from you, from third parties and via automated means in the following circumstances:

Bayer Network: Bayer is part of the Bayer Group - a global company. Bayer may transfer any information received to one or more of its affiliated companies in other countries and regions of the world. We do not sell or transfer the information you send to us to others outside of our company.

Service Providers: Like many businesses, Bayer uses third-party service providers to assist in administering and providing the Website and our Services. Service providers assist Bayer in data storage and security, website hosting, marketing, data analytics, customer service, mailing, and payment processing.

Bayer has contracts in place with its service providers that prohibit them from using personal information for anything other than providing their services to Bayer. The contracts also prohibit our service providers from passing on your personal information for use by third parties in any form whatsoever, unless they are authorized subcontractors, or we have otherwise obtained your consent or are legally required to do so.

Business Transfer: As permitted by law, Bayer may transfer or assign your personal information as a result of, or in connection with a merger, consolidation, change in control, transfer of assets, bankruptcy, reorganization, liquidation or other business transaction.

Legal Requests and Obligations: Bayer may disclose personal information when required or permitted by law, such as to respond to court orders, subpoenas or other legal processes by authorities with jurisdiction.

Bayer may share aggregate and non-identifiable data sets for any purpose, including with business partners to use for their own purposes, as described in this Privacy Statement and permitted under applicable laws. Where such data is derived from personal information, Bayer implements contractual controls to ensure that recipients maintain and use such data only in non-identifiable form and do not attempt to re-identify the data.

7. Transfers of Information to Other Jurisdictions

Your personal information may be stored or processed outside of Canada or Quebec, such as the United States and Europe. The data protection laws of these jurisdictions may differ from Canadian or Quebec laws and may permit access by public authorities for law enforcement, surveillance or other purposes. Subject to applicable laws in such other jurisdictions we will ensure that appropriate protections are in place to require the data processor in that country to maintain protections on the data that are equivalent to those that apply in Canada.

8. Protection of Personal Information

Bayer uses physical, technical and organizational security precautions to protect your personal information from manipulation, loss, destruction or unauthorized access, use, disclosure or alteration. Third parties that process personal information on our behalf are contractually obligated to safeguard personal information and only use the information provided to them for the purposes outlined in this Privacy Statement.

Our security procedures are continuously revised based on new technological developments.

Bayer has established and implemented governance policies and practices regarding the protection of personal information. These policies and practices are proportionate to the nature and scope of our activities and are approved by our Privacy Officer.

For instance, Bayer:

• follows internationally recognized standards for cybersecurity and information security, and requires that personal information at the end of its lifecycle be securely destroyed;
• has policies in place which define the roles and responsibilities of the members of its personnel throughout the life cycle of the information, including role-based access and retention periods,
• ensures that all personnel complete privacy training; and
• provides a process for dealing with complaints regarding the protection of personal information (see section 14 of this Privacy Statement)

9. Automated Decision Making

We do not use automated decision-making within the meaning of Canadian privacy law. We do engage in profiling of certain customers and business partners, as described above (see section 4.2). If we make use of automated decision-making or profiling, you will also be informed through a separate privacy notice.

10. Minors

In order to protect children's privacy, we do not collect, process or use on our Website any personal information relating to an individual whom we know to be under fourteen (14) years old without the prior, verifiable consent of his or her legal representative. Such legal representative has the right, upon request, to view the personal information provided by the child and/or to require that it be deleted.

If you are providing us with personal information of individuals under the age of fourteen (14) you represent that you have the appropriate authority to do so, and that you can demonstrate such authority to Bayer upon request.

If you are a parent or guardian who has discovered that your minor child has provided us with personal information, we ask that you contact us at privacycanada@bayer.com to have this information deleted from our records.

11. Obligation to Provide Personal Information

In general, you are neither contractually nor statutorily required to provide personal information to Bayer for the above purposes. However your decision to not provide your personal information may reduce features and functionalities available to you, make it impossible to use our information and Services, or result in the denial of access to our Services and/or exclusion from our business activities to the extent the processing of your personal information is key in these contexts.

The information required for registration on our Website or for contacting us is marked as mandatory in the corresponding area (e.g., a contact form) of the Website; if you do not provide this mandatory information, we cannot enable you to use these functionalities.

12. Your Privacy Rights

Subject to the conditions and restrictions in applicable laws where you reside, and upon verification of your identity, you may be entitled to a number of rights regarding your personal information that are described below.

Right of access: You have the right to obtain information on the processing of your personal information and in some cases, to receive a copy of this data. If you have an account with Bayer, you can update or make changes to your personal information by logging into your profile.

Right to rectification: You have the right to request that we correct or complete your inadequate, incomplete or inaccurate personal information.

Right to erasure: Under certain circumstances, you have the right to request that we delete your personal information.

Right to request information: You have the right to request information about data processing, including what personal information was collected from you and how it is being processed.

Right to be forgotten: You have the right to request that we cease disseminating your personal information or have hyperlinks associated with your name and that provide access to personal information, de-indexed in certain circumstances.

Right to complain: You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority against the processing of your personal information if you believe that the processing of your personal information violates data protection regulations.

Right to withdraw consent: In circumstances where you granted us your consent to process your personal information, you may withdraw your consent:

• to the use of your personal information in the future, and
• to the communication of your information to third parties.

We will then stop the processing of your personal information, subject to legally permissible exceptions. Please note that your withdrawal has effect for future processing operations only.

If you withdraw your consent, you may no longer be able to use the Services affected by the withdrawal. Apart from that, you will not suffer any further disadvantages.

You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.

12.1 Exercising Your Privacy Rights

You may exercise your privacy rights by sending a written request to privacycanada@bayer.com.

You may have additional options for exercising your right to withdraw consent to certain forms of processing. For more information on how to manage your cookie preferences and opt-out, see Section 3.3.3 - Which Cookies Are Used, For What Purposes, And What Are My Options?.

When you exercise your rights by submitting a request to us, we will verify your identity by asking you to authenticate your identity via standard authentication procedures. For example, we may ask for your email address, order numbers of previous orders of our products and services, the last four digits of a credit or debit card or bank account number used to make a purchase, or the date of your last purchase from us.

We will respond to your request in writing within the time required by law (generally within thirty (30) days). In certain cases, for instance, when the request involves large volumes of information or we must contact multiple third parties to obtain the information requested, we may need additional time to respond.

For an access request, we will provide you with access to your personal information that is in our possession, subject to certain exceptions (such as when your request includes another individual’s personal information that we cannot sever, information subject to solicitor-client privilege, or other legal restrictions that may prevent us from fulfilling your access request).

If we refuse your request, we will respond to you in writing, provide the reasons for the refusal, and inform you of what remedies you may have.

13. Contact us

If you wish to know what information we have in our files about you, ask a question about the information in your file or request a change to the information in your file, please contact:

Privacy Officer
2920 Matheson Blvd E
Mississauga ON, Canada L4W 5R6

Email: privacycanada@bayer.com

14. Changes

Bayer may change certain parts of this Privacy Statement from time to time, so be sure to check this Privacy Statement regularly. Any changes to this Privacy Statement will be communicated promptly on this page. Please contact the Website administrator with any problems, questions or suggestions that you may have. We retain the right to make changes when necessary.

15. Interpretation of this Privacy Statement

This Privacy Statement includes examples but is not intended to be restricted in its application to such examples, therefore where the word 'including' is used, it shall mean 'including without limitation'.

This Privacy Statement does not create or confer upon any individual any rights, or impose upon Bayer any rights or obligations outside of, or in addition to, any rights or obligations imposed by Canada's federal and provincial privacy laws, as applicable. Should there be, in a specific case, any inconsistency between this Privacy Statement and Canada's federal and provincial privacy laws, as applicable, this Privacy Statement shall be interpreted, in respect of that case, to give effect to, and comply with, such privacy laws.

Last updated: November 1, 2024