Privacy policy
BASF is pleased about your visit to our website and your interest in our company.
The topic of data protection has the highest priority at BASF. Therefore, we would like to inform you in detail about it in the following:
- Who is responsible for data processing and who is our data protection officer?
- What data do we process, for what purposes, for how long and on what legal basis?
- To whom do we pass on your personal data?
- How do we safeguard your personal data?
- What rights do you have?
- Where can you complain?
- Data protection for minors
A. Who is responsible for data processing and who is our data protection officer? You can find the person responsible for data processing at here.
Our data protection officer is:
- Alexandra Haug
- EU Data Protection Officer
- 67056 Ludwigshafen
- +49 (0) 621 60-0
- e-mail: data-protection.eu@BASF.com
B. What data do we process, for what purposes, for how long and on what legal basis?
In the following, we inform you about the data processing on our site (a), its purposes and legal basis (b) as well as the respective storage period and, if applicable, specific objection and removal options (c).
1. Log files
a. Data processing
If you visit our website for information purposes only, i.e. if you do not register or transmit data in any other way (e.g. via a contact form), the following information is automatically transmitted from your browser to our server:
- IP address of your device
- Information about your browser
- Name of the website from which you visit us
- Name of the visited page (URL) or the opened file
- Date and time of your visit
- Status information such as error messages
- Transferred data volume and the access status (file transferred, file not found, etc.)
- Operating system and version of your computer's operating system and the name of your access provider
b. Purposes and legal basis
When you visit the BASF web site, we use the IP address and other information automatically transmitted to our server by your browser under B. 1. a. to
- (i) provide you with the requested content
- (ii) ensure the security and stability of our website and to trace unauthorized use
- (iii) enable a comfortable use of our website.
The legal basis for the data processing is Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. f GDPR. Our legitimate interest follows from the above listed purposes for data processing. Under no circumstances do we use the collected data for the purpose of drawing conclusions about your person.
c. Storage period
The data will be deleted as soon as they are no longer necessary for the purpose for which they were collected. In the case of the collection of data for the provision of the website, this is the case when the respective session is ended. In the case of storage of the data in log files, this is the case after seven days at the latest. Storage beyond this period is possible. In this case, the IP addresses are anonymized by deleting the last eight bits, so that an identification of you is no longer possible.
2. User Account
If you register to this website, we process the following information in order to set up your account:
- First Name
- Last Name
- Company
- Role
- Password
- Preferences shared in your user profile
The legal basis for this processing is Art. 6 Sec. 1 lit. f) GDPR.
3. Orders
If you order goods and products via our shopping functions, we process the following personal data:
- First name, last name
- Email address
- Telephone number
We process the aforementioned personal data for the purpose of recording and processing your order, including payment and shipping. We forward your order to the respective BASF company responsible for you as our customer and for your order.
The legal basis for the aforementioned data processing is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f) GDPR
4. Cookies
a. Data processing and respective legal basis
We use cookies on our website. These are text information that can be stored in the browser on the device of the viewer to a visited website (web server, server). The cookie is either sent from the web server to the browser or generated in the browser by a script (JavaScript). The web server can read this cookie information directly from the server when the user visits this page again or transfer the cookie information to the server via a script of the website. Cookies do not cause any damage to your device, do not contain viruses, trojans or other malware.
Information is stored in the cookie that is related to the specific device used. This does not mean, however, that we obtain direct knowledge of your identity.
We generally use the following cookies:
Strictly necessary cookies
These cookies are necessary for the functioning of the website. In general, these cookies are only set in response to actions you take in response to a service request, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in, or filling out forms. You can set your browser to block these cookies or to notify you about these cookies. However, some areas of the website may not function properly.
The legal basis for the processing of these cookies is Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. f GDPR. Our legitimate interest follows from the data processing purposes listed under B.1.b.
Performance cookies
These cookies enable us to count visits and traffic sources so that we can measure and improve the performance of our website. They help us answering questions about which pages are most popular, which are least used and how visitors move around the site. All information collected by these cookies is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies, we cannot know when you visited our website.
The legal basis for the processing of these cookies is your consent pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. a GDPR, which you have given us by making your selection in the cookie banner or in our Privacy Preference Center.
You have the right to revoke your consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of the processing carried out on the basis of the consent until revocation. To do so, please change the settings in the Privacy Preference Center.
Functional cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. They may be set by us or by third parties whose services we use on our pages. If you do not allow these cookies, some or all of these services may not function properly.
The legal basis for the processing of these cookies is your consent in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. a GDPR, which you have given us by making your selection in the cookie banner or in our Privacy Preference Center.
You have the right to revoke your consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of the processing carried out on the basis of the consent until revocation. To do so, please change the settings in the Privacy Preference Center.
Cookies for marketing purposes
These cookies can be set via our website. They may be used by our marketing partners to profile your interests and show you relevant ads on other websites. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
The legal basis for the processing of these cookies is your consent in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. a GDPR, which you have given us by making your selection in the cookie banner or in our Privacy Preference Center.
You have the right to revoke your consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of the processing carried out on the basis of the consent until revocation. To do so, please change the settings in the Privacy Preference Center.
b. Specific use of cookies, purposes and storage period
Specifically, we use the following cookies, depending on the cookie preferences you set in the Privacy Preference Center. Only the strictly necessary cookies are activated by default. If you do not want this either, you have the option of generally rejecting cookies in your browser. In this case, the functionality of the visited website may be impaired.
5. Contact form and e-mail
a. Data processing
Our web pages contain contact forms as well as links to send us an e-mail directly. If you use one of these contact forms, the data which you provide in such forms will be transmitted to us and processed. The mandatory data that must be filled in for electronic contact via the respective contact form are marked with (*). If you provide us with additional data, this is done voluntarily.
If you send us an e-mail, we will process the associated metadata and the content of the message.
b. Purpose and legal basis
Your data will be processed to enable us to contact you, to process your request and to provide you with our respective services, to prevent misuse of the contact form and to ensure the security of our information technology systems.
The legal basis for the processing of data classified as being mandatory is Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. f GDPR. The aforementioned purposes also include a legitimate interest in the processing of the data. If the purpose of the contact is the conclusion of a contract, the additional legal basis for the processing is Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. b GDPR. The legal basis for the processing of the data that you have voluntarily provided us with is your consent in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. a GDPR.
c. Storage period
The personal data of the person concerned will be deleted or made unavailable as soon as the purpose of the storage does no longer apply. Furthermore, data may be stored if this has been provided for by the European or national legislator in EU regulations, laws or other regulations to which the person responsible is subject. Data will also be deleted or made unavailable when a storage period prescribed by the above-mentioned provisions expires, unless there is a need to continue storing the data for the purpose of concluding or fulfilling a contract.
In case of a consent, you have the right to revoke such consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of the processing carried out on the basis of the consent until revocation. To do so, please change the settings in the Privacy Preference Center.
6. Notifications
If you download product relevant documents (e.g. safety data sheets, product information, statements, certificates), we will notify you via email about updates and changes towards the downloaded documents. For this purpose, we will process your email-address as well as the type of the downloaded document and the time of the download. The processing of the aforementioned data will neither take place via cookies nor via local storage. The legal basis for this data processing is our legitimate interest to keep you updated about relevant changes concerning our documents in the course of our business relationship, Art. 6 Sec. 1 lit. f) GDPR.
7. Analysis of user behavior
If you gave us your consent, we analyze how you use our platform. We analyse your usage behavior based on the following information:
- Explored products and solutions
- Searched key terms
- Usage of "save conversation" function
- Usage of "share conversation" function
- Usage of "ask further" function
- Watched contents (technical documents, graphs...)
- User data (first and last name, email address, company name, role, areas of interest)
- Download of documents
- Activities on website (time spent with contents, number of visits, number of questions)
- Improvement of algorithm to enhance user experience, providing better solutions and proposals to users
- Preparation of customer visits (e.g. customized offers)
- Identification of trends and market needs to drive product development activities
- Identification or adaptation of business models
You have the right to withdraw your consent informally at any time by using the contact form of the website. The revocation of consent shall not affect the legality of the processing carried out on the basis of the consent until revocation.
The legal basis for this processing is your consent acc. to Art. 6 Sec. 1 lit. a) GDPR.
8. Embedded YouTube videos
a. Data processing
We have integrated YouTube videos into our online offering, which are stored on the YouTube platform and can be played directly from our website. YouTube is a service of Google LLC. The videos are all embedded in "enhanced privacy mode", which means that no data about you as a user are transferred to YouTube if you do not play the videos. At that time, only a preview image loaded from our own web server is displayed.
Data will only be transferred to YouTube if you play such videos. We have no influence on this data transfer. The data transfer is carried out regardless of whether YouTube provides a user account through which you are logged in or whether no user account exists. If you are logged in at Google, your data will be assigned directly to your account.
b. Purposes and legal basis
We use these YouTube plug-ins on our website to present videos to you in an easy way.
The legal basis for the processing of these plug-ins is your consent according to Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. a GDPR. You grant this consent by clicking on the "Play Button" on the preview image.
If you have given your consent, you have the right to revoke it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of the processing carried out on the basis of the consent until revocation.
c. Further information
Further information on data processing, in particular on the legal basis and storage period by YouTube, can be found in the provider's privacy policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy) and in the privacy banner on the YouTube platform. There you will also find further information on your rights and setting options to protect your privacy.
Google may also process your personal information in the United States, a third country without an adequate level of data protection.
9. Social media hyperlink
We have included hyperlinks to the following social media services on our website: LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
These hyperlinks are designed in the form of the corresponding logos and are stored on our own server. This means that when our website is loaded for the first time, no data about you as a user are transferred to the respective provider. You will be directed to the respective website only if you click on the logos. Further data about you may be processed on this website.
We have no influence on this data processing on the respective linked websites.
10. Direct marketing
If you have given us your consent to do so, we will process your personal data (first name, last name, company, business email address, area of responsibility, country, and area of interest) to provide you with personalized information on products, product services, events, and digital solutions related to BASF Personal Care, Home Care, Industrial and Institutional Cleaning, and Industrial Formulators we consider relevant for you via email.
In order to determine your professional needs and interests, we combine and analyse the personal data that we have collected about you in the course of your relationship with BASF as a customer or user of BASF products and services (in particular your contract and master data, the products you have purchased, samples, demos, brochures or whitepapers that you have requested or downloaded, webinars for which you have registered, surveys that you have completed, etc.).
The legal basis for the processing of your personal data for the above-mentioned purposes is your consent.
Due to the global nature of BASF’s marketing teams, BASF will share your personal data with the relevant BASF entities and therefore transmit your personal data to the following BASF companies being the regional Marketing Headquarters:
BASF SE
Carl-Bosch-Str. 38
Ludwigshafen, Germany
BASF Personal Care and Nutrition GmbH
Rheinpromenade 1
40789 Monheim am Rhein, Germany
BASF Corporation
100 Park Avenue
Florham Park, NJ, USA 07932
BASF Mexicana S.A. de C.V.
Avenida Insurgentes Sur No. 975
Colonia Ciudad de los Deportes
03710 Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico
BASF S.A.
Avenida das Nações Unidas, 14.171
Morumbi São Paulo, Brazil
BASF East Asia Regional Headquarters Ltd.
Two Taikoo Place, 979 King's Road 36/F
Hong Kong, China
In addition, BASF will share your personal data between those BASF companies which are responsible for the country in which your business is situated. Both of the aforementioned transfers serve the purpose of administration of customer data across the BASF Group and preparation of global marketing campaigns and sales-related activities.
The legal basis for this data sharing is our legitimate interest in maintaining your personal data in our company group.
We will share your personal data with other affiliated companies of the BASF Group if they provide IT services for us or if this is necessary for operational reasons, such as follow ups from sales managers or developing personalized marketing materials and content. Furthermore, we will pass on your personal data to the technical IT service providers we use from whom we obtain services. Our IT service providers are carefully selected and regularly checked by us. They process personal data only on our behalf and strictly in accordance with our instructions on the basis of corresponding contracts for order processing.
We store your personal data collected within the scope of your consent for the above-mentioned purposes until your consent is revoked.
You can revoke your consent at any time with effect for the future by notifying us of your revocation under our consent preference center. Each marketing mail we will send to you based on this consent, will contain a separate link to revoke your consent.
You are at liberty to grant or withhold consent. This has no effect on your visit of this website and platform.
If you revoke your consent, we will no longer use your personal data for marketing purposes unless we have another legal basis for this. The revocation of your consent does not affect the legality of the data processing that has taken place up to that point.
C. Are you obliged to provide us with this data?
When you visit our website, the information specified in section B. 1. a. as well as the information from the cookies classified as strictly necessary is processed automatically. The transfer of this information is voluntary. Without the provision of this personal data, we cannot display the requested page.
If you
- allow us to use cookies that are not classified as strictly necessary,
- want to contact us and send us an e-mail or use our contact form (including the necessary reCAPTCHA query) or
- want to see embedded YouTube videos
the transfer of the information is voluntary.
If you contact us, we cannot answer your inquiry in the chosen way without the provision of the personal data required in the individual case. As far as cookies are concerned, the lack of consent can lead to a restriction of the functionality of the website or parts of it. Embedded videos cannot be played without your consent.
D. To whom do we pass on your personal data?
Within our company, only persons and departments are granted access to your personal data as far as they need it to fulfil the abovementioned purposes.
We also involve service providers. These service providers will only act on our instructions and are contractually obliged to comply with the applicable data protection requirements.
Otherwise, we will only pass on your data to third parties if:
- you have given your express consent in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. a GDPR,
- the disclosure pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. f GDPR is necessary for the assertion, exercise or defense of legal claims and there is no reason to assume that you have an overriding interest worthy of protection in not disclosing your data,
- there is a legal obligation for us to pass on the data in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. c GDPR, or
- this is legally permissible and, in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. b GDPR, is necessary for the fulfilment of contractual relationships with you.
A transfer of your personal data to service providers in a third country will only take place if the special requirements of Art. 44 ff. GDPR are fulfilled.
E. How do we secure your personal data?
BASF uses technical and organizational security measures to protect your personal data from accidental or intentional manipulation, loss, destruction or access by unauthorized persons. Our security measures are continuously revised in line with technological developments.
F. What rights do you have?
You have certain rights under the General Data Protection Regulation including the right to request a copy of the personal information we hold about you, if you request it from us in writing:
Right to access: the right to obtain access to your information (if we’re processing it), and certain other information (like that provided in this Privacy Policy);
Right to correct: if your personal information is inaccurate or incomplete you have the right to have your personal information rectified;
Right to erasure: this is also known as ‘the right to be forgotten’ and, in simple terms, enables you to request the deletion or removal of your information where there’s no compelling reason for us to keep using it. This is not a general right to erasure; there are exceptions. For example, we have the right to continue using your personal data if such use is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations or for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims;
Right to restriction of processing: the right to suspend the usage of your personal information or limit the way in which we can process it. Please note that this right is limited in certain situations: When we are processing your personal information that we collected from you with your consent you can only request restriction on the basis of: (a) inaccuracy of data; (b) where our processing is unlawful and you don’t want your personal information erased; (c) you need it for a legal claim; or (d) if we no longer need to use the data for the purposes for which we hold it. When processing is restricted, we can still store your information, but may not use it further. We keep lists of people who have asked for restriction of the use of their personal information to make sure the restriction is respected in future;
Right to data portability: the right to request that we move, copy or transfer (where technically feasible) your personal information in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, for your own purposes across different services;
Right to object: the right to object to our processing of your personal information including where we process it for our legitimate interests, direct marketing;
Right to withdraw consent: if you have given your consent to anything we do with your personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time (although if you do so, it does not mean that anything we have done with your personal information with your consent up to that point is unlawful).
Exercising these rights is free of charge. However, you are required to prove your identity by means of a two-factor-authentication. We will engage reasonable efforts consistent with our legal duty to supply, correct or delete personal information about you.
To exercise your rights, please contact us, for example by e-mail or by post. You will find the contact details in section A.
G. Where can you complain?
You have the right to lodge a complaint with our data protection officer (for contact details see Section A) or with a supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of your habitual residence, place of work or place of the alleged infringement.
In either case, you can contact our Lead Data Protection Authority:
State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of Rhineland-Palatinate (Landesbeauftragter für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit Rheinland-Pfalz)
Hintere Bleiche 34
55116 Mainz
https://www.datenschutz.rlp.de/de/general-storage/footer/ueber-den-lfdi/kontakt/
E-Mail: poststelle@datenschutz.rlp.de
H. Data protection for minors
This website is intended for persons who are at least 18 years old. If a minor submits personal data via this website, we will delete this data and not process it further as soon as we become aware of this fact.