Privacy Policy - Messer Cutting Systems

Messer Cutting Systems, Inc. (“Messer CS”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) is committed to maintaining your confidence and trust. We have adopted the following Privacy Policy to explain our practices relating to the information we collect, and the information you provide to us, from when you register on and/or visit and use our websites, (collectively, the “Service”).

Who are we?

Messer CS is a part of the Messer World, a global company comprised of different legal entities. This Privacy Policy is issued solely on behalf of the https://us.messer-cutting.com website designated for our legal entities located in and/or accessible by residents of the United States and Canada (the “Site”).

What personal information does Messer CS collect and use?

The information we collect varies, depending on the way you use our Services. We may collect, use, store, and transfer different kinds of personal information about you, such as:

Identity Data, including first name, last name, title, company name, username or similar identifier, and professional or work history.
Contact Data, including billing address, delivery address, email address, and telephone numbers.
Transaction Data, including details of products and services you have purchased from us.
Technical Data, including internet protocol (IP) address, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting, and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform, and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
Profile Data, including your username and password, purchases or orders made by you, your interests
Usage Data, including information about how you use our website, products, and services.
Marketing and Communications Data, including your preferences for when and how you receive marketing and other communications from us.

How and when does Messer CS collect your personal information?

Direct Interactions. We receive most of your personal information directly from you, such as when you request a quote or purchase products or services from us when you contact us through our “Contact Us” form on our website, when you Register as a Subscriber, Dealer, EParts Dealer or Distributor or by post, phone, email or otherwise, when you request marketing communications, or when you give us feedback.
Automated Technologies. You do not need to provide personal information to browse or use our Site or Services. However, as you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about you and your use of our Site and Services that does not personally identify you, your interactions with us, and information regarding the device you use to access our Site and Services (collectively “Other Information”). This information includes:
- device information, such as hardware setting, web browser type, and language.
- IP address, MAC address.
- identifiers associated with cookies or other technologies that may uniquely identify your device or browser (e.g. device advertising ID)
- times you have accessed pages
- pages you have viewed
- searches you have conducted
- pages you visited before or after navigating to our websites
Third Parties or Publicly Available Sources. We may receive personal information about you from third parties and public sources, including (a) Technical Data from analytics providers, advertising networks, and search information providers, and (b) Identity Data and Contact Data from publicly available sources, such as trade association or trade show registries, professional social media platforms (for example, LinkedIn), and government or national authority registries (for example, the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control Sanctions List).

Marketing

We may use your personal information to help us understand your interests and preferences to determine which products, services, and offers we think may be of interest to you and to send you marketing communications for such products, services, and offers. You have the right to object to any such profiling carried out by us for direct marketing purposes.

You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us, provided your information to us, or purchased products or services from us and, in each case, you have not opted out of receiving that marketing. However, if you reside in the European Union or a jurisdiction with similar privacy laws, we will not send you any unsolicited, electronic marketing communications, unless you have first opted in or consented to receive those communications.

We may share your personal information with other affiliated companies that are a part of Messer World for marketing purposes. However, we will not share your personal information with any company outside the Messer World for marketing purposes, unless we have first received your consent to do so.

You can withdraw your consent to receiving marketing communications or ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by following the opt-out links on any marketing message sent to you or by contacting us.

Google AdWords & Facebook Remarketing Tags

This website uses Google AdWords & Facebook remarketing services to advertise on third party websites to previous visitors to our site. It could mean that we advertise to previous visitors who haven’t completed a task on our site, for example using the contact form to enquire. This could be in the form of an advertisement on the Google search results page, a site in the Google Display Network, or somewhere on Facebook. Third-party vendors, including Google & Facebook, use cookies to serve ads based on someone’s past visits to the Messer CS website. Of course, any data collected will be used by our own privacy policy, as well as Google & Facebook privacy policies.

You can opt out of remarketing by visiting the links below:

For Google: https://support.google.com/ads/answer/2662922?hl=en

For Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ads/website_custom_audiences/

We and our research, technology, and marketing partners, affiliates, analytics, or service providers use cookies and other technologies, such as web beacons, web storage, and unique advertising identifiers, to collect information about your activity, browser, and device. Cookies are small amounts of data that are sent to your browser from a website’s computers and stored on your computer or device. We use the following cookies on our website:

Strictly necessary cookies to operate our website, such as enabling you to log into secure areas;
Analytical/performance cookies to recognize and count the number of visitors to our website and to see how the visitors use our website;
Functionality cookies to recognize you when you return to our website by, for example, personalizing content for you or remembering your language or region preferences;
Targeting cookies to record the pages you visit and the links you follow on our website to, for example, display advertising that is relevant to you.

You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of our website may become inaccessible or not function properly.

How We Use Google Analytics

For analytics, we use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”) that uses cookies to help us analyze how users use our Services. Google Analytics may set cookies on your browser or mobile device or read cookies that are already there to collect information. The information generated by the cookies about your use of the Services will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google Analytics may also receive information about you from apps you have downloaded that partner with Google. Google Analytics collects information such as how often you use our mobile application and how you use our App. We use the information provided by Google Analytics to improve our mobile application and Services. We do not combine the information collected through the use of Google Analytics with personally identifiable information. If you access the Services through different devices, Google may associate your devices with one another. Google has developed the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on for the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, dc.js). You can prevent Google’s collection and use of the data it collects as defined in its policy by downloading and installing this browser plug-in: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en-GB. For more information about Google Analytics cookies, please see Google’s help pages (https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245) and privacy policy (https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/).

By using our App, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google as described here and in Google’s privacy policy.

How We Use Microsoft Clarity

We partner with Microsoft Clarity and Microsoft Advertising to capture how you use and interact with our website through behavioral metrics, heatmaps, and session replay to improve and market our products/services. Website usage data is captured using first and third-party cookies and other tracking technologies to determine the popularity of products/services and online activity. Additionally, we use this information for site optimization, fraud/security purposes, and advertising. For more information about how Microsoft collects and uses your data, visit the Microsoft Privacy Statement.

(“Microsoft Privacy Statement” link to the following URL: https://privacy.microsoft.com/en-US/privacystatement)

Browser Do Not Track

Our Site does not support Do Not Track (DNT) at this time. DNT is a privacy preference you can set in your web browser to indicate that you do not want certain information about your web page visits tracked and collected across websites. For more details, including how to turn on Do Not Track, www.donottrack.us.

Who has access to your personal information?

Access to your personal information is on a “need to know” basis. We limit access to your personal information to only those persons who are subject to a duty of confidentiality and who are required to use your personal information to achieve the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, to perform our existing or potential contract with you, or to accomplish a legal obligation.

In addition, Messer CS may provide access to your personal information to third-party service providers who assist us with administering our relationship with you, such as vendors providing customer relationship management, order or contract management; marketing automation, lead generation, and trade show management. Those third parties are prohibited from using your information for any purpose unrelated to their primary service function. We require all our third-party service providers, by written contract, to implement appropriate security measures to protect your personal information consistent with our policies and any data security obligations applicable to us.

As permitted by applicable law, we also may share your personal information on a confidential basis with purchasers and third parties in connection with a potential business transaction related to Messer CS, such as a merger, sale, or reorganization.

Finally, we may disclose your personal information to authorities, including the government of the United States or its agencies, to comply with legal obligations or valid legal processes, such as search warrants, subpoenas, or court orders. When we disclose your personal information to comply with a legal obligation or legal process, we will take reasonable steps to ensure that we only disclose the minimum personal information necessary for the specific purpose and circumstances.

Where is your personal information transferred to and stored?

Your personal information may be transferred outside of the country where you work or live when necessary to perform our existing or potential contract with you, to accomplish the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy, or to comply with a legal obligation. This may include the transfer of your personal information to other companies that are a part of the Messer World companies and/or third-party service providers located outside of the country in which you live or work. For example, our website is hosted on servers located in the United States, and so if you are visiting our website from a different country and providing personal information to us as a result, your personal information will be transferred to the United States.

Messer CS is committed to protecting the privacy and confidentiality of your personal information when it is transferred outside of the country you are based in. Concerning international transfers of your personal information from locations in the European Economic Area (EEA) to jurisdictions that are not considered to provide an adequate level of data protection under EU law, we have implemented appropriate safeguards. Concerning international transfers of your personal information from locations outside of the EEA, we have implemented data transfer agreements or obtained your informed consent where necessary to secure the transfer of your personal information.

How will your personal information be secured?

Messer CS maintains appropriate organizational and technical safeguards to protect your personal information from unauthorized or unlawful processing and accidental loss, destruction, or damage. We have implemented procedures to deal with any suspected data breach affecting your personal information and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

How long will Messer CS retain your personal information?

We will only retain your personal information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which we collected it or to satisfy any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we process your personal information, and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

What rights do you have with respect to your personal information?

If you reside in the European Union, you enjoy the following rights in respect of your personal information we hold (subject to any exceptions under applicable law):

Right of access. You may obtain access to the personal information that we hold about you. If you make this request, we will ask for specific information from you to verify your identity and to search for and provide you with your personal information. Your access may be limited if providing such access would be a violation of applicable law, excessive or unreasonable, such as compromising the privacy of another person or exposing sensitive company information.
Right to rectification. You may obtain rectification of your personal information without undue delay where that personal information is inaccurate, outdated, or incomplete. Please keep us informed if your personal information changes.
Right to erasure. Under certain circumstances, you may ask us to delete or remove personal information, such as when we no longer have a legitimate interest to
continuing to process it. If we are not able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons, we will notify you.
Right to restriction. Under certain circumstances, you may ask us to suspend the processing of your personal information, such as during the time we are considering your request to rectify the accuracy of your personal information.
Right to object. You may object to the processing of your personal information where we are processing your personal information for direct marketing purposes, including profiling.
Right to request transfer. Under certain circumstances, you may request your personal information be transferred to you or to a third party in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format.
Right to make a complaint. You have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant data protection authority, where applicable, in your country.

If you want to exercise any of these rights in relation to your personal information (excluding your right to make a complaint), please contact us. Any such communication must be in writing.

YOUR CONSENT

YOU CONSENT TO ANY AND ALL INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE AND SUBMIT VIA THE SERVICES BEING SENT TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND OTHER COUNTRIES THAT MAY BE OUTSIDE YOUR HOME COUNTRY OF RESIDENCE. YOU ARE INFORMED THAT THESE COUNTRIES PRESENTLY MAY NOT HAVE AN ADEQUATE LEVEL OF PERSONAL DATA PROTECTION AS DETERMINED BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION’S ADEQUACY DECISION ON OCTOBER 6, 2015 (Case C-362/14) AND ARTICULATED IN THE EUROPEAN UNION’S GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION AND HAVE NOT RECEIVED A SIMILAR DESIGNATION OF ADEQUACY BY ANY OTHER FOREIGN DATA PROTECTION AUTHORITY. YOU AGREE TO THE TRANSFER OF YOUR INFORMATION TO THESE COUNTRIES, TO BE USED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THIS PRIVACY POLICY.

A note to residents of Canada:

When you provide personal information through the Service, you consent to our collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information in accordance with this policy. As explained above, because Messer CS operates in the United States, any information provided through the Service or through a distributor of Messer CS that is located in Canada may be processed in the United States, where privacy laws may offer different levels of protection from those in Canada and personal information may be subject to access by and disclosure to law enforcement agencies in the United States.

Messer CS provides you with the ability to access and review your personal information held by us and will endeavor to provide the information in question within a reasonable time following your written request, but no later than 30 days following your written request. We will provide information from our records in a form that is easy to understand. We may charge a reasonable cost (e.g. photocopying, mail charges) when a request is made. Messer CS may refuse to provide access to personal information where the information requested:

Would disclose (i) personal information of another individual or a deceased individual; or (ii) trade secrets or other confidential business information that may harm Messer CS or the competitive position of a third party or interfere with contractual or other negotiations of Messer CS or a third party or result in a significant financial loss or gain to Messer CS or a third party;
Is not readily retrievable and the burden or cost of providing would be disproportionate to the nature or value of the information;
Is subject to solicitor-client or litigation privilege;
Does not exist, is not held, or cannot be found by Messer CS;
Could reasonably result in serious harm to the treatment or recovery of the individual concerned or another individual, serious emotional harm to the individual or another individual, or serious bodily harm to the individual or another individual;
May harm or interfere with law enforcement activities and other investigative or regulatory functions of a body authorized by law to perform such functions, or;
Any other grounds under applicable legislation.

Where information will not or cannot be disclosed, the individual making the request will be provided with the reasons for non-disclosure.

Messer CS will not respond to repetitive or vexatious requests for access. To guard against fraudulent requests for access, Messer CS may require sufficient information to allow it to confirm the identity of the person making the request before granting access. Requests for access should be submitted to us by e-mail at legal.us@messer-cutting.com or by writing to us at Messer CS, Inc., W141 N9427 Fountain Boulevard, Menomonee Falls, WI 53051 and Attn: Legal Department.

California Privacy Rights

If you are a California resident you have the right to request information from Messer CS regarding the manner in which Messer CS shares certain categories of your personal information with third parties, for the third parties’ direct marketing purposes. California law provides that you have the right to submit a request to Messer CS at its designated address and receive the following information:

The categories of information Messer CS disclosed to third parties for the third parties direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year; and

The names and addresses of third parties that received such information, or if the nature of their business cannot be determined from the name, then examples of the products or services marketed.

You are entitled to receive a copy of this information in a standardized format and the information will not be specific to you individually. You may make such a request by calling 1-262-255-5520 ATTN-Marketing.

What other information should you know?

Children. Our website is not intended for children (persons under the age of 16), and we do not knowingly collect personal information relating to children. If we discover that we have collected or received personal information relating to a child, we will use all reasonable endeavors to delete that personal information. If you believe Messer CS has any personal information from or about a child, please contact us.
Third-Party Links. Our website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins, and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements or processing of personal information, including cookies. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.
Failure to Provide Personal Information. Where we need to collect personal information to perform our contract with you and you fail to provide that personal information when requested, we may not be able to perform that contract (for example, we may not be able to provide you with products or services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us, but we will seek to notify you if this is the case at the time.
Updates to this Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy may be updated periodically to reflect changes in our personal information practices. We will post the updated version on our website and indicate at the top of the Privacy Policy when it was most recently updated.

How We Protect Your Information

We take reasonable precautions to protect your information. Please keep in mind that the Internet is not a 100% secure medium for communication, and we cannot guarantee that the information collected about you will always remain private when using our Services. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of any information you transmit to us, and you do so at your own risk.

How may you contact us?

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or if you believe that your personal information is not handled by applicable law or this Privacy Policy, you may contact the Messer CS Legal Department at legal.us@messer-cutting.com.