Privacy Notice

Abcam respects your right to privacy. This Privacy Notice explains who we are, how we collect, share, and use personal information about you, and how you can exercise your privacy rights. 

If you have any questions or concerns about our use of your personal information, please contact us using the contact details provided at the bottom of this Privacy Notice.
 

What does Abcam do?

Abcam’s mission is to help life science researchers achieve their mission, faster, by providing high-quality biological reagents and other research tools. Abcam is headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and its group has sites across the world.

For more information about Abcam, please see the About Us section of our website.

What personal information does Abcam collect and why?

Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual that can directly or indirectly identify that individual. It does not include data from which all identifying information has been removed (anonymous data).

Abcam does not knowingly collect, and has not in the past 12 months knowingly collected, any of the following types of personal information from its customers or prospective customers:

• Personal data relating to children
• Special categories of personal data (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data), except in connection with our conferences or other events, for which we may ask for details of any relevant disability(ies) or dietary requirement(s) so that we can ensure appropriate arrangements are made at the venue 
• Information about criminal convictions and offenses

In general, we will use your personal information only for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice or for purposes that we explain to you at the time we collect your personal information.  We may also process your personal information for additional purposes that are compatible with that original purpose if, and where, this is permitted by applicable data protection laws. 

Information that you give to us

You may provide us with your personal information in several ways: by creating an account with us, by contacting our customer service teams, by registering for or attending an event, by entering a competition, by providing feedback on the quality of Abcam’s products or services, when accessing information on our website or by visiting one of our facilities (including through CCTV footage and other information obtained through electronic means, such as swipe card records).  You may provide this information in writing via email, social media or by post; manually on forms at events, meetings or conferences; using our website; orally, either face to face, or over the telephone; or by visiting one of our facilities.

We will use this information to

• perform any contract with you (for example, to take payment and deliver the products you have ordered)
• undertake denied party screening and other necessary compliance checks 
• assist you with any inquiries that you make
• organize and run events for which you have registered
• provide you with information about goods and services we offer that are similar to those that you have purchased, inquired about, or shown an interest in
• provide you with information about goods and services we believe would be of interest to you
• conduct market research, statistical analysis, and track our performance to help us improve our service offerings
• notify you about changes to any of our products or services

It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.

Information that we collect automatically

When you visit our website, we use cookies, which are small text files on your computer that allows our website to recognize you as a user. For example, the information provided by a cookie may include:

• information about any device you have used to access our websites or our emails, for example: your device’s make and model, the browser you used, your internet protocol (IP) and/or address internet service provider (ISP) and your broad geographic location
  
• how you use our website; for example: how your device has interacted with our website, including the pages accessed and links clicked, the websites you visited before or after our website, the products you viewed or searched for and the length of your visits to certain pages

Collecting this information helps us ensure that the website is presented in the most effective manner for you. It also enables us to better understand the visitors who come to our website, where they come from, what information on our website is of interest to them and to send them appropriate marketing messages and advertising related to their interest. For further information about the types of cookies we use, why, and how you can control cookies, please see our Cookie Notice.

We also collect data concerning whether any email communication you have received from us has been opened and if you have clicked on any links within the email. This helps us ensure our communications are useful for you.

Information that we obtain from third party sources

From time to time, we may receive personal information about you from third parties (for example from conferences, tradeshows or life science networking organisations), but only where we have checked that those third parties either have your consent or are otherwise legally permitted or required to disclose your personal information to us. 

We may also collect information about you from publicly available sources, including from scientific publications, university websites and publicly available information on social media.

The types of personal information we may collect in this way include your name, your job title, the institution or company you represent, your professional email address, telephone number and your research interests.  We may also collect your language preference.

We will combine this information with the information you give to us and any information we automatically collect about you to maintain and improve the accuracy of the records we hold about you.  We will also use the combined information about you to form a view on what products/services we think you, or others similar to you, may want or need to help target our marketing closer to your interests.

Marketing

You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information or purchased products from us, provided us with your details on our website or on WeChat, when you contacted our customer service teams (either by phone, by email or on live chat), entered a competition, registered for a promotion, registered for or attended one of our events, or accessed information from our website and, in each case, provided you have not opted out of receiving marketing communications.

We only want to provide you with marketing communications if you want to hear from us.  If you don’t want to receive such communications, you can:

• click on the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of every marketing e-mail we send you
• select the type of marketing communications you would like to receive (or none at all) by logging into your account here. If you have not already registered for an account, you will first need to register.
• contact us using the contact details provided under the 'How to contact us' heading below.

Once you do this, we will update your profile to ensure that you don’t receive any further unwanted marketing messages.  Please note that stopping marketing messages will not stop any service communications (such as order updates) or requests for feedback on products you purchase.​

Legal basis for processing personal information

Our legal basis for collecting and using the personal information described above will depend on the personal information concerned and the specific context in which we collect it.  

However, we will normally only process personal information from you:

• for performance of our contract with you (for example: to process and deliver your order)
  
• where the processing is in our legitimate interests and not overridden by your data protection interests or fundamental rights and freedoms (for example, to: keep our records updated; study how customers buy and use our products/services, grow our business and inform our marketing strategy; send business to business marketing emails; provide administration, IT services and network security; prevent fraud)
• to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation (for example, to undertake denied party screening and other compliance checks)
• where we have your consent 

Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.

If you have questions about or need further information concerning the legal basis on which we collect and use your personal information, please contact us using the contact details provided under the 'How to contact us' heading below.

Who does Abcam share my personal information with?

We have not, and will not, sell your personal data to any third party. This includes ‘selling’ as defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018.

We will share, and have in the past 12 months shared, your data with certain recipients as an essential part of being able to provide you with products and services, to run our events, and to enable us to run our business effectively.  Such recipients include:

• Trusted third party services providers and partners, for example: those who help us run our business (for example, companies that provide support for our website our ordering process and our internal IT systems); those who help us get our products to you (for example, a courier company that delivers the products you have ordered or a distributor who operates in a country that we do not sell to directly); or those who help us organize and run our events (for example the event chairperson, our event sponsors  and the venue where the event will be held).  We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not give permission for our third party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes unless you give your consent, and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions
• our group companies, as sometimes our affiliates are responsible for different activities that are relevant to our relationship with you
• any competent law enforcement body, regulatory, government agency, court or other third party where we believe disclosure is necessary (i) as a matter of applicable law or regulation, (ii) to exercise, establish or defend our legal rights, or (iii) to protect your vital interests or those of any other person
• a potential buyer (and its agents and advisers) in connection with any proposed purchase, merger or acquisition of any part of our business, provided that we inform the buyer it must use your personal information only for the purposes disclosed in this Privacy Notice
• to any other person where you have given your consent to the disclosure

How does Abcam keep my personal information secure?

We use appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect the personal information that we collect and process about you.  The measures we use are designed to provide a level of security appropriate to the risk of processing your personal information.  We also have internal data security policies to protect your personal data, and we regularly review how we can maintain our high standards of privacy.

We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of, or access to, personal data (ie a personal data breach) and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.

Third party links on Abcam's website

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. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.

International data transfers

Your personal information may be transferred to our group companies, suppliers or service providers that are based outside your home country (for example, personal data collected in the UK or EEA may be transferred out of the UK or EEA, or personal data collected in China, may be transferred outside of China) for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice. 

If your personal data is transferred, it will continue to be subject to one or more appropriate safeguards, for example:

• the use of the European Commission approved model data protection clauses, which require companies to protect personal information they process from the EEA in accordance with all European Union data protection law
• transferred to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the UK or the European Commission 

​​Data retention

Abcam will not hold your personal information for any longer than is necessary. We retain personal information we collect from you where we have an ongoing legitimate business need to do so (for example, to provide you with a service you have requested or to comply with applicable legal, tax or accounting requirements). 

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymize it or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible. 

Your data protection rights

In certain circumstances, subject to certain restrictions and applicable law, you may have the following data protection rights:

• To be informed about how we process your personal information - Abcam does this by way of this Privacy Notice
• If you wish to access, correct, update or request deletion of your personal information, you can do so at any time by contacting us using the contact details provided under the How to contact us heading below. If you have an account with us, you can also always amend your details yourself by logging onto your account here.
• To object to any processing of your personal information, ask us to restrict processing of your personal information or request portability of your personal information. Again, you can exercise these rights by contacting us using the contact details provided under the 'How to contact us' heading below.
• To opt-out of any or all marketing communications we send you at any time. See our section on 'Marketing', above.
• If we have collected and processed your personal information with your consent, then you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent will not stop processing of your personal information if it is necessary for performing a contract with you, or if such processing is in Abcam’s legitimate interests.
• To complain to a data protection authority about our collection and use of your personal information. We would, however, appreciate the opportunity to address any issues or concerns, so please do contact us in the first instance. The contact details for data protection authorities in the UK, the EEA, Switzerland and certain non-European countries (including the US and Canada) are available here.
• Not to be discriminated against if you exercise any rights conferred on you by the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018

We respond to all requests we receive from individuals wishing to exercise their data protection rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws.  You will not have to pay a fee to exercise your data protection rights (including accessing your personal information).  However, we may charge a reasonable fee or we may refuse to comply with your request if it is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive.

Please note we may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to exercise your data protection rights.  This is a security measure to ensure that your personal data is not disclosed to any person who does not have a right to receive it.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

We keep this Privacy Notice under regular review and may update it from time to time. If we make any changes, we will take appropriate measures to inform you or to obtain your consent, if and where this is required by applicable data protection laws.

This Privacy Notice was last updated on 23 February 2021.

How to contact us

If you have any questions or concerns about our use of your personal information, or want to exercise any of your rights, please contact our Data Protection Officer (for both the UK and the EEA and the primary point of contact for privacy matters anywhere in the world), by e-mail on dataprivacy@abcam.com or by post to Data Protection Officer, Legal Department, Abcam Limited, Discovery Drive, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge, CB2 0AX, United Kingdom,

The data controller of your personal information is Abcam Limited, which is registered with the Information Commissioner’s Office with registration number Z8516765.  California residents may also call our toll-free number (888) 77-ABCAM (22226).