We, KWS UK Ltd., 56 Church Street, Nr. Royston Hertfordshire, SG8 7RE UK (hereinafter referred to as “KWS”, “we” or “us”) take the protection of personal data very seriously. KWS generally does not distribute its products directly to farmers (our “customers”), but to companies such as wholesalers, distributors, dealers, suppliers and other partners (collectively “business partners”). Therefore, KWS collects and processes only a limited amount of personal data on the part of customers. Data relating to business partners is generally not considered as personal data. However, KWS processes the professional data and contact information of employees and other contacts of customers and business partners. This Privacy Notice specifies how and for which purposes KWS processes the personal data of customers as well as of business partners and their contacts.
KWS protects personal data and processes it only in accordance with the applicable laws on the protection of personal data and data security.
1. On which legal basis do we process your personal data?
We ensure that personal data is solely processed in an appropriate manner. The processing of personal data must be justified in accordance with EU data protection laws by at least one of a number of legal “grounds”, and we set forth the grounds for any processing in this Privacy Notice.
Below you will find the legal grounds which justify the processing of your data:
- Consent, when you have consented to us processing your data (you were presented with a consent form with regard to such processing). You can revoke your consent at any time with future effect.
- Contract performance, if your data is required for the conclusion or performance of our contract with you.
- Legal obligation, if we process your data to meet our legal obligations.
- Legitimate interest, if we have a legitimate interest in processing your data and our legitimate interest in the processing outweighs any possible impairment of your data privacy rights.
2. Why and for which purpose do we process your data?
2.1. Data of customers and their contacts
As part of the collaboration with our customers, KWS processes personal data for the following purposes:
- Communication with customers about products, services and projects, e.g. for handling customer inquiries.
Legal basis: contract performance, statutory obligation, legitimate interests (for marketing of our products and services), consent. - Planning, execution and management of the (contractual) business relationship between KWS and the customer, e.g. processing of orders for products and services, collection of payments for accounting, invoicing, collection of receivables and carrying out deliveries.
Legal basis: contract performance, legal obligation, legitimate interests (handling business relationship). - Conducting customer surveys, marketing campaigns, market analyses, competitions or similar actions and events.
Legal basis: legitimate interests (marketing of our products and services), consent. - Compliance with legal obligations (e.g. fiscal and commercial law) as well as KWS guidelines and industry standards.
Legal basis: contract performance, legal obligation, legitimate interests (compliance with the law and avoidance of compliance violations). - Settlement of legal disputes, enforcement of existing contracts and assertion of claims, exercise and defense of legal claims.
Legal basis: contract performance, legal obligation, legitimate interests (defense of our legal interests).
2.2. Data of business partners and their contacts
As part of the collaboration with our business partners, KWS processes personal data for the following purposes:
- Communication with business partners about products, services and projects, e.g. for handling inquiries from our business partners.
Legal basis: contract performance, legal obligation, legitimate interests (for marketing of our products and services), consent (for any electronic marketing by email or telephone). - Planning, execution and management of the (contractual) business relationship between KWS and our business partners, e.g. processing of orders for products and services, collection of payments for accounting, invoicing, collection of receivables and carrying out deliveries.
Legal basis: contract performance, legal obligation, legitimate interests (handling business relationship). - Conducting surveys of our business partners , marketing campaigns, market analyses, lotteries or similar actions and events.
Legal basis: legitimate interests (marketing of our products and services), consent. - Compliance with legal obligations (e.g. fiscal and commercial law) as well as KWS guidelines and industry standards.
Legal basis: contract performance, statutory obligation, legitimate interests (compliance with the law and avoidance of compliance violations). - Settlement of legal disputes, enforcement of existing contracts and assertion of claims, exercise and defense of legal claims.
Legal basis: contract performance, legal obligation, legitimate interests (defense of our legal interests). - Management of seed production and plant breeding by farmers/contractors commissioned via an agreement (e.g. to enable highly efficient field work processes and the support of data analysis and integration by KWS).
Legal basis: contract performance, legitimate interest (to ensure the high quality of the seed and to optimize the processes within seed production).
3. Which type of personal data can KWS collect about customers, business partners and contacts?
KWS processes the following categories of personal data if the above criteria are met:
3.1. Data of customers and their contacts
- Contact information such as first and last name, address, telephone number, cell phone number, date of birth (if voluntarily communicated to us), fax number and email address.
- Payment data, such as information about the processing of payment transactions.
- Additional information that needs to be processed within the scope of a customer project or performance of a contractual agreement with KWS or that is voluntarily provided by our customers, such as orders placed, inquiries or project data.
- Business information, such as acreage, disease and soil conditions, quantity and type of KWS’ and competitors’ products used, loyalty values.
- History of the interaction between the customer and KWS, such as participation in KWS events, mailings, interaction with KWS agents and/or freelancers.
3.2. Data of business partners and their contacts
- Contact information such as first and last name, business address, business telephone number, business cell phone number, business fax number and business email address.
- Payment data, such as information about the processing of payment transactions or the combating of fraud, including credit card information and security numbers.
- Additional information that needs to be processed within the scope of a project or performance of a contractual agreement with KWS or that is voluntarily provided by our contacts, such as orders placed, inquiries or project data.
- Information that comes from publicly accessible sources, information databases or credit agencies.
- As needed within the scope of compliance screenings: information about relevant legal disputes and other legal disputes with business partners .
- For the management of seed production and plant breeding by farmers/contractors commissioned via an agreement, the following data also applies: field data such as drone and satellite images, environmental data (e.g. weather and soil data), seed counts and machine data, as well as field data measurements, digital field plans, field boundaries and histories.
4. How do we collect your personal data?
4.1. Data of customers and their contacts
As a rule, we receive your personal data from you. However, we may also receive data from our business partners, vendors, freelancers or data brokers.
4.2. Data of business partners and their contacts
We may receive your personal data from you or from third parties – such as our business partners, credit agencies and anti-fraud agencies, sanctions lists and lists of politically exposed persons and from public registers.
5. Who are the recipients, and do they reside in third countries?
KWS passes on personal data to KWS subsidiaries or other private bodies, but only if this is necessary to fulfill one or more of the aforementioned purposes.
KWS forwards personal data to courts, authorities, and law firms insofar legally permissible and necessary in order to comply with applicable laws or to assert, exercise, or defend legal claims.
KWS works with internal and external service providers (processors), such as service providers for IT maintenance services. These service providers may only act in accordance with the instructions of KWS and are contractually obligated to comply with the applicable data protection requirements.
The recipients described in this Section 5 can be located in countries outside the European Economic Area (“third countries”) where applicable law does not grant the same level of data protection. In this case, if we transmit your personal data to recipients outside the European Economic Area, we will ensure an appropriate level of protection for your personal data unless this is in accordance with a statutory permission. Please contact the controller at the contact information provided below if you wish to receive a copy of the guarantees that we use with regard to exporting your personal data.
6. How long do we store your personal data?
If KWS has not specified the storage period during data collection (e.g. in a declaration of consent), your personal data will be erased if its storage is no longer required to fulfill the storage purpose – unless statutory retention obligations (e.g. under commercial or fiscal law) require storage for a longer period.
7. What rights do you have?
Within the context of the applicable legal provisions, you have certain rights related to your personal data. Please note that there are certain exceptions to the exercising of these rights, and you therefore cannot exercise them in all cases.
- Information: You have the right to obtain information about all personal data stored by KWS about you.
- Rectification: You can demand that we change incorrect personal data.
- Erasure: You can ask us to erase personal data under certain circumstances, and we will take appropriate steps to inform other controllers who process the data that you have requested the erasure of links to your data, copies of your data, and duplications of your data.
- Revocation of consent: You can revoke your consent to the data processing that you have granted us and prevent further processing if there is no other reason why KWS can or must process your personal data.
- Restriction: In certain cases, you can request that we restrict the processing of your data.
- Portability: If you have provided us with data on the basis of a contract or consent, you can request receipt of the data provided by you in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, or that we send it to another controller.
Right to object
Case-based right to object
You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data which is based on legitimate interests at any time for reasons arising from your particular situation; this also applies to profiling based on these provisions. This personal data will then no longer be processed for these purposes unless compelling legitimate grounds for the processing are established that outweigh your interests, rights, and liberties, or the processing serves to assert, exercise, or defend legal claims.
Right to object to processing of data for direct advertising purposes
In individual cases, your data is processed to conduct direct advertising. You have the right to object at any time to the processing of your personal data for the purposes of such advertising. This also applies to profiling, insofar it is associated with such direct advertising. If you object to the processing for direct advertising purposes, your personal data will no longer be processed for these purposes.
To assert the rights above, please contact us using the contact information provided.
- Submit a complaint: You can submit a complaint about our processing to a data protection authority.
8. Contact information
The controller for the data processing is:
KWS UK Ltd.
56 Church Street
Thriplow, Nr. Royston
Hertfordshire, SG8 7RE UK
Email: dataprotection.kwsuk@kws.com
Royston, January 2021