Privacy Statement – Philippines

Last modified August 27, 2024

1. Preamble
2. General Information
3. The Processing Activities in Detail
4. Data Transfers
5. Data Retention
6. Your Data Protection Rights
7. Changes to this Privacy Statement

1. Preamble

This privacy notice is addressed to all visitors and users of our websites and apps (“user” or “you”) of the Merck Group (“Merck”, “us”).

This privacy notice describes how Merck will use the personal data of the users within the scope of the operation of our websites and/or apps (“services”). "Personal Data" in this document means all information that relates to a natural person and with which this person can be directly or indirectly identified.

Should you have questions or queries regarding the processing of your personal data by Merck, please feel free to contact our Data Privacy Officer via MINCDPO@merckgroup.com or through the other contact details provided below.

2. General Information

This section informs you who is the controller of the processing of your personal data, how you may contact the controller, and which rights you have as a data subject in this context.

2.1. Controller

The data controller means the person who determines the purposes and means of the processing of your personal data. For the processing activities described in this privacy notice, the controller is:

MERCK, INC.
26th Street corner 9th Avenue
Bonifacio Global City
36/F The Finance Center
Taguig City, 1634, Philippines

2.2. Data Privacy Officer

Merck has appointed a Data Privacy Officer. You may reach him/her as follows:

MINCDPO@merckgroup.com
26th Street corner 9th Avenue
Bonifacio Global City
36/F The Finance Center
Taguig City, 1634, Philippines

You are also welcome to exercise your data protection rights by submitting your request directly in our Data Privacy Portal.

3. The Processing Activities in Detail

This section explains the different data processing activities in which Merck processes your personal data for the operation of our services and the provision of information and functionalities.

In general, you are neither contractually nor statutorily obliged to provide your personal data for the below purposes, however your decision to not provide your data may lead to negative consequences, such as reduced features and functionalities and/or, in rare cases, the impossibility to use our information and services offered in this context.

We seek to use reasonable organisational, technical, and administrative measures to protect Personal Data. Unfortunately, no data transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, please immediately notify us.

3.1. Website Browsing

By browsing our websites, you provide us with automatic information. The term "Automatic Information" is information automatically collected by our web server that your web browser makes available whenever you visit one of our websites. The browsing data we collect includes the website you are accessing, the time and duration of your visit, the pages you have visited, your searches and temporarily, your IP address as well as the items you have added to your cart, if applicable. Your IP address is used to identify the city of from which you are accessing the site as well as the company to which the IP address has been registered. We use browsing data of our users for creating aggregated statistics, to learn what is of interest to users in order to improve various aspects of our websites and to provide services like troubleshooting, and to recognize users who have already visited our websites in order to customize their website experiences for their future visits. We also use the browsing data to study traffic patterns and maintaining or restoring the security of our websites or to detect and correct technical defects and errors.

The data processing is based on our legitimate interests. We process these data for the purpose of presenting our services and to ensure its technical stability and security (e.g., to prevent hacker attacks).

3.2. Operation of Our Services

In order to provide you with access to certain services, we ask for information from you like your name or an email address, for example, when you register for an account on one of our websites. We use your data to provide you with information or services that you have requested such as providing information about relevant products, services and/or promotions, answering questions about our products or services or sending you newsletters or other marketing/promotional materials based on your selections or providing access to one of our Online Services. In order to provide you with the information that you have requested or that you may be interested in, we may individualize the content you requested based on the information we collect about you. We use your information like your name, address, email address, financial information, job profession, area of expertise and your purchasing history to complete the sales transaction if you purchased one of our products via a website or to offer you any of our services you requested.

Please note that the provision of some information will be necessary in order for us to take action regarding an order for products or services that you have purchased. For example, we need your address to be able to send you the product you ordered. Our online forms clearly identify which fields are required in order for us to complete the transaction. If you don’t provide this information to us, we will not be able to complete the transaction.

The data processing is based on the necessity of performing our contractual obligations to you and your explicit consent.

3.3. Customer Management

We process your personal data like your contact information in order to provide you with a satisfactory customer management experience, e.g., sales transaction follow-up or process your inquiries. For this purpose we also process your personal data as part of our management and development of our client relationships in order to provide you with individualized content and to assess your needs as a customer. We process your personal data to analyze your preferences and habits to improve our services and to ensure that we can deliver the highest quality services and support to our customers.

The data processing is based on the necessity of performing our contractual obligations to you and our legitimate interest of managing our relationships with our customers and business optimization and development. 

3.4. Newsletter

We process your personal data if you subscribed to our email newsletter. If you would like to receive our newsletter, you may select the option to receive our newsletter when you register on our website.

This processing activity may include the following data categories: The information you provided to subscribe, such as your name, email address and personal/professional interests.

The processing is based on your explicit consent you provided to us in the course of the subscription process.

Your personal data will be deleted when you withdraw your consent, e.g., by clicking on the unsubscribe button which is included in any of our newsletters.

3.5. Legal Obligation and Legal Enforcement

In some cases, we are under a legal obligation to process personal data. A typical example is providing data to a government agency which has identified the potential misuse of a drug or the processing within the scope of the so-called pharmacovigilance, i.e., the obligation to investigate and share data when potential side effects of drugs become known.

Where required, we can also use your data to enforce our or third-party rights (such as copyright infringements).

3.6. Communications

We aim to present you information that could be of interest to you and to communicate seamlessly over various channels (phone, email, SMS, mail, social media messages) without sending redundant information.9 Our communication with you is based on the information we collect about you and are permitted to use. For example, we use the combination of your email address and your browsing data so we can provide you with information about a product you look up on one of our websites. Based on the information we collect, we may internally indicate that you are interested in certain categories of information.

Generally, we will use collected information to inform you about our new products, innovations, promotions, seminars, webinars and events like trade and vendor shows.

We only provide you with such information where we are permitted to, for example when you have chosen to receive our promotional emails and where you did not object to our use of your data for marketing-related purposes.

3.7. Profiling

“Profiling” means any automated processing of personal data consisting in the use of such personal data to analyze, evaluate or predict certain personal aspects relating to a natural person. We use profiling procedures to optimize and personalize our customer relationship management and our advertising measures. To optimize and personalize our advertising measures, we create customer profiles and assign customers to specific customer segments on the basis of these customer profiles. On the basis of this segmentation, we can manage the type, content and frequency of specific advertising measures for specific target groups. For profiling purposes, we use data that we receive from you as part of our business relationship. This includes personal data like your purchasing behavior and browsing behavior. Profiling may be based in particular on usage data that we create with the customer's consent by measuring and evaluating the customer's interaction with electronic advertising, in particular by measuring and evaluating the opening and click rate in email newsletters.

The processing is based on your explicit consent to allow us to use your personal data to send you business communications and product information.

3.8. Cookies

We use cookies, web beacons, pixels, tags, scripts and other similar technologies in order to enable and facilitate the use of our Online Services (e.g., to optimize the presentation or display of country-specific content). "Cookies" are small text files that enable our Online Services to store information on your computer and retrieve it later (e.g., when you visit our website again later). The term "computer" in this privacy statement refers to computers, smartphones and all other devices with internet access. For more information regarding which Cookies we utilize please refer to our Cookies Policy.

The processing is based on our legitimate interest to optimize our website for a better user experience and website security. 

Merck uses cookies and similar technologies on its services for several reasons, for example:

• Websites load faster;
• Websites may be browsed faster;
• Your settings, such as language and time zone, may be saved;
• Security on websites is improved since your identity may be verified; and
• Your log-in to secured websites is facilitated.

We use the following categories of cookies on our services:

3.8.1. Necessary Cookies

These cookies are necessary to safeguard the functionalities of our Online Services and for the Online Services to operate. Cookies are set, in particular, in response to your actions and depend on your specific service requests (e.g., setting your privacy preferences, filling out forms, or logging in).

The processing is based on the explicit consent you provided to us in the course of the registration process. If you do not grant your consent or revoke it, you will not be able to access our Online Services. Our Online Services cannot function without these cookies and they can only be disabled by changing your browser preferences.

3.8.2. Functional Cookies

These cookies enable the provision of advanced functionalities and are used for personalization. The cookies are set in particular in response to your actions and depend on your specific service requests (e.g., setting the language).

The processing is based on your consent you provided to us in the course of the registration/subscription process. You either grant your consent by accepting all cookies in our cookie banner or by activating the cookie type(s) you have selected. Your consent is voluntary, and you may revoke it at any time with effect for the future. You can revoke your consent by reopening our cookie banner and deactivating the cookie type. If you do not grant your consent or revoke it, this will not result in any disadvantages for you. However, without your consent, the functions explained above will not be available to you.

3.8.3. Targeting Cookies

These cookies may be set to learn more about your interests and show you relevant ads on other websites. These cookies work by uniquely identifying your browser and device. By integrating these cookies, we aim to learn more about your interests and your surfing behavior and to be able to place our advertising in a targeted manner.

The processing is based on your consent you provided to us in the course of the registration/subscription process. You either grant your consent by accepting all cookies in our cookie banner or by activating the cookie type(s) you have selected. Your consent is voluntary, and you may revoke it at any time with effect for the future. You can revoke your consent by reopening our cookie banner and deactivating the cookie type. If you do not grant your consent or revoke it, this will not result in any disadvantages for you. However, without your consent, the functions explained above will not be available to you.

3.8.4. Management and Deletion of Cookies

Some computer browsers automatically accept all cookies. However, you can change your browser settings to block all cookies. You may also be able to configure your browser settings so that only certain types of cookies are blocked or so that you are notified as soon as a new cookie is to be stored on your computer. In this case, you can accept or reject cookies individually. If this function is available to you, you will find more detailed explanations in the help function of your browser. There you will also find information on how to delete all or certain cookies for which you have given us your consent. For more information on managing and deleting cookies for popular browsers, please see the following links: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Apple Safari.

3.9. Advertising

We work with third party online marketing services (e.g., Google Adwords, ResearchGate, Sprinklr, Facebook custom audience, LinkedIn Contact Targeting and Doubleclick), which provide our advertising to internet users who have previously visited our websites on their network or websites. The purpose of these services is to create advertising based on the needs and interests of the relevant internet users.

3.10. Links to Other Websites

Our websites contain links to third party websites. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that they have their own privacy policies which should be reviewed. We have no liability or responsibility for the content or practices of these websites.

4. Data Transfers

We transfer your personal data as follows.

4.1. Merck Group

To our worldwide affiliates, to the extent that this is permissible within the framework of the purposes and legal bases stated under clause 3. In these cases, our group companies will use the personal data for the same purposes and under the same conditions as described in this privacy notice (e.g., answering your inquiry about a product that falls within the area of expertise of a foreign Merck affiliate). A list of our affiliated group companies and their contact details can be found here.

4.2. Service Provider

We may also engage service providers (data processors) within (e.g. shared service centers) or outside the Merck Group (e.g. hosting providers, support service providers) to process personal data in accordance with our instructions. In these cases, we retain control over and remain fully responsible for your personal data. We will take all reasonable safeguards required by applicable law to ensure the integrity and security of your personal data when engaging such service providers.

4.3. Public Authorities

In certain cases, we are required by law to transfer data to a requesting public authority.

Upon submission of a court order, we may be obliged to transfer your personal data, in particular your user ID of an IP address allocated at the time requested and, if known, your name and address.

In other respects, personal data will only be transferred to state institutions and public authorities within the framework of mandatory national legal provisions or if disclosure is necessary in the event of attacks on the network infrastructure for legal or criminal prosecution.

5. Data Retention

Unless otherwise stated, your personal data are regularly deleted as soon as we do not need them any more to meet our business interests, no statutory data retention obligations apply, or you withdrew your consent.

We store data for as long as necessary for the provision of the service requested by you. For example, when you subscribe to a newsletter, we will store the associated data at least until you unsubscribe. Based on the information we collected, we may internally indicate that you are interested in certain categories of information. This information will be kept and updated as long as we consider engaging with you.

Under certain circumstances, your data must also be kept longer, e.g., if a so-called Legal Hold or Litigation Hold (i.e., a ban on deleting data for the duration of the procedure) is ordered in connection with official or legal proceedings. Data without any personal identifiable information may be stored permanently.

6. Your Data Protection Rights

Subject to applicable law, you have or might have the following data protection rights:

• Right of access: You have the right to obtain information on the processing of your personal data and to receive a copy these data. 
• Right to rectification: You have the right to request that we correct or complete your inadequate, incomplete or inaccurate personal data. 
• Right to erasure: Under certain circumstances, you have the right to request that we delete your personal data.
• Right to restriction of processing: Under certain requirements, you may request us to restrict the processing of your personal data. 
• Right to data portability: You might have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, common and machine-readable format and request that these data are transferred to another data controller, if applicable under the specific circumstances. 
• Right to object: You might have the right to object to the processing of your personal data by us. We will then stop the processing of your personal data unless we remain legally authorized to do so. 
• Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority: You might have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority against the processing of your personal data if you believe that the processing of your personal data violates data protection regulations. 

You may exercise your data protection rights by submitting a request in our Data Privacy Portal. We take our responsibility for the protection of your rights very seriously. Our privacy experts will examine your request and answer it as soon as possible. 

7. Changes to this Privacy Statement

We reserve the right to amend the data privacy declaration at any time with effect for the future, in particular to adapt it to a further development of the website or the implementation of new technologies.