Sika AG and all of its legal entities (“Sika” or “we" or "us" or "our") take the protection of personal data seriously. Sika is committed to a responsible handling and protection of personal data. Sika aims to be in compliance with all applicable privacy protection laws.

This Privacy Notice describes how Sika processes personal data and other information of employees, contractual parties, website users, etc. (“you” or “your”).

 

1. Contact

Sika wants to be clear about how it processes personal data. If you have any question or concern about Sika’s handling of your personal data, please read this statement carefully. You may address unanswered questions by writing to the following Sika privacy protection contact:

Mario Maurer

Tüffenwies 16
CH-8048 Zürich
Switzerland

+41 58 436 40 40 Send E-Mail

2. Sale of Personal Data

Sika does not sell any personal data.

 

3. Personal Data of Sika Employees

Sika collects, uses and keeps on file personal data only if necessary, notably

  • to manage the employee life cycle (hire to retire process);
  • to maintain accurate personnel data files;
  • to protect the company sites and infrastructure (access control, video and IT surveillance) and for other security reasons;
  • to optimize internal processes and to fulfil contractual or legal obligations.

 

Employee personal data may be accessed only by a restricted and specially trained group of people, on the basis of the “need to know” principle, and only in one or several of the following contexts:

  • Account setup and administration: We use personal data such as your name, email, private address, phone number, facial picture and information about your device to set up and administer your Sika employee account, provide technical support and training, verify your identity or send you important account information. Under certain circumstances, we let you manage some or all of your personal data on file with Sika.
  • Devices and usage information: Information on the usage of devices, software applications and similar tools provided to you by Sika may be collected, stored and processed automatically, to the extent permitted by local law.
  • Employee administration and filing processes: This includes all activities related to the management of the entire employee life cycle, including the use of facial pictures for security or internal communication purposes.
  • Payroll processes, including recur, rent payroll process, annual regular salary review processes, off cycle processes and the like.
  • Time management processes, including all HR/legal requirements, specific functions or project-based requirements.
  • Career development processes, including development discussions, succession planning/learning, and development activities processes.
  • Performance management processes, including Group and individual objectives setting and yearly performance reviews.
  • Chat rooms, messaging, and community or event forums: Some internal processes may provide features including chat rooms, messaging services, or community/event forums for collaboration, peer connection, training and information exchange purposes. Depending upon the particular nature of a given service, the personal information you choose to post, share, upload or make available is public internally and visible to others who use these services. The services may have their own Terms of Use and, where appropriate, their own privacy statements. We make sure that the services are in compliance with our Terms of Use.
  • Legal obligations: We may be required to use and retain personal data for legal and compliance reasons, such as tax law; employment, social security or social protection law; the prevention, detection, or investigation of a crime; loss or fraud prevention. We may also use personal data to meet internal and external audit requirements, information security purposes, or as we otherwise believe to be necessary or appropriate (a) under applicable law, which may include laws outside your country of residence; (b) to respond to requests from courts, law enforcement agencies, regulatory agencies, and other public and government authorities, which may include authorities outside your country of residence; (c) to enforce our terms and conditions; and (d) to protect our rights, privacy, safety, or property, or those of other persons.

 

4. Personal Data of Persons other than Sika Employees

Sika collects, uses and keeps on file personal data only if necessary, notably

  • to maintain accurate customer, supplier, business partner, shareholder or investor files and improve relations with these groups;
  • to optimize internal processes and the delivery of goods and services;
  • to protect the company sites and infrastructure (access control, video and IT surveillance) and for other security reasons;
  • to fulfil contractual or legal obligations, or to make legal claims, in connection with these groups; and to respond to a court order.

 

Your personal data may be used in one or several of the following contexts:

  • Account setup and administration: We use personal data such as your name, email address, phone number, and information about your device to set up and administer your account with us, provide technical and customer support and training, verify your identity, and share with you important account, subscription, product or service information. Under certain circumstances, we let you manage some or all of your personal data on file with Sika.
  • Personalization: We use personal information to deliver and suggest tailored content such as news, research, reports, employment or business information and to personalize your experience with our services. Some of our services will ask you to share your precise geolocation to allow us to customize your experience and increase the accuracy of our services. If you agree to share your precise geolocation with us, you will be able to turn it off at any time by going online or to the privacy settings on your mobile device.
  • Performance evaluation: We use relevant personal data to measure whether the goals defined in our contract with you are being reached.
  • Marketing and events: We use personal data to deliver marketing and event communication to you across various platforms, such as email, telephone, text messaging, direct mail, and online. If we send you a marketing email, it will include instructions on how to opt out from receiving such emails. We also maintain email preference centers for you to manage your personal data and marketing preferences. Please remember that even if you opt out from receiving marketing emails, we may still send you important service information related to your contracts, accounts and subscriptions with us.
  • Surveys and polls: If you choose to participate in a survey or poll, any personal data you provide may be used for marketing or market research purposes.
  • Research and development: We use personal data for internal research and development purposes and to improve and test the features and functions of our products or services.
  • Chat rooms, messaging, and community and event forums: Some of our services provide features including chat rooms, messaging services, and community and event forums for collaboration, peer connection, training, games, and information exchange purposes. Depending upon the service, the personal data you choose to post, share, upload, or make available is public and visible to others who use the same services. You should never post or share any information that is confidential or concerning other persons, unless you have the written permission to do so. We may use information you provide in community and event profiles and forums to personalize your experience and to make content and peer connection recommendations. These services may have their own Terms of Use and, where appropriate, their own privacy notices/statements. We make sure that the services are in compliance with our Terms of Use.
  • Hosted services: Some of our services provide data and document storage as an integral part of the product or solution offering. If documents and data you store with us contain your personal data, that data is subject to the same protection as any other personal data on file with Sika. Accordingly, it is made accessible only to those who need access for contractual reasons, such as technical support, or if required by law or a court order.
  • Device and usage information: When accessing the Sika Website, information of the usage may be collected, stored and processed automatically as permitted by local law. This may include (i) information specific to the used device to access the Sika Website (including, but not limited to, model, operating system, IP address, language, carrier and similar information) and (ii) information about the use of features, functions, or notifications on the device, to recognize you and to analyze trends;
  • Website analytics such as how often a user uses the Sika Website, aggregated usage, performance data: We use Website analytics to help us better understand the functionality and use of our Sika Website, to monitor and maintain the performance of the Sika Website and to analyze trends, usage and activities in connection with our Sika Website.
  • Legal obligations: We may be required to use and retain personal data for legal and compliance reasons, such as tax law; employment, social security or social protection law; the prevention, detection or investigation of a crime; loss or fraud prevention. We may also use personal data to meet internal and external audit requirements, information security purposes, and as we otherwise consider necessary or appropriate (a) under applicable law, which may include laws outside your country of residence; (b) to respond to requests from courts, law enforcement agencies, regulatory agencies, and other public and government authorities, which may include such authorities outside your country of residence; (c) to enforce our terms and conditions; and (d) to protect our rights, privacy, safety, or property, or those of other persons.

 

5. Protection of Personal Data

Sika applies all technical and organizational measures necessary to guarantee an adequate protection and the accuracy of the personal data on file. Our Data Protection Policy is closely aligned with widely accepted international standards and is reviewed regularly and updated if necessary to meet our business needs, changes in technology, or regulatory requirements. Below, you find a list of additional data protection measures in place at Sika:

  • We have measures in place to protect against accidental loss and unauthorized access, use, destruction, or disclosure of data;
  • We have a crisis management and business continuity strategy in place that is designed to safeguard the continuity of our services to our customers and to protect our employees;
  • We place appropriate restrictions on access to personal data on file with Sika;
  • We implement appropriate measures and controls, including monitoring and physical measures, to store and transfer data securely;
  • We conduct Privacy Impact Assessments in accordance with legal requirements and our business policies;
  • We train our employees and contractors periodically on matters related to privacy and secrecy protection and information classification;
  • We take steps to ensure that our employees and contractors operate in accordance with the trainings they’ve received;
  • We require our third-party service providers to protect any personal data they have access to in accordance with our own Data Protection Policy and applicable procedures.

 

6. Rights vis-à-vis Sika

Sika grants every person whose personal data it has on file the right to require access to as well as correction, completion, erasure or transfer of his/her personal data. Concerned individuals may also have a right to restrict or object to the use of their personal data. All requests shall be addressed to Sika’s privacy protection contact mentioned above (see para. 1). Please note that requests are subject to any relevant legal requirements and exemptions, including identity verification procedures. Before reacting to your request, we may ask for a proof of your identity and sufficient information about your interaction with us so that we can locate any relevant data. We may also charge you a fee for responding to your request (except where this is not permissible under applicable law). In general, you have the right to one free inquiry per every 12 months. To the extent that we provide tools permitting you to self-manage your personal data and opt out of certain usages of your personal data, we expect you to do so.

 

7. Data Transfer and Recipients

Sika transfers personal data to third parties only if it has the consent of the concerned person to do so, and only if the third parties are reliable partners committed to guarantee the same level of data protection as does Sika. If required by law or a court to transfer personal data, Sika may do so without informing or seeking consent of the concerned individual. Here’s an overview of the third parties Sika may share personal data with and which may process your personal data:

  • Other Sika legal entities, for internal administrative and support purposes, for instance in the context of a group-wide effort to run a centralized Customer Relationship or Employee Management System;
  • Third party service providers, for instance external IT support, software, website or marketing providers supporting Sika services to customers, suppliers or employees; furthermore, credit card providers, banks, insurances, pension funds;
  • Legal counsel and external consultants in compliance with applicable data protection law, for instance to exercise or defend legal claims;
  • Government authorities, such as national employment, tax, social security, or customs offices.
     

The access to your personal data is limited to recipients with a need to know.

You may receive a list of third parties that we share data with upon request to Sika’s privacy protection contact mentioned above (see para. 1).

 

8. Personal Data Transfer to other countries

As Sika is a global organization, your personal data may be stored and processed outside of your home country. We take steps to ensure that the information we collect is processed in accordance with this Privacy Notice and applicable laws, wherever your personal data is processed. We collaborate with third parties such as cloud hosting services, suppliers or technology support located around the world to serve the needs of our customers, suppliers, shareholder, investors and employees. If personal data is transferred across national borders, it is done so in compliance with applicable laws.

When Sika transfers personal data to countries in which applicable laws do not offer the same level of privacy protection as does your home country, we take security measures to provide an appropriate level of privacy protection. In other words, your privacy protection rights always remain with your personal data. For example, we use approved contractual clauses, multiparty data transfer agreements, intragroup agreements and other measures designed to ensure that the recipients of your personal data has in place adequate protection measures. The access to your personal data is limited to recipients with a need to know. If you would like to know more about our data transfer practices, please contact Sika at the address mentioned above (see para. 1).

 

9. Retention Period

Sika keeps your personal data on file only for as long as necessary to provide you with the services requested, taking into account contractual agreements, legal retention requirements and national prescription rules. Personal data no longer needed to comply with contractual or statutory obligations is deleted and destroyed securely, or properly anonymized in a way that you can no longer be identified.

 

10. Facial Pictures

If you want your facial image to be removed from a Sika website, please contact us at the address mentioned above (see para. 1).

 

11. Complaints

If you are not satisfied with how Sika manages your personal data or responds to your inquiries, please let us know by writing to the address mentioned above (see para. 1). We take your concerns seriously and will try to address them to the extent possible and reasonable. If provided under your home country’s law, you also have the right to make a complaint to a data protection regulator.