Data Privacy Notice

With this Data Privacy Notice we, SPIE Global Services Energy (hereinafter we or us), describe how we collect and further process personal data. This Data Privacy Notice is not a comprehensive description of our data processing. Personal data collected about employees and job applicants/candidates is addressed in our Employee Data Privacy Notice (available to our employees) and Candidate Data Privacy Notice, respectively.

The term “personal data” in this Data Privacy Notice shall mean any information that identifies, or could reasonably be used to identify, any person.

If you provide us with personal data of other persons (such as family members, work colleagues), please make sure the respective persons are aware of this Data Privacy Notice and only provide us with their data if you are allowed to do so and such personal data is correct.

1. Controller

The “controller” of data processing as described in this Data Privacy Notice (i.e. the responsible person) is SPIE Global Services Energy. You can notify us of any data protection related concerns, irrespective of the concerned affiliate company of SPIE Global Services Energy , using the following contact details: dpo.spieogs@spie.com, or:

Legal & Compliance Department
SPIE Global Services Energy
Campus Saint-Christophe – Europa
10 avenue de l’entreprise
95863 Cergy-Pontoise Cedex

2. Collecting and Processing of Personal Data

We may process personal data, including relating to the following:

• Personal Details, Contact Information and Professional Affiliations: Name, address, e-mail, telephone and fax details and other contact information; business name, title, and address;
• Audio, electronic of visual information: Photographs, voice recordings, video, signature, electronic signature;
• Financial Information: Payment card number; bank account number and account details; tax returns; salary; assets and income; personal bankruptcy; credit history and credit score;
• Marketing Preferences and Interactions: marketing preferences; entry in contests or promotions; responses to voluntary surveys and requests for information;
• Operational and Diligence Data: Transactions, sales, purchases, uses, credentials to online services and platforms; data relating to credit verification, compliance/ethics checks, customer due diligence or similar activities; and
• Data in connection with your use of our websites or other computer or network systems, where we have provided notice and choice, as appropriate; IP address, MAC address information regarding your device and settings, cookies, date and time of your visit, sites and content retrieved, referring website and localization data.

We may collect personal data in various ways, such as: when you interact with one of our websites; when you enter into a transaction or contractual arrangement with us; when you participate in our programs or activities; when you provide data at industry events and trade shows; when you visit our facilities or we visit you at your offices; when you contact our customer services; or in connection with your inquiries and communications with us. We may also collect personal data from other sources, including your employer, data companies, publicly accessible databases, and joint marketing partners, or we may receive such information from affiliated companies of SPIE Global Services Energy , from authorities or other third parties.

3. Purpose of Data Processing and Legal Grounds

We primarily use collected data in order to conclude and process contracts with our clients, suppliers and other business partners as well as in order to comply with our domestic and foreign legal obligations.

In addition, in line with applicable law and where appropriate, we may process your personal data and personal data of third parties for the following purposes, which are in our (or, as the case may be, any third parties’) legitimate interest, such as:

• providing and developing our products, services and websites and other platforms, on which we are active;
• communication with third parties and processing of their requests (e.g., job applications, media inquiries);
• review and optimization of procedures regarding needs assessment for the purpose of direct customer approach as well as obtaining personal data from publicly accessible sources for customer acquisition;
• advertisement and marketing (including organizing events), provided that you have not objected to the use of your data for this purpose (if you are part of our customer base and you receive our advertisement, you may object at any time and we will place you on a blacklist against further advertising mailings);
• market and opinion research, media surveillance;
• asserting legal claims and defense in legal disputes and official proceedings;
• prevention and investigation of criminal offences and other misconduct (e.g., conducting due diligence, internal investigations, or data analysis to combat fraud);
• ensuring our operation, including our IT, our websites, and other appliances;
• video surveillance and other measures (e.g., access controls, visitor logs, network and mail scanners) to protect our domiciliary rights, and to protect and to ensure the safety of our premises and facilities, and our employees and other individuals and assets owner by or entrusted to us; and/or
• acquisition and sale of business divisions, companies or parts of companies and other corporate transactions and the transfer of personal data related thereto as well as measures for business management and compliance with legal and regulatory obligations as well as internal regulations of SPIE Global Services Energy .

If you have given us your consent to process your personal data for certain purposes (for example when registering to receive newsletters or carrying out a background check), we will process your personal data within the scope of and based on this consent, unless we have another legal basis, provided that we require one. Consent given can be withdrawn at any time, but this does not affect data processed prior to withdrawal.

4. Cookies / Tracking and Other Techniques Regarding the Use of our Website

We typically use “cookies” and similar techniques on our websites, which allow for an identification of your browser or device. A cookie is a small text file that is sent to your computer and automatically saved by the web browser on your computer or mobile device, when you visit our website. If you revisit our website, we may recognize you, even if we do not know your identity. Besides cookies that are only used during a session and deleted after your visit of the website (“session cookies”), we may use cookies in order to save user configurations and other information for a certain time period (e.g., two years) (“permanent cookies”).

Notwithstanding the foregoing, you may configure your browser settings in a way that it rejects cookies, only saves them for one session or deletes them prematurely. Most browsers are preset to accept cookies. We use permanent cookies for the purpose of saving user configuration (e.g., language, automated log in), in order to understand how you use our services and content, and to enable to show you customized offers and advertisement (which may also happen on websites of other companies; should your identity be known to us, such companies will not learn your identity from us; they will only know that the same user is visiting their website has previously visited a certain website). Certain cookies are sent to you from us, others from business partners with which we collaborate. If you block cookies, it is possible that certain functions (such as, e.g., language settings, shopping basket, ordering processes) are no longer available to you.

In accordance with applicable law, we may include visible and invisible image files in our newsletters and other marketing e-mails. If such image files are retrieved from our or, as the case may be, our contractual partner’s servers or cloud systems, we can determine whether and when you have opened the e-mail, so that we can measure and better understand how you use our offers and customize them. You may disable this in your e-mail program, which will usually be a default setting.

For more information on the cookies collected by SPIE Global Services Energy , please see SPIE Global Services Energy ’s Cookie Policy.

4.1 Google Analytics and other Statistics Providers

We may use Google Analytics or similar services on our website. These are services provided by third parties, which may be located in any country worldwide (in the case of Google Analytics Google LLC is in the U.S., www.google.com) and which allow us to measure and evaluate the use of our website (on an anonymized basis). For this purpose, permanent cookies are used, which are set by the service provider. The service provider does not receive (and does not retain) any personal data from us, but the service provider may track your use of the website, combine this information with data from other websites you have visited and which are also tracked by the respective service provider and may use this information for its own purposes (e.g. controlling advertisements). If you have registered with the service provider, the service provider will also know your identity. In this case, the processing of your personal data by the service provider will be conducted in accordance with its data protection regulations. The service provider only provides us with data on the use of the respective website (but not any personal information of you).

5. Data Transfer and Transfer of Data Abroad

In the context of our business activities and in line with the purposes of the data processing set out in Section 3, we may transfer data to third parties, insofar as such a transfer is permitted and we deem it appropriate, in order for them to process data for us or, as the case may be, their own purposes. In particular, the following categories of recipients may be concerned:

• our service providers (within the SPIE Global Services Energy  group or externally, such as banks, insurances), including processors (such as IT providers);
• suppliers, subcontractors and other business partners;
• clients;
• domestic and foreign authorities or courts;
• the public, including users of our websites and social media;
• acquirers or parties interested in the acquisition of business divisions, companies or other parts of the SPIE Global Services Energy  group;
• other parties in possible or pending legal proceedings; and/or
• affiliates of the SPIE Global Services Energy group

(together, Recipients).

Recipients may be located in any country worldwide. In particular, you must anticipate your data to be transmitted to any country in which the SPIE Global Services Energy Group is represented by affiliates, branches or other offices. If we transfer data to a country without adequate legal data protection, we ensure an appropriate level of protection as legally required by way of using appropriate contracts (in particular on the basis of the standard contract clauses of the European Commission, which can be accessed here) or binding corporate rules or we rely on the statutory exceptions of consent, performance of contracts, the establishment, exercise or enforcement of legal claims, overriding public interests, published personal data or because it is necessary to protect the integrity of the persons concerned. To the extent we rely on the standard contractual clauses of the European Commission or binding corporate rules we assess the circumstances of the specific data transfer and take additional protective measures or refrain from exporting the data to the country or recipient in question if protection is not guaranteed. You can obtain a copy of the mentioned contractual guarantees at any time from the contact person named under Section 1 above insofar they are not available under the aforementioned link. However, we reserve the right to redact copies for data protection reasons or reasons of secrecy or to produces excerpts only.

6. Retention Periods for your Personal Data

We process and retain your personal data as long as required for the performance of our contractual obligation or compliance with legal obligations or other purposes pursued with the processing, i.e. for the duration of the entire business relationship (from the initiation, during the performance of the contract until it is terminated) as well as beyond this duration in accordance with legal retention and documentation obligations. Personal data may be retained for the period during which claims can be asserted against our company or insofar as we are otherwise legally obliged to do so or if legitimate business interests require further retention (e.g., for evidence and documentation purposes). As soon as your personal data are no longer required for the above-mentioned purposes, they will be deleted or anonymized, to the extent possible.

7. Data Security

We have taken appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect your personal data from unauthorized access and misuse such as internal policies, training, IT and security solutions, access controls and restrictions, encryption of data transmissions and testing.

8. Obligation to Provide Personal Data To Us

In the context of our business relationship you must provide us with any personal data that is necessary for the conclusion and performance of a business relationship and the performance of our contractual obligations (as a rule, there is no statutory requirement to provide us with data). Without this information, we will usually not be able to enter into or carry out a contract with you (or the entity or person you represent). In addition, the website cannot be used unless certain information is disclosed to enable data traffic (e.g. IP address).

9. Profiling and Automated Individual Decision-Making

In establishing and carrying out a business relationship, we generally do not use profiling or any fully automated individual decision-making (such as pursuant to article 22 of the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)). Should we use such procedures in certain cases, we will inform you separately on this and advise you of your relevant rights if required by law.

10. Your Rights

In accordance with and as far as provided by applicable law (as is the case where the GDPR is applicable), you have the right to access, rectification and erasure of your personal data, the right to restriction of processing or to object to our data processing in addition to right to receive certain personal data for transfer to another controller (data portability). Please note, however, that we reserve the right to enforce statutory restrictions on our part, for example if we are obliged to retain or process certain data, have an overriding interest (insofar as we may invoke such interests) or need the data for asserting claims. If exercising certain rights will incur costs on you, we will notify you thereof in advance. We have already informed you of the possibility to withdraw consent in Section 3 above. Please further note that the exercise of these rights may be in conflict with your contractual obligations and this may result in consequences such as premature contract termination or involve costs. If this is the case, we will inform you in advance unless it has already been contractually agreed upon.

In general, exercising these rights requires that you are able to prove your identity (e.g., by a copy of identification documents where your identity is not evident otherwise or can be verified in another way). In order to assert these rights, please contact us at the addresses provided in Section 1 above.

In addition, every data subject has the right to enforce his/her rights in court or to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection authority.

11. Children and minors

We do not process personal data relating to children and minors under the age of 13 years, unless we are legally obliged to do so. If we become aware that data were transferred to us or collected by us relating to children and minors under the age of 13 years without the informed consent of a parent or legal guardian, we will delete such personal data without any undue delay.

12. California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) – California Residents

This Privacy Notice for California residents supplements the information contained in this Data Privacy Notice and applies solely to visitors, users, and others who reside in the State of California (“consumers” or “you”).

12.1 Your rights

The CCPA grants you the right to know what personal information is collected, used, shared or sold, the right to delete data, to opt-out of sale of personal information and the right to non-discrimination in terms of price or service when you exercise a privacy right under the CCPA.

Specifically, for the data access request, you have the right to request that we disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your personal information over the past 12 months.

12.2 Information we collect and use

In the preceding 12 months we have collected the categories of personal information set out in Section 2 above. We have used and disclosed them to the Recipients set out in Section 5 for the business purposes stated in Section 3.

In the preceding twelve (12) months, we have not sold any personal information.

For more information on the categories of information we collect, the purposes of the processing and the disclosure of data to third parties please refer to Sections 2-5 above.

12.3 Exercising access, data portability and deletion rights

To exercise the access, data portability, and deletion rights mentioned above, please submit a verifiable consumer request to us by using the contact information mentioned in Section 1.   You may only make a verifiable consumer request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period. The verifiable consumer request must:

• Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information or an authorized representative.
• Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.

We do not charge a fee to process or respond to your verifiable consumer request unless it is excessive, repetitive, or manifestly unfounded. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request.

In some instances, we may decline to honor your request where an exception applies, such as where the disclosure of Personal Information would adversely affect the rights and freedoms of another individual, where the Personal Information that we maintain about you is not subject to the CCPA, or where rights under the CCPA are not yet effective.

12.4 Non-Discrimination

We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights. Unless permitted by the CCPA, we will not:

• Deny you our services.
• Charge you different prices or rates for services, including through granting discounts or other benefits, or imposing penalties.
• Provide you a different level or quality of our services.
• Suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for services or a different level or quality of services.

While do not discriminate against anyone on the basis of the CCPA, please bear in mind that we may not be permitted or able to provide you with our service, employment or employment-related benefits if you partly or fully object to the processing of personal information relating to you.

13. Amendments of this Data Privacy Notice

We may amend this Privacy Notice at any time without prior notice. The current version published on our website shall apply.

This privacy notice was published on 15/09/2021.