Privacy Policy

We care about your personal data and want you to have confidence that B.C.S. will use your personal data with care. This Privacy Policy will help you understand what personal data we collect, why we collect it and what we do with it.

Who we are.

This Privacy Policy applies to personal data collected by B.C.S. in connection with the services and products we offer. References to “B.C.S.”, “we”, “us” or “our” in this Privacy Policy include the following entity:

In the context of our activities (the production and sale of food products, such as noodles, soups, juices, broths, cold and hot sauces, dessert mixes, etc. through Retail partners and other sales channels, as well as the follow-up and provision of after-sales services), personal data are collected, stored, transmitted or otherwise processed by us. Based on applicable privacy laws, the entities listed above qualify as “processors” with respect to these personal data they process in the course of their local activities.

What is the importance of this Privacy Policy?

We attach great importance to your right to privacy and make every effort to protect your personal data in accordance with applicable data protection laws, and more specifically the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and applicable national data protection laws.

In this Privacy Policy, we explain how we collect your personal data, how and for what purposes we will process it, and to whom your personal data may be disclosed.

Furthermore, this Privacy Policy also contains important information about your rights regarding the processing of your personal data. Accordingly, we encourage you to read this policy carefully.

From time to time it may be necessary to modify this Privacy Policy. The most recent version of this Privacy Policy is available at all times on our general websites and our product websites.

Please note: When you share your personal data with us, we expect you to have read this Privacy Policy carefully first. We are committed to process your personal data in full compliance with the requirements of the GDPR. We guarantee optimal protection of our databases, we will provide you with easy access to your personal data, and will allow the correction and deletion of your data upon simple request. Please note that we require your “consent” for certain processing of your data (e.g. for sending our electronic newsletter or for using tracking cookies). For other types of processing, legislation provides us with other legal grounds.

From whom we collect personal data

In the course of our business (as described above), we may collect personal data from customers, Retail partners or consumers who purchase or use our products, from respondents who participate in our market research initiatives or surveys, from participants in our competitions, from visitors to our premises, visitors to our websites, journalists, contacts in administrative authorities, and from individuals who otherwise come into contact with us (e.g., by having their name and contact information provided to us as employees or appointees of our customers, suppliers and other commercial partners).

How do we collect personal data about you?

We may collect information about you in several ways:

– directly from you when you provide your personal data to us in the context of our commercial activities;

– directly from you in the context of contract negotiations or the conclusion of an agreement;

– directly from you when you provide your personal data to us upon entering our premises;

– directly from you when you participate in any market research or survey we conduct;

– directly from you when you participate in a competition that we organize;

– directly from you when you register on our websites, when you surf our websites, when you fill out a contact form on our websites, when you subscribe to our electronic newsletter, or when you purchase products through our web shops;

– directly from you when you provide your personal data to us in response to investigations/claims related to food labeling, product recalls;

– through our external call center when you provide your personal data to them in response to a question or complaint;

– through third parties and official sources (such as the Graydon database for credit checks, databases or mailing lists obtained through Retail partners or other commercial partners, public databases of journalists or through our service providers);

– through your employer with whom we have a contract or partnership (e.g. when you act as a contact person of our customers, service providers or commercial partners).

What personal data do we collect?

We may collect the following information from you, to the extent such information is relevant to the purposes for which we need it, as set forth in Title 6 below. Whenever certain information is required to be entered, and other information is only optional, this will be clearly indicated to you so that you can choose to provide us with your data or not.

Identification and contact data Personal identification data: name, address, phone/gsm number, email address (and where applicable, passwords and account information of persons registering on our web shops)

Electronic identification data: IP addresses, information collected via cookies (please read our Cookie Policy)

Financial details Identification and bank account numbers.

Financial transactions: amounts you have to pay and have paid, statement of payments, etc.

 Agreements and settlements

Personal characteristics Personal details: gender, date of birth, nationality, language preference

Living habits Consumption habits, lifestyle, social contacts, possessions, use of social media

Complaints, incidents or accidents

Family composition Marriage or current form of cohabitation

Information about family members

Leisure activities and hobbies Leisure activities and hobbies

Profession and job Profession and job (private or business, VAT number if applicable)

Career

Image recordings Images from security cameras

Video recordings via social networks / as part of competitions organized by us

Sound recordings Telephone recordings by our external call center

Sound recordings via social networks/as part of contests organized by us

Other categories of data

Your purchasing intentions and interests

What do we use your personal data for?

We use personal data for the following purposes:

– to manage suppliers and customers,

– to manage disputes (concerning the payment of invoices) and complaints,

– to process consumer requests and complaints,

– for public relations purposes,

– to manage our website(s),

– to provide you with the information you have requested, for example:

o to contact you regarding our product offering,

o to answer your questions,

– for market research and statistical purposes,

– to keep you informed of potential prizes to be won after entering a competition,

– for production planning or tracking orders/deliveries,

– to comply with legal obligations (e.g. legal or commercial product warranties or product recalls),

-for contacting us as part of our after-sales services,

– for security and access control of our premises,

– for marketing purposes, both for our paper mailings and for our electronic newsletter (if you have subscribed to it).

For your complete information, please find below the legal grounds relevant to these processing operations:

– the processing of your personal data for the provision of goods or services and for the follow-up of sales and invoicing, or to provide you with certain information regarding products sold, or in the context of handling consumer complaints, we base the processing on the necessity for the performance of the contract,

– the processing of your personal data in the context of the follow-up of product guarantees and food and product safety is based on the necessity to fulfill our legal obligations as a food producer,

– in all other cases, we base the processing of your personal data on the necessity to fulfill our legitimate commercial interests as a company (in particular, the interest to contact prospects and potential customers, to inform consumers and partners about our product offerings and to promote our business in general, both online and offline, and the interest to obtain information about customers’ buying behavior, preferences and buying intentions in order to determine market strategies),

– the processing of your personal data within the framework of the follow-up of product guarantees and food and product safety, we base on the necessity to fulfill our legal obligations as a food producer,

– in all other cases, we base the processing of your personal data on the necessity to fulfill our legitimate commercial interests as a company (in particular, the interest to contact prospects and potential customers, to inform consumers and partners about our product offerings and to promote our business in general, both online and offline, and the interest to obtain information about customers’ buying behavior, preferences and buying intentions in order to determine market strategies),

– the processing of your personal data for electronic direct marketing purposes (tracking and analyzing your interests, sending our electronic newsletter), we base on your opt-in consent. Only if you have unambiguously expressed your desire to receive our electronic newsletter (you are completely free to do so), will we register you for this purpose.

Please note that you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, without any cost to you and without any negative consequences for you. You can do so by sending an e-mail (see below) or via the opt-out link included in each of our marketing e-mails.

With whom do we share your personal data?

With our service providers (“processors”):

In connection with our activities as listed above, we sometimes share your personal data with third parties, in particular service providers (e.g. IT/cloud service providers or PR/marketing service providers who organize mailing campaigns for us, sales service providers or creative agencies) who act as ‘processors’ for us.

With our external law firms:

Furthermore, we may also share your personal data with law firms in case of (imminent) lawsuits.

With government agencies:

Finally, we may also share your data with government authorities, police forces or the courts if there is a legal obligation to do so (e.g. the obligation to provide government authorities and the police with access to camera images upon their request).

We always ensure that appropriate protective measures are taken when we transfer your personal data to third parties. For example, where necessary, we will enter into a transfer agreement or a processor agreement that sets out restrictions on the use of your personal data and obligations regarding the security of your personal data.

Your personal data and profile will not be loaned or sold to third parties for marketing purposes without your prior explicit consent.

We also use Google Analytics to provide you with an optimized user experience. In that regard, your personal data may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA). You can find more information here.

If other of our processors transfer personal data to recipients located in countries outside the EEA, appropriate measures are taken to ensure the protection of your personal data in accordance with applicable data protection laws. Specifically, we have signed standard contractual clauses with our call center software provider Wilke Global to legitimize the transfer of personal data to the US.

How long do we store your personal data?

Your personal data will not be stored longer than necessary for the purposes for which they were collected and processed (as described above). Afterwards, they may still be found in our backups or archives, but they will no longer be actively processed on file.

More specifically, the following retention periods apply:

– personal data recorded in accounting, financial or other official documents will be kept for as long as these documents must be kept by law,

– personal data required for the execution and follow-up of a contractual relationship will be kept for the entire duration of that relationship and 10 years after its termination,

– personal data obtained in the context of our complaint handling will be erased (or made anonymous) once the complaint has been settled, and

– all personal data used for marketing purposes will be kept for as long as we send you relevant mailings and for a maximum of 1.5 years thereafter. Once we become aware that your contact details are no longer accurate or active, or if you decide to unsubscribe, we will no longer hold your personal data for these purposes.

– All personal data used for marketing purposes will be retained for as long as we send you relevant mailings and for up to 1.5 years thereafter. Once we become aware that your contact details are no longer accurate or active, or if you decide to unsubscribe, we will no longer hold your personal data for these purposes.

Only if we are legally obliged to do so, or if it is necessary to defend our interests in court (for example, in case of a dispute), will we keep your personal data for a longer period.

More information about our retention periods is available upon simple request.

How do we protect your personal data?

We take the necessary administrative, technical and organizational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the specific risks we have identified.

We thus protect your personal data as best we can against destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of or access to personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed.

Furthermore, we always try to ensure that we keep your personal data accurate and up-to-date. We therefore kindly request that you inform us of any changes to your personal data (such as a change in your contact information).

More information about our security measures is available upon simple request.

What are your rights?

You have, within the limits defined in Articles 15-22 of the GDPR, the legal right:

– to information and access to your data;

– To correction of personal data;

– To erasure of your personal data (“right to be forgotten”);

– To restriction of processing;

– to object to the processing of your personal data;

– to obtain your personal data in a structured, common, and machine-readable form, and to transfer (or have transferred) that personal data to another controller.

Furthermore, you also have the right to lodge a complaint in connection with our processing of your personal data with the supervisory authority in your country.

For more information about these rights, and the circumstances under which you can exercise them, in particular your right to object (this is your “opt-out” right for our electronic newsletter), see the Appendix to this policy. In principle, you can exercise these rights free of charge. Only in the event of unreasonable or repeated requests may we charge a reasonable administrative fee for this.

Further information and advice can also be obtained through the supervisory authority in your country.

We always try to respond to your requests or questions as quickly as possible. We may also ask you for proof of identity first in order to verify your request.

Contact

If you should have any questions or concerns regarding ‘B.C.S.’ Privacy Policy or our processing of your personal data, please do not hesitate to contact us by sending an e-mail or submitting a request via the contact form on our websites or by writing to us at the address listed above.

Last update March 2023