The SGS Group is committed to the responsible handling and protection of your personal data.
We have created this statement to provide you with clear and understandable information regarding our privacy practices when you are accessing or using our websites so that you can make informed choices about the use of your personal data by SGS.
When accessing other services or applications through our website, please read the specific privacy conditions which may apply to them.
SGS reserves the right to update this statement from time to time by publishing a new version online. This statement was last updated in May 2018.
When this statement refers to SGS, it means SGS as the controller of your data, namely the SGS Affiliates with which you had, have or will have a business relationship or that otherwise decides which of your data is collected and how it is used, as well as SGS SA (Registration number CH-660.0.023.919-0 Switzerland). You may obtain a list of our German SGS Affiliates by visiting www.sgsgroup.de.
SGS collects personal data that you provide to us directly when you request information about our services; subscribe to our website services, email notifications and/or newsletters; make an enquiry through our different enquiry forms and helplines such as our Integrity Helpline; or carry out a transaction or place an order through our website. This may include:
SGS also collects personal data automatically when you visit our website. This may include:
Contact form
If you send enquiries to SGS via the contact form, your data entered into the contact form, including the stated contact information, are stored for the purpose of dealing with your enquiry and in case of additional enquiries. Those data will not be passed on without your permission to third parties, where third parties in this case are not the affiliated subsidiaries of SGS Holding Deutschland B.V. & Co. KG. By submitting the contact form, you give your consent to the storage, processing and use of your personal data from the form within the aforementioned companies. Your legal rights to information, modification and deletion of your personal data will of course not be affected. For further information, please see our privacy policy.
The processing of your data that you entered into the contact form is therefore exclusively based on your consent (Art. 6 (1) lit. a EU GDPR). You can revoke this consent at any time. An informal message by e-mail to us is sufficient. The legality of the data processing operations carried out until the revocation remains unaffected by the revocation.
The information you provide in the contact form will remain in our contact and administration databases until you ask us to delete it, revoke your consent to storage, or the purpose for data storage does no more apply (for example, after your request has been processed). Mandatory statutory provisions - especially retention periods - remain unaffected.
Use of Google Analytics
This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA („Google“). On this website the function "anonymizeIp" is implemented to the Google Analytics code which enables to only collect anonymized IP addresses (IP-masking). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website will – depending on the work processes of Google – be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. In case of activation of the IP anonymization, Google will truncate/anonymize the last octet of the IP address for Member States of the European Union as well as for other parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases, the full IP address is sent to and shortened by Google servers in the USA. On behalf of SGS Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for SGS and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage to SGS. SGS uses Google Analytics in order to optimize the content offered on this website for existing and potential customers and to continuously improve the offer and presentation of the services of SGS on this website. The legal basis for the use of Google Analytics is § 15 para. 3 TMG or Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f EU GDPR. Sessions and campaigns will be stopped after a certain amount of time. By default, sessions will end after 30 minutes of no activity and campaigns after six months. Campaign timeout can be a maximum of two years. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. However, please note that if you do this, you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. Furthermore you can prevent Google’s collection and use of data (cookies and IP address) by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available under https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en-GB.
You can refuse the use of Google Analytics by clicking on the following link. An opt-out cookie will be set on the computer, which prevents the future collection of your data when visiting this website: Disable Google Analytics
The opt-out cookie is valid only in this browser and on our website and is stored on your device. If you delete the cookies in this browser, you must set the opt-out cookie again.
You can find Google Analytics Terms of Service & Privacy here:
http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/gb.html
Server-log-files
Our web hoster automatically collects and stores information in so-called server log files which your browser automatically transmits to us, such as:
Those data cannot be associated with individual persons. We do not merge this data with other sources. The basis for this data processing is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b EU GDPR, which allows the processing of data to fulfill a contract or pre-contractual measures.
What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files that SGS websites place onto your computer.
Why do we use them?
Cookies are used to help us improve your experience when using our websites – for example, storing your preferred language setting for the next time you visit.
The information we collect from cookies enables us to:
We do not use cookies to identify you personally.
What kind of cookies do we use?
We use the following categories of cookie:
Necessary cookies
Cookies in this category enable you to use our websites and all their features, such as enabling access to secure areas of the website. Without these cookies you may not be able to use all the features of our websites.
The following cookies are necessary for full functionality:
Performance / statistical cookies
Cookies in this category collect information about how you use our websites so we can improve them for you in future. For example, they collect information on which pages you visit most often and any error messages you may get. The information collected by these cookies is anonymous. They do not collect any information that can identify you personally.
We use the following cookies in this category:
Name | Description | Duration |
---|---|---|
_ga (Google Analytics) | Google Analytics cookie, used to distinguish users. Read more | Decided by Google |
_gid (Google Analytics) | Google Analytics cookie, used to distinguish users. Read more | Decided by Google |
_gat (Google Analytics) | Google Analytics cookie, Used to throttle request rate Read more | Decided by Google |
_gac_<property-id> (Google Analytics) | Contains campaign related information for the user. For linked Google Analytics and AdWords accounts, AdWords website conversion tags will read this cookie unless you opt-out. Read more | Decided by Google |
How can you manage your cookie settings?
To ensure you get the best possible experience when visiting our websites, we recommend that you accept cookies. However, you can opt-out of each cookie category (except strictly necessary cookies) by clicking on the “cookie settings” button.
SGS will use your personal data for the following different purposes:
SGS shares and transfers your personal data as described here and only in accordance with all privacy practices and local privacy requirements. We may occasionally share non-personal, anonymized and statistical data with third parties for our own business purposes.
The following are the parties with whom we may share personal information and why:
SGS will retain your personal data for the period of time that is necessary to fulfil the original purposes for which it has been collected. Please keep in mind that in certain cases a longer retention period may be required or permitted by law or to allow SGS to pursue its business interests, conduct audits, comply with our legal obligations, enforce our agreements or resolve any dispute.
The criteria used to determine our retention periods include:
SGS follows strict security procedures in the storage and disclosure of information which you have given us in order to prevent unauthorized access, loss or destruction of your personal data. These may include:
SGS does not seek to collect sensitive personal data (also known as special categories of data). If we do so we will always collect the data in accordance with local data privacy requirements. If you choose to provide us with unsolicited sensitive personal data, you will be asked to consent to our processing of such data on a case-by-case basis by using a specific express consent form.
SGS does not knowingly collect or solicit personal data from anyone under the age of 16. If you are aged under 16, please speak to your parent/guardian to get their permission before you provide any personal information to SGS because without this consent, you are not allowed to provide us with your personal data. If we learn that we have collected data from a person aged under 16, we reserve the right to delete such data with no prior notification or consent.
We are committed to ensuring that you can exercise your right of access and you can control your data.
If you have registered for an account on www.sgs.com and/or its local equivalents, you may directly and autonomously access your online profile and other personal details and update, amend, if legally possible, add or delete the data about yourself by logging into the applicable website or service with your account credentials.
Otherwise, and in accordance with our internal procedures, we will respond to the following requests as described below. All requests shall be addressed via our online privacy request form or by contacting us in writing as described in the section “contact us”:
In order to provide you with the best personalized experience, these communications may be tailored to your preferences by using our subscription center. Our targeted emails contain email messages which use web beacons, cookies and similar technologies to allow us to know whether you open, read or delete the message and which links you open. When you open a link in a marketing email you receive from SGS, we will also use a cookie to log what pages you view and what content you download from our websites, even if you are not registered or signed into our site.
In addition, you can exercise your right to prevent marketing communications to you by opting out of emails we send to you. In such cases, we will retain minimum personal data to note that you opted out in order to avoid contacting you again. Please note that even if you opt out from receiving marketing communications, you might still receive administrative communications from us, such as technical updates for our products or services, order confirmations, notifications about your account activities, and other important notices.
If you have questions or concerns about your privacy, please write to us:
SGS Group Germany
Legal Department
Heidenkampsweg 99
D-20097 Hamburg
t: +49 40 301 01 - 0
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
SGS continually strives to improve its service to its current or potential customers and job applicants.