Merz’s Privacy Policy

Effective date: 5 July 2024

Merz Aesthetics (or “us”, “we” and “our”) values privacy and is committed to sharing how Merz Aesthetics collects, uses, shares, secures and retains/deletes your personal information. This Privacy Policy describes how a company/entity of Merz Aesthetics located within the Asia Pacific region (“Region”) handles personal information, what data we collect, why we collect it, and with whom we share it.

If you are from a country outside the Region, please visit merzaesthetics.com to identify the affiliate that does business where you live.

Responsibility   

Merz Aesthetics takes responsibility for processing personal information about you that is collected or otherwise used as you use this website (“Site”) or in services provided by Merz Aesthetics in the process of conducting general business (“Services”). Trust is an important Merz Aesthetics value, and we aim to earn your trust not just by providing safe, effective pharmaceuticals and medical devices but also by responsibly managing your personal information.

Why We Process Personal Information

Like most companies, we process your personal information for legitimate and lawful reasons related to providing our goods and services to you. We describe the data we process and the reasons for doing so below.

Merz Aesthetics adheres to applicable local and regional privacy laws in the countries where we do business. We process your personal information in adherence with the local legal provisions applicable to the respective Merz Aesthetics company/entity. In the event any of the provisions in this Privacy Policy are inconsistent with the local legal provisions applicable to the respective Merz Aesthetics company/entity, such local legal provisions will prevail to the extent of the inconsistency.

Types of Information We Collect About You

Personal information is information or data about an individual who can be identified (a) from that data; or (b) from that data and other information to which Merz Aesthetics has or is likely to have access. Merz Aesthetics collects the following types of information and/or personal information:

  • Contact and Basic Information
  • Registration Information
  • Financial Information
  • Marketing Data
  • Client Service Information
  • Device Data
  • Job Applicant Data

Sources of Personal Information

All categories of personal information may be collected for our general business use (“General Business Use”), including but not limited to:

  • Through a consumer or physician portal(s)
  • From visitors to a Merz Aesthetics website or application
  • From those who apply to work at Merz Aesthetics
  • To complete a sales transaction
  • To honor an agreement or contract between you and Merz Aesthetics
  • To protect the security and integrity of our websites, mobile services, and our business
  • To comply with legal and/or regulatory requirements
  • To conduct clinical and research operations
  • To respond to reviews, requests, comments, or other feedback you provide us; and
  • To, if necessary, prosecute or defend a legal claim

Purposes for which Merz Aesthetics uses Personal Information

The purposes for which Merz Aesthetics uses personal information and the basis for such use are:

  • Management of our business operations
  • Communication and Public Relations
  • Marketing and Sales
  • System Administration and Data security
  • Compliance with Legal and Regulatory Obligations
  • Clinical Operations

(See table below for more detail as to how we use personal information)

Sharing Your Personal information

Merz Aesthetics does not sell, trade, or rent data to third-party organizations. Merz Aesthetics will share your personal information with third-party organizations with which we partner to provide you with Merz Aesthetics products and services, and as described in the table provided below. Merz Aesthetics may share personal information with third parties to help manage our business and provide goods and services to our customers. Merz Aesthetics may use service providers to host, maintain, and operate the websites, manage social media profiles, send communications, conduct research, manage, and analyze data. If we share your personal information with third-party service providers, we do not authorize them to use or disclose it for any purpose other than the intended purpose.

Cookie Technology

Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer or server that exchange settings-related information with Merz Aesthetics’ systems. A cookie normally contains the name of the domain from which the cookie data were sent, information about the cookie’s age, and an alphanumeric identifier. This Site uses aggregate cookie data to analyze and improve our website’s relevance and your user experience.

Cookies are used to collect information about how you navigate our Site and what specific areas and products interest you. The information stored in the cookies is neither used to identify you nor is it combined with other stored personal information about you.

You can deactivate or restrict the transmission of cookies or delete any cookies already stored. If you choose to deactivate or delete cookies for the Merz Aesthetics websites, you may not be able to make full use of all the Site’s functions.

Online Advertising to Promote Our Products

Merz Aesthetics uses third-party vendor remarketing tracking tools, including Facebook Pixel, to serve ads about Merz Aesthetics products online. These ads appear on Facebook, Google products, and on sites across the Internet. The third-party vendors use cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies to tailor the ads based on your past visits to our website and elsewhere online and to measure ad conversion. If you have asked for more information about our products by providing us your contact information on our website, we may share that with social media providers to serve you ads with information about our products.

Google Analytics

Where applicable, we use Google Analytics to understand how users interact with our Site and to improve how our business communicates its commercial message online. The provider of this service is Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Google Analytics uses cookies, which send anonymized or truncated personal information to a Google server in the U.S. The information about our Sites generated by a Google Analytics cookie helps us evaluate the use of the Site, compile reports on activity, and provide us with other services relating to website activity and internet usage.

You can find more information about Google’s data protection practices and terms of use by visiting Google’s websites here. You can prevent Google from collecting and processing cookie-generated data relating to your use of a website by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available here.

Google Maps

Where applicable, our Site uses Google Maps API, which uses your location to provide additional services and features that you choose to interact with—for example, displaying the locations of Merz Aesthetics companies and medical specialists near you. If you access Google Maps on Merz Aesthetics websites, technical data about your accessing system (e.g., your postal code or IP address) may be transmitted to servers of Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043.

If you do not wish to use Google Maps you should not use the integrated Google Maps feature on our websites or enter your address into the medical specialist locator tool (where applicable).

Google Fonts

Where applicable, in order to reduce the loading times, some of our Sites use fonts (“Google Fonts”) downloaded from the servers of Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Generally, if you access one of our Sites, then anonymous technical data about your accessing system will be transmitted to Google where it is cached and stored for one day.

YouTube Videos

Where applicable, our Site sometimes displays YouTube videos. YouTube is a service offered by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. You can prevent the transmission of your data to Google by not clicking on the YouTube videos integrated into the Site.

Facebook Pixel

Where applicable, our Site uses remarketing pixels from Facebook Inc, 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. When you visit our Site, Facebook may use a storage technology called a pixel to collect information about your visit from our Site and elsewhere on the Internet. Facebook then uses that information to provide measurement services and target ads to you and to others like you. You can learn how to opt-out from the Facebook Pixel on our Site and on other websites by visiting Facebook’s website here.

Data We Collect on Social Media

Our websites include social media features, such as the Facebook share button. These features may collect your IP address and which page you are visiting on our site and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. For more information on how these social media websites or other third parties are using your personal information, you can read the privacy policy of that organization. To understand more about how Merz Aesthetics collects and uses your personal information when you engage with Merz Aesthetics on social media, such as a Facebook page, click here.

Protection of Personal Information

Merz Aesthetics uses reasonable security arrangements to secure personal information from unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification or disposal, or similar risks. No method of protection is 100% foolproof. 

Collection Of Information from Minors or Children

We direct our website and services towards adults. They are not intended for children or minors. We do not knowingly collect information about children under the age of 13. A parent or guardian of a child may contact us at the contact details stated under the section “Your Data Rights” below with any request regarding information about your child.

Cross Border Data Transfers

Though this site is intended for use in the countries where we do business in the Region, we know access is not limited to this Region. As a result, Merz Aesthetics may transfer personal information from countries with similar or greater data protection measures in place as your country of residence. Merz Aesthetics may also share your information within our family of companies and/or third-party organizations with which we partner for a variety of purposes, such as, to provide you with the latest information about our products and services and offer you our latest promotions. This may involve the transfer of personal information to other locations outside your home country to other Merz Aesthetics companies/entities or to third-party organizations with which we partner in different locations around the world. By using this website, you understand your information may be transferred to the United States or to other countries where Merz Aesthetics conducts business or where the third-party organizations with which we partner located. Merz Aesthetics makes every effort to adhere to international data transfer laws and place adequate measures to protect such personal information. Where we transfer your personal data, we ensure that your data is transferred in accordance with the legal provisions applicable at the location where the respective Merz Aesthetics company/entity that you engage is located, to the extent permitted by applicable law.

Your Data Rights

You may have a right to know what we do with your data. You may have the right to request to access, review, correct, update, hide, delete, or restrict the processing of your personal information. If you no longer want to receive communications from Merz Aesthetics, you may opt out of any electronic communication. If you do object to Merz Aesthetics processing your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy, send your concern to the respective person in charge of data protection related questions of the local Merz Aesthetics company/entity at your location with whom you are engaged at the following email addresses. We ask you to send such requests in written form stating your name, address, and phone number, so that we can confirm your identity.

Contact Details of Privacy Officer(s) in Asia Pacific

 

Location

 

Email Address

Australia[1] and New Zealand[2]

privacy_australia@merz.com

Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan Region

Mainland China: privacycn@merz.com

Hong Kong: privacyhk@merz.com

Taiwan: privacytw@merz.com

Indonesia

privacyin@merz.com

South Korea

privacykr@merz.kr

Singapore

privacysg@merz.com

Thailand

privacyth@merz.com

All other APAC locations not listed herein

privacyapac@merz.com

  References:

[1] For residents in Australia, please note that there are some exceptions to your right to gain access to your information as provided under the Australian Privacy Principles Guidelines, including but not limited to: providing access would have an unreasonable impact upon the privacy of other individuals; or the request for access is frivolous or vexatious; or the information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings between you and us, and the information would not be accessible by the process of discovery in those proceedings; or providing access would be unlawful. If you do not receive a response to your request in a reasonable time frame or are otherwise unhappy with our handling of your request, you may lodge a complaint with The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner. Details of how to make a complaint can be found at www.oaic.gov.au

2 For residents in New Zealand, please note that under the Privacy Act 1993, if you are not satisfied with our response to any privacy-related concern you may have, you can contact the Privacy Commissioner. Details of how to make a complaint can be found at https://www.privacy.org.nz

Retention Period

Merz Aesthetics will retain your personal information for as long as you are a customer, patient, and as long as our legal, business and/or ethical obligations require Merz Aesthetics to maintain such data. For instance, Merz Aesthetics retains your information for business purposes, for as long as your account is active, or as long as is reasonably necessary to provide you with our products and services.

Changes to the Data Privacy Policy

Merz Aesthetics may review and update this Privacy Policy periodically without any prior notice.

Table 1 – Categories, Sources, Collection, Processing and Purposes of Processing Personal information

Categories of personal information we may collect

Sources of that personal information

Data elements we may collect

Purposes for collecting this data

Categories of third parties with which we may share this data

Contact information

You

Your authorized representative

Healthcare providers and their staff

Name

Post office box and/or street address

Telephone numbers

Email addresses

To communicate with you

To send you messages about doing business with us

To send you marketing and promotional communications

To process payment or loyalty points

For market research

To advertise and market Merz Aesthetics and Merz Aesthetics related products to you via email and social media

For General Business Use

Our affiliated companies

Our service providers

Healthcare providers who use Merz Aesthetics products and social media companies, but only if you have initiated the transaction or otherwise agreed

To government agencies, if required by law

Authentication information

You

Usernames and passwords

To provide you with secure access to certain websites and tools

Our affiliated companies

Our service providers

Third-party authentication services, such as Google or

Facebook (who may also use the data to deliver ads on their own platform), but only if you consent or direct us to do so

Unique identifiers

You

Your healthcare provider, if you permit it

Third parties, such as ad delivery and social media companies, who place cookies containing advertising IDs on your device

Merz Aesthetics identification number, customer number, account number, Merz Aesthetics loyalty number

Device identifier

Advertising ID

Online user ID

IP address

Social Security number

Signature

Voice imprint

To identify you or your device, including to associate you with different devices that you may use

For recordkeeping and reporting

To track your use of products, services, websites, including for ad delivery and personalization

For market research purposes

To send marketing and promotional communications

For General Business Use

Our affiliated companies

Our service providers

To government agencies, if required by law

Financial information

You

Payment processors or financial institutions

Consumer reporting agencies

Bank account number if you have directed us to collect it for automatic payments

Payment card information if you provide it to our payment card processors

Credit reporting if you ask us for financing

We maintain this information as part of transactions we do with you in order to fulfill our business relationship with you

For required financial record keeping

For General Business Use

Our affiliated companies

Our service providers

Our payment card processors

Our financial institutions

Credit reporting agencies

To government agencies, if required by law

Relationship information

You

Service providers and third parties that provide information that helps us understand our customers, including

Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) platform entities and public records providers

Third parties that provide access to information you make publicly available, such as social media companies

We may also infer information about you based on your past interactions with us

Personal characteristics and preferences, such as your age range, gender, marital and family status, shopping preferences, languages spoken,

loyalty and rewards program data, household demographic data, information from social media profiles and activities such as “likes” and emoticons, and preferences for being contacted

To better understand you and to understand our customers generally

To design, develop, market, sell, and/or improve our products, services, and programs, including loyalty programs

To send marketing and promotional communications

To identify prospective customers

For market research purposes

For internal business purposes, such as quality control, training, and analytics

For our General Business Use

Our affiliated companies

Our service providers

Third parties with whom we have joint marketing, copromotion, distribution, or similar arrangements

To government agencies, if required by law

Transaction information

You

Third parties that transact business with us such as distributors or resellers

Customer account information, shipping, and billing information, lot number, purchase history, and related records (e.g., returns, product service records, records of payments)

Marketing and ad campaign data and history

Patient engagement and support data

Customer service records

To fulfill our business relationship with you, including customer service and performance of agreements

For recordkeeping and compliance, including dispute resolution

To design, develop, market, sell, and/or improve our products, services

For market research purposes

To send marketing and promotional communications

For our General Business Use

Our affiliated companies

Our service providers

Third parties who transact business on our behalf

To government agencies, if required by law

Online or technical information

You and from your computer or devices

IP, MAC, and SSID addresses or persistent identifiers

Device characteristics (such as browser information)

Web Server Logs

Browsing Data

Viewing Data

First- and third-party cookies, including ad IDs

Flash and Silverlight cookies

Web beacons, clear gifs, and pixel tags

Preference management including opt-in and opt-out management

For system administration, technology management, including optimizing our websites and applications and data analytics

For recordkeeping

To design, develop, and/or improve our products, services, and programs, including loyalty programs

To better understand our customers and prospective customers

When you consent through our cookie banner, for online targeting and advertising purposes where advertisements are placed on other websites when you visit

For market research purposes

For our General Business Use

Our affiliated companies

Our service providers

Third-party network advertising partners who may, in turn, disclose to additional advertising providers or social media companies, but only if you consent through our cookie consent banner or your web browser settings permit it

To government agencies, if required by law

Audio, Electronic or Visual information

You

Photographs and video images that you provide

To fulfill a contract with you

If you consent, for use on social media and in other marketing or advertising materials.

Video Conference calls.

Audio and/or video recordings from participation in online meetings, live social media or Merz Aesthetics sponsored meetings.

Our affiliated companies

Our service providers

Third-party network advertising partners who may, in turn, disclose to additional advertising providers or social media companies, but only if you consent through our cookie consent banner or your web browser settings permit it

To government agencies, if required by law