Privacy policy

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 to, registering to or purchasing services from onlineservices.sgs.com so that you can make informed choices about the use of your personal data by SGS.

When this statement refers to “SGS”, “us” or “we”, it means the SGS Affiliate as the controller of your data, with which you had, have or will have a business relationship and that may process your personal data for that purpose. You may access the list of SGS Affiliates by visiting SGS Global Office Directory. It also means SGS Digital SA which is managing this website and processing your data in accordance with this Statement.

This website may link to other SGS websites for the purchase of specific digital services. Those websites may have privacy statements that differ from this one and/or contain additional information. Please refer to the privacy statements on the sites you visit in order to understand how they collect and process your personal data.

SGS reserves the right to update this statement from time to time by publishing a new version online. This statement was created in October 2018.

What Personal Data do we collect and for which purpose

SGS collects personal data that you provide to us directly when:

  1. You create an Account to benefit from our services and online shopping experience

When you create such account, we collect your personal data such as name; email address; password; Country and Language preference determined by the extended URL from the SGS page you create your account. If you decided to create an Account with your social media account, we may receive the social media profile details you either choose to share with us or that we will collect automatically such as your contact details data and job title. In addition, if you are registering as a professional (i.e. business customer, supplier and/or business partner), we may also collect the following additional information: Company name, Company address, Company phone number, Organization Type, Job title/specialty, Customer Account number. We use this Personal Data in order to create and maintain your SGS Account and allowing us to perform our contractual obligations to which you are a party to.

  1. You Purchase our services on line

When you purchase SGS services in our online store, we collect the following personal information: Invoice address; Phone number; Invoice history, which includes an overview of SGS services purchased; Details of conversations that you may have with the Customer Care departments around your purchase questions or online shop experience questions; Details of your registered service, such as the type of service, date of purchase and proof of purchase. If you sign in with your SGS Account, your Purchase and Registration Data will be added to your SGS Account. If you purchase SGS products/services as a ‘guest’ we will use your Purchase & Registration Data to fulfil your purchase but will not add the information to your SGS Account. We use this Personal Data in order to create and maintain your SGS Account and allowing us to perform our contractual obligations to which you are party to.

  1. When you sign up for marketing and promotional communications

When you sign up for marketing and promotional communications, we will collect the following personal data: email address; title, your SGS Account Data (if you have already one), your interaction with SGS Pages, the emails you clicked and opened and attendance of events. We will use your personal data based on your consent to send you, as a registered user and client, promotional communications – based on your preferences and behaviour – about SGS services, events and promotions relating to the services you have purchased. SGS group companies may contact you with promotional communications via email, SMS and other digital channels, such as mobile apps and social media. To be able to tailor the communications to your preferences and behaviour and provide you with the best, personalized experience, we may analyse and combine all information associated with your Account Data and data about your interactions with SGS. We also use this information to create segments of our audience showing which of our products and/or services users are interested in and track success of our marketing efforts. SGS will give you the opportunity to withdraw your consent at any time via the unsubscribe link at the bottom of each promotional communications email you may receive from us. Where SGS processes your Personal Data based on consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before withdrawing your consent. In order to do so, please complete our online privacy request form by indicating that your request relates to a service purchased on line. The promotional communications you receive may originate from the Affiliate with whom you had a contractual relationship with or from SGS Digital SA.

  1. When you browse our website

SGS also collects personal data automatically when you visit our website. This may include: device information such as IP address, referring website, SGS pages your device visited and the time that your device visited our website; Internet log information and details, collected through our third parties such as Google Analytics, that does not specifically identify you; Information collected by cookies. We use this personal data based on our legitimate interest to improve our Services and to enhance your user experience by sending tailor advertising to your interests. We also do this in order to have a general overview of the category of audiences that are interested in which of our Services. You can delete cookies; while certain cookies are necessary for viewing and navigating on our website, most of the features will be still accessible without cookies. For further information about the use of cookies or other similar technologies used and your choices regarding cookies, please read our Cookie Notice.

Who do we share your personal data with

SGS shares and transfers your personal data as described here and only in accordance with all privacy practices and local privacy requirements. The following are the parties with whom we may share personal information and why:

  • To other SGS Group companies and those companies in which SGS owns more than 50% where it is necessary to meet the purpose for which you have submitted your personal data and in particular if necessary for the provision of services, account administration, sales, marketing and support. We take steps to ensure that SGS Affiliates, including the ones located outside the European Economic Area, follow our global data protection policy, this privacy statement and applicable local law when handling personal data. When you interact with SGS as a business customer, supplier or business partner, SGS may disclose Personal Data available in reports and other materials provided by you and/or your company pursuant to an engagement with another business partner and/or a supplier.

  • Occasionally to third party contractors and providers which perform certain functions on behalf of SGS, such as picking up and delivering samples, fulfilling inspection orders, sending email, removing repetitive information from client lists, analyzing data and processing credit card payments, direct marketing services, and cloud hosting services. These parties only have access to such information as necessary to perform their functions and may not use it for any purpose other than to provide services to us.

  • SGS may also use and disclose your Personal Data as we believe to be necessary or appropriate to do so, including to (i) comply with any laws, regulations, or governmental or legal requests for such information; (ii) in the event of a merger, sale, restructure or acquisition (iii) to enforce our terms and conditions; and iv) to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property, and/or that of our affiliates or subsidiaries, you or others.

How Personal Data Is Protected

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:

  • Physical safeguards, with locked doors and file cabinets, controlled access to our facilities and secure destruction of media containing your personal data
  • Technology safeguards, like the use of anti-virus and endpoint protection software, and monitoring of our systems and data centers to ensure that they comply with our security policies
  • Organizational safeguards, like training and awareness programs on security and privacy, to make sure employees understand the importance and means by which they must protect your personal data

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.

SGS will retain your personal data for the period of time that is necessary to fulfill 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: (i) How long is the data needed to provide you with our products or services or to operate our business? (ii) Do you have an account with us? In this case, we will keep your data while your account is active or for as long as needed to provide the services to you; (iii) Are we subject to a legal, contractual, or similar obligation to retain your data? Examples can include mandatory data retention laws in the applicable jurisdiction, government orders to preserve data relevant to an investigation, or data that must be retained for the purposes of contract or litigation.

How You Can Access and Control Your Personal Data

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 onlineservices.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”:

  • Access to personal information: you have the right to request what personal data we hold about you subject to our right to identity verification. If you request a copy of your data, we may charge you a fee, except where this is not permissible under local law.
  • Correction and deletion: in some jurisdictions, including the EU (according to data protection laws for data subjects in the EU), you have the right to correct or amend your personal data if it is inaccurate or needs to be updated. You may also have the right to request the deletion of your personal information, however this may not be always possible due to legal requirements and other obligations to keep such data. If we are asked to delete your data, we may keep some minimal information about you to be able to demonstrate that we have fulfilled our obligations.
  • Filing a complaint: Any complaints about our adherence to the practices described in this Statement shall be addressed as described here. In some jurisdictions, including according to data protection laws in the EU for complaints issued from subjects in the EU, you have the right to lodge a formal complaint with a data protection authority.
  • Unsubscribe from marketing communications: SGS may send you regular marketing communications about our services, via different channels such as email, phone, SMS, postal mailings and third-party social networks, in accordance with relevant marketing laws. At any point in time when you receive those communications you will be able to unsubscribe from receiving such communications via the unsubscribe link at the bottom of each promotional communications email you may receive from us. 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.

How You Can Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about your privacy, please write to us: