Summary of our online privacy commitment to you
Respect for the privacy of personal information about you is very important to MSD*. MSD is committed to collecting, maintaining, and securing personal information about you in accordance with this privacy policy (“policy”), as well as applicable laws, rules and regulations (including the Australian Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), the New Zealand Privacy Act 1993 and, in respect of certain health information, the New Zealand Health Information the New South Wales Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002, Victorian Health Records Act 2001, and ACT Health Records (Privacy and Access) Act 1997) (the “relevant privacy laws”).
This policy applies to personal information (as defined below) that is collected, held, used or disclosed by MSD in Australia, New Zealand or Australia’s external territories including via online resources and communications (such as websites, e-mail, forms, and other online and downloadable tools) that display a link to this policy. This policy does not apply to third-party resources to which MSD’s websites may link, where MSD does not control the content or the privacy practices of such resources. MSD may, in appropriate circumstances, rely on the exemptions that are available to it under the relevant privacy laws (including in respect of employee records and related bodies corporate).
This policy is consistent with MSD’s Safe Harbor Privacy Policy for transfers of personal information from the European Economic Area and from Switzerland to the United States. The adoption of MSD’s Safe Harbor Privacy Policy allows MSD to transfer personal information from the European Union and Switzerland to MSD’s affiliates in other countries in compliance with European Union and Swiss data protection laws. Any transfer of personal information outside of Australia and New Zealand will be done in accordance with this policy and the relevant privacy laws.
This policy should be read together with MSD’s Global Cross Border Privacy Rules Policy available at http://www.msd.com/privacy/cross-border-privacy-policy/
Please read this policy and MSD’s Global Cross Border Privacy Rules Policy carefully. If you have any questions about of these policies, complaints or concerns about our data collection, holding, use or disclosure practices, please contact us at the address provided below.
As referred to in this Privacy Policy, “MSD” means Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, USA its successors, subsidiaries, divisions and groups worldwide specifically including:
- Merck Sharp & Dohme (Australia) Pty Ltd;
- Merck Sharp & Dohme (New Zealand) Limited;
- Intervet Australia Pty Limited trading as MSD Animal Health;
- Schering-Plough Animal Health Limited,
excluding joint ventures to which MSD is a party.
When you contact MSD, MSD processes personal data under this Privacy Notice and in accordance with applicable legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679; the “GDPR”) and other applicable national data protection laws in Australia/New Zealand.
MSD will collect your contact information of choice (i.e., email address and/or phone number) for the primary purpose of responding to your inquiry and documenting any Adverse Events or Product Quality Complaints reported by you. In addition, MSD will save: the details of your medical inquiry, the method used to contact us (e.g., email, phone), your role as a customer (e.g., animal owner, veterinary healthcare professional), and the product(s) and/or disease state pertaining to your question. We will also log the response we provide to the inquiry. These data are collected for statistical purposes and enable the company to identify information gaps and future research needs as well as improve communication about our products. For quality assurance purposes, and to ensure compliance with all rules and regulations, we likewise document how we provide answers to different types of customers and the appropriateness of our responses. This information will not be linked back to you and will be saved for the above purposes as long as there is a business or regulatory need to do so.
The above information is ultimately collected based on MSD’s legitimate interest to ensure high quality customer service and enhance patient safety.
If you report an adverse event or other product experience which will need to be forwarded to regulatory authorities, we will collect relevant details about the animal (e.g., species breed, age) and product (e.g., dose and formulation). Preferably, we will gather as much complementary information as possible to better understand the circumstances of the event. For instance, it is often essential for us to inquire about the animal’s general medical history, including any prior health ailments, current conditions/diseases, and concomitant products administered. Again, the central purpose of requesting these details is to monitor the performance of our products, maximizing their safe and effective use in all patients.
The information that we collect is based on our company’s legal requirements to document adverse and other reportable events, and it is intended for the interest of public and veterinary health. You decide how much data you choose to share with us. The quality of our service in responding to your inquiry will not be compromised if you choose not to share data.
Is data transferred or disclosed to third parties?
Since MSD is a global corporation, your data may be shared internally with the business units responsible for: processing adverse event reports, managing product quality complaints, and responding to veterinary information inquiries. These units could be located anywhere in the world.
Your data may be transferred to and processed by third-parties which perform services for MSD (data processors) to enable these companies to perform the services requested by MSD. Only the personal data that is necessary for the third party to fulfill the services will be supplied to these companies. All third-party providers must adhere to applicable written data processor agreements and implement appropriate technical and organizational measures for the protection of personal data.
If applicable, your data will also be reported to global regulatory authorities in an anonymized format as required by law and for the interest of public health.
We will not disclose personal data to any other third parties unless required to do so under the Data Protection Law or other laws or in order to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.
Where is your data processed?
We primarily process personal data locally and on servers located in the United States, and as such we need to transfer your information to a location outside of the EU/EEA. The level of information protection in countries outside the EU/EEA may be lower than that offered within the EEA. Where this is the case, we will implement appropriate measures under the GDPR to ensure that your personal information remains protected and secure.
It is important to note that MSD complies with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information transferred from the European Union to the United States. MSD has certified to the U.S. Department of Commerce that it adheres to the Privacy Shield Principles. In addition, MSD has entered into Binding Corporate Rules, which have been approved in the European Union, that permit the transfer of personal information throughout the world to any other affiliate within the MSD group of companies (which includes a MSD affiliated company in the United States).
Your rights
You have the right to request access to the personal data which MSD processes about you. Moreover, you have the right to request that incorrect or complete personal data is corrected. You also have the right to, at any time, withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal data, with future effect. If you revoke your consent, MSD will continue to process your personal data based on legal requirements of minimum criteria to report adverse events and save cases totally anonymised instead. If you do not wish to provide your data, the services provided by MSD will be unaffected to the extent possible.
Contact us
MSD is the controller of the personal data for the purposes described above.
If you have questions or concerns regarding the processing of your personal data, please contact MSD. MSD has also appointed a data protection officer whom you can contact on the following contact details:
The Privacy Officer, Locked Bag 2234, North Ryde, NSW 1670, T +61 2 8988 8000, E PrivacyOfficeANZ@merck.com
The Privacy Officer, Po Box 99-851, Newmarket, Auckland 1149, T +64 9 523 6000, E PrivacyOfficeANZ@merck.com