We take your privacy very seriously. Please read this privacy policy carefully as it contains important information on who we are, how and why we collect, store, use, and share your personal information. It also explains your rights in relation to your personal information and how to contact us or supervisory authorities in the event you have a complaint. We collect, use and are responsible for certain personal information about you. When we do so we are subject to various laws in the United States and the General Data Protection Regulation which applies across the European Union (including in the United Kingdom), and we are responsible as “controller” of that personal information for the purposes of those laws.

1. Key Terms.

It would be helpful to start by explaining some key terms used in this policy:

• We, us, our means Bench Talent Cloud, Inc.
• Personal Information means Any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual.

2. Personal Information We Collect About You.

We may collect and use the following personal information:

• Identifiers (e.g., a real name, alias, postal address, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, account name, or other similar identifiers);
• Information that identifies and enables us to verify your identity (e.g., your date of birth);
• Your billing and payment information (e.g., bank account number, credit or debit card number, or any other financial information);
• Your gender;
• Your personal or professional interests;
• Internet or other electronic network activity information (e.g., browsing history, search history, and information regarding a consumer’s interaction with an Internet Web site, application, or advertisement);
• Your professional or employment-related information.

This personal information is required to provide products and services to you. If you do not provide personal information we ask for, it may delay or prevent us from providing products and services to you.

3. How Your Personal Information is Collected.

We collect most of this personal information directly from you—in person, by telephone, text or email and/or via our website. However, we may also collect information:

• From publicly accessible sources (e.g., property records);
• Directly from a third party (e.g., sanctions screening providers, credit reporting agencies, or customer due diligence providers);
• From a third party with your consent (e.g., your bank);
• From cookies on our website; and
• Via our IT systems.

4. How and Why We Use Your Personal Information.

Under data protection law, we can only use your personal information if we have a proper reason for doing so, e.g.,:

• To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
• For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract;
• From a third party with your consent (e.g., your bank);
• For our legitimate interests or those of a third party; or
• Where you have given consent.

A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.

See below for what we use (process) your personal information for and our reasons for doing so:

• To provide products and services to you for the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract;
• For our legitimate interests or those of a third party to prevent and detect fraud against you or us (i.e. to minimize fraud that could be damaging for us and for you);
• Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
• For our legitimate interests or those of a third party for operational reasons such as improving efficiency, training and quality control (i.e. to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price);
• For our legitimate interests or those of a third party to prevent unauthorized access and modifications to systems (i.e. to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for us and for you and to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations);
• Updating and enhancing customer records for the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract, compliance with our legal and regulatory obligations, or our legitimate interests or those of a third party - e.g. making sure that we can keep in touch with our customers about existing orders and new products;
• Ensuring safe working practices, staff administration and assessments to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, and for our legitimate interests or those of a third party (e.g. to make sure we are following our own internal procedures and working efficiently so we can deliver the best service to you); and
• Marketing our services to existing and former customers, third parties who have previously expressed an interest in our services, and third parties with whom we have had no previous dealings for our legitimate interests or those of a third party (i.e. to promote our business to existing and former customers).

5. Promotional Communications.

We may use your personal information to send you updates (by email, text message, telephone or post) about our products and services, including exclusive offers, promotions or new products and services.

We have a legitimate interest in processing your personal information for promotional purposes (see above “How and Why We Use Your Personal Information”). This means we do not usually need your consent to send you promotional communications. However, where consent is needed, we will ask for this consent separately and clearly.

We will always treat your personal information with the utmost respect and never sell OR share it with other organizations.

You have the right to opt out of receiving promotional communications at any time by:

• Contacting us at contact@benchtalentcloud.com;
• Using the “unsubscribe” link in emails or “STOP” number in texts; or
• Updating your marketing preferences.

We may ask you to confirm or update your marketing preferences if you instruct us to provide further products and services in the future, or if there are changes in the law, regulation, or the structure of our business.

6. Who We Share Your Personal Information With.

We routinely share personal information with:

• Our affiliates;
• Service providers we use to help deliver our products and services to you, such as payment service providers, warehouses and delivery companies;
• Other third parties we use to help us run our business, such as marketing agencies or website hosts;
• Third parties approved by you, including social media sites you choose to link your account to or third-party payment providers;
• Credit reporting agencies;
• Our insurers and brokers;
• Our bank(s).

We only allow our service providers to handle your personal information if we are satisfied they take appropriate measures to protect your personal information. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers relating to ensure they can only use your personal information to provide services to us and to you. We may also share personal information with external auditors, e.g. in relation to ISO accreditation and the audit of our accounts.

We may disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We may also need to share some personal information with other parties, such as potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a restructuring. We will typically anonymize information, but this may not always be possible. The recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.

We will not share your personal information with any other third party.

7. No Sale of Personal Information.

We have not sold or disclosed to a third party any personal information that identifies, relates to, describes, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household.

8. How Long Your Personal Information Will Be Kept.

We will keep your personal information while you have an account with us or while we are providing products and services to you. Thereafter, we will keep your personal information for as long as is necessary:

• To respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf;
• To show that we treated you fairly; or
• To keep records required by law.

We will not retain your personal information for longer than necessary for the purposes set out in this policy. Different retention periods apply for different types of personal information.

9. Transferring Your Personal Information Out of the EEA.

To deliver services to you, it is sometimes necessary for us to share your personal information outside the European Economic Area (EEA). These transfers are subject to special rules under European and UK data protection law.

If you would like further information, please contact us (see “How To Contact Us” below).

10. Your Rights Under the GDPR.

• Right to Access: The right to be provided with a copy of your personal information;
• Right to Rectification: The right to require us to correct any mistakes in your personal information;
• Right to be Forgotten: The right to require us to delete your personal information—in certain situations;
• Right to Restriction of Processing: The right to require us to restrict processing of your personal information—in certain circumstances (e.g. if you contest the accuracy of the data);
• Right to Data Portability: The right to receive the personal information you provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and/or transmit that data to a third party—in certain situations;
• Right to Object: The right to object at any time to your personal information being processed for direct marketing (including profiling); in certain other situations to our continued processing of your personal information (e.g. processing carried out for the purpose of our legitimate interests);
• Right Not to be Subject to Automated Individual Decision-Making: The right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.

For further information on each of those rights, including the circumstances in which they apply, see the guidance from the UK Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) on individual rights under the General Data Protection Regulation.

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us (see “How to Contact Us” below) and include as much information as possible so we can better assist you with your request. This includes providing enough information for us to identify you and prove your identity. Also let us know what right you want to exercise and the information to which your request relates.

11. Your Rights Under the CCPA.

You may have the right under the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA) and certain other privacy and data protection laws, as applicable, to exercise free of charge.

DISCLOSURE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU

You have the right to know:

• The categories of personal information we have collected about you;
• The categories of sources from which the personal information is collected;
• Our business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling personal information;
• The categories of third parties with whom we share personal information, if any; and
• The specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you.

Please note that we are not required to:

• Retain any personal information about you that was collected for a single one-time transaction if, in the ordinary course of business, that information about you is not retained;
• Reidentify or otherwise link any data that, in the ordinary course of business, is not maintained in a manner that would be considered personal information; or
• Provide the personal information to you more than twice in a 12-month period.

PERSONAL INFORMATION SOLD OR USED FOR A BUSINESS PURPOSE

In connection with any personal information we may sell or disclose to a third party for a business purpose, you have the right to know:

The categories of personal information about you that we sold and the categories of third parties to whom the personal information was sold; and

The categories of personal information that we disclosed about you for a business purpose.

You may have the right under the CCPA and certain other privacy and data protection laws, as applicable, to opt-out of the sale or disclosure of your personal information. If you exercise your right to opt-out of the sale or disclosure of your personal information, we will refrain from selling your personal information, unless you subsequently provide express authorization for the sale of your personal information. To opt-out of the sale or disclosure of your personal information, email contact@benchtalentcloud.com.

RIGHT TO DELETION

Subject to certain exceptions set out below, on receipt of a verifiable request from you, we will:

• Delete your personal information from our records; and
• Direct any service providers to delete your personal information from their records.

Please note that we may not delete your personal information if it is necessary to:

• Complete the transaction for which the personal information was collected, fulfill the terms of a written warranty or product recall conducted in accordance with federal law, provide a good or service requested by you, or reasonably anticipated within the context of our ongoing business relationship with you, or otherwise perform a contract between you and us;
• Detect security incidents, protect against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity; or prosecute those responsible for that activity;
• Debug to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality;
• Exercise free speech, ensure the right of another consumer to exercise his or her right of free speech, or exercise another right provided for by law;
• Comply with the California Electronic Communications Privacy Act;
• Engage in public or peer-reviewed scientific, historical, or statistical research in the public interest that adheres to all other applicable ethics and privacy laws, when our deletion of the information is likely to render impossible or seriously impair the achievement of such research, provided we have obtained your informed consent;
• Enable solely internal uses that are reasonably aligned with your expectations based on your relationship with us;
• Comply with an existing legal obligation; or
• Otherwise use your personal information, internally, in a lawful manner that is compatible with the context in which you provided the information.

PROTECTION AGAINST DISCRIMINATION

You have the right to not be discriminated against by us because you exercised any of your rights under the CCPA. This means we cannot, among other things:

• Deny goods or services to you;
• Charge different prices or rates for goods or services, including through the use of discounts or other benefits or imposing penalties;
• Provide a different level or quality of goods or services to you; or
• Suggest that you will receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services.

Please note that we may charge a different price or rate or provide a different level or quality of goods and/or services to you, if that difference is reasonably related to the value provided to our business by your personal information.

12. Use of Cookies and Similar Technologies.

Cookies are small text files placed on your computer or other device by websites that you visit. Cookies are widely used in order to make websites and other applications work, or work more efficiently, and help them remember certain information and recognize your internet browser. Cookies may last until you close your browser (“session” cookies) or over repeat visits (“persistent” cookies).

We use cookies and similar technologies to:

• Assist you in efficiently and safely navigating and experiencing our services;
• Enable you to register, login, provide feedback and otherwise interact with our services;
• Store and honor your preferences and settings;
• Measure and analyze usage and performance data; and
• Assist us with promotional and marketing efforts (including interest-based advertising).

If you access any of our services subject to a subscription agreement or other contract between us and your organization, cookies and similar technologies will be used as necessary for the performance of that contract and for our legitimate business operations related to providing the service.

We use the following types of cookies:

• Strictly necessary cookies: These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
• Performance cookies: These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site.
• Functionality cookies: These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalization. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies, then some or all of these services may not function properly.
• Targeting cookies: These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
• Social media cookies: These cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies, you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
• Anonymized analytical cookies: These cookies ensure that anonymous data about your surfing behavior is collected every time you visit the website. This way we can see how visitors use the website and improve on that basis. We use anonymized analytical cookies for:some text
  • tracking the number of visitors to our web pages;
  • tracking the amount of time each visitor spends on our web pages;
  • keeping track of the order in which a visitor visits the different pages of our website;
  • assessing which parts of our site need updating;
  • measuring and optimizing the performance of our marketing campaigns;
  • redirecting traffic from different channels.

Details about the cookies set by our websites and by third parties, including service providers acting on our behalf, are listed directly on the site or in the cookie control tool made available on the site.

13. Keeping Your Personal Information Secure.

We have appropriate security measures in place to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorized way. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to access it.

14. How to Exercise Your Rights.

If you would like to exercise any of your rights as described in this Privacy Policy, please email us at contact@benchtalentcloud.com.

Please note that you may only make a CCPA-related data access or data portability disclosure request twice within a 12-month period.

We are not obligated to make a data access or data portability disclosure if we cannot verify that the person making the request is the person about whom we collected information, or is someone authorized to act on such person’s behalf.

Any personal information we collect from you to verify your identity in connection with you request will be used solely for the purposes of verification.

14. How to File a GDPR Complaint.

We hope that we can resolve any query or concern you raise about our use of your information.

The General Data Protection Regulation also gives you right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in the European Union (or European Economic Area) state where you work, normally live, or where any alleged infringement of data protection laws occurred.

15. Changes to This Privacy Notice.

This privacy notice was last updated on 05/29/24.

We may change this privacy notice from time to time–when we do, we will inform you via updating the website.

16. How to Contact Us.

Please contact us by email or telephone if you have any questions about this privacy policy or the information we hold about you.

contact@benchtalentcloud.com

17. Do You Need Extra Help?

If you would like this notice in another format please contact us (see “How to contact us” above).

‍