Privacy Statement

 

1. Introduction

 

Thank you for your interest in this website. Merck, Inc. (“Merck”, “we”, “us” or “our”) values and protects your privacy rights.

 

This privacy statement describes what Personal Data is collected from users (“you” or “the user”) through (www.thyroid.ph) (“the website”) and how we use such Personal Data.

 

This privacy statement also describes your rights and how you can execute them.

 

Personal Information is information through which you can be directly or indirectly identified, e.g. your name, your patient ID, your address or information on your treatment.

 

2. What Personal Data do we collect and for which purposes do we use it?

 

The website does not allows the collection of personal data manually introduced by the user.

 

3. Sharing personal data with third parties

 

We transfer Personal Data to third parties when we have your express consent, when required to deliver services that you ordered, or when we engage service providers that use Personal Data on our behalf and according to our instructions. As a global organization, we also share Personal Data with other Merck group companies; all Merck group companies will process Personal Data in accordance with this privacy statement.

 

Sometimes, Personal Data is transferred to recipients outside of the Philippines. In these cases, we undertake to ensure an adequate protection of Personal Data according to Philippine and local regulations.

 

4. Data retention

 

We will retain Personal Data as required by legal obligation or for the period of time that is required to provide a service you have requested or as agreed in applicable consent (i.e. as long as required for the specific business purpose or purposes for which it was collected). This means:

 

Data which we collect when we engage with you (such as attended events, emails sent) are stored for a period of two years.

 

We may be obliged to store some data for a longer time (e.g. in cases of pharmacovigilance). In this case, we will ensure that your data will not be used for direct marketing purposes.

 

5. Right to access, review, correct and object

 

You are entitled to review and rectify any incorrect or outdated Personal Data we store, and you may withdraw your consent to the use of your data at any time, affecting all future use. You can also request a copy of information we store about you. All you need to do is to send an e-mail to: privacy@merckgroup.com or to Merck, Inc.’s Local Data Privacy Officer at ningning.adolfo@merckgroup.com. Furthermore, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection authority and/or to be indemnified for any damages sustained due to inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, false, unlawfully obtained or unauthorized use of personal data.

 

6. Security

 

We follow industry standard practices and implement reasonable and appropriate organizational, physical, and technical security measures on how to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of data, always complying with applicable laws e.g. by access controls. We strive to update our security measures on a regular basis to keep track of new industry standards. Our data protection measures are continually audited and updated, reflecting the state of the art and the technical developments.

 

7. Cookies used on this website

 

This page uses cookies. Cookies are widely used in order to make websites work, or work more efficiently, as well as to recognize devices on subsequent visits to provide information to the owners of the site.

 

These Cookies help us in analyzing the use of the website in order to improve and optimize the way our sites work. For example, we may use these types of Cookies to ensure that visitors can easily find the information they are looking for on our sites.

 

Analytics Cookies, like Google Analytics also help us measure the performance of our advertising campaigns and to optimize our sites’ content for those who engage with our advertising.

 

One way you can manage the acceptance of Cookies is through your browser’s settings. Most browsers allow control of Cookies through the browser settings (please note that if you use your browser settings to block all Cookies you may not be able to access parts of our web-sites). The following list provides information on how to adjust the Cookies settings on some popular browsers:

 

• Apple Safari

• Google Chrome

• Microsoft Internet Explorer

• Mozilla Firefox

 

Specific information regarding Google Analytics

 

We use cookies from Google Analytics to track and examine how our website is used and how we may improve it. Google Analytics is a web analysis service provided by Google Inc., located in the USA. In order to protect your identity, the last octet (eight bit characters) of your IP address will be removed prior to its storage. This is usually taking place within the European Union. Only in exceptional cases will the whole IP address be first transferred to a Google server in the USA and truncated there. Google and Merck do not connect data from Google Analytics with any of your other Personal Data. You can opt-out from our collection of data by Google Analytics at any time by downloading and installing Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Addon for your current web browser: „http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de“. You can also opt-out from being tracked by Google Analytics with effect for the future

 

Specific information regarding Adobe Analytics

 

We also use Adobe Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Adobe Systems Software Ireland Limited (“Adobe”). Adobe Analytics uses Cookies in order to analyze overall traffic and usage patterns on behalf of Merck. The IP address collected by the Cookie is anonymized before geo-localization is performed. Adobe will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Adobe. You can prevent Adobe’s collection and use of data (Cookies and IP address) by making use of your options under http://www.adobe.com/privacy/opt-out.html

 

8. Social Media

 

Social plugins are integrated on certain webpages of our website, e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and/or Youtube. The social plugins are identified with the companies’ logo, comment fields or what are known as a »Like« or »+1« button. When you visit a page that displays such a plugin your browser will create a direct connection to the respective social media provider server. At the same time, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and/or Google will know that the respective page on our website has been visited. If you are registered and have logged in with the provider concerned, your visit can also be assigned to your user account.

 

Social media provider such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Youtube are responsible for the collection of the data via social plugins. Please check the providers' privacy policies about their collection and use of Personal Data.

 

If you do not wish a provider to collect data on you through our website, please deactivate the plugins in your web browser. If you wish to avoid a link to any existing user account, you must log out before your visit to our website.

 

9. Contact

 

If you have questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact our Local Data Privacy Officer.

 

Luningning L. Adolfo

 

Local Data Privacy Officer

 

E-mail: ningning.adolfo@merckgroup.com

 

DISCLAIMER: This  is strictly for information purposes only. The information here is not medical advice and should not be treated as such.

If you have any questions about any medical matter, please consult your doctor.