1. Introduction

This cookie policy is intended to inform website visitors how and why cookies are used by Becton, Dickinson, and Company (BD).

The entity responsible for the use of these cookies is

Data Protection Officer
BD Switzerland Sàrl
Route de Crassier 17, Business Park Terre-Bonne, Bâtiment A4,
1262 Eysins, Switzerland

You can contact us via email privacy@bd.com.

At BD we aim to provide transparency into how we process your personal data. This policy provides a clear and comprehensive overview of the cookies used on our website, their purposes, and the reasoning behind this. To obtain more information about this cookie policy, please contact us via privacy@bd.com.

Additionally, we invite you to read our Global Privacy Policy and GDPR Data Protection Policy, in which we explain our commitment to protecting your personal data.

2. What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files, which can be stored on your computer upon your visit to websites. Cookies usually have an expiration date. They can perform different functions but typically keep a record of websites visited.

Your internet browser downloads a cookie on the first visit to a website. The next time you visit the website with the same user device, this cookie as well as all the information stored in it will be re-sent to the website, which created it (first-party cookie). However, there is a possibility for this information to be sent to another website managing it (third-party cookie).

This allows the website to recognize your browser and to remember your preferences, for example, your language preference, for later website visits, providing you in this way with more relevant content to your personal interests and needs.

Overall, cookies help us to improve user experience and enable us to improve the performance of the website.

3. Who installs cookies?

Cookies can be installed by BD or a third party:

• First-party cookies are installed and managed by BD. They are specific to the BD website which you visit;
• Third-party cookies are installed and managed by a third party. They are installed during your visit to a BD website and allow certain information to be sent to third parties upon your return to the BD website.

4. How long do cookies last?

Cookies can be temporary or persistent:

• Temporary or session cookies are temporarily stored in your computer or mobile device. As soon as you close your browser, these cookies are automatically deleted;
• Persistent cookies remain on your device for a longer time, even after you close your browser. They remain on your device until the expiration data is reached and then a new version of the cookie is installed or sometimes, or until you delete them manually. They make it possible to recognize you during a subsequent visit to the website.

The duration depends on the purpose for which certain types of cookies are installed in your computer. For example, a session cookie may be used to allow visitors to be recognized within a set of webpages, so that any choices or data selection made by that user are remembered from page to page.

In another example, a persistent cookie may be used to remember your previous choice of language whenever you return to the same webpage.

Regardless of the purpose behind each specific cookie, BD takes into account the principle of data minimization when setting this duration. This means that, whenever possible, BD will opt for the shortest possible duration that still enables the function of the cookie to be performed.

5. For which purposes are used cookies by BD?

BD uses cookies to make this website work smoothly. For example, we use cookies to make it more user friendly by remembering your preferences, and providing you with information that we think is of interest and useful for you based on your past navigation.

Furthermore, we collect data recorded by cookies to draw up anonymous, aggregated statistics or studies for BD websites and to ensure that its content and performance is relevant to our visitors.

6. What kind of cookies are used by BD?

Cookies can be described based on their function and intended purposes. Some cookies are considered essential to your navigation, while others are performance-measuring cookies. You can also have cookies of a functional nature, of cookies that collect data for marketing purposes.

The types of cookies used by BD Website are the following:

• Essential cookies: these cookies are used in order to ensure that you navigate on this website and use its features according to your intended purposes.

Without these cookies, you would not be able to use this website’s functionalities. For example, essential cookies ensure a change from http protocol to the more secure https protocol, and therefore enhance your security. Moreover, they allow you to navigate between different pages of this website, as well as fill in forms. These cookies are needed to verify your identity in a secure way before you are granted access to your personal data.

Essential cookies are used exclusively by BD and thus are called first-party cookies. Based on these cookies, your decisions with regard to the use of cookies on this website is saved. For the usage of essential cookies, consent is not required. If you want to disable these cookies in your browser, you are allowed to do it at any time, but it does not happen automatically.

List of specific essential cookies used by BD:

• Functional Cookies : these cookies enable a website to save details which have already been provided (e.g. user name, your location), and thus, offering you more improved, more personal functions, ensuring simultaneously that you have a more personalized browsing experience. For example, these cookies can remember your language preference and customer segment, as well as whether you have already asked to participate in a survey/study, as a result, the next time you visit the website, you are not asked again. When you log into BD website, a cookie is installed in your browser that allows us to recognize you as a visitor to our website and adapt the content on our website to your personal situation, including the case in which you are not logged into BD website during a subsequent visit. These cookies collect anonymized information and they cannot track your visits in other websites.
  
  

• Performance Cookies : These cookies collect information on how a website is used. For instance, they track the kind of pages, which a visitor opens more often, as well as they receive error messages from a page. These cookies do not store any information permitting and enabling identification of the user. The information collected is used for reports that are anonymous and aggregated. The usage of these cookies improves exclusively the performance of a website and therefore, the user experience.
  List of performance cookies used by BD:

• Cookies for marketing purposes : These cookies are used in order to collect information regarding your browsing habits and profiling your center of interest with the aim of showing you advertisements and BD communications when they are relevant to your personal interests. They are used for limiting the frequency of appearance of an advertisement, as well as for measuring the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. The registration for these cookies takes place independently of the fact that you have visited a website or not. The information collected may in some cases be shared with third parties, for instance, advertisers. These cookies are frequently linked with webpages of third parties.

7. How to manage and delete cookies?

You can manage and/or delete cookies if you desire to do so. For more information on the practical implications of changing cookie settings, you can consult this external page: http://www.allaboutcookies.org/

In principle, web browsers are automatically configured to accept cookies. Nevertheless, you can configure your browser in a way that it informs you of each cookie sent, or to avoid them being stored on your hard drive. To better understand these parameters, please consult the following external pages:

• Cookies in Internet Explorer
• Cookies in Chrome
• Cookies in Firefox
• Cookies in Safari

When you choose to refuse cookies, we cannot guarantee the full experience of our website. This means that refusal could render the website less user-friendly or it running at reduced speed.