Privacy and cookie policy

1.1 Anonymous Usage of our Website

You are welcome to visit our Website while remaining anonymous and without revealing any of your personal data.

However, when you first visit our Website we will ask for your consent to place cookies on your device and to track your website usage behaviour. This helps us to better understand how our customers use our Website and to improve our website offering and services, which includes providing you with a more personalized website experience and targeted offers. In case you have registered for our newsletter (see Section 1.3 below), we will use such website usage information also to provide you with more personalized communications reflecting your specific interests and preferences. Please see Section 2 below for a detailed description of the cookies and website analysis tools we use for this purpose and your rights to change your choices.

If you do not agree with the above practices and wish to remain fully anonymous, you can indicate not to provide your consent, or withdraw your consent with effect for the future, by using the opt-out mechanisms available (see Section 2 below). In this case, we will only collect certain anonymous information which do not directly relate to your person. For example, we may collect the number of visitors to our Website, browsing patterns and areas of interest. We analyse this information to understand how our customers use our Website, and to assess trends, statistics and our customers’ needs, which help us to improve our Website and to better serve our customers.

Other than as indicated above, we will only collect your personal data if you voluntarily decide to share such information with us, such as by sending an enquiry (via our contact form) or requesting a specific service. Unless you have provided your explicit consent, and unless indicated otherwise in this Privacy Policy, we will use the personal data that you have shared with us only as necessary for enabling your use of our Website, including handling your requests and providing the requested services. Apart from that, we may use any personal data we receive only in anonymized form (i.e., in a non-personally identifiable form which does not allow for any conclusions as to your identity) for statistical purposes and for internal evaluation how to improve our products and services. Your data will not be processed for other purposes or beyond the scope of this Privacy Policy, except where expressly permitted or required by applicable law.

1.2 Using our Contact Form

We collect the personal data you voluntarily disclose when you contact us through the contact form on our Website, for example, if you send us an enquiry or file a specific request with our customer service and support. Unless indicated otherwise in this Website Privacy & Cookie Policy, your data will not be used without your consent other than to handle your request/enquiry, e.g., to provide you with the service information you asked for, and not be used for any other purpose, unless expressly permitted or required by applicable law.

Your request/enquiry will be handled by Medela or, as necessary, by one of our local affiliated group companies responsible for handling the topics addressed in your request/enquiry for your jurisdiction.

1.3 Newsletter Registration

You are welcome to sign up for our newsletter. If you do so, we ask for your consent to store and process your name and e-mail address and to provide your baby's date of birth or expected date of birth. We use these data exclusively to send you regular updates by e-mail about the services, products, training courses and events of Medela and its affiliated companies as well as information on current topics that may be of interest to you. You will receive these e-mails from Medela and/or Medela UK Ltd., Unit 3, Huntsman Drive, Northbank Industrial Park, Irlam, Manchester M44 5EG, which is the group company responsible for local customer care. By subscribing to our newsletter, you also agree that we may personalise the content of our newsletter according to your needs and interests based on the data we receive from you and store about you, such as your account information, order history or other information you provide (including, for example, data from your use of the MyMedela Breastfeeding App or your participation in surveys).

In case you have also given your consent to the placement of cookies and the tracking of your website usage behaviour (see Section 2.2 below), we will also use information about your website usage to provide you with personalized communications which reflect your specific interests and preferences.

After you have submitted your newsletter request, you will receive a confirmation email which contains a link that you need to click-on to confirm your registration. This double-opt-in procedure helps us to ensure that the email-account holder consents with the receipt of our newsletter.

The wording of your consent declaration given when registering for our newsletter can be viewed at the bottom of this Website Privacy & Cookie Policy.

When registering for our newsletter, you further consent that your usage of our newsletter, such as email-opens and email-clicks, may be tracked by Medela using an analytics tool provided by a third party. This tool also collects information about email-forwarding, undeliverable emails and unsubscribes. The personal data collected by this third party system contains your name, email-address and location.

In addition, we may use other technical service providers, including cloud services operated from the USA, which offer similar tools to help us managing the newsletter subscriptions and providing related communication and marketing services.

Our service providers will process your information as our data processor only on our behalf and in accordance with our instructions to help us evaluate the usage of our newsletter, to personalize your newsletter communications, to compile reports on newsletter activity and to provide other statistical and analytical services relating to the usage of our newsletter. Your data will not be used for any other purposes.

While these service providers may be located in a country which may not provide for the same level of data protection as considered adequate in your country of residence, in particular in Switzerland and the EU/EEA, we have taken the necessary measures to ensure your personal data is appropriately protected when being transferred outside of Switzerland and/or the EU/EEA.

You can unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time, and withdraw your consent with effect for the future, by clicking the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of the newsletter emails you received or by sending an email or letter to the contact details provided in Section 11 of this Website Privacy & Cookie Policy.

2.1 Essential cookies

Cookies are small text files that our Website asks to place on your computer or other internet enabled devices, such as tablets or smartphones. If your browser is set to accept cookies, then your browser adds the text in a small file.

Except as indicated otherwise in this Website Privacy & Cookie Policy, the cookies used by us are essential for the functioning and performance of our Website, such as by making our website work more efficiently and facilitating your use of the functionalities and services provided; these functionality and/or performance cookies will be deleted from your device once your browser-session has ended (session cookies). We will not use the information stored in essential cookies for any other purpose than as strictly necessary to provide you with the services and functionalities requested.

2.2 Cookie Consent & Personalized Tracking

When you access our Website, we will ask for your consent to place additional cookies on your device by displaying a cookie banner ("Cookie Consent"). These cookies will not be strictly necessary for the functioning and performance of our Website but will help us to collect some of your personal data relating to your website usage behaviour in order to improve our website offering and services and/or to provide you with more personalized information and services, including targeted offers (see below Sections 2.4 and 2.5 for the corresponding cookies placed for website analysis and remarketing purposes). In case you have registered for our newsletter (see Section 1.3 above), we will use such website usage information also to provide you with more personalized communications reflecting your specific interests and preferences. With your Cookie Consent, you further agree with the placement of cookies for enabling the services of AddToAny (see below Section 3).

The cookie banner informs you about the main purposes of the additional cookies and provides you with information about your choices and where you may access further information. Your continued use of our Website after having been displayed with the cookie banner will signify your consent to the described practices.

The wording of the Cookie Consent declaration can be viewed at the bottom of this Website Privacy & Cookie Policy. We explain the categories of non-essential cookies and other tracking technologies that may be placed on your device and their respective purposes in the context of the different services further below. At all times, you have the right to withdraw your Cookie Consent and individually opt-out from the placement of cookies and any collection of your information for the different purposes at any time with effect for the future, as further explained in the respective Sections 2.5, 2.6, 3 and 4 below.

2.3 Other tracking technologies

We may also use other tracking technologies, such as pixels and web beacons in order to provide a better service. These technologies usually work in conjunction with cookies.

2.4 Managing your cookie settings

Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies. If you prefer, you can change your settings to generally refuse cookies, to delete cookies that have already been placed on your device, or to warn you before a cookie is placed. Please refer to your browser instructions or to www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more about how to adjust or modify your browser settings.

If you choose not to accept cookies, this may impair the usability of the Website and you may not be able to take advantage of some of our features and services offered.

If you use different devices to access our Website (e.g., smartphone, tablet, computer, etc.) you will need to ensure that each browser on each device is adjusted to reflect your cookie preferences.

2.5 Use of Google Universal Analytics

This Website uses Google Universal Analytics ("Google Analytics"), a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses cookies to help us analyze how users use our Website, including the number of visitors to our Website, the websites our visitors have come from, and the pages they visit. This information is used by us to improve our Website offer and services. As a rule, any information generated by the cookie about your use of our Website will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States.

Google will use this information as our commissioned data processor to help us evaluate the use of our Website, to compile reports on website activity and to provide other statistical and analytical services relating to usage of our Website. The IP address transmitted by your browser within the framework of Google Analytics will not be associated with any other data held by Google.

You may prevent the collection of data generated by the cookie about your use of this Website (including your IP address) and opt-out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites by downloading and installing a browser-plugin which is available here.

As an alternative to installing the browser-plugin, or in case you use our Website with browsers on mobile devices, you can also opt-out of being tracked by Google Analytics if you click on the following opt-out link: Opt-out of Google Analytics Tracking.

In this case, an opt-out cookie will be placed on your browser that prevents any further tracking of your use of this Website by Google Analytics. Please remember that you will have to opt-out again if you delete all cookies stored on your device.

You will also have to opt-out for each device you use to visit our Website.

For an overview of privacy at Google, please click here.

2.6 Use of Google Analytics advertising features

Depending on the pages you visit on our Website, we may further use certain Google Analytics Display Advertising features, such as demographics and interest reporting and remarketing features.

To enable these features, a third party DoubleClick Cookie will be placed on your device by Google (when you visit certain pages of our Website or websites from other publishers that have implemented advertising features based on the DoubleClick Cookie).

The DoubleClick Cookie stores information about your use of our Website (and eventually other websites visited in the Google advertising network), including the sites visited, ad views, page views, user interaction data, browser information, IP-address, a cookie ID, and your search history. Google will not link your name or other personally identifiable information to your DoubleClick cookie without your prior consent.

We use Google Analytics to analyze the data stored in the DoubleClick Cookie in order to obtain statistical reports on our user's demographics (age, gender) and interests. These reports help us to better understand our users and to improve our Website and services.

In addition, we use Google Analytics' remarketing features to run advertising campaigns (including Google AdWords) to users of our Website. Based on their prior visits to our Website (and their interests expressed during those previous sessions), these users will be delivered relevant targeted advertising when they browse other sites in the Internet within the Google Display Network. We may also use the Google Analytics Advertising features to help us measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.

Please further note that the DoubleClick Cookie also enables Google and other third party vendors to serve targeted advertising (based on your prior visits to our Website and/or other sites on the Internet). These ads may be shown on websites of Google and/or other publishers participating in the Google advertising network.

You can manage your preferences and opt-out of Google's interest-based ads in your Google Ads Setting. In this case, the unique cookie ID of the DoubleClick-Cookie is overwritten and can't be associated with a particular browser. Please note that a new DoubleClick-Cookie might be placed if you delete all cookies from your device and you may have to renew your opt-out settings.

If you would like to permanently deactivate the DoubleClick-Cookie please download and install the browser-plugin which is available here.

You can further opt-out of third-party vendors' use of cookies for online advertising at the US-based aboutads.info.choices page or the EU-based Your Online Choices page.

Click here to find out how Google uses information from sites or apps that use Google's services.

2.7 Other Third-Party Cookies

Some content or applications, including advertisements, on the Website may be served by unaffiliated third parties. These may place cookies on your device for their own purposes. We do not control these third parties' tracking technologies or how they may be used.

You may prevent the placement of and tracking by such third-party cookies by adjusting or modifying your browser settings accordingly. For further information please refer to your browser instructions.

This Website uses a social plugin of the service AddToAny ("AddToAny Plugin"), operated by AddToAny LLC, 717 Market Street, San Francisco, CA94103, USA ("AddToAny"). The service of AddToAny allows users to share content on our Website more easily through social networks, such as facebook.com, twitter.com, LinkedIn.com and pinterest.com ("Social Networks").

If you access a webpage from our Website which contains the AddToAny Plugin your browser may build up a direct connection with the servers of AddToAny and download the AddToAny Plugin and its content to your browser to integrate it into the webpage you are visiting. The AddToAny Plugin will place cookies on your device and provide AddToAny with the information that you have accessed the respective webpage from our Website. Further information may be collected when you choose to interact with the AddToAny Plugin, such as by clicking on the AddToAny icon and/or sharing content with the sharing icons. The information collected by AddToAny includes server log information and  browser information.

Medela does not have control over the collection, storage and use of any such information by AddToAny or the respective Social Network and does not have any access to the information collected. You should read AddToAny’s and the respective Social Networks' privacy policies carefully before you use any of their features. AddToAny’s privacy policy can be found here.

This Website may use social plugins ("plugins") of the social network facebook.com, which is operated by Facebook Inc, 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA ("Facebook"). The plugins are marked with a Facebook logo or the addition "Facebook Social Plugin".

When you visit a website on this Website that contains such a plugin, your browser establishes a direct connection to the Facebook servers. The content of the plugin is transmitted directly from Facebook to your browser and integrated into the website.

By integrating the plugins, Facebook receives the information that you have called up the corresponding page of our Website. If you are logged in to Facebook, Facebook can assign your visit to your Facebook account. If you interact with the plugins, for example by clicking the "I like" button or making a comment, the corresponding information is transmitted directly from your browser to Facebook and stored there.

The purpose and scope of the data collection and the further processing and use of the data by Facebook as well as your rights and setting options for the protection of your privacy can be found in the Facebook data protection information.

If you do not want Facebook to collect data about you via our Website, you must log out of Facebook before visiting our Website.

This Website also embeds videos provided by YouTube LLC (“YouTube”). Using YouTube’s offering requires a connection to be established to YouTube’s servers in the US. During this process, certain information is transmitted to YouTube. For all YouTube videos embedded in our Website we have enabled the Privacy-enhanced mode offered by YouTube. This means that YouTube stores information about a visitor to our Website only if he or she chooses to play an embedded video. Medela does not control the collection, storage and use of any of your information by YouTube and does not have access to any information collected. You should read YouTube’s Privacy Policy carefully before you use any YouTube features.

Further information about how your data are collected and used by YouTube and your rights in relation to this can be found in YouTube's privacy policy at www.youtube.com.

This Website uses Google Maps ("Google Maps"), a map service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”) to display interactive maps.

To provide you with the maps requested, Google will collect your IP-address, which can be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google may further collect information about your usage of Google Maps. Please note that Medela does not control the collection, storage and use of any such information by Google and does not have any access to the information collected. You should read Google's privacy policy carefully before you use any Google Maps features. Google's privacy policy can be found here.

When you use Google Maps on our Website you agree to be bound by Google's Terms of Use, which can be found here.

If you do not wish Google to be able to collect any information about your use of Google Maps, you may prevent the collection of such information by disabling the Google Maps service entirely. In order to do so, you need to deactivate JavaScript within your browser settings. Please note that in this case you cannot use Google Maps at all.

Medela may conduct surveys and contests on this Website. Unless indicated otherwise, Medela will collect, process and use your personal data revealed by you for purposes of participating in these surveys or contests only as necessary to carry out the respective survey or contest. We will inform you prior to your participation about what information we will collect and how we intend to use the information collected.

Our survey and contest forms are often generated by using Wufoo, a service operated by SurveyMonkey Inc., 101 Lytton Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94301, USA. We have appropriate agreements in place to make sure that Wufoo will collect and process your information only on our behalf and in accordance with our instructions. Wufoo will not sell or share your information with third parties. Please read Wufoo's privacy statement for further details here.

In case you decide to use other services offered by us, such as by using our MyMedela Breastfeeding App or our Webshop Platform (as available under www.medela,com, www.medela.co.uk and/or other Medela websites (each including any subpages)), we may create one single record for you which combines the data we receive from you through your use of these other services with the data we receive from you through your use of the Website.

This single record helps us to better understand your needs and preferences in order to more efficiently provide you with the requested products and services, including enabling you to benefit from a more personalized experience.

We will not use such data for providing you with direct marketing communications, except where you have given your express prior consent (such as in the course of your newsletter registration). Other than as indicated in this Website Privacy & Cookie Policy, we will not use the information for any other purposes or share the information with third parties, except where expressly permitted or required by applicable law.

9.1 Medela is operating the Website as data controller. However, to ensure the customer relationship with you is handled efficiently, and to provide you with a good customer experience, your customer relationship will be managed on local level also by Medela UK Limited, Huntsman Drive, Northbank Industrial Park, Irlam. Manchester, M44 5EG ("Local Group Company"), which is our affiliated group company responsible for your country. The Local Group Company will be responsible for the related collection, processing and use of your personal data also as data controller. For instance, Medela may share your personal data with the Local Group Company where this is necessary to answer specific requests or enquiries submitted by you through our Website, to provide you with the services requested, or where otherwise necessary to handle the customer relationship with you. For these purposes, the Local Group Company will be granted with access to your personal data stored by Medela and will collect, store, process and use such personal data on local level for the above purposes.

9.2 In addition, Medela and/or the Local Group Company may use external technical service providers which are authorized to provide services on its behalf and in accordance with its instructions. These entities may have access to your personal data but only to the extent necessary to enable your use of our Website, including providing related services or handling your requests or enquiries. For instance, Medela (and/or, as applicable, the Local Group Company) may use service providers to host our Website, store your personal data, or analyze the information collected as explained in Section 2. These service providers may not disclose your personal data to any unauthorized third parties or use your personal data for any purposes other than as instructed. Some of these service providers may be located in countries outside Switzerland and the EU/EEA which may not provide for the same level of data protection as in your country of residence. However, Medela and/or, as applicable, the Local Group Company have appropriate agreements in place with these service providers to ensure that they will take all necessary measures to protect your personal data in accordance with applicable requirements. For further information about our service providers, please contact us as further explained in Section 11 below.

9.3 Other than as indicated above, we will not provide your personal data to any third party without your prior consent, unless we are compelled by law to do so.

Your data will be stored on servers in Switzerland. In addition, Medela and/or, as applicable, the Local Group Company may use cloud service providers located in countries outside Switzerland and the EU/EEA, including the United States of America (USA), to host and process your personal data for storage, communication and marketing purposes. While the laws of those countries may not provide for the same level of data protection as considered adequate in Switzerland or the EU/EEA, we have taken the necessary measures to ensure your personal data will be handled and protected appropriately and only be processed on our behalf and in accordance with our instructions.

We will treat your personal data confidential. We have implemented appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect your personal data against unauthorized disclosure or access, alteration, misuse, accidental or unlawful destruction or loss.

As per the provisions of applicable local data protection law, you have the right to request information as to what data we hold about you. In addition, where appropriate, you have the right to request the correction, deletion and/or blocking of your personal data and/or to restrict and/or object to the processing of your personal data for legitimate reasons as well as the right to data portability.

You may further at any time, with effect for the future, withdraw any consent you have given. For this purpose, please make use of the opt-out mechanisms provided for the different services (please see the respective descriptions in the corresponding Sections of this Website Privacy & Cookie Policy) or, with respect to your newsletter registration, you can also contact us per email as indicated below.

In case of any questions about the collection, processing and/or use of your personal data or to exercise your rights please send us an email at privacy@medela.ch.

We reserve the right to make changes to this Website Privacy & Cookie Policy at any time with effect for the future. The then current version of this Website Privacy & Cookie Policy will be made available on the Website. While we do not intend to make changes to this policy very often, it is always a good idea to double check our most current policy statement when you visit us to be sure that you have read and agree with what information we collect, how we use it and under what circumstances we disclose it.

Annex: Consent declarations

To be fully transparent about its practices, Medela makes the content of consent declarations obtained through its Website available for access by its users. In the context of your use of our Website, you may have expressly given one or more of the following consent declarations:

Newsletter Registration
I would like to subscribe for the Medela newsletter to receive regular updates and information about the products and services offered by Medela AG, Lättichstrasse 4b, 6340 Baar, Switzerland and its affiliated group companies in the field of breastfeeding. The Medela newsletter will be sent by Medela and/or Medela UK Limited, Huntsman Drive, Northbank Industrial Park, Irlam. Manchester, M44 5EG  (together "Medela").

I agree that, for the above purpose, my name, salutation and email address and, as the case may be, any other personal data revealed by me to Medela (as further explained in the Website Privacy & Cookie Policy) may be stored, processed and used by Medela in order to personalize my Medela newsletter in accordance with my interests and preferences. I further agree that my usage of the Medela newsletter, such as my email-opens and email-clicks (and including my personal data, such as name, email address and location), may be tracked by Medela in order to better understand how subscribers use the newsletter service and what areas are of specific interest to them.

Privacy Notice: You can unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time, and withdraw your consent with effect for the future, by clicking the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of the newsletter emails you receive or by sending an email to websupport@medela.ch.

Cookie Consent
We would like to use cookies to analyze your usage of our website and to allow the best experience possible whenever you visit our website, including providing you with targeted advertising and personalized services which reflect your interests and preferences. Please note: By closing this banner or continuing using this website, such as by clicking on content or opening other subpages, you are giving your consent to these practices and the related processing of your personal data. You can change your cookie settings, and/or withdraw your consent, at any time. For more information or to change your cookie preferences see our Website Privacy & Cookie Policy.

You may at any time, with effect for the future, withdraw any consent you have given. For this purpose, you can make use of the unsubscribe or opt-out mechanisms provided for the different services (please see the respective description in the corresponding Sections of this Website Privacy & Cookie Policy) or, with respect to your newsletter registration, you can also send your withdrawal by email to the address specified at Section 11 of this Website Privacy & Cookie Policy.

Online settlement dispute
The European Commission provides a platform for the online settlement of disputes (OSD), which can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr. As a matter of principle, we are neither obliged nor willing to participate in a dispute settlement procedure before a consumer arbitration body.