Privacy Notice
This notice describes how Vela Bioeconomy & Innovation and its affiliates (“Vela”, “we”, “us”, and “our”) process information about:
- Individuals who visit our website vela.cr (our “Website“) and our social media pages (“Website visitors”);
- Individuals that apply for a job with us (“Applicants”) either through the “careers” section of the website or otherwise; and
- Owners, directors, and staff (employees and contractors) working for our customers, vendors, suppliers, and (potential) business partners (“Partners”).
Where the notice uses the term “you”, it is referring to you as a Website Visitor, Applicant, or Partner, as applicable.Please read this privacy notice carefully to understand our policies and practices regarding your information and how we will treat it. Please do not use our Website if you do not agree with our policies and practices. This privacy notice may change from time to time.1. Who is the controller of your personal information?In some jurisdictions, such as the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom, data protection laws include the concept of a “controller.” Where that concept is recognized, the Vela entity that is the controller is the following:
- If you are a Website Visitor, the controller of your information is Vela Bioeconomy & Innovation.
- If you are an Applicant, the controller of your personal information is the Vela company to which you are applying or which is considering hiring you.
- If you are a Partner, the controller of your information is the Vela company you or your employer have a business relationship with.
2. How we process your personal information?
I. Website Visitors
If you visit and interact with our Website, we process your information as reasonably necessary to:
- Provide you with information, products, or services that you request from us. For example:
- You may use portions of our Website (e.g., contact forms) to provide us with personal information to express your interest in receiving additional information about the services we offer. In addition, you may be asked to provide personal details such as your name, employer, email address, phone number, and other information that will enable us to contact you.
- We may use necessary tools (a term defined in the cookie section below) that automatically collect information about your device and the usage of our website to be able to show you the Website and provide you the services requested through the Website.
- Carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us in connection with the Website (including the Website’s Terms and Conditions).
- Pursue our and/or a third party’s legitimate interests, namely to:
- Monitor your use of the Website – we use this information to improve our Website, including by identifying and correcting any errors you may have experienced and by understanding which web pages are more or less popular and improving their user-friendliness accordingly.
- Notify you about changes to our Website or any products or services we offer or provide through it. Where required by law, we will obtain your consent before contacting you.
- Ensure the security of our Website.
- Protect our rights and property, enforce our Terms and Conditions and legal notices, and for the establishment, exercise, and defense of legal claims.
- Conclude corporate transactions (e.g., corporate restructuring, sale or assignment of assets, or mergers).
- Comply with applicable legal or regulatory obligations or binding orders, including:
- As part of a judicial proceeding; to respond to a subpoena, warrant, court order, or other legal process.
- As part of an investigation or request, whether formal or informal, from law enforcement or a governmental authority.
- Maintain appropriate records for internal administrative purposes and as required by applicable law (e.g., obligation to keep a record of corporate documents or an obligation to keep a record of your consent or refusal of the processing of personal information).
If you click on the plug-ins available on our Website, you will be redirected to our social media pages on third-party websites:If you visit and interact with our social media pages on third-party websites (such as Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn), we will collect personal information about you. We may collect personal data such as your name, user IDs, gender, photographs, content you publish on our social media pages, and other information that you choose to make publicly available on social media. The social media provider may also share with us statistics about your and other visitors’ use of our page.This privacy notice does not govern the collection and use of your personal data by third parties through these third-party websites. Please visit the privacy policies of these third-party websites to obtain more information about how your data is collected and how you can manage what personal data is collected.
II. Applicants
We process your information as reasonably necessary to:
- Take steps prior to us potentially entering into a contract of employment with you, namely to:
- Assess your suitability for a job at Vela (including processing your application, assessing your fit with us or for a specific role, conducting interviews, carrying out background and reference checks in accordance with law, and keeping records related to our hiring process).
- Communicate with you during and about the recruitment process.
- Conduct your on-boarding process if your application is successful. This includes using your personal information for enrolment in payroll and applicable employee benefit schemes, preparation of employment-related contracts, and other administrative purposes necessary for you to commence employment with Vela.
- Pursue our and/or a third party’s legitimate interests, namely to:
- Match you with other job vacancies in the Vela group.
- Keep a record of your information if your application was unsuccessful and contact you in case of an alternative career opportunity within the Vela group.
- Ask you about your experience with the recruitment process.
- Aggregate your personal information and create statistics that help us understand the type of applications we receive.
- Establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.
- Conclude corporate transactions (e.g., corporate restructuring, sale or assignment of assets, or mergers).
You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information processed for our legitimate interests (see Section 5 below).
- Comply with our legal, regulatory, and compliance obligations, including those related to tax and employment laws.
III. Partners
We process your information to:
- Take steps to enter into a contract or carry out our obligations and enforce our rights arising from any contracts entered into between you and us (where that is the case).
- Pursue our and/or a third party’s legitimate business interests, namely to:
- Take steps to enter into a contract with your employer.
- Administer and manage your or your employer’s contractual relationship with us, such as to establish records for the people we deal with within your organization, including in a customer relationship management database.
- Monitor and manage conflicts of interest.
- Facilitate the issue and administration of invoices.
- Conduct business analytics to measure the performance of our business and services.
- Promote our products and services, including to send you marketing material as permitted by applicable law.
- Implement procedures to keep our premises secure, including verifying visitor identity (including through the use of photo ID where necessary) and recording and retaining visitor logs on sites (to meet our internal health and safety rules).
- Establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.
- Conclude corporate transactions (e.g., corporate restructuring, sale or assignment of assets, merger).
You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information processed for our legitimate interests (see Section 5 below).
- Comply with our legal, regulatory, and compliance obligations, including those related to tax and financial reporting.
3. What information do we collect about you?
We collect information, including your personal information, to provide the Services. In order for us to provide the Services to you, we need to collect and use personal information as described in this Privacy Policy and the other Policies. The collection and processing of personal information by us is necessary to enable the relationship we have with you, and when that isn’t the case we have a legitimate interest in collecting the information.
Information you give us
This includes personal information that you provide to us when you use the Services by directly inputting it or by other means. For example:
- Account and Profile Information: This includes the name, email address, and password you provided at the time of registering for the Service. It also includes information you input into your profile, any messages you send or receive, any information you provide to us by other means such as email or forms, as well as any data you provide while using the Service.
- Information for Professional Services: We collect information from you regarding you and your business, including personal income and tax information, identification information for compliance with anti-money laundering regulations, and other information as required to fulfill our obligations to you and third parties.
- Service Usage Information: You can post, send, access, and share information through our Services. For example, you can make a post to a discussion board, send a message asking us to provide a professional service, send a message to other users, reply to a message you receive in your email, start or update an application, connect with an opportunity, provide us with feedback, or upload a file.
- Support Information: You may choose to give us information about a problem you are having, or ask us how to use the Service and in doing so you may provide us with information by email, through live chat, by voice, through third-party platforms, or by other means.
- Payment Information: If you pay us for all or any part of the Service, or if we need to send you money, we may ask you to give us information we require to collect such as bank information, card details, direct debit details, names of people responsible for payment or billing contacts.
Information we get automatically when you use the Services
This is personal information we receive and that is collected by automated systems involved in delivering the Services or when you take specific actions while using the Services. For example:
- Cookies: We and third parties use cookies and other tracking methods to deliver you the Service. Please see our Cookie Policy for more information.
- Logs and Analysis: We log data about your use of the Service and your response to any communications from us by email or by means of the Platform to provide you with the Services, identify issues, and understand usage.
- Service Interaction Data: We track some aspects related to how you use and interact with Services. For example, we may track the areas of the Service you visit, what you search for, how often you visit us, what devices you use to access the Service, your IP address and location, the URL you enter or exit the Service, data around failures or imperfections that may be triggered when you use the Service, and other items.
Information we get about you from others
This is information we receive that you do not directly provide when you use the Service. We get it from other users of the Service, third-party services we use to provide the Services, from information we collect, and from our partners and vendors in the following circumstances:
- Sign-up and Related Services: If you sign up for the Service, renew your login, or request additional services on the Service using your LinkedIn, Facebook, Eventbrite, Twitter, Google, Google Analytics, or other similar accounts, you give consent for us to obtain information from those accounts that you approve such as your email address, current employment position, education, profile picture, site traffic, and/or location.
- Other third-party services: You can choose to authorize us to access information from your calendar, email, or other service accounts. If you authorize us to access that information, we receive items such as email sender, receiver information, the content of your and your calendar appointments until you remove our access.
- Scouting: We may collect information directly from you, use public record sources, or create editorial content about you or your start-up to identify opportunities for you or your start-up.
- Information submitted by other users: Other users of the Service may provide information about you when they add information during their use of the Service.
- Information from other partners: We get information about you from third-party partners, including those carrying out market research, advertising, and lead generation services.
4. How we use the personal information we collect
Our use of the personal information we collect depends on how you use the Services, as well as the settings and preferences you’ve provided to us. We use personal information to:
- Provide and personalize the Services.
- Maintain your profiles.
- Provide other users of the Service with information about you.
- Improve safety and security of the Services.
- Market, promote, and drive engagement with the Services.
- Provide you with support.
- Protect our legal rights and legitimate business interests.
- Generate research and reports.
- Improve the Services.
- Communicate with you about the Services.
5. How we share your personal information
We share your personal information with:
- Other users of the Service: When you connect with other users of the Service, you give them permission to see, share, edit, copy, and download information you add to the Services.
- Third-party services: To comply with applicable laws, protect ourselves and others from harm, and respond to emergencies.
- Partners: Third-parties that help us deliver some parts of the Services.
- Affiliates: Our affiliates, parents, or subsidiaries.
- Service Providers: Third-party service providers essential to us in providing you with the Services.
- With your consent: When you give us your explicit consent to share it.
6. International transfer of information
We operate globally and transfer personal information using service platforms and service providers to deliver you the Service. We ensure that appropriate safeguards for the protection of such information are in place.
7. Data retention
We apply data retention policies in line with the type of personal information retained. We retain personal information for no longer than required for our legitimate processing purposes. After a data retention period has expired, we either delete or anonymize your personal information.
8. Security of your information
We take security of your data seriously and work hard to avoid loss, misuse, unauthorized access, or disclosure. However, no security system is perfect, and we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your personal information.
9. Your rights and control over your information
You have rights with respect to your personal information, including the right to:
- Request access to personal information we hold about you.
- Deactivate your account.
- Update your personal information.
- Delete your personal information.
- Ask us to stop using your personal information.
- Ask us not to use your personal information to profile you or make automated decisions about you.
- Stop receiving communications from us.
- Ask us to port your data to another service provider if technically feasible, or to provide you with a copy of personal information we hold about you in a structured, electronic format.
10. Contact us
To ask questions or comment about this privacy notice and our privacy practices, contact us at hola@vela.cr.
