Bione Privacy Policy

Privacy Statement

Effective Date: January 1, 2020

Our Privacy Statement is designed to help you better comprehend how we collect, use, store, process, and transfer your information whilst using our Services, including our website (www.bione.in) and mobile application (“Platform”) ,owned and operated by Boine Ventures Private Limited.

Any reference to “you”, “your” or “users” refers to you as the visitor, subscriber or user of the Platform/ Services and/or any features or functionalities on the Platform. Any reference to “Bione”, “we”, “our” and “us” shall refer to Boine Ventures Private Limited.

Please carefully review this Privacy Statement and our Terms of Service.

Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Statement, terms used in this Privacy Statement have the same meanings as terms defined in our Terms of Service. By using our Services or Platform, you acknowledge all of the policies and procedures described in the aforementioned documents. If you do not agree with or you are not comfortable with any facet of this Privacy Statement or our Terms of Service, you should promptly discontinue use of our Services or the Platform.

By accessing and using the Platform and the Services, you agree and give consent to collect, transfer, use, store, disclosure and share, in certain specific cases, your information as described and collected by us in accordance with this Privacy Statement.

The Privacy Statement specified herein is subject to change at any time without notice. To make sure you are aware of any changes, please review this Privacy Statement periodically.

1. Key Definitions

Aggregate Information: Means information that has been combined with that of other users and analyzed or evaluated as a whole, such that no particular individual may be identified.
Anonymised Information: Means any information that we have anonymised in a manner to result in the Information no longer being able to identify you, whether directly or indirectly, and shall no longer contain any specific or individual Personal Information.
Individual-level Information: Means information about a single individual's genotypes, diseases or other traits/characteristics, but which is not essentially related to Registration Information.
Personal Information: Means such information which can be used to identify you, either alone or in combination with other information. Bione collects, generates, processes and stores the following types of Personal Information:

Registration Information: Means information provided by you about yourself when registering for and/or purchasing our Services (e.g. name, address, email, payment information, and user ID and password).
Genetic Information: Means information regarding your genotypes (i.e. the As, Ts, Cs, and Gs at particular locations in your genome), which is generated through processing of your DNA sample by Bione or by its successors, contractors, or assignees; or otherwise processed by and/or contributed to Bione.
Microbiome Information: Means information regarding your gut microbiome or other body part microbiome, generated through processing of various sample types like faecal, saliva, swab, etc., by Bione or by its contractors, successors, or assignees; or otherwise processed by and/or contributed to Bione.
Health and Lifestyle Information: Means information gathered from the questionnaires on our Platform about your health, including your own and your close relatives’ medical history, medications, known allergies, known long term conditions, treatments received or ongoing, and relevant lifestyle information including but not limited to alcohol consumption or smoking.
Biological Samples: Means the saliva, swab and/or stool samples which is provided by you to us to enable us to perform the testing services.
Phenotypic Information: Means such information provided by you directly to us, either through the Services or through a third party, including you and your family disease conditions, other health-related information, personal traits, ethnicity, family history, and other information that you enter either during kit registration and/or into surveys, forms, or features while signed in to your Bione account or during interaction with Bione genomics counsellors.
Sensitive Information: Means information about your certain health conditions, Genetic & Phenotypic Information such as diseases risk, racial and ethnic origin, sexual orientation and any other information as per the applicable law.
Interpretation, Inferences and Derived Data: Means information, data, assumptions, or conclusions that are derived directly or indirectly from another source of Personal, microbiome & genetic information by using statistical methods to infer additional genetic information based on exome or whole genome sequencing information generated directly through the processing of your saliva sample. Also, the information generated using metagenomics methods on various sample types described elsewhere in the document, correlation, risk assessment, identification of an association between genes and microbes.
The result of interpretation includes health, nutrition, sports, wellness and personal traits data which are derived from the interpretation of your health and lifestyle information and raw data and which we display to you in your personal account.
Web-Behavior Information: Means information on how you use our Services, which is collected through log files, cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies, (e.g., device information (device identifiers), IP address, browser type, domains, page views).

2. Information we collect

All information submitted by the users on the Platform shall be safeguarded and protected. Bione is committed to protecting the privacy, confidentiality, accuracy and security of the personal information that it collects, uses, retains and discloses in the course of conducting business and providing the Services. Bione will protect the data provided by you and will use the same for purposes of providing Services to you and any other administrative purposes relevant to any products/services provided by Bione.

1. Information directly provided by you to us or through a third-party

Registration Information. When you purchase our Services or create a Bione account on our Platform, we collect Personal Information, which may be inclusive of your name, date of birth, gender, payment information (e.g., credit/debit card, net banking, wallets & UPI) billing and shipping address, and other contact information (e.g. email and phone number).
Phenotypic Information. Additional information about yourself can be provided by you through surveys, forms, features and applications. For instance, you may provide us with information about your personal traits (e.g., eye colour, height, food habits), family history information (e.g., information similar to the foregoing about your family members), other health-related information (e.g., pulse rate, cholesterol levels, visual acuity, medicines used), and ethnicity, disease conditions (e.g., Type 2 Diabetes). Do note that before you disclose information about a family member, you should make sure you have permission from the family member to do so.
User Content. Some of our Services allow you to create and upload or post content, such as data, software, text, audio, music, graphics, photographs, messages, video, or other materials that you create or provide to us through either a private or public transmission ("User Content"). For instance, User Content includes any discussions, messages or posts, you send on our Forums.
Blogs and Forums. Our Platform also offers publicly accessible blogs. Furthermore, Bione users can participate in our online Forums. Before doing so, you must be aware that any User Content provided by you or posted in these areas may be read, collected, and used by others who access our Platform. To request that we remove or de-identify your Personal Information from our blog or Forums, contact us at datapolicy@bione.in. It is important to note that whenever you post anything publicly, there is possibility wherein it would not be feasible to remove all instances of the posted information, for instance, if someone has taken a screenshot of your posting. Bione does not recommend posting personal information publicly on our blogs, Forums or in other postings instead connect us on contact@bione.in . You may be required to register with a third-party application to post a comment. To learn how the third party application uses your information, please review the third party's terms of use and privacy statement.
Social media features and widgets. Bione Services are inclusive of social media features, like the Facebook "Share" or "Like" button and widgets ("Features") . Such features may collect your IP address, may set a cookie and which page you are visiting on our Platform to enable the Feature to function properly. They may allow third party social media services to provide us with information about you, which includes your contact information such as name, email address, and other related information. The information received by us is dependent upon your privacy settings with the third-party social media services. Such features are either hosted directly or hosted by a third-party on our Platform. Your interactions with such Features are regulated by the privacy statements of the third-party companies providing them. You must always review and, if needed, change your privacy settings on third-party websites and services before linking them to our Platform or Service.
Third-party services (e.g., social media). If you use a third-party site, such as Twitter or Facebook, in connection with our Services to communicate with another person (e.g., to request that we communicate with another person or to make or post referrals), then in addition to that person's name and contact information, we may also gather additional information (e.g., your network, profile picture, username, user ID, gender, age-range, country, language, followers or friends lists) depending on your privacy settings on the third-party site. We do not manage the third-party site's information practices, so please evaluate the third party’s privacy statement and your settings on the third party’s site carefully.
Third-party sign-in. You may create an account on Platform and/or sign in to our Services using an account you created with a third-party service, such as Google. If you provide authorization to Bione, we will collect and use the information you share with us via that third-party service (such as your email address, name, and date of birth as specified in your third party service account) in accordance with this Privacy Statement. It is your responsibility to manage your credentials for your third party service account, and for maintaining the security of your third party service account. Bione does not have access to the credentials for your third party service account. If you opt to use third party sign in and you lose access to your credentials for your third party service account, you may possibly not be able to access your Bione account. You may manage authorization for third-party sign in through your Bione Account Settings or through your third-party service account.
Referral information and sharing. When you refer a person to Bione, we will ask for that person's email address. We will use their email address solely, as applicable, to make the referral or to communicate your sharing request to them, and we will let your contact know that you requested the communication. By participating in a referral program or by choosing to share information with another person, you confirm that the person has given you consent for Bione to communicate (e.g., via email) with him or her. The person you referred may contact us at support@bione.in to request that we remove his/ her information from our database.
Gifts. If you give us Personal Information about others, if you authorize another individual to share, or if others provide us with your information or share your Personal Information to our third-party service provider(s) with the intention of ordering the Service or other personalized gift(s), we will use it only for the purpose for which it was provided to us. These purposes possibly will consist of, for instance, where you provide us with a friend’s shipping address whilst placing an order. Once a gift recipient registers for our Services and agrees to our Terms of Service, our Privacy Statement, and if applicable, certain consent documents, his or her Personal Information can be used in ways consistent with this Privacy Statement, and will not be shared with the purchaser, unless they independently select to share their Personal Information through the Services with the purchaser. Information shared directly with our third-party service provider(s) for tailored gifts are subject to such third party’s terms of service and privacy policies.
Customer service. When you correspond with us about our Service or contact our customer care, we collect information to respond and track to your inquiry; investigate any breach of our Privacy Statement, Terms of Service or applicable laws or regulations; and analyze and improve our Services.

2. Information related to our Services

DNA sample and storage. To use our Services, you must purchase, or receive as a gift, a Bione Longevity Kit, Longevity Plus Kit, MyMicrobiome Kit, Longevity Starter Pack and Premium Longevity Plus Pack testing kit, create an online account on our Platform and register your kit, and we will pick your sample. Your DNA/microbiome DNA will be extracted from your sample for analysis. Only if you give your consent to sample storage (“Biobanking”) and other analyses, your DNA and sample will be stored by us, otherwise the same shall be destroyed after the laboratory completes its work, subject to laboratory legal and regulatory requirements. You can amend your Biobanking preference to discard a stored sample within your Bione Account Settings once your sample has completed processing.
Genetic Information. Your Genetic Information, is generated when we analyze and process your saliva sample, or when you otherwise contribute or access your Genetic Information through our Services. Genetic Information includes the Bione results reported to you as part of our Services and may be used for other purposes, as outlined in Section 3 below.
Microbiome information: Information regarding your gut microbiome or other body part microbiome, generated through processing of various sample types like faecal, saliva, swab, etc. by Bione or by its contractors, successors, or assignees; or otherwise processed by and/or contributed to Bione.

3. Web-Behavior Information

We use cookies and similar technologies (for instance: tags, web beacons, device identifiers and scripts) to:

help us identify you when you use our Services;
customize and improve your experience;
provide security;
evaluate usage of our Services (to analyze your communications with the reports, results, and other features of the Service);
gather demographic information about our user base;
offer our Services to you;
monitor the success of marketing programs; and
serve targeted advertising on our Platform as well as on other websites around the Internet.

If you disallow cookies, you could still use our Platform; however, some features or areas of our Platform may be limited. For more information, including the types of cookies found on Bione and how to control cookies, please read our Cookie Policy .

We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies from third-party service providers as Anonymised, individual-level information or as Aggregate Information (as described in Section 4.c).

Google Analytics is used to perform many of the tasks listed above. Bione uses the User-ID feature of Google Analytics to combine behavioral information across sessions and devices (which may include authenticated and unauthenticated sessions). We have enabled the following Google Analytics advertising features: Remarketing, Google Display Network Impression Reporting, Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting, and DoubleClick Campaign Manager integration. We do not combine information gathered through any Google advertising product with individual-level information collected elsewhere by our Services. To learn more about how Google collects and uses your data. Please click here . To select Google Analytics Advertising Features refer to Google Ad Settings. To opt-out of Google Analytics entirely, use this link.

Other Types of Information

We constantly work to improve our Services with new products, features and applications which may result in the compilation of latest and different types of information. We will update our Privacy Statement and/or get your prior consent to new processing, as needed.

3. Mode of Information Collection

When you use the Platform, we collect and store your Information which is provided by you from time to time. Our primary goal in doing so is to provide you a safe, efficient, smooth and customized experience. This allows us to provide activities, services, features or resources available on the Platform in a customised manner to make your experience safe and easy.
In general, you can browse the Platform without telling us who you are or without revealing any Personal Information about yourself. Once you give us your Personal Information, you are not anonymous to us. We may collect your non-personal information, just by you browsing/ downloading the Platform. When collecting Personal Information from you, we indicate which fields are required and which fields are optional.You always have the option to not provide information by choosing not to use a service or feature or resource on the Platform. We may automatically track certain information about you based upon your behaviour on the Platform. We use this information for internal research on our users' demographics, interests, and behaviour to better understand, protect and serve our users. It is compiled and analysed on an aggregated basis. This information may include the link/URL that you just came from (whether this URL is on our Platform/app or not), which URL you next go to (whether this URL is on the Platform or not), your computer browser information, and your IP address.
We may receive Personal Information about you from third parties, such as external APIs and social media services. If you access the Platform through an external API or a social media service or connect a service on the Platform to a social media service, the information we collect may include your user name associated with that social media service, any information or content the social media service has the right to share with us, and any information you have made public in connection with that social media service. When you access the Platform through external APIs or social media services or when you connect the Platform to social media services, you are authorizing Bione to collect, store, use and retain such information and content in accordance with this Privacy Statement.
We may use data collection devices such as "cookies" on certain pages of the Platform to help analyse our web page flow, measure promotional effectiveness, and promote trust and safety. We offer certain features that are only available through the use of a "cookie". We also use cookies to allow you to enter your password less frequently during a session. Most cookies are "session cookies" meaning that they are automatically deleted from your device at the end of a session. You are always free to decline our cookies if your browser permits, although in that case you may not be able to use certain services, features or resources on the Platform and you may be required to re-enter your password more frequently during a session. Additionally, you may encounter "cookies" or other similar devices on certain pages of the Platform that are placed by third parties. We do not control the use of cookies by third parties.
If you transact with us, we collect some additional information, such as a billing address, a credit/debit card number and a credit/debit card expiration date and/ or other payment instrument details and tracking information.
If you choose to post messages on our message boards or chat boards if available, or other message areas or leave feedback, we will collect that information you provide to us.
If you send us personal correspondence, such as emails or letters, or if other users or third parties send us correspondence about your activities or postings on the Platform, we may collect such information into a file specific to you.

4. How we use your information

Bione will use and share your Personal Information with third parties only in the ways that are described in this Privacy Statement.

To provide you with Services and to analyze and improve our Services

We utilize the information described above in Section 2 to provide, operate, improve and analyze our Services. These activities may include, using your information in such a way that it is consistent with this Privacy Statement to:

open your account, communicate with you, enable purchases and process payments, and implement your requests (e.g., referrals);
enhance and enable your use of our Platform, which may include providing personalized content and information, authenticating your visits and tracking your usage of our Services;
contact you about your account, and any relevant information about our Services (e.g. policy changes, security updates or issues, etc.);
implement our Terms of Service and other agreements;
investigate, monitor, detect and prevent illegal or prohibited behaviors on our Services, to combat spam and other security risks; and
perform research & development activities, which may include, for example, conducting data analysis in order to develop new or improve existing products and services, and performing quality control activities.

To analyze, process and deliver your genetic test results

As described above, to receive results through BionegXplore, you must create a Bione account, register your kit, and submit your sample for whole exome sequencing or whole genome sequencing or meta genome sequencing or combination to analyse genomic variants and its impact. If a user has been genotyped once, we may further analyze your Genetic Information to give you your ancestry and/or health reports, depending on the Service purchased. We continuously works to improve our Services based on our research and product development, and genetic associations identified in the scientific literature. If you are eligible to receive supplementary reports or updates in the future, you may be notified of or you may be able to directly access these updates.

To let you to share your Personal Information with others

You can also share User Content directly with individuals who have not used our Service via a distinctive, shareable URL or through a social media platform. You should be thoughtful about your sharing choices. If you choose to share any Personal Information, the individuals with whom you share this information, may use or share your Personal Information, which may also include any sensitive information.

To allow you to share your Personal Information for Bione Research purposes

You have the choice to participate in Bione Research by providing your consent. "Bione Research" refers to research aimed at publication in peer-reviewed journals and other research funded by the government, conducted by Bione.

Bione Research could also be sponsored by, conducted on behalf of, or together with third parties, like pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions or non-profit foundations. Bione Research may study a specific group or population, identify potential areas or targets for therapeutics development, conduct or support the development of drugs, diagnostics or devices to diagnose, predict or treat medical or other health conditions, work with public, private and/or non-profit entities on genetic research initiatives, or otherwise create, commercialize, and apply this new knowledge to enhance health care. Bione Research uses Aggregate and/or Individual-level Genetic Information and Phenotypic Information as specified in the appropriate consent document(s), as explained in greater detail below.

Your Anonymised Genetic and Phenotypic Information may be used for Bione Research only if you have consented to this use by completing a consent document. If you have completed the Bione Research consent document:

Your Genetic Information and/or Phenotypic Information will be used for research purposes, but it will be Anonymised and will not be linked to your Registration Information.
Bione may use individual-level Genetic Information and Phenotypic Information internally at Bione for research purposes.
Bione may share summary statistics, which do not identify any particular individual or contain individual-level information, with our qualified research collaborators.

If you have completed the individual-level data sharing consent, or additional consent agreement, in addition to the uses above under the Bione Research consent document, Bione may share Anonymised Individual-level Genetic Information and Phenotypic Information only with selected third party research collaborators for Bione Research purposes.

Withdrawing your Consent. You may withdraw your consent to participate in Bione Research at any time by sending an email at support@bione.in with subject line “Withdrawal of Consent” . Bione will not include your Genetic Information or Phenotypic Information in studies that start more than 30 days after you withdraw (it may take up to 30 days to withdraw your information after you withdraw your consent). It is hereby clarified that all information with respect to the dates of the Bione Research shall be communicated to you in a timely manner. Any research involving your data that has already been performed or published prior to your withdrawal from Bione Research will not be reversed, undone, or withdrawn.

To recruit you for external research

Research being an important aspect of our Services we would like to make sure that interested participants are aware of additional opportunities to contribute to interesting, novel scientific research conducted by academic institutions, healthcare organizations, pharmaceutical companies, and other groups. If you have chosen to participate in Bione Research, from time to time we may inform you of third party research opportunities for which you may be eligible. For instance, if a university tells us about a new cancer research project, we may send an email to Bione Research participants who would fit the relevant eligibility criteria to make them aware of the research project and provide a link to participate with the research organization conducting the study. We will not share Individual-level Genetic Information or Phenotypic Information with any third party without your explicit consent.

To provide customer care & Genomics counselling support

When you contact Bione customer care & counselling team, we may use or request Personal Information, including sensitive information, as necessary to answer your questions, resolve disputes, and/or investigate and troubleshoot problems or complaints. In some instances, we could also be required to process one customer’s Personal Information to resolve another customer’s dispute or request. For example, if a customer reports behavior that violates our Terms of Service, we shall separately process both customers’ Personal Information and respond separately to every individual as appropriate. We will not share your Personal Information with another customer without your consent.

To conduct surveys or polls, and obtain testimonials

We value your feedback and might send you surveys, polls, or requests for testimonials to enhance and optimize our Services. You can control the information you share with us. In case you do not wish to receive these requests, you can change them in your Bione Account Settings.

To provide you with marketing and Sales communications

We use the information provided by you to us to send you marketing communications, communicate with you about our Products and let you know about our Policies and Terms via Emails, Telephone, SMS or WhatsApp. You can always withdraw your consent by adjusting your marketing preferences on our platform , by clicking the “unsubscribe” link on our email, or by contacting us at contact@bione.in.

5. Information we share with third parties

General service providers

We share your required Personal Information described above in Section 2 with our third party service providers, as required for them to provide their services to us and assist us to perform our contract with you. Service providers are third parties (other companies or individuals) that help us to provide, improve and analyze our Services. While Bione itself conducts the majority of data processing activities required to provide our Services to you, we engage some third party service providers to assist in supporting our Services, in the following areas:

Order fulfillment and shipping Our payment processor processes certain Registration Information, such as your billing address and credit card information, as necessary to enable you to purchase a Bione kit from the Bione.com online store. Our distribution centers ship your kit(s) to you, and collect your sample for processing.
Our ISO-certified lab To use our genetic & microbiome testing services, you must purchase, or receive as a gift, the Bione longevity or MyMicrobiome testing kit, and ship your sample to us. Once delivered, sample registration personnel at the laboratory will remove and discard kit packaging, which in some cases may contain "sender information" (e.g., name, address). Barcoded samples will be scanned and sample ID (SID) will be verified and any discrepancy will be sorted. Sample registration personnel do not perform testing, and testing personnel will handle samples that are only identified by a unique barcode (sample id). For samples processed by our third party sequencing laboratory, when the laboratory has completed the sequencing, they securely send the resulting sequence data Information to us identified by your unique barcode.
During kit registration, you are asked to review our consent document for sample storage and additional genetic analyses. Unless you give your consent to Biobanking and additional analyses, your sample and DNA are destroyed after the laboratory completes its work, subject to the legal and regulatory requirements. Should you wish to update your sample storage preference to store a sample, you can do so within your Bione Account Settings while your sample is being processed. As detailed further in Section 5.d. (Account Deletion), our Bione laboratory or contracted genotyping laboratory will retain certain information as necessary to comply with applicable regulatory and legal obligations.
Customer Care support Our Customer Care team uses a number of tools to help organize and manage the requests we receive. These tools help to ensure we provide timely high-quality support.
Cloud storage, IT, and Security Our cloud storage providers provide secure storage for information in Bione databases, ensure that our infrastructure can support continued use of our Services by Bione customers, and protect data in the event of a natural disaster or other disruption to our Service. Our IT and security service providers assist with intrusion detection and prevention measures to stop any potential attacks against our networks. Data will be stored in Bione Bengaluru facility and secondary backup on AWS cloud. Data processing will be done on Bione server & AWS cloud at. We have these third party experts perform regular penetration tests and periodically audit Bione’s security controls.
Marketing and analytics When you use our Services, including our website or mobile app(s), our third party service providers may collect Web-Behavior Information about your visit, such as the links you clicked on, the duration of your visit, and the URLs you visited. This information can help us improve site navigability and assess our Marketing campaigns.

NOTE: Our service providers act on Bione's behalf. We implement procedures and maintain contractual terms with each service provider to protect the confidentiality and security of your information.

"Targeted advertising" service providers

We permit third party advertising networks and providers to collect Web-Behavior Information regarding the use of our Services to help us to deliver targeted online advertisements ("ads") to you. They use cookies and similar technologies, to gather information about your browser's or device's visits and usage patterns on our Services and on other websites over time, which helps to better personalize ads to match your interests and to measure the effectiveness of ad campaigns. We and our third party service providers will not use your Sensitive Information, such as Genetic, microbiome Information and Phenotypic Information, for targeted marketing without asking for and receiving your explicit consent.

For more information about our marketing practices, please review our Cookie Policy .

Aggregate information

We may share Aggregate Information on our Platform or with third parties. For example, Aggregate Information may include a statement that "30% of our female users share a particular genetic trait," without providing any data or testing results specific to any individual user.

As required by law

Under certain circumstances, your Personal Information may be subject to processing pursuant to laws, regulations, judicial or other government warrants, or orders. For example, we may be required to disclose Personal Information in coordination with regulatory authorities in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. Bione will preserve and disclose any and all information to law enforcement agencies or others if required to do so by law or in the good faith that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal or regulatory process (such as a judicial proceeding, court order, or government inquiry) or obligations that Bione may owe pursuant to ethical and other professional rules, laws, and regulations; (b) enforce the Bione Terms of Service and other policies; (c) respond to claims that any content violates the rights of third parties; or (d) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Bione, its employees, its users, its clients, and the public.

Business transactions

In the event that Bione goes through a business transition such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, your Personal Information will likely be among the assets transferred. In such a case, your information would remain subject to the promises made in any pre-existing Privacy Statement.

6. Your choices

Access to your account

We provide access to your Bione data within your Bione account. You can access and download data processed by Bione within your Bione account settings and within applicable reports, tools, and features. If you lose access to your Bione account or account email address, please contact Bione customer care for assistance. If you lose access to your Bione account, in certain circumstances, we may require that you submit additional information sufficient to verify your identity before providing access or otherwise releasing information to you. If you choose not to submit the required documentation, or the information provided is not sufficient for the purposes sought, Bione will not be able to sufficiently verify your identity in order to complete your request.

Marketing communications

As mentioned above in Section 3.h. you may be asked to opt-in to receive product and promotional emails or notifications when creating your Bione account or when using our Services. You may update your notification preferences for marketing communications by going to your Bione Account Settings, opting out at the browser or device, or by contacting our Privacy Administrator at datapolicy@bione.in. You may click the "unsubscribe" button at the bottom of promotional email communications, as applicable.

Sharing outside of the Bione Services

You may choose to share your Personal Information with friends and/or family members, doctors or other health care professionals, and/or other individuals outside of our Services, including through third party services such as social networks and third-party apps which connect to our Platform through our application programming interface (API). These third-parties can use your Personal Information in a different way than we do under this Privacy Statement. Please choose carefully and review the privacy statements of all other third parties that may be involved in the transaction. Bione does not sponsor or endorse any API applications, and does not affirm the accuracy or validity of any interpretations made by third-party API applications.

In general, it can be difficult to hold or recover Personal Information once it has been shared or disclosed. Bione shall have no liability for any consequences that may result because you have shared Personal Information with others. Similarly, if you are reading this because you have access to the Personal Information of a Bione customer through a multi-profile account, we recommend you to recognize your responsibility to protect the privacy of each person within that account. Users with multi-profile accounts (i.e., where multiple family members register their kits to one account) should use caution in setting profile-level privacy settings.

Account deletion

You shall always have an option to withdraw your consent for collection and use by Bione of your Information by intimating Bione about such withdrawal by writing to Bione at the below mentioned contact information.

In case you do not wish to participate in our Services, or do not wish to have your Personal Information be processed, you can delete your Bione account by sending an email at support@bione.in. As soon as you submit your request, we will send an email to the email address that is linked to your Bione account detailing our account deletion policy and requesting that you confirm your deletion request. Also, once you confirm your request to delete your account and data, your account will be no longer accessible while we process your request. Once you confirm your request, this process cannot be cancelled, withdrawn, undone, or reversed. When your account is deleted, all associated Personal Information is deleted and any stored samples are discarded, subject to the following limitations:

Information that has been previously included in any Bione Research or as stated in any applicable consent document, Microbiome, Genetic Information and/or Phenotypic Information that you have previously provided and for which you have given consent to use in Bione Research cannot be deleted from completed studies that use that information. Please note that your data will not be included in studies that start 30 days after your account is closed (it may take up to 30 days to withdraw your information after your account is closed).
Legal Retention Requirements. Bione and/or our contracted genotyping laboratory will retain your Genetic Information, sex, and date of birth as required for compliance with applicable legal obligations. Bione will also maintain limited information related to your account and data deletion request, which may be include but not limited to, account deletion request identifier, your email address, communications related to inquiries or complaints and legal agreements for a limited period of time as required by law, contractual obligations, and/or as necessary for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims and for audit and compliance purposes.

7. Security measures

Bione takes the trust seriously you place in us. Bione implements administrative, physical, and technical measures to prevent unauthorized access to or disclosure of your information, to ensure the appropriate use of information, to maintain data accuracy, and otherwise safeguard your Personal Information. Our team regularly reviews and improves our security practices to help ensure the integrity of our systems and your information. These practices may include, but are not limited to the following areas:

ISO 27001:2020 certification. Our information security management system, which protects Bione systems, has been certified under the ISO 27001:2020 standard.
Encryption. Bione uses industry-standard security measures to encrypt Sensitive Information both at rest and in transit.
Limited access to essential personnel. We limit access to Sensitive Information to authorized personnel, based on job function and role. Bione access controls include multi-factor authentication, single sign-on, and strict least-privileged authorization policy.
Other measures to ensure security and confidentiality. To ensure the security of your personal information, we take the following measures:

BionegVault will be used to ensure confidentiality and Sophos firewall solution and upload prevention protocol will be implemented.
Personal data will be on a separate instance.
Raw data on separate network instance.
Analyze procedures on separate instances with appropriate control to compile ISO27001 compliance.
Also, optional security technologies will be implemented from time to time.

Your Responsibility. Please recognize that protecting your Personal Information is also your responsibility. We ask you to be responsible for safeguarding your password, and other authentication information you use to access our Services. You should not disclose your authentication information to any third-party and should immediately notify Bione of any unauthorized use of your Bione account. Bione cannot secure Personal Information that you release on your own or that you request us to release.

8. Children's privacy

Bione is committed to protecting the privacy of children as well as adults. Neither Bione nor any of its Services are designed for, intended to attract, or directed toward children under the age of 18. A parent or guardian, however, may collect a saliva sample from, create an account for, and provide information related to, his or her child who is under the age of 18. The parent or guardian assumes full responsibility for ensuring that the information that he/she provides to Bione about his or her child is kept secure and that the information submitted is accurate.

Linked websites

The Platform may provide links to third-party websites operated by organizations not affiliated with Bione. Bione does not disclose your information to organizations operating such linked third-party websites. Bione does not review or endorse, and is not responsible for the privacy practices of these organizations. We encourage you to read the privacy statements of each and every website that you visit. This Privacy Statement applies solely to information collected by Bione and our service providers on our behalf.

9. Changes to this Privacy Statement

Bione may modify this Privacy Statement from time to time. We recommend revisiting this page periodically to stay aware of any changes to this Privacy Statement. If we modify this Privacy Statement, we’ll make it available through our Platform. Whenever material changes to this Privacy Statement are made, we will provide you with notice before the modifications are effective, such as by posting a notice on our Platform or sending a message to the email address associated with your account.

By continuing to access or use the Services after changes to this Privacy Statement becomes effective, you agree to be bound by the revised Privacy Statement. If any changes are unacceptable to you, you may stop using our Services and delete your account at any time.

We also may provide additional "just-in-time" disclosures or additional information about the data collection, use and sharing practices of specific Services. Such notices may supplement or clarify our privacy practices or may provide you with additional choices about how Bione processes your Personal Information.

10. Contact Information

If you have questions on this Privacy Statement, or wish to submit a complaint, request or inquiry, please contact the Bione's IT Head & Administrator:

Email: datapolicy@bione.in

Address: #404, 4th Floor, Brigade IRV Center, Nallurahalli, Whitefield, Bangalore-560066 Karnataka, India.

All disputes arising out of or in relation to the Privacy Statement shall be governed by the laws of India and the courts at Bengaluru shall have exclusive jurisdiction.

Bione/PP/Jan20/v0