Contractor Privacy Notice

This notice applies to all countries except Austria, Germany and South Africa.

View privacy notice for Austria:

View privacy notice for Germany:

View privacy notice for South Africa:

English version

View privacy notice for Thailand:

You can view this notice in the following languages: Arabic, Chinese (Simplified), German, Greek, Estonian, Finnish, French, Hungarian, Kazakh, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Swedish, Spanish, Thai, Turkish.

1. Who is responsible for the processing of your personal data?

This Contractor Privacy Notice ("Notice") applies to the ABB Group of companies, which means ABB Ltd, Switzerland and each entity in which ABB Ltd, Switzerland, directly or indirectly, has a majority holding or owns or controls the majority of voting rights. The ABB company with whom you, your employer or the company through which you are assigned to ABB have/has a contractual relationship (referred to as "ABB" or "we"), is responsible for the processing of your personal data and controls how it is used, in accordance with this Notice.

Other subsidiary companies of ABB may also receive and process your personal data, either in the capacity of controller or processor and this Notice applies equally to them.

2. The types of information we collect and use?

We collect and use personal data that concerns you in connection with your work assignment and the services you are providing under the work assignment/statement of work directly to ABB. We may collect the following categories of personal data:

Identification data and business contact information, you share with us such as first name, last name, job/position/title, employer, employer address, nationality, tax number, work permit/visa information, business email address, business address, telephone number, mobile telephone number, telefax number, private telephone number, private email address, gender, date of birth.
Additional information you provide to us in the course of your work assignment such as data concerning the fulfilment of your work assignment, our contractual obligations and pre-contractual measures including correspondence data, offers, tenders, resume/CV, background check data, conditions, qualifications/certificates, contract and order data, invoices, payments, business partner history, records relating to queries/questions/complaints/orders, working time logging, and training and education records, vehicle license plate, driving license number, ID/passport number, insurance data.
Expense related information such as bank statements, payment details, transactions, expense claims and receipts, bank account details, credit card data.
Electronic identification data and information collected by the communications systems, IT applications and website browser (where contractor has access or is affected by such systems or applications and in accordance with the applicable law) such as information technology usage (system access, IT and internet usage), device identifier (mobile device ID, PC ID), registration and login credentials, IP address, login data and log files, Analytics ID, digital alias/signature, time and url, searches, website registration and cookie data recordings (e.g. voice mail/phone recordings, Skype recordings).
Other personal data namely where you or others (such as your colleagues) may register these data on or in our systems, programs and application such as business documents containing personal information (e.g. queries, questions, complaints, orders and related records, emails, reports, contracts, presentations, minutes, work products),
photos, images and/or videos.

The below mentioned types of personal data are only collected and processed, if at all, in accordance with applicable local laws in your country of residence and where relevant depending on your work assignment.

Special categories of personal data such as data for travel emergency support (blood type, medical history, allergies, health certificate when allowed or required by local law).
Data about criminal convictions and offences such as criminal background information for the purposes of criminal background screening.
To the extent necessary to fulfil our obligations, data obtained from publicly accessible sources or which are legitimately transmitted by other third parties (e.g. a credit agency) such as data transferred to ABB by your employer or the company through which you are assigned to ABB, commercial register data, creditworthiness data.

In case you would like to be provided with information about a specific personal data processing activity, you can request that by submitting a request at www.abb.com/privacy.

3. Why we use your personal data?

We may use your personal data as described above for the following purposes:

human resources management as relevant to your work assignment and the services you are providing under the work assignment/statement of work directly to ABB including organization and personal administration, working hours management, improving and maintaining effective staff administration, internal workforce analysis, reporting and planning;
supplier and service provider management throughout the procurement, logistics and supply chain including contact interaction including tendering, engagement, processing orders, process and fulfilment of purchases, administration and management of suppliers, vendors, contractors, advisers and other professional experts including contact interaction, processing and fulfilling purchases and invoices, and contract lifecycle management;
staff transfer management from different affiliates and succession planning;
organising ABB events and documentation of such events including organisation and management of internal non-marketing related campaigns, events and meetings;
training contractors;
internal health and safety programs;
travel and expenses management and organization of business trips including monitoring of travelers to provide support during security or medical emergencies, providing travel security, health and safety training and on a voluntary basis assistance in giving security support during emergencies, insurance management;
finance and shared accounting services providing record to report, order to cash and purchase to pay services;
making use of work performance and products and for references on documents, such as drawings, purchase orders, sales orders, invoices, reports;
reorganization, acquisition and sale of activities, business units and companies;
monitoring and auditing compliance with ABB’s corporate policies, contractual obligations and legal requirements;
carrying out audits (internal and external), reviews and regulatory checks to meet obligations to regulators;
maintaining and protecting the security of products, facilities, services, systems, networks, computers and information, preventing and detecting security threats, fraud or other criminal or malicious activities, and ensuring business continuity; and
managing IT resources, including infrastructure management including data back-up, information systems’ support and service operations for application management, end user support, testing, maintenance, security (incident response, risk, vulnerability, breach response), master data and workplace including user accounts management, software licenses assignment, security and performance testing and business continuity.

We collect only the personal data from you that we need for the purposes described above. For statistical purposes, improvement of our services and testing of our IT systems we use as much as reasonably possible anonymized data. This means that these data can no longer (in)directly identify you or single you out as an individual.

In case you are working at a third-party site (for example ABB customer location or facility), such third party may need to process your personal data for their purposes acting as a data controller. In these cases, you will receive or may request a separate privacy notice from the relevant data controller.

4. What happens if you do not provide us with the information we had asked you for or if you ask us to stop processing your information

Where it concerns processing operations related to your work assignment (as described above), ABB will not be able to adequately establish, conduct or terminate a business relationship with you, your employer or the company through which you are assigned to ABB and generally perform the purposes described above without certain personal data. Although we cannot obligate you to share your personal data with us, please note that this then may have consequences which could affect your work assignment in a negative manner, such as not being able to take requested pre-contractual measures to enter into a contract with you, your employer or the company through which you are assigned to ABB or to establish and continue your work assignment.

5. The legal basis we rely on

We use your personal data for the purposes described in this notice based on one of the following legal bases, as applicable:

We may process your personal data for the fulfilment of contractual obligations resulting from your work assignment, or as part of pre-contractual measures we take;
In some cases, we rely on our legitimate interests to process your personal data insofar as this is not overridden by your own privacy interests. Such interests may include:

conduct, management, development and furtherance of our business in the broadest sense possible including supply of products and services, performance of agreements and order management with suppliers, process and fulfilment of purchases, process quality management and improvement of products or services, analytics and market intelligence, reduction of default risks in our procurement processes and reorganization, acquisition and sale of activities, business divisions and companies;
monitor, investigate and ensure compliance with legal, regulatory, standard and ABB internal requirements and policies;
prevent fraud and criminal activity including investigations of such activity, misuse of ABB assets, products and services, and as strictly necessary and proportionate for ensuring network and information security; and
transmitting personal data within the ABB group for internal administrative purposes as necessary for example to provide centralized services.

You may obtain a copy of our assessment of why we may process your personal data for these interests by submitting a request at www.abb.com/privacy.

In some cases, we process your personal data on the basis of legal obligations and statutory requirements, for example, on the basis of tax or reporting obligations, cooperation obligations with authorities, statutory retention periods or the disclosure of personal data within the scope of official or judicial measures may be required for the purposes of taking evidence, prosecution or enforcement of civil law claims.

With regard to special categories of personal data we will only process such data in accordance with applicable law and:

We will ask your explicit consent for specific activities in accordance with applicable law; or
where necessary for establishment, exercise and defense of legal claims.

With regard to personal data concerning criminal convictions and offences, we will only process such data where such processing is permitted by applicable (local) law.

6. Parties we share your personal data with (in and outside the EU and EEA or outside the country where the ABB company that controls your data is located)

We only share your personal data with other ABB affiliates or third parties as necessary for the purposes described in the table below. Where we share your personal data with an affiliate or third party so that it transfers to or becomes accessible from outside the European Union (“EU”) and European Economic Area ("EEA") or outside the country where your employer is located, we always put adequate safeguards in place to protect your personal data. Examples of these safeguards are an adequacy decision of the European Commission or Standard Contractual Clauses. We have taken additional measures for the transfer of data from within to outside the EU, EEA and outside the country where your employer is located to protect your personal data. If you would like an overview of the safeguards which are in place, please submit a request at www.abb.com/privacy.

Recipient category	Recipient location	Purpose
ABB affiliates and subsidiaries	See the list of ABB subsidiaries	The purposes described in this privacy notice by Your ABB manager/supervisor, ABB Human Resources, ABB Finance, ABB IT Support, ABB’s GBSs (Global Business Services Centers) supporting Human Resources/Finance/Procurement and Logistics 24/7 and ABB’s Procurement departments dealing with contractors
ABB business partners (such as temporary labor and recruiting services/your employer or the or the company through which you are assigned to ABB), distributors and agents	EU/EEA and non-EU/EEA (global)	The purposes described in this privacy notice
ABB Customers that receive a service in which Contractors are engaged	EU/EEA and non-EU/EEA (global)	When requested by the Customer when necessary to check certain information of a Contractor for the purpose of allowing him/her to work on a Customer project
Service providers such as IT services including IT support, consulting services, outsourcing services, independent agents, payment processors, rating and assessment services, professional and advisory services including accountants, auditors, lawyers, insurers, bankers, recruiters, travel agents and other advisors or service providers working on ABB’s behalf	EU/EEA and non-EU/EEA (global)	The purposes described in this privacy notice
Potential or actual acquirers of ABB businesses or assets	EU/EEA and non-EU/EEA (global)	For the evaluation of the business or assets in question or executing the transformation/merger of the companies or for the purposes described in this privacy notice
Recipients as required by applicable law or legal process, to law enforcement or government authorities, etc.	EU/EEA and non-EU/EEA (global)	Where required by applicable law or a legitimate request by government authorities, or a valid legal requirement

7. How long we keep your personal data

Based on mandatory legislation, ABB must keep certain personal data for a minimum period of time. We only keep your personal data for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this privacy notice. In general, personal data is kept for the duration of your work assignment.

Where legally required by tax and record keeping purposes we will keep the required subset of your personal data (typically between 5-10 years after the termination of the assignment). After this time, we will securely delete your personal data. Subject to your separate consent to ABB to use your personal data for marketing purposes, we will keep the necessary personal data until you notify us that you no longer wish to receive ABB’s marketing communications, at which time we will securely delete the personal data.

At the same time, applicable data protection laws require that we do not keep personal data in an identifiable form for any longer than is necessary for the purpose for which the personal data is being processed. Through the setting of IT applications and policies we ensure that our keeping of your personal data is deleted when we no longer need it.

8. Security and monitoring of ABB systems

ABB takes the security of its data very seriously, including your information and ABB's digital business assets. ABB sees this as a shared responsibility, where it takes the necessary steps to secure such data, and where it expects the contractors to do the same. You can read more about our security measures and your responsibilities in the End User Security Policy.

Monitoring of ABB's systems

For business reasons, and in order to maintain IT security measures, information about the use of ABB's systems including telephone (mobile and fixed) and computer systems (including email and internet access), and any personal use of them, is collected and monitored, and used when necessary for the security of ABB’s system and compliance with ABB security group policies and in accordance with the applicable law. If you access services by the use of passwords and login names on ABB's IT and communication systems, this might mean that your access details can be seen by ABB.

Monitoring is only carried out if and to the extent permitted or as required by law and as necessary and justifiable for business purposes. The resulting log files will be kept for a minimum period in accordance with section 7. This is required so that instances of attempted misuse and other security events can be detected, and that information is available to support any subsequent investigation and follow up actions. To the extent permitted by law and internal policies, action may be taken under the disciplinary procedure.

If necessary, such information may be handed to the police or other law enforcement agencies. Investigations and disclosure of information to the relevant authorities shall be carried out only to the extent permitted by law.

9. Your data privacy rights

Depending on the jurisdiction in which you are located and in which your personal data is processed, you may have the following rights:

Data privacy rights	What it means
The right to access your data	You are entitled to ask ABB for an overview of or to obtain a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
The right to have your data corrected	You may request immediate correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data we hold about you.
The right to have your data erased	You may request that personal data be erased when it is no longer needed, where applicable law obliges us to delete the data or the processing of it is unlawful.
The right to restrict data processing	You have the right to restrict the processing of your personal data in specific circumstances.
The right to data portability	You have the right to receive your personal data in a structured, machine-readable format for your own purposes, or to request us to transfer it to a third party.
The right to object to data processing	You have the right to object at any time, for reasons arising from your particular situation, to the processing of your personal data, which is either based a legitimate interest.
The right to withdraw consent	Where ABB has asked for your consent to process personal data, you may withdraw your consent at any time. The withdrawal of consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.

Please note that the rights described above are not absolute, and that your request cannot always be met entirely. For example, sometimes we cannot delete or restrict the processing of your personal data as we may have legal obligations or contractual obligations to keep certain personal data.

You may request to enforce your data privacy rights at www.abb.com/privacy.

10. Contact and further information

If you want to access your personal data, make use of any of your other rights mentioned above or if you have any questions or concerns about how ABB processes your personal data, please contact our Group Data Protection Officer at privacy@abb.com, or submit your complaint at www.abb.com/privacy.

Should you not be satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data against the law, you may also have the right to file a complaint with the Data Privacy Authority in your country of residence or work, or seek a remedy through the courts where you believe an infringement of data privacy laws may have taken place.

11. Updates to this document

This Privacy Notice may be updated from time to time as a result of required developments. In case of such updates, we will undertake necessary actions to inform you about them depending on the importance of changes done. If and where required by applicable laws we will also ask for your consent to any material Privacy Notice changes describing our up-to-date practices.

Please check the “date of publication” to see when this Privacy Notice was updated.

Date of publication: January 15, 2021