Privacy Policy

LEGAL INFORMATION: Cognex Corporation

Website Terms of Use

The contents of this web site, including but not limited to all text, designs and images appearing herein (collectively, the "Contents"), are copyrighted works owned by Cognex Corporation ("Cognex" or the "Company"). Any copying, reproduction, modification, distribution or other unauthorized use of the Contents, including any portion or version thereof, is prohibited. Notwithstanding the foregoing, users of this web site have the limited permission to view, copy, print and distribute the Contents for non-commercial, informational purposes so long as any copy or other reproduction includes the above copyright notice.

The products, processes, technology and related information described in this web site may be covered by one or more issued or pending Cognex patents. No license or other intellectual property right to such Cognex products, processes or technologies is granted or conferred by this web site or by anything appearing herein.

The trademarks and registered trademarks of Cognex referenced or used in this web site appear as marked and may not be used for any purpose without the express written permission of Cognex. All other brand names, designs, service marks and trademarks (whether or not registered) referenced or used herein are the property of their respective owners. Any reference to or use of third-party trademarks in this web site shall not constitute and is not intended to indicate such third party's affiliation with or endorsement of Cognex products and services.

The product and/or service information set forth in this web site may be outdated, may contain errors and omissions, and is subject to change without notice. No statement, representation or other information contained in this web site should be construed as binding upon Cognex contractually or otherwise the basis for any express or implied warranty. Please contact the Company during normal business hours for the most up-to-date information regarding specific products and services.

This web site may provide users with access (whether by hypertext links, framing or otherwise as applicable) to certain other non-Cognex web sites. Any such access is provided with the understanding that the contents of non-Cognex sites are beyond the control of Cognex, that Cognex makes no representations whatsoever about such sites, and that users shall proceed at their own risk.

Certain matters discussed in this web site may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the federal securities laws. The Company's results may differ materially from the expectations, estimates or projections contained in the forward-looking statements as a result of certain risk factors, as listed and discussed in the Company's registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Cognex disclaims any obligation subsequently to revise forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of such statements or to reflect the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated events. The reader should not place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements.

General Website Privacy Policy

Cognex respects your privacy and recognizes your need for appropriate protection and management of any personally identifiable information you share with us (any information by which you can be identified, such as name, address, and telephone number). That is why Cognex has established this privacy policy – so that you can understand the care with which we will treat your information.

In general, you may visit www.cognex.com without telling us who you are or revealing any personal information about yourself. However, at times, we may request that you share personal information with us in order to obtain access to certain features of our site or to request additional information from us. If you choose to provide personal information, we assure you that we will take appropriate steps to protect the information you share with us from unauthorized access or disclosure. If you choose not to provide the information we request, you can still visit most of our web site, but you may be unable to access certain areas, options, or services.

Cognex will use your information to better understand your needs for machine vision products and to support your customer relationship with Cognex. Among other things, Cognex will utilize your information to alert you to product upgrades and updated product information or to send you other literature and/or information that you request. From time to time, Cognex may contact you via phone, email, or postal mail with information about various products and services. If you do not want to receive such communication, simply tell us when you provide your personal information. You can easily opt-out of receiving further marketing information from Cognex by unsubscribing at any time

Global Data Protection Policy (non-U.S.)

In the course of its daily organizational activities, Cognex Corporation (together with its subsidiaries) ("Cognex", "Us", "We", "Our") processes and stores Personal Data of customers and suppliers. This policy provides guidelines for the treatment of such data. This policy applies to all Personal Data collected, processed, stored and disclosed by Cognex in relation to our suppliers and customers (located outside the United States) in the course of our business activities.

Please contact privacy@cognex.com with any questions about this policy or how Personal Data is handled.

Scope

The policy covers both Personal Data and Special Categories of Personal Data (also known as Sensitive Data) held by Cognex in relation to Data Subjects. The policy applies equally to Personal Data held in manual and automated form. Personal Data and Special Categories of Personal Data (also known as Sensitive Data) will be equally referred to as Personal Data in this policy, unless specifically stated otherwise.

Processors

In the course of its role as a Controller of Personal Data, Cognex engages a number of processors to process Personal Data on its behalf. In each case, a formal, written contract is in place with the processor, outlining their obligations in relation to the Personal Data, the specific purpose or purposes for which the processor is engaged, and the understanding that the processor will process the Personal Data in compliance with the applicable Data Privacy Legislation. Failure of a processor to manage Cognex’s data in a compliant manner will be generally treated as a breach of contract.

Processors may include: Cognex Corporation, when it processes Personal Data on behalf of Cognex’s affiliated legal entities; other Cognex affiliated legal entities and IT service providers.

Processing Details

We process Personal Data about certain Data Subjects including:

customers seeking products and services from Cognex (which includes former, present and/or prospective customers/clients and representatives);and
former, present and/or prospective suppliers of Cognex, including third party advisors and consultants who may interact with Cognex in connection with certain services.

Cognex processes various kinds of Personal Data for a range of purposes. The categories of Personal Data and the purposes for which they are processed are set out principally in paragraph four of the General Website Privacy Policy above.

Generally, Personal Data will be used only for the purposes for which it was originally collected ("Original Purpose"). Under certain Data Privacy Legislation Personal Data may be processed for a purpose other than the purpose listed in the relevant data privacy notice or policy ("Secondary Purpose") only if the Original Purpose and Secondary Purpose are closely related.

Data Protection Key Requirements

We have adopted key data protection requirements which must be followed in relation to all processing of Personal Data. These key requirements are set out below, together with an explanation of what they entail. In some countries, applicable Data Privacy Legislation may provide for civil and criminal sanctions if the requirements are not met. The following key requirements are fundamental to this data protection policy.

In its capacity as a Controller, Cognex will observe the following when processing Personal Data:

Personal Data will be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner.
Personal Data will be collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not processed further in ways incompatible with those purposes.
Personal Data will be adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which it is collected and used.
Personal Data will be accurate and where necessary, kept up-to-date. Reasonable steps will be taken to rectify or delete Personal Data that is inaccurate.
Personal Data will be kept no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the Personal Data was processed.
Personal Data will be processed in a manner that ensures confidentiality and appropriate security of the personal data.
Personal Data will be processed in accordance with applicable Data Subjects’ rights.
Where Personal Data is transferred outside the country or territory where it has been collected, such transfer must be in full compliance with applicable Data Privacy Legislation.
Cognex will maintain records in order to demonstrate its compliance with Data Privacy Legislation.

Data Protection Impact Assessments

In some circumstances, applicable Data Privacy Legislation may require conducting a data protection impact assessment. This may be the case where a new project or way of working, or proposed changes to an existing project or way of working, or deployment of a new technology is likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of Data Subjects. In practice, this means Cognex must continuously assess the risks created by our processing activities in order to identify when a type of processing is likely to trigger the requirement to conduct a data protection impact assessment. For example, large scale processing of Special Categories of Personal Data, or systematic evaluation of persons based on automated processing, including profiling (e.g. creating a credit rating data base) could trigger the obligation to carry out a data protection impact assessment under applicable Data Privacy Legislation.

More generally, a data protection impact assessment can be helpful to us as it will allow us to identify and mitigate privacy risks prior to processing, and to apply the principles of "privacy by design", whereby projects are built and implemented with privacy compliance in mind. Carrying out a data protection impact assessment is a continual process, not a one-time exercise, and it is also important to save time and resource by preventing intervention at a later date.

Data Subject Rights Requests

Under the applicable Data Privacy Legislation, Data Subjects may have various rights in respect of their Personal Data, depending on the exact circumstances and certain conditions set forth in Data Privacy Legislation. These rights may include (for example) to access their Personal Data, request its correction, request its erasure (such as when employee or customer records are no longer required), request the restriction of processing of their Personal Data, object, withdraw consent or change scope of consent to its processing, to complain about the processing of Personal Data, or request the transfer of Personal Data. Other rights may apply under applicable Data Privacy Legislation. Requests must be referred, as soon as possible, to privacy@cognex.com. All requests will be processed as required under applicable Data Privacy Legislation as soon as possible and in any event within the timeframes prescribed under applicable Data Privacy Legislation. Where permitted by applicable Data Privacy Legislation, we may have the right to charge direct and/or necessary costs of fulfilling data access requests.

Data Protection Requirements in Detail

1. Personal Data will be processed lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner.

Cognex processes Personal Data in compliance with Data Privacy Legislation. In some countries, this will mean that we will need to justify processing Personal Data by reference to specific requirements of applicable Data Privacy Legislation. In other countries, this will mean that we must obtain consent from the relevant Data Subject for any collection, use, processing, sharing or overseas transfer of his or her Personal Data. More generally, processing will be lawful where permitted by applicable laws and regulations, or required by relevant authorities or court orders.

Personal Data must be processed fairly. In broad terms this means that we must ensure transparency of processing so that Data Subjects are aware of who is processing their Personal Data and why. Where we directly collect Personal Data, we will ensure that the Data Subjects are given a notice which will include:

the identity (including full name) and contact details of the Controller;
what, how and why Personal Data are processed, and the purposes for the processing; and
other information that is necessary under applicable Data Privacy Legislation (such as any recipients of the data and their purposes, an outline of the Data Subject's rights, the security measures applied to Personal Data, whether any of the information we are asking for is mandatory or voluntary, the consequences of not providing mandatory Personal Data, whether there will be any transfers of Personal Data to other countries, whether there will be any processing of Sensitive Data, and whether there will be direct marketing activities using Personal Data).

Where required, Cognex will obtain the prior express or explicit consent of the Data Subject to the processing as identified in the notice.

Where we collect Personal Data from third party advisors and consultants, we will make a data privacy notice available at the first point of contact or as otherwise required under applicable Data Privacy Legislation.

2. Personal Data will be collected for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes and not processed further in ways incompatible with those purposes.

This key requirement breaks down into two important requirements: firstly, that Personal Data must be obtained only for one or more specified, explicit and lawful purposes; and secondly, that Personal Data must not be further processed in any manner incompatible with the purpose or purposes for which the data was obtained. A breach of either requirement could also result in a breach of the requirement to ensure data is processed lawfully and in a transparent manner. For example, if a data privacy notice describes the purposes for which Personal Data will be used as administration, marketing and risk assessment, we should not use that Personal Data for any other purposes, unless those additional purposes would be reasonable and expected by the Data Subject or in certain countries additional consent has been obtained from the Data Subject with respect to the additional purposes.

3. Personal Data will be adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary in relation to the purposes for which it is collected and used.

Personal Data must be adequate, relevant and limited to the extent that is necessary. We therefore apply the following principles,:

we identify the Personal Data needed for a particular purpose and collect the minimum amount required to properly fulfil that purpose;
we keep Personal Data up to date (otherwise Personal Data may no longer be adequate); and
we do not keep Personal Data for longer than is necessary.

4. Personal Data will be accurate and where necessary, kept up-to-date. Reasonable steps will be taken to rectify or delete Personal Data that is inaccurate.

Personal data will be inaccurate if it is incorrect or misleading as to any matter of fact (e.g. an incorrect name or address).

5. Personal Data will be kept no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the Personal Data was processed.

We review the Personal Data we hold on a regular basis against our internal retention policy, to ensure that data is not retained for longer than is necessary or longer than is permitted under applicable Data Privacy Legislation or other applicable laws

6. Personal Data will be processed in a manner that ensures confidentiality and appropriate security of the personal data.

Cognex is required to keep Personal Data confidential and to implement and maintain appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure the security of Personal Data which it processes:

technical measures include: software controls to restrict user access; up-to-date virus checking software; audit trail software; encryption; and anti-malware protections, all of which we have in place and manage through our IT department; and
organizational measures include: restricting access to buildings and computer rooms; ensuring secure disposal of information.

Cognex employees will be provided access to Personal Data only to the extent necessary to serve the applicable purpose as necessary to perform their tasks.

Applicable Data Privacy Legislation may impose upon Cognex additional obligations if we use third parties (which may include another Cognex affiliated company) to process Personal Data on our behalf. Examples of these third parties might include providers of IT services to Cognex who have access to our systems that contain Personal Data for the purposes of supporting and maintaining our IT systems.

These third parties will be acting as our processors and applicable Data Privacy Legislation may require us to (for example):

put in place a contract in writing with each of our processors under which they agree to act only on instructions from us;
include the right to audit our processors to ascertain compliance with the data protection requirements of the data processing contract; and
undertake a privacy impact assessment or equivalent.

7. Personal Data must be processed in accordance with the rights of Data Subjects under the applicable Data Privacy Legislation.

Data Subjects may have rights in relation to their Personal Data.

8. Where Personal Data is transferred outside the country or territory where it has been collected, such transfer must be in full compliance with Data Privacy Legislation.

Personal Data must only be transferred to a country or territory other than the country where either: (a) the Data Subject from which it was collected is resident; or (b) the Cognex affiliated company that collected it is established, in accordance with Data Privacy Legislation, which may include putting in place an appropriate data transfer safeguard, or ensuring that the country where Personal Data is transferred has comparable levels of protection and security of Personal Data. Under certain Data Privacy Legislation, there may be additional requirements with which we must comply before transferring any Personal Data outside of the territory from which it has been collected, including without limitation, having obtained explicit consent from Data Subjects with respect to such transfer of Personal Data and undertaken certain security assessments mandated by local laws and regulations. The Cognex group has an appropriate intra-group data transfer agreement in place which permits it to make transfers within its network of offices in respect of data received from customers.

Definitions

The following definitions will apply within this data protection policy.

Authority: An authority, often an independent public authority, that generally is responsible for monitoring the application of Data Privacy Legislation and enforcing compliance therewith.

Controller: A person or entity who, either alone or with others, controls the content and use of Personal Data by determining the purposes and means by which that Personal Data is processed.

Compliance Officer: A person appointed by Cognex to monitor compliance with the applicable Data Privacy Legislation, to deal with Data Subject rights requests, and to respond to data protection queries from Data Subjects.

Data: This includes both automated and manual data. Automated data means data held on computer or stored with the intention that it is processed on computer. Manual data means data that is processed as part of a relevant filing system, or which is stored with the intention that it forms part of a relevant filing system.

Data Privacy Legislation: Any legislation and regulatory guidelines and requirements in force from time to time relating to the use and protection of Personal Data.

Data Subject: An individual who is the subject of the Personal Data, i.e. to whom the data relates either directly or indirectly.

Personal Data: Information which relates to an individual, who can be identified either directly from that data, or indirectly in conjunction with other data which is likely to come into the legitimate possession of the Controller.

Personal Data Breach: Any actual or suspected theft, unauthorized processing, unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of, or access to, any Personal Data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed, whether caused accidentally or intentionally.

processed, process, processing: In relation to information or data, means obtaining, recording or holding the information or data or carrying out any operation or set of operations on the information or data, including (a) organization, adaptation or alteration of the information or data, (b) retrieval, consultation or use of the information or data, (c) disclosure of the information or data by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, or (d) alignment, combination, blocking, erasure or destruction of the information or data.

processor: A person or entity who processes Personal Data on behalf of a Controller on the basis of a formal, written contract, but who is not an employee of the Controller who processes such Data in the course of his/her employment.

Special Categories of Personal Data (also known as Sensitive Data): A particular category of Personal Data that, depending on the applicable Data Privacy Legislation, may relate to: racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious, ideological or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, information relating to mental or physical health, information in relation to one’s sexual orientation, information in relation to commission of a crime or conviction for a criminal offense, mobile phone number; identification information such as a national ID card; social insurance card, residence permit or financial information.

Use of Cookies on our Website

How we use cookies and other methods for the collection of website usage data

Some of our web pages utilize "cookies" so that we can better serve you with tailored information when you return to our site. Cookies are small files that our website may send to your browser and it is kept on your computer to make our website function properly, to provide business and marketing information to us and to facilitate your next visit to our site. The cookie data may improve form interactions based on information you have previously given to us. For example, in some cases, we will allow you to bypass a web form if a form cookie exists, or we may pre-fill a form with previously supplied contact information. In general, you can visit the Cognex website without telling us who you are or revealing any personal information about yourself, such as your name, phone number, postal code or email address.

Our web server collects IP addresses to obtain certain aggregate information concerning the use of our website. An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you’re surfing the web. We do not link IP addresses to any personally identifiable information. Therefore you can remain anonymous when you visit our website. Occasionally you may be asked to give us more specific information about yourself, such as when you download software, register for a seminar or other event, respond to a survey, enter a contest from our website, and register at the customer portal. Supplying such information to us is optional, but you may be unable to complete certain transactions without giving such information.

Types and kinds of cookies

There are four types of cookies:

Strictly necessary - Technically essential to the provision of our website. For example, some cookies are used to enable secure login to restricted areas.
Performance - Monitor and assess our website and its use. For example, recording visits to reveal how a website is used and which parts are most popular.
Functionality - Enable additional functionality to improve user experience. For example, recording settings for future visits so as to save users having to repeat making the same choices.
Advertising/targeting - Use an identification number to monitor personal preferences for the purposes of personalizing pages and gathering further information. For example, presenting adverts or promotions for products similar to those previously viewed or purchased.

There are two main kinds of cookies: session cookies and persistent cookies. Session cookies are deleted from your computer when you close your browser, whereas persistent cookies remain stored on your computer until deleted, or until they reach their expiry date.

Cookies on our website

Cognex uses the services of the third party vendor Google Analytics to help us measure and analyze the effectiveness of our website and how visitors use www.cognex.com. To do this, we may use web beacons and cookies provided by this third party vendor. The type of information we collect includes the pages visited and navigation patterns, which helps us learn how visitors use our site, and what information is of the most interest to our customers and visitors to our website. Although the third party vendor logs the information coming from our site on our behalf, Cognex controls how that data may and may not be used. If you do not want to assist Cognex in improving our website, products, services, offers, and marketing strategy, you can "opt-out" of this web-site analysis tool by downloading and installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Our site uses Eloqua part of the Oracle Marketing Cloud. This cookie is used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited. Once consent is provided, through a form submission by the visitor, we can associate a visitor’s ID to individual characteristics and past behavior. See more at: https://www.oracle.com/us/legal/privacy/marketing-cloud-data-cloud-privacy-policy/index.html

Cognex uses Google AdWords Remarketing to advertise online using text or image ads. Remarketing is a feature that lets us reach people who have previously visited our site, and show them relevant ads when they visit other sites. Google use cookies to serve ads based on a user's prior visits to our website. For this purpose third party advertising provider cookies are set when you visit our website. Users may opt out of Google's use of cookies by visiting the Google advertising opt-out page

Our website uses Google Adwords Conversion Tracking which uses cookies to help us determine how many people who clicked on our Google Ads end up contacting us through the website. This tracking cookie is set on your browser only when you click on a Google Ad and these cookies help us increase the website’s effectiveness for our visitors. These cookies expire within 30 days and do not contain information that can identify you personally. Please refer to the Google Advertising Privacy Notice for more information about Google Conversion Tracking and the ability to opt out.

Please note that third parties (including, for example, advertising networks and providers of external services like web traffic analysis services) may also use cookies, over which we have no control. These cookies are likely to be analytical/performance cookies or targeting cookies.

Exercise your rights and opt-out

If you do consent to the use of non-essential trackers, you can customize and withdraw your consent at any time (except concerning strictly necessary cookies) in our Cookies Preference Center. You can choose whether you consent to some or all of our cookies and tracking technologies and this will not affect your access to the website and our resources. However, please note that the user experience might be different depending on the categories of cookies you accept. To change your cookies, clear your cookies in your browser, and refresh the page you are on. This will show the cookie banner and you can update your preferences.

For reference:
https://www.onetrust.com/cookie-policy/

If Cognex decides to change this Privacy Policy, we will post those changes on this page so that you are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances we disclose it.

If you have any comments or questions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at legal@cognex.com. We will address any issue to the best of our abilities.