Privacy & Cookie Policy

Growens, as identified at the top of this Privacy Policy, is the data controller regarding all Personal Data processing carried out through the Website. You can contact Growens’s Data protection Officer (“DPO”) at the following e-mail address: dpo@growens.io.

When you use the Website, you may provide to us or we may collect some of your Personal Data , such as your name, an identification number, an online ID or one or more characteristic elements of your physical, physiological, mental, economic, cultural or social identity which allows you to be identified either by itself, or together with other information which has been collected (“Personal Data”).

Your “Personal Data” can be collected by Growens both when you choose to provide them (e.g., when you ask Growens for information through the Section “Contact us” of the Website https://www.growens.io/contacts/ or when you  subscribe to the newsletter) or simply by analysing your behaviour on the Website.

a. Name, contact details and other Personal Data

In various sections of the Website – including, particularly, when you ask for information relating Growens’s Services – you will be asked to submit information about yourself, such as your name, phone / mobile numbers, e-mail address, the Company you work for etc. Additionally, whenever you communicate with Growens through the contact details provided in the Website, Growens may collect additional information which you choose to provide.

Growens may also process your personal data in the event of your participation in company meetings and/or other corporate activities.

b. Job applications

When registering to apply for a position within Growens at the Section (https://www.growens.io/en/work-with-us/) (“Jobs”) you will also be asked to fulfil a form (“Application”) in which you may provide various types of Personal Data, including professional/employment details (e.g., university attended, foreign language knowledge, link to your professional profiles on social networks professional qualifications, candidate’s expectations and wished workplace, availability to start), attach your profile pic, your CV and your cover letter).

When receiving a job application, Growens may assess your professional social media accounts (e.g. LinkedIn) or professional websites, although you did not attach them to the Application, where publicly available, to gain insight as to your suitability for position applied for.

Further information on the processing of your Personal Data that we collect through Applications can be found in the Privacy Policy available in the Application platform.

c. Special categories of Personal Data

Certain areas of the Website (e.g. the Contact form or the form dedicated to spam reporting) may include free text fields, where you can provide to Growens information which may contain Personal Data.

Where these fields are completely free, you may use them to disclose (inadvertently or not) more sensitive categories of Personal Data, such as data revealing your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership. The content you upload in these fields may also (inadvertently or not) include other types of sensitive information relating to you, such as your genetic data, biometric data or data concerning your health, sex life or sexual orientation.

Growens asks that you do not disclose these kinds of Personal Data, unless you consider this to be strictly necessary. Please mind that sensitive categories of Personal Data can be processed with your explicit consent only, in compliance with the current legislation.  Growens underlines the importance to express your explicit consent to process this sort of Personal Data, where you decide to share them.

d. Data voluntarily provided by the data subject

As mentioned in the previous section, certain areas of the Website allow you to post various types of content, available to Growens that may include Personal Data related to other persons.

In any situation where you decide to share Personal Data related to other persons, you will be considered as an independent data controller regarding that Personal Data and must assume all inherent legal obligations and responsibilities. This means, among other things, that you must fully indemnify Growens against any complaints, claims or demands for compensation for damages which may arise from the processing of this Personal Data, brought by the third parties whose information you provide through the Website.

In any case, if you provide or otherwise process Personal Data of third parties when using the Website, you guarantee from now on – assuming all related liability – that that particular processing hypothesis is based on the consent of the third party concerned or on another appropriate legal basis legitimising the processing of the Personal Data of third parties.

e. Data automatically collected when sending e-mails or communications.

When we send e-mail or communications we use tracking systems, with the explicit and freely provided consent of the user, such as pixel or web bacons, in order to detect the opening of a message, the clicks made on hyperlinks contained within the e-mail, from which IP address or with which type of browser the email is opened and other similar details.

f. Browsing data

The Website’s operation, as is standard with any websites on the Internet, involves the use of computer systems and software procedures, which collect information about the Website’s users as part of their routine operation. While Growens does not collect this information in order to link it to specific users, it is still possible to identify those users either directly via that information, or by using other information collected – as such, this information must also be considered Personal Data.

This information includes several parameters related to your operating system and IT environment, including your IP address, location (country), the domain names of your computer, the URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) addresses of resources you request on the Website, the time of requests made, the method used to submit requests to the server, the dimensions of the file obtained in response to a request, the numerical code indicating the status of the response sent by the server (successful, error, etc.), and other parameters related to the operating system and user’s IT environment.

These data are used to compile statistical information on the use of the Website, as well as to ensure its correct operation and identify any faults and/or abuse of the Website. Save for this last purpose, these data are not kept for more than 7 days.

g. Cookies

Definitions, characteristics, and application of the legislations

Cookies are small text files that may be sent to and registered on your computer by the websites you visit, to then be re-sent to those same sites when you visit them again. It is thanks to these cookies that those websites can “remember” your actions and preferences (e.g., login data, language, font size, other display settings, etc.), so that you do not need to configure them again when you next visit the website, or when you change pages within a website.

Cookies are used for electronic authentication, monitoring of sessions and storage of information regarding your activities when accessing a website. They may also contain an unique ID code which allows tracking of your browsing activities within a website, for statistical or advertising purposes.

When browsing a website, you may also receive cookies from websites or web servers other than the website being visited (i.e., “third-party cookies”).

Some operations within a website may not be able to be performed without the use of cookies which, in certain cases, are technically necessary for operation of the website.

There are various types of cookies, depending on their characteristics and functions, which may be stored on your computer for different periods of time: “session cookies”, which are automatically deleted when you close your browser, and “persistent cookies”, which will remain on your device until their pre-set expiration period passes.

According to the law which may be applicable to you, your consent may not always be necessary for cookies to be used on a website. In particular, “technical cookies” – i.e. cookies which are only used to send messages through an electronic communications network, or which are needed to provide services you request – typically do not require this consent. These cookies are, in other words, essential for the operation of the site or necessary to perform activities requested by the user.

On the other hand, “profiling cookies” – i.e., cookies used to create profiles on users and to send advertising messages in line with the preferences revealed by users while browsing websites – typically require specific consent from users, although this may vary according to the applicable law

Types of cookies used by the Website and possibility of (de-)selection

The Website uses the following types of cookies that can be de-selected, except for third-party cookies for which you must refer directly to the relative selection and de-selection of the respective cookies, indicated via links:

View and edit cookie list

Growens also uses third-party cookies – i.e. cookies from websites / web servers other than the Website, owned by third parties, including Profiling cookies. These third parties, listed below with related links to privacy policies, will either act as independent data controllers from Growens regarding their own cookies (using the data they collect for their own purposes and under terms defined by them) or as data processors for Growens  (processing personal data on Growens’s behalf).

In detail, the cookies sent by Growens through the Website can be viewed by clicking on the links shown here, together with the relative privacy policy:

www.growens.io/en/cookie-policy/

Cookie settings

You can block or delete all or some of the Browsing and Function cookies used on the Website via your browser options.

However, we inform you that if you do not authorize technical cookies, it may be impossible to use the Site, view its contents and use the related services.

Inhibiting functionality cookies may result in some services or certain functions of the Site not being available or not working properly and you may be forced to change or manually enter some information or preferences each time you visit the Site.

The choices made with reference to the cookies of the Site will in turn be recorded in a special cookie. This cookie may, however, in some circumstances not work properly: in such cases, we advise you to delete unwanted cookies and to inhibit their use through the functionality of your browser.

Your cookie preferences will be reset if different browsers are used to access the Website.

How to view and modify cookies thought the browser

You can block or delete cookies used on the Website via your browser options. Your cookie preferences will be reset if different browsers are used to access the Website. For more information on how to set the preferences for cookies via your browser, please refer to the following instructions:

• Internet Explorer
• Firefox
• Chrome
• Safari

If you do not use any of the browsers listed above, select “cookies” in the relevant section of the guide to find out where your cookie folder is located.

You may also provide set your preferences on third-party cookies by using online platforms such as AdChoice or All about cookies.

CAUTION: If you block or delete technical and/or function cookies used by the Website, the Website may become impossible to browse, certain services or functions of the Website may become unavailable or other malfunctions may occur. In this case, you may have to modify or manually enter some information or preferences every time you visit the Website.

Removal of Flash cookies
Click the link below to change your Flash cookie settings.

Removal of Flash cookies

Third parties Websites

The Site contains links to other websites that have their own privacy policy. These privacy policies may be different from the one adopted by Growens, which therefore does not answer for third-party sites.

Growens intends to use your Personal Data, collected through the Website, for the following purposes:

• Providing Services such as: allowing you to create and maintain a registered user profile, verifying your identity and assist you, in case you lose or forget your login / password details for any of the registration services, to send you newsletters you have subscribed to as a service (containing only informative content), replying to your requests for information sent through the Contacts Section, supporting you in the purchase process or solving any problems you may have faced, and to provide any other Services which you may request: manage any requests for participation in corporate meetings and/or other corporate activities (“Service Provision”);
• For future marketing, promotional and publicity purposes, including to carry out direct marketing, market research and surveys, via e-mail, SMS, ordinary mail, over the phone, through push notifications / pop-up banners, instant messaging, through an operator, through Growens’s official social media pages, as well as for marketing activities in the broad sense, including prize events, games and competitions, products and/or services related to the company and/or to third-party products and/or services(“Marketing”);
• For e-mail marketing communication regarding products and services identical or similar to those you have previously purchased (“Soft Spam”);
• To create a profile of you as a Website user, through the use of profiling cookies, where you gave the consent, and by collecting and analysing information on the preferences you select and choices you make in the Website, as well as your general activities on the Website. This profile will be used to give you information about other websites / services which Growens believes you may be interested in, and to show you information and advertisements which may be relevant to you and your interests. All algorithms involved in this processing are regularly tested, to ensure that you are not offered products in which you are not interested (“Profiling”);
• For compliance with laws which impose upon Growens the collection and/or further processing of certain kinds of Personal Data (“Compliance”);
• To prevent and detect any misuse of the Website, or any fraudulent activities carried out through the Website (“Misuse/Fraud”).

Growens’s legal bases to process your Personal Data, according to the purposes identified in Section 3, are as follows:

• Service Provision: processing for these purposes is necessary to provide the Services and, therefore, is necessary for the performance of a contract with you or for the execution of pre-contractual measures. It is not mandatory for you to give Growens your Personal Data for these purposes; however, if you do not, Growens will not be able to provide any Services to you. The same applies to the newsletter service following your specific request by inserting your e-mail address and that you can withdraw at any time by following the instructions provided in Paragraph 8 of this Policy.
• Marketing: processing for these purposes is based on your consent. It is not mandatory for you to give consent to Growens for use of your Personal Data for these purposes, and you will suffer no consequence if you choose not to give it (aside from not being able to receive further marketing communications from Growens). Any consent given may also be withdrawn at a later stage (please see Section 8 for more information).
• Soft Spam: processing for these purposes is based on Growens’s interest in sending you direct e-mail marketing communication regarding products and services provided by Growens and which are identical or similar to those you have previously purchased through the Website. You can block these communications, and you will suffer no consequence if you do so (aside from not being able to receive further communications from Growens), by objecting through the link provided at the bottom of all such communications.
• Profiling: processing for this purpose is based on your consent, collected by means of the cookie pop-up banner. It is not mandatory for you to give consent to Growens for use of your Personal Data for this purpose, and you will suffer no consequence if you choose not to (. Any consent given may also be withdrawn at a later stage (please see Section 8 for more information). To withdraw your consent in relation to cookies, please see the Cookie section.
• Compliance: processing for this purpose is necessary for Growens to comply with its legal obligations. When you provide any Personal Data to Growens, Growens must process it in accordance with the laws applicable to it, which may include retaining and reporting your Personal Data to official authorities for compliance with tax, customs or other legal obligations.
• Misuse/Fraud: Information collected for this purpose is used exclusively to prevent and detect fraudulent activities or misuse of the Website (for potentially criminal purposes) and therefore it allows Growens to defend itself in Court.

Your Personal Data may be shared with the following list of persons / entities (“Recipients”):

• Entities typically acting as Data Processor, such as: i) Persons, companies or professional firms providing Growens with advice and consultancy regarding accounting, administrative, legal, tax, financial and debt collection matters related to the provision of the Services and which act typically as data processors on behalf of Growens; ii) Persons authorised to perform technical maintenance (including maintenance of network equipment and electronic communications networks);
• Entities engaged in order to provide the Services (e.g., hosting providers or e-mail platform providers);
• Persons authorised by Growens to process Personal Data needed to carry out activities strictly related to the provision of the Services, who have undertaken an obligation of confidentiality or are subject to an appropriate legal obligation of confidentiality (e.g., employees of Growens);
• Other companies within the Growens Group for internal administrative purposes
• In the event of mergers and acquisitions, natural persons authorized by target companies or acquiring companies, their consultants, investors, shareholders and third-party service providers. Such disclosure may be necessary for due diligence purposes or to enable the transition of Services and it is based on our legitimate interest in carrying out corporate activities
• Public entities, bodies or authorities to whom your Personal Data may be disclosed, in accordance with the applicable law or binding orders of those entities, bodies or authorities.

Some of your Personal Data may be transferred to Recipients, both internal and external to Growens Group, located in several different countries.

Growens ensures that the processing of your Personal Data by these Recipients takes place in compliance with applicable law and implements appropriate safeguards to ensure the lawfulness and security of these Personal Data transfers, such as by relying on adequacy decisions from the European Commission, standard data protection clauses adopted by the European Commission, or other safeguards or conditions considered adequate to the transfer at hand.

More information on these transfers is available upon written request to Growens at the following address: privacy@growens.io

Personal Data processed for Service Provision will be kept by Growens for the period deemed strictly necessary to fulfil such purposes (e.g. to respond to requests for information received through the Contacts section) – in any case, as these Personal Data are processed for the provision of the Services, Growens may continue to store this Personal Data for a longer period, as may be necessary to protect Growens’s interests related to potential liability related to the provision of the Services.

Personal Data processed for Marketing and Profiling will be kept by Growens from the moment you give consent until it is withdrawn. Where it is not withdrawn, consent will be renewed at fixed intervals. Once consent is withdrawn (or not given, following a renewal), Personal Data will no longer be used for these purposes, although it may still be kept by Growens, in particular as may be necessary to protect Growens’s interests related to potential liability related to this processing.

Personal Data processed for Soft Spam will be kept by Growens until you object to this processing via the link you can find at the bottom of each mail.

Personal Data processed for Compliance will be kept by Growens for the period required by the specific legal obligation or by the applicable law.

Personal Data processed for preventing Misuse/Fraud will be kept by Growens for as long as deemed strictly necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected and therefore until the time when Growens will be required to keep them for legal protection to communicate such data to the competent authorities.

As a data subject, are entitled to exercise the following rights before Growens, at any time:

• Access your Personal Data being processed by Growens (and/or a copy of that Personal Data), as well as information on the processing of your Personal Data;
• Correct or update your Personal Data processed by Growens, where it may be inaccurate or incomplete;
• Request erasure of your Personal Data being processed by Growens;
• Request the restriction of the processing of your Personal Data;
• Exercise your right to portability: the right to obtain a copy of your Personal Data provided to Growens, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format;
• Object to the processing of your Personal Data (for example: Soft Spam); or
• Withdraw your consent to processing (for Marketing and Profiling).

You can also withdraw consent for Marketing (for communications received via e-mail) or object to Soft Spam by selecting the appropriate link included at the bottom of every marketing e-mail message received. The same applies to the Growens newsletter which you may have subscribed to and receive as a Service.

The consent to profiling through cookies can be withdraw through the procedure indicated in the previous Paragraph 2.g.

Aside from the above means, you can always exercise your rights described above by sending a written request to Growens at the following address: privacy@growens.io

In any case, please note that, as a data subject, you are entitled to file a complaint with the competent supervisory authorities for the protection of Personal Data, if you believe that the processing of your Personal Data carried out through the Website is unlawful.

This Privacy Policy entered into force on 11/03/2024. Growens reserves the right to partly or fully amend this Privacy Policy, or simply to update its content, e.g., as a result of changes in applicable law. Growens will inform you of such changes as soon as they are introduced, and they will be binding as soon as they are published on the Website. Growens, therefore, invites you to regularly visit this Privacy Policy in order to acquaint yourself with the latest, updated version of the Privacy Policy, so that you may remain constantly informed on how Growens collects and uses Personal Data.