Privacy Policy for WBA Authenticator App

As a user of the World Bearing Association’s authenticator mobile application (hereinafter referred to as the “WBA App”), your privacy, confidence and trust are important to us. Please read this Privacy Policy before downloading, installing and using the WBA App.

1. Introduction

World Bearing Association (“WBA”) is a group without legal personality composed of three bearing manufacturers’ associations, themselves composed of different manufacturers (the “participating companies”, as indicated on WBA’s anti-counterfeiting website at https://www.stopfakebearings.com. The WBA App is operated by oneIDentity+ GmbH,Steinheilstrasse 10, 85737 Ismaning, Germany (hereinafter , “we” or “us”).

The WBA App gives an indication of authenticity of a given bearing product by allowing the user to check (through scanning a QR / DMC code with its mobile device) if a globally unique code on a bearing, a bearing package or a label is registered as a valid product code in a participating company’s database and was not checked too many times.

2. Does the WBA App process any personal information?

You can download, install and use the WBA App without telling us who you are or revealing any personal information about yourself.

In general, we do NOT collect any personal information about you when you download, install or use the WBA App. Without prejudice to the processing described below, no personal information about you is collected, stored or otherwise processed in the WBA App (i.e. the WBA App does not offer any opportunity for you to provide us with any personal information about you and we do not collect any personal information automatically from your device).

When you use the App, you only send us information about the identification features of the bearing product that you are scanning with your mobile device. This information is not linked to any personal information about you. This non-personal information is transferred to and verified by the relevant participating company(ies), which will provide the response as to the status of the identification feature as outlined in the WBA App description and the terms of use.

We may process non-personal aggregated information about the use of the WBA App for statistics purposes.

For your full information, the only personal information that could be processed in relation to your use of the WBA App (it being noted that such information will not be processed by WBA in the App) – if you so elect – is the following:

– the WBA App contains a feature allowing you to send an email directly to the relevant participating company(ies) with a report about a possibly counterfeit product. The WBA App does not collect nor store your email address and only the relevant participating company(ies) will receive it and will be the controller(s) of your personal information. Please check the relevant participating company’s privacy policy to learn about their data processing practices.

– the WBA App contains a feature allowing you, subject to your active consent, to share your GPS/location data with the relevant participating company(ies) (through oneIDentity+ GmbH, acting on behalf of the participating company(ies)). This GPS/location data is not collected nor processed by WBA and is not stored in the WBA App. Please check the information provided upon provision of your active consent and the relevant participating company(ies) privacy policy in that respect; and

– the information you provide yourselves if and when you contact us or a participating company to ask a question or express a concern, or when you decide to send a report about a possibly counterfeit product by email to a participating company, for the sole purpose of answering your question or addressing your concern, and, in such case, you will be informed about all aspects of the processing of your personal data and of your rights under applicable data protection legislation in due time by the relevant data controller; no personal information in that respect is processed nor stored in the App.

For the above purposes, WBA and participating companies always act as independent entities and, where relevant, independent controllers.

3. Links to external websites

The WBA App may contain links to external websites, in particular to websites of the participating companies whose product you have scanned. If you click on a third-party link, such as the Validation Result Screen feature, you will be directed to that website. Note that these external sites are not operated by us. Therefore, we strongly advise you to review the privacy policy of these websites. We have no control over, and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party websites or services.

4. How do we keep this Privacy Policy current?

From time to time, we may revise this Privacy Policy at our discretion. Updates and changes will appear on the WBA App. As permitted by law, your further use of the WBA App following the posting and notification of such changes to this Privacy Policy in the WBA App will demonstrate your acceptance of those changes.

5.  What are your rights?

If you do not longer wish to use the WBA App, we invite you to de-install the WBA App from your device.

Since we do not collect any personal information about you, we are not in a position to identify you and rights in that respect such as access, rectification, restriction, deletion do not apply in such case. [In case you disclose your personal information to a participating company as described under Section 2 above, please refer to the relevant participating company’s privacy policy for a description as to how to exercise your rights of access, rectification, objection, limitation, and other available rights under applicable data protection laws].

You always have the right to lodge a complaint with your competent data protection authority.

6. How to contact us?

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data protection practices, please send a written request to us by mail at our address mentioned under Section 1 above.