Privacy Statement

Edwards Lifesciences Corporation, Edwards Lifesciences LLC, and their affiliated companies (collectively “Edwards Lifesciences,” “our,” or “we”) recognize the importance of online privacy and are committed to respecting your privacy. This Privacy Statement describes our policies and practices on the collection, use, disclosure, and storage of Personal Information and the steps we take to protect it from unauthorized use or disclosure.

This Privacy Statement applies to all Edwards Lifesciences websites, online or digital services activities, and mobile applications, including, but not limited to www.edwards.com/gb, in which this Privacy Statement is posted or linked (collectively our “Sites”) and, where applicable, will apply to Personal Information that we obtain and process other than through the Sites (for example, Personal Information about our customers, vendors, or service providers in the course of doing business).

Edwards Lifesciences is a global group of companies headquartered in Irvine, California, in the United States. Many of our IT and other functions are administered centrally by Edwards Lifesciences LLC in the United States, and any information that you provide or we collect may be transmitted to a country other than your country of residence for processing or storage, and it may also be communicated to third parties hired by us to provide services such as website hosting, database management, or analytics. By using this Site, you consent to the collection, use, storage, and processing of your Personal Information in the United States and in any country to which we may transfer your Personal Information in the course of our business operations. For more information, please see Transfer of Personal Information to Other Countries. 

If your Personal Information is processed in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), please see our Supplemental European Privacy Statement, which we have developed pursuant to European data protection laws.  

Please note that our Sites might offer links to other websites that are owned or controlled by third parties. This Privacy Statement applies only to Edwards Lifesciences’ Sites. We do not control or endorse the content of any third-party sites and cannot accept responsibility for the privacy practices of any websites not controlled by us. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third-party sites prior to providing them with any of your Personal Information. 

Please review this Statement carefully. To the extent permitted by applicable law, by providing us your Personal Information or otherwise interacting with us, you are agreeing to this Statement. 

Click on any of the links below to visit the specific area of this Privacy Statement, or continue scrolling to read this Privacy Statement in its entirety. 

Information We Collect on Our Sites
Information Provided to Us Outside the Sites
How We Use the Information We Collect
Transfer of Personal Information to Other Countries
Disclosure of Information to Third Parties
How We Protect Information
How Long We Retain Personal Information
Your Privacy Rights
Children's Privacy
Supplemental European Privacy Statement
Contact Us
Changes to Our Privacy Statement

We recognize that we might receive Personal Information in ways other than through our Sites. We collect information about our customers and potential customers for the purposes of providing our products and services – such as contact information, financial/billing information, and any other information that is provided to us during the course of doing business. For example, many physicians notify us when a specific valve has been implanted, so that we can maintain a database of the patient that received a valve with a specific serial number. Physicians also notify us of complaints or adverse events with our products and may inadvertently include information about the patient’s health. Job applicants may submit paper applications. We also maintain records of purchases by our physician customers and their attendance at educational and other events we host. 

We also collect information from our vendors, suppliers, consultants, professional advisors, and other third parties for the purposes of managing and operating our business. For example, we will collect business contact information, financial information, and other information necessary to engage our suppliers and other business partners and to evaluate their performance.

Personal Information is given the same protection by us, whether we receive it through a website or by other means. The descriptions below apply to Personal Information collected or received by us, no matter how the information was received.

If you choose to provide Personal Information to us, Edwards Lifesciences may use your Personal Information for a range of business, operational, and legal purposes, including:

• To respond to your specific inquiry or request, and to provide you with information and access to resources that you have requested from us;
• To provide, operate, and maintain the Sites;
• To improve the navigation and content of our Sites, system administration, and security;
• To provide you with general health information (such as information on certain health conditions) as well as information about our products and services;
• To provide you with marketing communications and offers for products and services and to deliver advertising (including targeted advertising) to you on this and other websites;
• To process and complete transactions;
• To manage our customer relationships, including to respond to inquiries and comments and providing customer service and support;
• To provide our products and services;
• To create anonymized or de-identified data so that it is no longer Personal Information; To carry out research and development to improve our products and services;
• To assess financial, credit or insurance risks arising from any relationship or prospective relationship with a customer, supplier, distributor, or business partner; or
• To carry out other legitimate business purposes, and other purposes about which we will notify our users and customers.

Furthermore, if you visit one of our facilities, we collect certain limited personal information as part of our visitor management processes including your name; your contact details, your host’s name, your photograph, and license plate number for the purposes protecting the health and safety of all those that visit and work from our facilities. At certain locations, we may use CCTV which takes recordings for security surveillance purposes.

We will give you an opportunity to tell us whether we may use your Personal Information to send you other information about Edwards Lifesciences’ products, activities, or opportunities. In most circumstances, you will be able to “unsubscribe” from these communications by following the instructions provided at the time you sign up for the communications or that are included in such communications. Edwards Lifesciences does not sell Personal Information to third parties for the third parties’ marketing purposes.

We may use the Usage Data we and our partners collect during your future visits. This information allows us to direct you to specific content on the Sites that may be of interest and to remember your computer/device the next time you visit. If you visit multiple Edwards Lifesciences Sites, we may aggregate the Usage Data from your visits to better understand usage of our Sites.

We may use the device-related and analytics information we and our partners collect (about your computer’s IP address and through the use of cookies) during your future visits. This information allows us to direct you to specific content on the Sites that may be of interest and to remember your computer the next time you visit. If you visit multiple Edwards Lifesciences Sites, we may aggregate the information from your visits to better understand usage of our Sites.

We may also aggregate this device-related and analytics information we collect from all visitors, which helps us to improve our Sites by monitoring interest in the various Site content and understanding how our visitors navigate the Sites. This information may also help us diagnose any problems with our Sites.

If you choose to provide Personal Information to us, we may combine that information with the non-Personal Information collected through IP address recognition and cookies, to help us understand your specific interests and to deliver pertinent information to you.

Edwards Lifesciences is a global company and any information that you provide or we collect will be available to Edwards Lifesciences affiliates and vendors around the world for purposes that are consistent with this Privacy Statement. This means that your information may be communicated to a country other than your country of residence for use, processing, or storage, and it may also be communicated to third parties hired by us to provide services such as website hosting, database management, or analytics services. Some of these countries may not have data protection laws that are equivalent to the laws of the country where you reside and governments of some of these countries, such as the United States, may have access to your Personal Information, but we have taken measures to ensure your Personal Information remains protected to the standards described in this Privacy Statement, wherever it is processed. 

If you choose to provide your Personal Information to us via the Sites, this provision of information and your continued use of our Sites constitutes your acknowledgement of and consent to such transfers. 

In addition, where necessary and applicable, Edwards Lifesciences may transfer Personal Information relating to individuals in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland to other countries in reliance on the Standard Contractual Clauses or other similarly approved contractual language. 

While we do not directly sell, rent, or loan your Personal Information, we may share your information with companies, organizations, and individuals outside of Edwards Lifesciences as described below.

We may share your Personal Information with Edwards Lifesciences’ affiliates, with our business collaborators, and our product co-promotion and co-development partners, marketing and advertising agencies, and social media companies and platforms for the purposes set forth above and elsewhere in this Privacy Statement.

We may share Personal Information with our service providers, who are bound by law or contract to protect Personal Information and only use Personal Information in accordance with our instructions or the agreements we have signed. For example, we may share Personal Information with service providers who provide data processing or fulfilment services for us.

We may disclose Personal Information for legal and law enforcement purposes. This includes in response to legal process, for example, in response to a court order or a subpoena, or in response to a law enforcement agency's request. For example, if you use a Site to report an adverse product experience, we may be required to report that information to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or to similar regulatory agencies in other countries.

We also may disclose such information to third parties: (i) in connection with fraud prevention activities, (ii) where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, (iii) in situations that may involve violations of our terms of use or other rules, (iv) to protect our rights and the rights and safety of others, (v) as needed to support external auditing, compliance and corporate governance functions, and (vi) as otherwise required by law.

We may also disclose your Personal Information to a third party in connection with the sale, assignment, or other transfer of an Edwards Lifesciences’ asset(s), which may include associated Sites to which the information relates. We will make it clear to the third party purchaser that it may only use Personal Information that is received from us for purposes consistent with this Privacy Statement. However, in the event of a sale or merger, your continued use of this Site signifies your agreement to be bound by the Privacy Statement and other applicable terms of the subsequent owner or operator.

Please note that we may also disclose data about you that is not personally identifiable. For example, we may publish reports that contain aggregate and statistical data about our customers.

Finally, we may alternatively request your consent to share your Personal Information with some third parties. In those circumstances, we will only share your Personal Information with your consent.

Consistent with applicable laws and requirements, we have put in place reasonable physical, technical, and administrative safeguards designed to protect Personal Information from loss, misuse, alteration, theft, unauthorized access, and unauthorized disclosure consistent with legal obligations and industry practices. However, as is the case with all websites, applications, products, and services, we unfortunately are not able to guarantee security for data collected through our Products and Services.  

We are not responsible for any interception or interruption of any communications or for changes to or losses of data through the internet. Users of the Sites are responsible for maintaining the security of any password, user ID, or other form of authentication involved in obtaining access to password protected or secure areas of the Sites. It is your responsibility to safeguard any passwords, ID numbers, or similar individual information associated with your use of the Products and Services. Any access to the Sites through your user ID and password will be treated as authorized by you. If we believe it is necessary or advisable to help protect your Personal Information and/or the integrity of the Sites, we may suspend your use of all or part of the Sites, without notice. 

Unauthorized access to any of the Sites is prohibited and may lead to criminal prosecution.

In your use of the Sites, you will be given opportunities to make choices about the data we receive and how we use it.  

Opting Out of Communications  

If you provide Personal Information to us, we may from time to time send you communications, including electronic communications about products or services. You may change your mind at any time and opt out of communications by following the instructions in any email communications we send you.  

Cookie Preferences 

We use first party and third-party cookies for several reasons, as described above. Some cookies are required for technical reasons in order for our Sites to operate, and we refer to these as “essential” or “strictly necessary” cookies. These cookies are required. Other cookies (including third party cookies) enable us to track the interests of our users in order to help us deliver more relevant marketing communications and to improve the features of our Sites. The specific types of first- and third-party cookies served through our Sites and the purposes they perform are described in the Cookie Preference Center. 

Your Web browser settings allow you to change your cookie settings, and you may modify your cookie preferences by clicking “Cookie Preferences” in the website footer of the site you are visiting. Please be aware that if you choose to reject cookies, you may still use our Sites though your access to some functionality and areas of our Sites may be restricted. You also have the options described above in the Digital Advertising, Cookies and Other Data Collection Technologies section of this Privacy Statement.  

Data Privacy Rights – EEA 

Consumers whose data is processed in the EEA should visit our Supplemental European Privacy Statement for more information regarding their privacy rights and choices.

Edwards Lifesciences does not intend to collect Personal Information from children under the age of majority without consent from the child’s parent or legal guardian. We do not share Personal Information of anyone under the age of majority with anyone outside of Edwards (except where required by law, with consent, or to our agents who have committed to maintain data privacy).

Children under the age of majority should not submit any Personal Information to us without the express permission of their parent or legal guardian. If Edwards Lifesciences learns that a child under the age of majority has provided us with personal information about themselves or that another user has provided such information without appropriate parental or guardian consent, we will delete such information from our active databases in accordance with applicable law, unless we are required by law to retain it. If you believe that your child has submitted Personal Information and you would like to request that their information be removed from our systems, please use the contact information in the Contact Us section below. We will make reasonable efforts to comply with your request.

Mergers and Acquisitions.  In addition to the uses set forth above, in certain circumstances, we will use and disclose your Personal Information to facilitate a merger, consolidation, transfer of control or other corporate reorganization in which Edwards Lifesciences participates, or pursuant to a financial arrangement undertaken by Edwards Lifesciences and your Personal Information will be disclosed to the buyer, assignee, or transferee.   

Data Retention.  We will retain your Personal Information for as long as needed or permitted to fulfill the purpose(s) for which it was collected or obtained, and as outlined in this Privacy Statement.  The criteria used to determine our retention periods include: (i) the length of time we have an ongoing relationship with you; (ii) whether there is a legal obligation to which we are subject that affects the Personal Information; and (iii) whether retention is determined to be necessary or advisable for Edwards Lifesciences due to applicable statutes of limitations, litigation, or other legal or regulatory obligations. We take reasonable steps to dispose of Personal Information upon the expiration of retention periods taking into consideration these litigation, legal, or regulatory obligations.  

De-Identification.  We may de-identify your Personal Information, which means it will remove certain data from your Personal Information, such as Contact Information, such that the resulting data would not be able to identify you or anyone else as the subject of the data.  The de-identified data will no longer be Personal Information and may no longer be subject to data protection laws.  We will not attempt to re-identify you or anyone else from this de-identified data and if we disclose it to third parties, we will require that they commit to not attempting to re-identify you or anyone else from the de-identified data.  We will use de-identified data for our business purposes.

Third Party Advertising: We disclose Personal Information about you (as set forth in the table above) to third-party advertising network companies. We use third-party advertising network companies to place ads on other websites, including network advertising companies with whom we work who place their own cookies on your browser when you visit our Site. This enables these third-party advertising network companies to collect and use data from their cookie on your browser, which may include information about your visits to this and other websites. These advertising companies use and further disclose this information in order to deliver advertisements about our goods and services to you when you are on other websites. These advertisements will often be tailored to you. These advertisers may in turn disclose the information about you collected from their cookies to other advertisers to allow those advertisers to display ads to you as well.  

In some jurisdictions, these cookies are disabled until you opt-in; in others, these are enabled by default, but you may have the right to opt out. You may opt-out of our disclosure of your Personal Information for these purposes as set forth below. 

For additional information about how else we use cookies and other digital technologies, please see the Digital Advertising, Cookies and Other Data Collection Technologies section of the Privacy Statement. 

Service Providers: Service providers acting on our behalf must execute agreements requiring them to maintain confidentiality and to process Personal Information as necessary to perform their functions in a manner consistent with this Statement, other applicable privacy notices, and as explicitly permitted or required by applicable laws, rules, and regulations.  

Combination of Data with Data Received from Third Parties: We may combine information we collect, including Personal Information, with Personal Information that we may obtain from third parties.  

Links to Other Websites: Our Products and Services may contain links to other websites, applications, products, or services that are not owned or operated by Edwards Lifesciences, such as social media websites and applications like Facebook and Twitter. You should carefully review the privacy policies and practices of other websites, products, and services as we cannot control and are not responsible for privacy policies, notices, or practices of third-party websites, applications, products, and services. 

Do Not Track Signals and Global Privacy Control 

Some web browsers incorporate other "do-not-track" (“DNT”) or similar features that signals to websites with which the browser communicates that a visitor does not want to have their online activity tracked. As of the Effective Date, not all browsers offer a DNT option and DNT signals are not yet uniform. For this reason, Edwards Lifesciences Sites along with many other digital service operators do not respond to all DNT signals.  

Certain web browsers and other programs may transmit “opt-out” signals, such as the Global Privacy Control (or GPC) signal (we refer to these as “GPC Signals”), to websites with which the browser communicates.  In most cases you will need to change your web browser’s settings or add an application to your web browser to enable your browser to send a GPC Signal. Our websites will recognize GPC Signals for website users differently based on the location of the user when they access our websites.  For users that access our websites from U.S. states that have laws requiring recognition of GPC Signals, we will recognize and apply the GPC Signal to inactivate all but essential cookies for that website. (Essential cookies are necessary for the website to operate).  Regardless of your location, you may modify your cookie settings for the website you are visiting by clicking on the “Cookie Preferences” link in the website footer. For more information about the Global Privacy Control, please visit https://globalprivacycontrol.org. 

Your Data Privacy Rights Regarding Your Personal Information

Please note that in many circumstances, we cannot effectively do business with you without processing some Personal Information about you (e.g., your contact information). For example, when you contact our customer service representatives, we may require you to provide information to authenticate your identity to assist you with your request. If you are unable to provide this information, we may be unable to process your request.  

To the extent that the state in which you live has a data protection law that requires us to offer some or all of the following rights to you, we will provide the following rights to you based on your state’s law:  

• To opt-out of sharing your Personal Information for cross-context behavioral advertising or, in other states, to opt-out of targeted advertising, 
• To request access to and a copy of your Personal Information and/or your Sensitive Personal Information, including a request to provide a copy directly to another organization (i.e., a right to data portability), 
• To request to confirm or know about the Personal Information we process about you or, in other states, to request to acknowledge our processing of your Personal Information, 
• To request that we correct your Personal Information, 
• To request that we delete your Personal Information (and notify any affiliates, processors, contractors, or other third parties with which we shared to delete it as well), 
• To request that we limit the processing of your Sensitive Personal Information, 
• To opt-out of processing of Sensitive Personal Information, 
• To withdraw consent to the collection or sharing of your Sensitive Personal Information, 
• To appeal the denial of a request, and  
• To lodge a complaint with the data protection authority in your jurisdiction. 

To learn which rights are provided in the state in which you live and to exercise any of these rights with respect to your Personal Information, please see the following section on How to Submit a Data Privacy Rights Request. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of the rights described above, although we may not be able to continue to provide you Products and Services, or it may otherwise affect the way we are able to interact with you. 

How to Submit a Data Privacy Rights Request 

To submit a request to opt-out of targeted advertising, you may complete the form below, or you may also click “Your Privacy Choices” in the footer of the website you are visiting.  

To submit a request pursuant to your data privacy rights under U.S. state privacy laws, we have designated the following two options for you to submit a data privacy rights request: 

• by completing and submitting this online form, or  
• by contacting us at (888) 570-4014.  

We will make reasonable efforts to respond promptly to your requests in accordance with applicable laws. We may, after receiving your request, require additional information from you to honor your request and verify your identity. Please be aware that we may be unable to afford these rights to you under certain circumstances, such as if we are legally prevented from doing so.  

You may designate an authorized agent to assist you in exercising any of your rights stated above. When you use an authorized agent to submit a request to exercise your rights, you must provide the authorized agent with written permission to do so, and, in certain circumstances, we may ask you to verify your own identity directly with us. We may deny a request from an authorized agent that does not submit proof that they have been authorized by you to act on your behalf. 

In the event you wish to make a complaint about how we process your Personal Information or appeal a response to your request, please contact us using the information in the Contact Us section below, and we will handle your request as soon as possible in accordance with applicable laws. Even if you make a complaint to us, you may always lodge a complaint with the relevant authority in your location. 

When we receive your Personal Information from our customers and process your Personal Information on their behalf, we do so at their request and subject to their instructions. We do not have control over our customers’ privacy and security practices and processes. If your Personal Information has been submitted to us by an Edwards Lifesciences customer and you wish to exercise any of the above-mentioned rights, please contact the relevant customer directly.  

Right of Non-Discrimination for Exercise of Your Privacy Rights 

We or Edwards Lifesciences will not discriminate against any person exercising his or her rights under applicable state data protection laws, as described above. Discrimination, in this context, includes that, as a result of exercising any of your data privacy rights, you are denied goods or services, charged different prices for goods or services, or provided a different level of quality. 

To exercise any rights you might be entitled to under applicable privacy laws, please utilize the designated mechanisms provided in the Supplemental European Privacy Statement. If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Statement or about your Personal Information, you may contact us as follows:

Privacy Office Edwards Lifesciences Legal Department
One Edwards Way Irvine, California 92614
Email: privacy@edwards.com

If you wish to receive a response by email, please be sure to include your name, postal address, and email address. If we do not receive an email address, we will respond by postal mail.

We may update this Privacy Statement from time to time. When we do update it, for your convenience, we will make the updated statement available on this page. Our intention is to use Personal Information in accordance with the Privacy Statement in place at the time the information was collected.