California Employee Privacy Notice

Mercedes-Benz Research and Development North America, Inc., including its affiliates (“MBRDNA,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) provides this California Employee Privacy Notice (“Notice”) to notify you of our privacy practices as required by the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA”).

This Notice applies only to individuals residing in the State of California who are considered “Consumers” (as defined in the CCPA) – namely, job applicants, employees, and contractors of MBRDNA – from whom we collect “Personal Information” (as defined in the CCPA). When we refer to Consumers, we mean you to the extent you are a California employee, employee applicant, or contractor of MBRDNA.

1. Categories of Information We Collect

We may collect Personal Information from you in a variety of different situations, including, but not limited to on our website, your mobile device, through email, in physical locations, through the mail, and/or over the telephone. MBRDNA collects the following categories of Personal Information, including Sensitive Personal Information, from Consumers:

Personal information does not include:

• Publicly available information or lawfully obtained, truthful information that is a matter of public concern.
• Deidentified or aggregate consumer information.

2. Categories of Sources of Personal Information

MBRDNA obtains the categories of Personal Information listed above from the following categories of sources:

• Directly from you. For example, from forms you complete or services we provide you.
• Indirectly from you. For example, from observing your actions on our website or from information your computer or mobile device transmits when interacting with our website or mobile applications.
• Third parties. For example, from recruiters who submit your information to us for an employment position that may interest you and consumer reporting agencies for employment background checks.

3. Retention of Personal Information

MBRDNA retains each category of Personal Information listed above only for as long as necessary to fulfill the business purpose for which it was collected. Once it is no longer useful for the business purpose, it is either anonymized or deleted.

4. How We Use Personal Information

MBRDNA may use the Personal Information identified above for one or more of the following business purposes:

• To Meet the Purpose For Which You Provided the Information. For example, if you share your name and contact information to apply for a job, we will use that Personal Information in connection with your employment or employment application.
• To Contact You, including to inform you about benefits or information relating to your employment or employment application.
• To Provide Human Resources Management Services, including but not limited to hiring, conducting background checks, onboarding new employees, managing and maintaining employer-employee relations, managing MBRDNA relations with independent contractors, providing employee training and development, undertaking internal research, termination, separation, payroll, reimbursement, and other functions related to employment or potential employment with MBRDNA.
• To Administer Benefits, including to maintain group health insurance benefits, 401(k) and retirement plans, leaves of absence, and other MBRDNA benefits, as applicable.
• To Maintain Your Information, including to secure personnel files, emergency contact information, customize, and secure your information or account with us.
• To Support and Develop MBRDNA’s Website and Human Resources Systems, including services relating to your employment or employment application.
• To Process Requests, including to process transactions and prevent transactional fraud.
• To Provide Support, including to respond to your inquiries, to investigate and address your concerns, and monitor and improve our responses.
• To Maintain the Security of Our Systems, including the app or website, services, databases and other technology assets, data, and business.
• To Ensure a Safe Working Environment, including to protect the rights, property, or safety of MBRDNA, its personnel, guests, or others.
• For Research, Analysis, and Business Development, including to develop and improve our business processes, website, products and services.
• To Comply with Applicable Law or Regulations, such as to respond to law enforcement requests, or to comply with laws related to records retention and employer reporting obligations.
• To Evaluate or Conduct a Merger, including divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all MBRDNA’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Information held by MBRDNA is among the assets transferred.

5. How We Disclose Personal Information

We may disclose your Personal Information to third parties for business purposes.  When we disclose Personal Information for a business purpose, we enter a contract that describes the purpose and requires the recipient to both keep that Personal Information confidential and not use it for any purpose except performing the contract.  In the preceding twelve (12) months, we have disclosed the following categories of Personal Information for a business purpose:

To the extent permitted by applicable law, your Personal Information may be disclosed to the following categories of third parties:

• to our affiliates for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice
• to our third-party service providers who provide services such as payroll and benefits providers
• to a third party in the event of any direct or indirect reorganization, including merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets or stock (including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings)
• to a third party where we either aggregate, anonymize, de-identify or otherwise strip data of all personally identifiable characteristics
• in connection with the essential purposes described above (e.g., to comply with legal obligations)

In the preceding twelve (12) months, MBRDNA has not “sold” or “shared” Personal Information, as those terms are defined in the CCPA.

6. How to Access and Control Your Personal Information

If you are a resident of the State of California and upon a verified request, you may request:

(1) the correction, update, or deletion (subject to certain exceptions) of your Personal Information,(2) the categories of Personal Information MBRDNA has collected,
(3) the categories of sources from which MBRDNA has collected your Personal Information,
(4) the business or commercial purpose(s) for collecting and disclosing your Personal Information,
(5) a copy of your Personal Information retained by MBRDNA, to be delivered in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format to review or to transfer or transmit to another entity without hindrance, to the extent that that is technically feasible,
(6) the categories of third parties with whom MBRDNA shares your Personal Information, and
(7) the specific pieces of Personal Information MBRDNA has collected about you, and
(8) to limit the use and disclosure of sensitive information.

Please note that under the CCPA as amended by the CPRA, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your Personal Information to third parties, however, MBRDNA does not “sell” Personal Information, as that term is defined in the CCPA. You also have the right to opt-out of “sharing” your information for advertising purposes, however, MBRDNA does not share your information for advertising purposes as it is defined in the law.

We may need you to provide additional information to verify your request, such as providing certain data elements so that we can confirm they match the Personal Information already maintained by us.  We will not use this additional information for anything other than handling your request.  You may designate an authorized agent to make a request in certain circumstances on your behalf.  Such authorized agent must be registered with the California Secretary of State.  We endeavor to respond to all such requests within forty-five (45) days, although there may be a brief delay in processing a request while we verify that the request is valid and originates from you as opposed to an unauthorized third party.  If we require more time, we will inform you of the reason and extension period in writing.  We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.

Any of the above requests may be made by contacting us at:
Attn: Data Protection
MBRDNA
309 North Pastoria Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA USA 94085
data.protection.mbrdna@mercedes-benz.com
Toll-free number: 1-888-655-1703

Please refer to “California Employee Privacy Notice” in your message.

7. Changes to Our California Employee Privacy Notice

MBRDNA reserves the right to modify this Notice at our discretion and at any time.  Please review it occasionally to keep up to date on our privacy practices.  If MBRDNA makes changes to this Notice, the updated page will be posted in a timely manner and the date at the top of the Notice will reflect the date it was last updated.