In March, the Infrastructure Team within Origin Digital made some fundamental changes to the underlying foundations that Contour is built on. But what are these supporting foundations, and why make such changes to our underpinning infrastructure? To our customers, Contour is a web application that provides smart tools to support both their agronomy and their…
Background Origin Digital’s Contour platform is used on thousands of farms in the UK. The platform enables farmers, agronomists and precision farming companies to manage complex farm datasets. It converts anonymous big data into actionable information, ensuring farms are efficient and maximising gross margins.
Nitrogen – the mobile nutrient Nutrient recommendations from soil analysis focus on phosphate, potash and magnesium, which are stable nutrients held by the soil and available for crop uptake over time. In our previous blog we highlighted the value of intelligent nutrient management and our work at Origin Digital, taking soil analysis results from multiple countries using…
Origin Digital farmers span three continents and thirteen countries. Each country has its own variety of soil types and climatic conditions, based on geography and location. Add to this geological and geographical mix a wide variety of crops, cropping systems, management, fertilisers, best practice guidelines, legislation and local methods for analysing soils, and the challenge…
Autumn 2019 will be the first in more than two decades when farmers won’t be able to rely on neonicotinoids coated seeds for BYDV management in their winter cereal crops. In December 2018 these insecticides were banned for all outdoor use across the European Union (DEFRA 2018). Since their introduction in the mid-1990s, neonicotinoids seed…
Farmers need access to finance to invest in their farms, boost yields and income, and protect their growing business. However, when it comes to agriculture, financial institutions are often far from the customers they serve. And the more remote the farmer, the more remote their chances of getting the loans and insurance policies they need….
“Origin Digital” is a trading name (herein after referred to as “Origin Digital,” “we,” “us” or “our”) of Origin Enterprises Digital Ltd with company registration number of 08700766 and with VAT number 173 1031 48 and with its registered address at HQ Building 329 F Wing, Thomson Avenue, Harwell Campus, Didcot OX11 0GD, England.
Email: accounts@digital.originenterprises.com.
Origin Digital is a leading provider of Digital Agronomy Services and Technology to support sustainable and profitable farming solutions in the UK.
This Privacy Policy outlines what personal data we collect, how we use that information and other information about how we protect your privacy.
Origin Digital recognises the need to maintain the confidentiality of private, sensitive, and proprietary information. This Data Privacy Policy (“Policy”) sets out our overarching approach to data privacy, including how we protect the confidentiality of private, sensitive and proprietary information (“Company Confidential” or “Client Confidential” information). This Policy is designed to foster compliance with all applicable laws, directives, and regulations and other Origin Digital policies governing the security and confidentiality of all types of information – paper, electronic and verbal. Origin Digital does not sell, transfer, lease or share your information with 3rd parties other than as described here in this policy. In circumstances where we do share information it is only what would reasonably be expected to support order fulfilment, provision of services, and product or service enhancements.
This Policy covers all sensitive, private, and proprietary information that is both internally and externally transmitted, irrespective of the medium of storage or transfer. Types of data covered by this Policy may include but are not limited to, client data, personal information, confidential legal data, confidential client data, non-public financial data and proprietary research data. Collectively, these data types are referred to as “confidential data.” This Policy applies to all Origin Enterprises Group employees and others performing work for the Company who may handle and store confidential data on behalf of Origin Digital, its Customers or Suppliers.
This Policy comprises the internationally accepted data privacy principles without replacing the existing national laws. It supplements the national data privacy laws. The relevant national law will take precedence if it conflicts with this Policy, or if it has stricter requirements than this Policy. The content of this Policy must also be observed in the absence of corresponding national legislation. The reporting requirements for data processing under national laws must be observed.
At a high level, data processing principles that Origin Digital will comply with include:
4.1. Fairness and lawfulness: When processing personal data, the individual rights of the data subjects must be protected. Personal data must be collected and processed in a legal and fair manner.
4.2. Restriction to a specific purpose: Personal data can be processed only for the purpose that was defined before the data was collected. Subsequent changes to the purpose are only possible to a limited extent and require substantiation.
4.3. Transparency: The data subject must be informed of how his/her data is being handled. In general, personal data must be collected directly from the individual concerned. When the data is collected, the data subject must either be aware of, or informed of: the identity of the Data Controller; the purpose of data processing; and third parties or categories of third parties to whom the data might be transmitted.
4.4. Data reduction and data economy: Before processing personal data, it must be determined whether and to what extent the processing of personal data is necessary to achieve the purpose for which it is undertaken. Where the purpose allows and where the expense involved is in proportion with the goal being pursued, anonymised or statistical data must be used. Personal data may not be collected in advance and stored for potential future purposes unless required or permitted by national law.
4.5. Deletion: Personal data that is no longer needed after the expiration of legal or business process-related periods must be deleted. In some cases, there may be an indication of interests that merit protection or historical significance of this data in individual cases. Please see our Data Retention policy for further information.
4.6. Factual accuracy: Personal data on file must be correct, complete, and (if necessary) kept up to date. Suitable steps must be taken to ensure that inaccurate or incomplete data is deleted, corrected, supplemented or updated.
4.7. Confidentiality and data security: Personal data is subject to data secrecy. It must be treated as confidential on a personal level and secured with suitable organizational and technical measures to prevent unauthorised access, illegal processing or distribution, as well as accidental loss, modification or destruction.
Collecting, processing and using personal data is permitted only under the following legal basis:
Data can be processed following consent by the data subject. Before giving consent, the data subject must be informed in accordance with this Policy. The declaration of consent must be obtained in writing or electronically for the purposes of documentation. In some circumstances, such as telephone conversations, consent can be given verbally. The granting of consent must be documented.
The processing of personal data is also permitted if national legislation requests, requires or allows this. The type and extent of data processing must be necessary for the legally authorized data processing activity, and must comply with the relevant statutory provisions.
Sensitive personal data can be processed only if the law requires this or if the data subject has given consent for the same. This data can also be processed if it is mandatory for asserting, exercising or defending legal claims regarding the data subject. If there are plans to process sensitive data, the Corporate Data Protection Officer (DPO) must be informed in advance.
In some circumstances, Origin Digital will rely on the legitimate interest concept to justify our processing of personal data but only in circumstances where such processing should be reasonably expected by the Data Owner. The below Section is a non-exhaustive list of these circumstances and therefore we suggest you consult your Origin Digital representative in case of doubt.
Origin Digital will process customer orders and personal data with the intention of fulfilling the order management process. Specific examples of data processed are as follows:
Origin Digital processes satellite imagery and uses image data to enhance our digital products and services with the intention of improving capacity management for customers and agronomists and optimising the process for conducting agronomy field trials. Specific examples of this are:
Origin Digital will process GPS data for customers using our digital products and services with the intention of supporting customers and agronomists with additional information to help manage their capacity. Specific examples include:
Origin Digital will store business network contact information, with the intention of engaging the network with information about Origin Digital’s products and services. Examples of such engagements include:
Origin Digital will process customer data and profile customer segments with the intention of enhancing the relevance of our products and services. Specific examples of this include the following:
In some cases, customer data is used as part of R&D trials process. Outputs from R&D trials enable Origin Digital to provide relevant information to customers that promotes enhanced farming practices. Specific examples of data that is used in research trials are:
From time to time Origin Digital may share data with 3rd parties with the intention of enhancing capacity and increasing profit for our customers and enhancing our products and services. Specific examples include:
Every data subject has the following rights
7.1. The data subject may request information on which personal data relating to him/her has been stored, how the data was collected, and for what purpose. If there are further rights to view the employer’s documents (e.g. personnel file) for the employment relationship under the relevant employment laws, these will remain unaffected.
7.2. If Personal Data is transmitted to third parties, information must be given about the identity of the recipient or the categories of recipients.
7.3. If Personal Data is incorrect or incomplete, the data subject can demand that it be corrected or supplemented.
7.4. The data subject can object to the processing of his or her data for purposes of advertising or market research. The data must be blocked from these types of use.
7.5. The data subject may request his/her data to be deleted if the processing of such data has no legal basis, or if the legal basis has ceased to apply. The same applies if the purpose behind the data processing has lapsed or ceased to be applicable for other reasons. Existing retention periods and conflicting interests meriting protection must be observed.
7.6. The data subject generally has a right to object to his/her data being processed, and this must be considered if the protection of his/her interests takes precedence over the interest of the data controller owing to a particular personal situation. This does not apply if a legal provision requires the data to be processed.
7.7. Additionally, every data subject can assert their rights as per national privacy laws.
7.8. When a data subject makes an application to exercise his/her data subject rights, the application must be handled immediately by the Corporate Data Protection Officer.
Personal Information is information that can be used to distinguish or trace an individual’s identity, such as name, social security number, or biometric records, either alone or when combined with other personal or identifying information that is linked or linkable to a specific individual, such as date and place of birth, mother’s maiden name, etc.
A. Data is anonymised if personal identity can never be traced by anyone, or if the personal identity could be recreated only with an unreasonable amount of time, expense and labour.
B. Consent is the voluntary, legally binding agreement to data processing.
C. Data breach incidents are events where there is justified suspicion that Personal Data is being illegally captured, collected, modified, copied, transmitted or used.
D. Data subject under this Policy is a natural person whose data can be processed. In some countries, legal entities can be data subjects as well.
E. Sensitive data is data about racial and ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, union membership or the health and sexual life of the data subject. Under certain national laws, other data categories can be considered sensitive or the content of the data categories can be structured differently.
F. Personal Data is all information about certain or definable natural persons. A person is definable for instance if the personal relationship can be determined using a combination of information with even incidental additional knowledge.
G. Processing personal data means any process, with or without the use of automated systems, to collect, store, organise, retain, modify, query, use, forward, transmit, disseminate or combine and compare data. This also includes disposing of, deleting and blocking data and data storage media. Processing personal data is required if the permitted purpose or justified interest could not be achieved without the personal data, or only with exceptionally high expense.
H. Data Controller is a natural or legal person, alone or jointly with others, who determine the purposes and means of the processing.
I. Data Processor is a natural or legal person, who processes personal data on behalf of the data controller.