Knowles Corporation Privacy Notice for California Personnel

Updated on February 21, 2023

This Privacy Notice for California Personnel (the “California Personnel Privacy Notice”) applies solely to all current or former employees, owners, directors, officers, and independent contractors of Knowles Corporation and its subsidiaries and affiliates (collectively, “Knowles Corporation,” or “we,” “us,” or “our”) who reside in the State of California (“Personnel,” “you,” or “your”). We adopt this California Personnel Privacy Notice to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (collectively, the “CPRA”), and any terms defined in the CPRA have the same meaning when used in this California Personnel Privacy Notice.

This California Personnel Privacy Notice applies to information that we collect about Knowles Corporation Personnel that identifies, relates to, describes, references, is capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with you or your household (“ Personal Information”). “Personal Information” includes all “Sensitive Personal Information” as defined below. However, publicly available information lawfully made available to the general public from government records or widely distributed media or otherwise by you, as well as information that is deidentified or aggregated in accordance with the CPRA’s requirements, are not considered Personal Information and fall outside the scope of this California Personnel Privacy Notice.

This California Personnel Privacy Notice does not apply outside of the context of your relationship with us as Knowles Corporation Personnel or to certain Personal Information that is excluded from the scope of the CPRA, such as: (a) health or medical information covered by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) and the California Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA); and (b) Personal Information covered by certain sector-specific privacy laws, including the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). Some of these exclusions may be applicable to the Personal Information we collect about you as part of background checks. If you have any questions on whether one of these exceptions apply to your Personal Information, please contact your local Human Resources personnel.

Knowles Corporation collects and, over the prior twelve (12) months has collected, the following categories and corresponding pieces of Personal Information about our Personnel:

We will not collect additional categories of Personal Information without providing you notice. As further described in To Whom Do We Sell or Share Your Personal Information, we do not (i) “sell” any categories of Personal Information for monetary or other valuable consideration, or (ii) “share” any categories of Personal Information for cross-context behavioral advertising.

For all categories of Personal Information described above, we will retain your Personal Information for the duration of your relationship with us as Knowles Corporation Personnel, or the length of time required by applicable law or our record retention guidelines for the type of document that contains your Personal Information.

However, we may also retain any or all categories of Personal Information when your information is subject to one of the following exceptions:

·         When stored in our backup and disaster recovery systems. Your Personal Information will be deleted when the backup media your Personal Information is stored on expires or when our disaster recovery systems are updated.

·         When necessary for us to exercise or defend legal claims.

·         When necessary to comply with a legal obligation.

·         When necessary to help ensure the security and integrity of our websites and IT systems.

We collect this Personal Information:

·           Directly from you when you provide it to us;

·           From third parties who help us manage our business and Knowles Corporation Personnel;

·           When you use our IT systems or access our facilities; and

·           We also create this information during the course of your employment relationship with Knowles Corporation.

Depending on your role or relationship with Knowles Corporation, we may use the Personal Information we collect for one or more of the following purposes:

·         managing our contractual and/or employment relationship with you as would reasonably be expected by an average consumer who wishes to have a Knowles Corporation Personnel relationship with us;

·         if you are an employee of Knowles Corporation, delivering or administering your salary and benefits, including insurance benefits;

·         if you are an independent contractor of Knowles Corporation, providing you with your agreed upon compensation;

·         managing our workforce and, if you are an employee of Knowles Corporation, your career;

·         delivering training programs, and measuring and recording the results of training;

·         communicating with you and for you to communicate with other Knowles Corporation Personnel and other third parties;

·         collecting and maintaining information about your work history and work performance;

·         investigating accidents and claims of wrongdoing, including to collect evidence for possible grievance or disciplinary actions or legal disputes;

·         to run and manage business operations, including to schedule work, manage the business organization, business assets, travel and expense reimbursement, maintaining corporate contact directories and organizational charts, managing and storing records;

·         processing IT infrastructure, including email, internet, and file shares;

·         maintaining the security and safety of our facilities, Personnel, and other assets, including to authenticate Personnel to access Knowles Corporation’s IT resources and facilities, protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, and prosecuting those responsible for that activity;

·         to conduct compliance checks during your employment with Knowles Corporation and maintaining records on such screening and checks;

·         if you are an employee, providing employee programs such as on-site health services, company cars, pension schemes, stock options, and other similar benefits;

·         to comply with legal requirements, including to withhold taxes, and to report accidents, salary, and tax information to regulatory authorities;

·         to respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order, or governmental regulations;

·         to evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of Knowles Corporation’s assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which Personal Information held by Knowles Corporation about its Personnel is among the assets transferred;

·         in order to publish your name, picture, and contact information in our internal employee directory and, for leadership positions, to publish your online biography and for similar marketing efforts in accordance with Knowles Corporation’s policies; and

·         as described to you when collecting your Personal Information or as otherwise permitted by applicable law.

Knowles Corporation will not use the Personal Information we collected for materially different, unrelated, or incompatible purposes without providing you notice.

Knowles Corporation may disclose your Personal Information to third parties for one or more business purposes related to your role as Knowles Corporation Personnel. When we disclose Personal Information to non-affiliated third parties for a business purpose, we enter a contract that describes the purpose, requires the recipient to both keep that Personal Information confidential and not use it for any purpose except for the purposes for which the Personal Information was disclosed and requires the recipient to otherwise comply with the requirements of the CPRA.

Knowles Corporation discloses and, in the preceding twelve (12) months, Knowles Corporation has disclosed the following categories of Personal Information of its Knowles Corporation Personnel to the following categories of third parties for one or more of the business purposes described below:

We disclose your Personal Information to the categories of third parties listed above for the following business purposes:

·         Helping to ensure the security and integrity of our facilities and IT infrastructure, to the extent the use of such Personal Information is reasonably necessary and proportionate to achieve this purpose.

·         Performing services on behalf of Knowles Corporation, including maintaining or servicing accounts; providing Human Resources services; processing or fulfilling payroll, benefits, and other similar transactions; verifying Knowles Corporation Personnel information; providing analytic services; providing storage; or providing similar services on our behalf.

In addition to the above, we may disclose any or all categories of Personal Information to any third party (including government entities and/or law enforcement entities) as necessary to:

·         comply with federal, state, or local laws, or to comply with a court order or subpoena to provide information;

·         comply with a civil, criminal, or regulatory inquiry, investigation, subpoena, or summons by federal, state, or local authorities;

·         cooperate with law enforcement agencies concerning conduct or activities that we (or one of our service providers) believe may violate federal, state, or local law;

·         comply with certain government agency requests for emergency access to your Personal Information if you are at risk or danger of death or serious physical injury;

·         complete a transaction where a business transfer or change in ownership occurs as part of a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding; or

·         exercise or defend legal claims.

“Sale” of Your Personal Information

Knowles Corporation has not “sold” any Personal Information for either monetary or other valuable consideration in the preceding twelve (12) months, and it has no actual knowledge of “selling” any Personal Information of minors under the age of 16.

“Sharing” of Your Personal Information for Cross-Context Behavioral Advertising

Knowles Corporation has not “shared” any Personal Information for the purpose of cross-context behavioral advertising in the preceding twelve (12) months, and it has no actual knowledge of “sharing” any Personal Information about minors under the age of 16.

The CPRA provides Knowles Corporation Personnel with specific rights regarding their Personal Information. This section describes these rights and explains how to exercise those rights. You may exercise these rights yourself or through your Authorized Agent (as defined below). For more information on how you or your Authorized Agent can exercise your rights, please see the section Exercising Your CPRA Privacy Rights.

·         Right to Know. You have the right to request that Knowles Corporation disclose certain information to you about our collection and use of your Personal Information over the past 12 months (a “Right to Know” request). This includes: (a) the categories of Personal Information we have collected about you; (b) the categories of sources from which that Personal Information was collected; (c) our purposes for collecting this Personal Information; (d) the categories of third parties to whom we have disclosed your Personal Information; and (e) if we have “sold” or “shared” your Personal Information, a list of categories of third parties to whom we “sold” or “shared” your Personal Information, and a separate list of the categories of third parties to whom we disclosed your Personal Information to. You must specifically describe if you are making a Right to Know request or a Data Portability Request. If you would like to make both a Right to Know Personnel Request and a Data Portability Personnel Request, you must make both requests clear in your submission to Knowles Corporation. If it is not reasonably clear from your request, we will only process your request as a Right to Know request. You may make a Right to Know or a Data Portability Personnel Request a total of two (2) times within a 12-month period at no charge.

·         Access to Specific Pieces of Information (Data Portability). You also have the right to request that Knowles Corporation provide you with a copy of the specific pieces of Personal Information that we have collected about you, including any Personal Information that we have created or otherwise received from a third party about you (a “Data Portability” request). If you make a Data Portability Personnel Request electronically, we will provide you with a copy of your Personal Information in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily reusable format that allows you to transmit the Personal Information to another third party. You must specifically describe if you are making a Right to Know request or a Data Portability request. If you would like to make both a Right to Know Personnel Request and a Data Portability Personnel Request, you must make both requests clear in your request. If it is not reasonably clear from your request, we will only process your request as a Right to Know request. We will not disclose your social security number, driver’s license number or other government-issued identification number, financial account number, health insurance or medical identification number, or your account password or security question or answers in response to a Data Portability Personnel Request. We will also not provide this information if the disclosure would create a substantial, articulable, and unreasonable risk to any of the following: (a) your Personal Information, (b) your Personnel relationship with Knowles Corporation, or (c) the security of our systems or networks. We will also not disclose any Personal Information that may be subject to another exception under the CPRA. If we are unable to disclose certain pieces of your Personal Information, we will describe generally the types of Personal Information that we were unable to disclose and provide you a description of the reason we are unable to disclose it. You may make a Right to Know or a Data Portability Personnel Request up to two (2) times within a 12-month period at no charge, although you may have other rights to access certain pieces of your Personal Information under applicable labor and employment laws.

·         Correction. You have the right to request that we correct any inaccurate Personal Information we maintain about you to ensure that it is complete, accurate, and as current as possible. You may review and correct some Personal Information about yourself by logging into Knowles Corporation’s intranet and accessing your human resources profile page. You may also request that we correct the Personal Information we have about you as described below under Exercising Your CPRA Privacy Rights. In some cases, we may require you to provide reasonable documentation to show that the Personal Information we have about you is incorrect and what the correct Personal Information may be. We may also not be able to accommodate your request if we believe it would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.

·         Deletion. You have the right to request that Knowles Corporation delete any of your Personal Information that we collected from you and retained, subject to certain exceptions. Once we receive and confirm your Personnel Request (see Exercising Your CPRA Privacy Rights), we will delete (and direct our service providers to delete) your Personal Information from our records, unless an exception applies pursuant to the CPRA. Some exceptions to your right to delete include if we are required to retain your Personal Information to maintain your Personnel relationship with us, to detect security incidents or protect against other malicious activities, and to comply with legal obligations (among others). We may also retain your Personal Information for other internal and lawful uses that are compatible with the context in which we collected it.

·         Limiting Our Uses and Disclosures of SPI. You have the right to request that Knowles Corporation limit its uses and disclosures of your Sensitive Personal Information to only those purposes specifically enumerated in the CPRA. Currently, we do not use or disclose your Sensitive Personal Information for purposes other than those expressly permitted by the CPRA. Should this change in the future, we will update this California Personnel Privacy Notice and provide you with methods to limit the use and disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information.

·         Non-Discrimination. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CPRA rights. Unless permitted by the CPRA, we will not do any of the following as a result of you exercising your CPRA rights: (a) terminate your employment or other similar contractual relationship with Knowles Corporation; (b) provide you with different compensation, benefits, work hours, or terms of employment or other similar relationship as Knowles Corporation Personnel; or (c) suggest that you may receive different compensation, benefits, work hours, or terms of employment or other similar relationship as Knowles Corporation Personnel.

Exercising Your CPRA Privacy Rights

To exercise the rights described above, please submit a request (a “Personnel Request”) to us by:

·         Calling us at 855-657-8022.

·         Emailing us at dataprivacy@knowles.com.

If you fail to make your Personnel Request in accordance with the ways described above, we may either treat your request as if it had been submitted with our methods described above or provide you with information on how to submit the request or remedy any deficiencies with your request.

Only you, or your Authorized Agent that you authorize to act on your behalf, may make a Personnel Request related to your Personal Information. To designate an Authorized Agent, see Authorized Agents below.

All Personnel Requests must:

·         Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected Personal Information or an Authorized Agent of such a person. This may include:

o   Showing your badge if you make your request in-person.

o   Providing other information about yourself (such as verifying your home address, date of birth, and the last four digits of your Social Security number).

·         Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.

We cannot respond to your request or provide you with Personal Information if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm which Personal Information relates to you or the individual for whom you are making the request as their Authorized Agent.

We will only use Personal Information provided in a Personnel Request to verify the requestor’s identity or authority to make the request.

Authorized Agents

You may authorize your agent to exercise your rights under the CPRA on your behalf by registering your agent with the California Secretary of State (an “Authorized Agent”). You may also provide your Authorized Agent with power of attorney to exercise your rights in accordance with applicable laws. We may request that your Authorized Agent submit proof of identity and that they have been authorized exercise your rights on your behalf. We may deny a request from your Authorized Agent to exercise your rights on your behalf if they fail to submit adequate proof of identity or adequate proof that they have the authority to exercise your rights.

We reserve the right to amend this California Personnel Privacy Notice at our discretion and at any time. When we make changes to this California Personnel Privacy Notice, we will notify you regarding the updated notice through Knowles Corporation’s communication channels, including through paper or email (or other electronic) notices, and update the notice’s effective date.

If you have any questions or comments about this California Personnel Privacy Notice, the ways in which Knowles Corporation collects and uses your information described above, your choices and rights regarding such use, or wish to exercise your rights under California law, please do not hesitate to contact us through the Legal department.