PMI CONSUMER PRIVACY NOTICE

We take privacy seriously. This notice tells you who we are, what information about you we collect, and what we do with it. We will use information about you only in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Please also read our terms of use relating to the service you are interested in. They provide more information about the way we do business, and any restrictions on eligibility that may apply

Who are we?

We are a member of Philip Morris International. Our details (name, address, etc.) will have been given to you separately at the time of (or to confirm) the collection of information about you, for example, in a notice on an app or a website, or in an e-mail, containing a link to this notice.

PMI: Philip Morris International, a leading international tobacco group. It is made up of a number of companies or “affiliates”.
PMI affiliates: Each member of the Philip Morris International group of companies is a “PMI affiliate”. “We” (or “us” or “our”) refers to the PMI affiliate that first collected information about you.
PMI product: means a product of ours or of another PMI affiliate.

How do we collect information about you?

We may collect information about you in various ways.

You may provide us with information directly (e.g. filling in a form, making a call to us, or uploading information to us via a mobile app).
We may collect information automatically (e.g. when you use a PMI app or website or, where you have opted in to this, where you have agreed to our using technologies to observe when you open e-mails or SMS messages).
We may acquire information from third parties (e.g. publicly-available information on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter).

In this notice, we refer to all the methods by which you are in contact with us as “PMI touchpoints”. PMI touchpoints include both physical (for example, retail outlets and events, consumer contact centres), and digital (for example, apps and websites).

We may collect information that you provide directly. Typically this will happen when you:

sign up to be a member of our databases, loyalty program, or perform age verification (this could be, for example, in person, via app, or online);
purchase PMI products or services at a retail outlet;
download, or use, a digital touchpoint (e.g. an app or a website);
contact us through a touchpoint, or by e-mail, social media or telephone;
register a device with us;
subscribe to a PMI panel portal;
register to receive PMI press releases, e-mail alerts, or marketing communications;
refer a friend;
participate in PMI surveys or (where permitted by law) PMI competitions or promotions; or
attend an event that a PMI affiliate has organised.

We may collect information about you automatically. Typically this will happen when you:

visit an outlet that sells PMI products (e.g. by collecting your data at check-out, or through sensors at the outlet that connect with mobile technology);
attend an event that a PMI affiliate has organised (e.g. through purchases at the event or through sensors at the event that connect with mobile technology);
communicate with us (for example, through a touchpoint; or social media platforms);
use PMI touchpoints (e.g. through tracking mechanisms (such as cookies and web beacons/pixels) that you receive when you use the PMI touchpoint or get an e-mail or SMS message from us);
use third party websites (for example, using technology similar to that described in the bullet above, that you receive when you visit a PMI touchpoint or get an e-mail from us); or
make public posts on social media platforms that we follow (for example, so that we can understand public opinion, or respond to requests concerning PMI products).

As mentioned above, we may collect information about you automatically through the use of cookies and similar tracking technologies (such as web beacons/pixels) that you receive when you visit digital PMI touchpoints or get an e-mailan electronic message from us, for example if you open an email or an SMS message and whether you click on a link. The specific cookies and other mechanisms used will depend on the PMI touchpoint in question. To learn about these mechanisms used on a touchpoint, including how you can accept or refuse cookies, please see the information made available on or through that touchpoint. These mechanisms may include Google analytics cookies (see www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/).

Where permitted by law, we may acquire information about you from third parties. This may include information shared between PMI affiliates, publicly-available profile information (such as your preferences and interests) on third party social media sites (such as Facebook and Twitter), and marketing lists acquired from third party marketing agencies.

We may also collect information in other contexts made apparent to you at the time.

What information about you do we collect?

We may collect various types of information about you:

information necessary to fulfil your orders
information necessary to provide warranty services
information about your participation in our loyalty programs
information about the referrals you make
information you give us in forms or surveys
information about your visits to our outlets and events (or outlets or events of others with whom we work)
information about your use of digital PMI touchpoints and your interaction with messages we send you or advertisements we show you
information you give us in communications (e.g. calls, chats, e-mails, SMS messages) you have with contact centres
information about your preferences and interests
information necessary to verify your age
information generated by your PMI electronic device (for example, IQOS)
information about your experiences using our products and services

Information that we collect from you directly will be apparent from the context in which you provide it. For example:

if you order a product from us through a touchpoint, you provide your name, contact, billing details, payment methods, and the products you have chosen so that we can fulfil your order;
you may provide information on your product preferences, interests and experiences so that we can offer you products and services that will interest you, and to improve our products and services;
if you make an appointment to see us (or someone supporting our products or services), we may collect your name and contact details;
we may collect information that enables us to verify your age, for example a copy of an identity document or your facial image.

Information that we collect automatically will generally concern:

details of your visit or call (such as time, date, and duration);
recordings (where permitted) of your calls or visits to PMI touchpoints, which we may transcribe to text format;
in a sales outlet or at an event (including areas in the immediate vicinity), how frequently you visit, which areas you visit and for how long, and which purchases you make;
your use of digital PMI touchpoints (such as the pages you visit, the page from which you came, and the page to which you went when you left, search terms entered, or links clicked within the touchpoint, when you first open the touchpoint, for how long you use it, and how you interact with messages we send you or advertisements we show you); we may use cookies and similar tracking technologies (such as pixels/web beacons) to do this;
your mobile or desktop device and software (such as your IP address or unique device identifier (for example, mobile advertising identifier (MAID) or Android ID (SSAID)), location data (either derived from your IP address or if you choose to share your precise location with us for specified purposes, e.g. store locator), device brand and model, the display settings of your monitor, web browser type, operating system, (some of which may be used in “digital fingerprinting” (see for what purposes we use information about you, below)) and details of any cookies (or similar technologies) that we may have stored on your device); and
if you return your PMI electronic device to us, or bring it to one of our stores, because it’s faulty, and choose to share with us the data it holds (as above), we may extract that data from the device.
Information that we collect from third parties will generally consist of publicly-available profile information (such as your preferences and interests), for example from public social media posts.
If you have downloaded one of our apps, we may ask to use your location (even when the app is closed or not in use) for certain features. For example, the “find my IQOS” feature helps you find your device if lost, and it won’t work properly if you don’t share your location. We don’t keep the location data. It will be used only to allow these features and only if you agree to share this data by agreeing to the respective in-app disclosures.

For what purposes do we use information about you, and on what legal basis?

In this section, we describe the purposes for which we use personal information. However, this is a global notice, and where the laws of a country restrict or prohibit certain activities described in this notice, we will not use information about you for those purposes in that country.
Subject to the above, we use information about you for the following purposes:

To comply with regulatory obligations, such as verifying your age and status as a user of our products
To sell our products to you, including fulfilling your orders, processing your payments
To provide sales-related services to you, including dealing with your inquiries and requests, and providing warranty and support services
To market our products (where permitted by law), including administering loyalty programs and referral programs, product improvement, market research, developing marketing strategies, administering marketing campaigns, and customizing your experiences, for example at outlets that sell PMI products and at events, and the content of messages we send you or advertisements we show you
To understand whether you are still engaged with our marketing and whether you wish to continue to receive it
For us or our business partners to inform you of potential opportunities to get involved in marketing or promoting PMI products
To enable you to use, and improve your experience of, PMI touchpoints and PMI electronic devices
To support all the above, including administering your accounts, corresponding with you, managing your appointments with us or with someone supporting our products or services (for example, regarding a new product, or after-sales service), customizing your experiences of PMI touchpoints, fraud prevention (for example in the context of our promotions, competitions and surveys, to ensure that they are not taken more than once by the same person, or in the context of e-commerce to protect cardholder information), personnel training and quality control, and administration and troubleshooting
For business analytics, statistical or scientific purposes, including improving PMI products and services, outlets and events, and the information that we (or our affiliates) provide to our consumers
For other purposes that we notify you of, or will be clear from the context, at the point information about you is first collected

The legal basis for our use of information about you is one of the following (which we explain in more detail in the “find out more” section):

compliance with a legal obligation to which we are subject;
the performance of a contract to which you are a party;
a legitimate business interest that is not overridden by interests you have to protect the information;
where none of the above applies, or where law requires it, your consent (which we will ask for before we process the information).

The purposes for which we use information about you, with corresponding methods of collection and legal basis for use, are:

Purpose	Method of collection and legal basis for Processing
*Comply with regulatory obligations* verify your age and status as a user of our products	This information is generally provided to us by you directly. We use it because it is necessary for us to comply with a legal obligation to sell products only to adults, or, in countries where there is no such legal obligation, because we have a legitimate business interest to sell our products only to adults that is not overridden by your interests, rights and freedoms to protect information about you.
*Sell our products* fulfil your orders (including sending receipts) process your payments provide warranty and support services	This information is generally provided to us by you directly (typically, name, address, e-mail address, payment information). We use it to discharge our contractual obligations to you as a buyer of our products.
*Provide sales-related services* deal with your inquiries and requests, and information about your experiences with our products and services correspond with you general administration and troubleshooting	This information is generally provided to us by you directly, but may be combined with information that we collect automatically (for example, using technology (such as cookies and web beacons/pixels) to monitor your use of PMI touchpoints and e-mails from us), and using similar technology to monitor your use of third party touchpoints; and (where permitted by law) information that we acquire from third parties (such as public social media posts). We use it because we have a legitimate business interest in providing sales-related services to our customers that is not overridden by your interests, rights and freedoms to protect information about you.
*Market our products (where permitted by law)* understand your preferences (such as what products or events may interest you or may be better tailored to your needs) and, where permitted by law, market to you personally understand whether you are still engaged with our marketing and whether you wish to continue to receive it administer loyalty programs invite you to participate in, and administer, surveys or market research campaigns for market research develop marketing strategies administer marketing campaigns customize your experiences, for example of PMI touchpoints (for example, to personalize your visit, such as with greetings or suggestions that might interest you, at outlets that sell PMI products and at events) administer loyalty and referral programs	This will typically be a combination of information that you provide to us (for example, your name and contact and social media details); information that we collect automatically (for example, using technology (such as cookies and web beacons/pixels) to monitor your use of PMI touchpoints and e-mails and SMS messages from us), and using similar technology to monitor your use of third party touchpoints; and (where permitted by law) information that we acquire from third parties (such as public social media posts). We use it on the grounds that we have a legitimate business interest to market our products, to operate PMI touchpoints, to customize your experiences, and to understand whether you wish to continue to receive our marketing, in these ways that is not overridden by your interests, rights and freedoms to protect information about you. In certain situations, when we use the information to make an automated decision, we rely on your explicit consent. In such case we will provide you with a separate notice about the logic involved in the decision making, as well as the significance and the envisaged consequences to you.
*Market our products (where permitted by law)* provide you with information about, and to manage, PMI affiliates, their promotions, products and services, outlets, events and the regulation of our products; customize the content of messages we send you or advertisements we show you develop and improve tools to pursue these purposes	This will typically be a combination of information that you provide to us (for example, your name and contact and social media details); information that we collect automatically (for example, using technology (such as cookies and web beacons/pixels) to monitor your use of PMI touchpoints and e-mails and SMS messages from us), and using similar technology to monitor your use of third party touchpoints; and (where permitted by law) information that we acquire from third parties (such as public social media posts). We use it on the grounds that we have a legitimate business interest to market these things that is not overridden by your interests, rights and freedoms to protect information about you. In certain countries, where required by law, we will send you these materials in electronic format, and use these technologies, only with your consent.
*Support* *for all the above purposes* administering your accounts enabling you to use PMI touchpoints (for example, allowing you to remain logged in to sections of a touchpoint that are reserved for authorized users only, administering your language preference, associating your shopping cart with you corresponding with you managing your appointments with us or with someone supporting our products or services (for example, regarding a new product, or after-sales service) enhancing your experiences fraud prevention (for example in the context of our promotions, competitions and surveys, to ensure that they are not taken more than once by the same person, or in the context of e-commerce to protect cardholder information) personnel training and quality control (including using transcriptions of recordings of calls to contact centres to produce aggregated insights), and administration and troubleshooting	This will typically be a combination of information that you provide to us (typically, name, password (or equivalent)) and information that we collect automatically (for example, information about your device, and cookies and similar tracking technologies, “digital fingerprinting” as described above, and (where permitted) recordings of your calls (and transcriptions of those recordings) or visits to PMI touchpoints). We use it on the grounds that correspond to the purpose for using the information that we are supporting. For example, where we administer your account to support a purchase or to provide after-sales service, we use the information to discharge our contractual obligations to you as a buyer of our products; where we administer your account to show you our products, we are supporting marketing and so we use it on the grounds that we have a legitimate business interest to market our products that is not overridden by your interests, rights and freedoms to protect information about you, and so on.
*Business* *analytics and improvements* allowing us or our business partners to inform you of potential opportunities to get involved in promoting PMI products for business analytics, statistical or scientific purposes, (including for improving PMI products, services, outlets that sell PMI products, events, digital PMI touchpoints and the information that we (or our affiliates) provide to our customers)	This will typically be a combination of information that you provide to us (such as information from your communications with PMI touchpoints; or demographic information, e.g. your age, gender and the city where you live); information that we collect automatically (which will include information about your PMI electronic device and your use of it, but where we seek your consent to use certain data, we won’t use that data for these purposes unless you have given your consent to it); and (where permitted by law) information that we acquire from third parties. Where we have more than one type of information from these categories, we will combine them to improve our analysis. We use it on the grounds that either: we have your consent to do this; or • we have a legitimate business interest to analyze and to improve our business performance, our products, PMI touchpoints, outlets and events, and to invite others to get involved in promoting PMI products, that is not overridden by interests, rights and freedoms to protect information about you.

Where we do not base our use of information about you on one of the above legal bases, we will ask for your consent before we process the information (these cases will be clear from the context).

In some instances, we may use information about you in ways that are not described above. Where this is the case, we will provide a supplemental privacy notice that explains such use. You should read any supplemental notice in conjunction with this notice.

Automated processing and decision making

We rely on automated processing, including profiling (a form of automated processing of your information to evaluate, analyse or predict your preferences and behaviour) in the context of marketing our products and services, in order to ensure personalized experience and provide you with the content that is relevant specifically to you. In this regard we generally rely on a legitimate interest and you are entitled to object to such processing at any time.

In certain cases, we may use automated decision-making, only if you have provided an explicit consent. In such event we will provide you with a separate notice, explaining the logic involved in the decision making, the significance and the expected consequences. For example, we may rely on automated decision-making in order to provide customized product or service offers to you, based on your interaction with PMI touchpoints, in particular, within the framework of the loyalty program. You are entitled at any time to request a manual decision-making process instead, express your opinion, withdraw your previously given consent or contest the decision based solely on automated processing, when such particular decision would significantly affect you.
With the exception of certain situations mentioned above, where we rely on your explicit consent for providing customized offers, we will not otherwise use automated processing, including profiling, to make a decision about you that has a legal or other significant effect on you.

Who do we share your information with, and for what purposes?

We may share information about you with:

PMI affiliates;
third parties who provide PMI affiliates or you with products or services;
PMI affiliates’ carefully selected business partners and advertisers (in areas connected with our products, or consistent with their style and image) so that they can contact you with offers that they think may interest you, in accordance with your preferences; and
other third parties, where required or permitted by law.

Sharing data with other PMI affiliates

Information about you will be shared with Philip Morris Products S.A. (based in Neuchâtel, Switzerland), which is the place of central administration of personal data processing for PMI affiliates. Philip Morris Products S.A. processes the information about you for all the purposes described in this notice.
Information about you may be shared with the PMI affiliate that is responsible for the country in which you live (if it wasn’t the PMI affiliate that first collected the information) for all the purposes described in this notice.
Information about you may be shared with any other PMI affiliate that you contact (for example, if you travel and you want to know where to buy PMI products in a new country, or where to find service or support for PMI products) in order to enhance our service to you.

Details of PMI affiliates and the countries in which they are established are available here.

Sharing data with Third Parties

To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may share information about you with third parties who provide PMI affiliates or you with products or services (such as advisers, payment service providers, delivery providers, retailers, product coaches, information services providers and age verification providers).
To the extent permitted by applicable law, we may share information about you with PMI affiliates’ carefully-selected third party business partners and advertisers (in line with the kind of thing you might associate with our products, for example because they have similar or complementary image, style, or functionality) so that they can contact you with products, services and promotions that they think may interest you, in accordance with your preferences.
We may share information about you with other third parties, where required or permitted by law, for example: regulatory authorities; government departments; in response to a request from law enforcement authorities or other government officials; when we consider disclosure to be necessary or appropriate to prevent physical harm or financial loss or in connection with an investigation of suspected or actual illegal activity; and in the context of organisational restructuring.

Where might information about you be sent?

As with any multinational organisation, PMI affiliates transfer information globally. Accordingly, information about you may be transferred globally (for example, if you are in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), your information may be transferred outside the EEA; if you are in Australia, you information may be transferred outside Australia).

When using information as described in this notice, information about you may be transferred either within or outside the country or territory where it was collected, including to a country or territory that may not have equivalent data protection standards.

For example, PMI affiliates within the EEA may transfer personal information to PMI affiliates outside the EEA. In all such cases, the transfer will be:

on the basis of a European Commission adequacy decision;
subject to appropriate safeguards, for example the EU Model Contracts; or
necessary to discharge obligations under a contract between you and us (or the implementation of pre-contractual measures taken at your request) or for the conclusion or performance of a contract concluded in your interest between us and a third party, such as in relation to travel arrangements.

In all cases, appropriate security measures for the protection of personal information will be applied in those countries or territories, in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Our service providers are located in many countries throughout the world, including in particular the EEA, Switzerland, the USA, Canada, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Australia.

How do we protect information about you?

We implement appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal information that we hold from unauthorised disclosure, use, alteration or destruction. Where appropriate, we use encryption and other technologies that can assist in securing the information you provide. We also require our service providers to comply with strict data privacy and security requirements.

How long will information about you be kept?

We will retain information about you for the period necessary to fulfil the purposes for which the information was collected. After that, we will delete it. The period will vary depending on the purposes for which the information was collected. Note that in some circumstances, you have the right to request us to delete the information. Also, we are sometimes legally obliged to retain the information, for example, for tax and accounting purposes.

Typically, we retain data based on the criteria described in the table below:

Type	Explanation/typical retention criteria
marketing to you (including marketing communications) (if you use digital touchpoints and are contactable)	Most of the information in your marketing profile is kept for the duration of our marketing relationship with you; for example, while you continue to use digital touchpoints, or respond to our communications. However, some elements of your marketing profile, such as records of how we interact with you, naturally go out of date after a period of time, so we delete them automatically after defined periods (typically 3 years) as appropriate for the purpose for which we collected them.
marketing to you (including marketing communications) (if you are no longer in contact with us)	This scenario is the same as the above, but if we don’t have any contact with you for a long period (typically 2 years), we will stop sending you marketing communications and delete your history of responses to them. This will happen, for example, if you never click through to an invitation to an event, log on to a digital touchpoint, or contact customer care, during that time. The reason is that in these circumstances, we assume you would prefer not to receive the communications.
marketing to you (including marketing communications) (if you are not contactable)	If you have registered to receive marketing communications, but the information you give us to contact you doesn’t work, we will retain your details for a period of typically only 6 months to allow you to return and correct it.
marketing to you (including marketing communications) (incomplete registrations)	If you commence registering yourself in a database, but do not complete the process (for example, if you don’t complete the age verification process, or you don’t accept the touchpoint’s terms of use), we will retain your details for only 6 months to allow you to return and complete the process.
market research	If you are not registered with us for other purposes (e.g. marketing communications, warranty, customer care), and we use publicly available information about you in order to understand the market or your preferences, we will retain the information about you for a short period in order to perform the particular item of market research.
purchases and warranty	If you purchase goods, we will retain details of this for so long as required to complete the sale, and to comply with any legal obligations (for example, for tax and accounting record-keeping purposes). If you also register for a warranty for a device, we will retain details of this for so long as relevant to the warranty.
customer care	If you contact customer care, we will make a record of the matter (including details of your enquiry and our response) and retain it while it remains relevant to our relationship, for example if you need us to replace a device under warranty, or if your recent enquiries are relevant. Temporary records (for example, an automated recording of a telephone call in which you ask us to direct you to a retail outlet) may be relevant only until more permanent records are made, and will be retained only temporarily.
system audit logs	System audit logs are retained typically for a period of only a few months.
business analytics	Most of the business analytics data is kept for the duration of our marketing relationship with you as described in the first line of this table above. However, some elements of it, such as some device information (if you choose to share it with us), naturally go out of date after a period of time, so we delete them automatically after defined periods (such as typically after 2 years for that device data) as appropriate for the purpose for which we collected them.

What rights and options do you have?

You may have some or all of the following rights in respect of information about you that we hold:

request us to give you access to it;
request us to rectify it, update it, or erase it;
request us to restrict our using it, in certain circumstances;
object to our using it, in certain circumstances;
withdraw your consent to our using it;
data portability, in certain circumstances;
opt out from our using it for direct marketing; and
lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority in your country (if there is one).

We offer you easy ways to exercise these rights, such as “unsubscribe” links, or giving you a contact address, in messages you receive.
Some mobile applications we offer might also send you push messages, for instance about new products or services. You can disable these messages through the settings in your phone or the application.

The rights you have depend on the laws of your country. If you are in the European Economic Area, you will have the rights set out in the table below. If you are elsewhere, you can contact us (see the paragraph “who should you contact with questions?” at the end of this notice) to find out more.

Right in respect of the information about you that we hold	Further detail (note: certain legal limits to all these rights apply)
to request us to give you access to it	This is confirmation of: whether or not we process information about you; our name and contact details; the purpose of the processing; the categories of information concerned; the categories of persons with whom we share the information and, where any person is outside the EEA and does not benefit from a European Commission adequacy decision, the appropriate safeguards for protecting the information; (if we have it) the source of the information, if we did not collect it from you; (to the extent we do any, which will have been brought to your attention) the existence of automated decision-making, including profiling, that produces legal effects concerning you, or significantly affects you in a similar way, and information about the logic involved, as well as the significance and the envisaged consequences of such processing for you; and the criteria for determining the period for which we will store the information. On your request we will provide you with a copy of the information about you that we use (provided this does not affect the rights and freedoms of others).
to request us to rectify or update it	This applies if the information we hold is inaccurate or incomplete.
to request us to erase it	This applies if: the information we hold is no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which we use it; we use the information on the basis of your consent and you withdraw your consent (in this case, we will remember not to contact you again, unless you tell us you want us to delete all information about you in which case we will respect your wishes); we use the information on the basis of legitimate interest and we find that, following your objection, we do not have an overriding interest in continuing to use it; the information was unlawfully obtained or used; or to comply with a legal obligation.
to request us to restrict our processing of it	This right applies, temporarily while we look into your case, if you: contest the accuracy of the information we use; or have objected to our using the information on the basis of legitimate interest (if you make use of your right in these cases, we will tell you before we use the information again). This right applies also if: our use is unlawful and you oppose the erasure of the data; or we no longer need the data, but you require it to establish a legal case.
to object to our processing it	You have two rights here: if we use information about you for direct marketing: you can “opt out” (without the need to justify it) and we will comply with your request; and if we use the information about you on the basis of legitimate interest for purposes other than direct marketing, you can object to our using it for those purposes, giving an explanation of your particular situation, and we will consider your objection.
to withdraw your consent to our using it	This applies if the legal basis on which we use the information about you is consent. These cases will be clear from the context (for example, if you gave your consent using the preference center in one of our apps, you can withdraw your consent by turning off the corresponding toggle).
to data portability	If: you have provided data to us; and we use that data, by automated means, and on the basis either of your consent, or on the basis of discharging our contractual obligations to you, then you have the right to receive the data back from us in a commonly used format, and the right to require us to transmit the data to someone else if it is technically feasible for us to do so.
to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority in your country	Each European Economic Area country must provide for one or more public authorities for this purpose. You can find their contact details here: https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/article29/items/612080/en For other countries please consult the website of your country’s authority.

Who should you contact with questions?

If you have any questions, or wish to exercise any of your rights, you can find contact details for the relevant PMI affiliate, and if applicable data protection officer, here. Contact details will also be given in any communications that a PMI affiliate sends you.

If your country has a data protection authority, you have a right to contact it with any questions or concerns. If the relevant PMI affiliate cannot resolve your questions or concerns, you also have the right to seek judicial remedy before a national court.

Changes to this notice

We may update this notice (and any supplemental privacy notice), from time to time. Where the law requires it, we will notify you of the changes; further, where the law requires it, we will also obtain your consent to the changes.

Last modified 9 June 2022. Previous versions could be found here.