Data Protection Information

The following pertains to the use of this website. As the party responsible for data processing (controller), we process your personal data collected via our website and store them for the period necessary to achieve the specified purposes and to comply with statutory requirements. In the following, we inform you about the data we collect and the way we process them. Furthermore, we inform you about your data privacy rights pertaining to the use of this website.

Personal data, as defined by Article 4(1) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), includes any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.

1. Name and contact information of the person responsible for data processing (controller) and of the corporate Data Protection Officer

This data protection information shall apply to the processing of data on our institute’s website www.sit.fraunhofer.de by the controller, the:

Email: info@remove.this.sit.fraunhofer.de
Telephone: +49 6151 869-100
Fax: +49 6151 869-224

You can reach the Data Protection Officer at Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., c/o Data Protection Officer, Hansastrasse 27 c, D-80686 München (Munich, Germany) or at datenschutz@remove.this.zv.fraunhofer.de.

Please do not hesitate to contact the Data Protection Officer directly at any time in case of any questions concerning your data protection rights and/or your rights as data subject.

a) During your Website Visit

You may access our website without having to disclose any details on your identity. The browser installed on your device merely transmits information automatically to the server of our website (e.g., browser type and version, date and time of access) to enable a connection with the website. This includes the IP address of your requesting device. This information is temporarily stored in a so-called log file and will be deleted after four weeks.

Your IP address is processed for technical and administrative purposes regarding connection set-up and stability, to guarantee the security and functioning of our website and, if necessary, to be able to track any illegal attacks on the website.

The legal basis for processing the IP address is Art. 6 (1) lit. f GDPR.
Our legitimate interest ensues from said security interest and the necessity of the unobstructed availability of our website.

We cannot draw any direct conclusions about your identity from processing the IP address and other information in the log file.

Moreover, we use cookies and analytics services when you visit our website. Further details can be found below in this data protection information.

b) Visitor Registration for Events

We offer a variety of events through our website on a regular basis, for which you may register online. In order to register online, our website’s visitors have to provide some mandatory data, which generally include:

• Title
• Firm
• Last name, first name
• Address
• Payment information (Only if there is a fee to the specific event you are registering for and dependent on the selected payment procedure) and
• Email address

Any other mandatory data are marked as such (e.g. with *). Further information can often be provided voluntarily.

We process the mandatory data to identify you as event participant and to reserve a place for you. In addition, we conclude and perform the participation contract with you and provide you with information before, during and after the event to ensure that you enjoy your participation and that the event proceeds as smoothly as planned. If we collect your payment information for events that require payment, the data are needed to process the participation fee. Voluntary data allows us to plan and conduct the event based on participant interest. With this in mind, you will also be given the opportunity to specify your food preferences (e.g. vegetarian food) as part of some events.

In exceptional cases - especially when we offer events together with organizations that have to implement increased requirements for access control to their premises - we additionally collect your nationality as part of the registration.

You can usually provide other personal information on a voluntarily basis (for example, for student events, the university-program you are completing). We use this data to optimally prepare the event (e.g., to prepare the contents of the event in accordance to the previous knowledge of the students).

We collect the data in response to the enquiries of interested participants. Pursuant to the first sentence of Article 6(1), point (b) GDPR, data collection for the purposes mentioned is necessary for the performance of the participation contract and in order to take steps prior to entering into the participation contract.

We store data we collect in context with registrations to events for three (3) years unless we are legally obligated to store them for a longer period of time in accordance to Article 6(1), point (c) GDPR (and in particular according to § 147 AO [German Fiscal Code]) or unless you consented to a longer storage period than set forth in the first sentence of Article 6(1), point (a) GDPR.

c) Subscriptions to our Newsletter or other email list

We will send selected information to your email address on a regular basis provided you explicitly consent to our use of your email address as recipient address for our newsletter pursuant to the first sentence of Article 6(1), point (a) GDPR. The newsletters inform you about our Institute and/or other facilities and events of (Fraunhofer e.V.) The subjects and contents of the selected information are determined by the list you subscribed to. To receive our newsletter, we ask you to provide us with the following mandatory data:

• First name
• Last name
• Email address
• Areas of Interest.

We need your name to address you personally in our newsletter.

You may volunteer to provide us with additional information about you (such as your address and telephone number). We use these data to contact you by mail or telephone (e.g. for the purpose of press invitations).

Upon receiving your subscription, we will email you a subscription notice. Please confirm receipt of this notice. We need this confirmation to send our newsletter to you. This process is known as double opt-in procedure. Your response serves as proof that you are indeed the person who requested our newsletter.

You may unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time. You may find an ‘unsubscribe’ link at the end of each of our newsletters. Alternatively, you may also unsubscribe by email abmeldung@remove.this.sit.fraunhofer.de or by using the following link: www.fraunhofer.de/de/fraunhofer-newsletter-abmeldung.html.

Upon receiving your unsubscribe notice, we will delete your email address immediately.

d) Subscription to our PR Distribution List

We will send regular press releases and media information to your email address provided you explicitly consent to joining our PR distribution list as well as to our using your email address for this purpose pursuant to the first sentence of Article 6(1), point (a) GDPR. We ask you for the following mandatory data to complete your PR distribution list subscription:

• Email address
• Firm and/or type of communication medium.

You may also volunteer your name.

We need your firm and communication medium to list you as a member of the media.

Once we receive your subscription, we will send you a subscription confirmation email. We need you to reply to this email to confirm that you are indeed the person who wants to subscribe to our PR distribution list (double opt-in procedure).

You may unsubscribe at any time either by using the unsubscribe link at the end of every press release or announcement or alternatively by email presse@remove.this.sit.fraunhofer.de

Upon receiving your unsubscribe notification, we will immediately delete your email address from our subscriber list.

e) The Use of Online Shops

We offer an online shop on our website. In this shop, visitors may buy publications by scientists associated with the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. As part of the order process, we collect the following mandatory data:

• Title
• First and last name
• If necessary, Payment Information
• If necessary, Number of licenses/ -Art / -Details
• Address (including country)
• Email address

The collecting and processing of these data have the following purposes:

• To identify you as our contract partner
• To check the provided data for plausibility
• To complete the order and invoicing processes
• To provide the service you require

In addition, site visitors may volunteer more data (such as the company name, different invoice address and contact data).

Data processing is triggered by your request. It is necessary for processing your order and meeting the conditions for the contract pursuant to the first sentence of Article 6, (1), point (b) GDPR. During this process, we use your email address to send you an order confirmation. We use all collected contact data exclusively to handle any inquiries in context with your order.

We store the personal data collected in context with your order until the end of the statutory warranty period (2 years, Sec. 438(1) No. 3 BGB [German Civil Code]) and automatically delete them afterwards unless fiscal safekeeping and documentation legislation requires a longer storage time pursuant to the first sentence of Article 6(1), point (c) GDPR and in particular pursuant to Sec. 147 AO [German Fiscal Code]). For this storage period (ordinarily ten (10) years after entering into the sales contract), we will re-process the data solely for audits by the fiscal authorities. All other data processing is prohibited.

f) The Use of our Service “Appicaptor”

We offer our service “Appicaptor” on our website. Appicaptor helps you to test the security of your Apps. As part of the performance of a contract and in order to take steps to entering into a contract, we collect the following required data:

• First and last name
• E-Mail-Address
• Commercially used address, Telephone- and Fax-Number and payment data.

The collecting and processing of these data have the following purposes:

• To identify you as our contract partner
• To complete the payment processes
• To provide the service you require
• To inform you about maintenance periods and changes in the user interface.

It is required to process your order and transact the processes preceding the contractual relationship according to Article 6, para. 1, page 1 lit. b GDPR. Your data will be transferred to Fraunhofer IZB for invoicing purposes.

We only store the personal data collected until the termination of the contract, unless fiscal safekeeping and documentation laws require a longer storage time according to Article 6 para. 1 lit. c GDPR and in particular according to § 147 AO [German Fiscal Code]). During this storage period (ordinarily ten years after entering into the sales contract), we will reprocess the data solely for audits by fiscal authorities. Any further processing of the data is prohibited.

g) When Using the Commenting Function

Some of our Sub-Websites gives visitors the opportunity to leave comments on our web content. Your comments will appear with your name underneath the contribution which triggered your comment.

If you want to use the commenting function on our website, we ask you to provide the following mandatory data:

• Name and
• Email address

Instead of your name, you may also use a pseudonym/alias. The process requires your email address to send your comment. However, we do not publish your email address together with your comment. We use your email address only to inform you of a reaction to your comment.

In addition, we save your IP address when you leave a comment on our website, which will be deleted after 4 weeks. This storage period is required so that we can defend ourselves in liability cases against accusations of publishing illegal content.

The processing of data in the course of publishing online comments and user reactions is justified because it is in our legitimate interest to partake in an opinion and information exchange pursuant to Article 6 (1) lit. f GDPR.

The personal data are processed for as long as the comment appears on the website. We will then delete the data.

h) When using our service „Sharing“

"Sharing" is a service of Fraunhofer SIT for cooperation and information exchange purposes within research projects of Fraunhofer SIT.

As part of your use of the service we process your name and your E-Mail-Address and/or your login as well as all data voluntarily provided by you within the scope of your use of the services (e.g. photos, documents, posts and comments, contact data, booking requests for SIT-Infrastructure or SIT-Services). These data are accessible for all users. The service also stores when you logged into the service as well as a versioning history showing which user performed which action and when (e.g. adding a new task, editing or changing information in a ticket, deleting a document). These data can only be viewed after prior approval by the users or administrators of the service.

Your personal data, which arise in the context of the use of the service, will be processed

• for the purpose of employment, if you are an employee of Fraunhofer SIT. The legal basis for data processing is § 26 Paragraph 1 BDSG (German Data Protection Act), Art. 88 GDPR.
• for the purpose of cooperation within the project, if you are a project partner of Fraunhofer SIT. In this case, the legal basis for data processing is the cooperation agreement of the project.

Within the service “Sharing” you can delete most of your personal data yourself. For the remaining data, you can contact Fraunhofer's data protection officer for your request for erasure.

We only give your personal data to third parties if:

• You consented explicitly to the data transfer to a third party according to Article 6 para. 1, page 1 lit. a GDPR
• The data transfer is required for the contractual performance of the contract with you according to Article 6 para. 1 page 1, lit. b GDPR, such as
  • Data transmission to the mail order firm which will deliver the goods you ordered
  • Payment data transmission to payment service providers and credit institutes for payment transactions
  • Data transmission to an external organiser, if you have registered for an event.
• We contracted a processor in accordance to Article 28 GDPR; we especially do so for the erasure of personal data and for the maintenance of our website and intranet.
• We are legally obligated to surrender the data to financial or judicial authorities according to Article 6 para. 1, page 1 lit. c GDPR.

Third parties may use the transferred data only for the above-mentioned purposes.

This website uses cookies. Cookies are small files that your browser automatically generates and stores on your device (laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc.) when you visit our site. Cookies do not harm your device nor do they contain viruses, Trojans or other malware.

Cookies store information associated with the specific device used. That does not mean that we can directly identify you.

We use cookies for the purpose of making the use of our offers more convenient and pleasant for you. For example, we use so-called session cookies to allow session controls or to save data entries in forms or shopping carts during the session. At the latest, session cookies are deleted when you close your browser.

The data processed by the cookies are necessary for the above-mentioned purposes to protect our legitimate interests and those of third parties pursuant to Art. 6 (1) lit. f GDPR.

Most browsers automatically accept cookies. However, you can configure your browser to not save any cookies on your computer or to display a notice before new cookies are saved. Completely disabling cookies may mean that you cannot fully use all functions of our website.

Our website uses the Leadlab service by Wiredminds GmbH and its tracking pixel technology to analyze user behavior and optimize our site accordingly. In particular, this service allows us to identify which companies have visited our site. In so doing we do not obtain any information that may identify you directly.

The use of Leadlab involves tracking pixels that allow statistical analysis of the use of this website based on your visits. Wiredminds uses a pseudonym to process the information in a usage profile for the purpose of analysis. The data are anonymized to the extent possible.

Without your specific permission, we neither use the data collected to identify you personally nor will we combine the data with personal data pertaining to the pseudonym associated with you.

If IP addresses are collected, they are immediately anonymized after collection by deleting the last number block.

For more information about data protection at Wiredminds, please visit the company’s website.

We process statistical data based on our legitimate interest pursuant to Article 6 (1) lit. f GDPR for the purpose of optimizing our online offering and our web presence. Wiredminds processes the data on our behalf based on a data processing agreement between us and Wiredminds. This agreement ensures that the data processing on our behalf is compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation and guarantees the protection of the data subjects’ rights.

We use social plug-ins (media buttons) on our website. These are small buttons. Click on them to place the content of our website under your profile in social network sites.

If you click on such a button, a link will be established between our website and the social network to which you subscribe. Aside from the respective content, the social network provider will receive other personal information. This includes the information that you are visiting our website right now.

In order to integrate the social plug-in we use the so-called Shariff Solution. This solution prevents your device from creating a link to the social network merely because you visit a website featuring a social plug-in button without clicking on it. This means that a link is established only if you click on the social plug-in button.

We integrate the following social plug-ins on our website:

a) Facebook Ireland Limited: share on Facebook

Some information is transferred to the US domicile of the parent company Facebook Inc. Purpose and scope of the data collection and further processing and use of the data by Facebook and your user rights as well as your ability to protect your privacy rights by changing your browser settings are subject to Facebook’s Data Protection Statement.

b) Twitter International Company: share on Twitter

Some information is transferred to the US parent company Twitter Inc. Twitter Inc. is registered with the US Privacy Shield Program of the US Department of Commerce. Please find more information on Twitter’s data protection in Twitter’s Data Protection Statement .

c) Xing SE: Sharing on Xing

Please find more information on Xing’s data protection in Xing’s Data Protection Declaration.

d) LinkedIn Corporation: Sharing on LinkedIn

Information is partly transmitted to the parent company LinkedIn Corporation, headquartered in the USA. Further information on data protection on LinkedIn can be found in the company’s privacy policy.

We use components (videos) of YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., 94066 San Bruno, CA, USA (hereinafter “YouTube”), a company of Google Inc., Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View CA 94043, USA, (hereinafter “Google”) in our websites. The implementation is based on Art. 6 (1) lit. f GDPR; our legitimate interest in that case is the smooth integration of the videos and the attractive design of our website.

We use the ‘extended data protection mode’ option provided by YouTube.

Upon requesting an Internet page with embedded video, our website connects to the YouTube servers and renders the content on the Internet page using your browser.

According to the information provided by YouTube, in the ‘extended data protection mode’, your data will be transferred to the US YouTube servers only while you watch the video. The transferred data include the Internet page you just viewed and device-specific data including your IP address. 

Should you be logged into your YouTube account at the same time, YouTube will associate these collected data with your member account. You may prevent this by logging out of your YouTube account prior to visiting our website.

You may find further information on data protection in context with YouTube in Google’s Data Protection Regulations .

 You have the following rights:

• Pursuant to Article 7(3) GDPR, you have the right to withdraw at any time any consent you may have given to us before. Consequently, we may no longer continue the respective activity.
• Pursuant to Article 15 GDPR, you have the right to obtain information on your personal data which we have processed. In particular, you have the right to information on the following: Purposes of the data processing The category of personal data, The categories of recipients to which we disclosed or will disclose your data, The planned storage periods of data, The existence of the right to correction, deletion, restriction of processing and objection, The right to appeal, The right to know the origin of your data in the event that we did not collect these data, The right to meaningful and detailed information on the existence of automated decision-making including profiling and, if applicable, relevant information on the details thereof;
• Pursuant to Article 16 GDPR, you have the right to obtain without undue delay the rectification of inaccurate personal data and/or the completion of incomplete personal data in storage at the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft,
• Pursuant to Article 17 GDPR, you have the right to the erasure of your personal data unless the erasure interferes with the execution of the right to the free expression of opinions and to information, with the compliance with legal obligations, is necessary in the public interest or for establishing, exercising or defending legal claims,
• Pursuant to Article 18 GDPR, you have the right to restriction of processing of your personal data if you contest or challenge the accuracy of these data, the processing of the data is unlawful but you oppose the erasure of these data and we no longer need the data while you still need the data to establish, exercise or defend legal claims or you have raised an objection against the data processing pursuant to Article 21 GDPR,
• Pursuant to Article 20 GDPR, you have the right to receive the personal data concerning you in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format or to demand the transmit to another controller and
• Pursuant to Article 77 GDPR, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. As a rule, you may find such authority at your habitual residence, your workplace or the registered offices of our organization.

We transmit all your personal data using the widely used and secure TLS (Transport Layer Security) encryption standard. The TLS protocol is a proven and secure standard that is also used in online banking transactions. You will recognise a secure TLS connection by the “s” following the http (https://...) in your browser URL or by the lock symbol in the lower section of your browser.

Moreover, we use suitable technical and organisational safety procedures to protect your data against accidental or wilful manipulation, partial or complete loss, destruction or against the unauthorised access by third parties. We constantly improve these security measures as the technology advances.

This data protection information as amended on September 2020 is currently applicable.

Due to improvements of our website and website offers or by virtue of amended statutory or administrative standards, it may become necessary to amend this data protection information. You may find the latest data protection information by clicking the link on this website: www.sit.fraunhofer.de/en/privacy-statement

You may read or print this updated and amended version at any time.

Should individual provisions of this data protection declaration be or become invalid either in part or in their entirety or prove infeasible at any time, this shall not affect the remaining provisions. This shall apply accordingly to gaps in this declaration.