Disclaimer

Whether you are a conference participant, customer, interested party or even just a visitor of a website operated by us: We respect and protect your privacy. In accordance with article 13 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU-GDPR), we inform you here about the way in which we collect, process and use your personal data. In particular, our focus is on the fair and transparent use of your data by the DECHEMA Group.

In the following we give you an overview on the personal data we collect from you and what we are using it for. We will also inform you of your rights under the applicable data protection law and whom to contact if you have any further questions.

Who are we?

The DECHEMA e.V. is a non-profit scientific and technical association

a) Responsible controller as defined by EU-GDPR

DECHEMA Gesellschaft für Chemische Technik und Biotechnologie e.V.
Theodor-Heuss-Allee 25, D-60486 Frankfurt am Main
Tel: +49 69 7564-0
E-Mail: info@dechema.de
VR-Nr.: VR 5293 (Amtsgericht Frankfurt am Main)
Executive director: Dr. Andreas Förster

b) Data protection officer

Dr. Ulrich Westhaus, DECHEMA e.V.
Theodor-Heuss-Allee 25, D-60486 Frankfurt am Main
Tel: +49 69 7564-229
E-Mail: bdsb@dechema.de

Data processing

a) What kind of personal data are processed?

We collect your personal data if you use our services, e.g. if you attend one of our events, committee meetings or training courses, have registered for one of our newsletters or have contacted us by telephone, e-mail or as part of a personal contact (e.g. at a trade fair or other event).

In detail the following types of data are processed:

  • Name, E-Mail address
  • Private address, company address, postal address
  • If you are a DECHEMA member: membership number and if applicable bank account
  • Profile of interests, committee memberships, participation in research projects coordinated or managed by us
  • Attended congresses, events and committee meetings
  • IT usage data (IP-address, visited websites, date and time of connection)

Data from children:

In the context of our DECHEMAX pupil competition we collect and store the contact data of the respective competition participants. These will be managed separately from all other data processing of the DECHEMA Group and will be deleted after the end of each competition. The contact data will also not be used for other purposes or passed on to third parties.

b) Where does this data come from?

  • You yourself inform us about these data, when you register to use our services
  • If you are DECHEMA member: from your membership application
  • If you attend at one of our congresses, events or committee meetings
  • If you submit an entry for an event organized by us
  • If you have registered for our newsletter
  • If you are involved in a research project coordinated or managed by DECHEMA
  • In some cases we also receive your contact data from external cooperation partners or from publicly accessible directories
  • When you are using our internet services pseudonymised usage data associated with IP-addresses are generated

c) What do we use this data for and what is the legal basis for this?

Performance of a contract (Art. 6.1b of the EU-GDPR):

Usually you have a business relationship with us (current contract) or data processing is necessary on your request to carry out pre-contractual actions, for example:

  • For execution of contractual relationships, e.g. booked conferences and for invoicing the services received
  • To collect your annual membership fee, if you are a DECHEMA member and have authorized DECHEMA to do so by SEPA direct debit mandate

Due to legal requirements (Art. 6.1c of the EU-GDPR):

As a company, we are subject to numerous tax and commercial law regulations. To comply with these regulations, we must process and store your data.

On the basis of your informed consent (Art. 6.1a of the EU-GDPR):

In some cases you have given us your informed consent to process your data, e.g. if you have subscribed to our newsletter. You can revoke this consent at any time. This also applies to consents that you gave us before the EU-GDPR came into force, i.e. before 25th of May 2018.

To fulfill your wishes and to improve our offers based on a balance of interests (Art. 6.1f of the EU-GDPR):

  • For information on events or publications of the DECHEMA Group which are thematically related to your profile of interest.
  • To ensure orderly operation and to optimize our services: We monitor the use of our services to ensure capacity utilization and IT security. This is done on the basis of IP addresses. We do not match IP addresses to your user account.

d) How long do we store your data?

For the storage duration of your data different time limits apply:

  • Data having fiscal relevance are usually stored for 10 years
  • Data with commercial law relevance are usually stored for 6 years
  • Conference history: as long as you maintain your account to use our services or at least 10 years
  • Usage data such as connection history (pseudonymized over IP address): 1 year

Do we carry out profiling?

If you have not created an interest profile within your account, we will try to determine your interest profile from the events you have attended. This is done by thematically categorizing the respective event and comparing it with your automatically created interest profile. You can help us a great deal by comparing the interest profile associated with your account with your personal areas of interest.

Do we pass your data to third parties?

a) Within the DECHEMA Group

Within the complete DECHEMA Group (DECHEMA e.V., DECHEMA Research Institute, DECHEMA Ausstellungs-GmbH) we use your data to inform you about services and products that fit your needs. We guarantee that we will always process your personal data in accordance with the provisions of the applicable data protection laws. You should be aware of the fact that you can object to the analysis or use of your personal data for these purposes at any time.

b) External service providers

We are using a number of external service providers and also cloud service providers to help us to deliver our event and IT services. These are for example the Lombego Systems GmbH with the conference management system Converia or the Newsletter2Go GmbH with its newsletter tool of the same name. All of these service providers have been carefully selected by us and contractually committed to the careful observance of all relevant data protection regulations. At the same time, of course, we only pass on the minimum amount of data required to use these services.

c) Passing to other event organizers

If we perform an event together with an external organizer, we pass all relevant data to the external organizer in order to carry out the event. If you take part in an event from a series of events with (in most cases international) changing organizers, we will normally pass your contact data to the next organizer of this event series, except you have objected to the disclosure of your data when registering for this event.

d) Passing to (journal) publishers

If you are a member of DECHEMA or one of its associated networks, we may pass your address data to external (journal) publishers, which cooperate with us. These will then (free of charge) send you publications from the respective publishing program that match your interest profile.

e) Usage of forums and/or catalogs

In some places of our website you can contribute within forums or register into catalogs. These contributions to our forums and/or catalogs are accessible for everyone. Therefore one should examine a contribution carefully before the publication whether it not contains data, which are not intended for the public. One must assume that Internet search machines view those contributions. Therefore this contribution may be world-wide accessible without visiting the DECHEMA website initially. In case of foreign operators the deletion or correction of such entries often cannot be accomplished.

f) Member lists or participant lists

If you are a DECHEMA member or a member of one of our committees or projects, other DECHEMA members or members of your committee or project usually can view your contact details in order to get in touch with you personally. This corresponds to DECHEMA’s statutory purpose to promote the exchange of information and experience at all levels.

g) Research requests, scholarships, awards and prizes

If you submit a research proposal (e.g. AIF grant proposal), apply for a scholarship (e.g. Max-Buchner-Research-Foundation) or are nominated for an award or prize (e.g. DECHEMA Student Award), your data may be passed on to external reviewers in accordance with the respective funding regulations. In such a case external reviewers are obliged by us both to protect your intellectual property rights and also to maintain strict confidentiality of the personal data associated with the submission of your application.

What other rights do you have?

a) Rights of access, rectification, deletion and objection

In accordance with articles 14-17 of the EU-GDPR, we hereby inform you that you have the right to access, rectify, delete or restrict the processing of your data at any time.

b) Right of withdrawal

Your right to withdraw a given consent based on EU-GDPR Art. 6.1.a at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before the withdrawal.

c) Right of withdrawal to the use of your data for direct marketing purposes

Based on a balance of interests, we may use your data for our marketing measures or direct advertising. You have the right to object at any time. The objection can be made informally by e-mail, fax or letter and should be addressed to our data protection officer if possible. The easiest way to cancel your subscription to our newsletter is to use the unsubscribe link provided in the newsletter.

d) Right of appeal

Lodge a complaint with a competent supervisory authority is always possible.

Usage of Cookies

Cookies are small text files that are sent to your computer when you use our website. We use cookies exclusively to implement special user functions (so-called session cookies). In some cases, therefore, you may not be able to use our websites as intended without cookies. However, we do not use cookies to create user profiles.

Most Internet browsers are set to automatically accept cookies. However, you can deactivate the storage of cookies or set your browser so that it informs you as soon as cookies are sent. Use the help function of your internet browser to get further details.

Web analytics

a) Google Analytics

Our websites are using Google Analytics, a web analysis service from Google Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, text files that are saved on your computer and enable your use of the website to be analysed. The information that is generated by the cookie regarding your use of this website is usually transmitted to one of Google’s servers in the USA where it is saved.

Further information and data protection regulations you find in Google’s Privacy Policy under support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245

IP Anonymisation

IP anonymisation is activated on our websites, therefore your IP address will be abbreviated be-forehand by Google within the member states of the European Union or in other countries that are parties to the agreement on the European Economic Area. In exceptional circumstances only, the full IP address will be transmitted to one of Google’s servers in the USA and abbreviated there. On behalf of this website’s operator, Google will use this information to evaluate your use of the website in order to compile reports on website activities, and so that it can provide additional services associated with the use of the website and the Internet to the website operator. The IP address that is transmitted by Google Analytics by your browser will not be combined with any other data from Google.

Browser Plugin

You can prevent the storage of cookies by means of a corresponding setting in your browser soft-ware. However, we would like to point out that in this case, you may not be able to use all of this website’s functions to their full extent. Furthermore, you can prevent the recording of the data that is generated by the cookie regarding your use of the website (including your IP address) at Google, and the processing of this data by Google, by using the link tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout to download and install the available browser plug-in.

Contradiction against data collection

You can refuse the use of Google Analytics by clicking on the following link. An opt-out cookie will be set on the computer, which prevents the future collection of your data when visiting this website: Disable Google Analytics.

b) Matomo

In case of research project related websites we may use the web analysis tool Matomo to analyze and optimize our website and to eliminate errors and bottlenecks. When you visit our websites, so-called tracking pixels may collect the following information, among other things:

  • Geographical localization, based on your IP address (e.g. Munich, Germany)
  • Type and version of your Internet browser (e.g. Internet Explorer 11.0)
  • Operating system used (e.g. Windows 7)

The information is transmitted through your browser and will be statistically evaluated by us. The data collected (including your anonymized IP-address) is processed on our servers. The information generated is not used to personally identify you as a visitor to this website and is not combined with any other personal data. The data will also not connected to your user account (if you have one).

Content integration

Google Web Fonts

On some of our websites we use so-called web fonts provided by Google to display fonts. When you enter such a page, your browser loads the required Web fonts into your browser cache to display texts and fonts correctly. If your browser does not support web fonts, a default font is used by your computer. For more information about Google Web Fonts, visit: http://developers.google.com/fonts/faq

Google Maps

On a few web pages of us we use Google Maps to display geographical information visually. When you access such a page, Google collects, processes and uses data about the use of the maps functions by visitors to these websites. Further information about data processing by Google can be found in Google’s data protection information: http://policies.google.com/privacy.

Further information

You can always contact us for further questions or comments. The best way is to contact the data protection officer by E-Mail.

Privacy Policy as PDF

Frankfurt am Main, September 13, 2019