1. Data protection at a glance

General information

The following information provides a simple overview of what happens to your personal data when you visit this website. Personal data is any data by which you can be personally identified. For more detailed information on data protection, please refer to our data protection statement below this text.

Data collection on this website

Who is responsible for data collection on this website?

Data processing on this website is carried out by the website operator. You can find the contact details of the website operator in the “Information on the responsible party” section of this privacy policy.

How do we collect your data?

On the one hand, your data is collected by you providing it to us. This may, for example, be data that you enter in a contact form. Other data is collected automatically or with your consent by our IT systems when you visit the website. This is mainly technical data (e.g. internet browser, operating system or time of page access). This data is collected automatically as soon as you enter this website.

What do we use your data for?

Some of the data is collected in order to ensure error-free provision of the website. Other data may be used to analyse your user behaviour.

What rights do you have regarding your data?

You have the right at any time to receive information free of charge about the origin, recipient and purpose of your stored personal data. You also have the right to request the correction or deletion of this data. If you have given your consent to data processing, you can revoke this consent at any time for the future. You also have the right to request the restriction of the processing of your personal data under certain circumstances. Furthermore, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority. You can contact us at any time about this and any other questions you may have on the subject of data protection.

Analysis tools and third-party tools

When visiting this website, your surfing behaviour may be statistically analysed. This is mainly done with so-called analysis programmes. Detailed information on these analysis programmes can be found in the following data protection declaration.

 

2. Hosting

Strato

We host our website with Strato. The provider is Strato AG, Otto-Ostrowski-Straße 7, 10249 Berlin (hereinafter “Strato”). When you visit our website, Strato collects various log files including your IP addresses. For more information, please refer to Strato’s privacy policy: https://www.strato.de/datenschutz/.

The use of Strato is based on Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f DSGVO. We have a legitimate interest in ensuring that our website is presented as reliably as possible. If a corresponding consent has been requested, the processing is carried out exclusively on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. A DSGVO and § 25 para. 1 TTDSG, insofar as the consent includes the storage of cookies or access to information in the user’s terminal device (e.g. device fingerprinting) as defined by the TTDSG. The consent can be revoked at any time.

Order processing

We have concluded a contract on order processing (AVV) with the above-mentioned provider. This is a contract required by data protection law, which ensures that the provider only processes the personal data of our website visitors in accordance with our instructions and in compliance with the German Data Protection Act (DSGVO).

 

3. General notes and obligatory information

Data protection

The operators of these pages take the protection of your personal data very seriously. We treat your personal data confidentially and in accordance with the statutory data protection regulations and this data protection declaration.

When you use this website, various personal data are collected.

Personal data is data by which you can be personally identified. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect and how we use it. It also explains how and for what purpose this is done.

We would like to point out that data transmission on the Internet (e.g. when communicating by e-mail) can have security gaps. Complete protection of data against access by third parties is not possible.

Note on the responsible office

The responsible party for data processing on this website is:

Dr. Peter Gerdes

Schwendistr. 2

79102 Freiburg

Germany

Phone: +49 (0) 177 455 70 40

Email: info@visible-change.com

www.visible-change.com

The controller is the natural or legal person who alone or jointly with others determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data (e.g. names, e-mail addresses, etc.).

Storage period

Unless a more specific storage period is stated within this data protection declaration, your personal data will remain with us until the purpose for processing the data no longer applies. If you assert a justified request for deletion or revoke your consent to data processing, your data will be deleted unless we have other legally permissible reasons for storing your personal data (e.g. retention periods under tax or commercial law); in the latter case, the data will be deleted once these reasons no longer apply.

General information on the legal basis for data processing on this website

If you have consented to data processing, we process your personal data on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a DSGVO or Art. 9 para. 2 lit. a DSGVO if special categories of data are processed in accordance with Art. 9 para. 1 DSGVO. In the event of explicit consent to the transfer of personal data to third countries, data processing is also carried out on the basis of Art.

49 para. 1 lit. a DSGVO. If you have consented to the storage of cookies or to the access to information in your terminal device (e.g. via device fingerprinting), the data processing is additionally carried out on the basis of Section 25 (1) TTDSG. This consent can be revoked at any time. If your data is required for the performance of a contract or for the implementation of pre-contractual measures, we process your data on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b DSGVO. Furthermore, if your data is required for the fulfilment of a legal obligation, we process it on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. c DSGVO. Furthermore, the data processing may be carried out on the basis of our legitimate interest according to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. F DSGVO. Information on the relevant legal basis in each individual case is provided in the following paragraphs of this data protection declaration.

Revocation of your consent to data processing

Many data processing operations are only possible with your express consent. You can revoke consent you have already given at any time. The legality of the data processing carried out until the revocation remains unaffected by the revocation. Right to object to data collection in special cases and to direct advertising (Art. 21 DSGVO)

IF THE DATA PROCESSING IS BASED ON ART. 6 ABS. 1 LIT. E OR F DSGVO, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO OBJECT TO THE PROCESSING OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA AT ANY TIME FOR REASONS ARISING FROM YOUR PARTICULAR SITUATION; THIS ALSO APPLIES TO PROFILING BASED ON THESE PROVISIONS. THE RESPECTIVE LEGAL BASIS ON WHICH PROCESSING IS BASED CAN BE FOUND IN THIS DATA PROTECTION DECLARATION. IF YOU OBJECT,

WE WILL NO LONGER PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL DATA UNLESS WE CAN DEMONSTRATE COMPELLING LEGITIMATE GROUNDS FOR THE PROCESSING WHICH OVERRIDE YOUR INTERESTS, RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS, OR THE PROCESSING IS FOR THE PURPOSE OF ASSERTING, EXERCISING OR DEFENDING LEGAL CLAIMS (OBJECTION UNDER ARTICLE 21(1) DSGVO). IF YOUR PERSONAL DATA ARE PROCESSED FOR THE PURPOSE OF DIRECT MARKETING, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO OBJECT AT ANY TIME TO THE PROCESSING OF PERSONAL DATA CONCERNING YOU FOR THE PURPOSE OF SUCH MARKETING. THIS ALSO APPLIES TO PROFILING, INSOFAR AS IT IS CONNECTED WITH SUCH DIRECT ADVERTISING. IF YOU OBJECT, YOUR PERSONAL DATA WILL SUBSEQUENTLY NO LONGER BE USED FOR THE PURPOSE OF DIRECT MARKETING (OBJECTION ACCORDING TO ART. 21 ABS. 2 GDPR).

Right of appeal to the competent supervisory authority

In the event of breaches of the GDPR, data subjects have a right of appeal to a supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of their habitual residence, their place of work or the place of the alleged breach. The right of appeal is without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy.

Right to data portability

You have the right to have data that we process automatically on the basis of your consent or in performance of a contract handed over to you or to a third party in a common, machine-readable format. If you request the direct transfer of the data to another responsible party, this will only be done insofar as it is technically feasible.

Information, deletion and correction

Within the framework of the applicable legal provisions, you have the right at any time to free information about your stored personal data, its origin and recipient and the purpose of the data processing and, if applicable, a right to correction or deletion of this data. You can contact us at any time with regard to this and any other questions you may have on the subject of personal data.

Right to restriction of processing

You have the right to request the restriction of the processing of your personal data. To do this, you can contact us at any time. The right to restriction of processing exists in the following cases:

If you dispute the accuracy of your personal data stored by us, we usually need time to check this. For the duration of the verification, you have the right to request the restriction of the processing of your personal data.

If the processing of your personal data happened/is happening unlawfully, you can request the restriction of data processing instead of erasure. If we no longer need your personal data, but you wish to use it to exercise,

defence or assertion of legal claims, you have the right to request the restriction of the processing of your personal data instead of the deletion. If you have lodged an objection pursuant to Art. 21 (1) DSGVO, a balancing of your and our interests must be carried out. As long as it has not yet been determined whose interests prevail, you have the right to demand the restriction of the processing of your personal data.

If you have restricted the processing of your personal data, this data may – apart from being stored – only be processed with your consent or for the assertion, exercise or defence of legal claims or for the protection of the rights of another natural or legal person or for reasons of an important public interest of the European Union or a Member State.

SSL or TLS encryption

For security reasons and to protect the transmission of confidential content, such as orders or enquiries that you send to us as the site operator, this site uses SSL or TLS encryption. You can recognise an encrypted connection by the fact that the address line of the browser changes from “http://” to “https://” and by the lock symbol in your browser line. If SSL or TLS encryption is activated, the data you transmit to us cannot be read by third parties.

Objection to advertising e-mails

We hereby object to the use of contact data published within the scope of the imprint obligation to send advertising and information material that has not been expressly requested. The operators of the pages expressly reserve the right to take legal action in the event of the unsolicited sending of advertising information, for example by spam e-mails.

 

4. Data collection on this website

 

Cookies

Our Internet pages use so-called “cookies”. Cookies are small text files and do not cause any damage to your terminal device. They are stored either temporarily for the duration of a session (session cookies) or permanently (permanent cookies) on your end device. Session cookies are automatically deleted at the end of your visit. Permanent cookies remain stored on your end device until you delete them yourself or until they are automatically deleted by your web browser. In some cases, cookies from third-party companies may also be stored on your end device when you enter our site (third-party cookies).

enter our site (third-party cookies). These enable us or you to use certain services of the third-party company (e.g. cookies for processing payment services). Cookies have various functions. Many cookies are technically necessary, as certain website functions would not work without them (e.g. the shopping cart function or the display of videos). Other cookies are used to evaluate user behaviour or to display advertising. Cookies that are used to carry out the electronic communication process, to provide certain functions that you have requested (e.g. for the shopping basket function) or to optimise the website (e.g. cookies for the display of videos).

Website (e.g. cookies for measuring the web audience) (necessary cookies) are stored on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f DSGVO, unless another legal basis is specified. The website operator has a legitimate interest in storing necessary cookies for the technically error-free and optimised provision of its services. If consent to the storage of cookies and comparable recognition technologies has been requested, the processing is based and is carried out exclusively on the basis of this consent (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a DSGVO and § 25 para. 1 TTDSG); the consent can be revoked at any time. You can set your browser so that you are informed about the setting of cookies and only allow cookies in individual cases, exclude the acceptance of cookies for certain cases or in general and activate the automatic deletion of cookies when closing the browser. If cookies are deactivated, the functionality of this website may be limited. If cookies are used by third-party companies or for analysis purposes, we will inform you about this separately within the framework of this data protection declaration and, if necessary, request your consent.

Server log files

The provider of the pages automatically collects and stores information in so-called server log files, which your browser automatically transmits to us. These are:

– browser type and browser version

– Operating system used

– referrer URL

– Host name of the accessing computer

– Time of the server request

– IP address

This data is not merged with other data sources.

The collection of this data is based on Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f DSGVO. The website operator has a legitimate interest in the technically error-free presentation and optimisation of its website – for this purpose, the server log files must be collected.

Enquiry by e-mail, telephone or fax

If you contact us by e-mail, telephone or fax, your enquiry including all resulting personal data (name, enquiry) will be stored and processed by us for the purpose of processing your request. We do not pass on this data without your consent. The processing of this data is based on Art. 6 (1) lit. b DSGVO if your request is related to the performance of a contract or is necessary for the implementation of pre-contractual measures. In all other cases, the processing is based on our legitimate interest in the effective processing of the enquiries addressed to us (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f DSGVO) or on your consent (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a DSGVO) if this has been requested; the consent can be revoked at any time.

The data you send us via contact requests will remain with us until you request us to delete it, revoke your consent to store it or the purpose for storing the data no longer applies (e.g. after your request has been processed). Mandatory statutory provisions – in particular statutory retention periods – remain unaffected.

Use of Google Analytics

Our website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc (“Google”). For this web analysis service, Google Analytics uses so-called “cookies”, i.e. text files are stored on your computer, which in turn enable an analysis of your use of the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of our website will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. If IP anonymisation is activated on our website, your IP address will only be shortened beforehand by Google within the member states of the EU or in other contracting states of the Agreement on the European Economic Area. In a few exceptional cases, the full IP address may be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and then shortened there. Google can then evaluate your use of the website on the basis of this information, which is stored, in order to then provide a compilation of a report on the advertising website activities. On the basis of this report, Google can then also provide further services to the website provider in connection with the use of the website and the Internet. The IP address transmitted by your browser via Google Analytics will not be merged with other Google data. If this analysis based on your visit to our website is not in your interest, you can prevent the storage or installation of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings in your browser software. At the same time, we would like to inform you that in this case you will not be able to use all the functions of our website to their full extent.

By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above. Furthermore, you can prevent the collection of the data generated by the cookie and related to your use of the website to Google as well as the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plugin available under the following link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de.

5. data protection information for online meetings, telephone conferences and webinars via “Microsoft Teams

We would like to inform you below about the processing of personal data in connection with the use of “Microsoft Teams”.

Purpose of the processing

We use the “Microsoft Teams” tool to conduct telephone conferences, online meetings, video conferences and/or webinars (hereinafter: “online meetings”). “Microsoft Teams” is a service provided by Microsoft Corporation.

Person responsible

The person responsible pursuant to Art. 4 (7) EU General Data Protection Regulation (DS-GVO) is:

Dr. Peter Gerdes

Schwendistr. 2

79102 Freiburg

Germany

Phone: +49 (0) 177 455 70 40

Email: info@visible-change.com

www.visible-change.com

Note: If you access the “Microsoft Teams” website, the provider of “Microsoft Teams” is responsible for data processing. However, accessing the “Microsoft Teams” website is only necessary to download the software for using “Microsoft Teams”. If you do not want to or cannot use the “Microsoft Teams” app, you can also use “Microsoft Teams” via your browser. The service is then also provided via the “Microsoft Teams” website. 

What data is processed?

Various types of data are processed when using “Microsoft Teams”. The scope of the data also depends on the data you provide before or during participation in an “online meeting”.

The following personal data are subject to processing:

User details: e.g. display name (“Display name”), e-mail address if applicable, profile picture (optional), preferred language Meeting metadata: e.g. date, time, meeting ID, telephone numbers, location Text, audio and video data: you may have the option to use the chat function in an “online meeting”. In this respect, the text entries you make are processed in order to display them in the “online meeting”. In order to enable the display of video and the playback of audio, the data from the microphone of your terminal device and from any video camera of the terminal device are processed accordingly during the meeting. You can turn off or mute the camera or microphone yourself at any time via the “Microsoft Teams” applications. 

Scope of processing

We use “Microsoft Teams” to conduct “online meetings”. If we want to record “online meetings”, we will transparently tell you in advance and – where necessary – ask for consent.

If it is necessary for the purposes of recording the results of an online meeting, we will record the chat content. However, this will not usually be the case.

Automated decision-making within the meaning of Art. 22 DSGVO is not used.

Legal basis for data processing

Insofar as personal data Dr. Peter Gerdes is processed, § 26 BDSG is the legal basis for data processing. If, in connection with the use of “Microsoft Teams”, personal data is not required for the establishment, implementation or termination of the employment relationship, but is nevertheless an elementary component of the use of “Microsoft Teams”, Article 6 (1) (f) DSGVO is the legal basis for data processing. In these cases, our interest lies in the effective implementation of “online meetings”.

Otherwise, the legal basis for data processing when conducting “online meetings” is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b) DSGVO, insofar as the meetings are conducted in the context of contractual relationships.

If there is no contractual relationship, the legal basis is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f) DSGVO. Here, too, our interest is in the effective conduct of “online meetings”.

Recipients / passing on of data

Personal data processed in connection with participation in “Online Meetings” will not be passed on to third parties as a matter of principle, unless they are specifically intended to be passed on. Please note that the content of “online meetings”, as well as personal meetings, is often used to communicate information with customers, interested parties or third parties and is therefore intended to be passed on.

Other recipients: The provider of “Microsoft Teams” necessarily receives knowledge of the above-mentioned data, insofar as this is provided for in the context of our order processing agreement with “Microsoft Teams”.

Data processing outside the European Union

Data processing outside the European Union (EU) does not take place as a matter of principle, as we have restricted our storage location to data centres in the European Union. However, we cannot exclude the routing of data via internet servers that are located outside the EU. This can be the case in particular if participants in “Online Meeting” are in a third country. However, the data is encrypted during transport via the internet and thus protected against unauthorised access by third parties.

Your rights as a data subject

You have the right to obtain information about the personal data concerning you. You can contact us for information at any time. In the case of a request for information that is not made in writing, we ask for your understanding that we may require proof from you that you are the person you claim to be. Furthermore, you have a right to correction or deletion or to restriction of processing, insofar as you are entitled to this by law. Finally, you have a right to object to processing within the scope of the law. You also have a right to data portability within the framework of data protection law.

 Deletion of data

We delete personal data when there is no need for further storage. A requirement may exist in particular if the data is still needed to fulfil contractual services, to check and grant or ward off warranty and, if applicable, guarantee claims. In the case of statutory retention obligations, deletion will only be considered after expiry of the respective retention obligation.

Right of complaint to a supervisory authority

You have the right to complain about the processing of personal data by us to a supervisory authority for data protection.

Changes to this data protection notice

We revise this data protection notice in the event of changes to data processing or other occasions that make this necessary. You will always find the current version on this website.