Privacy Policy

Date: December, 19th 2018

1. An overview of data protection

General

The following gives a simple overview of what happens to your personal information when you visit our website. Personal information is any data with which you could be personally identified. Detailed information on the subject of data protection can be found in the detailed description of privacy policy found below (beginning with section 2).

Data collection on our website

Who is responsible for the data collection on this website?

The data collected on this website are processed by aquabench GmbH. The operator's contact details can be found in the website's required legal notice.

How do we collect your data?

Some data are collected when you provide it to us. This concerns your written contact with us, for whom we offer you e-mail addresses, and your data that you submit to us for the use of our aquabench online platform via contact forms or by other means.

Other data are collected automatically by our IT systems when you visit the website. These data are primarily technical data such as the browser and operating system you are using or when you accessed the page. These data are collected automatically as soon as you enter our website.

What do we use your data for?

We use your directly communicated data to provide our consulting and benchmarking services and to fulfill your other stated requests.

Part of the data is collected to ensure the proper functioning of the website. Other data can be used to analyze how visitors use the site.

What rights do you have regarding your data?

You always have the right to request information about your stored data, its origin, its recipients, and the purpose of its collection at no charge. You also have the right to request that it be corrected, blocked, or deleted. You can contact us at any time using the address given in the legal notice if you have further questions about the issue of privacy and data protection. You may also, of course, file a complaint with the competent regulatory authorities.

Moreover, under certain circumstances, you have the right to demand the restriction of the processing of your personal data. For details, please consult the section “Right to Restriction of Data Processing.”

2. General information and mandatory information

Data protection

The operators of this website take the protection of your personal data very seriously. We treat your personal data as confidential and in accordance with the statutory data protection regulations and this privacy policy.

If you use this website, various pieces of personal data will be collected. Personal information is any data with which you could be personally identified. This privacy policy explains what information we collect and what we use it for. It also explains how and for what purpose this happens.

Please note that data transmitted via the internet (e.g. via e-mail communication) may be subject to security breaches. Complete protection of your data from third-party access is not possible.

Notice concerning the party responsible for this website

The party responsible for processing data on this website is:

aquabench GmbH
Raboisen 30
20095 Hamburg
Germany
telephone: +49 40 47 11 24-0
e-mail: kontakthamburg@aquabench.de

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

Data Protection Officer

Mr Marius Wilke
Telephone: + 49 2203 359 29-27
e-mail: m.wilke@aquabench.de

Revocation of your consent to the processing of your data

Many data processing operations are only possible with your express consent. You may revoke your consent at any time with future effect. An informal e-mail making this request is sufficient. The data processed before we receive your request may still be legally processed.

Right to object to the collection of data in special cases; right to object to direct advertising (Art. 21 GDPR)

In the event that data are processed on the basis of Art. 6 Sect. 1 lit. e or f GDPR, you have the right to at any time object to the processing of your personal data based on grounds arising from your unique situation. This also applies to any profiling based on these provisions. To determine the legal basis, on which any processing of data is based, please consult this Data Protection Declaration. If you log an objection, we will no longer process your affected personal data, unless we are in a position to present compelling protection worthy grounds for the processing of your data, that outweigh your interests, rights and freedoms or if the purpose of the processing is the claiming, exercising or defence of legal entitlements (objection pursuant to Art. 21 Sect. 1 GDPR).

If your personal data is being processed in order to engage in direct advertising, you have the right to at any time object to the processing of your affected personal data for the purposes of such advertising. This also applies to profiling to the extent that it is affiliated with such direct advertising. If you object, your personal data will subsequently no longer be used for direct advertising purposes (objection pursuant to Art. 21 Sect. 2 GDPR).

Right to log a complaint with the competent supervisory agency

In the event of violations of the GDPR, data subjects are entitled to log a complaint with a supervisory agency, in particular in the member state where they usually maintain their domicile, place of work or at the place where the alleged violation occurred. The right to log a complaint is in effect regardless of any other administrative or court proceedings available as legal recourses.

Right to data portability

You have the right to have data which we process based on your consent or in fulfillment of a contract automatically delivered to yourself or to a third party in a standard, machine-readable format. If you require the direct transfer of data to another responsible party, this will only be done to the extent technically feasible.

SSL or TLS encryption

The aquabench Homepage and the aquabench Online platform uses SSL or TLS encryption for security reasons and for the protection of the transmission of confidential content, such as the inquiries and data you send to us as the site operator. You can recognize an encrypted connection in your browser's address line when it changes from "http://" to "https://" and the lock icon is displayed in your browser's address bar.

If SSL or TLS encryption is activated, the data you transfer to us cannot be read by third parties.

Information about, blockage, rectification and eradication of data

Within the scope of the applicable statutory provisions, you have the right to at any time demand information about your archived personal data, their source and recipients as well as the purpose of the processing of your data. You may also have a right to have your data rectified, blocked or eradicated. If you have questions about this subject matter or any other questions about personal data, please do not hesitate to contact us at any time at the address provided in section “Information Required by Law.”

Right to demand processing restrictions

You have the right to demand the imposition of restrictions as far as the processing of your personal data is concerned. To do so, you may contact us at any time at the address provided in section “Information Required by Law.” The right to demand restriction of processing applies in the following cases:

  • In the event that you should dispute the correctness of your data archived by us, we will usually need some time to verify this claim. During the time that this investigation is ongoing, you have the right to demand that we restrict the processing of your personal data.
  • If the processing of your personal data was/is conducted in an unlawful manner, you have the option to demand the restriction of the processing of your data in lieu of demanding the eradication of this data.
  • If we do not need your personal data any longer and you need it to exercise, defend or claim legal entitlements, you have the right to demand the restriction of the processing of your personal data instead of its eradication.
  • If you have raised an objection pursuant to Art. 21 Sect. 1 GDPR, your rights and our rights will have to be weighed against each other. As long as it has not been determined whose interests prevail, you have the right to demand a restriction of the processing of your personal data.

If you have restricted the processing of your personal data, these data – with the exception of their archiving – may be processed only subject to your consent or to claim, exercise or defend legal entitlements or to protect the rights of other natural persons or legal entities or for important public interest reasons cited by the European Union or a member state of the EU.

Rejection of unsolicited e-mails

We herewith object to the use of contact information published in conjunction with the mandatory information to be provided in section “Information Required by Law” to send us promotional and information material that we have not expressly requested. The operators of this website and its pages reserve the express right to take legal action in the event of the unsolicited sending of promotional information, for instance via SPAM messages.

3. Data collection on our website

Cookies

Some of our web pages use cookies. Cookies do not harm your computer and do not contain any viruses. Cookies help make our website more user-friendly, efficient, and secure. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer and saved by your browser.

Most of the cookies we use are so-called "session cookies." They are automatically deleted after your visit.

Other cookies, which remain in your device's memory until you delete them, are used exclusively in the editorial area of our content management system, which is only used by our own administrators. These cookies make it possible to recognize your browser when you next visit the site.

You can configure your browser to inform you about the use of cookies so that you can decide on a case-by-case basis whether to accept or reject a cookie. Alternatively, your browser can be configured to automatically accept cookies under certain conditions or to always reject them, or to automatically delete cookies when closing your browser. Disabling cookies may limit the functionality of this website.

Cookies which are necessary to allow electronic communications or to provide certain functions you wish to use are stored pursuant to Art. 6 paragraph 1, letter f of GDPR. The website operator has a legitimate interest in the storage of cookies to ensure an optimized service provided free of technical errors.

Server log files

The website provider automatically collects and stores information that your browser automatically transmits to us in "server log files". 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. This data is recorded on the basis of Art. 6 Sect. 1
lit. f GDPR. The operator of the website has a legitimate interest in the technically error free depiction and the optimization of the operator’s website. In order to achieve this, server log files must be recorded.

4. Plugins und tools

Google Web Fonts

For uniform representation of fonts, this page uses web fonts provided by Google. When you open a page, your browser loads the required web fonts into your browser cache to display texts and fonts correctly.

For this purpose your browser has not to establish a direct connection to Google servers. The use of Google Web fonts is done in the interest of a uniform and attractive presentation of our website. This constitutes a justified interest pursuant to Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR.

If your browser does not support web fonts, a standard font is used by your computer.

Further information about handling user data, can be found at developers.google.com/fonts/faq and in Google's privacy policy at www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

5. Requests and aquabench online platform

Request via e-mail, telephone or fax

If you contact us by e-mail, telephone or fax, your request, including all resulting personal data (name, request) will be stored and processed by us for the purpose of processing your request. We do not pass these data on without your consent.

The processing of these data is based on Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR, if your request is related to the of a contract or if it is necessary to carry out pre-contractual measures. In all other cases, the processing based on your consent (Article 6 (1) a GDPR) and/or on our legitimate interests (Article 6 (1) (f) GDPR), we have a legitimate interest in the effective processing of requests addressed to us.

The data sent by you to us via contact requests remain with us until you request us to delete, revoke consent to the storage or the purpose for the data storage lapses (e.g. after completion of your request). Mandatory statutory provisions - in particular statutory retention periods - remain unaffected.

Registration on the aquabench online platform

On the protected aquabench online platform, we offer users the opportunity to register by providing personal data to use the services of the aquabench online platform. The data will be transmitted to us in written form and stored. You can supplement and correct this data in a user profile. A transfer of data to third parties does not take place. The following data is collected during the registration process:

• Surname
• First given name
• User name
• Password
• E-mail
• Department
• Telephone
• Fax
• Mobile

The processing of the data thus takes place exclusively on the basis of your consent (Article 6 (1) (a) GDPR) or for the performance of the benchmarking services you requested, i.e. the performance of a contract or the implementation of pre contractual measures (Article 6 para. 1 letter b GDPR).

You can revoke this consent at any time. An informal message by e-mail to us is sufficient. The legality of the data processing operations carried out until the revocation remains unaffected by the revocation.

The information you provide remains with us until you ask us to delete it, revoke your consent to storage, or delete the data storage purpose (for example, after your request has been processed). Mandatory statutory provisions - especially retention periods - remain unaffected.

6. Job applications

We offer website visitors the opportunity to submit job applications to us (e.g. via e-mail, via postal services on by submitting the online job application form). Below, we will brief you on the scope, purpose and use of the personal data collected from you in conjunction with the application process. We assure you that the collection, processing and use of your data will occur in compliance with the applicable data privacy rights and all other statutory provisions and that your data will always be treated as strictly confidential.

Scope and purpose of the collection of data

If you submit a job application to us, we will process any affiliated personal data (e.g. contact and communications data, application documents, notes taken during job interviews, etc.), if they are required to make a decision concerning the establishment or an employment relationship. The legal grounds for the aforementioned are § 26 New GDPR according to German Law (Negotiation of an Employment Relationship), Art. 6 Sect. 1 lit. b GDPR (General Contract Negotiations) and – provided you have given us your consent – Art. 6 Sect. 1 lit. a GDPR. You may revoke any consent given at any time. Within our company, your personal data will only be shared with individuals who are involved in the processing of your job application.

If your job application should result in your recruitment, the data you have submitted will be archived on the grounds of § 26 New GDPR and Art. 6 Sect. 1 lit. b GDPR for the purpose of implementing the employment relationship in our data processing system.

Data Archiving Period

If we should not be able to offer you a position, if you refuse a job offer, retract your application, revoke your consent to the processing of your data or ask us to delete your data, we will store your transferred data, incl. any physically submitted application documents for a maximum of 6 months after the conclusion of the application process (retention period) to enable us to track the details of the application process in the event of disparities (Art. 6 Sect. 1 lit. f GDPR).

YOU HAVE THE OPTION TO OBJECT TO THIS STORAGE/RETENTION OF YOUR DATA IF YOU HAVE LEGITIMATE INTERESTS TO DO SO THAT OUTWEIGH OUR INTERESTS.

Once the retention period has expired, the data will be deleted, unless we are subject to any other statutory retention obligations or if any other legal grounds exist to continue to store the data. If it should be foreseeable that the retention of your data will be necessary after the retention period has expired (e.g. due to imminent or pending litigation), the data shall not be deleted until the data have become irrelevant. This shall be without prejudice to any other statutory retention periods.