Privacy Statement

Privacy Statement of the German Ceramic Society

The online platforms under the top-level domain dkg.de (hereinafter referred to as the "DKG Internet Portal") comprise the websites of the German Ceramic Society (hereinafter referred to as "DKG e. V."), the websites of associated organizations (hereinafter individually referred to as a "DKG organization" and collectively referred to as "DKG organizations") and the websites of the DKG committees. The DKG, the DKG organizations and the DKG bodies are all referred to collectively as "DKG".

In addition, DKG e. V. is a provider of further online platforms, such as online platforms for the advertising of DKG events or events which, in cooperation with DKG, are closely related to its organizations or which are held in cooperation with its business partners. The DKG Internet portal and all other online platforms operated by DKG are collectively referred to as "DKG Online Media". The DKG Internet Portal does not explicitly contain online platforms or websites from DKG organizations or DKG bodies, which are not belonging to the DKG Internet Portal, unless these are otherwise marked and clearly identified as belonging to the DKG Internet Portal.

The following explanations show for the DKG Online Media how the legal provisions on data protection are ensured by DKG, specifically for Personally Identifiable Information as of Art. 3 (1) and 3 (9) of the German Federal Data Protection Act (“Bundesdatenschutzgesetz”, hereinafter: FDPA). It should be noted that the provider of the respective offer is always responsible for the safeguarding of the data protection-compliant handling of user data. The provider is mentioned in the imprint of the respective offer.

If links refer to websites of DKG organizations, DKG committees, contract partners or third parties, independent data protection regulations may apply. In this case, you can find these within the respective website either under the point "Privacy" or in the imprint.

User groups

The DKG website is an information offering, which consists of a general public part. It also offers non-public information or services for DKG members, cooperation partners or participants of DKG events. The non-public areas are open exclusively to the respective user groups.

Collection of PII

DKG is committed to the principle of data avoidance and data parsimony. For this reason, when visiting the DKG Online Media, data is only collected if it is necessary for the fulfillment of a purpose of the functions provided, or if these data are given by the user himself voluntarily. We collect the following PII:

• IP address of visitors
• Login data and time of logon when logging in for protected areas
• Name, first name, e-mail address, telephone or fax numbers, address data, bank or credit card data, as well as any activity-related data, social data, occupational situation or training dates and dates of birth, as far as these are required for the registration of natural persons as a personal member of DKV e. V. or for the modification of personal member data
• Name, first name, e-mail address, telephone or fax numbers of employees or contacts in institutions when registering institutional members, or when changing institutional members' data
• In the case of the initiation and conclusion of contractual relations or business activities or other activities, which take place in favor of natural persons or involving natural persons, the name, first name, e-mail address, as well as telephone or fax numbers, address data, bank or credit card data, information on requested services or products, DKG e. V. membership numbers or of cooperating organizations, as well as memberships in other organizations, data on the employer and professional activity, social status data, the educational situation and the date of birth my required for examination of a claim for the consumption of a certain service or product.

Processing of personally identifiable information (PII)

All PII, which are not only generated by the use of the DKG Online Media for technical reasons, but which require an active and purposeful collection, are transmitted by the Controller in an encrypted form via the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) method via public data links. They are stored in non-public databases, protected against unauthorized access and are assigned to the respective business process for the purpose of order processing, contract management, contract fulfillment and settlement by the responsible authority within the DKG for the provision of the service. After the termination of contractual relationships, the PII shall be stored in accordance with the statutory and legal obligations and, in addition, solely based on a necessity for preservation in the interest of the data subject to fulfill contractual or post-contractual claims or further obligations.

Use of PII of users of DKG Online Media

The data collected or processed during an internet session are used by DKG exclusively for legally permissible purposes. As long as a user is not logged in, his data is collected and processed exclusively in an anonymous or pseudonymized form. The use is predominantly to provide the DKG Online Media, for the initiation of new contractual arrangements, for the settlement of existing contractual relationships, as well as for their termination, and also for the provision of contractual services by DKG or its fulfillment auxiliaries. In addition, the collected data can be used for marketing activities or market research purposes as well as for the optimization of the DKG Online Media. Insofar as these data are not anonymous or pseudonymized, this is done exclusively with the explicit consent of the respective person concerned.

Integration of external software extensions

To increase the attractiveness of the DKG Online Media, external software extension such as functions of social networks – i.e. Xing, Google+, Facebook or Twitter – can be integrated into the DKG Online Media. For reasons of data parsimony, however, this is done only if the added value of a functional integration of a software extension is clearly superior to a static external link. If a correspondingly provided website is called within DKG Online Media, the browser then establishes a connection with the servers of the provider of the respective software extension for the purpose of displaying the content of the respective software extension. Device-related information as well as the IP address of the accessing system are transmitted. In addition, the provider of the software extension can set a cookie on the accessing system, whereby the user himself, by means of appropriate browser settings to be made by him, can individually control for each provider individually whether cookies are to be allowed.

The transmission of data to providers of external software extensions takes place as follows: The integrated software extensions record information of the user, which is transmitted by the user through the use of the DKG Online Media, including in particular the IP address as well as the environment variables of the browser. If the user is also logged in to the provider of the software extension during the use of the DKG Online Media, the provider can assign the relevant website to the respective user, as information about the user is transmitted to the provider, and can be merged with their own data. In the case of an interaction with software extensions, for example by clicking a button or leaving a comment, the corresponding information is sent directly to the provider of the software extension, and processed there and stored, if necessary. The purpose and scope of the data collection and the further processing and use of the data, as well as rights and settings for the protection of privacy are given in the data protection notes of the respective provider of the corresponding software extension. In order to prevent a provider, with which the user maintains an account, to collect data about the user via DKG Online Media, the user must log off at the respective account before his visit to DKG Online Media. The purpose and scope of the data collection, the further processing and use of the data, as well as rights and settings for the protection of the privacy can be found in the data protection instructions of the respective provider of the corresponding software extension.

Use of cookies

"Cookies" are small text files which are stored on the hard drive of the accessing system in the browser of the Internet user by a provider of Online Media or by his auxiliaries. Cookies may be valid for a limited period or for an unlimited period of time. To the extent that the security settings of the accessing system permit this, the web browser may store cookies on the user's system when visiting a website of DKG Online Media. Cookies enable the recognition of the internet browser. They are required, among other things, for the provision of temporary session information and for process control, for example, in order to be able to continue to identify the user after a one-time login procedure and to give him access to a protected area, his individual data or his user account in the congress management system of DKG. The cookies set by DKG are only used for the aforementioned purposes and are used for data security and data integrity when using DKG Online Media. Cookies by third parties can be prevented by means of appropriate browser settings, which must be made by the user for the respective browser used for accessing DKG Online Media, or may only be accepted for specific purposes.

Irrespective of the described methods for the individual deactivation of cookies, the storage of cookies can be controlled or generally prevented by appropriate browser settings. Cookies already stored on the hard disk can be deleted at any time. The corresponding procedure is browser-specific. Cookies may, however, be necessary for some processes or functions within DKG Online Media. However, this is not necessary for visiting the web pages, but some functions may be restricted.

Technologies from external suppliers

We use technologies from the following providers:

Google Inc. ( "Google"), 1600 Amphitheater Parkway, Mountain View, California, 94043, USA. The data collected using the cookies will be transferred and stored by Google for evaluation in the USA. Google respects the European data privacy regulations and transmits the data to third parties only under legal regulations or in the context of order processing. Google will not combine the collected data with other data collected by Google.

Google Analytics: The data collected using a cookie is used to analyze user behavior within the DKG website. The extension "anonymizeIp" is used so that the IP addresses transmitted to Google are anonymized before they are transferred to the US by removing the last three digits. The data collected in DKG Online Media are not linked to other data by Google.

The service can be disabled at the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en

In compliance with the applicable legal data protection regulations, only anonymous data is stored in the cookies used for marketing purposes. The cookies will be deleted automatically, at the latest after two years.

Data security

All form data collected and further processed within DKG Online Media are encrypted by the Secure Socket Layer (SSL) method when transferring data from the computer of the user to a DKG Web server, provided that PII are to be transmitted. This applies without exception to all forms of registration and contact, for which personal information of the user is required. An encrypted data transmission can be recognized by the protocol prefix "https" of the URL as well as mostly by means of an identification by a symbol in the address line of the browser. The use of websites with encryption requires that the browser software on the computer, which is used for access to DKG Online Media, supports the encrypted data transmission. For information on this, please contact the manufacturer of the respective browser software.

Furthermore, the DKG servers are protected by the internet provider of the DKG, in particular by technical and organizational measures resulting from the annex to Art. 9 FDPA, so that unauthorized access to PII, their insight or manipulation can be excluded.

Processing and use of pseudonymized or anonymous data

To optimize DKG Online Media, DKG uses web analytics tools. These are partly operated by DKG itself and partly provided by third parties. The collected user data are collected anonymously, so that a conclusion on the respective user is no longer directly possible. For example, the transferred IP addresses are anonymized before transmission by removing the last three digits. The separate processing and storage of anonymised usage data and pseudonymized log data are used to prevent direct conclusions on individually identifiable persons.

For logged in users, the internet pages accessed during an Internet session and the time of the respective call are stored in a pseudonymised form during the use of DKG Online Media, which also does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about the accessing person. The information collected is statistically evaluated in order to optimize the use of DKG Online Media for logged-in users, to expand and to improve the services and products of DKG itself.

Deletion of PII

The stock data of members stored by DKG shall be deleted no later than the end of the calendar year following the termination of the membership, provided that the cancellation does not conflict with the interests of the person concerned. In addition, inventory data may be stored until the expiry of the third calendar year after termination of the membership, provided that complaints and other reasons for the proper handling of the contractual relationship require this. Furthermore, the deletion of inventory and billing data may be omitted, as far as this is required by law or the pursuit of claims requires this.

PII that has been recorded for a purpose will be deleted immediately after the purpose of their registration has ceased, unless other purposes justify their further storage. Any other or remaining PII collected by DKG will be deleted no later than the end of the third calendar year after their registration, unless other legal regulations, i.e. due to fiscal reasons, stipulate longer retention periods and thus make their further provision necessary, or the provision in the course of the prosecution of claims, or if the deletion would be contrary to the interest of the person concerned.

Rights of persons affected by data collection

Affected parties have the following rights, in accordance with the FDPA:

• Information: When collecting PII, the person concerned must be informed of the identity of the Controller, the purpose of data collection, data processing and data use, and, where appropriate, data transmission to third parties.
• Notification: Insofar as, for the first time, PII is collected, stored or processed without knowledge of the person concerned, the person concerned shall be informed of the nature of the data and the purpose of the data collection.
• Information: The person concerned has the right to receive information from the responsible body about the data stored about him/her. This includes the purpose of data storage, the origin of the data, as well as, if applicable, the recipients to whom data is passed on.
• Correction: The data subject has the right to demand the reporting of incorrectly stored data.
• Deletion: The data subject has the right to require the Controller to delete data which is no longer required if the latter is no longer subject to a retention requirement or that a deletion does not affect the interests of the data subject which is protected.
• Blocking: If the Controller is storing PII where the purpose of retention is disputed or which are no longer required, but which could only be dispensed with at a disproportionate cost, the person concerned may, instead of deletion, demand a blocking of his data until the facts are clarified, or until the data have been finally deleted.
• Contradiction: The person concerned has the right to object to any processing or use of his PII for the purposes of marketing or advertising. Furthermore, the person concerned has the right to object to any processing or use of his PII if personal circumstances conflict with them.
• Revocation of consent: The data subject has the right to revoke any consent given by him to the processing or use of his PII, which are not necessary due to different legal requirements or to deal with a business relationship or for serving any other existing contractual relationship with the Controller.

Data protection officer

The Data Protection Officer of the German Ceramic Society is available for questions concerning data protection.

Postal address:

German Ceramic Society
Data protection officer (personal)
Bergerstraße 145a
51145 Köln, Germany

E-Mail: datenschutz@dkg.de

Further

Unless the DKG is not the responsible Controller for the respective Online Media, the Data Protection Officer as well as the valid data protection regulations and the public procedure directory for the respective website will be named separately.