1. General Information

ēQATOR is committed to data privacy and we welcome the latest European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into force on 25 May 2018. This new legislation gives you greater security, transparency, and control of your personal data online. This privacy policy explains what kind of 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 email communication) may be subject to security breaches. Complete protection of your data from third-party access is not possible.

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Who has access to your personal data and to whom is it disclosed?

The data collected on this website are processed by the ēQATOR partner responsible for communication, Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum ("website operator", "we", "us", "our"), as stated in the legal notice. The personal data you enter in the ēQATOR contact form will be shared with further ēQATOR project partners only if your request/information needs to be processed by them and if you give us prior consent. You may revoke your consent at any time by using the ēQATOR contact form anew. The data processed before we receive your request may still be legally processed.

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How do we collect your data?

Some data is collected when you provide it to us by entering them in the ēQATOR contact form. Other data is collected automatically by our IT systems when you visit the website (statistics).

When visiting our website, statistical analysis may be made of your surfing behaviour: date, user IP address, user country and  document accessed. This happens primarily using cookies and analytics. The analysis of your surfing behaviour is anonymous, i.e. we will not be able to identify you from this data. In the framework of our progress reporting to the ēQATOR project partners and the European Commission, we only give general numbers of visitors per month. By using or accessing our server, users automatically agree to this. Users not in agreement with this are entitled to stop using this website. 

This site uses SSL or TLS encryption for security reasons and for the protection of the transmission of content, such as the data you enter in the ēQATOR contact form. You can recognise 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.

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What do we use your personal data for?

Part of the data is collected to ensure proper functioning of the website and enhance the user experience. Other data entered in the ēQATOR contact form are used to process the request/information you send us.

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What rights do you have regarding your personal data?

You have the right to be provided at any time with information free of charge about any of your personal data that is stored as well as its origin, the recipient and the purpose for which it has been processed. You also have the right to have this data corrected, blocked or deleted, as provided in Articles 17 to 24 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725. You may also revoke your consent to the processing of your data at any time with future effect. The data processed before we receive your request may still be legally processed. You can use the ēQATOR contact form at any time if you have such requests or further questions about the issue of privacy and data protection. If you would to have the personal data which we process delivered to yourself or to a third party, this will be done in a standard, machine-readable format to the extent technically feasible.

If there has been a breach of data protection legislation, the person affected may file a complaint with the respective regulatory authorities. The regulatory authority for matters related to data protection legislation is the data protection officer of the German state in which the website operator is headquartered. A list of data protection officers and their contact details can be found here.

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How long can personal data be kept?

Personal data will be kept only for the time needed to achieve the purpose to which it is processed. All data relating to the project will be stored for the duration of the project and its review. In the event of a formal appeal, all data held at the time of the appeal will be retained until the completion of the appeal process.

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Opposition to promotional emails

We hereby expressly prohibit the use of contact data published on this website (e.g. project partners' profiles, legal notice, privacy policy) with regard to sending promotional and informational materials not expressly requested. The website operator reserves the right to take specific legal action if unsolicited advertising material, such as email spam, is received.

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2. 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 remain in your device's memory until you delete them. 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 always reject them or 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 optimized service is provided free of technical errors. Cookies used to analyse your surfing behaviour are treated separately in section 3 Plugins and Tools.

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

These data will not be combined with data from other sources. The basis for data processing is Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR, which allows the processing of data to fulfil a contract for measures preliminary to a contract.

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Contact form

Should you send us requests or information via the ēQATOR contact form, we will collect the personal data entered in the form to process your request/information. If your request/information needs to be processed by ēQATOR project partners, we will ask for your consent before sharing the necessary data with them. You may revoke your consent at any time by using the ēQATOR contact form anew. The data processed before we receive your request may still be legally processed.

We will retain the data you provide in the ēQATOR contact form until you request its deletion, revoke your consent for its storage, or the purpose for its storage no longer pertains (e.g. after fulfilling your request). Any mandatory statutory provisions, especially those regarding mandatory data retention periods, remain unaffected by this provision.

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Newsletter

If you would like to receive our newsletter, we require that you enter a valid e-mail address in the newsletter section of ēQATOR's website.

No additional data is collected or is only collected on a voluntary basis. When you subscribe to the ēQATOR's newsletter your e-mail address is added to a database within Wix's newsletter tool; the data provided is only used to register you for the ēQATOR newsletter, hosted by Brevo. You can revoke consent to the storage and use of your personal data for sending the newsletter at any time, through the 'unsubscribe' link in the newsletter or by informing us of your decision through the ēQATOR contact form. The data processed before we receive your request may still be legally processed.

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3. Plugins and Tools

 

YouTube

Our website uses plugins from YouTube, which is operated by Google. The operator of the pages is YouTube LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., San Bruno, CA 94066, USA.

If you visit one of our pages featuring a YouTube plugin, a connection to the YouTuve servers is established. Here the YouTube server is informed about which of our pages you have visited.

If you're logged in to your YouTube account, YouTube allows you to associate your browsing behaviour directly with your personal profile. You can prevent this by logging out of your YouTube account. YouTube is used to help make our website appealing. This constitutes a justified interest pursuant to Art. 6(1) (f) GDPR.

Further information about handling user data can be found in the data declaration of YouTube under https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en&gl=en.

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Google Analytics

This website uses the web analytics tool Wix Analytics. Web analytics tools collect and analyse data concerning the behaviour of website visitors, such as which sub-pages of the website were accessed and how often and for how long a subpage was viewed. Web analytics is mainly used to optimise a website and make it more user-friendly.

The data collected by Wix Analytics will depend on, and be aligned with, your visitor's allowance of cookies. Traffic reports rely on Analytics cookies that were consented to by site visitors, either via clicking Accept on the banner, or by clicking Cookie Settings and then approving Analytics cookies specifically.

You can prevent the storage of cookies by adjusting your browser software accordingly. In this case you may not be able to use all functions of our website to their full extent.