Privacy Policy

Introduction

We, the company Founders Foundation gGmbH, the operators of the online offering Hinterland of Things, are the responsible authority for the processing of personal data of the users of this online offering. Please find our contact details in the legal notice of the online offering. The contact details for queries relating to the processing of personal data are provided in this privacy policy.

We take your privacy and private data very seriously in that we shall collect, store and utilise your personal data only in accordance with the content of this privacy policy as well as the applicable data protection regulations, these being, in particular, the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and federal data protection regulations.

This privacy policy serves to inform you of the extent and purpose of processing of personal data in
connection with your use of our online features.

Personal data

Personal data means information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. This category includes all information on your identity such as your name, your email address or your postal address. Information which cannot be linked to your identity (such as statistical details regarding the number of users of an online offering), does not count as personal information.

You are categorically able to use our online offering without revealing your identity and without disclosing any personal data. In this case, only general information about the visit to our website will be gathered. For some of the services we offer, however, personal data will be collected. This data will generally only be used by us for the purpose of use of this online offering, in particular, for the provision of the necessary information. When personal data is collected, it is only necessary for you to provide data which has to be disclosed on a compulsory basis. Apart from that, further particulars may be provided, whereby the provision of this information is voluntary. We shall always inform you whether the fields are compulsory or voluntary. More precise details can be found in the relevant section of this privacy policy.

No automated decision-making takes place on the basis of your personal data in connection with your use of our online offering.

Processing of personal information

We shall store your particulars on stringently protected servers within the European Union. Technical and organisational measures ensure that your data is protected against loss, destruction, access, modification or distribution by unauthorised persons. Your data will only be available to a small number of authorised persons who are responsible for the technical, commercial or editorial maintenance of the server. Despite regular monitoring, however, complete protection against all risks is not possible.

Your personal data will be transferred via the Internet in encrypted form. For the transmission of data, we use SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption.

Disclosure of personal data to third parties

We shall use your personal information exclusively for the purpose of providing you with the services you want. Whenever we use external operators in connection with the provision of services, their access to your data solely serves the purpose of providing these services. By way of technical and operational measures, we ensure compliance with the data protection requirements and demand this of our external partners.

Lead Generation at the Hinterland of Things Conference:
with registration at the conference the participant consents to provide personal information (first name, last name, company, email) to the partners at the exhibition for their own purposes. Consent is given by showing their badge. If lead generation is not desired, the participant has the option to waive it at entry of the conference.

Data sharing at the Hinterland of Things Hack:
With registration for the hack, the participant agrees that his/her personal data (first name, last name, company, e-mail) may be passed on to the challenger’s companies and sponsors for their purposes. If the data transfer is not desired, the participant has the opportunity to point this out at the start of the event.

Apart this, we shall not disclose this data to third parties without your explicit consent, especially not for marketing purposes. A transfer of your personal data takes place only when you have personally consented to the transfer of data or where legal requirements and/or official requirements or court orders allow it or oblige us to do this. This may take place, in particular, for the purpose of gathering information for law enforcement reasons, to prevent risks, or to assert intellectual property rights.

Legal basis for the data processing

Insofar as we require your consent to process your personal data, the legal basis for the data processing is point (a) of Art. 6(1) GDPR.

Insofar as our processing of your personal data is necessary for the performance of a contract or in connection with a contractually-related relationship with you, point (b) of Art. 6(1) GDPR is the legal basis for the data processing.

Insofar as we require your personal data for compliance with a legal obligation, point (c) of Art. 6(1) GDPR is the legal basis for the data processing. Further to this, point (f) of Art. 6(1) GDPR shall be taken into consideration when the processing of your personal data is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests or those of a third party, except where such interests are overridden by your personal interests or fundamental rights and freedoms o which require the protection of personal data.

Within the framework of this privacy policy, we always state the legal basis on which the processing of your personal data takes place.

Erasure of data and period of storage

We shall always erase or block your personal data as soon as the purpose of its storage is over.
However, the storage may continue beyond this stage if legal requirements to which we are subject dictate that this must occur, for example, due to statutory retention or documentation obligations. In such cases, we shall erase or block your personal data after the expiry of the relevant legal requirements.

Use of our online offering

Information about your computer

Every time you access our online offering, apart from your registration details, we shall collect the following information about your computer: the IP address of your computer, your browser’s request, and the time of this request. We collect the status and data volume transferred in connection with this request as well as product information concerning the browser used and the operating system of the computer. Furthermore, we gather information on the referrer website from where access to our website took place. In this respect, your computer’s IP address will only be stored for as long as you use our online offering, and is thereafter erased or anonymised through abbreviation. All other data will only be stored for a limited period of time.

We shall use this data in order to operate our website, especially in order to detect and rectify errors, to establish the capacity of our online offerings, and for adjustments and improvements. For these reasons, we have a legitimate interest in the data processing according to point (f) of Art. 6(1) GDPR.

Use of cookies

As with many websites, our online offering uses cookies. Cookies are small text files which are stored your computer, and which save certain settings and data via your browser to facilitate the transfer of our online offering. As a rule, a cookie contains the name of the domain that the cookie file was transferred from as well as information on the age of the cookies and an alphanumeric identifier.

Cookies allow us to identify your personal computer and to make possible default settings available. They allow us to improve our online offering and provide you with a better, more customised service. They also consider our legitimate interest in the processing of data according to point (f) of Art. 6(1) GDPR.

The cookies we use are known as session cookies, which means that they are automatically erased at the end of a browser session. In isolated cases, cookies with a longer storage period may be used, so that your settings and preferences can be retained should you visit our website again.

Most browsers are set in such a way that they accept cookies automatically. You may, however, deactivate the storage of cookies or set your browser so that it informs you whenever cookies are sent. With your browser settings, you can also manually erase cookies which have already been stored. Please bear in mind, though, that by objecting to the storage of cookies or erasing necessary cookies, in certain circumstances you may not be able to use our online offering, or this may only be possible on a restricted basis.

Consent History

Change your consent selection

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics for the purpose of statistical analysis. Google Analytics is a web analysis service of Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94034, USA ("Google"). Google Analytics utilises "cookies", text files which are stored onto your computer and which allow for an analysis of your use of our website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of our website will generally be transferred to a Google server in the USA and stored there.

If, however, IP anonymisation is activated on this website, Google will abbreviate your IP address beforehand within the member states of the European Union or in other signatory states of the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transferred to a Google server in the USA and abbreviated there. Google will use this information on behalf of the operator of this website in order to analyse your usage of the website, to compile reports on website activity and to provide further services connected with Internet and use of the website vis-à-vis the website operator. The IP address which has been transferred from your browser in connection with Google Analytics will not be combined with other Google data. You can prevent the storage of cookies by accordingly changing the settings of your browser software, but we point out that this process may in some cases reduce your ability to use all features of this website to the full. You may furthermore prevent the transfer of data the cookie has generated in connection with your usage of the website (including your IP address) to Google as well as the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plugin available under the following link:
https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en

You can find further relevant information under https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en or under https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en (general information on Google Analytics und data protection). We would like to inform you that on our web pages, the code "anonymizeIp();" is added to Google Analytics in order to anonymise the IP addresses, whereby the last octet is erased.

We are of the view that on the basis of the approved security measures (anonymisation and right to withdraw consent), the data processing which takes place to optimise our online offering can be considered a legitimate interest in processing information pursuant to point (f) of Art. 6(1) GDPR.

Retargeting and remarketing

Retargeting or remarketing refers to technologies with which users who previously used a particular website can be shown related advertising after having left the website. To do this, it is necessary to be able to recognise Internet users beyond one’s own website, which is carried out by the relevant providers‘ cookies. Additionally, the previous patterns of use are taken into account. If, for example, a user views particular products, such products or similar items can later be shown to them in the form of advertising on other websites. This constitutes personalised advertising which is geared towards the requirements of individual users. To apply such personalised advertising, no identification of the user is necessary beyond their recognition. This means that the data we use for retargeting or remarketing purposes will not combined with any other data.

We also use such technology to post ads on the Internet. To do this, we use the services of third parties, including AdScale, OpenX, Yieldlap, Doubleclick (Google) and rtbLab, which enable the displaying of advertising which is customised to your interests. This function is implemented with the use of cookies. Further information on this technology can be found in the operators’ privacy policy regulations under [operators’ privacy policies]. The installation of the cookies for such purposes may be prevented by making the appropriate settings in the browser software according to the relevant operators’ opt-out features and by adjusting the settings in the relevant browser.

In this context, the placement of advertising constitutes our legitimate interest in processing data according to point (f) of Art. 6(1) GDPR.

Facebook Custom Audience

Our website includes remarketing tags from Facebook Inc., 1601 South California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA ("Facebook"). If you visit our online offer, the remarketing tags will establish a direct connection between your browser and the Facebook server. Facebook thus receives the information that you have visited our website by way of your IP address. In this way, Facebook can assign your visit to our website to your user account at Facebook, providing you are registered there. We are able to utilise the information gathered in this way for the placement of advertising via Facebook. We hereby take advantage of our legitimate interest in accordance with point (f) of Art. 6(1) GDPR. We would like to point out that Facebook does not provide us with any further details about the content, nor about its use by Facebook. Further information can however be found in Facebook’s privacy policy under www.facebook.com/about/privacy/.

If you do not wish to have your data gathered via Facebook’s remarketing tags, you can disable the implementation of Facebook Custom Audience at the following link:
www.facebook.com/ads/website_custom_audiences/.

Communicating with us

There are several ways of getting in touch with us, including the use of the contact form on our website, or when registering for our events, which is also possible with the use of our online offering.
Beyond this, we will be pleased to inform you regularly on various topics by emailing you our newsletter.

Contact form

Insofar as you wish to use the contact form on our website, for this purpose, we shall only collect the personal data that you provide in the contact form; in particular your name and email address. We shall also store the IP address, the date and the time of the request. We shall only process the data you have submitted in the contact form for the purpose of responding to your query or concern.

You are free to decide which information you wish to disclose to us on the contact form. The legal basis for the processing of your data is your personal consent pursuant to point (a) of Art. 6(1) GDPR.

After we have processed the matter, the data will initially be stored for any further enquiries. You have the right to request the erasure of the data at any time, otherwise, it will be erased after the matter has been fully resolved. The statutory retention periods shall in each case remain unaffected.

Registering for events

The service we use if you wish to register for our events is invitepeople. Before you register, you must register with invitepeople and then transfer your particulars directly to invitepeople, from whom we then receive the participants’ data. invitepeople will process your data under its own responsibility and according to its own data protection provisions. If you do not wish to register on the basis of the use of your data by invitepeople, you can also contact us directly.

By registering for an event, you automatically agree that photo and video recordings may be taken and published as part of any Hinterland of Things event. If this is not desired, the participant must actively contact the Hinterland of Things team (contact@hinterland-of-things.de).

Newsletter

When you register for our newsletter, your email address will be used for information purposes until you opt out. You will also receive regular information by email on our current project topics as well as emails announcing special events, such as new surveys and activities. These emails may sometimes be personalised and individualised, based on the information we have on your person.

In signing up for our newsletter, as long as you have not given us your written consent, we shall use the double opt-in procedure, which means we shall only email you our newsletter when you have explicitly confirmed that we may activate its delivery to you. We shall notify you by email and ask you to confirm that you wish to receive our newsletter by clicking on one of the links provided in the email.

If you do not generally wish us to send the newsletter, you may withdraw your previous consent at any time with effect for the future or object to the further receipt of the newsletter at no cost other than the transfer costs according to the basic tariff. Simply use the deregistration link included in all newsletters, or send a message either us or our data protection officer.

Social media

Our online offering includes links or plugins to the social networks of Facebook, Instagram, Vimeo, YouTube und Twitter. The links are recognisable by the corresponding operator logo.

When you click on the links, you open the corresponding social media websites. Our privacy policy does not apply here. To find out which conditions are valid in each particular case, please consult the relevant individual privacy policies under:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/policy.php

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/about/legal/privacy/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/privacy

YouTube: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en

Unless you access the relevant links or plugins, no transfer of personal data to these particular operators will take place. As soon as you click on a linked page, the data processing will take place according to the terms of the corresponding operator.

Use of YouTube

Our online features include video links which can be accessed via the Google-operated service YouTube ("YouTube"). The operator of this service is YouTube LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., San Bruno, CA 94066, USA, or Vimeo LLC, 555 West 18th Street, New York 10011, USA. When you access a web page on our website which includes a video, contact will be made with the operator’s servers. When this happens, this server is informed of the individual web pages on our website that you have visited. If the videos are linked, you will be directed to the operator’s pages where you can view the videos.

As soon as you log into your account with the corresponding operator, you allow the operator to assign your web surfing habits directly to your personal profile. You may prevent this by simply logging out of your account. Further information on the handling of user data can be found in Google’s privacy policy under https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en, which also applies to YouTube, as well as in the privacy policy of Vimeo under https://vimeo.com/privacy.

We use YouTube in order to be able to show you videos telling you more about ourselves and our projects. At the same time, we make use of our legitimate interest according to point (f) of Art. 6(1) GDPR.

Hotjar

Your rights and contact information

We go to great trouble to explain the processing of your personal data as transparently as possible and to inform you of your rights. If you want to find out more or exercise your legitimate rights, you may contact us at any time so that we can process your request.

Rights of the data subject

You have comprehensive rights relating to the processing of your personal data. Firstly, you have an extensive right to information, and may, where applicable, request that your personal data be rectified and/or erased or blocked. You also have a right to the restriction of the processing of your data and the right of objection. In terms of the personal data that you have disclosed to us, you also have a right to data portability.

If you wish to exercise one of your rights and/or to receive more information on the subject, please contact our staff using the contact form. Alternatively, you can contact our data protection officer.

Withdrawal of consent and objecting to processing

Where you have once given your consent, you are free to withdraw the latter at any time with effect for the future. The withdrawal of consent shall not affect the lawfulness of the processing based on consent before its withdrawal. The personal contacts for this are also our staff by way of the contact form and our data protection officer.

If the processing of your personal data is not based on your consent, but due to other legal reasons, you may object to this processing of your data. Your objection then results in an examination, and, if necessary, in the termination of processing. You have the right to be informed of the outcome of the examination, and, providing the processing of data nevertheless continues, will receive more precise information from us as to why the data processing is justifiable.

Data protection officer and contact

We have appointed an external data protection officer to support us in matters of data protection whom you are also able to contact directly. If you have any queries concerning our handling of personal data, or require further information on data protection themes, feel free to contact our data protection officer and his team under:

Dr. Sebastian Meyer, LL.M., lawyer
c/o BRANDI law firm
Adenauerplatz 1, 33602 Bielefeld
Phone: 0521 / 96535-812
Email: datenschutz@foundersfoundation.de

If you wish to get in touch with our data protection officer in person via email, he can also be
reached under sebastian.meyer@brandi.net.

Complaints

If you believe that our processing of personal data relating to you does not correspond with this privacy policy or the applicable data protection requirements, you may lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. You may complain to our data protection officer, who will examine the matter and inform you of the outcome of the examination.

Further information and updates

Links to other websites

Our online offering may include links to other websites. These links are usually identifiable as such. Because we have no influence on whether the linked websites observe the valid data protection regulations, we recommend you consult other websites for information on the corresponding privacy policies.

Updates to this privacy policy

You can establish when this privacy policy was last updated by consulting the date below. We reserve the right to change this privacy policy at any time with effect for the future. Alterations will take place particularly for reasons of technical adjustments to our online offering, or if there is a change in the data protection regulations. The corresponding update of the privacy policy can always be accessed on our website. We recommend you inform yourself regularly of any changes to this privacy policy.

Last update of this privacy policy: February 2023