Privacy Policy for Participants, Speakers, Partners/ Sponsors/ Exhibitors, and Website Visitors of of ESE Kongress

Date: 01 January 2024

Privacy policy

For us, privacy comes first. With this privacy policy, we would like to inform you how we process your personal data when you use these websites for
ESE Kongress and the services offered there.

Content

Joint controllers and data protection officers

Vogel Communications Group GmbH & Co. KG (hereinafter: “Vogel“), Max-Planck-Str. 7-9, 97082 Würzburg, https://support.vogel.de, and MicroConsult Microelectronics Consulting & Training GmbH, Charles-de-Gaulle-Str. 6, 81737 Munich (hereinafter: “MicroConsult“), are the joint controllers with regard to personal data processing on these websites and the services offered therein in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”).

For questions or comments on the topic of data protection, please contact Vogel’s privacy officer (address see above, e-mail: datenschutz@vogel.de), or MicroConsult’s privacy officer. (address see above, e-mail: datenschutz@microconsult.de).

Purposes and legal basis for the processing of personal data

As part of our range of services we process your personal data in order to be able to offer customer-oriented services. Wherever possible, we give you the opportunity to decide for yourself, which data you would like to share with us. We process your data for the purposes mentioned below on the legal basis provided for each case.

As we require your consent for certain processing purposes, we will expressly ask for it when necessary. In these cases, processing data will occur in accordance with Art. 6 sec. 1 lit. a GDPR. This applies in case we ask for your consent during the event in order to provide certain services. If you register for the free pre-conference, data processing shall be in the form of contact data transmission, based on your consent, to the sponsors and cooperation partners listed in the booking form. Information on further processing by our sponsors and cooperation partners is available in the respective declaration of consent in the booking form and in the privacy policy of the respective sponsor or cooperation partner.

You can revoke your respective consent at will. See section Your rights for further information.

If a contract is concluded between you and us, we will process your data for the purpose of fulfilling this contract on the basis of Art. 6 sec. 1 lit. b GDPR. In particular, this is necessary for the following purposes:

Registration to ESE Kongress and booking of corresponding event tickets. In this case, we process your personal data to support the participants of the ESE Kongress in planning, registration, participation and follow-up to the event, and to provide them with all necessary and useful information.
Transferring your data to sponsors and partners when using free services on the basis of the business practice you have consented to in the GTC.
Processing and billing of your paid event registration.

In cases other than those mentioned above, the basis for processing is the protection of our legitimate interests according to art. 6 sec. 1 lit. f GDPR, in particular offering customer-oriented services and advertising identical and similar products from our product portfolio. In these cases, processing occurs for the following purposes:

Adequate design of our offers.
Contacting for event advertising.
Advertising via e-mail to promote similar products or services, granted your e-mail address was provided in the course of the sale of a product or service (cf. art. 7 sec. 3 of the German Act against Unfair Competition (UWG)).
Ensuring the security of our own IT systems, the optimization, and the functionality of our websites by saving technical usage data in log files

Generally, you have a corresponding right to object if the processing takes place on the basis of our legitimate interests for advertising purposes (see Your rights section below). There is no right to object in the case of the collection of technical usage data for the display of our websites and the storage of this data in log files for the purposes listed in this section.

Some data needs to be collected and processed by us due to mandatory legal regulations. The basis for this case is art. 6 sec. 1 lit. c GDPR. This is the case, if, for example, we are obligated to transfer data, e.g. to law enforcement on the basis of a legal obligation or if we have to store data for a certain period of time on the basis of legal regulations such as commercial or tax regulations.

What personal data is processed?

We process the data that we need for the purposes stated in this privacy policy.

If you want to book event tickets on our websites, we request and process the following data:

E-mail
Salutation
Title (optional)
First and last name
Company/institution
Department
Sales tax ID no. (optional, except for the reverse-charge process)
Job function
Phone number (for questions regarding your booking)
Street
ZIP code/town/country
Order number (optional)
User name (your choice)
Password (you choose your password in accordance with password regulations)

Our technology partner is in charge of the booking process and its handling (see section customer management and booking process via Converia).

Some data is also transmitted automatically (mainly technical usage data). Your computer automatically shares information with us, such as IP address, browser type, or access times for your use of our websites. This data is vital for us to optimally present our offers in accordance with your hardware.

Storage duration of your personal data

We store your data as long as required in order to provide our services, meet contract obligations, or if we have a legitimate interest in longer storage.

If processing is based on your consent or on one of our legitimate interests, the data concerned will no longer be processed for the associated purpose after your revocation or objection has been received and will be deleted if necessary, excluding legal grounds for data storage. Regardless, data stored on the basis of commercial or tax law will only be deleted after the statutory periods have expired.

With the regular limitation period being three years, the duration of storage also depends on statutory limitation periods, which can be up to thirty years, for example according to §§ 195 ff. of the German Civil Code (BGB).

Under certain circumstances, your data must also be stored longer, e.g. if, in case of official or legal procedures, data deletion is prohibited for the duration of the procedure.

Information on the storage period of the cookies we use can be found in the cookie policy.

Recipients of data

Joint responsibility of Vogel and MicroConsult

Vogel and MicroConsult (for addresses and contact details see section joint controllers and data protection officers) are jointly responsible for processing data and using data for the purposes detailed in section purposes and legal basis. For processing and executing the ESE Kongress, MicroConsult engages in data processing, whereas Vogel processes data for purposes of advertisement, sponsoring, and communication.

Vogel and MicroConsult are additionally bound by a separate data protection arrangement on joint responsibility (art. 26, GDPR), and are limited in the processing of your personal data to the purposes stated in this privacy policy. You can assert your rights listed in section your rights with both controllers using the contact means provided in section joint controllers and data protection officers, additionally, for Vogel, you can do so via https://support.vogel.de, and for MicroConsult via datenschutz@microconsult.de.

Order processing

We sometimes hire service providers to help us process personal data on our behalf. We have bound these service providers to us by an order processing contract in such a way that they may only process the data for our business purposes and on our instructions. These service providers primarily include technical service providers (including affiliated companies) for the maintenance, hosting, and support of our IT infrastructure including these websites.

We use the software-as-a-service solution Converia of our technology partner Converia GmbH (see section customer management and booking process via Converia) for processing customer data, booking processing, online payment, and processing connected therewith.

Transfer of your data to third parties

Your personal data is only transferred to third parties when the transfer is necessary for fulfilling the contract, billing, or collection of payments (e.g. shipping companies or payment service providers), or given your express consent. Furthermore, we are entitled to transfer personal data for the purpose of debt collection.

Transfer of data to third countries

Generally, we do not transfer your data to other countries or third countries (countries that are neither members of the European Union nor of the European Economic Area) or to international organizations. Exceptionally, data may be transferred to third countries if this is necessary to provide services to you, if it is required by law, or if we have your consent. Some of the service providers that process personal data on our behalf are located in third countries that do not offer the same level of protection for your personal data as in the EU, due to - amongst others - the lack of laws, lack of rights, or lack of supervision in said countries. Personal data is only transferred to said third countries outside of the EU if the European Commission has adopted a so-called adequacy decision in this regard (art. 45, sec. 3, GDPR) (see here ) or if safeguards in accordance with article 46 GDPR are in place, in particular standard data protection clauses issued by the European Commission in accordance with article 46, sec. 2, lit. c, GDPR (see here). You can obtain a copy of these upon request (e.g. by e-mail) - for contact details see section joint controllers and data protection officers above or at https://support.vogel.de.

Your Rights

Provided that the legal requirements are met, you as a data subject are entitled to the following rights in accordance with articles 12 to 21 GDPR.

Information:	You have the right to request information about your personal data stored and the scope of our data processing and transfer and to receive a copy of your stored personal data.
Rectification:	You have the right to request without delay the rectification of personal data concerning you and stored about you, if this data is incomplete or incorrect.
Erasure:	You have the right to demand the immediate erasure of your personal data stored by us if the legal requirements are met. This is particularly the case if your personal data are no longer needed for the purposes for which they were collected; the exclusive legal basis for data processing was consent which you since have revoked. you have objected to processing on the basis of legitimate interests (Art. 6 sec. 1 lit. f GDPR) for personal reasons and we are unable to prove that there are overriding legitimate reasons for processing; your personal data have been processed unlawfully; or your personal data must be erased in order to comply with laws. If we have passed on your data to third parties, we will inform them about the erasure, within the scope required by law. Please note the restrictions regarding your right of erasure. For example, we are not allowed to erase data that we are required to retain by law. Data that we need to assert, exercise, or defend legal claims are also excluded from your right of erasure.
Restriction of processing:	You have the right to request restriction of processing if one of the following conditions is met: You dispute the accuracy of the personal data and we need to verify the accuracy of the personal data. The processing is unlawful, you object to the erasure of personal data and instead demand the use of personal data be restricted. Whereas we no longer need your personal data for the purposes of processing, you need the data to assert, exercise, or defend legal claims. You have filed an objection to the processing and it is yet to be determined whether our legitimate reasons override yours. In the event of a restriction of processing, the data will be blocked centrally and - apart from your own copies - processed only with your consent or for the purpose of asserting, exercising, or defending legal claims or protecting the rights of another natural or legal person or for reasons of important public interest of the EU or an EU Member State.
Data transferability:	If we automatically process the personal data you have provided to us on the basis of your consent or a contract with you (including your employment contract), you have the right to receive the data in a structured, common, and machine-readable format and to transfer this data to another controller without our interference. You also have the right to request direct transfer of personal data to another controller, given technical feasibility.
Objection:	If we process your personal data for legitimate interests or in the public interest, you have the right to object to the processing of your data for personal reasons. Furthermore, you have an unlimited objection right if we process your data for our direct advertising. Please see our separate note in the section "Your right of objection" below.
Revocation of consent:	If you have given your consent to the processing of your personal data, you can revoke this consent at any time. Please note that the revocation is only effective for the future. Processing prior to the revocation is not affected. Specific information on how you may revoke your consent can be found in our online offers when your consent is specifically requested.
Complaints:	Additionally, you have the right of lodging a complaint with a supervisory authority in accordance with Art. 77 GDPR, § 19 Bundesdatenschutzgesetz (BDSG), if you believe that your personal data is being processed unlawfully. The right of complaint is independent of any other administrative or judicial remedy.

Your right to object

Based on your personal situation, you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data which is carried out on the basis of article 6, sec. 1, lit. f, GDPR at any time, including profiling based on these provisions.

We will no longer process your personal data unless we can provide compelling reasons worthy of protection for processing which outweigh your interests, rights, and freedoms, or the processing serves to assert, exercise, or defend legal claims.

If your personal data are processed for the purpose of direct advertising, you have the right to object at any time to the processing of your personal data for the purpose of said marketing, including profiling related to said direct advertising.

If you object to processing for direct advertising purposes, your personal data will no longer be processed for these purposes.

You may exercise your right to object in connection with the use of information society services by means of automated procedures involving technical specifications, regardless of directive 2002/58/EC.

To exercise your rights, you can contact the controller. The contact details can be found in section joint controllers and data protection officers or by using the contact form https://support.vogel.de.

Can the processing of personal data or this privacy policy change?

We constantly monitor the handling of personal data based on privacy regulations and make adjustments if necessary. Please take regular note of our privacy policy which presents the current status of our handling of personal data. Any changes will be announced here as well as in your user account. In the case of contractual changes, which affect e.g. the processing of your data for the fulfillment of the contract and the personalization of our offer, we will additionally inform you separately via e-mail.

Cookie policy

"Cookies" are files stored on your computer when you visit this website and which your browser "remembers". A cookie file is saved in your web browser and allows the website or a third party provider to identify you and to better tailor the website to you on your next visit. Cookies allow us to better and more efficiently provide our services to you and to offer vital features of our websites in the first place.

How are cookies used?

When you access and use our websites, a number of cookie files are saved in your web browser which are essential to the operation and presentation of our websites. These cookies are absolutely technically necessary, e.g. session cookies or cookies that store certain settings for your device (e.g. language, resolution, volume, page transitions). Participant sign-up service is an example of a service that cannot be offered without said cookies.

We use the following technically required cookies on our websites:

Converia_SID: This cookie identifies a front end user.

For information on cookies that are not technically required, e.g. for tracking or remarketing purposes specifically via third-party providers, and on your respective setting options regarding the use of cookies, please refer to our cookie management tool.

What is the legal basis for the use of cookies and which options do you have regarding cookies?

The legal basis for the use of technically required cookies is art. 6, sec. 1, lit. f, GDPR (our legitimate interest in providing technically sound websites).

When you visit our websites, you can actively consent to the use of cookies that are not essential to the operation of our websites (usually all cookies by third-party providers) through the cookie management tool displayed. No cookies that are essential for the operation of our website will be set before you have given your consent. You can revoke your consent to the use of cookies and the related processing at any time through the cookie management tool.

Legal basis for consent-based processing based on cookies is § 25 para. 1 p. 1 TTDSG, art. 6, sec. 1, lit. a GDPR.

In order to delete cookies yourself or to set up your web browser to delete or prevent cookies, access the help section of your web browser and choose the appropriate settings. Deleting cookies via browser settings can also be set to take place automatically. The ability to use the full scope of features of our websites might be impaired if cookies for our websites are deactivated.

Other special processing

Contacting via phone or e-mail

You can contact us via the phone numbers and e-mail addresses provided on our websites. In this case, your personal data transmitted via phone or e-mail is saved.

We only use your data to process your request and can use the provided contact data to contact you for this purpose. Such data are not used for advertisement purposes and are not transferred to third parties.

The legal basis for the processing of data collected via phone or any e-mail received from you is art. 6, sec,. 1 lit. f, GDPR. In case the purpose of the contact is to enter into a contract, the additional legal basis for processing is art. 6 sec.1 p. 1 lit. b, GDPR.

Processing personal data is solely used for processing the contact. For contacts via e-mail or phone, this also constitutes the required justified interest for data processing.

Data will be deleted as soon as the reason for their collection no longer exists. For personal data within the scope of our contact options, this applies when the respective conversation with the user has ended. The conversation is over when it can be told that the issue at hand has been resolved.

Right of revocation

When contacting us via the contact form or via e-mail, you can revoke your consent to the storing of your personal data at any point. The conversation cannot be continued in this case. In order to object to the use of your data, please use the central contact form https://support.vogel.de

Any personal data collected during the contact will be deleted in this case.

E-mail newsletter and success measurement

When signing up to ESE Kongress and booking event tickets via our websites, you automatically receive information regarding potentially interesting similar or equal products in our product portfolio via e-mail (hereinafter “newsletter”) sent to the e-mail address you provide during the order process. When collecting your e-mail address, meaning during the order process, we explicitly state the use of your e-mail address for advertising purposes and your resulting right of revocation. Data shall not be transferred to third parties in connection to data processing. Data shall exclusively be used for sending newsletters and for advertising similar or equal products therein.

Legal basis for sending newsletters is § 7 sec. 3, Act against Unfair Competition, in connection with art. 13 sec. 2, Directive on privacy and electronic communications.

Your e-mail address is collected in order to send the newsletter. Data will be deleted as soon as the reason for their collection no longer exists or if you exercise your right of revocation. Your e-mail address is thus saved for the duration of the customer relationship.

Right of revocation

You can revoke your consent to receiving newsletters at any point via e-mail without incurring any additional costs. For this, every newsletter contains a corresponding link which can be used to un-subscribe. Alternatively, you can cancel your subscription using our contact form https://support.vogel.de.

In our newsletters, performance is measured by evaluating the access rate and the click through rate. We use this to determine the level of interest in certain topics and to measure the effectiveness of our communication measures. Herein lies our legitimate interest in performance measurement in accordance with art. 6, sec. 1, lit. f, GDPR.

Right to object with regard to performance measurement

When exercising your right to revoke consent granted in order to receive newsletters (see above), you can also object to the processing of your data for the purpose of performance measurement.

Customer management and booking process via Converia

We use the software-as-a-service solution and conference management software Converia (hereinafter: “Converia”) provided by our technology partner Converia GmbH, Kaufstr. 2-4, 99426 Weimar/Germany, for general customer management, and processing of event ticket booking incl. online payment concerning ESE Kongress. Converia is implemented to process contracts with customers who book event tickets to ESE Kongress, and to manage corresponding customer data . For this, Converia processes the required personal data last name, first name, invoice/ shipping address (private or business), and e-mail address, as well as any other personal data you provide during the order process (see section which personal data is being processed?) as our processor.

The payment methods we offer, particularly those using external payment providers, are technically implemented into the payment process on our websites and connected to the relevant processes via the platform of Converia. For connected online payment systems via external payment providers, a connection to the online payment system of the respectively chosen payment provider is automatically established upon your order which you yourself will then use to authorize the payment process, providing your personal login data for this provider if necessary. In this case, data processing exclusively occurs for the purpose of payment processing, whereas the payment information needs to be regularly forwarded by the payment provider to the bank indicated by you in order to trigger and authorize the payment process.

Processing by Converia is required for the performance of the contract with you regarding participation in ESE Kongress. The legal basis is art. 6, sec. 1, lit. b, GDPR.

For further info, see Converia’s privacy policy.

Digital Pre-conference via “Zoom”

We use the tool “Zoom” to hold the Pre-conference of ESE Kongress digitally (hereinafter: “Online Pre-conference”). “Zoom” is a service provided by Zoom Video Communications, Inc., located in the USA.

We are responsible party for processing data directly connected to the Online Pre-conference.

If you access the “Zoom” website, the provider of “Zoom” is responsible for data processing. However, accessing the website in order to use “Zoom” is only necessary to download the software required to use “Zoom”. You can also use “Zoom” by entering the respective meeting ID and potential additional access data for the Online Preconference directly in the “Zoom” app.

In case you do not wish to use the “Zoom” app, all basic functions are available using a browser version which can also be found at the “Zoom” website.

Different types of data are being processed when using “Zoom”. The range of data depends on your personal data preferences specified prior to or during your participation in the Online Pre-conference.

The following personal data are subject to processing:

User information: First name, last name, telephone (optional), email address, password (if “Single-Sign-On” is not being used), profile picture (optional), department (optional)

Meeting meta data: Topic, description (optional), participants’ IP addresses, device / hardware information

For recorded sessions (optional): MP4 file of all video, audio, and presentation recordings, M4A file of all audio recordings, text file of the online meeting chat.

Joining via telephone: Information regarding Inbound and outbound phone number, country name, start and end time. Further connection data such as the device’s IP address can be saved where necessary.

Text, audio, and video data: You may have the option to use the chat, question, and survey features during the Online Pre-conference. In this case, your messages will be processed in order to display them in the Online Pre-conference and to log them if necessary. In order to allow video or audio to be played, the respective data of your device’s microphone and video camera will be processed for the duration of participation in the Online Pre-conference. Using the “Zoom” app, you can personally turn off or mute the camera or the microphone at any point.

In order to participate in the Online Pre-conference or to enter the “meeting room”, you need to at least provide information regarding your name.

Range of processing: We use “Zoom” to run the Online Pre-conference. To ensure transparency, we will inform you ahead of time if we wish to record the Online Pre-conference and will ask for your consent if needed. Additionally, the “Zoom” app will inform you of any recording taking place.

We will log chat files in case they are vital to protocol the outcomes of the Online Pre-conference. Usually, however, this will not be the case.

For web-based seminars, we can also process the questions asked by seminar participants for recording and post-processing purposes.

For registered “Zoom” users, “online meeting” reports (meeting meta data, telephone data, questions and answers in web-based seminars, survey feature in web-based seminars) can be stored for up to one month at “Zoom”.

An automated individual decision-making according to Art. 22 GDPR is not used.

Legal basis of data processing:

The legal basis for data processing in connection with the Online Pre-conference is art. 6, sec. 1, lit. b GDPR because you have registered for the Online Pre-conference and entered into a contract for participation.

If no contractual relationship exists, the legal basis is art. 6 sec. 1 lit. f GDPR. Here too, we are focused on the effective conduct of the Online Pre-conference.

Recipient / transfer of data: Personal data processed in connection with participation in the Online Pre-conference will strictly not be shared with third parties, unless they are explicitly intended to be shared. Please note that contents from "online meetings" - as is the case with personal meetings - are often used to share information with customers, interested parties, or third parties and are therefore intended to be shared.

Other recipients: The provider of "Zoom" necessarily obtains knowledge of the above-mentioned data, within the scope of our data processing agreement with "Zoom".

Data processing outside of the European Union: “Zoom” is a service offered by a provider from the USA. Thus, personal data is also processed in a third country. We have formed a data processing contract with the provider of "Zoom" which meets the requirements of art. 28 GDPR and is based on the standard EU contract clauses.