Data Privacy Notice

Thank you for your interest in our university. The protection of your data is important to us. We therefore only process the data that you leave when you visit our website in accordance with the relevant data privacy laws, in particular the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Federal Data Protection Act (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz, BDSG). We would like to take this opportunity to inform you about the nature, scope and purpose of the processing of your personal data.

The website www.htw-berlin.de including all sub-pages is made available online by Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin, represented by the President, Treskowallee 8, 10318 Berlin (Imprint), unless such pages are otherwise operated by other legal entities (e.g. Studierendenwerk Berlin). The university is the controller within the meaning of Art. 5 II GDPR. The Data Protection Officer responsible for processing is:

Franziska Hofmann

Telefon: 5019-2950
E-Mail: datenschutz@htw-berlin.de

You can contact our Data Protection Officer directly at any time if you have any questions or suggestions regarding data protection.

The following Data Privacy Policy applies only with regard to this website and its sub-pages, but not with regard to any linked third-party websites, such as the linked social media pages on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram.

The subject matter of this data privacy is personal data, which means individual items of information about the personal or factual circumstances of an identified or identifiable natural person. In particular, this includes information that could enable conclusions to be drawn about your identity (e.g. information such as name, postal address, email address, IP address or telephone number).

Every time it is accessed, our website collects general information and data which is saved in server log files. This data includes for instance your IP address, your browser type and browser version, your operating system, the internet site from which you came to our website, the sub-sites which are called up via an accessing system on our website, the date and time our website is accessed, and your internet service provider.

We need the above-mentioned data to correctly provide the content of our website and ensure the ongoing functioning of our IT system and our website technology. The saved data is only evaluated for statistical purposes. No conclusions are drawn about your identity from the data, in particular the server log files are saved separately from your other personal data. It is not possible to create personal user profiles.

Data processing is carried out on the grounds of Art. 6 I lit. b) of the GDPR. In accordance with this regulation, the processing of data is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party or in order to take steps prior to entering into a contract. By using our website, you tacitly accept our offer to conclude a (free of charge) contract of use. Furthermore, the processing of your data is also lawful under Art. 6 I lit. f) of the GDPR, as we have a legitimate interest in processing your data and your interests, fundamental rights and freedoms are not overridden. Our interest consists in providing our website in the due form and protecting the functioning of our systems.

On our website you will find information about different ways to contact us (email, fax, telephone) as well as various contact forms which you can use to send us enquiries. These contact forms include, for example:

• Forms created with ZenForms
• Library acquisition proposal
• Rental of sports facilities
• Contact form for the "Project Management and Data Science" study programme
• Contact form for the Technical Support Department
• Service request to the IT Help Centre

If you make contact with us, the personal data you transmit will be automatically saved. Such personal data transmitted on a voluntary basis will be stored for the purposes of processing or making contact. This also applies to application data which you send to us at your own initiative or on request. This personal data will not be passed on to third parties. Contact information will only be used for processing the communication between us.

The legal ground for the processing of your data is Art. 6 I lit. b) of the GDPR if the processing serves the purpose of entering into a contract. Otherwise, your consent (Art. 6 I lit. a) of the GDPR) and our legitimate interest (Art. 6 I lit. f) of the GDPR) in the processing of your data constitute the legal ground. Our legitimate interest is that we would like to continue the communication initiated by you.

Cookies are used on our website. These are small text files that are stored on your terminal device. Some of the cookies we use are deleted after the end of the browser session, i.e. after you close your browser (session cookies). Other cookies remain on your terminal device and enable us to recognise your browser during your next visit (persistent cookies). The information contained in cookies is used, among other things, to facilitate navigation, to store session data or to support the collection of statistical data. You will be warned about the use of cookies on the introductory pages of each web (sub)domain of the HTW Berlin website and can decide on their use. You can restrict or exclude the use of cookies at any time via a link at the bottom of each web page. We divide cookies into technically necessary cookies and cookies for collecting and analysing statistical data.

Necessary cookies
The purpose of technically necessary cookies is to simplify the use of internet pages. Some functions of our website cannot be offered without the use of cookies. The use of technically necessary cookies cannot be deselected. We need cookies for the following applications:

• Information on the selected screen resolution
• Session cookie for access to protected areas of our website
• Status of cookie consent

The usage data collected through technically necessary cookies is not used to create user profiles.

Cookies for collecting and analysing statistical data
We also use cookies on our website to analyse surfing behaviour. The data collected in this way is anonymised by technical precautions. Therefore, it is no longer possible to assign the data to the retrieving user or to a specific IP address. The data is not stored together with other personal data of the users.

As an employee or student of our university, you will regularly receive current information from us concerning the university’s operations (e.g. official information circulars) by email to your university email address. This internal university communication is essential to ensure that the university is operated properly. In order to send you this information, we use the university email address that we have provided you with for processing purposes.

The legal ground for the processing of your data in order to send such information is Art. 6 I lit. b) of the GDPR, as the information sent serves to execute the contractual relationship between the university and the members of the university. In addition, this processing is also justified under Art. 6 I lit. f) of the GDPR, as we have a legitimate interest in providing university members with information that guarantees the proper operation of the university. Your rights do not contradict this, as it can be assumed that this information is in your own interests.

The central website of HTW Berlin uses the open source tool Matomo (www.matomo.org), a web analysis service provided by InnoCraft Ltd, 150 Willis St, 6011 Wellington, New Zealand. This analysis service is used in the storage and processing of all data on servers run by HTW Berlin. The analysis service is generally deactivated when you visit our website for the first time. Your usage behaviour will only be recorded anonymously if you give your active consent.

Scope and description of the processing of personal data
The following data is collected:

• two bytes of the IP address of the user’s accessing system (e.g. 192.168.xxx.xxx)
• the website accessed
• the website from which the user accessed the website
• the subpages that are accessed from the website being accessed
• the length of time spent on the website
• the frequency with which the website is accessed

Legal basis for the processing of personal data
The legal basis for the processing of usage data is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR or § 15 para. 3 TMG (German Telemedia Act).

Purpose of processing
We use Matomo to analyse the use of our website in order to continuously improve topics and services and to be able to evaluate the relevance of individual web pages.

Duration of storage
The data of the processing described here will be deleted from the Matomo server after a storage period of 90 days.

Possibility of objection
You can only prevent the collection and evaluation of data for your current browser session by adjusting your cookie settings at the bottom of each HTW Berlin web page, deleting your existing cookies or deactivating the storage of cookies in your web browser settings. We would like to point out that you will not be able to use all the functions of this website to their full extent if you deactivate cookies.

For the purposes of communication via the employer review platform kununu, HTW Berlin uses the technical platform and services of kununu GmbH, Neutorgasse 4-8, Top 3.02, 1010 Vienna, Austria. Information about which data is processed by kununu and for which purposes can be found in kununu ’s privacy policy: https://privacy.xing.com/en 

HTW Berlin may process data entered by you on kununu such as an employer review by responding. The data freely published and disseminated by you on kununu may be included by us in our offering or on our kununu company page and thus made accessible to other visitors to this page.

The data will be processed in accordance with Art. 6 I lit. F) of the GDPR. Our legitimate interest is to communicate with you and other users via kununu and to react to your review. You have the right to receive information about the stored data as well as the right for this data to be rectified, blocked or erased. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the responsible supervisory authority.

Our website uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service provided by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (“Google”). Google Analytics uses cookies (see above) to enable your use of this website to be analysed. The information generated by the cookie will be generally transmitted to and stored on a Google server in the United States. If IP anonymisation is activated on this website, your IP address will first be truncated within the area of the Member States of the European Union or other parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will your complete IP address be sent to a Google server in the USA and shortened there. On behalf of the operator of this website, Google will use this information for the purposes of evaluating your usage of the website, compiling a website activity report and providing further services relating to the website and internet usage to the website operator. The IP address that your browser transmits within the scope of Google Analytics will not be associated with any other data held by Google.

You can prevent cookies from being saved by activating the corresponding software settings for your browser; please note, however, that if you do this, you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. You can furthermore prevent the data relating to your usage of the website (including your IP address) that is generated by the cookie from being tracked and processed by Google by downloading and installing the browser plugin which is available under the following link. Download plugin. If this does not work, you can also opt-out from being tracked by Google Analytics by clicking on the following link. An opt-out cookie will then prevent the future collection of your data when you visit this website. Deactivate Google Analytics. We also use Google Analytics to analyse data from AdWords and the doubleclick cookie for statistical purposes. If you do not want this, you can deactive this function via the Ad Manager by clicking on the following link: Deactivate the use of data from AdWords and doubleclick cookies. Further information on the terms of use and data privacy can be found at www.google.com/analytics/terms/de.html and www.google.de/intl/de/policies/. Please note that on this website the Google Analytics code is supplemented by “anonymizeIp” in order to ensure anonymised collection of IP addresses (IP masking).

The legal ground for the processing of your data is Art. 6 I lit. f) of the GDPR, as such processing is necessary to safeguard the legitimate interests of our university and your interests, fundamental rights and freedoms are not overridden. Our legitimate interest lies obtaining more detailed information about how our website is specifically used. However, we only process your data for statistical purposes and generally only anonymously. In addition, your data is protected by the fact that that we contract Google to process your data on our behalf, which means Google is contractually obliged to process your data solely in accordance with the provisions of the GDPR.

This website uses Google Maps API, a map service of Google Inc. (address as above), to display an interactive map and calculate directions. By displaying our location on the website, we provide you with the facility to obtain different route plans via the services of Google Maps. By using Google Maps, this allows information about your use of this website (including your IP address) to be sent to a Google server in the USA and saved there. Google may pass on the information obtained through Maps if this is prescribed by law or if third parties process this data on behalf of Google. Google will not link your IP address with other data held by Google under any circumstances. However, it is nevertheless technically feasible that Google may be able to identify individual users based on the data it receives. You have the option to deactivate the Google Maps service and thereby to prevent the transfer of data Google by deactivating JavaScript in your browser. However, please be aware that if you do this, you will not be able to use the map display facility on our website.

The legal ground for the use of Google Maps is Art. 6 I lit. f) of the GDPR. Our legitimate interest in data processing consists in ensuring optimum accessibility to our university.

Our website regularly provides content from YouTube. YouTube is an internet video portal operated by YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., San Bruno, CA 94066, USA. YouTube, LLC is a subsidiary of Google Inc. (see above). Users can post videos on YouTube that can be viewed, rated or commented on by other users. When you visit one of our web pages containing YouTube content, your internet browser is automatically prompted by the YouTube component to download a representation of the YouTube component from YouTube, providing YouTube and Google with information about which specific pages of our website you have visited. This information is collected by YouTube and Google and, if you are logged into YouTube, is associated with your YouTube account. This process takes place regardless of whether you click on a YouTube video on our web pages or not. If you wish to prevent any transmission of such information to YouTube and Google, you must log out from your YouTube account before accessing our website. The data privacy policy of YouTube can be viewed at https://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy/.

The legal ground for the use of YouTube is Art. 6 I lit. f) of the GDPR. Our legitimate interest in data processing consists in being able to present videos to you on our web pages.

Our website regularly contains content from the Vimeo platform. Vimeo is operated by Vimeo, LLC, 555 West 18th Street, New York, New York 10011, USA. Users can post videos on Vimeo that can be viewed, rated or commented on by other users. When you visit one of our web pages containing Vimeo content, your internet browser is automatically prompted by the Vimeo component to download a representation of the Vimeo component from Vimeo, providing Vimeo with information about which specific pages of our website you have visited. This information is collected by Vimeo and, if you are logged into Vimeo, is associated with your Vimeo account. This process takes place regardless of whether you click on a Vimeo video on our web pages or not. You can prevent this linking of information by logging out from your Vimeo user account before using our website and deleting the corresponding cookies from Vimeo. Further information on data processing and information about data privacy from Vimeo can be found at https://vimeo.com/privacy.

The legal ground for the use of Vimeo is Art. 6 I lit. f) of the GDPR. Our legitimate interest in data processing consists in being able to present videos to you on our web pages.

The personal data of the data subject will be erased or rendered unavailable as soon as the purpose for which it is stored no longer applies. If data is collected for the purposes of providing the website, this is the case when the respective session is terminated. If the data is stored in log files, this is the case after seven days at the latest. With regard to personal data sent by email, this is the case when the respective communication with the user has ended. The communication ends when it can be ascertained from the circumstances that the matter in question has been conclusively dealt with. Data may also be stored if the European or national legislator if this is prescribed in EU regulations, laws or other legal provisions to which the controller is subject. The data shall also be rendered unavailable or erased if a storage period prescribed by the aforementioned standards expires, unless it is necessary to continue to store the date for the conclusion or performance of a contract.

Right of access and confirmation
On request, we will inform you free of charge whether and which of your personal data we have stored. We will also confirm on request whether certain data are processed. In addition, we will provide you with information on the purposes of the processing, the categories of data processed, the recipients or categories of recipients of the data and, if possible, the planned period for which the data will be stored or, if this is not possible, the criteria for determining this period, the existence of the right to rectify or erase the personal data relating to you or to restrict the processing by us or to object to the processing and/or the existence of a right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

If the personal data is not collected from the data subject, we will provide you with all available information about the origin of the data, the existence of any automated decision-making including profiling, the scope and the intended effects of such processing for the data subject. We will also provide you with information on whether your personal data has been transmitted to a third country or to an international organisation. If this is the case, we will provide you with information on appropriate safeguards adopted in connection with such transmission.

Right to rectification
You have the right to request the rectification or completion of any inaccurate personal data concerning you.

Right to erasure
You have the right to request that we erase your personal data immediately if one of the following legal grounds applies and if processing is not necessary:

• The personal data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed.
• You have withdrawn your consent on which the processing was based according to Art. 6 I lit. a) of the GDPR or Art. 9 II lit. a) of the GDPR and there are no other legal grounds for the processing.
• You object to the processing pursuant to Article 21 I of the GDPR and there are no overriding legitimate grounds for the processing, or you object to the processing pursuant to Article 21 II of the GDPR.
• The personal data have been unlawfully processed.
• The personal data have to be erased for compliance with a legal obligation.
• The personal data have been collected in relation to the offer of information society services referred to in Art. 8 I of the GDPR.

Right to restriction of processing
You can request restriction of processing from us if one of the following applies:

• The accuracy of the personal data is contested by you for a period enabling the controller to verify the accuracy of the personal data.
• The processing is unlawful, you oppose the erasure of the personal data and request the restriction of their use instead.
• We no longer need the personal data for the purposes of the processing, but they are required by you for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
• You have objected to processing pursuant to Art. 21 I of the GDPR pending the verification whether our legitimate grounds override yours.

Right to data portability
You have the right to receive personal data concerning you, which we process using automated procedures based on your consent (Art. 6 I lit. a) or Art. 9 II lit. a) of the GDPR) or on the basis of a contract (Art. 6 I lit. b) of the GDPR), in a structured, common and machine-readable format. You can transmit those data to another controller or have it transmitted by us, insofar as this is technically feasible and insofar as the rights and freedoms of other persons are not affected.

Right to object
You have the right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, at any time to processing of personal data concerning you which is based on Art. 6 I lit. e) or f) of the GDPR.

Upon receipt of your objection, we will no longer process the personal data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms or if the processing serves the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

You can object at any time to the processing your data for direct marketing purposes. In this case we will no longer process your personal data for these purposes. This includes profiling to the extent that it is related to such direct marketing.

Right to withdraw data consent under data protection law
You can withdraw your consent to the processing of personal data at any time without giving reasons.

You can exercise the rights to which you are entitled either directly or via our data protection officer using the contact options provided.

If the processing of personal data is due to a legal obligation to which we are subject, the processing is based on Art. 6 I lit. c) of the GDPR.

Without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority if you consider that the processing of personal data relating to you infringes data protection laws. The supervisory authority with which the complaint has been lodged shall inform you on the progress and the outcome of your complaint including the possibility of a judicial remedy.

Further information can be found on the website of the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information.

To protect your data against access by unauthorised persons, we use SSL encryption for our web pages. You can identify such encrypted connections from the prefix “https://” in the page link in the address bar of your browser. Unencrypted pages are identified by “http://”. Any data that you transmit to us cannot be read by third parties thanks to SSL encryption.

To protect your data against accidental or intentional manipulation, loss, destruction or against access by unauthorised persons, we use technical and organisational security measures in accordance with Art. 32 of the GDPR. Our security measures are being continuously improved in accordance with technological development. Access to this data is only possible for only a few authorised persons and persons subject to specific data protection who are involved in the technical, administrative or editorial management of data.

By using our website, you agree that the personal data voluntarily transmitted by you will be stored by us and processed in compliance with this privacy policy.

Further information on specific applications, e.g. e-mail, telephone and Zoom, can be found on a separate web page.

We reserve the right to modify, update or supplement this Data Privacy Policy at any time. Any revised Data Privacy Policy shall apply only to personal information collected or modified after the revised policy becomes effective.

Status: July 2022