Data protection policy

Last updated 1^st of September 2023.

Introduction

This page summarises data protection policy of SciMatter GmbH (doing business as SciMatter also addressed here as we, us, or our). Here, we describe how we might collect, store, use, and/or share (process) your information when you use our services, when you engage with us in any way, including sales, marketing, or other communication. This policy is also applied to this website scimatter.com, when you visit it and engage in any interaction with it. This page explains you your rights and choices. If you disagree with it, please don’t use our services. In case of further questions, please use the contact form.

Summary

Which personal information do we process? When you visit, us, or navigate our services, we may process personal information, depending on how you interact with our services, choices you make, or features you use.

Do we process any sensitive personal information? We do not process sensitive personal information.

Do we receive any information from third parties? We do not receive any information from third parties.

How do we process your information? We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our Services, communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law. We may also process your information for other purposes with your consent. We process your information only when we have a valid legal reason to do so.

In which situations and with which types of parties do we share personal information? We may share information in specific situations and with specific categories of third parties, if we have your explicit consent or it is required by the law.

How do you exercise your rights? You can reach out to us using our contact form. We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Which personal information do we collect?

We collect personal information that you provide to us

We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when you express an interest in obtaining information about us or our products and services, when you participate in activities on the services, or otherwise when you contact us. The personal information that we collect depends on the context of your interactions with us and the Services, the choices you make, and the products and features you use. The personal information we collect may include names, email addresses, billing addresses, mailing addresses, phone numbers. We do not process sensitive information. All personal information that you provide to us must be true, complete, and accurate, and you must notify us of any changes to such personal information.

An example of this could be reaching out to us via contact form, the following communication, and administrative order processing.

We automatically collect depersonalised information

Some information, e.g. your IP-address and/or browser and device characteristics, is collected automatically when you visit our services.

We automatically collect certain information when you visit, use, or navigate the Services. This information does not reveal your specific identity (like your name or contact information) but may include device and usage information, such as your IP-address, browser and device characteristics, operating system, language preferences, referring URLs, device name, country, location, information about how and when you use our services, and other technical information. This information is primarily needed to maintain the security and operation of our Services, and for our internal analytics and reporting purposes.

Like many businesses, we also collect information through cookies and similar technologies. You can find out more about this in cookie banner. This information includes log and usage data. This is service-related, diagnostic, usage, and performance information our servers automatically collect when you access or use our services and which we record in log files. Depending on how you interact with us, this log data may include your IP address, device information, browser type, and settings and information about your activity in the Services (such as the date/time stamps associated with your usage, pages and files viewed, searches, and other actions you take such as which features you use), device event information (such as system activity, error reports (sometimes called ‘crash dumps’), and hardware settings). We collect location data such as information about your device’s location, which can be either precise or imprecise. How much information we collect depends on the type and settings of the device you use to access the services. For example, we may use technologies to collect geolocation data that tells us your current location (based on your IP address). You can opt out of allowing us to collect this information either by refusing access to the information or by disabling your location setting on your device. However, if you choose to opt out, you may not be able to use certain aspects of the services.

Automatically collected information is required for providing certain security features protecting our website from malicious actions, e.g. DDoS-attacks. Alternatively, it can simplify your website experience, e.g. saving your language selection.

How do we process your information?

We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our services, communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law. We may also process your information for other purposes with your consent.

This can include:

• To deliver and facilitate delivery of services to the user. We may process your information to provide you with the requested service.
• To respond to user inquiries/offer support to users. We may process your information to respond to your inquiries and solve any potential issues you might have with the requested service.
• To fulfil and manage your orders. We may process your information to fulfil and manage your orders, payments, returns, and exchanges made through the Services.
• To save or protect an individual’s vital interest. We may process your information when necessary to save or protect an individual’s vital interest, such as to prevent harm.

Which legal basis do we rely on to process your information?

We only process your personal information when we believe it is necessary and we have a valid legal reason to do so under applicable law, like with your consent, to comply with laws, to provide you with services to enter into or fulfil our contractual obligations, to protect your rights, or to fulfil our legitimate business interests.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and UK GDPR require us to explain the valid legal bases we rely on in order to process your personal information. As such, we may rely on the following legal bases to process your personal information:

• We may process your information if you have given us permission (i.e. consent) to use your personal information for a specific purpose. You can withdraw your consent at any time.
• Performance of a Contract. We may process your personal information when we believe it is necessary to fulfil our contractual obligations to you, including providing our Services or at your request prior to entering into a contract with you.
• Legal Obligations. We may process your information where we believe it is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations, such as to cooperate with a law enforcement body or regulatory agency, exercise or defend our legal rights, or disclose your information as evidence in litigation in which we are involved.
• Vital Interests. We may process your information where we believe it is necessary to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of a third party, such as situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person.

When do we share your personal information?

We may share your data with third-party vendors, service providers, contractors, or agents (‘third parties’) who perform services for us or on our behalf and require access to such information to do that work. We have contracts in place with our third parties, which are designed to help safeguard your personal information. This means that they cannot do anything with your personal information unless we have instructed them to do it. They will also not share your personal information with any organisation apart from us. They also commit to protect the data they hold on our behalf and to retain it for the period we instruct. To this category belong data analysis services that we use to analyse depersonalised user information.

We also may need to share your personal information in case of business transfers. This happens in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company.

Do we use cookies and similar tracking technologies?

We may use cookies and similar tracking technologies (like web beacons and pixels) to access or store information. Specific information about how we use such technologies and how you can refuse certain cookies is set out in our cookie banner.

How long do we store your information?

We keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this privacy notice unless otherwise required by law.

We will only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy notice, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as tax, accounting, or other legal requirements). No purpose in this notice will require us keeping your personal information for longer than 6 months. When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymise such information, or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

How do we keep your information safe?

We aim to protect your personal information through a system of organisational and technical security measures.

We have implemented appropriate and reasonable technical and organisational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. However, despite our safeguards and efforts to secure your information, no electronic transmission over the Internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorised third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, transmission of personal information to and from our services is at your own risk. You should only access the services within a secure environment.

Do we collect information from minors?

We do not knowingly solicit data from or market to children under 18 years of age. By using the services, you represent that you are at least 18 or that you are the parent or guardian of such a minor and consent to such minor dependent’s use of the services. If we learn that personal information from users less than 18 years of age has been collected, we will deactivate the account and take reasonable measures to promptly delete such data from our records. If you become aware of any data we may have collected from children under age 18, please contact us using the respective form.

What are your privacy rights?

Your privacy rights depend on the region that you are located in. These may include the right to request access and obtain a copy of your personal information, to request rectification or erasure; to restrict the processing of your personal information; and if applicable, to data portability. In certain circumstances, you may also have the right to object to the processing of your personal information. Since we are located in Germany, we follow the local data protection regulations. Please inform us,if you are subject to other regulations and we will act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws. If we are relying on your consent to process your personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by reaching out to us using the contact form. P lease note that this will not affect the lawfulness of the processing before its withdrawal nor, will it affect the processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent. Most Web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove cookies and to reject cookies. If you choose to remove cookies or reject cookies, this could affect certain features or services of our services. Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems and mobile applications include a Do-Not-Track (‘DNT’) feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. At this stage no uniform technology standard for recognising and implementing DNT signals has been finalised. As such, we do not currently respond to DNT browser signals or any other mechanism that automatically communicates your choice not to be tracked online. If a standard for online tracking is adopted that we must follow in the future, we will inform you about that practice in a revised version of this privacy notice.

Do we update this notice?

We may update this privacy notice from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated ‘Revised’ date and the updated version will be effective as soon as it is accessible. If we make material changes to this privacy notice, we may notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to review this privacy notice frequently in details to be informed of how we are protecting your information.

Based on the applicable laws of your country, you may have the right to request access to the personal information we collect from you, change that information, or delete it. To request to review, update, or delete your personal information, please visit: scimatter.com/contact.

If you have questions or comments about this notice, you may contact us via the contact form or by post at:

SciMatter GmbH

Schillerstr. 20

Teltow 14513

Germany

This privacy policy was created using Termly’s Privacy Policy Generator.