Data Privacy Policy
(25 May 2018)

Thank you for visiting our website and for your interest in our company. The protection of your personal data is a matter of great importance to us. Below we inform you according to art. 12, 13 and 21 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) about the handling of your personal data when visiting our websites.

Personal data are individual details about personal or factual circumstances of a specific or identifiable natural person. This includes information such as the civil name, address, tele-phone number and date of birth.

I. Responsible Body

Responsible Body according to GDPR

British Chamber of Commerce in Germany e.V.
Ilka Hartmann
Friedrichstr. 140, 10117 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0)30 206 70 80
Fax: +49 (0)30 206 70 829
E-Mail: info@bccg.de

II. Purposes and Legal Basis of the Data Processing

1. Informational Use of the Website

You can visit our website without providing any personal information. If you use our website for informational purposes only, i.e. do not otherwise provide us with information about your-self, we do not collect any personal data, with the exception of the data that your browser transmits to enable you to visit the website.

a. Technical Provision of the Website

For the purpose of the technical provision of the website, it is necessary that we process cer-tain automatically transmitted information about you so that your browser can display our website and you can use the website. This information is automatically collected for each visit of our website and stored in our server log files. This information refers to the computer system of the requesting computer. The following information is collected thereby:
• IP-adresse
• Browser type / -version (e.g.: Firefox 59.0.2 (64 Bit));
• Browser language (e.g.: German);
• Operating system (e.g.: Windows 10);
• Internal resolution of the browser window;
• Screen resolution;
• Javascript activation;
• Java on / off;
• Cookies on / off;
• Color depth;
• Time of access.

Furthermore, we use cookies to make our website available to you for use. Cookies are text files that are stored in the internet browser or by the internet browser when you visit a website on your computer system. A cookie contains a characteristic string of characters that enables a unique identification of the browser when the website is called up again. We use these cookies exclusively to provide you with our website and its technical functions. Some functions of our website may not be offered without the use of cookies. The following infor-mation is stored in the cookies and transferred to us:
• Login Status

Your information, collected by us through the aforementioned cookies, will not be used by us to create user profiles or to evaluate your browsing behavior.
We process your personal data for the technical provision of our website on the following legal basis:
• for the fulfilment of a contract or for the implementation of pre-contractual measures pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 letter b GDPR, provided you visit our website to obtain infor-mation about our products and our events; and
• to protect our legitimate interests pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 letter f GDPR in order to make the website technically available to you. Our legitimate interest is to offer you an appealing, technically functioning and user-friendly website.

b. Social Links

The website includes links to services such as Twitter, Blogspot, LinkedIn, Xing, Facebook, and YouTube. After clicking on the link you will be redirected to the page of the respective provider, i.e. only then will user information be transferred to the respective provider. For in-formation on the handling of your data when using the websites of other providers, please refer to the respective data privacy policies by these providers.

2. Active Use of the Website

In addition to the merely informational use of our website, you can also actively use our web-site to contact us. In addition to the above-mentioned processing of your personal data for merely informational purposes, we will also process other personal data that we require from you to respond to your inquiry.

a. User Requests

In order to process and answer your inquiries to us, we process your personal data provided by you in this context. In any case, this includes your name and e-mail address in order to send you an answer, as well as the other information that you send us in the context of your message.
We process your personal data in order to respond to user inquiries on the following legal basis:
• to protect our legitimate interests pursuant to art. 6 para. 1 lit f GDPR; our legitimate interest is to answer customer inquiries appropriately .

b. Registration and Membership

You can register as a member both online and offline. For your registration we process the data you provide us. This includes in particular your name, company, address, contact details and data on your profession, industry for which you would like to be registered.
We process your data for the above purposes on the following legal basis:
• for the performance of a contract or for the implementation of pre-contractual measures pursuant to art. 6 para. 1 letter b GDPR, provided that you register for membership; and
• to safeguard our legitimate interests pursuant to art. 6 para. 1 letter f GDPR, in order to make the portal technically available to you. Our legitimate interest is to be able to provide you with an appealing, technically functioning and user-friendly portal.

c. Newsletter

With your consent we use your data for the transmission of our newsletter with current infor-mation and invitations to events.
We process your data for the dispatch of newsletters on the following legal basis:
• your consent pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 letter a) DSGVO.

III. Links

Some sections of our web pages contain links to the web pages of third parties. These web-sites are subject to their own data protection principles. We are not responsible for their op-eration including the data handling. If you send information to or about such third party sites, you should review the privacy statements of those sites before you submit any information that may assigned to you. 

IV. Categories of Recipients

Firstly, only our employees will be informed of your personal data. In addition, we share your personal data with other recipients who provide services to us in connection with our website, insofar as this is legally permitted or prescribed. We limit the transfer of your personal data to what is necessary, in particular to be able to complete your order. In some cases, our service providers receive your personal data as contract data processors and are then strictly bound by our instructions when handling your personal data. In some cases, the recipients act in-dependently with your data, which we transmit to them.
Below, we describe the categories of recipients of your personal data:
• IT service providers who administrate and host our website,
• Payment service providers.

V. Transfer into Third countries

We do not transfer your personal data to countries outside the EU or the EEA or to interna-tional organizations.

VI. Duration of Storage

1. Informational Use of the Website

When using our website for information purposes only, we store your personal data on our servers exclusively for the duration of your visit to our website. After you have left our web-site, your personal data will be deleted immediately.
Cookies installed by us are usually also deleted after two hours. You also have the option to delete installed cookies yourself at any time.

2. Active Use of the Website

If you actively use our website, we initially store your personal data for the duration of re-sponding to your inquiry or for the duration of our business relationship. This also includes the initiation of a contract (pre-contractual legal relationship) and the execution of a contract.
In addition, we will store your personal data until any legal claims arising from the relationship with you become time-barred, in order to use them as evidence if necessary. The limitation period is generally between 12 and 36 months, but can also be up to 30 years.
Upon expiry of the limitation period, we delete your personal data, unless there is a legal ob-ligation to store such data, for example from the German Commercial Code (sec. 238, 257 para. 4 HGB) or from the Tax Code (sec. 147 para. 3, 4 AO). These retention obligations can last from two to ten years.

VII. Your Rights as Data Subject

Under the legal provisions you are entitled to the following rights as data subject, which you can assert against us:
Right to information: You are entitled to request confirmation from us at any time within the scope of art. 15 GDPR as to whether we are processing personal data relating to you; If this is the case, you are also entitled under art. 15 GDPR to receive information about such personal data as well as other specific information (inter alia, processing purposes, categories of personal data, categories of recipients, planned storage period, the origin of the data, the use of automated decision-making and, in the case of transfers to third countries, the appropriate guarantees) and a copy of the data.
Right to correction: According to art. 16 GDPR, you are entitled to demand correction of the personal data stored about you if it is inaccurate or incorrect.
Right to deletion: You are entitled, under the conditions of art. 17 GDPR, to request from us the deletion of personal data relating to you without delay. Among other things, there is no right of deletion if the processing of personal data is necessary for (i) the exercise of the right to freedom of expression and information, (ii) the fulfilment of a legal obligation to which we are subject (e.g. statutory retention obligations) or (iii) the assertion, exercise or defence of legal claims.
Right to limitation of processing: Under the conditions of art. 18 GDPR you are entitled to request from us the limitation of the processing of your personal data.
Right to data transferability: You are entitled, under the conditions of art. 20 GDPR, to re-quest from us the provision to you of the personal data relating to you that you have submitted to us in a structured, current and machine-readable format.
Right of revocation: You have the right to revoke your consent to the processing of personal data at any time with effect for the future without incurring any costs other than the trans-mission costs according to the basic rates.
Right to objection: You are entitled to object to the processing of your personal data under the conditions of art. 21 GDPR, meaning that we have to terminate the processing of your personal data. The right of objection exists only within the limits provided for in art. 21 GDPR. In addition, our interests may prevent the processing from being terminated, so that we are entitled to process your personal data despite your objection.
Right of appeal to a supervisory authority: You are entitled to file a complaint with a su-pervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of your place of residence, work or sus-pected infringement, under the conditions laid down in Article 77 GDPR, if you believe that the processing of personal data concerning you infringes the GDPR.
However, we recommend that you always address a complaint to our data pro-tection officer first.
If possible, your applications for the execution of your rights should be addressed in writing to the above address or directly to our data protection officer.

VIII. Scope of your Obligations to provide Data

Generally, you are not obliged to provide us with your personal data. However, if you do not provide this information, we will not be able to make our website available to you, answer your questions and enter into a contract with you.

IX. Automated Decision Making/ Profiling

We do not use automated decision making or profiling (an automated analysis of your per-sonal circumstances).
 
Information about your right of objection art. 21 GDPR

You have the right to object at any time to the processing of your data on the basis of art. 6 para. 1 f GDPR (data processing on the basis of a balance of interests) or art. 6 para. 1 e GDPR (data pro-cessing in the public interest), if there are reasons for this arising from your particular situation. This also applies to profiling based on this provision within the meaning of art. 4 No. 4 GDPR.

If you object, we will no longer process your personal data, unless we can prove compelling and applicable reasons for the pro-cessing, which outweigh your interests, rights and freedoms, or the processing serves to assert, exercise or defend legal claims.

The objection can be made without formality and should be addressed to

British Chamber of Commerce in Germany e.V.
Ilka Hartmann
Friedrichstr. 140, 10117 Berlin
Tel.: +49 (0)30 206 70 80
Fax: +49 (0)30 206 70 829
E-Mail: info@bccg.de

X. Amendments

We reserve the right to change this privacy policy at any time. Any changes will be an-nounced by publishing the amended privacy policy on our website. Unless otherwise speci-fied, such amendments shall take immediate effect. Please check this privacy policy regularly to ensure you have the latest version.

Last updated in April 2020.