The responsible party within the meaning of data protection laws, in particular the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is

QDA SOLUTIONS GmbH
Heiligen-Geist-Kamp 4a
23568 Lübeck
Germany

Telefon: +49 (0) 451 610 770
e-Mail: info@qda-solutions.com

Managing directors authorized to represent the company: Andreas F. Lüth, Dr. Jörg Kastrup
Registration Court Lübeck HRB 14367 HL
VAT registration number according to § 27a German VAT Act (UStG): DE 115.508.253

Responsible supervisory authority

Unabhängiges Landeszentrum für Datenschutz (ULD) Schleswig-Holstein
https://www.datenschutzzentrum.de/

Your rights as a data subject

You can exercise the following rights at any time by contacting our data protection officer:

  • requesting information about your data stored with us and their processing (Art. 15 GDPR),
  • correction of incorrect personal data (Art. 16 GDPR),
  • deletion of your data, which we have stored (Art. 17 GDPR),
  • restriction of data processing, provided that we are not yet allowed to delete your data due to legal obligations (Art. 18 GDPR),
  • objection to the processing of your data by us (Art. 21 GDPR) and
  • data portability, if you have consented to data processing or have concluded a contract with us (Art. 20 GDPR).

If you have given us your consent, you can revoke it at any time with effect for the future.

You may submit a complaint to a supervisory authority at any time, e.g. the relevant supervisory authority of the federal state of your place of residence or the authority responsible for us as the responsible body.

A list of the supervisory authorities (for the non-public sector) with their addresses can be found at: https://www.bfdi.bund.de/DE/Infothek/Anschriften_Links/anschriften_links-node.html

Collection of general information when visiting our website

The nature and purpose of the processing:

When you access our website, i.e. when you do not register or otherwise submit information, information of a general nature is automatically collected. This information (server log files) includes the type of web browser used, the operating system used, the domain name of your Internet service provider, your IP address, and similar information.

They are processed in particular for the following purposes:

  • to ensure a problem-free connection to the website,
  • to ensure smooth use of our website,
  • to evaluate system security and stability and
  • for other administrative purposes.

We do not use your data to draw conclusions about your person. Information of this kind is statistically evaluated by us, if necessary, in order to optimize our Internet presence and the technology behind it.

Legal basis:

Processing is carried out in accordance with Art. 6 Para. 1 Letter f of the GDPR on the basis of our justified interest in improving the stability and functionality of our website.

Recipients:

Recipients of the data may be technical service providers who act as data processors for the operation and maintenance of our website.

Storage duration:

The data will be deleted as soon as they are no longer required for the purpose of collection. This is generally the case for the data used for the provision of the website when the respective session has ended.

Provision is required or necessary:

The provision of the aforementioned personal data is not required by law or contract. Without the IP address, however, the service and functionality of our website cannot be guaranteed. In addition, individual services may not be available or may be restricted. For this reason, any objection is excluded.

Cookies

The nature and purpose of the processing:

Like many other websites, we also use what are known as “cookies”. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your end device (laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc.) when you visit our website.

This provides us with certain data such as IP address, the browser used, and the operating system used.

Cookies cannot be used to start programs or transfer viruses to a computer. We can use the information contained in cookies to make navigation easier for you and to enable our web pages to be displayed correctly.

We use cookies to personalize content and ads, to provide social media features, and to analyze traffic to our website. We also share information about your use of our website with our social media, advertising, and analytics partners. Our partners may combine this information with other information that you have provided to them or that they have collected as part of your use of the services.

By law, we may store cookies on your device if they are absolutely necessary for the operation of this site. For all other cookie types we need your permission. This site uses different types of cookies. Some cookies are placed by third parties that appear on our pages. You can change or withdraw your consent from the cookie declaration on our website at any time.

You can of course also view our website without cookies. Internet browsers are usually set to accept cookies. In general, you can deactivate the use of cookies at any time via the settings of your browser. Please use the help functions of your Internet browser to find out how to change these settings. Please note that individual functions of our website may not work if you have deactivated the use of cookies.

Storage duration and cookies used:

If you allow us to use cookies through your browser settings or consent, the following cookies may be used on our websites:

  • Necessary cookies help to make a website usable by enabling basic functions such as page navigation and access to secure areas of the website. The website cannot function properly without these cookies.
  • Preference cookies allow a website to remember information that affects the way a website behaves or looks, such as your preferred language or the region you are located in.
  • Statistics cookies help website owners understand how visitors interact with websites by collecting and reporting information anonymously.
  • Marketing cookies are used to follow visitors to websites. The intent is to show ads that are relevant and appealing to the individual user and therefore more valuable to publishers and third-party advertisers.
  • Unclassified cookies are cookies that we are currently trying to classify, along with providers of individual cookies.

Should these cookies (also) concern personal data, we will inform you about this in the following sections.

You can delete individual cookies or the entire cookie inventory via your browser settings. You will also receive information and instructions on how to delete these cookies or block their storage in advance. Depending on the provider of your browser, you will find the necessary information under the following links:

Newsletter (including the “Schlauer Raum Newsletter”)

The nature and purpose of the processing:

Your data will only be used to send you the subscribed newsletter by e-mail. Your name and other necessary details are given in order to address you personally in the newsletter and, if necessary, to identify you if you wish to exercise your rights as a data subject.

When you register to receive our newsletter, the data you provide will be used exclusively for the purpose of sending the newsletter and generating leads using the Pardot tool (see below). Subscribers can also be informed by e-mail about circumstances relevant to the service or registration (e.g. changes to the newsletter offer or technical conditions).

For an effective registration we need a valid e-mail address. To verify that a registration is actually made by the owner of an e-mail address, we use the “double opt-in” procedure. For this purpose, we log the ordering of the newsletter, the sending of a confirmation e-mail, and the receipt of the answer requested herewith. Further data is not collected. The data will be used exclusively for sending the newsletter and will not be passed on to third parties, with the exception of the lead generation or marketing automation provider Pardot (see below).

Legal basis:

On the basis of your expressly granted consent (Art. 6 Para. 1 Lit. a GDPR), we will send you our newsletter or similar information regularly by e-mail to the e-mail address you have provided.

You can revoke your consent to the storage of your personal data and its use for sending the newsletter at any time with effect for the future. You will find a link for this in every newsletter. You can also unsubscribe at any time directly on this website or inform us of your revocation via the contact option provided at the end of this privacy policy.

Recipients:

Recipients of the data may be data processors.

Storage duration:

The data will only be processed in this context as long as the corresponding consent has been obtained. Afterwards they are deleted.

Provision is required or necessary:

The provision of your personal data is voluntary and based solely on your consent. Unfortunately, we cannot send you our newsletter without existing consent.

Contact form

The nature and purpose of the processing:

The data you enter will be stored for the purpose of individual communication with you. This requires, among other things, the entry of a valid e-mail address and your name. This and other information is used to assign the enquiry and the subsequent response and lead nurturing of the enquiry.

Legal basis:

The data entered in the contact form is processed on the basis of a legitimate interest (Art. 6 Para. 1 Lit. f GDPR).

By providing the contact form, we would like to make it easy for you to contact us. The information you provide will be stored for the purpose of processing your enquiry and for possible follow-up questions.

If you contact us to request an offer, the data entered in the contact form will be processed for the purpose of carrying out pre-contractual measures (Art. 6 Para. 1 Lit. b GDPR).

Recipients:

Recipients of the data may be data processors.

Storage duration:

Data will be deleted at the latest 6 months after processing the enquiry.
If a contractual relationship is established, we are subject to the legal retention periods according to the German Commercial Code (HGB) and delete your data after these periods have expired.

Provision is required or necessary:

The provision of your personal data is voluntary. However, we can only process your enquiry if you provide us with your name, e-mail address, and the reason for contact.

Storage of data from newsletter registration, contact, and download forms via Pardot

We use the Pardot Marketing Automation System (“Pardot MAS”) from Pardot LLC, 950 E. Paces Ferry Rd. Suite 3300 Atlanta, GA 30326, USA (“Pardot”) on our websites. Pardot is a special piece of software for recording and evaluating the use of a website by website visitors. If Pardot LLC processes personal data, the processing is carried out exclusively on our behalf and according to our instructions. We have ensured that Pardot LLC complies with the EU Data Protection Directive through a separate agreement with Pardot LLC.

When you visit our website, Pardot MAS records your click path and creates an individual user profile using a pseudonym. To do this, cookies are used which enable your browser to be recognized. By agreeing to the use of cookies when you use our website for the first time by confirming the cookie acceptance banner or by continuing to use our website, you also agree to the use of cookies from Pardot.

You can revoke your consent at any time with effect for the future. To do so, please use the contact details given at the end of this privacy policy. In addition, you can deactivate the creation of pseudonymized user profiles at any time by configuring your Internet browser so that cookies from the domain “pardot.com” are not accepted. However, this may lead to certain limitations in the functions and user-friendliness of our offer.

Mailing dispatch and data storage via Pardot

If you have expressly registered for our newsletter, filled out a contact form (regarding a sales enquiry or to download a whitepaper or similar), we will use your data to send you information about new products, current offers, and our customer services at regular intervals. For an effective registration, we need a valid e-mail address. To verify that a registration is actually made by the owner of an e-mail address, we use the “double opt-in” procedure. For this purpose, we log the ordering of the newsletter mailing, the sending of a confirmation e-mail, and the receipt of the answer requested herewith. The data will be used exclusively for mailing and will not be passed on to third parties. In order to provide you with information tailored to your needs, we collect other information in addition to your e-mail address, such as your company, job title, etc. You can revoke your consent to receive QDA SOLUTIONS mailings at any time and thus cancel your subscription via the unsubscribe pages and/or the notification centers that are integrated into the respective mailings. After cancellation, your personal data will be deleted. Your consent to the mailing expires at the same time. At the end of every mailing from QDA SOLUTIONS you will find the link to cancel (unsubscribe or notification center).

Use of Google Analytics

The nature and purpose of the processing:

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA (hereinafter referred to as “Google”). Google Analytics uses cookies, text files that are stored on your computer and that enable an analysis of your use of the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transferred to a Google server in the USA, where the cookie is then stored.

However, due to the activation of IP anonymization on these websites, your IP address will be shortened by Google within member states of the European Union or in other states which are party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted 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 purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity, and providing other services to the website operator in connection with website activity and internet usage. The IP address transmitted by your browser as part of Google Analytics is not combined with other data from Google.

The purposes of data processing are to analyze the use of the website and to compile reports on activities on the website. Based on the use of the website and the Internet, further related services will then be provided.

Legal basis:

Data processing is carried out on the basis of the consent of the user (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR).

Recipients:

The recipient of the data is Google as the data processor. We have concluded a corresponding data processing agreement with Google for this purpose.

Storage duration:

The data will be deleted as soon as they are no longer required for our recording purposes.

Third country transfer:

Google processes your data in the USA.

Provision is required or necessary:

The provision of your personal data is voluntary and based solely on your consent. If you deny access, this may result in functional restrictions on the website.

Revocation of consent:

You may prevent the storage of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings in your browser software, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the all functions of this website. You can also prevent Google from collecting the data generated by the cookie and related to your use of the website (including your IP address) as well as the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available under the following link: Browser add-on to deactivate Google Analytics.

Profiling:

With the help of the Google Analytics tracking tool, it is possible to evaluate the behavior of visitors to the website and analyze their interests. We create pseudonymous user profiles for this purpose.

Google AdWords

The nature and purpose of the processing:

Our website uses Google Conversion Tracking. The operating company of the Google AdWords services is Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. If you have reached our website via an advertisement placed by Google, Google AdWords will place a cookie on your computer. The conversion tracking cookie is set when a user clicks on an ad placed by Google.

If the user visits certain pages on our website and the cookie has not yet expired, we and Google can identify that the user clicked on the ad and was directed to those pages. Every Google AdWords customer receives a different cookie. Cookies can therefore not be tracked via the websites of AdWords customers. The information collected using the conversion cookie is used to generate conversion statistics for AdWords customers who have opted in to conversion tracking. Customers are told the total number of users who clicked on their ad and were redirected to a page with a conversion tracking tag. However, you will not receive information that can be used to identify users personally.

Legal basis:

The legal basis for the integration of Google AdWords and the associated data transfer to Google is your consent (Art. 6 Para. 1 Lit. a GDPR).

Recipients:

Whenever you visit our website, personal data, including your IP address, is transferred to Google in the USA. These personal data are stored by Google. Google may pass on this personal data collected via the technical process to third parties.

Our company does not collect any information from Google that could be used to identify the person concerned.

Storage duration:

These cookies lose their validity after 30 days and are not used for personal identification.

Third country transfer:

Google processes your data in the USA.

Revocation of consent:

If you do not wish to participate in tracking, you can refuse the setting of a cookie that is required for this purpose – for example, by changing your browser settings to generally disable the automatic setting of cookies or to set your browser to block cookies from the domain “googleleadservices.com”.

Please note that you should not delete the opt-out cookies if you do not wish measurement data to be recorded. If you have deleted all the cookies in your browser, you will have to set the respective opt-out cookie again.

Provision is required or necessary:

The provision of your personal data is voluntary and based solely on your consent. If you deny permission, this may result in functional restrictions on the website.

Use of Google Remarketing

The nature and purpose of the processing:

This website uses the remarketing function of Google Inc. The operating company of the services of Google Remarketing is Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (hereinafter “Google”).

This function is used to present interest-based ads to website visitors within the Google advertising network. A “cookie” is stored in the visitor’s browser, which makes it possible to recognize the visitor when he or she visits websites that are a part of the Google advertising network. These pages may present the visitor with advertisements related to content that the visitor has previously viewed on sites that use Google’s remarketing feature.

Legal basis:

The legal basis for the integration of Google Remarketing and the associated data transfer to Google is your consent (Art. 6 Para. 1 Lit. a GDPR).

Recipients:

Whenever you visit our website, personal data, including your IP address, is transferred to Google in the USA. These personal data are stored by Google. Google may pass on this personal data collected via the technical process to third parties.
Our company does not collect any information from Google that could be used to identify the person concerned.

Revocation of consent:

According to its own information, Google does not collect any personal data during this process. If you still do not wish to use Google’s remarketing function, you can deactivate it by choosing the appropriate settings at https://support.google.com/adwordspolicy/answer/143465. Alternatively, you can disable the use of cookies for interest-based advertising through the ad network initiative by following the instructions at http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.

Provision is required or necessary:

The provision of your personal data is voluntary and based solely on your consent. If you deny permission, this may result in functional restrictions on the website.

SSL encryption

To protect the security of your data during transmission, we use state-of-the-art encryption procedures (e.g. SSL) via HTTPS.

Changes to our privacy policy

We reserve the right to adapt this data protection declaration so that it always meets the current legal requirements or to implement changes to our services in the privacy policy, e.g. when introducing new services. The new privacy policy will then apply to your renewed visit.

Right to information, deletion, blocking

You have the right to receive information free of charge at any time about your stored personal data, its origin, recipients, and the purpose of data processing, as well as the right to correct, block, or delete this data. To do this or if you have any further questions on the subject of personal data, you can contact us at any time at the address given in the imprint.

Objection to advertising e-mails

We hereby object to the use of contact data published within the scope of the imprint obligation to send unsolicited advertising and information material. The operators of these pages expressly reserve the right to take legal action against unsolicited mailing or e-mailing of spam and other similar advertising materials.

Storage of applicant data (Talentsoft)

Applicant data is collected for the purpose of recruiting personnel for Germanedge and all associated companies (GEFASOFT, New Solutions, Objective, QDA SOLUTIONS, and ORSOFT) and is based on Articles 15-18 and Articles 20-21 of the GDPR and Article 88(1) GDPR in conjunction with Section 26(1) sentence 1 FDPA (German Federal Data Protection Act).

The information provided to QDA SOLUTIONS/Germanedge through the Talentsoft application tool is kept confidential and is only shared with those of the company’s employees which are involved in the application process. No further use or transfer of the data to third parties will take place.

In the context of job advertisements, QDA SOLUTIONS/Germanedge collects and processes the following applicant data:

  • Title
  • First name
  • Surname
  • Address
  • Phone
  • E-mail address
  • Application documents (certificates, curriculum vitae, and professional qualifications; in each case insofar as these data are stated in your application documents)

By sending us your application documents, you agree that you will be contacted and informed in writing, by e-mail, or by telephone during the application process. There is no automated decision making via Talentsoft.

Applicant data will be automatically deleted 6 months after the completion of the application procedure for the respective position; this period can only be extended by a further 6 months with the consent of the applicant. The storage of your application data beyond the completion of the application process is done on the basis of legitimate interests of QDA SOLUTIONS/Germanedge for the purpose of examining complaints or other legal remedies against a negative decision in the application process, which are possible within the complaint period and other deadlines. The deletion period also applies if you withdraw your application or request the immediate deletion of your applicant data.

With every application that is submitted, a separate privacy policy is filled out for the application process at Germanedge Group. This is a part of the applicant tool Talentsoft, adapted to Germanedge.

Further information about the applicant tool Talentsoft and its privacy policy can be found here: https://www.cegid.com/en/privacy-policy/

Storage of webinar registrations and participants (GoToWebinar)

To conduct webinars over the Internet, QDA SOLUTIONS uses the GoToWebinar software solution provided by LogMeIn, Inc. 333 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02210 USA. LogMeIn, Inc. is the data controller for the provision of this service and the data processing associated with it. The LogMeIn privacy policy can be found here. In order to conduct the webinar, we transmit your registration or customer data to LogMeIn, Inc. The processing of your data is based on your consent (Article 6 Paragraph 1 a) GDPR). To conduct the webinar, an encrypted connection will be established between you and the webinar organizer. The webinars are generally recorded in order to make them available on our website for later retrieval (“Webinar On Demand”). However, there is no transparency or reference to the participants of a webinar; likewise, the written chat used is not published. The questions asked by the participants during the webinar and their answers are therefore not recorded and stored. Statistical data will be collected during and after the webinar. If you participate in a webinar, in addition to your registration data, we will also receive information about the duration of participation, interest in the webinar, questions asked or answers given for the purpose of further customer support or to enhance the user experience.

For more information about LogMeIn’s GoToWebinar tool and the GDPR, click here: https://www.logmeininc.com/gdpr/gdpr-compliance

Questions to the data protection officer

If you have any questions regarding data protection, please send us an e-mail or contact the person responsible for data protection in our organization directly:

Etzel Consulting
Christoph Etzel
Am Fuchsengraben 15
82319 Starnber
Germany

Mail: datenschutz@qda-solutions.com

Complaints

Should our data protection officer not be able to answer your request to your satisfaction, your right to complain to the data protection supervisory authority responsible for your federal state remains in any case.