Data Protection Statement

Responsible Party:

finletter und Fintech Week GmbH
Versmannstr. 4
20457 Hamburg
Germany

Tel: +49(0)40 2105 4920

You can get in touch with us on: info@fintechweek.de, on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Company headquarters: Hamburg
Registered at Hamburg District Court (Amtsgericht Hamburg) as HRB 127546
Represented by the directors, Caro Beese and Clas Beese

Data protection officer as required by law:

For all your data protection-related questions, we have someone to help you:

Sandra Schramm
c/o finhaven
Versmannstr. 4
20457 Hamburg, Germany
Email: datenschutz@fintechweek.de

And if you don’t think it’s something we can find a solution to together, you can turn to the Hamburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information: mailbox@datenschutz.hamburg.de

Contents

0. Preamble
1. Cookies
2. Contact forms
3. Social buttons
4. Newsletter
5. Google Analytics
6. Comment function
7. SSL function
8. Photos and videos
9. Miscellaneous services
10. Withdrawal, objection and right to data portability
11. Disclosure, deletion and deactivation

0. Preamble

The website fintechweek.de as well as our Twitter account @FintechWeekDE relates to everything finletter und Fintech Week  GmbH offers, e.g. the week of events known as Fintech Week and the FinForward conference. This data protection statement relates to your personal data. This means all data by which you are personally identifiable. By means of this data protection statement, we offer an overview of the personal data we collect:

Additionally, you will find out what we do with your data. In short:

We try to make it possible for you to use this website as well as our newsletter services while revealing no more personal data than is necessary. Wherever we collect data on our website, for example your name or email address, this is on a voluntary basis and for a specific purpose where possible. We do not pass these data on to third parties without your explicit consent.

We treat your data with strict confidentiality and according to the statutory data protection regulations as well as this data protection statement. Please be aware, however, when transmitting data over the internet, by email and in general, that security breaches can occur which enable third parties to gain access.

1. Cookies

When visiting our website, you have no doubt noticed a box that pops up every now and then. This is a notification that we use so-called cookies. These are small text files that are stored on your computer by your browser. Don’t worry: cookies do not damage your computer or contain viruses. They serve to make our offering more user friendly, effective and secure and that’s why we use them on fintechweek.de.

Most of the cookies we use are so-called “session cookies.” They are automatically deleted at the end of your visit. Other cookies remain on your device until you delete them. These cookies enable us to recognise your browser the next time you visit.

You can take control of your own cookies: most browsers are set to accept them automatically. But you can change this setting, for example so that you are informed when cookies are stored, or so that they are only allowed on a one-off basis. You can also prohibit the acceptance of cookies in specific cases or generally, as well as activate the deletion of all cookies whenever you close your browser.

Besides this, you can object to the use of cookies on our website here. We should inform you, though, that you may be unable to use this website’s full functionality after deactivating cookies. Unfortunately, we have no way of preventing this.

2. Contact forms and other means by which your data finds its way to us

During the course of the year, various forms appear on our website, e.g. for the accreditation of press representatives. They have one thing in common: if you submit an enquiry via a form, we will store the contents of your message as well as the contact data you submit for the purposes of processing the enquiry and any subsequent questions relevant to it. We will not pass on these data to a third party without your consent.

The same applies when you contact us by email, telephone, Twitter or any other means.

We hold on to these data until you tell us to delete them, withdraw you consent or until our communication is finalised because everything has been taken care of.

3. Social Buttons

We would be very happy for you to share our posts and help Fintech Week raise awareness. But we don’t want you to sacrifice control over your data and have thus decided to integrate into our website an alternative means of sharing. We have integrated a custom solution which ensures a connection to Facebook, Twitter etc. is not established until you actually click on a button – as opposed to regular sharing buttons which establish such a connection immediately when you visit the page. In this way, we want to prevent these networks from tracking your activities on our website. So for you, this means: as long as you don’t click on, for example, the Facebook share button, you won’t be tracked by them. Everything that happens after clicking is your responsibility.

4. Newsletter

You can subscribe to our newsletter in order to stay up-to-date about Fintech Week. For this purpose, we require nothing but your email address – you can find out how we use it in the following paragraphs:

4.1 Double opt-in and logging

Subscribing to the newsletter occurs according to the double opt-in procedure, i.e. after signing up on our website you receive an email in which you are asked to confirm your subscription. This is our way of ensuring that no-one is signing up in your name without your permission.

Newsletter subscriptions are logged in order to prove, as required by law, that the registration process has occurred. This entails the storage of the time of subscription and confirmation, as well as the IP address. Additionally, any changes to your data stored by Mailchimp will be logged.

4.2 Use of the mailing list service provider Mailchimp

finletter und Fintech Week GmbH uses the Mailchimp service – operated by the US company Rocket Science Group, LLC, 675 Ponce De Leon Ave NE #5000, Atlanta, GA 30308, USA – for sending email newsletters. Your email address, as well as other data you submit during signup, are stored on Mailchimp’s servers in the USA. Mailchimp uses this information for the purpose of sending and analysing the newsletter on behalf of us and – according to the information they provide – also use this data for the optimisation or improvement of their own services. However, you will only ever receive emails from us; Mailchimp states that it will never write to you directly or give your data to third parties.

We have chosen this newsletter system because it is user-friendly and free of charge or low-cost. For our purposes, it is simply the best tool (legitimate interest according to art. 6 (1)f GDPR). We trust in Mailchimp’s reliability, IT security and data security: Mailchimp is certified according to the US-EU data protection agreement “Privacy Shield” and thus obliges itself to comply with the EU’s data protection requirements. Further, we have signed a data processing agreement with Mailchimp according to Art. 28(3)(1) GDPR. This is a contract in which Mailchimp obliges itself to protect our users’ data, to process data on our behalf according to the provisions within it, and in particular not to pass on data to third parties. You can see the Mailchimp data-protection provisions here.

*** Update of 31.07.2020: The above-mentioned US-EU data protection agreement „Privacy Shield“ was declared invalid by the European Court of Justice on 16 July 2020. We are currently examining the legal and technical consequences for us and our customers. As soon as we have clarified this, we will immediately adapt our processes and this Privacy Shield. ***

4.3 Collection of statistics and analyses

Our newsletters contain a “web beacon”, which is a file containing a single pixel that is requested from the Mailchimp server when the newsletter is opened. During this request, initially technical data are transmitted, such as information about the browser and the system it runs upon, as well as IP address and time of the request. This information is used for technical improvement of the service taking into account the technical data, or the target groups and their reading behaviour as determined by the location of access (identifiable with the help of the IP address) or time of access.

The statistical data gathered includes ascertaining whether or not the newsletter was opened, when it was opened and which links were clicked on. These pieces of information can, for technical reasons, be associated to individual users. However, it is neither our nor Mainchimp’s intention to observe individual users. Instead, the reports are intended to understand our users’ reading habits and tailor our content to them or send different information according to our readers’ interests.

4.4 Online access and data management

In some cases, we redirect newsletter readers to Mailchimp’s website: for example, where presentational issues arise in your email client, you can click on a link to view the newsletter online instead. In this case, we draw your attention to the fact that Mailchimp uses cookies on their website, which entails the processing of personal data by Mailchimp, their partners and any service providers used (e.g. Google Analytics). We have no influence over data thus collected. You can find more information by consulting Mailchimp’s data protection statement. You do, however, have the opportunity to object to the collection of your data for advertising purposes via the websites aboutads.info/choices and youronlinechoices.com (within Europe).

4.5 Termination/withdrawal

If you have subscribed to our newsletter, you can withdraw your consent to storage of your email address, as well as its use for the purpose of sending the newsletter, at any time. If you decide to do so, you can find the appropriate link right at the end. It says, “Unsubscribe by clicking here.” This leads to the withdrawal of your consent to sending of emails via Mailchimp as well as the statistical analyses. Separate withdrawals for sending via Mailchimp or statistical analyses are unfortunately not possible.

5. Google Analytics

This website, operated by Fintech Week, uses Google Analytics, a web-analytics service provided by Google Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses so-called cookies, which are text files that are stored on your computer and enable analysis of your use of the website. The information about your behaviour on this website generated through the use of the cookie is usually transferred to one of Google’s servers in the USA, where it is stored. Where IP anonymisation is activated on this website, your IP address will be truncated by Google before it is transmitted to a country that is not a member state of the European Union or signatory to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional circumstances will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and truncated there. Google, commissioned by the website operator, will use this information to analyse your use of the website, to generate reports on website activity and to provide other services related to website behaviour to the website operator. The IP address transmitted by your browser within the context of Google Analytics will not be combined with other data from Google. You can prevent the storage of cookies by changing the appropriate setting in your browser software; however, we draw your attention to the fact that, in this case, you may not be able to access the full functionality of this website.

Beyond this, you can also prevent the collection of the data generated through use of the cookie and that relating to your use of the website (including your IP address) as well as their transmission to Google, in addition to the processing of these data, by downloading and installing the browser plugin available by clicking on the following link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. Alternatively, you can click on the following link: [ga-optout text=“disable Google Analytics“] – and object on this page of the Fintech Week website.

More details about terms of use and data protection can be found at google.com. We draw your attention to the fact that, on this website, Google Analytics has been extended to include “gat._anonymizeIp();” in order to ensure anonymised collection of IP addresses (so-called IP masking).

6. Comment function

For the comment function on our website, in addition to the comment itself, the following data are stored permanently unless you post anonymously: time of comment creation, your email address and – unless you post anonymously – your chosen user name. On the basis of our legitimate interest according to art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR, your IP address will also be stored for seven days to prevent us from being held liable for insults or similar offences committed by our users in comments.

6.1 Spam protection with Antispam Bee

In order to protect ourselves from floods of spam comments that occur from time to time, we use the German-Austrian service Antispam Bee. This was a conscious decision, even though it offers inferior protection against spam according to some reviews. In this regard, for us it is (more) important that your data are not collected and stored, as is the case with similar services from the US. According to the Antispam Bee Wiki, no data whatsoever are stored for the purposes of verifying spam comments.

6.2 Subscribing to comments

As a user of this website, you can also subscribe to comments if you have registered on the site. You will receive a confirmation email in order to verify whether you are the owner of the email address. We then store your IP address and the time of your registration. You can cancel your subscription as well as the data we have stored at any time via a link in the informational emails.

7. SSL function

For security reasons and for the protection of confidential content in transit, for example the requests you send to us in our capacity as website operator, finletter und Fintech Week GmbH uses SSL encryption for this website. You can recognise an encrypted connection on account of the address field in your browser: it changes from http:// to https:// and displays a padlock symbol. If SSL is activated, the data you transmit to us cannot, under normal circumstances, be read by third parties.

8. Photos and videos

As all Fintech Week delegates know, during the events photos and videos are created. We try to take all reasonable steps to protect your right to your own image. In concrete terms, this means we inform you at the location about the fact that recordings and photography take place and that we use these, for example, for promotional purposes. If you discover a photo of yourself on one of our digital channels (e.g. on Twitter) that you definitely don’t want to be published online, please make contact with us and we will, or course, remove it.

If we use photographs for print publications, or for reporting purposes, as a rule we try to use images in which individuals are not identifiable or not standing in the foreground. If we are able to identify you – for example, because the FinTech scene is very small and we know each other – then we will attempt to make contact with you before publication and ask you for your permission. Here, the following also applies: if you find a picture of yourself you are unhappy with in any one of our print publications, although we are unable to withdraw the publication it goes without saying that we will take your wishes into account for future publications. Please outline your concern in an email to datenschutz@fintechweek.de.

9. Miscellaneous services

9.1 SurveyMonkey
From time to time, we use the survey tool SurveyMonkey to hear your opinion on our events or find out your plans. In every survey, we explicitly draw attention to the fact that we use the personal data we collect exclusively for the purpose laid out in the survey at hand. For more information on how SurveyMonkey handles your data, we refer you to their Data-protection statement.

9.2 Eventbrite
For allocating places at our events, we use the Eventbrite service, operated by Eventbrite Inc. (Delaware, 155 5th Street, Floor 7, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA). So if you would like to attent an event, this paragraph is relevant to you. To book a ticket, we need at least an email address as well as first name and surname and, depending on the type of event, at most the following data from you:  Name, surname, company, company and / or private address, email address, telephone number, date of birth.

Eventbrite gathers this personal data to fulfil and order placed by us, and then transfers them to us as event organiser. We use these data for the preparation and for following up the booked event.

The company Eventbrite Inc. observes the EU-US Privacy Shield framework signed by the US Department of Commerce and the European Commission with regard to the collection, use and storage of personal data from member states of the European Economic Area. You can find further information about which data the service provider collects here as well as in the company’s own data protection guidelines. Click on this link to find Eventbrite’s FAQ on their approach to data.

*** Update of 31.07.2020: The above-mentioned US-EU data protection agreement „Privacy Shield“ was declared invalid by the European Court of Justice on 16 July 2020. We are currently examining the legal and technical consequences for us and our customers. As soon as we have clarified this, we will immediately adapt our processes and this Privacy Shield. ***

9.3 Agile CRM

finletter und Fintech Week GmbH uses the tool Agile CRM from Agile CRM Inc., Hyderabad, India. As soon as you transmit personal data such as your name or email address to us, for example when we enter into a sales or sponsoring contract with you, a connection to Agile CRM is established. Further information relating to data protection can be found in the company’s own data protection statement.

10. Withdrawal, objection and right to data portability

According to art. 7 (3) GDPR, you have the right to withdraw, at any time, any consent granted with future effect. According to art. 21 GDPR, you can object to future processing of data relating to you at any time.

Additionally, you may obtain the data we process about you. Alternatively, they could be ported to somebody you appoint to take responsibility, if this is technically possible.

11. Disclosure, deletion and deactivation

At any time, without giving reasons and free of charge, you are entitled to disclosure of your personal data that are stored by us as well as their origin, recipient and the reason for their storage, upon request. Further, you have the right to correction, deactivation or deletion of these data. Regarding these and any other questions you may have, you can get in touch with us at any time via datenschutz@fintechweek.de.

We have put together this data protection statement with the help of e-recht24.de, datenschutzbeauftragter-info.de as well as smart people we know. If you think we have made a mistake or left something out, please let us know!

Last updated: 2nd October 2019