Privacy policy

Preamble

With the following privacy policy we would like to inform you about the types of your personal data (hereinafter also referred to simply as “data”) we process, for what purposes, and to what extent, in the context of providing our application.

The terms used are not gender-specific.

As of: 24 April 2026.

Table of contents

• Preamble
• Controller
• Overview of processing operations
• Relevant legal bases
• Security measures
• Transfer of personal data
• International data transfers
• General information on data storage and deletion
• Rights of data subjects
• Provision of the online service and web hosting
• Plug-ins, embedded functions and content
• Amendment and update
• Definitions

Controller

Christian Puta
Wöllnitzer Straße 42
07749 Jena
Germany

E-mail: christian.puta@uni-jena.de

Overview of processing operations

The following overview summarises the types of data processed and the purposes of their processing, and refers to the data subjects concerned.

Types of data processed

• Usage data.
• Meta, communication and procedural data.
• Log data.

Categories of data subjects

• Users.

Purposes of processing

• Security measures.
• Reach measurement.
• Tracking.
• Audience building.
• Marketing.
• Provision of our online service and user-friendliness.
• Information-technology infrastructure.

Relevant legal bases

Relevant legal bases under the GDPR: Below you will find an overview of the legal bases of the GDPR on the basis of which we process personal data. Please note that in addition to the provisions of the GDPR, national data protection rules in your or our country of residence or establishment may apply. If, furthermore, more specific legal bases become relevant in an individual case, we will inform you of these in the privacy policy.

• Consent (Art. 6 (1) sentence 1 lit. a GDPR) — the data subject has given consent to the processing of their personal data for one or more specific purposes.
• Legitimate interests (Art. 6 (1) sentence 1 lit. f GDPR) — processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject that require the protection of personal data.

National data protection rules in Germany: In addition to the data protection rules of the GDPR, national data protection rules apply in Germany. These include in particular the Federal Data Protection Act (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz — BDSG). The BDSG contains, in particular, special provisions on the right of access, the right to erasure, the right to object, the processing of special categories of personal data, processing for other purposes, transfer as well as automated decision-making in individual cases including profiling. Data protection laws of the individual federal states may also apply.

Security measures

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of protection appropriate to the risk, in accordance with statutory requirements and taking into account the state of the art, the costs of implementation and the nature, scope, context and purposes of processing, as well as the varying likelihood and severity of the risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons.

These measures include, in particular, safeguarding the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data by controlling physical and electronic access to the data as well as access to, input into, disclosure of, assurance of availability of and separation of the data. We have also set up procedures to enable the exercise of data subject rights, the deletion of data and responses to data incidents. Furthermore, we take the protection of personal data into account already during the development or selection of hardware, software and processes in accordance with the principles of data protection by design and by default.

Securing online connections via TLS/SSL encryption technology (HTTPS): To protect the data transmitted via our online services from unauthorised access, we use TLS/SSL encryption technology. Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) are the cornerstones of secure data transmission on the internet. These technologies encrypt the information transmitted between the website or app and the user’s browser (or between two servers), thereby protecting the data from unauthorised access. TLS, as the more advanced and secure version of SSL, ensures that all data transfers meet the highest security standards. When a website is secured with an SSL/TLS certificate, this is signalled by the display of HTTPS in the URL, which serves as an indicator to users that their data is transmitted securely and in encrypted form.

Transfer of personal data

In the course of our processing of personal data, it may happen that they are transferred to other entities, companies, legally independent organisational units or persons, or disclosed to them. Recipients of this data may include, for example, IT service providers entrusted with IT tasks, or providers of services and content that are embedded in a website. In such cases we observe the statutory requirements and, in particular, conclude corresponding contracts or agreements that serve to protect your data with the recipients of your data.

International data transfers

Data processing in third countries: Insofar as we transfer data to a third country (i.e. outside the European Union (EU) or the European Economic Area (EEA)) or this occurs in the context of the use of third-party services or the disclosure or transfer of data to other persons, entities or companies (which can be recognised by the postal address of the respective provider or when third-country transfers are expressly indicated in the privacy policy), this always takes place in accordance with the legal requirements.

For data transfers to the USA, we primarily rely on the Data Privacy Framework (DPF), which has been recognised as a secure legal framework by an adequacy decision of the EU Commission of 10 July 2023. In addition, we have concluded Standard Contractual Clauses with the respective providers, which comply with the requirements of the EU Commission and establish contractual obligations to protect your data.

This two-fold protection ensures comprehensive safeguarding of your data: the DPF forms the primary layer of protection, while the Standard Contractual Clauses serve as additional security. Should changes occur within the DPF framework, the Standard Contractual Clauses act as a reliable fallback. We therefore ensure that your data remains appropriately protected even in the event of any political or legal changes.

For each service provider we inform you whether they are certified under the DPF and whether Standard Contractual Clauses are in place. Further information on the DPF and a list of certified companies is available on the website of the U.S. Department of Commerce at https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov/ (in English).

Corresponding safeguards apply to data transfers to other third countries, in particular Standard Contractual Clauses, explicit consents or statutorily required transfers. Information on third-country transfers and applicable adequacy decisions can be found in the information provided by the EU Commission at https://commission.europa.eu/law/law-topic/data-protection/international-dimension-data-protection_en.

General information on data storage and deletion

We delete personal data that we process in accordance with statutory provisions as soon as the underlying consent is withdrawn or there are no further legal bases for the processing. This applies to cases in which the original purpose of processing no longer applies or the data is no longer required. Exceptions to this rule exist where statutory obligations or overriding interests require a longer retention or archiving of the data.

In particular, data that must be retained for commercial or tax law reasons, or whose storage is necessary for legal prosecution or for protecting the rights of other natural or legal persons, must be archived accordingly.

Our privacy notices contain additional information on the retention and deletion of data that specifically applies to certain processing operations.

Where several statements on the retention period or deletion deadlines of a piece of data are given, the longest period is always decisive. Data retained not for the originally intended purpose but due to statutory requirements or other reasons is processed exclusively for the reasons that justify its retention.

Retention and deletion of data: the following general periods apply to retention and archiving under German law:

• 10 years — retention period for books and records, annual financial statements, inventories, management reports, opening balance sheets as well as the working instructions and other organisational documents required for their understanding (§ 147 (1) No. 1 in conjunction with (3) AO, § 14b (1) UStG, § 257 (1) No. 1 in conjunction with (4) HGB).
• 8 years — accounting documents such as invoices and expense receipts (§ 147 (1) Nos. 4 and 4a in conjunction with (3) sentence 1 AO as well as § 257 (1) No. 4 in conjunction with (4) HGB).
• 6 years — other business documents: received commercial or business letters, reproductions of sent commercial or business letters, other documents insofar as they are relevant for taxation, e.g. hourly wage slips, operating accounting sheets, calculation documents, price labels, but also payroll accounting documents, insofar as they are not already accounting documents, and cash register rolls (§ 147 (1) Nos. 2, 3, 5 in conjunction with (3) AO, § 257 (1) Nos. 2 and 3 in conjunction with (4) HGB).
• 3 years — data required to consider potential warranty and damage claims or similar contractual claims and rights, as well as to process related enquiries, based on previous business experience and customary industry practice, are stored for the duration of the regular statutory limitation period of three years (§§ 195, 199 BGB).

Start of the period at the end of the year: if a period does not expressly begin on a specific date and is at least one year long, it automatically starts at the end of the calendar year in which the triggering event occurred. In the case of ongoing contractual relationships within which data is stored, the triggering event is the effective date of termination or other conclusion of the legal relationship.

Rights of data subjects

Rights of data subjects under the GDPR: as a data subject under the GDPR, you are entitled to various rights, arising in particular from Articles 15 to 21 GDPR:

• Right to object: You have the right, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to object at any time to processing of personal data concerning you which is carried out on the basis of Art. 6 (1) lit. e or f GDPR; this also applies to profiling based on these provisions. Where personal data concerning you are processed for the purposes of direct marketing, you have the right to object at any time to the processing of personal data concerning you for such marketing; this also applies to profiling insofar as it is related to such direct marketing.
• Right to withdraw consent: you have the right to withdraw consent you have given at any time.
• Right of access: you have the right to obtain confirmation as to whether or not personal data concerning you is being processed, and to obtain access to such data as well as further information and a copy of the data in accordance with the statutory requirements.
• Right to rectification: you have the right, in accordance with statutory requirements, to obtain the completion of data concerning you or the rectification of inaccurate data concerning you.
• Right to erasure and restriction of processing: you have the right, in accordance with statutory requirements, to require that data concerning you is erased without undue delay or, alternatively, in accordance with statutory requirements, to require a restriction of the processing of the data.
• Right to data portability: you have the right to receive data concerning you that you have provided to us, in accordance with statutory requirements, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, or to request its transmission to another controller.
• Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority: you have the right, without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy, to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of your habitual residence, place of work or place of the alleged infringement, if you consider that the processing of personal data concerning you infringes the GDPR.

Provision of the online service and web hosting

We process users’ data in order to be able to provide them with our online services. For this purpose, we process the user’s IP address, which is necessary to transmit the content and functions of our online services to the user’s browser or device.

• Types of data processed: usage data (e.g. page views and time on page, click paths, usage intensity and frequency, device types and operating systems used, interactions with content and functions); meta, communication and procedural data (e.g. IP addresses, timestamps, identification numbers, persons involved); log data (e.g. log files concerning logins or the retrieval of data or access times).
• Data subjects: users (e.g. website visitors, users of online services).
• Purposes of processing: provision of our online service and user-friendliness; information-technology infrastructure (operation and provision of information systems and technical devices (computers, servers, etc.)); security measures.
• Retention and deletion: deletion in accordance with the information in the section “General information on data storage and deletion”.
• Legal bases: legitimate interests (Art. 6 (1) sentence 1 lit. f GDPR).

Further notes on processing operations, procedures and services:

• Provision of the online service on rented storage space: for the provision of our online service we use storage space, computing capacity and software that we rent or otherwise obtain from a corresponding server provider (also known as “web hoster”); legal bases: legitimate interests (Art. 6 (1) sentence 1 lit. f GDPR).
• Collection of access data and log files: access to our online service is logged in the form of so-called “server log files”. Server log files may include the address and name of the retrieved web pages and files, date and time of retrieval, amount of data transferred, notification of successful retrieval, browser type and version, the user’s operating system, referrer URL (the previously visited page) and, as a rule, IP addresses and the requesting provider. The server log files can be used for security purposes, e.g. to avoid overloading the server (particularly in the case of abusive attacks, so-called DDoS attacks), and to ensure the utilisation of the server and its stability; legal bases: legitimate interests (Art. 6 (1) sentence 1 lit. f GDPR). Deletion of data: log file information is stored for a maximum of 30 days and then deleted or anonymised. Data whose further retention is required for evidentiary purposes is exempted from deletion until final clarification of the respective incident.

Plug-ins, embedded functions and content

We integrate functional and content elements into our online service that are obtained from the servers of their respective providers (hereinafter referred to as “third-party providers”). These may be, for example, graphics, videos or maps (hereinafter uniformly referred to as “content”).

The integration always requires that the third-party providers of this content process the user’s IP address, as they could not send the content to their browser without the IP address. The IP address is therefore required for the display of this content or these functions. We strive to use only such content whose respective providers use the IP address solely for the delivery of the content. Third-party providers may also use so-called pixel tags (invisible graphics, also referred to as “web beacons”) for statistical or marketing purposes. “Pixel tags” can be used to evaluate information such as visitor traffic on the pages of this website. The pseudonymous information may also be stored in cookies on the user’s device and may contain, among other things, technical information about the browser and operating system, referring websites, the time of the visit as well as other information about the use of our online service, and may also be combined with such information from other sources.

Notes on legal bases: if we ask users for their consent to the use of third-party providers, the legal basis for the data processing is consent. Otherwise, user data is processed on the basis of our legitimate interests (i.e. interest in efficient, economical and recipient-friendly services). In this context, we would also like to refer you to the information on the use of cookies in this privacy policy.

• Types of data processed: usage data (e.g. page views and time on page, click paths, usage intensity and frequency, device types and operating systems used, interactions with content and functions); meta, communication and procedural data (e.g. IP addresses, timestamps, identification numbers, persons involved).
• Data subjects: users (e.g. website visitors, users of online services).
• Purposes of processing: provision of our online service and user-friendliness; reach measurement (e.g. access statistics, recognition of returning visitors); tracking (e.g. interest/behaviour-based profiling, use of cookies); audience building; marketing.
• Retention and deletion: deletion in accordance with the information in the section “General information on data storage and deletion”; storage of cookies for up to 2 years (unless otherwise stated, cookies and similar storage methods may be stored on users’ devices for a period of two years).
• Legal bases: consent (Art. 6 (1) sentence 1 lit. a GDPR); legitimate interests (Art. 6 (1) sentence 1 lit. f GDPR).

Further notes on processing operations, procedures and services:

• Google Fonts (obtained from the Google server): retrieval of fonts (and icons) for the purpose of technically secure, maintenance-free and efficient use of fonts and icons with regard to currency and loading times, their uniform presentation and consideration of possible licensing restrictions. The user’s IP address is communicated to the font provider so that the fonts can be made available in the user’s browser. In addition, technical data (language settings, screen resolution, operating system, hardware used) are transmitted that are necessary for the provision of the fonts depending on the devices used and the technical environment. This data may be processed on a server of the font provider in the USA — when visiting our online service, users’ browsers send their browser HTTP requests to the Google Fonts Web API (i.e. a software interface for retrieving the fonts). The Google Fonts Web API provides users with the Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) of Google Fonts and then the fonts specified in the CSS. These HTTP requests include (1) the IP address used by the respective user to access the internet, (2) the requested URL on the Google server and (3) the HTTP headers, including the user agent, which describes the browser and operating system versions of website visitors, as well as the referrer URL (i.e. the web page on which the Google font is to be displayed). IP addresses are neither logged nor stored on Google servers and they are not analysed. The Google Fonts Web API logs details of HTTP requests (requested URL, user agent and referrer URL). Access to this data is restricted and strictly controlled. The requested URL identifies the font families for which the user wants to load fonts. This data is logged so that Google can determine how often a particular font family is requested. With the Google Fonts Web API, the user agent must adapt the font that is generated for the respective browser type. The user agent is primarily logged and used for debugging purposes and to generate aggregated usage statistics used to measure the popularity of font families. These aggregated usage statistics are published on the “Analytics” page of Google Fonts. Finally, the referrer URL is logged so that the data can be used for production maintenance and an aggregated report on the top integrations based on the number of font requests can be generated. According to Google’s own information, none of the information collected by Google Fonts is used to create profiles of end users or to serve targeted advertising; service provider: Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland; legal bases: legitimate interests (Art. 6 (1) sentence 1 lit. f GDPR); website: https://fonts.google.com/; privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy; basis for third-country transfers: Data Privacy Framework (DPF); further information: https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq/privacy.
• YouTube videos: video content; service provider: Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland; legal bases: consent (Art. 6 (1) sentence 1 lit. a GDPR); website: https://www.youtube.com; privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy; basis for third-country transfers: Data Privacy Framework (DPF); opt-out: opt-out plug-in: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout; settings for the display of advertisements: https://myadcenter.google.com/personalizationoff.

Amendment and update

We ask you to inform yourself regularly about the content of our privacy policy. We adapt the privacy policy as soon as changes to the data processing carried out by us make this necessary. We will inform you as soon as the changes require an action on your part (e.g. consent) or other individual notification.

Where we provide addresses and contact information of companies and organisations in this privacy policy, please note that addresses may change over time and please check the information before making contact.

Definitions

This section provides an overview of the terms used in this privacy policy. Where the terms are defined by law, their statutory definitions apply. The following explanations, however, are intended primarily to aid understanding.

• Meta, communication and procedural data: meta, communication and procedural data are categories that contain information about the way in which data is processed, transmitted and managed. Meta data, also known as data about data, comprises information that describes the context, origin and structure of other data. They may include information about file size, creation date, the author of a document and revision history. Communication data captures the exchange of information between users via various channels, such as email traffic, call records, messages on social networks and chat histories, including the persons involved, timestamps and transmission paths. Procedural data describes the processes and workflows within systems or organisations, including workflow documentation, records of transactions and activities, as well as audit logs used for tracking and auditing operations.
• Usage data: usage data refers to information that captures how users interact with digital products, services or platforms. This data encompasses a wide range of information that shows how users use applications, which functions they prefer, how long they stay on certain pages and which paths they take through an application. Usage data may also include the frequency of use, timestamps of activities, IP addresses, device information and location data. It is particularly valuable for analysing user behaviour, optimising user experience, personalising content and improving products or services. In addition, usage data plays a crucial role in identifying trends, preferences and potential problem areas within digital offerings.
• Personal data: “personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (hereinafter “data subject”); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier (e.g. cookie) or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.
• Log data: log data are information about events or activities that have been logged in a system or network. This data typically contains information such as timestamps, IP addresses, user actions, error messages and other details about the use or operation of a system. Log data is often used for the analysis of system problems, for security monitoring or for the preparation of performance reports.
• Reach measurement: reach measurement (also referred to as web analytics) serves the evaluation of visitor flows of an online service and may include the behaviour or interests of visitors in specific information, such as the content of web pages. Using reach analysis, operators of online services can, for example, identify when users visit their web pages and which content they are interested in. This enables them to, for example, better adapt the content of the web pages to the needs of their visitors. For the purposes of reach analysis, pseudonymous cookies and web beacons are often used to recognise returning visitors and thus obtain more accurate analyses of the use of an online service.
• Tracking: “tracking” refers to the ability to trace users’ behaviour across multiple online services. As a rule, behavioural and interest information regarding the online services used is stored in cookies or on servers of the providers of the tracking technologies (so-called profiling). This information can then be used, for example, to display advertisements to users that are likely to match their interests.
• Controller: “controller” means the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data.
• Processing: “processing” means any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal data or on sets of personal data, whether or not by automated means. The term is broad and covers practically any handling of data, whether collection, evaluation, storage, transfer or erasure.
• Audience building: “audience building” (or “custom audiences”) refers to the determination of target audiences for advertising purposes, e.g. for displaying advertisements. For example, it may be inferred from a user’s interest in certain products or topics on the internet that this user is interested in advertisements for similar products or in the online shop where they viewed the products. “Lookalike audiences” (or similar target groups) are those in which content deemed suitable is shown to users whose profiles or interests are presumed to match those of the users for whom the profiles were built. For the purposes of creating custom audiences and lookalike audiences, cookies and web beacons are generally used.