Privacy Policy

1. GENERAL PART

§ 1 Information on the collection of personal data

(1) In the following, we inform you about the processing of personal data when using this website, our services and external online presences on social networks. Please refer to the specific privacy policies for the following online services: Beilstein Journal of Organic Chemistry, Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology, Beilstein Archives, and STRENDA. Personal data are all data that can be related to you personally, such as name, address, e-mail address or user behavior.

(2) The responsible party pursuant to Art. 4 (7) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the

Beilstein-Institut zur Förderung der Chemischen Wissenschaften,
Trakehner Str. 7–9
60486 Frankfurt am Main
Germany.

Tel.:     +49 (0) 69 71673 20
info@beilstein-institut.de
www.beilstein-institut.de

You can reach our data protection officer at datenschutz@beilstein-institut.de or at our postal address with the addition "Der Datenschutzbeauftragte".

(3) When you contact us by e-mail, telephone or a contact form, the data you provide (e-mail address, name or telephone number) will be stored by us in accordance with Art. 6 (1) lit. c GDPR in order to answer your questions. If your request relates to the fulfillment of a contract or the implementation of pre-contractual measures, the processing is carried out in accordance with Art. 6 (1) lit. b GDPR. Otherwise, the processing is based on our legitimate interest in effectively handling the requests directed to us, in accordance with Article 6 (1) lit. f GDPR. The personal data transmitted in the course of your respective request will be processed exclusively for the intended purpose. We delete the data accruing in this context after the storage is no longer necessary. In the case of statutory retention obligations, deletion will only take place when they expire.

(4) In the operation of this website and our services, as well as the associated processes, we are supported by service providers. To ensure that the applicable data protection regulations are observed by us and our external service providers, we have taken appropriate technical and organizational measures. Our service providers act on our behalf and on the basis of a data processing abbendum pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR. The service providers are carefully selected and monitored, are strictly bound by our instructions, and are contractually obligated in accordance with data protection law.

(5) No data is transferred to third parties in the sense of Art. 4 No. 10 GDPR withour your consent.

(6) Our websites contain links to third-party websites. We have no influence on whether their operators comply with data protection regulations.

§ 2 Your rights

(1) You have the following rights with regard to the personal data concerning you:

  • right to information,
  • right to correction or deletion,
  • right to restriction of processing,
  • right to object to processing,
  • right to data portability.

(2) You also have the right to complain to the competent data protection supervisory authority about the processing of your personal data by us:

The Hessian Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information
PO Box 3163
65021 Wiesbaden
Germany

§ 3 Objection to or revocation of the processing of your data

(1) If you have given your consent to the processing of your data, you may revoke this consent at any time. Such a revocation affects the permissibility of the processing of your personal data from that time onwards.  The permissibility of processing your data up to the time of your revocation remains unaffected.

(2) Insofar as we base the processing of your personal data on the legal basis of the exercise of a legitimate interest pursuant to Art. 6 (1) lit. f GDPR, you may object to the processing. This is the case if the processing is not necessary, in particular, for the fulfilment of a contract with you., The respective legal basis of the processing is named below in the more detailed description of our data processing. When exercising such an objection, we ask you to explain the reasons why we should not process your personal data in the way we have done. In the event of your objection, we will review the situation and either discontinue or adjust the data processing or show you our compelling legitimate grounds on the basis of which we will continue the processing.

(3) Of course, you can object to the processing of your personal data for advertising and data analysis purposes at any time. The best way to exercise your advertising objection is to contact us using the contact details provided above.

§ 4 Processing of data from your terminal equipment

(1) We use a single cookie as a technical aid to display the website, which is stored on your terminal device. It is a technically essential cookie, without the use of which our website cannot be displayed (completely correctly) and for whose use your consent is not required. This cookie is deleted after the end of your website visit, at the latest when you close your browser. You can configure your browser settings according to your preferences and, for example, refuse the acceptance of cookies. Please note that you may then not be able to use all the functions of this website.

(2) The function we use is described below:

Name Purpose Duration
PHPSESSID Session allocation Redaxo until you close your browser

 

(3) The storage of information on your terminal equipment or the access to information is carried out in accordance with § 25 (2) TTDSG. The data processing is carried out on the basis of Art. 6 (1) lit. f GDPR, as otherwise we would not be able to provide our offered services in a functional manner. Your visit to our website is based on your autonomous decision. This wish can only be fulfilled by means of the described data processing.

§ 5 Web analytics

(1) We use the web analytics service "Matomo" (https://matomo.org) to design our website according to your needs.

(2) We operate Matomo in a version that does not require cookies. Thus, no Matomo cookies are stored on your computer for the purpose of web analysis. Only the technically necessary log data (see below § 6 (1)) is used to analyze website usage.

IP addresses are only processed in abbreviated form and direct personal reference is excluded. The IP address transmitted by your browser via Matomo is not merged with other data collected by us. The legal basis for the use of Matomo is Art. 6 (1) lit f GDPR. We have a legitimate interest in the user-oriented design of our website.

(3) Preventing the use of Matomo is possible by unchecking the following box: [Matomo iFrame]. In this case, an opt-out cookie is stored in your browser, which prevents Matomo from storing usage data. If you delete your cookies, the Matomo opt-out cookie will also be deleted. The opt-out must be reactivated when you visit our site again.

(4) The Matomo program is an open source project. Information from the third-party provider on data protection is available at https://matomo.org/privacy-policy/.

§ 6 Data processing when you visit our website

(1) When you visit our website for purely informational purposes, without otherwise providing us with information, we process the personal data that your browser transmits to our server. The data described below is technically necessary for us to display our website to you and to ensure stability and security and must therefore be processed by us:

  • IP address
  • Date and time of the request
  • Time zone difference to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
  • Content of the request (specific page)
  • Access status/HTTP status code (e.g. file found, file not found)
  • Amount of data transferred in each case
  • Website from which the request came to us
  • Browser
  • Operating system and its interface
  • Language and version of the browser software.

(2) After the end of your visit, this data is regularly deleted. Only in exceptional cases is the aforementioned data collected and stored in log files for stability and security reasons. In this case, we delete this data within 7 days.

Data that require further storage for evidentiary purposes are exempt from deletion until the respective incident has been finally clarified. The collection of data for the provision of the website and the partial storage of the data in log files is absolutely necessary for the operation of the website. Therefore, the user has no right to object.

(3) Data processing is carried out on the basis of our legal obligation to guarantee IT security in accordance with Art. 6 (1) lit. c in conjunction with Art. 32 GDPR and in accordance with Art. 6 (1) lit f GDPR, as otherwise we would not be able to provide our offered services in a functional manner. Your visit to our website is based on your autonomous decision. This wish can only be fulfilled by means of the described data processing.

§ 7 Change to the Privacy Policy

In the course of the further development of the data protection law as well as technological or organizational changes, our privacy policy is regularly reviewed for the need for adaptation or supplementation. You will be informed of any changes on our website. These privacy policies were last updated in March 2025.

2. SPECIAL SECTION

§ 8 Further functions or offers of our website

(1) In addition to the purely informational use of our website, we offer various services which you can use if you are interested and we use other usual functions to analyze or market our offers, which are presented in more detail below. For this purpose, you usually have to provide further personal data or we process such further data that we use to perform the respective services. The aforementioned data processing principles apply to all data processing purposes described here.

(2) We may pass on your personal data to third parties when we provide services or similar offerings in collaboration with partners. Depending on the service, your data may also be collected by the cooperation partners on their own responsibility. These third-party services are outside of the control of the Beilstein-Institut. Providers may, at any time, change their terms of service, purpose and use of cookies, etc. You will receive more detailed information when you provide your data or you may find this information below in the description of the respective offers.

(3) If our service providers or partners are based in a country outside the European Economic Area (EEA), we will inform you of the consequences of this circumstance in the description of the offer.

§ 9 Participation in audio and video conferences

(1) With your participation in our audio and video conferences, a variety of data processing operations are additionally carried out and personal data are processed. To conduct the conferences, we work together with conference service providers and providers of conference platforms. As a result, your personal data is not only collected, used and stored by us, but also by the operators of the respective conference service. The individual data processing operations and their scope differ depending on the operator of the respective service, see below. To use these services, you might be asked to agree to the service provider's data processing practices; without this agreement, you cannot participate in the conference

(2) With our data processing we pursue the fulfilment of our foundation purpose, namely the promotion of the chemical sciences and related fields. We process the data required for the organization and implementation of the conference and the fulfilment of the contract with you; some for statistical purposes or when you have provided explicit consent. We pass on your name and e-mail address to the relevant conference service provider for the purpose of running the conference.

(3) If you have expressly consented, we may also use your personal data to report on the conference on the social media platforms listed below and on our website, to inform you about current and subsequent Beilstein products and Beilstein events, and to contact you for Beilstein-Institut surveys about our services. If you have expressly consented, we will use your personal data for the production and publication of a conference video.

(4) The processing of your data for the fulfilment of the contract results from Art. 6 (1) lit. b GDPR. In addition, we have a legitimate interest according to Art. 6 (1) lit. f GDPR to conduct the conference with you, to make further information about the conference and corresponding publications available afterwards, and to invite you for follow-up events. In the event of your express consent, we will use your data on the basis of Art. 6 (1) lit. a GDPR.

(5) Our conference service providers process the data on our behalf. The data collected about you in this context may be transferred to countries outside the European Union, especially the USA. We have no influence on these processing activities. According to their own statements, the service providers maintain an adequate level of data protection and have concluded data processing agreements and EU standard contractual clauses with us. In addition, the service providers GoTo and Zoom, based in the USA, are certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. The respective service provider is responsible for the processing of personal data on the conference platform. Depending on which conference service provider is used, the following information applies:

a) Conference with GoTo

When we use the service provider GoTo (GoTo Technologies Ireland Unlimited Company, 77 Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Block C, Suite 207, Grand Canal Docklands, Dublin 2, D02 VK60, Ireland) we use the video conferencing system GoToWebinar or GoToMeeting. Event participants register on the GoToWebinar or GoToMeeting website. Where data is marked as mandatory, it is required for participation in the event. The data stored for the event is transmitted to us for the purpose of holding the event. We use eventually the data to send the registered persons the link to the recording of the event.

Audio and video transmissions via GoToWebinar are recorded with the consent of the speaker in order to subsequently make this recording publicly available online. Audio and video transmissions via GoToMeeting are only recorded with the consent of the participants. Communication within the chat function is deleted after the end of the conference, session data, including participants' names and email addresses, session duration with start times and end times are deleted no later than 12 months after the end of the conference.
Please refer to GOTO's privacy policy: 
https://www.goto.com/de/company/legal/privacy/international

b) Conference with Stackfield

When conducting audio and video conferences, we sometimes use additionally the forum and comment function of the German provider Stackfield (Stackfield GmbH Sendlinger Straße 22, 80331 Munich) in addition to the service provider mentioned under a). However, smaller conferences can also be held via Stackfield alone.

Stackfield collects and stores technically necessary data such as passwords and IP addresses for the provision of the service.

Communication between participants is deleted after 12 months at the latest.

For details on the collection and storage of your personal data, please refer to Stackfield's privacy policy: 
https://www.stackfield.com/de/privacy

C) Conference with Zoom

If we use the service provider Zoom (Zoom Communications, Inc. 55 Almaden Blvd, Suite 600 San Jose, CA 95113), the event participants register on the Zoom website and agree to their terms of use there. If data is marked as mandatory, it is required for participation in the event. The data stored for the event is transmitted to us for the purpose of conducting the event. We may use the data to send registered participants the link to the recording of the event.

Audio and video transmissions via Zoom are recorded with the speaker's consent to make this recording publicly available online afterwards. Audio and video transmissions via Zoom are recorded only with the participants' consent. Communication within the chat function is deleted after the conference ends. Session data, including the names and email addresses of participants, the session duration with start and end times, are deleted no later than 12 months after the conference ends. In the case of retention obligations, deletion will only be considered after the respective retention period has expired. As supplementary protective measures, we have configured our Zoom settings so that only data centers in the EU, the EEA, or secure third countries such as Canada or Japan are used to conduct 'online meetings'. 
Please refer to Zoom's privacy policy: https://www.zoom.com/en/trust/privacy/privacy-statement/

(6) Your name as well as your contributions and comments will be made available to other participants in the conference for the purpose of promoting communication between participants.

(7) In case of your explicit consent, your presentation may be publicly presented to interested users in a conference video provided by us or scientific partners such as the Hanover Technical Information Library.

(8) Your personal data will be deleted in compliance with the legal retention periods. This means that we delete data relating to business correspondence after 6 years and relating to invoicing after 10 years. If you give us permission to use your data for marketing purposes, the data will be deleted if you withdraw your permission or if the purpose of processing has become redundant.

The presentations, comments, discussions and poster and software contributions given will be recorded, stored and made available to all participants on our conference website for 2 weeks, after which all such data will be deleted. The conference video may be stored and published for information purposes. It will be deleted when the purpose of its publication no longer applies.

§ 10 In-person events

(1) When you register for an in-person event that we host, we collect your personal data for the organization of the event and to fulfil our agreements with you on the basis of Art. 6 (1) lit. b GDPR. An essential purpose of our events is to promote communication between the participating scientists, which also corresponds to our foundation purpose. The processing of your data here is based on our legitimate interest pursuant to Art. 6 (1) lit. f GDPR.

(2) In the event of your express consent, we collect your data on the basis of Art. 6 (1) lit. a GDPR for detailed reporting on the event on social media platforms and the event website and to inform you about current and subsequent Beilstein events and Beilstein products.

(3) Your personal data will only be shared with third parties to the extent necessary. For example, we share your full name with the event hotel as part of an order processing agreement. We provide possibly a printed abstract book with a short vita, name, institution and e-mail address of all participants for each event topic and publish an electronic abstract book with limited personal information of the participants on our website. In case of travel expenses, we may need to contact your professional organization.

In addition, we use a service provider, DGM-Inventum GmbH, Kamillenweg 16–18, 53757 Sankt Augustin, for the registration and processing of payments for our in-person events. As a data processor, DGM-Inventum acts exclusively on our behalf and processes your personal data solely for the stated purposes.

(4) After your personal data has been processed for the above-mentioned purposes, it will be stored for as long as is necessary to comply with the statutory retention periods for contracts (10 years) and documentation obligations or, if you have expressly consented to processing by the Beilstein-Institut, until you withdraw your consent.

§ 11 Our appearance on social networks

(1) We maintain online presences on social networks to inform the users active there about our services, to point out open positions, and to communicate via the platforms if there is interest. Our appearances on social networks can be accessed via an external link. As soon as you access our profile on the respective network, the terms and conditions and data processing guidelines of the respective operators apply there. We would like to point out that you use our appearances on social networks and their functions at your own responsibility-

The social media providers we use are:

(X) Twitter International Unlimited Company
One Cumberland Place
Fenian Street, Dublin 2
D02 AX07 Ireland
https://twitter.com/
Information on Twitter's privacy policy can be found here: https://twitter.com/de/privacy

LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company
Wilton Plaza
Wilton Place, Dublin 2
Ireland
https://www.linkedin.com/
Information on LinkedIn's data protection can be found here: https://de.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy?trk=homepage-basic_footer-privacy-policy

Bluesky Social
USA
https://bsky.app/
For details on Bluesky Social's data protection, please see the following link: https://bsky.social/about/support/privacy-policy

Mastodon
Stephan Voeth 
Kahlertstraße 5a
64293 Darmstadt
Germany
https://hessen.social/explore
Information regarding Mastodon's privacy policy can be found here: https://hessen.social/privacy-policy

(2) We have no influence on the collection of data and its further use by the social networks. There is no knowledge about the extent to which, where, and for how long the data is stored, to what extent the networks comply with existing deletion obligations, what evaluations and links are made with the data, and to whom the data is passed on. We therefore expressly point out that your data (e.g., personal information, IP address) may be stored by the operators of the networks in accordance with their data usage guidelines and used for business purposes.  

The data collected about you in this context is transferred by the social networks based in the USA (X/Twitter, LinkedIn, Bluesky) to countries outside the European Union, especially the USA. X/Twitter and LinkedIn are certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and thus, according to the EU Commission's assessment, maintain an adequate level of data protection, which is comparable to that within the scope of the GDPR. Bluesky, on the other hand, is not certified. Our Mastodon presence processes all data exclusively in Germany.

(3) We process your data with regard to our presences on social networks insofar as comments or direct messages, for example, are directed to us via these platforms. If, for example, you ask a question that we can only answer by email, we will store your information in accordance with the general principles of our data processing, which we describe in this privacy policy. The legal basis for the processing of your data is, in addition to Article 6 (1) lit. a GDPR based on consent, the legitimate interest according to Art. 6 (1) lit. f GDPR.

(4) When you visit our presence on X/Twitter, Bluesky, and Mastodon, we do not receive any data beyond what is accessible to all users. When you visit our presence on LinkedIn, the provider collects statistical access figures, which they pass on to us. This data is not personal data

(5) To exercise your data subject rights, you can contact either us or the provider of the social networks. If one party is not responsible for answering or needs to obtain the information from the other party, then we or the provider will forward your request to the respective partner. Please contact the operator of the social network directly for questions about profiling and the processing of your data when using the website. For questions about the processing of your interaction with us on our website, please contact us using the contact details provided above.

§ 12 Application data

(1) We process the data provided by you and transmitted to us as part of your application for a job.

(2) In the course of the application process, further personal data may be collected from you personally (for example in the job interview) or from generally accessible sources for this information purpose. The legal basis for the data processing is Art. 6 (1) lit. b GDPR, § 26 lit. 1 German Data Protection Act (BDSG).

(3) As a matter of principle, we only use your application documents to decide on filling the position for which you have expressly applied. If you have given us your consent to do so, we will also use your contact details to inform you about subsequent vacancies at the Beilstein-Institut. Your data will then be processed on the basis of Art. 6 (1) lit. a GDPR. We delete this data after two years at the latest.

(4) If you send us an unsolicited application that does not relate to a specific position, we will use your application documents for all vacant positions that we consider to be eligible. The legal basis for the data processing in this case is also Art. 6 (1) lit. b GDPR, § 26 lit. 1 BDSG. 

(5) If you conclude an employment contract with us, we will include your application documents in your personnel file on the basis of Art. 6 (1) lit. b GDPR, § 26 (1) BDSG. In this case, we will inform you about the further processing purpose and the relevant deletion periods in a separate data protection statement.

Otherwise, we delete your data collected in the context of an application at the earliest six months after receipt of your application, and at the latest after a period of six months has expired following the completion of all application procedures for which we have used your application documents

(6) If you are invited to an interview in the course of the application procedure and the Beilstein-Institut agrees to pay all or part of the travel expenses incurred, the data required for this purpose will be used for travel expense accounting and reimbursement. The legal basis for data processing in this case is Art. 6 (1) lit. b GDPR. These data will be deleted after the statutory retention period has expired.

Version: 24.03.2025

Duty to provide information pursuant to Art. 14 GDPR (Beilstein Archives)