Privacy policy

This is the privacy policy ("policy") for the website www.ist-surfacetechnology.com which is run and provided by Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, Abraham-Lincoln-Str. 46, 65189 Wiesbaden, Germany, springerfachmedien-wiesbaden@springer.com (we, us and our).

We will only use the personal data gathered over this website as set out in this policy. Below you will find information on how we use your personal data, for which purposes your personal data is used, with whom it is shared and what control and information rights you may have.

I. Summary of our processing activities
The following summary provides you with a quick overview of the processing activities that are undertaken on our website. You will find more detailed information under the indicated sections below.
• When you visit our website for informational reasons without setting up an account, only limited personal data will be processed to provide you with the website itself (see section III).
• In case you register for one our services (e.g. discussion forum, blog or web shop) or subscribe to our newsletter, further personal data will be processed in the scope of such services (see sections IV, V and VI).
• Furthermore, your personal data will be used to provide you with interesting advertising for our services and products (see section VIII) and for statistical analysis that helps us to improve our website (see section IX). Additionally, we improve your website experience with third party content (see section X).
• Your personal data may be disclosed to third parties (see section XI) that might be located outside your country of residence; potentially, different data protection standards may apply (see section XII).
• We have implemented appropriate safeguards to secure your personal data (see section XIII) and retain your personal data only as long as necessary (see section XIV).
• Under the legislation applicable to you, you may be entitled to exercise certain rights with regard to the processing of your personal data (see section XV).

II. Definitions
• Personal data: means any information relating to a natural person who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, or an online identifier.
• Processing: means any operation which is performed on personal data, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or any kind of disclosure or other use.

III. Informational use of the website
When you visit our website for informational reasons, i.e. without registering for any of our provided services listed under IV and without providing us with personal data in any other form, we may automatically collect additional information about you which will contain personal data only in limited cases and which is automatically recognised by our server, such as:
• your device type, screen resolution and browser version
• information on your operating system, including language settings
• the date and time of your requests
• information on the offers you have visited on our website
We use such information only to assist us in providing an effective service (e.g. to adapt our website to the needs of your device or to allow you to log in to our website), and to collect broad demographic information for anonymised, aggregated use.
The personal data automatically collected is necessary for us to provide the website, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR, and for our legitimate interest to guarantee the website’s stability and security, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR.
Personal data that is collected automatically is retained for 14 months and properly erased afterwards.

IV. Registration for our services

Our website offers free of charge newsletters, access to and download of content (e.g. journal articles). In order to use the aforementioned services you have to set up an account ("registration").

With regard to the registration of an account and its subsequent use, we use the authentication service of Springer Nature GmbH, Heidelberger Platz 3, 14197 Berlin, a separate service used as a global platform for user identification and login for ist-surfacetechnology.com and the specialist publishing houses of the Springer Nature group. To read the General Terms and Conditions of Use applicable to the Authentication Service please click see here: https://www.springerprofessional.de/en/general-terms-and-conditions-of-use-sso/6942586 and for the Authentication Service Privacy Policy, please see here https://www.springerprofessional.de/en/privacy-policy/833886.

When logging in on springerprofessional.de through the authentication service with your login data after registration we send the data you enter into the login form (usually your email address and a password) to the server of the authentication service together with a service URL. Based on these data the service validates your access requests. If access is granted the authentication service transfers the unique user ID generated for your user account. With these data we can provide you with the personalized settings you may already have selected on ist-surfacetechnology.com. In addition we can request relevant data required for providing services from the authentication service via a webservice e.g. to enable access to your subscriptions or other services you have booked.

For registration we process at least:
• Information (such as your name and email address) that is provided by registration
• Information in connection with an account sign-in facility (e.g. log-in and password details)
Whenever you complete transactions using our website, further mandatory information may be required, e.g. a birth date, area of interest of which you will of course be separately informed.

Data required for providing a service are marked as mandatory, provision of additional information is optional.
We will process the personal data you provide to:
• Identify you at sign-in
• Provide you with the services and information offered through the website or which you request
• Administer your account
• Communicate with you
• (behavioural) Advertising and profilingFor this, the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR.
The use of your personal data for behavioural advertising and profiling is done for the legitimate interest to improve your experience while using the website, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR.]
We use the personal data and contact data you provide by registration to inform you directly about our additional products and services. The use of your personal data for directly advertising related products and services is a legitimate interest for us as a provider of this website, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR.

You can object to the use of your personal data for direct marketing at any time. We will then refrain from any processing to the extent it is related to such purposes. You can inform us about your objection by contacting us at Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden GmbH, Abraham-Lincoln-Str. 46, 65189 Wiesbaden, springerfachmedien-wiesbaden@springer.com.

Your personal data is, in the absence of exceptions within the specific services mentioned below, retained for as long as your user account is used. After deletion of your account, your personal data will be erased with the next regular database cleaning. Statutory storage obligations or the need for legal actions that may arise from misconduct within the services or payment problems can lead to a longer retention of your personal data. In this case, we will inform you accordingly.

V. Information about the specific uses that require registration
For the use of the following services you have to set up an account as described under IV. Your customer account retains your personal data for future purchases and other activity. You can delete the personal data in your account’s settings. This processing is based on Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b.]
1. Remember me
If you activated the “remember me” functionality when logging in through the authentication service we place a cookie on your device that provides us with your login data (see section IV) and enables us to automatically log you in on your next visit.
In addition we place temporary cookies to identify the sites (URL) you have visited on springerprofessional.de. We do not collect any personal data or IP addresses of our users in these cookies. They are used exclusively to ensure the correct display of the site based on your preferences and are deleted as soon as you log out or close the browser window.
2. Test subscriptions and paid contracts
As a registered user, you have the option of subscribing to certain areas and/or journals and/or purchasing individual issues of journals or individual specialist articles for a fee. In addition, you may be able to access content free of charge for a limited period of time. The order is placed directly online. On the order form (also in the case of free test access) we ask for the following data in order to enable us to assign the form and carry out the order:
• Your first and last name, gender, title,
• Your postal address incl. telephone and, if applicable, a separate delivery address, provided that the selected subscription contains printed matter,
• Your specialization and focus of activity,
• If you order as a business customer, additionally company name, type and industry and sales tax identification number.
If you as a customer of a print subscription access the contents of your print subscription that can be called up online, we additionally collect and process the following data:
• License key of your company subscription or
• Customer number of your print subscription.

VI. Newsletter
After login you can subscribe to various editorial newsletters and the newsletter informing you about our newest products and services. If you consent to receiving a newsletter it will be sent to the email address you entered during registration. The legal basis for this processing is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. Your email address will be retained as long as you subscribe to our newsletter.
The newsletters contain two types of cookies that cannot be managed independently of the newsletter via the website's cookie settings. We set a cookie that, in addition to ensuring the newsletter display, also provides statistical information about user behavior (e.g. whether the newsletter was opened, what content was clicked). Our advertising partners may set cookies that provide comparable information about whether an advertisement was clicked on and from which newsletter. These cookies do not store any personal information.
You can unsubscribe from this service by opting out via the link provided in each newsletter or by changing your preferences in "My profile" (https://www.ist-surfacetechnology.com/my-profile) or by sending an email with your request to springerfachmedien-wiesbaden@springer.com.

VII. Automated decision making
We do not use your personal data for automated decision making which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.

VIII. Online advertising
This website uses online advertising services to present you with ads that meet your interests. Respective advertisement is labelled with the name of the provider, e.g. "Google-Ad". Additionally, this service helps us to improve our website and to make your visit more interesting. In order to do so, we collect statistical information about you that will be processed by the provider. This processing is based on Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR and represents our legitimate interest to improve your website experience and to promote our products and services.
1. Cookies, Web-beacons
Providers will be automatically informed about your visit on our website. For such purpose, a web beacon is used to place a cookie on your computer.
Please note that we neither have the control of the extent of personal data that is collected by the respective plug-in provider nor do we know the processing’s purpose or the period your personal data will be retained. Depending on the provider your personal data may be transferred to and processed in third countries, e.g. the United States. For further information about the potential risks of a cross border data transfer please refer to section XII.
It is possible that a provider discloses your personal data to its business partners, third parties or authorities.
You can prevent the installation of such a cookie
(i) by a respective setting of your browser that blocks the installation of third party cookies,
(ii) by deactivating the provider’s interest-related advertising under the link mentioned in the provider details below,
(iii) or generally blocking cookies under e.g
http://www.google.com/settings/ads/plugin.
Further information about the processing of your personal data in the provider’s course of operation is provided by its privacy policy. Moreover, you will be provided with further information with regard to your rights and settings concerning privacy. You can access the provider’s privacy policy by following the link in the provider details below.

2. Google Adwords
We use Google Adwords to advertise on our site and third party websites to previous visitors of our site. Google Adwords is provided by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA ("Google").
The advertisements are displayed on the basis of information that is stored in cookies which Google places on your computer. The text files include information, on your visit of our website, in particular product views that is read-out in the course of subsequent visits of this or third party websites for specific product recommendations. The cookie includes a random alias. In case you visit our website within a certain period of time and view our products, Google is able to recognize you by means of the alias. However, the information cannot be attributed to you personally. We or Google will not merge this information with your personal data and will not disclose any of your personal data to any third party.
You can prevent the storing and using of information in a cookie placed by Google by clicking on the following link http://www.google.de/ads/preferences and configuring your preferences there.
For more information about Google privacy policies see https://privacy.google.com/intl/en/# and https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/?hl=en.
You can prevent being tracked by choosing the appropriate preference in the privacy options of your browser or disable cookies or delete the cookie.
Alternatively you can deactivate cookies from third parties by opening the website of the network advertising initiative http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/.

IX. Analysis
For statistical analyses we use web analytics services to collect information about the use of this site.

1. General tracking information
The tools collect information such as
• Device and browser information (operating system information, Mobile device identifier, mobile operating system, etc.)
• IP address
• Page accessed, URL click stream (the chronological order of our internet sites you visited)
• Geographic location
• Time of visit
• Referring site, application, or service
We use the information we get from the providers only to determine the most useful information you are looking for, and to improve and optimise this website. We do not combine the information collected through the use of the tools with personal data.
Depending on the provider the information generated about your use of the website may be transferred to and processed in third countries, e.g. the United States. For further information about the potential risks of a cross border data transfer please refer to section XII. The tools collect only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit this site, rather than your name or any other identifying information. The provider will use this information in order to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activities and to provide other services relating to website and internet use to us.
The legal basis for this processing is Art. 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR and represents our legitimate interest to analyse our website’s traffic to improve the user’s experience and to optimise the website in general.

2. Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Irland (“Google”). On our behalf Google will use the information generated by a cookie for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet activity in connection with the use of the website.
We have activated the IP-anonymisation within the Google Analytics service, and your IP address will be truncated within the area of member states of the European Union or other parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases the whole IP address will be first transferred to a Google server in the USA and truncated there. The IP-address your browser conveys within the scope of Google Analytics will not be associated with any other data held by Google.
You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser; however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. In addition to that you may prevent the collection of the information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including you IP address) and the processing of this data by Google if you download and install the browser plug-in available at the following link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout
Further information about Google analytics and the Google privacy policy can be obtained from http://www.google.com/analytics/learn/privacy.html.

3.Google Fonts

Google Fonts is a service provided by Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland (“Google”) to display fonts in your browser. To collect the font from an interactive directory a call is sent that contains your IP address. To visualize fonts on our website we exclusively pull Google fonts from our own servers, no data is sent to google. If you consented to any tracking or advertising cookies a call may be initiated to display the fonts in the advertisement. We do not have any influence on whether the advertiser collects the font from Google directly or not, but your IP address will not be stored by Google. Further information can be found in the Google privacy policy https://policies.google.com/privacy and the Google Fonts documentation https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq#what_does_using_the_google_fonts_api_mean_for_the_privacy_of_my_users.

X. Third party content

1. YouTube
We use the "YouTube" service, which is operated by Google LLC ("Google"), Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA, to display and play videos technically correctly on the website. This processing is based on Art. 6 (1) sentence 1 f DSGVO. We pursue with it our legitimate interest in increasing your user experience and optimizing our services.
YouTube places a cookie on your device, in which certain information about the presentation and playback of videos is stored and transmitted to YouTube. We have no influence on the data processing by YouTube. For more information, please see YouTube/Google's privacy policy:
https://policies.google.com/privacy
There you will find information about your rights and settings regarding data protection.

2. reCAPTCHA
In order to protect our websites from spam, we use the reCAPTCHA service of Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA ("Google") in certain cases. This serves to distinguish whether the input is human or abusive through machine processing. With the query, your IP address and eventually other data required by Google for the service will be sent to Google. The deviating data protection regulations of Google Inc. are applicable for this service. For more information about reCAPTCHA and the privacy policy of Google Inc., please visit https://www.google.com/recaptcha and https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/.

3. Links to third party websites
This website may contain links to third party websites. We are not responsible for the content and the data collection on respective third party websites; please check the privacy policy of respective websites for information of respective websites’ data processing activities.

XI. Information sharing
Your personal data will be disclosed to the following third parties for the purposes mentioned above:
• Springer Customer Service Center GmbH, Tiergartenstrasse 15-17, 69121 Heidelberg.
Legal basis for the transfer of your personal data is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b and f GDPR and represents our legitimate interest to improve your user experience and optimize the quality of our services.
Some of the recipients mentioned above reside outside the EEA. For further information about cross border transfer in general and transfers outside of the EEA see 5.

We may disclose anonymous aggregate statistics about users of the website in order to describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers and other reputable third parties and for other lawful purposes, but these statistics will include no personal data.
We may disclose your personal data to following contractors who assist us in providing the services we offer through the website
• 2bMore B.V., Floridalaan 6, NL-3404 WV IJsselstein
• Knochwerke Michael Knoch in 44269 Dortmund, Germany
• Springer Customer Service Center GmbH, Tiergartenstrasse 15-17, 69121 Heidelberg, Germany (for Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia, Oceania) or Springer Customer Service Center LLC, 233 Spring St, New York, NY, 10013 United States (for North America, Central America, South America) provider of the online shop for processing orders.
In the event that we undergo re-organisation or are sold to a third party, any personal data we hold about you may be transferred to that re-organised entity or third party in compliance with applicable law.
We may disclose your personal data if legally entitled or required to do so (for example if required by law or by a court order).

XII. Cross border data transfers
Within the scope of our information sharing activities set out above, your personal data may be transferred to other countries (including countries outside the EEA) which may have different data protection standards from your country of residence. Please note that data processed in a foreign country may be subject to foreign laws and accessible to foreign governments, courts, law enforcement, and regulatory agencies. However, we will endeavour to take reasonable measures to maintain an adequate level of data protection when sharing your personal data with such countries.
In the case of a transfer outside of the EEA, this transfer is safeguarded by international agreements such as the Privacy Shield and EU Model Clauses. You can find further information about the aforementioned safeguards by contacting the Group Data Protection Officer via dataprotection@springer.com.

XIII. Security
We have reasonable state of the art security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of personal data under our control. For example, our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorised personnel have access to personal data. Whilst we cannot ensure or guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration of information will never occur, we use all reasonable efforts to prevent it.
You should bear in mind that submission of information over the internet is never entirely secure. We cannot guarantee the security of information you submit via our website whilst it is in transit over the internet and any such submission is at your own risk.

XIV. Data retention
We strive to keep our processing activities with respect to your personal data as limited as possible. In the absence of specific retention periods set out in this policy, your personal data will be retained only for as long as we need it to fulfil the purpose for which we have collected it and, if applicable, as long as required by statutory retention requirements.

XV. Your rights
Under the legislation applicable to you, you may be entitled to exercise some or all of the following rights:
1. require (i) information as to whether your personal data is retained and (ii) access to and/or duplicates of your personal data retained, including the purposes of the processing, the categories of personal data concerned, and the data recipients as well as potential retention periods;
2. request rectification, removal or restriction of your personal data, e.g. because (i) it is incomplete or inaccurate, (ii) it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, or (iii) the consent on which the processing was based has been withdrawn;
3. refuse to provide and – without impact to data processing activities that have taken place before such withdrawal – withdraw your consent to processing of your personal data at any time;
4. object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, that your personal data shall be subject to a processing. In this case, please provide us with information about your particular situation. After the assessment of the facts presented by you we will either stop processing your personal data or present you our compelling legitimate grounds for an ongoing processing;
5. take legal actions in relation to any potential breach of your rights regarding the processing of your personal data, as well as to lodge complaints before the competent data protection regulators;
6. require (i) to receive the personal data concerning you, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and (ii) to transmit those data to another controller without hindrance from our side; where technically feasible you shall have the right to have the personal data transmitted directly from us to another controller; and/or
7. not to be subject to any automated decision making, including profiling (automatic decisions based on data processing by automatic means, for the purpose of assessing several personal aspects) which produce legal effects on you or affects you with similar significance.
You may (i) exercise the rights referred to above or (ii) pose any questions or (iii) make any complaints regarding our data processing by contacting us using the contact details set out below.

XVI. Contacting us
Please submit any questions, concerns or comments you have about this privacy policy or any requests concerning your personal data by email to our Group Data Protection Officer. You can contact our Group Data Protection Officer via dataprotection@springer.com.

The information you provide when contacting us (Springer Customer Service Center GmbH, Tiergartenstrasse 15-17, 69121 Heidelberg, email: service@springerprofessional.de) will be processed to handle your request and will be erased when your request is completed. Alternatively, we will restrict the processing of the respective information in accordance with statutory retention requirements.

XVII. Amendments to this policy
We reserve the right to change this policy from time to time by updating our website respectively. Please visit the website regularly and check our respective current privacy policy. This policy was last updated on April 20 2020.