Privacy
Privacy Policy
Section 1 – Information on Gathering Personal Data
(1) In the following we wish to inform you about the personal data we gather when you use our website. Personal data means any data that relates to you personally, such as name, address, e‑mail addresses, website user behaviour.
(2) The controller, pursuant to Art. 4 (7) of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is German Sweets e.V., Schumannstraße 4-6, 53113 Bonn, Germany (cf. our legal notice). Our data protection officer can be contacted at: Data protection (Datenschutz) German Sweets e.V., Schumannstraße 4-6, 53113 Bonn, germansweets@germansweets.de.
(3) If you contact us via e‑mail, this also verifies the required legitimate interest in the data being processed. If you use this way of contacting us, the data entered into the input mask is transmitted to us and is stored. This data is:
form of address, name, first name, company, postal address, telephone and fax number, e‑mail address, and details on your subject of interest.
Alternatively you may choose to contact us via the e‑mail address we have provided. In this case the personal data provided in your e‑mail is stored by us. The legal basis for this data processing is Art. 6 (1) (a) of the GDPR.
You give us your consent to processing your data as part of the data submission process together with the following text:
“By submitting this message I consent to my contact data being used to contact me a single time for the purpose stated. I may revoke this consent with future effect at any time – including via e‑mail sent to: germansweets@germansweets.de.
We erase the data gathered in this connection as soon as its storage is no longer required or we restrict its processing where statutory record-preserving requirements apply.
Your contact data is stored in a jointly controlled database – within the meaning of Art. 26 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – this database being shared by the following organisations – the Association of the German Confectionery Industry (BDSI), the German Association for the Promotion of Exports of Chocolate, Confectionery, Biscuits, Snacks, and Ice-cream (German Sweets), the German Cocoa and Chocolate Foundation (Stiftung der Deutschen Kakao- und Schokoladenwirtschaft), the German Confectionery Promotion Company (Süßwarenförderungs-GmbH), the Advisory Board of the International Sweets and Biscuits Fair (AISM), the German Industrial Disputes Support Fund Association (Arbeitskampf-Unterstützungsfonds e.V.), and the German Committee of Industrial Users of Sugar (IZZ).
(4) If we commission service providers to perform individual functions of our service offering or if we wish to use your data for advertising purposes, we shall inform you about the respective activities in detail as subsequently stated. In this connection we shall also state the criteria set for data storage duration.
Section 2 – Legal Basis
Your personal data is processed with your consent or on the basis of statutory permission. In as far as we obtain consent for processing personal data, the legal basis for this data processing is Art. 6 (1) (a) of the GDPR.
In as far as personal data is processed for the purpose of performance of a contract to which you are a contractual party, the legal basis for this data processing is Art. 6 (1) b) of the GDPR. In as far as personal data is processed for the purpose of compliance with a statutory obligation to which we are subject by law, the legal basis for this data processing is Art. 6 (1) (c) of the GDPR. In the event that the vital interests of the data subject or a different natural person make a processing of personal data necessary, the legal basis for this data processing is Art. 6(1) (d) of the GDPR.
If such data processing is required to protect our legitimate interests or those of a third party and if your interests, your basic rights and basic freedoms do not override such interests, the legal basis for this data processing is Art. 6 (1) (f) of the GDPR.
Section 3 – Your Rights
(1) You have the following rights with respect to your personal data stored by us:
- right of access to personal data,
- right to correction or erasure of personal data,
- right to restricted processing of personal data,
- right to objection against the processing of personal data,
- right to data portability.
(2) In addition, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection regulatory authority against our processing your personal data.
(3) If you given us your consent to process your personal data, you can revoke this consent at any time – including per e‑mail: germansweets@germansweets.de. Such a revocation does not affect the legality of data processing conducted up to that point in time.
Section 4 – Gathering of Personal Data when You Visit Our Website
(1) If you are using the website simply for information purposes, i.e. if you do not register or provide us with other information, then we only gather the personal data which your browser transmits to our server. If you wish to look at our website, we gather the following data which we need for technical purposes to show you our website and ensure the stability and security of its use (the legal basis for this being Art. 6 (1) (f) of the GDPR):
- IP address
- date and time of information request
- time difference to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
- content of query (concrete web page)
- access status/HTTP status code
- respectively transmitted data volume
- originating web page of the query
- browser
- operating system and its user interface
- language and version of the browser software.
(2) In addition to the aforementioned data, cookies are stored on your device when you use our website. Cookies are small text files which are allocated to the browser you are using and stored on your hard disk, via which certain information is passed on to the cookie-setting entity (in this case us). Cookies cannot execute programs or transfer viruses to your device. They serve the general purpose of making the internet offering more user-friendly and more efficient.
(3) Use of cookies:
a) This website uses the following types of cookies, whose scope and function is explained in the following:
- transient cookies (cf. point b) below)
- persistent cookies (cf. point c) below)
b) Transient cookies are automatically deleted when you close your browser. These particularly include session cookies. The latter store a so-called session ID that allows different requests from your web browser to be attributed to the same session. This enables your device to be recognised if and when you return to our website. These session cookies are deleted when you log out or close your browser.
c) Persistent cookies are automatically deleted after a preset time which may differ depending on the respective type of cookie. You can delete the cookies at any time by accessing the security settings of your browser.
d) You may configure your browser settings as you wish and, for example, reject third-party cookies or all cookies. Please note that if you do this, you might not be able to make full use of all the functions on this website.
e) If you activate or tick the option “cookie login”, we will use cookies to identify you when you visit our website again, should you already have an account with us. Otherwise you would have to log in again at each new visit.
f) In as far as our processing activities are required, we pass your personal data to the following recipient categories: logistics partners; postal service providers; call centres; IT providers and third parties in accordance with Section 5 (3).
Your personal data is not transmitted to a third country.
Section 5 – Additional Functions and Offerings on our Website
(1) In addition to using our website for purely informational purposes, we offer various services which you may use should this be of interest to you. Usually this means providing additional personal data which we use to render the respective service and comply with the aforementioned data processing principles.
(2) We partially use external service providers for the purpose of processing your data. These are carefully selected by us and, if their compliance with the statutory data protection standards is verified, they are commissioned by us and are bound by our instructions and regularly subjected to verification checks.
(3) Furthermore, we may pass on your personal data to third parties so that we can conclude contracts or offer you similar services in cooperation with our partners. More detailed information on this is provided when you enter your personal data or is to be found in the description of our offering below.
Section 6 – Objection to, or Revocation of, Consent to Our Processing of Your Data
(1) If you give consent to your data being processed, you may revoke this consent at any time. The revocation of your consent affects the extent to which we are permitted to process your personal data after you have issued such a revocation.
(2) In as far as our processing of your personal data is based on the balance of interests, you may lodge an objection to this data processing. This is so if such data processing is, in particular, not required to perform a contract with you, as is respectively explained in the cases described below. When exercising this revocation right, we request that you name the reasons why we should not process your personal data as we do. Once we have received your revocation and the reasons for it, we shall review the circumstances of your case and either cease such data processing, adapt our data processing accordingly, or else name our cogent and legitimate reasons for continuing such data processing.
(3) Naturally you may at any time object to your personal data being processed for advertising and data analysis purposes. You may inform us of your objection to data processing for advertising purposes by mailing us at: germansweets@germansweets.de.
Section 7 – Use of our German Sweets Member Services
(1) As an employee (hereafter referred to as employee) of a member company, you have the option of logging into the German Sweets Member Services via a login on the website. Access to the Member Services offering is exclusively reserved for members of German Sweets and is not public. If you wish to use our portal as an employee of a member company, you will need to register by sending your e‑mail address and company details to our corresponding contact address germansweets@germansweets.de. After verification, you will be assigned a username and a one-time password which you will need to change after your first login. There is no real-name requirement; a pseudonym may be used. We use a one-time password procedure for the registration process, i.e. your registration is not concluded until you have registered using the temporary password and the username and have subsequently chosen a non-temporary password. In this regard, the aforementioned data is mandatory whereas all additional information may be voluntarily provided in the course of using our portal.
(2) If you use our Membership Services portal, we store your data within the course of your using the portal on the basis of the terms of service until such time as you choose to have your access terminated by mailing us at the e‑mail address germansweets@germansweets.de. What is more, we store your voluntarily provided data for the duration of your use of the portal in as far as you have not previously asked these to be deleted. You may have any of your data changed by mailing us at germansweets@germansweets.de; we do not provide the option of data self-management. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 (1) (f) of the GDPR. Our legitimate interest in this respect lies in the technical safeguarding of the Member Services portal and compliance with its terms of service.
(3) Your portal data is not visible to other users of the German Sweets Member Services portal.
(4) To prevent unauthorised third-party access to your personal data, your connection is encrypted via TLS technology.
Section 8 – Circular and Newsletter “Product News”
(1) With your consent and as an employee of a German Sweets member company you may subscribe to our circulars in which we inform you about various developments in the export markets, participations in trade fairs, training measures, and other export-related matters. To subscribe to the German Sweets circulars please contact our headquarters by letter or e‑mail, addressed to germansweets@germansweets.de, for example. Registration and subscription to the circulars is exclusively offered to employees of German Sweets member companies only.
(2) Importers of confectionery products have the opportunity of subscribing to the German Sweets newsletter “Product News” that is published several times a year. This contains information about new products from German Sweets members and their participation in international trade fairs. To subscribe to the newsletter, please send an e-mail to our headquarters, for example addressed to germansweets@germansweets.de, or register at https://www.germansweets.de/gs-en/exporteurdatenbank-en/importeurdatenbank-selbsterfassung-en/. Die Registrierung und ist ausschließlich Importeuren und Facheinkäufern von Süßwaren vorbehalten.
(3) The mandatory information required to subscribe to our circulars or newsletter consists of your e-mail address and the details of the company where you are employed or the mandatory information to be provided in filling out the registration form. After verifying your confirmation, we will save your data and e‑mail address for the purpose of sending you the newsletter. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 (1) (a) of the GDPR.
(4) You can revoke your consent to receiving the circulars or the newsletter at any time and cancel the newsletter. You may declare your revocation of consent by sending an e‑mail to germansweets@germansweets.de or by sending a message to the contact address provided in the legal notice.
Section 9 – Importers Database
Use of Your Personal Data from the Self-Registration Form by Importers
(1) By entering your data into this form you are self-registering as an importer of German confectionery in the German Sweets Importers Database. The Importers Database is used by over 100 member companies of German Sweets e.V. (German Association for the Promotion of Chocolate, Confectionery, Biscuit, Snack and Ice-cream Exports) to establish new worldwide business contacts. You will also receive information on our newsletter “Product News” and an invitation to our “Sweets Night” event which is staged on the eve of the International Sweets and Biscuits Fair (ISM) in Cologne.
(2) The personal data you provide to us within this self-registration process will only be used to initiate contact with exporters registered with German Sweets, to send you the German Sweets Product News, to invite you to our Sweets Night, and for corresponding technical administration purposes. Your details will not be disclosed to third parties.
(3) You have the right to revoke your consent with effect for the future at any time. In this case your personal data will be immediately deleted.
(4) You may request information on the storage of your personal data at any time.
Section 10 – Incorporation of google maps
On this website, we use the Google Maps service provided by Google. This allows us to display interactive maps directly on our website, enabling you to use the map function conveniently.
We use the so-called two-click solution. This means that when you visit our website, no personal data is initially transferred to the provider. We provide you with the option to communicate directly with the provider through our map. Only if you click on the marked field and thus activate it, will the provider receive the information that you have accessed the corresponding page of our online offering. Furthermore, the data mentioned under the section "Collection of Personal Data When Visiting Our Website" in this statement will be transmitted. This happens regardless of whether Google provides a user account through which you are logged in or if no user account exists. If you are logged in to Google, your data will be directly associated with your account. If you do not want your profile to be associated with Google, you must log out before activating the button. Google stores your data as usage profiles and uses them for advertising, market research, and/or demand-oriented design of its website. Such an evaluation is carried out particularly (even for users who are not logged in) to provide demand-oriented advertising and to inform other users of the social network about your activities on our website. You have the right to object to the creation of these user profiles, and you must contact Google to exercise this right.
Google also processes your personal data in the USA. We inform you, before you give consent according to Art. 49 para. 1 lit. a GDPR, that in the USA, without an adequacy decision and without appropriate safeguards, there might not be an adequate level of data protection, as data protection laws do not comply with the requirements of the GDPR, especially since data subjects' rights may not be enforceable. The above only takes place if you give us your consent. The legal basis is Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. a GDPR ("Consent"). This consent is voluntary. You can refuse it without providing reasons and without fearing any disadvantages. You can also revoke this consent at any time with future effect here without any disadvantages.
For more information on the purpose and scope of data collection and its processing, please refer to the provider’s privacy policies. There, you will also find further information on your rights in this regard and settings options for protecting your privacy: www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy.
Section 11 – Safety Notice
We use technical and organisational measures to protect your data against unauthorised access, loss, and destruction. Our security measures are subject to continuous improvement to stay current with state-of-the-art technological developments.
Section 12 - Privacy Notice for the Use of Online Meetings and Webinars as well as the "Digital Exchange Platform for Members of German Sweets" via "Microsoft Teams" in accordance with Articles 12 and 13 of the EU GDPR
We would like to inform you below about the processing of personal data in connection with the use of "Microsoft Teams."
1. Purpose of Processing
Use of Microsoft Teams in General
We use the tool "Microsoft Teams" to conduct teleconferences, online meetings, video conferences, and/or webinars (hereinafter referred to as "online meetings"). "Microsoft Teams" is a service provided by Microsoft Corporation.
Digital Exchange Platform for German Sweets Members
In particular, we also use "Microsoft Teams" to create a "digital exchange platform for German Sweets members" for communication among themselves. The data is used for making contacts and communication in the members' own interest. The digital exchange platform is exclusively intended for members.
2. Controller
The controller, as per Article 4, No. 7 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for data processing directly related to the operation of the "digital exchange platform for German Sweets members" or an "online meeting" planned by German Sweets, is German Sweets e.V., Schumannstraße 4-6, 53113 Bonn (see our imprint).
You can contact our Data Protection Officer at:
Data Protection c/o German Sweets e.V., Schumannstraße 4-6, 53113 Bonn, germansweets@germansweets.de
Note: If you access the "Microsoft Teams" website, the provider of "Microsoft Teams" is responsible for the data processing. Accessing the website is only necessary to download the software for using "Microsoft Teams."
If you do not want or cannot use the "Microsoft Teams" app, you can also use "Microsoft Teams" via your browser. The service is then provided via the "Microsoft Teams" website.
3. Which Data is Processed?
Various types of data are processed when using "Microsoft Teams." The scope of the data also depends on what data you provide before or during participation in an "online meeting."
The following personal data is processed:
- User Information: e.g., display name, email address (if applicable), profile picture (optional), preferred language
- When using the "digital exchange platform for German Sweets members," providing the company name is also mandatory.
- Meeting Metadata: e.g., date, time, meeting ID, phone numbers, location
- Text, Audio, and Video Data: You may have the opportunity to use the chat function in an "online meeting." In this case, the text inputs you make are processed to display them in the "online meeting." To enable video display and audio playback, the data from the microphone of your device and any video camera of the device are processed for the duration of the meeting. You can turn off or mute the camera or microphone yourself at any time via the "Microsoft Teams" application.
4. Scope of Processing
Use of Microsoft Teams in General
We generally use "Microsoft Teams" to conduct "online meetings." If we want to record "online meetings," we will inform you transparently in advance and, if necessary, ask for your consent.
If it is necessary to record the results of an online meeting, we will log the chat contents. However, this will generally not be the case. No automated decision-making within the meaning of Article 22 GDPR is used.
Digital Exchange Platform for German Sweets Members
Furthermore, we use "Microsoft Teams" to represent the "digital exchange platform for German Sweets members." Representatives of member companies can publish posts or contact individual other persons from member companies. The contributions in the exchange groups generally remain permanently visible to the members.
5. Legal Basis for Data Processing
If personal data of employees of German Sweets e.V. is processed, Section 26 of the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) is the legal basis for data processing. If personal data in connection with the use of "Microsoft Teams" is not required for establishing, conducting, or terminating the employment relationship but is nonetheless an essential part of using "Microsoft Teams," Article 6 (1) (f) GDPR is the legal basis for data processing. In these cases, our interest lies in the effective conduct of "online meetings."
In addition, the legal basis for data processing when conducting "online meetings" is Article 6 (1) (b) GDPR, provided that the meetings are conducted within the framework of contractual relationships.
If no contractual relationship exists, the legal basis is Article 6 (1) (f) GDPR. Here, too, our interest lies in the effective conduct of "online meetings."
6. Recipients / Sharing of Data
Personal data processed in connection with participation in the "digital exchange platform for German Sweets members" or "online meetings" is generally not shared with third parties unless it is specifically intended to be shared. Please note that content from the "digital exchange platform for German Sweets members" or from "online meetings," as with personal meetings, is often intended to communicate information to customers, interested parties, or third parties and is therefore intended to be shared.
Other Recipients: The provider of "Microsoft Teams" necessarily gains knowledge of the data mentioned above to the extent that this is provided for under our contract processing agreement with "Microsoft Teams."
7. Data Processing Outside the European Union
Data processing outside the European Union (EU) generally does not take place since we have restricted our storage location to data centers in the European Union. However, we cannot exclude the possibility that data routing takes place via Internet servers located outside the EU. This may especially be the case if participants in an "online meeting" are located in a third country.
However, the data is encrypted during transport over the Internet and thus protected against unauthorized access by third parties.
8. Your Rights as a Data Subject
You have the right to obtain information about your personal data. You can contact us at any time to request information.
If a request for information is not made in writing, please understand that we may require proof from you to verify that you are the person you claim to be.
Furthermore, you have the right to rectification or deletion or to restrict processing, as far as you are legally entitled to do so.
Finally, you have the right to object to the processing within the framework of the legal requirements.
There is also a right to data portability within the framework of data protection regulations.
9. Deletion of Data
We generally delete personal data when there is no longer a need for further storage. A requirement may particularly exist if the data is still needed to fulfill contractual services, check and grant or reject warranty and, if applicable, guarantee claims. In the case of statutory retention obligations, deletion is only considered after the expiration of the respective retention obligation.
10. Right to Lodge a Complaint with a Supervisory Authority
You have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority about our processing of personal data.
11. Changes to This Privacy Notice
We revise this privacy notice in the event of changes in data processing or other occasions that make this necessary. The current version is always available on this website.
German Sweets July 25, 2024