Usage Rights
Copyright © by
Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
All rights reserved.
All copyright for this Web site are owned in full by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.
Permission is granted to download or print material published on this site for personal use only. Its use for any other purpose, and in particular its commercial use or distribution, are strictly forbidden in the absence of prior written approval. Please address your requests for approval to:
Fraunhofer Institute for Open Communication Systems FOKUS
Kaiserin-Augusta-Allee 31
10589 Berlin
Phone +49 30 3463-7000
Notwithstanding this requirement, material may be downloaded or printed for use in connection with press reports on the activities of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft and its constituent institutes, on condition that the following terms are complied with:
No alterations may be made to pictorial content, with the exception of framing modifications to emphasize the central motif. The source must be quoted and two free reference copies must be sent to the above-mentioned address. Such usage is free of charge.
Disclaimer
We cannot assume any liability for the content of external pages. Solely the operators of those linked pages are responsible for their content.
We make every reasonable effort to ensure that the content of this Web site is kept up to date, and that it is accurate and complete. Nevertheless, the possibility of errors cannot be entirely ruled out. We do not give any warranty in respect of the timeliness, accuracy or completeness of material published on this Web site, and disclaim all liability for (material or non-material) loss or damage incurred by third parties arising from the use of content obtained from the Web site.
Registered trademarks and proprietary names, and copyrighted text and images, are not generally indicated as such on our Web pages. But the absence of such indications in no way implies that these names, images or text belong to the public domain in the context of trademark or copyright law.
Statement of Data Protection Conditions for the Internet
The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. (Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft) takes the protection of your personal data very seriously. When we process the personal data that is collected during your visits to our Web site, we always observe the rules laid down in the applicable data protection laws. Your data will not be disclosed publicly by us, nor transferred to any third parties without your consent.
1. Recording and processing of data in connection with access over the Internet
The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V. (Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft) takes the protection of your personal data very seriously. When we process the personal data that is collected during your visits to our Web site, we always observe the rules laid down in the applicable data protection laws. Your data will not be disclosed publicly by us, nor transferred to any third parties without your consent.
When you visit our Web site, our Web server makes a temporary record of each access and stores it in a log file. The following data are recorded, and stored until an automatic deletion date:
The purpose of recording these data is to allow use of the Web site (connection setup), for system security, for technical administration of the network infrastructure and in order to optimize our Internet service. The IP address is only evaluated in the event of fraudulent access to the network infrastructure of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.
Apart from the special cases cited above, we do not process personal data without first obtaining your explicit consent to do so. Pseudonymous user profiles can be created as stated under web analysis (see below).
2. Orders
If you order information material or other goods via our website, we will use the address data provided only for the purpose of processing your order.
3. Use and transfer of personal data
All use of your personal data is confined to the purposes stated above, and is only undertaken to the extent necessary for these purposes. Your data is not disclosed to third parties.
Personal data will not be transferred to government bodies or public authorities except in order to comply with mandatory national legislation or if the transfer of such data should be necessary in order to take legal action in cases of fraudulent access to our network infrastructure. Personal data will not be transferred for any other purpose.
4. Consent to use data in other contexts
The use of certain services on our website, such as newsletters or discussion forums, may require prior registration and involves a more substantial processing of personal data, such as longer term storage of email addresses, user IDs and passwords. We use such data only insofar as it has been sent to us by you in person and you have given us your express prior consent for this use. For example, we request your consent separately in the following cases:
4.1 Newsletters and press distribution
In order to register for a newsletter service provided by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, we need at least your email address so that we know where to send the newsletter. All other information you supply is on a voluntary basis, and will be only if you give your consent, for example to contact you directly or clear up questions concerning your email address. If you request delivery by post, we need your postal address. If you ask to be included on a press distribution list, we need to know which publication you work for, to allow us to check whether specific publications are actually receiving our press material.
As a general rule, we employ the double opt-in method for the registration. In other words, after you have registered for the service and informed us of your email address, you will receive an email in return from us, containing a link that you must use to confirm your registration. Your registration and confirmation will be recorded. The newsletter will not be sent until this has been done. This procedure is used to ensure that only you yourself can register with the newsletter service under the specified email address. You must confirm your registration as soon as possible after receiving our email, otherwise your registration and email address will be erased from our database. Until we receive your confirmation, our newsletter service will refuse to accept any other registration requests using this email address.
You can cancel subscriptions to our newsletters at any time. To do so, either send us an email or follow the link at the end of the newsletter.
4.2 Visitors’ books and forums
If you wish to sign up for an Internet forum run by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, we need at least a user ID, a password, and your email address. For your own protection, the registration procedure for this type of service, like that for the newsletters, involves you confirming your request using the link contained in the email we send you and you giving your consent to the use of further personal data where this is necessary to use the forum.
You can cancel your registration for this type of service at any time, by sending us an email via the Web page offering the service.
As a general rule, the content of visitors’ books and forums is not subject to any form of monitoring by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. Nevertheless, we reserve the right to delete posted contributions and to prohibit users from further use of the service at our own discretion, especially in cases where posted content contravenes the law or is deemed incompatible with the objectives of the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.
5. Cookies
We don’t normally use cookies on our Web site, but in certain exceptional cases we may use cookies which place technical sessioncontrol data in your browser’s memory. These data are automatically erased at the latest when you close your browser.
If, exceptionally, one of our applications requires the storage of personal data in a cookie, for instance a user ID, we will point out you to it.
Of course, it is perfectly possible to consult our Web site without the use of cookies. Please note, however, that most browsers are programmed to accept cookies in their default configuration. You can prevent this by changing the appropriate setting in the browser options. If you set the browser to refuse all cookies, this may restrict your use of certain functions on our Website.
6. Web analysis
Personal user profiles are not created. However, Section 15 (3) of the Telemedia Act (TMG) permits the use of user profiles under a pseudonym for the purpose of advertising, market research and the structuring of offers in line with the user's needs provided that the user does not object to this:
This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. ("Google"). Google Analytics uses "cookies", which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. In case of activation of the IP anonymization, Google will truncate/anonymize the last octet of the IP address for Member States of the European Union as well as for other parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases, the full IP address is sent to and shortened by Google servers in the USA. On behalf of the website provider Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage to the website provider. Google will not associate your IP address 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. Furthermore you can prevent Google's collection and use of data (cookies and IP address) by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available under https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en-GB.
You can refuse the use of Google Analytics by clicking on the following link. An opt-out cookie will be set on the computer, which prevents the future collection of your data when visiting this website: Disable Google Analytics
Additionally you can follow this link to download and install a browser plugin, which prevents Google to record and process your data (incl. your IP address). Read further information concerning the terms and conditions of use and data privacy. Please note that on this website, Google Analytics code is supplemented by "anonymizeIp" to ensure an anonymized collection of IP addresses (so called IP-masking).
7. Social plugins
We also use social plugins in some cases on our webpages, e.g. from the Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Google+ social networks. These are often technically operated in the USA or in other countries outside Germany and the EU and some are offered via national companies in the EU (see the websites www.facebook.de, www.twitter.de, www.youtube.de or www.google.de for the providers). The plugins are identified with the companies’ logo, comment fields or what are known as a “Like” or “+1” button.
If you open a page of our website in your web browser containing such a plugin, your web browser will create a direct connection to the servers of the respective provider in the country concerned.
By incorporating the plugins the provider is given at the least the information that you have visited a certain page on our website, and perhaps also other information that your web browser or the device you use also discloses. The content of the plugin is loaded by your web browser directly from the provider and incorporated into our website. If you are registered and have logged in with the provider concerned, your visit can also be assigned to your user account.
If you interact with a plugin, e.g. if you click on the “Like” button or enter a comment in a form field, your browser will also transmit this information directly to the provider where it will be saved and, if applicable, continue to be used and published.
Above all, marketing measures of the provider and the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft are the reason for the collection and use of the data as described and determine the extent of this. You can find details on this and on your rights and on ways in which you can prevent the collection and use of your data in order to protect your private sphere directly in the data privacy policy of the respective provider.
If you do not wish a provider to collect data on you through our website you must deactivate the plugins in your web browser. If you wish to avoid a link to any existing user account, you must log out before your visit to our website. By visiting our website, you declare your consent to the above provisions.
8. Security
The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft implements technical and organizational security measures to safeguard stored personal data against inadvertent or deliberate manipulation, loss or destruction and against access by unauthorized persons. Our security measures are continuously improved in line with technological progress.
9. Links to Web sites operated by other providers
Our Web pages may contain links to other providers’ Web pages. We would like to point out that this statement of data protection conditions applies exclusively to the Web pages managed by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft. We have no way of influencing the practices of other providers with respect to data protection, nor do we carry out any checks to ensure that they conform with the relevant legislation.
10. Right to information and contact data
You have a legal right to inspect any stored data concerning your person, and also the right to demand their correction or deletion, and to withdraw your consent for their further use.
In some cases, if you are a registered user of certain services provided by the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, we offer you the possibility of inspecting these data online, and even of deleting or modifying the data yourself, via a user account.
If you wish to obtain information on your personal data, or want us to correct or erase such data, or if you have any other questions concerning the use of personal data held by us, please contact:
data-protection@zv.fraunhofer.de
11. Acceptance, validity and modification of data protection conditions
By using our Web site, you implicitly agree to accept the use of your personal data as specified above. This present statement of data protection conditions came into effect on October 1st, 2013. As our Web site evolves, and new technologies come into use, it may become necessary to amend the statement of data protection conditions. The Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft reserves the right to modify its data protection conditions at any time, with effect as of a future date. We recommend that you reread the latest version from time to time.