Privacy Policy

Personal data (usually referred to just as “data” below) will only be processed by us to the extent necessary and for the purpose of providing a functional and user-friendly website, including its contents, and the services offered there.

Per Art. 4 No. 1 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, i.e. the General Data Protection Regulation (hereinafter referred to as the "GDPR"), "processing" refers to any operation or set of operations such as collection, recording, organization, structuring, storage, adaptation, alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination, or otherwise making available, alignment, or combination, restriction, erasure, or destruction performed on personal data, whether by automated means or not.

The following privacy policy is intended to inform you in particular about the type, scope, purpose, duration, and legal basis for the processing of such data either under our own control or in conjunction with others. We also inform you below about the third-party components we use to optimize our website and improve the user experience which may result in said third parties also processing data they collect and control.

Our privacy policy is structured as follows:

I. Information about us as controllers of your data
II. The rights of users and data subjects
III. Information about the data processing

I. Information about us as controllers of your data

The party responsible for this website (the "controller") for purposes of data protection law is:

Liming Sun
School of Computer Science

II. The rights of users and data subjects

With regard to the data processing to be described in more detail below, users and data subjects have the right

to confirmation of whether data concerning them is being processed, information about the data being processed, further information about the nature of the data processing, and copies of the data (cf. also Art. 15 GDPR);
to correct or complete incorrect or incomplete data (cf. also Art. 16 GDPR);
to the immediate deletion of data concerning them (cf. also Art. 17 DSGVO), or, alternatively, if further processing is necessary as stipulated in Art. 17 Para. 3 GDPR, to restrict said processing per Art. 18 GDPR;
to receive copies of the data concerning them and/or provided by them and to have the same transmitted to other providers/controllers (cf. also Art. 20 GDPR);
to file complaints with the supervisory authority if they believe that data concerning them is being processed by the controller in breach of data protection provisions (see also Art. 77 GDPR).

In addition, the controller is obliged to inform all recipients to whom it discloses data of any such corrections, deletions, or restrictions placed on processing the same per Art. 16, 17 Para. 1, 18 GDPR. However, this obligation does not apply if such notification is impossible or involves a disproportionate effort. Nevertheless, users have a right to information about these recipients.

Likewise, under Art. 21 GDPR, users and data subjects have the right to object to the controller's future processing of their data pursuant to Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f) GDPR. In particular, an objection to data processing for the purpose of direct advertising is permissible.

III. Information about the data processing

Your data processed when using our website will be deleted or blocked as soon as the purpose for its storage ceases to apply, provided the deletion of the same is not in breach of any statutory storage obligations or unless otherwise stipulated below.

Server data

For technical reasons, the following data sent by your internet browser to us or to our server provider will be collected, especially to ensure a secure and stable website: These server log files record the type and version of your browser, operating system, the website from which you came (referrer URL), the webpages on our site visited, the date and time of your visit, as well as the IP address from which you visited our site.

The data thus collected will be temporarily stored, but not in association with any other of your data.

The basis for this storage is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in the improvement, stability, functionality, and security of our website.

The data will be deleted within no more than seven days, unless continued storage is required for evidentiary purposes. In which case, all or part of the data will be excluded from deletion until the investigation of the relevant incident is finally resolved.

Cookies

a) Session cookies

We use cookies on our website. Cookies are small text files or other storage technologies stored on your computer by your browser. These cookies process certain specific information about you, such as your browser, location data, or IP address.

This processing makes our website more user-friendly, efficient, and secure, allowing us, for example, to display our website in different languages or to offer a shopping cart function.

The legal basis for such processing is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. b) GDPR, insofar as these cookies are used to collect data to initiate or process contractual relationships.

If the processing does not serve to initiate or process a contract, our legitimate interest lies in improving the functionality of our website. The legal basis is then Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f) GDPR.

When you close your browser, these session cookies are deleted.

b) Third-party cookies

If necessary, our website may also use cookies from companies with whom we cooperate for the purpose of advertising, analyzing, or improving the features of our website.

Please refer to the following information for details, in particular for the legal basis and purpose of such third-party collection and processing of data collected through cookies.

c) Disabling cookies

You can refuse the use of cookies by changing the settings on your browser. Likewise, you can use the browser to delete cookies that have already been stored. However, the steps and measures required vary, depending on the browser you use. If you have any questions, please use the help function or consult the documentation for your browser or contact its maker for support. Browser settings cannot prevent so-called flash cookies from being set. Instead, you will need to change the setting of your Flash player. The steps and measures required for this also depend on the Flash player you are using. If you have any questions, please use the help function or consult the documentation for your Flash player or contact its maker for support.

If you prevent or restrict the installation of cookies, not all of the functions on our site may be fully usable.

Contact

If you contact us via email or the contact form, the data you provide will be used for the purpose of processing your request. We must have this data in order to process and answer your inquiry; otherwise we will not be able to answer it in full or at all.

The legal basis for this data processing is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. b) GDPR.

Your data will be deleted once we have fully answered your inquiry and there is no further legal obligation to store your data, such as if an order or contract resulted therefrom.

CloudFlare

To secure our website and to optimize loading times, we use the CloudFlare CDN (content delivery network). This is a service of Cloudflare Inc., 101 Townsend Street, San Francisco, California 94107, USA, hereinafter referred to as “CloudFlare”.

Through certification according to the EU-US Privacy Shield

https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000GnZKAA0&status=Active

CloudFlare guarantees that it will follow the EU’s data protection regulations when processing data in the United States.

The legal basis for collecting and processing this information is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in the secure operation of our website and in its optimization.

If you access our website, your queries are forwarded to CloudFlare servers. Statistical access data about your visit to our website is collected and CloudFlare stores a cookie on your terminal device via your browser. Access data includes

your IP address;
the page(s) on our site that you access;
type and version of internet browser you are using;
your operating system;
the website from which you came prior to visiting our website (referrer URL);
your length of stay on our site; and
the frequency with which our pages are accessed.

The data is used by CloudFlare for statistical evaluations of the accesses as well as for the security and optimization of the offer.

If you do not agree to this processing, you have the option of preventing the installation of cookies by making the appropriate settings in your browser. Further details can be found in the section about cookies above.

CloudFlare offers further information about its data collection and processing as well your rights and your options for protecting your privacy at this link:

https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/.

Cloudinary

In order to optimise the retrieval speed, design and display of the graphics of our website on different end devices, we use the Cloudinary service, a content delivery network ("CDN"). This is a service operated by Cloudinary Ltd, 3400 Central Expressway, Suite 110, Santa Clara, CA 95051, USA.

To be able to deliver the graphics of our website quickly, the service accesses corresponding files from a third party server that collects your IP address. We have no influence on whether your IP address is processed by third parties for statistical purposes.

Cloudinary provides further data protection information at

https://cloudinary.com/privacy.

The legal basis is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in the acceleration of the loading times of our website and its optimisation.

For the transfer of data from the EU to the USA, Cloudinary refers to so-called standard data protection clauses of the European Commission, which are supposed to ensure compliance with the European level of data protection in the USA.

Google Docs

To show and play presentations or documents, this website uses the embedding function, provided by Google Docs, a service provided by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA

Through certification according to the EU-US Privacy Shield

https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI&status=Active

Google guarantees that they will follow the EU’s data protection regulations when processing data in the United States.

We use Google Docs to show you documents. The legal basis is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in improving the quality of our website.

To find out more about Google’s data protection policy and how this provider gathers and uses your data, please visit http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

Google Fonts

Our website uses Google Fonts to display external fonts. This is a service provided by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 (hereinafter: Google).

Through certification according to the EU-US Privacy Shield

https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI&status=Active

Google guarantees that it will follow the EU’s data protection regulations when processing data in the United States.

To enable the display of certain fonts on our website, a connection to the Google server in the USA is established whenever our website is accessed.

The legal basis is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in the optimization and economic operation of our site.

When you access our site, a connection to Google is established from which Google can identify the site from which your request has been sent and to which IP address the fonts are being transmitted for display.

Google offers detailed information at

https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated

https://policies.google.com/privacy

in particular on options for preventing the use of data.

Google reCAPTCHA

Our website uses Google reCAPTCHA to check and prevent automated servers (“bots”) from accessing and interacting with our website. This is a service provided by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 (hereinafter: Google).

Through certification according to the EU-US Privacy Shield

https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI&status=Active

Google guarantees that it will follow the EU’s data protection regulations when processing data in the United States.

This service allows Google to determine from which website your request has been sent and from which IP address the reCAPTCHA input box has been used. In addition to your IP address, Google may collect other information necessary to provide and guarantee this service.

The legal basis is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in the security of our website and in the prevention of unwanted, automated access in the form of spam or similar.

Google offers detailed information at

https://policies.google.com/privacy

concerning the general handling of your user data.

Statcounter web analytics

We use Statcounter on our website. This is a web traffic analysis tool. The company is based in Dublin. Statcounter is used to analyze how our website is used. The legal basis is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in the analysis, optimization, and economic operation of our site.To analyze usage behavior, Statcounter stores cookies on your device via your browser. If you do not agree to this processing, you have the option of preventing the installation of cookies by making the appropriate settings in your browser. Further details can be found in the section about cookies above.

In addition, you can learn how Statcounter uses cookies at the following link

https://statcounter.com/about/cookies/

It's possible to set up your computer to automatically refuse 3rd party analytics cookies from statcounter.com.

Twitter plug-in

Our website uses the plug-in of the Twitter social network. The Twitter service is operated by Twitter Inc., 795 Folsom St., Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA (“Twitter”).

Through certification according to the EU-US Privacy Shield

https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000TORzAAO&status=Active

Twitter guarantees that it will follow the EU’s data protection regulations when processing data in the United States.

The legal basis is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in improving the quality of our website.

If the plug-in is stored on one of the pages you visit on our website, your browser will download an icon for the plug-in from Twitter’s servers in the USA. For technical reasons, it is necessary for Twitter to process your IP address. In addition, the date and time of your visit to our website will also be recorded.

If you are logged in to Twitter while visiting one of our plugged-in websites, the information collected by the plug-in from your specific visit will be recognized by Twitter. The information collected may then be assigned to your personal account at Twitter. If, for example, you use the Twitter Tweet button, this information will be stored in your Twitter account and may be published on the Twitter platform. To prevent this, you must either log out of Twitter before visiting our site or make the appropriate settings in your Twitter account.

Further information about the collection and use of data as well as your rights and protection options in Twitter’s privacy policy found at

https://twitter.com/privacy

Vimeo

We use Vimeo to display videos on our website. This is a service of Vimeo, LLC, 555 West 18th Street, New York, New York 10011, USA, hereinafter referred to as “Vimeo.”

Some of the user data is processed on Vimeo servers in the USA. Through certification according to the EU-US Privacy Shield

(https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt00000008V77AAE&status=Active)

Vimeo guarantees that it will follow the EU’s data protection regulations when processing data in the United States.

The legal basis for collecting and processing this information is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in improving the quality of our website.

When you access a page on our website that has Vimeo embedded in it, a connection to Vimeo’s servers in the USA is established. For technical reasons, it is necessary for Vimeo to process your IP address. In addition, the date and time of your visit to our website will also be recorded.

If you are logged into Vimeo while visiting one of our webpages containing a Vimeo video, Vimeo will associate information about your interaction with our site to your Vimeo account. If you wish to prevent this, you must either log out of Vimeo before visiting our website or configure your Vimeo user account accordingly.

For the purpose of functionality and usage analysis, Vimeo uses Google Analytics. Google Analytics stores cookies on your terminal device via your browser and transmits information about the use of those websites in which a Vimeo video is embedded to Google. It is possible that Google will process this information in the USA.

The legal basis for collecting and processing this information is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in improving the quality of our website and in Vimeo’s legitimate interest in statistically analyzing user behavior for optimization and marketing purposes.

Vimeo offers further information about its data collection and processing as well your rights and your options for protecting your privacy at this link: http://vimeo.com/privacy.

YouTube

We use YouTube on our website. This is a video portal operated by YouTube LLC, 901 Cherry Ave, 94066 San Bruno, CA, USA, hereinafter referred to as “YouTube”.

YouTube is a subsidiary of Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA, hereinafter referred to as “Google”.

Through certification according to the EU-US Privacy Shield

https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI&status=Active

Google and its subsidiary YouTube guarantee that they will follow the EU’s data protection regulations when processing data in the United States.

We use YouTube in its advanced privacy mode to show you videos. The legal basis is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in improving the quality of our website. According to YouTube, the advanced privacy mode means that the data specified below will only be transmitted to the YouTube server if you actually start a video.

Without this mode, a connection to the YouTube server in the USA will be established as soon as you access any of our webpages on which a YouTube video is embedded.

This connection is required in order to be able to display the respective video on our website within your browser. YouTube will record and process at a minimum your IP address, the date and time the video was displayed, as well as the website you visited. In addition, a connection to the DoubleClick advertising network of Google is established.

If you are logged in to YouTube when you access our site, YouTube will assign the connection information to your YouTube account. To prevent this, you must either log out of YouTube before visiting our site or make the appropriate settings in your YouTube account.

For the purpose of functionality and analysis of usage behavior, YouTube permanently stores cookies on your device via your browser. If you do not agree to this processing, you have the option of preventing the installation of cookies by making the appropriate settings in your browser. Further details can be found in the section about cookies above.

Further information about the collection and use of data as well as your rights and protection options in Google’s privacy policy found at

https://policies.google.com/privacy