Information on Data Security and Privacy for Users

Personal data, use and purpose of use
Personal data is information which can be used to determine your identity. It includes information such as your correct name, home address, communication address and telephone number. It does not include information which cannot be directly linked to your true identity (e.g. preferred websites or number of site users).

As a rule, our on-line offering can be used without having to reveal your identity. If you wish to order a product or arrange a subscription, we ask you for your name and other personal details. It is up to you whether you enter this data, which is used to send you the information or products you have requested, to supply you with other product information, news or advertising material and to find out more about our web users. You can decide to stop the supply of such information at any time. For details on how to do so, please refer to the section entitled "Deletion of your data".

When you access one of our sites, data is stored on our servers for back-up purposes. Such data (e.g. IP address, date, time and pages viewed) might enable you to be identified. It is possible that SQS might evaluate such data in order to examine user behaviour. Such evaluation will not be based on personal data. We reserve the right to evaluate records made anonymous for statistical purposes.

Data security within the SQS Group
Since the SQS Group is a Europe-wide organisation, its companies operate a series of websites outside Germany. All information which you send to one of our sites in any country or language can be transferred electronically to a server for one of these sites in another country. There, the information can be used, saved or processed outside of the country in which it was collected. However, your security interests are still protected as these SQS sites are subject to our international data security and privacy guidelines described herein.

Should the data be processed centrally for the purpose of improving our customer service or within the SQS Group (SQS and subsidiaries/affiliated companies) for technical reasons, we will take appropriate measures to ensure that the data security and privacy interests of our customers are fully protected. Our employees are bound by contractual data security and privacy provisions.

E-mail addresses
If you give us your e-mail address, we will communicate with you by e-mail. We will not, however, pass your e-mail address on to third parties outside of the SQS Group. You may decide at any time to stop us sending you e-mails. For details on how to do so, please refer to the section entitled "Deletion of your data".

Depending on the settings in your e-mail program, personal data may be automatically transferred when you send an e-mail to SQS; this data will also be handled in confidence by SQS.

Forms
Our site contains order forms which are filled out in order to request information, products and services. On some of these forms, you will be asked to give financial data, such as your bank account details or credit card number. We guarantee that all financial data you send will be used solely for the purpose of billing and payment processing.
On-line registration for our congresses is carried out via an SSL server.

Links to other sites
This site contains links to other sites. SQS has no influence on the data security and privacy provisions for or the content of other websites.

Forwarding of personal data to third parties
SQS will not supply your personal data to third parties outside of the SQS Group for use. However, it is possible, in order to continue offering you the best possible service and useful additional services in future, that we will have the SQS customer database analysed in anonymous form and improved by third parties. Naturally, in such cases your data will be treated with the strictest confidentiality. It is also possible that we will provide to trustworthy third parties statistics concerning our customers, our turnover, customer behaviour and related site information. However, these statistics will be summarised to such an extent that it will no longer be possible to identify individuals.

If data is forwarded to service providers during order-data processing, the service providers are bound by Germany's Federal Data Protection Act (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz), other statutory regulations and contractually by the data security and privacy rules of SQS. Where obliged by law or court ruling, we will hand over your data to authorised bodies.

Deletion of your data
You can have your data deleted by SQS with effect for the future. You can avail yourself of this right at any time. If you no longer wish to receive messages from us or want us to delete your data, please send an e-mail with that request to E-Mail .
Data for accounting and billing purposes shall not be affected by such deletion.

Cancelling a Software Quality News subscription
If you no longer wish to receive our free Software Quality News newsletter, you can cancel your subscription at any time. Simply send an e-mail to E-Mail with the word "Abmelden" in the subject line.

Consent
Use of our website denotes consent to information being saved and used as described in this document. Since any amendments to the data security and privacy declaration will be made on the website, you can establish at any time what information we save and how we use it.