Privacy Policy

Last updated May 14, 2024

This privacy notice for identity.vc (ECONA Management GmbH) ('we', 'us', or 'our'), describes how and why we might collect, store, use, and/or share ('process') your information when you use our services ('Services'), such as when you:

  • Visit our website at https://identity.vc/, or any website of ours that links to this privacy notice

  • Engage with us in other related ways, including any sales, marketing, or events

Questions or concerns? Reading this privacy notice will help you understand your privacy rights and choices. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, please do not use our Services. If you still have any questions or concerns, please contact us at econa@ws-datenschutz.de.

SUMMARY OF KEY POINTS

This summary provides key points from our privacy notice, but you can find out more details about any of these topics by clicking the link following each key point or by using our table of contents below to find the section you are looking for.

What personal information do we process? When you visit, use, or navigate our Services, we may process personal information depending on how you interact with us and the Services, the choices you make, and the products and features you use. 

Do we process any sensitive personal information? We may process sensitive personal information, when necessary, with your consent or as otherwise permitted by applicable law. 

Do we receive any information from third parties? We may receive information from public databases, marketing partners, social media platforms, and other outside sources. 

How do we process your information? We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our Services, communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law. We may also process your information for other purposes with your consent. We process your information only when we have a valid legal reason to do so. 

In what situations and with which parties do we share personal information? We may share information in specific situations and with specific third parties. 

How do we keep your information safe? We have organisational and technical processes and procedures in place to protect your personal information. However, no electronic transmission over the internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorised third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information. 

What are your rights? Depending on where you are located geographically, the applicable privacy law may mean you have certain rights regarding your personal information. 

How do you exercise your rights? The easiest way to exercise your rights is by contacting us via econa@ws-datenschutz.de. We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Want to learn more about what we do with any information we collect? Review the privacy notice in full.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

2. HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?

3. WHAT LEGAL BASES DO WE RELY ON TO PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

4. WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

5. IS YOUR INFORMATION TRANSFERRED INTERNATIONALLY?

6. HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?

7. HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE?

8. DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM MINORS?

9. WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?

10. CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURES

11. DO UNITED STATES RESIDENTS HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?

12. ARE WE USING COOKIES?

13. DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE?

14. HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?

15. HOW CAN YOU REVIEW, UPDATE, OR DELETE THE DATA WE COLLECT FROM YOU?


1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

Personal information you disclose to us

In Short: We collect personal information that you provide to us.

We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when you express an interest in obtaining information about us or our products and Services, when you participate in activities on the Services, or otherwise when you contact us.

Personal Information Provided by You. The personal information that we collect depends on the context of your interactions with us and the Services, the choices you make, and the products and features you use. The personal information we collect may include the following:

  • Names

  • Email addresses

  • Mailing addresses

  • Phone numbers

  • Job titles

  • Usernames

  • Passwords

  • Contact preferences

  • Billing addresses

  • IP address of the requesting computer

  • Date and time of access

  • Name and URL of the accessed file

  • Amount of data transferred

  • Message indicating whether the access was successful

  • Identification data of the browser and operating system used

  • Website from which access was made

  • Name of your internet service provider

Sensitive Information. When necessary, with your consent or as otherwise permitted by applicable law, we process the following categories of sensitive information:

  • data about a person's sex life or sexual orientation

All personal information that you provide to us must be true, complete, and accurate, and you must notify us of any changes to such personal information.

Information collected from other sources

In Short: We may collect limited data from public databases, marketing partners, and other outside sources.

In order to enhance our ability to provide relevant marketing, offers, and services to you and update our records, we may obtain information about you from other sources, such as public databases, joint marketing partners, affiliate programs, data providers, and from other third parties. This information includes mailing addresses, job titles, email addresses, phone numbers, intent data (or user behaviour data), Internet Protocol (IP) addresses, social media profiles, social media URLs, and custom profiles, for purposes of targeted advertising and event promotion.

We also collect information from tools utilized on our website. This is the hosting website service provider, service provider for possible contact forms (such as Typeform), as well as possible analysis and tracking tools for marketing purposes. For more information, reach out to econa@ws-datenschutz.de

2. HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?

In Short: We process your information to provide, improve, and administer our Services, communicate with you, for security and fraud prevention, and to comply with law. We may also process your information for other purposes with your consent.

We process your personal information for a variety of reasons, depending on how you interact with our Services, including:

  • To deliver and facilitate delivery of services to the user. We may process your information to provide you with the requested service.

  • To respond to user inquiries/offer support to users. We may process your information to respond to your inquiries and solve any potential issues you might have with the requested service.
    To enable user-to-user communications. We may process your information if you choose to use any of our offerings that allow for communication with another user.

  • To request feedback. We may process your information when necessary to request feedback and to contact you about your use of our Services.

  • To send you marketing and promotional communications. We may process the personal information you send to us for our marketing purposes, if this is in accordance with your marketing preferences. You can opt out of our marketing emails at any time. For more information, see 'WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?' below.

  • To deliver targeted advertising to you. We may process your information to develop and display personalised content and advertising tailored to your interests, location, and more.

  • To protect our Services. We may process your information as part of our efforts to keep our Services safe and secure, including fraud monitoring and prevention.

  • To identify usage trends. We may process information about how you use our Services to better understand how they are being used so we can improve them.

  • To determine the effectiveness of our marketing and promotional campaigns. We may process your information to better understand how to provide marketing and promotional campaigns that are most relevant to you.

  • To save or protect an individual's vital interest. We may process your information when necessary to save or protect an individual’s vital interest, such as to prevent harm.

3. WHAT LEGAL BASES DO WE RELY ON TO PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?

In Short: We only process your personal information when we believe it is necessary and we have a valid legal reason (i.e., legal basis) to do so under applicable law, like with your consent, to comply with laws, to provide you with services to enter into or fulfil our contractual obligations, to protect your rights, or to fulfil our legitimate business interests.

If you are located in the EU or UK, this section applies to you.

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and UK GDPR require us to explain the valid legal bases we rely on in order to process your personal information. As such, we may rely on the following legal bases to process your personal information:

  • Consent. We may process your information if you have given us permission (i.e. consent) to use your personal information for a specific purpose. You can withdraw your consent at any time.

  • Performance of a Contract. We may process your personal information when we believe it is necessary to fulfil our contractual obligations to you, including providing our Services or at your request prior to entering into a contract with you.

  • Legitimate Interests. We may process your information when we believe it is reasonably necessary to achieve our legitimate business interests and those interests do not outweigh your interests and fundamental rights and freedoms. For example, we may process your personal information for some of the purposes described in order to:

    • Send users information about special offers and discounts on our products and services

    • Develop and display personalised and relevant advertising content for our users

    • Analyse how our Services are used so we can improve them to engage and retain users

    • Support our marketing activities

    • Diagnose problems and/or prevent fraudulent activities

    • Understand how our users use our products and services so we can improve user experience

  • Legal Obligations. We may process your information where we believe it is necessary for compliance with our legal obligations, such as to cooperate with a law enforcement body or regulatory agency, exercise or defend our legal rights, or disclose your information as evidence in litigation in which we are involved.

  • Vital Interests. We may process your information where we believe it is necessary to protect your vital interests or the vital interests of a third party, such as situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person.

If you are located in Canada, this section applies to you.

We may process your information if you have given us specific permission (i.e. express consent) to use your personal information for a specific purpose, or in situations where your permission can be inferred (i.e. implied consent). You can withdraw your consent at any time.

In some exceptional cases, we may be legally permitted under applicable law to process your information without your consent, including, for example:

  • If collection is clearly in the interests of an individual and consent cannot be obtained in a timely way

  • For investigations and fraud detection and prevention

  • For business transactions provided certain conditions are met

  • If it is contained in a witness statement and the collection is necessary to assess, process, or settle an insurance claim

  • For identifying injured, ill, or deceased persons and communicating with next of kin

  • If we have reasonable grounds to believe an individual has been, is, or may be victim of financial abuse

  • If it is reasonable to expect collection and use with consent would compromise the availability or the accuracy of the information and the collection is reasonable for purposes related to investigating a breach of an agreement or a contravention of the laws of Canada or a province

  • If disclosure is required to comply with a subpoena, warrant, court order, or rules of the court relating to the production of records

  • If it was produced by an individual in the course of their employment, business, or profession and the collection is consistent with the purposes for which the information was produced

  • If the collection is solely for journalistic, artistic, or literary purposes

  • If the information is publicly available and is specified by the regulations


4. WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

In Short: We may share information in specific situations described in this section and/or with the following third parties.

We may need to share your personal information in the following situations:

  • Business Transfers. We may share or transfer your information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company.

  • Affiliates. We may share your information with our affiliates, in which case we will require those affiliates to honour this privacy notice. Affiliates include our parent company and any subsidiaries, joint venture partners, or other companies that we control or that are under common control with us.

  • Business Partners. We may share your information with our business partners to offer you certain products, services, or promotions.

5. IS YOUR INFORMATION TRANSFERRED INTERNATIONALLY?

In Short: We may transfer, store, and process your information in countries other than your own.

Our servers are located in Germany. If you are accessing our Services from outside Germany, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed by us in our facilities and by those third parties with whom we may share your personal information (see 'WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?' above), in the United Kingdom, United States, EU countries, and other countries.

If you are a resident in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom (UK), or Switzerland, then these countries may not necessarily have data protection laws or other similar laws as comprehensive as those in your country. However, we will take all necessary measures to protect your personal information in accordance with this privacy notice and applicable law.

European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses:

We have implemented measures to protect your personal information, including by using the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses for transfers of personal information between our group companies and between us and our third-party providers. These clauses require all recipients to protect all personal information that they process originating from the EEA or UK in accordance with European data protection laws and regulations. Our Standard Contractual Clauses can be provided upon request. We have implemented similar appropriate safeguards with our third-party service providers and partners and further details can be provided upon request.

6. HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?

In Short: We keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes outlined in this privacy notice unless otherwise required by law.

We will only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy notice, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as tax, accounting, or other legal requirements). 

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymise such information, or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

7. HOW DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION SAFE?

In Short: We aim to protect your personal information through a system of organisational and technical security measures.

We have implemented appropriate and reasonable technical and organisational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. However, despite our safeguards and efforts to secure your information, no electronic transmission over the Internet or information storage technology can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot promise or guarantee that hackers, cybercriminals, or other unauthorised third parties will not be able to defeat our security and improperly collect, access, steal, or modify your information. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, transmission of personal information to and from our Services is at your own risk. You should only access the Services within a secure environment.

8. DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM MINORS?

In Short: We do not knowingly collect data from or market to children under 18 years of age.

We do not knowingly solicit data from or market to children under 18 years of age. By using the Services, you represent that you are at least 18 or that you are the parent or guardian of such a minor and consent to such minor dependent’s use of the Services. If we learn that personal information from users less than 18 years of age has been collected, we will deactivate the account and take reasonable measures to promptly delete such data from our records. If you become aware of any data we may have collected from children under age 18, please contact us at econa@ws-datenschutz.de.

9. WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?

In Short: In some regions, such as the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom (UK), Switzerland, and Canada, you have rights that allow you greater access to and control over your personal information. You may review, change, or terminate your account at any time.

In some regions (like the EEA, UK, Switzerland, and Canada), you have certain rights under applicable data protection laws. These may include the right (i) to request access and obtain a copy of your personal information, (ii) to request rectification or erasure; (iii) to restrict the processing of your personal information; (iv) if applicable, to data portability; and (v) not to be subject to automated decision-making. In certain circumstances, you may also have the right to object to the processing of your personal information. You can make such a request by contacting us by using the contact details provided in the section 'HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?' below.

We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

If you are located in the EEA or UK and you believe we are unlawfully processing your personal information, you also have the right to complain to your Member State data protection authority or UK data protection authority.

If you are located in Switzerland, you may contact the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner.

Withdrawing your consent: If we are relying on your consent to process your personal information, which may be express and/or implied consent depending on the applicable law, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. You can withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us by using the contact details provided in the section 'HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?' below.

However, please note that this will not affect the lawfulness of the processing before its withdrawal nor, when applicable law allows, will it affect the processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.

Opting out of marketing and promotional communications: You can unsubscribe from our marketing and promotional communications at any time by replying 'STOP' or 'UNSUBSCRIBE' to the SMS messages that we send, or by contacting us using the details provided in the section 'HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?' below. You will then be removed from the marketing lists. However, we may still communicate with you — for example, to send you service-related messages that are necessary for the administration and use of your account, to respond to service requests, or for other non-marketing purposes.

If you have questions or comments about your privacy rights, you may email us at econa@ws-datenschutz.de.

10. CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURES

Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems and mobile applications include a Do-Not-Track ('DNT') feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. At this stage no uniform technology standard for recognising and implementing DNT signals has been finalised. As such, we do not currently respond to DNT browser signals or any other mechanism that automatically communicates your choice not to be tracked online. If a standard for online tracking is adopted that we must follow in the future, we will inform you about that practice in a revised version of this privacy notice.

11. DO UNITED STATES RESIDENTS HAVE SPECIFIC PRIVACY RIGHTS?

In Short: You are granted specific rights regarding access to your personal information.

What categories of personal information do we collect?

We have collected the following categories of personal information in the past twelve (12) months:

A. Identifiers: Contact details, such as real name, alias, postal address, telephone or mobile contact number, unique personal identifier, online identifier, Internet Protocol address, email address, and account name (Collected)

B. Protected classification characteristics under state or federal law: Gender and date of birth (Collected)

C. Commercial information: Transaction information, purchase history, financial details, and payment information (Not collected)

D. Biometric information: Fingerprints and voiceprints (Not collected)

E. Internet or other similar network activity: Browsing history, search history, online behaviour, interest data, and interactions with our and other websites, applications, systems, and advertisements (Not collected)

F. Geolocation data: Device location (Collected)

G. Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory, or similar information: Images and audio, video or call recordings created in connection with our business activities (Not collected)

H. Professional or employment-related information: Business contact details in order to provide you our Services at a business level or job title, work history, and professional qualifications if you apply for a job with us (Collected)

I. Educational Information: Student records and directory information (Collected)

J. Inferences drawn from collected personal information: Inferences drawn from any of the collected personal information listed above to create a profile or summary about, for example, an individual´s preferences and characteristics (Collected)

K. Sensitive personal information (Not collected)

We will use and retain the collected personal information as needed to provide the Services or for:

  • Category A - Until we do not need them or there is a contradiction

  • Category B - Until we do not need them or there is a contradiction

  • Category F - Until we do not need them or there is a contradiction

  • Category H - Until we do not need them or there is a contradiction

  • Category I - Until we do not need them or there is a contradiction

  • Category J - Until we do not need them or there is a contradiction

We may also collect other personal information outside of these categories through instances where you interact with us in person, online, or by phone or mail in the context of:

  • Receiving help through our customer support channels;

  • Participation in customer surveys or contests; and

  • Facilitation in the delivery of our Services and to respond to your inquiries.

How do we use and share your personal information?

Learn about how we use your personal information in the section, 'HOW DO WE PROCESS YOUR INFORMATION?'

Will your information be shared with anyone else?

We may disclose your personal information with our service providers pursuant to a written contract between us and each service provider. Learn more about how we disclose personal information to in the section, 'WHEN AND WITH WHOM DO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?'

We may use your personal information for our own business purposes, such as for undertaking internal research for technological development and demonstration. This is not considered to be 'selling' of your personal information.

We have not disclosed, sold, or shared any personal information to third parties for a business or commercial purpose in the preceding twelve (12) months. We will not sell or share personal information in the future belonging to website visitors, users, and other consumers.

12. ARE WE USING COOKIES?

In Short: Yes, there are use cases in which we collect Cookies.

Description and Scope of Data Processing

Our website uses cookies. These are stored on your computer when you use our website. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your hard drive, associated with the browser you are using, and through which certain information is transmitted to us or the entity that sets the cookie. Cookies cannot execute programs or transmit viruses to your computer. They are used by us to enable you to log in, analyze the usage of our website in anonymized or pseudonymized form, and present you with interesting offers on this website.

In this way, various data can be transmitted: Frequency of website visits; Which functions of the website you use; Keywords used; Your cookie settings

When you visit the website, you will be informed about the use of cookies via a cookie banner and referred to the privacy policy.

Note on data processing in the USA by Google: 

By clicking "Agree to all," you consent pursuant to Art. 6 (1) lit. a) GDPR that your data will be processed in the USA. According to the ECJ, the data protection standard in the USA is inadequate, and there is a risk that your data will be processed by US authorities for control and monitoring purposes, possibly without legal remedies. If you only agree to the setting of essential cookies, no transmission will take place. Consent given can be revoked at any time.

Legal Basis for Data Processing

The legal basis for processing data by cookies that do not solely serve the functionality of our website is Art. 6 (1) lit. a) GDPR.
The legal basis for data processing for cookies that solely serve the functionality of this website is Art. 6 (1) lit. f) GDPR.

Purpose of Data Storage

Our legitimate interest arises from ensuring smooth connection establishment and convenient use of our website, as well as from reasons of evaluating system security and stability. Data processing also takes place to enable a statistical evaluation of website usage.

Duration of Data Storage

There are two types of cookies. Both are used on this website:

Transient cookies (see a)

Persistent cookies (see b)

a) Transient cookies are automatically deleted when you close the browser. This includes session cookies in particular. These store a so-called session ID, with which various requests from your browser can be assigned to the shared session. This allows your computer to be recognized when you return to our website. The session cookies are deleted when you log out or close the browser.

b) Persistent cookies are automatically deleted after a specified period, which can vary depending on the cookie.

Possibility of Objection by the Data Subject

You have the option to revoke consent to data processing by cookies that do not solely serve the functionality of the website at any time. In addition, we only set cookies after you have agreed to the setting of cookies when accessing the page. This way, you can prevent data processing via cookies on our website.

You can also delete cookies in the security settings of your browser at any time. We would like to point out that you may not be able to use all functions of this website. Furthermore, the setting of cookies can be prevented at any time by corresponding settings in your internet browser.

13. DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE?

In Short: Yes, we will update this notice as necessary to stay compliant with relevant laws.

We may update this privacy notice from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated 'Revised' date and the updated version will be effective as soon as it is accessible. If we make material changes to this privacy notice, we may notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to review this privacy notice frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.

14. HOW CAN YOU CONTACT US ABOUT THIS NOTICE?

If you have questions or comments about this notice, you may contact our Data Protection Officer (DPO), Anna Tiede, by email at econa@ws-datenschutz.de, or contact us by post at:

WS Datenschutz GmbH

Anna Tiede

Dircksenstraße 51, 10178 Berlin

https://www.ws-datenschutz.de/ 

If you have any further questions or comments, you may also contact us by post at the following corporate address:

identity.vc (ECONA Management GmbH)

Wöhlertstr. 12-13

Berlin, Berlin 10115

Germany

15. HOW CAN YOU REVIEW, UPDATE, OR DELETE THE DATA WE COLLECT FROM YOU?

Based on the applicable laws of your country, you may have the right to request access to the personal information we collect from you, change that information, or delete it. To request to review, update, or delete your personal information, please contact: econa@ws-datenschutz.de.