DATA PRIVACY

Data Privacy

Data privacy is a matter of trust. Knowing that you trust us is vital to our company (“RWS GmbH” and/or “we” and/or “us”).

1. About us

2. When does this Privacy Policy apply?

3. Which personal data do we process and for what purposes?

4. With whom do we share your personal data?

5. When do we disclose your personal data in third countries?

6. How do we protect your personal data?

7. For how long do we store your personal data?

8. What are your rights in regard to your personal data?

9. Do we use automated decision-making?

10. Contact details

11. Changes to our Privacy Policy

1. About us

This Privacy Policy applies to the enterprises within RWS GmbH. If you have any questions in connection with the processing of your personal data, please contact the data protection team at RWS GmbH dataprotection@rws-tech.com.

2. When does this Privacy Policy apply?

This Privacy Policy applies to all processing of personal data in connection with any business transaction in all business units. It applies to the processing of personal data that has been received in the past or will be received in the future.

Please note that different specific privacy statements may apply, for example for applicants as well as trade fairs and similar events.  

3. Which personal data do we process and for what purposes?

We may process personal data in the following situations and for the following purposes:

  • Communication: We may process personal data when you contact RWS GmbH or when RWS GmbH contacts you, for example if you contact our customer service or you write to RWS GmbH or contact us by telephone. In these cases we will ordinarily process the name(s) and contact details, as well as the content and time of the communication. We are entitled to use this information in order to be able to provide you with information, address your concern and communicate with you.
     
  • Visit to websites, use of apps: When you visit our websites or install and use an app from RWS GmbH, we may automatically collect information such as your browser version, the IP address of your computer, your internet service provider, the website from which you linked to our website, the duration of your visit to our website and what type of device you are using (such as a PC, smartphone or tablet and the installed operating system).

    We may also record which pages you accessed while visiting our website. This information can be used to improve the functionality of our website, for statistical purposes and within the framework of system administration. We may also use ‘cookies’. Cookies are small text files that are stored either temporarily or permanently on your device when you visit our website. Cookies collect information about the number of visitors to the websites, accessed pages and how much time was spent on the websites. They are often required to ensure that the website functions properly.

    Other cookies may be used to personalise our services so that RWS GmbH can show you targeted advertising from third parties. You can disable the use of cookies by making the appropriate settings in your browser or by not accepting cookies when you visit the website. However, doing so may impair your experience on the website.

    We are entitled to store cookies that are necessary to ensure flawless and optimised presentation of our services (‘technically necessary cookies’) based on our legitimate interest. Cookies that are not technically necessary may only be placed on your device after you have given consent.

    You may adjust your cookies settings and withdraw consent you have given at any time.
  • We may also use analysis services from third parties, which may lead to these service providers processing data concerning you. We recommend that you read the privacy policies of these external providers.

    The following analysis services may be used on our pages:
     
    •  ‘Google Analytics’ is operated by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA, i.e. by Google Ireland Limited with registered address in Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland, if the service is made available in the European Economic Area or in Switzerland.


In order to evaluate user traffic, the user information generated by the cookie may be transmitted to our server and stored for the purpose of usage analysis, which enables us to optimise the website. Your IP address is immediately anonymised during this process, so that you cannot be personally identified as a user.

The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is not transferred to third parties.
To learn about the purpose and scope of the processing of your data, as well as your rights and settings options for the protection of your privacy, please visit the following websites with the privacy policies of the social network providers at:


Finally, we may also use functions by service providers like LinkedIn, which may lead to these service providers processing data concerning you. We recommend that you read the privacy policies of these external providers.

Our pages may include links or plug-ins that redirect you to the social networks named in the following.

  • ‘YouTube’ is a service by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, US, i.e. by Google Ireland Limited with registered address in Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland, if the service is made available in the European Economic Area or in Switzerland.
  • ‘LinkedIn’ is operated by LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland.

Clicking on one of these named links or buttons will redirect you to the websites of the social networks listed above. It is beyond our control to influence the content of any data transferred. In the event that you click on one of these links or buttons, information that you have accessed certain pages on our internet presence will be forwarded to the server of the aforementioned social networks.

This means that the usage data of users who are logged into the aforementioned social networks at the same time may be assigned to their personal account or profile.

If you use the links or buttons, it cannot be ruled our that your browser will transfer this information directly to the aforementioned social networks and it will be stored there. Even if you are not a member of these social networks, it is still possible that they will determine and store your IP. We are unable to influence their actions in this regard.

To learn about the purpose and scope of the processing of your data, as well as your rights and settings options for the protection of your privacy, please visit the following websites with the privacy policies of the social network providers at:

If you do not consent to the collection of data concerning you by these social networks when you click on the links or buttons, we ask you to log out of the respective account before visiting our internet presence. You can also block the add-ons for your browser or for visiting the website.

  • YouTube: Videos linking to YouTube may be integrated on our websites. You are redirected to one of our videos on YouTube if you click on the YouTube button in this case. In doing so, we only allow you to connect with the YouTube service. YouTube is a service by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, US, i.e. by Google Ireland Limited with registered address in Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland, if the service is made available in the European Economic Area or in Switzerland.

    If you do not agree to the storage of the data concerning your visit, you can disable the use of cookies by making the appropriate settings in your browser or by not accepting cookies when you visit the website.

    If you wish to receive information regarding the purpose and scope of data collection and use by Google, as well as your rights and setting options for protection as a YouTube customer, please refer to YouTube’s privacy policy (www.google.com/policies/privacy/).
  • Google Maps: The websites may use Google Maps by Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, 4 Barrow St, Dublin, D04 E5W5, Ireland. Google Maps is a web service for displaying interactive (land) maps as a visual presentation of geographical information. Our location is shown, along with information about how to find us, when you use this service.

    Information about your use of our website (such as your IP address) is transferred to Google servers and stored there when you access subpages that include the Google Maps service. Data may be transferred to the servers of Google LLC in this context. It does not matter whether you are signed into a user account with Google or whether you even have a user account. Your data will be associated directly with your account if you are signed into Google. You must sign out before clicking on the button if you do not want the data to be associated with your profile with Google. Google stores and evaluates your data (even for users who are not signed in) in the form of usage profiles. Collection, storage and evaluation are carried out on the basis of Google’s legitimate interest in the display of personalised advertising, market research and/or the needs-based design of Google websites. You have the right to object to the establishment of these user profiles, but must contact Google to exercise this right.

    If you do not agree to the storage of the data concerning your visit, you can disable the use of cookies by making the appropriate settings in your browser or by not accepting cookies when you visit the website.

    The use of Google Maps reflects a legitimate interest of RWS GmbH.
  • Google Tag Manager: It is possible that Google Tag Manager will be used on our websites. Google Tag Manager is a service by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, US, i.e. by Google Ireland Limited with registered address in Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland, if the service is made available in the European Union. Google Tag Manager enables us, as marketers, to manage website tags on one interface. The Google Tag Manager tool that implements the tags is a cookie-less domain and does not collect any personal data. Google Tag Manager triggers other tags that in turn may collect data. Google Tag Manager does not access this data. If cookies have been disabled at the domain or cookie level, this will remain effective for all tracking tags implemented with Google Tag Manager.

    The use of Google Tag Manager reflects a legitimate interest of RWS GmbH.

    For more information concerning data protection, visit the Google website at policies.google.com/privacy
  • Friendly Captcha: On our websites, it is possible that the service Friendly Captcha of the company Friendly Captcha GmbH, Am Anger 3-5, 82237 Woerthsee, Germany is used. The query is used to distinguish whether an entry is made by a natural person or is abused by machine and automated processing. The service includes the transfer of the IP address and possibly other data required by Friendly Captcha and is carried out based on our legitimate interest in determining individual responsibility on the Internet and the prevention of abuse and spam.
    Further information about Friendly Captcha as well as the privacy policy can be found at: https://friendlycaptcha.com/privacy/.
  • Contact form: If you use our contact form to contact us, we will ask you for personal information. In order for us to respond to your inquiry, you must provide a valid email address. Further information about yourself may be provided voluntarily.

    Your data will be processed by email. For technical reasons, it is not possible to guarantee that your contact information will be transmitted in an encrypted form. It is therefore theoretically possible that unauthorised third parties may become aware of or falsify the data. 

    Your data will be processed for the purpose of contacting us on the basis of your voluntary consent. By clicking the ‘Send’ button, you consent to the processing of your contact information for the above-mentioned purposes. If you do not agree, you must cancel the process. The contact form will not be sent, and your data will not be processed.

    Processing of the data contained in the contact form takes place exclusively on the basis of your consent. You may withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by contacting dataprotection@rws-tech.com.

    We use your data only as far as this is necessary for the processing of your inquiries and for further correspondence with you. The data collected by us for the use of the contact form will be stored for the purpose of processing the inquiry and in the event of follow-up questions and will be deleted under data protection law after your enquiry has been dealt with, unless there is another legal obligation to store it.
  • Use of email: We may use your name and your email address to send you messages, updates, invitations to events and our information. For this purpose, you are first asked to provide consent unless we have already obtained your contact details from you in another way in connection with our services. If you no longer wish to receive notifications from us, you may cancel the receipt of this marketing information at any time by clicking on the link contained in these emails. We may use external service providers to determine whether you open our emails or click on the links they contain. You can prevent this from happening by making the appropriate adjustments to your email client.
  • Visiting our buildings: When you enter our buildings, we make video recordings in designated areas for reasons of security and verification. Furthermore, your name, address, employer, title, identification information, copies of documents, government or state issued documents, mobile and telephone number(s), date of birth, all citizenships (including former citizenships), nationality(ies) (including former nationalities), residence permit(s) and your home address may be collected and stored when you enter/sign in to our buildings. We use this personal data for security reasons and for compliance with legal requirements (trade compliance). You are also given the opportunity to use a Wi-Fi service. If you do so, we collect device-specific information and ask you to provide your name and email address during registration.
  • Business partners: RWS GmbH cooperates with a variety of companies and business partners, including suppliers, trade customers for goods and services and service providers (for example IT service providers). We may process personal data about the contact persons at these companies, including their name, function, all citizenships (including former citizenships), nationality(ies) (including former nationalities), residence permit(s), home address and title.

    We may be required to carry out more thorough vetting of a company and/or its employees, depending on the area of activity in question.

    We will notify you separately if this is the case. Further, we may process personal data about you to improve our customer focus, customer satisfaction and customer loyalty (‘customer relationship management’).
  • Administration: We may process personal data for administration purposes at our company. For instance, we may process personal data in connection with IT or facility management. We may also process personal data for the purpose of invoicing and archiving and generally to review and improve our internal workflows.
  • Applications: We may also process personal data if you apply to work for us. In general, we require the usual details and documents, as well as the information stated in the classified ad. Kindly read our Privacy Policy for Applicants (the link was provided earlier on in this document). This policy contains information about how we process personal data collected as part of an application.
  • Compliance with legal obligations: We may process personal data for compliance with legal obligations. These include, for example, the operation of a whistleblowing system for indications of suspected misconduct or the Supply Chain Act, internal investigations or the disclosure of documents to a public authority if we have to do so for good cause or even due to a legal obligation. We may process names, documents or accounts that refer to you or third parties in this context.
  • Protection of rights: We may process personal data in various circumstances in order to protect our rights, for instance to exercise claims in or out of court or to defend claims against us. For example, we may conduct a review to ascertain the prospects of litigation or submit documents to an authority. Authorities may also oblige us to disclose documents containing personal data.

We process personal data on the following bases:

  • for performance of a contract
  • due to legitimate interests. Included in this are, for instance, our interest in customer care and communication with customers outside of a contractual relationship, marketing activities, in measures to establish a stronger connection with our customers and other persons, in improving products and services and developing new ones, in combating fraud and in preventing and investigating criminal offences, in protecting customers, staff and other persons and data, secrets and the assets of RWS GmbH, in ensuring IT security, in particular in connection with the use of websites, apps and other IT infrastructure, in protecting and organising business processes, including the operation and further development of websites and other systems, in managing and developing the company, in the sale or purchase of companies, parts of companies and other assets, and in the enforcement of or defence against legal claims.
  • based on consent that is received separately, and
  • for compliance with legal and regulatory obligations.

You are not required as a rule to disclose personal data to us. We must however collect and process certain data in order to enter into and perform a contract and for other purposes.

4. With whom do we share your personal data?

Our employees have access to your personal data to the extent that this access is necessary for the purposes described and for the work of the particular employee. They act according to our instructions and are obliged to maintain confidentiality and secrecy in the handling of your personal data.

In addition, we may transfer your personal data to external service providers who carry out certain business transactions on our behalf (‘processors’), in particular:

  • IT services, such as data storage, cloud services and data analytics, etc.
  • consulting services such as those provided by tax advisers, lawyers, management consultants and recruiters / headhunters
  • logistics services for the shipment of goods
  • administrative services such as facility management
  • credit check companies and collection services.

There are also other examples of cases in which we may disclose your personal data:

  • We may disclose your personal data to third parties (such as public authorities) for compliance with a legal obligation. In addition, we reserve the right to process your personal data for compliance with court orders or to exercise or defend against legal claims or if we consider it necessary for other legal reasons.
  • We may disclose your personal data to third parties (such as potential buyers) if this is necessary for performance of a corporate transaction.

5. When do we disclose your personal data in third countries?

The recipients of your personal data (section 4) may be located abroad, including in countries outside Switzerland, the EU or the EEA, where the legal system does not provide for the same comprehensive protection of your personal data as in the EU, the EEA or Switzerland.

Where we disclose your personal data to recipients in these countries, we ordinarily conclude a data transfer contract to ensure adequate protection of your personal data, including the contracts. Kindly contact the RWS GmbH data protection team at (dataprotection@rws-tech.com) if you require further information in this regard.

6. How do we protect your personal data?

We implement suitable technical and organisational measures to guarantee the security of your personal data and to protect it against unauthorised or unlawful processing, as well as to mitigate the risk of loss, accidental modification, unintentional disclosure or unauthorised access.

7. For how long do we store your personal data?

We do not store your personal data for longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the information was collected or for compliance with statutory retention periods.

Where you have given us your consent, we store your data until you withdraw your consent, provided there is no other legal basis for processing your data and no statutory retention periods prevent its erasure.

8. What are your rights in regard to your personal data?

You have the following rights, within the limits of applicable law: You may, among other things, obtain access to your personal data processed by us, instruct us to rectify or erase it, request that the personal data you have provided to us be returned to you in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format or transferred to a person of your choice. You may also withdraw your consent to the processing of your personal data by RWS GmbH. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority responsible for data protection concerning the way in which we have used your personal data.

9. Do we use automated decision-making?

We do not use automated decision-making or profiling.

10. Contact details

Kindly contact the RWS GmbH data protection team at (dataprotection@rws-tech.com) if you have any questions or wish to exercise your rights in regard to the processing of your personal data. 

11. Changes to our Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to change our security and data protection measures if this becomes necessary due to technical developments. In such cases, we will also adapt our privacy policy information accordingly. Please therefore note the current version of our Privacy Policy.