The European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, (Europäische Gesellschaft für klinische Mikrobiologie und Infektionskrankheiten) (hereinafter "ESCMID", "we", "us" or "our") is committed to protecting the privacy and security of the personal information that is provided to us or collected by us during the course of our business. We store and process personal information in accordance with the Swiss Data Protection Act and, to the extent applicable, the EU General Data Protection Regulation.
This privacy notice (hereinafter "Privacy Notice") explains how we collect and use any personal information that we obtain about you, and your rights in relation to that information when you visit our websites, enter into a business or other relationship with us, and participate in any of our events, including our on-site or virtual conferences (hereinafter "Event(s)"). We may provide you with additional privacy notices where we believe that it is appropriate to do so. Those additional notices supplement, and should be read together with, this Privacy Notice.
ESCMID, Aeschenvorstadt 55, 4051 Basel, Switzerland, is responsible for your personal information provided to us or collected by us during the course of our business and through our Event websites.
We collect and process your personal information as follows:
We collect personal information about attendees, participants, speakers, chairpersons, sponsors, endorsers and other third parties, as part of the organization, development and execution of the Events.
In order to provide you with our services for registered users and members, ESCMID collects and stores personal data from its registered users and members, in particular when you apply for a membership. We only collect information that is required to become a member or for the specific Events ESCMID offers. Mandatory information is marked with an asterisk or a similar marking in the respective form. ESCMID stores this information in secured databases and makes sure to delete outdated user data ultimately.
The types of personal information we may collect for this purpose include your name, contact details (such as your address, e-mail address, telephone and mobile numbers), your date of birth, the name of the organisation you work for, the contact details of your organisation, your curriculum vitae, references, and other information with which you provide us to participate, attend, speak, chair, sponsor, endorse or otherwise support the Events, as well as information of all kind from correspondence, and interactions with us relating to the Events.
We will also process information of all kinds that is revealed to us in the course of the Events organized, developed and executed by us, which may include questions you ask or comments or other content and material you post or upload during video presentations, discussions or virtual and Q&A sessions and your participation in the Events. If you are not sure whether your interaction with us falls under one of the items mentioned before or you have interacted with us in another way, and you would like to know whether we have collected any personal information about you in this regard, feel free to contact us at info(at)escmid.org to know more.
We collect personal information directly from you, related organisations, or other persons and their respective representatives or employees. We may receive or collect personal information from third persons such as your employer, other organisations that you have dealings with, or regulators or government agencies. We may also collect personal information from publicly available sources.
We may use this information to provide all services in connection with the organization, development and execution of the Events, to fulfil our mission, to conduct, monitor, or analyse our business (e.g. administrative or operational processes), to improve our services in connection with present and future Events, to administer memberships and more generally to offer additional educational services.
We collect personal information about attendees, participants, speakers, chairpersons as well as other business contacts of the sponsors or endorsers of the Events as part of the development of other initiatives, conferences, or our mission.
The types of personal information we may collect include your name, contact details (such as your address, e-mail address, telephone and mobile numbers), your date of birth, the name of the organisation you work for, the contact details of your organisation, your curriculum vitae, references, feedback, comments, questions and other content with which you provide us, relating to the Events, or other interactions you have with us. Mandatory information, if any, is marked with an asterisk or a similar marking in the respective form.
We obtain this information directly from you, from third parties (such as our affiliates, sponsors, IT providers, vendors and service providers), or from publicly available sources.
We may use your personal information to maintain and develop our relationship with you, identify services you may be interested in, pursue certain mission development initiatives, send you publications and marketing communications, and invite you to other Events.
You can control the information you receive through our marketing communications by using the corresponding option at the bottom of our e-mails. If you no longer wish to receive e-mails relating to our mission, services or Events, you can unsubscribe at any time by using such option at the bottom of the e-mail or by replying to info(at)escmid.org.
We collect, store and process certain personal information when you visit our general website as well as the Event websites or platforms (hereinafter "Websites") in so-called log-files, contact us through a contact form or by e-mail, on our Websites. The types of personal information we may collect include your name, e-mail address, address, affiliation with a scientific organisation, or IP-address. Relating to your interaction with our Websites, we gather information on what you click on, from where you were directed to the Websites, a history of your visits, and other information you voluntarily share with us when using these Websites. Please note that some of that information is indispensable for processing your requests. Mandatory information, if any, is marked with an asterisk or a similar marking in the respective form on the Websites.
We obtain this information either directly from you or through the use of cookies.
2.4.1 Cookies and tracking-tools
Cookies are small text files that are placed in browser directories on your computer or mobile device when you visit our Websites. Our Websites use session cookies and persistent cookies. Session cookies enable our Websites to remember any information you have already entered when you move from page to page within one of our Websites. A session cookie is deleted either when you close your browser or after a short time. Persistent cookies allow the Websites to remember your preferences and settings when you visit the Websites in the future. Persistent cookies expire after a set period of time.
We use cookies or similar technologies to collect information when you access our Websites. Particularly, we obtain the navigation path followed by you on the site (including content viewed), time spent on the Website or sub-page, the last sub-page viewed before leaving the Website, the country, region or city from where access is made, end device (type, version, colour depth, resolution, width and height of the browser window), and returning or new visitor. In particular, we use cookies to process your requests, when you contact us, when you subscribe to a newsletter and for the analysis of our website traffic. Moreover, the respective provider will use this information on our behalf to evaluate the use of the Website, to compile reports on Website activities for us and to provide other services related to Website and internet use for the purposes of market research and needs-based design of these internet pages. For these processing operations, we and the providers may to a certain extent be considered joint data controllers.
You can set your cookie preferences when you visit our website for the first time, and change them later by clicking on the "Cookies" link in the footer navigation.
When you consent to the use of cookies other than the functional cookies when entering into our website for the first time, we use cookies in the following ways:
On the ESCMID website we use the following cookies that process personal data:
You can change your browser settings to block cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent to your device. Please note that if you decide to disable cookies, you may not be able to access certain functions of our Websites or marketing communications.
2.4.2 Social media presences
On our Websites, we have included links to our profiles in the social networks of the following providers:
When you click on the icon of a social network on our Websites, you are automatically redirected to our profile in the respective network. This establishes a direct connection between your browser and the server of the respective social network. This provides the network with the information that you have visited our website with your IP address and clicked on the link.
If you click on a link to a network while you are logged into your user account with the network in question, the content of our website may be linked to your profile so that the network can assign your visit to our website directly to your account. If you want to prevent this, you should log out before clicking on the relevant links. A connection between your access to our Websites and your user account takes place in any case if you log in to the respective network after clicking on the link. The respective provider is responsible under data protection law for the associated data processing. Please note the information on the relevant network's website.
2.4.3 Social media plugins
On our Websites, you can use social plugins from the providers listed below:
We use social plugins to make it easier for you to share content from our Websites. The social plugins help us to increase the visibility of our content on social networks and thus contribute to better promotion of our offerings.
The plugins are deactivated by default on our Websites and therefore do not send any data to the social networks when you simply call up our Websites. To increase data protection, we have integrated the plugins in such a way that a connection is not automatically established with the network’s servers. Only when you activate the plugins and thus give your consent to the transmission and further processing of data by the providers of the social networks, your browser will establish a direct connection to the servers of the respective social network.
The content of the plugin is transmitted directly to your browser by the social network and integrated into the Website by it. This provides the respective provider with the information that your browser has accessed the corresponding page of our Websites, even if you do not have an account with this social network or are not currently logged in to it. This information (including your IP address) is transmitted from your browser directly to a server of the provider and stored there. We have no influence on the scope of the data that the provider collects with the plugin, although from a data protection perspective we can to a certain extent be considered jointly responsible with the relevant social network provider.
If you are logged in to the social network, it can assign your visit to our Websites directly to your user account. If you interact with the plugins, the corresponding information is also transmitted directly to a server of the provider and stored there. The information may also be published on the social network and possibly displayed to other users of the social network. The provider of the social network may use this information for the purpose of placing advertisements and designing a respective offering according to your interests. For this purpose, usage, interest and relationship profiles could be created, e.g. to evaluate your use of our website with regard to the advertisements displayed to you on the social network, to inform other users about your activities on our website and to provide other services associated with the use of the social network. The purpose and scope of the data collection and the further processing and use of the data by the providers of the social networks, as well as your rights in this regard and options for changing your settings to protect your privacy can be found directly in the data protection information of the respective provider.
If you do not want the provider of the social network to assign the data collected via our Websites to your user account, you must log out of the social network before activating the plugins.
We collect, store and process certain personal information that you provide us with such as your name and e-mail address when you register for our newsletter or sign up to receive further information on the Events. We use this personal information to provide you with our newsletter or any other information you registered to receive. Mandatory information, if any, is marked with an asterisk or a similar marking in the respective form on the Websites.
We use an email marketing software provided by mensemedia Gesellschaft für Neue Medien mbH, Achenbachstrasse 73, 40237 Düsseldorf, data-privacy-escmid(at)mensemedia.net for marketing communications. Your data will be stored in a database of this company, which allows it to access your data if this is necessary for the provision of the software and for support in the use of the software.
Further, we collect and process information about you if you offer or provide products or services to us, if we evaluate your products or services, and generally when you request information from us or provide information to us.
If you are a member or a registered user, you can upload your profile or your CV to our website. Mandatory information, if any, is marked with an asterisk or a similar marking in the respective form on the Websites. Your personal data will not be made public. Employers interested in your profile can contact you without knowing your name and e-mail address. Your profile will be active for 6 months.
If you are a member or a registered user, you can publish a job advert on our job platform, which includes your contact details. Mandatory information, if any, is marked with an asterisk or a similar marking in the respective form on the Websites. The contact details of you or your institution/company given as part of the user registration will be published on the Website if no other address is provided. Your job advert will be active for 2 months.
On our Websites you have the option to ask questions using a chat. To provide the chat functionality, we use the APIs of OpenAI Ireland Limited (1st Floor, The Liffey Trust Centre, 117-126 Sheriff Street Upper, Dublin 1, D01 YC43, Ireland) respectively OpenAI OpCo, LLC (3180 18th Street, San Francisco, 94110 CA, USA) (hereinafter “OpenAI”) to automatically provide answers and summaries to user questions in chats on our Websites. We do not generally store personal data. However, personal data may be processed temporarily during the use of the chat functionality, particularly if your input contains personal data. OpenAI does not process personal data submitted by users via the API to train or improve its models. All personal data submitted via the API is stored by OpenAI for a maximum of 30 days for abuse monitoring purposes and is then deleted (unless otherwise required by law). More information about OpenAI's data processing practices can be found on OpenAI's website.
If it is possible to clearly identify you, we will store and link the data described in this Privacy Notice, in particular your personal details, your contact details, your membership details and your surfing behaviour on our Websites, in a central database. This serves the efficient administration of customer data, allows us to adequately respond to your requests and enables the efficient provision of the services you have requested. We evaluate this data in order to further develop our offers in a needs-oriented manner and to display and suggest the most relevant information and offers to you. We also use methods that predict possible interests and potential future orders based on your website use. For these purposes we use the software Tealium of Tealium Inc, 11095 Torreyana Road, San Diego, CA 92121, USA. The servers are located in Frankfurt, Germany.
We will only use your personal information if and to the extent that applicable law allows us to do so. We will therefore process your personal information only if:
Without the support of other companies, we would not be able to provide our services in the desired form. In order for us to be able to use the services of these companies, it is also necessary to pass on your personal data to a certain extent. Such a transfer takes place to the extent that it is necessary for some of our services related to the ESCMID membership, awards, research funding and so forth we work with our partners (such as our affiliates, sponsors and agencies like CodeRed GmbH or mensemedia GmbH). Your data is processed by these partners exclusively for the purpose of providing the aforementioned services.
In accordance with the applicable data protections laws, we conclude data processing agreements with each of our partners. Our partners are located in Germany, France, United Kingdom, The Netherlands and Switzerland and are bound to the applicable data protection laws, in particular the FADP and the GDPR, and ESCMID’s security requirements.
We may share your personal information collected in the course of the Events with Code Red., Düsseldorf, Germany; Key4Events, Nice, France; Multilearning, Amsterdam, The Netherlands if required or useful for providing our products and services. Further, we may share your personal information with third persons where:
We use third parties who provide products and services on our behalf and may share your information with them. These third parties include banks, insurance companies, advertising agencies, consultancies or technology suppliers. They may have access to your personal information when providing support. In accordance with the applicable data protection laws, we conclude data processing agreements with each of our partners. All of our partners are bound to the applicable data protection laws and ESCMID’s security requirements.
We are entitled to transfer your personal data to third parties abroad if this is necessary to carry out the data processing mentioned in this Privacy Notice. In doing so, we will of course comply with the statutory provisions on the disclosure of personal data to third parties. If the country in question does not have an adequate level of data protection, we guarantee through contractual regulations that your data is adequately protected by the recipients.
We have put in place appropriate security measures to hold your personal information securely in electronic and physical form, to protect it from unauthorised access, improper use or disclosure, unauthorised modification or unlawful destruction or accidental loss. The participation in the Events is access controlled by your personal login and password authentication.
Our employees and third party service providers who have access to confidential information (including personal information) are subject to confidentiality obligations.
Our security measures are continuously adapted in line with technological developments. However, the transmission of information via the Internet and electronic means of communication always involves certain security risks and we cannot provide an absolute guarantee for the security of information transmitted in this way.
We will retain your personal information at least for as long as it is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected. We will further retain your personal information to comply with legal and regulatory obligations, for as long as claims could be brought against us and for as long as legitimate interests, including data security, require us to do so. In the case of contractual data, storage is required by statutory retention obligations. Requirements that oblige us to retain data result from the provisions on accounting and from tax law regulations. According to these regulations, business communications, concluded contracts and accounting vouchers must be stored for up to 10 years. As far as we no longer need this data to perform the services for you, the data will be blocked. This means that the data may then only be used if this is necessary to fulfil the retention obligations or to defend and enforce our legal interests. The data is deleted as soon as there is no longer any obligation to retain it and we no longer have any legitimate interest in retaining it.
Provided that the relevant legal requirements are met, as a person affected by data processing you have the following rights:
Right of access: You have the right to request access to your personal data stored and processed by us at any time and free of charge. This gives you the opportunity to check what personal data we process about you and that we use it in accordance with applicable data protection regulations.
Right to rectification: You have the right to have inaccurate or incomplete personal data rectified and to be informed of the rectification. In this case, we will inform the recipients of the data concerned of the adjustments made, unless this is impossible or involves disproportionate effort.
Right to deletion: You have the right to have your personal data deleted under certain circumstances. In individual cases, especially in the case of legal retention obligations, the right to deletion may be excluded. In this case, we may block your data instead, provided the conditions are met.
Right to restrict processing: You have the right to request that the processing of your personal data be restricted.
Right to data transfer: You have the right to obtain from us, free of charge, the personal data you have provided to us in a readable format.
Right to object: You can object to the processing of your data at any time, in particular for data processing in connection with direct advertising (e.g. advertising emails).
Right of withdrawal: In principle, where you have given consent you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time. However, processing activities that have already taken place based on your consent do not become unlawful because of your revocation of consent.
Right of complaint: You have the right to lodge a complaint with a competent supervisory authority, for example against the way your personal data is processed.
If you would like to exercise these rights, please contact us in writing by e-mail at info[at]escmid.org or by letter to:
ESCMID Office
Aeschenvorstadt 55
4051 Basel
Switzerland
You will not, in general, have to pay a fee to exercise any of your individual rights. However, we may charge a fee for access to your personal information if the relevant data protection legislation allows us to do so, in which case we will inform you as required by the law.
If you feel we have not handled your query or concern to your satisfaction, you can contact the competent data protection authority in Switzerland, the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (https://www.edoeb.admin.ch) or another competent authority.
Our representative in the EU is:
BINDER GRÖSSWANG
Rechtsanwälte | Attorneys-at-Law
1010 Wien, Sterngasse 13, Österreich
https://www.bindergroesswang.at
________________________________________
We reserve the right to update and change this Privacy Notice from time to time in order to reflect any changes to the way in which we process your personal information or changing legal requirements. Any changes we may make to the Privacy Notice in the future will be posted on this website. Please check back frequently to see any updates or changes to the Privacy Notice.
Basel, 7 November 2024