Privacy policy

Introduction and Overview

We have written this privacy statement (version 09/27/2022-112168182) to explain to you, in accordance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and applicable national laws, which personal data (data for short) we as the controller – and the processors (e.g. providers) commissioned by us – process, will process in the future and what lawful options you have. The terms used are to be understood as gender-neutral.

In short, we provide you with comprehensive information about data we process about you.

Privacy statements usually sound very technical and use legal terminology. This privacy statement, on the other hand, is intended to describe the most important things to you as simply and transparently as possible. To the extent that it is conducive to transparency, technical terms are explained in a reader-friendly manner, links to further information are provided and graphics are used. In this way, we inform you in clear and simple language that we only process personal data in the course of our business activities if there is a corresponding legal basis. This is certainly not possible by providing the most concise, unclear and legalistic explanations possible, as is often standard practice on the Internet when it comes to data protection. I hope you find the following explanations interesting and informative, and perhaps there is one or two pieces of information that you did not yet know.

If you still have questions, we would like to ask you to contact the responsible party named below or in the imprint, to follow the links provided and to look at further information on third-party sites. Our contact details can of course also be found in the imprint.

Application Area

This data protection declaration applies to all personal data processed by us in the company and to all personal data processed by companies commissioned by us (order processors). By personal data, we mean information within the meaning of Art. 4 No. 1 DSGVO, such as a person’s name, e-mail address and postal address. The processing of personal data ensures that we can offer and invoice our services and products, whether online or offline. The scope of this privacy policy includes:

– all online presences (websites, online stores) that we operate
– social media presences and email communications
– mobile apps for smartphones and other devices

In short, the data protection declaration applies to all areas in which personal data is processed in the company via the aforementioned channels in a structured manner. If we enter into legal relationships with you outside of these channels, we will inform you separately if necessary.

Legal basis

In the following privacy statement, we provide you with transparent information about the legal principles and regulations, i.e. the legal bases of the General Data Protection Regulation, which enable us to process personal data.
As far as EU law is concerned, we refer to REGULATION (EU) 2016/679 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 27 April 2016. You can of course read this EU General Data Protection Regulation online on EUR-Lex, the access to EU law, at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/DE/ALL/?uri=celex%3A32016R0679.

We only process your data if at least one of the following conditions applies:

Consent (Article 6(1)(a) DSGVO): You have given us your consent to process data for a specific purpose. An example would be the storage of your entered data of a contact form.
Contract (Article 6(1) lit. b DSGVO): In order to fulfill a contract or pre-contractual obligations with you, we process your data. For example, if we conclude a purchase contract with you, we need personal information in advance.
Legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c) DSGVO): If we are subject to a legal obligation, we process your data. For example, we are legally obliged to keep invoices for accounting purposes. These usually contain personal data.
Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) DSGVO): In the case of legitimate interests that do not restrict your fundamental rights, we reserve the right to process personal data. For example, we need to process certain data in order to operate our website in a secure and economically efficient manner. This processing is therefore a legitimate interest.

Other conditions, such as the performance of recordings in the public interest and the exercise of official authority, as well as the protection of vital interests, do not generally arise for us. If such a legal basis should nevertheless be relevant, it will be indicated at the appropriate place.

In addition to the EU Regulation, national laws also apply:

In Austria, this is the Federal Act on the Protection of Individuals with regard to the Processing of Personal Data (Data Protection Act), or DSG for short.
In Germany, the Federal Data Protection Act, or BDSG for short, applies.

If other regional or national laws apply, we will inform you about them in the following sections.

Contact details of the person in charge

If you have any questions regarding data protection or the processing of personal data, please find below the contact details of the responsible person or office:
Samira Advisors GmbH
Stefan Köppl, Mag. Johannes Paul Weinberger
Postgasse 8
1010 Vienna
Authorized to represent: Stefan Köppl, Mag. Johannes Paul Weinberger
E-Mail: office@samira-advisors.com
Telephone: +43 664 177 90 44
Imprint: https://samira-advisors.com/imprint/

Storage duration

The fact that we only store personal data for as long as is absolutely necessary for the provision of our services and products applies as a general criterion at our company. This means that we delete personal data as soon as the reason for processing the data no longer exists. In some cases, we are required by law to store certain data even after the original purpose has ceased to exist, for example for accounting purposes.

Should you wish your data to be deleted or revoke your consent to data processing, the data will be deleted as soon as possible and insofar as there is no obligation to store it.

We will inform you about the specific duration of the respective data processing below, provided we have further information on this.

Rights under the General Data Protection Regulation

In accordance with Articles 13, 14 of the GDPR, we inform you about the following rights you have to ensure fair and transparent processing of data:

According to Article 15 DSGVO, you have the right to information about whether we are processing data about you. If this is the case, you have the right to receive a copy of the data and to know the following information:

For what purpose we are processing;
the categories, i.e. the types of data that are processed;
who receives this data and if the data is transferred to third countries, how security can be guaranteed;
how long the data will be stored;
the existence of the right to rectification, erasure or restriction of processing and the right to object to processing;
that you can lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (links to these authorities can be found below);
The origin of the data if we have not collected it from you;
Whether profiling is carried out, i.e. whether data is automatically evaluated to arrive at a personal profile of you.
You have a right to rectification of data according to Article 16 GDPR, which means that we must correct data if you find errors.
You have the right to erasure (“right to be forgotten”) according to Article 17 GDPR, which specifically means that you may request the deletion of your data.
According to Article 18 of the GDPR, you have the right to restriction of processing, which means that we may only store the data but not use it further.
According to Article 20 of the GDPR, you have the right to data portability, which means that we will provide you with your data in a standard format upon request.
According to Article 21 DSGVO, you have the right to object, which entails a change in processing after enforcement.

If the processing of your data is based on Article 6(1)(e) (public interest, exercise of official authority) or Article 6(1)(f) (legitimate interest), you may object to the processing. We will then check as soon as possible whether we can legally comply with this objection.
If data is used to conduct direct advertising, you may object to this type of data processing at any time. We may then no longer use your data for direct marketing.
If data is used to carry out profiling, you may object to this type of data processing at any time. We may no longer use your data for profiling thereafter.
According to Article 22 of the GDPR, you may have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (for example, profiling).
You have the right to lodge a complaint under Article 77 of the GDPR. This means that you can complain to the data protection authority at any time if you believe that the data processing of personal data violates the GDPR.

In short, you have rights – do not hesitate to contact the responsible party listed above with us!

If you believe that the processing of your data violates data protection law or your data protection rights have been violated in any other way, you can complain to the supervisory authority. For Austria, this is the data protection authority, whose website can be found at https://www.dsb.gv.at/. In Germany, there is a data protection officer for each federal state. For more information, you can contact the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI). The following local data protection authority is responsible for our company:

Explanation of used terms

We always try to write our privacy policy as clear and understandable as possible. However, this is not always easy, especially when it comes to technical and legal topics. It often makes sense to use legal terms (such as personal data) or certain technical terms (such as cookies, IP address). However, we do not want to use these without explanation. Below you will now find an alphabetical list of important terms used that we may not have sufficiently addressed in the previous privacy policy. If these terms are taken from the GDPR and are definitions, we will also cite the GDPR texts here and add our own explanations if necessary.

Consent

Definition according to Article 4 of the GDPR

For the purposes of this Regulation, the term:

“consent” of the data subject means any freely given specific, informed and unambiguous indication of his or her wishes in the form of a statement or other unambiguous affirmative act by which the data subject signifies his or her agreement to the processing of personal data relating to him or her;

Explanation: as a rule, such consent is given on websites via a cookie consent tool. You are probably familiar with this. Whenever you visit a website for the first time, you are usually asked via a banner whether you agree or consent to the data processing. In most cases, you can also make individual settings and thus decide for yourself which data processing you allow and which you do not. If you do not consent, no personal data of yours may be processed. In principle, consent can of course also be given in writing, i.e. not via a tool.

Personal data

Definition according to Article 4 of the GDPR

For the purposes of this Regulation, the term:

“personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (hereinafter “data subject”); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person;

Explanation: personal data are therefore all those data that can identify you as a person. This is usually data such as:

Name
Address
E-mail address
Postal address
Telephone number
Date of birth
Identification numbers such as social security number, tax identification number, identity card number or matriculation number
Bank data such as account number, credit information, account balances, and more.

According to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), your IP address also counts as personal data. IT experts can use your IP address to determine at least the approximate location of your device and, subsequently, you as the connection owner. Therefore, the storage of an IP address also requires a legal basis within the meaning of the GDPR. There are also still so-called “special categories” of personal data that also require special protection. These include:

racial and ethnic origin
political opinions
religious or ideological convictions
trade union membership
genetic data, such as data taken from blood or saliva samples
biometric data (which is information about mental, physical, or behavioral characteristics that can identify an individual).
health data
data on sexual orientation or sexual life

Profiling

Definition according to Article 4 of the GDPR

For the purposes of this Regulation, the term:

“profiling” means any automated processing of personal data which consists in using such personal data to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person, in particular to analyze or predict aspects relating to that natural person’s performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behaviour, location or change of location;

Explanation: Profiling involves gathering various pieces of information about an individual in order to learn more about that individual. In the web sector, profiling is often used for advertising purposes or also for credit checks. Web or advertising analysis programs, for example, collect data about your behavior and interests on a website. This results in a specific user profile, which can be used to target advertising to a specific group.