Privacy Policy

1. Introduction and Legal Framework

The Europe-China Robotics Association (ECRA) is committed to protecting the privacy and personal data of visitors and other individuals who interact with the Association.

This Privacy Policy explains how personal data are processed in connection with the Association’s official website and related direct communications.

The Association processes personal data in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation, “GDPR”), the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG), the Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act (TDDDG), and other applicable data protection law.

The Association follows the principles of lawfulness, fairness, transparency, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity, confidentiality and accountability.

2. Scope of this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to the Association’s official website: www.europe-china-robotics.org

It also applies to other Association-operated digital channels only where this Privacy Policy is expressly referenced.

This Privacy Policy does not apply to independent project websites, external registration systems, payment providers or other third-party services reached through links from the official website. Those services are governed by their own privacy policies and terms.

3. Data Controller and Privacy Contact

Controller within the meaning of Art. 4 No. 7 GDPR:

Europa-China Robotik Verband e.V. (Europe-China Robotics Association - ECRA)
Werner-Haas-Straße 8, 86153 Augsburg, Germany
Email: info@europe-china-robotics.org
Telephone: +49 (0)821 29706047
Fax: +49 (0)821 3285216

Privacy enquiries and requests to exercise data subject rights may be submitted to the contact details above.

4. Categories of Data and Purposes

Depending on how you interact with the Association, we may process:

• Identity and contact data, such as name, organisation, professional position, email address, telephone number and country/region;
• Technical and connection data, such as IP address, date and time of access, browser and device information, requested resources and system metadata;
• Information voluntarily provided in emails or contact forms.

We process such data only for specified purposes, including operating and securing the website, responding to enquiries, managing Association communications and meeting legal obligations.

The Association does not intentionally request special categories of personal data within the meaning of Art. 9 GDPR through the official website. Please do not submit such data unless specifically requested and legally justified.

5. Website Access and Server Log Files

When you access the website, the web server may automatically process technical information transmitted by your browser. This may include:

• IP address;
• date and time of access;
• requested page or resource and HTTP status code;
• browser type and version, operating system and referrer URL, where transmitted.

Purpose: to deliver the website, maintain technical stability, detect misuse and protect the website and its infrastructure.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. The Association’s legitimate interests are secure, reliable and technically functional operation of the website.

Server log data are retained only for the period necessary for technical operation, security monitoring and investigation of incidents. They may be retained longer where required to investigate a specific security incident or comply with a legal obligation.

Server log data are not combined with other data for the purpose of creating user profiles.

6. Contact by Email or Contact Form

If you contact the Association by email or through a contact form, we process the information you provide in order to respond to and manage your enquiry.

Depending on the subject of the enquiry, the legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR where the communication concerns contractual or pre-contractual measures, or Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR where processing is necessary for the Association’s legitimate interest in efficiently handling general enquiries and correspondence.

Providing information is voluntary unless particular information is necessary to process your request. If required information is not provided, we may be unable to respond or process the enquiry.

Correspondence is retained only for as long as necessary to deal with the matter and thereafter in accordance with applicable statutory retention obligations.

Where your enquiry concerns registration for a specific Association event, the Association may forward the contact details you provided to the appointed events management company responsible for organising that event, so that your registration can be completed. That company processes the data either as an independent controller under its own privacy policy, or, where it acts on the Association’s behalf, subject to a data processing agreement in accordance with Art. 28 GDPR.

7. Newsletter / Mailing List

If you subscribe to the Association’s newsletter or mailing list, we process your email address, and where provided, your name and organisation, in order to send you updates about the Association’s activities, events and policy work.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. Subscription requires your active consent, given through a double opt-in process: after registering, you will receive a confirmation email, and the subscription only becomes active once you confirm it.

You may withdraw your consent and unsubscribe at any time, with effect for the future, either by using the unsubscribe link included in every newsletter email or by contacting the Association using the details in Section 3. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.

The newsletter is sent using the email marketing tool of IONOS SE, a German hosting and service provider (Elgendorfer Straße 57, 56410 Montabaur, Germany), which processes the data on servers located in Germany on the Association’s behalf under an agreement in accordance with Art. 28 GDPR. No transfer of newsletter subscriber data to a third country takes place.

Subscriber data are retained for as long as the subscription is active and are deleted without undue delay after unsubscription, unless statutory retention obligations require longer storage.

8. Cookies and Similar Technologies

The official website is intended to operate with technically necessary cookies only. Such cookies may be required for core functions, session management or security.

Legal basis for storing or accessing information on the user’s terminal equipment: Section 25(2) No. 2 TDDDG, where the storage or access is strictly necessary to provide the digital service expressly requested by the user.

Where technically necessary cookies involve subsequent processing of personal data, that processing is based on Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR to ensure secure and functional operation of the website.

The Association does not intentionally deploy advertising cookies, behavioural tracking technologies or third-party web analytics tools on the official website.

If non-essential cookies or comparable technologies are introduced in the future, they will not be activated before the legally required consent has been obtained. In such a case, the relevant basis will generally be Section 25(1) TDDDG for access to or storage of information on terminal equipment and Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR for subsequent consent-based processing.

Consent, where used, may be withdrawn at any time with effect for the future.

9. Published Information, External Links and Project Platforms

The Association’s official website primarily serves as an information and communication platform. It may publish news, announcements and information about conferences, robotics competitions, business missions, academic exchanges, training programmes and other activities organised or supported by the Association.

Registration, ticketing, payment, participant management, competition management or other operational services may be provided through independent project websites or authorised third-party platforms.

Merely following a normal hyperlink from the official website does not constitute an automated transfer by the Association of information that a user later enters into the external platform. Data entered on an external platform are submitted directly to that platform and are governed by its own privacy policy and terms.

Please note that, when a user clicks an external link, technical connection data may be transmitted to the external website as part of normal internet communication. The Association does not control the data processing carried out by independent third-party websites.

Visitors should review the privacy information of the relevant external service before providing personal data.

Registration for the Association’s conferences, delegation programmes and comparable events is, as a rule, carried out through an appointed external events management company rather than directly on the official website. Where a visitor instead leaves a message via the contact form to express interest in an event, Section 6 applies to that enquiry.

10. Event Photography and Video Recording

The Association may take photographs and video recordings at conferences, delegation programmes and other events it organises or supports, for the purpose of documenting and reporting on its activities and promoting the Association, including on the official website and on the Association’s social media pages listed in Section 11.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR for general event and venue photography showing attendees as part of the audience or setting. Where a recording is a close-up, individually staged portrait or interview, or otherwise focuses specifically and recognisably on one person, the legal basis is Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, and the Association will ask for that person’s consent beforehand.

Attendees will be informed before or at the start of an event, for example through the invitation, registration information or on-site signage, that photography or video recording will take place and how the material may be used. Where reasonably possible, attendees who do not wish to appear in published material may inform the event staff on site so that this preference can be taken into account.

Attendees may object at any time, with effect for the future, to further use of photography or video material in which they are individually and recognisably identifiable, by contacting the Association using the details in Section 3.

Where event photography or filming is carried out by an appointed events management company rather than by the Association directly, the images may also be processed by that company for its own event-documentation purposes, in accordance with its own privacy information provided at the event.

11. Social Media Presence

The Association maintains official pages on third-party social media platforms in order to inform the public about its activities. These pages are operated in addition to, and separately from, the official website.

When you visit or interact with one of the Association’s social media pages, the operator of that platform processes personal data (such as your profile information, and your interactions with the page) as an independent controller, under its own privacy policy and terms, which the Association does not control. Please review the relevant platform’s privacy information before interacting with it.

Where the applicable platform provides the Association, as page operator, with aggregated visitor statistics (“page insights”), the Association and the platform operator may, to the extent required by applicable law and case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, be joint controllers for that specific processing, limited to the receipt and evaluation of such statistics. Further information on this joint processing, where applicable, is provided by the relevant platform.

This Privacy Policy applies to the Association’s social media pages only to the extent it is expressly referenced there. It does not otherwise govern processing carried out by the platform operator.

12. Recipients and Service Providers

Personal data are disclosed only where this is necessary for the relevant purpose or required by law.

Data may be processed by carefully selected technical service providers, such as website hosting, IT maintenance or email service providers, to the extent necessary to provide and secure the website and communications.

Where a service provider processes personal data on behalf of the Association, the Association will use appropriate contractual arrangements in accordance with Art. 28 GDPR where required.

Personal data are not sold.

13. International Data Transfers

The official website is intended to be operated in a manner that minimises transfers of personal data outside the European Union and the European Economic Area (EU/EEA).

If a service provider or a specific Association activity requires a transfer of personal data to a third country, such transfer will take place only where the requirements of Chapter V GDPR are satisfied, for example on the basis of an adequacy decision, appropriate safeguards such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, or another applicable statutory transfer mechanism.

Independent project websites and third-party platforms are subject to their own privacy information, including any information concerning third-country transfers.

14. Data Retention

Personal data are retained only for as long as necessary for the purpose for which they were collected, unless statutory retention duties require longer storage.

Where a specific retention period cannot reasonably be stated in advance, the retention period is determined according to the purpose of processing, the need to establish or defend legal claims, security requirements and applicable statutory retention obligations.

After the relevant retention period expires, personal data are deleted or anonymised unless continued processing is legally permitted or required.

15. Data Security

The Association implements appropriate technical and organisational measures in accordance with Art. 32 GDPR, taking into account the nature, scope, context and purposes of processing as well as the risks to individuals.

Measures are intended to protect personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data.

Access to personal data is limited to authorised persons who need access for legitimate Association purposes.

16. Your Rights under the GDPR

Subject to the conditions laid down by the GDPR, you may have the following rights:

• Right of access (Art. 15 GDPR);
• Right to rectification (Art. 16 GDPR);
• Right to erasure (Art. 17 GDPR);
• Right to restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR);
• Right to data portability (Art. 20 GDPR);
• Right to object, in particular to processing based on Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (Art. 21 GDPR);
• Right to withdraw consent at any time with effect for the future where processing is based on consent (Art. 7(3) GDPR).

To exercise these rights, please contact the Association using the contact details in Section 3.

Right to lodge a complaint (Art. 77 GDPR): You have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of your habitual residence, place of work or place of the alleged infringement.

For the Association as a non-public body established in Bavaria, the competent Bavarian supervisory authority is:

Bayerisches Landesamt für Datenschutzaufsicht (BayLDA)
Promenade 18
91522 Ansbach
Germany
www.lda.bayern.de

The Association does not use automated decision-making, including profiling, within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR on the official website.

17. Changes to this Privacy Policy

The Association may update this Privacy Policy where necessary to reflect changes in law, website technology or the Association’s processing activities.

The current version published on the official website applies. Where a material change requires additional notice or consent under applicable law, the Association will provide such notice or obtain consent as required.