Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM
Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM

Data Protection Information

When you use this website, we process your personal data as data controllers and save it for the duration required to fulfill the defined purposes and legal obligations. The sections below provide further details about the data this involves, how they will be processed and which rights you have in this regard.

Personal data, as defined by article 4(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), include all information related to an identified or identifiable natural person.

 

1. Name and contact data of the data controller and of the corporate Data Protection Officer

This Data Protection Policy is applicable to data processing on the www.ifam.fraunhofer.de/en website by the controller:

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft
zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.
Hansastraße 27 c
80686 Munich, Germany

(hereinafter referred to as “Fraunhofer”)

 

On behalf of Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM
Wiener Strasse 12
28359 Bremen, Germany

Mail: data-protection@ifam.fraunhofer.de
Phone: +49 421 2246-0
Fax: +49 421 2246-300

(hereinafter referred to as "Fraunhofer IFAM")

The Data Protection Officer at Fraunhofer may be reached at the above-mentioned address, attention of Data Protection Officer or at datenschutz@zv.fraunhofer.de

In case you have any questions about data protection law or your rights as the data subject, you may directly contact our Data Protection Officer.
 

2. Processing personal data and purposes of processing

a) When visiting the website

You may access our website without having to disclose any details of your identity. Your terminal device’s browser automatically sends only the information needed to establish a connection to our website (e.g., browser type and version, date and time of access).This also includes the IP address of your requesting terminal device. Your IP address is temporarily stored in a so-called log file and automatically deleted after 4 days.

The IP address is processed for technical and administrative purposes regarding connection set-up and stability, to guarantee the security and functioning of our website and to be able to track any illegal attacks on the website, if required.

The legal basis for processing the IP address is the first sentence of point (f) of article 6(1) GDPR. Our legitimate interest ensues from said security interest and the necessity of the unobstructed availability of our website.

We cannot draw any direct conclusions about your identity from processing the IP address and other information in the log file. Moreover, we use tracking pixel and analytics services when you visit our website. For more information on this, please refer to clauses 4 of this Data Protection Policy.

b) When registering for events

We offer a variety of events through our website on a regular basis, for which you may register online. When registering for an event, you need to enter the following mandatory data. These include:

  • First name and surname
  • Address
  • Email address

Any other mandatory data are marked as such (e.g. with *). Besides, other data may often be entered voluntarily.

The mandatory data is processed in order to identify the interested persons as participants of the event, to perform the participation contract and to provide the participants with information pertaining to the event before, during and after the event. The voluntary data allows us to plan and execute the event based on interest and age criteria.

Data processing takes place at the request of the interested participants and is necessary pursuant to the first sentence of article 6(1)(b) GDPR for the purposes mentioned for the performance of the participation contract and in order to take steps prior to entering into it.

We store the data we collect in the context of event registrations for 6 months unless you have consented to a longer storage period under article 6(1)(a) GDPR.

For the registration of our events through our web forms, we work in collaboration with the service provider Positive Group Chemnitz GmbH, Schönherrstr. 8, 09113 Chemnitz, Germany (“Mailingwork”). The purpose of the collaboration is to professionally manage online registrations. For this purpose, the entered data is stored on the servers of Mailingwork in Germany.

We have concluded a data processing agreement with the service provider. By this agreement, the service provider assures that it will process the data on our account in accordance with the GDPR and guarantees the protection of the data subjects’ rights.

In addition, it may in some cases be necessary within the scope of contract performance to transfer your personal data to an external organizer. In connection with an event registration, you will be informed about who the organizer is and whether it is an external organizer. This organizer will process personal data within the scope of the event and especially for the management of participants.

c) When using the ordering service

On our website, we offer an order service that allows you to order white papers, for example, free of charge as a single copy or as a subscription. As part of the ordering process, we collect the following required information:

  • Title
  • First Name, Last Name
  • Company
  • Email

This data is collected and further processed

  • to identify you as our contractual partner,
  • to verify the plausibility of the data you entered,
  • and to process your order.

Data processing is carried out at your request and is necessary, pursuant to Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR, for the stated purposes of fulfilling your order with us and taking pre-contractual measures.

d) When using the contact form

We offer website visitors the opportunity to contact us via a form on our website. To enable you to communicate with us via this form, we request the following data:

  • Title
  • First and last name
  • City and country
  • Number
  • Email address and
  • Your query

We need these required data to learn who contacted us and to process the user request.

The processing of data takes place upon your request and is carried out within the framework of answering a contact request supported by our legitimate interest pursuant to the first sentence of article 6(1)(f) GDPR.

The personal data collected by us when you use the contact form will be deleted after completion of your query.

e) When subscribing to a newsletter

On various occasions, we offer on our website the option to register for a newsletter or press distribution list. If you have expressly given your consent pursuant to the first sentence of article 6(1)(a) GDPR, we will use your email address to regularly send you information corresponding to your selection. To receive the information, an email address and the desired language version is sufficient.

You may provide additional personal data voluntarily (e.g., name, address and phone number). We use this data to contact you by phone or mail (e.g., for press invitations).

You will then receive a registration notification by email, in which you need to confirm your email address to be able to receive the newsletter (so-called double opt-in). This helps us verify that it is actually you who have initiated the registration.

Unsubscribing is possible at any time, e.g., via a link at the end of each press newsletter. Alternatively, you may also send your unsubscribing request to datenschutz@zv.fraunhofer.de by email.

After withdrawing your consent for sending the newsletter, your email address will be deleted immediately.

We send our newsletter by means of the service provider Positive Group Chemnitz GmbH, Schönherrstr. 8, 09113 Chemnitz ("Mailingwork"). The email addresses and data of our newsletter recipients are stored on our behalf on the servers of Mailingwork in Germany.

Mailingwork uses this information to send and evaluate the newsletter on our behalf. For this purpose, we have concluded a data processing agreement with Mailingwork. By means of this agreement, Mailingwork assures that it processes the data in accordance with the GDPR and guarantees the protection of the data subjects’ rights.

Mailingwork assures that personal data is fully protected against unauthorized access. Mailingwork itself does not use the data of our newsletter recipients to contact to them or to transfer the data to third parties. As a reliable email sender, Mailingwork is also certified by the Certified Senders Alliance.

 

3. Transfer of personal data to third parties

Except for the aforementioned cases (registration for events, using the ordering service, subscription to a newsletter), we forward your personal data to third parties only if:

  • you have given your express consent pursuant to the first sentence of article 6(1)(a) GDPR;
  • it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you pursuant to the first sentence of article 6(1)(b) GDPR; or
  • a statutory obligation exists for transferring pursuant to the first sentence of article 6(1)(b) GDPR.

In the event that personal data is transferred to a third country (outside the EU) or an international organization, we will provide information accordingly.

 

4. Web analysis through Leadlab (Wiredminds GmbH)

Our website uses the LeadLab service provided by Wiredminds GmbH and its tracking pixel technology to analyze user behavior and optimize our site accordingly. In particular, this service allows us to identify which companies have visited our site. In doing so, we do not obtain any information that may identify you directly.

The use of Leadlab involves tracking pixels that allow statistical analysis regarding the use of this website based on your visits. Wiredminds uses a pseudonym to process the information in a usage profile for the purpose of analysis. The data is anonymized to the extent possible.

Without your specific permission, we neither use the data collected to identify you personally nor will we combine the data with personal data pertaining to the pseudonym associated with you.

If IP addresses are collected, they are immediately anonymized after collection by deleting the last number block.

For more information about data protection at Wiredminds, please visit the company’s website.

We process statistical data based on our legitimate interest pursuant to article 6(1)(f) GDPR for the purpose of optimizing our online offering and our web presence. Wiredminds processes the data on our behalf based on a data processing agreement between us and Wiredminds. This agreement ensures that the data processing on our behalf is compliant with the GDPR and guarantees the protection of the data subjects’ rights.

 

5. Social plug-ins

We use so-called social media buttons (also called social media plug-ins) on our website. These are small buttons by means of which you may publish the contents of our website in your profile on social networks.

If you activate such a button, a connection is established between our website and the social network. In addition to the contents in question, the operator of the social network also obtains additional, partly personal, information. For instance, it includes the fact that you are currently visiting our site.

The social media buttons are integrated using the so-called Shariff solution. This solution developed by Heise and c’t prevents a connection with a social network from being established just because you access a page with a social media button, without actually activating it. This means that information is sent to the social network only when you press the button.

We use the following social media plug-ins:

a) Meta Platforms Ireland Limited: Sharing on Facebook and Instagram

Information is partly transferred to the parent company Meta Platforms Inc., headquartered in the U. S., to other Meta companies and external Meta partners, each of which may be located outside the European Union. Meta utilizes standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission and relies on the European Commission's adequacy decisions about certain countries.
For the purpose and scope of the data collection, further data processing and use by Meta as well as your related rights and configuration options for protecting your privacy, please refer to Meta's privacy notice.

b) X Internet Unlimited Company (formerly Twitter): sharing on X

Information is partly transferred to the parent company X Corp., headquartered in the U. S., to other X companies and external X partners, each of which may be located outside the European Union. X utilizes standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission and relies on your consent.

For more information on data protection on X, please refer to the X privacy statement.

c) NEW WORK SE (formerly: XING SE): Sharing on XING

In part, information is transmitted to other NEW WORK companies and external NEW WORK partners, each of which may be located outside the European Union. NEW WORK utilizes standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission or other appropriate safeguards as set forth in article 46 GDPR and relies on the European Commission's adequacy decisions about certain countries as well as your consent.

For the purpose and scope of data collection, further data processing and use by NEW WORK as well as your related rights and configuration options for protecting your privacy, please refer to the XING's privacy statement.

d) LinkedIn Corporation: Sharing on LinkedIn

Information is partly transferred to the parent company LinkedIn Corporation, headquartered in the U. S., to other LinkedIn companies and external LinkedIn partners, each of which may be located outside the European Union. LinkedIn utilizes standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission.

For more information on data protection on LinkedIn, please refer to the LinkedIn privacy statement.

e) Pinterest Europe Ltd.: Sharing on Pinterest

In part, information is transmitted to other Pinterest-companies and external partners of Pinterest, each of which may be located outside the European Union. Pinterest utilizes standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission or other appropriate safeguards as set forth in article 46 GDPR and relies on the European Commission's adequacy decisions about certain countries as well as your consent.

For the purpose and scope of data collection, further processing and use of data by Pinterest as well as your related rights and configuration options for protecting your privacy, please refer to the Pinterest's privacy statement.

 

6. Data protection information for the Fraunhofer IFAM LinkedIn company page

We have a Fraunhofer LinkedIn company page. In order to be present for you within the scope of this information service, we use the technical platform and services of the provider LinkedIn. Here we would like to inform you about the processing of your personal data in connection with our LinkedIn company page (“company page”), available at: https://de.linkedin.com/company/fraunhofer-ifam or in the LinkedIn app, by us, Fraunhofer IFAM, Wiener Straße 12, 28359 Bremen (“Fraunhofer IFAM” or “we”) as the operator of this company page.

We are partly responsible for the processing of personal data collected from users of our LinkedIn company page (see section 3), partly LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland, in the EU and the European Economic Area (“LinkedIn”) (see section 4), and partly we and LinkedIn jointly (see section 5). The focus of data processing lies with LinkedIn. Below, we explain how this works and what your rights are.

6.1 General information on the provision of the LinkedIn company page

By visiting our company page, users have the opportunity to obtain information about Fraunhofer IFAM's products and services, as well as related information and news.

6.2 Alternative information and contact options

We would like to point out to users that they are responsible for their use of the LinkedIn company page and its functions. This applies in particular to the use of interactive functions (e.g., commenting, sharing, liking, etc.). The type and scope of the processing of your personal data when you visit our company page depends heavily on your user behavior and can be influenced in part by you as a user. If you would like to learn more about us, please visit our website at https://www.ifam.fraunhofer.de.

6.3 Processing of personal data by Fraunhofer IFAM

6.3.1 Name and address of the responsible party for the company page | Contact details of our data protection officer

If you actively use our company page, we are responsible for processing your personal data as described below. You can contact us and our data protection officer at the following contact details:

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft

zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.

Hansastraße 27 c

80686 Munich, Germany

 

On behalf of Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials IFAM

Wiener Strasse 12

28359 Bremen, Germany

Mail: data-protection@ifam.fraunhofer.de

Phone: +49 421 2246-0

Fax: +49 421 2246-300

You can contact the company data protection officer at the above address, marked for the attention of the data protection officer, or at datenschutz@zv.fraunhofer.de.

If you have any questions about data protection law or your rights as a data subject, you can contact our data protection officer directly at any time.

 

6.3.2 Purposes of processing for personal data that users provide to us through active use of our company website | Legal basis(es)

Community function

Users of the company website can select various integrated community functions to interact with us, for example by sharing posts on our company website, commenting on them, or clicking “Like.”

If you use the community functions, we process your user name, profile picture, your active click interactions with our posts (“Like,” “Share,” etc.) as well as your comments and other content that you make available to us on the company page (“Community Data”). We process all Community Data in order to provide users with the Community Features as intended. Without this data, we are unable to provide you with the relevant Community Features. The legal basis for processing is our legitimate interest in providing you and other users of our company page with your content and the company page and its functionalities (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f) GDPR).

We only process your personal data for as long as necessary, i.e. generally for as long as we operate our company website or for as long as your active action on our company website is active. Beyond this, we only store your data for the purpose of pursuing or defending against legal claims or for fulfilling any statutory retention obligations.

6.3.3 Note on sensitive data

Please do not post or integrate any sensitive personal data or confidential company data on our company website.

6.3.4 No data profiles

We do not create profiles of you (no decision-making based solely on automated processing, including profiling) and do not mix your community data with other data we have about you.

6.3.5 Data recipients in the event of processing by Fraunhofer IFAM

Processors: We may transfer your action data in connection with the purposes described here to external service providers, such as IT service providers. We have carefully selected these service providers and concluded data processing agreements with them. To provide our company profile and the above-mentioned content, we use the technical platform and services of LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland.

Other recipients: Otherwise, we will only transfer your action data to other recipients in individual cases if and to the extent that this is required or permitted by law or to enforce legal claims; to investigate or prevent suspected or actual illegal activities. In such cases, we will inform you separately about the respective transfer if and to the extent that this is legally required and permissible.

In this context, we would like to point out to users that these areas are publicly accessible and that all personal information posted there or visible during registration can be viewed by other users. We cannot control or influence how other users of our company page use this information. In particular, we cannot prevent unwanted messages from being sent by other users.

6.4 Processing of personal data by LinkedIn

When you visit our company page, LinkedIn processes additional information and personal data about users and their usage behavior as part of providing the LinkedIn social network.

When you visit our company page via a browser or the LinkedIn app, LinkedIn may process information about your use of our company page and the LinkedIn platform as a whole, which LinkedIn collects on your PC or other device using cookies and similar technologies such as pixels and local storage or app interfaces. In addition, advertisers or other partners of LinkedIn may place cookies or similar technologies on your device, over which we have no control.

We have no influence over what data LinkedIn processes, to what extent, and how, or whether LinkedIn transfers this data to third parties, in particular to countries outside the European Union and the European Economic Area.

In order to provide the company page on the LinkedIn platform, your personal data is processed by LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company and transferred to LinkedIn Corporation in the US (and to other subsidiaries as described at https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/62533?trk=microsites-frontend_legal_privacy-policy&lang=de). LinkedIn relies on the Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission as a legal instrument for data transfers from the European Union. The Standard Contractual Clauses are contractual obligations that companies must comply with when transferring personal data (e.g., between LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company or its customers and LinkedIn Corporation) to protect privacy and data security. LinkedIn companies comply with the standard contractual clauses to legally secure the data transfers necessary for the provision, maintenance, and development of LinkedIn's services.

The LinkedIn Privacy Policy applies to the processing of your personal data by LinkedIn. There you will also find information on how to contact LinkedIn. The privacy policy is available at the following link: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy

The sole controller responsible for this processing of personal data is LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company. The above link to LinkedIn's data policy may change over time at LinkedIn. If the above web link does not lead to the desired information, we ask users to visit LinkedIn's website directly.

6.5 Joint processing of usage statistics (page insights) by Fraunhofer IFAM and LinkedIn

When you use our company page, LinkedIn collects the following personal data (“usage data”) to the best of our knowledge:

  • Interactions with the company page, in particular whether the user is a follower of our company page;
  • Information about you such as your profession, country, industry, length of service, company size, and employment status (all from the user profile for logged-in users).

We do not receive this usage data directly, but only from LinkedIn in aggregated, i.e., summarized form via the LinkedIn tool “Page Insights.” LinkedIn does not provide us with any personal data of members in relation to Page Insights. We cannot assign usage data to the user.

The usage data is collected by LinkedIn – in accordance with its privacy policy – using cookies and similar technologies and provided to us in aggregated form as usage data.

We can use the usage data, as well as the other visible data, to optimize our offering on our company page.

Without our company page, we would not be able to obtain the usage data. LinkedIn and we are therefore “joint controllers” for the processing of the usage data. This means that LinkedIn and we process this data for the joint purpose of learning about the usage behavior of the users of our company page. In the event of such joint responsibility, the GDPR requires us to enter into an agreement with LinkedIn in accordance with Article 26 GDPR. This agreement is available here: https://legal.linkedin.com/pages-joint-controller-addendum. This agreement contains further details and explanations regarding our joint responsibility with LinkedIn in the context of Page Insights.

Our participation in joint processing serves our legitimate interest in using usage data to manage and improve our company website. The legal basis for this processing is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR.

6.6 Your rights as a data subject under the GDPR

6.6.1 Towards us

As the controller, we are obliged to inform you of your rights under the GDPR (data subject rights).

The GDPR grants you certain rights in relation to your personal data. An explanation can be found here: under Data subject rights in this privacy policy.

6.6.2 Towards LinkedIn

Information about your data protection rights towards LinkedIn and how you can manage or delete the information about you stored on LinkedIn can be found in the LinkedIn Privacy Policy at https://de.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy?trk=hb_ft_priv and in the profile settings in your profile.

6.6.3 With regard to Page Insights vis-à-vis us and LinkedIn

You can assert your data subject rights with regard to usage statistics (Page Insights) as explained in Section 8 of this policy vis-à-vis both us and LinkedIn.

6.7 Changes to this privacy policy

This privacy policy was last updated on August 11, 2025.

 

Further development of our company website may also affect how we handle personal data. We therefore reserve the right to amend this privacy policy in the future in accordance with applicable data protection laws and, if necessary, to adapt it to changed data processing realities. We therefore recommend that users visit our company website from time to time to take note of any updates to our privacy policy. We will notify you of any significant changes by updating our privacy policy.

 

7. YouTube

We embed components (videos) of the video hosting service “YouTube” of the company Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland (hereinafter “Google”) in our websites. We use components (videos) of YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., 94066 San Bruno, CA, USA (hereinafter “YouTube”), a company of Google Inc., Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View CA 94043, USA, (hereinafter “Google”) on our website. The implementation is based on article 6(1)(f) GDPR; our legitimate interest in this case is the smooth integration of the videos and the attractive design of our website.

We use the option of privacy-enhanced mode provided by Google.

When you access a page containing an embedded video, a connection to the Google servers is established and the contents are displayed on the web page through a notification to your browser.

Pursuant to Google specifications, in the extended data protection mode, your data—especially which of our web pages you have visited as well as device-specific information including your IP address—is sent to Google servers in the U. S. only when you view the video. By clicking on the video, you give your consent to this transfer.

If you are simultaneously logged on to Google, this information is assigned to your Google member account. You may prevent this by logging out of your member account before visiting our website.

In part, information is transmitted to the parent company Google Inc., headquartered in the U. S., to other Google companies and external Google partners, each of which may be located outside the European Union. Google utilizes standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission and relies on the European Commission's adequacy decisions about certain countries.

For more information on data protection in connection with YouTube, please refer to the data protection regulations of Google.

 

8. Rights of the data subject

You have the right:

  • pursuant to article 7(3) GDPR, to withdraw the consent given to us at any time. This means that in the future, we may no longer continue to process the data as based on this consent;
  • pursuant to article 15 GDPR, to obtain information about your personal data processed by us. More particularly, you may obtain information about the purpose of processing, the category of the personal data, the categories of recipients, to whom your data has been or is disclosed to, the storage period planned, the existence of a right to request from the controller rectification, erasure, restriction of processing or objection, the existence of a right to lodge a complaint, the source of your data if it has not been collected by us, as well as about the existence of automated decision-making including profiling and, if applicable, significant information about its details;
  • pursuant to article 16 GDPR, to obtain the rectification of inaccurate personal data without undue delay or the completion of your personal data stored with us;
  • pursuant to article 17 GDPR, to obtain the erasure of your personal data stored with us unless processing is necessary to exercise the right to freedom of expression and information, for compliance with a legal obligation, for reasons of public interest or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims;
  • pursuant to article 18 GDPR, to obtain the restriction of the processing of your personal data if you contest the accuracy of the data, the processing is unlawful, but you deny its erasure and we no longer need the data while you still require it for establishing, exercising or defending legal claims or if you have objected to processing pursuant to article 21 GDPR;
  • pursuant to article 20 GDPR, to receive your personal data that you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format or to obtain the transmission to another data controller; and
  • pursuant to article 77 GDPR, to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. For this, you may normally contact the supervisory authority of your habitual residence or workplace or our company headquarters.
 

Information on your right to object pursuant to Article 21 GDPR

You have the right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, at any time to processing of your personal data, which is based on article 6(1)(e) GDPR (data processing for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest) and on article 6(1)(f) GDPR (data processing for the purposes of the legitimate interests); this is also applicable to profiling pursuant to article 4(4) GDPR based on this regulation.

If you file an objection, we will no longer process your personal data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms or unless processing serves the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims. If your objection is directed against the processing of data for the purpose of direct marketing, we will stop the processing immediately. In this case, citing a special situation is not necessary. This is also applicable to profiling, insofar as it is related to such direct marketing.

If you wish to make use of your right to object, please send an email to datenschutz@zv.fraunhofer.de.
 
 

9. Data security

All your personal data is transferred in an encoded manner using the widely used and secure TLS (Transport Layer Security) encryption standard. TLS is a secure and proven standard that is also used for online banking, for instance. You will recognize a secure TLS connection by the additional s after http (i.e., https://...) in the address bar of your browser or from the lock icon in the lower part of your browser, among other things.

Besides, we use suitable technical and organizational security measures to protect your data against accidental or intentional manipulation, partial or complete loss, destruction or against unauthorized access by third parties. Our security measures are continuously being improved as technology advances.

 

10. Timeliness and Amendments to this Data Protection Information

This data protection information as amended in January 2020 is currently applicable.

It may become necessary to change this data protection information due to the further development of our website and its offers or on account of amended legal or official requirements. You may always access and print the latest data protection information on the website at www.ifam.fraunhofer.de/en/data_protection.