„KISSWIN“ refers to the services provided subject to these general terms and conditions and/or the KISSWIN project.

The protection of your personal data is a central concern of KISSWIN.

These data protection regulations are designed to inform you how your personal data is processed by KISSWIN and how you can interchange your data with other users.

The data protection regulations complement the general terms and condition for the use of KISSWIN.

I. Membership 18 years and older

KISSWIN membership is reserved to persons of full age. Parents or supervisors are responsible for the protection of the privacy of their children.

II. Fixed definitions within these data protection regulations

KISSWIN uses certain fixed terms in these data protection regulation which you should know:

• On the profile site of our KISSWIN webpage your personal data is displayed according to your statements and agreement.
• The webpages on which KISSWIN offers special KISSWIN services are called „KISSWIN- webpages“.
• The personal data you have to fill in for your registration (mandatory fields) is called registration data.
• Users registered at the KISSWIN webpages are called „KISSWIN members“.
• "Personal data" refers to details about your personal or professional circumstances.

III. General principles of KISSWIN for the processing of personal data 

For the protection of your personal data KISSWIN acts according to the following principles:

• KISSWIN uses your personal data exclusively to enable you to use the Internet services your registration entitles you to use. Under no circumstances KISSWIN will use your personal data for advertising and marketing or pass your data on to a third party.
• KISSWIN collects, processes and uses your personal data in observance of the data protection laws of the Federal Republic of Germany and the data protection provisions of the European Union.
• The KISSWIN users can choose which personal data can be viewed by other KISSWIN members (cf. subparagraph IV of these data protection regulations.)
• People who are not members of KISSWIN can only view your personal data if you explicitly choose to allow access to your data for everyone (cf. subparagraph IV of these data protection regulations.)

IV. Information, profile and visibility

IV.a      Optional information

Apart from the mandatory registration data you can add optional information (in the following referred to as „optional information“), allowing other KISSWIN members to get to know you better and identify you as a contact with common interests. Optional information is for example: private interests, private contact details, your education, institutes you have worked for, what you offer other KISSWIN members and what you expect from other KISSWIN members. You can also upload pictures, if you like to.

You can decide for every optional information if the other KISSWIN members can view this information or choose for which user group the information is visible.

You can revoke any optional information, you have given, at any time by deleting the particular data.

IV.b      Registration data

To make the community work, KISSWIN collects and processes some mandatory personal data at your registration. This personal data consists of a:

• user name
• password

Your user name and password are visible for other KISSWIN members under no circumstances.  KISSWIN guarantees that none of your data is passed on or can be viewed by a third party.

In addition for the registration certain mandatory fields have to be filled in, for example:

• displayed name (within the community)
• e-mail address

The registration follows the so-called „Double Opt-in“ procedure. After your registration you will get an e-mail to the address you entered, which you have to confirm. Thereby you make your registration valid. This procedure secures that no third party can become a member of the KISSWIN community, using your name.

IV.c      Profile

All KISSWIN members can view your profile and see in addition to your registration data the optional information you added and allowed to be viewed by all KISSWIN members. Certain KISSWIN members might be able to see optional information you made accessible only for a limited group of members.

KISSWIN members who want to establish a personal contact with you are saved in a contact list in your profile. When a KISSWIN member confirms you as a contact, he or she is a „confirmed contact“. Confirmed and not confirmed contacts are recorded separately. Other KISSWIN members can only view your confirmed contacts.

A so-called online index is part of your profile. The index displays if you are online within the KISSWIN community.

Other KISSWIN members can send you private messages to contact you.

As you see: KISSWIN allows you to protect your privacy as much as you want to!

IV.d      Visibility of your profile for users who are not members of the KISSWIN community

You can choose how much information other members can view at all times. You thereby decide either on more privacy or more security within the internet as well as on the availability of your profile for potential research partners. The KISSWIN default settings focus more on the idea of networking. Data visible in your profile can be viewed by non-members of the KISSWIN community and can be found by search engines within the internet. This excludes personal data such as e-mail address or phone numbers.

V. Invitations to the KISSWIN community

As a KISSWIN member you can invite other people to join the KISSWIN community. KISSWIN uses the thereby collected personal data (e-mail addresses) only for the invitation and no other purposes.

 

VI. Groups and related services

KISSWIN offers certain groups and related services at the KISSWIN webpages (in the following referred to as „groups“).

Each group has a founder. The founder decides whether or not the group is public or restricted to a certain group of members, who can read and post articles etc. within the group. This information is displayed for each group on the KISSWIN web pages. They are visible for KISSWIN member and depending on the group settings also for non-members.

Please note: If a group is marked “public” on the KISSWIN webpage and the founder did not restrict access to the group, the contributions posted within the group can be viewed by all KISSWIN members and all users of the internet. The contributions are in this case accessible for non members of KISSWIN and other internet users.

KISSWIN reserves the right to delete groups in which displeasing and illegal statements are made or German law is violated.

VII. Newsletter

KISSWIN sends a newsletter to all community members. This newsletters gives information on new KISSWIN features or informs you about events should the occasion arise. KISSWIN regards your registration as a declaration of interest in these newsletters.

VIII. Search tool for KISSWIN.DE and for the KISSWIN community

KISSWIN offers you various opportunities to search for other KISSWIN members. These search tools help to find other KISSWIN members with similar interests. They furthermore help to establish contact with other KISSWIN members. The search tools enable you to find exactly those members you are looking for and thereby help to broaden your personal network.

IX. Use of cookies

"Cookies" are small files which enable us to save specific user relevant information on your computer while you are using KISSWIN.de. Cookies help us for example to calculate  how many users browse the KISSWIN pages and how often. They furthermore enable us to make our offers for you more interesting and efficient. The KISSWIN services make use of so called session cookies with which the users can be identified after their login until they leave the platform. After a user is logged of the session cookies are deleted automatically. You can permanently save these session cookies when activating the „Login automatically on this computer“ button. The session cookies than contain parts of your login information in an encrypted format. The automatical login on two computers is then impossible.

In your browser settings you can deactivate the storage of cookies, limit it to certain websites or configure your browser in a way that you are notified as soon as a cookie is send. You can delete all Cookies from your PC hard disk at all times. Please be aware that you can not use our KISSWIN services when session cookies are not accepted.  

X. User statistics

Each time our webpages are visited access data is saved in a log file, the so called server log. The saved data consists of the following information:

• Product information as well as information on the used browser version (user agent)
• Time, status and the browser request, as well as the volume of data transmitted and the web site from where you were linked to the requested site (referrer)
• The IP address

For this purpose KISSWIN uses the standardised ‘combined’ Apache web server log file format. But your IP address is not saved during your login.  According to legal provisions for the storage of data the user IP addresses are deleted or anonymised. When anonymised the IP addresses are changed so that individual data can no longer be recognized and matched with an individual person, only with a disproportionately high effort of time, cost and manpower.

KISSWIN uses the anonymised log data for statistical evaluation, that is without classification or hints to your person. This evaluation helps KISSWIN to find out on which days and at what times the KISSWIN offers are especially popular and how much data volume is generated on the KISSWIN web page. The log data also enables KISSWIN to find out about possible defects, such as incorrect links or bugs and therefore helps with the development of the KISSWIN webpages. KISSWIN does not connect page hits and usage with individual persons.  KISSWIN reserves the right to use the log data of certain users if there are grounds for believing that they use the KISSWIN services illegal or contrary to contract. This is necessary for the protection of KISSWIN members, individual data about members, as well as for the protection of the KISSWIN webpages and services.

In addition KISSWIN uses the analysis tool PIKWIK for a fast analysis of user statistics.

XI. Encryption of the webpage

KISSWIN uses the so called SSL certificate for the community section which ensures that your data is transferred safely. In individual cases browsers can not recognize this certificate correctly. In this case you have to allow the use of the certificate explicitly.

XII. Access to data protection regulations

You can access and print the data protection regulation at every page of the KISSWIN web pages using the „data protection“ link.