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Data protection declaration

Last modified February 1st, 2024

The following data protection information provide you with information regarding the personal data processed at https://www.quintessence-publishing.com (Art. 4 No. 1 GDPR) as well as the purposes and legal bases on which this processing (Art. 4 No. 2 GDPR) is carried out. With this information we also satisfy the information obligations under data protection law pursuant to Art. 12-14 GDPR. For persons in Germany, this document also contains the information pursuant to Section 13 of the German Telemedia Act (TMG).

The internet portal operated at https://www.quintessence-publishing.com presents and offers for sale books, trade journals, CDs, DVDs, digital editions of books and journals (so-called "eBooks" and "ePaper"), digital content (e.g. videos or audio files) as well as software (in particular as so-called "apps" for mobile devices) from the international publishing programme of the Quintessenz Publishing Group. Each potential visitor is at liberty to visit the internet portal for purely informational purposes without registration, login or communication with the provider. Orders of products may be placed as registered user or - without prior registration and login - as guest user.

1. Responsibilities within the meaning of Art. 4 No. 7 GDPR – joint responsibility according to Art. 26 GDPR:

The internet portal operated under https://www.quintessence-publishing.com is operated by Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH, Ifenpfad 2-4, 12107 Berlin, Germany, Tel.: +49 (0)30 / 76180-5, Email: info@quintessenz.de. The beforementioned company is the controller under data protection law (Art. 4 No. 7 GDPR) for the technical operation of the software applications operated under https://www.quintessence-publishing.com, the protection of the web offer against unauthorised accesses and attacks by third parties as well as the technical management of the closed user groups permitted on the portal and the user accesses provided for these.

The following publishers of Quintessenz Publishing Group are currently connected to the internet portal:

  • Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH, Ifenpfad 2-4, 12107 Berlin, Germany, Phone: +49 (0)30 / 76180-5, E-mail: info@quintessenz.de
  • Quintessence Publishing Company, Ltd., Grafton Road, New Malden, Surrey, KT3 3AB, United Kingdom, Phone: +44 (0)20 / 8949 6087, E-mail: info@quintpub.co.uk
  • Quintessence Publishing Co. Inc., 411 North Raddant Road, Batavia, IL 60510, USA, Phone: +1 (630) 736-3600, E-mail: contact@quintbook.com

When the website https://www.quintessence-publishing.com is called up an IP geolocation is carried out regarding the visitors to the internet portal and will be automated allocated to the publishing offer of one of the aforementioned connected publishers. The IP geolocation makes insofar a pre-selection with regard to the language used in the portal and the publisher, via which orders of the products and services offered in the portal can be placed as a standard. The following applies hereby:

The visitors to the internet portal are at liberty to manually revoke the default allocation and to move within the portal irrespective of their geolocation in the publishing offer of one of the involved publishers and to enter into contractual relationships with the manually selected publisher, to carry out orders there and/or to create a customer account. If the default allocation is not revoked manually the customer registration and orders will be managed by the publisher allocated owing to the IP address, who is responsible for data protection law.

Quintessence Publishing Company, Ltd. and Quintessence Publishing Co, Inc. also establish a joint responsibility with Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH within the meaning of Art. 26 GDPR in the context of the use of the internet portal at https://www.quintessence-publishing.com. The joint responsibility is established hereby in the relationship of all companies involved in the portal among one another.

Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH assumes within the scope of the joint responsibility

  • the technical and actual management and Administration of the Web Portal (i.e. the management of the databases and other operating resources used for this purpose),
  • the technical and actual management of the websites maintained for the operation of the Web Portal, including the databases and software solutions operated for the registration to and cancellation of newsletters,
  • the processing of the personal data within the scope of the registration of external portal users on the Web Portal as well as for the management of external portal user and employee user accounts in the BackEnd
  • the technical operation and the content-related maintenance of the maintained internet offer under https://www.quintessence-publishing.com and the data processing carried out there besides the registration, in particular insofar as they are associated with the operation and optimisation of the Web Portal and its presentation, the protection of the web offer against unauthorised accesses and attacks by third parties, such as DDos attacks, malicious code and malware attacks and/or the creation of access and usage statistics as well as the cost-benefit analysis of internet advertising.

The other jointly responsible controllers respectively assume for the customers allocated to them according to the aforementioned provisions the customer communication, the processing of orders as well as the content-related management of customer and user accounts.

As a central contact for the safeguarding of the rights of the data subject and with regard to the information obligations pursuant to Articles 13 and 14 GDPR and the processing carried out under joint responsibility, the controllers pursuant to Art. 26 Para. 1 the controllers have appointed

Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH
Ifenpfad 2-4
12107 Berlin, Germany
Tel.: +49 (0)30 / 76180-5
Email: datenschutz@quintessenz.de

The aforementioned company assumes the fulfilment of rights of data subjects for all processing in connection with the operation of the internet portal under https://www.quintessence-publishing.com in the external relationship of the joint responsibility, in particular according to Art. 12-21 GDPR. Each data subject is at liberty however according to Art. 26 Para. 3 GDPR, to also assert these rights directly against the other controllers.

As operator of the internet portal under https://www.quintessence-publishing.com Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH enables registered users through their respective user account - irrespective of the country of their registration - to place orders at the other connected publishers. For this purpose, international orders are brought together in the user account and managed uniformly there. If an order is placed at another publisher involved in the portal than that at which the user registered, the further publisher will receive besides the publisher, at which the registration is managed, access to the personal user data, insofar as these are necessary for the establishment, implementation or termination of a contract. The publishers do not receive any information regarding which products and services a registered user has ordered from the respective other publisher. An exchange of information among the publishers involved in the portal about the users of the internet portal operated under https://www.quintessence-publishing.com does not take place otherwise.

2. Data protection officer of the joint controllers:

  • Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH (Germany):
    medi-ip data protect GmbH, Bergstraße 173, 53129 Bonn, Germany, email: datenschutz@quintessenz.de
  • Quintessence Publishing Company, Ltd. (UK):
    Mrs. Muriel Suma, Grafton Road, New Malden, Surrey KT3 3AB, United Kingdom, Phone: +44 (0)208 949 6087, email: msuma@quintpub.co.uk
  • Quintessence Publishing Co. Inc. (USA):
    Mrs. Michelle Hartman, 411 North Raddant Road, Batavia, IL 60510, USA, Phone: +1 (630) 736-3600, E-mail: mhartman@quintbook.com

3. Categories of personal data processed:

  • Contact and address data  of external portal users: Salutation, academic title, academic degree, first name, last name, institute/company, street, postcode, city, country, federal state, name at the time of participation in the CME test, address at the time of participation in the CME test.
  • Communication data of external portal users: Email address, telephone number, fax number
  • User data: Username (of employees and external portal users), encrypted passwords (of employees and external portal users), log file for confirmation of terms and conditions incl. date, geographically responsible branch, other branches where orders were placed, ePaper authorisation (external portal users), access rights (journals/subscriptions of external portal users), IP address for IP-based access rights (external portal users)
  • Order and booking data: Customer number (ERP ID), customer group, start date, valid until, journal subscription renewal is requested, order number, order date, medium, invoice total, shipping costs, currency, payment type, shipping method, VAT ID, direct debit data (IBAN, BIC, name of bank), payment protocol.
  • Education and training data of external portal users: University, Proof of enrolment, Is student (YES/NO), Test ID CME, Name of CME test, Result of CME test, Date of participation in CME test, Correct answers of CME test, Number of attempts, CME test passed YES/NO, CME certificate, Fields of interest, Memberships in professional societies, Portrait picture for lecturers (authors/speakers as well as staff on publishers' contact pages), CV as free text (authors/speakers only), CV as free text in English (authors/speakers only), user picture upload (authors/speakers only), preference data, subscribed newsletters, bookmarks
  • Ratings and comments: Rating comments by author or buyer of a controller’s publishing products, rater status (user or moderator), number of comments by a user, link of forum entry to creator (user account).
  • Visitor data of external portal users: IP addresses, device and domain data of visitors and orderers, date and time of a request, time zone difference to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), content of the enquiry (concrete page), access status/HTTP status code, amount of data transferred in each case, website from which the enquiry comes, browser, operating system and its interface, language and version of the browser software, path of the requested resource, information on success or forwarding or error status of the access.
  • Session Cookies, i.e. those cookies, which are deleted when the session is ended or with longer inactivity or when the browser is closed.
  • Persistent Cookies, i.e. those cookies, which are stored on the visitor’s computer beyond the period of time of the visit to the Web Portal website for a pre-defined period of time [such as tracking cookies and METIS counters, the VG-Wort]

4. Purposes of processing:

The collection of personal data and the processing of this data pursues the following purposes:

  • Initiation, implementation, processing and settlement of contracts regarding continued education for dentists in the meaning of Section 95d Book V of the German Social Security Code [Fünftes Buch Sozialgesetzbuch - SGB V] (CME continued education)
  • Initiation, implementation, processing and settlement of contracts regarding the acquisition of publishing products (magazines, specialist literature, digital media and articles of individual magazines) of the controllers
  • Granting, management, control and settlement of rights of use to the publishing products (magazines, specialist literature, digital media. Articles of individual magazines and other content-based online services) of the controllers towards external portal users
  • Management of closed user groups and user accesses provided for this purpose (Registration as Web Portal user, provision of user accounts for Web Portal users)
  • Direct marketing towards Web Portal users after consent or on the basis of statutory factual elements for permission in particular according to Section 7 Para. 3 German Act against Unfair Competition [Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb - UWG]
  • Provision of information
  • Operation and optimisation of the Web Portal and its presentation
  • Securing the website against unauthorised access and attacks by third parties, such as DDoS attacks, malicious code and malware attacks.
  • Compilation of access and usage statistics as well as cost-benefit analysis of Internet advertising  
  • Fulfilment of legal storage obligations according to tax and commercial law
  • Defence against claims for payment, performance, rescission, injunctive relief and/or damages by third parties, in particular by Web Portal users and other third parties (e.g. competitors of the controllers)
  • Fulfilment of own legal information, notification, disclosure and other duties

5. Information on data origin:

Personal data processed via the internet portal under https://www.quintessence-publishing.com can be collected both directly from the data subject (informational, non- registered user, guest user or registered portal user), as well as through third parties (for example in case of orders by registered users or guest users for third parties or with the provision of deviating delivery addresses). Data collections through other sources, such as credit agencies, authorities, courts, etc. will not take place.

6. Legal bases for the processing:

The data processing is carried out on the basis of the following legal bases:

  • Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a) GDPR, in particular insofar as it concerns the processing of data of the Web Portal users for advertising purposes
  • Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. b) GDPR insofar as data of Web Portal users are processed in connection with
    • the initiation, implementation, processing and/or settlement of contracts regarding continued education for dentists within the meaning of Section 95d SGB V (CME continued education)
    • the initiation, execution, handling and/or settlement of contracts for the purchase of publishing products (journals, specialist literature, digital media and articles of individual journals) of the controller
    • the granting, management, control and/or settlement of rights of use of the publishing products (journals, specialist literature, digital media. articles of individual journals and other content-based online services) of those responsible and/or
    • the management of closed user groups and user accesses provided for this purpose (registration as a Web Portal user, provision of user accounts for Web Portal users).
  • Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. c) insofar as statutory storage obligations of the data controllers, in particular according to commercial and tax law, for example according to Section 147 German Fiscal Code [Abgabenordung - AO], Sections 238, 257 German Commercial Code [Handelsgesetzbuch - HGB] and/or the fulfilment of own statutory and contractual information, notification, storage and other obligations are concerned.
  • Art. 6 Para. 1 f) GDPR insofar as data are processed for the purpose of reporting and/or advertising irrespective of a consent of the data subject and/or the processing for the purpose of the defence against claims for payment, performance, rescission, injunctive relief and/or damages by third parties, in particular by Web Portal users and other third parties (e.g. competitors of the data controllers) and/or the operation and the optimisation of the Web Portal and its presentation and/or  for securing the website against unauthorised access and attacks by third parties, such as DDoS attacks, malicious code and malware attacks and/or the compilation of access and usage statistics as well as cost-benefit analysis of Internet advertising are concerned.
  • Insofar as data transmissions by Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH (as so-called data exporter) to Quintessence Publishing Co, Inc (as data importer) are concerned this is associated with a so-called third country transmission within the meaning of Art. 44 GDPR for which no appropriateness resolution exists within the meaning of Art. 45 Para. 3 GDPR. The data processing is carried out in this context only according to Art. 49 Para. 1 lit. a), lit. b) or lit. e) GDPR and by complying with the IMPLEMENTING DECISION (EU) 2021/914 OF THE COMMISSION of 4 June 2021 on standard contractual clauses for the transmission of personal data to third countries pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
    Special categories of personal data within the meaning of Art. 9 GDPR are not the object of the joint processing.

7. Criteria for the storage duration:

Personal data is processed until the purpose for the collection or - in the case of further processing - the further processing is fully achieved. The data will be erased with the full achievement of the purpose. The data controllers moreover have an examination and erasure concept, which ensures the regular checking of the erasure obligations.

  • Visitor data will be stored for a maximum period of 21 days after the visit to the domain https://www.quintessence-publishing.com and subsequently erased.
  • Session Cookies are stored for the period of a session, i.e. until the browser is closed.
  • If the user has created an account, the corresponding data will be kept until the account is erased by the user, the user requests the erasure of this or information about the death of the data subject becomes known. If an account has not been used for more than two years, the account and data will be blocked and erased after the legal retention period has expired.

8. Recipients of personal data:

  • Data processor within the meaning of Art. 28 GDPR such as technical service providers
  • Banks (for the processing of the payment transactions)
  • Payment service providers (for the processing of the payment transactions)
  • Credit agencies and address service providers
  • Third party debtors, in connection with the assertion of contract fulfilment claims
  • Courts, authorities and/or enforcement bodies, in particular in connection with the assertion of contract fulfilment claims and/or the defence against payment, fulfilment, contestation claims and/or claims for damages of third parties and within the scope of the fulfilment of statutory obligations of the data controller, for example from tax law or the combatting of money laundering or terrorism
  • Representatives of legal advisory professions (with interferences to the establishment of contracts, -implementation and/or termination; in connection with the assertion of contract fulfilment claims and/or the defence against payment, fulfilment, contestation claims and/or claims for damages of third parties)
  • Representatives of tax consultancy professions

9. Information regarding the obligation to provide data by the data subject

The provision of personal data is partly stipulated by law (e.g. according to tax law, the stipulations of the combatting of money laundering). Furthermore, you may be obligated to make those personal data available to us, which are necessary for the establishment, implementation and termination of contractual relationships with us and the fulfilment of the thus associated contractual obligations. Without these data we are, as a rule, not in the position to carry out contracts with you and/or to satisfy our statutory obligations. Within the meaning of the greatest possible transparency under data protection law we would like to point out possible obligations for the provision of information in an individual case before the execution of the concrete data collection situation respectively separately.

10. Your rights as a data subject:

You have the following rights vis-à-vis the responsible companies according to Art. 15 to 22 GDPR:

  • Right to information, rectification and erasure of data, restriction of processing, and data portability.
  • Right to object to processing that is based on the legitimate interests of the data controller or a third party (Art. 6 I lit. f) GDPR).

Pursuant to Art. 77 GDPR you have the right to lodge a complaint at a supervisory authority in matters of data protection if you are of the opinion that the processing of your personal data is not carried out lawfully. The address of the supervisory authority responsible for the data processing of the joint controllers is:

Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information
Friedrichstr. 219
Visitor Entrance: Puttkamerstr. 16 – 18 (5th floor)
10969 Berlin
Telephone number: +49 (0)30 13889-0
Telefax: +49 (0)30 2155050
Email: mailbox@datenschutz-berlin.de

11. Further data protection notices

Linked URL addresses

Within the framework of the links to other websites (URL addresses) available on the Website, you might in some cases leave the Website or at least the area of responsibility of Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH. The transfer to another service provider must be indicated. This indication is achieved by labelling the link and/or by specifying the linked URL, which, among other things, is displayed in the status bar of the browser. Linked third-party sites are usually opened in a separate browser window. In the case of third-party shops, the naming of the shop indicates that you have left the area of responsibility of Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH.

In the case of a redirection or linking to other websites, the technical realisation of the web offer is outside the area of responsibility of Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH. It is expressly pointed out that such third-party providers may use so-called trackers, beacons or cookies which examine the surfing behaviour of website visitors. In respect of this, please refer to the data protection statement of the respective third-party provider. Moreover, explicit reference is made here to what is commonly called the Facebook ruling of the Schleswig-Holstein Administrative Court with file numbers 8 A 37/12, 8 A 14/12, 8 A 218/11. Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH has no influence on how the linked pages are set up and what data is collected there.

Furthermore, Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH also has no access to data that is collected by third parties using cookies, trackers, beacons or other methods.
This applies in particular to links to social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, etc., through which our site content can be shared.

Recommendation: Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH recommends the use of a browser plug-in such as “Ghostery” (https://www.ghostery.com/de/), which, similar to the objection to the use of Google Analytics (http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout), allows you to selectively or completely prevent the activities of beacons, trackers, cookies and similar technical procedures for data collection across websites in your browser.

However, we would like to point out in this context that blocking technically required cookies or functions may mean that you are not able to use our Website in the desired manner.

Use of cookies

A cookie is a small file that is stored on a visitor's computer as soon as he or she accesses a website or if this is necessary for other technical reasons. If a user revisits a website, a cookie can, for example, indicate that this is a repeat visit. On this Website, however, we do not use cookies known as persistent cookies. Even in cases where information is stored that you as a user have been shown the cookie information, a transient cookie is used. This means that this cookie is also erased when you close your browser. We therefore use only transient (temporary) cookies; these are written to your computer's hard drive via your web browser. We can read these during your current visit to our website. Our cookies are protected against being read by third parties by means of the security standards of your browser.

All cookies that we use only enable technically necessary functions such as login or the functioning of the shopping cart. They are used on the basis of a legitimate interest as defined in the GDPR or with your consent. The transient cookies are deleted when the browser is closed.

We are therefore unable to show you a selection of different purposes according to which separate cookie settings can be set, as for statistical or marketing reasons no cookies are used here.

You can object to the use of deployed cookies at any time: If you wish to deactivate cookies, you can use the Help function in the menu bar of the web browser you are using to find out which settings you need to apply to prevent the storage of new cookies. There you will also find information about further cookie settings, e.g. information and warning functions for the deletion of existing cookies. Alternatively, you can also use a program such as Ghostery. However, you should be aware that if all cookies are blocked, the cookie information will be displayed each time you visit the site, and the shopping cart will not work without a cookie.

In order to ensure unrestricted and trouble-free use of our web pages, we recommend that you leave the cookie functions fully activated when using our Portal. Cookies for reach measurement are not used in the Web Portal of Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH. The Web Portal also does not use Google Analytics.

If you wish to block cookies, trackers and beacons from websites in general, you can also install the browser plug-in "Ghostery". This enables you to see at any time what data collectors are integrated into a website, and you can block the activities of corresponding functions. You can find downloads for different browsers on the website https://www.ghostery.com.

Use of Matomo

The Website uses the statistics software "Matomo", formerly known as "Piwik", to analyse and optimise the use of the Website. This software is used on Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH's own server and under its own complete control; this means that in respect of the use of this software no data is passed on to third parties and especially not to third parties in other EU countries. The recording of all page visits is carried out by anonymising the IP addresses. Matomo is not linked to logins, sessions or user accounts when used on our Web Portal. In the configuration we use, Matomo does not leave any cookies on your computer. The recognition of computers is therefore not possible. The settings used also provide for IP addresses to be transmitted anonymously. Therefore, no references to persons can be established through the use of Matomo. The software is only used for very general statistical purposes, such as recording the number of page visits and recording browsing times. In addition, it also statistically records - without reference to individuals - how many purchases were made via the Website and what was sold or ordered. No further session tracking is carried out.

You can prevent data transfer by Matomo by adjusting your browser settings or by using corresponding software.

Embedded video content

We have integrated components from "YouTube" (https://www.youtube.com) on our Websites to provide video clips. Each time a YouTube video is viewed on one of the individual pages on which a YouTube video is offered, YouTube and the operator of this offer, Google Inc, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA ("Google"), obtain knowledge of which specific sub-page of our Website the data subject is visiting. If the data subject is logged on to YouTube at the same time, YouTube can recognise which specific page of our website the data subject is visiting when a sub-page containing a YouTube video is accessed. This information is collected by YouTube and Google, and linked to the data subject’s YouTube account. YouTube and Google always receive information that the data subject is visiting our Website if the data subject is also logged into YouTube when they visit our website; this happens regardless of whether the data subject clicks on a YouTube video or not. If you do not wish this information to be transmitted, you can prevent the transmission by logging out of your YouTube account before accessing our Website. YouTube's published privacy policy is available at https://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy/.

We have integrated components of "Vimeo" (https://vimeo.com) on our Websites to provide video clips. Each time a Vimeo video is posted on one of our individual pages, Vimeo, Inc. 555 West 18th Street, New York, New York 10011, USA, is informed about which specific page of our Website is being visited by the data subject. Vimeo's published privacy policy is available at https://vimeo.com/privacy/.

Embedded blog content

We have integrated the blog component of "StoryTile" (https://www.storytile.net) on our websites, e.g. to share live information at our congresses. Each time an individual page is called up on which a StoryTile blog is provided, those connection data that are required for the request are transmitted to StoryTile GmbH, Gollierstraße 70, 80339 Munich, Germany. The privacy policy published by StoryTile is available at https://www.storytile.net/datenschutzerklaerung.
Social media content (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) that is embedded in blog posts is initially inactive and is only activated by an explicit click by the visitor. This leads to a transmission of connection data to the social media platform for the purpose of retrieving the content.

Use of so-called "Facebook Pixel"

The "Facebook Pixel" is only used on the pages of Quintessence Germany!

On our website, we use so-called "Facebook pixels", a tracking service of Meta Platforms, Inc, 1601 S California Ave, Palo Alto, California 94304, USA (hereinafter referred to as "Facebook"). Using Facebook Pixels, Facebook can display our ads on Facebook to those Facebook users who have visited our website and are interested in our offers or certain topics or products. This tells us whether a visitor was redirected to our website after clicking on our Facebook ad. Facebook pixels use, among other things, cookies that are stored locally in the memory of your web browser. If you are logged into Facebook, the visit to our website is logged in your Facebook account. The data collected via Facebook pixel are anonymous for us. They therefore do not allow us to draw any conclusions about the identity of the user. Even if you are not registered with Facebook or not logged in, it may be that Facebook learns and stores your IP address and possibly other identifiers.

We use Facebook Pixel for marketing and to optimize our offerings.

A Facebook pixel will only be activated on our site if you have explicitly agreed to it in advance by clicking the appropriate button in our "cookie banner" at the top of the website. Without your approval, the Facebook pixel will not be activated.

You may also set ad preferences on Facebook's websites to control or limit the processing of your personal data:
https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads.

You will find Facebook's privacy information here: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy.
Information on Facebook Pixel can also be found here: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/651294705016616

Further analyses - Server data

In addition, information about the resources retrieved is stored on the application servers. This storage includes software-related error logs, if such errors occur. However, no references to the incoming requests are stored during this storage. This is therefore anonymous data which is recorded exclusively for the purpose of error detection and error analysis.

In order to ensure communication on the Internet and in particular to access the Website, it is necessary to record certain data. This includes the IP address of the user, without which it would not be possible to present the Website to the user. This means that log files/server data are recorded when you visit the Website. The IP address is the basis for communication on the Internet. In addition to the goal of reliable communication, data is also stored for data security purposes, i.e. to protect the systems and, usually, also to analyse any errors that occur. The so-called server data is stored by the provider of the website for reasons of communication and error detection.

Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH operates this Website with the Internet hosting company

Hetzner Online GmbH
Industriestr. 25
91710 Gunzenhausen
Germany

For information on the storage and erasure of this server data, please refer to the respective current privacy policy of this provider. You can find this under the link https://www.hetzner.de/rechtliches/datenschutz/

Except for anonymous statistical purposes, there is no further use of the log files/server data. In particular, no user profiles of guest visitors are created.

Provision of the Website

The Web Portal can in principle also be used without registration, i.e. anonymously. At Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH you have the option to register and create your own user account in order to facilitate subsequent orders and the use of the services offered. All shops that are operated on this platform are available to you if you are a registered user.

If you have created an account for our Portal, you can change, add or erase your user data yourself. In the context of the erasure, however, we explicitly point out that legal retention periods remain unaffected and that in certain circumstances, blocking may have to take the place of erasure.
All statements in this privacy policy also apply to digital products and services.

Ordering without an account

If you wish to place an order via our site without permanently registering as a user, there are two options available to you. You can either send us your order by phone or fax or you can enter the data necessary to complete the order without creating an account.

If you would like to place an order via the Website without an account, i.e. place the order as a guest, the following data is mandatory:

  • Email
  • Title
  • First name
  • Name
  • Address (i.e. street, house number)
  • Post code
  • City
  • Country

Names, addresses and email are essential for the processing of an order. Specifying your country is also necessary because the shops are available internationally and therefore the addition of the country code to the postcode is required to ensure delivery of your order. For socio-cultural reasons, your title is necessary for proper correspondence, as recipients generally expect to be addressed with an appropriate form of politeness.

As further optional details, you can specify the following attributes when ordering without an account:

  • Academic title (in front of your name)
  • Academic degree (after your name)
  • Organisation
  • Telephone number
  • Fax
  • Customer number
  • Company of the Quintessence Publishing Group that assigned your customer number
  • VAT ID No.
  • Student status (Yes/No)
  • Proof of matriculation (optional upload possibility)

Customer account (My Account/ "myQ")

If you frequently place orders via our Portal, it is advisable to create a user account, as you will then not have to enter all personal and address data again for each order. As already described above, there are many configuration options available to you if you visit the Portal as a registered user.

For example, in addition to a billing address you can also store a different delivery address and choose very carefully which subject areas are relevant for you.
If you want to create an account, this process has two steps. This explicitly prevents the misuse of your email address and the improper registration as you by third parties. After entering the registration data, a link will be sent to the email address provided to verify the authenticity of the registration and your identity. Only after this link has been confirmed will the respective account be activated. This procedure is called double-opt-in and is the current state-of-the-art and customarily adopted procedure. We therefore ask for your understanding that this additional validation of your data is required due to legal requirements.

If a link has not been confirmed within the double-opt-in procedure within two weeks, the account will not be activated, and the entered data will be erased. If you wish to have your own account, the following information is defined as mandatory and required for the creation of your account:

  • Email
  • Password (Note: The strength of the password is automatically displayed in the input form, but you should always use numbers and special characters in addition to upper- and lower-case letters and use a password that is as long as possible and contains no less than 10 characters):
  • Title
  • First name
  • Surname
  • Address (i.e. Street & house number)
  • Post code
  • City
  • Country

With regard to the individual attributes, please refer to the explanations in the section "Ordering without an account". Optionally, you can also leave us the following information when you register for your own account:

  • Academic title/Academic degree
  • Organisation
  • Telephone number
  • Fax
  • Student status (Yes/No)
  • University
  • Certificate of enrolment (optional upload option)
  • Customer number
  • Company of the Quintessence Group that assigned your customer number
  • Activation code

Finally, when you register, you can also decide whether you wish to receive email advertising or newsletters.
In all constellations in which you agree to the T&Cs and confirm that you have acknowledged the privacy policy, the relevant time stamps for the agreement or acknowledgement are also stored. Likewise, the time stamp of the confirmation of an email link is also stored in the context of the double opt-in procedure. This data is used to prove that you have been properly informed and to defend any legal claims. It is therefore stored for as long as your account exists.

Maintenance of your user account

As soon as your user account has been created, confirmed and activated, you can administer and look after your personal account yourself. In doing so, you can apply a variety of settings which can make the use of our Portal considerably more convenient for you. This information and these settings can all be added voluntarily. However, certain functionalities of the Portal can only be made available if you explicitly agree to the use of these offers. You alone decide how your user account is configured. The options available to you are explained below.

First of all, the basic data of your account is displayed in the "My User Account" area, in particular you can change the title, academic title/degree, surname and first name, as well as email address and password.

Street, house number, postcode, city and country can also be changed here.

You can create almost any number of different additional addresses, which you can then use as billing or delivery addresses.

In addition, you have the option of entering your bank account data, in particular your IBAN and BIC, in order to use them for orders or purchases so that the invoice amounts can be conveniently debited from your account.

For cross-border orders, you can store your VAT identification number in your profile.

The options listed here are each provided with a tick box and, in the sense of data protection-friendly default settings, are not activated unless you have already consented to the corresponding advertising. You can now select the ways in which you would like to be informed by our company. If you deselect one of the options, this will be interpreted as an objection to the use of the respective information channel and you will no longer receive the corresponding advertising via the deselected channel. Here you can exercise your right to object to the use of your data for advertising purposes, differentiated according to communication channels.

In the My Account section you also receive information about which Quintessence publishing house is responsible for you. In addition, you can also enter multiple customer numbers here if you are a customer of several companies of the Quintessence Group. You can enter the respective customer number and select the appropriate company from a pull-down menu.

Special offers are sometimes aimed at students. You can therefore indicate yourself whether you are a student and at which university you are enrolled. If certain offers are only open to you if you can prove your status as a student, the area described here offers you the option to upload your proof of enrolment as an image or as a PDF. As long as this is valid and has not been cancelled, it is an option available for orders and saves you the effort of having to send the document by post. Your university ambassador is also displayed in the "My Account" area; this is someone you can contact directly by clicking on the button provided there. The university ambassador is a freelance employee of our company who can offer you as a student many publications at particularly favourable prices.

In the section My Access Rights you can see which journals, fee-based information and offers you have access to and can change corresponding subscriptions there or activate further access via an activation code.

In addition, you can set and manage bookmarks, so that you can always find and access specific places in the online literature available to you.

On a watch list, you can manage publications that might be relevant for you.

If you have booked and participated in CME tests via our Web Portal, they will be displayed along with the results in the "My Account" area.

Finally, in your "My Account" area, you will also have an overview of all orders that you have placed via your account, as well as the respective order status.
There are several newsletters available for you to choose from. You can subscribe or unsubscribe to these newsletters in the "My Account" section.

Unsubscribing is tantamount to objecting to the use of your email to send the respective newsletter.

Finally, you can also manage memberships in professional associations and select your fields of expertise. If you activate the alert function in this context, you will receive a message as soon as new publications or information on your fields of expertise become available on the Portal.

You could also undo or erase any settings you make in your user account. You alone decide what data you want to store here in addition to the required basic data for an account, and which possible additional functions you want to use on the Portal.

Transparency regarding your stored data

This privacy policy informs you very comprehensively about the purposes for which your data is processed in our company. If you would like an overview of what data of yours we store and process, you could of course send us a request. However, in order to make it easier for you to access an overview of your data, we have provided you with a button in the Data Protection section of the "My Account" area which goes far beyond the information options required by the European Data General Protection Regulation. With this button you can call up a complete overview of all data stored about you at Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH. In addition, you will also find the option in this area to send us a direct request regarding data protection.

Newsletter

Even without having a user account, you can regularly benefit from receiving our newsletters and thereby receive the latest information from us. For this we simply require your email address. If you register exclusively for receipt of the newsletter, apart from your email no further personal data is required or collected. An exception to this principle is the storage of the time stamp of the confirmation of your registration via the double opt-in procedure, which for reasons of proof of proper consent and to defend against legal claims we store for as long as the consent is valid or you receive the newsletter from us to the email address provided.

After entering and confirming your email address as part of the registration for the newsletter, you will first receive an email with a confirmation link. This so-called double opt-in procedure ensures that no email addresses are misused. Only when the confirmation link has been activated will your email address also be used for sending newsletters. If the activation link is not used to confirm your email address within four months, it will be erased from our database.

If registration and confirmation were successful, you will receive our newsletter regularly in future.

You can object to receiving the newsletter at any time. To unsubscribe from the newsletter you simply need to click on the link in the newsletter email.

Only the email addresses of newsletter recipients are processed. No other personal data is collected, stored or processed, in particular no names or addresses or other data from any user account on our Website. As mentioned earlier, subscribing to our newsletters is also possible independently of setting up a user account.

Only for newsletters of Quintessence Germany:
We use the service provider "RapidMail" to send our newsletter (https://www.rapidmail.de).
RapidMail's privacy policy can be found here: https://www.rapidmail.de/datenschutz

Only for newsletters of Quintessence United Kingdom:
We use the service provider "NewZapp Communications" to send our newsletter (https://newzapp.co.uk).
NewZapp's privacy policy can be found here: https://newzapp.co.uk/legal/privacy-policy/

Only for newsletters of Quintessence USA:
We use the service provider "Constant Contact" to send our newsletter (https://www.constantcontact.com).
Constant Contact's privacy policy can be found here: https://www.constantcontact.com/legal/privacy-center

Author registration

Authors and speakers of Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH can obtain access to an area which is specifically provided for their presentation and self-marketing. Setting up the corresponding access to the area is always done manually in consultation with the author or speaker. The starting point can be an already existing user account or the account will be created completely manually. It is only set up or activated after consultation with and with the consent of the author or speaker.

As an author or speaker you therefore have the option in principle to access the area "myQ author area at Quintessence". Whether and how you use the option of self-marketing or presenting yourself and the services you provide on this page is up to you as the author or speaker. All information that you can provide here is voluntary. Authors or speakers are themselves responsible for the data entered.

You can upload a profile picture. Please make sure, however, that you also hold the image rights to the images used for presentation on the Internet. You can also enter your CV in German and/or English.

To enable you to edit this without displaying half-finished texts on the Internet in general or on our Portal in particular, there is a tick box that allows you to determine the time of publication of your CV yourself.

You can also undo this process. However, we would like to point out that search engines and Internet services, whose operation is completely beyond our responsibility, often copy content or store it in so-called "caches" in order to enable a faster search on the Internet.

You can also use a tick box to select whether your profile is visible in the author area, on product pages and on partner pages and whether visitors to the respective websites are allowed to contact you.

In addition, you can post your products or services in the described area, review products, especially print products, manage abstracts for lectures, manage a list of your cooperation partners, record membership in professional associations and indicate your areas of competence (fields of expertise).

All these details are provided voluntarily and exclusively by yourself. You can change or erase settings and entries at any time and thus have complete data sovereignty over the data stored and, if approved by you, displayed about you on our Portal in your function as an author or speaker.

If you wish to have your data or your access as an author or speaker erased or blocked, you have the option of erasing your information via the area itself and can inform us at any time that you wish to have your account or profile erased. Corresponding requests will be implemented immediately.

Access to services and shops

If you have stored this data in an account (user account), you can also change it at any time, as described above, and thereby have full control over both mandatory and voluntary information. In addition, you can have your account erased at any time. The access data (login) of your account is basically valid for all online services of Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH, as well as for all services and shops that are offered by third parties on our platform.

Payment service providers

Depending on the available or selected payment method, it may happen that additional payment data is required for the contract and payment processing. If the selected or specified payment method in the specific case requires processing via an external provider of payment services, you may have to provide this provider with additional data or have already provided when creating your account. In this case, it is absolutely necessary for data to be exchanged between Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH or the store provider (publisher) on the one hand and the payment service provider on the other hand in order to process the contract and payment. With regard to the use of payment services, the respective data protection provisions of the provider also apply.

  • Credit card (only in the shop of Quintessence USA):
    Insofar as you pay for a purchase of products or services by credit card, the card data you enter will be processed by the payment service providers "FIS Worldpay" (https://www.fisglobal.com/en/payments/online) and "Authorize.net" (https://www.authorize.net/). The privacy policy of FIS Worldpay and Authorize.net can be found here:
    https://www.fisglobal.com/en/privacy
    https://usa.visa.com/legal/privacy-policy.html
  • Credit card (all other shops):
    Insofar as you pay for a purchase of products or services by credit card, the card data you enter will be processed by the payment service provider "Worldline (formerly SIX Payment Solutions)" (https://www.six-payment-services.com). The privacy policy of Worldline/SIX Payment Solutions can be found here:
    https://www.six-payment-services.com/de/services/legal/privacy-statement.html
  • PayPal (only in the shop of Quintessence Germany):
    Payments via Paypal account are processed by PayPal (https://www.paypal.com/de/home). The privacy policy of PayPal can be found here:
    https://www.paypal.com/myaccount/privacy/privacyhub
  • Sofortüberweisung (only in the shop of Quintessence Germany):
    Payments via Sofortüberweisung are processed by Klarna (https://www.klarna.com/sofort/). Klarna's privacy policy can be found here:
    https://www.klarna.com/sofort/datenschutz/

Quintessence Publishing does not have access to your payment data such as your credit card number. We only see your name, the transaction ID and are informed by the respective payment service provider whether the payment was successful or not.

Storage of time stamps and consent features

Your consent to the T&Cs and the privacy policy are also stored, as they are an essential prerequisite for the use of the Portal and this means that the consent to the use of data has been given and/or it is documented that the person concerned has been informed in accordance with the data protection regulations. Specifically for this purpose, time stamps (time of consent) and, if applicable, consent codes are stored. If the T&Cs or the privacy policy are not approved, the registration process cannot be carried out. The consent data is stored until the basis for the storage ceases to apply. Likewise, the time stamp of the email confirmation is also stored in the context of the double opt-in procedure.

If you access protected content through a user account, this access is stored with reference to your account for statistical purposes and to control access authorisation.

OpenStreetMap

We use the map function of "OpenStreetMap" (https://www.openstreetmap.org) to do a proximity search around our events calendar. We do not actively pass on any personal data to the OpenStreetMap Foundation, especially no data from user accounts. However, the integrated service itself collects data, such as your IP address, which is technically necessary for the functioning of this service. Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH has no access to data that is collected by the third party provider. You can find the OpenStreetMap-Foundation's privacy policy under the following link: https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy

If you wish to prevent the third-party provider from collecting data, you should refrain from using the proximity search.

Product reviews

If you are a registered user, author or speaker, you can review products and services on our Website. To ensure that only authentic reviews are available on our Portal, the reviews can only be displayed in a personalised way. If you submit a review, it will therefore be displayed with your last name and first name, the profile picture if available, as well as the result and the time stamp of the review. If you would like a review you have submitted to be subsequently erased, please let us know.

Billing within the scope of volume contracts

If you access chargeable content within the scope of a volume contract, as is usual in the case of use by institutions, data is transferred to us by script, which is necessary for proof of use and billing. In particular, the following data is recorded in this context:

  • User name/User ID
  • IP address
  • Time stamp (date and time)
  • Link to the document called up

Email and contact forms

In particular, the Website uses form functionalities for registration to newsletters and for contact with third party providers. If you provide us with personal data via this Website, we will use the personal data you provide exclusively for the processing of your specific request or for the fulfilment of the specific purpose. After the purposes for storing and processing personal data cease to apply, Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH will erase this data immediately. If a contact form is available for contacting third parties, we are merely the operator of the technical platform via which you send your data to the respective company. The recipient of your request is in this case the data controller and we would like to refer you in this respect to its corresponding privacy policy.

Online applications to Quintessenz Verlags-GmbH

If we publish job advertisements within the Portal, it is possible for you to apply by email or by post. There is no contact form available for this purpose. No data is therefore collected in respect of possible applications via the Web Portal.

Processing of data outside the European Union

Processing of personal data outside the European Union only takes place if you order third-party products from corresponding countries or use integrated services of third-party providers who themselves collect data and store it in third countries. Shop operators generally do not have access to account data of other shops on the portal. However, if you, as a registered user, place an order in one of the shops operated by external companies, your corresponding data will be transferred to the respective company for the execution of the order and for billing purposes. Not all shops are operated by companies of the Group that are based within the EU. Such orders and the corresponding contact data are also transferred to third countries. In this case, the transfer will only take place after the consent of the data subject, i.e. after you have actively initiated an order or purchase. You can see from the respective shop in which country you placing your order. In addition, explicit reference to the respective link to the imprint and privacy policy of the respective shop operator. All shop operators of the Website belong to the Quintessence Group, which ensures that each shop operator handles your data responsibly and in accordance with the provisions of the European General Data Protection Regulation.

Changes to the data protection provisions

Changes in the law or changes in our internal processes may make it necessary to adapt this privacy policy. We will inform you of any significant changes to the privacy policy on our Website. It is possible to print or save this privacy policy at any time.