Article 1 Information on the Collection of Personal Data

(1) In the following, we will provide information regarding the personal data that is collected when using our website. “Personal Data” is defined as any information which refers to you personally, such as name, address, email addresses or user behaviour.

(2) In accordance with Article 4(7) of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Controller is
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
The President
Professor Ulrike Beisiegel
Wilhelmsplatz 1
37073 Göttingen, Germany
Phone +49 (0)551 39-21000
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Our Data Protection Officer, Prof. Andreas Wiebe, can be reached at the address "Platz der Göttinger Sieben 6, 37073 Göttingen, Germany", Phone +49 (0)551 39-7381, email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

(3) When contacting us via email or a contact form, we will use the personal data (your email address, in some cases your name and phone number as well) that you provide to us in order to answer your questions. We delete case-related data when storage is no longer necessary and restrict processing given statutory storage obligations.

(4) If we rely on contracted providers for individual functions of our services, we will inform you in detail about the particular processes below. In doing so, we will also mention the defined criteria pertaining to the storage period.

Article 2 Your Rights

(1) You have the following rights regarding our use of your personal data:
Right of access,
Right to correction or erasure,
Right to restriction of processing,
Right to object to the processing.
The right to data portability does not exist in the public-law sector. (Article 20 (2) sentence no. 2)

(2) You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority about our processing of your personal data. If you wish to file a complaint, you may also contact the State Data Protection Authority for Lower Saxony, located at Prinzenstrasse 5, 30159 Hannover, Germany, phone number +49 (0)511/120-4500, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Article 3 Collection of Personal Data when Using our Website

(1) When using the website for informational purposes only, i.e., if you do not register or otherwise provide us with information, we collect only that personal data which your browser transmits to our server. If you wish to view our website, we collect the following data to the extent that it is technically necessary for us in order to display our website to you as well as ensure its stability and security.

IP address
Date and time of request
Time zone difference to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
Content of request (specific page)
Access status/HTTP- status code
Data volume transmitted in each case
The website the request has come from Browser
Operating system and its interface
Language and browser software version.

(2) In addition to the aforesaid data, cookies are stored on your computer when you use our website. Cookies are small text files that are attributed to the browser you are using and stored on your hard drive and which provide specific information to the website that places the cookie (in this case, our website). Cookies cannot be used to run programmes or deliver viruses to your computer. Overall, they serve to make Internet content more user-friendly and effective.

(3) Use of cookies:
a) This website uses the following types of cookies, the extent and operating principle of which will be explained hereinafter:
Transient cookies (see b)
Persistent cookies (see c).
b) Transient cookies are automatically deleted when you close your browser. In particular, these include session cookies. These store a session ID, which is used to assign various requests from your browser to a common session. This allows your computer to be recognised when you return to our website. The session cookies are removed once you log out or close your browser.
c) Persistent cookies are automatically deleted after a specified period, which may vary depending on the cookie. You can delete cookies at any time in the security settings of your browser.
d) You can configure your browser settings according to your wishes and, for example, refuse to accept third-party cookies or all cookies. Please be aware that you may not be able to use all features of this website if you refuse to accept cookies.
e) Given that you have a user account, we use cookies to identify you on subsequent visits. Otherwise, you would have to enter your login information every time you visit our website.
f) The Flash cookies used are not recorded by your browser, but by your Flash plug-in. We also use HTML5 storage objects that are stored on your device. These objects store the required data regardless of the browser you are using, and they do not have an automatic expiry date. If you do not wish the Flash cookies to be processed, you must install an appropriate add-on, e.g. "Clear Flash Cookies" for Mozilla Firefox (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/clear-flash-cookies/) or use Google Chrome, which supports the deletion of flash cookies. You can prevent the use of HTML5 storage objects by using “Private Mode”, which is available in all modern browsers. In addition, we recommend that you regularly delete your cookies and browser history manually.

(4) Privacy Policy and Use of Social Media

The website of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen contains links to various integrated social media platforms, such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr. These should not be seen merely as an integration of data such as the "Like" button, but links to the university's social media presence on the respective platform. The Georg-August-Universität Göttingen does not store any data relevant for the application of data protection laws.

If external contents of a provider, such as YouTube, Instagram, Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, etc., is integrated on a university website (via iframe or similar), reference is also made to the data protection guidelines of the relevant service. A sample passage reads:

"YouTube/Facebook/Twitter uses cookies that may be used for advertising. Use of the respective social media site is fully subject to the YouTube/Facebook/Twitter Privacy Policy."

However, this rule only applies if the service is embedded. For a simple link to a university Facebook profile, the above passage need not be cited.