Privacy Policy-ESG Alliance

Privacy Policy

Updated date: 2024-07-10

Private Policy

Updated date: June 15th, 2022

Preface

AHK Greater China (hereinafter referred to as “we”) deeply understands the importance of personal information to you, and will use all our efforts to protect your personal information. We would like to maintain your trust in us by protecting your personal information in alignment with the following principles: Consistency of Authority and Responsibility, Clear Purpose, Choice of Consent, Minimum Necessity, Safety Assurance, Participation of Individual, Openness and Transparency. At the same time, we promise that we will take appropriate security measures to protect your personal information in accordance with the security standards required by the laws and regulations.

This Privacy Policy will introduce you to our methods of collection, storage, usage, processing, transmission, provision, disclosure and deletion of your personal information when you use our services, and ways we provide for you to visit, correct, delete and protect this information.

This Privacy Policy applies to services provided to you by AHK Greater China, including offline services and online services (hereinafter referred to as “AHK Services”) provided through various forms of internet technology (including new service forms arising with technological development in the future) such as websites, emails, newsletters, WeChat Official Accounts, Sina Weibo, WeChat Mini Programs, webinars, etc. AHK Greater China includes the Delegations of German Industry and Commerce in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the China German Chamber of Commerce, the German Industry & Commerce (Taicang) Co., Ltd. and its branches.

Please note that when you visit whichever online entrance to use AHK Services, you should carefully read the relevant stipulations regarding the platforms you visit and use in this Privacy Policy. If you disagree with this Privacy Policy, please stop using relevant platforms.

We would like to emphasize that AHK Services may include links or guides directing you to other websites, and applications operated by third parties. Please note that we have no control over such third-party websites or applications. This Privacy Policy will not apply to services provided by other third parties to you in any circumstance, and will not apply to AHK Services which have other independent privacy policies. We suggest you carefully read the privacy policy of third parties when visiting and using their services.

This Privacy Policy should be read and acknowledged simultaneously with our disclaimer and relevant laws and regulations. Please read and acknowledge all contents of this Privacy Policy carefully before using our services, and recheck this Privacy Policy regularly to keep up with updates of it. Please be sure that you have fully understood and agreed to this Privacy Policy before you use our services, especially the clauses about liability exemption or limitation which may be bold-faced for your special attention. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for this Privacy Policy, please contact us in the ways listed in this Privacy Policy.

This Privacy Policy will help you understand the following contents:

§1 Definition of Personal Information and Collection Circumstances

1.1. “Personal information” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. An

1.1. “Personal information” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. An identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly by full name, ID card number/passport number, email address, WeChat ID, location data, network identifier, user behavior, and identifiers such as the economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.

“Sensitive personal information” is a special kind of personal information, usually defined as any information relating to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, philosophical beliefs, union membership, personal genetic data, biometric data, health data, sex life, sexual orientation, etc. In some cases, sensitive personal information may also include unpublished criminal charges or judgements, precise geographic location information, financial and bank account number, and unique identifiers such as government-issued social security number, driver's license, and passport number.

For sensitive personal information, if we collect or process it (for example, if you purchase our services from us, we will collect sensitive personal information for payment such as bank card number), we will process it in accordance with applicable laws and regulations in such circumstances such as obtaining your separate consent in advance.

1.2. When you are using our services, we will collect and process your personal information for the following purposes and circumstances (if applicable):

a) Handling membership businesses of China German Chamber of Commerce

b) Performing contracts and other legal documents

c) Handling AHK Charter Flights

d) Handling visa businesses

e) Organizing activities of China German Chamber of Commerce

f) Collecting and selecting profiles of candidates

g) Organizing fairs, events, delegations

1.3. We may obtain account information (such as profile photo, nickname, account ID) authorized by you to share from third parties, and with your consent of this Privacy Policy and allowing us to obtain account information authorized by you to share from third parties. We will tie your third-party account to your AHK Services account, allowing you to log in through the third-party account (e.g., quick login of WeChat account) and use our services. We will process your personal information in accordance with relevant laws and regulations after confirming the legitimacy of the source of personal information according to agreements with the third parties.

1.4. Please understand that the functions and services we provide to you will update and develop continually. If any function or service collects your information and is not listed in above articles, we will obtain your consent by providing reminders on pages, website notifications, separate agreements or other methods for further explanation on the content, scope, and purpose of information collection to you.

1.5. Please understand that your consent is unnecessary for us to collect and process relevant personal information of you in the following circumstances:

a) Concerning national security and interests, or public interests;

b) When this is necessary for performing our duties or obligations stipulated by laws and regulations;

c) When this is necessary for signing and performing agreements or other written documents with you as a party;

d) When this is necessary for responding to public health emergencies or protecting the life, health, and property security of you and others in emergent situations;

e) Processing the personal information disclosed to the public by yourself in a reasonable scope;

f) Processing your personal information which is collected from information that is legally disclosed to the public (such as legitimate news reports, government information disclosure and other channels) in a reasonable scope;

g) In other circumstances which are stipulated by laws and regulations.

1.6. Please be fully aware that if we process the personal information with technical means, which leads to the personal information subject cannot be identified and the information cannot be reversed after such processing, then for the use of these processed data we do not need to notify you or obtain consent from you.

1.7. In case of termination of operations, we will make an announcement on the AHK Services at least 30 days in advance, and will immediately stop collecting your personal information, delete the collected personal information or anonymize it.

§2 How We Collect and Use Your Personal Information

2.1. Handling membership businesses of China German Chamber of Commerce

2.1.1. What personal information we collect from you

a) When you apply for the membership of China German Chamber of Commerce, we need relevant information provided by you to verify whether you are qualified to become our member. If you choose to use this business function, the necessary information we need you to provide to us or allow us to collect includes full name, email address, and position. For private member application, we will require you to provide an electronic version of your passport to confirm your nationality. If you refuse to provide this information, we will be unable to verify your qualifications for membership and provide related follow-up membership services.

b) You can decide by yourself whether to provide or allow us to collect the following information or not: email address, website address and portrait photo. This information is not essential for the operation of this business function, but it is very important for improving service quality. We will not require you to provide this information, your refusal will not cause any adverse effect on becoming a member of us.

2.1.2. How we use your personal information

a) For necessary personal information: we will use it to provide membership services including verifying qualifications for membership and providing membership benefits. Membership benefits include but are not limited to Member Directory, newsletters, etc. You acknowledge and agree that for the contact information provided by you, we may send you many kinds of notices in the business operation for the purposes include member information notification, identity verification, security verification, member survey and others; in addition, we may also send the newsletters you may be interested in by e-mail, including services, events, trainings, etc., but please rest assured that if you are unwilling to accept this information, you can unsubscribe through the unsubscribe method provided in the newsletters. We will also use the aforementioned information for maintaining and improving this business function, developing new business functions, etc.

b) For non-essential personal information: mainly to implement the extension of our services to you.

2.1.3. How we entrust processing, share, transfer, publicly disclose your personal information

a) Entrusted processing

We will not entrust the processing of your personal information to any third party.

b) Sharing

Sharing under the circumstances stipulated by laws: we may share your personal information in accordance with laws and regulations, the need for litigation dispute resolution, or requests from administrative or judicial authorities in accordance with laws.

c) Transfer

We will not transfer your personal information to any companies, organizations, individuals, except under the following circumstances:

Transfer with explicit consent: we will transfer your personal information to other parties after obtaining your explicit consent;

If any transfer of personal information takes place due to a merger, acquisition, or bankruptcy liquidation, we will request the new company or organization which possesses your personal information to be bound by this Privacy Policy, otherwise, we will request the company or organization to obtain consent from you anew.

d) Public disclosure

We will publicly disclose your personal information only in the following circumstances:

After obtaining your explicit consent;

Disclosure based on laws: we may publicly disclose your personal information if required to do so by laws, legal procedures, and administrative or judicial authorities.

2.2. Performing contracts and other legal documents

2.2.1. What personal information we collect from you

a) When you sign contracts with us, or we provide other legal documents to you, or you provide other legal documents to us, we need relevant information provided by you to perform the contracts and other legal documents. The necessary information we need you to provide to us or allow us to collect includes full name, position, phone number, and email address. If you refuse to provide this information, we will be unable to provide related services.

b) You can decide by yourself whether to provide or allow us to collect the following information or not: WeChat ID, cellphone number. This information is not essential for the performance of contracts or other legal documents, but it is very important for improving service quality. We will not require you to provide this information, your refusal will not cause any adverse effect on using related services.

2.2.2. How we use your personal information

a) For necessary personal information: we will use it to provide this business function. You acknowledge and agree that for the contact information provided by you, we may send the newsletters you may be interested in by e-mail, including services, events, trainings, etc., but please rest assured that if you are unwilling to accept this information, you can unsubscribe through the unsubscribe method provided in the newsletters. We will also use the aforementioned information for maintaining and improving this business function, developing new business functions, etc.

b) For non-essential personal information: mainly to implement the extension of our services to you.

2.2.3. How we entrust processing, share, transfer, publicly disclose your personal information

a) Entrusted processing

Some specific operations or functions of the services mentioned in contracts or other legal documents are provided by our external vendors and commercial cooperation partners. For example, we may engage external training companies, external investigation companies, external consulting companies, etc. to assist us in providing related services. Our third-party service providers are mainly located in China and Germany. We may entrust third-party service providers to administrate and/or operate certain functions or services on behalf of us, and implementing such operations or services may require entrusting the third-party service providers to process the information submitted by you. For implementing the requests on behalf of us, the third-party service providers will have limited access to your information, and their processing will be restrained by the purposes and methods determined by us, and we will urge them to comply with the contents of this Privacy Policy. For the companies, organizations and individuals we entrust to process personal information, we will sign strict confidentiality agreements with them, require them to process the personal information in accordance with the purposes determined by us, service explanations, relevant laws and regulations, this Privacy Policy, and any other relevant measures of confidentiality and security.

b) Sharing

Sharing based on your prior and separate consent: we will provide your personal information to third parties after obtaining your separate consent, any kind of such sharing acts will be restrained by confidentiality and security liabilities.

c) Transfer

We will not transfer your personal information to any companies, organizations, individuals, except under the following circumstances:

Transfer with explicit consent: we will transfer your personal information to other parties after obtaining your explicit consent;

d) Public disclosure

We will publicly disclose your personal information only in the following circumstances:

After obtaining your explicit consent;

Disclosure based on laws: we may publicly disclose your personal information if required to do so by laws, legal procedures, and administrative or judicial authorities.

2.3. Handling AHK Charter Flights

2.3.1. What personal information we collect from you

a) When you book a flight, we need relevant information provided by the contact person in order for you to have a chance to book your flight successfully. The necessary information we need you to provide to us or allow us to collect includes the personal profile of the passenger (gender, full name, company name, position, date of birth, nationality, cellphone number, email address, passport number, passport issue/expiration date, passport issuing authority); passenger’s whereabouts prior to taking the charter flight (country, state, city, postal code); passenger’s final destination in China (province, city, district); preferred flight date (select an option from the current flight schedule). If you refuse to provide this information, it will prevent you from successfully booking a flight.

b) Once you have successfully booked a flight, before the flight departure, we need relevant information provided by your designated contact person in order to comply with the relevant quarantine requirements from the Chinese government. The necessary information we need you to provide to us or allow us to collect includes whether you are traveling alone or as a family, passenger full name, age, gender, nationality, passport number, cellphone number, email address, province of destination after release, city of destination after release, district of destination after release, vaccination status (whether vaccinated, name of vaccination, date of vaccination), medical requirements (medical history, medical care requirements, pregnancy, medication, etc.), allergies/food intolerances(medically related).

c) You can decide by yourself whether to provide via the contact person and allow us to collect the following information or not: whether you are traveling alone or as a family, passenger full name, age, gender, nationality, passport number, cellphone number, email address, province of destination after release, city of destination after release, district of destination after release, vaccination status (whether vaccinated, name of vaccination, date of vaccination), medical requirements (medical history, medical care requirements, pregnancy, medication, etc.), allergies/food intolerances(medically related). This information is not absolutely necessary for taking the AHK Charter Flights, but it is very important for improving the service quality of our epidemic prevention management. We will not require you to provide this information, your refusal will not cause any adverse effect on using the service of AHK Charter Flights.

2.3.2. How we use your personal information

a) For necessary personal information: we will use it to provide relevant services. You acknowledge and agree that for the contact information provided by you, we may send the newsletters you may be interested in by e-mail, including services, events, trainings, etc., but please rest assured that if you are unwilling to accept this information, you can unsubscribe through the unsubscribe method provided in the newsletters. We will also use the aforementioned information for maintaining and improving the services of AHK Charter Flights, developing new business functions, etc.

b) For non-essential personal information: mainly to implement the extension of our services to you.

2.3.3. How we entrust processing and share, transfer, publicly disclose your personal information

a) Entrusted processing

We will not entrust the processing of your personal information to any third party.

b) Sharing

Sharing with cooperation partners: in order to provide the service of AHK Charter Flights, we will share your information with a travel agency located in Germany. The travel agency is mainly in charge of signing contracts with the passenger’s company directly and handling payments. The travel agency will sign a contract with Deutsche Lufthansa AG, book a flight and provide relevant personal information to Deutsche Lufthansa AG.

Sharing under the circumstances stipulated by laws: we may share your personal information in accordance with laws and regulations, the need for litigation dispute resolution, or requests from administrative or judicial authorities in accordance with laws. Based on the quarantine requirements from the government, we may provide your personal information to relevant government departments, quarantine hotels, or third parties appointed by the government. The provided information mainly includes: whether you are traveling alone or as a family, passenger full name, age, gender, nationality, passport number, cellphone number, email address, province of destination after release, city of destination after release, district of destination after release, vaccination status (whether vaccinated, name of vaccination, date of vaccination), medical requirements (medical history, medical care requirements, pregnancy, medication, etc.), allergies/food intolerances(medically related), and more information about vaccination (if provided).

c) Transfer

We will not transfer your personal information to any companies, organizations, individuals, except under the following circumstances:

Transfer with explicit consent: we will transfer your personal information to other parties after obtaining your explicit consent;

d) Public disclosure

We will publicly disclose your personal information only in the following circumstances:

After obtaining your explicit consent;

Disclosure based on laws: we may publicly disclose your personal information if required to do so by laws, legal procedures, and administrative or judicial authorities.

2.4. Handling visa businesses

2.4.1. What personal information we collect from you

a) When you need to travel to China and need us to provide you with an invitation letter: if you do not possess Chinese nationality or do not possess a valid Chinese residence permit, we need relevant information provided by you for your visa processing. The necessary information we need you to provide to us or allow us to collect includes full name, gender, passport number, nationality, date of birth, employer company, position, address, phone number, travel purpose, and relationship to our company. It is important to note that the information you are required to provide to us may be subject to change depending on the relevant government requirements, and the relevant government requirements shall prevail. If you refuse to provide this information, you will be unable to use our services.

b) When you need to travel to Germany and need us to provide you with consulting services: if you do not possess German nationality or do not possess a valid German residence permit, we need relevant information provided by you for your visa processing. The necessary information we need you to provide to us or allow us to collect shall be in accordance with relevant information requirements of the German Embassy and Consulates General in China for visa processing, detailed information can be found at 短期逗留 - 德国外交部 (diplo.de) and 欢迎来到德意志联邦共和国驻华使领馆 - 德国外交部 (diplo.de). If you refuse to provide this information, you will be unable to use our services.

c) We do not collect non-essential personal information.

2.4.2. How we use your personal information

For necessary personal information: we will use it to provide this business function. You acknowledge and agree that for the contact information provided by you, we may send the newsletters you may be interested in by e-mail, including services, events, trainings, etc., but please rest assured that if you are unwilling to accept this information, you can unsubscribe through the unsubscribe method provided in the newsletters. We will also use the aforementioned information for maintaining and improving this business function, developing new business functions, etc.

2.4.3. How we entrust processing, share, transfer, publicly disclose your personal information

a) Entrusted processing

We will not entrust the processing of your personal information to any third party.

b) Sharing

Sharing with cooperation partners: in order to provide consulting services on visa for traveling to Germany, we may share your information with a third-party service provider. In general, such a third-party service provider will be a cooperation partner appointed by the German Embassy and Consulates General in China. We will share the collected personal information from you with the cooperation partner and let the cooperation partner review and liaise with the German Embassy on the detailed matters.

c) Transfer

We will not transfer your personal information to any companies, organizations, individuals, except under the following circumstances:

Transfer with explicit consent: we will transfer your personal information to other parties after obtaining your explicit consent;

d) Public disclosure

We will publicly disclose your personal information only in the following circumstances:

After obtaining your explicit consent;

Disclosure based on laws: we may publicly disclose your personal information if required to do so by laws, legal procedures, and administrative or judicial authorities.

2.5. Organizing activities of China German Chamber of Commerce

2.5.1. What personal information we collect from you

a) When you participate in activities organized or co-organized by China German Chamber of Commerce, we need relevant information provided by you for you to register for our offline and online events successfully. For offline and online events, we will entrust a third party to provide an online application platform. The necessary information we need you to provide to us or allow us to collect includes full name, company name, position, cellphone number, and email address. If you refuse to provide this information, you will be unable to register for our activities successfully.

b) You can decide by yourself whether to provide or allow us to collect the following information or not: fapiao information, preferred seating, food selection, questions to speaker, car license number, etc. This information is not essential for the registration of activities organized or co-organized by China German Chamber of Commerce, but it is very important for improving the service quality. We will not require you to provide this information, your refusal will not cause any adverse effect on using our services.

2.5.2. How we use your personal information

b) For non-essential personal information: mainly to implement the extension of our services to you.

2.5.3. How we entrust processing and share, transfer, publicly disclose your personal information

a) Entrusted processing

The activities of China German Chamber of Commerce will require the participants to apply online. We will entrust a third party to provide an online application platform, and such third party will be located in China. We may entrust the third-party service provider to administrate and/or operate certain functions or services on behalf of us, and implementing such operations or services may require entrusting the third-party service provider to process the information submitted by you. For implementing the requests on behalf of us, the third-party service provider will have limited access to your information, and its processing will be restrained by the purposes and methods determined by us, and we will urge it to comply with the contents of this Privacy Policy. For the company we entrust to process your personal information, we will sign strict confidentiality agreements with it, require it to process your personal information in accordance with our determined purposes, service explanations, relevant laws and regulations, this Privacy Policy, and any other relevant measures of confidentiality and security.

b) Sharing

c) Transfer

We will not transfer your personal information to any companies, organizations, individuals, except under the following circumstances:

Transfer with explicit consent: we will transfer your personal information to other parties after obtaining your explicit consent;

d) Public disclosure

We will publicly disclose your personal information only in the following circumstances:

After obtaining your explicit consent;

Disclosure based on laws: we may publicly disclose your personal information if required to do so by laws, legal procedures, and administrative or judicial authorities.

2.6. Collecting and selecting profiles of candidates

2.6.1. What personal information we collect from you

a) We publish positions via our official website, our WeChat official accounts, and the DE Job Market website. When you submit your personal profile to us via the above channels, we need relevant information provided by you to confirm whether you are suitable for the positions or not. The necessary information we need you to provide to us or allow us to collect includes full name, gender, cellphone number, current position, current industry, native language, foreign language skills, nationality, the city you are currently located in, email address, educational background, work experience, current salary and expected salary. If you refuse to provide this information, we will be unable to confirm whether you are suitable for the positions or not, and you may lose the opportunities of relevant positions.

You can decide by yourself whether to provide or allow us to collect the following information: job intention, photos. This information is not necessary for the job application, but it is very important for more accurately matching the job requirements. We will not require you to provide this information, your refusal will not cause any adverse effect on your job application.

b) We publish positions via external job websites and applications. When you seek job opportunities or submit your personal profile to us via external job websites and applications, we collect your personal information mainly from job websites and applications, and process your personal information in accordance with relevant agreements. The information we need you to provide to us or allow us to collect shall be subject to the information provided from external job websites and applications to us.

2.6.2. How we use your personal information

a) For necessary personal information: we will use it to screen candidates and communicate specific interview matters, etc.

b) For non-essential personal information: mainly to realize more accurate job-matching.

2.6.3. How we entrust processing and share, transfer, publicly disclose your personal information

a) Entrusted processing

The “DE Job Market” embedded in our WeChat official account “德中工商服务平台” is entrusted by us to a third party for technical support, and the third-party service provider is located in China. The third-party service provider does not have access to your information and is not allowed to process your personal information.

In some circumstances, we will entrust some of our businesses to third-party service providers, and such third-party service providers are located in China. We may entrust third-party service providers to administrate and/or operate certain functions or services on behalf of us, and implementing such operations or services may require entrusting the third-party service providers to process the information submitted by you. For implementing the requests on behalf of us, the third-party service providers will have limited access to your information, and their processing will be restrained by the purposes and methods determined by us, and we will urge them to comply with the contents of this Privacy Policy. For the companies, organizations and individuals we entrust to process personal information, we will sign strict confidentiality agreements with them, require them to process the personal information in accordance with our determined purposes, service explanations, relevant laws and regulations, this Privacy Policy, and any other relevant measures of confidentiality and security.

b) Sharing

Sharing with cooperation partners: when we consider you are suitable for relevant job requirements, in order to conduct relevant businesses, after obtaining your consent, we will provide the collected personal information to third parties (mostly recruitment companies). When the recruitment company thinks you meet the relevant job requirements, we will contact you for communication on specific matters such as interviews.

c) Transfer

We will not transfer your personal information to any companies, organizations, individuals, except under the following circumstances:

Transfer with explicit consent: we will transfer your personal information to other parties after obtaining your explicit consent;

d) Public disclosure

We will publicly disclose your personal information only in the following circumstances:

After obtaining your explicit consent;

Disclosure based on laws: we may publicly disclose your personal information if required to do so by laws, legal procedures, and administrative or judicial authorities.

2.7. Organizing fairs, events, delegations

2.7.1. What personal information we collect from you

a) When you participate in fairs, events, delegations organized or co-organized by us, we need relevant information provided by you for you to register for our activities successfully. The necessary information we need you to provide to us or allow us to collect includes full name, company name, position, telephone number, and email address, company introduction.

b) You can decide by yourself whether to provide or allow us to collect the following information or not: cell phone number, personal ID number/Passport number, related company information, food preferences, etc. This information is not essential for the registration of fairs, events, delegations organized or co-organized by us, but it is very important for improving the service quality. We will not require you to provide this information, your refusal will not cause any adverse effect on using our services.

2.7.2. How we use your personal information

b) For non-essential personal information: mainly to implement the extension of our services to you.

2.7.3. How we entrust processing and share, transfer, publicly disclose your personal information

a) Entrusted processing

Some specific operations or functions of the services of fairs, events, delegations are provided by our external vendors and commercial cooperation partners. For example, we may engage external training companies, external research companies, external consulting companies, etc. to assist us in providing related services. Our third-party service providers are mainly located in China and Germany. We may entrust third-party service providers to administrate and/or operate certain functions or services on behalf of us, and implementing such operations or services may require entrusting the third-party service providers to process the information submitted by you. For implementing the requests on behalf of us, the third-party service providers will have limited access to your information, and their processing will be restrained by the purposes and methods determined by us, and we will urge them to comply with the contents of this Privacy Policy. For the companies, organizations and individuals we entrust to process personal information, we will sign strict confidentiality agreements with them, require them to process the personal information in accordance with our determined purposes, service explanations, relevant laws and regulations, this Privacy Policy, and any other relevant measures of confidentiality and security.

b) Sharing

c) Transfer

We will not transfer your personal information to any companies, organizations, individuals, except under the following circumstances:

Transfer with explicit consent: we will transfer your personal information to other parties after obtaining your explicit consent;

d) Public disclosure

We will publicly disclose your personal information only in the following circumstances:

After obtaining your explicit consent;

Disclosure based on laws: we may publicly disclose your personal information if required to do so by laws, legal procedures, and administrative or judicial authorities.

§3 How We Use Cookies and Other Similar Technologies

3.1. Our websites use Cookies and other similar technologies to differentiate between you and other users of our websites, which will help us provide a better experience to you when browsing our websites and allow us to improve our websites.

3.2. Cookies are small blocks of data, which will be stored in the internal storage or hard disk of your computer or mobile device upon your consent, and can be used as labels for identifying computers or mobile devices.

3.3. Cookies are usually classified as “Session Cookies” and “Persistent Cookies”. Session Cookies help you browse websites efficiently, tracking your progress from page to page, in order to prevent you from repeatedly providing information during the current visit period, like not emptying your shopping cart while you are switching pages. A Session Cookie exists only in temporary memory and will be deleted when the web browser is closed. Persistent Cookies store users’ preferences on your devices, which will still be valid even if the browser has been restarted. For example, we use Persistent Cookies to record the language you selected and country/region, font size or other settings, which allow you to visit our website next time without resetting.

3.4. You can eliminate all Cookies stored on your computer, or directly delete Cookies stored on your device, but you need to reset them each time you visit our website if you do so. Most browsers are equipped with features of blocking Cookies, if you want to manage Cookies through browsers, you can refer to the introduction from the browser developer or search on the internet. For more information about Cookies, please visit https://www.aboutcookies.org/.

3.5. If your browser is set with the “Do Not Track” feature, our service websites will defer to your choice.

3.6. We will not use the Cookies other than for the aforementioned purposes.

§4 How We Protect and Retain Your Personal Information

4.1. We will take all reasonable and practicable measures to ensure to not collect irrelevant personal information. We will only retain your personal information within the necessary period of achieving the purposes stated in this Privacy Policy unless the retention period needs to be extended or permission has been granted by laws and regulations.

4.2. In general, your personal information will be retained where the business is conducted, while it may also be retained outside the territory of your country depending on where our data center is located, and we will take measures to ensure processing information we collect in accordance with this Privacy Policy and laws apply to the locations where data stored. Where permitted or required by law, we will inform you of leakage of, abuse of, or tampering with personal information which may cause significant risks to you, for you to take appropriate measures to protect your rights effectively.

4.3. By enhancing security assurance measures of personal information in physical, administrative and technical ways, we will endeavor to prevent personal information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, modification，damage, loss and illegal processing in other forms. In order to meet our business needs, technological development, and supervisory requirements, we will conduct personal information security impact assessment in accordance with laws, and entrust third parties to examine our security measures when necessary.

4.4. The environment of the Internet is not 100% safe, we will endeavor to ensure the security of any information you send to us. If our physical, administrative or technical protection facilities are broken, resulting in unauthorized access, public disclosure, tampering with or damage to information, and leads to infringement of your legitimate interests, we will take legal liabilities correspondingly.

4.5. If any personal information security incident unfortunately happens, we will promptly inform you in accordance with relevant laws and regulations of the basic situations of the security incident and possible influences, the remedial measures we have taken or will take, suggestions of risk precaution and reduction measures you can take by yourself, remedial measures for you, etc. We will promptly inform you of relevant information about the incident via emails, mails, phone calls, push notifications or other methods. If it is difficult to inform individuals of personal information severally, we will take reasonable and effective methods to post announcements. Meanwhile, we will report the relevant circumstances of the security incident of personal information initiatively in accordance with the requirements of supervisory authorities.

§5 Your Rights

5.1. If you submit personal information to us, please ensure the accuracy of the information. With the requirements of applicable laws, you may:

a) Access your personal information possessed by us;

b) Change the scope of your authorization consent;

c) Update or correct any incorrect personal information of yours;

d) Obtain copies of personal information;

e) Refuse our usage of your personal information;

f) Demand us to restrict or delete your personal information; and

g) Demand us to transfer your personal information.

5.2. If you need to exercise the abovementioned rights, you can contact us via the methods listed in §10 How to Contact Us, we will reply and conduct related operations within 30 days after verifying your identity.

5.3. When you request transfer of your personal information to other personal information processors specified by you, we will provide transfer channels if it is in accordance with conditions stipulated by the national cyberspace authority.

5.4. In circumstances compliant to relevant laws, a close relative of you may exercise the aforementioned rights to access, correct or delete, etc., unless you have arranged otherwise.

5.5. For security assurance, you may need to provide a written request or prove your identity in other ways. We may verify your identity first before responding to your request. We will reply or provide reasonable explanations to you within 30 days. For your reasonable requests, we will not charge any fees in principle. But for repeated requests or requests beyond reasonable limits, we will charge costs with discretion. For unreasonably repetitive requests, where it takes too many technical means (for example, developing a new system or changing the existing conventions completely), or where it brings risks to the legitimate interests of others, or is extremely unpractical (for example, involving backing up of information stored in tapes), we may refuse to take it into consideration.

5.6. We will be unable to respond to requests from you (or other personal information subjects) in the following circumstances:

a) It is related to our performance of obligations stipulated by laws and regulations;

b) It is related directly to national security or national defense security;

c) It is related to public security, public health, or major public interests;

d) It is related directly to the criminal investigation, prosecution, trial and enforcement of judgments, etc.;

e) We have sufficient evidence that you or other personal information subjects have subjective malice or abuse of rights;

f) For the purpose of protecting major legitimate interests of you or other personal information subjects while it is difficult to obtain consent from the data owner;

g) Responding to requests from you or other personal information subjects may result in serious damages to legitimate interests of you or other personal information subjects or organizations;

h) It is related to commercial secrets.

§6 Services from Third Parties

6.1. For providing better service to you, you may receive content or web links provided by us and our third-party cooperation partners, and our platforms may include links to websites, plug-ins and applications provided by third parties. Clicking or activating the links may allow third parties to collect or share information about you. Please note that we have no control over such third parties. You can choose by yourself whether to visit links, contents, products or services provided by third parties or not.

6.2. We have no control over third parties’ protection of personal information and privacy policy, this Privacy Policy will not apply to such third parties. Before submitting personal information to a third-party, please ensure you have read and agreed with the third party’s privacy policy.

§7 How We Process the Personal Information of Children

7.1. The personal information of children needs special protection, we will not collect personal information from children on purpose without consent from a parent or guardian of the children. When collecting personal information of children with consent from the parent or guardian, we will only use or disclose the information when it is permitted or required by laws and regulations, or explicit consent from the parent or guardian is acquired, or when it is necessary for protecting the children.

7.2. Despite the definition of children differs according to the laws and regulations and customs of different regions, we regard anyone who is under the age of sixteen (16) as a child.

7.3. If we discover any personal information of children we collect without prior verifiable consent from the parent or guardian, we will try to delete the relevant personal information as soon as possible.

§8 How Your Personal Information Is Transferred Cross-border

8.1. We provide services with resources and servers around the world, which means with your specific consent, your personal information may be transferred to jurisdictions outside of the territory of the country/region where the services you use are located, or accessed from such jurisdictions.

8.2. It is possible that different data protection regulations or even no relevant laws and regulations are enacted in such jurisdictions. Wherever we process the personal information, we will take every reasonable and necessary measure to protect your personal information security, promptly inform you of the information of transfer destination, name and contact information of receiver, purpose and method of processing, types of processed personal data etc., and take measures in accordance with this Privacy Policy and requirements of the laws and regulations which respectively apply to such overseas jurisdictions and the People’s Republic of China such as obtaining separate consent from you or signing necessary contracts for data transfer.

8.3. If you need to exercise your rights of personal information protection to the overseas receiver, you can contact us through the following methods, we will provide you service and reply within 30 days in the general case.

Email address: privacy@china.ahk.de

§9 How to Update this Privacy Policy

9.1. For providing better service, we may update or amend this Privacy Policy in the future. If any rights you have under this Privacy Policy change substantively due to such updates or amendments, we will provide you with prominent notification and obtain your consent.

9.2. For better protection of your personal information, we encourage you to frequently check the pages of our platforms for our latest privacy policy, and recommend you to read the whole updated Privacy Policy. If you do not give consent to any content of the revised Privacy Policy, you should choose to stop using the related service. However, if the updated content requires collecting your sensitive personal information, your specific consent will be obtained through prominent notification.

9.3. For significant changes, we will provide notification in more prominent ways (through ways including but not limited to special reminders on pages, pop-up notifications, emails, etc., we will explain the exact changing content of the Privacy Policy).

9.4. The significant changes mentioned in this Privacy Policy include but are not limited to:

a) Significant changes of our service model, such as the purpose of processing personal information, the types of processing personal information, use methods of personal information;

b) Significant changes of our shareholding structure, organization structure, or other perspectives, such as changes caused by adjustment of relevant business, bankruptcy and acquisition, etc.;

c) Changes of the main recipients of sharing, transferring or publicly disclosing personal information;

d) Significant changes of your rights in personal information processing and your exercise methods therefrom.

e) Changes of our departments which are responsible for managing personal information security, contact information and complaint channels.

9.5. Each title of the article in this Privacy Policy is only for reading convenience, which has no actual implication and cannot be considered as the basis for explaining the implication of this Privacy Policy.

§10 How to Contact Us

10.1. If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for this Privacy Policy or its relevant issues, please contact us through privacy@china.ahk.de. We will reply within 30 days in the general case.

10.2. If you are dissatisfied with our reply, especially when our acts of processing personal information infringe your legitimate interests, you could complain or report to local supervisory authorities.

For reference of the old version please click here.