1. Introduction

Cellseeker GmbH, Osterfeldstraße 12-14, 22529 Hamburg, Germany („Cellseeker”) provides platform services and information made available at www.cellseeker.org and other websites or mobile applications operated by Cellseeker („Platform“).The Platform can be used by any registered individual (“you”), to manage and inventory cell lines and cell banks.

This Privacy Policy defines the practices how Cellseeker uses information which is provided by you or generated by using the Platform (“Information”).

2. Type of Information

For the proper functioning of the Platform, to enable communication with you, and to comply with legal requirements Cellseeker needs to collect, save, and process certain Information.

To set up an account the name of the institute or company (“Institution”), the name of the department, a physical address and homepage, the name and contact information of a natural person representing the Institution, and – in case the account in set up for a fee-based plan – payment-related information such as bank account details or credit card details, and a tax identification number are required (“Account Information”).

To register at the Platform as a user your real name, your date of birth, your institutional affiliation and position, a valid email address of you, and a password is required (“Personal Information”). Cellseeker DOES NOT collect any information about your ethnicity, nationality, political or religious affiliation, sexual orientation, disabilities, or health conditions.

To improve the use of the Platform additional information about the Institution such as the number of employees, affiliates, industry or scientific focus, administrative and legal contacts for technology transfer and licensing may be provided (“Institutional Information”). You as a user may choose a username, voluntarily upload a profile photo, and disclose information about your occupation, professional expertise, special interests, or preferences. There will also be Information generated when you are using the Platform (“User Information”).

When using the Platform you may provide Information about cells which are used in your Institution, the origin of the cells, culture requirements, modifications, properties, and applications as well as information about the cell banks stored in the institution and their use (“Content Information”).

3. How Information is Collected

Information can be directly provided by you to Cellseeker during the initial registration, by the amendment or completion of the Institutions profile or your user profile, by communication with Cellseeker through email, phone, chat, or printed mail, by requesting technical assistance, by posting information in Cellseeker’s social media channels, or by entering Content Information on the Platform.

Cellseeker may also collect Information from publicly available sources and receive Information from third parties by your activities on and off the third-party services where you have agreed to share these Information.

Cellseeker automatically collects Information by using small text files placed on your computer or other end devices (“Cookies”). Cookies help the website to analyze how the Platform is used in particular to analyze the frequency of usage, the behavior of the users on the Platform, and the response to adverts. The information generated by the Cookies about the use of the Platform (including the visitor’s IP address) will be transmitted to Cellseeker. You may block the use of Cookies by selecting the appropriate settings in your internet browser. However, this may interfere with the full functionality of the Platform.

Cellseeker also uses cookie-based conversion tracking technologies provided by Google Analytics to evaluate how you use the Cellseeker Platform. Google Analytics is a web analysis service provided by Google Ireland Ltd, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland. For this web analysis service, Google cookies are placed on the Cellseeker Platform to systematically evaluate your interaction on the platform. The information generated by the cookies (e.g. truncated IP address, website currently visited, referrer, duration of stay, and frequency of the call of the website) is transferred to a Google server in Ireland. In addition, a transfer of the data to another Google server in the USA is possible. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the Platform, compiling reports on website activity for us, and providing other services relating to website activity and Internet usage. The processed data can be used to create pseudonymous user profiles of users. The data is deleted after 26 months. By activating IP anonymization on our website, your IP address is truncated before it is forwarded within the member states of the European Union or other states party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will your full IP address be forwarded to a Google server in Ireland and possibly the USA and shortened there. Google will not combine your IP address collected via Google Analytics with other data that Google holds.

Cellseeker does not process any payment data. All payment data are collected and processed by third party providers.

4. How Information is Used

Institutional Information and User Information provided by you, Information which is automatically acquired by Cookies, collected from public sources, or which is received legally from third parties (“Public Information”) as well as Content Information entered by you on the Platform will be statistically analyzed and correlated by Cellseeker in order to generate “Analytical Metadata”. Analytical Metadata will be used to increase the security of the Platform and to improve user experience in particular to make the service and information which is provided on the Platform more specific and valuable for you. Analytical Metadata and Public Information may be shared with third party partners and made available in a searchable data base for market analysis. If you do not want Cellseeker processing your Information for statistical purposes, you can object to this at any time by contacting us at support@cellseeker.org.

When signing up for a free plan to use Cellseeker you explicitly agree to the publication of selected Content Information. This Selected Content Information, including the name of cells, basic properties, and potential applications may be copied into a separate, public data base which can be searched by registered users for globally available cell lines of their interest. You can at any time exclude cells from the publication. Cellseeker will NOT PUBLISH information about sequences, images, data, details of specific modifications or detailed properties, or any information about cell banks or the actual use of the cells. Cellseeker will NOT DISCLOSE your identity or affiliation to anyone who displays interest in a particular cell without the explicit approval of you who provided the Content Information.

The Account Information of your Institution and your Personal Information will be used exclusively to provide the function of the Platform, to enable communication with you, and to comply with legal requirements. Cellseeker may use your Personal Information to communicate with you about the Platform and new products or services related to the Platform by email, phone, text message, regular mail, or other means. If you don’t want to receive any promotional communication, you can object to it at any time by following the unsubscribe instructions displayed at the bottom of each communication.

Cellseeker will NOT DISCLOSE Account Information or your Personal Information to any third party if not explicitly requested by you, required by law, or necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of Cellseeker, the Platform, and the users of the Platform (including you). Cellseeker may in particular use and disclose Personal Information to identify and bring legal action against an individual or entity who may be infringing the Terms of Use of the Platform or causing harm to users of the platform or to any others.

By using the Platform, you explicitly consent to the way of collecting, processing, and using Information by Cellseeker as set forth above. If Cellseeker or part of it got acquired by or is merged into another entity Information may be transferred to the acquiring or new entity. Cellseeker will ask for your consent where necessary.

5. Advertising of Third Parties

Cellseeker may have advertisements and product placements (“Adverts”) of third parties (“Advertiser”) on the Platform and may use Public and Content Information to target the advertising and to display Adverts of higher relevance. If you do not want your Information to be used for this purpose, you can opt out of being served with targeted Adverts or change the setting of your internet browser. Please note that this will not reduce the number of Adverts displayed but will just lower their relevance for you.

Advertiser and advertising networks may use tracking tools to measure the effectiveness of their Adverts and collect the following information: (i) statistical performance data of the Adverts, such as the click rate, (ii) statistical aggregated behavior of users who clicked the advert, and (iii) technical information such as IP addresses none of which suitable to identify you. Cellseeker will not share any Account Information or Personal Information about you or your Institute with the Advertiser.

When clicking on an Advert you will be redirected to a webpage of the Advertiser or a third party which is not hosted by Cellseeker (“External Page”). Cellseeker shall not be liable for any misuse of information provided by you at External Page or any contractual or non-contractual obligation which might result from the visit of the External Page.

6. Security

Cellseeker will implement and maintain reasonable safeguards, such as but not limited to physical protection, encryption and a further processing of your Information in order to protect your Information from any unauthorized access, any loss or damage, or any accidental or unlawful alteration, copying, disclosure, or destruction.

Information submitted by you to the Platform is stored on, mirrored, and copied to servers controlled by Cellseeker and hosted in Germany. All Cellseeker pages are secured using SSL (Secure Socket Layer) technology, which encrypts data between our server and your end devices.

Despite of all the effort our efforts and security measures any information send through the Internet may be intercepted and/or corrupted or by other people. Cellseeker shall not be liable for unauthorized access to your Account, any loss or damage, or any accidental or unlawful alteration, copying, disclosure, or destruction of you Information unless caused by gross negligence or willful misconduct of Cellseeker. You accept that you are using the Platform at your own risk.

7. Changes & Amendments

This Privacy Policy may be revised by Cellseeker at any time to reflect changes on the Platform or the services provided therewith, Cellseeker’s business, technology, or legal requirements (“Changes”). Cellseeker will notify you about the Changes by email and by a notice posted on the Platform. The Changes will become effective 30 days after such notice. If you disagree with the Changes you should immediately terminate the use of the Platform. Any continued use of the Platform will be explicitly understood as an acknowledgement of the revised Privacy Policy.

8. Rectification, Removal, Restriction, and Retention of Information

You may at any time object to the processing of your Personal Information and withdraw any consent you may have given before.

You may at any time request proper rectification, removal, or restriction of your Information because the information is incomplete or inaccurate, it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, or you withdraw the consent to process the information.

You may request a copy of your Personal Information in a commonly used, machine-readable format or request to transfer your Personal Information to another controller where technically feasible.

When your account is closed either upon your request, because of inactivity, or as a result of infringing the Terms of Use of the Platform all Information will be deleted or anonymized within one year.

Notwithstanding the above, Cellseeker may retain certain Account Information and Personal Information as long as necessary which are required to settle open disputes, solve problems, prevent fraud, collect fees, enforce the Terms of Use, or fulfill legal obligations if not otherwise permitted by law. You may demand clarification about whether Account Information and Personal Information is retained, for presumably how long and why, and request a copy of the retained Information.

9. Contact information

For any questions regarding the Privacy Policy you may contact Cellseeker at:

Cellseeker GmbH
Osterfeldstraße 12-14
22529 Hamburg, Germany
Email: support@cellseeker.org

Hamburg – October 1st, 2020