Scope of Application 

This Privacy Policy applies to the Vector Software Quality Website, as well as all applications and online services that refer to it. 

 

Principles 

'Personal data' are any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person; these are normally names, postal addresses, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, IP addresses, order details, advertising and contract details, and information about the use of media we offer, e.g. access time on our website or our newsletters and other comparable categories of data. 

We only process and use your personal data where there is a legal ground for this or where you, as the data subject, have given us your consent. 

The following points are covered in the information provided below:

• Which personal data do we collect and process?
• Why do we process your data and what is the legal basis for doing so?
• How long will we store your data and to whom might we transfer them?
• What are your data protection rights?

• Who can you contact if you have any questions? 

   

Automated Data (server log files) 

Whenever you use the internet, your browser automatically transfers certain information, which we collect and store in server log files (hereinafter also referred to as "log files"). The information stored in the server log files includes, but is not limited to: 

• Your IP address 
• Your browser version and type 
• Your operating system 
• Your referrer URL 
• The hostname of your accessing computer 

• Your time of query on our server 

   

The system needs to store your IP address temporarily to be able to display the website on your computer. For this to happen, your IP address must be stored for the duration of the session. The data stored in the log files are used to ensure the functionality of the website. In addition, the data help us to optimize our website and to maintain the security of our IT systems. The collection of data for provisioning the website and storing of data in log files is carried out for the purposes of error analysis. It is absolutely necessary for the operation and the ongoing enhancement of our website. As a result, you, as the user, have no means of objecting to this. 

Legal basis for the processing of personal data is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR, which permits processing for the purposes of our legitimate interests. Our interest is to keep our website running, to check for errors and to check and fulfill security requirements. 

We delete personal data as soon as they are no longer needed for the purposes for which they were collected. If the data is stored in log files, this is the case after four weeks at the latest. 

It is possible that data will be stored and combined with other data for analysis and optimization purposes, and to improve the offer of information on our website. In this case, the user's IP address will be deleted or altered so that it can no longer relate to the accessing client. 

More details on the use of cookies can be found below in the section "Use of Cookies". 

 

General Collection of Data 

Personal data are collected, processed or used by Vector, if you disclose them to us voluntarily while visiting our website, for example, during a download or while placing an order, while booking a training course, when participating on events, when requesting information or offers from us, when reporting defective software or hardware, when providing us with feedback, subscribing to our newsletter or when applying for a job online. For these processing activities we rely on certain legal bases, which are described in more detail below, or the provision of your consent in accordance with Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. 

If you order goods or services from us, we will only collect and use your personal data insofar as this is necessary for the establishment, implementation or termination of the contract. The legal basis of this kind of data processing is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR, which permits data to be processed for the performance of a contract or to take steps prior to entering into a contract. 

As part of our business operations, we use a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system to maintain and improve the relationship with our customers. The system consolidates personal data that you have made available to us in various systems in order to provide you with customized services and offers. We also carry out scoring activities to better understand your needs and provide you with relevant information. These processing activities are based on our legitimate interest in accordance with Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is to continuously improve our services, to adapt our offer to your individual needs and to provide you with relevant information. 

 

Transfer of Personal Data 

For certain technical processes involved in data processing, Vector relies on assistance from external service providers, who might be given access to your personal data for the purpose of rendering these services. These service providers are carefully selected and meet high standards of information security. They are obligated to maintain strict confidentiality and only process data on behalf of and under the instructions of Vector. The legal basis for the involvement of these service providers is Art. 28 GDPR. 

Furthermore, Vector works with companies and agencies with special expertise in specific areas or in certain subjects (e.g. tax auditors, attorneys, consulting companies, logistic service providers). These agencies are either subject to a professional duty of confidentiality or have entered into a non-disclosure agreement with Vector. Should it become necessary to disclose personal data to these agencies, the legal basis shall be Art. 6(1)(c) or Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. 

Your personal data will also be transferred to third parties to the extent necessary for the establishment, execution or termination of the contract concluded with you for the delivery of goods or the commissioning of a service. The basis for this processing is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR, which permits the processing of data for the performance of a contract or pre-contractual measures. 

For the purpose of global cooperation within the Vector group, we disclose personal data to other group companies. The legal basis for this disclosure is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. 

Aside from the cases stipulated in this Privacy Policy, Vector will not disclose personal data to third parties without your explicit consent, unless Vector is obligated to do so by law or by an administrative or court order. 

Personal data may be transferred to recipients located outside the EEA in third countries only insofar as there is an appropriate level of data protection at the recipient's location or where you have given your consent to the transfer. If you would like a summary of the recipients in third countries and information about the rules in place to ensure that there is an appropriate level of data protection, please use the information provided in the section headed "Contact". 

 

Use of Cookies 

We use cookies to make our website more user-friendly and effective. Cookies are small text files, which are placed on your computer and then stored by your browser. The cookies used by us are session cookies or permanent cookies. While session cookies will be automatically deleted from your hard drive at the end of your browser session, permanent cookies will remain on your computer after a session and enable us to recognize you the next time that you visit our website. 

You may in principle change your browser settings to prevent cookies from being stored on your computer. 

Cookies, which are required for electronic communications or to provide certain functions you wish to use, are stored either based on our legitimate interest in providing you with error-free, optimized services (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR), or on the basis of your explicit consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). 

Insofar as we use other cookies (e.g. cookies to analyze your surfing behavior), these will be dealt with separately in this Privacy Policy below. In particular, the content and services of other providers may be integrated into our website which in turn use cookies or active components. 

For more information on how we use cookies, please refer to the cookie settings in the footer of each site. There you can specify which cookies are stored on your computer when you use our website. 

 

Usage of etracker 

To analyze usage data, we use the services of etracker GmbH from Hamburg, Germany (www.etracker.com). In this context, no cookies are set for web analysis by default. Only with your prior, explicit consent we will use analysis and optimization cookies, which enable a statistical reach analysis of this website, a performance measurement of our online marketing measures as well as test procedures, e.g. to test and optimize different versions of our online offer or its components. 

The processing of your personal data through the use of etracker takes place either due to our legitimate interest in the optimization of our online offer and our website (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR), or based on your explicit consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). Since the privacy of our visitors is important to us, the data that may allow a reference to an individual person, such as the IP address, login or device identifiers, are anonymized or pseudonymized as soon as possible. No other use, merging with other data or disclosure to third parties takes place. 

The data generated with etracker is processed and stored by etracker on our behalf exclusively in Germany and is therefore subject to strict German and European data protection laws and standards. etracker has been independently audited and certified in this regard and has been awarded the ePrivacyseal. 

You can object to data processing with etracker at any time by clicking on the slider. The objection has no negative consequences. If no slider is displayed, data collection has already been prevented by other blocking measures. 

Here you can find more information on etracker’s privacy policy.

 

Usage of Evalanche (newsletters, gated content, contact forms) 

As a visitor to our website, you will be offered the option of subscribing to our company newsletter. At Vector, we use our newsletter to inform our customers, business partners and potential customers at regular intervals about our company's offerings. If you would like to receive the newsletter offered on our website, we require an e-mail address from you as well as information that allows us to verify that you are the owner of the e-mail address provided and that you agree to receive the newsletter. After registering, you will receive an e-mail asking you to confirm your newsletter registration. We will only send you our newsletter once you have confirmed your registration. Subscriptions to the newsletter are logged in order to be able to prove the registration process in accordance with legal requirements. This includes storing the time of registration and confirmation as well as the IP address. Changes to your stored data are also logged. 

On our website, you also have the option to contact us or request gated content. We process the information you provide in these forms for the purpose of contacting you or providing you with content. The submission of contact forms and the receipt of gated content is also tied to your consent to the creation of a personal user profile based on your data, in which your inquiries and your usage behavior in dealing with Vector's e-mails are recorded through the use of cookies and tracking technology in order to improve the customization of websites and newsletters on products, services and market trends to your specific interests. 

For newsletters, gated content and contact forms, we use Evalanche, an analysis service provided by SC-Networks GmbH, Würmstraße 4, 82319 Starnberg, Germany. The emails contain so-called tracking pixels, which allow us to recognize whether an email has been read by you or not. As part of this retrieval, technical information, such as information about the browser and your system, the end device used and the mail client, as well as your IP address and the time of retrieval are initially collected. The information generated by cookies about your use of our offers is analyzed and sent to a server in Germany. Evalanche will not forward this data to third parties. Your data will then be transmitted to our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and stored there. You can find more information on the scope and purposes of the processing of your data in our CRM in the section "General Collection of Data." 

The legal basis for the processing of your personal data for newsletter marketing, as well as for the use of cookies and tracking technology, is that you have provided your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). The logging of the registration process is based on our legitimate interest in fulfilling the obligation of accountability according to data protection legislation (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). The processing of the information you provide in contact forms or forms for requesting gated content is carried out on the basis of our legitimate interest for the purpose of contacting you or providing content requested by you (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). 

If you have agreed to receive newsletters, we also carry out scoring activities in order to better understand your needs and send you relevant information. These processing activities are based on our legitimate interest in accordance with Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in continuously improving our services, adapting our offer to your individual needs and providing you with relevant information. 

Each newsletter contains a link for revoking your consent. By clicking on the "Unsubscribe" link, you can unsubscribe from the newsletter. Alternatively, you can, at any time, unsubscribe from the newsletter by writing to us. Please use the information provided in the section headed "Contact".

 

Price Quotations and Product Trials 

On our website you also have the option of requesting price quotations and software trials in order to test the product free of charge for a limited period of time. By submitting your contact details, you give your consent that we may process your personal data for the purpose of providing the requested content. In this context, your data will be recorded in our Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and furthermore in Evalanche our analysis service provided by SC-Networks GmbH. You can find more information on the processing of your data in our CRM in the section "General Collection of Data" and in our Evalanche Section “Usage of Evalanche”.

The legal basis for the processing of your personal data to request price quotations or free trial versions is our legitimate interest pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. 

 

Usage of YouTube Plugins (Videos) 

We integrate videos into this website by using YouTube plugins from the internet video portal youtube.com of YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., San Bruno, CA 94066, USA (hereinafter referred to as "YouTube"), which is represented by Google. 

Each time you visit a page on this website offering one or more YouTube video clips, a direct connection is established between your browser and a YouTube server in the United States. The information that you have visited this page using your IP address will be sent directly to the Google server by your browser and stored there. As a result of your interaction with YouTube plugins (such as starting the video), information generated by the interaction is transmitted to YouTube and stored there. 

If you have a YouTube account and do not want YouTube to collect data about you via our website and to link it to the member data which it stores about you, you will need to log off from YouTube before visiting our website. 

For the USA, the European Commission has adopted an adequacy decision on July 10, 2023. Google LLC is certified under the EU-US Privacy Framework. Since Google servers are distributed worldwide and a transfer to third countries (for example to Singapore) cannot be completely ruled out, we have also concluded the EU standard contractual clauses with the provider. 

You will find YouTube's Privacy Policy, which provides further details about how it collects and uses your data, about your rights in this respect and about how to manage your privacy settings options at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en. 

 

Usage of Friendly Captcha 

On this website we have implemented Friendly Captcha (Friendly Captcha GmbH, Am Anger 3-5, 82237 Wörthsee, Germany) to protect the site from spam and malicious use. When you visit our website and submit a puzzle request, Friendly Captcha collects the following log data: 

• The request headers User-Agent, Origin and Referer
• The puzzle itself, which contains information about the account and site key it is related to
• The version of the widget

• A timestamp

   

Friendly Captcha does not use cookies. Instead, an anonymized counter per IP address is stored for dynamic scaling of the difficulty of the puzzle in the Edge network to detect malicious users and minimize the blocking of legitimate users. This data is stored separately from the rest of the data and cannot be associated with specific websites. The IP addresses are anonymized. 

The legal basis for the processing of your personal data is our legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR) in preventing abusive access or spam attacks by bots. If personal data is processed through the use of Friendly Captcha, it will be deleted after 30 days. You can find more information on this at https://friendlycaptcha.com/privacy/. 

 

Data Protection Rights 

You are entitled as a data subject to the data protection rights described below. 

If you wish to assert these rights, please use the information provided in the section "Contact". Please ensure that you can be clearly identified. 

 

Right to Access, Rectification or Erasure 

You are entitled by law to access, at any time, personal data stored about you, its source, recipients and the purpose for which it is stored (Art. 15 GDPR). In addition, you have the right to demand that your data be rectified (Art. 16 GDPR) or erased (Art. 17 GDPR). 

 

Right to Restrict Processing 

Where the statutory requirements are met, you may demand that processing be restricted (Art. 18 GDPR). 

 

Right to Data Portability 

Furthermore, where the requirements specified in Art. 20 GDPR are met, you have the right to receive the data which you provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. 

 

Right to Object to Processing of Data in an Individual Case 

You have the right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, at any time, to the processing of personal data concerning you if the processing is not based on a legitimate interest or a weighing of interests on our part (Art. 21 GDPR). We will cease processing your data unless we are able to demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for continuing to do so. 

 

Right to Object to Processing of Data for Direct Advertising Purposes 

In addition, you may, at any time, object to the processing of your personal data for advertising purposes (Art. 21 GDPR). Where you object to processing for direct marketing purposes, we will no longer process your personal data for such purposes. 

 

Right to Revoke Consent 

Insofar as the processing of your personal data is based on your consent, you may, at any time, revoke your consent to such processing with future effect. We will delete your data unless there is a statutory storage and retention period. In such case, your data will be blocked unless a legal basis for processing exists. 

 

Right to Lodge a Complaint with the Competent Authority 

If you believe that your data is being processed in breach of the GDPR, you may lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR). In addition, you may contact the supervisory authority which is competent for your place of residence / state in which you reside or which is competent for us. The latter is: 

Der Landesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit des Bundeslandes Baden-Württemberg, https://www.baden-wuerttemberg.datenschutz.de. 

 

Contact 

If you would like to contact us, please use the information provided in the section "Controller". 

If you wish to exercise your data protection rights, lodge a complaint or if you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or on how we handle personal data, please write to us or, preferably, send us an e-mail to VGDataProtection(at)vector.com. 

 

Links to Third-Party Websites 

It is possible that Vector's websites contain links to third-party websites. If you follow the links, you will leave Vector's websites and the scope of application of this Privacy Policy. Vector cannot accept any responsibility for the data protection methods or content of such websites. 

 

General Notice 

We reserve the right to amend this Privacy Policy in the future. Accordingly, you should check the Privacy Policy regularly when visiting our website.