Privacy

Your privacy is important to Fresenius Medical Care Deutschland GmbH (“We”). The protection of your privacy in the processing of your Personal Data is an important concern to which we pay special attention during our business processes. This Privacy Policy describes the data that we collect about you on the website or application (“Site”) from which you are accessing this policy how we use and disclose that data; how we protect it; and the choices you may make with respect to it. We encourage you to review our Privacy Policy and click on the available links if you want additional information on a particular topic.

INFORMATION COLLECTION

“Personal Data” is data that identifies you as an individual or relates to an identifiable individual. We collect Personal Data in various ways, including through registrations, applications, surveys, contact forms, in connection with your inquiries, and automatically when you browse our Site.

We may request basic Personal Data when you use a Site. Personal Data that we may request could include name, preferred language, contact details (such as postal address, telephone numbers, email address), interests, information about specialty and affiliation for healthcare professionals.

We may combine the Personal Data you submit with other information we have collected from you, whether on or offline. We may also combine it with information we receive about you from the following other sources such as publicly accessible databases, social media platforms and other third parties.

You will be informed what Personal Data is required and what Personal Data is optional. When you are asked to provide Personal Data, you may decline. But if you choose not to provide data that is necessary to for us to provide requested services, we may not be able to provide you those services.

If you submit any Personal Data relating to another individual to us, you represent that you have the authority to do so and to permit us to use the information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

SENSITIVE PERSONAL DATA

Unless we specifically request or invite it, we ask that you do not send us, and you not disclose, any sensitive Personal Data as defined by applicable law (e.g. Social Security numbers, credit card number, passport number, information related to racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religion or philosophical beliefs, health, sex life or sexual orientation, criminal background, or trade union membership, or biometric or genetic data for the purpose of uniquely identifying an individual) on or through the Site or otherwise to us.

USE BY MINORS

The Site is not directed to individuals under the age of 16, and we request that these individuals do not provide Personal Data through the Site. If your child has submitted Personal Data and you would like to request that such Personal Data be removed, please contact us as explained below under Contacting Us.

PASSIVE INFORMATION COLLECTION AND USE

Passive information collection (that is, collecting information without the visitor actively providing it) usually occurs while a visitor navigates the Site.

Cookies are a standard feature of websites that allow us to store small amounts of data on your computer about your visit to our Site. Cookies help us learn which areas of the Site are useful and which areas need improvement.

A "cookie" is a bit of information that a Web site sends to your Web browser that helps the site remember information about you and your preferences.

“Session” cookies are temporary bits of information that are used to improve navigation, block visitors from providing information where inappropriate (the site “remembers” previous entries of age or country of origin that were outside the specified parameters and blocks subsequent changes), and collect aggregate statistical information on the site. They are erased once you exit your Web browser or otherwise turn off your computer.

"Persistent" cookies are more permanent bits of information that are placed on the hard drive of your computer and stay there unless you delete the cookie. Persistent cookies store information on your computer for a number of purposes, such as retrieving certain information you have previously provided (such as passwords), helping to determine what areas of the Web site visitors find most valuable, and customizing the Web site based on your preferences on an ongoing basis. Persistent cookies placed by this site on your computer may hold personally identifiable information, but only if you have registered or have otherwise consented to the retention of personally identifiable information you have provided at the site. Otherwise, our site’s server only knows that an unidentified visitor with your cookie has returned to the site.

You can choose to block the use of cookies through your browser. If you do not want to accept cookies, your browser can be set so that you automatically deny cookies storage or inform each time a site requests a cookie to be stored. Through the browser, previously stored cookies can also be deleted. See the browser's help pages for more information. Please refer to http://www.allaboutcookies.org/manage-cookies/index.html for information on commonly used browsers. However, if you choose not to accept cookies, it may limit the features available to you on our websites.

We and our service providers may also automatically collect and use information in the following ways:

Through your browser: Certain information is collected by most browsers, such as your Media Access Control (MAC) address, computer type (Windows or Mac), screen resolution, operating system name and version, and Internet browser type and version. We may collect similar information, such as your device type and identifier, if you access the Site through a mobile device. We use this information to ensure that the Site functions properly.

IP address: Your IP address is identified and logged automatically in our server log files whenever a user visits the Site, along with the time of the visit and the pages visited. We use partially masked IP addresses for purposes such as calculating Site usage levels, diagnosing server problems and administering the site. We may also derive your approximate location from your partially masked IP address (two-byte anonymisation).

Device Information: We may collect information from the device (device type, operating system, screen resolution, language, country you are located in, and web browser type) you used during your visit

Session and persistent cookies for this website can be classified into one of two categories:

Necessary cookies	Cookies that are technically necessary for website functionality, such as keeping users logged in, or remembering cart items.
Analytical cookies	Cookies from analytical providers like Google analytics. These cookies are used for measuring statistics such as website traffic and performance, and how users are moving around on a website.

Types of cookies and how we use them

Necessary cookies

Necessary cookies are required for the basic functionality of our website to work. We use necessary cookies to help with ensuring that you are given the option to accept or reject cookies, block non-necessary cookies from working until you give consent, and remember your cookie settings and choices. The cookies also help keep track of, if, and when, you gave consent to analytical cookies and our privacy policy. We also use necessary cookies for the chat feature on this website.

It is not possible to reject or accept the necessary cookies as they are core for the functionality of our website.

Here are the necessary cookies we use, what we use them for, the specific cookies providers and each cookie’s duration:

Provider	Purpose	Cookies
cookiehub	The cookies from Cookiehub help with ensuring that you are given the option to accept or reject cookies, block non-necessary cookies from working until you give consent and remember your cookie settings and choices. The cookies also help with keeping track of if and when you gave consent to analytical cookies, our privacy policy, T&Cs and email marketing.	• cookiehub Expires after 365 days

Analytical cookies

Analytical cookies gather statistics. We use this information to make our website even better. The information collected via the analytical cookies track how you use our website during your visit. It helps us understand visitor usage patterns, identify, and diagnose problems or errors you may encounter, and make better strategic decisions in improving the website experience.

We will only set analytical cookies on your device if you give us your consent.

Here are the analytical cookies we use, what we use them for, the specific cookie providers and each cookie’s duration:

Provider	Purpose	Cookies
Google Analytics	These cookies help with measuring website usage. They distinguish unique users, remember the number and time of previous visits and throttle request rate. They also determine the start and end of a session and remember the value of visitor-level custom variables. The cookies also store the traffic source or campaign that explains how you reached the website. It therefore helps with understanding which pages users visit, for how long they stay on the site, which website they came from etc.	• _ga Expires after 730 days • _ga_* Expires after 730 days

Except where allowed by applicable law, we place cookies after having received your consent through the cookie banner. You can change your cookie settings (except for strictly necessary cookies that are required for the proper functioning of the site) at any time.

To the extent any Personal Data is collected through cookies or similar technologies, the other sections of this Privacy Policy apply.

HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We use and disclose Personal Data you provide to us as described to you at the point of collection and notably to:

Provide Site functionality and fulfill your requests when we have a contractual relationship or a legitimate interest, this includes:

To provide customer service to you.
To respond to your inquiries and fulfill your requests and complete your transactions.
To send administrative information to you, such as changes to our terms, conditions and policies, as well as marketing communications that we believe may be of interest to you.
To facilitate chat functionality and other instant messaging means and social sharing functionality.
To allow you to send messages to another person, such as a colleague, caregiver or friend or patient.

Provide personalized services when we have your consent or a legitimate interest in providing you with information of interest to you, this includes:

To better understand you and personalize our interactions with you.
To analyse or predict our users’ preferences in order to identify aggregated trend reports on how our Sites are used.
To analyze or predict your preferences in order to improve our interactions with you, i.e., to deliver you the content, products and offers (via our Site, emails or digital tools) that we believe will be relevant to your professional interests.

Engage with you as an HCP when we have a contractual relationship or a legitimate interest, this includes:

To verify your eligibility to access certain products, services and data that may be provided only to certain licensed HCPs.
To interact with you based on your professional expertise and opinion by digital or other means.
To involve you in programs/panels of healthcare professionals.
To involve you in the context of surveys relating to our products or services or those of a Fresenius Medical Care affiliate or business partner
To collaborate with you on medical events, publications, or advisory meetings.
To seek your views on products and services promoted by us or a Fresenius Medical Care Affiliate or business partner for development and improvement purposes.

Allow you to participate in special programs, activities, events, or promotions as part of our contractual relationship with you or where we have a legitimate interest.

Operate our business to comply with our legal obligations and to meet our legitimate interests in maintaining our business, this includes:

To conduct data analysis and audits.
To identify usage trends in the use of our Sites and analyze the effectiveness of our communications.
To detect, prevent, investigate fraud and including (cyber) security monitoring and prevention.
To develop, enhance, improve or modify our products and services.
To validate your ability to access or use certain products or services.
To better understand how our products and services impact you and those for whom you care.
To track and respond to concerns, including engaging in regulatory monitoring and reporting obligations related to adverse events, product complaints and patient safety.
To operate and expand our business activities.

HOW WE DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

We also disclose information collected through the Site:

To other Fresenius Medical Care affiliates for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. A list of all Fresenius Medical Care affiliates is available at https://www.freseniusmedicalcare.com/fileadmin/data/com/pdf/Media_Center/Publications/Annual_Reports/FME_Annual_Report_2019.pdf.
To our third party partners with whom we cooperate with which we collaborate regarding particular products or services;
To our third party service providers to provide services such as website / application hosting and moderating, data analysis, payment processing, order fulfillment, infrastructure provision, IT services, customer service, e mail and direct mail delivery services, auditing, and other services; and
As permitted by applicable law, to a third party in the event of any reorganization, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer, or other disposition of all or any portion of our business, assets, or stock (including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings).

In addition, we may use and disclose your information as we believe to be necessary or appropriate:

To protect our rights, privacy, safety, or property, and/or that of our affiliates, you, or others;
To comply with applicable law and our regulatory monitoring and reporting obligations (which may include laws outside your country of residence), to respond to requests from public and government authorities (which may include authorities outside your country of residence), to cooperate with law enforcement, or for other legal reasons;
To enforce our terms and conditions.

We may also use and disclose your information in other ways, after obtaining your consent to do so.
In addition, where allowed by applicable law, we may use and disclose information that is not in personally identifiable form for any purpose. If we combine information that is not in personally identifiable form with information that is identifiable (such as combining your name with your geographical location), we will treat the combined information as Personal Data as long as it is combined.

CHOICES AND ACCESS

Your choices regarding our use and disclosure of your Personal Data for marketing purposes

If you no longer want to receive marketing communications from us, contact by infocongresses@fmc-ag.com, or update your preferences in your profile or account. In your request, please provide your name and the addresses where you no longer wish to be contacted. We will seek to comply with your request(s) as soon as reasonably practicable. If you opt out of receiving marketing communications from us, we may still send you important transactional and administrative messages, from which you cannot opt out.

Your choices regarding our sharing of your Personal Data with affiliates or third party partners

If you would prefer that we do not share your Personal Data on a going forward basis with our affiliates and / or third party partners for their marketing purposes, you may opt-out of this sharing by contacting us infocongresses@fmc-ag.com. In your request, please state that we should no longer share your personal information with our affiliates and / or third party partners for their marketing purposes and indicate your name and email address.

How you can access, change, or delete your Personal Data

If you would like to review, correct, update, restrict, or delete your Personal Data, or if you would like to request to receive an electronic copy of your Personal Data for purposes of transmitting it to another company (to the extent these rights are provided to you by applicable law), please contact us via datenschutzbeauftragter@fmc-ag.com. We will respond to your request as soon as reasonably practicable and no later than one month after receipt. If circumstances cause any delay in our response, you will be promptly notified and provided a date for our response.

CROSS BORDER TRANSFER

Your Personal Data may be stored and processed in any country where we have facilities or service providers, and by using our Site or by providing consent to us (where required by law), your Personal Data may be transferred to countries outside of your country of residence, including to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA), which may provide for different data protection rules than in your country.

Some EEA countries are recognized by the European Commission as providing an adequate level of data protection according to EEA standards (the full list of these countries is available here). For transfers from the EEA to countries not considered adequate by the European Commission, we are committed to ensure that adequate measures are in place, including by ensuring that the recipient is bound by EU Standard Contractual Clauses or an EU-approved code of conduct or certification, to protect your Personal Data. You may obtain a copy of these measures by contacting us in accordance with the “Contact Us” section below.

SECURITY

We will take appropriate measures to protect Personal Data that are consistent with applicable privacy and data security laws and regulations, including requiring service providers to use appropriate measures to protect the confidentiality and security of Personal Data.

RETENTION PERIOD

We will retain your Personal Data for as long as needed or permitted in light of the purpose(s) for which it was obtained and of applicable legal requirements. The criteria used to determine our retention periods include: (i) the length of time we have an ongoing relationship with you and provide the Site to you; (ii) whether there is a legal obligation to which we are subject; and (iii) whether retention is advisable in light of our legal position (such as in regard to applicable statutes of limitations, litigation, or regulatory investigations).

THIRD PARTY SITES AND SERVICES

This Privacy Notice does not address, and we are not responsible for, the data collection, use, disclosure or security practices, or other practices, of any third party, including any third party operating a service to which the Site links and the use of cookies which may in turn be saved on your computer’s hard drive. The inclusion of a link within the Site does not imply our endorsement of the linked service and access to external links is at your own risk and we cannot be held liable for any damages or implications caused by visiting any external links mentioned. We encourage you to read the Privacy Policy of every Web site you visit

DOWNLOADS & MEDIA FILES

Any downloadable documents, files or media made available on the Site are provided at your own risk. While all precautions have been undertaken to ensure only genuine downloads are available, you are advised to verify their authenticity using third party antivirus software or similar applications. We accept no responsibility for third party downloads and downloads provided by external third party websites and advise you to verify their authenticity using third party antivirus software or similar applications.

CONTACT US

If you have any questions, comments, requests, or concerns related to this Privacy Policy or the information practices of this site, or if you would like to opt out of future communications, please contact us as follows:

Fresenius Medical Care Deutschland GmbH

Else-Kröner Strasse 1
61352 Bad-Homburg v.d. H.

International Renal Society Relations - Congresses and Meetings
Attention: Yasmin Rachid
Yasmin.Rachid@fmc-ag.com
P +49 6172 608 2285 / M +49 172 6121628

You may also contact our data protection officer in Germany at
datenschutzbeauftragter@fmc-ag.com

LODGING A COMPLAINT WITH A REGULATOR / JUDICIAL AUTHORITIES

You may lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority competent for your country or region. Please click here for contact information for such authorities.

UPDATES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We may change this Privacy Policy. Any changes to this Privacy Policy will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on the Site. We recommend that you regularly review the Privacy Policy when you visit the Site. This policy was last updated on July 30th, 2021.