Privacy Policy

Preamble

We, Schröder & Busse GbR, represented by former lawyer and notary Dieter Busse, lawyer and notary Dr Dennis Eifert, lawyer Milkica Romic (hereinafter jointly referred to as “the organisation”, “we” or “us”) take the protection of your personal data seriously and would like to take this opportunity to inform you about data protection in our organisation.

According to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation (EU) 2016/679; hereinafter: “GDPR”), there are obligations to ensure the protection of personal data of the person affected by processing (we also refer to you as the data subject hereinafter as “customer”, “user”, “you”, “you” or “data subject”).

Insofar as we decide either alone or jointly with others on the purposes and means of data processing, this includes above all the obligation to inform you transparently about the type, scope, purpose, duration and legal basis of the processing (cf. Art. 13 and 14 GDPR). With this declaration (hereinafter: “data protection information”), we inform you about the way in which your personal data is processed by us.

A. General information

1. definitions

Following the example of Art. 4 GDPR, this data protection notice is based on the following definitions:

“Personal data” (Art. 4 No. 1 GDPR) means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (“data subject”). A person is identifiable if they can be identified directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, an online identifier, location data or information relating to their physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity. Identifiability can also be achieved by linking such information or other additional knowledge. The origin, form or embodiment of the information is irrelevant (photos, video or audio recordings can also contain personal data).
“Processing” (Art. 4 No. 2 GDPR) means any operation which is performed on personal data, whether or not by automated means (i.e. using technical specifications). This includes, in particular, the collection (i.e. acquisition), recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction of personal data, or alteration of the purposes for which they were originally processed.
“Controller” (Art. 4 No. 7 GDPR) means the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data.
“Third party” (Art. 4 No. 10 GDPR) means any natural or legal person, public authority, agency or body other than the data subject, the controller, the processor and the persons who, under the direct authority of the controller or processor, are authorised to process the personal data; this also includes other legal entities belonging to the group.
“Processor” (Art. 4 No. 8 GDPR) is a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller, in particular in accordance with the controller’s instructions (e.g. IT service provider). In terms of data protection law, a processor is in particular not a third party.
“Consent” (Art. 4 No. 11 GDPR) of the data subject means any freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the data subject’s wishes by which he or she, by a statement or by a clear affirmative action, signifies agreement to the processing of personal data relating to him or her.

2. name and address of the controller

We are the controller responsible for the processing of your personal data within the meaning of Art. 4 No. 7 GDPR:

Schröder & Busse GbR
Mainzer Landstrasse 69 – 71
60329 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
Phone: 069 75608750
E-mail: legal[at]schroederbusse.de

Further information about our organisation can be found in the legal notice on our website.

3. contact details of the data protection officer

Our company data protection officer is available at all times to answer any questions you may have and to act as your contact person on the subject of data protection. His contact details are

advokIT data protection
– a brand of the –
Weißmann Datenschutz GmbH
Schirmerstrasse 30
50823 Cologne

Postal address:
Copernicus Street 24
10245 Berlin

Web: https://www.advokit.de/
E-Mail: Data protection[at]advokit.de

4. legal bases of data processing

In principle, any processing of personal data is prohibited by law and is only permitted if the data processing falls under one of the following justifications:

Art. 6 para. 1, sentence 1 lit. a GDPR (“consent”): If the data subject has voluntarily, in an informed and unambiguous manner, by means of a statement or other unambiguous affirmative act, indicated that they consent to the processing of personal data concerning them for one or more specific purposes;
Art. 6 para. 1, sentence 1 lit. b GDPR: If the processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a contract;
Art. 6 para. 1, sentence 1 lit. c GDPR: If processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject (e.g. a legal obligation to retain data);
Art. 6 para. 1, sentence 1 lit. d GDPR: If processing is necessary in order to protect the vital interests of the data subject or another natural person;
Art. 6 para. 1, sentence 1 lit. e GDPR: If the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller, or
Art. 6 para. 1, sentence 1 lit. f GDPR (“Legitimate interests”): If the processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate (in particular legal or economic) interests pursued by the controller or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or rights of the data subject (in particular where the data subject is a minor).

For the processing operations we carry out, we indicate the applicable legal basis in each case below. Processing may also be based on several legal bases.

General information on the legal basis for data processing on this website

If you have consented to data processing, we process your personal data on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR or Art. 9 para. 2 lit. a GDPR, insofar as special categories of data are processed in accordance with Art. 9 para. 1 GDPR. In the event of express consent to the transfer of personal data to third countries, data processing is also carried out on the basis of Art. 49 para. 1 lit. a GDPR. If you have consented to the storage of cookies or access to information in your end device (e.g. via device fingerprinting), the data processing is also carried out on the basis of Section 25 (1) TDDDG. Consent can be revoked at any time. If your data is required for the fulfilment of a contract or for the implementation of pre-contractual measures, we process your data on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR. Furthermore, we process your data if this is necessary to fulfil a legal obligation on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. c GDPR. Data processing may also be carried out on the basis of our legitimate interest in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. Information on the relevant legal bases in each individual case is provided in the following paragraphs of this privacy policy.

5 Data erasure and storage duration

For the processing operations carried out by us, we indicate below how long the data is stored by us and when it is deleted or blocked. Unless an explicit storage period is specified below, your personal data will be erased or blocked as soon as the purpose or legal basis for storage no longer applies. Your data will only be stored on our servers in the European Economic Area (EEA), subject to any transfer in accordance with the regulations on “Cooperation with processors” and “Requirements for the transfer of personal data to third countries” set out below.

However, data may be stored beyond the specified period in the event of an (impending) legal dispute with you or other legal proceedings or if storage is provided for by statutory provisions to which we are subject as the controller (e.g. Section 257 HGB, Section 147 AO). If the storage period prescribed by the statutory provisions expires, the personal data will be blocked or deleted unless further storage by us is necessary and there is a legal basis for this.

6. data security

We use suitable technical and organisational security measures to protect your data against accidental or intentional manipulation, partial or complete loss, destruction or against unauthorised access by third parties (e.g. TSL encryption for our website), taking into account the state of the art, the implementation costs and the nature, scope, context and purpose of the processing as well as the existing risks of a data breach (including its probability and effects) for the data subject. Our security measures are continuously improved in line with technological developments.

7. recipients of personal data

As part of our business activities, we work together with various external organisations. In some cases, it is also necessary to transfer personal data to these external organisations. We only pass on personal data to external bodies if this is necessary for the fulfilment of a contract, if we are legally obliged to do so (e.g. passing on data to tax authorities), if we have a legitimate interest in the transfer in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR or if another legal basis permits the transfer of data. When using processors, we only pass on our customers’ personal data on the basis of a valid contract for order processing. In the case of joint processing, a joint processing agreement is concluded.

8. cooperation with processors

We use external domestic and foreign service providers to process our business transactions (e.g. for IT, logistics, telecommunications and marketing). These service providers only act in accordance with our instructions and are contractually obliged to comply with data protection regulations within the meaning of Art. 28 GDPR.

If your personal data is passed on by us to our subsidiaries or is passed on to us by our subsidiaries (e.g. for advertising purposes), this is done on the basis of existing order processing relationships.

9. requirements for the transfer of personal data to third countries

As part of our business relationships, your personal data may be passed on or disclosed to third-party companies. These may also be located outside the EEA, i.e. in third countries. Such processing takes place exclusively for the fulfilment of contractual and business obligations and to maintain your business relationship with us. We will inform you about the respective details of the transfer at the relevant points below.

The European Commission certifies that some third countries have a level of data protection comparable to the EEA standard by means of so-called adequacy decisions (a list of these countries and a copy of the adequacy decisions can be found on the European Commission’s website). However, in other third countries to which personal data may be transferred, there may not be a consistently high level of data protection due to a lack of legal provisions. If this is the case, we ensure that data protection is adequately guaranteed. This is possible via binding company regulations, standard contractual clauses of the European Commission for the protection of personal data, certificates or recognised codes of conduct.

10. no automated decision-making (including profiling)

We do not intend to use personal data collected from you for automated decision-making (including profiling).

11. no obligation to provide personal data

We do not make the conclusion of contracts with us dependent on you providing us with personal data beforehand. As a customer, you are under no legal or contractual obligation to provide us with your personal data; however, we may only be able to provide certain services to a limited extent or not at all if you do not provide the necessary data. If this should exceptionally be the case in the context of the products presented below and offered by us, you will be informed of this separately.

12. your rights

You can assert your rights as a data subject with regard to your processed personal data at any time by contacting us using the contact details provided at the beginning under A.(2). As the data subject, you have the right to

to request information about your data processed by us in accordance with Art. 15 GDPR. In particular, you can request information about the purposes of processing, the category of data, the categories of recipients to whom your data has been or will be disclosed, the planned storage period, the existence of a right to rectification, erasure, restriction of processing or objection, the existence of a right of appeal, the origin of your data if it was not collected by us, as well as the existence of automated decision-making including profiling and, if applicable, meaningful information on its details;
in accordance with Art. 16 GDPR, to immediately request the correction of incorrect data or the completion of your data stored by us;
in accordance with Art. 17 GDPR, to demand the erasure of your data stored by us, unless the processing is necessary for exercising the right of freedom of expression and information, for compliance with a legal obligation, for reasons of public interest or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims;
in accordance with Art. 18 GDPR, to demand the restriction of the processing of your data if the accuracy of the data is disputed by you or the processing is unlawful;
in accordance with Art. 20 GDPR, to receive your data that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format or to request that it be transferred to another controller (“data portability”);
in accordance with Art. 21 GDPR, the right to object to the collection of data in special cases and to direct marketing (Art. 21 GDPR), provided that the processing is carried out on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1, sentence 1 lit. e or lit. f GDPR. This is particularly the case if the processing is not necessary for the fulfilment of a contract with you. If it is not an objection to direct advertising, we ask you to explain the reasons why we should not process your data as we have done when exercising such an objection. In the event of your justified objection, we will examine the situation and either discontinue or adapt the data processing or point out to you our compelling reasons worthy of protection on the basis of which we will continue the processing;
in accordance with Art. 7 (3) GDPR, to withdraw your consent once given – i.e. your voluntary, informed and unequivocal expression of your consent to the processing of the personal data concerned for one or more specific purposes by means of a statement or other unequivocal affirmative act – at any time, if you have given such consent. The consequence of this is that we may no longer continue the data processing based on this consent in the future and
in accordance with Art. 77 GDPR, to complain to a data protection supervisory authority about the processing of your personal data in our organisation and
to obtain legal protection before the ordinary courts and the labour courts in accordance with Art. 79 GDPR, in particular if we refuse to take action on the basis of the data subject’s request in accordance with Art. 12 para. 5 GDPR.

13. objection to advertising e-mails

We hereby expressly prohibit the use of contact data published within the scope of the imprint obligation for the transmission of unsolicited advertising and information material by third parties. The operators of this website expressly reserve the right to take legal action in the event of the unsolicited sending of advertising information, such as spam e-mails.

14. changes to the data protection information

As part of the ongoing development of data protection law and technological or organisational changes, our data protection information is regularly reviewed to determine whether it needs to be amended or supplemented. You will be informed of any changes, in particular on our website. This data protection notice is valid as of September 2024.

B. Visiting the websites

When you visit our websites, your personal data may be processed. When you use the websites, the following categories of personal data may be collected, stored and processed by us:

1. data processing, purpose and legal basis

Server log files (“log data”)

When you visit our website, a so-called log data record (so-called server log files) is stored temporarily and anonymised on our web server. This consists of:

the page from which the page was requested (so-called referrer URL)
the name and URL of the requested page
the date and time of the call
the description of the type, language and version of the web browser used
the IP address of the requesting computer, which is shortened in such a way that a personal reference can no longer be established
the amount of data transferred
the operating system
the message whether the call was successful (access status/Http status code)
the GMT time zone difference

The log data is processed for statistical purposes and to improve the quality of our website, in particular the stability and security of the connection (legal basis is Art. 6 para. 1, sentence 1 lit. f GDPR) The stored information is deleted after seven days, unless there is a justified suspicion of unlawful use, which makes further verification necessary. It is not possible for us to identify you from the stored information. Therefore, Articles 15 to 22 GDPR do not apply in accordance with Article 11(2) GDPR, unless you provide further information that enables your identification.

Enquiry by e-mail, telephone or fax

If you contact us by e-mail, telephone or fax, your enquiry including all personal data (name, enquiry) will be stored and processed by us for the purpose of processing your request.

This data is processed on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR if your enquiry is related to the fulfilment of a contract or is necessary for the implementation of pre-contractual measures. In all other cases, the processing is based on our legitimate interest in the effective processing of the enquiries addressed to us (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) or on your consent (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR) if this has been requested.

Contact form data

If you send us enquiries via the contact form, your details from the enquiry form, including the contact details you provide there, will be stored by us for the purpose of processing the enquiry and in the event of follow-up questions. We will not pass on this data without your consent.

2. duration of data processing

Your data will only be processed until you ask us to delete it, revoke your consent to its storage or as long as this is necessary to achieve the above-mentioned processing purposes; the legal bases stated in the context of the processing purposes apply. With regard to the use and storage duration of cookies, please note the points mentioned there as well as the cookie declaration.

Third parties engaged by us will store your data on their system for as long as is necessary in connection with the provision of the services for us in accordance with the respective order.

3. transfer of personal data to third parties; legal basis

The following categories of recipients, which are usually processors, may have access to your personal data:

Service providers for the operation of our website and the processing of data stored or transmitted by the systems (e.g. for data centre services, payment processing, IT security). The legal basis for the transfer is then Art. 6 para. 1, sentence 1 lit. b or lit. f GDPR, insofar as these are not processors;
Government bodies/authorities, insofar as this is necessary to fulfil a legal obligation. The legal basis for the transfer is then Art. 6 para. 1, sentence 1 lit. c GDPR;
Persons engaged to carry out our business operations (e.g. auditors, banks, insurance companies, legal advisors or supervisory authorities). The legal basis for the disclosure is then Art. 6 para. 1, sentence 1 lit. b or lit. f GDPR.

In addition, we only pass on your personal data to third parties if you have given your express consent in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1, sentence 1 lit. a GDPR or if this is necessary on the basis of the contract with you in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR.

4. hosting and content delivery networks (CDN)

We host the content of our website with the following providers:

webgo

The provider is webgo GmbH, Heidenkampsweg 81, 20097, Hamburg (hereinafter “webgo”). When you visit our website, webgo collects various log files including your IP addresses.

Details can be found in webgo’s privacy policy: https://www.webgo.de/datenschutz/.

The use of webgo is based on Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. We have a legitimate interest in displaying our website as reliably as possible. If a corresponding consent has been requested, the processing is carried out exclusively on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR and § 25 para. 1 TDDDG, insofar as the consent includes the storage of cookies or access to information in the user’s terminal device (e.g. for device fingerprinting) within the meaning of the TDDDG. Consent can be revoked at any time.

Order processing

We have concluded a data processing agreement (DPA) for the use of the above-mentioned service. This is a contract prescribed by data protection law, which guarantees that it processes the personal data of our website visitors only in accordance with our instructions and in compliance with the GDPR.

C. Other services

NotarNow online forms

Our website is linked to a button for online data collection, which you can use to send us data via an online form. If you use this online service from NotarNow (LegalNow GmbH, Lena-Christ-Straße 2, 82031 Grünwald, Germany), your details, including the contact details you provide there, will be automatically stored on the NotarNow servers for a short time for the purpose of processing the enquiry and in the event of follow-up questions and then forwarded to us. Data transmission is encrypted using transport encryption via Secure Socket Layer (SSL/TLS).

The data is stored solely for the purpose of processing or contacting the person concerned. The data will not be passed on to other third parties. The legal basis for the processing of the data is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR, provided that your enquiry is related to the fulfilment of a contract or is necessary for the implementation of pre-contractual measures. In all other cases, the processing is based on our legitimate interest in the effective processing of the enquiries addressed to us (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) or on your consent (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR), if this has been requested.

We will retain the data you provide on the online form until you request its deletion, revoke your consent for its storage, or the purpose for its storage no longer pertains (e.g. after fulfilling your request). Mandatory statutory provisions – in particular retention periods – remain unaffected.

When using the “cache” function, your online form entries are encrypted and stored anonymised for 30 days. If the online form is not sent to us within these 30 days, the form entries will be deleted automatically. In this case, it is not necessary for you to request deletion.