Data protection & terms of use

(A) Objective and legal basis of the ICS RM

The International Career Service Rhein-Main (hereinafter: ICS RM) is a joint project of the following universities: Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, RheinMain University of Applied Sciences and Darmstadt University of Technology. The project is provisionally funded by the European Social Fund and the State of Hesse and will run until 30.06.2028.

The ICS RM supports students with an international or intercultural background[1] from all participating universities and clients of other cooperation partners with career guidance and access to the German job market or the path to self-employment. To this end, a large number of extracurricular events are offered each semester, for which students and alumni can register voluntarily up to one year after graduation. According to the funding conditions, the ICS RM is obliged to ensure that at least 50% of the participants "come from the target groups with a foreign background of the Hessian universities supporting the project." In order to be able to prove this, the ICS RM collects data on nationality, country of birth and immigration history. As part of the funding, the participating universities are obliged to submit regular reports that provide the funding providers with statistical evaluations of the participants in the programs.

Legal basis for data processing: §§ 3 HDSIG, 3 HessHG

In order to perform these tasks, Goethe University Frankfurt operates the website www.ics-rm.de on behalf of all universities involved in the ICS RM, on which all offers and services of the network are communicated. This website contains information that is freely accessible to the general public.

In addition, the Technical University of Darmstadt operates the joint event and registration portal (hereinafter: VA-Portal) on behalf of all universities participating in the ICS RM, through which students and alumni of the participating universities can register for events and other offers (e.g. mentoring). As all events have a participant limit and participants receive corresponding access data, registration is mandatory. In addition, as outlined above, statistics on the registered persons and participants must be submitted to the funding bodies.

On behalf of all universities participating in the ICS RM and selected cooperation partners, Goethe University Frankfurt coordinates the ICS RM's appointment registration system for counseling services, which students and alumni of the participating universities can use to register for individual counseling services. As these counseling services are limited in time and capacity, prior registration is mandatory. In addition, statistical evaluations of the registered persons and participants must be submitted to the funding bodies.

[1] Immigrants are defined as students who were born abroad and immigrated to Germany and/or students who have at least one parent who was born abroad and immigrated to Germany.

(C) Privacy policy for the event and registration portal (VA-Portal) and the appointment registration system of the ICS RM

(1) Users

Registration in the ICS RM Event and Registration Portal (hereinafter: VA-Portal) and in the appointment registration system is primarily intended for members of the participating universities (Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, Hochschule Darmstadt, Hochschule RheinMain, Technische Universität Darmstadt) and associated partners (currently Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and Walter-Kolb-Stiftung) or persons with a demonstrable connection to the aforementioned universities. However, external persons without a university connection can also register. Individual user groups are defined for the respective offers.

In the following, the term "users" refers to all persons who have registered in the ICS RM VA portal or in the appointment registration system.

When registering in the VA-Portal or logging in to the appointment registration system, consent is given to the data protection declaration and thus to the collection, processing and use of personal data (see section 2). A user profile is created in the VA-Portal upon registration, in which all personal data is stored.

Users can revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future (see section 10). This will result in the deletion of the user profile in the VA-Portal, which means that future participation in the ICS RM offers is no longer possible. In the appointment registration system, you cancel all appointments reserved for you by withdrawing your consent.

(2) Personal data

(2.1) Mandatory personal data

As little mandatory personal data as necessary is collected and processed to verify affiliation with one of the universities participating in the ICS RM or recognized cooperation partners and to fulfil the verification obligations in accordance with the funding conditions. When registering, the following data is requested via a secure connection:

• Salutation / Gender
• First name and last name
• Date of birth
• Nationality
• Country of birth
• with an international or intercultural background
• E-mail address
• Information about your studies (university, department, degree program, desired degree, semester)

In the VA portal, this data is only visible to administrators of the ICS RM, i.e. project staff from the participating universities. In the following, these employees are summarized as "the network administration". Furthermore, data can also be viewed by the software provider Adornis Ventures GmbH and Terminland GmbH (see section 3) in the course of software maintenance and support.

In the appointment registration system, your data will be transmitted to the respective advisor (currently project staff from the participating universities and employment agencies).

(2.2) Optional information about yourself

In their personal user profile in the VA-Portal, users can add voluntary information, such as a telephone or student number, in addition to the mandatory information. You can correct outdated or incorrect information yourself at any time.

(2.3) Additional mandatory information for the registration of offers 

When making a binding application for an ICS RM offer, additional mandatory information may need to be provided. Depending on the type of offer, these fields may vary, e.g. uploading a document (e.g. CV for CV checks).

(2.4) Storage period

Personal data is stored for the duration of active participation in the offers or until the data subject expressly requests its deletion (see section 10). Personal data that must be reported to the funders in accordance with the project funding conditions must be stored for at least five years after submission of the proof of use.

(3) Type, purpose and place of processing of user* datadata

The personal data of users is collected by ICS RM, stored in the web-based VA portal and appointment registration system and subsequently processed and used.

The VA portal is hosted on servers of the Technical University of Darmstadt and integrated into the ICS RM website. It is provided and technically maintained as Saas (Software as a Service) by Adornis Ventures GmbH. The details are governed by an order processing contract in accordance with Section 11 BDSG (Federal Data Protection Act) and EU GDPR (European General Data Protection Regulation). Adornis Ventures GmbH has its registered office at Am Sand 14, 61184 Karben, Germany. The data is stored on servers of the Technical University of Darmstadt, 64289 Darmstadt, Germany.

The appointment registration system is hosted by Terminland GmbH and integrated into the ICS RM website. It is provided as Saas (Software as a Service) by Terminland GmbH and is technically supported. The details are governed by an order processing contract in accordance with Section 11 BDSG (Federal Data Protection Act) and EU GDPR (European General Data Protection Regulation). Terminland GmbH is based at Kreuzberger Ring 44a in 65205 Wiesbaden, Germany. The data is stored on Terminland GmbH servers.

The processing of all personal data is subject to the relevant statutory provisions, in particular the TMG (Telemedia Act) and the HDSIG (Hessian Data Protection and Freedom of Information Act).

(4) No disclosure of user data to unauthorized third parties

As part of the scheduling, event planning, organization, evaluation and further development, data is transferred within the participating universities. In addition, the external advisors and speakers at ICS RM events receive lists of participants with relevant data for the preparation of events and for monitoring attendance. Anonymized statistics on the ICS RM offers are regularly sent to the funders in accordance with the funding conditions. These statistics do not allow any conclusions to be drawn about individuals.

Furthermore, the ICS RM does not pass on user data to third parties.

The only exceptions are cases in which there is a legal obligation to disclose data, e.g. in accordance with Section 14 (2) of the German Telemedia Act (TMG) in the case of requests from law enforcement authorities and other state institutions with the relevant powers.

(5) Data transmission abroad

All users can also access the web-based VA portal and appointment registration system from abroad.

(6) Logging of user activities

For administrative and data protection reasons, the VA portal and the appointment registration system automatically record and permanently store which user has carried out which activities and when. These are

• Profile updates in the VA portal by users or the administration
  (e.g. address updates or password queries)
• Consent management
  (Confirmation of privacy policy, terms of use, consent to receive information and invitations)

This data is also used for statistical analysis to evaluate usage. The data for statistical evaluation is abstracted. It is not possible to draw conclusions about individual persons.

For technical reasons, the following data is recorded and stored for 14 days before it is automatically deleted:

• Server logs
• Logins (registrations in the VA portal)

(7) Receipt of information and invitations

All users of the VA portal and the appointment registration system receive administrative information (e.g. reminders and access data for events) in the form of automated emails. In addition, users of the VA-Portal can agree to receive further information (e.g. new offers or alternatives to fully booked offers) via various channels (e.g. WhatsApp). Users of the VA portal can also subscribe to information individually and also unsubscribe again independently.

(8) Cookie notices

When logging into the VA portal, a system-relevant cookie is set that does not pass on any data to the outside world, but is necessary for the functionality of the VA portal. The status of the login is managed by the system-relevant cookie and is used to identify the user profiles.

(9) SSL encryption

To protect the security of your data during transmission, we use state-of-the-art encryption methods (e.g. SSL) via HTTPS.

(10) Deleting the user profile in the VA-Portal

Users can have their profile in the VA-Portal deleted at any time via the network administration. From this point on, users can no longer book or cancel events, services and newsletters.

If you do not wish to have any contact with ICS RM and/or wish to have all personal data deleted, you must notify us in writing

• by e-mail to info@ics-rm.de or
• by post(contact).

The deletion of a user account is complete and irrevocable. It is then not possible for users or their heirs to prove the deletion of the data.

Information on offers visited in the past will be stored for at least five years after submission of the proof of use in accordance with the project funding conditions. The data will be stored outside the VA portal after the profile has been deleted.

Due to the data stored in the cache, the user data may still be available for a short time after the user profile has been deleted. TU Darmstadt reserves the right to continue to store the data for the time being if necessary (e.g. to enforce claims for damages in the event of an infringement).

The profiles of users who can no longer be contacted by the network administration due to missing or incorrect information will be deleted after an unsuccessful contact attempt.

(D) Terms of use VA-Portal

(1) Scope of application

These terms of use apply to the use of the web-based event and registration portal(https://www.icsrm.hrz.tu-darmstadt.de embedded on https://ics-rm.de) and all associated subpages (hereinafter referred to as "VA-Portal") of International Career Service Rhein-Main (ICS RM).

The purpose of the ICS RM VA portal is to enable students and alumni of the universities participating in the ICS RM to register for events and other ICS RM services, see (A) Objective and legal basis.

(2) Operator

The operator of the VA Portal is TU Darmstadt (hereinafter referred to as "Operator TUDa"). The operator TUDa is responsible for the content of the portal, unless otherwise specified in these terms of use. The Operator may appoint persons from the participating universities (Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences, RheinMain University of Applied Sciences and Technische Universität Darmstadt) to support it in its activities as vicarious agents.

ICS RM uses an event management software solution for the implementation. The web-based portal is provided as SaaS (Software as a Service) by Adornis Ventures GmbH and is administratively managed, see (C) Privacy policy for the event and registration portal (VA-Portal) and the ICS RM appointment registration system.

(3) Users

A user is any person who sets up a user account (user profile) on the VA-Portal within the scope of the technical possibilities of the website.

Use of the VA portal is primarily intended for members or persons with a demonstrable connection to the participating universities (see above). These are current and former students (up to one year after graduation), doctoral students, visiting students, employees of the universities and clients of other cooperation partners. In addition, external persons without a university connection can register, although they are only admitted to the offers on a subordinate basis.

The network administration reserves the right to carry out identity checks in the course of registrations. Current students must register with their student account to confirm their identity via a Shibboleth interface when logging in to the VA portal. For this purpose, the operator TUDa is entitled to use the reference to one of the universities in connection with the name and date of birth of the user (and, if applicable, the degree program) as the basis for admission to the VA-Portal and the associated offers and to compare it with internally available data.

(4) Rights and obligations of users

Users undertake to use the portals only in accordance with their actual purpose and using their real name (see (A) Objective and legal basis) and not to feign any false identity. This includes

(4.1) Access data must be kept secret and not made available to anyone.

If users have reason to believe that others have knowledge of their password, they are obliged to change it immediately.

(4.2) Binding nature of registration for offers

Registration for ICS RM offers via the VA portal is binding. Users have the option of deregistering independently up to three days before the start of the event. After that, deregistration is only possible by email to info@ics-rm.de.

If users do not participate in a course or other offer without prior deregistration, they may be blocked from participating in all further ICS RM offers for the remainder of the semester.

Please also refer to the answers in the FAQ on our website https://ics-rm.de/faq/.

(4.3) Responsibility for activities

Users are responsible for their activities in the VA portal, e.g. uploading application documents.

(4.4) Admission to offers

Immigrant users from the Hessian partner universities are admitted to the courses in the order in which they register, unless otherwise stated. Users without a migrant background or from other cooperation partners are admitted on a lower priority basis, provided there are still places available. Finally, external users without a university connection will be admitted if there are still places available.

(5) Rights and obligations of the operator

With the VA-Portal, the operator provides users with a web-based portal.

The operator endeavors to ensure the uninterrupted operation of the portals, but cannot guarantee this. There is no guarantee for the availability of the offers or their functionality.

(6) Liability

The contents of the VA-Portal are created with the utmost care. However, the operator accepts no liability for the accuracy, completeness and up-to-dateness of the content. The operator also accepts no liability for the content of linked pages.

In the event of impairments to system availability due to maintenance work and other influences, no claim for damages shall arise. The operator accepts no liability for damages that may arise from the use of the system.

Users shall indemnify the operator against all claims, including claims for damages.

Users are liable for all damage they cause to TU Darmstadt in accordance with the statutory provisions.

(7) Termination of use of the VA portal

Users can have their profile completely deleted at any time and without giving reasons via the network administration. For more information, see Privacy Policy, section 10.

The operator is entitled to discontinue the VA-Portal in the course of terminating the offer and to block users' access.