Data Protection Notice

Processing of personal data and data protection rights in the context of the application procedure and possible funding

The German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) is pleased that you are interested in our funding programmes. Your personal data is processed exclusively within the scope of the applicable statutory provisions of data protection law, specifically the General Data Protection Regulation (referred to in the following as “GDPR”). Because your privacy is a matter of importance to us, we would like to provide you with detailed information in the following about how your personal data is processed and about your data protection rights in the context of the application procedure and possible funding by DAAD.

1. Data processing controller
The data processing controller within the meaning of data protection laws is:
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst e.V.
Kennedyallee 50
53175 Bonn (Deutschland)

2. Purposes and legal bases of data processing
Below you will find an overview of the purposes and legal basis of data processing in the context of the application procedure and possible funding by DAAD. We process your personal data if this is necessary to carry out the application procedure and prepare and process your funding. You must provide the personal data needed to carry out the application procedure and to prepare and process possible funding. Without this application data, we will be unable to carry out the application procedure and approve funding.

The purposes of processing data include, in particular:

a) carrying out the application and selection procedure;
b) preparing and providing funding;
c) regularly reviewing the success of funding. On the basis of donation agreements with donors, DAAD is obliged to regularly have checked the success of its funding measures by means of scientific evaluations or quality assurance measures. For this purpose and for the purpose of guaranteeing quality and optimising funding programmes, you will receive a questionnaire at the beginning, end and three years after the end of your funding, insofar as this has been announced in the guidelines of your individual funding programme. In this case, answering and returning the questionnaire is mandatory. Your questionnaires will be pseudonymised immediately after receipt so that it is difficult to determine your identity. Only answers that are necessary to satisfy accountability towards our donors are stored in a non-pseudonymised form and deleted after six years. Your funding details will be marked so that we can verify if you have already completed the questionnaire;
d) The provision of data about your person to:

• DAAD internal alumni support (if funding was granted)
As part of our support of alumni, DAAD offers you a wide range of activities designed to serve your interests. These include, for example, the optional and free use of an e-mail account at the start of your scholarship period, various information and communication services, invitations to and the funding of events and alumni associations, application for further benefits at the end of the funding period (does not apply to all funding programmes). You will be informed about these services separately at the start of the funding period. You are entitled to object at any time to your data being disclosed to DAAD’s alumni support and its external network (e.g. branch offices, information centres and lecturers) and being contacted by the alumni support;
• DAAD-Stiftung
As part of the DAAD-¬Stiftung, scholarships are also awarded from foundation assets for various funding measures (e.g. university summer courses, single semester scholarships, one-year scholarships, emergency funds). It is possible that students who applied for a DAAD scholarship are offered funding from the DAAD-Stiftung as a result of the selection procedure processes or on the basis of their particular credentials or circumstances.
DAAD-Stiftung is funded by donations and income from endowments, among other things. Many of the donors and benefactors are former DAAD scholars. This is why your alumni data is given to the DAAD-Stiftung by DAAD’s internal alumni support. You may object at any time to your data being disclosed to the DAAD-¬Stiftung and being contacted by the DAAD-Stiftung;

e) Support and networking at the German university:
DAAD regularly provides every German university with a list of scholarship holders supported in their area of responsibility to help universities promote exchange between scholarship holders and prepare support measures. Such list contains your name and contact details in Germany, and in the case of alumni support, your last known contact data. You can object to being included in the list at any time.
f) For lecturers:
This enables you to be contacted by persons interested in obtaining advice and participating in courses.

Data is processed on the basis of Article 6 (1) b) of GDPR.

3. Deletion of data / storage period
The application documents of applicants not awarded a scholarship will be anonymised or deleted within thirteen months after rejection. In this period, DAAD may invite unsuccessful applicants to reapply for funding. However, you have the right to object at any time to the storage of your application data and to being contacted again. Your application data will then be deleted immediately. If you are granted funding by DAAD, we delete the data if it is no longer needed by us for the purposes specified in a) to¬ f) and there is no other legal basis, in particular legal obligations to retain records for a certain period of time. If the latter applies, we will delete the data as soon as the other legal basis ceases to exist.
In general, the following applies: We store your personal data only as long as this is necessary in order to fulfil the purposes or – if you have given your consent – until you withdraw your consent and deletion does not conflict with any statutory provisions.

4. Recipients of personal data
Internal recipients: Within DAAD, only persons who require access to personal data for the purposes stated under item 2. above may have such access. If such access is needed to process your scholarship and offer you support (including alumni support), your data will be transmitted to the responsible DAAD branch office, information centre or lectorate.

We pass on your data to external recipients if this is necessary for the purposes stated in 2. These may include the following partners of DAAD:

a) member universities of DAAD
b) if funding is granted to international applicants: International Office responsible at German host university;
c) if Germans or persons with rights equivalent to German citizens (EEA, EU citizens and foreign nationals studying for a degree or doctoral degree in Germany) are funded: domestic university where the applicant is enrolled;
d) reviewer in selection procedure;
e) federal ministries;
f) German diplomatic agencies abroad;
g) partner organisations involved in the funding programme and partners of externally funded scholarship programmes;
h) implementing organisations of German development cooperation, international cultural and education policy and/or scientific-technological cooperation (such as the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Kooperation (GiZ), Goethe-Institut (GI), Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung (AvH), Zentrale Auslands- and Fachvermittlung (ZAV) and Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI)
i) the association Friends of DAAD;
j) universities in whose area of responsibility scholars and lecturers are funded;
k) processors: External service providers we appoint to provide services, for example in the areas of technical infrastructure or contract-relevant content. We carefully select and regularly review these processors to ensure your privacy is protected. The service providers may use the data only for the purposes specified by us.
l) internship providers

We only disclose your personal data to external recipients outside DAAD if this is necessary in order to manage and process your funding, if another legal authorisation exists or if we have your consent to do so.

5. Data processing in third countries
The bodies and organisations dealing with your application in the selection procedure and named under item 4 may be based outside the European Union or in another country which is a signatory to the Agreement on the European Economic Area (so-called third countries). In this respect, we cannot rule out the possibility that personal data is transferred to bodies based in third countries that do not guarantee an adequate level of data protection. Therefore, it might occur that a specific use of personal data may not be controlled in whole or in part by DAAD in order to adequately protect personal data. In this respect, DAAD shall ensure that such transmissions occur only to the extent necessary for the individual case and for the purposes stated under item 2 and that due consideration is given to the legitimate interests of the persons insofar as this is within the sphere of influence of DAAD.
If data is otherwise transferred to external service providers whose registered office or place of data processing is not located in a member state of the European Union or in another country which is a signatory to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, we shall ensure before the disclosure (of the data) that, apart from legally permissible exceptions, the recipient either has an adequate level of data protection (e.g. through an adequacy decision by the European Commission) or protection is provided through appropriate guarantees such as self-certification of the recipient for the EU-US Privacy Shield or the stipulation of the so-called EU Standard Contractual Clauses with the recipient. We can provide you with a copy of specifically agreed rules to ensure the appropriate level of data protection. For this purpose, please use our contact details specified under 1.

6. Automated decision-making and profiling
We use neither automated decision-making nor profiling.

7. Data subject’s rights
As an individual whose personal data is being processed, you have numerous rights. Specifically:

a) Right to information: You have a right to be informed which personal data we have stored about you.
b) Right to rectification and erasure:
You have the right to obtain from us the rectification of incorrect data and – insofar as the legal requirements are fulfilled – erasure of your data.
c) Right to restriction of processing:
You have the right to obtain from us restriction of the processing of your data insofar as the legal requirements are fulfilled.
d) Data portability:
If you have provided us with data on the basis of a contract or consent, you have the right to receive your data from us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format or to transmit this data to another controller, provided that the legal requirements are met.
e) Withdrawal of consent:
If you give us consent to process your data in the future, you can withdraw such consent at any time with effect for the future. The lawfulness of data processing until withdrawal shall remain unaffected.
f) Right to appeal to the competent supervisory authority:
You may also file a complaint with the responsible supervisory authority if you are of the opinion that the processing of your data is in breach of applicable law. In this case, you can contact the data protection authority responsible for your place of residence or country or the data protection authority responsible for us. Our responsible data protection authority is:
Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit Nordrhein-Westfalen
Postfach 20 04 44
40102 Düsseldorf

How can you contact us and exercise your rights: You can contact us free of charge if you have any questions relating to the processing of your personal data, your rights as a data subject and any consent you have given. To exercise any of your rights as mentioned above, please contact us at datenschutz@daad.de or by post using the address under 1. Please make sure that we can identify you.

8. Data protection supervisor
You can contact our data protection supervisor as follows:

Scheja und Partner Rechtsanwälte mbB (law firm)
Dr. Gregor Scheja
Adenauerallee 136
53113 Bonn
Contact via https://www.scheja-partner.de/kontakt/kontakt.html