Ludwig M. Auer

emeritus neurosurgeon, neuroscientist
and author on political philosophy and ethics

Privacy Policy

General

As the operator of this website, we come into contact with your personal data. This refers to all data that reveals something about you and with which you can be identified. In this privacy policy, we would like to explain how, for what purpose, and on what legal basis we process your data.

Responsible for data processing on this website:

Ludwig M. Auer

Email: democracydilemma@gmx.net

General Information

SSL/TLS Encryption

When you enter your data on websites, place online orders, or send emails over the internet, you must always expect unauthorized third parties to access your data. There is no complete protection against such access. However, we do everything in our power to protect your data as best as possible and to close security gaps as far as we can.

An important protection mechanism is the SSL/TLS encryption of our website, which ensures that data you transmit to us cannot be read by third parties. You can recognize the encryption by the lock icon in front of the entered internet address in your browser and by the fact that our internet address begins with https:// and not http://.

How Long Do We Store your Data?

In some places in this privacy policy, we inform you how long we or the companies processing your data on our behalf store your data. If such information is missing, we store your data until the purpose of data processing ceases, you object to the data processing, or you withdraw your consent to data processing.

However, in the event of an objection or withdrawal, we may continue to process your data if at least one of the following conditions is met:

  • We have compelling legitimate grounds for continuing the data processing that override your interests, rights, and freedoms (only in case of objection to data processing; if the objection is directed against direct marketing, we cannot present any legitimate grounds).
  • The data processing is necessary to assert, exercise, or defend legal claims (does not apply if your objection is directed against direct marketing).
  • We are legally obliged to retain your data.

In this case, we will delete your data as soon as the condition(s) no longer apply.

Your Rights

Objection to Data Processing

IF YOU READ IN THIS PRIVACY POLICY THAT WE HAVE LEGITIMATE INTERESTS FOR PROCESSING YOUR DATA AND THEREFORE BASE THIS ON ART. 6 PARA. 1 SENTENCE 1 LIT. F) GDPR, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO OBJECT TO THIS ACCORDING TO ART. 21 GDPR. THIS ALSO APPLIES TO PROFILING CARRIED OUT ON THE BASIS OF THE AFOREMENTIONED PROVISION. THE PREREQUISITE IS THAT YOU STATE REASONS FOR THE OBJECTION ARISING FROM YOUR PARTICULAR SITUATION. A REASON IS NOT REQUIRED IF THE OBJECTION IS DIRECTED AGAINST THE USE OF YOUR DATA FOR DIRECT MARKETING.

THE CONSEQUENCE OF THE OBJECTION IS THAT WE MAY NO LONGER PROCESS YOUR DATA. THIS ONLY DOES NOT APPLY IF ONE OF THE FOLLOWING CONDITIONS IS MET:

  • WE CAN DEMONSTRATE COMPELLING LEGITIMATE GROUNDS FOR THE PROCESSING THAT OVERRIDE YOUR INTERESTS, RIGHTS, AND FREEDOMS.
  • THE PROCESSING SERVES THE ASSERTION, EXERCISE, OR DEFENSE OF LEGAL CLAIMS.

THE EXCEPTIONS DO NOT APPLY IF YOUR OBJECTION IS DIRECTED AGAINST DIRECT MARKETING OR AGAINST PROFILING RELATED THERETO.

Other Rights

Withdrawal of your Consent to Data Processing

Many data processing operations are carried out on the basis of your consent. You give this, for example, by checking a corresponding box in online forms before sending the form, or by allowing certain cookies when you visit our website. You can withdraw your consent at any time without stating reasons (Art. 7 Para. 3 GDPR). From the time of withdrawal, we may no longer process your data. The only exception: We are legally obliged to retain the data for a certain period. Such retention periods exist particularly in tax and commercial law.

Right to Lodge a Complaint with the Competent Supervisory Authority

If you believe that we are violating the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority according to Art. 77 GDPR. You can contact a supervisory authority in the Member State of your habitual residence, your place of work, or the place where the alleged infringement occurred. The right to complain exists in addition to administrative or judicial remedies.

Right to Data Portability

Data that we process automatically based on your consent or in fulfillment of a contract must be handed over to you or a third party in a common machine-readable format if you request it. We can only transfer the data to another controller if this is technically feasible.

Right to Access, Erasure, and Rectification of Data

According to Art. 15 GDPR, you have the right to receive free information about which personal data we have stored about you, where the data originated, to whom we transmit the data, and for what purpose it is stored. Should the data be incorrect, you have a right to rectification (Art. 16 GDPR); under the conditions of Art. 17 GDPR, you may request that we erase the data.

Right to Restriction of Processing

In certain situations, according to Art. 18 GDPR, you can request that we restrict the processing of your data. The data may then – apart from storage – only be processed as follows:

  • with your consent
  • for the assertion, exercise, or defense of legal claims
  • for the protection of the rights of another natural or legal person
  • for reasons of important public interest of the European Union or a Member State

The right to restriction of processing exists in the following situations:

  • You have disputed the accuracy of your personal data stored with us and we need time to verify this. In this case, the right exists for the duration of the verification.
  • The processing of your personal data is unlawful or was unlawful in the past. In this case, the right exists as an alternative to the erasure of the data.
  • We no longer need your personal data, but you require it for the exercise, defense, or assertion of legal claims. In this case, the right exists as an alternative to the erasure of the data.
  • You have lodged an objection according to Art. 21 Para. 1 GDPR, and now your and our interests must be weighed against each other. In this case, the right exists as long as the outcome of the balancing has not yet been determined.

Hosting and Content Delivery Networks (CDN)

External Hosting

Our website is hosted on a server of the following internet service provider (hoster):

DomainFactory GmbH
Oskar-Messter-Str. 33
85737 Ismaning

How Do We Process your Data?

The hoster stores all data of our website. This also includes all personal data that is collected automatically or through your input. This may include in particular: your IP address, pages accessed, names, contact details and inquiries, as well as meta and communication data. In data processing, our hoster adheres to our instructions and always processes the data only to the extent necessary to fulfill its service obligations to us.

On What Legal Basis Do We Process your Data?

Since we address potential customers and maintain contacts with existing customers via our website, the data processing by our hoster serves the initiation and fulfillment of contracts and is therefore based on Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. b) GDPR. Furthermore, it is our legitimate interest as a company to provide a professional internet offering that meets the necessary requirements for security, speed, and efficiency. In this respect, we also process your data on the basis of Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f) GDPR.

Data Collection on this Website

Use of Cookies

Our website places cookies on your device. These are small text files that serve various purposes. Some cookies are technically necessary for the website to function at all (necessary cookies). Others are required to perform certain actions or functions on the site (functional cookies). For example, without cookies, it would not be possible to use the advantages of a shopping cart in an online shop. Still other cookies are used to analyze user behavior or optimize advertising measures. If we use third-party services on our website, e.g., for processing payment transactions, these companies may also leave cookies on your device when you visit the website (so-called third-party cookies).

How Do We Process your Data?

Session cookies are only stored on your device for the duration of a session. As soon as you close the browser, they disappear automatically. Persistent cookies, on the other hand, remain on your device unless you delete them yourself. This can, for example, lead to your user behavior being permanently analyzed. You can influence how your browser handles cookies via its settings:

  • Do you want to be informed when cookies are set?
  • Do you want to exclude cookies generally or for specific cases?
  • Do you want cookies to be automatically deleted when the browser is closed?

If you deactivate or do not allow cookies, the functionality of the website may be limited.

If we use cookies from other companies or for analysis purposes, we will inform you about this within the scope of this privacy policy. We also ask for your consent in this regard when you visit our website.

On What Legal Basis Do We Process your Data?

We have a legitimate interest in ensuring that our online offerings can be used by visitors without technical problems and that all desired functions are available to them. The storage of necessary and functional cookies on your device is therefore based on Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f) GDPR. All other cookies are used by us on the basis of Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a) GDPR, provided you give us corresponding consent. You can withdraw this at any time with effect for the future. If you have consented to the placement of necessary and functional cookies when prompted for consent, the storage of these cookies will also be based exclusively on your consent.

Server Log Files

Server log files record all requests and accesses to our website and log error messages. They also include personal data, in particular your IP address. However, this is anonymized by the provider after a short time, so we cannot assign the data to your person. The data is automatically transmitted from your browser to our provider.

How Do We Process your Data?

Our provider stores the server log files to track activities on our website and identify errors. The files contain the following data:

  • Browser type and version
  • Operating system used
  • Referrer URL
  • Hostname of the accessing computer
  • Time of server request
  • IP address (anonymized if applicable)

We do not combine this data with other data, but merely use it for statistical analysis and to improve our website.

On What Legal Basis Do We Process your Data?

We have a legitimate interest in ensuring that our website runs without errors. It is also our legitimate interest to obtain an anonymized overview of accesses to our website. Data processing is therefore lawful according to Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f) GDPR.