Privacy Policy
This policy explains what personal data is processed when you visit autoscientia.com or write to us, why we process it, and what you can ask us to do about it.
1. Who we are
AutoScientia ("we", "us") is a company based in Germany. We are the controller responsible for the personal data described in this policy.
Data protection enquiries: privacy@autoscientia.com. A full postal address for legal correspondence is available on request.
2. Scope
This policy applies to this website (autoscientia.com and its pages) and to personal data you send us by email, including through the contact form, which composes an email in your own email client rather than transmitting anything to a server of ours.
It does not cover third-party websites we may link to. Those are governed by their own policies, and we have no influence over them.
3. What we process
We keep this as narrow as possible. In practice there are three situations.
| Data | Why | Legal basis | Kept for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enquiry data: your name, email address, organisation (if you provide it) and the content of your message. | To answer you, and to keep track of the conversation if it continues. | Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR where your enquiry concerns a contract or its preparation; otherwise Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in answering enquiries). | Up to 24 months after the last exchange, then deleted. |
| Technical data: IP address, browser and device information, requested URL, timestamp and referring page. | Operating the site reliably, keeping it secure and diagnosing faults. | Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in secure, functional hosting). | Held by our hosting provider in server logs; typically deleted within 30 days. |
| Cookies, analytics and tracking. | We do not use any. This site sets no cookies and includes no analytics or advertising pixels. | Not applicable. | Not applicable. |
If you do not provide the information marked as required in the contact form, we simply cannot answer you — everything else is voluntary.
4. Legal bases
Under the GDPR we rely on the following legal bases, each tied to a specific purpose:
- Article 6(1)(a) — consent: where you have explicitly agreed to something, such as a mailing list sign-up. You can withdraw consent at any time with effect for the future.
- Article 6(1)(b) — contract: where processing is needed to enter into or perform an agreement with you.
- Article 6(1)(f) — legitimate interests: answering enquiries and keeping the website secure and available, which we balance against your rights and expectations.
5. Sharing and processors
We do not sell personal data and we do not share it for advertising. We use service providers where unavoidable — for example hosting for this website and email providers for our inboxes — and they process data on our behalf under a data processing agreement.
We may also disclose data where we are legally required to do so, or where it is necessary to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
6. International transfers
Our service providers are selected with data protection in mind. Where a provider processes personal data outside the European Economic Area, we rely on an adequacy decision of the European Commission or on the European Commission's standard contractual clauses, together with additional measures where needed.
7. Retention
We keep personal data only as long as we need it for the purpose it was collected for, or as long as statutory retention periods require. The table in section 3 states the periods we apply in practice. When a period ends, the data is deleted or irreversibly anonymised.
8. Your rights
You have the following rights regarding your personal data:
- Access (Art. 15 GDPR) — confirmation of whether we process data about you, and a copy of it.
- Rectification (Art. 16 GDPR) — correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
- Erasure (Art. 17 GDPR) — deletion, for example when the data is no longer needed.
- Restriction (Art. 18 GDPR) — limiting how we use the data while a question is resolved.
- Data portability (Art. 20 GDPR) — receiving data you provided in a structured, machine-readable format.
- Objection (Art. 21 GDPR) — objecting to processing based on legitimate interests.
- Withdrawal of consent (Art. 7(3) GDPR) — withdrawing consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.
To exercise any of these, write to privacy@autoscientia.com. We will respond within the statutory period, normally one month.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. As we are based in Germany, you can contact the data protection authority responsible for our location — or the authority in your own country or region of residence.
9. Security
We protect personal data with technical and organisational measures: encrypted transport (HTTPS), access controls, least-privilege access to inboxes and systems, and regular review of what we actually keep. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, so we aim for proportionate protection rather than the illusion of zero risk.
10. Automated decisions
We do not use automated decision-making, including profiling, that produces legal effects for visitors to this website. Our research work concerns automated experimentation, not decisions about the people who read this page.
11. Children
This website is aimed at professionals and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has sent us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.
12. Applications
If you send us an application, we process the documents and information you provide to assess your suitability for the role. Applications are shared only with the people involved in the hiring decision, are not used for any other purpose, and are deleted once the process is complete — extended only where you ask us to keep your details for future openings.
13. Changes to this policy
We will update this policy when our processing changes. The version published on this page applies, and the "last updated" date above tells you when it changed. Material changes will be highlighted on this page rather than announced quietly.
14. Contact
Questions about this policy, or about how we handle your data: privacy@autoscientia.com. For anything else, the contact page lists the right address.