Data protection statement

Festo takes personal data protection very seriously. We want you to feel safe and secure when you visit our websites. The protection of your privacy is an important objective for us when processing your personal data.

As a worldwide leader in the field of automation technology, and a global leader for basic and further technical training, we process data relating to our customers, business partners and other stakeholders on a daily basis. In doing so, we comply with all national and international data protection regulations, particularly the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU-GDPR).

1. Who is responsible for processing my data and who can I contact if I have any questions?

The responsible body is:

Festo SE & Co. KG
Ruiter Straße 82
73734 Esslingen
Germany

+49 (0) 711 347 0
cc@festo.com
You can contact our company data protection offer at:

Festo SE & Co. KG
Harald Glaser, data protection officer
Ruiter Straße 82
73734 Esslingen
Germany

datenschutz-festo@festo.com

2. Which data and data sources do we use?

General

We process personal data obtained in the course of our business activities. Where required for the provision of our services, we also process personal data obtained legally from publicly accessible sources (such as credit records, land registers, trade and professional registers, the media and the Internet) or provided to us by authorised parties.

We only use other personal data if you provide such data to us in the context of a contact form, survey, registration for an event or a competition, or the performance of a contract, and only to the extent permitted by law.

Personal data means any information concerning the personal or material circumstances of an identified or identifiable natural person (the data subject). It does not matter whether the data subject can be identified directly or indirectly.

Examples of the data we collect include:

Personal details (name, address, email address, telephone number and other contact information, gender, marital status, date and place of birth, nationality)
Identity data (e.g. passport information)
Authentication information (e.g. a sample of your signature)
Tax data (e.g. tax ID)
Order data
Data arising from the fulfilment of our contractual obligations
Marketing and sales data (including advertising scores), documentation information
Data arising in the lead-up to and over the course of our business relationship, recordings of telephone calls and the outcomes of conversations
In addition to the types of personal data listed, other personal data may be processed when you purchase and use other products/services we offer.

Newsletters and events

In the course of sending out our newsletters, we process personal data (such as email addresses and passwords). We also track your clicks within the newsletter. We use this information in order to be able to provide content which is better matched to your interests.

By signing up for our newsletter, you grant your consent for us to process your data in this way. Every newsletter contains a link which you can use to unsubscribe from future newsletters.

By registering for an event, you are expressly agreeing to our use of your data strictly for the purposes of registration and automated administration in relation to the event, and for us to forward your data to subcontractors for this purpose, if applicable.

Internet pages

When you access one of our Internet pages, our system collects a range of general data and information about you.

The data collected includes, for example:

Information on the user's browser type and version
The user's operating system
The user's Internet service provider
The user's IP address
The date and time of access
Websites from which the user's system accessed our Internet page
Websites accessed by the user's system from our website

Log files

Log files are used to store IP addresses and other data that can be traced back to a specific user. This data is not stored together with other personal data relating to the user.

Our system needs to store IP addresses to ensure that the website can be served to the user's computer with full functionality. The data is also used to optimise the website and to ensure that our information systems are secure (purpose of data processing).

In line with the EU-GDPR, these interests are classed as legitimate interests in data processing for Festo. The legal basis for these interests is Art. 6, para. 1(f) of the EU-GDPR.

We may also place cookies on your end device. These cookies also access IT data such as your IP address(es) and various identifiable features of your devices.

Further information is available here: Cookie policy

Consult the section entitled “Controlling cookies” to find out how to control and/or delete cookies as you wish. For your search on Festo websites, you only need to set your cookie setting once! Your consents are saved and applied to all websites for different devices.

3. For which purposes do we process your data, and what is the legal basis for this processing?

As a company based in Germany, we process personal data in accordance with the provisions of the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (EU-GDPR), the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) and other relevant national regulations such as the German Telecommunications Act and the German Telemedia Act.

To fulfil our contractual obligations (Art. 6, para. 1(b) of the EU-GDPR)
We process data in response to a request to fulfil a contract and in the context of pre-contractual actions and training activities. For more detailed information on the purposes for which we process data, please consult the relevant communication materials, contract documents and terms and conditions of sale for the relevant departments and activities.
To protect legitimate interests (Art. 6, para. 1(f) of the EU-GDPR)
If necessary, we will process your data beyond the fulfilment of the aforementioned purposes to protect our legitimate interests or those of a third party.

Examples:

To exercise our legal rights and in our defence in the event of legal disputes
To ensure that the IT security systems and processes of Festo are secure
To prevent and investigate criminal acts
Video monitoring to ensure compliance with company rules,
to collect evidence in the event of an attack or fraudulent conduct
Building and plant security measures (such as access control systems),
measures to safeguard company rules
Measures relating to operational management and the ongoing development of services and products
Measures to advise and assist our customers
Checking and optimising demand analysis processes used to plan direct approaches to customers
Advertising or market/opinion research, unless you have informed us that you do not wish us to process your data for this purpose.
Based on your consent (Art. 6, para. 1(a) of the EU-GDPR)
If you have granted us consent to process your personal data for specific purposes, we are legally permitted to process your data based on this consent.
You can revoke your consent at any time. This also applies to consent granted before the EU-GDPR came into effect, i.e. before 25 May 2018. The revocation of your consent does not affect the legality of data processing that took place before you revoked your consent.
Based on legal provisions (Art. 6, para. 1(c) of the EU-GDPR) or
in the public interests (Art. 6, para. 1(e) of the EU-GDPR).

4. What duties to provide information are in force?

Information on the points below can be found in: Duties to provide information

What are your data protection rights?
What do you need to know about your right to object?
Do you have any obligation to provide data?
Who receives your data?
How long will your data be stored?

5. How do we ensure that your data is kept secure?

Festo implements technical and organisational security measures in order to protect the data we use against accidental or deliberate manipulation, loss, destruction or access by unauthorised persons. Our security measures are continuously improved based on the latest technological developments.

6. Do we use web tools?

Web tools are used for purposes such as tracking, web analytics and social media.

Information on the points below can be found in: Web tools

Google AdWords Tracking
Facebook Pixel
LinkedIn Insight Tag
Netmind Core
Econda
Social media

7. Do we use profiling?

We process some of your data automatically with the aim of analysing specific personal attributes (a process known as profiling).

The tools we use to achieve this include:

To enable us to provide relevant information and advice on our products, services and other activities, we use profiling tools to tailor communications and advertising – including market and opinion research – to your needs.
Scoring is based on a mathematically/statistically recognised and proven process. The calculated scores help us make decisions, for example in the context of product sales, trade fair visits and completed training.
We also use tools that (automatically) merge data from multiple sources into a profile to enable us to analyse personal interests and behaviours to improve our dialogue with customers. We will only do this with express consent. You can revoke your consent at any time.

8. How do we obtain your consent when you visit our Internet pages?

When you use our Internet pages, you agree to our general data protection policy and grant your consent for your data to be used as described in this statement.
We may amend or supplement our data protection statement at any time. The most recently published version of our data protection statement applies.

9. Who is your contact for data protection?

If you have any questions relating to data protection at Festo or if you wish to exercise any of your rights as a data subject, please contact our company data protection officer by email at datenschutz-festo@festo.com (see also section 1).