Privacy Policy

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General information
Information LSN collects and stores
Event registration and organisers
Your GDPR rights and legal bases
Multiple platforms
Third-party integrations
International data transfers and hosting
Use of cookies
Use of email communication
Security of personal information
Changes in the Privacy Policy

General information

This Privacy Policy is an addition to the Terms of Use. The definitions and provisions of the Terms of Use apply.

Science Events (sci.events) is a scientific event organisation tool, operated by Life Science Network gGmbH ("LSN"). LSN collects and organizes basic information about worldwide research infrastructure, such as institutes, universities, companies etc. and their organisational structure (units, departments, scientific groups etc.). LSN also allows researchers, engineers and other staff engaged in research and development to create their own professional web pages ("Profiles") to be able to communicate and collaborate with others around the world more effectively. LSN respects and protects your privacy. This Privacy statement is a binding agreement between LSN and the User.

The data controller responsible for the processing of data on this platform and its related sites is:

Life Science Network gGmbH
Rudolf-Diesel-Str. 11
69115 Heidelberg
Germany

For questions or comments about privacy issues, please contact us at [email protected].

Information LSN collects and stores

LSN collects 3 types of information:

• information about research and development infrastructure

  This is the information about institutes, universities, companies etc. and their organisational structure (units, departments, scientific groups etc.). This information is publicly available and with no privacy issues. If you think information about a particular organisation should be removed, contact us at [email protected].

• personal information

  The only personal information (such as information about education, contact details etc.) that LSN will collect and store is the one that the User chooses to enter. The User can edit or delete any personal information within his/her profile. Certain information (name, email address) is compulsory for registration (sign up). Some information entered during registration, such as first and last name, will be publicly visible and can be removed only when User account is deleted. Only members of the LSN team will have access to all registration information (except password) in order to manage and improve the Services.

  We share your personal data with the following categories of recipients: our hosting and infrastructure providers, Salesforce, Inc. (Heroku), Amazon.com, Inc. (AWS), and Cloudflare, Inc. (DNS and network services); our payment processor, Stripe, Inc., where applicable to process payments; and, only if you explicitly opt in, Google Analytics for usage analytics. We do not share your personal data with any other third parties except as required by law.

  LSN may be required to disclose all personal information to comply with the law or if LSN suspects that Terms of Use have been violated. LSN reserves the right to process personal information to create anonymous statistics which contain no information about individual Users. If a User wants to be removed from the Science Events database, the User can delete his/her profile. Your personal data (name and email address) is retained for as long as your account remains active. If you delete your account yourself, your personal data is deleted immediately. If you request deletion through us instead, we will complete it within a reasonable period, no later than 30 days.

• traffic information and interaction tracking

  Traffic information includes data about the interaction of Users with LSN Services (such as IP address, browser type, log-in times, etc.). This information is not stored in our own database, with the exception of login timestamps. IP addresses and related technical request data may be processed transiently by our hosting infrastructure providers (see "International data transfers and hosting" below) for the technical operation and security of the Service, in line with their standard log-retention practices.

Event registration and organisers

When you register for an event through Science Events, the event Organizer determines the purposes and means of processing your registration data and acts as the data controller for that data. LSN processes this registration data solely on behalf of the Organizer, acting as a data processor, under the terms of a Data Processing Agreement between LSN and the Organizer (see our Terms of Use for details).

For questions about how your registration data is used, please contact the relevant event Organizer directly. LSN's role is limited to providing the technical platform and processing infrastructure on the Organizer's instructions.

Your GDPR rights and legal bases

In accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we process your personal data based on the following legal grounds:

• Contractual Performance (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR): To provide our services, manage your single-sign-on account across our related platforms, and facilitate your content submissions.
• Legitimate Interests (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR): To secure our infrastructure against malicious attacks, maintain system performance, and optimize user experience.
• Consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR): Where you explicitly opt in to non-administrative email updates.

LSN operates on a principle of data minimization: we do not collect or store personal data beyond what you choose to enter or explicitly opt into. You hold the following statutory rights under the GDPR, primarily exercised via our self-service tools:

• Right of Access (Art. 15 GDPR): We only collect and store the personal data you choose to provide at registration — your name and email address — which is visible to you at any time on your Account settings page. This data is used to operate your account and authenticate you when signing in. It is shared only with the recipients and for the retention period described in "Information LSN collects and stores" above.
• Right to Rectification (Art. 16 GDPR): You have the right to correct, update, or complete any inaccurate information instantly via your Account settings and profile and content forms.
• Right to Erasure (Art. 17 GDPR): You can fully delete your profile and personal data yourself at any time by using the "Delete Account" feature on your settings page. Upon execution, your personal database entry is deleted immediately.
• Persistence of User-Submitted Content (Events, Abstracts, etc.): Please note that if you delete your account, any public content you authored (such as events or abstracts) will remain live on our platforms to maintain database integrity for the scientific community, but it will be decoupled from your personal profile. If you wish to remove this content entirely, you must delete it using the respective editing tools before executing your account deletion.
• Right to Restriction and Objection (Art. 18 and 21 GDPR): You can limit how we use your data—such as restricting your profile visibility, or opting out of email notifications—at any time by adjusting your preferences directly on your Account settings page.
• Right to Data Portability (Art. 20 GDPR): Since the personal data we hold is limited to your name and email address, both already visible and editable on your Account settings page, this information can be copied or transmitted by you directly at any time.
• Automated Decision-Making and Profiling (Art. 22 GDPR): We do not use automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.
• Right to Withdraw Consent (Art. 7(3) GDPR): Where processing is based on your consent (e.g., non-administrative email updates), you may withdraw that consent at any time, free of charge, with effect for the future. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out based on consent before its withdrawal. You can withdraw consent at any time via your Account settings.

To exercise any of these rights manually, please contact us at [email protected]. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy. This may be the supervisory authority of your habitual residence, place of work, or the place of the alleged infringement, or the authority responsible for us: Landesbeauftragter für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit Baden-Württemberg.

Multiple platforms

Apart from Science Events, LSN also operates other platforms: Life Science Network, Science HR, Engineering HR, and Scientific Today. These platforms share some resources and utilize a single database, which is why you only have to register once and can use those credentials to sign in to all the platforms. Also, changing the sign in credentials, your email address or password, will affect how you sign in on all sites. However, your profile information is separated and will only be shown on those sites where you sign in.

Content shared on either of the platforms may be displayed across our related sites to maximize visibility within the scientific community.

Third-party integrations

To enhance localized content like event listings, our services embed Google Maps API. When you access pages displaying maps, your web browser establishes a direct connection with Google's servers, transmitting traffic information (including your IP address). This interaction is subject to Google's own Privacy Policy.

Our platform may also contain direct "hotlinks" to external web resources. Clicking these hyperlinks routes you out of our platform, and your target site will process your access data based on their specific privacy regulations.

International data transfers and hosting

As an international community platform, our technical infrastructure is hosted via Heroku deployment pipelines using Amazon Web Services (AWS) data center assets located in the US-East region. Consequently, the professional profile data, system inputs, and traffic statistics you generate are transferred to, and processed inside, the United States.

To ensure full compliance with the European GDPR, these data transfers are legally secured using the following mechanisms:

• EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (DPF): Our infrastructure vendors, including Salesforce, Inc. (Heroku) and Amazon.com, Inc. (AWS), maintain active self-certifications under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce. This framework provides an officially recognized "adequacy status" for secure transatlantic data flows.
• Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs): As a parallel safety measure, our data processing agreements with these infrastructure providers incorporate the European Commission's approved Standard Contractual Clauses to guarantee that equivalent data security and privacy thresholds apply outside the EEA.

We also use Cloudflare, Inc. for DNS and network-level services, which may similarly involve the processing of data outside the EEA under comparable safeguards.

Use of cookies

We use the following categories of cookies:

• Essential cookies — required for the Service to function as you expect, including maintaining your login session, protecting against security threats (e.g., CSRF protection), and remembering your immediate on-screen preferences, such as whether you have already dismissed a notice, so it is not shown again. These cookies do not require consent, as they are strictly necessary to provide the functionality you are actively using, and do not involve tracking or profiling.
• Analytics cookies (Google Analytics) — used only if you explicitly consent. When you first visit, you are asked to Accept or Reject analytics cookies via equally presented options; no analytics cookies are set unless you choose to accept.

Use of email communication

LSN may send you emails to notify you of activity relevant to your account, such as unseen notifications. If you do not want to receive these emails, you can switch this option off on the Account settings page of your profile. Regardless of any personal settings, LSN reserves the right to send administrative emails and other important announcements, such as changes to this Privacy Policy.

Security of personal information

Each User will be required to protect his/her personal information with a unique password. LSN advises Users not to share this password with anyone. If the option of automatic sign in is used, the User should make sure he/she is the only person with access to that particular computer. If the automatic sign in option is used on a publicly available computer, there is a chance that your personal information and other content may be accessed, edited or deleted by other people. LSN will use reasonable measures and precautions to protect Users' personal information but cannot guarantee the security of personal information against unauthorized entry/use, hardware or software malfunction, or other elements that can compromise the security of personal information in our database.

Changes in the Privacy Policy

As LSN is continuously building and improving its Services, it may become necessary to adjust this Privacy Policy. LSN reserves the right to do so at its own discretion. The Users are advised to visit this page regularly to be informed about any changes.

Last edit: September 24, 2026.