Privacy Policy

 

The following information provides a simple overview of what happens to your personal data when you visit our website. Personal data is any data by which you can be personally identified.

Who is responsible?

Data processing on this website is carried out by The Geeky Pen  of Nieuwbrugkaai 58, 9000 Gent, Belgium (collectively”The Geeky Pen”)

How do we collect your data?

Collection of data  can take place in two forms:

a) when you provide it to us. This may, for example, be data that you enter in a contact form.

b) when it is collected automatically by our IT systems. This is mainly technical data (e.g. internet browser, operating system or time of page access).

What do we use your data for?

Some of the data is collected in order to ensure error-free provision of the website. Other data may be used to analyse your user behaviour. And, of course to provide you with our services.

Legal basis for the processing of personal data?

We base the use of your data on the following legal grounds:

• If the processing of personal data is carried out for the fulfilment of contracts concluded with us, it is based on Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR. This also applies to processing operations that are necessary for the implementation of pre-contractual measures.

• Insofar as we obtain the consent of the data subject for the processing operations of personal data, on Art. 6 (1) lit. a GDPR.

• If the processing of personal data is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which our company is subject, this is based on Art. 6 (1) (c) GDPR.

• In the event that vital interests of the data subject or another natural person make processing of personal data necessary, on Art. 6 (1) (d) GDPR.

• If the processing is necessary to protect a legitimate interest of our company or a third party and the interests, fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject do not outweigh the first-mentioned interest, Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR serves as the legal basis for the processing.

What rights do you have regarding your data?

You have the right to receive information free of charge at any time about the origin, recipient and purpose of your stored personal data. You also have the right to demand the correction, blocking or deletion of this data. You can contact us at any time at the address given above and for further questions on the subject of data protection. Furthermore, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority. You also have the right to request the restriction of the processing of your personal data under certain circumstances. For details, please refer to the privacy policy under “Right to restriction of processing”.

Withdrawal of your consent to data processing

Many data processing operations are only possible with your express consent. You can revoke your consent at any time. All you need to do is send us an informal e-mail. The legality of the data processing carried out until the revocation remains unaffected by the revocation.

Right to object to data collection in special cases and to direct marketing (Art. 21 GDPR)

If data processing is carried out on the basis of Art. 6(1)(e) or (f) GDPR, you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data at any time on grounds relating to your particular situation; this also applies to profiling based on these provisions.  If you object, we will no longer process your personal data concerned unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms, or the processing serves the purpose of asserting, exercising or defending legal claims.

If your personal data are processed for the purpose of direct marketing, you have the right to object at any time to the processing of personal data concerning you for the purpose of such marketing; this also applies to profiling insofar as it is related to such direct marketing. If you object, your personal data will subsequently no longer be used for the purpose of direct advertising (objection pursuant to Art. 21 (2) GDPR).

Right of complaint to the competent supervisory authority

In the event of breaches of the GDPR, data subjects have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of their habitual residence, their place of work or the place of the alleged breach. The right of appeal is without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy.

Right to data portability

You have the right to have data that we process automatically on the basis of your consent or in performance of a contract handed over to you or to a third party in a common, machine-readable format. If you request the direct transfer of the data to another responsible party, this will only be done insofar as it is technically feasible.

SSL or TLS encryption

For security reasons and to protect the transmission of confidential content, such as orders or enquiries that you send to us as the site operator, this site uses SSL or TLS encryption. You can recognise an encrypted connection by the fact that the address line of the browser changes from “http://” to “https://” and by the lock symbol in your browser line. If SSL or TLS encryption is activated, the data you transmit to us cannot be read by third parties.

Information, blocking, deletion and correction

Within the framework of the applicable legal provisions, you have the right at any time to free information about your stored personal data, its origin and recipient and the purpose of the data processing and, if applicable, a right to correction, blocking or deletion of this data. For this purpose, as well as for further questions on the subject of personal data, you can contact us at any time at the address given in the imprint.

Right to restriction of processing

You have the right to request the restriction of the processing of your personal data. To do this, you can contact us at any time at the address given in the imprint. The right to restriction of processing exists in the following cases:

• If you dispute the accuracy of your personal data stored by us, we usually need time to check this. For the duration of the verification, you have the right to request the restriction of the processing of your personal data.
• If the processing of your personal data happened/is happening unlawfully, you can request the restriction of data processing instead of erasure.
• If we no longer need your personal data, but you need it to exercise, defend or assert legal claims, you have the right to request restriction of the processing of your personal data instead of erasure.
• If you have lodged an objection under Article 21(1) of the GDPR, a balance must be struck between your interests and ours. As long as it has not yet been determined whose interests prevail, you have the right to demand the restriction of the processing of your personal data.
• If you have restricted the processing of your personal data, this data may – apart from being stored – only be processed with your consent or for the assertion, exercise or defence of legal claims or for the protection of the rights of another natural or legal person or for reasons of an important public interest of the European Union or a Member State.

Objection to advertising e-mails

The use of our contact data published within the framework of our legal obligations for the purpose of sending advertising and information material not expressly requested is hereby objected to. The Geeky Pen expressly reserves the right to take legal action in the event of the unsolicited sending of advertising information, for example by spam e-mails.

Accuracy

It is important that the data we hold about you is accurate and current, therefore please keep us informed of any changes to your personal data.

Online presences in social media

We maintain online presences in LinkedIn and Facebook on the basis of our legitimate interests within the meaning of Article 6 lit. f) GDPR and in order to communicate with customers, interested parties and users who are active there. Unless otherwise stated in this policy, we process the data of users if they communicate with us within the social networks and platforms, e.g. write articles on our online presences or send us messages.

What are the categories of data subjects?

Customers, interested parties, visitors and users of the online offer as well as our business partners.

Collection, use and storage of personal data

When you use the online offer, The Geeky Pen collects different data from you, partly also so-called personal data. This is information that relates to an identified or identifiable natural person.

Visiting the our website in general

When visiting The Geeky Pen website, you transmit data to our web server (due to technical necessity) via your internet browser. The following data is recorded during an ongoing connection for communication between your device browser and our web server:

• Date and time of the request;
• Name of the requested file;
• Page from which the file was requested;
• Access status (file transferred, file not found, etc.);
• Web browser and operating system used;
• Complete IP address of the requesting computer;
• Amount of data transferred;

For reasons of technical security, in particular to defend against attempted attacks on our web server, this data is stored by us for a short period of time. It is not possible for us to draw conclusions about individual persons on the basis of this data.

The legal basis for the storage is Article 6 lit. f) GDPR.

Contact form

If you send us enquiries via the contact form, your details from the enquiry form, including the contact details you have provided, will be stored by us for the purpose of processing the enquiry and in the event of follow-up questions. We do not pass on this data without your consent. The processing of the data entered in the contact form is therefore based exclusively on your consent (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). You can revoke this consent at any time. For this purpose, an informal communication by e-mail to us is sufficient. The legality of the data processing operations carried out until the revocation remains unaffected by the revocation. The data you entered in the contact form will remain with us until you request us to delete it, revoke your consent to store it or the purpose for storing the data no longer applies (e.g. after we have completed processing your enquiry). Mandatory legal provisions – in particular retention periods – remain unaffected.

When do we disclose your Personal Data?

We may share your information with organisations that help us provide the services described in this policy and who may process such data on our behalf and in accordance with this policy, to support our online offer and our services.

Typically and unless otherwise stated in this policy, data may be shared on the basis of our contractual and pre-contractual obligations, in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b) GDPR. Equally, if you have consented to it, or where there we have a legal obligation to do so or on the basis of our legitimate interests (e.g. when using agents, hosting providers, tax, business and legal advisors, customer care, accounting, billing and similar services that allow us to perform our contractual obligations, administrative tasks and duties efficiently and effectively).

If we commission third parties to process data on the basis of a so-called “processing agreement”, this is done on the basis of Art. 28 GDPR.

In relation to meta data obtained about you, we may share a cookie identifier and IP data with analytic service providers to assist us in the improvement and optimisation of our website which is subject to our Cookies Policy.

We may also disclose information in other circumstances such as when you agree to it or if the law, a Court order, a legal obligation or regulatory authority ask us to. If the purpose is the prevention of fraud or crime or if it is necessary to protect and defend our right, property or personal safety of our staff, the website and its users.

Integration Of Services And Contents Of Third Parties

We use within our online offer on the basis of our legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f. GDPR), content or services offered by third-party providers in order to integrate their content and services.

This always requires that the third-party providers of this content are aware of your IP address, since the content or service could not send to your browser without the IP address. The IP address is thus required for the display of this content and we endeavour to use providers that only use your IP address for the delivery of the content or services. However, Third-party providers may also use so-called pixel tags (invisible graphics, also known as “web beacons”) for statistical or marketing purposes. The “pixel tags” can be used to evaluate information such as visitor traffic on the pages of this website. The pseudonymous information may also be stored in cookies on the user’s device and may contain, among other things, technical information about the browser and operating system, referring websites, time of visit and other information about the use of our online offer, as well as be linked to such information from other sources.

Website Analytics

On the basis of our legitimate interests (i.e. interest in the analysis, optimisation and economic operation of our online offer we use Google Analytics.The information generated about the use of the website by the user is usually transferred to Google and stored there.

Google will use this information on our behalf in order to evaluate the use of our website by users, to compile reports on the activities within this website and to provide us with further services associated with the use of this website and the internet. In doing so, pseudonymous user profiles of the users can be created from the processed data.

We only use Google Analytics with activated IP anonymisation. This means that the IP address of the user is shortened within member states of the European Union or in other contracting states of the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transferred to a Google server shortened there.

The IP address transmitted by the user’s browser will not be merged with other data. Users can prevent the storage of cookies by adjusting their browser software accordingly; users can also prevent the collection of data generated by the cookie and relating to their use of the online offer.

Children Data

Our website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children. If you become aware that your Child has provided us with Personal Data, without parental consent, please contact us and we take the necessary steps to remove that information from our server.

International transfers

We may transfer your personal information outside the European Economic Area (EEA). For example, our Websites are hosted on servers within Europe and the United States of America, and our third party service providers operate around the world.  We will only transfer your personal information outside the EEA if adequate protection measures are in place.  To ensure that your personal information does receive an adequate level of protection outside the EEA we use the following protection measures:

• Transferring to countries approved by the European Commission.
• Using model contractual clauses and standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission.

Further details in respect of protective measures used outside of the EEA are available on request.

Automated decision-making and profiling

We do not use automation for decision-making and profiling.

Do Not Track

Do Not Track is a privacy preference you can set in most browsers. We support Do Not Track because we believe that you should have genuine control over how your info gets used and our site responds to Do Not Track requests.

Do Not Sell My Personal Information 

We do not sell information that directly identifies you, like your name, address or phone records.

Hosting

The services for hosting and displaying the website are partly provided by our service providers as part of processing on our behalf. Unless otherwise explained in this privacy policy, all access data and all data collected in forms provided for this purpose on this website are processed on their servers. If you have any questions about our service providers and the basis of our relationship with them, please contact them as described in this privacy policy.

Content Delivery Network

For the purpose of a shorter loading time, we use a so-called Content Delivery Network (“CDN”) for some offers. With this service, content, e.g. large media files, are delivered via regionally distributed servers of external CDN service providers. Therefore, access data is processed on the servers of the service providers. Our service providers work for us within the framework of order processing. If you have any questions about our service providers and the basis of our cooperation with them, please use the contact option described in this privacy policy.

Changes 

This policy and our commitment to protecting the privacy of your personal data can result in changes to this policy . Please regularly review this policy to keep up to date with any changes.

Queries and Complaints 

Any comments or queries on this policy should be directed to us. If you believe that we have not complied with this policy or acted otherwise than in accordance with data protection law, then you should notify us.