Data Protection

Privacy Notice for Survey Participants

We, Hochschule München (hereinafter also referred to as ‘the University’, ‘we’ or ‘us’), set out below the purposes for which, the legal basis on which, and the duration for which we process your personal data when we invite you to take part in a survey.

Please take the time to read our privacy policy, as it contains important information about how we handle your personal data.

Wherever we use the term ‘data’ in this text, we refer exclusively to personal data within the meaning of Article 4(1) of the GDPR.

Data controller

The data controller within the meaning of the GDPR is Hochschule München, located at Lothstraße 34, 80335 Munich.

Type of data

In order to invite you to take part in a survey aimed at ensuring the quality of our work – particularly in the form of evaluations – or for research purposes, we generally process only your university email address. If you are not a member of the university – for example, because you have completed your studies with us – we will use the contact details you provided to us in connection with your membership of our university.

Please refer to the relevant questionnaire for details of the information we process as part of each survey.

Participation in the survey itself, as well as the information provided as part of the survey – in particular, personal data – is always voluntary. You will not suffer any disadvantage as a result of not taking part.

The information provided and the details given will be used to evaluate, analyse and publish the results of the survey in a detailed and nuanced manner.

Processing for quality assurance purposes

In surveys conducted for quality assurance purposes, no personally identifiable data is collected as a matter of principle. However, these surveys are not always anonymous, as the nature of the questions and the answers could allow conclusions to be drawn about individual persons. The collection of the relevant information is always necessary in order to carry out the quality assessment intended by the survey. The information provided is always anonymised through aggregation. Any details that might allow identification of an individual are deleted following this aggregation, so that it is no longer possible to identify specific individuals. The surveys are therefore generally not personally identifiable, but effectively anonymous. The surveys are analysed in anonymised form.

Processing for research purposes

If you take part in academic surveys – that is, surveys conducted as part of the university’s research projects – we assure you that any information relating to your person will be anonymised as soon as the nature of the research allows. Until then, the characteristics by which individual details about your personal or factual circumstances can be linked to you as an identified or identifiable individual will be stored separately. They will only be combined with the individual details to the extent required by the research purpose. Should excerpts from the free-text fields be included in the publication of the results, this will be done in such a way that it is not possible to identify you.

Please note that if you are invited to take part in a scientific survey that is not being conducted as part of a research project at Hochschule München, the data protection notice issued by the organisation or the person responsible for the research project in terms of data protection will apply.

Purpose and legal basis

When we invite you to take part in a survey, we process your contact details – usually your email address – so that we can send you the invitation to take part in the survey. If you take part in a survey to which we have invited you, we will process the information you provide as part of the survey either for research purposes (conducting academic surveys) or to ensure the quality of university organisational processes and/or Quality in Teaching (quality assurance).

The invitation to take part in academic surveys and in surveys carried out as part of quality assurance is issued in order to fulfil the public duties entrusted to the university under the Bavarian Higher Education Innovation Act (BayHIG). The legal basis for this is Article 6(1)(a), (2) and (3) of the GDPR in conjunction with Article 4 of the Bavarian Data Protection Act (BayDSG) and the provisions of the BayHIG. In order to invite you to take part in a survey, the university is permitted to use the data collected, in particular the email address provided. The legal basis for this is Article 6(1) of the BayDSG.

One of the university’s responsibilities is to ensure the quality of its work in the fields of research, teaching and the arts, as well as transfers, in supporting early career researchers and artists, and in fulfilling its equality mandate. It is authorised to regularly evaluate the quality assurance systems in place and to publish the results; see Articles 7 and 76 of the Bavarian Higher Education Act (BayHIG).

One of the University of Nursing’s primary tasks is to contribute to the advancement of science and the arts through research, artistic creation, Teaching, studies and continuing professional development; see Article 2 of the Bavarian Higher Education Act (BayHIG). Within this framework, the University carries out research projects.

The processing of data collected as part of surveys is carried out on the basis of your consent. By answering questions and/or completing questionnaire fields, you are deemed to have given your consent to the processing of your data. The legal basis for this is Article 6(1)(a), Article 4(11) and Article 7 of the GDPR.

Disclosure of personal data

The surveys are generally analysed statistically, i.e. without any reference to specific individuals. As part of the statistical analysis, all information relating to specific individuals is anonymised. This means that it is effectively impossible to identify individual respondents with a reasonable amount of effort. Access to any personal data (raw data) is restricted solely to the team conducting the survey in question. The results are published exclusively in anonymised form.

Data processing generally takes place on the university’s systems. As a rule, no processing takes place in third countries, nor are any automated decisions made.

Retention and deletion

Personal data collected through surveys will be deleted as soon as it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or otherwise processed.

(Raw) data collected as part of research projects is generally retained for ten years. Consent forms are retained for record-keeping purposes and are destroyed or deleted from our systems once the standard statutory retention period has expired (currently three years after the completion of the research project).

What else you should know – your rights

You have the right to request confirmation as to whether the relevant data is being processed, and to request access to that data, as well as further information and a copy of the data, in accordance with Article 15 of the GDPR.

In accordance with Article 16 of the GDPR, you have the right to request that data relating to you be completed or that any inaccurate data relating to you be rectified.

In accordance with Article 17 of the GDPR, you have the right to request that the data in question be erased without delay or, alternatively, in accordance with Article 18 of the GDPR, to request that the processing of the data be restricted.

You have the right to request, in accordance with Article 20 of the GDPR, to receive the data relating to you that you have provided to us and to request that it be transferred to other data controllers.

You have the right to withdraw any consent you have given, in accordance with Article 7(3) of the GDPR, with effect for the future, by contacting datenschutzbeauftragter@hm.edu .

You may object at any time to the future processing of your personal data in accordance with Article 21 of the GDPR. In particular, you may object to processing for direct marketing purposes by contacting datenschutzbeauftragter@hm.edu .

You also have the right, in accordance with Article 77 of the GDPR, to submit a complaint to the relevant supervisory authority.

The authority responsible for Hochschule München is the Bavarian State Commissioner for Data Protection. You can contact them as follows:

Further information

If you have any questions regarding the processing of your data, please feel free to contact the Data Protection Officer (datenschutzbeauftragter@hm.edu)

You can find further information on data protection via the following link: https://hm.edu/datenschutz.

Last updated: 8 May 2024

The information on this page was translated into English for your convenience. In case of any discrepancies between the English and German versions, the German version shall prevail.