Privacy notice regarding personality assessments in appointment procedures
We are delighted that you are interested in Hochschule München (HM) as a potential employer. At the same time, we take the confidential handling of candidates’ personal data in appointment procedures very seriously. We therefore incorporate the data protection requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) into our administrative processes. Here, we set out the purposes for which we process your personal data and the legal basis on which we do so when assessing candidates as part of the appointment procedure.
Data protection is a key priority for Hochschule München (HM) and a legal obligation. To ensure that personal data is adequately protected during transmission, HM uses state-of-the-art encryption methods (e.g. SSL/TLS) and secure technical systems.
Data controller
HM Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences
Lothstraße 34
D-80335 München
Tel.: +49 89 12 65 - 0
Fax: +49 89 12 65 - 3000
Email: kommunikation@hm.edu
Website: www.hm.edu
HM Hochschule München University of Applied Sciences is a public-law body. It is legally represented by its President, Prof. Dr Martin Leitner.
Government Data Protection Officer
The Data Protection Officer at Hochschule München can be contacted by email at datenschutzbeauftragter@hm.edu and by telephone on +49 9951 99990-500.
Personal data
Personal data refers to specific details relating to the personal or factual circumstances of an identified or identifiable natural person. This includes information such as name, address, telephone number or date of birth. It also includes personal documents that users upload to the portal.
Scope of the processing of personal data
In addition to the personal data we collect via our applicant management system as part of the appointment procedure (see https://hm.edu/datenschutz/ datenschutzhinweis_bewerbende.de.html), we also process your personal data for the purpose of assessing your personal suitability, which is necessary for the decision on your appointment as a Professor.
To this end, a personality assessment interview is conducted, along with a scientifically validated psychological test where appropriate, in order to systematically identify personality traits relevant to the role.
Access to your data is restricted exclusively to members of the Personality Assessment team and authorised decision-makers.
Most personality assessment interviews are conducted virtually using video-conferencing software. Zoom is generally used for personality assessments as part of appointment procedures at Hochschule München.
The following personal data is processed as part of the personality assessments:
· Mandatory information about candidates: first name, surname.
· Optional: email address, password, profile picture and telephone number.
· Meeting metadata: topic, description (optional), participants’ IP addresses, and participants’ device and hardware information.
· Text, audio and video data: It is possible to use the chat and question functions during the personality assessment interview. In addition, the candidate provides information via the comment function, which is saved as a screenshot. Any supplementary verbal statements made by the candidates are documented in writing (usually using Microsoft Word).
· where applicable, the content of the online form for the psychological assessment
In order to enable video display and audio playback, data from the terminal’s microphone and, where applicable, its video camera is processed for the duration of the call. No long-term storage takes place beyond the temporary storage required for technical purposes.
The software-based ‘attention monitoring’ (‘attention tracking’) feature is disabled. No automated decision-making within the meaning of Article 22 of the GDPR (profiling) takes place.
Purposes and legal basis for the processing of personal data
The processing of your data collected as part of the personality assessment procedure serves the purpose of assessing your personal suitability and forms part of the decision on your appointment as a Professor.
The legal basis for the processing of personal data in connection with the application for the post of Professor is Article 6(1)(e), (2) and (3) of the GDPR in conjunction with Article 103 of the Bavarian Basic Law (BayBG) in conjunction with Article 26 of the Higher Education Act (LlbG) in conjunction with Article 66(5) of the Bavarian Higher Education Act (BayHIG) in conjunction with the HM’s Appointments Guidelines of 31 October 2023, in force since 31 October 2023.
If you provide us with special categories of personal data during the application process, we will process this data on the legal basis of Article 103, sentence 1(2) of the Bavarian Civil Service Act (BayBG) and Article 9(2)(b) and (h) of the GDPR in conjunction with Article 88(1) of the GDPR in conjunction with Article 8(1), first sentence, nos. 2 and 3 of the Bavarian Data Protection Act (BayDSG).
Processing for research purposes (change of purpose)
Furthermore, the data collected may be processed for the purposes of conducting accompanying research. In doing so, we analyse the collected data using recognised scientific methods, anonymise the results in accordance with the rules of good scientific practice, and publish them. The legal basis for the use of the data for the purposes of scientific research is Article 6(2)(3)(c) and Article 25 of the Bavarian Data Protection Act (BayDSG).
Data erasure and retention period
The candidates’ oral statements, as documented as part of the personality assessment, will be destroyed once the appointment procedure has been completed. All other personal data collected as part of the personality assessment will be anonymised for the purposes of the accompanying research and stored securely on HM’s internal servers as evidence for the research community for a period of ten years.
Recipients of personal data
The raw data from the interview for the personality assessment and, where applicable, from the psychological testing procedure, is made available only to the relevant team within the Human Resources department (Personnel Assessment Team). This team presents the observations from the interviews and, where applicable, the results of the psychological testing procedure to the extent required to the Appointments Committee. Furthermore, in accordance with the HM’s Appointments Guidelines dated 31 October 2023, the results may be submitted by the Human Resources Department to the Executive Board and the senate. Where appropriate, the results may be published in anonymised form as part of an accompanying research project.
The results of the personality assessment are not included in the personnel file, as they are not directly related to the employment relationship (Section 50 of the Civil Servants Act).
Where the video conference is conducted via service providers based in the USA, such as Zoom, data is transferred to third countries. Appropriate data processing agreements have been concluded with the service provider, provided that the licence was obtained through Hochschule München. The data transferred includes traffic data, such as the IP address, and, where provided, personal data such as the user’s name, email address, and first name and surname. Both the personal data – including the user’s name, email address, and first name and surname – and the video content are transmitted in encrypted form. Zoom has no access to either user data or the content of the video conference, as Zoom does not possess the key required for this (end-to-end encryption). An adequate level of data protection is ensured through the conclusion of the so-called EU Standard Contractual Clauses and, in addition, guarantees provided by the service provider Zoom (e.g. encryption).
A domestic online platform (www.testzentrale.de) is used to carry out the psychological testing process; a data processing agreement is in place with this platform.
Rights of those affected
Under the General Data Protection Regulation, you have the following rights:
- Where personal data is processed, data subjects have the right to request confirmation as to whether their data is being processed, and the right to access that data, as well as to receive further information and a copy of the data, in accordance with Article 15 of the GDPR.
- Should inaccurate personal data be processed, the data subject has the right to have such data rectified or, where the data is incomplete, to have it completed (Article 16 of the GDPR).
- Where the legal conditions are met, data subjects may request the erasure or restriction of processing (Articles 17 and 18 of the GDPR).
- Data subjects have the right to receive the personal data they have provided to us in accordance with Article 20 of the GDPR, as well as the right to request that it be transferred to other data controllers.
- Data subjects have the right to withdraw their consent, in accordance with Article 7(3) of the GDPR, with future effect by contacting datenschutzbeauftragter@hm.edu .
- Data subjects may object to the future processing of their data at any time in accordance with Article 21 of the GDPR. In particular, they may object to processing for direct marketing purposes by contacting datenschutzbeauftragter@hm.edu.
- Furthermore, in accordance with Article 77 of the GDPR, data subjects have the right to submit a complaint to the competent supervisory authority.
The authority responsible for Hochschule München is the Bavarian State Commissioner for Data Protection.
He can be contacted using the following details:
Postal address:
Postfach 22 12 19
80502 München
Address:
18 Wagmüllerstraße
80538 München
Tel.: +49 89 212672 - 0
Fax: +49 89 212672 - 50
Email: poststelle@datenschutz-bayern.de
Website: https://www.datenschutz-bayern.de
Further information regarding our Privacy Policy
Hochschule München reserves the right to amend the Privacy Policy from time to time to ensure that it always complies with the latest legal requirements or to reflect changes to the services described in the Privacy Policy, for example when new services are introduced. The new Privacy Policy will then apply to any subsequent visits to the website.
If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Data Protection Officer (datenschutzbeauftragter@hm.edu) or send an email to: kommunikation@hm.edu.
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Further information on data protection can be found here: www.hm.edu/datenschutz .
Last updated: 5 February 2026
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.