Privacy and Cookie Notice for Visitors of BeeGFS.io
Content of this Notice
Below, we explain how we handle your personal data when you visit our website BeeGFS.io, register for one of our events or download our software.
We also inform you about your rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and our use of cookies.
Controller
The controller within the meaning of the GDPR for processing your data is:
ThinkParQ GmbH
Trippstadter Str. 113
67663 Kaiserslautern / Germany
+49 631 277 576 300
info(@)thinkparq.com
Individual Functions of the Website
Below, we explain how we handle your data when you use individual functions of our website.
Download of the Software
You can download our software from our website. This establishes a license agreement between you or your organization and us, in accordance with our End-User License Agreement.
You must fill out a form to download the software. This is used to identify you as a contracting party and to carry out the license agreement. The legal basis is the initiation and execution of the license agreement (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR). The data is stored for the duration of the license agreement. If we are obliged to retain data due to tax or commercial regulations, we may store your documents for these purposes beyond the term of the contract (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. c GDPR).
Without the information in the form, you cannot conclude a license agreement with us.
We also store your IP address together with the information from the form. We use this information to prevent, detect and enforce abuse, in particular to enforce our claims in cases of license agreement violations or justified suspicion of such violations. The legal basis is our legitimate interests in protecting our intellectual property, enforcing the license agreement and our legal claims in such cases (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR). The data is stored with us for up to 12 months after the end of the license agreement.
If you give us your consent in the download form to send the newsletter, we also use the information from the form to send you the newsletter and to tailor content to your interests (for details see below “Newsletter Subscription”).
We may also use the data from the download form for direct advertising (e.g., by email) for our own, similar goods or services, if you do not subscribe to the newsletter. You can object to this at any time free of charge. The legal basis is our legitimate interests in direct advertising and marketing our services, Art. 6 (1) f GDPR.
Event Registration
If you register for one of our events, we use the data provided in the form for planning and carrying out the event as well as for communicating with you in this regard (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR).
We may also use the event registration data for direct advertising (e.g., by email) for our own, similar goods or services. You can object to this at any time free of charge. The legal basis is our legitimate interests in direct advertising and marketing our services, Art. 6 (1) f GDPR.
We generally store your data for up to 24 months after the event (from the end of the calendar year of the event), unless we are legally obliged to store it longer, e.g., under tax or commercial law requirements, or you have agreed to longer storage through newsletter subscription.
To collect the data, we may use service providers as data processors, e.g., Monday.com Ltd., 6 Yitzhak Sadeh Street, Tel Aviv, 6777506, Israel. Israel is not an EU member state (third country), but is considered a safe third country, as the EU Commission has determined that the country provides an adequate level of data protection.
Newsletter Subscription
To sign up for our newsletter, you must provide your email address and country. Providing your name is optional.
We use the country information to adapt the language and to send you country-specific content (e.g., about local events).
We use your name for personal salutation.
By registering, you give us your data protection consent to send you information by email about news, products, and services of our company as well as in the field of “Parallel File System.” The newsletter is sent at irregular intervals, and there may be longer breaks.
You can revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future by unsubscribing from the newsletter. Simply send us a short email or use the unsubscribe link in each email.
After signing up, you will receive an email with an individual link. Your registration becomes active only after clicking this link. This ensures that the subscriber is the owner of the email address. The registration is logged.
The legal basis for using your email address is your consent (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). We delete your data when you unsubscribe from the newsletter.
We may collect whether newsletters are opened and which links are clicked (newsletter tracking). However, we use this data without personal reference, e.g., we determine the open rate or the total number of clicks on certain links. We use this information to tailor the newsletter and website to needs (e.g., to address topics with high resonance more frequently). The legal basis for newsletter tracking is our legitimate interest in tailoring our offers to needs (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR). You can object to newsletter tracking at any time (see Contact menu); we will then remove you from the newsletter distribution list.
We may use technical service providers located in the EU for sending the newsletter as data processors.
Contact Form
We use your information in the contact form to process your request. Your name is used for salutation. If you want to remain anonymous, you can enter a fictitious name.
The legal basis for processing your data via the contact form is our legitimate interest (facilitating contact) (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) and, if you are or wish to become a customer, the initiation or fulfillment of a contract (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR).
We delete your message once the request is resolved or after legal retention periods expire.
The contents of the contact form are transmitted encrypted, but not end-to-end encrypted, as decryption occurs on the web server.
Technical Operation of the Software
Usage Analysis
Usage Data
When you visit our website, we collect the following usage data:
- Page URL (which page was accessed)
- HTTP website (how the visitor arrived at the page)
- Browser type and version (from user-agent, but without full header)
- Operating system (brand and version, anonymized)
- Device type (desktop, mobile, tablet; anonymously determined by window width)
- Location data (country, region, city – IP addresses are anonymized and not stored for this purpose)
- Hash value for unique visitor counting (created from daily salt + anonymized IP + user-agent; the hash cannot be reversed and changes daily)
Purposes of Use
We use the usage data for the following purposes:
- to improve our offering. For example, we can see which content is in high demand and expand it accordingly. We can see which devices are used and technically tailor our website to them. We can see from which countries and regions users come and expand the language offerings accordingly.
- to detect and fix errors. For example, we can identify if downloads frequently fail and on which types of devices this happens.
We do not use the usage data to identify individual visitors or users or to create usage profiles. We do not associate the usage data with individual users.
Processing
No cookies (HTTP or Local Storage) are used for usage analysis. We only process information that is standardly transmitted by the browser to our servers. The IP address is stored only in shortened, anonymized form. We operate the usage analysis software on our own servers. No third-party or cloud services are used. We delete the usage data after 24 months. The legal basis for processing is our legitimate interest in analyzing the use of our website to improve our offering to the interests of our visitors and to detect and fix errors.
Logfiles
Each time a page is accessed, technical data is received by our – like all – web servers. However, we do not assign this data to individuals.
When you access a specific page, our web servers record by default in a log file the address (URL) of the retrieved page, date and time of access, any error messages, and possibly the operating system and browser software of your device as well as the website from which you visit us. We also store the IP address of your computer in our log files.
The log file data is used exclusively to ensure the functionality of our services (e.g., error analysis, system security assurance, and protection against misuse) and is deleted after 14 days or shortened so that it is no longer personally identifiable.
If log file data is considered personal data in individual cases, the legal basis for processing the log file data is our legitimate interest (error analysis, system security assurance, and protection against misuse).
Captcha
We use Google reCAPTCHA, a service of Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland.
ReCAPTCHA records your user interactions on our website, such as mouse movements, clicks, scrolling patterns, typing speed, and screenshots of open web pages, as well as software and device data (installed browser plugins, language settings, browser type).
Based on this data, reCAPTCHA conducts an analysis and determines a probability as to whether an activity resembles human behavior and legitimate interaction or instead indicates suspicious users and abusive traffic. Depending on the result, our website may reject the user or activate additional protection mechanisms.
The purpose of this processing is to ensure the security and functionality of our website (e.g., excluding bots, protecting against the creation of fake user accounts), in both our interest and yours. The legal basis for this processing is our and your legitimate interests in maintaining a secure and functional website and ensuring this effectively.
Google Ireland may transfer data to its parent company, Google Inc., in the USA. According to an adequacy decision of the EU Commission (available at eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2023/1795/oj), companies in the USA that are certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework provide an adequate level of protection for personal data. Google Inc. is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (dataprivacyframework.gov/s/participant-search).Additional Information
Mandatory Fields
All mandatory fields on our website are marked with an asterisk (“*”). Without this information, the corresponding function cannot be used.
Data Recipients
Within our company, your data is received by the respective responsible departments, e.g., the sales or marketing department.
For the technical operation of the website, we may use technical service providers bound by instructions within the EU, e.g., for programming, maintenance, and hosting.
Data is transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area only if this is expressly stated.
Criteria for Storage Period
We determine the storage period for your data based on the specific purposes for which we use the data. In addition, we are subject to legal retention and documentation obligations, particularly under the German Commercial Code (HGB) and the Fiscal Code (AO), which range from 6 to 10 years.
Finally, the storage period is also determined by legal limitation periods, which are usually three years under §§ 195 ff. of the German Civil Code (BGB).
If data is needed to assert or defend legal claims, we may store the data for these purposes beyond the aforementioned periods, as long as required for these purposes.
Cookie Usage
Below you will find an explanation of the cookies we use. Cookies are pieces of information that we store on your device or that are already stored there and which we access.
We have classified the cookies as follows:
“Necessary Cookie”: a cookie that is strictly necessary to provide a basic function or an additional function of the website that the user explicitly requests (for example, session cookies used for recognizing a logged-in user or security cookies).
“Preference Cookie” (also called “Functional Cookie”): a cookie that stores information about user settings or preferences and influences how the website looks or behaves, thereby improving the user experience, even though it is not strictly necessary for the website’s functionality.
“Statistics Cookie” (also called “Analytics Cookie”): a cookie used to analyze how visitors interact with the website by collecting information anonymously or pseudonymously (without linking it to a name, email address, or postal address) in order to tailor the site to user needs (for example, optimizing for frequently used devices or highlighting topics that are often accessed).
“Marketing Cookie”: a cookie used to analyze visiting behavior in order to adapt displayed website content, marketing activities, or advertising (including on third-party sites) to individual interests or behaviors.
“First-party cookies” are cookies set by the domain displayed in your browser’s address bar. “Third-party cookies” are set by other domains. “Session” refers to a browser session.
| Name | Purpose of Use | Content | Type | Lifespan | First/Third Party Cookie | Explanation |
| cmplz_banner-status | Stores whether the cookie banner has already been shown to the user | Status (“dismissed” / “viewed”) | Required Cookie | 365 days | First Party | Prevents the banner from appearing again after consent has been given. |
| cmplz_consented_services | Stores which services the user has consented to | JSON/array with service IDs | Required Cookie | 365 days | First Party | Documents which services (e.g., YouTube, Analytics) have been activated. |
| cmplz_functional | Stores consent for functional cookies | “allow” / “deny” | Required Cookie | 365 days | First Party | Ensures that functional cookies are only set with consent. |
| cmplz_marketing | Stores consent for marketing/tracking cookies | “allow” / “deny” | Required Cookie | 365 days | First Party | Prevents marketing cookies from being set without consent. |
| cmplz_preferences | Stores consent for preference cookies | “allow” / “deny” | Required Cookie | 365 days | First Party | Enables saving user settings (e.g., language). |
| cmplz_statistics | Stores consent for statistics cookies | “allow” / “deny” | Required Cookie | 365 days | First Party | Activates statistics/analytics cookies only if consent is given. |
| cmplz_policy_id | Links consent to the current version of the policy | ID / hash | Required Cookie | 365 days | First Party | Ensures that users are asked for consent again when the policy is updated. |
| _GRECAPTCHA | Risk analysis to distinguish between human and bot | Token / encrypted identifier | Required Cookie | approx. 6 months | Third Party (Google) | Required for reCAPTCHA functionality; protects forms from misuse (spam/bots). |
| rc::a | Detection of returning clients (bot/misuse prevention) | Encrypted device/browser identifier | Required Cookie | “persistent” | Third Party (Google) | Helps reCAPTCHA distinguish humans from bots over time. |
| rc::b | Session recognition (bot detection during a session) | Temporary identifier | Required Cookie | Session | Third Party (Google) | Enables immediate bot detection during the current visit. |
| rc::c | Defense against bots / misuse detection | Encrypted identifier | Required Cookie | Session or persistent (varies) | Third Party (Google) | Supplementary cookie for preventing automated access. |
| rc::f | Technical analysis for bot detection | Encrypted ID | Required Cookie | several months or “persistent” | Third Party (Google) | Additional internal reCAPTCHA security cookie. |
| NID | Stores user preferences (e.g., language, search filters) | Random ID | Required Cookie | approx. 6 months | Third Party (Google) | Commonly used by Google services; may be loaded with reCAPTCHA. |
| 1P_JAR | Analytics & tracking within Google services | ID / timestamp | Required Cookie | 1 month | Third Party (Google) | Used for statistical purposes and ad personalization. |
| CONSENT | Stores consent status | “YES/NO” + code | Required Cookie | several years | Third Party (Google) | Records the user’s consent status for Google services. |
| HSID | Security, protection against unauthorized access | Encrypted security ID | Required Cookie | approx. 2 years | Third Party (Google) | Contains digitally signed and encrypted records to verify user identity. |
| SID | Authentication, security | Encrypted session ID | Required Cookie | approx. 2 years | Third Party (Google) | Contains digital signature and hashes for security features (e.g., protection against attackers). |
| SIDCC | Security, protection against fraudulent use | Encrypted session/control ID | Required Cookie | approx. 1 year | Third Party (Google) | Protects user information from unauthorized access. |
| __Secure-1PSIDCC | Security, abuse prevention | Hash / control ID | Required Cookie | approx. 1 year | Third Party (Google) | Additional security cookie to protect user data. |
Definitions and Explanations
Terms
Below, we explain some legal and technical terms used in this privacy notice.
Personal Data
Personal data is any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.
Processing
Processing of personal data is any operation related to personal data, e.g., collection via an online form, storage on our servers, or use for contacting.
IP Address
The IP address is a number that your internet provider temporarily or permanently assigns to your device. With a full IP address, it is, for example, possible to identify the connection owner in individual cases using additional information from your internet service provider
Your Rights under the GDPR
By law, we are obliged to inform you about your rights under the GDPR. Below we explain these rights. The rights apply under the conditions of the respective data protection provisions. The following presentation does not grant you any additional rights.
Access
You have the right to obtain confirmation from us as to whether or not personal data concerning you is being processed; if this is the case, you have the right to access this personal data and the specific information listed in Art. 15 GDPR.
Rectification
You have the right to obtain from us without undue delay the rectification of inaccurate personal data concerning you and, where applicable, the completion of incomplete personal data, Art. 16 GDPR.
Erasure
You have the right to obtain from us the erasure of personal data concerning you without undue delay, provided that one of the reasons listed in Art. 17 GDPR applies, e.g., if the data is no longer necessary for the purposes pursued.
Restriction of Processing
You have the right to request the restriction of processing from us where one of the conditions listed in Art. 18 GDPR applies, e.g., if you have objected to the processing, for the duration of our assessment.
Data Portability
Under certain conditions, you have the right to receive the personal data concerning you, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and to transmit those data or have them transmitted where technically feasible, Art. 20 GDPR.
Complaint
Regardless of other administrative or judicial remedies, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if you believe that the processing of personal data concerning you by us infringes the GDPR, Art. 77 GDPR. You may exercise this right with a supervisory authority in the Member State of your habitual residence, place of work, or the place of the alleged infringement. Contact details of supervisory authorities in Germany can be found at https://www.bfdi.bund.de/DE/Service/Anschriften/anschriften_table.html.
Withdrawal (of Consent)
If you have given us data protection consent, you have the right to withdraw this consent at any time with effect for the future. This also applies to data protection consents you gave us before the GDPR came into effect.
Right to Object
You also have the right to object at any time, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to the processing of personal data concerning you, if we base the processing on Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. We will then no longer process these data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights, and freedoms, or the processing serves the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims (Art. 21 GDPR).
If your personal data is used by us for direct marketing purposes (e.g., by email), you have the right to object to the use of your data for such purposes at any time. This also applies to profiling insofar as it is connected with such direct marketing. Profiling means the use of personal data to analyse or predict certain personal aspects (e.g., interests).