Data Protection Statement

We want you to feel secure and at ease as you collaborate successfully with Festo. We also want to meet your needs and be a reliable partner when it comes to protecting your personal data.

Festo takes personal data protection very seriously. We want you to feel safe and secure when you visit our websites. The protection of your privacy is an important objective for us when processing your personal data.

As a worldwide leader in the field of automation technology, and a global leader for basic and further technical training, we process data relating to our customers, business partners and other stakeholders on a daily basis. We are hereby committed to complying with national and international laws and regulations on data protection. Please read and understand this data protection declaration carefully before using our services.

1.who can I contact if I have any questions?

You can contact us at:

Festo (China) Ltd.

No, 1156 Yunqiao Road, Pudong

Shanghai,China

E-mail: lc.gcn@festo.com

2. Which data and data sources do we use?

2.1 General

We process personal information received in the course of our business. We also process personal information legally obtained or authorized for dissemination from public sources (e.g., land registers, business registers and associations registers, the press, the Internet) to the extent necessary for the provision of our services.

As far as additional personal data is concerned, we will only use your personal data if you fill it in yourself, e.g., to fill in a contact form, a questionnaire, an application for an event or a job, a call for tenders, to register or to sign a contract, in accordance with the permissions permitted by current laws and regulations.

Personal data means any informatio concerning the personal or material circumstances of an identified or identifiable natural person (the data subject). It does not matter whether the data subject can be identified directly or indirectly.

Examples of the data we collect include:

  • Personal details (name, address, email address, telephone number and other contact information, gender, marital status, date and place of birth, nationality)
  • Identity data (e.g. passport information)
  • Authentication information (e.g. a sample of your signature)
  • Tax data (e.g. tax ID)
  • Order data
  • Application documents provided in connection with job applications (e.g., curriculum vitae, certificates, proof of qualifications, photographs, desired position and other information)
  • Data arising from the fulfilment of our contractual obligations
  • Marketing and sales data (including advertising scores), documentation information
  • Data arising in the lead-up to and over the course of our business relationship, recordings of telephone calls and the outcomes of conversations

In addition to the types of personal data listed, other personal data may be processed when you purchase and use other products/services we offer.

  • To fulfill your requests. For example, if you share your name and contact information to request a price quote or ask a question about our products or services, we will use that personal information to respond to your inquiry. If you provide your personal information to purchase a product or service, we will use that information to process your payment and facilitate delivery. We may also save your information to facilitate new product orders or process returns
  • To provide, support, personalize, and develop the Sites, products, and services
  • To create, maintain, customize, and secure your account with us
  • To process your requests, purchases, transactions, and payments and prevent transactional fraud
  • To provide you with support and to respond to your inquiries, including to investigate and address your concerns and monitor and improve our responses
  • To personalize your experience on the Sites and to deliver content and product and service offerings relevant to your interests, including targeted offers and ads through our Sites, and via email or text message (with your consent, where required by law)
  • To help maintain the safety, security, and integrity of the Sites, products and services, databases and other technology assets, and business
  • For testing, research, analysis, and product development, including to develop and improve the Sites, products, and services
  • To respond to law enforcement requests and as required by applicable law, court order, or governmental regulations
  • As described to you when collecting personal data about you or as otherwise set forth under applicable law

2.2 Newsletters and events

When sending the E-newsletter, we process some personal information such as e-mail addresses or passwords. In addition, we track data about your behavior in the E-newsletter, such as preferences for browsing content in the E-newsletter. We use this information to be able to send you content that better matches your interests.

By signing up for our newsletter, you grant your consent for us to process your data in this way. Every newsletter contains a link which you can use to unsubscribe from future newsletters.

By registering for an event, you are expressly agreeing to our use of your data strictly for the purposes of registration and automated administration in relation to the event, and for us to forward your data to subcontractors for this purpose, if applicable.

2.3 Internet pages

When you access one of our Internet pages, our system collects a range of general data and information about you.

The data collected includes, for example:

  • Information on the user's browser type and version
  • The user's operating system
  • The user's Internet service provider
  • The user's IP address
  • The date and time of access
  • Websites from which the user's system accessed our Internet page
  • Websites accessed by the user's system from our website

2.4 Log files

Log files are used to store IP addresses and other data that can be traced back to a specific user. This data is not stored together with other personal data relating to the user.

Our system needs to store IP addresses to ensure that the website can be served to the user's computer with full functionality. The data is also used to optimise the website and to ensure that our information systems are secure (purpose of data processing).

2.5 Cookies

Cookies and similar device information identification technologies are commonly used on the Internet. We may use various cookies from your technical terminal devices to access IT data such as IP addresses and various configuration characteristics of your devices. Cookies are used to ensure the safe and efficient operation of our products and services, to enable us to confirm the security status of your accounts and transactions, and to detect abnormalities related to crashes and delays.

For more information, please see: Cookie policy

Consult the section entitled “Controlling cookies” to find out how to control and/or delete cookies as you wish.

3. For which purposes do we process your data, and what is the legal basis for this processing?

We process personal information in accordance with the Personal Information Protection Law of the People's Republic of China, the Data Security Law of the People's Republic of China, the Cybersecurity Law of the People's Republic of China, and other relevant national regulations.

3.1 To fulfil our contractual obligations

We process data in response to a request to fulfil a contract and in the context of pre-contractual actions and training activities. For more detailed information on the purposes for which we process data, please consult the relevant communication materials, contract documents and terms and conditions of sale for the relevant departments and activities.

3.2 To protect legitimate interests

If necessary, we will process your data beyond the fulfilment of the aforementioned purposes to protect our legitimate interests or those of a third party.

Examples: ·

  • To exercise our legal rights and in our defence in the event of legal disputes
  • To ensure that the IT security systems and processes of Festo are secure
  • To prevent and investigate criminal acts
  • Video monitoring to ensure compliance with company rules, to collect evidence in the event of an attack or fraudulent conduct
  • Building and plant security measures (such as access control systems), measures to safeguard company rules
  • Measures relating to operational management and the ongoing development of services and products
  • Measures to advise and assist our customers
  • Checking and optimising demand analysis processes used to plan direct approaches to customers
  • Advertising or market/opinion research, unless you have informed us that you do not wish us to process your data for this purpose

3.3 Based on your consent

If you have granted us consent to process your personal data for specific purposes, we are legally permitted to process your data based on this consent.

You may revoke your authorization at any time. Revocation of the authorization does not affect the legality of the data processed prior to the revocation.

3.4 Based on legal provisions or in the public interests

4. What duties to provide information are in force?

  • What are your data protection rights?
  • What do you need to know about your right to object?
  • Do you have any obligation to provide data?
  • Who receives your data?
  • How long will your data be stored?

5. How do we entrust, share, transfer, publicly disclose and process your personal information after discontinuation of operations?

(1) Entrust

Certain specific modules or features of this business function are provided by external vendors. For example, we engage service providers to assist us with customer support. We will sign strict confidentiality agreements with companies, organizations and individuals with whom we entrust the processing of personal information, requiring them to process personal information in accordance with our requirements, this data protection declaration and any other relevant confidentiality and security measures. These service providers are contractually obliged to use the personal data received from Festo only for legitimate business purposes of Festo. We will only entrust the processing of your information to them for the legitimate, proper, necessary, specific and express purposes of this data protection declaration, the authorized partners will only have access to the information they need to perform their duties, and we will require by agreement that they do not use this information for any other purpose beyond the scope of the entrustment.

Process delegation will be subject to the following principles: 1) Principle of lawful, proper and minimum necessity: data processing should have a basis in lawfulness, have a proper purpose and be limited to the minimum extent necessary to achieve the purpose of the processing. 2) Principle of maximizing the user's right to know and make decisions: fully respects the user's right to know and make decisions regarding the processing of his/her personal information during the data processing process. 3) Principle of the most enhanced safety and security capability: We will take the necessary measures to safeguard the safety of the personal information processed, carefully assess the purposes of our partners’ use of data, conduct a comprehensive assessment of the safety and security capability of these partners, and require them to comply with the relevant requirements of the cooperation agreement.

(2) Share

We will not share your personal information with any companies, organizations and individuals outside of our company unless we have your express consent to do so. Currently, we may ask you for your authorized consent to share personal information in the following situations:
· Identification
· Personal information in customer records
· Business information
· Internet or other similar network activities
· Occupational or employment-related information

(3) Transfer

Festo will not transfer your personal information to any company, organization, or individual, except as described below: a) Transfer with explicit consent: After obtaining your explicit consent, we will transfer your personal information to other parties; b) In the event of a merger, demerger, dissolution, or bankruptcy that involves the transfer of personal information, we will require the new company or organization that holds your personal information to continue to be bound by this data protection declaration, or else we will require that company or organization to ask for your authorization to consent again.

(4) Publicly disclose

We will only publicly disclose your personal information in the following circumstances: a) With your explicit consent; b) Disclosure Based on Law: We may publicly disclose your personal information when required to do so by law, legal process, litigation, or mandatory requirements of governmental authorities. c) In response to a public health emergency, or when necessary to protect the life, health and property of natural persons in an emergency. d) Process personal information that you disclose on your own, or other personal information that has been lawfully disclosed (e.g., personal information that has been lawfully disclosed through lawful news reports, governmental information disclosure, and other channels) within a reasonable range. (e) Other cases stipulated by laws and regulations.

(5) Process after discontinuation of operations

If we cease to operate products and/or services, we will promptly cease to continue to collect your personal information. We will notify you one by one or send you a notice of the cessation of operations in the form of an announcement, and delete or anonymize the personal information we hold relating to the products and/or services that have been shut down in accordance with the law. In addition, once your personal information is no longer required for the purposes described above or you have withdrawn your consent, we will also stop collecting and delete or anonymize the personal information in question in accordance with the law. We will only keep your personal information for longer if we are obliged to do so by law.

6. Do we use web tools?

Web tools are used for purposes such as tracking, web analytics and social media.

Information on the points below can be found in: Web tools

  • Google AdWords Tracking
  • Facebook Pixel
  • LinkedIn Insight Tag
  • Netmind Core
  • Econda
  • Baidu Analytics Tool
  • Social media

7. Do we use profiling?

We process some of your data automatically with the aim of analyzing specific personal attributes (a process known as profiling). To enable us to provide relevant information and advice on our products, services and other activities, we use profiling tools to tailor communications and advertising – including market and opinion research – to your needs.

The tools we use to achieve this include:

  • To enable us to provide relevant information and advice on our products, services and other activities, we use profiling tools to tailor communications and advertising – including market and opinion research – to your needs.
  • Scoring is based on a mathematically/statistically recognised and proven process. The calculated scores help us make decisions, for example in the context of product sales, trade fair visits and completed training.
  • We also use tools that (automatically) merge data from multiple sources into a profile to enable us to analyse personal interests and behaviours to improve our dialogue with customers. We will only do this with express consent. You can revoke your consent at any time.
  • Baidu Analytics

    The Festo China website uses Baidu Analytics, a web analysis service provided by Baidu. Baidu Analytics uses "cookies", which are text files placed on your computer, to help us analyze your use of the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the Festo China website (including your IP address) is transferred to a Baidu in China and stored there. Baidu will use this information for evaluating your website use, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Baidu may also transfer this information to third parties if required by law or if third parties process this data on behalf of Baidu.Baidu will in no case associate your IP address with other Baidu data.

    By using the Festo China website, you agree to the processing of the data collected about you by Baidu in the manner and for the purpose described above.

8. How do we obtain your consent when you visit our Internet pages?

When you use our Internet pages, you agree to our general data protection policy and grant your consent for your data to be used as described in this statement.

We may amend or supplement our data protection statement at any time. The most recently published version of our data protection statement applies.

9. What rights do you have?

Our website allows you to view the personal data we hold about you, correct and amend this information as well as deactivate your registered account and request the deletion of your personal information.

You may also request to exercise these rights by contacting us below.

10. How is your personal information transferred globally?

In principle, the personal information we collect and generate in the People's Republic of China will be stored in the People's Republic of China.

Because we provide our products or services through resources and servers located around the world, this means that, with your authorized consent, your personal information may be transferred to, or accessed from, jurisdictions outside the countries/regions in which you use the product or service.

Such jurisdictions may have different data protection laws, or even no laws at all. In such cases, we will ensure that your personal information receives sufficiently equivalent protection in the People's Republic of China. For example, we may request your consent for cross-border transfers of personal information or implement security measures such as data de-identification prior to cross-border data transfers.

Before providing your personal information outside the countries/regions, we will take measures such as security assessment, certification of personal information protection by a professional organization, or entering into a contract with overseas recipients in accordance with the standard contracts established by the Cyberspace Administration of China, in order to comply with the legal conditions for the provision of personal information outside the countries/regions.

11. Who is your counterpart on data protection?

If you have any questions about data protection at Festo or if you wish to exercise your rights as a data subject, please contact us at lc.gcn@festo.com (see also point 1).

12. Revision of the data protection declaration

We reserve the right to amend and supplement our data protection declaration. When we do so, we will amend our policy at the bottom of the web pages. We will also provide more prominent notices on our corporate website if material changes are made. The latest published data protection declaration will be applicable.