Privacy Policy

General information and responsibilities

We are happy that you are interested in our Institute. With the following declaration we would like to inform you about the personal data which we collect when you use our website. The term personal data refers to all information which refers to you personally. This includes your name, address, e-mail address and your behaviour as a user of our websites.

The Passive House Institute is responsible for data protection in accordance with Article 4 Paragraph 7 of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Contact for privacy issues:

1. Training courses and examinations

The PHI offers a wide range of further training opportunities with the possibility of attaining qualification as a "Certified Passive House Designer/Consultant" and "Certified Passive House Tradesperson", as well as other additional certificates. You may attend the further training courses and take the examination with us directly, or alternatively with one of our partner organisations. If registration, participation in the further training course and conduction of the examination takes place with us, no data will be passed on to third parties. If you wish to attend a further training course at one of our partner organisations and also take the examination there, then your registration information (name, academic title and profession, date of birth, private postal and e-mail addresses, and where applicable, the postal, internet and e-mail addresses of your company/employer, and iPHA membership) will be passed on to us by that partner organisation. This data will be used for processing the examination and for sending information relating to renewal of the certificate. The PHI will use some of the above-mentioned data for publishing information relating to the certified Passive House designer on the Passive House Institute's website.

For further processing the partner organisation will send us the original examination documents that have been processed by you, and the results of the first correction and if applicable, a copy of your formal qualifications. We will inform the examination host about the final result after the second correction. If you opt for online registration using our portal, but wish to attend further training courses and take the examination with a partner organisation, we will pass on your registration information (see above) to the partner organisation selected by you. Depending on the registered office of the course provider or examination host, your data may no longer fall within the scope of the European Data Protection Regulations and will be processed further for internal use according to the data protection regulations applicable in the relevant country.

2. Contacting us via our website

On our website it is possible for you to contact us via e-mail or by filling in an online contact form. The data provided by you will stored by us in order to answer your questions and will not be passed on to third parties without your consent.

If you use our website solely for the purpose of obtaining information, we will collect only the personal data transmitted by your browser to our server. In order to be able to make the content available to you without fault and to ensure that our website functions in a stable and fault-free manner, we collect information relating to your internet protocol address, (IP address), date, content data volume, referrer or user agent where applicable and the HTTP status code, as well as other data and information used for protection in the event of attacks on our system.

The basis for collection and storage of this data is Article 6 Paragraph 1 sub-paragraph f) of the GDPR.

3. Job applications

If you send us an application for a job, whether by post or electronically, we collect and process your data for the purpose of handling the application process. If the job application results in an employment contract, your data will be stored in accordance with the legal provisions. If your job application is rejected, we will automatically delete your data after two months if you have not consented to further storage of your data or if deleting the data is not opposed to any other justified interests on our part (e.g. burden of proof in a process under the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG)).

4. Cookies

In addition to the previously mentioned data, we save cookies on your computer. Cookies are text files that are saved on your hard drive and are used to recognise you as a user of our website and to enable us to design our website to be more user-friendly and effective. These cookies send us certain information. By changing the settings of your internet browser you can prevent cookies from being saved by us. In addition, you can also delete any cookies that already exist on your computer. Please note that in that case you will not be able to use all the functions of our website.

In the context of the Double-Opt-In procedure, we save the IP address provided by your internet service provider (ISP) for the computer system used at the time of registration, and the date and time of registration. This is necessary for tracking any misuse of your e-mail address and therefore serves as a legal safeguard for us. The data collected by us will be used solely for sending our newsletter and will not be passed on to third parties.

5. Web analytics

We use the analytics service Matomo for our internet website. This is an open source software tool with which we wish to analyse and improve our internet website. Matomo among other things collects data about the website from which you arrived on our website (referrer) and the subpages you accessed and the length of time spent viewing a subpage. These log files are stored only on our server and are not passed on.

We configured Matomo to be privacy friendly, as described at https://matomo.org/faq/new-to-piwik/how-do-i-use-matomo-analytics-without-consent-or-cookie-banner/.

Further information and applicable privacy policy of Matomo can be viewed here: https://matomo.org/privacy/.

6. YouTube

We have included video clips in our website which are stored on the internet video-sharing website YouTube. You can play these clips directly from our website. These are integrated in the so-called enhanced data protection mode, which means that none of your personal data is transferred to YouTube unless you play the video. Personal data will only be transmitted to YouTube if the video is played, regardless of whether you are a registered YouTube user or not. If you are logged into Google your data will be directly allocated to your account. We do not have any influence on this transfer of data.

The operating company of YouTube is YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., San Bruno, CA 94066, USA. YouTube, LLC is a subsidiary of Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043-1351, USA.

Further information regarding the purpose and extent of data collection and its processing by YouTube can be found in YouTube's data protection declaration where further information about your rights and options for privacy settings can also be found: https://www.google.de/intl/en/policies/privacy.

7. Vimeo

We have included video clips in our website which are stored on the internet video-sharing website Vimeo. You can play these clips directly from our website. These are integrated in the so-called enhanced data protection mode, which means that none of your personal data is transferred to Vimeo unless you play the video. Personal data will only be transmitted to Vimeo if the video is played, regardless of whether you are a registered Vimeo user or not. If you are logged into Vimeo your data will be directly allocated to your account. We do not have any influence on this transfer of data.

The operating company of Vimeo is Vimeo.com, Inc., 330 West 34th Street, 5th Floor, New York, New York 10001, USA, Website: https://vimeo.com

Further information regarding the purpose and extent of data collection and its processing by Vimeo can be found in Vimeo's data protection declaration: https://vimeo.com/privacy

8. Google Maps

We use Google Maps on our website. Personal data, particularly your IP address and location data are not collected without your consent (generally in the context of settings on your mobile devices). This data may be processed in the USA. You can change your cookie settings here: https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated

The operating company of Google Maps is Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.

The data protection provisions published by Google Maps which can be retrieved under https://www.google.de/intl/en/policies/privacy/ provide information regarding the collection, processing and use of personal data by Google Maps and Google.

Opt-Out: https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated.

9. Newsletter, mailing list and registration

On our websites we offer the opportunity to subscribe to various newsletters and to register for access to special services or contents, e.g. to our online shop. The corresponding input form specifies the personal data you must enter. A valid e-mail address is usually sufficient for subscribing to newsletters or being included in a mailing list. Your input will become valid only after the successful completion of a double-opt-in procedure, in which you will receive a confirmation e-mail from us after the registration, with which you as the owner of the e-mail address can authorise receipt of the newsletter.

You may cancel your subscription or registration at any time and withdraw consent for storage of your personal data provided by you in the double-opt-in procedure, after which this personal data will be deleted by us. We will deem cancellation of the newsletter to be withdrawal of consent. For this, please use the link given at the end of each newsletter, or contact us at datenschutz@passiv.de.

Our newsletters contain so-called tracking pixels. A tracking pixel is a miniature image that is embedded in the e-mail. It allows recording and analysis of a log file as well as statistical evaluation of our e-mail campaigns. Using the embedded tracking pixel we can identify whether and when you opened an e-mail and which of the links in the e-mail you have clicked.

This personal data is stored and evaluated by us in order to optimise our service and to adapt the content of our future newsletters even better to your interests. This data is not transferred to third parties.

10. Surveys and forms

We carry out online-surveys to improve our services. Participation in our surveys, storage, and use of the information provided by you is only possible after you have given consent.

In order to better classify your assessments and information, we ask about your professional qualifications and request you to provide information about your professional activities. Participation in our surveys without stating your name is possible, registration is not necessary.

11. Webinars with WebinarJam

We use WebinarJam (Genesis Digital LLC, 7660 Fay Ave #H184, La Jolla, CA 9203, USA) for our webinars.

When you register for one of our webinars, WebinarJam receives your name and email address.

You can find further information and applicable privacy policy of WebinarJam at https://www.genesisdigital.co/_legal/privacypolicy.php and at https://home.webinarjam.com/gdprpolicy.

12. Payments

When paying on our website, your data are transferred to the payment provider on the basis of Art. 6 Sect. 1 lit. b GDPR (contract management) as well as based on our legitimate interest in the use of dependable and secure payment processes (Art. 6 Sect. 1 lit. f GDPR).

We offer payment processing via Stripe. The provider for customers within the EU is Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd.,1 Grand Canal Street Lower, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin, Ireland (hereinafter referred to as "Stripe"). When you make a payment using Stripe, your payment data are forwarded to Stripe via an interface on our website so that the payment can be processed. For details about this process, please consult Stripe’s Data Protection Policy under the following link: https://stripe.com/privacy.

We offer payment via PayPal. The provider of this payment processing service is PayPal (Europe) S.à.r.l. et Cie, S.C.A., 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg (hereinafter referred to as "PayPal"). You can find further information and the privacy policy of Paypal at https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full.

13. Your rights

You are entitled to obtain information from us regarding the personal data we store relating to you. In addition, you have the right to the correction, blocking and deletion of your personal data provided there is no legal obligation to keep records.

You may withdraw consent for storage and use of your personal data at any time.

You also have the right to make a complaint to data protection authorities about the processing of your personal data by us.