Data protection

Data security statement 

Contents

Preface

We are pleased that you are interested in learning more about our company. Porath Customs Agents GmbH (hereafter also referred to as “we” or “us”) places special emphasis on the importance of data protection.

This data privacy statement is to inform customers, both prospective and current (hereafter referred to as “users”), about any personal data requested, processed and used from visitors to our website porath.com or our other platform porcom.porath.com, and it explains what kind, scope and purpose of the data. Personal data are anything that is personally applicable to you, such as name, address, e-mail, payment information, and tax and customs information.

We will also inform you of the data protection laws, and your rights.

  1. Service providers, controllers and data protection engineers
  2. Porath Customs Agents GmbH, Heidenkampsweg 81, 20097 Hamburg is a service provider according §13 Telemedia Act and a controller according to article 4 no. 7 EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
    Contact of our data security officer: dataprotection@porath.com.

    For more information about our company, please see our website credits. For information about how to contact us, please go here.

  3. Acquirement, processing and use of personal data when you use our website for informational purposes

    When visiting our website solely for informational purposes, we only acquire data that your browser automatically transfers. This data is necessary for you to be able to see the website and to insure safety and stability (the legal grounds for this can be found in article 6 paragraph 1 section 1 lit GDPR).

    These are:
    – IP address
    – Date and time of request
    – Time zone difference to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
    – Content of request (exactly which page)
    – Access status/http status code
    – transferred data respectively
    – Webpage from which the user accessed our portal (“Referrer”),
    – Which browsers and versions were used
    – Operating system and its user interface
    – Language and version of the browser software.

    Every visit to the website will save the above named data in the log files of the server. The server log files are saved separately from all other personal data given by the user.

  4. Acquirement, processing and use of personal data when registering on our portal
  5. The use of our portal for the purpose of requesting our services as customs agent requires you to register. For the registration, the following personal data must be given:
    – First and last name
    – Address
    – E-mail
    – Telephone number
    – Bank data
    – EORI
    – Number and issuing date of personal ID/passport

    All personal data acquired in this item will be used for the sole purpose of providing our services as customs agents. (The legal grounds for this can be found in article 6 paragraph 1 section 1 lit. b GDPR).
    Should we need a third party for the contractual fulfillment of our services to our customers, we have the right to share the above named personal data with that third party. When such is required, we will have the respective obligations met through an order protection guarantee (Art. 28 GDPR), which define how the customer’s acquired personal data are only allowed to be used for the purpose of fulfilling the order and specifically not to be used for marketing purposes. The third party is strictly forbidden to pass this personal data on to any other party.

    Should individual circumstances require the transfer of personal date to a third party country (non-member of the EU/of the EEA), whose data protection standards are not on par with those in the EU, a transfer will be preceded by an application for permission from the data protection authorities accordingly. In the case of data transfer to the USA the so-called Privacy Shield Program can even be implemented.

    For the registration the following will also be saved.
    – The IP address of the user as well as
    – The date and time of the registration
    This should serve to prevent possible misuse and when necessary enable legal action. (The legal grounds for this can be found in article 6 paragraph 1 section 1 lit. f GDPR).

  6. Required documents for the provision of customs declaration/provision of services
  7. Our (customs declaration-) services can only be performed if the customer makes the necessary documents available to us by means of the data upload on our portal. Usually, this includes

    – Trade invoices,
    – Proforma
    – Bills of lading
    These give insight as to who the shipper/buyer, the country of dispatch and details about the goods which are to be levied. (The legal grounds for the processing of such data can be found in article 6 paragraph 1 section 1 lit. b GDPR).

  8. Archiving and deleting
  9. We save personal data only as long as is necessary to complete the task or for as long as is legally required of us.

    As is required by law, tax declarations incurred and given to us, as a result of us carrying out our customs services or any other services, will be archived for 10 years as a precautionary in the case of a customs or financial investigation, after this time all data will be destroyed, blocked or deleted.

  10. Privacy statement specifically in reference to payment methods
  11. In addition to SEPA transfers, we also accept payment via PayPal.

    Questions concerning personal data shared with PayPal should be taken up with PayPal directly or can found on the PayPal website: https://www.paypal.com/de/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full

  12. Newsletter
  13. With your permission you can subscribe to our Newsletter, which will keep you up to date about our interesting offers.

    To register for our newsletter, please use the so-called double-opt-in procedure. This means that, after you have registered you will receive an e-mail from us requesting that you confirm that you wish to receive a newsletter from us.

    If you do not confirm you registration, the processing of your information will remain limited and your information will automatically be deleted after one month. Additionally, we will save your used IP address and times of registration and confirmation. The purpose for this procedure is for proof of registration and to detect any misuse of your personal data. The legal grounds for this can be found in article 6 paragraph 1 section 1 lit. f GDPR.

    The information we need to order to send the newsletter is your e-mail address and your first and last name. We will not process this information before you have given us your explicit permission. After you have confirmed, we will save your e-mail address and your first and last name for the purpose of sending you newsletters. The legal grounds for this can be found in article 6 paragraph 1 section 1 lit. a GDPR.

    Your permission to have a newsletter sent to as well as the access to your personal data referred to in this item can be retracted at any time in the future as well as a cancellation to the newsletter subscription. The cancellation can be made with click of the cancellation link which can be found in every newsletter or by contacting us directly.

    Newsletter analyzation

    We are informing you that by subscribing to the email your activity will be analyzed. The analyzation uses so-called web beacons or tracking pixels for this analysis. This analysis allows us to see the reach of our newsletter as well as enabling as to match our content to the demand. The legal grounds for this is in addition to your permission article 6 paragraph 1 section 1 lit. f GDPR.

    Newsletter provider

    We use the services of MailChimp from The Rocket Science Group LLC, 675 Ponce De Leon Ave NE, Suite 5000, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (hereafter called “MailChimp”).

    MailChimp processes and saves your e-mail address, the data named in this item and in item 2 for the purpose of sending the newsletter and the newsletter analysis all solely in service to us. MailChimp is in confirmation with the EU-US Privacy Shield https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework. The legal grounds for the use of MailChimp is article 6 paragraph 1 section 1 lit. f GDPR.

    The personal privacy statement made by MailChimp can be found under https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/.

  14. Cookies
  15. We use cookies on our website and for our portal “cookies”. Cookies are text documents which are stored on your computer and saved by your browser. Cookies allows our webserver to recognize your browser, your individual settings in our portal and when applicable, parts of your registration data in encrypted form, making the use of our portal easier and allowing you to log in automatically. The legal grounds for this is article 6 paragraph 1 section 1 lit. f GDPR.

    Cookies cannot perform bring any programs or viruses to your computer. They only serve to make the portal generally more user-friendly and effective.

    We use so-called transient cookies, which have been created for temporary use. Transient cookies are automatically deleted when you close your browser. This applies especially to the session cookies. These cookies store the so-called session ID, with which organize various requests from your browser to during the web communication. This way your computer can be recognized when you return to our website or portal. The session cookies are then deleted when you sign out or when you close your browser.

    You have the option to set your browser adjustments to reject cookies, to delete cookies from your computer, to block cookies or to receive a request before any cookies is set. However, we would like inform you that if you use these settings you may not be able to use all functions in the portal.

  16. Website analysis
  17. We use Google Analytics for our website analysis.
    Google Analytics is a web analysis service from Google Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses so-called “Cookies“, text documents that are stored on your computer and make an analysis of your website use possible. The information concerning your use of this website is stored in the cookie and is usually transferred to a server at Google in the USA and stored there. If the IP is made anonymous on this site then the IP address will then be shortened by Google within the member countries of the EU or other countries in agreement with the treaty throughout the European Economic Area. Only on exception will the complete IP address be transferred to a Google server in the USA and then shortened there. As our service provider, Google will process this information for the analysis of your use of the website and to compile reports on the website activity.
    You can prohibit cookies by adjusting your settings in your browser software. You can also prevent any collection of data (including the IP address) showing website use on the cookies and prevent their use in a Google analysis, by going to the following link’s browser plug-in and downloading and installing: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de.
    We use Google Analytics with the upgrade „_anonymizeIp()“. This way, the IP address is processed in shortened form, making it impossible to match the data to any individual.
    We use Google Analytics to analyze your website use for the purpose of continuously improving our website. These statistics show us how we can improve our services so that we can better serve you as a user of our website. The legal grounds for the use of Google Analytics is article 6 paragraph 1 section 1 lit. f GDPR.

    In the exceptional cases in which personal specific data is transferred to the USA, Google has subjected itself to the laws in the EU-US Privacy Shield, https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework.

    Information to third party service providers: Google Dublin, Google Ireland Ltd., Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland, Fax: +353 (1) 436 1001. User requirements: http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/de.html, Overview to data security: http://www.google.com/intl/de/analytics/learn/privacy.html, as well as Data Privacy Statement: http://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy.

  18. Social Media
  19. In addition to our website, we are also on Xing, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter und Google+ . We have placed links to our sites on these platforms on our website.

    Please refer to each provider’s individual statement to the use and reach of data acquisition.

    Xing: https://privacy.xing.com/de/datenschutzerklaerung
    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy
    Facebook: https://de-de.facebook.com/privacy/explanation
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/de/privacy
    Google+: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de

  20. Privacy protection
  21. We take special cutting-edge, technical and organizational precautions to ensure your privacy, especially when it comes to protecting your personal data from the dangers of data sharing as well as the access to information by third parties. We are always making adjustments as technology improves.

    When data is being transferred through the internet, it is impossible to insure absolute safety with zero risks and so we cannot give that guarantee.

  22. Your legal rights
  23. You have the following rights concerning the personal data respectively:

    – right to information,
    – right to have data corrected or erased,
    – right to restriction of what data may be processed,
    – right to object to data being processed,
    – right to “data portability”.

    You also have the right to report us to a data protection officer concerning the processing of your data.

    The person to contact to exercise your above mentioned rights is the Data Protection Officer: dataprotection@porath.com.

    The enforcement of these rights is free of charge.

  24. Update of this privacy statement
  25. Due to the legal changes or changes to our services, an update to this privacy statement may become necessary. You will receive information well in advance in such a case.

    Last update: Mai 2018

Contact

Do you have questions about our services? Just send us an e-mail or call us - your personal contact will be glad to answer your questions.

Heidenkampsweg 81
20097 Hamburg
Germany

Tel .: +49 (40) 8000 50-500

Emergency call after 6 pm:
+49 (160) 90 60 63 58