Privacy notice

Dr. Niko Sievert, Kanzlei Dr. Sievert, Hafenallee 25, 63067 Offenbach, Germany

Email: info@sievertlegal.com

Please address privacy questions and requests concerning your rights to us by email or post.

Our website is hosted by Netlify, Inc. (USA). Visiting a page generates technical access data, in particular your IP address, date and time, requested page and browser data, and the referring page if transmitted by your browser.

Purpose: delivering the website, resolving errors and protecting against attacks and misuse.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is a secure and functioning website.

We use these data to operate and secure the website, not for our own advertising or visitor profiles.

The contact form requires your name, email address and a message; your phone number is optional and serves a requested return call.

Purpose: handling and answering your enquiry. This also applies if you email us directly.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR if you personally request pre-contractual steps towards a possible engagement; otherwise Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is handling enquiries addressed to us.

To respond we need your message and a reachable contact address; the form additionally requires a name. You do not have to use the form and may contact us by email or post.

Netlify stores your form entry and has it screened for spam by Akismet of Automattic Inc. (USA). The entry and associated technical data, such as your IP address and browser identifier, may be sent to Akismet. An email notification for new form entries is configured through Microsoft 365/Exchange. If you email us directly, your message is processed in this email environment, not through Netlify Forms or Akismet. Spam screening protects against abusive submissions (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). If your message is wrongly classified as spam, you can contact us by email or post.

Please do not send documents or sensitive information through the form, particularly about health or criminal offences. A brief description is enough; we will agree a suitable channel for documents. If you include such information anyway, it may initially arrive with your message and be screened for spam by Akismet. We limit further processing to what is legally permitted in the particular case (Art. 6 GDPR, and also Art. 9 for special categories or Art. 10 for criminal-offence data).

As a lawyer, I am bound by professional secrecy (Section 43a(2) BRAO, Section 203 StGB). The fact that you contacted me may also be protected unless it is already public or has no need for confidentiality.

Before accepting an engagement, we check for possible conflicts of interest where necessary (Section 43a(4) BRAO). This may require the parties' names and a brief description of the matter. The legal basis for this pre-engagement check is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; our legitimate interest is to avoid acting despite conflicting interests under Section 43a(4) BRAO and to protect the interests of clients already affected. Whether an engagement subsequently follows does not change the basis for this preliminary check.

If your enquiry contains information about others, such as an opposing party, we use it from your message only as needed to assess the enquiry or a necessary conflict check. Information to these persons under Art. 14 GDPR may be omitted in an individual case insofar as it would reveal professional secrets (Art. 14(5)(d) GDPR, Section 29(1) BDSG). Access, too, may be limited only insofar as protected information would be disclosed.

We use Netlify for hosting and forms, its sub-processor Automattic/Akismet to screen form entries for spam, and Microsoft 365/Exchange Online for direct email and configured form notifications.

Other recipients may be involved only insofar as needed to provide these services, required by law or necessary to protect legal claims.

• Netlify, Inc. — hosting provider, USA

  Website hosting and storage of form entries.

• Automattic Inc. (Akismet) — Netlify sub-processor, USA

  Spam screening of form entries.

• Microsoft (Microsoft 365 / Exchange Online) — email service

  Email environment for direct enquiries and configured form notifications. Exchange data are stored in the EU/EFTA; limited access and processing outside that region remain possible.

Netlify, Inc. is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework for non-HR data. Transfers to Netlify within the scope of that certification are covered by the European Commission's adequacy decision (Art. 45 GDPR).

Spam screening may involve sending form entries and associated technical data to Automattic/Akismet in the USA. Akismet is Netlify's sub-processor for this purpose. Depending on the transfer route, onward disclosures through Netlify are subject to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework's onward-transfer rules or to agreed standard contractual clauses (Art. 46 GDPR). Limited access to, and transfers of, Microsoft 365/Exchange Online data outside the EU/EFTA are also possible; Microsoft provides standard contractual clauses for in-scope third-country transfers. You may request information about the applicable safeguards and a copy from us.

• Netlify data processing agreement
• Microsoft data protection terms
• Netlify in the official DPF register

Retention depends on the type of data and its purpose. We keep data to handle your enquiry, take necessary security measures and, where applicable, comply with statutory duties or protect specific legal claims. The following criteria distinguish the individual processing activities and providers.

• Technical access data

  For delivery until the page request ends; where access data are stored to fix errors or respond to a specific security incident, until those purposes have been met. Netlify states one day of retention for request-related data in its Observability view on the Free plan. This is not a general retention period for the provider's other operational or security data.

• Form entry at Netlify

  Netlify stores your form entry. We need it until your enquiry and any necessary follow-up are complete. We then remove form entries no longer needed, unless a statutory retention duty or a specific legal claim requires longer storage. Removing an entry from the forms area does not mean that any technical copies held by Netlify are erased at the same time.

• Submissions classified as spam

  Netlify keeps form entries classified as spam in a separate list. These entries are retained to detect abusive submissions and check possible misclassifications. Once these purposes have been met for an entry, we remove it unless a specific security incident, statutory duty or legal claim requires further storage to the necessary extent. Removal from the spam list does not promise simultaneous erasure of any technical copies held by Netlify.

• Data screened by Akismet

  Akismet also screens form entries that are not classified as spam. Akismet says most spam-related data it processes are deleted from its databases after two weeks to ninety days. It retains a small subset longer for ongoing spam detection and improvement of its filters; under Automattic's notice for visitors to users' sites, such data are generally discarded when no longer needed for that purpose, unless a legal duty requires continued retention. You can use Akismet's contact channel to opt out of long-term tracking; this is not a promise that all data will be erased immediately. These statements concern Akismet, not Netlify's form entries or spam list.

  • Akismet privacy information

• Enquiry without engagement (email, notification and notes)

  Direct emails, email form notifications and necessary notes are kept until the enquiry and required follow-up are complete. We then remove correspondence no longer needed unless a statutory duty or specific legal claim requires longer storage. The Netlify form entry is a separate copy.

• Data for a conflict check without engagement

  Information about the parties is kept for a necessary conflict check until a decision is made on the enquiry. After that, we retain only details required because of a continuing prohibition on acting in the same matter or a specific legal claim; other details are removed.

• Enquiry leading to an engagement

  If part of the client file: six years from the end of the calendar year in which the engagement ended (Section 50(1) BRAO); other applicable statutory periods remain unaffected.

On the regular pages we do not integrate our own analytics or advertising services or external font or map services. Storage on or access to your device may be strictly necessary to deliver the site or provide access protection you request (Section 25(2) TDDDG). For other storage or access we need your consent (Section 25(1) TDDDG).

Subject to the GDPR, you have the right to:

Access may be limited in an individual case insofar as disclosure would reveal secrets protected under Section 29(1) BDSG; this does not automatically remove your other rights. Please contact info@sievertlegal.com or our postal address.

• Access

  Access to your data and a copy (Art. 15 GDPR).

• Rectification

  Rectification of inaccurate data (Art. 16 GDPR).

• Erasure

  Erasure (Art. 17 GDPR), unless a statutory retention duty or necessary protection of legal claims applies.

• Restriction

  Restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR).

• Portability

  Portability of data you provided (Art. 20 GDPR) where processing is based on consent or contract, including pre-contractual steps, and is automated.

Where we rely on Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, you may object at any time on grounds relating to your particular situation (Art. 21(1) GDPR). We will then stop processing unless we demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds overriding your interests, rights and freedoms, or need the data to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

You may lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR), particularly at your place of residence, work or the alleged infringement. For our establishment in Hesse, the following authority is particularly relevant:

Der Hessische Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit (Hessian Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information), Postfach 3163, 65021 Wiesbaden, Germany, phone +49 611 1408-0.

• Hessian data protection authority