Privacy policy

This is the privacy policy (“policy”) for the website iversity.org which is run and provided by iversity Learning Solutions GmbH, c/o Springer-Verlag GmbH, Heidelberger Platz 3, 14197 Berlin.

We will only use the personal data gathered over this website as set out in this policy. Below you will find information on how we use your personal data, for which purposes your personal data is used, with whom it is shared and what control and information rights you may have.

I. Summary of our processing activities

The following summary provides you with a quick overview of the processing activities that are undertaken on our website. You will find more detailed information under the indicated sections below.

• When you visit our website for informational reasons without setting up an account, only limited personal data will be processed to provide you with the website itself (see section III).
• In case you register for one our services (e.g. discussion forum, notification service) or subscribe to our newsletter, further personal data will be processed in the scope of such services (see sections IV, V and VI).
• Furthermore, your personal data will be used to provide you with interesting advertising for our services and products and for statistical analysis that helps us to improve our website (see section VIII). Additionally, we improve your website experience with third party content (see section IX).
• We have implemented appropriate safeguards to secure your personal data (see section XI) and retain your personal data only as long as necessary (see section XII).
• Under the legislation applicable to you, you may be entitled to exercise certain rights with regard to the processing of your personal data (see section XIII).

II. Definitions

• Personal data: means any information relating to a natural person who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, or an online identifier.
• Processing: means any operation which is performed on personal data, such as collection, recording, organization, structuring, storage, adaptation or any kind of disclosure or other use.

III. Informational use of the website

When you visit our website for informational reasons, i.e. without registering for any of our provided services listed under IV and without providing us with personal data in any other form, we may automatically collect additional information about you which will contain personal data only in limited cases and which is automatically recognized by our server, such as:

• the website from which you have been directed to our offer
• the date and time of your requests
• your device type, screen resolution and browser version
• information on your operating system, including language settings
• information on the offers you have visited on our website

We use such information only to assist us in providing an effective service (e.g. to adapt our website to the needs of your device or to allow you to log in to our website), and to collect broad demographic information for anonymized, aggregated use.

The personal data automatically collected is necessary for us to provide the website, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR, and for our legitimate interest to guarantee the website’s stability and security, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR.

Personal data that is collected automatically is anonymized immediately and properly erased afterwards.

IV. Registration for our services

Our website offers an access to learning content including a broad variety with its interaction. In order to use the aforementioned services you have to set up an account.

With regard to the registration of an account and its subsequent use, we process:

• Information (such as your name and email address) that is provided by registration
• Whenever you complete transactions using our website, e.g. purchasing a publication, further data processing processes may take place, of which you will of course be separately informed.
• We will process the personal data you provide to:
• Identify you at sign-in
• Provide you with the services and information offered through the website or which you request
• Administer your account
• Communicate with you

For this, the legal basis is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b GDPR.

The use of your personal data for behavioural advertising and profiling is done for the legitimate interest to improve your experience while using the website, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR.

You can object to the use of your personal data for direct marketing at any time. We will then refrain  from any processing to the extent it is related to such purposes. You can inform us about your objection by contacting us at datenschutz@iversity.org.

For our services we offer a notification service. If you chose this service while setting up your user account or posting your comment, you will receive a notification email when another user replies to the same topic or article. This service is provided by means of a double-opt-in. Thus, you will receive an email containing a link by which you can confirm that you are the owner of the email address and wish to be notified via our email service. You can end this service by opting out via the link provided in each notification email. This notification service is based on your consent, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR.

Your personal data is, in the absence of exceptions within the specific services mentioned below, retained for as long as your user account is used. After deletion of your account, your personal data will be erased immediately. Statutory storage obligations or the need for legal actions that may arise from misconduct within the services or payment problems can lead to a longer retention of your personal data. In this case, we will inform you accordingly.

V. Information about the specific uses that require registration

For the use of the following services you have to set up an account as described under IV. Your customer account retains your personal data for future purchases and other activity. You can delete the personal data as well as the account in your account’s settings. This processing is based on Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b.]

1. Use of our discussion forum

Our forum can be accessed and read without registration. Anything you post on the discussion forum will be available to a broader public; you can delete your posts at any point in time. In order to provide content to the forum, you will have to register as described in IV.

You can delete your user account by clicking “Delete” within “Account settings” . In case you decide to delete your user account, all your account data, including all communication will be deleted. Information posted by you into our discussion forum will remain visible, but any link to your person will be deleted. The unique username you selected during signup process will become available to other users upon deletion.

We reserve the right to delete comments that are off-topic, spam, abusive, use excessive foul language, include ad hominem attacks or offend against legal regulations.

2. Notification service

We offer a notification service for interactions with learning content. If you choose to use this service when you create your account or post your comment, you will receive an email notification when another user replies to the same topic or article. The service is carried out using the so-called "double opt-in" procedure. In this process, you will receive an e-mail with a link that you can use to confirm that you are the owner of the e-mail address and wish to be notified via our e-mail service. You can opt out of this by clicking on the link contained in each notification email. This notification service is based on your consent, Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a. GDPR.

3. Course  related feedback and rating

Once the minimum threshold for the course has been reached, a prompt will appear in the course dashboard asking you to submit feedback for the course. You can edit or delete your feedback by clicking on "My activities" in your profile and then on "Feedback". By submitting your feedback, you consent to your rating being sent to us. Your data will be used by the iversity team and the course instructors to evaluate and improve the quality of the courses. Your data, such as your name and your feedback, can be viewed by users and non-users.

4. Inspection of your data by course instructors

Course instructors can view your name and email address, your activity in the course and your learning progress. Course instructors can also view your course feedback.

5. General feeback on the iversity platform

For improving and developing our products we may collect your feedback or contact you. We will collect and analyse your feedback as soon as you submit feedback. Your data, such as your name and your feedback, can be viewed by Springer Nature iversity employees. 

6. User research

At iversity we collect insights about users, course participants or customers. We do this by learning from our global user community and how they do their work.   

6.1  Invitation/arrangement of appointments: Participation in the research is by invitation only and by prior arrangement 

6.2 Length of the session: The duration of the research session will be determined in advance and communicated to the participants by email. 

6.3 No recording: The session will not be recorded unless the participants expressly agree to this. 

6.4 No personal data: No personal data will be collected or stored without the explicit consent of the participants. 

6.5 Confidentiality: participants agree to maintain the confidentiality of all materials or ideas discussed or developed during the research activity and not to disclose them to third parties. All ideas developed as part of the research become our property. Participants agree to sign any documents necessary to secure our proprietary rights. 

VI. Newsletter

With your email address you can subscribe to our newsletter that provides you with the latest news about our products and services if you consent to receiving such newsletters and may also contain topic-specific advertisements. The legal basis for this processing is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. a GDPR. Your email address will be retained as long as you subscribe to our newsletter.

You can unsubscribe from this service by opting out via the link provided in each newsletter.

VII. Automated decision making

We do not use your personal data for automated decision making which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you.

VIII. Analysis

For statistical analyses we use web analytics services to collect information about the use of this site.

1. General tracking information

The tools collect information such as

• Device and browser information (operating system information, Mobile device identifier, mobile operating system, etc.)
• IP address
• Page accessed, URL click stream (the chronological order of our internet sites you visited)
• Geographic location
• Time of visit
• Referring site, application, or service

We use the information we get from the providers only to determine the most useful information you are looking for, and to improve and optimise this website. We do not combine the information collected through the use of the tools with personal data.

Depending on the provider the information generated about your use of the website may be transferred to and processed in third countries, e.g. the United States. For further information about the potential risks of a cross border data transfer please refer to section XII. The tools collect only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit this site, rather than your name or any other identifying information. The provider will use this information in order to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activities and to provide other services relating to website and internet use to us.

The legal basis for this processing is Art. 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. f GDPR and represents our legitimate interest to analyse our website’s traffic to improve the user’s experience and to optimise the website in general.

2. Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Irland (“Google”). On our behalf Google will use the information generated by a cookie for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet activity in connection with the use of the website.

We have activated the IP-anonymisation within the Google Analytics service, and your IP address will be truncated within the area of member states of the European Union or other parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases the whole IP address will be first transferred to a Google server in the USA and truncated there. The IP-address your browser conveys within the scope of Google Analytics will not be associated with any other data held by Google.

• You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser; however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.
• In addition to that you may prevent the collection of the information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including you IP address) and the processing of this data by Google if you download and install the browser plug-in available at the following link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

Further information on data protection and Google Analytics can be found on the website of Google:

http://www.google.com/analytics/learn/privacy.html?hl=de

The legal basis for this processing is Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. f GDPR. The processing is based on our legitimate interest in evaluating the data traffic on our website to enhance your user experience and for the general optimisation of the website.

3. Google AdWords

We use Google Adwords to advertise on our site and third party websites to previous visitors of our site. Google Adwords is provided by Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland (“Google”).

The advertisements are displayed on the basis of information that is stored in cookies which Google places on your computer. The text files include information, on your visit of our website, in particular product views that is read-out in the course of subsequent visits of this or third party websites for specific product recommendations. The cookie includes a random alias. In case you visit our website within a certain period of time and view our products, Google is able to recognize you by means of the alias. However, the information cannot be attributed to you personally. We or Google will not merge this information with your personal data and will not disclose any of your personal data to any third party.

You can prevent the storing and using of information in a cookie placed by Google by clicking on the following link  http://www.google.de/ads/preferences and configuring your preferences there.

For more information about Google privacy policies see https://privacy.google.com/intl/en/ and https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/?hl=en.

You can prevent being tracked by choosing the appropriate preference in the privacy options of your browser or disable cookies or delete the cookie. Alternatively you can deactivate cookies from third parties by opening the website of the network advertising initiative http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/

4. Facebook Pixel / Custom Audience

We use the “Website Custom Audiences” service from the Facebook social network on the website and in our apps. This service is operated by Facebook Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland. You can find more information on "Website Custom Audiences" under the following link: https://facebook.com/business/help/449542958510885

Through this service, Facebook, according to its own information, generates a non-reversible and non-personal checksum (hash value) from your usage data, which Facebook can use for analysis and marketing purposes. For the product “Website Custom Audiences”, a cookie, web beacon, pixel or similar technology is addressed on the website by Facebook and possibly stored on your device. Since the service and the data processing that takes place via this service are solely in the area of responsibility of Facebook, we have no influence on the possible processing of personal data. For more information about the purpose and scope of data collection and the further processing and use of the data by Facebook as well as your setting options to protect your privacy, please refer to

Facebook's data protection guidelines, which can be found at https://www.facebook.com/ads/website_custom_audiences/ and https://www.facebook.com/privacy/explanation.

If you would like to object to the use of the Facebook Custom Audiences website, you can exercise this objection (opt-out) at the following link:

https://www.facebook.com/ads/website_custom_audiences/  

IX. Third party content

This website may contain links to third party websites. We are not responsible for the content and the data collection on respective third party websites; please check the privacy policy of respective websites for information of respective websites’ data processing activities.

X. Information sharing to third parties

Your personal data will be disclosed to the contractual partners who make online e-learning courses from our portfolio available to a group of participants defined by them.

Legal basis for the transfer of your personal data is Article 6 sec. 1 sent. 1 lit. b and f GDPR. and represents our legitimate interest to improve your user experience and optimize the quality of our services.

It is carried out to fulfil our legitimate interest in offering learning content from contractual partners and for defined user groups of these contractual partners (e.g. company employees) and thus to expand our range of services.

XI. Security

We have reasonable state of the art security measures in place to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of personal data under our control. For example, our security and privacy policies are periodically reviewed and enhanced as necessary and only authorised personnel have access to personal data. Whilst we cannot ensure or guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration of

information will never occur, we use all reasonable efforts to prevent it.

You should bear in mind that submission of information over the internet is never entirely secure. We cannot guarantee the security of information you submit via our website whilst it is in transit over the internet and any such submission is at your own risk.

XII. Data retention

We strive to keep our processing activities with respect to your personal data as limited as possible. In the absence of specific retention periods set out in this policy, your personal data will be retained only for as long as we need it to fulfil the purpose for which we have collected it and, if applicable, as long as required by statutory retention requirements.

XIII. Your rights

Depending on the circumstances of the specific case, you have the following data protection rights:

• To request access to your personal data and/or copies of this data. This includes information about the purpose of use, the category of data used, its recipients and authorised persons and, if possible, the planned duration of data storage or, if this is not possible, the criteria for determining this duration;
• to demand the rectification, erasure or restriction of the processing of your personal data if its use is not permitted under data protection law, in particular because (i) the data is incomplete or inaccurate, (ii) it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, (iii) the consent on which the processing was based has been withdrawn, or (iv) you have successfully exercised your right to object to data processing; in cases where the data is processed by third parties, we will forward your requests for rectification, erasure or restriction of processing to these third parties, unless this proves impossible or involves a disproportionate effort;
• to refuse consent or - without affecting the lawfulness of the data processing carried out prior to the revocation - to revoke your consent to the processing of your personal data at any time;
• not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you;
• 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 to another controller without hindrance from us; you also have the right to have the personal data transmitted directly from us to another controller, where technically feasible;
• to take legal action or contact the competent supervisory authorities if you believe that your rights have been violated as a result of the processing of your personal data that does not comply with data protection regulations.

In addition, you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data at any time:

• if we process your personal data for direct marketing purposes; or
• if we process your personal data to pursue our legitimate interests and there are grounds relating to your particular situation.

You can (i) exercise the above rights or (ii) ask questions or (iii) lodge a complaint against our processing of your personal data by contacting us as indicated below.

XIV. Contacting us

Please submit any questions, concerns or comments you have about this privacy policy or any requests concerning your personal data by email to our Group Data Protection Officer. You can contact our Group Data Protection Officer via dataprotection@springer.com.

The information you provide when contacting us (support@iversity.org) will be processed to handle your request and will be erased when your request is completed. Alternatively, we will restrict the processing of the respective information in accordance with statutory retention requirements.

XV. Amendments to this policy

We reseve the right to change this policy from time to time by updating our website respectively. Please visit the website regularly and check our respective current privacy policy. This policy was last updated on April 29th, 2025.