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Privacy policy

General information
Information LSN collects and stores
Your GDPR rights and legal bases
Multiple platforms
Third-party integrations
International data transfers and hosting
Use of cookies
Use of email communication
Security of personal information
Changes in the Privacy Policy

General information

This Privacy Policy is an addition to the Terms of Use. The definitions and provisions of the Terms of Use apply.

The data controller responsible for the processing of data on this platform and its related sites is Life Science Network gGmbH. For our full corporate registration details, registered address, and managing directors, please see our official Impressum (Legal Notice).

Engineering HR, or Engineering Human Resources (engineering.hr), is a career portal for scientists and engineers in academia and industry, operated by Life Science Network gGmbH ("LSN"). LSN collects and organizes basic information about worldwide research infrastructure, such as institutes, universities, companies etc. and their organisational structure (units, departments, scientific groups etc.). LSN also allows researchers, engineers and other staff engaged in research and development to create their own professional web pages ("Profiles") to be able to communicate and collaborate with others around the world more effectively. LSN respects and protects your privacy. This Privacy statement is a binding agreement between LSN and the User.

If you have any questions or comments about privacy issues please email us at [email protected].

Information LSN collects and stores

LSN collects 3 types of information:

  • information about research and development infrastructure

    This is the information about institutes, universities, companies etc. and their organisational structure (units, departments, scientific groups etc.). This information is publicly available and with no privacy issues. If you think information about a particular organisation should be removed, contact us at [email protected].

  • personal information

    The only personal information (such as information about education, contact details etc.) that LSN will collect and store is the one that the User chooses to enter. The User can edit or delete any personal information within his/her profile. Certain information (name, email address) is compulsory for registration (sign up). Some information entered during registration, such as first and last name, will be publicly visible and can be removed only when User account is deleted. Only members of the LSN team will have access to all registration information (except password) in order to manage and improve the Services.

    A third party may be contracted to develop some parts of the Services. For this reason, it might be necessary to share some personal information with such parties, in which case LSN would require partners to comply with this Privacy Policy. Some personal information (e.g. email address provided during registration procedure) may be shared with third parties to deliver parts of the Services.

    LSN may be required to disclose all personal information to comply with the law or if LSN suspects that Terms of Use have been violated. LSN reserves the right to process personal information to create anonymous statistics which contain no information about individual Users. If a User wants to be removed from the LSN database, the User can delete his/her profile. LSN will not store any personal information of former Users for longer than 30 days.

  • traffic information and interaction tracking

    Traffic information includes data about the interaction of Users with LSN Services (such as IP-address, browser type, log-in times etc.). LSN processes IP addresses at the server level to determine a user's country of origin for technical optimization and security purposes.

    Similar to professional networks like LinkedIn, our platforms can track who viewed your profile and content. This tracking only occurs, and is only visible to others, if you explicitly opt in. You can completely enable, modify, or disable these visibility preferences at any time via your Account settings.

Your GDPR rights and legal bases

In accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), we process your personal data based on the following legal grounds:

  • Contractual Performance (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR): To provide our networking services, manage your single-sign-on account across our related platforms, and facilitate your content submissions.
  • Legitimate Interests (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR): To secure our infrastructure against malicious attacks, maintain system performance, and optimize user experience.
  • Consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR): Where you explicitly opt in to our social interaction tracking (e.g., profile and content view history) or non-administrative email updates.

LSN operates on a principle of data minimization: we do not collect or store personal data beyond what you choose to enter or explicitly opt into. You hold the following statutory rights under the GDPR, primarily exercised via our self-service tools:

  • Right of Access and Portability (Art. 15 and 20 GDPR): You can see the personal data LSN stores about you at any time simply by viewing your public Profile and your Account settings page. All data we hold is fully visible to you on these pages.
  • Right to Rectification (Art. 16 GDPR): You have the right to correct, update, or complete any inaccurate information instantly via your Account settings and profile and content forms.
  • Right to Erasure (Art. 17 GDPR): You can fully delete your profile and personal data yourself at any time by using the "Delete Account" feature on your settings page. Upon execution, your personal database entry is deleted immediately.
  • Persistence of User-Submitted Content (Jobs, Events, etc.): Please note that if you delete your account, any public professional listings you authored (such as job posts, events, or news) will remain live on our platforms to maintain database integrity for the scientific community, but they will be decoupled from your personal profile. If you wish to remove these listings entirely, you must delete them using the respective editing tools before executing your account deletion.
  • Right to Restriction and Objection (Art. 18 and 21 GDPR): You can limit how we use your data—such as stopping profile view tracking, restricting your profile visibility, or opting out of email notifications—at any time by adjusting your preferences directly on your Account settings page.

To exercise any of these rights manually, please contact us at [email protected]. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority: Landesbeauftragter für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit Baden-Württemberg.

Multiple platforms

Apart from Engineering HR, LSN also operates other platforms: Life Science Network, Science HR, Science Events, and Scientific Today. These platforms share some resources and utilize a single database, which is why you only have to register once and can use those credentials to sign in to all the platforms. Also, changing the sign in credentials, your email address or password, will affect how you sign in on all sites. However, your profile information is separated and will only be shown on those sites where you sign in.

Content shared on either of the platforms may be displayed across our related sites to maximize visibility within the scientific community.

Third-party integrations

To enhance localized content like event listings, our services embed Google Maps API. When you access pages displaying maps, your web browser establishes a direct connection with Google’s servers, transmitting traffic information (including your IP address). This interaction is subject to Google’s own Privacy Policy.

Our platforms also contain direct "hotlinks" to external web resources. Clicking these hyperlinks routes you out of our network, and your target platform will process your access data based on their specific privacy regulations.

International data transfers and hosting

As an international community platform, our technical infrastructure is hosted via Heroku deployment pipelines using Amazon Web Services (AWS) data center assets located in the US-East region. Consequently, the professional profile data, system inputs, and traffic statistics you generate are transferred to, and processed inside, the United States.

To ensure full compliance with the European GDPR, these data transfers are legally secured using the following mechanisms:

  • EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (DPF): Our infrastructure vendors, including Salesforce, Inc. (Heroku) and Amazon.com, Inc. (AWS), maintain active self-certifications under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce. This framework provides an officially recognized "adequacy status" for secure transatlantic data flows.
  • Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs): As a parallel safety measure, our data processing agreements with these infrastructure providers incorporate the European Commission’s approved Standard Contractual Clauses to guarantee that equivalent data security and privacy thresholds apply outside the EEA.

Use of cookies

Cookies are small data files, stored on User's device, which contain User preferences, identify User session, and store authentication status. It is not necessary to accept the cookies to use LSN Services, but some features on the Website may not function properly without them. Some non-essential cookies are placed by third parties that provide social media, advertising and analytics services. Third party's use of cookies is subject to their own Privacy Policy. Users can refuse all or some cookies by configuring their web browser settings.

Use of email communication

LSN may send emails to Users in order to inform them there are unseen notifications, or to remind them there is content matching their interests they haven't read. These emails may also contain promoted content or content selected by LSN, for instance news about recently developed Website features. In case the User does not want to receive these emails, it is possible to switch these options off on the Account settings page of the User's profile. Regardless of any personal settings, LSN reserves the right to send administrative emails and other important announcements, such as changes in Privacy Policy or similar. LSN will not use email addresses for third party advertisements, unless the advertisements are part of LSN emails.

Security of personal information

Each User will be required to protect his/her personal information with a unique password. LSN advises Users not to share this password with anyone. If the option of automatic sign in is used, the User should make sure he/she is the only person with access to that particular computer. If the automatic sign in option is used on a publicly available computer, there is a chance that your personal information and other content may be accessed, edited or deleted by other people. LSN will use reasonable measures and precautions to protect Users' personal information but cannot guarantee the security of personal information against unauthorized entry/use, hardware or software malfunction, or other elements that can compromise the security of personal information in our database.

Changes in the Privacy Policy

As LSN is continuously building and improving its Services, it may become necessary to adjust this Privacy Policy. LSN reserves the right to do so at its own discretion. The Users are advised to visit this page regularly to be informed about any changes.

Last edit: June 5, 2026.