Data privacy

General information

The University of Kassel processes personal data in accordance with data protection regulations, in particular 

  • the “Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 27, 2016, on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data, on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR)” and 
  • the “Hessian Data Protection and Freedom of Information Act (HDSIG)” in the version effective as of May 25, 2018.

The processing of personal data by the University of Kassel is carried out in accordance with data protection regulations, in particular

  • the "Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 27, 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR)" and
  • the "Hessian Data Protection and Freedom of Information Act (HDSIG)" in the version applicable from May 25, 2018

Personal data is information that can be used to identify a natural person—that is, information through which individuals can be identified. 

We collect, use, and disclose personal data only when permitted by law or when the individuals affected by the data processing have given their consent. 

The University of Kassel adheres to the principles of data avoidance and data minimization. It therefore stores your personal data only for as long as is necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected or as required by law. Thereafter, the relevant data is routinely blocked or deleted in accordance with legal requirements. 

The controller within the meaning of Art. 13 para. 1 lit. a GDPR is the

University of Kassel
Mönchebergstr. 19
34109 Kassel
Germany

The University of Kassel is a public corporation. It is legally represented by the President Prof. Dr. Ute Clement.

You can reach our data protection officer at

Data Protection Officer of the University of Kassel
34109 Kassel
Phone: +49 561 804-7036/-2011
E-mail: datenschutz[at]uni-kassel[dot]de
Web: www.uni-kassel.de/go/datenschutz

Data subjects have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority in the event of data protection problems.

Contact address of the supervisory authority of the University of Kassel:

The Hessian Data Protection Officer
P.O. Box 3163
65021 Wiesbaden

E-mail: poststelle[at]datenschutz.hessen[dot]de

Phone: +49-611-1408-0

You can exercise the following rights at any time using the contact details provided for our (University of Kassel) data protection officer:

  • Information about your data stored by us and its processing,
  • Correction of incorrect personal data,
  • Restriction of data processing if we are not yet allowed to delete your data due to legal obligations,
  • Revocation of your consent,
  • objection to the processing of your data by us and
  • data portability if you have consented to data processing or have concluded a contract with us (Art. 20 GDPR).

Web presence and other web services

When accessing the content of web servers of the University of Kassel, the following data is generally stored in the server log files:

  • IP address
  • Date and time
  • Possibly browser type ("user agent") and source page ("referer")
  • URL and length of the page accessed
  • Return value ("status code")
  • for web services with login: user ID (see below)

This data is used exclusively for the purpose of checking functionality, troubleshooting, security and statistics (see below). The legal basis is Art. 6, para. 1f GDPR. All log files are deleted or anonymized immediately.

The University of Kassel uses "Matomo" (formerly Piwik), a software for analyzing web server access, for the purpose of its own internal statistics on website visits.

Matomo uses so-called "cookies", text files that are stored on your computer and enable us to analyze the use of our website. The information generated by a cookie about your use is only stored on servers of the University of Kassel. Matomo works at the University of Kassel with the activated plugin "AnonymizeIP", so that your IP address is anonymized immediately after processing and before it is stored. This prevents the exact IP address of your computer from being recorded in our statistics.

The data collected in this way is only used for the purpose of our own internal statistics and is deleted after the evaluation. You can prevent the installation of cookies by setting your browser software accordingly; however, we would like to point out that in this case you may not be able to use all the functions of our website to their full extent. Further information about Matomo can be found at https://matomo.org.

In the case of access-protected websites and user-based services, the user name or an identifier is collected in addition to the above-mentioned data for authorization control of data access. This data is also deleted or anonymized immediately, unless the retention of the data is necessary for the implementation of legitimate interests of the University of Kassel or a legal regulation (e.g. law, ordinance, statutes of the University of Kassel, etc.).

Some pages of the University of Kassel website include third-party content (e.g. videos from YouTube, external maps, RSS feeds, graphics, etc.) from their websites. This inevitably leads to the providers of this content processing your IP address.

In various areas of our website, you have the option of subscribing to a newsletter or filling out a contact form. When you register for the newsletter or contact us, the data from the input screen is transmitted to us.

Unless expressly stated otherwise, no data will be passed on to third parties in connection with data processing for sending newsletters or contacting us. The data is used exclusively for the stated purposes.

As of: September 2, 2026