Food Innovations
Privacy notice
Last updated: 13 September 2026
1. Controller
Prof. Dr. Markus Schmid · Food Innovations
Roystr. 19, D-72488 Sigmaringen, Germany
Email: info@foodinnovations.de
Telephone: +49 7571 929 7248
2. Accessing the website and hosting
This website is hosted by IONOS SE, Elgendorfer Str. 57, 56410 Montabaur, Germany, under the Webhosting Business plan. When the website is accessed, technically necessary connection data, including the IP address, are processed so that the requested pages and files can be delivered and attacks can be detected.
IONOS logs the page or file requested, the referrer, browser type and version, operating system, device type and time of access. The IP address is anonymised immediately after the page request has been transmitted. IONOS states a retention period of eight weeks for web hosting visitor data.
The hosting package also includes WebAnalytics for statistical analysis and technical optimisation. For this website, analysis uses server-side log data; no additional tracking pixel has been installed. According to IONOS, WebAnalytics does not use cookies and processes the IP address after anonymisation, without a link to an identifiable individual. The analysis is used to understand website usage in aggregate and make technical improvements.
The legal basis for technical delivery, security and processing before anonymisation is Article 6(1)(f) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The legitimate interests are secure, functional operation and technical optimisation with minimal use of personal data. A data processing agreement under Article 28 GDPR is in place with IONOS.
IONOS states that visitor data for this web hosting product are neither disclosed to third parties nor transferred to third countries. Information from the service provider: Web hosting and WebAnalytics.
3. Email and telephone enquiries
If you contact me, the contact details you provide and the content of your enquiry are processed to handle your request and coordinate any further steps. Email links open your own email application; a message is sent only when you send it yourself.
For enquiries concerning steps prior to a contract with you or the performance of that contract, the legal basis is Article 6(1)(b) GDPR. Other enquiries and the personal data of company contact persons are processed under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR; the legitimate interest is handling business correspondence. Data may be transmitted to the email and telecommunications service providers used. The business email account is hosted by IONOS.
Enquiries are deleted once they have been fully dealt with and there is no further need to retain them. Where tax or commercial law requires retention, the documents concerned are kept for the statutory period, on the basis of Article 6(1)(c) GDPR. Providing contact details is voluntary. Without sufficient contact details, a personal response may not be possible.
4. Seminar builder, cookies and embedded content
The seminar builder processes search terms, filters and your selected topics only in your browser's working memory. This information is not sent to a server or stored in cookies, local storage or session storage. Your selection is lost when the page is reloaded. The save function lets you save your selection as a text file on your own device. The copy function writes the enquiry text to the clipboard only when you click it. When you open your email application, your topic selection is included in a draft message; you decide whether to send it.
When you switch languages, your selected topics can be carried over to the other language version through the fragment part of the destination address. This part of the address is not sent to the web server; no cookies or browser storage are used for this purpose.
The website files provided do not set cookies. The scripts required for the builder, images and PDF files are loaded from this website's own web space. Fonts are drawn from those available on your device. No analytics scripts, advertising pixels, embedded maps, videos, social media feeds or chatbots have been installed.
Server-side logging and analysis by IONOS are described in the hosting section.
5. Links and downloads
External links, such as links to LinkedIn, do not transmit data to the linked service merely by being displayed. You leave this website when you follow a link. Processing on LinkedIn is described in LinkedIn’s privacy policy and, for my company page, in the supplementary information in section 8 below. PDF downloads are available without registration. Downloading them generates the technical access data described in the hosting section.
6. Your rights
Subject to the GDPR, you have the rights of access (Article 15), rectification (Article 16), erasure (Article 17), restriction of processing (Article 18) and data portability (Article 20). Where processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time for the future under Article 7(3) GDPR.
Right to object: Where processing is based on Article 6(1)(f) GDPR, you may object under Article 21 GDPR on grounds relating to your particular situation. You may object to processing for direct marketing at any time without giving such grounds.
To exercise your rights, contact the controller named above. Under Article 77 GDPR, you may lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, in particular where you habitually reside, work or believe an infringement has occurred. In Baden-Württemberg, this is the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Landesbeauftragter für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit Baden-Württemberg), Heilbronner Straße 35, 70191 Stuttgart, Germany. How to complain to the LfDI Baden-Württemberg.
7. Automated decisions
This website does not carry out automated decision-making, including profiling, that produces legal or similarly significant effects.
8. LinkedIn company page
I operate the “Food Innovations – and beyond” LinkedIn company page to provide information about my freelance talks and scientific services and to communicate with interested parties. My platform contracting partner is LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, Gardner House, Wilton Plaza, Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Operating the company page and my participation in the provision of Page Insights serve to present my services and assess and improve my professional communications. Processing within my responsibility for these purposes is based on Article 6(1)(f) GDPR and these legitimate interests.
If you comment on the page or contact me through LinkedIn, I process the profile and contact details you provide and the content of your message as necessary to handle your enquiry. The basis for this processing by me is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR; my legitimate interest is professional discussion and handling business enquiries. Article 6(1)(b) GDPR applies where the processing concerns a contract with you or steps you request before entering into a contract. Enquiry data retained in my own business correspondence are subject to the deletion and retention criteria in section 3. Public comments and reactions may also be visible to other LinkedIn members and visitors.
LinkedIn processes profile and interaction data to produce page statistics (“Page Insights”). Under the Addendum, LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company and I are joint controllers for the specified processing of EEA or Swiss members’ data. I receive aggregated statistics that do not let me identify individual members. I use these statistics to understand how the page is used and improve its professional information. LinkedIn takes responsibility in particular for informing members and handling their rights. Details are set out in the Page Insights Joint Controller Addendum.
LinkedIn’s other processing, legal bases, retention criteria and international transfers are explained in its Privacy Policy. LinkedIn also describes processing in the United States and other countries. For questions about processing by me, please contact info@foodinnovations.de. You may exercise your rights concerning the jointly controlled processing for Page Insights with either LinkedIn or me. Section 6 also applies.