Privacy Policy

AKos Consulting & Solutions Deutschland GmbH (“AKos”, “we”, “our”, or “us”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and safeguard your data when you use the AKos Compounds catalogue or contact us through it.

1. Who we are

We are the controller responsible for the processing of your personal data in this catalogue.

2. What information we collect

When you search the catalogue:

• the search terms you enter (compound names, AKos IDs, CAS numbers, SMILES) and the structures you draw; they are processed on our server, and searches are recorded in our server logs.

When you open the catalogue through a link from an external database (for example PubChem):

• the name of that database, the compound identifier and the user-agent string of your browser.

When you send a message from the Contact page:

• first and last name, email address, phone number (optional), company or institution (optional), topic, role (optional) and your message;
• the files you attach and the link to larger files you enter.

When you send an order from the Order page:

• first and last name, email address, phone number (optional), company or institution, VAT ID (optional), your address (street and number, address line 2, postal code, city, state or region, country), a different delivery address if you give one, and your comment (optional);
• the structures in your order, with AKos ID, CAS number, quantity, unit, minimum purity and the analytical data you ask for.

When you create a customer account:

• title (optional), first and last name, work email address, company or institution, country, phone number and role (optional), your newsletter choice, and the date of your consent to this Privacy Policy;
• your password, which we store only in a form that cannot be turned back into the password (a salted hash); we never send it by email;
• a confirmation link sent to your email address, valid for 24 hours;
• if you ask for a new password: a link to reset it, sent to your email address and valid for 1 hour, and a notice when your password has been changed.

When you are signed in:

• a session cookie (see our Cookie Policy);
• a record of the activity of your account: quote requests and contact messages you send, and the files you download from the catalogue (type of file, page, number of compounds, date and time). The structures themselves are not recorded.
• the records shown in My Account: your quote requests, quotations, orders with their correspondence and documents, contact messages and saved structure lists;
• if you review a past order: your rating (1 to 5 stars), your comment and the date. Reviews are read by the AKos team to improve our service and are not published.

When you visit the catalogue:

• technical data such as IP address, browser type, date and time of access and the pages requested (server logs);
• if a page fails in your browser, an error report: the page, the time, the error message and your browser type, sent with your IP address; it contains no form entries, search terms or structures;
• a random session identifier and your current search, stored in your browser tab, and your structure list with your selection, stored on your device (see our Cookie Policy);
• your cookie choice, stored in your browser.

3. Why we process your data

We process personal information to:

• run your searches and show the results, including offers from the ChemSpace marketplace;
• respond to your enquiries and feedback;
• prepare quotations and process your orders;
• send you emails and notifications about your order, for example the order confirmation, quotations, changes of the order status, order documents and, after delivery, an invitation to give feedback on the order. By placing an order, you agree to receive emails and notifications related to that order;
• create and manage your customer account and confirm your email address;
• operate the catalogue securely and protect it against misuse, for example accounts that request or download large parts of the catalogue without ordering. AKos staff review account activity and may block an account; this decision is always made by a person;
• send you news about new compounds and services, only if you have chosen this;
• improve the catalogue and its search on the basis of our server logs;
• comply with legal obligations.

We do not sell your personal information.

4. Legal basis

We process your data on the following legal bases under the GDPR:

• enquiries, quotations and orders: steps prior to a contract and performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) and our legitimate interest in answering business enquiries (Art. 6(1)(f));
• passing your name and contact details to a partner where this is necessary to carry out your request: steps prior to a contract at your request (Art. 6(1)(b));
• customer account: performance of the contract for the use of the account (Art. 6(1)(b));
• records of account activity and blocking of accounts that misuse the catalogue: our legitimate interest in protecting our compound data and our services against misuse (Art. 6(1)(f));
• newsletter: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)), which you can withdraw at any time;
• searches, server logs, secure operation and improvement of the catalogue: our legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f));
• storage in your browser that the catalogue needs to work: § 25(2) No. 2 TDDDG;
• analytics and marketing, if introduced: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR and § 25(1) TDDDG), which you can withdraw at any time;
• retention required by commercial and tax law: compliance with a legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)).

5. Service providers and recipients

We share data only with service providers that process it on our behalf and are bound by data processing agreements (Art. 28 GDPR) or other appropriate confidentiality obligations, and with the partners described in the last bullet:

• the provider that hosts the catalogue server;
• ChemSpace: our server sends your search query (identifier or structure) to the ChemSpace compound marketplace for additional offers; no contact details are sent;
• our email provider for our business mailboxes;
• partners for your request: suppliers in our partner network, located in the EU or outside the EU. To prepare a quotation, we pass them the compounds, quantities and specifications of your request. We pass your name and contact details only where this is necessary to carry out your request.

PubChem, the public chemical database of the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI, U.S. National Library of Medicine, USA), is not one of our service providers. Only when a PubChem CID or a ZINC ID is looked up (typed into a search field, in an uploaded file or in a link to the catalogue), your browser asks PubChem directly for the structure. PubChem receives the identifier and, as with every web request, your IP address and technical data of your browser; no cookies, no address of the referring page and no contact details are sent. PubChem processes this data under its own responsibility (NCBI policies).

We never sell personal data.

6. Transfers outside the EU

Some service providers are based in the USA or may process data there. Such transfers take place on the basis of the EU–US Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified under it, or on the basis of the EU Standard Contractual Clauses (Art. 46 GDPR). Where a partner is located outside the EU, we transfer your data on the basis of the EU Standard Contractual Clauses (Art. 46 GDPR) and only to prepare a quotation or carry out your request.

PubChem is operated by a U.S. federal agency, which is neither certified under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework nor bound to us by Standard Contractual Clauses. Your browser contacts PubChem only when a PubChem CID or a ZINC ID is looked up. If you do not want this, search by CAS number, name, SMILES or a drawn structure instead.

7. Analytics and marketing

The catalogue currently uses no analytics or marketing tools. If we introduce them, we will use them only after you have agreed in our cookie banner. You can change or withdraw your choice at any time via “Cookie settings” at the bottom of every page. Details are given in our Cookie Policy.

8. Data retention

We retain personal information only as long as necessary for the purposes described above or as required by law:

• enquiries, quotations, orders and related correspondence: as long as needed to handle your enquiry and any resulting business relationship, and for up to 6 or 10 years where commercial or tax law requires it (§ 257 HGB, § 147 AO);
• customer account: until you delete it or ask us to delete it; records we must keep by law are then kept anonymised or for the statutory period only;
• registrations that were not confirmed: deleted after 24 hours;
• records of account activity: 12 months, then deleted; longer only while a specific case of misuse is being clarified or the account is blocked; when you delete your account, they are deleted with it, except where the law requires us to keep them;
• server logs: 7 days;
• session data in your browser tab: until you close the tab;
• your structure list on your device: until you clear the list or your browser data;
• your cookie choice in your browser: 6 months.

9. Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to:

• access your data;
• correct inaccurate information;
• request deletion;
• restrict processing;
• object to processing based on our legitimate interests;
• request data portability;
• withdraw consent at any time with effect for the future.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, for example the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information Baden-Württemberg.

To exercise your rights, please contact us at: compounds@akosgmbh.eu

10. Is providing data required?

Providing your data is voluntary. Without your name, company, email address and country we cannot prepare a quotation or create a customer account. We do not use automated decision-making or profiling; decisions about blocking an account are made by AKos staff.

11. Cookies

The catalogue uses storage in your browser as described in our Cookie Policy.

12. External websites

Our corporate website akos-chem.de, our LinkedIn page and the external databases linked from the catalogue are separate websites; their own privacy policies apply.

13. Changes

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The current version is always available in the catalogue.