Version/last revised: 15 January 2026

The following information explains how and for what purpose the University of Oldenburg processes your personal data within the scope of Part 1 of the Alumni Survey. In accordance with Art. 13 GDPR, we hereby provide you with detailed information on the processing of your data and your rights.

If you are interested in being contacted personally and providing an interview (alumni interview, alumni portrait, alumni talk), you can take part in the second part of the survey – after you have completed the first part of the survey – to provide us with your contact details. The second part of the survey is preceded by a separate data protection section in which you will receive information on how your contact details are handled.

Data controller

University of Oldenburg, a public organisation, legally represented by the President, Ammerlaender Heerstrasse 114 – 118, 26129 Oldenburg

Data protection officer

You can contact the University of Oldenburg’s official data protection officer at the above address (to the attention of: ‘The data protection officer’), by calling +49 (0)441 798 4196 or by sending an email to .

Responsible for content

Study and Career Counselling Service, email:
 

Purpose and legal basis for the processing

If you are already part of the University of Oldenburg’s alumni network or are registered on the Oldenburg Connect platform, we will process your contact data for the purpose of sending you an invitation link to the Alumni Survey based on your consent, Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR.

If you are not already a member of the University of Oldenburg’s alumni network or if you are not registered on the Oldenburg Connect platform, we will process your contact data for the purpose of sending you an invitation link to the Alumni Survey within the scope of carrying out our work. The University of Oldenburg is a public body and, according to Sec. 3 para. 1 p. 1 no. 11 of the Lower Saxony Higher Education Act (NHG), has the task of maintaining contact with former members. The legal basis for contacting former members under data protection law is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. e GDPR, Sec. 3 NHG, Sec. 3 NDSG.

Participation in the survey is voluntary. The survey data collected will be processed based on your consent, Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR. 

Categories of personal data 

For the purpose of maintaining contact with former members, we process your email address in order to invite you to participate in the Alumni Survey.

In the first part of the survey, we collect the following data from you:

• Study data (e.g. faculty, course of study, type of degree, graduation year, etc.)
• Opinions, assessments and wishes with regard to the alumni network

In Part 1 of the survey, no information is collected that can be traced directly back to individuals. However, it cannot be ruled out that, in some cases, the combination of specific information requested may indirectly identify certain persons. In this context, we ask you to avoid entering personal information when filling in the free text fields, if possible. The survey is not carried out with the intention to assign data from Part 1 to individual persons.

Data source: If you are not already a member of the University of Oldenburg’s alumni network or if you are not registered on the Oldenburg Connect platform, we have collected your contact data from existing systems of the University of Oldenburg’s Matriculation Office for the purpose of contacting you. This is a permissible change of purpose for carrying out the public task (see above).

Log files: As part of the online surveys, technical data/access logs – IP address, date and time of access, requested command, status code of the web server, transfer size, origin of the calling page if applicable, web browser used (user agent) and encryption algorithm used – are recorded on the university’s own web server. The log file data are used to ensure the functionality of the online surveys (e.g. error analysis, protection against misuse, etc.) and are deleted after a maximum of 7 days. The log file data are not linked to data that directly identify you or your responses.

Contact data, access code and reminders: If you are member of the University of Oldenburg’s alumni network or are registered on the Oldenburg Connect platform, we may send you reminders to participate in a central internal online survey and, in doing so, process your email address again.

Recipient of the data

Your personal data will be disclosed to the employees of the alumni network (ZSBK) and the Evaluation Office (Internal Evaluation) of the University of Oldenburg. Survey data from Part 1 will be published in anonymised form.

Data transfer to third countries

Your personal data will not be transferred to countries outside the European Union.

Storage period

The survey data from the first part of the survey will be anonymised as quickly as possible. At the latest, upon completion of the evaluation, the raw data of the first part of the survey will be deleted. Your contact details will be deleted from the survey software upon completion of the phase in which the survey is filled out.

Your rights as a data subject

You have various rights under the GDPR. You can obtain information about the data stored on you at any time via the contact addresses provided (Art. 15 of the GDPR). In addition, under certain conditions, you may request the correction of inaccurate data (Art. 16 of the GDPR), the deletion (Article 17 of the GDPR) of your data or the restriction of its processing (Art. 18 of the GDPR).

Right to object

Insofar as we process your data on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. e GDPR (public task), you have the right to object to its processing (Art. 21 GDPR). In the event that you object, we will stop processing your data unless we can prove compelling legitimate grounds that outweigh your interests.

Withdrawal of consent

If you have given your consent to processing, you can withdraw this consent at any time with future effect (Art. 7 GDPR). The legality of the processing up until the withdrawal of your consent remains unaffected.

In addition, you have the right to data portability (Article 20 GDPR), provided that the legal requirements for this are met (i.e. in the case of processing on the basis of consent or contract and by means of automated procedures).

Right to lodge a complaint

If you believe that the processing of your data violates data protection law, you can contact our data protection officer with your request (for contact details, see above). Irrespective of this, you are also entitled to lodge a complaint with the responsible data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR). The supervisory authority responsible for the University of Oldenburg is: The State Commissioner for Data Protection in Lower Saxony, Prinzenstrasse 5, 30159 Hannover.

Automated decision-making 

No automated decision-making within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR takes place for this processing.