Privacy policy

MyExpatLife Media GbR (hereinafter “MyExpatLife”), is an English-language online media platform, providing up-to-date information, news, job listings, housing services and lifestyle tips for internationals in the Europe through the operation of the myexpatlife.eu websites (“hereinafter “MyExpatLife Website(s)”). MyExpatLife also organises the weekly Expats Meet-Up in Beyerhaus, Leipzig, an event designed to connect and support the expat community in Germany.

In order to achieve our mission of providing the MyExpatLife community with our websites and services, we collect certain personal information from users of the MyExpatLife Websites (hereinafter “Users” or “you”) for the purposes specifically described and under the conditions laid down in this Privacy Policy.

Providing personal information is optional; however, Users opting not to share such information may not be allowed access to certain features of the MyExpatLife Website. Users are responsible for filling in correct and truthful information, and are thus responsible for any actual or potential economic or legal lawsuit against MyExpatLife, should this occur as a consequence of their wrongdoing or mismanagement of their profile. User accounts are for personal use and may not be used by, assigned, or otherwise transferred to any other person or entity. Users are responsible for the security of their password and will be solely liable for any use or unauthorised use of said password.

Our Users’ privacy is of paramount importance to us. We therefore strive to be transparent about how we collect, use and share information about you. We endeavour to provide you with the highest standards of security for any personal information you submit to us.

This Privacy Policy provides details about the information we collect about you when you use our websites and services, or otherwise interact with us (for example, by attending our events), unless a different specific policy is displayed. 

1. User Information That We Collect

1.1 MyExpatLife Account Information

In order to provide our services, we collect information about you when you register for an account through the MyExpatLife Websites, as well as when you update or modify your profile. We keep track of your profile and settings selections within the MyExpatLife Websites.

Specifically, in order to register for an account, you will need to submit the following information:

• Email address;First and Last Name;
• Year of birth;
• Country of origin;
• Login credentials.

Further to the above, you can submit additional profile information via “My Account”. This additional optional information may include:

• Current location;
• Your current employer (company or organisation);
• Profile photo;
• LinkedIn url;
• Twitter username;
• Facebook profile url;
• A short bio;
• Your CV.

You can select to register for an MyExpatLife account, log in or enhance your profile via your Facebook profile. By doing so, you are asking Facebook to send us registration information from your Facebook profile. We treat that information as we do any other information you give us when you register or log in.

1.2 MyExpatLife Websites usage information

We collect information about your activity on our services, for example, the date and time you registered, date and time you logged in, your favourite jobs and favourite properties, jobs and properties that you have applied for or enquired about, and forms that you have filled in across the website.

1.3 Device and Connection Information

We collect information about the device(s) with which you access the MyExpatLife Websites and services. This device information includes your connection type and settings when you access the MyExpatLife Websites or use our services. We may also collect information through your device(s) about your operating system, browser type, IP address, URLs of referring/exit pages, device identifiers, and crash data.

1.4 Cookies

MyExpatLife Websites uses cookies and similar technologies to provide functionality and to recognise you across different services and devices. For more information, please see our Cookies Policy, which includes information on what cookies are, how you can control your cookie settings or opt out.

1.5 Facebook visitor action pixels

We use the “visitor action pixels” from Facebook Inc on our websites. This tool allows us to understand and deliver ads and make them more relevant to you. The data collected in this way is anonymous to us, i.e. we do not see the personal data of individual users. However, this data is stored and processed by Facebook. Facebook may link this information to your Facebook account and also use it for its own promotional purposes, in accordance with Facebook’s Data Usage Policy. You can allow Facebook and its partners to place ads on and off Facebook. A cookie may also be stored on your computer for these purposes.

You can object to the collection of your data by Facebook pixel, or to the use of your data for the purpose of displaying Facebook ads here.

2. How We Use the Information We Collect

We collect and use your information in order to be able to deliver and improve our services. Additionally, we use your information to help keep you safe from fraud and to provide you with localised (but not personalised) advertising that may be of interest to you.

More specifically, we use the information we collect for the following:

• Administering your account and providing our services to you:  We use information about you to provide our services to you, including authenticating you when you log in, providing customer support, and operating and maintaining our services.  
• Research and development:  We are always looking for ways to make our websites and services better, smarter, more efficient, more secure and more useful to our Users. We use collective learnings about how Users use our websites and services, and feedback provided directly to us, to troubleshoot and identify trends, usage, activity patterns and areas for improvement. We may occasionally conduct research and analysis of Users’ behaviour to improve our websites content and services.
• Communicating with you about our services:  We use your contact information to send communications via email and within our services, including our Newsletter. These communications are aimed at driving engagement and maximising what you get out of the services and may include information about new features, survey requests, newsletters, and events. We may also communicate with you about new product offers, promotions and contests. You may opt out of these communications by using the “Unsubscribe” option that can be found within the communication itself.
• Safety and security:   We use information about you and your service to verify accounts and activity, to monitor suspicious or fraudulent activity and to identify violations of the MyExpatLife Websites Terms of Use and other policies. 
• Ensuring legal compliance:   Where required by law or where we believe it is necessary to protect our legal rights, interests and the interests of others, we use information about you in connection with legal claims, compliance, regulatory requirements and disclosures in connection with the acquisition, merger or sale of a business.  

3. Legal bases for processing

To process your information as described above, we rely on the following legal bases:

• We need it for you to be able to fully access the MyExpatLife Websites and services, including operating and protecting the safety and security of the services;
• You give us your fully explicit, informed, specific, and unambiguous consent to do so for the specific purposes described in this Privacy Policy;
• It satisfies a legitimate interest (which is not overridden by your data protection interests), such as for research and development, to market and promote our services, and to protect our legal rights and interests;
• We need to process your data to comply with a legal obligation.

4. With Whom and How We Share Certain Information We Collect

Use of certain services requires sharing particular information about you with third parties. 

Specifically, we will share your information with third parties on the following occasions:

4.1 MyExpatLife Jobs

In order to be able to use MyExpatLife Jobs and apply for a job vacancy on an MyExpatLife Website, you will be required to submit the following information:

• First and last name;
• Email address;
• CV;
• Cover letter (optional);
• Linkedin profile url (optional);
• Message to the responsible recruiter (optional).

This information will be submitted securely directly to the responsible recruiter strictly for the purpose of applying for the job vacancy.

When applying for a job vacancy, you also have an option to share your CV with an independent CV consultant who will provide you with feedback. Should you opt to do so, your first and last name, email address and CV will be shared directly and securely with the CV consultant.

4.2 MyExpatLife Housing

In order to use MyExpatLife Housing and apply for one of the properties displayed on the relevant MyExpatLife Website, you will be required to submit the following information:

• First and last name;
• Email address;
• Telephone number (optional);
• Message to the property owner/manager (optional).

This information will be submitted securely directly to the property owner/manager, who may be an individual or an entity (e.g. a property management agency), strictly for the purpose of the property enquiry.

4.3 Competitions 

From time to time, MyExpatLife Media will run competitions for its users through its websites, either on its own or in cooperation with business partners. In order to participate in such competitions, you will be asked to submit the following personal data:

• First and last name;
• Email address;
• Telephone number (optional);
• Message to the competition organiser/business partner.

When a competition is run in cooperation with a business partner (e.g. a languages institute offering a language course), your information will be submitted securely directly to the business partner strictly for the purpose of participating in the competition.

4.4 Articles and Advertorials

Users have the option to get in contact with (external) authors of Articles and Advertorials appearing on the MyExpatLife Websites (e.g. business partners of MyExpatLife providing information on insurance, pensions etc). When doing so, you will be asked to submit the following personal data:

• First and last name;
• Email address;
• Telephone number (optional);
• Message to the organiser (optional).

This information will be submitted securely directly to the (external) author or business partner strictly for the purpose of bringing the User in contact with them.

4.5 Links to Third Party Sites

The MyExpatLife Websites may include links that direct you to other websites or services whose privacy policies may differ from ours. If you submit information to any of those third party sites, your information is governed by their privacy policies, not this one. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy policy of any website you visit.

4.6 Legal Compliance and Enforcement of Rights

In exceptional circumstances, we may share information about you with a third party if we believe that sharing is reasonably necessary to:

• Comply with any applicable law, regulation, legal process or governmental request, including meeting national security requirements;
• Enforce agreements policies and terms of service;
• Protect the security or integrity of our websites and services;
• Protect our Users or the public from harm or illegal activities;
• Responding to an emergency which we believe in good faith requires us to disclose information to assist in the prevention of a death or serious bodily injury of any person.

MyExpatLife will never sell, rent or otherwise share information about you to advertisers or any other third parties other than those described above.

In all cases where information is shared with any third party, MyExpatLife strictly limits use of the information shared to the purposes described above.

5. Information Storage and Security

We work hard to protect our Users from unauthorised access to, or alteration, disclosure or destruction of, your personal information. Our data hosting service providers are based in Germany and the United States.

Access to User data is not available to unauthorised MyExpatLife employees. All MyExpatLife employees comply with the MyExpatLife employee privacy policy and undertake training on privacy and security.

While we implement safeguards designed to protect our Users’ information, no security system is impenetrable and due to the inherent nature of the Internet, we cannot guarantee that data, during transmission through the Internet or while stored on our systems or otherwise in our care, is absolutely safe from intrusion by others.

6. How Long We Keep Information

We retain your MyExpatLife account information for as long as your account is active. You may select to cancel your account at any time. After selecting to cancel your account, we implement a safety retention window of thirty (30) days. During this period, account information will be retained, although the account will, of course, not be visible on our services anymore. We will delete or anonymise your information upon deletion of your account (following the safety retention window) unless:

• We must keep it to comply with applicable law;
• We must keep it as evidence of our compliance with applicable law (for instance, records of consent to our Terms, Privacy Policy and other similar consents);
• There is an outstanding issue, claim or dispute requiring us to keep the relevant information until it is resolved;
• The information must be kept for our legitimate business interests, such as fraud prevention and enhancing Users' safety and security. For example, information may need to be kept to prevent a User who was banned for unsafe behaviour or security incidents from opening a new account.

7. Your Rights

We want you to be in control of your information, so we have provided you with the following tools:

7.1 Access and update your information

Our websites and services give you the ability to access and update certain personal information. For example, you can access your profile information using the “Account” feature.

7.2 Cancel your account

If you no longer wish to use our services, you can cancel your MyExpatLife account.

7.3 Request that we stop using your information

In some cases, you may ask us to stop accessing, storing, using and otherwise processing your information should you believe that we don't have the appropriate rights or consents to do so. For example, if you believe an MyExpatLife account was created for you without your permission, or you are no longer an active User, you can request that we delete your account as provided in this Privacy Policy. 

If you gave us consent to use your information for a limited purpose, you can contact us to withdraw that consent. This will not affect any processing that has already taken place at the time.

You can also opt out of our use of your information for marketing purposes by contacting us, as provided below. When you make such requests, we may need time to investigate and facilitate your request. 

7.4 Opt out of communications

You may opt out of receiving promotional communications from us by using the” Unsubscribe” option within each email, or by contacting us, as provided below, to have your contact information removed from our email. 

7.5 Turn off Cookie Controls

Relevant browser-based cookie controls are described in our Cookie Policy.

8. MyExpatLife and Children’s Privacy

The MyExpatLife Websites and services are not directed to individuals under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 16. If we become aware that an individual under the age of 16 has provided us with personal information, we will take steps to delete such information. If you become aware that a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us as provided below.

9. Changes to our Privacy Policy

MyExpatLife may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post any Privacy Policy changes on this page with a clear date indication. In case of material changes, we will either provide notice on the MyExpatLife Websites or we will send you an email notification.

We will also keep prior versions of this Privacy Policy in our archive. These will be available upon request for your review. We encourage you to review our privacy policy whenever you use our services, so that you stay informed about our information practices and the ways you can help protect your privacy.

If you disagree with any of the changes to this Privacy Policy, you may stop using our services and cancel your account at any time.

10. Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about how your information is handled, please direct your inquiry to myexpatlife.eu@gmail.com or contact us using the address below:

My Expat Life Media (GBR)
FaradayStr 21, Leipzig 04159, Germany