Tell Us - Information about data protection and consent
With its whistleblowing system "Tell Us”, Flender GmbH provides a means for reporting specific indications of compliance violations via this application and the telephone dialogue. Compliance violations are violations of legal requirements or internal Flender regulations, particularly the Business Conduct Guidelines. Using Tell Us allows you to report specific indications of corruption, violations of financial reporting and accounting rules, theft, fraud, forging of documents, embezzlement, antitrust violations, unfair competition, securities trading violations, insider trading, disclosure of trade secrets or proprietary information, conflicts of interest and other criminal conduct or penalized with an administrative fine.
The information you report will be evaluated by Flender and, if necessary, their subsidiaries (collectively "Flender"). It may result in the initiation of internal and external investigations conducted by the authorities and have other negative consequences for the persons affected. You should therefore give us only information which you assume to be correct to the best of your knowledge. Giving knowingly false or misleading information will have consequences for you. The intentional dissemination of false information is liable to criminal prosecution in many countries. In general, please do not provide us with information if this is subject to prosecution in your country.
Technical protection of the whistleblowing system:
Technical maintenance of the Tell Us whistleblowing system is performed by EQS Group AG, an independent operator located in 10789 Berlin, Bayreuther Str. 35 (subsequently "BK"). The data is provided on protected servers of Telekom Deutschland GmbH in Germany. Only Flender is responsible for processing the content of the reports.
Personal data entered in the whistleblowing system is stored in a database operated by BK. All data is encrypted, password-protected and stored at a secure location so that access to the content of the data electronically stored in Tell Us is restricted to a narrow circle of authorized persons of Flender. BK cannot view the content of the data electronically stored in this database.
As long as you do not enter data which makes it possible to draw conclusions about your identity, this whistleblowing system protects your anonymity automatically using a certified technical solution which is protected through numerous technical and organizational measures.
Processing and sharing your report within Flender:
Once your report has been received, the Compliance Department checks whether an in-depth investigation is required. An investigation can be conducted by internal or external investigation experts. External specialists whom we engage are bound to Flender by contractual or legal confidentiality obligations to keep confidential the information provided by you.
Depending on the content of your report, the Flender personnel responsible for further processing of the issue reported will receive the information provided by you. These are primarily the responsible members of the Compliance Department. In addition, the responsible management within Flender is informed, which also has the task of correcting any deficiencies discovered during processing of the report. The Audit, Legal and HR Departments are also frequently involved in processing compliance reports. If your report involves a subsidiary, the responsible persons in these companies will be notified.
If the content of your report does not fall under any of the compliance categories listed above, we will forward your report – if we consider this necessary and appropriate – to the responsible department at Flender. For personnel matters, for instance, this may be the responsible HR Department. As a general rule, however, Tell Us is only used to record reports related to the report categories listed above.
Flender can also involve external experts, such as attorneys, auditors or forensic experts, who will investigate your report on Flender's behalf.
Please let us know if you do not want us to share your personal data, particularly your name, with persons outside the Flender Compliance Department (unless this is necessary for safeguarding the legitimate interests of Flender). Please note, however, that, as a consequence, we may not be able to give full consideration to your report.
Access of government agencies:
Flender may also be legally obligated to provide certain government agencies, including but without limitation, government investigative agencies or courts with information about compliance violations. If we are obligated to provide information, as well as in the event of confiscations, we are not able to withhold the information provided by you.
In some instances, Flender is not obligated to share personal data with government agencies, but has the legal right to do so voluntarily. Please let us know if you do not want us to voluntarily share your personal data, including, without limitation, your name, with government agencies (unless this is necessary to safeguard the legitimate interests of Flender). Please note, however, that, as a consequence, we may not be able to give full consideration to your report.
Sharing information with other countries:
Personal information that you may have provided in your report, may be transferred to other EU countries or countries outside the EU where the confidential treatment of personal data is not guaranteed by law to the same extent as it is in Germany. This applies particularly to countries which are not considered to have an adequate level of data protection as provided for in the EU provisions. Within Flender, however, an adequate level of data protection is guaranteed through binding internal data protection guidelines also in countries other than Germany.
Please let us know f you do not want us to transfer your personal data, including, without limitation, your name, to countries other than Germany (unless this is necessary to safeguard the legitimate interests of Flender). Please note, however, that, as a consequence, we may not be able to give full consideration to your report.
Notification of affected parties:
It is frequently required by law that the persons about which a report on indications of a compliance violation has been received have to be notified and heard. In the course of the investigation, these persons will have the opportunity to present their view about the report.
Please let us know if you do not want us to give your name as the whistleblower. Please note that the person affected may have legal rights to information which may require us to disclose your name. Government agencies may also have similar rights to information or confiscation which will result in disclosure of your name. This may be the case in particular if the person affected claims that the information brought forward against him/her is knowingly or negligently untrue and decides to file charges.
Storing personal data:
The personal information you provided will be retained as long as necessary for investigating and resolving the compliance report including the remediation of any shortcomings discovered and the handling of any ensuing litigation. Your personal data will be retained even longer if this is required due to legal, regulatory or contractual obligations to retain records or if it is permitted by law. Your personal data will be deleted as soon as this is required by law.
Consent and voluntary nature:
As you enter information into the whistleblowing system, the system will ask for your consent to the collection, processing and use of your personal data included in the information as described above. Please note that you can only proceed to the report form after you have clicked on the data processing consent box.
If you do not want Flender to collect, process and use your personal data as described, you may submit your report anonymously. The disclosure of your personal data is voluntary, as is the use of the whistleblowing system. However, we would appreciate it if you could give us your name. Many investigations can be conducted more quickly and efficiently if the name of the whistleblower is known, since the examiner can get in touch with the whistleblowing directly.
By using this whistleblowing system, you agree that your personal data, to the extent provided by you, will be collected, processed and used as described above.
Flender GmbH, Legal & Compliance