Privacy Policy

This website is operated by SKID Decode Deutsch Language Institute Private Limited, an Indian company incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013. Our registered office is in Madhya Pradesh, India. Our teaching operations are led by Shalini K. Dubey, based in Dresden, Germany.

Contact:

• Email: decodegerman@gmail.com
• Phone / WhatsApp: +49 15900 4836675 (Germany) | +91 98712 05947 (India)
• Website: www.decodegerman.com

We collect personal data only when you voluntarily provide it to us — specifically when you submit an enquiry through our contact form or reach out via WhatsApp or email. The data we collect includes:

• First name and last name
• Email address
• Phone number / WhatsApp number
• Your current German level (if provided)
• The course you are interested in (if provided)
• Any message or information you choose to share with us

We use this data solely to respond to your enquiry and, if you enrol, to manage your course participation. We do not use it for automated profiling, advertising targeting, or any purpose other than communicating with you directly.

For visitors from the European Union, we process your personal data on the following legal bases under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

• Article 6(1)(b) — Processing is necessary to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract (i.e., responding to your course enquiry).
• Article 6(1)(f) — Processing is necessary for our legitimate interest in communicating with prospective and enrolled students.
• Article 6(1)(a) — Where you have given your consent, for example by subscribing to updates.

Our website uses Google Fonts to display text. Google Fonts files are loaded from Google's servers, which means your IP address is transmitted to Google when you visit our site. This occurs as a technical necessity for the fonts to display correctly.

Google LLC is the data controller for this processing. For more information, see Google's Privacy Policy at policies.google.com/privacy. The legal basis for this processing is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR — our legitimate interest in presenting a readable, well-designed website.

Our website does not use advertising or tracking cookies. We use only technically necessary cookies that are required for the website to function — for example, to remember your language preference or session state. These cookies do not collect personal data and do not require your consent under ePrivacy law.

For full details on cookies used, please see our Cookie Policy.

We do not sell, rent, or share your personal data with third parties for their own marketing purposes. Your data may be accessed by:

• Shalini K. Dubey and Decode German teaching staff, for the purpose of managing your enrolment and course communication.
• IT service providers who host and maintain this website (Vercel, Inc. — our hosting provider), who process data strictly on our behalf under contractual data processing agreements.
• WhatsApp (Meta Platforms), if you choose to contact us via WhatsApp. In that case, Meta's own privacy policy governs that communication.

We do not transfer your data to any other third parties.

We retain your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected:

• Enquiry data (contact form submissions): retained for up to 2 years, or until you request deletion.
• Enrolled student data: retained for up to 5 years following the end of your last course, for the purpose of re-enrolment support and administrative records.
• Payment-related records: retained for 7 years to comply with Indian accounting and tax regulations.

After these periods, your data is securely deleted or anonymised.

If you are located in the European Union, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right of access (Art. 15): You may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Right to rectification (Art. 16): You may ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Right to erasure (Art. 17): You may request that we delete your personal data, subject to legal retention obligations.
• Right to restriction (Art. 18): You may ask us to restrict how we process your data.
• Right to data portability (Art. 20): You may request your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Right to object (Art. 21): You may object to processing based on our legitimate interests.
• Right to withdraw consent (Art. 7(3)): Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at decodegerman@gmail.com. We will respond within 30 days. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority — in Germany, this is the relevant Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz in your state.

Our services are intended for adults aged 18 and above. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 18. If you believe a child has submitted data to us, please contact us immediately at decodegerman@gmail.com and we will delete it promptly.

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The effective date at the top of this page will reflect the date of the latest revision. For significant changes, we will notify enrolled students by email. We encourage you to review this page periodically.

For any questions, concerns, or requests relating to this Privacy Policy or your personal data, please contact: