Privacy Policy
FFBS- Fashion for Biodiversity Solutions GmbH
Who we are?
Our website address is: https://fashionforbiodiversity.com.
Our app is FFBS-ID.
A. Website Privacy Policy
FFBS-Fashion For Biodiversity Solutions GmbH (hereinafter referred to as “FFBS”, “fashion for biodiversity”, “we” or “us”) would like to thank you for visiting our website and your interest in fashion for biodiversity. Your privacy and the security of your personal data are important to us. Additionally, transparency is one of our core values. Therefore, we would like to provide you with some information about which personal data is stored when you visit our website and what these personal details are used for. Please be aware that both legislation and our company progress. Thus, our privacy policy might need to be adjusted accordingly. We kindly request that you regularly read the most current version.
The processing of personal data, such as the name, address, e-mail address, or telephone number of a data subject shall always be in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and in accordance with the country-specific data protection regulations applicable to the FFBS-Fashion For Biodiversity Solutions GmbH. By means of this data protection declaration, our enterprise would like to inform the general public of the nature, scope, and purpose of the personal data we collect, use and process. Furthermore, data subjects are informed, by means of this data protection declaration, of the rights to which they are entitled.
As the controller, the FFBS-Fashion For Biodiversity Solutions GmbH has implemented numerous technical and organizational measures to ensure the most complete protection of personal data processed through this website. However, Internet-based data transmissions may in principle have security gaps, so absolute protection may not be guaranteed. For this reason, every data subject is free to transfer personal data to us via alternative means, e.g. by telephone.
1. Definitions
The data protection declaration of the FFBS-Fashion For Biodiversity Solutions GmbH is based on the terms used by the European legislator for the adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Our data protection declaration should be legible and understandable for the general public, as well as our customers and business partners. To ensure this, we would like to first explain the terminology used. In this data protection declaration, we use, inter alia, the following terms:
1.1. What is personal data?
Personal data means any information concerning the personal or material circumstances of an identified or identifiable individual (the data subject). These include for example your name, address, telephone number, date of birth or e-mail address. Information which we cannot link to your person (or only after an unreasonable amount of research because the personal data has been masked) is not regarded as personal data.
1.2. What is data processing?
Processing is any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal data or on sets of personal data, whether or not by automated means, such as collection, recording, organization, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction.
1.3. What are restrictions of data processing?
Restriction of processing is the marking of stored personal data with the aim of limiting their processing in the future.
1.4. What is profiling?
Profiling means any form of automated processing of personal data consisting of the use of personal data to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person, in particular to analyze or predict aspects concerning that natural person’s performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behavior, location or movements.
1.5. What is pseudonymization?
Pseudonymization is the processing of personal data in such a manner that the personal data can no longer be attributed to a specific data subject without the use of additional information, provided that such additional information is kept separately and is subject to technical and organizational measures to ensure that the personal data are not attributed to an identified or identifiable natural person.
1.6. What is the controller for the processing?
Controller or controller responsible for the processing is the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data; where the purposes and means of such processing are determined by Union or Member State law, the controller or the specific criteria for its nomination may be provided for by Union or Member State law.
1.7. What is the processor?
Processor is a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller.
1.8. What is the recipient?
Recipient is a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or another body, to which the personal data are disclosed, whether a third party or not. However, public authorities which may receive personal data in the framework of a particular inquiry in accordance with Union or Member State law shall not be regarded as recipients; the processing of those data by those public authorities shall be in compliance with the applicable data protection rules according to the purposes of the processing.
1.9. What is the third party?
Third party is a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or body other than the data subject, controller, processor and persons who, under the direct authority of the controller or processor, are authorised to process personal data.
1.10. What is the consent?
Consent of the data subject is any freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the data subject’s wishes by which he or she, by a statement or by a clear affirmative action, signifies agreement to the processing of personal data relating to him or her.
2. Name and Address of the controller?
Controller for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), other data protection laws applicable in Member states of the European Union and other provisions related to data protection.
3. What personal data do we collect and proc ess?
Information that is collected automatically: As soon as you visit our websites, we collect and store certain information automatically. This information includes Internet protocol addresses (IP), the type and version of browser you are using, your operating system and platform, including the uniform resource locator (URL). We store this data in a completely anonymous way.
Information that you provide us with: Personal data you share with us in the course of submitting a request for a demo or a private message remains completely confidential. This includes, for example, your contact data, and your company information, and your telephone number.
3.1 Comments
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
3.2 Note on Images
If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.
4. What does FFBS use your personal data for?
FFBS uses your personal data exclusively to offer you the most comprehensive range of services via the FFBS websites or to react to your enquiries as efficiently as possible. No other use of your personal data is made. Your personal data is not passed to Third Parties, nor is it used for the purpose of advertising unless you have expressly permitted us to do so.
We use your Personal Information for the following purposes:
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To provide and operate the Services;
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To further develop, customize, expand, and improve our Services, based on Users’ common or personal preferences, experiences, and difficulties;
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To provide our Users with ongoing customer assistance and technical support;
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To be able to contact our Users with general or personalized service-related notices and promotional messages
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To help us to update, expand and analyze our records to identify new customers;
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To facilitate, sponsor, and offer certain contests, events, and promotions, determine participants’ eligibility, monitor performance, contact winners, and grant prizes and benefits;
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To create aggregated statistical data and other aggregated and/or inferred information, which we or our business partners may use to provide and improve our respective services;
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To provide you with professional assistance, only upon your request;
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To enhance our data security and fraud prevention capabilities; and
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To comply with any applicable laws and regulations.
We use your Personal Information for the purposes set out in this section where:
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Our use of your Personal Information is necessary to perform a contract or to take steps to enter into a contract with you (e.g. to provide you with a platform access, to provide you with our customer assistance and technical support);
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Our use of your Personal Information is necessary to comply with a relevant legal or regulatory obligation that we have; or
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Our use of your Personal Information is necessary to support legitimate interests and business purposes (for example, to maintain and improve our Services and the effectiveness of FFBS ID by identifying technical issues), provided it is conducted in a way that is proportionate and that respects your privacy rights.
When subscribing to the free Newsletter you grant FFBS permission to inform you about the most current news, services, events and special offers in your area of interest at irregular intervals. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link provided at the bottom of the newsletter.
5. Cookies
The Internet pages of the FFBS-Fashion For Biodiversity Solutions GmbH use cookies. Cookies are text files that are stored in a computer system via an Internet browser.
Many Internet sites and servers use cookies. Many cookies contain a so-called cookie ID. A cookie ID is a unique identifier of the cookie. It consists of a character string through which Internet pages and servers can be assigned to the specific Internet browser in which the cookie was stored. This allows visited Internet sites and servers to differentiate the individual browser of the data subject from other Internet browsers that contain other cookies. A specific Internet browser can be recognized and identified using the unique cookie ID.
To find out more, please visit [All About Cookies.](https://www.allaboutcookies.org/)
Through the use of cookies, the FFBS-Fashion For Biodiversity Solutions GmbH can provide the users of this website with more user-friendly services that would not be possible without the cookie setting.
By means of a cookie, the information and offers on our website can be optimized with the user in mind. Cookies allow us, as previously mentioned, to recognize our website users. The purpose of this recognition is to make it easier for users to utilize our website. The website user that uses cookies, e.g. does not have to enter access data each time the website is accessed, because this is taken over by the website, and the cookie is thus stored on the user’s computer system.
The data subject may, at any time, prevent the setting of cookies through our website by means of a corresponding setting of the Internet browser used, and may thus permanently deny the setting of cookies. Furthermore, already set cookies may be deleted at any time via an Internet browser or other software programs. This is possible in all popular Internet browsers. If the data subject deactivates the setting of cookies in the Internet browser used, not all functions of our website may be entirely usable.
5.1 Embedded content from other website
Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.
These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
>> BiodiversityCert©
The FFBS-Fashion for Biodiversity Solutions introducing Biodiversity-Cert, is the first ever blockchain based RegTech certification body (CB) for the fashion industry, which employs spatial data and AI to provide reliable and accurate information, related to the organic condition of a farm.
FFBS uses satellite supervision for geo-referencing, which validates the farm and delivers data on land use, history and crop modelling. Moreover, FFBS also integrates data from IoT (Internet of Things) devices, which is to provide soil health and detect the use of chemicals, during the growth period. Besides satellite and IoT, there is a physical auditing by certified inspectors, who are supposed to visit and examine the farm with drones, to record real time data. This is stored into blockchain, and is further used for report generation and biodiversity analysis. The process is known as triangular auditing.
( 1 ) We use data from ESA Copernicus Sentinel 1 & 2 satellites to ensure raw material farming is sustainable. This starts with the geofencing of a specific farm. Wireless network technology sends the data from this piece of land to our control room in Germany, on a weekly basis.
First, the organic, and non-organic nature of the top soil can be analyzed. Spatial data can be used to improve the efficiency and sustainability of raw material production by suggesting new methods, to reduce water use and eradicate chemical applications.
( 2 ) IoT is an advanced device that merges nano-embedded sensors, wireless network technology, cloud computing, and big data analytics. The idea of integrating IoT in raw material farming, is to improve traditional agriculture methods, through a new spectrum of sustainable smart agriculture methods. We offer a blockchain-backed IoT, to track and record activities on the farm.
With our easy-to-use traceability tool, it is easier to record the status, right from seeding to ready crop by scanning the bar or QR code. Moreover, our IoT can help farmers in irrigation and weather management, pest and weed control, etc. On our part, IoT will alarm us with undeclared use of toxic yield-enhancing chemicals in the farmland.
( 3 ) We also ensure an annual forensic audit by our inspector carrying a drone with a high-tech embedded sensor, and collect samples (soil, water, crop and plants) for laboratory examinations. The Remotely Piloted Aircraft System (RPAS) technology can also capture required data from out-of-reach terrain, on the farmlands. Drones can help provide a range of solutions for sustainable farming, and remove the need for chemicals. It can be used in obtaining aerial imagery for the identification of disease and other agricultural challenges. Nano-embedded sensors inside our drone, can detect the presence of non-organic components on the leaf, stem, and soil surface. It will send us an alarm, if non-compliant activities have been performed.
Forensic Inspectors will personally collect the samples of cotton plant, cotton flower, soil, water etc. for further lab examination. This will involve DNA profiling and gene sequencing, to ensure appropriate origin, and composition. Integrity proofing is done using techniques and tests, on samples such as chemical tests for pesticides level/presence, microbial isolation & classifications and DNA fingerprinting. These laboratory tests will also check the sustainability of the environment, and neighbouring factors such as other crops, water reservoirs, farmer’s health, soil fertility, microbial ecosystem etc.
>> AREAS OF SERVICE
We are initiating services in the Indian sub-continent and Africa. At present, we offer (EU Organic) 2018/848 and NPOP (under accreditation process) certification service for textile crops like cotton, flax, hemp, jute, ramie, silk etc. We give our clients a complete digital experience from application to certificate. We are expected to expand our services with more accreditation worldwide soon.
Our focus crop includes the following:
>> Cotton: Cotton is the most used natural fiber for apparel, with an approximate 24 percent share of the global fiber production. Roughly 0.95 percent of the total cotton harvest is organic. Over 229,000 farmers are estimated to be involved in organic cotton farming. More than 99% of cotton is still non-organic, or uses the conventional way of agriculture with high use of fertilizers, pesticides, and chemical weed controlling. Rivers, lakes, wetlands, and subterranean aquifers are contaminated by the runoff of pesticides, fertilizers, and minerals from cotton farms. However, FFBS helps in supporting organic cotton production, which leads to less carbon emission. It also avoids water contamination, because it is produced without chemical-usage.
>> Flax: Flax is the plant that produces the fibers that are spun into linen thread, and then woven into cloth. Organic flax represents only 0.01% (approx.) of the production worldwide. Flax is one of the most environmentfriendly crops, however, the retting process requires toxic chemicals, which makes it harmful. It needs a little more than hemp, but substantially less than cotton, in terms of fertilizers and insecticides. FFBS provides guidelines to ensure the organic production of linen, and study the circularity of the crop, because of its wide range of applications.
>> Hemp: Hemp is one of the strongest of available natural fibers, for textile processing. Hemp fabric is a sustainable textile, made of fibers, of a very high-yielding crop in the cannabis sativa plant family. It requires less in the way of pesticides or herbicides, and increases soil fertility in the areas, where it is produced. But hemp growers often battle mold, caterpillars, and aphids, as some of the most common pests. Many types of moth and butterfly larvae feed on hemp plants, as they tunnel down into the buds, which is harmed by the insecticides often used. Thus, reducing the organic integrity of the crop and quality of fiber. FFBS makes way for growing it organically, which can be a beneficial alternative for the environment and climate change.
>> Jute: is type of plant fiber, which is widely known for its ability to be spun into strong and coarse threads. Jute has a long history of use in the sacking, carpets, wrapping fabrics (cotton bale), and construction fabric manufacturing industry. It is a yearly renewable resource with a high biomass production per unit of land area, and jute-fiber conversion releases a lot of waste, which acts as a major pollutant. Moreover, the retting process which is similar to flax, utilizing acidic chemicals, which destroys the bacteria and fiber’s organic content. With the help of FFBS, the circularity of jute production, can be maintained and guidelines to reduce chemicals, in the processing will be advised.
>> Ramie: Ramie is one of the oldest fiber crops, used for at least 6,000 years, for fabric production. It is a bast fiber, which comes from the inner bark (phloem) of the vegetative stalks, and not the woody stem itself, or the outer bark. Besides being a perennial plant, the conversion of ramie into fabric, is much more harmful than other crops. About 20-40% of the ramie bark is gummy, and the process of isolating the raw fiber from the gum is difficult. Chemical, enzymatic or microbial methods are used for degumming. FFBS ensures, the damage ramie creates to get converted into a fiber is neutralized, using natural methods, without the use of chemicals.
>> Silk: it is the most elegant textile in the world with distinctive grandeur and natural radiance. Presently, less than 0.01% of silk produced globally, is organic. The process of silk production has both aspects of horticulture and livestock rearing. It involves nurturing of silkworms to produce filaments. The process of horticulture, uses pesticides in mulberry plantation, to produce the high yield hybrid quality. Though Mulberry is a perennial crop, with good foliage and root-spread. Moreover, livestock rearing uses chemicals for genetic manipulation. The process of degumming utilizes enzymatic chemicals, with soaps alkalis which destroy the organic integrity. The boiling of cocoons is also a cruel process, done using sodium carbonate, as cooking chemical for large-scale reeling establishments. With the system of FFBS, we can help silk farmers, produce in an organic way with our new-age technology. Our guidelines will help find alternative to cruelty and avoid chemical usage.