Personal data (usually referred to just as “data” below) will only be processed by us to the extent necessary and for the purpose of providing a functional and user-friendly Visual Studio Code Extension.

Per Art. 4 No. 1 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, i.e. the General Data Protection Regulation (hereinafter referred to as the “GDPR”), “processing” refers to any operation or set of operations such as collection, recording, organization, structuring, storage, adaptation, alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination, or otherwise making available, alignment, or combination, restriction, erasure, or destruction performed on personal data, whether by automated means or not.

The following privacy policy is intended to inform you in particular about the type, scope, purpose, duration, and legal basis for the processing of such data either under our own control or in conjunction with others.

Our privacy policy is structured as follows:

I. Information about us as controllers of your data
II. The rights of users and data subjects
III. Information about the data processing

I. Information about us as controllers of your data

The party responsible for the SemanticDiff Visual Studio Code Extension (the “controller”) for purposes of data protection law is:

Sysmagine GmbH
Hans-Bunte-Str. 8-10
69123 Heidelberg
Germany

Telephone: +49 6221 41646-00
Email: info@sysmagine.com

II. The rights of users and data subjects

With regard to the data processing to be described in more detail below, users and data subjects have the right

• to revoke their consent at any time (cf. also Art. 7 Para. 3 GDPR);
• to confirmation of whether data concerning them is being processed, information about the data being processed, further information about the nature of the data processing, and copies of the data (cf. also Art. 15 GDPR);
• to correct or complete incorrect or incomplete data (cf. also Art. 16 GDPR);
• to the immediate deletion of data concerning them (cf. also Art. 17 DSGVO), or, alternatively, if further processing is necessary as stipulated in Art. 17 Para. 3 GDPR, to restrict said processing per Art. 18 GDPR;
• to receive copies of the data concerning them and/or provided by them and to have the same transmitted to other providers/controllers (cf. also Art. 20 GDPR);
• to object to the processing of personal data concerning them (cf. also Art. 21 GDPR);
• to file complaints with the supervisory authority if they believe that data concerning them is being processed by the controller in breach of data protection provisions (see also Art. 77 GDPR).

In addition, the controller is obliged to inform all recipients to whom it discloses data of any such corrections, deletions, or restrictions placed on processing the same per Art. 16, 17 Para. 1, 18 GDPR. However, this obligation does not apply if such notification is impossible or involves a disproportionate effort. Nevertheless, users have a right to information about these recipients.

Likewise, under Art. 21 GDPR, users and data subjects have the right to object to the controller’s future processing of their data pursuant to Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f) GDPR. In particular, an objection to data processing for the purpose of direct advertising is permissible.

III. Information about the data processing

In order to continuously improve our products, the SemanticDiff Visual Studio Code Extension (“SemanticDiff”) collects anonymous usage data and sends it to us. Collection of telemetry data can be controlled via the same setting provided by Visual Studio Code: "telemetry.enableTelemetry". Usage data is only sent when the telemetry level is set to all.

You can opt-out at any time by changing the telemetry level setting "telemetry.enableTelemetry" in Visual Studio Code to error, crash or off. For more details on how to opt-out, please check the VS Code documentation.

The following sections describe which data is collected and transferred to our servers (Telemetry data) and which data is collected during the transfer (Server data).

Telemetry data

To improve our extension, we measure, collect and analyze certain telemetry data when you are using SemanticDiff. This includes the following information:

• Operating system information (processor architecture, name, version number)
• Visual Studio Code Installation (application name, version number)
• Information about SemanticDiff (version number)
• A random unique identifier that changes every 24 hours
• Date and time when the event occurred

This information is collected and transferred to our servers during certain events, for example, when you generate a diff with SemanticDiff. The following events collect additional information:

Successful generation of a diff

• File extension of the files being compared
• Whether comments are hidden
• Timing information and internal statistics about the diff generation

Failed generation of a diff

• File extension of the files being compared
• Type or category of the error

The basis for this storage is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in the improvement, stability and functionality of SemanticDiff. Without the data, we would not be able to provide you the product we are currently offering to you. Your data will be used only to improve the user experience of SemanticDiff.

The telemetry data is hosted on our own servers located in Germany. The data will be deleted after a period of 6 months.

Server data

For technical reasons, our servers collect the following data when SemanticDiff transfers telemetry data to us: The version of SemanticDiff, the date and time of the transfer, as well as the IP address from which your VS Code application accessed our server.

The data thus collected will be temporarily stored, but not in association with any other of your data.

The basis for this storage is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in the improvement, stability, functionality, and security of our server.

The data will be deleted within no more than seven days, unless continued storage is required for evidentiary purposes. In which case, all or part of the data will be excluded from deletion until the investigation of the relevant incident is finally resolved.

Based on the Model Data Protection Statement by Anwaltskanzlei Weiß & Partner
This privacy statement was last updated January 28, 2023.