Version: 08/2026
With this privacy notice, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (hereinafter HHU) fulfils its duty to inform under Articles 13 and 14 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) with regard to the use of the website https://outcyte.proteome.hhu.de. This web application, OutCyte, computes a prediction from sequence data that you submit as a file in FASTA format. Among other things, it predicts the presence of a signal peptide and whether a protein is unconventionally secreted. The web application is designed so that as little personal data as possible arises: there are no user accounts and no registration. The processing of your personal data when using these pages for information purposes is based on Art. 6(1)(e), (3) GDPR in conjunction with (3) DSG NRW in conjunction with § 8(6) HG NRW.
With regard to the terms “personal data”, “processing”, “controller”, “third party” and so on, reference is made to the definitions in Article 4 GDPR.
The controller is HHU, a body governed by public law with legal capacity, maintained by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is represented by its Rector, Prof. Dr. Anja Steinbeck.
You can reach the university's official data protection officer by post at the address of the controller given above, or as follows:
Each time content of the web application is accessed, data that may permit identification is stored there temporarily.
The following data is collected:
This data is stored in log files.
When you submit a FASTA file, it is processed in order to compute the prediction you requested. In detail:
The temporary storage of the IP address by the system is necessary in order to deliver the content to the user's computer. For this, the user's IP address must remain stored for the duration of the session.
Storing the data in log files serves to optimise the web application and to ensure that it functions correctly and securely. The counter in the access log additionally serves to assess the load on the service and its usage.
The legal basis for the temporary storage of the data and the log files is Art. 6(1)(e), (3) GDPR in conjunction with § 3 HG NRW, and Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR in conjunction with Art. 32(1)(d) GDPR.
The data required to deliver the content and to optimise the web application is deleted when the respective session ends.
Entries in the error and security log are deleted automatically after seven days at the latest. Where there is a concrete reason in an individual case, such as an attack on the service, the entries concerned are retained for as long as is necessary to investigate.
The truncated IP addresses stored in the access log do not permit any conclusions about individual persons.
Result tables and identifiers are deleted 24 hours after the predictions have been completed; uploaded files are deleted once processing has begun (see 2.1).
The service runs on infrastructure owned by HHU and provided by its Centre for Information and Media Technology (ZIM). ZIM is a unit of the university and therefore part of the controller; no processing under Art. 28 GDPR takes place in this respect. No data is transferred to third parties or to third countries.
This web application does not use cookies. No information is stored on your device or read from it. There is no analysis, audience measurement or other tracking, and no third-party content — such as fonts or scripts — is loaded.
Since no information is stored on or read from your device, consent under § 25(1) TDDDG (a cookie banner) is not required.
When you contact us (for example by e-mail or telephone), the details provided by the enquiring person are processed to the extent necessary to answer the enquiry and to take any measures requested.
If you contact us via the e-mail address provided, the personal data transmitted with the e-mail is stored.
In this context, the data is not passed on to third parties. It is used exclusively for handling the conversation.
The legal basis for processing data transmitted in the course of sending an e-mail is Art. 6(1)(e), (3) GDPR in conjunction with § 3(1) DSG NRW in conjunction with § 3(1) sentence 1 HG NRW. The processing follows from HHU's public mandate to conduct research and knowledge transfer and, within that mandate, to provide scientific services for research and teaching and to inform about them. It is necessary in order to provide users with the information they have themselves requested about this web application, for example in the case of technical questions, error reports or enquiries about a particular result.
In individual cases that do not concern the performance of public tasks, the legal basis is the user's consent under Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR.
The data is deleted as soon as it is no longer necessary to achieve the purpose for which it was collected. For personal data sent by e-mail, this is the case when the respective conversation has ended. A conversation has ended when it is apparent from the circumstances that the matter concerned has been conclusively settled.
In the course of processing your submissions at HHU, the following data of yours
is processed for the following purposes:
The data is collected directly from you.
The service is not intended for processing personal data. When using it, you undertake not to enter any personal data — in particular no genetic data within the meaning of Art. 4(13) GDPR — neither in the sequences themselves nor in the identifiers in the FASTA headers. Further provisions are set out in the terms of use.
The job identifier is your access key: every submission receives a random identifier. Whoever knows this identifier can retrieve the corresponding result; there is no further authentication. There is no overview from which identifiers could be discovered. Please therefore treat the identifier as confidential and pass it on only to people who are allowed to see the result.
As a rule, we do not transfer your personal data processed by HHU for the purposes stated above to third parties. We point out, however, that the IT departments or a service provider may have access in the course of maintenance work.
Your data is not transferred to recipients outside the EU or the EEA.
Your personal data is processed on the basis of the provisions of the GDPR and of the state data protection act, as well as any other relevant legislation. This is done only for the purposes stated above.
The legal basis for processing personal data for the purposes stated above is Art. 6(1)(e), (3) GDPR in conjunction with § 3(1) DSG NRW in conjunction with § 3 HG NRW. The processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest, namely providing this scientific service and ensuring its secure and functional operation.
The submitted data is deleted as follows:
As a data subject you may exercise the rights granted to you by the GDPR at any time:
Since the processing is based on Art. 6(1)(e) GDPR, you have the right to object at any time, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to the processing of your data.
Where the processing is based on your consent (cf. Art. 6(1)(1)(a), Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR), you also have the right to withdraw that consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out on the basis of the consent before its withdrawal; the withdrawal takes effect only for the future.
You can exercise the right to erasure under Art. 17 GDPR for a submission directly yourself: the “Delete job and data” button on the status page removes the job and all associated data immediately. If the computation is already running, it is discarded and no result is stored.
Since no information about your person is stored with any submission, a submission cannot be attributed without the job identifier. When enquiring about a particular result, please therefore quote the identifier.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority under Art. 77 GDPR if you consider that the processing of personal data relating to you infringes the GDPR. The competent supervisory authority for HHU in North Rhine-Westphalia is
We would be grateful, however, if you would contact our data protection officer before turning to a supervisory authority. We will do our best to address your concern.
We reserve the right to amend this privacy notice in order to adapt it to changes in relevant laws or regulations, or to serve your needs better. This privacy notice applies in the version most recently published by HHU.