Liability for the content of this website

We are constantly developing the content of this website and endeavor to provide correct and up-to-date information. Unfortunately, we cannot accept any liability for the accuracy of all content on this website, especially that provided by third parties.

If you notice any problematic or illegal content, please contact us immediately. You will find the contact details in the legal notice.

Liability for links on this website

Our website contains links to other websites for whose content we are not responsible. Liability for linked websites does not exist for us according to § 17 ECG, as we had and have no knowledge of illegal activities, we have not noticed such illegalities so far and we would remove links immediately if we became aware of illegalities.

If you notice any illegal links on our website, please contact us, you will find the contact details in the legal notice.

Copyright notice

All content on this website (images, photos, texts, videos) is subject to copyright. If necessary, we will legally prosecute the unauthorized use of parts of the contents of our site.

If you find any content on this website that violates copyright law, please contact us.

Copyright pictures

The images, photos and graphics on this website are protected by copyright.

The image rights are held by the following photographers and companies:

• Eva-Maria Seunig

• WordPress.com 

EU dispute resolution

In accordance with the Regulation on Online Dispute Resolution in Consumer Matters (ODR Regulation), we would like to inform you about the online dispute resolution platform (ODR platform).
Consumers have the opportunity to submit complaints to the European Commission’s online dispute resolution platform at http://ec.europa.eu/odr?tid=121417656. You will find the necessary contact details above in our legal notice.

However, we would like to point out that we are not willing or obliged to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.

Table of contents

• Introduction and overview

• Area of application

• Legal basis

• Contact details of the person responsible

• Storage duration

• Rights under the General Data Protection Regulation

• Data transfer to third countries

• Security of data processing

• Communication

• Data processing agreement (DPA)

• Cookies

• Web Analytics Introduction

• Email marketing introduction

• Messenger & Communication Introduction

• Social media introduction

• Blogs and publication media Introduction

• Content Delivery Networks Introduction

• Cookie Consent Management Platform Introduction

• Security & Anti-Spam

• Cloud services

• External online platforms Introduction

• Credit rating agencies Introduction

• Audio & Video Introduction

• Video conferencing & streaming Introduction

• Survey and interview systems Introduction

• Web design introduction

• Online map services Introduction

• Content search providers Introduction

• Explanation of terms used

• Closing words

Introduction and overview

We have prepared this privacy policy (version 05.03.2025-112958543) in order to explain to you, in accordance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and applicable national laws, which personal data (data for short) we as the controller – and the processors commissioned by us (e.g. providers) – process, will process in the future and what lawful options you have. The terms used are to be understood as gender-neutral.
In short: We provide you with comprehensive information about the data we process about you.

Data protection declarations usually sound very technical and use legal jargon. This privacy policy, on the other hand, is intended to describe the most important things to you as simply and transparently as possible. Where it is conducive to transparency, technical terms are explained in a reader-friendly way, links to further information are provided and graphics are used. We thus inform you in clear and simple language that we only process personal data as part of our business activities if there is a corresponding legal basis. This is certainly not possible by providing explanations that are as concise, unclear and legally technical as possible, as is often standard on the Internet when it comes to data protection. I hope you find the following explanations interesting and informative and perhaps there is one or two pieces of information that you did not yet know.
If you still have questions, we would ask you to contact the responsible body named below or in the legal notice , to follow the links provided and to look at further information on third-party sites. Our contact details can of course also be found in the legal notice.

Area of application

This privacy policy applies to all personal data processed by us in the company and to all personal data processed by companies commissioned by us (processors). By personal data, we mean information within the meaning of Art. 4 No. 1 GDPR, such as a person’s name, email address and postal address. The processing of personal data ensures that we can offer and bill our services and products, whether online or offline. The scope of this privacy policy includes

• all online presences (websites, online stores) that we operate

• Social media presence and e-mail communication

• Mobile apps for smartphones and other devices

In short, the privacy policy applies to all areas in which personal data is processed in the company in a structured manner via the channels mentioned. If we enter into legal relationships with you outside of these channels, we will inform you separately if necessary.

Legal basis

In the following privacy policy, we provide you with transparent information on the legal principles and regulations, i.e. the legal bases of the General Data Protection Regulation, which enable us to process personal data.
As far as EU law is concerned, we refer to REGULATION (EU) 2016/679 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of April 27, 2016. You can of course read this EU General Data Protection Regulation online at EUR-Lex, the gateway to EU law, at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/DE/ALL/?uri=celex%3A32016R0679.

We only process your data if at least one of the following conditions applies:

1. Consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR): You have given us your consent to process data for a specific purpose. An example would be the storage of the data you entered in a contact form.

2. Contract (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR): In order to fulfill a contract or pre-contractual obligations with you, we process your data. For example, if we conclude a purchase contract with you, we need personal information in advance.

3. Legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c) GDPR): If we are subject to a legal obligation, we process your data. For example, we are legally obliged to keep invoices for accounting purposes. These usually contain personal data.

4. Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR): In the case of legitimate interests that do not restrict your fundamental rights, we reserve the right to process personal data. For example, we need to process certain data in order to operate our website securely and efficiently. This processing is therefore a legitimate interest.

Other conditions such as recording in the public interest, the exercise of official authority and the protection of vital interests do not generally apply to us. If such a legal basis is relevant, it will be indicated at the appropriate point.

In addition to the EU regulation, national laws also apply:

• In Austria, this is the Federal Act on the Protection of Natural Persons with regard to the Processing of Personal Data (Data Protection Act), or DSG for short.

• In Germany, the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) applies.

If other regional or national laws apply, we will inform you of this in the following sections.

Contact details of the person responsible

If you have any questions about data protection or the processing of personal data, you will find below the contact details of the controller in accordance with Article 4(7) of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

Eva-Maria Seunig, BA MA
C/Barcelona 1B, casa 2
07609 Llucmajor
Spain

Phone: +34 634 694853
E-mail:    evamaria@emsoulutions.com
Tax no. UID: ESX8768930L

Storage duration

It is a general criterion for us that we only store personal data for as long as is absolutely necessary for the provision of our services and products. This means that we delete personal data as soon as the reason for the data processing no longer exists. In some cases, we are legally obliged to store certain data even after the original purpose has ceased to exist, for example for accounting purposes.

If you wish your data to be deleted or revoke your consent to data processing, the data will be deleted as quickly as possible and insofar as there is no obligation to store it.

We will inform you below about the specific duration of the respective data processing if we have further information on this.

Rights under the General Data Protection Regulation

In accordance with Articles 13, 14 GDPR, we inform you of the following rights to which you are entitled in order to ensure fair and transparent processing of data:

• According to Article 15 GDPR, you have a right to information as to whether we process your data. If this is the case, you have the right to receive a copy of the data and the following information:

  • the purpose for which we carry out the processing;

  • the categories, i.e. the types of data that are processed;

  • who receives this data and, if the data is transferred to third countries, how security can be guaranteed;

  • how long the data will be stored;

  • the existence of the right to rectification, erasure or restriction of processing and the right to object to processing;

  • that you can lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (links to these authorities can be found below);

  • the origin of the data if we have not collected it from you;

  • whether profiling is carried out, i.e. whether data is automatically analyzed in order to create a personal profile of you.

• According to Article 16 GDPR, you have a right to rectification of data, which means that we must correct data if you find errors.

• According to Article 17 GDPR, you have the right to erasure (“right to be forgotten”), which specifically means that you may request the erasure of your data.

• According to Article 18 GDPR, you have the right to restriction of processing, which means that we may only store the data but not use it any further.

• According to Article 20 GDPR, you have the right to data portability, which means that we will provide you with your data in a commonly used format upon request.

• According to Article 21 GDPR, you have the right to object, which will result in a change in the processing after enforcement.

  • If the processing of your data is based on Article 6(1)(e) (public interest, exercise of official authority) or Article 6(1)(f) (legitimate interest), you can object to the processing. We will then check as quickly as possible whether we can legally comply with this objection.

  • If data is used for direct marketing purposes, you can object to this type of data processing at any time. We may then no longer use your data for direct marketing.

  • If data is used for profiling purposes, you can object to this type of data processing at any time. We may then no longer use your data for profiling.

• Under Article 22 GDPR, you may have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (e.g. profiling).

• According to Article 77 GDPR, you have the right to lodge a complaint. This means that you can lodge a complaint with the data protection authority at any time if you believe that the processing of personal data violates the GDPR.

In short: You have rights – do not hesitate to contact the responsible office listed above!

If you believe that the processing of your data violates data protection law or that your data protection rights have been violated in any other way, you can lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority. For Austria, this is the data protection authority, whose website can be found at https://www.dsb.gv.at/. In Germany, there is a data protection officer for each federal state. For more information, you can contact the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI). The following local data protection authority is responsible for our company:

Data transfer to third countries

We only transfer or process data to countries outside the scope of the GDPR (third countries) if you consent to this processing or other legal permission exists. This applies in particular if the processing is required by law or necessary to fulfill a contractual relationship and in any case only to the extent that this is generally permitted. In most cases, your consent is the most important reason why we process data in third countries. The processing of personal data in third countries such as the USA, where many software manufacturers offer services and have their server locations, may mean that personal data is processed and stored in unexpected ways.

We expressly point out that, in the opinion of the European Court of Justice, an adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA currently only exists if a US company that processes personal data of EU citizens in the USA is an active participant in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. You can find more information on this at: https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en

Data processing by US services that are not active participants in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework may result in data not being processed and stored anonymously. Furthermore, US government authorities may be able to access individual data. In addition, data collected may be linked to data from other services of the same provider if you have a corresponding user account. Where possible, we try to use server locations within the EU if this is offered.
We will inform you in more detail about data transfer to third countries, if applicable, in the appropriate sections of this privacy policy.

Security of data processing

In order to protect personal data, we have implemented both technical and organizational measures. Where possible, we encrypt or pseudonymize personal data. In this way, we make it as difficult as possible for third parties to infer personal information from our data.

Art. 25 GDPR speaks here of “data protection by design and by default” and thus means that both software (e.g. forms) and hardware (e.g. access to the server room) should always be designed with security in mind and appropriate measures should be taken. If necessary, we will discuss specific measures below.

TLS encryption with https

TLS, encryption and https sound very technical – and they are. We use HTTPS (the Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure stands for “secure hypertext transfer protocol”) to transmit data tap-proof on the Internet.
This means that the complete transmission of all data from your browser to our web server is secure – nobody can “listen in”.

We have thus introduced an additional layer of security and comply with data protection by design (Article 25(1) GDPR). By using TLS (Transport Layer Security), an encryption protocol for secure data transmission on the internet, we can ensure the protection of confidential data.
You can recognize the use of this data transmission security by the small lock symbol at the top left of the browser, to the left of the Internet address (e.g. examplepage.com) and the use of the https scheme (instead of http) as part of our Internet address.
If you would like to know more about encryption, we recommend a Google search for “Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure wiki” to find good links to further information.

Communication

Communication summary 👥 Data subjects: Anyone who communicates with us by phone, email or online form 📓 Processed data: e.g. telephone number, name, email address, form data entered. You can find more details on this in the respective contact type used 🤝 Purpose: Processing communication with customers, business partners, etc. 📅 Storage duration: Duration of the business case and the statutory provisions ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR (contract), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

If you contact us and communicate with us by telephone, e-mail or online form, personal data may be processed.

The data is processed for the handling and processing of your question and the associated business transaction. The data will be stored for as long as required by law.

Affected persons

All those who seek contact with us via the communication channels provided by us are affected by the aforementioned processes.

Telephone

When you call us, the call data is stored pseudonymously on the respective end device and with the telecommunications provider used. In addition, data such as name and telephone number may subsequently be sent by e-mail and stored for the purpose of responding to inquiries. The data will be deleted as soon as the business case has been completed and legal requirements permit.

e-mail

If you communicate with us by email, data may be stored on the respective end device (computer, laptop, smartphone, etc.) and data may be stored on the email server. The data will be deleted as soon as the business transaction has been completed and legal requirements permit.

Online forms

If you communicate with us using an online form, data is stored on our web server and may be forwarded to one of our e-mail addresses. The data will be deleted as soon as the business transaction has been completed and legal requirements permit.

Legal basis

The processing of the data is based on the following legal bases:

• Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent): You give us your consent to store your data and to use it for purposes relating to the business transaction;

• Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR (contract): It is necessary for the performance of a contract with you or a processor, such as the telephone provider, or we need to process the data for pre-contractual activities, such as the preparation of an offer;

• Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests): We want to handle customer inquiries and business communication in a professional manner. This requires certain technical facilities such as e-mail programs, exchange servers and mobile network operators in order to be able to operate communication efficiently.

Data processing agreement (DPA)

In this section, we would like to explain what a data processing agreement is and why it is needed. Because the word “data processing agreement” is a bit of a mouthful, we will often only use the acronym DPA in this text. Like most companies, we do not work alone, but also use the services of other companies or individuals.  By involving various companies or service providers, we may pass on personal data for processing. These partners then act as processors with whom we conclude a contract, the so-called data processing agreement (DPA). The most important thing for you to know is that the processing of your personal data takes place exclusively in accordance with our instructions and must be regulated by the DPA.

Who are processors?

As a company and website owner, we are responsible for all data that we process from you. In addition to controllers, there may also be so-called processors. This includes any company or person who processes personal data on our behalf. More precisely and according to the GDPR definition: any natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on our behalf is considered a processor. Processors can therefore be service providers such as hosting or cloud providers, payment or newsletter providers or large companies such as Google or Microsoft.

To make the terminology easier to understand, here is an overview of the three roles in the GDPR:

Data subject (you as a customer or interested party) → Controller (we as a company and client) → Processor (service provider such as web host or cloud provider)

Content of an order processing contract

As mentioned above, we have concluded a DPA with our partners who act as processors. This states above all that the processor processes the data to be processed exclusively in accordance with the GDPR. The contract must be concluded in writing, although the electronic conclusion of the contract is also considered “written” in this context. The processing of personal data only takes place on the basis of the contract. The contract must contain the following:

• Commitment to us as the responsible party

• Obligations and rights of the controller

• Categories of affected persons

• Type of personal data

• Nature and purpose of data processing

• Purpose and duration of data processing

• Place of data processing

Furthermore, the contract contains all obligations of the processor. The most important obligations are

• Ensure data security measures

• take possible technical and organizational measures to protect the rights of the data subject

• to maintain a data processing directory

• cooperate with the data protection supervisory authority at its request

• carry out a risk analysis in relation to the personal data received

• Sub-processors may only be commissioned with the written consent of the controller

You can find out what such an AVV looks like in concrete terms at https://www.wko.at/service/wirtschaftsrecht-gewerberecht/eu-dsgvo-mustervertrag-auftragsverarbeitung.html, for example. A sample contract is presented here.

Cookies

Cookies summary 👥 Affected parties: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: depending on the cookie. More details can be found below or from the manufacturer of the software that sets the cookie. 📓 Processed data: Depending on the cookie used. You can find more details on this below or from the manufacturer of the software that sets the cookie. 📅 Storage duration: depends on the cookie, can vary from hours to years ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit.f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What are cookies?

Our website uses HTTP cookies to store user-specific data.
Below we explain what cookies are and why they are used so that you can better understand the following privacy policy.

Whenever you surf the internet, you use a browser. Well-known browsers include Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge. Most websites store small text files in your browser. These files are called cookies.

One thing cannot be denied: Cookies are really useful little helpers. Almost all websites use cookies. More precisely, they are HTTP cookies, as there are also other cookies for other areas of application. HTTP cookies are small files that are stored on your computer by our website. These cookie files are automatically stored in the cookie folder, the “brain” of your browser, so to speak. A cookie consists of a name and a value. When defining a cookie, one or more attributes must also be specified.

Cookies store certain user data about you, such as language or personal page settings. When you visit our site again, your browser transmits the “user-related” information back to our site. Thanks to cookies, our website knows who you are and offers you the settings you are used to. In some browsers, each cookie has its own file; in others, such as Firefox, all cookies are stored in a single file.

The following graphic shows a possible interaction between a web browser such as Chrome and the web server. The web browser requests a website and receives a cookie back from the server, which the browser uses again as soon as another page is requested.

There are both first-party cookies and third-party cookies. First-party cookies are created directly by our website, third-party cookies are created by partner websites (e.g. Google Analytics). Each cookie must be evaluated individually, as each cookie stores different data. The expiry time of a cookie also varies from a few minutes to a few years. Cookies are not software programs and do not contain viruses, Trojans or other “malware”. Cookies also cannot access information on your PC.

Cookie data can look like this, for example:

Name: _ga
Wert: GA1.2.1326744211.152112958543-9
Purpose: Differentiation of website visitors
Expiration date: after 2 years

A browser should be able to support these minimum sizes:

• At least 4096 bytes per cookie

• At least 50 cookies per domain

• At least 3000 cookies in total

What types of cookies are there?

The question of which cookies we use in particular depends on the services used and is clarified in the following sections of the privacy policy. At this point, we would like to briefly explain the different types of HTTP cookies.

A distinction can be made between 4 types of cookies:

Essential cookies
These cookies are necessary to ensure basic website functions. For example, these cookies are needed when a user places a product in the shopping cart, then continues surfing on other pages and only goes to the checkout later. These cookies ensure that the shopping cart is not deleted even if the user closes their browser window.

Purposeful cookies
These cookies collect information about user behavior and whether the user receives any error messages. These cookies are also used to measure the loading time and the behavior of the website with different browsers.

Targeted cookies
These cookies ensure better user-friendliness. For example, entered locations, font sizes or form data are saved.

Advertising cookies
These cookies are also called targeting cookies. They are used to deliver customized advertising to the user. This can be very practical, but also very annoying.

When you visit a website for the first time, you are usually asked which of these cookie types you would like to allow. And of course this decision is also stored in a cookie.

If you would like to know more about cookies and are not afraid of technical documentation, we recommend https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc6265, the Request for Comments of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) called “HTTP State Management Mechanism”.

Purpose of processing via cookies

The purpose ultimately depends on the cookie in question. You can find more details on this below or from the manufacturer of the software that sets the cookie.

What data is processed?

Cookies are little helpers for many different tasks. Unfortunately, it is not possible to generalize which data is stored in cookies, but we will inform you about the processed or stored data in the following privacy policy.

Storage duration of cookies

The storage period depends on the cookie in question and is specified below. Some cookies are deleted after less than an hour, others can remain stored on a computer for several years.

You can also influence the storage period yourself. You can delete all cookies manually at any time via your browser (see also “Right to object” below). Furthermore, cookies that are based on consent will be deleted at the latest after you withdraw your consent, whereby the legality of the storage until then remains unaffected.

Right to object – how can I delete cookies?

You decide how and whether you want to use cookies. Regardless of which service or website the cookies originate from, you always have the option of deleting, deactivating or only partially allowing cookies. For example, you can block third-party cookies but allow all other cookies.

If you want to find out which cookies have been stored in your browser, if you want to change or delete cookie settings, you can find this in your browser settings:

Chrome: Delete, activate and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have stored on your computer

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

If you generally do not want to have cookies, you can set up your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be set. You can then decide for each individual cookie whether or not to allow it. The procedure differs depending on the browser. It is best to search for the instructions in Google using the search term “delete cookies Chrome” or “deactivate cookies Chrome” in the case of a Chrome browser.

Legal basis

The so-called “Cookie Guidelines” have been in place since 2009. These state that the storage of cookies requires your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR). However, there are still very different reactions to these directives within the EU countries. In Austria, however, this directive was implemented in Section 165 (3) of the Telecommunications Act (2021). In Germany , the cookie directives have not been implemented as national law. Instead, this directive was largely implemented in Section 15 (3) of the Telemedia Act (TMG), which has been replaced by the Digital Services Act (DDG) since May 2024.

For strictly necessary cookies, even if no consent has been given, there are legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR), which in most cases are of an economic nature. We want to provide visitors to the website with a pleasant user experience and certain cookies are often absolutely necessary for this.

If cookies that are not absolutely necessary are used, this will only take place with your consent. The legal basis in this respect is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR.

In the following sections, you will be informed in more detail about the use of cookies if the software used uses cookies.

Web Analytics Introduction

Web Analytics privacy policy summary 👥 Data subject: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Evaluation of visitor information to optimize the website. 📓 Processed data: Access statistics containing data such as access locations, device data, access duration and time, navigation behavior, click behavior and IP addresses. You can find more details on this in the web analytics tool used. 📅 Storage duration: depending on the web analytics tool used ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is web analytics?

We use software on our website to evaluate the behavior of website visitors, known as web analytics or web analysis for short. This involves collecting data that is stored, managed and processed by the respective analytics tool provider (also known as a tracking tool). The data is used to create analyses of user behavior on our website and made available to us as the website operator. In addition, most tools offer various test options. For example, we can test which offers or content are best received by our visitors. To do this, we show you two different offers for a limited period of time. After the test (known as an A/B test), we know which product or content our website visitors find more interesting. For such test procedures, as well as for other analytics procedures, user profiles can also be created and the data stored in cookies.

Why do we use web analytics?

With our website, we have a clear goal in mind: we want to deliver the best web offering on the market for our industry. In order to achieve this goal, we want to offer the best and most interesting services on the one hand and make sure that you feel completely at ease on our website on the other. With the help of web analysis tools, we can take a closer look at the behavior of our website visitors and then improve our website accordingly for you and for us. For example, we can see how old our visitors are on average, where they come from, when our website is visited the most or which content or products are particularly popular. All this information helps us to optimize the website and thus adapt it to your needs, interests and wishes.

What data is processed?

Exactly which data is stored depends, of course, on the analysis tools used. As a rule, however, the content you view on our website, which buttons or links you click on, when you access a page, which browser you use, which device (PC, tablet, smartphone, etc.) you use to visit the website or which computer system you use are stored, for example. If you have agreed that location data may also be collected, this may also be processed by the web analysis tool provider.

Your IP address is also stored. According to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), IP addresses are personal data. However, your IP address is usually stored pseudonymized (i.e. in an unrecognizable and shortened form). For the purpose of testing, web analysis and web optimization, no direct data such as your name, age, address or e-mail address is stored. All this data, if collected, is stored in pseudonymized form. This means that you cannot be identified as a person.

The following example shows schematically how Google Analytics works as an example of client-based web tracking with Java Script code.

How long the respective data is stored always depends on the provider. Some cookies only store data for a few minutes or until you leave the website, while other cookies can store data for several years.

Duration of data processing

We will inform you about the duration of data processing below, if we have further information on this. In general, we only process personal data for as long as is absolutely necessary for the provision of our services and products. If required by law, for example in the case of accounting, this storage period may also be exceeded.

Right of objection

You also have the right and the option to withdraw your consent to the use of cookies or third-party providers at any time. This works either via our cookie management tool or via other opt-out functions. For example, you can also prevent data collection by cookies by managing, deactivating or deleting cookies in your browser.

Legal basis

The use of web analytics requires your consent, which we have obtained with our cookie pop-up. According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), this consent constitutes the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when it is collected by web analytics tools.

In addition to consent, we have a legitimate interest in analyzing the behavior of website visitors in order to improve our offer technically and economically. With the help of web analytics, we can detect errors on the website, identify attacks and improve efficiency. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests). Nevertheless, we only use the tools if you have given your consent.

Since web analytics tools use cookies, we recommend that you also read our general privacy policy on cookies. To find out exactly which of your data is stored and processed, you should read the privacy policies of the respective tools.

Information on special web analytics tools, if available, can be found in the following sections.

Google Analytics privacy policy

Google Analytics privacy policy summary 👥 Data subject: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Evaluation of visitor information to optimize the website. 📓 Processed data: Access statistics containing data such as locations of access, device data, access duration and time, navigation behavior and click behavior. You can find more details on this below in this privacy policy. 📅 Storage duration: individually adjustable, by default Google Analytics stores 4 data for 14 months ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Google Analytics?

On our website, we use the analysis tracking tool Google Analytics in the version Google Analytics 4 (GA4) of the American company Google Inc. For the European area, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. Google Analytics collects data about your actions on our website. However, by combining various technologies such as cookies, device IDs and login information, you can be identified as a user across different devices. This means that your actions can also be analyzed across platforms.

For example, when you click on a link, this event is stored in a cookie and sent to Google Analytics. The reports we receive from Google Analytics help us to better tailor our website and our service to your wishes. In the following, we will go into more detail about the tracking tool and inform you in particular about which data is processed and how you can prevent this.

Google Analytics is a tracking tool that is used to analyze the traffic on our website. These measurements and analyses are based on a pseudonymous user identification number. This number does not contain any personal data such as name or address, but is used to assign events to an end device. GA4 uses an event-based model that records detailed information on user interactions such as page views, clicks, scrolling and conversion events. GA4 also incorporates various machine learning functions to better understand user behavior and certain trends. GA4 relies on modeling with the help of machine learning functions. This means that missing data can also be extrapolated on the basis of the collected data in order to optimize the analysis and also to be able to make forecasts.

For Google Analytics to work in principle, a tracking code is built into the code of our website. When you visit our website, this code records various events that you perform on our website. With GA4’s event-based data model, we as website operators can define and track specific events in order to obtain analyses of user interactions. In addition to general information such as clicks or page views, specific events that are important for our business can also be tracked. Such specific events can be, for example, the sending of a contact form or the purchase of a product.

As soon as you leave our website, this data is sent to the Google Analytics servers and stored there.

Google processes the data and we receive reports about your user behavior. These may include the following reports:

• Target group reports: We use target group reports to get to know our users better and know more precisely who is interested in our service.

• Ad reports: Ad reports make it easier for us to analyze and improve our online advertising.

• Acquisition reports: Acquisition reports provide us with helpful information on how we can get more people interested in our service.

• Behavior reports: Here we learn how you interact with our website. We can track which route you take on our site and which links you click on.

• Conversion reports: Conversion is a process in which you perform a desired action as a result of a marketing message. For example, when you go from being just a website visitor to a buyer or newsletter subscriber. With the help of these reports, we learn more about how our marketing measures are received by you. This is how we want to increase our conversion rate.

• Real-time reports: Here we always know immediately what is happening on our website. For example, we can see how many users are currently reading this text.

In addition to the analysis reports mentioned above, Google Analytics 4 also offers the following functions, among others:

• Event-based data model: This model captures very specific events that can take place on our website. For example, playing a video, purchasing a product or subscribing to our newsletter.

• Extended analysis functions: These functions allow us to better understand your behavior on our website or certain general trends. For example, we can segment user groups, carry out comparative analyses of target groups or track your path on our website.

• Predictive modeling: Based on collected data, missing data can be extrapolated using machine learning to predict future events and trends. This can help us to develop better marketing strategies.

• Cross-platform analysis: Data can be collected and analyzed from both websites and apps. This gives us the opportunity to analyze user behavior across platforms, provided you have of course consented to data processing.

Why do we use Google Analytics on our website?

Our goal with this website is clear: we want to offer you the best possible service. The statistics and data from Google Analytics help us to achieve this goal.

The statistically analyzed data gives us a clear picture of the strengths and weaknesses of our website. On the one hand, we can optimize our site so that it can be found more easily by interested people on Google. On the other hand, the data helps us to better understand you as a visitor. We therefore know exactly what we need to improve on our website in order to offer you the best possible service. The data also helps us to carry out our advertising and marketing measures more individually and cost-effectively. After all, it only makes sense to show our products and services to people who are interested in them.

What data is stored by Google Analytics?

Google Analytics uses a tracking code to create a random, unique ID that is linked to your browser cookie. This is how Google Analytics recognizes you as a new user and you are assigned a user ID. The next time you visit our site, you will be recognized as a “returning” user. All collected data is stored together with this user ID. This makes it possible to evaluate pseudonymous user profiles.

In order to be able to analyze our website with Google Analytics, a property ID must be inserted into the tracking code. The data is then saved in the corresponding property. The Google Analytics 4 property is standard for every newly created property. Depending on the property used, data is stored for different lengths of time.

Through identifiers such as cookies, app instance IDs, user IDs or user-defined event parameters, your interactions are measured across platforms if you have given your consent. Interactions are all types of actions that you perform on our website. If you also use other Google systems (such as a Google account), data generated via Google Analytics may be linked to third-party cookies. Google does not pass on any Google Analytics data unless we as the website operator authorize this. Exceptions may be made if required by law.

According to Google, no IP addresses are logged or stored in Google Analytics 4. However, Google uses the IP address data to derive location data and deletes it immediately afterwards. All IP addresses collected from users in the EU are therefore deleted before the data is stored in a data center or on a server.

Since Google Analytics 4 focuses on event-based data, the tool uses significantly fewer cookies compared to previous versions (such as Google Universal Analytics). Nevertheless, there are some specific cookies that are used by GA4. These include, for example:

Name: _ga
Wert: 2.1326744211.152112958543-5
Purpose: By default, analytics.js uses the _ga cookie to store the user ID. It is generally used to differentiate between website visitors.
Expiration date: after 2 years

Name: _gid
Wert: 2.1687193234.152112958543-1
Purpose: The cookie is also used to distinguish website visitors
Expiration date: after 24 hours

Name: _gat_gtag_UA_<property-id>
Value: 1
Purpose: Used to reduce the request rate. If Google Analytics is provided via the Google Tag Manager, this cookie is given the name _dc_gtm_ <property-id>.
Expiration date: after 1 minute

Note: This list cannot claim to be exhaustive, as Google is constantly changing its choice of cookies. The aim of GA4 is also to improve data protection. The tool therefore offers a number of options for controlling data collection. For example, we can set the storage duration ourselves and also control data collection.

Here we show you an overview of the most important types of data that are collected with Google Analytics:

Heatmaps: Google creates so-called heatmaps. Heatmaps allow you to see exactly those areas that you click on. This gives us information about where you are “traveling” on our site.

Session duration: Google defines session duration as the time you spend on our site without leaving the page. If you have been inactive for 20 minutes, the session ends automatically.

Bounce rate: A bounce is when you only view one page on our website and then leave our website again.

Account creation: When you create an account on our website or place an order, Google Analytics collects this data.

Location: IP addresses are not logged or stored in Google Analytics. However, shortly before the IP address is deleted, derivations are used for location data.

Technical information: Technical information includes your browser type, your internet provider or your screen resolution.

Source of origin: Google Analytics or we are of course also interested in which website or which advertisement you came to our site from.

Other data includes contact details, any ratings, the playing of media (e.g. when you play a video on our site), the sharing of content via social media or adding it to your favorites. The list is not exhaustive and is only intended to provide a general overview of data storage by Google Analytics.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google has distributed its servers all over the world. Here you can read exactly where the Google data centers are located: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/?hl=de

Your data is distributed on different physical data carriers. This has the advantage that the data can be accessed more quickly and is better protected against manipulation. There are appropriate emergency programs for your data in every Google data center. If, for example, the hardware at Google fails or natural disasters paralyze servers, the risk of a service interruption at Google remains low.

The retention period of the data depends on the properties used. The storage period is always defined separately for each individual property. Google Analytics offers us four options for controlling the storage period:

• 2 months: this is the shortest storage period.

• 14 months: by default, the data is stored in GA4 for 14 months.

• 26 months: you can also save the data for 26 months.

• Data is only deleted when we delete it manually

In addition, there is also the option that data will only be deleted if you no longer visit our website within the period selected by us. In this case, the retention period is reset each time you visit our website again within the specified period.

Once the specified period has expired, the data will be deleted once a month. This retention period applies to your data linked to cookies, user recognition and advertising IDs (e.g. DoubleClick domain cookies). Reporting results are based on aggregated data and are stored independently of user data. Aggregated data is an amalgamation of individual data into a larger unit.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

Under European Union data protection law, you have the right to obtain information about your data and to update, delete or restrict it. You can use the browser add-on to deactivate Google Analytics JavaScript (analytics.js, gtag.js) to prevent Google Analytics 4 from using your data. You can download and install the browser add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de. Please note that this add-on only deactivates data collection by Google Analytics.

If you generally want to deactivate, delete or manage cookies, you will find the relevant links to the instructions for the most popular browsers in the “Cookies” section.

Legal basis

The use of Google Analytics requires your consent, which we have obtained with our cookie pop-up. According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), this consent constitutes the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when it is collected by web analytics tools.

In addition to consent, we have a legitimate interest in analyzing the behavior of website visitors in order to improve our offer technically and economically. With the help of Google Analytics, we can detect errors on the website, identify attacks and improve efficiency. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests). Nevertheless, we only use Google Analytics if you have given your consent.

Google also processes your data in the USA, among other places. Google is an active participant in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data from EU citizens to the USA. You can find more information on this at https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en.

Google also uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the standard contractual clauses, Google undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

The Google Ads Data Processing Terms, which refer to the standard contractual clauses, can be found at https://business.safety.google/intl/de/adsprocessorterms/.

We hope we have been able to provide you with the most important information about data processing by Google Analytics. If you would like to find out more about the tracking service, we recommend these two links: https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/terms/de/ and https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=de.

If you want to find out more about data processing, use the Google privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de.

Google Optimize privacy policy

We use Google Optimize, a website optimization tool, on our website. The service provider is the American company Google Inc. For the European area, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services.

Google also processes your data in the USA, among other places. Google is an active participant in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data from EU citizens to the USA. You can find more information on this at https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en.

Google also uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the standard contractual clauses, Google undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

The Google Ads Data Processing Terms, which refer to the standard contractual clauses, can be found at https://business.safety.google/intl/de/adsprocessorterms/.

You can find out more about the data processed through the use of Google Optimize in the privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de.

Email marketing introduction

Email marketing summary 👥 Data subjects: Newsletter subscribers 🤝 Purpose: Direct marketing by email, notification of system-relevant events 📓 Processed data: Data entered during registration, but at least the email address. More details can be found in the email marketing tool used. 📅 Storage duration: Duration of the existence of the subscription ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is email marketing?

In order to keep you up to date, we also use the option of e-mail marketing. If you have agreed to receive our e-mails or newsletters, your data will also be processed and stored. Email marketing is a sub-area of online marketing. It involves sending news or general information about a company, products or services by email to a specific group of people who are interested in them.

If you want to take part in our e-mail marketing (usually by newsletter), you normally just need to register with your e-mail address. To do this, you fill out an online form and send it off. However, we may also ask you to provide your title and name so that we can write to you personally.

Basically, the registration for newsletters works with the help of the so-called “double opt-in procedure”. After you have registered for our newsletter on our website, you will receive an e-mail confirming your newsletter registration. This ensures that the e-mail address belongs to you and that no one has registered with a third-party e-mail address. We or a notification tool used by us logs each individual registration. This is necessary so that we can prove that the registration process is legally correct. As a rule, the time of registration, the time of registration confirmation and your IP address are saved. In addition, it is also logged when you make changes to your stored data.

Why do we use email marketing?

We naturally want to stay in contact with you and always present you with the most important news about our company. To do this, we use email marketing – often simply referred to as “newsletters” – as an essential part of our online marketing. If you agree to this or if it is permitted by law, we will send you newsletters, system e-mails or other notifications by e-mail. When we use the term “newsletter” in the following text, we mainly mean regularly sent e-mails. Of course, we do not want to bother you in any way with our newsletters. That is why we make every effort to offer only relevant and interesting content. For example, you can find out more about our company, our services or products. As we are constantly improving our offers, you will always find out via our newsletter when there is news or when we are offering special, lucrative promotions. If we commission a service provider who offers a professional mailing tool for our email marketing, we do so in order to be able to offer you fast and secure newsletters. The purpose of our email marketing is basically to inform you about new offers and also to achieve our business objectives.

What data is processed?

If you become a subscriber to our newsletter via our website, you confirm your membership of an e-mail list by e-mail. In addition to your IP address and e-mail address, your title, name, address and telephone number may also be stored. However, only if you consent to this data storage. The data marked as such is necessary so that you can participate in the service offered. Providing this information is voluntary, but if you do not provide it, you will not be able to use the service. In addition, information about your device or your preferred content on our website may also be stored. You can find out more about the storage of data when you visit a website in the “Automatic data storage” section. We record your declaration of consent so that we can always prove that it complies with our laws.

Duration of data processing

If you unsubscribe your e-mail address from our e-mail/newsletter distribution list, we may store your address for up to three years on the basis of our legitimate interests so that we can still prove your consent at that time. We may only process this data if we have to defend ourselves against any claims.

However, if you confirm that you have given us your consent to the newsletter registration, you can submit an individual deletion request at any time. If you permanently revoke your consent, we reserve the right to store your e-mail address in a blacklist. As long as you have voluntarily subscribed to our newsletter, we will of course retain your e-mail address.

Right of objection

You can cancel your newsletter subscription at any time. All you have to do is withdraw your consent to the newsletter subscription. This usually only takes a few seconds or one or two clicks. You will usually find a link to cancel your newsletter subscription at the end of every email. If you really cannot find the link in the newsletter, please contact us by e-mail and we will cancel your newsletter subscription immediately.

Legal basis

Our newsletter is sent on the basis of your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR). This means that we may only send you a newsletter if you have actively subscribed to it beforehand. We may also send you advertising messages if you have become our customer and have not objected to the use of your email address for direct advertising.

Information on specific email marketing services and how they process personal data, if available, can be found in the following sections.

Messenger & Communication Introduction

Messenger & Communication Privacy Policy Summary 👥 Data subjects: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Contact requests and general communication between us and you 📓 Processed data: Data such as name, address, e-mail address, telephone number, general content data, IP address if applicable You can find more details on this in the respective tools used. 📅 Storage duration: depending on the messenger & communication functions used ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests), Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. b. GDPR (contractual or pre-contractual obligations)

What are messenger & communication functions?

We offer various options on our website (such as messenger and chat functions, online and contact forms, email, telephone) for communicating with us. Your data will also be processed and stored to the extent necessary to answer your request and our subsequent actions.

In addition to traditional means of communication such as email, contact forms and telephone, we also use chats and messengers. The most commonly used messenger function is currently WhatsApp, but there are of course many different providers that offer messenger functions specifically for websites. If content is end-to-end encrypted, this is indicated in the individual data protection texts or in the privacy policy of the respective provider. End-to-end encryption means that the content of a message itself is not visible to the provider. However, information about your device, location settings and other technical data can still be processed and stored.

Why do we use messenger & communication functions?

Communication options with you are of great importance to us. After all, we want to talk to you and answer all possible questions about our service in the best possible way. Well-functioning communication is an important part of our service. With the practical messenger & communication functions, you can choose the ones you prefer at any time. In exceptional cases, however, we may not be able to answer certain questions via chat or messenger. This is the case, for example, when it comes to internal contractual matters. In this case, we recommend other communication options such as e-mail or telephone.

As a rule, we assume that we remain responsible under data protection law, even if we use the services of a social media platform. However, the European Court of Justice has ruled that in certain cases the operator of the social media platform may be jointly responsible with us within the meaning of Art. 26 GDPR. If this is the case, we will point this out separately and work on the basis of an agreement to this effect. The essence of the agreement is set out below for the platform concerned.

Please note that when using our built-in elements, your data may also be processed outside the European Union, as many providers, such as Facebook Messenger or WhatsApp, are American companies. As a result, you may not be able to claim or enforce your rights in relation to your personal data as easily.

What data is processed?

Exactly which data is stored and processed depends on the respective provider of the messenger & communication functions. Basically, it is data such as name, address, telephone number, email address and content data such as all information that you enter in a contact form. In most cases, information about your device and IP address is also stored. Data that is collected via a messenger & communication function is also stored on the provider’s servers.

If you want to know exactly what data is stored and processed by the respective providers and how you can object to data processing, you should carefully read the respective company’s privacy policy.

How long is data stored?

How long the data is processed and stored depends primarily on the tools we use. You can find out more about the data processing of the individual tools below. The privacy policies of the providers usually state exactly which data is stored and processed and for how long. In principle, personal data is only processed for as long as is necessary for the provision of our services. If data is stored in cookies, the storage period varies greatly. The data can be deleted immediately after leaving a website, but it can also remain stored for several years. You should therefore look at each individual cookie in detail if you want to know more about data storage. In most cases, you will also find informative information about the individual cookies in the data protection declarations of the individual providers.

Right of objection

You also have the right and the option to withdraw your consent to the use of cookies or third-party providers at any time. This works either via our cookie management tool or via other opt-out functions. For example, you can also prevent data collection by cookies by managing, deactivating or deleting cookies in your browser. For more information, please refer to the section on consent.

As cookies may be used for messenger & communication functions, we also recommend that you read our general privacy policy on cookies. To find out exactly which of your data is stored and processed, you should read the privacy policies of the respective tools.

Legal basis

If you have consented to your data being processed and stored by integrated messenger & communication functions, this consent is the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). We process your request and manage your data in the context of contractual or pre-contractual relationships in order to fulfill our pre-contractual and contractual obligations or to answer inquiries. The basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. b. GDPR. In principle, your data will also be stored and processed on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) in fast and good communication with you or other customers and business partners if you have given your consent.

Facebook Messenger privacy policy

Facebook Messenger privacy policy summary 👥 Affected parties: Facebook Messenger users 🤝 Purpose: Communication 📓 Processed data: Contact details, messages, media 📅 Storage duration: after account deletion ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Facebook Messenger?

We use the instant messaging service Facebook Messenger on our website. The service provider is the American company Meta Platforms Inc. Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland) is responsible for the European region.

Facebook Messenger is a chat messaging function developed by Facebook that allows you to send and receive text messages, voice and video calls, photos and other media files to other Facebook users.
When you use Facebook Messenger, your personal data is also processed on the Facebook servers. In addition to your phone number and chat messages, this also includes photos, videos, profile data, your address or your location.

Why do we use Facebook Messenger?

We want to stay in touch with you and the best way to do this is via messaging services such as Facebook Messenger. Firstly because the service works perfectly and secondly because Facebook is still one of the best-known social media platforms. The service is practical and allows us to communicate with you quickly and easily.

What data is processed by Facebook Messenger?

By using Facebook Messenger, various types of data, including personal data, may be processed. This includes account information such as your telephone number, your profile picture, your user name or other information that you provide to Facebook in the course of creating and managing your account. Of course, Facebook also stores the content of your messages (text, photos, videos, voice messages). Facebook also stores so-called metadata, such as the date and time a message was sent or received. Facebook Messenger can also access your contacts to enable communication with your contacts. Furthermore, technical data such as device type, operating system or location data is also stored.

How long and where is the data stored?

In principle, Facebook stores data until it is no longer needed for its own services and Facebook products. Facebook has servers all over the world where its data is stored. However, customer data is deleted within 48 hours after it has been compared with the company’s own user data.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You have the right to information, correction or deletion and restriction of the processing of your personal data at any time. You can also withdraw your consent to the processing of data at any time. Your data will only be permanently deleted if you delete your Facebook account.

Follow these steps to completely delete your Facebook account:

1) Log in to Facebook and then click on “Settings” in the top right-hand corner.

2) Then click on “Your Facebook information” in the left-hand column.

3) Now click on “Deactivation and deletion”.

4) Now select “Delete account” and then click on “Continue and delete account”

5) Now enter your password, click on “Next” and then on “Delete account”

Legal basis

The use of Facebook Messenger requires your consent, which we have obtained using our consent tool (pop-up). According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), this consent constitutes the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when Facebook Messenger is used.

In addition to consent, we have a legitimate interest in improving our service. With the help of Facebook Messenger, we can communicate with you faster and better. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests). Nevertheless, we only use Facebook Messenger if you have given your consent.

Facebook also processes your data in the USA, among other places. Facebook or Meta Platforms is an active participant in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data from EU citizens to the USA. You can find more information on this at https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en.

In addition, Facebook uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the standard contractual clauses, Facebook undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

The Facebook data processing conditions, which refer to the standard contractual clauses, can be found at https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms/dataprocessing.

You can find out more about the data that is processed through the use of Facebook in the privacy policy at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy.

Telegram privacy policy

Telegram privacy policy summary 👥 Affected parties: Telegram users 🤝 Purpose: Communication 📓 Processed data: Contact details, messages, media 📅 Storage duration: after account deletion or deactivation ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Telegram?

We also use the instant messaging service Telegram. The service provider is the international company Telegram Messenger LLP, which has a London address (71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, United Kingdom) and was developed in Russia.

Telegram was founded in 2013 by Nikolai and Pawel Durow. As the Telegram team see themselves as so-called digital nomads, you never know exactly where the team works. There is also no legal notice on the Telegram website.
Similar to other messaging services such as WhatsApp, Telegram can be used to send messages, photos, videos and other files, as well as make phone calls. This messaging service has become increasingly popular in recent years. In 2022, it already had over 700 million users.
When you use Telegram, personal data is also processed and stored on the Telegram servers. In addition to chat messages, this also includes photos, videos and profile data sent, IP addresses and synchronized contacts. Although Telegram encrypts data between the server and your end device, it can only offer end-to-end encryption for secret chats. Data stored in the cloud can be viewed by the company and also by third-party providers.

Why do we use Telegram?

Many people now use Telegram as an alternative to other messaging services such as WhatsApp. We want to stay in touch with you and the best way to do this is via an instant messaging service that many of our customers also use. The service works perfectly, is practical and makes it easy to communicate with you.

What data is processed by Telegram?

By using Telegram, various types of data, including personal data, may be processed. This includes account information such as your telephone number, your profile picture, your user name or other information that you provide to Telegram in the course of creating and managing your account. Of course, Telegram also stores the content of your messages (text, photos, videos, voice messages). Telegram also stores so-called metadata, such as the date and time a message was sent or received. Telegram can also access your contacts to enable communication with your contacts. Furthermore, technical data such as device type, operating system or location data is also stored.

How long and where is the data stored?

In principle, Telegram stores the data for as long as is necessary for the legitimate purposes and to fulfill legal obligations. It is not possible to give a specific answer here as to exactly how long the data is stored, as this depends heavily on the type of data. According to Telegram, the data is stored for up to 12 months. The data is stored on Telegram’s own servers, which are distributed around the world. Unfortunately, the exact locations of these servers are not known.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You have the right to information, correction or deletion and restriction of the processing of your personal data at any time. You can also withdraw your consent to the processing of data at any time. You can delete individual messages and entire chat histories directly from Telegram. You also have the option of deactivating or deleting your account in the settings. Initially, a copy of the data will be deleted and it may take some time before the data is also deleted from the Telegram servers.

Legal basis

The use of Telegram requires your consent, which we have obtained using our consent tool (pop-up). According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), this consent constitutes the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when Telegram is used.

In addition to consent, we have a legitimate interest in improving our communication services. With the help of Telegram, we can respond faster and better to your inquiries, communicate important messages to you and thus take our service to the next level. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests). However, we only use Telegram if you have given your consent.

You can find out more about the data that is processed through the use of Telegram in the privacy policy at https://telegram.org/privacy.

WhatsApp privacy policy

WhatsApp privacy policy summary 👥 Affected parties: WhatsApp users 🤝 Purpose: Communication 📓 Processed data: Contact details, messages, media 📅 Storage duration: after account deletion or deactivation ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is WhatsApp?

We use the WhatsApp instant messaging service on our website. The service provider is the American company WhatsApp Inc, a subsidiary of Meta Platforms Inc (until October 2021 Facebook Inc.). WhatsApp Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland, is responsible for the European region.

We probably don’t need to introduce WhatsApp to you in detail. The likelihood that you yourself use this well-known messaging service on your smartphone is relatively high. For many years, there have been voices criticizing WhatsApp and its parent company Meta Platforms with regard to the handling of personal data. The main criticism in recent years has related to the merging of WhatsApp user data with Facebook. Facebook responded to this in 2021 and amended its terms of use. Facebook stated that currently (as of 2021) no personal data of WhatsApp users is shared with Facebook.
Nevertheless, WhatsApp will of course process a number of your personal data if you use WhatsApp and have consented to data processing. In addition to your phone number and chat messages, this also includes photos, videos and profile data that you send. However, photos and videos are only stored temporarily and all messages and phone calls are provided with end-to-end encryption. They should therefore not be visible to Meta itself . WhatsApp also stores information from your address book and other metadata.

Why do we use WhatsApp?

We want to stay in touch with you and the best way to do that is via WhatsApp. Firstly, because the service works flawlessly, and secondly because WhatsApp is still the most widely used instant messaging tool worldwide. The service is practical and allows us to communicate with you quickly and easily.

What data is processed by WhatsApp?

By using WhatsApp, various types of data, including personal data, may be processed. This includes account information such as your telephone number, your profile picture, your user name or other information that you provide to WhatsApp in the course of creating and managing your WhatsApp account. Of course, WhatsApp also stores the content of your messages (text, photos, videos, voice messages). WhatsApp also stores so-called metadata, such as the date and time a message was sent or received. Telephone numbers of the people involved and technical data such as device type, operating system or location data are also stored.

How long and where is the data stored?

In principle, WhatsApp stores data for as long as is necessary for legitimate purposes and to fulfill legal obligations. It is not possible to give a specific answer here as to exactly how long the data is stored, as this depends heavily on the type of data. As a rule, messages are only stored in encrypted form by WhatsApp during delivery and are deleted from the servers as soon as a message has been delivered. Messages are only stored on your own device for longer. When media is sent, WhatsApp stores this data in encrypted form for up to 30 days in order to optimize delivery. Account data is stored for as long as you have an active WhatsApps account. If you delete or deactivate the account, your account data will normally also be deleted. The data stored by WhatsApp is stored on the company’s own servers, which are located all over the world. In order to operate the web-based WhatsApp services, data is also collected with the help of cookies.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You have the right to information, correction or deletion and restriction of the processing of your personal data at any time. You can also withdraw your consent to the processing of data at any time.

If you do not want cookies to be set for the desktop version and data to be saved as a result, you can also prevent cookies from being set in your browser. This is because you can manage, deactivate or delete cookies in your browser. This always works slightly differently depending on your browser. You can find out more in our section on cookies.

Legal basis

The use of WhatsApp requires your consent, which we have obtained using our consent tool (pop-up). According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), this consent constitutes the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when it is collected by WhatsApp.

In addition to consent, we have a legitimate interest in improving our communication services. With the help of WhatsApp, we can respond faster and better to your requests, send you important messages and thus take our service to the next level. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests). Nevertheless, we only use WhatsApp if you have given your consent.

WhatsApp also processes your data in the USA, among other places. WhatsApp is an active participant in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data from EU citizens to the USA. You can find more information about this at https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en.

WhatsApp also uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to and stored in third countries (such as the USA). Through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the Standard Contractual Clauses, WhatsApp undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de.

Information on data transmission at WhatsApp, which corresponds to the standard contractual clauses, can be found at https://www.whatsapp.com/legal/business-data-transfer-addendum-20210927

We hope we have provided you with the most important information about the use and data processing by WhatsApp. You can find out more about the data that is processed through the use of WhatsApp in the privacy policy at https://www.whatsapp.com/privacy.

Social media Introduction

Social media privacy policy summary 👥 Data subjects: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Presentation and optimization of our services, contact with visitors, interested parties, etc., advertising 📓 Processed data: Data such as telephone numbers, e-mail addresses, contact details, user behavior data, information about your device and your IP address. You can find more details on this in the respective social media tool used. 📅 Storage duration: depending on the social media platforms used ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is social media?

In addition to our website, we are also active on various social media platforms. User data may be processed so that we can target users who are interested in us via the social networks. In addition, elements of a social media platform may also be embedded directly in our website. This is the case, for example, if you click on a social button on our website and are forwarded directly to our social media presence. Social media refers to websites and apps that registered members can use to produce content, share content openly or in specific groups and network with other members.

Why do we use social media?

For years, social media platforms have been the place where people communicate and get in touch online. Our social media presence allows us to bring our products and services closer to interested parties. The social media elements integrated on our website help you to switch to our social media content quickly and without complications.

The data that is stored and processed through your use of a social media channel is primarily for the purpose of carrying out web analyses. The aim of these analyses is to be able to develop more precise and personalized marketing and advertising strategies. Depending on your behavior on a social media platform, the evaluated data can be used to draw conclusions about your interests and create user profiles. This also enables the platforms to present you with customized advertisements. Cookies are usually set in your browser for this purpose, which store data on your usage behavior.

As a rule, we assume that we remain responsible under data protection law, even if we use the services of a social media platform. However, the European Court of Justice has ruled that in certain cases the operator of the social media platform may be jointly responsible with us within the meaning of Art. 26 GDPR. If this is the case, we will point this out separately and work on the basis of an agreement to this effect. The essence of the agreement is then reproduced below for the platform concerned.

Please note that when using the social media platforms or our built-in elements, your data may also be processed outside the European Union, as many social media channels, such as Facebook or Twitter, are American companies. As a result, you may not be able to claim or enforce your rights in relation to your personal data as easily.

What data is processed?

Exactly which data is stored and processed depends on the respective provider of the social media platform. However, it usually involves data such as telephone numbers, email addresses, data that you enter in a contact form, user data such as which buttons you click, who you like or follow, when you visited which pages, information about your device and your IP address. Most of this data is stored in cookies. Data can be linked to your profile, especially if you have a profile on the social media channel you are visiting and are logged in.

All data that is collected via a social media platform is also stored on the provider’s servers. This means that only the providers have access to the data and can provide you with the appropriate information or make changes.

If you want to know exactly what data is stored and processed by social media providers and how you can object to data processing, you should carefully read the company’s privacy policy. We also recommend that you contact the provider directly if you have any questions about data storage and data processing or wish to assert corresponding rights.

Duration of data processing

We will inform you about the duration of data processing below if we have further information on this. For example, the social media platform Facebook stores data until it is no longer required for its own purposes. However, customer data that is compared with our own user data is deleted within two days. In general, we only process personal data for as long as is absolutely necessary for the provision of our services and products. If required by law, for example in the case of accounting, this storage period may be exceeded.

Right of objection

You also have the right and the option to withdraw your consent to the use of cookies or third-party providers such as embedded social media elements at any time. This works either via our cookie management tool or via other opt-out functions. For example, you can also prevent data collection by cookies by managing, deactivating or deleting cookies in your browser.

As social media tools may use cookies, we also recommend that you read our general privacy policy on cookies. To find out exactly which of your data is stored and processed, you should read the privacy policies of the respective tools.

Legal basis

If you have consented to your data being processed and stored by integrated social media elements, this consent is the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). In principle, your data will also be stored and processed on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) in fast and good communication with you or other customers and business partners if you have given your consent. Nevertheless, we only use the tools if you have given your consent. Most social media platforms also set cookies in your browser to store data. We therefore recommend that you read our data protection text on cookies carefully and consult the privacy policy or cookie guidelines of the respective service provider.

Information on specific social media platforms – if available – can be found in the following sections.

AddThis privacy policy

AddThis privacy policy summary 👥 Data subject: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Optimization of our service performance 📓 Processed data: Data such as user behavior data, information about your device and your IP address. More details can be found below in the privacy policy. 📅 Storage period: the collected data is stored for 13 months from the date of data collection ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is AddThis?

We use AddThis plug-ins from Oracle America, Inc (500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065, USA) on our website. These plug-ins allow you to share content from our website quickly and easily with other people. When you visit a website with an AddThis function, your data may be transferred to AddThis, stored and processed. This privacy policy explains why we use AddThis, what data is processed and how you can prevent this data transfer.

Among other things, AddThis develops software tools that are integrated into websites to enable users to share content on various social media channels or by email. In addition, AddThis also offers functions for website analysis. The data collected is also used by to offer interest-based advertising to Internet users. The service is used by more than 15 million website operators worldwide.

Why do we use AddThis on our website?

By using the AddThis buttons, you can share interesting content from our website on various social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or Pinterest. If you like our content, we will of course be delighted if you share it with your social community. And the easiest way to do this is via the AddThis buttons.

What data is stored by AddThis?

If you share content with AddThis and you are logged in with the respective social media account, data such as the visit to our website and the sharing of content can be assigned to the user account of the corresponding social media channel. AddThis uses cookies, pixels, HTTP headers and browser identifiers to collect data on your visitor behavior. In addition, some of this data is shared with third parties after pseudonymization.
Here is an exemplary list of the data that may be processed:

• Unique ID of a cookie placed in the web browser

• Address of the website visited

• Time of the website visit

• Search queries via which a visitor reached the page with AddThis

• Dwell time on a website

• The IP address of the computer or mobile device

• Mobile advertising IDs (Apple IDFA or Google AAID)

• Information contained in HTTP headers or other transmission protocols used

• Which program was used on the computer (browser) or which operating system was used (iOS)

AddThis uses cookies, which we list below as examples and excerpts. You can find out more about AddThis cookies at https://www.oracle.com/legal/privacy/addthis-privacy-policy.html.

Name: bt2
Wert: 8961a7f179d87qq69V69112958543-3
Purpose: This cookie is used to record parts of the website visited in order to recommend other parts of the website.
Expiration date: after 255 days

Name: bku
Wert: ra/99nTmYN+fZWX7112958543-4
Purpose: This cookie registers anonymized user data such as your IP address, geographical location, websites visited and which ads you have clicked on.
Expiration date: after 179 days

Note: Please bear in mind that this is an exemplary list and that we cannot claim to be exhaustive.

AddThis also shares collected information with other companies. You can find more details on this at https://www.oracle.com/legal/privacy/addthis-privacy-policy.html. AddThis also uses the data received to create target groups and interest profiles and to offer interest-based advertising to users in the same advertising network.

How long and where is the data stored?

AddThis stores the collected data for 13 months from the date of data collection. 1% of the data is kept as a “sample data set” for a maximum of 24 months to preserve the business relationship. However, the direct and indirect identification (such as your IP address and cookie ID) is hashed in this “sample data set”. This means that the personal data can no longer be linked to you without additional information. As AddThis is headquartered in the USA, the data collected is also stored on American servers.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You have the right to access and delete your personal data at any time. If you no longer wish to see advertising based on data collected by AddThis, you can use the opt-out button at https://datacloudoptout.oracle.com/?tid=112958543. This sets an opt-out cookie that you must not delete in order to retain this setting.

You can also set your preferences for usage-based online advertising via https://www.youronlinechoices.com/at/ in preference management.

Your browser offers you the option of preventing data processing or managing it according to your wishes. Data processing works slightly differently depending on the browser. In the “Cookies” section, you will find the relevant links to the instructions for the most popular browsers.

Legal basis

If you have consented to your data being processed and stored by integrated social media elements, this consent is the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). In principle, your data is also stored and processed on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) in fast and good communication with you or other customers and business partners. Nevertheless, we only use the integrated social media elements if you have given your consent. Most social media platforms also set cookies in your browser to store data. We therefore recommend that you read our data protection text on cookies carefully and consult the privacy policy or cookie guidelines of the respective service provider.

AddThis also processes data in the USA, among other places. We would like to point out that, in the opinion of the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This may entail various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

AddThis uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission (= Art. 46. para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing with recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or data transfer there. These clauses oblige AddThis to comply with the EU level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

If you would like to know more about the processing of your data by AddThis, you can find further information at https://www.oracle.com/legal/privacy/.

Facebook privacy policy

Facebook privacy policy summary 👥 Data subject: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Optimization of our service performance 📓 Processed data: Data such as customer data, user behavior data, information about your device and your IP address. More details can be found below in the privacy policy. 📅 Storage period: until the data is no longer useful for Facebook’s purposes ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What are Facebook tools?

We use selected tools from Facebook on our website. Facebook is a social media network of the company Meta Platforms Inc. or, for the European region, Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland. With the help of these tools, we can offer you and people who are interested in our products and services the best possible offer.

If data is collected and forwarded from you via our embedded Facebook elements or via our Facebook page (fan page), both we and Facebook Ireland Ltd. are responsible for this. Facebook is solely responsible for the further processing of this data. Our joint obligations are also set out in a publicly accessible agreement at https://www.facebook.com/legal/controller_addendum. This states, for example, that we must clearly inform you about the use of Facebook tools on our site. Furthermore, we are also responsible for ensuring that the tools are securely integrated into our website in accordance with data protection law. Facebook, on the other hand, is responsible for the data security of Facebook products, for example. If you have any questions about data collection and data processing by Facebook, you can contact the company directly. If you address the question to us, we are obliged to forward it to Facebook.

Below we provide an overview of the various Facebook tools, what data is sent to Facebook and how you can delete this data.

In addition to many other products, Facebook also offers the so-called “Facebook Business Tools”. This is the official name of Facebook. However, as the term is hardly known, we have decided to simply call them Facebook tools. These include, among others:

• Facebook pixel

• social plug-ins (such as the “Like” or “Share” button)

• Facebook Login

• Account Kit

• APIs (programming interface)

• SDKs (collection of programming tools)

• Platform integrations

• Plugins

• Codes

• Specifications

• Documentations

• Technologies and services

Through these tools, Facebook expands services and has the ability to obtain information about user activity outside of Facebook.

Why do we use Facebook tools on our website?

We only want to show our services and products to people who are really interested in them. With the help of advertisements (Facebook ads), we can reach precisely these people. However, Facebook needs information about people’s wishes and needs in order to show users suitable advertising. The company is therefore provided with information about user behavior (and contact details) on our website. As a result, Facebook collects better user data and can show interested people suitable advertising about our products or services. The tools thus enable customized advertising campaigns on Facebook.

Facebook calls data about your behavior on our website “event data”. This is also used for measurement and analysis services. Facebook can thus create “campaign reports” on our behalf about the impact of our advertising campaigns. Furthermore, analytics give us a better insight into how you use our services, website or products. This allows us to optimize your user experience on our website with some of these tools. For example, you can use the social plug-ins to share content on our site directly on Facebook.

What data is stored by Facebook tools?

By using individual Facebook tools, personal data (customer data) can be sent to Facebook. Depending on the tools used, customer data such as name, address, telephone number and IP address may be sent.

Facebook uses this information to match the data with the data it has about you (if you are a Facebook member). Before customer data is transmitted to Facebook, it is hashed. This means that a data set of any size is transformed into a character string. This is also used to encrypt data.

In addition to the contact data, “event data” is also transmitted. “Event data” refers to the information that we receive about you on our website. For example, which subpages you visit or which products you buy from us. Facebook does not share the information it receives with third parties (such as advertisers) unless the company has explicit permission or is legally obliged to do so. “Event data” can also be linked to contact details. This allows Facebook to offer better personalized advertising. After the aforementioned matching process, Facebook deletes the contact data again.

In order to deliver optimized ads, Facebook only uses the event data if it has been combined with other data (collected by Facebook in other ways). Facebook also uses this event data for security, protection, development and research purposes. Much of this data is transferred to Facebook via cookies. Cookies are small text files that are used to store data or information in browsers. Depending on the tools used and whether you are a Facebook member, different numbers of cookies are stored in your browser. We go into more detail about individual Facebook cookies in the descriptions of the individual Facebook tools. You can also find general information about the use of Facebook cookies at https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies.

How long and where is the data stored?

In principle, Facebook stores data until it is no longer needed for its own services and Facebook products. Facebook has servers all over the world where its data is stored. However, customer data is deleted within 48 hours after it has been compared with the company’s own user data.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation, you have the right to access, rectification, portability and erasure of your data.

The data will only be completely deleted if you delete your Facebook account completely. And this is how deleting your Facebook account works:

1) Click on Settings on the right-hand side of Facebook.

2) Then click on “Your Facebook information” in the left-hand column.

3) Now click on “Deactivation and deletion”.

4) Now select “Delete account” and then click on “Continue and delete account”

5) Now enter your password, click on “Next” and then on “Delete account”

The data that Facebook receives via our site is stored using cookies (e.g. for social plugins). You can deactivate, delete or manage individual or all cookies in your browser. Depending on which browser you use, this works in different ways. In the “Cookies” section, you will find the relevant links to the instructions for the most popular browsers.

If you generally do not want to have cookies, you can set up your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be set. This allows you to decide for each individual cookie whether you want to allow it or not.

Legal basis

If you have consented to your data being processed and stored by integrated Facebook tools, this consent is the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). In principle, your data is also stored and processed on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) in fast and good communication with you or other customers and business partners. Nevertheless, we only use the tools if you have given your consent. Most social media platforms also set cookies in your browser to store data. We therefore recommend that you read our privacy policy about cookies carefully and take a look at Facebook’s privacy policy or cookie guidelines.

Facebook also processes your data in the USA, among other places. Facebook or Meta Platforms is an active participant in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data from EU citizens to the USA. You can find more information on this at https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en.

Facebook also uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the standard contractual clauses, Facebook undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

The Facebook data processing conditions, which refer to the standard contractual clauses, can be found at https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms/dataprocessing.

We hope we have provided you with the most important information about the use and data processing by the Facebook tools. If you would like to find out more about how Facebook uses your data, we recommend that you read the data policy at https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policy/.

Facebook Login Privacy Policy

We have integrated the practical Facebook login on our website. This allows you to easily log in with your Facebook account without having to create another user account. If you decide to register via the Facebook login, you will be redirected to the Facebook social media network. There you can log in using your Facebook user data. Through this login procedure, data about you or your user behavior is stored and transmitted to Facebook.

Facebook uses various cookies to store the data. Below we show you the most important cookies that are set in your browser or already exist when you log in to our site via the Facebook login:

Name: fr
Value: 0jieyh4c2GnlufEJ9..Bde09j…1.0.Bde09j
Purpose: This cookie is used to ensure that the social plugin on our website works as well as possible.
Expiration date: after 3 months

Name: datr
Wert: 4Jh7XUA2112958543SEmPsSfzCOO4JFFl
Purpose: Facebook sets the “datr” cookie when a web browser accesses facebook.com, and the cookie helps identify login activity and protect users.
Expiration date: after 2 years

Name: _js_datr
Value: deleted
Purpose: Facebook sets this session cookie for tracking purposes, even if you do not have a Facebook account or are logged out.
Expiration date: after the end of the session

Note: The cookies listed are only a small selection of the cookies available to Facebook. Other cookies are, for example, _ fbp, sb or wd. A complete list is not possible, as Facebook has a large number of cookies and uses them variably.

The Facebook login offers you a quick and easy registration process on the one hand, and on the other hand it gives us the opportunity to share data with Facebook. This allows us to better tailor our offers and advertising campaigns to your interests and needs. Data that we receive from Facebook in this way is public data such as

• Your Facebook name

• Your profile picture

• a registered e-mail address

• Friends lists

• Button details (e.g. “Like” button)

• Birthday date

• Language

• Place of residence

In return, we provide Facebook with information about your activities on our website. This includes information about the device you use, which subpages you visit on our website or which products you have purchased from us.

By using Facebook Login, you consent to data processing. You can revoke this agreement at any time. If you would like more information about data processing by Facebook, we recommend that you read the Facebook privacy policy at https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policy/.

If you are logged in to Facebook, you can change your settings for advertisements yourself at https://www.facebook.com/adpreferences/advertisers/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen.

Facebook social plug-ins privacy policy

Social plug-ins from Meta Platforms Inc. are integrated on our website. You can recognize these buttons by the classic Facebook logo, such as the “Like” button (the hand with a raised thumb) or by a clear “Facebook plug-in” label. A social plug-in is a small part of Facebook that is integrated into our site. Each plug-in has its own function. The most commonly used functions are the familiar “Like” and “Share” buttons.

The following social plug-ins are offered by Facebook:

• “Save” button

• “Like” button, share, send and quote

• Page plug-in

• Comments

• Messenger plug-in

• Embedded contributions and video player

• Group plug-in

You can find more information on how the individual plug-ins are used at https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins. We use the social plug-ins on the one hand to offer you a better user experience on our site, and on the other hand because Facebook can use them to optimize our advertisements.

If you have a Facebook account or have already visited https://www.facebook.com/, Facebook has already set at least one cookie in your browser. In this case, your browser sends information to Facebook via this cookie as soon as you visit our site or interact with social plug-ins (e.g. the “Like” button).

The information received is deleted or anonymized within 90 days. According to Facebook, this data includes your IP address, which website you visited, the date, time and other information relating to your browser.

To prevent Facebook from collecting a lot of data during your visit to our website and linking it to Facebook data, you must log out of Facebook during your visit to the website.

If you are not logged in to Facebook or do not have a Facebook account, your browser will send less information to Facebook because you have fewer Facebook cookies. Nevertheless, data such as your IP address or which website you visit may be transmitted to Facebook. We would like to expressly point out that we do not know the exact content of the data. However, to the best of our current knowledge, we will try to inform you as much as possible about data processing. You can also read about how Facebook uses the data in the company’s data policy at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update.

The following cookies are set in your browser as a minimum when you visit a website with Facebook social plug-ins:

Name: dpr
Value: not specified
Purpose: This cookie is used to make the social plug-ins on our website work.
Expiration date: after the end of the session

Name: fr
Wert: 0jieyh4112958543c2GnlufEJ9..Bde09j…1.0.Bde09j
Purpose: The cookie is also necessary for the plug-ins to function properly.
Expiration date:: after 3 months

Note: These cookies were set after a test, even if you are not a Facebook member.

If you are logged in to Facebook, you can change your settings for advertisements yourself at https://www.facebook.com/adpreferences/advertisers/. If you are not a Facebook user, you can manage your usage-based online advertising at https://www.youronlinechoices.com/de/praferenzmanagement/?tid=112958543. There you have the option of deactivating or activating providers.

If you want to find out more about Facebook’s data protection, we recommend that you read the company’s own data policy at https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policy/.

Instagram privacy policy

Instagram privacy policy summary 👥 Data subject: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Optimization of our service performance 📓 Processed data: Data such as user behavior data, information about your device and your IP address. More details can be found below in the privacy policy. 📅 Storage period: until Instagram no longer needs the data for its purposes ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Instagram?

We have integrated Instagram functions on our website. Instagram is a social media platform of the company Instagram LLC, 1601 Willow Rd, Menlo Park CA 94025, USA. Instagram has been a subsidiary of Meta Platforms Inc. since 2012 and is a Facebook product. Embedding Instagram content on our website is called embedding. This allows us to show you content such as buttons, photos or videos from Instagram directly on our website. When you visit web pages on our website that have an Instagram function integrated, data is transmitted to Instagram, stored and processed. Instagram uses the same systems and technologies as Facebook. Your data is therefore processed across all Facebook companies.

In the following, we want to give you a more detailed insight into why Instagram collects data, what data is involved and how you can largely control data processing. Since Instagram belongs to Meta Platforms Inc., we obtain our information from the Instagram guidelines on the one hand, but also from the Meta privacy policy itself on the other.

Instagram is one of the best-known social media networks in the world. Instagram combines the advantages of a blog with the benefits of audiovisual platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo. You can upload photos and short videos to “Insta” (as many users casually call the platform), edit them with various filters and also share them on other social networks. And if you don’t want to be active yourself, you can also just follow other interesting users.

Why do we use Instagram on our website?

Instagram is the social media platform that has really gone through the roof in recent years. And of course we have also responded to this boom. We want you to feel as comfortable as possible on our website. That’s why a varied presentation of our content is a matter of course for us. The embedded Instagram functions allow us to enrich our content with helpful, funny or exciting content from the Instagram world. As Instagram is a subsidiary of Facebook, the data collected can also be useful to us for personalized advertising on Facebook. This means that only people who are genuinely interested in our products or services receive our advertisements.

Instagram also uses the collected data for measurement and analysis purposes. We receive summarized statistics and thus more insight into your wishes and interests. It is important to note that these reports do not identify you personally.

What data is stored by Instagram?

When you visit one of our pages that has Instagram functions (such as Instagram images or plug-ins), your browser automatically connects to Instagram’s servers. In the process, data is sent to Instagram, stored and processed. This happens regardless of whether you have an Instagram account or not. This includes information about our website, your computer, purchases made, advertisements you see and how you use our services. The date and time of your interaction with Instagram are also stored. If you have an Instagram account or are logged in, Instagram stores significantly more data about you.

Facebook distinguishes between customer data and event data. We assume that this is exactly the case with Instagram. Customer data includes, for example, name, address, telephone number and IP address. This customer data is only transmitted to Instagram once it has been hashed. Hashing means that a data record is converted into a character string. This allows the contact data to be encrypted. The above-mentioned “event data” is also transmitted. By “event data”, Facebook – and consequently Instagram – means data about your user behavior. Contact data may also be combined with event data. The contact data collected is compared with the data that Instagram already has about you.

The collected data is transmitted to Facebook via small text files (cookies), which are usually set in your browser. Depending on the Instagram functions used and whether you have an Instagram account yourself, different amounts of data are stored.

We assume that Instagram processes data in the same way as Facebook. This means that if you have an Instagram account or have visited www.instagram.com, Instagram has at least set a cookie. If this is the case, your browser sends information to Instagram via the cookie as soon as you come into contact with an Instagram function. This data is deleted or anonymized after 90 days at the latest (after reconciliation). Although we have studied Instagram’s data processing intensively at , we cannot say exactly what data Instagram collects and stores.

Below we will show you the minimum cookies that are set in your browser when you click on an Instagram function (such as a button or an Insta image). In our test, we assume that you do not have an Instagram account. If you are logged in to Instagram, significantly more cookies will of course be set in your browser.

These cookies were used in our test:

Name: csrftoken
Value: “”
Purpose: This cookie is most likely set for security reasons to prevent falsification of requests. However, we were unable to find out more details.
Expiration date: after one year

Name: mid
Value: “”
Purpose: Instagram sets this cookie to optimize its own services and offers inside and outside Instagram. The cookie defines a unique user ID.
Expiration date: after the end of the session

Name: fbsr_112958543124024
Value: not specified
Purpose: This cookie stores the log-in request for users of the Instagram app.
Expiration date: after the end of the session

Name: rur
Value: ATN
Purpose: This is an Instagram cookie that ensures functionality on Instagram.
Expiration date: after the end of the session

Name: urlgen
Wert: “{”194.96.75.33”: 1901}:1iEtYv:Y833k2_UjKvXgYe112958543”
Purpose: This cookie is used for Instagram’s marketing purposes.
Expiration date: after the end of the session

Note: We cannot claim completeness here. Which cookies are set in individual cases depends on the embedded functions and your use of Instagram.

How long and where is the data stored?

Instagram shares the information received between the Facebook companies with external partners and with people you connect with worldwide. Data processing is carried out in compliance with our own data policy. For security reasons, among others, your data is distributed on Facebook servers around the world. Most of these servers are located in the USA.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

Thanks to the General Data Protection Regulation, you have the right to access, portability, rectification and erasure of your data. You can manage your data in the Instagram settings. If you want to completely delete your data on Instagram, you must permanently delete your Instagram account.

And this is how deleting your Instagram account works:

First open the Instagram app. Go to the bottom of your profile page and click on “Help section”. You will now be taken to the company’s website. On the website, click on “Manage your account” and then on “Delete your account”.

If you delete your account completely, Instagram will delete posts such as your photos and status updates. Information that other people have shared about you does not belong to your account and is therefore not deleted.

As mentioned above, Instagram stores your data primarily via cookies. You can manage, deactivate or delete these cookies in your browser. Depending on your browser, the management always works a little differently. In the “Cookies” section, you will find the relevant links to the instructions for the most popular browsers.

You can also set up your browser so that you are always informed when a cookie is to be set. Then you can always decide individually whether you want to allow the cookie or not.

Legal basis

If you have consented to your data being processed and stored by integrated social media elements, this consent is the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). In principle, your data is also stored and processed on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) in fast and good communication with you or other customers and business partners. Nevertheless, we only use the integrated social media elements if you have given your consent. Most social media platforms also set cookies in your browser to store data. We therefore recommend that you read our data protection text on cookies carefully and consult the privacy policy or cookie guidelines of the respective service provider.

Instagram also processes your data in the USA, among other places. Instagram or Meta Platforms is an active participant in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data of EU citizens to the USA. You can find more information on this at https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en.

Instagram also uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the Standard Contractual Clauses, Instagram undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here, among others: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

We have tried to provide you with the most important information about data processing by Instagram. You can find out more about Instagram’s data policy at https://privacycenter.instagram.com/policy/.

Instagram Lookalike Audience privacy policy

We also use the Instagram Lookalike Audience advertising tool. The service provider is the American company Meta Platforms Inc. Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland) is responsible for the European region.

Instagram and Meta also process your data in the USA, among other places. Facebook and Meta Platforms are active participants in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data from EU citizens to the USA. You can find more information on this at https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en.

Meta Platforms also uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to and stored in third countries (such as the USA). Through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the Standard Contractual Clauses, Meta Platforms undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here, among others: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

The Instagram or Meta data processing conditions, which refer to the standard contractual clauses, can be found at https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms/dataprocessing.

You can find out more about the data processed through the use of Instagram Lookalike Audience in the privacy policy at https://privacycenter.instagram.com/policy/.

Blogs and publication media Introduction

Blogs and publication media Privacy policy summary 👥 Data subjects: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Presentation and optimization of our services as well as communication between website visitors, security measures and administration 📓 Processed data: Data such as contact details, IP address and published content. You can find more details on this in the tools used. 📅 Storage duration: depending on the tools used ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests), Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. b. GDPR (contract)

What are blogs and publication media?

We use blogs or other means of communication on our website with which we can communicate with you on the one hand and you with us on the other. We may also store and process your data in the process. This may be necessary so that we can display content appropriately, communication works and security is increased. In our data protection text, we provide a general description of which of your data may be processed. Exact details on data processing always depend on the tools and functions used. You can find detailed information on data processing in the data protection notices of the individual providers.

Why do we use blogs and publication media?

Our greatest concern with our website is to offer you interesting and exciting content and at the same time your opinions and content are also important to us. That’s why we want to create a good interactive exchange between us and you. With various blogs and publication options, we can achieve exactly that. For example, you can write comments on our content, comment on other comments or, in some cases, write articles yourself.

What data is processed?

Exactly which data is processed always depends on the communication functions we use. Very often, the IP address, user name and published content are stored. This is primarily done to ensure security protection, to prevent spam and to be able to take action against illegal content. Cookies can also be used for data storage. These are small text files that are stored with information in your browser. You can find more information on the data collected and stored in our individual sections and in the privacy policy of the respective provider.

Duration of data processing

We will inform you about the duration of data processing below if we have further information on this. For example, contribution and comment functions store data until you revoke the data storage. In general, personal data is only stored for as long as is absolutely necessary for the provision of our services.

Right of objection

You also have the right and the option to withdraw your consent to the use of cookies or third-party communication tools at any time. This works either via our cookie management tool or via other opt-out functions. For example, you can also prevent data collection by cookies by managing, deactivating or deleting cookies in your browser.

As publication media may also use cookies, we also recommend that you read our general privacy policy on cookies. To find out exactly which of your data is stored and processed, you should read the privacy policies of the respective tools.

Legal basis

We use the means of communication mainly on the basis of our legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) in fast and good communication with you or other customers, business partners and visitors. Insofar as the use serves the processing of contractual relationships or their initiation, the legal basis is also Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. b. GDPR.

Certain processing operations, in particular the use of cookies and the use of comment or message functions, require your consent. If and insofar as you have consented to your data being processed and stored by integrated publication media, this consent is the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). Most of the communication functions we use set cookies in your browser to store data. We therefore recommend that you read our data protection text on cookies carefully and view the privacy policy or cookie guidelines of the respective service provider.

Information on special tools – if available – can be found in the following sections.

Blog posts and comment functions Privacy policy

There are various online communication tools that we can use on our website. For example, we use blog posts and comment functions. This gives you the opportunity to comment on content or write articles. If you use this function, your IP address may be stored for security reasons. In this way, we protect ourselves against illegal content such as insults, unauthorized advertising or prohibited political propaganda. In order to recognize whether comments are spam, we may also store and process user information on the basis of our legitimate interest. If we start a survey, we also store your IP address for the duration of the survey so that we can ensure that all participants only vote once. Cookies may also be used for storage purposes. All data that we store about you (such as content or personal information) will remain stored until you object.

Blogger.com privacy policy

We also use the hosting and blogging platform Blogger.com on our website. The service provider is the American company Google Inc. For the European area, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services.

Google also processes your data in the USA, among other places. Google is an active participant in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data from EU citizens to the USA. You can find more information on this at https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en.

Google also uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the standard contractual clauses, Google undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

You can find out more about the data that is processed through the use of Google in the privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de.

WordPress emojis privacy policy

We also use so-called emojis and smilies in our blog. We probably don’t need to explain exactly what emojis are here. You know those smiling, angry or sad faces. They are graphic elements or files that we make available and are loaded from another server. The service provider for retrieving WordPress emojis and smilies is Automattic Inc, 60 29th Street #343, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA. This third-party provider stores your IP address in order to be able to transmit the emoji files to your browser.

Automattic also processes your data in the USA, among other places. Automattic is an active participant in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data from EU citizens to the USA. You can find more information on this at https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en.

In addition, Automattic uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the standard contractual clauses, Automattic undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de.

The data processing conditions (Data Processing Agreements), which correspond to the standard contractual clauses, can be found at https://wordpress.com/support/data-processing-agreements/.

You can find out more about the data that is processed through the use of WordPress emojis in the privacy policy at https://automattic.com/privacy/.

Content Delivery Networks Introduction

Content Delivery Networks Privacy Policy Summary 👥 Data subjects: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Optimization of our service performance (to load the website faster) 📓 Processed data: Data such as your IP address More details can be found below and in the individual data protection texts. 📅 Storage period: Most of the data is stored until it is no longer required to provide the service ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is a content delivery network?

We use a so-called content delivery network on our website. Such a network is usually just called a CDN. A CDN helps us to load our website quickly and easily, regardless of your location. Your personal data is also stored, managed and processed on the servers of the CDN provider used. In the following, we go into more detail about the service and its data processing. You can find detailed information about how your data is handled in the provider’s privacy policy.

Each Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a network of regionally distributed servers that are all connected to each other via the Internet. Via this network, website content (especially very large files) can be delivered quickly and smoothly, even during large load peaks. The CDN creates a copy of our website on your servers. As these servers are distributed worldwide, the website can be delivered quickly. The data transfer to your browser is therefore significantly shortened by the CDN.

Why do we use a content delivery network for our website?

A fast-loading website is part of our service. Of course, we know how annoying it is when a website loads at a snail’s pace. Most people even lose patience and leave before the website has fully loaded. Of course, we want to avoid that. That’s why a fast-loading website is a natural part of our website offering. With a content delivery network, our website loads much faster in your browser. The use of a CDN is particularly helpful if you are abroad, because the website is delivered from a server near you.

What data is processed?

When you request a website or the content of a website and it is cached on a CDN, the CDN routes the request to the server closest to you and that server delivers the content. Content delivery networks are structured in such a way that JavaScript libraries can be downloaded and hosted on npm and Github servers. Alternatively, most CDNs also allow WordPress plugins to be loaded if they are hosted on WordPress.org. Your browser may send personal data to the content delivery network we use. This includes data such as IP address, browser type, browser version, which website is loaded or the time and date of the page visit. This data is collected and stored by the CDN. Whether cookies are used for data storage depends on the network used. Please read the data protection texts of the respective service.

Right of objection

If you want to completely prevent this data transfer, you can install a JavaScript blocker (see for example https://noscript.net/) on your PC. Of course, our website will then no longer be able to offer the usual service (such as a fast loading speed).

Legal basis

If you have consented to the use of a content delivery network, the legal basis for the corresponding data processing is this consent. According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), this consent constitutes the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when it is collected by a content delivery network.

We also have a legitimate interest in using a content delivery network to optimize our online service and make it more secure. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests). Nevertheless, we only use the tool if you have given your consent.

Information on special content delivery networks – if available – can be found in the following sections.

Cloudflare privacy policy

Cloudflare privacy policy summary 👥 Data subjects: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Optimization of our service (to be able to load the website faster) 📓 Processed data: Data such as IP address, contact and log information, security fingerprints and website performance data More details can be found below in this privacy policy. 📅 Storage duration: Most data is stored for less than 24 hours ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Cloudflare?

We use Cloudflare from Cloudflare, Inc. (101 Townsend St., San Francisco, CA 94107, USA) on this website to make our website faster and more secure. Cloudflare uses cookies and processes user data. Cloudflare, Inc. is an American company that offers a content delivery network and various security services. These services are located between the user and our hosting provider. We will try to explain exactly what this means below.

A Content Delivery Network (CDN), such as the one provided by Cloudflare, is nothing more than a network of connected servers. Cloudflare has distributed such servers around the world to bring websites to your screen faster. Simply put, Cloudflare creates copies of our website and places them on their own servers. Now, when you visit our website, a load balancing system ensures that the largest parts of our website are delivered from the server that can display our website to you the fastest. The data transfer route to your browser is significantly shortened by a CDN. This means that the content of our website is delivered to you by Cloudflare not only from our hosting server, but from servers all over the world. The use of Cloudflare is particularly helpful for users from abroad, as the site can be delivered from a server nearby. In addition to the fast delivery of websites, Cloudflare also offers various security services, such as DDoS protection or the web application firewall.

Why do we use Cloudflare on our website?

Of course, we want to offer you the best possible service with our website. Cloudflare helps us to make our website faster and more secure. Cloudflare provides us with web optimization as well as security services such as DDoS protection and web firewall. This also includes a reverse proxy and the content distribution network (CDN). Cloudflare blocks threats and limits abusive bots and crawlers that waste our bandwidth and server resources. By storing our website on local data centers and blocking spam software, Cloudflare enables us to reduce our bandwidth usage by approximately 60%. Serving content through a data center near you and doing some web optimization there reduces the average load time of a web page by about half. According to Cloudflare, the “I’m Under Attack Mode” setting can further mitigate attacks by displaying a JavaScript calculation task that must be solved before a user can access a web page. Overall, this makes our website significantly more powerful and less susceptible to spam or other attacks.

What data is processed by Cloudflare?

Cloudflare generally only forwards data that is controlled by website operators. The content is therefore not determined by Cloudflare, but always by the website operator itself. In addition, Cloudflare may collect certain information about the use of our website and process data that is sent by us or for which Cloudflare has received appropriate instructions. In most cases, Cloudflare receives data such as IP address, contact and log information, security fingerprints and performance data for websites. Log data helps Cloudflare to detect new threats, for example. This enables Cloudflare to ensure a high level of security protection for our website. Cloudflare processes this data as part of its services in compliance with applicable laws. This naturally also includes the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Cloudflare also works with third-party providers. These may only process personal data under the instruction of Cloudflare and in accordance with the data protection guidelines and other confidentiality and security measures. Cloudflare does not pass on any personal data without our explicit consent.

How long and where is the data stored?

Cloudflare stores your information primarily in the United States and the European Economic Area. Cloudflare may transfer and access the information described above from around the world. In general, Cloudflare stores user-level data for domains in the Free, Pro and Business versions for less than 24 hours. For Enterprise domains that have Cloudflare Logs (formerly Enterprise LogShare or ELS) enabled, data can be stored for up to 7 days. However, if IP addresses trigger security alerts at Cloudflare, there may be exceptions to the above retention period.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

Cloudflare only keeps data logs for as long as necessary and in most cases this data is deleted within 24 hours. Cloudflare also does not store any personal data, such as your IP address. However, there is information that Cloudflare stores indefinitely as part of its permanent logs in order to improve the overall performance of Cloudflare Resolver and to identify any security risks. You can find out exactly which permanent logs are stored at https://www.cloudflare.com/application/privacypolicy/. All data that Cloudflare collects (temporary or permanent) is cleansed of all personal data. All permanent logs are also anonymized by Cloudflare.

Cloudflare states in their privacy policy that they are not responsible for the content they receive. For example, if you ask Cloudflare whether you can update or delete your content, Cloudflare always refers to us as the website operator. You can also completely prevent the entire collection and processing of your data by Cloudflare by deactivating the execution of script code in your browser or by integrating a script blocker in your browser.

Legal basis

If you have consented to Cloudflare being used, the legal basis for the corresponding data processing is this consent. According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), this consent constitutes the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when Cloudflare collects it.

We also have a legitimate interest in using Cloudflare to optimize our online service and make it more secure. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests). Nevertheless, we only use Cloudflare if you have given your consent.

Cloudflare also processes your data in the USA, among other places. Cloudflare is an active participant in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data from EU citizens to the USA. You can find more information about this at https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en.

Cloudflare also uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the Standard Contractual Clauses, Cloudflare undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de.

You can find out more about the standard contractual clauses and data processed through the use of Cloudflare in the privacy policy at https://www.cloudflare.com/de-de/privacypolicy/.

Cookie Consent Management Platform Introduction

Cookie Consent Management Platform Summary 👥 Data subjects: Website visitors 🤝 Purpose: To obtain and manage consent for certain cookies and therefore the use of certain tools 📓 Processed data: Data for managing the cookie settings set, such as IP address, time of consent, type of consent, individual consents. You can find more details on this in the respective tool used. 📅 Storage period: Depends on the tool used, you must be prepared for periods of several years ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit.f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is a Cookie Consent Management Platform?

We use Consent Management Platform (CMP) software on our website, which makes it easier for us and you to handle scripts and cookies correctly and securely. The software automatically creates a cookie pop-up, scans and checks all scripts and cookies, provides you with the cookie consent required under data protection law and helps us and you to keep track of all cookies. Most cookie consent management tools identify and categorize all existing cookies. As a website visitor, you then decide for yourself whether and which scripts and cookies you allow or do not allow. The following graphic shows the relationship between browser, web server and CMP.

Why do we use a cookie management tool?

Our aim is to offer you the best possible transparency in the area of data protection. We are also legally obliged to do so. We want to provide you with as much information as possible about all tools and all cookies that can store and process your data. It is also your right to decide for yourself which cookies you accept and which you do not. In order to grant you this right, we first need to know exactly which cookies have landed on our website in the first place. Thanks to a cookie management tool that regularly scans the website for all existing cookies, we know about all cookies and can provide you with GDPR-compliant information about them. You can then accept or reject cookies via the consent system.

What data is processed?

As part of our cookie management tool, you can manage each individual cookie yourself and have complete control over the storage and processing of your data. The declaration of your consent is stored so that we do not have to ask you every time you visit our website and we can also prove your consent if required by law. This is stored either in an opt-in cookie or on a server. The storage period of your cookie consent varies depending on the provider of the cookie management tool. In most cases, this data (e.g. pseudonymous user ID, time of consent, details of cookie categories or tools, browser, device information) is stored for up to two years.

Duration of data processing

We will inform you about the duration of data processing below, if we have further information on this. In general, we only process personal data for as long as is absolutely necessary for the provision of our services and products. Data that is stored in cookies is stored for different lengths of time. Some cookies are deleted as soon as you leave the website, while others may be stored in your browser for several years. The exact duration of data processing depends on the tool used; in most cases you should be prepared for a storage period of several years. You can usually find precise information about the duration of data processing in the respective data protection declarations of the individual providers.

Right of objection

You also have the right and the option to withdraw your consent to the use of cookies at any time. This works either via our cookie management tool or via other opt-out functions. For example, you can also prevent data collection by cookies by managing, deactivating or deleting cookies in your browser.

Information on special cookie management tools, if available, can be found in the following sections.

Legal basis

If you consent to cookies, your personal data will be processed and stored via these cookies. If we are permitted to use cookies on the basis of your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR), this consent is also the legal basis for the use of cookies and the processing of your data. Cookie consent management platform software is used to manage your consent to cookies and to enable you to give your consent. The use of this software enables us to operate the website in an efficient and legally compliant manner, which constitutes a legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).

AdSimple Consent Manager Privacy Policy

AdSimple Consent Manager Privacy Policy Summary 👥 Data subject: Website visitor 🤝 Purpose: Obtaining consent for certain cookies and thus the use of certain tools 📓 Processed data: Data for managing the cookie settings set, such as IP address, time of consent, type of consent, individual consents. You can find more details on this further below in this privacy policy 📅 Storage period: the cookie used expires after one year ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit.f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is the AdSimple Consent Manager?

We use the AdSimple Consent Manager of the software development and online marketing company AdSimple GmbH, Fabriksgasse 20, 2230 Gänserndorf on our website. The AdSimple Consent Manager offers us, among other things, the opportunity to provide you with a comprehensive and data protection-compliant cookie notice so that you can decide for yourself which cookies you allow and which you do not. By using this software, data is sent from you to AdSimple and stored. In this privacy policy, we inform you why we use the AdSimple Consent Manager, what data is transferred and stored and how you can prevent this data transfer.

The AdSimple Consent Manager is a software that scans our website and identifies and categorizes all existing cookies. In addition, as a website visitor, you are informed about the use of cookies via a cookie notice script and decide for yourself which cookies you allow and which you do not.

Why do we use the AdSimple Consent Manager on our website?

We want to offer you maximum transparency in the area of data protection. To ensure this, we first need to know exactly which cookies have ended up on our website over time. Because AdSimple’s Consent Manager regularly scans our website and identifies all cookies, we have full control over these cookies and can therefore act in compliance with the GDPR. This enables us to inform you precisely about the use of cookies on our website. Furthermore, you will always receive an up-to-date and data protection-compliant cookie notice and decide for yourself which cookies you accept or block using a checkbox system.

What data is stored by the AdSimple Consent Manager?

If you consent to cookies on our website, the following cookie will be set by the AdSimple Consent Manager:

Name: acm_status
Value: “:true, “statistics”:true, “marketing”:true, “socialmedia”:true, “settings”:true}
Purpose: Your consent status is stored in this cookie. This allows our website to read and follow the current status on future visits.
Expiration date: after one year

How long and where is the data stored?

All data collected by the AdSimple Consent Manager is transferred and stored exclusively within the European Union. The data collected is stored on the servers of AdSimple at Hetzner GmbH in Germany. Only AdSimple GmbH and Hetzner GmbH have access to this data.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You have the right to access and delete your personal data at any time. You can prevent data collection and storage, for example, by rejecting the use of cookies via the cookie hint script. Another option to prevent data processing or to manage it according to your wishes is provided by your browser. Depending on the browser, cookie management works slightly differently. In the “Cookies” section, you will find the relevant links to the instructions for the most popular browsers.

Legal basis

If you consent to cookies, your personal data will be processed and stored via these cookies. If we are permitted to use cookies on the basis of your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR), this consent is also the legal basis for the use of cookies and the processing of your data. The AdSimple Consent Manager is used to manage consent to cookies and to enable you to give your consent. The use of this software enables us to operate the website in an efficient and legally compliant manner, which constitutes a legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).

We hope we have provided you with a good overview of the data traffic and data processing by the AdSimple Consent Manager. If you would like to find out more about this tool, we recommend you visit the description page at https://www.adsimple.at/consent-manager/.

Security & Anti-Spam

Security & Anti-Spam Privacy Policy Summary 👥 Data subjects: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Cybersecurity 📓 Processed data: Data such as your IP address, name or technical data such as browser version More details can be found below and in the individual data protection texts. 📅 Storage duration: Most of the data is stored until it is no longer required to provide the service ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is security & anti-spam software?

With so-called security and anti-spam software, you and we can protect ourselves from various spam or phishing emails and possible other cyberattacks. Spam refers to advertising emails from a mass mailing that you did not request yourself. Such emails are also known as data junk and can also cause costs. Phishing emails, on the other hand, are messages that aim to build trust via fake messages or websites in order to obtain personal data. Anti-spam software generally protects against unwanted spam messages or malicious emails that could introduce viruses into our system. We also use general firewall and security systems to protect our computers from unwanted network attacks.

Why do we use security & anti-spam software?

We attach great importance to security on our website. After all, it’s not just about our security, but above all about yours. Unfortunately, cyber threats have become part of everyday life in the world of IT and the Internet. Hackers often try to steal personal data from an IT system with the help of a cyber attack. And that is why a good defense system is absolutely essential. A security system monitors all incoming and outgoing connections to our network or computer. To achieve even greater security against cyber attacks, we also use other external security services in addition to the standardized security systems on our computer. This prevents unauthorized data traffic and protects us from cybercrime.

What data is processed by security & anti-spam software?

Exactly which data is collected and stored depends of course on the respective service. However, we always strive to use only programs that collect data very sparingly or only store data that is necessary for the performance of the service offered. In principle, the service may store data such as name, address, IP address, e-mail address and technical data such as browser type or browser version. Any performance and log data may also be collected in order to detect possible incoming threats in good time. This data is processed as part of the services and in compliance with the applicable laws. This also includes the GDPR for US providers (via the standard contractual clauses). In some cases, these security services also work with third-party providers who may store and/or process data under instructions and in accordance with the data protection guidelines and other security measures. Data is usually stored via cookies.

Duration of data processing

We will inform you about the duration of data processing below if we have further information on this. For example, security programs store data until you or we revoke the data storage. In general, personal data is only stored for as long as is absolutely necessary for the provision of the services. Unfortunately, in many cases we do not receive precise information from the providers about the length of storage.

Right of objection

You also have the right and the option to withdraw your consent to the use of cookies or third-party security software at any time. This works either via our cookie management tool or via other opt-out functions. For example, you can also prevent data collection by cookies by managing, deactivating or deleting cookies in your browser.

As such security services may also use cookies, we recommend that you read our general privacy policy on cookies. To find out exactly which of your data is stored and processed, you should read the privacy policies of the respective tools.

Legal basis

We use the security services mainly on the basis of our legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) in a good security system against various cyber attacks.

Certain processing operations, in particular the use of cookies and the use of security functions, require your consent. If you have consented to your data being processed and stored by integrated security services, this consent is the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). Most of the services we use set cookies in your browser to store data. We therefore recommend that you read our privacy policy text on cookies carefully and view the privacy policy or cookie policy of the respective service provider.

Information on special tools – if available – can be found in the following sections.

Google reCAPTCHA privacy policy

Google reCAPTCHA privacy policy summary 👥 Data subjects: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Optimization of our service performance and protection against cyber attacks 📓 Processed data: Data such as IP address, browser information, your operating system, limited location and usage data More details can be found below in this privacy policy 📅 Storage duration: depending on the stored data ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is reCAPTCHA?

Our primary goal is to secure and protect our website for you and for us in the best possible way. To ensure this, we use Google reCAPTCHA from Google Inc. For the European region, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. With reCAPTCHA we can determine whether you are really a flesh and blood person and not a robot or other spam software. By spam we mean any unsolicited information that is sent to us electronically. With the classic CAPTCHAs, you usually had to solve text or picture puzzles to verify your identity. With reCAPTCHA from Google, we don’t usually have to bother you with such puzzles. In most cases, all you have to do is tick a box to confirm that you are not a bot. With the new Invisible reCAPTCHA version, you no longer even have to tick the box. You can find out exactly how this works and, above all, which data is used for this in the course of this privacy policy.

reCAPTCHA is a free captcha service from Google that protects websites from spam software and misuse by non-human visitors. This service is most commonly used when you fill out forms on the Internet. A Captcha service is a type of automatic Turing test designed to ensure that an action on the Internet is performed by a human and not by a bot. In the classic Turing test (named after the computer scientist Alan Turing), a human determines the difference between a bot and a human. With captchas, the computer or a software program also does this. Classic captchas work with small tasks that are easy for humans to solve but present considerable difficulties for machines. With reCAPTCHA, you no longer have to actively solve puzzles. The tool uses modern risk techniques to distinguish humans from bots. All you have to do here is tick the “I am not a robot” text field, and with Invisible reCAPTCHA even this is no longer necessary. With reCAPTCHA, a JavaScript element is integrated into the source code and then the tool runs in the background and analyzes your user behavior. The software calculates a so-called captcha score from these user actions. Google uses this score to calculate the probability that you are human even before you enter the captcha. reCAPTCHA or captchas in general are always used when bots could manipulate or abuse certain actions (e.g. registrations, surveys, etc.).

Why do we use reCAPTCHA on our website?

We only want to welcome people of flesh and blood on our site. Bots and spam software of all kinds can safely stay at home. That’s why we do everything we can to protect and offer you the best possible user-friendliness. For this reason, we use Google reCAPTCHA from Google. This way we can be pretty sure that we remain a “bot-free” website. By using reCAPTCHA, data is transmitted to Google to determine whether you are actually a human being. reCAPTCHA therefore serves to ensure the security of our website and, by extension, your security. For example, without reCAPTCHA it could happen that a bot registers as many e-mail addresses as possible during registration in order to subsequently “spam” forums or blogs with unwanted advertising content. With reCAPTCHA, we can prevent such bot attacks.

What data is stored by reCAPTCHA?

reCAPTCHA collects personal data from users in order to determine whether the actions on our website actually originate from people. The IP address and other data that Google requires for the reCAPTCHA service may therefore be sent to Google. IP addresses are almost always truncated within the member states of the EU or other signatory states to the Agreement on the European Economic Area before the data is sent to a server in the USA. The IP address is not combined with other Google data unless you are logged in with your Google account while using reCAPTCHA. First, the reCAPTCHA algorithm checks whether Google cookies from other Google services (YouTube, Gmail, etc.) have already been placed on your browser. Then reCAPTCHA places an additional cookie in your browser and takes a snapshot of your browser window.

The following list of collected browser and user data does not claim to be exhaustive. Rather, they are examples of data that, to our knowledge, are processed by Google.

• Referrer URL (the address of the page from which the visitor comes)

• IP address (e.g. 256.123.123.1)

• Information about the operating system (the software that enables your computer to operate. Common operating systems are Windows, Mac OS X or Linux)

• Cookies (small text files that store data in your browser)

• Mouse and keyboard behavior (every action you perform with the mouse or keyboard is saved)

• Date and language settings (which language or date you have preset on your PC is saved)

• All JavaScript objects (JavaScript is a programming language that enables websites to adapt to the user. JavaScript objects can collect all kinds of data under one name)

• Screen resolution (indicates how many pixels the image display consists of)

It is undisputed that Google uses and analyzes this data even before you click on the “I am not a robot” checkbox. With the Invisible reCAPTCHA version, you don’t even have to check the box and the entire recognition process runs in the background. Google does not tell you in detail exactly how much and what data it stores.

The following cookies are used by reCAPTCHA: Here we refer to the reCAPTCHA demo version from Google at https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api2/demo. All these cookies require a unique identifier for tracking purposes. Here is a list of cookies that Google reCAPTCHA has set on the demo version:

Name: IDE
Value: WqTUmlnmv_qXyi_DGNPLESKnRNrpgXoy1K-pAZtAkMbHI-112958543-8
Purpose: This cookie is set by the company DoubleClick (also owned by Google) to register and report the actions of a user on the website in dealing with advertisements. This allows the effectiveness of advertising to be measured and appropriate optimization measures to be taken. IDE is stored in browsers under the domain doubleclick.net.
Expiration date: after one year

Name: 1P_JAR
Value: 2019-5-14-12
Purpose: This cookie collects statistics on website usage and measures conversions. A conversion occurs, for example, when a user becomes a buyer. The cookie is also used to display relevant advertisements to users. The cookie can also be used to prevent a user from seeing the same ad more than once.
Expiration date: after one month

Name: ANID
Wert: U7j1v3dZa1129585430xgZFmiqWppRWKOr
Purpose: We were unable to find out much information about this cookie. In Google’s privacy policy, the cookie is mentioned in connection with “advertising cookies” such as “DSID”, “FLC”, “AID”, “TAID”. ANID is stored under domain google.com.
Expiration date: after 9 months

Name: CONSENT
Value: YES+AT.de+20150628-20-0
Purpose: The cookie stores the status of a user’s consent to the use of various Google services. CONSENT is also used for security purposes to verify users, prevent fraudulent login information and protect user data from unauthorized attacks.
Expiration date: after 19 years

Name: NID
Wert: 0WmuWqy112958543zILzqV_nmt3sDXwPeM5Q
Purpose: NID is used by Google to adapt advertisements to your Google search. With the help of the cookie, Google “remembers” your most frequently entered search queries or your previous interaction with ads. So you always get customized ads. The cookie contains a unique ID to collect the user’s personal settings for advertising purposes.
Expiration date: after 6 months

Name: DV
Wert: gEAABBCjJMXcI0dSAAAANbqc112958543-4
Purpose: As soon as you have checked the “I am not a robot” box, this cookie is set. The cookie is used by Google Analytics for personalized advertising. DV collects information in anonymized form and is also used to make user distinctions.
Expiration date: after 10 minutes

Note: This list cannot claim to be exhaustive, as experience has shown that Google changes its choice of cookies from time to time.

How long and where is the data stored?

By inserting reCAPTCHA, data is transferred from you to the Google server. Where exactly this data is stored is not made clear by Google, even after repeated requests. Without having received confirmation from Google, it can be assumed that data such as mouse interaction, time spent on the website or language settings are stored on the European or American Google servers. The IP address that your browser transmits to Google is not merged with other Google data from other Google services. However, if you are logged in to your Google account while using the reCAPTCHA plug-in, , the data will be merged. The deviating data protection provisions of Google apply.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

If you do not want any data about you and your behavior to be transmitted to Google, you must log out of Google completely and delete all Google cookies before you visit our website or use the reCAPTCHA software. In principle, the data is automatically transmitted to Google as soon as you visit our website. To delete this data, you must contact Google support at  https://support.google.com/?hl=de&tid=112958543.

Therefore, when you use our website, you agree that Google LLC and its representatives may automatically collect, process and use data.

Please note that when using this tool, your data may also be stored and processed outside the EU. Most third countries (including the USA) are not considered secure under current European data protection law. Data may therefore not simply be transferred to insecure third countries, stored and processed there, unless there are suitable guarantees (such as EU standard contractual clauses) between us and the non-European service provider.

Legal basis

If you have consented to the use of Google reCAPTCHA, the legal basis for the corresponding data processing is this consent. According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), this consent constitutes the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when Google reCAPTCHA is used.

We also have a legitimate interest in using Google reCAPTCHA to optimize our online service and make it more secure. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests). Nevertheless, we only use Google reCAPTCHA if you have given your consent.

Google also processes your data in the USA, among other places. Google is an active participant in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data from EU citizens to the USA. You can find more information on this at https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en.

Google also uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the standard contractual clauses, Google undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

The Google Ads Data Processing Terms, which refer to the standard contractual clauses, can be found at https://business.safety.google/intl/de/adsprocessorterms/.

You can find out a little more about reCAPTCHA on Google’s web developer page at https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/. Although Google goes into more detail here about the technical development of reCAPTCHA, you will search in vain for precise information about data storage and data protection-related topics. A good overview of the basic use of data at Google can be found in the company’s own privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy.

Cloud services

Cloud Services Privacy Policy Summary 👥 Data subjects: We as website operator and you as website visitor 🤝 Purpose: Security and data storage 📓 Processed data: Data such as your IP address, name or technical data such as browser version You can find more details on this below and in the individual data protection texts or in the privacy policies of the providers 📅 Storage period: Most of the data is stored until it is no longer required to provide the service ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What are cloud services?

Cloud services provide us as website operators with storage space and computing power via the internet. Data can be transferred to an external system, processed and stored via the internet. This data is managed by the corresponding cloud provider. Depending on requirements, an individual person or even a company can choose the amount of storage space or computing power. Cloud storage is accessed via an API or storage protocols. API stands for Application Programming Interface and refers to a programming interface that connects software and hardware components.

Why do we use cloud services?

We use cloud services for several reasons. A cloud service offers us the opportunity to store our data securely. We also have access to the data from different locations and devices, giving us more flexibility and making our work processes easier. Cloud storage also saves us costs because we don’t have to set up and manage our own infrastructure for data storage and data security. By storing our data centrally in the cloud, we can also expand our fields of application and manage our information much better.

As website operators and companies, we primarily use cloud services for our own purposes. For example, we use the services to manage our calendar and to store documents or other important information in the cloud. However, your personal data may also be stored in the process. This is the case, for example, if you provide us with your contact details (such as your name and email address) and we store our customer data with a cloud provider. Consequently, data that we process from you may also be stored and processed on external servers. If we offer certain forms or content from cloud services on our website, cookies may also be set for web analytics and advertising purposes. Furthermore, such cookies remember your settings (such as the language used) so that you will find your familiar web environment the next time you visit our website.

What data is processed by cloud services?

Much of the data we store in the cloud has no personal reference, but some data is considered personal data as defined by the GDPR. This often involves customer data such as name, address, IP address or telephone number or technical device information. Videos, images and audio files can also be stored in the cloud. Exactly how the data is collected and stored depends on the respective service. We only try to use services that handle the data in a very trustworthy and professional manner. In principle, the services, such as Amazon Drive, have access to the stored files in order to be able to offer their own service accordingly. However, the services require permissions for this, such as the right to copy files for security reasons. This data is processed and managed as part of the services and in compliance with the applicable laws. This also includes the GDPR for US providers (via the standard contractual clauses). In some cases, these cloud services also work with third-party providers who may process data under instructions and in accordance with the data protection guidelines and other security measures. At this point, we would like to emphasize once again that all known cloud services (such as Amazon Drive, Google Drive or Microsoft Onedrive) obtain the right to access stored content in order to offer and optimize their own service accordingly.

Duration of data processing

We will inform you about the duration of data processing below if we have further information on this. In general, cloud services store data until you or we revoke the data storage or delete the data. In general, personal data is only stored for as long as is absolutely necessary for the provision of the services. However, it may take several months to permanently delete data from the cloud. This is the case because the data is usually not stored on just one server, but is distributed across various servers.

Right of objection

You also have the right and the option to withdraw your consent to data storage in a cloud at any time. If cookies are used, you also have a right of withdrawal here. This works either via our cookie management tool or via other opt-out functions. For example, you can also prevent data collection by cookies by managing, deactivating or deleting cookies in your browser. We also recommend that you read our general privacy policy on cookies. To find out exactly what data of yours is stored and processed, you should read the privacy policies of the respective cloud providers.

Legal basis

We use cloud services mainly on the basis of our legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) in a good security and storage system.

Certain processing operations, in particular the use of cookies and the use of storage functions, require your consent. If you have consented to your data being processed and stored by cloud services, this consent is the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). Most of the services we use set cookies in your browser to store data. We therefore recommend that you read our data protection text on cookies carefully and view the privacy policy or cookie guidelines of the respective service provider.

Information on special tools – if available – can be found in the following sections.

Google Cloud privacy policy

We use Google Cloud, an online storage service for files, photos and videos, for our website. The service provider is the American company Google Inc. For the European region, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services.

Google also processes your data in the USA, among other places. Google is an active participant in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data from EU citizens to the USA. You can find more information on this at https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en.

Google also uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the standard contractual clauses, Google undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

Google has an order processing contract in accordance with Art. 28 GDPR, which serves as the data protection basis for our customer relationship with Google. The content of this contract refers to the EU standard contractual clauses. You can find the order processing conditions here: https://business.safety.google/intl/de/adsprocessorterms/

You can find out more about the data processed through the use of Google Cloud in the privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de.

External online platforms Introduction

External online platforms Privacy policy summary 👥 Data subjects: Visitors to the website or visitors to the external online platforms 🤝 Purpose: Presentation and optimization of our services, contact with visitors, interested parties 📓 Processed data: Data such as telephone numbers, email addresses, contact details, user behavior data, information about your device and your IP address. You can find more details on this in the respective platform used. 📅 Storage duration: depending on the platforms used ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What are external online platforms?

We also use external platforms to offer our services or products outside of our website. These are usually online marketplaces such as Amazon or eBay. In addition to our responsibility for data protection, the data protection provisions of the external platforms we use also apply. This is particularly the case if our products are purchased via the platform. In other words, if there is a payment process. Furthermore, most platforms also use your data to optimize their own marketing measures. For example, the platform can use the data collected to tailor advertisements precisely to the interests of customers and website visitors.

Why do we use external online platforms?

In addition to our website, we also want to offer our products on other platforms in order to bring our range closer to more customers. External online marketplaces such as Amazon, Ebay or Digistore24 offer large sales websites that offer our products to people who may not be familiar with our website. It may also be the case that built-in elements on our site direct you to an external online platform. Data that is processed and stored by the online platform used is used by the company to record the payment process on the one hand and to carry out web analyses on the other.

The aim of these analyses is to be able to develop more precise and personalized marketing and advertising strategies. Depending on your behavior on a platform, the evaluated data can be used to draw conclusions about your interests and create user profiles. This also enables the platforms to present you with customized advertisements or products. Cookies are usually set in your browser for this purpose, which store data on your usage behavior.

Please note that when using the platforms or our built-in elements, your data may also be processed outside the European Union, as online platforms such as Amazon or eBay are American companies. As a result, you may not be able to claim or enforce your rights in relation to your personal data as easily.

What data is processed?

Exactly which data is stored and processed depends on the external platform in question. But it is usually data such as telephone numbers, email addresses, data that you enter in a contact form, user data such as which buttons you click, when you visited which pages, information about your device and your IP address. Very often, most of this data is stored in cookies. If you have your own profile on an external platform and are also logged in there, data can be linked to the profile. The data collected is stored on the servers of the platforms used and processed there. You can find out exactly how an external platform stores, manages and processes data in the respective privacy policy. If you have any questions about data storage and data processing or wish to assert corresponding rights, we recommend that you contact the platform directly.

Duration of data processing

We will inform you about the duration of data processing below if we have further information on this. For example, Amazon stores data until it is no longer required for its own purposes. In general, we only process personal data for as long as is absolutely necessary for the provision of our services and products.

Right of objection

You also have the right and the option to withdraw your consent to the use of cookies at any time. This works either via our cookie management tool or via opt-out functions on the respective external platform. You can also prevent the collection of data by cookies by managing, deactivating or deleting cookies in your browser.

As cookies may be used, we also recommend that you read our general privacy policy on cookies. To find out exactly which of your data is stored and processed, you should read the privacy policies of the respective external platforms.

Legal basis

If you have consented to your data being processed and stored by external platforms, this consent is the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). In principle, your data will also be stored and processed on the basis of a legitimate interest (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) in fast and good communication with you or other customers and business partners if you have given your consent. If we have integrated elements of external platforms on our website, we will only use them if you have given your consent.

Information on special external platforms – if available – can be found in the following sections.

shopify privacy policy

We use the online marketplace shopify. The service provider is the American company Shopify International Limited, Victoria Buildings, 2nd Floor, 1-2 Haddington Road, Dublin 4, D04 XN32, Ireland.

shopify also processes your data in the USA, among other places. We would like to point out that, in the opinion of the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This may entail various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

As a basis for data processing with recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or a data transfer there, shopify uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46. para. 2 and 3 GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through these clauses, shopify undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

For more information on the standard contractual clauses and the data processed through the use of shopify, please refer to the privacy policy at https://www.shopify.de/legal/datenschutz or https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/your-account/privacy/GDPR/gdpr-faq#will-shopify-sign-standard-contractual-clauses.

Credit rating agencies Introduction

Credit rating agencies Privacy policy summary 👥 Data subjects: Customers 🤝 Purpose: Creditworthiness and credit assessment 📓 Processed data: Inventory data, payment data, contact data, contract data 📅 Storage duration: depending on the check agencies used ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What are credit rating agencies?

In some cases, we use credit rating agencies for our online transactions so that we can obtain information about your creditworthiness if we make advance payments. The checking agencies calculate a statistical probability of non-payment. This means that we receive information about how likely it is that you will be able to pay your invoice, for example. Based on this information, we can make a better decision as to whether or not to make advance payments. We can also refuse advance payments (such as payment on account) if the result of the credit check is negative.

Why do we use credit rating agencies?

In our business, it often happens that we provide a service before the contractually agreed consideration or accept similar economic risks. This is always the case, for example, when ordering on account. In order to protect our legitimate interests, we can obtain so-called identity and creditworthiness information. This involves assessing the credit risk using a mathematical-statistical procedure from credit rating agencies (credit agencies).

What data is processed?

The decision to pay in advance or not is made by software that works with the information from the credit assessment agency on the basis of an automated decision in individual cases (= Art. 22 GDPR). The data that is usually processed includes name, address, bank details, invoices, payment history, contact details such as e-mail address and telephone number as well as contract data such as term, customer information and the subject matter of the contract. You can find more information about data processing in the data protection declarations of the respective credit rating agencies.

Duration of data processing

How long the data is processed and stored depends mainly on the credit rating agencies we use. You can find out more about the data processing of the individual providers below. The providers’ privacy policies usually state exactly which data is stored and processed and for how long. In principle, personal data is only processed for as long as is necessary for the provision of our services. If data is stored in cookies, the storage period varies greatly. In most cases, you will also find detailed information about the individual cookies in the privacy policies of the individual providers.

Legal basis

If we obtain consent from our contractual partners, this is also the legal basis (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR) for the credit report and also for the transfer of the customer’s data to a credit reference agency. If this consent does not exist, the legal basis is our legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR) in default protection. If we obtain your consent, this is also the legal basis for creditworthiness information and data transmission.

We have no influence on the specific checking process or the profiling of the credit rating agencies we use and therefore have no influence on the accuracy or appropriateness of the result. In this respect, we are not responsible under data protection law. In this respect, responsibility remains solely with the credit assessment agency, to whose data protection information we refer below. We are only responsible for obtaining and using a credit report provided by a third party in individual cases.

Creditreform privacy policy

We use Creditreform, a credit agency, for our business. The service provider is the Austrian company Creditreform Wirtschaftsauskunftei Kubicki KG, Muthgasse 36-40, 1190 Vienna, Austria.

You can find out more about the data processed through the use of Creditreform in the privacy policy at https://www.creditreform.at/wien/eu-dsgvo.

Audio & Video Introduction

Audio & Video Privacy Policy Summary 👥 Data subjects: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Optimization of our service performance 📓 Processed data: Data such as contact details, user behavior data, information about your device and your IP address may be stored. You can find more details on this below in the corresponding data protection texts. 📅 Storage duration: Data is generally stored for as long as it is necessary for the purpose of the service ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What are audio and video elements?

We have integrated audio and video elements on our website so that you can watch videos or listen to music/podcasts directly via our website. The content is provided by service providers. All content is therefore also obtained from the corresponding servers of the providers.

These are integrated functional elements from platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo or Spotify. The use of these portals is usually free of charge, but paid content can also be published. With the help of these integrated elements, you can listen to or view the respective content via our website.

If you use audio or video elements on our website, your personal data may also be transmitted to the service providers, processed and stored.

Why do we use audio & video elements on our website?

Of course we want to provide you with the best offer on our website. And we are aware that content is no longer simply conveyed in text and static images. Instead of simply giving you a link to a video, we offer you audio and video formats directly on our website that are entertaining or informative and ideally even both. This expands our service and makes it easier for you to access interesting content. We therefore offer video and/or audio content in addition to our texts and images.

What data is stored by audio & video elements?

When you access a page on our website that has an embedded video, for example, your server connects to the server of the service provider. Your data is also transmitted to the third-party provider and stored there. Some data is collected and stored regardless of whether you have an account with the third-party provider or not. This usually includes your IP address, browser type, operating system and other general information about your end device. In addition, most providers also collect information about your web activity. This includes, for example, session duration, bounce rate, which button you clicked on or which website you used to access the service. All this information is usually stored using cookies or pixel tags (also known as web beacons). Pseudonymized data is usually stored in cookies in your browser. You can always find out exactly which data is stored and processed in the privacy policy of the respective provider.

Duration of data processing

You can find out exactly how long the data is stored on the servers of the third-party providers either below in the data protection text of the respective tool or in the provider’s privacy policy. In principle, personal data is only ever processed for as long as is absolutely necessary for the provision of our services or products. This generally also applies to third-party providers. In most cases, you can assume that certain data will be stored on the servers of third-party providers for several years. Data can be stored for different lengths of time, especially in cookies. Some cookies are deleted as soon as you leave the website, while others may be stored in your browser for several years.

Right of objection

You also have the right and the option to withdraw your consent to the use of cookies or third-party providers at any time. This works either via our cookie management tool or via other opt-out functions. For example, you can also prevent data collection by cookies by managing, deactivating or deleting cookies in your browser. The lawfulness of the processing until the revocation remains unaffected.

Since the integrated audio and video functions on our website usually also use cookies, you should also read our general privacy policy on cookies. You can find out more about the handling and storage of your data in the privacy policies of the respective third-party providers.

Legal basis

If you have consented to your data being processed and stored by integrated audio and video elements, this consent is the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). In principle, your data is also stored and processed on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) in fast and good communication with you or other customers and business partners. Nevertheless, we only use the integrated audio and video elements if you have given your consent.

SoundCloud privacy policy

SoundCloud privacy policy summary 👥 Data subjects: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Optimization of our service performance 📓 Processed data: Data such as contact details, user behavior data, information about your device and your IP address may be stored. You can find more details on this below in this privacy policy. 📅 Storage duration: Data is generally stored for as long as it is required for the purpose of the service ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is SoundCloud?

We use functions (widgets) of the social media network SoundCloud of SoundCloud Limited, Rheinsberger Str. 76/77, 10115 Berlin, Germany on our website. You can recognize the widgets by the familiar orange logo. By using functions such as playing music, data is transmitted to SoundCloud, stored and analyzed. In this privacy policy, we show you what data is involved, why we use SoundCloud and how you can manage or prevent your data or data transmission.

The social media network SoundCloud is an online music platform for sharing and distributing audio files. Musicians or podcasters offer their audio files for download on SoundCloud. SoundCloud can also be used to integrate audio files into other websites. And that’s exactly what we did. Typical for SoundCloud are the graphical representations of the audio files in wave form and the comment bar. This allows registered users to listen to and comment on music tracks or podcasts at any time.

Why do we use SoundCloud on our website?

Our aim is to provide you with the best possible service on our website. By this we don’t just mean our products or services. Overall customer service also includes how comfortable you feel on our website and how helpful our website is for you. With the embedded SoundCloud playback function, we can provide you with acoustic content directly and free of charge. You don’t have to follow a link to listen to an audio file, you can start right away via our website.

What data is stored on SoundCloud?

As soon as you visit one of our websites that has a widget (like or share button or playback function), your browser connects to a SoundCloud server. Your data may be transferred to SoundCloud, managed and stored there. For example, SoundCloud learns your IP address and which page (in this case ours) you visited and when. If you have a SoundCloud account and are logged in while browsing our website, the data collected will be assigned directly to your account/account. You can only prevent this by logging out of SoundCloud while you are on our website. In addition to the information mentioned above, data about your user behavior is also stored in the cookies. For example, whenever you click a button, play or pause a piece of music, this information is stored in the cookies. The widget or SoundCloud is therefore able to recognize you and sometimes the widget is also used to provide you with personalized content. SoundCloud not only uses its own cookies, but also cookies from third-party providers such as Facebook or Google Analytics. These cookies help the company to obtain more information about your behavior on external websites and its own platform. As the website operator, we do not receive any information about your user behavior through the cookies used by SoundCloud. The data transfer and therefore also the information about technical devices and your behavior on the website takes place between you and SoundCloud.

Below we show cookies that have been set when you go to a website that has integrated SoundCloud functions. This list is only an example of possible cookies and cannot claim to be exhaustive. In this example, the user does not have a SoundCloud account:

Name: sc_anonymous_id
Wert: 208165-986996-398971-423805112958543-0
Purpose: This cookie makes it possible to integrate files or other content into websites and stores a user ID.
Expiration date: after 10 years

Remark:
The sc_anonymous_id cookie is set immediately if you are on one of our websites that has a Soundcloud function built in. You do not need to interact with the function to do this.

Name: __qca
Wert: P0-1223379886-1579605792812112958543-7
Purpose: This cookie is a third-party cookie from Quantcast and collects data such as how often you visit the site or how long you stay on the site. The information collected is then passed on to SoundCloud.
Expiration date: after one year

Name: Sclocale
Value: de
Purpose: The cookie saves the language setting that you have preset.
Expiration date: after one year

Name: _soundcloud_session
Value: /
Purpose: We were unable to find out any specific information about this cookie.
Expiration date: after the end of the session

Name: _session_auth_key
Value: /
Purpose: The cookie can be used to store session information (i.e. user behavior) and authenticate a client request.
Expiration date: after 10 years

SoundCloud also uses other third-party cookies such as _fbp, _ga, gid from Facebook and Google Analytics. SoundCloud uses all the information stored in the cookies to improve its own services and to display personalized advertising.

How long and where is the data stored?

In principle, the data collected remains stored at SoundCloud for as long as a user account exists or is necessary for SoundCloud to achieve its business objectives. Exactly how long data is stored changes depending on the context and legal obligations. Even if you do not have an account and personal data has been stored, you have the right to request the deletion of your data.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

If you have a SoundCloud account, you can manage data processing or delete your entire account via “Settings”. However, you can also manage, delete or deactivate cookies in your browser exactly according to your requirements. The approach always depends on the browser you are using. If you decide to delete or deactivate cookies, please note that not all functions may then be available. In the “Cookies” section, you will find the relevant links to the instructions for the most popular browsers.

Legal basis

If you have consented to your data being processed and stored by integrated SoundCloud elements, this consent is the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). In principle, your data will also be stored and processed on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) in fast and good communication with you or other customers and business partners. Nevertheless, we only use the integrated SoundCloud elements if you have given your consent. SoundCloud also sets cookies in your browser to store data. We therefore recommend that you read our data protection text on cookies carefully and view the privacy policy or cookie guidelines of the respective service provider.

We hope we have provided you with a good overview of the data traffic through SoundCloud. If you would like to find out more about SoundCloud’s privacy policy and how it handles data in general, we recommend that you read the company’s privacy policy at https://soundcloud.com/pages/privacy.

Spotify privacy policy

We use Spotify, a tool for music and podcasts, on our website. The service provider is the Swedish company Spotify AB, Regeringsgatan 19, SE-111 53 Stockholm, Sweden.

You can find out more about the data that is processed through the use of Spotify in the privacy policy at https://www.spotify.com/de/legal/privacy-policy/.

Vimeo privacy policy

Vimeo privacy policy summary 👥 Data subject: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Optimization of our service performance 📓 Processed data: Data such as contact details, user behavior data, information about your device and your IP address may be stored. You can find more details below in this privacy policy. 📅 Storage duration: Data is generally stored for as long as it is required for the purpose of the service ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Vimeo?

We also use videos from Vimeo on our website. The video portal is operated by Vimeo LLC, 555 West 18th Street, New York, New York 10011, USA. With the help of a plug-in, we can show you interesting video material directly on our website. Certain data may be transferred from you to Vimeo. In this privacy policy, we show you what data is involved, why we use Vimeo and how you can manage or prevent your data or data transmission.

Vimeo is a video platform that was founded in 2004 and has enabled the streaming of videos in HD quality since 2007. Since 2015, it has also been possible to stream in 4k Ultra HD. The portal is free to use, but paid content can also be published. Compared to the market leader YouTube, Vimeo prioritizes high-quality content in good quality. For example, the portal offers a lot of artistic content such as music videos and short films, but also interesting documentaries on a wide range of topics.

Why do we use Vimeo on our website?

The aim of our website is to provide you with the best possible content. And as easily accessible as possible. Only when we have achieved this are we satisfied with our service. The video service Vimeo helps us to achieve this goal. Vimeo gives us the opportunity to present you with high-quality content directly on our website. Instead of just giving you a link to an interesting video, you can watch the video directly on our site. This expands our service and makes it easier for you to access interesting content. In addition to our texts and images, we also offer video content.

What data is stored on Vimeo?

When you visit a page on our website that has a Vimeo video embedded, your browser connects to the Vimeo servers. This results in a data transfer. This data is collected, stored and processed on the Vimeo servers. Regardless of whether you have a Vimeo account or not, Vimeo collects data about you. This includes your IP address, technical information about your browser type, your operating system or very basic device information. Furthermore, Vimeo stores information about which website you use the Vimeo service and which actions (web activities) you perform on our website. These web activities include, for example, session duration, bounce rate or which button you clicked on our website with built-in Vimeo function. Vimeo can track and store these actions with the help of cookies and similar technologies.

If you are logged in to Vimeo as a registered member, more data can usually be collected, as more cookies may already have been set in your browser. In addition, your actions on our website will be directly linked to your Vimeo account. To prevent this, you must log out of Vimeo while “surfing” on our website.

Below we show you the cookies that are set by Vimeo when you are on a website with an integrated Vimeo function. This list is not exhaustive and assumes that you do not have a Vimeo account.

Name: player
Value: “”
Purpose: This cookie saves your settings before you play an embedded Vimeo video. This means that the next time you watch a Vimeo video, you will get your preferred settings again.
Expiration date: after one year

Name: vuid
Wert: pl1046149876.614422590112958543-4
Purpose:  This cookie collects information about your actions on websites that have embedded a Vimeo video.
Expiration date:  after 2 years

Note: These two cookies are always set as soon as you are on a website with an embedded Vimeo video. If you watch the video and click on the button, for example to “share” or “like” the video, further cookies will be set. These are also third-party cookies such as _ga or _gat_UA-76641-8 from Google Analytics or _fbp from Facebook. Exactly which cookies are set here depends on your interaction with the video.

The following list shows a selection of possible cookies that are set when you interact with the Vimeo video:

Name: _abexps
Value: %5B%5D
Purpose: This Vimeo cookie helps Vimeo to remember the settings you have made. This can be, for example, a preset language, a region or a user name. In general, the cookie stores data about how you use Vimeo.
Expiration date: after one year

Name: continuous_play_v3
Value: 1
Purpose: This cookie is a first-party cookie from Vimeo. The cookie collects information about how you use the Vimeo service. For example, the cookie stores when you pause or play a video.
Expiration date: after one year

Name: _ga
Wert: GA1.2.1522249635.1578401280112958543-7
Purpose: This cookie is a third-party cookie from Google. By default, analytics.js uses the _ga cookie to store the user ID. Basically, it is used to distinguish website visitors.
Expiration date: after 2 years

Name: _gcl_au
Wert: 1.1.770887836.1578401279112958543-3
Purpose: This third-party cookie from Google AdSense is used to improve the efficiency of advertisements on websites.
Expiration date: after 3 months

Name: _fbp
Wert: fb.1.1578401280585.310434968
Purpose: This is a Facebook cookie. This cookie is used to display advertisements or advertising products from Facebook or other advertisers.
Expiration date: after 3 months

Vimeo uses this data, among other things, to improve its own service, to communicate with you and to implement its own targeted advertising measures. Vimeo emphasizes on its website that only first-party cookies (i.e. cookies from Vimeo itself) are used for embedded videos as long as you do not interact with the video.

How long and where is the data stored?

Vimeo is headquartered in White Plains in the state of New York (USA). However, the services are offered worldwide. The company uses computer systems, databases and servers in the USA and other countries. Your data can therefore also be stored and processed on servers in America. The data remains stored by Vimeo until the company no longer has a commercial reason for storing it. The data is then deleted or anonymized.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You always have the option of managing cookies in your browser according to your wishes. For example, if you do not want Vimeo to set cookies and thus collect information about you, you can delete or deactivate cookies in your browser settings at any time. This works a little differently depending on your browser. Please note that various functions may no longer be fully available after deactivating/deleting cookies. In the “Cookies” section, you will find the relevant links to the instructions for the most popular browsers.

If you are a registered Vimeo member, you can also manage the cookies used in the Vimeo settings.

Legal basis

If you have consented to your data being processed and stored by integrated Vimeo elements, this consent is the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). In principle, your data is also stored and processed on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) in fast and good communication with you or other customers and business partners. Nevertheless, we only use the integrated Vimeo elements if you have given your consent. Vimeo also sets cookies in your browser to store data. We therefore recommend that you read our data protection text on cookies carefully and view the privacy policy or cookie guidelines of the respective service provider.

Vimeo also processes your data in the USA, among other places. We would like to point out that, in the opinion of the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This may entail various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

Vimeo uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46. para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing with recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or data transfer to these countries. Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through these clauses, Vimeo undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here, among others: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

You can find more information on the standard contractual clauses at Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/privacy#international_data_transfers_and_certain_user_rights.

You can find out more about the use of cookies at Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/cookie_policy, information on data protection at Vimeo can be found at https://vimeo.com/privacy.

YouTube privacy policy

YouTube privacy policy summary 👥 Data subject: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Optimization of our service performance 📓 Processed data: Data such as contact details, user behavior data, information about your device and your IP address may be stored. You can find more details below in this privacy policy. 📅 Storage duration: Data is generally stored for as long as it is required for the purpose of the service ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is YouTube?

We have integrated YouTube videos on our website. This allows us to present interesting videos directly on our site. YouTube is a video portal that has been a subsidiary of Google since 2006. The video portal is operated by YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave, San Bruno, CA 94066, USA. When you access a page on our website that has a YouTube video embedded, your browser automatically connects to the YouTube or Google servers. Various data will be transmitted (depending on the settings). Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all data processing in Europe.

In the following, we would like to explain to you in more detail what data is processed, why we have integrated YouTube videos and how you can manage or delete your data.

On YouTube, users can watch, rate, comment on and upload videos for free. Over the last few years, YouTube has become one of the most important social media channels worldwide. To enable us to display videos on our website, YouTube provides a code snippet that we have integrated into our site.

Why do we use YouTube videos on our website?

YouTube is the video platform with the most visitors and the best content. We strive to offer you the best possible user experience on our website. And of course, interesting videos are a must. With the help of our embedded videos, we provide you with further helpful content in addition to our texts and images. In addition, our website is easier to find on the Google search engine thanks to the embedded videos. Even if we place ads via Google Ads, Google can – thanks to the data collected – only show these ads to people who are interested in our offers.

What data is stored by YouTube?

As soon as you visit one of our pages that has a YouTube video embedded, YouTube sets at least one cookie that stores your IP address and our URL. If you are logged into your YouTube account, YouTube can usually assign your interactions on our website to your profile using cookies. This includes data such as session duration, bounce rate, approximate location, technical information such as browser type, screen resolution or your internet provider. Other data may include contact details, any ratings, the sharing of content via social media or adding to your favorites on YouTube.

If you are not logged into a Google account or a YouTube account, Google stores data with a unique identifier that is linked to your device, browser or app. For example, your preferred language setting is retained. But a lot of interaction data cannot be saved because fewer cookies are set.

In the following list, we show cookies that were set in the browser in a test. On the one hand, we show cookies that are set without a logged-in YouTube account. On the other hand, we show cookies that are set with a logged-in account. The list cannot claim to be complete because the user data always depends on the interactions on YouTube.

Name: YSC
Value: b9-CV6ojI5Y112958543-1
Purpose: This cookie registers a unique ID to store statistics of the video viewed.
Expiration date: after the end of the session

Name: PREF
Value: f1=50000000
Purpose: This cookie also registers your unique ID. Google receives statistics on how you use YouTube videos on our website via PREF.
Expiration date: after 8 months

Name: GPS
Value: 1
Purpose: This cookie registers your unique ID on mobile devices to track the GPS location.
Expiration date: after 30 minutes

Name: VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE
Value: 95Chz8bagyU
Purpose: This cookie attempts to estimate the user’s bandwidth on our websites (with integrated YouTube video).
Expiration date: after 8 months

Other cookies that are set when you are logged in to your YouTube account:

Name: APISID
Wert: zILlvClZSkqGsSwI/AU1aZI6HY7112958543-
Purpose: This cookie is used to create a profile of your interests. The data is used for personalized advertisements.
Expiration date: after 2 years

Name: CONSENT
Value: YES+AT.de+20150628-20-0
Purpose: The cookie stores the status of a user’s consent to the use of various Google services. CONSENT is also used for security purposes to check users and protect user data from unauthorized attacks.
Expiration date: after 19 years

Name: HSID
Value: AcRwpgUik9Dveht0I
Purpose: This cookie is used to create a profile of your interests. This data helps to display personalized advertising.
Expiration date: after 2 years

Name: LOGIN_INFO
Value: AFmmF2swRQIhALl6aL…
Purpose: This cookie stores information about your login data.
Expiration date: after 2 years

Name: SAPISID
Value: 7oaPxoG-pZsJuuF5/AnUdDUIsJ9iJz2vdM
Purpose: This cookie works by uniquely identifying your browser and device. It is used to create a profile of your interests.
Expiration date: after 2 years

Name: SID
Value: oQfNKjAsI112958543-
Purpose: This cookie stores your Google account ID and your last login time in digitally signed and encrypted form.
Expiration date: after 2 years

Name: SIDCC
Value: AN0-TYuqub2JOcDTyL
Purpose: This cookie stores information about how you use the website and which advertisements you may have seen before visiting our site.
Expiration date: after 3 months

How long and where is the data stored?

The data that YouTube receives from you and processes is stored on Google servers. Most of these servers are located in America. At https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/?hl=de you can see exactly where the Google data centers are located. Your data is distributed across the servers. This means that the data can be accessed more quickly and is better protected against manipulation.

Google stores the data collected for different lengths of time. You can delete some data at any time, others are automatically deleted after a limited time and others are stored by Google for a longer period of time. Some data (such as elements from “My activity”, photos or documents, products) that are stored in your Google account remain stored until you delete them. Even if you are not signed in to a Google Account, you can delete some data associated with your device, browser or app.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

In principle, you can delete data in your Google account manually. With the automatic deletion function for location and activity data introduced in 2019, information is stored for either 3 or 18 months, depending on your decision, and then deleted.

Regardless of whether you have a Google account or not, you can configure your browser so that cookies are deleted or deactivated by Google. Depending on which browser you use, this works in different ways. In the “Cookies” section, you will find the relevant links to the instructions for the most popular browsers.

If you generally do not want to have cookies, you can set up your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be set. This allows you to decide for each individual cookie whether you want to allow it or not.

Legal basis

If you have consented to your data being processed and stored by integrated YouTube elements, this consent is the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). In principle, your data is also stored and processed on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) in fast and good communication with you or other customers and business partners. Nevertheless, we only use the integrated YouTube elements if you have given your consent. YouTube also sets cookies in your browser to store data. We therefore recommend that you read our data protection text on cookies carefully and consult the privacy policy or cookie guidelines of the respective service provider.

YouTube also processes your data in the USA, among other places. YouTube and Google are active participants in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data from EU citizens to the USA. You can find more information on this at https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en.

Google also uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the standard contractual clauses, Google undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

The Google Ads Data Processing Terms, which refer to the standard contractual clauses, can be found at https://business.safety.google/intl/de/adsprocessorterms/.

As YouTube is a subsidiary of Google, there is a joint privacy policy. If you would like to find out more about how your data is handled, we recommend that you read the privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de.

Video conferencing & streaming Introduction

Video conferencing & streaming privacy policy summary 👥 Data subjects: Users who use our video conferencing or streaming tool 🤝 Purpose: Communication and presentation of content 📓 Processed data: Access statistics containing data such as name, address, contact details, email address, telephone number or your IP address. You can find more details on this in the respective video conferencing or streaming tool used. 📅 Storage duration: depending on the video conferencing or streaming tool used ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR (contract)

What are video conferencing & streaming?

We use software programs that enable us to hold video conferences, online meetings, webinars, display sharing and/or streaming. During a video conference or streaming, information is transmitted simultaneously via sound and moving images. With the help of such video conferencing or streaming tools, we can communicate with customers, business partners, clients and even employees quickly and easily via the Internet. When selecting the service provider, we naturally pay attention to the specified legal framework conditions.

In principle, third-party providers can process data as soon as you interact with the software program. Third-party providers of video conferencing and streaming solutions use your data and metadata for various purposes. For example, the data helps to make the tool more secure and to improve the service. In most cases, the data may also be used for the third-party provider’s own marketing purposes.

Why do we use video conferencing & streaming on our website?

We want to communicate quickly, easily and securely with you, our customers and business partners digitally. This works best with video conferencing solutions that are very easy to use. Most tools also work directly via your browser and after just a few clicks you are right in the middle of a video meeting. The tools also offer helpful additional features such as a chat and screen sharing function or the option to share content between meeting participants.

What data is processed?

If you participate in our video conference or streaming, your data will also be processed and stored on the servers of the respective service provider.

Exactly which data is stored depends on the solutions used. Each provider stores and processes a different amount of data. As a rule, however, most providers store your name, address, contact details such as your email address or telephone number and your IP address. Information about the device you are using, usage data such as which websites you visit, when you visit a website or which buttons you click on may also be stored. Data that is shared within the video conference (photos, videos, texts) may also be stored.

Duration of data processing

We will inform you about the duration of data processing below in connection with the service used, if we have further information on this. In general, we only process personal data for as long as is absolutely necessary for the provision of our services and products. The provider may store your data according to its own specifications, over which we have no influence.

Right of objection

You always have the right to information, correction and deletion of your personal data. If you have any questions, you can also contact the person responsible for the video conferencing or streaming tool used at any time. Contact details can be found either in our specific privacy policy or on the website of the relevant provider.

You can delete, deactivate or manage cookies that providers use for their functions in your browser. Depending on which browser you use, this works in different ways. Please note, however, that not all functions may then work as usual.

Legal basis

If you have consented to your data being processed and stored by the video or streaming solution, this consent is the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). In addition, we can also offer a video conference as part of our services if this has been contractually agreed with you in advance (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR). In principle, your data will also be stored and processed on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) in fast and good communication with you or other customers and business partners, but only if you have at least given your consent. Most video and streaming solutions also set cookies in your browser to store data. We therefore recommend that you read our data protection text on cookies carefully and consult the privacy policy or cookie guidelines of the respective service provider.

Information on special video conferencing and streaming solutions, if available, can be found in the following sections.

Adobe Connect Privacy Policy

We use Adobe Connect on our website, a service for our video meetings and web seminars. The service provider is the American company Adobe Inc. 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, CA 95110-2704, USA.

Adobe also processes your data in the USA, among other places. Adobe is an active participant in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data from EU citizens to the USA. You can find more information on this at https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en.

Adobe also uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the Standard Contractual Clauses, Adobe undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

You can find more information on the standard contractual clauses at Adobe at https://www.adobe.com/at/privacy/eudatatransfers.html.

You can find out more about the data processed through the use of Adobe Connect in the Privacy Policy at https://www.adobe.com/at/privacy.html .

Cisco WebEx Privacy Policy

We use Cisco WebEx on our website, a service for online meetings and video conferences. The service provider is the American company Cisco Systems, Inc, Legal Department, 170 West Tasman Dr., San Jose, CA 95134 USA.

Cisco also processes your data in the USA, among other places. Cisco is an active participant in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data from EU citizens to the USA. You can find more information on this at https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en.

Cisco also uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the Standard Contractual Clauses, Cisco undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

You can find out more about the data and standard contractual clauses that are processed through the use of Cisco in the privacy policy at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/about/legal/privacy-full.html.

meetgreen privacy policy

We use meetgreen, a service for telephone and web conferences, on our website. The service provider is the German company meetyoo conferencing GmbH, Friedrichstraße 200, 10117 Berlin, Germany.

You can find out more about the data processed through the use of meetgreen in the Privacy Policy at https://meetgreen.de/datenschutz/.

Microsoft Teams Privacy Policy

We use Microsoft Teams on our website, a service for online meetings and video conferences. The service provider is the American company Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399, USA.

Microsoft also processes your data in the USA, among other places. Microsoft is an active participant in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data from EU citizens to the USA. You can find more information on this at https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en.

Microsoft also uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the standard contractual clauses, Microsoft undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

You can find more information on the standard contractual clauses at Microsoft at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/compliance/regulatory/offering-eu-model-clauses

You can find out more about the data that is processed through the use of Microsoft in the privacy policy at https://privacy.microsoft.com/de-de/privacystatement.

Survey and interview systems Introduction

Survey and polling systems Privacy policy summary 👥 Data subject: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Evaluation of surveys on the website 📓 Processed data: Contact data, device data, access duration and time, IP addresses. You can find more details on this in the respective survey and questionnaire system used. 📅 Storage duration: depending on the tool used ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What are survey and interview systems?

We are also happy to conduct various surveys and questionnaires via our website. These are always evaluated anonymously. A survey or questionnaire system is a tool integrated into our website that asks you questions (e.g. about our products or services) which you can answer if you participate. Your answers are always analyzed anonymously. However, personal data may also be stored and processed after you have given your consent to data processing.

Why do we use survey and interview systems?

We want to offer you the best products and services in our industry. Surveys provide us with perfect feedback and tell us what you expect from us and our services. Based on these anonymous evaluations, we can adapt our products and services to your wishes and expectations. Furthermore, the information also helps us to target our advertising and marketing measures at to those people who are really interested in what we have to offer.

What data is processed?

Personal data is only processed if it is necessary for the technical implementation or if you have consented to the processing of personal data. For example, your IP address is stored so that the survey can be displayed in your browser. Cookies may also be used so that you can continue your survey at a later point in time without any problems.

If you have consented to data processing, contact data such as your e-mail address or telephone number may be processed in addition to your IP address. Data that you enter in an online form, for example, will also be stored and processed. Some providers also store information about the web pages you have visited (on our website), when you started and ended the survey and various technical information about your computer.

How long is data stored?

How long the data is processed and stored depends primarily on the tools we use. You can find out more about the data processing of the individual tools below. The privacy policies of the providers usually state exactly which data is stored and processed and for how long. In principle, personal data is only processed for as long as is necessary for the provision of our services. If data is stored in cookies, the storage period varies greatly. The data can be deleted immediately after leaving a website, but it can also remain stored for several years. You should therefore look at each individual cookie in detail if you want to know more about data storage. In most cases, you will also find informative information about the individual cookies in the data protection declarations of the individual providers.

Right of objection

You also have the right and the option to withdraw your consent to the use of cookies or embedded survey systems at any time. This works either via our cookie management tool or via other opt-out functions. For example, you can also prevent data collection by cookies by managing, deactivating or deleting cookies in your browser.

As survey systems may use cookies, we also recommend that you read our general privacy policy on cookies. To find out exactly which of your data is stored and processed, you should read the privacy policies of the respective tools.

Legal basis

The use of survey systems requires your consent, which we have obtained with our cookie pop-up. According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), this consent constitutes the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when it is collected by survey and interview systems.

In addition to consent, we have a legitimate interest in conducting surveys on our topic. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests). Nevertheless, we only use the tools if you have given your consent.

As survey systems use cookies, we recommend that you also read our general privacy policy on cookies. To find out exactly which of your data is stored and processed, you should read the privacy policies of the respective tools.

Information on the individual survey systems, if available, can be found in the following sections.

Google form privacy policy

We use Google Form, a service for Google Cloud Forms, for our website. The service provider is the American company Google Inc. For the European area, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services.

Google also processes your data in the USA, among other places. Google is an active participant in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data from EU citizens to the USA. You can find more information on this at https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en.

Google also uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the standard contractual clauses, Google undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

The Google Ads Data Processing Terms, which correspond to the standard contractual clauses and also apply to Google Form, can be found at https://business.safety.google/adsprocessorterms/.

You can find out more about the data processed through the use of Google in the privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy.

SurveyMonkey Privacy Policy

We use SurveyMonkey, a survey management software, for our website. The service provider is the American company Momentive Inc. The Irish company Momentive Europe UC (2nd Floor, 2 Shelbourne Buildings, Shelbourne Road, Dublin, Ireland) is responsible for the European Economic Area.

SurveyMonkey also processes data in the USA, among other places. We would like to point out that, in the opinion of the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This may entail various risks for the lawfulness and security of data processing

SurveyMonkey uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission (= Art. 46. para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing with recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or data transfer there. These clauses oblige SurveyMonkey to comply with the EU level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

You can find out more about the data processed through the use of SurveyMonkey in the privacy policy at https://www.surveymonkey.de/mp/legal/privacy/.

Web design introduction

Web design privacy policy summary 👥 Data subjects: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Improvement of the user experience 📓 Processed data: Which data is processed depends heavily on the services used. In most cases, this includes the IP address, technical data, language settings, browser version, screen resolution and browser name. You can find more details on this in the respective web design tools used. 📅 Storage duration: depending on the tools used ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is web design?

We use various tools on our website that serve our web design. Web design is not, as is often assumed, just about making our website look pretty, but also about functionality and performance. But of course the right look of a website is also one of the major goals of professional web design. Web design is a branch of media design and deals with the visual as well as the structural and functional design of a website. The aim of web design is to improve your experience on our website. In web design jargon, this is referred to as user experience (UX) and usability. User experience refers to all impressions and experiences that website visitors have on a website. Usability is a sub-item of user experience. This is about the user-friendliness of a website. The main focus here is on ensuring that content, subpages or products are clearly structured and that you can find what you are looking for quickly and easily. In order to offer you the best possible experience on our website, we also use third-party web design tools. In this privacy policy, the category “web design” therefore includes all services that improve the design of our website. These can be, for example, fonts, various plugins or other integrated web design functions.

Why do we use web design tools?

How you absorb information on a website depends very much on the structure, functionality and visual perception of the website. This is why good and professional web design has become increasingly important for us. We are constantly working on improving our website and also see this as an extended service for you as a website visitor. Furthermore, a beautiful and functioning website also has economic advantages for us. After all, you will only visit us and make use of our services if you feel completely at ease.

What data is stored by web design tools?

When you visit our website, web design elements may be integrated into our pages that can also process data. Exactly which data is involved naturally depends heavily on the tools used. Below you can see exactly which tools we use for our website. For more detailed information about data processing, we recommend that you also read the respective privacy policy of the tools used. In most cases, this will tell you what data is processed, whether cookies are used and how long the data is stored. Fonts such as Google Fonts also automatically transmit information such as language settings, IP address, browser version, browser screen resolution and browser name to the Google servers.

Duration of data processing

How long data is processed is very individual and depends on the web design elements used. If cookies are used, for example, the storage period can be as short as one minute or as long as a few years. Please find out more about this. We recommend that you read our general text section on cookies as well as the data protection declarations of the tools used. There you can usually find out exactly which cookies are used and what information is stored in them. Google font files, for example, are stored for one year. This is to improve the loading time of a website. In principle, data is only stored for as long as is necessary to provide the service. Data can also be stored for longer if required by law.

Right of objection

You also have the right and the option to withdraw your consent to the use of cookies or third-party providers at any time. This works either via our cookie management tool or via other opt-out functions. You can also prevent data collection by cookies by managing, deactivating or deleting cookies in your browser. Under web design elements (mostly fonts), however, there is also data that cannot be deleted quite so easily. This is the case when data is automatically collected directly when a page is accessed and transmitted to a third-party provider (such as Google). In this case, please contact the support of the relevant provider. In the case of Google, you can contact support at https://support.google.com/?hl=de.

Legal basis

If you have consented to the use of web design tools, the legal basis for the corresponding data processing is this consent. According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), this consent constitutes the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when it is collected by web design tools. We also have a legitimate interest in improving the web design on our website. After all, only then can we provide you with an attractive and professional website. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests). Nevertheless, we only use web design tools if you have given your consent. We would like to emphasize this again here in any case.

Information on special web design tools – if available – can be found in the following sections.

Adobe Fonts privacy policy

We use Adobe Fonts, a web font hosting service, on our website. The service provider is the American company Adobe Inc. The Irish company Adobe Systems Software Ireland Companies, 4-6 Riverwalk, Citywest Business Campus, Dublin 24, Ireland, is responsible for the European region.

Adobe also processes your data in the USA, among other places. Adobe is an active participant in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data from EU citizens to the USA. You can find more information on this at https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en.

Adobe also uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the Standard Contractual Clauses, Adobe undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

You can find more information on the standard contractual clauses at Adobe at https://www.adobe.com/at/privacy/eudatatransfers.html.

You can find out more about the data that is processed through the use of Adobe Fonts in the Privacy Policy at https://www.adobe.com/at/privacy.html .

Font Awesome Privacy Policy

Font Awesome Privacy Policy Summary 👥 Data subject: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Optimization of our service performance 📓 Processed data: such as IP address and which icon files are loaded More details can be found below in this privacy policy. 📅 Storage duration: Files in identifiable form are stored for a few weeks ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Font Awesome?

We use Font Awesome from the American company Fonticons (307 S. Main St., Suite 202, Bentonville, AR 72712, USA) on our website. When you access one of our websites, the Font Awesome web font (in particular icons) is loaded via the Font Awesome Content Delivery Network (CDN). This ensures that the texts, fonts and icons are displayed appropriately on every device. In this privacy policy, we go into more detail about data storage and data processing by this service.

Icons are playing an increasingly important role for websites. Font Awesome is a web font that has been specially developed for web designers and web developers. With Font Awesome, icons can be scaled and colored as desired using the CSS style sheet language. They thus replace old image icons. Font Awesome CDN is the easiest way to load icons or fonts onto your website. All we had to do was add a small line of code to our website.

Why do we use Font Awesome on our website?

Font Awesome allows content on our website to be better presented. This makes it easier for you to find your way around our website and grasp the content more easily. The icons can sometimes even be used to replace entire words and save space. This is particularly practical when we optimize content specifically for smartphones.  These icons are inserted as HMTL code instead of images. This allows us to edit the icons with CSS exactly as we want. At the same time, we also improve our loading speed with Font Awesome because these are only HTML elements and not icon images. All these advantages help us to make the website even clearer, fresher and faster for you.

What data is stored by Font Awesome?

The Font Awesome Content Delivery Network (CDN) is used to load icons and symbols. CDNs are networks of servers that are distributed worldwide and make it possible to quickly load files from nearby. Thus, as soon as you call up one of our pages, the corresponding icons are provided by Font Awesome.

In order for the web fonts to be loaded, your browser must establish a connection to the servers of Fonticons, Inc. Your IP address is recognized in the process. Font Awesome also collects data about which icon files are downloaded and when. In addition, technical data such as your browser version, screen resolution or the time the page was called up is also transmitted.

This data is collected and stored for the following reasons:

• to optimize content delivery networks

• to detect and rectify technical faults

• to protect CDNs from misuse and attacks

• to be able to charge fees from Font Awesome Pro customers

• to find out the popularity of icons

• to know which computer and software you are using

If your browser does not allow web fonts, a standard font from your PC will be used automatically. As far as we are currently aware, no cookies are set. We are in contact with Font Awesome’s data protection department and will let you know as soon as we find out more.

How long and where is the data stored?

Font Awesome stores data about the use of the Content Delivery Network on servers in the United States of America. However, the CDN servers are located worldwide and store user data wherever you are. The data is usually only stored in identifiable form for a few weeks. Aggregated statistics on the use of CDNs can also be stored for longer. Personal data is not included here.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

To the best of our knowledge, Font Awesome does not store any personal data about the content delivery networks. If you do not want data about the icons used to be stored, you will unfortunately not be able to visit our website. If your browser does not allow web fonts, no data will be transmitted or stored. In this case, your computer’s default font will simply be used.

Legal basis

If you have consented to Font Awesome being used, the legal basis for the corresponding data processing is this consent. According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), this consent constitutes the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when Font Awesome collects it.

We also have a legitimate interest in using Font Awesome to optimize our online service. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests). Nevertheless, we only use Font Awesome if you have given your consent.

We would like to point out that, in the opinion of the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. Data processing is essentially carried out by Font Awesome. This may result in data not being processed and stored anonymously. Furthermore, US government authorities may have access to individual data. It is also possible that this data may be linked to data from other Font Awesome services with which you have a user account.

If you would like to find out more about Font Awesome and how they handle data, we recommend the privacy policy at https://fontawesome.com/privacy and the help page at https://fontawesome.com/support.

Google Fonts Local Privacy Policy

We use Google Fonts from Google Inc. on our website. Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for the European region. We have integrated the Google fonts locally, i.e. on our web server – not on Google’s servers. This means that there is no connection to Google servers and therefore no data transfer or storage.

What are Google Fonts?

Google Fonts used to also be called Google Web Fonts. This is an interactive directory with over 800 fonts that Google provides free of charge. With Google Fonts, you could use fonts without uploading them to your own server. However, in order to prevent any transfer of information to Google servers in this respect, we have downloaded the fonts to our server. In this way, we act in compliance with data protection regulations and do not send any data to Google Fonts.

Online map services Introduction

Online map services Privacy policy summary 👥 Data subjects: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Improvement of the user experience 📓 Processed data: Which data is processed depends heavily on the services used. It is usually IP address, location data, search items and/or technical data. You can find more details on this in the respective tools used. 📅 Storage duration: depending on the tools used ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What are online map services?

We also use online map services for our website as an extended service. Google Maps is probably the service you are most familiar with, but there are also other providers that specialize in creating digital maps. Such services make it possible to display locations, route plans or other geographical information directly via our website. With an integrated map service, you no longer have to leave our website to view the route to a location, for example. In order for the online map to work on our website, map sections are integrated using HTML code. The services can then display street maps, the earth’s surface or aerial or satellite images. If you use the integrated map service, data is also transferred to the tool used and stored there. This data may also include personal data.

Why do we use online map services on our website?

Generally speaking, our aim is to offer you a pleasant time on our website. And of course, your time is only pleasant if you can easily find your way around our website and find all the information you need quickly and easily. That’s why we thought that an online map system could significantly improve our service on the website. Without leaving our website, you can use the map system to easily view route descriptions, locations or even places of interest. Of course, it is also very practical that you can see at a glance where we are based so that you can find us quickly and safely. As you can see, there are simply many advantages and we clearly regard online map services on our website as part of our customer service.

What data is stored by online map services?

When you open a page on our website that has a built-in online map function, personal data may be transmitted to the respective service and stored there. In most cases, this is your IP address, which can also be used to determine your approximate location. In addition to the IP address, data such as search terms entered and longitude and latitude coordinates are also stored. If you enter an address for route planning, for example, this data is also stored. The data is not stored by us, but on the servers of the integrated tools. You can imagine it like this: You are on our website, but when you interact with a map service, this interaction actually happens on their website. In order for the service to function properly, at least one cookie is usually set in your browser. Google Maps, for example, also uses cookies to record user behaviour in order to optimize its own service and provide personalized advertising. You can find out more about cookies in our “Cookies” section.

How long and where is the data stored?

Each online map service processes different user data. If we have further information, we will inform you about the duration of data processing below in the relevant sections on the individual tools. In principle, personal data is only stored for as long as is necessary for the provision of the service. Google Maps, for example, stores certain data for a specified period of time, while you must delete other data yourself. With Mapbox, for example, the IP address is stored for 30 days and then deleted. As you can see, each tool stores data for different lengths of time. We therefore recommend that you take a close look at the privacy policies of the tools you use.

The providers also use cookies to store data on your user behavior with the map service. You can find more general information on cookies in our “Cookies” section, but you can also find out which cookies may be used in the data protection texts of the individual providers. In most cases, however, this is only an exemplary list and is not complete.

Right of objection

You always have the possibility and also the right to access your personal data and also to object to its use and processing. You can also withdraw the consent you have given us at any time. As a rule, the easiest way to do this is via the cookie consent tool. However, there are also other opt-out tools that you can use. You can also manage, delete or deactivate any cookies set by the providers you use yourself with just a few mouse clicks. However, some functions of the service may then no longer work as usual. How you manage cookies in your browser also depends on the browser you are using. In the “Cookies” section, you will also find links to the instructions for the most important browsers.

Legal basis

If you have consented to the use of an online map service, the legal basis for the corresponding data processing is this consent. According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), this consent constitutes the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when it is collected by an online map service.

We also have a legitimate interest in using an online map service to optimize our service on our website. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests). However, we only ever use an online map service if you have given your consent. We would like to make this clear at this point.

Information on special online map services – if available – can be found in the following sections.

Google Maps privacy policy

Google Maps privacy policy summary 👥 Data subject: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Optimization of our service performance 📓 Processed data: Data such as search terms entered, your IP address and also the latitude and longitude coordinates. You can find more details below in this privacy policy. 📅 Storage duration: depending on the stored data ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Google Maps?

We use Google Maps from Google Inc. on our website. Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services in Europe. With Google Maps, we can show you locations better and thus adapt our service to your needs. By using Google Maps, data is transmitted to Google and stored on Google servers. We would now like to explain in more detail what Google Maps is, why we use this Google service, what data is stored and how you can prevent this.

Google Maps is an internet map service from Google. With Google Maps, you can search online for exact locations of cities, places of interest, accommodation or businesses using a PC, tablet or app. If companies are represented on Google My Business, further information about the company is displayed in addition to the location. To display directions, map sections of a location can be integrated into a website using HTML code. Google Maps shows the earth’s surface as a street map or as an aerial or satellite image. Thanks to the Street View images and the high-quality satellite images, very accurate representations are possible.

Why do we use Google Maps on our website?

All our efforts on this site are aimed at providing you with a useful and meaningful time on our website. By integrating Google Maps, we can provide you with the most important information on various locations. You can see at a glance where we are based. The directions always show you the best or quickest way to reach us. You can call up the directions for routes by car, public transport, on foot or by bike. For us, providing Google Maps is part of our customer service.

What data is stored by Google Maps?

In order for Google Maps to be able to offer its full service, the company must collect and store data from you. This includes the search terms entered, your IP address and also the latitude and longitude coordinates. If you use the route planner function, the start address you enter is also saved. However, this data storage takes place on the Google Maps websites. We can only inform you about this, but cannot influence it. As we have integrated Google Maps into our website, Google sets at least one cookie (name: NID) in your browser. This cookie stores data about your user behavior. Google uses this data primarily to optimize its own services and to provide you with individual, personalized advertising.

The following cookie is set in your browser due to the integration of Google Maps:

Name: NID
Wert: 188=h26c1Ktha7fCQTx8rXgLyATyITJ112958543-5
Purpose: NID is used by Google to adapt advertisements to your Google search. With the help of the cookie, Google “remembers” your most frequently entered search queries or your previous interaction with ads. So you always get customized ads. The cookie contains a unique ID that Google uses to collect your personal settings for advertising purposes.
Expiration date: after 6 months

Note: We cannot guarantee the completeness of the stored data. Changes can never be ruled out, especially when using cookies. In order to identify the NID cookie, a separate test page was created where only Google Maps was integrated.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google servers are located in data centers all over the world. However, most of the servers are located in America. For this reason, your data is increasingly stored in the USA. You can find out exactly where the Google data centers are located here: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/?hl=de

Google distributes the data on different data carriers. This means that the data can be accessed more quickly and is better protected against any attempts at manipulation. Each data center also has special emergency programs. If, for example, there are problems with the Google hardware or a natural disaster paralyzes the servers, the data is almost certainly still protected.

Google stores some data for a fixed period of time. For other data, Google only offers the option of deleting it manually. Furthermore, the company also anonymizes information (such as advertising data) in server logs by deleting part of the IP address and cookie information after 9 and 18 months respectively.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

With the automatic deletion function for location and activity data introduced in 2019, location and web/app activity information is stored for either 3 or 18 months – depending on your decision – and then deleted. You can also manually delete this data from your history at any time via your Google account. If you want to completely prevent your location from being recorded, you must pause the “Web and app activity” section in your Google account. Click on “Data and personalization” and then on the “Activity settings” option. Here you can switch the activities on or off.

You can also deactivate, delete or manage individual cookies in your browser. Depending on which browser you use, this always works slightly differently. In the “Cookies” section, you will find the relevant links to the instructions for the most popular browsers.

If you generally do not want to have cookies, you can set up your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be set. This allows you to decide for each individual cookie whether you want to allow it or not.

Legal basis

If you have consented to the use of Google Maps, the legal basis for the corresponding data processing is this consent. According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), this consent constitutes the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when Google Maps is used.

We also have a legitimate interest in using Google Maps to optimize our online service. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests). Nevertheless, we only use Google Maps if you have given your consent.

Google also processes your data in the USA, among other places. Google is an active participant in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data from EU citizens to the USA. You can find more information on this at https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en.

Google also uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the standard contractual clauses, Google undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

The Google Ads Data Processing Terms, which refer to the standard contractual clauses, can be found at https://business.safety.google/intl/de/adsprocessorterms/.

If you would like to find out more about Google’s data processing, we recommend that you read the company’s own privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de.

Content search providers Introduction

Content search provider privacy policy summary 👥 Data subjects: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Improvement of the user experience 📓 Processed data: Which data is processed depends heavily on the services used. It is usually IP address, search interests and/or technical data. You can find more details on this in the respective tools used. 📅 Storage duration: depends on the tools used ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is a content search provider?

We have already published a lot of content on our website. And of course we don’t want it to be forgotten just because it can’t be found. That’s why we use a content search provider on our website. You are probably familiar with major search engines such as Google. A content search provider is basically also a search engine, but unlike Google, it does not search the entire web for content, but only the website you are on. You can use a text field to enter terms that match the content you are looking for and the search program will find the desired articles for you. If you use the integrated search function, your personal data may also be processed.

Why do we use a content search provider?

If you take a look around our website, you will quickly realize how much useful content we have already published over the years. There are some real treasures and we want you to find them quickly without having to click around. With a content search function directly on our website, you can quickly and easily find the content you are looking for using keywords that match the topic you are searching for. This feature is really practical and we also see it as our task to make your life on our website as pleasant and helpful as possible. That is why we have decided to integrate a content search program into our website.

What data is processed?

If you use the search function on our website, the integrated content search provider (such as Algolia Places or Giphy) may automatically receive and store data from you. This involves technical data about your browser as well as data such as your IP address, device ID and the search terms entered. Please note that IP addresses are personal data. The providers’ privacy policies state that this information is collected and stored in order to increase security and improve their own services. The automatically collected usage data, which does not contain any personal data and is processed in anonymized form, can also be used for analysis purposes. Some providers also pass this anonymized data on to third parties. To find out more about this, we recommend that you read the specific data protection declarations of the individual providers carefully. In order for the services to function properly, cookies are usually also set in your browser. You can find out more about cookies in our general “Cookies” section. You can find out whether and which cookies the individual search tools use – if available – below or in the corresponding data protection declarations of the integrated tools.

How long and where is the data stored?

As a general rule, every content search provider processes different data. It is therefore not possible to go into the specific data processing of the individual tools in this general section. However, the services usually only store personal data for as long as this is necessary for the smooth functioning of the tools. Some services (such as Giphy) also store personal data for longer if this is necessary due to legal obligations. In depersonalized form, data is also stored for longer by most providers. Content search providers may also use cookies to store various data. You can find out more about this in our general section on cookies. If you would like to know more about the specific cookies used by search providers, we recommend that you read the privacy policies of the providers we use. You will usually find an exemplary list of the cookies used there.

Right of objection

Always be aware: if you do not want your personal data to be processed, it may not be processed. You always have the right to access your personal data and to object to its use. You can also withdraw your consent at any time using the cookie consent tool or other opt-out options. You can also easily manage, delete or deactivate the cookies used yourself via your browser. If you delete cookies, some of the tool’s functions may no longer work. So please do not be surprised. How you manage cookies in your browser also depends on the browser you are using. In the “Cookies” section you will also find links to the instructions for the most important browsers.

Legal basis

If you have consented to the use of a content search provider, the legal basis for the corresponding data processing is this consent. According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), this consent constitutes the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when it is collected by a content search provider.

We also have a legitimate interest in using a content search provider to optimize our service on our website. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests). However, we only ever use a content search provider if you have given your consent. We would like to make this clear at this point.

Information on special content search providers – if available – can be found in the following sections.

Custom Google Search Privacy Policy

Custom Google Search Privacy Policy Summary 👥 Data subject: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Optimization of our service performance 📓 Processed data: Data such as IP address and search terms entered are stored by Google More details can be found below in this privacy policy. 📅 Storage period: the storage period varies depending on the data stored ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Google Custom Search?

We have integrated the Google plug-in for user-defined searches on our website. Google is the largest and best-known search engine in the world and is operated by the US company Google Inc. Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for the European area. Through the user-defined Google search, data may be transferred from you to Google. In this privacy policy, we inform you why we use this plug-in, what data is processed and how you can manage or prevent this data transfer.

The custom Google search plug-in is a Google search bar directly on our website. The search takes place as on www.google.com, only the search results focus on our content and products or on a limited search area.

Why do we use Google Custom Search on our website?

A website with a lot of interesting content often becomes so large that you may lose track of it. Over time, we have also accumulated a lot of valuable material and as part of our service, we want you to find our content as quickly and easily as possible. Custom Google search makes finding interesting content a breeze. The built-in Google plug-in improves the overall quality of our website and makes searching easier for you.

What data is saved by the custom Google search?

With the user-defined Google search, your data is only transmitted to Google if you actively use the Google search integrated on our website. This means that only when you enter a search term in the search bar and then confirm this term (e.g. by clicking on “Enter”) will your IP address be sent to Google, stored and processed there in addition to the search term. Based on the cookies set (e.g. 1P_JAR), it can be assumed that Google also receives data on website usage. If you search for content during your visit to our website using the integrated Google search function and are logged in with your Google account at the same time, Google can also assign the data collected to your Google account. As the website operator, we have no influence on what Google does with the data collected or how Google processes the data.

The following cookies are set in your browser if you use the customized Google search and are not logged in with a Google account:

Name: 1P_JAR
Value: 2020-01-27-13112958543-5
Purpose: This cookie collects statistics on website usage and measures conversions. A conversion occurs, for example, when a user becomes a buyer. The cookie is also used to display relevant advertisements to users.
Expiration date: after one month

Name: CONSENT
Value: WP.282f52112958543-9
Purpose: The cookie stores the status of a user’s consent to the use of various Google services. CONSENT is also used for security purposes to check users and protect user data from unauthorized attacks.
Expiration date: after 18 years

Name: NID
Value: 196=pwIo3B5fHr-8
Purpose: NID is used by Google to adapt advertisements to your Google search. With the help of the cookie, Google “remembers” the search queries you have entered or your previous interaction with ads. So you always get customized ads.
Expiration date: after 6 months

Note: This list cannot claim to be exhaustive, as Google changes its choice of cookies from time to time.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google servers are located all over the world. As Google is an American company, most of the data is stored on American servers. At https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/?hl=de you can see exactly where the Google servers are located.
Your data is distributed on various physical data carriers. This means that the data can be accessed more quickly and is better protected against possible manipulation. Google also has appropriate emergency programs for your data. For example, if there are internal technical problems at Google and servers stop working as a result, the risk of service interruption and data loss remains low.
Depending on the data in question, Google stores it for different lengths of time. You can delete some data yourself, others are automatically deleted or anonymized by Google. However, there is also data that Google stores for longer if this is necessary for legal or business reasons.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

Under European Union data protection law, you have the right to access, update, delete or restrict your data. There is some data that you can delete at any time. If you have a Google account, you can delete data about your web activity there or specify that it should be deleted after a certain period of time.
In your browser, you also have the option of deactivating or deleting cookies or managing them according to your wishes and preferences. In the “Cookies” section, you will find the relevant links to the instructions for the most popular browsers.

Legal basis

If you have consented to the use of Google Custom Search, the legal basis for the corresponding data processing is this consent. According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), this consent constitutes the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when it is collected by Google Custom Search.

We also have a legitimate interest in using the user-defined Google search to optimize our online service. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests). Nevertheless, we only use the user-defined Google search if you have given your consent.

Google also processes your data in the USA, among other places. Google is an active participant in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data from EU citizens to the USA. You can find more information on this at https://commission.europa.eu/document/fa09cbad-dd7d-4684-ae60-be03fcb0fddf_en.

Google also uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) are templates provided by the EU Commission and are intended to ensure that your data complies with European data protection standards even if it is transferred to third countries (such as the USA) and stored there. Through the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the standard contractual clauses, Google undertakes to comply with the European level of data protection when processing your relevant data, even if the data is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing decision of the EU Commission. You can find the decision and the corresponding standard contractual clauses here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

The Google Ads Data Processing Terms, which refer to the standard contractual clauses, can be found at https://business.safety.google/intl/de/adsprocessorterms/

We hope we have been able to provide you with the most important information about data processing by Google. If you would like to find out more, we recommend Google’s comprehensive privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de.

Explanation of terms used

We always endeavor to write our privacy policy as clearly and comprehensibly as possible. However, this is not always easy, especially when it comes to technical and legal topics. It often makes sense to use legal terms (such as personal data) or certain technical terms (such as cookies, IP address). However, we do not want to use these without explanation. Below you will find an alphabetical list of important terms used, which we may not have sufficiently addressed in the previous privacy policy. If these terms have been taken from the GDPR and are definitions, we will also quote the GDPR texts here and add our own explanations if necessary.

Processor

Definition according to Article 4 of the GDPR

For the purposes of this Regulation:

“Processor” means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller;

Explanation: As a company and website owner, we are responsible for all data that we process from you. In addition to controllers, there may also be so-called processors. This includes any company or person that processes personal data on our behalf. In addition to service providers such as tax consultants, processors can therefore also be hosting or cloud providers, payment or newsletter providers or large companies such as Google or Microsoft.

Biometric data

Definition according to Article 4 of the GDPR

For the purposes of this Regulation:

‘biometric data’ means personal data relating to the physical, physiological or behavioral characteristics of a natural person, obtained using specific technical procedures, which allow or confirm the unique identification of that natural person, such as facial images or dactyloscopic data;

Explanation: These are biological characteristics that are described by biometric data and from which personal data can be obtained with the help of technical processes. This includes DNA, fingerprints, the geometry of various body parts, body size, but also handwriting or the sound of a voice.

Consent

Definition according to Article 4 of the GDPR

For the purposes of this Regulation:

“Consent” of the data subject means 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;

Explanation: As a rule, websites obtain such consent via a cookie consent tool. You are probably familiar with this. Whenever you visit a website for the first time, you are usually asked via a banner whether you agree or consent to data processing. In most cases, you can also make individual settings and decide for yourself which data processing you allow and which you do not. If you do not give your consent, your personal data may not be processed. In principle, consent can of course also be given in writing, i.e. not via a tool.

Personal data

Definition according to Article 4 of the GDPR

For the purposes of this Regulation:

“personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (hereinafter “data subject”); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person;

Explanation: Personal data is therefore all data that can identify you as a person. This is usually data such as:

• Name

• Address

• E-mail address

• Postal address

• Phone number

• Date of birth

• Identification numbers such as social security number, tax identification number, identity card number or matriculation number

• Bank data such as account number, credit information, account balances and much more.

According to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), your IP address is also considered personal data. IT experts can use your IP address to determine at least the approximate location of your device and, subsequently, you as the owner of the connection. Therefore, the storage of an IP address also requires a legal basis within the meaning of the GDPR. There are also so-called “special categories” of personal data, which are also particularly worthy of protection. These include

• racial and ethnic origin

• political opinions

• religious or ideological convictions

• trade union membership

• genetic data, such as data taken from blood or saliva samples

• biometric data (i.e. information on mental, physical or behavioral characteristics that can identify a person).

  Health data

• Data on sexual orientation or sexual life

Profiling

Definition according to Article 4 of the GDPR

For the purposes of this Regulation:

“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;

Explanation: Profiling involves collecting various pieces of information about a person in order to find out more about them. In the web sector, profiling is often used for advertising purposes or for credit checks. For example, web and advertising analysis programs collect data about your behavior and interests on a website. This results in a special user profile that can be used to target advertising to a specific target group.

Person responsible

Definition according to Article 4 of the GDPR

For the purposes of this Regulation:

“controller” means 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;

Explanation: In our case, we are responsible for the processing of your personal data and are therefore the “controller”. If we pass on collected data to other service providers for processing, they are “processors”. An “order processing contract (AVV)” must be signed for this.

Processing

Definition according to Article 4 of the GDPR

For the purposes of this Regulation:

“Processing” means 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;

Note: When we refer to processing in our privacy policy, we mean any kind of data processing. As mentioned above in the original GDPR declaration, this includes not only the collection but also the storage and processing of data.

Closing words

Congratulations! If you are reading this, you have really “fought” your way through our entire privacy policy, or at least scrolled this far. As you can see from the scope of our privacy policy, we do not take the protection of your personal data lightly.
It is important to us to inform you about the processing of personal data to the best of our knowledge and belief. However, we not only want to tell you which data is processed, but also explain the reasons for using various software programs. As a rule, privacy policies sound very technical and legal. However, as most of you are not web developers or lawyers, we wanted to take a different approach and explain the facts in simple and clear language. Of course, this is not always possible due to the subject matter. The most important terms are therefore explained in more detail at the end of the privacy policy.
If you have any questions about data protection on our website, please do not hesitate to contact us or the responsible body. We wish you a pleasant time and hope to welcome you back to our website soon.

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Source: Privacy policy created with the privacy policy generator from AdSimple