data protection

Data protection

Table of contents

Email marketing

Email Marketing Summary
👥 Affected: Newsletter subscribers
🤝 Purpose: Direct advertising by email, notification of system-relevant events
📓 Data processed: Data entered during registration, but at least the email address. You can find more details in the email marketing tool used.
📅 Storage period: Duration 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 email marketing. If you have agreed to receive our emails or newsletters, your data will also be processed and stored. Email marketing is a sub-area of ​​online marketing. News or general information about a company, products or services is sent by email to a specific group of people who are interested in them.

If you want to participate in our email marketing (usually via newsletter), you normally just have to register with your email address. To do this, you fill out an online form and send it off. However, we may also ask you for your title and name so that we can write to you personally.

Basically, registering for newsletters works using the so-called "double opt-in process". After you have registered for our newsletter on our website, you will receive an email confirming your newsletter registration. This ensures that the email address belongs to you and that no one has registered with someone else's email address. We or a notification tool we use logs every single registration. This is necessary so that we can prove that the registration process was legally correct. The time of registration, the time of registration confirmation and your IP address are usually saved. In addition, it is also logged if you make changes to your stored data.

Why do we use email marketing?

We naturally want to stay in touch with you and always present you with the most important news about our company. To do this, we use email marketing - often just called a "newsletter" - as an essential part of our online marketing. If you agree to this or it is legally permitted, we will send you newsletters, system emails or other notifications by email. When we use the term "newsletter" in the following text, we mainly mean emails that are sent regularly. Of course, we do not want to bother you in any way with our newsletter. That is why we really always try to only offer relevant and interesting content. For example, you can find out more about our company, our services or products. Since we are always improving our offers, you will always find out about any news or special, lucrative promotions via our newsletter. If we commission a service provider who offers a professional shipping tool for our email marketing, we do this so that we can offer you fast and secure newsletters. The purpose of our email marketing is basically to inform you about new offers and to get closer to our business goals.

What data is processed?

If you subscribe to our newsletter via our website, you will confirm your membership in an email list by email. In addition to your IP address and email address, your title, name, address and telephone number may also be saved. However, only if you agree 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 failure to provide it will prevent you from using the service. In addition, information about your device or your preferred content may also be saved on our website. You can find out more about how data is saved 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 remove your email address from our email/newsletter mailing list, we may store your address for up to three years based on our legitimate interests so that we can still prove that you gave your consent at the time. We may only process this data if we need to defend ourselves against any claims.

However, if you confirm that you have given us your consent to subscribe to the newsletter, you can submit an individual deletion request at any time. If you permanently revoke your consent, we reserve the right to save your email address in a blocked list. As long as you have voluntarily subscribed to our newsletter, we will of course also keep your email address.

Right to object

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

Legal basis

Our newsletter is sent based on your consent (Article 6 Paragraph 1 Letter a of GDPR). This means that we may only send you a newsletter if you have previously actively registered for it. If necessary, we may also send you advertising messages based on Section 7 Paragraph 3 of the German Unfair Competition Act (UWG), provided that you have become our customer and have not objected to the use of your email address for direct advertising.

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

Introduction and overview

We have drawn up this privacy policy (version 30.10.2021-311865869) 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 responsible party - and the processors commissioned by us (e.g. providers) - process, will process in the future and what legal 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 statements usually sound very technical and use legal jargon. This data protection statement, on the other hand, is intended to describe the most important things to you as simply and transparently as possible. As far as it promotes transparency, technical terms are explained in a reader-friendly manner , links to further information are provided and graphics are used. We are thus informing 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 if you give statements that are as brief, unclear and legal-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 some information in there that you did not know before.
If you still have any questions, please contact the responsible body named below or in the imprint, follow the links provided and look at further information on third-party websites. You can of course also find our contact details in the imprint.

scope 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 (contract 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 for our services and products, whether online or offline. The scope of this privacy policy includes:

  • all online presences (websites, online shops) that we operate
  • Social media presence and email communication
  • mobile apps for smartphones and other devices

In short: This privacy policy applies to all areas in which personal data is processed in a structured manner within the company 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 basis of the General Data Protection Regulation, that 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 27 April 2016. You can of course read this EU General Data Protection Regulation online on EUR-Lex, the gateway to EU law, at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32016R0679 .

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

  1. Consent (Article 6 paragraph 1 letter 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 paragraph 1 letter b GDPR): We process your data in order to fulfil a contract or pre-contractual obligations with you. For example, if we conclude a purchase contract with you, we need personal information in advance.
  3. Legal obligation (Article 6 paragraph 1 letter c GDPR): We process your data if we are subject to a legal obligation. For example, we are legally obliged to keep invoices for accounting purposes. These usually contain personal data.
  4. Legitimate interests (Article 6 paragraph 1 letter 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 be able to operate our website securely and economically efficiently. This processing is therefore a legitimate interest.

Other conditions such as the taking of recordings in the public interest and the exercise of public authority as well as the protection of vital interests do not generally apply to us. If such a legal basis should be applicable, it will be indicated in the appropriate place.

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 for short) applies.

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

Contact details of the person responsible

If you have any questions about data protection, you will find the contact details of the responsible person or body below:
Winery Heinz Nikolai GbR
Owners Frank Nikolai and Katharina Nikolai
Ringstrasse 16
65346 Eltville-Erbach
Authorized representative:
Email: weingut@heinz-nikolai.de
Phone: +49 6123 - 62708
Imprint: https://www.heinz-nikolai.de/impressum.html

Storage period

It is our general principle that we only store personal data for as long as it is absolutely necessary to provide our services and products. This means that we delete personal data as soon as the reason for data processing no longer exists. In some cases, we are legally obliged to store certain data even after the original purpose no longer applies, for example for accounting purposes.

If you wish to have your data deleted or withdraw your consent to data processing, the data will be deleted as quickly as possible and unless there is an obligation to store it.

We will inform you below about the specific duration of each data processing operation, provided we have further information on this.

Rights under the General Data Protection Regulation

According to Article 13 GDPR, you have the following rights to ensure fair and transparent data processing:

  • According to Article 15 GDPR, you have the right to know whether we process data about you. If this is the case, you have the right to receive a copy of the data and to be informed of the following information:
    • for what purposes 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 is stored;
    • the existence of the right to rectification, erasure or restriction of processing and the right to object to processing;
    • that you can complain to a supervisory authority (links to these authorities can be found below);
    • the origin of the data if we did not collect it from you;
    • whether profiling is carried out, i.e. whether data is automatically evaluated in order to create a personal profile of you.
  • You have the right to rectification of data according to Article 16 GDPR, which means that we must correct data if you find any errors.
  • According to Article 17 GDPR, you have the right to erasure (“right to be forgotten”), which specifically means that you can request that your data be deleted.
  • According to Article 18 GDPR, you have the right to restrict processing, which means that we may only store the data but not use it any further.
  • According to Article 19 GDPR, you have the right to data portability, which means that we will provide you with your data in a common format upon request.
  • According to Article 21 GDPR, you have the right to object, which, once enforced, will result in a change in the processing.
    • If the processing of your data is based on Article 6 Paragraph 1 Letter e (public interest, exercise of official authority) or Article 6 Paragraph 1 Letter 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 to conduct direct advertising, you can object to this type of data processing at any time. We may no longer use your data for direct marketing after this.
    • If data is used to carry out profiling, you can object to this type of data processing at any time. We may no longer use your data for profiling after this.
  • According to Article 22 GDPR, you may have the right not to be subjected to a decision based solely on automated processing (e.g. profiling).

In short: you have rights – do not hesitate to contact the responsible body 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 complain to the supervisory authority. For Austria, this is the Data Protection Authority, whose website you can find 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 EU (third countries) if you consent to this processing, if this is required by law or contractually necessary and in any case only to the extent that this is generally permitted. Your consent is in most cases the most important reason why we have data processed in third countries. Processing 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, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfer to the USA. Data processing by US services (such as Google Analytics) may result in data not being processed and stored anonymously. Furthermore, US government authorities may have access to individual data. In addition, it may happen that collected data is linked to data from other services of the same provider, provided you have a corresponding user account. Where possible, we try to use server locations within the EU if this is offered.

We will provide you with more detailed information about data transfers to third countries, where applicable, at the appropriate points in this privacy policy.

Security of data processing

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

Art. 25 GDPR speaks of “data protection through technology design and through data protection-friendly default settings” and means that security is always considered and appropriate measures are taken for both software (e.g. forms) and hardware (e.g. access to the server room). In the following, we will go into more specific measures if necessary.

TLS encryption with https

TLS, encryption and https sound very technical and they are. We use HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) to transfer data securely over the Internet.
This means that the complete transmission of all data from your browser to our web server is secured – no one can “eavesdrop”.

We have thus introduced an additional security layer and comply with data protection through technology design (Article 25 paragraph 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 transfer security by the small lock symbol 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 want to know more about encryption, we recommend doing a Google search for “Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure wiki” to get good links to further information.

communication

Communication Summary
👥 Affected persons: All those who communicate with us by phone, email or online form
📓 Data processed: e.g. telephone number, name, email address, entered form data. You can find more details in the contact type used
🤝 Purpose: Handling communication with customers, business partners, etc.
📅 Storage period: Duration of the business case and the legal regulations
⚖️ 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 by telephone, email or online form, personal data may be processed.

The data will be processed to handle and process your query and the related business transaction. The data will be stored for the same period or as long as required by law.

Affected people

The above-mentioned processes affect everyone who contacts us via the communication channels we provide.

phone

When you call us, the call data is stored pseudonymously on the respective device and by the telecommunications provider used. In addition, data such as name and telephone number can be sent by email afterwards and stored to answer your query. The data is deleted as soon as the business transaction has been completed and legal requirements permit it.

e-mail

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

Online forms

If you communicate with us using an online form, data will be stored on our web server and, if necessary, forwarded to an email address of ours. The data will be deleted as soon as the business transaction has been completed and legal requirements permit it.

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 continue to use it for the purposes related to the business case;
  • Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR (contract): There is a need to fulfil a contract with you or a processor such as the telephone provider or we have to process the data for pre-contractual activities, such as preparing an offer;
  • Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR (legitimate interests): We want to handle customer inquiries and business communication in a professional setting. For this, certain technical facilities such as email programs, exchange servers and mobile phone operators are necessary in order to be able to conduct communication efficiently.

Cookies

Cookies Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: depends on the respective cookie. You can find more details below or from the manufacturer of the software that sets the cookie.
📓 Data processed: Depends on the cookie used. You can find more details below or from the manufacturer of the software that sets the cookie.
📅 Storage period: 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. To be more precise, they are HTTP cookies, as there are 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. 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 sends 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 when another page is requested.

HTTP Cookie Interaction between browser and web server

There are both first-party cookies and third-party cookies. First-party cookies are created directly by our site, third-party cookies are created by partner websites (eg Google Analytics). Each cookie must be evaluated individually, as each cookie stores different data. The expiration 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.

For example, cookie data can look like this:

Name: _ga
Value: GA1.2.1326744211.152311865869-9
Purpose: Differentiation of website visitors
Expiry 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.

There are 4 types of cookies:

Essential cookies
 These cookies are necessary to ensure basic functions of the website. For example, these cookies are needed when a user puts a product in the shopping cart, then continues browsing on other pages and only later proceeds to checkout. These cookies do not delete the shopping cart, 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. In addition, these cookies are also used to measure the loading time and behavior of the website in different browsers.

Targeted cookies
 These cookies improve user experience. For example, entered locations, font sizes or form data are stored.

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

Typically, when you first visit a website, you will be asked which of these types of cookies you would like to allow. And of course, this decision will also be stored in a cookie.

If you want to know more about cookies and are not afraid of technical documentation, we recommend https://tools.ietf.org/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 below or from the manufacturer of the software that sets the cookie.

What data is processed?

Cookies are little helpers for a variety of tasks. Unfortunately, it is not possible to generalize which data is stored in cookies, but we will inform you about the data processed or stored in the following data protection declaration.

Storage period of cookies

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

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

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 come 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, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

If you do not want cookies at all, you can set up your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is about to be placed. This way you can decide for each individual cookie whether you want to allow the cookie or not. The procedure varies depending on the browser. The best thing to do is to search for instructions on 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. They state that the storage of cookies requires your consent (Article 6 Paragraph 1 Letter a of GDPR). However, there are still very different reactions to these guidelines within the EU countries. In Austria, however, this guideline was implemented in Section 96 Paragraph 3 of the Telecommunications Act (TKG). In Germany, the cookie guidelines were not implemented as national law. Instead, this guideline was largely implemented in Section 15 Paragraph 3 of the Telemedia Act (TMG).

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

If cookies that are not absolutely necessary are used, this only happens 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, provided that the software used uses cookies.

Web hosting

Webhosting Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: professional hosting of the website and securing its operation
📓 Data processed: IP address, time of website visit, browser used and other data. You can find more details below or from the web hosting provider used.
📅 Storage period: depends on the provider, but usually 2 weeks
⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit.f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is web hosting?

When you visit websites these days, certain information - including personal data - is automatically created and saved, including on this website. This data should be processed as sparingly as possible and only with justification. By website we mean the entirety of all web pages on a domain, ie everything from the start page (homepage) to the very last subpage (like this one). By domain we mean example.de or musterbeispiel.com, for example.

When you want to view a website on a screen, you use a program called a web browser. You probably know a few web browsers by name: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari.

This web browser must connect to another computer where the website code is stored: the web server. Operating a web server is a complicated and time-consuming task, which is why it is usually handled by professional providers. They offer web hosting and thus ensure that website data is stored reliably and error-free.

When the browser connects to your computer (desktop, laptop, smartphone) and during data transfer to and from the web server, personal data may be processed. On the one hand, your computer stores data, and on the other hand, the web server must also store data for a while to ensure proper operation.

As an illustration:

Browser and web server

Why do we process personal data?

The purposes of data processing are:

  1. Professional hosting of the website and security of operations
  2. to maintain operational and IT security
  3. Anonymous evaluation of access behavior to improve our offering and, if necessary, for criminal prosecution or the pursuit of claims

What data is processed?

Even while you are currently visiting our website, our web server, which is the computer on which this website is stored, usually automatically stores data such as

  • the complete Internet address (URL) of the website accessed (e.g. https://www.beispielwebsite.de/beispielunterseite.html?tid=311865869)
  • Browser and browser version (e.g. Chrome 87)
  • the operating system used (e.g. Windows 10)
  • the address (URL) of the previously visited page (referrer URL) (e.g. https://www.beispielquellsite.de/vondabinichgekommen.html/)
  • the hostname and IP address of the device from which access is made (e.g. COMPUTERNAME and 194.23.43.121)
  • Date and Time
  • in files, the so-called web server log files

How long is data stored?

As a rule, the above data is stored for two weeks and then automatically deleted. We do not pass this data on, but cannot rule out that this data will be viewed by authorities in the event of illegal behavior.

In short: Your visit is logged by our provider (company that runs our website on special computers (servers)), but we do not share your data without your consent!

Legal basis

The legality of the processing of personal data in the context of web hosting arises from Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR (protection of legitimate interests), because the use of professional hosting with a provider is necessary in order to present the company on the Internet in a secure and user-friendly manner and to be able to pursue attacks and claims arising from this if necessary.

There is usually a contract between us and the hosting provider for order processing in accordance with Art. 28 f. GDPR, which ensures compliance with data protection and guarantees data security.

Web Analytics

Web Analytics Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: Evaluation of visitor information to optimize the website.
📓 Processed data: Access statistics that contain data such as access locations, device data, access duration and time, navigation behavior, click behavior and IP addresses. You can find more details in the web analytics tool used.
📅 Storage period: depends 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 the respective analytics tool provider (also known as tracking tool) stores, manages and processes. The data is used to create analyses of user behavior on our website and makes them available to us as website operators. In addition, most tools offer various testing options. For example, we can test which offers or content are most popular with our visitors. To do this, we show you two different offers for a limited period of time. After the test (so-called A/B test), we know which product or content our website visitors find more interesting. For such testing procedures, as for other analytics procedures, user profiles can also be created and the data stored in cookies.

Why do we use web analytics?

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

What data is processed?

Which data is stored depends, of course, on the analysis tools used. However, as a rule, for example, what content you view on our website, which buttons or links you click, when you visit a page, which browser you use, which device (PC, tablet, smartphone, etc.) you use to visit the website or which computer system you use is stored. If you have agreed that location data may also be collected, this can 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 pseudonymously (i.e. in an unrecognizable and shortened form). For the purposes of testing, web analysis and web optimization, no direct data such as your name, age, address or email address is stored. All of this data, if collected, is stored pseudonymously. 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 JavaScript code.

Schematic data flow in Google Analytics

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 again, other cookies can store data for several years.

Duration of data processing

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

Right to object

You also have the right and the option to revoke 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 through 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 popup. According to Art. 6 Paragraph 1 Letter a of GDPR (consent), this consent represents the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when data is collected using web analytics tools.

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

Since web analytics tools 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.

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

Facebook Pixel Privacy Policy

We use the Facebook pixel from Facebook on our website. We have implemented a code on our website for this purpose. The Facebook pixel is a snippet of JavaScript code that loads a collection of functions that Facebook can use to track your user actions if you came to our website via Facebook ads. For example, if you purchase a product on our website, the Facebook pixel is triggered and saves your actions on our website in one or more cookies. These cookies enable Facebook to compare your user data (customer data such as IP address, user ID) with the data in your Facebook account. Facebook then deletes this data again. The data collected is anonymous and not visible to us and can only be used to place advertisements. If you are a Facebook user yourself and are logged in, your visit to our website will automatically be assigned to your Facebook user account.

We only want to show our services and products to people who are really interested in them. With the help of Facebook Pixel, our advertising measures can be better tailored to your wishes and interests. This means that Facebook users (if they have allowed personalized advertising) see suitable advertising. Facebook also uses the data collected for analysis purposes and for its own advertisements.

Below we show you the cookies that were set by integrating Facebook pixels on a test page. Please note that these are only example cookies. Different cookies are set depending on the interaction on our website.

Name: _fbp
Value: fb.1.1568287647279.257405483-6311865869-7
Purpose: This cookie is used by Facebook to display advertising products.
Expiry date: after 3 months

Name: fr
Value: 0aPf312HOS5Pboo2r..Bdeiuf…1.0.Bdeiuf.
Purpose: This cookie is used to ensure that Facebook Pixel functions properly.
Expiry date: after 3 months

Name: comment_author_50ae8267e2bdf1253ec1a5769f48e062311865869-3
Value: Author's name
Purpose: This cookie stores the text and name of a user who, for example, leaves a comment.
Expiry date: after 12 months

Name: comment_author_url_50ae8267e2bdf1253ec1a5769f48e062
Value: https%3A%2F%2Fwww.testseite…%2F (author's URL)
Purpose: This cookie stores the URL of the website that the user enters in a text field on our website.
Expiry date: after 12 months

Name: comment_author_email_50ae8267e2bdf1253ec1a5769f48e062
Value: Author's email address
Purpose: This cookie stores the user’s email address if he or she has provided it on the website.
Expiry date: after 12 months

Note: The cookies mentioned above relate to individual user behavior. Changes on Facebook can never be ruled out, especially when using cookies.

If you are logged in to Facebook, you can change your ad settings yourself at https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen . If you are not a Facebook user, you can generally manage your usage-based online advertising at http://www.youronlinechoices.com/de/praferenzmanagement/ . There you have the option of deactivating or activating providers.

Facebook 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

Facebook uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46. Para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or for data transfer there. 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 these clauses, Facebook undertakes to comply with the European data protection level 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 other places: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

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

If you would like to learn more about Facebook’s privacy practices, we recommend that you read the company’s own data policy at https://www.facebook.com/policy.php .

Facebook Automatic enhanced matching Privacy Policy

We have also activated Automatic Advanced Matching as part of the Facebook pixel function. This pixel function enables us to send hashed emails, names, gender, city, state, zip code and date of birth or phone number as additional information to Facebook, provided you have provided us with this data. This activation enables us to tailor advertising campaigns on Facebook even more precisely to people who are interested in our services or products.

Google Analytics Privacy Policy

Google Analytics Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: Evaluation of visitor information to optimize the website.
📓 Data processed: Access statistics that contain data such as access locations, device data, access duration and time, navigation behavior, click behavior and IP addresses. You can find more details about this further down in this privacy policy.
📅 Storage period: depends on the properties used
⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Google Analytics?

We use the analysis tracking tool Google Analytics (GA) from the American company Google Inc. on our website. In Europe, 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. For example, if you click on a link, this action is saved in a cookie and sent to Google Analytics. The reports we receive from Google Analytics help us better tailor our website and service to your needs. Below we will go into more detail about the tracking tool and inform you about which data is saved and how you can prevent this.

Google Analytics is a tracking tool used to analyse the traffic on our website. In order for Google Analytics to work, a tracking code is built into the code of our website. When you visit our website, this code records various actions that you perform on our website. 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: Through target group reports we get to know our users better and know more precisely who is interested in our service.
  • Ad Reporting: Ad Reporting helps us analyze and improve our online advertising.
  • Acquisition reports: Acquisition reports give us helpful information about how we can get more people excited about our service.
  • Behavioral reports: This tells us how you interact with our website. We can see which path you take on our site and which links you click on.
  • Conversion reports: A conversion is a process in which you perform a desired action based on a marketing message. For example, when you go from being a pure website visitor to becoming a buyer or newsletter subscriber. These reports help us 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.

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 achieve this goal.

The statistically evaluated 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 is easier for interested people to find 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 in a more personalized and cost-effective way. 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. 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 is what 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 the default for every newly created property. Alternatively, you can also create the Universal Analytics property. Depending on the property used, data is saved for different lengths of time.

Identifiers such as cookies and app instance IDs are used to measure your interactions on our website. Interactions are all types of actions you perform on our website. If you also use other Google systems (such as a Google account), data generated through Google Analytics can be linked to third-party cookies. Google does not share Google Analytics data unless we as the website operator approve this. Exceptions may apply if required by law.

The following cookies are used by Google Analytics:

Name: _ga
Value: 2.1326744211.152311865869-5
Purpose: By default, analytics.js uses the cookie _ga to store the user ID. Basically, it is used to distinguish between website visitors.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: _gid
Value: 2.1687193234.152311865869-1
Purpose: The cookie is also used to distinguish between website visitors
Expiry 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 Google Tag Manager, this cookie is named _dc_gtm_ <property-id>.
Expiry date: after 1 minute

Name: AMP_TOKEN
Value: not specified
Purpose: The cookie has a token that can be used to retrieve a user ID from the AMP Client ID service. Other possible values ​​indicate a logout, a request, or an error.
Expiry date: after 30 seconds up to one year

Name: __utma
Value: 1564498958.1564498958.1564498958.1
Purpose: This cookie enables us to track your behavior on the website and measure performance. The cookie is updated each time information is sent to Google Analytics.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: __utmt
Value: 1
Purpose: The cookie is used like _gat_gtag_UA_<property-id> to throttle the request rate.
Expiry date: after 10 minutes

Name: __utmb
Value: 3.10.1564498958
Purpose: This cookie is used to determine new sessions. It is updated every time new data or information is sent to Google Analytics.
Expiry date: after 30 minutes

Name: __utmc
Value: 167421564
Purpose: This cookie is used to establish new sessions for returning visitors. This is a session cookie and is only stored until you close the browser again.
Expiry date: After closing the browser

Name: __utmz
Value: m|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/
Purpose: The cookie is used to identify the source of the traffic on our website. This means that the cookie stores where you came to our website from. This could be another page or an advertisement.
Expiry date: after 6 months

Name: __utmv
Value: not specified
Purpose: The cookie is used to store custom user data. It is always updated when information is sent to Google Analytics.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Note: This list cannot claim to be complete, as Google continually changes its choice of cookies.

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

Heatmaps: Google creates so-called heatmaps. Heatmaps show exactly the areas you click on. This gives us information about where you are on our site.

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

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

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

IP address: The IP address is only displayed in abbreviated form so that no clear assignment is possible.

Location: The IP address can be used to determine the country and your approximate location. This process is also known as IP location determination.

Technical information: Technical information includes, among other things, your browser type, your Internet service provider or your screen resolution.

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

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

How long and where is the data stored?

Google has its servers distributed all over the world. Most of the servers are located in America and therefore your data is mostly stored on American servers. You can find out exactly where the Google data centers are here: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de

Your data is distributed across different physical storage devices. This has the advantage that the data can be accessed more quickly and is better protected against manipulation. Every Google data center has emergency programs for your data. If, for example, Google's hardware 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. When using the newer Google Analytics 4 properties, the retention period of your user data is set to 14 months. For other so-called event data, we have the option of choosing a retention period of 2 months or 14 months.

For Universal Analytics Properties, Google Analytics has a standard retention period of 26 months for your user data. Your user data will then be deleted. However, we have the option of choosing the retention period for user data ourselves. We have five options available for this:

  • Deletion after 14 months
  • Deletion after 26 months
  • Deletion after 38 months
  • Deletion after 50 months
  • No automatic deletion

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

When the specified period has expired, the data is deleted once a month. This retention period applies to your data that is linked to cookies, user recognition and advertising IDs (e.g. cookies from the DoubleClick domain). Report results are based on aggregated data and are stored independently of user data. Aggregated data is a fusion 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, to update it, to delete it, or to restrict it. You can use the browser add-on to deactivate Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, dc.js) to prevent Google Analytics 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 (independent of Google Analytics), there are separate instructions for each browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

Legal basis

The use of Google Analytics requires your consent, which we have obtained with our cookie popup. According to Art. 6 Paragraph 1 Letter a of GDPR (consent), this consent represents the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when data is collected using web analytics tools.

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

Google 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46. Para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or for data transfer there. 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 these clauses, Google undertakes to comply with the European data protection level 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 other places: 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 Analytics, can be found at https://business.safety.google/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: http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/de.html and https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=de .

Google Analytics IP anonymization

We have implemented Google Analytics IP address anonymization on this website. This function was developed by Google so that this website can comply with the applicable data protection regulations and recommendations of the local data protection authorities if they prohibit the storage of the full IP address. The anonymization or masking of the IP takes place as soon as the IP addresses arrive in the Google Analytics data collection network and before the data is stored or processed.

More information about IP anonymization can be found at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2763052?hl=de .

Google Analytics reports on demographics and interests

We have activated the advertising reporting functions in Google Analytics. The reports on demographic characteristics and interests contain information on age, gender and interests. This enables us to get a better picture of our users - without being able to assign this data to individual people. You can find out more about the advertising functions at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3450482?hl=de_AT&utm_id=ad .

You can stop the use of your Google Account activities and information by checking the box under “Advertising Settings” at https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated .

If you click on the following deactivation link , you can prevent Google from recording further visits to this website. Please note: Deleting cookies, using the incognito/private mode of your browser, or using a different browser will result in data being collected again.

Disable Google Analytics

Google Analytics Data Processing Addendum

We have entered into a direct customer agreement with Google to use Google Analytics by accepting the “Data Processing Addendum” in Google Analytics.

You can find out more about the data processing supplement for Google Analytics here: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3379636?hl=de&utm_id=ad

Google Optimize Privacy Policy

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

Google 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46. Para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or for data transfer there. 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 these clauses, Google undertakes to comply with the European data protection level 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 other places: 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 Optimize, can be found at https://business.safety.google/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=en-US .

Google Analytics Google Signals Privacy Policy

We have activated Google Signals in Google Analytics. This will update existing Google Analytics features (advertising reports, remarketing, cross-device reporting, and interest and demographic reporting) to receive aggregated and anonymized data from you, provided you have allowed personalized ads in your Google Account.

The special thing about it is that it is cross-device tracking. This means that your data can be analyzed across devices. By activating Google signals, data is collected and linked to the Google account. This allows Google to recognize, for example, when you view a product on our website using a smartphone and only buy the product later using a laptop. Thanks to the activation of Google signals, we can start cross-device remarketing campaigns that would otherwise not be possible in this form. Remarketing means that we can also show you our offer on other websites.

In Google Analytics, Google signals also collect additional visitor data such as location, search history, YouTube history and data about your actions on our website. This means that we receive better advertising reports from Google and more useful information about your interests and demographic characteristics. This includes your age, what language you speak, where you live and what gender you are. Social criteria such as your job, marital status or income are also included. All of these characteristics help Google Analytics to define groups of people or target groups.

The reports also help us to better assess your behavior, your wishes and interests. This enables us to optimize and adapt our services and products for you. This data expires after 26 months by default. Please note that this data is only collected if you have allowed personalized advertising in your Google account. This is always aggregated and anonymous data and never data about individuals. You can manage or delete this data in your Google account.

MailChimp Privacy Policy

MailChimp Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Newsletter subscribers
🤝 Purpose: Direct advertising by email, notification of system-relevant events
📓 Data processed: Data entered during registration, but at least the email address.
📅 Storage period: Duration of the subscription
⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is MailChimp?

Like many other websites, we also use the services of the newsletter company MailChimp on our website. The operator of MailChimp is The Rocket Science Group, LLC, 675 Ponce de Leon Ave NE, Suite 5000, Atlanta, GA 30308 USA. Thanks to MailChimp, we can send you interesting news very easily via newsletter. With MailChimp, we don't have to install anything and can still draw on a pool of really useful functions. Below, we will go into more detail about this email marketing service and inform you about the most important data protection-related aspects.

MailChimp is a cloud-based newsletter management service. "Cloud-based" means that we do not have to install MailChimp on our own computer or server. Instead, we use the service via an IT infrastructure - which is available over the Internet - on an external server. This way of using software is also called SaaS (Software as a Service). The following graphic shows a schematic of how MailChimp distributes emails to newsletter recipients.

Systematic function of mailchimp

With MailChimp we can choose from a wide range of different email types. Depending on what we want to achieve with our newsletter, we can run single campaigns, regular campaigns, autoresponders (automatic emails), A/B tests, RSS campaigns (sending at a predefined time and frequency) and follow-up campaigns.

Why do we use MailChimp on our website?

We generally use a newsletter service so that we can stay in touch with you. We want to tell you what's new with us or what attractive offers we currently have in our program. We always look for the simplest and best solutions for our marketing measures. And for this reason we have chosen the newsletter management service from MailChimp. Although the software is very easy to use, it offers a large number of helpful features. This means we can create interesting and attractive newsletters in just a short time. Using the design templates offered, we design each newsletter individually and thanks to the "responsive design" our content is also displayed legibly and attractively on your smartphone (or other mobile device).

Using tools such as A/B testing or extensive analysis options, we can see very quickly how you respond to our newsletter. This allows us to react if necessary and improve our offering or services.

Another advantage is MailChimp's "cloud system". The data is not stored and processed directly on our server. We can retrieve the data from external servers and thus save our storage space. In addition, the maintenance effort is significantly reduced.

What data does MailChimp store?

Rocket Science Group LLC (MailChimp) maintains online platforms that enable us to contact you (provided you have subscribed to our newsletter). If you subscribe to our newsletter via our website, you will confirm your membership in a MailChimp email list by email. So that MailChimp can also prove that you have registered with the "list provider", the date of registration and your IP address are stored. MailChimp also stores your email address, name, physical address and demographic information such as language or location.

This information is used to send you emails and to enable certain other MailChimp features (such as newsletter evaluation).

MailChimp also shares information with third-party service providers to provide better services. MailChimp also shares some data with third-party advertising partners to better understand the interests and concerns of its customers so that more relevant content and targeted advertising can be provided.

Using so-called "web beacons" (small graphics in HTML emails), MailChimp can determine whether the email has arrived, whether it has been opened and whether links have been clicked. All of this information is stored on the MailChimp servers. This allows us to obtain statistical evaluations and see exactly how well you received our newsletter. This allows us to adapt our offering much better to your needs and improve our service.

MailChimp may also use this data to improve its own service. This can, for example, technically optimize the delivery or determine the location (country) of the recipient.

The following cookies may be set by MailChimp. This is not a complete list of cookies, but rather an exemplary selection:

Name : AVESTA_ENVIRONMENT
Value: Prod
Purpose: This cookie is necessary to provide the Mailchimp services. It is always set when a user registers for a newsletter mailing list.
Expiry date: after end of session

Name : ak_bmsc
Value: F1766FA98C9BB9DE4A39F70A9E5EEAB55F6517348A7000001311865869-3
Purpose: The cookie is used to distinguish a human from a bot. This allows reliable reports to be created about the use of a website.
Expiry date: after 2 hours

Name : bm_sv
Value: A5A322305B4401C2451FC22FFF547486~FEsKGvX8eovCwTeFTzb8//I3ak2Au…
Purpose: The cookie is from MasterPass Digital Wallet (a MasterCard service) and is used to offer a visitor a virtual payment transaction securely and easily. For this purpose, the user is identified anonymously on the website.
Expiry date: after 2 hours

Name : _abck
Value: 8D545C8CCA4C3A50579014C449B045311865869-9
Purpose: We could not find out any further information about the purpose of this cookie
Expiry date: after one year

Sometimes it may happen that you open our newsletter via a specified link for better display. This is the case, for example, if your email program is not working or the newsletter is not displayed correctly. The newsletter is then displayed via a MailChimp website. MailChimp also uses cookies (small text files that store data on your browser) on its own websites. Personal data may be processed by MailChimp and its partners (e.g. Google Analytics). This data collection is the responsibility of MailChimp and we have no influence over it. In MailChimp's "Cookie Statement" (at: https://mailchimp.com/legal/cookies/ ) you can find out exactly how and why the company uses cookies.

How long and where is the data stored?

Since MailChimp is an American company, all collected data is also stored on American servers.

Basically, the data remains permanently stored on MailChimp's servers and is only deleted when you request it. You can have us delete your contact. This permanently removes all your personal data for us and anonymizes you in the MailChimp reports. However, you can also request that your data be deleted directly from MailChimp. Then all your data will be removed there and we will receive a notification from MailChimp. After we receive the email, we have 30 days to delete your contact from all connected integrations.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You can withdraw your consent to receive our newsletter at any time by clicking on the link at the bottom of the email you receive. Once you have unsubscribed by clicking on the unsubscribe link, your data will be deleted from MailChimp.

If you access a MailChimp website via a link in our newsletter and cookies are set in your browser, you can delete or deactivate these cookies at any time.

Depending on the browser, deactivation or deletion works slightly differently. The following instructions show how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

If you do not want cookies at all, you can set your browser to always inform you when a cookie is about to be placed. This way you can decide for each individual cookie whether you want to allow it or not.

Legal basis

Our newsletter is sent by MailChimp based on your consent (Article 6 Paragraph 1 Letter a of GDPR). This means that we may only send you a newsletter if you have previously actively registered for it. If consent is not required, the newsletter will be sent on the basis of the legitimate interest in direct marketing (Article 6 Paragraph 1 Letter f), provided this is legally permitted. We record your registration process so that we can always prove that it complies with our laws.

MailChimp 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

MailChimp uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46. Para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or for data transfer there. 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 these clauses, MailChimp undertakes to comply with the European data protection level 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 other places: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

The Mailchimp data processing conditions (Data Processing Addendum), which correspond to the standard contractual clauses, can be found at https://mailchimp.com/legal/data-processing-addendum/#Annex_C_-_Standard_Contractual_Clauses .

You can find out more about the use of cookies at MailChimp at https://mailchimp.com/legal/cookies/ , and information about data protection at MailChimp (Privacy) can be found at https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/ .

MailChimp Data Processing Agreement

We have concluded a contract for order data processing (Data Processing Addendum) with MailChimp. This contract serves to protect your personal data and ensures that MailChimp adheres to the applicable data protection regulations and does not pass on your personal data to third parties.

You can find more information about this agreement at https://mailchimp.com/legal/data-processing-addendum/ .

Online marketing

Online Marketing Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: Evaluation of visitor information to optimize the website.
📓 Data processed: Access statistics that contain data such as locations of accesses, device data, duration and time of access, navigation behavior, click behavior and IP addresses. Personal data such as name or email address can also be processed. You can find more details about this in the online marketing tool used.
📅 Storage period: depends on the online marketing tools used
⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is online marketing?

Online marketing refers to all measures that are carried out online to achieve marketing goals such as increasing brand awareness or closing a deal. Our online marketing measures also aim to draw people's attention to our website. We therefore carry out online marketing in order to be able to show our offer to many interested people. This usually involves online advertising, content marketing or search engine optimization. Personal data is also stored and processed so that we can use online marketing efficiently and in a targeted manner. On the one hand, the data helps us to only show our content to those people who are actually interested in it, and on the other hand, we can measure the advertising success of our online marketing measures.

Why do we use online marketing tools?

We want to show our website to everyone who is interested in what we have to offer. We are aware that this is not possible without taking conscious measures. That is why we do online marketing. There are various tools that make our work on our online marketing measures easier and also provide suggestions for improvement using data. This allows us to target our campaigns more precisely at our target group. The purpose of these online marketing tools is ultimately to optimize our offer.

What data is processed?

To ensure that our online marketing works and the success of the measures can be measured, user profiles are created and data is stored, for example, in cookies (these are small text files). With the help of this data, we can not only place advertisements in the traditional sense, but also display our content directly on our website in the way you like best. There are various third-party tools that offer these functions and collect and store data from you accordingly. The cookies named store, for example, which web pages you visited on our website, how long you viewed these pages, which links or buttons you clicked, or which website you came to us from. Technical information can also be stored. For example, your IP address, which browser you use, which device you use to visit our website, or the time when you accessed our website and when you left it again. If you have agreed that we can also determine your location, we can also store and process this.

Your IP address is stored in pseudonymized form (i.e. shortened). Unique data that directly identifies you as a person, such as name, address or email address, are also only stored in pseudonymized form as part of the advertising and online marketing processes. We cannot identify you as a person, but we only have the pseudonymized, stored information stored in the user profiles.

The cookies may also be deployed, analyzed and used for advertising purposes on other websites that work with the same advertising tools. The data may then also be stored on the servers of the advertising tool providers.

In exceptional cases, unique data (name, email address, etc.) can also be stored in the user profiles. This storage occurs, for example, if you are a member of a social media channel that we use for our online marketing measures and the network links previously received data with the user profile.

For all advertising tools we use that store your data on their servers, we only receive aggregated information and never data that identifies you as an individual. The data simply shows how well the advertising measures worked. For example, we can see which measures prompted you or other users to come to our website and purchase a service or product there. Based on the analyses, we can improve our advertising offer in the future and adapt it even more precisely to the needs and wishes of interested parties.

Duration of data processing

We will inform you below about the duration of data processing if we have further information. In general, we only process personal data for as long as it is absolutely necessary to provide our services and products. Data stored in cookies is stored for different lengths of time. Some cookies are deleted as soon as you leave the website, others can be stored in your browser for several years. In the respective data protection declarations of the individual providers you will usually find precise information about the individual cookies that the provider uses.

Right to object

You also have the right and the option to revoke 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 through cookies by managing, deactivating or deleting cookies in your browser. The legality of the processing until the revocation remains unaffected.

Since online marketing tools can usually 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 the use of third-party providers, the legal basis for the corresponding data processing is this consent. According to Art. 6 (1) lit. a GDPR (consent), this consent represents the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when collected using online marketing tools.

We also have a legitimate interest in measuring online marketing measures in an anonymized form in order to optimize our offer and our measures using the data obtained. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR (legitimate interests) . However, we only use the tools if you have given your consent.

Information on specific online marketing tools – if available – can be found in the following sections.

PayPal Marketing Solutions Privacy Policy

We use PayPal Marketing Solutions, a sales optimization tool, on our website. The service provider is the American company PayPal Pte. Ltd, 2211 North First Street, San Jose, California 95131, USA.

PayPal 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

PayPal uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46. Para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or for data transfer there. 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 these clauses, PayPal undertakes to comply with the European data protection level 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 other places: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

For more information about the standard contractual clauses and the data processed through the use of PayPal Marketing Solutions, please see the Privacy Policy at https://www.paypal.com/c2/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full .

You can find out more about the data processed through the use of PayPal Marketing Solutions in the Privacy Policy at https://www.paypal.com/c2/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full .

Google Ads (Google AdWords) Conversion Tracking Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: economic success and the optimization of our services.
📓 Data processed: Access statistics that contain data such as locations of accesses, device data, duration and time of access, navigation behavior, click behavior and IP addresses. Personal data such as name or email address can also be processed.
📅 Storage period: Conversion cookies usually expire after 30 days and do not transmit any personal data
⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Google Ads Conversion Tracking?

We use Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) as an online marketing measure to advertise our products and services. In this way, we want to make more people on the Internet aware of the high quality of our offers. As part of our advertising measures through Google Ads, we use conversion tracking from Google Inc. on our website. In Europe, however, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. With the help of this free tracking tool, we can better tailor our advertising offer to your interests and needs. In the following article, we want to go into more detail about why we use conversion tracking, which data is stored and how you can prevent this data storage.

Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is Google Inc.'s in-house online advertising system. We are confident in the quality of our offering and want as many people as possible to get to know our website. In the online area, Google Ads offers the best platform for this. Of course, we also want to gain a precise overview of the cost-benefit factor of our advertising campaigns. That's why we use the Google Ads conversion tracking tool.

But what exactly is a conversion? A conversion occurs when you go from being a purely interested website visitor to being an active visitor. This always happens when you click on our ad and then perform another action, such as visiting our website. We use Google's conversion tracking tool to record what happens after a user clicks on our Google Ads ad. For example, we can see whether products are purchased, services are used or whether users have signed up for our newsletter.

Why do we use Google Ads conversion tracking on our website?

We use Google Ads to draw attention to our offer on other websites. The aim is for our advertising campaigns to really only reach those people who are interested in our offers. With the conversion tracking tool, we can see which keywords, ads, ad groups and campaigns lead to the desired customer actions. We can see how many customers interact with our ads on a device and then make a conversion. This data enables us to calculate our cost-benefit factor, measure the success of individual advertising measures and consequently optimize our online marketing measures. We can also use the data obtained to make our website more interesting for you and tailor our advertising offer even more individually to your needs.

What data is stored in Google Ads Conversion Tracking?

We have integrated a conversion tracking tag or code snippet on our website to better analyze certain user actions. If you click on one of our Google Ads ads, the "Conversion" cookie from a Google domain is stored on your computer (usually in the browser) or mobile device. Cookies are small text files that store information on your computer.

Here are the data of the most important cookies for Google conversion tracking:

Name: Conversion
Value: EhMI_aySuoyv4gIVled3Ch0llweVGAEgt-mr6aXd7dYlSAGQ311865869-3
Purpose: This cookie stores every conversion you make on our site after you came to us via a Google Ad.
Expiry date: after 3 months

Name: _gac
Value: 1.1558695989.EAIaIQobChMIiOmEgYO04gIVj5AYCh2CBAPrEAAYASAAEgIYQfD_BwE
Purpose: This is a classic Google Analytics cookie and is used to record various actions on our website.
Expiry date: after 3 months

Note: The cookie _gac only appears in connection with Google Analytics. The above list is not exhaustive, as Google also uses other cookies for analytical evaluations.

As soon as you complete an action on our website, Google recognizes the cookie and saves your action as a so-called conversion. As long as you are surfing our website and the cookie has not yet expired, we and Google recognize that you found us via our Google Ads ad. The cookie is read and sent back to Google Ads with the conversion data. It is also possible that other cookies are used to measure conversions. Google Ads conversion tracking can be further refined and improved using Google Analytics. For ads that Google displays in various places on the web, cookies called “__gads” or “_gac” may be set under our domain. Since September 2017, various campaign information from analytics.js has been stored using the _gac cookie. The cookie stores this data as soon as you visit one of our pages for which Google Ads automatic tagging has been set up. Unlike cookies that are set for Google domains, Google can only read these conversion cookies when you are on our website. We do not collect or receive any personal data. We receive a report from Google with statistical evaluations. For example, we find out the total number of users who clicked on our ad and we see which advertising measures were well received.

How long and where is the data stored?

At this point we would like to point out that we have no influence on how Google uses the data collected. According to Google, the data is encrypted and stored on secure servers. In most cases, conversion cookies expire after 30 days and do not transmit any personal data. The cookies named "Conversion" and "_gac" (which is used in conjunction with Google Analytics) have an expiration date of 3 months.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You have the option of not participating in Google Ads conversion tracking. If you deactivate the Google Conversion Tracking cookie in your browser, you block conversion tracking. In this case, you will not be included in the tracking tool's statistics. You can change the cookie settings in your browser at any time. This works a little differently for each browser. Here are instructions on how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

If you do not want cookies at all, you can set your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be placed. This way you can decide for each individual cookie whether you want to accept the cookie or not. Downloading and installing this browser plug-in at https://support.google.com/ads/answer/7395996 will also deactivate all "advertising cookies". Please note that deactivating these cookies will not prevent you from seeing advertisements, only personalized advertising.

Legal basis

If you have consented to the use of Google Ads Conversion Tracking, the legal basis for the corresponding data processing is this consent. According to Art. 6 Paragraph 1 Letter a of GDPR (consent), this consent represents the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when collected through Google Ads Conversion Tracking.

We also have a legitimate interest in using Google Ads Conversion Tracking to optimize our online service and our marketing measures. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR (legitimate interests) . However, we only use Google Ads Conversion Tracking if you have given your consent.

Google 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46. Para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or for data transfer there. 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 these clauses, Google undertakes to comply with the European data protection level 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 other places: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

The data processing terms for Google advertising products (Google Ads Controller-Controller Data Protection Terms), which correspond to the standard contractual clauses and also apply to Google Ads, can be found at https://business.safety.google/adscontrollerterms/ .

If you would like to learn more about data protection at Google, we recommend reading Google's general privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de .

Google AdSense Privacy Policy

Google AdSense Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: economic success and the optimization of our services.
📓 Data processed: Access statistics that contain data such as locations of accesses, device data, duration and time of access, navigation behavior, click behavior and IP addresses. Personal data such as name or email address can also be processed.
📅 Storage period: depends on the cookies used and stored data
⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Google AdSense?

We use Google AdSense on this website. This is an advertising program from Google Inc. In Europe, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. With Google AdSense, we can display advertisements on this website that match our topic. This way, we can offer you advertisements that ideally represent real added value for you. In the course of this data protection text about Google AdSense, we explain why we use Google AdSense on our website, which of your data is processed and stored, and how you can prevent this data storage.

The Google AdSense advertising program has been around since 2003. Unlike Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords), you cannot place your own advertising here. Google AdSense displays advertisements on websites such as ours. The biggest advantage of this advertising service compared to some others is that Google AdSense only shows you advertisements that match our content. Google has its own algorithm that calculates which advertisements you see. Of course, we only want to show you advertisements that interest you and that offer added value. Google checks which advertisements are suitable for our website and our users based on your interests or user behavior and on our offering. We would also like to mention at this point that we are not responsible for the selection of advertisements. We merely offer the advertising space on our website. Google selects the advertisements displayed. Since August 2013, the advertisements have also been adapted to the respective user interface. This means that whether you visit our website from your smartphone, PC or laptop, the ads adapt to your device.

Why do we use Google AdSense on our website?

Running a high-quality website requires a lot of dedication and effort. Basically, we never finish working on our website. We always try to maintain our site and keep it as up-to-date as possible. Of course, we also want to achieve economic success with this work. That's why we have chosen advertisements as a source of income. The most important thing for us, however, is not to disrupt your visit to our website with these advertisements. With the help of Google AdSense, you will only be offered advertisements that match our topics and your interests.

Similar to Google indexing a website, a bot examines the relevant content and offers on the page. The advertisements are then adapted and presented in terms of content. In addition to the content overlap between the ad and the website offer, AdSense also supports interest-based targeting. This means that Google also uses your data to offer advertising tailored to you. This way you receive advertising that ideally offers you real added value and we have a higher chance of earning a little something.

What data does Google AdSense store?

Cookies are used, among other things, so that Google AdSense can display customized advertising tailored to you. Cookies are small text files that store certain information on your computer.

Cookies in AdSense are intended to enable better advertising. The cookies do not contain any personally identifiable data. However, it should be noted that Google views data such as "pseudonymous cookie IDs" (name or other identification feature is replaced by a pseudonym) or IP addresses as non-personally identifiable information. However, within the framework of the GDPR, this data can be considered personal data. Google AdSense sends a cookie to the browser after every impression (this is always the case when you see an ad), every click and every other activity that leads to a call to the Google AdSense servers. If the browser accepts the cookie, it is stored there.

As part of AdSense, third parties may place and read cookies in your browser or use web beacons to store data that they receive from the delivery of ads on the website. Web beacons are small graphics that perform a log file analysis and a log file record. This analysis enables statistical evaluation for online marketing.

Google can use these cookies to collect certain information about your user behavior on our website. This includes:

  • Information on how you interact with an ad (clicks, impressions, mouse movements)
  • Information about whether an ad has appeared in your browser before. This data helps to prevent an ad from being shown to you more often.

Google analyses and evaluates the data on the advertising material displayed and your IP address. Google uses the data primarily to measure the effectiveness of an ad and to improve the advertising offer. This data is not linked to personal data that Google may have about you through other Google services.

Below we present cookies that Google AdSense uses for tracking purposes. Here we refer to a test website that has only Google AdSense installed: 

Name: uid
Value: 891269189311865869-8
Purpose: The cookie is stored under the domain adform.net. It provides a uniquely assigned, machine-generated user ID and collects data about the activity on our website.
Expiry date: after 2 months

Name: C
Value: 1
Purpose: This cookie identifies whether your browser accepts cookies. The cookie is stored under the domain track.adform.net.
Expiry date: after 1 month

Name: cid
Value: 8912691894970695056,0,0,0,0
Purpose: This cookie is stored under the domain track.adform.net, stands for client ID and is used to improve advertising for you. It can deliver more relevant advertising to the visitor and helps improve campaign performance reports.
Expiry date: after 2 months

Name: IDE
Value: zOtj4TWxwbFDjaATZ2TzNaQmxrU311865869-1
Purpose: The cookie is stored under the domain doubleclick.net. It is used to register your actions after the ad is displayed or after you click on the ad. This makes it possible to measure how well an ad is received by our visitors.
Expiry date: after 1 month

Name: test_cookie
Value: not specified
Purpose: The "test_cookies" can be used to check whether your browser supports cookies at all. The cookie is stored under the domain doubleclick.net.
Expiry date: after 1 month

Name: CT592996
Value: 733366
Purpose: Is stored under the domain adform.net. The cookie is set as soon as you click on an advertisement. We were unable to find out more detailed information about the use of this cookie.
Expiry date: after one hour

Note: This list cannot claim to be complete, since experience has shown that Google continually changes its choice of cookies.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google collects your IP address and various activities you perform on the website. Cookies store this information about the interactions on our website. According to Google, the company collects and stores the information provided in a secure manner on Google's own servers in the USA.

If you do not have a Google account or are not logged in, Google stores the data collected with a unique identifier (ID), usually on your browser. The unique IDs stored in cookies are used, for example, to ensure personalized advertising. If you are logged in to a Google account, Google can also collect personal data.

You can delete some of the data that Google stores at any time (see next section). Much of the information stored in cookies is automatically deleted after a certain period of time. However, there is also data that Google stores for a longer period of time. This is the case when Google has to store certain data for an indefinite longer period of time for economic or legal reasons.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You always have the option to delete or deactivate cookies that are on your computer. How exactly this works depends on your browser.

Here you will find instructions on how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

If you do not want cookies at all, you can set your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be placed. This way you can decide for each individual cookie whether you want to accept the cookie or not. Downloading and installing this browser plug-in at https://support.google.com/ads/answer/7395996 will also deactivate all "advertising cookies". Please note that deactivating these cookies will not prevent you from seeing advertisements, only personalized advertising.

If you have a Google account, you can opt out of personalized advertising at https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated . You will still see ads, but they will no longer be tailored to your interests. However, ads will be shown based on a few factors, such as your location, browser type, and search terms used.

Legal basis

If you have consented to the use of Google AdSense, the legal basis for the corresponding data processing is this consent. According to Art. 6 Paragraph 1 Letter a of GDPR (consent), this consent represents the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when collected by Google AdSense.

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

Google 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46. Para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or for data transfer there. 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 these clauses, Google undertakes to comply with the European data protection level 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 other places: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

The data processing terms for Google advertising products (Google Ads Controller-Controller Data Protection Terms), which correspond to the standard contractual clauses and also apply to Google AdSense, can be found at https://business.safety.google/adscontrollerterms/ .

You can find out what data Google generally collects and what they use this data for at https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/ .

Cookie Consent Management Platform Summary
👥 Affected: Website visitors
🤝 Purpose: Obtaining and managing consent to certain cookies and thus the use of certain tools
📓 Data processed: Data for managing the cookie settings such as IP address, time of consent, type of consent, individual consents. You can find more details in the tool used.
📅 Storage period: Depends on the tool used, you have to 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 a Consent Management Platform (CMP) software on our website that makes it easier for us and you to handle the scripts and cookies used correctly and safely. The software automatically creates a cookie pop-up, scans and checks all scripts and cookies, provides you with cookie consent required by 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. You, as a website visitor, then decide for yourself whether and which scripts and cookies you allow or not. The following graphic shows the relationship between browser, web server, and CMP.

Consent Management Platform Overview

Why do we use a cookie management tool?

Our goal 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 inform you as best as possible about all the tools and all the 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. Thanks to a cookie management tool that regularly scans the website for all existing cookies, we know about all the cookies and can provide you with information about them in accordance with the GDPR. You can then accept or reject cookies using 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. Your declaration of consent is saved so that we do not have to ask you every time you visit our website and we can also prove your consent if legally required. This is saved either in an opt-in cookie or on a server. The storage period for your cookie consent varies depending on the provider of the cookie management tool. This data (such as pseudonymous user ID, time of consent, details of cookie categories or tools, browser, device information) is usually saved 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. In general, we only process personal data for as long as it is absolutely necessary to provide our services and products. Data stored in cookies is stored for different lengths of time. Some cookies are deleted as soon as you leave the website, others can be stored in your browser for several years. The exact duration of data processing depends on the tool used; in most cases, you should expect a storage period of several years. In the respective data protection declarations of the individual providers, you will usually receive precise information about the duration of data processing.

Right to object

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

Information about 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 with your consent (Article 6 Paragraph 1 Letter a of 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 consent to cookies and to enable you to give your consent. The use of this software enables us to operate the website efficiently and in compliance with the law, which represents a legitimate interest (Article 6 Paragraph 1 Letter f of GDPR).

Cookiebot Privacy Policy

Cookiebot Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Website visitors
🤝 Purpose: Obtaining consent to certain cookies and thus the use of certain tools
📓 Data processed: Data for managing the cookie settings such as IP address, time of consent, type of consent, individual consents. You can find more details in the tool used.
📅 Storage period: the data will be deleted after one year
⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Cookiebot?

We use functions from the provider Cookiebot on our website. Cookiebot is provided by the company Cybot A/S, Havnegade 39, 1058 Copenhagen, DK. Cookiebot offers us, among other things, the option of providing you with a comprehensive cookie notice (also called a cookie banner or cookie notice). By using this function, your data can be sent to Cookiebot or Cybot, stored and processed. In this privacy policy, we inform you why we use Cookiebot, which data is transferred and how you can prevent this data transfer.

Cookiebot is a software product from the company Cybot. The software automatically creates a GDPR-compliant cookie notice for our website visitors. In addition, the technology behind Cookiebot scans, controls and evaluates all cookies and tracking measures on our website.

Why do we use Cookiebot on our website?

We take data protection very seriously. We want to show you exactly what is going on on our website and which of your data is stored. Cookiebot helps us to get a good overview of all our cookies (first-party and third-party cookies). This allows us to provide you with precise and transparent information about the use of cookies on our website. You always receive an up-to-date and data protection-compliant cookie notice and decide for yourself which cookies you allow and which you don't.

What data does Cookiebot store?

If you allow cookies, the following data will be transferred to Cybot, stored and processed.

  • IP address (in anonymized form, the last 3 digits are set to 0)
  • Date and time of your consent
  • our website URL
  • technical browser data
  • encrypted, anonymous key
  • the cookies you have allowed (as proof of consent)

The following cookies are set by Cookiebot if you have agreed to the use of cookies:

Name: CookieConsent
Value: {stamp:'P7to4eNgIHvJvDerjKneBsmJQd9311865869-2
Purpose: This cookie stores your consent status. This allows our website to read and follow the current status on future visits.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: CookieConsentBulkTicket
Value: kDSPWpA%2fjhljZKClPqsncfR8SveTnNWhys5NojaxdFYBPjZ2PaDnUw%3d%3311865869-6
Purpose: This cookie is set if you allow all cookies and have thus activated “collective consent”. The cookie then stores its own random and unique ID.
Expiry date: after one year

Note: Please remember that this is an example list and we cannot claim to be complete. In the cookie declaration at https://www.cookiebot.com/de/cookie-declaration/ you can see which other cookies can be used.

According to Cybot's privacy policy, the company does not sell personal data. However, Cybot shares data with trusted third parties or subcontractors who help the company achieve its own business goals. Data is also shared when it is legally required.

How long and where is the data stored?

All data collected is transferred, stored and forwarded exclusively within the European Union. The data is stored in an Azure data center (cloud provider is Microsoft). You can find out more about all "Azure regions" at https://azure.microsoft.com/de-de/global-infrastructure/regions/ . All user data is deleted by Cookiebot after 12 months from registration (cookie consent) or immediately after termination of the Cookiebot service.

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 notice. Your browser offers another option for preventing data processing or managing it according to your wishes. Cookie management works slightly differently depending on the browser. Here you can find instructions for the most popular browsers currently:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

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 with your consent (Article 6 Paragraph 1 Letter a of GDPR), this consent is also the legal basis for the use of cookies or the processing of your data. Cookiebot 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 efficiently and in compliance with the law, which represents a legitimate interest (Article 6 Paragraph 1 Letter f of GDPR).

If you would like to learn more about the privacy policy of “Cookiebot” or the company behind it, Cybot, we recommend that you read the privacy policy at https://www.cookiebot.com/de/privacy-policy/ .

Payment providers

Payment Provider Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: Enabling and optimizing the payment process on our website
📓 Data processed: Data such as name, address, bank details (account number, credit card number, passwords, TANs, etc.), IP address and contract data
You can find more details in the payment provider tool you use.
📅 Storage period: depends on the payment provider used
⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR (performance of a contract)

What is a payment provider?

We use online payment systems on our website that enable us and you to make payments safely and smoothly. Personal data may also be sent to the respective payment provider, stored there and processed there. Payment providers are online payment systems that allow you to place an order via online banking. The payment is processed by the payment provider you have chosen. We then receive information about the payment made. This method can be used by any user who has an active online banking account with PIN and TAN. There are hardly any banks that do not offer or accept such payment methods.

Why do we use payment providers on our website?

We naturally want to offer the best possible service with our website and our integrated online shop so that you feel comfortable on our site and use our offers. We know that your time is valuable and that payment transactions in particular must work quickly and smoothly. For these reasons, we offer you various payment providers. You can choose your preferred payment provider and pay in the usual way.

What data is processed?

Which data is processed depends, of course, on the respective payment provider. However, data such as name, address, bank details (account number, credit card number, passwords, TANs, etc.) are generally stored. This is necessary data in order to be able to carry out a transaction at all. In addition, any contract data and user data, such as when you visit our website, which content you are interested in or which subpages you click on, can also be stored. Your IP address and information about the computer you are using are also stored by most payment providers.

The data is usually stored and processed on the payment providers' servers. We as website operators do not receive this data. We are only informed whether the payment was successful or not. Payment providers may forward data to the relevant department for identity and credit checks. The business and data protection principles of the respective provider always apply to all payment transactions. Therefore, please always read the general terms and conditions and the data protection declaration of the payment provider. You also have the right to have data deleted or corrected at any time, for example. Please contact the respective service provider regarding your rights (right of withdrawal, right to information and right to be affected).

Duration of data processing

We will inform you about the duration of data processing below if we have further information. In general, we only process personal data for as long as it is absolutely necessary to provide our services and products. If it is required by law, such as in the case of accounting, this storage period can also be exceeded. For example, we keep accounting documents relating to a contract (invoices, contract documents, bank statements, etc.) for 10 years (Section 147 AO) and other relevant business documents for 6 years (Section 247 HGB) after they arise.

Right to object

You always have the right to information, correction and deletion of your personal data. If you have any questions, you can contact the person responsible for the payment provider used at any time. You can find contact details either in our specific data protection declaration or on the website of the relevant payment provider.

You can delete, deactivate or manage cookies that payment providers use for their functions in your browser. This works in different ways depending on which browser you use. Please note, however, that the payment process may then no longer work.

Legal basis

We therefore offer the processing of contractual or legal relationships (Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. b GDPR) In addition to traditional banking/credit institutions, we also offer other payment service providers. The privacy policies of the individual payment providers (such as Amazon Payments , Apple Pay or Discover ) provide you with a detailed overview of data processing and data storage. In addition, you can always address any questions you may have about data protection-related issues to the responsible persons.

Information about the specific payment providers – if available – can be found in the following sections.

Amazon Payments Privacy Policy

We use Amazon Payments, a service for online payment procedures, on our website. The service provider is the American company Amazon.com Inc. The company responsible for the European region is Amazon Payments Europe SCA (38 Avenue JF Kennedy, L-1855 Luxembourg).

Amazon 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

Amazon uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46. Para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or for data transfer there. 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 these clauses, Amazon undertakes to comply with the European data protection level 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 other places: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

The Amazon data processing terms (AWS GDPR DATA PROCESSING), which correspond to the standard contractual clauses, can be found at https://d1.awsstatic.com/legal/aws-gdpr/AWS_GDPR_DPA.pdf .

You can find out more about the data processed through the use of Amazon Payments in the Privacy Policy at https://pay.amazon.de/help/201212490 .

American Express Privacy Policy

We use American Express, a global financial services provider, on our website. The service provider is the American company American Express Company. The company responsible for Europe is American Express Europe SA (Avenida Partenón 12-14, 28042, Madrid, Spain).

American Express 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

American Express 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 for data transfer there. These clauses oblige American Express to comply with the EU data protection level 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, among other places: https://ec.europa.eu/germany/news/20210604-datentransfers-eu_de .

You can find out more about the data processed through the use of American Express in the Privacy Policy at https://www.americanexpress.com/de/legal/online-datenschutzerklarung.html .

Apple Pay Privacy Policy

We use Apple Pay, a service for online payment procedures, on our website. The service provider is the American company Apple Inc., Infinite Loop, Cupertino, CA 95014, USA.

Apple 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

Apple 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 for data transfer there. These clauses oblige Apple to comply with the EU data protection level 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, among other places: https://ec.europa.eu/germany/news/20210604-datentransfers-eu_de .

You can find out more about the data processed through the use of Apple Pay in the Privacy Policy at https://www.apple.com/legal/privacy/de-ww/ .

eps-Transfer Privacy Policy

We use eps-Überweisung, a service for online payment methods, on our website. The service provider is the Austrian company Stuzza GmbH, Frankgasse 10/8, 1090 Vienna, Austria. You can find out more about the data that is processed through the use of eps-Überweisung in the privacy policy at https://eservice.stuzza.at/de/datenschutzerklaerung.html .

Google Pay Privacy Policy

We use the online payment provider Google Pay on our website. The service provider is the American company Google Inc. In Europe, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services.

Google 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46. Para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or for data transfer there. 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 these clauses, Google undertakes to comply with the European data protection level 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 other places: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

The data processing terms for Google advertising products (Google Ads Controller-Controller Data Protection Terms), which correspond to the standard contractual clauses and also apply to Google Pay, can be found at https://business.safety.google/adscontrollerterms/ .

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

Mastercard Privacy Policy

We use the payment service provider Mastercard on our website. The service provider is the American company Mastercard Inc. The company responsible for Europe is Mastercard Europe SA (Chaussée de Tervuren 198A, B-1410 Waterloo, Belgium).

Mastercard 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

Mastercard 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 for data transfer there. These clauses oblige Mastercard to comply with the EU data protection level 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, among other places: https://ec.europa.eu/germany/news/20210604-datentransfers-eu_de .

You can find out more about the data processed through the use of Mastercard in the Privacy Policy at https://www.mastercard.de/de-de/datenschutz.html .

PayPal Privacy Policy

We use the online payment service PayPal on our website. The service provider is the American company PayPal Inc. The company PayPal Europe (S.à rl et Cie, SCA, 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg) is responsible for the European region.

PayPal 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

PayPal uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46. Para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or for data transfer there. 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 these clauses, PayPal undertakes to comply with the European data protection level 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 other places: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

For more information about the standard contractual clauses and the data processed through the use of PayPal Marketing Solutions, please see the Privacy Policy at https://www.paypal.com/c2/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full .

Shop Pay Privacy Policy

We use Shop Pay, a service for online payment solutions, on our website. The service provider is the American company Shopify Inc. The company responsible for the European region is Shopify International Limited (Victoria Buildings, 2nd floor, 1-2 Haddington Road, Dublin 4, D04 XN32, Ireland).

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 transfer to the USA. The data processing is mainly carried out by Shop Pay. This may mean that data is not processed and stored anonymously. Furthermore, US government authorities may have access to individual data. It may also happen that this data is linked to data from other Shop Pay services for which you have a user account.

You can find out more about the data processed through the use of Shop Pay in the Privacy Policy at https://www.shopify.de/legal/datenschutz .

Visa Privacy Policy

We use Visa, a global payment provider, on our website. The service provider is the American company Visa Inc. The company responsible for Europe is Visa Europe Services Inc. (1 Sheldon Square, London W2 6TT, Great Britain).

Visa 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

Visa uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46. Para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or for data transfer there. 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 these clauses, Visa undertakes to comply with the European data protection level 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 other places: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

You can find more information about Visa’s standard contractual clauses at https://www.visa.de/nutzungsbedingungen/visa-globale-datenschutzmitteilung/mitteilung-zu-zustandigkeitsfragen-fur-den-ewr.html .

You can find out more about the data processed through the use of Visa in the Privacy Policy at https://www.visa.de/nutzungsbedingungen/visa-privacy-center.html .

Klarna Checkout Privacy Policy

Klarna Checkout Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: Optimizing the payment process on our website
📓 Data processed: Data such as name, address, bank details (account number, credit card number, passwords, TANs, etc.), IP address and contract data
You can find more details about this further down in this privacy policy.
📅 Storage period: Data is stored as long as Klarna needs it for the processing purpose.
⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. c GDPR (legal obligation), Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Klarna Checkout?

We use the online payment system Klarna Checkout from the Swedish company Klarna Bank AB on our website. Klarna Bank has its headquarters at Sveavägen 46, 111 34 Stockholm, Sweden. If you choose to use this service, personal data will be sent to Klarna, stored and processed. In this privacy policy we would like to give you an overview of the data processing by Klarna.

Klarna Checkout is a payment system for orders in an online shop. The user selects the payment method and Klarna Checkout takes over the entire payment process. Once a user has made a payment via the checkout system and entered the relevant data, future online purchases can be made even faster and easier. The Klarna system then recognizes the existing customer as soon as the email address and postcode are entered.

Why do we use Klarna Checkout for our website?

Our goal with our website and our integrated online shop is to offer you the best possible service. In addition to the overall experience on the website and our offers, this also includes smooth, fast and secure payment processing for your orders. To ensure this, we use the Klarna Checkout payment system.

What data is stored by Klarna Checkout?

As soon as you choose the Klarna payment service and pay using the Klarna Checkout payment method, you also transmit personal data to the company. On the Klarna Checkout page, technical data such as browser type, operating system, our Internet address, date and time, language settings, time zone settings and IP address are collected from you and transmitted to Klarna's servers and stored there. This data is stored even if you have not yet completed an order.

If you order a product or service through our shop, you must enter your personal data in the fields provided. This data is processed by Klarna for payment processing. The following personal data (as well as general product information) may be stored and processed by Klarna for credit and identity checks:

  • Contact information: name, date of birth, national ID number, title, billing and shipping address, email address, telephone number, nationality or salary.
  • Payment information such as credit card details or your account number
  • Product information such as tracking number, type of item and price of the product

There is also data that can be collected optionally, provided you consciously decide to do so. These include political, religious or ideological beliefs or various health data.

In addition to the data mentioned above, Klarna may also collect data on the goods or services you buy or order, either itself or through third parties (such as us or public databases). This may include, for example, the shipment number or the type of item ordered, but also information about your creditworthiness, your income or credit approvals. Klarna may also pass on your personal data to service providers such as software providers, data storage providers or us as a retailer.

When data is automatically entered into a form, cookies are always involved. If you do not want to use this function, you can deactivate these cookies at any time. Further down in the text you will find instructions on how to delete, deactivate or manage cookies in your browser. Our tests have shown that Klarna does not set any cookies directly. If you choose the payment method "Klarna Sofort" and click on "Order", you will be redirected to the Sofort website. After successful payment, you will be taken to our thank you page. There, sofort.com sets the following cookie:

Name : SOFUEB
Value: e8cipp378mdscn9e17kajlfhv7311865869-4
Purpose: This cookie stores your session ID.
Expiry date: after ending the browser session

How long and where is the data stored?

Klarna endeavours to only store your data within the EU or the European Economic Area (EEA). However, it may also happen that data is transferred outside the EU/EEA. If this happens, Klarna ensures that data protection is in line with the GDPR and that the third country has an adequacy decision by the European Union. The data is always stored as long as Klarna needs it for the processing purpose.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You can withdraw your consent for Klarna to process personal data at any time. You also always have the right to information, correction and deletion of your personal data. To do this, you simply need to contact the company or the company's data protection team by email at datenschutz@klarna.de . You can also contact Klarna directly via the Klarna website "My data protection request" .

You can delete, disable or manage cookies that Klarna may use for its functions in your browser. This works in different ways depending on which browser you use. The following instructions show how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

Legal basis

We therefore offer the processing of contractual or legal relationships (Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. b GDPR) In addition to traditional banking/credit institutions, we also offer the payment service provider Klarna Checkout.

We hope we have given you a good overview of data processing by Klarna. If you would like to learn more about how your data is handled, we recommend reading Klarna's privacy policy at https://cdn.klarna.com/1.0/shared/content/legal/terms/0/de_at/privacy .

Stripe Privacy Policy

Stripe Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: Optimizing the payment process on our website
📓 Data processed: Data such as name, address, bank details (account number, credit card number, passwords, TANs, etc.), IP address and contract data
You can find more details in this privacy policy
📅 Storage period: Data is stored until the cooperation with Stripe is terminated
⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. b GDPR (contract execution), Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent)

What is Stripe?

We use a payment tool from the American technology company and online payment service Stripe on our website. Stripe Payments Europe (Europe Ltd., 1 Grand Canal Street Lower, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin, Ireland) is responsible for customers within the EU. This means that if you choose Stripe as your payment method, your payment will be processed via Stripe Payments. Data required for the payment process will be forwarded to Stripe and stored. In this privacy policy, we give you an overview of this data processing and storage by Stripe and explain why we use Stripe on our website.

The technology company Stripe offers payment solutions for online payments. With Stripe it is possible to accept credit and debit card payments in our web shop. Stripe handles the entire payment process. A big advantage of Stripe is that you never have to leave our website or shop during the payment process and the payment is processed very quickly.

Why do we use Stripe for our website?

We naturally want to offer the best possible service with our website and our integrated online shop so that you feel comfortable on our site and use our offers. We know that your time is valuable and therefore payment processing in particular must work quickly and smoothly. In addition to our other payment providers, we have found a partner in Stripe who guarantees secure and fast payment processing.

What data does Stripe store?

If you choose Stripe as your payment method, your personal data will also be transmitted to Stripe and stored there. This is transaction data. This data includes the payment method (i.e. credit card, debit card or account number), bank code, currency, amount and date of payment. During a transaction, your name, email address, billing or shipping address and sometimes your transaction history may also be transmitted. This data is necessary for authentication. In addition to technical data about your device (such as IP address), Stripe may also collect your name, address, telephone number and country for fraud prevention, financial reporting and to be able to fully offer its own services.

Stripe does not sell your data to independent third parties, such as marketing agencies or other companies that have nothing to do with the Stripe company. However, the data may be shared with internal departments, a limited number of external Stripe partners, or for legal compliance purposes. Stripe also uses cookies to collect data. Here is a selection of cookies that Stripe can set during the payment process:

Name: m
Value: edd716e9-d28b-46f7-8a55-e05f1779e84e040456311865869-5
Purpose: This cookie appears when you select the payment method. It stores and recognizes whether you access our website via a PC, tablet or smartphone.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: __stripe_mid
Value: fc30f52c-b006-4722-af61-a7419a5b8819875de9311865869-1
Purpose: This cookie is required to carry out a credit card transaction. The cookie stores your session ID.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: __stripe_sid
Value: 6fee719a-c67c-4ed2-b583-6a9a50895b122753fe
Purpose: This cookie also stores your ID and is used for the payment process on our website by Stripe.
Expiry date : after the end of the session

How long and where is the data stored?

Personal data is generally stored for the duration of the service provision. This means that the data is stored until we terminate our cooperation with Stripe. However, in order to fulfill legal and regulatory obligations, Stripe may also store personal data for the duration of the service provision. Since Stripe is a global company, the data can also be stored in any country where Stripe offers services. This means that data can also be stored outside your country, for example in the USA.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

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 safe under current European data protection law. Data may therefore not simply be transferred to, stored in and processed in unsafe third countries unless there are suitable guarantees (such as EU standard contractual clauses) between us and the non-European service provider.

You always have the right to information, correction and deletion of your personal data. If you have any questions, you can also contact the Stripe team at any time via https://support.stripe.com/contact/email .

You can delete, deactivate or manage cookies that Stripe uses for its functions in your browser. This works in different ways depending on which browser you use. Please note, however, that the payment process may then no longer work. The following instructions show how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

Legal basis

We therefore offer the processing of contractual or legal relationships (Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. b GDPR) In addition to the traditional bank/credit institutions, we also offer the payment service provider Sofortüberweisung. The successful use of the service also requires your consent (Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a GDPR) , insofar as the acceptance of cookies is necessary for the use.

Stripe 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

Stripe uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46. Para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or for data transfer there. 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 these clauses, Stripe undertakes to comply with the European data protection level 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 other places: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

For more information about the standard contractual clauses and the data processed through the use of Stripe, please see the Privacy Policy at https://stripe.com/at/privacy .

Sofortüberweisung Privacy Policy

Sofortüberweisung Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: Optimizing the payment process on our website
📓 Data processed: Data such as name, address, bank details (account number, credit card number, passwords, TANs, etc.), IP address and contract data
You can find more details below in the privacy policy
📅 Storage period: Data is stored within the legal retention period
⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. c GDPR (legal obligation), Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is an “instant transfer”?

On our website we offer the payment method "Sofortüberweisung" from the company Sofort GmbH for cashless payment. Sofort GmbH has belonged to the Swedish company Klarna since 2014, but has its headquarters in Germany, Theresienhöhe 12, 80339 Munich.

If you choose this payment method, personal data will be transmitted to Sofort GmbH or Klarna, stored and processed there. This privacy policy text provides you with an overview of data processing by Sofort GmbH.

Sofortüberweisung is an online payment system that allows you to place an order via online banking. The payment is processed by Sofort GmbH and we immediately receive information about the payment made. This method can be used by any user who has an active online banking account with PIN and TAN. Only a few banks do not yet support this payment method.

Why do we use “Sofortüberweisung” on our website?

Our goal with our website and our integrated online shop is to offer you the best possible service. In addition to the overall experience on the website and our offers, this also includes smooth, fast and secure payment processing for your orders. To ensure this, we use "Sofortüberweisung" as a payment system.

What data is stored by “Sofortüberweisung”?

If you make an instant transfer using the Sofort/Klarna service, data such as name, account number, bank code, subject, amount and date are stored on the company's servers. We also receive this information via the payment confirmation.

As part of the account coverage check, Sofort GmbH checks whether your account balance and overdraft facility cover the payment amount. In some cases, it is also checked whether instant transfers have been successfully carried out in the last 30 days. In addition, your user identification (such as authorization number or contract number) is collected and stored in abbreviated (“hashed”) form and your IP address. For SEPA transfers, BIC and IBAN are also stored.

According to the company, no other personal data (such as account balances, sales data, credit limit, account lists, mobile phone number, authentication certificates, security codes or PIN/TAN) are collected, stored or passed on to third parties.

Sofortüberweisung also uses cookies to make its own service more user-friendly. When you order a product, you will be redirected to the Sofort or Klarna website. After successful payment, you will be redirected to our thank you page. The following three cookies are set here:

Name : SOFUEB
Value: e8cipp378mdscn9e17kajlfhv7311865869-5
Purpose: This cookie stores your session ID.
Expiry date: after ending the browser session

Name : User[user_cookie_rules]
Value: 1
Purpose: This cookie stores your consent to the use of cookies.
Expiry date: after 10 years

Name: _ga
Value: GA1.2.69759879.1589470706
Purpose: By default, analytics.js uses the cookie _ga to store the user ID. Basically, it is used to distinguish between website visitors. This is a cookie from Google Analytics.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Note: The cookies listed here do not claim to be complete. It is always possible that Sofortüberweisung also uses other cookies.

How long and where is the data stored?

All data collected is stored within the legal retention period. This period can last between three and ten years.

Klarna/Sofort GmbH tries to store data only within the EU or the European Economic Area (EEA). If data is transferred outside the EU/EEA, data protection must comply with the GDPR and the country must be subject to an adequacy decision by the EU.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You can withdraw your consent for Klarna to process personal data at any time. You also always have the right to information, correction and deletion of your personal data. To do so, you can simply contact the company's data protection team by email at datenschutz@sofort.com.

You can manage, delete or deactivate any cookies that Sofortüberweisung uses in your browser. This works in different ways depending on your preferred browser. The following instructions show how to manage cookies in the most common browsers:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

Legal basis

We therefore offer the processing of contractual or legal relationships (Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. b GDPR) In addition to the traditional bank/credit institutions, we also offer the payment service provider Sofortüberweisung. The successful use of the service also requires your consent (Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a GDPR) , insofar as the acceptance of cookies is necessary for the use.

If you would like to learn more about data processing through the “Sofortüberweisung” service of Sofort GmbH, we recommend that you read the privacy policy at https://www.sofort.de/datenschutz.html .

Social-Media

Social Media Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: Presentation and optimization of our service, contact with visitors, interested parties, etc., advertising
📓 Data processed: Data such as telephone numbers, email addresses, contact details, data on user behavior, information about your device and your IP address.
You can find more details in the social media tool you use.
📅 Storage period: depends 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 can be processed so that we can specifically address users who are interested in us via social networks. In addition, elements of a social media platform can also be embedded directly in our website. This is the case, for example, if you click on a so-called social button on our website and are redirected directly to our social media presence. So-called social media or social media refers to websites and apps through which registered members can produce content, exchange 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. With our social media presence, we can bring our products and services closer to prospective customers. The social media elements integrated into 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 primarily serves the purpose of being able to carry 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 so-called user profiles. This also enables the platforms to present you with customized advertisements. Cookies are usually placed in your browser for this purpose, which store data about your usage behavior.

We generally assume that we remain responsible for data protection, 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 in question.

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. This may make it more difficult for you to claim or enforce your rights with regard to your personal data.

What data is processed?

Exactly which data is stored and processed depends on the respective provider of the social media platform. 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, 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. Especially if you have a profile on the social media channel you visit and are logged in, data can be linked to your profile.

All data collected via a social media platform is also stored on the providers' 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 which data is stored and processed by the social media providers and how you can object to data processing, you should read the respective company's privacy policy carefully. If you have any questions about data storage and processing or want to assert corresponding rights, we recommend that you contact the provider directly.

Duration of data processing

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

Right to object

You also have the right and the option to withdraw your consent to the use of cookies or third-party services 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 through cookies by managing, deactivating or deleting cookies in your browser.

Since 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 that your data can be processed and stored by integrated social media elements, this consent serves as the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a GDPR) . In principle, if consent is given, 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. However, 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 about cookies carefully and view the data protection declaration or cookie guidelines of the respective service provider.

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

Facebook Privacy Policy

Facebook Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: Optimizing our service
📓 Data processed: Data such as customer data, data on user behavior, information about your device and your IP address.
You can find more details in the privacy policy below.
📅 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 operated by Facebook Ireland Ltd., 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2 Ireland. These tools help us to offer you and people who are interested in our products and services the best possible service.

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 have also been anchored 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. 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 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 different Facebook tools, which 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, since the term is hardly known, we have decided to simply call them Facebook tools. These include:

  • Facebook Pixel
  • social plug-ins (such as the “Like” or “Share” button)
  • Facebook Login
  • AccountKit
  • APIs (application programming interfaces)
  • SDKs (collection of programming tools)
  • Platform integrations
  • Plug-ins
  • Code
  • Specifications
  • Documentation
  • Technologies and services

Through these tools, Facebook expands its services and has the ability to obtain information about user activities 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 exactly these people. In order to show users suitable advertising, however, Facebook needs information about people's wishes and needs. The company is provided with information about user behavior (and contact details) on our website. This allows Facebook to collect better user data and show interested people the right advertisements 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 create "campaign reports" on our behalf about the impact of our advertising campaigns. Furthermore, analyses give us a better insight into how you use our services, website or products. As a result, we use some of these tools to optimize your user experience on our website. For example, you can use the social plug-ins to share content on our site directly on Facebook.

What data are 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 can be sent.

Facebook uses this information to compare the data with the data it has about you (if you are a Facebook member). Before customer data is sent to Facebook, a process known as "hashing" takes place. This means that a data set of any size is transformed into a character string. This also serves to encrypt data.

In addition to contact data, "event data" is also transmitted. "Event data" refers to the information 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 data. This enables Facebook to offer better personalized advertising. After the matching process mentioned above, Facebook deletes the contact data again.

In order to be able to deliver advertisements in an optimized manner, Facebook only uses the event data if it has been combined with other data (that was collected by Facebook in another way). 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 will be created in your browser. In the descriptions of the individual Facebook tools, we go into more detail about individual Facebook cookies. 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?

Basically, 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 its own user data.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

According to the General Data Protection Regulation, you have the right to information, rectification, portability and erasure of your data.

The data will only be completely deleted if you completely delete your Facebook account. Here's how to delete your Facebook account:

1) On the right side of Facebook, click Settings.

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

3) Now click “Deactivation and deletion”.

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

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

The data that Facebook receives via our site is stored using cookies (e.g. social plugins). You can deactivate, delete or manage individual or all cookies in your browser. This works in different ways depending on which browser you use. The following instructions show how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

If you do not want cookies at all, you can set your browser to always inform you when a cookie is about to be placed. This way you can decide for each individual cookie whether you want to allow it or not.

Legal basis

If you have consented that your data can be processed and stored by integrated Facebook tools, this consent serves as 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. However, 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 about cookies carefully and view Facebook's privacy policy or cookie guidelines.

Facebook 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

Facebook uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46. Para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or for data transfer there. 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 these clauses, Facebook undertakes to comply with the European data protection level 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 other places: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

The Facebook data processing conditions, which correspond 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 Facebook tools. If you would like to learn more about how Facebook uses your data, we recommend that you read the data guidelines at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update .

Facebook Social Plug-ins Privacy Policy

Our website contains so-called social plug-ins from the company Facebook Inc. You can recognise these buttons by the classic Facebook logo, such as the "Like" button (the hand with the thumb raised) 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 well-known "Like" and "Share" buttons.

The following social plug-ins are offered by Facebook:

  • “Save” button
  • Like, Share, Send and Quote
  • Page plug-in
  • Comments
  • Messenger plug-in
  • Embedded posts and video players
  • 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 they enable Facebook to optimize our advertisements.

If you have a Facebook account or have already visited 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 page 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 the Facebook data, you must log out of Facebook during your website visit.

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. However, data such as your IP address or which website you visit can still be transferred to Facebook. We would like to expressly point out that we do not know exactly what the data contains. However, we will try to inform you as best as possible about data processing based on our current knowledge. You can also read how Facebook uses the data in the company's data guidelines at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update .

At a minimum, the following cookies are set in your browser when you visit a website with social plug-ins from Facebook:

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

Name: fr
Value: 0jieyh4311865869c2GnlufEJ9..Bde09j…1.0.Bde09j
Purpose: The cookie is also necessary for the plug-ins to function properly.
Expiry 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 ad settings yourself at https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen . If you are not a Facebook user, you can generally manage your usage-based online advertising at http://www.youronlinechoices.com/de/praferenzmanagement/ . There you have the option of deactivating or activating providers.

If you would like to learn more about Facebook’s privacy practices, we recommend that you read the company’s own data policy at https://www.facebook.com/policy.php .

Facebook Login Privacy Policy

We have integrated the practical Facebook login on our website. This means you can easily log in with your Facebook account without having to create another user account. If you decide to register using the Facebook login, you will be redirected to the social media network Facebook. There you can log in using your Facebook user data. This login process stores data about you and your user behavior and transmits it 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 using Facebook Login:

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

Name: datr
Value: 4Jh7XUA2311865869SEmPsSfzCOO4JFFl
Purpose: Facebook sets the “datr” cookie when a web browser accesses facebook.com, and the cookie helps identify login activities and protect users.
Expiry 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.
Expiry date: after end of session

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

The Facebook Login offers you a quick and easy registration process, and it also gives us the opportunity to share data with Facebook. This allows us to better tailor our offerings and promotions 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 stored email address
  • Friends lists
  • Button information (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 to find out more information about data processing by Facebook, we recommend that you read the Facebook privacy policy at https://de-de.facebook.com/policy.php .

If you are logged in to Facebook, you can change your ad settings yourself at https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen .

Instagram Privacy Policy

Instagram Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: Optimizing our service
📓 Data processed: Data such as data on user behavior, information about your device and your IP address.
You can find more details in the privacy policy below.
📅 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 Facebook Inc. since 2012 and is one of the Facebook products. 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 websites on our website that have an integrated Instagram function, data is transmitted to, stored and processed by Instagram. Instagram uses the same systems and technologies as Facebook. Your data is therefore processed across all Facebook companies.

Below we want to give you a more detailed insight into why Instagram collects data, what data it is and how you can largely control the data processing. Since Instagram belongs to Facebook Inc., we get our information from the Instagram guidelines on the one hand, but also from the Facebook data guidelines themselves on the other.

Instagram is one of the most popular social media networks in the world. Instagram combines the advantages of a blog with the advantages 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 share them on other social networks. And if you don't want to be active yourself, you can just follow other interesting users.

Why do we use Instagram on our website?

Instagram is the social media platform that has really taken off 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 it's a matter of course for us to present our content in a varied way. The embedded Instagram functions allow us to enrich our content with helpful, funny or exciting content from the Instagram world. Since Instagram is a subsidiary of Facebook, the data collected can also be useful for personalized advertising on Facebook. This means that our advertisements are only shown to people who are really interested in our products or services.

Instagram also uses the collected data for measurement and analysis purposes. We get aggregated 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 does Instagram store?

If you come across one of our pages that has Instagram functions (such as Instagram images or plug-ins) built in, your browser automatically connects to Instagram's servers. Data is sent to Instagram, stored and processed, 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 differentiates between customer data and event data. We assume that this is also the case with Instagram. Customer data includes names, addresses, telephone numbers and IP addresses. These customer data will only be transmitted to Instagram if they have been "hashed" beforehand. Hashing means that a data set is converted into a character string. This allows the contact details to be encrypted. The "event data" mentioned above is also transmitted. Facebook - and consequently Instagram - understands "event data" to mean data about your user behavior. It can also happen that contact details are combined with event data. The contact details collected are 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 placed 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 data processing on Instagram works in the same way as on 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 comparison). Although we have looked intensively into Instagram's data processing, we cannot say exactly which data Instagram collects and stores.

Below we show you the cookies that are set in your browser at least 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 requests from being forged. However, we were unable to find out more details.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: mid
Value: ""
Purpose: Instagram uses this cookie to optimize its own services and offers on and off Instagram. The cookie sets a unique user ID.
Expiry date: after the end of the session

Name: fbsr_311865869124024
Value: not specified
Purpose: This cookie stores the log-in request for users of the Instagram app.
 Expiry date: after end of session

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

Name: urlgen
Value: “{”194.96.75.33”: 1901}:1iEtYv:Y833k2_UjKvXgYe311865869”
Purpose: This cookie is used for Instagram’s marketing purposes.
Expiry date: after the end of the session

Note: We cannot claim to be complete 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 it receives between the Facebook companies, with external partners, and with people you connect with around the world. The data processing is carried out in compliance with its own data policy. Your data is distributed across Facebook servers around the world, partly for security reasons. 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 information, portability, correction and deletion 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 to delete your Instagram account:

First, open the Instagram app. On your profile page, scroll down and click on "Help Center." This will take you to the company's website. On the website, click on "Manage Account" and then "Delete Your Account."

If you delete your account entirely, Instagram will delete posts such as your photos and status updates. Information that other people have shared about you is not part of your account and will not be deleted.

As mentioned above, Instagram primarily stores your data via cookies. You can manage, deactivate or delete these cookies in your browser. Depending on your browser, the management always works a little differently. Here we show you the instructions for the most important browsers.

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

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

Legal basis

If you have consented that your data can be processed and stored by integrated social media elements, this consent serves as 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. However, 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 about cookies carefully and view the data protection declaration or cookie guidelines of the respective service provider.

Instagram and Facebook also process 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

Facebook uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission (= Art. 46. Para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or for data transfer there. These clauses oblige Facebook to comply with the EU data protection level 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, among other places: https://ec.europa.eu/germany/news/20210604-datentransfers-eu_de .

We have tried to provide you with the most important information about data processing by Instagram. At https://help.instagram.com/519522125107875
you can learn more about Instagram’s data policies.

Audio & Video

Audio & Video Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: Optimizing our service
📓 Data processed: Data such as contact details, data on user behavior, information about your device and your IP address may be stored.
You will find more details in the relevant data protection texts below.
📅 Storage period: Data is generally stored as long as it is necessary for the service purpose
⚖️ 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 into 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 obtained from the providers' corresponding servers.

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

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

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

Of course, we want to offer you the best on our website. And we are aware that content is no longer just 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. So in addition to our texts and images, we also offer video and/or audio content.

What data is stored by audio & video elements?

When you visit a page on our website that has an embedded video, for example, your server connects to the service provider's server. In the process, your data is also transferred 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 device. Furthermore, most providers also collect information about your web activity. This includes session duration, bounce rate, which button you clicked on, or which website you used to use the service. All of this information is usually stored via cookies or pixel tags (also called 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 third-party providers' servers either further down in the data protection text of the respective tool or in the provider's data protection declaration. In principle, personal data is only processed for as long as it is absolutely necessary to provide our services or products. This generally also applies to third-party providers. You can usually assume that certain data will be stored on the third-party providers' servers 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, others can be stored in your browser for several years.

Right to object

You also have the right and the option to revoke 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 through cookies by managing, deactivating or deleting cookies in your browser. The legality of the processing until the revocation remains unaffected.

Since the integrated audio and video functions on our site usually also use cookies, you should also read our general privacy policy regarding cookies. In the privacy policies of the respective third-party providers, you can find out more about how your data is handled and stored.

Legal basis

If you have consented that your data can be processed and stored through integrated audio and video elements, this consent is considered 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. However, we only use the integrated audio and video elements if you have given your consent.

YouTube Privacy Policy

YouTube Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: Optimizing our service
📓 Data processed: Data such as contact details, data on user behavior, information about your device and your IP address may be stored.
You can find more details about this further down in this privacy policy.
📅 Storage period: Data is generally stored as long as it is necessary for the service purpose
⚖️ 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 into our website. This allows us to present interesting videos to you 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 visit a page on our website that has an embedded YouTube video, your browser automatically connects to the YouTube or Google servers. Various data is transferred (depending on the settings). Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all data processing in Europe.

Below we would like to explain in more detail which data is processed, why we have embedded 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 in the world. 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 additional 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 advertisements via Google Ads, Google can - thanks to the data collected - only show these advertisements to people who are interested in our offers.

What data does YouTube store?

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, sharing 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 linked to your device, browser or app. For example, your preferred language setting is retained. But much interaction data cannot be stored 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-CV6ojI5Y311865869-1
Purpose: This cookie registers a unique ID to store statistics of the video watched.
Expiry date: after end of session

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

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

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

Additional cookies that are set when you are logged in with your YouTube account:

Name: APISID
Value: zILlvClZSkqGsSwI/AU1aZI6HY7311865869-
Purpose: This cookie is used to create a profile of your interests. The data is used for personalized advertisements.
Expiry 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 use various Google services. CONSENT is also used for security purposes to verify users and protect user data from unauthorized attacks.
Expiry 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.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: LOGIN_INFO
Value: AFmmF2swRQIhALl6aL…
Purpose: This cookie stores information about your login data.
Expiry 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 build a profile of your interests.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: SID
Value: oQfNKjAsI311865869-
Purpose: This cookie stores your Google account ID and your last login time in a digitally signed and encrypted form.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: SIDCC
Value: AN0-TYuqub2JOcDTyL
Purpose: This cookie stores information about how you use the website and what advertising you may have seen before visiting our site.
Expiry 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/inside/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. Some data you can delete at any time, some is automatically deleted after a limited period of time, and some is stored by Google for a longer period of time. Some data (such as items from "My Activity", photos or documents, products) stored in your Google Account remains stored until you delete it. 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 and then deleted, depending on your decision.

Regardless of whether you have a Google account or not, you can configure your browser to delete or deactivate cookies from Google. This works in different ways depending on which browser you use. The following instructions show how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

If you do not want cookies at all, you can set your browser to always inform you when a cookie is about to be placed. This way you can decide for each individual cookie whether you want to allow it or not.

Legal basis

If you have consented that your data can be processed and stored through embedded YouTube elements, this consent serves as 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. However, we only use the embedded 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 about cookies carefully and view the data protection declaration or cookie guidelines of the respective service provider.

YouTube 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

YouTube uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission (= Art. 46. Para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or for data transfer there. These clauses oblige YouTube to comply with the EU data protection level 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, among other places: https://ec.europa.eu/germany/news/20210604-datentransfers-eu_de .

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

Google Tag Manager Privacy Policy

Google Tag Manager Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: Organization of the individual tracking tools
📓 Processed data: The Google Tag Manager does not store any data itself. The data is recorded by the tags of the web analytics tools used.
📅 Storage period: depends 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 Google Tag Manager?

We use the Google Tag Manager from Google Inc. for our website. In Europe, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. This Tag Manager is one of many helpful marketing products from Google. Using the Google Tag Manager, we can centrally integrate and manage code sections from various tracking tools that we use on our website.

In this privacy policy we want to explain to you in more detail what the Google Tag Manager does, why we use it and in what form data is processed.

The Google Tag Manager is an organizational tool that we can use to integrate and manage website tags centrally and via a user interface. Tags are small sections of code that, for example, record (track) your activities on our website. JavaScript code sections are inserted into the source code of our site for this purpose. The tags often come from Google's internal products such as Google Ads or Google Analytics, but tags from other companies can also be integrated and managed via the manager. Such tags perform different tasks. They can collect browser data, feed marketing tools with data, integrate buttons, set cookies and also track users across multiple websites.

Why do we use Google Tag Manager for our website?

As the saying goes: organization is half the battle! And of course that also applies to maintaining our website. In order to make our website as good as possible for you and all people who are interested in our products and services, we need various tracking tools such as Google Analytics. The data collected by these tools shows us what interests you most, where we can improve our services and which people we should show our offers to. And in order for this tracking to work, we need to integrate the appropriate JavaScript codes into our website. In principle, we could integrate each code section of the individual tracking tools separately into our source code. However, this takes a relatively long time and it is easy to lose track. That is why we use the Google Tag Manager. We can easily integrate the necessary scripts and manage them from one place. In addition, the Google Tag Manager offers an easy-to-use user interface and no programming knowledge is required. This is how we manage to keep order in our tag jungle.

What data is stored by Google Tag Manager?

The Tag Manager itself is a domain that does not set cookies and does not store any data. It acts as a mere "administrator" of the implemented tags. The data is recorded by the individual tags of the various web analysis tools. The data is essentially passed through to the individual tracking tools in the Google Tag Manager and is not stored.

However, the situation is completely different with the tags integrated in the various web analysis tools, such as Google Analytics. Depending on the analysis tool, various data about your web behavior is collected, stored and processed, usually with the help of cookies. Please read our data protection texts for the individual analysis and tracking tools that we use on our website.

In the account settings of the Tag Manager, we have allowed Google to receive anonymized data from us. However, this only concerns the use and utilization of our Tag Manager and not your data that is stored via the code sections. We enable Google and others to receive selected data in anonymized form. We therefore agree to the anonymous sharing of our website data. Despite extensive research, we were unable to find out exactly which summarized and anonymous data is passed on. In any case, Google deletes all information that could identify our website. Google summarizes the data with hundreds of other anonymous website data and creates user trends as part of benchmarking measures. Benchmarking compares your own results with those of your competitors. Processes can be optimized on the basis of the information collected.

How long and where is the data stored?

When Google stores data, it stores this data on Google's own servers. The servers are spread across the world. Most are located in America. You can find out exactly where the Google servers are located at https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de .

You can find out how long the individual tracking tools store your data in our individual data protection texts for each tool.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

The Google Tag Manager itself does not set any cookies, but manages tags from various tracking websites. In our data protection texts for the individual tracking tools, you will find detailed information on how you can delete or manage your 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 safe under current European data protection law. Data may therefore not simply be transferred to, stored in and processed in unsafe third countries unless there are suitable guarantees (such as EU standard contractual clauses) between us and the non-European service provider.

Legal basis

The use of the Google Tag Manager requires your consent, which we have obtained with our cookie popup. According to Art. 6 Paragraph 1 Letter a of GDPR (consent), this consent represents the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when collected by web analytics tools.

In addition to consent, we have a legitimate interest in analyzing the behavior of website visitors and thus improving our offering technically and economically. With the help of Google Tag Managers, we can improve economic efficiency. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests) . However, we only use Google Tag Manager if you have given your consent.

Google 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46. Para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or for data transfer there. 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 these clauses, Google undertakes to comply with the European data protection level 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 other places: 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 Tag Manager, can be found at https://business.safety.google/adsprocessorterms/ .

If you want to learn more about Google Tag Manager, we recommend reading the FAQs at https://www.google.com/intl/de/tagmanager/faq.html .

Google Site Kit Privacy Policy

Google Site Kit Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: Evaluation of visitor information to optimize the website.
📓 Data processed: Access statistics that contain data such as access locations, device data, access duration and time, navigation behavior, click behavior and IP addresses. More details can be found below and in the Google Analytics privacy policy.
📅 Storage period: depends on the properties used
⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Google Site Kit?

We have integrated the WordPress plugin Google Site Kit from the American company Google Inc. into our website. In Europe, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. With Google Site Kit, we can quickly and easily view statistics from various Google products such as Google Analytics directly in our WordPress dashboard. The tool or the tools integrated into Google Site Kit also collect personal data from you, among other things. In this privacy policy, we explain why we use Google Site Kit, how long and where data is stored, and which other data protection texts are relevant to you in this context.

Google Site Kit is a plugin for the WordPress content management system. With this plugin, we can view important website analysis statistics directly in our dashboard. These are statistics collected by other Google products, especially Google Analytics. In addition to Google Analytics, the services Google Search Console, Page Speed ​​Insight, Google AdSense, Google Optimize and Google Tag Manager can also be linked to Google Site Kit.

Why do we use Google Site Kit on our website?

As a service provider, it is our job to offer you the best possible experience on our website. You should feel comfortable on our website and quickly and easily find exactly what you are looking for. Statistical evaluations help us to get to know you better and to adapt our offer to your wishes and interests. We use various Google tools for these evaluations. Site Kit makes our work much easier in this regard because we can view and analyze the statistics of Google products directly in the dashboard. We no longer have to register separately for the respective tool. Site Kit therefore always offers a good overview of the most important analysis data.

What data does Google Site Kit store?

If you have actively consented to tracking tools in the cookie notice (also called script or banner), cookies will be set by Google products such as Google Analytics and data from you, such as your user behavior, will be sent to Google, stored there and processed. This includes personal data such as your IP address.

For more detailed information on the individual services, we have separate text sections in this privacy policy. For example, see our privacy policy for Google Analytics. Here we go into great detail about the data collected. You will find out how long Google Analytics stores, manages and processes data, which cookies can be used and how you can prevent data storage. We also have separate privacy policies with comprehensive information for other Google services such as Google Tag Manager or Google AdSense.

Below we show you examples of Google Analytics cookies that can be set in your browser, provided you have generally agreed to data processing by Google. Please note that these cookies are only a selection:

Name: _ga
Value: 2.1326744211.152311865869-2
Purpose: By default, analytics.js uses the cookie _ga to store the user ID. Basically, it is used to distinguish between website visitors.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: _gid
Value: 2.1687193234.152311865869-7
Purpose: This cookie is also used to distinguish between website visitors.
Expiry date: after 24 hours

Name: _gat_gtag_UA_<property-id>
Value: 1
Purpose: This cookie is used to reduce the request rate.
Expiry date: after 1 minute

How long and where is the data stored?

Google stores collected data on its own Google servers, which are located around the world. Most servers are located in the United States, so it is quite possible that your data is also stored there. At https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de you can see exactly where the company provides servers.

Data collected by Google Analytics is retained for a standard 26 months. After this, your user data is deleted. The retention period applies to all data linked to cookies, user recognition and advertising IDs.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You always have the right to receive information about your data and to have your data deleted, corrected or restricted. You can also deactivate, delete or manage cookies in your browser at any time. Here we show you the corresponding instructions for the most common browsers:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

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 safe under current European data protection law. Data may therefore not simply be transferred to, stored in and processed in unsafe third countries unless there are suitable guarantees (such as EU standard contractual clauses) between us and the non-European service provider.

Legal basis

The use of Google Site Kit requires your consent, which we have obtained with our cookie popup. According to Art. 6 Paragraph 1 Letter a of GDPR (consent), this consent represents the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when collected by web analytics tools.

In addition to consent, we have a legitimate interest in analyzing the behavior of website visitors and thus improving our offering technically and economically. With the help of Google Site Kit, we can detect errors on the website, identify attacks and improve profitability. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests) . However, we only use Google Site Kit if you have given your consent.

Google 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46. Para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or for data transfer there. 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 these clauses, Google undertakes to comply with the European data protection level 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 other places: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

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

To learn more about data processing by Google, we recommend that you read Google's comprehensive privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de .

Google Fonts Privacy Policy

Google Fonts Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: Optimizing our service
📓 Data processed: Data such as IP address and CSS and font requests
You can find more details about this further down in this privacy policy.
📅 Storage period: Font files are stored by Google for one year
⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What are Google Fonts?

We use Google Fonts on our website. These are the “Google fonts” from Google Inc. In Europe, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services.

You do not need to log in or enter a password to use Google Fonts. Furthermore, no cookies are stored in your browser. The files (CSS, fonts) are requested via the Google domains fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com. According to Google, requests for CSS and fonts are completely separate from all other Google services. If you have a Google account, you do not need to worry about your Google account data being sent to Google while you use Google Fonts. Google records the use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and the fonts used and stores this data securely. We will look at exactly how the data is stored in more detail.

Google Fonts (formerly Google Web Fonts) is a directory of over 800 fonts that Google makes available to its users free of charge.

Many of these fonts are released under the SIL Open Font License, while others are released under the Apache License. Both are free software licenses.

Why do we use Google Fonts on our website?

With Google Fonts, we can use fonts on our own website and do not have to upload them to our own server. Google Fonts is an important building block for maintaining the high quality of our website. All Google fonts are automatically optimized for the web, which saves data volume and is a great advantage, especially for use on mobile devices. When you visit our site, the small file size ensures a quick loading time. Furthermore, Google Fonts are secure web fonts. Different image synthesis systems (rendering) in different browsers, operating systems and mobile devices can lead to errors. Such errors can visually distort some texts or entire web pages. Thanks to the fast Content Delivery Network (CDN), there are no cross-platform problems with Google Fonts. Google Fonts supports all common browsers (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera) and works reliably on most modern mobile operating systems, including Android 2.2+ and iOS 4.2+ (iPhone, iPad, iPod). We use Google Fonts so that we can display our entire online service as beautifully and consistently as possible.

What data does Google store?

When you visit our website, the fonts are reloaded via a Google server. This external call transmits data to the Google servers. This is how Google recognizes that you or your IP address are visiting our website. The Google Fonts API was developed to reduce the use, storage and collection of end user data to what is necessary for the proper provision of fonts. API stands for "Application Programming Interface" and is used, among other things, as a data transmitter in the software sector.

Google Fonts stores CSS and font requests securely with Google and is therefore protected. The collected usage figures enable Google to determine how well the individual fonts are received. Google publishes the results on internal analysis pages, such as Google Analytics. Google also uses data from its own web crawler to determine which websites use Google fonts. This data is published in the Google Fonts BigQuery database. Entrepreneurs and developers use the Google web service BigQuery to examine and move large amounts of data.

However, it should be noted that every Google Font request automatically transfers information such as language settings, IP address, browser version, browser screen resolution and browser name to the Google servers. It is not clear whether this data is stored and Google does not clearly communicate this.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google stores requests for CSS assets for one day on its servers, which are mainly located outside the EU. This enables us to use the fonts with the help of a Google style sheet. A style sheet is a format template that can be used to quickly and easily change the design or font of a website, for example.

The font files are stored by Google for one year. Google's goal is to generally improve the loading time of websites. If millions of websites refer to the same fonts, they are cached after the first visit and immediately appear on all other websites visited later. Sometimes Google updates font files to reduce file size, increase language coverage and improve design.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

The data that Google stores for one day or one year cannot simply be deleted. The data is automatically transmitted to Google when the page is accessed. To be able to delete this data prematurely, you must contact Google Support at https://support.google.com/?hl=de&tid=311865869 . In this case, you can only prevent data storage if you do not visit our site.

Unlike other web fonts, Google allows us unrestricted access to all fonts. This means we have unlimited access to a sea of ​​fonts and can get the most out of our website. You can find out more about Google Fonts and other questions at https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq?tid=311865869 . Google does address data protection issues there, but it does not contain really detailed information about data storage. It is relatively difficult to get really precise information about stored data from Google.

Legal basis

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

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

Google 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46. Para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or for data transfer there. 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 these clauses, Google undertakes to comply with the European data protection level 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 other places: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?locale=de

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

You can also find out which data is generally collected by Google and what this data is used for at https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/ .

Hotjar Privacy Policy

Hotjar Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: Evaluation of visitor information to optimize the user experience.
📓 Data processed: Access statistics that contain data such as access locations, device data, access duration and time, navigation behavior, click behavior and IP addresses.
📅 Storage period: the data will be deleted after one year
⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Hotjar?

We use Hotjar from Hotjar Limited (Level 2, St Julian's Business Centre, 3, Elia Zammit Street, St Julian's STJ 1000, Malta) on our website to statistically evaluate visitor data. Hotjar is a service that analyzes the behavior and feedback of you as a user on our website using a combination of analysis and feedback tools. We receive reports and visual representations from Hotjar that show us where and how you "move" on our site. Personal data is automatically anonymized and never reaches Hotjar's servers. This means that you are not personally identified as a website user and we still learn a lot about your user behavior.

As mentioned in the section above, Hotjar helps us analyze the behavior of our site visitors. The tools that Hotjar offers include heatmaps, conversion funnels, visitor recording, incoming feedback, feedback polls and surveys (you can find more information about them at https://www.hotjar.com/ ). Hotjar helps us to offer you a better user experience and a better service. On the one hand, it offers a good analysis of online behavior, and on the other hand, we also receive good feedback on the quality of our website. Because in addition to all the analytical aspects, we naturally also simply want to know your opinion about our website. And with the feedback tool, that is exactly what is possible.

Why do we use Hotjar on our website?

In recent years, the importance of user experience on websites has increased significantly. And for good reason. A website should be designed in such a way that you as a visitor feel comfortable and can easily find your way around. Thanks to Hotjar's analysis tools and feedback tool, we can make our website and our offerings more attractive. Hotjar's heatmaps have proven particularly valuable to us. Heatmaps are a form of representation for visualizing data. For example, Hotjar's heatmaps allow us to see very precisely what you like to click on, tap on and where you scroll to.

What data does Hotjar store?

While you surf through our website, Hotjar automatically collects information about your user behavior. In order to collect this information, we have built our own tracking code into our website. The following data can be collected via your computer or browser:

  • IP address of your computer (collected and stored in an anonymous format)
  • Screen size
  • Browser information (which browser, which version, etc.)
  • Your location (but only the country)
  • Your preferred language setting
  • Visited websites (subpages)
  • Date and time of access to one of our subpages (websites)

Cookies also store data that is placed on your computer (usually in your browser). No personal data is collected in them. As a general rule, Hotjar does not pass on any collected data to third parties. However, Hotjar expressly points out that it is sometimes necessary to share data with Amazon Web Services. In this case, parts of your information are stored on their servers. However, Amazon is bound by a confidentiality obligation not to disclose this data.

Only a limited number of people (Hotjar employees) have access to the stored information. Hotjar servers are protected by firewalls and IP restrictions (access only to approved IP addresses). Firewalls are security systems that protect computers from unwanted network access. They are intended to serve as a barrier between Hotjar's secure internal network and the Internet. Hotjar also uses third-party companies for its services, such as Google Analytics or Optimizely. These companies can also store information that your browser sends to our website.

The following cookies are used by Hotjar. Since we refer, among other things, to the cookie list from Hotjar's privacy policy at https://www.hotjar.com/legal/policies/cookie-information , not every cookie has an exemplary value. The list shows examples of Hotjar cookies used and does not claim to be complete.

Name : ajs_anonymous_id
Value: %2258832463-7cee-48ee-b346-a195f18b06c3%22311865869-5
Purpose: The cookie is usually used for analytical purposes and helps count visitors to our website by tracking whether you have been to this page before.
Expiry date: after one year

Name : ajs_group_id
Value: 0
Purpose: This cookie collects data about user behavior. This data can then be assigned to a specific visitor group based on commonalities between website visitors.
Expiry date: after one year

Name : _hjid
Value: 699ffb1c-4bfb-483f-bde1-22cfa0b59c6c
Purpose: The cookie is used to maintain a Hotjar user ID that is unique to the website in the browser. This allows user behavior to be assigned to the same user ID on subsequent visits.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: _hjMinimizedPolls
Value: 462568311865869-8
Purpose: Whenever you minimize a feedback poll widget, Hotjar sets this cookie. The cookie ensures that the widget really remains minimized when you surf our pages.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: _hjIncludedInSample
Value: 1
Purpose: This session cookie is set to inform Hotjar whether you are part of the selected people (sample) used to create funnels.
Expiry date: after one year

Name : _hjClosedSurveyInvites
Purpose: This cookie is set when you see an invitation to a feedback survey via a pop-up window. The cookie is used to ensure that this invitation only appears once for you.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: _hjDonePolls
Purpose: As soon as you complete a feedback “question round” using the so-called Feedback Poll Widget, this cookie is set in your browser. This prevents Hotjar from sending you the same surveys again in the future.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: _hjDoneTestersWidgets
Purpose: This cookie is used as soon as you enter your data in the "Recruit User Tester Widget". We want to use this widget to hire you as a tester. The cookie is used so that this form does not appear again and again.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: _hjMinimizedTestersWidgets
Purpose: This cookie is set so that the “Recruit User Tester” really remains minimized on all our pages once you have minimized it.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: _hjShownFeedbackMessage
Purpose: This cookie is set when you have minimized or expanded the incoming feedback. This is done so that the incoming feedback is immediately loaded as minimized when you navigate to another page where you want it to be displayed.
Expiry date: after one year

How long and where is the data stored?

We have built a tracking code into our website that is transferred to the Hotjar servers in Ireland (EU). This tracking code contacts the Hotjar servers and sends a script to your computer or device that you use to access our site. The script records certain data relating to your interaction with our website. This data is then sent to the Hotjar servers for processing. Hotjar has imposed a 365-day data retention period on itself. This means that all data that Hotjar has collected and is older than one year is automatically deleted.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

Hotjar does not store any of your personal data for analysis purposes. The company even advertises itself with the slogan “We track behavior, not individuals.” You always have the option of preventing your data from being collected. All you have to do is go to the “ Opt-out page ” and click on “Deactivate Hotjar.” Please note that deleting cookies, using your browser’s private mode, or using a different browser will result in data being collected again. You can also activate the “Do Not Track” button in your browser. In the Chrome browser, for example, you have to click on the three bars in the top right and go to “Settings.” There, in the “Privacy” section, you will find the option “Send a “Do Not Track” request with browser access.” Now all you have to do is activate this button and Hotjar will no longer collect any data.

Legal basis

The use of Hotjar requires your consent, which we have obtained with our cookie popup. According to Art. 6 Paragraph 1 Letter a of GDPR (consent), this consent represents the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when collected by web analytics tools.

In addition to consent, we have a legitimate interest in analyzing the behavior of website visitors and thus improving our offering technically and economically. With the help of Hotjar, we can detect errors on the website, identify attacks and improve profitability. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR (legitimate interests) . However, we only use Hotjar if you have given your consent.

More details about the privacy policy and what data is collected and how by Hotjar can be found at https://www.hotjar.com/legal/policies/privacy?tid=311865869 .

Google Maps Privacy Policy

Google Maps Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: Optimizing our service
📓 Data processed: Data such as search terms entered, your IP address and also the latitude and longitude coordinates.
You can find more details about this further down in this privacy policy.
📅 Storage period: depends 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 Maps?

We use Google Maps from Google Inc. on our website. In Europe, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. With Google Maps, we can show you locations better and thus adapt our service to your needs. By using Google Maps, data is transferred to Google and stored on Google servers. Here we want to go into more detail about 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 the exact locations of cities, attractions, accommodations or companies using a PC, tablet or app. If companies are represented on Google My Business, additional information about the company is displayed in addition to the location. To show how to get there, 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 precise 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 about various locations. You can see at a glance where our company is based. The directions always show you the best or fastest way to get to us. You can access the route for routes by car, public transport, on foot or by bike. For us, providing Google Maps is part of our customer service.

What data does Google Maps store?

In order for Google Maps to be able to fully offer its service, the company must record and save 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 starting address entered is also saved. However, this data storage takes place on the Google Maps websites. We can only inform you about this, but have no influence. Since we have integrated Google Maps into our website, Google places 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
Value: 188=h26c1Ktha7fCQTx8rXgLyATyITJ311865869-5
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. This way, you always get customized advertisements. The cookie contains a unique ID that Google uses to collect your personal preferences for advertising purposes.
Expiry date: after 6 months

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

How long and where is the data stored?

The 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 here: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de

Google distributes the data across different storage devices. 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 Google hardware or a natural disaster shuts down the servers, the data will almost certainly still remain protected.

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

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

With the automatic deletion function for location and activity data introduced in 2019, information on location determination and web/app activity 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 tracking, you must pause the "Web and app activity" section in your Google account. Click "Data and personalization" and then on the "Activity settings" option. Here you can switch 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 a little differently. The following instructions show how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

If you do not want cookies at all, you can set your browser to always inform you when a cookie is about to be placed. This way you can decide for each individual cookie whether you want to allow it or not.

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 safe under current European data protection law. Data may therefore not simply be transferred to, stored in and processed in unsafe third countries 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 Maps, the legal basis for the corresponding data processing is this consent. According to Art. 6 Paragraph 1 Letter a of GDPR (consent), this consent represents the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when Google Maps collects it.

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

Google 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46. Para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or for data transfer there. 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 these clauses, Google undertakes to comply with the European data protection level 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 other places: 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, can be found at https://business.safety.google/adsprocessorterms/ .

If you would like to learn 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 .

Google reCAPTCHA Privacy Policy

Google reCAPTCHA Privacy Policy Summary
👥 Affected: Visitors to the website
🤝 Purpose: Optimizing our service and protecting against cyber attacks
📓 Data processed: Data such as IP address, browser information, your operating system, limited location and usage data
You can find more details about this further down in this privacy policy.
📅 Storage period: depends 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 reCAPTCHA?

Our primary goal is to make our website as secure and protected as possible for you and for us. To ensure this, we use Google reCAPTCHA from Google Inc. In Europe, 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 human and not a robot or other spam software. By spam we mean any unwanted information sent to us electronically without being asked for. With classic CAPTCHAS you usually had to solve text or picture puzzles to verify your identity. With reCAPTCHA from Google we usually don't have to bother you with such puzzles. In most cases it is enough if you simply tick a box to confirm that you are not a bot. With the new Invisible reCAPTCHA version you don't even have to tick a 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 abuse 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 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 people to solve, but pose considerable difficulties for machines. With reCAPTCHA, you no longer have to actively solve puzzles. The tool uses modern risk techniques to distinguish people from bots. Here you only have to tick the text box "I am not a robot", or with Invisible reCAPTCHA, even that 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 how likely it is that you are a human before you enter the Captcha. reCAPTCHA or Captchas in general are always used when bots could manipulate or misuse certain actions (such as registrations, surveys, etc.).

Why do we use reCAPTCHA on our website?

We only want to welcome flesh-and-blood people to our site. Bots or spam software of all kinds can safely stay at home. That's why we do everything we can to protect ourselves and offer you the best possible user experience. For this reason, we use Google reCAPTCHA from Google. This way we can be fairly certain that we will remain a "bot-free" website. By using reCAPTCHA, data is transmitted to Google to determine whether you are really a human. reCAPTCHA therefore serves to ensure the security of our website and, subsequently, your security too. For example, without reCAPTCHA, a bot could register as many email addresses as possible during registration in order to then "spam" forums or blogs with unwanted advertising content. With reCAPTCHA, we can avoid such bot attacks.

What data is stored by reCAPTCHA?

reCAPTCHA collects personal data from users to determine whether the actions on our website really come from humans. This means that the IP address and other data that Google needs for the reCAPTCHA service can be sent to Google. IP addresses are almost always shortened within the member states of the EU or other contracting states to the Agreement on the European Economic Area before the data ends up on a server in the USA. The IP address is not combined with other data from Google unless you are logged in to 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 sets an additional cookie in your browser and takes a snapshot of your browser window.

The following list of collected browser and user data is not intended to be complete. Rather, it is an example of data that, to our knowledge, is 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 allows websites to adapt to the user. JavaScript objects can collect all kinds of data under one name)
  • Screen resolution (shows how many pixels the image consists of)

It is undisputed that Google uses and analyses this data even before you click on the checkbox "I am not a robot". With the Invisible reCAPTCHA version, you don't even have to tick the box and the entire recognition process runs in the background. Google does not tell you in detail how much and what data Google 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 of 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-311865869-8
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 when dealing with advertisements. This allows the advertising effectiveness to be measured and appropriate optimization measures to be taken. IDE is stored in browsers under the domain doubleclick.net.
Expiry 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 show users relevant advertisements. The cookie can also be used to prevent a user from seeing the same ad more than once.
Expiry date: after one month

Name: ANID
Value: U7j1v3dZa3118658690xgZFmiqWppRWKOr
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 the domain google.com.
Expiry 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 use various Google services. CONSENT is also used for security purposes to verify users, prevent login information fraud, and protect user data from unauthorized attacks.
Expiry date: after 19 years

Name: NID
Value: 0WmuWqy311865869zILzqV_nmt3sDXwPeM5Q
Purpose: NID is used by Google to tailor advertisements to your Google search. With the help of the cookie, Google "remembers" your most frequently entered search queries or your previous interaction with advertisements. This means you always receive tailored advertisements. The cookie contains a unique ID to collect the user's personal settings for advertising purposes.
Expiry date: after 6 months

Name: DV
Value: gEAABBCjJMXcI0dSAAAANbqc311865869-4
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 an anonymized form and is also used to make user distinctions.
Expiry date: after 10 minutes

Note: This list cannot claim to be complete, since experience has shown that Google continually changes its choice of cookies.

How long and where is the data stored?

By inserting reCAPTCHA, your data is transferred to the Google server. Google does not make it clear where exactly this data is stored, even after repeated inquiries. Without receiving 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 generally not merged with other Google data from other Google services. However, if you are logged into your Google account while using the reCAPTCHA plug-in, the data will be merged. In this case, Google’s different data protection regulations apply.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

If you do not want any data about you or your behavior to be sent to Google, you must log out of Google completely and delete all Google cookies before visiting our website or using the reCAPTCHA software. As a general rule, the data is automatically sent to Google as soon as you visit our site. To delete this data again, you must contact Google Support at https://support.google.com/?hl=de&tid=311865869 .

Therefore, when you use our website, you agree that Google LLC and its representatives 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 safe under current European data protection law. Data may therefore not simply be transferred to, stored in and processed in unsafe third countries 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 (1) lit. a GDPR (consent), this consent represents the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as may occur when data is collected by Google reCAPTCHA.

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 (1) (f) GDPR (legitimate interests) . However, we only use Google reCAPTCHA if you have given your consent.

Google 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 transfer to the USA. This can involve various risks for the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses so-called standard contractual clauses (= Art. 46. Para. 2 and 3 GDPR) as the basis for data processing for recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, i.e. in particular in the USA) or for data transfer there. 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 these clauses, Google undertakes to comply with the European data protection level 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 other places: 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, can be found at https://business.safety.google/adsprocessorterms/ .

You can find out more about reCAPTCHA on Google's web developer page at https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/ . Google does go into more detail about the technical development of reCAPTCHA here, but you will also look in vain for precise information about data storage and data protection-related topics there. You can find a good overview of the basic use of data at Google in the company's own privacy policy at https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/ .

All texts are copyrighted.

Source: Created with the data protection generator from AdSimple