Privacy Policy

Table of contents

• Privacy Policy
• Scope
• Legal bases
• Contact details of the data protection controller
• Storage Period
• Rights in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation
• Data transfer to third countries
• Security of data processing operations
• Communications
• Cookies
• Web hosting
• Google Analytics Privacy Policy
• Web Analytics
• Email-Marketing
• MailChimp Privacy Policy
• Facebook Privacy Policy
• Social Media
• Online Marketing
• Audio & Video
• YouTube Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

We have written this privacy policy (version 26.02.2022-121953414) in order to explain to you, in accordance with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and applicable national laws, which personal data (data for short) we as the controller – and the processors commissioned by us (e.g. providers) – process, will process in the future and what legal options you have. The terms used are to be considered as gender-neutral.
In short: We provide you with comprehensive information about any personal data we process about you.

Privacy policies usually sound very technical and use legal terminology. However, this privacy policy is intended to describe the most important things to you as simply and transparently as possible. So long as it aids transparency, technical terms are explained in a reader-friendly manner, links to further information are provided and graphics are used. We are thus informing in clear and simple language that we only process personal data in the context of our business activities if there is a legal basis for it. This is certainly not possible with brief, unclear and legal-technical statements, as is often standard on the Internet when it comes to data protection. I hope you find the following explanations interesting and informative. Maybe you will also find some information that you have not been familiar with.
If you still have questions, we would like to ask you to contact the responsible body named below or in the imprint, to follow the existing links and to look at further information on third-party sites. You can of course also find our contact details in the imprint.

Scope

This privacy policy applies to all personal data processed by our company and to all personal data processed by companies commissioned by us (processors). With the term personal data, we refer to information within the meaning of Article 4 No. 1 GDPR, such as the name, email address and postal address of a person. The processing of personal data ensures that we can offer and invoice our services and products, be it online or offline. The scope of this privacy policy includes:

• all online presences (websites, online shops) that we operate
• Social media presences 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 by the company via the channels mentioned. Should we enter into legal relations with you outside of these channels, we will inform you separately if necessary.

Legal bases

In the following privacy policy, we provide you with transparent information on the legal principles and regulations, i.e. the legal bases of the General Data Protection Regulation, which enable us to process personal data.
Whenever EU law is concerned, we refer to REGULATION (EU) 2016/679 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of April 27, 2016. You can of course access the General Data Protection Regulation of the EU online at 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 lit. a GDPR): You have given us your consent to process data for a specific purpose. An example would be the storage of data you entered into a contact form.
2. Contract (Article 6 Paragraph 1 lit. b GDPR): We process your data in order to fulfill a contract or pre-contractual obligations with you. For example, if we conclude a sales contract with you, we need personal information in advance.
3. Legal obligation (Article 6 Paragraph 1 lit. c GDPR): If we are subject to a legal obligation, we will process your data. For example, we are legally required to keep invoices for our bookkeeping. These usually contain personal data.
4. Legitimate interests (Article 6 Paragraph 1 lit. f GDPR): In the case of legitimate interests that do not restrict your basic rights, we reserve the right to process personal data. For example, we have to process certain data in order to be able to operate our website securely and economically. Therefore, the processing is a legitimate interest.

Other conditions such as making recordings in the interest of the public, the exercise of official authority as well as the protection of vital interests do not usually occur with us. Should such a legal basis be relevant, it will be disclosed in the appropriate place.

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

• In Austria this is the Austrian Data Protection Act (Datenschutzgesetz), in short DSG.
• In Germany this is the Federal Data Protection Act (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz), in short BDSG.

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

Contact details of the data protection controller

If you have any questions about data protection, you will find the contact details of the responsible person or controller below:

Storage Period

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

If you want your data to be deleted or if you want to revoke your consent to data processing, the data will be deleted as soon as possible, provided there is no obligation to continue its storage.

We will inform you below about the specific duration of the respective data processing, provided we have further information.

Rights in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation

You are granted the following rights in accordance with the provisions of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and the Austrian Data Protection Act (DSG):

• right to rectification (article 16 GDPR)
• right to erasure (“right to be forgotten“) (article 17 GDPR)
• right to restrict processing (article 18 GDPR)
• righ to notification – notification obligation regarding rectification or erasure of personal data or restriction of processing (article 19 GDPR)
• right to data portability (article 20 GDPR)
• Right to object (article 21 GDPR)
• right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing – including profiling – (article 22 GDPR)

If you think that the processing of your data violates the data protection law, or that your data protection rights have been infringed in any other way, you can lodge a complaint with your respective regulatory authority. For Austria this is the data protection authority, whose website you can access at https://www.data-protection-authority.gv.at/.

Austria Data protection authority

Manager: Mag. Dr. Andrea Jelinek
Address: Barichgasse 40-42, 1030 Wien
Phone number.: +43 1 52 152-0
E-mail address: dsb@dsb.gv.at
Website: https://www.dsb.gv.at/

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 if it is contractually necessary. In any case, we generally only do so to the permitted extent. In most cases, your consent is the most important reason for data being processed in third countries. When personal data is being processed in third countries such as the USA, where many software manufacturers offer their services and have their servers located, your personal data may be processed and stored in unexpected ways.

We want to expressly point out, that according to 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 processing and retention without the data having undergone anonymisation processes. Furthermore, US government authorities may be able to access individual data. The collected data may also get linked to data from other services of the same provider, should you have a user account with the respective provider. We try to use server locations within the EU, whenever this is offered and possible.

We will provide you with more details about data transfer to third countries in the appropriate sections of this privacy policy, whenever applicable.

Security of data processing operations

In order to protect personal data, we have implemented both technical and organisational measures. We encrypt or pseudonymise personal data wherever this is possible. Thus, we make it as difficult as we can for third parties to extract personal information from our data.

Article 25 of the GDPR refers to “data protection by technical design and by data protection-friendly default” which means that both software (e.g. forms) and hardware (e.g. access to server rooms) appropriate safeguards and security measures shall always be placed. If applicable, we will outline the specific measures below.

TLS encryption with https

The terms TLS, encryption and https sound very technical, which they are indeed. We use HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) to securely transfer data on the Internet.
This means that the entire transmission of all data from your browser to our web server is secured – nobody can “listen in”.

We have thus introduced an additional layer of security and meet privacy requirements through technology design Article 25 Section 1 GDPR). With the use of TLS (Transport Layer Security), which is an encryption protocol for safe data transfer on the internet, we can ensure the protection of confidential information.
You can recognise the use of this safeguarding tool by the little lock-symbol , which is situated in your browser’s top left corner in the left of the internet address (e.g. examplepage.uk), as well as by the display of the letters https (instead of http) as a part of our web address.
If you want to know more about encryption, we recommend you to do a Google search for “Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure wiki” to find good links to further information.

Communications

Communications Overview 👥 Affected parties: Anyone who communicates with us via phone, email or online form 📓 Processed data: e. g. telephone number, name, email address or data entered in forms. You can find more details on this under the respective form of contact 🤝 Purpose: handling communication with customers, business partners, etc. 📅 Storage duration: for the duration of the business case and the legal requirements ⚖️ Legal basis: Article 6 (1) (a) GDPR (consent), Article 6 (1) (b) GDPR (contract), Article 6 (1) (f) GDPR (legitimate interests)

If you contact us and communicate with us via phone, email or online form, your personal data may be processed.

The data will be processed for handling and processing your request and for the related business transaction. The data is stored for this period of time or for as long as is legally required.

Affected persons

The above-mentioned processes affect all those who seek contact with us via the communication channels we provide.

Telephone

When you call us, the call data is stored in a pseudonymised form on the respective terminal device, as well as by the telecommunications provider that is being used. In addition, data such as your name and telephone number may be sent via email and stored for answering your inquiries. The data will be erased as soon as the business case has ended and the legal requirements allow for its erasure.

Email

If you communicate with us via email, your data is stored on the respective terminal device (computer, laptop, smartphone, …) as well as on the email server. The data will be deleted as soon as the business case has ended and the legal requirements allow for its erasure.

Online forms

If you communicate with us using an online form, your data is stored on our web server and, if necessary, forwarded to our email address. The data will be erased as soon as the business case has ended and the legal requirements allow for its erasure.

Legal bases

Data processing 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 of the business case;
• Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR (contract): For the performance of a contract with you or a processor such as a telephone provider, or if we have to process the data for pre-contractual activities, such as preparing an offer;
• Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests): We want to conduct our customer inquiries and business communication in a professional manner. Thus, certain technical facilities such email programs, Exchange servers and mobile network operators are necessary to efficiently operate our communications.

Cookies

Cookies Overview 👥 Affected parties: visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: depending on the respective cookie. You can find out more details below or from the software manufacturer that sets the cookie. 📓 Processed data: Depending on the cookie used. More details can be found below or from the manufacturer of the software that sets the cookie. 📅 Storage duration: can vary from hours to years, depending on the respective cookie ⚖️ 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.
In the following 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 are using a browser. Common browsers are for example, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge. Most websites store small text-files in your browser. These files are called cookies.

It is important to note that cookies are very useful little helpers. Almost every website uses cookies. More precisely, these are HTTP cookies, as there are also other cookies for other uses. HTTP cookies are small files that our website stores on your computer. These cookie files are automatically placed into the cookie-folder, which is the “brain” of your browser. A cookie consists of a name and a value. Moreover, to define a cookie, one or multiple attributes must be specified.

Cookies store certain user data about you, such as language or personal page settings. When you re-open our website to visit again, your browser submits these “user-related” information back to our site. Thanks to cookies, our website knows who you are and offers you the settings you are familiar to. In some browsers, each cookie has its own file, while in others, such as Firefox, all cookies are stored in one 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. The browser then uses this again as soon as another page is requested.

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

This is an example of how cookie-files can look:

Name: _ga
Value: GA1.2.1326744211.152121953414-9
Purpose: Differentiation between website visitors
Expiry date: after 2 years

A browser should support these minimum sizes:

• At least 4096 bytes per cookie
• At least 50 cookies per domain
• At least 3000 cookies in total

Which types of cookies are there?

The exact cookies that we use, depend on the used services, which will be outlined in the following sections of this privacy policy. Firstly, we will briefly focus on the different types of HTTP-cookies.

There are 4 different types of cookies:

Essential cookies
These cookies are necessary to ensure the basic functions of a website. They are needed when a user for example puts a product into their shopping cart, then continues surfing on different websites and comes back later in order to proceed to the checkout. These cookies ensure the shopping cart does not get deleted, even if the user closes their browser window.

Purposive cookies
These cookies collect information about user behaviour and whether the user receives any error messages. Furthermore, these cookies record the website’s loading time as well as its behaviour in different browsers.

Target-orientated cookies
These cookies ensure better user-friendliness. Thus, information such as previously entered locations, fonts sizes or data in forms stay stored.

Advertising cookies
These cookies are also known as targeting cookies. They serve the purpose of delivering customised advertisements to the user. This can be very practical, but also rather annoying.

Upon your first visit to a website you are usually asked which of these cookie-types you want to accept. Furthermore, this decision will of course also be stored in a cookie.

If you want to learn more about cookies and do not mind 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 respective cookie. You can find out more details below or from the software manufacturer that sets the cookie.

Which data are processed?

Cookies are little helpers for a wide variety of tasks. Unfortunately, it is not possible to tell which data is generally stored in cookies, but in the privacy policy below we will inform you on what data is processed or stored.

Storage period of cookies

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

You can also influence the storage duration yourself. You can manually erase all cookies at any time in your browser (also see “Right of objection” below). Furthermore, the latest instance cookies based on consent will be erased is after you withdraw your consent. The legality of storage will remain unaffected until then.

Right of objection – how can I erase cookies?

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

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

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

If you generally do not want cookies, you can set up your browser in a way to notify you whenever a cookie is about to be set. This gives you the opportunity to manually decide to either permit or deny the placement of every single cookie. This procedure varies depending on the browser. Therefore, it might be best for you to search for the instructions in Google. If you are using Chrome, you could for example put the search term “delete cookies Chrome” or “deactivate cookies Chrome” into Google.

Legal basis

The so-called “cookie directive” has existed since 2009. It states that the storage of cookies requires your consent (Article 6 Paragraph 1 lit. a GDPR). Within countries of the EU, however, the reactions to these guidelines still vary greatly. In Austria, however, this directive was implemented in Section 96 (3) of the Telecommunications Act (TKG). In Germany, the cookie guidelines have not been implemented as national law. Instead, this guideline was largely implemented in Section 15 (3) of the Telemedia Act (TMG).

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

This is exclusively done with your consent, unless absolutely necessary cookies are used. The legal basis for this is Article 6 (1) (a) of the GDPR.

In the following sections you will find more detail on the use of cookies, provided the used software does use cookies.

Web hosting

Web hosting Overview 👥 Affected parties: visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: professional hosting of the website and security of operations 📓 Processed data: IP address, time of website visit, browser used and other data. You can find more details on this below or at the respective web hosting provider. 📅 Storage period: dependent on the respective provider, but usually 2 weeks ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is web hosting?

Every time you visit a website nowadays, certain information – including personal data – is automatically created and stored, including on this website. This data should be processed as sparingly as possible, and only with good reason. By website, we mean the entirety of all websites on your domain, i.e. everything from the homepage to the very last subpage (like this one here). By domain we mean example.uk or examplepage.com.

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

The web browser has to connect to another computer which stores the website’s code: the web server. Operating a web server is complicated and time-consuming, which is why this is usually done by professional providers. They offer web hosting and thus ensure the reliable and flawless storage of website data.

Whenever the browser on your computer establishes a connection (desktop, laptop, smartphone) and whenever data is being transferred to and from the web server, personal data may be processed. After all, your computer stores data, and the web server also has to retain the data for a period of time in order to ensure it can operate properly.

Illustration:

Why do we process personal data?

The purposes of data processing are:

1. Professional hosting of the website and operational security
2. To maintain the operational as well as IT security
3. Anonymous evaluation of access patterns to improve our offer, and if necessary, for prosecution or the pursuit of claims.li>

Which data are processed?

Even while you are visiting our website, our web server, that is the computer on which this website is saved, usually automatically saves data such as

• the full address (URL) of the accessed website (e. g. https://www.examplepage.uk/examplesubpage.html?tid=121953414)
• 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.examplepage.uk/icamefromhere.html/)
• the host name and the IP address of the device from the website is being accessed from (e.g. COMPUTERNAME and 194.23.43.121)
• date and time
• in so-called web server log files

How long is the data stored?

Generally, the data mentioned above are stored for two weeks and are then automatically deleted. We do not pass these data on to others, but we cannot rule out the possibility that this data may be viewed by the authorities in the event of illegal conduct.

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

Legal basis

The lawfulness of processing personal data in the context of web hosting is justified in Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (safeguarding of legitimate interests), as the use of professional hosting with a provider is necessary to present the company in a safe and user-friendly manner on the internet, as well as to have the ability to track any attacks and claims, if necessary.

World4You Privacy Policy

We use World4You for our website, which is a web hosting provider among other things. The provider of this service is the Austrian company World4You Internet Services GmbH, Hafenstrasse 35, 4020 Linz, Austria. You can find out more about the data that is processed by using World4You in their Privacy Policy at https://www.world4you.com/en/unternehmen/datenschutzerklaerung.html.

WordPress.com Privacy Policy

We use WordPress.com for our website, which is a modular website system. The provider of this service is the American company Automattic Inc., 60 29th Street #343, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA.

WordPress.com also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

WordPress.com uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as the basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige WordPress.com to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847.

You can find out more about the data that is processed by using WordPress.com in their Privacy Policy at https://automattic.com/privacy/.

World4You Builder Privacy Policy

We use World4You for our website, which is a modular website system. The provider of this service is the Austrian company World4You Internet Services GmbH, Hafenstrasse 35, 4020 Linz, Austria. You can find out more about the data that is processed by World4You in their Privacy Policy at https://www.world4you.com/en/unternehmen/datenschutzerklaerung.html.

Google Analytics Privacy Policy

Google Analytics Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: Evaluation of visitor information to optimise the website. 📓 Processed data: Access statistics that contain data such as the location of access, device data, access duration and time, navigation behaviour, click behaviour and IP addresses. You can find more details on this in the privacy policy below. 📅 Storage period: depending 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 tracking and analysis tool Google Analytics (GA) of the US-American company Google LLC (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). Google Analytics collects data on your actions on our website. Whenever you click a link for example, this action is saved in a cookie and transferred to Google Analytics. With the help of reports which we receive from Google Analytics, we can adapt our website and our services better to your wishes. In the following, we will explain the tracking tool in more detail, and most of all, we will inform you what data is saved and how you can prevent this.

Google Analytics is a tracking tool with the purpose of conducting data traffic analysis of our website. For Google Analytics to work, there is a tracking code integrated to our website. Upon your visit to our website, this code records various actions you perform on your website. As soon as you leave our website, this data is sent to the Google Analytics server, where it is stored.

Google processes this data and we then receive reports on your user behaviour. These reports can be one of the following:

• Target audience reports: With the help of target audience reports we can get to know our users better and can therefore better understand who is interested in our service.
• Advertising reports: Through advertising reports we can analyse our online advertising better and hence improve it.
• Acquisition reports: Acquisition reports provide us helpful information on how we can get more people enthusiastic about our service.
• Behaviour reports: With these reports, we can find out how you interact with our website. By the means of behaviour reports, we can understand what path you go on our website and what links you click.
• Conversion reports: A conversion is the process of leading you to carry out a desired action due to a marketing message. An example of this would be transforming you from a mere website visitor into a buyer or a newsletter subscriber. Hence, with the help of these reports we can see in more detail, if our marketing measures are successful with you. Our aim is to increase our conversion rate.
• Real time reports: With the help of these reports we can see in real time, what happens on our website. It makes us for example see, we can see how many users are reading this text right now.

Why do we use Google Analytics on our website?

The objective of our website is clear: We want to offer you the best possible service. Google Analytics’ statistics and data help us with reaching this goal.

Statistically evaluated data give us a clear picture of the strengths and weaknesses of our website. On the one hand, we can optimise our page in a way, that makes it easier to be found by interested people on Google. On the other hand, the data helps us to get a better understanding of you as our visitor. Therefore, we can very accurately find out what we must improve on our website, in order to offer you the best possible service. The analysis of that data also enables us to carry out our advertising and marketing measures in a more individual and more cost-effective way. After all, it only makes sense to show our products and services exclusively to people who are interested in them.

What data is stored by Google Analytics?

With the aid of a tracking code, Google Analytics creates a random, unique ID which is connected to your browser cookie. That way, Google Analytics recognises you as a new user. The next time you visit our site, you will be recognised as a “recurring” user. All data that is collected gets saved together with this very user ID. Only this is how it is made possible for us to evaluate and analyse pseudonymous user profiles.

To analyse our website with Google Analytics, a property ID must be inserted into the tracking code. The data is then stored in the corresponding property. Google Analytics 4-property is standard for every newly created property. An alternative however, is the Universal Analytics Property. Depending on the property that is being used, data are stored for different periods of time.

Your interactions on our website are measured by tags such as cookies and app instance IDs. Interactions are all kinds of actions that you perform on our website. If you are also using other Google systems (such as a Google Account), data generated by Google Analytics can be linked with third-party cookies. Google does not pass on any Google Analytics data, unless we as the website owners authorise it. In case it is required by law, exceptions can occur.

The following cookies are used by Google Analytics:

Name: _ga
Value:2.1326744211.152121953414-5
Purpose: By deafault, analytics.js uses the cookie _ga, to save the user ID. It generally serves the purpose of differentiating between website visitors.
Expiration date: After 2 years

Name: _gid
Value:2.1687193234.152121953414-1
Purpose: This cookie also serves the purpose of differentiating between website users
Expiration date: After 24 hours

Name: _gat_gtag_UA_<property-id>
Value: 1
Verwendungszweck: It is used for decreasing the demand rate. If Google Analytics is provided via Google Tag Manager, this cookie gets the name _dc_gtm_ <property-id>.
Expiration date: After 1 minute

Name: AMP_TOKEN
Value: No information
Purpose: This cookie has a token which is used to retrieve the user ID by the AMP Client ID Service. Other possible values suggest a logoff, a request or an error.
Expiration date: After 30 seconds up to one year

Name: __utma
Value:1564498958.1564498958.1564498958.1
Purpose: With this cookie your behaviour on the website can be tracked and the site performance can be measured. The cookie is updated every time the information is sent to Google Analytics.
Expiration date: After 2 years

Name: __utmt
Value: 1
Purpose: Just like _gat_gtag_UA_<property-id> this cookie is used for keeping the requirement rate in check.
Expiration date: Afer 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 gets sent to Google Analytics.
Expiration date: After 30 minutes

Name: __utmc
Value: 167421564
Purpose: This cookie is used to determine new sessions for recurring visitors. It is therefore a session cookie, and only stays stored until you close the browser again.
Expiration date: After closing the browser

Name: __utmz
Value: m|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/
Purpose: This cookie is used to identify the source of the number of visitors to our website. This means, that the cookie stored information on where you came to our website from. This could be another site or an advertisement.
Expiration date: After 6 months

Name: __utmv
Value: No information
Purpose: The cookie is used to store custom user data. It gets updated whenever information is sent to Google Analytics.
Expiration date: After 2 years

Note: This list is by no means exhaustive, since Google are repeatedly changing the use of their cookies.

Below we will give you an overview of the most important data that can be evaluated by Google Analytics:

Heatmaps: Google creates so-called Heatmaps an. These Heatmaps make it possible to see the exact areas you click on, so we can get information on what routes you make on our website.

Session duration: Google calls the time you spend on our website without leaving it session duration. Whenever you are inactive for 20 minutes, the session ends automatically.

Bounce rate If you only look at one page of our website and then leave our website again, it is called a bounce.

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

IP-Address: The IP address is only shown in a shortened form, to make it impossible to clearly allocate it.

Location: Your approximate location and the country you are in can be defined by the IP address. This process is called IP location determination.

Technical information: Information about your browser type, your internet provider and your screen resolution are called technical information.

Source: Both, Google Analytics as well as ourselves, are interested what website or what advertisement led you to our site.

Further possibly stored data include contact data, potential reviews, playing media (e.g. when you play a video on our site), sharing of contents via social media or adding our site to your favourites. This list is not exhaustive and only serves as general guidance on Google Analytics’ data retention.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google has servers across the globe. Most of them are in America and therefore your data is mainly saved on American servers. Here you can read detailed information on where Google’s data centres are located: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=en

Your data is allocated to various physical data mediums. This has the advantage of allowing to retrieve the data faster, and of protecting it better from manipulation. Every Google data centre has respective emergency programs for your data. Hence, in case of a hardware failure at Google or a server error due to natural disasters, the risk for a service interruption stays relatively low.

The data retention period 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 so-called event data, we have the option of choosing a retention period of either 2 months or 14 months.

Google Analytics has a 26 months standardised period of retaining your user data. After this time, your user data is deleted. However, we have the possibility to choose the retention period of user data ourselves. There are the following five options:

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

Additionally, there is the option for data to be deleted only if you no longer visit our website within a period determined by us. In this case, the retention period will be reset every time you revisit our website within the specified period.

As soon as the chosen period is expired, the data is deleted once a month. This retention period applies to any of your data which is linked to cookies, user identification and advertisement IDs (e.g. cookies of the DoubleClick domain). Any report results are based on aggregated information and are stored independently of any user data. Aggregated information is a merge of individual data into a single and bigger unit.

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

Under the provisions of the European Union’s data protection law, you have the right to obtain information on your data and to update, delete or restrict it. With the help of a browser add on that can deactivate Google Analytics’ JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, dc.js), you can prevent Google Analytics from using your data. You can download this add on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en-GB. Please consider that this add on can only deactivate any data collection by Google Analytics.

If you generally want to deactivate, delete or manage all cookies (independently of Google Analytics), you can use one of the guides that are available for any browser:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

Legal basis

The use of Google Analytics requires your consent, which we obtained via our cookie popup. According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a of the GDPR (consent) , this is the legal basis for the processing of personal data when collected via web analytics tools.

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

Google also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige Google to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

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

Google Analytics Reports on demographic characteristics and interests

We have turned on Google Analytics’ functions for advertising reports. These reports on demographic characteristics and interests contain details about age, gender and interests. Through them we can get a better picture of our users – without being able to allocate any data to individual persons. You can learn more about advertising functions at auf https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3450482?hl=en&amp%3Butm_id=ad.

You can terminate the use of your Google Account’s activities and information in “Ads Settings” at https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated via a checkbox.

Web Analytics

Web Analytics Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Evaluation of visitor information to optimise the website. 📓 Processed data: Access statistics that contain data such as access location, device data, access duration and time, navigation behaviour, click behaviour and IP addresses. You can find more details on this from the respective web analytics tool directly. 📅 Storage period: depending on the respective 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, which is known as web analytics, in order to evaluate website visitor behaviour. Thus, data is collected, which the analytic tool provider (also called tracking tool) stores, manages and processes. Analyses of user behaviour on our website are created with this data, which we as the website operator receive. Most tools also offer various testing options. These enable us, to for example test which offers or content our visitors prefer. For this, we may show you two different offers for a limited period of time. After the test (a so-called A/B test) we know which product or content our website visitors find more interesting. For such testing as well as for various other analyses, user profiles are created and the respective data is stored in cookies.

Why do we run Web Analytics?

We have a clear goal in mind when it comes to our website: we want to offer our industry’s best website on the market. Therefore, we want to give you both, the best and most interesting offer as well as comfort when you visit our website. With web analysis tools, we can observe the behaviour of our website visitors, and then improve our website accordingly for you and for us. For example, we can see the average age of our visitors, where they come from, the times our website gets visited the most, and which content or products are particularly popular. All this information helps us to optimise our website and adapt it to your needs, interests and wishes.

Which data are processed?

The exact data that is stored depends on the analysis tools that are being used. But generally, data such as the content you view on our website are stored, as well as e. g. which buttons or links you click, when you open a page, which browser you use, which device (PC, tablet, smartphone, etc.) you visit the website with, or which computer system you use. If you have agreed that location data may also be collected, this data may also be processed by the provider of the web analysis tool.

Moreover, 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 in a pseudonymised form (i.e. in an unrecognisable and abbreviated form). No directly linkable data such as your name, age, address or email address are stored for testing purposes, web analyses and web optimisations. If this data is collected, it is retained in a pseudonymised form. Therefore, it cannot be used to identify you as a person.

The following example shows Google Analytics’ functionality as an example for client-based web tracking with JavaScript code.

The storage period of the respective data always depends on the provider. Some cookies only retain data for a few minutes or until you leave the website, while other cookies can store data for several years.

Duration of data processing

If we have any further information on the duration of data processing, you will find it below. We generally only process personal data for as long as is absolutely necessary to provide products and services. The storage period may be extended if it is required by law, such as for accounting purposes for example for accounting.

Right to object

You also have the option and the right 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 processing by cookies by managing, deactivating or erasing cookies in your browser.

Legal basis

The use of Web Analytics requires your consent, which we obtained with our cookie popup. According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a of the GDPR (consent), this consent represents the legal basis for the processing of personal data, such as by collection through Web Analytics tools.

In addition to consent, we have a legitimate interest in analysing the behaviour of website visitors, which enables us to technically and economically improve our offer. With Web Analytics, we can recognise website errors, identify attacks and improve profitability. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f of the GDPR (legitimate interests). Nevertheless, we only use these tools if you have given your consent.

Since Web Analytics tools use cookies, we recommend you to read our privacy policy on cookies. If you want to find out which of your data are stored and processed, you should read the privacy policies of the respective tools.

If available, information on special Web Analytics tools can be found in the following sections.

Google Optimize Privacy Policy

On our website we use Google Optimize, which is a web optimisation tool. The provider of this service is the American company Google Inc. The responsible entity for the European region is the Irish company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Irland).

Google also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige Google to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

You can find out more about Googles’ data processing in their privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US.

Google Site Kit Privacy Policy

Google Site Kit Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: Evaluation of visitor information to optimise the website. 📓 Processed data: Access statistics that contain data such as access location, device data, access duration and time, navigation behaviour, click behaviour and IP addresses. More details can be found below and in Google Analytics’ privacy policy. 📅 Storage period: depending on the properties used ⚖️ Legal bases: 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 of the American company Google Inc. to our website. For Europe, 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 of various Google products such as Google Analytics directly on our WordPress dashboard. The in Google Site Kit integrated tools also collect your personal data. In this privacy policy we will explain why we use Google Site Kit, how long and where your data is stored, and which other privacy policies may be 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 that are collected by other Google products – primarily by 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. Moreover, you should be able to 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 a lot easier because we can view and analyse the statistics of Google products on its dashboard. Therefore, we must no longer register for using the respective tools. Site Kit always provides a good overview of the most important analysis data.

What data are stored by Google Site Kit?

If you have consented to the use of tracking tools in the cookie notice (also called script or banner), cookies will be set by Google products such as Google Analytics. Also, on about you, such as your user behaviour, will be sent to Google, where it is stored and processed. This also includes personal data such as your IP address.

You can find more detailed information on the individual services in the respective separate sections of this privacy policy. In our privacy policy on Google Analytics for example, you will be able to view information on the exact types of data that are collected. You will also learn how long Google Analytics stores, manages and processes data, what cookies can be used and how you can prevent data retention. We also have respective comprehensive privacy policies for other Google services such as Google Tag Manager or Google AdSense.

In the following, we will show you exemplary Google Analytics cookies that may be set in your browser if you have consented to Google’s data processing. Please note that this list contains only a selection of potential cookies:

Name: _ga
Value:2.1326744211.152121953414-2
Purpose:Usually analytics.js uses the _ga cookie to store the user ID. Therefore, it can differentiate between website visitors.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: _gid
Value:2.1687193234.152121953414-7
Purpose: This cookie does also differentiate between website visitors.
Expiry date: after 24 hours

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

How long and where are the data stored?

Google stores the collected data on its own servers, which are distributed all around the world. Most servers are in the United States, so your data may likely be stored there. At https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=uk you can see exactly where the company provides servers.

Data that is collected by Google Analytics is stored for a standard period of 26 months. After this time, your user data will be deleted. This retention period applies to any data linked to cookies, user identification and advertising IDs.

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

You always reserve the right to either receive information about your data, or to have your data deleted, rectified, or reduced. You can also deactivate, delete, or manage cookies in your browser at any time. In the following we will show you the respective instructions to do this in the most common browsers:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

Please note that when using this tool, your data may also be stored and processed outside the EU. Under current European data protection law most third countries (including the USA) are not considered secure for this matter. Data must not be transferred to, stored and processed in such insecure 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 obtained via our cookie popup. According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), this consent is the legal basis for processing personal data, such as when it is collected by web analytics tools.

In addition to consent, we have a legitimate interest in analysing the behaviour of website visitors, and thus technically and economically improving our offer. With the help of Google Site Kit, we can recognise website errors, identify attacks and improve profitability. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests). Nevertheless, we only use Google Site Kit if you have given us your consent.

Google also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige Google to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

To find out more about data processing by Google, we recommend Google’s comprehensive privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-GB

Email-Marketing

Email Marketing Overview 👥 Affected parties: newsletter subscribers 🤝 Purpose: direct marketing via email, notification of events that are relevant to the system 📓 Processed data: data entered during registration, but at least the email address. You can find more details on this in the respective email marketing tool used. 📅 Storage duration: for the duration of the subscription ⚖️ Legal bases: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Email-Marketing?

We use email marketing to keep you up to date. If you have agreed to receive our emails or newsletters, your data will be processed and stored. Email marketing is a part of online marketing. In this type of marketing, news or general information about a company, product or service are emailed to a specific group of people who are interested in it.

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

The registration for newsletters generally works with the help of the so-called “double opt-in procedure”. After you have registered for our newsletter on our website, you will receive an email, via which you can confirm the newsletter registration. This ensures that you own the email address you signed up with, and prevents anyone to register with a third-party email address. We or a notification tool we use, will log every single registration. This is necessary so we can ensure and prove, that registration processes are done legally and correctly. In general, the time of registration and registration confirmation are stored, as well as your IP address. Moreover, any change you make to your data that we have on file is also logged.

Why do we use Email-Marketing?

Of course, we want to stay in contact with you and keep you in the loop of the most important news about our company. For this, we use email marketing – often just referred to as “newsletters” – as an essential part of our online marketing. If you agree to this or if it is permitted by law, we will send you newsletters, system emails or other notifications via email. Whenever the term “newsletter” is used in the following text, it mainly refers to emails that are sent regularly. We of course don’t want to bother you with our newsletter in any way. Thus, we genuinely strive to offer only relevant and interesting content. In our emails you can e.g. find out more about our company and our services or products. Since we are continuously improving our offer, our newsletter will always give you the latest news, or special, lucrative promotions. Should we commission a service provider for our email marketing, who offers a professional mailing tool, we do this in order to offer you fast and secure newsletters. The purpose of our email marketing is to inform you about new offers and also to get closer to our business goals.

Which data are processed?

If you subscribe to our newsletter via our website, you then have to confirm your membership in our email list via an email that we will send to you. In addition to your IP and email address, your name, address and telephone number may also be stored. However, this will only be done if you agree to this data retention. Any data marked as such are necessary so you can participate in the offered service. Giving this information is voluntary, but failure to provide it will prevent you from using this service. Moreover, information about your device or the type of content you prefer on our website may also be stored. In the section “Automatic data storage” you can find out more about how your data is stored when you visit a website. We record your informed consent, so we can always prove that it complies with our laws.

Duration of data processing

If you unsubscribe from our e-mail/newsletter distribution list, we may store your address for up to three years on the basis of our legitimate interests, so we can keep proof your consent at the time. We are only allowed to process this data if we have 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 request for erasure at any time. Furthermore, if you permanently object to your consent, we reserve the right to store your email address in a blacklist. But as long as you have voluntarily subscribed to our newsletter, we will of course keep your email address on file.

Withdrawal – how can I cancel my subscription?

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 a few clicks. Most of the time you will find a link at the end of every email, via which you will be able to cancel the subscription. Should you not be able to find the link in the newsletter, you can contact us by email and we will immediately cancel your newsletter subscription for you.

Legal basis

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

If available – you can find information on special email marketing services and how they process personal data, in the following sections.

ConvertKit Privacy Policy

On our website we use ConvertKit, which is a service for our email marketing. The provider of this service is the American company ConvertKit LLC, 750 W Bannock Street 761, Boise, ID 83702, USA.

ConvertKit also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

ConvertKit uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige ConvertKit to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

In ConvertKit’s privacy policy at https://convertkit.com/privacy, you can find out more about the data that are being processed by using ConvertKit.

MailChimp Privacy Policy

MailChimp Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: newsletter subscribers 🤝 Purpose: direct marketing via email, notification of events that are relevant to the system 📓 Processed data: data entered during registration, but at least the email address. 📅 Storage duration: for the subscription period ⚖️ 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 use the services of the newsletter company MailChimp on our website. The operator of MailChimp is the company The Rocket Science Group, LLC, 675 Ponce de Leon Ave NE, Suite 5000, Atlanta, GA 30308 USA. With the aid of MailChimp we can easily send you interesting news via newsletter. For the use of the service we do not have to install anything but can still access a pool of very efficient features. In the following we will give more details on this email marketing service and will inform you about the most important data protection aspects.

MailChimp is a cloud-based newsletter management service. “Cloud-based“ means that we do not need to install MailChimp on our own computer or server. Instead, we use the service on an external server, or more specifically via an IT infrastructure, which is available via the internet. Using a software this way is also called SaaS (software as a service).

MailChimp allows us to chose from a wide range of different email types. Depending on what goal we want to reach with our newsletter, we can run individual campaigns, regular campaigns, auto responders (automated emails), A/B tests, RSS campaigns (mailings at pre-set times and frequencies) and follow-up campaigns.

Why do we use MailChimp on our website?

The reason we would use any newsletter service is so we can stay in contact with you. We want to keep you on the loop about what news or attractive offers we have for you at the time. As we constantly seek out the easiest and best solutions for our marketing measures, we have decided on MailChimp as our newsletter management service. While the software is very easy to use, it offers many helpful features. For example, it allows us to create interesting and attractive newsletters in only a short time. With integrated design templates we can create every newsletter in an individual way. Due to the “responsive design” feature, our contents are also presented in a readable and pleasant way on your smartphone (or any other mobile device).

With tools such as A/B testing or the extensive analysis options, we can swiftly tell how you like our newsletters. This means that we can react if necessary and improve our offer or our 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 therefore save our memory space and also decrease maintenance effort.

What data is stored by MailChimp?

Rocket Science Group LLC (MailChimp) operate online platforms which enable us to get in contact with you, provided you subscribed to our newsletter. If you become a subscriber of our newsletter via our website, by email you agree to become a member of a MailChimp email list. Then, MailChimp saves your subscription data and your IP address, so it can verify your entry into the list provider. Moreover, MailChimp stores your email address, your name, your physical address and demographic information, such as language or location.

This information is used to send emails to you and to allow certain other MailChimp functions (e.g. the evaluation of newsletters).

MailChimp also shares information with third parties to improve its services. Moreover, MailChimp shares certain data with advertising partners of third parties to get a better understanding of its clients’ interests, in order to provide relevant contents and target-oriented advertising.

With so-called “web beacons” (small graphics in HTML emails), MailChimp can determine if an email has arrived, has been opened or if links have been clicked. This information is then stored on MailChimp’s servers. That way we receive statistical evaluations and can see how you liked our newsletter. Therefore, we can tailor our offer better to your wishes and improve our service.

Moreover, MailChimp are allowed to use this data for improving their own service. Thus, they can for example technically optimise the distribution or determine the location (or the country) of the recipient.

The following cookies can be set by MailChimp. This list is not exhaustive and is merely an exemplary selection:

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

Name: ak_bmsc
Value: F1766FA98C9BB9DE4A39F70A9E5EEAB55F6517348A7000001121953414-3
Purpose: The cookie is used to differentiate a human from a bot. That way secure reports on the use of a website can be created.
Expiry date: after 2 hours

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

Name: _abck
Value: 8D545C8CCA4C3A50579014C449B045121953414-9
Purpose: We could not find any further information about the purpose of this cookie.
Expiry date: after one year

For better display you might sometimes open our newsletter via a specified link. This can be the case if your email program does not work or if the newsletter is not displayed correctly. The newsletter will then be shown via a MailChimp website. MailChimp also uses cookies on its websites (small text files which save data on your browser).
Personal data can be processed by MailChimp and their partners (e.g. Google Analytics). MailChimp is responsible for the collection of this data and we have no influence on it. MailChimp’s “Cookie Statement” (at: https://mailchimp.com/legal/cookies/) tells you exactly how and why the company uses cookies.

How long and where is the data stored?

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

Generally, the data stays permanently stored on MailChimp’s servers and is deleted only when you request it. You can have your contact information with us deleted. This permanently removes all your personal data for us and anonymises you in MailChimp’s reports. However, you can also request the erasure of your data permanently at MailChimp. Then all your data are removed from there and we receive a notification from MailChimp. After we receive the email we have 30 days to delete your contact details from all integrations.

How can I erase my data or prevent data retention?

You can withdraw your approval for the receipt of our newsletters anytime, by clicking the link in the lower area of the received newsletter email. When you click on the unsubscribe link, your data with MailChimp gets deleted.

When you land on a MailChimp website via a link in our newsletter and cookies are consequently set in your browser, you can delete or deactivate these cookies anytime.

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

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

If you generally do not want to allow any cookies, you can set up your browser in a way so it would notify you whenever a potential cookie is about to be set. This lets you decide upon the placement of every single cookie.

Legal basis

MailChimp sends our newsletter on the basis of your consent (Article 6 (1) (a) GDPR). This means that we are only allowed to mail you a newsletter if you have actively registered for it beforehand. If consent is not required, the newsletter is sent on the basis of legitimate interest in direct marketing (Article 6 (1) (f)), provided this is legally permitted. We record your registration process so we can keep proof of compliance with our laws.

MailChimp also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

MailChimp uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige MailChimp to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

You can find out more on MailChimp’s use of cookies at https://mailchimp.com/legal/cookies/. Furthermore, at https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/ you can find more information on data protection at MailChimp (Privacy).

Facebook Privacy Policy

Facebook Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: service optimisation 📓 Processed data: data such as customer data, data on user behaviour, device information and IP address. You can find more details in the Privacy Policy below. 📅 Storage period: until the data no longer serves Facebook’s purposes ⚖️ Legal bases: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What are Facebook tools?

We use selected Facebook tools on our website. Facebook is a social media network of the company Facebook Ireland Ltd., 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2 Ireland. With the aid of this tool we can provide the best possible offers to you and anyone interested in our products and services.

If your data is collected and forwarded via our embedded Facebook elements or via our Facebook page (fanpage), both we and Facebook Ireland Ltd. are responsible for this. However, should any further processing occur, then Facebook is solely responsible for this data. Our joint commitments were also set out in a publicly available agreement at https://www.facebook. com / legal / controller_addendum . It e.g. states that we must clearly inform you about the use of Facebook tools on our website. We are also responsible for ensuring that the tools are securely integrated into our website and are in accordance with the applicable privacy laws. Facebook, on the other hand, is e.g. responsible for the data security of Facebook’s products. If you have any questions about Facebook’s data collection and processing, you can contact the company directly. Should you direct the question to us, we are obliged to forward it to Facebook.

In the following we will give you an overview on the different Facebook tools, as well as on what data is sent to Facebook and how you can erase this data.

Along with many other products, Facebook also offers so called “Facebook Business Tools”. This is Facebook’s official name for its tools, but it is not very common. Therefore, we decided to merely call them “Facebook tools”. They include the following:

• Facebook-Pixel
• Social Plugins (e.g. the “Like” or “Share“ button)
• Facebook Login
• Account Kit
• APIs (application programming interface)
• SDKs (Softwart developmept kits)
• Plattform-integrations
• Plugins
• Codes
• Specifications
• Documentations
• Technologies and Services

With these tools Facebook can extend its services and is able to receive information on 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 genuinely interested in them. With the help of advertisements (Facebook Ads) we can reach exactly these people. However, to be able to show suitable adverts to users, Facebook requires additional information on people’s needs and wishes. Therefore, information on the user behaviour (and contact details) on our website, are provided to Facebook. Consequently, Facebook can collect better user data and is able to display suitable adverts for our products or services. Thanks to the tools it is possible to create targeted, customised ad campaigns of Facebook.

Facebook calls data about your behaviour on our website “event data” and uses them for analytics services. That way, Facebook can create “campaign reports” about our ad campaigns’ effectiveness on our behalf. Moreover, by analyses we can get a better insight in how you use our services, our website or our products. Therefore, some of these tools help us optimise your user experience on our website. With the social plugins for instance, you can share our site’s contents directly on Facebook.

What data is stored by Facebook tools?

With the use of Facebook tools, personal data (customer data) may be sent to Facebook. Depending on the tools used, customer data such as name, address, telephone number and IP address may be transmitted.

Facebook uses this information to match the data with the data it has on you (if you are a Facebook member). However, before the customer data is transferred to Facebook, a so called “Hashing” takes place. This means, that a data record of any size is transformed into a string of characters, which also has the purpose of encrypting data.

Moreover, not only contact data, but also “event data“ is transferred. These data are the information we receive about you on our website. To give an example, it allows us to see what subpages you visit or what products you buy from us. Facebook does not disclose the obtained information to third parties (such as advertisers), unless the company has an explicit permission or is legally obliged to do so. Also, “event data“ can be linked to contact information, which helps Facebook to offer improved, customised adverts. Finally, after the previously mentioned matching process, Facebook deletes the contact data.

To deliver optimised advertisements, Facebook only uses event data, if they have been combined with other data (that have been collected by Facebook in other ways). Facebook also uses event data for the purposes of security, protection, development and research. Many of these data are transmitted to Facebook via cookies. Cookies are little text files, that are used for storing data or information in browsers. Depending on the tools used, and on whether you are a Facebook member, a different number of cookies are placed in your browser. In the descriptions of the individual Facebook tools we will go into more detail on 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 are the data stored?

Facebook fundamentally stores data, until they are no longer of use for their own services and products. Facebook has servers for storing their data all around the world. However, customer data is cleared within 48 hours after they have been matched with their own user data.

How can I erase my data or prevent data retention?

In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) you have the right of information, rectification, transfer and deletion of your data.

The collected data is only fully deleted, when you delete your entire Facebook account. Deleting your Facebook account works as follows:

1) Click on settings in the top right side in Facebook.

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

3) Now click on “Deactivation and deletion”.

4) Choose “Permanently delete account“ and then click on “Continue to account deletion“.

5) Enter your password, click on “continue“ and then on “Delete account“.

The retention of data Facebook receives via our site is done via cookies (e.g. with social plugins), among others. You can deactivate, clear or manage both all and individual cookies in your browser. How this can be done differs depending on the browser you use. The following instructions show, how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

If you generally do not want to allow any cookies at all, you can set up your browser to notify you whenever a cookie is about to be set. This gives you the opportunity to decide upon the permission or deletion of every single cookie.

Legal basis

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

Facebook also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Facebook uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige Facebook to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

We hope we could give you an understanding of the most important information about the use of Facebook tools and data processing. If you want to find out more on how Facebook use your data, we recommend reading the data policies at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update.

Facebook Social Plugins Privacy Policy

We installed so-called social plugins from Facebook Inc. to our website. You can recognise these buttons by the classic Facebook logo, the “Like” button (hand with raised thumb) or by a “Facebook plugin” label. A social plugin is a small part of Facebook that is integrated into our page. Each plugin has its own function. The most used functions are the well-known “Like” and “Share” buttons.

Facebook offers the following social plugins:

• “Save” button
• “Like” button, Share, Send and Quote
• Page plugin
• Comments
• Messenger plugin
• Embedded posts and video player
• Group Plugin

At https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins you will find more information on how the individual plugins are used. On the one hand, we use the social plug-ins to offer you a better user experience on our site, and on the other hand because Facebook can optimise our advertisements with it.

If you have a Facebook account or have already visited facebook.com, Facebook has already placed 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 website or interact with social plugins (e.g. the “Like” button).

The received information will be deleted or anonymised within 90 days. According to Facebook, this data includes your IP address, the websites you have visited, the date, time and other information relating to your browser.

In order to prevent Facebook from collecting much data and matching it with your Facebook data during your visit to our website, you must log out of Facebook while you visit our website.

If you are not logged in to Facebook or do not have a Facebook account, your browser sends less information to Facebook because you have fewer Facebook cookies. Nevertheless, data such as your IP address or which website you are visiting can be transmitted to Facebook. We would like to explicitly point out that we do not know what exact data is collected. However, based on our current knowledge, we want to try informing you as best we can about data processing. You can also read about how Facebook uses the data in the company’s data policy at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update.

At least the following cookies are set in your browser when you visit a website with social plugins from Facebook:

Name: dpr
Value: no information
Purpose:This cookie is used to make the social plugins work on our website.
Expiry date: after end of session

Name: fr
Value: 0jieyh4121953414c2GnlufEJ9..Bde09j…1.0.Bde09j
Purpose:The cookie is also necessary for the plugins to function properly
Expiry date: after 3 months

Note: These cookies were set after our test and may be placed even if you are not a Facebook member.

If you are registered with Facebook, you can change your settings for advertisements yourself at https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen. If you are not a Facebook user, you can go to https://www.youronlinechoices.com/uk/your-ad-choices/ and manage your usage-based online advertising. There you have the option to deactivate or activate providers.

If you want to learn more about Facebook’s data protection, we recommend the company’s own data policies at https://www.facebook.com/policy.php.

Social Media

Social Media Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: Service presentation and optimisation, staying in contact with visitors, interested parties, etc. as well as advertising 📓 Processed data: data such as telephone numbers, email addresses, contact data, data on user behaviour, information about your device and your IP address. You can find more details on this directly at the respective social media tool used. 📅 Storage period: depending on the social media platforms used ⚖️ Legal bases: 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. For us to be able to target interested users via social networks, user data may be processed. Additionally, elements of social media platforms may be embedded directly in our website. This is e.g. the case if you click a so-called social button on our website and are forwarded directly to our social media presence. So-called social media are websites and apps on which registered members can produce and exchange content with other members, be it openly or in certain groups and networks.

Why do we use Social Media?

For years, social media platforms have been the place where people communicate and get into contact online. With our social media presence, we can familiarise interested people better with our products and services. The social media elements integrated on our website help you switch to our social media content quickly and hassle free.

The data that is retained and processed when you use a social media channel is primarily used to conduct web analyses. The aim of these analyses is to be able to develop more precise and personal marketing and advertising strategies. The evaluated data on your behaviour on any social media platform can help to draw appropriate conclusions about your interests. Moreover, so-called user profiles can be created. Thus, the platforms may also to present you with customised advertisements. For this, cookies are usually placed in your browser, which store data on your user behaviour.

We generally assume that we will continue to be responsible under Data Protection Law, even when using the services of a social media platform. However, the European Court of Justice has ruled that, within the meaning of Art. 26 GDPR, in certain cases the operator of the social media platform can be jointly responsible with us. Should this be the case, we will point it out separately and work on the basis of a related agreement. You will then find the essence of the agreement for the concerned platform below.

Please note that when you use social media platforms or our built-in elements, your data may also be processed outside the European Union, as many social media channels, such as Facebook or Twitter, are American companies. As a result, you may no longer be able to easily claim or enforce your rights regarding your personal data.

Which data are processed?

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

All data that are collected via social media platforms are also stored on the providers’ servers. This means that only the providers have access to the data and can provide you with appropriate information or make changes for you.

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

Duration of data processing

Provided we have any further information on this, we will inform you about the duration of the data processing below. The social media platform Facebook example stores data until they are no longer needed for the company’s own purposes. However, customer data that is synchronised with your own user data is erased within two days. Generally, we only process personal data for as long as is absolutely necessary for the provision of our services and products. This storage period can also be exceeded however, if it is required by law, such as e.g. in the case of accounting.

Right to object

You also retain the right and the option to revoke your consent to the use of cookies or third-party providers such as embedded social media elements at any time. This can be done either via our cookie management tool or via other opt-out functions. You can e.g. also prevent data collection via cookies by managing, deactivating or erasing cookies in your browser.

Since cookies may be used with social media tools, we also recommend you to read our privacy policy on cookies. If you want to find out which of your data is stored and processed, we advise you to read the privacy policies of the respective tools.

Legal basis

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

in the following section you can find information on special social media platforms – provided this information is available.

Flickr Privacy Policy

We also use the online community and photo platform Flickr. The provider of this service is the American company Flickr Inc., 67 E Evelyn Ave #200, Mountain View, CA 94041, USA.

Flickr also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Flickr uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige Flickr to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

You can find out more about the data that are processed by using Flickr in their Privacy Policy on https://www.flickr.com/help/privacy .

Gravatar Privacy Policy

Gravatar Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: optimising our service 📓 Processed data: includes your encrypted e-mail address, IP address and our server URL More details can be found in the privacy policy below. 📅 Storage period: the data is generally deleted when it is no longer useful for the provider’s services. ⚖️ Legal bases: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Gravatar?

We have integrated the Gravatar plugin from Automattic Inc. (60 29th Street # 343, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA) into our website. Gravatar is automatically activated on all WordPress websites. The function enables user images (avatars) to be displayed in published articles or comments, provided the respective email address is registered at www.gravatar.com.

This function sends data to Gravatar or Automattic Inc. where it gets stored and processed. In this privacy statement we would like to inform you what data this is, how the network uses it and how you can manage or prevent data retention.

Gravatar stands for “Globally Recognized Avatar” which is a globally available avatar (a user picture) that is linked to an email address. The company Gravatar is the world’s leading provider for this service. As soon as a user enters their email address which is also registered with www.gravatar.com to a website, the user’s previously stored image is automatically displayed with their post or comment.

Why do we use Gravatar on our website?

Anonymity on the internet is a popular topic. An avatar gives people that make posts or comments a face. Moreover, it makes it easier to be recognised on the web and to make oneself known. Many users enjoy the advantages of user pictures as they want to appear on the web in a personal and authentic manner. Of course, we want to offer you the possibility to display your Gravatar also on our website. Furthermore, we also like to see faces of our commenting users. With the activated Gravatar function, we are expanding the service on our website. After all, we want you to feel comfortable on our website and enable you to receive an extensive and interesting offer.

What data is stored by Gravatar?

When you publish a comment to a blogpost which requires an email address, WordPress checks whether your email address is linked to an avatar on Gravatar. For this, your email address gets encrypted and hashed and sent to Gravatar’s or Automattic’s servers, together with your IP address and our URL. Then Gravatar will check whether the email address is registered with the platform.

If the email address is registered with Gravatar, the image (gravatar) stored there will be displayed in the published comment. If you have registered your email address with Gravatar and comment on our website, further data will be transmitted to Gravatar, where it will be saved and processed. In addition to IP address and user behaviour data, this includes e.g. your browser type, the unique device identification, your preferred language, the data and time of the page visit, your operating system and information on the mobile network. Gravatar use this information to improve their services and offers and to gain better insight into the use of their service.

The following cookies are set by Automattic when a user enters an email address that is registered with Gravatar, for submitting a comment:

Name: gravatar
Value: 16b3191024acc05a238209d51ffcb92bdd710bd19121953414-7
Purpose: We could not find any exact information about the cookie.
Expiry date: after 50 years

Name: is-logged-in
Value: 1121953414-1
Purpose: This cookie stores the information that the user is logged in via the registered email address.
Expiry date: after 50 years

How long and where is the data retained?

Automattic deletes the collected data either if they are no longer used for their services, or if the company is not legally obliged to keep the data. Web server logs such as IP addresses, browser types and operating systems will be deleted after about 30 days. Until deletion, Automattic use the data to analyse traffic on their own websites (for example all WordPress sites) and to fix potential problems. The data is also stored on Automattic’s American servers.

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

You have the right to access and delete your personal data at any time. If you have registered with Gravatar with an email address, you can delete your account or email address there at any time.

Since images are only displayed when using an email address registered with Gravatar, and data is therefore transferred to Gravatar, you can prevent transmission of your data to Gravatar by submitting comments or articles on our website with an email address that is not registered with Gravatar.

You can manage, deactivate or delete cookies that may be set in your browser when commenting. Please note that in this case comment functions may no longer be available in their intended scope. Depending on the browser you use, the management of cookies works a little different. You can find the instructions for the most common browsers here:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

Automattic is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework which regulates correct and secure transfer of personal data. You can find more information on this at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000CbqcAAC .
You can find more details on the privacy policy and what data is collected by Gravatar at https://automattic.com/privacy/ . Moreover, at https://en.gravatar.com/ you can find general information on Gravatar.

Legal basis

If you have consented to the processing and storage of you data by integrated social media elements, your consent is the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR) . Generally, your data is also stored and processed on the basis of our legitimate interest  (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) to maintain fast and good communication with you or other customers and business partners. We only use the integrated social media elements if you have given your consent. Most social media platforms also place cookies in your browser to store data. We therefore recommend you to read our privacy policy about cookies and to carefully take a look at the privacy policy or the cookie policy of the respective service provider.

Gravatar processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of the data processing.

Gravatar uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as the basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and especially in the USA) or data transfers there (= Art. 46, paragraph 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige Gravatar to comply with the EU’s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

You can find more details on the privacy policy as well as on what data is recorded by Gravatar and in what way at https://automattic.com/privacy/. Moreover, you can find general information about Gravatar at http://de.gravatar.com/.

Instagram Privacy Policy

Instagram Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: optimising our service 📓 Processed data: includes data on user behaviour, information about your device and IP address. More details can be found 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 functions of Instagram to our website. Instagram is a social media platform of the company Instagram LLC, 1601 Willow Rd, Menlo Park CA 94025, USA. Since 2012, Instagram is a subsidiary company of Facebook Inc. and is a part of Facebook’s products. The inclusion of Instagram’s contents on our website is called embedding. With this, we can show you Instagram contents such as buttons, photos or videos directly on our website. If you open websites of our online presence, that have an integrated Instagram function, data gets transmitted to, as well as stored and processed by Instagram. Instagram uses the same systems and technologies as Facebook. Therefore, your data will be processed across all Facebook firms.

In the following, we want to give you a more detailed insight on why Instagram collects data, what data these are and how you can control data processing. As Instagram belongs to Facebook Inc., we have, on the one hand received this information from the Instagram guidelines, and on the other hand from Facebook’s Data Policy.

Instagram is one of the most famous social media networks worldwide. Instagram combines the benefits of a blog with the benefits of audio-visual platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo. To “Insta“ (how the platform is casually called by many users) you can upload photos and short videos, edit them with different filters and also share them to other social networks. Also, if you do not want to be active on Instagram yourself, you can just follow other interesting users.

Why do we use Instagram on our website?

Instagram is a social media platform whose success has skyrocketed within recent years. Naturally, we have also reacted to this boom. We want you to feel as comfortable as possible on our website. Therefore, we attach great importance to diversified contents. With the embedded Instagram features we can enrich our content with helpful, funny or exciting Instagram contents. Since Instagram is a subsidiary company of Facebook, the collected data can also serve us for customised advertising on Facebook. Hence, only persons who are genuinely interested in our products or services can see our ads.

Instagram also uses the collected data for tracking and analysis purposes. We receive summarised statistics and therefore more insight to your wishes and interests. It is important to mention that these reports do not identify you personally.

What data is stored by Instagram?

Whenever you land on one of our sites, which have Instagram functions (i.e. Instagram photos or plugins) integrated to them, your browser automatically connects with Instagram’s servers. Thereby, data is sent to, as well as saved and processed by Instagram. This always happens, whether you have an Instagram account or not. Moreover, it includes information on our website, your computer, your purchases, the advertisements you see and on how you use our offer. The date and time of your interaction is also stored. If you have an Instagram account or are logged in, Instagram saves significantly more data on you.

Facebook distinguishes between customer data and event data. We assume this is also the case for Instagram. Customer data are for example names, addresses, phone numbers and IP addresses. These data are only transmitted to Instagram, if they have been “hashed” first. Thereby, a set of data is transformed into a string of characters, which encrypts any contact data. Moreover, the aforementioned “event data“ (data on your user behaviour) is transmitted as well. It is also possible, that contact data may get combined with event data. The collected data data is matched with any data Instagram already has on you.

Furthermore, the gathered data are transferred to Facebook via little text files (cookies) which usually get set in your browser. Depending on the Instagram function used, and whether you have an Instagram account yourself, the amount of data that gets stored varies.

We assume data processing on Instagram works the same way as on Facebook. Therefore, if you have an account on Instagram or have visited www.instagram.com, Instagram has set at least one cookie. If this is the case, your browser uses the cookie to send information to Instagram, as soon as you come across an Instagram function. No later than 90 days (after matching) the data is deleted or anonymised. Even though we have studied Instagram’s data processing in-depth, we cannot tell for sure what exact data Instagram collects and retains.

In the following we will show you a list of the least cookies placed in your browser when click on an Instagram function (e.g. button or an Insta picture). In our test we assume you do not have an Instagram account, since if you would be logged in to your Instagram account, your browser would place significantly more cookies.

The following cookies were used in our test:

Name: csrftoken
Value: “”
Purpose: This cookie is most likely set for security reasons to prevent falsifications of requests. We could not find out more information on it.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: mid
Value: “”
Purpose: Instagram places this cookie to optimise its own offers and services in- and outside of Instagram. The cookie allocates a unique user ID.
Expiry date: after end of session

Name: fbsr_121953414124024
Value: no information
Purpose: This cookie stores the login request of Instagram app users.
Expiry date: after end of session

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

Name: urlgen
Value: “{”194.96.75.33”: 1901}:1iEtYv:Y833k2_UjKvXgYe121953414”
Purpose: This cookie serves Instagram’s marketing purposes.
Expiry date: after end of session

Note: We do not claim this list to be exhaustive. The cookies that are placed in each individual case, depend on the functions embedded as well as on your use of Instagram.

How long and where are these data stored?

Instagram shares the information obtained within the Facebook businesses with external partners and persons you are globally connected with. Data processing is done according to Facebook’s internal data policy. Your data is distributed to Facebook’s servers across the world, partially for security reasons. Most of these servers are in the USA.

How can I erase my data or prevent data retention?

Thanks to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have the right of information, rectification, transfer and deletion of your data. Furthermore, you can manage your data in Instagram’s settings. If you want to delete your data on Instagram completely, you will have to delete your Instagram account permanently.

And this is how an Instagram account can be deleted:

First, open the Instagram app. Then, navigate to your profile page, select the three bars in the top right, choose “Settings” and then click “Help”. Now, you will be redirected to the company’s website, where you must click on “Managing Your Account” and then “Delete Your Account”.

When you delete your account completely, Instagram deletes posts such as your photos and status updates. Any information other people shared about you are not a part of your account and do therefore not get deleted.

As mentioned before, Instagram primarily stores your data via cookies. You can manage, deactivate or delete these cookies in your browser. Depending on your browser, managing them varies a bit. We will show you the instructions of the most relevant browsers here.

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

Generally, you can set your browser to notify you whenever a cookie is about to be set. Then you can individually decide upon the permission of every cookie.

Legal basis

If you have consented to the processing and storage of your data by integrated social media elements, this consent is the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR) . Generally, your data is also stored and processed on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) to maintain fast and good communication with you or other customers and business partners. We only use the integrated social media elements if you have given your consent. Most social media platforms also place cookies in your browser to store data. We therefore recommend you to read our privacy policy about cookies carefully and to take a look at the privacy policy or the cookie policy of the respective service provider.

Instagram and Facebook also process data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfer to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

As a basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfers there, Facebook uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige Facebook to comply with the EU’s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

We have tried to give you the most important information about data processing by Instagram. On https://help.instagram.com/519522125107875
you can take a closer look at Instagram’s data guidelines.

LinkedIn Privacy Policy

LinkedIn Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: optimisation of our service 📓 Processed data: includes data on user behaviour, information about your device and IP address. More details can be found in the privacy policy below. 📅 Storage period: the data is generally deleted within 30 days ⚖️ Legal bases: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is LinkedIn?

On our website we use social plugins from the social media network LinkedIn, of the LinkedIn Corporation, 2029 Stierlin Court, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Social plugins can be feeds, content sharing or a link to our LinkedIn page. Social plugins are clearly marked with the well-known LinkedIn logo and for example allow sharing interesting content directly via our website. Moreover, LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company Wilton Place in Dublin is responsible for data processing in the European Economic Area and Switzerland.

By embedding these plugins, data can be sent to, as well as stored and processed by LinkedIn. In this privacy policy we want to inform you what data this is, how the network uses this data and how you can manage or prevent data retention.

LinkedIn is the largest social network for business contacts. In contrast to e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn focuses exclusively on establishing business connections. Therefore, companies can present services and products on the platform and establish business relationships. Many people also use LinkedIn to find a job or to find suitable employees for their own company. In Germany alone, the network has over 11 million members. In Austria there are about 1.3 million.

Why do we use LinkedIn on our website?

We know how busy you are. You just cannot keep up with following every single social media channel. Even if it would really be worth it, as it is with our channels, since we keep posting interesting news and articles worth spreading. Therefore, on our website we have created the opportunity to share interesting content directly on LinkedIn, or to refer directly to our LinkedIn page. We consider built-in social plugins as an extended service on our website. The data LinkedIn collects also help us to display potential advertising measures only to people who are interested in our offer.

What data are stored by LinkedIn?

LinkedIn stores no personal data due to the mere integration of social plugins. LinkedIn calls the data generated by plugins passive impressions. However, if you click on a social plugin to e.g. share our content, the platform stores personal data as so-called “active impressions”. This happens regardless of whether you have a LinkedIn account or not. If you are logged in, the collected data will be assigned to your account.

When you interact with our plugins, your browser establishes a direct connection to LinkedIn’s servers. Through that, the company logs various usage data. These may include your IP address, login data, device information or information about your internet or cellular provider. If you use LinkedIn services via your smartphone, your location may also be identified (after you have given permission). Moreover, LinkedIn can share these data with third-party advertisers in “hashed” form. Hashing means that a data set is transformed into a character string. This allows data to be encrypted, which prevents persons from getting identified.

Most data on of your user behaviour is stored in cookies. These are small text files that usually get placed in your browser. Furthermore, LinkedIn can also use web beacons, pixel tags, display tags and other device recognitions.

Various tests also show which cookies are set when a user interacts with a social plug-in. We do not claim for the information we found to be exhaustive, as it only serves as an example. The following cookies were set without being logged in to LinkedIn:

Name: bcookie
Value: =2&34aab2aa-2ae1-4d2a-8baf-c2e2d7235c16121953414-
Purpose: This cookie is a so-called “browser ID cookie” and stores your identification number (ID).
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: lang
Value: v=2&lang=en-gb
Purpose:This cookie saves your default or preferred language.
Expiry date: after end of session

Name: lidc
Value: 1818367:t=1571904767:s=AQF6KNnJ0G121953414…
Purpose:This cookie is used for routing. Routing records how you found your way to LinkedIn and how you navigate through the website.
Expiry date: after 24 hours

Name: rtc
Value: kt0lrv3NF3x3t6xvDgGrZGDKkX
Purpose:No further information could be found about this cookie.
Expiry date: after 2 minutes

Name: JSESSIONID
Value: ajax:1219534142900777718326218137
Purpose: This is a session cookie that LinkedIn uses to maintain anonymous user sessions through the server.
Expiry date: after end of session

Name: bscookie
Value: “v=1&201910230812…
Purpose: This cookie is a security cookie. LinkedIn describes it as a secure browser ID cookie.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: fid
Value: AQHj7Ii23ZBcqAAAA…
Purpose: We could not find any further information about this cookie.
Expiry date: after 7 days

Note: LinkedIn also works with third parties. That is why we identified the Google Analytics cookies _ga and _gat in our test.

How long and where are the data stored?

In general, LinkedIn retains your personal data for as long as the company considers it necessary for providing its services. However, LinkedIn deletes your personal data when you delete your account. In some exceptional cases, LinkedIn keeps some summarised and anonymised data, even account deletions. As soon as you delete your account, it may take up to a day until other people can no longer see your data. LinkedIn generally deletes the data within 30 days. However, LinkedIn retains data if it is necessary for legal reasons. Also, data that can no longer be assigned to any person remains stored even after the account is closed. The data are stored on various servers in America and presumably also in Europe.

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

You have the right to access and delete your personal data at any time. In your LinkedIn account you can manage, change and delete your data. Moreover, you can request a copy of your personal data from LinkedIn.

How to access account data in your LinkedIn profile:

In LinkedIn, click on your profile icon and select the “Settings & Privacy” section. Now click on “Privacy” and then on the section “How LinkedIn uses your data on”. Then, click “Change” in the row with “Manage your data and activity”. There you can instantly view selected data on your web activity and your account history.

In your browser you also have the option of preventing data processing by LinkedIn. As mentioned above, LinkedIn stores most data via cookies that are placed in your browser. You can manage, deactivate or delete these cookies. Depending on which browser you have, these settings work a little different. You can find the instructions for the most common browsers here:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

You can generally set your browser to always notify you when a cookie is about to be set. Then you can always decide individually whether you want to allow the cookie or not.

Legal basis

If you have consented to the processing and storage of your data by integrated social media elements, your consent is the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). Generally, your data is also stored and processed on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) to maintain fast and good communication with you or other customers and business partners. We only use the integrated social media elements if you have given your consent. Most social media platforms also place cookies in your browser to store data. We therefore recommend you to read our privacy policy about cookies carefully and take a look at the privacy policy or the cookie policy of the respective service provider.

LinkedIn also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

LinkedIn uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as the basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraph 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige LinkedIn to comply with the EU’s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

We have tried to provide you with the most important information about data processing by LinkedIn. On https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy you can find out more on data processing by the social media network LinkedIn.

Pinterest Privacy Policy

Pinterest Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: service optimisation 📓 Processed data: data such as data on user behaviour, device information, IP address and search terms. You can find more details in the Privacy Policy below. 📅 Storage period: until Pinterest no longer needs the data for its purposes ⚖️ Legal bases: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Pinterest?

On our website we use buttons and widgets by the social media network Pinterest, of the company Pinterest Inc., 808 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA. For the European area, the entity responsible for all aspects of privacy is the Irish company Pinterest Europe Ltd. (Palmerston House, 2nd Floor, Fenian Street, Dublin 2, Ireland).

Pinterest is a social network that specialises in graphic representations and photographs. Its name is made up of the two words “pin” and “interest”. Users can exchange ideas about various hobbies and interests via Pinterest and view profiles with pictures openly or in defined groups.

Why do we use Pinterest?

The social media platform Pinterest has been around for a few years now and is still one of the most visited and valued platforms. Pinterest is particularly suitable for our industry because the platform is primarily known for beautiful and interesting images. That is why we are of course also represented on Pinterest and want to put our content in the limelight in places other than our website. The collected data may also be used for advertising purposes, so we can show advertising messages to precisely those people who are interested in our services or products.

Which data are processed by Pinterest?

Pinterest may store so-called log data. This includes information about your browser, IP address, our website address and the your activities on it (e.g. when you click the save or pin button), along with your search history, the date and time of the request as well as cookie and device data. If you interact with an embedded Pinterest function, cookies that store various data may also be set in your browser. Most of the above-mentioned log data, as well as preset language settings and clickstream data are stored in cookies. Pinterest considers clickstream data as information about your website behaviour.

If you have a Pinterest account yourself and are logged in, the data collected via our site may be linked to your account and used for advertising purposes. If you interact with our integrated Pinterest functions, you will usually be redirected to the Pinterest page. Below you will see an exemplary selection of cookies that can then be placed in your browser.

Name: _auth
Value: 0
Purpose: The cookie is used for authentication. A value such as your “username” can be stored in it, for example.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: _pinterest_referrer
Value: 1
Purpose: This cookie stores the information that you came to Pinterest via our website. Thus, the URL of our website is retained.
Expiry date: after the session ends

Name: _pinterest_sess
Value: … 9HRHZvVE0rQlUxdG89
Purpose: This cookie is used to log into Pinterest and it contains user IDs, authentication tokens and time stamps.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: _routing_id
Value: “8d850ddd-4fb8-499c-961c-77efae9d4065 121953414 -8”
Purpose: This cookie contains an assigned value that is used to identify a specific routing destination.
Expiry date: after one day

Name: cm_sub
Value: denied
Purpose: This cookie stores user IDs and time stamps.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: csrftoken
Value: 9e49145c82a93d34fd933b0fd8446165 121953414-1
Purpose: This cookie is most certainly placed for security reasons in order to prevent falsified inquiries. However, we could not find more precise information.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: sessionFunnelEventLogged
Value: 1
Purpose: We have not yet been able to find out more information about this cookie.
Expiry date: after one day

How long and where are the data retained?

Pinterest basically stores the collected data until it is no longer needed for the company’s purposes. As soon as the storage of this data is no longer necessary, e.g. for the compliance with legal regulations, the data is either erased or anonymised so you can no longer be identified as a person. The data may also be stored on American servers.

Right to object

You also have the right and the option to revoke your consent to the use of cookies or third-party providers such as Pinterest at any time. This can be done either via our cookie management tool or via other opt-out functions. You can for example also prevent data retention by cookies by managing, deactivating or erasing cookies in your browser.

Since cookies can be used with embedded Pinterest elements, we also recommend you to read our general privacy policy on cookies. To find out which of your data are stored and processed, you should read the privacy policies of the respective tools.

Legal basis

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

Pinterest also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Pinterest uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige Pinterest to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

We hope we could provide you with the most important information about data processing by Pinterest. You can find out more about Pinterest’s privacy guidelines at https://policy.pinterest.com/en-gb/privacy-policy.

Snapchat Privacy Policy

We also use the instant messaging service Snapchat. The provider of this is the American company Snap Inc., 2772 Donald Douglas Loop N, Santa Monica (HQ), CA, USA.

Snapchat also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Snapchat uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige Snapchat to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

You can find out more about the data that is processed by using Snapchat in their privacy policy at https://snap.com/en-GB/privacy/privacy-policy.

TikTok Privacy Policy

We also use TikTok, which is a social media and video channel. The provider of this service is the Chinese company Beijing Bytedance Technology Ltd. The responsible entity for the European area is the Irish company TikTok Technology Limited, 10 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin, D02 T380, Ireland.

TikTok uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR) as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (which are outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) or for data transfer there. These clauses oblige TikTok to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

You can find out more about the data processed by TikTok in the Privacy Policy at https://www.tiktok.com/legal/privacy-policy?lang=en#privacy-eea.

Twitter Privacy Policy

Twitter Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: optimising our service 📓 Processed data: includes data on user behaviour, information about your device and IP address. More details can be found in the privacy policy below. 📅 Storage period: Twitter deletes collected data of other websites after 30 days at most ⚖️ Legal bases: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Twitter?

We have incorporated Twitter functions on our website. These are, for example, embedded tweets, timelines, buttons or hashtags. Twitter is a short message service and social media platform from the firm Twitter Inc., One Cumberland Place, Fenian Street, Dublin 2 D02 AX07, Ireland.

To our knowledge, in the European Economic Area and Switzerland, a mere integration of the Twitter function does not transfer any personal data or data about your web activities to Twitter. Only when you interact with the Twitter functions, such as by clicking a button, data could be sent to Twitter and get saved as well as processed there. We have no influence on this processing of data and do not bare any responsibility for it. Within this privacy statement, we want to give you an overview of what data Twitter stores, what Twitter does with this data and how you can largely protect yourself from data transmission.

For some, Twitter is a news service, for others, a social media platform, and for others still it is a microblogging service. All these terms are justified and mean pretty much the same.

Both individuals as well as companies use Twitter for communicating with interested people via short messages. Twitter only allows 280 characters per message. These messages are called “tweets”. In contrast to Facebook, for example, the service does not focus on the expansion of a network of “friends”, but strives to be regarded as an open, worldwide news platform. On Twitter you can also have an anonymous account and tweets can be deleted by both, either the company or the users themselves.

Why do we use Twitter on our website?

Like many other websites and companies, we try to use different channels for offering our services and communicating with our customers. Twitter is a truly useful “small” news service, which is why it has grown dear to us. We regularly tweet or retweet exciting, funny or interesting content. We understand that you do not have the time to follow every channel after channel, as you surely have enough other things to do. That is why we also have integrated Twitter functions to our website. That way, you can experience our Twitter activities “on site” or come to our Twitter page via a direct link. With the integration, we want to strengthen the service and user-friendliness on our website.

What data is stored by Twitter?

You will find integrated Twitter functions on some of our subpages. If you interact with Twitter content, such as by clicking a button, Twitter may collect and save data. This can happen even if you don’t have a Twitter account yourself. Twitter calls this data “log data”. It includes demographic data, browser cookie IDs, your smartphone’s ID, hashed email addresses, and information on which pages you have visited on Twitter and what actions you have taken there. Of course, Twitter stores more data if you have a Twitter account and are logged in. This retention is usually done via cookies. Cookies are small text files that are usually set in your browser and transmit various information to Twitter.

We will now show you which cookies are placed if you are not logged in to Twitter but visit a website with built-in Twitter functions. Please consider this list as an example. We do not claim for this list to be extensive, since the array of cookies always changes and depends on your individual actions with Twitter content.

The following cookies have been used in our test:

Name: personalization_id
Value: “v1_cSJIsogU51SeE121953414”
Purpose: This cookie stores information on how you use the website and what ad may have led you to Twitter.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: lang
Value: en
Purpose: This cookie stores your default or preferred language.
Expiry date: after end of session

Name: guest_id
Value: 121953414v1%3A157132626
Purpose: This cookie is set to identify you as a guest.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: fm
Value: 0
Purpose: Unfortunately, we could not find out the purpose of this cookie.
Expiry date: after end of session

Name: external_referer
Value: 1219534142beTA0sf5lkMrlGt
Purpose: This cookie collects anonymous data, such as how often you visit Twitter and how long you visit Twitter.
Expiry date: after 6 days

Name: eu_cn
Value: 1
Purpose: This cookie stores user activity and is used for Twitter’s various advertising purposes.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: ct0
Value: c1179f07163a365d2ed7aad84c99d966
Purpose: Unfortunately we could not find any information on this cookie.
Expiry date: after 6 hours

Name: _twitter_sess
Value: 53D%253D–dd0248121953414-
Purpose: With this cookie you can use functions within Twitter’s website.
Expiry date: after end of session

Note: Twitter also works with third parties. Therefore, we have recognized the three Google Analytics cookies _ga, _gat, _gid in our test.

On the one hand, Twitter uses the collected data for gaining better understand on user behaviour, and thus to improve their own services and advertising offers. On the other hand, the data are also used for internal security measures.

How long and where are the data stored?

When Twitter collects data from other websites, after a maximum of 30 days, they will be deleted, summarised or otherwise concealed. Twitter’s servers are in various server centres in the United States. Accordingly, it can be assumed that the gathered data will be collected and stored in America. In our research we could not clearly determine whether Twitter also owns servers in Europe. Generally, Twitter may keep collected data stored until either the data are no longer useful to the company, until you delete the data or until a potential legal deletion period has been reached.

How can I erase my data or prevent data retention?

In their Privacy Policy, Twitter repeatedly emphasise that they do not save data from external website visits, provided you or your browser are in the European Economic Area or Switzerland. However, if you interact directly with Twitter, the company will of course store your data.

If you have a Twitter account, you can manage your data by clicking on “More” under the “Profile” button. Then click on “Settings and privacy”. Here you can manage data processing individually.

If you do not have a Twitter account, you can go to twitter.com and click “Settings”. At “Personalisation and data” you can manage data that is collected on you.

As mentioned above, most data are stored via cookies, which you can manage, deactivate or delete in your browser. Please note that when changing cookie settings in your browser, the edits will only affect that very browser. This means that if you use another browser in the future, you will have to manage your cookie settings there again. In the following you will find instructions for managing cookies in the most popular browsers.

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

You can also set your browser to notify you about each individual cookie. This lets you decide individually whether you want to allow or deny a cookie.

Twitter also uses the data for personalised advertising in-and outside of Twitter. You can switch off personalised advertising in the settings under “Personalization and data”. If you use Twitter on a browser, you can deactivate personalised advertising at http://optout.aboutads.info/?c=2&lang=EN.

Legal basis

If you have consented processing and storage of your data by integrated social media elements, this consent is the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR) . Generally, your data is also stored and processed on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) to maintain fast and good communication with you or other customers and business partners. We only use integrated social media elements if you have given your consent. Most social media platforms also place cookies in your browser to store data. We therefore recommend you to read our privacy policy about cookies carefully and to also take a look at the privacy policy or the cookie policy of the respective service provider.

Twitter processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Twitter uses standard contractual clauses, which are approved by the EU Commission, as the basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfers there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige ShareThis to comply with the EU’s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

We hope we could give you a basic overview of Twitter’s data processing. We do not receive any data from Twitter and are not responsible for what Twitter does with your data. If you have any further questions on this topic, we recommend you to read Twitter’s privacy statement at https://twitter.com/en/privacy.

XING Privacy Policy

Xing Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: optimising our service 📓 Processed data: your IP address and browser data, as well as the date and time of your page view More details can be found in the privacy policy below. 📅 Storage period: data of Xing users are stored until deletion is requested ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Xing?

On our website we use social plugins by the social media network Xing, by the company Xing SE, Dammtorstrasse 30, 20354 Hamburg, Germany. Their functions allow you to for example share content and follow interesting content on Xing directly via our website, or to log in to Xing via our site. You can recognize the plugins by the company name or the Xing logo. If you open a website that uses a Xing plugin, data can be transmitted to, and saved as well as evaluated by the “Xing server”. In this privacy policy we will inform you on what data this is and how you can manage or prevent data retention.

Xing is a social network with its headquarters in Hamburg. The company specializes in managing professional contacts. That means, that as opposed to other networks, Xing is primarily about professional networking. The platform is often used for job hunting or for companies to find employees. Moreover, Xing offers interesting content on various professional topics. The global counterpart of Xing is the American company LinkedIn.

Why do we use Xing on our website?

Nowadays, there is a flood of social media channels, and we understand that your time is very precious. It is simply not possible for you to closely follow every social media channel of a company. Therefore, we want to make your life as easy as possible and enable you to share or follow interesting content on Xing directly via our website. With these so-called “social plugins” we are expanding the service on our website. Additionally, the data collected by Xing help us to create targeted advertising on the platform. This means that our services are only displayed to people who are genuinely interested in them.

What data is stored by Xing?

As plugins for websites, Xing offers the share, follow and login buttons. As soon as you open a page with an integrated Xing social plugin, your browser will connect to servers in a Xing data centre. Xing claim that upon using the share button, no data that could directly relate to a person is stored. Furthermore, Xing do not save your IP address, neither do any cookies get set upon using the share button. This means that your user behaviour is not analysed. You can find more information at https://dev.xing.com/plugins/share_button/privacy_policy.

With Xing’s other plugins, cookies only get set in your browser if you interact with the plugin or click on it. Personal data such as your IP address, browser data, as well as the date and time of your visit to Xing may be stored. If you have a XING account and are logged in, the collected data will be assigned to your personal account and matched with the data stored in it.

If you click on the follow or log-in button and are not yet logged in to Xing, the following cookies are set in your browser. Please keep in mind that this is an indicative list and we do not claim for it to be exhaustive:

Name: AMCVS_0894FF2554F733210A4C98C6%40AdobeOrg
Value: 1
Purpose: This cookie is used to create and store identification details for website visitors.
Expiry date: after session end

Name: c_
Value: 157c609dc9fe7d7ff56064c6de87b019121953414-8
Purpose: We were unable to find out more information on this cookie.
Expiry date: after one day

Name: prevPage
Value: wbm%2FWelcome%2Flogin
Purpose: This cookie stores the URL of the previous website you visited.
Expiry date: after 30 minutes

Name: s_cc
Value: true
Purpose: This Adobe Site Catalyst cookie determines whether cookies are generally activated in the browser.
Expiry date: after end of session

Name: s_fid
Value: 6897CDCD1013221C-39DDACC982217CD1121953414-2
Purpose: This cookie is used to identify a unique visitor.
Expiry date: after 5 years

Name: visitor_id
Value: fe59fbe5-e9c6-4fca-8776-30d0c1a89c32
Purpose: The visitor cookie contains a unique visitor ID and a unique identifier for your account.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name:_session_id
Value: 533a0a6641df82b46383da06ea0e84e7121953414-2
Purpose: This cookie creates a temporary session ID that is used as the in-session user ID. The cookie is vital to provide the functions of Xing.
Expiry date: after end of session

When you are logged in to Xing or are a member of the platform, further personal data will be collected, processed and saved. Xing also passes personal data to third parties if it is either necessary for its own business purposes, if you have given your consent or if there is a legal obligation.

How long and where is the data stored?

Xing stores data on different servers in various data centres. The company stores this data until you delete it or until you delete your user account. Of course, this only applies to users who are already Xing members.

How can I erase my data or prevent data retention?

You have the right to access and delete your personal data at any time. Even if you are not a Xing member, you can prevent potential data processing via your browser or manage it as you wish. Most data are stored via cookies. Depending on which browser you are using, the settings work a little different. You can find the instructions for the most common browsers here:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

You can also set up your browser to notify you whenever a cookie is about to be placed. Then you can always decide individually whether you want to allow or deny a cookie.

Legal basis

If you have consented processing and storage of your data by integrated social media elements, this consent is the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR) . Generally, your data is also stored and processed on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR) to maintain fast and good communication with you or other customers and business partners. We only use integrated social media elements if you have given your consent. Most social media platforms also place cookies in your browser to store data. We therefore recommend you to read our privacy policy about cookies carefully and to also take a look at the privacy policy or the cookie policy of the respective service provider.

We tried to make you familiar with the most important information on data processing by Xing. At https://privacy.xing.com/en/privacy-policy you can find out more about data processing by the social media network Xing.

Blog Posts and Comment Functions Privacy Policy

There are various online communication tools that we may use on our website. For example, we use blog posts and comment functions. This gives you the possibility to comment on our content or to write articles. If you make use of this function, your IP address may be stored for security reasons. This is how we protect ourselves from illegal content such as insults, unauthorised advertising or prohibited political propaganda. In order to recognise whether any comments are spam, we can also store and process user information on the basis of our legitimate interests. If we start a survey, we will also store your IP address for the duration of the survey so we can be sure that everyone who takes part only votes once. Moreover, cookies may also be used for storage purposes. All data that we store about you (such as content or information about you) will be stored until you object.

WordPress-Emojis Privacy Policy

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

Automattic also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Automattic uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as the basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige Automattic to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847.

You can find out more about the data that is processed by using Automattic in their Privacy Policy at https: //automattic.com/privacy/.

Online Marketing

Online Marketing Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Evaluation of visitor information for website optimisation 📓 Processed data: Access statistics containing data such as access location, device data, access duration and time, navigation behaviour, click behaviour and IP addresses. Personal data such as name or email address may also be processed. You can find more details on this from the respective Online Marketing tool. 📅 Storage period: depending 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 doing business transactions. Furthermore, our Online Marketing measures aim to draw people’s attention to our website. In order to be able to show our offer to many interested people, we do Online Marketing. It mostly is about online advertising, content marketing or search engine optimisation. For this, personal data is also stored and processed, to enable us to use Online Marketing efficiently and targeted. On the one hand, the data help us to only show our content to people who are interested in it. On the other hand, it helps us to 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 our offer. We are aware that this is not possible without conscious measures being taken. That is why we do Online Marketing. There are various tools that make working on our Online Marketing measures easier for us. These also provide suggestions for improvement via data. Thus, we can target our campaigns more precisely to our target group. The ultimate purpose of these Online Marketing tools is to optimise our offer.

Which data are processed?

For our Online Marketing to work and to measure its success, user profiles are created and data are e.g. stored in cookies (small text files). With the help of this data, we can not only advertise in the traditional way, but also present our content directly on our website in the way you prefer. There are various third-party tools that offer these functions and thus collect and store your data accordingly. The aforementioned cookies e.g. store the pages you visit on our website, how long you view these pages, which links or buttons you click or which website you came from. What is more, technical information may also be stored. This may include e.g. your IP address, the browser and device you use to visit our website or the time you accessed our website as well as the time you left. If you have agreed for us to determine your location, we can also store and process it.

Your IP address is stored in pseudonymised form (i.e. shortened). What is more, distinct data that directly identify you as a person, such as your name, address or email address, are only stored in pseudonymised for advertising and Online Marketing purposes. With this data we cannot identify you as a person and only retain the pseudonymised information that is stored in your user profile.

Under certain circumstances, cookies may also be utilised, analysed and used for advertising purposes on other websites that use the same advertising tools. Thus, your data may then also be stored on the servers of the respective provider of the advertising tool.

In rare exceptions, unique data (name, email address, etc.) may also be stored in the user profiles. This can happen, if you are for example a member of a social media channel that we use for our Online Marketing measures and if the network connects previously received data with the user profile.

We only ever receive summarised information from the advertising tools we use that do store data on their servers. We never receive data that can be used to identify you as an individual. What is more, the data only shows how well-placed advertising measures have worked. For example, we can see what measures have caused you or other users to visit our website and purchase a service or product. Based on these analyses we can improve our advertising offer in the future and adapt it more precisely to the needs and wishes of people who are interested.

Duration of data processing

Below we will inform you on the duration of data processing, provided we have this information. In general, we only process personal data for as long as is absolutely necessary to provide our services and products. Data stored in cookies are retained for different lengths of time. Some cookies are deleted after you leave a website, while others may be stored in your browser for a number of years. However, in the respective privacy policies of the respective provider, you will usually find detailed information on the individual cookies this provider uses.

Right of withdrawal

You also retain the right and the option to revoke your consent to the use of cookies or third-party providers at any time. This can be done either via our cookie management tool or via other opt-out functions. You can for example also prevent data collection by cookies if you manage, deactivate or erase cookies in your browser. The legality of the processing remains unaffected to the point of revocation.

Since Online Marketing tools usually use cookies, we also recommend you to read our privacy policy on cookies. If you want to find out 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, then this consent is the legal basis for the corresponding data processing. According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent) , this consent is the legal basis for personal data processing, as may be done when data is collected by online marketing tools.

Moreover, we have a legitimate interest in measuring our online marketing activities in anonymised form, in order to use this data for optimising our offer and our Marketing. The corresponding legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests) . Nevertheless, we only use these tools if you have given your consent.

Information on special online marketing tools can be found in the following sections, provided this information is available.

Google Ads (Google AdWords) Conversion Tracking Privacy Policy

Google Ads (Google AdWords) Conversion Tracking Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: economic success and service optimisation. 📓 Processed data: Access statistics that contain data such as access location, device data, access duration and time, navigation behaviour, click behaviour and IP addresses. Personal data such as name or email address may also be processed. 📅 Storage period: Conversion cookies usually expire after 30 days and do not transmit any personal data ⚖️ Legal bases: 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 (previously Google AdWords) as an online marketing measure, to advertise our products and services. Thus, we want to draw more people’s attention on the internet to the high quality of our offers. As part of our advertising measures with Google Ads, we use the conversion tracking of Google LLC., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (“Google”) on our website. With the aid of this free tracking tool we can tailor our advertising offer better to your interests and needs. In the following article we will explain, why we use conversion tracking, what data gets saved and how you can prevent this data retention.

Google Ads (previously Google AdWords) is the internal online advertising sxstem of the company Google LLC. We are convinced of our offer‘s quality and would like as many people as possible to discover our website. For this, Google Ads offers the best platform within the online environment. Of course, we also want to get an overview of the cost-benefit factor of our advertising campaigns. Thence, we use Google Ads’ conversion tracking tool.

But what is a conversion actually? A conversion occurs, when you turn from an interested visitor into an acting website visitor. This happens every time you click on our ad and then make another action, such as paying a visit to our website. With Google’s conversion tracking tool, we can understand what happens after a user clicks our Google ad. It shows us for instance if products get bought, services are used or whether users have subscribed to our newsletter.

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

We use Google Ads to show our offer also across other websites. Our aim is for our advertising campaigns to reach only those people, who are interested in our offers. With the conversion tracking tool, we see what keywords, ads, ad groups and campaigns lead to the desired customer actions. We see how many customers interact with our ads on a device, to then convert. With this data we can calculate our cost-benefit-factor, measure the success of individual ad campaigns and therefore optimise our online marketing measures. With the help of the obtained data we can give our website a more interesting design and customise our advertising offer better to your needs.

What data is stored with Google Ads conversion tracking?

For a better analysis of certain user actions, we have integrated a conversion tracking tag, or code snippet to our website. Therefore, if you click one of our Google ads, a Google domain stores the cookie “conversion” on your computer (usually in the browser) or on your mobile device. Cookies are little text files that save information on your computer.

Here are data of the most significant cookies for Google’s conversion tracking:

Name: Conversion
Value: EhMI_aySuoyv4gIVled3Ch0llweVGAEgt-mr6aXd7dYlSAGQ121953414-3
Purpose: This cookie saves every conversion you make on our website 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 that records various actions on our website.
Expiry date: after 3 months

Note: The cookie _gac only appears in connection with Google Analytics. The above list does not claim to be exhaustive, as Google repeatedly change the cookies they use for analytical evaluation.

As soon as you complete an action on our website, Google identifies the cookie and saves your action as a so-called conversion. For as long as you surf our website, provided the cookie has not expired, both Google and us can determine that you found your way to us via a Google ad. Then, the cookie is read and sent back to Google Ads, together with the conversion data. Moreover, other cookies may also be used for measuring conversions. Google Ads‘ conversion tracking can be fine-tuned and improved with the aid of Google Analytics. Furthermore, ads which Google displays in various places across the web, might be placed under our domain with the name “__gads” or “_gac”.
Since September 2017, analytics.js retains various campaign information with the _gac cookie. This cookie stores data, as soon as you open one of our sites that has been set up for Google Ads’ auto-tagging. In contrast to cookies that are placed for Google domains, Google can only read these conversion cookies when you are on our website. We do neither collect nor receive any personal data. We do obtain a report with statistical evaluations by Google. With the help thereof, we can not only see the total number of users who clicked our ad, but also what advertising measures were well received.

How long and where is the data stored?

At this point we want to reiterate, that we have no influence on how Google use the collected data. According to Google, the data are encrypted and stored on a secure server. In most cases, conversion cookies expire after 30 days, and do not transmit any personalised data. The cookies named “conversion“ and “_gac“ (which is used with Google Analytics) have an expiry date of 3 months.

How can I erase my data or prevent data retention?

You have the possibility to opt out of Google Ads’ conversion tracking. The conversion tracking can be blocked by deactivating the conversion tracking cookie via your browser. If you do this, you will not be considered for the statistic of the tracking tool. You can change the cookie settings in your browser anytime. Doing so, works a little different in every browser. Hence, in the following you will find an instruction on how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

If you generally do not want to allow any cookies at all, you can set up your browser to notify you whenever a potential cookie is about to be set. This lets you decide upon permitting or denying the cookie’s placement. By downloading and installing the browser plugin at https://support.google.com/ads/answer/7395996 you can also deactivate all “advertising cookies”. Please consider that by deactivating these cookies, you cannot prevent all advertisements, only personalised ads.

Legal basis

If you have consented to the use of Google Ads Conversion Tracking, your consent is the legal basis for the corresponding data processing. According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), this consent is the legal basis for personal data processing, as may be done when collected by Google Ads Conversion Tracking.

We also have legitimate interest in using Google Ads Conversion Tracking to optimise our online service and marketing measures. The corresponding legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests). Nevertheless, we only use Google Ads Conversion Tracking if you have consented to it.

Google also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige Google to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

If you would like to find out more about data protection at Google, we recommend Google’s privacy policy at: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-GB.

Google AdSense Privacy Policy

Google AdSense Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: economic success and service optimisation. 📓 Processed data: Access statistics containing data such as access location, device data, access duration and time, navigation behaviour, click behaviour and IP addresses. Personal data such as name or email address may also be processed. 📅 Storage duration: depending on the cookies used and on the retained data ⚖️ Legal bases: 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. It is an advertising program of the company Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). With Google AdSense we can show advertisements that fit our theme. Thus, we can offer you adverts that ideally give you added value. In this privacy statement on Google AdSense we will explain to you, why we use Google AdSense on our website and which of your data is processed and saved, as well as how you can prevent this data retention.

The advertising program Google AdSense has been around since 2003. As opposed to Google Ads (previously: Google AdWords) it is not possible to advertise on Google AdSense oneself. Google AdSense displays advertisements on websites, such as ours. The biggest advantage of this web service compared to some others, is that Google AdSense only shows ads to you which match our website’s contents. Google has its own algorithm which calculates what ads are shown to you. Of course, we only want to show you ads that interest you and provide you added value. Google checks which advertisements are suitable for our users, considering your interests, your user behaviour and our offer. At this point we want to mention that we are not responsible for the choice of the ads. We merely offer advertising space on our website, while Google selects the displayed ads. Moreover, since August 2013 the ads are customised to the respective user interface. This means, that no matter if you visit our website with your smartphone, your PC or your laptop, the ads adjust to your terminal device.

Why do we use Google AdSense on our website?

The operation of a high-quality website requires tremendous dedication and commitment. We are essentially never finished with working on our website. This is, because we continuously maintain and keep our website up to date. Of course, we want to achieve economic success with this work. Therefore, we decided for to use advertisements as a source of revenue. It is most important to us however, that we do not disrupt your visit to our website with these advertisements. Thence, with the aid of Google AdSense, only adverts that are tailored to you and our themes are shown.

Like with Google’s indexation for a website, a bot examines both, the matching content and the offers on our website. Then, the ads are adapted to and presented on the website. Alongside the contextual overlaps between the ads and website offer, AdSense also supports interest-based targeting. This means, that Google also uses your data to offer advertising that is tailored to you. That way you receive ads that ideally offer you added value, and it gives us a higher chance of earning a bit.

What data is stored by Google AdSense?

Google AdSense uses cookies to display ads that are customised to you. Cookies are little text files, that store certain information on your computer.

Cookies are supposed to enable improved advertisements in AdSense. They do not contain any personally identifiable data. However, it should be considered that Google does not view data such as “Pseudonymous Cookie-IDs” (name or other identification feature is replaced with a pseudonym) or IP addresses as personally identifiable information. Although, within the framework of the GDPR, this data can be classified as personal data. Following every impression (every time you see an ad), every click and any other activity that leads to a call on its servers, Google AdSense sends a cookie to the browser. The cookie is then saved in the browser, provided the browser accepts it.

Under certain circumstances, third parties can place cookies in your browser, and read them or use web beacons, to store data they receive through the display of ads on the website. Web beacons are little graphics that analyse and a record the log file. This analysis allows a statistical evaluation for the online marketing.

Through this cookie, Google can collect certain information on your user behaviour on our website. These include:

• Information on how you interact with an ad (clicks, impressions, mouse movements)
• Information if an ad has already been displayed in your browser. This data helps to prevent an ad from showing multiple times.

Thereby, Google evaluates and analyses data on the displayed advertising material along with your IP address. Primarily, Google uses the data to measure the effectiveness of an ad and improve the advertising offer. Moreover, the data does not get linked to your personal data which Google might have received via other Google services.

In the following we will introduce you to the cookies that Google AdSense uses for tracking purposes. Please note, that we will refer to a test website, which only has Google AdSense installed to it:

Name: uid
Value: 891269189121953414-8
Purpose: The cookie is stored under the domain adform.net. It provides a uniquely assigned user ID that is generated automatically and collects data on the activity on our website.
Expiry date: after 2 months

Name: C
Value: 1
Purpose: This cookie identifies if 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 saved under the domain track.adform.net. It stands for the client ID and is used to offer you improved advertisements. It can forward more relevant adverts to the user and helps to improve reports on campaign performance.
Expiry date: after 2 months

Name: IDE
Value: zOtj4TWxwbFDjaATZ2TzNaQmxrU121953414-1
Purpose: The cookie is stored under the domain doubleclick.net. It serves the purpose of registering your actions following an impression or a click on the ad. Thus, it can be measured how our visitors like an ad.
Expiry date: after 1 month

Name: test_cookie
Value: not specified
Purpose: With the „test_cookies“ it can be verified, if your browser even supports cookies. The cookie is saved under the domain doubleclick.net.
Expiry date: after 1 month

Name: CT592996
Value:733366
Purpose: It is saved under the domain adform.net. The cookie is placed upon your click on an ad. We could not find any further information on the use of this cookie.
Expiry date: after one hour

Note: This list does not claim to be exhaustive, as Google frequently change the choice of their cookies.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google retains your IP address, as well as various activities you perform on the website. Cookies store this information with the interactions on our website. According to Google, the company collects and saves the given information securely on its internal servers in the USA.

If you do not have a Google account or are not logged in, Google usually stores the collected data on your browser with a unique identification (ID). The IDs saved in cookies serve e.g. for providing personalised advertisements. If you are logged into a Google account, Google can gather personal information.

You can delete certain data that is saved by Google anytime (see next section). Much of the information saved in cookies get automatically deleted after a specific time. However, there are also data which are retained by Google for a longer period. This is the case, when Google must store certain data for an undefined, longer period due to economical or legal necessities.

How can I erase my data or prevent data retention?

You can always clear or deactivate cookies that are on your computer. How exactly this can be done depends on the browser.

Here you can find an instruction on how you can manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

If you generally do not want to allow any cookies, you can set your browser to notify you whenever a potential cookie is about to be set. This lets you decide to either permit or deny the placement of every single cookie. By downloading and installing the browser plugin at https://support.google.com/ads/answer/7395996, any advertising cookies get deactivated as well. Please note, that deactivating these cookies does not stop advertisements, it only inhibits personalised adverts.

If you have a Google account, you can deactivate personalised adverts on the website https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated. You will continue to see ads, but they will stop being customised to your interests. Nevertheless, the ads are displayed based on a few factors, such as your location, the browser type and the used search terms.

Legal basis

If you have consented to the use of Google AdSense, your consent is the legal basis for the corresponding data processing. According to Art. 6 paragraph 1 lit. a (Consent) your consent is 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 optimise our online service and our marketing measures. The corresponding legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests). Nevertheless, we only use Google AdSense if you have given your consent to it.

Google also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige Google to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847.

You can learn more about what data Google generally collects and what they are used for at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-GB.

Google Marketing Platform (previously: DoubleClick) Privacy Policy

We use Google Marketing Platform products on our website. These include various marketing tools such as Data Studio, Surveys, Campaign Manager 360, Display & Video 360 and Search Ads 360. The provider of this service is the American company Google Inc. The responsible entity for all Google services in the European region is Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland).

Google also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as the basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (i. e. outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and thus especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC) are legal templates provided by the EU Commission. Their purpose is to ensure that your data complies with European data privacy standards, even if your data is transferred to and stored in third countries (such as the USA). With these clauses, Google commits to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data, even if it is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the standard contractual clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847.

You can find the Google Ads Data Processing Terms, which correspond to the standard contractual clauses and also apply to Google Marketing Platform products at https://business.safety.google/adsprocessorterms/.

You can find out more about the data that is processed through the use of Google Marketing Platform products in their Privacy Policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US.

Amazon Associates Program Privacy Policy

Amazon Affiliate Program Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: economic success and the optimisation of our service. 📓 Processed data: Access statistics that contain data such as access location, device data, access duration and time, navigation behaviour, click behaviour and IP addresses. Personal data such as name or email address can also be processed. 📅 Storage period: personal data is stored by Amazon until it is no longer needed ⚖️ Legal bases: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit.f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is the Amazon Associates Program?

We use the Amazon Associates Program of the company Amazon.com Inc on our website. The responsible bodies for the privacy statement are Amazon Europe Core S.à.r.l., Amazon EU S.à.r.l, Amazon Services Europe S.à.r.l. as well as Amazon Media EU S.à.r.l., which are based at 5, Rue Plaetis, L-2338 Luxemburg, along with Amazon Instant Video Germany Ltd., which is located at Domagkstraße 28, 80807 Munich. Thereby, Amazon Germany Services Ltd. at Marcel-Breuer-Straße 12, 80807 Munich is responsible for data processing. Due to the use of the Amazon Associates Program, Amazon can receive, store and process your data.

In this privacy statement we will inform you on what data this can be, why we use the program and how you can manage or prevent the data transmission.

The Amazon Associates Program is an affiliate marketing program of the online shipping company Amazon.co.uk. Like any affiliate program, the Amazon Associates Program is also based on the principle of intermediation commissions. Amazon (or we) place advertisements or partner links on our website, which let us receive a reimbursement of advertising costs (commission) if you click on them and buy a product on Amazon.

Why do we use the Amazon Associates Program on our website?

Our aim is to provide you a pleasant time with extensive, helpful content. Therefore, we put a lot of work and energy into the development of our website. With the aid of the Amazon Associates Program, we can receive a little remuneration for our work. Of course, every affiliate link to Amazon is related with our theme and shows offers that may interest you.

What data is stored by the Amazon Associates Program?

As soon as you interact with the products and services of Amazon, the company collects your data. Amazon differentiates between information you actively gave to the business and information that is collected and retained automatically. “Active information” include name, email address, telephone number, age, payment details or location information. So-called “automatic information” are primarily saved by cookies. This includes information, user behaviour, IP address, device information (browser type, operating systems) or the URL. Moreover, Amazon also saves the clickstream, which is the path (order of pages) you make as a user in order to get to a product. Amazon also stores cookies in your browser to retrace the origin of an order. This enables the company to identify if you clicked an Amazon ad or an affiliate link on our website.

If you have an Amazon account and are logged in to it while you surf our website, the collected data can be allocated to your account. You can prevent this by logging out of Amazon before surfing our website.

In the following we will show you exemplary cookies that are placed in your browser when you click an Amazon link on our website.

Name: uid
Value: 3230928052675285215121953414-9
Purpose: This cookie stores a unique user ID and collects information on your website activity.
Expiry date: after 2 months

Name: ad-id
Value: AyDaInRV1k-Lk59xSnp7h5o
Purpose: This cookie is provided by amazon-adsystem.com and serves the company regarding various advertising purposes.
Expiry date: after 8 months

Name: uuid2
Value: 8965834524520213028121953414-2
Purpose: This cookie allows targeted and interest-based advertising via the AppNexus platform. By the IP address it collects and retains anonymous data on what ads you clicked and which sites you opened.
Expiry date: after 3 months

Name: session-id
Value: 262-0272718-2582202121953414-1
Purpose: This cookie stores a unique user ID that the server assigns to you for the duration of a website visit (session). If you visit the site again, the information saved in there gets retrieved again.
Expiry date: after 15 years

Name: APID
Value: UP9801199c-4bee-11ea-931d-02e8e13f0574
Purpose: This cookie stores information on how you use a website, and on what ads you looked at before your visit to the website.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: session-id-time
Value: tb:s-STNY7ZS65H5335FZEVPE|1581329862486&t:1581329864300&adb:adblk_no
Purpose: This cookie records the time you spend on a website with a unique cookie ID.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: csm-hit
Value: 2082754801l
Purpose: We could not find any detailed information on this cookie.
Expiry date: after 15 years

Note: Please note, that this list merely shows examples of cookies and does not claim to be exhaustive.

Amazon use the obtained information to better tailor their advertisements to their users’ interests.

How long and where is my data stored?

Amazon saves personal data for as long as it is required for both Amazon’s business services, and for legal reasons. As the company’s headquarters are in the USA, any collected data is stored on American servers.

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

You always have the right to access your personal data and clear it. If you have an Amazon account, you can manage or delete many of the collected data.

Furthermore, your browser offers another option for managing Amazon’s processing and retention of data according to your preferences. There you can manage, clear or delete cookies. This works a little different on every browser. Here you can find instructions for the most common browsers:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

Legal basis

If you have consented to the use of the Amazon Associates Program, then your consent is the the legal basis for the corresponding data processing. According to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent) , this consent represents the legal basis for personal data processing, as may be done when it is collected by the Amazon Associates program.

We also have legitimate interest in using the Amazon Associates Program to optimise our online service and marketing measures. The corresponding legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit.f GDPR (legitimate interests). Nevertheless, we only use the Amazon Associates Program if you have consented to it.

Amazon also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Amazon uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige Amazon to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

We hope we have brought you the most important information about data transfer by the Amazon Affiliate Program. You can find more information on this at https: // www.amazon.de/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201909010 .

Audio & Video

Audio & Video Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: service optimisation 📓 Processed data: Data such as contact details, user behaviour, device information and IP addresses can be stored. You can find more details in the Privacy Policy below. 📅 Storage period: data are retained for as long as necessary for the provision of the service ⚖️ Legal bases: 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 to our website. Therefore, you can watch videos or listen to music/podcasts directly via our website. This content is delivered by service providers and is obtained from the respective providers’ servers.

Audio and video elements are integrated functional elements of platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo or Spotify. It is usually free of charge to use these portals, but they can also contain paid content. With the integrated elements, you can listen to or view any of their content on our website.

If you use audio or video elements on our website, your personal data may get transmitted to as well as processed and retained by service providers.

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

We of course want to provide you with the best offer on our website. And we are aware that content is no longer just conveyed in text and static images. Instead of just giving you a link to a video, we offer you audio and video formats directly on our website. These are entertaining or informative, but ideally they are both. Our service therefore gets expanded and it gets easier for you to access interesting content. In addition to our texts and images, we thus also offer video and/or audio content.

Which data are retained by audio & video elements?

When you visit a page on our website with e.g. an embedded video, your server connects to the service provider’s server. Thus, your data will also be transferred to the third-party provider, where it will be stored. Certain 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. Most providers also collect information on your web activity. This e.g. includes the session duration, bounce rate, the buttons you clicked or information about the website you are using the service on. This data is mostly stored via cookies or pixel tags (also known as web beacons). Any data that is pseudonymised usually gets stored in your browser via cookies. In the respective provider’s Privacy Policy, you can always find more information on the data that is stored and processed.

Duration of data processing

You can find out exactly how long the data is stored on the third-party provider’s servers either in a lower point of the respective tool’s Privacy Policy or in the provider’s Privacy Policy. Generally, personal data is only processed for as long as is absolutely necessary for the provision of our services or products. This usually also applies to third-party providers. In most cases, you can assume that certain data will be stored on third-party providers’ servers for several years. Data can be retained for different amounts of time, especially when stored in cookies. Some cookies are deleted after you leave a website, while others may be stored in your browser for a few years.

Right to object

You also retain the right and the option to revoke your consent to the use of cookies or third-party providers at any time. This can be done either via our cookie management tool or via other opt-out functions. You can e.g. also prevent data retention via cookies by managing, deactivating or erasing cookies in your browser. The legality of the processing up to the point of revocation remains unaffected.

Since the integrated audio and video functions on our site usually also use cookies, we recommend you to also read our general Privacy Policy on cookies. You can find out more about the handling and storage of your data in the Privacy Policies of the respective third party providers.

Legal basis

If you have consented to the processing and storage of your data by integrated audio and video elements, your consent is considered the legal basis for data processing (Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a GDPR). Generally, your data is also stored and processed on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f GDPR) in maintaining fast and good communication with you or other customers and business partners. We only use the integrated audio and video elements if you have consented to it.

SoundCloud Privacy Policy

SoundCloud Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: optimising our service 📓 Processed data: Data such as contact details, data on user behaviour, information about your device and IP address may be stored. You can find more details on this in the privacy policy below. 📅 Storage period: data are generally stored for as long as is necessary for the service’s purposes ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is SoundCloud?

On our website we use functions (widgets) of the social media network SoundCloud, by the company SoundCloud Limited, Rheinsberger Strasse 76/77, 10115 Berlin, Germany. You can recognise the widgets by the familiar orange logo. By using functions such as playing music, data is transmitted to SoundCloud, where it is stored and evaluated.
In this data protection declaration, we will show you what data this is, why we use SoundCloud and how you can manage your data or prevent data transmission.

The social media network SoundCloud is an online music platform that is a space for exchanging and distributing of audio files. Musicians or podcasters offer their audio files for download on SoundCloud. Moreover, you can also integrate audio files into other websites with SoundCloud – which is exactly what we did. A typical feature of SoundCloud are the graphical displays of the audio files as waves, as well as the comment bar. Registered users can listen to and comment music or podcasts anytime.

Why do we use SoundCloud on our website?

It is our goal is to provide you the best possible service on our website. By this we do not just mean our products or services. A holistic customer service also includes the level of comfort you feel when surfing our website, as well as how helpful you find our online offer. Thanks to the embedding of SoundCloud’s playback function, we can deliver acoustic content directly to you – free of charge. You do not have to click any link to listen to an audio file, as you can start listening to it via our website right away.

What data is stored on SoundCloud?

As soon as you visit one of our websites that has an integrated widget (a like button, a share button or a playback function), your browser connects to one of SoundCloud’s servers. That way, data can be transferred from you to SoundCloud, where it may be managed and stored. For example, SoundCloud can identify your IP address and find out, what page (in this case ours) you visited and when. If you have a SoundCloud account and are logged in while surfing our website, the collected data will be assigned directly to your account. The only way to prevent this is to log out of SoundCloud while you are on our website. In addition to the information mentioned above, cookies also store data on your user behaviour. Whenever you e.g. click a button, play or pause music, this information is stored by cookies. The widget (SoundCloud) is therefore able to recognise you and sometimes it is also used to provide you with customised content. SoundCloud does not only use its own cookies, but also third-party cookies such as by Facebook or Google Analytics. The company utilises these cookies to get more information about your behaviour on external websites as well as on its own platform. As the website operators, we do not receive any information about your user behaviour from SoundCloud’s cookies. The data transfer and therefore also the information about your technical devices and your website behaviour, takes place only between you and SoundCloud.

Below we show you a list of cookies that are set when visiting a website that has SoundCloud functions implemented to it. This list is only an example of potential cookies and we do not claim for it to be exhaustive. The listing shows cookies that may be set if a user does not have a SoundCloud account:

Name: sc_anonymous_id
Value: 208165-986996-398971-423805121953414-0
Purpose: This cookie is the reason it is possible to integrate files or other content into websites. Moreover, it stores a user ID.
Expiry date: after 10 years

Note: The sc_anonymous_id cookie is set immediately if you visit one of our websites with a Soundcloud function. This also happens before you interact with the function.

Name: __qca
Value: P0-1223379886-1579605792812121953414-7
Purpose:This cookie is a third-party cookie from Quantcast. It collects data such as how often you visit the site or how long you stay on the site. The collected information is then transmitted to SoundCloud.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: Sclocale
Value: en
Purpose:The cookie stores your pre-set language settings.
Expiry date: after one year

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

Name: _session_auth_key
Value: /
Purpose:With the help of this cookie, session information (i.e. user behaviour) can be saved and client requests can be authenticated.
Expiry date: after 10 years

Furthermore, SoundCloud use further third-party cookies such as _fbp, _ga, gid from Facebook and Google Analytics. SoundCloud use the information stored in the cookies to improve their own services and to display customised advertising.

How long and where is the data stored?

The collected data generally remains stored with SoundCloud for as long as the respective user account exists, or for as long as SoundCloud need it to achieve their business goals. How long exactly it is saved depends on the context and legal obligations. Even if you do not have an account and your personal data have been stored, you have the right to request the deletion of your data.

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

If you have a SoundCloud account, you can go to “Settings” to manage data processing or to delete your account entirely. However, you can also manage, delete or deactivate cookies in your browser. The approach to this depends on the browser you are using. If you decide to delete or deactivate cookies, please consider that afterwards not all functions may be fully available anymore. The following instructions will show you how you can manage, delete or deactivate cookies in your browser.

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

Legal basis

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

We hope we were able to give you a good overview of SoundCloud’s data traffic. If you would like to learn more on data protection guidelines and on how SoundCloud generally handle data, we recommend the company’s privacy policy at https://soundcloud.com/pages/privacy.

Spotify Privacy Policy

On our website we use Spotify, which is a tool for music and podcasts. The provider of this service is the Swedish company Spotify AB, Regeringsgatan 19, SE-111 53 Stockholm, Sweden. You can find out more about the data that is processed by Spotify in their Privacy Policy at https://www.spotify.com/uk/legal/privacy-policy/.

Vimeo Privacy Policy

Vimeo Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: optimising our service 📓 Processed data: Data such as contact details, data on user behaviour, information about your device and IP address may be stored. You can find more details on this in privacy policy below. 📅 Storage period: data are generally stored for as long as is necessary for the purpose of the service ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Vimeo?

On our website, we use videos of the company Vimeo. This video portal is operated by Vimeo LLC, 555 West 18th Street, New York, New York 10011, USA. With the help of a plug-in, we can display interesting video material directly on our website. Consequently, some of your data may be transmitted to Vimeo. In this privacy policy we want to explain to you what data this is, why we use Vimeo and how you can manage your data or prevent data transmission.

Vimeo is a video platform that was founded in 2004 and introduced video streaming in HD quality in 2007. Since 2015 it has been possible to stream in 4k Ultra HD. The use of the portal is free of charge, but it also contains certain paid content. Compared to the market leader YouTube, Vimeo attaches great importance to valuable content in good quality. On the one hand, the portal offers a lot of artistic content such as music videos and short films. On the other hand, it also offers useful documentaries on a broad spectrum of topics.

Why do we use Vimeo on our website?

The aim of our website is to provide you the best possible content, in the easiest and most accessible way we can. We will only be satisfied with our service, once we have reached that goal. The video service Vimeo supports us in achieving this goal. Vimeo gives us the opportunity to present high quality content to you directly on our website. Instead of us merely giving you a link to an interesting video, you can watch the video here with us. This extends our service and makes it easier for you to access interesting content. Therefore, in addition to our texts and images, we can also offer video content.

What data is stored on Vimeo?

When you open a site on our website that has a Vimeo video embedded to it, your browser will connect to Vimeo’s servers, and a data transmission will take place. The data are then collected, stored and processed on Vimeo’s servers. Regardless of whether you have a Vimeo account or not, Vimeo collects data about you. This includes your IP address, technical information about your browser type, your operating system or very basic device information. Furthermore, Vimeo store information on what website you use their service on and which actions (web activities) you carry out on our website. These web activities include e.g. session duration, bounce rate or which button you clicked on our site that contains a Vimeo function. Vimeo can track and store these actions using cookies and similar technologies.

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

Below we will show you an array of cookies Vimeo sets when you are on a website containing an integrated Vimeo function. This list is not exhaustive and assumes that you do not have a Vimeo account.

Name: player
Value: “”
Purpose: This cookie saves your settings before you play an embedded Vimeo video. This will ensure you to receive your preferred settings again next time you watch a Vimeo video.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: vuid
Value: pl1046149876.614422590121953414-4
Purpose: This cookie collects information about your actions on websites that have a Vimeo video embedded to them.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Note: These two cookies are set every time as soon as you are on a website that has a Vimeo video embedded to it. If you watch the video and click a button such as “share” or “like”, additional cookies will be set. These can also be third-party cookies such as _ga or _gat_UA-76641-8 from Google Analytics or _fbp from Facebook. The exact cookies that are set depends on your interaction with the video.

The following list will show a selection of cookies that could be placed when you interact with a Vimeo video:

Name: _abexps
Value: %5B%5D
Purpose: This Vimeo cookie helps Vimeo to remember your settings. For example, this can be a pre-set language, a region or a username. The cookie generally stores data on how you use Vimeo.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: continuous_play_v3
Value: 1
Purpose: This cookie is a first-party cookie from Vimeo. The cookie collects information on how you use Vimeo’s service. For example, the cookie stores details on when you pause a video and resume it.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: _ga
Value: GA1.2.1522249635.1578401280121953414-7
Purpose: This cookie is a third-party cookie from Google. By default, analytics.js uses the _ga cookie to store the user ID. Thus, it serves to differentiate between website visitors.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: _gcl_au
Value: 1.1.770887836.1578401279121953414-3
Purpose: This third-party cookie from Google AdSense is used to improve the efficiency of ads on websites.
Expiry date: after 3 months

Name: _fbp
Value: fb.1.1578401280585.310434968
Purpose:This is a Facebook cookie. It is used to display adverts or advertising products from Facebook or other advertisers.
Expiry date: after 3 months

Vimeo use this data to improve their own service, to communicate with you and to implement their own targeted advertising measures. On their website they emphasise that only first-party cookies (i.e. cookies from Vimeo itself) are used for embedded videos, provided you do not interact with the video.

How long and where is the data stored?

Vimeo is headquartered in White Plains, New York (USA). However, their services are offered worldwide. For this, the company uses computer systems, databases and servers in the United States and other countries. Thus, your data may also be stored and processed on servers in America. Vimeo stores the data until the company no longer has an economical reason for keeping it. Then the data will be deleted or anonymised. Vimeo correspond to the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework and are therefore allowed to collect and use information from users within the EU, and to transfer this data to the USA.

How can I erase my data or prevent data retention?

You always have the option to manage cookies in your browser. If you do not want Vimeo to set cookies and collect information about you for example, you can delete or deactivate cookies in your browser settings at any time. These settings vary a little depending on the browser. Please note that after deactivating/deleting cookies, various functions may no longer be fully available. The following instructions show how you can manage or delete cookies in your browser.

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

If you are a registered Vimeo member, you can also manage cookies in Vimeo’s settings.

Legal basis

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

Vimeo also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Vimeo uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige Vimeo to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

You can find out more about the use of cookies at Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/cookie_policy. Furthermore, you can find more information on privacy at Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/privacy.

YouTube Privacy Policy

YouTube Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: optimising our service 📓 Processed data: Data such as contact details, data on user behaviour, information about your device and IP address may be stored. You can find more details on this in the privacy policy below. 📅 Storage period: data are generally stored for as long as is necessary for the purpose of the service ⚖️ Legal bases: 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 to our website. Therefore, we can show you interesting videos directly on our site. YouTube is a video portal, which has been a subsidiary company of Google LLC 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 contains an embedded YouTube video, your browser automatically connects to the servers of YouTube or Google. Thereby, certain data are transferred (depending on the settings). Google is responsible for YouTube’s data processing and therefore Google’s data protection applies.

In the following we will explain in more detail which data is processed, why we have integrated YouTube videos and how you can manage or clear your data.

On YouTube, users can watch, rate, comment or upload videos for free. Over the past few years, YouTube has become one of the most important social media channels worldwide. For us to be able to display videos on our website, YouTube provides a code snippet that we have integrated to our website.

Why do we use YouTube videos on our website?

YouTube is the video platform with the most visitors and best content. We strive to offer you the best possible user experience on our website, which of course includes interesting videos. With the help of our embedded videos, we can provide you other helpful content in addition to our texts and images. Additionally, embedded videos make it easier for our website to be found on the Google search engine. Moreover, if we place ads via Google Ads, Google only shows these ads to people who are interested in our offers, thanks to the collected data.

What data is stored by YouTube?

As soon as you visit one of our pages with an integrated YouTube, YouTube places at least one cookie that stores your IP address and our URL. If you are logged into your YouTube account, by using cookies YouTube can usually associate your interactions on our website with your profile. This includes data such as session duration, bounce rate, approximate location, technical information such as browser type, screen resolution or your Internet provider. Additional data can include contact details, potential ratings, shared content via social media or YouTube videos you added to your favourites.

If you are not logged in to a Google or YouTube account, Google stores data with a unique identifier linked to your device, browser or app. Thereby, e.g. your preferred language setting is maintained. However, many interaction data cannot be saved since less cookies are set.

In the following list we show you cookies that were placed in the browser during a test. On the one hand, we show cookies that were set without being logged into a YouTube account. On the other hand, we show you what cookies were placed while being logged in. We do not claim for this list to be exhaustive, as user data always depend on how you interact with YouTube.

Name: YSC
Value: b9-CV6ojI5Y121953414-1
Purpose: This cookie registers a unique ID to store statistics of the video that was viewed.
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 locations.
Expiry date: after 30 minutes

Name: VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE
Value: 95Chz8bagyU
Purpose: This cookie tries to estimate the user’s internet bandwith on our sites (that have built-in YouTube videos).
Expiry date: after 8 months

Further cookies that are placed when you are logged into your YouTube account:

Name: APISID
Value: zILlvClZSkqGsSwI/AU1aZI6HY7121953414-
Purpose: This cookie is used to create a profile on your interests. This data is then used for personalised 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 the use of various Google services. CONSENT also provides safety measures to protect users from unauthorised attacks.
Expiry date: after 19 years

Name: HSID
Value: AcRwpgUik9Dveht0I
Purpose: This cookie is used to create a profile on your interests. This data helps to display customised ads.
Expiry date: after 2 years

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

Name: SAPISID
Value: 7oaPxoG-pZsJuuF5/AnUdDUIsJ9iJz2vdM
Purpose: This cookie identifies your browser and device. It is used to create a profile on your interests.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: SID
Value: oQfNKjAsI121953414-
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 on how you use the website and on what advertisements you may have seen before visiting our website.
Expiry date: after 3 months

How long and where is the data stored?

The data YouTube receive and process on you are stored on Google’s servers. Most of these servers are in America. At https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=en you can see where Google’s data centres are located. Your data is distributed across the servers. Therefore, the data can be retrieved quicker and is better protected against manipulation.

Google stores collected data for different periods of time. You can delete some data anytime, while other data are automatically deleted after a certain time, and still other data are stored by Google for a long time. Some data (such as elements on “My activity”, photos, documents or products) that are saved in your Google account are stored until you delete them. Moreover, you can delete some data associated with your device, browser, or app, even if you are not signed into a Google Account.

How can I erase my data or prevent data retention?

Generally, you can delete data manually in your Google account. Furthermore, in 2019 an automatic deletion of location and activity data was introduced. Depending on what you decide on, it deletes stored information either after 3 or 18 months.

Regardless of whether you have a Google account or not, you can set your browser to delete or deactivate cookies placed by Google. These settings vary depending on the browser you use. The following instructions will show how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

If you generally do not want to allow any cookies, you can set your browser to always notify you when a cookie is about to be set. This will enable you to decide to either allow or permit each individual cookie.

Legal basis

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

YouTube also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of the data processing.

YouTube uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR) as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (which are outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) or for data transfer there. These clauses oblige YouTube to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

Since YouTube is a subsidiary company of Google, Google’s privacy statement applies to both. If you want to learn more about how your data is handled, we recommend the privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en.

YouTube Subscribe Button Privacy Policy

We have integrated the YouTube subscribe button to our website, which you can recognise by the classic YouTube logo. The logo shows the words “Subscribe” or “YouTube” in white letters against a red background, with a white “Play” symbol on the left. The button may also be displayed in a different design.

Our YouTube channel consistently offers you funny, interesting or exciting videos. With the built-in “Subscribe” button you can subscribe to our channel directly via our website and do not need to go to YouTube’s website for it. With this feature, we want to make it as easy as possible for you to access our comprehensive content. Please note that YouTube may save and process your data.

If you see a built-in subscription button on our page, YouTube sets at least one cookie, according to Google. This cookie stores your IP address and our URL. It also allows YouTube to receive information about your browser, your approximate location and your default language. In our test the following four cookies were placed, without us being logged into YouTube:

Name: YSC
Value: b9-CV6ojI5121953414Y
Purpose: This cookie registers a unique ID, which stores statistics of the viewed video.
Expiry date: after end of session

Name: PREF
Value: f1=50000000
Purpose:This cookie also registers your unique ID. Google uses PREF to get statistics on how you interact with 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 your GPS location.
Expiry date: after 30 minutes

Name: VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE
Value: 12195341495Chz8bagyU
Purpose: This cookie tries to estimate the user’s internet bandwith on our website (that contain built-in YouTube video).
Expiry date: after 8 months

Note: These cookies were set after a test, thus we do not claim for the list to be exhaustive.

If you are logged into your YouTube account, YouTube may store many of the actions and interactions you make on our website via cookies, to then assign them to your YouTube account. This gives YouTube information on e.g. how long you have been browsing our website, which browser type you use, which screen resolution you prefer or what actions you take.

On the one hand, YouTube uses this data to improve its own services and offers, and on the other hand to provide analyses and statistics for advertisers (who use Google Ads).

Google-Formular Privacy Policy

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

Google also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as the basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (i. e. outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and thus especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC) are legal templates provided by the EU Commission. Their purpose is to ensure that your data complies with European data privacy standards, even if your data is transferred to and stored in third countries (such as the USA). With these clauses, Google commits to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data, even if it is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the standard contractual clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847.

You can find Google Ads’ Data Processing Terms, which correspond to the standard contractual clauses as well as to Google forms at https://business.safety.google/adsprocessorterms/.

You can find out more about the data that is processed by Google in their Privacy Policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-GB.

SurveyMonkey Privacy Policy

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

SurveyMonkey also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

SurveyMonkey uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as the basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (i. e. outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and thus especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC) are legal templates provided by the EU Commission. Their purpose is to ensure that your data complies with European data privacy standards, even if your data is transferred to and stored in third countries (such as the USA). With these clauses, SurveyMonkey commits to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data, even if it is stored, processed and managed in the USA.

These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the standard contractual clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847.

You can find out more about the data that is processed by using SurveyMonkey in their Privacy Policy at https://www.surveymonkey.de/mp/legal/privacy/.

Google Reviews Privacy Policy

We also use the rating platform Google Reviews for our website. The provider of this service is the American company Google Inc. The responsible entity for all Google services in the European area is Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland).

Google also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as the basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (i. e. outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and thus especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC) are legal templates provided by the EU Commission. Their purpose is to ensure that your data complies with European data privacy standards, even if your data is transferred to and stored in third countries (such as the USA). With these clauses, Google commits to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data, even if it is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the standard contractual clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847.

You can find the data processing terms for Google’s advertising products (Google Ads Controller-Controller Data Protection Terms), which correspond to the standard contractual clauses as well as to Google AdMob at https://business.safety.google/adscontrollerterms/.

You can find out more about the data that is processed by Google in their Privacy Policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US.

Trusted Shops Privacy Policy

We also use the rating platform Trusted Shops for our website. The provider of this service is the German company Trusted Shops GmbH, Subbelrather Strasse 15c, 50823 Cologne, Germany. You can find out more about the data that is processed through the use of Trusted Shops in their Privacy Policy at https://www.trustedshops.co.uk/imprint/#user-privacy-policy.

Trustpilot Privacy Policy

We also use the rating platform Trustpilot for our website. The provider of this service is the Danish company Trustpilot A/S, Pilestræde 58, 5, 1112 Copenhagen, Denmark. You can find out more about the data that is processed through the use of Trustpilot in their Privacy Policy at https://uk.legal.trustpilot.com/for-reviewers/end-user-privacy-terms.

Yelp Privacy Policy

We also use the Yelp rating platform for our website. The service provider is the American company Yelp, 140 New Montgomery St., 9th Floor, San Francisco, California 94105, USA.

Yelp also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Yelp uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as the basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (i. e. outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and thus especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC) are legal templates provided by the EU Commission. Their purpose is to ensure that your data complies with European data privacy standards, even if your data is transferred to and stored in third countries (such as the USA). With these clauses, Yelp commits to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data, even if it is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the standard contractual clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847.

You can find out more about the data that is processed through the use of Yelp in their Privacy Policy at https://terms.yelp.co.uk/privacy/en_gb/20200101_en_gb/.

Typekit Fonts (Adobe) Privacy Policy

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

Adobe also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Adobe uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as the basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (i. e. outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and thus especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC) are legal templates provided by the EU Commission. Their purpose is to ensure that your data complies with European data privacy standards, even if your data is transferred to and stored in third countries (such as the USA). With these clauses, Adobe commits to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data, even if it is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the standard contractual clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847.

For more information on the Standard Contractual Clauses at Adobe, see https://www.adobe.com/uk/privacy/eudatatransfers.html.

You can find out more about the data that is processed by Adobe in their Privacy Policy at https://www.adobe.com/uk/privacy.html.

Google Custom Search Privacy Policy

Custom Google Search Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: service optimisation 📓 Processed data: Data such as IP address and entered search terms You can find more details on this in Privacy Policy below. 📅 Storage duration: can very depending on the retained data ⚖️ Legal bases: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Google Custom Search?

We have integrated Google’s custom search plug-in to our website. Google is the largest and most widely known search engine in the world and is operated by the American company Google LLC (1600 Amphitheater Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). Through Google Custom Search data can be transferred from you to Google. In this privacy policy we will inform you on why we use this plug-in, which data is processed and how you can manage or prevent the transmission of your data.

Google’s Custom Search plug-in is a Google search bar that is integrated directly into our website. With it, searches take place just like on www.google.com, but the search results focus on our content and products or a limited area.

Why do we use Google Custom Search on our website?

A website with much interesting content often grows so big that it is easy to lose track. Over time, lots of valuable material has accumulated also on our site. But as part of our service we want you to be able to find our content in a quick and simple manner. Therefore, we have integrated Google Custom Search, which makes finding interesting content a breeze. Moreover, the built-in Google plug-in improves our website’s overall quality and makes searches easier for you.

What data does Google Custom Search store?

The customised Google search only transfers your data to Google, if you actively use the Google search function that is integrated to our website. This means that only when you type a search term in the search bar and click on “Search” or “Enter”, the search term is sent to Google along with your IP address, where they are stored and processed. Based on the placed cookies (such as 1P_JAR), Google may also receive data on website use. If you search for content via the built-in Google search function on our website, while you are logged into your Google account, Google can assign the collected data to your Google account. As the website operator, we have no influence on what Google do with the collected data or how Google process this data.

The following cookies are set in your browser if you use Google Custom Search and are not logged into a Google account:

Name: 1P_JAR
Value: 2020-01-27-13121953414-5
Purpose: This cookie collects website usage statistics and measures conversions. A conversion occurs e.g. when a user becomes a buyer. The cookie is also used to display relevant ads to users.
Expiry date: after one month

Name: CONSENT
Value: WP.282f52121953414-9
Purpose: The cookie stores the status of a user’s consent to the use of various Google services. CONSENT also protects user data from unauthorised attacks.
Expiry date: after 18 years

Name: NID
Value: 196=pwIo3B5fHr-8
Purpose: NID is used by Google to adapt ads to your Google search. With the help of cookies, Google “remembers” your search queries and your previous interaction with ads. That way you always receive customised advertisements.
Expiry date: after 6 months

Note: We do not claim for this list to be exhaustive, Google keep changing the choice of their cookies.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google’s servers are located all over the world. Since Google is an American company, most data is stored on American servers.
At https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=en you can find out where exactly Google’s servers are.
Your data is distributed across various physical data carriers. This means the data can be accessed quicker and is better protected against potential manipulation. Google also have special emergency programs for your data. In case e.g. internal technical problems occur and some servers would stop working, the risk of an interruption of service and data loss remains low.
Google store data for different lengths of time, depending on what type of data they are. You can delete some data yourself, while others are automatically deleted or anonymised by Google. However, Google stores certain data for longer if it is necessary for legal or business reasons.

How can I erase my data or prevent data retention?

According to the European Union’s data protection regulations, you have the right to access information about your data as well as to update, delete or to restrict it. There are certain data which you can delete anytime. If you have a Google account, you can delete data about your web activity there, or set it to be deleted after a specified period.
In your browser you can also deactivate, delete or manage cookies according to your wishes and preferences. Here are instructions for the most popular browsers:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

Legal basis

If you have consented to the use of Google Custom Search, your consent is the legal basis for the corresponding data processing. According to Art. 6 Paragraph 1 lit. a GDPR (consent) your consent is the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as can occur when processed by Google Custom Search.

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

Google also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige Google to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847.

We hope we were able to provide you with the most important information about data processing by Google. If you want to find out more, we recommend you to read Google’s extensive Privacy Policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-GB.

Calendly Privacy Policy

We use Calendly, a planning and organization tool, for our website. The service provider is the American company Calendly LCC, 271 17th St NW, Ste 1000, Atlanta, Georgia, 30363, USA.

Calendly also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Calendly uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as the basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (i. e. outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and thus especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC) are legal templates provided by the EU Commission. Their purpose is to ensure that your data complies with European data privacy standards, even if your data is transferred to and stored in third countries (such as the USA). With these clauses, Calendly commits to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data, even if it is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the standard contractual clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847.

You can find out more about the data that is processed through the use of Calendly in their Privacy Policy at https://calendly.com/privacy.

Font Awesome Privacy Policy

Font Awesome Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: service optimisation 📓 Processed data: data such as the IP address and loaded icon files You can find more details on this in the privacy policy below. 📅 Storage period: data is stored for a few weeks in unidentifiable form ⚖️ Legal bases: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Font Awesome?

On our website we use Font Awesome by the American company Fonticons (307 S. Main St., Suite 202, Bentonville, AR 72712, USA). Upon your visit to one of our websites, the Font Awesome web font, i.e. the icons, are loaded via the Font Awesome Content Delivery Network (CDN). This way texts, fonts and icons are displayed appropriately on every device. In this privacy policy we will go into more detail on data storage and data processing by this service.

Icons play an increasingly important role on websites. Font Awesome is a web font specifically designed for web designers and web developers. With Font Awesome icons can for example be scaled and coloured as desired using the CSS stylesheet language. Thus, they now replace old picture icons. Font Awesome CDN is the easiest way to load icons or fonts onto your website. To do this, we only had to embed a short line of code into our website.

Why do we use Font Awesome on our website?

Font Awesome enables our websites’ content to be depicted better. This eases your navigation on our website, and helps you grasp its content better. The icons can sometimes even be used to replace whole words and save space. This is particularly useful when optimising content specifically for smartphones. The icons are inserted as HMTL code instead of as an image, which allows us to edit the icons with CSS exactly as we want. Simultaneously, Font Awesome also lets us improve our loading speed, as it only contains HTML elements and no icon images. All these advantages help us to make our website even clearer, faster and more refined for you.

Which data are stored by Font Awesome?

The Font Awesome Content Delivery Network (CDN) is used to load icons and symbols. CDNs are server networks that are distributed around the world. They make it possible to quickly load files from locations in close proximity. When you open one of our pages, the respective icons will be provided by Font Awesome.

For the web fonts to be loaded, your browser has to connect to the servers of Fonticons, Inc. For this, your IP address will be identified. Font Awesome also collects data on which icon files are downloaded, as well as when they are downloaded. Furthermore, technical data such as your browser version, screen resolution or the time when you accessed the page are also transmitted.

These data are collected and stored for the following reasons:

• to optimise Content Delivery Networks
• to identify and fix technical errors
• to protect CDNs from misuse and attacks
• to calculate fees from Font Awesome Pro customers
• to identify the popularity of icons
• to establish which computer and software you are using

If your browser does not allow web fonts, one of your PC’s standard fonts will be used automatically. Moreover, as far as we are currently aware, no cookies will be set. We are keeping in contact with Font Awesome’s privacy department and will let you know as soon as we find out more.

How long and where are the data stored?

Font Awesome stores data about the use of the Content Delivery Network also on servers in the United States of America. However, the CDN servers are located all across the world and store user data in your proximity. The data is usually only stored for a few weeks in an identifiable form. Aggregated statistics on the use of the CDNs may also be stored for longer. However, these do not include any personal data.

How can I erase my data or prevent data retention?

As far as we are aware, Font Awesome does not store any personal data via Content Delivery Networks. If you do not want data about the used icons to be stored, you will unfortunately not be able to visit our website. If your browser does not allow web fonts, no data will be transmitted or saved. In this case your computer’s default font will be used.

Legal basis

If you have agreed to the use of Font Awesome, your consent is the legal basis for the corresponding data processing. According to Art. 6 Paragraph 1 lit. a GDPR (consent) this consent represents the legal basis for personal data processing, as can occur when it is collected by Font Awesome.

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

Font Awesome also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Font Awesome uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige Font Awesome to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

If you want to find out more about Font Awesome and their data handling, we recommend you to read their Privacy Policy at https://fontawesome.com/privacy along with the help page at https://fontawesome.com/help.

Getty Images Privacy Policy

We use the Getty Images image portal for our website. The service provider is the American company Getty Images Inc., 605 5th Avenue South Suite 400 Seattle, WA 98104, USA.

Getty Images also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Getty Images uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as the basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (i. e. outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and thus especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC) are legal templates provided by the EU Commission. Their purpose is to ensure that your data complies with European data privacy standards, even if your data is transferred to and stored in third countries (such as the USA). With these clauses, Getty Images commits to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data, even if it is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the standard contractual clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847.

You can find out more about the data processed through the use of Getty Images in the Privacy Policy at https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/company/privacy-policy?language=en-GB.

Giphy Privacy Policy

We use Giphy for our website, which is an online database and search engine. The provider of this service is the American company Giphy Inc, 416 West 13th Street, New York, NY 10014, USA.

Giphy also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Giphy uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as the basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (i. e. outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and thus especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC) are legal templates provided by the EU Commission. Their purpose is to ensure that your data complies with European data privacy standards, even if your data is transferred to and stored in third countries (such as the USA). With these clauses, Giphy commits to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data, even if it is stored, processed and managed in the USA. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the standard contractual clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847.

You can find out more about the data that is processed through the use of Giphy in their Privacy Policy at https://support.giphy.com/hc/en-us/articles/360032872931.

Google Fonts Privacy Policy

Google Fonts Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: service optimisation 📓 Processed data: data such as IP address, CSS and font requests You can find more details on this in the Privacy Policy below. 📅 Storage period: Google stores font files for one year ⚖️ Legal bases: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What are Google Fonts?

On our website we use Google Fonts, by the company Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA).

To use Google Fonts, you must log in and set up a password. Furthermore, no cookies will be saved in your browser. The data (CSS, Fonts) will be requested via the Google domains fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com. According to Google, all requests for CSS and fonts are fully separated from any other Google services. If you have a Google account, you do not need to worry that your Google account details are transmitted to Google while you use Google Fonts. Google records the use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) as well as the utilised fonts and stores these data securely. We will have a detailed look at how exactly the data storage works.

Google Fonts (previously Google Web Fonts) is a directory with over 800 fonts that Google provides its users free of charge.

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

Why do we use Google Fonts on our website?

With Google Fonts we can use different fonts on our website and do not have to upload them to our own server. Google Fonts is an important element which helps to keep the quality of our website high. All Google fonts are automatically optimised for the web, which saves data volume and is an advantage especially for the use of mobile terminal devices. When you use our website, the low data size provides fast loading times. Moreover, Google Fonts are secure Web Fonts. Various image synthesis systems (rendering) can lead to errors in different browsers, operating systems and mobile terminal devices. These errors could optically distort parts of texts or entire websites. Due to the fast Content Delivery Network (CDN) there are no cross-platform issues with Google Fonts. All common browsers (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera) are supported by Google Fonts, and it reliably operates on most modern mobile operating systems, including Android 2.2+ and iOS 4.2+ (iPhone, iPad, iPod). We also use Google Fonts for presenting our entire online service as pleasantly and as uniformly as possible.

Which data is stored by Google?

Whenever you visit our website, the fonts are reloaded by a Google server. Through this external cue, data gets transferred to Google’s servers. Therefore, this makes Google recognise that you (or your IP-address) is visiting our website. The Google Fonts API was developed to reduce the usage, storage and gathering of end user data to the minimum needed for the proper depiction of fonts. What is more, API stands for „Application Programming Interface“ and works as a software data intermediary.

Google Fonts stores CSS and font requests safely with Google, and therefore it is protected. Using its collected usage figures, Google can determine how popular the individual fonts are. Google publishes the results on internal analysis pages, such as Google Analytics. Moreover, Google also utilises data of ist own web crawler, in order to determine which websites are using Google fonts. This data is published in Google Fonts’ BigQuery database. Enterpreneurs and developers use Google’s webservice BigQuery to be able to inspect and move big volumes of data.

One more thing that should be considered, is that every request for Google Fonts automatically transmits information such as language preferences, IP address, browser version, as well as the browser’s screen resolution and name to Google’s servers. It cannot be clearly identified if this data is saved, as Google has not directly declared it.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google saves requests for CSS assets for one day in a tag on their servers, which are primarily located outside of the EU. This makes it possible for us to use the fonts by means of a Google stylesheet. With the help of a stylesheet, e.g. designs or fonts of a website can get changed swiftly and easily.

Any font related data is stored with Google for one year. This is because Google’s aim is to fundamentally boost websites’ loading times. With millions of websites referring to the same fonts, they are buffered after the first visit and instantly reappear on any other websites that are visited thereafter. Sometimes Google updates font files to either reduce the data sizes, increase the language coverage or to improve the design.

How can I erase my data or prevent it being stored?

The data Google stores for either a day or a year cannot be deleted easily. Upon opening the page this data is automatically transmitted to Google. In order to clear the data ahead of time, you have to contact Google’s support at https://support.google.com/?hl=en-GB&tid=121953414. The only way for you to prevent the retention of your data is by not visiting our website.

Unlike other web fonts, Google offers us unrestricted access to all its fonts. Thus, we have a vast sea of font types at our disposal, which helps us to get the most out of our website. You can find out more answers and information on Google Fonts at https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq?tid=121953414. While Google does address relevant elements on data protection at this link, it does not contain any detailed information on data retention.
It proofs rather difficult to receive any precise information on stored data by Google.

Legal basis

If you have consented to the use of Google Fonts, your consent is the legal basis for the corresponding data processing. According to Art. 6 Paragraph 1 lit. a GDPR (Consent) your consent is the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as can occur when it is processed by Google Fonts.

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

Google also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige Google to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

You can find more information on which data is generally retained by Google and what this data is used at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-GB.

Google Fonts Local Privacy Policy

On our website we use Google Fonts, by the company Google Inc. The responsible entity for the European area is Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland). We have integrated Google fonts locally, i.e. on our web server and not on Google’s servers. This means that no connection to Google’s servers and therefore no data transfer or retention take place.

What are Google Fonts?

Google Fonts was previously called Google Web Fonts. It is an interactive list with over 800 fonts which Google offer for free use. With the use of Google Fonts, it is possible to utilise fonts without uploading them to your own server. In order to prevent any transfer of information to Google’s servers, we downloaded the fonts to our own server. This way we can comply with data privacy and do not transmit any data to Google Fonts.

Google Maps Privacy Policy

Google Maps Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: service optimisation 📓 Processed data: data such as entered search terms, IP address as well as latitude and longitude coordinates. You can find more details on this in the Privacy Policy below. 📅 Storage duration: depending on the retained data ⚖️ Legal bases: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is Google Maps?

On our website we use Google Maps of the company Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). With the use of Google Maps, we can show you locations in a better way and can therefore adjust our service to your needs. Due to the utilisation of Google Maps, data gets transferred to Google and is saved on Google’s servers. In the following, we want to explain in detail what Google Maps is, why we use this Google service, what data is stored and how you can prevent this.

Google Maps is an internet maps service of the company Google Inc. With Google Maps you can search for exact locations of cities, sights, accommodations or businesses online via a PC, a tablet or an app. If businesses are represented on Google My Business, the respective location as well as other information about the company are shown there. In order to show route directions, a location’s map sections can be integrated in a website through a HTML-code. Google Maps depicts the earth’s surface as either a road map or as air and satellite images. Due to the street view and high-quality satellite images, it is possible for exact representations to be made.

Why do we use Google Maps on our website?

The efforts we make on this page have the goal of giving you a useful and meaningful experience on our website. Through the integration of Google Maps, we can offer you essential information on various locations. Therefore, you can spot our office address with one glance. Furthermore, the route directions always show you the best and fastest way to us. You can retrieve the route directions for traveling either by car, by public transport, on foot or by bike. The integration of Google Maps is a part of our customer service.

What data is stored by Google Maps?

For Google Maps to offer its full services, the company must collect and store your data. This includes your entered search terms, your IP-address as well as your longitude and latitude coordinates. When you use the route-planner function, the entered start address is stored also. However, this data retention happens on Google Maps‘ websites. We can only inform you about it but cannot influence it in any way. Since we have included Google Maps on our website, Google will set at least one cookie (Name: NID) into your browser. This cookie saves data on your user behaviour. Google primarily uses this data to optimise ist own services and to provide you with individual, personalised advertisements.

The following cookies are set in your browser due to the integration of Google Maps:

Name: NID
Value: 188=h26c1Ktha7fCQTx8rXgLyATyITJ121953414-5
Purpose: Google uses NID in order to adjust advertisments to your Google searches. With the cookie’s help Google “remembers“ your most frequently entered search queries or your previous interaction with ads. That way you always receive customised adertisments. The cookie contains a unique ID, wich Google uses to collect your personal settings for advertising porposes.
Expiration date: after 6 months

Note: We cannot guarantee completeness of the information on saved data. This is, because especially concerning the use of cookies, changes can happen anytime. To identify the cookie NID, a test page was created, to which Google Maps was included.

How long and where is the data stored?

There are Google servers in data centres across the entire planet. However, most servers are in America. For this reason, your data is widely stored in the USA. Here you can read in detail about where the Google servers are located: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=en

Google distributes data to various data carriers. This makes it possible to retrieve the data faster and to better protect it from possible attempted manipulations. Every server has emergency programs. Thus, should for example a problem with Google’s hardware occur or should a natural disaster impact the servers, any data will quite certainly stay protected.

Moreover, Google saves some data for a specified period. With some other data on the other hand, Google only offers the opportunity for deleting it manually. Furthermore, the company anonymises information (e.g. advertising data) in server logs, by deleting a part of the IP-address and cookie information after 9 to 18 months.

How can I erase my data, or prevent data retention?

Due to the automatic delete function for location and activity data, which was introduced in 2019, information that is used for determining your location and web or app activity is saved for either 3 or 18 months, depending on your preferred decision, and is deleted thereafter. Furthermore, it is possible to delete this data manually from your browser history via your Google account anytime. If you want to prevent the determination of your location altogether, you must pause the category “Web and app activity” in your Google account. Click on “Data and personalisation” and then choose the option “Activity controls”. Here you can switch the activities on or off.

Moreover, in your browser you can deactivate, delete or manage individual cookies. This function can differ a little, depending on what browser you are using. The following instructions will show you how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

If you generally do not want to permit any cookies, you can set up your browser in a way that ensures you get informed whenever a cookie is about to be placed. That way you can decide to either permit or refuse every single cookie.

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

Legal basis

If you have consented to the use of Google Maps, your consent is the legal basis for the corresponding data processing. According to Art. 6 paragraph 1 lit. a GDPR (consent) this consent is the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as can occur when processed by Google Maps.

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

Google also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige Google to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847

If you want to find out more about Google’s data processing, we recommend you to read the company’s own Privacy Policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-GB.

Google reCAPTCHA Privacy Policy

Google reCAPTCHA Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: Service optimisation and protection against cyber attacks 📓 Processed data: data such as IP address, browser information, operating system, limited location and usage data You can find more details on this in the Privacy Policy below. 📅 Storage duration: depending on the retained data ⚖️ Legal bases: 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 provide you an experience on our website that is as secure and protected as possible. To do this, we use Google reCAPTCHA from Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheater Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). With reCAPTCHA we can determine whether you are a real person from flesh and bones, and not a robot or a spam software. By spam we mean any electronically undesirable information we receive involuntarily. Classic CAPTCHAS usually needed you to solve text or picture puzzles to check. But thanks to Google’s reCAPTCHA you usually do have to do such puzzles. Most of the times it is enough to simply tick a box and confirm you are not a bot. With the new Invisible reCAPTCHA version you don’t even have to tick a box. In this privacy policy you will find out how exactly this works, and what data is used for it.

reCAPTCHA is a free captcha service from Google that protects websites from spam software and misuse by non-human visitors. This service is used the most when you fill out forms on the Internet. A captcha service is a type of automatic Turing-test that is designed to ensure specific actions on the Internet are done by human beings and not bots. During the classic Turing-test (named after computer scientist Alan Turing), a person differentiates between bot and human. With Captchas, a computer or software program does the same. Classic captchas function with small tasks that are easy to solve for humans but provide considerable difficulties to machines. With reCAPTCHA, you no longer must actively solve puzzles. The tool uses modern risk techniques to distinguish people from bots. The only thing you must do there, is to tick the text field “I am not a robot”. However, with Invisible reCAPTCHA even that is no longer necessary. reCAPTCHA, integrates a JavaScript element into the source text, after which the tool then runs in the background and analyses your user behaviour. The software calculates a so-called captcha score from your user actions. Google uses this score to calculate the likelihood of you being a human, before entering the captcha. reCAPTCHA and Captchas in general are used every time 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 people from flesh and bones on our side and want bots or spam software of all kinds to stay away. Therefore, we are doing everything we can to stay protected and to offer you the highest possible user friendliness. For this reason, we use Google reCAPTCHA from Google. Thus, we can be pretty sure that we will remain a “bot-free” website. Using reCAPTCHA, data is transmitted to Google to determine whether you genuinely are human. reCAPTCHA thus ensures our website’s and subsequently your security. Without reCAPTCHA it could e.g. happen that a bot would register as many email addresses as possible when registering, in order to subsequently “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 user data to determine whether the actions on our website are made by people. Thus, IP addresses and other data Google needs for its reCAPTCHA service, may be sent to Google. Within member states of the European Economic Area, IP addresses are almost always compressed before the data makes its way to a server in the USA. Moreover, your IP address will not be combined with any other of Google’s data, unless you are logged into your Google account while using reCAPTCHA. Firstly, the reCAPTCHA algorithm checks whether Google cookies from other Google services (YouTube, Gmail, etc.) have already been placed in 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 exhaustive. Rather, it provides examples of data, which to our knowledge, is processed by Google.

• Referrer URL (the address of the page the visitor has come from)
• IP-address (z.B. 256.123.123.1)
• Information on the operating system (the software that enables the operation of your computers. Popular operating systems are Windows, Mac OS X or Linux)
• Cookies (small text files that save data in your browser)
• Mouse and keyboard behaviour (every action you take with your mouse or keyboard is stored)
• Date and language settings (the language and date you have set 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 display consists of)

Google may use and analyse this data even before you click on the “I am not a robot” checkmark. In the Invisible reCAPTCHA version, there is no need to even tick at all, as the entire recognition process runs in the background. Moreover, Google have not given details on what information and how much data they retain.

The following cookies are used by reCAPTCHA: With the following list we are referring to Google’s reCAPTCHA demo version at https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api2/demo.
For tracking purposes, all these cookies require a unique identifier. Here is a list of cookies that Google reCAPTCHA has set in the demo version:

Name: IDE
Value: WqTUmlnmv_qXyi_DGNPLESKnRNrpgXoy1K-pAZtAkMbHI-121953414-8
Purpose: This cookie is set by DoubleClick (which is owned by Google) to register and report a user’s interactions with advertisements. With it, ad effectiveness can be measured, and appropriate optimisation measures can 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 website usage statistics and measures conversions. A conversion e.g. takes place, when a user becomes a buyer. The cookie is also used to display relevant adverts to users. Furthermore, the cookie can prevent a user from seeing the same ad more than once.
Expiry date: after one month

Name: ANID
Value: U7j1v3dZa1219534140xgZFmiqWppRWKOr
Purpose: We could not find out much about this cookie. In Google’s privacy statement, the cookie is mentioned in connection with “advertising cookies” such as “DSID”, “FLC”, “AID” and “TAID”. ANID is stored under the domain google.com.
Expiry date: after 9 months

Name: CONSENT
Value: YES+AT.de+20150628-20-0
Purpose: This cookie stores the status of a user’s consent to the use of various Google services. CONSENT also serves to prevent fraudulent logins and to protect user data from unauthorised attacks.
Expiry date: after 19 years

Name: NID
Value: 0WmuWqy121953414zILzqV_nmt3sDXwPeM5Q
Purpose: Google uses NID to customise advertisements to your Google searches. With the help of cookies, Google “remembers” your most frequently entered search queries or your previous ad interactions. Thus, you always receive advertisements tailored to you. The cookie contains a unique ID to collect users’ personal settings for advertising purposes.
Expiry date: after 6 months

Name: DV
Value: gEAABBCjJMXcI0dSAAAANbqc121953414-4
Purpose: This cookie is set when you tick the “I am not a robot” checkmark. Google Analytics uses the cookie personalised advertising. DV collects anonymous information and is also used to distinct between users.
Expiry date: after 10 minutes

Note: We do not claim for this list to be extensive, as Google often change the choice of their cookies.

How long and where are the data stored?

Due to the integration of reCAPTCHA, your data will be transferred to the Google server. Google have not disclosed where exactly this data is stored, despite repeated inquiries. But even without confirmation from Google, it can be assumed that data such as mouse interaction, length of stay on a website or language settings are stored on the European or American Google servers. The IP address that your browser transmits to Google does generally not get merged with other Google data from the company’s other services.
However, the data will be merged if you are logged in to your Google account while using the reCAPTCHA plug-in. Google’s diverging privacy policy applies for this.

How can I erase my data or prevent data retention?

If you want to prevent any data about you and your behaviour to be transmitted to Google, you must fully log out of Google and delete all Google cookies before visiting our website or use the reCAPTCHA software. Generally, the data is automatically sent to Google as soon as you visit our website. To delete this data, you must contact Google Support at https://support.google.com/?hl=en-GB&tid=121953414.

If you use our website, you agree that Google LLC and its representatives automatically collect, edit and use data.

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

Legal basis

If you have consented to the use of Google reCAPTCHA, your consent is the legal basis for the corresponding data processing. According to Art. 6 Paragraph 1 lit. a GDPR (consent) your consent is the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as can occur when processed by Google reCAPTCHA.

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

Google also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

Google uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige Google to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847.

You can find out a little more about reCAPTCHA on Google’s web developer page at https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/. Google goes into the technical development of the reCAPTCHA in more detail here, but you will look in vain for detailed information about data storage and data protection issues. A good overview of the basic use of data by Google can be found in the in-house data protection declaration at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-GB.

OpenStreetMap Privacy Policy

OpenStreetMap Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: service optimisation 📓 Processed data: data such as IP address, browser information, operating system, content of the request, restricted location data and usage data You can find more details on this in the privacy policy below. 📅 Storage period: the IP address will be erased after 180 days ⚖️ Legal bases: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is OpenStreetMap?

We have included map sections of the online map tool “OpenStreetMap” to our website. It is a so-called open source mapping, which we can access via an API (interface). This feature is offered by OpenStreetMap Foundation, St John’s Innovation Center, Cowley Road, Cambridge, CB4 0WS, United Kingdom. By using this map function, your IP address will be forwarded to OpenStreetMap. In this privacy policy we will explain why we use the functions of the OpenStreetMap tool, where which data is stored and how you can prevent data storage.

The OpenStreetMap project was launched in 2004. Its aim is to create a free world map. Users all around the world have been collecting data about buildings, forests, rivers and roads. Therefore, an extensive digital world map has been created by users over the years. Of course, the map is not complete, but it contains a lot of data for most regions.

Why do we use OpenStreetMap on our website?

The primary intention of your website is to be helpful to you. We think this can only be the case when information can be found quickly and easily. On the one hand, of course, this concerns our services and products. On the other hand, there should also be other helpful information available to you. That is why we also use OpenStreetMap’s map service. Thanks to this, we can for example show you exactly how to find our company. The map shows you the best way to get to us and makes your journey very smooth and easy.

What data is stored by OpenStreetMap?

When you visit one of our websites that include OpenStreetMap, your user data is transmitted to the service where it is stored. OpenStreetMap collects information about your interactions with the digital map, your IP address, your browser, device type, operating system and on which day and at what time you used the service. Tracking software is also used to record user interactions. For this regard, the company specifiies the “Piwik” analysis tool in its own privacy policy.

The collected data are then accessible to the relevant employee groups of the OpenStreetMap Foundation. According to the company, personal data will not be passed on to other people or companies, unless it is legally required. The third-party provider Piwik stores your IP address, but in a shortened form.

The following cookies may be set in your browser if you inerace with OpenStreetMap on our website:

Name: _osm_location
Value: 9.63312%7C52.41500%7C17%7CM
Purpose: This cookie is required to unlock OpenStreetMap’s contents.
Ablaufdatum: after 10 years

If you want to view the map in full screen, you will be linked to OpenStreetMap’s website. There, the following cookies may be stored in your browser:

Name: _osm_totp_token
Value: 148253121953414-2
Purpose:This cookie is used to ensure the operation of the map section.
Expiry date:after one hour

Name: _osm_session
Value: 1d9bfa122e0259d5f6db4cb8ef653a1c
Purpose: With the help of this cookie, session information (i.e. user behavior) can be stored.
Expiry date: after end of session

Name: _pk_id.1.cf09
Value: 4a5.1593684142.2.1593688396.1593688396121953414-9
Purpose:This cookie is set by Piwik to save or measure user data such as click behavior.
Expiry date: after one year

How long and where are the data stored?

The API servers, databases, and servers of auxiliary services are currently located in the United Kingdom (Great Britain and Northern Ireland) and the Netherlands. Your IP address and user information, which are saved in an abbreviated version by the web analysis tool Piwik, will be deleted after 180 days.

How can I erase my data or prevent data retention?

You have the right to both access your personal data and to object to its use and processing at any time. You can also always manage, delete, or deactivate cookies that may be set by OpenStreetMap in your browser. As a result, however, the service may no longer work to their full extent. The management, deletion or deactivation of cookies works differently in every browser. Below you will find links to the instructions of the most popular browsers:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

Legal basis

If you have consented that OpenStreetMap may be used, the legal basis for the corresponding data processing is this consent. According to Art. 6 Paragraph 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), your consent represents the legal basis for personal data processing, as can occur when collected by OpenStreetMap.

We also have a legitimate interest in using OpenStreetMap to optimise our online services. The corresponding legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit.f GDPR (legitimate interests). We only use OpenStreetMap if you have given your consent to it.

For more information on OpenStreetMap’s data processing, we recommend the company’s privacy policy at https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy.

Spotify Music Player Widget Privacy Policy

On our website, we use the Spotify Music Player widget by the music platform Spotify. The provider of this service is the Swedish company Spotify AB, Regeringsgatan 19, 111 53 Stockholm, Sweden. You can find out more about the data that is processed through the use of Spotify in their Privacy Policy at https://www.spotify.com/uk/legal/privacy-policy/.

WooCommerce Privacy Policy

WooCommerce Privacy Policy Overview 👥 Affected parties: website visitors 🤝 Purpose: service optimisation 📓 Processed data: data such as IP address, browser information, preset language settings as well as date and time of web access You can find more details on this in the Privacy Policy below. 📅 Storage period: Server log files, technical data and IP addresses will be erased after about 30 days ⚖️ Legal bases: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (legitimate interests)

What is WooCommerce?

We have integrated the open-source shop system WooCommerce to our website as a plugin. This WooCommerce plugin is based on the content management system WordPress, which is a subsidiary company of Automattic Inc. (60 29th Street #343, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA). Through the implemented functions, data are stored and sent to Automattic Inc where they are processed. In this privacy policy we want to inform you on what data this is, how the network uses this data and how you can manage or prevent data retention.

WooCommerce is an online shop system that has been part of the WordPress directory since 2011 and was specially developed for WordPress websites. It is a customisable, open source eCommerce platform that is based on WordPress. It has been integrated into our website as a WordPress plugin.

Why do we use WooCommerce on our website?

We use this practical online shop system, to be able to offer you our physical or digital products or services in the best possible way on our website. The aim is to give you easy and easy access to our offer, so that you can quickly and easily navigate to the products you want. With WooCommerce we have found a good plugin that meets our requirements for an online shop.

What data is stored by WooCommerce?

Information that you actively enter to a text field in our online shop can be collected and stored by WooCommerce or Automattic. Hence, if you register with us or order a product, Automattic may collect, process and save this data. In addition to email address, name or address, this can also be your credit card or billing information. Subsequently, Automattic can also use this information for their own marketing campaigns.

There is also evidence that Automattic automatically collects information on you in so-called server log files:

• IP-address
• Browser information
• Pre-set language settings
• Date and time of the web access

Moreover, WooCommerce sets cookies in your browser and uses technologies such as pixel tags (web beacons), to for example clearly identify you as a user and to be able to offer interest-based advertising. WooCommerce uses several different cookies, which are placed depending on the user action. This means that if you for example add a product to the shopping cart, a cookie is set so that the product remains in the shopping cart when you leave our website and come back later.

Below we want to show you an example list of possible cookies that may be set by WooCommerce:

Name: woocommerce_items_in_cart
Value: 1
Purpose: This cookie helps WooCommerce to determine when the contents of the shopping cart change.
Expiry date: after end of session

Name: woocommerce_cart_hash
Value: 447c84f810834056ab37cfe5ed27f204121953414-7
Purpose: This cookie is also used to recognise and save the changes in your shopping cart.
Expiry date: after end of session

Name: wp_woocommerce_session_d9e29d251cf8a108a6482d9fe2ef34b6
Value: 1146%7C%7C1589034207%7C%7C95f8053ce0cea135bbce671043e740121953414-4aa
Purpose: This cookie contains a unique identifier for you to allow the shopping cart data to be found in the database.
Expiry date: after 2 days

How long and where is the data stored?

Unless there is a legal obligation to keep data for a longer period, WooCommerce will delete your data if it is no longer needed for the purposes it was saved for. Server log files for example, the technical data for your browser and your IP address will be deleted after about 30 days. This is how long Automattic use the data to analyse the traffic on their own websites (for example all WordPress websites) and to fix possible problems. The data is stored on Automattic’s American servers.

How can I erase my data and prevent data retention?

You have the right to access your personal data anytime, as well as to object to it being used and processed. You can also lodge a complaint with a state supervisory authority anytime.

You can also manage, delete or deactivate cookies individually in your browser. However, please note that deactivated or deleted cookies may have a negative impact on the functions of our WooCommerce online shop. Depending on the browser you use, managing cookies differs slightly. Below you will find links to the instructions for the most common browsers:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

Legal basis

If you have agreed to the use of WooCommerce, then your consent the legal basis for the corresponding data processing. According to Art. 6 paragraph 1 lit. a (Consent) your consent is the legal basis for the processing of personal data, as can occur when it is collected by WooCommerce.

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

WooCommerce also processes data in the USA, among other countries. We would like to note, that according to the European Court of Justice, there is currently no adequate level of protection for data transfers to the USA. This can be associated with various risks to the legality and security of data processing.

WooCommerce uses standard contractual clauses approved by the EU Commission as basis for data processing by recipients based in third countries (outside the European Union, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and especially in the USA) or data transfer there (= Art. 46, paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR). These clauses oblige WooCommerce to comply with the EU‘s level of data protection when processing relevant data outside the EU. These clauses are based on an implementing order by the EU Commission. You can find the order and the clauses here: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_2847.

You can find more details on WooCommerce’s Privacy Policy and on which data is retained as well as how at https://automattic.com/privacy/ and you can find more general information about WooCommerce at https://woocommerce.com/.

All texts are copyrighted.

Source: Created with the Privacy Policy Generator by AdSimple.