Privacy Policy
1. An overview of data protection
General
The following gives a simple overview of what happens to your personal information when you visit our website. Personal information is any data with which you could be
personally identified. Detailed information on the subject of data protection can be found in our
privacy policy found below.
Data collection on our website
Who is responsible for the data collection
on this website?
The data collected on this website are processed by the website operator. The operator's contact details can be found in the website's required legal
notice.
How do we collect your data?
Some data are collected when you provide it to us. This could, for example, be data you enter on a contact form.
Other data are collected automatically by our IT systems when you visit the website. These data are primarily technical data such as the browser and operating system you are using or
when you accessed the page. These data are collected automatically as soon as you enter our
website.
What do we use your data for?
Part of the data is
collected to ensure the proper functioning of the website. Other data can be used to analyze how
visitors use the site.
What rights do you have regarding your
data?
You always have the right to request information about your stored data,
its origin, its recipients, and the purpose of its collection at no charge. You also have the right to
request that it be corrected, blocked, or deleted. You can contact us at any time using the
address given in the legal notice if you have further questions about the issue of privacy and data
protection. You may also, of course, file a complaint with the competent regulatory
authorities.
Analytics and third-party tools
When visiting our website, statistical analyses may
be made of your surfing behavior. This happens primarily using cookies and analytics. The
analysis of your surfing behavior is usually anonymous, i.e. we will not be able to identify you
from this data. You can object to this analysis or prevent it by not using certain tools. Detailed
information can be found in the following privacy policy.
You can object to this analysis.
We will inform you below about how to exercise your options in this regard.
2. General information and mandatory information
Data protection
The operators of this website take the protection of your personal
data very seriously. We treat your personal data as confidential and in accordance with the
statutory data protection regulations and this privacy policy.
If you use this website,
various pieces of personal data will be collected. Personal information is any data with which you
could be personally identified. This privacy policy explains what information we collect and what
we use it for. It also explains how and for what purpose this happens.
Please note that
data transmitted via the internet (e.g. via email communication) may be subject to security
breaches. Complete protection of your data from third-party access is not possible.
Revocation of your consent to the processing of your data
Many data processing
operations are only possible with your express consent. You may revoke your consent at any
time with future effect. An informal email making this request is sufficient. The data processed
before we receive your request may still be legally processed.
Right to file complaints with regulatory authorities
If there has been a breach of
data protection legislation, the person affected may file a complaint with the competent regulatory
authorities. The competent regulatory authority for matters related to data protection legislation is
the data protection officer of the German state in which our company is headquartered. A list of
data protection officers and their contact details can be found at the following link: https://www.bfdi.bund.de/DE/Infothek/Anschriften_Links/anschriften_linksnode.html.
Right to data portability
You have the right to have data which we process based
on your consent or in fulfillment of a contract automatically delivered to yourself or to a third party
in a standard, machine-readable format. If you require the direct transfer of data to another
responsible party, this will only be done to the extent technically feasible.
SSL or TLS encryption
This site uses SSL or TLS encryption for security reasons
and for the protection of the transmission of confidential content, such as the inquiries you send
to us as the site operator. You can recognize an encrypted connection in your browser's address
line when it changes from "http://" to "https://" and the lock icon is displayed in your browser's
address bar.
If SSL or TLS encryption is activated, the data you transfer to us cannot be
read by third parties.
Information, blocking, deletion
As permitted by law, you have the right to be
provided at any time with information free of charge about any of your personal data that is stored
as well as its origin, the recipient and the purpose for which it has been processed. You also have
the right to have this data corrected, blocked or deleted. You can contact us at any time using the
address given in our legal notice if you have further questions on the topic of personal data.
Opposition to promotional emails
We hereby expressly prohibit the use of contact
data published in the context of website legal notice requirements with regard to sending
promotional and informational materials not expressly requested. The website operator reserves
the right to take specific legal action if unsolicited advertising material, such as email spam, is
received.
3. Data collection on our website
Cookies
Some of our web pages use cookies. Cookies do not harm your computer
and do not contain any viruses. Cookies help make our website more user-friendly, efficient, and
secure. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer and saved by your
browser.
Most of the cookies we use are so-called "session cookies." They are
automatically deleted after your visit. Other cookies remain in your device's memory until you
delete them. These cookies make it possible to recognize your browser when you next visit the
site.
You can configure your browser to inform you about the use of cookies so that you
can decide on a case-by-case basis whether to accept or reject a cookie. Alternatively, your
browser can be configured to automatically accept cookies under certain conditions or to always
reject them, or to automatically delete cookies when closing your browser. Disabling cookies may
limit the functionality of this website.
Cookies which are necessary to allow electronic
communications or to provide certain functions you wish to use (such as the shopping cart) are
stored pursuant to Art. 6 paragraph 1, letter f of DSGVO. The website operator has a legitimate
interest in the storage of cookies to ensure an optimized service provided free of technical errors.
If other cookies (such as those used to analyze your surfing behavior) are also stored, they will be
treated separately in this privacy policy.
Server log files
The website provider automatically collects and stores information
that your browser automatically transmits to us in "server log files". These are:
- Browser type and browser version
- Operating system used
- Referrer URL
- Host name of the accessing computer
- Time of the server request
- IP address
These data will not be combined with data from other sources.
The
basis for data processing is Art. 6 (1) (f) DSGVO, which allows the processing of data to fulfill a
contract or for measures preliminary to a contract.
Contact form
Should you send us questions via the contact form, we will collect the
data entered on the form, including the contact details you provide, to answer your question and
any follow-up questions. We do not share this information without your permission.
We
will, therefore, process any data you enter onto the contact form only with your consent per Art. 6
(1)(a) DSGVO. You may revoke your consent at any time. An informal email making this request
is sufficient. The data processed before we receive your request may still be legally
processed.
We will retain the data you provide on the contact form until you request its
deletion, revoke your consent for its storage, or the purpose for its storage no longer pertains
(e.g. after fulfilling your request). Any mandatory statutory provisions, especially those regarding
mandatory data retention periods, remain unaffected by this provision.
Registration on this website
You can register on our website in order to access
additional functions offered here. The input data will only be used for the purpose of using the
respective site or service for which you have registered. The mandatory information requested
during registration must be provided in full. Otherwise, we will reject your registration.
To
inform you about important changes such as those within the scope of our site or technical
changes, we will use the email address specified during registration.
We will process the
data provided during registration only based on your consent per Art. 6 (1)(a) DSGVO. You may
revoke your consent at any time with future effect. An informal email making this request is
sufficient. The data processed before we receive your request may still be legally processed.
We will continue to store the data collected during registration for as long as you remain
registered on our website. Statutory retention periods remain unaffected.
Leaving comments on this website
If you use the comment function on this site,
the time at which you created the comment and your email address will be stored along with your
comment, as well as your username, unless you are posting anonymously.
Storage of the IP address
Our comment function stores the IP
addresses of those users who post comments. Since we do not check comments on our site
before they go live, we need this information to be able to pursue action for illegal or slanderous
content.
Subscribing to the comment feed
As a user of this site, you can
sign up to receive the comment feed after registering. Your email address will be checked with a
confirmation email. You can unsubscribe from this function at any time by clicking the link in the
emails. The data provided when you subscribed to the comments feed will then be deleted, but if
you have submitted this data to us for other purposes or elsewhere (such as subscribing to a
newsletter), it will be retained.
How long comments are stored
The comments and the associated
data (e.g. IP address) are stored and remain on our website until the content commented upon
has been completely deleted or the comments are required to be removed for legal reasons
(slander, etc.).
Legal basis
The comments are stored based on your consent per
Art. 6 (1) (a) DSGVO. You may revoke your consent at any time with future effect. An informal
email making this request is sufficient. The data processed before we receive your request may
still be legally processed.
4. Social media
Facebook plugins (Like & Share buttons)
Our website includes plugins for the
social network Facebook, Facebook Inc., 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA. The
Facebook plugins can be recognized by the Facebook logo or the Like button on our site. For an
overview of Facebook plugins, see https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/.
When you visit our
site, a direct connection between your browser and the Facebook server is established via the
plugin. This enables Facebook to receive information that you have visited our site from your IP
address. If you click on the Facebook "Like button" while you are logged into your Facebook
account, you can link the content of our site to your Facebook profile. This allows Facebook to
associate visits to our site with your user account. Please note that, as the operator of this site,
we have no knowledge of the content of the data transmitted to Facebook or of how Facebook
uses these data. For more information, please see Facebook's privacy policy at https://dede.facebook.com/policy.php.
If you do not want Facebook to associate your visit to
our site with your Facebook account, please log out of your Facebook account.
Twitter plugin
Functions of the Twitter service have been integrated into our
website and app. These features are offered by Twitter Inc., 1355 Market Street, Suite 900, San
Francisco, CA 94103, USA. When you use Twitter and the "Retweet" function, the websites you
visit are connected to your Twitter account and made known to other users. In doing so, data will
also be transferred to Twitter. We would like to point out that, as the provider of these pages, we
have no knowledge of the content of the data transmitted or how it will be used by Twitter. For
more information on Twitter's privacy policy, please go to https://twitter.com/privacy.
Your privacy preferences with Twitter
can be modified in your account settings at https://twitter.com/account/settings.
5. Analytics and advertising
Google Analytics
This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service. It is
operated by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.
Google Analytics uses so-called "cookies". These are text files that are stored on your
computer and that allow an analysis of the use of the website by you. The information generated
by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transmitted to a Google server in the USA
and stored there.
Google Analytics cookies are stored based on Art. 6 (1) (f) DSGVO.
The website operator has a legitimate interest in analyzing user behavior to optimize both its
website and its advertising.
IP anonymization
We have
activated the IP anonymization feature on this website. Your IP address will be shortened by
Google within the European Union or other parties to the Agreement on the European Economic
Area prior to transmission to the United States. Only in exceptional cases is the full IP address
sent to a Google server in the US and shortened there. Google will use this information on behalf
of the operator of this website to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website
activity, and to provide other services regarding website activity and Internet usage for the
website operator. The IP address transmitted by your browser as part of Google Analytics will not
be merged with any other data held by Google.
Browser plugin
You can prevent these cookies being stored by
selecting the appropriate settings in your browser. However, we wish to point out that doing so
may mean you will not be able to enjoy the full functionality of this website. You can also prevent
the data generated by cookies about your use of the website (incl. your IP address) from being
passed to Google, and the processing of these data by Google, by downloading and installing the
browser plugin available at the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.
Objecting
to the collection of data
You can prevent the collection of your data by Google
Analytics by clicking on the following link. An opt-out cookie will be set to prevent your data from
being collected on future visits to this site: Disable Google
Analytics.
For more information about how Google Analytics handles user data, see
Google's privacy policy: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en.
g>Outsourced data processing
We have entered into an agreement with
Google for the outsourcing of our data processing and fully implement the strict requirements of
the German data protection authorities when using Google Analytics.
Demographic data collection by Google Analytics
This website
uses Google Analytics' demographic features. This allows reports to be generated containing
statements about the age, gender, and interests of site visitors. This data comes from interestbased
advertising from Google and third-party visitor data. This collected data cannot be
attributed to any specific individual person. You can disable this feature at any time by adjusting
the ads settings in your Google account or you can forbid the collection of your data by Google
Analytics as described in the section "Refusal of data collection".
6. Newsletter
Newsletter data
If you would like to receive our newsletter, we require a valid email
address as well as information that allows us to verify that you are the owner of the specified
email address and that you agree to receive this newsletter. No additional data is collected or is
only collected on a voluntary basis. We only use this data to send the requested information and
do not pass it on to third parties.
We will, therefore, process any data you enter onto the
contact form only with your consent per Art. 6 (1) (a) DSGVO. You can revoke consent to the
storage of your data and email address as well as their use for sending the newsletter at any
time, e.g. through the "unsubscribe" link in the newsletter. The data processed before we receive
your request may still be legally processed.
The data provided when registering for the
newsletter will be used to distribute the newsletter until you cancel your subscription when said
data will be deleted. Data we have stored for other purposes (e.g. email addresses for the
members area) remain unaffected.
MailChimp
This website uses the services of MailChimp to send newsletters. This
service is provided by Rocket Science Group LLC, 675 Ponce De Leon Ave NE, Suite 5000,
Atlanta, GA 30308, USA.
MailChimp is a service which organizes and analyzes the
distribution of newsletters. If you provide data (e.g. your email address) to subscribe to our
newsletter, it will be stored on MailChimp servers in the USA.
MailChimp is certified
under the EU-US Privacy Shield. The Privacy Shield is an agreement between the European
Union (EU) and the US to ensure compliance with European privacy standards in the United
States.
We use MailChimp to analyze our newsletter campaigns. When you open an
email sent by MailChimp, a file included in the email (called a web beacon) connects to
MailChimp's servers in the United States. This allows us to determine if a newsletter message
has been opened and which links you click on. In addition, technical information is collected (e.g.
time of retrieval, IP address, browser type, and operating system). This information cannot be
assigned to a specific recipient. It is used exclusively for the statistical analysis of our newsletter
campaigns. The results of these analyses can be used to better tailor future newsletters to your
interests.
If you do not want your usage of the newsletter to be analyzed by MailChimp,
you will have to unsubscribe from the newsletter. For this purpose, we provide a link in every
newsletter we send. You can also unsubscribe from the newsletter directly on the website.
Data processing is based on Art. 6 (1) (a) DSGVO. You may revoke your consent at any time
by unsubscribing to the newsletter. The data processed before we receive your request may still
be legally processed.
The data provided when registering for the newsletter will be used
to distribute the newsletter until you cancel your subscription when said data will be deleted from
our servers and those of MailChimp. Data we have stored for other purposes (e.g. email
addresses for the members area) remains unaffected.
For details, see the MailChimp
privacy policy at https://mailchimp.com/legal/terms/.
Completion of a data processing agreement
We have entered into
a data processing agreement with MailChimp, in which we require MailChimp to protect the data
of our customers and not to disclose said data to third parties. This agreement may be viewed at
the following link: https://mailchimp.com/legal/forms/data-processingagreement/sample-agreement/.
7. Plugins and tools
Google Web Fonts
For uniform representation of fonts, this page uses web fonts
provided by Google. When you open a page, your browser loads the required web fonts into your
browser cache to display texts and fonts correctly.
For this purpose your browser has to
establish a direct connection to Google servers. Google thus becomes aware that our web page
was accessed via your IP address. The use of Google Web fonts is done in the interest of a
uniform and attractive presentation of our website. This constitutes a justified interest pursuant to
Art. 6 (1) (f) DSGVO.
If your browser does not support web fonts, a standard font is used
by your computer.
Further information about handling user data, can be found at https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq and in Google's privacy policy at https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.
Google Maps
This site uses the Google Maps map service via an API. It is
operated by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.
To use Google Maps, it is necessary to save your IP address. This information is generally
transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. The provider of this site has no
influence on this data transfer.
The use of Google Maps is in the interest of making our
website appealing and to facilitate the location of places specified by us on the website. This
constitutes a justified interest pursuant to Art. 6 (1) (f) DSGVO.
Further information about
handling user data, can be found in the data protection declaration of Google at https://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy/.