Privacy Policy

We have drafted this privacy statement (version 25.01.2021-311254177) to explain to you, in accordance with the requirements of the Primary Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679, what information we collect, how we use data, and the choices you have as a visitor to this website.

Unfortunately, it is in the nature of things that these explanations sound very technical, but we have tried to describe the most important things as simply and clearly as possible when creating them.

Automatic Data Storage

When you visit websites these days, certain information is automatically created and stored, and this website is no exception.

When you visit our website as you are doing right now, our web server (computer on which this website is stored) automatically stores data like

• the address (URL) of the web page you are visiting
• browser and browser version
• the operating system used
• the address (URL) of the previously visited page (referrer URL)
• the host name and IP address of the device from which is accessed
• date and time

in files (web server log files).

As a rule, web server log files are stored for two weeks and then automatically deleted. We do not share this data, but we cannot exclude the possibility that this data may be viewed in the event of unlawful behavior.

Cookies

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

What exactly are cookies?

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

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

Cookies store certain user data from you, such as language or personal page settings. When you return to our site, your browser transmits the "user-related" information back to our site. Thanks to cookies, our site knows who you are and offers you your usual default setting. In some browsers each cookie has its own file, in others such as Firefox all cookies are stored in a single file.

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

This is what cookie data can look like, for example:

• Name: _ga
• Expiration: 2 years
• Use: distinguishing website visitors
• Exemplary value: GA1.2.1326744211.152311254177

A browser should support the following minimum sizes:

• A cookie should be able to contain at least 4096 bytes
• A minimum of 50 cookies should be able to be stored per domain
• A total of at least 3000 cookies should be able to be stored

What types of cookies are there?

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

We can distinguish 4 types of cookies:

Unconditionally necessary cookies
These cookies are necessary to ensure basic functions of the website. For example, it needs these cookies when a user puts a product in the shopping cart, then continues surfing on other pages and only later goes to the checkout. Through these cookies, the shopping cart is not deleted even if the user closes his browser window.

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

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

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

Usually, when you visit a website for the first time, you are asked which of these cookie types you want to allow. And of course, this decision is also stored in a cookie.

How can I delete cookies?

How and whether you want to use cookies is up to you. Regardless of which service or website the cookies come from, you always have the option to delete cookies, only partially allow them or disable them. For example, you can block third-party cookies but allow all other cookies.

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

Chrome: Delete, enable, and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and site data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: deleting and managing cookies

If you generally don't want cookies, you can set your browser to notify you whenever a cookie is about to be set. In this way, you can decide for each individual cookie whether you allow the cookie or not. The procedure varies depending on the browser. It is best you search the instructions in Google with the search term "delete cookies Chrome" or "disable cookies Chrome" in the case of a Chrome browser or replace the word "Chrome" with the name of your browser, e.g. Edge, Firefox, Safari.

What about my privacy protection?

Since 2009, there are the so-called "cookie guidelines". In it, it is stated that the storage of cookies requires your consent. Within the EU countries, however, there are still very different reactions to these directives. In Germany, the Cookie Directives have not been implemented as national law. Instead, this directive was largely implemented in Section 15 (3) of the German Telemedia Act (TMG).

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

Storage of personal data

Personal data that you submit to us electronically on this website, such as name, email address, address or other personal information in the context of submitting a form or commenting on the blog, will be used by us together with the time and IP address only for the purpose specified in each case, kept secure and not disclosed to third parties.

We thus use your personal data only to communicate with those visitors who expressly request contact and to process the services and products offered on this website. We do not disclose your personal data without consent, but we cannot exclude the possibility that this data may be viewed in the event of unlawful behavior.

If you send us personal data by e-mail - thus away from this website - we cannot guarantee secure transmission and protection of your data. We recommend that you never send confidential data unencrypted by e-mail.

According to Article 6  paragraph 1 a GDPR (lawfulness of processing), the legal basis is that you give us consent to process the data you have entered. You can revoke this consent at any time - an informal email is sufficient, you can find our contact details in the imprint.

Rights according to the General Data Protection Regulation

You are basically entitled to the following rights according to the provisions of the GDPR:

• Right to rectification (Article 16 GDPR)
• Right to erasure ("right to be forgotten") (Article 17 GDPR)
• Right to restriction of processing (Article 18 GDPR)
• Right to be notified - notification obligation in connection with the rectification or erasure of personal data or the 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 believe that the processing of your data violates data protection law or your data protection rights have otherwise been violated in any way and based in germany, you can contact the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI). If you're from an another country please have a look here and find your local Federal Commissioner for Data Protection.

Analysis of visitor behavior

In the following privacy policy, we inform you whether and how we evaluate data from your visit to this website. The evaluation of the collected data is usually anonymous and we can not conclude from your behavior on this website to your person.

You can find out more about ways to object to this analysis of visit data in the following privacy statement.

TLS encryption with https

We use https to transmit data tap-proof on the Internet (data protection by design of technology Article 25(1) GDPR). By using TLS (Transport Layer Security), an encryption protocol for secure data transmission on the Internet, we can ensure the protection of confidential data. You can recognize the use of this protection of data transmission by the small lock symbol at the top left of the browser and the use of the scheme https (instead of http) as part of our Internet address.

Google Fonts Local Privacy Policy

On our website, we use Google Fonts from the company Google Inc. The company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for the European region. We have embedded the Google fonts locally, i.e. on our web server - not on Google's servers. As a result, there is no connection to Google servers and therefore no data transfer or storage.

What are Google Fonts?

In the past, Google Fonts were also called Google Web Fonts. This is an interactive directory of over 800 fonts that Google provides for free. With Google Fonts, you could use fonts without uploading them to your own server. But to prevent any information transfer to Google servers in this regard, we have downloaded the fonts to our server. In this way, we act in a privacy-compliant manner and do not send any data to Google Fonts.

Unlike other web fonts, Google allows us unlimited access to all fonts. So we can access an unlimited sea of fonts to get the most out of our website. You can find out more about Google Fonts and other issues at https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq.

OpenStreetMap Privacy Policy

We have embedded map sections of the online mapping tool "OpenStreetMap" on our website. This is a so-called open source mapping, which we can access via an API (interface). This function is offered by OpenStreetMap Foundation, St John's Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge, CB4 0WS, United Kingdom. By using this map function, your IP address will be forwarded to OpenStreetMap. This privacy policy explains why we use features of the OpenStreetMap tool, where what data is stored, and how you can prevent this data storage.

What is OpenStreetMap?

The OpenStreetMap project was launched in 2004. The goal of the project is and was to create a free map of the world. Users collect data worldwide about buildings, forests, rivers and roads, for example. Over the years, an extensive digital world map has been created by users themselves. Of course, the map, not complete, but in most regions with a lot of data.

Why do we use OpenStreetMap on our website?

Our website is primarily intended to be helpful to you. And from our point of view, it is always helpful when you can find information quickly and easily. On the one hand, this is of course about our services and products, but on the other hand, we also want you to have access to other helpful information. That's why we also use the OpenStreetMap map service. Because this way we can show you, for example, exactly how to find our company. The map will show you the best way to us and your journey will be a breeze.

What data is stored by OpenStreetMap?

When you visit one of our websites that offers OpenStreetMap, user data is transmitted to the service and stored there. OpenStreetMap collects, for example, information about your interactions with the digital map, your IP address, data about your browser, device type, operating system and on what day and time you used the service. Tracking software is also used to record user interactions for this purpose. The company specifies the analysis tool "Piwik" here in its own privacy policy.

The data collected is subsequently accessible to the relevant working groups of the OpenStreetMap Foundation. According to the company, personal data is not shared with other individuals or companies unless legally necessary. The third-party provider Piwik does store your IP address, but in truncated form.

The following cookie may be set in your browser when you interact with OpenStreetMap on our website:

Name: _osm_location
Value: 9.63312%7C52.41500%7C17%7CM
Purpose: The cookie is needed to unlock the content of OpenStreetMap.
Expiration date: after 10 years

If you want to view the full-screen map, you will be linked to the OpenStreetMap website. There, among other things, the following cookies can be stored in your browser:

Name: _osm_totp_token
Value: 148253311254177-2
Purpose: This cookie is used to ensure the operation of the map section.
Expiration date: after one hour

Name: _osm_session
Value: 1d9bfa122e0259d5f6db4cb8ef653a1c
Purpose: The cookie can be used to store session information (i.e. user behavior)
Expiration date: after the end of the session

Name: _pk_id.1.cf09
Value: 4a5.1593684142.2.1593688396.1593688396311254177-9
Purpose: This cookie is set by Piwik to store or measure user data such as click behavior.
Expiration date: after one year

How long and where is the data stored?

The API servers, databases and ancillary services servers are currently located in the United Kingdom (Great Britain and Northern Ireland) and the Netherlands. Your IP address and user information, which is stored in truncated form by the Piwik web analytics tool, is deleted after 180 days.

How can I delete my data or prevent the data storage?

You have the right to access your personal data and object to its use and processing at any time. You can manage, delete or deactivate cookies that may be set by OpenStreetMap in your browser at any time. However, this will prevent the service from working to its full extent. For each browser, managing, deleting or disabling cookies works slightly differently. Below are links to instructions for the most popular browsers:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

If you want to learn more about OpenStreetMap's data processing, we recommend reading their privacy policy at https://wiki.osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy.

Google Analytics Privacy Policy

We use on our website the analysis tracking tool Google Analytics (GA) of the American company Google Inc. For the European area, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. Google Analytics collects data about your actions on our website. For example, when you click on a link, this action is stored in a cookie and sent to Google Analytics. Using the reports we receive from Google Analytics, we can better tailor our website and service to your preferences. In the following, we will go into more detail about the tracking tool and, in particular, inform you about what data is stored and how you can prevent it.

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a tracking tool used to analyze traffic to our website. In order for Google Analytics to work, a tracking code is built into the code of our website. When you visit our website, this code records various actions you take on our website. Once you leave our website, this data is sent to the Google Analytics servers and stored there.

Google processes the data and we receive reports about your user behavior. These reports may include, but are not limited to:

• Target group reports: through target group reports we get to know our users better and know more precisely who is interested in our service.
• Display reports: display reports allow us to analyze and improve our online advertising more easily.
• Acquisition reports: acquisition reports give us helpful information about how to get more people interested in our service.
• Behavior reports: this tells us how you interact with our website. We can track which path you take on our site and which links you click.
• Conversion reports: conversion is the name given to a process where you take a desired action based on a marketing message. For example, when you go from a mere website visitor to a buyer or newsletter subscriber. These reports help us learn more about how our marketing efforts are working for you. This is how we want to increase our conversion rate.
• Real-time reports: Here we always learn immediately what is currently happening on our website. For example, we see how many users are currently reading this text.

Why do we use Google Analytics on our website?

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

The statistically evaluated data shows us a clear picture of the strengths and weaknesses of our website. On the one hand, we can optimize our site so that it is found more easily by interested people on Google. On the other hand, the data helps us to better understand you as a visitor. Thus, we know very well what we need to improve on our website in order to provide you with the best possible service. The data also helps us to carry out our advertising and marketing measures in a more individual and cost-effective way. After all, it only makes sense to show our products and services to people who are interested in them.

What data is stored by Google Analytics?

Google Analytics uses a tracking code to create a random, unique ID associated with your browser cookie. This is how Google Analytics recognizes you as a new user. The next time you visit our site, you will be recognized as a "returning" user. All collected data is stored together with this user ID. This is how it is possible to evaluate pseudonymous user profiles in the first place.

Through identifiers such as cookies and app instance IDs, your interactions on our website are measured. Interactions are all types of actions you take on our website. If you also use other Google systems (such as a Google account), data generated through Google Analytics may be linked to third-party cookies. Google does not share Google Analytics data unless we, as the website operator, authorize it. Exceptions may occur when required by law.

The following cookies are used by Google Analytics:

Name: _ga
Value: 2.1326744211.152311254177-5
Purpose: By default, analytics.js uses the cookie _ga to store the user ID. Basically, it is used to distinguish the website visitors.
Expiration date: after 2 years

Name: _gid
Value: 2.1687193234.152311254177-1
Purpose: The cookie is also used to distinguish website visitors.
Expiration date: after 24 hours

Name: _gat_gtag_UA_<property-id>
Value: 1
Purpose: Used to lower the request rate. When Google Analytics is deployed via Google Tag Manager, this cookie is named _dc_gtm_ <property-id>.
Expiration date: after 1 minute

Name: AMP_TOKEN
Value: no details
Purpose: The cookie has a token that can be used to retrieve a user ID from the AMP client ID service. Other possible values indicate a logout, a request, or an error.
Expiration date: after 30 seconds up to one year

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

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

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

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

Name: __utmz
Value: m|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/
Purpose: The cookie is used to identify the source of traffic to our website. That is, the cookie stores from where you came to our website. This may have been another page or an advertising circuit.
Expiration date: after 6 months

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

Note: This list cannot claim to be complete, as Google is always changing its choice of cookies.

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

Heatmaps: Google creates so-called heatmaps. About heatmaps you see exactly those areas that you click. So we get information about where you are "on the road" on our site.

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

Bounce rate: We talk about a bounce when you view only one page on our site and then leave.

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

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

Location: About the IP address, the country and your approximate location can be determined. This process is also called IP- location determination.

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

Source of origin: Google Analytics or us, of course, is also interested in which website or which advertising you came to our site.

Other data are contact details, any ratings, playing media (for example, if you play a video through our site), sharing content via social media or adding to your favorites. The enumeration does not claim to be complete and only serves as a general orientation of the data storage by Google Analytics.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google has your servers spread all over the world. Most servers are located in America and consequently your data is mostly stored on American servers. You can read exactly where Google's data centers are located here: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/?hl=en.

Your data will be distributed on different physical media. This has the advantage that the data can be retrieved more quickly and is better protected against manipulation. In each Google data center, there are corresponding emergency programs for your data. If, for example, Google's hardware fails or natural disasters paralyze servers, the risk of a service interruption at Google still remains low.

By default, Google Analytics is set to retain your user data for 26 months. Then your user data is deleted. However, we have the option to choose the retention period of user data ourselves. We have five variants available for this:

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

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

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

Under European Union data protection law, you have the right to access, update, delete or restrict your data. Using the browser add-on to disable Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, dc.js), you can prevent Google Analytics from using your data. You can download and install the browser add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en. Please note that this add-on only disables data collection by Google Analytics.

If you basically want to disable, delete or manage cookies (independent of Google Analytics), there are separate instructions for each browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

Google Analytics is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which governs the accurate and secure transfer of personal data. For more information, please visit https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI. We hope we were able to provide you with the most important information about Google Analytics data processing. If you want to learn more about the tracking service, we recommend these two links: https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/terms/us/ and https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en.

Google Analytics IP anonymization

We have implemented Google Analytics IP address anonymization on this website. This feature was developed by Google to enable this website to comply with applicable data protection regulations and recommendations of local data protection authorities where they prohibit storage of the full IP address. The anonymization or masking of the IP takes place as soon as the IP addresses arrive at the Google Analytics data collection network and before any storage or processing of the data takes place.

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

Google Analytics reports on demographic characteristics and interests

We have turned on promotional reporting features in Google Analytics. The Demographic Characteristics and Interests reports include age, gender, and interest information. This allows us - without being able to assign this data to individual persons - to get a better picture of our users. You can learn more about advertising features at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3450482?hl=en_GB&utm_id=ad.

You can stop using your Google Account activity and information under "Advertising Settings" at https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated by checking the box.

Google Analytics deactivation link

If you click on the following disable link, you can prevent Google from collecting further visits to this website. Note: Deleting cookies, using your browser's incognito/private mode, or using a different browser will result in data being collected again.

Disable Google Analytics

Google Analytics Data Processing Addendum

We have entered into a direct customer agreement with Google for the use of Google Analytics by accepting the "Data Processing Addendum" in Google Analytics.

More about the Google Analytics data processing addendum can be found here: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3379636?hl=en&utm_id=ad.

Google Analytics Google Signals Privacy Policy

We have enabled Google signals in Google Analytics. This updates existing Google Analytics features (ad reports, remarketing, cross-device reports, and interest and demographic reports) to provide aggregated and anonymized data from you, provided you have allowed personalized ads in your Google account.

We have enabled Google Signals in Google Analytics.

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

In Google Analytics, Google signals also collect other visitor data such as location, search history, YouTube history and data about your actions on our website. This gives us better advertising reports from Google and more useful information about your interests and demographics. This includes your age, what language you speak, where you live, or what gender you are. Furthermore, social criteria such as your profession, your marital status or your income are also added. All of these characteristics help Google Analytics to define groups of people or target groups.

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

Facebook Pixel Privacy Policy

We use the Facebook pixel from Facebook on our website. For this purpose, we have implemented a code on our website. The Facebook pixel is a snippet of JavaScript code that loads a collection of functions that allow Facebook to track your user actions, provided you have come to our website via Facebook ads. For example, when you purchase a product on our website, the Facebook pixel is triggered and stores your actions on our website in one or more cookies. These cookies allow Facebook to match your user data (customer data such as IP address, user ID) with your Facebook account data. Then Facebook deletes this data again. The collected data is anonymous and not visible to us and can only be used in the context of ad placements. If you yourself are a Facebook user and are logged in, the visit to our website is automatically assigned to your Facebook user account.

We want to show our services or products only to those people who are really interested in them. With the help of Facebook pixels, our advertising measures can be better tailored to your wishes and interests. Thus, Facebook users (if they have allowed personalized advertising) get to see appropriate advertising. Furthermore, Facebook uses the collected data for analysis purposes and its own advertisements.

In the following, we show you those cookies that were set by embedding Facebook Pixel on a test page. Please note that these are only sample cookies. Different cookies will be set depending on the interaction on our website.

Name: _fbp
Value: fb.1.1568287647279.257405483-6311254177-7
Purpose: This cookie is used by Facebook to display promotional products
Expiration date: after 3 months

Name: fr
Value: 0aPf312HOS5Pboo2r..Bdeiuf...1.0.Bdeiuf.
Purpose: This cookie is used to make Facebook Pixel work properly.
Expiration date: after 3 months

Name: comment_author_50ae8267e2bdf1253ec1a5769f48e062311254177-3
Value: Author's name
Purpose: This cookie stores the text and name of a user who leaves a comment, for example.
Expiration date: after 12 months

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

Name: comment_author_email_50ae8267e2bdf1253ec1a5769f48e062
Value: Author's email address
Purpose: This cookie stores the user's email address if they have provided it on the website.
Expiration date: after 12 months

Note: The above cookies refer to an individual user behavior. Especially when using cookies, Facebook changes can never be ruled out.

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

If you want to learn more about Facebook's privacy practices, we recommend checking out the company's own data policies at https://www.facebook.com/policy.php.

Facebook Automatic Advanced Matching Privacy Policy

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

Hotjar Privacy Policy

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

What is Hotjar?

As mentioned in the section above, Hotjar helps us analyze the behavior of our site visitors. These tools that Hotjar offers,  include heatmaps, conversion funnels, visitor recording, incoming feedback, feedback polls, and surveys (for more information on these, see https://www.hotjar.com/). Thus, Hotjar helps us to provide you with a better user experience and service. So on the one hand it provides a good analysis about online behavior, on the other hand we also get a good feedback about the quality of our website. Because besides all the analysis aspects, of course we simply want to know your opinion about our website. And with the feedback tool, that's exactly what we can do.

Why do we use Hotjar on our website?

In recent years, the importance of user experience (i.e. user experience) on websites has been increasing rapidly. And for good reason, too. A website should be built in such a way that you, as a visitor, feel comfortable and find your way around easily. Thanks to Hotjar's analytics and feedback tools, we can make our website and our offer more attractive. Heatmaps from Hotjar prove to be particularly valuable for us. Heatmaps are a form of representation for the visualization of data. Through Hotjar's heatmaps, for example, we can see very precisely what you like to click on, tap on, and where you scroll.

What data does Hotjar store?

As you browse our website, Hotjar automatically collects information about your user behavior. In order to be able to collect this information, we have included our own tracking code on our website. The following data may be collected about your computer or browser:

• IP address of your computer (collected and stored in an anonymous format)
• Screen size
• Browser info (which browser, version, etc.)
• Your location (but only the country)
• Your preferred language setting
• Pages visited (subpages)
• The date and time you accessed one of our subpages (web pages)

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

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

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

Name: ajs_anonymous_id
Value: %2258832463-7cee-48ee-b346-a195f18b06c3%22311254177-5
Purpose: The cookie is usually used for analytics purposes and helps count visitors to our website by tracking whether you have been to this page before.
Expiration date: after one year

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

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

Name: _hjMinimizedPolls
Value: 462568311254177-8
Purpose: Whenever you minimize a Feedback Poll widget, Hotjar sets this cookie. The cookie ensures that the widget stays minimized when you browse our pages.
Expiration date: after one year

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

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

Name: _hjDonePolls
Purpose: As soon as you finish a feedback "question round" with the so-called feedback poll widget, this cookie is set in your browser. This prevents Hotjar from sending you the same surveys again in the future.
Expiration date: after one year

Name: _hjDoneTestersWidgets
Purpose: This cookie is used as soon as you provide your data in the "Recruit User Tester Widget". With this widget we want to recruit you as a tester. So that this form does not appear again and again, the cookie is used.
Expiration date: after one year

Name: _hjMinimizedTestersWidgets
Purpose: To keep the "Recruit User Tester" minimized on all our site once you have minimized it, this cookie is set
Expiration date: after one year

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

How long and where is the data stored?

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

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

Hotjar does not store any personal data from you for analysis. The company even advertises with the slogan "We track behavior, not individuals". You also always have the option to stop the collection of your data. To do so, you just need to go to the "opt-out page" and click on "Disable Hotjar". Please note that deleting cookies, using your browser's private mode, or using a different browser will cause data to be collected again. Furthermore, you can also activate the "Do Not Track" button in your browser. In the Chrome browser, for example, you have to click on the three bars in the top right corner and go to "Settings". There, in the "Privacy" section, you will find the option "Send a "Do Not Track" request with browser accesses". Now just enable this button and no data will be collected by Hotjar.

For more details on the privacy policy and what data is collected by Hotjar and how, visit https://www.hotjar.com/legal/policies/privacy.

Newsletter Privacy Policy

When you sign up for our newsletter you submit the above personal information and give us the right to contact you by email. We will only use the data stored as part of your newsletter subscription for our newsletter and will not share it with anyone else.

Should you unsubscribe from the newsletter - you will find the link for this at the very bottom of every newsletter - then we will delete all the data that was stored with the subscription to the newsletter.

MailChimp privacy policy

Like many other websites, we also 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. Thanks to MailChimp, we can send you interesting news very easily via newsletter. With MailChimp, we don't have to install anything and can still draw from a pool of really useful features. In the following, we will go into more detail about this email marketing service and inform you about the most important privacy-related aspects.

What is MailChimp?

MailChimp is a cloud-based newsletter management service. "Cloud-based" means that we don't have to install MailChimp on our own computer or server. Instead, we use the service through an IT infrastructure - available over the Internet - on an external server. This way of using a software is also called SaaS (Software as a Service)

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

Why do we use MailChimp on our website?

Basically, we use a newsletter service so we can stay in touch with you. We want to tell you what's new with us or what attractive offers we currently have in our program. For our marketing activities we always look for the simplest and best solutions. And that's why we chose Mailchimp's newsletter management service. Although the software is very easy to use, it offers a large number of helpful features. Thus, we can design interesting and beautiful newsletters in just a short time. Through the design templates offered, we make each newsletter completely individual and thanks to the "Responsive Design", our content is also displayed legibly and beautifully on your smartphone (or other mobile device).

Through tools such as the A/B test or the extensive analysis options, we see very quickly how our newsletters are received by you. So we can react if necessary and improve our offer or our services.

Another advantage is the "cloud system" of Mailchimp. The data is not stored and processed directly on our server. We can retrieve the data from external servers and save our storage space in this way. In addition, the maintenance effort is significantly reduced.

What data is stored by MailChimp?

Rocket Science Group LLC (MailChimp) maintains online platforms that allow us to contact you (if you have subscribed to our newsletter). When you become a subscriber to our newsletter via our website, you confirm by email that you are a member of an email list of MailChimp. So that MailChimp can also prove that you have subscribed to the "list provider", the date of subscription and your IP address are stored. Furthermore, MailChimp stores your email address, name, physical address and demographic information, such as language or location.

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

MailChimp also shares information with third-party vendors to provide better services. MailChimp also shares some information with third-party advertising partners to better understand the interests and concerns of its customers in order to provide more relevant content and targeted advertising.

MailChimp also shares information with third-party advertising partners to better understand the interests and concerns of its customers in order to provide more relevant content and targeted advertising.

Through so-called "web beacons" (which are small graphics in HTML emails), MailChimp can determine whether the email has arrived, whether it has been opened, and whether links have been clicked. All this information is stored on the MailChimp servers. This gives us statistical evaluations and allows us to see exactly how well our newsletter was received by you. In this way, we can adapt our offer much better to your wishes and improve our service.

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

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

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

Name: ak_bmsc
Value: F1766FA98C9BB9DE4A39F70A9E5EEAB55F6517348A7000001311254177-3
Purpose: The cookie is used to be able to distinguish a human from a bot. This allows secure reports to be generated about the usage of a website.
Expiration date: after 2 hours

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

Name: _abck
Value: 8D545C8CCA4C3A50579014C449B045311254177-9
Purpose: We could not find out more information about the purpose of this cookie
Expiration date: after one year

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

How long and where is the data stored?

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

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

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

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

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

Disabling or deleting them works slightly differently depending on your browser. The following instructions show how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

If you generally don't want cookies, you can set your browser to notify you whenever a cookie is about to be set. This way, you can decide for each individual cookie whether to allow it or not.

MailChimp is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework whereby the correct and secure transfer of personal data is regulated. For more information, please visit https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000TO6hAAG. You can learn more about MailChimp's use of cookies at https://mailchimp.com/legal/cookies/, and you can read information about MailChimp's privacy policy (Privacy) at https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/.

MailChimp Order Data Processing Contract

We have entered into a Data Processing Addendum contract with MailChimp. This contract serves to safeguard your personal data and ensures that MailChimp adheres to the applicable data protection regulations and does not share your personal data with third parties.

For more information about this agreement, please visit https://mailchimp.com/legal/data-processing-addendum/.

YouTube Privacy Policy

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

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

What is YouTube?

On YouTube, users can watch, rate, comment and upload videos themselves for free. Over the past few years, YouTube has become one of the most important social media channels in the world. In order for us to display videos on our website, YouTube provides a code snippet that we have included on our site.

Why do we use YouTube videos on our website?

YouTube is the video platform with the most visitors and the best content. We are committed to providing you with the best possible user experience on our website. And of course, interesting videos can't be missing from that. With the help of our embedded videos, we provide you with other helpful content in addition to our texts and images. In addition, the embedded videos make our website easier to find on the Google search engine. Also, when we run ads via Google Ads, Google - thanks to the collected data - can really only show these ads to people who are interested in what we have to offer.

What data is stored by YouTube?

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

If you are not signed into a Google account or a YouTube account, Google stores data with a unique identifier associated with your device, browser, or app. For example, your preferred language setting is retained. But a lot of interaction data can't be stored because fewer cookies are set.

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

Name: YSC
Value: b9-CV6ojI5Y311254177-1
Purpose: This cookie registers a unique ID to store statistics of the video watched.
Expiration date: after session end

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

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

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

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

Name: APISID
Value: zILlvClZSkqGsSwI/AU1aZI6HY7311254177-
Purpose: This cookie is used to create a profile about your interests. Used the data for personalized advertisements.
Expiration date: after 2 years

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

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

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

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

Name: SID
Value: oQfNKjAsI311254177-
Purpose: This cookie stores your Google Account ID and your last login date in digitally signed and encrypted form.
Expiration date: after 2 years

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

How long is the data stored and where?

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

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

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

Basically, you can delete data in Google Account manually. With the automatic deletion feature of location and activity data introduced in 2019, information will be stored depending on your decision - either 3 or 18 months and then deleted.

Whether you have a Google account or not, you can configure your browser to delete or disable cookies from Google. Depending on which browser you use, this works in different ways. The following instructions show how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

If you generally don't want cookies, you can set your browser to notify you whenever a cookie is about to be set. This way, you can decide for each individual cookie whether you allow it or not. Since YouTube is a subsidiary of Google, there is a common privacy policy. If you want to learn more about how your data is handled, we recommend the privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de..

YouTube Subscribe Button Privacy Policy

We have installed the YouTube Subscribe button on our website. You can usually recognize the button by the classic YouTube logo. The logo shows the words "Subscribe" or "YouTube" in white letters against a red background, with the white "Play" icon to the left. However, the button can also be displayed in a different design.

Our YouTube channel always offers you funny, interesting or exciting videos. With the built-in "subscribe button", you can subscribe to our channel directly from our website and do not have to specifically call the YouTube website. In this way, we want to make it as easy as possible for you to access our extensive content. Please note that YouTube may store and process data about you as a result.

When you see a built-in subscribe button on our site, YouTube - according to Google - sets at least one cookie. This cookie stores your IP address and our URL. Also information about your browser, your approximate location and your preset language can YouTube learn so. In our test, the following four cookies were set without being logged into YouTube:

Name: YSC
Value: b9-CV6ojI5311254177Y
Purpose: This cookie registers a unique ID to store statistics of the video watched.
Expiration date: after session end

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

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

Name: VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE
Value: 31125417795Chz8bagyU
Purpose: This cookie attempts to estimate the user's bandwidth on our web pages (with embedded YouTube video).
Expiration date: after 8 months

Note: These cookies were set after a test and cannot claim to be complete.

If you are logged into your YouTube account, YouTube can store many of your actions/interactions on our website using cookies and assign them to your YouTube account. YouTube thereby gets, for example, information on how long you surf our site, which browser type you use, which screen resolution you prefer or which actions you perform.

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

BootstrapCDN Privacy Policy

In order to deliver all of our individual web pages (sub-pages of our website) to you quickly and securely on all devices, we use the Content Delivery Network (CDN) BootstrapCDN from the American software company StackPath, LLC 2012 McKinney Ave. Suite 1100, Dallas, TX 75201, USA.

A content delivery network (CDN) is a network of regionally distributed servers connected via the Internet. Through this network, content, especially very large files, can be delivered quickly even during large peak loads.

BootstrapCDN works by delivering so-called JavaScript libraries to your browser. Now, when your browser downloads a file from BootstrapCDN, your IP address is transmitted to the StockPath company during the connection to the Bootstrap CDN server.

StackPath also mentions in its in-house privacy policy that it uses aggregated and anonymized data from various services (such as BootstrapCDN) for backup enhancement and for other StackPath services and clients. However, all of this data cannot identify any individual.

If you want to prevent this data transfer, you can install a JavaScript blocker (see for example https://noscript.net/) or disable JavaScript code execution in your browser. Please note, however, that this will prevent the website from providing the usual service (such as fast loading speed).

StackPath is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which governs the accurate and secure transfer of personal data. For more information, please visit https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000CbahAAC&status=Active.
For more information on StackPath or BootstrapCDN privacy, please visit https://www.bootstrapcdn.com/privacy-policy/.

jQuery CDN Privacy Policy

In order to deliver our website or all of our individual subpages (web pages) to you quickly and smoothly on different devices, we use services from jQuery CDN of the company jQuery Foundation. jQuery is distributed via the Content Delivery Network (CDN) of the American software company StackPath (LCC 2012 McKinney Ave. Suite 1100, Dallas, TX 75201, USA). Through this service, personal data of yours is stored, managed and processed.

A Content Delivery Network (CDN) is a network of regionally distributed servers connected via the Internet. Through this network, content, especially very large files, can be delivered quickly, even during large load spikes.

jQuery uses JavaScript libraries to deliver our website content quickly. To do this, a CDN server loads the necessary files. As soon as a connection to the CDN server is established, your IP address is captured and stored. This only happens if this data is not already stored in your browser as a result of a past website visit.

StackPath's privacy policy explicitly mentions that StackPath use aggregated and anonymized data from various services (like just jQuery) for security enhancement and for their own services. However, this data cannot identify you as an individual.

If you don't want this data transfer to occur, you always also have the option of installing Java script blockers such as ghostery.com or noscript.net. However, you can also simply disable the execution of JavaScript codes in your browser. If you choose to disable JavaScript codes, the functions you are used to will also change. For example, a website will no longer load as quickly.

StackPath is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which governs the accurate and secure transfer of personal data. For more information, please visit https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000CbahAAC&status=Active.
For more information on StackPath privacy, see https://www.stackpath.com/legal/privacy-statement/ and on jQuery, see https://openjsf.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/84/2019/11/OpenJS-Foundation-Privacy-Policy-2019-11-15.pdf.

Web Analytics Introduction

Web Analytics Introduction 👥 Data subjects: Visitors to the website 🤝 Purpose: Evaluation of visitor information to optimize the web offer. 📓 Processed data: Access statistics, which include data such as locations of accesses, device data, access duration and time, navigation behavior, click behavior, and IP addresses. More details can be found in the respective web analytics tool used. 📅 Storage duration: depending on the web analytics tool used ⚖️ Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a DSGVO (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f DSGVO (legitimate interests)

 

What is Web Analytics?

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

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Why do we run web analytics?

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

What data is processed?

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

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In addition, your IP address is also stored. According to the General Data Protection Regulation (DSGVO), IP addresses are personal data. However, your IP address is usually stored pseudonymously (i.e. in an unrecognizable and shortened form). For the purpose of testing, web analysis and web optimization, no direct data, such as your name, age, address or email address are stored as a matter of principle. All this data, if collected, is stored pseudonymously. Thus, you cannot be identified as a person.

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

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

Duration of data processing

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

Right of objection

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

Legal basis

The use of web analytics requires your consent, which we have obtained through our cookie popup. This consent, according to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR (Consent), forms the legal basis for the processing of personal data, which can occur during the collection by web analytics tools.

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

Since cookies are used in web analytics tools, we also recommend reading our general data protection declaration on cookies. To find out exactly which data from you is stored and processed, you should read the privacy statements of the respective tools.

Information on specific web analytics tools can be found - if available - in the following sections.

Matomo Privacy Policy

We use Matomo, a website analysis software, on our website. The service provider is the New Zealand company InnoCraft Ltd, 7 Waterloo Quay PO625, 6140 Wellington, New Zealand.

You can learn more about the data processed through the use of Matomo in the Privacy Policy at https://matomo.org/privacy-policy/. You can direct questions about privacy to privacy@matomo.org.

Matomo On-Premise Privacy Policy

We use the privacy-friendly analysis program Matomo On-Premise on our website. With the On-Premise variant, Matomo is installed on our own server. This means we are the operator of the software and any possible data that we could collect from you is stored directly with us. The data processing remains entirely in our hands. The service provider is the New Zealand company InnoCraft Ltd, 7 Waterloo Quay PO625, 6140 Wellington, New Zealand.

If you want to know more about the data processing by Matomo On-Premise, you are also welcome to contact us. We also recommend the Matomo Privacy Policy at https://matomo.org/privacy-policy/.

Matomo On-Premise (without Cookies)

With many web analysis tools, it is common to collect and process many personal data for analysis purposes and for one's own marketing using so-called cookies. Cookies are small text files that are often stored in your browser and may contain personal data. We want to respect and protect your privacy as best as possible. That's why we've decided to take a different path and use Matomo On-Premise entirely without cookies. We can perform various measurements and web analysis with Matomo, but no personal data from you is stored in cookies. Matomo On-Premise without cookies is one of the most privacy-friendly web analysis services on the market.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Our website is hosted on servers provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS), which are located in Frankfurt, Germany. This ensures that all data processing complies with the stringent requirements of the European Union. AWS is a service of Amazon Web Services, Inc., headquartered at 410 Terry Avenue North, Seattle, Washington 98109, USA.

The processing of your personal data by Amazon may also occur in the United States. Amazon is a certified participant in the EU-US Data Privacy Agreement, which ensures the safe and proper transfer of personal data of EU citizens to the USA. More details can be found at this link.

Furthermore, Amazon employs so-called EU Standard Contractual Clauses, also known as Article 46 Paragraphs 2 and 3 of the GDPR. These clauses, provided as model contracts by the European Commission, guarantee that your data continues to meet European data protection standards even when transferred outside the EU, such as to the USA. Through the data protection agreement between the EU and the USA, as well as through these Standard Contractual Clauses, Amazon commits to maintaining European data protection levels when processing your relevant data, even when such processing takes place in the USA. The relevant EU decision and the Standard Contractual Clauses can be viewed at the following link: EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

The specific terms of data processing by Amazon, which comply with the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, can be found here: AWS Data Processing Agreement.

Information about the data processed by Amazon Web Services (AWS) can be found in the official AWS privacy policy: AWS Privacy Policies.

Source: Partly created with the Data Protection Generator by AdSimple in cooperation with justmed.de. Translated by Triton GmbH.