Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

We have written this privacy policy (version 01.07.2021-111769363) in order to explain to you, in accordance with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and applicable national laws, which personal data (data for short) we as the controller – and the processors commissioned by us (e.g. providers) – process, will process in the future and what legal options you have. The terms used are to be considered as gender-neutral.

In short: We provide you with comprehensive information about any personal data we process about you.

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

Scope

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

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

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

In the following privacy policy, we provide you with transparent information on the legal principles and regulations, i.e. the legal bases of the General Data Protection Regulation, which enable us to process personal data.

Whenever EU law is concerned, we refer to REGULATION (EU) 2016/679 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of April 27, 2016. You can of course access the General Data Protection Regulation of the EU online at EUR-Lex, the gateway to EU law, at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32016R0679.

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

1. Consent (Article 6 Paragraph 1 lit. a GDPR): You have given us your consent to process data for a specific purpose. An example would be the storage of data you entered into a contact form.
2. Contract (Article 6 Paragraph 1 lit. b GDPR): We process your data in order to fulfill a contract or pre-contractual obligations with you. For example, if we conclude a sales contract with you, we need personal information in advance.
3. Legal obligation (Article 6 Paragraph 1 lit. c GDPR): If we are subject to a legal obligation, we will process your data. For example, we are legally required to keep invoices for our bookkeeping. These usually contain personal data.
4. Legitimate interests (Article 6 Paragraph 1 lit. f GDPR): In the case of legitimate interests that do not restrict your basic rights, we reserve the right to process personal data. For example, we have to process certain data in order to be able to operate our website securely and economically. Therefore, the processing is a legitimate interest.

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

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

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

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

Storage Period

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

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

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

Rights in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation

According to Article 13 of the GDPR, you have the following rights to ensure your data is processed fairly and transparently:

• According to Article 15 of the GDPR, you have a right to information as to whether we are processing your data. If this is the case, you have the right to receive a copy of the data in question, as well as the following information:
  • the purpose of the processing;
  • the categories of personal data concerned;
  • the recipients to whom the personal data is disclosed, and in particular how security can be guaranteed if the data is transferred to third countries;
  • how long the data will be stored;
  • the existence of the right to request rectification, erasure or restriction of processing of personal data and the right to object to such processing;
  • the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (you can find links to these authorities below);
  • the source of the data, if we have not collected it from you directly;
  • whether profiling is carried out, i.e. whether data is automatically evaluated in order to be allocated to a personal profile on you.
• According to Article 16 of the GDPR, you have the right to request rectification of the data, which means that we have to correct your data should you find any errors.
• According to Article 17 of the GDPR, you have the right to have your personal data erased (the “right to be forgotten”), which specifically means that you can request to have your data deleted.
• According to Article 18 of the GDPR, you have the right to obtain restriction of processing, which means that we are only allowed to store the data but no longer use or process it.
• According to Article 20 of the GDPR, you have the right to request data portability, which means that on request, we will provide you with your data in a common format.
• According to Article 21 of the GDPR, you have a right to object, which will result in a change in processing after implementation.
  • If the processing of your data is based on Article 6 (1) (e) (public interest, exercise of official authority) or Article 6 (1) (f) (legitimate interest), you can object to the processing. We will then check as soon as possible, whether we can legally comply with this objection.
  • If data is used to operate direct mail, you can object to this type of data processing at any time. We will then no longer be allowed to use your data for direct marketing purposes.
  • If your data is used for profiling, you can object to this type of data processing at any time. We will then no longer be allowed to use your data for profiling purposes.
• According to Article 22 of the GDPR, you may have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling).

If you believe that the processing of your data violates the data protection law, or your data protection claims have been violated in any other way, you can complain to the supervisory authority. For Austria this is the Data Protection Authority, whose website you can find at https://www.data-protection-authority.gv.at/ and for Germany you can contact the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI).

In short: You have rights – do not hesitate to contact our responsible person or authority listed above!

Web hosting

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

Even while you are currently visiting our website, our web server – this is the computer this website is stored on, usually automatically retains data such as the below – for reasons such as operational security or for creating access statistics etc.

• the full address (URL) of the accessed website (e. g. https://www.examplepage.uk/examplesubpage.html/)
• browser and browser version (e.g. Chrome 87)
• the operating system used (e.g. Windows 10)
• the address (URL) of the previously visited site (referrer URL) (z. B. https://www.examplepage.uk/icamefromhere.html/)
• the host name and the IP-address of the device the website is accessed from (e.g. COMPUTERNAME and 194.23.43.121)
• date and time
• in so-called web server log files.

Generally, these files are stored for two weeks and are then automatically deleted. We do not pass these data to others, but we cannot exclude the possibility that this data may be looked at by the authorities in case of illegal conduct.

In short: your visit is logged by our provider (company that runs our website on servers), but we do not pass on your data!

Cookies

Our website uses HTTP-cookies to store user-specific data.

For your better understanding of the following Privacy Policy statement, we will explain to you below what cookies are and why they are in use.

What exactly are cookies?

Every time you surf the internet, you use a browser. Common browsers are for example Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge. Most websites store small text-files in your browser. These files are called cookies.

What should not be dismissed, is that cookies are very useful little helpers. Nearly all websites use cookies. More accurately speaking these are HTTP-cookies, since there are also different cookies for other uses. http-cookies are small files which our website stores on your computer. These cookie files are automatically put into the cookie-folder, which is like the “brain” of your browser. A cookie consists of a name and a value. Moreover, to define a cookie, one or multiple attributes must be specified.

Cookies save certain parts of your user data, such as e.g. language or personal page settings. When you re-open our website, your browser submits these “user specific” information back to our site. Thanks to cookies, our website knows who you are and offers you the settings you are familiar to. In some browsers every cookie has its own file, in others such as Firefox, all cookies are stored in one single file.

There are both first-party cookies and third-party cookies. First-party cookies are created directly by our site, while third-party cookies are created by partner-websites (e.g. Google Analytics). Every cookie is individual, since every cookie stores different data. The expiration time of a cookie also varies – it can be a few minutes, or up to a few years. Cookies are no software-programs and contain no computer viruses, trojans or any other malware. Cookies also cannot access your PC’s information.

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

name: _ga

value: GA1.2.1326744211.152111769363-9

purpose: differentiation between website visitors

expiration date: after 2 years

A browser should support these minimum sizes:

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

Which types of cookies are there?

What exact cookies we use, depends on the used services. We will explain this in the following sections of the Privacy Policy statement. Firstly, we will briefly focus on the different types of HTTP-cookies.

There are 4 different types of cookies:

Essential Cookies

These cookies are necessary to ensure the basic function of a website. They are needed when a user for example puts a product into their shopping cart, then continues surfing on different websites and comes back later in order to proceed to the checkout. Even when the user closed their window priorly, these cookies ensure that the shopping cart does not get deleted.

Purposive Cookies

These cookies collect info about the user behaviour and record if the user potentially receives any error messages. Furthermore, these cookies record the website’s loading time as well as its behaviour within different browsers.

Target-orientated Cookies

These cookies care for an improved user-friendliness. Thus, information such as previously entered locations, fonts or data in forms stay saved.

Advertising Cookies

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

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

How can I delete cookies?

You yourself take the decision if and how you want to use cookies. Thus, no matter what service or website cookies are from, you always have the option to delete, deactivate or only partially allow them. Therefore, you can for example block cookies of third parties but allow any other cookies.

If you want change or delete cookie-settings and would like to determine which cookies have been saved to your browser, you can find this info in your browser-settings:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

If you generally do not want to allow any cookies at all, you can set up your browser in a way, to notify you whenever a potential cookie is about to be set. This gives you the opportunity to manually decide to either permit or deny the placement of every single cookie. The settings for this differ from browser to browser. Therefore, it might be best for you to search for the instructions in Google. If you are using Chrome, you could for example put the search phrase “delete cookies Chrome” or “deactivate cookies Chrome” into Google.

How is my data protected?

There is a “cookie policy” that has been in place since 2009. It states that the storage of cookies requires the user’s consent. However, among the countries of the EU, these guidelines are often met with mixed reactions. In Austria the guidelines have been implemented in § 96 section 3 of the Telecommunications Act (TKG).

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

Facebook Pixel Privacy Policy

We use Facebook’s Facebook pixel on our website. For that, we have implemented a code on our website. The Facebook pixel is a segment of a JavaScript code, which, in case you arrived on our website via Facebook ads, loads an array or functions that enable Facebook to track your user actions. For example, if you buy a product on our website, the Facebook pixel is triggered and then saves your actions on our website in one or more cookies. These cookies enable Facebook to match your user data (customer data such as IP address, user ID) with the data of your Facebook account. After that, Facebook deletes your data again. The collected data is anonymous as well as inaccessible and can only be used for ad placement purposes. If you are a Facebook user and you are logged in, your visit to our website is automatically assigned to your Facebook user account.

We exclusively want to show our products or services to persons, who are interested in them. With the aid of the Facebook pixel, our advertising measures can get better adjusted to your wishes and interests. Therefore, Facebook users get to see suitable advertisement (if they allowed personalised advertisement). Moreover, Facebook uses the collected data for analytical purposes and for its own advertisements.

In the following we will show you the cookies, which were set on a test page through the integration of the Facebook pixel. Please consider that these cookies are only examples. Depending on the interaction that is made on our website, different cookies are set.

Name: _fbp

Value: fb.1.1568287647279.257405483-6111769363-7

Purpose: Dieses Cookie verwendet Facebook, um Werbeprodukte anzuzeigen.

Expiration date: nach 3 Monaten

Name: fr

Value: 0aPf312HOS5Pboo2r..Bdeiuf…1.0.Bdeiuf.

Purpose: Dieses Cookie wird verwendet, damit Facebook-Pixel auch ordentlich funktioniert.

Expiration date: nach 3 Monaten

Name: comment_author_50ae8267e2bdf1253ec1a5769f48e062111769363-3

Value: Name of the author

Purpose: This cookie saves the text and name of a user who e.g. leaves a comment.

Expiration date: after 12 months

Name: comment_author_url_50ae8267e2bdf1253ec1a5769f48e062

Value: https%3A%2F%2Fwww.testseite…%2F (URL of the author)

Purpose: This cookie saved the URL of the website that the user types into a text box on our website.

Expiration date: after 12 months

Name: comment_author_email_50ae8267e2bdf1253ec1a5769f48e062

Value: email address of the author

Purpose: This cookie saves the email address of the user, if they provided it on the website.

Expiration date: after 12 months

Note: The above-mentioned cookies relate to an individual user behaviour. Moreover, especially concerning the usage of cookies, changes at Facebook can never be ruled out.

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

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

Privacy Policy for Facebook‘s Automatic Advanced Matching

Along with Facebook’s pixel function, we have also activated the automatic advanced matching. This function allows us to send hashed emails, names, genders, cities, states, postcodes and dates of birth or telephone numbers as additional information to Facebook, provided you have made them available to us. This activation gives us the opportunity, to customise advertising campaigns even better to persons who are interested in our services or products.

Google Analytics Privacy Policy

We use the tracking and analysis tool Google Analytics (GA) of the US-American company Google LLC (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). Google Analytics collects data on your actions on our website. Whenever you click a link for example, this action is saved in a cookie and transferred to Google Analytics. With the help of reports which we receive from Google Analytics, we can adapt our website and our services better to your wishes. In the following, we will explain the tracking tool in more detail, and most of all, we will inform you what data is saved and how you can prevent this.

What is Google Analytics?

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

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

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

Why do we use Google Analytics on our website?

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

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

What data gets stored by Google Analytics?

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

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

The following cookies are used by Google Analytics:

Name: _ga

Value:2.1326744211.152111769363-5

Purpose: By deafault, analytics.js uses the cookie _ga, to save the user ID. It generally serves the purpose of differenciating between website visitors.

Expiration date: After 2 years

Name: _gid

Value:2.1687193234.152111769363-1

Purpose: This cookie also serves the purpose of differentiating between website users

Expiration date: After 24 hours

Name: _gat_gtag_UA_

Value: 1

Verwendungszweck: It is used for decreasing the demand rate. If Google Analytics is provided via Google Tag Manager, this cookie gets the name _dc_gtm_ .

Expiration date: After 1 minute

Name: AMP_TOKEN

Value: No information

Purpose: This cookie has a token which is used to retrieve the user ID by the AMP Client ID Service. Other possible values suggest a logoff, a request or an error.

Expiration date: After 30 seconds up to one year

Name: __utma

Value:1564498958.1564498958.1564498958.1

Purpose: With this cookie your behaviour on the website can be tracked and the site performance can be measured. The cookie is updated every time the information is sent to Google Analytics.

Expiration date: After 2 years

Name: __utmt

Value: 1

Purpose: Just like _gat_gtag_UA_ this cookie is used for keeping the requirement rate in check.

Expiration date: Afer 10 minutes

Name: __utmb

Value:3.10.1564498958

Purpose: This cookie is used to determine new sessions. It is updated every time new data or information gets sent to Google Analytics.

Expiration date: After 30 minutes

Name: __utmc

Value: 167421564

Purpose: This cookie is used to determine new sessions for recurring visitors. It is therefore a session cookie, and only stays saved until you close the browser again.

Expiration date: After closing the browser

Name: __utmz

Value: m|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/

Purpose: This cookie is used to identify the source of our website’s visitor number. This means, that the cookie saves information on where you came to our website from. This could be another site or an advertisement.

Expiration date: After 6 months

Name: __utmv

Value: No information

Purpose: The cookie is used to store custom user data. It gets updated whenever information is sent to Google Analytics.

Expiration date: After 2 years

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How long and where is the data saved?

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

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

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

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

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

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

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

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

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

Google Analytics is an active participant of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates correct and save transfer of personal data.

You can find more information on this at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI&tid=111769363. We hope we were able to make you more familiar with the most important information on Google Analytics’ data processing. If you want to learn more about the tracking service, we recommend both of the following links: https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/terms/gb/ and https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en.

Google Analytics Reports on demographic characteristics and interests

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

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

Google Analytics‘ Data Processing Amendment

By accepting the amendment on data processing in Google Analytics, we entered a contract with Google concerning the use of Google Analytics.

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

Google Analytics Google Signals Privacy Policy

We have activated Google signals in Google Analytics. Through this, any existing Google Analytics functions (advertising reports, remarketing, cross-device reports and reports on interests and demographic characteristics) are updated, to result in the summary and anonymisation of your data, should you have permitted personalised ads in your Google Account.

The special aspect of this is that it involves cross-device tracking. That means your data can be analysed across multiple devices. Through the activation of Google signals, data is collected and linked to the Google account. For example, it enables Google to recognise when you look at a product on a smartphone and later buy the product on a laptop. Due to activating Google signals, we can start cross-device remarketing campaigns, which would otherwise not be possible to this extent. Remarketing means, that we can show you our products and services across other websites as well.

Moreover, further visitor data such as location, search history, YouTube history and data about your actions on our website are collected in Google Analytics. As a result, we receive improved advertising reports and more useful information on your interests and demographic characteristics. These include your age, the language you speak, where you live or what your gender is. Certain social criteria such as your job, your marital status or your income are also included. All these characteristics help Google Analytics to define groups of persons or target audiences.

Those reports also help us to better assess your behaviour, as well as your wishes and interests. As a result, we can optimise and customise our products and services for you. By default, this data expires after 26 months. Please consider, that this data is only collected if you have agreed to personalised advertisement in your Google Account. The retained information is always exclusively summarised and anonymous data, and never any data on individual persons. You can manage or delete this data in your Google Account.

Google Site Kit Privacy Policy

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

What is Google Site Kit?

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

Why do we use Google Site Kit on our website?

As a service provider, it is our job to offer you the best possible experience on our website. You should feel comfortable on our website. Moreover, you should be able to quickly and easily find exactly what you are looking for. Statistical evaluations help us to get to know you better and to adapt our offer to your wishes and interests. We use various Google tools for these evaluations. Site Kit makes our work a lot easier because we can view and analyse the statistics of Google products on its dashboard. Therefore, we must no longer register for using the respective tools. Site Kit always provides a good overview of the most important analysis data.

What data are stored by Google Site Kit?

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

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

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

Name: _ga

Value:2.1326744211.152111769363-2

Purpose:Usually analytics.js uses the _ga cookie to store the user ID. Therefore, it serves to differentiate between website visitors.

Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: _gid

Value:2.1687193234.152111769363-7

Purpose: This cookie also serves to differentiate between website visitors.

Expiry date: after 24 hours

Name: _gat_gtag_UA_

Value: 1

Purpose: This cookie is used to lower the request rate.

Expiry date: after 1 minute

How long and where are the data stored?

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

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

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

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

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

Google is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates correct and secure transfer of personal data. You can find more information on this at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI&tid=111769363. For more information on Google’s data processing, we recommend Google’s comprehensive privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-GB.

Google Tag Manager Privacy Policy

We use Google Tag Manager by the company Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA) for our website.

This Tag Manager is one of Google’s many helpful marketing products. With it, we can centrally integrate and manage code sections of various tracking tools, that we use on our website.

In this privacy statement we will explain in more detail, what Google Tag Manager does, why we use it and to what extent your data is processed.

What is Google Tag Manager?

Google Tag Manager is an organising tool with which we can integrate and manage website tags centrally and via a user interface. Tags are little code sections which e.g. track your activities on our website. For this, segments of JavaScript code are integrated to our site’s source text. The tags often come from Google’s intern products, such as Google Ads or Google Analytics, but tags from other companies can also be integrated and managed via the manager. Since the tags have different tasks, they can collect browser data, feed marketing tools with data, embed buttons, set cookies and track users across several websites.

Why do we use Google Tag Manager for our website?

Everybody knows: Being organised is important! Of course, this also applies to maintenance of our website. In order to organise and design our website as well as possible for you and anyone who is interested in our products and services, we rely on various tracking tools, such as Google Analytics.

The collected data shows us what interests you most, which of our services we should improve, and which other persons we should also display our services to. Furthermore, for this tracking to work, we must implement relevant JavaScript Codes to our website. While we could theoretically integrate every code section of every tracking tool separately into our source text, this would take too much time and we would lose overview. This is the reason why we use Google Tag Manager. We can easily integrate the necessary scripts and manage them from one place. Additionally, Google Tag Manager’s user interface is easy to operate, and requires no programming skills. Therefore, we can easily keep order in our jungle of tags.

What data is saved by Google Tag Manager?

Tag Manager itself is a domain that neither uses cookies nor stores data. It merely functions as an “administrator“ of implemented tags. Data is collected by the individual tags of the different web analysis tools. Therefore, in Google Tag Manager the data is sent to the individual tracking tools and does not get saved.

However, with the integrated tags of different web analysis tools such as Google Analytics, this is quite different. Depending on the analysis tool used, various data on your internet behaviour is collected, stored and processed with the help of cookies. Please read our texts on data protection for more information on the articular analysis and tracking tools we use on our website.

We allowed Google via the account settings for the Tag Manager to receive anonymised data from us. However, this exclusively refers to the use of our Tag Manager and not to your data, which are saved via code sections. We allow Google and others, to receive selected data in anonymous form. Therefore, we agree to the anonymised transfer of our website data. However, even after extensive research we could not find out what summarised and anonymous data it is exactly that gets transmitted. What we do know is that Google deleted any info that could identify our website. Google combines the data with hundreds of other anonymous website data and creates user trends as part of benchmarking measures. Benchmarking is a process of comparing a company’s results with the ones of competitors. As a result, processes can be optimised based on the collected information.

How long and where is the data saved?

When Google stores data, this is done on Google’s own servers. These servers are located all over the world, with most of them being in America. At https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=en you can read in detail where Google’s servers are.

In our individual data protection texts on the different tools you can find out how long the respective tracking tools save your data.

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

Google Tag Manager itself does not set any cookies but manages different tracking websites’ tags. In our data protection texts on the different tracking tools you can find detailed information on how you can delete or manage your data.

Google actively participates in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates safe transfer of personal data. You can find more information at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI&tid=111769363. If you want to learn more about Google Tag Manager, we recommend you to read https://marketingplatform.google.com/intl/en_uk/about/tag-manager/.

MailChimp Privacy Policy

Like many other websites, we use the services of the newsletter company MailChimp on our website. The operator of MailChimp is the company The Rocket Science Group, LLC, 675 Ponce de Leon Ave NE, Suite 5000, Atlanta, GA 30308 USA. With the aid of MailChimp we can easily send you interesting news via newsletter. For the use of the service we do not have to install anything but can still access a pool of very efficient features. In the following we will give more details on this email marketing service and will inform you about the most important data protection aspects.

What is MailChimp?

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

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

Why do we use MailChimp on our website?

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

With tools such as A/B testing or the extensive analysis options, we can swiftly tell how you like our newsletters. This means that we can react if necessary and improve our offer or our services.

Another advantage is MailChimp’s “cloud system”. The data is not stored and processed directly on our server. We can retrieve the datafrom external servers and therefore save our memory space and also decrease maintenance effort.

What data is saved by MailChimp?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Name: AVESTA_ENVIRONMENT

Value: Prod

Purpose: This cookie is necessary to provide the services of Mailchimp. It is always set when a user registers for a newsletter mailing list.

Expiry date: at the end of the session

Name: ak_bmsc

Value: F1766FA98C9BB9DE4A39F70A9E5EEAB55F6517348A7000001111769363-3

Purpose: The cookie is used to differentiate a human from a bot. That way secure reports on the use of a website can be created.

Expiry date: after 2 hours

Name: bm_sv

Value: A5A322305B4401C2451FC22FFF547486~FEsKGvX8eovCwTeFTzb8//I3ak2Au…

Purpose: This cookie comes from MasterPass Digital Wallet (a MasterCard service) and is used to offer a secure and easy virtual payment process to visitors. For this purpose, the user is anonymously identified on the website.

Expiry date: after 2 hours

Name: _abck

Value: 8D545C8CCA4C3A50579014C449B045111769363-9

Purpose: We could not find any further information about the purpose of this cookie.

Expiry date: after one year

For better display it could be that you would sometimes open our newsletter via a specified link. This can be the case if your email program does not work or if the newsletter is not displayed properly. The newsletter will then be shown via a MailChimp website. MailChimp also uses cookies on its websites (small text files which save data on your browser).

Personal data can be processed by MailChimp and their partners (e.g. Google Analytics). MailChimp is responsible for the collection of this data and we have no influence on it. MailChimp’s “Cookie Statement” (at: https://mailchimp.com/legal/cookies/) tells you exactly how and why the company uses cookies.

How long and where is the data saved?

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

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

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

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

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

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

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

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

MailChimp is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. You can find more information on this at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000TO6hAAG&tid=111769363. You can find more information on MailChimp’s use of cookies at https://mailchimp.com/legal/cookies/, and you can learn more about data protection at MailChimp (Privacy) at https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/.

Google Ads (Google AdWords) Conversion Tracking Privacy Policy

We use Google Ads (previously Google AdWords) as an online marketing measure, to advertise our products and services. Thus, we want to draw more people’s attention on the internet to the high quality of our offers. As part of our advertising measures with Google Ads, we use the conversion tracking of Google LLC., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (“Google”) on our website. With the aid of this free tracking tool we can tailor our advertising offer better to your interests and needs. In the following article we will explain, why we use conversion tracking, what data gets saved and how you can prevent this data retention.

What is Google Ads conversion tracking?

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

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

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

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

What data is stored with Google Ads conversion tracking?

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

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

Name: Conversion

Value: EhMI_aySuoyv4gIVled3Ch0llweVGAEgt-mr6aXd7dYlSAGQ111769363-3

Purpose: This cookie saves every conversion you make on our website after you came to us via a Google ad.

Expiry date: after 3 months

Name: _gac

Value: 1.1558695989.EAIaIQobChMIiOmEgYO04gIVj5AYCh2CBAPrEAAYASAAEgIYQfD_BwE

Purpose: This is a classic Google Analytics Cookie that records various actions on our website.

Expiry date: after 3 months

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

As soon as you complete an action on our website, Google identifies the cookie and saves your action as a so-called conversion. For as long as you surf our website, provided the cookie has not expired, both Google and us can determine that you found your way to us via a Google ad. Then, the cookie is read and sent back to Google Ads, together with the conversion data. Moreover, other cookies may also be used for measuring conversions. Google Ads‘ conversion tracking can be fine-tuned and improved with the aid of Google Analytics. Furthermore, ads which Google displays in various places across the web, might be placed under our domain with the name “__gads” or “_gac”.

Since September 2017, analytics.js retains various campaign information with the _gac cookie. This cookie stores data, as soon as you open one of our sites that has been set up for Google Ads’ auto-tagging. In contrast to cookies that are placed for Google domains, Google can only read these conversion cookies when you are on our website. We do neither collect nor receive any personal data. We do obtain a report with statistical evaluations by Google. With the help thereof, we can not only see the total number of users who clicked our ad, but also what advertising measures were well received.

How long and where is the data stored?

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

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

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

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

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

Due to the certification for the American-European data protection convention “Privacy Shield”, the American corporation Google LLC must comply to the EU’s applicable data protection laws. If you want to find out more on data protection at Google, we recommend Google’s general Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-GB.

Google AdSense Privacy Policy

We use Google AdSense on this website. It is an advertising program of the company Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). With Google AdSense we can show advertisements that fit our theme. Thus, we can offer you adverts that ideally give you added value. In this privacy statement on Google AdSense we will explain to you, why we use Google AdSense on our website and which of your data is processed and saved, as well as how you can prevent this data retention.

What is Google AdSense?

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

Why do we use Google AdSense on our website?

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

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

What data is stored by Google AdSense?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Name: uid

Value: 891269189111769363-8

Purpose: The cookie is stored under the domain adform.net. It provides a uniquely assigned user ID that is generated automatically and collects data on the activity on our website.

Expiry date: after 2 months

Name: C

Value: 1

Purpose: This cookie identifies if your browser accepts cookies. The cookie is stored under the domain track.adform.net.

Expiry date: after 1 month

Name: cid

Value: 8912691894970695056,0,0,0,0

Purpose: This cookie is saved under the domain track.adform.net. It stands for the client ID and is used to offer you improved advertisements. It can forward more relevant adverts to the user and helps to improve reports on campaign performance.

Expiry date: after 2 months

Name: IDE

Value: zOtj4TWxwbFDjaATZ2TzNaQmxrU111769363-1

Purpose: The cookie is stored under the domain doubleclick.net. It serves the purpose of registering your actions following an impression or a click on the ad. Thus, it can be measured how our visitors like an ad.

Expiry data: after 1 month

Name: test_cookie

Value: not specified

Purpose: With the „test_cookies“ it can be verified, if your browser even supports cookies. The cookie is saved under the domain doubleclick.net.

Expiry date: after 1 month

Name: CT592996

Value:733366

Purpose: It is saved under the domain adform.net. The cookie is placed upon your click on an ad. We could not find any further information on the use of this cookie.

Expiry date: after one hour

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

How long and where is the data stored?

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

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

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

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

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

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

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

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

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

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

Facebook Data Policy

We use selected Facebook tools on our website. Facebook is a social media network of the company Facebook Ireland Ltd., 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2 Ireland. With the aid of this tool we can provide the best possible offers to you and anyone interested in our products and services. In the following we will give you an overview on the different Facebook tools, as well as on what data is sent to Facebook and how you can delete these data.

What are Facebook tools?

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

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

With these tools Facebook can extend its services and is able to receive information on user activities outside of Facebook.

Why do we use Facebook tools on our website?

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

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

What data is saved by the Facebook tools?

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

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

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

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

How long and where are the data saved?

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

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

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

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

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

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

3) Now click on “Deactivation and deletion”.

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

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

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

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

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

Facebook is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates correct and secure transfer of personal data. You can find more information at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000GnywAAC. We hope we could give you an understanding of the most important information about the use of Facebook tools and data processing. If you want to find out more on how Facebook use your data, we recommend reading the data policies at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update.

Instagram Privacy Policy

We have integrated functions of Instagram to our website. Instagram is a social media platform of the company Instagram LLC, 1601 Willow Rd, Menlo Park CA 94025, USA. Since 2012, Instagram is a subsidiary company of Facebook Inc. and is a part of Facebook’s products. The inclusion of Instagram’s contents on our website is called embedding. With this, we can show you Instagram contents such as buttons, photos or videos directly on our website. If you open websites of our online presence, that have an integrated Instagram function, data gets transmitted to, as well as stored and processed by Instagram. Instagram uses the same systems and technologies as Facebook. Therefore, your data will be processed across all Facebook firms.

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

What is Instagram?

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

Why do we use Instagram on our website?

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

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

What data is saved by Instagram?

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

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

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

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

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

The following cookies were used in our test:

Name: csrftoken

Value: “”

Purpose: This cookie is most likely set for security reasons to prevent falsifications of requests. We could not find out more information on it.

Expiry date: after one year

Name: mid

Value: “”

Purpose: Instagram places this cookie to optimise its own offers and services in- and outside of Instagram. The cookie allocates a unique user ID.

Expiry date: after end of session

Name: fbsr_111769363124024

Value: no information

Purpose: This cookie stores the login request of Instagram app users.

Expiry date: after end of session

Name: rur

Value: ATN

Purpose: This is an Instagram cookie which guarantees functionality on Instagram.

Expiry date: after end of session

Name: urlgen

Value: “{”194.96.75.33”: 1901}:1iEtYv:Y833k2_UjKvXgYe111769363”

Purpose: This cookie serves Instagram’s marketing purposes.

Expiry date: after end of session

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

How long and where are these data stored?

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

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

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

And this is how an Instagram account can be deleted:

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

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

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

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

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

Instagram is a subsidiary company of Facebook Inc. and Facebook is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework. This framework regulates correct transfer between the USA and the European Union. At https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000GnywAAC you can find out more about this. We gave our best to make you familiar with the most important information on data processing by Instagram. At https://help.instagram.com/519522125107875 you can find out more on Instagram’s data policies.

All texts are copyrighted.

Source: Created with the Datenschutz Generator by AdSimple