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Privacy Policy

Welcome to our website!

We place the highest value on protecting your data and safeguarding your privacy. Below, we inform you about the collection and use of personal data when using our website.

Anonymous Data Collection

You can visit our website without providing any personal information. In this context, we do not store any personal data. To improve our services, we only evaluate statistical data that does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about your person.

Collection and Processing When Using the Contact Form

When using the contact form, we collect personal data (individual details about personal or factual circumstances of a specific or identifiable natural person) only to the extent provided by you. We use your e-mail address solely for processing your request. Your data will then be deleted unless you have consented to further processing and use.

Data Collection When Posting a Comment

We collect personal data in the context of your comments on an article or post only to the extent you provide it.

When your comment is published, the e-mail address you provide will not be made public, only the name you submit.

Collection, Processing, and Use of Personal Data

We collect personal data (individual details about personal or factual circumstances of a specific or identifiable natural person) only to the extent provided by you.

The processing and use of your personal data takes place to fulfill and process your order as well as to handle your inquiries.

After full completion of the contract, all personal data will first be stored in accordance with tax and commercial law retention periods and then deleted after the retention period has expired, unless you have consented to further processing and use.

Disclosure of Personal Data

Your data will not be passed on to third parties without your express consent. Excluded from this are only our service partners, whom we need to process the contractual relationship. In these cases, we strictly observe the provisions of the Federal Data Protection Act. The scope of the data transfer is limited to a minimum.

Cookies

To make visiting our website attractive and to enable the use of certain functions, we use so-called cookies on various pages.

These are small text files that are stored on your device. Some of the cookies we use are deleted after the end of the browser session, i.e. after closing your browser (so-called session cookies). Other cookies remain on your device and allow us or our partner companies to recognize your browser on your next visit (persistent cookies). You can set your browser so that you are informed about the placement of cookies and can decide individually whether to accept them or exclude acceptance of cookies for certain cases or in general. If cookies are not accepted, the functionality of our website may be restricted.

Use of the Remarketing or “Similar Audiences” Function of Google Inc.

The provider uses the remarketing or “similar audiences” function of Google Inc. (“Google”) on the website. This function enables the provider to target visitors of the website with advertising by displaying personalized, interest-based ads for visitors of the provider’s website when they visit other websites in the Google Display Network.

To perform the analysis of website usage, which forms the basis for creating interest-based advertising, Google uses cookies. For this purpose, Google stores a small file with a sequence of numbers in the browsers of website visitors. This number records visits to the website as well as anonymized data about use of the website. No personal data of website visitors is stored. If you subsequently visit another website in the Google Display Network, you will be shown ads that are highly likely to take previously viewed product and information areas into account.

You can permanently deactivate the use of cookies by Google by following the link below and downloading and installing the plug-in provided there:

https://www.google.com/settings/ads/plugin?hl=de

Alternatively, you can deactivate the use of cookies by third parties by visiting the deactivation page of the Network Advertising Initiative at http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/ and implementing the additional opt-out information provided there.

Further information about Google Remarketing and Google’s privacy policy can be found at: http://www.google.com/privacy/ads/

Use of the Remarketing Function of ExactTarget

We use the remarketing function of the email service provider ExactTarget, Inc., 20 North Meridian Street Suite 200 Indianapolis, Indiana 46204 USA (“ExactTarget”). If you have subscribed to our newsletter and visit our website via a newsletter, cookies will be used. This enables us to understand the effectiveness of our newsletters, e.g. whether you have opened an email or which part of the newsletter was particularly interesting.

ExactTarget also uses so-called web beacons in the majority of emails it sends. Web beacons (also known as ClearGIFs or tracking pixels) are small graphics (approx. 1x1 GIF files) used, among other things, on websites or in HTML emails to give website operators a better understanding of visitor interaction with the website. Web beacons perform similar functions to cookies but are not noticeable to the user. Web beacons can in particular collect information about whether the email was opened and whether the user’s system is capable of receiving HTML emails. No personal data is collected via web beacons.

If you do not wish to receive email communications with web beacons, you can choose to receive your emails in text format (not in HTML format). Web beacons are used together with cookies. You can therefore prevent the use of web beacons by preventing the installation of cookies through the appropriate setting of your browser software. However, please note that in this case you may not be able to use all the functions of our website in full.

You can find information on how to manage (and disable) cookies in the main browsers at the following links:

Use of Google AdWords Conversion Tracking

We use the online advertising program “Google AdWords” and, within the scope of Google AdWords, conversion tracking. Google Conversion Tracking is an analysis service provided by Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; “Google”).

When you click on an ad placed by Google, a cookie for conversion tracking is stored on your computer. These cookies have a limited validity, contain no personal data, and are therefore not used for personal identification.

If you visit certain pages of our website and the cookie has not expired, Google and we can recognize that you clicked on the ad and were redirected to that page.

Each Google AdWords customer receives a different cookie. Therefore, there is no possibility of cookies being tracked across the websites of AdWords customers.

The information collected using the conversion cookie is used to create conversion statistics for AdWords customers who have opted for conversion tracking. The customers are informed of the total number of users who clicked on their ad and were redirected to a page with a conversion tracking tag. However, they do not receive any information that personally identifies users.

If you do not wish to participate in tracking, you can object to this use by disabling the installation of cookies through the appropriate setting in your browser software. You will then not be included in the conversion tracking statistics.

Further information as well as Google’s privacy policy can be found at: http://www.google.de/policies/privacy/

Use of Google Analytics

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service of Google Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses so-called “cookies”, text files that are stored on your computer and enable an analysis of your use of the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there.

In case IP anonymization is activated on this website, your IP address will, however, be truncated by Google within member states of the European Union or in other contracting states of the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and truncated there.

On behalf of the operator of this website, Google will use this information to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activity, and to provide further services related to website usage and internet usage to the website operator. The IP address transmitted by your browser in the context of Google Analytics will not be merged with other data by Google.

You can prevent the storage of cookies by adjusting your browser software settings accordingly; however, please note that in this case you may not be able to use all functions of this website to their full extent.

You can also prevent the collection of data generated by the cookie relating to your use of the website (including your IP address) by Google as well as the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available under the following link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de.

Use of Facebook Plugins

Our website uses plugins of the social network facebook.com, operated by Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA (“Facebook”).

When you visit a page on our website that contains such a plugin, a connection is established to the Facebook servers and the plugin is displayed on the webpage through communication with your browser. This informs the Facebook server which of our web pages you visited.

If you are logged in as a member of Facebook, Facebook assigns this information to your personal Facebook user account. When using the plugin functions (e.g. clicking the “Like” button, posting a comment), this information is also assigned to your Facebook account, which you can prevent only by logging out before using the plugin.

If you do not want Facebook to assign the collected information directly to your Facebook profile, you must either log out of Facebook before visiting our website or use the add-on provided by Facebook for your browser http://webgraph.com/resources/facebookblocker/. This allows you to block the loading of Facebook plugins.

Further information about the collection and use of data by Facebook, your rights in this regard, and options for protecting your privacy can be found in Facebook’s privacy policy.

Use of the Google “+1” Button

Our website uses the “+1” button of the Google Plus social network of Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California, 94043 USA (“Google”).

When you access a page on our website that contains the “+1” button, a connection is established to Google’s servers in the USA and the button is displayed on the web page through communication with your browser. This transmits your IP address and information about which of our pages you visited to the Google server. This applies regardless of whether you are registered or logged into Google Plus. Even for non-registered or logged-out users, data is transmitted.

The “+1” button is not used to track your visits on the internet. Google does not permanently log your browser history when displaying a “+1” button, nor does it otherwise evaluate your visit to a page with a “+1” button. Google stores data about your visit for about two weeks for system maintenance and troubleshooting purposes. This data is not structured according to individual profiles, usernames, or URLs and is not forwarded to us.

If you are also a Google Plus member and logged into Google Plus at the time you use the plugin, the information collected about your website visit will be linked to your Google Plus account and disclosed to other users. In case of interactions enabled by Google plugins, the corresponding information about you will also be collected, transmitted to Google, and stored.

An overview of the different types of Google plugins can be viewed here: https://developers.google.com/+/plugins

If you have made your profile publicly accessible in the settings of Google Plus, your “+1” may be displayed by Google together with your profile name and photo in Google services, such as search results or your Google profile, or elsewhere on websites and ads on the internet.

If you do not want Google to directly link the collected information to your Google Plus profile, you must log out of Google Plus before visiting our site.

Further information about the collection and use of data by Google, your rights, and your options for protecting your privacy can be found in Google’s privacy policy: www.google.com/intl/de/+/policy/+1button.html.

You also have the option of preventing the loading of Google plugins by installing the appropriate add-ons in your browser.

Use of Twitter Plugins

Our website integrates functions of the Twitter service.

Twitter is a social media service provided by Twitter Inc., 795 Folsom St., Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA.

We use Twitter plugins. When you access a page containing such a plugin, data is exchanged with Twitter’s servers in the USA.

In the case of interactions enabled by the various Twitter plugins, the corresponding information about you is collected and transmitted to Twitter and stored.

If you are also a member of Twitter and logged in at the time you use the plugin, the information about your website visit will be linked to your Twitter account and disclosed to other users.

If you do not want Twitter to associate and merge the collected information with your Twitter account, you must log out of Twitter before visiting our website.

Further information about the collection and use of data by Twitter can be found at: https://twitter.com/privacy.

Information, Correction, Blocking, and Deletion of Data

You have the right at any time to free information about your stored data as well as the right to correction, deletion, or blocking. Please contact us if desired. Contact details can be found in our imprint.

Last updated: 15.07.2019