Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy of Froscharff KG

Table of contents

Data protection

We have prepared this privacy policy (version 04.05.2020-111280132) to inform you in accordance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 to explain what information we collect, how we use data, and what choices you have as a visitor to this website.

Unfortunately, it is inherent in the nature of things that these explanations sound very technical; however, we have made every effort to describe the most important things as simply and clearly as possible.

Automatic data storage

When you visit websites these days, certain information is automatically generated and stored, including on this website.

When you visit our website, as you are doing now, our web server (the computer on which this website is stored) automatically saves data such as…

  • the address (URL) of the accessed website
  • Browser and browser version
  • the operating system used
  • the address (URL) of the previously visited page (referrer URL)
  • the hostname and IP address of the device from which access is made
  • Date and time

in files (web server log files).

Web server log files are typically stored for two weeks and then automatically deleted. We do not share this data, but we cannot rule out the possibility that it may be accessed in the event of unlawful activity.

Cookies

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

What exactly are cookies?

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

One thing is undeniable: cookies are truly useful tools. Almost all websites use cookies. More precisely, they are HTTP cookies, as there are other types of cookies for different applications. HTTP cookies are small files that our website stores on your computer. These cookie files are automatically placed in the cookie folder, essentially the "brain" of your browser. A cookie consists of a name and a value. When defining a cookie, one or more attributes must also be specified.

Cookies store certain user data, such as your language preferences or personal website settings. When you revisit our site, your browser sends this user-related information back to us. Thanks to cookies, our website recognizes you and provides your preferred settings. In some browsers, each cookie has its own file, while in others, such as Firefox, all cookies are stored in a single file.

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

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

Name: _ga
Value: GA1.2.1326744211.152111280132-9
Purpose of use: Differentiation of website visitors
Expiry date: after 2 years

These are the minimum sizes a browser should be able to support:

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

What types of cookies are there?

The specific cookies we use depend on the services used and are explained in the following sections of the privacy policy. At this point, we would like to briefly discuss the different types of HTTP cookies.

There are four types of cookies:

Essential cookies
These cookies are necessary to ensure the basic functionality of the website. For example, these cookies are needed when a user adds a product to their shopping cart, then continues browsing other pages, and only later proceeds to checkout. These cookies prevent the shopping cart from being emptied, even if the user closes their browser window.

Functional cookies
These cookies collect information about user behavior and whether the user receives any error messages. They also measure loading times and the website's performance across different browsers.

Targeted cookies
These cookies improve user-friendliness. For example, they save entered locations, font sizes, or form data.

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

Typically, when you first visit a website, you will be asked which types of cookies you wish to allow. And of course, this decision is also stored in a cookie.

How can I delete cookies?

You decide how and whether you want to use cookies. Regardless of the service or website the cookies originate from, you always have the option to delete, disable, or partially allow cookies. For example, you can block third-party cookies but allow all others.

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

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies to remove data that websites have stored on your computer.

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

If you generally don't want to allow cookies, you can configure your browser to always notify you when a cookie is about to be set. This allows you to decide whether to allow each individual cookie. The procedure varies depending on the browser. The best way to find instructions is to search on Google using the keywords "delete cookies Chrome" or "disable cookies Chrome" if you are using the Chrome browser.

What about my data privacy?

Since 2009, the so-called "Cookie Directive" has been in effect. This directive stipulates that storing cookies requires your consent. However, reactions to this directive vary considerably across EU countries. In Austria, this directive was implemented in Section 96 Paragraph 3 of the Telecommunications Act (TKG).

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

Storage of personal data

Personal data that you submit to us electronically on this website, such as name, email address, address or other personal information when submitting a form or comments on the blog, will be used by us together with the date and time and IP address only for the stated purpose, stored securely and not passed on to third parties.

We therefore only use your personal data to communicate with visitors who expressly request contact and to process the services and products offered on this website. We will not share your personal data without your consent, but we cannot rule out the possibility that this data may be accessed in the event of unlawful activity.

If you send us personal data via email – that is, outside of this website – we cannot guarantee secure transmission and the protection of your data. We recommend that you never send confidential data unencrypted via email.

Rights under the General Data Protection Regulation

According to the provisions of the GDPR and Austrian law, they are entitled to... Data Protection Act (DSG) The following rights are generally granted:

  • Right to rectification (Article 16 GDPR)
  • Right to erasure („right to be forgotten“) (Article 17 GDPR)
  • Right to restriction of processing (Article 18 GDPR)
  • Right to notification – obligation to notify in connection with the rectification or erasure of personal data or the restriction of processing (Article 19 GDPR)
  • Right to data portability (Article 20 GDPR)
  • Right to object (Article 21 GDPR)
  • Right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling (Article 22 GDPR)

If you believe that the processing of your data violates data protection law or that your data protection rights have otherwise been infringed, you can lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority, which in Austria is the Data Protection Authority, whose website you can find at [website address]. https://www.dsb.gv.at/ find.

Analysis of visitor behavior

In the following privacy policy, we inform you whether and how we analyze data from your visit to this website. The analysis of the collected data is generally anonymous, and we cannot infer your identity from your behavior on this website.

You can find out more about how to object to this analysis of visitor data in the following privacy policy.

TLS encryption with https

We use HTTPS to transmit data securely over the internet (data protection by design). Article 25 paragraph 1 GDPRBy using TLS (Transport Layer Security), an encryption protocol for secure data transmission on the internet, we can ensure the protection of confidential data. You can recognize this secure data transmission by the small padlock icon in the top left corner of your browser and the use of the https scheme (instead of http) as part of our web address.

Google Maps Privacy Policy

We use Google Maps from Google Inc. on our website. For the European region, Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. Google Maps allows us to show you locations more effectively and thus better tailor our service to your needs. By using Google Maps, data is transferred to Google and stored on Google's servers. Here we would like to explain in more detail what Google Maps is, why we use this Google service, what data is stored, and how you can prevent this.

What is Google Maps?

Google Maps is an online mapping service from Google. With Google Maps, you can search for the exact locations of cities, landmarks, accommodations, or businesses online using a PC, tablet, or app. If businesses are listed on Google My Business, additional information about the company is displayed alongside the location. To show directions, map snippets of a location can be embedded into a website using HTML code. Google Maps displays the Earth's surface as a road map or as aerial/satellite imagery. Thanks to Street View and high-quality satellite imagery, very detailed representations are possible.

Why do we use Google Maps on our website?

All our efforts on this page aim to provide you with a useful and meaningful experience on our website. By integrating Google Maps, we can provide you with essential information about our various locations. You can see at a glance where our company headquarters are located. The directions always show you the best and fastest way to reach us. You can access directions for routes by car, public transport, on foot, or by bicycle. For us, providing Google Maps is part of our customer service.

What data does Google Maps store?

In order for Google Maps to fully offer its service, the company needs to collect and store your data. This includes, among other things, the search terms you enter, your IP address, and your latitude and longitude coordinates. If you use the route planner function, the starting address you enter will also be saved. This data storage, however, takes place on Google Maps' websites. We can only inform you about this, but we have no control over it. Because we have integrated Google Maps into our website, Google places at least one cookie (name: NID) in your browser. This cookie stores data about your user behavior. Google primarily uses this data to optimize its own services and to provide you with personalized advertising.

The following cookie will be set in your browser due to the integration of Google Maps:

Name: NID
Value: 188=h26c1Ktha7fCQTx8rXgLyATyITJ111280132-5
Purpose of use: NID is used by Google to personalize ads based on your Google searches. With the help of this cookie, Google "remembers" your most frequent search queries or your previous interactions with ads. This ensures you always receive tailored advertisements. The cookie contains a unique ID that Google uses to collect your personal preferences for advertising purposes.
Expiry date: after 6 months

Note: We cannot guarantee the completeness of the stored data. Changes are always possible, especially when using cookies. To identify the NID cookie, a separate test page was created that only included Google Maps.

How long and where will the data be stored?

Google's servers are located in data centers around the world. However, most servers are in America. Therefore, your data is also primarily stored in the USA. Here you can find detailed information about the locations of Google's data centers: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de

Google distributes the data across various storage devices. This makes the data faster to access and better protected against potential manipulation attempts. Each data center also has specific emergency programs. For example, if there are problems with Google hardware or a natural disaster cripples the servers, the data remains quite secure.

Google stores some data for a set period. For other data, Google only offers the option to delete it manually. Furthermore, the company also anonymizes information (such as advertising data) in server logs by deleting part of the IP address and cookie information after 9 or 18 months.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

With the automatic deletion feature for location and activity data introduced in 2019, information about your location and web/app activity is stored for either 3 or 18 months, depending on your choice, and then deleted. You can also manually delete this data from your history at any time via your Google account. If you want to completely prevent location tracking, you need to pause the "Web & App Activity" section in your Google account. Click on "Data & Personalization" and then on the "Activity controls" option. Here you can turn activity tracking on or off.

In your browser, you can also disable, delete, or manage individual cookies. Depending on which browser you use, this process varies slightly. The following instructions show you how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies to remove data that websites have stored on your computer.

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

If you generally do not want to allow cookies, you can configure your browser to always notify you when a cookie is about to be set. This allows you to decide whether to allow each individual cookie or not.

Google is an active participant in the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. You can find more information about this at [link to Google's privacy policy]. https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI. If you would like to learn more about Google's data processing practices, we recommend that you consult the company's own privacy policy at [link to privacy policy]. https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de.

Google Fonts Privacy Policy

We use Google Fonts on our website. These are the “Google fonts” from Google Inc. For the European region, Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services.

You don't need to register or provide a password to use Google Fonts. Furthermore, no cookies are stored in your browser. The files (CSS, fonts) are requested via the Google domains fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com. According to Google, requests for CSS and fonts are completely separate from all other Google services. If you have a Google account, you don't need to worry about your Google account data being transmitted to Google while using Google Fonts. Google collects data on the usage of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and the fonts used, and stores this data securely. We will examine the specifics of this data storage in more detail later.

What are Google Fonts?

Google Fonts (formerly Google Web Fonts) is a directory with over 800 fonts that Google Make it available to your users free of charge.

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

Why do we use Google Fonts on our website?

With Google Fonts, we can use fonts on our own website without having to upload them to our own server. Google Fonts is an important component for maintaining the high quality of our website. All Google fonts are automatically optimized for the web, which saves data volume and is a significant advantage, especially for use on mobile devices. When you visit our site, the small file size ensures fast loading times. Furthermore, Google Fonts are secure web fonts. Different rendering systems in various browsers, operating systems, and mobile devices can lead to errors. Such errors can sometimes distort text or even entire web pages. Thanks to the fast Content Delivery Network (CDN), there are no cross-platform problems with Google Fonts. Google Fonts supports all common browsers (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera) and works reliably on most modern mobile operating systems, including Android 2.2+ and iOS 4.2+ (iPhone, iPad, iPod). We use Google Fonts so that we can present our entire online service as beautifully and consistently as possible.

What data does Google store?

When you visit our website, the fonts are loaded from a Google server. This external request transmits data to Google's servers. This allows Google to recognize that you, or rather your IP address, have visited our website. The Google Fonts API was developed to minimize the use, storage, and collection of end-user data to only what is necessary for the proper delivery of fonts. API stands for "Application Programming Interface" and serves, among other things, as a data transmitter in the software field.

Google Fonts securely stores CSS and font requests with Google, thus protecting them. The collected usage statistics allow Google to determine the popularity of individual fonts. Google publishes these results on internal analytics pages, such as Google Analytics. Additionally, Google uses data from its own web crawler to identify which websites use Google Fonts. This data is published in the Google Fonts BigQuery database. Businesses and developers utilize the Google web service BigQuery to analyze and manipulate large datasets.

It should be noted, however, that every Google Font request also automatically transmits information such as language settings, IP address, browser version, browser screen resolution, and browser name to Google servers. Whether this data is also stored is unclear and not explicitly communicated by Google.

How long and where will the data be stored?

Google stores requests for CSS assets on its servers, which are primarily located outside the EU, for one day. This allows us to use the fonts with a Google stylesheet. A stylesheet is a formatting template that allows you to easily and quickly change, for example, the design or font of a website.

The font files are stored at Google for one year. Google's goal is to improve website loading times in general. When millions of websites reference the same fonts, they are cached after the first visit and appear instantly on all subsequent visits. Google sometimes updates font files to reduce file size, increase language coverage, and improve design.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

The data that Google stores for a day or a year cannot simply be deleted. This data is automatically transmitted to Google when you visit a page. To delete this data prematurely, you must contact Google Support at https://support.google.com/?hl=de&tid=111280132 Contact us. In this case, you can only prevent data storage by not visiting our site.

Unlike other web fonts, Google Fonts grants us unrestricted access to all its fonts. This means we can access a vast array of fonts and choose the perfect one for our website. Learn more about Google Fonts and find answers to other questions at [link to Google Fonts page]. https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq?tid=111280132. While Google does address data protection issues there, truly detailed information about data storage is not included. It is relatively difficult to obtain truly precise information from Google about stored data.

You can also find information on what data Google collects and what it is used for on [website address]. https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/ Read more.

Google Fonts Local Privacy Policy

Our website uses Google Fonts from Google Inc. For the European region, Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible. We have integrated the Google fonts locally, i.e., on our web server – not on Google's servers. Therefore, there is no connection to Google servers and consequently no data transfer or storage.

What are Google Fonts?

Google Fonts was formerly known as Google Web Fonts. It is an interactive directory with over 800 fonts that Google Google Fonts is provided free of charge. With Google Fonts, you could use fonts without uploading them to your own server. However, to prevent any data transfer to Google servers, we have downloaded the fonts to our own server. This way, we comply with data protection regulations and do not send any data to Google Fonts.

Unlike other web fonts, Google Fonts grants us unrestricted access to all its fonts. This means we can access a vast array of fonts and choose the perfect one for our website. Learn more about Google Fonts and find answers to other questions at [link to Google Fonts page]. https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq?tid=111280132.

Google Analytics Privacy Policy

We use the Google Analytics (GA) tracking tool from the American company Google Inc. on our website. For the European Economic Area, Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. Google Analytics collects data about your actions on our website. For example, if you click on a link, this action is stored in a cookie and sent to Google Analytics. The reports we receive from Google Analytics help us to better tailor our website and services to your needs. Below, we explain the tracking tool in more detail, focusing on what data is stored and how you can prevent this.

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a tracking tool used to analyze website traffic. For Google Analytics to function, a tracking code is embedded in our website's code. When you visit our website, this code records various actions you perform. Once you leave our website, this data is sent to and stored on Google Analytics servers.

Google processes the data and we receive reports about your user behavior. These may include, among other things, the following reports:

  • Target group reports: Through target group reports, we get to know our users better and know more precisely who is interested in our service.
  • Ad reports: Ad reports help us to analyze and improve our online advertising more easily.
  • Acquisition reports: Acquisition reports give us helpful information about how we can attract more people to our service.
  • Behavior reports: Here we learn how you interact with our website. We can track your path on our site and which links you click.
  • Conversion reports: A conversion is a process where you perform a desired action as a result of a marketing message. For example, when you go from being a website visitor to a customer or newsletter subscriber. These reports help us understand how our marketing efforts are performing for you, which is how we aim to increase our conversion rate.
  • Real-time reports: Here we always know immediately what is happening on our website. For example, we can see how many users are currently reading this text.

Why do we use Google Analytics on our website?

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

The statistically analyzed data gives us a clear picture of our website's strengths and weaknesses. On the one hand, we can optimize our site so that it's easier for interested people to find it on Google. On the other hand, the data helps us understand you, our visitors, better. We therefore know exactly what we need to improve on our website to offer you the best possible service. The data also helps us to make our advertising and marketing efforts more targeted and cost-effective. After all, it only makes sense to show our products and services to people who are interested in them.

What data does Google Analytics store?

Google Analytics uses a tracking code to create a random, unique ID that is linked to your browser cookie. This allows Google Analytics to recognize you as a new user. The next time you visit our site, you will be recognized as a returning user. All collected data is stored along with this user ID. This is what makes it possible to analyze pseudonymous user profiles.

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

The following cookies are used by Google Analytics:

Name: _ga
Value:2.1326744211.152111280132-5
Purpose of use: By default, analytics.js uses the _ga cookie to store the user ID. This is primarily used to distinguish between website visitors.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: _gid
Value:2.1687193234.152111280132-1
Purpose of use: The cookie is also used to distinguish website visitors.
Expiry date: after 24 hours

Name: _gat_gtag_UA_
Value: 1
Purpose of use: Used to reduce the request rate. If Google Analytics is deployed via Google Tag Manager, this cookie is named _dc_gtm_. .
Expiry date: after 1 minute

Name: AMP_TOKEN
Value: not specified
Purpose of use: The cookie contains a token that can be used to retrieve a user ID from the AMP Client ID service. Other possible values indicate a logout, a request, or an error.
Expiry date: from 30 seconds to a year

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

Name: __utmt
Value: 1
Purpose of use: The cookie is used like _gat_gtag_UA_ to throttle the request rate.
Expiry date: after 10 minutes

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

Name: __utmc
Value: 167421564
Purpose of use: This cookie is used to establish new sessions for returning visitors. It is a session cookie and is only stored until you close your browser.
Expiry date: After closing the browser

Name: __utmz
Value: m|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/
Purpose of use: This cookie is used to identify the source of visitor traffic to our website. In other words, the cookie stores where you came from. This could have been another website or an advertisement.
Expiry date: after 6 months

Name: __utmv
Value: not specified
Purpose of use: This cookie is used to store user-specific data. It is updated whenever information is sent to Google Analytics.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Note: This list is not exhaustive, as Google frequently changes its choice of cookies.

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

Heatmaps: Google creates so-called heatmaps. These heatmaps show exactly which areas you click on. This gives us information about where you are on our website.

Session duration: Google defines session duration as the time you spend on our site without leaving the page. If you are inactive for 20 minutes, the session ends automatically.

Bounce rate (English: Bounce rate): A bounce occurs when you view only one page on our website and then leave our website.

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

IP address: The IP address is only displayed in abbreviated form so that no unique identification is possible.

Location: Your country and approximate location can be determined via your IP address. This process is also known as IP geolocation.

Technical information: Technical information includes, among other things, your browser type, your internet service provider, and your screen resolution.

Source of origin: Google Analytics, or rather we, are of course also interested in which website or advertisement you came to our site via.

Other data collected includes contact information, any ratings, media playback (e.g., when you play a video on our site), sharing content via social media, or adding items to your favorites. This list is not exhaustive and serves only as a general guide to data storage by Google Analytics.

How long and where will the data be stored?

Google has distributed its servers all over the world. Most servers are located in America, and consequently, your data is mostly stored on American servers. Here you can find out exactly where Google's data centers are located: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de

Your data is distributed across various physical storage devices. This has the advantage of faster data retrieval and better protection against manipulation. Each Google data center has corresponding emergency backup programs for your data. Even if, for example, Google's hardware fails or natural disasters disable servers, the risk of a service interruption at Google remains low.

By default, Google Analytics sets a retention period of 26 months for your user data. After this period, your user data is deleted. However, we have the option to choose the retention period for user data ourselves. We have five options available for this:

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

Once the specified period has expired, the data is deleted once a month. This retention period applies to your data that is linked to cookies, user recognition, and advertising IDs (e.g., cookies from the DoubleClick domain). Report results are based on aggregated data and are stored separately from user data. Aggregated data is a combination of individual data points into a larger unit.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

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

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

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies to remove data that websites have stored on your computer.

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

Google Analytics actively participates in the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. You can find more information about this at [link to Google Analytics website]. https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI&tid=111280132. We hope we have provided you with the most important information regarding data processing by Google Analytics. If you would like to learn more about the tracking service, we recommend these two links: http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/de.html and https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=de.

Google Analytics IP anonymization

We have implemented IP address anonymization for Google Analytics on this website. This feature was developed by Google to ensure that this website complies with applicable data protection regulations and the recommendations of local data protection authorities, particularly where the storage of complete IP addresses is prohibited. The anonymization or masking of the IP address takes place as soon as the IP addresses arrive in the Google Analytics data collection network and before any data is stored or processed.

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

Google Analytics reports on demographics and interests

We have enabled advertising reporting features in Google Analytics. The demographic and interest reports provide information about age, gender, and interests. This allows us to gain a better understanding of our users without being able to attribute this data to individual persons. Learn more about advertising features. on https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3450482?hl=de_AT&utm_id=ad.

You can control the use of your Google account activity and information under “Ad settings”. https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated End via checkbox.

If you are on the following Deactivation link Clicking this link will prevent Google from tracking further visits to this website. Please note: Deleting cookies, using your browser's incognito/private mode, or using a different browser will result in data collection resuming.

Disable Google Analytics

Google Analytics Data Processing Amendment

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

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

Google Analytics Google Signals Privacy Policy

We have activated Google Signals in Google Analytics. This updates the existing Google Analytics features (advertising reports, remarketing, cross-device reports, and reports on interests and demographics) to provide you with aggregated and anonymized data, provided you have allowed personalized ads in your Google account.

What's special about this is that it's cross-device tracking. This means your data can be analyzed across multiple devices. By activating Google Signals, data is collected and linked to your Google account. This allows Google, for example, to recognize if you view a product on our website using a smartphone and only later purchase it using a laptop. Thanks to the activation of Google Signals, we can launch cross-device remarketing campaigns that would otherwise be impossible. Remarketing means we can also show you our offers on other websites.

In Google Analytics, Google Signals also collect additional visitor data such as location, search history, YouTube history, and data about your actions on our website. This allows us to receive better advertising reports from Google and more useful information about your interests and demographic characteristics. These include your age, the language you speak, where you live, and your gender. Furthermore, social criteria such as your occupation, marital status, and income are also included. All these characteristics help Google Analytics define user groups or target audiences.

These reports also help us better understand your behavior, preferences, and interests. This allows us to optimize and tailor our services and products for you. This data expires after 26 months by default. Please note that this data collection only occurs if you have enabled personalized advertising in your Google account. The data is always aggregated and anonymous, never personal information. You can manage or delete this data in your Google account.

Hotjar

We use Hotjar to better understand our users' needs and to optimize the content and user experience on this website. Hotjar's technology gives us a better understanding of our users' experiences (e.g., how much time users spend on which pages, which links they click, what they like and dislike, etc.), which helps us tailor our offerings to user feedback. Hotjar uses cookies and other technologies to collect data about our users' behavior and their devices, specifically the device's IP address (which is only collected and stored in anonymized form during your website visit), screen size, device type (unique device identifiers), information about the browser used, location (country only), and preferred language for viewing our website. Hotjar stores this information on our behalf in a pseudonymized user profile. Hotjar is contractually prohibited from selling the data collected on our behalf.

Further information can be found in the 'about Hotjar' section on [website address]. Hotjar's help page.

Facebook Pixel Privacy Policy

We use the Facebook pixel on our website. We have implemented a code snippet on our website for this purpose. The Facebook pixel is a snippet of JavaScript code that loads a collection of functions allowing Facebook to track your user actions if you arrived at our website via Facebook ads. For example, if you purchase a product on our website, the Facebook pixel is triggered and stores your actions on our website in one or more cookies. These cookies allow Facebook to match your user data (customer data such as IP address, user ID) with the data in your Facebook account. Facebook then deletes this data. The collected data is anonymous and inaccessible to us and is only used for advertising purposes. If you are a Facebook user and logged in, your visit to our website will be automatically associated with your Facebook user account.

We want to show our services and products only to people who are genuinely interested. Using the Facebook pixel, our advertising can be better tailored to your needs and interests. This allows Facebook users (provided they have allowed personalized advertising) to see relevant ads. Facebook also uses the collected data for analysis and its own advertising purposes.

Below, we show you the cookies that were set by integrating the Facebook pixel on a test page. Please note that these are only example cookies. Different cookies will be set depending on your interactions on our website.

Name: _fbp
Value: fb.1.1568287647279.257405483-6111280132-7
Purpose of use: This cookie is used by Facebook to display advertising products.
Expiry date: after 3 months

Name: fr
Value: 0aPf312HOS5Pboo2r..Bdeiuf…1.0.Bdeiuf.
Purpose of use: This cookie is used to ensure that the Facebook pixel functions properly.
Expiry date: after 3 months

Name: comment_author_50ae8267e2bdf1253ec1a5769f48e062111280132-3
Value: Author's name
Purpose of use: This cookie stores the text and name of a user who, for example, leaves a comment.
Expiry date: after 12 months

Name: comment_author_url_50ae8267e2bdf1253ec1a5769f48e062
Value: httpswww.testseite… (author’s URL)
Purpose of use: This cookie stores the URL of the website that the user enters in a text field on our website.
Expiry date: after 12 months

Name: comment_author_email_50ae8267e2bdf1253ec1a5769f48e062
Value: Author's email address
Purpose of use: This cookie stores the user's email address, provided they have entered it on the website.
Expiry date: after 12 months

Note: The cookies mentioned above relate to individual user behavior. Changes to Facebook's use of cookies are always possible.

If you are logged into Facebook, you can adjust your ad settings at https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen You can change it yourself. If you are not a Facebook user, you can go to http://www.youronlinechoices.com/de/praferenzmanagement/ You can manage your usage-based online advertising here. You have the option to deactivate or activate providers.

If you would like to learn more about Facebook's data privacy practices, we recommend that you consult the company's own data policy at [link to Facebook's privacy policy]. https://www.facebook.com/policy.php.

Facebook Automatic Advanced Matching Privacy Policy

We have also activated Automatic Advanced Matching as part of the Facebook Pixel function. This pixel function allows us to send hashed email addresses, names, genders, cities, states, postal codes, dates of birth, and phone numbers to Facebook as additional information, provided you have given us this data. This activation allows us to tailor advertising campaigns on Facebook even more precisely to people who are interested in our services or products.

Google Tag Manager Privacy Policy

We use Google Tag Manager from Google Inc. on our website. For the European region, Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. This Tag Manager is one of many helpful marketing products from Google. Through Google Tag Manager, we can centrally integrate and manage code snippets from various tracking tools that we use on our website.

In this privacy policy, we want to explain in more detail what the Google Tag Manager does, why we use it, and in what form data is processed.

What is the Google Tag Manager?

The Google Tag Manager is an organizational tool that allows us to centrally integrate and manage website tags via a single user interface. Tags are small snippets of code that, for example, record (track) your activity on our website. This is achieved by inserting JavaScript code snippets into our website's source code. These tags often originate from Google products like Google Ads or Google Analytics, but tags from other companies can also be integrated and managed through the manager. Such tags perform various functions. They can collect browser data, feed data into marketing tools, integrate buttons, set cookies, and even track users across multiple websites.

Why do we use Google Tag Manager for our website?

As they say, organization is half the battle! And that certainly applies to maintaining our website. To make our website as user-friendly as possible for you and everyone interested in our products and services, we need various tracking tools, such as Google Analytics. The data collected by these tools shows us what interests you most, where we can improve our services, and which people we should show our offers to. For this tracking to work, we need to integrate the corresponding JavaScript code into our website. We could, in principle, insert each code snippet for the individual tracking tools separately into our source code. However, this is quite time-consuming, and it's easy to lose track. That's why we use Google Tag Manager. We can easily integrate the necessary scripts and manage them from one central location. Furthermore, Google Tag Manager offers an easy-to-use interface, and no programming knowledge is required. This allows us to keep our tag jungle organized.

What data is stored by Google Tag Manager?

The Tag Manager itself is a domain that does not set cookies or store any data. It merely acts as a "manager" of the implemented tags. The data is collected by the individual tags of the various web analytics tools. The data is essentially routed through the Google Tag Manager to the individual tracking tools and is not stored there.

However, the situation is quite different with the embedded tags of various web analytics tools, such as Google Analytics. Depending on the analytics tool, various data about your web behavior are usually collected, stored, and processed using cookies. Please read our privacy policies for the individual analytics and tracking tools we use on our website.

In the Tag Manager account settings, we have allowed Google to receive anonymized data from us. This only pertains to the use of our Tag Manager and not to your data stored via the code snippets. We are enabling Google and others to receive selected data in anonymized form. We therefore consent to the anonymous sharing of our website data. Despite extensive research, we have not been able to determine exactly which aggregated and anonymized data is shared. In any case, Google deletes all information that could identify our website. Google aggregates this data with hundreds of other anonymous website data points and creates user trends as part of benchmarking. Benchmarking involves comparing your own results with those of your competitors. Processes can be optimized based on the collected information.

How long and where will the data be stored?

When Google stores data, it stores that data on its own Google servers. These servers are distributed around the world, with most located in America. https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de You can find out exactly where the Google servers are located.

For information on how long the individual tracking tools store your data, please refer to our individual privacy policies for each tool.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

The Google Tag Manager itself does not set cookies, but manages tags from various tracking websites. In our privacy policies for the individual tracking tools, you will find detailed information on how to delete or manage your data.

Google is an active participant in the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. You can find more information about this at [link to Google's privacy policy]. https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI&tid=111280132. If you would like to learn more about Google Tag Manager, we recommend the FAQs at [link to FAQs]. https://www.google.com/intl/de/tagmanager/faq.html.

Newsletter Privacy Policy

By subscribing to our newsletter, you submit the personal data mentioned above and grant us permission to contact you via email. We use the data collected during newsletter registration exclusively for our newsletter and do not share it with third parties.

Should you unsubscribe from the newsletter – you will find the link at the very bottom of every newsletter – we will delete all data that was stored in connection with your newsletter registration.

MailChimp Privacy Policy

Like many other websites, we also use the services of the newsletter company MailChimp on our website. MailChimp is operated by The Rocket Science Group, LLC, 675 Ponce de Leon Ave NE, Suite 5000, Atlanta, GA 30308 USA. Thanks to MailChimp, we can easily send you interesting news via newsletter. With MailChimp, we don't need to install anything and can still draw on a pool of truly useful features. Below, we will discuss this email marketing service in more detail and 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 don't have to install MailChimp on our own computer or server. Instead, we use the service via an IT infrastructure—accessible via the internet—on an external server. This way of using software is also called SaaS (Software as a Service).

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

Why do we use MailChimp on our website?

We primarily use a newsletter service to stay in touch with you. We want to keep you updated on our latest news and current special offers. We always look for the simplest and best solutions for our marketing efforts, which is why we chose Mailchimp's newsletter management service. Although the software is very user-friendly, it offers a wide range of helpful features. This allows us to create engaging and visually appealing newsletters in a short amount of time. The available design templates allow us to customize each newsletter, and thanks to the responsive design, our content is displayed clearly and attractively on your smartphone (or other mobile devices).

Tools such as A/B testing and comprehensive analytics allow us to quickly see how our newsletters are received. This enables us to react and improve our offerings or services.

Another advantage is Mailchimp's cloud system. The data is not stored and processed directly on our server. We can retrieve the data from external servers, thus conserving our storage space. Furthermore, the maintenance effort is significantly reduced.

What data does MailChimp store?

The Rocket Science Group LLC (MailChimp) maintains online platforms that allow us to contact you (if you have subscribed to our newsletter). When you subscribe to our newsletter via our website, you confirm your membership in a MailChimp email list via email. To enable MailChimp to verify that you have registered with the "list provider," the registration date and your IP address are stored. MailChimp also stores your email address, name, physical address, and demographic information such as language and location.

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

MailChimp also shares information with third-party providers to offer better services. MailChimp also shares some data with third-party advertising partners to better understand its customers' interests and concerns, enabling the delivery of more relevant content and targeted advertising.

MailChimp uses so-called "web beacons" (small graphics embedded in HTML emails) to determine whether the email has been delivered, opened, and whether any links have been clicked. All this information is stored on MailChimp's servers. This allows us to generate statistical analyses and see precisely how well our newsletter performed for you. In this way, we can tailor our offerings much more effectively to your needs and improve our service.

MailChimp may also use this data to improve its own service. This allows, for example, the technical optimization of email delivery or the determination of the recipient's location (country).

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

nameAVESTA_ENVIRONMENT
Value: Prod
Purpose of use: This cookie is necessary to provide Mailchimp services. It is always set when a user registers for a newsletter mailing list.
Expiry date: after the meeting

name: ak_bmsc
Value: F1766FA98C9BB9DE4A39F70A9E5EEAB55F6517348A7000001111280132-3
Purpose of use: The cookie is used to distinguish a human from a bot. This allows for the creation of reliable reports on website usage.
Expiry date: after 2 hours

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

name: _abck
Value: 8D545C8CCA4C3A50579014C449B045111280132-9
Purpose of use: We were unable to obtain any further information about the purpose of this cookie.
Expiry date: after one year

Sometimes, for better display, you may need to open our newsletter via a provided link. This happens, for example, if your email program isn't working or the newsletter isn't displaying correctly. In such cases, the newsletter is displayed via a MailChimp website. MailChimp also uses cookies (small text files that store data in your browser) on its own websites. Personal data may be processed by MailChimp and its partners (e.g., Google Analytics). This data collection is the responsibility of MailChimp, and we have no control over it. MailChimp's "Cookie Statement" (available at: https://mailchimp.com/legal/cookies/You can find out exactly how and why the company uses cookies.

How long and where will the data be stored?

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

Generally, your data remains permanently stored on Mailchimp's servers and is only deleted upon your request. You can have your contact deleted from our system. This permanently removes all your personal data and anonymizes you in Mailchimp reports. Alternatively, you can request the deletion of your data directly from Mailchimp. In this case, all your data will be removed there, and we will receive a notification from Mailchimp. After receiving this notification, we have 30 days to delete your contact from all connected integrations.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

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

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

Depending on the browser, disabling or deleting cookies works slightly differently. The following instructions show you how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies to remove data that websites have stored on your computer.

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

If you generally do not want to allow cookies, you can configure your browser to always notify you when a cookie is about to be set. This allows you to decide whether to allow each individual cookie or not.

MailChimp actively participates in the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. You can find more information about this at [link to privacy policy]. https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000TO6hAAG&tid=111280132. Learn more about MailChimp's use of cookies at [link to cookie policy]. https://mailchimp.com/legal/cookies/, Information on data protection at MailChimp (Privacy) can be found at https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/ Read more.

MailChimp order data processing agreement

We have entered into a data processing agreement (Data Processing Addendum) with MailChimp. This agreement serves to protect your personal data and ensures that MailChimp complies with applicable data protection regulations and does not share your personal data with third parties.

More information about this contract can be found at https://mailchimp.com/legal/data-processing-addendum/.

We use Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) as an online marketing tool to promote our products and services. Our goal is to raise awareness of the high quality of our offerings among more people online. As part of our Google Ads advertising efforts, we use conversion tracking from Google Inc. on our website. However, in Europe, Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. This free tracking tool allows us to better tailor our advertising to your interests and needs. The following article explains in more detail why we use conversion tracking, what data is stored, and how you can prevent this data storage.

What is Google Ads conversion tracking?

Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is Google Inc.'s own online advertising system. We are confident in the quality of our offering and want as many people as possible to discover our website. Google Ads provides the best platform for this online. Naturally, we also want to gain a precise overview of the cost-benefit ratio of our advertising campaigns. Therefore, we use the Google Ads conversion tracking tool.

But what exactly is a conversion? A conversion occurs when you go from being a purely interested website visitor to taking action. This happens whenever you click on our ad and then perform another action, such as visiting our website. With Google's conversion tracking tool, we record what happens after a user clicks on our Google Ads ad. For example, we can see whether products are purchased, 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 promote our offerings on other websites. Our goal is to ensure that our advertising campaigns reach only those people who are genuinely interested in our products or services. With the conversion tracking tool, we can see which keywords, ads, ad groups, and campaigns lead to the desired customer actions. We can see how many customers interact with our ads on a single device and then complete a conversion. This data allows us to calculate our cost-benefit ratio, measure the success of individual advertising campaigns, and consequently optimize our online marketing efforts. Furthermore, we can use the data we gather to make our website more engaging for you and tailor our advertising even more precisely to your needs.

What data is stored in Google Ads conversion tracking?

We have integrated a conversion tracking tag or code snippet into our website to better analyze certain user actions. When you click on one of our Google Ads, a "Conversion" cookie from a Google domain is stored on your computer (usually in your browser) or mobile device. Cookies are small text files that store information on your computer.

Here is the data for the most important cookies used by Google for conversion tracking:

Name: Conversion
Value: EhMI_aySuoyv4gIVled3Ch0llweVGAEgt-mr6aXd7dYlSAGQ111280132-3
Purpose of use: This cookie stores every conversion you make on our site after coming to us via a Google Ad.
Expiry date: after 3 months

Name: _gac
Value: 1.1558695989.EAIaIQobChMIiOmEgYO04gIVj5AYCh2CBAPrEAAYASAAEgIYQfD_BwE
Purpose of use: This is a classic Google Analytics cookie and is used to record various actions on our website.
Expiry date: after 3 months

Note: The _gac cookie appears to be used only in connection with Google Analytics. The list above is not exhaustive, as Google also uses other cookies for analytical purposes.

As soon as you complete an action on our website, Google recognizes the cookie and saves your action as a so-called conversion. As long as you are browsing our website and the cookie has not yet expired, we and Google recognize that you found us via our Google Ads ad. The cookie is read and sent back to Google Ads along with the conversion data. It is also possible that other cookies are used to measure conversions. Google Ads conversion tracking can be further refined and improved using Google Analytics. For ads that Google displays in various locations on the web, cookies named “__gads” or “_gac” may be set under our domain. Since September 2017, various campaign information from analytics.js has been stored using the _gac cookie. This cookie stores this data as soon as you visit one of our pages for which Google Ads automatic tagging has been enabled. Unlike cookies set for Google domains, Google can only read these conversion cookies when you are on our website. We do not collect or receive any personal data. We receive a report from Google containing statistical analyses. This tells us, for example, the total number of users who clicked on our ad and which advertising measures were successful.

How long and where will the data be stored?

At this point, we would like to emphasize that we have no control over how Google uses the collected data. According to Google, the data is encrypted and stored on secure servers. In most cases, conversion cookies expire after 30 days and do not transmit any personally identifiable information. The cookies named "Conversion" and "_gac" (which is used in conjunction with Google Analytics) have an expiration date of 3 months.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You have the option to opt out of Google Ads conversion tracking. If you disable the Google conversion tracking cookie in your browser, you will block conversion tracking. In this case, you will not be included in the tracking tool's statistics. You can change your browser's cookie settings at any time. The process varies slightly depending on the browser. Here are instructions on how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies to remove data that websites have stored on your computer.

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

If you generally do not want to allow cookies, you can configure your browser to always notify you when a cookie is about to be set. This allows you to decide whether to allow each individual cookie or not. By downloading and installing this browser plug-in on https://support.google.com/ads/answer/7395996 All "advertising cookies" will also be deactivated. Please note that deactivating these cookies will not prevent advertisements from being displayed, but only personalized advertising.

Through its certification under the EU-US Privacy Shield framework, the American corporation Google LLC is required to comply with EU data protection laws. For more information about data protection at Google, we recommend consulting Google's general privacy policy. https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de.

Embedded social media elements Privacy policy

We integrate elements from social media services into our website to display images, videos and text.
By visiting pages that display these elements, data is transferred from your browser to the respective social media service and stored there. We have no access to this data.
The following links will take you to the pages of the respective social media services where it is explained how they handle your data:

Facebook Privacy Policy

We use selected tools from Facebook on our website. Facebook is a social media network operated by Facebook Ireland Ltd., 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland. These tools allow us to offer you and others interested in our products and services the best possible experience. Below, we provide an overview of the various Facebook tools, the data that is sent to Facebook, and how you can delete this data.

What are Facebook tools?

In addition to many other products, Facebook also offers the so-called "Facebook Business Tools." This is Facebook's official name. However, since the term is hardly known, we have decided to simply call them Facebook Tools. These include, among other things:

  • Facebook Pixel
  • social plug-ins (such as the "Like" or "Share" button)
  • Facebook Login
  • Account Kit
  • APIs (Application Programming Interfaces)
  • SDKs (Collection of Programming Tools)
  • Platform integrations
  • Plugins
  • Codes
  • Specifications
  • Documentation
  • Technologies and services

These tools allow Facebook to expand its services and obtain information about user activity 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. Facebook ads allow us to reach precisely these people. However, to show users relevant ads, Facebook needs information about their needs and desires. Therefore, we provide the company with information about user behavior (and contact details) on our website. This allows Facebook to gather better user data and show interested people relevant ads for our products and services. These tools thus enable tailored advertising campaigns on Facebook.

Facebook refers to data about your behavior on our website as "event data." This data is also used for measurement and analytics services. Facebook can then create "campaign reports" on our behalf about the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns. Furthermore, these analyses give us a better understanding of how you use our services, website, or products. We use some of these tools to optimize your user experience on our website. For example, you can use social plugins to share content from our site directly on Facebook.

What data is stored by Facebook tools?

Using certain Facebook tools may result in personal data (customer data) being 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 it already holds about you (if you are a Facebook member). Before customer data is transmitted to Facebook, it undergoes a process called "hashing." This means that any data set of any size is transformed into a string of characters. This also serves to encrypt the data.

In addition to contact information, "event data" is also transmitted. "Event data" refers to information we receive about you on our website, such as which subpages you visit or which products you purchase from us. Facebook does not share this information with third parties (such as advertisers) unless it has explicit permission or is legally obligated to do so. "Event data" can also be linked to contact information. This allows Facebook to offer more personalized advertising. After the aforementioned matching process, Facebook deletes the contact data.

To optimize ad delivery, Facebook uses event data only when it has been combined with other data (collected by Facebook through other means). Facebook also uses this event data for security, protection, development, and research purposes. Much of this data is transferred to Facebook via cookies. Cookies are small text files used to store data and information in browsers. Depending on the tools used and whether you are a Facebook member, a varying number of cookies will be placed in your browser. We provide more detailed information about individual Facebook cookies in the descriptions of the various Facebook tools. You can also find general information about the use of Facebook cookies on [link to Facebook's cookie policy]. https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies.

How long and where will the data be stored?

Generally, Facebook stores data until it is no longer needed for its own services and products. Facebook has servers distributed around the world where its data is stored. However, customer data is deleted within 48 hours after it has been matched with the company's own user data.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have the right to access, rectification, portability and erasure of your data.

Your data will only be completely deleted if you delete your Facebook account entirely. Here's how to delete your Facebook account:

1) Click on Settings on the right side of Facebook.

2) Next, click on „Your Facebook Information“ in the left column.

3) Now click “Deactivation and Deletion”.

4) Now select „Delete account“ and then click „Next and delete account“.“

5) Now enter your password, click "Next" and then "Delete account".„

The data that Facebook receives through our site is stored, among other things, via cookies (e.g., in the case of social plugins). You can disable, delete, or manage individual or all cookies in your browser. Depending on which browser you use, this works differently. The following instructions show you how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies to remove data that websites have stored on your computer.

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

If you generally do not want to allow cookies, you can configure your browser to always notify you when a cookie is about to be set. This allows you to decide whether to allow each individual cookie or not.

Facebook is an active participant in the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. You can find more information about this at [link to Facebook's privacy policy]. https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000GnywAAC. We hope we have provided you with the most important information about the use and processing of data by Facebook tools. If you would like to learn more about how Facebook uses your data, we recommend that you read the data policy on [link to Facebook's data policy]. https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update.

Facebook Social Plugins Privacy Policy

Our website uses social plugins from Facebook Inc. You can recognize these buttons by the classic Facebook logo, such as the "Like" button (the hand with a raised thumb), or by a clear "Facebook Plugin" label. A social plugin is a small part of Facebook that is integrated into our site. Each plugin has its own function. The most frequently used functions are the familiar "Like" and "Share" buttons.

The following social plugins are offered by Facebook:

  • “Save” button
  • “Like” button, share, send and quote
  • Page plug-in
  • Comments
  • Messenger plug-in
  • Embedded posts and video players
  • Group plug-in

On https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins You will find more detailed information on how the individual plugins are used. We use social plugins both to offer you a better user experience on our site and because Facebook can use them to optimize our advertising.

If you have a Facebook account or facebook.com If you have visited our site before, Facebook has already placed at least one cookie in your browser. In this case, your browser sends information to Facebook via this cookie as soon as you visit our site or interact with social plugins (e.g., the "Like" button).

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

To prevent Facebook from collecting and linking a lot of data during your visit to our website, you must log out of Facebook during your visit to the website.

If you are not logged into Facebook or do not have a Facebook account, your browser will send less information to Facebook because you have fewer Facebook cookies. However, data such as your IP address or which website you visit may still be transmitted to Facebook. We would like to explicitly point out that we do not have precise knowledge of the exact content of this data. However, we are trying to inform you about data processing to the best of our current knowledge. You can also find information on how Facebook uses data in the company's data policy at [link to Facebook's data policy]. https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update Read more.

The following cookies will be set in your browser at a minimum when you visit a website with social plugins from Facebook:

Name: dpr
Value: not specified
Purpose of use: This cookie is used to make the social plugins on our website work.
Expiry date: after the meeting

Name: fr
Value: 0jieyh4111280132c2GnlufEJ9..Bde09j…1.0.Bde09j
Purpose of use: The cookie is also necessary for the plug-ins to function properly.
Expiry date: after 3 months

Note: These cookies were set after a test, even if you are not a Facebook member.

If you are logged into Facebook, you can adjust your ad settings at https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen You can change it yourself. If you are not a Facebook user, you can go to http://www.youronlinechoices.com/de/praferenzmanagement/You can manage your usage-based online advertising here. You have the option to deactivate or activate providers.

If you would like to learn more about Facebook's data privacy practices, we recommend that you consult the company's own data policy at [link to Facebook's privacy policy]. https://www.facebook.com/policy.php.

Facebook Login Privacy Policy

We've integrated the convenient Facebook Login into our website. This allows you to easily log in with your Facebook account without having to create a separate user account. If you choose to register via Facebook Login, you will be redirected to the Facebook social media network. There, you will be logged in using your Facebook user credentials. This login process involves the storage and transmission of data about you and your user behavior to Facebook.

To store data, Facebook uses various cookies. Below, we show you the most important cookies that are set in your browser or already exist when you log in to our site via Facebook:

Name: fr
Value: 0jieyh4c2GnlufEJ9..Bde09j…1.0.Bde09j
Purpose of use: This cookie is used to ensure that the social plugin on our website works as well as possible.
Expiry date: after 3 months

Name: datr
Value: 4Jh7XUA2111280132SEmPsSfzCOO4JFFl
Purpose of use: Facebook sets the “datr” cookie when a web browser accesses facebook.com, and the cookie helps to identify login activity and protect users.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: _js_datr
Value: deleted
Purpose of use: This session cookie is set by Facebook for tracking purposes, even if you do not have a Facebook account or are logged out.
Expiry date: after the meeting

Note: The cookies listed are just a small selection of those available to Facebook. Other cookies include, for example, _fbp, sb, and wd. A complete list is not possible, as Facebook uses a large number of cookies and employs them variably.

Facebook Login offers you a quick and easy registration process, while also allowing us to share data with Facebook. This enables us to better tailor our offers and promotions to your interests and needs. The data we receive from Facebook in this way is public data such as...

  • Your Facebook name
  • Your profile picture
  • a registered email address
  • Friend lists
  • Button information (e.g., "Like" button)
  • Date of birth
  • Language
  • Place of residence

In return, we provide Facebook with information about your activity on our website. This includes information about your device, which subpages you visit, and which products you have purchased from us.

By using Facebook Login, you consent to data processing. You can revoke this consent at any time. If you would like more information about data processing by Facebook, we recommend that you read the Facebook Data Policy at [link to Facebook Data Policy]. https://de-de.facebook.com/policy.php.

If you are logged into Facebook, you can adjust your ad settings at https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen change yourself.

Twitter Privacy Policy

We have integrated Twitter features into our website. These include, for example, embedded tweets, timelines, buttons, and hashtags. Twitter is a microblogging service and social media platform operated by Twitter Inc., One Cumberland Place, Fenian Street, Dublin 2 D02 AX07, Ireland.

To our knowledge, simply embedding Twitter functionality does not transfer any personal data or data about your web activity to Twitter within the European Economic Area and Switzerland. Data is only sent to Twitter, stored, and processed when you interact with the Twitter functions, such as by clicking a button. We have no control over this data processing and bear no responsibility for it. This privacy policy aims to provide you with an overview of what data Twitter stores, what Twitter does with this data, and how you can largely protect yourself from data transfer.

What is Twitter?

For some, Twitter is a news service, for others a social media platform, and still others a microblogging service. All these terms are valid and mean more or less the same thing.

Both individuals and companies use Twitter to communicate with interested parties via short messages. Twitter allows only 280 characters per message. These messages are called "tweets." Unlike Facebook, for example, the service does not focus on building a network of "friends," but rather aims to be understood as a global and open news platform. Twitter also allows users to have an anonymous account, and tweets can be deleted by both the company and the users themselves.

Why do we use Twitter on our website?

Like many other websites and companies, we try to offer our services and communicate with our customers through various channels. Twitter, in particular, has become a valuable and useful news service for us. We regularly tweet or retweet exciting, funny, or interesting content. We understand that you can't follow every single channel. After all, you have other things to do. That's why we've integrated Twitter features into our website. You can follow our Twitter activity directly on our site or access our Twitter page via a direct link. By integrating Twitter, we aim to enhance our service and the user-friendliness of our website.

What data does Twitter store?

On some of our subpages, you'll find embedded Twitter features. When you interact with Twitter content, such as by clicking a button, Twitter can collect and store data, even if you don't have a Twitter account. Twitter calls this data "log data." This includes demographic information, browser cookie IDs, your smartphone's ID, hashed email addresses, and information about which pages you've visited on Twitter and what actions you've taken. Twitter naturally stores more data if you have a Twitter account and are logged in. This storage usually occurs via cookies. Cookies are small text files, typically placed in your browser, that transmit various pieces of information to Twitter.

We will now show you which cookies are set when you are not logged into Twitter but visit a website with embedded Twitter features. Please consider this list as an example. We cannot guarantee its completeness, as the choice of cookies is constantly changing and depends on your individual interactions with Twitter content.

These cookies were used in our test:

Name: personalization_id
Value: “v1_cSJIsogU51SeE111280132”
Purpose of use: This cookie stores information about how you use the website and which advertisements may have led you to Twitter.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: long
Value: de
Purpose of use: This cookie stores your preset or preferred language.
Expiry date: after the meeting

Name: guest_id
Value: 111280132v1157132626
Purpose of use: This cookie is set to identify you as a guest. 
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: fm
Value: 0
Purpose of use: Unfortunately, we were unable to find out the purpose of this cookie.
Expiry date: after the meeting

Name: external_referer
Value: 1112801322beTA0sf5lkMrlGt
Purpose of use: This cookie collects anonymous data, such as how often you visit Twitter and how long you stay on Twitter.
Expiry date: After 6 days

Name: eu_cn
Value: 1
Purpose of use: This cookie stores user activity and serves various advertising purposes for Twitter.
Expiry date: After one year

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

Name: _twitter_sess
Value: 53D3D–dd0248111280132-
Purpose of use: This cookie allows you to use features within the Twitter website.
Expiry date: after the meeting

Note: Twitter also collaborates with third-party providers. That's why we also detected the three Google Analytics cookies _ga, _gat, and _gid in our test.

Twitter uses the collected data on the one hand to better understand user behavior and thus improve its own services and advertising offers, and on the other hand the data also serves internal security measures.

How long and where will the data be stored?

When Twitter collects data from other websites, it deletes, aggregates, or otherwise anonymizes it after a maximum of 30 days. Twitter's servers are located in various data centers in the United States. Therefore, it can be assumed that the collected data is gathered and stored in America. Our research did not definitively determine whether Twitter also has its own servers in Europe. In principle, Twitter can store the collected data until it is no longer useful to the company, you delete the data, or a legal retention period applies.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

Twitter repeatedly emphasizes in its privacy policy that it does not store any data from external website visits if you or your browser are located in the European Economic Area or Switzerland. However, if you interact directly with Twitter, Twitter will, of course, also store data about you.

If you have a Twitter account, you can manage your data by clicking "More" below your profile. Then click "Settings and privacy." Here you can manage your data processing individually.

If you don't have a Twitter account, you can go to twitter.com Go to [link to relevant page] and then click on "Personalization". Under "Personalization and Data" you can manage your collected data.

As mentioned above, most data is stored via cookies, which you can manage, disable, or delete in your browser. Please note that you can only "edit" cookies in the browser you are currently using. This means that if you use a different browser in the future, you will need to manage your cookies again according to your preferences. Instructions for managing cookies in the most popular browsers are available here.

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies to remove data that websites have stored on your computer.

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

You can also configure your browser to notify you about each individual cookie. This allows you to decide whether to allow a cookie or not.

Twitter also uses the data for personalized advertising both on and off Twitter. You can disable personalized advertising in your settings under "Personalization and Data." If you are using Twitter in a browser, you can disable personalized advertising under http://optout.aboutads.info/?c=2&lang=EN deactivate.

Twitter is an active participant in the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework. This framework ensures the proper transfer of data between the US and the European Union. [Under] https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000TORzAAO Learn more about it.

We hope we have given you a basic overview of how Twitter processes data. We do not receive any data from Twitter and are not responsible for what Twitter does with your data. If you have any further questions on this topic, we recommend that you consult the Twitter Privacy Policy at [link to Twitter Privacy Policy]. https://twitter.com/de/privacy.

LinkedIn Privacy Policy

We use social plugins from the social media network LinkedIn, operated by LinkedIn Corporation, 2029 Stierlin Court, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA, on our website. These social plugins may include feeds, content sharing, or links to our LinkedIn page. The social plugins are clearly marked with the familiar LinkedIn logo and allow, for example, sharing interesting content directly from our website. For the European Economic Area and Switzerland, LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, Wilton Place, Dublin, is responsible for data processing.

By embedding such plugins, data can be sent to, stored by, and processed by LinkedIn. In this privacy policy, we want to inform you about the data involved, how the network uses this data, and how you can manage or prevent data storage.

What is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is the largest social network for business contacts. Unlike Facebook, for example, the company focuses exclusively on building professional connections. Businesses can present their services and products on the platform and establish business relationships. Many people also use LinkedIn for job searches or to find suitable employees for their own companies. In Germany alone, the network has over 11 million members. In Austria, there are approximately 1.3 million.

Why do we use LinkedIn on our website?

We know how busy you are. It's impossible to monitor every social media channel individually, even though, as in our case, it would be worthwhile. We regularly post interesting news and reports that are worth sharing. That's why we've added the option to share interesting content directly on LinkedIn or link directly to our LinkedIn page on our website. We see these integrated social plugins as an enhanced service on our website. The data LinkedIn collects also helps us ensure that our advertising is only shown to people who are genuinely interested in our offerings.

What data does LinkedIn store?

LinkedIn does not store any personal data simply by integrating social plugins. LinkedIn refers to this data, generated by plugins, as passive impressions. However, if you click on a social plugin, for example to share our content, the platform stores personal data as so-called "active impressions." This occurs regardless of whether you have a LinkedIn account or not. If you are logged in, the collected data will be associated with your account.

Your browser establishes a direct connection to LinkedIn's servers when you interact with our plugins. This allows the company to log various usage data. In addition to your IP address, this can include, for example, login data, device information, or information about your internet or mobile provider. If you access LinkedIn services via your smartphone, your location can also be determined (after you have granted permission). LinkedIn may also share this data in hashed form with third-party advertisers. Hashing means that a data set is transformed into a string of characters. This allows the data to be encrypted in such a way that individuals can no longer be identified.

Most data about your user behavior is stored in cookies. These are small text files that are usually placed in your browser. LinkedIn may also use web beacons, pixel tags, ad tags, and other device identifiers.

Various tests also show which cookies are set when a user interacts with a social plug-in. The data found is not exhaustive and serves only as an example. The following cookies were set without the user being logged into LinkedIn:

Name: bcookie
Value: =2&34aab2aa-2ae1-4d2a-8baf-c2e2d7235c16111280132-
Purpose of use: The cookie is a so-called "browser ID cookie" and therefore stores your identification number (ID).
Expiry date: After 2 years

Name: long
Value: v=2&lang=de-de
Purpose of use: This cookie stores your preset or preferred language.
Expiry date: after the meeting

Name: lidc
Value: 1818367:t=1571904767:s=AQF6KNnJ0G111280132…
Purpose of use: This cookie is used for routing. Routing records the paths you took to reach LinkedIn and how you navigate the website.
Expiry date: after 24 hours

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

Name: JSESSIONID
Value: ajax:1112801322900777718326218137
Purpose of use: This is a session cookie that LinkedIn uses to maintain anonymous user sessions through the server.
Expiry date: after the meeting

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

Name: fid
Value: AQHj7Ii23ZBcqAAAA…
Purpose of use: No further information could be found about this cookie.
Expiry date: after 7 days

Note: LinkedIn also works with third-party providers. That's why we also detected the two Google Analytics cookies _ga and _gat in our test.

How long and where will the data be stored?

LinkedIn generally retains your personal data for as long as the company deems necessary to provide its services. However, LinkedIn deletes your personal data when you delete your account. In some exceptional cases, LinkedIn retains some data in aggregated and anonymized form even after you delete your account. Once you delete your account, other people will no longer be able to see your data within one day. LinkedIn generally deletes data within 30 days. However, LinkedIn retains data if legally required to do so. Data that can no longer be associated with an individual remains stored even after the account is closed. The data is stored on various servers in America and presumably also in Europe.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You have the right to access and delete your personal data at any time. You can manage, modify, and delete your data in your LinkedIn account. You can also request a copy of your personal data from LinkedIn.

Here's how to access the account details in your LinkedIn profile:

In LinkedIn, click your profile icon and select "Settings and privacy." Then click "Privacy" and, in the "How LinkedIn uses your data" section, click "Change." You can then download selected data about your web activity and account history.

You can also prevent LinkedIn from processing your data in your browser. As mentioned above, LinkedIn stores most of its data via cookies placed in your browser. You can manage, disable, or delete these cookies. The process varies slightly depending on your browser. Instructions for the most common browsers can be found here:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies to remove data that websites have stored on your computer.

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

You can also configure your browser to always notify you when a cookie is about to be set. This allows you to decide individually whether or not to allow the cookie.

LinkedIn is an active participant in the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework. This framework ensures the proper transfer of data between the USA and the European Union. [Under this] https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000L0UZAA0 Learn more about it. We've tried to provide you with the most important information about LinkedIn's data processing practices. On https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy Learn more about the data processing practices of the social media network LinkedIn.

Pinterest Privacy Policy

We use buttons and widgets from the social media network Pinterest, operated by Pinterest Inc., 808 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA, on our website.

By accessing pages that use such functions, data (IP address, browser data, date and time, cookies) is transmitted to Pinterest, stored and evaluated.

You can find Pinterest's privacy policy, which details what information Pinterest collects and how it uses it, on [link to privacy policy]. https://policy.pinterest.com/de/privacy-policy.

XING Privacy Policy

We use social plugins from the social media network Xing, operated by Xing SE, Dammtorstraße 30, 20354 Hamburg, Germany, on our website. These plugins allow you, for example, to share content directly from our website on Xing, log in to Xing, or follow interesting content. You can recognize the plugins by the company name or the Xing logo. When you visit a website that uses a Xing plugin, data may be transmitted to, stored on, and analyzed by Xing's servers. This privacy policy explains what data is involved and how you can manage or prevent this data storage.

What is Xing?

Xing is a social network headquartered in Hamburg. The company specializes in managing professional contacts. This means that, unlike other networks, Xing focuses primarily on professional networking. The platform is often used for job searches or to find employees for one's own company. In addition, Xing offers interesting content on various professional topics. Its global counterpart is the American company LinkedIn.

Why do we use Xing on our website?

There's a flood of social media channels these days, and we're well aware that your time is valuable. It's impossible to scrutinize every single company's social media channel. That's why we want to make things as easy as possible for you, so you can share or follow interesting content directly from our website on Xing. These "social plugins" expand the services we offer on our website. Furthermore, the data collected by Xing helps us to implement targeted advertising on the platform. This means our services are only shown to people who are genuinely interested in them.

What data does Xing store?

Xing offers the share button, the follow button, and the login button as plugins for websites. As soon as you open a page with a Xing social plugin, your browser connects to servers in a data center used by Xing. According to Xing, no data is stored in connection with the share button that could directly identify an individual. In particular, Xing does not store your IP address. Furthermore, no cookies are set in connection with the share button. Therefore, your user behavior is not analyzed. You can find more information about this here. https://www.xing.com/app/share%3Fop%3Ddata_protection.

With the other Xing plugins, cookies are only set in your browser when you interact with the plugin or click on it. In this case, personal data such as your IP address, browser data, and the date and time of your page visit to Xing may be stored. If you have a Xing account and are logged in, the collected data will be associated with your personal account and the data stored therein.

The following cookies will be set in your browser if you click the "Follow" or "Log in" button and are not yet logged in to Xing. Please note that this is an example list and we cannot claim it to be exhaustive:

Name: AMCVS_0894FF2554F733210A4C98C6AdobeOrg
Value: 1
Purpose of use: This cookie is used to create and store identifications of website visitors.
Expiry date: after the meeting

Name: c_
Value: 157c609dc9fe7d7ff56064c6de87b019111280132-8
Purpose of use: We were unable to find any further information about this cookie.
Expiry date: after one day

Name: previousPage
Value: wbmWelcomelogin
Purpose of use: This cookie stores the URL of the previous website you visited.
Expiry date: after 30 minutes

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

Name: s_fid
Value: 6897CDCD1013221C-39DDACC982217CD1111280132-2
Purpose of use: This cookie is used to identify a unique visitor.
Expiry date: after 5 years

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

Name:_session_id
Value: 533a0a6641df82b46383da06ea0e84e7111280132-2
Purpose of use: This cookie creates a temporary session ID, which is used as the in-session user ID. This cookie is absolutely necessary to provide Xing's functionality.
Expiry date: after the meeting

Once you are logged in to Xing or become a member, further personal data will definitely be collected, processed, and stored. Xing also shares personal data with third parties if this is necessary for fulfilling its own business purposes, if you have given your consent, or if there is a legal obligation to do so.

How long and where will the data be stored?

Xing stores data on various servers in different data centers. The company retains this data until you delete it or until your user account is deleted. This only applies to users who are already Xing members.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You have the right to access and delete your personal data at any time. Even if you are not a Xing member, you can prevent potential data processing or manage it according to your preferences via your browser. Most data is stored via cookies. Depending on which browser you are using, the management process varies slightly. You can find instructions for the most common browsers here:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies to remove data that websites have stored on your computer.

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

You can also configure your browser to always notify you when a cookie is about to be set. This allows you to decide individually whether or not to allow the cookie.

We have tried to provide you with the most important information about data processing by Xing. https://privacy.xing.com/de/datenschutzerklaerung Learn more about the data processing practices of the social media network Xing.

YouTube Privacy Policy

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

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

What is YouTube?

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

Why do we use YouTube videos on our website?

YouTube is the video platform with the most visitors and the best content. We strive to offer you the best possible user experience on our website. And of course, interesting videos are an essential part of that. With our embedded videos, we provide you with additional helpful content alongside our text and images. Furthermore, the embedded videos make our website easier to find on Google search. Even when we run advertisements through Google Ads, Google—thanks to the data collected—can only show these ads to people who are genuinely interested in our offerings.

What data does YouTube store?

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

If you're not signed in to a Google or YouTube account, Google stores data with a unique identifier linked to your device, browser, or app. This allows, for example, your preferred language setting to be retained. However, much interaction data cannot be stored because fewer cookies are set.

The following list shows cookies that were set in a browser test. We show cookies that were set both when no user was logged into a YouTube account and when a user was logged in. This list is not exhaustive, as user data always depends on interactions on YouTube.

Name: YSC
Value: b9-CV6ojI5Y111280132-1
Purpose of use: This cookie registers a unique ID to store statistics about the video viewed.
Expiry date: after the meeting

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

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

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

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

Name: APISID
Value: zILLlvClZSkqGsSwI/AU1aZI6HY7111280132-
Purpose of use: This cookie is used to create a profile of your interests. The data is used for personalized advertising.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: CONSENT
Value: YES+AT.de+20150628-20-0
Purpose of use: This cookie stores a user's consent status for using various Google services. CONSENT also serves a security purpose, verifying users and protecting user data from unauthorized access.
Expiry date: after 19 years

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

Name: LOGIN_INFO
Value: AFmmF2swRQIhALL6aL…
Purpose of use: This cookie stores information about your login details.
Expiry date: after 2 years

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

Name: SID
Value: oQfNKjAsI111280132-
Purpose of use: This cookie stores your Google account ID and your last login time in digitally signed and encrypted form.
Expiry date: after 2 years

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

How long and where will the data be stored?

The data that YouTube receives and processes from you is stored on Google servers. Most of these servers are located in America. [Under...] https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de  See exactly where Google's data centers are located. Your data is distributed across the servers. This makes the data faster to access and better protected against manipulation.

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

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You can manually delete data from your Google account. However, with the automatic deletion feature for location and activity data introduced in 2019, information is stored for either 3 or 18 months, depending on your choice, and then deleted.

Whether or not you have a Google account, you can configure your browser to delete or disable cookies from Google. The process varies depending on the browser you use. The following instructions show you how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies to remove data that websites have stored on your computer.

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

If you generally do not want to allow cookies, you can configure your browser to always notify you when a cookie is about to be set. This allows you to decide whether to allow each individual cookie. Since YouTube is a subsidiary of Google, they share a privacy policy. If you would like to learn more about how your data is handled, we recommend reading the privacy policy at [link to privacy policy]. https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de.

YouTube Subscribe Button Privacy Policy

We have integrated the YouTube subscribe button into our website. You can usually recognize the button by the classic YouTube logo. The logo shows the words "Subscribe" or "YouTube" in white lettering against a red background, with the white play symbol to the left. However, the button may also be displayed in a different design.

Our YouTube channel regularly offers you funny, interesting, or exciting videos. With the built-in "Subscribe" button, you can subscribe to our channel directly from our website without having to visit the YouTube website separately. We want to make accessing our extensive content as easy as possible for you. Please note that YouTube may store and process your data as a result.

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

Name: YSC
Value: b9-CV6ojI5111280132Y
Purpose of use: This cookie registers a unique ID to store statistics about the video viewed.
Expiry date: after the meeting

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

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

Name: VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE
Value: 11128013295Chz8bagyU
Purpose of use: This cookie attempts to estimate the user's bandwidth on our websites (with embedded YouTube video).
Expiry date: after 8 months

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

If you are logged into your YouTube account, YouTube can use cookies to store and associate many of your actions/interactions on our website with your YouTube account. This allows YouTube to obtain information such as how long you browse our site, which browser type you use, your preferred screen resolution, and other actions you perform.

YouTube uses this data firstly to improve its own services and offers, and secondly to provide analyses and statistics for advertisers (who use Google Ads).

Google reCAPTCHA Privacy Policy

Our top priority is to ensure the best possible security and protection for our website, both for you and for us. To guarantee this, we use Google reCAPTCHA from Google Inc. For the European Economic Area, Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. reCAPTCHA allows us to determine whether you are a real person and not a robot or other spam software. By spam, we mean any unsolicited information sent electronically. With traditional CAPTCHAs, you usually had to solve text or image puzzles for verification. With Google's reCAPTCHA, we usually don't need to bother you with such puzzles. In most cases, simply checking a box to confirm that you are not a bot is sufficient. With the new Invisible reCAPTCHA version, you don't even need to check a box. You can learn more about how this works and, above all, what data is used for this purpose later in this privacy policy.

What is reCAPTCHA?

reCAPTCHA is a free CAPTCHA service from Google that protects websites from spam software and misuse by non-human visitors. It's most commonly used when filling out online forms. A CAPTCHA service is a type of automated Turing test designed to ensure that an action on the internet is performed by a human and not a bot. In the classic Turing test (named after the computer scientist Alan Turing), a human determines the difference between a bot and a human. With CAPTCHAs, this task is performed by a computer or software program. Classic CAPTCHAs use small tasks that are easy for humans to solve but pose significant challenges for machines. With reCAPTCHA, you no longer need to actively solve puzzles. The tool uses modern risk assessment techniques to distinguish humans from bots. All you have to do is check the "I'm not a robot" box, or with Invisible reCAPTCHA, even that isn't necessary. With reCAPTCHA, a JavaScript element is embedded in the source code, and the tool then runs in the background, analyzing your user behavior. From these user actions, the software calculates a so-called CAPTCHA score. Using this score, Google calculates the probability that you are a human even before you enter the CAPTCHA. reCAPTCHA, or CAPTCHAs in general, are always used when bots could manipulate or abuse certain actions (such as registrations, surveys, etc.).

Why do we use reCAPTCHA on our website?

We only want to welcome real people to our site. Bots and spam software of any kind are not welcome. That's why we're doing everything we can to protect ourselves and offer you the best possible user experience. For this reason, we use Google reCAPTCHA from Google. This allows us to be fairly certain that we remain a "bot-free" website. By using reCAPTCHA, data is transmitted to Google to determine whether you are indeed a human. reCAPTCHA thus serves the security of our website and, consequently, your security as well. For example, without reCAPTCHA, a bot could register as many email addresses as possible during the registration process in order to subsequently spam forums or blogs with unwanted advertising. With reCAPTCHA, we can prevent such bot attacks.

What data does reCAPTCHA store?

reCAPTCHA collects personal data from users to determine whether actions on our website are actually performed by humans. This means that the IP address and other data required by Google for the reCAPTCHA service may be sent to Google. Within the member states of the EU or other contracting states of the Agreement on the European Economic Area, IP addresses are almost always shortened before the data is transferred to a server in the USA. The IP address is not combined with other Google data unless you are logged into your Google account while using reCAPTCHA. First, the reCAPTCHA algorithm checks whether Google cookies from other Google services (YouTube, Gmail, etc.) are already placed on your browser. Then, reCAPTCHA places an additional cookie in your browser and takes a snapshot of your browser window.

The following list of collected browser and user data is not exhaustive. Rather, it represents examples of data that, to our knowledge, is processed by Google.

  • Referrer URL (the address of the page from which the visitor came)
  • IP address (e.g. 256.123.123.1)
  • Information about the operating system (the software that enables your computer to run. Well-known operating systems are Windows, Mac OS X, or Linux)
  • Cookies (small text files that store data in your browser)
  • Mouse and keyboard behavior (every action you perform with the mouse or keyboard is saved)
  • Date and language settings (which language and date you have preset on your PC will be saved)
  • All JavaScript objects (JavaScript is a programming language that allows websites to adapt to the user. JavaScript objects can collect all kinds of data under a single name)
  • Screen resolution (indicates how many pixels the image display consists of)

It is undisputed that Google uses and analyzes this data even before you click the "I'm not a robot" checkbox. With the Invisible reCAPTCHA version, the checkbox is even omitted, and the entire recognition process runs in the background. Google does not provide detailed information on exactly how much and what kind of data it stores.

The following cookies are used by reCAPTCHA: This refers to the reCAPTCHA demo version from Google at [link to Google's demo version]. https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api2/demo. All these cookies require a unique identifier for tracking purposes. Here is a list of cookies that Google reCAPTCHA set on the demo version:

Name: IDE
Value: WqTUmlnmv_qXyi_DGNPLESKnRNrpgXoy1K-pAZtAkMbHI-111280132-8
Purpose of use: This cookie is set by DoubleClick (also owned by Google) to register and report a user's actions on the website in relation to advertisements. This allows advertising effectiveness to be measured and corresponding optimization measures to be taken. IDE is stored in browsers under the domain doubleclick.net.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: 1P_JAR
Value: 2019-5-14-12
Purpose of use: This cookie collects website usage statistics and measures conversions. A conversion occurs, for example, when a user becomes a buyer. The cookie is also used to display relevant advertisements to users. Furthermore, the cookie prevents a user from seeing the same ad more than once.
Expiry date: after one month

Name: ANID
Value: U7j1v3dZa1112801320xgZFmiqWppRWKOr
Purpose of use: We couldn't find much information about this cookie. Google's privacy policy mentions it in connection with "advertising cookies" such as "DSID", "FLC", "AID", and "TAID". ANID is stored under the domain google.com.
Expiry date: after 9 months

Name: CONSENT
Value: YES+AT.de+20150628-20-0
Purpose of use: This cookie stores a user's consent status for using various Google services. CONSENT also serves a security purpose, verifying users, preventing login credential fraud, and protecting user data from unauthorized access.
Expiry date: after 19 years

Name: NID
Value: 0WmuWqy111280132zILzqV_nmt3sDXwPeM5Q
Purpose of use: NID is used by Google to personalize ads based on your Google searches. With the help of this cookie, Google "remembers" your most frequent search queries or your previous interactions with ads. This ensures you always receive tailored advertisements. The cookie contains a unique ID to collect user preferences for advertising purposes.
Expiry date: after 6 months

Name: DV
Value: gEAABBCjJMXcI0dSAAAANbqc111280132-4
Purpose of use: Once you have checked the "I'm not a robot" box, this cookie will be set. Google Analytics uses this cookie for personalized advertising. DV collects information in anonymized form and is also used to differentiate between users.
Expiry date: after 10 minutes

Note: This list is not exhaustive, as Google is known to change its choice of cookies from time to time.

How long and where will the data be stored?

By integrating reCAPTCHA, your data is transferred to Google servers. Google does not clearly state where exactly this data is stored, even after repeated inquiries. Without confirmation from Google, it can be assumed that data such as mouse interactions, time spent on the website, and language settings are stored on Google's European or American servers. The IP address that your browser transmits to Google is generally not combined with other Google data from other Google services. However, if you are logged into your Google account while using the reCAPTCHA plugin, the data will be combined. Google's separate privacy policy applies in this case.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

If you do not want any data about you and your behavior to be transmitted to Google, you must completely log out of your Google account and delete all Google cookies before visiting our website or using the reCAPTCHA software. Data is automatically transmitted to Google as soon as you access our site. To delete this data, you must contact Google Support at [link to Google Support page].  https://support.google.com/?hl=de&tid=111280132 contact.

Therefore, by using our website, you agree that Google LLC and its representatives may automatically collect, process and use data.

You can learn more about reCAPTCHA on Google's web developer page at https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/. While Google does provide some details on the technical development of reCAPTCHA, precise information about data storage and privacy-related issues is still lacking. A good overview of Google's general data usage can be found in their privacy policy. https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/.

Custom Google Search Privacy Policy

We have integrated the Google Custom Search plugin into our website. Google is the world's largest and best-known search engine and is operated by the US company Google Inc. For the European region, Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible. By using Google Custom Search, your data may be transferred to Google. In this privacy policy, we inform you why we use this plugin, what data is processed, and how you can manage or prevent this data transfer.

What is custom Google search?

The custom Google search plugin is a Google search bar directly on our website. The search works just like on... www.google.com Instead, the search results focus on our content and products or on a limited search area.

Why do we use Google's custom search on our website?

A website with a lot of interesting content can often become so large that it's easy to lose track. Over time, we've also accumulated a lot of valuable material, and as part of our service, we want you to be able to find our content as quickly and easily as possible. The custom Google search makes finding interesting content a breeze. The integrated Google plugin improves the overall quality of our website and makes searching easier for you.

What data is stored by Google's custom search?

The custom Google search only transmits your data to Google if you actively use the Google search function integrated into our website. This means that only when you enter a search term in the search bar and then confirm it (e.g., by clicking "Enter") will your IP address be sent to Google, stored, and processed. Based on the cookies set (such as 1P_JAR), it can be assumed that Google also receives data about website usage. If you search for content using the integrated Google search function while visiting our website and are simultaneously logged into your Google account, Google can also associate the collected data with your Google account. As website operators, we have no control over what Google does with the collected data or how Google processes it.

The following cookies will be set in your browser if you use Google's custom search and are not signed in with a Google account:

Name: 1P_JAR
Value: 2020-01-27-13111280132-5
Purpose of use: This cookie collects website usage statistics and measures conversions. A conversion occurs, for example, when a user becomes a buyer. The cookie is also used to display relevant advertisements to users.
Expiry date: after one month

Name: CONSENT
Value: WP.282f52111280132-9
Purpose of use: This cookie stores a user's consent status for using various Google services. CONSENT also serves a security purpose, verifying users and protecting user data from unauthorized access.
Expiry date: after 18 years

Name: NID
Value: 196=pwIo3B5fHr-8
Purpose of use: NID is used by Google to personalize ads based on your Google searches. Using this cookie, Google "remembers" your search queries and previous interactions with ads, ensuring you always receive tailored advertisements.
Expiry date: after 6 months

Note: This list is not exhaustive, as Google frequently changes its choice of cookies.

How long and where will the data be stored?

Google's servers are distributed around the world. Since Google is an American company, most data is stored on American servers. Under https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de See exactly where the Google servers are located.
Your data is distributed across various physical storage devices. This makes the data faster to access and better protected against potential manipulation. Google also has corresponding emergency programs for your data. Even if Google experiences internal technical problems and servers become unavailable, the risk of service interruption and data loss remains low.
Depending on the type of data, Google stores it for varying lengths of time. You can delete some data yourself, while other data is automatically deleted or anonymized by Google. However, Google also stores some data for longer periods if required for legal or business reasons.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

Under European Union data protection law, you have the right to access, update, delete, or restrict the processing of your data. Some data can be deleted at any time. If you have a Google account, you can delete data about your web activity there or set it to be deleted after a certain period of time.
Your browser also allows you to disable, delete, or manage cookies according to your preferences. Instructions for the most common browsers can be found here:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies to remove data that websites have stored on your computer.

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

Google is an active participant in the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. You can find more information about this at [link to Google's privacy policy]. https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI. We hope we have provided you with the most important information regarding data processing by Google. If you would like to learn more, we recommend reading Google's comprehensive privacy policy at [link to Google's privacy policy]. https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de.

Cookiebot Privacy Policy

We use features from the provider Cookiebot on our website. Cookiebot is operated by Cybot A/S, Havnegade 39, 1058 Copenhagen, Denmark. Cookiebot allows us, among other things, to provide you with a comprehensive cookie notice (also known as a cookie banner or cookie notification). By using this feature, your data may be sent to, stored by, and processed by Cookiebot or Cybot. In this privacy policy, we inform you why we use Cookiebot, what data is transferred, and how you can prevent this data transfer.

What is Cookiebot?

Cookiebot is a software product from the company Cybot. The software automatically generates a GDPR-compliant cookie notice for our website visitors. Furthermore, the technology behind Cookiebot scans, monitors, and evaluates all cookies and tracking measures on our website.

Why do we use Cookiebot on our website?

We take data protection very seriously. We want to show you exactly what happens on our website and which of your data is stored. Cookiebot helps us maintain a clear overview of all our cookies (first-party and third-party cookies). This allows us to inform you precisely and transparently about the use of cookies on our website. You will always receive an up-to-date and data protection-compliant cookie notice and can decide for yourself which cookies you allow and which you do not.

What data does Cookiebot store?

If you allow cookies, the following data will be transferred to, stored and processed by Cybot.

  • IP address (in anonymized form, the last 3 digits are set to 0)
  • Date and time of your consent
  • our website URL
  • technical browser data
  • encrypted, anonymous key
  • the cookies you have allowed (as proof of consent)

The following cookies are set by Cookiebot if you have consented to the use of cookies:

Name: Cookie Consent
Value: {stamp:'P7to4eNgIHvJvDerjKneBsmJQd9111280132-2
Purpose of use: This cookie stores your consent status. This allows our website to read and follow your current status on future visits.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: CookieConsentBulkTicket
Value: kDSPWpAjhljZKClPqsncfR8SveTnNWhys5NojaxdFYBPjZ2PaDnUw11280132-6
Purpose of use: This cookie is set when you allow all cookies and thus activate "collective consent". The cookie then stores its own random and unique ID.
Expiry date: after one year

Note: Please note that this is an example list and we cannot claim it to be exhaustive. See the cookie policy below. https://www.cookiebot.com/de/cookie-declaration/ See which other cookies may be used.

According to Cybot's privacy policy, the company does not sell personal data. However, Cybot does share data with trusted third-party or subcontracting companies that help the company achieve its business objectives. Data is also shared when legally required.

How long and where will the data be stored?

All collected data is transferred, stored, and forwarded exclusively within the European Union. The data is stored in an Azure data center (cloud provider: Microsoft).  https://azure.microsoft.com/de-de/global-infrastructure/regions/ Learn more about all "Azure Regions". All user data is deleted by Cookiebot 12 months after registration (cookie consent) or immediately after termination of the Cookiebot service.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You have the right to access and delete your personal data at any time. You can prevent data collection and storage, for example, by declining the use of cookies via the cookie notice. Your browser also offers another way to prevent data processing or manage it according to your preferences. Cookie management works slightly differently depending on the browser. Here you will find instructions for the most popular browsers:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies to remove data that websites have stored on your computer.

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

If you would like to learn more about the privacy policy of "Cookiebot" or the company behind it, Cybot, we recommend that you read the privacy policy at [link to privacy policy]. https://www.cookiebot.com/de/privacy-policy/ to read through.

Source: Created with the privacy policy generator from AdSimple® Blog Marketing in cooperation with aboutbusiness.at