Privacy policy

Types of data processed:
– Inventory data (e.g., names, addresses).
– Contact data (e.g., e-mail, telephone numbers).
– Content data (e.g., text entries, photographs, videos).
– Usage data (e.g., web pages visited, interest in content, access times).
– Meta/communication data (e.g., device information, IP addresses).

Categories of data subjects
Visitors and users of the online offer (hereinafter we refer to the data subjects collectively as “users”).

Purpose of the processing
– Provision of the online offer, its functions and contents.
– Responding to contact requests and communicating with users.
– Security measures.
– Coverage/marketing

Terminology used
“Personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (hereinafter “data subject”); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier (e.g. cookie) or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.

“Processing” means any operation or set of operations which is performed upon personal data, whether or not by automatic means. The term is broad and covers virtually any handling of data.

“Controller” means the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which alone or jointly with others determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data.

Relevant legal basis
In accordance with Art. 13 DSGVO, we are informing you of the legal basis for our data processing. If the legal basis is not mentioned in the privacy policy, the following applies: The legal basis for obtaining consent is Art. 6 (1) (a) and Art. 7 DSGVO, the legal basis for processing in order to fulfil our services and carry out contractual measures and respond to enquiries is Art. 6 (1) (b) DSGVO, the legal basis for processing in order to fulfil our legal obligations is Art. 6 (1) )(c) DSGVO, and the legal basis for processing in order to protect our legitimate interests is Art. 6 (1) (f) DSGVO. In the event that vital interests of the data subject or another natural person make it necessary to process personal data, Art. 6 (1) (d) DSGVO serves as the legal basis.

Cooperation with processors and third parties
If, in the course of our processing, we disclose data to other persons and companies (order processors or third parties), transmit it to them or otherwise grant them access to the data, this will only be done on the basis of a legal permission (e.g. if a transmission of the data to third parties, such as to payment service providers, is necessary for the performance of the contract pursuant to Art. 6 (1) lit. b DSGVO), you have consented, a legal obligation provides for this, or on the basis of our legitimate interests (e.g. when using agents, web hosts, etc.).

If we commission third parties to process data on the basis of a so-called “order processing agreement”, this is done on the basis of Art. 28 DSGVO.

Transfers to third countries
If we process data in a third country (i.e. outside the European Union (EU) or the European Economic Area (EEA)) or do so in the context of using third-party services or disclosing or transferring data to third parties, this will only be done to fulfil our (pre-)contractual obligations, on the basis of your consent, due to a legal obligation or on the basis of our legitimate interests. Subject to legal or contractual permissions, we only process or allow the processing of data in a third country if the specific requirements of Art. 44 ff. DSGVO are met. This means, for example, that the processing is carried out on the basis of specific guarantees, such as the officially recognised identification of a level of data protection corresponding to that of the EU (e.g. for the USA through the “Privacy Shield”) or compliance with officially recognised, specific contractual obligations (so-called “standard contractual clauses”).

Rights of data subjects
You have the right to request confirmation whether the data in question is being processed and to information about this data, as well as further information and a copy of the data in accordance with Art. 15 DSGVO.

According to Article 16 of the GDPR, you have the right to request that the data concerning you be completed or that any inaccurate data concerning you be corrected.

In accordance with Art. 17 of the GDPR, you have the right to demand that the data in question be deleted without delay, or alternatively, in accordance with Art. 18 of the GDPR, to demand that the processing of the data be restricted.

You have the right to request that the data concerning you which you have provided be received in accordance with Art. 20 of the GDPR and to request that it be transferred to other data controllers.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority in accordance with Art. 77 DSGVO.

Right of withdrawal
You have the right to revoke your consent in accordance with Art. 7 (3) DSGVO with effect for the future.

Right of objection
You may object at any time to the future processing of data relating to you in accordance with Art. 21 DSGVO. The objection can be made in particular against processing for direct marketing purposes.

Cookies and right of objection in the case of direct advertising
“Cookies” are small files that are stored on users’ computers. Different information can be stored within the cookies. A cookie is primarily used to store information about a user (or the device on which the cookie is stored) during or after his or her visit to an online offer. Temporary cookies, or “session cookies” or “transient cookies”, are cookies that are deleted after a user leaves an online offer and closes his or her browser. The content of a shopping basket in an online shop or a login accumulation, for example, can be stored in such a cookie. Cookies that remain stored even after the browser is closed are referred to as “permanent” or “persistent”. For example, the login status can be stored if users visit them after several days. Likewise, the interests of users can be stored in such a cookie, which is used for measuring coverage or marketing purposes. “Third-party cookies” are cookies that are offered by providers other than the responsible party operating the online offer (otherwise, if they are only this operator’s cookies, they are referred to as “first-party cookies”).

We may use temporary and permanent cookies and will explain this in our privacy policy.

If users do not want cookies to be stored on their computer, they are asked to deactivate the corresponding option in the system settings of their browser. Stored cookies can be deleted in the system settings of the browser. The exclusion of cookies may lead to functional restrictions of this online offer.
Check or change Cookie settings now

A general objection to the use of cookies used for online marketing purposes can be declared for a large number of services, especially in the case of tracking, via the US American site http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ or the EU site http://www.youronlinechoices.com/. Furthermore, the storage of cookies can be achieved by deactivating them in the browser settings. Please note that in this case not all functions of this online offer can be used.

Deletion of data
The data we process will be deleted or restricted in its processing in accordance with Articles 17 and 18 DSGVO. Unless expressly stated within the scope of this data protection declaration, the data stored by us will be deleted as soon as they are no longer required for their intended purpose and the deletion does not conflict with any statutory retention obligations. If the data is not deleted because it is required for other, legally permitted purposes, its processing will be restricted, i.e., the data will be blocked and not processed for other purposes. i.e., the data will be blocked and not processed for other purposes. This applies, for example, to data that must be retained for reasons of commercial or tax law.

According to legal requirements in Germany, data is stored for 6 years in accordance with § 257 para. 1 HGB (commercial books, inventories, opening balance sheets, annual financial statements, commercial letters, accounting copies, etc.) and for 10 years in accordance with § 147 para. 1 AO (books, records, management reports, accounting copies, commercial and business letters, documents relevant for taxation, etc.).

According to legal requirements in Austria, storage is for 7 years pursuant to § 132 para. 1 BAO (accounting records, copies/invoices, accounts, receipts, business papers, statement of income and expenditure, etc.), for 22 years in connection with real estate and for 10 years for documents in connection with electronically provided services, telecommunications, radio and television services provided to non-entrepreneurs in EU member states, and for which the Mini-One-Stop-Shop (MOSS) is claimed.

Business-related processing
In addition, we process
– Contract data (e.g., subject matter of the contract, term, category of customer).
– Payment data (e.g., bank details, payment history)
of our customers, prospective customers and business partners for the purpose of providing contractual services, service and customer care, marketing, advertising and market research.

Hosting
The hosting services used by us serve to provide the following services: Infrastructure and platform services, computing capacity, storage space and database services, security services and technical maintenance services, which we use for the purpose of operating this online offer.

In doing so, we, or our hosting provider, process inventory data, contact data, content data, contract data, usage data, meta data and communication data of customers, interested parties and visitors of this online offer on the basis of our legitimate interests in the efficient and secure provision of this online offer pursuant to Art. 6 para. (1) lit. f DSGVO in conjunction with Art. 28 DSGVO (conclusion of order processing contract).

Collection of access data and log files
We, or rather our hosting provider, collect data on every access to our website on the basis of our legitimate interests within the meaning of Art. 6 para. (1) lit. f. DSGVO, we or our hosting provider collect data about each access to the server on which this service is located (so-called server log files). The access data includes the name of the website accessed, file, date and time of access, amount of data transferred, notification of successful access, browser type and version, the user’s operating system, referrer URL (the previously visited page), IP address and the requesting provider.

Log file information is stored for security reasons (e.g. for the clarification of abuse or fraud) for a maximum of 7 days and then deleted. Data whose further storage is required for evidentiary purposes is exempt from deletion until the respective incident has been clarified.

Provision of contractual services
We process inventory data (e.g., names and addresses as well as contact data of users), contract data (e.g., services used, names of contact persons, payment information) for the purpose of fulfilling our contractual obligations and services pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 lit b. DSGVO. The entries marked as mandatory in online forms are required for the conclusion of the contract.

When using our online services, we store the IP address and the time of the respective user activity. The storage is based on our legitimate interests as well as those of the users, in protection against misuse and other unauthorised use. In principle, this data is not passed on to third parties unless it is necessary to pursue our claims or there is a legal obligation to do so in accordance with Art. 6 para. (1) lit. c DSGVO.

We process usage data (e.g., the web pages visited on our website, interest in our products) and content data (e.g., entries in the contact form or user profile) for advertising purposes in a user profile, e.g., in order to display product information to users based on the services they have used to date.

The deletion of the data takes place after the expiry of legal warranty and comparable obligations, the necessity to keep the data is reviewed every three years; in the case of legal archiving obligations, the deletion takes place after their expiry. Information in any customer account shall remain until it is deleted.

Contacting
When contacting us (e.g., by contact form, e-mail, telephone or via social media), the user’s details are processed for the purpose of handling the contact enquiry and its processing pursuant to Art. 6 para. (1) b) DSGVO. The user’s details may be stored in a customer relationship management system (“CRM system”) or comparable enquiry organisation.

We delete the enquiries when they are no longer necessary. We review their necessity every two years; furthermore, legal archiving obligations apply.

Akismet anti-spam check
Our online offer uses the service “Akismet”, which is offered by Automattic, Inc. 132 Hawthorne Street San Francisco, CA 94107, USA. The use is based on our legitimate interests within the meaning of Art. 6 para. (1) lit. f) DSGVO. With the help of this service, comments from real people are distinguished from spam comments. For this purpose, all comment details are sent to a server in the USA, where they are analysed and stored for four days for comparison purposes. If a comment has been classified as spam, the data is stored beyond this time. This information includes the name entered, the email address, the IP address, the comment content, the referrer, information on the browser used, as well as the computer system and the time of the entry.

Automattic is certified under the Privacy Shield agreement and thereby offers a guarantee of compliance with European data protection law ( https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000CbqcAAC&status=Active).

Further information on the collection and use of data by Akismet can be found in Automattic’s privacy policy: https://automattic.com/privacy/.

Users are welcome to use pseudonyms, or to refrain from entering their name or email address. You can prevent the transfer of data completely by not using our commenting system. That would be a shame, but unfortunately, we cannot see any other alternative that works as effectively.

Retrieval of profile pictures from Gravatar
We use the service Gravatar, provided by Automattic, Inc. 132 Hawthorne Street San Francisco, CA 94107, USA, within our online offer and especially in the blog.

Gravatar is a service enabling users to register and store profile pictures and their e-mail addresses. If users leave posts or comments on other online presences (especially blogs) with the respective email address, their profile pictures can be displayed next to the posts or comments. For this purpose, the email address provided by the users is transmitted to Gravatar in encrypted form for the purpose of checking whether a profile is stored for it. This is the sole purpose of the transmission of the email address and it is not used for any other purpose, but is deleted afterwards.

Gravatar is used on the basis of our legitimate interests within the meaning of Art. 6 (1) (f) DSGVO, as we use Gravatar to offer post and comment authors the opportunity to personalise their posts with a profile picture.

Automattic is certified under the Privacy Shield agreement and thereby offers a guarantee of compliance with European data protection law ( https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000CbqcAAC&status=Active).

By displaying the images, Gravatar obtains the IP address of the user, as this is necessary for communication between a browser and an online service. More information on the collection and use of data by Gravatar can be found in Automattic’s privacy policy: https://automattic.com/privacy/.

If users do not want a user image linked to their Gravatar email address to appear in the comments, they should use an email address that is not on file with Gravatar to comment. We also point out that it is also possible to use an anonymous email address or no email address at all if users do not want their email address to be sent to Gravatar. Users can prevent the transmission of data completely by not using our commenting system.

Newsletter
The following information refers to the contents of our newsletter as well as the associated registration, dispatch and statistical evaluation procedure and your rights of objection. By subscribing to our newsletter, you agree to receive it and to the procedures described.
Content of the newsletter: We send newsletters, e-mails and other electronic notifications with promotional information (hereinafter “newsletter”) only with the consent of the recipients or legal permission. If the contents of the Newsletter are specifically described in the course of registration, they are decisive for the consent of the users. Otherwise, our newsletters contain information about our services and us.
Double opt-in and logging: Registration for our newsletter is carried out in a so-called double opt-in procedure. This means that after registration you will receive an e-mail, in which you are asked to confirm your registration. This confirmation is necessary so that no one can register with other email addresses. Registrations for the newsletter are logged, in order to be able to prove the registration process in accordance with the legal requirements. This includes the storage of the registration and confirmation time as well as the IP address. Likewise, changes to your data stored with the dispatch service provider are logged.

Registration data: To register for the newsletter, it is sufficient to enter your e-mail address. Optionally, we ask you to enter a name for the purpose of personal address in the newsletter.

Germany: The newsletter is sent and its success measured on the basis of the recipients’ consent pursuant to Art. 6 para. (1) lit. a, Art. 7 DSGVO in conjunction with § 7 Para. 2 No. 3 UWG or on the basis of legal permission pursuant to § 7 Para. 3 UWG.

The logging of the registration process takes place on the basis of our legitimate interests pursuant to Art. 6 para. (1) lit. f DSGVO. Our interest is directed towards the operation of a user-friendly as well as secure newsletter system that serves our business interests as well as meeting the expectations of the users, and also allows us to prove consent.

Cancellation/revocation – You can cancel the receipt of our newsletter at any time, i.e. you can revoke your consent. You will find a link to cancel the newsletter at the end of each newsletter. We may store unsubscribed email addresses for up to three years on the basis of our legitimate interests before deleting them for the purposes of sending newsletters; this is in order to be able to prove consent previously given. The processing of this data is limited to the purpose of a possible defence against claims. An individual deletion request is possible at any time, provided that the former existence of consent is confirmed at the same time.

Newsletter – performance measurement
The newsletters contain a so-called “web beacon”, i.e. a pixel-sized file which is retrieved from our server or, when we use a dispatch service provider, from their server when the newsletter is opened. Within the scope of this retrieval, technical information such as information on the browser and your system, as well as your IP address and the time of the retrieval are initially collected.

This information is used for the technical improvement of services on the basis of the technical data or the target groups and their reading behaviour, ascertained on the basis of their retrieval locations (which can be determined with the help of the IP address) or the access times. Statistical surveys also include determining whether newsletters are opened, when they are opened, and which links are clicked. For technical reasons, this information can be assigned to the individual newsletter recipients. However, it is neither our intention nor, if used, that of the dispatch service provider to observe individual users. Far more, the analyses enable us to recognise the reading habits of our users and to adapt our content to them or to send different content according to the interests of our users.

Jetpack (WordPress Stats)
We use the plugin Jetpack (WordPress Stats) on the basis of our legitimate interests (i.e. interest in the analysis, optimisation and economic operation of our online offer within the meaning of Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f. DSGVO). The plugin Jetpack (here the sub-function “WordPress Stats”)embeds a tool for statistical analysis of visitor accesses and is provided by Automattic, Inc. 132 Hawthorne Street San Francisco, CA 94107, USA. Jetpack uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyse how users use the site.

Automattic is certified under the Privacy Shield agreement and thereby offers a guarantee of compliance with European data protection law ( https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000CbqcAAC&status=Active).

The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is stored on a server in the USA. In the process, user profiles can be created from the processed data, whereby these are only used for analytical purposes and not for advertising purposes. For more information, please refer to Automattic’s privacy policy: https://automattic.com/privacy/ and notes on Jetpack cookies: https://jetpack.com/support/cookies/.

Coverage measurement with WP Statistics
Within the scope of the coverage analysis of WP Statistics, on the basis of our legitimate interests (i.e. interest in the analysis, optimisation and economic operation of our online offer within the meaning of Art. 6 (1) lit. f. DSGVO). DSGVO), the following data is processed: the type and version of browser you use, the operating system you use, your country of origin, the date and time of the server request, the number of visits, the time you spend on the website and the external links you click. The user’s IP address is anonymised before it is stored.

WP Statistics uses cookies, which are stored on the user’s computer and which enable an analysis of the use of our online offer by the user. Pseudonymous user profiles can be created from the processed data. The cookies have a storage period of one week. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is only stored on our server and is not passed on to third parties.

Online presence in social media
We maintain online presences on social networks and platforms in order to be able to communicate with customers, interested parties and users who are active there and to inform them about our services. When calling up the respective networks and platforms, the terms and conditions and data processing guidelines of their respective operators apply.

Unless otherwise stated in our data protection declaration, we process the data of users if they communicate with us on the social networks and platforms, e.g. write posts on our online presences or send us messages.

Integration of third-party services and content
Within our online offer, we use content or service providers on the basis of our legitimate interests (i.e. interest in the analysis, optimisation and economic operation of our online offer within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f. DSGVO). DSGVO) to integrate content or services offered by third-party providers, such as videos or fonts (hereinafter uniformly referred to as “content”).

This always requires that the third-party providers of this content are aware of the IP address of the user, as without the IP address they would not be able to send the content to their browser. The IP address is therefore necessary for the display of this content. We endeavour to use only content whose respective providers use the IP address only to deliver the content. Third-party providers may also use so-called pixel tags (invisible graphics, also known as “web beacons”) for statistical or marketing purposes. The “pixel tags” can be used to evaluate information such as visitor traffic on the pages of this website. The pseudonymous information may also be stored in cookies on the user’s device and may contain, among other things, technical information about the browser and operating system, referring websites, time of visit and other information about the use of our website, as well as being linked to such information from other sources.

Changes to our data protection policy
We reserve the right to adapt this data protection declaration so that it always complies with the current legal requirements or in order to implement changes to our services in the data protection declaration, e.g., when introducing new services. The new data protection statement will then apply to your next visit.

With data protection generator.de by RA Dr. Thomas Schwenke

and the data protection declaration generator of activeMind AG.