Privacy policy

Table of Contents

Introduction and overview

We have written this privacy statement (version 04.02.2022) to explain to you, in accordance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and applicable national laws, what personal data (data for short) we as the controller - and the processors (e.g. providers) commissioned by us - process, will process in the future and what lawful options you have. The terms used are to be understood as gender-neutral.
In short, we inform you comprehensively about data we process about you.

Privacy statements usually sound very technical and use legal terminology. This privacy statement, on the other hand, is intended to describe the most important things to you as simply and transparently as possible. To the extent that it is conducive to transparency, technical terms are explained in a reader-friendly manner, links to further information are provided and graphics are used. In this way, we inform you in clear and simple language that we only process personal data in the course of our business activities if there is a corresponding legal basis. This is certainly not possible by providing the most concise, unclear and legalistic explanations possible, as is often standard practice on the Internet when it comes to data protection. I hope you find the following explanations interesting and informative, and perhaps there is one or two pieces of information that you did not yet know.
If you still have questions, we would like to ask you to contact the responsible party named below or in the imprint, to follow the links provided and to look at further information on third-party sites. Our contact details can of course also be found in the imprint.

Scope of application

This data protection declaration applies to all personal data processed by us in the company and to all personal data processed by companies commissioned by us (order processors). By personal data, we mean information within the meaning of Art. 4 No. 1 DSGVO, such as a person's name, e-mail address and postal address. The processing of personal data ensures that we can offer and invoice our services and products, whether online or offline. The scope of this privacy policy includes:

  • all online presences (websites, online stores) that we operate/li>
  • social media presences and email communications
  • mobile apps for smartphones and other devices

In short, the data protection declaration applies to all areas in which personal data is processed in the company via the aforementioned channels in a structured manner. If we enter into legal relationships with you outside of these channels, we will inform you separately as appropriate.

Legal basis

In the following privacy statement, we provide you with transparent information on the legal principles and regulations, i.e. the legal bases of the General Data Protection Regulation, which enable us to process personal data.
As far as EU law is concerned, we refer to REGULATION (EU) 2016/679 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 27 April 2016, which you can of course read online on EUR-Lex, the access to EU law, at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/DE/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32016R0679.

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

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

Other conditions, such as the performance of recordings in the public interest and the exercise of official authority, as well as the protection of vital interests, do not generally arise for us. If such a legal basis should nevertheless be relevant, it will be indicated at the appropriate place.

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

  • In Austria this is the Federal Act on the Protection of Individuals with regard to the Processing of Personal Data (Data Protection Act), or DSG for short.
  • In Germany the Federal Data Protection Act, or BDSG for short, applies.

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

Storage period

The fact that we only store personal data for as long as is absolutely necessary for the provision of our services and products applies as a general criterion at our company. This means that we delete personal data as soon as the reason for processing the data no longer exists. In some cases, we are required by law to store certain data even after the original purpose has ceased to exist, for example for accounting purposes.

Should you wish your data to be deleted or revoke your consent to data processing, the data will be deleted as soon as possible and insofar as there is no obligation to store it.

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

Rights according to the General Data Protection Regulation

According to Article 13 of the GDPR, you have the following rights to ensure fair and transparent processing of data:

  • According to Article 15 DSGVO, you have the right to be informed whether we are processing data about you. If this is the case, you have the right to receive a copy of the data and to know the following information:
    • For what purpose we are processing;
    • the categories, i.e. the types of data that are processed;
    • who receives this data and if the data is transferred to third countries, how security can be guaranteed;
    • how long the data will be stored;
    • the existence of the right to rectification, erasure or restriction of processing and the right to object to processing;
    • that you can lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority (links to these authorities can be found below);
    • The origin of the data if we have not collected it from you;
    • Whether profiling is carried out, i.e. whether data is automatically evaluated to arrive at a personal profile of you.
  • You have a right to rectification of data according to Article 16 GDPR, which means that we must correct data if you find errors.
  • You have the right to erasure ("right to be forgotten") according to Article 17 GDPR, which specifically means that you may request the deletion of your data.
  • According to Article 18 of the GDPR, you have the right to restriction of processing, which means that we may only store the data but not use it further.
  • According to Article 19 of the GDPR, you have the right to data portability, which means that we will provide you with your data in a common format upon request.
  • According to Article 21 DSGVO, you have the right to object, which entails a change in processing after enforcement.
    • If the processing of your data is based on Article 6(1)(e) (public interest, exercise of official authority) or Article 6(1)(f) (legitimate interest), you may object to the processing. We will then check as soon as possible whether we can legally comply with this objection.
    • If data is used to conduct direct advertising, you may object to this type of data processing at any time. We may then no longer use your data for direct marketing.
    • If data is used to conduct profiling, you may object to this type of data processing at any time. We may no longer use your data for profiling thereafter.
  • According to Article 22 of the GDPR, you may have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (for example, profiling).

In short, you have rights - do not hesitate to contact the controller listed above with us!

If you believe that the processing of your data violates data protection law or your data protection rights have been violated in any other way, you can complain to the supervisory authority. For Austria, this is the data protection authority, whose website can be found at https://www.dsb.gv.at/ . In Germany, there is a data protection officer for each federal state. For more information, you can contact the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI). The following local data protection authority is responsible for our company:

North Rhine-Westphalia Data Protection Authority

State Commissioner for Data Protection: Bettina Gayk
Address: Kavalleriestraße 2-4, 40213 Düsseldorf, Germany
Telephone: +49 (0)211/384 24-0
E-mail address: poststelle@ldi.nrw.de
Website: https://www.ldi.nrw.de/

Data processing security

To protect personal data, we have implemented both technical and organizational measures. Where possible, we encrypt or pseudonymize personal data. In this way, we make it as difficult as possible, within the scope of our possibilities, for third parties to infer personal information from our data.

Article 25 of the GDPR refers to "data protection by technical design and by data protection-friendly default settings" and thus means that both software (e.g., forms) and hardware (e.g., access to the server room) are always designed with security in mind and that appropriate measures are taken. In the following, we will go into more detail on specific measures, if necessary.

TLS encryption with https

TLS, encryption and https sound very technical and they are. We use HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure stands for "secure hypertext transfer protocol") to transfer data over the Internet in a tap-proof manner.
This means that the complete transmission of all data from your browser to our web server is secured - no one can "listen in".

In this way, we have introduced an additional layer of security and fulfill data protection by design of technology Article 25(1) DSGVO. By using TLS (Transport Layer Security), an encryption protocol for secure data transmission on the Internet, we can ensure the protection of confidential data.
You can recognize the use of this protection of data transmission by the small lock symbol at the top left of the browser, to the left of the Internet address (e.g., beispielseite.de) and the use of the scheme https (instead of http) as part of our Internet address.
If you want to know more about encryption, we recommend a Google search for "Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure wiki" to get good links to further information.

Communication

Communication Summary

Data subjects: anyone who communicates with us by phone, email, or online form
Data processed: e.g. phone number, name, email address, form data entered. More details can be found in the respective contact type used.
Purpose: processing of communication with customers, business partners, etc.
Storage period: Duration of the business case and legal requirements.
Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a DSGVO (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b DSGVO (contract), Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f DSGVO (legitimate interests).

If you contact us and communicate by phone, e-mail or online form, personal data may be processed.

The data is processed for the handling and processing of your question and the related business transaction. The data will be stored for the same period of time or as long as required by law.

Persons concerned

All those who seek contact with us via the communication channels provided by us are affected by the aforementioned processes.

Telephone

When you call us, the call data is stored pseudonymously on the respective terminal device and with the telecommunications provider used. In addition, data such as name and telephone number may subsequently be sent by e-mail and stored for the purpose of responding to your inquiry. The data is deleted as soon as the business case has been closed and legal requirements permit.

E-mail

If you communicate with us by e-mail, data may be stored on the respective end device (computer, laptop, smartphone,...) and data is stored on the e-mail server. The data will be deleted as soon as the business case has been closed and legal requirements allow it.

Online forms

If you communicate with us using online forms, data is stored on our web server and may be forwarded to an e-mail address of ours. The data will be deleted as soon as the business case has been terminated and legal requirements permit.

Legal basis

The processing of data is based on the following legal bases:

  • Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a DSGVO (consent): you give us your consent to store your data and to further use it for purposes related to the business case;
  • Art. 6 (1) lit. b DSGVO (contract): there is a need for the performance of a contract with you or a processor such as the telephone provider or we need to process the data for pre-contractual activities, such as the preparation of an offer;
  • Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f DSGVO (Legitimate Interests): we want to operate customer inquiries and business communication in a professional framework. For this purpose, certain technical facilities such as e-mail programs, exchange servers and mobile network operators are necessary in order to be able to operate the communication efficiently.

Web Hosting

Web hosting summary

Concerned parties: visitors of the website
Purpose: Professional hosting of the website and securing its operation. Processed data: IP address, time of website visit, browser used and other data. More details can be found below or with the respective web hosting provider used. Storage period: depends on the respective provider, but usually 2 weeks. Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit.f DSGVO (Legitimate Interests).

What is web hosting?

When you visit websites nowadays, certain information - including personal data - is automatically created and stored, including on this website. This data should be processed as sparingly as possible and only with justification. By website, by the way, we mean the entirety of all web pages on a domain, i.e. everything from the home page (homepage) to the very last subpage (like this one). By domain, we mean, for example, example.de or sampleexample.com.

If you want to view a website on a screen, you use a program called a web browser to do it. You probably know some web browsers by name: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Apple Safari.

This web browser needs to connect to another computer where the website's code is stored: the web server. Running a web server is a complicated and costly task, which is why this is usually done by professional providers, the providers. These offer web hosting and thus ensure reliable and error-free storage of website data.

When the browser on your computer (desktop, laptop, smartphone) connects and during data transfer to and from the web server, personal data may be processed. On the one hand, your computer stores data, and on the other hand, the web server also needs to store data for a while to ensure proper operation.

Why do we process personal data?

The purposes of data processing are:

  1. Professional hosting of the website and securing its operation.
  2. To maintain operational and IT security
  3. Anonymous evaluation of access behavior to improve our offer and, if necessary, to prosecute or pursue claims

What data is processed?

Even while you are visiting our website right now, our web server, which is the computer on which this website is stored, usually automatically stores data such as

  • the complete Internet address (URL) of the website you are visiting (e.g. https://www.beispielwebsite.de/beispielunterseite.html?tid=311892660)
  • browser and browser version (e.g. Chrome 87)
  • the operating system used (e.g. Windows 10)
  • the address (URL) of the previously visited page (referrer URL) (e.g. https://www.beispielquellsite.de/vondabinichgekommen.html/)
  • the host name and IP address of the device being accessed (e.g. COMPUTERNAME and 194.23.43.121)
  • date and time
  • in files, the so-called web server log files

How long is data stored?

As a rule, the above data is stored for two weeks and then automatically deleted. We do not pass on this data, but we cannot rule out the possibility that this data may be viewed by the authorities in the event of unlawful conduct.

In short, your visit is logged by our provider (company that runs our website on special computers (servers)), but we do not share your data without your consent!

Legal basis

The lawfulness of the processing of personal data in the context of web hosting results from Art. 6 (1) lit. f DSGVO (protection of legitimate interests), because the use of professional hosting with a provider is necessary to present the company on the Internet in a secure and user-friendly manner and to be able to pursue attacks and claims from this if necessary.

Between us and the hosting provider there is usually a contract on commissioned processing pursuant to Art. 28 f. DSGVO, which ensures compliance with data protection and guarantees data security.

alfahosting Privacy Policy

We use alfahosting, a web hosting provider among others, for our website. The service provider is the German company Alfahosting GmbH, Ankerstraße 3b, 06108 Halle, Germany. To learn more about the data processed through the use of Alfahosting, please see the privacy policy at https://alfahosting.de/datenschutz/.

Cookies

Cookies summary

Data subjects: visitors to the website
Purpose: depending on the cookie in question. More details can be found below or from the manufacturer of the software that sets the cookie.
Data processed: Depending on the cookie used in each case. More details can be found below or at the manufacturer of the software that sets the cookie.
Storage period: depending on the cookie, can vary from hours to years.
Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a DSGVO (consent), Art. 6 para. 1 lit.f DSGVO (legitimate interests).

What are cookies?

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

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

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

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

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

What types of cookies are there?

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

We can distinguish 3 types of cookies:

1. essential
Essential cookies enable basic functions and are necessary for the proper functioning of the website.

The following essential cookies are set by this site:

Cookie name lang
Provider Owner of this website, , imprint
Purpose Stores the desired language (DE or EN) of the visitors, when accessing the website.
Cookie duration 1 year

2. statistics
Statistics Cookies collect information anonymously. This information helps us understand how our visitors use our website.

3. external media
Content from video platforms and social media platforms are blocked by default. When cookies from external media are accepted, access to this content no longer requires manual consent.

Usually, when you visit a website for the first time, you will be asked which of these cookie types you want to allow. And of course, this decision is also stored in a cookie. Since we only use essential cookies on our pages, consent is not required.

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

Purpose of processing via cookies

The purpose ultimately depends on the cookie in question. You can find more details below or from the manufacturer of the software that sets the cookie.

What data is processed?

Cookies are little helpers for a lot of different tasks. Unfortunately, it is not possible to generalize what data is stored in cookies, but we will inform you about the processed or stored data in the following privacy policy.

Storage duration of cookies

The storage duration depends on the respective cookie and is specified further below. Some cookies are deleted after less than an hour, others can remain stored on a computer for several years.

You can also influence the storage period yourself. You can manually delete all cookies at any time via your browser (see also "Right to object" below). Furthermore, cookies that are based on consent will be deleted at the latest after revocation of your consent, whereby the legality of the storage remains unaffected until then.

Right of objection - how can I delete cookies?

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

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

If you generally don't want cookies, you can set your browser to notify you whenever a cookie is about to be set. This way, you can decide for each cookie whether to allow it or not. The procedure varies depending on the browser. It is best to search for the instructions in Google using the search term "delete cookies Chrome" or "disable cookies Chrome" in the case of a Chrome browser.

Legal basis

Since 2009, there are the so-called "Cookie Guidelines". This states that saving cookies requires your consent (Article 6 (1) a DSGVO). Within the EU countries, however, there are still very different reactions to these directives. In Austria, however, this directive was implemented in Section 96 (3) of the Telecommunications Act (TKG). In Germany, the Cookie Directives were not implemented as national law. Instead, the implementation of this directive took place largely in § 15 para.3 of the Telemedia Act (TMG).

For absolutely necessary cookies, even if there is no consent. there are legitimate interests (Article 6 para. 1 lit. f DSGVO), which in most cases are of an economic nature. We want to provide visitors to the website with a pleasant user experience and for this purpose certain cookies are often absolutely necessary.

Insofar as cookies that are not absolutely necessary are used, this is only done in the case of your consent. The legal basis in this respect is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a DSGVO.

In the following sections, you will be informed in more detail about the use of cookies, insofar as software used uses cookies.

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Source: Created with the data protection generator from AdSimple