Privacy Policy

by Fabian Jürgens

Legal Notice

Information in accordance with §5 of the E-Commerce Act, §14 of the Unternehmensgesetzbuch, §63 of the Commercial Code and disclosure requirements under §25 of the Media Act.

Fabian Jürgens
Wasnergasse 19, 33,
1200 Vienna,
Austria

Email: fabian@onroadsuncharted.com

Privacy policy

Table of Contents

Privacy Policy

We have written this privacy policy (version 11.05.2021-121739736) to provide you with information in accordance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 as well as to explain what information we collect, how we use data and what choices you have as a visitor to this website.

Privacy policies usually sound very technical. However, this version should describe the most important things as simply and clearly as possible. Moreover, technical terms are explained in a reader-friendly manner whenever possible. We would also like to convey that we only collect and use information via this website if there is a corresponding legal basis for it. This is certainly not possible if you give very brief technical explanations, as are often standard on the Internet when it comes to data protection. We hope you find the following explanations interesting and informative. Maybe you will also find some information that you did not know yet.
Should you still have questions, we kindly ask you to follow the existing links to see further information on third-party websites, or to simply write us an email. You can find our contact information in our website’s imprint.

Rights in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation

You are granted the following rights in accordance with the provisions of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and the Austrian Data Protection Act (DSG):

  • right to rectification (article 16 GDPR)
  • right to erasure (“right to be forgotten“) (article 17 GDPR)
  • right to restrict processing (article 18 GDPR)
  • righ to notification – notification obligation regarding rectification or erasure of personal data or 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 think that the processing of your data violates the data protection law, or that your data protection rights have been infringed in any other way, you can lodge a complaint with your respective regulatory authority. For Austria this is the data protection authority, whose website you can access at https://www.data-protection-authority.gv.at/.

TLS encryption with https

The terms TLS, encryption and https sound very technical, which they are indeed. We use HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) to securely transfer data on the Internet.
This means that the entire transmission of all data from your browser to our web server is secured – nobody can “listen in”.

We have thus introduced an additional layer of security and meet privacy requirements through technology design Article 25 Section 1 GDPR). With the use of TLS (Transport Layer Security), which is an encryption protocol for safe data transfer on the internet, we can ensure the protection of confidential information.
You can recognise the use of this safeguarding tool by the little lock-symbol , which is situated in your browser’s top left corner in the left of the internet address (e.g. examplepage.uk), as well as by the display of the letters https (instead of http) as a part of our web address.
If you want to know more about encryption, we recommend you to do a Google search for “Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure wiki” to find good links to further information.

Automatic Data Retention

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

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

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

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

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

Cookies

Our website uses HTTP-cookies to store user-specific data.
For your better understanding of the following Privacy Policy statement, we will explain to you below what cookies are and why they are in use.

What exactly are cookies?

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

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

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

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

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

name: _ga
value: GA1.2.1326744211.152121739736-9
purpose: differentiation between website visitors
expiration date: after 2 years

A browser should support these minimum sizes:

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

Which types of cookies are there?

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

There are 4 different types of cookies:

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

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

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

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

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

How can I delete cookies?

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

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

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

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

How is my data protected?

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

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

Google Analytics Privacy Policy

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

What is Google Analytics?

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

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

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

Why do we use Google Analytics on our website?

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

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

What data gets stored by Google Analytics?

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

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

The following cookies are used by Google Analytics:

Name: _ga
Value:2.1326744211.152121739736-5
Purpose: By deafault, analytics.js uses the cookie _ga, to save the user ID. It generally serves the purpose of differenciating between website visitors.
Expiration date: After 2 years

Name: _gid
Value:2.1687193234.152121739736-1
Purpose: This cookie also serves the purpose of differentiating between website users
Expiration date: After 24 hours

Name: _gat_gtag_UA_<property-id>
Value: 1
Verwendungszweck: It is used for decreasing the demand rate. If Google Analytics is provided via Google Tag Manager, this cookie gets the name _dc_gtm_ <property-id>.
Expiration date: After 1 minute

Name: AMP_TOKEN
Value: No information
Purpose: This cookie has a token which is used to retrieve the user ID by the AMP Client ID Service. Other possible values suggest a logoff, a request or an error.
Expiration date: After 30 seconds up to one year

Name: __utma
Value:1564498958.1564498958.1564498958.1
Purpose: With this cookie your behaviour on the website can be tracked and the site performance can be measured. The cookie is updated every time the information is sent to Google Analytics.
Expiration date: After 2 years

Name: __utmt
Value: 1
Purpose: Just like _gat_gtag_UA_<property-id> this cookie is used for keeping the requirement rate in check.
Expiration date: Afer 10 minutes

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

Name: __utmc
Value: 167421564
Purpose: This cookie is used to determine new sessions for recurring visitors. It is therefore a session cookie, and only stays saved until you close the browser again.
Expiration date: After closing the browser

Name: __utmz
Value: m|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/
Purpose: This cookie is used to identify the source of our website’s visitor number. This means, that the cookie saves information on where you came to our website from. This could be another site or an advertisement.
Expiration date: After 6 months

Name: __utmv
Value: No information
Purpose: The cookie is used to store custom user data. It gets updated whenever information is sent to Google Analytics.
Expiration date: After 2 years

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

How long and where is the data saved?

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

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

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

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

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

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

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

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

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

Google Analytics is an active participant of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates correct and save transfer of personal data.
You can find more information on this at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI&tid=121739736. We hope we were able to make you more familiar with the most important information on Google Analytics’ data processing. If you want to learn more about the tracking service, we recommend both of the following links: https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/terms/gb/ and https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en.

Google Analytics IP Anonymisation

We implemented Google Analytics’ IP address anonymisation to this website. Google developed this function, so this website can comply with the applicable privacy laws and the local data protection authorities’ recommendations, should they prohibit the retention of any full IP addresses.
The anonymisation or masking of IP addresses takes place, as soon as they reach Google Analytics’ data collection network, but before the data would be saved or processed.

You can find more information on IP anonymisation at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2763052?hl=en.

Google Analytics Reports on demographic characteristics and interests

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

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

Google Analytics‘ Data Processing Amendment

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

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

MonsterInsights Privacy Policy

On our website, we use the “Google Analytics Plugin for WordPress” by the American company MonsterInsights LCC (7732 Maywood Crest Dr, West Palm Beach, Florida, 33412, USA). The plugin is usually simply called MonsterInsights. With the help of this plugin, your user data can be stored, managed and processed by Google Analytics. If you click on a link for instance, Google Analytics stores this click via the integrated plugin and creates informative web analyses with the collected data. In this privacy policy, we will go into more detail on MonsterInsights and inform you which of your data is retained where and how.

What is MonsterInsights?

MonsterInsights uses the Google Analytics Reporting API to collect data about our website and visitor behaviour. These data are evaluated and then appear as diagrams, graphics and tables directly on our WordPress dashboard. Moreover, for the plugin to work, a Google Analytics tracking code must be integrated into our WordPress page. The plugin offers functions such as page analyses, statistics or ads tracking. With the help of this plugin, we can set up functions such as event tracking, eCommerce tracking or outbound link tracking for our website. This can be done very easily and without any programming knowledge. With MonsterInsights, we can see all important statistics in a single place directly on our dashboard.

Why do we use MonsterInsights?

MonsterInsights makes using Google Analytics a lot easier for us, as we can see the most important analyses on our dashboard right away and don’t always have to switch to Google Analytics. Google Analytics provides us with important data about visitor behaviour on our website. With the help of this data, we can adapt our website and our offer better to your wishes. We use the statistics we obtain to make our website more interesting and to target our advertisements.

Which data are stored by MonsterInsights and Google Analytics?

Upon installation of the MonsterInsights plugin, a Google Analytics tracking code was integrated into our WordPress website. This is used by Google Analytics to create a random, unique ID which is linked to your browser cookie. This helps to identify you as a new visitor to our website. If you visit again, you will be recognised as a so-called “recurring” user. Subsequently, all collected data will be stored with the user ID, whereafter pseudonymous user profiles will be created and evaluated. Your actions on our website are stored in cookies and app instance IDs. If you are using other Google services, the generated data may also be linked to third-party cookies.

All tracking is carried out and retained by Google Analytics. MonsterInsights forwards all data directly to Google Analytics in order to process them on behalf of MonsterInsights. Google will only pass on this data if we allow so or if it is required by the law. MonsterInsights does not use its own cookies to store data, but the code added by MonsterInsights loads Google Analytics, which will set cookies.

For instance, it is recorded which website you came to us from, which buttons and links you click, how long you stay on a certain page for and when you leave the site again. Furthermore, your IP address is shown and stored in abbreviated form so it will not be possible to assign it to you as a person. Your location may also be approximately determined via your IP address, and technical information such as your device type, browser type, Internet provider or your screen resolution may also be retained.

If you want to know more about data retention and data processing, we recommend you to read our general privacy policy for Google Analytics.

How long and where are the data stored?

MonsterInsights does not store the collected data, but forwards them to Google Analytics. There, the data will be retained on Google’s servers. These servers are distributed around the world, but most are located in the United States. At the link https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/ you can see exactly at which locations data centers can be found. By default, your data is stored by Google for 26 months, but you can also choose different retention periods. Also, please take a look at our Google Analytics privacy policy. The retention period applies to data linked to cookies, user identification and advertising ID. Furthermore, web analyses that appear as reports are generated by aggregated data and are stored independently of your user data.

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

You reserve the right to information, updating, deletion and restriction of your data at any time. If you download and install the browser add-on https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en-GB, you can prevent Google Analytics from using your data by deactivating Google Analytics JavaScript.

However, you can also deactivate, manage or delete cookies via your browser. In the following, we will show you the instructions to do this for the most common browsers:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

If you want to learn more about the WordPress plugin MonsterInsights, we recommend the website https://www.monsterinsights.com/. For more information about Google Analytics’ data processing, we recommend you to read our Google Analytics privacy policy, as well as Google’s information page at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en and Google Analytics’ Terms of Service site at https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/terms/gb/.

Google Tag Manager Privacy Policy

We use Google Tag Manager by the company Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA) for our website.
This Tag Manager is one of Google’s many helpful marketing products. With it, we can centrally integrate and manage code sections of various tracking tools, that we use on our website.

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

What is Google Tag Manager?

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

Why do we use Google Tag Manager for our website?

Everybody knows: Being organised is important! Of course, this also applies to maintenance of our website. In order to organise and design our website as well as possible for you and anyone who is interested in our products and services, we rely on various tracking tools, such as Google Analytics.
The collected data shows us what interests you most, which of our services we should improve, and which other persons we should also display our services to. Furthermore, for this tracking to work, we must implement relevant JavaScript Codes to our website. While we could theoretically integrate every code section of every tracking tool separately into our source text, this would take too much time and we would lose overview. This is the reason why we use Google Tag Manager. We can easily integrate the necessary scripts and manage them from one place. Additionally, Google Tag Manager’s user interface is easy to operate, and requires no programming skills. Therefore, we can easily keep order in our jungle of tags.

What data is saved by Google Tag Manager?

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

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

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

How long and where is the data saved?

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

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

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

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

Google actively participates in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates safe transfer of personal data. You can find more information at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI&tid=121739736. If you want to learn more about Google Tag Manager, we recommend you to read https://marketingplatform.google.com/intl/en_uk/about/tag-manager/.

Google Site Kit Privacy Policy

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

What is Google Site Kit?

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

Why do we use Google Site Kit on our website?

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

What data are stored by Google Site Kit?

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

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

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

Name: _ga
Value:2.1326744211.152121739736-2
Purpose:Usually analytics.js uses the _ga cookie to store the user ID. Therefore, it serves to differentiate between website visitors.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: _gid
Value:2.1687193234.152121739736-7
Purpose: This cookie also serves to differentiate between website visitors.
Expiry date: after 24 hours

Name: _gat_gtag_UA_<property-id>
Value: 1
Purpose: This cookie is used to lower the request rate.
Expiry date: after 1 minute

How long and where are the data stored?

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

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

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

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

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

Google is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates correct and secure transfer of personal data. You can find more information on this at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI&tid=121739736. For more information on Google’s data processing, we recommend Google’s comprehensive privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-GB.

Jetpack Privacy Policy

We use the WordPress plug-in Jetpack on our website. Jetpack is a software that provides us with an array of services such as web analyses. Jetpack is operated by Automattic (Inc. 132 Hawthorne Street San Francisco, CA 94107, USA), which uses Quantcast (Inc., 201 3rd St, Floor 2, San Francisco, CA 94103-3153, USA). The integrated tracking tool also collects, stores and processes your personal data. In this privacy policy, we will show you exactly which data are involved, why we use Jetpack and how you can prevent this data storage.

What is Jetpack?

Jetpack is a plug-in for WordPress websites and has many different functions and modules. All these tools help us not only to design our website more beautifully, but also to make it safer and to welcome more visitors. Jetpack for example allows to display related posts and to share content. On top of that it can also improve our website’s loading speed. All functions are hosted and provided by WordPress.

Why do we use Jetpack?

It is crucial for us that you feel comfortable on our website and find what you are looking for. We can only be successful if you are satisfied with our services. And for us to know how and where we can improve our website, we need information. With Jetpack we can for example see how often and for how long you are on a single site or which buttons you tend to click. With the help of this information, we can improve our website and adapt it to your wishes and preferences.

Which data are stored by Jetpack?

Your personal data will be identified, stored and processed, which is done especially through the built-in tracking tool WordPress.com-statistics. In order for Jetpack to work, Jetpack will set a cookie in your browser when you open a website with built-in components of the tool. The collected data will be synchronised with Automattic and stored there.

In addition to your IP address (which is anonymised before storage), the retained data includes data on your user behaviour, which is for example your browser type, unique device identifier, preferred language, the date and time of page entry, your operating system and information about your mobile network. Jetpack uses this information to improve its own services and offers and to get better insights on the use of its services. The following data may also be synchronised and stored:

  • For Google Ads customers, email address and physical address of the account will be synchronised
  • Successful and unsuccessful login attempts. Your IP address and the user agent will also be stored for this purpose
  • User IDs, usernames, email addresses, roles, and skills of the registered users. However, no passwords will be retained
  • The user ID of users who make changes to the website
  • Twitter username, if it has been configured with Jetpack

Jetpack also uses cookies to store data. In the following we will show you a few exemplary cookies that Jetpack may use:

Name: eucookielaw
Value: 1613651061376121739736-6
Purpose: Stores the status of the user’s consent to the use of cookies.
Expiry date: after 180 days

Name: tk_ai
Value: 0
Purpose: This cookie stores a randomly generated anonymous ID. It is only used within the admin area to keep track of general analyses.
Expiry date: after end of the session

Name: tk_tc
Value: E3%2BgJ1Pw6iYKk%2Fvj121739736-3
Purpose: This is a so-called referral cookie. With it, the connection between WooCommerce and a website with a Jetpack plugin is analysed.
Expiry date: after end of the session

Note: Jetpack uses many different cookies. Which cookies are actually used depends on what Jetpack functions are used and on what your actions are on the websites that have an integrated Jetpack plug-in. At https://jetpack.com/support/cookies/ you will see a list of possible cookies used by Jetpack.

How long and where are the data stored?

Automattic retains the collected data until it is no longer used for its own services. Beyond this period, your data will only stay stored if the company is obliged to keep it for legal reasons. Certain data are deleted after about 30 days. These include web server logs such as your IP address, browser type and operating system. The data are stored on the company’s American servers.

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

As mentioned above, Jetpack uses cookies to retain data. If you do not want Jetpack to collect your data in the future, you can request an “Opt-Out” cookie at https://www.quantcast.com/opt-out/. Quantcast will then place this cookie and none of your visitor data will be stored. This will be the case until you delete this cookie again.

Alternatively, you can easily manage, deactivate or delete cookies yourself in your browser if you want to. Cookie management works a little differently depending on the browser type you are using. In the following, you will find instructions to do this in the most common browsers.

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

If you want to find out more about the privacy guidelines and data processing by Jetpack or Automattic, we recommend you to read the privacy policy at https://automattic.com/privacy/, the cookie guidelines at https://automattic.com/cookies/ and also the information page at https://jetpack.com/support/what-data-does-jetpack-sync/. We hope we could provide you with a good overview on Jetpack’s data processing.

Email-Marketing

Of course, we want to stay in contact with you and keep you in the loop of the most important news about our company. For this, we use email marketing, which is an essential part of our online marketing. If you agree to this or if it is permitted by law, we will send you newsletters, emails or other notifications. When the term “newsletter” is used in the following text, it mainly refers to emails that are sent regularly.

How can you register for our Email-Marketing?

If you want to participate in our email marketing (usually via newsletter), you usually have to register with your email address only. You will simply have to fill an online form and submit it. However, we may also ask you to fill in your title and name so we will be able to address you more personally.

Generally, the registration for newsletters is carried out with the so-called “double opt-in procedure”. After registering for our newsletter on our website, you will receive an email for you to confirm the newsletter registration. This will ensure that you own your email address and that no one registers with an email address that is not owned by them. Every single registration is stored either by us or by a notification tool we use. This is necessary for us to ensure that registration processes are legally correct. Therefore, the time of your registration, the time of confirmation of your registration and your IP address are usually retained. It will also be logged if you make changes to your stored data.

How long can we store your email address?

If you unsubscribe from our email/newsletter distribution list, we may store your address for up to three years on the basis of our legitimate interests, so that we can still prove your consent at the time. We are only allowed to process this data if we have to defend ourselves against any claims.

However, if you confirm that you have given us your consent to subscribe to the newsletter, you can submit an individual request for deletion at any time. Should you object to your consent permanently, we reserve the right to save your email address in a blacklist. We will of course keep your email address for as long as you are voluntarily subscribed to our newsletter.

On what legal basis do we operate email marketing?

Our newsletter is sent on the basis of your consent. This means that we are only allowed to send you a newsletter if you have actively registered for it beforehand. If consent is not required, newsletters will be sent on the basis of the legitimate interest in direct marketing, provided it is legally permitted. Should we commission a service provider, this will be done on the basis of our legitimate interest also. We record your registration process for the purpose of using it as proof that it is in compliance with our laws.

What is in our newsletters?

Of course, we do not want to bother you with our newsletter in any way. Therefore, we really strive to offer only relevant and interesting content, such as more information about our company, our services or our products. Since we are continuously improving our offers, our newsletter will always update you on any news or special offers and lucrative promotions.

If we commission a service provider with a professional mailing tool for our email marketing, we do this in order to be able to offer you our newsletter fast and securely.

Which data are retained?

If you subscribe to our newsletter via our website, you will confirm your membership in our email list via an email that we will send to you. In addition to your IP address and email address, your name, address and telephone number may also be saved. However, this will only be done if you agree to this data retention. Moreover, information about your device or the type of content you prefer on our website may also be stored. In the “Automatic data storage” section you can find out more about how your data is stored when you visit a website.

You can find information on special email marketing services in the following sections, provided the information you are looking for is available.

How can I cancel my subscription?

You have the option to cancel your newsletter subscription at any time. All you have to do is revoke your consent to the newsletter subscription. This usually only takes a few minutes or a few clicks. Most of the time you will find a link directly in our newsletter, with which you will be able to cancel the subscription. Should you not be able to find the link in the newsletter, you can contact us by email and we will cancel your newsletter subscription for you.

Awin Affiliate Program Privacy Policy

We work with the affiliate and advertising company AWIN AG (Eichhornstrasse 3, 10785 Berlin, Germany). Awin uses tracking tools to perform its services and to be able to save and trace a user action (e.g. the purchase of a product). This means that your data will also be sent to the company in pseudonymised form where it will then be stored. In this privacy policy, we want to explain not only why we use this affiliate program, but also which of your data is stored, how it is stored and how you can prevent this data retention.

What is the Awin affiliate program?

Awin is an affiliate marketing network. Its members are advertisers and website operators who offer an advertising platform for the products or services offered. In affiliate marketing, website operators are usually referred to as publishers. They place advertisements for advertisers on their platform (website) and receive a commission in the event of a click or sale.

Why do we use the Awin affiliate program on our website?

In addition to our content, products or services, we also want to provide you with interesting advertisements that fit our theme. We also offer our website as advertising space and the Awin affiliate network provides us with many contacts to advertisers. This enables us to place selected advertisements on our website and receive a commission for successful transactions (leads, sales).

What data is stored by the Awin affiliate program?

Awin needs certain user data to be able to reconstruct the path from us (publisher) to the advertiser. This means that when you click on an advertisement on our website and land on the advertiser’s website, it will be documented by cookies. Awin also creates a restricted user profile (without your name and identity), which documents the path from an advertisement to a sale.

In order to trace this path, Awin uses so-called tracking domain cookies, journey tags and device fingerprinting. The cookies are set in your browser when you click on one of the ads on our website. The journey tags are integrated into the advertiser’s website as JavaScript code so that Awin can receive transaction data. Moreover, fingerprinting enables Awin to uniquely identify a device by taking browser or device attributes into account. The cookies for example store which advertising material was clicked on what website and when it was clicked.

Below we will show you a list of exemplary cookies that are set in your browser when you click on an advertisement on our website.

Name: AWSESS
Value: 360701:2483145121739736-1
Purpose: This cookie stores data on when you see or click an advertisement. This information is then used to avoid showing you the same ads over and over again.
Expiry date: after end of the session

Name: aw11354
Value: 512465|0|0|1606813823||aw|24336851897
Purpose: This cookie is set as soon as you click on a link that leads to the advertiser. The ID stores our web address, the ad you clicked, the time, the ad type ID and the product ID.
Expiry date: after 30 days

Name: bId
Value: HLEX_5fc6087ff90540.34189752121739736-8
Purpose: This cookie sets a browser-specific ID to identify a new click on the same browser.
Expiry date: after one year

All this data is used only to understand a publisher’s marketing efforts and sales. Furthermore, the members of the network are provided with an analysis report based on the collected data. This data is only ever passed on in summarised form, which does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about you as a person. According to Awin, the collected data are not used for users’ interest or personality profiles. Moreover, for each transaction Awin retains an individual sequence of numbers that contains information about the campaign and the devices used. Awin only processes so-called “pseudonymous” user data, which cannot identify you directly.

How long and where are the data stored?

According to Awin, all data is saved until the designated purposes have been implemented and the accounting and reporting requirements no longer require it to be stored. There are no details available on the company’s website. The data is stored on European servers. Furthermore, since Awin only processes pseudonymous data, no information can be given about personal data such as IP addresses for example.

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

Should any of your personal data be collected, you of course reserve the right to access and delete them at any time. However, Awin usually only stores pseudonymous data that cannot identify you as a person. Nevertheless, data is of course collected with cookies. If you want to prevent this, you have the option of managing, deactivating or deleting cookies in your browser. This works a little differently for each browser. Below you will find the instructions for the most common browsers:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

We hope we could provide you with the most important information about Awin and their data processing. If you would like more information on Awin’s privacy guidelines, we recommend you to read their privacy policy at https://www.awin.com/gb/privacy. If you have any questions you can also send an email to global-privacy@awin.com at any time.

Cookiebot Privacy Policy

We use functions of Cookiebot on our website. The company behind Cookiebot is Cybot A/S, Havnegade 39, 1058 Copenhagen, DK. Cookiebot offers us the opportunity to provide you with an extensive cookie notice (also known as a cookie banner or cookie notice).
By using this function, your data can be sent to Cookiebot or Cybot, where it may be saved and processed. In this privacy policy we will inform you on why we use Cookiebot, what data is transmitted and how you can prevent the transmission of data.

What is Cookiebot?

Cookiebot is a software product from Cybot. The software automatically creates a GDPR-compliant cookie notice for our website visitors. The technology behind Cookiebot also scans, controls 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 is happening on our website and which of your data is stored. Cookiebot helps us to get a good overview of all our cookies (first- and third-party cookies). This enables us to be transparent and to inform you precisely on the use of cookies on our website. Cookiebot ensures you always receive an up-to-date and GDPR compliant cookie notice, so you can decide yourself which cookies you allow or deny.

What data are stored by Cookiebot?

If you allow cookies, the following data will be transmitted to Cybot, where it is stored and processed.

  • IP address (in anonymous form, the last 3 digits are replaced with 0)
  • date and time of your consent
  • our website‘s URL
  • technical browser data
  • encrypted, anonymous key
  • the cookies you allowed (as status of consent)

If you have allowed the use of cookies, the following cookies get set by Cookiebot:

Name: CookieConsent
Value: {stamp:’P7to4eNgIHvJvDerjKneBsmJQd9121739736-2
Purpose:Your consent status is stored in this cookie. This enables our website to read and follow the current status even for future visits.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: CookieConsentBulkTicket
Value: kDSPWpA%2fjhljZKClPqsncfR8SveTnNWhys5NojaxdFYBPjZ2PaDnUw%3d%3121739736-6
Purpose:This cookie is placed if you allow all cookies and thus have activated “collective consent”. The cookie then stores its own, random and unique ID.
Expiry date: after one year

Note: Please keep in mind that this is an exemplary list and that we do not claim for this list to be exhaustive. In the cookie statement at https://www.cookiebot.com/en/cookie-declaration/ you can read which further cookies may be used.

According to Cybot’s privacy policy, the company does not sell any personal information. However, Cybot shares data with trustworthy third-parties or subcontractors who help the company achieve its business goals. Data may also be transferred if it is legally required.

How long and where is the data stored?

All collected data is only transferred and stored within the European Union. The data is saved in an Azure data centre (with the cloud provider Microsoft). At https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/global-infrastructure/regions/ you can find out more on all “Azure regions”. All user data will be 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 retention?

You have the right to access and delete your personal data at any time. You can prevent data collection and storage, by e.g. rejecting the use of cookies via the cookie notice. Furthermore, your browser offers another option to prevent data processing or to manage it according to your wishes. Depending on the browser, the cookie settings work a little differently. Here you will find the instructions for the most popular browsers:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

If you want to learn more about the data protection guidelines of “Cookiebot” or the company Cybot, we recommend the privacy policy at https://www.cookiebot.com/en/privacy-policy/.

Facebook Data Policy

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

What are Facebook tools?

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

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

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

Why do we use Facebook tools on our website?

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

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

What data is saved by the Facebook tools?

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

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

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

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

How long and where are the data saved?

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

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

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

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

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

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

3) Now click on “Deactivation and deletion”.

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

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

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

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

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

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

Facebook Social Plugins Privacy Policy

We installed so-called social plugins from Facebook Inc. to our website. You can recognise these buttons by the classic Facebook logo, the “Like” button (hand with raised thumb) or by a “Facebook plugin” label. A social plugin is a small part of Facebook that is integrated into our page. Each plugin has its own function. The most used functions are the well-known “Like” and “Share” buttons.

Facebook offers the following social plugins:

  • “Save” button
  • “Like” button, Share, Send and Quote
  • Page plugin
  • Comments
  • Messenger plugin
  • Embedded posts and video player
  • Group Plugin

At https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins you will find more information on how the individual plugins are used. On the one hand, we use the social plug-ins to offer you a better user experience on our site, and on the other hand because Facebook can optimise our advertisements with it.

If you have a Facebook account or have already visited facebook.com, 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 website or interact with social plugins (e.g. the “Like” button).

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

In order to prevent Facebook from collecting much data and matching it with your Facebook data during your visit to our website, you must log out of Facebook while you visit our website.

If you are not logged in to Facebook or do not have a Facebook account, your browser sends less information to Facebook because you have fewer Facebook cookies. Nevertheless, data such as your IP address or which website you are visiting can be transmitted to Facebook. We would like to explicitly point out that we do not know what exact data is collected. However, based on our current knowledge, we want to try informing you as best we can about data processing. You can also read about how Facebook uses the data in the company’s data policy at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update.

At least the following cookies are set in your browser when you visit a website with social plugins from Facebook:

Name: dpr
Value: no information
Purpose:This cookie is used to make the social plugins work on our website.
Expiry date: after end of session

Name: fr
Value: 0jieyh4121739736c2GnlufEJ9..Bde09j…1.0.Bde09j
Purpose:The cookie is also necessary for the plugins to function properly
Expiry date: after 3 months

Note: These cookies were set after our test and may be placed even if you are not a Facebook member.

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

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

Twitter Privacy Policy

We have incorporated Twitter functions on our website. These are, for example, embedded tweets, timelines, buttons or hashtags. Twitter is a short message service and social media platform from the firm Twitter Inc., One Cumberland Place, Fenian Street, Dublin 2 D02 AX07, Ireland.

To our knowledge, in the European Economic Area and Switzerland, a mere integration of the Twitter function does not transfer any personal data or data about your web activities to Twitter. Only when you interact with the Twitter functions, such as by clicking a button, data could be sent to Twitter and get saved as well as processed there. We have no influence on this processing of data and do not bare any responsibility for it. Within this privacy statement, we want to give you an overview of what data Twitter stores, what Twitter does with this data and how you can largely protect yourself from data transmission.

What is Twitter?

For some, Twitter is a news service, for others, a social media platform, and for others still it is a microblogging service. All these terms are justified and mean pretty much the same.

Both individuals as well as companies use Twitter for communicating with interested people via short messages. Twitter only allows 280 characters per message. These messages are called “tweets”. In contrast to Facebook, for example, the service does not focus on the expansion of a network of “friends”, but strives to be regarded as an open, worldwide news platform. On Twitter you can also have an anonymous account and tweets can be deleted by both, either the company or the users themselves.

Why do we use Twitter on our website?

Like many other websites and companies, we try to use different channels for offering our services and communicating with our customers. Twitter is a truly useful “small” news service, which is why it has grown dear to us. We regularly tweet or retweet exciting, funny or interesting content. We understand that you do not have the time to follow every channel after channel, as you surely have enough other things to do. That is why we also have integrated Twitter functions to our website. That way, you can experience our Twitter activities “on site” or come to our Twitter page via a direct link. With the integration, we want to strengthen the service and user-friendliness on our website.

What data is stored by Twitter?

You will find integrated Twitter functions on some of our subpages. If you interact with Twitter content, such as by clicking a button, Twitter may collect and save data. This can happen even if you don’t have a Twitter account yourself. Twitter calls this data “log data”. It includes demographic data, browser cookie IDs, your smartphone’s ID, hashed email addresses, and information on which pages you have visited on Twitter and what actions you have taken there. Of course, Twitter stores more data if you have a Twitter account and are logged in. This retention is usually done via cookies. Cookies are small text files that are usually set in your browser and transmit various information to Twitter.

We will now show you which cookies are placed if you are not logged in to Twitter but visit a website with built-in Twitter functions. Please consider this list as an example. We do not claim for this list to be extensive, since the array of cookies always changes and depends on your individual actions with Twitter content.
The following cookies have been used in our test:

Name: personalization_id
Value: “v1_cSJIsogU51SeE121739736”
Purpose: This cookie stores information on how you use the website and what ad may have led you to Twitter.

Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: lang
Value: en
Purpose: This cookie stores your deafault or preferred language.
Expiry date: after end of session

Name: guest_id
Value: 121739736v1%3A157132626
Purpose: This cookie is set to identify you as a guest.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: fm
Value: 0
Purpose: Unfortunately, we could not find out the purpose of this cookie.
Expiry date: after end of session

Name: external_referer
Value: 1217397362beTA0sf5lkMrlGt
Purpose: This cookie collects anonymous data, such as how often you visit Twitter and how long you visit Twitter.
Expiry date: after 6 days

Name: eu_cn
Value: 1
Purpose: This cookie stores user activity and is used for Twitter’s various advertising purposes.
Expiry date: after one year

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

Name: _twitter_sess
Value: 53D%253D–dd0248121739736-
Purpose: With this cookie you can use functions within Twitter’s website.
Expiry date: after end of session

Note: Twitter also works with third parties. Therefore, we have recognized the three Google Analytics cookies _ga, _gat, _gid in our test.

On the one hand, Twitter uses the collected data for gaining better understand on user behaviour, and thus to improve their own services and advertising offers. On the other hand, the data are also used for internal security measures.

How long and where are the data stored?

When Twitter collects data from other websites, after a maximum of 30 days, they will be deleted, summarized or otherwise concealed. Twitter’s servers are in various server centres in the United States. Accordingly, it can be assumed that the gathered data will be collected and stored in America. In our research we could not clearly determine whether Twitter also owns servers in Europe. Generally, Twitter may keep collected data stored until either the data are no longer useful to the company, until you delete the data or until a potential legal deletion period has been reached.

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

In their Privacy Policy, Twitter repeatedly emphasize that they do not save data from external website visits, provided you or your browser are in the European Economic Area or Switzerland. However, if you interact directly with Twitter, the company will of course store your data.

If you have a Twitter account, you can manage your data by clicking on “More” under the “Profile” button. Then click on “Settings and privacy”. Here you can manage data processing individually.

If you do not have a Twitter account, you can go to twitter.com and click “Settings”. At “Personalization and data” you can manage data that is collected on you.

As mentioned above, most data are stored via cookies, which you can manage, deactivate or delete in your browser. Please note that when changing cookie settings in your browser, the edits will only affect that very browser. This means that if you use another browser in the future, you will have to manage your cookie settings there again. In the following you will find instructions for managing cookies in the most popular browsers.

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

You can also set your browser to notify you about each individual cookie. This lets you decide individually whether you want to allow or deny a cookie.

Twitter also uses the data for personalised advertising in-and outside of Twitter. You can switch off personalised advertising in the settings under “Personalization and data”. If you use Twitter on a browser, you can deactivate personalised advertising at http://optout.aboutads.info/?c=2&lang=EN.

Twitter is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework. This framework ensures correct data transmission between the USA and the European Union. You can learn more about it at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000TORzAAO.

We hope we could give you a basic overview of Twitter’s data processing. 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 reading Twitter’s privacy statement at https://twitter.com/en/privacy.

Instagram Privacy Policy

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

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

What is Instagram?

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

Why do we use Instagram on our website?

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

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

What data is saved by Instagram?

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

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

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

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

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

Name: csrftoken
Value: “”
Purpose: This cookie is most likely set for security reasons to prevent falsifications of requests. We could not find out more information on it.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: mid
Value: “”
Purpose: Instagram places this cookie to optimise its own offers and services in- and outside of Instagram. The cookie allocates a unique user ID.
Expiry date: after end of session

Name: fbsr_121739736124024
Value: no information
Purpose: This cookie stores the login request of Instagram app users.
Expiry date: after end of session

Name: rur
Value: ATN
Purpose: This is an Instagram cookie which guarantees functionality on Instagram.
Expiry date: after end of session

Name: urlgen
Value: “{”194.96.75.33”: 1901}:1iEtYv:Y833k2_UjKvXgYe121739736”
Purpose: This cookie serves Instagram’s marketing purposes.
Expiry date: after end of session

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

How long and where are these data stored?

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

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

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

And this is how an Instagram account can be deleted:

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

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

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

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

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

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

Pinterest Privacy Policy

On our website we use buttons and widgets of the social media network Pinterest, by the company Pinterest Inc., 808 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA.

By opening pages that use these functions, data (IP address, browser data, date and time, cookies) are transmitted to, and stored and evaluated by Pinterest.

The privacy guidelines on what information Pinterest collects and how they use it, can be found at https://policy.pinterest.com/en-gb/privacy-policy.

Google Maps Privacy Policy

On our website we use Google Maps of the company Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). With the use of Google Maps, we can show you locations in a better way and can therefore adjust our service to your needs. Due to the utilisation of Google Maps, data gets transferred to Google and is saved on Google’s servers. In the following, we want to explain in 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 internet maps service of the company Google Inc. With Google Maps you can search for exact locations of cities, sights, accommodations or businesses online via a PC, a tablet or an app. If businesses are represented on Google My Business, the respective location as well as other information about the company are shown there. In order to show route directions, a location’s map sections can be integrated in a website through a HTML-code. Google Maps depicts the earth’s surface as either a road map or as air and satellite images. Due to the street view and high-quality satellite images, it is possible for exact representations to be made.

Why do we use Google Maps on our website?

The efforts we make on this page have the goal of giving you a useful and meaningful experience on our website. Through the integration of Google Maps, we can offer you essential information on various locations. Therefore, you can spot our office address with one glance. Furthermore, the route directions always show you the best and fastest way to us. You can retrieve the route directions for traveling either by car, by public transport, on foot or by bike. The integration of Google Maps is a part of our customer service.

What data is stored by Google Maps?

For Google Maps to offer its full services, the company must collect and store your data. This includes your entered search terms, your IP-address as well as your longitude and latitude coordinates. When you use the route-planner function, the entered start address is stored also. However, this data retention happens on Google Maps‘ websites. We can only inform you about it but cannot influence it in any way. Since we have included Google Maps on our website, Google will set at least one cookie (Name: NID) into your browser. This cookie saves data on your user behaviour. Google primarily uses this data to optimise ist own services and to provide you with individual, personalised advertisements.

The following cookies are set in your browser due to the integration of Google Maps:

Name: NID
Value: 188=h26c1Ktha7fCQTx8rXgLyATyITJ121739736-5
Purpose: Google uses NID in order to adjust advertisments to your Google searches. With the cookie’s help Google “remembers“ your most frequently entered search queries or your previous interaction with ads. That way you always receive customised adertisments. The cookie contains a unique ID, wich Google uses to collect your personal settings for advertising porposes.
Expiration date: after 6 months

Note: We cannot guarantee completeness of the information on saved data. This is, because especially concerning the use of cookies, changes can happen anytime. To identify the cookie NID, a test page was created, to which Google Maps was included.

How long and where is the data saved?

There are Google servers in data centres across the entire planet. However, most servers are in America. For this reason, your data is widely stored in the USA. Here you can read in detail about where the Google servers are located: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=en

Google distributes data to various data carriers. This makes it possible to retrieve the data faster and to better protect it from possible attempted manipulations. Every server has emergency programs. Thus, should for example a problem with Google’s hardware occur or should a natural disaster impact the servers, any data will quite certainly stay protected.

Moreover, Google saves some data for a specified period. With some other data on the other hand, Google only offers the opportunity for deleting it manually. Furthermore, the company anonymises information (e.g. advertising data) in server logs, by deleting a part of the IP-address and cookie information after 9 to 18 months.

How can I delete my data, or prevent data retention?

Due to the automatic delete function for location and activity data, which was introduced in 2019, information that is used for determining your location and web or app activity is saved for either 3 or 18 months, depending on your preferred decision, and is deleted thereafter.
Furthermore, it is possible to delete this data manually from your browser history via your Google account anytime. If you want to prevent the determination of your location altogether, you must pause the category “Web and app activity” in your Google account. Click on “Data and personalisation” and then choose the option “Activity controls”. Here you can switch the activities on or off.

Moreover, in your browser you can deactivate, delete or manage individual cookies. This function can differ a little, depending on what browser you are using. The following instructions will show you how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

If you generally do not want to permit any cookies, you can set up your browser in a way that ensures you get informed whenever a cookie is about to be placed. That way you can decide to either permit or refuse every single cookie.

Google is an active participant of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and safe transfer of personal data. You can find more information on this on https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI.
If you want to find out more about Google’s data processing, we recommend the company’s internal privacy statement on https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-GB.

Font Awesome Privacy Policy

On our website we use Font Awesome by the American company Fonticons (307 S. Main St., Suite 202, Bentonville, AR 72712, USA). Upon your visit to one of our websites, the Font Awesome web font, i.e. the icons, are loaded via the Font Awesome Content Delivery Network (CDN). This way texts, fonts and icons are displayed appropriately on every device. In this privacy policy we will go into more detail on data storage and data processing by this service.

What is Font Awesome?

Icons play an increasingly important role on websites. Font Awesome is a web font specifically designed for web designers and web developers. With Font Awesome icons can for example be scaled and coloured as desired using the CSS stylesheet language. Thus, they now replace old picture icons. Font Awesome CDN is the easiest way to load icons or fonts onto your website. To do this, we only had to embed a short line of code into our website.

Why do we use Font Awesome on our website?

Font Awesome enables our websites’ content to be depicted better. This eases your navigation on our website, and helps you grasp its content better. The icons can sometimes even be used to replace whole words and save space. This is particularly useful when optimising content specifically for smartphones. The icons are inserted as HMTL code instead of as an image, which allows us to edit the icons with CSS exactly as we want. Simultaneously, Font Awesome also lets us improve our loading speed, as it only contains HTML elements and no icon images. All these advantages help us to make our website even clearer, faster and more refined for you.

Which data are stored by Font Awesome?

The Font Awesome Content Delivery Network (CDN) is used to load icons and symbols. CDNs are networks of servers that are distributed around the world. They make it possible to quickly load files from locations in close proximity. When you open one of our pages, the respective icons will be provided by Font Awesome.

For the web fonts to be loaded, your browser has to connect to the servers of Fonticons, Inc. For this, your IP address will be identified. Font Awesome also collects data on which icon files are downloaded, as well as when they are downloaded. Furthermore, technical data such as your browser version, screen resolution or the time when you accessed the page are also transmitted.

These data are collected and stored for the following reasons:

  • to optimise Content Delivery Networks
  • to identify and fix technical errors
  • to protect CDNs from misuse and attacks
  • to calculate fees from Font Awesome Pro customers
  • to identify the popularity of icons
  • to establish which computer and software you are using

If your browser does not allow web fonts, one of your PC’s standard fonts will be used automatically. Moreover, as far as we are currently aware, no cookies will be set. We are keeping in contact with Font Awesome’s privacy department and will let you know as soon as we find out more.

How long and where are the data stored?

Font Awesome stores data about the use of the Content Delivery Network also on servers in the United States of America. However, the CDN servers are located all across the world and store user data in your proximity. The data is usually only stored for a few weeks in an identifiable form. Aggregated statistics on the use of the CDNs may also be stored for longer. However, these do not include any personal data.

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

As far as we are aware, Font Awesome does not store any personal data via Content Delivery Networks. If you do not want data about the used icons to be stored, you will unfortunately not be able to visit our website. If your browser does not allow web fonts, no data will be transmitted or saved. In this case your computer’s default font will be used.

If you want to find out more about Font Awesome and their data handling, we recommend you to read their privacy policy at https://fontawesome.com/privacy along with the help page at https://fontawesome.com/help.

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