Privacy Policy

Data protection & privacy 

We have written this privacy policy (version 13.04.2021-111716625), in accordance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679, to explain to you 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. This version, on the other hand, is intended to describe the most important things to you as simply and clearly as possible. As far as possible, technical terms are explained in a reader-friendly way. We also want to convey that we only collect and use information with this website if there is a corresponding legal basis. This is certainly not possible by providing the most concise, technical explanations possible, as is often standard practice on the Internet when it comes to data protection. We hope you find the following explanations interesting and informative, and perhaps there are one or two pieces of information you did not know.

If you still have questions, we would like to ask you to follow the existing links and look at further information on third party sites, or simply write us an email. You will find our full contact details on the legal notice page.

 

Information about us as the responsible party

The responsible provider of this website in the sense of data protection law is:

Name and address of the person responsible for the website operation.

PROPSTER – Sonderwunsch Meister GmbH

Mariahilfer Str. 37-39/7.OG, A- 1060 Vienna, Austria

Telephone: 0043.1 361 01 01

Email: office@propster.tech

Internet: www.propster.tech

Our data protection officer: Milan Zahradnik

 

Automatic data storage

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

Even while you are visiting our website right now, our web server – that is the computer on which this website is stored – usually automatically saves data such as the following for reasons of operational security and to compile access statistics etc:

  • the complete Internet address (URL) of the website accessed (e.g. https://www.examplewebsite.de/examplesite.html/)
  • browser and browser version (e.g. Chrome 87)
  • the operating system used (e.g. Windows 10)
  • the address (URL) of the previously visited page (referrer URL) (e.g. https://www.examplewebsite.de/randompagename.html/)
  • the host name and IP address of the device being accessed (e.g. COMPUTERNAME and 194.23.43.121)
  • the date and time

Such data is collected in files called web server log files.

To clarify:

As a rule, these files are stored for a fortnight and then automatically deleted. We do not pass on this data, but we cannot rule out the possibility that this data may be viewed by the authorities in the event of unlawful behaviour.

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

 

Cookies

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

 

What exactly are cookies?

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

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

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

The following graphic shows a possible interaction between a web browser such as Chrome and the web server. Here, the web browser requests a website and receives a cookie back from the server, which the browser uses again as soon as another page is requested.

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

For example, cookie data may look like this

  • Name: _ga
  • Value: GA1.2.1326744211.152111716625-9
  • Purpose: to distinguish website visitors
  • Expiry date: after 2 years

A browser should be able to support these minimum sizes:

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

 

What types of cookies are there?

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

We can distinguish between 4 types of cookies:

 

Essential cookies

These cookies are necessary to ensure basic functions of the website. For example, these cookies are needed when a user places a product in the shopping basket, then continues surfing on other pages and only goes to the checkout later. These cookies do not delete the shopping cart even if the user closes his browser window.

 

Functionality cookies

These cookies collect information about user behaviour and whether the user receives any error messages. In addition, these cookies are also used to measure the loading time and the behaviour of the website with different browsers.

 

Goal-oriented cookies

These cookies provide a better user experience. For example, locations entered, font sizes or form data are saved.

 

Advertising cookies

These cookies are also called targeting cookies. They are used to provide the user with individually adapted advertising. This can be very practical, but also very annoying.

Usually, when you visit a website for the first time, you are asked which of these types of cookies you would like to allow. And of course, this decision is also stored in a cookie.

 

How can I delete cookies?

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

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

 

Chrome: Delete, activate and manage cookies in Chrome.

Safari: Managing Cookies and Website Data with Safari

Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have placed on your computer.

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

 

If you generally do not want cookies, you can set up your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be set. In this way, you can decide for each individual cookie whether you allow the cookie or not. The procedure varies depending on the browser. The best way is to search for the instructions in Google with the search term “Delete Cookies Chrome” or “Deactivate Cookies Chrome” in the case of the Chrome browser.

 

What about my data protection?

The so-called “Cookie Guidelines” have been in place since 2009. These state that the storage of cookies requires your consent. Within the EU countries, however, there are still very different reactions to these directives. In Austria, however, this directive was implemented in § 96 para. 3 of the Telecommunications Act (TKG). In Germany, the Cookie Directive has not been implemented as national law. Instead, this directive was largely implemented in § 15 para.3 of the Telemedia Act (TMG).

If you want to know more about cookies and are not afraid of 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”.

 

Storage of personal data

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

We therefore only use personal data to communicate with those visitors who have agreed to be contacted and to process the services and products offered on this website. We do not disclose your personal data without your consent, but we cannot rule out the possibility that this data may be accessed in the event of unlawful conduct.

If you send us personal data by email – thus away from this website – we cannot guarantee secure transmission and protection of your data. We recommend that you never send confidential data by email without encryption.

 

Rights under the General Data Protection Regulation

 

According to the provisions of the GDPR, you are generally entitled to the following rights:

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

If you believe that the processing of your data violates data protection law or your data protection rights have been violated in any other way, you can complain to the supervisory authority. For Austria, this is the data protection authority, whose website can be found at https://www.dsb.gv.at/, and for Germany you can contact the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI).

 

Evaluation of visitor behaviour

In the following data protection declaration, we inform you whether and how we evaluate data from your visit to this website. The evaluation of the collected data is generally anonymous and we cannot draw any conclusions about your person from your behaviour on this website.

You can find out more about how to object to this analysis of your visit data in the following sections.

 

TLS encryption with https

TLS, encryption and https sound very technical and they are. We use HTTPS (“secure hypertext transfer protocol”) to transmit data in a tap-proof manner on the Internet.

This means that the complete transmission of all data from your browser to our web server is secured – no one can “listen in”.

We have thus introduced an additional layer of security and fulfil data protection by design of technology Article 25(1) DSGVO). By using TLS (Transport Layer Security), an encryption protocol for secure data transmission on the Internet, we can ensure the protection of confidential data.

You can recognise the use of this data transfer protection by the small lock symbol at the top left of the browser to the left of the internet address (e.g. examplesite.de) and the use of the https scheme (instead of http) as part of our internet address.

If you want to know more about encryption, we recommend a Google search for “Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure wiki” to get good links to further information.

 

Appcuess

We use appcues to help us understand how to improve the website and to ensure faster and more efficient access for users. We also use this service to collect anonymous information that allows us to continually improve our product.

Appcues does not collect user-entered text or information within form fields in your application. The Appcues application and data are hosted and stored in Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), where they share the same infrastructure as Amazon and Google’s primary services. Both enable Appcues to operate in a robust, fully multi-tenant infrastructure with the same reliability, performance and security features as the parent companies. Both providers are SOC 2, SOC 3, ISO 27001 and PCI compliant, and both conduct multiple independent security audits annually.

All application data collected by Appcues is transmitted over SSL, encrypted both in transit and at rest. You can read more about Appcuess security practices on their website.

Appcues is fully compliant with the GDPR. You can read their DSGVO compliance statement in full in the privacy policy on their website.

 

Use of live chat systems

Use of Intercom’s services: We use third-party analytics services to better understand your use of our Services. Specifically, we provide a limited amount of your information (such as sign-in date and some personal information such as your email address) to Intercom, Inc. (“Intercom”) and use Intercom to collect data for analytics purposes when you visit our website or use our product. As a data processor acting on our behalf, Intercom analyses your use of our website and/or product and tracks our relationship using cookies and similar technologies so that we can improve our service to you. For more information about Intercom’s use of cookies, please visit https://www.intercom.com/terms-and-policies#cookie-policy. We may also use Intercom as a medium for communication, either via email or messaging within our products. The Intercom Messenger Apps and Apps in Inbox products may also allow you to access other third party applications such as Stripe. You should consult the privacy statements of these third party providers for more information about their use of your personal data. As part of our service agreements, Intercom collects publicly available contact and social data about you, such as your email address, gender, company, job title, photos, website URLs, social media handles and physical addresses, to enhance your user experience. For more information about Intercom’s privacy practices, please visit https://www.intercom.com/terms-and-policies#privacy. Intercom’s services are subject to Intercom’s Terms of Use, which can be found at https://www.intercom.com/terms-and-policies#terms. If you do not want this information collected by or provided to Intercom, please contact us.

 

Google Fonts Privacy Policy

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

You do not have to log in or enter a password to use Google fonts. Furthermore, no cookies are stored in your browser. The files (CSS, fonts) are requested via the Google domains fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com. According to Google, the requests for CSS and fonts are completely separate from all other Google services. If you have a Google account, you do not need to worry about your Google account information being transmitted to Google while using Google Fonts. Google records the use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and the fonts used and stores this data securely. We will look at exactly how this data is stored in more detail.

 

What are Google Fonts?

Google Fonts (formerly Google Web Fonts) is a directory of over 800 fonts that Google makes available to its users free of charge. Many of these fonts are published under the SIL Open Font License, while others are published under the Apache License. Both are free software licenses.

 

Why do we use Google Fonts on our website?

Google Fonts allows us to use fonts on our own website, rather than having to upload them to our own server. Google Fonts is an important component to keep the quality of our website high. All Google Fonts are automatically optimised for the web and this saves data volume and is a great advantage especially for use on mobile devices. When you visit our site, the low file size ensures a fast loading time. Furthermore, Google Fonts are secure web fonts. Different image synthesis systems (rendering) in different browsers, operating systems and mobile devices can lead to errors. Such errors can sometimes distort the appearance of texts or entire web pages. Thanks to the fast Content Delivery Network (CDN), there are no cross-platform problems with Google Fonts. Google Fonts supports all major browsers (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera) and works reliably on most modern mobile operating systems, including Android 2.2+ and iOS 4.2+ (iPhone, iPad, iPod). We therefore use Google Fonts so that we can present our entire online service as beautifully and consistently as possible.

 

What data is stored by Google?

When you visit our website, the fonts are reloaded via a Google server. This external call-up transmits data to the Google servers. In this way, Google also recognises that you or your IP address is visiting our website. The Google Fonts API was developed to reduce the use, storage and collection of end user data to what is necessary for the proper provision of fonts. By the way, API stands for “Application Programming Interface” and serves, among other things, as a data transmitter in the software sector.

Google Fonts stores CSS and font requests securely at Google and is thus protected. Through the collected usage figures, Google can determine how well the individual fonts are received. Google publishes the results on internal analysis pages, such as Google Analytics. In addition, Google also uses data from its own web crawler to determine which websites use Google Fonts. This data is published in the Google Fonts BigQuery database. Entrepreneurs and developers use the Google web service BigQuery to be able to examine and move large amounts of data.

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

 

How long and where is the data stored?

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

The font files are stored by Google for one year. Google’s aim is to fundamentally improve the loading time of websites. If millions of web pages refer to the same fonts, they are cached after the first visit and immediately reappear on all other web pages visited later. Sometimes Google updates font files to reduce file size, increase language coverage and improve design.

 

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

The data that Google stores for a day or a year cannot simply be deleted. The data is automatically transmitted to Google when the page is accessed. In order to delete this data prematurely, you must contact Google support at https://support.google.com/?hl=en-GB. Data storage can only be prevented in this case if you do not visit our site.

Unlike other web fonts, Google allows us unlimited access to all fonts. So we can access an unlimited sea of fonts and get the most out of our website. You can find out more about Google Fonts and other issues at https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq?tid=111716625. There, Google does go into privacy-related matters, but really detailed information about data storage is not included. It is relatively difficult to get really precise information from Google about stored data.

You can also read about what data Google basically collects and what it is used for at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-US#infocollect.

 

Font Awesome Privacy Policy

We use Font Awesome from the American company Fonticons (307 S. Main St., Suite 202, Bentonville, AR 72712, USA) on our website. When you call up one of our web pages, the Font Awesome web font (specifically icons) is loaded via the Font Awesome Content Delivery Network (CDN). In this way, the texts or fonts and icons are displayed appropriately on each end device. In this privacy policy, we go into more detail about the data storage and data processing by this service.

 

What is Font Awesome?

Icons are playing an increasingly important role for websites. Font Awesome is a web font specially designed for web designers and web developers. With Font Awesome, icons can be scaled and coloured as desired with the help of the stylesheet language CSS. In this way, they replace old image icons. Font Awesome CDN is the easiest way to upload icons or fonts to your website. All we had to do was add a small line of code to our website.

 

Why do we use Font Awesome on our website?

Font Awesome allows content on our website to be presented in a better way. This makes it easier for you to navigate our website and grasp the content. The icons can even be used to replace whole words sometimes and save space. This is especially handy when we optimise content especially for smartphones.  These icons are inserted as HMTL code instead of as an image. This allows us to edit the icons with CSS exactly as we want. At the same time, we also improve our loading speed with Font Awesome because it is only HTML elements and not icon images. All these advantages help us to make the website even clearer, fresher and faster for you.

 

What data is 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 worldwide and make it possible to quickly load files from nearby. Thus, as soon as you call up one of our pages, the corresponding icons are also provided by Font Awesome.

In order for the web fonts to be loaded, your browser must establish a connection to the servers of the company Fonticons, Inc. In the process, your IP address is recognised. Font Awesome also collects data about which icon files are downloaded and when. Furthermore, technical data such as your browser version, screen resolution or the time of the page called up are also transmitted.

This data is collected and stored for the following reasons:

  • to optimise content delivery networks
  • to detect and correct technical errors
  • to protect CDNs from abuse and attacks
  • to calculate charges from Font Awesome Pro customers
  • to know the popularity of icons
  • to know what computer and software you are using

If your browser does not allow web fonts, a default font from your PC will be used automatically. As far as we know at present, no cookies are set. We are in contact with Font Awesome’s privacy department and will let you know as soon as we find out more.

 

How long and where is the data stored?

Font Awesome stores data about the use of the Content Delivery Network on servers also located in the United States of America. However, the CDN servers are located worldwide and store user data wherever you are. Data is generally only stored in identifiable form for a few weeks. Aggregated statistics on usage from the CDNs may be stored for longer. Personal data is not included here.

 

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

To the best of our knowledge, Font Awesome does not store any personal data about the Content Delivery Networks. Unfortunately, if you do not want data to be stored about the icons you use, you will not be able to visit our website. If your browser does not allow web fonts, no data will be transmitted or stored. In this case, your computer’s default font will simply be used.

If you would like to learn more about Font Awesome and how they handle data, we recommend that you read the privacy policy at https://fontawesome.com/privacy and the help page at https://fontawesome.com/help.

 

Google Analytics Privacy Policy

On our website we use the analysis tracking tool Google Analytics (GA) of the American company Google Inc. For the European area the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. Google Analytics collects data about your actions on our website. For example, when you click on a link, this action is stored in a cookie and sent to Google Analytics. The reports we receive from Google Analytics help us to better tailor our website and service to your preferences. In the following, we will go into more detail about the tracking tool and, in particular, inform you about what data is stored and how you can prevent this.

 

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a tracking tool that is used to analyse the traffic on our website. In order for Google Analytics to work, a tracking code is built into the code of our website. When you visit our website, this code records various actions you take on our website. As soon as you leave our website, this data is sent to the Google Analytics servers and stored there.

Google processes the data and we receive reports about your user behaviour. These reports may include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Audience reports: Audience reports help us get to know our users better and know more precisely who is interested in our service.
  • Ad reports: Ad reports help us analyse and improve our online advertising.
  • Acquisition reports: Acquisition reports give us helpful information on how to attract more people to our service.
  • Behaviour reports: This tells us how you interact with our website. We can track the path you take on our site and which links you click on.
  • Conversion reports: Conversion is when you take a desired action as a result of a marketing message. For example, when you go from being just a website visitor to a buyer or newsletter subscriber. These reports help us learn more about how our marketing efforts are working for you. This is how we want to increase our conversion rate.
  • Real-time reports: Here we always know immediately what is happening on our website. For example, we can see how many users are reading this text.

 

Why do we use Google Analytics on our website?

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

The statistically evaluated data shows us a clear picture of the strengths and weaknesses of our website. On the one hand, we can optimise our site so that it is found more easily by interested people on Google. On the other hand, the data helps us to better understand you as a visitor. We thus know exactly what we need to improve on our website in order to offer you the best possible service. The data also helps us to carry out our advertising and marketing measures in a more individual and cost-effective way. After all, it only makes sense to show our products and services to people who are interested in them.

 

What data is stored by Google Analytics?

Google Analytics uses a tracking code to create a random, unique ID that is linked to your browser cookie. This is how Google Analytics recognises you as a new user. The next time you visit our site, you will be recognised as a “returning” user. All collected data is stored together with this user ID. This is what makes it possible to evaluate anonymous user profiles in the first place.

In order to be able to analyse our website with Google Analytics, a property ID must be inserted into the tracking code. The data is then stored in the corresponding property. For each newly created property, the Google Analytics 4 property is standard. Alternatively, you can also create the Universal Analytics property. Depending on the property used, data is stored for different periods of time.

Tags such as cookies and app instance IDs are used to measure your interactions on our website. Interactions are all types of actions you take on our website. If you also use other Google systems (such as a Google Account), data generated through Google Analytics may be linked to third-party cookies. Google does not share Google Analytics data unless we, as the website operator, authorise it. Exceptions may occur if required by law.

The following cookies are used by Google Analytics:

Name: _ga

Value: 2.1326744211.152111716625-5

Purpose: By default, analytics.js uses the cookie _ga to store the user ID. Basically, it is used to distinguish website visitors.

Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: _gid

Value: 2.1687193234.152111716625-1

Purpose: The cookie is also used to distinguish between website visitors.

Expiry date: after 24 hours

Name: _gat_gtag_UA_

Value: 1

Purpose: Used to lower the request rate. If Google Analytics is provided via Google Tag Manager, this cookie is named _dc_gtm_ .

Expiry date: after 1 minute

Name: AMP_TOKEN

Value: not specified

Purpose: The cookie has a token that can be used to retrieve a user ID from the AMP client ID service. Other possible values indicate a logout, a request or an error.

Expiry date: after 30 seconds up to one year

Name: __utma

Value: 1564498958.1564498958.1564498958.1

Purpose: This cookie is used to track your behaviour on the website and measure performance. The cookie is updated every time information is sent to Google Analytics.

Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: __utmt

Value: 1

Purpose: The cookie is used like _gat_gtag_UA_ to throttle the request rate.

Expiry date: after 10 minutes

Name: __utmb

Value: 3.10.1564498958

Purpose: This cookie is used to determine new sessions. It is updated every time new data or info is sent to Google Analytics.

Expiry date: after 30 minutes

Name: __utmc

Value: 167421564

Purpose: This cookie is used to set new sessions for returning visitors. This is a session cookie and is only stored until you close the browser again.

Expiry date: After you close the browser.

Name: __utmz

Value: m|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/

Purpose: The cookie is used to identify the source of traffic to our website. This means that the cookie stores from where you came to our website. This may have been another page or an advertisement.

Expiry date: after 6 months

Name: __utmv

Value: not specified

Purpose: The cookie is used to store custom user data. It is updated whenever information is sent to Google Analytics.

Expiry date: after 2 years

Note: This list cannot claim to be exhaustive, as Google also changes the choice of its cookies from time to time.

Here’s an overview of the most important data collected by Google Analytics:

Heatmaps: Google creates so-called heatmaps. Heatmaps allow us to see exactly those areas that you click on. This gives us information about where you are “travelling” on our site.

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

Bounce rate: A bounce is when you view only one page on our website and then leave our website again.

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

IP address: The IP address is only shown in shortened form so that no clear allocation is possible.

Location: The IP address can be used to determine the country and your approximate location. This process is also referred to as IP location determination.

Technical information: Technical information includes your browser type, internet service provider or screen resolution.

Source of origin: Google Analytics and we are of course also interested in which website or which advertisements you came to our site from.

Other data include contact details, any ratings, the playing of media (e.g. if you play a video via our site), the sharing of content via social media or adding to your favourites. This list does not claim to be complete and only serves as a general orientation of the data storage by Google Analytics.

 

How long and where is the data stored?

Google has its servers spread all over the world. Most servers are located in America and consequently your data is mostly stored on American servers. You can find out exactly where Google’s data centres are located here: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/.

Your data is distributed on different physical data carriers. This has the advantage that the data can be accessed more quickly and is better protected against manipulation. In each Google data centre, there are corresponding emergency programmes for your data. If, for example, the hardware at Google fails or natural disasters paralyse servers, the risk of a service interruption at Google still remains low.

The retention period of the data depends on the properties used. When using the newer Google Analytics 4 properties, the retention period of your user data is fixed at 14 months. For other so-called event data, we have the option to choose a retention period of 2 months or 14 months.

 

For Universal Analytics properties, the default retention period for your user data is 26 months. Your user data will then be deleted. However, we have the option to choose the retention period of user data ourselves. There are five options available to us for this:

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

In addition, there is also the option for data to be deleted only when you no longer visit our website within the period we have chosen. In this case, the retention period will be reset each time you visit our website again within the specified period.

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

 

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

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

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

Chrome: Delete, activate and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have placed on your computer

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

Please note that when using this tool, data from you may also be stored and processed outside the EU. Most third countries (including the USA) are not considered secure under current European data protection law. Data may therefore not simply be transferred to, stored in and processed in insecure third countries unless there are appropriate safeguards (such as EU standard contractual clauses) between us and the non-European service provider.

We hope we have been able to provide you with the most important information about the data processing of Google Analytics. If you want to learn more about the tracking service, we recommend these two links: https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/terms/gb/ and https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245.

 

Google Analytics IP anonymisation

We have implemented Google Analytics IP address anonymisation on this website. This function was developed by Google to enable this website to comply with applicable data protection regulations and recommendations of local data protection authorities if they prohibit the storage of the full IP address. The anonymisation or masking of the IP takes place as soon as the IP addresses arrive in the Google Analytics data collection network and before any storage or processing of the data takes place.

More information on IP anonymisation can be found at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2763052.

 

Google Analytics reports on demographic characteristics and interests

We have enabled promotional reporting features in Google Analytics. The demographic and interest reports contain information on age, gender and interests. This allows us to get a better picture of our users without being able to attribute this data to individual people. You can find out more about the advertising functions at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3450482?hl=en&ref_topic=3413645.

You can stop the use of the activities and information of your Google account under “Advertising settings” at https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated via a checkbox.

 

Google Analytics data processing amendment 

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

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

 

Google Tag Manager Privacy Policy

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

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

 

What is Google Tag Manager?

The Google Tag Manager is an organisational tool that allows us to incorporate and manage website tags centrally and via a user interface. Tags are small sections of code that, for example, record (track) your activities on our website. For this purpose, JavaScript code sections are inserted into the source code of our page. The tags often come from Google-internal products such as Google Ads or Google Analytics, but tags from other companies can also be integrated and managed via the manager. Such tags perform different tasks. They can collect browser data, feed marketing tools with data, embed buttons, set cookies and also track users across multiple websites.

 

Why do we use Google Tag Manager for our website?

As the saying goes: organisation is half the battle! And that of course also applies to the maintenance of our website. In order to make our website as good as possible for you and all the people who are interested in our products and services, we need various tracking tools such as Google Analytics. The data collected by these tools shows us what you are most interested in, where we can improve our services and which people we should still show our offers to. And for this tracking to work, we need to embed appropriate JavaScript codes into our website. In principle, we could include each code section of the individual tracking tools separately in our source code. However, this takes a lot of time and it is easy to lose track. That’s why we use the Google Tag Manager. We can easily integrate the necessary scripts and manage them from one place. In addition, the Google Tag Manager offers an easy-to-use user interface and you don’t need any programming knowledge. This is how we manage to keep order in our tag jungle.

 

What data is stored by Google Tag Manager?

The Tag Manager itself is a domain that does not set any cookies and does not store any data. It acts as a mere “administrator” of the implemented tags. The data is collected by the individual tags of the various web analysis tools. The data is virtually passed through to the individual tracking tools in the Google Tag Manager and is not stored.

However, the situation is completely different with the integrated tags of the various web analysis tools, such as Google Analytics. Depending on the analysis tool, various data about your web behaviour is usually collected, stored and processed with the help of cookies. For this, please read our privacy texts on the individual analysis and tracking tools we use on our website.

In the account settings of the Tag Manager, we have allowed Google to receive anonymised data from us. However, this is only about the use and usage of our Tag Manager and not your data stored via the code sections. We allow Google and others to receive selected data in anonymised form. We thus consent to the anonymous sharing of our website data. Which summarised and anonymous data is forwarded exactly, we could not find out – despite long research. In any case, Google deletes all information that could identify our website. Google combines the data with hundreds of other anonymous website data and creates user trends within the framework of benchmarking measures. Benchmarking compares our own results with those of our competitors. Processes can be optimised on the basis of the information collected.

 

How long and where is the data stored?

When Google stores data, this data is stored on Google’s own servers. The servers are distributed all over the world. Most of them are located in America. You can find out exactly where Google servers are located at https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/

You can find out how long the individual tracking tools store your data in our individual data protection texts for the individual tools.

 

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

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

Please note that when using this tool, your data may be stored and processed outside the EU. Most third countries (including the USA) are not considered secure under current European data protection law. So data to insecure third countries may not simply be transferred, stored and processed there unless there are appropriate safeguards (such as EU standard contractual clauses) between us and the non-European service provider.

If you want to learn more about the Google Tag Manager, we recommend the FAQs at https://support.google.com/tagmanager#topic=3441530.

 

Email marketing

Of course, we want to stay in touch with you and always present you with the most important news about our company. To do this, we use, among other things, email marketing, which is an essential part of our online marketing. Provided you agree to it or it is legally permitted, we will send you newsletters, emails or other notifications. When we use the term “newsletter” in the following text, we mainly mean emails sent on a regular basis.

 

How do you sign up for our email marketing?

If you want to take part in our email marketing (mostly via newsletter), you usually just have to register with your email address. To do this, you fill out an online form and send it off. However, it may also happen that we ask you for your title and name so that we can write to you personally.

In principle, subscribing to newsletters works with the help of the so-called “double opt-in procedure”. After you have registered for our newsletter on our website, you will receive an email to confirm your newsletter registration. This ensures that the email address belongs to you and that no one has registered with a third-party email address. We or a notification tool we use logs each individual subscription. This is necessary so that we can prove that the registration process is legally correct. As a rule, the time of registration, the time of the registration confirmation and your IP address are saved. In addition, we also log when you make changes to your stored data.

 

How long may we store your email address?

If you unsubscribe your email address from our email/newsletter distribution list, we may store your address for up to three years based on our legitimate interests so that we can still prove your consent at the time. We may only process this data if we need 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 deletion request at any time. If you permanently object to the consent, we reserve the right to store your email address in a blacklist. As long as you have voluntarily subscribed to our newsletter, we will of course also keep your email address.

 

On what legal basis do we conduct email marketing?

The sending of our newsletter is based on your consent. This means that we may only send you a newsletter if you have actively subscribed to it beforehand. If consent is not necessary, then the newsletter is sent on the basis of the legitimate interest in direct marketing, provided this is legally permitted. Even if we commission a service provider, this happens on the basis of our legitimate interest. We record your registration process so that we can always prove that it complies with our laws.

 

What is in our newsletters?

Of course, we do not want to annoy you in any way with our newsletters. That’s why we really do try to provide only relevant and interesting content. For example, you can learn more about our company, our services or products. Since we are always improving our offers, you will also always find out through our newsletter when there is news or when we are offering special, lucrative promotions.

If we use a service provider who offers a professional mailing tool for our email marketing, we do so in order to be able to offer you fast and secure newsletters.

 

What data is stored?

When you become a subscriber to our newsletter via our website, you confirm membership of an email list by email. In addition to your IP address and email address, your name, address and telephone number may also be stored. However, only if you agree to this data storage. In addition, information about your device or your preferred content on our website may also be stored. You can find out more about the storage of data when you visit a website under the section “Automatic data storage”.

Information on additional email marketing services, if available, can be found in the following sections.

 

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. In most cases, you will find a link directly in our newsletter to cancel your subscription. If you really can’t find the link in the newsletter, please contact us by mail and we will cancel your newsletter subscription.

 

HubSpot privacy policy

We use HubSpot, a marketing automation service, on our website. The service provider is the American company HubSpot Inc, 25 First Street, Cambridge, MA 02141, USA. You can find out more about the data processed through the use of HubSpot in the Privacy Policy at https://legal.hubspot.com/privacy-policy.

 

Payment providers

We use online payment systems on our website that enable us and you to make payments safely and smoothly. In the process, personal data may, among other things, be sent to the respective payment provider, stored and processed there.

We therefore offer other payment service providers in addition to bank/credit institutions within the framework of contractual or legal relationships, because of legal obligations and on the basis of legitimate interest. The data protection statements of the individual payment providers (such as Amazon Payments, Apple Pay or Discover) provide you with a detailed overview of data processing and data storage. In addition, you can always contact the responsible parties if you have any questions about data protection-related topics.

 

What is a payment provider?

Payment providers are online payment systems that allow you to place an order via online banking. In this process, the payment processing is carried out by the payment provider you have chosen. We then receive information about the payment made. This method can be used by any user who has an active online banking account with PIN and TAN. There are hardly any banks left that do not offer or accept such payment methods.

 

Why do we use payment providers on our website?

Of course, we want to offer the best possible service with our website and our integrated online shop so that you feel comfortable on our site and use our offers. We know that your time is valuable and that payment processes in particular need to work quickly and smoothly. For these reasons, we offer you various payment providers. You can choose your preferred payment provider and pay in the usual way.

 

What data is stored?

Exactly what data is processed depends, of course, on the respective payment provider. But basically, data such as name, address, bank data (account number, credit card number, passwords, TANs, etc.) are stored. These are necessary data to be able to carry out a transaction at all. In addition, any contractual data and user data, such as when you visit our website, what content you are interested in or which sub-pages you click on, may also be stored. Your IP address and information about the computer you are using are also stored by most payment providers.

The data is usually stored and processed on the servers of the payment providers. We as the website operator do not receive this data. We are only informed whether the payment has worked or not. For identity and creditworthiness checks, payment providers may forward data to the appropriate office. The business and data protection principles of the respective provider always apply to all payment transactions. Therefore, please always check the General Terms and Conditions and the privacy policy of the payment provider. You also have the right to have data deleted or corrected at any time. Please contact the respective service provider regarding your rights (right of revocation, right to information and right to be affected).

You will find information on the specific payment providers – if available – in the following sections.

 

Visa Privacy Policy

We use Visa, a global payment provider, on our website. The service provider is the American company Visa Inc. The company responsible for the European region is Visa Europe Services Inc. (1 Sheldon Square, London W2 6TT, United Kingdom) is responsible for Europe. You can find out more about the data processed through the use of Visa in the Privacy Policy at https://www.visa.co.uk/legal/privacy-policy.html.

 

PayPal Privacy Policy

We use the online payment service PayPal on our website. The service provider is the American company PayPal Inc. The company PayPal Europe (S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A., 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg) is responsible for the European area. You can find out more about the data processed through the use of PayPal in the Privacy Policy at https://www.paypal.com/uk/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full.

 

Mastercard Privacy Policy

We use the payment service provider Mastercard on our website. The service provider is the American company Mastercard Inc. The company responsible for the European area is Mastercard Europe SA (Chaussée de Tervuren 198A, B-1410 Waterloo, Belgium). You can find out more about the data processed through the use of Mastercard in the Privacy Policy at https://www.mastercard.co.uk/en-gb/vision/terms-of-use/commitment-to-privacy/privacy.html.

 

eps-Transfer Privacy Policy

We use eps-Überweisung, an online payment service, on our website. The service provider is the Austrian company Stuzza GmbH, Frankgasse 10/8, 1090 Vienna, Austria. You can find out more about the data processed through the use of eps-Überweisung in the Privacy Policy at https://eservice.psa.at/en/datenschutzerklaerung.html.

 

YouTube Privacy Policy

We have incorporated YouTube videos on our website. This allows us to present interesting videos directly on our site. YouTube is a video portal that has been a subsidiary of Google since 2006. The video portal is operated by YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave, San Bruno, CA 94066, USA. When you call up a page on our website that has a YouTube video embedded, your browser automatically connects to the YouTube or Google servers. In the process, various data are transferred (depending on the settings). Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all data processing in Europe.

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

 

What is YouTube?

On YouTube, users can watch, rate, comment on and upload videos themselves free of charge. Over the last few years, YouTube has become one of the most important social media channels in the world. In order for us to display videos on our website, YouTube provides a code snippet that we have built into our site.

 

Why do we use YouTube videos on our website?

YouTube is the video platform with the most visitors and the best content. We are committed to providing you with the best possible user experience on our website. And of course, we can’t do without interesting videos. With the help of our embedded videos, we provide you with further helpful content in addition to our texts and images. In addition, the embedded videos make our website easier to find on the Google search engine. Also, when we run ads via Google Ads, Google can – thanks to the collected data – really only show these ads to people who are interested in what we have to offer.

 

What data is stored by YouTube?

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

If you are not signed in to a Google Account or a YouTube account, Google stores data with a unique identifier associated with your device, browser or app. For example, your preferred language setting is retained. But a lot of interaction data cannot be stored because fewer cookies are set.

In the following list, we show cookies that were set in the browser in a test. On the one hand, we show cookies that are set without a logged-in YouTube account. On the other hand, we show cookies that are set with a logged-in account. The list cannot claim to be complete because the user data always depends on the interactions on YouTube.

Name: YSC

Value: b9-CV6ojI5Y111716625-1

Purpose: This cookie registers a unique ID to store statistics of the video watched.

Expiry date: after end of session

Name: PREF

Value: f1=50000000

Purpose: This cookie also registers your unique ID. Google gets statistics about how you use YouTube videos on our website via PREF.

Expiry date: after 8 months

Name: GPS

Value: 1

Purpose: This cookie registers your unique ID on mobile devices to track GPS location.

Expiry date: after 30 minutes

Name: VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE

Value: 95Chz8bagyU

Purpose: This cookie attempts to estimate the user’s bandwidth on our websites (with embedded YouTube video).

Expiry date: after 8 months

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

Name: APISID

Value: zILlvClZSkqGsSwI/AU1aZI6HY7111716625-

Purpose: This cookie is used to create a profile of your interests. The data is used for personalised advertisements.

Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: CONSENT

Value: YES+AT.en+20150628-20-0

Purpose: The cookie stores the status of a user’s consent to use various Google services. CONSENT is also used for security purposes to verify users and protect user data from unauthorised attacks.

Expiry date: after 19 years

Name: HSID

Value: AcRwpgUik9Dveht0I

Purpose: This cookie is used to create a profile of your interests. This data helps to display personalised advertising.

Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: LOGIN_INFO

Value: AFmmF2swRQIhALl6aL…

Purpose: This cookie stores information about your login details.

Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: SAPISID

Value: 7oaPxoG-pZsJuuF5/AnUdDUIsJ9iJz2vdM

Purpose: This cookie works by uniquely identifying your browser and device. It is used to create a profile about your interests.

Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: SID

Value: oQfNKjAsI111716625-.

Purpose: This cookie stores your Google Account ID and your last login time in digitally signed and encrypted form.

Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: SIDCC

Value: AN0-TYuqub2JOcDTyL

Purpose: This cookie stores information about how you use the website and what advertisements you may have seen before visiting our site.

Expiry date: after 3 months

 

How long and where is the data stored?

The data that YouTube receives from you and processes is stored on Google servers. Most of these servers are located in America. You can see exactly where Google’s data centres are located at https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/locations/. Your data is distributed across the servers. This means that the data can be accessed more quickly and is better protected against manipulation.

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

 

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

Basically, you can delete data in your Google Account manually. With the automatic deletion feature of location and activity data introduced in 2019, information will be stored depending on your decision – either 3 or 18 months and then deleted.

Whether you have a Google account or not, you can configure your browser to delete or disable cookies from Google. Depending on which browser you use, this works in different ways. The following instructions show how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, activate and manage cookies in Chrome.

Safari: Managing Cookies and Website Data with Safari

Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have placed on your computer.

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

If you generally do not want cookies, you can set up your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be set. This way, you can decide for each individual cookie whether you allow it or not. As YouTube is a subsidiary of Google, there is a joint privacy policy. If you want to learn more about how your data is handled, we recommend the privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy

 

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