Privacy Policy
With the following privacy policy, we would like to inform you about what types of your personal data (hereinafter also referred to as “data”) we process, for what purposes and to what extent. The privacy policy applies to all processing of personal data carried out by us, both in the context of the provision of our services and in particular on our websites, in mobile applications and within external online presences, such as our social media profiles (hereinafter collectively referred to as “online offer”). The terms used are not gender-specific.
Relevant legal bases
In the following, we inform you of the legal basis of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), on the basis of which we process personal data. Please note that in addition to the provisions of the GDPR, the national data protection regulations in your or our country of residence and domicile may apply.
National data protection regulations in Germany: In addition to the data protection regulations of the General Data Protection Regulation, national data protection regulations apply in Germany. These include in particular the Act on the Protection against Misuse of Personal Data in Data Processing (Federal Data Protection Act – BDSG). In particular, the BDSG contains special regulations on the right to information, the right to erasure, the right to object, the processing of special categories of personal data, processing for other purposes and transmission as well as automated decision-making in individual cases, including profiling. It also regulates data processing for the purposes of the employment relationship (Section 26 BDSG), in particular with regard to the establishment, implementation or termination of employment relationships and the consent of employees. The data protection laws of the individual federal states may also apply.
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Transfer and disclosure of personal data
As part of our processing of personal data, data may be transferred to other bodies, companies, legally independent organizational units or persons or disclosed to them. The recipients of this data may include, for example, payment institutions in the context of payment transactions, service providers commissioned with IT tasks or providers of services and content that are integrated into a website. In such cases, we observe the legal requirements and in particular conclude corresponding contracts or agreements with the recipients of your data that serve to protect your data.
(Federal Data Protection Act – BDSG). In particular, the BDSG contains special regulations on the right to information, the right to erasure, the right to object, the processing of special categories of personal data, processing for other purposes and transmission as well as automated decision-making in individual cases, including profiling. It also regulates data processing for the purposes of the employment relationship (Section 26 BDSG), in particular with regard to the establishment, implementation or termination of employment relationships and the consent of employees. The data protection laws of the individual federal states may also apply.
Data processing in third countries
If we process data in a third country (i.e. outside the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area (EEA)) or if the processing takes place in the context of the use of third-party services or the disclosure or transfer of data to other persons, bodies or companies, this will only take place in accordance with the legal requirements.
Subject to express consent or transfer required by contract or law, we only process or have the data processed in third countries with a recognized level of data protection, including US processors certified under the “Privacy Shield”, or on the basis of special guarantees, such as contractual obligations through so-called standard protection clauses of the EU Commission, the existence of certifications or binding internal data protection regulations (Art. 44 to 49 GDPR, information page of the EU Commission: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/international-dimension-data-protection_de ).
A distinction is made between the following cookie types and functions:
Temporary cookies (also: session cookies): Temporary cookies are deleted at the latest after a user has left an online service and closed their browser.
Permanent cookies: Permanent cookies remain stored even after the browser is closed. For example, the login status can be saved or preferred content can be displayed directly when the user visits a website again. The interests of users that are used to measure reach or for marketing purposes can also be stored in such a cookie.
First-party cookies: First-party cookies are set by us.
Third-party cookies (also: third-party cookies): Third-party cookies are mainly used by advertisers (so-called third parties) to process user information.
Necessary (also: essential or absolutely necessary) cookies: Cookies may be absolutely necessary for the operation of a website (e.g. to save logins or other user input or for security reasons).
Statistical, marketing and personalization cookies: Cookies are also generally used to measure reach and when a user’s interests or behaviour (e.g. viewing certain content, using functions, etc.) on individual websites are stored in a user profile. Such profiles are used, for example, to show users content that corresponds to their potential interests. This process is also referred to as “tracking”, i.e. tracking the potential interests of users. If we use cookies or “tracking” technologies, we will inform you separately in our privacy policy or when obtaining consent.
Information on legal bases: The legal basis on which we process your personal data with the help of cookies depends on whether we ask for your consent. If this is the case and you consent to the use of cookies, the legal basis for processing your data is the declared consent. Otherwise, the data processed using cookies will be processed on the basis of our legitimate interests (e.g. in the business operation of our online offering and its improvement) or, if the use of cookies is necessary to fulfill our contractual obligations.
General information on revocation and objection (opt-out): Depending on whether the processing is based on consent or legal permission, you have the option at any time to revoke any consent you have given or to object to the processing of your data by cookie technologies (collectively referred to as “opt-out”). You can initially declare your objection using your browser settings, e.g. by deactivating the use of cookies (although this may also restrict the functionality of our online offering). An objection to the use of cookies for online marketing purposes can also be declared using a variety of services, especially in the case of tracking, via the websites http://optout.aboutads.info and http://www.youronlinechoices.com/. You can also obtain further information on how to object in the context of the information on the service providers and cookies used.
Processing of cookie data on the basis of consent: Before we process or have data processed in the context of the use of cookies, we ask users for their consent, which can be revoked at any time. Before consent has not been given, cookies that are necessary for the operation of our online offering are used. Their use is based on our interest and the interest of users in the expected functionality of our online offering.
Processed data types: Usage data (e.g. websites visited, interest in content, access times), meta/communication data (e.g. device information, IP addresses).
Data subjects: Users (e.g. website visitors, users of online services).
Legal basis: Consent (Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. a GDPR), Legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. f. GDPR).