Privacy policy

Data Protection

We have drawn up this data protection policy (version 19.04.2023) in order to explain to you, in accordance with the provisions of the General Data protection regulation (EU) 2016/679, what information we collect, how we use data and what options you have as a visitor to this website.

Unfortunately, these explanations may sound very technical in nature, but we have tried to describe the most important points as simply and clearly as possible.

Information Concerning Us as the Responsible Party

The responsible party and provider of this website as defined by data protection law:

Hermetic World LTD
Limnaria 1
Westpark Village, Shop 20
8042 Paphos
Cyprus

[email protected]
www.hermetic-world.com

Automatic Data Storage

In the modern world, when you visit websites, certain information is automatically created and stored, as is the case with this website.

When you visit our website as you are doing right now, our web server (the computer on which this website is stored) automatically stores data such as

• the address (URL) of the web page accessed

• browser and browser version

• the operating system used

• the address (URL) of the previously visited page (referrer URL)

• the host name and IP address of the device from which access is made

• date and time

in data files (web server log files).

Usually web server log files are stored for two weeks and then automatically deleted. We do not disclose this data, but cannot exclude the possibility that this data may be viewed in the event of illegal behaviour.

Cookies

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

What exactly are cookies?

Cookie Privacy Settings

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

There is one thing that is impossible to ignore: Cookies are very useful helpers. Almost all websites use cookies. To be more precise, 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 stored in the cookie folder, as it were 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 data about you, such as language or personal page settings. When you visit our site again, your browser transmits the “user-related” information back to our site. Thanks to the cookies, our website knows who you are and offers you the settings you are familiar with. In some browsers, each cookie has its own file, in others, such as Firefox, all cookies are stored in a single file.

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

For example, cookie data may look like this:

Name: _ga

Value: GA1.2.1326744211.152111232262-9

Purpose: Differentiation of website visitors

Expiration 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 policy. At this point we would like to briefly discuss the different types of HTTP cookies.

You can distinguish between 4 types of cookies:

Permanent Cookies These cookies are necessary to ensure basic website functionality. For example, these cookies are needed when a user adds a product to his shopping cart, then continues surfing on other pages, and only later proceeds to checkout. These cookies ensure that the shopping cart is not deleted, even if the user closes his browser window.

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

Specific Cookies These cookies ensure a better user experience. For example, inputted locations, font sizes or form data are stored.

Advertising Cookies These cookies are also called targeting cookies. They are used to deliver individually tailored advertising to the user. These can be very practical, but also very annoying.

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

How can I delete cookies?

How and if you want to use cookies is up to you. Regardless of which service or website the cookies come from, you always have the option to delete, disable or only partially allow cookies. For example, you can block third-party cookies, but allow all other cookies.

If you want to change or delete your cookie settings and determine which cookies are stored in your browser, this can be found in your browser settings:

If you do not want cookies at all, you can set your browser to inform you whenever a cookie is about to be stored. This way you can decide for each individual cookie whether you want to allow it or not. This procedure varies from browser to browser. The best way to find the instructions is to search Google using the phrase “delete Chrome cookies” or “disable Chrome cookies” in the case of a Chrome browser.

What about my privacy?

Since 2009 there have been what are known as “cookie guidelines.” This states that the storage of cookies requires your consent. However, the response to these guidelines still varies widely within the EU member states.

If you want to know more about cookies and do not shy away from 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 information that you provide to us electronically on this website, such as your name, email address, postal address or other personal information when submitting a form or comments on the blog, along with the time and IP address, will only be used by us for the purpose stated. Such information will be kept securely stored and will not be disclosed to third parties.

Thus, we will only use your personal data for communication with those visitors who expressly request contact and for processing the services and products offered on this website. We will not pass on your personal data without your consent, but we cannot exclude the possibility that this data may be viewed in the event of unlawful behaviour.

If you send us personal data by e-mail – and therefore not via this website – we cannot guarantee secure transmission and the protection of your data. We recommend that you never send confidential data by e-mail without encryption.

Rights According to General Data protection regulation

In accordance with the provisions of the GDPR you have the following rights:

• Right of rectification (Article 16 GDPR)

• Right of deletion (“right to be forgotten”) (Article 17 GDPR)

• Right to restrict processing (Article 18 GDPR)

• Right of notification — obligation to notify in connection with the rectification or erasure of personal data or the restriction of processing (Article 19 GDPR)

• Right to data transferability (Article 20 GDPR)

• Right of objection (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 if you believe that your data protection rights have otherwise been violated in any way, you can file a complaint with the regulatory authority.

Evaluation of Visitor Behavior

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 usually anonymous and your personal identity cannot be inferred from your behavior on this website.

You can find out more about the options for objecting to this evaluation of visit data in the following data protection declaration.

TLS Encryption with HTTPS

We use https to transmit data over the internet in a secure manner (data protection through technology design Article 25 paragraph 1 GDPR). By using TLS (Transport Layer Security), an encryption protocol for secure data transmission on the internet, we can ensure the protection of confidential data. You can recognize the utilization of this data transmission security by the small lock symbol in the upper left corner of the browser and the use of the https protocol (instead of http) as part of our Internet address.

Google Fonts Privacy Policy

On our website we use Google Fonts. These are the “Google Fonts” from the company Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA).

To use Google fonts, you do not need to log in or set a password. 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 don’t need to worry about your Google Account information being submitted to Google while using Google Fonts. Google tracks the use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and the fonts used, and stores this information securely. We’ll be taking a closer look at the exact nature of this data storage.

What are Google Fonts?

Google Fonts (formerly Google Web Fonts) is a directory of over 800 fonts that Google LLC makes available to its users free of charge.

Many of these fonts are released under the SIL Open Font License, while others are released under the Apache license. Both are free software licenses.

Why do we use Google Fonts on our website?

With Google Fonts, we can use fonts on our own website without having to upload them to our own server. Google Fonts is an important component in keeping the quality of our website high. All Google Fonts are automatically optimized for the web. This saves data volume and is a great benefit, especially for use on mobile devices. When you visit our site, the low data size ensures a fast loading time. Furthermore, Google Fonts are secure web fonts. Differences in image processing systems (rendering) in different browsers, operating systems and mobile devices can lead to errors. Such errors can visually distort some 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 use Google Fonts to ensure our entire online service is as beautiful and consistent as possible.

What data does Google store?

When you visit our website, the fonts are reloaded via a Google server. This external request transfers data to the Google servers. This is how Google recognizes 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 only what is necessary for the proper provision of fonts. As an aside, API stands for “Application Programming Interface” and serves, among other things, as a data transmitter in the software industry.

Google Fonts stores CSS and font requests securely at Google and is fully secured. The usage figures collected enable Google to determine how well the individual fonts are received. Google publishes the results on internal analysis pages, such as Google Analytics. Google also uses data from its own web crawler to determine which websites use Google fonts. This data is published in Google Fonts’ BigQuery database. Entrepreneurs and developers use the Google BigQuery web service to examine and navigate large amounts of data.

However, it should be noted that each Google Font request also automatically sends 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 and/or is not clearly reported by Google.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google stores requests for CSS assets for one day on its servers, which are located primarily outside the EU. This allows us to access the fonts using a Google style sheet. A stylesheet is a style template that allows you to easily and quickly change, for example, the design or font of a web page.

The font files are stored at Google for one year. Google’s goal is to improve the loading time of web pages. If millions of web pages link to the same fonts, they are cached after the first visit and reappear immediately on all other web pages that are 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 be easily deleted. The data is automatically transferred to Google when you visit the site. To delete this data sooner, you must contact Google support at https://support.google.com/?hl=de&tid=111232262. In this case, you only prevent data storage if you do not visit our site.

Unlike other web typefaces, Google allows us unlimited access to all fonts. This means we have unlimited access to a vast array of fonts and can thus achieve the highest quality for our website. More about Google Fonts and other questions can be found at https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq?tid=111232262. While Google does address privacy issues there, it doesn’t provide in depth information about data retention. It’s relatively difficult to obtain truly accurate information about data retention from Google.

You can also read about what data Google collects and how that data is used at https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/.

Google Analytics Privacy Policy

On our website we use the analytics tracking tool Google Analytics (GA) from the American company Google LLC (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). Google Analytics collects data about your actions on our website. For example, when you click on a link, that action is stored in a cookie and sent to Google Analytics. The reports we receive from Google Analytics enable us to better tailor our website and services to better serve you. In the following we will go into greater detail about the tracking tool and provide you with information about the data that is stored and how you can prevent it.

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a tracking tool that is used to analyse the traffic on our website. To make Google Analytics work, a tracking code is built into the code of our website. When you visit our website, this code records various actions that you perform 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 the following:

• Target group reports: Through target group reports we can come to better know our users and learn more about who is interested in our service.

• Advertising reports: Advertising reports help us to analyse and improve our online advertising.

• Acquisition reports: Acquisition reports give us helpful information on how we can get more people interested in our service.

• Behavioral Reports: Here we learn how you interact with our website. We can track which path you take on our site and which links you click on.

• Conversion reports: A conversion is a term for a process in which you carry out a desired action based on a marketing message: for example, when you go from being a mere website visitor to a buyer or newsletter subscriber. We use these reports to learn more about how our marketing activities have been received by our users. This helps us to increase our conversion rate.

• Real-time reporting: Here we can always immediately find out what’s happening on our website. For example, we can see how many users are currently 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.

Statistically evaluated data give us a clear picture of the strengths and weaknesses of our website. On the one hand, we can optimize our site so that interested people can find it more easily on Google. On the other hand, the data helps us to better understand you as a visitor. This means we 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 execute our advertising and marketing campaigns more efficiently and more cost-effectively. Ultimately, it only makes sense to show our products and services to people who are genuinely interested.

What data is stored by Google Analytics?

Google Analytics uses a tracking code to create a random, unique ID associated with your browser cookie. This allows Google Analytics to recognize you as a new user. The next time you visit our site, you will be recognized as a “returning” user. All collected data is stored together with this User ID. This is the only way to evaluate pseudonymous user profiles.

Your interactions on our website are measured via identifiers such as cookies and app instance IDs. Interactions are any kind of action you perform on our website. If you also use other Google software (such as a Google account), data generated by Google Analytics can be linked to third-party cookies. Google does not share any Google Analytics data unless we, as the website operator, authorise it. Exceptions may be made if required by law.

The following cookies are used by Google Analytics:

Name: _ga Value: 2.1326744211.152111232262-5 Purpose: By default analytics.js uses the _ga cookie to store the user ID. In general, it is used to differentiate between website visitors. Expiration date: after 2 years

Name: _gid Value: 2.1687193234.152111232262-1 Purpose: The cookie is also used to differentiate between website visitors. Expiration date: after 24 hours

Name: gat_gtag_UAValue: 1 Use: Used to lower the number of requests. When Google Analytics is delivered via Google Tag Manager, this cookie is named dc_gtm . Expiration date: After 1 minute

Name: AMP_TOKEN Value: no information 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, request or error. Expiration date: From 30 seconds to one year

Name: __utma Value: 1564498958.1564498958.1564498958.1 Purpose: This cookie allows you to track your behavior on the site and measure its performance. The cookie is updated each time information is sent to Google Analytics. Expiration date: After 2 years

Name: __utmt Value: 1 Use: The cookie is used like gat_gtag_UA to reduce the request rate. Expiration date: After 10 minutes

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

Name: __utmc Value: 167421564 Purpose: This cookie is used to establish new sessions for returning visitors. This is a session cookie and is only stored until you close the browser. Expiration date: After closing the browser

Name: __utmz Value: m|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/ Purpose: The cookie is used to identify the source of traffic to our site. This means that the cookie stores the information about where you came to our website from. This may be another site or an advertisement. Expiration date: After 6 months

Name: __utmv Value: no entry Use: The cookie is used to store user-defined user data. It is automatically updated whenever information is sent to Google Analytics. Expiration date: After 2 years

Note: This itemized list does not claim to be exhaustive, as Google constantly changes its selection of cookies.

Here we present you an overview of the most important data collected with Google Analytics:

Heatmaps: Google creates what are known as heat maps. With heatmaps you can see exactly which areas you click on. This is how we get information about where you are on your “journey” on our website.

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

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

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 abbreviated form so that no clear identification is possible.

Location: The IP address can be used to determine your country and approximate location. This process is also called IP Geolocation.

Technical information: Technical information may include your browser type, Internet service provider or screen resolution.

Referral Source: We, as well as Google Analytics, are interested in which website or which advertisement brought you to our site.

Further data are contact details, any ratings, media viewing (e.g. if you play a video on our site), sharing content via social media or adding to your favourites. This list is not intended to be exhaustive and serves only as a general guide to data storage by Google Analytics.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google has distributed its servers around the world. Most of the servers are located in America and therefore your data is usually stored on American servers. Here you can learn exactly where the Google data centers are located: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de

Your data is distributed across various physical storage volumes. This has the benefit of faster data retrieval and better protection against fraud. In every Google data centre there are appropriate emergency systems in place for your data. For example, if Google’s hardware fails or if a natural disaster disables its servers, the risk of a service interruption at Google remains low.

Google Analytics has a standard retention period of 26 months for your user data. After this period your user data will be deleted. However, we have the option of choosing the retention period for 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

Once the specified period has expired, data is deleted once per month. This retention period applies to the data that is linked to cookies, user identification and advertising IDs (e.g. DoubleClick domain cookies). Reporting results are based on aggregated data and are stored independently of user data. Aggregated data is a fusion of individual data into a larger whole.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

According to the data protection law of the European Union you have the right to obtain information about your data, to update, delete or restrict it. With the help of the browser Add-ons for deactivating Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, dc.js) you can prevent Google Analytics from using your data. You can download and install the browser add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de. Please note that this add-on only disables the data collection by Google Analytics.

If you want to completely deactivate, delete or modify cookies (independent of Google Analytics), there are separate instructions for each browser:

Google Analytics is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. You can find more information about this at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI&tid=111232262. We hope we have been able to provide you with the most pertinent information about data processing by Google Analytics. If you want to learn more about the tracking service, we recommend these two links: http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/de.html and https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=de.

Google Analytics IP Anonymization

We have implemented IP address anonymization by Google Analytics on this website. This function was developed by Google so that this website could comply with the relevant data protection regulations and recommendations of the local data protection authorities, should they prohibit the storage of the complete IP address. The anonymization or masking of the IP takes place as soon as the IP addresses arrive in the Google Analytics data collection network and before the data is saved or processed.

More information on IP anonymization can be found at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2763052?hl=de.

Google Analytics Reports on Demographic Traits and Interests

We have enabled the advertising reporting features in Google Analytics. The demographic and interest reports include information about age, gender and interests. This allows us to build a better picture of our users without having to attribute this data to individual people. You can learn more about the advertising features at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3450482?hl=de_AT&utm_id=ad.

You can opt-out of sharing your Google Account activities and information by checking the appropriate box under “Advertising Settings” on [https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated](https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated].

Google Analytics Data Processing Terms

We have established a direct customer agreement with Google for the use of Google Analytics by accepting the “data processing terms” in Google Analytics.

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

Google Analytics Google Signals Privacy Policy

We have activated Google signals in Google Analytics. This updates existing Google Analytics features (advertising reports, remarketing, cross-device reports, and reports on interests and demographics) to provide aggregated and anonymous information about you, provided you have allowed personalized ads in your Google Account.

What’s special about this is that it utilizes cross-device tracking. This means that your data can be analyzed across devices. By enabling Google signals, data is collected and linked to your Google Account. Google can thus recognize, for example, if you view a product on our website via smartphone and only later make a purchase via laptop. By activating Google signals, we can launch cross-device retargeting campaigns that would otherwise not be possible. Retargeting means that we can also display our products to you on other websites.

Within Google Analytics, further visitor data, such as location, search history, YouTube history and data about your actions on our website, are collected through Google signals. This allows Google to provide us with better advertising reports and more useful information about your interests and demographics. This includes your age, what language you speak, where you live, or what gender you are. In addition, we also collect social metrics such as your occupation, marital status and income. All of these help Google Analytics to define groups of people or target groups.

The reports also help us to better assess your behaviour, wishes and interests. This helps us to optimize and adapt our services and products for you. These data expire by default after 26 months. Please note that this data is only collected if you have enabled personalised advertising in your Google Account. It is always aggregated and anonymous data, and never data about individual persons. You can manage or delete this data in your Google Account.

Facebook Pixel Privacy Policy

We use the Facebook Pixel from Facebook on our website. We have installed a code for this on our website. The Facebook Pixel is a snippet of JavaScript code that loads a collection of functions with which Facebook can track your user actions, provided you arrived at our website via Facebook ads. For example, when you purchase a product on our website, the Facebook Pixel is triggered and stores the actions you take on our website in one or more cookies. These cookies enable Facebook to compare your user data (customer data such as IP address, user ID) with the data of your Facebook account. Afterwards Facebook deletes this data. The collected data is anonymous and not visible to us. It can only be used for advertising purposes. If you are a Facebook user yourself and are logged in, your visit to our website is automatically attributed to your Facebook user account.

We only want to show our services or products to people who are genuinely interested in them. With the help of Facebook Pixels, our advertising measures can be better tailored to your desires and interests. This way, Facebook users (provided they have allowed personalized advertising) can view relevant ads. Furthermore, Facebook uses the collected data for analytical purposes and for its own advertisements.

Below we will show you the cookies that were created by embedding a Facebook Pixel on a test page. Please note that these are only sample cookies. Different cookies are created depending on the interaction on our website.

Name: _fbp Value: fb.1.1568287647279.257405483-6111232262-7 Purpose: This cookie is used by Facebook to display advertising products. Expiration date: After 3 months

Name: Fr Value: 0aPf312HOS5Pboo2r..Bdeiuf…1.0.Bdeiuf. Purpose: This cookie is used to make Facebook pixels work properly. Expiration date: After 3 months

Name: comment_author_50ae8267e2bdf1253ec1a5769f48e062111232262-3 Value: Name of the author Use: This cookie stores the text and name of a user who, for example, leaves a comment. Expiration date: After 12 months

Name: comment_author_url_50ae8267e2bdf1253ec1a5769f48e062 Value: https%3A%2F%2Fww.test page…%2F (author’s URL) Use: This cookie stores the URL of the website that the user enters in a text field on our website. Expiration date: After 12 months

Name: comment_author_email_50ae8267e2bdf1253ec1a5769f48e062 Value: Author’s e-mail address Use: This cookie stores the user’s e-mail address, if they have posted it on the website. Expiration date: After 12 months

Note: The cookies mentioned above refer to an individual user behaviour. Particularly when using cookies, the possibility of changes with Facebook can never be completely ruled out.

If you are logged into Facebook, you can change your settings for advertisements under https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen. If you are not a Facebook user, you can manage your individual usage-based online advertising at http://www.youronlinechoices.com/de/praferenzmanagement/. There you have the possibility to deactivate or activate providers.

If you would like to learn more about Facebook’s privacy policy, we recommend that you review the company’s own data policies at https://www.facebook.com/policy.php.

Facebook Automatic Advanced Matching Privacy Policy

We have also enabled Automatic Advanced Matching as part of the Facebook Pixel feature. This Pixel function allows us to transmit to Facebook hashed emails, names, gender, city, state, zip code and date of birth or phone number as additional information, if you have provided us with this data. This activation enables us to tailor advertising campaigns on Facebook even more precisely to people who are interested in our services or products.

Google Tag Manager Privacy Policy

For our website we use the Google Tag Manager from the company Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). This Tag Manager is one of many helpful marketing products from Google. The Google Tag Manager allows us to centrally embed and manage sections of code from various tracking tools that we use on our website.

In this privacy statement, we would like to explain to you in greater detail exactly what the Google Tag Manager does, why we use it and how we process data.

What is the Google Tag Manager?

The Google Tag Manager is an organizational tool that allows us to centrally embed and manage web page tags through a single interface. Tags are small sections of code that, for example, record (track) your activities on our website. For this purpose JavaScript code snippets are inserted into the source code of our site. The tags often come from internal Google 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, integrate buttons, set cookies and also track users across multiple websites.

Why do we use the Google Tag Manager for our website?

Well, as they say: Organization is half the battle! And of course this also applies to the maintenance of our website. To make our website as good as possible for you and all people interested in our products and services, we need various tracking tools such as Google Analytics. The data collected by these tools show us what interests you most, where we can improve our services and to which people we should continue to show our offers. Technically, we could incorporate each section of code from each tracking tool separately into our source code. However, this requires a relatively large amount of time and it is easy to lose track. Therefore we use the Google Tag Manager. We can easily include the necessary scripts and manage them from one place. Furthermore, Google Tag Manager offers an easy-to-use interface and that doesn’t require any programming skills. This is how we manage to keep our tag jungle in order.

What data is stored by Google Tag Manager?

The Tag Manager itself is a domain that does not set cookies nor does it store any data. It acts as a mere “administrator” of the embedded tags. The data captures the individual tags of the different web analytics tools. In the Google Tag Manager, the data is passed through to the individual tracking tools and not stored.

However, the case is completely different with the embedded tags of the various web analytics tools, such as Google Analytics. Depending on the analytics tool, different data about your web behaviour is generally collected, stored and processed with the help of cookies. For this purpose, please read our data protection texts on the individual analytics and tracking tools that we use on our website.

In the account settings of the Tag Manager we have permitted Google to receive anonymous data from us. However, this only concerns the use and application of our Tag Manager and not your data, which is stored through use of code snippets. We permit Google and other parties to receive selected data in anonymized form. We thus agree to the anonymous transfer of our website data. We have been unable to determine exactly which summarized and anonymous data is forwarded – despite extensive research. In any case, Google deletes all information that could identify our website. Google combines this data with hundreds of other anonymous website data and creates user trends as part of its benchmarking measures. Benchmarking involves comparing our own results with the results of others in our market. Processes can be optimized based on this information.

How long and where is the data stored?

Whenever Google stores data, it stores the data on its own Google servers. These servers are located all over the world. Most of them are located in America. Under https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de you can read exactly where the Google servers are located.

How long the individual tracking tools store your data can be found in our individual privacy policies for each tool.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

The Google Tag Manager itself does not set any cookies, but manages tags of different tracking websites. In our privacy policy for each tracking tool, you will find detailed information on how to delete or manage your data.

Google is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. You can find more information about this at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI&tid=111232262. If you would like to learn more about Google Tag Manager, we recommend you read the FAQs at https://www.google.com/intl/de/tagmanager/faq.html.

Newsletter Privacy Policy

When you subscribe to our newsletter, you provide us with the personal data mentioned above and give us the right to contact you by e-mail. We use the data stored during the registration process exclusively for our newsletter and do not pass them on.

If you unsubscribe from our newsletter – you will find the link to do so at the bottom of every newsletter – we will delete all data stored when you subscribed to the newsletter.

Google AdSense Privacy Policy

We use Google AdSense on this website. This is an advertising program from the company Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). With Google AdSense, we can display ads on this website that match our content. This way we can offer you ads that ideally provide you with real added value. In the course of this privacy policy about Google AdSense we will explain to you why we use Google AdSense on our website, which of your data is processed and stored and how you can prevent this data storage.

What is Google AdSense?

The advertising program Google AdSense has been in existence since 2003. In contrast to Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords), you cannot place your own ads. Google AdSense is used to display ads on websites, such as ours. The biggest advantage of this advertising service compared to many others is that Google AdSense only shows you ads that match our content. Google has its own algorithm that calculates which ads you will see. Naturally, we only want to offer you ads that interest you and provide you with added value. Google checks which ads are suitable for our website based on our offering, on our user’s behavior, and on their interests. We would like to mention at this point that we are not responsible for the selection of the advertisements. We only offer the advertising space on our website. The selection of the advertisements that are displayed is made by Google. Since August 2013 the ads are also adapted to the specific user interface. This means that whether you visit our website from your smartphone, PC or laptop, the ads will adjust to your device.

Why do we use Google AdSense on our website?

Running a high quality website requires a lot of commitment and dedication. We are never really finished with the work on our website. We try to always maintain our site and keep it as up-to-date as possible. Of course we also want to attain commercial success with this work. Therefore we have decided to use advertisements as a source of income. The most important thing for us, however, is to ensure that these ads do not disturb your visit to our website. With the help of Google AdSense you will only be offered advertising that fits our topics and your interests.

Similar to the Google indexing of a website, a bot examines the corresponding content and product offering of our website. The advertisements are then adjusted according to the content and displayed on the website. In addition to the content overlap between the ad and the website offer, AdSense also supports interest-based targeting. This means that Google will also use your data to offer advertising tailored to your needs. This way you will receive advertising that provides you with real added value and we have another chance to earn a little bit more.

Which data is stored by Google AdSense?

Google AdSense uses cookies among other things so that it can display a tailor-made advertisement that is tailor-made for you. Cookies are small text files that store certain information on your computer.

In AdSense, cookies are used to enable better advertising. The cookies do not contain any personally identifiable information. However, please note that Google considers information such as “pseudonymous cookie IDs” (your name or other identifying information is replaced by a pseudonym) or IP addresses to be a form of non-personally identifiable information. Under the GDPR, however, this data may be considered personal data. Google AdSense sends a cookie to the browser after each impression (this is always the case when you see an ad), after each click and every other action that leads to a call to the Google AdSense servers. If the browser accepts the cookie, then it will be stored there.

Third-party providers may place and read cookies in your browser or use web beacons to store data that they obtain from the ads served on the website. Web beacons are small graphics that perform log file analysis and record the log file. This analysis provides a statistical evaluation for online marketing.

Google can collect certain information about your user behaviour on our website via these cookies. This includes:

• Information on how you interact with an advertisement (clicks, impressions, mouse movements).

• Information about whether an advertisement has already appeared in your browser at an earlier time. This data helps to prevent you from seeing an ad more than once.

Google analyses and evaluates the data on the displayed advertising media as well as your IP address. Google uses the data primarily to measure the effectiveness of an advertisement and to improve the advertising offering. This data is not linked to any personal data that Google may have about you through other Google services.

Below we introduce you to cookies that Google AdSense uses for tracking purposes. Here we refer to a test website, which only has Google AdSense installed:

Name: cid Value: 8912691894970695056,0,0,0,0 Purpose: This cookie is stored under the domain , it stands for Client ID and is used to improve the advertising you receive. It can deliver more relevant advertising to the visitor and help improve campaign performance reports. Expiration date: After 2 months

Name: IDE Value: zOtj4TWxwbFDjaATZ2TzNaQmxrU111232262-1 Purpose: The cookie is stored under the domain doubkeklick.net. It is used to track your actions after the ad or after clicking the ad. This allows us to measure how well an ad is received by our visitors. Expiration date: After 1 month

Name: test_cookie Value: no information Purpose: With the help of the “test_cookie” you can check whether your browser supports cookies at all. The cookie is stored under the domain doubleklick.net. Expiration date: After 1 month

Name: CT592996 Value: 733366 Purpose: Stored under the domain adform.net The cookie is stored when you click on an advertisement. We have not been able to gather further information about the use of this cookie. Expiration date: After one hour.

Note: This list does not claim to be exhaustive, as experience has shown that Google changes its choice of cookies time and again.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google records your IP address and the various activities you perform on the website. Cookies store this information about the interactions on our website. According to Google, the company collects and stores the information provided in a secure manner on Google’s own servers in the USA.

If you do not have a Google account or are not logged in, Google usually stores the collected data with a unique identifier (ID) on your browser. The unique IDs stored in cookies are used, for example, to ensure personalized advertising. If you are logged into a Google Account, Google may also collect personal information.

You can delete some of the data that Google stores at any time (see next section). Much of the information stored in cookies is automatically deleted after a certain period of time. However, there are also data that Google stores over longer periods of time. This is the case when Google is required to store certain data for an undefined, extended period of time for economic or legal reasons.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You always have the possibility to delete or deactivate the cookies that are on your computer. How exactly this works depends on your browser.

Here you will find instructions on how to manage cookies in your browser:

If you do not wish to receive cookies, you can set up your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is about to be set. This way you can decide for each individual cookie whether you want to allow it or not. Downloading and installing this browser plug-in on https://support.google.com/ads/answer/7395996 will also disable all “advertising cookies.” Remember that by disabling these cookies, you are not preventing advertising, only personalized advertising.

If you have a Google Account, you can disable personalised advertising on the https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated website. You will still see ads there, but they will no longer be customized to your interests. However, ads are still displayed based on a few factors, such as your location, browser type, and search terms used.

You can find out which data Google generally collects and how they use this data at https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/.

Amazon Affiliate Program Privacy Policy

We are participants in the Amazon affiliate program which allows the placement of Amazon ads and affiliate links on websites. Through this placement of Amazon advertisements an advertising cost reimbursement is achieved. Amazon uses cookies to trace the origin of orders. The responsible bodies within the meaning of the data protection laws are Amazon Europe Core S.à.r.l., Amazon EU S.à.r.l., Amazon Services Europe S.à.r.l. and Amazon Media EU S.à.r.l., all four of which are based at 5, Rue Plaetis, L-2338 Luxembourg, and Amazon Instant Video Germany GmbH, Domagkstr. 28, 80807 Munich. Amazon Deutschland Services GmbH, Marcel-Breuer-Str. 12, 80807 Munich, acts as data processor on their behalf. The data protection guidelines, what information Amazon collects and how it uses this information can be found at https://www.amazon.de/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=footer_privacy?ie=UTF8&nodeId=3312401.

Google Ads (Google AdWords) Conversion Tracking Privacy Policy

We use Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) as an online marketing measure to advertise our products and services. In this way we want to attract more attention to the high quality of our products and services. As part of our Google Ads advertising efforts, a conversion tracking system on our website is provided by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (“Google”). This free tracking tool allows us to better tailor our advertising offerings to your interests and needs. In the following articles, we will discuss in greater detail why we use conversion tracking, what data is stored and how you can prevent this data storage.

What is Google Ad Conversion Tracking?

Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is the proprietary online advertising system of Google LLC. We believe in the quality of our offering and want as many people as possible to discover our website. In the area of online advertising, Google Ads offers the best platform for this purpose. Of course, we also want to have an exact overview of the cost-effectiveness of our advertising campaigns. Therefore we use Google Ads’ conversion tracking tool.

But what is a conversion actually? A conversion occurs when you go from being a merely interested website visitor to an active visitor. This happens whenever you click on one of our ads and then perform another action, such as visiting our website. With Google’s conversion tracking tool, we record what happens after a user clicks on our Google Ads ad. For example, we can see if products are purchased, services are used or if users have signed up for our newsletter.

Why do we use Google Ads Conversion Tracking on our website?

We use Google Ads to promote our services on other websites as well. The goal is to ensure that our advertising campaigns really only reach those people who are interested in our services. With the conversion tracking tool we see which keywords, ads, ad segments and campaigns lead to the desired customer actions. We can see how many customers interact with our ads on a given device and how many then convert. With this data we can perform cost/benefit analysis, measure the success of individual advertising measures and subsequently optimize our online marketing efforts. Moreover, we can use this data to improve our website and adapt our advertising activities even more specifically to your needs.

Which data is stored with Google Ads Conversion Tracking?

We have integrated a conversion tracking tag or code snippet on our website in order to better analyse certain user actions. Now, when you click on one of our Google Ads listings, the “conversion” cookie from a Google domain is stored on your computer (usually in your browser) or mobile device. Cookies are small text files that store information on your computer.

Here are the data for the most important cookies for Google’s conversion tracking:

Name: Conversion Value: EhMI_aySuoyv4gIVled3Ch0llweVGAEgt-mr6aXd7dYlSAGQ111232262-3 Use: This cookie stores every conversion you perform on our site after you have come to us using Google Ads. Expiration date: After 3 months

Name: _gac Value: 1.1558695989.EAIaIQobChMIiOmEgYO04gIVj5AYCh2CBAPrEAAYASAAEgIYQfD_BwE Purpose: This is a classic Google Analytics cookie and is used to record various actions on our website. Expiration date: After 3 months

Note: The _gac cookie only appears in combination with Google Analytics. The above list does not claim to be complete, as Google uses other cookies for analytical evaluation.

As soon as you complete an action on our website, Google recognizes the cookie and records your action as a “conversion.” As long as you are browsing our website and the cookie has not expired, we and Google are able to recognize that you have found us via our Google Ads listing. The cookie is read and sent back to Google Ads with the conversion data. It is also possible that other cookies are being used to measure conversions. The conversion tracking of Google Ads can be further refined and improved using Google Analytics. For ads that Google displays in multiple locations on the web, our domain may set cookies named “__gads” or “_gac”. Since September 2017, a range of campaign information has been stored by analytics.js using the _gac cookie.

How long and where is the data stored?

We would like to point out at this point that we have no influence on how Google uses the collected data. According to Google, the data is encrypted and stored on secure servers. In most cases, conversion cookies expire after 30 days and do not transmit any personal data. The cookies named “Conversion” and “_gac” (which is used in connection with Google Analytics) have an expiration date of 3 months.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You can choose to opt out of Google Ads conversion tracking. If you disable the Google Conversion Tracking cookie through your browser, you are blocking conversion tracking. In this case, you will be excluded from the tracking tool’s statistics. You can change the cookie settings in your browser at any time. Each browser works a little differently. Here you will find instructions on how to manage cookies in your browser:

If you do not want cookies at all, you can configure 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 want to allow it or not. Downloading and installing this browser plug-in on https://support.google.com/ads/answer/7395996 will also disable all “advertising cookies”. Remember that by disabling these cookies, you are not preventing advertising, only personalized advertising.

Through the certification for the American-European data protection agreement “Privacy Shield,” the American company Google LLC must comply with the data protection laws applicable in the EU. If you would like to learn more about Google’s privacy policy, we recommend you read Google’s general privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de.

Embedded Social Media Elements Privacy Policy

We embed elements of social media services on our website to display pictures, videos and text. When you visit pages that display these elements, data is transferred from your browser to the respective social media service and stored there. We have no access to this data. The following links will take you to the pages of the respective social media services where it is explained how they handle your data:

Facebook Privacy Policy

We use selected Facebook tools from Facebook on our website. Facebook is a social media network operated by Facebook Ireland Ltd, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2 Ireland. These tools enable us to provide you and people interested in our products and services with the best possible service. Below we provide an overview of the various Facebook tools used, what data is sent to Facebook and how you can delete this data.

What are Facebook Tools?

Among numerous other products, Facebook offers the popular “Facebook Business Tools.” This is the official name of Facebook. But since the term is hardly known, we have decided to simply call them Facebook Tools. These include, among others:

• Facebook pixels

• Social plug-ins (such as the “Like” or “Share” button)

• Facebook login

• Account kit

• APIs (Application Programming Interface)

• SDKs (collection of programming tools)

• Platform Integrations

• Plugins

• Codes

• Specifications

• Documentation

• Technologies and services

With these tools, Facebook extends services and has the ability to receive information about user activities outside of Facebook.

Why do we use Facebook Tools on our website?

We only want to present our services and products to people who are really interested in them. With the help of advertisements (Facebook Ads) we can reach exactly these people. However, in order to be able to show users suitable ads, Facebook needs information about people’s wishes and needs. For example, information about user behaviour (and contact details) is made available to the company through our website. This allows Facebook to collect better user data and to display suitable advertising about our products and services to interested people. The tools thus allow for tailor-made advertising campaigns on Facebook.

Facebook calls data about your behavior on our website “event data”. This data is also used for measurement and analytics services. Facebook can thus create “campaign reports” for us about the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns. Furthermore, analytics provide us with a better insight into how you use our services, website or products. This helps us to optimize your user experience on our website with the help of these tools. For example, you can use the social plug-ins to share content from our site directly on Facebook.

What data is stored by Facebook Tools?

By using individual Facebook tools, personal data (customer data) can be sent to Facebook. Depending on the tools used, customer data such as name, address, telephone number and IP address can be sent.

Facebook uses this information to compare it with the data it already has about you (if you are a Facebook member). Before customer data is sent to Facebook, a “hashing” process takes place. This means that a data record of variable size is transformed into a character string. This also serves to encrypt data.

In addition to contact data, “event data” is also transmitted. “Event data” refers to the information we receive about you on our website: for example, which subpages you visit or which products you buy from us. Facebook does not share the information it receives with third parties (such as advertisers) unless the company has explicit permission or is legally required to do so. “Event information” may also be linked to contact information. This allows Facebook to provide better personalized advertising. After completing the aforementioned matching process, Facebook will delete the contact information.

To deliver optimized advertising, Facebook only uses the event data if it has been combined with other data (which was collected by Facebook in some other way). Facebook also uses this event data for security, protection, development and research purposes. Much of this data is transferred to Facebook via cookies. Cookies are small text files that are used to store data or information in browsers. Depending on the tools used, and whether or not you are a Facebook user, a varying number of cookies are created in your browser. In the descriptions of the individual Facebook tools, we will go into more detail about individual Facebook cookies. You can also find general information about the use of Facebook cookies at https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies.

For how long and where is the data stored?

In general, Facebook stores data until it is no longer needed for its own services and Facebook products. Facebook has servers all over the world where your data is stored. However, customer data is deleted within 48 hours after it has been verified against your own user data.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

According to the General Data protection regulation, you have the right to access, correct, transfer and delete your data.

A complete deletion of your data will only take place if you completely delete your Facebook account. This is how deleting your Facebook account works:

1. Click on the right side of Facebook on Settings.

2. Then click on “Your Facebook Information” in the left column.

3. Now click “Deactivation and Deletion”.

4. Now select “Delete Account” and then click on “Next and Delete Account.”

5. Now enter your password, click on “Next” and then on “Delete account.”

The data that Facebook receives via our site is stored using cookies (e.g. social plugins). You can deactivate, delete or manage either individual or all cookies from within your browser. Depending on which browser you use, this works in different ways. The following instructions show how to manage cookies in your browser:

If you do not want cookies at all, you can set up your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is about to be set. This way you can decide whether or not to allow each individual cookie.

Facebook is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the proper and secure transfer of personal data. You can find more information on this at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000GnywAAC. We hope we have provided you with the most relevant information about the use and processing of data by the Facebook Tools. If you want to learn more about how Facebook uses your data, we recommend reading the data guidelines at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update.

Facebook Login Privacy Policy

We have implemented Facebook login on our site. This means that you can easily log in with your Facebook account without having to create another user account. If you decide to complete your registration using the Facebook login, you will be redirected to the social media network, Facebook. There the registration is done using your Facebook user data. Through this login procedure, data about you and/or your user behavior is stored and transmitted to Facebook.

Facebook uses various cookies to store data. In the following, we show you the most important cookies that are set or already exist in your browser when you log on to our site via the Facebook login:

Name: fr Value: 0jieyh4c2GnlufEJ9..Bde09j…1.0.Bde09j Purpose: This cookie is used to ensure that the social plugin on our website works optimally. Expiration date: After 3 months

Name: Datr Value: 4Jh7XUA2111232262SEmPsSfzCOO4JFFl Purpose: Facebook sets the “datr” cookie when a web browser accesses facebook.com. This cookie helps identify login activity and protect users. Expiration date: After 2 years

Name: _js_datr Value: deleted Use: This session cookie is set for Facebook’s tracking purposes, even if you don’t have a Facebook account or are logged out. Expiration date: After end of session.

Note: The cookies listed are only a small selection of the cookies available to Facebook. Other cookies are for example _ fbp, sb or wd. A complete listing is not possible because Facebook has a large number of cookies and uses them in different ways.

On the one hand, the Facebook login offers you a quick and easy registration process, on the other hand it provides us with the opportunity to share data with Facebook. This enables us to better adapt our offers and promotions to your interests and needs. Data that we receive from Facebook by these means are public data such as

• Your Facebook name

• Your profile picture

• A registered e-mail address

• Friends lists

• Button specifications (e.g. “Like” button)

• Date of birth

• Language

• Place of residence

In return, we provide Facebook with information about your activities on our website. This includes information about the end device you use, which sub-pages you visit on our website or which products you have purchased from us.

By using Facebook Login you agree to the processing of data. You can revoke this agreement at any time. If you would like more information about data processing by Facebook, we recommend that you read the Facebook privacy policy at https://de-de.facebook.com/policy.php.

If you are logged into Facebook, you can change your settings for advertisements yourself at https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen.

Facebook Social Plug-ins Privacy Policy

Social plug-ins from Facebook Inc. are built into our website. You can recognize these buttons by the classic Facebook logo, such as the “Like” button (the hand with raised thumb) or by a clear “Facebook Plug-in” label. A social plugin is a small part of Facebook that is integrated into our site. Each plug-in has its own function. The most commonly used functions are the familiar “Like” and “Share” buttons.

The following social plug-ins are offered by Facebook:

• “Save” button

• “Like” button, share, send and quote

• Page plug-in

• Comments

• Messenger plug-in

• Embedded posts and video players

• Group plug-in

At https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins you can find more information on how to use the individual plug-ins. We use the social plug-ins to provide you with a better user experience on our site, but also because they allow Facebook to optimize our ads.

If you have a Facebook account or have visited facebook.com before, Facebook has already set 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 site or interact with social plug-ins (e.g. the “Like” button).

The information received is deleted or anonymized within 90 days. According to Facebook, this data includes your IP address, which website you visited, the date, time and other information concerning your browser.

In order to prevent Facebook from collecting extensive data during your visit to our website and linking it with Facebook data, you must log out (log off) from Facebook during your visit to the 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 visit can be transmitted to Facebook.

These are the minimum cookies that are set in your browser when you visit a website with social plug-ins from Facebook:

Name: Dpr Value: No information Purpose: This cookie is used to ensure that the social plug-ins on our website function properly. Expiry date: After session end

Name: fr Value: 0jieyh4111232262c2GnlufEJ9..Bde09j…1.0.Bde09j Purpose: The cookie is also required for the plug-ins to work properly. Expiration date: After 3 months

Note: These cookies were set after a test, even for those who are not Facebook members.

If you are logged in to Facebook, you can change your settings for advertisements on your own at https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen. If you are not a Facebook user, you can manage your usage-based online advertising at http://www.youronlinechoices.com/de/praferenzmanagement/. There you can deactivate or activate providers.

If you would like to learn more about Facebook’s privacy policy, we recommend that you read the company’s own data policy at https://www.facebook.com/policy.php.

Instagram Privacy Policy

We have implemented features from Instagram on our website. Instagram is a social media platform from the company Instagram LLC, 1601 Willow Rd, Menlo Park CA 94025, USA. Instagram has been a subsidiary of Facebook Inc. since 2012 and is part of Facebook products. The integration of Instagram content on our website is called embedding. This allows us to show you content such as buttons, photos or videos from Instagram directly on our website. When you visit web pages on our site that have an Instagram feature embedded within them, data is transmitted, stored and processed to Instagram. Instagram uses the same systems and technologies as Facebook. Your data is therefore processed across all Facebook entities.

Below we would like to provide you with a more detailed explanation of why Instagram collects data, what data is involved, and how you can broadly control data processing. Because Instagram is part of Facebook Inc., we obtain our information from both the Instagram and Facebook data policies.

What is Instagram?

Instagram is one of the most popular social media networks in the world. Instagram combines the advantages of a blog with the benefits of audiovisual platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo. You can upload photos and short videos to “Insta” (as many users casually refer to the platform), edit them with various filters and distribute them on other social networks. And if you don’t want to be active yourself, you can just follow other interesting users.

Why do we use Instagram on our website?

Instagram is the social media platform that has seen explosive growth in recent years. And naturally we have adapted to this boom as well. We want you to feel as comfortable as possible on our website. That’s why a diversified presentation of our content is essential for us. With the embedded Instagram functions we can enrich our content with helpful, funny or exciting content from the Instagram world. Since Instagram is a subsidiary of Facebook, the data collected can also be used for personalized advertising on Facebook. This way, our ads are only shown to people who are really interested in our products or services.

Instagram also uses the collected data for metrics and analytics purposes. We receive summarized statistics and thus get better insight into your preferences and interests. It is important to note that these reports do not identify you personally.

What data does Instagram store?

If you come across one of our pages that contains Instagram features (such as Instagram images or plug-ins), your browser will automatically connect to Instagram’s servers. Data is transmitted, stored and processed by Instagram. This is true whether you have an Instagram account or not. This includes information about our website, your computer, purchases made, advertisements you see and how you use our services. We also record the date and time of your interaction with Instagram. If you have an Instagram account, Instagram will store significantly more information about you, especially if you are logged in.

Facebook distinguishes between customer data and event data. We assume that this is the case with Instagram. For example, customer data includes name, address, phone number and IP address. This customer data will not be submitted to Instagram until it has been “hashed”. Hashing means that a dataset is transformed into a string. This makes it possible to encrypt the contact data. It also transfers the “event data” mentioned above in this way. By “event data” Facebook – and consequently Instagram – will understand data about your user behavior. It can also happen that contact data is combined with event data. The contact information collected will be matched against the information Instagram already has about you.

The collected data is transmitted to Facebook via small text files (cookies), which are usually set in your browser. Varying amounts of data are stored depending on the Instagram features used and whether you have an Instagram account yourself.

We assume that data processing at Instagram works the same way as it does on Facebook. This means that if you have an Instagram account or have visited www.instagram.com, Instagram will have placed at least one cookie. If this is the case, your browser uses the cookie to send information to Instagram whenever you encounter an Instagram feature. After 90 days (after verification) at the latest, this data is deleted or anonymized. Although we have researched Instagram’s data processing practices extensively, we cannot say for certain which data Instagram collects and stores.

Below we show you the minimum cookies that are set in your browser when you click on an Instagram function (such as a button or an Instagram image). In our test we assumed that the user did not have an Instagram account. Of course, if you are logged in to Instagram, significantly more cookies will be placed in your browser.

These are the cookies that were used in our test:

Name:Csrftoken Value: “” Purpose: This cookie is most likely placed for security purposes to prevent fake requests. However, we could not learn more about it. Expiration date: After one year

Name: Mid Value: “” Purpose: Instagram uses this cookie to optimize its own products and services both within and outside of Instagram. The cookie sets a unique User ID. Expiration date: After session end

Name: fbsr_111232262124024 Value: No information Use: This cookie stores the log-in request for users of the Instagram app. Expiration date: After session end

Name: Rur Value: ATN Purpose: This is an Instagram cookie that ensures functionality on Instagram. Expiration date: After session end

Name: urlgen Value: “{\”194.96.75.33\”: 1901}:1iEtYv:Y833k2_UjKvXgYe111232262” Purpose: This cookie is used for Instagram’s marketing purposes.

Note: We cannot claim to be comprehensive here. Which cookies are set in each individual case depends on the embedded functions and your use of Instagram.

For how long and where is the data stored?

Instagram shares the information it receives between the various Facebook companies, with external partners, and with people you connect with around the world. The data is processed in accordance with Instagram’s own data policy. For security reasons, among others, your data is distributed across Facebook servers around the world. Most of these servers are located in the USA.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

Thanks to the General Data protection regulation, you have the right to access, to transfer, to correct and to delete your data. You can manage your data in the Instagram settings. If you want to completely delete your data on Instagram, you must permanently delete your Instagram account.

Here’s how deleting your Instagram account works:

First open the Instagram app. On your profile page, scroll down and click on “Help”. You will now be taken to the company’s website. On the website, click on “Manage your account” and then click on “Delete your account”.

If you delete your account completely, Instagram will delete posts such as your photos and status updates. Information that other people have shared about you is not part of your account and will not be deleted.

As mentioned above, Instagram primarily stores your information through cookies. You can manage, disable or delete these cookies from within your browser. Depending on your browser, the management of cookies may work in a number of ways.

You can also configure your browser so that you are always informed when a cookie is to be placed. This way you can always decide whether you want to accept the cookie or not.

Instagram is a subsidiary of Facebook Inc. and Facebook is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework. This framework ensures proper data transfer between the USA and the European Union. You can learn more about this at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000GnywAAC. We have tried to provide you with as much information as possible about Instagram’s data processing practices. You can learn more about Instagram’s data policies at https://help.instagram.com/519522125107875.

YouTube Privacy Policy

We have integrated YouTube videos on our website. This allows us to present you interesting videos directly on our site. YouTube is a video portal, which has been a subsidiary of Google LLC since 2006. The video portal is operated by YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., San Bruno, CA 94066, USA. When you visit a page on our website that has an embedded YouTube video, your browser automatically connects to the servers of YouTube or Google. Various data is transferred (depending on the settings). Google is responsible for the entirety of the data processing, and therefore Google’s privacy policy also applies in this case.

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

What is YouTube?

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

Why do we use YouTube videos on our website?

YouTube is the video platform with the most visitors and the best overall content. We strive to provide you with the best possible user experience on our website. And, of course, interesting videos are a must. With the help of our embedded videos, we can provide you with further valuable content in addition to our texts and images. In addition, the embedded videos make our website easier to find on the Google search engine. Even if we place online ads through Google Ads, Google can – due to the collected data – really only show these ads to people who are actually interested in our services.

What information does YouTube collect?

When you visit one of our pages that has an embedded YouTube video, YouTube places at least one cookie that stores your IP address and our URL. If you are logged in to your YouTube account, YouTube can associate your interactions on our site with your profile, usually by using cookies. This includes information such as session duration, bounce rate, approximate location, technical information such as browser type, screen resolution, or your Internet service provider. Other information may include contact information, any ratings, information about content shared via social media, or information about adding to your favorites on YouTube.

If you’re 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 preserved. But a great deal of interaction data can’t be stored because fewer cookies are placed.

In the following list, we show cookies that were set in a test in the browser. In one instance, we show cookies that are set without logging in to a YouTube account. In the other instance, we show thencookies that are set while being logged in to a YouTube account. This list is not exhaustive because user data always depends on the interactions carried out on YouTube.

Name: YSC Value: b9-CV6ojI5Y111232262-1 Purpose: This cookie registers a unique ID to store statistics of the video viewed. Expiration date: After session end

Name: PREF Value: f1=50000000 Purpose: This cookie also registers your unique ID. Google gets statistics via PREF on how you use YouTube videos on our website. Expiration date: After 8 months

Name: GPS Value: 1 Purpose: This cookie registers your unique ID on mobile devices to track your GPS location. Expiration date: After 30 minutes

Name: VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE Value: 95Chz8bagyU Purpose: This cookie is used to estimate the bandwidth of the webstie visitors on our pages (that have built-in YouTube video). Expiration date: After 8 months

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

Name: APISID Value: zILlvClZSkqGsSwI/AU1aZI6HY7111232262- Purpose: This cookie is used to create a profile of your interests. The data is used for personalized advertisements. Expiration date: After 2 years

Name: CONSENT Value: YES+AT.de+20150628-20-0 Purpose: This 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. Expiration date: After 19 years

Name: HSID Value: AcRwpgUik9Dveht0I Purpose: This cookie is used to create a profile of your interests. This data helps to deliver personalized advertising. Expiration date: After 2 years

Name: LOGIN_INFO Value: AFmmF2swRQIhALl6aL… Purpose: This cookie stores information about your login data. Expiration date: After 2 years

Name: SAPISID Value: 7oaPxoG-pZsJuuF5/AnUdDUIsJ9iJz2vdM Use: This cookie works by providing a unique indentiier to your browser and device. It is used to create a profile of your interests. Expiration date: After 2 years

Name: SID Value: oQfNKjAsI111232262- Purpose: This cookie stores your Google Account ID and your last sign-in date in a digitally signed and encrypted form. Expiration date: After 2 years

Name: SIDCC Value: AN0-TYuqub2JOcDTyL Use: This cookie stores information about how you use the site and what advertisements you may have seen before visiting our site. Expiration date: After 3 months

How long and where is the data stored?

The data that YouTube receives and processes from you is stored on Google’s servers. Most of these servers are located in America. Go to https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de to see exactly where the Google data centres are located. Your data is distributed across these servers. So the data can be retrieved faster and is better protected against fraud.

Google stores the collected data for varying lengths of time. Some data can be deleted at any time, other data are automatically deleted after a limited time, and still others are stored by Google for longer periods 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 them. Even if you’re not signed in to a Google Account, you can still delete some data associated with your device, browser, or app.

How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?

You can generally delete data in your Google Account manually. With the automatic deletion of location and activity data introduced in 2019, information is stored for either 3 or 18 months, depending on your preference, and then is deleted.

Whether or not you have a Google Account, you can configure your browser to delete or disable Google cookies. This works in different ways depending on the browser you use. The following instructions show how to manage cookies in your browser:

If you prefer not to receive cookies, you can set your browser to notify you whenever you receive a cookie. This way you can decide whether or not to allow each cookie. Because YouTube is a subsidiary of Google, there is a common privacy policy. If you want to learn more about how your data is handled, we recommend you read the privacy policy at [https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de.](https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de)

Subscribe to YouTube Button Privacy Policy

We have integrated the YouTube Subscribe button on our website. You can usually recognize the button by the classic YouTube logo. The logo displays the words “Subscribe” or “YouTube” in white writing against a red background and the white “Play” symbol to the left. The button may also be displayed using a different design.

Our YouTube channel always offers you funny, interesting or exciting videos. With the built-in “Subscribe Button” you can subscribe to our channel directly from our website and do not need to visit the YouTube website. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to access our extensive library of content. Please note that YouTube may store and process data about you.

According to Google, if you see a built-in subscription button on our site, YouTube places at least one cookie. This cookie stores your IP address and our URL. It also allows YouTube to gather information about your browser, your approximate location and your default language. In our test, the following four cookies were placed without being our being logged into YouTube:

Name: YSC Value: b9-CV6ojI5111232262Y Use: This cookie registers a unique ID to store statistics about the viewed video. Expiration date: After session end

Name: PREF Value: f1=50000000 Purpose: This cookie also registers your unique ID. Google gets statistics via PREF on how you use YouTube videos on our website. Expiration date: After 8 months

Name: GPS Value: 1 Purpose: This cookie registers your unique ID on mobile devices to track your GPS location. Expiration date: After 30 minutes

Name: VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE Value: 11123226295Chz8bagyU Purpose: This cookie tries to assess the bandwidth the vistors to our webpages that have embedded YouTube videos. Expiration date: after 8 months

Note: These cookies were set after a test. We do not claim this list to be complete.

If you are logged into your YouTube account, cookies allow YouTube to store many of your actions/interactions on our site and associate them with your YouTube account. This allows YouTube to obtain information such as how long you have been browsing our site, what type of browser you are using, what screen resolution you prefer, or what actions you perform.

YouTube uses this information to improve its own services and offerings, and to provide analytics and metrics to advertisers (who use Google Ads).

We have integrated Twitter functions on our website. These include embedded tweets, timelines, buttons or hashtags. Twitter is the short form message service and social media platform of Twitter Inc, One Cumberland Place, Fenian Street, Dublin 2 D02 AX07, Ireland.

To the best of our knowledge, in the European Economic Area and Switzerland, the mere inclusion of Twitter functionality does not constitute a transfer of personal data or data relating to your web activities to Twitter. Only when you interact with the Twitter functions, such as clicking a button, can data be sent to, stored and processed by Twitter. We have no influence on and are not responsible for this data processing. Within the scope of this privacy policy, we would like to give you an overview of the data Twitter stores, what Twitter does with this data and how you can largely protect yourself from data transmission.

For some, Twitter is a news service, for others it is a social media platform and yet others refer to it as a microblogging service. All these terms have their merits and mean more or less the same thing.

Both private individuals and companies use Twitter to communicate with interested people via short messages. Twitter only allows 280 characters per message. These messages are called “tweets”. Unlike Facebook, for example, the service does not focus on expanding a network for “friends”, but wants to be understood as a worldwide and open message platform. With Twitter, it is also possible to have an anonymous account and tweets can be deleted by either the company or the users themselves.

Why do we use Twitter on our website?

Like many other websites and companies, we try to offer our services through different channels and seek to engage with our customers. Twitter in particular has become very important to us as a useful “little” news service. Again and again we tweet or retweet exciting, funny or interesting content. We are aware that you cannot follow every channel separately. After all, you have other things to do. That’s why we have also integrated Twitter functions into our website. You can experience our Twitter activity “on site” or come to our Twitter page via a direct link. Through this integration we hope to strengthen our service and the usability of our website.

Which data is stored by Twitter?

On several of our subpages you will find integrated Twitter functions. When you interact with Twitter content, such as clicking a button, Twitter can collect and store data. Even if you do not have a Twitter account yourself. Twitter calls this data “log data”. This includes demographic data, browser cookie IDs, the ID of your smartphone, hashed email addresses, and information about which pages you visited on Twitter and what actions you took. Of course, Twitter stores more data if you have a Twitter account and are logged in. Most of the time, this storage happens via cookies. Cookies are small text files that are usually placed in your browser and transmit a variety of information to Twitter.

We will now show you which cookies are set when you are not logged in to Twitter but visit a website that has integrated Twitter functionality. Please consider this list as an example. We can in no way guarantee that this list is exhaustive, as the choice of cookies is always changing and depends on your individual actions with the Twitter content.

These cookies were used in our test:

Name: personalization_id Value: “v1_cSJIsogU51SeE111232262″ Purpose: This cookie stores information about how you use the website and which advertisements you may have been sent by Twitter. Expiration date: After 2 years

Name: long Value: en Purpose: This cookie stores your default or preferred language. Expiration date: After session end

Name: guest_id Value: 111232262v1%3A157132626 Purpose: This cookie is placed to identify you as a guest. Expiration date: After 2 years

Name: fm Value: 0 Purpose: Unfortunately we could not determine the purpose of this cookie. Expiration date: After session end

Name: External_referer Value: 1112322622beTA0sf5lkMrlGt Purpose: This cookie collects anonymous data, such as how often you visit Twitter and how long you visit Twitter. Expiration date: After 6 days

Name: eu_cn Value: 1 Purpose: This cookie stores user activity and is used for various Twitter advertising purposes. Expiration date: After one year

Name: ct0 Value: c1179f07163a365d2ed7aad84c99d966 Purpose: Unfortunately, we have not found any information about this cookie. Expiration date: After 6 hours

Name: _twitter_sess Value: 53D%253D-dd0248111232262- Purpose: This cookie allows you to use functions within the Twitter website. Expiration date: After session end

Note: Twitter also works with third party providers. That’s why we recognized the three Google Analytics cookies _ga, _gat, _gid in our test.

Twitter uses the data it collects both to better understand user behavior — thus improving your own services and advertising offerings — and for internal security purposes.

How long and where is the data stored?

If Twitter collects data from other websites, it is deleted, aggregated or otherwise hidden after a maximum of 30 days. The Twitter servers are located at different server centers in the United States. It can therefore be assumed that collected data is gathered and stored in America. We were unable to clearly determine whether Twitter also has its own servers in Europe. In general, Twitter can store the collected data until it is no longer useful to the company, until you delete the data or until there is a statutory period requiring deletion.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

Twitter repeatedly emphasizes in its privacy policy that it does not store any data from external website visitors if you or your browser are located in the European Economic Area or Switzerland. However, if you interact directly with Twitter, Twitter will naturally store data about you.

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 your data on your own.

If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can go to twitter.com and then click on “Pesonalization” under “Settings”. Under the heading ” Personalization and Data” you can manage your data that has been collected.

As mentioned above, most data is stored via cookies and you can manage, deactivate or delete them in your browser. Please note that you can only “edit” the cookies in the browser you have used. This means, if you use another browser in the future, you will have to manage your cookies once again. Below you will find the instructions for cookie management for the most popular browsers. You can also manage your browser in such a way that you are notified of every single cookie. You can then always decide whether or not to accept a cookie.

Twitter also uses this data for personalised advertising both within and outside of Twitter. You can turn off personalized advertising in the settings under ” Personalization and Data”. If you use Twitter in a web 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 proper data transmission between the USA and the European Union. You can learn more about this at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000TORzAAO.

We hope we have provided you with a basic overview of the data processing practices of Twitter. 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 that you read Twitter’s privacy policy at https://twitter.com/de/privacy.

Pinterest Privacy Policy

We use buttons and widgets from the social media network Pinterest, a subsidiary of Pinterest Inc.,808 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA.

When you access pages that use such functions, data (IP address, browser data, date and time, cookies) are transmitted, stored and evaluated by Pinterest. The privacy policy, the information Pinterest collects and how it uses this information can be found at https://policy.pinterest.com/de/privacy-policy.

Gravatar Privacy Policy

On this website we use Gravatar from Automattic Inc. (60 29th Street #343, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA) to assign user images (avatars) based on the email address used in posts and comments.

A gravatar is a Globally Recognized Avatar – a user image available worldwide – which is assigned to an e-mail address and can be used in various online services. Since an image will only be displayed when using an email address that is registered with Gravatar, and data is therefore transmitted to Gravatar, you can prevent the transmission of your data to Gravatar by commenting or posting comments using an email address that is not registered with Gravatar.

Automattic is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework which regulates the proper and secure transfer of personal data. You can find more information about this at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000CbqcAAC . For more details on the privacy policy, on what information Gravatar collects and how it collects this information, please visit https://automattic.com/privacy/. For general information about Gravatar, please visit http://de.gravatar.com/.

Cloudflare Privacy Policy

On this website we use Cloudflare from the company Cloudflare, Inc. (101 Townsend St., San Francisco, CA 94107, USA) to make our website run faster and more securely. Cloudflare uses cookies and processes user data. Cloudflare, Inc. is an American company that offers a content delivery network and various security services. These services are positioned between the user and our hosting provider. We will try to explain what this all means in more detail in the following.

What is Cloudflare?

A Content Delivery Network (CDN), such as the one provided by Cloudflare, is simply a network of connected servers. Cloudflare has distributed such servers all over the world to bring websites to your screen faster. Simply put, Cloudflare makes copies of our website and places them on their own servers. By visiting our website now, a load balancing system ensures that most of our website is delivered from the server that can display our website the fastest. The distance of the data transfer to your browser is significantly shortened by a CDN. Thus the content of our website is delivered to you by Cloudflare, not only from our hosting server, but from servers all over the world. Cloudflare is especially helpful for users abroad, as the page can be delivered from a server nearby. Besides delivering websites quickly, Cloudflare also offers various security services, such as DDoS protection or the Web Application Firewall.

Why do we use Cloudflare on our website?

Naturally we want to offer you the best possible service with our website. Cloudflare helps to make our website faster and more secure. Cloudflare helps us to make our website faster and more secure. Cloudflare provides us with web optimizations as well as security services like DDoS protection and web firewall. This also includes a reverse proxy and the content distribution network (CDN). Cloudflare blocks threats and limits abusive bots and crawlers that waste our bandwidth and server resources. By storing our website in local data centers and blocking spam software, Cloudflare allows us to reduce our bandwidth consumption by approximately 60%. By delivering content via a local datacenter and performing some web optimizations, Cloudflare reduces the average loading time of a website by about half. By using the “I’m Under Attack Mode” setting, Cloudflare can reduce further attacks by displaying a JavaScript calculation task that must be solved before a user can access a website. Overall, this makes our website much more powerful and less susceptible to spam or other attacks.

What data is stored by Cloudflare?

Cloudflare generally only forwards data that is controlled by website operators. So the content is not determined by Cloudflare, but always by the website operator itself. In addition, Cloudflare may collect certain information about the usage of our website and process the data that is sent by us, or the data that Cloudflare has been instructed to process. In most cases Cloudflare receives data such as IP address, contact and protocol information, security fingerprints and website performance data. For example, log data helps Cloudflare identify new threats. This is how Cloudflare can ensure a high level of security protection for our website. Cloudflare processes this data as part of its services, and does so in compliance with all applicable laws. This includes of course the General data protection regulation (GDPR).

For security reasons Cloudflare also uses a cookie. The cookie (__cfduid) is used to identify individual users behind a shared IP address and to apply security settings for each individual user. This cookie is very useful, for example, if you are using our website from a location where there are a number of infected computers. However, if your computer is trustworthy, we can identify it using the cookie. This way you can browse through our website without any concerns, even if there are infected PCs in your area. It is also important to know that this cookie does not store any personal data. This cookie is absolutely essential for the Cloudflare security functions and cannot be deactivated.

Cookies from Cloudflare

Name: __cfduid Value: d798bf7df9c1ad5b7583eda5cc5e78111232262-3 Purpose: Security settings for each individual visitor Expiration date: After one year

Cloudflare also works together with third party providers. These providers may only process personal data in accordance with Cloudflare’s guidelines and in accordance with the privacy policy and other confidentiality and security measures. Cloudflare will not pass on any personal data without our explicit consent.

How long and where is the data stored?

Cloudflare stores your information mainly in the USA and the European Economic Area. Cloudflare can transfer and access the information described above from all over the world. Cloudflare generally stores user-level data for the free, pro and business versions of domains for less than 24 hours. For enterprise domains that have Cloudflare Logs (formerly Enterprise LogShare or ELS) enabled, data can be stored for up to seven days. However, if IP addresses trigger security alerts on Cloudflare, there may be exceptions to the above retention period.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

Cloudflare keeps data logs only as long as necessary, and in most cases the data is deleted within 24 hours. Cloudflare also does not store any personal data, such as your IP address. However, there is information that Cloudflare stores indefinitely as part of its permanent logs to improve the overall performance of Cloudflare Resolver and to identify any security risks. To learn exactly what permanent logs are stored, please visit https://developers.cloudflare.com/1.1.1.1/commitment-to-privacy/privacy-policy/privacy-policy/. All data that Cloudflare collects (temporary or permanent) is purged of all personal data. All permanent logs are also made anonymous by Cloudflare.

Cloudflare indicates in their privacy policy that they are not responsible for the content they receive. For example, if you ask Cloudflare whether they can update or delete your content, Cloudflare will always refer to us, the website operator. You can also disable all collection and processing of your data by Cloudflare by deactivating the execution of scripts in your browser or by integrating a script blocker in your browser.

Cloudflare is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the proper and secure transfer of personal data. You can find more information about this on https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000GnZKAA0. More information about data protection with Cloudflare can be found on https://www.cloudflare.com/de-de/privacypolicy/

Google reCAPTCHA Privacy Policy

It is our primary goal to secure and protect our website for you as well as for us in the most effective way possible. To ensure this, we use Google reCAPTCHA from Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). With reCAPTCHA we can determine whether you are actually a flesh and blood human being, and not a robot or other spam software. By spam, we mean any unsolicited information sent to us electronically. With the classic CAPTCHAS, you normally had to complete a text or image puzzle for verification. With Google’s reCAPTCHA we usually do not have to bother you with such puzzles. In most cases it is sufficient to simply check the box to confirm that you are not a bot. With the new Invisible reCAPTCHA version, you don’t even have to check the box. How this works exactly, and what data is used for it, will be explained in the course of this privacy policy.

What is reCAPTCHA?

reCAPTCHA is a free Captcha service from Google that protects websites from spam software and abuse by non-human visitors. This service is most commonly used when you fill out forms on the Internet. A Captcha service is a kind of automatic Turing test, which is intended to ensure that an action on the Internet is performed by a human and not a bot. In the classic Turing test (named after the computer scientist Alan Turing), a human makes the distinction between a bot and a human. With Captchas this is done by a computer or a software program. Classical Captchas use small tasks that are easy for humans to solve, but which are very difficult for machines. With reCAPTCHA, you no longer have to actively solve puzzles. The tool uses modern risk techniques to distinguish humans from bots. Here you only have to tick the text field “I am not a robot,” and with Invisible reCAPTCHA even this is no longer necessary. With reCAPTCHA, a JavaScript element is embedded in the source code and then the tool runs in the background and analyzes your user behavior. From these user actions, the software calculates a so-called Captcha score. Google uses this score to calculate the probability that you are a human being even before you enter the Captcha. reCAPTCHA, or Captchas in general, are always used whenever bots could manipulate or abuse certain actions (such as registrations, surveys, etc.).

Why do we use reCAPTCHA on our website?

We only want to welcome actual flesh and blood people on our site. Bots or spam-software of different kinds may remain at home. That’s why we do everything we can to protect ourselves and offer the best possible user experience to you. For this reason we use Google reCAPTCHA from the company Google. This way we can be fairly certain that we remain a “bot-free” website. Through the use of reCAPTCHA, data is transmitted to Google to determine whether you are really a human being. reCAPTCHA therefore serves the security of our website and, as a consequence, your security. For example, without reCAPTCHA, a bot could register multiple email addresses and then “spam” forums or blogs with unwanted advertising content. With reCAPTCHA we can avoid such bot attacks.

What data is stored by reCAPTCHA?

reCAPTCHA collects personal data from users to determine whether the actions taken on our website are actually from humans. Thus, the IP address and other data that Google needs for the reCAPTCHA service may be sent to Google. reCAPTCHA collects personal data from users to determine whether the actions on our website are actually performed by humans. This means that the IP address and other data required by Google to run the reCAPTCHA service can be sent to Google. IP addresses within the member states of the EU or other signatory states to the Agreement on the European Economic Area are almost always truncated before the data lands on a server in the USA. The IP address is not combined with any other data held by Google unless you are signed in to your Google account while using reCAPTCHA. First, the reCAPTCHA algorithm checks whether there are already Google cookies from other Google services (YouTube, Gmail, etc.) placed in your browser. Then reCAPTCHA sets an additional cookie in your browser and takes a snapshot of your browser window.

The following list of collected browser and user data does not claim to be exhaustive. Rather, they are examples of data which, to our knowledge, are processed by Google.

• Referrer URL (the address of the page the visitor comes from)

• IP address (e.g. 256.123.123.1)

• Information about the operating system (the software that runs your computer. Well-known operating systems are Windows, Mac OS X or Linux)- Cookies (small text files that store data in your browser)

• Mouse and keyboard behavior (every action you perform with the mouse or keyboard is saved)

• Date and language settings (the language and date presets stored in your browser)

• Mouse and keyboard behavior (every action you perform with the mouse or keyboard is saved)

• Date and language settings (which language or date you have preset on your PC is stored)

• All Javascript objects (JavaScript is a programming language that allows websites to adapt to the user. JavaScript objects can collect all kinds of data under one name)

• Screen resolution (shows how many pixels are displayed)

It is undeniable that Google uses and analyses this data even before you click on the “I am not a robot” checkbox. With the Invisible reCAPTCHA version, even the ticking of the box is removed, and the entire recognition process runs in the background. How much and exactly which data Google stores is not known by in any great detail.

The following cookies are used by reCAPTCHA: Here we refer to Google’s reCAPTCHA demo version at https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api2/demo. All these cookies require a unique identifier for tracking purposes. Here is a list of cookies that Google reCAPTCHA has placed in the demo version:

Name: IDE Value: WqTUmlnmv_qXyi_DGNPLESKnRNrpgXoy1K-pAZtAkMbHI-111232262-8 Purpose: This cookie is set by DoubleClick (also owned by Google) to register and report a user’s actions on the website in the handling of advertisements. In this way the effectiveness of advertising can be measured and suitable optimisation measures taken. IDE is stored in browsers under the domain doubleclick.net. Expiration date: After one year.

Name: 1P_JAR Value: 2019-5-14-12 Purpose: This cookie collects statistics about website usage and measures conversions. A conversion occurs, for example, when a user becomes a buyer. The cookie is also used to show relevant advertisements to users. Furthermore, the cookie can be used to prevent a user from seeing the same ad more than once. Expiration date: After one month

Name: ANID Value: U7j1v3dZa1112322620xgZFmiqWppRWKOr Purpose: We could not find out much information about this cookie. In Google’s privacy policy, the cookie is mentioned in reference to “advertising cookies” such as “DSID”, “FLC”, “AID”, “TAID”. ANID is stored at the domain google.com. Expiration date: After 9 months

Name: CONSENT Value: YES+AT.de+20150628-20-0 Purpose: This cookie stores the status of a user’s consent to use various Google services. CONSENT is also used for security purposes, to verify users, to prevent fraudulent use of credentials and to protect user data from unauthorised attacks. Expiration date: After 19 years

Name: NID Value: 0WmuWqy111232262zILzqV_nmt3sDXwPeM5Q Purpose: NID is used by Google to match ads based on your Google search results. Google uses this cookie to “remember” your most commonly entered search queries or your previous interactions with ads. This way you always receive customized ads. This cookie contains a unique ID to collect user preferences for advertising purposes. Expiration date: After 6 months

Name: DV Value: gEAABBCjJJMXcI0dSAAAANbqc111232262-4 Purpose: Once you have ticked the “I am not a robot” checkbox, this cookie is placed. The cookie is used by Google Analytics for personalized advertising. DV collects information anonymously and is also used to make distinctions between users. Expiration date: After 10 minutes

Note: This list does not claim to be exhaustive, as experience has shown that Google often changes its selection of cookies.

How long and where is the data stored?

By installing reCAPTCHA, your data is transferred to the Google server. Where exactly this data is stored is not clearly indicated by Google, despite repeated requests. Without having received confirmation from Google, it can be assumed that data such as mouse interaction, time spent on the website or language settings are stored on Google’s European or American servers. The IP address that your browser transmits to Google is generally not merged with other Google data from other Google services. However, if you are logged into your Google account while using the reCAPTCHA plug-in, the data will be merged. For this, refer to the varying privacy policies of Google.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

If you do not want any information about you or your activity to be sent to Google, you must completely log out of Google and delete all Google cookies before you visit our website or use the reCAPTCHA software. In general, the data is automatically transmitted to Google as soon as you visit our website. In order to delete this data again, you must contact Google support at https://support.google.com/?hl=de&tid=111232262.

If you use our website, you agree that Google LLC and its representatives may automatically collect, process and use data.

You can learn more about reCAPTCHA on Google’s web development page at https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/. Google explains the technical development of reCAPTCHA in more detail on this page, but you will not find detailed information about data storage and data protection issues there. A good overview of the basic use of data at Google can be found in the company’s own privacy policy at https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/.

Source: Created with the data protection generator of content marketing agency AdSimple.at in cooperation with wallentin.cc