Data protection

Introduction

With the following data protection declaration we would like to explain to
you which types of your personal data (hereinafter also referred to as “data”) we process for which purposes and to what extent. 
The
data protection declaration applies to all processing of personal data
carried out by us, both in the context of providing our services and in
particular on our websites, in mobile applications and within external
online presences, such as our social media profiles (hereinafter
collectively referred to as “online offer”) ).

Contents overview

Responsible person

Frank Appel
c/o COCENTER
Koppoldstr. 1
86551 Aichach
Germany
[email protected]


Impressum: https://chromberg.com/en/impressum

Overview of the processing

The following overview summarizes the types of data processed and the
purposes of their processing and refers to the data subjects.

Types of data processed

  • Inventory data (e.g. names, addresses).
  • Content data (e.g. entries in online forms).
  • Contact details (e.g. email, telephone numbers).
  • Meta / communication data (e.g. device information, IP addresses).
  • Usage data (e.g. websites visited, interest in content, access times).
  • Contract data (e.g. subject of the contract, duration, customer category).
  • Payment data (e.g. bank details, invoices, payment history).

Categories of data subjects

  • Business and contractual partners.
  • Interested persons.
  • Communication partner.
  • Customers.
  • Users (e.g. website visitors, users of online services).

Purposes of processing

  • Affiliate tracking.
  • Provision of our online offer and user-friendliness.
  • Conversion measurement (measurement of the effectiveness of marketing measures).
  • Office and organizational procedures.
  • Content Delivery Network (CDN).
  • Direct marketing (e.g. by email or post).
  • Feedback (e.g. collecting feedback via an online form).
  • Marketing.
  • Contact requests and communication.
  • Profiles with user-related information (creation of user profiles).
  • Range measurement (e.g. access statistics, recognition of returning visitors).
  • Safety measures.
  • Provision of contractual services and customer service.
  • Management and answering of inquiries.

Relevant legal bases

Below you will find an overview of the legal bases of the GDPR, on the basis of which we process personal data. Please
note that in addition to the provisions of the GDPR, national data
protection requirements may apply in your or our country of residence or
domicile.
Furthermore, if
more specific legal bases are relevant in individual cases, we will
inform you of this in the data protection declaration.

  • Consent (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. a. GDPR)
    – The person concerned has given their consent to the processing of
    their personal data for a specific purpose or for several specific
    purposes.
  • Fulfillment of contracts and pre-contractual inquiries (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. b. GDPR)
    – Processing is necessary for the fulfillment of a contract to which
    the data subject is a party or for the implementation of pre-contractual
    measures that are required at the request of the data subject
    respectively.
  • Legal obligation (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. c. GDPR)
    – The processing is necessary to fulfill a legal obligation to which the person responsible is subject.
  • Legitimate interests (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. f. GDPR)
    – Processing is necessary to safeguard the legitimate interests of the
    person responsible or a third party, unless the interests or fundamental
    rights and freedoms of the data subject, which protect personal data
    Data require, predominate.

 

National data protection regulations in Germany:
In addition to the data protection regulations of the General Data
Protection Regulation, national data protection regulations apply in
Germany. This includes in particular the law on the protection against
misuse of personal data during data processing (Federal Data Protection
Act – BDSG). In particular, the BDSG contains special regulations on the
right to information, the right to deletion, the right of objection, the
processing of special categories of personal data, processing for other
purposes and transmission as well as automated decision-making in
individual cases, including profiling. It also regulates data processing
for the purposes of the employment relationship (Section 26 BDSG), in
particular with regard to the establishment, implementation or
termination of employment relationships and the consent of
employees. Furthermore, state data protection laws of the individual
federal states can be applied.

Safety measures

We take appropriate technical and organizational measures in accordance
with the legal requirements, taking into account the state of the art,
the implementation costs and the type, scope, circumstances and purposes
of processing as well as the different probabilities of occurrence and
the extent of the threat to the rights and freedoms of natural persons
to ensure a level of protection appropriate to the risk.

The measures include, in particular, securing the confidentiality,
integrity and availability of data by controlling physical and
electronic access to the data as well as the access, input, transfer,
ensuring availability and their separation. Furthermore, we have set up
procedures that ensure the exercise of data subject rights, the deletion
of data and reactions to the threat to the data. Furthermore, we
consider the protection of personal data already in the development or
selection of hardware, software and procedures in accordance with the
principle of data protection, through technology design and data
protection-friendly default settings.

Shortening the IP address:
If IP addresses are processed by us or by the service providers and
technologies used and the processing of a full IP address is not
required, the IP address will be shortened (also referred to as “IP
masking”).
The last two digits or the last part of the IP address after a point are removed or replaced by placeholders. The
shortening of the IP address is intended to prevent or make it much
more difficult to identify a person using their IP address.

SSL encryption (https) : In order to protect your data transmitted via our online offer, we use SSL encryption. You can recognize such encrypted connections by the prefix https: // in the address line of your browser.

Other browsers, such as Chrome, only use a lock symbol to indicate that browser encryption has been activated.

Transmission of personal data

As part of our processing of personal data, it may happen that the data is
transmitted to other bodies, companies, legally independent
organizational units or persons or they are disclosed to them.
The
recipients of this data can include service providers commissioned with
IT tasks or providers of services and content that are integrated into a
website.
In such a case, we observe the legal requirements and, in particular, conclude
corresponding contracts or agreements that serve to protect your data
with the recipients of your data.

Data transfer within the organization : We can transfer personal data to other locations within our organization or grant them access to this data. If
this transfer takes place for administrative purposes, the transfer of
the data is based on our legitimate entrepreneurial and economic
interests or takes place if it is necessary to fulfill our contractual
obligations or if the consent of the person concerned or a legal
permission is available.

Data processing in third countries

Insofar as we process data in a third country (i.e. outside the European Union
(EU), the European Economic Area (EEA)) or the processing in the context
of the use of third-party services or the disclosure or transfer of
data to other persons, offices or companies takes place, this is only
done in accordance with the legal requirements.

Subject to express consent or contractually or legally required transmission,
we process or have the data processed only in third countries with a
recognized level of data protection, contractual obligation through
so-called standard protection clauses of the EU Commission, in the
presence of certifications or binding internal data protection
regulations (Art. 44 to 49 GDPR, Information page of the EU Commission:
https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/international-dimension-data-protection_de ).

Use of cookies

Cookies are text files that contain data from visited websites or domains and are stored on the user’s computer by a browser. A cookie is primarily used to store information about a user during or after their visit to an online offer. The
stored information can include, for example, the language settings on a
website, the login status, a shopping cart or the location where a
video was viewed.
The term
cookies also includes other technologies that fulfill the same
functions as cookies (e.g. when user information is stored using
pseudonymous online identifiers, also known as “user IDs”)

A distinction is made between the following types of cookies and functions:

  • Temporary cookies (also: session cookies):  Temporary cookies are deleted at the latest after a user has left an online offer and closed his browser.
  • Permanent cookies:  Permanent cookies are saved even after the browser is closed. For example, the login status can be saved or preferred content can be displayed directly when the user visits a website again. The interests of users who are used to measure reach or for marketing purposes can also be stored in such a cookie.
  • First-party cookies:  We set first-party cookies ourselves.
  • Third-party cookies (also: third-party cookies) : Third-party cookies are mainly used by advertisers (so-called third parties) to process user information.
  • Necessary (also: essential or absolutely necessary) cookies:
    Cookies can on the one hand be absolutely necessary for the operation
    of a website (e.g. to save logins or other user input or for security
    reasons).
  • Statistics, marketing and personalization cookies: In addition, cookies are usually also used in the context of range
    measurement and when the interests of a user or his behavior (e.g.
    viewing certain content, use of functions, etc.) on individual websites
    in a user profile get saved. Such profiles are used to show users, for
    example, content that corresponds to their potential interests. This
    process is also known as “tracking”, ie following up the potential
    interests of users. Insofar as we use cookies or “tracking”
    technologies, we will inform you separately in our data protection
    declaration or in the context of obtaining consent.

 

Notes on legal bases: The legal basis
on which we process your personal data with the help of cookies depends
on whether we ask for your consent. If this is the case and you consent
to the use of cookies, the legal basis for processing your data is the
declared consent. Otherwise, the data processed with the help of cookies
will be processed on the basis of our legitimate interests (e.g. in the
commercial operation of our online offer and its improvement) or, if
the use of cookies is necessary, to fulfill our contractual obligations.

Storage duration:
If we do not provide you with any explicit information on the storage
duration of permanent cookies (e.g. as part of a so-called cookie
opt-in), please assume that the storage duration can be up to two years.

General information on revocation and objection (opt-out):
Depending on whether the processing is based on consent or legal
permission, you have the option at any time to revoke your consent or to
object to the processing of your data using cookie technologies (collectively referred to as “opt-out”). You can first explain your
objection using the settings of your browser, e.g. by deactivating the
use of cookies (which can also restrict the functionality of our online
offer). An objection to the use of cookies for online marketing purposes
can also be made using a variety of services, especially in the case of
tracking, via the websites
https://optout.aboutads.info and https://www.youronlinechoices.com/ . In
addition, you can receive further objection notices in the context of
the information on the service providers and cookies used.

Processing of cookie data on the basis of consent:
We use a procedure for cookie consent management, in the context of
which the consent of the user to the use of cookies or the processing
and provider mentioned in the context of the cookie consent management
procedure is obtained and administered and managed by the users can be
revoked. The declaration of consent is saved so that you do not have to
repeat the query again and to be able to prove the consent in accordance
with the legal obligation. The storage can take place on the server
side and / or in a cookie (so-called opt-in cookie, or using comparable
technologies) in order to be able to assign the consent to a user or his
device. Subject to individual information on the providers of cookie
management services, the following information applies: The duration of
the storage of the consent can be up to two years. A pseudonymous user
identifier is created and stored with the time of consent, information
on the scope of the consent (e.g. which categories of cookies and / or
service providers) as well as the browser, system and end device used.

Cookie settings / objection option:

  • Processed data types: usage data (e.g. websites visited, interest in content, access times), meta / communication data (e.g. device information, IP addresses).
  • Affected persons: users (e.g. website visitors, users of online services).
  • Legal basis: Consent (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. a. GDPR), legitimate interests (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. f. GDPR).

 

Used services and service providers:

Business services

We process data from our contractual and business partners, e.g. customers
and interested parties (collectively referred to as “contractual
partners”) in the context of contractual and comparable legal
relationships as well as related measures and in the context of
communication with the contractual partners (or pre-contractual), e.g.
to answer inquiries answer.

We process this data to fulfill our contractual obligations, to secure our
rights and for the purposes of the administrative tasks associated with
this information as well as the business organization. We only pass on
the data of the contractual partners to third parties within the
framework of applicable law to the extent that this is necessary for the
aforementioned purposes or to fulfill legal obligations or with the
consent of the persons concerned (e.g. to telecommunications, transport
and other auxiliary services involved as well Subcontractors, banks, tax
and legal advisors, payment service providers or tax authorities). The
contractual partners will be informed about other forms of processing,
e.g. for marketing purposes, within the scope of this data protection
declaration.

We inform the contractual partners before or as part of the data
collection, e.g. in online forms, by special labeling (e.g. colors) or
symbols (e.g. asterisks or similar), or personally, which data are
required for the aforementioned purposes.

We delete the data after the expiry of statutory warranty and comparable
obligations, i.e. basically after 4 years, unless the data is stored in a
customer account, e.g. as long as it has to be kept for archiving
reasons for legal reasons (e.g. for Tax purposes usually 10 years).
We
delete data disclosed to us by the contractual partner in the context
of an order in accordance with the specifications of the order,
generally after the end of the order.

Insofar as we use third-party providers or platforms to provide our services,
the terms and conditions and data protection notices of the respective
third-party providers or platforms apply in the relationship between the
users and the providers.

Agency services: We process our customers’ data as part of our contractual services,
including, for example, conceptual and strategic advice, campaign
planning, software and design development / advice or maintenance,
implementation of campaigns and processes, handling, server
administration, data analysis / consulting services and training
services can belong.

Project and development services:

We process the data of our customers and clients (hereinafter
collectively referred to as “customers”) in order to enable them to
select, purchase or commission the selected services or works as well as
related activities as well as their payment and provision or To enable
execution or provision.

The information required is identified as such in the context of the
conclusion of the order, order or comparable contract and includes the
information required for the provision of services and billing as well
as contact information in order to be able to hold any consultations.
Insofar
as we have access to information from end customers, employees or other
persons, we process this in accordance with the legal and contractual
requirements.

Further information on commercial services

We process the data of our customers and clients (hereinafter
collectively referred to as “customers”) to enable them to select,
purchase or commission the selected services or works as well as related
activities as well as their payment and delivery or To enable execution
or provision.

The information required is identified as such in the context of the
conclusion of the order, order or comparable contract and includes the
information required for the provision of services and billing as well
as contact information in order to be able to hold any consultations.

  • Processed data types: inventory data (e.g. names, addresses), payment data
    (e.g. bank details, invoices, payment history), contact details (e.g.
    e-mail, telephone numbers), contract data (e.g. subject matter of the
    contract, term, customer category).
  • Affected persons: interested parties, business and contractual partners.
  • Purposes of processing:
    Provision of contractual services and customer service, contact
    inquiries and communication, office and organizational procedures,
    administration and answering inquiries.
  • Legal basis:
    Contract fulfillment and pre-contractual inquiries (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1
    lit.b. GDPR), legal obligation (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. 1 S. 1 lit.f.
    GDPR).

Payment method

In the context of contractual and other legal relationships, due to legal
obligations or otherwise based on our legitimate interests, we offer the
data subjects efficient and secure payment options and use other
service providers in addition to banks and credit institutions
(collectively, “payment service providers”).

The data processed by the payment service provider includes inventory data
such as name and address, bank data such as account numbers or credit
card numbers, passwords, TANs and checksums as well as contract, sum and
recipient-related information. The information is required to carry out
the transactions. However, the data entered will only be processed and
stored by the payment service providers. This means that we do not
receive any account or credit card-related information, but only
information with confirmation or negative information about the payment.
The data may be transmitted to credit agencies by the payment service
provider. The purpose of this transmission is to check your identity and
creditworthiness. For this we refer to the terms and conditions and the
data protection information of the payment service providers.

The terms and conditions and data protection notices of the respective
payment service providers, which can be called up within the respective
websites or transaction applications, apply to payment transactions.
We
refer to this also for the purpose of further information and assertion
of revocation, information and other rights of data subjects.

  • Processed data types: inventory data (e.g. names, addresses), payment data (e.g. bank details, invoices, payment history), contract data (e.g. subject of the contract, term, customer category), usage data (e.g. websites visited, interest in content, access times), meta / communication data (e.g. Device information, IP addresses).
  • Affected persons: customers, interested parties.
  • Purposes of processing: Provision of contractual services and customer service, contact inquiries and communication, affiliate tracking.
  • Legal basis:
    Contract fulfillment and pre-contractual inquiries (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1
    lit. b. GDPR), legitimate interests (Art. 6 Par. 1 S. 1 lit. f. GDPR).

Used services and service providers:

Provision of the online offer and web hosting

In order to be able to provide our online offer safely and efficiently, we
use the services of one or more web hosting providers, from whose
servers (or servers managed by them) the online offer can be accessed.
For these purposes, we can use infrastructure and platform services,
computing capacity, storage space and database services as well as
security services and technical maintenance services.

The data processed as part of the provision of the hosting offer can
include all information relating to the users of our online offer that
is generated in the context of use and communication.
This
regularly includes the IP address, which is necessary in order to be
able to deliver the content of online offers to browsers, and all
entries made within our online offer or from websites.

Email sending and hosting:

The web hosting services we use also include sending, receiving and
storing emails. For these purposes, the addresses of the recipients and
senders as well as other information relating to the sending of e-mails
(e.g. the providers involved) and the content of the respective e-mails
are processed. The aforementioned data can also be processed for the
purpose of detecting SPAM. Please note that emails on the Internet are
generally not sent in encrypted form. As a rule, e-mails are encrypted
on the transport route, but (if no so-called end-to-end encryption
method is used) not on the servers from which they are sent and
received. We cannot therefore accept any responsibility for the
transmission path of the e-mails between the sender and the receipt on
our server.

Collection of access data and log files

We (or our web hosting provider) collect data on every access to the server (so-called server log files). The
server log files can include the address and name of the web pages and
files accessed, the date and time of access, the amount of data
transferred, notification of successful access, browser type and
version, the user’s operating system, referrer URL (the previously
visited page) and, as a rule, IP Addresses and the requesting provider
belong.

The server log files can be used on the one hand for security purposes,
e.g. to avoid overloading the server (especially in the case of improper
attacks, so-called DDoS attacks) and on the other hand to ensure the
load on the server and its stability.

Content-Delivery-Network:

We use a “Content-Delivery-Network” (CDN). A
CDN is a service with the help of which the contents of an online
offer, in particular large media files such as graphics or program
scripts, can be delivered faster and more securely with the help of
regionally distributed servers connected via the Internet.

Cloudflare :

  • Processed data types:
    content data (e.g. entries in online forms), usage data (e.g. websites
    visited, interest in content, access times), meta / communication data
    (e.g. device information, IP addresses).
  • Affected persons: users (e.g. website visitors, users of online services).
  • Purposes of processing: Provision of our online offer and user-friendliness, Content Delivery Network (CDN).
  • Legal basis: Legitimate interests (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. f. GDPR).

 

Used services and service providers:

Blogs and publication media

We use blogs or comparable means of online communication and publication (hereinafter “publication medium”). The
data of the readers are only processed for the purposes of the
publication medium to the extent that it is necessary for its
presentation and communication between authors and readers or for
security reasons.
We also
refer to the information on the processing of visitors to our
publication medium in the context of this data protection notice.

  • Processed data types: inventory data (e.g. names, addresses), contact data (e.g. e-mail,
    telephone numbers), content data (e.g. entries in online forms), usage
    data (e.g. websites visited, interest in content, access times), meta /
    communication data (e.g. device Information, IP addresses).
  • Affected persons: users (e.g. website visitors, users of online services).
  • Purposes of processing: Provision of contractual services and customer service, feedback (e.g. collecting feedback via online form), security measures.
  • Legal basis: Contract fulfillment and pre-contractual inquiries (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1
    lit. b. GDPR), legitimate interests (Art. 6 Par. 1 S. 1 lit. f. GDPR).

Used services and service providers:

Contact

When you contact us (e.g. via the contact form, email, telephone or via
social media), the details of the inquiring person are processed,
insofar as this is necessary to answer the contact inquiries and any
requested measures.

The answering of contact inquiries in the context of contractual or
pre-contractual relationships takes place to fulfill our contractual
obligations or to answer (pre) contractual inquiries and otherwise on
the basis of the legitimate interests in answering the inquiries.

  • Processed data types: inventory data (e.g. names, addresses), contact details (e.g. e-mail,
    telephone numbers), content data (e.g. entries in online forms).
  • Affected persons: communication partner.
  • Purposes of processing: contact requests and communication.
  • Legal basis:
    Contract fulfillment and pre-contractual inquiries (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1
    lit. b. GDPR), legitimate interests (Art. 6 Par. 1 S. 1 lit. f. GDPR).

Used services and service providers:

Chatbots and chat functions

We offer online chats and chatbot functions as a means of communication
(collectively referred to as “chat services”). A chat is an online
conversation that is conducted with a certain timeliness. A chatbot is
software that answers users’ questions or informs them of messages. If
you use our chat functions, we can process your personal data.

If you use our chat services within an online platform, your
identification number will also be stored within the respective
platform. We can also collect information about which users interact
with our chat services and when. We also store the content of your
conversations via the chat services and log registration and consent
processes in order to be able to prove them in accordance with legal
requirements.

We point out to users that the respective platform provider can find out
that and when users communicate with our chat services as well as
technical information about the device used by the user and, depending
on the settings of their device, location information (so-called
metadata) for the purpose of optimizing the respective services and
security purposes. Likewise, the metadata of the communication via chat
services (i.e., for example, the information about who has communicated
with whom) by the respective platform provider in accordance with their
provisions, to which we refer for further information, could be used for
marketing purposes or to display advertising tailored to users be used.

If users agree to a chatbot to activate information with regular messages,
they have the option at any time to unsubscribe from the information
for the future.
The chatbot tells users how and with what terms they can unsubscribe from the messages. By unsubscribing from chatbot messages, user data is deleted from the message recipient directory.

We use the above information to operate our chat services, e.g. to address
users personally, to answer their inquiries, to transmit any requested
content and also to improve our chat services (e.g. to give chatbots
answers to frequently “to teach” questions asked or to recognize
unanswered inquiries).

Notes on legal bases:
We use the chat services on the basis of consent if we have previously
obtained the users’ permission to process their data in the context of
our chat services (this applies to cases in which users have asked for
consent e.g. so that a chatbot sends them messages regularly). If we use
chat services to answer user inquiries about our services or our
company, this is done for contractual and pre-contractual communication.
In addition, we use chat services on the basis of our legitimate
interests in optimizing the chat services, their economic efficiency and
increasing the positive user experience.

Revocation, objection and deletion: You can revoke your consent at any time or object to the processing of your data in the context of our chat services.

  • Processed data types: contact data (e.g. e-mail, telephone numbers), content data (e.g.
    entries in online forms), usage data (e.g. websites visited, interest in
    content, access times), meta / communication data (e.g. device
    information, IP addresses).
  • Affected persons: communication partner.
  • Purposes of processing: contact inquiries and communication, direct marketing (e.g. by email or post).
  • Legal basis: Consent (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. a. GDPR), legitimate interests (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. f. GDPR).

Newsletters and electronic notifications

We send newsletters, e-mails and other electronic notifications
(hereinafter “newsletter”) only with the consent of the recipient or
legal permission.
If the
contents of the newsletter are specifically described when registering
for the newsletter, they are decisive for the consent of the user.
Incidentally, our newsletters contain information about our services and us.

To register for our newsletters, it is generally sufficient to provide your email address. However,
we can ask you to provide a name for the purpose of addressing you
personally in the newsletter, or to provide further information if this
is necessary for the purposes of the newsletter.

Double opt-in procedure:
The registration for our newsletter takes place in a so-called double
opt-in procedure. This means that after registration you will receive an
email in which you will be asked to confirm your registration. This
confirmation is necessary so that nobody can register with someone
else’s e-mail address. The registrations for the newsletter are logged
in order to be able to prove the registration process in accordance with
the legal requirements. This includes storing the time of registration
and confirmation as well as the IP address. Changes to your data stored
by the shipping service provider are also logged.

Deletion and restriction of processing:
We can store the unsubscribed e-mail addresses for up to three years on
the basis of our legitimate interests before we delete them in order to
be able to prove a previously given consent. The processing of this
data is limited to the purpose of a possible defense against claims. An
individual request for deletion is possible at any time, provided that
the former existence of a consent is confirmed at the same time. In the
event of obligations to permanently observe contradictions, we reserve
the right to store the e-mail address in a block list for this purpose
alone.

The logging of the registration process takes place on the basis of our
legitimate interests for the purpose of proving that it has proceeded
properly. If we commission a service provider to send e-mails, this is
done on the basis of our legitimate interests in an efficient and secure
mailing system.

Notes on legal bases:
The newsletter is sent on the basis of the recipient’s consent or, if
consent is not required, on the basis of our legitimate interests in
direct marketing, if and to the extent that this is permitted by law,
e.g. in the case of advertising to existing customers.
If we commission a service provider to send e-mails, this is done on the basis of our legitimate interests. The registration process is recorded based on our legitimate interests to
demonstrate that it was carried out in accordance with the law.

Contents: Information about us, our services, promotions and offers.

  • Processed data types: inventory data (e.g. names, addresses), contact data (e.g. e-mail,
    telephone numbers), meta / communication data (e.g. device information,
    IP addresses), usage data (e.g. websites visited, interest in content,
    access times).
  • Affected persons: communication partner.
  • Purposes of processing: direct marketing (e.g. by email or post).
  • Legal basis: Consent (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. a. GDPR), legitimate interests (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. f. GDPR).
  • Opposition option (opt-out): You can cancel the receipt of our newsletter at any time, ie revoke your consent or object to further receipt. You
    will find a link to cancel the newsletter either at the end of each
    newsletter or you can use one of the contact options given above,
    preferably e-mail.

Used services and service providers:

Polls and surveys

The surveys and surveys carried out by us (hereinafter “surveys”) are evaluated anonymously. Personal
data is only processed to the extent that this is necessary for the
provision and technical implementation of the surveys (e.g. processing
of the IP address in order to display the survey in the user’s browser
or to allow the survey to be resumed using a temporary cookie (session
cookie) enable) or users have consented.

Notes on legal bases:
If we ask the participants for consent to the processing of their data,
this is the legal basis for the processing, otherwise the processing of
the participants’ data is based on our legitimate interests in carrying
out an objective survey.

  • Processed data types: contact data (e.g. e-mail, telephone numbers), content data (e.g.
    entries in online forms), usage data (e.g. websites visited, interest in
    content, access times), meta / communication data (e.g. device
    information, IP addresses).
  • Affected persons: communication partners , users (e.g. website visitors, users of online services).
  • Purposes of processing: contact inquiries and communication, direct marketing (e.g. by email or post).
  • Legal basis: Consent (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. a. GDPR), legitimate interests (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. f. GDPR).

Used services and service providers:

Web analysis, monitoring and optimization

The web analysis (also referred to as “range measurement”) is used to
evaluate the flow of visitors to our online offer and can include
behavior, interests or demographic information about the visitors, such
as age or gender, as pseudonymous values.
With
the help of the range analysis, we can, for example, recognize at which
time our online offer or its functions or content are used most often
or invite you to reuse.
We can also understand which areas need optimization.

In addition to web analysis, we can also use test procedures, for example
to test and optimize different versions of our online offer or its
components.

For these purposes, so-called user profiles can be created and saved in a
file (so-called “cookie”) or similar processes can be used for the same
purpose. This information can include, for example, content viewed,
websites visited and elements and technical information used there, such
as the browser used, the computer system used and information on usage
times. If users have consented to their location data being collected,
this can also be processed, depending on the provider.

The IP addresses of the users are also saved. However, we use an IP masking
process (ie pseudonymization by shortening the IP address) to protect
users. In general, in the context of web analysis, A / B testing and
optimization, no clear user data (such as e-mail addresses or names) are
saved, but pseudonyms. This means that we and the providers of the
software used do not know the actual identity of the users, but only the
information stored in their profiles for the purposes of the respective
procedures.

Notes on legal bases:
If we ask users for their consent to the use of third-party providers, the legal basis for processing data is consent.
Otherwise,
user data will be processed on the basis of our legitimate interests
(ie interest in efficient, economical and recipient-friendly services).
In
this context, we would like to draw your attention to the information
on the use of cookies in this data protection declaration.

  • Processed data types: usage data (e.g. websites visited, interest in content, access times), meta / communication data (e.g. device information, IP addresses).
  • Affected persons: users (e.g. website visitors, users of online services).
  • Purposes of processing: Range measurement (e.g. access statistics, recognition of returning
    visitors), profiles with user-related information (creation of user
    profiles).
  • Security measures: IP masking (pseudonymization of the IP address).
  • Legal basis: Consent (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. a. GDPR), legitimate interests (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. f. GDPR).

Used services and service providers:

  • Google Analytics:
    range measurement and web analysis; Service provider: Google Ireland
    Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland, parent company:
    Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheater Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA;
    Website:
    https://marketingplatform.google.com/intl/de/about/analytics/ ; Data protection declaration: https://policies.google.com/privacy .
  • Matomo (without cookies):
    Matomo is data protection-friendly web analysis software that is used
    without cookies and in which recurring users are recognized with the
    help of a so-called “digital fingerprint”, which is stored anonymously
    and changed every 24 hours;
    With the “digital fingerprint”, user movements within our online offer are
    recorded with the help of pseudonymized IP addresses in combination with
    user-side browser settings in such a way that it is not possible to
    draw conclusions about the identity of individual users;
    Service provider: web analysis / range measurement in self-hosting; Website:
    https://matomo.org/ .

Online marketing

We process personal data for online marketing purposes, which can include,
in particular, the marketing of advertising space or the presentation
of advertising and other content (collectively referred to as “content”)
based on the potential interests of users and the measurement of their
effectiveness.

For these purposes, so-called user profiles are created and stored in a
file (so-called “cookie”) or similar processes are used, by means of
which the user information relevant to the presentation of the
aforementioned content is saved. This information can include content
viewed, websites visited, online networks used, but also communication
partners and technical information such as the browser used, the
computer system used and information on usage times. If users have
consented to the collection of their location data, these can also be
processed.

The IP addresses of the users are also saved. However, we use available IP
masking procedures (ie, pseudonymisation by shortening the IP address)
to protect users. In general, no clear user data (such as e-mail
addresses or names) are stored in the context of the online marketing
process, but pseudonyms. This means that we, as well as the providers of
online marketing processes, do not know the actual identity of the
users, but only the information stored in their profiles.

The information in the profiles is usually stored in the cookies or by means of similar processes. These
cookies can later generally also be read out on other websites that use
the same online marketing process, analyzed for the purpose of
displaying content and supplemented with additional data and stored on
the server of the online marketing process provider.

As an exception, clear data can be assigned to the profiles. This
is the case if the users are, for example, members of a social network
whose online marketing process we use and the network connects the
profiles of the users with the aforementioned information.
We
ask you to note that users can make additional agreements with the
providers, e.g. by giving their consent during registration.

In principle, we only have access to summarized information about the success of our advertisements. However,
as part of so-called conversion measurements, we can check which of our
online marketing processes have led to a so-called conversion, i.e.,
for example, to a contract with us.
The conversion measurement is used solely to analyze the success of our marketing measures.

Unless otherwise stated, we ask you to assume that the cookies used will be stored for a period of two years.

Notes on legal bases:
If we ask users for their consent to the use of third-party providers, the legal basis for processing data is consent.
Otherwise,
user data will be processed on the basis of our legitimate interests
(ie interest in efficient, economical and recipient-friendly services).
In
this context, we would like to draw your attention to the information
on the use of cookies in this data protection declaration.

  • Processed data types: usage data (e.g. websites visited, interest in content, access times), meta / communication data (e.g. device information, IP addresses).
  • Affected persons: users (e.g. website visitors, users of online services).
  • Purposes of processing:
    Marketing, profiles with user-related information (creation of user
    profiles), conversion measurement (measurement of the effectiveness of
    marketing measures).
  • Security measures: IP masking (pseudonymization of the IP address).
  • Legal basis: Consent (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. a. GDPR), legitimate interests (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. f. GDPR).
  • Opposition option (opt-out):
    We refer to the data protection information of the respective provider
    and the options for objection given to the provider (so-called
    “opt-out”). Unless an explicit opt-out option has been specified, you
    have the option of switching off cookies in your browser settings.
    However, this can restrict the functions of our online offer. We
    therefore also recommend the following opt-out options, which are
    offered in summary for the respective areas: a) Europe:
    https://www.youronlinechoices.eu . b) Canada: https://www.youradchoices.ca/choices . c) USA: https://www.aboutads.info/choices . d) Cross-regional:https://optout.aboutads.info .

Used services and service providers:

  • Google Analytics: online marketing and web analysis; Service
    provider: Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin
    4, Ireland, parent company: Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheater Parkway,
    Mountain View, CA 94043, USA;
    Website:
    https://marketingplatform.google.com/intl/de/about/analytics/ ; Data protection declaration: https://policies.google.com/privacy ; Opposition option (opt-out): Opt-out plug-in: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de , settings for displaying advertisements: https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated .
  • Google Ads and conversion measurement:
    We use the online marketing process “Google Ads” to place
    advertisements in the Google advertising network (e.g. in search
    results, in videos, on websites, etc.) so that they can be displayed to
    users who have a presumed interest have at the advertisements. We also
    measure the conversion of the ads. However, we only find out the
    anonymous total number of users who clicked on our ad and were
    redirected to a page with a so-called “conversion tracking tag”.
    However, we ourselves do not receive any information that can be used to
    identify users. Service provider: Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House,
    Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland, parent company: Google LLC, 1600
    Amphitheater Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; Website:
    https://marketingplatform.google.com ; Data protection declaration: https://policies.google.com/privacy .
  • Google Adsense with non-personalized ads:
    We use the Google Adsense service with non-personalized ads, with the
    help of which ads are displayed within our online offer and we receive
    remuneration for their display or other use.
    ; Service
    provider: Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin
    4, Ireland, parent company: Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheater Parkway,
    Mountain View, CA 94043, USA;
    Website:
    https://marketingplatform.google.com ; Data protection declaration: https://policies.google.com/privacy .

Plugins and embedded functions as well as content

We incorporate functional and content elements into our online offer that
are obtained from the servers of their respective providers (hereinafter
referred to as “third-party providers”). This can be, for example,
graphics, videos or city maps (hereinafter referred to as “content”).

The integration always presupposes that the third-party providers of this
content process the IP address of the user, since without the IP address
they would not be able to send the content to their browser. The IP
address is therefore required for the display of this content or
functions. We strive to only use content whose respective providers only
use the IP address to deliver the content. Third-party providers can
also use so-called pixel tags (invisible graphics, also known as “web
beacons”) for statistical or marketing purposes. The “pixel tags” can be
used to evaluate information such as visitor traffic on the pages of
this website. The pseudonymous information can also be stored in cookies
on the user’s device and contain, among other things, technical
information about the browser and operating system, the websites to be
referred to, the time of visit and other information about the use of
our online offer, as well as being linked to such information from other
sources.

Notes on legal bases: If we ask users for their consent to the use of third-party providers, the legal basis for processing data is consent. Otherwise,
user data will be processed on the basis of our legitimate interests
(ie interest in efficient, economical and recipient-friendly services).
In
this context, we would like to draw your attention to the information
on the use of cookies in this data protection declaration.

  • Processed data types: usage data (e.g. websites visited, interest in content, access times), meta / communication data
    (e.g. device information, IP addresses), inventory data (e.g. names,
    addresses), contact data (e.g. e-mail, telephone numbers), content data
    (e.g. entries in online forms).
  • Affected persons: users (e.g. website visitors, users of online services).
  • Purpose of processing: Provision of our online offer and user-friendliness, provision of contractual services and customer service.
  • Legal basis: Legitimate interests (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit.f. GDPR), consent (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit.a. S. 1 lit. b GDPR).

 

Used services and service providers:

  • Google Fonts: We integrate the fonts (“Google Fonts”) from the provider Google,
    whereby the user data is used solely for the purpose of displaying the
    fonts in the user’s browser. The integration takes place on the basis of
    our legitimate interests in a technically secure, maintenance-free and
    efficient use of fonts, their uniform representation and taking into
    account possible licensing restrictions for their integration. Service
    provider: Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4,
    Ireland, parent company: Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheater Parkway,
    Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; Website:
    https://fonts.google.com/ ; Data protection declaration: https://policies.google.com/privacy .
  • YouTube videos: video content; Service provider: Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House,
    Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland, parent company: Google LLC, 1600
    Amphitheater Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; Website:
    https://www.youtube.com ; Data protection declaration: https://policies.google.com/privacy ; Opposition option (opt-out): Opt-out plug-in: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de , settings for displaying advertisements: https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated .
  • YouTube videos: video content; YouTube is integrated via the domain https://www.youtube-nocookie.com
    in the so-called “extended data protection mode”, whereby no cookies
    are collected for user activities in order to personalize the video
    playback.
    Nevertheless,
    information on the interaction of the user with the video (e.g.
    remembering the last playback point) can be saved;
    Service
    provider: Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin
    4, Ireland, parent company: Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheater Parkway,
    Mountain View, CA 94043, USA;
    Website:
    https://www.youtube.com ; Data protection declaration: https://policies.google.com/privacy .
  • hcaptcha: detect and block malicious bots; service provider: Intuition Machines, Inc., 350 Alabama St, #10, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA. Webseite: www.hcaptcha.com. Privacy statement: www.hcaptcha.com/privacy.

Management, organization and support tools

We use services, platforms and software from other providers (hereinafter
referred to as “third-party providers”) for the purposes of organizing,
managing, planning and providing our services.
When selecting third-party providers and their services, we observe the legal requirements.

In this context, personal data can be processed and stored on the servers of third-party providers. Various data may be affected by this, which we process in accordance with this data protection declaration. This
data can in particular include master data and contact details of the
users, data on transactions, contracts, other processes and their
content.

If users are referred to the third-party providers or their software or
platforms in the course of communication, business or other
relationships with us, the third-party providers can process usage data
and metadata for security purposes, for service optimization or for
marketing purposes. We therefore ask you to observe the data protection
information of the respective third party provider.

Notes on legal bases:
If we ask users for their consent to the use of third-party providers,
the legal basis for processing data is consent. Furthermore, their use
can be part of our (pre) contractual services, provided that the use of
third-party providers has been agreed in this context. Otherwise, user
data will be processed on the basis of our legitimate interests (ie
interest in efficient, economical and recipient-friendly services). In
this context, we would like to draw your attention to the information on
the use of cookies in this data protection declaration.

  • Processed data types: inventory data (e.g. names, addresses), contact data (e.g. e-mail,
    telephone numbers), content data (e.g. entries in online forms), usage
    data (e.g. websites visited, interest in content, access times), meta /
    communication data (e.g. device Information, IP addresses).
  • Affected persons: communication partners, users (e.g. website visitors, users of online services).
  • Purposes of processing: contact requests and communication.
  • Legal basis: Consent (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. a. GDPR), fulfillment of contracts
    and pre-contractual inquiries (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit. b.GDPR),
    legitimate interests (Art. 6 Para. 1 S. 1 lit.f.DSGVO).

 

Used services and service providers:

Deletion of data

The data processed by us will be deleted in accordance with the legal
requirements as soon as the consent permitted for processing is revoked
or other permissions are no longer applicable (e.g. if the purpose of
processing this data is no longer applicable or is not required for the
purpose).

If the data are not deleted because they are required for other and
legally permissible purposes, their processing will be limited to these
purposes.
In other words, the data is blocked and not processed for other purposes. This
applies, for example, to data that must be kept for commercial or tax
law reasons or whose storage is necessary to assert, exercise or defend
legal claims or to protect the rights of another natural or legal
person.

Our data protection information may also contain further information on the
storage and deletion of data, which have priority for the respective
processing.

Change and update of the data protection declaration

We ask you to inform yourself regularly about the content of our data protection declaration. We
will adapt the data protection declaration as soon as the changes to
the data processing carried out by us make this necessary.
We will inform you as soon as the changes require your cooperation (e.g. consent) or other individual notification.

If we provide addresses and contact information of companies and
organizations in this data protection declaration, please note that the
addresses can change over time and ask you to check the information
before contacting us.

Rights of data subjects

As a data subject, you have various rights under the GDPR, which arise in particular from Art. 15 to 21 GDPR:

  • Right of objection: You have the right to object at any time to the
    processing of your personal data, which is based on Article 6 (1) (e) or
    (f) GDPR, for reasons that arise from your particular situation;
    this also applies to profiling based on these provisions. If
    the personal data relating to you are processed in order to operate
    direct mail, you have the right to object at any time to the processing
    of the personal data relating to you for the purpose of such
    advertising;
    this also applies to profiling insofar as it is associated with such direct advertising.
  • Right to withdraw consent: You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time.
  • Right to information: You have the right to request confirmation as to whether the data in
    question is being processed and to request information about this data
    as well as further information and a copy of the data in accordance with
    the legal requirements.
  • Right to correction: In accordance with the legal requirements, you have the right to request
    the completion of the data relating to you or the correction of
    incorrect data relating to you.
  • Right to deletion and restriction of processing: In accordance with the legal requirements, you have the right to request
    that the data relating to you be deleted immediately or, alternatively,
    to request that the processing of the data be restricted in accordance
    with the legal requirements.
  • Right to data portability: You have the right to receive data concerning you that you have
    provided to us in accordance with the legal requirements in a
    structured, common and machine-readable format or to request that it be
    transmitted to another person responsible.
  • Complaint to the supervisory authority: Without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy, you
    have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in
    particular in the member state of your habitual residence, your place of
    work or the place of the alleged infringement, if you are of the
    opinion that the processing of the data concerns you personal data
    violates the requirements of the GDPR.

Definitions of terms

This section gives you an overview of the terms used in this data protection declaration. Many of the terms are taken from the law and primarily defined in Art. 4 GDPR. The legal definitions are binding. The following explanations, on the other hand, are primarily intended to aid understanding. The terms are sorted alphabetically.

  • Affiliate Tracking:
    As part of affiliate tracking, links that the linked websites use to refer
    users to websites with product or other offers are logged. The
    operators of the linked websites can receive a commission if users
    follow these so-called affiliate links and then take advantage of the
    offers (e.g. buy goods or use services). For this, it is necessary that
    the provider can track whether users who are interested in certain
    offers then take advantage of the affiliate links. It is therefore
    necessary for the functionality of affiliate links that they are
    supplemented by certain values that become part of the link or are
    otherwise stored, e.g. in a cookie. The values include in particular
    the starting website (referrer), the time, an online identifier for the
    operator of the website on which the affiliate link was located, an
    online identifier for the respective offer, an online identifier for the
    user and tracking-specific values such as advertising material ID,
    partner ID and categorizations
  • Content Delivery Network (CDN):
    A “Content Delivery Network” (CDN) is a service with the help of which
    the content of an online offer, especially large media files such as
    graphics or program scripts, is faster and faster with the help of
    regionally distributed servers connected via the Internet can be
    delivered more safely.
  • IP masking:
    “IP masking” is a method in which the last octet, ie the last two
    digits of an IP address, is deleted so that the IP address can no longer
    be used to uniquely identify a person.
    Therefore, IP masking is a means of pseudonymising processing methods, especially in online marketing
  • Conversion measurement:
    The conversion measurement (also known as “visit action evaluation”) is
    a procedure with which the effectiveness of marketing measures can be
    determined. For this purpose, a cookie is usually stored on the users’
    devices within the websites on which the marketing measures are carried
    out and then retrieved again on the target website. For example, we can
    see whether the advertisements we placed on other websites were
    successful.
  • Personal data:
    “Personal data” are all information that relates to an identified or
    identifiable natural person (hereinafter “data subject”); A natural
    person is regarded as identifiable who can be identified directly or
    indirectly, in particular by means of assignment to an identifier such
    as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier
    (e.g. cookie) or one or more special features, which express the
    physical, physiological, genetic, psychological, economic, cultural or
    social identity of this natural person.
  • Profiles with user-related information:
    The processing of “profiles with user-related information”, or
    “profiles” for short includes any type of automated processing of
    personal data, which consists in the fact that this personal data is
    used to determine certain personal aspects that relate to a refer to
    natural person (depending on the type of profile creation, different
    information regarding demographics, behavior and interests, such as the
    interaction with websites and their content, etc.) can be analyzed,
    evaluated or predicted (e.g. interests in certain Content or products,
    the click behavior on a website or the whereabouts). Cookies and web
    beacons are often used for profiling purposes.
  • Reach measurement:
    Reach measurement (also referred to as web analytics) is used to
    evaluate the flow of visitors to an online offer and can include the
    behavior or interests of visitors in certain information, such as
    website content. With the help of the reach analysis, website owners can
    see, for example, at what time visitors visit their website and what
    content they are interested in. This enables you, for example, to better
    adapt the content of the website to the needs of your visitors. For the
    purpose of range analysis, pseudonymous cookies and web beacons are
    often used to recognize returning visitors and thus to receive more
    precise analyzes of the use of an online offer.
  • Responsible:
    The “responsible” is the natural or legal person, authority,
    institution or other body that alone or jointly with others decides on
    the purposes and means of processing personal data.
  • Processing:
    “Processing” is any process carried out with or without the aid of
    automated processes or any such series of processes in connection with
    personal data.
    The term
    goes far and includes practically every handling of data, be it the
    collection, evaluation, storage, transmission or deletion.