We have prepared this privacy policy (version 23.02.2020-121250814) in order to explain to you, in accordance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679, what information we collect, how we use data, and what choices you have as a visitor to this website. Unfortunately, by their nature, such explanations often sound very technical, but we have tried, when preparing this policy, to describe the most important things as simply and clearly as possible.
Automatic Data Storage
When you visit websites nowadays, certain information is automatically created and stored—this also happens on 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 page accessed
browser and browser version
the operating system used
the address (URL) of the previously visited page (referrer URL)
the hostname and IP address of the device from which access is made
date and time
in files (web server log files)
As a rule, web server log files are stored for two weeks and then automatically deleted. We do not pass these data on, but we cannot rule out that these data may be viewed in the event of unlawful conduct.
Cookies
Our website uses HTTP cookies to store user-specific data.
Below we explain what cookies are and why they are used so that you can better understand the following privacy policy.
What exactly are cookies?
Whenever you browse the internet, you use a browser. Well-known browsers include Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge. Most websites store small text files in your browser. These files are called cookies. One thing is certain: cookies are really useful little helpers. Almost all websites use cookies—more precisely, HTTP cookies, because there are other cookies for other application areas. HTTP cookies are small files that are stored on your computer by our website. These cookie files are automatically stored in the cookie folder—so to speak, the “brain” of your browser. A cookie consists of a name and a value. When defining a cookie, one or more attributes must also be specified.
Cookies store certain user data about you, such as language or personal page settings. When you access our site again, your browser sends the “user-related” information back to our site. Thanks to cookies, our website knows who you are and offers you the settings you are used to. In some browsers each cookie has its own file; in others, such as Firefox, all cookies are stored in a single file.
There are both first-party cookies and third-party cookies. First-party cookies are created directly by our site; third-party cookies are created by partner websites (e.g. Google Analytics). Each cookie must be evaluated individually, because each cookie stores different data. The expiry time of a cookie also varies from a few minutes to a few years. Cookies are not software programs and do not contain viruses, Trojans or other “malware”. Cookies also cannot access information on your PC.
For example, cookie data can look like this:
Name: _ga
Value: GA1.2.1326744211.152121250814-9
Purpose: Distinguishing website visitors
Expiry date: after 2 years
A browser should be able to support at least the following minimum sizes:
at least 4096 bytes per cookie
at least 50 cookies per domain
at least 3000 cookies total
What types of cookies are there?
The question of which cookies we use specifically depends on the services used and is clarified in the following sections of the privacy policy. At this point, we would like to briefly address the different types of HTTP cookies.
There are 4 types of cookies:
Essential cookies
These cookies are necessary to ensure basic functions of the website. For example, these cookies are needed when a user puts a product in the shopping cart, then continues browsing on other pages and only later proceeds to checkout. These cookies ensure that the shopping cart is not deleted even if the user closes the browser window.
Functional cookies
These cookies collect information about user behavior and whether the user receives any error messages. In addition, these cookies are used to measure loading time and the behavior of the website in different browsers.
Targeted cookies
These cookies provide better user-friendliness. For example, entered 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. This can be very practical, but also very annoying.
Typically, when you visit a website for the first time, you are asked which of these types of cookies you want to allow. And of course this decision is also stored in a cookie.
How can I delete cookies?
You decide yourself how and whether you want to use cookies. Regardless of which service or website the cookies originate from, you always have the option to delete cookies, deactivate them, or allow them only partially. For example, you can block third-party cookies but allow all other cookies.
If you want to find out which cookies have been stored in your browser, if you want to change cookie settings, or delete cookies, you can do this in your browser settings:
Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome
Safari: Manage cookies and website data with Safari
Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have stored on your computer
Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies
Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies
If you generally do not want cookies, you can set up your browser so that you are always informed when a cookie is about to be set. Then you can decide for each individual cookie whether to allow it or not. The procedure differs depending on the browser. The best approach is to search Google for instructions using the search term “delete cookies Chrome” or “disable cookies Chrome” (in the case of a Chrome browser).
What about my privacy?
Since 2009 there have been the so-called “cookie guidelines”. These state that storing cookies requires your consent. Within EU countries, however, there are still very different reactions to these guidelines. In Austria, however, this directive was implemented in Section 96(3) of the Telecommunications Act (TKG).
If you would like to learn more about cookies and are not afraid of technical documentation, we recommend https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6265, the Request for Comments of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) called “HTTP State Management Mechanism”.
Storage of Personal Data
Personal data that you transmit to us electronically on this website—such as name, email address, address or other personal details as part of submitting a form or comments in the blog—are used by us together with the time and the IP address only for the respective stated purpose, kept securely, and not passed on to third parties.
We therefore use your personal data only to communicate with those visitors who explicitly wish to be contacted and for handling the services and products offered on this website. We do not pass on your personal data without your consent, but we cannot rule out that these data may be viewed in the event of unlawful conduct.
If you send us personal data by email—i.e. outside of this website—we cannot guarantee secure transmission and the protection of your data. We recommend that you never transmit confidential data unencrypted by email.
Rights Under the General Data Protection Regulation
Under the provisions of the GDPR and the Austrian Data Protection Act (DSG), you generally have the following rights:
Right to rectification (Article 16 GDPR)
Right to erasure (“right to be forgotten”) (Article 17 GDPR)
Right to restriction of processing (Article 18 GDPR)
Right to notification—obligation to notify in connection with the rectification or erasure of personal data or restriction of processing (Article 19 GDPR)
Right to data portability (Article 20 GDPR)
Right to object (Article 21 GDPR)
Right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing—including profiling—(Article 22 GDPR)
If you believe that the processing of your data violates data protection law or that your data protection rights have otherwise been infringed, you can lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority. In Austria, this is the Data Protection Authority (Datenschutzbehörde), whose website you can find at https://www.dsb.gv.at/.
Analysis of Visitor Behavior
In the following privacy policy we inform you whether and how we evaluate data from your visit to this website. The evaluation of the collected data is generally anonymous and we cannot draw conclusions about your person from your behavior on this website.
You can find out more about options to object to this evaluation of visit data in the following privacy policy.
TLS Encryption with https
We use https to transmit data securely against eavesdropping on the internet (“data protection by design”, Article 25(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 use of this security for data transmission by the small lock symbol at the top left of the browser and the use of the scheme https (instead of http) as part of our internet address.
Google Maps Privacy Policy
We use Google Maps from Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA) on our website. With Google Maps we can show you locations better and thus adapt our service to your needs. By using Google Maps, data are transmitted to Google and stored on Google servers. Here we want to explain in more detail what Google Maps is, why we use this Google service, which data are stored, and how you can prevent this.
What is Google Maps?
Google Maps is an internet map service from Google Inc. With Google Maps you can search online via a PC, a tablet or an app for precise locations of cities, sights, accommodations or companies. If companies are represented on Google My Business, further information about the company is displayed in addition to the location. To display directions, map sections of a location can be integrated into a website using HTML code. Google Maps shows the earth’s surface as a road map or as aerial/satellite imagery. Thanks to Street View images and the high-quality satellite images, very precise representations are possible.
Why do we use Google Maps on our website?
All our efforts on this site pursue the goal of offering you a useful and meaningful time on our website. By integrating Google Maps, we can provide you with the most important information about various locations. You can see at a glance where our company headquarters are located. The directions always show you the best or fastest route to us. You can retrieve route directions by car, public transport, on foot or by bicycle. For us, providing Google Maps is part of our customer service.
Which data are stored by Google Maps?
In order for Google Maps to fully provide its service, the company must collect and store data from you. This includes, among other things, the search terms entered, your IP address, and the latitude and longitude coordinates. If you use the route planner function, the start address you enter is also stored. However, this data storage takes place on the Google Maps websites. We can only inform you about this but have no influence on it. Since we have embedded Google Maps in our website, Google sets at least one cookie (name: NID) in your browser. This cookie stores data about your user behavior. Google primarily uses these data to optimize its own services and to provide individual, personalized advertising for you.
The following cookie is set in your browser due to the integration of Google Maps:
Name: NID
Value: 188=h26c1Ktha7fCQTx8rXgLyATyITJ121250814-5
Purpose: NID is used by Google to adapt advertisements to your Google search. With the help of the cookie, Google “remembers” your most frequently entered search queries or your previous interaction with ads. This way you always get tailored advertisements. The cookie contains a unique ID that Google uses to collect your personal settings for advertising purposes.
Expiry date: after 6 months
Note: We cannot guarantee completeness regarding the stored data. Especially when cookies are used, changes can never be ruled out. In order to identify the NID cookie, a separate test page was created where only Google Maps was integrated.
How long and where are the data stored?
Google servers are located in data centers all over the world. However, most servers are located in America. For this reason, your data are also increasingly stored in the USA. You can read exactly where Google data centers are located here: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de
Google distributes the data across various storage media. This makes the data faster to retrieve and better protected against manipulation attempts. Each data center also has special emergency programs. If, for example, there are problems with Google hardware or a natural disaster brings down the servers, the data are still quite likely to remain protected.
Google stores some data for a specified period. For other data, Google only offers the option to delete them manually. Furthermore, the company also anonymizes information (such as advertising data) in server logs by deleting part of the IP address and cookie information after 9 or 18 months.
How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?
With the automatic deletion function for location and activity data introduced in 2019, information on location determination and web/app activity—depending on your decision—is stored for either 3 or 18 months and then deleted. In addition, you can delete these data manually from your history at any time via your Google account. If you want to completely prevent location tracking, you must pause “Web & App Activity” in your Google account. Click “Data & Personalization” and then the “Activity controls” option. Here you can turn activities on or off.
In your browser, you can also deactivate, delete or manage individual cookies. Depending on the browser you use, this works slightly differently. The following instructions show how to manage cookies in your browser:
Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome
Safari: Manage cookies and website data with Safari
Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have stored on your computer
Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies
Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies
If you generally do not want cookies, you can set up your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is about to be set. This way you can decide for each individual cookie whether to allow it or not.
Google is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. More information can be found at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI. If you want to learn more about Google’s data processing, we recommend the company’s own privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de.
Google Fonts Privacy Policy
On our website we use Google Fonts. These are the “Google fonts” of Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA).
You do not have to register or enter a password to use Google fonts. Furthermore, no cookies are stored in your browser. The files (CSS, fonts) are requested via the Google domains fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com. According to Google, requests for CSS and fonts are completely separate from all other Google services. If you have a Google account, you do not need to worry that your Google account data will be transmitted to Google during the use of Google Fonts. Google records the use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and the fonts used and stores these data securely. We will take a closer look at what this data storage looks like in detail.
What are Google Fonts?
Google Fonts (formerly Google Web Fonts) is a directory of more than 800 fonts that Google LLC provides to its users free of charge.
Many of these fonts are published under the SIL Open Font License, while others are published under the Apache License. Both are free software licenses.
Why do we use Google Fonts on our website?
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 building block for keeping the quality of our website high. All Google fonts are automatically optimized for the web, which saves data volume and is a major advantage especially for use on mobile devices. When you visit our site, the low file size ensures fast loading times. Furthermore, Google Fonts are secure web fonts. Different rendering systems in different browsers, operating systems and mobile devices can lead to errors. Such errors can partially distort text or entire webpages visually. Thanks to the fast Content Delivery Network (CDN), there are no cross-platform problems with Google Fonts. Google Fonts supports all common browsers (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera) and works reliably on most modern mobile operating systems, including Android 2.2+ and iOS 4.2+ (iPhone, iPad, iPod). We therefore use Google Fonts so that we can present our entire online service as beautifully and consistently as possible.
Which data are stored by Google?
When you visit our website, the fonts are loaded via a Google server. Through this external request, data are transmitted to the Google servers. This also allows Google to recognize that you—or your IP address—have visited our website. The Google Fonts API was developed to reduce the use, storage and collection of end-user data to what is necessary for proper font delivery. API stands for “Application Programming Interface” and serves, among other things, as a data transmitter in the software sector.
Google Fonts stores CSS and font requests securely at Google and is therefore protected. Through the collected usage numbers, Google can determine how well individual fonts are received. Google publishes the results on internal analysis pages, such as Google Analytics. In addition, Google also uses data from its own web crawler to determine which websites use Google fonts. These data are published in the BigQuery database of Google Fonts. Entrepreneurs and developers use Google’s BigQuery web service to examine and move large amounts of data.
However, it should be noted that each Google Font request also transmits information such as language settings, IP address, browser version, browser screen resolution, and browser name automatically to Google servers. Whether these data are also stored cannot be clearly determined or is not clearly communicated by Google.
How long and where are the data stored?
Requests for CSS assets are stored by Google for one day on its servers, which are primarily located outside the EU. This allows us to use the fonts with the help of a Google stylesheet. A stylesheet is a template that allows you to easily and quickly change, for example, the design or the font of a website.
The font files are stored by Google for one year. Google’s goal is to generally improve website loading times. When millions of websites refer to the same fonts, they are cached after the first visit and appear immediately on all other websites 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 one day or one year cannot simply be deleted. The data are automatically transmitted to Google when the page is accessed. To delete these data prematurely, you must contact Google support at https://support.google.com/?hl=de&tid=121250814. Preventing data storage in this case is only possible if you do not visit our site.
Unlike other web fonts, Google allows us unrestricted access to all fonts. This means we can access an unlimited sea of fonts and thus get the optimum for our website. More about Google Fonts and further questions can be found at https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq?tid=121250814. While Google addresses data protection issues there, it does not contain really detailed information about data storage. It is relatively difficult to get really precise information from Google about stored data.
You can also read which data Google generally collects and what these data are used for at https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/.
Google Fonts Local Privacy Policy
On our website we use Google Fonts from Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). We have integrated the Google fonts locally, i.e., on our web server—not on Google’s servers. This means there is no connection to Google servers and thus no data transmission or storage.
What are Google Fonts?
Google Fonts used to be called Google Web Fonts. This is an interactive directory with more than 800 fonts provided free of charge by Google LLC. With Google Fonts, you could use fonts without uploading them to your own server. However, in order to prevent any data transmission to Google servers, we have downloaded the fonts onto our server. In this way we act in compliance with data protection regulations and do not send any data to Google Fonts.
Unlike other web fonts, Google allows us unrestricted access to all fonts. This means we can access an unlimited sea of fonts and thus get the optimum for our website. More about Google Fonts and further questions can be found at https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq?tid=121250814.
Google Analytics Privacy Policy
We use the analysis tracking tool Google Analytics (GA) from the American company Google LLC (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA) on our website. Google Analytics collects data about your actions on our website. For example, if you click a link, this action is stored in a cookie and sent to Google Analytics. With the help of the reports we receive from Google Analytics, we can better adapt our website and our service to your wishes. Below we take a closer look at the tracking tool and inform you in particular about which data are stored and how you can prevent this.
What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a tracking tool used to analyze the traffic of our website. For Google Analytics to work, a tracking code is built into the code of our website. When you visit our website, this code records various actions you perform on our website. As soon as you leave our website, these data are sent to the Google Analytics servers and stored there.
Google processes the data and we receive reports about your user behavior. These may include, among others, the following reports:
Audience reports: Audience reports help us learn more about our users and know more precisely who is interested in our service.
Display reports: Display reports enable us to analyze and improve our online advertising more easily.
Acquisition reports: Acquisition reports give us helpful information on how we can inspire more people for our service.
Behavior reports: Here we learn how you interact with our website. We can track the path you take on our site and which links you click.
Conversion reports: A conversion is a process in which you carry out a desired action as a result of a marketing message—for example, when you move from being a pure website visitor to a buyer or newsletter subscriber. With the help of these reports we learn more about how our marketing measures are received by you. This is how we want to increase our conversion rate.
Real-time reports: Here we can always see immediately what is happening on our website—for example, we 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 achieve this goal.
The statistically evaluated data show us a clear picture of the strengths and weaknesses of our website. On the one hand, we can optimize our site so that it is more easily found by interested people on Google. On the other hand, the data help us understand you as a visitor better. We therefore know very precisely what we need to improve on our website in order to offer you the best possible service. The data also serve to carry out our advertising and marketing measures more individually and cost-effectively. After all, it only makes sense to show our products and services to people who are interested in them.
Which data are stored by Google Analytics?
With the help of a tracking code, Google Analytics creates a random, unique ID that is linked to your browser cookie. This is how Google Analytics recognizes you as a new user. The next time you visit our site, you will be recognized as a “returning” user. All collected data are stored together with this user ID. This is what makes it possible to evaluate pseudonymous user profiles.
Through identifiers such as cookies and app instance IDs, your interactions on our website are measured. Interactions are all kinds of actions you perform on our website. If you also use other Google systems (such as a Google account), data generated via Google Analytics can be linked with third-party cookies. Google does not pass on Google Analytics data unless we, as the website operator, approve this. Exceptions may occur when legally required.
The following cookies are used by Google Analytics:
Name: _ga
Value: 2.1326744211.152121250814-5
Purpose: By default, analytics.js uses the _ga cookie to store the user ID. Basically it serves to distinguish website visitors.
Expiry date: after 2 years
Name: _gid
Value: 2.1687193234.152121250814-1
Purpose: This cookie also serves to distinguish website visitors.
Expiry date: after 24 hours
Name: gat_gtag_UA<property-id>
Value: 1
Purpose: Used to reduce the request rate. If Google Analytics is provided via the Google Tag Manager, this cookie is named dc_gtm<property-id>.
Expiry date: after 1 minute
Name: AMP_TOKEN
Value: no details
Purpose: The cookie has a token that can be used to retrieve a user ID from the AMP Client ID service. Other possible values indicate a logout, a request or an error.
Expiry date: from 30 seconds up to one year
Name: __utma
Value: 1564498958.1564498958.1564498958.1
Purpose: This cookie can be used to track your behavior on the website and measure its performance. The cookie is updated every time information is sent to Google Analytics.
Expiry date: after 2 years
Name: __utmt
Value: 1
Purpose: Like gat_gtag_UA<property-id>, this cookie is used to throttle the request rate.
Expiry date: after 10 minutes
Name: __utmb
Value: 3.10.1564498958
Purpose: This cookie is used to determine new sessions. It is updated each time new data or information is sent to Google Analytics.
Expiry date: after 30 minutes
Name: __utmc
Value: 167421564
Purpose: This cookie is used to set new sessions for returning visitors. It is a session cookie and is only stored until you close the browser.
Expiry date: when the browser is closed
Name: __utmz
Value: m|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/
Purpose: This cookie is used to identify the source of visitor traffic to our website, i.e., where you came to our website from. This could be another page or an advertisement.
Expiry date: after 6 months
Name: __utmv
Value: no details
Purpose: This cookie is used to store custom user data. It is updated whenever information is sent to Google Analytics.
Expiry date: after 2 years
Note: This list does not claim to be complete, as Google changes its choice of cookies from time to time.
Here we show you an overview of the most important data collected by Google Analytics:
Heatmaps: Google creates so-called heatmaps. Heatmaps show exactly which areas you click. This gives us information about where you “move around” on our site.
Session duration: Google refers to session duration as the time you spend on our site without leaving it. If you have been inactive for 20 minutes, the session ends automatically.
Bounce rate: A bounce occurs when you only view one page on our website and then leave our website again.
Account creation: When you create an account or place an order on our website, Google Analytics collects these data.
IP address: The IP address is displayed only in shortened form so that a clear assignment is not possible.
Location: The IP address can be used to determine the country and your approximate location. This process is also known as IP-based location determination.
Technical information: Technical information includes your browser type, your internet service provider, or your screen resolution, among other things.
Source of origin: Google Analytics (and of course we) are also interested in which website or which advertisement brought you to our site.
Other data include contact details, any reviews, playing media (e.g., if you play a video via our site), sharing content via social media, or adding to your favorites. This list does not claim to be complete and serves only as a general orientation regarding data storage by Google Analytics.
How long and where are the data stored?
Google has distributed its servers all over the world. Most servers are located in America and therefore your data are usually stored on American servers. Here you can read exactly where Google data centers are located: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de
Your data are distributed across various physical storage media. The advantage of this is that the data can be retrieved more quickly and are better protected against manipulation. Each Google data center has appropriate emergency programs for your data. For example, if Google hardware fails or natural disasters bring down servers, the risk of service interruption at Google remains low.
In Google Analytics, a retention period of 26 months for your user data is set by default. After that, your user data are deleted. However, we have the option to choose the retention period for user data ourselves. Five variants are available:
Deletion after 14 months
Deletion after 26 months
Deletion after 38 months
Deletion after 50 months
No automatic deletion
When the specified period has expired, the data are deleted once a month. This retention period applies to your data linked to cookies, user recognition and advertising IDs (e.g., cookies from the DoubleClick domain). Report results are based on aggregated data and are stored independently of user data. Aggregated data are a consolidation of individual data into a larger unit.
How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?
Under EU data protection law, you have the right to obtain information about your data, update it, delete it, or restrict it. Using the browser add-on to disable Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, dc.js) prevents 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 data collection by Google Analytics.
If you want to deactivate, delete or manage cookies in general (independently of Google Analytics), there are separate instructions for each browser:
Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome
Safari: Manage cookies and website data with Safari
Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have stored on your computer
Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies
Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies
Google Analytics is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. More information can be found at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI&tid=121250814. We hope we were able to provide you with the most important information about Google Analytics data processing. 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 for Google Analytics on this website. This function was developed by Google so that this website can comply with applicable data protection regulations and recommendations of local data protection authorities if these prohibit storing the full IP address. The anonymization or masking of the IP takes place as soon as the IP addresses reach the Google Analytics data collection network and before any storage or processing of the data takes place.
More information on IP anonymization can be found at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2763052?hl=de.
Google Analytics Reports on Demographics and Interests
We have enabled the advertising reporting features in Google Analytics. The reports on demographics and interests contain information about age, gender and interests. This allows us—without being able to assign these data to individual persons—to get a better picture of our users. You can learn more about the advertising features at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3450482?hl=de_AT&utm_id=ad.
You can stop the use of the activities and information from your Google account under “Ad settings” at https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated by unchecking the relevant box.
Google Analytics Opt-Out Link
If you click the following opt-out link, you can prevent Google from collecting further visits to this website. Please note: deleting cookies, using your browser’s incognito/private mode, or using a different browser will result in data being collected again.
Disable Google Analytics
Google Analytics Data Processing Addendum
We have concluded a direct customer contract with Google for the use of Google Analytics by accepting the “Data Processing Addendum” in Google Analytics.
More information about the Data Processing Addendum for Google Analytics can be found 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 functions (advertising reports, remarketing, cross-device reports and reports on interests and demographics) in order to receive aggregated and anonymized data from you, provided you have allowed personalized ads in your Google account.
The special feature is that this is cross-device tracking. This means your data can be analyzed across devices. By activating Google Signals, data are collected and linked to the Google account. Google can, for example, recognize when you view a product on our website via a smartphone and only later buy the product via a laptop. Thanks to the activation of Google Signals, we can start cross-device remarketing campaigns that would otherwise not be possible in this form. Remarketing means we can show you our offer on other websites as well.
In Google Analytics, additional visitor data such as location, search history, YouTube history, and data about your actions on our website are also collected via Google Signals. This gives us better advertising reports and more useful information about your interests and demographic characteristics. This includes your age, which language you speak, where you live, or which gender you belong to. In addition, social criteria such as your profession, marital status or income may also be included. All these characteristics help Google Analytics define groups of people or target groups.
The reports also help us assess your behavior, wishes and interests better. This allows us to optimize and adapt our services and products for you. These data expire by default after 26 months. Please note that this data collection only takes place if you have allowed personalized advertising in your Google account. These are always aggregated and anonymous data and never data of individual persons. You can manage and delete these data in your Google account.
Facebook Pixel Privacy Policy
We use the Facebook Pixel from Facebook on our website. For this purpose we have implemented a code 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 came to our website via Facebook ads. For example, if you purchase a product on our website, the Facebook Pixel is triggered and stores your actions on our website in one or more cookies. These cookies enable Facebook to match your user data (customer data such as IP address, user ID) with the data of your Facebook account. Facebook then deletes these data again. The collected data are anonymous for us and cannot be viewed by us, and are only usable in the context of ad placements. If you are a Facebook user yourself and are logged in, your visit to our website is automatically assigned to your Facebook user account.
We want to show our services and products only to those people who are genuinely interested in them. With the help of the Facebook Pixel, our advertising measures can be better tailored to your wishes and interests. This means Facebook users (provided they have allowed personalized advertising) see suitable ads. Facebook also uses the collected data for analysis purposes and for its own advertisements.
Below we show you the cookies that were set by integrating the Facebook Pixel on a test page. Please note that these are only example cookies. Depending on interaction on our website, different cookies are set.
Name: _fbp
Value: fb.1.1568287647279.257405483-6121250814-7
Purpose: This cookie is used by Facebook to display advertising products.
Expiry date: after 3 months
Name: fr
Value: 0aPf312HOS5Pboo2r..Bdeiuf…1.0.Bdeiuf.
Purpose: This cookie is used so that the Facebook Pixel works properly.
Expiry date: after 3 months
Name: comment_author_50ae8267e2bdf1253ec1a5769f48e062121250814-3
Value: Author’s name
Purpose: This cookie stores the text and the name of a user who leaves a comment, for example.
Expiry date: after 12 months
Name: comment_author_url_50ae8267e2bdf1253ec1a5769f48e062
Value: https%3A%2F%2Fwww.testseite…%2F (author’s URL)
Purpose: This cookie stores the URL of the website that the user enters in a text field on our website.
Expiry date: after 12 months
Name: comment_author_email_50ae8267e2bdf1253ec1a5769f48e062
Value: Author’s email address
Purpose: This cookie stores the email address of the user if they have provided it on the website.
Expiry date: after 12 months
Note: The above cookies relate to individual user behavior. Especially when cookies are used, changes at Facebook can never be ruled out.
If you are logged in to Facebook, you can change your ad settings yourself at https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen. If you are not a Facebook user, you can generally manage your usage-based online advertising at http://www.youronlinechoices.com/de/praferenzmanagement/. There you have the option to deactivate or activate providers.
If you want to learn more about Facebook’s data protection, we recommend the company’s own data policy at https://www.facebook.com/policy.php.
Facebook Automatic Advanced Matching Privacy Policy
As part of the Facebook Pixel function, we have also activated Automatic Advanced Matching. This pixel function allows us to send hashed email addresses, names, gender, city, state, postal code and date of birth or telephone number as additional information to Facebook, provided you have made these data available to us. This activation allows 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
We use the Google Tag Manager from Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA) on our website. This Tag Manager is one of many helpful marketing products from Google. Via Google Tag Manager, we can centrally integrate and manage code snippets from various tracking tools that we use on our website.
In this privacy policy we want to explain in more detail what the Google Tag Manager does, why we use it and in what form data are processed.
What is Google Tag Manager?
Google Tag Manager is an organizational tool that allows us to integrate and manage website tags centrally via a user interface. Tags are small code snippets 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. Tags often come from Google-internal products such as Google Ads or Google Analytics, but tags from other companies can also be integrated and managed via the Manager. Such tags perform different tasks. They can collect browser data, feed marketing tools with data, integrate buttons, set cookies and also track users across multiple websites.
Why do we use Google Tag Manager for our website?
As the saying goes: organization is half the rent! And of course this also applies to the maintenance of our website. In order to design our website as well as possible for you and all people who are interested in our products and services, we need various tracking tools such as Google Analytics. The collected data from these tools show us what you are most interested in, where we can improve our services, and which people we should show our offers to. And for this tracking to work, we have to integrate the corresponding JavaScript codes into our website. In principle, we could insert each code snippet of the individual tracking tools separately into our source code. However, this takes a lot of time and it is easy to lose track. That is why we use Google Tag Manager. We can easily integrate the necessary scripts and manage them from one place. In addition, Google Tag Manager offers an easy-to-use interface and no programming knowledge is required. This way we manage to bring order into our tag jungle.
Which data are stored by Google Tag Manager?
The Tag Manager itself is a domain that does not set cookies and does not store data. It acts merely as a “manager” of the implemented tags. The data are collected by the individual tags of the various web analysis tools. In the Google Tag Manager, data are passed through to the individual tracking tools and are not stored.
However, the situation is different with the integrated tags of various web analysis tools such as Google Analytics. Depending on the analysis tool, various data about your web behavior are usually collected, stored and processed with the help of cookies. For this, please read our privacy texts for the individual analysis and tracking tools that we use on our website.
In the Tag Manager account settings, we have allowed Google to receive anonymized data from us. However, this only concerns the use and utilization of our Tag Manager and not your data that are stored via the code snippets. We enable Google and others to receive selected data in anonymized form. We therefore consent to the anonymous disclosure of our website data. Despite extensive research, we could not determine exactly which aggregated and anonymized data are passed on. In any case, Google deletes all information that could identify our website. Google aggregates the data with hundreds of other anonymous website data and creates user trends as part of benchmarking measures. Benchmarking compares one’s own results with those of competitors. Processes can be optimized based on the collected information.
How long and where are the data stored?
When Google stores data, these data are stored on Google’s own servers. The servers are distributed all over the world. Most are located in America. At 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 data from you can be found in our individual privacy texts for the respective tools.
How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?
Google Tag Manager itself does not set cookies; it manages tags from different tracking websites. In our privacy texts for the individual tracking tools you will find detailed information on how you can 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. More information can be found at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI&tid=121250814. If you want to learn more about Google Tag Manager, we recommend the FAQs at https://www.google.com/intl/de/tagmanager/faq.html.
Newsletter Privacy Policy
If you sign up for our newsletter, you transmit the personal data mentioned above and give us the right to contact you by email. The data stored as part of subscribing to the newsletter are used exclusively for our newsletter and are not passed on.
If you unsubscribe from the newsletter—you will find the link for this at the very bottom of every newsletter—we will delete all data that were stored when you subscribed to the newsletter.
MailChimp Privacy Policy
Like many other websites, we also use the services of the newsletter company MailChimp on our website. The operator of MailChimp is The Rocket Science Group, LLC, 675 Ponce de Leon Ave NE, Suite 5000, Atlanta, GA 30308 USA. Thanks to MailChimp, we can send you interesting news very easily via newsletter. With MailChimp we do not have to install anything and can still draw from a pool of really useful functions. Below we go into more detail about this email marketing service and inform you about the most important data protection aspects.
What is MailChimp?
MailChimp is a cloud-based newsletter management service. “Cloud-based” means that we do not have to install MailChimp on our own computer or server. Instead, we use the service via an IT infrastructure—available via the internet—on an external server. This way of using software is also referred to as SaaS (Software as a Service).
With MailChimp, we can choose from a wide range of different email types. Depending on what we want to achieve with our newsletter, we can run individual campaigns, regular campaigns, autoresponders (automatic email), A/B tests, RSS campaigns (sending at a predefined time and frequency) and follow-up campaigns.
Why do we use MailChimp on our website?
In principle, we use a newsletter service so that we can stay in touch with you. We want to tell you what’s new with us or what attractive offers we currently have in our program. For our marketing measures, we always look for the simplest and best solutions. And that’s why we chose the newsletter management service from MailChimp. Although the software is very easy to use, it offers a large number of helpful features. This allows us to design interesting and attractive newsletters in a very short time. With the design templates offered, we make each newsletter completely individual, and thanks to “responsive design” our content is displayed legibly and nicely on your smartphone (or another mobile device).
With tools such as the A/B test or the extensive analysis options, we can quickly see how our newsletters are received by you. This allows us to respond if necessary and improve our offering or our services.
Another advantage is Mailchimp’s “cloud system”. The data are not stored and processed directly on our server. We can retrieve the data from external servers and thus save our own storage space. In addition, maintenance effort is significantly reduced.
Which data are stored by MailChimp?
The Rocket Science Group LLC (MailChimp) operates online platforms that enable us to contact you (provided you have subscribed to our newsletter). If you become a subscriber to our newsletter via our website, you confirm via email membership in an email list at MailChimp. So that MailChimp can also prove that you have registered with the “list provider”, the date of registration and your IP address are stored. Furthermore, MailChimp stores your email address, your name, the physical address and demographic information such as language or location.
This information is used to send you emails and to enable certain other MailChimp functions (e.g., evaluating newsletters).
MailChimp also shares information with third parties in order to provide better services. MailChimp also shares some data with third-party advertising partners in order to better understand the interests and concerns of your customers so that more relevant content and targeted advertising can be provided.
Using so-called “web beacons” (small graphics in HTML emails), MailChimp can determine whether the email arrived, whether it was opened and whether links were clicked. All this information is stored on the MailChimp servers. This gives us statistical evaluations and we can see exactly how well our newsletter was received by you. In this way, we can adapt our offering much better to your wishes and improve our service.
MailChimp may also use these data to improve its own service. This can, for example, technically optimize sending or determine the location (country) of recipients.
The following cookies may be set by Mailchimp. This is not a complete list of cookies, but rather an exemplary selection:
Name: AVESTA_ENVIRONMENT
Value: Prod
Purpose: This cookie is necessary to provide the Mailchimp services. It is always set when a user registers for a newsletter mailing list.
Expiry date: at the end of the session
Name: ak_bmsc
Value: F1766FA98C9BB9DE4A39F70A9E5EEAB55F6517348A7000001121250814-3
Purpose: This cookie is used to distinguish a human from a bot. This makes it possible to create secure reports on the use of a website.
Expiry date: after 2 hours
Name: bm_sv
Value: A5A322305B4401C2451FC22FFF547486~FEsKGvX8eovCwTeFTzb8//I3ak2Au…
Purpose: This cookie comes from MasterPass Digital Wallet (a MasterCard service) and is used to offer a visitor a virtual payment process securely and easily. The user is identified anonymously on the website.
Expiry date: after 2 hours
Name: _abck
Value: 8D545C8CCA4C3A50579014C449B045121250814-9
Purpose: We were unable to obtain more detailed information about the purpose of this cookie.
Expiry date: after one year
Sometimes it can happen that you open our newsletter via a link provided for better display. This is the case, for example, if your email program does not work or the newsletter is not displayed properly. The newsletter is then displayed via a website of MailChimp. MailChimp also uses cookies (small text files that store data in your browser) on its own websites. Personal data may be processed by MailChimp and its partners (e.g., Google Analytics). This data collection is the responsibility of MailChimp and we have no influence on it. In MailChimp’s “Cookie Statement” (at: https://mailchimp.com/legal/cookies/) you can find out exactly how and why the company uses cookies.
How long and where are the data stored?
Since MailChimp is an American company, all collected data are also stored on American servers.
In principle, the data remain permanently stored on Mailchimp’s servers and are only deleted upon your request. You can request that your contact with us be deleted. This permanently removes all your personal data for us and anonymizes them in the Mailchimp reports. However, you can also request deletion of your data directly from MailChimp. Then all your data will be removed there and we will receive a notification from MailChimp. After we receive the email, we have 30 days to delete your contact from all connected integrations.
How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?
You can withdraw your consent to receive our newsletter at any time by clicking the link at the bottom of the email you receive. If you unsubscribe by clicking the unsubscribe link, your data will be deleted at MailChimp.
If you reach a MailChimp website via a link in our newsletter and cookies are set in your browser, you can delete or deactivate these cookies at any time.
Depending on the browser, deactivating or deleting works somewhat differently. The following instructions show how you can manage cookies in your browser:
Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome
Safari: Manage cookies and website data with Safari
Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have stored on your computer
Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies
Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies
If you generally do not want cookies, you can set up your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is about to be set. This way you can decide for each individual cookie whether to allow it or not.
MailChimp is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. More information can be found at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000TO6hAAG&tid=121250814. More about the use of cookies by MailChimp can be found at https://mailchimp.com/legal/cookies/; information on data protection at MailChimp (Privacy) can be found at https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/.
MailChimp Data Processing Agreement
We have concluded a data processing agreement (Data Processing Addendum) with MailChimp. This agreement serves to protect your personal data and ensures that MailChimp complies with applicable data protection regulations and does not pass on your personal data to third parties.
More information about this agreement can be found at http://mailchimp.com/legal/forms/data-processing-agreement/.
Google AdSense Privacy Policy
We use Google AdSense on this website. This is an advertising program of Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). With Google AdSense we can display advertisements on this website that match our topic. This way we offer you ads that ideally provide real added value. In this privacy policy about Google AdSense, we explain why we use Google AdSense on our website, which of your data are processed and stored, and how you can prevent this data storage.
What is Google AdSense?
The Google AdSense advertising program has existed since 2003. Unlike Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords), you cannot place ads yourself here. Via Google AdSense, ads are displayed on websites such as ours. The biggest advantage of this advertising service compared to some others is that Google AdSense only shows you ads that match our content. Google has its own algorithm that calculates which ads you get to see. Of course, we only want to offer you advertising that interests you and provides you with added value. Google checks, based on your interests or your user behavior and based on our offering, which ads are suitable for our website and our users. At this point we would also like to mention that we are not responsible for selecting the ads. With our website we merely provide the advertising space. Google makes the selection of displayed advertising. Since August 2013, the ads have also been adapted to the respective user interface. This means: whether you visit our website via smartphone, PC or laptop, the ads adapt to your device.
Why do we use Google AdSense on our website?
Operating a high-quality website requires a lot of dedication and effort. Basically, we are never finished working on our website. We always try to maintain our site and keep it as up to date as possible. Of course, we also want to achieve economic success with this work. That’s why we chose ads as a source of revenue. The most important thing for us is not to disturb your visit to our website through these ads. With the help of Google AdSense, you are only offered advertising that matches our topics and your interests.
Similar to Google’s indexing for a website, a bot examines the relevant content and offers of our website. Then the ads are adjusted to the content and presented on the website. In addition to the content overlap between the ad and the website offering, AdSense also supports interest-based targeting. This means that Google also uses your data to offer advertising tailored to you. This way you receive advertising that ideally offers you real added value and we have a higher chance of earning a little something.
Which data are stored by Google AdSense?
So that Google AdSense can show you tailored advertising, among other things cookies are used. Cookies are small text files that store certain information on your computer.
In AdSense, cookies are intended to enable better advertising. The cookies do not contain any personally identifiable data. However, it should be noted that Google regards data such as “pseudonymous cookie IDs” (name or other identifier is replaced by a pseudonym) or IP addresses as non-personally identifiable information. Under the GDPR, however, these data may be considered personal data. Google AdSense sends a cookie to the browser after each impression (that is whenever you see an ad), each click and any other activity that leads to a request to the Google AdSense servers. If the browser accepts the cookie, it is stored there.
Third parties may, as part of AdSense, place and read cookies in your browser and/or use web beacons to store data they receive through providing ads on the website. Web beacons are small graphics that enable log file analysis and recording of log files. This analysis enables a statistical evaluation for online marketing.
Google can use these cookies to collect certain information about your user behavior on our website. This includes:
information about how you interact with an ad (clicks, impressions, mouse movements)
information on whether an ad has already appeared in your browser at an earlier point in time; these data help to avoid showing you an ad too often
Google analyzes the data relating to the displayed advertising media and your IP address and evaluates these. Google primarily uses the data to measure the effectiveness of an ad and to improve the advertising offering. These data are not linked with personal data that Google may have about you via other Google services.
Below we present cookies that Google AdSense uses for tracking purposes. We refer to a test website that had only Google AdSense installed:
Name: uid
Value: 891269189121250814-8
Purpose: The cookie is stored under the domain adform.net. It provides a uniquely assigned, machine-generated user ID and collects data about activity on our website.
Expiry date: after 2 months
Name: C
Value: 1
Purpose: This cookie identifies whether your browser accepts cookies. The cookie is stored under the domain track.adform.net.
Expiry date: after 1 month
Name: cid
Value: 8912691894970695056,0,0,0,0
Purpose: This cookie is stored under the domain track.adform.net, stands for client ID and is used to improve advertising for you. It can forward more relevant advertising to the visitor and helps improve reports on campaign performance.
Expiry date: after 2 months
Name: IDE
Value: zOtj4TWxwbFDjaATZ2TzNaQmxrU121250814-1
Purpose: This cookie is stored under the domain doubleclick.net. It is used to record your actions after viewing the ad or clicking the ad. This makes it possible to measure how well an ad is received by our visitors.
Expiry date: after 1 month
Name: test_cookie
Value: no details
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 doubleclick.net.
Expiry date: after 1 month
Name: CT592996
Value: 733366
Purpose: Stored under the domain adform.net. The cookie is set as soon as you click on an ad. We were unable to obtain more detailed information about the use of this cookie.
Expiry date: after one hour
Note: This list does not claim to be complete, as Google changes its choice of cookies from time to time.