Privacy

Data protection

We have written this data protection declaration in order to explain to you what information we collect, how we use data and what choices you have as a visitor to this website in accordance with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679.

 

Automatic data storage

When you visit websites today, certain information is automatically created and stored, including on this website.

• the address (URL) of the accessed website
• 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 being 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 on this data, but cannot rule out that this data will be viewed in the event of illegal behavior.

 

Cookies

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

What exactly are cookies?

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

One thing cannot be denied: Cookies are really useful little helpers. Almost all websites use cookies. More precisely, they are HTTP cookies, as there are other cookies for other areas of application. HTTP cookies are small files that are stored on your computer by our website. These cookie files are automatically stored in the cookie folder, which is basically 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 speichern gewisse Nutzerdaten von Ihnen, wie beispielsweise Sprache oder persönliche Seiteneinstellungen. Wenn Sie unsere Seite wieder aufrufen, übermittelt Ihr Browser die „userbezogenen“ Informationen an unsere Seite zurück. Dank der Cookies weiß unsere Webseite, wer Sie sind und bietet Ihnen die Einstellung, die Sie gewohnt sind. In einigen Browsern hat jedes Cookie eine eigene Datei, in anderen wie beispielsweise Firefox sind alle Cookies in einer einzigen Datei gespeichert.

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, since 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 "pests". Cookies also cannot access information on your PC.

For example, cookie data can look like this:

Name: _ga
Value: GA1.2.1326744211.152121374787-9
Purpose: Differentiation of website visitors
Expiry date: after 2 years

A browser should be able to support these minimum sizes:

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

What types of cookies are there?

The question of which cookies we use in particular depends on the services used and is clarified in the following sections of the data protection declaration. At this point we would like to briefly discuss 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 if a user puts a product in the shopping cart, then continues surfing on other pages and only goes to the checkout later. These cookies do not delete the shopping cart, even if the user closes their browser window.

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

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

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

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

How can I delete cookies?

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

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

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

What about my data protection?

The so-called “Cookie Guidelines” have been in place since 2009. It states that the storage of cookies requires your consent. Within the EU countries, however, there are still very different reactions to these directives. In Austria, however, this directive was implemented in Section 96 (3) of the Telecommunications Act (TKG).

 

Rights under the General Data Protection Regulation

According to the provisions of the GDPR and the Austrian Data Protection Act (DSG), you 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 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 your data protection claims have otherwise been violated in any way, you can complain to the supervisory authority, which is the data protection authority in Austria, whose website you can access at https://www. dsb.gv.at/.

 

Evaluation of visitor behavior

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

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

 

Google Fonts Privacy Policy

We use Google Fonts on our website. These are the “Google fonts” from Google Inc. The company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services in Europe.
You do not need to register or enter a password to use Google fonts. Furthermore, no cookies are stored in your browser. The files (CSS, typefaces/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 don't have to worry about your Google account data being transmitted to Google while using Google Fonts. Google records the use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and the fonts used and stores this data securely. How the data storage looks exactly, we will look at in detail.

What are Google Fonts?

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

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

Why do we use Google Fonts on our website?

With Google Fonts we can use fonts on our own website and do not have to upload them to our own server. Google Fonts is an important component in keeping the quality of our website high. All Google fonts are automatically optimized for the web and this saves data volume and is a great advantage especially for use with mobile devices. When you visit our site, the small file size ensures fast loading time. Furthermore, Google Fonts are secure web fonts. Different image synthesis systems (rendering) in different browsers, operating systems and mobile devices can lead to errors. Such errors can partially distort texts or entire websites. Thanks to the fast Content Delivery Network (CDN), there are no cross-platform problems with Google Fonts. Google Fonts supports all major browsers (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera) and works reliably on most modern mobile operating systems, including Android 2.2+ and iOS 4.2+ (iPhone, iPad, iPod). So we use Google Fonts so that we can present our entire online service as beautifully and uniformly as possible.

Which data is stored by Google?

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

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

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

How long and where is the data stored?

Google stores requests for CSS assets for one day on its servers, which are mainly located outside the EU. This enables us to use the fonts using a Google style sheet. A style sheet is a template that you can use to quickly and easily change the design or font of a website, for example.

The font files are stored by Google for one year. Google is thus pursuing the goal of fundamentally improving the loading time of websites. When millions of websites refer to the same fonts, they are cached after the first visit and immediately reappear 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 a day or a year cannot simply be deleted. The data is automatically transmitted to Google when the page is accessed. In order to be able to delete this data prematurely, you must contact Google Support at https://support.google.com/?hl=de&tid=121374787. In this case, you only prevent data storage if you do not visit our site.

Unlike other web fonts, Google allows us unlimited access to all fonts. So we have unlimited access to a sea of fonts and thus get the best out of our website. You can find more about Google Fonts and other questions at https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq?tid=121374787. Although 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 about stored data from Google.

You can also read about what data Google collects and what this data is used for at LINK.

 

Google Fonts Local Privacy Policy

On our website we use Google Fonts from Google Inc. The company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for the European area. We have integrated the Google fonts locally, i.e. on our web server - not on the Google servers. As a result, there is no connection to Google servers and therefore no data transmission or storage.

What are Google Fonts?

Google Fonts used to be called Google Web Fonts. This is an interactive directory of over 800 fonts that Google provides for free. With Google Fonts, you could use fonts without uploading them to your own server. However, in order to prevent any transfer of information to Google servers in this regard, we have downloaded the fonts to our server. In this way, we act in compliance with data protection and do not send any data to Google Fonts.

Unlike other web fonts, Google allows us unlimited access to all fonts. So we have unlimited access to a sea of fonts and thus get the best out of our website. You can find more about Google Fonts and other questions at https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq?tid=121374787.

 

Google Analytics Privacy Policy

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

What is Google Analytics?

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

Google processes the data and we receive reports on your user behavior. These reports may include the following:

• Target group reports: With target group reports, we get to know our users better and know more precisely who is interested in our service.
• Ad reports: Ad reports make it easier for us to analyze and improve our online advertising.
• Acquisition Reports: Acquisition reports provide us with helpful information on how to attract more people to our service.
• Behavior Reports: Here we learn how you interact with our website. We can understand which path you take on our site and which links you click on.
• Conversion reports: Conversion is a process in which you perform a desired action based on a marketing message. For example, when you go from being a mere website visitor to a buyer or newsletter subscriber. These reports enable us to learn more about how our marketing measures are resonating with you. This is how we want to increase our conversion rate.
• Real-time reports: Here we always know immediately what is happening on our website. For example, we can see how many users are currently reading this text.

Why do we use Google Analytics on our website?

Our goal with this website is clear: We want to offer you the best possible service. The statistics and data from Google Analytics help us to achieve this goal. The statistically evaluated data give us a clear picture of the strengths and weaknesses of our website. On the one hand, we can optimize our site so that interested people can find it more easily on Google. On the other hand, the data helps us to better understand you as a visitor. We therefore know exactly what we need to improve on our website in order to offer you the best possible service. The data also helps us to carry out our advertising and marketing measures more individually and cost-effectively. After all, it only makes sense to show our products and services to people who care.

What data is stored by Google Analytics?

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

Identifiers such as cookies and app instance IDs are used to measure your interactions on our website. Interactions are any type of action you take on our website. If you also use other Google systems (such as a Google account), data generated via Google Analytics can be linked to third-party cookies. Google does not pass on Google Analytics data unless we as the website operator authorize this. Exceptions may arise if required by law.

Here we show you an overview of the most important data that is collected with Google Analytics:

Heatmaps: Google creates so-called heatmaps. Heatmaps show exactly those areas that you click on. This is how we get information about where you are on our site.

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

Bounce Rate: A bounce occurs when you view just one page on our site and then leave our site.

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

IP address: The IP address is only shown in abbreviated form so that no clear assignment is possible.

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

Technical information: The technical information includes, among other things, your browser type, your Internet provider or your screen resolution.

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

Other data are contact details, any ratings, playing media (e.g. if you play a video on our site), sharing content via social media or adding it to your favorites. The list does not claim to be complete and only serves as a general guide to data storage by Google Analytics.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google has distributed their servers all over the world. Most of the servers are located in America and consequently your data is mostly stored on American servers. Here you can read exactly where the Google data centers are located: LINK

Your data is distributed across different physical media. This has the advantage that the data can be called up more quickly and is better protected against manipulation. Every Google data center has emergency programs for your data. For example, if Google's hardware fails or natural disasters paralyze servers, the risk of a service interruption at Google remains low.

A standard storage period for your user data of 26 months is set for Google Analytics. Then your user data will be deleted. However, we have the option of choosing the retention period for user data ourselves. We have five options available for this:

• 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 will be deleted once a month. This retention period applies to your data associated with 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 is a merging of individual data into a larger unit.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

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

 

Google Analytics IP anonymization

We have implemented Google Analytics IP address anonymization on this website. This function was developed by Google so that this website can comply with applicable data protection regulations and recommendations from local data protection authorities if they prohibit the storage of the full IP address. The IP is anonymized or masked as soon as the IP addresses arrive in the Google Analytics data collection network and before the data is stored or processed.

You can find more information on IP anonymization at LINK

 

Google Analytics reports on demographics and interests

We have activated the functions for advertising reports in Google Analytics. The Demographics and Interests reports include information about age, gender, and interests. This enables us to get a better picture of our users without being able to assign this data to individual persons. You can find out more about the advertising functions at LINK.

You can end the use of the activities and information from your Google account under “Advertising settings” at LJNK by checking the box.

 

Google Tag Manager Privacy Policy

We use the Google Tag Manager from Google Inc. for our website. The company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services in Europe. This tag manager is one of many helpful marketing products from Google. Using the Google Tag Manager, we can centrally install and manage code sections from various tracking tools that we use on our website.

In this privacy policy, we want to explain to you in more detail what the Google Tag Manager does, why we use it and how data is processed.

What is Google Tag Manager?

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

Why do we use Google Tag Manager for our website?

As the saying goes: organization is half the battle! And of course that also applies to the maintenance of our website. In order to make our website as good 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 data collected by these tools show us what interests you most, where we can improve our services and to which people we should still show our offers. And for this tracking to work, we have to embed the appropriate JavaScript codes into our website. In principle, we could integrate each code section of the individual tracking tools separately into our source code. However, this requires a relatively large amount of time and it is easy to lose track. That's why we use the Google Tag Manager. We can easily build in the necessary scripts and manage them from one place. In addition, the Google Tag Manager offers an easy-to-use user interface and you do not need any programming knowledge. This is how we manage to keep order in our daily jungle.

What data is stored by Google Tag Manager?

The Tag Manager itself is a domain that does not set cookies and does not store any data. It acts as a mere "manager" of the implemented tags. The data is recorded by the individual tags of the different web analysis tools. The data is passed through to the individual tracking tools in the Google Tag Manager and not saved.

However, it looks completely different with the integrated tags of the various web analysis tools, such as Google Analytics. Depending on the analysis tool, various data about your web behavior is usually collected, stored and processed with the help of cookies. To do this, please read our data protection texts on the individual analysis and tracking tools that we use on our website.

In the Tag Manager account settings, we have allowed Google to receive anonymous data from us. However, this only relates to the use and utilization of our tag manager and not to your data, which is stored via the code sections. We enable Google and others to receive selected data in an anonymous form. We therefore agree to the anonymous transfer of our website data. Despite extensive research, we were not able to find out exactly which summarized and anonymous data is forwarded. In any case, Google deletes all information that could identify our website. Google combines the data with hundreds of other anonymous website data and creates user trends as part of benchmarking measures. In benchmarking, your own results are compared with those of your competitors. Processes can be optimized on the basis of the information collected.

How long and where is the data stored?

When Google saves data, this data is saved on Google's own servers. The servers are spread all over the world. Most are in America. At LINK you can read exactly where the Google servers are located.

How long the individual tracking tools store your data can be found in our individual data protection texts for the individual tools.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

The Google Tag Manager itself does not set any cookies, but manages tags from various tracking websites. In our data protection texts for the individual tracking tools, you will find detailed information on how to delete or manage your data. Google is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. For more information, see LINK. If you want to learn more about the Google Tag Manager, we recommend the FAQs at LINK.

 

Google Site Kit Privacy Policy

We have integrated the WordPress plugin Google Site Kit from the American company Google Inc. into our website. The company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services in Europe. With Google Site Kit, we can quickly and easily view statistics coming from various Google products such as Google Analytics directly in our WordPress dashboard. The tool or the tools integrated into Google Site Kit also collect personal data from you, among other things. In this data protection declaration, we explain why we use Google Site Kit, how long and where data is stored and which other data protection texts are relevant to you in this context.

What is Google Site Kit?

Google Site Kit is a plugin for the WordPress content management system. With this plugin we can view important website analysis statistics directly in our dashboard. These are statistics collected by other Google products. Above all by Google Analytics. In addition to Google Analytics, the services Google Search Console, Page Speed Insight, Google AdSense, Google Optimize and Google Tag Manager can also be linked to Google Site Kit.

Why do we use Google Site Kit on our website?

As a service provider, it is our job to offer you the best possible experience on our website. You should feel comfortable on our website and find exactly what you are looking for quickly and easily. Statistical evaluations help us to get to know you better and to adapt our offer to your wishes and interests. We use various Google tools for these evaluations. Site Kit makes our work a lot easier in this regard because we can view and analyze the statistics of Google products right in the dashboard. So we no longer have to register separately for the respective tool. Site Kit thus always offers a good overview of the most important analysis data.

What data is stored by Google Site Kit?

If you have actively consented to tracking tools in the cookie notice (also called script or banner), Google products such as Google Analytics will set cookies and your data, such as your user behavior, will be sent to Google, where it will be stored and processed. This also includes personal data such as your IP address.

For more detailed information on the individual services, we have separate text sections in this data protection declaration. For example, see our Google Analytics Privacy Policy. Here we go into the collected data very precisely. You can find out how long Google Analytics stores, manages and processes data, which cookies can be used and how you can prevent data storage. We also have our own data protection declarations with comprehensive information for other Google services such as Google Tag Manager or Google AdSense.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google stores collected data on its own Google servers, which are distributed worldwide. Most of the servers are located in the United States and therefore it is quite possible that your data will also be stored there. At LINK you can see exactly where the company provides servers.

Data collected by Google Analytics is stored for a standardized period of 26 months. Your user data will then be deleted. The retention period applies to all data associated with cookies, user identification and advertising IDs.

 

Newsletter Privacy Policy

If you subscribe to our newsletter, you submit the above personal data and give us the right to contact you by email. We use the data stored when registering for the newsletter exclusively for our newsletter and do not pass it on.

If you unsubscribe from the newsletter - you will find the link for this at the bottom of every newsletter - we will delete all data that was saved when you registered for the newsletter.

 

Google AdSense Privacy Policy

We use Google AdSense on this website. This is an advertising program from Google Inc. In Europe, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. With Google AdSense, we can display advertisements on this website that match our topic. We offer you advertisements that ideally represent real added value for you. In the course of this data protection declaration about Google AdSense, we explain to you why we use Google AdSense on our website, which of your data is processed and stored and how you can prevent this data storage.

What is Google AdSense?

The Google AdSense advertising program has been around since 2003. In contrast to Google Ads (formerly: Google AdWords), you cannot place your own advertising here. Advertisements on websites, such as ours, are played out via Google AdSense. 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 see. Of course, we only want to offer you advertising that interests you and offers you added value. Based on your interests or your user behavior and based on our offer, Google checks which advertisements are suitable for our website and for our users. At this point we would also like to mention that we are not responsible for the selection of advertisements. We only offer advertising space on our website. The selection of the displayed advertising is made by Google. Since August 2013, the ads have also been adapted to the respective user interface. This means that whether you visit our website from your smartphone, PC or laptop, the ads adapt to your end device.

Why do we use Google AdSense on our website?

Running a quality website takes a lot of dedication and effort. Basically, we never finish 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 advertising as a source of income. However, the most important thing for us is that these ads do not disturb your visit to our website. With the help of Google AdSense, you will only be offered advertising that matches our topics and your interests.

Similar to Google indexing for a website, a bot examines the relevant content and offers on our website. The content of the advertisements is then adapted and presented on the website. In addition to overlapping content between the ad and the website, AdSense also supports interest-based targeting. This means that Google also uses your data to offer advertising tailored to you. In this way you receive advertising that ideally offers you real added value and we have a better chance of earning a little something.

What data is stored by Google AdSense?

Cookies are used, among other things, so that Google AdSense can display tailor-made advertising tailored to you. 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. It should be noted, however, that Google considers data such as "pseudonymous cookie IDs" (name or other identification feature is replaced by a pseudonym) or IP addresses as non-personally identifiable information. However, within the framework of the GDPR, this data can be considered personal data. Google AdSense sends a cookie to the browser after every impression (this is always the case when you see an ad), every click and every other activity that leads to a call to the Google AdSense servers. If the browser accepts the cookie, it will be saved there.

As part of AdSense, third-party providers may be able to place and read cookies in your browser or use web beacons to store data that they receive from the display of ads on the website. Web beacons are small graphics that analyze and record the log file. 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. These include:

• Information on how to deal with an ad (clicks, impressions, mouse movements)
• Information as to whether an advertisement has already appeared in your browser at an earlier time. This data helps to stop showing you an ad more often.

In doing so, Google analyzes and evaluates the data on the advertising material displayed and your IP address. Google uses the data primarily to measure the effectiveness of an ad and to improve the advertising offer. This data is not linked to any personally identifiable information that Google may have about you through other Google services.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google collects your IP address and various activities that you carry out on the website. Cookies store this information about the interactions on our website. According to Google, the company securely collects and stores the information provided on its in-house Google servers in the United States.

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

You can delete some of the data stored by Google at any time (see next section). A lot of information stored in cookies is automatically deleted after a certain period of time. However, there is also data that is stored by Google over a longer period of time. This is the case if Google has to store certain data for an indefinite, longer period of time for economic or legal reasons.

 

Google Ads (Google AdWords) Conversion Tracking Privacy Policy

We use Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) as an online marketing measure to advertise our products and services. We want to make more people aware of the high quality of our offers on the Internet. As part of our advertising measures through Google Ads, we use conversion tracking from Google Inc. on our website. In Europe, however, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. This free tracking tool allows us to better tailor our advertising to your interests and needs. In the following article we want to go into more detail about why we use conversion tracking, what data is stored and how you can prevent this data storage.

What is Google Ads conversion tracking?

Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is the in-house online advertising system from Google Inc. We are convinced of the quality of our offer and want as many people as possible to get to know our website. In the online area, Google Ads offers the best platform for this. Of course, we also want to get a precise overview of the cost-benefit factor of our advertising campaigns. That's why we use the Google Ads conversion tracking tool.

But what exactly is a conversion? A conversion occurs when you change from a purely interested website visitor to an acting visitor. This always happens when you click on our ad and then perform another action, such as visiting our website. We use Google's conversion tracking tool to record what happens after a user clicks on our Google Ads ad. For example, we can see whether products are being purchased, services are being used or whether users have signed up for our newsletter.

Why do we use Google Ads conversion tracking on our website?

We use Google Ads to draw attention to our offer on other websites. The aim is that our advertising campaigns really only reach those people who are interested in our offers. With the conversion tracking tool, we see which keywords, ads, ad groups and campaigns lead to the desired customer actions. We see how many customers interact with our ads on a device and then convert. This data enables us to calculate our cost-benefit factor, measure the success of individual advertising measures and consequently optimize our online marketing measures. With the help of the data obtained, we can also make our website more interesting for you and adapt our advertising offer even more individually to your needs.

What data is stored with Google Ads conversion tracking?

We have embedded a conversion tracking tag or code snippet on our website to better analyze certain user actions. If you now click on one of our Google Ads ads, the "Conversion" cookie from a Google domain will be stored on your computer (usually in the browser) or mobile device. Cookies are small text files that store information on your computer.

As soon as you complete an action on our website, Google recognizes the cookie and saves your action as a so-called conversion. As long as you surf our website and the cookie has not yet expired, we and Google will recognize that you have found us via our Google Ads ad. The cookie is read and sent back to Google Ads with the conversion data. It is also possible that other cookies are used to measure conversions. Google Ads conversion tracking can be further refined and improved with the help of Google Analytics. For ads that Google displays in various places on the web, cookies with the name “__gads” or “_gac” may be set under our domain. Since September 2017, analytics.js has been storing various campaign information with the _gac cookie. The cookie saves this data as soon as you visit one of our pages for which Google Ads automatic tagging has been set up. Unlike cookies set for Google domains, Google can only read these conversion cookies when you are on our website. We do not collect or receive any personal data. We get a report from Google with statistical evaluations. For example, we learn the total number of users who clicked on our ad and we see which advertising measures were well received.

How long and where is the data stored?

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

 

Embedded Social Media Elements Privacy Policy

We integrate elements of social media services on our website to display images, videos and texts. By visiting pages that display these elements, data is transferred from your browser to the respective social media service and stored there. We have no access to this data.

The following links take you to the pages of the respective social media services, where it is explained how they handle your data:

• Instagram Privacy Policy: LINK
• The Google data protection declaration applies to YouTube: LINK

 

Instagram Privacy Policy

We have integrated Instagram functions on our website. Instagram is a social media platform operated by Instagram LLC, 1601 Willow Rd, Menlo Park CA 94025, USA. Instagram has been a subsidiary of Facebook Inc. since 2012 and is one of the Facebook products. Embedding Instagram content on our website is called embedding. This enables us to show you content such as buttons, photos or videos from Instagram directly on our website. If you call up web pages on our website that have an integrated Instagram function, data will be transmitted to Instagram, stored and processed. Instagram uses the same systems and technologies as Facebook. Your data will thus be processed across all Facebook companies.

In the following we would like to give you a more detailed insight into why Instagram collects data, what data it is and how you can largely control the data processing. Since Instagram belongs to Facebook Inc., we get our information from the Instagram guidelines on the one hand, but also from the Facebook data guidelines on the other.

What is Instagram?

Instagram is one of the most well-known social media networks worldwide. Instagram combines the advantages of a blog with the advantages of audiovisual platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo. You can upload photos and short videos to "Insta" (as many users casually call the platform), edit them with various filters and also share them on other social networks. And if you don't want to be active yourself, you can just follow other interesting users.

Why do we use Instagram on our website?

Instagram is the social media platform that has really taken off in recent years. And of course we also reacted to this boom. We want you to feel as comfortable as possible on our website. Therefore, a varied preparation of our content is a matter of course for us. The embedded Instagram functions allow us to enrich our content with helpful, funny or exciting content from the Instagram world. Since Instagram is a subsidiary of Facebook, the data collected can also be useful for personalized advertising on Facebook. In this way, our advertisements only get to people who are really interested in our products or services.

Instagram also uses the collected data for measurement and analysis purposes. We get summarized statistics and thus more insight into your wishes and interests. It is important to note that these reports do not personally identify you.

What data is stored by Instagram?

When you come across one of our pages that has Instagram features (such as Instagram images or plugins) built in, your browser automatically connects to Instagram's servers. Data is sent to Instagram, stored and processed. This is regardless of whether you have an Instagram account or not. This includes information about our website, about your computer, about purchases made, about advertisements that you see and how you use our offer. Furthermore, the date and time of your interaction with Instagram are also saved. If you have an Instagram account or are logged in, Instagram stores significantly more data about you.

Facebook distinguishes between customer data and event data. We assume that this is the case with Instagram as well. Customer data are, for example, name, address, telephone number and IP address. This customer data will only be transmitted to Instagram if it has been "hashed" beforehand. Hashing means converting a record into a string. This allows you to encrypt the contact data. In addition, the “event data” mentioned above are also transmitted. Facebook – and consequently also Instagram – understands “event data” to be data about your user behavior. It can also happen that contact data is combined with event data. The contact data collected will be compared with the data that Instagram already has from you.

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

We assume that data processing works the same on Instagram as on Facebook. This means: if you have an Instagram account or have visited www.instagram.com, Instagram has set at least one cookie. If this is the case, your browser sends information to Instagram via the cookie as soon as you come into contact with an Instagram function. This data will be deleted or made anonymous again after 90 days at the latest (after comparison). Although we have dealt intensively with Instagram's data processing, we cannot say exactly what data Instagram collects and stores.

How long and where is the data stored?

Instagram shares the information it receives between the Facebook companies with external partners and with people you connect with around the world. Data processing is carried out in compliance with our own data policy. For security reasons, among other things, your data is distributed across the world on Facebook servers. Most of these servers are located in the USA.

 

YouTube Privacy Policy

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

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

What is YouTube?

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

Why do we use YouTube videos on our website?

YouTube is the video platform with the most visitors and the best content. We strive to offer you the best possible user experience on our website. And of course interesting videos should not be missing. With the help of our embedded videos, we provide you with additional helpful content in addition to our texts and images. In addition, our website can be found more easily on the Google search engine thanks to the embedded videos. Even if we place advertisements via Google Ads, thanks to the data collected, Google can really only show these advertisements to people who are interested in our offers.

Which data is stored by YouTube?

As soon as you visit one of our pages that has a YouTube video installed, YouTube sets at least one cookie that stores your IP address and our URL. If you are logged into your YouTube account, YouTube can mostly use cookies to associate your interactions on our website with your profile. This includes data such as session duration, bounce rate, approximate location, technical information such as browser type, screen resolution or your Internet provider. Other data can be contact details, any ratings, sharing content via social media or adding it to your favorites on YouTube.

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

How long and where is the data stored?

The data that YouTube receives from you and processes is stored on the Google servers. Most of these servers are located in America. At LINK you can see exactly where the Google data centers are located. Your data is distributed on the servers. This means that the data can be called up more quickly and is better protected against manipulation.

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

 

Custom Google Search Privacy Policy

We have integrated the Google plug-in for user-defined search on our website. Google is the largest and best-known search engine in the world and is operated by the US company Google Inc. The company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for the European area. The user-defined Google search can transfer data from you to Google. In this data protection declaration we inform you why we use this plug-in, which data is processed and how you can manage or prevent this data transmission.

What is Google Custom Search?

The Google Custom Search plugin is a Google search bar right on our website. The search takes place as on www.google.com, only the search results focus on our content and products or on a limited search area.

Why do we use Google Custom Search on our website?

A website with a lot of interesting content is often so big that you can lose track of it. We have also accumulated a lot of valuable material over time and as part of our service we want you to find our content as quickly and easily as possible. Custom Google Search makes finding interesting content a breeze. The built-in Google plug-in improves the overall quality of our website and makes it easier for you to search.

What data is stored by the custom Google search?

The custom Google search only transfers data from you to Google if you actively use the Google search built into our website. This means that only when you enter a search term in the search bar and then confirm this term (e.g. click on "Enter") will your IP address and the search term be sent to Google, stored and processed there. Based on the cookies set (e.g. 1P_JAR) it can be assumed that Google also receives data on website usage. If you search for content during your visit to our website using the built-in Google search function and are logged in to your Google account at the same time, Google can also assign the data collected to your Google account. As the website operator, we have no influence on what Google does with the data collected or how Google processes the data.

How long and where is the data stored?

The Google servers are distributed all over the world. Since Google is an American company, most of the data is stored on American servers. At LINK you can see exactly where the Google servers are located. Your data is distributed across different physical media. As a result, the data can be called up more quickly and is better protected against possible manipulation. Google also has corresponding emergency programs for your data. If, for example, there are internal technical problems at Google and servers are no longer working as a result, the risk of a service interruption and loss of data remains small. Depending on which data is involved, Google stores it for different lengths of time. You can delete some data yourself, others are automatically deleted or made anonymous by Google. However, there is also data that Google stores longer if this is necessary for legal or business reasons.

 

Google Maps Data protection

We use Google Maps from Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheater Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA) on our website. With Google Maps we can visualize locations better and thus improve our service. By using Google Maps, data is transmitted to Google and stored on the Google servers. Here we want to go into more detail about what Google Maps is, why we use this Google service, what data is stored and how you can prevent this.

What is Google Maps?

Google Maps is an online map service from Google Inc. You can use Google Maps to search for the exact locations of cities, sights, accommodation or companies on the Internet using a PC or an app. If companies are represented on Google My Business, additional information about the company is displayed in addition to the location. In order to show how to get there, map sections of a location can be integrated into a website using HTML code. Google Maps shows the earth's surface as a street map or as an aerial or satellite image. Thanks to the Street View images and the high-quality satellite images, very precise representations are possible.

What data is stored by Google Maps?

In order for Google Maps to be able to fully offer 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 entered will also be saved. However, this data storage happens on the Google Maps website. We can only inform you about this, but have no influence. Since we have integrated Google Maps into our website, Google sets at least one cookie (name: NID) in your browser. This cookie stores data about your user behavior. Google uses this data primarily to optimize its own services and to provide you with individual, personalized advertising.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google servers are located in data centers around the world. However, most of the servers are located in America. For this reason, your data is also increasingly stored in the USA.

 

Google distributes the data on different data carriers. As a result, the data can be called up more quickly and is better protected against any attempts at manipulation. Each data center also has special emergency programs. If, for example, there are problems with the Google hardware or a natural disaster affects the servers, the data is likely to remain protected.

 

Google stores some data for a fixed period of time. For other data, Google only offers the option of manually deleting it. The company also anonymizes information (such as advertising data) in server logs by deleting part of the IP address and cookie information after 9 and 18 months, respectively.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

With the automatic deletion of location and activity data introduced in 2019, information on location determination and web/app activity is stored for either 3 or 18 months – depending on your decision – and then deleted. You can also manually delete this data from the history at any time via the Google account. If you want to completely prevent your location tracking, you need to pause the "Web and app activity" section in the Google account. Click "Data and Personalization" and then click the "Activity Settings" option. Here you can switch the activities on or off.

 

You can also deactivate, delete or manage individual cookies in your browser. Depending on which browser you use, this works in different ways. If you generally do not want any cookies, you can set up your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be set. You can decide for each individual cookie whether you 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.

 

Cookiebot Privacy Policy

We use functions of the provider Cookiebot on our website IUBENDA. Among other things, Cookiebot offers us the option of providing you with a comprehensive cookie notice (also known as a cookie banner or cookie notice). By using this function, data from you can be sent to Cookiebot or Cybot, stored and processed. In this data protection declaration we inform you why we use Cookiebot, which data is transferred and how you can prevent this data transfer.

What data does Cookiebot store?

If you allow cookies, the following data will be transmitted to Cybot, stored and processed.

• IP address (in anonymous form, the last 3 digits are set to 0)
• Date and time of your consent
• our website url
• technical browser data
• encrypted, anonymous key
• the cookies you have allowed (as proof of consent)

Further information: LINK