Privacy policy

Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have placed on your computer

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

If you generally do not want cookies, you can set your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be set. This means you can decide for each individual cookie whether you allow the cookie or not. The procedure varies depending on the browser. The best thing to do is to search for the instructions in Google using 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 existed since 2009. This states that storing cookies requires your consent. However, there are still very different reactions to these guidelines within the EU countries. In Austria, however, this directive was implemented in Section 96 Paragraph 3 of the Telecommunications Act (TKG).

If you want to know more about cookies and are not afraid of technical documentation, we recommend https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6265 , the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request for Comments called “HTTP State Management Mechanism”.

Storage of personal data

Personal data that you submit to us electronically on this website, such as name, e-mail address, address or other personal information when submitting a form or comments in the blog, will be processed by us together with the time and IP address. Address only used for the specified purpose, stored securely and not passed on to third parties except for shipping and payment.

We therefore only use your personal data to communicate with those visitors who expressly request contact and to process the services and products offered on this website. We will not pass on your personal data without your consent, but we cannot rule out that this data will be viewed in the event of unlawful behavior.

If you send us personal data by e-mail - away from this website - we cannot guarantee the secure transmission and protection of your data. We recommend that you never send confidential data unencrypted via e-mail.

Rights according to the General Data Protection Regulation

According to the provisions of the GDPR and the Austrian Data Protection Act (DSG), you are generally entitled to 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 correction or deletion of personal data or the 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 rights have been violated in any other way, you can complain to the supervisory authority, which in Austria is the data protection authority, whose website you can visit at https://www. dsb.gv.at/ find.

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 data collected is usually evaluated anonymously and we cannot identify you personally from your behavior on this website.

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

TLS encryption with https

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

Google Maps privacy policy

We use Google Maps from Google Inc. on our website. For Europe, Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. With Google Maps we can show you locations better and thus adapt our service to your needs. By using Google Maps, data is transmitted to Google and stored on 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 Internet mapping service from Google. Google Maps lets you find exact locations of cities, attractions, accommodations or businesses online using a PC, tablet or app. If companies are represented on Google My Business, other 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 road 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.

Why do we use Google Maps on our website?

All our efforts on this site aim to offer 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 headquarters are. The directions always show you the best or fastest way to get to us. You can get directions for routes by car, public transport, walking or cycling. For us, providing Google Maps is part of our customer service.

What data does Google Maps store?

In order for Google Maps to fully offer its service, the company must record and store data from you. This includes, among other things, the search terms entered, your IP address and also the latitude and longitude coordinates. If you use the route planner function, the start address entered is also saved. However, this data storage happens on the Google Maps websites. 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 primarily uses this data to optimize its services and to provide you with individual, personalized advertising.

The following cookie is set in your browser due to the integration of Google Maps:

Name: NID
Value: 188=h26c1Ktha7fCQTx8rXgLyATyITJ111374123-5
Purpose: NID is used by Google to tailor advertisements to your Google searches. With the help of the cookie, Google “remembers” your most frequently entered search queries or your previous interaction with ads. This means you always get tailor-made advertisements. The cookie contains a unique ID that Google uses to collect your personal preferences for advertising purposes.
Expiry date: after 6 months

Note: We cannot guarantee the completeness of the stored data. Changes can never be ruled out, especially when using cookies. In order to identify the cookie NID, a separate test page was created where only Google Maps was integrated.

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 increasingly stored in the USA. You can read exactly where the Google data centers are located here: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de

Google distributes the data on various storage media. This means that the data can be accessed more quickly and is better protected against any attempts at manipulation. Each data center also has specific emergency programs. For example, if there are problems with Google's hardware or a natural disaster shuts down the servers, the data will almost certainly remain protected.

Google stores some data for a set period of time. For other data, Google only offers the option of deleting it manually. 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 of location and activity data introduced in 2019, location and web/app activity information is stored for either 3 or 18 months, depending on your choice, and then deleted. You can also manually delete this data from your history at any time using your Google account. If you want to completely prevent your location tracking, you must pause the “Web and app activity” section in your Google Account. Click “Data and Personalization” and then click the “Activity Settings” option. Here you can turn the activities on or off.

You can also deactivate, delete or manage individual cookies in your browser. Depending on which browser you use, this always works a little differently. The following instructions show how to manage cookies in your browser:

Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have placed on your computer

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Google is an active participant in the EU-US 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 would like to find out more about Google's data processing, we recommend that you read the company's own privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de .

Google Fonts privacy policy

We use Google Fonts on our website. These are the “Google Fonts” from Google Inc. For the European region, Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services.

You do not need to register or provide a password to use Google fonts. Furthermore, no cookies are stored in your browser. The files (CSS, fonts/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 information will be 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. We will take a closer look at what data storage looks like.

What are Google Fonts?

Google Fonts (formerly Google Web Fonts) is a directory with over 800 fonts that Google makes available to your 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 big advantage, especially for use on mobile devices. When you visit our site, the low file size ensures a 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 visually distort some texts or entire websites. Thanks to the fast Content Delivery Network (CDN), there are no cross-platform issues with Google Fonts. Google Fonts supports all major browsers (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera) and works reliably on most modern mobile operating systems, including Android 2.2+ and iOS 4.2+ (iPhone, iPad, iPod). We use Google Fonts so that we can display our entire online service as beautifully and consistently as possible.

What data does Google store?

When you visit our website, the fonts are downloaded via a Google server. Through this external call, data is transmitted to the Google servers. This is how Google also recognizes that you or your IP address visits our website. The Google Fonts API is designed to reduce the use, storage, and collection of end-user data to what is necessary for proper font delivery. By the way, 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 on Google and is therefore protected. By collecting usage figures, Google can determine how well the individual fonts are received. Google publishes the results on internal analysis sites, 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.

However, it should also be remembered that with every 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 allows us to use the fonts using a Google stylesheet. A style sheet is a format 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's goal is to fundamentally improve the loading time of websites. When millions of websites reference the same fonts, they are cached after the first visit and immediately appear 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 delete this data early, you must contact Google Support at https://support.google.com/?hl=de&tid=111374123 . In this case, you can 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 get the best for our website. You can find out more about Google Fonts and other questions at https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq?tid=111374123 . Although Google addresses data protection-related matters there, it does not contain any really detailed information about data storage. It is relatively difficult to get really precise information about stored data from Google.

You can also find out which data is generally collected by Google and what this data is used for at https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/ .

Google Analytics privacy policy

On our website we use the analysis tracking tool Google Analytics (GA) from the American company Google Inc. For Europe, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. Google Analytics collects data about your actions on our website. For example, if you click on a link, this action will be saved 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. Below we will go into more detail about the tracking tool and, above all, inform you about what data is stored and how you can prevent this.

What is Google Analytics?

Google Analytics is a tracking tool that is 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 about your user behavior. These may include, among others, the following reports:

Target group reports: Through target group reports we get to know our users better and know more precisely who is interested in our service.
Display Reports: Display reports make it easier for us to analyze and improve our online advertising.
Acquisition reports: Acquisition reports give us helpful information about how we can attract more people to our service.
Behavioral reports: This is where we learn how you interact with our website. We can track the route you take on our site and which links you click on.
Conversion reports: Conversion is the process in which you take a desired action based on a marketing message. For example, when you go from being just a website visitor to a buyer or newsletter subscriber. These reports help us learn more about how our marketing efforts are being received by you. This is how we want to increase our conversion rate.
Real-time reports: Here we always find out 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 achieve this goal.

The statistically evaluated data shows 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 are interested in them.

What data does Google Analytics store?

Google Analytics creates a random, unique ID associated with your browser cookie using a tracking code. 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 is how it is possible to evaluate pseudonymous user profiles.

Identifiers such as cookies and app instance IDs measure your interactions on our website. Interactions are all types of actions that you take on our website. If you also use other Google systems (such as a Google account), data generated via Google Analytics may be linked to third-party cookies. Google does not pass on Google Analytics data unless we as website operators authorize this. Exceptions may occur if required by law.

The following cookies are used by Google Analytics:

Name: _ga
Value: 2.1326744211.152111374123-5
Purpose: By default, analytics.js uses the _ga cookie to store the user ID. Basically, it is used to distinguish website visitors.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: _gid
Value: 2.1687193234.152111374123-1
Purpose: The cookie is also used to distinguish website visitors
Expiry date: after 24 hours

Name: _gat_gtag_UA_<property-id>
Value: 1
Intended use: Used to reduce the request rate. If Google Analytics is provided via Google Tag Manager, this cookie is named _dc_gtm_ <property-id>.
Expiry date: after 1 minute

Name: AMP_TOKEN
Value: no information
Purpose: The cookie has a token that can be used to retrieve a user ID from the AMP client ID service. Other possible values indicate a logout, a request, or an error.
Expiry date: after 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 performance. The cookie is updated each time information is sent to Google Analytics.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: __utmt
Value: 1
Purpose: The cookie is used like _gat_gtag_UA_<property-id> 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 every 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. This is a session cookie and is only stored until you close the browser again.
Expiry date: After closing the browser

Name: __utmz
Value: m|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/
Purpose: The cookie is used to identify the source of traffic to our website. This means that the cookie stores where you came to our website from. This could have been another page or an advertisement.
Expiry date: after 6 months

Name: __utmv
Value: not specified
Purpose: The cookie is used to store custom user data. It is always updated when information is sent to Google Analytics.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Note: This list cannot claim to be complete, as Google continually changes its choice of cookies.

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

Heatmaps: Google creates so-called heatmaps. Heatmaps show exactly the areas you click on. This gives us information about where you are on our site.

Session duration: Google refers to the time that 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 is when you only view one page on our website and then leave our website again.

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 a clear assignment is not possible.

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

Technical information: Technical information may include, but is not limited to, your browser type, your Internet service provider or your screen resolution.

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

Other data includes contact details, any reviews, playing media (e.g. when you play a video via 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 its servers spread all over the world. Most servers are located in America and therefore your data is mostly stored on American servers. You can read exactly where the Google data centers are located here: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de

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

Google Analytics has a standardized retention period of 26 months for your user data. Your user data will then be deleted. However, we have the option to choose the retention period of user data ourselves. We have five variants available to us:

Deletion after 14 months
Deletion after 26 months
Deletion after 38 months
Deletion after 50 months
No automatic deletion

Once the specified period has expired, the data will be 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 is a fusion 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. Use the Google Analytics JavaScript Opt-out Browser Add-on (ga.js, analytics.js, dc.js) to prevent Google Analytics from using your data. You can download and install the browser add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de . Please note that this add-on only deactivates data collection by Google Analytics.

If you generally want to deactivate, delete or manage cookies (independently of Google Analytics), there are separate instructions for each browser:

Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have placed on your computer

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Google Analytics is an active participant in the EU-US 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=111374123 . We hope we were able to provide you with the most important information about data processing by Google Analytics. If you want to find out 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 reports on demographics and interests

We have activated the advertising reporting functions in Google Analytics. Demographics and interests reports include information about age, gender, and interests. This allows us to get a better picture of our users - without being able to assign this data to individual people. You can find out more about the advertising functions 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 “Advertising Settings” at https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated by checking the box.

Google Analytics deactivation link

If you click on the following deactivation link , you can prevent Google from recording further visits to this website. Attention: Deleting cookies, using the incognito/private mode of your browser, or using a different browser will result in data being collected again.

Deactivate Google Analytics

Google Analytics addition to data processing

We have entered into a direct customer agreement with Google for the use of Google Analytics by accepting the “Data Processing Addendum” in Google Analytics.

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

Google Analytics Google Signals Privacy Policy

We have activated Google signals in Google Analytics. This will update existing Google Analytics features (advertising reporting, remarketing, cross-device reporting, and interest and demographic reporting) to receive aggregated and anonymized data from you if you have allowed personalized ads in your Google Account.

The special thing about it is that it involves cross-device tracking. This means your data can be analyzed across devices. By activating Google signals, data is collected and linked to the Google account. For example, Google can recognize if you view a product on our website using a smartphone and then later purchase the product using a laptop. Thanks to the activation of Google Signals, we can launch cross-device remarketing campaigns that would otherwise not be possible in this form. Remarketing means that we can also show you our offerings on other websites.

Google Analytics also collects other visitor data such as location, search history, YouTube history and data about your actions on our website through Google signals. This gives us better advertising reports and more useful information about your interests and demographics from Google. This includes your age, what language you speak, where you live or what gender you are. There are also social criteria such as your job, marital status or income. All of these features help Google Analytics define groups of people or target groups.

The reports also help us to better assess your behavior, wishes and interests. This allows us to optimize and adapt our services and products for you. By default, this data expires after 26 months. Please note that this data collection only occurs if you have allowed personalized advertising in your Google account. This is always aggregated and anonymous data and never individual data. You can manage or delete this data in your Google account.

Facebook Pixel Privacy Policy

We use the Facebook pixel from Facebook on our website. We have implemented code for this on our website. The Facebook pixel is a snippet of JavaScript code that loads a collection of functions that allow Facebook to track your user actions if 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 compare your user data (customer data such as IP address, user ID) with the data from your Facebook account. Then Facebook deletes this data again. The data collected is anonymous and cannot be viewed by us and can only be used to place advertisements. If you are a Facebook user and are logged in, your visit to our website will automatically be assigned to your Facebook user account.

We only want to show our services and products to those people who are really interested in them. With the help of Facebook pixels, our advertising measures can be better tailored to your wishes and interests. This means that Facebook users (if they have allowed personalized advertising) see appropriate advertising. Facebook also uses the data collected for analysis purposes and its own advertisements.

Below we will show you the cookies that were set by integrating Facebook pixels on a test page. Please note that these are just example cookies. Depending on the interaction on our website, different cookies are set.

Name: _fbp
Value: fb.1.1568287647279.257405483-6111374123-7
Purpose: This cookie uses Facebook to display advertising products.
Expiry date: after 3 months

Name: fr
Value: 0aPf312HOS5Pboo2r..Bdeiuf…1.0.Bdeiuf.
Purpose: This cookie is used to ensure that Facebook Pixel works properly.
Expiry date: after 3 months

Name: comment_author_50ae8267e2bdf1253ec1a5769f48e062111374123-3
Value: Author's name
Purpose: This cookie stores the text and name of a user who, for example, leaves a comment.
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 e-mail address
Purpose: This cookie stores the user's e-mail address if they have provided it on the website.
Expiry date: after 12 months

Note: The cookies mentioned above relate to individual user behavior. Changes on Facebook can never be ruled out, especially when it comes to the use of cookies.

If you are logged in to Facebook, you can change your advertising 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 would like to learn more about Facebook's data protection, we recommend the company's own data policies at https://www.facebook.com/policy.php .

Facebook Automatic Advanced Matching Privacy Policy

We have also activated Automatic Advanced Matching as part of the Facebook Pixel function. This function of the pixel allows us to send hashed e-mails, names, gender, city, state, zip code and date of birth or telephone number to Facebook as additional information, if you have provided this data 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

For our website we use the Google Tag Manager from Google Inc. For the European region, Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. This Tag Manager is one of Google's many helpful marketing products. Using Google Tag Manager, we can centrally install and manage code sections from various tracking tools that we use on our website.

In this data protection declaration we would like to explain to you in more detail what Google Tag Manager does, why we use it and in what form data is processed.

What is Google Tag Manager?

Google Tag Manager is an organizational tool that allows us to integrate and manage website tags centrally and via a user interface. Tags are small sections of code that, for example, record (track) your activities on our website. For this purpose, JavaScript code sections are inserted into the source code of our site. The tags often come from Google's 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. You 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 this also applies to the maintenance of our website. In order to make our website as good as possible for you and everyone who is interested in our products and services, we need various tracking tools such as Google Analytics. The data collected by these tools shows us what interests you most, where we can improve our services and which people we should show our offers to. And in order for this tracking to work, we have to integrate appropriate JavaScript code into our website. In principle, we could incorporate each code section of the individual tracking tools separately into our source code. However, this takes a relatively long time and it is easy to lose track. That's why we use Google Tag Manager. We can easily install the necessary scripts and manage them from one place. In addition, the Google Tag Manager offers an easy-to-use user interface and no programming knowledge is required. 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 essentially passed through to the individual tracking tools in Google Tag Manager and is not stored.

However, things look 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 anonymized data from us. However, this only concerns the use and use of our tag manager and not your data, which is stored via the code sections. We enable Google and others to receive selected data in anonymized form. We therefore agree to the anonymous transfer of our website data. Despite extensive research, we were unable 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. Benchmarking involves comparing your own results with those of your competitors. Processes can be optimized based on the information collected.

How long and where is the data stored?

If Google stores data, this data is stored on Google's own servers. The servers are distributed all over the world. Most are in America. You can read exactly where the Google servers are located at https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de .

You can find out how long the individual tracking tools store your data 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 cookies, but rather manages tags from various tracking websites. In our data protection 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-US 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=111374123 . If you want to find out more about Google Tag Manager, we recommend the FAQs at https://www.google.com/intl/de/tagmanager/faq.html .

Hotjar privacy policy

We use Hotjar from Hotjar Limited (Level 2, St Julian's Business Centre, 3, Elia Zammit Street, St Julian's STJ 1000, Malta) on our website to statistically evaluate visitor data. Hotjar is a service that analyzes the behavior and feedback of you as a user on our website using a combination of analysis and feedback tools. We receive reports and visual representations from Hotjar that show us where and how you “move” on our site. Personal data is automatically anonymized and never reaches Hotjar's servers. This means that you are not personally identified as a website user and we still learn a lot about your user behavior.

What is Hotjar?

As already mentioned in the section above, Hotjar helps us analyze the behavior of our site visitors. These tools that Hotjar offers include Heatmaps, Conversion Funnels, Visitor Recording, Incoming Feedback, Feedback Polls and Surveys (you can find out more about them at https://www.hotjar.com/ ). In this way, Hotjar helps us to offer you a better user experience and better service. On the one hand, it offers a good analysis of online behavior, and on the other hand, we also receive good feedback about the quality of our website. In addition to all the analytical aspects, we also simply want to know your opinion about our website. And with the feedback tool, that’s exactly what’s possible.

Why do we use Hotjar on our website?

In recent years, the importance of user experience on websites has increased significantly. And for good reason too. A website should be structured in such a way that you as a visitor feel comfortable and can easily find your way around. Thanks to Hotjar's analysis tools and feedback tool, we can make our website and our offering more attractive. The heatmaps from Hotjar are particularly valuable for us. Heatmaps are a form of representation for visualizing data. For example, Hotjar's heatmaps allow us to see exactly what you like to click, tap and where you scroll.

What data does Hotjar store?

As you surf our website, Hotjar automatically collects information about your user behavior. In order to be able to collect this information, we have installed our own tracking code on our website. The following data can be collected via your computer or browser:

Your computer's IP address (collected and stored in an anonymous format)
Screen size
Browser information (which browser, which version, etc.)
Your location (but only the country)
Your preferred language setting
Websites visited (subpages)
Date and time of access to one of our subpages (websites)

Cookies also store data that is placed on your computer (usually in your browser). No personal data is collected there. In principle, Hotjar does not pass on collected data to third parties. However, Hotjar expressly points out that it is sometimes necessary to share data with Amazon Web Services. Parts of your information will then be stored on their servers. However, Amazon is bound by a confidentiality obligation not to disclose this data.

Only a limited number of people (Hotjar employees) have access to the stored information. The Hotjar servers are protected by firewalls and IP restrictions (access only to approved IP addresses). Firewalls are security systems that protect computers from unwanted network access. They are intended to serve as a barrier between Hotjar's secure internal network and the Internet. Hotjar also uses third-party companies, such as Google Analytics or Optimizely, for their services. These companies may also store information that your browser sends to our website.

The following cookies are used by Hotjar. Since we refer, among other things, to the cookie list from Hotjar's privacy policy at https://www.hotjar.com/legal/policies/cookie-information , not every cookie has an exemplary value. The list shows examples of Hotjar cookies used and does not claim to be complete.

Name : ajs_anonymous_id
Value: %2258832463-7cee-48ee-b346-a195f18b06c3%22111374123-5
Purpose: The cookie is usually used for analytical purposes and helps count visitors to our website by tracking whether you have been to this page before.
Expiry date: after one year

Name : ajs_group_id
Value: 0
Purpose: This cookie collects data about user behavior. This data can then be assigned to a specific group of visitors based on what the website visitors have in common.
Expiry date: after one year

Name : _hjid
Value: 699ffb1c-4bfb-483f-bde1-22cfa0b59c6c
Purpose: The cookie is used to maintain a Hotjar user ID that is unique to the website in the browser. This means that user behavior can be assigned to the same user ID on subsequent visits.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: _hjMinimizedPolls
Value: 462568111374123-8
Purpose: Whenever you minimize a Feedback Poll widget, Hotjar sets this cookie. The cookie ensures that the widget remains minimized when you surf our pages.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: _hjIncludedInSample
Value: 1
Purpose: This session cookie is set to inform Hotjar whether you are part of the selected people (sample) used to create funnels.
Expiry date: after one year

Name : _hjClosedSurveyInvites
Purpose: This cookie is set when you see an invitation to a feedback survey via a pop-up window. The cookie is used to ensure that this invitation only appears to you once.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: _hjDonePolls
Purpose: As soon as you end a feedback “question session” with the so-called Feedback Poll Widget, this cookie is set in your browser. This way, Hotjar prevents you from receiving the same surveys again in the future.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: _hjDoneTestersWidgets
Purpose: This cookie is used as soon as you provide your data in the “Recruit User Tester Widget”. With this widget we want to hire you as a tester. The cookie is used so that this form does not appear again and again.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: _hjMinimizedTestersWidgets
Purpose: To ensure that the “Recruit User Tester” remains minimized on all our pages once you have minimized it, this cookie is set.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: _hjShownFeedbackMessage
Purpose: This cookie is set when you have minimized or supplemented the incoming feedback. This is done so that the incoming feedback will immediately load as minimized when you navigate to another page where you want it to appear.
Expiry date: after one year

How long and where is the data stored?

We have installed a tracking code on our website, which is transmitted to the Hotjar servers in Ireland (EU). This tracking code contacts Hotjar's servers and sends a script to your computer or device that you use to access our site. The script collects certain data related to your interaction with our website. This data is then sent to Hotjar's servers for processing. Hotjar has imposed a 365 day data retention period on itself. This means that all data that Hotjar has collected and is older than one year will be automatically deleted.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

Hotjar does not store any of your personal data for analysis. The company even advertises with the slogan “We track behavior, not individuals”. You also always have the option to prevent the collection of your data. To do this, all you have to do is go to the “ opt-out page ” and click on “Deactivate Hotjar”. Please note that deleting cookies, using your browser's private mode, or using a different browser will result in data being collected again. You can also activate the “Do Not Track” button in your browser. In the Chrome browser, for example, you have to click on the three bars at the top right and go to “Settings”. There you will find the option “Send a “Do Not Track” request with browser access” in the “Privacy” section. Now just activate this button and Hotjar will not collect any data.

More details about the privacy policy and what data is collected and how Hotjar can be found at https://www.hotjar.com/legal/policies/privacy?tid=111374123 .

Newsletter data protection declaration

If you register for our newsletter, you provide the above-mentioned personal data and give us the right to contact you by e-mail. 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 at the bottom of every newsletter - then 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, 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. In this way, we offer you advertisements that ideally represent real added value for you. In 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 advertise here yourself. Advertisements are displayed on websites, such as ours, 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. Google checks which advertisements are suitable for our website and for our users based on your interests or user behavior and our offering. 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. Google makes the selection of the advertising displayed. Since August 2013, the ads have also been adapted to the respective user interface. This means that no matter whether you visit our website from your smartphone, PC or laptop, the ads adapt to your device.

Why do we use Google AdSense on our website?

Running a high-quality website requires a lot of dedication and commitment. 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. The most important thing for us, however, is not to disturb your visit to our website with these advertisements. With the help of Google AdSense, you will only be offered advertising that matches our topics and your interests.

Similar to Google indexing a website, a bot examines the corresponding content and offers on our website. The content of the advertisements is then adjusted and presented on the website. In addition to the content overlap between the ad and the website offer, AdSense also supports interest-based targeting. This means that Google 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.

What data does Google AdSense store?

In order for Google AdSense to display tailor-made advertising tailored to you, cookies are used, among other things. 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 information. However, it should be noted that Google views data such as “pseudonymous cookie IDs” (name or other identifying feature is replaced by a pseudonym) or IP addresses as non-personally identifiable information. However, under the GDPR, this data can be considered personal data. Google AdSense sends a cookie to the browser after every impression (this is the case whenever 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 stored there.

Third parties may use AdSense to place and read cookies on your browser or use web beacons to store data obtained by serving ads on the website. Web beacons are small graphics that carry out a log file analysis and a recording of the log file. This analysis enables 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 you handle an ad (clicks, impressions, mouse movements)
Information about whether an ad has already appeared in your browser at an earlier point in time. This data helps prevent you from showing an ad more often.

Google analyzes and evaluates the data on the advertising materials displayed and your IP address. Google primarily uses the data to measure the effectiveness of an ad and to improve the advertising offering. This data will not be linked to any personal data that Google may have about you through other Google services.

Below we will introduce you to cookies that Google AdSense uses for tracking purposes. Here we are referring to a test website that only has Google AdSense installed:

Name: uid
Value: 891269189111374123-8
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 deliver more relevant advertising to the visitor and helps improve campaign performance reporting.
Expiry date: after 2 months

Name: IDE
Value: zOtj4TWxwbFDjaATZ2TzNaQmxrU111374123-1
Purpose: The cookie is stored under the domain doubleclick.net. It is used to register your actions after viewing or clicking on the ad. This allows us to measure how well an ad is received by our visitors.
Expiry date: after 1 month

Name: test_cookie
Value: not specified
Purpose: You can use the “test_cookies” to 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: Is stored under the domain adform.net. The cookie is set as soon as you click on an advertisement. We were unable to find out more detailed information about the use of this cookie.
Expiry date: after one hour

Note: This list cannot claim to be complete, as experience has shown that Google continually changes its choice of cookies.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google records your IP address and various activities that you carry out on the website. Cookies store this information about interactions on our website. According to Google, the company collects and stores the information provided securely on Google's own servers in the USA.

If you do not have a Google account or are not logged in, Google usually stores the data collected in 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 data.

You can delete some of the data that Google stores at any time (see next section). Much of the information stored in cookies is automatically deleted after a certain period of time. However, there is also data that Google stores 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.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You always have the option of deleting or deactivating cookies that are on your computer. How exactly this works depends on your browser.

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

Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have placed on your computer

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

If you generally do not want cookies, you can set your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be set. This means you can decide for each individual cookie whether you allow the cookie or not. Downloading and installing this browser plug-in at https://support.google.com/ads/answer/7395996 will also deactivate all “advertising cookies”. Remember that disabling these cookies will not prevent ads, only personalized advertising.

If you have a Google account, you can deactivate personalized advertising on the website https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated . Here too, you will continue to see advertisements, but they are no longer tailored to your interests. However, the ads are displayed based on a few factors such as your location, browser type, and search terms used.

You can find out what data Google generally collects and what it uses this data for at https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/ .

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 offerings 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 offerings 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 of Google Inc. We are convinced of the quality of our offering and want as many people as possible to get to know our website. Google Ads offers the best platform for this online. Of course, we also want to gain a precise overview of the cost-benefit factor of our promotions. That's why we use the Google Ads conversion tracking tool.

But what is a conversion actually? A conversion occurs when you go from being a purely interested website visitor to taking action. This always happens when you click on our ad and then carry out 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 purchased, services are 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 to ensure that our advertising campaigns 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 allows us to calculate our cost-benefit factor, measure the success of individual advertising measures and consequently optimize our online marketing measures. We can also use the data obtained to make our website more interesting for you and adapt our advertising offerings even more individually to your needs.

What data is stored in Google Ads conversion tracking?

We have integrated a conversion tracking tag or code snippet on our website in order to better analyze certain user actions. If you click on one of our Google Ads advertisements, 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.

Here is the data for the most important cookies for Google conversion tracking:

Name: Conversion
Value: EhMI_aySuoyv4gIVled3Ch0llweVGAEgt-mr6aXd7dYlSAGQ111374123-3
Purpose: This cookie stores every conversion you make on our site after coming to us via a Google Ad.
Expiry date: after 3 months

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

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

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 recognize that you 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 using Google Analytics. Ads that Google displays in various locations on the web may set cookies called “__gads” or “_gac” under our domain. Since September 2017, various campaign information has been stored by analytics.js using the _gac cookie. The cookie stores this data as soon as you visit one of our pages for which the automatic tagging of Google Ads has been set up. In contrast to cookies that are 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 receive a report from Google with statistical evaluations. For example, we find out 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 data collected. According to Google, the data is encrypted and stored on secure servers. In most cases, conversion cookies expire after 30 days and do not transmit any personal data. The cookies named “Conversion” and “_gac” (which is used in conjunction with Google Analytics) have an expiration date of 3 months.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You have the option not to participate in Google Ads conversion tracking. If you deactivate the Google conversion tracking cookie via your browser, you will block conversion tracking. In this case, you will not be included in the tracking tool's statistics. You can change the cookie settings in your browser at any time. This works a little differently for every browser. Here you will find instructions on how to manage cookies in your browser:

Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have placed on your computer

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

If you generally do not want cookies, you can set your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be set. This means you can decide for each individual cookie whether you allow the cookie or not. Downloading and installing this browser plug-in at https://support.google.com/ads/answer/7395996 will also deactivate all “advertising cookies”. Remember that disabling these cookies will not prevent ads, only personalized advertising.

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

Embedded social media elements privacy policy

We integrate elements from social media services on our website to display images, videos and texts.
When you visit pages that display these elements, data is transferred from your browser to the respective social media service and stored there. We do not have 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: https://help.instagram.com/519522125107875
The Google privacy policy applies to YouTube: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de
Facebook data policy: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy
Twitter privacy policy: https://twitter.com/de/privacy

Facebook privacy policy

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

What are Facebook tools?

In addition to many other products, Facebook also offers the so-called “Facebook Business Tools”. This is the official name of Facebook. Since the term is hardly known, we have decided to just call them Facebook tools. These include, among others:

Facebook pixel
social plug-ins (such as the “Like” or “Share” button)
Facebook login
Account kit
APIs (programming interface)
SDKs (collection of programming tools)
Platform integrations
Plugins
Codes
Specifications
Documentations
Technologies and services

Through these tools, Facebook expands services and has the opportunity to obtain information about user activities outside of Facebook.

Why do we use Facebook tools on our website?

We only want to show our services and products to people who are really interested in them. With the help of advertisements (Facebook Ads) we can reach exactly these people. However, in order to show users appropriate advertising, Facebook needs information about people's wishes and needs. The company is provided with information about user behavior (and contact details) on our website. This means that Facebook collects better user data and can show interested people the appropriate advertising about our products or services. The tools thus enable tailor-made advertising campaigns on Facebook.

Facebook calls data about your behavior on our website “event data”. These are also used for measurement and analysis services. This allows Facebook to create “campaign reports” on our behalf about the impact of our advertising campaigns. We also use analyzes to gain a better insight into how you use our services, website or products. This allows us to use some of these tools to optimize your user experience on our website. For example, you can use the social plug-ins to share content on our site directly on Facebook.

What data are stored by Facebook tools?

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

Facebook uses this information to compare the data with the data it has about you (if you are a Facebook member). Before customer data is transmitted to Facebook, so-called “hashing” takes place. This means that a data set of any size is transformed into a character string. This also serves to encrypt data.

In addition to the contact details, “event data” is also transmitted. “Event data” means the information that we receive about you on our website. For example, which subpages you visit or which products you buy from us. Facebook does not share the information it receives with third parties (such as advertisers) unless the company has explicit permission or is legally required to do so. “Event data” can also be linked to contact details. This allows Facebook to offer better personalized advertising. After the matching process already mentioned, Facebook deletes the contact data again.

In order to deliver advertisements in an optimized manner, Facebook only uses the event data if it has been combined with other data (which was collected by Facebook in other ways). Facebook also uses this event data for security, protection, development and research purposes. Much of this data is transferred to Facebook via cookies. Cookies are small text files that are used to store data or information in browsers. Depending on the tools used and whether you are a Facebook member, different numbers of cookies are created in your browser. In the descriptions of the individual Facebook tools we go into more detail about individual Facebook cookies. You can also find out general information about the use of Facebook cookies at https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies .

How long and where is the data stored?

Basically, Facebook stores data until it is no longer needed for its own services and Facebook products. Facebook has servers around the world where its data is stored. However, customer data will be deleted within 48 hours after it has been compared with your own user data.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation, you have the right to information, correction, portability and deletion of your data.

The data will only be completely deleted if you completely delete your Facebook account. Here's how deleting your Facebook account works:

1) On the right side of Facebook, click Settings.

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

3) Now click “Deactivation and deletion”.

4) Now select “Delete Account” and then click “Next and Delete Account”

5) Now enter your password, click “Continue” and then click “Delete Account”

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

Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have placed on your computer

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Facebook is an active participant in the EU-US 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=a2zt0000000GnywAAC . We hope we have given you the most important information about the use and data processing of Facebook tools. If you want to find out more about how Facebook uses your data, we recommend the data policy at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update .

Facebook Social Plugins Privacy Policy

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

The following social plug-ins are offered by Facebook:

“Save” button
Like button, share, send and quote
Page plugin
Comments
Messenger plugin
Embedded posts and video players
Group plugin

You can find more information about how the individual plug-ins are used at https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins . On the one hand, we use the social plug-ins to offer you a better user experience on our site, and on the other hand because they allow Facebook to optimize our advertisements.

If you have a Facebook account or have already visited facebook.com , Facebook has already set at least one cookie in your browser. In this case, your browser sends information to Facebook via this cookie as soon as you visit our site or interact with social plug-ins (e.g. the “Like” button).

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

In order to prevent Facebook from collecting a lot of data during your visit to our website and combining it with Facebook data, you must log out of Facebook while visiting our website.

If you are not logged in to Facebook or do not have a Facebook account, your browser sends less information to Facebook because you have fewer Facebook cookies. However, data such as your IP address or which website you visit can be transferred to Facebook. We would like to expressly point out that we do not know exactly the exact contents of the data. However, based on our current state of knowledge, we try to inform you as much as possible about data processing. You can also read how Facebook uses the data in the company's data policy at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update .

The following cookies are at least set in your browser when you visit a website with social plug-ins from Facebook:

Name: dpr
Value: not specified
Purpose: This cookie is used to enable the social plugins to work on our website.
Expiry date: after the end of the session

Name: fr
Value: 0jieyh4111374123c2GnlufEJ9..Bde09j…1.0.Bde09j
Purpose: The cookie is also necessary for the plug-ins to function properly.
Expiry date: after 3 months

Note: These cookies were set after a test, even if you are not a Facebook member.

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

Instagram privacy policy

We have installed Instagram functions on our website. Instagram is a social media platform owned 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 allows us to show you content such as buttons, photos or videos from Instagram directly on our website. If you access websites on our website that have an Instagram function integrated, data will be transmitted to Instagram, stored and processed. Instagram uses the same systems and technologies as Facebook. Your data will therefore be processed across all Facebook companies.

Below 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 data processing. Since Instagram belongs to Facebook Inc., we obtain our information from the Instagram guidelines on the one hand, but also from the Facebook data guidelines themselves on the other.

What is Instagram?

Instagram is one of the most famous 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 distribute them on other social networks. And if you don't want to be active yourself, you can just follow other interesting users.

Why do we use Instagram on our website?

Instagram is the social media platform that has 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. That's why it's a matter of course for us to prepare our content in a varied manner. 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 to us for personalized advertising on Facebook. This means our advertisements only reach 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 identify you personally.

What data does Instagram store?

If you come across one of our pages that has built-in Instagram functions (such as Instagram images or plug-ins), your browser will automatically contact Instagram's servers. Data is sent to Instagram, stored and processed. Regardless of whether you have an Instagram account or not. This includes information about our website, about your computer, about purchases you make, about advertisements you see and how you use our services. The date and time of your interaction with Instagram are also stored. If you have an Instagram account or are logged in, Instagram stores significantly more data about you.

Facebook differentiates between customer data and event data. We assume that this is exactly the case with Instagram. Customer data includes, for example, name, address, telephone number and IP address. This customer data will only be transmitted to Instagram once it has been “hashed”. Hashing means turning a data set into a string. This allows you to encrypt the contact details. In addition, the above-mentioned “event data” is also transmitted. By “event data” Facebook – and consequently also Instagram – means data about your user behavior. It can also happen that contact data is combined with event data. The contact details collected will be compared with the data Instagram already has about 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, different amounts of data are stored.

We assume that data processing on Instagram works in the same way 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 will send information to Instagram via the cookie as soon as you come into contact with an Instagram function. This data will be deleted or anonymized after 90 days at the latest (after comparison). Although we have looked intensively into Instagram's data processing, we cannot say exactly what data Instagram collects and stores.

Below we will show you the minimum cookies that are set in your browser when you click on an Instagram function (such as a button or an Insta picture). In our test, we assume that you don't have an Instagram account. If you are logged in to Instagram, significantly more cookies will of course be set in your browser.

These cookies were used in our test:

Name: csrftoken
Value: “”
Purpose: This cookie is most likely set for security reasons to prevent fraudulent requests. However, we were unable to find out more precisely.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: mid
Value: “”
Purpose: Instagram sets this cookie to optimize its own services and offers on and outside of Instagram. The cookie sets a unique user ID.
Expiry date: after the end of the session

Name: fbsr_111374123124024
Value: no information
Purpose: This cookie stores the log-in request for users of the Instagram app.
Expiry date: after the end of the session

Name: rur
Value: ATN
Purpose: This is an Instagram cookie that ensures functionality on Instagram.
Expiry date: after the end of the session

Name: urlgen
Value: “{”194.96.75.33”: 1901}:1iEtYv:Y833k2_UjKvXgYe111374123”
Purpose: This cookie is used for Instagram’s marketing purposes.
Expiry date: after the end of the session

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

How long and where is the data stored?

Instagram shares the information it receives between Facebook companies, with external partners and with people you connect with around the world. Data processing takes place in compliance with our own data guidelines. Your data is distributed on Facebook servers around the world, among other things for security reasons. Most of these servers are located in the USA.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

Thanks to the General Data Protection Regulation, you have the right to information, portability, correction and deletion of your data. You can manage your data in Instagram settings. If you want to completely delete your data on Instagram, you will need to permanently delete your Instagram account.

And this is how deleting your Instagram account works:

First open the Instagram app. On your profile page, go down and click on “Help Section.” Now you come to the company's website. On the website, click “Manage Account” and then click “Delete Your Account.”

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

As mentioned above, Instagram stores your data primarily through cookies. You can manage, deactivate or delete these cookies in your browser. Depending on your browser, administration always works a little differently. Here we show you the instructions for the most important browsers.

Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have placed on your computer

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

You can also generally set up your browser so that you are always informed when a cookie is to be set. Then you can always decide individually whether you want to allow the cookie or not.

Instagram is a subsidiary of Facebook Inc. and Facebook is an active participant in the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework. This framework ensures correct data transfer between the USA and the European Union. You can find out more at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000GnywAAC . We have tried to provide you with the most important information about data processing by Instagram. At https://help.instagram.com/519522125107875
You can take a closer look at Instagram's data policies.

Pinterest Privacy Policy

On our site we use buttons and widgets from the social media network Pinterest, the company Pinterest Inc., 808 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA.

When you access pages that use such functions, data (IP address, browser data, date and time, cookies) is transmitted to Pinterest, stored and evaluated.

The data protection guidelines, which information Pinterest collects and how they use it, can be found at https://policy.pinterest.com/de/privacy-policy .

YouTube privacy policy

We have integrated YouTube videos on our website. This means we can present you 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 access a page on our website that has an embedded YouTube video, your browser automatically connects to the YouTube or Google servers. Various data is transferred (depending on the settings). Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all data processing in Europe.

Below we would like to explain to you in more detail what 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 watch, rate, comment and upload videos for free. Over the last few years, YouTube has become one of the most important social media channels worldwide. So that we can display videos on our website, YouTube provides a code snippet that we have integrated into 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 shouldn't be missing. With the help of our embedded videos, we provide you with other helpful content in addition to our texts and images. In addition, our website is easier to find 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 only show these advertisements to people who are interested in our offers.

What data does YouTube store?

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 in to your YouTube account, YouTube can usually assign your interactions on our website to your profile using cookies. 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 may include contact details, any reviews, sharing content on social media or adding it to your favorites on YouTube.

If you are not signed in to a Google account or a YouTube account, Google stores data with a unique identifier associated with your device, browser or app. For example, your preferred language setting is retained. But much interaction data cannot be stored because fewer cookies are set.

In the following list we show cookies that were set in the browser in a test. On the one hand, we show cookies that are set without a logged in YouTube account. On the other hand, we show cookies that are set when the account is logged in. The list cannot claim to be complete because user data always depends on interactions on YouTube.

Name: YSC
Value: b9-CV6ojI5Y111374123-1
Purpose: This cookie registers a unique ID to store statistics of the video viewed.
Expiry date: after the end of the session

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

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

Name: VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE
Value: 95Chz8bagyU
Purpose: This cookie tries to estimate the user's bandwidth on our websites (with built-in YouTube video).
Expiry date: after 8 months

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

Name: APISID
Value: zILlvClZSkqGsSwI/AU1aZI6HY7111374123-
Purpose: This cookie is used to create a profile about your interests. The data is used for personalized advertisements.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: CONSENT
Value: YES+AT.de+20150628-20-0
Purpose: The cookie stores the status of a user's consent to the use of various Google services. CONSENT also serves security purposes to check users and protect user data from unauthorized attacks.
Expiry date: after 19 years

Name: HSID
Value: AcRwpgUik9Dveht0I
Purpose: This cookie is used to create a profile about your interests. This data helps to display personalized advertising.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: LOGIN_INFO
Value: AFmmF2swRQIhALLl6aL…
Purpose: This cookie stores information about your login data.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: SAPISID
Value: 7oaPxoG-pZsJuuF5/AnUdDUIsJ9iJz2vdM
Purpose: This cookie works by uniquely identifying your browser and device. It is used to create a profile about your interests.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: SID
Value: oQfNKjAsI111374123-
Purpose: This cookie stores your Google account ID and your last login time in digitally signed and encrypted form.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: SIDCC
Value: AN0-TYuqub2JOcDTyL
Purpose: This cookie stores information about how you use the website and what advertising you may have seen before visiting our site.
Expiry date: after 3 months

How long and where is the data stored?

The data that YouTube receives and processes from you is stored on Google servers. Most of these servers are located in America. At https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de you can see exactly where the Google data centers are located. Your data is distributed across the servers. This means that the data can be accessed more quickly and is better protected against manipulation.

Google stores the data collected 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 remains stored until you delete it. Even if you're not signed in to a Google Account, you can delete some data associated with your device, browser, or app.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

In principle, you can delete data in your Google account manually. With the automatic deletion function of location and activity data introduced in 2019, information is stored for either 3 or 18 months and then deleted, depending on your decision.

Regardless of whether you have a Google account or not, you can configure your browser to delete or deactivate Google cookies. Depending on which browser you use, this works in different ways. The following instructions show how to manage cookies in your browser:

Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have placed on your computer