Privacy Policy – General Information

The following information provides a simple overview of what happens to your personal data when you visit this website. Personal data refers to all data that can be used to personally identify you. For detailed information on the subject of data protection, please refer to our privacy policy listed below this text.

Data Collection on This Website

Who is responsible for data collection on this website?
The data processing on this website is carried out by the website operator. You can find their contact details in the section titled “Information on the Responsible Party” in this privacy policy.

How do we collect your data?
Some data is collected when you provide it to us. This may include, for example, data you enter into a contact form.

Other data is collected automatically or after your consent when you visit the website by our IT systems. This mainly includes technical data (e.g., internet browser, operating system, or time of the page visit). This data is collected automatically as soon as you access the website.

What do we use your data for?
Some of the data is collected to ensure the website is provided without errors. Other data may be used to analyze your user behavior.

What rights do you have regarding your data?
You have the right at any time to receive free information about the origin, recipients, and purpose of your stored personal data. You also have the right to request the correction or deletion of this data. If you have given consent to data processing, you may revoke this consent at any time going forward. In certain cases, you also have the right to request the restriction of the processing of your personal data. Furthermore, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority.

If you have any questions about this or any other aspect of data protection, you can contact us at any time.

Analytics Tools and Third-Party Tools

When you visit this website, your browsing behavior may be statistically analyzed. This is primarily done using so-called analytics programs.

Detailed information about these analytics programs can be found in the privacy policy below.

2. Hosting

We host the content of our website with the following provider:

DomainFactory

The provider is IONOS GmbH. When you visit our website, IONOS collects various log files, including your IP address.

For details, please refer to DomainFactory’s privacy policy:
https://www.df.eu/de/datenschutz/

The use of DomainFactory is based on Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR. We have a legitimate interest in a reliable presentation of our website. If corresponding consent has been requested, processing is carried out solely on the basis of Article 6(1)(a) GDPR and § 25(1) TTDSG, insofar as the consent includes the storage of cookies or access to information on the user’s end device (e.g., device fingerprinting) as defined by the TTDSG. Consent may be revoked at any time.

General Information on the Legal Basis for Data Processing on This Website

If you have consented to data processing, we process your personal data based on Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR and, where applicable, Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR if special categories of data under Art. 9(1) GDPR are being processed. In the case of explicit consent to the transfer of personal data to third countries, data processing is also based on Art. 49(1)(a) GDPR.

If you have consented to the storage of cookies or access to information on your device (e.g., via device fingerprinting), data processing is additionally based on § 25(1) TTDSG. You may revoke your consent at any time.

If your data is necessary for the performance of a contract or to carry out pre-contractual measures, we process your data on the basis of Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR. Furthermore, we process your data if required to fulfill a legal obligation under Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR. Data processing may also take place based on our legitimate interest pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. The specific legal basis applicable in each case is explained in the following sections of this privacy policy.

Recipients of Personal Data

In the course of our business activities, we work with various external parties. In some cases, the transfer of personal data to these external parties is necessary.

We only share personal data with external parties if it is required to fulfill a contract, if we are legally obligated to do so (e.g., sharing data with tax authorities), if we have a legitimate interest under Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, or if another legal basis permits the data transfer.

If we use processors, we only share personal data with them on the basis of a valid data processing agreement. In the case of joint processing, a joint processing agreement is concluded.

Revocation of Your Consent to Data Processing

Many data processing operations are only possible with your explicit consent. You can revoke any previously given consent at any time. The legality of the data processing carried out up to the point of revocation remains unaffected.

Right to Object to Data Collection in Special Cases and to Direct Marketing (Art. 21 GDPR)

IF DATA PROCESSING IS BASED ON ART. 6(1)(E) OR (F) GDPR, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO OBJECT AT ANY TIME TO THE PROCESSING OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA FOR REASONS ARISING FROM YOUR PARTICULAR SITUATION; THIS ALSO APPLIES TO PROFILING BASED ON THESE PROVISIONS.

IF YOU OBJECT, WE WILL NO LONGER PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL DATA UNLESS WE CAN DEMONSTRATE COMPELLING LEGITIMATE GROUNDS FOR THE PROCESSING WHICH OVERRIDE YOUR INTERESTS, RIGHTS, AND FREEDOMS OR THE PROCESSING SERVES TO ESTABLISH, EXERCISE, OR DEFEND LEGAL CLAIMS (OBJECTION UNDER ART. 21(1) GDPR).

IF YOUR PERSONAL DATA IS BEING PROCESSED FOR DIRECT MARKETING PURPOSES, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO OBJECT AT ANY TIME TO THE PROCESSING OF YOUR DATA FOR SUCH MARKETING; THIS ALSO APPLIES TO PROFILING IN CONNECTION WITH SUCH DIRECT MARKETING. IF YOU OBJECT, YOUR PERSONAL DATA WILL NO LONGER BE USED FOR DIRECT MARKETING PURPOSES (OBJECTION UNDER ART. 21(2) GDPR).

Right to Lodge a Complaint with a Supervisory Authority

In the event of violations of the GDPR, data subjects have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, particularly in the member state of their habitual residence, workplace, or the location of the alleged violation. This right to lodge a complaint exists without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedies.

Right to Data Portability

You have the right to receive data that we process automatically based on your consent or in fulfillment of a contract in a commonly used, machine-readable format. If you request the direct transfer of the data to another controller, this will only be done where technically feasible.

Right to Access, Rectification, and Erasure

Within the framework of applicable legal provisions, you have the right to obtain free information at any time about your stored personal data, its origin and recipients, and the purpose of the data processing. You also have the right to rectification or erasure of this data. For this and any other questions regarding personal data, you can contact us at any time.

Right to Restriction of Processing

You have the right to request the restriction of the processing of your personal data. You can contact us at any time to exercise this right. The right to restriction applies in the following cases:

If you contest the accuracy of your personal data stored by us, we usually need time to verify this. During the verification period, you have the right to request the restriction of the processing of your personal data.
If the processing of your personal data was/is unlawful, you may request restriction of data processing instead of deletion.
If we no longer need your personal data, but you need it to exercise, defend or assert legal claims, you may request restriction of the processing instead of deletion.
If you have objected pursuant to Art. 21(1) GDPR, a balance must be struck between your interests and ours. As long as it has not been determined whose interests prevail, you have the right to request the restriction of the processing of your personal data.

If you have restricted the processing of your personal data, such data—apart from being stored—may only be processed with your consent or for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims, or for the protection of the rights of another natural or legal person, or for reasons of important public interest of the European Union or a member state.

SSL or TLS Encryption

For security reasons and to protect the transmission of confidential content—such as orders or inquiries that you send to us as the site operator—this site uses SSL or TLS encryption. You can recognize an encrypted connection by the fact that the browser’s address line changes from “http://” to “https://” and by the lock symbol in your browser bar.

When SSL or TLS encryption is enabled, the data you transmit to us cannot be read by third parties.

Objection to Promotional Emails

We hereby object to the use of contact details published within the scope of the legal notice obligation for sending unsolicited advertising and informational materials. The website operators expressly reserve the right to take legal action in the event of unsolicited sending of advertising information, such as spam emails.

4. Data Collection on This Website

Cookies

Our websites use so-called “cookies.” Cookies are small data packets that do not harm your device. They are either stored temporarily for the duration of a session (session cookies) or permanently (persistent cookies) on your device. Session cookies are automatically deleted after your visit. Persistent cookies remain stored on your device until you delete them yourself or your browser deletes them automatically.

Cookies can be set by us (first-party cookies) or by third-party companies (third-party cookies). Third-party cookies enable the integration of certain services provided by third parties on the website (e.g., cookies for payment processing).

Cookies serve various purposes. Many cookies are technically necessary, as certain website functions would not work without them (e.g., shopping cart or video display features). Other cookies may be used to analyze user behavior or for advertising purposes.

Cookies that are required to carry out the electronic communication process, to provide specific functions you request (e.g., for the shopping cart function), or to optimize the website (e.g., cookies for measuring web traffic) are stored based on Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR unless another legal basis is specified. The website operator has a legitimate interest in storing necessary cookies for the technically error-free and optimized provision of its services.

Where consent to store cookies and similar recognition technologies has been requested, processing is carried out exclusively based on this consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR and § 25(1) TTDSG); consent can be revoked at any time.

You can configure your browser to notify you about the setting of cookies and to allow cookies only in individual cases, to accept cookies for specific cases or in general, and to enable the automatic deletion of cookies when closing the browser. Disabling cookies may limit the functionality of this website.

Details about which cookies and services are used on this website can be found in this privacy policy.

Contact Form

If you send us inquiries via the contact form, your information from the inquiry form, including the contact details you provide, will be stored for the purpose of processing the inquiry and in case of follow-up questions. We do not share this data without your consent.

The processing of these data is based on Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR if your request is related to the fulfillment of a contract or is necessary for carrying out pre-contractual measures. In all other cases, the processing is based on our legitimate interest in the effective processing of inquiries sent to us (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR) or on your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR) if requested; consent may be revoked at any time.

The data you enter into the contact form will remain with us until you request its deletion, revoke your consent for storage, or the purpose for the data storage no longer applies (e.g., once your inquiry has been fully processed). Mandatory legal provisions—especially retention periods—remain unaffected.

Inquiries by Email, Phone, or Fax

If you contact us via email, telephone, or fax, your inquiry including all resulting personal data (e.g., name, nature of the inquiry) will be stored and processed by us for the purpose of handling your request. We do not share this data without your consent.

The processing of these data is based on Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR if your inquiry is related to the fulfillment of a contract or is necessary for carrying out pre-contractual measures. In all other cases, processing is based on our legitimate interest in the effective handling of inquiries directed to us (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR) or on your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR) if requested; this consent may be revoked at any time.

The data you send to us via contact inquiries will remain with us until you request deletion, revoke your consent for storage, or the purpose for data storage no longer applies (e.g., after your request has been fully processed). Mandatory statutory provisions—especially legal retention periods—remain unaffected.

Comment Function on This Website

When using the comment function on this site, in addition to your comment, details such as the time the comment was created, your email address, and, if you do not post anonymously, the username you choose will be stored.

IP Address Storage

Our comment function stores the IP addresses of users who post comments. Since we do not check comments before they are published, we need this data in order to take legal action against the author in case of violations such as insults or propaganda.

Subscribing to Comments

As a user of this website, you can subscribe to comments after registering. You will receive a confirmation email to verify that you are the owner of the provided email address. You may unsubscribe from this feature at any time via a link in the notification emails. The data provided when subscribing to comments will be deleted in this case; however, data submitted to us for other purposes (e.g., newsletter subscriptions) remains unaffected.

Retention Period for Comments

Comments and associated data are stored and remain on the website until the commented content is completely deleted or the comments must be removed for legal reasons (e.g., offensive content).

Legal Basis

The storage of comments is based on your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). You can revoke your consent at any time. An informal email notification to us is sufficient. The legality of the data processing already carried out remains unaffected by the revocation.

5. Social Media

Facebook Integration

Elements of the Facebook social network are integrated into this website. The provider of this service is Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland. According to Facebook, collected data may also be transferred to the USA and other third countries.

An overview of Facebook social media plugins can be found here: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/?locale=de_DE

When the social media element is active, a direct connection between your device and the Facebook server is established. Facebook is thereby informed that you visited this website with your IP address. If you click the Facebook “Like” button while logged into your Facebook account, you can link the content of this website to your Facebook profile. This allows Facebook to associate your visit to this website with your user account. We point out that, as the provider of the website, we do not receive knowledge about the content of the transmitted data or its use by Facebook. Further information can be found in Facebook’s privacy policy: https://de-de.facebook.com/privacy/explanation

If consent has been obtained, the use of the above-mentioned service is based on Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR and § 25 TTDSG. Consent can be revoked at any time. If no consent has been obtained, the use of the service is based on our legitimate interest in achieving the broadest possible visibility in social media.

To the extent that personal data is collected on our website using the Facebook tool and forwarded to Facebook, we and Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland, are jointly responsible for this data processing (Art. 26 GDPR). This joint responsibility is limited solely to the collection and transfer of the data to Facebook. Any subsequent processing by Facebook is not part of the joint responsibility. The obligations jointly incumbent upon us have been laid out in an agreement on joint processing. The wording of this agreement can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/legal/controller_addendum

According to this agreement, we are responsible for providing privacy information when using the Facebook tool and for implementing the tool in a data protection-compliant manner on our website. Facebook is responsible for the data security of its products. Data subject rights (e.g., access requests) regarding data processed by Facebook can be asserted directly with Facebook. If you assert data subject rights with us, we are obligated to forward them to Facebook.

Data transfer to the USA is based on the Standard Contractual Clauses of the EU Commission. Details can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/legal/EU_data_transfer_addendum,
https://de-de.facebook.com/help/566994660333381, and
https://www.facebook.com/policy.php.

The company holds a certification under the “EU-US Data Privacy Framework” (DPF). The DPF is an agreement between the European Union and the USA designed to ensure compliance with European data protection standards in data processing in the USA. Every company certified under the DPF commits to adhering to these data protection standards. More information can be obtained from the provider at the following link:
https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov/s/participant-search/participant-detail?contact=true&id=a2zt0000000GnywAAC&status=Active

Instagram

This website includes features of the Instagram service. These features are provided by Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland.

When the social media element is active, a direct connection is established between your device and the Instagram server. Instagram thereby receives information about your visit to this website.

If you are logged into your Instagram account, clicking the Instagram button can link the content of this website with your Instagram profile. Instagram can thus assign the visit to this website to your user account. We would like to point out that as the provider of the website, we do not have knowledge of the content of the data transmitted or its use by Instagram.

Where consent has been obtained, the use of the above-mentioned service is based on Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR and § 25 TTDSG. Consent can be revoked at any time. If no consent has been obtained, the use of the service is based on our legitimate interest in achieving the broadest possible visibility in social media.

If personal data is collected on our website and forwarded to Facebook or Instagram using the tool described here, we and Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland, are jointly responsible for this data processing (Art. 26 GDPR). The joint responsibility is limited exclusively to the collection of the data and its forwarding to Facebook or Instagram. The processing that takes place after forwarding by Facebook or Instagram is not part of the joint responsibility. Our mutual obligations have been laid down in a joint processing agreement. The full text of this agreement can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/legal/controller_addendum. According to this agreement, we are responsible for providing data protection information when using the Facebook or Instagram tools and for the data protection-compliant implementation of the tools on our website. Facebook is responsible for the data security of Facebook and Instagram products. Data subject rights (e.g., requests for information) regarding data processed by Facebook or Instagram can be asserted directly with Facebook. If you assert data subject rights with us, we are obliged to forward them to Facebook.

Data transfer to the USA is based on the Standard Contractual Clauses of the EU Commission. Details can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/legal/EU_data_transfer_addendum,
https://privacycenter.instagram.com/policy/, and
https://de-de.facebook.com/help/566994660333381.

More information can be found in Instagram’s privacy policy:
https://privacycenter.instagram.com/policy/.

6. Plugins and Tools

YouTube with enhanced privacy

This website embeds videos from YouTube. The operator of the pages is Google Ireland Limited (“Google”), Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland.

We use YouTube in enhanced privacy mode. According to YouTube, this mode ensures that YouTube does not store information about visitors on this website before they watch a video. However, the transfer of data to YouTube partners is not necessarily excluded by the enhanced privacy mode. YouTube establishes a connection to the Google Marketing Network regardless of whether you watch a video or not.

As soon as you start a YouTube video on this website, a connection is established to YouTube servers. The YouTube server is informed about which of our pages you have visited. If you are logged into your YouTube account, you enable YouTube to directly assign your surfing behavior to your personal profile. You can prevent this by logging out of your YouTube account.

Furthermore, YouTube may store various cookies or use comparable recognition technologies (e.g., device fingerprinting) on your device after starting a video. In this way, YouTube can obtain information about visitors to this website. This information is used, among other things, to collect video statistics, improve user-friendliness, and prevent fraud.

Additional data processing processes may be triggered after starting a YouTube video, over which we have no control.

The use of YouTube serves the purpose of an attractive presentation of our online offerings. This represents a legitimate interest within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. If corresponding consent has been obtained, processing is carried out exclusively on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR and § 25 para. 1 TTDSG, as far as consent includes the storage of cookies or access to information in the user’s terminal device (e.g., device fingerprinting) within the meaning of the TTDSG. Consent can be revoked at any time.

More information about data protection at YouTube can be found in their privacy policy:
https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en.

Google Maps

This site uses the Google Maps mapping service. Provider is Google Ireland Limited (“Google”), Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland.

To use the features of Google Maps, it is necessary to store your IP address. This information is usually transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. The provider of this site has no influence on this data transfer. When Google Maps is activated, Google may use Google Fonts to uniformly display fonts. When calling up Google Maps, your browser loads the required web fonts into its browser cache to display texts and fonts correctly.

The use of Google Maps is in the interest of an appealing presentation of our online offers and easy findability of the locations we list on the website. This constitutes a legitimate interest within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. If appropriate consent has been obtained, processing takes place exclusively on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR and § 25 para. 1 TTDSG, insofar as the consent includes the storage of cookies or access to information on the user’s device (e.g., device fingerprinting) within the meaning of the TTDSG. Consent can be revoked at any time.

Data transfer to the USA is based on the Standard Contractual Clauses of the EU Commission. Details can be found here:
https://privacy.google.com/businesses/gdprcontrollerterms/ and
https://privacy.google.com/businesses/gdprcontrollerterms/sccs/.

More information on the handling of user data can be found in Google’s privacy policy:
https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en.

Source: https://www.e-recht24.de