TABLE OF CONTENTS
PRIVACY POLICY
We created this Privacy Policy (version 21.08.2020-111399368), to declare which information we collect, how we use data and which options the users of our website have, according to the guidelines of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679. Unfortunately, these subjects sound rather technical due to their nature, but we have put much effort into describing the most important things as simply and clearly as possible.
AUTOMATIC DATA RETENTION
Every time you visit a website nowadays, certain information is automatically created and saved, just as it happens on this website.
Whenever you visit our website such as you are doing right now, our web server (computer on which this website is saved/stored) automatically saves data such as
– the address (URL) of the accessed website
– browser and browser version
– the used operating system
– the address (URL) of the previously visited site (referrer URL)
– the hostname and the IP-address of the device the website is accessed from
– date and time
in files (webserver-logfiles).
Generally, webserver-logfiles stay saved for two weeks and then get deleted automatically. We do not pass this information to others, but we cannot exclude the possibility that this data will be looked at in case of illegal conduct.
COOKIES
Our website uses HTTP-cookies to store user-specific data.
For your better understanding of the following Privacy Policy statement, we will explain to you below what cookies are and why they are in use.
What exactly are cookies?
Every time you surf the internet, you use a browser. Common browsers are for example Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge. Most websites store small text-files in your browser. These files are called cookies.
What should not be dismissed, is that cookies are very useful little helpers. Nearly all websites use cookies. More accurately speaking these are HTTP-cookies since there are also different cookies for other uses. HTTP-cookies are small files which our website stores on your computer. These cookie files are automatically put into the cookie-folder, which is like the “brain” of your browser. A cookie consists of a name and a value. Moreover, to define a cookie, one or multiple attributes must be specified.
Cookies save certain parts of your user data, such as e.g. language or personal page settings. When you re-open our website, your browser submits these “user-specific” information back to our site. Thanks to cookies, our website knows who you are and offers you the settings you are familiar to. In some browsers every cookie has its own file, in others such as Firefox, all cookies are stored in one single file.
There are both first-party cookies and third-party cookies. First-party cookies are created directly by our site, while third-party cookies are created by partner-websites (e.g. Google Analytics). Every cookie is individual, since every cookie stores different data. The expiration time of a cookie also varies – it can be a few minutes, or up to a few years. Cookies are no software-programs and contain no computer viruses, trojans, or any other malware. Cookies also cannot access your PC’s information.
Which types of cookies are there?
What exact cookies we use, depends on the used services. We will explain this in the following sections of the Privacy Policy statement. Firstly, we will briefly focus on the 4 different types of HTTP-cookies.
Essential Cookies
These cookies are necessary to ensure the basic function of a website. They are needed when a user for example puts a product into their shopping cart, then continues surfing on different websites and comes back later in order to proceed to the checkout. Even when the user closed their window priorly, these cookies ensure that the shopping cart does not get deleted.
Purposive Cookies
These cookies collect info about the user behavior and record if the user potentially receives any error messages. Furthermore, these cookies record the website’s loading time as well as its behavior within different browsers.
Target-orientated Cookies
These cookies care for improved user-friendliness. Thus, information such as previously entered locations, fonts, or data in forms stays saved.
Advertising Cookies
These cookies are also known as targeting-Cookies. They serve the purpose of delivering individually adapted advertisements to the user. This can be very practical, but also rather annoying.
Upon your first visit to a website, you are usually asked which of these cookie-types you want to accept. Furthermore, this decision will of course also be saved in a cookie.
How can I delete cookies?
You yourself take the decision if and how you want to use cookies. Thus, no matter what service or website cookies are from, you always have the option to delete, deactivate, or only partially allow them. Therefore, you can for example block cookies of third parties but allow any other cookies.
If you want to change or delete cookie-settings and would like to determine which cookies have been saved to your browser, you can find this info in your browser settings:
Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox
Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies
Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge
If you generally do not want to allow any cookies at all, you can set up your browser in a way, to notify you whenever a potential cookie is about to be set. This gives you the opportunity to manually decide to either permit or deny the placement of every single cookie. The settings for this differ from browser to browser. Therefore, it might be best for you to search for the instructions on Google. If you are using Chrome, you could for example put the search phrase “delete cookies Chrome” or “deactivate cookies Chrome” into Google.
How is my data protected?
There is a “cookie policy” that has been in place since 2009. It states that the storage of cookies requires the user’s consent. However, among the countries of the EU, these guidelines are often met with mixed reactions. In Austria, the guidelines have been implemented in § 96 section 3 of the Telecommunications Act (TKG).
If you want to learn more about cookies and do not mind technical documentation, we recommend https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6265, the Request for Comments of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) called “HTTP State Management Mechanism”.
STORAGE OF PERSONAL DATA
Any personal data you electronically submit to us on this website, such as your name, email address, home address or other personal information you provide via the transmission of a form or via any comments to the blog, are solely used for the specified purpose and get stored securely along with the respective submission times and IP-address. These data do not get passed on to third parties.
Therefore, we use personal data for the communication with only those users, who have explicitly requested being contacted, as well as for the execution of the services and products offered on this website. We do not pass your personal data to others without your approval, but we cannot exclude the possibility this data will be looked at in case of illegal conduct.
If you send us personal data via email – and thus not via this website – we cannot guarantee any safe transmission or protection of your data. We recommend you, to never send confidential data via email.
RIGHTS IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE GENERAL DATA PROTECTION REGULATION
You are granted the following rights in accordance with the provisions of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and the Austrian Data Protection Act (DSG):
– Right to rectification (article 16 GDPR)
– Right to erasure (“right to be forgotten“) (Article 17 GDPR)
– Right to restrict processing (Article 18 GDPR)
– Right to notification – notification obligation regarding rectification or erasure of personal data or restriction of processing (Article 19 GDPR)
– Right to data portability (article 20 GDPR)
– Right to object (article 21 GDPR)
– Right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing – including profiling – (article 22 GDPR)
If you think that the processing of your data violates the data protection law, or that your data protection rights have been infringed in any other way, you can lodge a complaint with your respective regulatory authority. For Austria, this is the data protection authority, whose website you can access at https://www.data-protection-authority.gv.at
EVALUATION OF VISITOR BEHAVIOUR
In the following Privacy Policy, we will inform you if and how we evaluate the data of your visit to this website. The evaluation is generally made anonymously, and we cannot link to you personally based on your behavior on this website.
You can find out more about how to disagree with the evaluation of visitor data, in the Privacy Policy below.
TLS ENCRYPTION WITH HTTPS
We use https to transfer information on the internet in a tap-proof manner (data protection through technology design Article 25 Section 1 GDPR). With the use of TLS (Transport Layer Security), which is an encryption protocol for safe data transfer on the internet, we can ensure the protection of confidential information. You can recognize the use of this safeguarding tool by the little lock-symbol, which is situated in your browser’s top-left corner, as well as by the use of the letters https (instead of http) as a part of our web address.
GOOGLE MAPS PRIVACY POLICY
On our website, we use Google Maps of the company Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). With the use of Google Maps, we can show you locations in a better way and can therefore adjust our service to your needs. Due to the utilization of Google Maps, data gets transferred to Google and is saved on Google’s servers. In the following, we want to explain in detail 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 maps service of the company Google Inc. With Google Maps you can search for exact locations of cities, sights, accommodations, or businesses online via a PC, a tablet, or an app. If businesses are represented on Google My Business, the respective location, as well as other information about the company, are shown there. In order to show route directions, a location’s map sections can be integrated into a website through a HTML-code. Google Maps depicts the earth’s surface as either a road map or as air and satellite images. Due to the street view and high-quality satellite images, it is possible for exact representations to be made.
Why do we use Google Maps on our website?
The efforts we make on this page have the goal of giving you a useful and meaningful experience on our website. Through the integration of Google Maps, we can offer you essential information on various locations. Therefore, you can spot our office address with one glance. Furthermore, the route directions always show you the best and fastest way for us. You can retrieve the route directions for traveling either by car, by public transport, on foot or by bike. The integration of Google Maps is a part of our customer service.
What data is stored by Google Maps?
For Google Maps to offer its full services, the company must collect and store your data. This includes your entered search terms, your IP-address as well as your longitude and latitude coordinates. When you use the route-planner function, the entered start address is stored also. However, this data retention happens on Google Maps‘ websites. We can only inform you about it but cannot influence it in any way. Since we have included Google Maps on our website, Google will set at least one cookie (Name: NID) into your browser. This cookie saves data on your user behavior. Google primarily uses this data to optimize its own services and to provide you with individual, personalized advertisements.
How long and where is the data saved?
There are Google servers in data centers across the entire planet. However, most servers are in America. For this reason, your data is widely stored in the USA. Here you can read in detail about where the Google servers are located: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=en
Google distributes data to various data carriers. This makes it possible to retrieve the data faster and to better protect it from possible attempted manipulations. Every server has emergency programs. Thus, should for example a problem with Google’s hardware occur or should a natural disaster impact the servers, any data will quite certainly stay protected.
Moreover, Google saves some data for a specified period. With some other data, on the other hand, Google only offers the opportunity for deleting it manually. Furthermore, the company anonymizes information (e.g. advertising data) in server logs, by deleting a part of the IP-address and cookie information after 9 to 18 months.
How can I delete my data, or prevent data retention?
Due to the automatic delete function for location and activity data, which was introduced in 2019, information that is used for determining your location and web or app activity is saved for either 3 or 18 months, depending on your preferred decision, and is deleted thereafter.
Furthermore, it is possible to delete this data manually from your browser history via your Google account anytime. If you want to prevent the determination of your location altogether, you must pause the category “Web and app activity” in your Google account. Click on “Data and personalization” and then choose the option “Activity controls”. Here you can switch the activities on or off.
Moreover, in your browser, you can deactivate, delete, or manage individual cookies. This function can differ a little, depending on what browser you are using. The following instructions will show you how to manage cookies in your browser:
Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox
Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies
Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge
If you generally do not want to permit any cookies, you can set up your browser in a way that ensures you get informed whenever a cookie is about to be placed. That way you can decide to either permit or refuse every single cookie.
Google is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and safe transfer of personal data. You can find more information on this on https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI.
If you want to find out more about Google’s data processing, we recommend the company’s internal privacy statement on https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-GB.
GOOGLE FONTS PRIVACY POLICY
On our website, we use Google Fonts, from the company Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA).
To use Google Fonts, you must log in and set up a password. Furthermore, no cookies will be saved in your browser. The data (CSS, Fonts) will be requested via the Google domains fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com. According to Google, all requests for CSS and fonts are fully separated from any other Google services. If you have a Google account, you do not need to worry that your Google account details are transmitted to Google while you use Google Fonts. Google records the use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) as well as the utilized fonts and stores these data securely. We will have a detailed look at how exactly the data storage works.
What are Google Fonts?
Google Fonts (previously Google Web Fonts) is a list of over 800 fonts which href=”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google?tid=111399368”>Google LLC provides its users for free.
Many of these fonts have been published under the SIL Open Font License license, while others have been published under the Apache license. Both are free software licenses.
Why do we use Google Fonts on our website?
With Google Fonts we can use different fonts on our website and do not have to upload them to our own server. Google Fonts is an important element that helps to keep the quality of our website high. All Google fonts are automatically optimized for the web, which saves data volume and is an advantage especially for the use of mobile terminal devices. When you use our website, the low data size provides fast loading times. Moreover, Google Fonts are secure Web Fonts. Various image synthesis systems (rendering) can lead to errors in different browsers, operating systems, and mobile terminal devices. These errors could optically distort parts of texts or entire websites. Due to the fast Content Delivery Network (CDN), there are no cross-platform issues with Google Fonts. All common browsers (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera) are supported by Google Fonts, and it reliably operates on most modern mobile operating systems, including Android 2.2+ and iOS 4.2+ (iPhone, iPad, iPod). We also use Google Fonts for presenting our entire online service as pleasantly and as uniformly as possible.
Which data is saved by Google?
Whenever you visit our website, the fonts are reloaded by a Google server. Through this external cue, data gets transferred to Google’s servers. Therefore, this makes Google recognize that you (or your IP-address) is visiting our website. The Google Fonts API was developed to reduce the usage, storage, and gathering of end-user data to the minimum needed for the proper depiction of fonts. What is more, API stands for „Application Programming Interface“ and works as a software data intermediary.
Google Fonts stores CSS and font requests safely with Google, and therefore it is protected. Using its collected usage figures, Google can determine how popular the individual fonts are. Google publishes the results on internal analysis pages, such as Google Analytics. Moreover, Google also utilizes data of its own web crawler, in order to determine which websites are using Google fonts. This data is published in Google Fonts’ BigQuery database. Entrepreneurs and developers use Google’s web services BigQuery to be able to inspect and move big volumes of data.
One more thing that should be considered, is that every request for Google Fonts automatically transmits information such as language preferences, IP address, browser version, as well as the browser’s screen resolution and name to Google’s servers. It cannot be clearly identified if this data is saved, as Google has not directly declared it.
How long and where is the data stored?
Google saves requests for CSS assets for one day in a tag on their servers, which are primarily located outside of the EU. This makes it possible for us to use the fonts by means of a Google stylesheet. With the help of a stylesheet, e.g. designs or fonts of a website can get changed swiftly and easily.
Any font-related data is stored with Google for one year. This is because Google’s aim is to fundamentally boost websites’ loading times. With millions of websites referring to the same fonts, they are buffered after the first visit and instantly reappear on any other websites that are visited thereafter. Sometimes Google updates font files to either reduce the data sizes, increase the language coverage, or to improve the design.
How can I delete my data or prevent it from being stored?
The data Google stores for either a day or a year cannot be deleted easily. Upon opening the page this data is automatically transmitted to Google. In order to clear the data ahead of time, you have to contact Google’s support at https://support.google.com/?hl=en-GB&tid=111399368. The only way for you to prevent the retention of your data is by not visiting our website.
Unlike other web fonts, Google offers us unrestricted access to all its fonts. Thus, we have a vast sea of font types at our disposal, which helps us to get the most out of our website. You can find out more answers and information on Google Fonts at https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq?tid=111399368. While Google does address relevant elements on data protection at this link, it does not contain any detailed information on data retention. It proofs rather difficult to receive any precise information on stored data by Google.
On https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-GB you can read more about what data is generally collected by Google and what this data is used for.
FACEBOOK PIXEL PRIVACY POLICY
We use Facebook’s Facebook pixel on our website. For that, we have implemented a code on our website. The Facebook pixel is a segment of a JavaScript code, which, in case you arrived on our website via Facebook ads, loads an array of functions that enable Facebook to track your user actions. For example, if you buy a product on our website, the Facebook pixel is triggered and then saves your actions on our website in one or more cookies. These cookies enable Facebook to match your user data (customer data such as IP address, user ID) with the data of your Facebook account. After that, Facebook deletes your data again. The collected data is anonymous as well as inaccessible and can only be used for ad placement purposes. If you are a Facebook user and you are logged in, your visit to our website is automatically assigned to your Facebook user account.
We exclusively want to show our products or services to persons, who are interested in them. With the aid of the Facebook pixel, our advertising measures can get better adjusted to your wishes and interests. Therefore, Facebook users, get to see suitable advertisements (if they allowed personalized advertisement). Moreover, Facebook uses the collected data for analytical purposes and for its own advertisements.
If you want to learn more about Facebook’s data protection, we recommend you to view the company’s in-house data policies at https://www.facebook.com/policy.php
PRIVACY POLICY FOR FACEBOOK’S AUTOMATIC ADVANCED MATCHING
Along with Facebook’s pixel function, we have also activated the automatic advanced matching. This function allows us to send hashed emails, names, genders, cities, states, postcodes, and dates of birth or telephone numbers as additional information to Facebook, provided you have made them available to us. This activation gives us the opportunity, to customize advertising campaigns even better for persons who are interested in our services or products.
NEWSLETTER PRIVACY POLICY
When you subscribe to our newsletter you submit your personal data and give us the right to contact you via email. We use the data that is stored for the registration for the newsletter exclusively for our newsletter and do not pass them on. If you unsubscribe from the newsletter – for which you can find a link at the bottom of every newsletter – we will delete all data that was saved when you registered for the newsletter.
MAILCHIMP PRIVACY POLICY
Like many other websites, we use the services of the newsletter company MailChimp on our website. The operator of MailChimp is the company The Rocket Science Group, LLC, 675 Ponce de Leon Ave NE, Suite 5000, Atlanta, GA 30308 USA. With the aid of MailChimp, we can easily send you interesting news via newsletter. For the use of the service we do not have to install anything but can still access a pool of very efficient features. In the following, we will give more details on this email marketing service and will inform you about the most important data protection aspects.
What is MailChimp?
MailChimp is a cloud-based newsletter management service. “Cloud-based“ means that we do not need to install MailChimp on our own computer or server. Instead, we use the service on an external server, or more specifically via an IT infrastructure, which is available via the internet. Using a software this way is also called SaaS (software as a service).
MailChimp allows us to chose from a wide range of different email types. Depending on what goal we want to reach with our newsletter, we can run individual campaigns, regular campaigns, autoresponders (automated emails), A/B tests, RSS campaigns (mailings at pre-set times, and frequencies), and follow-up campaigns.
What data is saved by MailChimp?
Rocket Science Group LLC (MailChimp) operates online platforms that enable us to get in contact with you, provided you subscribed to our newsletter. If you become a subscriber of our newsletter via our website, by email you agree to become a member of a MailChimp email list. Then, MailChimp saves your subscription data and your IP address, so it can verify your entry into the list provider. Moreover, MailChimp stores your email address, your name, your physical address, and demographic information, such as language or location. This information is used to send emails to you and to allow certain other MailChimp functions (e.g. the evaluation of newsletters).
MailChimp also shares information with third parties to improve its services. Moreover, MailChimp shares certain data with advertising partners of third parties to get a better understanding of its clients’ interests, in order to provide relevant content and target-oriented advertising. With so-called “web beacons” (small graphics in HTML emails), MailChimp can determine if an email has arrived, has been opened, or if links have been clicked. This information is then stored on MailChimp’s servers. That way we receive statistical evaluations and can see how you liked our newsletter. Therefore, we can tailor our offer better to your wishes and improve our service. Moreover, MailChimp is allowed to use this data for improving their own service. Thus, they can for example technically optimize the distribution or determine the location (or the country) of the recipient.
For better display, it could be that you would sometimes open our newsletter via a specified link. This can be the case if your email program does not work or if the newsletter is not displayed properly. The newsletter will then be shown via a MailChimp website. MailChimp also uses cookies on its websites (small text files that save data on your browser). Personal data can be processed by MailChimp and their partners (e.g. Google Analytics). MailChimp is responsible for the collection of this data and we have no influence on it. MailChimp’s “Cookie Statement” (https://mailchimp.com/legal/cookies/) tells you exactly how and why the company uses cookies.
How long and where is the data saved?
Since MailChimp is an American company, all retained data is stored on American servers. Generally, the data stays permanently saved on MailChimp’s servers and is deleted only when you request it. You can also request the deletion of your data permanently at MailChimp. Then all your data is removed from there and we receive a notification from MailChimp. After we receive the email we have 30 days to delete your contact from all integrations.
How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?
You can withdraw your approval for the receipt of our newsletters anytime, by clicking the link in the lower area of the received newsletter email. When you click on the unsubscribe link, your data with MailChimp gets deleted. When you land on a MailChimp website via a link in our newsletter and cookies are consequently set in your browser, you can delete or deactivate these cookies anytime. Depending on the browser, the deactivation or deletion differs slightly. The following instructions show how to manage cookies in your browser:
Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox
Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies
Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge
If you generally do not want to allow any cookies, you can set up your browser in a way so it would notify you whenever a potential cookie is about to be set. This lets you decide upon the placement of every single cookie.
MailChimp is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. You can find more information on this at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participantid=a2zt0000000TO6hAAG&tid=111399368. You can find more information on MailChimp’s use of cookies at https://mailchimp.com/legal/cookies/, and you can learn more about data protection at MailChimp (Privacy) at https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/.
MAILCHIMP DATA PROCESSING ADDENDUM
We entered a contract with MailChimp on the Data Processing Addendum. This contract serves as a protection of your personal data and ensures that MailChimp follows the applicable data protection regulations and disclose your personal data to third parties.
EMBEDDED SOCIAL MEDIA ELEMENTS PRIVACY POLICY
We have embedded elements from social media services on our website, to display pictures, videos, and texts. By visiting pages that present such elements, data is transferred from your browser to the respective social media service, where it is stored. We do not have access to this data.
The following links lead to the respective social media services’ sites, where you can find a declaration on how they handle your data:
FACEBOOK DATA POLICY
We use selected Facebook tools on our website. Facebook is a social media network of the company Facebook Ireland Ltd., 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2 Ireland. With the aid of this tool, we can provide the best possible offers to you and anyone interested in our products and services. In the following, we will give you an overview of the different Facebook tools, as well as on what data is sent to Facebook and how you can delete these data.
What are Facebook tools?
Along with many other products, Facebook also offers so-called “Facebook Business Tools”. This is Facebook’s official name for the tools, but it is not very common. Therefore, we decided to merely call them “Facebook tools”. They include the following:
– Facebook-Pixel
– social plugins (e.g. the “Like” or “Share“ button)
– Facebook Login
– Account Kit
– APIs (application programming interface)
– SDKs (Software development kits)
– Plattform-integrations
– Plugins
– Codes
– Specifications
– Documentations
– Technologies and Services
With these tools, Facebook can extend its services and is able to receive information on 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 genuinely interested in them. With the help of advertisements (Facebook Ads), we can reach exactly these people. However, to be able to show suitable adverts to users, Facebook requires additional information on people’s needs and wishes. Therefore, information on user behavior (and contact details) on our website, are provided to Facebook. Consequently, Facebook can collect better user data and is able to display suitable adverts for our products or services. Thanks to the tools it is possible to create targeted, customized ad campaigns of Facebook.
Facebook calls data about your behavior on our website “event data” and uses them for analytics services. That way, Facebook can create “campaign reports” about our ad campaigns’ effectiveness on our behalf. Moreover, by analyses, we can get a better insight into how you use our services, our website, or our products. Therefore, some of these tools help us optimize your user experience on our website. With the social plugins, for instance, you can share our site’s contents directly on Facebook.
What data is saved by Facebook tools?
With the use of Facebook tools, personal data (customer data) may be sent to Facebook. Depending on the tools used, customer data such as name, address, telephone number, and IP address may be transmitted.
Facebook uses this information to match the data with the data it has on you (if you are a Facebook member). However, before the customer data is transferred to Facebook, a so-called “Hashing” takes place. This means, that a data record of any size is transformed into a string of characters, which also has the purpose of encrypting data.Moreover, not only contact data but also “event data“ is transferred. These data are the information we receive about you on our website. To give an example, it allows us to see what subpages you visit or what products you buy from us. Facebook does not disclose the obtained information to third parties (such as advertisers) unless the company has explicit permission or is legally obliged to do so. Also, “event data“ can be linked to contact information, which helps Facebook to offer improved, customized adverts. Finally, after the previously mentioned matching process, Facebook deletes the contact data.
To deliver optimized advertisements, Facebook only uses event data, if they have been combined with other data (that have been collected by Facebook in other ways). Facebook also uses event data for the purposes of security, protection, development, and research. Many of these data are transmitted to Facebook via cookies. Cookies are little text files, that are used for storing data or information in browsers. Depending on the tools used, and on whether you are a Facebook member, a different number of cookies are placed in your browser. In the descriptions of the individual Facebook tools, we will go into more detail on Facebook cookies. You can also find general information about the use of Facebook cookies at https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies
How long and where are the data saved?
Facebook fundamentally stores data, until they are no longer of use for their own services and products. Facebook has servers for storing their data all around the world. However, customer data is cleared within 48 hours after they have been matched with their own user data.
How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?
In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have the right of information, rectification, transfer, and deletion of your data. The collected data is only fully deleted when you delete your entire Facebook account. Deleting your Facebook account works as follows:
1) Click on Settings on the top right side in Facebook.
2) Then, click “Your Facebook information“ in the left column.
3) Now click on “Deactivation and deletion”.
4) Choose “Permanently delete account“ and then click on “Continue to account deletion“.
5) Enter your password, click on “continue“ and then on “Delete account“.
The retention of data Facebook receives via our site is done via cookies (e.g. with social plugins), among others. You can deactivate, clear, or manage both all and individual cookies in your browser. How this can be done differs depending on the browser you use. The following instructions show, how to manage cookies in your browser:
Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox
Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies
Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge
If you generally do not want to allow any cookies at all, you can set up your browser to notify you whenever a cookie is about to be set. This gives you the opportunity to decide upon the permission or deletion of every single cookie.
Facebook is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. You can find more information at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000GnywAAC. We hope we could give you an understanding of the most important information about the use of Facebook tools and data processing. If you want to find out more about how Facebook uses your data, we recommend reading the data policies at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update
INSTAGRAM PRIVACY POLICY
We have integrated functions of Instagram to our website. Instagram is a social media platform of the company Instagram LLC, 1601 Willow Rd, Menlo Park CA 94025, USA. Since 2012, Instagram is a subsidiary company of Facebook Inc. and is a part of Facebook’s products. The inclusion of Instagram’s contents on our website is called embedding. With this, we can show you Instagram contents such as buttons, photos, or videos directly on our website. If you open websites of our online presence, that have an integrated Instagram function, data gets transmitted to, as well as stored and processed by Instagram. Instagram uses the same systems and technologies as Facebook. Therefore, your data will be processed across all Facebook firms.
Instagram also uses the collected data for tracking and analysis purposes. We receive summarised statistics and therefore more insight into your wishes and interests. It is important to mention that these reports do not identify you personally.
What data is saved by Instagram?
Whenever you land on one of our sites, which have Instagram functions (i.e. Instagram photos or plugins) integrated to them, your browser automatically connects with Instagram’s servers. Thereby, data is sent to, as well as saved and processed by Instagram. This always happens, whether you have an Instagram account or not. Moreover, it includes information on our website, your computer, your purchases, the advertisements you see, and how you use our offer. The date and time of your interaction are also stored. If you have an Instagram account or are logged in, Instagram saves significantly more data on you.
Facebook distinguishes between customer data and event data. We assume this is also the case for Instagram. Customer data are for example names, addresses, phone numbers, and IP addresses. These data are only transmitted to Instagram if they have been “hashed” first. Thereby, a set of data is transformed into a string of characters, which encrypts any contact data. Moreover, the aforementioned “event data“ (data on your user behavior) is transmitted as well. It is also possible, that contact data may get combined with event data. The collected data is matched with any data Instagram already has on you.
Furthermore, the gathered data is transferred to Facebook via little text files (cookies) which usually get set in your browser. Depending on the Instagram function used, and whether you have an Instagram account yourself, the amount of data that gets stored varies.We assume data processing on Instagram works the same way as on Facebook. Therefore, if you have an account on Instagram or have visited www.instagram.com, Instagram has set at least one cookie. If this is the case, your browser uses the cookie to send information to Instagram, as soon as you come across an Instagram function. No later than 90 days (after matching) the data is deleted or anonymized. Even though we have studied Instagram’s data processing in-depth, we cannot tell for sure what exact data Instagram collects and retains.
How long and where are these data stored?
Instagram shares the information obtained within the Facebook businesses with external partners and persons you are globally connected with. Data processing is done according to Facebook’s internal data policy. Your data is distributed to Facebook’s servers across the world, partially for security reasons. Most of these servers are in the USA.
How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?
Thanks to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have the right of information, rectification, transfer, and deletion of your data. Furthermore, you can manage your data in Instagram’s settings. If you want to delete your data on Instagram completely, you will have to delete your Instagram account permanently.And this is how an Instagram account can be deleted:
First, open the Instagram app. Then, navigate to your profile page, select the three bars in the top right, choose “Settings” and then click “Help”. Now, you will be redirected to the company’s website, where you must click on “Managing Your Account” and then “Delete Your Account”.
When you delete your account completely, Instagram deletes posts such as your photos and status updates. Any information other people shared about you are not a part of your account and do therefore not get deleted.
As mentioned before, Instagram primarily stores your data via cookies. You can manage, deactivate, or delete these cookies in your browser. Depending on your browser, managing them varies a bit. We will show you the instructions of the most relevant browsers here.
Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox
Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies
Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge
Generally, you can set your browser to notify you whenever a cookie is about to be set. Then you can individually decide upon the permission of every cookie.
Instagram is a subsidiary company of Facebook Inc. and Facebook is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework. This framework regulates the correct transfer between the USA and the European Union. At https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000GnywAAC you can find out more about this. We gave our best to make you familiar with the most important information on data processing by Instagram. At https://help.instagram.com/519522125107875 you can find out more on Instagram’s data policies.
PINTEREST PRIVACY POLICY
On our website, we use buttons and widgets of the social media network Pinterest, by the company Pinterest Inc., 808 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA.By opening pages that use these functions, data (IP address, browser data, date and time, cookies) are transmitted to and stored and evaluated by Pinterest.
WOOCOMMERCE PRIVACY POLICY
We have integrated the open-source shop system WooCommerce to our website as a plugin. This WooCommerce plugin is based on the content management system WordPress, which is a subsidiary company of Automattic Inc. (60 29th Street #343, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA). Through the implemented functions, data are stored and sent to Automattic Inc where they are processed. In this privacy policy, we want to inform you on what data this is, how the network uses this data, and how you can manage or prevent data retention.
What is WooCommerce?
WooCommerce is an online shop system that has been part of the WordPress directory since 2011 and was specially developed for WordPress websites. It is a customizable, open-source eCommerce platform that is based on WordPress. It has been integrated into our website as a WordPress plugin.
Why do we use WooCommerce on our website?
We use this practical online shop system, to be able to offer you our physical or digital products or services in the best possible way on our website. The aim is to give you easy and easy access to our offer so that you can quickly and easily navigate to the products you want. With WooCommerce we have found a good plugin that meets our requirements for an online shop.
What data is stored by WooCommerce?
Information that you actively enter to a text field in our online shop can be collected and stored by WooCommerce or Automattic. Hence, if you register with us or order a product, Automattic may collect, process, and save this data. In addition to email address, name or address, this can also be your credit card or billing information. Subsequently, Automattic can also use this information for their own marketing campaigns.
There is also evidence that Automattic automatically collects information on you in so-called server log files:
– IP-address
– Browser information
– Pre-set language settings
– Date and time of the web access
Moreover, WooCommerce sets cookies in your browser and uses technologies such as pixel tags (web beacons), to for example clearly identify you as a user and to be able to offer interest-based advertising. WooCommerce uses several different cookies, which are placed depending on user action. This means that if you for example add a product to the shopping cart, a cookie is set so that the product remains in the shopping cart when you leave our website and come back later.
How long and where is the data stored?
Unless there is a legal obligation to keep data for a longer period, WooCommerce will delete your data if it is no longer needed for the purposes it was saved for. Server log files, for example, the technical data for your browser and your IP address will be deleted after about 30 days. This is how long Automattic uses the data to analyze the traffic on their own websites (for example all WordPress websites) and to fix possible problems. The data is stored on Automattic’s American servers.
How can I delete my data and prevent data retention?
You have the right to access your personal data anytime, as well as to object to it being used and processed. You can also lodge a complaint with a state supervisory authority anytime.
You can also manage, delete, or deactivate cookies individually in your browser. However, please note that deactivated or deleted cookies may have a negative impact on the functions of our WooCommerce online shop. Depending on the browser you use, managing cookies differs slightly. Below you will find links to the instructions for the most common browsers:
Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox
Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies
Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge
Automattic is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data.
More information can be found at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000CbqcAAC.
You can find more details on the privacy policy, as well as on which data is collected by WooCommerce in what way at https://automattic.com/privacy/ Moreover, you can find general information on WooCommerce at https://woocommerce.com
