Privacy Policy

EU Dispute Resolution

In accordance with the Regulation on Online Dispute Resolution in Consumer Matters (ODR Regulation), we would like to inform you about the Online Dispute Resolution Platform (OS Platform).
Consumers have the opportunity to submit complaints to the European Commission's Online Dispute Resolution Platform at http://ec.europa.eu/odr?tid=321238643. The necessary contact details can be found above in our imprint.

However, we would like to point out that we are not willing or obliged to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.

Liability for Contents of This Website

We continuously develop the contents of this website and strive to provide correct and up-to-date information. According to the Telemedia Act (TMG) §7 (1), we as service providers are responsible for our own information that we provide for use in accordance with general laws. Unfortunately, we cannot assume liability for the correctness of all contents on this website, especially for those provided by third parties. As a service provider within the meaning of §§ 8 to 10, we are not obliged to monitor the information transmitted or stored by them or to investigate circumstances that indicate illegal activity.

Our obligations to remove information or block the use of information under general laws due to court or official orders remain unaffected even in the case of our non-responsibility according to §§ 8 to 10.

If you notice problematic or illegal content, please contact us immediately so that we can remove the illegal content. You can find the contact details in the imprint.

Liability for Links on This Website

Our website contains links to other websites for whose content we are not responsible. We are not liable for linked websites, as we had and have no knowledge of illegal activities, such illegal activities were not apparent to us, and we would remove links immediately if we became aware of any illegalities.

If you notice illegal links on our website, please contact us. You can find the contact details in the imprint.

Copyright Notice

All contents of this website (images, photos, texts, videos) are subject to the copyright of the Federal Republic of Germany. Please ask us before you distribute, reproduce, or exploit the contents of this website, such as republishing on other websites. If necessary, we will legally pursue the unauthorized use of parts of the contents of our site.

If you find content on this website that violates copyright, please contact us.

Image Credits

The images, photos, and graphics on this website are protected by copyright.

The image rights belong to the following photographers and companies:

  • bagobag GmbH, Adobe Stock Photos

Privacy Declaration

Privacy

We have written this privacy declaration (version 14.06.2021) to explain to you, in accordance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679, what information we collect, how we use data, and what choices you have as a visitor to this website.

Unfortunately, it is in the nature of things that these explanations sound very technical, but we have tried to describe the most important things as simply and clearly as possible.

Automatic Data Storage

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

When you visit our website as you are doing now, our web server (the computer on which this website is stored) automatically stores data such as:

  • The address (URL) of the accessed web page
  • Browser and browser version
  • The operating system used
  • The address (URL) of the previously visited page (referrer URL)
  • The hostname and IP address of the device from which access is made
  • Date and time

in files (web server log files).

As a rule, web server log files are stored for two weeks and then automatically deleted. We do not pass on this data, but we cannot rule out that this data may be viewed in the event of illegal behavior.

Cookies

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

What Exactly Are Cookies?

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

One thing cannot be denied: Cookies are really useful little helpers. Almost all websites use cookies. More precisely, they are HTTP cookies, as there are also other cookies for other applications. HTTP cookies are small files that are stored on your computer by our website. These cookie files are automatically placed in the cookie folder, the "brain" of your browser. A cookie consists of a name and a value. When defining a cookie, one or more attributes must also be specified.

Cookies store certain user data about you, such as language or personal page settings. When you revisit our site, your browser transmits the "user-related" information back to our site. Thanks to cookies, our website knows who you are and offers you your usual default settings. In some browsers, each cookie has its own file, while in others, such as Firefox, all cookies are stored in a single file.

There are both first-party cookies and third-party cookies. First-party cookies are created directly by our site, while third-party cookies are created by partner websites (e.g., Google Analytics). Each cookie must be evaluated individually, as each cookie stores different data. The expiration time of a cookie also varies from a few minutes to a few years. Cookies are not software programs and do not contain viruses, Trojans, or other "pests." Cookies also cannot access information on your PC.

For example, cookie data might look like this:

  • Name: _ga
  • Expiration time: 2 years
  • Usage: Distinguishing website visitors
  • Example value: GA1.2.1326744211.152321238643

A browser should support the following minimum sizes:

  • A cookie should be able to contain at least 4096 bytes
  • At least 50 cookies should be able to be stored per domain
  • At least 3000 cookies should be able to be stored in total
What Types of Cookies Are There?

The question of which cookies we use in particular depends on the services used and is clarified in the following sections of the privacy declaration. At this point, we would like to briefly discuss the different types of HTTP cookies.

There are 4 types of cookies:

Essential Cookies
These cookies are necessary to ensure basic functions of the website. For example, these cookies are needed if a user adds a product to the shopping cart, then continues surfing on other pages, and only later checks out. These cookies ensure that the shopping cart is not deleted, even if the user closes the browser window.

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

Target-Oriented Cookies
These cookies improve user-friendliness. For example, entered locations, font sizes, or form data are stored.

Advertising Cookies
These cookies are also called targeting cookies. They serve to deliver individually tailored advertising to the user. This can be very practical but also very annoying.

Usually, you are asked when you first visit a website which of these types of cookies you want to allow. And of course, this decision is also stored in a cookie.

How Can I Delete Cookies?

How and whether you want to use cookies is up to you. Regardless of which service or website the cookies come from, you always have the option to delete cookies, only partially allow them, or disable them. For example, you can block third-party cookies but allow all other cookies.

If you want to find out which cookies are stored in your browser, change cookie settings, or delete cookies, you can find this in your browser settings:

Chrome: Delete, enable, and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

If you generally do not want cookies, you can set up your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be set. This way, you can decide for each individual cookie whether you allow it or not. The procedure varies depending on the browser. It is best to search for the instructions in Google with the search term "Delete cookies Chrome" or "Disable cookies Chrome" in the case of a Chrome browser or replace the word "Chrome" with the name of your browser, e.g., Edge, Firefox, Safari.

What About My Privacy?

Since 2009, there have been so-called "cookie guidelines." These state that the storage of cookies requires your consent. However, within the EU countries, there are still very different reactions to these guidelines. In Germany, the cookie guidelines were not implemented as national law. Instead, the implementation of this directive was largely carried out in § 15 para. 3 of the Telemedia Act (TMG).

If you want to know more about cookies and are not afraid of technical documentation, we recommend RFC 6265, the Request for Comments of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) called "HTTP State Management Mechanism."

Rights Under the General Data Protection Regulation

According to the provisions of the GDPR, 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 rectification or erasure 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 otherwise been violated in any way, you can contact the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI).

Evaluation of Visitor Behavior

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

You can learn more about how to object to this evaluation of visit data in the following privacy declaration.

TLS Encryption with HTTPS

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

Newsletter Privacy Declaration

If you subscribe to our newsletter, you provide the above-mentioned personal data and give us the right to contact you by email. The data stored during the newsletter registration is used exclusively for our newsletter and is not passed on to third parties.

If you unsubscribe from the newsletter – you will find the link for this at the bottom of every newsletter.

Source: Created with the Privacy Policy Generator by AdSimple