This privacy policy explains the nature, scope and purpose of the processing of personal data (hereinafter referred to as "data") within our online offering and the associated websites, functions and content as well as external online presences, such as our social media profile (hereinafter collectively referred to as "online offering"). With regard to the terms used, such as "processing" or "controller", we refer to the definitions in Art. 4 of the General Data Protection Regulation (DSGVO).
Types of data processed:
- Inventory data (e.g., names, addresses)
- Contact data (e.g., e-mail, telephone numbers)
- Content data (e.g., text entries, photographs, videos)
- Usage data (e.g., websites visited, interest in content, access times)
- Meta/communication data (e.g., device information, IP addresses)
Categories of data subjects:
Visitors and users of the online offer (hereinafter we also refer to the data subjects collectively as "users")
Purpose of the processing:
- Provision of the online offering, its functions and content
- Answering contact enquiries and communicating with users
- Security measures
- Reach measurement/marketing
Terminology used:
"Personal data" means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (hereinafter "data subject"); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier (e.g. cookie) or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.
"Processing" means any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal data or on sets of personal data, whether or not by automated means. The term is broad and covers practically any handling of data.
"Pseudonymisation" means the processing of personal data in such a manner that the personal data can no longer be attributed to a specific data subject without the use of additional information, provided that such additional information is kept separately and is subject to technical and organisational measures to ensure that the personal data are not attributed to an identified or identifiable natural person.
"Profiling" means any form of automated processing of personal data consisting of the use of personal data to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person, in particular to analyse or predict aspects concerning that natural person's performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behaviour, location or movements. "Controller" means the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data.
"Processor" means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller.
Relevant legal bases:
In accordance with Art. 13 GDPR, we inform you of the legal basis of our data processing. If the legal basis is not stated in the privacy policy, the following applies The legal basis for obtaining consent is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a and Art. 7 GDPR, the legal basis for processing to fulfil our services and implement contractual measures and respond to enquiries is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR, the legal basis for processing to fulfil our legal obligations is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. c GDPR, and the legal basis for processing to protect our legitimate interests is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. In the event that vital interests of the data subject or another natural person require the processing of personal data, Art. 6 para. 1 lit. d GDPR serves as the legal basis.
Security measures:
We take appropriate technical and organisational measures in accordance with Art. 32 GDPR, taking into account the state of the art, the costs of implementation and the nature, scope, context and purposes of processing as well as the risk of varying likelihood and severity for the rights and freedoms of natural persons, in order to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk.
The measures include, in particular, safeguarding the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data by controlling physical access to the data, as well as the access, input, disclosure, safeguarding of availability and separation of the data. Furthermore, we have established procedures to ensure that the rights of data subjects are exercised, data is deleted and we respond to data threats. Furthermore, we take the protection of personal data into account as early as the development and selection of hardware, software and procedures, in accordance with the principle of data protection through technology design and data protection-friendly default settings (Art. 25 DSGVO).
Cooperation with contractors and third parties:
If we disclose data to other persons and companies (processors or third parties) as part of our processing, transfer it to them or otherwise grant them access to the data, this will only be done on the basis of legal permission (e.g. if a transfer of the data to third parties, such as payment service providers, is necessary for the fulfilment of the contract pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR), you have consented, a legal obligation provides for this or on the basis of our legitimate interests (e.g. when using agents, web hosts, etc.). If we commission third parties to process data on the basis of a so-called "order processing contract", this is done on the basis of Art. 28 GDPR.
Transfers to third countries:
If we process data in a third country (i.e. outside the European Union (EU) or the European Economic Area (EEA)) or if this occurs in the context of the use of third-party services or disclosure, or transfer of data to third parties, this will only take place if it is done to fulfil our (pre)contractual obligations, on the basis of your consent, on the basis of a legal obligation or on the basis of our legitimate interests. Subject to legal or contractual authorisations, we only process or have the data processed in a third country if the special requirements of Art. 44 et seq. GDPR are met. This means, for example, that the processing takes place on the basis of special guarantees, such as the officially recognised determination of a level of data protection corresponding to the EU (e.g. for the USA through the "Privacy Shield") or compliance with officially recognised special contractual obligations (so-called "standard contractual clauses").
Rights of the data subjects:
You have the right to request confirmation as to whether the data in question is being processed and to request information about this data as well as further information and a copy of the data in accordance with Art. 15 GDPR.
You have accordingly. Art. 16 GDPR, you have the right to request the completion of data concerning you or the rectification of inaccurate data concerning you.
In accordance with Art. 17 GDPR, you have the right to demand that the data in question be deleted immediately or, alternatively, to demand that the processing of the data be restricted in accordance with Art. 18 GDPR.
You have the right to request to receive the data concerning you that you have provided to us in accordance with Art. 20 GDPR and to request its transfer to other controllers.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority in accordance with Art. 77 GDPR.
Right of cancellation:
You have the right to withdraw your consent in accordance with Art. 7 (3) GDPR with effect for the future.
Right to object:
You can object to the future processing of data concerning you in accordance with Art. 21 GDPR at any time. In particular, you may object to processing for direct marketing purposes.
Cookies and right to object to direct marketing:
"Cookies" are small files that are stored on users' computers. Different information can be stored within the cookies. A cookie is primarily used to store information about a user (or the device on which the cookie is stored) during or after their visit to an online service. Temporary cookies, or "session cookies" or "transient cookies", are cookies that are deleted after a user leaves an online service and closes their browser. The content of a shopping basket in an online shop or a login status, for example, can be stored in such a cookie. "Permanent" or "persistent" cookies are cookies that remain stored even after the browser is closed. For example, the login status can be saved if the user visits the website after several days. The interests of users can also be stored in such a cookie and used for reach measurement or marketing purposes. "Third-party cookies" are cookies that are offered by providers other than the controller who operates the online service (otherwise, if they are only their cookies, they are referred to as "first-party cookies").
We may use temporary and permanent cookies and clarify this in our privacy policy.
If users do not want cookies to be stored on their computer, they are asked to deactivate the corresponding option in the system settings of their browser. Saved cookies can be deleted in the system settings of the browser. The exclusion of cookies can lead to functional restrictions of this online offer.
A general objection to the use of cookies used for online marketing purposes can be declared for a large number of services, especially in the case of tracking, via the US website http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ or the EU website http://www.youronlinechoices.com/. Furthermore, the storage of cookies can be achieved by switching them off in the browser settings. Please note that you may then not be able to use all the functions of this website.
Deletion of data:
The data processed by us will be erased or its processing restricted in accordance with Art. 17 and 18 GDPR. Unless expressly stated in this privacy policy, the data stored by us will be deleted as soon as it is no longer required for its intended purpose and the deletion does not conflict with any statutory retention obligations. If the data is not deleted because it is required for other and legally permissible purposes, its processing will be restricted. This means that the data is blocked and not processed for other purposes. This applies, for example, to data that must be retained for commercial or tax law reasons.
According to legal requirements in Germany, data is stored for 10 years in accordance with §§ 147 para. 1 AO, 257 para. 1 no. 1 and 4, para. 4 HGB (books, records, management reports, accounting vouchers, trading books, documents relevant for taxation, etc.) and 6 years in accordance with § 257 para. 1 no. 2 and 3, para. 4 HGB (commercial letters).
According to legal requirements in Austria, the retention period is 7 years in accordance with § 132 para. 1 BAO (accounting documents, receipts/invoices, accounts, receipts, business papers, statement of income and expenses, etc.), 22 years in connection with real estate and 10 years for documents in connection with electronically provided services, telecommunications, radio and television services that are provided to non-entrepreneurs in EU member states and for which the Mini-One-Stop-Shop (MOSS) is used.
Registration function:
Users can create a user account. As part of the registration process, the required mandatory information is communicated to the users and processed on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR for the purpose of providing the user account. The processed data includes in particular the login information (name, password and an email address). The data entered during registration is used for the purposes of using the user account and its purpose.
Users may be informed by email about information relevant to their user account, such as technical changes. If users have cancelled their user account, their data relating to the user account will be deleted, subject to a statutory retention obligation. It is the responsibility of users to back up their data before the end of the contract in the event of cancellation. We are authorised to irretrievably delete all user data stored during the term of the contract.
As part of the use of our registration and login functions and the use of the user account, we store the IP address and the time of the respective user action. This data is stored on the basis of our legitimate interests as well as those of the user in protection against misuse and other unauthorised use. This data is not passed on to third parties unless it is necessary to pursue our claims or there is a legal obligation to do so in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. for GDPR. The IP addresses are anonymised or deleted after 7 days at the latest.
Comments and contributions:
If users leave comments or other contributions, their IP addresses may be stored on the basis of our legitimate interests within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f. GDPR for 7 days. GDPR may be stored for 7 days. This is done for our security in case someone leaves illegal content in comments and posts (insults, prohibited political propaganda, etc.). In this case, we ourselves may be prosecuted for the comment or post and are therefore interested in the identity of the author. Furthermore, we reserve the right, on the basis of our legitimate interests pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f. GDPR, to process user data for the purpose of spam detection. On the same legal basis, we reserve the right to store users' IP addresses for the duration of surveys and to use cookies in order to avoid multiple votes. The data provided in the context of comments and contributions will be stored by us permanently until the user objects.
Comment subscriptions:
Follow-up comments can be subscribed to by users with their consent in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR. Users will receive a confirmation email to verify that they are the owner of the email address entered. Users can unsubscribe from ongoing comment subscriptions at any time. The confirmation email will contain information on the cancellation options. For the purposes of proving the user's consent, we store the time of registration together with the user's IP address and delete this information when users unsubscribe from the subscription.
You can cancel your subscription to our newsletter at any time, i.e. revoke your consent. We may store the unsubscribed email addresses for up to three years on the basis of our legitimate interests before deleting them in order to be able to prove that consent was previously given. The processing of this data is limited to the purpose of a possible defence against claims. An individual request for deletion is possible at any time, provided that the former existence of consent is confirmed at the same time.
Akismet anti-spam check:
Our online offering uses the "Akismet" service, which is provided by Automattic Inc, 60 29th Street #343, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA. It is used on the basis of our legitimate interests within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f) GDPR. This service is used to distinguish comments from real people from spam comments. For this purpose, all comments are sent to a server in the USA, where they are analysed and stored for four days for comparison purposes. If a comment has been categorised as spam, the data is stored beyond this period. This information includes the name entered, the email address, the IP address, the comment content, the referrer, details of the browser used and the computer system and the time of the entry. Further information on the collection and use of data by Akismet can be found in Automattic's privacy policy: https://automattic.com/privacy/. Users are welcome to use pseudonyms or refrain from entering their name or email address. You can completely prevent the transfer of data by not using our comment system. That would be a shame, but unfortunately we don't see any other alternatives that work just as effectively.
Contacting us:
When contacting us (e.g. by contact form, e-mail, telephone or via social media), the user's details are processed to process the contact enquiry and its handling in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b) GDPR. The user's details may be stored in a customer relationship management system ("CRM system") or comparable enquiry organisation.
We delete the enquiries if they are no longer required. We review the necessity every two years; the statutory archiving obligations also apply.
Hosting and e-mail dispatch:
The hosting services we use serve to provide the following services: Infrastructure and platform services, computing capacity, storage space and database services, e-mail dispatch, security services and technical maintenance services that we use for the purpose of operating this online offering.
In doing so, we or our hosting provider process inventory data, contact data, content data, contract data, usage data, meta and communication data of customers, interested parties and visitors to this online offer on the basis of our legitimate interests in an efficient and secure provision of this online offer in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. for DSGVO i.V.m. Art. 28 GDPR (conclusion of order processing contract).