Cookies
Some of our web pages use cookies. Cookies do not harm your computer and do not contain any viruses. Cookies help make our website more user-friendly, efficient, and secure. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer and saved by your browser.
Most of the cookies we use are so-called “session cookies.” They are automatically deleted after your visit. Other cookies remain in your device’s memory until you delete them. These cookies make it possible to recognize your browser when you next visit the site. We use permanent cookies to enable users who have not logged in store certain website settings in their browser (like dismissing of the cookie bar or disabling features like Youtube videos or Google Analytics tracking)
If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to save your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.
If you have an account and you log in to this site, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.
If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.
You can configure your browser to inform you about the use of cookies so that you can decide on a case-by-case basis whether to accept or reject a cookie. Alternatively, your browser can be configured to automatically accept cookies under certain conditions or to always reject them, or to automatically delete cookies when closing your browser. Disabling cookies may limit the functionality of this website.
Cookies which are necessary to allow electronic communications or to provide certain functions you wish to use (such as the shopping cart) are stored pursuant to Art. 6 paragraph 1, letter f of GDPR. The website operator has a legitimate interest in the storage of cookies to ensure an optimized service provided free of technical errors. If other cookies (such as those used to analyze your surfing behaviour) are also stored, they will be treated separately in this privacy policy.
Server log files
The website provider automatically collects and stores information that your browser automatically transmits to us in “server log files”. These are:
- Browser type and browser version
- Operating system used
- Referrer URL
- Hostname of the accessing computer
- Time of the server request
- IP address
These data will not be combined with data from other sources.
The basis for data processing is Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR, which allows the processing of data to fulfil a contract or for measures preliminary to a contract.
Contact form
Should you send us questions via the contact form, we will collect the data entered on the form, including the contact details you provide, to answer your question and any follow-up questions.
We use 2 types of contact forms on our website:
- Contact forms that send a mail directly to our office.
- Newsletter signup forms. These are explained in detail in Section 8 “Newsletter” of our privacy policy.
Email contact forms
Data and information sent via the other contact forms are not shared without your permission.
We will, therefore, process any data you enter onto the contact form only with your consent per Art. 6 (1)(a) GDPR. You may revoke your consent at any time. An informal email making this request is sufficient. The data processed before we receive your request may still be legally processed.
We will retain the data you provide on the contact form until you request its deletion, revoke your consent for its storage, or the purpose for its storage no longer pertains (e.g. after fulfilling your request). Any mandatory statutory provisions, especially those regarding mandatory data retention periods, remain unaffected by this provision.
Registration on this website
You can register on our website in order to access additional functions offered here. The input data will only be used for the purpose of using the respective site or service for which you have registered. The mandatory information requested during registration must be provided in full. Otherwise, we will reject your registration.
To inform you about important changes such as those within the scope of our site or technical changes, we will use the email address specified during registration.
We will process the data provided during registration only based on your consent per Art. 6 (1)(a) GDPR. You may revoke your consent at any time with future effect. An informal email making this request is sufficient. The data processed before we receive your request may still be legally processed.
We will continue to store the data collected during registration for as long as you remain registered on our website. Statutory retention periods remain unaffected.
Leaving comments on this website
When visitors leave comments on the site we collect and display the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.
An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.
Storage of the IP address
Our comment function stores the IP addresses of those users who post comments. Since we do not check comments on our site before they go live, we need this information to be able to pursue an action for illegal or slanderous content.
Subscribing to the comment feed and to threads
As a user of this site, you can sign up to receive the comment feed after registering. Your email address will be checked with a confirmation email. You can unsubscribe from this function at any time by clicking the link in the emails. The data provided when you subscribed to the comments feed will then be deleted, but if you have submitted this data to us for other purposes or elsewhere (such as subscribing to a newsletter), it will be retained.
How long comments are stored
The comments and the associated data (e.g. IP address) are stored and remain on our website until the content commented upon has been completely deleted or the comments are required to be removed for legal reasons (slander, etc.).
Legal basis
The comments are stored based on your consent per Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR. You may revoke your consent at any time with future effect. An informal email making this request is sufficient. The data processed before we receive your request may still be legally processed.
6. SOCIAL MEDIA
Facebook plugins (Like & Share buttons)
Our website includes plugins for the social network Facebook, Facebook Inc., 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA. The Facebook plugins can be recognized by the Facebook logo or the Like button on our site. For an overview of Facebook plugins, see https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/.
When you visit our site, a direct connection between your browser and the Facebook server is established via the plugin. This enables Facebook to receive information that you have visited our site from your IP address. If you click on the Facebook “Like button” while you are logged into your Facebook account, you can link the content of our site to your Facebook profile. This allows Facebook to associate visits to our site with your user account. Please note that, as the operator of this site, we have no knowledge of the content of the data transmitted to Facebook or of how Facebook uses these data. For more information, please see Facebook’s privacy policy at https://www.facebook.com/policy.php.
If you do not want Facebook to associate your visit to our site with your Facebook account, please log out of your Facebook account.
Twitter plugin
Functions of the Twitter service have been integrated into our website and app. These features are offered by Twitter Inc., 1355 Market Street, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA. When you use Twitter and the “Retweet” function, the websites you visit are connected to your Twitter account and made known to other users. In doing so, data will also be transferred to Twitter. We would like to point out that, as the provider of these pages, we have no knowledge of the content of the data transmitted or how it will be used by Twitter. For more information on Twitter’s privacy policy, please go to https://twitter.com/privacy.
Your privacy preferences with Twitter can be modified in your account settings at https://twitter.com/account/settings.
Instagram plugin
Our website contains functions of the Instagram service. These functions are offered by Instagram Inc., 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
If you are logged into your Instagram account, you can click the Instagram button to link the content of our pages with your Instagram profile. This means that Instagram can associate visits to our pages with your user account. As the provider of this website, we expressly point out that we receive no information on the content of the transmitted data or its use by Instagram.
For more information, see the Instagram Privacy Policy: https://instagram.com/about/legal/privacy/.
Social Sharing Buttons
Our website contains social sharing buttons. These buttons are only links to external networks that allow you to share content on our website within these networks. These buttons do not transmit any data to these networks unless clicked. Once you click one of these buttons you will be redirected to a sharing form on the respective social network with pre-filled information.