Privacy Policy

Automatic data storage
When you visit websites these days, 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 website accessed,
browser and browser version
, the operating system used,
the address (URL) of the previously visited page (referrer URL),
the host name and IP address of the device from which access is made,
the date and time
in files (web server log files).

Web server log files are usually stored for two weeks and then automatically deleted. We do not pass this data on, but cannot rule out that this data will 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 policy.

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 save 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. To be more precise, they are HTTP cookies, as there are other cookies for other areas of application. HTTP cookies are small files that are saved by our website on your computer. These cookie files are automatically stored in the cookie folder, which is basically 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 save certain user data from you, such as language or personal page settings. When you visit our site again, your browser sends 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, in others, such as Firefox, all cookies are saved in a single file.

There are both first-party cookies and third-party cookies. First-party cookies are created directly by our site, third-party cookies are created by partner websites (e.g. Google Analytics). Each cookie must be assessed individually, as each cookie stores different data. The expiry 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 "malware". Cookies also cannot access information on your PC.

For example, cookie data can look like this:

Name: _ga
Expiry time: 2 years
Use: Distinguishing between website visitors
Example value: GA1.2.1326744211.152311169325
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
A total of at least 3000 cookies should be able to be stored
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 policy. At this point we would like to briefly explain the different types of HTTP cookies.

There are four types of cookies:

Strictly necessary cookies
These cookies are necessary to ensure basic functions of the website. For example, these cookies are needed when a user puts a product in the shopping cart, then surfs to other pages and only goes to the checkout later. These cookies do not delete the shopping cart, even if the user closes their browser window.

Functional cookies
These cookies collect information about user behavior and whether the user receives any error messages. These cookies are also used to measure the loading time and behavior of the website in different browsers.

Targeted cookies
These cookies ensure better user-friendliness. For example, entered locations, font sizes or form data are saved.

Advertising cookies
These cookies are also called targeting cookies. They are used to provide the user with individually tailored advertising. This can be very practical, but also very annoying.

Usually, when you first visit a website, you will be asked which of these types of cookies you would like to accept. And of course, this decision will also be saved in a cookie.

How can I delete cookies?
You decide how and whether you want to use cookies. Regardless of which service or website the cookies come from, you always have the option of deleting cookies, only partially allowing them, or deactivating them. For example, you can block third-party cookies but allow all other cookies.

If you want to find out which cookies have been stored in your browser, if you want to change or delete cookie settings, 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 stored on your computer

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

If you do not want any cookies at all, you can set 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 to allow the cookie or not. The procedure varies depending on the browser. The best thing to do is to search for instructions on Google using the search term “delete cookies Chrome” or “deactivate 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 data protection?
The so-called “cookie guidelines” have been in place since 2009. They state that the storage of cookies requires the consent of the website visitor (i.e. you). However, there are still very different reactions to these guidelines within the EU countries. In Germany, the cookie guidelines have not been implemented as national law. Instead, this guideline was largely implemented in Section 15 Paragraph 3 of the Telemedia Act (TMG).

If you would like to know more about cookies and are not afraid of 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
Personal data that you send to us electronically on this website, such as name, email address, address or other personal information when submitting a form or comments in the blog, will be used by us together with the time and IP address only for the stated purpose, stored securely and not passed on to third parties.

We therefore only use your personal data to communicate with those visitors who expressly request contact and to process the services and products offered on this website. We do not pass on your personal data without your consent, but cannot rule out that this data will be viewed in the event of illegal behavior.

If you send us personal data by email - i.e. outside of this website - we cannot guarantee secure transmission and the protection of your data. We recommend that you never send confidential data unencrypted by email.

The legal basis according to Article 6 paragraph 1 a GDPR (legality of processing) is that you give us your consent to process the data you have entered. You can revoke this consent at any time - an informal email is sufficient, you can find our contact details in the imprint.

Rights according to 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 that 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).

Analysis of visitor behavior
In the following data protection declaration we inform you about 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 any conclusions about your person from your behavior on this website.

You can find out more about the options for objecting to this evaluation of visit data in the following privacy policy.

TLS encryption with https
We use https to transmit data securely over the Internet (data protection through technology design Article 25 Paragraph 1 GDPR). By using TLS (Transport Layer Security), an encryption protocol for secure data transmission over 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 at the top left of the browser and the use of the https scheme (instead of http) as part of our Internet address.

Embedded social media elements Data protection declaration
We integrate elements from social media services on our website to display images, videos and text.
By visiting pages that display these elements, data is transferred from your browser to the respective social media service and stored there. We have no access to this data.
The following links take you to the pages of the respective social media services where they explain how they handle your data:

Instagram privacy policy: https://help.instagram.com/519522125107875
The Google privacy policy applies to YouTube: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de
Facebook data policy: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy
Twitter privacy policy: https://twitter.com/de/privacy
Facebook privacy policy
We use selected tools from Facebook 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 help of these tools, we can offer you and people who are interested in our products and services the best possible service. Below we provide an overview of the various Facebook tools, which data is sent to Facebook and how you can delete this data.

What are Facebook tools?
In addition to many other products, Facebook also offers the so-called “Facebook Business Tools”. This is the official name for Facebook. However, since the term is hardly known, we have decided to simply call them Facebook tools. These include:

Facebook pixel
social plug-ins (such as the "Like" or "Share" button)
Facebook Login
Account Kit
APIs (application programming interfaces)
SDKs (collection of programming tools)
Platform integrations
Plugins
Codes
Specifications
Documentation
Technologies and services
Through these tools, Facebook extends services and has the ability to obtain information about 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 really interested in them. With the help of advertisements (Facebook ads), we can reach exactly these people. In order to show users suitable advertising, however, Facebook needs information about people's wishes and needs. The company is provided with information about user behavior (and contact details) on our website. This allows Facebook to collect better user data and show interested people the right advertisements about our products or services. The tools thus enable customized advertising campaigns on Facebook.

Facebook calls data about your behavior on our website "event data". This is also used for measurement and analysis services. Facebook can thus create "campaign reports" on our behalf about the impact of our advertising campaigns. Furthermore, analyses give us a better insight into how you use our services, website or products. This way, we use some of these tools to optimize your user experience on our website. For example, you can use the social plug-ins to share content on our site directly on Facebook.

What data is stored by Facebook tools?
By using individual Facebook tools, personal data (customer data) can be sent to Facebook. Depending on the tools used, customer data such as name, address, telephone number and IP address can be sent.

Facebook uses this information to compare the data with its own data that it has about you (if you are a Facebook member). Before customer data is sent to Facebook, a process known as "hashing" takes place. This means that a data set of any size is transformed into a character string. This also serves to encrypt data.

In addition to contact data, "event data" is also transmitted. "Event data" refers to the information that we receive about you on our website. For example, which subpages you visit or which products you buy from us. Facebook does not share the information it receives with third parties (such as advertisers) unless the company has explicit permission or is legally obliged to do so. "Event data" can also be linked to contact data. This enables Facebook to offer better personalized advertising. After the comparison process mentioned above, Facebook deletes the contact data again.

In order to be able to deliver advertisements in an optimized manner, Facebook only uses the event data if it has been combined with other data (which has been collected by Facebook in another way). Facebook also uses this event data for security, protection, development and research purposes. Much of this data is transferred to Facebook via cookies. Cookies are small text files that are used to store data or information in browsers. Depending on the tools used and whether you are a Facebook member, different numbers of cookies are created in your browser. In the descriptions of the individual Facebook tools, we go into more detail about individual 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 is the data stored?
Basically, Facebook stores data until it is no longer needed for its own services and Facebook products. Facebook has servers distributed all over the world where your data is stored. However, customer data is deleted within 48 hours after it has been compared with its own user data.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?
In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation, you have the right to information, correction, portability and deletion of your data.

The data will only be completely deleted if you completely delete your Facebook account. This is how you delete your Facebook account:

1) Click on Settings on the right-hand side of Facebook.

2) Then click on “Your Facebook information” in the left-hand column.

3) Now click “Deactivation and deletion”.

4) Now select “Delete account” and then click on “Continue and delete account”

5) Now enter your password, click on “Continue” and then on “Delete account”

The data that Facebook receives via our site is stored using cookies (e.g. social plugins), among other things. You can deactivate, delete or manage individual or all cookies in your browser. This works in different ways depending on the browser you use. The following guides show you how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data with Safari

Firefox: Clear 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 do not want cookies at all, you can set 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 want to allow it or not.

Facebook is an active participant in the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. You can find more information about this at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000GnywAAC. We hope we have given you the most important information about the use and data processing by the Facebook tools. If you want to find out more about how Facebook uses your data, we recommend you read the data guidelines at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update.

Facebook Social Plug-ins Data Protection Policy
So-called social plug-ins from the company Facebook Inc. are built into our website. You can recognize these buttons by the classic Facebook logo, such as the “Like” button (the hand with the thumb raised) or by a clear “Facebook Plug-in” label. A social plug-in is a small part of Facebook that is integrated into our site. Each plug-in has its own function. The most commonly used functions are the well-known "Like" and "Share" buttons.

The following social plug-ins are offered by Facebook:

"Save" button
"Like" button, share, send and quote
Page plug-in
Comments
Messenger plug-in
Embedded posts and video players
Group plug-in
You can find more information about how the individual plug-ins are used at https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins. We use social plug-ins to offer you a better user experience on our site and because they enable Facebook to optimize our advertisements.

If you have a Facebook account or have already visited facebook.com, Facebook has already set at least one cookie in your browser. In this case, your browser sends information to Facebook via this cookie as soon as you visit our site or interact with social plug-ins (e.g. the "Like" button).

The information received is deleted or anonymized within 90 days. According to Facebook, this data includes your IP address, which website you visited, the date, time and other information relating to your browser.

To prevent Facebook from collecting a lot of data during your visit to our website and linking it to Facebook data, you must log out of Facebook while visiting the website.

If you are not logged in to Facebook or do not have a Facebook account, your browser will send less information to Facebook because you have fewer Facebook cookies. However, data such as your IP address or which website you visit can still be transferred to Facebook. We would like to expressly point out that we do not know the exact content of the data. However, we will try to inform you as best as possible about data processing based on our current level of knowledge. You can also read how Facebook uses the data in the company's data guidelines at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update.

The following cookies will be set in your browser at a minimum when you visit a website with social plug-ins from Facebook:

Name: dpr
Value: not specified
Purpose: This cookie is used so that the social plug-ins on our website work.
Expiry date: after end of session

Name: fr
Value: 0jieyh4311169325c2GnlufEJ9..Bde09j…1.0.Bde09j
Purpose: The cookie is also necessary for the plug-ins to function properly.
Expiry date: after 3 months

Note: These cookies were set after a test, even if you are not a Facebook member.

If you are logged in to Facebook, you can change your ad settings yourself at https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen. If you are not a Facebook user, you can generally manage your usage-based online advertising at http://www.youronlinechoices.com/de/praferenzmanagement/. There you have the option of deactivating or activating providers.

If you would like to find out more about Facebook's data protection, we recommend that you read the company's own data guidelines at https://www.facebook.com/policy.php.

Instagram privacy policy
We have integrated Instagram functions on our website. Instagram is a social media platform of the company Instagram LLC, 1601 Willow Rd, Menlo Park CA 94025, USA. Instagram has been a subsidiary of Facebook Inc. since 2012 and is one of the Facebook products. Embedding Instagram content on our website is called embedding. This allows us to show you content such as buttons, photos or videos from Instagram directly on our website. When you visit websites on our website that have an integrated Instagram function, data is transmitted to, stored and processed by Instagram. Instagram uses the same systems and technologies as Facebook. Your data is therefore processed across all Facebook companies.

Below we want to give you a more detailed insight into why Instagram collects data, what data it is and how you can largely control the data processing. Since Instagram belongs to Facebook Inc., we get our information from the Instagram guidelines on the one hand, but also from the Facebook data guidelines themselves on the other.

What is Instagram?
Instagram is one of the most well-known social media networks in the world. Instagram combines the advantages of a blog with the advantages of audiovisual platforms such as YouTube or Vimeo. You can upload photos and short videos to "Insta" (as many users casually call the platform), edit them with various filters and also share them on other social networks. And if you don't want to be active yourself, you can just follow other interesting users.

Why do we use Instagram on our website?
Instagram is the social media platform that has really taken off in recent years. And of course we have also responded to this boom. We want you to feel as comfortable as possible on our website. That's why it's a matter of course for us to present our content in a varied way. The embedded Instagram functions allow us to enrich our content with helpful, funny or exciting content from the Instagram world. Since Instagram is a subsidiary of Facebook, the data collected can also be useful for personalized advertising on Facebook. This means that our advertisements are only shown to people who are really interested in our products or services.

Instagram also uses the data collected for measurement and analysis purposes. We get summarized statistics and thus more insight into your wishes and interests. It is important to mention that these reports do not identify you personally.

What data is stored by Instagram?
When you come across one of our pages that has Instagram functions (such as Instagram images or plug-ins) built in, your browser automatically connects to Instagram's servers. Data is sent to Instagram, stored and processed. This is regardless of whether you have an Instagram account or not. This includes information about our website, your computer, purchases made, advertisements you see and how you use our service. The date and time of your interaction with Instagram are also stored. If you have an Instagram account or are logged in, Instagram stores significantly more data about you.

Facebook differentiates between customer data and event data. We assume that this is also the case with Instagram. Customer data includes names, addresses, telephone numbers and IP addresses. It is important to note that this customer data is only transmitted to Instagram if it has been “hashed” beforehand. Hashing means that a data set is converted into a character string. This allows the contact details to be encrypted. The “event data” mentioned above is also transmitted. Facebook – and consequently Instagram – understands “event data” to mean data about your user behavior. It can also happen that contact details are combined with event data. The contact details collected are compared with the data that Instagram already has about you. The collected data

is transmitted to Facebook via small text files (cookies), which are usually placed in your browser. Depending on the Instagram functions used and whether you have an Instagram account yourself, different amounts of data are stored.

We assume that data processing on Instagram works in the same way as on Facebook. This means: if you have an Instagram account or have visited www.instagram.com, Instagram has set at least one cookie. If this is the case, your browser sends information to Instagram via the cookie as soon as you come into contact with an Instagram function. This data is deleted or anonymized after 90 days at the latest (after comparison). Although we have looked intensively into Instagram’s data processing, we cannot say exactly which data Instagram collects and stores.

Below we show you the cookies that are at least set in your browser when you click on an Instagram function (such as a button or an Insta image). In our test, we assume that you do not have an Instagram account. If you are logged in to Instagram, significantly more cookies will of course be set in your browser.

These cookies were used in our test:

Name: csrftoken
Value: “”
Purpose: This cookie is most likely set for security reasons to prevent requests from being forged. However, we were unable to find out more precisely.
Expiry date: after one year

Name: mid
Value: “”
Purpose: Instagram sets this cookie to optimize its own services and offers on and outside of Instagram. The cookie sets a unique user ID.
Expiry date: after the end of the session

Name: fbsr_311169325124024
Value: no information
Purpose: This cookie stores the log-in request for users of the Instagram app. Expiry date: after the end of the session

Name: rur
Value: ATN
Purpose: This is an Instagram cookie that ensures functionality on Instagram.
Expiry date: after the end of the session

Name: urlgen
Value: “{\”194.96.75.33\”: 1901}:1iEtYv:Y833k2_UjKvXgYe311169325”
Purpose: This cookie is for Instagram’s marketing purposes.
Expiry date: after the end of the session

Note: We cannot claim to be complete here. Which cookies are set in each individual case depends on the embedded functions and your use of Instagram.

How long and where is the data stored?
Instagram shares the information received between the Facebook companies, external partners, and people you connect with around the world. Data processing is carried out in compliance with its own data policy. For security reasons, among other things, your data is distributed across Facebook servers around the world. Most of these servers are located in the USA.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?
Thanks to the General Data Protection Regulation, you have the right to information, portability, rectification and deletion of your data. You can manage your data in the Instagram settings. If you want to completely delete your data on Instagram, you must permanently delete your Instagram account.

Here's how to delete your Instagram account:

First, open the Instagram app. On your profile page, scroll down and click on "Help section". This will take you to the company's website. On the website, click on "Manage your account" and then on "Delete your account".

If you delete your account completely, Instagram will delete posts such as your photos and status updates. Information that other people have shared about you does not belong to your account and will therefore not be deleted.

As already mentioned above, Instagram primarily stores your data via cookies. You can manage, deactivate or delete these cookies in your browser. Depending on your browser, the management always works a little differently. Here we show you the instructions for the most important browsers.

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 stored on your computer

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

You can also generally set up your browser so that you are always informed when a cookie is about to be set. Then you can always decide individually whether you want to accept the cookie or not.

Instagram is a subsidiary of Facebook Inc. and Facebook is an active participant in the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework. This framework ensures correct data transfer between the USA and the European Union. You can find out more about this at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000GnywAAC. We have tried to give you the most important information about data processing by Instagram.
You can find out more about Instagram's data guidelines at https://help.instagram.com/519522125107875.

Source: Created with the data protection generator from AdSimple in cooperation with bauenwir.de