DATA PROTECTION

Data protection

We have written this data protection declaration (version 12/16/2019-311136243) in order 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 decision-making options you have as a visitor to this website .

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

Automatic data storage

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

When you visit our website as you are now, our web server (computer on which this website is stored) automatically saves 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 hostname and IP address of the device from which it is accessed
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 will be viewed if illegal behavior occurs.
According to Article 6 Paragraph 1 f of the GDPR (lawfulness of processing), the legal basis is that there is a legitimate interest in enabling the error-free operation of this website by collecting web server log files.

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 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. To be more precise, they are HTTP cookies, as there are also other cookies for other areas of application. HTTP cookies are small files that our website stores on your computer. These cookie files are automatically stored 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 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 stored 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 evaluated individually because 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 “malicious” things. Cookies also cannot access information on your PC.

For example, cookie data might look like this:

Name: _ga
Expiry time: 2 years
Use: Differentiation of website visitors
Example value: GA1.2.1326744211.152311136243

A browser should support the following minimum sizes:

A cookie should 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 data protection declaration. At this point we would like to briefly discuss the different types of HTTP cookies.

There are 4 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 continues surfing on other pages and only later checks out. 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 on different browsers.

Targeting cookies
These cookies ensure better user experience. For example, entered locations, font sizes or form data are saved.

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

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

How can I delete cookies?

You decide for yourself 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 would like to find out which cookies have been stored in your browser, if you want to change or delete cookie settings, you can do this in your browser settings:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and site data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

If you generally do not want cookies, you can set your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be set. This means you can decide for each individual cookie whether you allow the cookie 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 “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 existed since 2009. This states 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 directive was largely implemented in Section 15 Paragraph 3 of the Telemedia Act (TMG).

If you want to know more about cookies and are not afraid of technical documentation, we recommend https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6265, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request for Comments called “HTTP State Management Mechanism”.

Storage of personal data

Personal data that you submit 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 processed by us together with the time and IP address. Address will only be used for the specified 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 will not pass on your personal data without your consent, but we cannot rule out that this data will be viewed in the event of unlawful behavior.

If you send us personal data by email – away from this website – we cannot guarantee the secure transmission and protection of your data. We recommend that you never send confidential data unencrypted via email.

According to Article 6 Paragraph 1 a of the GDPR (lawfulness of processing), the legal basis 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 will find our contact details in the legal notice.

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 correction or deletion 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 data protection declaration we inform you whether and how we evaluate data from your visit to this website. The data collected is usually evaluated anonymously and we cannot identify you personally 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 data protection declaration.

TLS encryption with https

We use https to transmit data securely on the Internet (data protection through technical 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 transfer protection 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.

Google AdSense privacy policy

On this website we use Google AdSense, the advertising program from Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheater Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). With Google AdSense we can display advertisements on this website that match our topic. In this way, we offer you advertisements that ideally represent real added value for you. In this data protection declaration about Google AdSense, we explain to you why we use Google AdSense on our website, what data about you is processed and stored and how you can prevent this data storage.

The legal basis for the use of Google AdSense is Article 6 (1) f (lawfulness of processing), because there is a legitimate interest in carrying out targeted advertising measures.

What is Google AdSense?

Google AdSense has been around since 2003 and is an advertising program from Google. In contrast to Google Ads (formerly: Google AdWords), you cannot advertise here yourself. Advertisements are displayed on websites, such as ours, via Google AdSense. The biggest advantage of this advertising service compared to some others is that Google AdSense only shows you ads that match our content. Google has its own algorithm that calculates which ads you see. Of course, we only want to offer you advertising that interests you and offers you added value. Google checks which advertisements are suitable for our website and for our users based on your interests or user behavior and our offering. At this point we would also like to mention that we are therefore not responsible for the selection of advertisements. We only offer advertising space on our website. Google makes the selection of the advertising displayed. Since August 2013, the ads have also been adapted to the respective user interface. This means that no matter whether you visit our website from your smartphone, PC or laptop, the ads adapt to your device.

Why do we use Google AdSense on our website?

Running a high-quality website requires a lot of dedication and commitment. Basically, we never finish working on our website. We always try to maintain our site and keep it as up to date as possible. Of course, we also want to achieve economic success with this work. That’s why we chose advertising as a source of income. However, the most important thing for us is that these ads do not disturb your visit to our website. With the help of Google AdSense, you will only be offered advertising that matches our topics and your interests.

Similar to Google indexing a website, a bot examines the corresponding content and offers on our website. The content of the advertisements is then adapted and presented on the website. In addition to overlapping content between the ad and the website, AdSense also supports interest-based targeting. This means that Google also uses your data to offer advertising tailored to you. This way you receive advertising that ideally offers you real added value and we have a higher chance of earning a little something.

What data does Google AdSense store?

In order for Google AdSense to display tailor-made advertising tailored to you, cookies are used, among other things. Cookies are small text files that store certain information on your computer.

In AdSense, cookies are intended to enable better advertising. The cookies do not contain any personally identifiable data. However, it should be noted that Google views data such as “pseudonymous cookie IDs” (name or other identifying feature is replaced by a pseudonym) or IP addresses as non-personally identifiable information. However, within the framework of the GDPR, this data can be considered personal data. Google AdSense sends a cookie to the browser after every impression (this is the case whenever you see an ad), every click and every other activity that leads to a call to the Google AdSense servers. If the browser accepts the cookie, it will be stored there.

Third parties may use AdSense to place and read cookies on your browser or use web beacons to store data obtained by serving ads on the website. Web beacons are small graphics that enable log file recording and log file analysis. This analysis enables statistical evaluation for online marketing.

Google can use these cookies to collect certain information about your user behavior on our website. These include:

Information on how you handle an ad (clicks, impressions, mouse movements)
Information about whether an ad has already appeared in your browser at an earlier point in time. This data helps prevent you from showing an ad more often.

Google analyzes and evaluates the data on the advertising materials displayed and your IP address. Google primarily uses the data to measure the effectiveness of an ad and to improve the advertising offering. This data will not be linked to any personal data that Google may have about you through other Google services.

Below we will introduce you to cookies that Google AdSense uses for tracking purposes. Here we are referring to a test website that only has Google AdSense installed:

Name: uid
Expiry time: after 2 months
Usage: The cookie is stored under the domain adform.net. It provides a uniquely assigned, machine-generated user ID and collects data about activity on our website.
Example value: 891269189311136243
Name: C
Expiry time: after 1 month
Usage: This cookie identifies whether your browser accepts cookies. The cookie is stored under the domain track.adform.net.
Example value: 1
Name: cid
Expiry time: after 2 months
Usage: This cookie is stored under the domain track.adform.net, stands for client ID and is used to improve advertising to you. It can deliver more relevant advertising to the visitor and helps improve campaign performance reporting.
Example value: 8912691894970695056,0,0,0,0
Name: IDE
Expiry time: after 1 month
Usage: The cookie is stored under the domain doubkeklick.net. It is used to register your actions after viewing or clicking on the ad. This allows us to measure how well an ad is received by our visitors.
Example value: zOtj4TWxwbFDjaATZ2TzNaQmxrU311136243
Name: test_cookie
Expiry time: after 1 month
Usage: You can use the “test_cookies” to check whether your browser supports cookies at all. The cookie is stored under the domain doubkeklick.net.
Example value: not specified
Name: CT592996
Expiry time: after one hour
Usage: Stored under the domain adform.net. The cookie is set as soon as you click on an advertisement. We were unable to find out more detailed information about the use of this cookie.
Example value: 733366

Note: This list cannot claim to be complete, as experience has shown that Google constantly changes its choice of cookies.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google records your IP address and various activities that you carry out on the website. Cookies store this information about interactions on our website. According to Google, the company collects and stores the information provided securely on Google’s own servers in the USA.

If you do not have a Google account or are not logged in, Google usually stores the data collected in your browser with a unique identifier (ID). The unique IDs stored in cookies are used, for example, to ensure personalized advertising. If you are logged into a Google account, Google may also collect personal data.

You can delete some of the data that Google stores at any time (see next section). Much of the information stored in cookies is automatically deleted after a certain period of time. However, there is also data that Google stores over a longer period of time. This is the case if Google has to store certain data for an indefinite, longer period of time for economic or legal reasons.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You always have the option of deleting or deactivating cookies that are on your computer. How exactly this works depends on your browser.

Here you will find instructions on how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and site data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

If you generally do not want cookies, you can set your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be set. This means you can decide for each individual cookie whether you allow the cookie or not. Downloading and installing this browser plug-in at https://support.google.com/ads/answer/7395996 will also disable all “advertising cookies”. Remember that disabling these cookies will not prevent ads, only personalized advertising.

If you have a Google account, you can deactivate personalized advertising on the website https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated. Here too, you will continue to see advertisements, but they are no longer tailored to your interests. However, the ads are displayed based on a few factors such as your location (derived from your IP address), browser type, and search terms used.

You can read about the data Google generally collects and what it uses this data for at https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/.

Google Ads (Google AdWords) Conversion Tracking Privacy Policy

We use Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) as an online marketing measure to advertise our products, offers and services. We want to make more people aware of the high quality of our offerings on the Internet. As part of our advertising measures through Google Ads, we use conversion tracking from Google LLC., 1600 Amphitheater Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (“Google”) on our website. With the help of this free tracking tool, we can adapt our advertising offerings much better to your interests and needs. In the following article we want to go into more detail about why we use conversion tracking, what data is stored and how you can prevent this data storage.

The legal basis for the use of Google Ads conversion tracking is Article 6 (1) f (lawfulness of processing), because there is a legitimate interest in carrying out targeted advertising measures.

What is Google Ads Conversion Tracking?

Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is the in-house online advertising system of Google LLC. We can create online advertisements via Google Ads to bring our products or services closer to interested people. We are convinced of the quality of our offering and want as many people as possible to get to know our website. Google Ads offers the best platform for this online. Of course, we also want to gain a precise overview of the cost-benefit factor of our promotions. That’s why we use the Google Ads conversion tracking tool.

But what is a conversion actually? A conversion occurs when you go from being a purely interested website visitor to taking action. This always happens when you click on our ad and then carry out another action, such as visiting our website. We use Google’s conversion tracking tool to record what happens after a user clicks on our Google Ads ad. For example, we can see whether products are purchased, services are used or whether users have signed up for our newsletter.

Why do we use Google Ads conversion tracking on our website?

We use Google Ads to draw attention to our offer on other websites. The aim is to ensure that our advertising campaigns only reach those people who are interested in our products and offers. With the conversion tracking tool we see which keywords, ads, ad groups and campaigns lead to the desired customer actions. We see how many customers interact with our ads on a device or browser and then convert. This data allows us to calculate our cost-benefit factor, measure the success of individual advertising measures and consequently optimize our online marketing measures. We can also use the data obtained to make our website more interesting for you and adapt our advertising offerings even more individually to your needs.

What data is stored in Google Ads conversion tracking?

We have integrated a conversion tracking tag or code snippet on our website to better analyze certain user actions. If you click on one of our Google Ads advertisements, the “Conversion” cookie from a Google domain will be stored on your computer (usually in the browser) or mobile device. Cookies are small text files that store information on your computer.

Here is the data for the most important cookies for Google conversion tracking:

Name: Conversion
Expiry time: after 3 months
Example value: EhMI_aySuoyv4gIVled3Ch0llweVGAEgt-mr6aXd7dYlSAGQ311136243

Name: _gac
Expiry time: after 3 months
Example value: 1.1558695989.EAIaIQobChMIiOmEgYO04gIVj5AYCh2CBAPrEAAYASAAEgIYQfD_BwE

Note: The cookie _gac only appears in connection with Google Analytics. The above list does not claim to be complete, as Google often uses other cookies for analytical evaluations.

As soon as you complete an action on our website, Google recognizes the cookie and saves your action as a so-called conversion. As long as you surf our website and the cookie has not yet expired, we and Google recognize that you found us via our Google Ads ad. The cookie is read and sent back to Google Ads with the conversion data. It is also possible that other cookies are used to measure conversions. Google Ads conversion tracking can be further refined and improved with the help of Google Analytics. Ads that Google displays in various locations on the web may set cookies called “__gads” or “_gac” under our domain. Since September 2017, analytics.js has been storing various campaign information with the _gac cookie. The cookie stores this data as soon as you visit one of our pages for which the automatic tagging of Google Ads has been set up. In contrast to cookies set for Google domains, Google can only read these conversion cookies when you are on our website. We do not collect or receive any personal data. We get a report from Google with statistical evaluations. For example, we find out the total number of users who clicked on our ad and we see how well each advertising measure was received.

How long and where is the data stored?

At this point we would like to point out that we have no influence on how Google uses the data collected by the conversion tracking tool. According to Google, the data is encrypted and stored on secure servers. In most cases, conversion cookies expire after 30 days and do not transmit any personal data. The cookies named “Conversion” and “_gac” (which is used in conjunction with Google Analytics) have an expiration date of 3 months.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You have the option not to participate in Google Ads conversion tracking. If you deactivate the Google Conversion Tracking cookie via your browser, you will block conversion tracking. In this case, you will not be included in the tracking tool’s statistics. You can change the cookie settings in your browser at any time. This works a little differently for every browser. Here you will find instructions on how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and site data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

If you generally do not want cookies, you can set your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be set. This means you can decide for each individual cookie whether you allow the cookie or not. Downloading and installing this browser plug-in at https://support.google.com/ads/answer/7395996 will also disable all “advertising cookies”. Remember that disabling these cookies will not prevent ads, only personalized advertising.

Through certification for the American-European data protection agreement “Privacy Shield”, the American company Google LLC must comply with the data protection laws applicable in the EU. If you would like to find out more about data protection at Google, we recommend Google’s general data protection declaration: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de.

Newsletter data protection declaration

If you register for our newsletter, you provide the above-mentioned personal data and give us the right to contact you by email. We use the data stored when registering for the newsletter exclusively for our newsletter and do not pass it on.

If you unsubscribe from the newsletter – you will find the link at the bottom of every newsletter – then we will delete all data that was saved when you registered for the newsletter.

MailChimp privacy policy

We send newsletters with MailChimp and use functions of the newsletter service MailChimp from The Rocket Science Group, LLC, 675 Ponce de Leon Ave NE, Suite 5000, Atlanta, GA 30308 USA on this website to record newsletter registrations.

General information about MailChimp

Rocket Science Group LLC (MailChimp) maintains online platforms that enable our users to stay in touch with their subscribers, primarily through email. They allow users to provide email addresses and other subscriber profile information, such as: B. upload name, physical address and other demographic information to the MailChimp database. This information is used to send emails and enable the use of certain other MailChimp features for these users. In accordance with posted privacy policies, MailChimp shares some information with third parties to provide and support the services MailChimp offers to users. MailChimp also shares some information with third-party advertising partners to better understand users’ needs and interests so that more relevant content and targeted advertising can be provided to those users and other users.

Newsletter Sign up

If you register for our newsletter on our website, the data you enter will be stored by MailChimp.

Deletion of your data

You can withdraw your consent to receive our newsletter at any time within the email you receive by clicking on the link at the bottom. If you have unsubscribed by clicking on the unsubscribe link, your data will be deleted from MailChimp.

Newsletter evaluation

If you receive a newsletter via MailChimp, information such as IP address, browser type and email program is stored to provide us with information about the performance of our newsletter. MailChimp can use the images called web beacons integrated in the HTML emails (details can be found at https://kb.mailchimp.com/reports/about-open-tracking) to determine whether the email has arrived was opened and whether links were clicked. All of this information is stored on MailChimp’s servers, not on this website.

MailChimp is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. For more information, please visit https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000TO6hAAG. You can find out more about the use of cookies at MailChimp at https://mailchimp.com/legal/cookies/; you can read information about data protection at MailChimp (privacy) at https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/.

Google Fonts Local Privacy Policy

We use Google Fonts from Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheater Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA) on our website. We have integrated the Google fonts locally, i.e. on our web server – not on Google’s servers. This means there is no connection to Google’s servers and therefore no data transfer or storage.

What are Google Fonts?

Google Fonts (formerly Google Web Fonts) is an interactive directory with more than 800 fonts that Google LLC provides for free use. With Google Fonts you could use the fonts without uploading them to your own server. However, in order to prevent any information transfer to the Google server, we have downloaded the fonts to our server. In this way, we act in accordance with data protection regulations and do not send any data to Google Fonts.

Unlike other web fonts, Google allows us unlimited access to all fonts. So we have unlimited access to a sea of fonts and get the best for our website. You can find out more about Google Fonts and other questions at https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq?tid=311136243.

Google Fonts privacy policy

We use Google Fonts from Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheater Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA) on our website.

You do not need to register or provide a password to use Google fonts. Furthermore, no cookies are stored in your browser. The files (CSS, fonts/fonts) are requested via the Google domains fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com. According to Google, requests for CSS and fonts are completely separate from all other Google services. If you have a Google Account, you do not need to worry that your Google Account information will be transmitted to Google while using Google Fonts. Google records the use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and the fonts used and stores this data securely. We will take a closer look at what data storage looks like.

What are Google Fonts?

Google Fonts (formerly Google Web Fonts) is an interactive directory with more than 800 fonts that Google LLC provides for free use.

Many of these fonts are released under the SIL Open Font License, while others are released under the Apache License. Both are free software licenses. This means we can use them freely without paying license fees.

Why do we use Google Fonts on our website?

With Google Fonts we can use fonts on our own website and do not have to upload them to our own server. Google Fonts is an important component in keeping the quality of our website high. All Google fonts are automatically optimized for the web and this saves data volume and is a big advantage, especially for use on mobile devices. When you visit our site, the low file size ensures a fast loading time. Furthermore, Google Fonts are so-called secure web fonts. Different image synthesis systems (rendering) in different browsers, operating systems and mobile devices can lead to errors. Such errors can visually distort some texts or entire websites. Thanks to the fast Content Delivery Network (CDN), there are no cross-platform issues with Google Fonts. Google Fonts supports all major browsers (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera) and works reliably on most modern mobile operating systems, including Android 2.2+ and iOS 4.2+ (iPhone, iPad, iPod).

We use Google Fonts so that we can display our entire online service as beautifully and consistently as possible. According to Article 6 Para. 1 f lit legal system be recognized.

What data does Google store?

When you visit our website, the fonts are downloaded via a Google server. Through this external call, data is transmitted to the Google servers. This is how Google also recognizes that you or your IP address visits our website. The Google Fonts API is designed to reduce the collection, storage, and use of end-user data to what is necessary for efficient font delivery. By the way, API stands for “Application Programming Interface” and serves, among other things, as a data transmitter in the software sector.

Google Fonts securely stores CSS and font requests on Google and is therefore protected. Google can determine the popularity of the fonts through the collected usage figures. Google publishes the results on internal analysis sites, such as Google Analytics. Google also uses data from its own web crawler to determine which websites use Google fonts. This data is published in the Google Fonts BigQuery database. BigQuery is a web service from Google for companies that want to move and analyze large amounts of data.

However, it should also be remembered that with every Google Font request, information such as IP address, language settings, browser screen resolution, browser version and browser name are automatically transmitted to the Google servers. Whether this data is also stored cannot be clearly determined or is not clearly communicated by Google.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google stores requests for CSS assets for one day on its servers, which are mainly located outside the EU. This allows us to use the fonts using a Google stylesheet. A style sheet is a format template that you can use to quickly and easily change the design or font of a website, for example.

The font files are stored by Google for one year. Google’s goal is to fundamentally improve the loading time of websites. When millions of websites reference the same fonts, they are cached after the first visit and immediately appear on all other websites visited later. Sometimes Google updates font files to reduce file size, increase language coverage, and improve design.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

The data that Google stores for a day or a year cannot simply be deleted. The data is automatically transmitted to Google when the page is accessed. To delete this data early, you must contact Google Support at https://support.google.com/?hl=de&tid=311136243. In this case, you can only prevent data storage if you do not visit our site.

Unlike other web fonts, Google allows us unlimited access to all fonts. So we have unlimited access to a sea of fonts and get the best for our website. You can find out more about Google Fonts and other questions at https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq?tid=311136243. Although Google addresses data protection-related matters there, it does not contain any really detailed information about data storage. It is relatively difficult (almost impossible) to get really precise information about stored data from Google.

You can also read about the data that Google generally collects and what this data is used for at https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/.

Google Analytics privacy policy

On this website we use Google Analytics from Google LLC (1600 Amphitheater Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA) to statistically evaluate visitor data. Google Analytics uses targeted cookies.

Cookies from Google Analytics
_ga

Expiry time: 2 years
Use: Differentiation of website visitors
Example value: GA1.2.1326744211.152311136243
_gid

Expiry time: 24 hours
Use: Differentiation of website visitors
Example value: GA1.2.1687193234.152311136243
_gat_gtag_UA_<property-id>

Expiry time: 1 minute
Usage: Used to throttle the request rate. If Google Analytics is provided via Google Tag Manager, this cookie is named _dc_gtm_ <property-id>.
Example value: 1

Further information on terms of use and data protection can be found at http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/de.html or at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=de.

Pseudonymization

Our concern within the meaning of the GDPR is to improve our offering and our website. Since the privacy of our users is important to us, the user data is pseudonymized. Data processing is carried out on the basis of the legal provisions of Article 6 EU GDPR Paragraph 1 lit a (consent) and/or f (legitimate interest) of the GDPR.

Deactivation of data collection by Google Analytics

Using the Google Analytics JavaScript Opt-out Browser Add-on (ga.js, analytics.js, dc.js), website visitors can prevent Google Analytics from using their data.

You can prevent Google from collecting the data generated by the cookie and relating to your use of the website and from processing this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available at the following link: https://tools.google .com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de

Google Analytics reports on demographics and interests

We have activated the advertising reporting functions in Google Analytics. Demographics and interests reports include information about age, gender, and interests. This allows us to get a better picture of our users – without being able to assign this data to individual people. You can find out more about the advertising functions at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3450482?hl=de_AT&utm_id=ad.

You can stop using the activities and information from your Google account under “Advertising Settings” at https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated by checking the box.

Google Analytics addition to data processing

We have entered into a direct customer agreement with Google for the use of Google Analytics by accepting the “Data Processing Addendum” in Google Analytics.

You can find out more about the data processing addition for Google Analytics here: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3379636?hl=de&utm_id=ad

Google Maps privacy policy

We use Google Maps from Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheater Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA) on our website. With Google Maps we can display locations better visually and thus improve our service. By using Google Maps, data is transmitted to Google and stored on Google servers. Here we want to go into more detail about 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 online mapping service from Google Inc. With Google Maps you can search for the exact locations of cities, sights, accommodations or companies on the Internet using a PC or an app. If companies are represented on Google My Business, other information about the company is displayed in addition to the location. In order to show how to get there, map sections of a location can be integrated into a website using HTML code. Google Maps shows the earth’s surface as a road map or as an aerial or satellite image. Thanks to the Street View images and the high-quality satellite images, very precise representations are possible.

Why do we use Google Maps on our website?

All our efforts on this site aim to provide you with a useful and meaningful time on our website. By integrating Google Maps, we can provide you with the most important information about various locations. Thanks to Google Maps, you can see at a glance where our company headquarters are. The directions always show you the best or fastest way to get to us. You can get directions for routes by car, public transport, walking or cycling. For us, providing Google Maps is part of our customer service.

What data does Google Maps store?

In order for Google Maps to fully offer its service, the company must record and store data from you. This includes, among other things, the search terms entered, your IP address and the latitude and longitude coordinates. If you use the route planner function, the start address entered is also saved. However, this data storage happens on the Google Maps websites. We can only inform you about this, but have no influence. Since we have integrated Google Maps into our website, Google sets at least one cookie (name: NID) in your browser. This cookie stores data about your user behavior. Google primarily uses this data to optimize its services and to provide you with individual, personalized advertising.

The following cookie is set in your browser due to the integration of Google Maps:

Name: NID
Expiry time: after 6 months
Use: NID is used by Google to tailor advertisements to your Google searches. With the help of the cookie, Google “remembers” your most frequently entered search queries or your previous interaction with ads. This means you always get tailor-made advertisements. The cookie contains a unique ID that Google uses to collect the user’s personal settings for advertising purposes.
Example value: 188=h26c1Ktha7fCQTx8rXgLyATyITJ311136243

Note: We cannot guarantee the completeness of the information stored. Changes at Google can never be ruled out, especially when it comes to the use of cookies. In order to identify the cookie NID, a separate test page was created where only Google Maps was integrated.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google servers are located in data centers around the world. However, most of the servers are located in America. For this reason, your data is increasingly stored in the USA. You can read exactly where the Google data centers are located here: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de

Google distributes the data on various storage media. This means that the data can be accessed more quickly and is better protected against any attempts at manipulation. Each data center also has specific emergency programs. For example, if there are problems with Google’s hardware or a natural disaster affects the servers, the data will most likely still remain protected.

Google stores some data for a set period of time. For other data, Google only offers the option of deleting it manually. The company also anonymizes information (such as advertising data) in server logs by deleting part of the IP address and cookie information after 9 or 18 months.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

With the automatic deletion of location and activity data introduced in 2019, location and web/app activity information is stored for either 3 or 18 months, depending on your choice, and then deleted. You can also manually delete this data from your history at any time using your Google account. If you want to completely prevent your location tracking, you must pause the “Web and app activity” section in your Google Account. Click “Data and Personalization” and then click the “Activity Settings” option. Here you can switch the activities on or off.

You can also deactivate, delete or manage individual cookies in your browser. Depending on which browser you use, this works in different ways. The following instructions show how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and site data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

If you generally do not want cookies, you can set your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be set. This means you can decide for each individual cookie whether you allow it or not.

Google is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. For more information, please visit https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000TO6hAAG. If you would like to find out more about Google’s data processing, we recommend that you read the company’s own privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de.

Embedded social media elements privacy policy

We integrate elements from social media services on our website to display images, videos and texts.
When you visit pages that display these elements, data is transferred from your browser to the respective social media service and stored there. We do not have access to this data.
The following links take you to the pages of the respective social media services where it is explained 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 Facebook tools from Facebook on our website. Facebook is a social media network owned by Facebook Ireland Ltd., 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2 Ireland. These tools enable us to offer you and people who are interested in our products and services the best possible offer. Below we provide an overview of the various Facebook tools, what 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 of Facebook. Since the term is hardly known, we have decided to just call them Facebook tools. These include, among others:

Facebook pixel
social plug-ins (such as the “Like” or “Share” button)
Facebook login
Account kit
APIs (programming interface)
SDKs (collection of programming tools)
Platform integrations
Plugins
Codes
Specifications
Documentations
Technologies and services

Through these tools, Facebook expands services and has the opportunity 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 be able to show users appropriate 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. As a result, Facebook collects better user data and can show interested people appropriate advertising about our products or services. The tools thus enable tailor-made advertising campaigns on Facebook.

Facebook calls data about your behavior on our website “event data”. These are also used for measurement and analysis services. This allows Facebook to create “campaign reports” on our behalf about the impact of our advertising campaigns. We also use analyzes to gain a better insight into how you use our services, website or products. This allows us to 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 are 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 may 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 transmitted to Facebook, so-called “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 the contact details, “event data” is also transmitted. “Event data” means 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 required to do so. “Event data” can also be linked to contact details. This allows Facebook to offer better personalized advertising. After the matching process already mentioned, Facebook deletes the contact data again.

In order to deliver advertisements in an optimized manner, Facebook only uses the event data if it has been combined with other data (which was collected by Facebook in other ways). 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 around the world where your data is stored. However, customer data will be deleted within 48 hours after it has been compared with your 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. Here’s how deleting your Facebook account works:

1) On the right side of Facebook, click Settings.

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

3) Now click “Deactivation and deletion”.

4) Now select “Delete Account” and then click “Next and Delete Account”

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

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

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and site data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

If you generally do not want cookies, you can set your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be set. This means you can decide for each individual cookie whether you allow it or not.

Facebook is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. For more information, please visit https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000TO6hAAG. We hope we have given you the most important information about the use and data processing of Facebook tools. If you want to learn more about how Facebook uses your data, we recommend reading the data policy at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/update.

Instagram privacy policy

We have installed Instagram functions on our website. Instagram is a social media platform owned by 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. If you access websites on our website that have an Instagram function integrated, data will be transmitted to Instagram, stored and processed. Instagram uses the same systems and technologies as Facebook. Your data will therefore be processed across all Facebook companies.

Below we would like to give you a more detailed insight into why Instagram collects data, what data it is and how you can largely control data processing. Since Instagram belongs to Facebook Inc., we obtain 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 famous social media networks worldwide. 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 distribute 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 also reacted 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 prepare our content in a varied manner. 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 to us for personalized advertising on Facebook. This means our advertisements only reach people who are really interested in our products or services.

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

What data does Instagram store?

If you come across one of our pages that has built-in Instagram functions (such as Instagram images or plug-ins), your browser will automatically contact Instagram’s servers. Data is sent to Instagram, stored and processed. Regardless of whether you have an Instagram account or not. This includes information about our website, about your computer, about purchases you make, about advertisements you see and how you use our services. 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 exactly the case with Instagram. Customer data includes, for example, name, address, telephone number and IP address. It is important to mention that this customer data is only transmitted to Instagram once it has been “hashed” beforehand. Hashing means turning a data set into a string. This allows you to encrypt the contact details. In addition, the above-mentioned “event data” is also transmitted. By “event data” Facebook – and consequently also Instagram – means data about your user behavior. It can also happen that contact data is combined with event data. The contact details collected are compared with the data that Instagram already has from you.

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

We assume that data processing on Instagram works in the same way as on Facebook. This means that 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 will send information to Instagram via the cookie as soon as you come into contact with an Instagram function. This data will be 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 what data Instagram collects and stores.

Below we will show you the minimum cookies that are set in your browser when you click on an Instagram function (such as a button or an Insta picture). In our test, we assume that you don’t 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 fraudulent requests. 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_311136243124024
Value: not specified
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_UjKvXgYe311136243”
Purpose: This cookie is used 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 it receives between Facebook companies, with external partners and with people you connect with around the world. Data processing takes place in compliance with our own data guidelines. Your data is distributed on Facebook servers around the world, among other things for security reasons. 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, correction and deletion of your data. You can manage your data in Instagram settings. If you want to completely delete your data on Instagram, you will need to permanently delete your Instagram account.

And this is how deleting your Instagram account works:

First open the Instagram app. On your profile page, go down and click on “Help Section.” Now you come to the company’s website. On the website, click “Manage Account” and then click “Delete Your Account.”

If you delete your account entirely, Instagram will delete posts such as your photos and status updates. Information that other people have shared about you is not part of your account and will therefore not be deleted.

As mentioned above, Instagram stores your data primarily through cookies. You can manage, deactivate or delete these cookies in your browser. Depending on your browser, administration 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 site data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

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

Instagram is a subsidiary of Facebook Inc. and Facebook is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework. This framework ensures correct data transfer between the USA and the European Union. You can find out more at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000TO6hAAG. We have tried to provide you with the most important information about data processing by Instagram. At https://help.instagram.com/519522125107875
You can take a closer look at Instagram’s data policies.

YouTube privacy policy

We have included YouTube videos on our website. This means we can present you interesting videos directly on our site. YouTube is a video portal that has been a subsidiary of Google LLC since 2006. The video portal is operated by YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., San Bruno, CA 94066, USA. If you access a page on our website that has an embedded YouTube video, your browser automatically connects to the YouTube or Google servers. Various data is transferred (depending on the settings). Google is responsible for all data processing and Google’s data protection also applies.

Below we would like to explain to you in more detail what data is processed, why we have integrated YouTube videos and how you can manage or delete your data.

What is YouTube?

On YouTube, users can watch, rate, comment and upload videos for free. Over the last few years, YouTube has become one of the most important social media channels worldwide. So that we can display videos on our website, YouTube provides a code snippet that we have integrated into our site.

Why do we use YouTube videos on our website?

YouTube is the video platform with the most visitors and the best content. We strive to offer you the best possible user experience on our website. And of course interesting videos shouldn’t be missing. With the help of our embedded videos, we provide you with other helpful content in addition to our texts and images. In addition, our website is easier to find on the Google search engine thanks to the embedded videos. Even if we place advertisements via Google Ads, thanks to the data collected, Google can only show these advertisements to people who are interested in our offers.

What data does YouTube store?

As soon as you visit one of our pages that has a YouTube video installed, YouTube sets at least one cookie that stores your IP address and our URL. If you are logged in to your YouTube account, YouTube can usually assign your interactions on our website to your profile using cookies. This includes data such as session duration, bounce rate, approximate location, technical information such as browser type, screen resolution or your internet provider. Other data may include contact details, any reviews, sharing content on social media or adding it to your favorites on YouTube.

If you are not signed in to a Google account or a YouTube account, Google stores data with a unique identifier associated with your device, browser or app. For example, your preferred language setting is retained. But much interaction data cannot be stored because fewer cookies are set.

In the following list we show cookies that were set in the browser in a test. On the one hand, we show cookies that are set without a logged in YouTube account. On the other hand, we show cookies that are set when the account is logged in. The list cannot claim to be complete because user data always depends on interactions on YouTube.

Name: YSC
Value: b9-CV6ojI5Y
Purpose: This cookie registers a unique ID to store statistics of the video viewed.
Expiry date: after session ends

Name: PREF
Value: f1=50000000
Purpose: This cookie also registers your unique ID. Google receives statistics about how you use YouTube videos on our website via PREF.
Expiry date: after 8 months

Name: GPS
Value: 1
Purpose: This cookie registers your unique ID on mobile devices to track GPS location.
Expiry date: after 30 minutes

Name: VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE
Value: 95Chz8bagyU
Purpose: This cookie tries to estimate the user’s bandwidth on our websites (with built-in YouTube video).
Expiry date: after 8 months

Other cookies that are set when you are logged in to your YouTube account:

Name: APISID
Value: zILlvClZSkqGsSwI/AU1aZI6HY7311136243-
Purpose: This cookie is used to create a profile about your interests. The data is used for personalized advertisements.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: CONSENT
Value: YES+AT.de+20150628-20-0
Purpose: The cookie stores the status of a user’s consent to the use of various Google services. CONSENT also serves security purposes to check users and protect user data from unauthorized attacks.
Expiry date: after 19 years

Name: HSID
Value: AcRwpgUik9Dveht0I
Purpose: This cookie is used to create a profile about your interests. This data helps to display personalized advertising.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: LOGIN_INFO
Value: AFmmF2swRQIhALl6aL…
Purpose: This cookie stores information about your login data.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: SAPISID
Value: 7oaPxoG-pZsJuuF5/AnUdDUIsJ9iJz2vdM
Purpose: This cookie works by uniquely identifying your browser and device. It is used to create a profile about your interests.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: SID
Value: oQfNKjAsI311136243-
Purpose: This cookie stores your Google account ID and your last login time in a digitally signed and encrypted form.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: SIDCC
Value: AN0-TYuqub2JOcDTyL
Purpose: This cookie stores information about how you use the website and what advertisements you may have seen before visiting our site.
Expiry date: after 3 months

How long and where is the data stored?

The data that YouTube receives and processes from you is stored on Google servers. Most of these servers are located in America. At https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de you can see exactly where the Google data centers are located. Your data is distributed across the servers. This means that the data can be accessed more quickly and is better protected against manipulation.

Google stores the data collected for different lengths of time. You can delete some data at any time, others are automatically deleted after a limited period of time, and others are stored by Google for a longer period of time. Some data (such as My Activity items, photos or documents, products) stored in your Google Account remains stored until you delete it. Even if you’re not signed in to a Google Account, you can delete some data associated with your device, browser, or app.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

In principle, you can delete data in your Google account manually. With the automatic deletion function of location and activity data introduced in 2019, information is stored for either 3 or 18 months and then deleted, depending on your decision.

Regardless of whether you have a Google account or not, you can configure your browser to delete or deactivate Google cookies. Depending on which browser you use, this works in different ways. The following instructions show how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and site data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

If you generally do not want cookies, you can set your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be set. This means you can decide for each individual cookie whether you allow it or not. Since YouTube is a subsidiary of Google, there is a common data protection declaration. If you want to find out more about how your data is handled, we recommend the data protection declaration at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de.

Twitter privacy policy

We have integrated Twitter functions on our website. These include, for example, embedded tweets, timelines, buttons or hashtags. Twitter is a short messaging service and a social media platform from Twitter Inc., One Cumberland Place, Fenian Street, Dublin 2 D02 AX07, Ireland.

To our knowledge, in the European Economic Area and Switzerland, the mere integration of the Twitter function does not mean that any personal data or data about your web activities are transferred to Twitter. Only when you interact with the Twitter functions, such as clicking on a button, can data be sent to Twitter, stored and processed there. We have no influence on this data processing and bear no responsibility. As part of this data protection declaration, we want to give you an overview of what data Twitter stores, what Twitter does with this data and how you can largely protect yourself from data transfer.

What is Twitter?

For some, Twitter is a news service, for others it is a social media platform and for others it is a microblogging service. All of these terms have their place and mean more or less the same thing.

Both private individuals and companies use Twitter to communicate with interested people via short messages. Twitter only allows 280 characters per message. These messages are called “tweets”. Unlike Facebook, for example, the service does not focus on expanding a network for “friends”, but rather wants to be seen as a global and open news platform. On Twitter you can also have an anonymous account and tweets can be deleted by the company on the one hand and by the users themselves on the other.

Why do we use Twitter on our website?

Like many other websites and companies, we try to offer our services and communicate with our customers through various channels. Twitter in particular has grown on us as a useful “small” news service. We constantly tweet or retweet exciting, funny or interesting content. We understand that you cannot follow each channel separately. After all, you also have something else to do. That’s why we have also integrated Twitter functions on our website. You can experience our Twitter activity “on site” or come to our Twitter page via a direct link. Through the integration we want to strengthen our service and user-friendliness on our website.

What data does Twitter store?

On some of our subpages you will find the built-in Twitter functions. When you interact with Twitter content, such as clicking a button, Twitter may collect and store data. Even if you don’t have a Twitter account yourself. Twitter calls this data “log data”. This includes demographic data, browser cookie IDs, your smartphone ID, hashed email addresses, and information about which pages you have visited on Twitter and what actions you have taken. Of course, Twitter stores more data if you have a Twitter account and are logged in. This storage usually happens via cookies. Cookies are small text files that are usually set in your browser and transmit various information to Twitter.

We will now show you which cookies are set when you are not logged in to Twitter but visit a website with built-in Twitter functions. Please consider this list as an example. We cannot guarantee completeness under any circumstances, as the choice of cookies is always changing and depends on your individual actions with the Twitter content.

These cookies were used in our test:

Name: personalization_id
Value: “v1_cSJIsogU51SeE311136243”
Purpose: This cookie stores information about how you use the website and which advertisements may have brought you to Twitter.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: long
Value: en
Purpose: This cookie stores your default or preferred language.
Expiry date: after session ends

Name: guest_id
Value: 311136243v1%3A157132626
Purpose: This cookie is set to identify you as a guest.
Expiry date: after 2 years

Name: fm
Value: 0
Purpose: Unfortunately, we were unable to find out the purpose of this cookie.
Expiry date: after session ends

Name: external_referer
Value: 3111362432beTA0sf5lkMrlGt
Purpose: This cookie collects anonymous data such as how often you visit Twitter and how long you visit Twitter.
Expiry Date: After 6 days

Name: eu_cn
Value: 1
Purpose: This cookie stores user activity and is used for various Twitter advertising purposes.
Expiry date: After one year

Name: ct0
Value: c1179f07163a365d2ed7aad84c99d966
Purpose: Unfortunately we did not find any information about this cookie.
Expiry date: after 6 hours

Name: _twitter_sess
Value: 53D%253D–dd0248311136243-
Purpose: This cookie allows you to use functions within the Twitter website.
Expiry date: after session ends

Note: Twitter also works with third parties. That’s why we also recognized the three Google Analytics cookies _ga, _gat, _gid during our test.

On the one hand, Twitter uses the data collected to better understand user behavior and thus improve its own services and advertising offers, and on the other hand, the data also serves internal security measures.

How long and where is the data stored?

If Twitter collects data from other websites, it will be deleted, summarized or otherwise hidden after a maximum of 30 days. The Twitter servers are located in various server centers in the United States. It can therefore be assumed that the data collected will be collected and stored in America. After our research, we could not clearly determine whether Twitter also has its own servers in Europe. In principle, Twitter can store the data collected until it is no longer useful to the company, you delete the data or there is a statutory deletion period.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

Twitter repeatedly emphasizes in its data protection guidelines that it does not store data from external website visits if you or your browser are located in the European Economic Area or Switzerland. However, if you interact with Twitter directly, Twitter will of course also store your data.

If you have a Twitter account, you can manage your information by clicking “More” under the “Profile” button. Then click on “Settings and data protection”. Here you can manage data processing individually.

If you don’t have a Twitter account, you can go to twitter.com and then click “Customization.” You can manage your collected data under “Individualization and data”.

As mentioned above, most data is stored via cookies and you can manage, deactivate or delete them in your browser. Please note that you can only “edit” the cookies in the browser you have chosen. This means: if you use a different browser in the future, you will have to manage your cookies again according to your wishes. Here you can find instructions for cookie management for the most popular browsers.

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and site data with Safari

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

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

You can also manage your browser so that you are informed about each individual cookie. Then you can always decide individually whether you allow a cookie or not.

Twitter also uses the data for personalized advertising on and outside of Twitter. In the settings you can switch off personalized advertising under “Individualization and data”. If you use Twitter on a browser, you can opt out of personalized advertising at http://optout.aboutads.info/?c=2&lang=EN.

Twitter is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework. This framework ensures correct data transfer between the USA and the European Union. You can find out more at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000TO6hAAG.

We hope we have given you a basic overview of data processing by Twitter. We do not receive any data from Twitter and are not responsible for what Twitter does with your data. If you have any further questions on this topic, we recommend that you read the Twitter privacy policy at https://twitter.com/de/privacy.

LinkedIn privacy policy

On our website we use functions of the social media network LinkedIn from LinkedIn Corporation, 2029 Stierlin Court, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.

When you access pages that use such functions, data (IP address, browser data, date and time, cookies) is transmitted to LinkedIn, stored and evaluated.

If you have a LinkedIn account and are logged in, this data will be assigned to your personal account and the data stored therein.

The data protection guidelines on what information LinkedIn collects and how they use it can be found at https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy.

Pinterest Privacy Policy

On our site we use buttons and widgets from the social media network Pinterest, the company Pinterest Inc., 808 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA.

When you access pages that use such functions, data (IP address, browser data, date and time, cookies) is transmitted to Pinterest, stored and evaluated.

The data protection guidelines, which information Pinterest collects and how they use it, can be found at https://policy.pinterest.com/de/privacy-policy.

Facebook Pixel Privacy Policy

On this website we use the Facebook Pixel from Facebook, a social media network owned by Facebook Ireland Ltd., 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2 Ireland.

The code implemented on this page can evaluate the behavior of visitors who came to this website from a Facebook advertisement. This can be used to improve Facebook ads and this data is collected and stored by Facebook. The data collected cannot be viewed by us but can only be used in the context of advertising. Cookies are also set through the use of the Facebook pixel code.

By using the Facebook pixel, your visit to this website is communicated to Facebook so that visitors on Facebook can see relevant advertisements. If you have a Facebook account and are logged in, your visit to this website will be assigned to your Facebook user account.

You can find out how the Facebook pixel is used for advertising campaigns at https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/facebook-ads-pixel.

You can change your Facebook ad settings at https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen if you are logged in to Facebook. You can manage your preferences regarding usage-based online advertising at http://www.youronlinechoices.com/de/praferenzmanagement/. There you can deactivate or activate many providers at once or make the settings for individual providers.

More information about Facebook’s data policy can be found at https://www.facebook.com/policy.php.

Source: Created with the Privacy Generator from AdSimple in cooperation with hashtagbeauty.de