We use cookies for the automatic processing of usage data on the website. We generally cannot use this data to identify you as a person but will only receive aggregated reports and pseudonymized information. In addition, as explained below, we use web beacons which are small graphic images (also known as “pixel tags” or “clear GIFs”) on our Platform. They are used together with cookies to track user behavior on the website. The legal basis for the processing of personal data using cookies and other technologies are our legitimate interests in better understanding the needs and interests of our customer base as a whole.

Google Analytics

The website uses Google Analytics, a service provided by Google Ireland Ltd, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland („Google Ireland“), a subsidiary of Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 („Google“). Google Analytics uses cookies and helps us to analyse the number of users and the general behaviour of visitors to the website.

The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (identifier, browser type/version, operating system used, referrer URL, shortened IP address, time of server request) is generally transmitted to a Google server in the U.S. and stored there. However, in the Member States of the European Union or in other signatory states to the Agreement on the European Economic Area, your IP address will initially be truncated by Google on the website. For this purpose, we have implemented the code „gat._anonymizeIp() ;“ in order to ensure anonymous collection of IP addresses (so-called IP masking).

Only in exceptional cases is the complete IP address transmitted to a Google server in the USA and abbreviated there. If, exceptionally, personal data is transferred to the USA, Google‘s certification according to the so-called „Privacy Shield Agreement“ between the EU and the USA (https://www. privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt00000000001L5AAI&status=Active) ensures a level of data protection corresponding to the data protection level in the EU. Google will use the information about your use of the Website on our behalf in the context of Google Analytics to evaluate your use of the Website, to compile reports on Website activity and to provide other services relating to Website activity and internet usage. The IP address transmitted by your browser in the context of Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager is not combined with other data from Google by us.

In addition to generally deactivating cookies, you can prevent Google from collecting and processing data about your use of the website (including your abbreviated IP address) by downloading and installing the browser plug-in at the following link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout. Further information on the terms of use and data protection can be found at http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/de.html and https://www. google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy/.

Google Analytics Advertising Functions and Google Ads

We also use Google Ads to advertise on the websites of third parties. In relation to the data of the advertising campaigns, we can determine how successful the individual advertising measures are. This serves to pursue our interest in delivering to you advertisements which are of interest to you and to make the offering on the website more interesting for you. Google uses so-called „ad servers“ for this purpose, through which our ads are delivered. For this purpose, we use ad server cookies, which can be used to measure certain parameters such as the display of ads or clicks by users. If you access the website via a Google advertisement, Google Ads stores a cookie on your device. These cookies lose their validity after 30 days and cannot be used by us to identify you personally. The unique cookie ID, number of ad impressions per placement (frequency), last impression (relevant for postview conversions) and optout information (marking that the user no longer wishes to be addressed) are usually stored as analysis values for this cookie.

These cookies will enable Google to recognize your Internet browser for advertising purposes. If a user visits certain pages of an AdWords customer‘s Website and the cookie stored on his or her computer has not yet expired, Google can track whether the user clicked on the ad and was directed to that page. Each Adwords customer is assigned a different cookie. Cookies cannot therefore be traced via the Websites of Adwords customers. We can never personally identify you with the information we collect and only receive aggregated reports about user behavior. On the basis of these evaluations, we can identify which of the advertising measures used are particularly effective. We do not receive any further data from the use of the advertising media, in particular we cannot identify the users on the basis of this information. You can also opt out of participating in this tracking process via Google‘s preferences at https://www.google.de/settings/ads, or as part of the About Ads self-regulatory campaign via the link http://www.aboutads.info/choices, where this setting will be deleted if you delete your cookies. You can also disable it in your browser by installing a plug-in if you click on the following link http://www.google.com/settings/ads/plug-in. Further information on data processing within the framework of Google Ads can be found at https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads?hl=en and https://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy/.

Google Maps & Google reCAPTCHA

Via an API, the website uses the mapping service Google Maps. To enable the use of the Google Maps features, your IP address must be processed by Google. We and Google are jointly responsible for this processing. As a rule, this information is transferred to one of Google’s servers in the United States, where it is archived. The operator of this website has no control over this data transfer. However, you can deactivate the use of your location data at any point in time by changing the settings of your devices. You will be prompted to activate the use of location data on the website before any data are transmitted to Google. We use Google Maps to present our online content in an appealing manner and to make the locations disclosed on the website easy to find. The purpose of reCAPTCHA is to determine whether data entered on the website (e.g. information entered into a contact form) is being provided by a human user or by an automated program.

To determine this, reCAPTCHA analyses the behaviour of the website visitors based on a variety of parameters. This analysis is triggered automatically as soon as the website visitor enters the site. For this analysis, reCAPTCHA evaluates a variety of data (e.g. IP address, time the website visitor spent on the site or cursor movements initiated by the user). The data tracked during such analyses are forwarded to Google. reCAPTCHA analyses run entirely in the background. Website visitors are not alerted that an analysis is underway. It is in our legitimate interest to protect the website against misuse by automated industrial espionage systems and against SPAM. For more information about Google reCAPTCHA please review the information at and https://www.google.com/recaptcha/intro/android.html.

Facebook Plug-ins

The Facebook plug-in „Like Button“ and pixel tag are installed on the website. An overview of the Facebook plug-ins can be found here: http:// developers.facebook.com/docs/plug-ins/. These are services of Facebook Ireland Ltd, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland („Facebook EU“), which also transmit data to Facebook Inc., 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA („Facebook USA“; together with Facebook EU as a whole „Facebook“). Like Google, Facebook USA is certified under the Privacy Shield Agreement, providing an appropriate level of data protection outside the EEA (https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000000GnywAAC&status=Active).

When you visit the website, a direct connection is established between your device and the Facebook server. Facebook receives information that you have visited the website, including your IP address. If you click the „Like“ button in your Facebook account, you can link the content of the website to your Facebook profile. In this way, Facebook can connect the visit with the visitor and use it to advertise on Facebook according to the interests of the visitor.

The tracking pixel transmits to Facebook your IP address and other information when you use the website, including device information (operating system, hardware version, device settings, file and software names and types, battery and signal strength), device identifiers, device locations, including specific geographic locations such as GPS, Bluetooth or WiFi signals, connection information such as the name of your mobile operator or ISP, browser type, language and time zone, mobile phone number) and information about your activities. When you later sign in to Facebook, an irrevocable, non-personal checksum (profile) of your Usage Data is sent to Facebook for analysis and marketing purposes.

For more information, see Facebook‘s Privacy Statement at http://de-de.facebook.com/policy.php and https://www.facebook.com/business/help/651294705016616.

If you do not want Facebook to associate your visit to the website with your Facebook account, please log out of your Facebook account. Further settings and objections to the use of the data for advertising purposes are possible within the Facebook profile settings: https://www.facebook.com/ settings?tab=ads. You can also completely prevent the loading of Facebook plug-ins with add-ons for your browser, e.g. with the „Facebook Blocker“.

Facebook Connect

Instead of registering directly on the website, you also have the option to register using Facebook Connect. If you decide to register via Facebook Connect and click on the “Login with Facebook” / “Connect with Facebook” button, you will be automatically connected to the Facebook platform. There, you can log in using your username and password. As a result, your Facebook profile will be linked to the website or our services. This link gives us access to the data you have already transmitted to Facebook. These data can comprise the following: Facebook name, Facebook profile photo and cover photo, Facebook cover photo, Email address archived with Facebook Facebook-ID, Facebook friends lists, Facebook Likes (“Likes” information), Date of birth, Gender, Country, Language. This information will be used to set up, provide and customise your account. The data for your registration via Facebook Connect will be processed on the basis of your consent. You may revoke this consent at any time with future effect.

Use of LinkedIn Plug-in

The website uses functions of the network LinkedIn. The provider is LinkedIn Corporation, 2029 Stierlin Court, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA („LinkedIn“). Each time you visit one of the websites, a connection is established to LinkedIn servers. LinkedIn will be informed that you have visited the website with your IP address. If you click the LinkedIn „Recommend“ button and are logged into your LinkedIn account, LinkedIn will be able to associate your visit to the website with you and your user account. Thus, LinkedIn can place targeted advertising and content on the LinkedIn platform for you. For more information, please see LinkedIn‘s Privacy Statement at: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy. LinkedIn is also certified under the Privacy Shield Agreement (https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000L0UZAA0&status=Active). If you wish to object to the processing of your data by LinkedIn, you can do so here: https://www.linkedin.com/psettings/guest-controls/retargeting-opt-out.

Use of Twitter

If you have a Twitter account, we may use a cookie from Twitter Inc, 1355 Market Street, Suite 900, San Francisco, with your permission. CA 94103, USA („Twitter“) to track your user behavior if you have reached the website through an advertisement placed by us on Twitter. In this case, Twitter places a cookie on your computer, through which we as a Twitter customer and Twitter can recognize that you have visited the website by clicking on a Twitter ad. The information obtained by the tracking cookie is transmitted to us under a pseudonym and does not give us any information about the person of the user. They serve for statistical purposes, but are connected to your Twitter account by Twitter in accordance with its data protection guidelines (available at https://twitter.com/privacy?lang=en), stored and used for our own advertising purposes, whereby your data may also be transmitted to Twitter‘s partners.

If you wish to avoid the storage and use of your data by Twitter to the extent described above, you can do so by configuring the Twitter settings for advertisements at https://help.twitter.com/en/safety-and-security/privacy-controls-for-tailored-ads accordingly. For more information about Twitter‘s privacy policy, please refer to the related privacy policy at https://twitter.com/privacy?lang=en.

Our Social Media Pages

We maintain publicly available profiles in social networks. This includes pages on Facebook and Instagram (both operated by Facebook). We and the operator of the respective social media platform are jointly responsible for data processing on our social media pages. Regarding our social media pages on Facebook and Instagram, detailed information about Facebook‘s data processing is available in Facebook‘s Data Policy and Facebook‘s Data Policy on Instagram. Your rights as a data subject can be asserted both against us and Facebook. We would also like to point out that Facebook uses cookies according to its own statements, which are also used within the framework of our social media pages. For technical reasons, we have no influence on the use of these cookies and cannot prevent their use. We cannot draw any conclusions about specific persons from the data transmitted to us by Facebook – we can never use this data to identify you as a person; instead, we only receive aggregated data on the use of our social media page within the framework of „Facebook Insights“. We also have no influence on the further use of data processed by cookies on Facebook or Instagram. To this end, Facebook‘s Cookie Notices and Facebook‘s Cookie Notice on Instagram (where additional information about individual cookies and their lifetime is also available) state that Facebook uses cookies when using Facebook products (including our social media page) for the following purposes: „advertising, recommendations, insights and measurements“. Facebook thus states that it uses cookies as an aid to show and make recommendations to those who may be interested in the products, services or charities highlighted by companies and other organisations. Facebook also uses cookies to help companies using Facebook products measure the success of their advertising campaigns.

We process the data on our social media site because they are necessary to pursue our legitimate interests in promoting our services, staying in contact with potential customers or other parties interested in our services.

Please note that despite the shared responsibility with the social media portal operators, we do not have full influence on the data processing operations of the social media portals. Our options are determined by the company policy of the respective provider.

Last updated March 2020