Data protection declaration

Unless stated otherwise below, the provision of your personal data is neither legally nor contractually obligatory, nor required for conclusion of a contract. You are not obliged to provide your data. Not providing it will have no consequences. This only applies as long as the processing procedures below do not state otherwise.
“Personal data” is any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.

Server log files
You can use our websites without submitting personal data. Every time you access our website, user data is transmitted by your internet browser and stored in protocol files (server log files). This stored data includes e.g. name of the site called up, date and time of the request, amount of data transferred and the provider making the request. This data serves exclusively to ensure smooth operation of our website and to improve our offering. It is not possible to assign this data to a particular person.
 
Use of Google reCAPTCHA 
Our website uses the reCAPTCHA service by Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; “Google”). The request serves to distinguish whether the input was made by a human or automatic machine processing. The request includes the submission of the IP address and any other data required by Google for the reCAPTCHA service. For this purpose your input will be transmitted to Google and used further there. Google will, however, shorten your IP address beforehand within the Member States of the European Union or other signatories to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transferred to a Google server in the USA and shortened there. Google will use this information on behalf of the operator of this website in order to assess your use of this service. The IP address transmitted by your browser as part of reCAPTCHA is not associated with any other data held by Google. Your data may also be transmitted to the USA. Transmission of data to the USA is covered by an adequacy decision by the European Commission, the “Privacy Shield”. Google participates in “Privacy Shield” and has submitted to its requirements. By activating the request you agree to the processing of your data. The processing will be carried out on the basis of art. 6 (1) lit. a GDPR with your consent. You can withdraw your consent at any time without affecting the legality of the processing carried out with your consent up to the withdrawal.You can find more detailed information on Google reCAPTCHA and the associated data protection declaration at: https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads?hl=en
 
Cookies
Our website uses cookies. Cookies are small text files which are saved in a user’s internet browser or by the user’s internet browser on their computer system. When a user calls up a website, a cookie may be saved on the user’s operating system. This cookie contains a characteristic character string which allows the browser to be clearly identified when the website is called up again. We use cookies to make our offering more user-friendly, effective and secure. Cookies also allow our systems to recognise your browser after a page change and to offer you services. Some functions of our website cannot be offered without the use of cookies. These services require the browser to be recognised again after a page change.
 

Our website also uses cookies to allow us to analyse the surfing behaviour of visitors to our website. 

Processing is carried out on the basis of § 15 (3) TMG (Telemedia Act) as well as art. 6 (1) lit. f GDPR due to our justified interest in the purposes above.
The data collected in this way is pseudonymised using technological measures. It is therefore not possible to connect the data to your person. The data will not be stored together with other personal data pertaining to you. You have the right to veto this processing of your personal data according to art. 6 (1) lit. f GDPR by contacting us, for reasons relating to your personal situation. Cookies will be stored on your computer. You therefore have full control over the use of cookies. By choosing corresponding technical settings in your internet browser, you can prevent the storage of cookies and transmission of the data they contain. Cookies which have already been saved may be deleted at any time. We would, however, like to point out that this may prevent you from making full use of all the functions of this website.
Using the links below, you can find out how to manage cookies (or deactivate them, among other things) in major browsers:
Use of Google Analytics 
Our website uses the web analysis service Google Analytics by Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; “Google”). The processing of data serves to analyse this website and its visitors. Google will use this information on behalf of the operator of this website to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activity and to provide other services to the website operator relating to website and internet use. The IP address communicated by your browser as part of Google Analytics is not associated with any other data held by Google. Google Analytics uses cookies, which make it possible to analyse your use of the website. The information generated by the cookie regarding your use of this website is usually transferred to a Google server in the USA and stored there. IP anonymisation is activated on this website. Google uses this to shorten your IP address beforehand within Member States of the European Union or in other signatories to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transferred to a Google server in the USA and shortened there. Your data may be transmitted to the USA. Transmission of data to the USA is covered by an adequacy decision by the European Commission. Processing is carried out on the basis of art. 6 (1) lit. f GDPR due to our justified interest in needs-based and targeted design of the website. You have the right to veto this processing of your personal data according to art. 6 (1) lit. f GDPR by contacting us, for reasons relating to your personal situation. You can prevent the storage of cookies  by choosing corresponding technical settings in your internet browser; we would, however, like to point out that this may prevent you from making full use of all the functions of this website. You can also prevent collection of the data (including your IP address) generated by the cookies and related to your use of the website by Google as well as the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available at the following link [https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en]. You can set an opt-out cookie to prevent collection by Google Analytics across devices. Opt-out cookies prevent the future collection of your data when you visit this website. You need to opt-out on all systems and devices in use for this to work comprehensively. If you click here, the opt-out cookie is set: Disable Google Analytics.  
You can find more detailed information on the terms and conditions of use and data protection at https://www.google.com/analytics/terms/ and at https://policies.google.com/?hl=en.
 
Use of Facebook plug-ins
This Internet site uses plug-ins of the social network facebook.com operated by Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA ("Facebook").
Whenever you display one of our Internet pages that hosts a Facebook plug-in you will be linked to the Facebook servers, a message is sent to your browser, and the plug-in is run on the Internet page. This is telling the Facebook server which of our pages you have visited. Assuming you are logged on to your Facebook member account while running the Facebook plug-in, Facebook will allocate the information to your personal Facebook user account. Further information collected and allocated by Facebook is the use of plug-in functions (like clicking on the Like button or posting a comment). To prevent this data collection and allocation, you must log off your Facebook user account before running the plug-in.
If you do not wish Facebook to collect and directly allocate the above information to your Facebook profile, you will either have to log off from Facebook before visiting our site or run a "Facebook blocker" which stops the Facebook plug-ins from running on our pages.
To learn more about the collection and use of your personal data by Facebook as well as about your rights and what options you have to protect your privacy, please read Facebook's Privacy Policy at: https://www.facebook.com/policy.php
 

Using the Google “+1” button
On these webpages, the “+1” button of the social network Google Plus of Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California, 94043 USA, (hereafter referred to as “Google”) is used. If you invoke a webpage of our Internet presence, which is provided with the “+1” button, a link is established with the Google servers in the USA, and the button is displayed on the Internet page through a notification to your browser. Here, your IP address as well as the information, as to which of our Internet sites you have visited, is forwarded to the Google server. This is independent of whether you have registered with or are logged in on Google Plus. Data is transferred even in case of users who are not registered or logged in on these sites. The “+1” button is not used to record your visits on the Internet. When displaying a “+1” button, Google does not permanently log your browser history and also does not analyse your visit to a page with “+1” button in another manner. Google saves the data of your visit for about two weeks for system maintenance and troubleshooting purposes. However, this data is not structured as per the individual profiles, user names or URLs, and is also not forwarded to us.
Moreover, if you are a member of Google Plus, and if your are logged in on Google Plus during the period in which you use the plugin, the information collected about your website visit is linked to your Google Plus Account and disclosed to other users. Even in case of interactions, which are possible with various Google plugins, the corresponding information about you is collected and transmitted to Google and stored there. For an overview of the different types of Google plugins, log on to:
https://developers.google.com/+/web/

If you have made your profile publically accessible in the Google Plus settings, your “+1” can be superimposed by Google as information together with your profile names and your photo in Google services, e.g. in search results or in your Google profile, or at other places on websites and advertisements on the Internet. If you do not want Google to allocate the collected information directly to your Google Plus profile, you must first log out of Google Plus before visiting our site.
Other information about the collection and usage of the data by Google, about your relevant rights and options for protecting your privacy can be found in the Data Protection information of Google: www.google.com/intl/de/+/policy/+1button.html.

You have an option to prevent downloading Google plugins by installing corresponding add-ons in your browser.

Using Twitter plugins
The functions of the Twitter service are integrated on our website.
Twitter is a social media portal of the company Twitter Inc.,795 Folsom St., Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94107, (USA).
We use Twitter plugins. If you invoke a corresponding website that has such a plugin, the data is exchanged with the Twitter servers located in the USA.
Even in case of interactions, which are possible with various Twitter plugins, the corresponding information about you is collected and transmitted to Twitter and stored there.
Moreover, if you are a member of Twitter, and if your are logged in on Twitter during the period in which you use the plugin, the information collected about your website visit is linked to your Twitter account and disclosed to other users.
If you do not wish that Twitter links and combines the information with the data of your Twitter account, you must log out from Twitter before visiting our website.
Log on to https://twitter.com/privacy for more information on the collection and use of data through Twitter.

Rights of the affected person
If the legal requirements are fulfilled, you have the following rights according to art. 15 to 20 GDPR: Right to information, correction, deletion, restriction of processing, data portability. You also have a right of objection against processing based on art. 6 (1) GDPR, and to processing for the purposes of direct marketing, according to art. 21 (1) GDPR.
 
Contact us at any time. Our contact details can be found in our imprint.
 
Right to complain to the regulatory authority
You have the right to complain to the regulatory authority according to art. 77 GDPR if you believe that your data is not being processed legally.
 

last update: 25.04.2018