Privacy

Table of contents

  • Sojka Solutions
  • Special Machines & Plants GmbH
  • Linden avenue 33
  • 04639 Ponitz OT Merlach
  • Germany

Introduction and overview

With this privacy policy (as of 01.06.2023), we would like to explain, in accordance with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and applicable national laws, which personal data (in short: data) we as the responsible party as well as our commissioned processors (e.g. providers) process, will process in the future and what lawful options you have. In doing so, we use gender-neutral terms. Our goal is to provide you with the most important information about the data we process as simply and transparently as possible. We will explain technical terms in an understandable way and provide links to further information to promote transparency. We would like to inform you clearly and simply that we only process personal data in the course of our business activities if there is a corresponding legal basis. It is not our aim to make terse, unclear and legalistic statements, as is often the case on the Internet with regard to data protection. We hope that you will find the following explanations interesting and informative, and perhaps you will find information in them that is new to you. If you still have questions, we ask you to contact the responsible office indicated below or in the imprint, to follow the links provided and to view further information on external websites. Of course, you will also find our contact details in the imprint.

Data processing security

To ensure the protection of personal data, we have taken both technical and organizational measures. Where possible, we use encryption or pseudonymization for personal data. In this way, we make it difficult for third parties to infer personal information from our data.

Article 25 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) emphasizes the importance of “data protection by design and by default”. This means that both software (e.g., forms) and hardware (e.g., access to the server room) should always have security in mind and appropriate measures should be taken. In the following, we go into more detail on specific measures, if necessary.

TLS encryption with HTTPS

TLS, encryption and HTTPS sound technical and they are. We use HTTPS (the secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol) to transfer data on the Internet in a tap-proof manner. This means that the entire transmission of data between your browser and our web server is protected and no one can “listen in”.
As a result, we have implemented an additional layer of security and meet the requirements of data protection by design of technology in accordance with Article 25(1) of the GDPR. By using TLS (Transport Layer Security), an encryption protocol for secure data transmission on the Internet, we can guarantee the confidentiality of sensitive data. You can recognize the use of this data transfer security by the small lock symbol at the top left of the browser next to the Internet address (e.g., beispielseite.de) and by the use of the HTTPS scheme (instead of HTTP) as part of our Internet address. If you want to learn more about encryption, we recommend a Google search for “Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure Wiki” to get relevant and advanced information

Legal basis

In this privacy statement, we would like to provide you with transparent information about the legal basis and regulations that allow us to process personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation. With regard to EU law, we refer to Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016. You can read this EU General Data Protection Regulation online at EUR-Lex, the gateway to EU law, at https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/DE/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32016R0679.

  1. We only process your data if at least one of the following conditions applies:
    Consent (Article 6(1) lit. a DSGVO): You have given us your consent to process data for a specific purpose. An example would be the storage of your entered data of a contact form.
  2. contract (Article 6(1)(b) DSGVO): In order to fulfill a contract or pre-contractual obligations with you, we process your data. For example, if we enter into a purchase agreement with you, we require personal information in advance.
  3. Legal obligation (Article 6(1)(c) DSGVO): If we are subject to a legal obligation, we process your data. For example, we are required by law to keep invoices for accounting purposes. These usually contain personal data.
  4. Legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) DSGVO): In the case of legitimate interests that do not restrict your fundamental rights, we reserve the right to process personal data. For example, we need to process certain data in order to operate our website in a secure and economically efficient manner. This processing is therefore a legitimate interest.

Other conditions, such as the processing of data in the public interest, for the exercise of official authority or for the protection of vital interests, do not usually occur with us. If such a legal basis should nevertheless be relevant, this is clearly indicated at the appropriate place.

In addition to the EU regulation, national laws apply:

  • In Germany, the Federal Data Protection Act, or BDSG for short, applies.

If other regional or national laws apply, we will inform you about them in the following sections.

Contact details of the responsible person

If you have any questions regarding data protection, you will find the contact details of the responsible person or office below:

Sojka Solutions
Special Machines & Plant Engineering GmbH
Linden avenue 33
04639 Ponitz OT Merlach
Authorized to represent: Christian Sojka
Email: c.sojka@sojka.group
Phone: +49 37 64 /570 24 30
Imprint: https://www.sojka-solutions.com/impressum

Rights under the General Data Protection Regulation

To ensure fair and transparent processing of your data, you have the following rights under Article 13 GDPR:

  • According to Article 15 of the GDPR, you have a right to information about whether we process data about you. If this is the case, you have the right to obtain a copy of the data and to know the following information:
    • Purpose of data processing
    • Type of data that will be processed
    • Recipients of the data and, if the data is transferred to third countries, how security can be guaranteed
    • Duration of data storage
    • the existence of the right to rectification, erasure or restriction of processing and the right to object to processing
    • that you can complain to a supervisory authority (links to these authorities can be found below)
    • Origin of the data if we have not collected it from you
    • whether profiling is carried out, i.e. whether data is automatically evaluated to arrive at a personal profile of you.
  • You have a right to rectify data according to Article 16 of the GDPR, which means that we must correct data if you find errors.
  • According to Article 17 of the GDPR, you have the right to erasure (“right to be forgotten”), which specifically means that you may request the deletion of your data.
  • According to Article 18 of the GDPR, you have the right to restriction of processing, which means that we may only store the data but not use it any further.
  • According to Article 19 of the GDPR, you have the right to data portability, which means that we will provide you with your data in a common format upon request.
  • According to Article 21 of the GDPR, you have a right to object, which, once enforced, entails a change in processing.
    • If the processing of your data is based on Article 6 para. 1 lit. e (public interest, exercise of official authority) or Article 6 para. 1 lit. f (legitimate interest), you may object to the processing. We will then check as quickly as possible whether we can legally comply with this objection.
    • If data is used to conduct direct advertising, you can object to this type of data processing at any time. We may not use your data for direct marketing thereafter.
    • If data is used to perform profiling, you can object to this type of data processing at any time. We may not use your data for profiling thereafter.
  • According to Article 22 of the GDPR, you may have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (for example, profiling).

Google Analytics Privacy Policy

What is Google Analytics?

We use the analysis tracking tool Google Analytics (GA) of the American company Google Inc. on our website. For the European area, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. Google Analytics collects data about your actions on our website. For example, when you click on a link, this action is stored in a cookie and sent to Google Analytics. With the help of the reports we receive from Google Analytics, we can better tailor our website and service to your needs. In the following, we will go into more detail about the tracking tool and, in particular, inform you about what data is stored and how you can prevent it.

Google Analytics is a tracking tool used for traffic analysis of our website. In order for Google Analytics to work, a tracking code is built into the code of our website. When you visit our website, this code records various actions that you perform on our website. As soon as you leave our website, this data is sent to the Google Analytics servers and stored there.

Google processes the data and we get reports about your user behavior. These may include, but are not limited to, the following reports:

  • Target Group Reports:
    Through target group reports, we get to know our users better and know more precisely who is interested in our service.
  • Display Reports:
    Ad reports make it easier for us to analyze and improve our online advertising.
  • Acquisition Reports:
    Acquisition reports give us helpful information on how to get more people interested in our service.
  • Behavioral reports:
    This is where we learn how you interact with our website. We can track which path you take on our site and which links you click on.
  • Conversion Reports:
    Conversion is the name given to a process in which you take a desired action as a result of a marketing message. For example, if you go from being just a website visitor to a buyer or newsletter subscriber. With the help of these reports, we learn more about how our marketing measures are received by you. This is how we want to increase our conversion rate.
  • Real-time reports:
    Here we always find out immediately what is happening on our website. For example, we can see how many users are currently reading this text.

Why do we use Google Analytics on our website?

Our goal with this website is clear: we want to provide you with the best possible service. Google Analytics statistics and data help us achieve this goal. The statistically evaluated data gives us a clear picture of the strengths and weaknesses of our website. On the one hand, we can optimize our site to make it easier for interested people to find it on Google. On the other hand, the data helps us to better understand you as a visitor. Thus, we know very well what we need to improve on our website in order to provide you with the best possible service. The data also serve us to carry out our advertising and marketing measures in a more individual and cost-effective manner. After all, it only makes sense to show our products and services to people who are interested in them.

What data is stored by Google Analytics?

Google Analytics uses a tracking code to create a random, unique ID associated with your browser cookie. This is how Google Analytics recognizes you as a new user. The next time you visit our site, you will be recognized as a “returning” user. All collected data is stored together with this user ID. This is what makes it possible to evaluate pseudonymous user profiles in the first place.

In order to use Google Analytics to analyze our website, a property ID must be inserted into the tracking code. The data is then stored in the corresponding property. For each new property created, the Google Analytics 4 property is by default. Alternatively, you can also create the Universal Analytics Property. Depending on the property used, data is stored for different lengths of time.

Identifiers such as cookies and app instance IDs measure your interactions on our website. Interactions are all types of actions you take on our website. If you also use other Google systems (such as a Google account), data generated via Google Analytics may be linked to third-party cookies. Google does not share Google Analytics data unless we, as the website owner, authorize it. Exceptions may occur when required by law.

The following cookies are used by Google Analytics:

  • Name: _ga
    Wert: 2.1326744211.152311285100-5
    Purpose: By default, analytics.js uses the _ga cookie to store the user ID. Basically, it is used to distinguish the website visitors.
    Expiration date: after 2 years
    Name: _gid
    Wert: 2.1687193234.152311285100-1
    Purpose: The cookie is also used to distinguish the website visitors
    Expiration date: after 24 hours
  • Name: AMP_TOKEN
    Value: no data
    Purpose: The cookie has a token that can be used to retrieve a user ID from the AMP client ID service. Other possible values indicate a logout, a request, or an error.
    Expiration date: after 30 seconds up to one year
  • Name: __utma
    Wert: 1564498958.1564498958.1564498958.1
    Purpose: This cookie can be used to track your behavior on the website and measure performance. The cookie is updated every time information is sent to Google Analytics.
    Expiration date: after 2 years
  • Name: __utmt
    Value: 1
    Purpose: The cookie is used like _gat_gtag_UA_<property-id> to throttle the request rate.
    Expiration date: after 10 minutes
  • Name: __utmb
    Value: 3.10.1564498958
    Purpose: This cookie is used to determine new sessions. It is updated every time new data or info is sent to Google Analytics.
    Expiration date: after 30 minutes
  • Name: __utmc
    Value: 167421564
    Purpose: This cookie is used to set new sessions for returning visitors. This is a session cookie and is only stored until you close the browser again.
    Expiration date: After closing the browser
  • Name: __utmz
    Value: m|utmccn=(referral)|utmcmd=referral|utmcct=/
    Purpose: The cookie is used to identify the source of traffic to our website. That is, the cookie stores from where you came to our website. This may have been another site or an advertisement.
    Expiration date: after 6 months
  • Name: __utmv
    Value: not specified
    Purpose: The cookie is used to store custom user data. It is updated whenever information is sent to Google Analytics.
    Expiration date: after 2 years

Note: This list cannot claim to be complete, as Google also changes the choice of its cookies again and again.

Here we show you an overview of the most important data collected with Google Analytics:

  • Heatmaps:
    Google creates so-called heat maps. Via heatmaps you can see exactly those areas you click on. This way we get information where you are “traveling” on our site.
  • Session Duration:
    Google refers to session duration as the time you spend on our site without leaving. If you have been inactive for 20 minutes, the session will end automatically.
  • Bounce rate:
    Jumping off is when you view only one page on our website and then leave our website again.
  • Account creation:
    When you create an account or place an order on our website, Google Analytics collects this data.
  • IP address:
    The IP address is only shown in abbreviated form so that no clear assignment is possible.
  • Location:
    The IP address can be used to determine the country and your approximate location. This process is also referred to as IP location determination.
  • Technical information:
    Technical information may include your browser type, Internet service provider, or screen resolution.
  • Source of origin:
    Google Analytics or we are of course also interested in which website or which advertising you came to our site.

Other data includes contact information, any ratings, playing media (for example, if you play a video through our site), sharing content through social media, or adding to your favorites. The list does not claim to be complete and only serves as a general orientation of the data storage by Google Analytics.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google has your servers spread all over the world. Most servers are located in America and consequently your data is mostly stored on American servers. You can find out exactly where Google’s data centers are located here: https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de
Your data is distributed on different physical media. This has the advantage that the data can be retrieved more quickly and is better protected against manipulation. There are appropriate emergency programs for your data in every Google data center. For example, if Google’s hardware fails or natural disasters cripple servers, the risk of service interruption at Google still remains low.
The retention period of the data depends on the properties used. When using the newer Google Analytics 4 properties, the retention period of your user data is fixed at 14 months. For other so-called event data, we have the option to choose a retention period of 2 months or 14 months.

Once the specified period has expired, the data is deleted once a month. This retention period applies to your data associated with cookies, user recognition and advertising IDs (e.g. DoubleClick domain cookies). Reporting results are based on aggregated data and are stored independently of user data. Aggregated data is a merging of individual data into a larger unit.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

Under European Union data protection law, you have the right to access, update, delete or restrict your data. Using the BrowserAdd-on to disable Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, dc.js) you prevent Google Analytics from using your data. You can download and install the browser add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de. Please note that this add-on only disables data collection by Google Analytics.

If you generally want to disable, delete or manage cookies (independently of Google Analytics), there are separate instructions for each browser:

  • Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome
  • Safari: Managing cookies and website data with SafariSafari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari
  • Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have placed on your computer
  • ” Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies
  • Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

Please note that when using this tool, data from you may also be stored and processed outside the EU. Most third countries (including the USA) are not considered secure under current European data protection law. So data may not simply be transferred to, stored in, and processed in insecure third countries unless there are appropriate safeguards (such as EU standard contractual clauses) between us and the non-European service provider.

Legal basis

The use of Google Analytics requires your consent, which we have obtained with our cookie popup. This consent constitutes, according to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a DSGVO (consent) constitutes the legal basis for the processing of personal data as may occur during the collection by web analytics tools.

In addition to consent, we have a legitimate interest in analyzing the behavior of website visitors in order to improve our services technically and economically. With the help of Google Analytics, we can detect website errors, identify attacks and improve profitability. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f DSGVO (Legitimate Interests).

If you want to learn more about the tracking service, we recommend these two links: http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/de.html and https://support.google.com/analytics/ answer/6004245?hl=en.

Google Analytics IP anonymization

We have implemented Google Analytics IP address anonymization on this website. This feature was developed by Google to enable this website to comply with applicable data protection regulations and recommendations of local data protection authorities if they prohibit storage of the full IP address. The anonymization or masking of the IP takes place as soon as the IP addresses arrive in the Google Analytics data collection network and before any storage or processing of the data takes place.

For more information on IP anonymization, please visit https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2763052?hl=de.

Google Analytics reports on demographic characteristics and interests

We have turned on promotional reporting features in Google Analytics. The Demographic Characteristics and Interests reports include information on age, gender, and interests. This allows us – without being able to assign this data to individual persons – to get a better picture of our users. You can learn more about the advertising features at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3450482?hl=de_AT&utm_id=ad. You can stop using the activities and information of your Google account under “Advertising settings” at https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated via checkbox.

Google Analytics deactivation link

If you click on the following deactivation link, you can prevent Google from collecting further visits to this website. Attention: Deleting cookies, using the incognito/private mode of your browser, or using another browser will result in data being collected again.
Deactivate Google Analytics

Google Analytics Data Processing Addendum

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 addendum for Google Analytics here: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3379636?hl=de&utm_id=ad

Google Tag Manager Privacy Policy

What is Google Tag Manager?

For our website we use the Google Tag Manager of the company Google Inc. For the European area, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. This tag manager is one of many helpful marketing products from Google. Google Tag Manager allows us to centrally incorporate and manage sections of code from various tracking tools we use on our website.

In this privacy policy, we want to explain in more detail what Google Tag Manager does, why we use it, and in what form data is processed.

Google Tag Manager is an organizational tool that allows us to include and manage website tags centrally and through a user interface. Tags are small sections of code that, for example, record (track) your activity on our website. For this purpose, JavaScript code sections are inserted into the source code of our page. The tags often come from Google’s own products such as Google Ads or Google Analytics, but tags from other companies can also be integrated and managed via the manager. Such tags perform different tasks. They can collect browser data, feed marketing tools with data, embed buttons, set cookies, and also track users across multiple websites.

Why do we use Google Tag Manager for our website?

In order to make our website as good as possible for you and all people interested in our services and products, we need various tracking tools such as Google Analytics. The data collected from these tools shows us what you are most interested in, where we can improve our services and which people we should still show our offers to. And for this tracking to work, we need to embed appropriate JavaScript codes into our website. In principle, we could include each code section of each tracking tool separately in our source code. However, this requires a relatively large amount of time and it is easy to lose track. That’s why we use Google Tag Manager. We can easily incorporate the necessary scripts and manage them from one place. Moreover, Google Tag Manager offers an easy-to-use interface and you don’t need any programming skills. This is how we manage to keep order in our daytime jungle.

What data is stored by Google Tag Manager?

The Tag Manager itself is a domain that does not set cookies or store data. It acts as a mere “manager” of the implemented tags. The data is collected by the individual tags of the different web analytics tools. The data is virtually passed through to the individual tracking tools in Google Tag Manager and is not stored. However, the situation is completely different with the embedded tags of the various web analysis tools, such as Google Analytics. Depending on the analysis tool, various data about your web behavior is usually collected, stored and processed with the help of cookies. For this, please read our privacy texts on the individual analysis and tracking tools that we use on our website.

However, the situation is quite different with the embedded tags of the various web analytics tools, such as Google Analytics. Depending on the analysis tool, various data about your web behavior is usually collected, stored and processed with the help of cookies. For this, please read our privacy texts on the individual analysis and tracking tools that we use on our website.

In the Tag Manager account settings, we have allowed Google to receive anonymized data from us. However, this is only the use and usage of our tag manager and not your data stored via the code sections. We allow Google and others to receive selected data in anonymized form. We thus consent to the anonymous disclosure of our website data. Despite extensive research, we were unable to find out exactly which summarized and anonymous data is forwarded. In any case, Google deletes all information that could identify our website. Google aggregates the data with hundreds of other anonymous website data and, as part of benchmarking measures, creates user trends. In benchmarking, own results are compared with those of competitors. Processes can be optimized on the basis of the information collected.

How long and where is the data stored?

When Google stores data, that data is stored on Google’s own servers. The servers are distributed all over the world. Most are located in America. At https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de you can read exactly where the Google servers are located.

How long the individual tracking tools store data from you can be found in our individual privacy texts for the individual tools.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

Google Tag Manager itself does not set cookies, but manages tags from various tracking websites. In our privacy texts for the individual tracking tools, you will find detailed information on how to delete or manage your data.

Please note that when using this tool, data from you may also be stored and processed outside the EU. Most third countries (including the USA) are not considered secure under current European data protection law. So data may not simply be transferred to, stored in, and processed in insecure third countries unless there are appropriate safeguards (such as EU standard contractual clauses) between us and the non-European service provider.

Legal basis

The use of Google Tag Manager requires your consent, which we have obtained with our cookie popup. This consent constitutes, according to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a DSGVO (consent) constitutes the legal basis for the processing of personal data as may occur during the collection by web analytics tools.

In addition to consent, we have a legitimate interest in analyzing the behavior of website visitors in order to improve our services technically and economically. With the help of Google Tag Manager we can improve the profitability. The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f DSGVO (Legitimate Interests).

If you want to learn more about Google Tag Manager, we recommend the FAQs at https://www.google.com/intl/de/tagmanager/faq.html.

Google Ads (Google AdWords) Conversion Tracking Privacy Policy

What is Google Ads conversion tracking?

We use Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) as an online marketing measure to promote our products and services. In this way, 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 the conversion tracking of the company Google Inc. on our website. In Europe, however, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. With the help of this free tracking tool, we can better adapt our advertising offer to your interests and needs. In the following article, we will go into more detail about why we use conversion tracking, what data is stored in the process, and how you can prevent this data storage.

Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is the in-house online advertising system of Google Inc. We are convinced of the quality of our offer and would like as many people as possible to get to know our website. In the online sector, Google Ads offers the best platform for this. Of course, we would also like to gain an accurate overview of the cost-benefit factor of our advertising campaigns. That’s why we use the conversion tracking tool from Google Ads.

What is a conversion actually?
A conversion occurs when you go from a purely interested website visitor to an acting visitor. This happens whenever you click on our ad and subsequently perform another action, such as visiting our website. With Google’s conversion tracking tool, we 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 as well. The aim is to ensure that our advertising campaigns really only reach those people who are interested in what we have to offer. With the conversion tracking tool we can 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 and then make a conversion. This data enables us to calculate our cost-benefit factor, measure the success of individual advertising measures and consequently optimize our online marketing activities. We can continue to use the data obtained to make our website more interesting for you and to adapt our advertising offer even more individually to your needs.

What data is stored with Google Ads conversion tracking?

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

Here are the data of the most important cookies for Google’s conversion tracking:

  • Name: Conversion
    Value: EhMI_aySuoyv4gIVled3Ch0llweVGAEgt-mr6aXd7dYlSAGQ311285100-3
    Purpose: This cookie stores every conversion you make on our site after coming to us through a Google Ad.
    Expiration date: after 3 months

  • Name: _gac
    Value: 1.1558695989.EAIaIQobChMIiOmEgYO04gIVj5AYCh2CBAPrEAAYASAAEgIYQfD_BwE
    Purpose: This is a classic Google Analytics cookie and is used to record various actions on our website.
    Expiration date: after 3 months

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

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 are browsing our website and the cookie has not yet expired, we and Google will recognize that you found us through 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 using Google Analytics. For ads that Google displays in various locations on the web, cookies named “__gads” or “_gac” may be set under our domain. Since September 2017, various campaign information is stored by analytics.js 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. Unlike 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 analysis. For example, we learn the total number of users who clicked on our ad and we see which advertising measures were well 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 collected data. 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 disable the Google conversion tracking cookie via your browser, you block conversion tracking. In this case, you will not be included in the statistics of the tracking tool. You can change the cookie settings in your browser at any time. This works slightly differently for each browser. Here you can find the instructions on how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome
Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari
Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have placed on your computer
Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies
Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

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

Please note that when using this tool, data from you may also be stored and processed outside the EU. Most third countries (including the USA) are not considered secure under current European data protection law. So data may not simply be transferred to, stored in, and processed in insecure third countries unless there are appropriate safeguards (such as EU standard contractual clauses) between us and the non-European service provider.

Legal basis

If you have consented to the use of Google Ads Conversion Tracking, the legal basis of the corresponding data processing is this consent. This consent constitutes, according to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a DSGVO (consent) constitutes the legal basis for the processing of personal data as may occur during the collection by Google Ads Conversion Tracking.

On our part, there is also a legitimate interest in using Google Ads Conversion Tracking to optimize our online service and our marketing measures. The corresponding legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f DSGVO (Legitimate Interests).

If you would like to learn more about Google’s privacy policy, we recommend Google’s general privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de.

Facebook Pixel Privacy Policy

What is Facebook Pixel?

This website uses the visitor action pixel from Facebook for conversion measurement. The provider of this service is Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland. However, according to Facebook, the collected data is also transferred to the USA and other third countries. This makes it possible to track the behavior of page visitors after they have been redirected to the provider’s website by clicking on a Facebook ad.

Why do we use Facebook Pixel on our website?

This allows the effectiveness of Facebook ads to be evaluated for statistical and market research purposes and future advertising measures to be optimized. The collected data is anonymous for us as the operator of this website, we can not draw any conclusions about the identity of the users. However, the data is stored and processed by Facebook, so that a connection to the respective user profile is possible and Facebook can use the data for its own advertising purposes, in accordance with Facebook’s data usage policy. This enables Facebook to serve ads on Facebook pages as well as outside of Facebook. This use of data cannot be influenced by us as the site operator.

Legal basis

The use of this service is based on your consent according to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a DSGVO and § 25 para. 1 TTDSG. The consent can be revoked at any time.

Data transfer to the USA is based on the standard contractual clauses of the EU Commission.

Details can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/legal/EU_data_transfer_addendum and https:// en-de.facebook.com/help/566994660333381.

Insofar as personal data is collected on our website with the help of the tool described here and forwarded to Facebook, we and Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland are jointly responsible for this data processing (Art. 26 DSGVO). The joint responsibility is limited exclusively to the collection of the data and its transfer to Facebook. The processing by Facebook that takes place after the forwarding is not part of the joint responsibility. The obligations incumbent on us jointly have been set out in a joint processing agreement.

The text of the agreement can be found at: www.facebook.com/legal/controller_addendum. According to this agreement, we are responsible for providing the privacy information when using the Facebook tool and for implementing the tool on our website in a privacy-safe manner. Facebook is responsible for the data security of Facebook products.

You can assert data subject rights (e.g. information requests) regarding the data processed by Facebook directly with Facebook. If you assert the data subject rights with us, we are obliged to forward them to Facebook.

You can find more information about protecting your privacy in Facebook’s privacy policy: https://de-de.facebook.com/about/privacy/.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You can also disable the Custom Audiences remarketing feature in the Ad Settings section at www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/. To do this, you must be logged in to Facebook. If you do not have a Facebook account, you can opt out of usage-based advertising from Facebook on the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance website.

Lead Forensics Privacy Policy

What is Lead Forensics?

Lead Forensics (UK / EU law still applies) is a market-leading B2B sales and marketing support tool. It is a SaaS (Software as a Service) solution and determines the actual travelled history of your visit to this website, including sub-pages visited by business visitors.

How does Lead Forensics work?

Lead Forensics works on the basis of reverse business IP tracking. A small tracking code is placed on our website for this purpose, which then enables us to identify the (business) IP addresses of our website visitors. If IP addresses are collected, they are anonymized immediately after collection. Otherwise, only business IP addresses are collected and processed. No cookies or comparable technologies are used in the process. On behalf of the operator of this website, Lead Forensics will use the collected information for the purpose of evaluating your visit to the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage to the website operator.

What data is stored and how can I prevent data storage?

Lead Forensics says it does not identify personal IP addresses, mobile devices or other data not associated with a company. Lead Forensics therefore assumes in its own privacy policy that the service does not fall under the scope of the GDPR. However, even if this is incorrect, because the GDPR does not focus on the distinction between companies and individuals, but between legal entities and natural persons, the scope of the information collected by Lead Forensics and provided to us is covered by our legitimate interest for marketing purposes. (Recital 47 GDPR).

Further information on data protection can be found at www.leadforensics.com/privacy-and-cookies/. Lead Forensics is used on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f DSGVO and serves our legitimate economic interests.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You may opt out of Lead Forensics’ recording and use of the data by clicking on https:// optout.leadforensics.com/?clientID=210749 .

Social media linking

On which social media portals is the company active?

Our company maintains Internet pages (so-called channels or fan pages) on various social media portals. These include:

  • Facebook (Facebook Inc., USA)
  • Instagram (Facebook Inc., USA)
  • LinkedIn (LinkedIn Inc., USA)
  • XING (XING SE, Germany)
  • YouTube (YouTube LLC., USA)

What data is collected as part of the social media presences?

Our website only includes links to the social media portals, so no data processing or transfer takes place. We do not store or process any personal data on the portals themselves. If you use the contact options to us the channels and possibly transmit personal data to us, these are deleted immediately after the interaction.

Personal data that may be generated or provided on these social media portals will not be transmitted to us and will not be processed. The operators of the social media portals may use web tracking methods. The web tracking of the respective operator can take place regardless of whether you are logged in or registered with the social media portal. Via web tracking, the portal operator m may also collect personal data, in particular usage data (e.g. data on usage behavior, personal relationships, preferences, etc.) and may store this in usage profiles. We have no influence on this data collection; such data is not transmitted to us and processed.

Legal basis

Our social media presences are designed to ensure the broadest possible presence on the Internet. This is a legitimate interest within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. The analysis processes initiated by the social networks may be based on different legal bases, which are to be specified by the operators of the social networks (e.g. consent within the meaning of Art. 6 (1) lit. a DSGVO).

Google Maps Privacy Policy

What is Google Maps?

We use Google Maps of the company Google Inc. on our website. For the European area, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services. Google Maps allows us to better show you locations and thus customize our service to your needs. By using Google Maps, data is transmitted to Google and stored on Google servers. Here we will now 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.

Google Maps is an Internet mapping service provided by the Google company. Google Maps lets you find exact locations of cities, landmarks, accommodations, or businesses online using a PC, tablet, or app. When companies are represented on Google My Business, other information about the company is displayed in addition to the location. To display directions, map sections of a location can be embedded into a website using HTML code. Google Maps shows the earth’s surface as a street map or as an aerial or satellite image. Thanks to the Street View images and the high-quality satellite images, very accurate representations are possible.

Why do we use Google Maps on our website?

All of our efforts on this site are aimed at providing 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. You can see at a glance where we are located. The directions will always show you the best or fastest way to get to us. You can access the route for routes by car, public transport, on foot or by bike. For us, providing Google Maps is part of our customer service.

What data is stored by Google Maps?

In order for Google Maps to fully provide their service, the company must collect and store data from you. These include the search terms entered, your IP address and also the latitude or longitude coordinates. If you use the route planner function, the entered start address is also saved. However, this data storage happens on Google Maps websites. We can only inform you about this, but cannot influence it. 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 uses this data primarily to optimize its own services and to provide individual, personalized advertising for you.

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

Name: NID
Wert: 188=h26c1Ktha7fCQTx8rXgLyATyITJ311285100-5
Purpose: NID is used by Google to customize ads to your Google search. With the help of the cookie, Google “remembers” your most frequently entered search queries or your previous interaction with ads. This way you will always get customized ads. The cookie contains a unique ID that Google uses to collect your personal preferences for advertising purposes.
Expiration date: after 6 months

Note: We can not guarantee completeness in the information of the stored data. Especially when using cookies, changes can never be ruled out. 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 also increasingly stored in the USA. You can find out exactly where Google’s data centers are located here: https: //www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=de

Google distributes the data on various data carriers. This means that the data can be retrieved more quickly and is better protected against any attempts at manipulation. Each data center also has special emergency programs. For example, if there are problems with Google’s hardware or a natural disaster shuts down the servers, the data will pretty much remain protected anyway.

Google stores some data for a set period of time. For other data, Google only offers the option to delete it manually. Furthermore, the Company also anonymizes information (such as advertising data) in server logs by removing a portion of the IP address and cookie information after 9 and18 months deletes.

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 will be stored for either 3 or 18 months, depending on your decision, and then deleted. Moreover, you can also delete this data from the history manually at any time via the Google account. If you want to completely prevent your location tracking, you need to pause the “Web and App Activity” section in Google Account. Click “Data and personalization” and then click the “Activity setting” option. Here you can switch the activities on or off.

In your browser, you can also deactivate, delete or manage individual cookies. Depending on which browser you use, this always works slightly differently. The following instructions show how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome
Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari
Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have placed on your computer
Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies
Microsoft Edge: Delete and manage cookies

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

Please note that when using this tool, data from you may also be stored and processed outside the EU. Most third countries (including the USA) are not considered secure under current European data protection law. So data may not simply be transferred to, stored in, and processed in insecure third countries unless there are appropriate safeguards (such as EU standard contractual clauses) between us and the non-European service provider.

Legal basis

If you have consented to Google Maps being used, the legal basis for the corresponding data processing is this consent. This consent constitutes, according to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a DSGVO (consent) constitutes the legal basis for the processing of personal data as it may occur during the collection by Google Maps.

We also have a legitimate interest in using Google Maps to optimize our online service. The corresponding legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f DSGVO (Legitimate Interests).

If you would like to learn more about Google’s data processing, we recommend that you read the company’s in-house privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy? hl=en.

Google Fonts Privacy Policy

What are Google Fonts?

On our website we use Google Fonts. These are the “Google Fonts” of the company Google Inc. For the European area, the company Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland) is responsible for all Google services.

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

Google Fonts (formerly Google Web Fonts) is a directory of over 800 fonts that can be Google make available to its users free of charge.

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.

Why do we use Google Fonts on our website?

With Google Fonts, we can use fonts on our own website and 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 great advantage especially for use on mobile devices. When you visit our site, the low file size ensures fast loading time. Furthermore, Google Fonts are secure web fonts. Different image synthesis systems (rendering) in different browsers, operating systems and mobile devices can lead to errors. Such errors can sometimes visually distort texts or entire web pages. 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). So we use the Google Fonts so that we can present our entire online service as beautifully and consistently as possible.

What data is stored by Google?

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

Google Fonts stores CSS and font requests securely at Google and is therefore protected. By collecting usage figures, Google can determine how well each font is received. Google publishes the results on internal analytics pages, such as Google Analytics. In addition, Google also uses data from its own web crawler to determine which web pages use Google fonts. This data is published in Google Fonts’ BigQuery database. Entrepreneurs and developers use Google’s BigQuery web service to explore and move large amounts of data.

It should be noted, however, that each Google Font request also automatically transmits information such as language settings, IP address, browser version, browser screen resolution, and browser name 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 fonts with the help of a Google stylesheet. A stylesheet is a format template that can be used to quickly and easily change the design or font of a web page, for example.

The font files are stored by Google for one year. Google thus pursues the goal of fundamentally improving the loading time of websites. When millions of web pages reference the same fonts, they are cached after the first visit and immediately reappear on all other web pages 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 called up. To delete this data ahead of time, you will need to contact Google support at https://support.google.com/?hl=de&tid=311285100 contact. Data storage you prevent in this case only if you do not visit our site.

Unlike other web fonts, Google allows us unlimited access to all fonts. So we can access an unlimited sea of fonts and get the most out of our website. For more on Google Fonts and other issues, visit https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq?tid=311285100. There, Google addresses privacy-related matters, but really detailed information about data storage is not included. It is relatively difficult to get really precise information from Google about stored data.

Legal basis

If you have consented to Google Fonts being used, the legal basis for the corresponding data processing is this consent. This consent constitutes, according to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a DSGVO (consent) constitutes the legal basis for the processing of personal data as it may occur during the collection by Google Fonts.

On our part, there is also a legitimate interest in using Google Font to optimize our online service. The corresponding legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f DSGVO (Legitimate Interests).

You can also find out which data is generally collected by Google and what this data is used for at https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/ to find out.

Real Cookie Banner

To manage the cookies and similar technologies used (tracking pixels, web beacons, etc.) and related consents, we use the consent tool “Real Cookie Banner”. Details on how “Real Cookie Banner” works can be found at https:// devowl.io/en/rcb/data-processing/.

Legal bases for the processing of personal data in this context are Art. 6 para. 1 lit. c DS-GVO and Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. Our legitimate interest is to manage the cookies and similar technologies used and the related consents.

The provision of personal data is neither contractually required nor necessary for the conclusion of a contract. You are not obliged to provide the personal data. If you do not provide the personal information, we will not be able to manage your consents.

All texts are protected by copyright.

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