Privacy policy
This privacy policy explains the nature, scope and purpose of the processing of personal data (hereinafter referred to as ‘data’) within our online offering and the associated websites, functions and content, as well as external online presences, such as our social media profiles (hereinafter collectively referred to as ‘online offering’). With regard to the terms used, such as ‘processing’ or ‘controller’, we refer to the definitions in Art. 4 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Types of data processed:
– Inventory data (e.g. names, addresses).
– Contact details (e.g. email, telephone numbers).
– Content data (e.g. text entries, photographs, videos).
– Usage data (e.g. websites visited, interest in content, access times).
– Meta/communication data (e.g., device information, IP addresses).
Categories of data subjects
Visitors and users of the online offering (hereinafter, we also refer to the data subjects collectively as ‘users’).
Purpose of processing
– Provision of the online offering, its functions and content.
– Responding to contact requests and communicating with users.
– Security measures.
– Reach measurement/marketing.
Terms used
‘Personal data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (hereinafter referred to as ‘data subject’); A natural person is considered identifiable if they can be identified directly or indirectly, in particular by association with an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier (e.g. cookie) or one or more special characteristics that express the physical, physiological, genetic, psychological, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.
‘Processing’ means any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal data or on sets of personal data, whether or not by automated means. The term is broad and covers virtually any handling of data.
‘Pseudonymisation’ means the processing of personal data in such a manner that the personal data can no longer be attributed to a specific data subject without the use of additional information, provided that such additional information is kept separately and is subject to technical and organisational measures to ensure that the personal data are not attributed to an identified or identifiable natural person.
‘Profiling’ means any form of automated processing of personal data consisting of the use of such personal data to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person, in particular to analyse or predict aspects concerning that natural person's performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behaviour, location or movements.
‘Controller’ means the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data.
‘Processor’ means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller.
Relevant legal bases
In accordance with Art. 13 GDPR, we hereby inform you of the legal bases for our data processing. If the legal basis is not mentioned in the privacy policy, the following applies: The legal basis for obtaining consent is Article 6(1)(a) and Article 7 GDPR, the legal basis for processing for the performance of our services and the implementation of contractual measures as well as for responding to enquiries is Article 6(1)(b) GDPR, the legal basis for processing to fulfil our legal obligations is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. c GDPR, and the legal basis for processing to safeguard our legitimate interests is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. In the event that vital interests of the data subject or another natural person require the processing of personal data, Art. 6 para. 1 lit. d GDPR serves as the legal basis.
Security measures
In accordance with Art. 32 GDPR, we take appropriate technical and organisational measures to ensure a level of security appropriate to the risk, taking into account the state of the art, the costs of implementation and the nature, scope, context and purposes of processing as well as the risk of varying likelihood and severity for the rights and freedoms of natural persons.
These measures include, in particular, ensuring the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data by controlling physical access to the data, as well as access, input, transfer, availability and separation. Furthermore, we have established procedures to ensure that data subjects' rights are exercised, data is deleted and responses are made to data breaches. Furthermore, we take the protection of personal data into account when developing or selecting hardware, software and procedures, in accordance with the principle of data protection through technology design and data protection-friendly default settings (Art. 25 GDPR).
Cooperation with processors and third parties
If, in the course of our processing, we disclose data to other persons and companies (processors or third parties), transfer it to them or otherwise grant them access to the data, this will only be done on the basis of a legal permission (e.g. if the transfer of data to third parties, such as payment service providers, is necessary for the performance of a contract in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR) you have given your consent, a legal obligation provides for this, or on the basis of our legitimate interests (e.g. when using agents, web hosts, etc.).
If we commission third parties to process data on the basis of a so-called ‘data processing agreement’, this is done on the basis of Art. 28 GDPR.
Transfers to third countries
If we process data in a third country (i.e. outside the European Union (EU) or the European Economic Area (EEA)) or if this occurs in the context of using third-party services or disclosing or transferring data to third parties, this will only take place if it is necessary for the fulfilment of our (pre)contractual obligations, on the basis of your consent, due to a legal obligation or on the basis of our legitimate interests. Subject to legal or contractual permissions, we only process or have the data processed in a third country if the special requirements of Art. 44 ff. GDPR are met. This means that processing is carried out, for example, on the basis of special guarantees, such as the officially recognised determination of a level of data protection equivalent to that of the EU (e.g. for the USA through the ‘Privacy Shield’) or compliance with officially recognised special contractual obligations (so-called ‘standard contractual clauses’).
Rights of data subjects
You have the right to request confirmation as to whether data concerning you is being processed and to obtain information about this data, as well as further information and a copy of the data in accordance with Art. 15 GDPR.
In accordance with Art. 16 GDPR, you have the right to request the completion of data concerning you or the correction of inaccurate data concerning you.
In accordance with Art. 17 GDPR, you have the right to request that the data in question be deleted immediately or, alternatively, in accordance with Art. 18 GDPR, to request a restriction on the processing of the data.
You have the right to request that the data concerning you which you have provided to us be returned to you in accordance with Article 20 of the GDPR and to request that it be transferred to another controller.
You also have the right, pursuant to Article 77 of the GDPR, to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority.
Right of withdrawal
You have the right to withdraw your consent in accordance with Art. 7 (3) GDPR with effect for the future.
Right to object
You may object to the future processing of data concerning you at any time in accordance with Art. 21 GDPR. In particular, the objection may be made against processing for direct marketing purposes.
Cookies and right to object to direct marketing
Cookies are small files that are stored on users' computers. Various types of information can be stored in cookies. The primary purpose of a cookie is to store information about a user (or the device on which the cookie is stored) during or after their visit to an online service. Temporary cookies, or ‘session cookies’ or ‘transient cookies’, are cookies that are deleted after a user leaves an online service and closes their browser. Such a cookie can, for example, store the contents of a shopping basket in an online shop or a login status. Cookies that remain stored even after the browser is closed are referred to as ‘permanent’ or ‘persistent’. For example, the login status can be stored if users visit the site after several days. Such cookies can also store the interests of users, which are used for reach measurement or marketing purposes. Cookies that are offered by providers other than the controller operating the online service are referred to as ‘third-party cookies’ (otherwise, if they are only the controller's cookies, they are referred to as ‘first-party cookies’).
We may use temporary and permanent cookies and provide information about this in our privacy policy.
If users do not want cookies to be stored on their computer, they are asked to deactivate the corresponding option in their browser's system settings. Stored cookies can be deleted in the browser's system settings. Excluding cookies may lead to functional restrictions of this online offer.
A general objection to the use of cookies for online marketing purposes can be declared for a large number of services, especially in the case of tracking, via the US website www.aboutads.info/choices/ or the EU website www.youronlinechoices.com. Furthermore, the storage of cookies can be achieved by disabling them in the browser settings. Please note that in this case, not all functions of this online service may be available.
Deletion of data
The data we process will be deleted or restricted in its processing in accordance with Articles 17 and 18 of the GDPR. Unless expressly stated in this privacy policy, the data stored by us will be deleted as soon as it is no longer required for its intended purpose and there are no legal retention obligations that prevent deletion. If the data is not deleted because it is required for other and legally permissible purposes, its processing will be restricted. This means that the data will be blocked and not processed for other purposes. This applies, for example, to data that must be retained for commercial or tax reasons.
In accordance with legal requirements in Germany, data is stored for 10 years in particular in accordance with Sections 147 (1) AO, Section 257 (1) No. 1 and 4, (4) HGB (books, records, management reports, accounting documents, trading books, documents relevant for taxation, etc.) and for 6 years in accordance with Section 257 (1) No. 2 and 3, (4) HGB (commercial letters).
In accordance with legal requirements in Austria, records must be retained for 7 years in particular pursuant to Section 132(1) of the Federal Tax Code (accounting documents, receipts/invoices, accounts, vouchers, business papers, statements of income and expenditure, etc.), for 22 years in connection with real estate and for 10 years for documents in connection with electronically provided services, telecommunications, radio and television services provided to non-businesses in EU member states and for which the Mini One Stop Shop (MOSS) is used.
SSL or TLS encryption
This site uses SSL or TLS encryption for security reasons and to protect the transmission of confidential content, such as orders or enquiries that you send to us as the site operator. You can recognise an encrypted connection by the fact that the address line of the browser changes from ‘https://’ to ‘https://’ and by the lock symbol in your browser line.
If SSL or TLS encryption is activated, the data you transmit to us cannot be read by third parties.
Provision of our statutory and business services
We process the data of our members, supporters, interested parties, customers or other persons in accordance with Art. 6 (1) lit. b. GDPR, insofar as we offer them contractual services or act within the framework of existing business relationships, e.g. towards members, or are ourselves recipients of services and benefits. In all other cases, we process the data of data subjects in accordance with Art. 6 (1) lit. f. GDPR on the basis of our legitimate interests, e.g. in the case of administrative tasks or public relations work.
The data processed in this context, the type, scope and purpose of the processing and the necessity of the processing are determined by the underlying contractual relationship. This generally includes inventory and master data of individuals (e.g. name, address, etc.) as well as contact details (e.g. e-mail address, telephone number, etc.).
We delete data that is no longer required for the fulfilment of our statutory and business purposes. This is determined in accordance with the respective tasks and contractual relationships. In the case of business processing, we store the data for as long as it may be relevant for business transactions and with regard to any warranty or liability obligations. The necessity of storing the data is reviewed every three years; otherwise, the statutory retention obligations apply.
Contact
When contacting us (e.g. via contact form, email, telephone or social media), the user's details are processed for the purpose of handling the contact request and its processing in accordance with Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR. The user's details may be stored in a customer relationship management system (‘CRM system’) or comparable enquiry organisation system.
We delete enquiries once they are no longer required. We review the necessity every two years; furthermore, the statutory archiving obligations apply.
Hosting and email dispatch
The hosting services we use serve to provide the following services: infrastructure and platform services, computing capacity, storage space and database services, email dispatch, security services and technical maintenance services, which we use for the purpose of operating this online offer.
In doing so, we or our hosting provider process inventory data, contact data, content data, contract data, usage data, meta and communication data of customers, interested parties and visitors to this online offer on the basis of our legitimate interests in the efficient and secure provision of this online offer in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR in conjunction with Art. 28 GDPR (conclusion of a data processing agreement).
Collection of access data and log files
We, or rather our hosting provider, collect data about every access to the server on which this service is located (so-called server log files) on the basis of our legitimate interests within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f. GDPR. The access data includes the name of the website accessed, the file, the date and time of access, the amount of data transferred, notification of successful access, browser type and version, the user's operating system, referrer URL (the previously visited page), IP address and the requesting provider.
Log file information is stored for security reasons (e.g. to investigate misuse or fraud) for a maximum of 7 days and then deleted. Data that needs to be kept for evidence purposes is excluded from deletion until the respective incident has been finally clarified.
Integration of third-party services and content
Within our online offering, we use third-party content and services on the basis of our legitimate interests (i.e. interest in the analysis, optimisation and economic operation of our online offering within the meaning of Article 6(1)(f) GDPR) content or service offerings from third-party providers in order to integrate their content and services, such as videos or fonts (hereinafter uniformly referred to as ‘content’).
This always requires that the third-party providers of this content perceive the IP address of the users, as they would not be able to send the content to their browsers without the IP address. The IP address is therefore necessary for the display of this content. We endeavour to use only content whose respective providers use the IP address solely for the delivery of the content. Third-party providers may also use so-called pixel tags (invisible graphics, also known as ‘web beacons’) for statistical or marketing purposes. These ‘pixel tags’ enable information such as visitor traffic on the pages of this website to be analysed. The pseudonymous information may also be stored in cookies on the user’s device and may include, amongst other things, technical information about the browser and operating system, referring websites, time of visit and further details regarding the use of our online service, as well as being linked to such information from other sources.
YouTube
We embed videos from the YouTube platform provided by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Privacy policy: www.google.com/policies/privacy/, opt-out: adssettings.google.com/authenticated.
Google Fonts
This site uses so-called web fonts provided by Google for the uniform display of fonts. When you call up a page, your browser loads the required web fonts into your browser cache in order to display texts and fonts correctly.
For this purpose, the browser you are using must connect to Google's servers. This enables Google to know that our website has been accessed via your IP address. The use of Google Web Fonts is in the interest of a uniform and appealing presentation of our online offerings. This constitutes a legitimate interest within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR.
If your browser does not support web fonts, a standard font from your computer will be used.
Further information about Google Web Fonts can be found at developers.google.com/fonts/faq and in Google's privacy policy: www.google.com/policies/privacy/.
Opt-out: adssettings.google.com/authenticated.
Google ReCaptcha
We integrate maps from the ‘Google Maps’ service provided by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. The data processed may include, in particular, IP addresses and location data of users, which, however, are not collected without their consent (usually carried out within the settings of their mobile devices). The data may be processed in the USA. Privacy policy: www.google.com/policies/privacy/, opt-out: adssettings.google.com/authenticated.
Google Analytics
If you have given your consent, this website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google LLC (‘Google’). The use includes the ‘Universal Analytics’ operating mode. This makes it possible to assign data, sessions and interactions across multiple devices to a pseudonymous user ID, thereby analysing a user’s activities across devices. This privacy notice is provided by www.intersoft-consulting.de.
Google Analytics uses so-called ‘cookies’, text files that are stored on your computer and enable an analysis of your use of the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transferred to a Google server in the USA and stored there. However, if IP anonymisation is activated on this website, your IP address will be truncated by Google within member states of the European Union or in other states party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and truncated there. Please note that Google Analytics on this website has been extended to include IP anonymisation to ensure the anonymous collection of IP addresses (so-called IP masking). The IP address transmitted by your browser as part of Google Analytics will not be merged with other Google data. For more information on terms of use and data protection, please visit www.google.com/analytics/terms/de.html or policies.google.com.
Purposes of processing
On behalf of the operator of this website, Google will use this information 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.
Legal basis
The legal basis for the use of Google Analytics is your consent in accordance with Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR.
Recipients / categories of recipients
The recipient of the collected data is Google.
Transfer to third countries
Personal data is transferred to the USA under the EU-US Privacy Shield on the basis of the adequacy decision of the European Commission. You can view the certificate here.
Duration of data storage
The data sent by us and linked to cookies, user IDs (e.g. user ID) or advertising IDs is automatically deleted after 14 months. Data that has reached its retention period is deleted automatically once a month.
Rights of data subjects
You can revoke your consent at any time with future effect by preventing the storage of cookies through the appropriate settings in your browser software; however, we would like to point out that in this case you may not be able to use all functions of this website to their full extent.
You can also prevent Google from collecting the data generated by the cookie and relating to your use of the website (including your IP address) and from processing this data by downloading and installing the browser add-on. Opt-out cookies prevent the future collection of your data when you visit this website. To prevent Universal Analytics from collecting data across different devices, you must opt out on all systems you use. Clicking here will set the opt-out cookie: > Disable Google Analytics
Use of Facebook social plugins
Based on our legitimate interests (i.e. interest in the analysis, optimisation and economic operation of our online offering within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f. GDPR), we use social plugins (‘plugins’) from the social network facebook.com, which is operated by Facebook Ireland Ltd., 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland (‘Facebook’). The plugins may display interactive elements or content (e.g. videos, graphics or text posts) and can be recognised by one of the Facebook logos (a white ‘f’ on a blue tile, the terms ‘Like’, ‘Gefällt mir’ or a ‘thumbs up’ symbol) or are marked with the addition ‘Facebook Social Plugin’. The list and appearance of Facebook social plugins can be viewed here: developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/.
Facebook is certified under the Privacy Shield Agreement and thereby guarantees compliance with European data protection law (https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000GnywAAC&status=Active).
When a user accesses a function of this online service that contains such a plugin, their device establishes a direct connection to Facebook's servers. The content of the plugin is transmitted directly from Facebook to the user's device and integrated into the online service. The processed data can be used to create user profiles. We therefore have no influence on the extent of the data that Facebook collects with the help of this plugin and therefore inform users according to our state of knowledge.
By integrating the plugins, Facebook receives the information that a user has accessed the corresponding page of the online offer. If the user is logged in to Facebook, Facebook can assign the visit to their Facebook account. When users interact with the plugins, for example by clicking the ‘Like’ button or posting a comment, the relevant information is transmitted directly from your device to Facebook and stored there. Even if a user is not a member of Facebook, there is still a possibility that Facebook may obtain and store their IP address. According to Facebook, only an anonymised IP address is stored in Germany.
Users can find details of the purpose and scope of data collection, as well as the further processing and use of data by Facebook, and the relevant rights and settings options for protecting users’ privacy, in Facebook’s privacy policy: www.facebook.com/about/privacy/.
If a user is a Facebook member and does not want Facebook to collect data about them via this online offer and link it to their membership data stored on Facebook, they must log out of Facebook before using our online offer and delete their cookies. Further settings and objections to the use of data for advertising purposes are possible within the Facebook profile settings: www.facebook.com/settings or via the US page www.aboutads.info/choices/ or the EU page www.youronlinechoices.com. The settings are platform-independent, i.e. they are applied to all devices, such as desktop computers or mobile devices.
Our website incorporates features from the Instagram service. These features are provided by Instagram Inc., 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. If you are logged into your Instagram account, you can link the content on our website to your Instagram profile by clicking the Instagram button. This allows Instagram to associate your visit to our website with your user account. We would like to point out that, as the provider of the pages, we have no knowledge of the content of the data transmitted or its use by Instagram.
Further information on this can be found in Instagram's privacy policy: instagram.com/about/legal/privacy/
Opt-out: help.instagram.com/155833707900388
Our website may incorporate features and content from the Twitter service, provided by Twitter Inc., 1355 Market Street, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA. This may include, for example, content such as images, videos or text, as well as buttons that allow users to share content from this website on Twitter.
If users are members of the Twitter platform, Twitter may associate the access to the aforementioned content and functions with the users’ profiles on that platform. Twitter is certified under the Privacy Shield Agreement and thereby offers a guarantee of compliance with European data protection law (https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000TORzAAO&status=Active). Privacy policy: twitter.com/de/privacy, opt-out: https://twitter.com/personalization.