General Terms and Conditions with Customer Information
1. Scope of application
1.1 For the business relationship between Verrocchio Institute for Innovation Competence GmbH, Achillesstr. 10, 40545 Düsseldorf, Germany (hereinafter referred to as “Seller”) and the customer (hereinafter referred to as “Customer”) shall be governed exclusively by the following General Terms and Conditions in the version valid at the time of the order.
1.2 You can reach our customer service for questions, complaints and objections on weekdays from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm under the phone number +49 211 82204560 and by email at mail@verrocchio-institute.com.
1.3 A consumer in the sense of these General Terms and Conditions is any natural person who enters into a legal transaction for a purpose that can predominantly be attributed neither to his commercial nor to his independent professional activity (§ 13 BGB).
1.4 Deviating conditions of the customer are not recognized unless the seller expressly agrees to their validity.
2. Offers and service descriptions
The presentation of the products in the online store does not constitute a legally binding offer, but an invitation to place an order. Performance descriptions in catalogues as well as on the websites of the seller do not have the character of an assurance or guarantee.
All offers are valid “while stocks last”, unless otherwise noted with the products. Apart from that, errors are excepted.
3. Order process and conclusion of contract
3.1 The Customer can select products from the Seller’s assortment without obligation and collect them in a so-called shopping cart by clicking the button [add to shopping cart]. Within the shopping cart, the product selection can be changed, e.g. deleted. Subsequently, the Customer can proceed to the conclusion of the order process within the shopping cart via the button [Continue to checkout].
3.2 By clicking the button [order with obligation to pay], the customer submits a binding request to purchase the goods in the shopping cart. Before submitting the order, the customer can change and view the data at any time and go back to the shopping cart using the browser function “back” or cancel the ordering process altogether. Necessary data are marked with an asterisk (*).
3.3 The seller then sends the customer an automatic confirmation of receipt by e-mail, in which the customer’s order is listed again and which the customer can print out using the “Print” function (order confirmation). The automatic confirmation of receipt merely documents that the order of the customer has been received by the seller and does not constitute an acceptance of the application. The purchase contract is only concluded when the seller has shipped or handed over the ordered product to the customer within 2 days or has confirmed the shipment to the customer within 2 days with a second e-mail, explicit order confirmation or sending of the invoice.
3.4 If the seller allows payment in advance, the contract is concluded with the provision of bank details and request for payment. If the payment is not received by the Seller within 10 calendar days after sending the order confirmation, the Seller shall withdraw from the contract with the consequence that the order shall be invalid and the Seller shall not be obliged to deliver. The order is then completed for the buyer and seller without further consequences. A reservation of the article in the case of advance payment is therefore made for a maximum of 10 calendar days.
4. Prices and shipping costs
4.1 All prices stated on the Seller’s website are inclusive of the applicable statutory value added tax.
4.2 In addition to the stated prices, the Seller charges shipping costs for delivery. The shipping costs are clearly communicated to the Buyer on a separate information page and during the ordering process.
5. Delivery, availability of goods
5.1 If advance payment has been agreed, delivery will be made after receipt of the invoice amount.
5.2 If the delivery of the goods fails through the fault of the buyer despite three delivery attempts, the seller may withdraw from the contract. Any payments made will be refunded to the customer immediately.
5.3 If the ordered product is not available because the Seller is not supplied with this product by its supplier through no fault of its own, the Seller may withdraw from the contract. In this case, the Seller will immediately inform the Customer and, if necessary, propose the delivery of a comparable product. If no comparable product is available or if the customer does not wish a comparable product to be delivered, the seller will immediately reimburse the customer for any consideration already paid.
5.4 Customers will be informed about delivery times and delivery restrictions (e.g. restriction of deliveries to certain countries) on a separate information page or within the respective product description.
6. Payment modalities
6.1 The customer can choose from the available payment methods within the framework of and before the completion of the order process. Customers will be informed about the available payment methods on a separate information page.
6.2 If payment by invoice is possible, payment must be made within 14 days after receipt of the goods and the invoice. For all other methods of payment, payment must be made in advance without deduction.
6.3 If third-party providers are commissioned with the payment processing, e.g. Paypal, their general terms and conditions shall apply.
6.4 If the due date of payment is determined by the calendar, the customer is already in default by missing the deadline. In this case the customer has to pay the legal default interest.
6.5 The Customer’s obligation to pay default interest shall not preclude the Seller from asserting further claims for damages caused by default.
6.6 The customer shall only have a right of set-off if its counterclaims have been legally established or recognized by the seller. The customer may only exercise a right of retention if the claims result from the same contractual relationship.
7. Retention of title
7.1 Until full payment, the delivered goods remain the property of the seller.
8. Warranty of quality and guarantee
8.1 The warranty is determined by legal regulations.
8.2 A guarantee exists for the goods delivered by the seller only if it has been expressly given. Customers will be informed about the warranty conditions before initiating the order process.
9. Liability
9.1 The following exclusions and limitations of liability shall apply to the Seller’s liability for damages, without prejudice to the other statutory conditions for claims.
9.2 The Seller shall be liable without limitation insofar as the cause of the damage is based on intent or gross negligence.
9.3 Furthermore, the Seller shall be liable for the slightly negligent breach of essential obligations, the breach of which jeopardizes the achievement of the purpose of the contract, or for the breach of obligations, the fulfillment of which makes the proper execution of the contract possible in the first place and on the compliance with which the Customer regularly relies. In this case, however, the Seller shall only be liable for the foreseeable damage typical for the contract. The Seller shall not be liable for the slightly negligent breach of obligations other than those mentioned in the preceding sentences.
9.4 The above limitations of liability shall not apply in the event of injury to life, limb or health, for a defect following the assumption of a guarantee for the quality of the product and for fraudulently concealed defects. Liability under the Product Liability Act shall remain unaffected.
9.5 Insofar as the liability of the Seller is excluded or limited, this shall also apply to the personal liability of employees, representatives and vicarious agents.
10. Storage of the contract text
10.1 The Customer may print out the text of the contract before submitting the order to the Seller by using the print function of his browser in the last step of the order process.
10.2 The Seller shall also send the Customer an order confirmation with all order data to the e-mail address provided by the Customer. With the order confirmation, but at the latest upon delivery of the goods, the customer will also receive a copy of the terms and conditions together with the cancellation policy and the information on shipping costs and delivery and payment terms. If you have registered in our store, you can view your orders in your profile area. In addition, we store the contract text, but do not make it available on the Internet.
11. Final provisions
11.1 The place of jurisdiction and performance is the registered office of the seller if the customer is a merchant, a legal entity under public law or a special fund under public law.
11.2 Contract language is German.
11.3. platform of the European Commission for online dispute resolution (OS) for consumers: http://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/. We are not willing and not obliged to participate in a dispute resolution procedure before a consumer arbitration board.
This data protection declaration informs you about the nature, scope and purpose of the processing of personal data (hereinafter referred to as “data”) within our online offer and the websites, functions and content associated with it, as well as external online presences, such as our social media profiles. (hereinafter collectively referred to as “online offer”). With regard to the terms used, such as “processing” or “responsible party”, we refer to the definitions in Article 4 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
Person responsible: Christian Buchholz
Name/Fa.: verrocchio Institute for Innovation Competence GmbH
Street no.: Achillesstrasse 10
Zip code, City, Country: 40545 Düsseldorf
Commercial Register/No.: HRB 76912
Managing director/owner: Christian Buchholz and Benno van Aerssen
Telephone number: +49 211 550 888 2
E-mail address: mail@verrocchio-institute.com
Types of data processed:
Processing of special categories of data (Art. 9 (1) DSGVO):
No special categories of data are processed.
Categories of data subjects:
In the following, we also refer to the data subjects collectively as “users”.
Purpose of processing:
Status: 03/2020
1. Terminology used
1.1 “Personal data” means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (hereinafter “data subject”); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier (e.g. cookie) or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.
1.2 “Processing” means any operation or set of operations which is performed upon personal data, whether or not by automatic means. The term is broad and includes virtually any handling of data.
1.3 “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.
2. Relevant legal basis
In accordance with Art. 13 DSGVO, we inform you of the legal basis for our data processing activities. If the legal basis is not mentioned in the Privacy Policy, the following applies: The legal basis for obtaining consent is Art. 6(1)(a) and Art. 7 DSGVO, the legal basis for processing to fulfill our services and carry out contractual measures and respond to inquiries is Art. 6(1)(b) DSGVO, the legal basis for processing to fulfill our legal obligations is Art. 6(1)(c) DSGVO, and the legal basis for processing to protect our legitimate interests is Art. 6(1)(f) DSGVO. In the event that vital interests of the data subject or another natural person require processing of personal data, Art. 6 (1) lit. d DSGVO serves as the legal basis.
3. Changes and updates to the privacy policy
We ask you to regularly inform yourself about the content of our privacy policy. We adapt the data protection declaration as soon as the changes in the data processing carried out by us make this necessary. We will inform you as soon as the changes require an act of cooperation on your part (e.g. consent) or other individual notification.
4. Security measures
4.1 We take security measures in accordance with Art. 32 GDPR, considering the state of the art, the implementation costs and the nature, scope, circumstances and purposes of the processing, as well as the varying likelihood and severity of the risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons, appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure a level of protection appropriate to the risk; the measures include, in particular, ensuring the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data by controlling physical access to the data, as well as access concerning them, input, disclosure, ensuring availability and their separation. Furthermore, we have established procedures to ensure the exercise of data subjects’ rights, deletion of data, and response to data compromise. In addition, we already take the protection of personal data into account during the development and selection of hardware, software and processes, in accordance with the principle of data protection through technology design and through data protection-friendly default settings (Article 25 of the GDPR).
4.2 The security measures include in particular the encrypted transmission of data between your browser and our server.
5 Disclosure and transmission of data
5.1 If, in the course of our processing, we disclose data to other persons and companies (processors or third parties), transmit 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 a transmission of the data to third parties, such as to payment service providers, pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b DSGVO is necessary for the performance of a contract), you have consented, a legal obligation provides for this or on the basis of our legitimate interests (e.g. when using agents, hosting providers, tax, business and legal advisors, customer care, accounting, billing and similar services that allow us to efficiently and effectively fulfill our contractual obligations, administrative tasks and duties).
5.2 If we entrust third parties with the processing of data on the basis of a so-called “order processing agreement”, this is done on the basis of Art. 28 DSGVO.
6. 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 happens in the context of using third-party services or disclosing, or transferring data to third parties, this will only happen if it is done to fulfill 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 process or allow the processing of data in a third country only if the special requirements of Art. 44 et seq. DSGVO are met. This means that the processing is carried out, for example, on the basis of special guarantees, such as the officially recognized determination of a level of data protection that corresponds to the EU (e.g. for the USA through the “Privacy Shield”) or compliance with officially recognized special contractual obligations (so-called “standard contractual clauses”).
7. Rights of the data subjects
7.1 You have the right to request confirmation as to whether data in question is being processed and to be informed about this data and to receive further information and a copy of the data in accordance with Article 15 of the GDPR.
7.2 You have according to. Art. 16 DSGVO the right to request the completion of the data concerning you or the correction of incorrect data concerning you.
7.3 In accordance with Art. 17 of the GDPR, you have the right to request that data concerning you be deleted without delay or, alternatively, in accordance with Art. 18 of the GDPR, to request restriction of the processing of the data.
7.4 You have the right to demand that the data concerning you that you have provided to us be received in accordance with Article 20 of the GDPR and to demand that it be transferred to other data controllers.
7.5 You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority in accordance with Art. 77 DSGVO.
8. Right of revocation
You have the right to revoke given consents according to Art. 7 (3) DSGVO with effect for the future.
9. Right of objection
You may object to the future processing of data concerning you in accordance with Art. 21 DSGVO at any time. The objection can be made in particular against the processing for purposes of direct advertising.
10. Cookies and right to object in the case of direct advertising
10.1 “Cookies” are small files that are stored on users’ computers. Various data can be stored within the 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 his or her visit to an online offer. Temporary cookies, or “session cookies” or “transient cookies”, are cookies that are deleted after a user leaves an online offer and closes his browser. Such a cookie may store, for example, the contents of a shopping cart in an online store 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 them after several days. Likewise, the interests of users can be stored in such a cookie, which is used for range measurement or marketing purposes. Third-party cookies” are cookies from providers other than the responsible party that operates the online offer (otherwise, if they are only its cookies, they are referred to as “first-party cookies”).
10.2 We use temporary and permanent cookies and explain 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 the system settings of their browser. Stored cookies can be deleted in the system settings of the browser. The exclusion of cookies can lead to functional restrictions of this online offer.
10.3 A general objection to the use of cookies used for online marketing purposes can be declared for a large number of the services, especially in the case of tracking, via the U.S. site http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ or the EU site http://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 offer can be used.
11. Deletion of data
11.1 The data processed by us will be deleted or restricted in its processing in accordance with Articles 17 and 18 DSGVO. Unless expressly stated within the scope of this data protection declaration, the data stored by us will be deleted as soon as they are no longer required for their intended purpose and the deletion does not conflict with any statutory retention obligations. If the data is not deleted because it is required for other and legally permissible purposes, its processing will be restricted. I.e. the data is blocked and not processed for other purposes. This applies, for example, to data that must be retained for reasons of commercial or tax law.
11.2 According to legal requirements, data is stored for 6 years in accordance with § 257 para. 1 HGB (commercial books, inventories, opening balances, annual financial statements, commercial letters, accounting vouchers, etc.) and for 10 years in accordance with § 147 para. 1 AO (books, records, management reports, accounting vouchers, commercial and business letters, documents relevant for taxation, etc.).
12. Order processing in the online store and customer account
12.1 We process the data of our customers in the context of the order processes in our online store to enable them to select and order the selected products and services, as well as their payment and delivery, or execution.
12.2 The processed data includes inventory data, communication data, contract data, payment data and the data subjects are our customers, prospective customers and other business partners. The processing is carried out for the purpose of providing contractual services in the context of the operation of an online store, billing, delivery and customer services. In this context, we use session cookies to store the contents of the shopping cart and permanent cookies to store the login status.
12.3 The processing is based on Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b (execution of order transactions) and c (legally required archiving) DSGVO. In this context, the information marked as required is necessary for the justification and fulfillment of the contract. We disclose the data to third parties only in the context of delivery, payment or in the context of legal permissions and obligations to legal advisors and authorities. The data will only be processed in third countries if this is necessary for the fulfillment of the contract (e.g. at the request of the customer for delivery or payment).
12.4 Users can optionally create a user account, in which they can view their orders in particular. As part of the registration process, the required mandatory information will be provided to users. User accounts are not public and cannot be indexed by search engines. If users have terminated their user account, their data with regard to the user account will be deleted, subject to their retention is necessary for commercial or tax reasons in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. c DSGVO. Information in the customer account remains until its deletion with subsequent archiving in the event of a legal obligation. It is the responsibility of the users to save their data in the event of termination before the end of the contract.
12.5 In the context of registration and renewed registrations as well as the use of our online services, we store the IP address and the time of the respective user action. The storage is based on our legitimate interests, as well as those of users in protection against abuse and other unauthorized use. In principle, this data is not passed on to third parties, unless it is necessary for the pursuit of our claims or there is a legal obligation to do so in accordance with Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. c DSGVO.
12.6 The deletion takes place after the expiry of legal warranty and comparable obligations, the necessity of keeping the data is reviewed every three years; in the case of legal archiving obligations, the deletion takes place after their expiry (end of commercial law (6 years) and tax law (10 years) storage obligation); information in the customer account remains until its deletion.
13 Business analyses and market research
13.1 In order to operate our business economically and to be able to recognize market trends, customer and user wishes, we analyze the data we have on business transactions, contracts, inquiries, etc.. In doing so, we process inventory data, communication data, contract data, payment data, usage data, metadata on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f. DSGVO, whereby the data subjects include customers, interested parties, business partners, visitors and users of the online offer. The analyses are carried out for the purpose of business management evaluations, marketing and market research. In doing so, we may take into account the profiles of registered users with details of, for example, their purchase transactions. The analyses serve us for the increase of the user friendliness, the optimization of our offer and the business management. The analyses serve us alone and are not disclosed externally, unless they are anonymous analyses with aggregated values.
13.2 If these analyses or profiles are personal, they will be deleted or anonymized upon termination of the user, otherwise after two years from the conclusion of the contract. Otherwise, the overall business analyses and general tendency analyses shall be prepared anonymously, if possible.
14. Credit information
14.1 If we provide advance services (e.g. purchase on account), we reserve the right to obtain identity and credit information for the purpose of assessing the credit risk on the basis of mathematical-statistical methods from specialized service providers (credit agencies) in order to protect our legitimate interests.
14.2 As part of the credit check, we transmit the following personal data of the customer (name, postal address, date of birth, information on the type of contract, bank details [please specify additional data if necessary]) to the following credit agencies:
[Please specify the credit agencies here, e.g.:] SCHUFA company (SCHUFA Holding AG, Kormoranweg 5, 65201 Wiesbaden), data protection information: https://www.schufa.de/de/ueber-uns/daten-scoring/.
14.3 We process the information received from the credit agencies on the statistical probability of a payment default within the framework of an appropriate discretionary decision on the establishment, implementation and termination of the contractual relationship. We reserve the right to refuse payment on account or any other advance payment in the event of a negative result of the credit check.
14.4 In accordance with Art. 22 DSGVO, the decision as to whether we provide advance performance shall be made solely on the basis of an automated decision in the individual case, which shall be made by our software on the basis of the information provided by the credit agency.
14.5 If we obtain express consent from you, the legal basis for the credit rating information and the transmission of the customer’s data to the credit agencies is consent pursuant to Art. 6 (1) lit. a, 7 DSGVO. If no consent is obtained, our legitimate interests in the default security of their payment claim is the legal basis pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f. DSGVO.
14.6 We use the CRM system “Pipedrive”, of the provider Pipedrive OÜ, Mustamäe tee 3a, 10615 Tallinn, Estonia) based on our legitimate interests (efficient and fast processing of user requests). For this purpose, we have concluded a contract with Pipedrive with so-called standard contractual clauses, in which Pipedrive undertakes to process user data only in accordance with our instructions and to comply with the EU data protection level. Pipedrive is also certified under the Privacy Shield agreement and thereby offers an additional guarantee of compliance with European data protection law (https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000TSfxAAG&status=Active).
15. Contacting and Customer Service
15.1 When contacting us (via contact form or email), the User’s details are processed for the purpose of handling the contact request and its processing in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b) DSGVO.
15.2 The user’s details may be stored in our customer relationship management system (“CRM system”) or comparable inquiry organization.
15.3 We delete the inquiries if they are no longer necessary. We review the necessity every two years; we store inquiries from customers who have a customer account permanently and refer to the information on the customer account for deletion. Furthermore, the statutory archiving obligations apply.
16. Collection of access data and log files
16.1 We collect on the basis of our legitimate interests within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f. DSGVO, we collect data about each access to the server on which this service is located (so-called server log files). The access data includes the name of the website accessed, file, date and time of access, 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.
16.2 Log file information is stored for security reasons (e.g. for the clarification of abuse or fraud) for a maximum of seven days and then deleted. Data whose further storage is required for evidentiary purposes is exempt from deletion until final clarification of the respective incident.
17. Online presences in social media
17.1 We maintain online presences on the basis of our legitimate interests within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f. DSGVO, we maintain online presences within social networks and platforms in order to be able to communicate with the customers, interested parties and users active there and to inform them about our services there. When calling up the respective networks and platforms, the terms and conditions and data processing policies of their respective operators apply.
17.2 Unless otherwise stated in our privacy policy, we process the data of users if they communicate with us within the social networks and platforms, e.g. write posts on our online presences or send us messages.
17.3 We use Google Analytics to display the ads placed within advertising services of Google and its partners only to those users who have also shown an interest in our online offer or who have certain characteristics (e.g. interests in certain topics or products determined on the basis of the websites visited), which we transmit to Google (so-called “Remarketing Audiences” or “Google Analytics Audiences”). With the help of Remarketing Audiences, we also want to ensure that our ads correspond to the potential interest of users and do not have a harassing effect.
18 Google Analytics
18.1 We use Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google LLC (“Google”), on the basis of our legitimate interests (i.e. interest in the analysis, optimization and economic operation of our online offering within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f. DSGVO) Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google LLC (“Google”). Google uses cookies. The information generated by the cookie about the use of the online offer by the users is usually transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there.
18.2 Google 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=a2zt000000001L5AAI&status=Active).
18.3 Google will use this information on our behalf to evaluate the use of our online offer by users, to compile reports on the activities within this online offer and to provide us with other services related to the use of this online offer and internet usage. In doing so, pseudonymous usage profiles of the users can be created from the processed data.
18.4 We use Google Analytics only with activated IP anonymization. This means that the IP address of the users is shortened by Google within member states of the European Union or in other contracting states of 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 shortened there.
18.5 The IP address transmitted by the user’s browser is not merged with other data from Google. Users can prevent the storage of cookies by setting their browser software accordingly; users can also prevent the collection of the data generated by the cookie and related to their use of the online offer to Google, as well as the processing of this data by Google, by downloading and installing the browser plugin available at the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de.
18.6 You can find out more information about Google’s use of data, setting and objection options on Google’s websites: https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/partners (“Data use by Google when you use our partners’ websites or apps”), https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads (“Data use for advertising purposes”), https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated (“Manage information Google uses to show you ads”).
19 Google Re/Marketing Services
19.1 We use the marketing and remarketing services (in short “Google Marketing Services”) of Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Park, Mountain View, CA 94043 on the basis of our legitimate interests (i.e. interest in the analysis, optimization and economic operation of our online offer within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. DSGVO) the marketing and remarketing services (in short “Google marketing services”) of Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA, (“Google”).
19.2 Google 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=a2zt000000001L5AAI&status=Active).
19.3 The Google marketing services allow us to display advertisements for and on our website in a more targeted manner in order to present users only with ads that potentially match their interests. If, for example, a user is shown ads for products he or she was interested in on other websites, this is referred to as “remarketing”. For these purposes, when our website and other websites on which Google marketing services are active are called up, a code is executed directly by Google and so-called (re)marketing tags (invisible graphics or code, also known as “web beacons”) are integrated into the website. With their help, an individual cookie, i.e. a small file, is stored on the user’s device (comparable technologies can also be used instead of cookies). The cookies can be set by various domains, including google.com, doubleclick.net, invitemedia.com, admeld.com, googlesyndication.com or googleadservices.com. This file records which websites the user has visited, which content he is interested in and which offers he has clicked on, as well as technical information on the browser and operating system, referring websites, time of visit and other information on the use of the online offer. The IP address of the user is also recorded, whereby we inform Google Analytics that the IP address is shortened within Member States of the European Union or in other contracting states to the Agreement on the European Economic Area and only in exceptional cases is transferred in full to a Google server in the USA and shortened there. The IP address is not merged with the user’s data within other Google offerings. The aforementioned information may also be linked on the part of Google with such information from other sources. If the user subsequently visits other websites, he can be shown ads tailored to his interests.
19.4 The user’s data is processed pseudonymously as part of the Google marketing services. I.e. Google does not store and process e.g. the name or email address of the users, but processes the relevant data cookie-related within pseudonymous user profiles. I.e. from Google’s perspective, the ads are not managed and displayed for a specifically identified person, but for the cookie holder, regardless of who this cookie holder is. This does not apply if a user has expressly allowed Google to process the data without this pseudonymization. The information collected by Google marketing services about users is transmitted to Google and stored on Google’s servers in the USA.
19.5 The Google marketing services used by us include, among others, the online advertising program “Google AdWords”. In the case of Google AdWords, each AdWords customer receives a different “conversion cookie”. Cookies can therefore not be tracked across the websites of AdWords customers. The information obtained using the cookie is used to create conversion statistics for AdWords customers who have opted in to conversion tracking. The AdWords customers learn the total number of users who clicked on their ad and were redirected to a page tagged with a conversion tracking tag. However, they do not receive any information with which users can be personally identified.
19.6 Furthermore, we may use the “Google Tag Manager” to integrate and manage the Google analytics and marketing services on our website.
19.7 For more information on the use of data for marketing purposes by Google, please refer to the overview page: https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads, Google’s privacy policy is available at https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated.
20. Facebook, Custom Audiences and Facebook Marketing Services
20.1 Within our online offer, the so-called “Facebook Pixel” of the social network Facebook, which is operated by Facebook Inc., 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA, or if you are a resident of the EU, Facebook Ireland Ltd, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland (“Facebook”), is used due to our legitimate interests in the analysis, optimization and economic operation of our online offer and for these purposes.
20.2 Facebook 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=a2zt0000000GnywAAC&status=Active).
20.3 With the help of the Facebook pixel, it is possible for Facebook, on the one hand, to determine the visitors to our online offer as a target group for the display of advertisements (so-called “Facebook ads”). Accordingly, we use the Facebook pixel to display the Facebook ads placed by us only to those Facebook users who have also shown an interest in our online offer or who have certain characteristics (e.g. interests in certain topics or products determined on the basis of the websites visited) that we transmit to Facebook (so-called “Custom Audiences”). With the help of the Facebook pixel, we also want to ensure that our Facebook ads correspond to the potential interest of users and do not have a harassing effect. With the help of the Facebook pixel, we can also track the effectiveness of the Facebook ads for statistical and market research purposes by seeing whether users were redirected to our website after clicking on a Facebook ad (so-called “conversion”).
20.4 The processing of data by Facebook takes place within the framework of Facebook’s data use policy. Accordingly, general information on the display of Facebook ads, in Facebook’s data usage policy: https://www.facebook.com/policy.php. Specific information and details about the Facebook Pixel and how it works can be found in Facebook’s help section: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/651294705016616.
20.5 You can object to the collection by the Facebook Pixel and use of your data to display Facebook Ads. To adjust which types of ads are displayed to you within Facebook, you can visit the page set up by Facebook and follow the instructions there on the settings for usage-based advertising: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads. The settings are made in a platform-independent manner, i.e. they are applied to all devices, such as desktop computers or mobile devices.
20.6 You can further object to the use of cookies that are used for reach measurement and advertising purposes via the deactivation page of the Network Advertising Initiative (http://optout.networkadvertising.org/) and additionally the US website (http://www.aboutads.info/choices) or the European website (http://www.youronlinechoices.com/uk/your-ad-choices/).
21. Amazon affiliate program
21.1 We are based on our legitimate interests (i.e. interest in the economic operation of our online offer within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f. DSGVO) participant of the Amazon EU affiliate program, which was designed to provide a medium for websites, by means of which through the placement of advertisements and links to Amazon.co.uk can be earned advertising fees. Amazon uses cookies to track the origin of orders. Among other things, Amazon can recognize that you have clicked the partner link on this website.
21.2 For more information about Amazon’s use of data, please see the company’s privacy policy: http://www.amazon.de/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=footer_privacy?ie=UTF8&nodeId=3312401
22. Communication via mail, e-mail, fax or telephone
22.1 We use remote means of communication, such as mail, telephone or e-mail, for business processing and marketing purposes. In doing so, we process inventory data, address and contact data as well as contract data of customers, participants, interested parties and communication partners.
22.2 The processing is carried out on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a, Art. 7 DSGVO, Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f DSGVO in connection with legal requirements for promotional communications. Contact will only be made with the consent of the contact partners or within the scope of legal permissions and the processed data will be deleted as soon as they are not required and otherwise with objection/ revocation or discontinuation of the authorization basis or legal archiving obligations.
Note: Please already point out the contents of the newsletter and the evaluation of the opening as well as the clicking behavior within the scope of the registration, i.e. in the registration form, e.g.:
Our newsletter contains information about our products, offers, promotions and our company. Information on data protection, revocation, logging as well as the performance measurement included in the consent, you will find in our [LINK]Privacy Policy[/Link].
If you use a shipping service provider, you must add information about them and can use these examples as a guide (use of a service provider from the EU and one from a third country):
Dispatch service provider: the newsletter is dispatched using “GetResponse, a newsletter dispatch platform of the US provider GetResponse Sp. z o.o., Arkonska 6/A3, 80-387 Gdansk, Poland)You can view the privacy policy of the dispatch service provider here: https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/. The Rocket Science Group LLC d/b/a MailChimp is certified under the Privacy Shield agreement, thereby providing a guarantee of compliance with the European level of data protection (https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000CkBeAAK&status=Active).
23. Newsletter
23.1 With the following information we inform you about the contents of our newsletter as well as the registration, dispatch and statistical evaluation procedure and your rights of objection. By subscribing to our newsletter, you agree to receive it and to the procedures described.
23.2 Content of the newsletter: We send newsletters, e-mails and other electronic notifications with promotional information (hereinafter “newsletter”) only with the consent of the recipients or a legal permission. Insofar as the contents of the Newsletter are specifically described in the context of a registration, they are decisive for the consent of the users. Otherwise, our newsletters contain information about our products, offers, promotions and our company.
23.3 Double opt-in and logging: Registration for our newsletter is carried out in a so-called double opt-in process. This means that after registration you will receive an e-mail in which you are asked to confirm your registration. This confirmation is necessary so that no one can register with other e-mail addresses. The registrations for the newsletter are logged in order to be able to prove the registration process according to the legal requirements. This includes the storage of the registration and confirmation time, as well as the IP address. Changes to your data stored with the shipping service provider are also logged.
23.4 Dispatch service provider: The newsletter is dispatched using “GetResponse, a newsletter dispatch platform of the US provider GetResponse Sp. z o.o., Arkonska 6/A3, 80-387 Gdansk, Poland)You can view the privacy policy of the dispatch service provider here: https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/. The Rocket Science Group LLC d/b/a MailChimp is certified under the Privacy Shield agreement, thereby providing a guarantee of compliance with the European level of data protection (https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000CkBeAAK&status=Active).
23.5 Insofar as we use a shipping service provider, the shipping service provider may, according to its own information, use this data in pseudonymous form, i.e. without assignment to a user, to optimize or improve its own services, e.g. to technically optimize the shipping and display of the newsletter or for statistical purposes to determine from which countries the recipients come. However, the dispatch service provider does not use the data of our newsletter recipients to write to them itself or to pass them on to third parties.
23.6 Registration data: To register for the newsletter, it is sufficient to provide your e-mail address. Optionally, we ask you to provide a name for the purpose of personal address in the newsletter.
23.7 Performance measurement – The newsletters contain a so-called “web beacon”, i.e. a pixel-sized file that is retrieved from our server when the newsletter is opened, or if we use a shipping service provider, from their server. In the course of this retrieval, technical information, such as information about the browser and your system, as well as your IP address and the time of the retrieval are collected. This information is used for the technical improvement of the services based on the technical data or the target groups and their reading behavior based on their retrieval locations (which can be determined with the help of the IP address) or the access times. The statistical surveys also include the determination of whether the newsletters are opened, when they are opened and which links are clicked. For technical reasons, this information can be assigned to individual newsletter recipients. However, it is neither our intention nor, if used, that of the dispatch service provider to observe individual users. The evaluations serve us much more to recognize the reading habits of our users and to adapt our content to them or to send different content according to the interests of our users.
23.8 The sending of the newsletter and the measurement of success are based on the consent of the recipients according to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a, Art. 7 DSGVO in conjunction with § 7 para. 2 No. 3 UWG or on the basis of the legal permission according to § 7 para. 3 UWG.
23.09. The logging of the registration process is based on our legitimate interests pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f DSGVO and serves as proof of consent to receive the newsletter.
23.10. Newsletter recipients can cancel the receipt of our newsletter at any time, i.e. revoke their consents. You will find a link to cancel the newsletter at the end of each newsletter. At the same time, their consent to the performance measurement will expire. A separate cancellation of the performance measurement is unfortunately not possible, in this case the entire newsletter subscription must be cancelled. With the unsubscription from newsletter, the personal data will be deleted, unless their retention is legally required or justified, in which case their processing will be limited only to these exceptional purposes. In particular, we may store unsubscribed email addresses for up to three years based on our legitimate interests before deleting them for newsletter sending purposes, in order to be able to prove consent formerly given. The processing of this data is limited to the purpose of a possible defense against claims. An individual deletion request is possible at any time, provided that the former existence of consent is confirmed at the same time.
24. Integration of services and contents of third parties
24.1 We use within our online offer on the basis of our legitimate interests (i.e. interest in the analysis, optimization and economic operation of our online offer within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f. DSGVO) to integrate content or services offered by third-party providers, such as videos or fonts (hereinafter uniformly referred to as “content”). This always requires that the third-party providers of this content are aware of the IP address of the user, since without the IP address they could not send the content to their browser. The IP address is thus required for the display of this content. We endeavor to use only such content whose respective providers use the IP address only 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. The “pixel tags” can be used to evaluate information such as visitor traffic on the pages of this website. The pseudonymous information may also be stored in cookies on the user’s device and may contain, among other things, technical information about the browser and operating system, referring websites, time of visit and other information about the use of our online offer, as well as be linked to such information from other sources.
29.2 The following presentation provides an overview of third-party providers and their content, along with links to their privacy statements, which contain further information on the processing of data and, in part already mentioned here, opt-out options.