Cookie Policy

1.5. Strictly necessary cookies

1.5.1. Strictly necessary cookies guarantee functions without which you cannot use our Site as intended. These cookies are used exclusively by us and are therefore First Party Cookies. This means that all information stored in the cookies will be returned to our Site.

1.5.2. Strictly necessary cookies serve, for example, to ensure that you as a registered user always remain logged in when accessing various subpages of our Site and thus do not have to re-enter your login data every time you access a new page.

1.5.3. The use of strictly necessary cookies on our Site is possible without your consent. For this reason, strictly necessary cookies cannot be activated or deactivated individually. However, you can deactivate cookies in your browser at any time. 

1.5.4. Legal basis: Art. 6 (1) b General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”)

 1.6. Functionality and Performance Cookies

1.6.1. Functionality cookies enable our Site to store information already provided (such as registered name or language selection) and to offer you improved and more personalized functions based on this information. These cookies collect and store only anonymous information so that they cannot track your movements on other websites.

1.6.2. Performance cookies collect information about how our Site is used in order to improve their attractiveness, content and functionality. These cookies help us, for example, to determine whether and which subpages of our Site are visited and in which content users are particularly interested.

1.6.3. In particular, we record the number of visits to a page, the number of subpages accessed, the time spent on our Site, the order of the pages visited, which search terms led you to us, the country, region and, if applicable, the city from which access is made, and the proportion of mobile devices accessing our Site. We also capture movement, clicks and scrolling with the computer mouse to understand which areas of our website are of particular interest to users.

1.6.4. We do not use this data in connection with your profile or with your name, but only process it as part of statistical data.

1.6.5. As a result, we can tailor the content of our Site more specifically to the needs of our users and optimize our offering. The IP address of your computer transmitted for technical reasons is automatically made anonymous and does not allow us to draw any conclusions about the individual user.

1.6.6. Legal basis: Art. 6 (1) f GDPR.

 1.7. Consent based Cookies

1.7.1. Cookies, which are neither strictly necessary nor functionality or performance cookies will be used only upon your express consent, e.g. marketing cookies.

1.7.2. We also reserve the right to use information that we have obtained by means of cookies from an anonymous analysis of the usage behaviour of visitors to our website in order to display specific advertising for certain of our products on our Site. We believe that you as a user benefit from this because we display advertising or content that we think suits your interests based on your surfing behaviour, so that you will see less randomly scattered advertising or certain content that might be of less interest to you.

1.7.3. Marketing cookies come from external advertising companies (third party cookies) and are used to collect information about the websites visited by the user in order to create target group-oriented advertising for the user.

1.7.4. Legal basis: Art. 6 (1) a GDPR.

1.7.5. Opt-out for cookies used for online advertising
You can also manage many companies’ cookies used for online advertising via the consumer choice tools created under self-regulation programs in many countries, such as the US-based https://www.aboutads.info/choices/ or the EU-based http://www.youronlinechoices.com/uk/your-ad-choices.
You can withdraw your consent to the use of consent based cookies individually at any time with effect for the future by adjusting your cookie settings accordingly.

 1.8. Administration and deletion of all cookies

You can set your web browser in such a way that cookies are generally prevented from being saved to your device and/or that you are asked each time whether you are in agreement with cookies being enabled. You can also at any time delete cookies that have been enabled again. You can find out how all this works in detail from your browser’s help function. Please note that generally deactivating cookies may lead to functional restrictions of our Site.

 1.9. Google Analytics

1.9.1. The Site uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service of Google Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses a specific form of cookie, which is stored on your computer and enables an analysis of your use of our website. The information about your use of this website generated by the cookie is generally transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there.

1.9.2. You can prevent the storage of cookies by making the proper setting using your browser software. In addition, you can prevent Google from recording the data related to your use of the website generated by the cookie (including your IP address) and from processing this data by downloading and installing the browser plugin available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.

1.9.3. The Site also uses Google Analytics for a device-independent analysis of visitor flows, which is carried out via a user ID. You can disable cross-device tracking of your usage in your Google Account under ˝My information˝, ˝Personal information˝.

1.9.4. Legal basis: Art. 6 (1) f GDPR.

 1.10. Social Plug-ins

1.10.1. Social plug-ins (“plug-ins”) of social networks are used on our Sites, in particular the “Share” or “Share with friends” button of Facebook, whose website facebook.com is operated by Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA. Facebook Ireland Limited, Hanover Reach, 5-7 Hanover Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland, is responsible for facebook.com in Europe. The plug-ins are usually marked with a Facebook logo.

1.10.2. Besides Facebook, we use plug-ins from ˝Google+˝ (provider: Google Inc., Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA), ˝Twitter˝ (provider: Twitter, Inc., 1355 Market St, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103) and “Pinterest” (provider: Pinterest Inc., 808 Brannan Street San Francisco, CA 94103, USA).

1.10.3. By clicking on the respective button (e.g. ˝Pass on˝, ˝Share˝ or ˝Share with friends˝) you agree that your browser will produce a link to the respective social network’s servers and transmit usage data to the respective operator of the social network and vice versa. We have no influence upon the nature and extent of the data that is then gathered by the social networks.

1.10.4. The social network provider stores the data collected about you as user profiles and uses these for the purposes of advertising, market research and/or demand-oriented design of its site. Such an evaluation takes place in particular (also for not logged in users) for the representation of demand-fair advertisement and in order to inform other users of the social network about your activities on our Site. You have a right of objection to the creation of these user profiles, whereby you must contact the respective plug-in provider to exercise this right. Through the plug-ins we offer you the possibility to interact with social networks and other users, so that we can improve our offer and make it more interesting for you as a user.

1.10.5. The data is transferred regardless of whether you have an account with the plug-in provider and are logged in there. If you are logged in with the plug-in provider, your data collected with us will be directly assigned to your existing account with the plug-in provider. If you click the activated button and, for example, link the page, the plug-in provider also stores this information in your user account and shares it publicly with your contacts. We recommend that you log out regularly after using a social network, especially before activating the button, as this way you can avoid being assigned to your profile with the plug-in provider.

1.10.6. For more information on the purpose and scope of data collection and its processing by the plug-in provider, please refer to the data protection declarations of these providers. They will also provide you with further information about your rights in this regard and setting options to protect your privacy.