Privacy Policy

Thank you for your interest in our homepage and our information and offers.

Of course, the protection of your personal data during the collection, processing and use on the occasion of your visit to our website is also an important concern for us. With this data protection declaration we fulfil our legal obligation to inform you about the storage of data, the type of data, its purpose and our identity. We also inform you about the initial transmission and the type of data transmitted.

§ 1 Information about the collection of personal data

(1) Below we will inform you about the collection of personal data when using our website. Personal data is all data that can be related to you as a person, e.g. name, address, e-mail addresses, user behaviour.

(2) Responsible acc. Art. 4 para. 7 EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is

Melting Elements Gmbh
Schulterblatt 26-36
20357 Hamburg (Germany)
Telefon: +49 (0)40 – 537 98 975

You can reach our company data protection officer under the following contact data:

Melting Elements Gmbh
– The Data Protection Officer –
Schulterblatt 26-36
20357 Hamburg (Germany)
E-Mail: datenschutzbeauftragter@meltingelements.com

(3) When you contact us by e-mail or through a contact form, we will save the information you provide (your e-mail address, your name and telephone number if applicable) to answer your questions. We will delete the data collected in this context after the storage is no longer required, or restrict processing this data in case there are statutory retention requirements.

(4) In the event that we rely on commissioned service providers for individual functions to fulfil our offer or if we would like to use your data for advertising purposes, we will inform you in detail about the respective transactions below. In doing so, we also name the specified criteria for the storage duration.

§ 2 Your rights

(1) You have the following rights with respect to the personal data concerning you:

  • Right to information,
  • Right to correction or deletion,
  • Right to restrict processing,
  • Right to object to processing,
  • Right to data portability.

(2) You also have the right to complain to a data protection supervisory authority about the processing of your personal data by us.

§ 3 Collection of personal data when visiting our website

(1) If you use our website for information purposes only, i.e. if you do not register or otherwise provide us with information, we will only collect the personal data that your browser transmits to our server. If you wish to view our website, we collect the following data, which is technically necessary for us to display our website and to ensure its stability and security (legal basis is Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. f GDPR):

  • IP address
  • Date and time of the request
  • Time zone difference to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
  • Content of the requirement (concrete page)
  • Access Status / HTTP status code
  • The respective amount of data transmitted
  • The originally requesting website
  • The browser
  • The operating system and its user interface
  • The language and the version of the browser software.

(2) In addition to the aforementioned data, cookies will be stored on your computer when you use our website. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your hard drive assigned to the browser you are using and from which the entity that sends the cookie (in this case us) receives certain information. Cookies cannot run programmes or transmit viruses to your computer. They serve to make the internet offer more user-friendly and generally more effective.

(3) Use of cookies:

  1. This website uses the following types of cookies, the scope and operation of which is explained below:
    • Transient cookies (see b)
    • Persistent cookies (see c).
  2. Transient cookies are automatically deleted when you close the browser. In particular, these include session cookies. These cookies store a so-called session ID, with which various requests from your browser can be assigned to the common session. This will allow your computer to be recognized when you return to our website. The session cookies are deleted when you log out or close the browser.
  3. Persistent cookies are automatically deleted after a specified period which may differ depending on the cookie. You can delete the cookies in the security settings of your browser at any time.
  4. You can configure your browser setting according to your wishes, e.g., decline the acceptance of third-party cookies or all cookies. Please be aware that you may not be able to use all features of this site.

§ 4 Further functions and offers of our website

(1) In addition to the purely informational use of our website, we offer various services that you can use if you are interested. To do this, you will generally need to provide other personal information which we use to provide the service and for which the aforementioned data processing principles apply.

(2) In part, we contract external service providers to process your data. These have been carefully selected and commissioned by us, are bound to our instructions and are regularly inspected.

(3) Furthermore, we may disclose your personal data to third parties, if we offer participation in activities, competitions, contracts or similar services in cooperation with our partners. For more information, please refer to your personal data or to the description of the offer below.

(4) Insofar as our service providers or partners are based in a country outside the European Economic Area (EEA), we inform you about the consequences of this circumstance in the description of the offer.

(5) On our website, we offer users to register. This registration requires the provision of personal information. The data is entered into an input screen, transmitted to us, and stored. A transfer of the data to third parties takes place only to the extent and if this transfer is necessary to fulfil our contractual obligations with you (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. b GDPR), for example, the transmission of your address as a delivery address to our shipping service provider to send you ordered goods. As part of the registration process, we store the information collected in the registration form. Legal basis to processing the data is the consent of the user in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR. If the registration serves to fulfil or prepare a contract of which the respective person is a party. If the registration serves to fulfil or prepare a contract of which the user is involved as a party, additional legal basis to process the data is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR.

(6) Our online store uses the platform Shopify Inc., 150 Elgin St., 8th Fl, Ottawa, ON K2P 1L4, Canada (“Shopify”). If you place an order in our shop, you agree to the storage and processing of your personal data by Shopify. To do this, your personal information is forwarded to the Shopify data centre in the United States and processed. This data is stored and processed to support and process your orders, your authentication, to process payment transactions and to improve Shopify’s services. For more information on Shopify’s terms of use and privacy, please visit http://www.shopify.com/legal/privacy.

(7) This site uses so-called web fonts provided by Adobe Typekit for the uniform representation of fonts. When you open a page, your browser loads the required web fonts into your browser cache to display texts and fonts correctly. To do this, the browser you are using must connect to the Adobe Typekit servers. This will give Adobe Typekit knowledge that our website has been accessed by your IP address. The use of Adobe Typekit web fonts is in the interest of a uniform and attractive presentation of our online services. 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 default font will be used by your computer.

Adobe Typekit is a service of Adobe Systems Software Ireland Limited, 4-6 Riverwalk, Citywest Business Campus, Dublin 24, Republic of Ireland. For more information on Adobe Typekit Web Fonts, visit https://typekit.com/ and the Adobe Typekit privacy policy: https://www.adobe.com/privacy/policies/typekit.html.

§ 5 Objection or revocation against the processing of your data

(1) You may revoke your consent to process your data at any time. Such revocation will affect the reliability of the processing of your personal data after you have submitted the revocation to us.

(2) Insofar as we base the processing of your personal data on the balance of interests, you may object to the processing. This is the case if, in particular, the processing is not required to fulfil a contract with you, which we describe individually in the description of the functions below. In the event of such a disagreement, we ask you to explain the reasons why we should not process your personal data as we have done. In the case of your justified objection, we will examine the situation and will either discontinue or adapt the data processing or inform you about our compelling legitimate reasons on the basis of which we continue the processing.

(3) Of course, you may object to the processing of your personal data for advertising and data analysis purposes at any time. You can inform us about your advertising objection using the contact information above at any time.

§ 6 Newsletter and e-mail reminders

(1) With your consent, you can subscribe to our newsletter which informs you about interesting current offers. The advertised goods and services are listed in the declaration of consent.

(2) To register for our newsletter we use the so-called double opt-in procedure. This means that after you have registered, we will send you an e-mail to the e-mail address specified asking you to confirm that you wish to receive the newsletter. If you do not confirm your registration within 24 hours, your information will be blocked and automatically deleted after one month. In addition, we store your IP addresses and times of registration and confirmation. The purpose of the procedure is to prove your registration and, if necessary, to inform you about possible misuse of your personal data.

(3) The only requirement to receive the newsletter is your e-mail address. Specifying additional, respectively marked data is voluntary and will be used to address you personally. After your confirmation, we will save your e-mail address for the purpose of sending you the newsletter. The legal basis is Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. a GDPR.

(4) You can revoke your consent to the newsletter at any time and unsubscribe from the newsletter. You can declare the revocation by clicking on the link provided in each newsletter e-mail or by sending a message to the contact details in the site notice.

(5) We would like to point out that we evaluate your user behaviour when sending the newsletter. For this evaluation, the emails sent include so-called web beacons or tracking pixels that represent one-pixel image files stored on our website. For evaluation purposes, we link the data mentioned in § 3 and the web beacons to your e-mail address, an individual ID and other data in the respective user account, in particular address, date of birth and other personal information. Links included in the newsletter contain this ID as well. On the basis of the data obtained in this way, we create a user profile to customise the newsletter to your individual interests. In doing so, we record when you read our newsletters, which links you follow and conclude your personal interests. We link this data with actions you have taken on our website.

You can object to this tracking process at any time by clicking on the dedicated link provided in each e-mail or inform us by other means of contact. The information will be stored as long as you have subscribed to the newsletter. After your objection, we will store the data purely statistically and anonymously. Also, such tracking is not possible if you’ve turned off image viewing by default in your email client. In this case, the newsletter will not be displayed completely and you may not be able to use all the features. If you display the images manually, the tracking described above will be carried out.

(6) Sending of the newsletter, evaluation of the newsletter use and the transmission of further e-mails in the context of the ordering process is carried out by means of “MailChimp”, a news shipping platform of the US provider Rocket Science Group, LLC, 675 Ponce De Leon Ave NE #5000, Atlanta, GA 30308, USA.

(7) The e-mail addresses of our newsletter recipients, as well as the additional data described by this information, are stored on MailChimp servers in the US. MailChimp uses this information to send and evaluate the newsletter on our behalf. Furthermore, MailChimp may, according to its own information, use this data to optimize or improve its own services, e.g. to optimize shipping and presentation of newsletters technically or for economic purposes to determine the countries the recipients originate from. However, MailChimp does not use the data of our newsletter recipients to address the recipients on its own behalf or forward data to third parties.

We rely on MailChimp’s reliability, IT equipment and data security. MailChimp is certified and committed to the US-EU Privacy Shield to comply with EU data protection requirements. Furthermore, we have concluded a data processing agreement with MailChimp. This is a contract in which MailChimp undertakes to protect the data of our users, to process this data in accordance with its privacy policy on our behalf and, in particular, not to disclose this data to third parties. You can read the Privacy Policy of MailChimp here.

§ 7 Use of Google Analytics and Hotjar

(1) This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses so-called ‘cookies’, text files that are stored on your computer which allow analysing your use of the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. However, in the event of activation of IP anonymization on this website, your IP address will be shortened by Google beforehand within member states of the European Union or in other contracting states of the Agreement on the European Economic Area. The complete IP address will only be transmitted to a Google server in the United States and truncated there in exceptional cases. 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 activities and to provide other services related to website usage and internet usage to the website operator.

(2) The IP address transmitted by your browser as part of Google Analytics will not be merged with other data provided by Google.

(3) You can prevent the storage of cookies by setting your browser software accordingly; however, please note that if you do this, you may not be able to use all the features of this website to the fullest possible extent. In addition, you can prevent the collection of the data by cookies related to your use of the website (incl. your IP address) by Google as well as processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available under the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.

(4) This website uses Google Analytics with the extension “_anonymizeIp()”. As a result, only abbreviated IP addresses will be processed and any reference to personal data will be avoided. Insofar as the data collected about you is assigned personal reference, it will be immediately excluded and the personal data will be deleted immediately.

(5) We use Google Analytics to analyse and regularly improve the use of our website. The statistics allows us to improve our offer and make it more interesting for you as a user. For the exceptional cases in which personal information is transferred to the US, Google has submitted to the EU-US Privacy Shield, https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework. The legal basis for the use of Google Analytics is Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. f GDPR.

(6) Third-party information: Google Dublin, Google Ireland Ltd., Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland, Fax: +353 (1) 436 1001. Terms of Use: http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/en.html, privacy policy overview: http://www.google.com/intl/de/analytics/learn/privacy.html, and the privacy policy: http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy.

(7) Web analytics and optimization using the Hotjar service, third-party Hotjar Ltd., Level 2, St Julians Business Centre, 3, Elia Zammit Street, St Julians STJ 1000, Malta, Europe. Hotjar allows tracing movements on web sites that deploy Hotjar (so-called heat maps). For example, it shows how far users scroll and which buttons users click how often. Furthermore, technical data such as selected language, system, screen resolution, and browser type are recorded. This may, at least temporarily, create user-profiles during their visit to our website. Furthermore, Hotjar allows collecting direct feedback from users of the website. In this way, we collect valuable information to make our websites faster and more user-friendly. In accordance with applicable legislation, this is in our legitimate interest (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. f GDPR) privacy policy: www.hotjar.com/privacy. Opt-Out: www.hotjar.com/opt-out.

§ 8 Live chat system Zendesk (formerly Zopim)

This site uses technology from Zendesk Inc., 1019 Market St, San Francisco, USA (www.zendesk.com) to collect and save pseudonymised data for web analytics purposes and to run the live chat system to answer live support enquiries. This pseudonymised data may be used to create usage profiles using pseudonyms. Cookies may be used. Cookies are small text files stored locally in the cache of the site visitor’s internet browser. Amongst others, cookies allow to recognise the internet browser. Insofar as the information collected in this way contains a personal reference, the processing is carried out in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR based on our legitimate interest in effective customer care and the statistical analysis of user behaviour for optimization purposes.

Any data collected by Zendesk technologies will not be used to personally identify the visitor to this website without the specific consent of the person concerned and will not be combined with personal data from the bearer of the pseudonym. In order to avoid the storage of Zendesk cookies, you can set your internet browser to prevent future storage of cookies on your computer and delete cookies already stored in the past. However, switching off all cookies may mean that some functions on our website can no longer be executed. The collection and storage of data for the purpose of creating a pseudonymised user profile can be deactivated at any time with effect for the future. To do so, inform us of your objection by sending an e-mail to the e-mail address stated in the site notice.

Zendesk Inc. based in the US is certified by the US European Data Protection Convention “Privacy Shield” to ensure compliance with the applicable data protection level in the EU.

§ 9 Usage-based advertising content

(1) This website uses the Google AdWords online advertising programme and, as part of Google AdWords, conversion tracking by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheater Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (“Google”). We use the Google AdWords service to draw attention to our attractive offers with the help of advertising materials (so-called Google AdWords) on external websites. In relation to the data of the advertising campaigns, we can determine the success of our individual advertising activities. We are interested to show you advertisements that are of interest to you, to make our website more interesting to you, and to achieve a fair calculation of advertising costs.

The conversion tracking cookie is set when a user clicks on a Google-served AdWords ad. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer system. These cookies usually lose validity after 30 days and are not used for personal identification. If the user visits certain pages of this website and the cookie has not expired yet, Google and we can recognize that the user clicked on the ad and was redirected to this page. Each Google AdWords customer receives a different cookie. Thus, cookies cannot be tracked through AdWords advertisers’ websites. The information gathered using the conversion cookie is used to generate conversion statistics for AdWords advertisers who have opted for conversion tracking. Advertisers receive the total number of users who clicked their ad and were redirected to a conversion tracking tag page. However, they do not receive any information which would allow to identify individual users. If you do not want to participate in tracking, you can block this function by disabling the Google Conversion tracking cookie in your internet browser in the user preference settings page. Consequently, you will not be included in the conversion tracking statistics. We use Google AdWords based on our legitimate interest in targeted advertising in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR.

US-based Google LLC is certified under the US Privacy Shield which ensures compliance with the applicable level of data protection in the EU.

For more information about Google’s privacy policy, visit the following internet address: http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/

You can permanently deactivate cookies by setting your browser software accordingly or by downloading and installing a browser plug-in which is available at the following link:

http://www.google.com/settings/ads/plugin?hl=en

Please note that certain functions of this website may not be used or may be restricted if you have deactivated the use of cookies.

(2) Our website uses the Google AdWords Remarketing functions to advertise this site on Google’s search results, as well as on third party websites. Provider is Google LLC., 1600 Amphitheater Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (“Google”). For this purpose, Google delivers a cookie to the browser of your device, which automatically enables interest-based advertising based on the pages you visit using a pseudonymous cookie ID. This data is processed to pursue and on the basis of our legitimate interest in optimal marketing of our website in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR.

Any further processing will only take place if you have agreed with Google that your internet and app browsing history will be linked to your Google account by Google, and information from your Google account will be used to personalize your ads on the web. In this case, when you log on to Google during the page visit of our website, Google will process your data with Google Analytics to create and define target group lists for cross-device remarketing. To do this, Google will temporarily associate your personal information with Google Analytics data to create target groups.

You can permanently disable the setting of cookies by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available at the following link: https://www.google.com/settings/ads/onweb/

Alternatively, you can visit the Digital Advertising Alliance at www.aboutads.info to learn more about cookies and how to make respective settings. Finally, you can set your browser so that you are informed about the setting of cookies and individually decide on their acceptance or refuse acceptance of cookies for specific cases or in general. If you do not accept cookies, the functionality of our website may be restricted.

US-based Google LLC is certified under the US Privacy Shield which ensures compliance with the applicable level of data protection in the EU.

Further information and the privacy policy regarding advertising and Google is available here:

http://www.google.com/policies/technologies/ads/

(3) Our website also uses the remarketing feature “Custom Audiences” by Facebook Inc. (“Facebook”). This allows displaying interest-based advertisements to website users (“Facebook Ads”) in the context of their visit to the social network Facebook or other websites that also use this service. We are interested in showing you advertisements that are of interest to you in order to make our website more interesting for you.

Due to the marketing tools used, your browser automatically establishes a direct connection with the Facebook server. We have no control over the extent and the further use of data collected by Facebook using this tool and inform you therefore according to our knowledge level: By the integration of Facebook Custom Audiences, Facebook receives the information that you have opened a specific page on our website or that you have clicked an ad from us. If you are registered with a Facebook service, Facebook is able to assign the visit to your account. Even if you are not registered with Facebook or have not logged in, it is possible that the provider will identify and store your IP address and other identifying features.

The “Facebook Custom Audiences” feature may be disabled [here and] for logged-in users at https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=ads#.

This data is processed to pursue and on the basis of our legitimate interest in optimal marketing of our website in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. For more information about data processing by Facebook, please visit https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy.

§ 10 use of social media features

(1) We currently use the following social media features: Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Google Plus. When you visit our site, initially no personal information is forwarded to the providers of the network. You can identify the provider of the respective network by the mark on the box above the first letter of the respective name or the respective logotype. You may directly share content via your network account using the share button and to communicate via the respective network. The service provider will only receive the information that you have opened the respective page of our online offer if you click on the marked field and thereby activate it. In addition, the data listed in § 3 of this declaration will be transmitted. By using the share-functions, personal data will be transmitted to the respective provider and stored there (at US providers in the USA).

(2) We have no influence on the collected data and data processing operations, neither are we aware of the full extent of the data collection, the purpose of the processing nor the storage periods. Besides this, we have no information on the deletion of the collected data by the network provider.

(3) Further information on the purpose and extent of the data collection and respective processing by the network operator is available in the following privacy statements of these providers. There you will also find more information about your rights and settings options to protect your privacy.

(4) Addresses of the respective providers and URL with their privacy notices:

  1. Facebook Inc., 1601 S California Ave, Palo Alto, California 94304, USA; http://www.facebook.com/policy.php; For more information about data collection: http://www.facebook.com/help/186325668085084http://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/your-info-on-other#applications and http://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/ your-info#everyoneinfo. Facebook has submitted to the EU-US Privacy Shield, https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework.
  2. Twitter, Inc., 1355 Market St, Suite 900, San Francisco, California 94103, USA; https://twitter.com/privacy. Twitter has submitted to the EU-US Privacy Shield, https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework.
  3. Pinterest Inc., 808 Brannan Street San Francisco, CA 94103-490, USA: https://about.pinterest.com/en/privacy-policy
    Pinterest has submitted to the EU-US Privacy Shield, https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework.
  4. Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheater Parkway, Mountainview, California 94043, USA; https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/?hl=en. Google has submitted to the EU-US Privacy Shield, https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework.

§ 11 payment methods

(1) PayPal

The legal basis for the settlement of payments is Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. b) and, as far as your consent is given, a) GDPR.

The person in charge of processing respective data has implemented PayPal components in this website. PayPal is an online payment service provider. Payments are made to so-called PayPal accounts which are virtual private or business accounts. In addition, PayPal is able to process virtual payments made by credit cards if a user does not have a PayPal account. A PayPal account is managed via an e-mail address, which is why there is no conventional account number. PayPal makes it possible to initiate online payments to third parties or to receive payments. PayPal also takes on trustee functions and offers buyer protection services.

The European operating company of PayPal is PayPal (Europe) S.à.r.l. & Cie. S.C.A., 22-24 Boulevard Royal, 2449 Luxembourg.

If the user selects “PayPal” as a payment option during the order process in our online shop, the respective user data will be automatically transmitted to PayPal. With the selection of this payment option, the paying person gives their consent to the transmission of personal data required for payment processing.

The personal data sent to PayPal are usually first name, family name, address, email address, IP address, telephone number, mobile phone number or other data required to process the payment. To execute the purchase contract, personal data is necessarily processed in combination with the respective order data.

The purpose of the transmission of data is to process the payment and prevent fraud. The controller will transfer personally identifiable information to PayPal, in particular if there is a legitimate interest in the transfer. The personal data exchanged between PayPal and the controller may be forwarded to credit reporting agencies by PayPal. This forwarding is carried out in order to verify identity and credibility.

PayPal may disclose personal information to affiliates and service providers or subcontractors to the extent necessary to fulfill its contractual obligations or to process the data on behalf of its principal.

The concerned user may revoke the consent to forward personal data to PayPal at any time. A revocation has no effect on personal data which must be processed, used or transmitted for (contractual) payment processing. PayPal’s applicable privacy policy is available at http://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full.

(2) Amazon Pay

If you select “Amazon Pay”, payment will be processed by Amazon Payments Europe s.c.a., 5 Rue Plaetis, L-2338 Luxembourg (“Amazon Payments”), to which we provide your information as part of the ordering process, along with the information about your order according to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR. The transfer of your data takes place exclusively for the purpose of the payment transaction with the payment service Amazon Payments and only insofar as it is necessary for this. For more information about Amazon Payments’ privacy policy, visit the following Internet address: https://pay.amazon.com/help/201751600.

(3) Stripe

Insofar as you pay by credit card, your credit card details will not be stored by us, but encrypted and forwarded to the payment service Stripe Payments Europe Ltd., Block 4, Harcourt Centre, Harcourt Road, Dublin 2, Ireland and processed by Stripe. The latest privacy information about Stripe and additional information is available on this website: https://stripe.com/privacy.

§ 12 Linked content / share functions

Our website contains links to our sites on social networks as well as the possibility to sharing content on our websites via social networks. In the context of providing these features, no personal information will be collected until you use the feature after logging in to the respective provider. The respective privacy statements and privacy notices of the respective platform operator apply. We point out that we are not responsible for the data processing practices on third party platforms outside our own sphere of influence.

§ 13 Google Maps

(1) On this website we use the Google Maps services. This allows us to display interactive maps directly on the website and allows you to use the map feature conveniently.

(2) By visiting the website, Google receives information that you have accessed the corresponding subpage of our website. In addition, the data listed in § 3 of this declaration will be forwarded. This is done regardless of whether Google provides a user account that you are logged in to, or not. When you are logged in to Google, your data will be assigned directly to your account. If you do not wish to be associated with your profile on Google, you must log out before activating the button. Google stores your data as usage profiles and uses the data for advertising, market research and/or tailor-made website design purposes. Such an evaluation is carried out in particular to provide appropriate advertising and to inform other users of the social network about their activities on our website (including users who are not logged in). You have a right to object against the formation of these user profiles. Your objection must be made to Google.

(3) Further information on the purpose and scope of the data collection and its processing by the plug-in provider is available in the provider’s privacy policy. More information about your rights and privacy settings is available here: http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy. Google also processes your personal information in the United States and has submitted to the EU-US Privacy Shield, https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework. Legal basis to process personal data frames of the maps service is our legitimate interest in providing an interactive map for guidance in relation to our opportunity and to follow up on respective activities in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. b GDPR.

§ 14 Data protection in job applications and in the job application process

The responsible person collects and processes the personal data of job applicants for the purpose of processing the application. Processing may by electronic. This is particularly the case if an applicant submits corresponding application documents to the respective person by electronic means, for example by e-mail or via a web form available on the website. If the responsible person concludes an employment contract with an applicant, the data transmitted will be stored for the purposes of the employment relationship in accordance with the law. If no employment contract is concluded with the candidate, the application documents will be automatically deleted three months after the announcement of the rejection decision, unless deletion precludes other legitimate interests of the responsible function. Other legitimate interest in this sense may, for example, be a burden of proof in proceedings under the General Equal Treatment Act (AGG).

§15 Usage-Based Online Advertising with Third Parties

In order to provide advertising that is relevant and tailored to current interests, attempts are made to derive conclusions about current interests based on website visits and surfing behavior.
With these types of services, this website can use user data for communicating advertising in the form of banners and other marketing methods – possibly based on the user’s interests. For the purpose of re-addressing (retargeting, remarketing) website visitors, as well as for the purpose of measuring success, cookies from third parties (so-called Third-Party-Cookies) are used and possibly user profiles are created under a pseudonym. These can be evaluated for advertising and monitoring. A direct conclusion about a person is not possible.

Advertising cookies are used, for example, for the following purposes:

  • Storing your website visits to determine your interests
  • Checking whether you have clicked on an advertisement
  • Monitoring the number of visitors who click on an advertisement
  • Using third-party services to display advertising tailored to your needs, interests, or preferences
  • Determining which advertising, advertising materials are efficient for us
  • Displaying advertising for products you have previously clicked on or searched for
  • Measuring the number of displayed advertisements to avoid always presenting the same ads
  • Displaying more interesting advertisements based on your use of our websites
  • Evaluating which advertisements you clicked on before purchasing products
  • Number of orders that occur as a result of advertising and their monetary value

Please refer to the privacy statements of the respective services for more information, which can be viewed via the Consent Management Tool. In addition to any opt-out option offered by the listed services, the user can exclude the use of cookies by third-party services. Adjustments to the consents can be configured in the Consent Management Tool:

Open Settings

The processing of personal data for advertising purposes is based on the user’s declaration of consent given when accessing the website (if no declaration of consent was given, the corresponding data processing does not take place; the same applies if the declaration of consent is revoked). For the revocation of the declaration of consent, we refer to the settings options in the Consent Management Tool.

The consent relates to the following data processing purposes according to the IAB TCF (see also the table of data processing purposes at https://iabeurope.eu/iab-europe-transparency-consent-framework-policies/):

  • For all processing purposes, storing information on a user’s end device and/or retrieving information from a user’s end device is necessary. (Purpose 1 according to IAB TCF)
    • Store and retrieve information such as cookies and device identifiers about the processing purposes displayed to the user on the device

This processing purpose must be obtained with the explicit consent of the user. Without consent to this, no third-party code calls will take place via Traffective advertising services – regardless of which legal basis other vendors base further purposes on!

  • Selection of simple ads (Purpose 2 according to IAB TCF)
    • Use real-time information about the context in which the ad is displayed, including information about the content environment and the device used, such as device type and features, browser identification, URL, IP address;
    • use approximate location data of a user;
    • control the frequency of ad impressions
    • control the order of ad impressions;
    • prevent an ad from being displayed in an inappropriate editorial environment (brand-unsafe)
    • Vendors can:
  • Create a personalized ad profile (Purpose 3 according to IAB TCF)
    • Collect information about a user, including their activities, interests, visits to websites or use of applications, demographic information, or location, to create or edit a user profile for personalizing content.
    • Vendors can:
  • Select personalized ads (Purpose 4 according to IAB TCF)
    • Select personalized ads based on a user profile or other historical usage data, including past activities, interests, visits to websites or use of applications, location, or demographic information.
    • Vendors can:
  • Create a personalized content profile (Purpose 5 according to IAB TCF)
    • Collect information about a user, including their activities, interests, visits to websites or use of applications, demographic information, or location, to create or edit a user profile for personalizing content.
    • Vendors can:
  • Select personalized content (Purpose 6 according to IAB TCF)
    • Select personalized content based on a user profile or other historical usage data, including past activities, interests, visits to websites or use of applications, location, or demographic information.
    • Vendors can:
  • Measure ad performance (Purpose 7 according to IAB TCF)
    • measure whether and how ads were displayed to a user and how they interacted with them;
    • provide reports on ads, including their effectiveness and performance;
    • provide reports on user interactions with ads, based on data measured during the user’s interaction with the ad;
    • provide reports for service providers about the ads displayed on their services;
    • measure whether an ad is displayed in an inappropriate editorial environment (brand-unsafe);
    • determine the percentage at which the ad could have been perceived, including the duration (ad viewing chance).
    • Vendors can:
  • Measure content performance (Purpose 8 according to IAB TCF)
    • measure and report on how content was delivered to users and how they interacted with it;
    • provide reports on directly measurable or already known information from users who interacted with the content
    • Vendors can:
  • Use market research to gain insights into audiences (Purpose 9 according to IAB TCF)
    • provide aggregated reports for advertisers or their representatives on the audiences reached by their ads, and which are based on survey panels or similar methods;
    • provide aggregated reports for service providers on the audiences reached by the content and/or ads on their services or who have interacted with them, and which are determined by survey panels or similar methods;
    • assign offline data to an online user for purposes of market research, to gain insights into audiences, as long as providers have stated they will match and merge offline data sources (Additional Processing Option 1).Providers may not:
    • measure the performance and effectiveness of ads displayed to a specific user or with which they have interacted, without having their own legal basis for measuring ad performance;
    • measure which content was delivered to a specific user and how they interacted with it, without having their own legal basis for measuring content performance
    • When using market research to gain insights into audiences, providers can:
  • Develop and improve products (Purpose 10 according to IAB TCF)
    • Use information to improve their existing products through new features and develop new products;
    • Create new computational models and algorithms using machine learning.
    • Providers can:

These categories of data processing purposes are specified in this formulation by the rules of the IAB TCF2. The data processing activities and purposes are explained in more detail when accessing the “Partners” tab in the Consent Management Tool, including the duration of storage. Some vendors base these data processing for the purposes mentioned above on a legitimate interest according to Art. 6 Para. 1 GDPR (provided that “legitimate interest” has not been deactivated by you). The interest of the vendors lies in delivering advertising, measuring the performance of ads and content, and improving and further developing their products. The user is given the option to opt-out directly in the consent dialogue for this purpose.

Some of the services listed in the Consent Management Tool transmit data to the USA. Where this is the case, the transmission is based exclusively on your consent in accordance with Art. 49 Para. 1 lit. a GDPR. You give your consent by selecting accordingly in the Consent Management Tool that is displayed when you access our site.
For data transfers to the USA, there is no adequacy decision by the EU, nor does the provider process the data according to standard data protection clauses approved by the EU Commission. This means that data transmitted to these providers are not protected according to the standard of the GDPR. The provider is subject to U.S. law and may therefore be obliged to disclose data to intelligence services if the corresponding legal requirements are met. Risks for the data subjects exist in particular due to the difficulty of legal enforcement, the lack of control over further processing or transfer of data, and the access of state authorities as described above. In addition, language barriers may hinder legal enforcement.

The Consent Management Tool is provided by Traffective GmbH, Dachauer Str. 90, 80335 Munich. Traffective participates in the IAB Europe Transparency & Consent Framework and operates according to its specifications and guidelines. Traffective transmits consent signals via their management platform with identification number 21. The tool uses the following service calls:

URL Name Purposes Personal Data Processed by Third-Party Service Transmitted Parameters Storage Duration Legal Basis
d2wu036mkcz52n.cloudfront.net Traffective GmbH Consent Tool Consent Banner Counting – CMP Service Pure counting pixel of the actions in the Consent Management Banner   365 days legitimate interest
cdntrf.com Traffective GmbH Content Delivery Network – CMP Service Preparation for receiving consent signals, following user action, the following Local Storage entries are set (see Transmitted Parameters) Local Storage: pbjs-unifiedid – Example value: %7B%22TDID%22%3A%229b6e3213-da23-4648-b5c7-da8ae209cf1b%22%2C%22TDID_LOOKUP%22%3A%22FALSE%22%2C%22TDID_CREATED_AT%22%3A%222020-09-13T15%3A56%3A52%22%7D, pbjs-unifiedid_exp: 60 days, prebid.cookieTest:1, pubcid – Example value: 43d1d917-7ecd-46cc-875e-83a687b284bd, _pubcid_exp: 365 days. 1 hour legitimate interest
cdn.opencmp.net Traffective GmbH Consent Tool Display of Consent – CMP Service Generation of the Consent String, storage in the First-Party Cookie trf-euconsent-meta, trf-euconsent-v2, euconsent-v2

trf-euconsent-meta, trf-euconsent-v2, euconsent-v2

trf-euconsent-meta, trf-euconsent-v2, euconsent-v2

365 days legitimate interest