Imprint & Privacy Policy

Information according to § 5 TMG: Link to heading

Robert Hartings

Postal address: Link to heading

Robert Hartings
Josef-Lenders-Dyk 22
47803 Krefeld
Germany

Contact: Link to heading

Phone: +49 2151 623940
E-mail: [email protected]

Information according to § 36 VSBG Link to heading

In accordance with § 36 VSBG (Consumer Dispute Settlement Act - Act on Alternative Dispute Resolution in Consumer Matters), the operator of this website declares:

We are neither willing nor obliged to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board.

The imprint was created with the imprint generator of activeMind AG.

Privacy policy Link to heading

Introduction Link to heading

With the following data protection declaration, we would like to inform you about the types of your personal data (hereinafter also referred to as “data” for short) that we process, for what purposes and to what extent in the context of providing our application.

The terms used are not gender-specific.

Status: August 21, 2022

Table of contents Link to heading

Responsible person Link to heading

Robert Hartings
Mail Address: [email protected]

Overview of processing operations Link to heading

The following overview summarizes the types of data processed and the purposes of their processing and refers to the data subjects.

Types of data processed. Link to heading

  • Inventory data.
  • Contact data.
  • Content data.
  • Contract data.
  • Usage data.
  • Meta/communication data.

Categories of data subjects. Link to heading

  • Users.

Purposes of processing. Link to heading

  • Provision of contractual services and customer service.
  • Contact requests and communication.
  • Security measures.
  • Affiliate tracking.
  • Feedback.
  • Marketing.
  • Provision of our online services and user experience.
  • Information technology infrastructure.

Below you will find an overview of the legal bases of the DSGVO, on the basis of which we process personal data. Please note that in addition to the provisions of the GDPR, national data protection regulations may apply in your or our country of residence or domicile. Furthermore, should more specific legal bases be relevant in individual cases, we will inform you of these in the data protection declaration.

  • Consent (Art. 6 (1) p. 1 lit. a) DSGVO) - The data subject has given his/her consent to the processing of personal data concerning him/her for a specific purpose or purposes.
  • Rightful interests (Art. 6(1) p. 1 lit. f) DSGVO) - Processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests of the controller or a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require the protection of personal data.

In addition to the data protection regulations of the General Data Protection Regulation, national regulations on data protection apply in Germany. These include, in particular, the Act on Protection against Misuse of Personal Data in Data Processing (Federal Data Protection Act - BDSG). In particular, the BDSG contains special regulations on the right to information, the right to erasure, the right to object, the processing of special categories of personal data, processing for other purposes and transmission, as well as automated decision-making in individual cases, including profiling. Furthermore, it regulates data processing for employment purposes (Section 26 BDSG), in particular with regard to the establishment, implementation or termination of employment relationships as well as the consent of employees. Furthermore, state data protection laws of the individual federal states may apply.

Security measures Link to heading

We take appropriate technical and organizational measures in accordance with the legal requirements, taking into account the state of the art, the implementation costs and the nature, scope, circumstances and purposes of the processing, as well as the different probabilities of occurrence and the extent of the threat to the rights and freedoms of natural persons, in order to ensure a level of protection appropriate to the risk.

The measures include, in particular, safeguarding the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data by controlling physical and electronic access to the data as well as access to, input of, disclosure of, assurance of availability of and segregation of the data. Furthermore, we have established procedures to ensure the exercise of data subjects’ rights, the deletion of data, and responses to data compromise. Furthermore, we already take the protection of personal data into account during the development or selection of hardware, software as well as procedures in accordance with the principle of data protection, through technology design and through data protection-friendly default settings.

Shortening of IP address: If IP addresses are processed by us or by the service providers and technologies used and the processing of a complete IP address is not necessary, the IP address is shortened (also referred to as “IP masking”). In this process, the last two digits or the last part of the IP address after a period are removed or replaced by wildcards. The shortening of the IP address is intended to prevent or make it significantly more difficult to identify a person by their IP address.

SSL encryption (https): To protect your data transmitted via our online offer, we use SSL encryption. You can recognize such encrypted connections by the prefix https:// in the address line of your browser.

Use of cookies Link to heading

Cookies are small text files, or other memory notes, which store information on end devices and read information from the end devices. E.g. to store the login status in a user account, a shopping cart content in an e-shop, the content accessed or used functions of an online offer. Cookies can further be used for various purposes, e.g. for purposes of functionality, security and comfort of online offers as well as the creation of analyses of visitor flows.

Notes on consent: We use cookies in accordance with legal requirements. Therefore, we obtain prior consent from users, except where it is not required by law. In particular, consent is not required if the storage and reading of information, including cookies, is absolutely necessary to provide the user with a telemedia service (i.e. our online offering) that they have expressly requested. The revocable consent will be clearly communicated to the users and will contain the information about the respective cookie use.

Notes on legal bases under data protection law: The legal basis under data protection law on which we process users’ personal data using cookies depends on whether we ask users for consent. If users consent, the legal basis for processing their data is their declared consent. Otherwise, the data processed with the help of cookies is processed on the basis of our legitimate interests (e.g. in a business operation of our online offer and improvement of its usability) or, if this is done in the context of the fulfillment of our contractual obligations, if the use of cookies is necessary to fulfill our contractual obligations. For what purposes the cookies are processed by us, we clarify in the course of this privacy policy or in the context of our consent and processing processes.

Storage period: With regard to the storage period, the following types of cookies are distinguished:

  • Temporary cookies (also: session cookies) are deleted at the latest after a user has left an online offer and closed his end device (e.g. browser or mobile application).
  • Permanent cookies: Permanent cookies remain stored even after the end device is closed. For example, the login status can be saved or preferred content can be displayed directly when the user visits a website again. Likewise, user data collected with the help of cookies can be used for reach measurement. Unless we provide users with explicit information about the type and storage duration of cookies (e.g., as part of obtaining consent), users should assume that cookies are permanent and that the storage period can be up to two years.

General information on revocation and objection (opt-out): Users can revoke the consent they have given at any time and also file an objection to processing in accordance with the legal requirements in Art. 21 DSGVO. Users can also declare their objection via their browser settings, e.g. by deactivating the use of cookies (although this may also limit the functionality of our online services). An objection to the use of cookies for online marketing purposes can also be declared via the websites https://optout.aboutads.info and https://www.youronlinechoices.com/.

Provision of the online offer and web hosting Link to heading

We process users’ data in order to provide them with our online services. For this purpose, we process the user’s IP address, which is necessary to transmit the content and functions of our online services to the user’s browser or terminal device.

  • Types of data processed: Usage data (e.g. web pages visited, interest in content, access times); meta/communication data (e.g. device information, IP addresses).
  • Data subjects: Users (e.g., website visitors, users of online services).
  • Purposes of processing: Provision of our online offer and user-friendliness; Information technology infrastructure (operation and provision of information systems and technical devices (computers, servers, etc.).); Security measures.
  • Legal basis: Legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. f) DSGVO).

Further notes on processing operations, procedures and services:.

  • Provision of online offer on rented storage space: For the provision of our online offer, we use storage space, computing capacity and software that we rent or otherwise obtain from a corresponding server provider (also called “web hoster”);
    • Legal basis: Legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. f) DSGVO).
  • Collection of access data and log files: Access to our online offer is logged in the form of so-called “server log files”. The server log files may include the address and name of the web pages and files accessed, the date and time of access, data volumes transferred, notification of successful access, browser type and version, the user’s operating system, referrer URL (the previously visited page) and, as a rule, IP addresses and the requesting provider. The server log files may be used, on the one hand, for security purposes, e.g., to prevent server overload (especially in the event of abusive attacks, so-called DDoS attacks) and, on the other hand, to ensure the utilization of the servers and their stability;
    • Legal basis: Legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. f) DSGVO);
  • Deletion of data: Log file information is stored for a maximum of 30 days and then deleted or anonymized. Data whose further retention is required for evidentiary purposes is exempt from deletion until final clarification of the respective incident.
  • Content Delivery Network: We use a “content delivery network” (CDN). A CDN is a service with the help of which content of an online offer, in particular large media files, such as graphics or program scripts, can be delivered faster and more securely with the help of regionally distributed servers connected via the Internet;
    • Legal basis: Legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. f) DSGVO).

Blogs and publication media Link to heading

We use blogs or comparable means of online communication and publication (hereinafter “publication media”). Readers’ data are processed for the purposes of the publication medium only to the extent necessary for its presentation and communication between authors and readers or for security reasons. For the rest, we refer to the information on the processing of visitors to our publication medium within the scope of this privacy notice.

  • Types of data processed: Inventory data (e.g., names, addresses); contact data (e.g., e-mail, telephone numbers); content data (e.g., entries in online forms); usage data (e.g., web pages visited, interest in content, access times); meta/communication data (e.g., device information, IP addresses).
  • Data subjects: Users (e.g., website visitors, users of online services).
  • Purposes of processing: Provision of contractual services and customer service; feedback (e.g. collecting feedback via online form); provision of our online offer and user experience. Legal basis: Legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. f) DSGVO).

In our online offer, we include so-called affiliate links or other references (which may include, for example, search masks, widgets or discount codes) to the offers and services of third-party providers (collectively referred to as " affiliate links"). If users follow the Affiliate Links or subsequently take advantage of the offers, we may receive a commission or other benefits from those third parties (collectively, “Commission”).

In order to be able to track whether users have taken advantage of the offers of an affiliate link used by us, it is necessary that the respective third-party providers learn that the users have followed an affiliate link used within our online offer. The assignment of the affiliate links to the respective business transactions or to other actions (e.g. purchases) serves the sole purpose of commission accounting and will be cancelled as soon as it is no longer necessary for the purpose.

For the purposes of the aforementioned assignment of the affiliate links, the affiliate links may be supplemented by certain values that are a component of the link or may be stored elsewhere, e.g. in a cookie. The values may include, in particular, the source website (referrer), the time, an online identifier of the operator of the website on which the affiliate link was located, an online identifier of the respective offer, the type of link used, the type of offer and an online identifier of the user.

Notes on legal bases: If we ask users for their consent to use the third-party providers, the legal basis for processing data is consent. Otherwise, users’ data is processed on the basis of our legitimate interests (i.e. interest in efficient, economic and recipient-friendly services). In this context, we would also like to refer you to the information on the use of cookies in this privacy policy.

  • Types of data processed: Contractual data (e.g. subject matter of contract, term, customer category); Usage data (e.g. web pages visited, interest in content, access times); Meta/communication data (e.g. device information, IP addresses).
  • Data subjects: Users (e.g., website visitors, users of online services).
  • Purposes of processing: Affiliate tracking.
  • Legal basis: Consent (Art. 6 (1) p. 1 lit. a) DSGVO); Legitimate interests (Art. 6 (1) p. 1 lit. f) DSGVO).

Presence in social networks (social media). Link to heading

We maintain online presences within social networks and process user data in this context in order to communicate with users active there or to offer information about us.

We would like to point out that user data may be processed outside the European Union. This may result in risks for the users because, for example, it may be more difficult to enforce the rights of the users.

Furthermore, user data is usually processed within social networks for market research and advertising purposes. For example, usage profiles can be created based on the usage behavior and resulting interests of the users. The usage profiles can in turn be used, for example, to place advertisements within and outside the networks that presumably correspond to the interests of the users. For these purposes, cookies are usually stored on the users’ computers, in which the usage behavior and interests of the users are stored. Furthermore, data independent of the devices used by the users may also be stored in the usage profiles (especially if the users are members of the respective platforms and are logged in to them).

For a detailed presentation of the respective forms of processing and the options to object (opt-out), we refer to the privacy statements and information provided by the operators of the respective networks.

In the case of requests for information and the assertion of data subject rights, we also point out that these can be asserted most effectively with the providers. Only the providers have access to the users’ data and can take appropriate measures and provide information directly. If you still need help, then you can contact us.

  • Types of data processed: Contact data (e.g. e-mail, telephone numbers); Content data (e.g. entries in online forms); Usage data (e.g. websites visited, interest in content, access times); Meta/communication data (e.g. device information, IP addresses).
  • Data subjects: Users (e.g., website visitors, users of online services).
  • Purposes of processing: Contact requests and communication; Feedback (e.g. collecting feedback via online form); Marketing.
  • Legal basis: Legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. f) DSGVO).

Additional notes on processing operations, procedures and services:

Modification and update of the privacy policy Link to heading

We encourage you to periodically review the contents of our Privacy Policy. We adapt the privacy statement as soon as the changes in the data processing carried out by us make it 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.

If we provide addresses and contact information of companies and organizations in this privacy statement, please note that the addresses may change over time and please check the information before contacting us.

Definitions of terms Link to heading

This section provides an overview of the terms used in this privacy statement. Many of the terms are taken from the law and defined primarily in Article 4 of the GDPR. The legal definitions are binding. The following explanations, on the other hand, are primarily intended to aid understanding. The terms are sorted alphabetically.

  • Affiliate tracking: As part of affiliate tracking, links with the help of which the linking websites refer users to websites with product or other offers are logged. The operators of the respective linking websites may receive a commission if users follow these so-called affiliate links and subsequently take advantage of the offers (e.g. buy goods or use services). For this purpose, it is necessary for the providers to be able to track whether users who are interested in certain offers subsequently take advantage of them at the instigation of the affiliate links. It is therefore necessary for the functionality of affiliate links that they are supplemented with certain values that become part of the link or are stored elsewhere, e.g. in a cookie. The values include, in particular, the source website (referrer), the time, an online identifier of the operator of the website on which the affiliate link was located, an online identifier of the respective offer, an online identifier of the user as well as tracking-specific values, such as, for example, advertising media ID, affiliate ID and categorizations.
  • Personal Data: “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.
  • Controller: “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.
  • Processing: “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, whether collecting, evaluating, storing, transmitting or deleting.

Legal text by Dr. Schwenke