1. General information concerning cookies
Cookies are small text files or bits of information that are stored on your computer or mobile device (such as smartphone or tablet) when you use our services. A cookie commonly contains the name of the website/application from which it originates, the duration of the cookie (i.e. how long the cookie will remain on your device) and a figure, which is normally a randomly generated, unique number.
We use cookies in order to make our services more user friendly and to tailor our services and products to match your interests and needs. Cookies are able to do this because our services can read these files. This enables our services to identify you and remind you about important information, which makes your use of our services more user friendly (e.g. by remembering preference settings). Cookies may also be utilised in order to help speed up your future activities and your future user experience with our services. We also use cookies in order to compile anonymous, aggregated statistics that enable us to understand how users use our services and that help us to improve the structure and content of our digital media.
The maximum storage period of cookies after they have been placed on the user’s terminal for the first time is measured in the manner required by applicable law.
2. Types of cookies
The types of cookies that we use are session cookies, resident cookies, first-party cookies and third-party cookies.
• Resident cookies are used in order to store your login information and remember your settings for future logins to our services. A resident cookie is a cookie that is stored on your computer as a file and remains there when you close your web browser. The cookie can be read by the services that created it when you revisit these services.
• Session ID cookies are utilised in order to enable certain features on our services, to better understand how you interact with our services and to monitor aggregated user data and web traffic routing. In contrast to resident cookies, session cookies are removed from your computer when you close your browser. Session ID cookies typically store an anonymous session identifier on your computer that allows you to use a service without having to log back in after each click.
• First-party cookies are our own cookies that we utilise in order to improve your user experience. They are linked with a user’s personal information. Third parties do not have access to the information that we collect with our own cookies.
• Third-party cookies are cookies that are placed in our services by third-party companies in order to provide services, including advertising cookies. Third-party companies place third-party cookies on your device on our behalf when you visit our services in order to make it possible for these third-party companies to perform the services that they provide. In addition to the remarks in this Data Protection Policy, you can find further information concerning these third-party cookies in the data protection policies of these third-party companies.
The following provides a list of the various types of cookies that we utilise in our services.
3. Essential cookies
Essential cookies are cookies that are absolutely necessary so that our services work and in order to use their features. Without such essential cookies, our services would not function as smoothly as you wish, and it could be that we would not be capable of offering the website or certain services or features that you request.
We also use technical cookies, which for customisation and personalisation purposes allow our services to remember selections that you made (such as your username, language or region in which you are located). These cookies do not collect any information about you that is used for advertising purposes, and they also do not remember the websites that you were on.
The following first-party cookies are set by us (all resident cookies):
• Data protection viewability cookies: We install cookies on your computer that indicate whether you were informed through a displayed banner notice about the use of cookies, as well as the treatment of your data and your rights in connection with them, and then whether you gave your consent to the use of cookies so that the banner does not reappear each time you visit a website.
• Device identifier cookie: We install cookies on your computer that identify you and notify the website or service that you are logged in.
• User local cookie: We install cookies that are used in order to remember certain local selections that you made, such as language selection.
These cookies are necessary for the operation of our services. Therefore, you cannot object to the use of these cookies.
4. Functional cookies
Functional cookies are cookies that enable the use of certain features in our services that may be useful to you. However, they are not essential for our services to work and in order to use their features. You can refuse the installation of these cookies by adjusting the settings in your browser, which however may result in your being able to use certain features of our services to only a limited extent, if at all.
a) fusedeck (resident third-party cookies)
The tracking solution fusedeck of Capture Media AG (hereinafter, “Capture Media”) is integrated on certain of our websites. Capture Media is a Swiss company headquartered in Zurich that measures the use of websites on behalf of others in connection with engagements and events. Tracking takes place anonymously, meaning that no association can be made to identified or identifiable persons.
Further information about data protection and about the rights of data subjects in connection with fusedeck, including the ability to opt out (ability to object), can be found in the fusedeck Privacy Policy and Information on the Right to Object at: privacy.fusedeck.net/de/8ahyKD9Qtb
b) Google Maps (session third-party cookie)
If you click on the Google Maps component embedded on our website, Google will store a cookie on your end device through your internet browser. Your user settings and data will be processed in order to display our location and provide route directions.
Our legitimate interest consists of the optimisation of the functionality of our website.
Through the connection to Google established in this way, Google can determine the website from which your request was sent and the IP address to which the route directions are to be transmitted.
We have resorted to IP anonymisation for the use of Google tools. Through this add-on, the last digits of your IP address are shortened prior to definitive storage on Google servers. As a result, technical and analytical Google services continue to be reasonably usable, but you are no longer completely traceable and thus have a higher degree of anonymity with respect to your surfing behaviour than without IP anonymisation.
Moreover, you can prevent or limit the installation of cookies by adjusting the settings of your internet browser. You can also at any time delete cookies that have already been stored. However, the steps and measures required for this purpose depend on the specific internet browser you are using. Therefore, if you have questions, please use the help feature or documentation of your internet browser or contact its manufacturer or support.
In addition, Google also offers further information on this topic at:
services.google.com/sitestats/de.html
www.google.com/policies/technologies/ads
www.google.de/policies/privacy
including about the options for preventing the use of data.
c) Userlike (session third-party cookie)
We use chat software of the company Userlike UG (limited liability), Probsteigasse 44-46, 50670 Cologne, Germany. You can use chat like a contact form in order to chat with our employees nearly in real time. When the chat is started, the following personal data are collected: date and time of day of access, browser type/version, IP address, operating system being used and URL of the previously visited website, as well as the amount of data sent and, if provided, first name, last name and email address.
Depending on how the conversation proceeds with our employees, additional personal data that you enter may be collected in the chat. The type of these data depends highly on your enquiry or on the problem that you describe to us. All of these data are processed in order to provide you with a fast, efficient contact option and thus to improve our customer service.
When the corresponding websites are visited, the chat widget is loaded in the form of a JavaScript file of AWS Cloudfront. In technical terms, the chat widget constitutes the source code that is executed on your computer and makes the chat possible.
In addition, we store the transcript of the chat. This serves the purpose of sparing you the need to provide extensive remarks about the history of your enquiry in some circumstances, as well as the purpose of continuously controlling the quality of our chat service. If you do not desire this, you can notify us of this using the contact information listed above at the outset. Stored chats will then be promptly deleted.
The storage of chat data also serves the purpose of ensuring the security of our IT systems. This likewise constitutes our legitimate interest.
Further information can be found at: www.userlike.com/de/data-privacy
5. Social media plug-in cookies
a) Facebook plug-ins (resident third-party cookies)
Integrated on our websites are plug-ins of the social network Facebook, provided by Facebook Inc., 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA. You can recognise Facebook plug-ins by the Facebook logo or the “Like” button on our website. An overview of Facebook plug-ins is available at: developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins
If you visit our websites, the plug-in establishes a direct connection between your browser and the Facebook server. In this way, Facebook receives information that you visited our site with your IP address. If you click on the Facebook “Like” button while logged in to your Facebook account, you can link the content of our websites to your Facebook profile. In this way, Facebook can assign the visit to our websites to your user account. Please be advised that as the provider of the websites, we receive no knowledge about the content of the transmitted data or about their use by Facebook.
For more information about the purpose and scope of data collection by Facebook and the further processing and use of your data there, as well as your rights and configuration options in this respect in order to protect your privacy, please see Facebook’s data protection information at: www.facebook.com/policy.php
You can also completely prevent Facebook plug-ins from being loaded by using add-ons for your browser, e.g.
for Mozilla Firefox:
addons.mozilla.org/de/firefox/addon/facebook-blocker
for Opera:
addons.opera.com/de/extensions/details/facebook-blocker/?display=en
for Chrome:
chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/facebookblocker/chlhacbfddknadmnmjmkdobipdpjakmc?hl=de
b) Twitter (resident third-party cookies)
Features of the service Twitter are embedded on our websites. These features are offered by Twitter, Inc., 1355 Market Street, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA. By using Twitter and the “retweet” feature, the websites visited by you are linked with your Twitter account and disclosed to other users. In the process, data are also transferred to Twitter. Please be advised that as the provider of the websites, we receive no knowledge about the content of the transmitted data or about their use by Twitter. Further information about this can be found in Twitter’s privacy policy at: twitter.com/privacy
You can change your data protection settings at Twitter in the account settings at: twitter.com/account/settings
c) YouTube (resident and session third-party cookies)
Our websites use plug-ins of YouTube, a site operated by Google. The operator of the site is YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., San Bruno, CA 94066, USA. When you visit one of our pages that is equipped with a YouTube plug-in, a connection is established with YouTube servers. In the process, the YouTube server is notified about which of our pages you visited.
If you are logged in to your YouTube account, you enable YouTube to directly allocate your surfing behaviour to your personal profile. You can prevent this by logging out of your YouTube account.
Further information about the treatment of user data can be found in YouTube’s privacy policy at: www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy
6. Analytical cookies
a) Google Analytics incl. remarketing and Google signals (resident third-party cookies)
The service Google Analytics serves to analyse user behaviour on our website. Our legitimate interest consists of the analysis, optimisation and economic operation of our website.
Use and user-related information that is collected includes, for example, IP address, location, time or frequency of the visit to our website. We have resorted to IP anonymisation for the use of Google tools. Through this add-on, the last digits of your IP address are shortened prior to definitive storage on Google servers. As a result, technical and analytical Google services continue to be reasonably usable, but you are no longer completely traceable and thus have a higher degree of anonymity with respect to your surfing behaviour than without IP anonymisation.
We also use the remarketing function in connection with Google Analytics. This allows us to serve you personalised advertising on appropriate advertising spaces on other websites based on the interests you have shown on our website. This is limited to a maximum of 18 months. Remarketing allows us to place advertising that is as relevant to you as possible and to measure the efficiency and reach of the advertising media, but also to check the billing of our advertising partners for campaigns served.
Furthermore, we have activated Google signals for Google Analytics. Doing so updates existing Google Analytics functions, such as advertising reporting and remarketing, to receive summarised, anonymised data from you if you have allowed personalised ads in your Google account. Google signals are session data from websites and apps that Google associates with users who have signed in to their Google accounts and who have turned on personalised ads. This association of data with these signed-in users is used to enable cross-device reporting, cross-device remarketing and cross-device conversion exports to Google Ads. By default, these data from signed-in Google users may be retained for 26 months, unless the user has set a shorter retention period. Google data retention controls can be found here. In addition to the Google Analytics options mentioned above, Google signals enables us to conduct cross-device analyses. These mean that we can show advertising that is even better customised to individual needs, and review and evaluate past and current campaigns and user behaviour in even greater detail.
The data collected in this way are in turn used by Google to provide us with an analysis of the visit to our website, as well as of activities while there. With Google signals, this analysis covers the behaviour across different devices of users who are logged in with their Google account and have turned on personalised ads. These data may also be used to provide additional services related to the use of our website and the use of the internet.
Google states that it does not link your IP address with other data. In addition, Google provides further information for you relating to data protection law at www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/partners, such as options for preventing data use.
Moreover, Google offers a so-called deactivation add-on, along with further information about this, at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de. This add-on can be installed on popular internet browsers and offers you greater ability to control the data that Google collects when you visit our website. In the process, the add-on notifies the JavaScript (ga.js) of Google Analytics that information concerning the visit to our website should not be transmitted to Google Analytics. However, this does not prevent information from being transmitted to us or to other web analysis services. You can of course also learn in this Data Protection Policy about whether other web analysis are utilised by us and, if so, which ones.
Alternatively, future analysis of your website visit by Google Analytics can be deactivated by clicking on the link below. Clicking on the link sets a so-called opt-out cookie, which prevents the analysis of your visit to our website in the future.
<a onclick="alert('Google Analytics wurde deaktiviert');" href="javascript:gaOptout()">Google Analytics deaktivieren</a>
Please be aware that if you delete the cookies in your browser settings, this can also result in the opt-out cookie being deleted and your having to reactivate it, if desired.
Google will in no case link your IP address with other data stored by Google. You can prevent the installation of cookies. To do so, you must select “do not accept cookies” in your browser settings. Please be aware that in this case, you may not be able to use all features of these websites in full. By using these websites, you declare that you consent to the processing of the data collected about you by Google in the aforementioned manner and for the aforementioned purpose.
b) maatoo (resident third-party cookies)
On our channels, we use the service maatoo.io for optimal communication with our customers. The maatoo servers of the provider 55 weeks AG, Busswilstrasse 16, 3250 Lyss, Switzerland, are located in Switzerland.
maatoo.io places a persistent cookie on the respective login page, other than where a maatoo cookie is already present on your device. If you have already used a website that utilises maatoo, you probably already have a maatoo cookie. Even where this cookie is set on other websites, the information about your visit to our websites is visible only to us and is not shared with either 55 weeks AG or other users of the maatoo system. It is also not possible for us to record or view information about your visits to other websites.
You can find detailed information about data protection in connection with the use of maatoo.io at: maatoo.io/privacy
In certain case, we use the maatoo cookie in order to analyse your use of our websites so that we can continuously improve them. Emails that are sent with the aid of maatoo use tracking technologies. We primarily use these data in order to learn which topics interest you by determining whether our emails are opened and which links you click on. We then use this information in order to improve the emails that we send you and the services we provide and to link it with currently existing tracking or profiling information.
We use maatoo on all websites that are equipped with a corresponding chat function.
7. Marketing, profiling and retargeting cookies
a) Google tools
Google AdWords with conversion tracking (resident third-party cookies)
We use conversion tracking for the targeted promotion of our website. Our legitimate interest consists of the analysis, optimisation and economic operation of our website.
If you click on an advertisement placed by Google, the conversion tracking we utilise stores a cookie on your end device. These so-called conversion tracking cookies lose their validity after 30 days and in addition do not serve to identify you personally. If the cookie is still valid and you visit a certain page on our website, we as well as Google can determine that you clicked on one of our advertisements placed by Google and that you were then redirected to our website.
The information obtained in this way is used by Google to create statistics for us about the visit to our website. In addition, we receive information from this about the number of users that clicked on our advertisement(s), as well as about the pages of our website that were subsequently visited. However, this does not enable us or third parties that also utilise Google AdWords to identify you in this manner.
Google AdSense (resident third-party cookies)
Google AdSense stores cookies and so-called web beacons on your end device via your internet browser. Through this, Google enables us to analyse your use of our website. The information collected in this way, together with your IP address and the advertising formats displayed to you, is transferred to Google in the USA and stored there. In addition, Google can forward this information to contractual partners. However, Google states that your IP address will not be combined with other data about you.
Our legitimate interest consists of the analysis, optimisation and economic operation of our website.
We have resorted to IP anonymisation for the use of Google tools. Through this add-on, the last digits of your IP address are shortened prior to definitive storage on Google servers. As a result, technical and analytical Google services continue to be reasonably usable, but you are no longer completely traceable and thus have a higher degree of anonymity with respect to your surfing behaviour than without IP anonymisation.
Moreover, you can prevent or limit the installation of cookies by adjusting the settings of your internet browser. You can also at any time delete cookies that have already been stored. However, the steps and measures required for this purpose depend on the specific internet browser you are using. Therefore, if you have questions, please use the help feature or documentation of your internet browser or contact its manufacturer or support.
In addition, Google also offers further information on this topic at:
services.google.com/sitestats/de.html
www.google.com/policies/technologies/ads
www.google.de/policies/privacy
including about the options for preventing the use of data.