Data Privacy Policy

Our website may be used without entering personal information. Different rules may apply to certain services on our site, however, and are explained separately below. We collect personal information from you (e.g. name, address, email address, telephone number, etc.) in accordance with the provisions of German data protection statutes. Information is considered personal if it can be associated exclusively to a specific natural person. The legal framework for data protection may be found in the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) and the Telemedia Act (TMG). The provisions below serve to provide information as to the manner, extent and purpose for collecting, using and processing personal information by the provider.

Please be aware that data transfer via the internet is subject to security risks and, therefore, complete protection against third-party access to transferred data cannot be ensured.

Cookies

Our website makes use of so-called cookies in order to recognize repeat use of our website by the same user/internet connection subscriber. Cookies are small text files that your internet browser downloads and stores on your computer. They are used to improve our website and services. In most cases these are so-called “session cookies” that are deleted once you leave our website.

To an extent, however, these cookies also pass along information used to automatically recognize you. Recognition occurs through an IP address saved to the cookies. The information thereby obtained is used to improve our services and to expedite your access to the website.

You can prevent cookies from being installed by adjusting the settings on your browser software accordingly. You should be aware, however, that by doing so you may not be able to make full use of all the functions of our website.

Server Data

For technical reasons, data such as the following, which your internet browser transmits to us or to our web space provider (so called server log files), is collected:
– type and version of the browser you use
– operating system
– websites that linked you to our site (referrer URL)
– websites that you visit
– date and time of your visit
– your Internet Protocol (IP) address.
This anonymous data is stored separately from any personal information you may have provided, thereby making it impossible to connect it to any particular person. The data is used for statistical purposes in order to improve our website and services.

Purpose of Registering

We offer you the opportunity to sign up for our website. The information entered when signing up, as shown in the registration form

NAME, EMAILADRESS

is collected and stored solely for use by our website. When signing up for our website, we also store your IP address and the date and time you registered. This serves to protect us in the event a third party improperly and without your knowledge makes use of your data to sign up for our site. None of this information is transferred to third parties. Nor is any of this information matched to any information that may be collected by other components of our website.

Our website offers you the opportunity to subscribe to our newsletter. The newsletter provides you periodically with information about our services. To receive our newsletter, we require a valid email address. We will review the email address you provide for the purpose of determining whether you are in fact the owner of the email address provided or whether the actual owner of said address is authorized to receive the newsletter. When subscribing to our newsletter, we will store your IP address as well as the date and time you subscribed. This serves to protect us in the event a third party improperly and without your knowledge makes use of your email address to subscribe to our newsletter. We will not collect any other data. The data thereby collected is used solely for the purpose of receiving our newsletter. No data is transferred to third parties. Nor is any of this information matched to any information that other components of our website may collect. You may cancel your subscription to the newsletter at any time. You will find additional details in the email confirming your subscription as well as in each newsletter.

Contacting Us

On our website we offer you the opportunity to contact us, either by email and/or by using a contact form. In such event, information provided by the user is stored for the purpose of facilitating communications with the user. No data is transferred to third parties. Nor is any of this information matched to any information that may be collected by other components of our website.

Posting Comments

On our website we offer you the opportunity to post comments about individual articles. For this purpose, the IP address of the user/internet connection subscriber is stored. This information is stored for our security in the event the author through his/her comments infringes against third party rights and/or unlawful content is entered. Consequently, we have a direct interest in the author’s stored data, particularly since we may be potentially liable for such violations. No data is transferred to third parties. Nor is any of this information matched to any information that may be collected by other components of our website.

Subscribing to Comments

On our website we offer you the opportunity to subscribe to subsequent comments about an article which you intend to comment on. When you choose this option, you will receive a confirmation email which is used to determine if you are actually the owner of the email address entered. You may at any time revoke your decision to subscribe to such follow-on comments. You will find additional details in the confirmation email. No data hereby obtained is transferred to third parties. Nor is any of this information matched to any information that may be collected by other components of our website.

Use of Google Analytics with anonymization

Our website uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service from Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA, hereinafter referred to as “Google“. Google Analytics employs so-called “cookies“, text files that are stored to your computer in order to facilitate an analysis of your use of the site.

The information generated by these cookies, such as time, place and frequency of your visits to our site, including your IP address, is transmitted to Google’s location in the US and stored there.

We use Google Analytics with an IP anonymization feature on our website. In doing so, Google abbreviates and thereby anonymizes your IP address before transferring it from member states of the European Union or signatory states to the Agreement on the European Economic Area.

Google will use this information to evaluate your usage of our site, to compile reports on website activity for us, and to provide other services related to website- and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties if this is required by law or to the extent this data is processed by third parties on Google´s behalf.

Google states that it will in never associate your IP address with other data held by Google. You can prevent cookies from being installed by adjusting the settings on your browser software accordingly. You should be aware, however, that by doing so you may not be able to make full use of all the functions of our website.

Google also offers a disabling option for the most common browsers, thus providing you with greater control over the data which is collected and processed by Google. If you enable this option, no information regarding your website visit is transmitted to Google Analytics. However, the activation does not prevent the transmission of information to us or to any other web analytics services we may use. For more information about the disabling option provided by Google, and how to enable this option, visit https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en

Use of Google+ recommendation components

Our website employs the “+1“-buttom from Google+ belonging to Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA, hereinafter referred to as “Google“.
Each time our website receives an access request equipped with a “+1“ component, the component prompts your browser to download an image of this component from Google. Through this process, Google is informed precisely which page of our website is being visited.
As specified by Google, your visit undergoes additional analysis in the event you are not logged into your Google account.
If you access our site while logged into Google and press the “+1″ button, Google can collect information about your Google account, websites you recommend as well as your IP address, along with other browser-related information.
This allows your “+1“ recommendation to be stored and publicized. Your Google “+1“ recommendation can then appear as a reference in other Google services, such as search results, your Google account or other places, such as on websites and ads in the internet, , together with your account name and, if applicable, a picture you provided to Google. Furthermore, Google can link your visit to our site with data stored by Google. Google also records this information for the purpose of further improving Google services.
If you wish to minimize the collection of information by Google as previously described, you must log out of your Google account before visiting our website.

You can access Google‘s data protection policies relating to the “+1“ button together with all relevant information on the collection, transfer and use of data by Google, your rights in this regard as well as your profile settings options at the following link:

https://developers.google.com/+/web/buttons-policy

The use of Google Maps with recommendation components

We use the “Google Maps” component on our website in combination with the so-called “Share function”. “Google Maps” is a service of Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA, hereinafter “Google.”

Each time this component is called up, Google sets a cookie in order to process the user configuration and data when the page with the integrated “Google Maps” component is displayed. As a general rule, this cookie is not deleted by closing the browser, but rather expires after a certain time, as long as it is not previously manually deleted by you.

If you do not agree with this processing of your data, you may choose to deactivate the “Google Maps” service and thereby prevent the transfer of data to Google. To do this, you must deactivate the Java Script function in your browser. However, we would like to point out that in this case you will not be able to use “Google Maps” or at least only to a limited extent.

The use of “Google Maps” and the information obtained through “Google Maps” is according to Google’s Terms of Use
http://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/terms/regional.html

as well as the additional Terms and Conditions for “Google Maps”
https://www.google.com/intl/de_de/help/terms_maps.html.

The Google Maps function also includes the following recommendation buttons:

“Google+-Button” from the company Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA;
“Facebook-Button” from the company Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA;
“Twitter-Button” from the company Twitter Inc., 795 Folsom St., Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA.

By calling up the “Google Maps” page, these “Recommendation components” cause the browser you are using to download a corresponding display of the component from the respective provider. In this way, the respective provider mentioned above will be informed about which specific page of our internet site you are currently visiting.

If you are logged in to your personal account at the provider previously mentioned at the time of calling up the “Google Maps” page, this will be able to collect the information obtained about the websites recommended by you as well as your IP address and other browser relevant information and link it to your respective account.

If you want to prevent this transmission and storage of data by the respective provider about you and your behaviour on our website, you must log out of those providers before you visit our site.

You can find out more about the data collection of the respective providers via the following links:

Privacy Policy Twitter: https://twitter.com/privacy?lang=de
Privacy Policy Facebook: https://de-en.facebook.com/about/privacy
Privacy Policy Google+: https://developers.google.com/+/web/buttons-policy

Use of Google Maps

We use the “Google Maps” component of Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA, hereinafter “Google.”

Google sets a cookie in order to process the user configuration and data when the page with the integrated “Google Maps” component is displayed. As a general rule, this cookie is not deleted by closing the browser, but rather expires after a certain time, as long as it is not previously manually deleted by you.

The use of “Google Maps” and the information obtained through “Google Maps” is according to Google’s Terms of Use

http://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/terms/regional.html

as well as the additional Terms and Conditions for “Google Maps”

https://www.google.com/intl/de_de/help/terms_maps.html.

Use of reCAPTCHA

In order to protect input forms on our site, we use the “reCAPTCHA” service of Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA, hereinafter “Google.” By means of this service it can be distinguished whether the corresponding input is of human origin or is created improperly by automated machine processing.

To our knowledge, the referrer URL, the IP address, the behaviour of the website visitors, information about the operating system, browser and length of stay, cookies, display instructions and scripts, user input behaviour and mouse movements in the “reCAPTCHA” checkbox are conveyed to “Google.”

Google uses the information obtained, among other things, to digitize books and other printed matter as well as to optimize services such as Google Street View and Google Maps (e.g. house number and street name recognition).

The IP address provided as part of “reCAPTCHA” is not merged with other data from Google unless you are logged into your Google Account at the time the “reCAPTCHA” plug-in is used. If you want to prevent this transmission and storage of data by “Google” about you and your behaviour on our website, you must log out of “Google” before you visit our site or before using the reCAPTCHA plug-in.

The use of the “reCAPTCHA” service is according to the Google Terms of Use:

https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/.

Use of YouTube components with enhanced data protection mode

On our website we use components (videos) of YouTube, LLC 901 Cherry Ave., 94066 San Bruno, CA, USA, a company belonging to Google Inc., Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.

To this end, we use the “ – enhanced data protection mode – ” option provided by YouTube.

When you display a page that has an embedded video, a connection will be made to the YouTube server and the content will appear on the website via a communication to your browser.

According to the information provided by YouTube, in “ – enhanced data protection mode -”, data is only transferred to the YouTube server, in particular which of our websites you have visited, if you watch the video. If you are logged onto YouTube at the same time, this information will be matched to your YouTube member account. You can prevent this from happening by logging out of your member account before visiting our website.

Further information about data protection by YouTube is provided by Google under the following link:

https://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy/

Use of the Amazon Partner program

participates in the Amazon EU Partner Program, which was designed to provide a medium for websites, by which reimbursement of advertising costs can be earned through the placement of ads and links to [please insert the name of the relevant website (Amazon.co.uk / Javari.co.uk / Local.Amazon.co.uk / Amazon.de / Javari.de / de.BuyVIP.com / Amazon.fr / Javari.fr / Amazon.it / it.BuyVIP.com / Amazon.es / es.BuyVIP.com )]. In order to track an order, Amazon uses cookies that allow them to know that you have clicked on a partner link on our website. You can find more information about the use of data by Amazon in the company’s data protection policy: http://www.amazon.de/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=footer_privacy?ie=UTF8&nodeId=3312401

Use of Google-Adwords

For purposes of promotion, our website also employs the Google ad tool “Google-Adwords”. As part of this, our website employs the analysis service “Conversion-Tracking” from Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA, hereinafter referred to as “Google“. If you access our site by way of a Google ad, a cookie is placed on your computer. Cookies are small text files that your internet browser downloads and stores to your computer. These so-called “conversion cookies” cease to be active after 30 days and are not used to identify you personally. If you visit certain pages of our website while the cookie is still active, we and Google know that you, as user, have clicked on ads placed on Google and were redirected to our site.
Google uses the information obtained through “conversion cookies” to compile statistics for our website. These statistics tell us the total number of users who have clicked on our ad as well as which pages of our site were then accessed by each user. However, neither we nor other advertisers who use “Google-Adwords” receive any kind of information that can be used to personally identify users.
You can prevent the installation of “conversion cookies” by making the appropriate change to your browser settings, for example by setting your browser so that the automatic placement of cookies is deactivated or by blocking cookies from the domain “googleadservices.com“.

You can obtain the relevant data privacy policy from Google at the following link:

https://services.google.com/sitestats/de.html

Use of Google AdSense

Our website employs Google AdSense. Google AdSense is a service of Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA, for incorporating advertisements. Google-AdSense uses so-called “cookies“, text files, that are stored to your computer and which provide analysis of the use of our website. Furthermore, Google AdSense uses so-called “web beacons“. Web beacons allow Google to analyze information, such as visitor traffic to our website. This information, along with your IP address and the ad format displayed, is transmitted to Google in the US where it is stored and may be transferred by Google to contracting partners. However, Google does not merge your IP-address with other stored data on you. You can prevent cookies from being installed by adjusting the settings on your browser software accordingly. You should be aware, however, that by doing so you may not be able to make full use of all the functions of our website. By using our website you declare that you agree to the processing of data collected about you by Google in the manner previously described and for the purposes there specified.

Use of affilinet tracking cookies

Our website employs affilinet tracking cookies in order to correctly record sales and/or leads. Cookies are small text files that are saved to your computer when you visit a website. These affilinet tracking cookies do not store personal data of any kind. Instead, it only collects the identification number of the intermediary partner as well as the reference number of the advertising material that was clicked on by the visitor to the website. This information is required in order to process the payment transaction between the website operator and the advertiser. The partner identification number serves to designate the intermediary partner to which a commission is to be paid once a transaction has been concluded.
You can prevent cookies from being installed by adjusting the settings on your browser software accordingly. You should be aware, however, that by doing so you may not be able to make full use of all the functions of our website.

Information/Cancellation/Deletion

On the basis of the Federal Data Protection Act, you may contact us at no cost if you have questions relating to the collection, processing or use of your personal information, if you wish to request the correction, blocking or deletion of the same, or if you wish to cancel explicitly granted consent. Please note that you have the right to have incorrect data corrected or to have personal data deleted, where such claim is not barred by any legal obligation to retain this data.

Sample Data Privacy Policy Statement provided by the Law Offices of Weiß & Partner

Data Privacy Policy