Privacy Policy

Table of Contents

  • Privacy Policy
  • Automatic Data Retention
  • Cookies
  • Storage of Personal Data
  • Rights in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation
  • Google Maps Privacy Policy
  • LinkedIn Privacy Policy
  • XING Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

We have written this privacy policy (version 23.03.2021-111698491) to provide you with information in accordance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 as well as to explain what information we collect, how we use data and what choices you have as a visitor to this website.

Privacy policies usually sound very technical. However, this version should describe the most important things as simply and clearly as possible. Moreover, technical terms are explained in a reader-friendly manner whenever possible. We would also like to convey that we only collect and use information via this website if there is a corresponding legal basis for it. This is certainly not possible if you give very brief technical explanations, as are often standard on the Internet when it comes to data protection. We hope you find the following explanations interesting and informative. Maybe you will also find some information that you did not know yet.
Should you still have questions, we kindly ask you to follow the existing links to see further information on third-party websites, or to simply write us an email. You can find our contact information in our website’s imprint.

Automatic Data Retention

Every time you visit a website nowadays, certain information is automatically created and stored, just as it happens on this website. This data should be collected as sparingly as possible, and only with good reason. By website, we mean the entirety of all websites on your domain, i.e. everything from the homepage to the very last subpage (like this one here). By domain we mean example.uk or examplepage.com.

Even while you are currently visiting our website, our web server – this is the computer this website is stored on, usually automatically retains data such as the below – for reasons such as operational security or for creating access statistics etc.

  • the full address (URL) of the accessed website (e. g. https://www.examplepage.uk/examplesubpage.html/) https://www.examplepage.uk/examplesubpage.html/)
  • browser and browser version (e.g. Chrome 87)
  • the operating system used (e.g. Windows 10)
  • the address (URL) of the previously visited site (referrer URL) (z. B. https://www.examplepage.uk/icamefromhere.html/)
  • the host name and the IP-address of the device the website is accessed from (e.g. COMPUTERNAME and 194.23.43.121)
  • date and time
  • in so-called web server log files.

As an illustration:

Generally, these files are stored for two weeks and are then automatically deleted. We do not pass these data to others, but we cannot exclude the possibility that this data may be looked at by the authorities in case of illegal conduct.

In short: your visit is logged by our provider (company that runs our website on servers), but we do not pass on your data!

Cookies

Our website uses HTTP-cookies to store user-specific data.
For your better understanding of the following Privacy Policy statement, we will explain to you below what cookies are and why they are in use.

What exactly are cookies?

Every time you surf the internet, you use a browser. Common browsers are for example Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge. Most websites store small text-files in your browser. These files are called cookies.

What should not be dismissed, is that cookies are very useful little helpers. Nearly all websites use cookies. More accurately speaking these are HTTP-cookies, since there are also different cookies for other uses. http-cookies are small files which our website stores on your computer. These cookie files are automatically put into the cookie-folder, which is like the “brain” of your browser. A cookie consists of a name and a value. Moreover, to define a cookie, one or multiple attributes must be specified.

Cookies save certain parts of your user data, such as e.g. language or personal page settings. When you re-open our website, your browser submits these “user specific” information back to our site. Thanks to cookies, our website knows who you are and offers you the settings you are familiar to. In some browsers every cookie has its own file, in others such as Firefox, all cookies are stored in one single file.

There are both first-party cookies and third-party cookies. First-party cookies are created directly by our site, while third-party cookies are created by partner-websites (e.g. Google Analytics). Every cookie is individual, since every cookie stores different data. The expiration time of a cookie also varies – it can be a few minutes, or up to a few years. Cookies are no software-programs and contain no computer viruses, trojans or any other malware. Cookies also cannot access your PC’s information.

This is an example of how cookie-files can look:

name: _ga
value: GA1.2.1326744211.152111698491-9
purpose: differentiation between website visitors
expiration date: after 2 years

A browser should support these minimum sizes:

  • at least 4096 bytes per cookie
  • at least 50 cookies per domain
  • at least 3000 cookies in total

Which types of cookies are there?

What exact cookies we use, depends on the used services. We will explain this in the following sections of the Privacy Policy statement. Firstly, we will briefly focus on the different types of HTTP-cookies.

There are 4 different types of cookies:

Essential Cookies
These cookies are necessary to ensure the basic function of a website. They are needed when a user for example puts a product into their shopping cart, then continues surfing on different websites and comes back later in order to proceed to the checkout. Even when the user closed their window priorly, these cookies ensure that the shopping cart does not get deleted.

Purposive Cookies
These cookies collect info about the user behaviour and record if the user potentially receives any error messages. Furthermore, these cookies record the website’s loading time as well as its behaviour within different browsers.

Target-orientated Cookies
These cookies care for an improved user-friendliness. Thus, information such as previously entered locations, fonts or data in forms stay saved.

Advertising Cookies
These cookies are also known as targeting-Cookies. They serve the purpose of delivering individually adapted advertisements to the user. This can be very practical, but also rather annoying.

Upon your first visit to a website you are usually asked which of these cookie-types you want to accept. Furthermore, this decision will of course also be saved in a cookie.

How can I delete cookies?

You yourself take the decision if and how you want to use cookies. Thus, no matter what service or website cookies are from, you always have the option to delete, deactivate or only partially allow them. Therefore, you can for example block cookies of third parties but allow any other cookies.

If you want change or delete cookie-settings and would like to determine which cookies have been saved to your browser, you can find this info in your browser-settings:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

If you generally do not want to allow any cookies at all, you can set up your browser in a way, to notify you whenever a potential cookie is about to be set. This gives you the opportunity to manually decide to either permit or deny the placement of every single cookie. The settings for this differ from browser to browser. Therefore, it might be best for you to search for the instructions in Google. If you are using Chrome, you could for example put the search phrase “delete cookies Chrome” or “deactivate cookies Chrome” into Google.

How is my data protected?

There is a “cookie policy” that has been in place since 2009. It states that the storage of cookies requires the user’s consent. However, among the countries of the EU, these guidelines are often met with mixed reactions. In Austria the guidelines have been implemented in § 96 section 3 of the Telecommunications Act (TKG).

If you want to learn more about cookies and do not mind technical documentation, we recommend https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6265, the Request for Comments of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) called “HTTP State Management Mechanism”.

Storage of Personal Data

Any personal data you electronically submit to us on this website, such as your name, email address, home address or other personal information you provide via the transmission of a form or via any comments to the blog, are solely used for the specified purpose and get stored securely along with the respective submission times and IP-address. These data do not get passed on to third parties.

Therefore, we use personal data for the communication with only those users, who have explicitly requested being contacted, as well as for the execution of the services and products offered on this website. We do not pass your personal data to others without your approval, but we cannot exclude the possibility this data will be looked at in case of illegal conduct.

If you send us personal data via email – and thus not via this website – we cannot guarantee any safe transmission or protection of your data. We recommend you, to never send confidential data via email.

Rights in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation

You are granted the following rights in accordance with the provisions of the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) and the Austrian Data Protection Act (DSG):

  • right to rectification (article 16 GDPR)
  • right to erasure (“right to be forgotten“) (article 17 GDPR)
  • right to restrict processing (article 18 GDPR)
  • righ to notification – notification obligation regarding rectification or erasure of personal data or restriction of processing (article 19 GDPR)
  • right to data portability (article 20 GDPR)
  • Right to object (article 21 GDPR)
  • right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing – including profiling – (article 22 GDPR)

If you think that the processing of your data violates the data protection law, or that your data protection rights have been infringed in any other way, you can lodge a complaint with your respective regulatory authority. For Austria this is the data protection authority, whose website you can access at https://www.dsb.gv.at/ finden und für Deutschland können Sie sich an die Bundesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit (BfDI)wenden.

Google Maps Privacy Policy

On our website we use Google Maps of the company Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). With the use of Google Maps, we can show you locations in a better way and can therefore adjust our service to your needs. Due to the utilisation of Google Maps, data gets transferred to Google and is saved on Google’s servers. In the following, we want to explain in detail what Google Maps is, why we use this Google service, what data is stored and how you can prevent this.

What is Google Maps?

Google Maps is an internet maps service of the company Google Inc. With Google Maps you can search for exact locations of cities, sights, accommodations or businesses online via a PC, a tablet or an app. If businesses are represented on Google My Business, the respective location as well as other information about the company are shown there. In order to show route directions, a location’s map sections can be integrated in a website through a HTML-code. Google Maps depicts the earth’s surface as either a road map or as air and satellite images. Due to the street view and high-quality satellite images, it is possible for exact representations to be made.

Why do we use Google Maps on our website?

The efforts we make on this page have the goal of giving you a useful and meaningful experience on our website. Through the integration of Google Maps, we can offer you essential information on various locations. Therefore, you can spot our office address with one glance. Furthermore, the route directions always show you the best and fastest way to us. You can retrieve the route directions for traveling either by car, by public transport, on foot or by bike. The integration of Google Maps is a part of our customer service.

What data is stored by Google Maps?

For Google Maps to offer its full services, the company must collect and store your data. This includes your entered search terms, your IP-address as well as your longitude and latitude coordinates. When you use the route-planner function, the entered start address is stored also. However, this data retention happens on Google Maps‘ websites. We can only inform you about it but cannot influence it in any way. Since we have included Google Maps on our website, Google will set at least one cookie (Name: NID) into your browser. This cookie saves data on your user behaviour. Google primarily uses this data to optimise ist own services and to provide you with individual, personalised advertisements.

The following cookies are set in your browser due to the integration of Google Maps:

name: NID
value: 188=h26c1Ktha7fCQTx8rXgLyATyITJ111698491-5
purpose: Google uses NID in order to adjust advertisments to your Google searches. With the cookie’s help Google “remembers“ your most frequently entered search queries or your previous interaction with ads. That way you always receive customised adertisments. The cookie contains a unique ID, wich Google uses to collect your personal settings for advertising porposes.
expiration date: after 6 months

Anmerkung: We cannot guarantee completeness of the information on saved data. This is, because especially concerning the use of cookies, changes can happen anytime. To identify the cookie NID, a test page was created, to which Google Maps was included.

How long and where is the data saved?

There are Google servers in data centres across the entire planet. However, most servers are in America. For this reason, your data is widely stored in the USA. Here you can read in detail about where the Google servers are located :https://www.google.com/about/datacenters/inside/locations/?hl=en

Google distributes data to various data carriers. This makes it possible to retrieve the data faster and to better protect it from possible attempted manipulations. Every server has emergency programs. Thus, should for example a problem with Google’s hardware occur or should a natural disaster impact the servers, any data will quite certainly stay protected.

Moreover, Google saves some data for a specified period. With some other data on the other hand, Google only offers the opportunity for deleting it manually. Furthermore, the company anonymises information (e.g. advertising data) in server logs, by deleting a part of the IP-address and cookie information after 9 to 18 months.

How can I delete my data, or prevent data retention?

Due to the automatic delete function for location and activity data, which was introduced in 2019, information that is used for determining your location and web or app activity is saved for either 3 or 18 months, depending on your preferred decision, and is deleted thereafter. Furthermore, it is possible to delete this data manually from your browser history via your Google account anytime. If you want to prevent the determination of your location altogether, you must pause the category “Web and app activity” in your Google account. Click on “Data and personalisation” and then choose the option “Activity controls”. Here you can switch the activities on or off.

Moreover, in your browser you can deactivate, delete or manage individual cookies. This function can differ a little, depending on what browser you are using. The following instructions will show you how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

If you generally do not want to permit any cookies, you can set up your browser in a way that ensures you get informed whenever a cookie is about to be placed. That way you can decide to either permit or refuse every single cookie.

Google is an active participant of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and safe transfer of personal data. You can find more information on this on https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI.

If you want to find out more about Google’s data processing, we recommend the company’s internal privacy statement on https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en-GB..

LinkedIn Privacy Policy

On our website we use social plugins from the social media network LinkedIn, of the LinkedIn Corporation, 2029 Stierlin Court, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Social plugins can be feeds, content sharing or a link to our LinkedIn page. Social plugins are clearly marked with the well-known LinkedIn logo and for example allow sharing interesting content directly via our website. Moreover, LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company Wilton Place in Dublin is responsible for data processing in the European Economic Area and Switzerland.

By embedding these plugins, data can be sent to, as well as stored and processed by LinkedIn. In this privacy policy we want to inform you what data this is, how the network uses this data and how you can manage or prevent data retention.

What is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn is the largest social network for business contacts. In contrast to e.g. Facebook, LinkedIn focuses exclusively on establishing business connections. Therefore, companies can present services and products on the platform and establish business relationships. Many people also use LinkedIn to find a job or to find suitable employees for their own company. In Germany alone, the network has over 11 million members. In Austria there are about 1.3 million.

Why do we use LinkedIn on our website?

We know how busy you are. You just cannot keep up with following every single social media channel. Even if it would really be worth it, as it is with our channels, since we keep posting interesting news and articles worth spreading. Therefore, on our website we have created the opportunity to share interesting content directly on LinkedIn, or to refer directly to our LinkedIn page. We consider built-in social plugins as an extended service on our website. The data LinkedIn collects also help us to display potential advertising measures only to people who are interested in our offer.

What data are stored by LinkedIn?

LinkedIn stores no personal data due to the mere integration of social plugins. LinkedIn calls the data generated by plugins passive impressions. However, if you click on a social plugin to e.g. share our content, the platform stores personal data as so-called “active impressions”. This happens regardless of whether you have a LinkedIn account or not. If you are logged in, the collected data will be assigned to your account.

When you interact with our plugins, your browser establishes a direct connection to LinkedIn’s servers. Through that, the company logs various usage data. These may include your IP address, login data, device information or information about your internet or cellular provider. If you use LinkedIn services via your smartphone, your location may also be identified (after you have given permission). Moreover, LinkedIn can share these data with third-party advertisers in “hashed” form. Hashing means that a data set is transformed into a character string. This allows data to be encrypted, which prevents persons from getting identified.

Most data on of your user behaviour is stored in cookies. These are small text files that usually get placed in your browser. Furthermore, LinkedIn can also use web beacons, pixel tags, display tags and other device recognitions.

Various tests also show which cookies are set when a user interacts with a social plug-in. We do not claim for the information we found to be exhaustive, as it only serves as an example. The following cookies were set without being logged in to LinkedIn:

name: bcookie
value: =2&34aab2aa-2ae1-4d2a-8baf-c2e2d7235c16111698491-
purpose: This cookie is a so-called “browser ID cookie” and stores your identification number (ID).
expiration date: after 2 years

name: lang
value: v=2&lang=en-gb
purpose: This cookie saves your default or preferred language.
expiration date: after end of session 

name: lidc
value: 1818367:t=1571904767:s=AQF6KNnJ0G111698491…
purpose: This cookie is used for routing. Routing records how you found your way to LinkedIn and how you navigate through the website.
expiration date: after 24 hours

name: rtc
value: kt0lrv3NF3x3t6xvDgGrZGDKkX
purpose: No further information could be found about this cookie.
expiration date: after 2 minutes

name: JSESSIONID
value: ajax:1116984912900777718326218137
purpose: This is a session cookie that LinkedIn uses to maintain anonymous user sessions through the server.
expiration date: after end of session

name: bscookie
value: “v=1&201910230812…
purpose: This cookie is a security cookie. LinkedIn describes it as a secure browser ID cookie.
expiration date: after 2 years

name: fid
value: AQHj7Ii23ZBcqAAAA…
purpose: We could not find any further information about this cookie.
expiration date: after 7 days

Anmerkung: LinkedIn also works with third parties. That is why we identified the Google Analytics cookies _ga and _gat in our test.

How long and where is the data saved?

In general, LinkedIn retains your personal data for as long as the company considers it necessary for providing its services. However, LinkedIn deletes your personal data when you delete your account. In some exceptional cases, LinkedIn keeps some summarised and anonymised data, even account deletions. As soon as you delete your account, it may take up to a day until other people can no longer see your data. LinkedIn generally deletes the data within 30 days. However, LinkedIn retains data if it is necessary for legal reasons. Also, data that can no longer be assigned to any person remains stored even after the account is closed. The data are stored on various servers in America and presumably also in Europe.

How can I delete my data, or prevent data retention?

You have the right to access and delete your personal data at any time. In your LinkedIn account you can manage, change and delete your data. Moreover, you can request a copy of your personal data from LinkedIn.

How to access account data in your LinkedIn profile:

In LinkedIn, click on your profile icon and select the “Settings & Privacy” section. Now click on “Privacy” and then on the section “How LinkedIn uses your data on”. Then, click “Change” in the row with “Manage your data and activity”. There you can instantly view selected data on your web activity and your account history.

In your browser you also have the option of preventing data processing by LinkedIn. As mentioned above, LinkedIn stores most data via cookies that are placed in your browser. You can manage, deactivate or delete these cookies. Depending on which browser you have, these settings work a little different. You can find the instructions for the most common browsers here:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

You can generally set your browser to always notify you when a cookie is about to be set. Then you can always decide individually whether you want to allow the cookie or not.

Google is an active participant of the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and safe transfer of personal data. You can find more information on this on https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI.

LinkedIn is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Frameworks. This framework ensures correct data transmission between the USA and the European Union. You can find out more about it athttps://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000L0UZAA0. We gave our best to provide you the most essential information about LinkedIn’s data processing. At https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy you can find out more about data processing of the social media network LinkedIn.

XING Privacy Policy

On our website we use social plugins from the social media network Xing, by the company Xing SE, Dammtorstrasse 30, 20354 Hamburg, Germany. Their functions allow you to for example share content and follow interesting content on Xing directly via our website, or to log in to Xing via our site. You can recognize the plugins by the company name or the Xing logo. If you open a website that uses a Xing plugin, data can be transmitted to, and saved as well as evaluated by the “Xing server”. In this privacy policy we will inform you on what data this is and how you can manage or prevent data retention.

What is Xing?

Xing is a social network with its headquarters in Hamburg. The company specializes in managing professional contacts. That means, that as opposed to other networks, Xing is primarily about professional networking. The platform is often used for job hunting or for companies to find employees. Moreover, Xing offers interesting content on various professional topics. The global counterpart of Xing is the American company LinkedIn.

Why do we use Xing on our website?

Nowadays, there is a flood of social media channels, and we understand that your time is very precious. It is simply not possible for you to closely follow every social media channel of a company. Therefore, we want to make your life as easy as possible and enable you to share or follow interesting content on Xing directly via our website. With these so-called “social plugins” we are expanding the service on our website. Additionally, the data collected by Xing help us to create targeted advertising on the platform. This means that our services are only displayed to people who are genuinely interested in them.

What data is saved by Xing?

As plugins for websites, Xing offers the share, follow and login buttons. As soon as you open a page with an integrated Xing social plugin, your browser will connect to servers in a Xing data centre. Xing claim that upon using the share button, no data that could directly relate to a person is stored. Furthermore, Xing do not save your IP address, neither do any cookies get set upon using the share button. This means that your user behaviour is not analysed. You can find more information at https://www.xing.com/app/shareopdata_protection..

With Xing’s other plugins, cookies only get set in your browser if you interact with the plugin or click on it. Personal data such as your IP address, browser data, as well as the date and time of your visit to Xing may be stored. If you have a XING account and are logged in, the collected data will be assigned to your personal account and matched with the data stored in it.

If you click on the follow or log-in button and are not yet logged in to Xing, the following cookies are set in your browser. Please keep in mind that this is an indicative list and we do not claim for it to be exhaustive:

name: AMCVS_0894FF2554F733210A4C98C6AdobeOrg
value: 1
purpose: This cookie is used to create and store identification details for website visitors.
expiration date: after end of session

name: c_
value: 157c609dc9fe7d7ff56064c6de87b019111698491-8
purpose: We were unable to find out more information on this cookie.
expiration date: after one day

name: prevPage
value: wbmWelcomelogin
purpose: This cookie stores the URL of the previous website you visited.
expiration date: after 30 minutes

name: s_cc
value: true
purpose: This Adobe Site Catalyst cookie determines whether cookies are generally activated in the browser.
expiration date: after end of session

name: s_fid
value: 6897CDCD1013221C-39DDACC982217CD1111698491-2
purpose: This cookie is used to identify a unique visitor
expiration date: after 5 years

name: visitor_id
value: fe59fbe5-e9c6-4fca-8776-30d0c1a89c32
purpose: The visitor cookie contains a unique visitor ID and a unique identifier for your account.
expiration date: after 2 years

name:session_id
value: 533a0a6641df82b46383da06ea0e84e7111698491-2
purpose: This cookie creates a temporary session ID that is used as the in-session user ID. The cookie is vital to provide the functions of Xing.
expiration date: after end of session

When you are logged in to Xing or are a member of the platform, further personal data will be collected, processed and saved. Xing also passes personal data to third parties if it is either necessary for its own business purposes, if you have given your consent or if there is a legal obligation.

How long and where is the data saved?

Xing stores data on different servers in various data centres. The company stores this data until you delete it or until you delete your user account. Of course, this only applies to users who are already Xing members.

How can I delete my data, or prevent data retention?

You have the right to access and delete your personal data at any time. Even if you are not a Xing member, you can prevent potential data processing via your browser or manage it as you wish. Most data are stored via cookies. Depending on which browser you are using, the settings work a little different. You can find the instructions for the most common browsers here:

Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge

You can generally set your browser to always notify you when a cookie is about to be set. Then you can always decide individually whether you want to allow the cookie or not.

We tried to make you familiar with the most important information on data processing by Xing. At https://privacy.xing.com/en/privacy-policy you can find out more about data processing by the social media network Xing.

All texts are copyrighted.

Source: Created with the Datenschutz Generator by AdSimple

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