privacy

We have written this data protection declaration (version 09/17/2019-221102075) in order to provide you with information in accordance with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and the Data Protection Act (DSG) to explain what information we collect, how we use data and what choices you have as a visitor to this website.

Unfortunately, it is in the nature of things that these explanations sound very technical. However, we have tried to describe the most important things as simply and clearly as possible during the creation.

Automatic data storage

When you visit websites today, certain information is automatically created and stored, including on this website.

If you visit our website as you are right now, our web server (computer on which this website is stored) automatically saves data such as

• the address (URL) of the accessed website
• Browser and browser version
• the operating system used
• the address (URL) of the previously visited page (referrer URL)
• the hostname and IP address of the device from which access is being made
• Date and Time

in files (web server log files).

As a rule, web server log files are stored for two weeks and then automatically deleted. We do not pass on this data, but cannot rule out that this data will be viewed in the event of illegal behavior.

cookies

Our website uses HTTP cookies to store user-specific data.
In the following we explain what cookies are and why they are used so that you can better understand the following data protection declaration.

What exactly are cookies?

Whenever you surf the Internet, you use a browser. Well-known browsers include Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Microsoft Edge. Most websites store small text files in your browser. These files are called cookies.

One thing cannot be denied: Cookies are really useful little helpers. Almost all websites use cookies. More precisely, they are HTTP cookies, as there are other cookies for other areas of application. HTTP cookies are small files that are stored on your computer by our website. These cookie files are automatically stored in the cookie folder, which is basically the “brain” of your browser. A cookie consists of a name and a value. When defining a cookie, one or more attributes must also be specified.

Cookies store certain user data from you, such as language or personal page settings. When you visit our site again, your browser transmits the “user-related” information back to our site. Thanks to the cookies, our website knows who you are and offers you your usual default setting. In some browsers each cookie has its own file, in others such as Firefox all cookies are stored in a single file.

There are both first-party cookies and third-party cookies. First-party cookies are created directly by our site, third-party cookies are created by partner websites (e.g. Google Analytics). Each cookie must be evaluated individually, since each cookie stores different data. The expiry time of a cookie also varies from a few minutes to a few years. Cookies are not software programs and do not contain viruses, Trojans or other “pests”. Cookies also cannot access information on your PC.

For example, cookie data can look like this:

• Name: _ga
• Expiry time: 2 years
• Use: Differentiation of website visitors
• Example value: GA1.2.1326744211.152221102075

A browser should support the following minimum sizes:

• A cookie should contain at least 4096 bytes
• At least 50 cookies should be stored per domain
• A total of at least 3000 cookies should be able to be stored

What types of cookies are there?

The question of which cookies we use in particular depends on the services used and is clarified in the following sections of the data protection declaration. At this point we would like to briefly explain the different types of HTTP cookies.

There are 4 types of cookies:

Strictly Necessary Cookies
These cookies are necessary to ensure basic functions of the website. For example, these cookies are needed if a user puts a product in the shopping cart, then continues surfing on other pages and only goes to the checkout later. These cookies do not delete the shopping cart, even if the user closes their browser window.

Functional cookies
These cookies collect information about user behavior and whether the user receives any error messages. In addition, these cookies are also used to measure the loading time and behavior of the website in different browsers.

Targeting cookies
These cookies ensure a better user experience. For example, entered locations, font sizes or form data are saved.

advertising cookies
These cookies are also called targeting cookies. They are used to deliver individually tailored advertising to the user. This can be very useful, but also very annoying.

Usually, when you visit a website for the first time, you will be asked which of these types of cookies you would like to allow. And of course this decision is also stored in a cookie.

How can I delete cookies?

You decide for yourself how and whether you want to use cookies. Regardless of which service or website the cookies come from, you always have the option of deleting cookies, only partially allowing them or deactivating them. For example, you can block third-party cookies but allow all other cookies.

If you want to find out which cookies have been stored in your browser, if you want to change or delete cookie settings, you can find this in your browser settings:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing Cookies and Website Data with Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies to remove data websites have placed on your computer

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

If you generally do not want any cookies, you can set up your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be set. You can decide for each individual cookie whether you allow the cookie or not. The procedure differs depending on the browser. It is best to search the instructions in Google with the search term “delete cookies Chrome” or “disable cookies Chrome” in case of a Chrome browser or replace the word “Chrome” with the name of your browser, eg Edge, Firefox, Safari.

What about my data protection?

The so-called “Cookie Guidelines” have been in place since 2009. It states that the storage of cookies requires the consent of the website visitor (i.e. you). Within the EU countries, however, there are still very different reactions to these directives. In Austria, however, this directive was implemented in § 96 para. 3 of the Telecommunications Act (TKG).

If you want to know more about cookies and don’t shy away from 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

Personal data that you transmit to us electronically on this website, such as name, e-mail address, address or other personal information when submitting a form or comments on the blog, will be stored by us together with the time and the IP Address used only for the purpose stated, kept safe and not passed on to third parties.

We therefore only use your personal data to communicate with those visitors who expressly request contact and to process the services and products offered on this website. We do not pass on your personal data without your consent, but we cannot rule out that this data will be viewed in the event of illegal behavior.

If you send us personal data by e-mail – thus outside of this website – we cannot guarantee a secure transmission and the protection of your data. We recommend that you never send confidential data unencrypted by e-mail.

Rights under the General Data Protection Regulation

According to the provisions of the GDPR and the Austrian Data Protection Act (DSG) basically the following rights:

• Right to rectification (Article 16 GDPR)
• Right to erasure (“right to be forgotten”) (Article 17 GDPR)
• Right to restriction of processing (Article 18 GDPR)
• Right to notification – obligation to notify in connection with 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 believe that the processing of your data violates data protection law or your data protection claims have otherwise been violated in any way, you can complain to the supervisory authority, which is the data protection authority in Austria, whose website you can visit https://www.dsb.gv.at/ Find.

Evaluation of visitor behavior

In the following data protection declaration we inform you whether and how we evaluate data from your visit to this website. The evaluation of the collected data is usually anonymous and we cannot draw any conclusions about your person from your behavior on this website.

You can find out more about the possibilities of objecting to this evaluation of visit data in the following data protection declaration.

TLS encryption with https

We use https to transmit data securely on the Internet (data protection through technology design Article 25 paragraph 1 GDPR ). By using TLS (Transport Layer Security), an encryption protocol for secure data transmission on the Internet, we can ensure the protection of confidential data. You can recognize the use of this protection of data transmission by the small lock symbol in the top left corner of the browser and the use of the https scheme (instead of http) as part of our Internet address.

Google Fonts Privacy Policy

We use Google Fonts from Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheater Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA) on our website.

You do not need to register or set a password to use Google fonts. Furthermore, no cookies are stored in your browser. The files (CSS, typefaces/fonts) are requested via the Google domains fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com. According to Google, requests for CSS and fonts are completely separate from all other Google services. If you have a Google account, you don’t have to worry about your Google account data being transmitted to Google while using Google Fonts. Google records the use of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and the fonts used and stores this data securely. How the data storage looks exactly, we will look at in detail.

What are Google Fonts?

Google Fonts (formerly Google Web Fonts) is an interactive directory with more than 800 fonts provided by Google LLC for free use.

Many of these fonts are released under the SIL Open Font License, while others are released under the Apache License. Both are free software licenses. So we can use them freely without paying license fees.

Why do we use Google Fonts on our website?

With Google Fonts we can use fonts on our own website and do not have to upload them to our own server. Google Fonts is an important component in keeping the quality of our website high. All Google fonts are automatically optimized for the web and this saves data volume and is a great advantage especially for use on mobile devices. When you visit our site, the small file size ensures fast loading time. Furthermore, Google Fonts are so-called secure web fonts. Different image synthesis systems (rendering) in different browsers, operating systems and mobile devices can lead to errors. Such errors can partially distort texts or entire websites. Thanks to the fast Content Delivery Network (CDN), there are no cross-platform problems with Google Fonts. Google Fonts supports all major browsers (Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera) and works reliably on most modern mobile operating systems, including Android 2.2+ and iOS 4.2+ (iPhone, iPad, iPod). So we use Google Fonts so that we can present our entire online service as beautifully and uniformly as possible.

Which data is stored by Google?

When you visit our website, the fonts are reloaded via a Google server. This external call transmits data to the Google servers. In this way, Google also recognizes that you or your IP address is visiting our website. The Google Fonts API was developed to reduce the collection, storage and use of end-user data to what is necessary for efficient font delivery. Incidentally, API stands for “Application Programming Interface” and serves, among other things, as a data transmitter in the software sector.

Google Fonts securely stores CSS and font requests with Google and is therefore protected. Google can determine the popularity of the fonts from the collected usage figures. Google publishes the results on internal analysis pages, such as Google Analytics. Google also uses data from its own web crawler to determine which websites use Google fonts. This data is published in the Google Fonts BigQuery database. BigQuery is a web service from Google for companies that want to move and analyze large amounts of data.

It should be noted, however, that with every Google Font request, information such as IP address, language settings, browser screen resolution, browser version and browser name is automatically transmitted to the Google servers. Whether this data is also stored cannot be clearly determined or is not clearly communicated by Google.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google stores requests for CSS assets for one day on its servers, which are mainly located outside the EU. This enables us to use the fonts using a Google style sheet. A style sheet is a template that you can use to change the design or font of a website, for example, quickly and easily.

The font files are stored by Google for one year. Google is thus pursuing the goal of fundamentally improving the loading time of websites. When millions of websites refer to the same fonts, they are cached after the first visit and immediately reappear on all other websites visited later. Sometimes Google updates font files to reduce file size, increase language coverage, and improve design.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

The data that Google stores for a day or a year cannot simply be deleted. The data is automatically transmitted to Google when the page is accessed. To be able to delete this data prematurely, you must contact Google support https://support.google.com/?hl=de&tid=221102075 to contact. In this case, you only prevent data storage if you do not visit our site.

Unlike other web fonts, Google allows us unlimited access to all fonts. So we have unlimited access to a sea of fonts and thus get the best out of our website. You can find more about Google Fonts and other questions at https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq?tid=221102075 . Although Google addresses data protection issues there, it does not contain really detailed information about data storage. It is relatively difficult (almost impossible) to get really precise information about stored data from Google.

You can also find out which data is generally collected by Google and what this data is used for https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/ read.

Google reCAPTCHA Privacy Policy

Our primary goal is to ensure that our website is as safe and secure as possible for you and for us. To ensure this, we use Google reCAPTCHA from Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheater Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). With reCAPTCHA we can determine if you really are a real human being and not a robot or other spam software. We understand spam to mean any unwanted information that is sent to us electronically, unsolicited. With the classic CAPTCHAS, you usually had to solve text or image puzzles to check them. With reCAPTCHA from Google, we don’t have to bother you with such puzzles most of the time. In most cases, it is sufficient if you simply tick the box and confirm that you are not a bot. With the new Invisible reCAPTCHA version, you don’t even have to check the box. You can find out exactly how this works and, above all, what data is used for this in the course of this data protection declaration.

What is reCAPTCHA?

reCAPTCHA is a free captcha service provided by Google that protects websites from spam software and abuse by non-human visitors. Most often, this service is used when filling out forms on the Internet. A captcha service is an automatic Turing test designed to ensure that an action on the internet is being performed by a human and not a bot. In the classic Turing test (named after the computer scientist Alan Turing), a human determines the difference between a bot and a human. In the case of captchas, the computer or a software program also takes care of this. Classic captchas work with small tasks that are easy for humans to solve, but present significant difficulties for machines. With reCAPTCHA you no longer have to actively solve puzzles. The tool uses modern risk techniques to distinguish humans from bots. Here you only have to tick the text field “I’m not a robot” or with Invisible reCAPTCHA even that is no longer necessary. With reCAPTCHA, a JavaScript element is integrated into the source text and then the tool runs in the background and analyzes your user behavior. The software calculates a so-called Captcha score from these user actions. Google uses this score to calculate how likely it is that you are a human before you enter the Captcha. ReCAPTCHA or Captchas in general are always used when bots could manipulate or misuse certain actions (such as registrations, surveys, etc.).

Why do we use reCAPTCHA on our website?

We only want to welcome flesh and blood people to our site. Bots or spam software of all kinds can safely stay at home. That’s why we’re doing everything we can to protect ourselves and offer you the best possible user experience. For this reason we use Google reCAPTCHA from Google. So we can be pretty sure that we remain a “bot-free” website. By using reCAPTCHA, data is transmitted to Google, which Google uses to determine whether you are really a human being. reCAPTCHA therefore serves to ensure the security of our website and subsequently also your security. For example, without reCAPTCHA it could happen that a bot registers as many email addresses as possible during registration in order to then “spam” forums or blogs with unwanted advertising content. With reCAPTCHA we can avoid such bot attacks.

What data is stored by reCAPTCHA?

ReCAPTCHA collects personally identifiable information from users to determine whether the actions on our website are actually human. The IP address and other data that Google needs for the reCAPTCHA service can therefore be sent to Google. IP addresses are almost always shortened within the member states of the EU or other contracting states of the Agreement on the European Economic Area before the data ends up on a server in the USA. The IP address is not combined with other data from Google unless you are logged in with your Google account while using reCAPTCHA. First, the reCAPTCHA algorithm checks whether Google cookies from other Google services (YouTube, Gmail, etc.) are already placed on your browser. Then reCAPTCHA sets an additional cookie in your browser and captures a snapshot of your browser window.

The following list of collected browser and user data does not claim to be complete. Rather, they are examples of data that, to our knowledge, are processed by Google.

• Referrer URL (the address of the page the visitor came from)
• IP address (e.g. 256.123.123.1)
• Information about the operating system (the software that enables your computer to operate. Known operating systems are Windows, Mac OS X or Linux)
• Cookies (small text files that store data in your browser)
• Mouse and keyboard behavior (every action you perform with the mouse or keyboard is saved)
• Date and language settings (which language or which date you have preset on your PC is saved)
• All JavaScript objects (JavaScript is a programming language that allows websites to adapt to the user. JavaScript objects can collect all kinds of data under one name)
• Screen resolution (shows how many pixels the image display consists of)

It is undisputed that Google uses and analyzes this data even before you click on the “I’m not a robot” checkbox. With the Invisible reCAPTCHA version, you don’t even have to check the box and the whole recognition process runs in the background. Google does not tell you in detail how much and what data Google stores.

The following cookies are used by reCAPTCHA: Here we refer to the reCAPTCHA demo version from Google below https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api2/demo . All of these cookies require a unique identifier for tracking purposes. Here is a list of cookies set by Google reCAPTCHA on the demo version:

Surname: IDE
Expiration time: after a year
Use: This cookie is set by the company DoubleClick (also belongs to Google) in order to register and report the actions of a user on the website in dealing with advertisements. In this way, the effectiveness of the advertising can be measured and appropriate optimization measures can be taken. IDE is stored in browsers under doubleclick.net domain.
Example value: WqTUmlnmv_qXyi_DGNPLESKnRNrpgXoy1K-pAZtAkMbHI-221102075

Surname: 1P_JAR
Expiration time: after a month
Use: This cookie collects website usage statistics and measures conversions. A conversion occurs, for example, when a user becomes a buyer. The cookie is also used to display relevant advertisements to users. Furthermore, the cookie can be used to prevent a user from seeing the same ad more than once.
Example value: 2019-5-14-12

Surname: ANID
Expiration time: after 9 months
Use: We were not able to find out much information about this cookie. In Google’s privacy policy, the cookie is used in connection with “advertising cookies” such as e.g. B. “DSID”, “FLC”, “AID”, “TAID” mentioned. ANID is stored under domain google.com.
Sample value: U7j1v3dZa2211020750xgZFmiqWppRWKOr

Surname: CONSENT
Expiration time: after 19 years
Use: The cookie stores the status of a user’s consent to the use of various Google services. CONSENT is also used for security to screen users, prevent fraudulent login information and protect user data from unauthorized attacks.
Example value: YES+AT.de+20150628-20-0

Surname: NID
Expiration time: after 6 months
Use: NID is used by Google to match advertisements to your Google search. With the help of the cookie, Google “remembers” your most frequently entered search queries or your previous interaction with ads. So you always get tailor-made advertisements. The cookie contains a unique ID that Google uses to collect the user’s personal settings for advertising purposes.
Example value: 0WmuWqy221102075zILzqV_nmt3sDXwPeM5Q

Surname: dv
Expiration time: after 10 minutes
Use: Once you have ticked the “I’m not a robot” box, this cookie will be set. The cookie is used by Google Analytics for personalized advertising. DV collects information in an anonymous form and is also used to make user distinctions.
Example value: gEAABBCjJMXcI0dSAAAANbqc221102075

Note: This list cannot claim to be complete, as experience has shown that Google changes the choice of its cookies again and again.

How long and where is the data stored?

By inserting reCAPTCHA, your data will be transferred to the Google server. Where exactly this data is stored is not made clear by Google, even after repeated inquiries. Without having received confirmation from Google, it can be assumed that data such as mouse interaction, time spent on the website or language settings are stored on the European or American Google servers. The IP address that your browser transmits to Google is generally not merged with other Google data from other Google services. However, if you are logged into your Google account while using the reCAPTCHA plugin, the data will be merged. The deviating data protection regulations of the company Google apply.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

If you do not want any data about you and your behavior to be transmitted to Google, you must log out of Google completely and delete all Google cookies before you visit our website or use the reCAPTCHA software. In principle, the data is automatically transmitted to Google as soon as you access our site. To delete this data again, you must contact Google support https://support.google.com/?hl=de&tid=221102075 to contact.

So if you use our website, you agree that Google LLC and its representatives automatically collect, process and use data.

You can learn a little more about reCAPTCHA on Google’s web developer page https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/ . Google goes into the technical development of the reCAPTCHA in more detail here, but you won’t find precise information about data storage and data protection-related topics there either. A good overview of the basic use of data at Google can be found in the in-house data protection declaration https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/ .

Google Analytics Privacy Policy

We use Google Analytics from Google LLC (1600 Amphitheater Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA) on this website to statistically evaluate visitor data. Google Analytics uses target-oriented cookies.

Google Analytics cookies

• _ga
  • Expiry time: 2 years
  • Use: Differentiation of website visitors
  • Example value: GA1.2.1326744211.152221102075
• _gid
  • Expiry time: 24 hours
  • Use: Differentiation of website visitors
  • Example value: GA1.2.1687193234.152221102075
• _gat_gtag_UA_< property id>
  • Expiry time: 1 minute
  • Usage: Used to throttle the request rate. If Google Analytics is provided via Google Tag Manager, this cookie will be named _dc_gtm_< property id> .
  • Example value: 1

You can find more information on the terms of use and data protection under http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/de.html or under https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=de .

pseudonymization

Our concern within the meaning of the GDPR is to improve our offer and our website. Since the privacy of our users is important to us, user data is pseudonymised. Data processing takes place on the basis of the legal provisions of Section 96 Paragraph 3 TKG and Art 6 EU-GDPR Paragraph 1 lit a (consent) and/or f (legitimate interest) of the GDPR.

Deactivation of data collection by Google Analytics

With the help of Browser add-ons to disable Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, dc.js) allows website visitors to prevent Google Analytics from using their data.

You can prevent Google from collecting the data generated by the cookie and relating to your use of the website and from processing this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available under the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de

Google Analytics addendum to data processing

We have entered into a direct customer agreement with Google for the use of Google Analytics by accepting the “Data Processing Amendment” in Google Analytics.

You can find out more about the data processing addendum for Google Analytics here: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3379636?hl=de&utm_id=ad

Google Analytics reports on demographics and interests

We have activated the functions for advertising reports in Google Analytics. The Demographics and Interests reports include information about age, gender, and interests. This enables us to get a better picture of our users without being able to assign this data to individual persons. Learn more about the advertising features at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/3450482?hl=de_AT&utm_id=ad .

You can control the use of your Google Account activity and information under “Advertising Settings”. https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated exit via checkbox.

Embedded Social Media Elements Privacy Policy

We integrate elements of social media services on our website to display images, videos and texts.
By visiting pages that display these elements, data is transferred from your browser to the respective social media service and stored there. We have no access to this data.
The following links take you to the pages of the respective social media services, where it is explained how they handle your data:

• Instagram Privacy Policy: https://help.instagram.com/519522125107875
• The Google data protection declaration applies to YouTube: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
• Facebook data policy: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy
• Twitter privacy policy: https://twitter.com/de/privacy

Facebook Privacy Policy

We use functions from Facebook on this website, a social media network operated by Facebook Ireland Ltd., 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2 Ireland.
You can see which functions (social plug-ins) Facebook provides https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/ read.
By visiting our website, information can be transmitted to Facebook. If you have a Facebook account, Facebook can associate this data with your personal account. If you do not want this, please log out of Facebook.
The privacy policy, what information Facebook collects and how they use it can be found at https://www.facebook.com/policy.php .

Newsletter Privacy Policy

If you subscribe to our newsletter, you submit the above personal data and give us the right to contact you by email. We use the data stored when registering for the newsletter exclusively for our newsletter and do not pass it on.

If you unsubscribe from the newsletter – you will find the link for this at the bottom of every newsletter – then we will delete all data that was saved with the registration for the newsletter.

MailChimp Privacy Policy

We send newsletters with MailChimp and use functions of the MailChimp newsletter service from The Rocket Science Group, LLC, 675 Ponce de Leon Ave NE, Suite 5000, Atlanta, GA 30308 USA on this website to record newsletter registrations.

General information about MailChimp

Rocket Science Group LLC (MailChimp) maintains online platforms that allow our users to keep in touch with their subscribers, primarily through email. They allow users to provide email addresses and other subscriber profile information, such as B. upload name, physical address and other demographic information to the MailChimp database. This information is used to send emails and to enable use of certain other MailChimp features for these users. In accordance with published privacy policies, MailChimp shares some information with third parties to provide and support the services MailChimp offers to users. MailChimp also shares some information with third-party advertising partners to better understand users’ needs and interests in order to provide more relevant content and targeted advertising to those users and other users.

Newsletter Sign up

If you register for our newsletter on our website, the data entered will be stored at MailChimp.

deletion of your data

You can withdraw your consent to receive our newsletter at any time by clicking on the link at the bottom of the email received. If you have unsubscribed by clicking on the unsubscribe link, your data will be deleted from MailChimp.

Newsletter evaluation

If you receive a newsletter via MailChimp, information such as IP address, browser type and e-mail program is stored to give us information on the performance of our newsletter. MailChimp can use the images called web beacons integrated in the HTML e-mails (details can be found at https://kb.mailchimp.com/reports/about-open-tracking ) to determine whether the e-mail has arrived, whether it was opened and whether links were clicked. All of this information is stored on MailChimp’s servers, not on this website.

MailChimp is an active participant in the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure data transfer of personal data. You can find more information on this at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000TO6hAAG . You can find out more about the use of cookies at MailChimp at https://mailchimp.com/legal/cookies/ , information on data protection at MailChimp (privacy) can be found at https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/ read.

Google Ads (Google AdWords) Conversion Tracking Privacy Policy

We use Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) as an online marketing measure to advertise our products, offers and services. We want to make more people aware of the high quality of our offers on the Internet. As part of our advertising measures through Google Ads, we use conversion tracking from Google LLC., 1600 Amphitheater Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (“Google”) on our website. With the help of this free tracking tool, we can better tailor our advertising offering to your interests and needs. In the following article we want to go into more detail why we use conversion tracking, what data is stored and how you can prevent this data storage.

What is Google Ads conversion tracking?

Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is Google LLC’s in-house online advertising system. We can use Google Ads to create online ads to bring interested people closer to our products or services. We are convinced of the quality of our offer and want as many people as possible to get to know our website. In the online area, Google Ads offers the best platform for this. Of course, we also want to get a precise overview of the cost-benefit factor of our advertising campaigns. That’s why we use the Google Ads conversion tracking tool.

But what exactly is a conversion? A conversion occurs when you go from being a purely interested website visitor to an acting visitor. This always happens when you click on our ad and then perform another action, such as visiting our website. We use Google’s conversion tracking tool to record what happens after a user clicks on our Google Ads ad. For example, we can see whether products are being purchased, services are being used or whether users have signed up for our newsletter.

Why do we use Google Ads conversion tracking on our website?

We use Google Ads to draw attention to our offer on other websites. The aim is that our advertising campaigns really only reach those people who are interested in our products and offers. With the conversion tracking tool, we see which keywords, ads, ad groups and campaigns lead to the desired customer actions. We see how many customers interact with our ads on a device or in a browser and then convert. This data enables us to calculate our cost-benefit factor, measure the success of individual advertising measures and consequently optimize our online marketing measures. With the help of the data obtained, we can also make our website more interesting for you and adapt our advertising offer even more individually to your needs.

What data is stored with Google Ads conversion tracking?

We have embedded a conversion tracking tag or code snippet on our website to better analyze certain user actions. If you now click on one of our Google Ads ads, the “Conversion” cookie from a Google domain will be stored on your computer (usually in the browser) or mobile device. Cookies are small text files that store information on your computer.

Here is the data of the most important cookies for Google’s conversion tracking:

Surname: conversion
Expiration time: after 3 months
Sample value: EhMI_aySuoyv4gIVled3Ch0llweVGAEgt-mr6aXd7dYlSAGQ221102075

Surname: _gac
Expiration time: after 3 months
Example value: 1.1558695989.EAIaIQobChMIiOmEgYO04gIVj5AYCh2CBAPrEAAYASAAEgIYQfD_BwE

Note: The _gac cookie only appears in connection with Google Analytics. The list above does not claim to be complete, since Google also uses other cookies for analytical evaluation.

As soon as you complete an action on our website, Google recognizes the cookie and saves your action as a so-called conversion. As long as you surf our website and the cookie has not yet expired, we and Google will recognize that you have found us via our Google Ads ad. The cookie is read and sent back to Google Ads with the conversion data. It is also possible that other cookies are used to measure conversions. Google Ads conversion tracking can be further refined and improved with the help of Google Analytics. For ads that Google displays in various places on the web, cookies with the name “__gads” or “_gac” may be set under our domain. Since September 2017, analytics.js has been storing various campaign information with the _gac cookie. The cookie saves this data as soon as you visit one of our pages for which Google Ads automatic tagging has been set up. Unlike cookies set for Google domains, Google can only read these conversion cookies when you are on our website. We do not collect or receive any personal data. We get a report from Google with statistical evaluations. For example, we learn the total number of users who clicked on our ad and we see how well each advertising measure was received.

How long and where is the data stored?

At this point we would like to point out that we have no influence on how Google uses the data collected by the conversion tracking tool. According to Google, the data is encrypted and stored on secure servers. In most cases, conversion cookies expire after 30 days and do not transmit any personal data. The cookies named “Conversion” and “_gac” (used in connection with Google Analytics) have an expiry date of 3 months.

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

You have the option not to participate in Google Ads conversion tracking. If you disable the Google conversion tracking cookie via your browser, you block conversion tracking. In this case, you will not be included in the statistics of the tracking tool. You can change the cookie settings in your browser at any time. Each browser works a little differently. Here are instructions on how to manage cookies in your browser:

Chrome: Delete, enable and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing Cookies and Website Data with Safari

Firefox: Clear cookies to remove data websites have placed on your computer

Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

If you generally do not want any cookies, you can set up your browser so that it always informs you when a cookie is to be set. You can decide for each individual cookie whether you allow the cookie or not. By downloading and installing this browser plug-in on https://support.google.com/ads/answer/7395996 all “advertising cookies” are also deactivated. Keep in mind that by disabling these cookies you will not prevent the ads, only the personalized advertising.

Due to the certification for the American-European data protection agreement “Privacy Shield”, the American group Google LLC must comply with the data protection laws applicable in the EU. If you would like to find out more about data protection at Google, we recommend Google’s general data protection declaration: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de .

Facebook pixel privacy policy

On this website we use the Facebook Pixel from Facebook, a social media network from Facebook Ireland Ltd., 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2 Ireland.

The code implemented on this page can evaluate the behavior of visitors who came to this website from a Facebook advertisement. This can be used to improve Facebook ads and this data is collected and stored by Facebook. The data collected cannot be viewed by us and can only be used in the context of placing advertisements. Cookies are also set by using the Facebook pixel code.

By using the Facebook pixel, the visit to this website is communicated to Facebook so that visitors to Facebook can see suitable ads. If you have a Facebook account and are logged in, visiting this website will be associated with your Facebook user account.

You can find out how the Facebook pixel is used for advertising campaigns at https://www.facebook.com/business/learn/facebook-ads-pixel .

You can change your settings for ads on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen if you are logged in to Facebook. You can manage your preferences regarding usage-based online advertising at http://www.youronlinechoices.com/de/praferenzmanagement/. There you can deactivate or activate many providers at once or make the settings for individual providers.

More information on Facebook’s data policy can be found at https://www.facebook.com/policy.php .

Source: Created with the imprint generator from adsimple.at

5. You can reach us using the following contact details:

Stinner IT Solutions
Thomas Stinner
hello@stinner-it.com