Data protection

9. Use of third-party technologies

We use third-party technologies within our website for analysis, optimisation and advertising purposes.

These third-party providers may collect data about your use of this website and your interactions with its content and functions, including the total number of visitors to this website, the referrer URL, the pages you visit, the date, time and duration of your visit, frequency, clicked on banner/links, as well as information about device type, browser version, language preferences and geographical location (including country, city, region). The third party provider may also use cookies and collect your device ID and IP address.

All information collected will be transmitted to and stored directly on the servers of the third party. The information will only be made available to us anonymously and in statistical form. We do not have access to data that will allow us to identify you.

In some cases, we work with third-party providers that are based in the US. The transfer of data to service providers in the United States is carried out in accordance with the principles of the so-called EU-US Privacy Shield or on the basis of so-called standard contractual clauses of the EU commission. For further details, please see Clause 10.3.

In the following, we give you an overview and a description of the third-party technologies that may be used on this website.

9.1 Performance or web analytics tools

We use all performance or web analytics tools only with activated IP anonymisation, so that the last three digits of the IP address will be erased immediately after collecting the data, and only the shortened IP address is stored on the servers of the respective third party.

9.1.1 Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics service provided by Google Inc., Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (“Google“). Google uses cookies to collect information about the use of our website by users. Google uses the data collected on our behalf to evaluate the use of our website, to compile reports about the activities on our website and to provide further services associated with the use of our website to us.

The information collected by Google about the use of this website (including the shortened IP address) is stored on Google's servers in the US. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transferred to a Google server in the USA and truncated there. The truncated IP address according to Google is not associated with any other data held by Google. Google automatically deletes from Google Analytics the stored user identifiers (e.g. cookie IDs) after 14 months.

More information on the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy can be found at: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en.

Opt-out: You may refuse the processing of your data by Google Analytics by downloading and installing the browser add-on available from Google to disable Google Analytics https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en. 

9.1.2 Snowplow

Snowplow is an open source web tracking solution managed by Snowplow Analytics Ltd, EC2A 4RQ London, UK. The variant of Snowplow we use employs a tracking pixel and a cookie, allowing us to track when and how many users have visited our website, how often they visit, which of our pages they have visited and in which order, which browser or operating system they use, and which external links to an online shop they have clicked on. This information is used to evaluate how the website is used and to enable the demand-oriented design of our website.

For more information, please see SnowPlow's privacy policy: https://snowplowanalytics.com/privacy-policy/.

If you do not agree with the storage and application of the usage data taken via Snowplow as described above, you can declare your objection to the collection and usage of data that takes place as part of these web analysis procedures. To do so, please click here.

9.1.3 Hotjar

 "Hotjar" is analysis software provided by Hotjar Ltd, Level 2, St Julians Business Center, 3, Elia Zammit Street, St Julians STJ 1000, Malta.

We use Hotjar to identify ways of improving our website, diagnose technical problems, analyse user trends and, more generally, to optimise the website.

For more information, see the privacy policy of Hotjar: https://www.hotjar.com/privacy.

Opt-out: https://www.hotjar.com/opt-out .

9.1.4 Monetate

This website uses the analysis and personalization service Monetate, a service offered by Monetate Inc., 311 W 43rd St., New York, NY 10036, USA. Monetate uses cookies, which are stored on your computer, to help us analyze how you use our website and to tailor content to meet your needs. The information generated by cookies about your use of this website is transferred to a Monetate server in the USA or the European Union, where it is stored and processed on our behalf. In the event that personal data is transferred to the USA, Monetate has submitted to the EU-US Privacy Shield. In addition, for transfers to the United States and other countries that, according to the European Commission, do not have an adequate level of data protection, appropriate safeguards have been agreed to protect the individuals concerned. Before further processing, the IP address is anonymised and replaced by a generic one, i.e. one that can no longer be assigned. A direct personal reference is thus excluded. You can prevent the storage of cookies by setting your browser software accordingly; however, we would like to point out that in this case you may not be able to use all the functions of this website to their full extent. In addition, you can prevent the collection of data generated by the cookie and related to your use of the website (including your IP address) and the processing of this data by Monetate by clicking here. For more information, please refer to Monetate's Privacy Policy (http://www.monetate.com/platform-privacy-policy). 

9.2 Advertising technologies

We use third-party advertising technology on this website in order to provide you with personalised content which we believe may be of interest to you. If the third-party provider uses cookies to perform these services, the use of the cookies and the resulting collection of information is only within our control to a limited extent. We may only select segments and target groups (e.g. according to age, interests) that we want to address with our advertising. The third-party providers may sometimes combine information about your use of this website with information that they have collected during your use of other websites in which the advertising technologies are integrated. 

For more detailed information about what information might be collected by the advertising technologies, how it is used and transferred, please refer to the respective privacy policies of the third party provider via the links below.

9.2.1 Google

On the website we use marketing and remarketing features of Google Inc. 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States (“Google“). These functions allow us to display more targeted advertisements for this website.

Google stores, by its own admission, the following data in connection with the display of adverts: Your web request, IP address, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser.

For more information about how Google handles your data, please refer to the Google privacy policy: https://www.google.de/policies/privacy/.

(A) Google adwords conversion tracking

In the framework of the Google AdWords Conversion Tracking, a cookie is set on your computer ("Conversion Cookie") by Google when you click on a Google ad click and are redirected to this website. The conversion cookie enables us to identify whether and how many people who have accessed this website via an AdWords advertisement make use of our offers (e.g. a voucher code.

Google provides us with the data collected about you anonymously and makes it available only in statistical form, so we cannot draw conclusions about your identity. We use this information to create visitor statistics and to optimise our advertisements on Google.

(B) Google dynamic remarketing

Using the remarketing technology from Google, we can target users of our website on other websites with specific interest-based advertising.

To this end, when you access our websites directly via Google, a code is activated by Google and so-called (re)marketing tags (invisible graphics or code, also known as "web beacons") are incorporated in the website. This is used to store an individual cookie on your device. The cookies can be set by different domains, including google.com, doubleclick.net, invitemedia.com, admeld.com, googlesyndication.com or googleadservices.com. In this file it will be recorded what content you are interested in and what offers you clicked, additional technical information about the browser and operating system, the IP address, referring websites, time of visit as well as further details about your use of the website. If, at a later point in time, you access another website, which is also part of the Google advertising network, targeted product recommendations and interest-based advertisements will be presented to you, which are related to the offers viewed on our website.

(C) Google doubleclick for publishers

DoubleClick for Publishers is also an advertising service from Google. We use this service on our website to display offers to you based on your previous or concurrent visit to partner websites. For this purpose, cookies which contain a pseudonymous identification number are used. If you create a shopping basket in the online shop of a business partner, but have not yet paid, and then access this web page, sometimes information about your open shopping basket (for example, purchase value and product category) is automatically and pseudonymously transmitted by this cookie to Google. This is the case when our business partners also use Google DoubleClick and has expressly agreed to the transmission of the information. We may then offer you suitable gift vouchers in your open shopping basket. This form of advertising is completely automated and pseudonymous. We can only define general segmentation criteria (such as purchase value, product category), on the basis of which certain gift vouchers are displayed.

The cookie-generated information regarding your use of this website is transferred to a Google server in the USA and stored there.

Opt-out: If you have a Google Account, you can disable personalized advertising from Google using the settings for advertisements in your account: https://myaccount.google.com/intro/privacy#ads. To do so, you will first need to log into Google. Alternatively, you can turn off personalized advertising from Google using this link or download and install the browser plug-in available at the following link: https://www.google.com/settings/ads/plugin?hl=en.

In addition, we offer you the possibility of at any time refusing advertising-related cookies and similar technologies in connection with this website, by clicking here.

9.2.2 Facebook

We use on the website pixels of the social network Facebook, which is operated for users from its headquarters in the EU from the Facebook Ireland Ltd., 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland.

The pixels are integrated directly by Facebook when you access the website and they store a cookie on our users’ device.

 Facebook receives information from your browser that our site has been accessed from your device. If you are logged in to Facebook at the same time or log in to Facebook in connection to the visit to our web page, Facebook can also directly assign your visit to our website to your user account. If you visit other websites that also use Facebook pixels, this information is associated with your user account. It is not possible for us to see what other web sites you visit.

(A) Custom audiences from website (user-defined target group)

These pixels make it possible for Facebook to determine the users of a website as a target group for the display of ads for this website on Facebook ("re-targeting"). Accordingly, we insert these pixels so that our ads on Facebook are only displayed to those users who have already visited this website and have shown interest in our offer. These pixels collect information about the user's browser session, and in particular the banners and links clicked, a hashed version of the Facebook ID and the URL which is viewed.

 Every Facebook user has a unique and device-independent Facebook ID, so it is possible for us to address the users again on Facebook. We will not transfer any data sets, including, but not limited to email addresses of our users, to Facebook.

(B) Conversion tracking

We may also use the pixels to record and evaluate the effectiveness of our Facebook advertisements for statistical and market research purposes. Facebook can therefore use the pixels to determine how many users clicked on a switched advertisement and were redirected to our website.

(C) Facebook impressions

We also receive from Facebook a report with information on the interactions of the user with our switched ads on Facebook (e.g. the number of "views", "Likes", or "Comments").

Facebook provides us with the data collected anonymously and only in statistical form, without reference to a specific person. We can only select which segments of Facebook users (such as age, interests) should be shown our advertising. However, as the data will be stored and processed by Facebook, Facebook can theoretically link this data with your Facebook account and also use it for their own advertising purposes.

 For information about how Facebook handles your data, please refer to the Facebook Privacy Policy, which you can view here: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy.

Opt-out: If you have a Facebook Account, you can disable personalized advertising from Google using the settings for advertisements in your account: https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen. To do so, you will first need to log into Facebook. Alternatively, you can click the website (http://www.youronlinechoices.com/uk/your-ad-choices) of the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance of opposition against usage-based advertising through Facebook.

In addition, we offer you the possibility of at any time refusing advertising-related cookies and similar technologies in connection with this website, by clicking here.

9.2.3 Criteo

Using the technology of Criteo (Criteo GmbH, Unterer Anger 3, 80331 Munich) information about the surfing behaviour of website visitors for marketing purposes is collected on our pages in a purely anonymous form and cookies are inserted for this purpose. Criteo can thus analyse the surfing behaviour and then display targeted product recommendations as appropriate advertising banners when other web pages are visited. Under no circumstances can the data collected be used to personally identify a visitor to this website. The data collected by Criteo will only be used to improve the advertising offer. On each pop-up banner, located at the bottom righthand side is a small "i" (for information), which opens on mouseover. When you click it redirects you to a page on which the system is explained and opt-out is offered. When you click on opt-out, an "opt-out" cookie is inserted, which prevents the display of this banner in the future. Any other use or disclosure to third parties will not take place. You can find out more from Criteo in general about the privacy policy and the data protection guidelines

(https://www.criteo.com/privacy/corporate-privacy-policy/) and object to the anonymous analysis of your browsing behaviour (Opt-Out) (https://www.criteo.com/privacy/).

9.2.4 Sovendus

Voucher offers of Sovendus GmbH: In order to select a currently interesting voucher offer for you, we will transmit your pseudonymised hash value of your e-mail address and your IPaddress in encrypted form to Sovendus GmbH, Moltkestrasse 11, D-76133 Karlsruhe (Sovendus) (Art. 6 par. 1 f GDPR). The pseudonymised hash value of your e-mail address is used to consider a possibly existing objection to receive offers from Sovendus (Art. 21 par.3, Art. 6 par. 1 c GDPR). The IP-address will be exclusively used for data security purposes and as a rule the same will be anonymised after seven days (Art. 6 Abs.1 f GDPR). Furthermore, we will transmit order number, order value with currency, session ID, coupon code, and time stamp in pseudonymised form to Sovendus for billing purposes (Art. 6 Abs.1 f GDPR). If you are interested in a voucher offer of Sovendus, while there is no objection existing to receive such offers, and if you click on the voucher banner, we will transmit your form of address, your name and your e-mail address in encrypted form to Sovendus to prepare a voucher (Art. 6 par. 1 b, f GDPR). You will find further information about the processing of your data by Sovendus in their Online Data Protection Notice at https://www.sovendus.co.uk/privacy_policy.