Data Protection Policy

Assigned data use 

We adhere to the principle of assigned use of personal data. We collect, process and store your personal data only for the purposes for which you have communicated to us and/or to which you have agreed. 

We will not disclose your personal data to third parties without your express consent, unless this is necessary to provide the service or fulfil the agreement. Any disclosure of information to government institutions or authorities entitled to receive this information is only done within the scope of our statutory obligations or if we are required to provide this information as per court ruling. 

Collection, processing and use of personal data 

You may visit our Website without providing information about you. Generally, we collect, process and use personal data only insofar as the GDPR or other legal regulation allows or requires this to be done, or if you have consented to this as a user or visitor to our website. 

For technical reasons, it should be noted that communication via the Internet requires certain data to always be transmitted from your computer or smartphone to us. This includes the date and time you accessed our web pages, your browser type, browser settings and operating system, the last page you visited, and the volume of data transferred. 

Data are also processed by a third-party provider that we have engaged to render hosting and website presentation services on our behalf. This provider processes on its servers all data that are collected in the manner specified below when you visit our website or fill in forms made available for this purpose. Data are processed on other servers only in the scope described herein. 

Our service provider is based an EU member state. 

Use of cookies 

On several of our pages we use so-called cookies in order to make the visit to our Website attractive and enable the use of certain functions. Cookies are small text files which are stored on your computer when visiting our Website and which give us information about your current settings and use of the Website. Most of the cookies are only used to be able to use our Website and will be deleted on your hard disk after the end of the browser-session, i.e. closing your browser (so-called session cookies). Other cookies will remain on your hard disk and will enable us to recognize your browser during your next visit (so-called persistent cookies). You may delete any and all cookies stored on your computer at any time. 

You may set your browser to notify you before you receive a cookie and decide to accept these on a case-by-case or to reject cookies either in certain situations or in general. If cookies are rejected, the functionality of our Website may be restricted. 

If you visit our login page, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when you close your browser.

When you log in, we will also set up several cookies to save your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select “Remember Me”, your login will persist for two weeks. If you log out of your account, the login cookies will be removed.

If you edit or publish an article, an additional cookie will be saved in your browser. This cookie includes no personal data and simply indicates the post ID of the article you just edited. It expires after 1 day.

Matomo Analytics 

This website uses Matomo open-source software for the statistical analysis of user access. Based on our legitimate interest in the statistical analysis of user behaviour for optimisation and marketing purposes in accordance with Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR, Matomo collects and analyses data about users of our website. Matomo uses cookies that are stored on a user’s computer and which allow a user’s use of the website to be analysed. The information generated by the cookie about the use of this website is stored on the provider’s server in Germany. 

The IP address is pseudonymized immediately upon collection. The information generated by the cookies is not used to identify visitors to the website. Furthermore, no personal data is combined via the bearer of the pseudonym. 

Users can prevent the installation of cookies via their browser software settings. 

You can decide whether a unique web analytics cookie may be stored in your browser in order to allow the controller of the website to collect and analyse various statistical data. 

If you wish to opt-out, click the following link to place the Matomo opt-out cookie in your browser. Please note that completely deleting your cookies means that the opt-out cookie will also be deleted and, if necessary, may need to be reactivated by you. 

https://analytics.depage.net/index.php?module=CoreAdminHome&action=optOut&language=en&backgroundColor=&fontColor=&fontSize=&fontFamily=

Media

If you upload images to the website, you should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website.

Embedded content from other websites

Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Who we share your data with

If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email.

If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue.

How long we retain your data

For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information.

What rights you have over your data

If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.

Your rights 

At any time, you can request information from the controller, as responsible entity, concerning which personal data has been stored, the purpose of storing this data and where it originated. In addition, in accordance with statutory provisions, you have the right to rectify, restrict or erase your personal data. Please send any such requests via email to the above-mentioned email address. Comments

When visitors leave comments on the site we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection.