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Data protection

We have written this privacy policy (version 30 July 2019-221098961) to explain to you, in accordance with the requirements of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and the Data Protection Act (DSG), 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, but we have endeavoured to describe the most important things as simply and clearly as possible.

Automatic data storage

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

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

  • the address (URL) of the website accessed
  • Browser and browser version
  • the operating system used
  • the address (URL) of the previously visited page (referrer URL)
  • the host name and IP address of the device from which access is made
  • date and time

in files (web server log files).

In general, web server log files are stored for a fortnight and then automatically deleted. We do not pass this data on, but we cannot rule out the possibility of this data being viewed in the event of unlawful behaviour.
In accordance with Article 6(1)(f) GDPR (lawfulness of processing), the legal basis is that there is a legitimate interest in enabling the error-free operation of this website by recording web server log files.

Cookies

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

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 save 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 also 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, the “brain” of your browser, so to speak. 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 about 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 cookies, our website knows who you are and offers you your usual default settings. 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 website, third-party cookies are created by partner websites (e.g. Google Analytics). Each cookie must be evaluated individually, as 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 programmes and do not contain viruses, Trojans or other “malware”. Cookies also cannot access information on your PC.

Cookie data can look like this, for example:

  • Name: _ga
  • Expiry time: 2 years
  • Use: Differentiation of website visitors
  • Example value: GA1.2.1326744211.152221098961

A browser should support the following minimum sizes:

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

What are the different types of cookies?

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

There are 4 different types of cookies:

Strictly necessary cookies
These cookies are necessary to ensure basic website functions. For example, these cookies are needed when a user places a product in the shopping basket, then continues surfing on other pages and only goes to the checkout later. These cookies ensure that the shopping basket is not deleted even if the user closes their browser window.

Functional cookies
These cookies collect information about user behaviour and whether the user receives any error messages. These cookies are also used to measure the loading time and the behaviour of the website with different browsers.

Target-orientated cookies
These cookies ensure better user-friendliness. For example, entered locations, font sizes or form data are saved.

These cookies are also known as targeting cookies. They are used to deliver customised advertising to the user. This can be very practical, but also very annoying.

When you visit a website for the first time, you are usually asked which of these types of cookie you would like to allow. And of course this decision is also saved in a cookie.

How can I delete cookies?

You decide how and whether you want to use cookies. Regardless of which service or website the cookies originate 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, activate and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Managing cookies and website data with Safari

Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have stored on your computer

Internet Explorer: Deleting and managing cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and managing cookies

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

What about my data protection?

The so-called “cookie guidelines” have been in place since 2009. These state that the storage of cookies requires the consent of the website visitor (i.e. you). However, there are still very different reactions to these directives within the EU countries. In Austria, however, this directive has been implemented in Section 96 (3) of the Telecommunications Act (TKG).

If you would like to know more about cookies and are not afraid of 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”.

Analysis of visitor behaviour

In the following privacy policy, we inform you whether and how we analyse data from your visit to this website. The evaluation of the collected data is generally anonymous and we cannot draw any conclusions about your person from your behaviour on this website.

You can find out more about how to object to this analysis of your visit data in the following privacy policy.

TLS encryption with https

We use https to transmit data tap-proof 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 recognise the use of this data transmission security by the small lock symbol at the top left of the browser and the use of the https scheme (instead of http) as part of our Internet address.

Google Fonts Local Privacy Policy

We use Google Fonts from Google Inc (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA) on our website. We have integrated the Google fonts locally, i.e. on our web server, not Google’s server. This means that there is no connection to Google’s servers and therefore no data transfer or storage.

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. With Google Fonts, you could use the fonts without uploading them to your own server. However, in order to prevent any transfer of information to the Google server in this respect, we have downloaded the fonts to our server. In this way, we act in accordance with data protection regulations and do not send any data to Google Fonts.

Unlike other web fonts, Google allows us unrestricted access to all fonts. This means we have unlimited access to a sea of fonts and can therefore optimise our website. You can find out more about Google Fonts and other questions at https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq?tid=221098961.

Google Fonts privacy policy

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

You do not need to log in or enter a password to use Google fonts. Furthermore, no cookies are stored in your browser. The files (CSS, 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 do not need to worry that your Google account data will be 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. We will take a closer look at exactly how the data is stored.

What are Google Fonts?

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

Many of these fonts are published under the SIL Open Font Licence, while others have been published under the Apache licence. Both are free software licences. This means that we can use them freely without paying licence fees.

Why do we use Google Fonts on our website?

With Google Fonts, we can use fonts on our own website without having 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 optimised 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 low file size ensures a 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 sometimes visually 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 common 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).

We therefore use Google Fonts so that we can present our entire online service as beautifully and uniformly as possible. According to Art. 6 para. 1 f lit. F GDPR, this already constitutes a “legitimate interest” in the processing of personal data. In this case, “legitimate interest” means both legal and economic or non-material interests that are recognised by the legal system.

What 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 server. In this way, Google also recognises 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 the efficient provision of fonts. Incidentally, API stands for “Application Programming Interface” and serves, among other things, as a data transmitter in the software sector.

Google Fonts stores CSS and font requests securely at Google and is therefore protected. Google can determine the popularity of the fonts through 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 BigQuery database of Google Fonts. BigQuery is a web service from Google for companies that want to move and analyse large amounts of data.

However, it should be noted that every Google Font request also automatically transmits information such as IP address, language settings, browser screen resolution, browser version and browser name to the Google servers. It is not clear whether this data is also stored or whether it is clearly communicated by Google.

How long and where is the data stored?

Google stores requests for CSS assets for one day on your servers, which are mainly located outside the EU. This allows us to use the fonts with the help of a Google stylesheet. A stylesheet is a format template that can be used to quickly and easily change the design or font of a website, for example.

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

How can I delete my data or prevent data storage?

The data that Google stores for one day or one year cannot simply be deleted. The data is automatically transmitted to Google when the page is accessed. To delete this data prematurely, you must contact Google support at https://support.google.com/?hl=de&tid=221098961. In this case, you can only prevent data storage if you do not visit our site.

Unlike other web fonts, Google allows us unrestricted access to all fonts. This means we have unlimited access to a sea of fonts and can therefore get the best out of our website. You can find out more about Google Fonts and other questions at https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq?tid=221098961. Although Google addresses data protection issues there, it does not provide any really detailed information about data storage. It is relatively difficult (almost impossible) to get really precise information from Google about stored data.

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

Rights under the General Data Protection Regulation

According to the provisions of the GDPR and the Austrian Data Protection Act (DSG), you have 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 – notification obligation in connection with the rectification or erasure of personal data or the 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 in Austria is the Data Protection Authority, whose website you can find at https://www.dsb.gv.at/.

Facebook privacy policy

On this website, we use functions of Facebook, a social media network of Facebook Ireland Ltd, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2 Ireland.
You can find out which functions (social plug-ins) Facebook provides at https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/.
When you visit our website, information may be transmitted to Facebook. If you have a Facebook account, Facebook can assign this data to your personal account. If you do not wish this to happen, 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.

Instagram privacy policy

We use functions of the social media network Instagram of Instagram LLC, 1601 Willow Rd, Menlo Park CA 94025, USA on our website.

With the functions for embedding Instagram content (embed function), we can display images and videos.

When you access pages that use such functions, data (IP address, browser data, date, time, cookies) is transmitted to Instagram, stored and analysed.

If you have an Instagram account and are logged in, this data will be assigned to your personal account and the data stored in it.

The privacy policy, what information Instagram collects and how they use it can be found at https://help.instagram.com/519522125107875.

Source: Created with the data protection generator from firmenwebseiten.at in cooperation with smartetechnik.at