Privacy policy
General privacy policy
It is usually possible to use our website without providing personal information. As far as possible, we only gather personal data such as names, addresses or email addresses when you have voluntarily provided these data. These personal data will not be passed on to third parties without your express consent. Please note that data transmission over the Internet always involves some security risks. Complete protection of data against unauthorized access by third parties is not possible.
Third parties are expressly prohibited from using the contact details published as part of our imprint to send us unsolicited advertisements and information materials. The site operators reserve the right to take legal action if we receive unsolicited promotional information such as spam emails.
Privacy statement for the use of Google Analytics and Google Adsense
This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by google.com, operated by Google Inc., Gordon House, Barrow St, Dublin 4, Ireland (‘Google’). Google Analytics uses ‘cookies’, text files that are stored on your computer and allow an analysis of the use of the website. The information generated by cookies about your use of this site is generally sent to a Google server in the United States and stored there. On behalf of the operator of this site, Google will use this information to evaluate your use of the website, compile reports on website activity and provide them to the site operator. The IP address that your browser conveys within the scope of Google Analytics will not be connected with any other data held by Google. You may reject the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. Please note, however, that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.
If IP anonymization is activated on this website, your IP address will be truncated within the area of Member States of the European Union or other parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the whole IP address be first transferred to a Google server in the USA and truncated there. IP anonymization is active on this website.
You can also prevent the collection of data generated by cookies about your use of the website (including your IP address) and the processing of these data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plugin available at the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
Privacy statement for the use of Facebook plugins
Our website uses social plugins (‘plugins’) provided by the social network facebook.com, which is operated by Facebook Ireland Ltd., 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland (‘Facebook’). The plugins can be identified by the Facebook logo (a white letter ‘f’ on a blue background, the word ‘like’ or a thumbs-up icon) or the notice ‘Facebook Social Plugin’. For a full list of all social plugins, please see https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins.
When you visit a page of our website that contains a social plugin, your browser establishes a direct connection to Facebook servers. Facebook directly transfers the plugin content to your browser, which is then embedded in the website, enabling Facebook to receive the information that you have accessed the respective page of our website. Please note that we as providers of the site receive no information about the content of the transmitted data or the use of these by Facebook. For information on the purpose and scope of data collection and processing by Facebook, as well as your rights in this respect and settings options for protecting your privacy, please visit Facebook’s privacy policy: http://www.facebook.com/policy.php.
The embedded plugins provide Facebook with the information that you have accessed the corresponding page of our website. If you are logged into Facebook, your visit can be assigned to your Facebook account. If you interact with the plugins, for example by clicking ‘Like’ or entering a comment, the corresponding information is transmitted from your browser directly to Facebook and stored by it. Even if you are not logged into Facebook, it is possible that the plugins will transmit your IP address to Facebook.
If you are a Facebook member and do not want Facebook to connect the data concerning your visit to our website with your member data already stored by Facebook, please log off Facebook before entering our website and delete your cookies.
Privacy statement for the use of Twitter
Functions of the Twitter service are integrated into our website. These functions are offered by Twitter Inc., 795 Folsom St., Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA (‘Twitter’). Through the use of Twitter and the ‘re-tweet’ function, the web pages you visit are linked to your Twitter account and made known to other users. These data are also transmitted to Twitter. Please note that we as the providers of the site receive no information about the content of the transmitted data or the use of these by Twitter. For more information, please refer to the Twitter privacy statement at http://twitter.com/privacy.
You can change your privacy preferences at Twitter in the account settings under http://twitter.com/account/settings.
Privacy statement for the use of LinkedIn
On our website you will find plugins of the social network LinkedIn.com, which is operated by LinkedIn Corporation, 2029 Stierlin Court, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (‘LinkedIn’). The LinkedIn plugins are indicated by the LinkedIn logo or the ‘Recommend’ button on our website. Please note that when you visit our website, the plugin connects your Internet browser with the LinkedIn server. LinkedIn is thus informed that our website has been visited by your IP address. If you click the LinkedIn ‘Recommend’ button while logged into your LinkedIn account, you can link content from our website to your LinkedIn profile. LinkedIn thereby assigns to your user account your visit to our website. Please note that we receive no information about the content of the transmitted data or of the use of these by LinkedIn.
For more details on the collection of data and your legal rights and settings options, please see the LinkedIn privacy policy at https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy.
Website forms (newsletters and e-publications)
If you wish to receive the newsletters offered on our website or if you want to order one of our free PDFs or e-PUB publications, you will need to provide your email address along with additional data that will allow us to verify that you are the owner of the email address and that you agree to receive the newsletter or e-publications. We use this information exclusively for sending the requested information and do not pass it on to third parties. Consent for the use and storage of the data and email address can be revoked at any time, for example by clicking on the ‘unsubscribe’ link in the newsletter.
Privacy statement for server log data files
The provider of these pages automatically collects and stores information in server ‘log files’ that your browser transmits to us automatically. This information includes browser type, browser version, operating system used, referrer URL, host name of accessing computer and time of server request. These data cannot be used to identify specific individuals and are not connected with other data sources. We reserve the right to examine these data retrospectively if we become aware of concrete evidence of unlawful use.