Data Protection

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The operators of this website take the protection of your personal data very seriously. We treat your personal data confidentially and in accordance with statutory data protection regulations and this privacy policy.

It is generally possible to use our website without providing any personal data. Where personal data (such as your name, address or email address) is collected on our website, this is always done on a voluntary basis wherever possible. This data will not be passed on to third parties without your express consent.

Please note that data transmission over the internet (e.g. when communicating by email) may be subject to security vulnerabilities. It is not possible to guarantee complete protection of data against access by third parties.

Data Protection Officer

Your point of contact for enquiries regarding the collection, processing and use of personal data:

datenschutzbeauftragter@argus.info

Cookies

Some parts of this website use so-called cookies. Cookies do not cause any damage to your computer and do not contain viruses. Cookies serve to make our website more user-friendly, effective and secure. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer and saved by your browser.

Most of the cookies we use are so-called ‘session cookies’. They are automatically deleted at the end of your visit. Other cookies remain stored on your device until you delete them. These cookies enable us to recognise your browser the next time you visit.

You can configure your browser so that you are notified when cookies are set and can choose to allow cookies only on a case-by-case basis, block the acceptance of cookies in specific cases or generally, and enable the automatic deletion of cookies when you close your browser. If you disable cookies, the functionality of this website may be restricted.

Contact form

If you send us enquiries via the contact form, the details you provide in the enquiry form – including the contact details you enter there – will be stored by us for the purpose of processing your enquiry and in the event of any follow-up questions. We will not pass on this data without your consent.

Privacy Policy for the Use of Piwik

This website uses the open-source web analytics service Piwik. Piwik uses so-called ‘cookies’. These are text files that are stored on your computer and enable an analysis of your use of the website. To this end, the information generated by the cookie regarding your use of this website is stored on our server. The IP address is anonymised before being stored.

The information generated by the cookie regarding your use of this website is not passed on to third parties. You can prevent the storage of cookies by adjusting the settings in your web browser; however, we would like to point out that, in this case, you may not be able to make full use of all the functions of this website.

If you do not consent to the storage and use of your data, you can disable this here. In this case, an opt-out cookie will be stored in your browser, which prevents Piwik from storing usage data. If you delete your cookies, this will also result in the Piwik opt-out cookie being deleted. The opt-out must be reactivated the next time you visit our site.

Privacy Policy for the use of Google Analytics 4

Provided you have given your consent, this website uses Google Analytics 4, a web analytics service provided by Google LLC. The data controller for users in the EU, the EEA and Switzerland is Google Ireland Limited, Google Building Gordon House, 4 Barrow St, Dublin, D04 E5W5, Ireland (‘Google’).

Nature and purpose of processing
Google Analytics uses cookies that enable an analysis of your use of our websites. The information collected via the cookies regarding your use of this website is generally transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there.

We use Google Signals. This enables Google Analytics to collect additional information about users who have enabled personalised adverts (interests and demographic data), and adverts can be served to these users in cross-device remarketing campaigns.

In Google Analytics 4, IP address anonymisation is enabled by default. As a result of IP anonymisation, your IP address is truncated by Google within Member States of the European Union or in other signatory states to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases is the full IP address transmitted to a Google server in the USA and truncated there. According to Google, the IP address transmitted by your browser as part of Google Analytics is not merged with other Google data.

During your visit to the website, your user behaviour is recorded in the form of ‘events’. Events may include:
• Page views
• First visit to the website
• Start of the session
• Web pages
visited • Your ‘click path’, interaction with the website
• Scrolls (whenever a user scrolls to the bottom of the page (90%))
• Clicks on external links
• Internal search queries
• Interaction with videos
• File downloads
• Adverts
viewed or clicked • Language setting

The following are also recorded:
• Your approximate location (region)
• Date and time of the visit
• Your IP address (in truncated form)
• Technical information about your browser and the devices you use (e.g. language setting, screen resolution)
• Your internet service provider
• The referrer URL (the website or advertising material via which you arrived at this website)

Purposes of processing
On behalf of the operator of this website, Google will use this information to analyse your use of the website and to compile reports on website activity. The reports provided by Google Analytics are used to analyse the performance of our website.

Recipients
The recipients of the data are/may be:
• Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland (as a data processor under Article 28 of the GDPR)
• Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA
• Alphabet Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA

Transfers
to third countries: On 10 July 2023, the European Commission adopted its adequacy decision for the USA. Google LLC is certified under the EU-US Privacy Framework. As Google’s servers are distributed worldwide and a transfer to third countries (for example, to Singapore) cannot be entirely ruled out, we have also entered into the EU Standard Contractual Clauses with the provider.

Retention
period The data we send and which is linked to cookies is automatically deleted after 2 months. The maximum lifespan of Google Analytics cookies is 2 years. Data for which the retention period has expired is automatically deleted once a month.

Legal
basis The legal basis for this data processing is your consent in accordance with Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR and Section 25(1) of the TTDSG.

Withdrawal
You may withdraw your consent at any time with future effect by accessing the cookie settings and changing your selection there. The lawfulness of the processing carried out on the basis of your consent up until the time of withdrawal remains unaffected.
You can also prevent the storage of cookies from the outset by adjusting the settings in your browser software accordingly. However, if you configure your browser to reject all cookies, this may result in restricted functionality on this and other websites. Furthermore, you can prevent the collection of data generated by the cookie and relating to your use of the website (including your IP address) by Google, as well as the processing of this data by Google, by either
a. do not give your consent to the setting of the cookie, or
b. download and install the browser add-on to deactivate Google Analytics HERE.

Further information on the terms of use of Google Analytics and Google’s privacy policy can be found at https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/terms/de and at https://policies.google.com/?hl=de.

Privacy Policy for the Newsletter

If you subscribe to our company’s newsletter, the data entered in the relevant form will be transmitted to the data controller. Registration for our newsletter takes place via a so-called double opt-in procedure, i.e. after registering, you will receive an email asking you to confirm your registration. This confirmation is necessary to ensure that no one can register using someone else’s email address. When you subscribe to the newsletter, the user’s IP address and the date and time of registration are stored. This is to prevent misuse of the services or the data subject’s email address. The data will not be passed on to third parties. An exception applies where there is a legal obligation to disclose the data. The data is used exclusively for sending the newsletter. The data subject may cancel their subscription to the newsletter at any time. Similarly, consent to the storage of personal data may be withdrawn at any time. A link for this purpose is provided in every newsletter. The legal basis for processing the data following the user’s subscription to the newsletter is Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR, provided the user has given their consent. The legal basis for sending the newsletter following the sale of goods or services is Section 7(3) of the Unfair Commercial Practices Act (UWG).

Use of RapidMail

Description and purpose
We use RapidMail to send newsletters. The provider is Positive Group Deutschland GmbH, Ingeborg-Krummer-Schroth-Straße 18a, 79106 Freiburg, Germany. Among other things, rapidmail is used to organise and analyse the sending of newsletters. The data you provide for the purpose of subscribing to the newsletter is stored on rapidmail’s servers in Germany. If you do not wish your data to be analysed by rapidmail, you must unsubscribe from the newsletter. We provide a link for this purpose in every newsletter message. For the purposes of analysis, emails sent via rapidmail contain a so-called tracking pixel, which connects to rapidmail’s servers when the email is opened. This allows us to determine whether a newsletter message has been opened. Furthermore, with the help of rapidmail, we can determine whether and which links in the newsletter message have been clicked. Optionally, links in the email may be set up as tracking links, which allow your clicks to be counted.

Legal basis
The legal basis for data processing is Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR.

Recipients
The recipient of the data is Positive Group Deutschland GmbH.

Transfer to third countries
No data is transferred to third countries.

Duration
The data stored by us on the basis of your consent for the purpose of the newsletter will be retained by us until you unsubscribe from the newsletter and will be deleted from both our servers and those of RapidMail once you have unsubscribed. Data stored by us for other purposes (e.g. email addresses for the members’ area) remains unaffected by this.

Right
to withdraw consent You may withdraw your consent to data processing at any time with future effect. The lawfulness of any data processing operations that have already taken place remains unaffected by the withdrawal.

Further data protection information
For further details, please refer to rapidmail’s data security information at: https://www.rapidmail.de/datensicherheit. For further details on rapidmail’s analytics functions, please refer to the following link: https://www.rapidmail.de/hilfe