Data Privacy Policy

Our website may be used without entering personal information. Different rules may apply to certain services on our site, however, and are explained separately below. We collect personal information from you (e.g. name, address, email address, telephone number, etc.) in accordance with the provisions of Italian data protection statutes. Information is considered personal if it can be associated exclusively to a specific natural person. The legal framework for data protection may be found in the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) and the Telemedia Act (TMG). The provisions below serve to provide information as to the manner, extent and purpose for collecting, using and processing personal information by the provider.

Please be aware that data transfer via the internet is subject to security risks and, therefore, complete protection against third-party access to transferred data cannot be ensured.

What personal data we collect and why we collect it

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.

An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

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.

Contact forms

Cookies

If you leave a comment on our site you may opt-in to saving your name, email address and website in cookies. These are for your convenience so that you do not have to fill in your details again when you leave another comment. These cookies will last for one year.

If you have an account and you log in to this site, 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.


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 tracing your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

How long we retain your data

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.

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.

Where we send your data

Visitor comments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.

Cookies

Our website makes use of so-called cookies in order to recognize repeat use of our website by the same user/internet connection subscriber. Cookies are small text files that your internet browser downloads and stores on your computer. They are used to improve our website and services. In most cases these are so-called "session cookies" that are deleted once you leave our website.

To an extent, however, these cookies also pass along information used to automatically recognize you. Recognition occurs through an IP address saved to the cookies. The information thereby obtained is used to improve our services and to expedite your access to the website.

You can prevent cookies from being installed by adjusting the settings on your browser software accordingly. You should be aware, however, that by doing so you may not be able to make full use of all the functions of our website.

Server Data

For technical reasons, data such as the following, which your internet browser transmits to us or to our web space provider (so called server log files), is collected: - type and version of the browser you use - operating system - websites that linked you to our site (referrer URL) - websites that you visit - date and time of your visit - your Internet Protocol (IP) address. This anonymous data is stored separately from any personal information you may have provided, thereby making it impossible to connect it to any particular person. The data is used for statistical purposes in order to improve our website and services.

Newsletter

Our website offers you the opportunity to subscribe to our newsletter. The newsletter provides you periodically with information about our services. To receive our newsletter, we require a valid email address. We will review the email address you provide for the purpose of determining whether you are in fact the owner of the email address provided or whether the actual owner of said address is authorized to receive the newsletter. When subscribing to our newsletter, we will store your IP address as well as the date and time you subscribed. This serves to protect us in the event a third party improperly and without your knowledge makes use of your email address to subscribe to our newsletter. We will not collect any other data. The data thereby collected is used solely for the purpose of receiving our newsletter. No data is transferred to third parties. Nor is any of this information matched to any information that other components of our website may collect. You may cancel your subscription to the newsletter at any time. You will find additional details in the email confirming your subscription as well as in each newsletter.

Contacting Us

On our website we offer you the opportunity to contact us, either by email and/or by using a contact form. In such event, information provided by the user is stored for the purpose of facilitating communications with the user. No data is transferred to third parties. Nor is any of this information matched to any information that may be collected by other components of our website.

Use of Google Analytics with anonymization

Our website uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service from Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA, hereinafter referred to as “Google“. Google Analytics employs so-called “cookies“, text files that are stored to your computer in order to facilitate an analysis of your use of the site. The information generated by these cookies, such as time, place and frequency of your visits to our site, including your IP address, is transmitted to Google’s location in the US and stored there. In using Google Analytics our website employs the extension, "_gat._anonymizeIp". In doing so, Google abbreviates and thereby anonymizes your IP address before transferring it from member states of the European Union or signatory states to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Google uses this information to analyze your use of our site, to compile reports for us on internet activity and to provide other services relating to website and internet use. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law or where such third parties process this data on Google’s behalf.  Google states that it will in never associate your IP address with other data held by Google. You can prevent cookies from being installed by adjusting the settings on your browser software accordingly. You should be aware, however, that by doing so you may not be able to make full use of all the functions of our website. Furthermore, Google offers a deactivation add-on for most current browsers that provides you with more control over what data Google can collect on websites you access. The add-on tells the JavaScript (ga.js) used by Google Analytics not to transmit any information about website visits to Google Analytics. However, the browser deactivation add-on offered by Google Analytics does not prevent information from being transmitted to us or to other web analysis services we may engage. You can find additional information on how to install the browser add-on at the following link:

https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de


Adsense Disclaimer

This website uses Google Adsense, a Web-advertising-service of Google Inc., United States (“Google”). Google Adsense uses “cookies” (text files) that are stored on your computer and allows an analysis of the use of thiswebsite by you.

Google Adsense also uses so-called “Web Beacons” (small invisible images) to gather information. Through the use of Web beacons simple actions such as the visitor traffic to the website can be recorded and collected. The information generated by the cookie and/or Web Beacon is information about your use of this site (Url), including your IP address and will be transferred to a Google server in the U.S. and stored there.

Google will use this information to evaluate your use of the site in order to show and compile reports on website activity and ads for website operators and providing other services with website and internet related services. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where this is required by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf.

Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You canavoid storing cookies on your hard drive and the display of Web Beacons by choosing to accept in your browser settings, “cookies” (in MS Internet Explorer under “Tools> Internet Options> Privacy> Settings”, in Firefox under Tools> Settings> Privacy> Cookies), we would point out however that this may prevent you from using all the features of this website.

By using this site you agree to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner described, and agree to the aforementioned purpose.

Use of Google+ recommendation components

Our website employs the “+1“-buttom from Google+ belonging to Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA, hereinafter referred to as “Google“. Each time our website receives an access request equipped with a “+1“ component, the component prompts your browser to download an image of this component from Google. Through this process, Google is informed precisely which page of our website is being visited.  As specified by Google, your visit undergoes additional analysis in the event you are not logged into your Google account.  If you access our site while logged into Google and press the “+1" button, Google can collect information about your Google account, websites you recommend as well as your IP address, along with other browser-related information.  This allows your “+1“ recommendation to be stored and publicized. Your Google “+1“ recommendation can then appear as a reference in other Google services, such as search results, your Google account or other places, such as on websites and ads in the internet, , together with your account name and, if applicable, a picture you provided to Google. Furthermore, Google can link your visit to our site with data stored by Google. Google also records this information for the purpose of further improving Google services. If you wish to minimize the collection of information by Google as previously described, you must log out of your Google account before visiting our website.

You can access Google‘s data protection policies relating to the “+1“ button together with all relevant information on the collection, transfer and use of data by Google, your rights in this regard as well as your profile settings options at the following link:

 https://developers.google.com/+/web/buttons-policy

Use of Facebook components

Our website employs components provided by facebook.com. Facebook is a service of Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA.

Each time our website receives an access request equipped with a Facebook component, the component prompts your browser to download an image of this Facebook component. Through this process, Facebook is informed precisely which page of our website is being visited. 

When you access our site while logged into Facebook, Facebook uses information gathered by this component to identify the precise page you are viewing and associates this information to your personal account on Facebook. Whenever you click on the “Like“ button, for example, or enter a comment, this information is transmitted to your personal account on Facebook and stored there. In addition, Facebook is informed of your visit to our website. This occurs regardless of whether you click on a component or not.

If you wish to prevent the transfer to and storage of data by Facebook about you and your interaction with our website, you must first log out of Facebook before visiting our website. The data protection policies of Facebook provide additional information, in particular about the collection and use of data by Facebook, your rights in this regard as well as the options available to you for protecting your privacy: https://de-de.facebook.com/about/privacy/

In addition, tools are freely available on the market that can be used to block Facebook social plug-ins with add-ons from being added to all commonly used browsers: http://webgraph.com/resources/facebookblocker/
You can find an overview of Facebook plugins at https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/

Use of Twitter recommendation components

Our website employs components provided by Twitter. Twitter is a service of Twitter Inc., 795 Folsom St., Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA.

Each time our website receives an access request equipped with a Twitter component, the component prompts your browser to download an image of this component from Twitter. Through this process, Twitter is informed precisely which page of our website is being visited. We have no control over the data that Twitter collects in the process, or over the extent of the data that Twitter collects. To the best of our knowledge, Twitter collects the URL of each website accessed as well as the IP address of the user, but does so solely for the purpose of displaying Twitter components. Additional information may be obtained from the Twitter data privacy policy, at: http://twitter.com/privacy.

You may change your data privacy settings in your account settings, at http://twitter.com/account/settings.

Use of YouTube components with enhanced data protection mode

On our website we use components (videos) of YouTube, LLC 901 Cherry Ave., 94066 San Bruno, CA, USA, a company belonging to Google Inc., Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.

To this end, we use the “ - enhanced data protection mode - ” option provided by YouTube.

When you display a page that has an embedded video, a connection will be made to the YouTube server and the content will appear on the website via a communication to your browser.

According to the information provided by YouTube, in “ - enhanced data protection mode -”, data is only transferred to the YouTube server, in particular which of our websites you have visited, if you watch the video. If you are logged onto YouTube at the same time, this information will be matched to your YouTube member account. You can prevent this from happening by logging out of your member account before visiting our website.

Further information about data protection by YouTube is provided by Google under the following link:

https://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy/

Use of Slideshare

Our website employs components provided by Slideshare.com, a service of SlideShare Inc., 1 Montgomery St., Suite 1300, San Francisco, CA 94104, USA and is integrated into our site using a so-called 2-click approach. No personal data is transmitted to Slideshare.com by merely accessing our website. Personal information is transferred to Slidewhare, Google Analytics and ComScore and stored in the US only when you manually activate Slideshare components. In addition, a cookie is placed on your browser. We have no control over data collected by Slideshare.com or their processing operations. Nor are we familiar with the full extent of the data collected, the purposes for which is collected or any storage periods which may be specified by Slideshare.com. Additional information is available at http://www.slideshare.net/privacy.

ComScore (Corporate Headquarters Reston, 11950 Democracy Drive, Suite 600, Reston, VA 20190, USA) stores the data thereby obtained by means of a "user profile". Analysis of this "user profile“ by ComScore is used to provide advertisements tailored to meet market demands and/or for purposes of market research. You are entitled to the right to deny consent to the compiling and storage of this user profile by ComScore. To exercise this right, contact comScore, Inc., at 11950 Democracy Drive, Suite 600, Reston, VA 20190, USA. Additional information on the purpose and extent of data collection and its processing by comScore can be found at http://www.comscore.com/ger/Ueber_Uns/Datenschutz

Use of etracker

Our website employs components from etracker GmbH, Erste Brunnenstraße 1, 20459 Hamburg, Germany. Each time our website is accessed, these components collect and store data for marketing and optimization purposes, which can then be used to compile user profiles under a pseudonym through the use of cookies. Cookies are small text files that are stored locally in the cache of the internet browser of the user visiting the site in order to recognize this user’s browser. Data collected in this manner will not be used to determine the personal identity of visitors to our website unless this is agreed to separately by the person visiting the site. In addition, this data will not be merged with personal information or with a user profile compiled under a pseudonym. Consent to the collection and storage of this data can be withdrawn at any time with future effect. To withdraw consent to the storage of your data, please view this site http://www.etracker.de/privacy?et=V23Jbb and follow the instructions provided there.

Use of MailChimp

Newsletter Consent

You will be asked to consent to the use of your personal data to receive our newsletter as follows: 

“I have read the privacy policy and I give my consent to data being processed by a service provider located in the United States”.

We use the newsletter to provide you with regular updates about our offers. To receive our newsletter, you will need a valid email address. We will then check the email address entered to ensure that you are actually its owner or if its owner has agreed to receive our newsletter. By registering for the newsletter, we will save your IP address and date and time of registration. This will be used in case a third party misuses your email address to subscribe to our newsletter without your knowledge. 

We will not compare the data collected during newsletter registration with any other data that might be collected by other components of our site. 

Newsletter by MailChimp

We use MailChimp to send our newsletter to our subscribers. MailChimp is a service provided by The Rocket Science Group, LLC, 512 Means Street, Suite 404, Atlanta, GA 30318, USA. 

The data stored when you registered for the newsletter (email address, name, IP address, and time and date of registration) will be sent to a server operated by The Rocket Science Group in the United States and stored there in accordance with its Safe Harbour Agreement. 

Further information about the data protection offered by MailChimp can be found at: 

http://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/

You may cancel your newsletter subscription and revoke your consent to the storage of this data at any time with future effect. For instructions to take this step, please refer to the confirmation email and each newsletter.

Newsletter tracking

Our newsletter includes so-called web bugs that allow us to recognise if and when an email has been opened and which links in the email have been clicked by its recipient. 

This data is stored by us so that we can best align our newsletter to the wishes and interests of our subscribers. Accordingly, the data thus collected is used to send personalised newsletters to each recipient.  

You will be asked to consent to the use of your personal data as follows:

“I agree that my data and my user responses will be stored electronically by newsletter tracking so that I can receive a personalised newsletter. The revocation of the consent to receive the newsletter constitutes a revocation of the consent for the tracking described above.”

By revoking the consent to receive the newsletter, the consent to the aforementioned tracking is revoked. 

The use of Google Remarketing

On our website, we promote the service Google Remarketing belonging to the company Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA, hereinafter "Google". Advertisements may appear for users who have already visited our website in the past with Google Remarketing. Within the Google network, advertisements adapted to your interests can hereby be displayed on our site. Google Remarketing uses cookies for this evaluation. Cookies are small text files stored on your computer which allow the use of the website to be analyzed. This makes it possible to recognize our visitors if these sites are accessed within the advertising network of Google. In this way, advertisements can be presented within the advertising network of Google based on content which has previously been accessed on websites within the Google advertising network by visitors who are also using the Google Remarketing feature. Google does not itself collect any personal data. You can disable this feature by making the appropriate settings under http://www.google.com/settings/ads

The use of social media buttons with "Shariff"

On our website we promote a project by c't, called "Shariff". "Shariff" replaces the typical share-buttons of social networks and thereby protects surfing behavior

"Shariff" integrates the share buttons of social networks on our website as a graphic containing a link to the appropriate social network. By clicking on the appropriate icon you will be redirected to the services of your network. The Shariff button provides direct contact between the social network and our users only when the visitor actively clicks the 'Share' button. Only then will your data be transferred to the respective social network. If, however, the Shariff button is not clicked, no exchange will be made between you and the social network. For more information about the c't project "Shariff" visit http://www.heise.de/ct/artikel/Shariff-Social-Media-Buttons-mit-Datenschutz-2467514.html

We integrate the following social networks on our website with "Shariff":

[Please list social networks used]

Use of Google-Adwords

For purposes of promotion, our website also employs the Google ad tool "Google-Adwords". As part of this, our website employs the analysis service "Conversion-Tracking" from Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA, hereinafter referred to as “Google“. If you access our site by way of a Google ad, a cookie is placed on your computer. Cookies are small text files that your internet browser downloads and stores to your computer. These so-called "conversion cookies" cease to be active after 30 days and are not used to identify you personally. If you visit certain pages of our website while the cookie is still active, we and Google know that you, as user, have clicked on ads placed on Google and were redirected to our site. Google uses the information obtained through "conversion cookies" to compile statistics for our website. These statistics tell us the total number of users who have clicked on our ad as well as which pages of our site were then accessed by each user. However, neither we nor other advertisers who use "Google-Adwords" receive any kind of information that can be used to personally identify users. You can prevent the installation of "conversion cookies" by making the appropriate change to your browser settings, for example by setting your browser so that the automatic placement of cookies is deactivated or by blocking cookies from the domain "googleadservices.com“.

You can obtain the relevant data privacy policy from Google at the following link:

https://services.google.com/sitestats/de.html

Use of Google AdSense

Our website employs Google AdSense. Google AdSense is a service of Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA, for incorporating advertisements. Google-AdSense uses so-called “cookies“, text files, that are stored to your computer and which provide analysis of the use of our website. Furthermore, Google AdSense uses so-called “web beacons“. Web beacons allow Google to analyze information, such as visitor traffic to our website. This information, along with your IP address and the ad format displayed, is transmitted to Google in the US where it is stored and may be transferred by Google to contracting partners. However, Google does not merge your IP-address with other stored data on you. You can prevent cookies from being installed by adjusting the settings on your browser software accordingly. You should be aware, however, that by doing so you may not be able to make full use of all the functions of our website. By using our website you declare that you agree to the processing of data collected about you by Google in the manner previously described and for the purposes there specified.

Use of affilinet tracking cookies

Our website employs affilinet tracking cookies in order to correctly record sales and/or leads. Cookies are small text files that are saved to your computer when you visit a website. These affilinet tracking cookies do not store personal data of any kind. Instead, it only collects the identification number of the intermediary partner as well as the reference number of the advertising material that was clicked on by the visitor to the website. This information is required in order to process the payment transaction between the website operator and the advertiser. The partner identification number serves to designate the intermediary partner to which a commission is to be paid once a transaction has been concluded. You can prevent cookies from being installed by adjusting the settings on your browser software accordingly. You should be aware, however, that by doing so you may not be able to make full use of all the functions of our website. 

Information/Cancellation/Deletion

On the basis of the Federal Data Protection Act, you may contact us at no cost if you have questions relating to the collection, processing or use of your personal information, if you wish to request the correction, blocking or deletion of the same, or if you wish to cancel explicitly granted consent. Please note that you have the right to have incorrect data corrected or to have personal data deleted, where such claim is not barred by any legal obligation to retain this data.

Data output

Delete request