Protecting your personal data and safeguarding your privacy is important to us. You can expect us to handle your personal data sensitively and carefully and to ensure a high level of data security.
We are committed to handling your personal data responsibly. Consequently, we consider it a matter of course to comply with the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP), the Data Protection Ordinance (DPO) and other data protection regulations that may be applicable.
With Microsoft – as the operator of our IT operating infrastructure – we have chosen a proven partner that is committed to the highest standards of trustworthiness and transparency and that provides comprehensive compliance.
With this privacy policy, we inform you about the most important aspects of data processing in our company as well as about the data protection rights to which you are entitled.
General Data
We process general personal data about you, such as your name and contact details.
Location Data
We process your location data.
Collected Data
We process personal data that we collect about you.
Product Development
We use your personal data for the development and improvement of products and services.
Marketing
We use your personal data for marketing and
advertising.
Provided Data
We process personal data that you provide to us.
Data Transfers
We transfer your personal data to other companies that decide themselves how to use the data.
Not Only Switzerland
We process your personal data not only in Switzerland.
2.0 Data protection: in a nutshell
2.1 What personal data do we process and where does it come from?
2.2 For what purposes is the processing carried out?
2.3 Is there any disclosure to third parties?
2.4 Where is the data processed?
2.5 How long do we keep your data?
2.6 How is your data protected?
3.0 Data protection: In detail
3.1 Provision of contractual services
4.2.1 Live chat «Social Intents»
4.4 Microsoft Teams (recordings)
4.9.1 LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
4.9.2 LinkedIn Conversion Tracking
4.11 Content Management System (CMS)
4.11.1 WordPress Multilingual Plugin (WPML)
4.11.2 Yoast Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
1.0 Contact
Swiss Infosec AG
Centralstrasse 8A
6210 Sursee
Switzerland
Phone: +41 41 984 12 12
E-mail: datenschutz@infosec.ch
Website: www.infosec.ch
2.0 Data protection: in a nutshell
In the following, we inform you about the most important key points of our data processing. Following this, you will find more detailed information on our processing.
2.1 What personal data do we process and where does it come from?
We use personal data that you provide to us, that we collect about you or that we have received from third parties. These are in particular personal data:
- that we receive in the course of our business relationships from customers, future customers, interested parties, service providers, suppliers, business partners or other persons involved in the business relationships;
- we receive from job applicants;
- which we are legally or contractually obliged to collect;
- that we collect when you use our website;
- which we take from publicly accessible sources (media, internet) or public registers (debt enforcement registers, commercial registers or similar);
- which we receive from authorities and other third parties (address traders, credit reference agencies).
Depending on the nature of the relationship, we may process personal data about you such as:
- Contact and identification data such as surname, first name, address, e-mail address, telephone number;
- Contract data such as services used, type of contract, content of contract, type of products and services, applicable terms and conditions, start of contract, term of contract, billing data, names of contact persons;
- Application data such as letter of motivation, CV and photo, work references, diplomas, educational certificates, third-party references, interview notes;
- Financial data such as account information, payment information, payment history, average revenue;
- Metadata from telecommunications traffic such as telephone number, value-added service numbers, date, time and duration of the connection, type of connection, location data, IP address, device identification numbers such as MAC address;
- Interaction and usage data such as correspondence, preferences and target group information, type of end device, device settings, operating system, software, information from assertion of rights;
- Website information: IP address, cookie information, browser settings, frequency and duration of visits to the website, search terms, clicks on content, originating website.
2.2 For what purposes is the processing carried out?
We use the personal data we collect primarily to fulfil our legal obligations and to conclude and process contracts with our customers and business partners. We also process personal data to optimise our services and for marketing purposes.
We also rely on the processing of personal data for the purchase of products and services from our suppliers and subcontractors. If you work for a customer or business partner, you could also be affected in this capacity.
In addition, where permitted and deemed appropriate, we also process personal data about you and others for the following purposes in which we (and sometimes third parties) have a legitimate interest commensurate with the purpose:
- Offer and further development of our products, services and website and other platforms on which we are present;
- Communication and handling of enquiries (e.g. via e-mail, telephone, media enquiries);
- Advertising and marketing (including the organisation of events and competitions), insofar as you have consented/not objected to the use of your data (if we send you advertising as an existing customer, you can object to this at any time and we will then place you on a blacklist against further advertising mailings);
- Market research, media monitoring;
- Assertion of legal claims and defence in connection with legal disputes and official proceedings;
- Prevention and investigation of criminal offences and other misconduct (e.g. conducting internal investigations, data analysis to combat fraud);
- Ensuring our operations, especially IT, our website and other platforms.
2.3 Is there any disclosure to third parties?
As a matter of principle, we treat your personal data as confidential and only pass it on if you have consented to this, if we are legally obliged or entitled to do so or if this is necessary to enforce our rights, in particular to enforce claims arising from the contractual relationship. Under no circumstances do we sell your data.
We also disclose personal data to third parties within the scope of our business activities and for the above-mentioned purposes, insofar as this is permitted and appropriate, either because they process it for us (contract data processing) or because they want to use it for their own purposes (data disclosure). This concerns in particular:
- Companies from the Group
- Microsoft – as the operator of our IT operating infrastructure
- Service providers, including contract processors (e.g. e-learning, website support, hosting providers);
- Event partner
- Authorities and courts, if applicable.
In doing so, we naturally comply with the legal provisions on the disclosure of personal data to third parties. If we use contractors to provide our services, we take appropriate legal precautions as well as corresponding technical and organisational measures to ensure the protection of your personal data in accordance with the relevant legal regulations.
The recipients are partly in Switzerland, but also partly abroad.
2.4 Where is the data processed?
We generally process personal data in Switzerland or in an EU/EEA country or in another country that has an adequate level of data protection. With respect to certain processing, you should expect your data to be transferred to other countries within and outside Europe where some of the IT service providers we use are located. If we disclose data to a country that does not have an adequate level of data protection, we require that the recipient takes appropriate measures to protect your privacy (e.g. by agreeing to so-called EU standard contractual clauses, current version available here, or other precautions) or rely on justification, such as your consent.
2.5 How long do we keep your data?
We process personal data for as long as it is necessary for the fulfilment of our contractual obligations or otherwise for the purposes pursued with the processing, for example for the duration of the entire business relationship as well as beyond that in accordance with the statutory retention and documentation obligations. In this context, it is possible that personal data will be retained for the time during which claims can be asserted against us and insofar as we are otherwise legally obliged to do so, or legitimate interests require this (e.g. for evidence and documentation purposes). As soon as your personal data is no longer required for the above-mentioned purposes, it will generally be deleted or anonymised.
2.6 How is your data protected?
We take appropriate technical and organisational security measures to protect your personal data and continuously improve these in line with technological developments. This includes protection against accidental or intentional manipulation, loss, destruction or unauthorised access by third parties, such as the use of recognised encryption methods (e.g. encryption using SSL/TLS).
The measures taken are intended to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of your data and to guarantee the availability and resilience of our systems and services in the processing of your data on a permanent basis. They are also designed to ensure the rapid restoration of the availability of your data and access to it in the event of a physical or technical incident.
Our employees as well as service companies commissioned by us are obliged to maintain confidentiality and to comply with the provisions of data protection law and are only given access to your personal data if this is necessary.
2.7 What rights do you have?
If you have given us consent to process your personal data for certain purposes, you also have the right to revoke this consent at any time. However, such a revocation has no effect on data processing that has already taken place.
Please note that we reserve the right to enforce the restrictions provided for by law, for example if we are obliged to retain or process certain data, have an overriding interest in doing so (insofar as we are entitled to rely on this) or require it for the assertion of claims.
Please also note that the exercise of these rights may conflict with contractual agreements and may have consequences such as the premature termination of the contract or cost consequences. We will inform you in advance if this is not already contractually regulated.
The exercise of your rights under data protection law generally requires that you clearly prove your identity (e.g. by means of a copy of your identity card, where your identity is otherwise not clear or cannot be verified). To exercise your rights, please contact us at the (e-mail) address indicated in section 1.0.
If you believe that the processing of your personal data violates data protection law or that your data protection rights have been violated in any other way, you can also complain to the competent supervisory authority. In Switzerland, this is the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC).
3.0 Data protection: In detail
3.1 Provision of contractual services
We process personal data to the extent necessary in each case to provide you with our contractual or pre-contractual services and to carry out other services requested by you. The data processed in this context, the type, scope, purpose and necessity of its processing are determined by the underlying contractual relationship.
The data processed includes in particular contact and identification data, contract data and financial data.
The deletion of the data takes place when the data is no longer required for the fulfilment of contractual or legal obligations, whereby the necessity of keeping the data is reviewed at irregular intervals. In all other respects, the statutory retention obligations apply.
3.2 Job vacancies
We grow together in the face of new challenges, put our heart and soul into our work and do not just do a job, we achieve something. To optimise our growth, we are always looking for customer-oriented and competent personalities.
If you apply for a job with us, we process the personal data that we receive from you as part of the application process. In addition to your personal details, education, work experience and skills, this includes the usual correspondence data such as postal address, e-mail address and telephone number. In addition, all documents submitted by you in connection with the application, such as letters of motivation, CVs and references, will be processed. You may voluntarily provide us voluntarily with additional information. This data will only be stored, evaluated, processed or forwarded internally in connection with your application. Furthermore, they may be processed for statistical purposes (e.g. reporting). In this case, no conclusions can be drawn about individual persons.
Your applicant data is processed in order to fulfil our (pre-)contractual obligations within the scope of the application procedure.
You can object to this data processing at any time and withdraw your application. Please send your objection to recruiting@infosec.ch.
If we conclude an employment contract with you, the transmitted data will be stored for the purpose of processing the employment relationship in compliance with the statutory provisions.
If the application process ends without employment, your data will be stored for another 6 months for documentation purposes and then deleted, unless you have given us permission to use your details for further application procedures with us and to contact you if necessary. You have the option of subsequently revoking this consent at any time by sending us this revocation to recruiting@infosec.ch.
3.3 Marketing
If you use one of our services, register for an event or take up one of our training offers, we may use your contact details, in particular your email address, to:
- to maintain the customer relationship with you;
- to occasionally inform existing business customers (business to business) about specific specialist topics, services or offers; and
- recommend products or services that may be of interest to you.
To ensure that we only send you information that is likely to be of interest to you, our communications and offers can be tailored to you. This personalisation is achieved by using the personal data we have about you, in particular contact and identification data, interaction and usage data and contract data. Among other things, this enables us to inform you about those of our services that are comparable to those you have already received.
Of course, we also inform persons with whom we do not yet have a customer relationship about our offers and information on security and data protection if they wish to do so. For further information, please refer to section 4.3 «Newsletter».
You can object to the data processing described above at any time. If you object, we will no longer process your personal data for this purpose. Please send your objection to the e-mail address mentioned in section 1.0 with the subject «Request to stop data processing for advertising purposes». In the case of electronic communications, in particular newsletters, there is usually the alternative that you can unsubscribe directly from the respective marketing measure by clicking on the unsubscribe link integrated in the communication.
3.3.1 Postal advertising
In addition, we would like to inform you that we may use data received from you, in particular your first and last name as well as your postal address, for our own advertising purposes, including to send you offers and information on our services by post. Furthermore, we may send you postal advertising if you have made your contact details generally available (e.g. if you are listed in the telephone directory or in a business directory of a private company or in an address book published by an association) and have not objected to such processing. You can generally object to the use of your address for advertising purposes by, for example, having your address marked with a star entry in the telephone directory at localsearch (Swisscom Directories AG) or by entering your address on a blacklist (Robinson list) at the Swiss Dialogue Marketing Association. If you do not generally object to receiving postal advertising and would simply no longer like to receive our postal advertising, please contact the e-mail address given in section 1.0. We will then place you on our blacklist and will no longer send you any postal advertising.
4.0 Visiting our website
As a rule, you can use our website without providing any information about yourself. This does not apply to areas and services that naturally require your name, address or other personal data, e.g. enquiries about our advisory services.
4.1 Server log files
When you visit our website, our servers temporarily store each access in a log file, the so-called server log files.
For example, your IP address, the date and time of your visit, the approximate location of access to our website, the web browser and operating system used, as well as other similar information, are recorded in order to avert risks in the event of attacks on our information technology systems.
The purpose of processing this information is to display our website and its content and offers correctly and to ensure data traffic, to optimise our website, content and offers, to ensure the stability and security of our website and systems on a permanent basis and to enable the clarification, defence and prosecution of cyberattacks, spam and other unlawful acts in relation to our website and systems and to enforce claims in this respect.
We delete your personal data as soon as it is no longer required to achieve the purpose for which it was collected. In the case of the collection of data for the provision of our website, the deletion takes place when the respective session has ended.
For the hosting of the website, we may use the services of third parties in Switzerland and abroad who carry out the above processing on our behalf. Currently, our website is hosted exclusively with Swiss hosting providers and on servers in Switzerland.
4.2 Contacting us
On our website, you have the option of contacting us by e-mail, various online forms and/or by telephone. If you contact us via an online form, the information you provide in the form, including the contact details you enter there, will be stored by us for the purpose of processing your request (e.g. registration for a training course or an event, enquiry for a consultancy service) and in the event of follow-up questions and will not be passed on to unauthorised third parties without your consent. Of course, this also applies to requests that you send to us by post.
You can object to this data processing at any time. Please send your objection to the (e-mail) address mentioned in section 1.0 with the subject «Request to stop data processing» and we will check your request. In such a case, your contact will not be processed further.
Your personal data will be deleted as soon as your request has been dealt with. This is the case if the circumstances indicate that the matter in question has been conclusively clarified and the deletion does not conflict with any legal obligations to retain data.
4.2.1 Live chat «Social Intents»
Our website also offers you the opportunity to chat directly with one of our employees. To provide you with the chat function, we use Social Intents, a live chat service provided by Social Intents LLC, based in the USA («Social Intents»).
If you would like to use our live chat, we require a valid e-mail address and your name or a pseudonym of your choice. All other information is voluntary. This information is collected so that you can be personally addressed by our staff and in case all our staff are busy at the moment, that we can contact you to answer your request.
Social Intents uses so-called cookies (see section 4.4). The information generated by the cookie about the use of our website and other information, such as your IP address, browser used and approximate location, as well as any other data (e.g. chat history, feedback) generated by the use of the live chat, is processed on Social Intents’ servers.
According to statements made by Social Intents, your data will not be passed on or sold, nor will it be used for advertising purposes or for analyses.
You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. However, we would like to point out that in this case you may not be able to use all the functions of our website, including the live chat, to their full extent. Alternatively, you can prevent processing by Social Intents by contacting us in another way and not using the chat function.
You may object to this data processing at any time. Please send your objection to the (e-mail) address mentioned in section 1.0 with the subject «Request to stop data processing».
For more information about Social Intents’ handling of your data and privacy, please see their «Privacy Notice» and the «Knowledge Base» provided by Social Intents.
On our website you have the possibility to subscribe to our newsletter. With this newsletter we inform you monthly about current specialist topics and events, our offers and services.
If you would like to subscribe to our newsletter, please fill out the corresponding form with the required mandatory information such as your e-mail address. We need this information to send you the desired information and to address you personally. All other details are used to inform you even more specifically about specialist topics and customer events (e.g. by letter).
Registration for the newsletter takes place in a so-called double opt-in process. This means that after registration you will receive an e-mail with an activation link, which you must click to confirm your registration.
Our newsletters may contain, in part and to the extent permitted, graphics and/or web links that record on a personal basis whether, when and how often an individual newsletter was opened in an email application and which web links were clicked on. Such graphics and/or web links record the use of newsletters in order to ensure the quality and enable improvements to the newsletter. You can block the setting of such graphics and/or web links in your e-mail application.
We use ClickDimensions (see section 4.5) to send and evaluate our newsletters.
You have the option to unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time and to revoke the consent you have given. To do so, click on the corresponding unsubscribe link in the newsletter sent to you.
4.4 Microsoft Teams (recordings)
We use Microsoft Teams (“MS Teams”), a collaboration platform of Microsoft Corporation based in the USA, or if you have your habitual residence in the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland, Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited, based in Ireland (“Microsoft Teams”), to exchange information, in particular for communication and collaboration, as well as to conduct webinars and other online training courses.
When using MS Teams, various data is processed, in particular content data of meetings, chats and shared files, call history, profile data (e.g. email address, profile picture) as well as your IP address and preferred language. Meeting metadata such as date, start and end time, meeting ID and, if applicable, telephone number and location are also processed. In addition, Microsoft collects diagnostic data in connection with usage, which enables Microsoft to provide the service, i.e. for troubleshooting, securing and updating MS Teams and monitoring performance, among other things.
The data collected via MS Teams is transmitted to Microsoft servers and processed there. The storage location is in the geographical region assigned to our Microsoft 365 organisation, which is located in Switzerland. According to Microsoft the data is not disclosed to unauthorised third parties.
The data collected will only be stored for as long as is necessary for the provision of the service, i.e. usually until the end of the MS Teams session (“session”) or until the respective user deletes the files shared by them.
In some cases, it may be necessary for us to record meetings. Recordings are made in particular to provide participants with a reference and to make the content available to people who were unable to attend the original meeting. The recordings are for internal use only and may not be passed on or reproduced without authorisation. The recordings are stored in encrypted form and access is restricted to the participants of the respective meeting and those (authorised) persons authorised by the creator of the recording (usually the organiser of the meeting).
Recordings are always made on the basis of your consent. We will inform you in good time if a session is being recorded. This gives you the opportunity to switch off your camera and microphone or leave the session. We would also like to point out that your name may be visible in the recordings even if the camera or microphone is switched off.
Recordings are only kept for as long as necessary (e.g. until absent participants have had the opportunity to view them). Recordings are deleted after one year at the latest.
To protect your privacy, we have concluded a “Data Processing Addendum” with Microsoft. Further information on data protection and data security as well as on how MS Teams works can be found on the Microsoft Teams website.
4.5 Cookies
We use so-called cookies on our website. Cookies are small text files that are placed and stored on your end device (laptop, tablet, smartphone or similar) with the help of the browser. They are used to make our website more user-friendly and effective overall and to make your visit to our website as pleasant as possible. Cookies do not cause any damage to your end device. They cannot execute any programs and cannot contain any viruses.
Most of the cookies we use are so-called session cookies. These are automatically deleted when you log out or close the browser. Other cookies remain stored on your terminal device beyond the respective usage process and enable us or our partner companies (third-party cookies) to recognise your browser on your next visit. Insofar as other cookies (e.g. cookies to analyse your surfing behaviour) are stored, these are treated separately in this privacy policy.
You can set up your browser in such a way that it informs you about the setting of cookies and you only allow the acceptance of cookies for certain cases in individual cases or generally exclude them. However, we would like to point out that you may then not be able to use all the functions of our website.
4.6 ClickDimensions
Within our Dynamics 365 CRM system, we use the ClickDimensions marketing automation platform, a service provided by ClickDimensions LLC. based in the USA («ClickDimensions»).
ClickDimensions allows us to analyse your visit to our website and your interactions with our web forms, our social media postings and our newsletters. For example, if you click on a link in one of our newsletters, this is attributed to your behaviour. The data analysed by ClickDimensions on our behalf is imported into our customer database (CRM).
The results of these analyses help us to continuously improve our range of information and content and to generally make our website more interesting.
As part of the website analysis, ClickDimensions uses cookies that are stored on your computer. This allows us to evaluate the usage behaviour on our website and to use the statistics obtained to make our offer even more interesting. ClickDimensions uses this information to evaluate your use of our website, to compile reports on website activity and to provide us with other services related to website and internet use.
You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however, please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.
We have set up ClickDimensions so that the information collected about your use of our website (e.g. the pages visited on our website) is transmitted to a ClickDimensions server in Europe (the Netherlands), but we cannot rule out the possibility that data may also be disclosed to the USA or other countries in which ClickDimension or its subcontractors maintain facilities. ClickDimensions uses this information to evaluate your use of our website, to compile reports on website activity and to provide us with other services related to website and internet use.
To protect your privacy, we have entered into a «Data Processing Addendum» with ClickDimensions, including standard contractual clauses.
You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however, please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website.
Further information on data protection and data security at ClickDimensions can be found in their «Legal Notices».
4.7 Google services
On our website, we use various services of Google LLC, based in the USA, or if you have your habitual residence in the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland, Google Ireland Ltd, based in Ireland («Google»). Google LLC is always responsible for processing personal data when using «YouTube». We use the following Google services on our website:
- Google Tag Manager
- Google Analytics
- Google Ads
- YouTube
More information on the individual services can be found below.
Google uses technologies such as cookies, web storage in the browser and tracking pixels that enable an analysis of your use of our website. The information generated by this about your use of our website may be transmitted to a Google server in the USA or other countries and stored there. Information about the locations of Google’s data centres can be found here.
We use tools provided by Google that Google claims can process personal data in countries where Google or its subcontractors maintain facilities. Google promises in its «Data Processing Addendum for Products where Google is a Data Processor» to ensure an adequate level of data protection by relying on the EU standard contractual clauses.
Google is also certified under the EU-U.S. and Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Frameworks.
For more information on Google’s processing and privacy settings, please refer to Google’s privacy policy or privacy settings.
4.7.1 Google Tag Manager
Our website uses the Google Tag Manager. With the Google Tag Manager, website tags can be managed efficiently. Website tags are placeholders that are stored in the source code of the respective website in order to record, for example, the integration of frequently used website elements, such as code for web analytics services. The Google Tag Manager does not use cookies and triggers other tags, which in turn may collect data. Google Tag Manager does not access this data. If a deactivation has been made at domain or cookie level, this remains in place for all tracking tags that are implemented with Google Tag Manager.
For more information, please see the Google Tag Manager Terms of Use.
4.7.2 Google Analytics
For the purpose of analysing our website and its visitors as well as for marketing and advertising purposes, we use the web analytics service Google Analytics 4.
Google Analytics uses cookies that are stored on your end device (laptop, tablet, smartphone, etc.) and enable an analysis of your use of our website. This enables us to evaluate the usage behaviour on our website and to make our offer more interesting by means of the statistics/reports obtained.
We use Google Signals. This captures additional information in Google Analytics about users who have activated personalised ads (interests and demographics) and ads can be delivered to these users in cross-device remarketing campaigns.
With Google Analytics 4, the anonymisation of IP addresses is activated by default. This means that your IP address is shortened by Google within Switzerland or the EU/EEA before it is transmitted. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server and shortened there.
Google uses this information to evaluate your pseudonymous use of our website, to compile reports on website activity and to provide us with other services related to website and internet usage. The IP address transmitted by your browser as part of Google Analytics will not be merged with other Google data, according to Google. When you visit our website, your user behaviour is recorded in the form of events (such as page views, interaction with the website or your «click path») as well as other data such as your approximate location (country and city), technical information about your browser and the end devices you use or the referrer URL, i.e. via which website / advertising material you came to our website.
You can prevent the collection and transmission of the data generated by the cookie and related to your use of our website (incl. your IP address) to Google, as well as the processing of this data by Google, by downloading and installing the browser add-on to deactivate Google Analytics. If you wish to object to interest-based advertising by Google, you can use the settings and opt-out options provided by Google.
An overview of the data use in Google Analytics and the measures taken by Google to protect your data can be found in the Google Analytics Help.
4.7.3 Google Ads
Our website uses the online advertising programme Google Ads, which belongs to Google Marketing Services, to draw attention to our offers with the help of advertising media on external websites. We can determine how successful the individual advertising measures are in relation to the data of the advertising campaigns.
With Google Ads, a cookie is set on your computer («conversion cookie») if you have reached our website via a Google ad. These cookies usually lose their validity after 30 days and are not intended to identify you personally.
These cookies enable Google to recognise your internet browser. If you visit certain of our web pages and the cookie has not yet expired, Google and we can recognise that you clicked on the ad and were thus redirected to our website. A different cookie is assigned to each Google Ads customer. Cookies can therefore not be tracked via the websites of Google Ads customers. We ourselves do not collect or process any personal data in the aforementioned advertising measures. We only receive statistical evaluations from Google. These evaluations enable us to identify which of the advertising measures used are particularly effective. We do not receive any further data from the use of the advertising media; in particular, we cannot identify you from this information.
Based on the information collected, categories relevant to your interests are assigned to your browser. These categories are used to display interest-related advertising.
By using Google Ads, we reach users who have already visited our website. This allows us to present our advertising to target groups who are already interested in our products or services.
You can prevent participation in this tracking process in a number of ways, including:
- by adjusting your browser software accordingly; in particular, the suppression of third-party cookies will result in you not receiving any third-party ads;
- by deactivating cookies for conversion tracking by making the appropriate settings for personalised advertising from Google;
- by deactivating the interest-based ads of the providers that are part of the self-regulatory campaign «YourAdChoices».
For more information on how Google Ads works and your privacy, please see the Google Ads Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.
4.7.4 YouTube
On our website, we use the services of the US-based provider YouTube LLC («YouTube»), a subsidiary of Google LLC («Google»), for the integration of videos.
When you start a YouTube video on our website, a connection to the YouTube servers is established. This tells the YouTube server which of our pages you have visited. This information (including your IP address) may be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. If you are logged into your YouTube account at the same time, you enable YouTube to assign your surfing behaviour directly to your personal profile. You can prevent this by logging out of your YouTube account before visiting our website.
We use the so-called extended data protection mode from YouTube. According to YouTube, this mode ensures that YouTube does not store any data about you as a visitor to our website before you watch or play the video. However, the transfer of data to YouTube partners is not necessarily excluded by the extended data protection mode.
Further information can be found in YouTube’s terms of use and Google’s privacy policy.
4.8 Microsoft Clarity
We use Microsoft Clarity on our website, an analysis service of Microsoft Corporation, based in the USA, or if you have your habitual residence in the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland, Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited, based in Ireland (“Clarity”).
Clarity enables us to better understand the needs of our website visitors for optimisation and marketing purposes and thus helps us to design our website in line with their interests. With the help of Clarity, movements on our website can be tracked (through so-called “heat maps”) and all user interactions, including individual sessions, can be tracked by displaying animations (so-called “session recordings”). Clarity uses cookies for this purpose.
The information collected using cookies includes, in particular, interaction data (e.g. clicks, scrolls and mouse-overs) and diagnostic data (e.g. script and image errors). You can find out which information is processed by Clarity in detail here.
Further information on how Clarity works can be found on the Clarity webpage, the Clarity documentation and in the Clarity FAQ. Information on data protection and how Microsoft handles your data can be found in the Microsoft privacy statement.
4.9 LinkedIn
We use various services on our website provided by LinkedIn Corporation, which is headquartered in the USA, or if you have your habitual residence in the European Economic Area (EEA) or Switzerland, LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, which is headquartered in Ireland («LinkedIn»).
We use the following LinkedIn services on our website:
- LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
- LinkedIn Conversion Tracking
More information on the individual services can be found below.
Due to the structures of LinkedIn, it cannot be ruled out that your data will also be transferred to LinkedIn in the USA. To protect your privacy, we have concluded a «Data Processing Agreement» with LinkedIn, including EU standard contractual clauses.
Further information on the nature, purpose and scope of data processing can be found in the privacy policy, the cookie policy and the LinkedIn privacy portal. Furthermore, you can object to personalised (LinkedIn) advertising by installing an opt-out cookie, regardless of whether you are a LinkedIn member or not.
4.9.1 LinkedIn Marketing Solutions
We use LinkedIn Marketing Solutions («LMS») for marketing and optimisation purposes, in particular to analyse the use of our website, to be able to continuously improve individual functions and offers as well as the user experience and to place relevant and interesting advertisements for you.
LMS stores and processes information about your user behaviour on our website. For this purpose, LMS uses, among other things, cookies that are stored locally in the cache of your web browser on the respective end device used by you and enable an analysis of your use of our website.
If you are logged into the member area of LinkedIn, LinkedIn can assign the use of our online offer to your profile. If you do not wish this to happen, you must log out of LinkedIn before visiting our website.
Further information on data protection at LinkedIn can be found on the LinkedIn web pages mentioned at the beginning.
We use conversion tracking technology from LinkedIn on our website.
We use LinkedIn’s technology for marketing and optimisation purposes, in particular to analyse the use of our website, to continuously improve individual functions and offers as well as the user experience and to serve relevant and interesting ads to you. We also receive aggregated and anonymous reports from LinkedIn about ad activity and information about how you interact with our website. To do this, LinkedIn uses a JavaScript code (Insight tag), which in turn places a cookie in your web browser or uses a pixel.
According to LinkedIn, the LinkedIn Insight tag collects data about the use of our website, including information such as referrer URL, IP address, device and browser properties or timestamps. The data collected via the LinkedIn Insight tag is encrypted, IP addresses are shortened and members’ direct IDs are removed within seven days to pseudonymise the data. This remaining pseudonymised data is deleted within 90 days. LinkedIn does not share any personal data with the website operator, but only provides aggregated reports on website audience and display performance.
Further information on data protection at LinkedIn can be found on the LinkedIn web pages mentioned at the beginning.
4.10 Social media presence
We maintain social media profiles on X, Instagram, YouTube, Xing and LinkedIn.
The data you enter on our social media profiles is published by the social media platform and is not used or processed by us for any other purpose at any time. We reserve the right to delete content if this should be necessary. We may communicate with you via the social media platform.
Be aware that the operator of the social media platform uses web tracking methods. The web tracking, over which we have no control, can also take place regardless of whether you are logged in or registered with the social media platform.
More detailed information on data processing by the provider of the social media platform can be found in the privacy policy of the respective provider:
| Social network | Provider | Privacy policy |
|---|---|---|
| X | X Corp (USA)/Twitter International Company (Ireland) | Privacy policy |
| Meta Platforms Inc (USA)/Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd (Ireland) | Data policy | |
| YouTube | YouTube LLC (USA) | Privacy policy |
| New Work SE (Germany) | Privacy policy | |
| LinkedIn Corporation (USA)/LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company (Ireland) | Privacy policy |
4.11 Content Management System (CMS)
4.11.1 WordPress Multilingual Plugin (WPML)
We use on our website the WPML plugin of the company OnTheGoSystems Ltd, based in Hong Kong.
This plugin enables us to display the website in different languages. When you visit our website, WPML stores a cookie with a limited validity on your end device to save the language setting you have selected. Personal data may also be stored and analysed in the process. This mainly concerns the activities of the website visitor, e.g. which pages have been visited and which elements have been clicked on, as well as device and browser information such as IP address and operating system used.
Further information on the collection and storage of data by WPML as well as on objection and removal options vis-à-vis WPML can be found in WPML’s privacy policy.
4.11.2 Yoast Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Our website uses the Yoast SEO plugin from Yoast BV, based in the Netherlands.
The plugin serves the technical optimisation of our website for search engines, which increases our visibility in them. No personal data is processed, collected or stored in any way by the Yoast plugin, neither at Yoast itself nor on their servers.
For more information, please refer to Yoast BV’s privacy policy and Yoast’s Help Center.
4.11.3 Wordfence
We use the Wordfence security plugin from Defiant Inc., based in the USA, on our website («Wordfence»). This plugin serves to protect our website. It is a malware scanner and a web application firewall for WordPress websites.
Wordfence collects your IP address and other data about your behaviour on our website, in particular URLs called up and header information, to protect from attackers from the Internet. Your IP address is compared with a list of known attackers. Cookies are also set for registered users.
The plugin enables us to block the IP address of persons who try to gain unauthorised access to the administration of our website or attack the website in any other way from any further access.
According to Wordfence’s terms of use, when data is transferred from the EEA or the UK, the relevant standard contractual clauses apply to ensure an adequate level of data protection.
Further information on the handling of user data can be found in the Privacy Policy of Wordfence privacy policy.