When you visit and use our websites, we process technical information such as information about the time our website was accessed, the duration of access, the pages accessed and information about the terminal device used. We process such information for the purpose of making the website available, for IT security-purposes and in order to improve user-friendliness. We also use "cookies".
1. What are cookies?
Cookies are small text files that are stored on your device via your browser when you use our website. These text files contain information to enable provision of user-friendly services and are read by web browsers. Cookies enable our website to recognise you so that our web server can present you with a more individual, better, faster, and more customised website.
Please note that if you block cookies you may not be able to access some web content.
There are basically three types of cookies:
- Session cookies: these are stored on your computer or device while you are surfing our web pages and are then deleted.
- Permanent cookies: these cookies remain on your computer for a long time.
- Third-party cookies: these cookies are created by partner websites and embedded in our site. They are used to deliver personalised advertising, for example.
2. How we use cookies
In general, we only use internet technologies (e.g. cookies, JavaScript) to make our website easier to use and to optimise our services and how you interact with our content:
- We use what are known as session cookies to keep the current session active.
- We use cookies for data analysis. This enables us to see, for example, how our forms are accepted, how many visitors use our pages, and which are the most frequently visited pages.
- We use third-party cookies to improve your experience with our content and advertisements.
You can find further information on this subject and on the subject of data protection in general at privacy policy.
3. Third-party cookies
Some third-party providers place cookies on your computer in particular for the purpose of statistical analysis or to record visitor behaviour and personalise offers (including advertising). Several cookies may be placed by third parties depending on the platform. We do not provide personal data to such third-party providers, but the third-party providers do collect information about your use of our website in order to provide their services. Therefore, those third-party providers may combine the information collected from you with data from other websites you have visited and may use this information for their own purposes (e.g. to control advertising on partner sites of these providers). If you have registered with the third-party provider concerned, the provider can identify you. You can read how the third-party provider handles cookies on the corresponding pages of the third-party provider. See the table below for information on the third-party providers. We have no control over third-party cookies. We therefore recommend that you check third-party providers' websites to find out which cookies are used and how they can be managed. An example of a service for statistical analysis is Google Analytics, an offer from Google in the USA. Google uses cookies to collect information about your behaviour on our website and the terminal device used for this purpose (tablet, PC, smartphone etc.), e.g. information about your browser, the website from which you accessed our website, the name of your provider, your IP address, date and time of the access to the website, the pages visited and the duration of the visits if applicable as well as information about visits to other websites and apps. Based on this information we receive analyses from Google. Google stores this information in the USA; however, your IP address is first shortened in the EU or the EEA. You can prevent the use of Google Analytics through a "Browser Add-on", which you can install at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout . The "Digital Advertising Alliance" offers the option to collectively opt-out of all DAA companies for common third-party providers such as Facebook, Google, and many others. You can find more information under points 4 and 5.