Data privacy

Automatic data storage

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When you visit websites these days, certain information is automatically created and stored, including on this website. This collected data should be collected as sparingly as possible and only with justification. By the way, by website we mean the entirety of all web pages on your domain, i.e. everything from the home page (homepage) to the very last subpage (like this one). By domain, we mean, for example, example.de or sampleexample.com.

Even while you are visiting our website right now, our web server - which is the computer on which this website is stored - usually automatically stores data such as

for reasons of operational security, to compile access statistics, etc.
  • the complete Internet address (URL) of the accessed website (e.g. https://www.beispielwebsite.de/beispielunterseite.html/)
  • Browser and browser version (e.g. Chrome 87)
  • The operating system used (e.g. Windows 10)
  • the address (URL) of the previously visited page (referrer URL) (e.g. https://www.beispielquellsite.de/vondabinichgekommen.html/)
  • the hostname and IP address of the device being accessed from (e.g. COMPUTERNAME and 194.23.43.121)
  • the date and time
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  • in files called web server log files.

For illustration:

Browser and web server

As a rule, these files are stored for two weeks and then automatically deleted. We do not share this data, but we cannot exclude the possibility that this data may be viewed by authorities in the event of unlawful behavior.

In short, your visit is logged by our provider (company that runs our website on special computers (servers)), but we do not share your data!

Cookies

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Our website uses HTTP cookies to store user-specific data.
Below we explain what cookies are and why they are used so that you can better understand the following privacy policy.

What exactly are cookies?

Whenever you browse the Internet, you use a browser. Popular browsers include Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Microsoft Edge. Most websites store small text files in your browser. These files are called cookies.

One thing cannot be denied: Cookies are really useful little helpers. Almost all websites use cookies. More precisely, they are HTTP cookies, as there are other cookies for other applications. HTTP cookies are small files that are stored on your computer by our website. These cookie files are automatically placed in the cookie folder, effectively the "brain" of your browser. A cookie consists of a name and a value. When defining a cookie, one or more attributes must also be specified.

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Cookies store certain user data from you, such as language or personal page settings. When you return to our site, your browser transmits the "user-related" information back to our site. Thanks to cookies, our site knows who you are and offers you the setting you are used to. In some browsers, each cookie has its own file; in others, such as Firefox, all cookies are stored in a single file.

The following graphic shows a possible interaction between a web browser, such as Chrome, and the web server. In this case, the web browser requests a website and receives a cookie back from the server, which the browser uses again as soon as another page is requested.

HTTP Cookie interaction between browser and web server

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There are both first-party cookies and third-party cookies. First-party cookies are created directly by our site, third-party cookies are created by partner websites (e.g. Google Analytics). Each cookie must be evaluated individually, as each cookie stores different data. The expiration time of a cookie also varies from a few minutes to a few years. Cookies are not software programs and do not contain viruses, Trojans or other "pests". Cookies also cannot access information on your PC.

This is what cookie data may look like, for example:

Name: _ga
Value: GA1.2.1326744211.152321280889-9
Purpose: To distinguish website visitors
Expiration date: after 2 years

A browser should be able to support these minimum sizes:

  • At least 4096 bytes per cookie
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  • At least 50 cookies per domain
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  • At least 3000 cookies in total
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What types of cookies are there?

The question of which cookies we use in particular depends on the services we use and is clarified in the following sections of the Privacy Policy. At this point, we would like to briefly discuss the different types of HTTP cookies.

We can distinguish 4 types of cookies:

Necessary cookies
These cookies are necessary to ensure basic functions of the website. For example, it needs these cookies when a user adds a product to the shopping cart, then continues surfing on other pages and only later goes to the checkout. Through these cookies, the shopping cart is not deleted even if the user closes his browser window.

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Purpose cookies
These cookies collect info about user behavior and whether the user gets any error messages. In addition, these cookies are also used to measure the loading time and behavior of the website on different browsers.

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Targeted cookies
These cookies provide a better user experience. For example, entered locations, font sizes, or form data are stored.

Advertising cookies
These cookies are also called targeting cookies. They are used to deliver customized advertising to the user. This can be very convenient, but also very annoying.

Usually, when you visit a website for the first time, you are asked which of these cookie types you want to allow. And of course, this decision is also stored in a cookie.

How can I delete cookies?

How and whether you want to use cookies is up to you. Regardless of which service or website the cookies come from, you always have the option to delete, disable or only partially allow cookies. For example, you can block third-party cookies but allow all other cookies.

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If you want to find out which cookies have been stored in your browser, if you want to change or delete cookie settings, you can find this in your browser settings:

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Chrome: Delete, enable, and manage cookies in Chrome

Safari: Manage cookies and website data with Safari

Firefox: Delete cookies to remove data that websites have placed on your computer

Internet Explorer: delete and manage cookies

Microsoft Edge: Deleting and Managing Cookies

If you generally don't want cookies, you can set your browser to notify you whenever a cookie is about to be set. In this way, you can decide for each individual cookie whether you allow the cookie or not. The procedure varies depending on the browser.