Accountability for content
The contents of our pages have been created with the utmost care. However, we cannot guarantee the contents’ accuracy, completeness or topicality. According to statutory provisions, we are furthermore responsible for our own content on these web pages. In this context, please note that we are accordingly not obliged to monitor merely the transmitted or saved information of third parties, or investigate circumstances pointing to illegal activity. Our obligations to remove or block the use of information under generally applicable laws remain unaffected by this as per §§ 8 to 10 of the Telemedia Act (TMG).
Accountability for links
Responsibility for the content of external links (to web pages of third parties) lies solely with the operators of the linked pages. No violations were evident to us at the time of linking. Should any legal infringement become known to us, we will remove the respective link immediately.
Copyright
Our web pages and their contents are subject to German copyright law. Unless expressly permitted by law (§ 44a et seq. of the copyright law), every form of utilizing, reproducing or processing works subject to copyright protection on our web pages requires the prior consent of the respective owner of the rights. Individual reproductions of a work are allowed only for private use, so must not serve either directly or indirectly for earnings. Unauthorized utilization of copyrighted works is punishable (§ 106 of the copyright law)
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.
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://www.facebook.com/policy.php
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 https://twitter.com/privacy?lang=en. You may change your data privacy settings in your account settings, at http://twitter.com/account/settings.
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=en
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 a 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/en.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.