Privacy statement
The operator of this website is seriously committed to protect your personal data. We treat your personal data confidentially and in accordance with the laws governing data protection as well as this privacy policy.
The use of our website is generally possible without providing personal information. Any personal data (such as names, addresses or email addresses) collected on this website happens as far as possible on a voluntary basis. This information will not be transmitted to third parties without your explicit consent.
We point out that data transmission over the Internet (eg when communicating via email) can have security gaps. A complete protection of data against unauthorized access by third parties is impossible.
What are ‘cookies’?
‘Cookies’ are small text files that are stored by the browser (e.g. Internet Explorer or Safari) on your device. They allow websites to store such things as user preferences. You can think of cookies as providing a “memory” for the website, enabling it to recognise a user and respond appropriately and to make using the internet easier and user-friendly. Cookies do not harm your computer or device.
Third party cookies
Third parties may also set their own anonymous cookies, for the purposes of tracking the success of their application, or customising the application for you. Because of how cookies work, we cannot access these cookies, nor can the third parties access the data in cookies used by us. For example, when you share a news article using a social media sharing button on our website, the social network that has created the button will record that you have done this.
Privacy statement for usage of Google Analytics
This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site.
The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. In case of activation of the IP anonymization, Google will truncate/anonymize the last octet of the IP address for Member States of the European Union as well as for other parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases, the full IP address is sent to and shortened by Google servers in the USA. On behalf of the website provider Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage to the website provider. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google.
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. Furthermore you can prevent Google’s collection and use of data (cookies and IP address) by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available under https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en-GB.
Further information concerning the terms and conditions of use and data privacy can be found at http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/gb.html or at http://www.google.com/intl/en_uk/analytics/privacyoverview.html.
Privacy policy for usage of Facebook-plugins (Like-Button)
Our pages integrate plugins of the social network Facebook, 1601 South California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA. The Facebook plugin you agree to the Facebook logo or the “Like-Button” (“Like”) on our side. An overview of the Facebook plug-ins can be found here: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/.
When you visit our site, the plugin establishes a connection between your browser and the Facebook server. Facebook thereby obtains the information that you have visited our site. If you click on the Facebook “Like” button while you are logged into your Facebook account, you can link the content of our pages to your Facebook profile. Thereby Facebook can correlate your visit of our site with your user account. We point out that we as provider of the sites have no knowledge of the contents of the transmitted data and their use through Facebook. For more information, please see the privacy policy of Facebook at http://de-de.facebook.com/policy.php
Disabling Cookies
If you would like to restrict the use of cookies you can control this in your Internet browser. Links to advice on how to do this for the most popular Internet browsers are provided below for convenience and will be available for the Internet browser of your choice either online or via the software help (normally available via key F1).
Internet Explorer
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows7/Block-enable-or-allow-cookies
Google Chrome
https://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en-GB&answer=95647&p=cpn_cookies
Mozilla Firefox
http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Blocking%20cookies
Apple Safari
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=32467
In order to provide website visitors with more choice on how data is collected by Google Analytics, Google has developed the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on. The add-on communicates with the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js) to stop data being sent to Google Analytics. The Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on does not affect usage of the website in any other way. A link to further information on the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on is provided below for your convenience.
http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=None
For more information on the usage of cookies by Google Analytics please see the Google website. A link to the privacy advice for this product is provided below for your convenience.
http://www.google.com/analytics/learn/privacy.html