In this cookie policy, we explain to you - in connection with our privacy policy - the type, scope and purpose of the use of cookies and similar technologies, tools and plugins on our website.

1. General information on cookies and similar technologies

Our Internet pages use so-called "cookies". Cookies are small data packets and do not cause any damage to your end device. They are stored on your device either temporarily for the duration of a session (session cookies) or permanently (permanent cookies). Session cookies are automatically deleted at the end of your visit. Permanent cookies remain stored on your end device until you delete them yourself or they are automatically deleted by your web browser.

Cookies have various functions. Many cookies are technically necessary, as certain website functions would not work without them. Other cookies are used to evaluate user behavior or to display advertising.

Cookies that are required to carry out the electronic communication process, to provide certain functions you have requested or to optimize the website (e.g. cookies to measure the web audience) (necessary cookies) are stored on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR, unless another legal basis is specified. The website operator has a legitimate interest in the storage of necessary cookies for the technically error-free and optimized provision of its services. If consent to the storage of cookies and comparable recognition technologies has been requested, the processing is carried out exclusively on the basis of this consent (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR and § 25 para. 1 TDDDG); the consent can be revoked at any time.

You can set your browser so that you are informed about the setting of cookies and only allow cookies in individual cases, exclude the acceptance of cookies for certain cases or in general and activate the automatic deletion of cookies when closing the browser. If cookies are deactivated, the functionality of this website may be restricted.

If cookies are used by third-party companies or for analysis purposes, we will inform you about this separately in this privacy policy and, if necessary, request your consent.

2. Consent to the use of cookies

Our website uses the consent technology of "Real Cookie Banner" to obtain your consent to the storage of certain cookies on your end device or to the use of certain technologies and to document this in compliance with data protection regulations. The provider of this technology is devowl.io GmbH, Tannet 12, 94539 Grafling (hereinafter referred to as "Real Cookie Banner").

Details on how "Real Cookie Banner" works can be found at https://devowl.io/de/rcb/datenverarbeitung/.

Real Cookie Banner is installed locally on our servers so that no connection is established to the servers of the provider of Real Cookie Banner. Real Cookie Banner stores a cookie in your browser in order to be able to assign the consents given or their revocation to you. The data collected in this way is stored until you ask us to delete it, delete the Real Cookie Banner cookie yourself or the purpose for storing the data no longer applies. Mandatory statutory retention obligations remain unaffected.

The legal basis for the processing of personal data in this context is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. c GDPR and Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. Our legitimate interest is the management of the cookies and similar technologies used and the related consents.

 The provision of personal data is neither contractually required nor necessary for the conclusion of a contract. You are not obliged to provide the personal data. If you do not provide the personal data, we will not be able to manage your consents.

3. Wordfence

This website uses the Wordfence plug-in to protect against viruses and malware and to defend against external attacks. The operator is Defiant Inc, 1700 Westlake Ave N Ste 200, Seattle, WA 98109, USA(https://www.defiant.com/). The plug-in uses cookies, for example, to recognize whether the visitor is a human or a robot. Here you can find information on which cookies are set: https://www.wordfence.com/help/general-data-protection-regulation/

Wordfence protects this website from attacks of various kinds. This requires the processing of the user's IP address and metadata. Cookies or cookie-like technologies can be stored and read. Cookies are used to check the user's permissions before accessing WordPress, to notify administrators when a user logs in with a new device or location, and to bypass defined country restrictions through specially prepared links. This data can be used to protect against brute force attacks and to improve the services of Defiant Inc.

Wordfence secures our website and thus protects visitors to the website from viruses and malware. This constitutes a legitimate interest within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR.

Further information can be found here:

Terms of Use: https://www.wordfence.com/terms-of-use/
Privacy Policy: https://www.wordfence.com/privacy-policy/

We have concluded an order processing contract with the above-mentioned operator Defiant and fully implement the strict requirements of the German data protection authorities when using Wordfence.

4. Google Fonts

We use Google Fonts on our website. Google Fonts is a directory of over 800 fonts from Google Inc. Google Ireland Limited is responsible for the European region: Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland.

Google Fonts makes it possible to integrate fonts into websites without having to upload the fonts to our own servers. This saves data volume and allows the page to load quickly.

According to Google, the Google Fonts API is designed to reduce the collection, storage and use of end user data. It is used without authentication and the Google Fonts API does not set or log cookies. Requests to the Google Fonts Web API are sent to resource-specific domains such as fonts.googleapis.com or fonts.gstatic.com. Font requests are separate from google.com credentials that are sent to google.com while using other authenticated Google services such as Gmail.

When you visit our website, the fonts are loaded via a Google server. Among other things, the following data is transmitted to the Google server when you access our website: IP address, language settings, browser name and version, screen resolution. Whether this data is stored is not clearly communicated by Google.

The legal basis for the processing of your data is Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. a GDPR (consent).

Google also processes your data in the USA, among other places. There is an adequacy decision for the transfer of data to the USA. However, data transfer to the USA is only legally permissible if the data recipient is also certified in accordance with the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (DPF). Google LLC is DPF-certified. Google also uses so-called standard contractual clauses in accordance with Art. 46 (2) and (3) GDPR.

Further information on Google Fonts can be found here:

https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq?tid=331762508724&hl=de

Further information on data protection can be found here:

http://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy

5. Google Maps

If you have consented to the use of optional cookies, we use the Google Maps service on this website. This allows us to show you interactive maps directly on the website and enables you to use the map function conveniently. For the European area, the company Google Ireland Limited is responsible for all Google services: Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland.

When you visit the website, Google receives the information that you have accessed the corresponding sub-page of our website. Your IP address and metadata are processed in the process. Cookies or cookie-like technologies can be stored and read. These may contain personal data and technical data such as user IDs, consents, map software settings and security tokens. This occurs regardless of whether Google provides a user account through which you are logged in or whether no user account exists. If you are logged in to Google, your data will be assigned directly to your account. If you do not wish your data to be associated with your Google profile, you must log out before activating the button. Google stores your data as usage profiles and uses them for the purposes of advertising, market research and/or the needs-based design of its website. Such an evaluation is carried out in particular (even for users who are not logged in) to provide needs-based advertising and to inform other users of the social network about your activities on our website. You have the right to object to the creation of these user profiles, whereby you must contact Google to exercise this right. The Google servers are located in data centers around the world, primarily in the USA. When you use the service, your data is therefore also transmitted to the USA.

Google stores some data for a fixed period of time, other data can only be deleted manually. Some data is anonymized (for example, advertising data in server logs) by deleting part of the IP address after 9 months and cookie information after 18 months.

The legal basis for the processing of your data is Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. a GDPR (consent). Further information on the purpose and scope of data collection and its processing by the plug-in provider can be found in the provider's privacy policy. There you will also find further information on your rights in this regard and setting options to protect your privacy:

http://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy and https://business.safety.google/intl/d e/privacy/

6. Google reCHAPTCHA

Google reCAPTCHA is a solution for preventing spam and recognizing bots, e.g. when entering data in online forms. With the help of reCHAPTCHA, we can determine whether you are really a human and not a robot or spam software.

For the European area, the company Google Ireland Limited is responsible for all Google services: Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland.

Google reCHAPTCHA processes the user's IP address and metadata. Cookies or cookie-like technologies can be stored and read. In particular, these may contain personal data and technical data such as the IP address, technical information about the browser, operating system and screen resolution as well as interactions with the captcha. This data can be used to record websites visited and to improve Google's services. Google may link this data with the data of users logged in to Google's websites (e.g. google.com and youtube.com). If you are not logged in with your Google account, the IP address will not be combined with other Google data.

The IP address is processed to analyze the visitor's location and to prevent any suspicious activity, namely to identify IP addresses associated with spam or other unwanted behavior. The technical information is processed so that the captcha can be adapted to the device or browser and to detect deviations from normal usage behavior. The interactions with the captcha are processed to record behavioral patterns in order to distinguish human behavior from automated bots.

Google reCAPTCHA also checks whether a cookie has already been created in your browser. If this is not the case, Google will set a cookie.

Personal data may also be transferred to the parent company Google LLC. This company is based in the USA. There is an adequacy decision for the transfer of data to the USA. In addition, however, data transfer to the USA is only legally permissible if the data recipient is also certified in accordance with the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (DPF). Google LLC is DPF-certified.

Google makes personal data available to its affiliated companies, other trusted companies or persons who may process this data on the basis of Google's instructions and in accordance with Google's privacy policy.

The legal basis for the processing of your data is Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. a GDPR (consent).

If you do not want your data to be transmitted to Google, you must log out of Google before visiting our website and delete all Google cookies. In principle, the data is automatically transmitted to Google when you visit our website. If you wish to delete this data, you must contact Google support:

https://support.google.com/?hl=de&tid=321266041

Further information on reCHAPTCHA and data protection can be found under the links below:

https://developers.google.com/recaptcha/

https://www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/

7. Google Analytics

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House Barrow Street Dublin 4, Ireland.

We use this service for the purpose of needs-based design and continuous optimization of our pages. We can use the statistics obtained to improve our offer and make it more interesting for you.

Google Analytics creates pseudonymized user profiles and uses cookies that enable an analysis of your use of the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. Google will use this information on behalf of the operator of this website for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage to the website operator.

According to Google, no IP addresses are logged and stored. However, the data is used to derive location data and is deleted immediately afterwards.

The legal basis for the processing of your data is the consent you have given via the cookie consent tool (Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. a GDPR).

You can prevent the storage of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings in your browser software. However, we would like to point out that in this case you may not be able to use all functions of this website to their full extent. You can also prevent Google from collecting the data generated by the cookie and relating to your use of the website (including your IP address) and from processing this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available at the following link:

http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de.

Further information can be found here:

User conditions: http://google.com/analytics/terms/de.html,

Privacy policy: http://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy.

8. Google Tag Manager

This website uses the Google Tag Manager. This service allows website tags to be managed via an interface. The Google Tag Manager itself does not set cookies, but only tags and does not collect any personal data. The service triggers other tags, which in turn may collect data. However, the Google Tag Manager does not access this data. If deactivation has been carried out at domain or cookie level, this remains in place for all tracking tags that are implemented with Google Tag Manager.

The Google Tag Manager is used to play cookies, but only processes technical information and therefore does not require consent under the TDDDG. The legal basis for the use of Google Tag Manager is therefore Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in the uniform and proper integration of cookies across different end devices.

9. Meta Pixel (formerly Facebook Pixel)

This website uses the Facebook/Meta visitor action pixel to measure conversions. The provider of this service is Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd, Merrion Road, Dublin 4, D04 X2K5, Ireland.

Data on the use of the website is processed in order to examine user behavior and analyze the impact of online marketing.

However, according to Facebook, the data collected is also transferred to the USA and other third countries.

This allows the behavior of site visitors to be tracked after they have been redirected to the provider's website by clicking on a Facebook ad. This allows the effectiveness of Facebook ads to be evaluated for statistical and market research purposes and future advertising measures to be optimized.

The data collected is anonymous for us as the operator of this website; we cannot draw any conclusions about the identity of the user. However, the data is stored and processed by Facebook so that a connection to the respective user profile is possible and Facebook can use the data for its own advertising purposes in accordance with the Facebook Data Usage Policy(https://de-de.facebook.com/about/privacy/). This allows Facebook to place advertisements on Facebook pages and outside of Facebook. This use of the data cannot be influenced by us as the site operator.

The use of this service is based on your consent in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR and § 25 para. 1 TDDDG. Consent can be revoked at any time.

Insofar as personal data is collected on our website with the help of the tool described here and forwarded to Facebook, we and Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd, Merrion Road, Dublin 4, D04 X2K5, Ireland are jointly responsible for this data processing (Art. 26 GDPR). The joint responsibility is limited exclusively to the collection of the data and its transfer to Facebook. The processing carried out by Facebook after forwarding is not part of the joint responsibility. The obligations incumbent on us jointly have been set out in an agreement on joint processing. The text of the agreement can be found at: https://www.facebook.com/legal/controller_addendum. According to this agreement, we are responsible for providing the data protection information when using the Facebook tool and for the secure implementation of the tool on our website in accordance with data protection law. Facebook is responsible for the data security of Facebook products. You can assert data subject rights (e.g. requests for information) regarding the data processed by Facebook directly with Facebook. If you assert your data subject rights with us, we are obliged to forward them to Facebook.

Data transfer to the USA is based on the standard contractual clauses of the EU Commission. Details can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/legal/EU_data_transfer_addendum and https://de-de.facebook.com/help/566994660333381.

You can find further information on protecting your privacy in Facebook's privacy policy: https://de-de.facebook.com/about/privacy/.

You can also deactivate the remarketing function "Custom Audiences" in the settings for advertisements at https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen. You must be logged in to Facebook to do this.

If you do not have a Facebook account, you can deactivate usage-based advertising from Facebook on the website of the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance: http://www.youronlinechoices.com/de/praferenzmanagement/.

The company is certified in accordance with the "EU-US Data Privacy Framework" (DPF). The DPF is an agreement between the European Union and the USA that is intended to ensure compliance with European data protection standards for data processing in the USA. Every company certified under the DPF undertakes to comply with these data protection standards. Further information on this can be obtained from the provider at the following link: https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov/s/participant-search/participant-detail?contact=true&id=a2zt0000000GnywAAC&status=Active

10. Instagram plugin

Plugins from the social network Instagram are integrated on this website. The provider of this service is Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, Merrion Road, Dublin 4, D04 X2K5, Ireland. However, according to Instagram, the data collected is also transferred to the USA and other third countries.

You can recognize the Instagram plugins by the Instagram logo on this website. You can find an overview of the Instagram plugins here: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/?locale=de_DE.

When you visit this website, a direct connection is established between your browser and the Instagram server via the plugin. Cookies or cookie-like technologies can be stored and read. Instagram thereby receives the information that you have visited this website with your IP address. We would like to point out that, as the provider of the pages, we have no knowledge of the content of the transmitted data or its use by Instagram. Further information on this can be found in Instagram's privacy policy at: https://de-de.facebook.com/privacy/explanation.

If you do not want Instagram to be able to associate your visit to this website with your Instagram user account, please log out of your Instagram user account.

The Instagram plugins are used on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. The website operator has a legitimate interest in the widest possible visibility in social media. If a corresponding consent has been requested, the processing is carried out exclusively on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR and § 25 para. 1 TTDSG, insofar as the consent includes the storage of cookies or access to information in the user's end device (e.g. device fingerprinting) within the meaning of the TTDSG. Consent can be revoked at any time.

Insofar as personal data is collected on our website with the help of the tool described here and forwarded to Instagram, we and Meta Platforms Ireland Limited are jointly responsible for this data processing (Art. 26 GDPR). The joint responsibility is limited exclusively to the collection of the data and its transfer to Instagram. The processing carried out by Instagram after forwarding is not part of the joint responsibility. The obligations incumbent on us jointly have been set out in a joint processing agreement. You can find the wording of the agreement at: https://www.facebook.com/legal/controller_addendum.

According to this agreement, we are responsible for providing data protection information when using the Instagram tool and for the secure implementation of the tool on our website in accordance with data protection law. Instagram is responsible for the data security of Instagram products. You can assert data subject rights (e.g. requests for information) regarding the data processed by Instagram directly with Instagram. If you assert your data subject rights with us, we are obliged to forward them to Instagram.

Data transfer to the USA is based on the standard contractual clauses of the EU Commission. You can find details here:

https://www.facebook.com/legal/EU_data_transfer_addendum,

https://privacycenter.instagram.com/policy/ and

https://privacycenter.instagram.com/policy/.

11. Amendment of this Directive

We reserve the right to amend this policy at any time in compliance with the applicable data protection regulations. The current status is November 2025.