privacy policy

Contents

Privacy protection

We are caring seriously about protecting your personal data. We treat it confidentially and according to German legal obligations and this privacy policy.

Our website may be used without entering personal information. Different rules may apply to certain services on our site, however, and are explained separately below. We collect personal information from you like e.g. your email address in accordance with the provisions of German data protection statutes.

Information is considered personal if it can be associated exclusively to a specific natural person. The legal framework for data protection may be found in the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) and the Telemedia Act (TMG). The provisions below serve to provide information as to the manner, extent and purpose for collecting, using and processing personal information by us.

Our contact information can be found in our legal notice.

Please be aware that data transfer via the internet is subject to security risks and, therefore, complete protection against third-party access to transferred data cannot be ensured.

Cookies

www.s-c-b.org makes use of so-called cookies in order to recognize repeated use of our website by the same user or 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; for example they remember your language selection. 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 our website’s functions.

Server log files

For technical reasons, data such as the following, which your internet browser transmits to us or to our web space provider (so called server log files), is collected. This includes among others:

  • type and version of the browser you use
  • operating system
  • websites that linked you to our site (referrer URL)
  • websites that you visit
  • hostname of accessing device
  • your Internet Protocol (IP) address
  • date and time of your visit.

This anonymous data is stored separately from any personal information you may have provided, thereby making it impossible to connect it to any particular person. The data is used for statistical purposes in order to improve our website and services. This data is subject to later checks in case of reliable hints on improper or illegal usage.

Newsletter

Our website offers you the opportunity to subscribe to our newsletter. The newsletter provides you periodically with information on our services. To receive our newsletter, we require a valid email address. We will review the email address you provide for the purpose of determining whether you are in fact the owner of the email address provided or whether the actual owner of said address has authorized reception of the newsletter. When subscribing to our newsletter, we will store your IP address as well as the date and time you subscribed. This serves to protect us in the event of a third party improperly and without your knowledge making use of your email address to subscribe to our newsletter. We will not collect any other data. The data thereby collected is used solely for the purpose of receiving our newsletter. No data is transferred to third parties, nor is any of this information matched to any information that other components of our website may collect.

You may cancel your subscription to the newsletter and your consent on data and email address storage at any time. You will find additional details on unsubscribing in the email confirming your subscription as well as in each newsletter.

Contacting us

On our website we offer you the opportunity to contact us by email. In such event, information provided by you is stored for the purpose of facilitating communications with you. No data is transferred to third parties, nor is any of this information matched to any information that may be collected by other components of our website.

Jetpack with wordpress.com STATS

Our site uses the “Jetpack” app by Automattic Inc., 132 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA, with technology by Quantcast Corp., 201 Third Street, 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA. Data about each time our website is accessed is recorded via cookies and then stored in the USA to conduct web analytics. Cookies are small text files that are stored locally in the cache of the internet browser used by site visitors so the browser can be recognised when the visitor returns to the site. The IP address in this case is immediately anonymised before being stored. You may refuse the use of cookies and or delete previously saved cookies by selecting the appropriate settings in your browser; however, please be advised that in case of opting out of using cookies, you may not be able to make full use of all the features of this website.

The collection and use of data by Jetpack can be excluded with future effect by setting an opt-out cookie for your browser. When deleting all cookies from your browser, this opt-out process will have to be repeated.

Google Analytics

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.

More informationen on user data processing with Google Analytics can be found in Google’s Data privacy and security statement on Google Analytics.

Browser plugin

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. Google also offers a disabling option for the most common browsers, thus providing you with greater control over the data which is collected and processed by Google. If you enable this option, no information regarding your website visit is transmitted to Google Analytics. However, the activation does not prevent the transmission of information to us or to any other web analytics services we may use. To employ these disabling measures you need to download the browser plugin available here and install it.

Objecting to data collection

You also can prevent your data being collected by Google Analytics by activating the following link: [google_analytics_optout]Deactivate Google Analytics[/google_analytics_optout]. This will set an opt-out-cookie preventing the collection of your data on future visits of this website.

IP-anonymizing

We use Google Analytics with an IP anonymization feature on our website. 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. Only under exceptional circumstances the full IP address will be transferred to one of Google’s servers in the USA, then there being abbreviated. Google will use this information to evaluate your usage of our site, to compile reports on website activity for us, and to provide other services related to website- and internet usage. Google states that it will never associate your IP address with other data held by Google. Google may also transfer this information to third parties if this is required by law or to the extent this data is processed by third parties on Google’s behalf.

Facebook plugins (“Like” button)

Our website employs components provided by facebook.com. Facebook is a service of Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA, hereinafter referred to as “Facebook”. You may recognize Facebook’s plugins from Facebook’s logo or the “Like” button on our website. An overview to Facebook’s plugins is available here.

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 accessing 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. Facebook’s Data protection policies 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.

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.

Google+

Our website employs the “+1” button from Google+ belonging to Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA, hereinafter referred to as “Google”.

Each time our website receives an access request equipped with a “+1” component, the component prompts your browser to download an image of this component from Google. Through this process, Google is informed precisely which page of our website is being visited. As specified by Google, your visit undergoes additional analysis in the event you are not logged into your Google account.

If you access our site while logged into Google and press the “+1” button, Google can collect information about your Google account, websites you recommend as well as your IP address, along with other browser-related information. This allows your “+1” recommendation to be stored and publicized. Your Google “+1” recommendation can then appear as a reference in other Google services, such as search results, your Google account or other places, such as on websites and ads in the internet, together with your account name and, if applicable, a picture you provided to Google. Furthermore, Google can link your visit to our site with data stored by Google. Google also records this information for the purpose of further improving Google services.

You can access Google’s data protection policies relating to the “+1“ button together with all relevant information on the collection, transfer and use of data by Google, your rights in this regard as well as your profile settings options here.

If you wish to minimize the collection of information by Google as previously described, you must log out of your Google account before visiting our website.

Google Web Fonts

For unified display of fonts our website uses so-called Web Fonts provided by Google. When visiting one of our sites your browser loads the required Web Fonts into your browser’s cache, thus displaying texts and fonts correctly. In case of your browser not supporting Web Fonts, your computer will use a standard font already present locally.

Further information on Google Web Fonts can be found here and in the Google privacy policy.

Google Maps

By means of an interface (“API”) this website uses the map service component “Google Maps” of Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA, hereinafter “Google”.

Google sets a cookie in order to process the user configuration and data when the page with the integrated Google Maps component is displayed. As a general rule, this cookie is not deleted by closing the browser, but rather expires after a certain time, as long as it is not previously manually deleted by you.

If you do not agree with this processing of your data, you may choose to deactivate the Google Maps service and thereby prevent the transfer of data to Google. To do this, you must deactivate the JavaScript function in your browser. However, we would like to point out that in this case you will not be able to use Google Maps or at least only to a limited extent.

The use of and the information obtained through Google Maps is according to Google’s Terms of Use as well as the additional Terms and Conditions for Google Maps. More information on processing user data is listed under the Google privacy policy.

reCAPTCHA

In order to protect input forms on our site, we use the “reCAPTCHA” service of Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA, hereinafter “Google”. By means of this service it can be distinguished whether the corresponding input is of human origin or is created improperly by automated machine processing.

To our knowledge, the referrer URL, the IP address, the behaviour of the website visitors, information on the operating system, browser and length of stay, cookies, display instructions and scripts, user input behaviour and mouse movements in the reCAPTCHA checkbox are conveyed to Google.

Google uses the information obtained, among other things, to digitize books and other printed matter as well as to optimize services such as Google Street View and Google Maps (e.g. house number and street name recognition).

The IP address provided as part of reCAPTCHA is not merged with other data from Google unless you are logged into your Google Account at the time the reCAPTCHA plug-in is used. If you want to prevent this transmission and storage of data by Google about you and your behaviour on our website, you must log out of Google before visiting our site or using the reCAPTCHA plug-in.

The use of the reCAPTCHA service is according to the Google privacy policy.

SSL-encryption

For reasons of security and to protect the transmission of confidential content sent by you to us this website uses encryption (SSL, “Secure Socket Layer”). You can recognize an encrypted connection by your browser’s address bar’s beginning changing from “http://” to “https://” and by the closed padlock symbol in the same bar.

With SSL-encryption activated, your data transmitted to us can not be read by third parties.

Information, cancellation, deletion

Based on the German Federal Data Protection Act, you may contact us at no cost if you have questions relating to the collection, processing or use of your personal information, if you wish to request the correction, blocking or deletion of the same, or if you wish to cancel explicitly granted consent. Please note that you have the right to have incorrect data corrected or to have personal data deleted, where such claim is not barred by any legal obligation to retain this data. Any inquiries on this or other personal data related issues are welcome to be directed to our postal address to be found in our legal notice, or to be sent to us via email.

Sources: eRecht24, Sample Data Privacy Policy Statement provided by the Law Offices of Weiß & Partner