Privacy Policy

Welcome, and thank you for using our website. We attach great importance to protecting the personal data of our website visitors and users. We would therefore like to inform you about the nature and extent of collection, processing and use of personal data in connection with the following services (hereinafter comprehensively referred to as the “Online Services”): the use of our website; the use of the functions, activities and content associated with our website; the use of our external websites on social networks.

Controller

The controller responsible for the processing of data on this website is:

Studio GAUS GmbH
Erich-Steinfurth-Str. 6
10243 Berlin
Germany

The contact details we publish in the context of our obligation to provide a legal notice for our website may not be used by third parties to send us information and advertisements, unless we have expressly requested such information and advertisements to be sent. We reserve the right to take legal measures should we receive unsolicited promotional information (e.g. spam emails).

Since pursuant to Article 37 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) we are under no obligation to designate a company data-protection officer, we do not have a specific person responsible for data protection whose contact details we could publish here. But even though we do not have a designated company data-protection officer, we still fulfil all our obligations in the context of data processing with the required professional care.

Collection and storage of personal data

General information on data processing

Personal data are data that can be used to identify or contact a person, e.g. a person’s name, address, email addresses, etc.

Taking into account the above definition, our Online Services can generally be used without the user supplying any personal data. Based on the data we typically store, we will therefore neither be able to identify nor contact a user.

In addition to the option of using our Services simply to obtain information, we also offer a range of other services that you may use, should you be interested. In this case, you will generally have to provide further personal data which we will use to provide the relevant service; the data-processing policy which we have set out above will also apply to this type of personal data.

We will sometimes commission external service providers to process your data. We select and commission our service providers with due care; they are subject to our direction, and are regularly monitored. You will find detailed information below on the operations necessary in cases where we commission service providers to provide certain functions for our Online Services, or where we wish to use your data for advertising purposes. In this connection, we will also inform you about the criteria we will apply to the period for which the personal data will be stored.

We may furthermore disclose your personal data to third parties in cases where we join forces with partners to give our users a chance to use certain services, such as participating in special activities, going in for competitions to win prizes, or concluding a contract. More detailed information on this issue is provided below in the context of a description of each particular service.

The data will be erased as soon as they are no longer needed for the purpose for which they were collected.

Purpose of processing

Storing and processing of such data is necessary for the proper functioning of the Online Services, e.g. in order to provide the Online Services to users, or to enable users to contact us. We use the data to improve the functioning of our Online Services and in order to ensure that our information technology systems are secure.

Contacting us

If you contact us via email or using the contact form, your data (name as well as contact details, if provided) and your message will be processed solely for the purpose of processing and handling your enquiry. In compliance with Article 6(1)(b) GDPR or Article 6(1)(f) GDPR, as the case may be, we will process this type of data for the purpose of handling your enquiry. As soon as your enquiry has been fully processed, your data will be erased. Your data will be erased if circumstances show that the matter in question has been conclusively settled, and no statutory data retention obligations stand in the way of us erasing the data.

Data processing if you visit our website

We will only log the personal data that your browser transmits to our server if you use our website solely to obtain information, i.e. if you do not register or transmit information to us in any other manner. If you view our website, we will collect the type of data described below. We require these data for technical reasons, in order to be able to display our website to you and also to guarantee its stability and security. The legal basis for data processing is provided by Article 6(1)(f) GDPR.

The following data will be collected in this context: your IP address (anonymised), the date and time of the request, the time zone difference to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the subject matter of the request (the specific web page accessed), the access status and/or the HTTP status code, the volume of data transmitted in each case, the website from which the request was transmitted, your browser, your operating system and its desktop, and the language and version of your browser software.

In the event that the data are stored in log files, the data will be erased no later than seven days after they were stored. The data may also be stored for a longer period. Should they be stored for a longer period, any user’s IP address will be erased or distorted; it will therefore no longer be possible to correlate the accessing client with the data.

Cookies

Cookies are small files that the website that is accessed places on a user’s computer with the aid of the web browser; the aim of a cookie, at a later stage, is to provide the server with the information on the user that the cookie has stored. The present website uses the two types of cookies described below; their scope and method of operation are also explained below:

  • Temporary cookies will be erased automatically as soon as you close your browser. This type of cookie particularly includes so-called session cookies. Session cookies store a so-called “session ID” that enables a cookie to assign the various requests from your browser to the joint session shared by all these requests. This will enable our server to recognise your computer when you return to our website. Session cookies will be erased as soon as you log out or close your browser.
  • Permanent cookies are erased automatically after a predetermined period has elapsed; this period may vary, depending on the type of cookie. You can erase cookies in the security settings of your browser at any time.

You can also configure your browser settings to reflect your wishes; you can refuse, for instance, to accept third party cookies, or any cookies at all. Please note that in that case you may not be able to use certain functions of the present website.

Online presence on social media

We maintain an online presence on social networks and platforms in order to be able to communicate with any person, user and interested party active on these networks and platforms, and in order to provide them with information about our own activities. If you access any of these networks or platforms, the business terms and data-processing policies of the relevant provider will apply.

Unless provided for otherwise in our Privacy Policy, we will process the data of data subjects (persons concerned) who communicate with us via social networks or platforms, e.g. in the event that data subjects post on our online presence or send us a message.

Social plugins

We use third-party plugins on our website. You can use these plugins to tell your contacts whether you like our Online Services, to draw their attention to certain contents, or to share contents with them. Plugins are identified as third-party plugins by the logo of the particular third-party service provider. If you visit our website, your data will be transmitted to these third-party service providers. If you additionally use the services of a third-party service provider as a “user” of such a service provider, your data may be assigned to your corresponding user account. Your data may possibly be transmitted to a third-party service provider even if you are not a registered user of such a service provider and even if you do not click on any plugin on our website. However, we have implemented a two-click solution in this regard: by default all plugins are disabled when you visit our website. Any plugin will only be activated if you click on it while visiting our website. If you decide to click on a plugin, we will seek the following consent:

“Two clicks for better data protection: the button will only be activated if you click on it; only then will you be able to use it. Please note: your data will be transmitted to a third party as soon as you activate the button.”

If your data are transmitted without you being simultaneously logged in with the third-party service provider, there will be no possibility of directly assigning the data to you personally, e.g. by way of your IP address; this would only be possible if information from your internet service provider was obtained. You will find further information on the purpose and scope of data processing carried out by third-party service providers in each particular service provider’s privacy notice.

The processing of such data is based on your prior consent in accordance with Article 6(1)(a) GDPR.

We use the plugins of the following service providers on our website:

Video services on our website

Within our Online Services we have embedded videos from the service providers mentioned below. Even though these videos are stored on the servers of the video providers, you will still be able to play them directly on our website.

All videos have been embedded in “enhanced data protection mode”; this means that no data concerning you as a user of the video provider in question will be transmitted if you do not actually play the video The data referred to in the following subclauses will only be transmitted if you play a video. We have no way of influencing the transmission of such data.

The legal basis for the use of plug-ins is provided by Article 6(1)(f) GDPR.

If you need further information on this issue, please read the privacy notice of the particular service provider:

Google reCAPTCHA

Based on our legitimate interests according to the terms of Article 6(1)(f) GDPR, we are permitted to use a specific function that identifies bots, e.g. whenever data are entered in online forms; this service is provided by Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States, hereinafter called “Google”) and is called “reCAPTCHA”.

Whenever reCAPTCHA is used, your IP address and further data relating to your user behaviour will be collected and stored by Google. The data that are collected on the website and transmitted to Google will only be merged with other Google data if you are logged in to your Google account when reCAPTCHA is used. If data subjects (persons concerned) do not wish such data to be collected, they should log out from their Google account before using our website and the reCAPTCHA functions.

You will find further information on the use of data by Google, and on setting options and the possibility of objecting to the use of certain data, in Google’s privacy policy (https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads) and in the settings for the display of advertising by Google (https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated).

You can download Google’s current data-protection provisions at https://policies.google.com/privacy.

Google Analytics

The present website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Inc. (hereinafter called “Google”). Google Analytics uses so-called “cookies”, i.e. text files that are stored on your computer, which enable your use of the present website to be analysed. The information a cookie generates about your use of the website will generally be transmitted to a Google server in the United States and stored there. If IP anonymisation is enabled on the present website, any of your IP addresses originating within a Member State of the European Union or another Contracting Party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area will be truncated by Google before transmission. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google Server in the United States and truncated there. Google will use such information on behalf of the operator of the present website to analyse the way you use the website, to compile reports on website activities, and to perform further services for the website operator in respect of usage of the website and the internet.

The IP address transmitted by your browser in connection with Google Analytics will not be merged with other data held by Google.

You can prevent the cookies from being stored, by activating a setting in your browser software to prevent this; however, please note that in that case you may not be able to use certain functions of the present website to their full extent. You can furthermore prevent Google from collecting and processing such data (including your IP address) that are generated by cookies and refer to your use of the website, by downloading and installing the browser plug-in that is retrievable via the following link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

The present website uses Google Analytics with the “_anonymizeIp()” function. With the help of this function, IP addresses are processed in truncated form so as to rule out IP addresses being traced to a specific person. To the extent that the data collected on you refer to you personally, any such reference is thereby immediately prevented; as a consequence, personal data are immediately erased.

We use Google Analytics to analyse and continually improve use of our website. The statistics generated help us to improve our Online Services, thereby providing you with a more interesting user experience. Google has opted in to the EU-US Privacy Shield with regard to any exceptional cases in which personal data are transmitted to the United States: https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework.

The legal basis for the use of Google Analytics is provided by Article 6(1)(f) GDPR.

Any personal data will be erased or anonymised no more than 14 months after they were collected.

Third-party service provider information: Google Dublin, Google Ireland Ltd., Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland; terms of use: https://marketingplatform.google.com/about/analytics/terms/us/, summary of data protection measures: http://www.google.com/intl/en/analytics/learn/privacy.html, and privacy policy: http://www.google.de/intl/en/policies/privacy.

You will find more information on data protection at: https://policies.google.com/privacy.

Period for which the data will be stored

We adhere to the principles of data reduction and data economy. We will store personal data for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed; we will also cease storing your personal data as soon as you withdraw your previously given consent. As soon as the particular purpose ceases to apply and/or whenever you exercise any of the relevant rights you have as a data subject, the data in question will be made unavailable, anonymised and/or erased in accordance with the rules and statutory provisions.

Rights of a data subject (person concerned)

Exercising your rights

Should you no longer agree to your personal data being stored, or should your personal data have become incorrect, upon being instructed by you to do so, we will arrange for your data to be erased or made unavailable, or we will carry out the necessary corrections, as the case may be (and insofar as this is possible under applicable law). The same applies if you require us to make only restricted use of certain data in future.

Please contact us by the following means if you have any questions about the processing of your personal data or wish to be provided with information or wish to have data corrected, made unavailable, erased or transmitted to another company, or object to the use of data:

Studio GAUS GmbH, Erich-Steinfurth-Str. 6, 10243 Berlin, countries

If you exercise your right to objection, please state your grounds for objecting to your personal data being processed in the manner in which we have previously processed them. If you lodge a justified objection, we will first check the factual circumstances. We will then either cease to process your data or adjust processing or, alternatively, inform you about the compelling grounds warranting particular protection, according to which we will continue to process your data.

If you have consented to the processing of your data, you may withdraw this consent at any time with effect for the future. Once you have notified us of such a withdrawal, the withdrawal will affect the admissibility of processing your personal data.

Last updated: December 15, 2019