Privacy Policy
Data Protection
Release: 10 March 2024

Introduction

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Thank you for choosing the community of A-CONNECT International UG (limited liability), which offers its services under different brands. We ("A-CONNECT", "LIW", "we", "us" or "our(s)") take the privacy of users ("Users" or "you") of our website and/or mobile app (the "Website" and the "Mobile App" respectively) very seriously and are committed to protecting the information Users provide to us in connection with their use of our Website and/or Mobile App (together: "Digital Assets"). We are also committed to protecting and using your information in accordance with applicable law.

This Privacy Policy explains our practices regarding the collection, use and disclosure of your information through your use of our digital assets (the "Services") when you access the Services through your devices.

Please read the Privacy Policy carefully and make sure you fully understand our practices regarding your information before using our services. If you have read this policy, fully understand it and do not agree with our practices, you must stop using our digital assets and services. By using our Services, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy. Your continued use of the Services constitutes your acceptance of this Privacy Policy and any changes to it.

 

What data do we collect?

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Below is an overview of the data we may collect:

• Non-identified and non-identifiable information that you provide during the registration process or that is collected through the use of our services ("non-personal data"). Non-Personal Information does not identify who it was collected from. Non-Personal Information that we collect consists primarily of technical and aggregate usage information.

• Individually identifiable information, which is any information by which you can be identified or could reasonably be identified ("personal data"). Personal information we collect through our Services may include information requested from time to time, such as names, email addresses, addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses and more. When we combine personal data with non-personal data, we treat it as personal data as long as it is in combination.

• For the provision of chargeable services, we request additional data, such as payment details, in order to be able to execute your order. We store this data in our systems until the statutory retention periods have expired.

 

How do we collect data?

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Below are the main methods we use to collect data:

• We collect data when you use our services. So when you visit our digital assets and use services, we may collect, record and store usage, sessions and related information.

• We collect data that you provide to us yourself, for example when you contact us directly via a communication channel (e.g. an email with a comment or feedback) or post information within our member area.

• We may collect data from third party sources as described below.

• We collect data that you provide to us when you sign up to our services through a third party provider such as Facebook or Google.

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Why do we collect this data?

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We may use your data for the following purposes:

• to provide and operate our services;

• to develop, adapt and improve our services;

• to respond to your feedback, enquiries and requests and to offer assistance;

• to analyse patterns of demand and use;

• or other internal, statistical and research purposes;

• to be able to improve our data security and fraud prevention capabilities;

• to investigate violations and enforce our terms and policies, and to comply with applicable law, regulations or government orders;

• to send you updates, news, promotional material and other information related to our services. For promotional emails, you can decide for yourself whether you want to continue receiving them. If not, simply click on the unsubscribe link in these emails.

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Who do we share this data with?

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We may share your information with our service providers to operate and fulfil our services (e.g. storing data via third party hosting services, providing technical support, etc.).

 

We may also disclose your information in the following circumstances: (i) to investigate, detect, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities or other misconduct; (ii) to establish or exercise our rights of defence; (iii) to protect our rights, property or personal safety and the safety of our users or the public; (iv) in the event of a change of control of us or any of our affiliates (by way of merger, acquisition or purchase of (substantially) all of the assets, etc.); (v) to collect and/or maintain your information through authorised third party service providers (e.g. cloud service providers) to the extent necessary for the purposes of our business. (v) to collect, maintain and/or manage your information through authorised third party service providers (e.g. cloud service providers) as appropriate for business purposes; (vi) to work with third party service providers to improve your user experience.

To avoid misunderstandings, we would like to point out that we may transfer or pass on non-personal data to third parties or use it in any other way at our own discretion.

 

Cookies and similar technologies

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When you visit or access our Services, we authorise third parties to use web beacons, cookies, pixel tags, scripts and other technologies and analytics services ("Tracking Technologies"). These Tracking Technologies may allow third parties to automatically collect your information to improve the navigation experience on our Digital Assets, optimise their performance and provide a tailored user experience, as well as for security and fraud prevention purposes.

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We may provide advertising through our Services and our Digital Assets (including websites and applications that use our Services) that may also be tailored to you, such as ads based on your recent website, device or browser browsing behaviour.

 

To serve these ads to you, we may use cookies and/or JavaScript and/or web beacons (including translucent GIFs) and/or HTML5 Local Storage and/or other technologies. We may also use third parties, such as network advertisers (i.e. third parties who display advertisements based on your website visits) to serve targeted ads. Third-party ad network providers, advertisers, sponsors and/or website traffic measurement services may also use cookies and/or JavaScript and/or web beacons (including translucent GIFs) and/or Flash cookies and/or other technologies to measure the effectiveness of their ads and customise advertising content for you. These third party cookies and other technologies are governed by the specific privacy policy of the third party provider and not this one.

 

Here you can find out how to block, deactivate or delete cookies in the browser you are using:

 

Mozilla Firefox:
https://support.mozilla.org/de/kb/cookies-erlauben-und-ablehnen

 

Internet Explorer:
https://support.microsoft.com/de-de/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies

 

Google Chrome:
https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647

 

Safari:
https://support.apple.com/kb/PH17191?locale=de_DE

 

Opera mobile:
https://www.opera.com/help/tutorials/security/cookies/

 

Deactivation of Google Analytics cookies:
You can prevent the collection of Google Analytics data to Google and the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plugin available under the following link:
https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout

 

Third-party cookies:
Can also be individually disabled or deleted by the user. The instructions for this can be found on the website of the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance: http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/

 

Profiling Cookies / Use of Adwords Remarketing Cookies
(for usage-based online advertising):
You can permanently object to the use of cookies for remarketing by deactivating interest-based advertising by Google here: https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated

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Use of Google Analytics

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This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (hereinafter: Google). Google Analytics uses "cookies", which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyse how users use the site. 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. However, due to the activation of IP anonymisation on these websites, your IP address will be truncated beforehand by Google within member states of the European Union or in other contracting states of the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and shortened there. On behalf of the operator of this website, Google will use this information 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. The IP address transmitted by your browser as part of Google Analytics will not be merged with other Google data.

The purposes of the data processing are to evaluate the use of the website and to compile reports on activities on the website. Other related services are then to be provided based on the use of the website and the internet. The processing is based on the legitimate interest of the website operator.

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. In addition, you can prevent the collection of data generated by the cookie and related to your use of the website (including your IP address) by Google, as well as the processing of this data by Google, by downloading and installing the browser plugin available under the following link:

Browser Add On zur Deaktivierung von Google Analytics.

In addition or as an alternative to the browser add-on, you can prevent tracking by Google Analytics on our pages. This involves installing an opt-out cookie on your device. This will prevent the collection by Google Analytics for this website and for this browser in the future, as long as the cookie remains installed in your browser.

 

Use of script libraries (Google Webfonts)

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In order to display our content correctly and graphically appealing across browsers, we use script libraries and font libraries such as Google Webfonts (https://www.google.com/webfonts/) on this website. Google Web Fonts are transferred to your browser's cache to avoid multiple loading. If the browser does not support Google Web Fonts or prevents access, content is displayed in a standard font.

Calling up script libraries or font libraries automatically triggers a connection to the operator of the library. It is theoretically possible - although it is currently unclear whether and for what purposes - that the operators of such libraries collect data.

The privacy policy of the library operator Google can be found here:

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

 

Google AdWords

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Our website uses Google conversion tracking. If you have reached our website via an ad placed by Google, a cookie is set on your computer by Google Adwords. The conversion tracking cookie is set when a user clicks on an ad placed by Google. These cookies lose their validity after 30 days and are not used for personal identification. If the user visits certain pages of our website and the cookie has not yet expired, we and Google can recognise that the user clicked on the ad and was redirected to this page. Each Google AdWords customer receives a different cookie. Cookies can therefore not be tracked across AdWords customers' websites. The information obtained using the conversion cookie is used to create conversion statistics for AdWords customers who have opted for conversion tracking. The customers learn the total number of users who clicked on their ad and were redirected to a page tagged with a conversion tracking tag. However, they do not receive any information that can be used to personally identify users.

If you do not wish to participate in the tracking, you can refuse the setting of a cookie required for this - for example, by means of a browser setting that generally deactivates the automatic setting of cookies or by setting your browser in such a way that cookies from the domain "googleleadservices.com" are blocked.

Please note that you must not delete the opt-out cookies as long as you do not want any measurement data to be recorded. If you have deleted all your cookies in the browser, you must set the respective opt-out cookie again.

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Embedded YouTube videos

 

We embed YouTube videos on some of our websites. The operator of the corresponding plugins is YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave, San Bruno, CA 94066, USA. When you visit a page with the YouTube plugin, a connection to YouTube servers is established. This tells Youtube which pages you are visiting. If you are logged into your YouTube account, YouTube can assign your surfing behaviour to you personally. You can prevent this by logging out of your Youtube account first.

When a YouTube video is started, the provider uses cookies that collect information about user behaviour.

Those who have deactivated the storage of cookies for the Google Ad programme will not have to expect any such cookies when watching Youtube videos. However, Youtube also stores non-personal usage information in other cookies. If you would like to prevent this, you must block the storage of cookies in the browser.

Further information on data protection at "Youtube" can be found in the provider's privacy policy at: https://policies.google.com/privacy

 

Where do we store the data?

 

Non-personal data

Please note that our companies and our trusted partners and service providers are located around the world. For the purposes explained in this Privacy Policy, we store and process any non-personal data we collect in different jurisdictions.

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Personal data

Personal Data may be maintained, processed and stored in the United States, Ireland, South Korea, Taiwan, Israel and to the extent necessary for the proper provision of our Services and/or as required by law (as further explained below) in other jurisdictions.

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How long will the data be retained?

 

Please note that we will retain the information we collect for as long as is necessary to provide our services, to comply with our legal and contractual obligations to you, to resolve disputes and to enforce our agreements.

We may correct, amend or delete inaccurate or incomplete data at any time at our sole discretion.

 

How do we protect the data?

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The hosting service for our digital assets provides us with the online platform through which we can offer our services to you. Your data can be stored via our hosting provider's data storage, databases and general applications. It stores your data on secure servers behind a firewall and it provides secure HTTPS access to most areas of its services.

 

All payment options offered by us and our hosting provider for our digital assets comply with the PCI Security Standards Council's PCI-DSS (Credit Card Industry Data Security Standard) regulations. This is the collaboration of brands such as Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. PCI-DSS requirements help ensure the secure handling of credit card data (including physical, electronic and procedural measures) by our shop and service providers.

Notwithstanding the measures and efforts taken by us and our hosting provider, we cannot and do not guarantee absolute protection and security of the data you upload, post or otherwise share with us or others.

For this reason, we ask that you set strong passwords and, where possible, do not provide us or others with confidential information that you believe could cause you significant or lasting harm if disclosed. In addition, as email and instant messaging are not considered secure forms of communication, we ask that you do not disclose confidential information through either of these communication channels.

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How do we deal with minors?

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The Services are not intended for users who are under the legal age of majority. We will not knowingly collect data from children. If you are under the age of majority, you should not download or use the Services or provide any information to us.

We reserve the right to request proof of age at any time so that we can check whether minors are using our services. In the event that we become aware that a minor is using our services, we may prohibit such users from accessing our services and block them, and we may delete any data we hold about that user. If you have reason to believe that a minor has disclosed data to us, please contact us as explained below.

 

We will only use your personal data for the purposes set out in the Privacy Policy and only if we are satisfied that:

• the use of your personal data is necessary to perform or enter into a contract (for example, to provide you with the services themselves or customer care or technical support);

• the use of your personal data is necessary to comply with relevant legal or regulatory obligations; or

• the use of your personal data is necessary to support our legitimate business interests (provided that at all times this is done in a way that is proportionate and respects your data protection rights).

 

As an EU resident, you can:

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• request confirmation as to whether or not personal data relating to you is being processed and request access to your stored personal data and certain additional information;

• request to receive personal data that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format;

• request the correction of your personal data that is stored by us;

• request the deletion of your personal data;

• object to the processing of your personal data by us;

• request the restriction of the processing of your personal data, or file a complaint with a supervisory authority.​

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However, please note that these rights are not unlimited and may be subject to our own legitimate interests and regulatory requirements. If you have any general questions about the personal data we collect and how we use it, please contact us as set out below.

In the course of providing the Services, we may transfer data across borders to affiliates or other third parties and from your country/jurisdiction to other countries/jurisdictions worldwide. By using the Services, you consent to the transfer of your data outside the EEA.

 

If you are located in the EEA, your personal data will only be transferred to locations outside the EEA if we are satisfied that there is an adequate or comparable level of protection for personal data. We will take appropriate steps to ensure that we have adequate contractual arrangements in place with our third parties to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place so that the risk of unlawful use, alteration, deletion, loss or theft of your personal data is minimised and that these third parties act at all times in accordance with applicable laws.

 

Rights under the California Consumer Protection Act

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If you use the Services as a California resident, then you may be entitled to request access to and deletion of your information under the California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA").

To exercise your right to access and delete your data, please read below on how to contact us.

We do not sell users' personal information for the purposes of the CCPA.

Users of the Services who are California residents and under the age of 18 may request and obtain removal of their Posted Content by emailing us at the address provided in the "Contact Us" section below. These requests must all be marked "California Removal Request". All requests must include a description of the content you wish to have removed and sufficient information to help us locate the material. We will not accept notices that are not marked or properly submitted, and we may not be able to respond if you do not provide sufficient information. Please note that your request does not ensure that the material will be fully or completely deleted. For example, material posted by you may be republished or re-posted by other users or third parties.

Updates or changes to the privacy policy

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We may revise this Privacy Policy from time to time at our sole discretion, the version posted on the Website is always current (see the "Status" statement). We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically for changes. In the event of material changes, we will post a notice to that effect on our website. Your continued use of the Services following notification of changes to our Website will constitute your acknowledgement and acceptance of the changes to the Privacy Policy and your agreement to be bound by the terms of those changes.

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Contact

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If you have any general questions about the Services or the information we collect about you and how we use it, please contact us at:

 

A-CONNECT International UG (limited liability)

Address: Heinrich-Weitz Str. 37, 76228 Karlsruhe, Germany

Phone: +49 721 959 42800

E-mail address: hello(at)a-connect.solutions