Privacy Policy

1. An overview of data protection

General information

The following information will provide you with an easy to navigate overview of what will happen with your personal data when you visit this website. The term “personal data” comprises all data that can be used to personally identify you. For detailed information about the subject matter of data protection, please consult our Data Protection Declaration, which we have included beneath this copy. It also informs you of your rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Data recording on this website

Who is the responsible party for the recording of data on this website (i.e., the “controller”)?

The data on this website is processed by the operator of the website, whose contact information is available under section “Information about the responsible party (referred to as the “controller” in the GDPR)” in this Privacy Policy.

How do we record your data?

Some data shall be recorded by our IT systems automatically or after you consent to its recording during your website visit. This data comprises primarily technical information (e.g., web browser, operating system, or time the site was accessed). This information is recorded automatically when you access this website.

What are the purposes we use your data for?

A portion of the information is generated to guarantee the error free provision of the website. Other data may be used to analyze your user patterns.

What rights do you have as far as your information is concerned?

You have the right to receive information about the source, recipients, and purposes of your archived personal data at any time without having to pay a fee for such disclosures. You also have the right to demand that your data are rectified or eradicated. If you have consented to data processing, you have the option to revoke this consent at any time, which shall affect all future data processing. Moreover, you have the right to demand that the processing of your data be restricted under certain circumstances. Furthermore, you have the right to log a complaint with the competent supervising agency.

Please do not hesitate to contact us at any time if you have questions about this or any other data protection related issues.

Analysis tools and tools provided by third parties

There is a possibility that your browsing patterns will be statistically analyzed when your visit this website. Such analyses are performed primarily with what we refer to as analysis programs.

For detailed information about these analysis programs please consult our Data Protection Declaration below.

2. Hosting and Content Delivery Networks (CDN)

External Hosting

This website is hosted by an external service provider (host). Personal data collected on this website are stored on the servers of the host. These may include, but are not limited to, IP addresses, contact requests, metadata and communications, contract information, contact information, names, web page access, and other data generated through a web site.

The host is used for the purpose of fulfilling the contract with our potential and existing customers (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR) and in the interest of secure, fast, and efficient provision of our online services by a professional provider (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

Our host will only process your data to the extent necessary to fulfil its performance obligations and to follow our instructions with respect to such data.

We are using the following host:

videre Lebensweltforschung GmbH
Ezanvillestraße 59
D-69118 Heidelberg

Execution of a contract data processing agreement

In order to guarantee processing in compliance with data protection regulations, we have concluded an order processing contract with our host.

3. General information and mandatory information

Data protection

The operators of this website and its pages take the protection of your personal data very seriously. Hence, we handle your personal data as confidential information and in compliance with the statutory data protection regulations and this Data Protection Declaration.

Whenever you use this website, a variety of personal information will be collected. Personal data comprises data that can be used to personally identify you. This Data Protection Declaration explains which data we collect as well as the purposes we use this data for. It also explains how, and for which purpose the information is collected.

We herewith advise you that the transmission of data via the Internet (i.e., through e-mail communications) may be prone to security gaps. It is not possible to completely protect data against third-party access.

Information about the responsible party (referred to as the “controller” in the GDPR)

The data processing controller on this website is:

OPINION Market Research & Consulting GmbH
Rollnerstr. 8
90408 Nuremberg

Phone: +49 911 393 64 0
E-mail: info@opinion.de

The controller is the natural person or legal entity that single-handedly or jointly with others makes decisions as to the purposes of and resources for the processing of personal data (e.g., names, e-mail addresses, etc.).

Storage duration

Unless a more specific storage period has been specified in this privacy policy, your personal data will remain with us until the purpose for which it was collected no longer applies. If you assert a justified request for deletion or revoke your consent to data processing, your data will be deleted, unless we have other legally permissible reasons for storing your personal data (e.g., tax or commercial law retention periods); in the latter case, the deletion will take place after these reasons cease to apply.

Designation of a data protection officer as mandated by law

Our data protection officer Dagmar Staudacher can be contacted as follows: datenschutzbeauftragte@opinion.de

Information on data transfer to the USA and other non-EU countries

Among other things, we use tools of companies domiciled in the United States or other from a data protection perspective non-secure non-EU countries. If these tools are active, your personal data may potentially be transferred to these non-EU countries and may be processed there. We must point out that in these countries, a data protection level that is comparable to that in the EU cannot be guaranteed. For instance, U.S. enterprises are under a mandate to release personal data to the security agencies and you as the data subject do not have any litigation options to defend yourself in court. Hence, it cannot be ruled out that U.S. agencies (e.g., the Secret Service) may process, analyze, and permanently archive your personal data for surveillance purposes. We have no control over these processing activities.

Revocation of your consent to the processing of data

A wide range of data processing transactions are possible only subject to your express consent. You can also revoke at any time any consent you have already given us. This shall be without prejudice to the lawfulness of any data collection that occurred prior to your revocation.

Right to object to the collection of data in special cases; right to object to direct advertising (Art. 21 GDPR)

IN THE EVENT THAT DATA ARE PROCESSED ON THE BASIS OF ART. 6(1)(E) OR (F) GDPR, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO AT ANY TIME OBJECT TO THE PROCESSING OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA BASED ON GROUNDS ARISING FROM YOUR UNIQUE SITUATION. THIS ALSO APPLIES TO ANY PROFILING BASED ON THESE PROVISIONS. TO DETERMINE THE LEGAL BASIS, ON WHICH ANY PROCESSING OF DATA IS BASED, PLEASE CONSULT THIS DATA PROTECTION DECLARATION. IF YOU LOG AN OBJECTION, WE WILL NO LONGER PROCESS YOUR AFFECTED PERSONAL DATA, UNLESS WE ARE IN A POSITION TO PRESENT COMPELLING PROTECTION WORTHY GROUNDS FOR THE PROCESSING OF YOUR DATA, THAT OUTWEIGH YOUR INTERESTS, RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS OR IF THE PURPOSE OF THE PROCESSING IS THE CLAIMING, EXERCISING OR DEFENCE OF LEGAL ENTITLEMENTS (OBJECTION PURSUANT TO ART. 21(1) GDPR).

IF YOUR PERSONAL DATA IS BEING PROCESSED IN ORDER TO ENGAGE IN DIRECT ADVERTISING, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO OBJECT TO THE PROCESSING OF YOUR AFFECTED PERSONAL DATA FOR THE PURPOSES OF SUCH ADVERTISING AT ANY TIME. THIS ALSO APPLIES TO PROFILING TO THE EXTENT THAT IT IS AFFILIATED WITH SUCH DIRECT ADVERTISING. IF YOU OBJECT, YOUR PERSONAL DATA WILL SUBSEQUENTLY NO LONGER BE USED FOR DIRECT ADVERTISING PURPOSES (OBJECTION PURSUANT TO ART. 21(2) GDPR).

Right to log a complaint with the competent supervisory agency

In the event of violations of the GDPR, data subjects are entitled to log a complaint with a supervisory agency, in particular in the member state where they usually maintain their domicile, place of work or at the place where the alleged violation occurred. The right to log a complaint is in effect regardless of any other administrative or court proceedings available as legal recourses.

The contact details of the supervisory authorities in Germany are available at https://www.bfdi.bund.de/DE/Infothek/Anschriften_Links/anschriften_links-node.html

Right to data portability

You have the right to demand that we hand over any data we automatically process on the basis of your consent or in order to fulfil a contract be handed over to you or a third party in a commonly used, machine readable format. If you should demand the direct transfer of the data to another controller, this will be done only if it is technically feasible.

SSL and/or TLS encryption

For security reasons and to protect the transmission of confidential content, such as purchase orders or inquiries you submit to us as the website operator, this website uses either an SSL or a TLS encryption program. You can recognize an encrypted connection by checking whether the address line of the browser switches from “http://” to “https://” and also by the appearance of the lock icon in the browser line.

If the SSL or TLS encryption is activated, data you transmit to us cannot be read by third parties.

Information about, rectification and eradication of data

Within the scope of the applicable statutory provisions, you have the right to at any time demand information about your archived personal data, their source and recipients as well as the purpose of the processing of your data. You may also have a right to have your data rectified or eradicated. If you have questions about this subject matter or any other questions about personal data, please do not hesitate to contact us at any time.

Right to demand processing restrictions

You have the right to demand the imposition of restrictions as far as the processing of your personal data is concerned. To do so, you may contact us at any time. The right to demand restriction of processing applies in the following cases:

  • In the event that you should dispute the correctness of your data archived by us, we will usually need some time to verify this claim. During the time that this investigation is ongoing, you have the right to demand that we restrict the processing of your personal data.
  • If the processing of your personal data was/is conducted in an unlawful manner, you have the option to demand the restriction of the processing of your data in lieu of demanding the eradication of this data.
  • If we do not need your personal data any longer and you need it to exercise, defend or claim legal entitlements, you have the right to demand the restriction of the processing of your personal data instead of its eradication.
  • If you have raised an objection pursuant to Art. 21(1) GDPR, your rights and our rights will have to be weighed against each other. As long as it has not been determined whose interests prevail, you have the right to demand a restriction of the processing of your personal data.

If you have restricted the processing of your personal data, these data – with the exception of their archiving – may be processed only subject to your consent or to claim, exercise or defend legal entitlements or to protect the rights of other natural persons or legal entities or for important public interest reasons cited by the European Union or a member state of the EU.

Rejection of unsolicited e-mails

We herewith object to the use of contact information published in conjunction with the mandatory information to be provided in our Site Notice to send us promotional and information material that we have not expressly requested. The operators of this website and its pages reserve the express right to take legal action in the event of the unsolicited sending of promotional information, for instance via SPAM messages.

4. Recording of data on this website

Consent to the use of cookies.

For our website to function properly we use cookies. To obtain your valid consent for the use and storage of cookies in the browser you use to access our website and to properly document this we use a consent management platform: CookieFirst. This technology is provided by Digital Data Solutions BV, Plantage Middenlaan 42a, 1018 DH, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Website: https://cookiefirst.com referred to as CookieFirst.

When you access our website, a connection is established with CookieFirst’s server to give us the possibility to obtain valid consent from you to the use of certain cookies. CookieFirst then stores a cookie in your browser in order to be able to activate only those cookies to which you have consented and to properly document this. The data processed is stored until the predefined storage period expires or you request to delete the data. Certain mandatory legal storage periods may apply notwithstanding the aforementioned.

CookieFirst is used to obtain the legally required consent for the use of cookies. The legal basis for this is article 6(1)(c) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Data processing agreement

We have concluded a data processing agreement with CookieFirst. This is a contract required by data protection law, which ensures that data of our website visitors is only processed in accordance with our instructions and in compliance with the GDPR.

Server log files

Our website and CookieFirst automatically collect and store information in so-called server log files, which your browser automatically transmits to us. The following data is collected:

  • Your consent status or the withdrawal of consent
  • Your anonymised IP address
  • Information about your Browser
  • Information about your Device
  • The date and time you have visited our website
  • The webpage url where you saved or updated your consent preferences
  • The approximate location of the user that saved their consent preference
  • A universally unique identifier (UUID) of the website visitor that clicked the cookie banner

5. Social media

eRecht24 Safe Sharing Tool

Users may share the content of this website and its pages in a data protection law compliant manner on social networks, such as Xing, LinkedIn et al. For this purpose, this website uses the eRecht24 Safe Sharing Tool. This tool does not establish a direct connection between the network and the user until the user has actively clicked on one of the buttons. The click on this button constitutes content as defined in Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. This consent may be revoked by the user at any time, which shall affect all future actions.

This tool does not automatically transfer user data to the operators of these platforms. If the user is registered with one of the social networks, an information window will pop up as soon as the social button of Facebook, Twitter et al is used, which allows the user to confirm the text prior to sending it.

Our users have the option to share the content of this website and its page in a data protection law compliant manner on social networks, without entire browsing histories are being generated by the operators of these networks.

6. Analysis tools and advertising

Matomo

Purpose / scope of data processing

We use the open source software tool Matomo on our website to analyse and statistically evaluate the use of our website. By placing cookies on the user's computer, we receive information about the use of the website (e.g. recognising returning visitors and counting them).

The visitor IP addresses are anonymised, i.e. two bytes are masked. This means that it is not possible to identify individual users.

The following data is stored:

  • Cookies (are only stored if consent has been given via cookie banner)
  • Anonymised IP addresses (the last 2 bytes are removed)
  • Country, region, city (with low accuracy due to masking of the IP address)
  • Date and time, local time
  • Title of the page accessed
  • URL of the page accessed
  • URL of the previous page (if this is permitted)
  • Display resolution
  • Devices and software used (operating system, browser)
  • Files that were clicked on and downloaded
  • External links
  • Duration of the page load
  • Main language of the browser
  • Interactions with forms (but not their content)

The personal data is stored exclusively on servers in the EU. The data is not passed on to third parties.

Legal basis

The data processing is based on your consent in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR, provided that you have given your consent via our banner. You can revoke this consent at any time via the "Cookies" section.

Duration of storage

The data is automatically deleted after 2 years.

7. Plug-ins and Tools

Adobe Fonts

In order to ensure the uniform depiction of certain fonts, this website uses fonts called Adobe Fonts provided by Adobe Systems Incorporated, 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, CA 95110-2704, USA (Adobe).

When you access pages of this website, your browser will automatically load the required fonts directly from the Adobe site to be able to display them correctly on your device. As a result, your browser will establish a connection with Adobe’s servers in the United States. Hence, Adobe learns that your IP address was used to access this website. According to the information provided by Adobe, no cookies will be stored in conjunction with the provision of the fonts.

Data are stored and analyzed on the basis of Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. The website operator has a legitimate interest in a uniform presentation of the font on the operator’s website. If a respective declaration of consent has been obtained (e.g., consent to the archiving of cookies), the data will be processed exclusively on the basis of Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. Any such consent may be revoked at any time.

Data transmission to the US is based on the Standard Contractual Clauses (SCC) of the European Commission. Details can be found here: https://www.adobe.com/de/privacy/eudatatransfers.html.

For more information about Adobe Fonts, please read the policies under: https://www.adobe.com/privacy/policies/adobe-fonts.html.

Adobe’s Data Privacy Declaration may be reviewed under: https://www.adobe.com/privacy/policy.html.

8. Online-based Audio and Video Conferences (Conference tools)

Data processing

We use online conference tools, among other things, for communication with our customers. The tools we use are listed in detail below. If you communicate with us by video or audio conference using the Internet, your personal data will be collected and processed by the provider of the respective conference tool and by us. The conferencing tools collect all information that you provide/access to use the tools (email address and/or your phone number). Furthermore, the conference tools process the duration of the conference, start and end (time) of participation in the conference, number of participants and other “context information” related to the communication process (metadata).

Furthermore, the provider of the tool processes all the technical data required for the processing of the online communication. This includes, in particular, IP addresses, MAC addresses, device IDs, device type, operating system type and version, client version, camera type, microphone or loudspeaker and the type of connection.

Should content be exchanged, uploaded, or otherwise made available within the tool, it is also stored on the servers of the tool provider. Such content includes, but is not limited to, cloud recordings, chat/ instant messages, voicemail uploaded photos and videos, files, whiteboards, and other information shared while using the service.

Please note that we do not have complete influence on the data processing procedures of the tools used. Our possibilities are largely determined by the corporate policy of the respective provider. Further information on data processing by the conference tools can be found in the data protection declarations of the tools used, and which we have listed below this text.

Purpose and legal bases

The conference tools are used to communicate with prospective or existing contractual partners or to offer certain services to our customers (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). Furthermore, the use of the tools serves to generally simplify and accelerate communication with us or our company (legitimate interest in the meaning of Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Insofar as consent has been requested, the tools in question will be used on the basis of this consent; the consent may be revoked at any time with effect from that date.

Duration of storage

Data collected directly by us via the video and conference tools will be deleted from our systems immediately after you request us to delete it, revoke your consent to storage, or the reason for storing the data no longer applies. Stored cookies remain on your end device until you delete them. Mandatory legal retention periods remain unaffected.

We have no influence on the duration of storage of your data that is stored by the operators of the conference tools for their own purposes. For details, please directly contact the operators of the conference tools.

Conference tools used

We employ the following conference tools:

Microsoft Teams

We are using Microsoft Teams. When you communicate with us via Microsoft Teams, all the data related to this communication activity will be processed on their servers.

Recording of conferences

We may record the video and audio conferences we conduct at Microsoft Teams.

9. Custom Services

Job Applications

We offer website visitors the opportunity to submit job applications to us (e.g., via e-mail or via postal services). Below, we will brief you on the scope, purpose and use of the personal data collected from you in conjunction with the application process. We assure you that the collection, processing and use of your data will occur in compliance with the applicable data privacy rights and all other statutory provisions and that your data will always be treated as strictly confidential.

Scope and purpose of the collection of data

If you submit a job application to us, we will process any affiliated personal data (e.g., contact and communications data, application documents, notes taken during job interviews, etc.), if they are required to make a decision concerning the establishment or an employment relationship. The legal grounds for the aforementioned are § 26 New GDPR according to German Law (Negotiation of an Employment Relationship), Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (General Contract Negotiations) and – provided you have given us your consent – Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. You may revoke any consent given at any time. Within our company, your personal data will only be shared with individuals who are involved in the processing of your job application.

If your job application should result in your recruitment, the data you have submitted will be archived on the grounds of § 26 New GDPR and Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR for the purpose of implementing the employment relationship in our data processing system.

Data Archiving Period

If we are unable to make you a job offer or you reject a job offer or withdraw your application, we reserve the right to retain the data you have submitted on the basis of our legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR) for up to 6 months from the end of the application procedure (rejection or withdrawal of the application). Afterwards the data will be deleted, and the physical application documents will be destroyed. The storage serves in particular as evidence in the event of a legal dispute. If it is evident that the data will be required after the expiry of the 6-month period (e.g., due to an impending or pending legal dispute), deletion will only take place when the purpose for further storage no longer applies.

Longer storage may also take place if you have given your agreement (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR) or if statutory data retention requirements preclude the deletion.