Privacy policy
Data protection
We take the protection of your personal data very seriously. We treat your personal data confidentially and in accordance with the legal data protection regulations and this privacy policy.
The use of our website is usually possible without providing personal data. As far as personal data (e.g. name or email address) is collected on our website, this is always done on a voluntary basis, as far as possible. This data will not be passed on to third parties without your express consent and as a matter of principle.
We would like to point out that data transmission over the Internet (e.g. communication by email) can have security gaps. A complete protection of data against access by third parties is not possible.
Cookies
Our Internet pages partly use so-called cookies. Cookies do not damage your computer and do not contain viruses. Cookies serve to make our offer more user-friendly, effective and safer. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer and saved by your browser.
Most of the cookies we use are so-called “session cookies”. They are automatically deleted at the end of your visit. Other cookies remain stored on your device until you delete them. These cookies enable us to recognize your browser on your next visit.
You can set your browser so that you are informed about the setting of cookies and allow cookies only 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 you deactivate cookies, the functionality of this website may be limited.
If you write a comment on our website, this can be a consent to save your name, email address and website in cookies. This is a convenience feature so that you do not have to re-enter all this information when you write another comment. These cookies are stored for one year.
If you have an account and log in to this website, we will set a temporary cookie to determine if your browser accepts cookies. This cookie does not contain any personal information and is discarded when you close your browser.
When you log in, we will set some cookies to store your login information and display options. Login cookies expire after two days and display option cookies expire after one year. If you select “Stay signed in” when you sign in, your sign-in will be maintained for two weeks. When you log out of your account, the login cookies will be deleted.
Server-Log-Files
Our provider (Hetzner Online GmbH) of the pages automatically collects and stores information in so-called server log files, which your browser automatically transmits to us. These are:
- Browser type and browser version
- Operating system used
- Referrer URL
- Host name of the accessing computer
- Time of the server request
These data cannot be assigned to specific persons. A consolidation of this data with other data sources is not carried out. We reserve the right to check this data subsequently if we become aware of concrete indications of illegal use.
Contact form
If you send us a message using the contact form, your details from the contact form, including the contact data you entered there, will be stored by us for the purpose of processing your message and in case of follow-up questions. We will not pass on this data to third parties without your consent or otherwise.
Newsletter
If you would like to receive the newsletter offered on the website, we need your email address as well as information that allows us to verify that you are the owner of the email address and agree to receive the newsletter. Further data will not be collected. We use these data exclusively for sending the requested information and do not pass them on to third parties.
You can, of course, revoke your consent to the storage of the data, the email address and its use for sending the newsletter at any time, for example by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link in the newsletter.
The Aquema-Gaydar
We want to evaluate the results in a scientific context. For this reason, each answer (with date and time) is stored. Your IP address will NOT be saved and we cannot identify you. So you are absolutely safe! We only focus on the answers!
By taking the test, we assume that you agree to the storage of your answers.
Google Analytics
Our website uses functions of the web analysis service Google Analytics. The provider is Google Inc, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.
Google Analytics uses so-called “cookies”. These are text files which are stored on your computer and which enable an analysis of your use of the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transferred to a Google server in the USA and stored there.
Google Web Fonts
This website uses so-called web fonts, which are provided by Google, for the uniform display of fonts. When you call up a page, your browser loads the required web fonts into your browser cache in order to display texts and fonts correctly.
For this purpose, the browser you use must connect to Google’s servers. This enables Google to know that this website was accessed via your IP address. The use of Google Web Fonts is in the interest of a uniform and attractive presentation of our online offers. This represents a legitimate interest within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f DSGVO.
If your browser does not support Web Fonts, a standard font from your computer will be used.
Further information about Google Web Fonts can be found at https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq and in the Google privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de.
IP Anonymization
We have activated the IP anonymization function on this website. This means that your IP address will be truncated by Google within member states of the European Union or in other states that are party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area before it is transmitted to the USA. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transferred 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. The IP address transmitted by your browser within the framework of Google Analytics is not combined with other data from Google.
Browser Plugin
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.
You can also prevent the collection of data generated by the cookie and related to your use of the website (including your IP address) to Google and the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plugin available at the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de
Opposition to data collection
You can prevent the collection of your data by Google Analytics by clicking on the following link. An opt-out cookie will be set to prevent the collection of your data during future visits to our website (turn off tracking):
You can find more information on how Google Analytics handles user data in the Google privacy policy: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=de
Contract data processing
We have concluded a contract with Google for commissioned data processing and fully implement the strict requirements of the German data protection authorities when using Google Analytics.
Demographic characteristics in Google Analytics
This website uses the “demographic features” feature of Google Analytics. This allows reports to be generated that contain information about the age, gender and interests of visitors to the site. This data comes from interest-based advertising by Google as well as from visitor data from third parties. This data cannot be attributed to any specific person.
You can disable this feature at any time by changing the ad settings in your Google Account, or you can generally opt-out of having your information collected by Google Analytics as described in the “Opting out of data collection” section.
YouTube
Our website uses plugins or integrates YouTube videos from Google operated YouTube. The operator of the pages is YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., San Bruno, CA 94066, USA.
When you visit one of our sites equipped with a YouTube plugin, a connection to the YouTube servers is established. This tells the YouTube server which of our pages you have visited.
If you are logged in to your YouTube account, you allow YouTube to assign your surfing behavior directly to your personal profile. You can prevent this by logging out of your YouTube account.
You can find more information on how user data is handled in the YouTube privacy policy at: https://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy
Comment function on this website
For the comment function on this website, in addition to your comment, information about the time of the comment’s creation, your e-mail address and, if you are not anonymous, the user name you chose is stored.
If you write a comment, it will be saved for an unlimited time, including metadata. This way we can automatically detect and release follow-up comments instead of keeping them in a moderation queue.
For users who register on our website, we also store the personal information they provide in their user profiles. All users can view, change or delete their personal information at any time (the user name cannot be changed). Website administrators can also view and change this information.
Embedded content from other websites
Contributions on this website may contain embedded content (e.g. videos, pictures, articles etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves exactly as if the visitor had visited the other website.
These websites may collect information about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking services, and record your interaction with that embedded content, including your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged on to this website.
Storage of the IP address
Our comment function stores the IP addresses of users who post comments. Since we do not check comments on our site before they are activated, we need this data to be able to take action against the author in case of legal violations such as insults or propaganda.
When you post comments on the site, we collect the data displayed in the comment form, your IP address and the user-agent string (which identifies the browser) to help detect spam.
Your email address can be used to create an anonymous string (also called a hash) and send it to the Gravatar service to check if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy can be found here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After your comment is shared, your profile picture is publicly visible in the context of your comment.
SSL Encryption
Our website uses SSL encryption for security reasons and to protect the transmission of confidential content, such as the requests you send to us as the site operator. You can recognise an encrypted connection by the fact that the address line of your browser changes from “http://” to “https://” and by the lock symbol in your browser line.
If SSL encryption is activated, the data you send to us cannot be read by third parties.
Right to information, deletion, blocking
If you have an account on our website or have written comments, you have the right to receive information free of charge at any time about your stored personal data, its origin and recipients and the purpose of data processing, as well as the right to correct, block or delete this data.
For this purpose, as well as for further questions regarding personal data, you can contact us at any time at the address given in the imprint.
Contradiction advertising mails
We hereby object to the use of contact data published within the scope of the imprint obligation to send advertising and information material not expressly requested.
We, as the operator of the website, reserve the right to take legal action in the event of unsolicited sending of advertising information, e.g. via spam emails.