Privacy policy

Preamble

With the following data protection declaration, we would like to inform you about the types of your personal data (hereinafter also referred to as "data") that we process, for what purposes and to what extent. The data protection declaration applies to all processing of personal data carried out by us, both as part of the provision of our services and in particular on our websites, in mobile applications and within external online presences, such as our social media profiles (hereinafter collectively referred to as "online offer").

The terms used are not gender specific.

Status: September 19, 2023

Table of contents

• Preamble
• Responsible
• Processing overview
• Relevant legal bases
• Security measures
• Transmission of personal data
• Data deletion
• Rights of the data subjects
• Cookies use
• Business services
• Provision of the online offer and web hosting
• Blogs and publication media
• Contact and request management
• Web analysis, monitoring and optimization
• Presence in social networks (social media)

Responsible

Hans Belling, Dr. Christoph Kummerer
Thermozyklus GmbH & Co. KG
Grubmühlerfeldstrasse 54
D-82131 Gauting / Munich

E-mail address:

info@thermozyklus.com

Relevant legal bases

Relevant legal bases according to the GDPR: The following is an overview of the legal basis of the GDPR on the basis of which we process personal data. Please note that in addition to the provisions of the GDPR, national data protection regulations may apply in your or our country of residence or domicile. If, in addition, more specific legal bases are relevant in individual cases, we will inform you of these in the data protection declaration.

• Contract performance and pre-contractual requests (Art. 6 (1) p. 1 lit. b) DSGVO) - Processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is a party or for the performance of pre-contractual measures taken at the data subject's request.
• Legal obligation (Art. 6 (1) p. 1 lit. c) DSGVO) - Processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject.
• Legitimate interests (Art. 6 (1) p. 1 lit. f) DSGVO) - Processing is necessary to protect the legitimate interests of the controller or a third party, unless such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require the protection of personal data.

National data protection regulations in Germany: In addition to the data protection regulations of the GDPR, national regulations on data protection apply in Germany. These include, in particular, the Act on Protection against Misuse of Personal Data in Data Processing (Federal Data Protection Act - BDSG). In particular, the BDSG contains special regulations on the right to information, the right to erasure, the right to object, the processing of special categories of personal data, processing for other purposes and transmission, as well as automated decision-making in individual cases, including profiling. Furthermore, state data protection laws of the individual federal states may apply.

Processing overview

The following overview summarizes the types of data processed and the purposes of their processing and refers to the data subjects.

Types of data processed

• Inventory data.
• Payment details.
• Contact details.
• Content data.
• Contract data.
• Usage data.
• Meta, communication and procedural data.

Categories of affected persons

• Interested parties.
• Communication partner.
• Users.
• Business and Contractual Partners.

Processing purposes

• Provision of contractual services and fulfillment of contractual obligations.
• Contact requests and communication.
• Safety measures.
• Reach measurement.
• Office and organizational procedures.
• Managing and responding to inquiries.
• Feedback.
• Marketing.
• Profiles with user-related information.
• Provision of our online offer and user-friendliness.
• Information Technology Infrastructure.

Security measures

We take appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure a level of protection appropriate to the risk in accordance with the legal requirements, taking into account the state of the art, the implementation costs and the nature, scope, circumstances and purposes of the processing, as well as the different probabilities of occurrence and the extent of the threat to the rights and freedoms of natural persons.

The measures include, in particular, safeguarding the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data by controlling physical and electronic access to the data as well as the access, input, transfer, safeguarding of availability and its separation. Furthermore, we have established procedures to ensure the exercise of data subjects' rights, the deletion of data, and responses to data compromise. Furthermore, we take the protection of personal data into account as early as the development or selection of hardware, software and processes in accordance with the principle of data protection, through technology design and through data protection-friendly default settings.

TLS encryption (https): To protect your data transmitted via our online offer, we use TLS encryption. You can recognize such encrypted connections by the prefix https:// in the address bar of your browser.

Transmission of personal data

In the course of our processing of personal data, the data may be transferred to or disclosed to other bodies, companies, legally independent organizational units or persons. The recipients of this data may include, for example, service providers commissioned with IT tasks or providers of services and content that are integrated into a website. In such cases, we comply with the legal requirements and, in particular, conclude appropriate contracts or agreements that serve to protect your data with the recipients of your data.

Data transfer within the organization: We may transfer personal data to other entities within our organization or grant them access to this data. Where this transfer is for administrative purposes, the transfer of data is based on our legitimate business and operational interests or is made where it is necessary to fulfill our contract-related obligations or where there is consent from the data subjects or legal permission.

Data deletion

The data processed by us will be deleted in accordance with the legal requirements as soon as their consents permitted for processing are revoked or other permissions cease to apply (e.g. if the purpose of processing this data has ceased to apply or it is not required for the purpose). If the data are not deleted because they are required for other and legally permissible purposes, their processing will be limited to these purposes. That is, the data is blocked and not processed for other purposes. This applies, for example, to data that must be retained for reasons of commercial or tax law or whose storage is necessary for the assertion, exercise or defense of legal claims or for the protection of the rights of another natural or legal person. Our data protection notices may also contain further details on the retention and deletion of data, which take priority for the respective processing operations.

Rights of the data subjects

Rights of data subjects under the GDPR: As a data subject, you are entitled to various rights under the GDPR, which arise in particular from Art. 15 to 21 GDPR:

• Right to object: You have the right to object at any time, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to the processing of personal data concerning you which is carried out on the basis of Article 6(1)(e) or (f) DSGVO; this also applies to profiling based on these provisions. If the personal data concerning you is processed for the purposes of direct marketing, you have the right to object at any time to the processing of personal data concerning you for the purposes of such marketing; this also applies to profiling, insofar as it is related to such direct marketing.
• Right to revoke consent: You have the right to revoke any consent you have given at any time.
• Right of access: You have the right to request confirmation as to whether data in question is being processed and to obtain information about this data, as well as further information and a copy of the data in accordance with the legal requirements.
• Right to rectification: In accordance with the law, you have the right to request that data concerning you be completed or that inaccurate data concerning you be rectified.
• Right to erasure and restriction of processing: You have the right, in accordance with the law, to request that data relating to you be erased immediately or, alternatively, to request restriction of the processing of the data in accordance with the law.
• Right to data portability: You have the right to receive data concerning you, which you have provided to us, in a structured, common and machine-readable format in accordance with the legal requirements or to request that it be transferred to another responsible party.
• Complaint to supervisory authority: Without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of your habitual residence, place of work or place of the alleged infringement, if you consider that the processing of personal data relating to you infringes the requirements of the GDPR.

Cookies use

Cookies are small text files or other memory tags that store information on end devices and read information from the end devices. For example, to store the login status in a user account, the contents of a shopping cart in an e-shop, the content accessed or the functions used in an online offer. Cookies can also be used for various purposes, e.g. for purposes of functionality, security and convenience of online offers as well as the creation of analyses of visitor flows.

Consent notices: We use cookies in accordance with the law. Therefore, we obtain prior consent from users, except when it is not required by law. In particular, consent is not required if the storage and reading of information, including cookies, are absolutely necessary to provide the telemedia service (i.e., our online offering) expressly requested by users. The strictly necessary cookies usually include cookies with functions related to the display and operability of the online offer , load balancing, security, storage of users' preferences and choices or similar purposes related to the provision of the main and secondary functions of the online offer requested by the users. The revocable consent will be clearly communicated to the users and will contain the information regarding the respective cookie use.

Notes on legal bases under data protection law: The legal basis under data protection law on which we process users' personal data using cookies depends on whether we ask users for consent. If users consent, the legal basis for processing their data is their declared consent. Otherwise, the data processed with the help of cookies is processed on the basis of our legitimate interests (e.g. in a business operation of our online offer and improvement of its usability) or, if this is done in the context of the fulfillment of our contractual obligations, if the use of cookies is necessary to fulfill our contractual obligations. We explain the purposes for which we process cookies in the course of this privacy policy or as part of our consent and processing procedures.

Storage duration: In terms of storage duration, the following types of cookies are distinguished:

• Temporary cookies (also: session cookies): Temporary cookies are deleted at the latest after a user has left an online offering and closed his or her end device (e.g. browser or mobile app).
• Permanent cookies: Permanent cookies remain stored even after the end device is closed. For example, the login status can be saved or preferred content can be displayed directly when the user visits a website again. Likewise, user data collected with the help of cookies can be used for reach measurement. Unless we provide users with explicit information about the type and storage duration of cookies (e.g., when obtaining consent), users should assume that cookies are permanent and that the storage period can be up to two years.

General information on revocation and objection (so-called "opt-out"): Users can revoke the consents they have given at any time and object to processing in accordance with the legal requirements. For this purpose, users can, among other things, restrict the use of cookies in the settings of their browser (whereby this may also restrict the functionality of our online offer). An objection to the use of cookies for online marketing purposes can also be declared via the websites https://optout.aboutads.info and https://www.youronlinechoices.com/.

• Legal basis: Legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. f) DSGVO).

Further guidance on processing operations, procedures and services:

• BorlabsCookie: cookie consent management; service provider: hosted locally on our server, no data sharing with third parties; website: https://de.borlabs.io/borlabs-cookie/. Additional information: An individual user ID, language, as well as types of consents and the time of their submission are stored on the server side and in the cookie on the users' device.

Business services

We process data of our contractual and business partners, e.g. customers and interested parties (collectively referred to as "contractual partners") in the context of contractual and comparable legal relationships as well as related measures and in the context of communication with contractual partners (or pre-contractual), e.g. to answer inquiries.

We process this data in order to fulfill our contractual obligations. These include, in particular, the obligations to provide the agreed services, any update obligations and remedies in the event of warranty and other service disruptions. In addition, we process the data to safeguard our rights and for the purpose of administrative tasks associated with these obligations and company organization. Furthermore, we process the data on the basis of our legitimate interests in proper and business management as well as security measures to protect our contractual partners and our business operations from misuse, endangerment of their data, secrets, information and rights (e.g. for the involvement of telecommunications, transport and other auxiliary services as well as subcontractors, banks, tax and legal advisors, payment service providers or tax authorities). Within the framework of applicable law, we only disclose the data of contractual partners to third parties to the extent that this is necessary for the aforementioned purposes or to fulfill legal obligations. Contractual partners will be informed about further forms of processing, e.g. for marketing purposes, within the scope of this data protection declaration.

We inform the contractual partners which data are required for the above-mentioned purposes before or in the course of data collection, e.g. in online forms, by means of special marking (e.g. colors) or symbols (e.g. asterisks or similar), or in person.

We delete the data after the expiry of legal warranty and comparable obligations, i.e., in principle after 4 years, unless the data is stored in a customer account, e.g., as long as it must be retained for legal archiving reasons. The statutory retention period shall be ten years for documents relevant under tax law as well as for commercial books, inventories, opening balances, annual financial statements, the work instructions required to understand these documents and other organizational documents and accounting records, and six years for received commercial and business letters and reproductions of sent commercial and business letters. The period shall commence at the end of the calendar year in which the last entry was made in the book, the inventory, the opening balance sheet, the annual financial statements or the management report was prepared, the commercial or business letter was received or sent, or the accounting document was created, furthermore the recording was made or the other documents were created.

Insofar as we use third-party providers or platforms to provide our services, the terms and conditions and data protection notices of the respective third-party providers or platforms shall apply in the relationship between the users and the providers.

• Types of data processed: inventory data (e.g. names, addresses); payment data (e.g. bank details, invoices, payment history); contact data (e.g. e-mail, telephone numbers); contract data (e.g. subject matter of contract, term, customer category).
• Affected Persons: Interested parties. Business and contractual partners.
• Purposes of processing: provision of contractual services and fulfillment of contractual obligations; contact requests and communication; office and organizational procedures. Management and response to requests.
• Legal basis: Contract fulfillment and pre-contractual requests (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. b) DSGVO); Legal obligation (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. c) DSGVO). Legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. f) DSGVO).

Further guidance on processing operations, procedures and services:

• Technical services: We process the data of our customers and clients (hereinafter uniformly referred to as "customers") in order to enable them to select, acquire or commission the selected services or works as well as associated activities and to pay for and make them available or execute or provide them.The required information is identified as such in the context of the conclusion of the order, purchase order or comparable contract and includes the information required for the provision of services and billing as well as contact information in order to be able to hold any consultations. Insofar as we obtain access to information of end customers, employees or other persons, we process this in accordance with legal and contractual requirements;
  Legal basis: Contract fulfillment and pre-contractual inquiries (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. b) DSGVO).

Provision of the online offer and web hosting

We process the users' data in order to provide them with our online services. For this purpose, we process the user's IP address, which is necessary to transmit the content and functions of our online services to the user's browser or terminal device.

• Types of data processed: Usage data (e.g. websites visited, interest in content, access times); meta, communication and procedural data (e.g. IP addresses, time data, identification numbers, consent status); content data (e.g. entries in online forms).
• Data subjects: Users (e.g., website visitors, users of online services).
• Purposes of processing: provision of our online offer and user-friendliness; information technology infrastructure (operation and provision of information systems and technical equipment (computers, servers, etc.).). Security measures.
• Legal basis: Legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. f) DSGVO).

Further guidance on processing operations, procedures and services:

• Collection of access data and log files: Access to our online offer is logged in the form of so-called "server log files". The server log files may include the address and name of the web pages and files accessed, the date and time of access, the volume of data transferred, notification of successful access, browser type and version, the user's operating system, referrer URL (the previously visited page) and, as a rule, IP addresses and the requesting provider. The server log files may be used, on the one hand, for security purposes, e.g., to prevent server overload (especially in the event of abusive attacks, so-called DDoS attacks) and, on the other hand, to ensure the utilization of the servers and their stability; Legal basis: Legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. f) DSGVO) .Deletion of data: Log file information is stored for a maximum period of 30 days and then deleted or anonymized. Data whose further storage is required for evidentiary purposes is exempt from deletion until final clarification of the respective incident.
• E-mail dispatch and hosting: The web hosting services we use also include the dispatch, receipt and storage of e-mails. For these purposes, the addresses of the recipients and senders as well as further information regarding the e-mail dispatch (e.g. the providers involved) and the contents of the respective e-mails are processed. The aforementioned data may also be processed for SPAM detection purposes. Please note that e-mails are generally not sent encrypted on the Internet. As a rule, e-mails are encrypted in transit, but (unless a so-called end-to-end encryption method is used) not on the servers from which they are sent and received. We can therefore not assume any responsibility for the transmission path of the e-mails between the sender and the reception on our server; Legal basis: Legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. f) DSGVO).

Blogs and publication media

We use blogs or comparable means of online communication and publication (hereinafter "publication medium"). Readers' data is processed for the purposes of the publication medium only to the extent necessary for its presentation and communication between authors and readers or for security reasons. For the rest, we refer to the information on the processing of visitors to our publication medium within the scope of this data protection notice.

• Types of data processed: inventory data (e.g. names, addresses); contact data (e.g. e-mail, telephone numbers); content data (e.g. entries in online forms); usage data (e.g. websites visited, interest in content, access times); meta, communication and process data (e.g. IP addresses, time data, identification numbers, consent status).
• Data subjects: Users (e.g., website visitors, users of online services).
• Purposes of processing: provision of contractual services and fulfillment of contractual obligations; feedback (e.g. collecting feedback via online form). Provision of our online offer and user friendliness.
• Legal basis: Legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. f) DSGVO).

Contact and request management

When contacting us (e.g. by mail, contact form, e-mail, telephone or via social media) as well as in the context of existing user and business relationships, the information of the inquiring persons is processed to the extent necessary to respond to the contact requests and any requested measures.

• Types of data processed: contact data (e.g. e-mail, telephone numbers); content data (e.g. entries in online forms); usage data (e.g. websites visited, interest in content, access times); meta, communication and process data (e.g. IP addresses, time data, identification numbers, consent status).
• Affected persons: Communication partners.
• Purposes of processing: contact requests and communication; managing and responding to requests; feedback (e.g. collecting feedback via online form). Provision of our online offer and user friendliness.
• Legal basis: Legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. f) DSGVO). Contract performance and pre-contractual inquiries (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. b) DSGVO).

Further guidance on processing operations, procedures and services:

• Contact form: If users contact us via our contact form, e-mail or other communication channels, we process the data communicated to us in this context for the purpose of processing the communicated request; Legal basis: Contract performance and pre-contractual inquiries (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. b) DSGVO), Legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. f) DSGVO).

Web analysis, monitoring and optimization

Web analytics (also referred to as "reach measurement") is used to evaluate the flow of visitors to our online offering and may include behavior, interests, or demographic information about visitors, such as age or gender, as pseudonymous values. With the help of reach analysis, we can see, for example, at what time our online offer or its functions or content are most frequently used or invite re-use. Likewise, we can understand which areas require optimization.

In addition to web analytics, we may also use testing procedures, for example, to test and optimize different versions of our online offering or its components.

Unless otherwise stated below, profiles, i.e. data summarized for a usage process, can be created for these purposes and information can be stored in a browser or in a terminal device and read from it. The information collected includes, in particular, websites visited and elements used there, as well as technical information such as the browser used, the computer system used, and information on usage times. If users have agreed to the collection of their location data from us or from the providers of the services we use, location data may also be processed.

The IP addresses of the users are also stored. However, we use an IP masking procedure (i.e., pseudonymization by shortening the IP address) to protect users. In general, we do not store any clear user data (such as e-mail addresses or names) for the purposes of web analysis, A/B testing and optimization, but rather pseudonyms. This means that we, as well as the providers of the software used, do not know the actual identity of the users, but only the information stored in their profiles for the purposes of the respective procedures.

• Types of data processed: Usage data (e.g. web pages visited, interest in content, access times); meta, communication and procedural data (e.g. .IP addresses, time data, identification numbers, consent status).
• Data subjects: Users (e.g., website visitors, users of online services).
• Purposes of processing: Reach measurement (e.g. access statistics, recognition of returning visitors); profiles with user-related information (creation of user profiles). Provision of our online offer and user friendliness.
• Security measures: IP masking (pseudonymization of the IP address).
• Legal basis: Legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. f) DSGVO).

Further guidance on processing operations, procedures and services:

• Google Analytics 4: We use Google Analytics to measure and analyze the use of our online offer on the basis of a pseudonymous user identification number. This identification number does not contain any unique data, such as names or email addresses. It is used to assign analysis information to an end device in order to recognize which content users have accessed within one or various usage processes, which search terms they have used, have accessed again or have interacted with our online offer. Likewise, the time of use and its duration are stored, as well as the sources of the users referring to our online offer and technical aspects of their end devices and browsers. In the process, pseudonymous profiles of users are created with information from the use of various devices, whereby cookies may be used. Google Analytics does not log or store individual IP addresses for EU users. However, Analytics provides coarse geographic location data by deriving the following metadata from IP addresses: city (and the city's derived latitude and longitude), continent, country, region, subcontinent (and ID-based counterparts). For EU traffic, IP address data is used exclusively for this derivation of geolocation data before being immediately deleted. They are not logged, are not accessible, and are not used for any other purpose. When Google Analytics collects measurement data, all IP queries are performed on EU-based servers before the traffic is forwarded to Analytics servers for processing; Service provider: Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland; Legal basis: Legitimate interests (Art. 6 (1) p. 1 lit. f) DSGVO); Website : https://marketingplatform.google.com/intl/en/about/analytics/; Privacy policy: https: //policies.google.com/privacy; Order processing agreement: https://business.safety.google/adsprocessorterms/; Basis third country transfer: EU-US Data Privacy Framework (DPF), Standard Contractual Clauses(https://business.safety.google/adsprocessorterms); Opt-out: Opt-Out Plugin: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de, Ad Display Settings: https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated. Further information: https://business.safety.google/adsservices/ (types of processing and data processed).

Presence in social networks (social media)

We maintain online presences within social networks and process user data in this context in order to communicate with users active there or to offer information about us.

We would like to point out that user data may be processed outside the European Union. This may result in risks for the users because, for example, it could make it more difficult to enforce the rights of the users.

Furthermore, user data is usually processed within social networks for market research and advertising purposes. For example, usage profiles can be created based on the usage behavior and resulting interests of the users. The usage profiles can in turn be used, for example, to place advertisements within and outside the networks that presumably correspond to the interests of the users. For these purposes, cookies are usually stored on the users' computers, in which the usage behavior and interests of the users are stored. Furthermore, data independent of the devices used by the users may also be stored in the usage profiles (especially if the users are members of the respective platforms and are logged in to them).

For a detailed presentation of the respective forms of processing and the options to object (opt-out), we refer to the privacy statements and information provided by the operators of the respective networks.

In the case of requests for information and the assertion of data subject rights, we would also like to point out that these can be asserted most effectively with the providers. Only the providers have access to the users' data and can take appropriate measures and provide information directly. If you still need help, you can contact us.

• Types of data processed: contact data (e.g. e-mail, telephone numbers); content data (e.g. entries in online forms); usage data (e.g. websites visited, interest in content, access times); meta, communication and process data (e.g. IP addresses, time data, identification numbers, consent status).
• Data subjects: Users (e.g., website visitors, users of online services).
• Purposes of processing: contact requests and communication; feedback (e.g. collecting feedback via online form). Marketing.
• Legal basis: Legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. f) DSGVO).

Further guidance on processing operations, procedures and services:

• LinkedIn: Social network; Service provider: LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, Wilton Plaza Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland; Legal basis: Legitimate interests (Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. f) DSGVO); Website: https://www.linkedin.com; Privacy policy: https: //www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy; Order processing agreement: https: //legal.linkedin.com/dpa; Basis third country transfer: Standard Contractual Clauses(https://legal.linkedin.com/dpa). Option to object (opt-out): https://www.linkedin.com/psettings/guest-controls/retargeting-opt-out.