1. Name and contact details of the person responsible for the processing of personal data as well as company data protection officer

This data protection information applies to the data processing by:

Responsible: S&P Consulting SE, Schillerallee 4a, 22926 Ahrensburg, represented by the managing partner Guest Prof. Robert A. Sedlák.

 

External data protection officer:

Christian Sonntag | DSB-NORD
Reesenbüttler Redder 46
22949 Ammersbek
www.dsb-nord.com
datenschutz@spconsulting.de
csonntag@dsb-nord.com

 

2. Collection and storage of personal data and the nature and purpose of their use

a) When visiting the website

When accessing our website en.spconsulting.de, information is automatically sent to the server of our website by the browser used on your end device. This information is temporarily stored in a so-called log file. Following information is collected and stored, without any action on your part, until it is automatically deleted:

  • IP address of the requesting computer,
  • date and time of access,
  • name and URL of the retrieved file,
  • the website you were referred from (referrer URL),
  • the Internet browser used by you and, where applicable, the operating system of your computer as well as the name of your access provider

The aforementioned data are processed by us for the following purposes:

  • to ensure a smooth connection of the website,
  • to ensure a convenient use of our website,
  • to assess system security and stability and
  • for further administrative purposes.

The legal basis for the data processing is Article 6(1), page 1, lit. f, EU GDPR. Our legitimate interest is based on the purposes of data collection listed above. Under no circumstances the data collected will be used for the purpose of drawing conclusions about your person.

In addition, we use cookies and analysis services during your visit on our website. For further details please refer to point 4 and 5 of this privacy statement.

b) When subscribing to our newsletter

If you have submitted your express consent in accordance with Article 6(1), page 1, lit. a, EU GDPR, we use your e-mail address to send you our newsletter on a regular basis. The indication of an e-mail address is sufficient to receive our newsletter.

If you wish to unsubscribe from our newsletter, you can do this any time, for example over the corresponding link which appears at the end of every newsletter. Alternatively, you can send your request to unsubscribe at any time via e-mail to info@spconsulting.de.

c) When using our contact form

If you have any questions, we offer you the possibility to contact us via the contact form provided on our website. This procedure requires a valid e-mail address so that we know who sent the request and are able to answer it. Further information can be provided voluntarily.

The data provided for the purpose of contacting us is processed according to Article 6(1), page 1, lit. a, EU GDPR and subject to your expressly given and voluntary consent.

The personal data collected by us when using the contact form will be automatically deleted after the completion of your request.

d) Chat Function

We use the services of the IT service provider Tidio LLC, 160 Spear Street, San Francisco, CA 94105, USA to process the chat function.

The content of the written information from the chat history is transferred to Tidio LLC. At the time the message is sent, the date and time of registration are saved. You can find more information about data processing by Tidio LLC at https://www.tidio.com/privacy-policy.

 

3. Disclosure of data

Your personal data will not be transmitted to third parties for other purposes than listed in the following section.

We shall forward your personal data to third parties only if:

  • you have given us your explicit consent according to Article 6(1), page 1, lit. a, EU GDPR
  • forwarding your data in accordance with Article 6(1), page 1, lit. f, EU GDPR is necessary for the assertion, exercise or defense of legal claims and there are no reasonable grounds to assume that you have an overriding interest worthy of protection in not forwarding your data,
  • there is a legal obligation for disclosure according to Article 6(1), page 1, lit. c, EU GDPR, and
  • insofar as this is permitted by law, and required for the processing of contractual relationships with you according to Article 6(1), page 1, lit. b, EU GDPR

 

4. Cookies

We use cookies on our website. Cookies are small files that are automatically created by your browser and that are stored on your terminal device (laptop, tablet, smartphone or the like) when visiting our website. Cookies do not cause any damage to your end device and do not contain computer viruses, trojans, or other malware. Cookies contain characteristic stings which enable the browser to be uniquely identified when revisiting a website. This does not imply, however, that we obtain immediate knowledge regarding your identity.

The use of cookies serves

  • to facilitate the provision of our online services in the first place
  • to find out how our online services are generally used in order to optimize the user experience,
  • to optimize our advertising and marketing activities.

 

Types and activation/deactivation of cookies

The cookies used can be divided into groups which are explained in more detail below. Apart from the so-called “functional” cookies that are technically necessary for the provision of our offer, you can activate or deactivate cookies at your discretion. Please use our cookie settings for this purpose. In the settings, you will also find a list of all cookies used by us in detail.

a) Technically required (“functional”) cookies:

These cookies are required to store your personal cookie settings. Without these cookies it would not be possible for us to provide legally compliant cookie consent.

b) Statistical/analysis cookies:

We use analysis cookies so that we can constantly improve our offer both in terms of technology and content. These cookies enable us to collect data on how visitors use our website, e.g. information on the most frequently visited pages or navigation behaviour. With the help of analysis cookies, we create anonymous usage statistics for our website. If you do not allow these cookies, we will unfortunately not be able to include your behavior to optimize our offer.

c) Marketing cookies:

Marketing cookies are placed on our website by Google or its subcontractors such as YouTube. On the one hand, these third parties act as intermediaries in order to provide you with advertising for our firm in appropriate places on the Internet. On the other hand, these third parties use cookies to track your browser usage across other websites and to create a profile of your interests. This may generally affect content and messages displayed to you on other websites (especially YouTube).

You can find further information in the following details regarding the individual tools used by us which implement these cookies (see point 5).

 

Legal Bases

When using cookies that are technically required (“functional”) for the provision of our offer, it is necessary to process the data in order to protect our legitimate interests in accordance with Article 6(1), page 1, lit. f, EU GDPR.

Data processing through other cookies (currently analysis and marketing cookies, see also point 5 below) is carried out on the basis of your consent, Article 6(1), page 1, lit. a, EU GDPR. You may withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future using our cookie settings.

 

5. Analysis/Tracking Tools

a) Google Analytics

For the purpose of user-oriented design and a continuous optimization of our website we use Google Analytics, a web analysis service of Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; in the following “Google“). In this context, pseudonymized user profiles are created and cookies are used (see point 4). The information generated by a cookie about your use of the website, e.g.

  • browser type / version,
  • used operating system,
  • referrer URL (previously visited page)
  • host name of accessing computer (IP address),
  • time of server inquiry,

will be transmitted to and stored by a Google server located in the USA. 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 for the purpose of market research and the design of these Internet pages in line with requirements. This information may also be transferred to third parties if required by law or if third parties process these information on Google’s behalf. Under no circumstances your IP address will be merged with other data from Google. IP addresses are made anonymous so that an identification of the user is not possible (IP masking).

Please find further information on the subject of data protection relating to Google Analytics by clicking here.

b) Google Adwords Conversion Tracking

In order to statistically record the use of our website and evaluate it for the purpose of optimizing it for you, we also use Google Conversion Tracking. In case you were directed to our website through an advertisement on Google, Google AdWords will set a cookie on your computer.

These cookies expire after 30 days and do not contain information that can identify you personally. If this cookie has not yet expired when the user visits certain pages of the AdWords customer website, Google and the customer will be able to tell that the user clicked the ad and has been forwarded to that page.

Each AdWords customer is given a unique cookie. Therefore, cookies are not trackable via the websites of AdWords customers. The information collected using the conversion cookie is used to compile conversion statistics for AdWords customers who have opted for conversion tracking. AdWords customers learn the total number of users who have clicked on their advertisement and were forwarded to a page with a conversion tracking tag. However, they do not receive any information that can be used to personally identify users.

c) Google Remarketing

In addition to Adwords Conversion, we use Google Remarketing. With this tool, you may be presented with advertisements from our company as you continue to use the Internet based on your previous interaction with our website. This also takes place – subject to your prior consent – by means of a cookie stored in your browser (see point 4 above), which is used by Google to record and evaluate your usage behaviour when visiting various websites. This enables Google to determine your previous visit to our website. Google does not combine the data collected within the scope of remarketing with your personal data, which may be stored by Google, according to its own statements. According to Google, a pseudonymization is used in particular in remarketing.

d) Youtube

We have integrated videos from our channel on the YouTube platform (a service of Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA) into our online offering, which are stored on https://www.youtube.com and can be played directly on our website.

If you have given your consent to the use of marketing cookies (see point 4 above), by visiting a subpage of our website on which a YouTube video is embedded, YouTube will already be informed that you have visited the relevant subpage of our website. In addition, the data mentioned under point 2 a) of these regulations will be transmitted. This is done regardless of whether a user account exists on YouTube/Google through which you are logged in or whether no user account exists. If you are logged in at Google, the information about your visit on our website will be directly assigned to your Google Account.

YouTube stores your data as user profiles and uses them for the purposes of advertising, market research and/or demand-oriented design of its website. Such an evaluation is carried out in particular (also for users who are not logged in) to provide needs-based advertising and to inform other users of the social network about your activities on our website.

Please note: Even if you have not consented to the use of marketing cookies, there will still be data processing by YouTube/Google itself once you start a YouTube video. For more details of this data processing, we refer you to Google’s privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de. We ourselves only receive anonymous statistics from Google about the views of our videos.

e) Legal basis for the processing of your data/revocation of the consent

The legal basis for the processing of your personal data by using the tools described above is your consent previously granted via our cookie settings, Article 6(1), page 1, lit. a, EU GDPR  (see point 4). You can revoke your consent at any time with effect for the future by deactivating the respective measures in the cookie settings.

For more information about Google’s privacy policy, please visit: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de and https://services.google.com/sitestats/de.html. Alternatively, you can visit the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) website at http://www.networkadvertising.org/.

EU standard contractual clauses have been agreed with Google LLC to ensure that European data protection law is complied with.

f) Matomo

We use the open source software Matomo to analyze and statistically evaluate the use of the website. Cookies are used for this (see section 4). The information generated by the cookie about website usage is transmitted to our server and summarized in pseudonymous usage profiles. The information is used to evaluate the use of the website and to enable a needs-based design of our website. The information will not be passed on to third parties.

Under no circumstances will the IP address be associated with other data relating to the user. The IP addresses are anonymized so that an assignment is not possible (IP masking).

You have the option to prevent the actions you take here from being analyzed and linked. This will protect your privacy, but will also prevent the owner from learning from your actions and improve usability for you and other users.

You may choose to prevent this website from aggregating and analyzing the actions you take here. Doing so will protect your privacy, but will also prevent the owner from learning from your actions and creating a better experience for you and other users.

g) Alternatives to prevent tracking

You can also prevent participating in the above-mentioned tracking procedures in the following ways:

  1. By adjusting your browser software accordingly; in particular, the suppression of third-party cookies will prevent you from receiving third-party advertisements;
  2. By deactivating cookies for conversion tracking by configuring your browser to block cookies from the domain “www.googleadservices.com“, https://www.google.de/settings/ads, whereby this setting will be deleted if you delete your cookies;
  3. By deactivating interest-based advertisements of the providers that are part of the self-regulation campaign “About Ads” via the link http://www.aboutads.info/choices, whereby this setting will be deleted if you delete your cookies;
  4. By permanently deactivating them in your Firefox, Internet Explorer or Google Chrome browsers via the link http://www.google.com/settings/ads/plugin.

We would like to point out that in this case you (also) may not be able to use all functions of this offer to their full extent.

 

6. Rights of individuals affected

You have the right:

  • to request information about your personal data processed by us in accordance with Article 15, EU GDPR. In particular, you may request information on the purposes of processing, the category of personal data, the categories of recipients to whom your data have been or will be disclosed, the envisaged period for which the personal data will be stored, the existence of a right of rectification, erasure, restriction of processing or objection, the right to lodge a complaint, the source of your data, if not collected by us, as well as the existence of automated decision making including profiling and, where applicable, meaningful information on the details of such data;
  • obtain immediate rectification of incomplete or inaccurate personal data stored by us as defined in Article 16 EU GDPR;
  • obtain deletion of your personal data stored by us as defined in Article 17, EU GDPR in so far as it is not required for the processing of exercising freedom of expression and information, for compliance with a legal obligation, justified for reasons of public interest or for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims;
  • obtain restriction of processing of your personal data as defined in Article 18, EU GDPR in case the accuracy of the personal data is contested by you, the processing is unlawful but you oppose the erasure of the personal data and we no longer need the personal data for the purposes of the processing, but the data is required by you for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims or where you have objected to processing pursuant to Article 21, EU GDPR;
  • receive the personal data that you have provided us with in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format or to request that it be transferred to another responsible party, as defined in Article 20, EU GDPR
  • withdraw your consent at any time as defined in Article 7(3), EU GDPR. This means that we are not allowed to further process the provided data which was based on consent before its withdrawal and
  • lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority as defined in Article 77, EU GDPR. In general, you can refer to the supervisory authority of your habitual residence, place of work or of our corporate headquarters.

 

7. Right of Objection

To the extent that your personal data is processed based on legitimate interest pursuant to Article 6(1), p.1 lit. f EU GDPR, according to Article 21, EU GDPR you have the right to object at any time to processing of your personal data where there are reasons for doing so arising from your particular situation or where the objection is directed against direct marketing. In the latter case, you have a general right of objection which we will process without any indication relating to your particular situation.

If you wish to make use of the legal right of revocation or withdrawal, it is sufficient to send an e-mail to info@spconsulting.de.

 

8. Data security

When you visit our website, we use the widely used SSL process (Secure Socket Layer) in conjunction with the highest level of encryption that is supported by your browser. As a general rule, the encryption involves a 256-bit encryption. In case your browser does not support the 256-bit encryption, we use the 128-bit v3 technology instead. You can see whether an individual page of our website is being transmitted in an encrypted manner in the locked depiction of a key and/or lock symbol in the bottom status bar of your browser.

We apply appropriate technical and organizational security measures in order to protect your personal data against accidental or intentional manipulation, partial or full loss, destruction and against unauthorized access by third parties. Our security measures are continuously improved in line with technological progress.

 

9. Validity and modification of data protection declaration

This privacy statement is currently valid and was last updated in Febuary 2022.