Privacy Statement

1.    General
Handling your personal data with great care is very important to us. We therefore, of course, adhere strictly to the legal provisions when collecting, processing and using personal data.

In the following, we would like to inform you as to which of your personal data we need and the purposes for which we process this data.

Personal data is information that can be attributed to you personally (such as your name, telephone number or email address). This does not include information that cannot be directly linked to your actual identity, or data attributable to legal entities.

The entity responsible for the collection, processing and use of your data on www.knick-international.com and the sub-sites associated with it within the meaning of Art. 4 No. 7 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is Knick Elektronische Messgeräte GmbH & Co. KG, Beuckestraße 22, 14163 Berlin (Knick).

2.    Collection and use of personal data
Information that we receive from you helps us plan and improve our service on an ongoing basis. We use this information to process your orders. Unless you have sent us your information exclusively for the purpose of contacting us (see under 4.), we also use your information to communicate with you about orders, products, services and marketing offers (see below, Communication via email), as well as to update our records and to maintain and update your personal data with us, and to recommend products or services that may interest you. We also use your information to improve our product offer and our platform, to prevent or detect any abuse of our site, or to enable third parties to perform technical, logistical or other services on our behalf.

You may, of course, at any time object to the processing or use of your personal data for advertising purposes via our online form or by sending an informal notification to info@knick.de or by using our online form.

We collect the following information:

  • Information you give us: We collect and store all the information that you enter on our website or transmit to us in any other way. You can decide not to give us certain information, but this may mean that there will be many of our offers (services/features) that you will not be able to use.
  • Automatic information: When you contact us, we store certain information. Among other things, we – like many other websites – make use of so-called “cookies”, from which we receive information as soon as your web browser opens our website.
  • Communication via email: In order to make your emails more useful and interesting, we often receive confirmation of which emails you open, if your computer supports this function.

3.    Newsletter
You have the option to subscribe to a free newsletter. After you have registered for the newsletter, you will receive an email asking you to confirm your newsletter registration. This is to ensure that no third party has misused your data (double opt-in principle).

Once subscribed, you will regularly receive information about news and other current topics. If you no longer wish to receive the newsletter, you can unsubscribe again at any time via any newsletter.

Your personal data will not be passed on to third parties for advertising purposes.

To send our newsletter, we use the service provider Newsletter2Go, an offer from Newsletter2Go GmbH, Köpenicker Str. 126, 10179 Berlin. If you would like to register for our newsletter, your email address and other personal data which you provided when registering will be sent to Newsletter2Go and processed and stored there. Newsletter2Go uses this information to send and analyse the newsletter on our behalf.

We have concluded a processing agreement with Newsletter2Go, which ensures that Newsletter2Go only processes your personal data according to our instructions and on our behalf. Newsletter2Go has taken appropriate technical and organizational measures which ensure that your personal data are only processed according to our instructions and is also certified by TÜV Rheinland.

Newsletter2Go can use the recipients’ data in pseudonymised form, i.e. without allocating to a user, in order to optimise or improve its own services, e.g. for technical optimisation of the sending and presentation of the newsletter or use for statistical purposes. Newsletter2Go does not however use the data of our newsletter recipients to write to them itself or to send the data on to third parties.

You can find more information on Newsletter2Go and data protection at Newsletter2Go at: https://www.newsletter2go.de/informationen-newsletter-empfaenger/

4.    Contact form
You can get in contact with Knick via an online form on our website. We only use the personal data sent in this context in connection with your communication and erase them unless statutory safekeeping obligations prevent any erasure. The legal basis for the processing of the data is Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 (b) GDPR if the purpose of your contacting us is in connection with the initiation or fulfilment of a contractual relationship existing between us. In other cases, the legal basis is Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 (f) GDPR. We have a legitimate interest in being able to respond to your requests, and so to make our customer service even more convenient.

5.    Competitions
From time to time, we offer competitions on our website. We collect, process and store the personal data required for carrying out these competitions – such as first and last name, email address and physical address. In some cases, you may also be required to register a user account on our website. 

There are always additional rules for each competition, which you must accept separately in order to participate. These conditions for participation include, among other things, detailed information regarding the scope and use of the data that is collected, processed and stored as part of the competition. In the event of conflicting rule regarding the processing of your personal data with this Privacy Policy, the rules of the competition shall take precedence. This can, for example, occur if the conditions for participating in a competition involve an extension or amendment to these data protection rules.

If you were to deny the use of your data in connection with your participation in competition, you will not be able to continue participating in that competition.

6.    Cookies
Knick makes use of cookies. Cookies are small text files that facilitate the use of the online offering of www.knick-international.com. Your browser saves them on the hard disk of your computer.

Most web browsers automatically accept cookies. However, you can change your browser settings to avoid this. Our partner companies are not allowed to collect, process or use personal data collected via our website with the use of cookies.

Please note that cookies only work on the computer on which they are stored. Using cookies will make it easier for you to log on to the computer where you have selected to use them.

The purpose of using cookies is to simplify the use of websites for you, because some of the functions of our website cannot be offered without the use of cookies. For instance, it is necessary for some functions that the browser still recognises you after changing pages. Our legitimate interest to process data pursuant to Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 (f) GDPR also exists for these purposes.

7.    Transmission of data to third parties
We only transmit the information we receive from you to third parties to the extent described below:

  • Service providers: We use other companies and individuals to perform certain tasks for us. For example, these could include sending letters or emails, among other things. These service providers receive only the information they need to perform their tasks. They may not use them for any other purposes. In addition, they are obliged to handle the information in accordance with this Privacy Policy as well as German data protection laws.
  • Protection of Knick and third parties: We disclose personal information about users if we are legally required to do so, or if such disclosure is required to enforce our General Terms and Conditions or other agreements, or to protect our own rights and the rights of our users and of third parties. We expressly draw your attention to the fact that in this regard, the data is not passed on to these companies for profitable purposes that are contrary to this Privacy Policy.
  • With your consent: In all other cases, we will inform you when personal information is to be passed on to third parties, thereby giving you the opportunity to give your consent.

Whenever we disclose personal information to third parties as described above, as well as in the transmission of information to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEC), we always ensure that this information is provided in accordance with this Privacy Policy and the German Data Protection Act (Datenschutzgesetz).
 

8.    Google Analytics
This website uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service from Google Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses so-called “cookies”, i.e. text files that are stored on the user’s computer to help analyse the use of the website. The information generated by the cookie regarding the use of this website is usually transferred to a Google server in the USA and saved there. If you activate IP anonymisation on this website, your IP address is however first truncated 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 is the full IP address transferred to a server of Google in the USA, and truncated there. On our behalf, Google will use this information to analyse your use of the website, to compile reports on the website activities, and to provide the website operator with further services associated with the use of the website and the Internet. The legal basis for the use of Google Analytics is Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 (f) GDPR. We have a legitimate interest in the analysis of user behaviour in order to be able to optimise both our web offer as well as our marketing and to be able to offer you an appropriate offer. For cases in which personal data are transmitted to the USA, Google is subject to the EU-US Privacy Shield. 

The IP address transmitted by your browser within the scope of Google Analytics is not merged with other data from Google. You can prevent cookies from being stored by applying an appropriate setting in the browser software; when you do that, you may not be able to use all the functions of this website in full. In addition, you can prevent the data generated by the cookie and which relates to your use of the website (incl. your IP address) from being recorded by Google, as well as processing of such data by Google, by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available at the following link: (http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de).

For further information about this, please visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en  or http://www.google.com/intl/de/analytics/privacyoverview.html  (general information on Google Analytics and Privacy). Google Analytics has been extended on this website by the code “gat._anonymizeIp ();” in order to ensure anonymous detection of IP addresses (so-called IP masking).

9.    Social media plug-ins
We use so-called “social media plug-ins” on our website. These are currently the plug-ins of the services LinkedIn, Xing, Facebook, Twitter and Google+ (hereinafter collectively referred to as “social networks”). Via the social plug-ins, we offer you the option to interact with the social networks and other users, so that we can improve our offer and design it in a more interesting way for you as user. The legal basis for the use of social plug-ins is Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 (f) GDPR. Through these plug-ins, data – including personal data – can be sent to the US providers of these social networks (hereinafter referred to as “service providers”) and, if necessary, used by them.

Social plug-ins usually mean that every visitor to a page is immediately captured by the service provider together with the visitor’s IP address, and the visitor’s other activities are logged on the Internet. This happens even if the visitor does not click on one of the buttons.

To prevent this, we use the tool “Shariff”, which was developed by the computer magazine c’t and heise online (Heise Medien GmbH & Co. KG). This tool ensures that no contact is established between the service providers and the visitor until the visitor clicks on a Share button. If the user is already logged on to a social network, the information is shared on Facebook and Google+ without another window opening. With Twitter, a pop-up window appears in which you can still edit the text of the tweet.

Once you have clicked on the corresponding social plug-in, the service providers will get the information that you have accessed the corresponding subpage of our online offer. You don’t need to have an account with this service provider for this, or be logged in to it. If you are logged in to the service provider, this data is assigned directly to your account. If you click on one of the social plug-ins and link the page, for example, the service provider also saves this information in your user account and publicly informs your contacts of this.

If you don’t want to be assigned to the service provider with your profile, you must log out before clicking on one of the social plug-ins.

The respective privacy policies of the service providers can be found here:


10.    YouTube
Our website uses plug-ins from the video portal YouTube. The provider is YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., San Bruno, CA 94066, USA. When visiting one of our websites, on which a YouTube video is displayed, your browser establishes a connection to the YouTube servers. In doing so, for technological reasons, the YouTube server will also be notified which of our sites you have visited. If you are logged in to your YouTube account, you also allow YouTube to allocate your surfing behaviour to your personal profile directly. You can prevent this by logging out of your YouTube account. The use of YouTube is in the interests of an appropriate representation and improvement of our services. It represents a legitimate interest within the meaning of Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 (f) GDPR.

You can find further information on the handling of user data in YouTube’s privacy policy at: https://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy.

11.     Google AdWords
We operate online advertising on some of our websites using the tool offered by Google Inc., “Google AdWords” and in doing so also use so-called Conversion Tracking. If you click on one of our ads displayed by Google, a cookie for Conversion Tracking will be stored on your computer. These cookies are no longer valid after 30 days, contain no personal data and therefore do not serve as personal identification.

If you visit particular pages of our website and the cookie has not yet expired, Google and we can recognise that you have clicked on the ad and were referred to this site. Each advertiser receives a different cookie, so that there is no possibility that cookies can be retraced by difference AdWords clients.

The information which is obtained with the aid of conversion cookies serves to create conversion statistics for advertisers which have decided to use Conversion Tracking. The advertisers hereby receive information about the total number of users who have clicked on their ad and were referred to a page equipped with a Conversion Tracking Tag, generally the order confirmation page. They do not however receive any information which allows the user to be identified personally.

If you do not want to take part in the tracking, you can object to this use by preventing the storage of cookies using a corresponding setting in your browser software. You will then not be recorded in the Conversion Tracking statistics. You can find additional information as well as Google’s privacy policy at: http://www.google.com/policies/technologies/ads/ and https://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/. Otherwise you can deactivate personalised marketing via Google using the following link: https://support.google.com/ads/answer/2662922?hl=en


12.     Google Tag Manager
We use the Google Tag Manager on our websites. Google Tag Manager is offered by Google and is a solution with which we can manage so-called website tags via an interface (and therefore e.g. Integrate Google Analytics as well as other Google marketing services into our online offer). Tag Manager does not itself process any personal data. However, a connection to Google is established when requesting our websites and your IP address is also processed there. The use of Google Tag Managers is necessary for the technical realisation of our online offers. This represents a legitimate interest within the meaning of Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 (f) GDPR. In order to protect your personal data, we use Google Tag Manager with the anonymisation function.

Insofar as we integrate third party providers via the Google Tag Manager Tools, which themselves process personal data, we refer separately to these in this privacy policy. You can find additional information about Google Tag Manager at: https://www.google.com/intl/de/tagmanager/use-policy.html


13.     Use of LinkedIn Ads, LinkedIn Marketing
We use the analysis and conversion tracking technology of the LinkedIn platform on our website. With the aforementioned technology from LinkedIn, you can be displayed more relevant marketing based on your interests. Furthermore, we receive from LinkedIn aggregated and anonymous reports about ad activities and information about how you interact with our website. Through the statistical analysis of user behaviour, we can improve our offer and design it in a more interesting way for you as user. Herein also lies our legitimate interest in the processing of the above data by the third party provider. The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 (f) GDPR. You can find more information about data protection at LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy#choices-oblig. You can object to the analysis of your usage behaviour through LinkedIn as well as the display of interest-based recommendations (“opt-out”); to do so, click on the field “Opt-out from LinkedIn” (for LinkedIn members) or “Opt-out” (for other users) at the following link: https://www.linkedin.com/psettings/guest-controls/retargeting-opt-out 


14.     Geolocalisation
On our website we use a geolocalisation service from MaxMind, Inc., Waltham, MA, 14 Spring St., Suite 3, Waltham, Massachusetts 02451, USA (“MaxMind”). MaxMind helps us to determine the country from which you request our websites, and therefore we can display the website to you in the correct language. The legal basis for the processing of personal data described here is Art 6 (1) (f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest required for this lies in the great benefits which the functions described above have for our offer. Localising your location allows us in particular to have an interest-based reaction and optimisation of our offer and makes the technical implementation of our website easier.

Insofar as personal data are hereby also transferred to the USA, MaxMind is certified under the US-EU Privacy Shield. We have concluded a processing agreement with MaxMind, which ensures that MaxMind only processes your personal data according to our instructions and on our behalf. We also only use the geolocalisation service with activated IP anonymisation.
You can find additional information about this at: https://www.maxmind.com/de/privacy_policy


15.     No liability for online offers from partners
We work with various partners, who offer websites and internet services that are accessible through our websites. These partners usually have their own privacy policies and/or guidelines. We likewise do not accept any responsibility or liability for these unrelated policies and guidelines.

16.     Access, rectification, blocking, erasure
We will be happy to inform you about the personal data concerning you which we store, as well as about their origin, recipients or categories of recipients to which these data are forwarded and the purpose of the storage. You can claim this right at any time as well as claim a right to rectification, blocking and erasure of your data.

You have the following rights against us in respect of the personal data concerning you:

  • Right of access, Art. 15 GDPR,
  • Right to rectification of incorrect or incomplete correct data, Art. 16 GDPR,
  • Right to erasure of your data stored by us, Art. 17 GDPR,
  • Right to restriction of the processing, Art. 18 GDPR,
  • Right to data portability, Art. 20 GDPR,

Information and communications about your rights will be issued to you free of charge.

If your personal data are processed on the basis of legitimate interests pursuant to Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 (f) GDPR, you have the right pursuant to Art. 21 GDPR to submit an objection to the processing of your personal data, provided that there are reasons for this, which result from your particular situation, or which are based on an objection to direct marketing. In the latter case, you have a general right to object which will be implemented without providing information about a special situation. Please address your objection to the address provided below.

If you have granted consent to use of data, you can revoke this at any time. Should you revoke your declaration of consent issued, we shall erase all of your personal data which we have stored, which we have captured, processed or used within the framework of your consent, provided that we are not obligated by law to store the data further. Please note that erasure of your data may mean that you will no longer be able to use some of our services on offer.

You also have the right to complain to a data protection supervisory authority concerning the processing of your personal data by us (cf. Art. 77 GDPR).

Please address all requests for information, requests for access or objections to data processing to Knick Elektronische Messgeräte GmbH & Co. KG:

via email to privacy@knick.de
by post to: Beuckestraße 22, 14163 Berlin, or
by fax to: +49 30 80191-200

Berlin, July 2018