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Data protection


We are delighted at your interest in BERNSTEIN AG and are committed to ensuring the protection of the personal data which we collect and process both online and offline. To this end, please note the following information.

We collect and process personal data in accordance with the provisions of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG).

In principle, you can use our Internet pages without entering any personal data whatsoever, however, some general data is collected in an automated system and personal data is collected when using our contact form for when registering to use special services.

1. Controller

The controller as defined by the GDPR is:

BERNSTEIN AG
Hans-Bernstein-Straße 1
32457 Porta Westfalica
Germany
Phone: 0571 793 0
E-Mail: info@bernstein.eu
Website: www.bernstein.eu

2. Data protection officer

Our data protection officer is:

Norbert Kuhlmann
BERNSTEIN AG
Hans-Bernstein-Straße 1
32457 Porta Westfalica
Germany
Phone: 0571 793 0
E-Mail: datenschutz@bernstein.eu
Website: www.bernstein.eu

If you any questions and comments on data protection, please do not hesitate to contact our data protection officer.

3. Legal bases

The legal basis for the collection, registration and processing of your personal data is Art 6(1) point (a) of the GDPR in the event that you grant consent by, for example, entering your data.

If your data is required by us for the performance of a contract concluded with you, Art 6(1) point (b) of the GDPR shall form the legal basis for this. This also applies to the performance of measures prior to entering into a contract which relate to your enquiry, especially as regards our products and services.

Art 6(1) point (c) of the GDPR forms the legal basis for data processing on the basis of a legal obligation affecting us, e.g., the fulfilment of tax obligations.

Art 6(1) point (d) of the GDPR forms the legal basis for data processing for the protection of the vital interests of your person or another natural person, for example in the case of urgent measures due to an emergency on our company grounds.

A further legal basis may be Art 6(1) point (f) of the GDPR if data processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by our company or a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject. This applies, for example, to cookies which are required to perform electronic communication or to provide function desired by you. Here there is a legitimate interest in the technically fault-free and optimised provision of our services.

4. Collection of data

Collection, processing, purposes
The data which we collect both offline and online is electronically recorded, saved and processed for performing transactions, marketing measures, application procedures, statistics, analysing user behaviour, providing a fault-free website and, if relevant, offering the prescribed information for law enforcement, tax and customs authorities. The data can, in particular, include the last name, first name, function in the company, e-mail address, telephone number, company affiliation, IP address, browser type and versions, operating system used, referrer URL, host name of the accessing computer and time of server query.

Cookies
Some of our Internet pages use cookies. These are small text files which are placed on your computer and saved by your browser. Cookies do not cause any damage to your computer. They do not contain viruses. They serve to make our offering more user friendly, effective and safer.

The majority of the cookies used are session cookies which are automatically deleted at the end of your visit. Other cookies remain saved on your device until you delete them. These cookies enable us to recognise your browser when you visit us again.

You can set your browser so that you are notified about the placement of cookies and only enable cookies in exceptional cases, exclude cookies for certain cases or as a rule and activate the automatic deletion of cookies when closing the browser. The functionality of this website may be impaired when cookies are deactivated.

Server log files
The provider 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 / browser version
  • Operating system used
  • Referrer URL
  • Host name of the accessing computer
  • Time of the server request
  • IP address

This data is not merged with other data sources.

Contact form
Should you send us queries via the contact form, any information you provide in order to process your query and in the event of subsequent questions as well as possible contractual fulfilment shall be saved by us provided you have not revoked your consent or storage or processing is not permitted due to another legal basis or statutory obligation.

Registration on our website
You can register on our website in order to use additional functions. We only use the data entered here for the purpose of using the respective offering or service for which you have registered. The mandatory information must be provided in full during registration. Otherwise registration is not permitted.
 
We use the e-mail address you used during registration to notify you of important changes regarding the scope of the offering or technically necessary changes.

The data you provide during registration shall be saved by us to process the query, answer any subsequent questions and enable possible contractual fulfilment provided you have not revoked your consent or storage or processing is not permitted due to another legal basis or statutory obligation.

5. Routine deletion and blocking of personal data

We exclusively process and save personal data for the time period which is required or prescribed by law to achieve the intended purpose. Once the intended purpose no longer applies or the period prescribed by law has expired, we delete or block the personal data as a matter of routine and in accordance with the legal regulations.

6. Third parties

We shall only pass your data to third parties (in particular our foreign subsidiaries, distributors, transport companies, external IT service providers commissioned by us, authorities etc.) on the basis of a statutory obligation or to the extent that this is necessary within the scope of our business relationship or is required due to the explanations below as regards the use of our website or, in exceptional cases, to protect the vital interests of natural persons.

7. Your rights

Information
You have the right to demand information, free of charge and without stating reasons, as to whether personal data about you has been collected and processed.

Within the framework of your legal entitlements as per Art. 16, Art. 17 of the GDPR, Section 35 of the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) you may arrange to have the data we have saved on you blocked, rectified or erased.

Deletion
Deletion of your personal data is performed on the basis of Art. 17 of the GDPR assuming this is not contrary to retention requirements and a deletion claim has been asserted as per Art. 17 of the GDPR.

Correction
Moreover, as per Art. 16 of the GDPR you are entitled to have incomplete data completed and/or corrected.

Processing restrictions
In accordance with Art. 18 of the GDPR, you are entitled to demand that processing restrictions are imposed.

Data transmission to third parties
Furthermore, in accordance with Art. 20 of the GDPR you have the right to data transmission provided that in this declaration we have stipulated point (a) or (b) of Art. 6(1) of the GDPR or point (a) of Art. 9(2) of the GDPR as the basis for data processing and such processing is carried out by automated means. You have the right to have your personal data transmitted directly from us to another responsible party where this is technically feasible.

Revocation
You can revoke the consent you granted us to collect and use data without stating reasons and at any time with effect for the future. Such a revocation, however, shall not affect the legality of the data processing performed subject to your consent up to this revocation. Following your revocation, we may only process your personal data to the extent that this is permitted on the grounds of another legal basis or statutory obligation.

Objection
For reasons resulting from your particular situation as defined by Article 21 of the GDPR you are entitled at any time to enter an objection to the processing of your data as per Art (6)1 point (e) or (f) of the GDPR.

Complaints
In the case of data privacy violations, in accordance with Art. 77 of the GDPR, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory body. The competent supervisory body for data protection issues is the federal data protection officer for North Rhine-Westphalia.

8. Plugins and Tools

YouTube
Our website uses plugins from the website YouTube which is operated by Google. The site operator is YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., San Bruno, CA 94066, USA.

If you visit one of our sites with a YouTube plugin, a connection is established to the YouTube servers. The YouTube server is notified as to which of our pages you visited.

If you are logged into your YouTube account, you enable YouTube to assign your surfing behaviour directly to your personal profile. You can prevent this by logging out of your YouTube account.

We use YouTube in the interests of making our online offering more appealing. This represents a legitimate interest as defined by Art 6(1) point (f) of the GDPR.

You will find further information in the YouTube data privacy policy at: https://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy.

Google web fonts
To ensure the uniform presentation of fonts, this page uses web fonts provided by Google. When you call up a page, your browser loads the necessary web fonts in its browser cache in order to display text and fonts correctly. To this end, the browser used by you must establish a connection to the Google servers. This notifies Google that our website was called up from your IP address.

We use Google web fonts in the interests of making our online offering uniform and appealing. This represents a legitimate interest as defined by Art 6(1) point (f) of the GDPR.

If your browser does not support web fonts, your computer will use a standard font.
You can find further information on Google web fonts at developers.google.com/fonts/faq and in Google’s data privacy statement: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

Google Maps
This site uses the Google Maps service via an API. The provider is Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.

To use the Google Maps functions, it is necessary to save your IP address. As a rule, this information is sent to a Google server in the USA and saved there. The provider of this site has not influence whatsoever on this data transmission.
 
Google Maps is used in the interests of providing an appealing online offering and making it easier to find the sites stated on the website. This represents a legitimate interest as defined by Art 6(1) point (f) of the GDPR.

You will find more information on the handling of user data in the Google data privacy statement: https://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy/.

9. Analysis tools and advertising

Google Analytics
This website uses functions of the Google Analytics web analysis service. The provider is Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.
Google Analytics uses cookies. These are text files which are stored on your computer and facilitate analysis of your use of the website. The information that the cookie generates in relation to your use of this website is generally sent to a Google Inc. server in the USA and stored there.
Google Analytics cookies are saved on the basis of Art 6 Para. 1 point (f) of the GDPR. The website operator has a legitimate interest in the analysis of user behaviour in order to optimise both its online offering and its advertising.

IP anonymisation
We have activated the IP anonymisation function on this website. As such, your IP address will be truncated by Google within Member States of the European Union or in other signatories to the Agreement on the European Economic Area before being sent to the USA. Only in exceptional cases is the full IP address sent to a Google server in the USA and truncated there. On behalf of the operator of this website, Google will use this information to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activity and to provide the website provider with other services connected with website use and Internet use. The IP address provided by your browser as part of Google Analytics will not be merged with other Google data.

Browser plugin
You can prevent the storage of cookies by setting your browser software accordingly; please, however, be advised that in doing so you may not be able to use all the function of this website in full. You can also opt out of storage of the data on your site activity by the cookie (incl. your IP address) as well as the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plugin available from the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de.

Objection to data collection
You can prevent Google Analytics from collecting your data by clicking on the following link. An opt-out cookie is placed which prevents the collection of your data during future visits to this website: Deactivating Google Analytics
You will find more information on the handling of user data by Google Analytics in the Google data privacy statement: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=de.

Contract data processing
We have concluded an agreement for contract data processing with Google and implement in full the strict provisions of the German data privacy authorities when using Google Analytics.

Demographic data with Google Analytics
This website uses the Google Analytics demographic data function. As such, reports can be compiled containing information on the age, gender and interests of site visitors. This data is derived from interest-related advertising from Google and visitor data from third-party providers. This data cannot be assigned to a specific individual. You can deactivate this function at any time via the advert settings in your Google account or prevent the collection of data overall by Google Analytics as outlined in point “Objection to data collection”.

Google AdWords and Google conversion tracking
This website uses Google AdWords. AdWords is an online advertising program from Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States (“Google”).

Within the scope of Google AdWords, we employ so-called conversion tracking. When you click on an advert delivered by Google, a cookie is placed for conversion tracking. Cookies are short text files stored in or by the Web browser on the user’s computer system. These cookies become invalid after 30 days and do not serve to identify the user personally. If the user visits certain pages on this website and the cookie has not yet expired, we and Google can determine that the user has clicked on the advert and was taken to this site.

Each Google AdWords customer receives a different cookie. The cookies cannot be tracked via the websites of AdWords customers. The information obtained using conversion cookies serves to compile conversion statistics for AdWords customers who have decided to use conversion tracking. Customers are provided with details of the total number of customers who have clicked on their advert and who were taken to a page with a conversion tracking tag. They, however, do not receive any information with which they can identify the user personally. If you do not wish to participate in tracking, you can object to this function by simply deactivating the Google conversion tracking cookie via your Internet browser under user settings. As a result, you will not be included in the conversion tracking statistics.

Conversion cookies are saved on the basis of Art 6 Para. 1 point (f) of the GDPR. The website operator has a legitimate interest in the analysis of user behaviour in order to optimise both its online offering and its advertising.

More information on Google AdWords and Google conversion tracking can be found in Google’s data privacy regulations: https://www.google.de/policies/privacy/.

You can set your browser so that you are notified about the placement of cookies and only enable cookies in exceptional cases, exclude cookies for certain cases or as a rule and activate the automatic deletion of cookies when closing the browser. The functionality of this website may be impaired when cookies are deactivated.

Newsletter
Should you wish to receive a newsletter from us, we require your e-mail address as well as information which enables us to check that you are the owner of the said e-mail address and agree to receipt of the newsletter. The data which you provide to us in connection with the newsletter is used exclusively to send the requested information.
 
The data provided in order to receive the newsletter is processed on the basis of your consent. The consent granted to save the data, the e-mail address and to use these to send the newsletter can be revoked at any time by clicking on the “Unsubscribe” link in the newsletter. The legality of completed data-processing operations is not affected by this revocation.

The data stored by us in order to send the newsletter shall be saved by us until you unsubscribe from the newsletter and shall be deleted after this time. Data which is saved by us for other purposes shall not be affected by this.

Keep in touch with us

Eine BERNSTEIN Mitarbeiterin führt ein Kundentelefonat an ihrem Arbeitsplatz

Keep in touch with us

You have questions or need more information? We will take care of your request and will be happy to advise you on our products and solutions.