Our privacy policy

Hilger u. Kern GmbH - Version: 05/2023

1.   Name and contact information for the controller and company privacy officer

Controller:

Hilger u. Kern GmbH
Käfertaler Straße 253
68167 Mannheim

Phone: + 49 621 3705 0
Fax: + 49 621 3705 200

Our company privacy officer can be reached at the address above and at datenschutz@hilger-kern-group.com.

2.   Collection and storage of personal data and nature and purpose of its use

a) When visiting our website

When visiting our website, information is sent automatically to our website’s server by the browser being used on your device. This information is saved temporarily in what is called a log file. The following information is saved without you doing anything and stored until it is automatically deleted:

  • name of the file viewed
  • date and time of viewing
  • volume of data transmitted
  • message on whether the file was viewed successfully
  • description of the type of Web browser used
  • operating system used
  • the last site visited by you
  • provider
  • your IP address

The data listed above is processed by us for the following purposes:

  • to ensure our website establishes a connection smoothly
  • to ensure it is convenient to use our website
  • to analyse system security and stability, and
  • for other administrative reasons

The legal ground for processing data is GDPR article 6(1)(f). Our legitimate interest is the result of the above listed purposes for which we collect data. Under no circumstances do we use the data collected for the purpose of making inferences about you as a person.

Furthermore, we use cookies and services for analysis and marketing when you visit our website. You can find more detailed explanations of these features in sections 4 – 6 of this privacy notice.

b) When using our contact form

If you have questions of any kind, we offer you the option of contacting us using a form provided on our website. To use the form, you must enter your title, surname, a valid email address, postal code, country and town/city of residence so that we know whom the enquiry is coming from and so that we can respond to it. You may enter additional information voluntarily.

When personal data is processed for the purpose of contacting us, it is done in accordance with GDPR article 6(1)(b) on the basis of your specific enquiry.

The personal data collected by us so that you can use the contact form will be deleted automatically once your enquiry has been resolved, unless we are legitimately entitled to retain it (e.g. for a specific order) for further processing.

c) When using our ‘Qualified Enquiry’ form

In order to get individual quotes, we offer you the option of contacting us using a ‘Qualified Enquiry’ form provided on our website. To use the form, you must enter your title, surname, a valid email address, postal code, country and town/city of residence so that we know whom the enquiry is coming from and so that we can respond to it. You may enter additional information voluntarily.

When personal data is processed for the purpose of contacting us, it is done in accordance with GDPR article 6(1)(b) on the basis of your specific enquiry.

The personal data collected by us so that you can use the contact form will be deleted automatically once your enquiry has been resolved, unless we are legitimately entitled to retain it (e.g. for a specific order) for further processing.

3.   Sharing data

Your personal data is not shared with third parties other than for the purposes listed below.

We only share your personal data with third parties if:

  • you have given your explicit consent in accordance with GDPR article 6(1)(a)
  • it is necessary to share your data as per GDPR article 6(1)(f) and there is no reason to suggest that you have an overriding, legitimate interest in not having your data shared
  • there is a legal obligation to share your data in line with GDPR article 6(1)(c)
  • if it is necessary to perform contracts we have with you as per GDPR article 6(1)(b), provided the sharing is lawful

4.   Cookies

We use cookies in some areas of our website. These small files make it possible to identify your computer as a single technical entity while you visit this website, which makes it easier for you to use our offering – including if you return to it later.

However, you generally also have the option of activating a setting in your Internet browser so that you are informed when cookies are saved and can allow or reject those cookies, or even delete cookies that have already been saved.

Please use your Internet browser's help function to find information about changing its settings. Please note that certain functions of our website may potentially not work if you deactivate cookies.

Cookies do not allow servers to read private data on your computer or data that has been saved on your computer by another server. They do not cause any harm to your computer and do not contain any viruses.

Cookies are used on the basis of GDPR article 6(1)(f): we process your personal data to improve the functionality of our website. Therefore we are required to process your data to safeguard our legitimate interests.

5.   Use of Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics, a Web analytics service provided by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States.

Google has certification, including under the Privacy Shield framework, and consequently provides a guarantee that it complies with European privacy laws.
(see https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI&status=Active)

Google Analytics uses cookies, i.e. small text files that are saved on your computer to enable the analysis of your use of the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transmitted to a Google server in the US and stored there. However, as IP anonymization has been activated for this website, Google abbreviates your IP address within the member states of the European Union or European Economic Area before it is transmitted. Only in exceptional cases is your full IP address transmitted to a Google server in the US and abbreviated there. Google uses this information on our behalf to analyse your use of the website, to compile reports on website activity and to perform other services associated with website activity and Internet usage for us. Google does not keep the IP address transmitted from your browser through the Google Analytics service with other data. You can prevent cookies from being saved by activating the corresponding settings in your browser software, though be advised that you may not be able to use the complete functionality of our website in this case.

Furthermore, you can prevent the data that is generated by the cookie and that relates to your usage of the website (including your IP address) from being saved and processed by Google by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available through the following link.
(http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en)

More information about terms of use and data privacy can be found at: http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/gb.html and https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en.

Our use of the aforementioned analytics tool is based on GDPR article 6(1)(f): we process personal data to analyse usage behaviour and are therefore required to do so to safeguard our legitimate interests.

6.   Use of Google’s marketing services

We use various marketing and remarketing services, referred to here as ‘Google marketing services’, provided by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States.

Google marketing services use cookies that are saved on your computer to enable us to display more targeted advertising for and on our website so that users are only presented with advertisements that potentially meet their interests. If, for example, you receive advertisements for products that you were interested in on other websites, this is known as ‘remarketing’. For these purposes, Google executes a Google code directly when visiting our or other websites where Google marketing services are active, and these sites become tagged for (re)marketing.

The information generated by the cookie and tags about your use of this website is usually transmitted to a Google server in the US and stored there. However, as IP anonymisation has been activated for this website, Google abbreviates your IP address within the member states of the European Union or European Economic Area before it is transmitted. User data that is processed for Google marketing services is therefore generally pseudonymous, meaning that Google stores and processes only relevant data on the basis of cookies and pseudonymised user profiles that do not include the names or email address of users. This in turn means that, from Google’s point of view, advertising is administered and displayed for the person whose system has the cookie, regardless of who this may be, as opposed to a specific, identified person. This is not the case if a user explicitly allows Google to process the data without pseudonymising it. The information collected from users by Google marketing services is transferred to Google and stored on Google's servers in the United States.

The Google marketing services used by us include the Google ‘AdWords’ online advertising system. With Google AdWords, each AdWords customer receives a separate conversion cookie. Cookies therefore cannot be traced via the websites of AdWords customers. The information obtained by using the conversion cookie is used to create conversion statistics for AdWords customers who have opted to use conversion tracking. AdWords customers see the total number of users who have clicked on their advertisement and been forwarded to a website featuring a conversion tracking tag. However, they do not receive any information that can be used to identify users personally.

Based on Google's ‘DoubleClick’ marketing service, we can integrate third-party advertising into our website. DoubleClick uses cookies that make it possible for Google and its partner websites to place advertisements that are based on users’ visits to this website or other websites on the Internet.

Moreover, we may use the Google ‘Tag Manager’ to integrate Google Analytics and Google marketing services with our website and administer them.

More information about Google’s use of data for marketing purposes can be found in the summary at: https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads?hl=en, while Google’s privacy notice can be seen at: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en.

If you would like to object to interest-related advertising by Google marketing services, you can manage your settings and opt-out options for Google at: http://www.google.com/ads/preferences.

Our use of the aforementioned marketing services is based on GDPR article 6(1)(f): we process personal data to improve our products and create audience-specific advertisements, and are therefore required to process personal data to safeguard our legitimate interests.

7.   Use of Leadinfo:

We use the lead generation service provided by Leadinfo B.V., Rotterdam, The Netherlands, which recognizes visits of companies to our website based on IP addresses and shows us related publicly available information, such as company names or addresses. In addition, Leadinfo places two first-party cookies for providing transparency on how our visitors use our website and the tool processes domains from provided form inputs (e.g. “leadinfo.com”) to correlate IP addresses with companies and to enhance its services. For additional information, please visit www.leadinfo.com. On this page: www.leadinfo.com/en/opt-out you have an opt-out option. In the event of an opt-out, your data will no longer be used by Leadinfo”.

etracker

The provider of this website uses services from etracker GmbH based in Hamburg, Germany (www.etracker.com) to analyze usage data. By default, we do not use cookies for web analysis. If we use analysis and optimization cookies, we will seek your explicit consent separately in advance. If you agree, cookies will be used to enable statistical reach analysis of this website, measure the success of our online marketing activities, and conduct testing procedures, such as testing different versions of our online offerings or their components to optimize them. Cookies are small text files stored by the Internet browser on the user’s device. etracker cookies do not contain any information that would allow identification of a user.

The data generated with etracker is processed and stored exclusively in Germany on behalf of this website’s provider and is therefore subject to strict German and European data protection laws and standards. etracker has been independently reviewed, certified, and awarded the data protection seal ePrivacyseal.

Data processing is based on the legal provisions of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f (legitimate interest) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Our objective, in terms of GDPR (legitimate interest), is to optimize our online offerings and our website. Since we value the privacy of our visitors, data that may allow identification of an individual, such as IP addresses, login or device identifiers, is anonymized or pseudonymized as soon as possible. There is no other use, merging with other data, or transfer to third parties.

You can object to the above-described data processing at any time by clicking the slider. The objection will not result in any disadvantages. If no slider is displayed, data collection is already blocked by other blocking measures.

Privacy

Further information on data protection at etracker can be found here.

8.  Who gets access to your personal data?


For faster and more efficient communication with our customers and interested parties, we use the CRM system of

salesforce.com
Germany GmbH

Erika-Mann-Strasse 31

80636 Munich

For this purpose, at least one valid e-mail address must be provided. Further data, such as the first and last name, can become important for the processing of customer transactions and are therefore collected.

The user data will only be used by salesforce.com for the technical processing of the enquiries and will not be passed on to third parties.

Should Salesforce process their data in the USA, they offer an additional guarantee through the Privacy Shield agreement that the data will be used in accordance with European data protection law (https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000KzLyAAK&status=Active ).
Additional information can be found in salesforce's privacy policy: https://www.salesforce.com/de/company/privacy 
 

a. Signing up for our newsletter and using our contact forms.

We use Pardot from Salesforce when signing up for our email service and grant access to certain content using Pardot forms. Pardot places a persistent cookie on the relevant sign-up page, unless a Pardot cookie is already present on your device. If you have already used a website that uses Pardot, you may already have a Pardot cookie. We may use the Pardot cookie to analyse your use of our sites so that we can continually improve them.
Pardot respects the "Do Not Track" initiative. You can configure this option in your browser. If this option is enabled, Pardot will not use cookie-based tracking. For more information on how Pardot handles cookies, see "Cookies and other functions".
If you have expressly consented in accordance with Art. 6 Para. 1 Sentence 1 lit. a DSGVO, we will use your e-mail address to send you our newsletter on a regular basis. To receive the newsletter, it is sufficient to provide an e-mail address. Due to our overriding legitimate interest in addressing you personally in our business communication, we also collect your name and company name. You can unsubscribe at any time via a link at the end of each newsletter.
E-mails sent with the help of Pardot use tracking technologies. We use this data primarily to find out which topics are of interest to you by monitoring whether our emails are opened and which links you click on. We then use this information to improve the emails we send you and the services we provide.

9. Rights of the data subject

You, as the data subject, have the following rights:

a.  Right to information

You have the right to obtain from us confirmation as to whether or not personal data concerning you is being processed.

b.  Right to rectification, erasure and restriction of processing

You furthermore have the right to obtain from us:
•   the rectification of inaccurate personal data concerning you without undue delay (right to rectification)
•   the erasure of personal data concerning you without undue delay (right to erasure), and
•   the restriction of processing (right to restriction of processing)

c.  Right to data portability

You have the right to receive the personal data concerning you, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and to transmit that data to another controller.

d.  Right to withdraw

You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. The withdrawal of consent will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.

e.  Right to object

If the processing of personal data concerning you is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest (GDPR article 6(1)(e)) or to safeguard our legitimate interests (GDPR article 6(1)(f)), you have the right to object to processing.

f.  Right to complain

If you have believe that the processing of personal data concerning you infringes the GDPR, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority without detriment to any other legal remedies.

10.   Changes to this privacy statement

We reserve the right to amend this privacy statement if there are changes to relevant legislation, the service or the processing of data. However, this reservation applies only in respect of statements regarding data processing. Where it is necessary to obtain user consent or where parts of the privacy statement contain provisions for the contracts we have with users, changes will only be made with the consent of the users.

Users will generally be able to learn of any changes through this privacy statement.