Like most websites, our websites also use cookies. These are used to constantly improve the experience of the visitors of our website and to adjust our website to their individual needs. Hereinafter, you will find out what cookies are, which cookies we use and how you can manage and delete them.
1. What are cookies?
Cookies are small units of information which your browser automatically stores in your computer’s memory. Cookies serve different functionalities, in particular the user-friendliness of the website. This allows a cookie to “remember” the settings you have made so you do not have to re-enter them each time.
Cookies are either downloaded directly from our servers (so-called first party cookies) or from other websites whose contents appear on our website (so-called third party cookies).
2. For which purposes do we use cookies?
We use cookies to analyse the use of our websites and to improve our websites based on the information we receive from the analysis. We and our partners also use this information to improve advertising on other websites, search engines and social networks. We cannot personally identify you from this information. Your name, email address or similar data will not be stored in addition to the data of cookies.
3. Types of cookies used on our website
We use both session and persistent cookies. Session cookies are temporary cookies that remain on your device until you close your browser. A permanent cookie remains on your device for much longer or until you delete it manually. The duration of a permanent cookie stored on your device depends on the duration or expiry date of the cookie and your browser settings.
Depending on their function and purpose, cookies can be divided into four categories:
a) Absolutely necessary cookies
Absolutely necessary cookies guarantee functions without which you cannot use our websites as intended. These cookies are only used by us and are therefore first party cookies. This means that all information stored in the cookies will be returned to our website. For example, the cookie may notice that you are logged in to your user account and will always stay logged in when you access different subpages of our website. This prevents you from having to re-enter your login details every time you access a new site.
These cookies do not identify you personally. If you do not accept these cookies, this may affect the performance of the website or parts of it.
b) Performance cookies
Performance cookies collect information about the usage of a website, e.g. which pages a visitor accesses most frequently or whether he receives error messages. They are only used to improve the website and, therefore, the usage experience. Performance cookies do not save information which allows conclusions to be drawn about the identity of the user – the site visitor remains anonymous.
These cookies do not identify you as an individual. All data is collected and aggregated anonymously.
c) Functional cookies
Functional cookies allow a web page to save already entered information (e.g., user name, language selection, font size). Thus the visitor can be offered more personal and improved functions. These cookies only collect anonymous information.
The information collected by these cookies may contain personally identifiable information that you have disclosed. If you do not accept these cookies, this may affect the performance and functionality of the website and limit access to content on the website.
d) Targeting and marketing cookies
Cookies for marketing purposes are used to capture the interests of the visitor and to adapt advertisements to their personal needs. The cookies originate from our external advertising partners. They are third party cookies. They are also used to measure the effectiveness of advertisements. For this purpose the collected information may be shared with third parties, e.g. advertisers.
4. Management and deletion of cookies
You can control and/or delete cookies as you wish. To manage cookies, most browsers allow you to accept or reject all cookies. Alongside there is also the option to accept only certain types of cookies. An instruction can usually be found in the help function integrated in the browser or under:
a) Mozilla Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/delete-cookies-remove-info-websites-stored
b) Google Chrome: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en
c) Microsoft Internet Explorer:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies
d) Apple Safari: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH19214?locale=de_DE&viewlocale=en_US
e) Opera: http://blogs.opera.com/news/2015/08/how-to-manage-cookies-in-opera/
Please note that if you deactivate the use of cookies in your browser settings, not all functions of our website may be fully available. You may need to make some settings manually each time you visit the site. More information can be found at: http://www.aboutcookies.org/ and in our privacy policy.