The ifes GmbH welcomes you to our websites and is pleased about your interest in our products and services. Data protection and data security for our customers and users have, for time immemorial, been of great significance to our enterprise. The protection of your personal data is therefore very important and a special concern of ours.
GENERAL GUIDELINES AND MANDATORY INFORMATION
This privacy policy gives you an overview of the type of data collected by ifes GmbH and what happens to your personal data when you visit our website. We shall treat your personal data confidentially and in compliance with the legal data protection regulations as well as this privacy policy. When you visit our website, your browsing behaviour can be statistically evaluated. This is mainly done using cookies, analysis tools and tools of third-party providers. The analysis of your browsing behaviour is done anonymously in principle; this browsing behaviour cannot be traced back to you. You can object to this analysis or prevent it by not using particular tools. You can find detailed information about this in the following guidelines to our privacy policy.
Information about the collection of personal data
In the following sections we shall inform you about the collection and further processing of personal data when you visit our website. Personal data refers to all data which relates to you personally or with which you can be identified personally, e.g. name, address, e-mail address, or user behaviour.
The Controller, according to Article 4 (7) of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), is
ifes GmbH
Am Wassermann 36
50829 Köln
Tel. +49 (0) 221 801099-0
Fax +49 (0) 221 801099-69
E-Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (see our legal notice).
You can reach our legally designated data protection specialist by email:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or through our postal address with the tag “Data protection specialist”.
When you contact us by e-mail or via a contact form, we shall store the personal data you submit to us (your e-mail address, your name and your telephone number, if necessary) for purposes of responding to your questions. We shall delete the data connected with this event as soon as its storage is no longer required, or we shall restrict the processing of this data if there are any legal obligations necessitating its storage.
If we engage contracted service providers for individual functions of our service provision, or if we want to use your data for advertising purposes, we shall hereafter inform you in detail about the respective procedures. At the same time, we shall also tell you the fixed criteria for the storage duration.
Insofar as your inquiry necessitates the transmission of personal data to particular recipients, the data will also be shared with third parties. This will always take place within the framework of legal regulations.
This website uses SSL and/or TLS encryption for security reasons and to protect the transmission of confidential contents, e.g. submitted contents of a form. If the encryption is activated, the data transmitted to us cannot be read by third parties too. You can recognise an encrypted connection by the fact that the address bar of your browser changes from “http://” to “https://” and by the lock symbol in the browser bar.
The use of the contact details published in connection with the obligatory legal notice for sending explicitly unsolicited advertising and information material is hereby rejected. The operators of the websites reserve the right to take express legal steps in the event of unsolicited circulation of advertising information, for example through spam e-mails.
Your rights
You can assert the following rights against us regarding your personal data:
- Right to information,
- Right to rectification or erasure of personal data,
- Right to restriction of processing,
- Right of objection to the processing,
- Right to data portability.
You also have the right to complain to a data protection supervisory authority about the processing of your personal data by us.
Collection of personal data when you visit our website
If you are simply visiting our website for information purposes, that is to say you don’t register or send us any information at all, we shall still collect the following personal data which will be transmitted to our server by your browser.
We collect and record the information send from you browser in so called "server log files". Recorded information are:
- IP address
- Date and time of your inquiry
- Time zone difference to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
- Contents of the request (precise page)
- Access status / HTTP status code
- The respective amount of data transmitted
- Website originating the request
- Browser
- Operating system and its interface
- Language and version of the browser software
The legal basis for the processing of your data is Article 6(1) point (f) of the GDPR, which allows the processing of technically requisite data that ensures a stable and secure operation of the website.
In addition to the data mentioned earlier, cookies are stored on your computer when you visit our website. Cookies are small text files which are stored on your hard disk and associated with the browser you use; through these cookies, information is transmitted to the institution which has placed the cookie on your computer (here, our organisation). Cookies cannot run any programmes on or transmit viruses to your computer. They serve the purpose of making our web content more user-friendly and more effective as a whole.
Use of cookies:
This website uses the following types of cookies, whose scope and functionality is described here below
- Transient cookies (refer to a.)
- Persistent cookies (refer to b.)
a. Transient cookies are automatically deleted when you close the browser. These include, in particular, session cookies. This type of cookie stores what is known as a “session ID” with which different requests from your browser can be assigned to the common session. Through this, your computer can be recognised the next time you visit our website again. Session cookies are deleted when you log out or when you close the browser.
b. Persistent cookies are deleted after a pre-determined period of time, which can vary from one cookie to the next. You can delete cookies at any time through the security settings of the browser.
You can configure your browser settings according to your wishes and reject the placement of third-party cookies, for instance, or of all cookies. We would like to point out that in this case you may not be able to use all the functions on this website to the fullest extent.
The legal basis for the processing of your data in this case is still Article 6(1) point (f) of the GDPR (e.g. for proper operation of the website). Insofar as other cookies (e.g. cookies for analysis of your browsing behaviour) are stored on your computer, these will be treated separately in our privacy policy.
Integration of YouTube Videos
Our online offering includes integrated YouTube videos which are stored on http://www.YouTube.com and which can be played directly from our website. This is all included in “advance data protection mode”, i.e. no data about you as a user are transmitted to YouTube if you don’t play the videos. Only when you play the videos will the data stated in Paragraph 2 be transmitted. We have no influence over this data transmission.
When you visit the website, YouTube receives information that you have called up the corresponding page of our website. In addition, the data stated in Article 3 of this privacy notice will also be transmitted. This is done regardless of whether you have a YouTube user account which you are logged on to or whether you do not have a user account. If you are logged on to Google, your data will be assigned directly to your account. If you do not wish your data to be assigned to your YouTube profile, you must log off before you activate the button. YouTube will store your data as a usage profile and will use this for the purposes of advertising, market research and/or requirement-orientated design of its website. Such analysis is also performed with users who are not logged on, in particular to provide requirement-orientated advertising and to inform other users of the social network about your activities on our website. You have the right to object to the creation of such user profiles. To exercise this right, please contact YouTube.
Further information about the purpose and extent of data collection and how they are processed by YouTube can be found in the privacy notice. There, you will also find further information about your rights and settings options to protect your privacy: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en&gl=en. Google will also process your personal data in the USA and is subject to the EU-US Privacy Shield, https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework.
Other functions and services of our website
Apart from the purely informative use of our website, we also offer various services which you can use if interested. To do this, you generally have to provide us with more personal data, which we shall use for the provision of the respective service and for which the previously outlined principles of data processing apply.
We shall partly engage external service providers for the processing of your data. These have been carefully selected and commissioned by us; they are bound by our instructions and are regularly monitored by us.
Furthermore, we can share your personal data with third parties if we have arranged to participate in promotions, competitions, conclusion of contracts or other similar services in collaboration with our partners. You can get more information about this by providing your personal details or in the subsequent description of the service offered.
Provided that our service providers or partners have their headquarters in a country outside the European Economic Area (EEA), we shall inform you about the consequences of this state of affairs in the description of the service offered.
Objection to or revocation of the processing of your data
If you have given consent for the processing of your data, you can always revoke this any time. After you have expressed such a revocation to us, it will influence the permissibility of processing your personal data.
Provided that we are basing the processing of your data on the need to balance interests, you can raise an objection to this processing of your data. This is the case if the processing is not required for fulfilment of a contract with you, a fact which we endeavour to outline in the subsequent description of the respective functions. When exercising such a right of objection, we request that you outline the reasons why we should not process your personal data in the manner we have described. In the event that you present to us your reasons, we shall crosscheck the matter and either stop the processing of the data and/or adjust it accordingly, or we shall present compelling counterarguments on the basis of which we shall continue with the data processing.
You can of course object to the processing of your personal data for purposes of advertising and data analysis at any time. You can inform us of your objection to the use of your data for advertising through the following contact address: By e-mail to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or by post to:
ifes GmbH
Am Wassermann 36
50829 Köln
MAP AND LOCATION SERVICE
Integration of Google Maps
We use Google Maps on this website. This enables us to display interactive maps directly on the website and provides you with convenient use of the map function.
When you visit the website, Google receives the information that you have accessed the relevant page on our website. In addition, the data specified in Part 1, Section 3 of this policy will be transmitted. This takes place irrespective of whether you have a user account with Google that you are logged into or whether no user account exists. If you are logged in on Google, your data will be linked directly to your account. If you do not want your data to be linked to your Google profile, you must log out before activating the button. Google stores your data as usage profiles and uses it for advertising and market research purposes and/or for ensuring that its website is designed in accordance with requirements. Such use is carried out in particular (even for users who are not logged in) for the purposes of providing appropriate advertising and informing other users on the social network about your activities on our website. You have a right to object to the creation of these user profiles. To assert this right, you must contact Google.
Further information on the purpose and scope of the collection and processing of data by the plug-in provider is available in the provider’s privacy policies. Here, you can also find further information on your associated rights and setting options for protecting your privacy: http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy . Google also processes your personal data in the USA and has joined the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework .