Data Protection Information (as of 2019-09-02)

The Federation of German Industries (BDI) as operator of this website takes the protection of the personal data of users and interested individuals very seriously. We comply with the regulations of the German Telemedia Act, the Federal Data Protection Act, the General Data Protection Regulation, and the ePrivacy Regulation. If you have any questions regarding data protection at BDI, please feel free to contact our external data protection officer Roman Maczkowsky.

If you would like to get into touch with us by email, please note that the confidentiality of the transmitted information cannot be guaranteed. The contents of emails can be viewed by third parties. We therefore recommend that you send us confidential information exclusively via post.

Respect for Do Not Track and Information on Opt-Out

We respect the activation of the Do Not Track feature in your browser. If Do Not Track is activated in the browser, third-party tracking is deactivated and no web font from external resources is integrated.

Please be advised that general deactivation of cookies may cause malfunctions in the use of our website and, in addition, does not reliably prevent transmission of data to Google Analytics. We therefore recommend using the “Do Not Track” option (DNT) of your Internet browser. Depending on the browser, this is either a button in the program settings or an add-in or plugin module that has to be installed retroactively. If this option is activated, your browser signals to our web server that you do not wish any tracking to be performed without your explicit consent. Then all tracking functions will be automatically disabled by us on the server side. This also means that our websites will be delivered without code for Google Analytics. This assures the best possible data protection, and you do not have to take any further measures with regard to our website.

Depending on which Internet browser you are using, the process for activating the “Do Not Track” option varies. Follow the links below to find out how to do it:

Analysis of Our Users’ Website Activities and Information about Embedded Third-Party Offers

Use of Cookies

This website uses a pseudonymous cookie to offer a more user-friendly website, particularly for managing the article collection (“collection-uuid-de”). This cookie is not used for other purposes.

If you have activated the Do Not Track feature in your browser, your consent will be requested via a pop-up. If you confirm this, the cookie is placed with a validity of 1 month; otherwise, you will be shown this message again on future visits.

You may object to the use of this cookie at any time by deleting it. Unfortunately, the selections of the article collection cannot be stored in that case.

The tracking measures we use are performed on the basis of Art. 6 Para. 1 Sentence 1 lit. f GDPR. Thereby we want to ensure needs-oriented design and continuous optimization of our website. After weighing the interests, the tracking measures are only used for visitors of our website who do not transmit the browser feature “DoNotTrack” (DNT=1) or who have expressly consented to this measure. The purpose of the measures is to statistically record the usage of our website and to optimize our offers. These interests are to be regarded as legitimate within the meaning of the aforementioned regulation.

Google Analytics and Double-Click

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service of Google Ireland Limited (“Google”). Google Analytics uses cookies that are stored on your computer and that enable analysis of the usage of the website by you. The information generated by the cookie regarding your usage of this website is usually transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. However, if IP anonymisation is activated on this website, Google will first shorten your IP address within the member states of the European Union or in other states that are party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and will be shortened there. On behalf of the operator of this website, Google will use this information to analyse your usage of the website, to aggregate reports about website activities, and to provide further services related to the usage of this website and the usage of the Internet to the operator of this website. The IP address transmitted by your browser in the context of Google Analytics will not be merged with other data from Google.

Further information on the usage conditions and data protection of Google Analytics can be found here and here. Data from AdWords and from the Double-Click cookie are analysed via Google Analytics. If you do not wish this, you can deactivate it via the Ads Preferences Manager.

Please be advised that Google Analytics has been extended on this website with the code “ga('set', 'anonymizeIp', true);” in order to assure that IP addresses are captured anonymously (so-called “IP Masking”). If the Do Not Track feature is activated in your browser, no scripts from Google Analytics will be integrated without your consent.

Google Maps

This website uses the Google Maps API, a map service of Google Ireland Limited (“Google”), for displaying an interactive map. If Google Maps is used, information about your usage of this website (including your IP address) may be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and may be stored there.

Google may also transmit the information obtained through Maps to third parties if this is stipulated by law or if third parties process these data on behalf of Google. In no case will Google connect your IP address with other data from Google. Nevertheless, it would be technically possible for Google to identify at least individual users based on the data received. It would be possible for personal data and personality profiles of users of this website to be processed by Google for other purposes that we do not and cannot influence.

If the Do Not Track feature is activated in your browser, no external Google Maps content will be loaded without your consent.

Issuu

On our website, a Flash application (Flash plugin) of the company Issuu Inc., 131 Lytton Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94301, USA (hereafter: Issuu) is integrated via JavaScript code, which enables you to access BDI publications as e-papers.

To do so, Issuu uses cookies that allow your usage of the website to be analysed. In this way, Issuu elicits and stores personal data such as the IP address and information about the time and duration of the usage. Transmission takes place if you have activated JavaScript in your browser. Further information on the usage conditions and data protection of Issuu can be found at https://issuu.com/legal/privacy.

If the Do Not Track feature is activated in your browser, no external Issuu plugins will be loaded without your consent; instead, only a message indicating this option will be displayed.

YouTube

For the integration of videos, we use, among others, the provider YouTube. YouTube is operated by YouTube LLC headquartered at 901 Cherry Avenue, San Bruno, CA 94066, USA. YouTube is represented by Google Ireland Limited.

If you access the subpages of our website that have a YouTube plugin, a connection will be established to the YouTube servers and the plugin will be displayed. By doing so, information about which of our subpages you have visited will be transmitted to the YouTube server. If, while doing so, you are logged in to YouTube as a member, YouTube will associate this information with your personal user account. If you use the plugin, e.g., by clicking on the start button of a video, this information will also be associated with your user account. Further information on data processing and information on data protection by YouTube (Google) can be found at https://google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/.

If the Do Not Track feature is activated in your browser, no external YouTube content will be loaded without your consent; instead, only an indication of this option (play button) will be displayed.

Social Media and News Feeds

Use of Social Plugins of Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Instagram Using the Shariff Solution

Social plugins (hereafter called “plugins”) of social networks are used on our website.

In order to increase the protection of your data when you visit our website, these plugins are not integrated into the site unreservedly, but rather only via an HTML link (so-called “Shariff solution” by c‘t). This integration guarantees that when you access a page of our website that contains such plugins, no connection is established yet to the servers of the provider of the respective social network. If you click on one of the buttons, a new window will open in your browser and will access the site of the respective service provider where you can (possibly after entering your login data) press, e.g., the Like or Share button.

For more information about the purpose and extent of the data elicitation and the further processing and use of the data by the providers on their sites, as well as about your rights in this regard and setting options to protect your privacy, please check the data protection information of the respective providers:

Newsletter

Information on Newsletter and on the Double-Opt-In Process

We use the so-called double-opt-in process for mailing newsletters. After you have ordered a newsletter, you will receive an email from us. Once you activate the link it contains, the subscription to the newsletter starts.

Please be advised that your personal data will be stored, analysed and used to improve our service offers. You may unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. To do so, use the Unsubscribe link in the newsletter, the form on the website or send an email to newsletter@  bdi.  eu.

Your Rights as an Affected Person

Your Rights to Revoke and Object

Regardless of the above, you may (pursuant to Art. 7 Para. 3 and Art. 21 GDPR) object to the use of your data at any time: you may also, at any time, revoke any additional consent you may have given to the use of your data.

If you revoke your consent to data processing, resp. object to the use of your data, the legality of the data processing until the time of revocation is not affected.

Your Right to Rectification, Erasure, Blocking and Restriction

In addition, you may have us rectify, block or erase at any time the data we have elicited and stored (Art. 16, Art. 17 and Art. 18 GDPR). We expressly point out that there may be legal requirements to continue storing your data; in such cases, the data can only be blocked.

Your Right to Data Portability and Your Right to Lodge a Complaint with a Supervisory Authority

Since May 25th, 2018, you also have the right to data portability pursuant to Art. 20 GDPR as well as the right to lodge a complaint with the responsible supervisory authority within the meaning of Art. 77 GDPR.

Point of Contact for Exercising Your Rights as an Affected Person

Pursuant to Art. 15 GDPR, you have the right to learn which data concerning you is stored by us (right of access).

The controller is BDI. To exercise the aforementioned rights, send an email to auskunft@  bdi.  eu.

Changes / Version

Last update: 2019-09-02

For legal and/or organizational reasons, changes, resp. modifications of our data protection information will be necessary from time to time. If any changes to this data protection declaration should occur, they will be published on this site with the respective date. We continue to provide older versions for your perusal.