Privacy Policy

1. General Information

1.1 What is Personal Data

Personal data refers to information that reveals or could reveal the identity of the user. We adhere to the principle of data minimization. Whenever possible, we avoid collecting personal data.

1.2 Processing of Personal Data

Personal data is used exclusively for the establishment, content design, execution, or settlement of the contractual relationship (Art. 6 (1b) GDPR).

Furthermore, personal data is only processed if we have received your consent (Art. 6 (1a) GDPR) or if it involves data whose processing is necessary for our legitimate interests and provided that the balancing of interests does not indicate that your interests, fundamental rights, or freedoms override these legitimate interests (Art. 6 (1f) GDPR).

We may use data processors to process your personal data, with whom we have, where required, concluded a data processing agreement. Beyond this, we generally do not share personal data with third parties.

Only for the purpose of contract fulfillment will the data be shared with the shipping company charged with delivery, to the extent necessary for the delivery of ordered goods. For the processing of payments, the necessary payment data will be forwarded to the credit institution handling the payment and, if applicable, to the appointed and selected payment service provider.

The processing of your personal data takes place within the EU and in countries deemed safe or adequate by the EU. Should processing of personal data occur in the United States, we ensure that the services we use are certified under the Data Privacy Framework.

1.3 Usage Data

When visiting the website, general technical information is collected. This includes the IP address used, time, duration of visit, browser type, and, if applicable, the referring site. This usage data is registered in a log file for technical reasons and may be used and stored for the purpose of statistical analysis of this website. There is no linking of this usage data with your other personal data.

1.4 Registration Data

For comprehensive use of the functions of our website, registration is required. The registration data is collected through your respective entries and used for the specifically indicated purpose according to your consent (Art. 6 (1a) GDPR).

1.5 Storage Duration

After the purpose for which the data was collected has ended, we store your personal data only as long as required by legal provisions (particularly tax law).

In specific cases, the following retention periods apply:

2. Your Rights

2.1 Right to Information

You may request information from us as to whether we process personal data about you, and if this is the case, you have a right to information about this personal data and the further information specified in Art. 15 GDPR.

2.2 Right to Rectification

You have the right to rectification of inaccurate personal data concerning you and may request the completion of incomplete personal data according to Art. 16 GDPR.

2.3 Right to Erasure

You have the right to demand from us that the personal data concerning you be erased immediately. We are obligated to erase it immediately, especially if one of the following reasons applies:

· Your personal data is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected or otherwise processed.

· You revoke your consent on which the processing of your data was based, and there is no other legal basis for the processing.

· Your data has been processed unlawfully.

The right to erasure does not exist if your personal data is necessary for the establishment, exercise, or defense of our legal claims.

2.4 Right to Restriction of Processing

You have the right to request from us the restriction of processing of your personal data if

· you contest the accuracy of the data, and we therefore verify the accuracy,

· the processing is unlawful, and you refuse deletion and instead request the restriction of use,

· we no longer need the data, but you need it for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims,

· you have objected to the processing of your data, and it has not yet been determined whether our legitimate grounds override your grounds.

2.5 Right to Data Portability

You have the right to receive the personal data concerning you that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, and you have the right to transmit this data to another controller without hindrance from us, provided that the processing is based on consent or a contract and the processing by us is carried out by automated means.

2.6 Right to Withdraw Consent and Right to Object

Insofar as the processing of your personal data is based on consent (Art. 6 (1a) GDPR), you have the right to withdraw this consent at any time. This does not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.

Insofar as the processing of your personal data is based on Art. 6 (1e) GDPR or Art. 6 (1f) GDPR, you have the right, according to Art. 21 GDPR, to object at any time to the processing of personal data concerning you on grounds relating to your particular situation. We will then no longer process your personal data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights, and freedoms, or the processing serves the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims.

2.7 General Information and Right to Lodge a Complaint

Exercising your above rights is generally free of charge for you. You have the right to lodge complaints directly with the supervisory authority responsible for us, the State Data Protection Officer.

3. Data Security

3.1 Data Security Measures

All data on our website is secured against loss, destruction, access, alteration, and distribution through technical and organizational measures.

3.2 Sessions and Cookies

For the operation of the website, we use cookies or server-side sessions in which data can be stored. We ensure that cookies are only used and information already stored on your device is only retrieved if this is absolutely necessary for the provision of the digital service explicitly requested by you (§ 25 (2) No. 2 TDDDG) or if express consent has been given by you (§ 25 (1) TDDDG).

With your express consent, we use cookies to personalize content and advertisements, to provide functions for social media, and to analyze access to our website. With your consent, we may share information about your use of our website with our partners for social media, advertising, and analysis. Our partners may potentially combine this information with other data they already possess about you.

Details (e.g., domain, name, duration) of the cookies used only with your consent can be found in the cookie banner.

4. Presence on Social Media Platforms

We use the following social media platforms for company presentation and communication (express reference is made to the privacy policies and opt-out options linked below).

• Facebook (Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd., Merrion Road, Dublin 4, D04 X2K5, Ireland)

Privacy Policy: www.facebook.com/about/privacy

Opt-Out: www.youronlinechoices.com

• X (Twitter International Unlimited Company, One Cumberland Place, Fenian Street, Dublin 2, D02 AX07, Ireland)

Privacy Policy: twitter.com/de/privacy

Opt-Out: twitter.com/personalization

• LinkedIn (LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland)

Privacy Policy: www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy

Opt-Out: www.linkedin.com/psettings/guest-controls/retargeting-opt-out

• Xing (New Work SE, Am Strandkai 1, 20457 Hamburg, Germany)

Privacy Policy and Opt-Out: privacy.xing.com/de/datenschutzerklaerung

• YouTube (Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland)

Privacy Policy: www.youtube.com/t/privacy

These social media platforms may process personal data outside the EU; in this regard, we refer to the above-mentioned privacy policies of the social media platforms.

The respective social media platforms may create usage profiles based on your usage behavior and the resulting interests and actions on your part, and may store cookies on your computer in which your usage behavior is saved. If you have an account on the respective social media platform and are logged in, your usage behavior can even be stored across devices. Your usage profile can be used to place, for example, advertisements that presumably correspond to your interests.

We process personal data exclusively for communication with you via the social media platform you have chosen and for the optimization of our online presence, and we ensure that no interests of yours are affected that would outweigh this legitimate interest on our part (Art. 6 (1f) GDPR). Insofar as you have already given the respective operator of the social media platform effective consent to the corresponding data processing, the processing of your personal data is also based on this consent (Art. 6 (1a) GDPR).

5. Third-Party Services

5.1 External Hosting

Our website is hosted by the following external service provider:

Intersolute GmbH, Hindenburgstraße 139, 41061 Mönchengladbach

Privacy Policy: intersolute.de/allgemein/datenschutz.html

The (personal) data collected on this website is transmitted to and stored on the servers of the aforementioned third-party provider, which can include, among other things:

· IP addresses,

· Contact data,

· Contractual data,

· Website accesses,

· Date and time of the request,

· Time zone difference to Greenwich Mean Time,

· Content of the request,

· HTTP status code,

· Amount of data transferred,

· Website from which the request comes,

· Information about browser and operating system

and other data that can be generated through a website. The use of the host is for the purpose of contract fulfillment towards our potential and existing customers (Art. 6 (1b) GDPR) and in the interest of a secure, fast, and efficient provision of our online offering by a professional provider (Art. 6 (1f) GDPR). The aforementioned third-party provider will only process your data to the extent necessary to fulfill the performance obligations and will follow our instructions with regard to this data.

5.2 Social Media Links

We have our own social media pages on third-party providers that can be accessed via links from this website. By using the links, you reach the respective Internet pages of the third-party providers (e.g., Facebook, X). We recommend logging out from the respective third-party provider before using a corresponding link to avoid unnecessary data transfers, so that the use of the link does not potentially allow the third-party provider to create usage profiles.

5.3 Use of Matomo

This website uses Matomo (developed by InnoCraft Ltd, 7 Waterloo Quay PO625, 6140 Wellington, New Zealand). This is a web analytics service. Matomo uses so-called cookies, text files that are stored on your computer and enable an analysis of your use of the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website (including your shortened IP address) is transmitted to our server and stored for usage analysis purposes, which serve to optimize our website. Your IP address is immediately anonymized in this process, so that you remain anonymous to us as a user. The use of Matomo only occurs with your consent (Art. 6 (1a) GDPR). The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is not shared with third parties. You can prevent the use of cookies by adjusting the settings of your browser software accordingly, but please note that if you do this, you may not be able to use all functions of this website to their full extent. If you do not agree with the storage and analysis of this data from your visit, you can object to the storage and use at any time. In this case, a so-called opt-out cookie will be placed in your browser, which has the consequence that Matomo does not collect any session data. Attention: If you delete your cookies, this has the consequence that the opt-out cookie is also deleted and may need to be reactivated by you. Here you can find the link to deactivate Matomo:

You can view Matomo's privacy policy here:

5.4 Use of YouTube

This website and the integrated offerings contain so-called embeddings of videos on YouTube. These enable the connection to YouTube and the videos stored there. YouTube is an offering of Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland (Google). The use of YouTube only occurs with your consent (Art. 6 (1a) GDPR).

For the purpose and scope of data collection and data use by Google as well as your rights and setting options to protect you as a YouTube customer, please refer to YouTube's privacy policy. You can find this at: www.youtube.com/t/privacy

5.5 Chatbot Ask QS

Our chatbot Ask QS is provided by Intersolute GmbH, Hindenburgstraße 139, 41061 Mönchengladbach and processes, in addition to the data you input, only your IP address to ensure technical operation. The processing is carried out exclusively for the purpose of dealing with your specific request and providing the requested information. Any further use of your data, e.g. for marketing purposes or profiling, does not take place. The processing is based on our legitimate interest according to Art. 6 (1f) GDPR to optimize our customer service. There are no user interests affected that would outweigh this technical necessity.

The chatbot server is physically and logically separated from third-party systems. We generate answers exclusively from our website content and stored company documents. There is no connection to external AI systems.

We store chat histories for a maximum of 30 working days in pseudonymized form.

6. Application Process

You can apply to us electronically, by telephone, or in writing. We will, of course, use your information exclusively for processing your application and will not share it with third parties. Please note that, if you send your application via email, emails sent unencrypted are not transmitted with access protection. Your personal data will be deleted immediately after the conclusion of the application process or after a maximum of 6 months, unless you have expressly given us your consent for a longer storage of your data or a contract has been concluded. The legal basis is Art. 6 (1a) or (1b) or (1f) GDPR.

7. Contact Information

For inquiries regarding data protection, you are welcome to contact us using the following contact options. Controller within the meaning of the GDPR:

QS Qualität und Sicherheit GmbH

Schwertberger Str. 14

53177 Bonn

Email: info@q-s.de%20info@q-s.de

Phone: +49 (0) 228 35068-0

Our Data Protection Officer is also available to you:

Dr. Iris Rudat-Schwarz

QS Qualität und Sicherheit GmbH

Schwertberger Str. 14

53177 Bonn

Email: datenschutz@q-s.de