This Policy supplements the Personal Information Protection Policy found above and addresses specifically the collection of data in the digital sphere as set out below:
(a) Data collected by automated means. Various technologies may be used on our website and our mobile and web-based applications in order to make them more user-friendly, effective and secure. Such technologies may lead to data being collected automatically by us or by third parties on behalf of us. This data does not generally, but may, contain a user's personal data. Examples of such technologies include:
(b) Click-stream data. A visit to one of our websites results in data that is transmitted from your browser to our server being automatically collected and stored by us or by third parties on behalf of us. This data can include, in particular, the following:
- the visitor's IP address
- the date and time of the visit
- the referral URL (the site from which the visitor has come)
- the pages visited on our website
- information about the browser used (browser type and version, operating system, etc).
(c)
Cookies. A number of places on our website and our mobile and web-based applications make use of cookies. These are essentially small text files that are stored on your computer's hard drive or your user device by your web browser. We can use cookies to identify the owner of a user account and to store articles in a shopping basket during the purchasing process. In other words, cookies help to make our website or our (mobile and web-based) applications more user-friendly, more effective and more secure. The cookies usually used by us are so-called "session cookies", which are automatically deleted at the end of the visit to the relevant website. By default, web browsers enable the use of cookies but this function can also be disabled. However, this will result in some services not being available. It is also possible to manually delete cookies after their use via the web browser. More information may be available from your web browser provider.
(d) Flash cookies. A particular form of cookie is the flash cookie. In contrast to normal cookies, these cookies are not created and saved by the web browser but are governed by the Adobe Flash plug-in. These can contain more information than normal cookies and cannot be deleted or disabled via the browser; this is only possible if you follow instructions available from the Adobe Flash Player website. You can also obtain more information about these cookies on that website.
(e) Web beacons and tracking links. Web beacons (also known as pixel tags and clear GIFs) involve graphics that are not apparent to the user. Tracking links and/or similar technologies consist of a few lines of programming code and can be embedded in our website or our (mobile) applications. In conjunction with cookies, these are primarily used for statistical analysis purposes. This technology can also be used for tracking traffic patterns on websites, as well as finding out if an e-mail has been received and opened and to see if there has been any response.
(f) Web analytics. Web analytics is the term given to a method for collecting and assessing the behaviour of visitors to websites and (mobile) applications. This includes the analysis of traffic patterns in order, for example, to determine the frequency of visits to certain parts of a website or (mobile) application, or to find out what information and services our visitors are most interested in. For these purposes, we primarily make use of click-stream data and the other techniques listed above. Web analytics are carried out by Google Analytics and/or other selected parties. You can find out more information about the processing of web analytics data by Google Analytics in paragraph 7 below.
Use Of Data Collected
In addition to the uses set out in the PIPC, we may, in order for us to market products and services which are of special interest and relevance to you, analyse and rely on your overall interaction with us (such as but not limited to your shopping behaviour in e-shops, your use of loyalty programmes, your ratings and reviews of products, your contact history with our customer service, your clicks/ opening results, your surfing behaviour (web tracking), the newsletter types you are subscribed to, your participation in promotions or events, your interactions with us and your use of personal data, what rights you have and how you can achieve satisfactory privacy settings.
Social Networks
Our website and mobile or web-based applications may provide you with social plug-ins from various social networks (such as Facebook and Twitter). If you choose to interact with a social network, your activity on our website or via our mobile or web-based applications will also be made available to social networks such as Facebook and Twitter.
If you are logged in on one of the social networks during the visit of one of our websites or mobile or web-based applications, the social network might add this information to your profile. If you are interacting with one of the social plug-ins, this information will be transferred to the social network. In case you do not wish such a data transfer, please log off on your social network before you enter one of our websites or mobile or web-based applications.
We cannot influence this data collection and data transfer via the social plug-ins. Please read the privacy policies of those social networks for detailed information about the collection and transfer of personal data, what rights you have and how you can achieve satisfactory privacy settings.
Geo-location Services
Our website and mobile or web-based applications may offer location-enabled services, such as Google Maps and Bing Maps. If you use those mobile or web-based applications, they may receive information about your actual location (such as GPS signals sent by a mobile device) or information that can be used to approximate a location. You are always asked if the geo-location service can be activated and you can also object to this geo-location service.
Web Analytics by Google Analytics
Our website and mobile or web-based applications may contain web analytic services provided by Google Analytics. This means that when you visit our website or use any mobile or web-based applications, a cookie will be stored on your computer or mobile device, except when your browser settings do not allow for such cookies.
This further means that when you visit our website or use any mobile or web-based applications, the personal data described above - including the "click-stream data", the data from "web beacons and tracking links" and information stored in Google Analytics' cookies - will be sent to Google Analytics for analysis for and on behalf of us. Please note that if you have created an online profile at our website or mobile or web-based application and if you are logged on in this profile, a unique number identifying this profile will also be sent to Google Analytics in order to be able to match the web analytics data to this profile.
Google Analytics acts as our agent, which means that we solely determine the purposes for which the data is being used. You can find out more about the relationships between Google Analytics and us in the Google Analytics' privacy policy.
If you do not wish information about your behaviour at our website or any mobile or web-based applications being collected and assessed by Google Analytics, you can install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. This add-on instructs the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, and dc.js) to not send your site visit information to Google Analytics. The browser add-on is available for most modern browsers. The Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on does not prevent information from being sent to the website itself or in other ways to web analytics services.