Introduction

When providing this website, the plan is to make it easy-to-use, useful and reliable, whilst understanding the visitors better. This sometimes involves placing small amounts of information on your device, for example, computer or mobile phone. These include small files known as cookies. They cannot be used to identify you personally.

These pieces of information are used to improve services for you through, for example:

  • enabling a service to recognise your device so you don’t have to give the same information during one task
  • recognising that you have already given a username and password so you don’t need to enter it for every web page requested
  • measuring how many people are using services, so they can be made easier to use and that there is enough capacity to ensure they are fast
  • understanding the website’s visitors
  • showing advertising which you may find useful, across the site

You can manage these small files yourself and learn more about them from AllAboutCookies.org.

By using this website you are deemed to consent to the use of cookies, however under the General Data Protection Regulation you can refuse consent for data to be collected using cookies, using the methods detailed below.

This site uses a number of cookies, including:

Google Analytics for analysing site visits, user behaviour, etc.

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service of Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (“Google”). Google Analytics uses so-called “cookies”, text files which are saved on your computer and allow an analysis of your use of the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is generally transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there.  Processing is carried out in accordance with the GDPR on the basis of our legitimate interest in a statistical analysis of user behaviour for purposes of optimisation and marketing.  On our behalf, Google will use this information to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activity and to provide us with other services relating to website and Internet use. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser; however, please note that if you do this you may not be able to use all the functions of this website to their full extent. You can also prevent Google from collecting the data generated by the cookie relating to your use of the website (including your IP address) and from processing this data by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available under the following link:

https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl

Google LLC, based in the USA, is certified for the US-European data protection agreement “Privacy Shield”, which guarantees adherence to the data protection standards applicable in the EU. More information on how Google Analytics handles user data can be found in Google’s privacy statement:

https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl

Google Universal Analytics

This site uses Google Analytics features based on Display Advertising (Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting).   You can opt out of Google Analytics for Display Advertising and customise Google Display Network ads using the Ads settings (https://www.google.com/settings/ads).  We will not facilitate the merging of personally-identifiable information with non-personally identifiable information previously collected from Display Advertising features unless you consent to that merger.  You can also opt out using the following Google tool: Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/).  This site and third-party vendors, including Google, use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) together to facilitate this.

Google AdSense

This website uses Google AdSense, a web advertising service of Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (“Google”). Google AdSense uses so-called “DoubleClick DART Cookies” (“cookies”). These are text files which are saved on your computer and allow an analysis of your use of the

website. Furthermore, to collect information Google AdSense also uses so-called “web beacons” (small, invisible graphics), which can be used to record, collect and evaluate simple actions such as visitor traffic on the website. The information (including your IP address) generated by the cookie and/or web beacon about your use of this website is generally transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there.

Google uses the information thus obtained to evaluate your usage behaviour as regards AdSense advertisements. The IP address transmitted by your browser in connection with Google AdSense will not be combined with other Google data. The information collected by Google may possibly be transferred to third parties if this is required by law and/or if third parties process this data on behalf of Google.

The described processing of data is performed pursuant to GDPR for the purpose of targeted solicitation of the user by advertising third parties whose advertisements are displayed on this website on the basis of the evaluated user behaviour. At the same time, the processing serves our financial interest in exploiting the economic potential of our Internet website by displaying personalised third-party advertising content for a fee.

Google LLC, based in the USA, is certified for the US-European data protection agreement “Privacy Shield”, which guarantees adherence to the data protection standards applicable in the EU. You can find more information about Google’s data protection provisions by going to: https://policies.google.com/privacy. You can permanently disable the setting of cookies for advertising preferences by preventing them with the appropriate setting of your browser software or by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available via the following link:

https://support.google.com/ads/answer/7395996

Please note that certain functions of this website may not be available or only to a limited extent if you have disabled the use of cookies.

Data Processing – Cookies and the General Data Protection Regulation

If personal data are also processed by individual cookies implemented by this site, the processing is carried out in accordance with GDPR either for the execution of a contract or in accordance with GDPR in order to safeguard a legitimate interest in the website’s best possible functionality, ensuring a customer-friendly and effective design of the visit to the site.

Please note that you can set your browser in such a way that you are informed about the setting of cookies and can decide individually about their acceptance, or exclude the acceptance of cookies in certain cases or in general. Each browser is different in the way it manages the cookie settings. This is described in the help menu of each browser, which explains how you can change your cookie settings. You will find such information for the respective browsers under the following links:

Internet Explorer: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies

Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences

Chrome: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en

Safari: https://support.apple.com/kb/ph21411?locale=en_US

Opera: http://help.opera.com/Windows/11.50/en/cookies.html

Please note that the functionality of this website may be restricted if cookies are not accepted.