Privacy policy

Welcome to our privacy policy. At our company, privacy is very important to us. Therefore, we are committed to protecting your personal information and ensuring that it is handled in a secure and responsible manner.

In this section, you will find information about how we collect, use and store your personal information. We take great care to comply with all relevant data protection laws and regulations, and we are committed to being transparent about our data processing practices. So please take a moment to read our privacy section and learn more about how we protect your privacy.

This privacy policy explains the nature, scope and purpose of the processing (including collection, processing and use, and obtaining consent) of personal data within our online offer and the associated websites, functions and content (hereinafter collectively referred to as "online offer" or "website"). The privacy policy applies regardless of the domains, systems, platforms and devices (e.g. desktop or mobile) used on which the online offer is executed.
Provider of the online offer and the entity responsible for data protection is Studio Merkas, Owner: Nikola Merkas, Pischekstraße 19, 70174 Stuttgart (hereinafter referred to as "provider", "we" or "us"). For contact options, we refer to our imprint.
The term "user" includes all customers and visitors of our online offer. The terms used, such as "user", are to be understood as gender-neutral.

We process personal data of users only in compliance with the relevant data protection provisions in accordance with the principles of data economy and data avoidance. This means that the user's data will only be processed if a legal permission exists, in particular if the data is necessary for the provision of our contractual services and online services, or is required by law, or if consent has been given.
We take organizational, contractual and technical security measures in accordance with the state of the art to ensure that the provisions of data protection laws are complied with and thus to protect the data processed by us against accidental or intentional manipulation, loss, destruction or against access by unauthorized persons.
If content, tools or other means from other providers (hereinafter collectively referred to as "third party providers") are used within the scope of this data protection declaration and their named registered office is abroad, it is to be assumed that a transfer of data to the countries in which the third party providers are based takes place. The transfer of data to third countries takes place either on the basis of a legal permission, user consent or special contractual clauses that guarantee a legally required security of the data.

The personal data, in addition to the uses expressly mentioned in this Privacy Policy, are processed for the following purposes based on legal authorizations or user consents:
– The provision, execution, maintenance, optimization and safeguarding of our services, service and user performance;
– The provision of effective customer service and technical support.
We transmit users' data to third parties only if this is necessary for billing purposes (e.g., to a payment service provider) or for other purposes if these are necessary to fulfill our contractual obligations to users (e.g., communicating addresses to suppliers).
When contacting us (via contact form or email), the user's details will be stored for the purpose of processing the request and in case follow-up questions arise.
Personal data is deleted if it has fulfilled its intended purpose and there are no storage obligations that prevent its deletion.

We collect data about each access to the server on which this service is located (so-called server log files). The access data includes the name of the website accessed, file, date and time of access, amount of data transferred, notification of successful access, browser type and version, the user's operating system, referrer URL (the previously visited page), IP address and the requesting provider.
We use the log data without attribution to the person of the user or other profiling in accordance with legal requirements only for statistical analysis for the purpose of operation, security and optimization of our online offer. However, we reserve the right to check the log data retrospectively if there is a justified suspicion of unlawful use based on concrete indications.

Cookies are pieces of information that are transmitted from our web server or third-party web servers to the users' web browsers and stored there for later retrieval. Users are informed about the use of cookies in the context of pseudonymous reach measurement as part of this privacy policy.
The viewing of this online offer is also possible under exclusion of cookies. If users do not want cookies to be stored on their computer, they are asked to deactivate the corresponding option in the system settings of their browser. Stored cookies can be deleted in the system settings of the browser. The exclusion of cookies can lead to functional restrictions of this online offer.
It is possible to manage many online ad cookies from companies through the US site www.aboutads.info/choices or the EU site www.youronlinechoices.com/uk/your-ad-choices/.

6.1 Google Analytics

We do not use Google Analytics.

6.2 Google-Re/Marketing-Services

We do not use any Google re/marketing services.

6.3 Facebook Social Plugins

We do not use any plugins from Facebook.

6.4 Facebook Remarketing

We do not use any remarketing services from Facebook.

6.5 etracker

We do not use the analysis service "etracker" of etracker GmbH.

6.6 Jetpack (WordPress Stats)

The plugin Jetpack (here the sub-function "Wordpress Stats"), which embeds a tool for statistical analysis of visitor traffic and is provided by Automattic, Inc. 132 Hawthorne Street San Francisco, CA 94107, USA is not used on the website.

6.7 Twitter buttons

We do not use any buttons of the Twitter service.

6.8 Pinterest buttons

We do not use any buttons ("Pin It") of the service Pinterest

6.9 Google reCAPTCHA

We use the reCAPTCHA function of Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, 4 Barrow St, Dublin, D04 E5W5, Ireland ("Google"). This function is used to check whether an input is made by a natural person or abused by machine processing (bots). The service involves sending the IP address and, if applicable, further data required by Google for the reCAPTCHA service to Google and is carried out in accordance with Art. 6 (1) lit. f DSGVO on the basis of our interest in determining the prevention of misuse. The use of Google reCAPTCHA may also involve the transmission of personal data to the servers of Google LLC. in the USA. Under the following link you can view more information about Google reCAPTCHA as well as Google's privacy policy: www.google.com/intl/de/policies/privacy/

We currently do not offer newsletters

It may happen that content or services from third-party providers, such as city maps or fonts from other websites, are integrated within our online offer. The integration of content from third-party providers always requires that the third-party providers perceive the IP address of the user, since without the IP address they could not send the content to the user's browser. The IP address is thus required for the display of this content. Furthermore, the providers of the third-party content can set their own cookies and process the users' data for their own purposes. In doing so, user profiles can be created from the processed data. We will use this content in a data-saving and data-avoiding manner as far as possible and select reliable third-party providers with regard to data security.
The following presentation provides an overview of third-party providers and their content, along with links to their privacy statements, which contain further information on the processing of data and, in part already mentioned here, opt-out options:
- External Fonts from Google, Inc, www.google.com/fonts ("Google Fonts"). The integration of Google Fonts is done by a server call at Google (usually in the USA). Privacy policy: www.google.com/policies/privacy/, Opt-Out:https://www.google.com/settings/ads/.
- Maps of the service "Google Maps" provided by the third-party provider Google Inc, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Privacy policy: www.google.com/policies/privacy/, Opt-Out: www.google.com/settings/ads/.
- Videos from the "YouTube" platform of the third-party provider Google Inc, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Privacy policy: www.google.com/policies/privacy/, Opt-Out: www.google.com/settings/ads/.

Users have the right to receive, upon request and free of charge, information about the personal data that we have stored about them. In addition, users have the right to correct inaccurate data, revoke consent, block and delete their personal data, as well as the right to file a complaint with the competent supervisory authority in the event that unlawful data processing is assumed.
The data stored by us will be deleted as soon as they are no longer required for their intended purpose and the deletion does not conflict with any statutory retention obligations.

We reserve the right to change the privacy policy in order to adapt it to changed legal situations, or in the event of changes to the service as well as data processing. However, this only applies with regard to declarations on data processing. Insofar as user consents are required or components of the data protection declaration contain provisions of the contractual relationship with the users, the changes will only be made with the consent of the users.
Users are requested to inform themselves regularly about the content of the data protection declaration.