Privacy Policy

The website www.automation24.co.uk is an offer of Automation24 GmbH.

Many thanks for your visit to our homepage and for your interest in our products. The protection of your personal data is a matter of prime importance to us.

As a basic principle, you can use our website without providing any personal data. If a data subject wishes to avail himself of the services of our company via our website it may be necessary to process personal data. If it is necessary to process personal data and no legal basis exists for any such processing, we always obtain the consent of the data subject.

The processing of personal data (e.g. name, address, e-mail address or telephone number of a data subject) is always carried out in conformity with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and in compliance with the country-specific data protection provisions applicable for us.

In the following Privacy Policy we should like to inform the public about the nature, scope and purpose of the personal data collected, used and processed by us. Data subjects are likewise informed in this Privacy Policy about their rights in this connection.

As the responsible body for the data processing - the controller - we have implemented numerous technical and organisational measures in order, as far as possible, to ensure seamless protection of the personal data processed via our website. However, data transmissions via the Internet may contain gaps in security, so that no hundred percent protection can be guaranteed.

A. Definitions

This Privacy Policy is based on the definitions used by the European body responsible for issuing directives and regulations on the adoption of the GDPR (Article 4 of GDPR). This Privacy Policy is intended to be both easily readable and readily understandable for everyone. In order to ensure this, we should first like to explain the definitions used. In this Privacy Policy, the following definitions, amongst others, are used:

"Personal data" any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person ("data subject"); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person;
"Data subject" any identified or identifiable natural person whose personal data is processed by the controller responsible for the processing.
"Processing" any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal data or on sets of personal data, whether or not by automated means, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction;
"Restriction of the processing" the marking of stored personal data with the aim of limiting its processing in the future;
"Profiling" any form of automated processing of personal data consisting of the use of personal data to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person, in particular to analyse or to predict aspects concerning that natural person's performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behaviour, location or movements;
"Controller" the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data; where the purposes and means of such processing are determined by Union or Member State law, the controller or the specific criteria for its nomination may be provided for by Union or Member State law;
"Recipient" a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or another body to which the personal data is disclosed, whether a third party or not. However, public authorities which may receive personal data in the framework of a particular enquiry in accordance with Union or Member State law shall not be regarded as recipients; the processing of that data by those public authorities shall be in compliance with the applicable data protection rules according to the purposes of the processing;
"Third party" a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or body other than the data subject, controller, processor and persons who, under the direct authority of the controller or processor, are authorised to process personal data;
"Consent" of the data subject means any freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the data subject's wishes by which he or she, by a statement or by a clear affirmative action, signifies agreement to the processing of personal data relating to him or her.

B. Name and contact details of the body responsible for the processing - the controller

This information about data protection applies for data processing by:

Controller:

Automation24 GmbH

Represented by the managing directors Thorsten Schulze, Madhu Venkatesan

Hinsbecker Löh 10

45257 Essen, Germany

Tel: +49 (0) 201/5231300

Fax: +49 (0) 201/52313029

E-mail: info@automation24.com

Data protection officer:

HB E-Commerce Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH

Arcus Park Haus B

Torgauer Straße 233

D-04347 Leipzig

Email: automation24@datenschutz.hb-ecommerce.eu

C. Collection and storage of personal data and also the nature and purpose of its use

1. When visiting the website

As a basic principle, you can use our website without disclosing your identity. When you call up our website, information will automatically be sent to our website server by the browser used on your end device. This information is stored temporarily in a so-called log file. In this connection, the following information will be collected without any input by yourself and will be stored until it is automatically erased:

IP address of the accessing computer,
date and time of the access,
name and URL of the file retrieved,
website from which the access is made (referrer URL),
browser used and, where applicable, the operating system of your computer as well as the name of your access provider.

The above-mentioned data is processed by us for the following purposes:

to ensure the trouble-free establishment of a connection to our website,
to ensure the comfortable use of our website,
for evaluation of the system security and stability and also
for further administrative purposes.

The legal basis for the data processing is Art. 6 (1), sentence 1, para. f, GDPR. Our legitimate interest derives from the purposes of data collection listed above. In no case do we use the data collected for the purpose of making any connection with your person.

In addition, when you visit our website, we use cookies and also analytical services. Further explanations are given in this Privacy Policy.

2. When using our contact form

For questions of all kinds, we offer you the opportunity of contacting us through a form provided on our website. In this case, the provision of a valid e-mail address is necessary so that we know from whom the enquiry originates and in order to be able to reply to the same. Further details may be provided on a voluntary basis. It is entirely up to you whether you provide this data in the contact form or not.

The processing of data for the purpose of facilitating contact with us is carried out pursuant to Art. 6 (1), sentence 1, para. a, GDPR on the basis of your voluntarily issued consent.

The personal data collected by us for use of the contact form will be automatically erased after your enquiry has been dealt with.

3. Order of a catalogue or information material

With this service, you have the opportunity to order current catalogues or other information material from us which will be sent to you by post or offered for downloading. In this connection, registration is necessary in the course of which you need to provide personal data. The personal data which you provide on registration will be stored by us and used to carry out the relevant order.

The processing of data for the purpose of facilitating contact with us is carried out pursuant to Art. 6 (1), sentence 1, para. a, GDPR on the basis of your voluntarily issued consent.

4. When placing orders via our website

On our website, you can also register as a customer for future orders. This registration has the advantage for you that when placing any future order you can log in to our shop direct with your e-mail address and password without having to enter your contact details once more. For orders without a customer account, please contact us.

In this connection, your personal data is entered in an input screen, transmitted to us and stored. If you place an order via our website, we initially collect the following data, both in the case of a guest order and also in the case of registration in the shop:

form of address, first name, surname,
a valid e-mail address,
address,
telephone number (land line and/or mobile)

This data is collected

so as to enable us to identify you as our customer;
so as to enable us to process, perform and complete your order;
for correspondence with you;
for invoicing;
for handling any liability claims and for the assertion of any claims against you;
in order to ensure the technical administration of our website;
in order to manage our customer data.

The data processing is carried out in response to your order and/or registration and is necessary pursuant Art. 6 (1), sentence 1, para. b, GDPR for the above-mentioned purposes to ensure the proper processing of your order and the mutual performance of obligations under the purchase contract.

The personal data collected by us for the handling of your order will be stored until the expiration of the statutory retention period and thereafter erased unless, pursuant to Article 6 (1), sentence 1, para. c, GDPR, we are obliged to store the data for longer by reason of retention and documentation obligations under tax and commercial law provisions (under HGB - Handelsgesetzbuch - German Commercial Code, StGB - Strafgesetzbuch - German Criminal Code or AO - Abgabenordnung - German Fiscal Code) or you have agreed to a longer period of storage pursuant to Art. 6 (1), sentence 1, para. a, GDPR.

D. Forwarding of data

In order to be able to handle your request or order as efficiently as possible it may happen that, in compliance with the local laws and regulations, we pass on your personal data for various purposes and in various ways to the following recipients:

external service providers who provide services on our behalf (including external consultants, business partners and professional advisors such as lawyers and accountants, technical support functions and IT consultants)
tax, audit or other authorities if, in good faith, we are persuaded that we are obliged by law or pursuant to any other regulation to pass on this data (for example, if we receive an enquiry from a tax authority or in connection with an anticipated legal dispute)
credit companies in relation to credit ratings
providers of printed products and advertising partners
marketing technology platforms and suppliers
logistics companies

However, where your personal data is passed on to third parties, the scope of the data transmitted is limited to the necessary minimum.

Furthermore, we only pass on your personal data to third parties where:

you have issued your express consent hereto pursuant to Art. 6 (1), sentence 1, para. a, GDPR,
the processing is necessary pursuant to Art. 6 (1), sentence 1, para. f, GDPR in order to assert, exercise or defend legal claims and there is no reason to suppose that you have an overriding legitimate interest in the non-forwarding of your data,
a legal obligation exists to forward the data pursuant to Art. 6 (1), sentence 1, para. c, GDPR and also
this is legally admissible and necessary pursuant to Art. 6 (1), sentence 1, para. b, GDPR for the performance of contractual relationships with you.

During the order process, your consent will be obtained to the forwarding of your data to third parties.

Integration of PayPal payment service

When paying with PayPal (Europe), S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A., 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg, your bank details that are saved in your PayPal account are used for payment by PayPal only. We do not have access to this data. The transfer of your payment data to the respective payment service provider will only take place if this is necessary for the payment process. The legal basis is Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 b GDPR. For the use of this payment service, the terms and conditions and privacy policies of the provider apply. You will be notified separately before using the respective service. To access PayPal's Privacy Policy, please visit https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full.

E. Links to third party web sites

The links published on our website are researched and compiled by us with the greatest care. However, we have no influence on the current or future composition or contents of the linked pages. We are not responsible for the content of the linked pages and we expressly dissociate ourselves from the content of these pages. Solely the provider of the linked page is responsible for any illegal, incorrect or incomplete contents and for any damage arising through the use or non-use of the information. The liability of a party which simply refers to a publication via a link is excluded. We only accept responsibility for external contents where we have positive knowledge of them, i.e. also in the case of any possible illegal or criminal content and where it is technically possible and reasonable for us to prevent the use of the same.

F. Automatically collected, non-personal data; Generation of cookies; Support programs and active contents

Use of cookies

In order to make the visit to our website attractive and to enable the use of certain functions, we use so-called cookies on various pages. These are small text files that are stored on your device. Some of the cookies we use are deleted after the end of the browser session, i.e. after closing your browser (so-called session cookies). Other cookies remain on your device and allow us or our third-party affiliates (third-party cookies) to recognize your browser on your next visit (persistent cookies). If cookies are set, they collect and process individual user information such as browser and location data as well as IP address values on an individual basis. Persistent cookies are automatically deleted after a specified period, which may differ depending on the cookie.

In some cases, cookies are used to simplify the ordering process by storing settings (for example, remembering the contents of a virtual shopping cart for a later visit to the website). Insofar as cookies implemented by us also process personal data, the processing is carried out in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR either for the execution of the contract or in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR for safeguarding our legitimate interests in the best possible functionality of the website as well as a customer-friendly and effective design of the page visit.

We may work with advertising partners to help us make our web offerings more interesting to you. For this purpose, cookies are stored on your hard disk also by our partner companies (third-party cookies). If we cooperate with aforementioned advertising partners, you will be informed individually and separately about the use of such cookies and the scope of the information collected in the following paragraphs.

Please note that you can set your browser so that you are informed about the setting of cookies and individually decide on their acceptance or can exclude the acceptance of cookies for specific cases or generally. Each browser differs in the way it manages cookie settings. This is described in the Help menu of each browser, which explains how to change your cookie settings. These can be found for the respective browser via the following links:

Internet Explorer: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Block-or-allow-cookies
Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enable-and-disable-cookies-website-preferences
Chrome: http://support.google.com/chrome/bin/answer.py?hl=en&hlrm=en&answer=95647
Safari: https://support.apple.com/kb/ph21411?locale=en_US
Opera: https://www.opera.com/help/tutorials/security/cookies/

Please note that if you do not accept cookies, the functionality of our website may be limited.

Use of Google Analytics

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service offered by Google Inc. ("Google"). Google Analytics uses so-called "cookies", text files which are stored on your computer and which enable an analysis to be carried out of your use of the website. As a rule, the information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. However, where IP anonymisation has been activated on this website, your IP address will be abbreviated by Google beforehand within the member states of the European Union or in other signatory states 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 abbreviated there. On behalf of the operator of this website, Google uses this information to analyse your use of the website, to compile reports about website activities and to provide further services to the website operator associated with the use of the website and of the Internet. The IP address transmitted from your browser within the scope of Google Analytics will not be matched with any other Google data. You can prevent the storage of cookies by a corresponding setting of your browser software; however, we draw your attention to the fact that in this case it is possible that you will not be able to use all functions of this website in the full scope. You can also prevent the collection of the data generated by the cookie and related to your use of the website (including your IP address) as well as the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing a browser plug-in available under the following link: www.tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de.

Use of Script Libraries (Google Webfonts)

In order to render our content correctly and graphically appealing across browsers, we use script libraries and font libraries on this website, such as Google Webfonts (https://www.google.com/webfonts/). Google web fonts are transferred to the cache of your browser to prevent multiple loading. If the browser does not support Google Web fonts or prohibits access, content will be displayed in a standard font. The call of script libraries or font libraries automatically triggers a connection to the operator of the library. It is theoretically possible - but currently also unclear whether and, if so, for what purposes - that operators of such libraries collect data.,The privacy policy of the library operator Google can be found here: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/

Integration of Trusted Shops Trustbadge

We have integrated the Trusted Shops Trustbadge on this website in order to display our Trusted Shops Trustmark and offer the Trusted Shops products to customers after placing an order. This serves the protection of our legitimate interests in the optimal marketing of our offer according to art. 6 (1) 1 lit f GDPR that are overriding in the process of balancing of interests. The Trustbadge and the advertised trust badge services are offered by Trusted Shops GmbH, Subbelrather Str. 15C, 50823 Cologne, Germany. With every use of the Trustbadge, the web server automatically saves a so-called server log file which contains e.g. your IP address, the date and time of the request, the volume of data transferred and the requesting provider (access data), and documents the request. Those access data are not analysed and are automatically overwritten no later than seven days after the end of your website visit. Other personal data are transferred to Trusted Shops only if you decide to use or have already registered to use Trusted Shops products after placing an order. In such a case, the contract concluded between you and Trusted Shops applies.

Use of Bootstrap

We use the free frontend CSS framework Bootstrap developed by Twitter, Inc., 1355 Market St, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA for our website. We use this service to make our website visually appealing and consistent while considering the characteristics of the device used. This constitutes a legitimate interest within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. More information about bootstrap can be found at https://getbootstrap.com/

G. Rights of data subjects

You have the right:

pursuant to Art. 15 GDPR to demand information about the personal data concerning you which is processed by us. In particular, you may demand information about the purposes of the processing, the category of the personal data, the categories of recipients to whom your personal data has been or will be disclosed, the envisaged period for which the personal data will be stored, the existence of a right to rectification, erasure or restriction of the processing or of objection to the same, the existence of a right of complaint, the source of your data where this has not been collected by me and also about the existence of any automated decision-making, including profiling and, where applicable, meaningful information about the details thereof;
pursuant to Art. 16 GDPR to demand the prompt rectification of inaccurate personal data concerning you or to have incomplete personal data which is stored with us completed;
pursuant to Art. 17 GDPR, to demand the erasure of personal data concerning you which is stored by us unless the processing is necessary for exercising a right of freedom of expression and information, for compliance with a legal obligation, for reasons of public interest or for the assertion, exercise or defence of legal claims;
pursuant to Art. 18 GDPR, to demand the restriction of the processing of your personal data in so far as the accuracy of the personal data is contested by you, the processing is unlawful but you oppose the erasure of your personal data and we no longer need the personal data but you require the same for the assertion, exercise or defence of legal claims or in so far as you have lodged an objection to the processing pursuant to Art. 21 GDPR;
pursuant to Art. 20 GDPR, to receive personal data concerning yourself which you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format or to demand the transmission of this data to another controller;
pursuant to Art. 7 (3) GDPR, at any time to withdraw the consent you may already have issued to us. This will mean that in future we may no longer continue to carry out the data processing based on this consent, and
pursuant to Art. 77 GDPR, to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. As a rule, for this purpose, you may apply to the supervisory authority responsible at your habitual residence or place of work or at the place of our office.

H. Right of objection

Where your personal data is processed on the basis of legitimate interests pursuant to Art. 6 (1), sentence 1, para. f, GDPR, you have the right, pursuant to Art. 21 GDPR, to lodge an objection to the processing of your personal data where grounds exist relating to your particular situation or where the objection is aimed against direct marketing. In the latter case, you have a general right of objection which will be implemented by us without the need for you to demonstrate any particular situation.

Should you wish to exercise your right of withdrawal of consent or of objection, an e-mail to info@automation24.co.uk is sufficient.

I. Data security

During your visit to our website we use the widespread SSL procedure (secure socket layer) in combination with the respective highest encryption level supported by your browser.

As a rule, this is a 256 bit encryption. If your browser does not support a 256 bit encryption, we fall back instead on 128 bit v3 technology. You can recognise whether an individual page of our website can be transmitted in encrypted form if your browser displays a key or closed lock symbol in the status bar at the bottom of your browser.

In addition, we apply appropriate technical and organisational security measures in order to protect your data against accidental or intentional manipulation, partial or complete loss, destruction or access by unauthorised third parties. Our security measures are continually improved in line with technological developments.

J. Currentness and changes to this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy is currently valid with status as of May 2018.

Through the further development of our website and offers via the same or by reason of changed stipulations prescribed by law or by authorities, it may be necessary to amend this Privacy Policy.