Data protection

We would like to welcome you to our website and are pleased to see that you are interested in our company. We take the protection of your personal data very seriously. We process your data in accordance with applicable legal regulations for the protection of personal data, especially the General Data Protection Regulation of the EU (EU GDPR) and the country-specific implementing laws that are applicable to us. This privacy notice is designed to provide you with comprehensive information regarding the processing of your personal data by the company GOK Regler- und Armaturengesellschaft mbH & Co. KG and regarding the rights you are entitled to.

Here, personal data are any data allowing for the identification of a natural person. These especially include the name, date of birth, address, telephone number, e-mail address, but also your IP address.

Data are considered to be anonymised when no connection to the person of the user can be drawn.

Data controller and data protection officer
Adress:
GOK Regler- und Armaturen-Gesellschaft mbH & Co. KG
Obernbreiter Str. 2-18
97340 Marktbreit / Germany

Contact details:
Website: www.gok.de
Telephone: +49 (0) 93 32 40 40

Contact details of the data protection officer:
datenschutz@gok.de

Your rights as data subject
At first, we would like to inform you of your rights as data subject. These rights are set out in Art. 15 - 22 GDPR. They include:

  • The right to information (Art. 15 GDPR),
  • The right to deletion (Art. 17 GDPR),
  • The right to correction (Art. 16 GDPR),
  • The right to data transferability (Art. 20 GDPR),
  • The right to limitation of data processing (Art. 18 GDPR),
  • The right to object to data processing (Art. 21 GDPR).

Please contact us under: datenschutz@gok.de to exercise these rights. The same applies if you have any questions regarding data processing in our company. Additionally, you are entitled to file a complaint with a supervisory authority in charge of data protection.

Rights of objection
Please observe the following in connection with rights of objection:
Where we process your personal data for direct advertisement purposes, you have the right to object to this data processing at any time and without statement of reasons. This also applies to any profiling, provided it is associated with direct advertisement.

If you object to data processing for direct advertisement purposes, we will no longer process your personal data for these purposes. Objection is free of charge and can be made by informal notification, where possible addressed to: datenschutz@gok.de or newsletter-registration@gok.de.

Where we process your personal data in order to safeguard a legitimate interest, you may object to this processing based on reasons stemming from your special situation at any time; this also applies to any profiling that is based on these provisions.

We will then no longer process your personal data, unless we can demonstrate compulsory reasons worth protecting for processing that outweigh your interests, rights, and freedoms or if processing serves the assertion, exercising or defence of legal claims.

Purpose of and legal bases for data processing
When processing your personal data, the provisions of the GDPR and all other applicable provisions under data protection law are complied with. The legal bases for the processing of data are set out in Art. 6 GDPR in particular.

We utilise your data for initiating business transactions, for compliance with contractual and legal obligations, for execution of the contractual relationship, for offering products and services as well as for strengthening of customer relations, which may also include analysis for marketing purposes and direct advertisement.

Furthermore, your consent is also considered a requirement for legitimacy of data processing under data protection law. In this respect, we will inform you of the purposes of data processing and of your right to revocation. If consent also refers to the processing of special categories of personal data, we will expressly refer to these in the consent form, Art. 88 clause 1 GDPR.

Special categories of personal data in terms of Art. 9 clause 1 GDPR are only processed if doing so is required due to legal provisions and if there is no reason to assume that your interest in exclusion of processing outweighs any processing, Art. 88 clause 1 GDPR.

Disclosure towards third parties
We will only disclose your personal data to third parties within the scope of legal provisions or subject to corresponding consent. Apart from the above, data are not disclosed to third parties, unless we are obliged to do so due to mandatory legal provisions (disclosure to external bodies such as supervisory or law enforcement authorities etc.).

Data recipients / categories of recipients
Within our company, we ensure that only those persons have access to your data who require access for compliance with contractual and legal obligations.

In many cases, service providers support our specialist departments in carrying out their tasks. We have concluded the necessary contracts for data protection with all service providers.

Transfer to third countries / intention of transfer to third countries
A transfer of data to third countries (outside the European Union or the European Economic Area) only takes place where required for the execution of the contractual obligation, where required by law or if you have granted us consent to do so.

Data retention period
We will store your data for as long as they are required for the respective processing purpose. Please note that as a result of many retention periods, data have to be/are stored for a period longer than that. This especially applies to retention periods under commercial and fiscal law (e.g. German Commercial Code, Fiscal Code, etc.). Where no other retention periods apply, the data will be routinely deleted after the purpose was achieved.

Additionally, we may store data if you grant your consent for doing so or in case of legal disputes in which we use evidence within the framework of statutory limitation periods, which may amount to up to thirty years; the standard limitation period is three years.

Secure transfer of your data
In order to protect data stored by us as well as possible against accidental or deliberate manipulation, loss, destruction or against access by unauthorised parties, we employ corresponding technical and organisational security measures. The levels of security are continuously reviewed in cooperation with security experts and are aligned with new security standards.

Obligation to provide the data
Various personal data are required for the establishment, execution, and termination of a contractual obligation and the compliance with any associated contractual and legal obligations. The same applies to the use of our website and the various features offered by it.
We have summarised these for you in the section above. Under certain circumstances, data also have to be collected or made available based on legal provisions. Please note that it is not possible to process your enquiry or to execute the underlying contractual obligation without these data being provided.

Categories, sources, and origin of the data
Which data we process is determined by the context in question: It depends on whether you, for example, place an order online or enter an enquiry into our contact form, or if you submit an application or complaint to us.
Please note that we may also provide data for special processing circumstances separately at other suitable locations, e.g. in case of contact enquiries.

We collect and process the following data for contact enquiries:

  • Your name
  • Your company
  • Your phone number
  • Your e-mail address
  • Your message

 
We can process the following data when we send out our newsletter:

  • your surname and your first name
  • your title
  • your e-mail address
  • your IP address


Contact form / contact by e-mail (Art. 6 clause 1 letter a, b GDPR)
Our website offers a contact form that can be used for contacting us via electronic means of communication. If you contact us using the contact form, we will process any of your data that you provided in the contact form in order to contact you and to reply to your enquiries and requests.

Here, we observe the principles of data minimisation and data avoidance by only asking you to enter the mandatory information which we absolutely need to contact you. This means your e-mail address as well as the message field itself. Additionally, we process your IP address due to technical necessity and for legal protection purposes. All other information is voluntary and entering this information is optional (e.g. for a more individualised reply to your enquiry).
If you contact us using e-mail, we will only process the personal information communicated in the e-mail for the purpose of handling your request.

Advertising purposes existing customers / newsletter (point (f) of Art. 6(1) GDPR)
Where we offer you a newsletter in connection with our business relationship, we use your surname and first name, your title and your e-mail address to send such personalised newsletter. We process your IP address due to technical necessity and for legal protection purposes when you subscribe to the newsletter. In addition, we use the rapidmail technology in relation to our newsletter, which we will also explain in this Privacy Notice.

If you are not comfortable with this, you can object to the use of your personal data for the purpose of direct advertising at any time; this also applies to any profiling, provided it is associated with direct advertising. If you do object, we will no longer process your data for this purpose.

You can object without stating any reasons free of charge and by informal notification. You can, of course, unsubscribe from our newsletter via the unsubscribe link provided in the newsletter. Another option you have is to cancel your subscription with us and/or to declare your objection to direct advertising directly by e-mail to datenschutz@gok.de or newsletter-registration@gok.de or by any other way at any time.

Automated decisions in individual cases
We do not utilise fully automated processing methods for making decisions.

Cookies (Art. 6 clause 1 letter f GDPR / Art. 6 clause 1 letter a GDPR in case of consent)
Our website uses so-called cookies in several places. Their purpose is to help make our content more user-friendly, effective, and secure. Cookies are small text files that are saved on your computer and which are stored (locally on your hard drive) by your browser.
With the help of these cookies, we can analyse how users use our websites. This means that we can tailor the content of the websites in accordance with visitor needs. Additionally, cookies offer us the option to measure effectiveness of a certain display and to arrange its placing in accordance with, for example, thematic interests of the users.
Most of the cookies used by us are so-called “session cookies”. These are deleted automatically at the end of your visit. Permanent cookies are deleted automatically from your computer once their period of validity (usually six months) has ended or if you delete them manually before the end of period of validity.
Most web browsers automatically accept cookies. But you can usually also change the settings of your browser should you prefer not to send this information. You will then still be able to use our website without limitations (exception: configurations).
We use cookies to help make our content more user-friendly, effective, and secure. Additionally, we also use cookies that allow us to analyse the way users use our websites. This means that we can tailor the content of the websites in accordance with visitor needs. Additionally, cookies offer us the option to measure effectiveness of a certain display and to arrange its placing in accordance with, for example, thematic interests of the users.
Cookies are saved on the computer of the user and are then transmitted by it to our website. Besides, you as user also have full control over the use of cookies. By changing the settings of your Internet browser, you can deactivate or limit the transmission of cookies. Additionally, any cookies already placed can be deleted at any time using a web browser or other software programmes. This is possible in all commonly used Internet browsers.
Please note: If you deactivate the placing of cookies, it may not be possible to use all features of our website to their full extent.

User profiles / web-tracking methods (Art. 6 clause 1 letter a GDPR)

Use of Google Analytics

Description of the data processing: We use the tracking tool Google Analytics of Google LLC (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA, “Google”) on our website. If you are resident in the European Economic Area (EEA) or in Switzerland, Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland) is the data controller which is responsible for your data collected by these methods. Interactions of visitors of our website are recorded, stored and systematically evaluated by means of cookies and JavaScript functions via the Google Analytics tool. The following data are collected, amongst others: anonymised IP address (only three bytes are recorded), Google ID, accessed website, previously accessed website, time spent on the websites and frequency of website access.

Your data are transmitted to Google and further processed by Google for its own purposes. If you have a Google account, Google can also combine the data it obtained from the Google Analytics tracking.

Data are transmitted to third countries. Google uses standard EU contractual clauses on data protection as the basis for the transmitting of personal data to the USA. The necessary data protection agreement has been concluded with Google. Further information on Google’s processing of data collected with this tool can be found at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en.

Use of Google Ads

We use the “Google Ads” service of Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (“Google”) to improve the effectiveness of our advertising measures on this website. This Conversion Tracking helps us to determine how many users in total clicked on our advertisements or were redirected to a page which has been provided with a Conversion Tracking tag. Information which allows individual users to be identified will not, however, be generated in this respect.

If you click on an advertisement that is associated with Google Ads, a cookie will be placed on your computer. This Google Ads cookie collects information for the creation of what are known as the Conversion Statistics. Corresponding to the technology used, the Conversion cookies from Google Ads are valid for up to two years and do not contain any personal data. No personal identification takes place. If you visit our website when the cookie is active, we and Google are able to measure the “Conversion”, i.e. we find out that you have clicked on an advertisement that is related to Google Ads and that you were redirected to our website. Our cookie is available to us alone, which means that a tracking by other advertisers is not possible.

By declining the cookies – e.g. by setting your browser to deactivate the automatic setting of cookies – you can prevent the tracking by the Google Ads Conversion Tracking. You can also disable the Google cookies permanently by using these links:

https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/managing/
https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/ads/

Use of Bing Ads (Microsoft Ads)

Our website uses Bing Ads services (bingads.microsoft.com) from the Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399, USA (“Microsoft”). If you access our website via an advertisement from Microsoft Bing, Microsoft will place a cookie on your device. Throughout the duration of the cookie activity of up to two years, depending on the technology used, we and Microsoft can determine that someone clicked on an advertisement, was redirected to our website, and accessed a previously-specified target page (“Conversion Site”). In this respect, we only find out the total number of users who clicked on a Bing advertisement and were then redirected to the Conversion Site. With the cookie, Microsoft collects, processes and uses information from which user profiles are created with the use of pseudonyms. These user profiles serve the purpose of analysing the visitor behaviour, and are used to display promotional advertisements. No personal information on the identity or the user is processed, however.

If you do not want information about your user behaviour to be used by Microsoft, you can decline the placing of a cookie. You can control this via the settings in your browser by generally deactivating the automatic placing of cookies, for example. You can also prevent the collection of the data generated by the cookie which relates to your use of the website and the processing of this data by Microsoft by expressing your objection under the following link:

https://choice.microsoft.com/de-DE/opt-out

Further information on data protection and the cookies used by Microsoft and Bing Ads is available on the following Microsoft website:

https://privacy.microsoft.com/de-de/privacystatement

Description of data processing
We use the tracking tool Google Analytics of Google LLC (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA, “Google”) on our website. If you are resident in the European Economic Area (EEA) or in Switzerland, Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland) is the controller responsible for your data collected by these methods. Interactions of visitors of our website are recorded, stored and systematically evaluated by means of cookies and JavaScript functions via the Google Analytics tool. The following data are collected, amongst others: anonymised IP address (only three bytes are recorded), Google ID, accessed website, previously accessed website, time spent on the websites and frequency of website access.

Your data are transmitted to Google and further processed by Google for its own purposes. If you have a Google account, Google can also combine the data it obtained from the Google Analytics tracking.

Data are transmitted to third countries. The data are transferred to Google servers in the USA. Google applies EU standard contractual terms related to data protection as the basis for transferring personal data to the U.S.A. The necessary data protection agreement was concluded with Google. Further information on Google’s processing of data collected with this tool can be found at https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=en.

Purpose of data processing
We use Google Analytics to collect information on the use of this website and to achieve a needs-based design and optimisation of our website by means of such data. User profiles for use across websites are created from these data.

Legal basis of data processing and withdrawal option
The tool is used on the basis of your consent according to point (a) of Art. 6(1) of the EU GDPR. You can withdraw your consent at any time by clicking HERE:

 Google Analytics disable

 Google Analytics activate

The withdrawal only applies to the device and the web browser where it was set; please repeat the process on all devices, where necessary. If you delete the opt-out cookie, you will be asked again for your consent to data transmission. You can also download a browser add-on for disabling Google Analytics at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en. This add-on is provided by Google for the common browser versions.

Data storage period
The data collected with this method are erased as soon as they are no longer required for our purposes. This is the case after 2 years have expired.

Use of FINDOLOGIC for Product Discovery
For Product Discovery, particularly search and navigation, we use the services of FINDOLOGIC GmbH, Jakob-Haringer-Str. 5a, 5020 Salzburg, a technology company who attempts to consider personal requirements and preferences by means of data analyses. In doing so, cookies are used to store information on the website user, and various data are transferred to the service provider that particularly include the users’ IP address and browser identification as well as related behaviour data such as queries, visited categories, selected filters, viewed and purchased products. This helps us to understand what products our users are interested in most and to optimise the shopping experience. Data are processed on the basis of your consent, point (a) of Art. 6(1) GDPR.

This information may be submitted to third parties if stipulated by law or if it is processed by third parties on behalf of FINDOLOGIC. A contract on processing was concluded with FINDOLOGIC. Please note that the stored IP addresses will be anonymised after 6 months.

Use of FINDOLOGIC for anytime content-availability
To offer our content anytime and independent from (e.g.) maintenance work, we are using FINDOLOGIC with a so-called Content Delivery Network (“CDN”). Therefore, your data may be processed thru a global network of servers, which provides for a use independent from the availability of single servers. This is a volatile processing, which means your data, by default, is not available for a processing for further purposes or in third countries. The legal basis for such processing is our legitimate interest in offering non-stop available service for you as a user, Art. 6 (I) 1 f EU-GDPR.

Use of rapidmail for dispatch and evaluation of newsletters
We send our e-mail newsletter via the service provider rapidmail GmbH, Augustinerplatz 2, 79098 Freiburg (“rapidmail”). This processing is made on the basis of our legitimate interest in the direct transmission of interesting information about GOK, our activities and products to you, point (f) of Art. 6(1) GDPR. We have received the data we use for sending our newsletter to you in the course of our business relationship (e.g. your e-mail address). It is stored on rapidmail servers in Germany in order to execute our newsletter campaigns. This information is used by rapidmail on our behalf to dispatch and to statistically evaluate the newsletters. Alternatively, rapidmail enables us to carry out a statistical evaluation.

The sent newsletters contain web beacons and/or tracking pixels, which are one-pixel image files that are stored on our website. They are used for evaluation: by using them, we can find out – also in real-time – whether a newsletter was opened, what links have been clicked, what contents have been particularly interesting for you, in what order you have taken note of the information, what activities you have started from within the newsletter and in which geographical area (federal state) your IP address is situated (however, this does not enable us to identify your exact location). For functional optimisation, rapidmail is integrated into Google Analytics when used by us.

Moreover, this conversion tracking enables us to trace whether a pre-defined action (such as the purchase of a product in our online shop) was performed after the link in the newsletter was clicked. In addition, technical data is collected (e.g. time of access, IP address, browser type and operating system). The data is always pseudonymised before it is collected and is not combined with any of your other personal data that may be stored with rapidmail so that it cannot be directly linked to any particular individual, and it is only used for the statistical evaluation of newsletter campaigns. We can use the results of such evaluations in order to customise our newsletter more exactly to your interests in the future and to individualise your user experience.

You can object to this data evaluation at any time by unsubscribing from the newsletter. You can do this by clicking the unsubscribe link that is included in each of our newsletters or by otherwise informing us about your intention, e.g. by e-mail to newsletter-registration@gok.de.

We concluded a data processing agreement with rapidmail to protect your personal data during its processing by rapidmail. You can find further information on data protection at rapidmail in rapidmail’s privacy notice at https://www.rapidmail.de/datenschutz.

Links to third-party providers
Our website also contains - clearly marked - links to the websites of other companies. Where links to the websites of other companies are available, we do not have any influence on their content. Accordingly, we cannot make any guarantees or accept responsibility for their content. Responsible for the content of these websites is always the respective provider or operator of the websites.
The linked websites were reviewed in regard to possible legal infringements and obvious legal violations at the time the link was incorporated. No unlawful content was apparent at the time the link was incorporated. However, a permanent control of the content of the linked websites would be unreasonable without actual evidence of legal violations. Any such links will be removed as soon as legal violations become known.