Ge­ne­ral information

The pro­tec­tion of your da­ta is of the ut­most im­portance to us. We the­r­e­fo­re do all we can to pro­vi­de the best pos­si­ble pro­tec­tion for your per­so­nal da­ta. The in­for­ma­ti­on be­low the­r­e­fo­re pro­vi­des a simp­le in­iti­al over­view of what hap­pens wi­th your per­so­nal da­ta when you vi­sit our web­site. He­re we should first cla­ri­fy what the term per­so­nal da­ta ac­tual­ly re­fers to. In ac­cordance wi­th Ar­tic­le 4 No. 1 GDPR, per­so­nal da­ta is all in­for­ma­ti­on that re­la­tes to an iden­ti­fied or iden­ti­fia­ble na­tu­ral per­son, e.g. your na­me, your ad­dress, or your email ad­dress. Mo­re de­tail­ed in­for­ma­ti­on on the to­pic of da­ta pro­tec­tion can be found in our da­ta pro­tec­tion de­cla­ra­ti­on un­der­neath this text.

Da­ta coll­ec­tion on our website

Who is re­spon­si­ble for da­ta coll­ec­tion on this website? 

The da­ta pro­ces­sing on this web­site is per­for­med by the web­site ope­ra­tor. The operator’s cont­act de­tails can be found in the Le­gal No­ti­ce on this web­site, or in the da­ta pro­tec­tion de­cla­ra­ti­on below.

How do we re­cord your da­ta?

First­ly, your da­ta is re­cor­ded as a re­sult of you sha­ring it wi­th us. This may re­fer to da­ta that you en­ter in­to a cont­act form. Other da­ta is au­to­ma­ti­cal­ly re­cor­ded by our IT sys­tems when you vi­sit the web­site. This re­fers pri­ma­ri­ly to tech­ni­cal da­ta (e.g. In­ter­net brow­ser, ope­ra­ting sys­tem, or time the si­de is ac­ces­sed). This da­ta is re­cor­ded au­to­ma­ti­cal­ly as so­on as you ac­cess our website.

For what pur­po­se do we use your data?

So­me of the da­ta is coll­ec­ted to gua­ran­tee the er­ror-free pro­vi­si­on of the web­site. Other da­ta can be used to ana­ly­se your user behaviour.

What rights do you have wi­th re­gard to your data?

You have the right to ac­cess free in­for­ma­ti­on re­gar­ding the ori­gin, re­ci­pi­ents, and pur­po­se for the sto­rage of your per­so­nal da­ta at any time. You al­so have the right to re­quest the cor­rec­tion, blo­cking, or de­le­ti­on of this da­ta. In this re­gard, and in ca­se of other ques­ti­ons on the to­pic of da­ta pro­tec­tion, you can cont­act us at any time at the ad­dress sta­ted in the Le­gal No­ti­ce. What’s mo­re, you have a right to ap­peal to the com­pe­tent su­per­vi­so­ry aut­ho­ri­ty. You al­so have the right, un­der cer­tain cir­cum­s­tances, to re­quest the li­mi­ta­ti­on of the pro­ces­sing of your per­so­nal da­ta. De­tails on this can be found in the da­ta pro­tec­tion de­cla­ra­ti­on un­der “Right to the li­mi­ta­ti­on of processing”.

1. Re­spon­si­ble party

The par­ty re­spon­si­ble for da­ta pro­ces­sing on this web­site it:

STEPSOFT GmbH

Ha­gen­stra­ße 41

48529 Nord­horn

The re­spon­si­ble par­ty is the na­tu­ral or le­gal per­son who, eit­her alo­ne or joint­ly wi­th others, de­ci­des as to the pur­po­ses and me­ans of the pro­ces­sing of per­so­nal da­ta (e.g. names, e mail ad­dres­ses etc.).

2. Ge­ne­ral in­for­ma­ti­on and man­da­to­ry information

Da­ta protection

As the ope­ra­tor of this site, we tre­at the pro­tec­tion of your per­so­nal da­ta very se­rious­ly. We hand­le your per­so­nal da­ta con­fi­den­ti­al­ly and in ac­cordance wi­th sta­tu­to­ry da­ta pro­tec­tion pro­vi­si­ons and this da­ta pro­tec­tion declaration.

Va­rious per­so­nal da­ta is coll­ec­ted when you use this web­site. Per­so­nal da­ta is da­ta wi­th which you can be per­so­nal­ly iden­ti­fied. This da­ta pro­tec­tion de­cla­ra­ti­on ex­plains which da­ta we coll­ect, and what we use it for. It al­so ex­plains how and for what pur­po­se this occurs.

We her­eby point out that da­ta trans­mis­si­on via the In­ter­net (e.g. in the ca­se of com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on by email) may be sus­cep­ti­ble to se­cu­ri­ty loopho­les. Com­ple­te pro­tec­tion of da­ta against ac­cess by third par­ties is not possible.

Le­gal ba­sis for the da­ta processing

In or­der to be ab­le to of­fer our web­site and the as­so­cia­ted ser­vices, we must pro­cess per­so­nal da­ta. This pro­ces­sing is ba­sed on the fol­lo­wing le­gal basis:

Art. 6 Pa­ra. 1 (a) GDPR ser­ves as the le­gal ba­sis for pro­ces­sing wher­eby con­sent to the spe­ci­fic in­ten­ded pur­po­se is collected.

If the da­ta to be pro­ces­sed is per­so­nal da­ta that is re­qui­red for the exe­cu­ti­on of a con­tract, wher­eby you yours­elf are a con­trac­tu­al par­ty, the pro­ces­sing of this da­ta is ba­sed on Art. 6 Pa­ra. 1 (b) GDPR. This is re­qui­red e.g. upon the de­li­very of goods or the pro­vi­si­on of other ser­vices. The sa­me ap­pli­es for pro­ces­sing that is re­qui­red for the im­ple­men­ta­ti­on of pre-con­trac­tu­al me­a­su­res, e.g. in ca­se of pro­duct queries.

The pro­ces­sing of per­so­nal da­ta may be ne­ces­sa­ry on ac­count of le­gal ob­li­ga­ti­ons, e.g. for the ful­film­ent of tax ob­li­ga­ti­ons. This ty­pe of da­ta pro­ces­sing is ba­sed on Art. 6 Pa­ra. 1 © GDPR

In ex­cep­tio­nal ca­ses, the pro­ces­sing of per­so­nal da­ta may be ne­ces­sa­ry in or­der to safe­guard the vi­tal in­te­rests of the per­son con­cer­ned or of other na­tu­ral per­sons. This is re­qui­red, for ex­am­p­le, in ca­se of ac­ci­dents at work, if me­di­cal as­sis­tance is cal­led upon. The le­gal ba­sis for this is pro­vi­ded by Art. 6 Pa­ra. 1 (d) GDPR

Per­so­nal da­ta can al­so be pro­ces­sed on the ba­sis of a ba­lan­cing of in­te­rests. This is then pos­si­ble in ac­cordance wi­th Art. 6 Pa­ra. 1 (f) GDPR if a ju­s­ti­fied in­te­rest on the part of our com­pa­ny or a third par­ty exists, and the da­ta pro­ces­sing is man­da­to­ry on this ba­sis. He­re, the ju­s­ti­fied in­te­rest must not out­weigh the fun­da­men­tal rights and ba­sic free­doms of the con­cer­ned par­ty. Wi­th­dra­wal of your con­sent to da­ta processing

Ma­ny da­ta pro­ces­sing ope­ra­ti­ons are on­ly pos­si­ble wi­th your ex­press con­sent. You can wi­th­draw al­re­a­dy gran­ted con­sent at any time. All that is re­qui­red is an in­for­mal no­ti­fi­ca­ti­on via e mail. The le­ga­li­ty of the da­ta pro­ces­sing per­for­med pri­or to the wi­th­dra­wal shall re­main un­af­fec­ted by the withdrawal.

Right of ob­jec­tion to da­ta coll­ec­tion in spe­cial ca­ses, and to di­rect ad­ver­ti­sing (Art. 21 GDPR)

If the da­ta pro­ces­sing ta­kes place on the ba­sis of Art. 6 Pa­ra. 1 (e) or (f) GDPR, you have the right, for re­asons re­sul­ting from your par­ti­cu­lar si­tua­ti­on, to sub­mit an ob­jec­tion to the pro­ces­sing of your per­so­nal da­ta at any time; this al­so ap­pli­es to pro­fil­ing pur­su­ant to the­se pro­vi­si­ons. The re­spec­ti­ve le­gal ba­sis upon which pro­ces­sing is ba­sed can be found in this da­ta pro­tec­tion de­cla­ra­ti­on. If you sub­mit an ob­jec­tion, we will cea­se pro­ces­sing your per­so­nal da­ta un­less we can de­mons­tra­te com­pel­ling le­gi­ti­ma­te grounds for the pro­ces­sing, which out­weigh your in­te­rests, rights, and free­doms, or un­less the pro­ces­sing ser­ves for the as­ser­ti­on, exer­cise, or de­fence of le­gal claims (ob­jec­tion pur­su­ant to Art. 21 Pa­ra. 1 GDPR).

If your per­so­nal da­ta is pro­ces­sed wi­th a view to ope­ra­ting di­rect ad­ver­ti­sing, then you have the right to rai­se an ob­jec­tion to the pro­ces­sing of your per­so­nal da­ta for the pur­po­ses of such ad­ver­ti­sing at any time; this al­so ap­pli­es to pro­fil­ing, in­so­far as this is car­ri­ed out in con­junc­tion wi­th such di­rect ad­ver­ti­sing. If you ob­ject, then your per­so­nal da­ta will no lon­ger be used for the pur­po­se of di­rect ad­ver­ti­sing (ob­jec­tion pur­su­ant to Art. 21 Pa­ra. 2 GDPR).

Right to ap­peal to the com­pe­tent su­per­vi­so­ry authority

In the ca­se of vio­la­ti­ons against the GDPR, the par­ty af­fec­ted has a right to ap­peal to the com­pe­tent su­per­vi­so­ry aut­ho­ri­ty, in par­ti­cu­lar in the mem­ber sta­te of their ha­bi­tu­al re­si­dence, their place of work, or the place of the al­le­ged vio­la­ti­on. The right of ap­peal exists ir­re­spec­ti­ve of other ad­mi­nis­tra­ti­ve or le­gal remedies.

Right to da­ta portability

You have the right to have da­ta that we pro­cess au­to­ma­ti­cal­ly on the ba­sis of your con­sent or in ful­film­ent of an agree­ment is­sued to you or to a third par­ty, in a stan­dard, ma­chi­ne-re­a­da­ble for­mat. If you re­quest the di­rect trans­fer of the da­ta to an­o­ther re­spon­si­ble per­son, this will on­ly ta­ke place pro­vi­ded this is tech­ni­cal­ly fe­a­si­ble. SSL or TLS encryption.

For se­cu­ri­ty re­asons and to pro­tect the trans­mis­si­on of con­fi­den­ti­al con­tent, such as or­ders or re­quests that you send to us as the site ope­ra­tor, this site used SSL or TLS en­cryp­ti­on. You can re­co­g­ni­se an en­crypt­ed con­nec­tion in that the ad­dress bar of the brow­ser ch­an­ges from “http://” to “https://”, and on ac­count of the lock sym­bol in your brow­ser bar. If SSL or TLS en­cryp­ti­on is ac­ti­va­ted, then the da­ta that you send to us can­not be read by third parties.

In­for­ma­ti­on, blo­cking, de­le­ti­on, and correction

Wi­thin the scope of va­lid sta­tu­to­ry pro­vi­si­ons, you have the right to ac­cess free in­for­ma­ti­on re­gar­ding your in­for­ma­ti­on, its ori­gin and re­ci­pi­ents, and the pur­po­se be­hind its pro­ces­sing, and if ap­pli­ca­ble you have a right to have this da­ta cor­rec­ted, blo­cked, or de­le­ted. Should you have ques­ti­ons re­gar­ding this or any other mat­ters re­la­ting to per­so­nal da­ta, you can cont­act us at any time at the ad­dress sta­ted in the Le­gal Notice.

Right to the li­mi­ta­ti­on of processing

You have the right to re­quest the li­mi­ta­ti­on of the pro­ces­sing of your per­so­nal da­ta. To this end, you can cont­act us at any time at the ad­dress sta­ted in the Le­gal No­ti­ce. The right to the li­mi­ta­ti­on of pro­ces­sing exists in the fol­lo­wing cases: 

If you dis­pu­te the ac­cu­ra­cy of your per­so­nal da­ta stored by us, we ge­ne­ral­ly re­qui­re time to check this. For the du­ra­ti­on of the che­cking pe­ri­od, you have the right to re­quest the li­mi­ta­ti­on of the pro­ces­sing of your per­so­nal data. 

If the pro­ces­sing of your per­so­nal da­ta has ta­ken / is ta­king place un­lawful­ly, you can re­quest the li­mi­ta­ti­on of the da­ta pro­ces­sing ra­ther than the de­le­ti­on of the data. 

If we no lon­ger re­qui­re your per­so­nal da­ta, which you, ho­we­ver, re­qui­re for the exer­cise, de­fence, or as­ser­ti­on of le­gal claims, you have the right to re­quest the li­mi­ta­ti­on of the pro­ces­sing of your per­so­nal da­ta ra­ther than its deletion. 

If you have sub­mit­ted an ob­jec­tion pur­su­ant to Art. 21 Pa­ra. 1 GDPR, a ba­lan­ce must be struck bet­ween your in­te­rests and our in­te­rests. If it has not yet be­en es­tab­lished who­se in­te­rests pr­e­vail, you have the right to re­quest the li­mi­ta­ti­on of the pro­ces­sing of your per­so­nal data. 

If you have li­mi­t­ed the pro­ces­sing of your per­so­nal da­ta, this da­ta – asi­de from its sto­rage – may on­ly be pro­ces­sed wi­th your con­sent, or in or­der to as­sert, exer­cise, or de­fend le­gal claims, or to pro­tect the rights of an­o­ther na­tu­ral or le­gal per­son, or for re­asons of sub­stan­ti­al pu­blic in­te­rest wi­thin the Eu­ro­pean Uni­on or a mem­ber state.

Du­ra­ti­on of sto­rage of per­so­nal data

The da­ta stored by us will be de­le­ted as so­on as it is no lon­ger re­qui­red for its in­ten­ded pur­po­se. A re­qui­re­ment may then exist, in par­ti­cu­lar if the da­ta is still re­qui­red in or­der to ful­fil con­trac­tu­al ser­vices, or so as to be ab­le to ve­ri­fy, ap­pro­ve, or re­ject war­ran­ty and gua­ran­tee claims. In the ca­se of sta­tu­to­ry re­ten­ti­on ob­li­ga­ti­ons, a de­le­ti­on will on­ly be con­side­red af­ter the ex­pi­ra­ti­on of the re­spec­ti­ve re­ten­ti­on pe­ri­od. Ac­cor­ding to sta­tu­to­ry re­qui­re­ments, da­ta is re­tai­ned for 6 ye­ars in ac­cordance wi­th §257 Pa­ra. 1 HGB (tra­ding books, in­vent­ories, ope­ning ba­lan­ce sheets, an­nu­al fi­nan­cial state­ments, com­mer­cial cor­re­spon­dence, ac­coun­ting re­cords etc.), and for 10 ye­ars in ac­cordance wi­th §147 Pa­ra. 1 AO (books, re­cor­dings, sta­tus re­ports, ac­coun­ting re­cords, com­mer­cial and busi­ness cor­re­spon­dence, do­cu­ments re­le­vant to tax etc.).

Ob­jec­tion to ad­ver­ti­sing emails

The use of cont­act de­tails pu­blished wi­thin the con­text of the ob­li­ga­ti­on to pro­vi­de a Le­gal no­ti­ce to send ad­ver­ti­sing and in­for­ma­ti­on ma­te­ri­als that have not be­en ex­press­ly re­ques­ted is here­wi­th ex­pli­cit­ly re­jec­ted. The ope­ra­tors of the web­pages ex­press­ly re­ser­ve the right to ta­ke le­gal ac­tion in the event of the un­re­ques­ted sen­ding of ad­ver­ti­sing in­for­ma­ti­on, for in­s­tance in the form of spam emails.

For­war­ding of da­ta to third parties

We on­ly for­ward your per­so­nal da­ta to third par­ties if:

1. You have ex­press­ly con­sen­ted to the for­war­ding of the da­ta (cf. Art.

6 Pa­ra. 1 (a) GDPR)

2. The for­war­ding of the da­ta is re­qui­red for the exe­cu­ti­on of the

con­trac­tu­al re­la­ti­onship (cf. Art. 6 Pa­ra. 1 (b) GDPR)

3. The for­war­ding of the da­ta is re­qui­red in ac­cordance wi­th statutory

ob­li­ga­ti­ons (cf. Art. 6 Pa­ra. 1 © GDPR)

4. The vi­tal in­te­rests of yours­elf or other per­sons must be protected.

(cf. Art. 6 Pa­ra. 1 (d) GDPR)

5. The for­war­ding of the da­ta is of le­gi­ti­ma­te in­te­rest for our company

or for third par­ties, and you have no over­ri­ding le­gi­ti­ma­te in­te­rest in

pre­ven­ting the for­war­ding of your da­ta (cf. Art. 6 Pa­ra. 1 (f) GDPR)

In ad­di­ti­on, we may use ser­vice pro­vi­ders that are re­spon­si­ble for the ope­ra­ti­on of the web­site or other ser­vices. It can oc­cur that the­se ser­vice pro­vi­ders be­co­me awa­re of your per­so­nal da­ta. Ho­we­ver, we ta­ke all me­a­su­res re­qui­red un­der da­ta pro­tec­tion law to en­su­re the se­cu­re and re­lia­ble pro­ces­sing of your data.

3. Da­ta coll­ec­tion on our website

Ana­ly­ti­cal tools and tools of third-par­ty providers

When vi­si­ting our web­site, your sur­fing be­ha­viour may un­der­go sta­tis­ti­cal ana­ly­sis. This ta­kes place pri­ma­ri­ly wi­th coo­kies and wi­th so-cal­led ana­ly­tics pro­gram­mes. The ana­ly­sis of your sur­fing be­ha­viour usual­ly oc­curs an­ony­mously; the sur­fing be­ha­viour can­not be tra­ced back to you per­so­nal­ly. You can ob­ject to this ana­ly­sis or pre­vent it by pre­ven­ting the use of cer­tain tools. De­tail­ed in­for­ma­ti­on on this can be found in the da­ta pro­tec­tion de­cla­ra­ti­on be­low. You can ob­ject to this ana­ly­sis. We will in­form you re­gar­ding your ob­jec­tion op­ti­ons in this da­ta pro­tec­tion declaration.

Coo­kies

The web pa­ges so­me­ti­mes use so-cal­led coo­kies. Coo­kies do not cau­se any da­ma­ge to your com­pu­ter and do not con­tain vi­ru­s­es. Coo­kies ser­ve to make our web­site mo­re user-fri­end­ly, ef­fec­ti­ve, and se­cu­re. Coo­kies are small text files that are pla­ced on your com­pu­ter and stored by your brow­ser. The ma­jo­ri­ty of the coo­kies we used are so-cal­led “ses­si­on coo­kies”. They are au­to­ma­ti­cal­ly de­le­ted af­ter the end of your vi­sit. Other coo­kies re­main stored on the end de­vice un­til you de­le­te them. The­se coo­kies al­low us to re­co­g­ni­se your brow­ser the next time you vi­sit us. You can con­fi­gu­re your brow­ser so that you are in­for­med of the pla­ce­ment of coo­kies and on­ly al­low coo­kies on a ca­se-by-ca­se ba­sis, de­cli­ne the ac­cep­tance of coo­kies in cer­tain ca­ses or ge­ne­ral­ly, and ac­ti­va­te the au­to­ma­tic de­le­ti­on of coo­kies when clo­sing your brow­ser. If coo­kies are di­s­ab­led, this may li­mit the func­tion­a­li­ty of this web­site. Coo­kies that are re­qui­red for the per­for­mance of elec­tro­nic com­mu­ni­ca­ti­on or for the pro­vi­si­on of cer­tain func­tions that you wish to avail of (e.g. shop­ping cart func­tion) are sa­ved on the ba­sis of Art. 6 Pa­ra. 1 (f) GDPR. The web­site ope­ra­tor has a le­gi­ti­ma­te in­te­rest in the sto­rage of coo­kies, wi­th a view to the tech­ni­cal­ly flaw­less and op­ti­mi­sed pro­vi­si­on of its ser­vices. If other coo­kies (e.g. coo­kies for the ana­ly­sis of your sur­fing be­ha­viour) are stored, the­se will be ad­dres­sed se­pa­ra­te­ly in this da­ta pro­tec­tion declaration.

Ser­ver-Log-Files

The pro­vi­der of the pa­ges au­to­ma­ti­cal­ly coll­ects and stores in­for­ma­ti­on in so-cal­led ser­ver log files, which your brow­ser au­to­ma­ti­cal­ly trans­mits to us. This in­for­ma­ti­on includes:

Brow­ser ty­pe and brow­ser version

Ope­ra­ting sys­tem used

Re­fer­rer URL

Host na­me of the ac­ces­sing computer

Time of the ser­ver request

IP ad­dress

This da­ta will not be mer­ged wi­th other da­ta sources.

This da­ta is coll­ec­ted on the ba­sis of Art. 6 Pa­ra. 1 (f) GDPR. The web­site ope­ra­tor has a le­gi­ti­ma­te in­te­rest in the tech­ni­cal­ly flaw­less pre­sen­ta­ti­on and op­ti­mi­sa­ti­on of its web­site – to this end, ser­ver log files must be compiled.

Goog­le Webfonts

This pa­ge uses so-cal­led web­fonts pro­vi­ded by Goog­le for the stan­dar­di­sed dis­play of ty­pe­faces. Goog­le Fonts are in­stal­led lo­cal­ly. When so do­ing, no con­nec­tion is es­tab­lished wi­th Goog­le servers.

Cont­act form

If you sub­mit queries to us via the cont­act form, your de­tails from the cont­act form, in­clu­ding the cont­act de­tails you pro­vi­de the­re, will be stored by us for the pur­po­se of the pro­ces­sing of the queries and wi­th a view to re­spon­ding to any fol­low-up ques­ti­ons. We do not for­ward this da­ta wi­t­hout your consent.

The da­ta en­te­red in the cont­act form is the­r­e­fo­re on­ly pro­ces­sed on the ba­sis of your con­sent (Art. 6 Pa­ra. 1 (a) GDPR). You can wi­th­draw this con­sent at any time. All that is re­qui­red is an in­for­mal no­ti­fi­ca­ti­on via e mail. The le­ga­li­ty of the da­ta pro­ces­sing per­for­med pri­or to the wi­th­dra­wal shall re­main un­af­fec­ted by the wi­th­dra­wal. The da­ta you en­te­red in the cont­act form shall be re­tai­ned by us un­til you re­quest that we de­le­te it, wi­th­draw your con­sent to tits sto­rage, or the re­ason for the da­ta sto­rage lap­ses (e.g. when the pro­ces­sing of your re­quest is com­ple­te). Man­da­to­ry sta­tu­to­ry pro­vi­si­ons – in par­ti­cu­lar re­ten­ti­on pe­ri­ods – re­main unaffected.

4. Ch­an­ges to the da­ta pro­tec­tion provisions

This da­ta pro­tec­tion de­cla­ra­ti­on is curr­ent­ly va­lid and was is­sued in Oc­to­ber 2020.

In or­der that we can in fu­ture con­ti­nue to gua­ran­tee the pro­tec­tion of your da­ta to the best of our abili­ty, we re­ser­ve the right to amend this da­ta pro­tec­tion de­cla­ra­ti­on in or­der that it might con­ti­nuous­ly com­ply wi­th cur­rent le­gal re­qui­re­ments, or wi­th a view to in­cor­po­ra­ting ch­an­ges to our ser­vices in­to the da­ta pro­tec­tion de­cla­ra­ti­on, e.g. in ca­se of the in­tro­duc­tion of new ser­vices. The new da­ta pro­tec­tion de­cla­ra­ti­on will then ap­p­ly for your next vi­sit. We the­r­e­fo­re re­com­mend that you re­gu­lar­ly con­sult our in­for­ma­ti­on and no­ti­ces re­gar­ding da­ta processing.

Is­sued: Oc­to­ber 2020