Privacy statement

 

When you visit our website, we want to provide you with the best possible service, with relevant content that meets your needs. We want to provide you with the right information before and after your visit. To ensure you’re always well-informed, we sometimes collect your data. It’s important to us that you know we handle your data with care. Therefore, in this privacy statement, we explain why and how we process your personal data.

 

  • Who are we?
    The Category & Trade Company

 

  • What personal data do we process?
    We may collect and process the following categories of personal data.
    • Name and other identifying information
      We may collect, for example, your name, gender, date of birth, race, IP address, nationality, and the country in which you reside.
    • Your data
      Your personal data is used for account management, payments, and registration, including contact details such as address, phone number, and email address. When registering for a service, subscription, or account, we also collect login information and other form information. When making appointments, registrations, comments, or purchases, we process your data such as name, address, phone number, email address, purchase amount, and date of contact. We may also use your IP address and browser user agent string to help detect spam. Any additional services, products, and support you purchase are also processed. We may provide an anonymized string of your email address to the Gravatar service to monitor usage. Your profile picture can be publicly visible in comments after approval. More information about Gravatar ’s privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/ . If you have an account on this site, or have left comments, you can request the deletion of any personal data we hold about you, except for what we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
    • Our communication with you
      If you send us an email or chat with us via social media, Leadbot widget or online, we record this communication.
    • Information we collect when you use our websites, apps, and other digital media
      When you visit our websites or use our apps, we collect your IP address, browser type, operating system, referring website, browsing behavior, and app usage. We may receive automatic notifications when you open newsletters or click on links within them. With your consent, we may also receive your location data and access certain data on your mobile phone and/or other devices. See below for more information about cookies.
    • Information we collect when you use the app:
      When you use the app, we specifically ask for your permission to share your location and to send (push) notifications. These push notifications may contain both commercial and service messages. We also collect information about app usage and anonymized user data. This information is analyzed and used to improve the app.
    • Social media
      information Depending on your social network settings, we may receive information from your social network provider . For example, if you can log in to our services with a social network account (e.g., Facebook or Instagram), we may receive your social network profile, including contact details, interests, and contacts. More information about the personal data we receive from your social network provider and how to change your settings can be found on the website and in the privacy policy of your social network provider.
    • Information you share with us
      You can choose to share information with us, for example, when you respond to us on Facebook, complete a customer survey or register for a promotion.
    • Media
      When you upload images to the website, you should ensure images are not embedded with location data (EXIF GPS) included in the images. Visitors to the website can download and extract any location data from images on the website. The images you upload will be stored and associated with your account and/or other services.
    • Important information about media and errors.
      We strive to display the actual product and intended prices on our website as accurately as possible. Any errors that arise and are recognizable as programming or typographical errors never constitute grounds for a claim for delivery. Despite our efforts to keep the website as up-to-date as possible, we cannot accept liability for any incomplete or inaccurate information on the website. We reserve the right to change, remove, or repost these materials without prior notice. We accept no liability for any information contained on websites to which we refer via hyperlinks.

 

  • Cookies and similar technologies
    We and third parties use cookies (and similar technologies) to analyze the website, make it more user-friendly and to show you relevant offers on and off the website.
    • What are cookies?
      Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer, tablet, or phone. We use the term “cookies” for convenience as an umbrella term; this includes cookies, web beacons , and JavaScript . Cookies are automatically deleted from your device. This means that some cookies are deleted at the end of your browsing session, while others are stored for short or long periods of time.

      Our cookies can be divided into three types:

      • Essential and functional cookies
        These are essential for basic functions such as page navigation and logging in to the website. Without these cookies the website will not function properly. They also remember your preferences, such as language or region settings, to provide you with a personalized experience.
      • Statistical cookies
        These cookies help us understand how our website is used. We process the information collected using these cookies anonymously.
      • Marketing cookies:
        These cookies allow us to provide relevant and personalized offers based on visitor and click behavior through various channels, including third-party websites.

        Furthermore, cookies may be placed by third parties when you visit our website. These cookies are placed by third parties because we use embedding on our website, for example.

    • Essential and functional cookies
      These cookies are essential for the proper functioning of the website/app and are always set. You cannot refuse your consent to these cookies. In addition, when you leave a comment or log in to our site, you may choose to save your name, email address and website in cookies for your convenience. This way you don’t have to fill in your information again when you leave another comment. These cookies are stored for one year. When you log in, several cookies will also be set to remember your login information and your screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year. If you select the “Remember Me” option, your login session will persist for two weeks. Logging out of your account will remove the login cookies.
    • Statistical cookies
      This website uses Google Analytics to collect anonymized data about surfing behavior. This allows us to see how visitors like you use the website. We use this information to make informed decisions about the design of our website. We also use it to optimize the website’s operation. In addition, we use the Enhanced Conversions function to improve the accuracy of measurements. We use these functional cookies ( including for security, fraud prevention, and error tracking) and (limited) analytical cookies (to measure usage). These cookies are necessary for the website/app to function properly and are always placed. It is not possible to refuse your consent for these cookies. If you do not want your anonymized data to be sent to Analytics, you can use the Google Analytics Opt -out Browser Add-on . The add-on prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript code (ga.js, analytics.js, and dc.js) running on websites from sharing information about visitor activity with Google Analytics.
    • Marketing cookies
      We also use advertising and behavioral cookies (mainly to personalize advertisements and content). You can refuse your consent for these cookies. If you consent to this category of cookies, the personal data we collect using these cookies will be processed in accordance with the provisions of this privacy statement. For these cookies, collected by both external platforms/parties such as Meta and other lead generation and/or optimization tools, we refer you to the statements that these parties provide on their own websites. Please note that these statements may change regularly. We have no influence on this and are not responsible for the actions of these parties. You can change your cookie consent at any time via the Leadbot widget.
    • Embedded content from other websites
      Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website. These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.
    • Cookie lifespan:
      Some cookies are automatically deleted when you close your browser. Other cookies, however, remain stored for longer and can be read the next time you use the services. For third-party cookies, please refer to the cookie statements that these parties provide on their own websites.
    • Cookie consent
      When you accept the cookie consent “Accept”, “Only necessary” or when setting personal preferences, Necessary, Preference and Statistical cookies are automatically activated. These cookies are essential for the proper functioning of the website/app and are always placed. You cannot refuse your consent for these cookies. If you prefer not to send anonymized data to Analytics, you can use the Google Analytics Opt -out Browser Add-on to prevent this. For the Marketing cookies, you have the choice to turn them on or off. You can adjust your cookie consent for Marketing cookies at any time via the Leadbot widget ( click here to adjust cookies ).

 

  • Why do we process this personal data?
    We process personal data for the following purposes.
    • To provide our services,
      we need to process most of the information described above to handle your subscriptions and products, and to offer you purchases. For example, we need your contact information.
    • To provide our online services and mobile apps,
      some of our online services and apps use your location, for example, to show you the nearest point of interest. We also simplify the use of our online services or apps by analyzing the data we collect about your use of our digital media and combining it with information collected through cookies and similar technologies (see above). This way, we can determine, for example, which digital channel (email, social media) or device (desktop, tablet, or mobile phone) you prefer, so we can tailor our communications accordingly.
    • To communicate with you
      We use your contact details to communicate with you, answer questions or handle complaints.
    • For statistical research
      We use automatic tools to conduct statistical research into general trends in the use of our services, websites, apps and social media, and into the behavior and preferences of our customers and users. To conduct our research, we may aggregate and analyze different types of data, as described above. We use only aggregated data and do not use names, email addresses or other directly identifying information. We may also combine such aggregated data with information we obtain from public sources. We will not use sensitive data for this statistical research without your consent. Statistical research helps us develop better services, products, features and offers, provide more accessible customer service, and improve the design and content of our websites and mobile apps.
    • For direct marketing purposes:
      We use your personal information to send and display newsletters, offers, and other personalized marketing messages. To determine what’s relevant to you, we use automated tools to analyze your personal information. We may use and combine the information described above in this process. The results of our analyses, along with those of third parties, are used to tailor our marketing messages to your specific interests and preferences.
    • For personalized ads within other media
      We may participate in Meta Custom Audience programs or other similar programs from other advertisers. In such cases, we share your email address or another way to identify you. This allows the advertiser to show you a personalized ad instead of a generic one.

 

  • How long do we retain your data?
    Your personal data will be retained for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this privacy statement, or as necessary to comply with administrative, legal, and regulatory requirements, and to resolve disputes.

 

  • Disclosure or sharing of data with third parties
    We may disclose or share your personal data with third parties for the following purposes.
    • For the support services we provide
      To provide our services, we use third parties, such as IT suppliers, social network providers, marketing agencies, payment providers and credit card companies.
    • To allow you to benefit from the services of our partners
      We may share your information with partners to allow you to benefit from their services if we integrate or offer these services within our own services and apps. While we carefully select our partners, they have their own privacy statements regarding how they use your personal data.
    • Account
      If you request a password reset, your IP address will be included in the reset email. If you leave a comment, the comment and its metadata are retained indefinitely. This is so we can recognize and approve any follow-up comments automatically instead of holding them in a moderation queue. For users that register on our website (if any), we also store the personal information they provide in their user profile. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit that information. You can also request that we erase any personal data we hold about you. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
    • Spam detections
      Comments, form submissions and visitor contact moments may be checked through an automated spam detection service.
    • Third-party websites
      Our website and mobile apps may contain links to third-party websites. If you follow these links, you will leave our website or mobile apps. This privacy statement does not apply to third-party websites. We accept no liability for the use of your personal data by these third parties. Your use of these websites is at your own risk. For more information about how these third parties handle your personal data, please refer to their privacy statements.

 

  • Automated decision-making:
    When purchasing a subscription, automated decision-making may occur. For example, when subscribing online, entering a date of birth leads to automated decisions.

 

  • Your rights.
    Do you want to view or improve your data? You can edit your personal data and view your recent purchases through your account with us or with a third party, such as a
    payment provider. Do you want to delete your account? Then send us your email address, and we will ensure that all data linked to that email address is deleted. Do you only want to unsubscribe from the newsletter? You can do so via the unsubscribe link at the bottom of every email.