Introduction and contact details of the controller
We are pleased that you are visiting our website and thank you for your interest. Below we inform you about how we handle your personal data when you use our website. Personal data means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person.
The controller responsible for data processing on this website within the meaning of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is:
The controller is the natural or legal person who alone or jointly with others determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data.
The controller has appointed a Data Protection Officer who can be reached as follows:
“Tobias Pleye, Westlandstraße 6, 49324 Melle, T: +49 5422 702-0, E: dsb@westland.eu”.
Data collection when visiting our website
If you use our website for information purposes only, i.e. if you do not register or otherwise transmit information to us, we only collect the data that your browser transmits to our server (so-called “server log files”). When you access our website, we collect the following data, which are technically necessary for us to display the website to you:
Website visited
Date and time of access
Amount of data transferred (bytes)
Referrer/URL from which you arrived on the page
Browser used
Operating system used
IP address used (where applicable, in anonymised form)
Processing is carried out pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR on the basis of our legitimate interests in improving the stability and functionality of our website. The data are neither passed on nor used in any other way. However, we reserve the right to subsequently check the server log files if there are concrete indications of unlawful use.
For security reasons and to protect the transmission of personal data and other confidential content (e.g. orders or enquiries to the controller), this website uses SSL or TLS encryption. You can recognise an encrypted connection by the character string “https://” and the lock symbol in your browser’s address bar.
Hosting & content delivery network
We use a provider to host our website and display site content. The provider renders its services itself or via selected sub-processors exclusively on servers located within the European Union. All data collected on our website are processed on these servers. We have concluded a data processing agreement with the provider to ensure the protection of our visitors’ data and to prohibit unauthorised disclosure to third parties.
Cookies
To make your visit to our website attractive and to enable the use of certain functions, we use cookies—small text files that are stored on your device. Some of these cookies are automatically deleted when you close your browser (so-called session cookies), while others remain on your device for a longer period and allow site preferences to be saved (so-called persistent cookies). In the latter case, you can find the storage period in your web browser’s cookie settings.
Where personal data are processed by cookies we use, such processing takes place pursuant to Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR for the performance of a contract, pursuant to Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR where you have given consent, or pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR to safeguard our legitimate interests in the best possible functionality of the website and a customer-friendly, effective site experience.
You can configure your browser to inform you about the setting of cookies and decide on their acceptance on a case-by-case basis, or to exclude the acceptance of cookies for specific cases or in general.
Please note that if you do not accept cookies, the functionality of our website may be limited.
Contacting us
When you contact us (e.g. via contact form or email), personal data are collected. Which data are collected when using a contact form can be seen from the respective contact form. These data are stored and used solely for the purpose of responding to your enquiry and the related technical administration.
The legal basis for processing these data is our legitimate interest in responding to your request pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. If your contact aims at the conclusion of a contract, the additional legal basis for processing is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR. Your data will be deleted once your enquiry has been fully handled, which is the case when the circumstances indicate that the matter has been conclusively clarified and provided that no statutory retention obligations apply.
Use of customer data for direct advertising
Subscription to our email newsletter
If you subscribe to our email newsletter, we will regularly send you information about our offers. The only mandatory information for sending the newsletter is your email address. Providing additional data is voluntary and is used to address you personally. We use the so-called double opt-in procedure for newsletter dispatch. This means that we will only send you an email newsletter after you have expressly confirmed that you consent to receiving newsletters. We will then send you a confirmation email asking you to confirm, by clicking a link, that you wish to receive the newsletter in future.
By activating the confirmation link, you give us your consent to use your personal data pursuant to Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. When you register for the newsletter, we store the IP address assigned by your Internet service provider (ISP) as well as the date and time of registration, in order to be able to trace possible misuse of your email address at a later date. The data collected by us during newsletter registration are used exclusively for the purposes of advertising communication via the newsletter. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time via the link provided for this purpose in the newsletter or by notifying the controller named above. After you have unsubscribed, your email address will be promptly deleted from our distribution list unless you have expressly consented to further use of your data or we reserve any further use of data that is permitted by law and about which we inform you in this notice.
Advertising by postal mail
On the basis of our legitimate interest in personalised direct advertising, we reserve the right to store your first and last name, your postal address and—where we have received these additional details from you in the context of the contractual relationship—your title, academic degree, year of birth and your professional, industry or business designation pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR and to use them for sending interesting offers and information about our products by postal mail.
You can object to the storage and use of your data for this purpose at any time by contacting us.
Web analytics services
Google Analytics 4
This website uses Google Analytics 4, a web analytics service provided by Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, 4 Barrow St, Dublin, D04 E5W5, Ireland (“Google”), which enables an analysis of your use of our website.
By default, when you visit the website, Google Analytics 4 sets cookies—small text modules stored on your device—that collect certain information. This information also includes your IP address, which, however, is truncated by Google by the last digits to exclude direct personal identification.
The information is transmitted to Google’s servers for further processing. Transfers to Google LLC located in the United States are also possible.
On our behalf, Google uses the information collected to evaluate your use of the website, compile reports on website activity for us and provide other services related to website and internet usage. The IP address transmitted by your browser within the scope of Google Analytics and truncated as described is not merged with other Google data. Data collected via Google Analytics 4 are stored for two months and then deleted.
All processing described above, in particular the setting of cookies on the device used, only takes place if you have given us your express consent pursuant to Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR.
Without your consent, Google Analytics 4 will not be used during your visit. You can withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future. To exercise your right of withdrawal, please deactivate this service via the “cookie consent tool” provided on the website.
We have concluded a data processing agreement with Google to ensure the protection of our site visitors’ data and to prohibit unauthorised disclosure to third parties.
Demographics: Google Analytics 4 uses the special “Demographics” feature and can create statistics providing statements about the age, gender and interests of site visitors. This is done through the analysis of advertising and information from third-party providers. This allows target groups for marketing activities to be identified. The data collected cannot be assigned to a specific person and are deleted after a storage period of two months.
Google Signals: As an extension to Google Analytics 4, Google Signals may be used on this website to generate cross-device reports. If you have activated personalised advertising and linked your devices to your Google account, then—subject to your consent to the use of Google Analytics pursuant to Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR—Google can analyse your usage behaviour across devices and create database models, including for cross-device conversions. We do not receive any personal data from Google, only statistics. If you wish to stop cross-device analysis, you can deactivate the “Personalised advertising” feature in your Google account settings. Please follow the instructions on this page: https://support.google.com/ads/answer/2662922?hl=en. Further information on Google Signals can be found here: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/7532985?hl=en.
User IDs: As an extension to Google Analytics 4, the “User IDs” feature may be used on this website. If you have consented to the use of Google Analytics 4 pursuant to Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, have created an account on this website and log in to this account on different devices, your activities, including conversions, can be analysed across devices.
For data transfers to the USA, the provider participates in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which—on the basis of an adequacy decision by the European Commission—ensures compliance with the European level of data protection.
Google Tag Manager
This website uses the “Google Tag Manager”, a service provided by: Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland (hereinafter “Google”).
Google Tag Manager provides a technical platform to bundle various web applications—including tracking and analytics services—and to calibrate, control and condition them via a unified user interface. Google Tag Manager itself does not store or read information on user devices, nor does it carry out independent data analyses. However, when a page is called up, your IP address is transmitted to Google and may be stored there. Transfers to servers of Google LLC in the USA are also possible.
This processing only takes place if you have given us your express consent pursuant to Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. Without such consent, Google Tag Manager will not be used during your visit. You can withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future. To exercise your withdrawal, please deactivate this service in the “cookie consent tool” provided on the website.
We have concluded a data processing agreement with the provider to ensure the protection of our visitors’ data and to prohibit unauthorised disclosure to third parties.
For data transfers to the USA, the provider participates in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which—on the basis of an adequacy decision by the European Commission—ensures compliance with the European level of data protection.
We use the CAPTCHA service of the following provider on this website: Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, 4 Barrow St, Dublin, D04 E5W5, Ireland.
Data may also be transferred to: Google LLC, USA. For the visual design of the CAPTCHA window, the provider uses “Google Fonts”, i.e. fonts loaded by Google from the internet. No processing of information other than the data already transmitted to Google via the functionality of reCAPTCHA takes place in this context.
The service checks whether an entry is made by a natural person or abusively through machine and automated processing, and blocks spam, DDoS attacks and similar automated malicious access. To ensure that an action is performed by a human and not by an automated bot, the provider collects the IP address of the device used, identification data of the browser and operating system used, and the date and duration of the visit, and transmits these to the provider’s servers for evaluation.
The legal basis is our legitimate interest in establishing individual responsibility on the internet and in preventing misuse and spam pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.
We have concluded a data processing agreement with the provider to ensure the protection of our visitors’ data and to prohibit unauthorised disclosure to third parties.
For data transfers to the USA, the provider participates in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, which—on the basis of an adequacy decision by the European Commission—ensures compliance with the European level of data protection.
Tools and miscellaneous
Cookie consent tool
This website uses a “cookie consent tool” to obtain valid user consents for cookies and cookie-based applications that require consent.
To manage the cookies and similar technologies used (tracking pixels, web beacons, etc.) and the related consents, we use the consent tool “Real Cookie Banner”. Details on how “Real Cookie Banner” works can be found at https://devowl.io/en/rcb/data-processing/.
The “cookie consent tool” is displayed to users upon page load as an interactive user interface on which consents for certain cookies and/or cookie-based applications can be granted by ticking boxes. Through the use of the tool, all cookie-based services requiring consent are only loaded if the respective user grants consent by ticking the relevant boxes. This ensures that such cookies are set on the user’s device only if consent has been given.
The tool sets technically necessary cookies to store your cookie preferences. Personal user data are generally not processed for this purpose.
If, in individual cases, personal data (such as the IP address) are processed for the purpose of storing, assigning or logging cookie settings, this processing is carried out pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR on the basis of our legitimate interest in a lawful, user-specific and user-friendly consent management for cookies and thus in a legally compliant design of our online presence.
An additional legal basis for processing is Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR. As the controller, we are under a legal obligation to make the use of non-essential cookies dependent on the respective user’s consent.
Where necessary, we have concluded a data processing agreement with the provider to ensure the protection of our visitors’ data and to prohibit unauthorised disclosure to third parties.
Further information about the operator and the settings of the cookie consent tool can be found directly in the corresponding user interface on our website.
Data subject rights
Under applicable data protection law, you have the following rights vis-à-vis the controller regarding the processing of your personal data (rights of access and intervention). The legal basis for exercising each right is indicated in brackets:
Right of access pursuant to Art. 15 GDPR;
Right to rectification pursuant to Art. 16 GDPR;
Right to erasure pursuant to Art. 17 GDPR;
Right to restriction of processing pursuant to Art. 18 GDPR;
Right to notification pursuant to Art. 19 GDPR;
Right to data portability pursuant to Art. 20 GDPR;
Right to withdraw consent given pursuant to Art. 7(3) GDPR;
Right to lodge a complaint pursuant to Art. 77 GDPR.
RIGHT TO OBJECT
WHERE WE PROCESS YOUR PERSONAL DATA ON THE BASIS OF OUR OVERRIDING LEGITIMATE INTERESTS WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF A BALANCING OF INTERESTS, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT AT ANY TIME, ON GROUNDS RELATING TO YOUR PARTICULAR SITUATION, TO OBJECT TO SUCH PROCESSING WITH EFFECT FOR THE FUTURE.
IF YOU EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT TO OBJECT, WE WILL CEASE PROCESSING THE DATA CONCERNED. FURTHER PROCESSING IS RESERVED, HOWEVER, IF WE CAN DEMONSTRATE COMPELLING LEGITIMATE GROUNDS FOR THE PROCESSING WHICH OVERRIDE YOUR INTERESTS, RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS, OR IF THE PROCESSING SERVES THE ESTABLISHMENT, EXERCISE OR DEFENCE OF LEGAL CLAIMS.
WHERE YOUR PERSONAL DATA ARE PROCESSED BY US FOR DIRECT MARKETING PURPOSES, YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO OBJECT AT ANY TIME TO THE PROCESSING OF PERSONAL DATA CONCERNING YOU FOR SUCH MARKETING. YOU MAY EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT TO OBJECT AS DESCRIBED ABOVE.
IF YOU EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT TO OBJECT, WE WILL CEASE PROCESSING THE DATA CONCERNED FOR DIRECT MARKETING PURPOSES.
Duration of storage of personal data
The duration of the storage of personal data is determined by the respective legal basis, the purpose of processing and—where applicable—additionally by the respective statutory retention period (e.g. commercial and tax law retention periods).
Where personal data are processed on the basis of express consent pursuant to Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, the data concerned are stored until you withdraw your consent.
If statutory retention periods exist for data that are processed within the scope of contractual or quasi-contractual obligations on the basis of Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR, these data will be routinely deleted after the retention periods have expired, provided they are no longer required for the performance of the contract or the initiation of a contract and/or there is no legitimate interest on our part in continued storage.
Where personal data are processed on the basis of Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, such data are stored until you exercise your right to object pursuant to Art. 21(1) GDPR, unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms, or the processing serves the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
Where personal data are processed for the purpose of direct marketing on the basis of Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, such data are stored until you exercise your right to object pursuant to Art. 21(2) GDPR.
Unless otherwise stated in the other information in this notice regarding specific processing situations, stored personal data are otherwise deleted when they are no longer necessary for the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed.
