PRIVACY AND COOKIES POLICY

Last updated May 18, 2023

Thank you for choosing to be part of our community at german-stories.com (“Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). We are committed to protecting your personal information and your right to privacy. The purpose of this privacy and cookie police is to explain to you in the clearest way possible what information we collect, how we use it, and what rights you have in relation to it. If there are any terms in this privacy and cookie police that you do not agree with, please discontinue use of our Services immediately. Please read this privacy and cookie police carefully, as it will help you understand what we do with the information that we collect.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

2. WILL YOUR INFORMATION BE SHARED WITH ANYONE?

3. DO WE USE COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES?

4. HOW DO WE HANDLE YOUR SOCIAL LOGINS?

5. IS YOUR INFORMATION TRANSFERRED INTERNATIONALLY?

6. HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?

7. DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM MINORS?

8. WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?

9. CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURES

10. CHATBOT DATA COLLECTION AND COOKIES

11. DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE?

1. WHAT INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT?

We collect personal information that you provide to us.
We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when you register on the express an interest in obtaining information about us or our products and Services, when you participate in activities on the (such as by posting messages or entering competitions, contests or giveaways) or otherwise when you contact us.
The personal information that we collect depends on the context of your interactions with us, the choices you make and the products, services and features you use. All personal information that you provide to us must be true, complete and accurate, and you must notify us of any changes to such personal information.
Some information — such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address and/or browser and device characteristics — is collected automatically when you visit our website, or progressive web application.
We automatically collect certain information when you visit, use or navigate the Service. This information does not reveal your specific identity (like your name or contact information) but may include device and usage information, such as your IP address, browser and device characteristics, operating system, language preferences, referring URLs, device name, country, location, information about how and when you use our and other technical information. This information is primarily needed to maintain the security and operation of our Service, and for our internal analytics and reporting purposes.
Like many businesses, we also collect information through cookies and similar technologies.

2. WILL YOUR INFORMATION BE SHARED WITH ANYONE?

We only share information with your consent, to comply with laws, to provide you with services, to protect your rights, or to fulfill business obligations.
More specifically, we may need to process your data or share your personal information in the following situations:

• Business Transfers. We may share or transfer your information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business to another company.
• Affiliates. We may share your information with our affiliates, in which case we will require those affiliates to honor this privacy and cookie police. Affiliates include our parent company and any subsidiaries, joint venture partners or other companies that we control or that are under common control with us.
• Business Partners. We may share your information with our business partners to offer you certain products, services or promotions.
• Other Users. When you share personal information or otherwise interact with public areas of the, such personal information may be viewed by all users and may be publicly made available outside the in perpetuity. If you interact with other users of our and register for our through a social network (such as Facebook), your contacts on the social network will see your name, profile photo, and descriptions of your activity. Similarly, other users will be able to view descriptions of your activity, communicate with you within our, and view your profile.

3. DO WE USE COOKIES AND OTHER TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES?

We may use cookies and other tracking technologies to collect and store your information.
We may use cookies and similar tracking technologies (like web beacons and pixels) to access or store information. Specific information about how we use such technologies and how you can refuse certain cookies is set out in our Cookie Notice.

4. HOW DO WE HANDLE YOUR SOCIAL LOGINS?

If you choose to register or log in to our services using a social media account, we may have access to certain information about you.
Our offers you the ability to register and login using your third-party social media account details (including but not limited to your Facebook or Twitter logins). Where you choose to do this, we will receive certain profile information about you from your social media provider. The profile information we receive may vary depending on the social media provider concerned, but will often include your name, email address, friends list, profile picture as well as other information you choose to make public on such social media platform.
We will use the information we receive only for the purposes that are described in this privacy and cookie police or that are otherwise made clear to you on the relevant pages. Please note that we do not control, and are not responsible for, other uses of your personal information by your third-party social media provider. We recommend that you review their privacy and cookie police to understand how they collect, use and share your personal information, and how you can set your privacy preferences on their sites and apps.

5. IS YOUR INFORMATION TRANSFERRED INTERNATIONALLY?

We may transfer, store, and process your information in countries other than your own.
Our servers are located in the USA. If you are accessing our Service from outside, please be aware that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed by us in our facilities and by those third parties with whom we may share your personal information (see “WILL YOUR INFORMATION BE SHARED WITH ANYONE?” above), in and other countries.
If you are a resident in the European Economic Area (EEA) or United Kingdom (UK), then these countries may not necessarily have data protection laws or other similar laws as comprehensive as those in your country. We will however take all necessary measures to protect your personal information in accordance with this privacy and cookie police and applicable law.

6. HOW LONG DO WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION?

We keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this privacy and cookie police unless otherwise required by law.
We will only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy and cookie police, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as tax, accounting or other legal requirements).
When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymize such information, or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.

7. DO WE COLLECT INFORMATION FROM MINORS?

We do not knowingly collect data from or market to children under 18 years of age.
We do not knowingly solicit data from or market to children under 18 years of age. By using the Service, you represent that you are at least 18 or that you are the parent or guardian of such a minor and consent to such minor dependent’s use of the Service. If we learn that personal information from users less than 18 years of age has been collected, we will deactivate the account and take reasonable measures to promptly delete such data from our records.

8. WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS?

You may review, change, or terminate your account at any time.
If you are a resident in the EEA or UK and you believe we are unlawfully processing your personal information, you also have the right to complain to your local data protection supervisory authority. You can find their contact details here: https://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/bodies/authorities/index_en.htm.
If you are a resident in Switzerland, the contact details for the data protection authorities are available here: https://www.edoeb.admin.ch/edoeb/en/home.html.
If you would at any time like to review or change the information in your account or terminate your account, you can: Upon your request to terminate your account, we will deactivate or delete your account and information from our active databases. However, we may retain some information in our files to prevent fraud, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, enforce our Terms of Use and/or comply with applicable legal requirements.
Opting out of email marketing: You can unsubscribe from our marketing email list at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the emails that we send or by contacting us using the details provided below. You will then be removed from the marketing email list — however, we may still communicate with you, for example to send you service-related emails that are necessary for the administration and use of your account, to respond to service requests, or for other non-marketing purposes.

9. CONTROLS FOR DO-NOT-TRACK FEATURES

Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems and mobile applications include a Do-Not-Track (“DNT”) feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. At this stage no uniform technology standard for recognizing and implementing DNT signals has been finalized. As such, we do not currently respond to DNT browser signals or any other mechanism that automatically communicates your choice not to be tracked online. If a standard for online tracking is adopted that we must follow in the future, we will inform you about that practice in a revised version of this privacy and cookie police.

10. CHATBOT DATA COLLECTION AND COOKIES

Any chatbot on our website may collect and process certain user data, such as chat logs, IP addresses, or personally identifiable information. The collected data serves the purpose of providing personalized responses and improving functionality. On our servers, user data is stored securely and may be processed by third-party service providers involved in the chatbot's operation. However third-party service providers have their own privacy and cookie policy, as well as terms of service. We cannot influence them. You are solely responsible for the data you share any chatbot on our website. For more information about data collection, processing, and user rights, please refer to these terms of service (https://openai.com/policies/terms-of-use) and this privacy policy (https://openai.com/policies/privacy-policy).
Any chatbot on our website may use cookies or similar technologies to facilitate its operation. These cookies serve the purpose of session management and improving user experience. Types of cookies used include functional cookies and analytics cookies. Third-party cookies may be used. Users can manage or disable cookies through their browser settings or other mechanisms.

11. DO WE MAKE UPDATES TO THIS NOTICE?

Yes, we will update this notice as necessary to stay compliant with relevant laws.
We may update this privacy and cookie police from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated “Revised” date and the updated version will be effective as soon as it is accessible. If we make material changes to this privacy and cookie police, we may notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to review this privacy and cookie police frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.