FSM and eco operate the portal www.internet-beschwerdestelle.de as a partner project comprised of two independent hotlines, each with their own focus.

The protection of your personal data in this process is important. The following explanation gives you an overview of how we ensure this protection. In particular, we  would like to explain to you, as a visitor to our website, what kind of data we collect, why we collect this data, how we use this data, and how you can at any time determine the handling of your personal data.

a. Submitting a complaint

In conjunction with submitting a complaint you can transmit personal data (in particular name, email address, and postal address) directly to eco or the FSM, depending on whose focus your complaint falls into. Please note that the personal data of the person making the complaint will be processed electronically. 

b. Accessing the website www. internet-beschwerdestelle.de

In addition, eco, as administrator of the website, automatically collects and stores in its server log files information that your browser leaves with us during the visit to the website.

Among other things, the following are collected and analyzed: 

• The anonymized Internet-Protocol address – abbreviated to the last 3 digits – which connects your computer with the Internet.
  
• Information about the computer and Internet connection, like browser type, version and number, operating system, and platform used. 
  
• Your visitor history, which we sometimes merge with other similar information from other users and we represent in non-personally identifiable form in features like top content.

• Furthermore, we record the complete Uniform Resource Locator (URL) clickstream through and from our website, in anonymized form – i.e. the order of the pages on our internet presence that you access, including date and time, cookie or Flash-cookie number, the content that you looked at or that you searched for.  
  

• Time of the server request.
    

During your visit, we sometimes use JavaScript to collect and analyze information, including the length of time for the website to load, its flawed download, the length of a visit to a detail page, information on interactions between pages (e.g. scrolling, clicking, mouse-overs) and about leaving the page.

We cannot attribute all this data to a specific person. This data will not be merged with other data sources; in addition, after statistical and security-related analysis, the data will be deleted.

If you impart personal data to us in conjunction with submitting a complaint, we will handle this data confidentially. We only use your data for the processing of the complaint and, on principle, we do not forward this to third parties, other than in the cases described below: 

a. Forwarding to project partners 

In conjunction with submitting a complaint, you agree that eco and the FSM are within their right to forward your data in individual cases to the other project partner, if this is useful for the processing of your complaint. This case can arise in particular with complaints about the World Wide Web. 

b. Affiliated companies

In exceptional cases,  we forward your data to affiliated companies controlled by eco or the FSM, or affiliated companies can become aware of this (e.g. in conjunction with maintenance work), if these companies are either subject to this Privacy Policy or follow guidelines that provide at least an equal level of protection to this Privacy Policy.

c. Legally prescribed cases 

In addition to this, we disclose your personal data only in exceptional circumstance when we are legally obliged to or when the forwarding of such is required in order to protect our rights and those of third parties.

d. With your consent

In all other cases, we seek your permission if, in an individual case, forwarding of data should be necessary for the processing of the complaint. 

Our website uses Piwik, which is a web analytics service. Piwik uses “cookies”, text files that are saved on your computer and enable us to analyze your use of the website. For this purpose, user information generated through the cookie (including your abbreviated IP address) is transferred to our server and stored for the purpose of analyzing website usage, which supports our website optimization. Your IP address is immediately anonymized in this process, so that you remain anonymous to us as a user. The information generated through the cookie about your use of this website is not transferred to any third parties. You can prevent cookies from being used by activating the corresponding settings in your browser software; however, this may result in you not being able to make complete use of all functions on this website.

If you are not in agreement with the storage and analysis of data from your visit, you can refuse permission for the storage and analysis at any time by clicking on the button/link below. In this case, an opt-out cookie will be set in your browser, after which Piwik will collect no data from your sessions on this website. Please note: If you delete your cookies, this will also result in your opt-out cookie also being deleted, so that you will need to reactivate it.

Click here to deactivate tracking by Piwik.

You have the right at any time to information about any personal data stored by us, its origin and recipients of it, as well as the purpose of storage. In addition to this, you have the right to demand the deletion, blocking, or correction of your data at any time. Please direct your concerns, depending on the focus of your original complaint, to: 

• eco

  Mr. Ivo Ivanov, Data Protection Officer, email address: datenschutz@eco.de, or by post to our address: eco Association of the Internet Industry e.V., Lichtstrasse 43h, 50825 Cologne, Germany; Key word: “Data Protection” or by fax to the number +49 (0)221 - 70 00 48-111.

• FSM

By email to office(at)fsm.de or by post to our address: FSM - Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle Mulitimedia-Diensteanbieter e.V., Beuthstr. 6, 10117 Berlin, Germany, or by fax to the number +49 (0)30 - 24 04 84 59.

If you have questions that are not answered in this Privacy Policy, or if you want more detailed information about a specific point, please also contact the above-mentioned contact persons. 

Cologne, last updated: October 2016