Cookie Policy - Website technology and cookie use

1. Analytics

Analytics refers to the process of collecting, processing, and analysing data to gain insights and make decisions. For us, it's like examining patterns and trends to better understand how our products and services are used by you. This insight allow us to make our products and services more user-friendly. It also enables us to identify areas for improvement and innovation in our products and services. Our websites integrate with analytics platforms (e.g., Adobe Analytics). These platforms provide JavaScript code that is added to the website. This code interacts with cookies or similar technologies to collect data when users interact with our website. As users navigate the website, the analytics code collects data from the cookies/pixels. This data we collect includes information on page views, clicks, time spent on pages, and other relevant metrics.

Analytics platforms aggregate the collected data, providing us with insights into user behaviour and website performance. This aggregated data is used for understanding audience demographics, popular content, and areas that may need improvement.

2. Marketing and Tracking (including Re-Marketing)

We may collect and use your personal data to send you relevant marketing communications. These communications could include product updates, promotional offers, and newsletters. You can easily manage your communication preferences and opt out if desired.

We also carry out digital marketing activities including retargeting. Retargeting, also known as remarketing, means showing targeting ads to users who have previously interacted with Our website or digital content but did not complete a desired action, such as making a purchase.

When a user visits our website and takes specific actions (e.g., views a product, adds an item to the cart), a tracking pixel or cookie is placed on their device. This allows us to show targeted ads to these users as they browse other websites or social media platforms, encouraging them to return to our website.

Please see Section below for more information on the providers including information about the specific usage and additional information on provider-specific data protection aspects.

3. Cookies and similar Technologies

When you visit our website cookies or a so-called pixel-code/web beacon as well as similar technologies can be used by us. These technologies will allow us to interact with your browsing device as follows:

• Cookies are small text files that are stored in a special memory area of your browser which enable us to identify you when you revisit our website.
• Web beacons are tiny graphic files that contain a unique identifier that allows us to recognize user activity such as how often you have visited our website.
• We may also use direct server side solutions and similar technologies to measure the usage of our websites as well as the reach of our advertisements.
• Cookies and similar technology may be used for a variety of reasons such as making the website work or show you personalized content and advertisement.

We use the following types of cookies on our website

• Functional Cookies and Technologies (necessary to make the website available, secure and work properly)
• Analytics Cookies/Similar Technologies
• Marketing Cookies/Similar Technologies
• Third Party Cookies/Similar Technologies

For more information on specific cookies and similar technology we use on a specific website please see the cookie banner/notice. Functional Cookies will be used by us even you decline other types of cookies, as these are necessary for the use of the websites. All other Cookies as well as similar technologies will only be used, if you accept the relevant category of cookie within the cookie banner/notice and you can modify this choice at any time.

4. Profiling (based on Permission)

We offer you the option to enable profiling, which allows us to personalize your experience and provide you with tailored content. We want to ensure transparency and give you control over how your personal data is used. Profiling involves the automated processing of your personal data to analyse and predict your characteristics, preferences, behaviour, or interests.

By enabling profiling, we can better understand your needs and deliver a more customized experience based on such information and to enhance your experience on our website. This includes personalizing recommendations, delivering targeted advertisements, and improving our services based on your preferences.

To create your profile, we may collect and analyse various types of data, such as your browsing history, search queries, location information, and demographic details. You can find a comprehensive list of the data categories we utilize if you agreed in profiling in Section below, located at the end of this document. Rest assured that we handle your data with utmost care and in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

Our profiling activities are based on your consent, which you can freely give or withdraw at any time. We also rely on our legitimate interests in providing you with a tailored and relevant experience. You have the right to control your data and profiling preferences. You can choose to enable or disable profiling through your account settings or privacy preferences. Additionally, you can exercise your data protection rights, including the right to access, rectify, or delete your personal data at any time.

We may share your data with trusted third parties for profiling purposes. However, we only do so with your explicit consent or when necessary to provide our services. We ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your data when shared with these parties.

Please see Section below for more information on the providers including information about the specific usage and additional information on provider-specific data protection aspects.

5. Cookie Handling, Tools and their providers

Once you have chosen which cookies you accept/decline, you can always revisit the privacy settings in the cookie banner/notice by clicking on the check mark located on the bottom left-hand side of our website and accommodate the changes. You also can delete the cookies set manually via the respective setting in your browser.

You can find a comprehensive list of the marketing and analytics tools we utilize in Section below, located at the end of this document. This section not only provides the names of the tools but also describes the type of data processing conducted by each respective tool or provider.

6. Our website(s) or mobile application uses a browser feature known as “cookies”. When you visit our website(s) or mobile application, our web server(s) will automatically record the following information:
(a) date of the access;
(b) time and length of the access;
(c) URL of the linking website or mobile application;
(d) name of your internet service provider;
(e) websites or mobile application you actually visit;
(f) files accessed;
(g) browser type and version;
(h) operating system;
(i) IP address (anonymised).

7. This information is collected via cookies and active components (e.g. JavaScript) which BSH uses to follow the preferences of our visitors and optimize our website(s) or mobile application accordingly. BSH does not attempt to identify you using this information.

8. You can reset your browser either to notify you when you receive a cookie, or to refuse to accept cookies. Please note that certain areas of most sites may not function properly if you reject a cookie. Some expire at the end of each session and some remain for longer so that when you return to our website(s) or mobile application, you will have a better user experience. We use cookies to personalise content we send to you and to make our marketing more relevant.

9. We also allow Facebook and/or Instagram and/or LINE and/or Google to use third party cookies on our website(s) or mobile application to target advertising to you when you visit our website(s) or mobile application and other social media accounts platforms.

10. To find out more about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set and how to manage and delete them, visit, www.allaboutcookies.org.

11. In order to help us design our website(s) or mobile application appropriately, we may collect usage data relating to your visit to our website(s) or mobile application using analytics cookies and other technologies. As part of this, we record the mouse movements and clicks of randomly selected users of our website(s) or mobile application. Your IP address is anonymised as a matter of course. The resultant log of your use of our website(s) or mobile application is randomly analysed so that we can derive potential improvements for our website(s) or mobile application.

12. List of the Third party providers and their use

(a) Facebook and Instagram including WhatsApp and Facebook messenger is provided by the following entities:

• for countries in the European region: Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, Merrion Road Dublin 4 D04 X2K5, Ireland
• for other countries: Meta Platforms, Inc., 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025,USA;
  http://www.facebook.com/policy.php;
  https://help.instagram.com/519522125107875

Meta is providing the following services:

• as social media provider
• providing chat functionality via WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger
• Facebook Pixels and Custom Audiences, where For Facebook Pixels and Custom Audiences, Facebook processes your data under a joint responsibility with us, in accordance with the contract we concluded with Facebook on our joint responsibility. We do not have access to your individual tracking data processed by Facebook as Facebook provides us with aggregated data only. We may share this aggregated data with third parties, e.g. cooperation partner for marketing purposes.The essence of this contract is available here: https://www.facebook.com/legal/controller_addendum.
• You can find information about Facebook ads and Facebook pixels with the following links:
  https://www.facebook.com/policy and https://www.facebook.com/business/help/651294705016616
• To permanently prevent the collection of usage data, please use the following link:
  https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies/
• As a registered Facebook user, you can also set what types of ads are displayed to you within Facebook, use the following link:
  https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=ads

(b) Adobe is providing several services which are used or can be used via our websites. These services are provided by Adobe Systems Software Ireland Ltd., 4-6 Riverwalk, Citywest Business Park, Dublin 24, Ireland ("Adobe”). You can find additional information about how Adobe Analytics cookies work and the opt-out option via the following link: http://www.adobe.com/privacy/opt-out.html.
We use the following services:

• for web analytics we use Adobe Audience Manager und Adobe Tracking being part of the Adobe Marketing Cloud: The information relating to your use of our website is transferred to Adobe servers, analyzed and solely returned to us as cumulative data. This data allows us to identify trends in how the website is generally used. We do not conflate the resultant usage profiles with your name or any other details that could disclose your identity, such as your e-mail address. The usage data is stored by the service used for a maximum duration of 37 months from the date on which it was collected.
• for A/B testing we use Adobe Test & Target: Adobe Test & Target works on the basis of A/B tests. This means that the person using our website is shown a different version of the website from the original (e.g. with altered design and content). Comparing both versions provides us with information about which version of our website is preferred by users. When Adobe Test & Target is used, the only information relating to you that is processed cannot be used to identify you. IP anonymisation is also activated, meaning that your IP address is shortened before Adobe Test & Target carries out any further processing. We do not conflate the usage profiles resulting from this with your name or any other details that could disclose your identity, such as your e-mail address. The usage data is stored by the service used for a maximum duration of 37 months from the date on which it was collected. You can also use the following link if you wish to prevent your usage data being collected: http://bsh.tt.omtrdc.net/optout.

(c) Google is providing several services which are used or can be used via our websites. These services are provided via several brands or tools, which we describe in more detail below. In general these services are provided by the following entities:

• for countries of the European Union (EU), the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland: Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland
• for other countries including UK: Google LLC (formerly Google Inc.), 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.

You can find general information on how personal data is processed when Google tools are used via the following link https://policies.google.com/privacy. Opt-out: To permanently prevent the collection of usage data, Google offers a plugin for various Internet browsers: http://www.google.com/settings/ads/plugin. To disable only interest-based ads, you can block the use of third party cookies or cookies from the "www.googleadservices.com" domain or disable interest-based ads using this link at https://support.google.com/ads/answer/2662922?hl=en-GB.

We are using the following Google tools in the following specific way:

• YouTube for the presentation of videos on our websites. If you declined the use of cookies via the cookie banner, you may be ask to consent separately for consent before the display of such videos on our website. Only if you consented, any possible data transfer will start.
• YouTube as social media provider, where we present videos on different YouTube Channels. Please see the privacy information stated above when using such channels.
• Google reCAPTCHA: In order to protect your website interactions, such as logins or registrations, it performs risk assessments on website users, we use Google reCAPTCHA for these purposes. These assessments use cookies and collect personal information. However, Google may only set cookies and use personal information with users' prior consent, which can be given via the Cookie Layer.
• Google Maps as service for location and mapping services, whereby only such data is used, you provide in using that service. A proximate location is used to show e.g. partners near your location or verify the postal code for service requests.
• Google GA4 Technology is used by us (only if you gave your cookie consent), to implement server side tracking as similar technology to cookies. In using that tool, we do not send usage data or similar data to Google, but use the tool to send information of the website use to our servers. This data is processed by us and does not allow any individual identification of you or your device, you use the website/service from.
• Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a tool used by us enabling us to manage and deploy marketing tags on websites without code modification. Tags include analytics and tracking codes, providing insights into website performance and user behaviour. While GTM itself doesn't set cookies, tags deployed through it may use cookies for tracking.
• Google Ads & Remarketing
  We use online marketing tools from Google on our own responsibility. The cookies used in this service generally lose their validity after 30 days and are not intended to identify you personally. Google merely provides us with statistical evaluations. Google processes your information in accordance with Google's data usage policy.
  
  Opt-out: To permanently prevent the collection of usage data, Google offers a plugin for various Internet browsers: http://www.google.com/settings/ads/plugin.
  
  To disable interest-based ads, you can block the use of third party cookies or cookies from the "www.googleadservices.com" domain or disable interest-based ads using this link at https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated?hl=en_GB
  
  Interest ads can also be deactivated via the link http://www.aboutads.info/choices if the provider has joined the self-regulatory campaign "About Ads".
• Google Ad Server
  We use online marketing tool (formerly DoubleClick) of Google. The usage data will be deleted after 540 days from the time of collection. For more information about DoubleClick,
  
  please visit https://support.google.com/admanager/answer/6022000?hl=en,
  
  We use online marketing tools from Google on our own responsibility. To this end, we have agreed with Google in a data protection agreement that our customers' data may only be processed on the basis of our instructions, may not be passed on to third parties and must be sufficiently technically protected.

13. We use Mouseflow to improve our website and the services it offers. Mouseflow is provided by Mouseflow ApS, Flaesketorvet 68, 1711 Copenhagen, Denmark. On our websites we record the mouse movements and clicks of randomly selected users of our website, whereas your IP address is anonymized. We do not conflate the resultant usage profiles with your name or any other details that could disclose your identity, such as your e-mail address.. The usage data is deleted three months after the date on which it is collected. Opt-out: Please use Mouseflow's opt-out website via the following link if you wish to prevent this usage data being collected: https://mouseflow.com/opt-out/

14. Our website(s) or mobile application may also use other web analytics tools and technologies to facilitate the purchase of our products you wish to buy including by connecting you to products available on authorised dealers/distributors/retailers/representatives website(s) or mobile application (including through their online platforms/marketplaces) and to understand your purchasing and other activities on our authorised dealers/distributors/retailers/representatives website(s) or mobile application (including through their online platforms/marketplaces), in connection with our products and services.

15. Our website(s) or mobile application may include links to other websites or other mobile application which are not covered by this Privacy Policy and for which BSH has no responsibility. Further we shall not be held responsible for any data entry errors caused by registration or transmission of your personal information provided by you.