Privacy Policy

1. Contact data

This information applies to any processing of personal or business data carried out by the following responsible entity:

BIT Bierther GmbH (hereinafter referred to simply as “BIT”)

Dützhofer Str. 7

53913 Swisttal

Germany

Phone: +49 (0) 2254-96100

E-mail: info@bit-gmbh.de

BIT’s data protection officer (DPO) can be reached as follows:

dhpg IT-Services GmbH

c/o Mr. Christian Lenz

Bunsenstr. 10a

51647 Gummersbach

Germany

Phone: +49 (0) 2261-8195-0

E-mail: datenschutz@dhpg.de

2. Rights of data subjects

You have the right:

• to request immediate correction of inaccurate, incorrect or incomplete personal data stored by us, as per GDPR Article 16;

• to request, pursuant to GDPR Article 17, deletion of stored data inasmuch as such data is not necessary for exercising the right to freedom of expression and information, for complying with legal obligations as outlined in Section 3 Subsection b, for reasons of public interest as described in Section 3 Subsection c, or for the assertion, exercise or defense of legal claims;

• to receive personal data collected on you in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, pursuant to GDPR Article 20, or to exercise your right to data portability by requesting transmission of said data to a third party of your own choosing if processing is based on your consent or on a contractual agreement and if processing is performed in an automated fashion;

• to revoke at any time consent to having us process your personal data as per GDPR Article 7 Section 3, which effectively bars us from continuing any data processing based on your initial consent in the future; as well as

• to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority pursuant to GDPR Article 77 Section 1. As a general rule, you would usually address such a complaint to a supervisory authority at your place of residence or work or, alternatively, at the location of our headquarters.

3. Right to object

Pursuant to GDPR Article 21 Section 1, you shall have the right to object at any time to processing of your personal data based on legitimate interest, as outlined in GDPR Article 6 Section 1 Subsection f, on grounds relating to your particular situation. Pursuant to GDPR Article 21 Section 2, you may do the same in response to data processing for direct advertising or marketing purposes without the need to supply any further evidence of special circumstances applying to your own situation.

Should the former apply, we shall desist from processing your data any further unless we can document prevailing compelling reasons to the contrary or unless processing serves the assertion, exercise, or defense of legal claims.

Should the latter apply, the right to cancellation or objection requires no such special situation and can simply be exercised by sending an e-mail message to info@bit-gmbh.de.

4. Transfer of data

We shall not transmit or otherwise pass your personal data to third parties under any circumstances other than the ones listed below. Specifically, we may share your personal data with third parties:

• if you have given explicit consent for us to do so, as per GDPR Article 6 Section 1 Subsection a;

• if, pursuant to GDPR Article 6 Section 1 Subsection f, disclosure of such data is required for the assertion, exercise, or defense of legal claims, and if there is no apparent reason to assume a legitimate interest in not having the data disclosed;

• if transfer of data is required to comply with legal obligations, as laid out in GDPR Article 6 Section 1 Subsection c; or

• if admissible by law and if, pursuant to GDPR Article 6 Section 1 Subsection b, necessary for establishing, processing and executing contractual relationships with you.

In addition, employees at Order Management, by nature of their work, require access to your personal data for processing orders and other contractual agreements. This shall in no way constitute a right to personal use of such data by these employees.

5. Data protection and security

Throughout our website, we employ SSL (Secure Socket Layer), one of the most widespread communication protocols, in connection with data encryption at the highest grade supported by the browser you are using to connect to our website. These days, that typically means 256-bit encryption. Should your browser not support such encryption, 128.bit v3 technology is used instead. You can usually tell that an individual page on our website is transmitted in encrypted mode when a key or lock symbol is showing in locked state on the lower status bar of your browser.

What’s more, we always make certain to take organizational and technical safety measures in an attempt to ensure that your data are protected from incidental or intentional manipulation, partial or complete loss, destruction, or against unauthorized access by third parties. These measures are continuously upgraded and improved as available technology develops and evolves.

6. Data transfer to third countries

Data are transmitted to parties in third countries (countries outside the European Economic Area) in strict accordance with all pertinent legal provisions, specifically with GDPR Articles 44 to 50 which regulate when such transfer is permissible.

Should we transfer your data to parties in third countries, we shall issue special data protection information for the respective acts of data processing while also clearly citing legal provisions and regulations that apply specifically to such processing and transfer.

Data collection and storage information for data processing on our website

1. Visiting our website

When calling up our website at www.bit-gmbh.de, the Web browser you use on your terminal device automatically starts sending certain data and information to the web server on which our website runs. This happens for technical reasons as otherwise communication between the terminal device and the web server would be impossible. These data are temporarily stored in what is referred to as a “log file.” Specifically, the following information is automatically stored until auto-deleted:

• the IP address of the computer connecting to the website,

• date and time of access,

• name and URL of retrieved file(s),

• address of the website where a person clicked a link that sent them to our website (referrer URL),

• the Web browser used to contact our web server, and possibly the operating system run on the terminal device as well as the name of your Internet Access Provider (IAP).

The data listed above are processed by us exclusively:

• to guarantee smooth connection to our website,

• to ensure easy and convenient use of our website,

• to assess system security and stability, as well as

• for further administrative purposes.

Such legitimate commercial interest in data processing has its legal basis in GDPR Article 6 Section 1, specifically Subsection f. More specifically, our legitimate interest in this case is operation of our website in an effort to create a web presence for our company.

Your data are deleted as soon as they are no longer required for the designated purpose, no later than six months after collection.

2. Using our contact form “direct request / inquiry”

As a quick means of getting in touch with us directly, either to have a question answered or to launch a request with our sales team, an online contact form is available on our website.

Anybody using the contact form needs to enter their name and provide a valid e-mail address so that we know who launched the inquiry or query and how to contact them to respond. Other entries may be made at the user’s discretion.

All data for contacting purposes via the online form are processed, based on your voluntary consent, pursuant to GDPR Article 6 Section 1 Subsection a. Personal data collected from the contact form are automatically deleted once the inquiry or query has been answered.

By contrast, GDPR Article 6 Section 1 Subsection b applies if the contact form is used to launch requests for quotations or directly for purchase of our products or for solicitation of our services. In case of such contractual negotiations, your data will be stored in accordance with legal retention periods as mandated by German law.

3. Entering into a contractual agreement with BIT

When you enter into a contract with us, we store your master data and, if necessary, any additional data required to implement and execute the contract. Pursuant to GDPR Article 6 Section 1 Subsection b, data processing may proceed for as long as it is required to meet and satisfy any contractual obligations, goals and purposes. This usually comprises the entire duration of the contractual relationship.

After execution of the contract has concluded and after statutory periods for retaining business records (e.g., those mandated by the German Commercial Code) have elapsed, your data are deleted in the absence of any legitimate interest for retention as per GDPR Article 6 Section 1.

4. Cookies, analysis tools, plugins, and other third-party elements

As the name implies, analysis tools track and analyze use and consumer patterns of website visitors. Utilization of analysis tools is intended to help us design our website to best conform to both our customers’ and our own needs and preferences. This way, our website and marketing activities can be adjusted and optimized quickly and continuously.

By contrast, plugins and other third-party elements are employed to embed and integrate third-party content.

In an effort to optimize usability, we employ temporary cookies that are stored on your device for a specific period of time. The next time you visit our website to take advantage of our services, it will automatically recognize that you have already visited before. It will also remember previous browser activity such as the input you performed during previous sessions as well as stateful information such as your settings. This way, you don’t have to readjust or re-enter your settings every time you visit our website.

These data are deleted no later than six months after your visit.

As outlined in GDPR Article 6 Section 1 Subsection f, our legitimate interests in presenting our company on our website and in continuously improving its usability constitute a sufficient legal basis for processing data in such a fashion.

In subsequent sections, you can find more on the functionality, potential data recipients, data retention periods, and possible data transmission to third countries for each of our data processing activities involving third-party cookies, analysis tools, plugins, and third-party elements.

c) Google Tag Manager

Another service we use on our website is Google Tag Manager by Google Ireland Limited, based in Google Building Gordon House, Barrow St., Dublin 4, Republic of Ireland.

Google Tag Manager provides marketers like us with an easy-to-use interface for managing website tags. The Google Tag Manager tool used for generating and implementing tags is an online domain operating without cookies. As such, it cannot collect or track any personal data by itself. However, Google Tag Manager can be used to trigger other tags that might collect and process such data. Even in such a scenario, Google Tag Manager itself cannot be used to access such data. If set on the cookie or domain level, deactivation will persist for all tracking tags implemented by Google Tag Manager.

5. When using the Smartsupp chat

In case of questions of any kind, we offer you the possibility to contact us via the chat provided on the website.

Data processing for the purpose of contacting us is carried out in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. f DSGVO on the basis of our legitimate interest in providing customer support and answering your inquiries in a timely manner. The personal data collected by us for the use of the contact form will be automatically deleted after one year following the completion of your inquiry.

If your inquiry is aimed at the conclusion of a contract, Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. b) DSGVO serves as the legal basis. In this case, we store your data for the duration of the legal retention periods.

Insofar as you have expressly consented to the processing of your personal data via the Smartsupp chat, your consent serves as the legal basis for processing, in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 S. 1 lit. a GDPR as the legal basis for processing.

You have the option of saving the chat history by emailing yourself the transcript via the corresponding function in the chat window. The e-mail address you provide will not be used by us for any other purposes.

We use the tool of Smartsupp.com, s.r.o. (Šumavská 31, 602 00 Brno, Czech Republic). We have entered into an order processing agreement with the provider so that Smartsupp.com, s.r.o.. may only process your data according to our instructions and not for its own purposes.

The following technically necessary cookies are set by the tool:

ssupp.vid- visitor ID (expires in 6 months).

ssupp.visits- number of previous visits, necessary for tracking automatic messages (expires after 6 months).

6. Date of entry into force of the privacy policy and changes to it

This Privacy Policy and Statement take effect as of September 2023. Further development of our website or of the products and services we offer may require us to amend or modify this policy in the future. As may changes in legal and regulatory provisions. We also reserve the right to change its content at any time without prior notice.

The original version of our Privacy Policy is in German. Foreign-language versions of this Policy like this version are intended for information purposes only. In the event of any ambiguity, inconsistency, conflict or contradiction between the German version and any translation thereof, the German version and its wording shall prevail.

The current version of our Privacy Policy and Statement is available at all times for review and print-out on our website at https://www.bit-gmbh.de/en/privacy-policy/.