Cookies are small text files, which contain information to recognise repeat visitors to a website. Cookies remain saved on your end device and do not cause any damage. They provide information on visits to a site and the number of users, for example. These “pockets of information” are required for several features on our pages to ensure that everything works as you, the user, expects it to.
Amongst other things, cookies help us to design our online offering in a user-friendly and tailor-made manner. They save settings, for example the selected language or data entered into a form. This ensures that you do not have to repeatedly enter data if information is required again. Cookies improve functionality, because we can present you with the results of a search entry distributed over several pages, for example. By analysing the cookies, we know which topics and areas are particularly popular. This ensures that we are able to improve our websites with your requirements in mind. You can find more information below.
Cookies are normally automatically accepted by web browsers. However, you are of course able to prevent the acceptance of cookies at any time via your browser settings. You can find out how to adjust the settings for your browser in this step-by-step guide created by the consumer advice centre, for example. If you prevent cookies from being used, this may result in limitations when using our internet offering – and most other websites for that matter.
You can find more information on individual cookies and other ways in which to prevent cookies from being used in the following sections.
Data protection is a highly complex and sensitive issue. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us via:
The majority of the cookies used by us are so called “session cookies”. These are automatically deleted once your browser session comes to an end.
We also use long-term cookies, which are mainly used so that we are able to permanently save the settings selected by you as a visitor to our website; this ensures that you do not have to select settings/enter data every time you visit the site.
For the possibility to object to data collection and storage via Gerolsteiner cookies, please see above under “How can I manage cookies?”. This can be done by adjusting your browser settings.
Cookies of other providers are also used on the website.
Contained in the following information on the cookies of other providers is a link, which you can use to declare your objection. In this context, an opt-out cookie will be used by the provider on your computer; this prevents further data from being collected. For as long as you wish to maintain your objection, you should not delete the opt-out cookie. If this cookie is subsequently deleted by you, you must complete the deactivation procedure again. You can also object to data collection and storage by using many other services via the link www.youronlinechoices.com/de/praferenzmanagement or at www.networkadvertising.org/choices/ (only available in English); this can be done at any time with effect for the future.
This website uses technologies provided by etracker GmbH (www.etracker.com) to collect and save data for marketing and optimisation purposes. A usage profile can be created from this data under a pseudonym. Cookies are used for this purpose. The data collected by means of etracker technologies will not be used to determine the personal identity of the website visitor or merged with personal data pertaining to the bearer of the pseudonym unless agreed to separately by the person concerned.
You may object to data collection and storage at any time with effect for the future via the following link: www.etracker.de/privacy.
If you do so, etracker will use an opt-out cookie on your computer, which prevents further data from being collected. This must not be deleted for as long as you want to object to the storage of data. If you delete this cookie, you must complete the deactivation procedure again.
You can also manage the use of cookies via your browser settings (see above).
This website uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service provided by Google Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses so-called “cookies” – text files, which are saved on your computer and which facilitate an analysis of your use of the website. The information generated by the cookie on your use of this website will generally be transmitted to a server of Google in the USA and stored there. We would like to point out that IP anonymization has been activated on this website, i.e. that Google shortens IP addresses within member states of the European Union or in other states which are party to the agreement on the European Economic Area before transmission to their servers. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a server of Google in the USA and shortened there. On behalf of the operator of this website, Google will use this information to evaluate your use of the website so that it can compile reports on website activities and provide other services to the website operator which are connected to website use and internet use. The IP address transmitted by your browser in the framework of Google Analytics will not be merged with other data of Google.
You can prevent cookies from being saved by appropriately adjusting the settings of your browser software; however, we would like to remind you that, if you do so, you may not be able to fully use all of the features of this website (see above). You can also prevent the data generated by the cookie and related to your use of the website (including your IP address) from being collected by Google and this data from being processed by Google by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available via the following link tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
As an alternative to the browser plug-in and for mobile end devices, you can prevent data from being collected by Google Analytics by clicking on the link below. It will use an opt-out cookie, which prevents your data from being collected in the future when you visit this website. For as long as you wish to maintain your objection, you should not delete the opt-out cookie. If this cookie is subsequently deleted by you, you must complete the deactivation procedure again.
You can find more detailed information about this at tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout or at www.google.com/intl/de/analytics/privacyoverview.html.
Usage-based online advertising – also known as targeting – allows advertising companies to identify the user when delivering advertising and aim it towards a target group. Using this information, it is possible to display more relevant advertisements to the user, which are customised to his/her supposed preferences and thus more interesting for him/her, on the websites that he/she visits. Usage-based advertising is done in three steps: data collection via so-called tracking pixels or cookies, storage and processing of log file information and eventual use of this information when readdressing the user through retargeting or lookalike retargeting. In the following section, we would like to explain these steps in slightly more detail.
Use of tracking pixels on the site: tracking pixels are small graphics on websites, which allow log files to be recorded and analysed; these are then used for statistical evaluations. When visiting the website, the tracking pixels write information into the cookie file in the browser of the user.
Storage of log file information in the cookie file: a cookie of our advertising partner is saved on your computer when visiting our site to record your user behaviour; this does not allow you to be personally identified. It is used and selected in order to show, optimise and evaluate the online advertising of our cooperation partners. Information, such as a clear visitor ID plus a UNIX timestamp with start and end times of the current session, surfing habits, visited subpages of the internet offerings and clicked advertising banners, is collected in these cookies. The user behaviour can be recorded by means of the saved visitor ID. All data is saved using a pseudonym, which ensures that it cannot be traced back to your person and thus personal identification is not possible without your consent.
Use of cookie information for retargeting and lookalike retargeting: the cookie with the appropriate information permits the recognition of the browser of the user and a corresponding readdressing to external websites – so-called retargeting. Advertisements of our offering can then be shown on the websites of partners of the advertising network of our cooperation partners; these will also be displayed to you. Information on visits to the websites on which our advertisements have been displayed, e.g. how frequently an advertisement has been seen, will then be collected and forwarded to us. Moreover, statistical twins of the original cookie profile can be identified and addressed on the basis of the accumulated cookie information. This is what we refer to as lookalike retargeting.
We use the Google AdWords Remarketing/“Similar Target Groups” technology of Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; “Google”). This function serves the purpose of displaying targeted product recommendations and interest-based advertisements to users of our website and other users with similar interests based on their online user behaviour if these users visit other websites in the Google Display network or conduct a Google search. If you then visit another website in the Google Display network, you will see advertisements, which will more than likely take previously accessed product ranges and information areas into consideration. If our advertisements are shown on these websites, we will receive information on visits to these websites, e.g. how frequently our advertisement has been seen, how many clicks and visits have been generated by a certain advertisement and which contents have been accessed on our website after a click on the advertisement. Google uses cookies when you visit a website in the Google Display network or use a certain Google service to carry out an analysis of website use, which forms the foundation of the preparation of interest-related advertisements. These cookies contain information on your last visit or settings of your browser, such as the selected language. The cookies serve the purpose of recording visits to the website by means of a clear identification of the web browser on a certain computer – and not an identification of the person. All data is saved using a pseudonym, which ensures that it cannot be traced back to your person and thus personal identification is not possible without your consent.
The information generated by the cookie on your use of this website (including your IP address) are then transmitted to a server of Google in the USA and stored there. The IP address will then be shortened by the last three figures by Google; this ensures that the IP address can no longer be clearly assigned. Google observes the data protection regulations of the “US Safe Harbor” agreement and is registered in the “Safe Harbor” programme of the US Ministry of Commerce. Google will use this information to evaluate your use of the website in order to compile reports on website activities for the website operators and to provide other services which are connected to website use and internet use. Google may also pass this information onto third parties if this is required by law or if third parties process this data on behalf of Google. Third-party providers, including Google, show advertisements on websites on the internet. Third-party providers, including Google, use saved cookies to show advertisements on the basis of previous visits of the user to this website. Google will associate your IP address with other data of Google under no circumstances.
See below for possibilities to object and other guidelines.
We also use Google Conversion Tracking, an analysis service provided by Google Inc. (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; “Google”). In the process, a cookie (“conversion cookie”) is used on your computer by Google Adwords if you have accessed our website via a Google advertisement. These cookies cease to be valid after 30 days and do not serve the purpose of personal identification. If you visit some of our sites and the cookie is not yet expired, both Google and we can see that somebody has clicked on the advertisement and has thus been forwarded to our site. All AdWords customers get a different cookie. Cookies can thus not be tracked by the websites of AdWords customers. The information collected by means of the conversion cookie serves the purpose of generating conversion statistics for AdWords customers who have made the decision to use conversion tracking. The AdWords customers learn the total number of users who have clicked on their advertisements and who have been forwarded to the correct site with a conversion tracking tag. However, they do not receive any information, which allows users to be personally identified. If you would prefer not to participate in the tracking procedure, you can also refuse the use of a cookie required for this – for example via browser settings, which generally deactivates the automatic use of cookies. You can also deactivate cookies for conversion tracking by setting your browser up in such a way that cookies from the domain “googleadservices.com” are blocked.
Objection: if you would prefer not to receive any interest-based advertising, you can deactivate the use of cookies by Google for these purposes by accessing the site www.google.com/ads/preferences/html/blocked-cookies.html or by clicking on the following link and downloading and installing the plug-in provided: www.google.com/settings/ads/plugin.
Users can also deactivate the use of cookies by third-party providers by accessing the deactivation site of the Network Advertising Initiative www.networkadvertising.org/choices/ (only available in English) and by following the more detailed information outlined there on opting-out.
We would like to point out that Google has its own data protection guidelines, which are independent from those we have. Before using our website, please find more information about the data protection regulations of Google at: www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy/.
You can also find more detailed information on Google Remarketing/“Similar Target Groups” at: support.google.com/adwords/answer/2676774 or www.google.com/policies/technologies/ads/.
The majority of our online services can be used without disclosing your identity or any personal information. However, should you decide to register for one of our personalized services (e.g. create a user account or order something in our online shops), leave us a message via our contact page, or want us to publish personal information on our website (e.g. your portrait taken at one of our events, your comments on blogs), we will ask you for your name, your e-mail address, residential address and/or other personal information. You are free to decide whether or not to give us this information. However, if you decide against it, we will not be able to provide you with the respective services. You will find specific information regarding the exact procedures as well as specific consent forms within the respective processes, and you are free to decide whether or not to consent to the use of this information.
In order to grant you access to your requested information on our website, it is necessary to temporary store certain data on our servers. This may include personal identification data (e.g. server log files, date, time, IP address and pages visited). This data is deleted immediately after the end of the session unless it is used for anonymous analysis.
IP logs are stored for security purposes (to prevent misuse), to optimise the website and for statistical purposes (number of users and page hits).
Personal data is only requested and processed when fulfilling a contract or for accounting purposes (e.g. when purchasing online). In such instances you will be alerted before the transaction is completed.
Furthermore, your data will not be processed and used for other purposes, only if legal precedent exists or unless you have explicitly agreed to it. Your data will not be processed without these conditions being met. You can revoke your consent from Gerolsteiner at any time with effect in the future. For this, please use the contact information below. In this case the service provided by Gerolsteiner may no longer be offered.
If you have registered for the Gerolsteiner newsletter, Gerolsteiner will use the data you submit (i.e. email address, selection of the required information) for sending the newsletter. We will first send you an email, to the email address submitted by you, asking you to confirm your email address via an embedded confirmation link. Once the confirmation link has been submitted, you will receive our newsletter. After registering for the newsletter, your e-mail address is will be used for sending information about Gerolsteiner's products and services, competitions or events, or news about our company, until you unsubscribe from our newsletter. Your data is not shared with third parties. If at any time, you no longer want to receive our newsletter, you can unsubscribe from the newsletter. To do this, just click on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of each of our newsletters. Subsequently, you will not receive any further newsletters from us.
Your personal data is only stored in our database and on our servers and at our data service provider’s servers and not shared with others, unless you are explicitly informed of - and consent to – the transfer of your personal data. If you have explicitly consented, (e.g. by ordering a subscription to Gerolsteiner WeinPlaces), your personal data maybe shared with promotional or advertising partners.
In certain cases due to legal requirements, we are obliged to transfer your personal data to third parties; for instance, we have to comply with requests from law enforcement agencies in the case of a suspected crime.
Our website contains hyperlinks to the websites of other companies. You can be forwarded directly from our website to the other company´s website. This is primarily noticed by the change in the URL. Furthermore, we embed third party content in some place within our websites, (e.g. videos from YouTube, RSS feeds or Google Maps (see below). So that this content can be accessed, it might be necessary for these third parties, for technical reasons, to know your IP address in order to make the content available. We take no responsibility for the privacy of your data in this case, since we have no influence on whether these companies adhere to our privacy policy. This privacy policy is only valid for our website. Links to other websites from this site are not included.
When you visit our Gerolsteiner Facebook Page, e.g. posting on our Facebook wall, liking us, writing us a message via Facebook or participating in our campaigns or competitions, we collect the personal data voluntarily given by you. We process this data only for the purpose for which you give us this data (e.g. answering a request or for processing the campaign or competition you entered). You can find further information about the respective campaigns and competitions in the conditions of participation provided with each program.
Facebook Inc., 601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA, also collects and processes personal data voluntarily given by you within the framework of your use of Gerolsteiner’s Facebook Page. We have no influence on the scope of data collected and processed by Facebook. Please refer to the respective Facebook data privacy policy for details about the purpose and scope of the data collected, processes used by Facebook and your respective rights and options: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy and https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/your-info-on-other
Our website uses so-called "social plugins" for the social networks Facebook, Google+ and Twitter, which are operated by the respective companies: Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA, Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA, and Twitter Inc., 795 Folsom St., Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA. These social plugins are identifiable by the logo of the respective social network.
You can recommend our sites easily to your friends in the social media platforms used by you by using three buttons for sharing content from Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. However, to respect your privacy, we have decided not to embed these buttons directly in the site, but to activate them by clicking on the individual social network. If we were to embed active buttons, your personal data would be automatically transferred to the operator of the respective third- party platform. Thus the operator would theoretically have the possibility to create surf profiles, at least of registered users of the respective platform. Therefore, our deactivated buttons do not establish direct contact with Facebook, Google or Twitter.
The buttons are active only after this function has deliberately been activated and you agree to allow data transfer. This activation is valid for the duration of your visit to our website. You can, however, deactivate the buttons at any time by clicking on "cancel".
If the buttons are activated, you can transfer your recommendation with one click on the respective social network button. If you are not logged in to Facebook, then you are prompted to login to Facebook in a new window and then have the option to submit your recommendation. If you already logged in to Facebook and Google+, you can submit your recommendation without opening another window. On Twitter, a pop up window first appears in which you can edit your Tweets.
Once you have clicked on these buttons, your browser makes and establishes a direct link to the servers of Facebook, Google and Twitter via these social plugins. Facebook, Google and Twitter transfer the content of the respective plugin directly to your browser, and each entity incorporates these into the websites visited. We have no influence of the scope of data collected in this way by Facebook, Google and Twitter. The social network operators receive the information that you have accessed from each site your visit. If at the same time you are logged into one of the social networks, the operator can assign corresponding access to your account in each respective social network. If you interact with the plugins, e.g. click the "Like" button or leave a comment, the relevant information will be a transferred to the respective social network. Even if you are not a member of one of the named social networks, it is possible that your IP address will be identified and, if necessary, saved via the social plugin. Please refer to the respective privacy policy for details about the purpose and scope of the data collected, processes used by Facebook, Google and Twitter and your respective rights and options.
http://www.facebook.com/policy.php
http://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy/
If you do not want social networks to collect data about you via our websites and link you to your respective member data, do not click on the social media buttons (as described above). In addition, you can block social plugins with the help of add-ons for your browser, for instance the Facebook plug in with the "Facebook Blocker".
This website uses Google Maps on some pages to display interactive maps and to create directions. Google Maps is a map service from Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California 94043, USA. By using Google Maps, information about the use of this website can be transferred to Google in the USA, including your IP address and the (starting) address you entered in the route planner.
If you visit a web page of our website that includes Google Maps, your browser directly connects to Google servers. The map will be transmitted from Google directly to your browser and then integrated into the website. We have no influence of the scope of data collected by Google in this way.
If you do not want Google to collect, process or use data about you from our website, you can deactivate JavaScript in your browser settings, however you will not be able to use the map function.
To learn more about how Google’s data collection, its further processing and the use of data, as well as your rights and your possibilities to configure your computer settings to secure your privacy, please visit Google privacy policies:
We use Typekit webfonts, a service of Adobe Systems Incorporated, 345 Park Ave, San Jose, CA 95110, USA. If you have activated JavaScript, your browser will download font files from the servers of Adobe Typekit and the provider has the opportunity to collect data about you. This could be, for instance, your IP address, date, time and the sites visited by you. Data is potentially transmitted to servers outside the EU. We have no influence of the scope of data collected in this way by Adobe Typekit. Find out more about Adobe's data privacy policy here:
Gerolsteiner will store your data only as long as permitted by German law.
Upon request, we will confirm with you what your personal data of yours, if any, is currently stored on our servers.
If your personal data we have stored on our servers is out-of-date or inaccurate, we will correct it promptly upon your request.
If requested, we will promptly delete your personal data, unless prohibited by law, and then we will block the respective data. Please note, in the case of deletion of your personal data we will no longer be able to offer our services, in whole or in part, on our websites.
In this case, please contact:
Gerolsteiner Brunnen GmbH & Co. KG Dr Gregor Scheja, Data Protection Officer Vulkanring 54567 Gerolstein Fax: + 49 (0) 1805-10 88 22 (international charges may apply)
The GeoLite 2 database is used on this website, which is provided by MaxMind Inc., 14 Spring Street, 3rd Floor, Waltham, MA 02451, USA. Used IP addresses, approximate location/geolocation data based on the country of origin, which originates from the IP address, is allocated to the GeoLite 2 database. Your country of origin is located using your IP address via GeoLite 2 database hosted by Gerolsteiner dev.maxmind.com/geoip/geoip2/geolite2. This software is used to 1) improve Gerolsteiner location search results, 2) provide you with the most appropriate information and 3) pre-set certain website configurations customised for you, all of which will make your visit to our site even more pertinent (e.g. language settings). No personal data is stored or shared with a third party provider.
Further information can be found at: https://www.maxmind.com/de/faq. You can retrieve information about data privacy here: http://dev.maxmind.com/geoip/legacy/geolite/.
If we collect your personal data, we save that data on a specially protected server. Access to this data is only given to a few authorised persons who are responsible for the technical, commercial or editorial maintenance of our servers.
To avoid the loss or abuse of the data stored on our servers, we take extensive technical and operational safety measures to ensure maximum security, all of which is regularly checked and upgraded in accordance with advances in technology.
We are always seeking to process your personal data by taking all technical and organisational possibilities in a way so that it is not accessible to third parties. We recommend using telephone or post to send confidential information. If you contact us e.g., using e-mail, social media or a messaging service, full data security cannot be guaranteed.
We would also like to point out that due to the structure of the internet, it is possible that the data privacy rules and the above mentioned safety measures are not observed by persons, companies or institutions outside our sphere of influence. Our online offer includes links to other websites. We have no influence over whether their operators take appropriate security measures. It is the responsibility of the use to protect data provided by him against misuse by encryption or in another way.
You have explicitly given the following consents as needed during the ordering process or other actions you conducted on our website. You can revoke your consent at any time with effect for the future.
I would like to be informed about Gerolsteiner news. My e-mail address will not be shared with other companies. I can cancel my subscription to newsletters, advertising or promotional e-mails at any time. To do this, please submit a request via post to Gerolsteiner Brunnen GmbH & Co. KG, Dr Gregor Scheja, Vulkanring, 54567 Gerolstein, Germany, or via fax: + 49 (0) 1805-10 88 22 (international phone charges may apply).
Yes, I agree that Gerolsteiner may use the personal data provided that I have provided for contacting me with advertising and/or promotional materials by post/mail, email and/or telephone. The data is subject to the privacy policy and will not be shared with third parties. I can cancel this consent to Gerolsteiner at any time without providing any reason.
If you have any other questions or suggestions regarding data privacy, please do not hesitate to contact us:
Gerolsteiner Brunnen GmbH & Co. KG
Dr Gregor Scheja,
Data Protection Officer