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Privacy & Cookies Policy

FRANKE Holding AG and its affiliated companies (together herein referred to as "FRANKE", the "Company", "we", or "us") are firmly committed to protecting your privacy. FRANKE appreciates your interest in its products and your visit to this website or using our webservices. Your privacy is important to us and we want you to feel comfortable visiting our website. Personal data collected during visits to our websites is processed by us according to the legal provisions. With this privacy & cookie policy ("Privacy Policy"), we would like to inform you also about the personal data and cookies we are collecting, the purpose, the security measures and how you can exercise your rights. Please click on the relevant section heading below if you like to have more information or expand all:

Controller under relevant data protection rules and regulations is the respective Franke company published in the imprint of the website. The controller may transfer your personal information to our affiliates, or third-party service providers (“data processors”) for servicing, processing, storage or other purposes that facilitate our business operations. We use contractual or other appropriate means to require data processors acting on our behalf to maintain a level of privacy protection comparable to our own practices and as requested by applicable laws.

Personal Data is any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person; identifiable is any natural person who can be identified directly or indirectly, in particular by association with an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or one or more special features that express the physical, physiological, genetic, psychological, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person. This includes information such as your first and last name, your address and email address, your telephone number or your birthday. Personal Data can be in any form (e.g., paper, electronic, video, audio). FRANKE is committed to take necessary steps to ensure that all Personal Data processed by us is processed fairly and lawfully. All of our employees, data processors and third party service providers who have access to Personal Data are obliged to respect the confidentiality of Personal Data and comply with this Privacy Policy. We collect personal data only when you submit it to us, through registration, completion of forms or e-mails, as part of an order for products or services, inquiries or requests about products being ordered and similar situations in which you have chosen to provide the information to us.
The database and its contents remain at FRANKE or stay with data processors and servers acting on our behalf and responsible to us.
We will retain control of and responsibility for the use of any personal data you disclose to us. Some of this data may be stored or processed on computers located in other jurisdictions whose data protection laws may differ from the jurisdiction in which you live. In such cases, we ensure that appropriate protections are in place to require the data processor in that country to maintain protections on the data that are equivalent to those that apply in the country in which you live.

You are not required to provide personal information as a condition of using our website, except as may be necessary to provide you a product or service or communicate with our website at your request. You can opt-in to provide us additional information helping us to improve our services. Your personal information may be processed worldwide.

The following explains how we collect, process and use your personal data on our website:

Data when visiting our website

When you use our website, data is processed in order for you to be able to communicate with our website or for security purposes, such as preventing improper access, trouble shooting or testing. Data we collect may include the name of your internet service provider, the website that you used to link to our website, the date and time of your visit, the websites that you visit from our website and your IP-address. This processing is necessary for providing our services or is based on our legitimate interest in the handling of communication. We assume that this is also in your interest, as the website cannot be displayed without this communication. You can object to the processing of your data for this purpose at any time without giving reasons with effect for the future. However, we would like to point out that the processing of your personal data can be processed even after an objection has been raised to the website, as it is not possible to stop the processing necessary for technical reasons for individual users of the website or in general. Thus, there are compelling grounds for processing which outweigh your interests, rights and freedoms. If you wish to prevent the processing described above, simply refrain from visiting our website. Such data is deleted after a session, or times outlined in the section “Use of Cookies”, unless a security incident requires longer storage for investigation of documentation purposes.

Data for setting up a customer account

If you set up a customer account on our website, the personal data you provide (e.g. name, address, e-mail address, telephone, title and access data) will be stored and processed in FRANKE`s customer database. This data is processed in order to fulfil a contract or to set-up a service. You can deactivate your customer account at any time and/or object to the further storage and use of your personal data for this purpose without giving reasons with effect for the future by contacting the contact address given below. In the event of an objection, we will delete your personal data immediately. In case of deactivation of the customer account we will also delete your customer account.

Contact via contact form or email

If you contact us (e.g. via contact form or email), your personal data that you provide us in the contact form will be stored and processed by FRANKE.  This data is stored and used exclusively for the answering of your request and/or for the establishment of contact and the associated technical administration. The processing of this data takes place for the fulfilment of a contract or the performance of pre-contractual measures or the processing is also based on legitimate interest, without conflicting interests outweighing your interests in this respect, since the processing of these requests is in our mutual interest. We may also use third party services to verify legitimate users to avoid spam via our web contact forms as our legitimate interest (refer to section “Use of Cookies” – “Google reCAPTCHA”).

After the processing of the request has been completed, we will keep the correspondence only insofar as statutory, legal retention periods or statutes of limitation exist or further storage is required to assert, exercise or defend legal claims.

Newsletter registration sign-up data

If you register for our newsletter service, your personal data (e.g. name, address and email address) will be stored and processed by FRANKE for marketing, advertising or promoting purposes. The processing of this data is based on your consent or takes place for the fulfilment of the contract. In this case, we will regularly send you promotional information about the services and products associated with products, services, offers or events of FRANKE. You can opt-out of receiving such newsletters at any time without giving reasons for the future by contacting the contact address below or by unsubscribing via the unsubscribe option provided in the newsletter. Once you have unsubscribed, your email address will be deleted from our newsletter distribution list immediately, with exception of a copy in our opt-out database for which we assume a legitimate interest to hold so we can ensure you are no longer served with newsletters.

User surveys

Participation in the user surveys conducted from time to time on our website is voluntary. We use functional cookies to carry out the user surveys. The technical information recorded by the user survey is the same information that is recorded when users visit the website (see above). Your responses submitted during the user survey will not be linked to your personal data such as your IP-address.

Disclosure to third Parties

We may disclose your personal information to third parties in order to enforce or apply this Privacy Policy and other agreements or to protect the rights, property, or safety of FRANKE our customers, or others. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction or with a payment gateway offered by a banking institute in our online-shop, to process payments for ordered products. We also may provide personal data to government agencies and regulatory and legal authorities as required by law or regulation. This kind of disclosure may be required for compliance with a legal obligation, or necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or may be based on our or a third party's legitimate interest. In the latter case you have a right to object to such use, however, we may then still process the data if we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, rights and freedoms; or in case this is required for the establishment, exercise of defense of legal claims.

No Sale your personal Data

Except as otherwise set forth in this Privacy Policy or other data protection statements applicable in specific circumstances, we do not sell, trade, license or rent your personal data with any third parties outside of Franke.

Children's Information

Another part of our priority is adding protection for children while using the internet. We encourage parents and guardians to observe, participate in, and/or monitor and guide their online activity.

Franke Group does not knowingly collect any Personal Identifiable Information from children. If you think that your child provided this kind of information on our website, we strongly encourage you to contact us immediately and we will do our best efforts to promptly remove such information from our records.

Your choices about Cookies or similar Technologies

Most web browsers are set by default to accept functional cookies. If you do not wish to receive optional cookies, you may set your browser to refuse all or some types of cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent by website technologies. These settings may affect your enjoyment of the full functionality of the Sites. In addition, adjusting the cookie settings may not fully delete all of the cookies that have already been created. To delete them, visit your web browser settings after you have changed your cookie settings.

For more information about how to modify your browser settings to block or filter cookies, visit https://www.aboutcookies.org/ or follow the instructions of the technology providers:

 

USE OF ADOBE ANALYTICS

Our website uses Adobe Analytics, a web analysis service of Adobe Inc, 345 Park Avenue San Jose, CA. "). Adobe Analytics uses Cookies (see above) which are stored on your computer and enable an analysis of the use of the website. The information collected by Adobe in connection with your use of our website (e.g. the referring website, which of our webpages you visit, your browser type, your language settings, your operating system, your screen resolution) will be transmitted to a server of Adobe in the United States, where it will be stored for a data storage period of fifty months and analyzed; the respective results will then be made available to us in an anonymized form. In this process, your usage data will not be connected to your full IP-address. We have activated on our website the IP anonymizing function offered by Adobe, so that the last 8 bits (type IPv4) or the last 80 bits (type IPv6) of your IP-address are deleted. If you would like to opt out of having your data used by Adobe Analytics, you can use Adobe’s opt-out tool, available here: http://www.adobe.com/privacy/opt-out.html.

 

USE OF GOOGLE ANALYTICS

Our website uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service of Google Inc, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA ("Google"). Google Analytics uses Cookies (see above) which are stored on your computer and enable an analysis of the use of the website. The information collected by Google in connection with your use of our website (e.g. the referring website, which of our webpages you visit, your browser type, your language settings, your operating system, your screen resolution) will be transmitted to a server of Google in the United States, where it will be stored for a data storage period of fifty months and analyzed; the respective results will then be made available to us in an anonymized form. In this process, your usage data will not be connected to your full IP-address. We have activated on our website the IP anonymizing function offered by Google, so that the last 8 bits (type IPv4) or the last 80 bits (type IPv6) of your IP-address are deleted.
We only use Google Analytics on the basis of your prior consent or our legitimate interest to provide you with a personalized website experience. We believe that it is also in your interest to receive interesting and unique advertisements. Thus, there are compelling grounds for processing which outweigh your interests, rights and freedoms. Below, we describe how you can withdraw your consent to Google Analytics:
You may withdraw your consent to the use of web analysis at any time either by using the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on, whereby an opt-out cookie will be set or by choosing the relevant setting in your browser software. Both options will prevent the use of web analysis only if you use the browser on which you installed the plugin and if you do not delete the opt-out Cookie.
For more information, please visit Googles Privacy Disclosure Policy site.

 

DOUBLECLICK (ADS) BY GOOGLE

In order to deliver target-group-specific advertising, we use the advertising network of DoubleClick by Google, which collects and evaluates information on visits to our websites and to other websites forming part of the advertising network via its cookies. In this context no personal data about you, such as your name, address or email address, will be collected or used. The cookies used by DoubleClick contain only the name of the domain by which the cookie was set (ad.doubleclick.net), the cookie's default expiration time, and the value standing for certain target groups. If you do not want DoubleClick by Google to set any cookies, or of you wish to adjust your advertising preferences, go to: https://www.google.com/settings/ads/plugin.
We use DoubleClick/ Google Ads on the basis of your consent through our cookie banner. You can withdraw consent at any time either by choosing the relevant setting in your browser software, by blocking cookies from the domain www.googleadservices.com in your browser settings, or through visiting the site https://www.youronlinechoices.com and deactivating the respective advertisements. Further, you can deactivate DoubleClick under https://www.google.com/settings/ads/plugin.

 

GOOGLE ADWORDS

We use Google AdWords in order to present our advertisements on third party websites. We use this service to provide you with a personalized website experience. The advertisements are delivered through so called "Ad Servers". We use Ad Server Cookies to measure fade-ins of advertisements and clicks. If you reach our website through a Google-advertisement Google will place a cookie in your browser. This Cookie will be stored for 30 days and is not intended to identify you. FRANKE does not collect or store personal data by using Google AdWords. We only receive statistical evaluations from Google that inform us which advertisement is most efficient. If you have an account on Google, it is possible that Google can assign your visit on our website to your account. Even if you are not registered on Google, Google is able to track your IP-address and to store your data on its server.
We only use Google AdWords on the basis of your consent given when accepting our cookie banner.
You may withdraw your consent to the use of Google AdWords at any time either by choosing the relevant setting in your browser software, by blocking cookies from the domain www.googleadservices.com in your browser settings, or through visiting the site https://www.youronlinechoices.com/ and deactivating the respective advertisements. Further, you can deactivate Google AdWords under with a browser-plugin available here https://www.google.com/settings/ads/plugin.

 

GOOGLE DYNAMIC REMARKETING

In addition, we use Google's dynamic remarketing functionality. This functionality enables us to target you with personalized, interest based advertisements, if you visit other websites that belong to the Google Display Network. Google uses cookies in order to analyze your use of our website which is the basis for the targeted advertisement. To this end, Google stores a small file with a series numbers in your browser when visiting our website. This enables Google to collect anonymous information on your use of the website. Google does not store any personally identifiable information on you. In case you later on visit another website belonging to the Google Display Network you will be shown ads that have a high likelihood of factoring in information or products that you have selected earlier. You can permanently deactivate the use of cookies by Google, by following this link and downloading and installing the plug-in made available: https://www.google.com/settings/ads/plugin. Alternatively, you can deactivate Google cookies by visiting the deactivating site of the Network Advertising Initiative and implementing the offered opt-out http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/. Further information on the Google Remarketing as well as Googles privacy information you can find here http://www.google.com/privacy/ads/."
We only use Google Dynamic Remarketing on the basis of your prior consent given when accepting our cookie banner. You may withdraw your consent at any time by choosing the relevant setting in your browser software or by blocking cookies from the domain www.googleadservices.com in your browser settings.

 

GOOGLE reCAPTCHA

We use Google's reCAPTCHA for verifying legitimate users before submitting data to us. We like to inform you that the use of reCAPTCHA is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. Google reCAPTCHA works by collecting hardware and software information, such as device and application data, and sending this data to Google for analysis. The information collected in connection the use of reCAPTCHA will be used for improving reCAPTCHA and for general security purposes. It will not be used for personalized advertising by Google. Furhter information on Google reCAPTCHA you can find here   https://www.google.com/recaptcha/.

We use Google reCAPTCHA on the basis of our legitimate interest for security reasons. You delete these cookies anytime or block Google reCAPTCHA at any time by choosing the relevant setting in your browser software or by deleting/blocking cookies from the domain www.google.com > recaptcha and www.gstatic.com > recaptcha in your browser settings. However this will limit the usability of the webform and you will need to contact us via other channels.

 

FACEBOOK CUSTOM AUDIENCES

Further, this website uses the "Custom Audiences" functionality by Meta Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304 ("Facebook" or its mother company “Meta”). This functionality enables us to target you with personalized, interest based advertisements, so called Facebook Ads, if you visit Facebook.com or other websites that belong to the Meta Network. Facebook stores a small file with a series numbers in your browser when visiting our website. This enables Meta to collect anonymous information on your use of the website. In case you later on visit another website belonging to the Meta Network you will be shown ads that have a high likelihood of factoring in information or products that you have selected earlier. If you are registered on Facebook, it is possible that Meta can assign your visit on our website to your account. Even if you are not registered on Facebook, Meta is able to track your IP-address and to store your data on its server.
You can deactivate the use of custom audiences by visiting the following deactivating site http://www.youronlinechoices.eu/. You can find further information on the Facebook custom audiences here: https://www.facebook.com/policies/cookies/.
We only use Facebook Custom Audiences on the basis of your prior consent given when accepting our cookie banner or our legitimate interest to provide you with a personalized website experience. We believe that it is also in your interest to receive interesting and unique advertisements. Thus, there are compelling grounds for processing which outweigh your interests, rights and freedoms. You can object to this processing at any time by contacting us.
For Facebook's privacy policy go to: https://www.facebook.com/privacy/policy.

 

FACEBOOK CONNECT

You may log in to our website using the sign-in service Facebook Connect. This service will authenticate your identity and provide you the option to share certain personally identifiable information with us, such as your name and email address to pre-populate our sign up form. Services like Facebook Connect give you the option to post information about your activities on our website to your profile page to share with others within your network.
We use Facebook Connect on the basis of your consent given to Facebook/Meta and our legitimate interest to simplify the use of our website. We believe that an easy use of our website is also in your interest. Thus, there are compelling grounds for processing which outweigh your interests, rights and freedoms. You can object to this processing at any time by contacting us.

 

MICROSOFT CLARITY

We partner with Microsoft Clarity and Microsoft Advertising to capture how you use and interact with our website through behavioral metrics, heatmaps, and session replay to improve and market our products/services. Website usage data is captured using first and third-party cookies and other tracking technologies to determine the popularity of products/services and online activity. Additionally, we use this information for site optimization, fraud/security purposes, and advertising. For more information about how Microsoft collects and uses your data, visit the Microsoft Privacy Statement.

 

We include third-party services and/or content on our website. When you use such third-party services or when third-party content is displayed, communication data are exchanged between you and the respective provider for technical reasons. FRANKE controls neither the websites, nor the privacy practices, of the third parties managing these websites. The privacy practices of third party website providers may differ from FRANKE's, so we cannot endorse or make any representations about third party websites. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites.
The respective provider of the services or content may also process your data for own additional purposes. To the best of our knowledge, we have configured the services and content of providers known to process data for own purposes in such a way that either any communication for other purposes than to present their services or content on our website is blocked, or communication only takes place once you have actively opted to use the respective service. However, since we have no control over data collected and processed by third parties, we are not in a position to provide binding information regarding the scope and purpose of such processing of your data.

Links to other Websites

Our website may contain links to and from the websites of our partner networks, dealers, affiliates or other third parties. Upon accessing these links, the FRANKE website is automatically exited. FRANKE controls neither the websites, nor the privacy practices, of the third parties managing these websites. The privacy practices of third party website providers may differ from FRANKE's, so we cannot endorse or make any representations about third party websites. Please check these policies before you submit any personal data to these websites. This Privacy Policy is not intended to be applicable to any linked, non-Franke Group website.

Use of Social plugins

FRANKE uses so-called social plugins ('buttons') of social networks such as Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Wechat and Twitter. When you visit our website these buttons are deactivated by default, i.e. without your intervention they will not send any data to the respective social networks. Before you are able to use these buttons, you must activate them by clicking on them. They then remain active until you deactivate them again or delete your cookies (please refer to 'Cookies').
After their activation, a direct link to the server of the respective social network is established. The contents of the button are then transmitted from the social network directly to your browser and incorporated in the website by it. After activation of a button, the social network can retrieve data, independently of whether you interact with the button or not. If you are logged on to a social network, the network can assign your visit to the website to your user account. A social network cannot assign a visit to other FRANKE websites unless and until you activate the respective button there as well.
If you are a user of a social network and do not wish it to combine data retrieved from your visit to our website with your user data, you must log out from the social network concerned before activating the buttons.
We have no influence on the scope of data that is collected by the social networks through their buttons. The data use policies of the social networks provide information on the purpose and extent of the data that they collect, how this data is processed and used, the rights available to you and the settings that you can use to protect your privacy.
For further information regarding the scope and purpose of such collection and processing of your data, please consult the privacy notices of the providers whose services and/or content we include and who are responsible for the protection of your data in this context.

We do not pass on any personal data to third parties unless this is necessary for the provision of our webservices, the fulfilment of the contract, permitted by relevant legal provisions or you have given your consent. This being said, FRANKE may contract with other companies or individuals ("Processors", or “Service Providers”) to perform certain duties on our behalf. In so doing, it may be necessary that we provide the Processors with access to personal data. Our Processors are required to maintain the confidentiality of the personal data, and are restricted from using the information for any other purpose than the purposes defined by FRANKE. Examples of duties performed by Processors include business partners or sub-contractors in technical, payment and delivery services, credit risk reduction or fraud protection, analytics providers, search information providers or intragroup processing. They will only have access to the personal data necessary for the performance of the respective activity. In particular, these Processors are prohibited from processing or using your personal data for other purposes.
We take appropriate measures, by contract or otherwise, to provide adequate protection for personal data that is disclosed to our Processors, and to ensure that our Processors have adequate legal, organizational and technical procedures in place to protect personal data in accordance with applicable data protection law.

FRANKE is a global organization, with legal entities, business processes, management structures, and technical systems that cross borders. Therefore, our privacy practices are designed to provide protection for personal data all over the world. It is FRANKE's policy to give access to personal data only to those authorized employees, agents, contractors, entities and Processors that FRANKE determines have a legitimate need to know, or have access to, the information in order to carry out their responsibilities. FRANKE uses technical and organizational security measures to protect the data supplied by you and managed by us against manipulation, loss, destruction, and access by third parties. Our security measures are continually improved in line with technological developments.
Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password which enables you to access certain parts of our website, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share a password with anyone.

Unless we provided specific retention periods above, these general rules apply:
Your data will be deleted as soon as it is no longer necessary for the intended purposes or if you revoke your consent, or objected to a use based on legitimate interest and we have no overriding legitimate grounds. In some cases, longer retention periods may apply because we are required by law (e.g. under tax and commercial law), or data are required for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.

Under data privacy law applicable to you, you may be entitled to exercise some or all of the following rights by using the contact as set forth in the Section, Contact:
1. Access rights: inquire ('i) information whether your personal data is retained and (ii) access to and/or duplicates of your personal data retained, including the purposes of the processing, the categories of personal data concerned, and the data recipients as well as potential retention periods. For certain kinds of data, you may also have a right to data portability;
2. Data accuracy: request rectification, removal or restriction of your personal data, e.g. because ('i) it is incomplete or inaccurate, (ii) it is no longer needed for the purposes for which it was collected, or (iii) the consent on which the processing was based has been withdrawn;
3. Limits to processing: refuse to provide and – without impact to data processing activities that have taken place before such withdrawal – withdraw your consent to processing of your personal data at any time;
4. Right to lodge a complaint: take legal actions in relation to any potential breach of your rights regarding the processing of your Personal data, as well as to lodge complaints before the competent data protection authority;

Right to object:
You may be entitled to exercise your right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, that your personal data shall not be subject to a processing. In this case, please provide us with information about your particular situation. After the assessment of the facts presented by you we will either stop processing your personal data or present you our compelling legitimate grounds for an ongoing processing.

If you make a request, we first need to verify your identity, evaluate your request andrespond to you within timeframes stated in your applicable laws. We may reject requests that are excessive or a misuse of the relevant right or such request may be limited where we have an overriding interest or legal obligation to continue to process your personal data.

We reserve the right to update and change this Privacy Policy from time to time in order to reflect and changes to the way in which we use your personal data or changing legal requirements. In case of any such changes, we will publish the changed Privacy Policy on our website.

IIf you have any queries or complaints about our compliance with this Privacy Policy, or if you would like to exercise your right described above, please contact us as follows:
The respective Franke company published in the imprint of the website, click here.
Attn: Data Protection Coordinator
or by e-mail to: DPC-FKG@franke.com

 

March 2023