Data Security

1. Data recording by EuroShop.de

EuroShop.de collects two kinds of information on its users:

data provided directly by users who opt to register voluntarily at the EuroShop.de website, and tracking information obtained largely from the marking of individual pages on the website. This information allows EuroShop.de to be even more effective in gearing its content to users’ needs, and to recognize the demographic breakdown of visitors to the site more effectively. EuroShop.de does not pass on information on individual users to any third parties. EuroShop.de uses the following methods to gather information about its users:

1.1 Registration

EuroShop.de is a marketplace for business-to-business communication. Although many of Euroshop.de’s features are also available to anonymous users, registration offers users a number of personal advantages, including the ability to call up functions and content items on the basis of their own identity. When registering, a user provides various information required to permit the execution of data base transactions, such as the user’s name, a password, the delivery address, email address, and country of domicile.

1.2 Survey

The EuroShop.de website may sometimes invite users to take part in interactive surveys, offering them a simple means of interchanging views with other users and finding out what EuroShop.de visitors’ position is on key topics of interest. Surveys can be used, too, to tailor its content and services even more closely to the EuroShop.de clientèle. The site uses a system in which users are “marked” once they have voted, thus preventing them from voting more than once on any particular survey question. Information obtained in this marking process is not correlated with the information stored on individual users.

At its own discretion, EuroShop.de may also pass on the demographic information obtained from such surveys to users of the EuroShop.de site and/or to other business associates. However, EuroShop.de will not, at any time, pass on any specific information on individual users to third parties.

1.3 Message boards / forums

EuroShop.de may offer message boards or forums, allowing users to enter into animate, asynchronous conversations on a variety of topics. EuroShop.de requires users to register before they can post any messages, even if they do not intend to make any transactions on the site.

1.4 Electronic newsletters (dispatches)

The EuroShop.de website may provide its users with free electronic newsletters, and it maintains a record of the email addresses of users who have voluntarily subscribed to these. A user can delete his/her name from the EuroShop.de subscriber’s list at any time by following the instructions sent out with each new newsletter. Users may be given the chance to subscribe to the newsletters during the registration process, and subscription offers may also appear on the EuroShop.de website at various points and at various times.

1.5 Prize competitions, loyalty programmes

EuroShop.de may occasionally offer loyalty programmes or prize competitions, in which it asks users to supply certain information. These promotional activities are carried out fully in accordance with current laws and regulations. The rules of all such programmes and competitions will be clearly spelled out while they are in operation. Whatever information is gathered will be used solely to verify a user’s identity and to notify competition or other prize-winners, or participants who have been awarded points. Here too, EuroShop.de will not pass on any information about specific users to any other parties.

1.6 Site-use tracking

EuroShop.de tracks the movement of users throughout the website. However, EuroShop.de does not correlate the tracking data in any way with the information it holds on individual users of the site. EuroShop.de classifies site-use statistics according to a user’s domain name, the type of browser used and the MIME type in which the browser string (information contained in each user’s browser) is read. EuroShop.de also notes and catalogues the search terms entered in the site’s own search engine, but the tracking of these terms is never linked to identifiable individual user information.

1.7 Cookies

A cookie is a small file that some websites generate, which is written on to the user’s hard disk every time (s)he visits a particular site. A cookie file may contain information such as the user identification number that allows the website to track the particular pages the user has visited. Cookies enable registered members to access various parts of the EuroShop.de website without the need to log in afresh each time, and allow them to visit the restricted, members-only areas of the website. Cookies are not used to store or transmit individual user information.

2. Using and Passing On Information

2.1 Use of information

EuroShop.de makes use of all information voluntarily provided to it by users in order to expand upon each user’s experience with EuroShop.de, to introduce interactive or personalized elements into the website on the basis of users’ interests, or better to develop future content for the site. As described above, EuroShop.de uses the information voluntarily provided by users to send out electronic newsletters and to allow users to participate in opinion surveys and use message boards. EuroShop.de may distribute newsletters to subscribers at regular intervals (daily, weekly or monthly, depending on the type of newsletter) and also occasionally send out special announcements if it believes subscribers may be particularly interested in a certain EuroShop.de activity.

EuroShop.de never divulges its newsletter address lists to any promotion firm, business associate or other third party. EuroShop.de uses its tracking data to assess customers’ likes and dislikes by counting the frequency with which particular pages on the website are visited. EuroShop.de does not track which pages are read by which individual users, only how well the page is received by users in general. This helps EuroShop.de to provide a continually improving service.

EuroShop.de tracks the search terms entered into the site’s own search engine as one of many ways of establishing what kind of products users are looking for. EuroShop.de does not record what terms any particular user has searched for.

2.2 Passing on information

EuroShop.de uses the various types of information described above to tailor its services to users’ needs. This is vitally important, to make sure the service provided by EuroShop.de is as good as it can be. EuroShop.de does not pass on information concerning individual users to any third parties.

3. Opt-out policy

EuroShop.de offers its users options whenever this is necessary and practicable. These include the option offered at the time of registration not to receive electronic newsletters and order-status e-mails from EuroShop.de, the option not to disclose certain personal details when registering for the EuroShop.de website (see above), and the option not to participate in certain interactive areas of the site, including the EuroShop.de marketplace, thus obviating the need for EuroShop.de to record any user information at all.

4. Corrections and updates policy

EuroShop.de gives users the opportunity to correct or modify the information recorded at the time of their registration with the EuroShop.de website (see above). To make these changes, it is sufficient to call up the user profile, click on the “Edit” link and make the necessary changes to the information, which is then shown in its new form. Users may make such changes at any time and whenever necessary. If any user encounters problems while doing so or would like to ask any questions about the way the EuroShop.de services operate, (s)he can mail EuroShop.de at this address: EuroShop@messe-duesseldorf.de.

5. Deletion and deactivation policy

Users may cancel their subscriptions to all electronic newsletters or order-status e-mails issued by EuroShop.de at any time by following the instructions given at the end of all such communications.