Privacy Policy for GermanWiki
Last updated: 21.08.2024
At GermanWiki, accessible from https://germanwiki.com, the privacy of our visitors is of utmost importance. This Privacy Policy outlines how “GermanWiki,” “we,” or “us” collect, use, and disclose information about you. This Privacy Policy applies to our websites, mobile applications, and other online products and services that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, our “Services”), including when you interact with us on social media, contact our customer service team, or otherwise engage with us.
If you have any additional questions or need further information about our Privacy Policy, please feel free to contact us.
Consent
By using our website, you hereby consent to our Privacy Policy and agree to its terms.
Information We Collect
The personal information we request from you, and the reasons for requesting it, will be clearly explained at the point we ask for your personal information.
- Personal Information: If you contact us directly, we may receive additional information about you, such as your name, email address, phone number, the contents of any message and/or attachments you may send us, and any other information you may choose to provide.
- Account Information: When you register for an account, we may ask for your contact information, including details such as your name, company name, address, email address, and telephone number.
Health Insurance Switching Service
You can request information about or initiate a change of health insurance provider via GermanWiki. The personal data collected for this service includes information about a person’s factual or personal circumstances necessary to facilitate joining or changing health insurance providers.
- Data Usage: The data collected is necessary to process your request and initiate the desired change of health insurance provider. Without the provision and processing of this data, we would not be able to fulfill your request.
- Data Handling: We do not store your data on our servers. Instead, we process the data you provide (using a third-party tool) to complete the health insurance provider’s form and send it to our partner insurance broker. The broker then contacts the selected health insurance company on your behalf to complete the switch or enrollment. By using our health insurance switching service, you consent to the terms and conditions of our partner broker firm (ExpatCompassGermany) and agree that they may forward your application to the selected health insurer.
- Contact Permission: If you use our service, you agree to be contacted by post, telephone, or email only if necessary to carry out the change or joining of the health insurance provider. Contact will only be made by GermanWiki, our partner brokers, or the relevant department of the selected health insurance company.
- Data Processing Tools: We use a third-party tool, “Fillable PDFs from CosmicGiant,” to process your data. The form data is submitted to their server, where the PDF is generated and then sent back to GermanWiki. The generated PDF is forwarded to you and our partner broker, and immediately after that, it is deleted from our system. Data submitted to the Fillable PDFs server is also automatically deleted after processing.
How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect in various ways, including:
- To provide, operate, and maintain our website
- To improve, personalize, and expand our website
- To understand and analyze how you use our website
- To develop new products, services, features, and functionality
- To communicate with you, either directly or through one of our partners, including for customer service, to provide you with updates and other information relating to the website, and for marketing and promotional purposes
- To send you emails
- To find and prevent fraud
Log Files
GermanWiki follows a standard procedure of using log files. These files log visitors when they visit websites, which is standard practice for hosting companies as part of their analytics services. The information collected by log files includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date and time stamp, referring/exit pages, and possibly the number of clicks. This information is not linked to any personally identifiable information and is used to analyze trends, administer the site, track users’ movement on the website, and gather demographic information.
Cookies and Web Beacons
Like any other website, GermanWiki uses ‘cookies’. These cookies store information, including visitors’ preferences and the pages on the website that the visitor accessed or visited. The information is used to optimize the users’ experience by customizing our web page content based on visitors’ browser type and/or other information.
If you prefer not to have cookies placed on your computer, you can set your browser to refuse cookies before using GermanWiki’s website. However, some features of the website may not function properly without the aid of cookies.
Google DoubleClick DART Cookie
Google is one of our third-party vendors. It uses cookies, known as DART cookies, to serve ads to our site visitors based on their visit to www.germanwiki.com and other sites on the internet. Visitors may opt-out of the use of DART cookies by visiting the Google ad and content network Privacy Policy at the following URL – https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads.
Our Advertising Partners
Some of the advertisers on our site may use cookies and web beacons. Each of our advertising partners has its own Privacy Policy for its policies on user data. You can find these privacy policies on the respective websites of these partners.
Third-Party Privacy Policies
GermanWiki’s Privacy Policy does not apply to other advertisers or websites. We advise you to consult the respective Privacy Policies of third-party ad servers for more detailed information. They may include their practices and instructions about how to opt-out of certain options.
GDPR Data Protection Rights
We are committed to ensuring that you are fully aware of all your data protection rights. Every user is entitled to the following:
- The right to access: You have the right to request copies of your personal data. We may charge you a small fee for this service.
- The right to rectification: You have the right to request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate. You also have the right to request that we complete the information you believe is incomplete.
- The right to erasure: You have the right to request that we erase your personal data, under certain conditions.
- The right to restrict processing: You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
- The right to object to processing: You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data, under certain conditions.
- The right to data portability: You have the right to request that we transfer the data we have collected to another organization, or directly to you, under certain conditions.
If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us.
Children’s Information
Protecting children while using the internet is another part of our priority. We encourage parents and guardians to observe, participate in, and/or monitor and guide their online activity.
GermanWiki does not knowingly collect any Personal Identifiable Information from children under the age of 13. If you believe that your child has provided this kind of information on our website, we strongly encourage you to contact us immediately, and we will do our best to promptly remove such information from our records.
Security
The security of your personal information is important to us. However, please remember that no method of transmission over the Internet or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
Links to External Sites
Our website may contain links to external sites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third-party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy and terms and conditions of every site you visit.
We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies, or practices of any third-party sites, products, or services.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
GermanWiki may update this Privacy Policy from time to time at our sole discretion. We encourage visitors to frequently check this page for any changes. Your continued use of this site after any changes to this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of the changes.