Privacy Policy

privacy policy

The American German Business Club Berlin e.V. (AGBC-Berlin) takes the protection of your personal data very seriously. We treat your personal data confidentially and in accordance with statutory data protection regulations, as well as in accordance with this privacy statement.

Use of our website is possible without providing personal data. If personal data [for example, name, email addresses or telephone number] is collected on our website, this is always done on a voluntary basis. This data will not be forwarded to third parties without your express consent.

We expressly state that data transmission on the Internet [e.g. when communicating via email] can have security gaps. Seamless protection of data from access by third-parties is not possible.

The processing of your personal data, such as the name, address, e-mail address, or telephone number shall always be in line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), and in accordance with the country-specific data protection regulations applicable to the AGBC Berlin.

By means of this data protection declaration, AGBC-Berlin would like to inform the general public of the nature, scope, and purpose of the personal data we collect, use and process. Furthermore, this data protection declaration informs you of the rights to which you are entitled.

In order to make use of some of the offerings on our website, for example individual requests for information, membership application, registration to our events, the receipt of newsletters or online donations it is necessary, independently of any previously existing contractual relationship, that we receive personal data from you for our processing and use. Personal data are single details about personal or factual circumstances relating to your person such as your name, address, e-mail address or telephone number.

Should you be asked to submit personal information on our website, the information you supply will be on a voluntary basis and serves the purposes of contract processing as well as facilitating the response to your enquiry and request to get in touch with you, in particular for the provision of information or services requested. Your details will be handled in accordance with legal requirements, in particular for the purposes for which you voluntarily provided the information. The collection, processing or use of your data for purposes going beyond the description above will only be undertaken by us in cases where you have expressly permitted it or where permitted by law.

The Internet pages of the AGBC-Berlin makes use of cookies in order to recognize repeat use of our website by the same user/internet connection subscriber. Cookies are small text files that your internet browser downloads and stores on your device (computer, tablet or smartphone). They are used to improve our website and services. In most cases these are “session cookies” that are deleted once you leave our website. Cookies do not damage your device or contain any viruses.

To an extent, however, these cookies also pass along information used to automatically recognize you. Recognition occurs through an IP address saved to the cookies. The information thereby obtained is used to improve our services and to expedite your access to the website.

You can prevent cookies from being installed by adjusting the settings on your browser software accordingly. You should be aware, however, that by doing so you may not be able to make full use of all the functions of our website.

This website uses functions of Google Analytics, a web analytics service of Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA, hereinafter referred to as “Google“.

Google Analytics uses “cookies“. These Cookies are text files which are stored to your computer in order to facilitate an analysis of your use on our site. The information generated by these cookies, such as time, place and frequency of your visits to our site, including your IP address, is transmitted to Google’s location in the US and stored there.

We use Google Analytics with an IP anonymization feature on our website. In doing so, Google abbreviates and thereby anonymizes your IP address before transferring it from member states of the European Union or signatory states to the Agreement on the European Economic Area.

Google will use this information to evaluate your usage of our site, to compile reports on website activity for us, and to provide other services related to website and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties if this is required by law or to the extent this data is processed by third parties on Google´s behalf.

Google states that it will in never associate your IP address with other data held by Google. You can prevent cookies from being installed by adjusting the settings on your browser software accordingly. You should be aware, however, that by doing so you may not be able to make full use of all the functions of our website.

Google also offers a disabling option for the most common browsers, thus providing you with greater control over the data which is collected and processed by Google. If you enable this option, no information regarding your website visit is transmitted to Google Analytics. However, the activation does not prevent the transmission of information to us or to any other web analytics services we may use. For more information about the disabling option provided by Google, and how to enable this option, visit (http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de)

By using this website you declare yourself to be in agreement with the processing of the data collected about you by Google for the purpose as described in this privacy policy.

You can permanently disable the tracking of Google Analytics cookies on our site by clicking the following link:
Opt-Out of Google Analytics Tracking

This will set an Opt-Out cookie to prevent future collection of your data by Google Analytics when you visit this site. Please note that this Opt-Out has will need to be reset by you should you delete all cookies on your device. This Opt-Out cookie will prevent future collection of your data by Google Analytics when you visit this website. However, in order to prevent Google Analytics from tracking across different devices, the Opt-Out must be enabled on those devices.

For more information about Terms of Use and Privacy Policy when using Google Analytics, see https://www.google.com/analytics/terms/gb.html as well as https://policies.google.com/?hl=gb.

The personal data collected by Google Analytics through cookies on our website will be automatically deleted after 14 months.

Google has submitted to the EU-US Privacy Shield, https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework.

On our website we offer you the opportunity to contact us, either by email and/or by using a contact form. In such event, information provided by the user is stored for the purpose of facilitating communications with the user. No data is transferred to third parties. Nor is any of this information matched to any information that may be collected by other components of our website.

For membership application and processing, AGBC- Berlin needs to collect and process certain elements of your personal data. This consists of the following data:

  • Title, First Name, Last Name
  • Mailing Address
  • E-Mail Address
  • Home or Work Phone Number
  • Date of Birth
  • Membership Type Requested

If you wish, you may add more information about yourself in your membership application on a voluntary basis, to allow the AGBC Board to get to know you better.

Your personal data will not be shared with third parties without your express consent.

In the members area of our website, we provide additional content and services that are only available to AGBC-Berlin members. To use the members area, you must log in using the access data provided by the AGBC-Berlin. As soon as you log into the members area, we save a session cookie on your computer. This cookie will only be saved on your computer for the period of your use of the members area. After logging out of the members area, the session cookie will be deleted.

AGBC-Berlin shall never disclose or pass your password and/or your username on to any club member or third party.

If you wish, you may add more information about yourself and your business to your Business Directory profile on a voluntary basis (hereinafter referred to as “Business Directory”), to allow other AGBC-Berlin members to get to know you better and to enable exposure of your profile for potential business partners.

You are currently able to choose from the following voluntary data:

  • Name of Company, Organization or Person
  • Business Category / Area of Expertise
  • Personal Profile
  • Business / Organization Profile
  • Description of Products and Services
  • Special Offers to AGBC Members
  • Business Address
  • Telephone Number (business or private)
  • Business E-Mail Address
  • Website URL
  • Social Media URLs: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook

You may also upload a a company logo or photograph of yourself, if you wish.

Your Business Directory profile is preset to be not published to the internet and invisible on the AGBC-Berlin website.

To publish your Business Directory profile to the AGBC-Berlin website, you can give AGBC-Berlin your explicit authorization in your Business Directory Profile. Publication of your Business Directory Profile to the AGBC-Berlin website will be made in real-time upon your authorization.

You can revoke the publishing of your Business Directory on the AGBC-Website at any time by removing your publising consent in your Business Directory profile.

Our website offers you the opportunity to subscribe to our newsletter. The newsletter provides you periodically with information about our club events and activities.

If you subscribe to our newsletter we do require besides your email address a confirmation that you are the owner of this particular address and that you approve to receiving newsletter. This information is collected solely to send the newsletter to you and to document our entitlement for sending it to your email address. This information will not be made available to third parties.

By submitting your data in our newsletter form, you agree to the data processing by AGBC Berlin to the extent indicated. Your consent to the storage of your email address and its use for sending the newsletter can be revoked at any time. The revocation can be made via a link in the newsletter itself or by notification to the contact information in the legal notice on the AGBC- Berlin website.

If, you decide to use PayPal as an online payment service, when making a donation to AGBC Berlin. your contact details will be sent to PayPal during the order process. PayPal is a service from PayPal (Europe) S.à.rl & Cie. SCA, 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg. PayPal assumes the function of an online payment service and trustee and offers buyer protection services.

The personal data transmitted to PayPal usually includes your first name, last name, address, telephone number, IP address, e-mail address, or other data required to process your order. such as the quantity of articles ordered, the article number, invoice amount, percentage taxes and invoice details, etc.

This information needs to be transferred to process your order using your chosen payment method, mainly in order to confirm your identity and manage your payment and the customer relationship.

Please note the following however: PayPal may also pass on your personal data to subcontractors or other affiliates, to the extent necessary for fulfilling the contractual obligations arising from your order or for processing personal data in your order.

Depending on the payment type you pre-select in your PayPal account, which may include payment by invoice or direct debit, PayPal will transfer the personal data transferred to PayPal to credit agencies. The information transferred serves to identify you and to verify your creditworthiness with regard to the order you have placed. Please refer to the PayPal Privacy Policy for more information on the credit agencies PayPal transfers data to and which data is collected, processed, stored and passed on by PayPal.

We use the “Google Maps” component of Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA, hereinafter “Google.”

Google sets a cookie to process the user configuration and data when the page with the integrated “Google Maps” component is displayed. As general rule, this cookie is not deleted by closing the browser, but rather expires after a certain time, as long as it is not previously manually deleted by you.

If you do not agree with this processing of your data, you may choose to deactivate the “Google Maps” service and thereby prevent the transfer of data to Google. To do this, you must deactivate the Java Script function in your browser. However, we would like to point out that in this case you will not be able to use “Google Maps” or at least only to a limited extent.

The use of “Google Maps” and the information obtained through “Google Maps” is according to Google’s Terms of Use (http://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/terms/regional.html) as well as the additional Terms and Conditions for “Google Maps” (https://www.google.com/intl/de_de/help/terms_maps.html).

This website uses functionality form the LinkedIn network. The provider is the LinkedIn Corporation, 2029 Stierlin Court, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Upon each access to one of our pages containing functions from LinkedIn a connection to LinkedIn servers is established. If you click on the “recommended button” from LinkedIn and are logged into your LinkedIn account then it will be possible for LinkedIn to associate your visit to our internet pages with you and your user account. As the provider of the pages we would like to point out that we have no knowledge of the content of data transmitted nor of its use by LinkedIn. You can find more information on the data protection policy at LinkedIn using this link: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy- policy.

Our website has integrated the YouTube software in its information services. The YouTube software uses cookies to collect and statistically analyse data. Among other things YouTube uses cookies to generate reliable video statistics, for fraud prevention purposes and to make the service more user-friendly. The operators of this website receive statistical information about specific videos embedded in our website without any reference to the individual user. The embedded videos will be used within the YouTube limits of permitted use, which all users must accept. Should you become aware of any infringement of copyright please report this to YouTube directly. We use the embedded YouTube-videos as part of the extended data protection modus. This means: YouTube does not save any cookies for a user who visits a website with an embedded YouTube-video player but does not click on the video to start it. If the user starts the YouTube-video player, YouTube may save cookies on the user’s computer, although no personal data-related cookie information about displaying the embedded videos will be saved. (Source: YouTube “Activating the extended data protection modus for embedded videos”). For more information, please read YouTube’s Privacy Statement. We do not collect any personal data in relation to the embedded videos.

This website uses several plug-ins of the social network twitter.com, run by Twitter Inc., 1355 Market St, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA (“Twitter”). You can recognize these plug-ins either by one of the Twitter logos (letter “t” or picture of a bird) or by the words “Tweet” or “Twitter”. If you access a page on our website that has such a button, your browser will set up a direct connection to the Twitter servers. The content of the “Tweet” button will be sent directly from Twitter to your browser and, from there, incorporated into your Twitter message. We therefore have no influence on the extent of the data that Twitter collects with the help of this plug-in, but assume that your IP address is also recorded. For information concerning purpose and extent of data collection and further processing and use of the data by Twitter, as well as your rights in this regard and setting possibilities for protection of privacy, see the Twitter data protection notes at twitter.com/privacy.

Your data protection settings at Twitter can be changed in the account settings at twitter.com/settings/account. If you are a member of Twitter and do not want Twitter to collect data about you via our internet pages and connect them to your member data saved on Twitter, then you must log out of Twitter before visiting our website.

This website uses various plug-ins of the social network facebook.com, which are operated by Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA (“Facebook”). You can recognise these plug-ins either by means of one of the Facebook logos (letter “f” from Facebook, button “Like” or button “Send”) or that this plug-in is marked with the word “Facebook”, “Like”, “Send” or “FB”. The Facebook social plug-ins can be seen at developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins.

If you access a page on our website that has such a plug-in, and if your browser is configured for such, a connection to the Facebook servers will be established and in the course of this the plug-in will be shown on the internet page by message to your browser. This way, the Facebook server will be informed which of our internet pages you visited. If you are logged in as a member of Facebook, Facebook will assign this information to your personal Facebook user account. This information will also be assigned to your Facebook account when using the plug-in functions (e.g. by clicking the “Like” button or entering a comment).

We have no influence on the extent of the data that Facebook collects with the help of this plug-in. As far as we know, Facebook uses the plug-ins to receive information on what you have clicked on, on our website. By clicking the “Like” button or writing a comment, the respective information is sent directly from your browser to Facebook and stored there. If you are not a member of Facebook, the possibility still exists that Facebook may learn about your IP address and store it. Further information concerning collection and use of the data by Facebook and your rights and possibilities for protection of your privacy can be found in the Facebook data protection notes at www.facebook.com/policy.php.

If you are a member of Facebook and want to prevent collection and connection of your data stored on Facebook, you must log out of Facebook before using our website. It is not sufficient to simply close the page. A further possibility is to block Facebook social plug-ins with add-ons for your browser, e.g. with the Facebook blocker.

In accordance with the applicable legislation, you may contact us at no cost if you have questions relating to the collection, processing or use of your personal information, if you wish to request the correction, blocking or deletion of the same, or if you wish to cancel explicitly granted consent. Please note that you have the right to have incorrect data corrected or to have personal data deleted, where such claim is not barred by any legal obligation to retain this data.

If you have any questions about this privacy policy please contact us on our Contact or Legal Notice pages.

We will amend this policy to protect your personal data from time to time. We advise you to review this page periodically to stay up to date how we protect your data and constantly improve the content of our website. Any significant changes to the collection, use and/or disclosure of your personal data will be clearly indicated on the website. By using our website, you agree to the terms and conditions of this privacy policy.