Privacy Policy

Wolk & Nikolic Aftersales Intelligence GmbH (hereafter: “Wolk & Nikolic Aftersales Intelligence GmbH ”) takes the protection of your personal data very seriously. We only process your personal data in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable laws, in particular the European General Data Protection Regulation (hereafter: “GDPR”).

The following Privacy Policy refers to the processing of your personal data when using our website (hereafter: “website”), our portal After Sales ACCESS Database (hereafter: “portal”) and for our market research in form of telephone surveys or online panel (hereafter: “market research”) or sweepstakes and similar promotions.

1. Use of Our Website

1.1 General Use of Our Website

When you use our website, we will process the personal data transmitted to our servers by your browser. This includes your IP address, time and date of your request, your time zone difference to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), the contents of your request (specific page), your access status or HTTP status code, the volume of data transferred, the website making the request, your browser type, language and model and your operating system and its surface. This data processing is performed on the basis of Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 Letter f of the GDPR. It allows our website to be displayed and especially ensures stability and security.

1.2 Cookies

In addition to the above-stated data, cookies will be saved on your computer when using our website. Cookies are small text files that are saved on your hard disk to be assigned to the browser you used. Information will be thereby transferred to the party saving the cookie. Cookies cannot execute programs or import viruses onto your computer. Cookies are used to make our website more user-friendly and efficient.

You may prevent cookies from being saved via the relevant browser settings, e.g., by deactivating the automatic saving of cookies. However, doing so may prevent functions of this website from being used. Our website uses the following cookies:

Google Analytics

Our website uses Google Analytics with the extension “anonymizeIP,” a web analysis service of Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (hereafter: “Google“). This allows IP addresses to be processed by Google in a shortened form in the European Union or in other states, party to the European Economic Area Agreement. Only in exceptional cases your full IP address will be transferred to a Google server in the US and shortened there. Personal references to you are not possible. If collected data includes personal references, this data will be immediately excluded and the personal data will be deleted.

The legal basis for our use of Google Analytics is Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 Letter f of the GDPR. Google will use collected data to assess your use of our website, compile website activity reports and provide additional services for use of the website and the Internet on our behalf. Processing is performed to analyze and optimize our website.

In addition to your browser settings, you may prevent the collection of data generated by cookies on your use of the website (incl. your IP address) and its transfer to and processing by Google by downloading and installing a browser plugin under the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Please see Google’s Privacy Policy for more information about Google’s data collection and processing: www.google.com/policies/privacy.

1.3 Social Media

We do not use so-called social media plugins. However, we allow you to visit our corporate pages on social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, XING, Instagram or Kununu, through several areas on our website. If you click the logo or the name of a social network, a link will redirect you to our corporate pages on respective networks. In addition, you may “share” certain contents of our website on social networks. By clicking the “share” logo on our website, the logos of the respective social networks will be displayed. If you click one of these logos, you will be forwarded to the website of the respective social network where—if you have a respective account and are logged in or log in—you can share the desired contents of our website.

No personal data will be collected before you click the respective logos or links that will take you to the respective social network’s website. The option to have personal data sent to and processed by the respective social network will only be provided after you click the respective logo on our website and are redirected to the social network. Personal data will especially be processed if you are logged in to your respective social media account and post the contents on the social network through your account. Furthermore, data—such as your IP address—may be processed even if you do not have a social media account.

We cannot influence the data that is collected or how it is processed and we do not know the full extent or purpose of data processing or storage periods. Nor do we have information on the deletion of data by the respective social networks.

1.4 Facebook Page Insights – “Facebook Fan Page”

Upon a visit of our Facebook page collects Facebook among others your IP address as well as other information, which is saved on your device in form of cookies. This information will be used to provide us as the operator of the Facebook page with statistical information on Facebook usage. We can access these statistics through so-called Facebook “insights”. These statistics are collected and provided solely by Facebook. We as the operator of the page have no influence over their generation and presentation. We cannot either stop or prevent their generation and data processing.

You can find further information about “Insights” provided by Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/help/pages/insights.

The following information will be provided to us by Facebook through “Insights”:

The number of page views, “likes”, page activities, reach, impressions, video views, post clicks and reactions, post reach, comments, shared content, answers, gender ratio, regional distribution of the users (origin based on country and city), language, opens and clicks in the shop, clicks on the address and on the telephone number.

The operation of this Facebook page and processing of personal data of the users arising out of it is based on Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 Letter f of the GDPR and our legitimate interest to inform and interact with users and visitors of our Facebook page.

We as the operator of this fan page are responsible for data processing together with Facebook. For this reason, we have agreed with Facebook under the framework of so-called “Page Insights” addon, which party bears which obligations under the GDPR. The main responsibility for processing of the insight data under the GDPR stays with Facebook. Facebook is bound to duly fulfill all obligations under the GDPR connected to processing of insight data (among others Art. 12 and 13, 15 to 22 and 32 to 34 GDPR). You can claim your data subject rights under the GDPR either with us or with Facebook Ireland Limited (“Facebook Ireland”). Should you as a data subject under the GDPR contact us with regard to processing of the insight data and obligations of Facebook Ireland connected to “Page Insights” addon, we are obliged to forward all relevant information in this regard to Facebook Ireland.

You can find comprehensive information about page insights addon and the obligations of the data controller here: https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms/page_controller_addendum

Please find Facebook address and Facebook’s Privacy Policy below:

Facebook Inc., 1601 S California Ave, Palo Alto, California 94304, USA; http://www.facebook.com/policy.php; for more information about Facebook’s data collection and processing: http://www.facebook.com/help/186325668085084, http://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/your-info-on-other#applications and http://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/your-info#everyoneinfo. Facebook is subject to the EU-US Privacy Shield: https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework.

1.5 YouTube Video Integration

Our website contains embedded YouTube videos that are saved on http://www.youtube.com and can be played directly on our website. These videos are embedded using “privacy-enhanced mode,” i.e., no data on you as a user will be transmitted to YouTube if you do not play these videos. Only if you play these videos the data specified in the following paragraph will be transferred. We cannot influence these data transmissions.

By visiting our website, YouTube will be notified that you opened a respective page on our website. In addition, the data stated in Section 1.1 will be transmitted. This will be done irrespective of whether you are logged in to a user account provided by YouTube or not. If you are logged in to Google, your data will be assigned directly to your account. If you do not wish for assignments to be made to your account, you must log out before activating the button. YouTube will save your data as a user profile and use your data for market advertisement, market research and/or need-based website design purposes. Such assessments are performed (even for users not logged in) especially to offer need-based advertisements and to inform other users about your activities on our website. You have the right to object to the creation of such user profiles which you may exercise by contacting YouTube.

Please see Google’s Privacy Policy for more information about the purpose and scope of the data collected and processed by YouTube and for further information about your privacy rights and settings options: www.google.com/policies/privacy. Google will also process your personal data in the US and is subject to the EU-US Privacy Shield: https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework.

The legal basis for this data processing is Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 Letter f of the GDPR. Processing is performed to analyze and optimize our website.

1.6 Google Maps Integration

Our website uses Google Maps. This allows us to display interactive maps directly on our website and provides you with comfortable use of a map function.

By visiting our website, Google will be notified about what page you opened on our website. In addition, the data stated in Section 1.1 will be transmitted. This will be done irrespective of whether you are logged in to a user account provided by Google or not. If you are logged in to Google, your data will be assigned directly to your account. If you do not wish assignments to be made to your account, you must log out before activating the button. Google will save your data as a user profile and use your data for market advertisement, market research and/or need-based website design purposes. Such assessments are specifically used (even for users not logged in) to offer need-based advertisements and to inform other users about your activities on our website. You have the right to object to the creation of such user profiles which you may exercise by contacting Google.

Please see Google’s Privacy Policy for more information about the purpose and scope of the data collected and processed by Google and for further information about your privacy rights and setting options: www.google.com/policies/privacy. Google will also process your personal data in the US and is subject to the EU-US Privacy Shield: https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework.

The legal basis for this data processing is Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 Letter f of the GDPR. Processing is performed to analyze and optimize our website.

1.7 Newsletter

You may subscribe to our newsletter through our website and by other means. Our newsletter features industry news. For subscription, the following information is necessary:  your email address, your name, your title, your position, your companies name, and phone number.

Newsletter subscriptions are made through a so-called double opt-in process. After registering, we will send an email to your email address and ask you to confirm your newsletter subscription. Only after you confirm your subscription by clicking a respective link will you be added to our mailing list and receive our newsletter. If no confirmation is received within 72 hours, we will block your data and delete it one month later.

We will save the IP address you used for your registration and the dates of your registration and confirmation. This will be done on the basis of Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 Letter f of the GDPR to verify your registration and resolve any abuse of your personal data.

For sending out our newsletter we use service provider MailChimp (cf. Section 1.10).

If you confirm your newsletter registration, we will save your email address and, if applicable, any additional data provided by you in accordance with Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 Letter f of the GDPR to send you our newsletter.

You may revoke your consent to our newsletter at any time by unsubscribing. You may declare your revocation by clicking the links provided in every newsletter or by contacting us by email at info@wolk-aftersales.de or at the contact details provided in our imprint.

Please note that we will assess your user behavior through our newsletter to improve and optimize our newsletter. To perform this assessment, our emails include so-called web beacons or tracking pixels, i.e., small one-pixel files with user IDs, that tell us when you read our newsletter and what links you clicked in our newsletter. This allows us to determine your personal interests. We use the data generated thereby to create a user profile to tailor the newsletter to your individual needs.

Furthermore, please note that our newsletters contain links to YouTube videos (cf. Section 1.5). If you click these links, your personal data may be collected by YouTube. This is something we cannot influence.

Processing is performed on the basis of Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 Letter f of the GDPR and to optimize our services.

You can prevent this tracking by deactivating image displays in your email program. However, in this case, the newsletter will not be displayed to you fully and you may not be able to use every function. If you click a link in the newsletter despite deactivating images, your clicks will be tracked. If you display images manually, this tracking will be performed to the full extent.

1.8 Press Mailing List

You may subscribe to our national and international press releases through our website and by other means. Our press releases feature information about current developments in German and international car markets. National and international press release subscriptions may be made independently of each other.

Subscriptions require your email address, title, name, and company, as we only want to send our press releases to journalists and selected interested parties. However, you may provide additional information voluntarily.

Subscriptions are made through a so-called double opt-in process. After submitting your data, we will send an email to your email address and ask you to confirm your press mailing list subscription. Only after you confirm your subscription by clicking on an according link will you be added to our mailing list and receive our press releases. If no confirmation is received within 72 hours, we will block your data and delete it one month later.

We will save the IP address you used for your registration and the dates of your registration and confirmation. This will be done on the basis of Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 Letter f of the GDPR to verify your registration and resolve any abuse of your personal data.

If you confirm your press release registration, we will save your email address and, if applicable, any additional data provided by you in accordance with Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 Letter f of the GDPR to send you our press mailing list.

You may revoke your consent to our press releases at any time by unsubscribing. You may declare your revocation by clicking on the links provided in every newsletter or by contacting us by email at the contact details provided in our imprint.

Please note that we will capture whether you open our emails and the links you click in our press releases. To perform this assessment, our emails include so-called web beacons or tracking pixels, i.e., small one-pixel files with user IDs. This allows us to compile anonymous statistics on the reach of our press releases to define the main focus of their contents.

Processing is performed on the basis of Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 Letter f of the GDPR and to optimize our services.

You can prevent this tracking by deactivating image displays in your email program. However, in this case, the press mailing will not be displayed to you fully and you may not be able to use every function. If you click a link in the press mailing despite deactivating images, your clicks will be tracked. If you display images manually, this tracking will be performed to the full extent.

1.9 Contacting Us by Email or Through Our Contact Form

When contacting us by email, we will save the data you submit (your email address and, if applicable, your name and telephone number) to answer your inquiries.

When contacting us through our contact form, the following information is necessary:  your email address, your name, your title, your position, your companies name, and phone number. We will store this information in our cloud-based CRM System called Bitrix24. The server is hosted by Amazon Web Services and located is Frankfurt, Germany. The data submitted through our contact form will be transmitted to our server by your browser using encryptions (TLS).

1.10 Email distribution via Mailchimp

For sending out our newsletters, press releases, update notifications, invitations to our online surveys as well as for all sort of customer communication we use „Mailchimp“, a US-based platform of The Rocket Science Group LLC, 675 Ponce de Leon Ave NE, Suite 5000, Atlanta, GA 30308 USA (hereafter: ”Mailchimp“). Mailchimp uses the data stated above on our behalf to provide you with our information. In this course, your data will be stored on the server in the US. Furthermore, Mailchimp uses the data to optimize their services. However, Mailchimp will neither contact you directly nor provide the data to any third party. Mailchimp is subject to the EU-US Privacy Shield: https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework. Furthermore, we have signed a data processing agreement incorporating EU Standard Contractual Clauses with Mailchimp. You will find further information on the purpose and scope of the data processing under https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/.

1.11 WordPress Plugins

1.11.1 WPML Translation

WPML uses cookies to identify the visitor’s current language, the last visited language and the language of users who have logged in.

While you use the plugin, WPML will share data regarding the site through Installer. No data from the user itself will be shared.

1.11.2 Really Simple SSL

Really Simple SSL and Really Simple SSL add-ons do not process any personal identifiable information, so the GDPR does not apply to these plugins or usage of these plugins on your website. You can find our privacy policy here.

2. Using Our Portals

To use our portals as part of a contractual relationship with us, you must log in using your username and password.

2.1 Log Files

During each access to our portal pages, user data will be transmitted through the respective Internet browser and saved in log files, respective databases or respective files. The data saved thereby includes the following: time and date of access, name of accessed page, IP address, referrer URL (origin of the URL from which you navigated to the respective page), volume of data transferred and product and version information of the browser used. User IP addresses will be deleted regularly.

The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 Letter f of the GDPR. Processing of this data is necessary to ensure security, enable analysis and optimization of our portals.

2.2 Web Analysis

2.2.1 Google Analytics

Our portals use Google Analytics. For more information, please see Section 1.2. In addition to standard settings of Google Analytics certain individual “events” are set up in various portals. Events are user interactions with content, which can be captured independently of loading of a website or a screen (e.g. downloads, usage of specific functions etc.). The legal basis for this data collection is Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 Letter f of the GDPR. Processing of this data is necessary to enable analysis and optimization of our portals.

2.2.2 Application-specific Web Analysis

As soon as you log in, the following personal data will be processed on the portals:

  • Name
  • email
  • Login date

After Sales ACCESS Database

In addition to the above-stated information, we will record further user specific data, such as the data and time of the login, session duration, Dashboard opens, applied and saved filters, date and time of document exports including the number of exported data sets. Furthermore, we use cookies on our portal (cf. Section 1.2). These are so-called functional cookies that allow us to save information about your settings (such as your preferred calendar view).

3. Data Processing for Market Research

3.1 Online panel

In the case you agreed to participate in our online panel, we will send you invitations to our online surveys on a regular basis. For sending the invitations we use the services of MailChimp (see Section 1.10). If you click the link provided in the invitation, you will be forwarded to our online survey. We use a service “SurveyMonkey”, the survey platform of SurveyMonkey Inc., One Curiosity Way, San Mateo, CA 94403, US (hereinafter: “SurveyMonkey”) as our online panel provider. In the course of the online surveys, SurveyMonkey collects the data stated in Section 1.1 as well as data on your user behavior in the online survey (e.g. duration of the survey, visited sites within the survey, participation in our incentive program). Purpose of this data processing is quality assurance as well as the creation of a user profile in order to tailor online surveys to your individual interests.

The legal basis for this data processing is Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 Letter f of the GDPR.

SurveyMonkey saves your data mentioned above also on its servers in the US. SurveyMonkey, however, will not contact you on its own and will not disclose your data to third parties without a respective legal justification. SurveyMonkey is subject to EU-US Privacy Shield https://www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework. In addition, we have signed a data processing agreement with SurveyMonkey based on EU Standard Contractual Clauses. Further information as to the purpose and scope of data processing by SurveyMonkey can be found at https://de.surveymonkey.com/mp/legal/privacy-policy/. Should SurveyMonkey transfer your personal data to its subcontractors in other third countries, SurveyMonkey guarantees that an adequate security level is ensured base on adequacy decisions in accordance with Art. 45 of the GDPR or sufficient guarantees are provided based on Art. 46 of the GDPR.

The legal basis for this data processing is Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 Letter b of the GDPR.

  1. Participation in sweepstakes or similar promotions

Should you participate in our sweepstakes or similar promotions (e.g. distribution of free trade fair tickets, conducting an interview for our newsletter), we process personal data you provide us within this context only and to the extent necessary for the purposes of a respective promotion.

The legal basis for this data processing is Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 Letter b of the GDPR.

  1. Data Transfer

We will only provide the personal data we collect to third parties if doing so is permitted under the privacy law. Please see the provisions above for specific information on the scope and recipients. Otherwise, we will provide your personal data to only those other companies and individuals we have commissioned to perform individual tasks and services for us. The transfer of your personal data to such companies is limited to the extent required for the performance of their activities. These companies are bound to adhere to privacy regulations and were carefully selected and are regularly monitored by us. Apart from that, we will only disclose your personal data to third parties if we are required to do so by law or court order.

  1. Data Security

We will take measures to protect your data from unauthorized access, loss, abuse, and destruction. However, please note that data transfers via the Internet (e.g., email communication) may bear security flaws. End-to-end protection of data from third-party access is not possible.

Personal data will only be saved for the period required for achieving the storage purpose or that is mandated by law. Accordingly, personal data is routinely blocked or deleted once the storage purpose no longer applies or the legally required storage period expires.

  1. Your Rights

You are entitled to the following rights against Wolk & Nikolic Aftersales Intelligence GmbH  regarding your personal data collected by us:

  • Right to be informed
  • Right to rectification or to erasure
  • Right to restrict processing
  • Right to object to processing
  • Right to data portability

If you consent to the processing of your personal data, you may revoke your consent at any time. However, doing so will not affect the legitimacy of data processing performed with your consent prior to your revocation.

If we can base the processing of your personal data on legitimate interest assessment (Art. 6 (1) Sentence 1 Letter f of the GDPR), you may object to the processing. When submitting such objections, please state the reasons as to why we should no longer process your personal data in this manner. If your objections are legitimate, we will review the matter and either suspend or adjust the processing or explain our reasons for continuing to process your data.

You may, of course, object to the processing of your personal data for advertising or data analysis purposes at any time. You may inform us about your objections at: Wolk & Nikolic Aftersales Intelligence GmbH, Sachsenring 69, 50677 Köln, Germany, email: info@wolk-aftersales.de.

Furthermore, you may submit complaints to the data protection supervisory authorities about our processing of your personal data.

The controller in the sense of Art. 4 (7) of the GDPR is the  Wolk & Nikolic Aftersales Intelligence GmbH, Sachsenring 69, 50677 Köln, Germany, email: info@wolk-aftersales.de. (see our imprint). You may contact our data protection officer through our postal address with the addition “Data Protection Officer.”