Privacy & Data Policy
The online platform www.mycitysecret.com (hereinafter referred to as “MCS”) is an interactive city portal, which offers different businesses the opportunity to advertise. Additionally, registered users are able to publish content (e.g. comments or “Secrets”) free of charge, communicate with other users, make new friends, cultivate an exchange of views on particular topics of interest, etc.
For this, our service encourages contact between registered users in the chosen areas and relies on registered users providing personal details to a limited extent, which are then made available to other users for clearly defined purposes.
MCS takes data protection very seriously and always seeks to use and acquire personal data in a manner compliant with the relevant data protection legislation. MCS wishes to use these data protection guidelines to explain which data is vital and how you may enjoy extra benefits by providing additional details voluntarily.
Using your Details
We collect data from you in the following instances:
- Membership of the community
- Purchase of gift vouchers
- Application for the MYCITYSECRET card
- Making electronic payments
- Subscribing to messages (newsletters, RSS feeds, reminders)
- Participating in online competitions and voting
- Sending of additional information
So that the services of MCS can function correctly and that your privacy may be protected, MCS collects and process certain personal data, which must be provided during registration. These data are:
- Username
- Password
- Email address
- Title
- First name
- Surname
- Gender
- Date of birth
You may also provide the following information:
- Photograph or icon
- Interests
- Address
- Favourite secrets
Furthermore, data may be collected and stored relating to any electronic payments processed.
Aim of Collecting and Using the Data in accordance with § 13, Paragraph 1 of the Telemedia Act
Collecting this data only serves to enable us to provide you with a user-friendly, efficient and secure Internet service. We use and process the personal data collected for the purpose of transmitting information to third parties within the framework of the Mycitysecret.com community and for sending out newsletters to users that have chosen to receive these. We, or course, take every care to ensure that all applicable data protection legislation is observed, particularly the Federal Data Protection Act (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz) and the German Telemedia Act. Apart from this, we also process the data to enable us to improve our Internet service and the security of our site.
Consent
We shall document the consent you give us to collect and store data. If needs be, we shall inform you as to how and when you have given us this consent.
We shall only collect data which we need to enable you to participate in a service. If you fail to give your consent, you must realise that you will be unable to participate in that service. If the application or service is available for a limited period only, MCS will delete your details after that application or service has expired.
After receiving your consent, MCS is entitled to collect, process and use your personal details, profile data and demographic information with the following aims:
- recording registered users in the MCS community;
- sending information about products and services to users that have opted to receive such information;
- adjusting the products and services of MCS to tailor them to the needs and interests of users, improving advertising and conducting market research.
If you have subscribed to our newsletter or elected to receive additional information, you will be expressly asked to consent to this.
User Profiles
MCS may collect, store and evaluate further data in anonymised format, provided you do not raise any objection, for the purpose of making our services more attractive and interesting.
These data include, amongst other things, the type of Internet browser and operating system you are using, the domain name which referred you to the site, the number of visitors, the time spent browsing the site, the pages you visit, etc.
Additionally, MCS also uses the web analysis service, Google Analytics, from Google Inc. (”Google”) in order to design the web service in line with visitors’ needs. The web analysis service uses cookies to achieve this (see the section on cookies).
The data is prepared and evaluated both in EU and non-EU countries (e.g. Google Analytics in the USA)
The web analysis services use the information received to assess Internet and website usage, to produce reports on website activity for MCS and to provide services associated with the additional usage of the Internet and website. If necessary, these web analysis services may transfer this information to a third party, as and where this is legally required or if a third party processes these data on behalf of a web analysis service.
Under no circumstances will a web analysis service associate your IP address with other data collected by the service. Your data will be collected and stored exclusively in an anonymised format and does not allow this to be traced back to you as a real person. MCS only receives anonymised analysis.
Transmission to Third Parties
On certain parts of Mycitysecret.com, you have the option of publishing information about yourself, your interests, your favourite secrets, etc., and to make this visible to third parties (other registered users) on the website. The essence of the service provided by MCS is publishing personal data within the context of a closed community for registered members. You may decide the extent to which your personal data is used on www.mycitysecret.com. You submit such data on a voluntary basis and the data enable other registered users of the website to get to know you. The data you volunteer will be made freely available to all registered users via the website in the places provided for this.
Aside from this, we shall only transmit a user’s personal data to a third party if and when this is necessary to implement the existing contractual relationship with you, if we are legally obliged to do so or if this is necessary to comply with these General Terms and Conditions of Use or any other agreements concluded with you, or to ensure our rights and claims are maintained.
In cases where your personal data is to be transmitted for reasons other than those stated here, you will be asked for your consent on every occasion. If you refuse to give your consent to this, then the data will, of course, not be transmitted. This may, however, mean that we cannot provide our services to you.
Cookies
We use so-called cookies on this site. These are small text files which are saved on your hard drive and which enable data relating to your website usage to be collected in an anonymised format. For this, data such as IP address, language choice, basic website settings, browser type and version, URL clickstream (i.e. which pages on our site you have visited and in which order), date and time of the visit and cookie number are collected.
Using cookies allows us to recognise you anonymously whenever you revisit our Internet site. This makes it possible for us to tailor our website and services to best suit the individual needs and interests of users.
If you do not wish to accept cookies, you can set your browser to delete them from your computer, to block them or to warn you before a cookie is saved. We cannot guarantee, however, that these settings will allow you to use our services without any problems.
Therefore, we recommend that you enable cookies so as to be able to use our website with ease.
Web Analysis Services (e.g. Google Analytics)
In principle, you may use the MCS website without the need to register. However, as part of our market research and for the purpose of improving our site, we create a so-called anonymous user profile for each user of our site based on his or her surfing habits.
This covers data, for example, on the website which referred the user to our site, the name of the user’s Internet service provider, which pages the user visits on our site and how long the user remains per visit. An anonymous user profile is created based on this anonymised data.
To do this, we use Google Analytics, a web analysis service provided by Google Inc. (”Google”).
Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States . Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.
Use of Facebook social Plugins
Our website uses so-called social plugins (”Plugins”) of the facebook.com social network, a product operated by Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA (”Facebook”). The plugins are marked with a Facebook logo or the words “Facebook social Plugin”.
If you visit a Web page of our site, which contains such a plugin your browser starts to build a direct connection to the servers of Facebook. The contents of the plugin is from Facebook directly to your browser and from that incorporated in the website.
By integrating the plugin Facebook receives information that you have opened the respective page on our website. If you are logged into Facebook, Facebook can assign to visit your Facebook account. If you interact with the plugins, for example, the “Like” button or press to comment, the corresponding information is sent directly from your browser and stored on Facebook.
Purpose and scope of data collection and further processing and use of data by Facebook, and your rights and settings refer to the protection of your privacy please see the privacy notices of Facebook.
If you do not want that Facebook collects information about you through our website, you must log out of Facebook before you visit our website.
Right to Information
You may receive information about the data we hold on you at any time. To see a copy of this information, please write to us at:
MYCITYSECRET GmbH
Speicherstraße 33
60327 Frankfurt
Germany
or send an email to: info@mycitysecret.com
Right of Revocation
You may also withdraw your consent for MCS to collect and save your personal data at any time. To do so, please write to us at:
MYCITYSECRET GmbH
Speicherstraße 33
60327 Frankfurt
Germany
or send an email to: info@mycitysecret.com; alternatively, please use the contact form on our website. Please understand that by withdrawing your consent, we shall no longer be able to provide you with certain services, e.g. community, newsletter or competitions.
Additional Information Concerning Data Protection
Please remember that whenever you make personal information available online (e.g. in community posts, by email or in forums), this information may be collected and used by others. As a result, you may receive unsolicited messages from other people if you give out your personal information in areas which others can access. Always be cautious and responsible and ensure that you keep your password and/or personal information secret.
We wish to draw your attention to the fact that data transmission over the Internet (e.g. in email communication) is at risk from security vulnerabilities that may be exploited by unauthorised third parties.
Please refrain from using the contact details given in the Imprint for advertising purposes, unless the provider has previously given his or her express permission or already has a business relationship with the company. The operator of this website and any persons named in it disagree with using and transmitting your data for commercial purposes.
Security
We take technical and organisational security precautions to ensure that personalised user data are protected against loss, unauthorised alterations and access by third parties. In our company, only authorised persons have access to personalised user data, and this access is limited to the degree necessary to achieve the aforementioned objectives only. The security measures used on this site are continually updated.
Data Protection Policy
If you still have questions concerning data protection at MCS, please do not hesitate to contact our data protection officer by email at: dataprotection@mycitysecret.com.
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