Data Privacy

Data protection information for ANDREAS STIHL AG & Co.KG 

(Stand May 2024)

We are providing the following information to inform you about how ANDREAS STIHL AG & Co.KG (hereinafter referred to as “STIHL”) processes personal data in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation. If you have any questions or comments about this data protection information, you can send them to us at any time via the email address specified under Section 2.

Contents

1. Overview

The following data protection information includes details about the nature and scope of STIHL’s processing of what is referred to as personal data. Personal data is information that are or can be directly or indirectly attributed to you.

2. Name and contact details of the Controller and the Data Protection Officer

This data protection information applies to data processing by ANDREAS STIHL AG & Co.KG, Badstraße 115, 71336 Waiblingen Germany (the “Controller”) as part of the STIHL brand portal. The STIHL Data Protection Officer can be contacted at the above address, FAO: Data Protection Department or at datenschutz@stihl.de.

3. Purposes of data processing, legal bases and legitimate interests pursued by STIHL or a third party as well as categories of recipients

3.1 Accessing the website

When you visit the brandportal.stihl.com. website, the browser on your end device automatically sends information to the server of our website and temporarily saves it in what is called a log file. The following information is also collected without your intervention and stored until it is deleted automatically:

  • the IP address of the internet-enabled device accessing the website,
  • the date and time of access,
  • the name and URL of the file retrieved,
  • the website from which the website was accessed (referrer URL),
  • the browser you are using and, if applicable, the operating system of your internet-enabled computer and the name of your access provider.

The legal basis for processing the IP address is point f of Article 6(1) GDPR. Our legitimate interest arises from the data collection purposes listed below.

We use the IP address of your end device and the other data listed above for the following purposes:

  • to ensure an uninterrupted connection,
  • to guarantee convenient use of our website/application,
  • to evaluate system security and stability.

The log files are not saved, but are deleted immediately. We also use cookies for our website as described in more detail in Section 3.3.1 below.

3.2. Use of the brand portal

In order to use the brand portal, it is necessary to authenticate your identity using the relevant access data requested when using the STIHL brand portal. When you log in, we process the following information:

  • email address
  • password
  • time and content of a search query
  • time of a file download

Your data is collected exclusively for the purposes of completing the login process and providing our brand portal content. The legal basis for this is our legitimate interest in guaranteeing adequate access protection, point f of Article 6(1) GDPR.

3.3. Online presence and website optimisation

3.3.1. Cookies – General information

In order to make our website more attractive to visitors and to enable the use of certain functions, we use cookies on various pages of our website. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your end device. Some of the cookies we use are deleted at the end of the browser session, i.e. as soon as you close your browser (session cookies). Other cookies remain on your computer and allow us or our partner companies to recognise your computer on your next visit (long-term cookies). Cookies cannot be used to access other files on your computer or to reveal your email address.

The cookies listed in the Cookie Information are used on this website.

Where we use cookies that are absolutely necessary for the provision of our webpages, the legal basis for the processing of personal data using these cookies is point f of Article 6(1) GDPR.

Personal data is only processed by cookies for marketing purposes or for the compilation of statistics if you have given us your consent to do so. The legal basis for this is point a of Article 6(1) GDPR.

You can withdraw your consent at any time without giving reasons via the following link, by adjusting the permitted functions

Cookies are stored on your device and you have full control over their use. You can deactivate or restrict the transmission of cookies by changing the settings for your internet browser. Cookies that are already stored can be deleted at any time. This can also be done automatically. If cookies are deactivated for our webpages, you may no longer be able to make full use of all the functions of the webpages.

3.3.2. Web analytics with Google Analytics

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway Mountain View, CA 94043, USA ("Google"). The responsible body for users in the EU/EEA and Switzerland is Google Ireland Limited, Google Building Gordon House, 4 Barrow St, Dublin, Ireland, 1600. Google Analytics uses cookies that allow us to analyse your use of the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website is usually transmitted to and stored on Google servers in the United States.

The STIHL website uses Google Analytics with the “anonymize IP” extension. This means that your IP address is collected by the Google Analytics cookie and truncated by Google within European Union member states or in other signatory states to the Agreement on the European Economic Area before being transferred to the USA. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the United States and truncated there. Google will use this information on behalf of STIHL 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 use. The IP address transmitted by your browser in connection with Google Analytics will not be associated with any other data held by Google.

The legal basis for the processing of personal data using cookies is point a of Article 6(1) GDPR. You can withdraw this consent at any time as described above by adjusting your cookie preferences.

You can also delete cookies that have already been saved at any time in your browser’s settings. However if you do so, you may no longer be able to make full use of all the functions of the website.

You can find more detailed information on the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy at  www.google.com/analytics/terms/de.html or at
www.google.com/intl/de/analytics/privacyoverview.html

3.3.3. Moving Image

Some of our pages contain video content provided by the “MovingImage” service commissioned for this purpose by the provider movingimage EVP GmbH, Stralauer Allee 7, 10245 Berlin, Germany.

When you access the respective embedded video, your connection data such as your IP address and information about the end device you are using is transmitted to the provider’s servers and various cookies are applied. These cookies are strictly necessary to ensure the functionality of the respective pages. Your data will not be processed beyond the necessary extent.

The associated processing of your personal data takes place due to our interest in ensuring that our app has an appealing design, is more user-friendly, and can provide you with video content. This constitutes our legitimate interest pursuant to point 6 of Article 6(1) GDPR.

You can find further information about the provider in its privacy policy: https://www.movingimage.com/gtc/privacy-policy-of-movingimage-evp-gmbh/

3.4. Communication

We will also process your personal data, e.g. name, address, telephone number and the content of the notification, if you contact us by telephone, email, post, our contact forms or other means with a request or if we contact you. This information will only be processed for the purpose of handling your request correctly. We will only use your data to the extent necessary to fulfil the purpose for which it was collected. If necessary, e.g. because your request concerns the ordering of printed matter held by another STIHL Group company, or as part of our customer support service, your data will be passed on to this other STIHL Group company if and to the extent that this is necessary for processing your request. The legal basis for the processing of the data described above is point b of Article 6(1) GDPR, insofar as this is connected with the initiation or fulfilment of a contract with you, e.g. in the case of complaints, or on the basis of point f of Article 6(1) GDPR, as we have a legitimate interest in communicating with you for business purposes.

Communication data will be deleted when it is no longer required for communication with you and once any statutory retention periods have expired.

Telephone calls with our customer support team will only be recorded with your prior consent for quality assurance or training purposes, and will be deleted after a maximum of 90 days. Consent to the recording of the call is, of course, voluntary. You can withdraw your consent at any time with future effect, for example by asking the employee to cancel the recording over the phone. Your data is processed on the basis of your consent (point a of Article 6(1) GDPR).

We use service providers for our customer support services with whom we have concluded corresponding data processing agreements pursuant to Article 28 GDPR.

3.5. Statistical analysis

STIHL also processes the personal data collected in order to generate statistical analyses. These are used to optimize and enhance the products and services offered by STIHL, in particular as relates to product features, product safety, service quality, marketing and optimizing the dealer network. We only use your personal data to generate analyses to the extent this is necessary for the aforementioned purposes. Whenever possible, the data is pseudonymized or anonymized before it is used. STIHL also combines the aforementioned data with information on meteorological and/or geographical attributes from other data sources such as weather and map services to increase the statistical power of the analyses. The results of the analyses are used in aggregated form only and may also be transferred in this form to other affiliates of STIHL for the aforementioned purposes. No customer-specific analyses are performed unless the customer has explicitly consented to them. The legal basis for processing the above-described data is Article 6(1) sentence 1(f) GDPR.

4. Data transfer

Certain processing operations are performed by companies within the STIHL Group. For this reason, data is regularly transferred within the group of companies. As a rule, the transfer of the data takes place on the basis of a data processing agreement. In other cases, e.g. for the analysis of aggregated data for market research purposes, the legal basis for the data transfer is point f of Article 6(1) GDPR, whereby our legitimate interest lies in efficient design of our processes.

If we transfer your data to a recipient domiciled outside the European Union or the European Economic Area, the data is transferred on the basis of an adequacy decision by the EU Commission or on the basis of other suitable safeguards, particularly including standard contractual clauses adopted by the EU Commission.

5. Your Rights

5.1. OVERVIEW

In addition to the right to withdraw the consent you have given us, you also have the following rights if the respective legal requirements are met:

  • Right to information about your personal data stored by us in accordance with Art. 15 GDPR
  • Right to rectification of incorrect data or to completion of correct data in accordance with Art. 16 GDPR
  • Right to erasure of your data stored by us in accordance with Art. 17 GDPR insofar as no legal or contractual retention periods or other legal obligations or rights for further storage apply
  • Right to restriction of the processing of your data in accordance with Art. 18 GDPR
  • Right to data portability in accordance with Art. 20 GDPR
  • Right to submit complaints to a supervisory authority.

5.2. Right to object

Under the conditions set forth in Article 21(1) GDPR, a data subject may object to the processing of your data processing on grounds relating to their particular situation.

The above general right to object applies to all processing purposes described in this data protection information which are based on point f of Article 6(1) GDPR. Unlike the specific right to object to data processing for advertising purposes, we are only obliged to implement such a general objection under the GDPR if you can cite reasons of overriding importance.

6. Amendments to this Policy

We will revise this Privacy Policy in the event of changes to this website or due to other events that make it necessary. However, the latest version of the Policy will always be available on this website. We therefore recommend that you visit this website regularly to check the current status of the Privacy Policy.