Some of the web pages of the above-named domain use social media plugins, in particular the following:

• "Facebook-I-Like" or "Facebook-Gefällt-mir": operated by: Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, United States
• "Google+1”: operated by: Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States
•  "Twitter”: operated by: Twitter, Inc., 795 Folsom St., Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94107, United States

Social plugins are software modules that are developed and made available by the social media services. They can be installed on web pages as is, to enable an automated communication (data exchange) between the web page and the social media services in accordance with their respective policies. As part of this communication, data are transferred dynamically from a social media service to one of our web pages, for example. On the other hand, at the same time, data from the user viewing our web pages are transferred to the social media service (e.g., that of the user's computer IP address). You will notice the use of social plugins on certain web pages. We would like to give you some information about them:

2-Step Solution to Ensure Privacy

Without additional measures, the social plugins (see above) use technical means that ensure that when viewing, or even loading, the page connected by the plugin, data (including personal data) are exchanged between the original website and the social media service (here, Facebook, Google, or Twitter). In these cases, the user has no option to decline this exchange of data.

To protect users of our web pages from this type of exchange of data, which is not subject to influence, and the transmission of data to the respective social media service, we have incorporated an appropriate technical precaution. This two-step solution gives users the opportunity, even after loading the page connected by the plugin, to agree to the use of each social media service (and thus to exchange data with this social media service). The basic setting of the 2-step solution does not transmit data to the social media services. This option may be decided case by case or permanently. A decision can be subsequently revised again. If you do not want a social media service to collect information about you through our web site, do not activate that social media by clicking the social plugin.

To permanently agree to data exchange between the website of the above-named domain and the relevant social media service, which requires a cookie on our part (see above), you should click on the button that is labeled as follows:

In the dialog box that opens, you can enable the exchange of data between the web pages of the above-mentioned domain and the relevant social media service, and you can also revise this again later.

By clicking on one of the specially marked buttons (see "Using the social plug-ins"), you agree to the above-mentioned one-time data exchange between the respective web page domain and the relevant social media service.

Using the Social Plugins

You will recognize the use of the Facebook plugin on a web page or subdomain of the above-named site, when you see the following button:

You will recognize the use of the Google plugin on a web page or subdomain of the above-named site, when you see the following button:

You will recognize the use of the Twitter plugin on a web page or subdomain of the above-named site, when you see the following button:

By clicking on one of these buttons you agree to the use of this plugin and therefore the transfer of personal data to the respective social media service. We have no control over the nature and scope of these transmitted data as well as their further processing. According to our current state of knowledge, the relevant social media service is informed of your IP address and that of the web page using the plugin. If you are simultaneously logged in to a social media service platform, that social media service is able to directly assign the information to your user profile.

In order to avoid such a collection of profile information about you, you should log out of each social media service platform. Data such as the IP address of the computer you are using will be transmitted in any regard.

For more information from Facebook about how to deal with the appropriate plugin and the corresponding social media service, refer to: http://developers.facebook.com/plugins. For more information on Facebook about its data use policy, please visit: http://www.facebook.com/about/privacy .

For more information from Google about how to deal with the appropriate plugin and the corresponding social media service, refer to: http://support.google.com/plus/bin/answer.py?hl=de&answer=1319578&rd=1. For more information on Google about its privacy policy, please visit: http://www.google.com/intl/policies/privacy.

For more information from Twitter about how to deal with the appropriate plugin and the corresponding social media service, refer to: https://twitter.com/logo. For more information on Twitter about its data use policy, please visit: https://twitter.com/privacy.