Effective date: August 1, 2024
Your privacy is important to us at the Germanic-American Institute (GAI). The GAI (“us”, “we”, or “our”) operates the gaimn.org website (the “website”).
This policy informs you of our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal data when you use our website and the choices you have associated with that data.
We use your data to provide and improve the website. By using the website, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this policy. Unless otherwise defined in this Privacy Policy, terms used in this Privacy Policy have the same meanings as in our Terms and Conditions.
Information Collection and Use
We collect several different types of information for various purposes to provide and improve our website to you.
Types of Data Collected
Personal Data: While using our website, we may ask you to provide us with certain personally identifiable information that can be used to contact or identify you (“Personal Data”). Personally identifiable information may include, but is not limited to:
- Cookies and Usage Data
Usage Data: We may also collect information how the website is accessed and used (“Usage Data”). This Usage Data may include information such as your computer’s Internet Protocol address (e.g. IP address), browser type, browser version, the pages of our website that you visit, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, unique device identifiers and other diagnostic data.
Tracking and Cookies Data
We use cookies and similar tracking technologies to track the activity on our website and hold certain information.
Cookies are files with small amounts of data which may include an anonymous unique identifier. Cookies are sent to your browser from a website and stored on your device. Tracking technologies also used are beacons, tags, and scripts to collect and track information and to improve and analyze our website.
You can instruct your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, if you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some portions of our website.
Examples of cookies we use:
- Session Cookies. We use Session Cookies to operate our Service.
- Preference Cookies. We use Preference Cookies to remember your preferences and various settings.
- Security Cookies. We use Security Cookies for security purposes.
Use of Data
The GAI uses the collected data for various purposes:
- To provide and maintain the website
- To notify you about changes to our website
- To allow you to participate in interactive features of our website when you choose to do so
- To provide customer care and support
- To provide analysis or valuable information so that we can improve the website
- To monitor the usage of the website
- To detect, prevent and address technical issues
Transfer of Data
Your information, including Personal Data, may be transferred to — and maintained on — computers located outside of your state, province, country or other governmental jurisdiction where the data protection laws may differ than those from your jurisdiction.
If you are located outside the United States and choose to provide information to us, please note that we transfer the data, including Personal Data, to the United States and process it there.
Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer.
The GAI will take all steps reasonably necessary to ensure that your data is treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and no transfer of your Personal Data will take place to an organization or countries other than the U.S. unless there are adequate controls in place including the security of your data and other personal information.
Disclosure of Data
Legal Requirements
The GAI may disclose your Personal Data in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to:
- To comply with a legal obligation
- To prevent or investigate possible wrongdoing in connection with the website
- To protect the personal safety of users of the website or the public
- To protect against legal liability
Security of Data
The security of your data is important to us, but remember that no method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage is 100% secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
Service Providers
We may employ third party companies and individuals to facilitate our website (“Service Providers”), to provide the service on our behalf, to perform service-related services or to assist us in analyzing how our website is used.
These third parties have access to your Personal Data only to perform these tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose.
Analytics
We may use third-party Service Providers to monitor and analyze the use of our website.
- Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our Service. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.
You can opt-out of having made your activity on the Service available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. The add-on prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, and dc.js) from sharing information with Google Analytics about visits activity. For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms web page: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
Using Google-Adwords
For purposes of promotion, our Sites also employ the Google as tool “Google-Adwords”. As part of this, our Sites employ the analysis service “Conversion-Tracking” from Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheater Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA, hereinafter referred to as “Google”. If you access our site by way of a Google ad, a cookie is placed on your computer. These so-called “conversion cookies” cease to be active after 30 days and are not used to identify you personally. If you visit certain pages of our Sites while the cookie is still active, we and Google know that you, as user, have clicked on ads placed on Google and were redirected to our Sites. Google uses the information obtained through “conversion cookies” to compile statistics for our Sites. These statistics tell us the total number of users who have clicked on our ad as well as which pages of our Sites were then accessed by each user. However, neither we nor other advertisers who use “Google-Adwords” receive any kind of information that can be used to personally identify users. You can prevent the installation of “conversion cookies” by making the appropriate change to your browser settings, for example by setting your browser so that the automatic placement of cookies is deactivated or by blocking cookies from the domain “googleadservices.com”. You can obtain the relevant data privacy policy from Google at this link.
Links to other Sites
Our website may contain links to other sites that are not operated by us. If you click on a third party link, you will be directed to that third party’s site. We strongly advise you to review the Privacy Policy of every site you visit. We have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, privacy policies or practices of any third party sites or services.
Using Stripe as a Payment Method
For the purpose to proceed with payments we use Stripe. Stripe is a service from Stripe, Inc, 185 Berry Street, Suite 550, San Francisco, CA 94197, USA. Your data will be sent to a server operated by Stripe, Inc in the United States. You can find more information about Stripe here.
Stripe also participates in and has certified its compliance with the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework. For more information and to view the Privacy Shield policy, go here.
Children’s Privacy
Our website does not address anyone under the age of 18 (“children”).
We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 18. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your children have provided us with Personal Data, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Data from children without verification of parental consent, we take steps to remove that information from our servers.
SMS Consent Disclaimer
By providing your phone number to the GAI, you agree and acknowledge that we may send text messages to your wireless phone number for any purpose. Message and data rates may apply. Message frequency will vary, and you will be able to Opt-out by replying “STOP”.
Mobile Privacy Policy
No mobile information will be shared with third parties/affiliates for marketing/promotional purposes. All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may update our Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new Privacy Policy on this page.
We will let you know via email and/or a prominent notice on our Service, prior to the change becoming effective and update the “effective date” at the top of this Privacy Policy.
You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any changes. Changes to this Privacy Policy are effective when they are posted on this page.
Contact Us: If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us by email: office@gai-mn.org