Privacy policy

Privacy Policy

1. Access Data and Hosting
Hosting
2. Data Processing for Contract Fulfilment and Contact
2.1 Data Processing for Contract Fulfilment
2.2 Customer Account
Contact
3. Data Processing for Shipping Purposes
Data Transfer to Shipping Providers for the Purpose of Shipping Notifications
4. Data Processing for Payment Processing
4.1 Data Processing for Transaction Processing
4.2 Data Processing for the Purpose of Fraud Prevention and Optimizing Our Payment Processes
5. Email Advertising
Email Newsletters with Subscription
6. Cookies and Other Technologies
General Information
7. Use of Cookies and Other Technologies
7.1 Use of Google Services
7.2 Use of Meta Services
8. Social Media
8.1 Social Media Buttons from Instagram (by Meta) and WhatsApp
8.2 Our Online Presence on Instagram (by Meta)
9. Contact Information and Your Rights
9.1 Your Rights
9.2 Contact Information

The data controller is:

Adrian Förster

Elisabethstraße 28

15344 Strausberg

Email: info@piokiracandles.com

Phone: Germany

Thank you for your interest in our website. Protecting your privacy is very important to us. Below, we provide detailed information about how we handle your data.

1. Access Data and Hosting

You can visit our website without providing any personal information. Each time you access a webpage, the web server automatically stores a so-called server log file, which contains, for example, the name of the requested file, your IP address, the date and time of access, the amount of data transferred, and the requesting provider (access data), and documents the access. This access data is evaluated exclusively for the purpose of ensuring the smooth operation of the website and improving our offerings. This serves to safeguard our legitimate interests—which prevail following a balancing of interests—in the proper presentation of our offerings in accordance with Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR. All access data is processed only for as long as necessary to achieve the aforementioned processing purposes.

Hosting

The services for hosting and displaying the website are partially provided by our service providers as part of processing on our behalf. Unless otherwise specified in this Privacy Policy, all access data and all data collected via the forms provided on this website are processed on their servers. If you have any questions about our service providers or the basis of our collaboration with them, please contact us using the contact information provided in this Privacy Policy.

Our service providers are located in and/or use servers in the following countries, for which the European Commission has determined, by decision, that an adequate level of data protection exists: Canada, USA

The adequacy decision for the USA serves as the basis for transfers to third countries, provided that the respective service provider is certified. Certification in accordance with the European Commission’s decision is in place.

2. Data Processing for Contract Fulfilment and Establishing Contact

2.1 Data Processing for Contract Fulfilment

For the purpose of contract fulfillment (including inquiries regarding and the handling of any existing claims arising from warranty rights, rights arising from breach of contract, and the right of withdrawal, as well as any statutory obligations to provide updates) in accordance with Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR, we collect personal data when you voluntarily provide it to us as part of your order. Required fields are marked as such because, in these cases, we absolutely need the data to fulfill the contract, and we cannot ship the order without this information. The specific data collected is indicated on the respective input forms.

Further information regarding the processing of your data—in particular regarding its disclosure to our service providers for the purposes of order, payment, and shipping processing—can be found in the following sections of this Privacy Policy. Once the contract has been fully fulfilled, your data will be restricted for further processing and deleted after the expiration of the retention periods required by tax and commercial law in accordance with Art. 6(1), sentence 1, lit. c GDPR, unless you have expressly consented to further use of your data in accordance with Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR or we reserve the right to use your data beyond this scope, provided such use is permitted by law and we inform you of it in this policy.

2.2 Customer Account

To the extent that you have given your consent pursuant to Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR by choosing to open a customer account, we use your data for the purpose of opening the customer account and for storing your data for future orders on our website. You may delete your customer account at any time, either by sending a message via the contact method described in this Privacy Policy or by using the function provided for this purpose within your customer account. After your customer account is deleted, your data will be deleted unless you have expressly consented to the continued use of your data in accordance with Article 6(1), sentence 1, letter a of the GDPR, or we reserve the right to use your data for other purposes that are permitted by law and about which we inform you in this policy.

 

Contacting Us

As part of our customer communications, we collect personal data to process your inquiries in accordance with Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR if you voluntarily provide this data to us when contacting us (e.g., via a contact form, live chat tool, or email). Required fields are marked as such, as we absolutely need this data in these cases to process your inquiry. The specific data collected is indicated in the respective input forms.

Once your inquiry has been fully processed, your data will be deleted, unless you have expressly consented to further use of your data in accordance with Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR, or we reserve the right to use your data for other purposes that are permitted by law and about which we inform you in this statement.

3. Data Processing for Shipping Purposes

To fulfill the contract pursuant to Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR, we share your data with the shipping provider responsible for delivery, to the extent necessary to deliver the ordered goods. If you have any questions about our service providers and the basis of our cooperation with them, please contact us using the contact information provided in this Privacy Policy.

Disclosure of Data to Shipping Service Providers for the Purpose of Shipping Notifications

If you have given us your explicit consent for this during or after placing your order, we will, on this basis pursuant to Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR, share your email address and phone number with the selected shipping service provider so that it can contact you prior to delivery for the purpose of notifying you of the delivery or coordinating delivery details.
You may revoke your consent at any time by sending a message to the contact information provided in this Privacy Policy. Upon revocation, we will delete the data you provided for this purpose, unless you have expressly consented to further use of your data or we reserve the right to use your data beyond this scope, which is permitted by law and about which we inform you in this policy. If you have any questions about our service providers and the basis of our collaboration with them, please contact us using the contact information provided in this Privacy Policy.

4. Data Processing for Payment Processing

When processing payments in our online store, we work with the following partners: technical service providers, financial institutions, and payment service providers.

4.1 Data Processing for Transaction Processing

Depending on the selected payment method, we transfer the data necessary for processing the payment transaction to our technical service providers, the designated financial institutions, or the selected payment service provider, to the extent necessary to process the payment. This serves the purpose of fulfilling the contract in accordance with Article 6(1)(b) of the GDPR. In some cases, the payment service providers collect the data required for processing the payment themselves, e.g., on their own website or through technical integration into the ordering process. In such cases, the privacy policy of the respective payment service provider applies.

Depending on the selected payment method, data may be transferred to third countries outside the EU/EEA for which the European Commission has determined, by means of a decision, that an adequate level of data protection exists. To the extent that data is transferred to third countries outside the EU/EEA for which the European Commission has not issued a decision on an adequate level of data protection, the cooperation is based on the European Commission’s Standard Data Protection Clauses.

If you have any questions about our payment processing partners or the basis of our cooperation with them, please contact us using the contact information provided in this Privacy Policy.

4.2 Data Processing for the Purpose of Fraud Prevention and Optimizing Our Payment Processes

Where applicable, we provide the aforementioned service providers with additional data, which they use—together with the data necessary for processing the payment—for the purpose of fraud prevention and optimizing our payment processes (e.g., invoicing, handling disputed payments, and supporting accounting). In accordance with Art. 6(1)(f) of the GDPR, this serves to safeguard our legitimate interests—which prevail following a balancing of interests—in protecting ourselves against fraud and in ensuring efficient payment management.

5. Advertising via Email

Email Newsletter with Subscription

If you subscribe to our newsletter, we use the data required for this purpose or data you have provided separately to send you our email newsletter on a regular basis based on your consent pursuant to Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR. You may unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time by either sending a message to the contact address provided below or by clicking a link provided for this purpose in the newsletter. After you unsubscribe, we will remove your email address from the recipient list, unless you have expressly consented to the continued use of your data in accordance with Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR, or we reserve the right to use your data for other purposes that are permitted by law and about which we inform you in this statement.

6. Cookies and Other Technologies

General Information

To make your visit to our website more engaging and to enable the use of certain features, we use technologies—including so-called cookies—on various pages. Cookies are small text files that are automatically stored on your device. Some of the cookies we use are deleted at the end of the browser session, i.e., when you close your browser (so-called session cookies). Other cookies remain on your device and allow us to recognize your browser the next time you visit (persistent cookies). You can find the storage duration in the overview in your web browser’s cookie settings.

Privacy Protection on Devices

When you use our online services, we employ technologies that are strictly necessary to provide the explicitly requested digital service. The storage of information on your device or access to information already stored on your device does not require your consent in this regard.

For functions that are not strictly necessary, the storage of information on your device or access to information already stored on your device requires your consent. Please note that if you do not grant your consent, certain parts of the website may not be fully accessible. Any consent you have granted remains in effect until you adjust or reset the relevant settings on your device.

Any subsequent data processing via cookies and other technologies

We use technologies that are strictly necessary for the use of certain features of our website. These technologies collect and process your IP address, the time of your visit, device and browser information, as well as information regarding your use of our website. This is based on a balancing of interests, serving our overriding legitimate interests in optimizing the presentation of our offerings in accordance with Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR.

In addition, we use technologies to fulfill the legal obligations to which we are subject (e.g., to be able to demonstrate consent to the processing of your personal data) as well as for web analytics and online marketing. Further information on this, including the respective legal basis for data processing, can be found in the following sections of this Privacy Policy.

Cookie Settings

You can find the cookie settings for your browser at the following links: Microsoft Edge™ / Safari™ / Chrome™ / Firefox™ / Opera™

If you have consented to the use of these technologies pursuant to Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR, you may withdraw your consent at any time by sending a message to the contact address provided in this Privacy Policy.

7. Use of Cookies and Other Technologies

We use the following cookies and other third-party technologies on our website. Unless otherwise specified for individual technologies, this is based on your consent pursuant to Article 6(1)(a) of the GDPR. Once the purpose has been fulfilled and we have ceased using the respective technology, the data collected in this context will be deleted. You may withdraw your consent at any time with future effect. For more information on how to withdraw your consent, please see the section “Cookies and Other Technologies.” Further details, including the legal basis for our collaboration with the individual providers, can be found in the descriptions of the individual technologies. If you have any questions about the providers or the legal basis for our collaboration with them, please contact us using the contact information provided in this Privacy Policy.

7.1 Use of Google Services

We use the technologies described below from Google Ireland Ltd., Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland (“Google”). The information automatically collected by Google’s technologies regarding your use of our website is generally transmitted to a server operated by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA, and stored there. Unless otherwise specified for individual technologies, data processing is based on an agreement concluded between joint controllers for the respective technology in accordance with Article 26 of the GDPR. Further information about data processing by Google can be found in Google’s Privacy Policy.

Our service providers are located in and/or use servers in countries outside the EU and the EEA for which the European Commission has determined, by decision, that an adequate level of data protection exists.

Our service providers are located in and/or use servers in countries outside the EU and the EEA. No adequacy decision has been issued by the European Commission for these countries. Our collaboration with them is based on the European Commission’s Standard Data Protection Clauses.

 

Google Ads

For advertising purposes in Google search results and on third-party websites, the so-called Google remarketing cookie is set when you visit our website. This cookie enables interest-based advertising by automatically collecting and processing data (IP address, time of visit, device and browser information, and information about your use of our website) and using a pseudonymous cookie ID based on the pages you have visited. Any further data processing takes place only if you have enabled the “personalized ads” setting in your Google Account. If, in this case, you are logged into Google while visiting our website, Google uses your data together with Google Analytics data to create and define audience lists for cross-device remarketing.

For website analysis and event tracking, we use Google Ads Conversion Tracking to measure your subsequent usage behavior if you arrived at our website via a Google Ads advertisement.

 

For this purpose, cookies may be used and data (IP address, time of visit, device and browser information, as well as information about your use of our website based on events specified by us, such as visiting a webpage or subscribing to a newsletter) may be collected, from which usage profiles are created using pseudonyms.

7.2 Use of Meta Services

Meta Ads Manager

We use Meta Ads Manager to advertise this website on Facebook (by Meta) and other platforms. We determine the parameters of the respective advertising campaign. Meta Platforms Ireland is responsible for the actual implementation, in particular for deciding where to place the ads for individual users. Unless otherwise specified for the individual technologies, data processing is based on an agreement between joint controllers in accordance with Article 26 of the GDPR. Joint controllership is limited to the collection of data and its transmission to Meta Platforms Ireland. Subsequent data processing by Meta Platforms Ireland is not covered by this provision.

8. Social Media

8.1 Social Buttons from Instagram (by Meta) and WhatsApp

Our website uses social media buttons from social networks. These are embedded in the page solely as HTML links, meaning that no connection to the respective provider’s servers is established when you visit our website. If you click on one of the buttons, the website of the respective social network will open in a new browser window, where you can, for example, click the “Like” or “Share” button.

8.2 Our Online Presence on Instagram (by Meta)

To the extent that you have given your consent to the respective social media operator in accordance with Art. 6(1)(a) of the GDPR, your data will be automatically collected and stored for market research and advertising purposes when you visit our online presence on the aforementioned social media platforms; this data is used to create usage profiles using pseudonyms. These profiles may be used, for example, to display advertisements—both on and off the platforms—that are presumed to match your interests. Cookies are typically used for this purpose. For detailed information on the processing and use of data by the respective social media operator, as well as contact information, your rights in this regard, and settings to protect your privacy, please refer to the providers’ privacy policies linked below. If you still need assistance in this regard, please contact us.

Instagram (by Meta) is a service provided by Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd., Block J, Serpentine Avenue, Dublin 4, Ireland (“Meta Platforms Ireland”). The information automatically collected by Meta Platforms Ireland regarding your use of our online presence on Instagram is generally transmitted to and stored on a server operated by Meta Platforms, Inc., 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA. Data processing in connection with a visit to an Instagram (by Meta) fan page is based on an agreement between joint controllers pursuant to Article 26 of the GDPR. Further information (information on Insights data) can be found here.

Our service providers are located in and/or use servers in the following countries for which the European Commission has determined, by decision, that an adequate level of data protection exists: Brazil, the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and Argentina.

The adequacy decision for the United States serves as the basis for transfers to third countries, provided that the respective service provider is certified. Certification is in place.

Our service providers are located in and/or use servers in the following countries: Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, and Mexico.
There is no adequacy decision by the European Commission for these countries. Our cooperation with you is based on the following safeguards: the European Commission’s Standard Data Protection Clauses.

9. Contact Information and Your Rights

9.1 Your Rights

As a data subject, you have the following rights:

  • pursuant to Art. 15 of the GDPR, the right to request information about your personal data processed by us to the extent specified therein;
  • pursuant to Art. 16 of the GDPR, the right to request the immediate rectification of inaccurate personal data or the completion of your personal data stored by us;
  • pursuant to Article 17 of the GDPR, the right to request the erasure of your personal data stored by us, unless further processing is
    • necessary for the exercise of the right to freedom of expression and information;
    • to comply with a legal obligation;
    • for reasons of public interest; or
    • to assert, exercise, or defend legal claims;
  • pursuant to Article 18 of the GDPR, the right to request the restriction of the processing of your personal data, provided that
    • you contest the accuracy of the data;
    • the processing is unlawful, but you oppose its erasure;
    • we no longer need the data, but you require it to assert, exercise, or defend legal claims; or
    • you have objected to the processing pursuant to Article 21 of the GDPR;
  • pursuant to Article 20 of the GDPR, the right to receive your personal data that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format, or to request its transmission to another controller;
  • pursuant to Article 77 of the GDPR, the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. As a general rule, you may contact the supervisory authority at your usual place of residence, place of work, or our corporate headquarters for this purpose.

Right to ObjectTo the extent that we process personal data as described above to safeguard our legitimate interests that prevail following a balancing of interests, you may object to this processing with future effect. If the processing is carried out for direct marketing purposes, you may exercise this right at any time as described above. If the processing is carried out for other purposes, you have the right to object only if there are grounds arising from your particular situation. Once you have exercised your right to object, we will no longer process your personal data for these purposes, unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing that override your interests, rights, and freedoms, or if the processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims. This does not apply if the processing is carried out for direct marketing purposes. In that case, we will no longer process your personal data for this purpose.

9.2 Contact Information

If you have any questions regarding the collection, processing, or use of your personal data, or if you wish to request information, correction, restriction, or erasure of data, as well as to revoke consent you have given or object to a specific use of your data, please contact us directly using the contact information provided in our legal notice.