Privacy Policy

The controller for data processing on this website is:

VALENESS
Sebastian Funke
Pestalozzistraße 1
48703 Stadtlohn
Germany

Email: info@valeness.com

There is no legal requirement for us to appoint a data protection officer. For all questions relating to data protection you can reach us at the address given above.

We process personal data in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG), the German Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act (TDDDG) and all other applicable provisions.

Processing only takes place where there is a legal basis for it: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR), the performance of a contract or pre-contractual measures (lit. b), a legal obligation (lit. c) or our legitimate interest (lit. f).

Your data are transmitted in encrypted form via TLS. You can recognise this by the padlock symbol in your browser's address bar.

This website runs on the Shopify platform. The contracting party for merchants in the European Economic Area is:

Shopify International Limited
Victoria Buildings, 2nd Floor, 1–2 Haddington Road
Dublin 4, D04 XN32, Ireland

Shopify processes the data on our behalf on the basis of a data processing agreement pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR. Processing by affiliated companies in Canada and the USA cannot be ruled out; it is safeguarded by the guarantees set out in section 12.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) and (f) GDPR (provision of the shop, secure and stable presentation).

Shopify's privacy information: shopify.com/legal/privacy

a) When you simply visit the website

When a page is called up, technical data transmitted by your browser are recorded automatically:

• shortened IP address
• browser type and version
• date and time of access
• previously visited page (referrer URL)
• device type and operating system

These data are technically necessary for the page to be delivered and serve to fend off attacks. They are not merged with other data.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in a secure, functioning shop).

b) When you place an order and in your customer account

• first and last name, delivery and billing address
• email address and, if you wish, telephone number
• order and payment data

We need these data in order to accept, deliver and invoice your order and to be able to reach you if we have questions.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of a contract) and, for the retention of invoice documents, additionally Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR (commercial and tax law obligations).

c) When you contact us

If you write to us by email or via one of our forms, we process the details you provide in order to answer your enquiry.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR where a contract or its initiation is concerned, otherwise Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.

We use cookies and comparable technologies. When you first visit, a notice appears through which you make your selection.

Necessary cookies are technically required for basic functions such as the basket and completing an order; they are set without consent pursuant to Section 25(2) TDDDG.

Preference, statistics and marketing cookies are only set if you give your express consent. Legal basis: Section 25(1) TDDDG in conjunction with Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR.

Consent management (Cookiebot): To obtain, document and manage your consent we use Cookiebot, a service provided by Usercentrics A/S, Havnegade 39, 1058 Copenhagen, Denmark. Cookiebot blocks scripts requiring consent until you have agreed, and stores your decision. In doing so, your IP address in shortened form and a consent key are processed and stored within the EU. The storage serves as proof of consent pursuant to Art. 7(1) GDPR.

You can change or withdraw your consent at any time via the cookie notice. The following overview is updated automatically and lists all cookies used on this website together with their purpose, provider and duration:

All the services named in this section run exclusively with your consent pursuant to Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. You can withdraw your consent at any time via the cookie notice; the lawfulness of the processing carried out up to that point remains unaffected.

Google Analytics 4

We use Google Analytics 4, a web analytics service provided by Google Ireland Ltd., Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland.

Google Analytics 4 records how our website is used — for example the pages called up, the products viewed and basket and order processes. Cookies are set in the process and a randomly assigned identifier is processed. IP addresses are generally shortened and not stored; processing on servers in the USA cannot be ruled out.

Further information: policies.google.com/privacy

Google Ads (conversion tracking and remarketing)

We place adverts via Google Ads, a service provided by Google Ireland Ltd., Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland.

With conversion tracking we record whether an order was placed after a click on one of our adverts. For remarketing, an identifier is stored so that our adverts can be shown to you again later on other websites and in Google services. Both take place via cookies and comparable technologies.

Further information: policies.google.com/privacy

Google Merchant Center

Via the Google & YouTube channel of our shop system we transmit product data to the Google Merchant Center (Google Ireland Ltd.) so that our items can appear in Google Search and in Google Shopping. In addition, it is measured which products were viewed or purchased after being called up via a Google listing.

Meta pixel (Facebook and Instagram)

We use the Meta pixel provided by Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd., 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland.

This allows us to see whether someone completed an order after clicking on one of our adverts on Facebook or Instagram, and to target adverts more precisely. Meta also processes data in the USA.

Further information: facebook.com/about/privacy

Depending on the payment method chosen, we use the following providers to process payments:

• Shopify Payments (credit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Shop Pay) — Shopify International Ltd., Dublin, Ireland
• PayPal — PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A., 22–24 Boulevard Royal, 2449 Luxembourg
• Klarna — Klarna Bank AB (publ), Sveavägen 46, 111 34 Stockholm, Sweden

These providers only receive the data required for the payment process and process them on their own responsibility in accordance with their own privacy policies. Credit card details are never stored by us. For some payment methods Klarna carries out a credit check; Klarna sets out the details in its own information.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of a contract).

To deliver your order we pass on your name, delivery address and — where necessary for delivery notification — your email address or telephone number to the shipping service provider engaged. We mostly ship with GLS Germany GmbH & Co. OHG, GLS-Germany-Straße 1–7, 36286 Neuenstein.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of a contract).

You can sign up for our newsletter via the sign-up field on our website. For this we process your email address as well as the time and technical data of the sign-up and the confirmation.

Confirmation procedure (double opt-in): After you sign up we send you an email with a confirmation link. Only once you click this link do we add you to the mailing list. This ensures that no one is signed up using someone else's address. The sign-up and the confirmation are logged so that consent can be evidenced.

Welcome discount: After confirmation you receive a one-off discount code by email.

Content: We provide information about new products, offers and topics relating to training and equipment.

Dispatch: The newsletter is sent via Shopify Email, a service provided by Shopify International Ltd., Dublin, Ireland. It may be recorded whether an email has been opened and which links have been clicked, in order to improve the content.

Unsubscribing: You can unsubscribe at any time — via the unsubscribe link at the end of every newsletter or informally by email to info@valeness.com. After you unsubscribe we delete your address from the mailing list; we retain the record of the original consent for the purposes of legal defence.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR (consent) and, for the logging, additionally Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (evidencing consent).

You can reach us directly via the contact form and the withdrawal form. The forms run via Shopify's form function; the details are then delivered to our mailbox as an email.

With the withdrawal form we also record the time of submission, because we are required to confirm receipt of your withdrawal with the date and time pursuant to Section 356a of the German Civil Code (BGB). This confirmation is generated and sent automatically. No automated decision is made about your withdrawal — it is reviewed and processed by us personally.

Our email mailbox is operated via Microsoft 365 (Microsoft Ireland Operations Ltd., One Microsoft Place, South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18, Ireland) and is used on the basis of a data processing agreement pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance and handling of a contract) and, for documenting the withdrawal, additionally Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR (legal obligation).

Product reviews (Ryviu)

We display customer reviews on our product pages. For this we use the service Ryviu Product Reviews, operated by:

Orionix Technology Company Limited
No. 98 Bac Son Street, Group 10, Hoang Van Thu Ward
Thai Nguyen, Vietnam

When a product page is called up, a connection to the provider's servers is established in order to display the reviews, and your IP address is transmitted in the process. If you submit a review yourself, we additionally process the details you provide.

Vietnam is a country outside the European Economic Area for which there is no adequacy decision by the European Commission. Further details can be found in section 12.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in meaningful product information) and, when you submit a review yourself, Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR.

Review invitations (Trustpilot)

After a purchase in our shop we invite you by email to rate your experience. The dispatch and the review platform are operated by:

Trustpilot A/S
Pilestræde 58, 5th floor
1112 Copenhagen, Denmark

For this purpose we transmit your name, your email address and the order number, and for product reviews also the items purchased. You receive the invitation a few days after your order; if you do not submit a review, a single reminder follows. After that we will not contact you again about this matter.

You can object to receiving these emails at any time — via the unsubscribe link in the invitation or informally to info@valeness.com. You will not incur any disadvantages as a result.

You submit the review itself on the Trustpilot platform; Trustpilot is independently responsible for this and its privacy information applies. We can neither delete nor alter individual reviews.

These invitations relate exclusively to orders placed through our own shop. Purchases via marketplaces such as Amazon are not covered.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in feedback on our service) in conjunction with Section 7(3) of the German Act Against Unfair Competition (UWG).

Some of the services used also process data outside the European Economic Area, in particular in the USA, in Canada and in Vietnam.

For Canada there is an adequacy decision by the European Commission. For transfers to the USA we rely on the respective recipients' certification under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or on standard contractual clauses pursuant to Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR. For the transfer to the review service in Vietnam there is neither an adequacy decision nor a comparable certification; the basis is the provider's contractual terms.

Despite these guarantees, it cannot be entirely ruled out that authorities in the recipient country may access the data and that you may not have legal remedies comparable to those in the EU.

We store personal data only for as long as is necessary for the respective purpose or required by law.

• Server logs: as a rule a few days, up to a maximum of 30 days
• Order and invoice data: until the expiry of the commercial and tax law retention periods of 6 and 10 years respectively (Section 257 HGB, Section 147 AO)
• Customer account: until you delete the account, after that only within the scope of the statutory retention obligations
• Contact enquiries: until the enquiry has been fully dealt with, at the latest until the expiry of possible warranty periods
• Newsletter: until you unsubscribe; the record of consent beyond that for the purposes of legal defence
• Cookie consents: twelve months, after which you will be asked again

You have the following rights in relation to us:

• access to the data stored about you (Art. 15 GDPR)
• rectification of inaccurate data (Art. 16 GDPR)
• erasure (Art. 17 GDPR)
• restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR)
• data portability (Art. 20 GDPR)
• withdrawal of consent given, with effect for the future (Art. 7(3) GDPR)

Right to object pursuant to Art. 21 GDPR: Where we process data on the basis of a legitimate interest, you may object to the processing on grounds relating to your particular situation. If your objection is directed against direct marketing, we will in any case no longer process your data for that purpose — you do not need to give any reasons.

An informal message to info@valeness.com is sufficient to exercise these rights.

You can lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority at any time. The authority responsible for us is:

Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit Nordrhein-Westfalen
Kavalleriestraße 2–4
40213 Düsseldorf
ldi.nrw.de

No automated decision-making, including profiling, within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR takes place. If a payment service provider carries out a credit check for the payment method you have chosen, this is done on its own responsibility; the respective provider determines the details.

Our offering is not aimed at children under 16 years of age. If we learn that we are processing data of children without the consent of those with parental responsibility, we will delete such data immediately.

We update this policy when the legal situation, our services or our data processing change. The version available here applies in each case. The date of the last change is stated at the beginning of this page.