Data Protection

What personal data about you do we process for what purposes? What is the legal basis?

Usage Data

When you visit the Website, we collect the following information: e.g. web browser and operating system used, referring page, webpages accessed, downloaded files, plays of videos/audio, clicks on individual links, search words and phrases, length of visit, IP address, date and time of request.

Usage data are used to enable your access to the Website, to maintain and restore the security of the Website, and to detect malfunctions and errors in electronic communications.

All this is necessary, for technical reasons, for us to provide the Website to you. Legal basis: to the extent that personal data are affected, the relevant legal basis is point (f) of Article 6(1) GDPR. We reserve the right to check these data retrospectively if we become aware of specific indications of unlawful use.

Moreover, these data are generated when accessing any other Internet website. Accordingly, this is not a specific function of WACKER’s website.

Processing of Personal Data

We process personal data only if you provide such data to us of your own accord (e.g. by registering, making a contact request, filling in forms or sending emails). In the context of business relationships, we process personal data required for said relationships. We will forward your personal data to third parties only when necessary for the provision of the service requested by you, or if you have given us your consent for such forwarding.

The legal basis for processing data is our legitimate interest pursuant to point (f) of Article 6(1) GDPR in responding to your needs. If your contacting us is aimed at entering into a contract or if personal data are processed as part of a business relationship, the additional legal basis for the processing is point (b) of Article 6(1) GDPR.

Registration on the Website

You can register as a user on the Website. Registration is required for the use of additional services. As part of that registration, we collect and process additional data as can be seen from the respective input forms. We rely on statutory permission (point (b) of Article 6(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679) as the legal basis for processing personal data to provide personalized services. We store such data of registered users until the user account is deleted.

If you use our personalized online services, you must enter certain personal data that we process and store as a basis for aligning our service portfolio with your needs. The input masks show you the data that you will need to enter. You can delete your profile and hence your user account at any time. To do so, send a message to the email address given below.

Once you have registered and logged on with your access data, we can link your online use-related data – such as how you use our webpages and services – to other customer data that we record and process in connection with your use of our products and services, and process this use-related data to provide services and functions in our customer portal, for marketing purposes, and to evaluate, improve and refine services and functions.

Determination of Location

In order to automatically present the product portfolio valid for your country when you load our webpages, it is necessary to process your IP address. Here we rely on points (f) and (c) of Article 6(1) GDPR as the legal basis for processing. When determining your location, we do not store your IP address. You can change the automatically suggested country at any time.

Advertising Relating to Your Personal Interests

You can give us your consent for WACKER to email you marketing information based on your personal interests as regards WACKER’s products and services.

My consent means that the personal data you provided and any further information generated about your user behavior (e.g. data collected during registration on the WACKER website; articles, products and content viewed during your visits to the WACKER website, and documents downloaded in marketing emails; date and time of retrieval; confirmations to show when emails and newsletters were received and read) can be processed by WACKER in line with point (a) of Art. 6(1) GDPR for the purpose of compiling a personal user profile until you withdraw your consent. The user profile serves to align information and advertising more effectively with your personal interests and to send customized information and advertising.

In addition, this data may be used by WACKER marketing staff to send you offers and to provide you and your company with optimum support.

Information which you yourself provided on the WACKER website or which may under certain circumstances be stored in WACKER’s Customer Relationship Management System – such as contact data, company or sector – is likewise added to your profile.

Your data will be deleted from WACKER’s Customer Relationship Management System if this data is no longer required for marketing purposes or if you have withdrawn your consent.

Web Analytics

For the purposes of advertising, market research and customized design of the Website (and the newsletter, if applicable), we use web analytics software and/or JavaScript to collect and process usage data on your visit to the Website and on your use of links in the newsletter, if available. The collection of your usage data and the creation of a usage profile from these data take place pseudonymously, using a cookie ID, and audience segments to be used for targeted marketing or information campaigns are created based on data from that cookie ID. Data collected by means of web analytics will not be used to personally identify the visitor to the Website without the separately-granted consent of the person who is the data subject, and will not be combined with personal data about the holder of the pseudonym. Your IP address is either not collected or, if it is, it is anonymized as soon as it is collected.

Legal basis: here we rely on statutory permission (point (f) of Article 6(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679) as the legal basis for processing.

By using the Website, you agree to the processing of the data collected about you in the manner described above, and for the purposes mentioned.

You can prevent the storage of cookies by selecting the corresponding setting in your browser software. Please note, however, that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of the Website.

• Adobe Analytics
  The Website uses Adobe Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Adobe Systems Software Ireland Limited (“Adobe”). Adobe Analytics uses cookies. If the information generated by the cookie about the use of the Website is transmitted to an Adobe server, the settings ensure that the IP address is anonymized prior to geolocation and replaced with a generic IP address before it is stored. Adobe will use this information on behalf of the owner of the Website to evaluate how users use the Website, to generate reports about website activity, and to provide the website owner with additional services relating to the usage of the Website and Internet usage. Data processing takes place for the purposes of advertising, market research or customized design of the Website (in accordance with Section 15, subsection 3, of the German Telemedia Act). The IP address transmitted by your browser as part of Adobe Analytics will not be merged with other data held by Adobe.
  You can opt out of data collection and processing at any time by following the Adobe link below and clicking on the “Opt out” button. You can also opt out of data processing by clicking the link below.
  Opt out: to stop the collection of usage data, please use Adobe’s opt-out webpage. For information about how the Adobe Analytics cookies and opt-out option work, click on the following link: https://www.adobe.com/privacy/opt-out.html .
  Please note that your opt-out, which is implemented by means of an opt-out cookie, will work only if your browser is configured to allow the use of cookies. If you delete this cookie, use another browser, or change devices, you must opt out again. Please note that deleting all your cookies also deletes the aforementioned cookie, which you will have to install again to opt out.
• Google Analytics
  The Website uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service of Google Inc. ("Google"). Google Analytics uses “cookies,” which are text files stored on your computer, to gain analytical insights into your use of the Website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the Website will generally be transmitted to a server in the United States and stored there by Google. However, within the member states of the European Union and in other signatory states to the Treaty on the European Economic Area, IP anonymization on the Website ensures that Google truncates your IP address beforehand. Only in exceptional cases is the complete IP address transmitted to a Google server in the United States and truncated there.
  Google will use this information on behalf of the owner of the Website to evaluate your use of the Website, to generate reports about website activity, and to provide the website owner with additional services relating to the usage of the Website and Internet usage. To this end, Google uses pseudonyms. The IP address transmitted by your browser as part of Google Analytics will not be merged with other data held by Google.
  In addition to preventing the storage of cookies by blocking them in your browser software, you can prevent the data (including your IP address) generated by the cookie and relating to your use of the Website from being transmitted to Google and prevent these data from being processed by Google by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available at the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en
• Matomo (Piwik)
  On the websites of the online annual and sustainability reports, the open-source web analytics tool Matomo (formerly Piwik) is used for the statistical evaluation of visitor interactions. The data collected by Matomo are stored in anonymized form to improve our web presence. In addition, cookies are used that enable the creation of pseudonymized usage profiles. The data collected with Matomo will not be used without your consent to personally identify you or to reverse the pseudonymization. By using the Website, you agree to Matomo processing the data collected about you in the manner described above, and for the aforementioned purposes.
• Google AdWords
  The Website uses the Google AdWords online advertising tool and its conversion tracking feature. When a user clicks an ad placed by Google, a conversion tracking cookie is set. These cookies expire after 30 days, and involve only non-identifiable information. If a user visits certain webpages of the Website and the cookie is still valid, WACKER and Google can detect that the user clicked the ad and was redirected to the ad webpage. Each Google AdWords customer is assigned a unique cookie. Cookies therefore cannot be tracked by means of AdWords customers’ websites. The information collected through the use of conversion tracking cookies provides conversion statistics for AdWords customers who have chosen to use conversion tracking. These customers obtain statistics showing the total number of users who clicked their ad and were redirected from the ad to a webpage that has a conversion tracking tag. All the information collected is non-identifiable, meaning that no personal data about users are collected. Users who prefer to disable the conversion tracking feature can do so easily in their browser settings. These users are then excluded from the conversion tracking statistics. Learn more about Google’s privacy policy.
  The information collected by means of the conversion tracking cookie helps us generate statistics about our conversion rate. That means we learn how many users are coming from a Google ad and buying a product through the Website within 30 days.

Forwarding to Third Parties

We forward your data within the WACKER Group and to third parties, especially our distribution partners, solely for the performance of contracts or for pre-contractual steps, or when it is in your interests for us to do so.

Your data will also be partly processed in countries outside the European Economic Area (“EEA”), where the levels of data protection might generally be lower than in Europe. Where that is the case, WACKER will take measures to ensure an appropriate level of data protection by other means.

Third-Party Services

We include external services and content on the Website. If you use such a service, or if third-party content is displayed to you, communication data are exchanged, for technical reasons, between you and the respective provider.

reCAPTCHA

The IP address transmitted by your browser as part of reCAPTCHA will not be merged with other data held by Google unless you are signed into your Google Account when you use the reCAPTCHA plug-in. If you want to stop such transmission and storage by Google of data about you and your behavior on the Website, you must sign out of Google – before you visit the Website or use the reCAPTCHA plug-in.

Use of the “reCAPTCHA” service is subject to Google’s terms of service (privacy policy): https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en

YouTube

The Website uses the YouTube embedding function to display and play videos of the provider YouTube, which is part of Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (“Google”). When you visit one of our YouTube plug-in-enabled webpages, a connection to YouTube’s servers is established. The YouTube server will be informed which of our webpages you visited. If you are signed into your YouTube account, it will be possible for YouTube to assign your surfing behavior directly to your personal profile. You can prevent this by signing out of your YouTube account. You can find further information about the handling of user data in YouTube’s privacy policy at: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en

Google Maps

On certain individual webpages, we use the Google Maps API provided by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (“Google”). This service lets us show you where our sites are located and makes it easier for you to get there.

When Google Maps is embedded in a webpage, your IP address is transmitted directly to Google as soon as you visit such a webpage, and a cookie is stored. You can obtain information about, and opt out of, data processing by Google anytime at: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en

If you do not agree to have your data transmitted to Google when using Google Maps in the future, you also have the option to disable the Google Maps web service completely by turning off JavaScript in your browser. This will fully disable Google Maps and, by extension, the display of maps on the Website.

Sharing of Content on Social Networks

Content of the Website can be shared on social networks by means of embedded social-media buttons. All social-media buttons enabling the sharing of content are embedded using simple hyperlinks, rather than directly via the plug-ins of the social network providers. This lets us ensure that your data are not automatically transferred to social network servers as soon as you visit the Website. In addition, when sharing Website content, we transmit to the social network only the data actually needed to share that content, and no personal data of any kind.

There also are links to the Website on the respective social networks. If you follow the link from the Website to a social network, or if you sign in to share content of the Website within your social network, your data will be processed by the respective social network provider. To learn about the purposes and scope of data collection, further processing and use of data by the social network provider and about related rights and settings options to protect your privacy, please refer to the data protection and privacy information of the respective provider.

Surveys

Participation in occasional user surveys conducted on the Website is voluntary. We use functional cookies to run user surveys. The technical information collected in a user survey is the information collected when the Website is loaded. Your responses in the user survey are not linked to your personal data such as, for example, your IP address.

Data Security

WACKER takes all necessary technical and organizational security measures to protect your personal data against misuse or loss. By way of example, your data are stored in a secure, non-public operating environment. In certain cases, your personal data will be encrypted during transmission by means of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology. That is, an approved encryption method will be used for communication between your computer and WACKER’s servers, provided that your browser supports SSL.

When contacting us by email, you should keep in mind that the secrecy of the transmitted information cannot be assured. The content of your email messages can be read by third parties.

What happens if you do not provide your data?

The provision of personal data is required neither by law nor by contract. It will, however, be necessary to provide certain data in order to visit the Website or use other services we provide.

Non-provision of personal data may lead to disadvantages for you. One consequence could be that you cannot receive or use our services (e.g. access to the Website may not be possible). However, unless otherwise stated, you will not incur any legal disadvantage from non-provision.

Please note that we may transfer your personal data to third parties for the aforementioned processing purposes as follows:

• To contract data processors: certain third-party service providers such as IT support providers or hosting providers (“contract processors”) will receive your personal data in order to process these data pursuant to relevant instructions, to the extent necessary for the processing purposes outlined above. Contract processors will be subject to contractual obligations to implement appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect personal data and to process personal data solely as instructed.
• To certain third parties: in accordance with applicable law, we may share your personal data with third parties such as existing or potential business partners, public authorities, courts, suppliers, external consultants, other service providers, or potentially acquiring companies or those potentially to be acquired.

Any access to your personal data is limited to those individuals who must have access to the data in order to fulfill their work obligations.

Your personal data will be stored to the extent necessary to fulfill our obligations and for the period of time necessary to achieve the purposes for which the personal data are collected, in accordance with applicable data protection laws. If Wacker Chemie AG no longer needs your personal data for its use, we will remove these data from our systems and from our records and/or take steps to properly anonymize them so that you can no longer be identified by these data (unless we must retain your personal data in order to comply with legal or regulatory obligations to which Wacker Chemie AG is subject).

You can request additional information on retention periods by contacting us, using the contact details provided below.

Additional data protection rights: in accordance with applicable data protection laws, you have the right (i) to request access to your personal data, (ii) to request rectification of your personal data, (iii) to request erasure of your personal data, (iv) to request restriction of processing of your personal data, (v) to request data portability; and/or (vi) to object to the processing of your personal data. Below you will find further information about your rights – to the extent that the GDPR applies. Please note that these rights may be restricted under (local) applicable data protection laws.

(i) Right of access to your personal data: to the extent provided for by applicable data protection laws, you have the right to obtain from us confirmation as to whether or not your personal data are being processed, and, where that is the case, you have the right of access to these personal data. The access information includes, among other things, the purposes of the processing, the categories of personal data concerned, the recipients or categories of recipient to whom the personal data have been or will be disclosed. This right is not absolute, however, and the interests of other persons may restrict your right of access.

You further have the right to receive a copy of the personal data undergoing processing. Should you require any further copies, we may charge a reasonable fee based on administrative costs.

(ii) Right to rectification: to the extent provided for by applicable data protection laws, you have the right to obtain from us the rectification of inaccurate personal data concerning you. Depending on the purposes of the processing, you have the right to have your incomplete personal data completed, including by means of providing a supplementary statement.

(iii) Right to erasure (right to be forgotten): to the extent provided for by applicable data protection laws, you have the right to obtain from us the erasure of personal data concerning you, and we can be required to erase such personal data.

(iv) Right to restriction of processing: to the extent provided for by applicable data protection laws, you have the right to obtain from us restriction of processing of your personal data, and we can be required to restrict the processing of your personal data. Should we be so obligated, the personal data subject to restriction will be identified as such and may be processed by us only for certain specific purposes.

(v) Right to Data Portability Right to data portability: to the extent provided for by applicable data protection laws, you have the right to receive personal data concerning you that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and you have the right to transmit those personal data to another entity without hindrance from us, provided that the processing is carried out by automated means and is based on consent pursuant to point (a) of Article 6(1) GDPR or on a contract pursuant to point (b) of Article 6(1) GDPR.

(vi) Right to object:

Under certain circumstances, you have the right to object at any time, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to processing of your personal data by us based on point (f) of Article 6(1) GDPR (balancing of interests), and we have the obligation to no longer process your personal data.

If you have a right to object and are exercising this right, your personal data will no longer be processed by us for these purposes. You can exercise this right by contacting us as indicated below.

Any right to object may be precluded if processing your personal data is necessary for entering into, or performance of, a contract between us and you.

To exercise your rights, please contact us as indicated below.

You have the right, moreover, to file a complaint with a competent data protection supervisory authority in the relevant member state (e.g. in your member state of residence or employment, or in the member state of alleged infringement of the GDPR).

Our Privacy Policy may be updated at irregular intervals in order to comply with changes in legal requirements, or to implement changes to our services such as, for example, the insertion of new offerings. The new Privacy Policy will automatically apply to your next visit.

Please take the time to inform yourself frequently about changes. By using the WACKER website, you agree to this Privacy Policy.

The Website may contain links to websites of other providers to which this Privacy Policy does not extend. Where the use of the websites of other providers involves the collection, processing or use of personal data, please take note of the privacy statements of the respective provider. WACKER takes no responsibility for such content.

We use cookies and similar technologies such as web beacons and local storage (hereinafter collectively “cookies”) to enhance your experience on the Website, to continuously improve the Website through analytics and to tailor our content to your interests. We value your privacy and take data protection very seriously.

A cookie is a small data packet that your browser stores on your device when you visit a website in order to “remember” information about you, such as your language settings or login information. Those cookies are set by us and are called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies, which originate from a domain that is not the domain of the website you are visiting. We use these cookies to support our advertising and marketing efforts.

Some of the cookies we use are deleted after the end of the browser session, i.e. after you close your browser (these are “session cookies”). Other cookies remain on your device and allow us or our partner companies to recognize your browser on your next visit (these are “persistent cookies”). Persistent cookies are automatically deleted after a specified period, the length of which may vary depending on the cookie involved.

You can set your browser to inform you when a web page wants to set a cookie and let you decide whether or not to accept it, or you can allow or block cookies for specific cases or in general. Each browser differs in how it manages cookie settings. This is described in the Help menu of each browser, which explains how to change your cookie settings.

Please note that disabling or deleting cookies may cause parts of the website to stop working as expected.

In some cases, cookies are used to simplify the ordering process by storing settings (e.g. remembering the contents of a virtual shopping cart for a subsequent visit to the Website). If personal data are also processed via individual cookies set by us, such processing takes place either in accordance with point (b) of Article 6(1) GDPR for the performance of a contract or in accordance with point (f) of Article 6(1) GDPR for the protection of our legitimate interests in delivering the best possible functionality of the Website and designing a customer-friendly, effective site visit.

In particular, we use cookies for the following purposes:

• Strictly Necessary Cookies – These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the website and use its main features, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. Without these cookies, services requested through usage of our website cannot be properly provided.
  Such cookies are also used in anonymous reach measurement, which we use to continuously improve our offering for you.Strictly necessary cookies do not require consent from the user under applicable law. You can still configure your browser to block these cookies, but some areas of the website will not then work.To the extent that data processed with the aid of strictly necessary cookies should qualify as personal data in a specific case, the legal ground for the processing of these data is WACKER’s legitimate interest in operating the Website.
• Performance Cookies – These cookies collect information about the use of the website, telling us, for instance, which pages visitors go to most often, how visitors move around the website and how effective our advertising is. They are intended to help us improve the website’s user-friendliness and thus your user experience.
  The data generated through the use of performance cookies is generally aggregated and cannot be attributed to a particular natural person. In some cases, however, the data collected can be attributed to you personally (provided you disclosed your identity by, for instance, opening a user account or transferring an inquiry). To the extent that data processed with the aid of performance cookies can be attributed directly to you or should otherwise qualify as personal data in a specific case, the legal ground for the processing of these data is your consent.
• Functional Cookies – These cookies let us provide you enhanced functionality and greater personalization. They may be set by us or by trusted third-party providers whose services we use on our pages. If you do not allow these cookies, these services may not function properly.
  To the extent that data processed with the aid of functional cookies should qualify as personal data in a specific case, the legal ground for the processing of these data is the consent of the user.
• Marketing Cookies – These cookies are used by us and by trusted third parties to display relevant advertising based on your activities and interests. They are also used to limit the number of ads displayed and to measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns.
  To the extent that data processed with the aid of marketing cookies should qualify as personal data in a specific case, the legal ground for the processing of these data is the consent of the user.