Privacy Policy


Data Protection Policy

Storage and processing of personal data

Every time a user accesses a page on our website and every time a file is called up, access data relating to this process are saved and anonymized in a log file on our server. References to personal identity are automatically and immediately deleted in this process.

Every data record consists essentially of the following:

  • the page from which the file was requested

  • the name of the file

  • the date and time of the request

  • IP address of the device from which the request was made

  • the volume of data transmitted

  • the access status (file transmitted, data not found, etc.)

  • a description of the type of web browser used

These anonymized, stored data are only evaluated for statistical purposes.

If there is an option on the website to enter personal or business data (email addresses, names, addresses), such details are provided by the user on an exclusively voluntary basis and only to serve the desired purpose. The data will be processed strictly in accordance with statutory provisions. Mandatory information is naturally marked as such.

Your personal information will be processed and stored exclusively to meet the company’s own business purposes. Your data will be treated confidentially and will not be passed to third parties without authorization.

You will only be personally identified with the use of our offerings with your prior consent (see below).

HARTING uses third parties as service providers for processing data, including personal data, as part of its own business purposes; such service providers are cloud suppliers, service providers for the analysis of activities and web analysis services. A more detailed description of such services is to be found below.

On request, you can at any time receive information on the nature and scope of personal data held about you. In addition, you have a right of rectification, blockage and erasure of such personal data in accordance with statutory provisions.

Responsible contact

The body responsible for processing the data collected on this website and as part of using the webshop is:
HARTING, Inc. of North America
1370 Bowes Road, Elgin, Illinois 60123
Tel. +1 (847) 741-1500


Email: [email protected]

The contact person at HARTING is:
Katie Baxter, Sr. Marketing Manager HARTING, Inc. of North America
1370 Bowes Road, Elgin, Illinois 60123
Tel. +1 (847) 741-1500

Tracking mechanisms

Tracking mechanisms permit the operators of a website to monitor and if necessary control the online marketing measures deployed on the basis of their effect. The terms “web controlling”, “web analysis” or “traffic analysis” are frequently used synonymously with the term tracking. Tracking comprises monitoring the success, controlling and analyzing the efficiency of a website and the online marketing measures employed.

Mechanisms used for tracking generally examine where the visitors to a website come from, the nature of their conduct and activities on the platform and also, if relevant, what happens after they leave the site. There are basically two different methods for carrying out tracking.
HARTING uses tracking mechanisms to measure or analyze reach and to personalize offers. If you are a registered user and you have logged on, HARTING will also use tracking mechanisms to build a profile.

Measurement and analysis of reach

The measurement and analysis of reach (also referred to as clickstream analysis, data traffic analysis, traffic analysis, web analysis, web controlling, etc.) is the collection of data and their evaluation with respect to the behaviour of visitors to websites. One analytical mechanism typically examines where visitors come from, which areas of a website they visit and how often and for how long individual pages and categories are viewed. It serves primarily to optimize the website and to better achieve certain objectives (e.g. to increase page views, visitor frequency, newsletter subscriptions). A fundamental distinction can be drawn in web analysis between evaluation procedures for permanently measuring the effectiveness of pages and methods for identifying weaknesses on the website and ways of improving them.

Cookies

We use so-called cookies on our website. These are essentially small text files which are stored on the PC, tablet or smartphone used by the visitor and which enable the use of the website to be analyzed. HARTING uses cookies, for example, to detect the preferences of visitors and to design the website to optimum effect on that basis.

The use of cookies facilitates navigation and offers a high degree of user-friendliness on a website. Cookies also help to identify particularly popular areas of our website. They allow information to be retained for a certain period of time and the user’s computer to be identified. We use permanent cookies to improve the user interface and personalize the display of our services. We also use so-called session cookies which are automatically deleted when you close your browser. You can adjust the settings of your browser such that it informs you if cookies are placed on your device. This makes the use of cookies transparent for you.

We use the following five categories of cookies on our website:

  • Required cookies

  • Performance cookies

  • Functionality cookies

  • Personalization cookies

  • Targeting cookies.

Required cookies: These cookies are required to ensure that you can navigate on the website and use its specific functions. For example, such cookies are used when products are placed in the shopping basket to enable you to leave the website and continue to access the products in your shopping basket on your return.

Performance Cookies: These cookies record information on how visitors use a website, e.g. which pages they call up most frequently and whether they receive error messages from websites. These cookies do not collect any data on the basis of which users can be identified. All information collected with the aid of these cookies is anonymous and serves exclusively to improve the functionality and service of the website. We therefore use performance cookies to prepare statistics on how our website is used and to gauge the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns.

Functionality cookies: These serve to provide the services you request, e.g. if you would like to see a video. Functionality cookies also serve to remember settings which you make on the website (e.g. location). These cookies are not able to track your browsing on other websites and cannot follow where you have surfed on the internet other than on our website. Without these cookies, we are unable to provide certain services requested by you.

Personalization cookies: We use personalization cookies to recognize you if you return to our website and to personalize contents and save your settings (e.g. your language preferences).

Targeting cookies: These cookies are used to match advertising with you and your interests in even more targeted fashion. They also serve to restrict how often you see an ad, measure the effectiveness of an advertising campaign and understand people’s behaviour after viewing an ad. Targeting cookies are usually placed by advertising networks on the pages of the website operator with their consent. They detect if the user has visited a website and pass this information to others, e.g. advertisers. They are often linked to a website function which is provided by such a company. We use targeting cookies, therefore, to establish a link to social networks. These networks can then use the information on your visit to tailor the advertising on other websites to you and to give the advertising networks used by us information on your visit. This means that your browsing habits can be later used to present you with the advertising which may potentially be of interest to you.

The explicit purpose of targeting cookies is to show the user advertising which matches their surfing habits. As a result, you may be shown offers from HARTING on other websites. In online marketing, this is called “re-targeting”.

Preventing the storage of cookies: In general, you can prevent cookies from being stored on your hard disk by selecting “Do not accept cookies” in your browser settings. Alternatively you can also configure your browser to ask you before cookies are placed whether you agree. In addition, you can delete cookies already installed at any time. Please refer to the help pages of your browser to find how to do this exactly.

Please note: If you completely rule out the use of cookies through the default settings in the web browser you are using, you may not be able to use certain functions on our website or only to a limited degree.

Should you automatically delete cookies through your default settings, opt-out cookies already installed may have to be reactivated.

You can find further information on the cookies used in our cookie guideline.

Newsletter & Microsoft Marketing

As part of your registration for an email newsletter, HARING needs your email address to which the newsletter is to be sent. Any other information is given voluntarily and will be used to address you personally and tailor the newsletter to your personal preferences and clarify queries regarding your email address.

If you register for the newsletter on this website, HARTING will use the data you enter exclusively for this purpose or to inform you of circumstances relevant to this service or registration for it. HARTING will pass these data to its service provider, Microsoft Dynamics (1 Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA) for the purpose of managing and performing the mailing of the newsletter, and this service provider will store the data in Microsoft Dynamics. Your data will not be stored on servers outside the EU.

A valid email address, the country and a language are needed to receive the newsletter. The IP address through which you register for the newsletter as well as the date and time when you order the newsletter are also stored. HARTING needs these data as evidence in the event of abuse, in case the email address registered for the newsletter does not belong to the user. To provide further security against an email address being improperly registered by third parties in HARTING’s circulation list, HARTING employs a “double opt-in” procedure. In this procedure, you will receive a confirmation email after registering, sent to the email address specified. You will only receive the desired email newsletter if you confirm your registration by clicking on a link contained in this email. As part of this procedure, the order for the newsletter, the despatch of the confirmation email and receipt of the confirmation of registration are all logged.

We would draw your attention to the fact that we will evaluate your user habits when sending newsletters. To do so, we use the tracking functions of Microsoft Dynamics. The emails sent contain so-called web beacons or tracking pixels which represent one-pixel image files which are stored on our website. For these evaluations, we combine the data collected and the web beacons with your email address and an individual ID. Links received in the newsletter also contain this ID. We use the data thus acquired to create a user profile to tailor the newsletter to your individual interests. In the process, we record when you read our newsletter, which links you click on and from this we deduce your personal interests. We combine these data with the actions you perform on our website.

Tracking by means of web beacons or tracking pixels is not possible if you have deactivated the display of images in your email program as your standard setting. In this case, the newsletter will not be fully displayed and you may not be able to use all its functions. If you have the images displayed manually, the tracking described above will be performed.

You have the option at any time to revoke your consent to the storage of your data, email address and their use for the despatch of the newsletter, with effect for the future. HARTING provides you with a link in every newsletter for such revocation. You also have the option to communicate your desire to revoke your consent in writing to be sent to the contact options listed in the legal notice.

myHARTING

If you would like to use myHARTING, you must register by giving your email address (user name), a password of your choosing, the company name, company address, the country, language, surname and mode of address — any further details requested are not mandatory but can be supplied by you as additional information. HARTING uses the so-called double opt-in procedure for the registration, i.e. your registration will only be completed if you have already confirmed your registration via a confirmation email sent to you for this purpose by clicking on the link contained in it. If we do not receive your confirmation within 24 hours, your registration will be automatically deleted from our database. It is mandatory to provide the data specified above, while all other information can be provided voluntarily through the use of our portal.

If you use myHARTING, we will store the data we require from you to provide this service until you deactivate your access. We will also store the details which you provide voluntarily for as long as you use myHARTING. You can view all your details in the protected customer area and if so desired, you can have them changed or deleted by HARTING.

To prevent unauthorized access to your personal data by third parties, the connection is encrypted by means of TLS technology.

Usage-based and/or personalized offers

We want our offers to be as useful and interesting as possible for our users. For this purpose, we send offers and make product recommendations which if possible match the user’s personal interests (personalized and/or usage-based offers). We use cookies and other technologies to record such data.

Usage-based online advertising: Our website or the linked website from which a user comes, collects and processes a visitor’s usage habits. The latter benefits as the advertising generated matches certain areas of interest — altogether, less randomly scattered advertising is shown. A cookie is stored on the user’s PC to record their user habits.

We use the following tools to record the data required to deliver usage-based online advertising:

  • Google Analytics

  • Google AdWords

  • Google Tag Manager

Provider’s data protection notices https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de

Opt-out option http://bit.ly/1Q6YkQI

You can read further information on cookies and individual suppliers on the website youronlinechoices.com. There you have the option to opt out of usage-based online advertising from individual tools or all of them.

Personalized offers: We also use these technologies to recognize users again. Personalized offers are based on the analysis of the particular visitor’s purchase habits as well as their use of our electronic media.

Specifically, we use the following data to tailor advertising to you and your interests:

  • data contained in your customer account and data which you communicate to us when processing purchases (master data)

  • data relating to your — previous or future — purchases made from HARTING (transaction data) and information derived from them (e.g. what products you prefer to purchase or configure)

  • information (including cross-device information) automatically generated on visits to our electronic media (website or app) including date and time of the visit (usage data) and information derived from such visits (e.g. what content you frequently view)

  • products which you have searched for or viewed in our electronic media

The analysis and evaluation of the information specified allow us to make offers and product recommendations individually tailored to users’ interests. Personalized offers can be sent by letter, on visits to our electronic media (website and app) or — if separate consent has been given — by email or push notification.

To optimize our offers on the basis of your usage interests, we use the following tool:

Contentsquare

Provided you give us your consent, this website uses technologies from Content Square SaaS. Interaction data of the website visitor is collected in a pseudonymized form for the purpose of optimizing the usability of the website using cookies. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website is usually transmitted to a Contentsquare server and stored there. The IP address transmitted by your browser is not merged with other Contentsquare data. Contentsquare guarantees the shortening of your IP address so that all data is collected anonymously. The following cookies are stored by Contentsquare: _cs_id, to recognize returning website users (up to 13 months) _cs_s, a session cookie that is created at the beginning of the website visit, and deleted 30 minutes after the last page view. The use of Contentsquare is based on your consent (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a) DSGVO).

Measuring and analyzing reach with Google Analytics

To design our website to meet your needs, we create pseudonymized user profiles with the aid of Google Analytics, a web analysis service from Google Inc. (“Google”). Google uses cookies to facilitate analysis of individuals’ use of the website. The information generated by the cookie on the use of this website is usually transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. As we have activated IP anonymization of this website, your IP address is first truncated by Google within Member States of the European Union or other parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. The full IP address is only sent to a Google server in the USA and truncated there in exceptional circumstances. Google will use this information on HARTING’s behalf to evaluate your use of this website for us, create reports about website activities and provide us with additional services in connection with use of the website and the internet. The IP address transmitted by your browser as part of Google Analytics is not combined with other Google data.

Preventing the measurement and analysis of reach and the creation of profiles

You can prevent the measurement of reach and the creation of user profiles (pseudonymous or personalized) by Google Analytics at any time. The following options are available to you:

  • You can prevent storage of the cookies used to create a profile by making the appropriate setting in your browser software, as described above.

  • Depending on the browser used, you also have the option to install a browser plug-in which prevents tracking. Simply install the browser plug-in which can be downloaded there.

Data security

We would point out that the protection of personal data cannot be comprehensively guaranteed for transmission within the internet with the technology currently available. Under certain circumstances, third parties may be able to intervene in network security without authorization and follow email correspondence. Please note in this context that the transmission of data by email is generally performed without encryption.

Retention period

HARTING will store personal detail collected for business purposes for as long as this is required for the business relationship, and will then delete the data. Business necessity no longer applies at the latest when all claims which may arise from the business relationship have expired in accordance with general regulations. In the event of doubt, this can be assumed to be the case 10 years after the last business transaction. If HARTING has received personal data and no business transaction ensues, the data will be deleted after 3 years at the latest. HARTING will of course also delete data if the business purpose does not apply, or no longer does so, and the user revokes their consent.

Validity of data protection policy

We reserve the right to amend or adapt this data protection policy from time to time. This policy was last amended on August 8, 2023.