Privacy policy – licensed users

Privacy Policy (November 2014)

Privacy Policy for Busni.de License Users

'Busni.de License Users' are all users who have registered for a Busni.de license. This includes trial users and expired licenses unless they have requested the deletion of their license.  All the terms defined in the Terms of Use are applied in this document.

Information we receive and how it is used

  1. Information we receive about you. We receive a number of different types of information about you, including:
    • Your public records - if you open a company and/or are/were representing a company that is/was listed in the public Company Registry, you made some of your personal data public and these data can be found here, without possibility to directly change them, but only through the official registry. When the data is changed in the Company Registry, the same data can be changed in the Application.
    • Your information is the information that is required when you sign in to the site, as well as the information you choose to share.
    • Registration information - when you sign in to the Application, you are required to provide information such as your name, email address and company name. In some cases, you may be able to register using other information, like your telephone number.
    • Information you choose to share - when you communicate with us, such as when you contact us using an email address, or when you take an action, such as when you click on website, use data exports, or indicate your relationship. Your name, username, profile information and networks are treated just like information you choose to make public.
  2. Other information we receive about you. We also receive other types of information about you:
    • We receive data about you whenever you use or are running the Application, such as when you look at another company, send or receive a message, search for a company or a person, click on, view or otherwise interact with things or use the Application mobile app.
    • We receive data from or about the computer, mobile phone, or other devices you use to install the Application or to access the Application, including when multiple users log in from the same device. This may include network and communication information, such as your IP address or mobile phone number, and other information about things like your internet service, operating system, location, the type (including identifiers) of the device or browser you use, or the pages you visit. We could also request device information to improve how our apps work on your device.
    • We receive data whenever you visit an external application or website that uses the Application as a platform or visit a site with our Application feature (similar to a social plugin), sometimes through cookies. This may include the date and time you visit the site; the web address, or URL, you're on; technical information about the IP address, browser and the operating system you use; and, if you are logged in to the Application, your User ID.
    • Sometimes we get data from our affiliates or our advertising partners, customers and other third parties which help us (or them) deliver ads, understand online activity, and generally make the Application better. For example, an advertiser may tell us information in order to measure the effectiveness of - and improve the quality of - ads.

As described in "How we use the information we receive" (see below) we also put together data from the information we already have about you, your business partners, your friends, and others, so we can offer and suggest a variety of services and features. We may also put together data about you to serve you ads or other content that might be more relevant to you.

We only provide data to our advertising partners or customers after we have removed your name and any other personally identifying information from it, or have aggregated it with other people's data in a way that it no longer personally identifies you.

Public Information
When we use the phrase "public information" (which we sometimes refer to as "Everyone information"), we mean the information you choose to make public, as well as information that is always publicly available.

  1. Information you choose to make public. Choosing to make your information public is exactly what it sounds like: anyone, including people outside the Application, will be able to see it. Choosing to make your information public also means that this information:
    • can be associated with you (i.e., your name,username, etc.), even outside the Application;
    • can show up when someone does a search on The Application or on a public search engine;
    • will be accessible to anyone who uses our APIs.
  2. Information that is always publicly available. The types of information listed below are always publicly available, and they are treated just like information you decided to make public:
    • Information from Public Records. All information found in public records are defined as public by law and most of the data presented in the Application is from public records (e.g. Company Registry, Bundesanziger, etc.).
    • Your company website. Our robots are visiting millions of web pages every month, downloading imprint and contact data details, but all the external links as well, creating the largest company-to-company virtual network.
    • Your company public profile on some other company website.
    • Account Name (usually a Company Name), User Name (usually constructed out of the personal name of an end-user within an Account). This helps your business partners find you. If you are uncomfortable sharing your real name, you can always change your username or delete your account.
    • Company Networks. The company network is created out of public information only, but if you are uncomfortable with your company public network, as an Account administrator, you can always choose the companies in your network.
    • When others share information about you and your company, they can also choose to make it public, especially on Internet, as an ultimate source of public information.

How we use the information we receive

  1. We use the information we receive about you in connection with the services and features we provide to you and other users like your business partners and friends, our partners, the advertisers and the developers that build the applications and other websites you use. For example, in addition to helping people see and find things that you do and share, we may use the information we receive about you:
    • as part of our efforts to keep the Application products, services and integrations safe and secure;
    • to protect the Application's or others' rights or property;
    • to provide you with location features and services, like telling you and your business partners or friends when something is going on nearby;
    • to measure or understand the effectiveness of ads you and others see, including to deliver relevant ads to you
    • to make suggestions to you and other users on the Application, such as: that your business partners use our Application suggesting other users to contact you, etc.
    • for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research and service improvement.
  2. Granting us permission to use your information not only allows us to provide the Application as it exists today, but it also allows us to provide you with innovative features and services we develop in the future that use the information we receive about you in new ways. While you are allowing us to use the information we receive about you, your trust is important to us, which is why we do not share information we receive about you with others unless we have:
    • received your permission or a statutory justification;
    • given you notice, such as by telling you about it in this policy; or
    • removed your name and any other personally identifying information from it
  3. We store data for as long as it is necessary to provide products and services to you and others, including those described above. Typically, information associated with your account will be kept until your account is deleted. For certain categories of data, we may also tell you about specific data retention practices.
  4. We may enable access to public information that has been shared through our services.
  5. We may allow service providers to access information so they can help us provide services.
  6. We are able to let your business partners or friends know that you are using the Application and invite them to use the Application on your behalf, but only if you accept such promotion within the Application.

Deleting and deactivating your account

  1. Deleting and deactivating your account. If you want to stop using your account, you can either deactivate or delete it.
  2. Deactivate an Account. Deactivating your account puts your account on hold. Other users will no longer see your status, but we do not delete any of your information. Deactivating an account is the same as you telling us not to delete any information because you might want to reactivate your account at some point in the future. You can deactivate your account on your account settings page. If you do stop paying the subscription, your account will be automatically deactivated, according to the Terms of Use. Other users will still see you listed in their list while your account is deactivated.
  3. Deletion. When you delete your account, it is permanently deleted from the Application. It typically takes about one month to delete an account, but some information may remain in backup copies and logs for up to 90 days. You should only delete your account if you are sure you never want to reactivate it. You can delete your account in written form only.
  4. Certain information is needed to provide you with services, so we only delete this information after you delete your account. Some of the things you do on the Application, like posting and views will remain after you delete your account, but it will always be presented as your company activity, not your personal.

Google Analytics

We use “Google Analytics” to collect information about use of this site. Google Analytics collects information such as how often users visit this site, what pages they visit when they do so, and what other sites they used prior to coming to this site. We use the information we get from Google Analytics only to improve this site. Google Analytics collects only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit this site, rather than your name or other identifying information. We do not combine the information collected through the use of Google Analytics with personally identifiable information. Although Google Analytics plants a permanent cookie on your web browser to identify you as a unique user the next time you visit this site, the cookie cannot be used by anyone but Google. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use (as amended for government websites) and the Google Privacy Policy. You can prevent Google Analytics from recognizing you on return visits to this site by disabling cookies on your browser.

Google Analytics employs cookies to define user sessions, which allows for the collection of data about how visitors are using the websites. Google Analytics uses only first-party cookies for data analysis. This means that the cookies are linked to a specific website domain, and Google Analytics will only use that cookie data for statistical analysis related to your browsing behavior on that specific website. According to Google, the data collected cannot be altered or retrieved by services from other domains.

If you choose, you can opt out by turning off cookies in the preferences settings in your web browser. For more information on Google Analytics, please visit Google Analytics