MailChimp Privacy Policy
Like many other websites, we use the services of the newsletter company MailChimp on our website. The operator of MailChimp is the company The Rocket Science Group, LLC, 675 Ponce de Leon Ave NE, Suite 5000, Atlanta, GA 30308 USA. With the aid of MailChimp we can easily send you interesting news via newsletter. For the use of the service we do not have to install anything but can still access a pool of very efficient features. In the following we will give more details on this email marketing service and will inform you about the most important data protection aspects.
What is MailChimp?
MailChimp is a cloud-based newsletter management service. “Cloud-based“ means that we do not need to install MailChimp on our own computer or server. Instead, we use the service on an external server, or more specifically via an IT infrastructure, which is available via the internet. Using a software this way is also called SaaS (software as a service).
MailChimp allows us to chose from a wide range of different email types. Depending on what goal we want to reach with our newsletter, we can run individual campaigns, regular campaigns, auto responders (automated emails), A/B tests, RSS campaigns (mailings at pre-set times and frequencies) and follow-up campaigns.
Why do we use MailChimp on our website?
The reason we would use any newsletter service is so we can stay in contact with you. We want to keep you on the loop what news or attractive offers we have for you at the time. As we constantly seek out the easiest and best solutions for our marketing measures, we have decided on MailChimp as our newsletter management service. While the software is very easy to use, it offers many helpful features. For example, it allows us to create interesting and attractive newsletters in only a short time. With integrated design templates we can create every newsletter in an individual way. Due to the “responsive design” feature, our contents are also presented in a readable and pleasant way on your smartphone (or any other mobile device).
With tools such as A/B testing or the extensive analysis options, we can swiftly tell how you like our newsletters. This means that we can react if necessary and improve our offer or our services.
Another advantage is MailChimp’s “cloud system”. The data is not stored and processed directly on our server. We can retrieve the datafrom external servers and therefore save our memory space and also decrease maintenance effort.
What data is saved by MailChimp?
Rocket Science Group LLC (MailChimp) operate online platforms which enable us to get in contact with you, provided you subscribed to our newsletter. If you become a subscriber of our newsletter via our website, by email you agree to become a member of a MailChimp email list. Then, MailChimp saves your subscription data and your IP address, so it can verify your entry into the list provider. Moreover, MailChimp stores your email address, your name, your physical address and demographic information, such as language or location.
This information is used to send emails to you and to allow certain other MailChimp functions (e.g. the evaluation of newsletters).
MailChimp also shares information with third parties to improve its services. Moreover, MailChimp shares certain data with advertising partners of third parties to get a better understanding of its clients’ interests, in order to provide relevant contents and target-oriented advertising.
With so-called “web beacons” (small graphics in HTML emails), MailChimp can determine if an email has arrived, has been opened or if links have been clicked. This information is then stored on MailChimp’s servers. That way we receive statistical evaluations and can see how you liked our newsletter. Therefore, we can tailor our offer better to your wishes and improve our service.
Moreover, MailChimp are allowed to use this data for improving their own service. Thus, they can for example technically optimise the distribution or determine the location (or the country) of the recipient.
The following cookies can be set by MailChimp. The list is not exhaustive and is merely an exemplary selection:
Name: AVESTA_ENVIRONMENT
Value: Prod
Purpose: This cookie is necessary to provide the services of Mailchimp. It is always set when a user registers for a newsletter mailing list.
Expiry date: at the end of the session
Name: ak_bmsc
Value: F1766FA98C9BB9DE4A39F70A9E5EEAB55F6517348A7000001111730722-3
Purpose: The cookie is used to differentiate a human from a bot. That way secure reports on the use of a website can be created.
Expiry date: after 2 hours
Name: bm_sv
Value: A5A322305B4401C2451FC22FFF547486~FEsKGvX8eovCwTeFTzb8//I3ak2Au…
Purpose: This cookie comes from MasterPass Digital Wallet (a MasterCard service) and is used to offer a secure and easy virtual payment process to visitors. For this purpose, the user is anonymously identified on the website.
Expiry date: after 2 hours
Name: _abck
Value: 8D545C8CCA4C3A50579014C449B045111730722-9
Purpose: We could not find any further information about the purpose of this cookie.
Expiry date: after one year
For better display it could be that you would sometimes open our newsletter via a specified link. This can be the case if your email program does not work or if the newsletter is not displayed properly. The newsletter will then be shown via a MailChimp website. MailChimp also uses cookies on its websites (small text files which save data on your browser).
Personal data can be processed by MailChimp and their partners (e.g. Google Analytics). MailChimp is responsible for the collection of this data and we have no influence on it. MailChimp’s “Cookie Statement” (at: https://mailchimp.com/legal/cookies/) tells you exactly how and why the company uses cookies.
How long and where is the data saved?
Since MailChimp is an American company, all retained data is stored on American servers.
Generally, the data stays permanently saved on MailChimp’s servers and is deleted only when you request it. You can have your contact information with us deleted. This permanently removes all your personal data for us and anonymises you in MailChimp’s reports. However, you can also request the deletion of your data permanently at MailChimp. Then all your data are removed from there and we receive a notification from MailChimp. After we receive the email we have 30 days to delete your contact from all integrations.
How can I delete my data or prevent data retention?
You can withdraw your approval for the receipt of our newsletters anytime, by clicking the link in the lower area of the received newsletter email. When you click on the unsubscribe link, your data with MailChimp gets deleted.
When you land on a MailChimp website via a link in our newsletter and cookies are consequently set in your browser, you can delete or deactivate these cookies anytime.
Depending on the browser, the deactivation or deletion differs slightly. The following instructions show how to manage cookies in your browser:
Chrome: Clear, enable and manage cookies in Chrome
Safari: Manage cookies and website data in Safari
Firefox: Clear cookies and site data in Firefox
Internet Explorer: Delete and manage cookies
Microsoft Edge: Delete cookies in Microsoft Edge
If you generally do not want to allow any cookies, you can set up your browser in a way so it would notify you whenever a potential cookie is about to be set. This lets you decide upon the placement of every single cookie.
MailChimp is an active participant in the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield Framework, which regulates the correct and secure transfer of personal data. You can find more information on this at https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt0000000TO6hAAG&tid=111730722. You can find more information on MailChimp’s use of cookies at https://mailchimp.com/legal/cookies/, and you can learn more about data protection at MailChimp (Privacy) at https://mailchimp.com/legal/privacy/.