Data privacy note of wikiloops.com

The operator of the platform made available on the URL www.wikiloops.com (hereafter referred to as “the platform” or “wikiloops”) is the wikiloops media UG (haftungsbeschränkt), Am Pferdekopf 7, 53925 Kall, Germany.
In the following paragraphs, wikiloops media UG (haftungsbeschränkt) informs about the manner, the purposes of, the processing of and the scope in which personal user data is collected, used and stored by the platform.
This document serves as the “Datenschutzerklärung” (German for “data privacy statement”) as defined by § 13 TMG, in German law.

1. Meta-Data

Anytime a web-browser contacts a webserver, the following data is transmitted to the server along with the request:
the IP-Address of the visitor
Browser-type and Browser-version
The operating system used by the visitor
The last requested websites URL
A timestamp representing the time of the request
As the platform is requested by the user, such server contacts are being executed between the users browser and the platforms own server, as well as with additional 3rd-party servers which provide additional data assets and functionality.
As it will be explained in detail in the following paragraphs, the above-listed meta-data is used in different ways depending on which server is being contacted.

2. Log-Files

When being visited by the user, the platform stores the meta-data as listed in paragraph 1 on the platforms server.
The visitors IP-address is anonymized before it is stored, and the platform is using these anonymized log files exclusively for the purpose of creating statistical evaluations, in which no assignment between the data and an individual user is being made.

3. Registerring & setting up a user profile

To be able to register a user account on the platform,
the registering user needs to choose a username and a password,
and must provide the following mandatory personal data (mandatory data-fields are marked with an * ):
- First name and family name,
- Street address and
- A valid Email address.

Additionally, the user may provide optional data to be displayed on the users user-profile or to represent the user in interactions on the platform.
The following data-fields and ways to edit them are offered:
- nationality (choose country flag from drop-down-menu),
- location (text input)
- information on played instruments (text input),
- biographical information (text input)
- information on used recording equipment (text input)
- Images/Photo to be displayed on the user profile or used as the user avatar (file upload)
- Date of birth (drop-down-menu)
- A standardized forum signature (text input)

The mandatory personal data is exclusively used for communications between the platform and the user, any transfer of this data to third parties is out of question, as long as the platform is not forced by law or by court order.
The user profiles offered on the platform are available to registered users and non-registered visitors of the platform, so the profile data is in no way protected from access thru third parties.

4. Log-In & data storing along with audio uploads

During the log-in-procedure, the users IP-Address is stored in a database.
The record of the IP-Address stored on previous visits is being deleted and replaced in this event.
The stored IP-Address is exclusively used by the platform to ensure the safety of the platform. Unwanted access attempts, SPAM abuse or multiple registrations are being prevented by matching IP-Addresses. If not rewritten on following log-ins, the stored IP-Address is automatically deleted after 30 days after having been stored.
Whenever a registered user uploads audio files to the platform, the uploads timestamp and the users IP-Address are being stored to a database and associated permanently with the uploaded audio file.
This data record remains stored for the duration of the audio files presence on the platform, and may be used exclusively for the purpose of associating the uploaded audio with the uploading user in the event of copyright infringement claims or other legal conflicts concerning the audio file.

5. Use of Cookies by the platform

When visiting the platform, so called Cookies are being used to identify the user during his visit.
For the duration of the visit, a cookie is saved on the visitors computer. This cookie is deleted either immediately on the users log-out (active click on “log out”), or expires automatically after 48hours.
More information on the use of Cookies follows in paragraphs 7-9.

6. Contact form

The contact form on the platform offers the option to send questions, opinions and suggestions towards the platform.
The entered data is exclusively used to respond to the requests sent thru the contact from.
The contact from processes the following mandatory data-categories of users personal data (mandatory data is marked with an *):
• E-Mail-Address (text field)

• Message content (text field to enter free text as needed)

7. Geolocation

As the platform is being visited by the user, the users IP-Addresses is utilized to gather the users country by matching the IP-Address with a maxmind GeoIp-Database which is hosted on the platforms servers.
The gathered country result is needed to display the user interface in the desired language, and to be able to connect the user to the regionally closest CDN server (see paragraph 9.6). The country-matching result is being saved as part of the visitors Cookie (see paragraph 5) for the duration of the current visit. Neither the result of this procedure nor the users IP-Address are being stored on the platforms server during the geolocation detection process.

8. Use of statistic tools

This website uses Piwik, the open source software for statistic evaluation of the user accesses. Piwik uses so-called 'cookies', text files, which are set on your computer in order to analyze your use of the website. The information about your use of the provided internet service, supplied by the cookie, is stored on the server of the internet service provider in Germany. The IP address is made anonymous immediately after the processing and before storage. You can prevent the installation of the cookies by changing your browser settings accordingly; however, we point out that in this case you will possibly not be able to use all functions of this website to the full extent.

All collected data by PIWIK is not being associated to single users. No attempts to merge the data with other data sources are being made. The stored data is exclusively used for the purpose of creating statistical evaluations.

9. Use of Social Media Plugins and 3rd-Party service integration

9.1 Social Media PlugIns

wikiloops media UG (haftungsbeschränkt) utilizes social media plugins provided by Facebook, Inc. on the platform.
wikiloops media UG (haftungsbeschränkt) is making use of the so called 2-click-solution. This means that no personal data is being surrendered to Facebook at first. Only in the event of a user actively clicking on one of the plugins, personal data will be sent to the plug in provider automatically, and saved and evaluated on the plug in providers servers (which are located in the USA in Facebooks case).
Upon activation of the plugin thru the visitor, the plugin provider receives the information that the user has visited the website offering the plugin.
Additionally, the meta-data as listed in paragraph 1 is being transferred. This happens regardless of the visitor having a Facebook account, and regardless of Log-In status in a Facebook account. If the visitor has a Facebook account and is logged in to the Facebook account, the collected data gets directly associated with the visitors Facebook user profile. If a visiting Facebook user does not want to have such plugin-collected data associated to the visitors Facebook user account, the visitor must log out of the Facebook account prior to activating the plugin.

9.2 YouTube Video Plugin

wikiloops media UG (haftungsbeschränkt) allows embedding YouTube-videos within chat messages, private messages, comments and forum posts.
The video files are hosted on YouTubes servers. The YouTube video plugin as offered on the platform contacts the plugin providers server to display the preview image of the embedded video.
The plugin provider receives the information that the user has visited the website offering the plugin in this event. Additionally, the meta-data as listed in paragraph 1 is being transferred.
The plugin provider saves the collected data in use-profiles and uses these for advertising, market surveys and/or to optimize the service towards the preferences of the user.
This happens regardless of the visitors log in status or of having a user account on YouTube. The platform utilizes the plugin in the so called “privacy-enhanced mode”.
If the platforms visitor is logged in to the plugin providers service, the data collected by the plugin will only get associated with the visitors YouTube user account if the user actively starts the embedded videos playback. The plugin provider is making use of cookies to perform the data collection and evaluation.

9.3 Google Adsense Plugin

wikiloops media UG (haftungsbeschränkt) is utilizing the so called “Adsense” advertisement plugin offered by Google Inc. to display advertisement banners to the platforms visitors.
The displayed banners are being requested from the plugin providers servers. The plugin provider receives the information that the user has visited the website offering the plugin in this event. Additionally, the meta-data as listed in paragraph 1 is being transferred.
The plugin provider saves the collected data in use-profiles and uses these for advertising, market surveys and/or to optimize the service towards the preferences of the user.
This kind of data evaluation is especially aimed at the display of advertisements which are relevant to the individual visitor, and happens regardless of the users log-in status. The plugin provider is making use of cookies to perform the data collection and evaluation.

9.4 Affiliate Partner links

wikiloops media UG (haftungsbeschränkt) is offering links to so called. „Affiliate Partners“ like the online instrument store Thomann.de.
The technical realization is handled by the company Sunlab GmbH AM, Germany (referred to as „Affiliate-partner-provider“).
To display the banner of an affiliate partner, the affiliate-partner-providers server is being contacted. The affiliate-partner-provider receives the information that the user has visited the site offering the affiliate link in this event. Additionally, the meta-data as listed in paragraph 1 is being transferred.
The affiliate-partner-provider is using the collected data to associate purchases made on the affiliate-partners site to the websites that offered the banner which lead to the purchase, with the purpose of granting a provision to the websites operator. To perform this operation, the affiliate-partner-provider is making use of Cookies.

9.5 Payment-Plugins

wikiloops media UG (haftungsbeschränkt) is making use of payment processing plugins offered by PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie and Amazon Europe Core S.à.r.l to collect online payments.
To display the plugin, the plugin providers server is being contacted. The plugin provider receives the information that the user has visited the site offering the plugin in this event. Additionally, the meta-data as listed in paragraph 1 is being transferred.
The plugin provider stores these data records as use-profiles and uses these for advertising purpose, market analysis and to optimize their services. The data evaluation is especially focusing (including user who are not logged in) on assessing whether the user does hold a user account with the provider. The providers are using Cookies in this process.

9.6 Use of Content Delivery Networks

The operator is making use of so called CDN-services provided by CDNsun and AmazonAWS when providing the platform.
By utilizing a CDN service, static assets of the platform (such as audio files, images and layout related CSS and javascript code) are being fetched from extremely fast and regionally close-by or less heavily used servers, leading to significantly faster page loading times.
The CDN providers are operating servers located all around the globe. Even if the user is a resident of the European Union, getting connected to servers which may be outside of the European union cannot be excluded due to technical reasons.
In these events, the personal meta-data as listen in paragraph 1 will be sent into the country where the CDN server resides immediately. In this case, the user agrees to surrender the data to the USA and/or the country where the CDN server resides.
The CDN-providers are making use of Log-Files to create use-statistics and for billing purposes. An association between these log files and individual users does not happen in these processes.

9.7 Responsibility and suggestions

wikiloops media UG (haftungsbeschränkt) does neither have any influence on the scope of data collection performed by external providers, nor on the data processing performed.
Neither does wikiloops media UG (haftungsbeschränkt) hold all information on the purpose, scope of collected data and data storage terms applied by external providers.
The user may have a right to object against the creation of use-profiles as performed by some external providers, but will have to contact the external service provider directly to object (see 9.9).
Since most external providers are making use of Cookies to collect data, wikiloops suggests the user should either delete any cookies set by these providers before visiting the platform, or disable the storage of third party cookies in the users browser.
wikiloops does not suggest blocking all kinds of cookies regardless of origin, because some of the functionality offered on the platform does rely on cookies being present (see paragraphs 5 and 9.5).

9.8 Further Information

More information on the scope and purpose of data collecting and processing performed by the plugin-providers can be found in the data privacy information provided by the plug-in providers on the pages linked in the following paragraph. These documents also include further information on user rights and concerning the privacy settings and options to protect your privacy.

9.9 Addresses of 3rd-party providers and links to their data privacy regulations

a) Facebook, Inc., 1601 S California Ave., Palo Alto, California 94304,USA
https://www.facebook.com/policy.php,
additional info on facebooks data collection: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy, https://www.facebook.com/help/568137493302217.
b) Google, Inc., 1600 Aphitheater Parkway, Mountainview, California 94043, USA;
https://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy/
c) PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A., 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg
https://www.paypal.com/de/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full
d) Amazon Europe Core S.à.r.l., 5, Rue Plaetis, L-2338 Luxemburg
https://www.amazon.de/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=3312401
e) Sunlab GmbH, Bamberger Str. 9,63743 Aschaffenburg, Deutschland
https://www.sunlab.de/datenschutz/
f) CDNsun s.r.o, Czech Republic
https://cdnsun.com/privacy-policy
g) Amazon Web Services, Inc.,P.O. Box 81226,Seattle, WA 98108-1226 USA
https://aws.amazon.com/privacy/

10. Users rights note

Applications for information (§ 34 BDSG), correction, blocking or deletion of personal user data (§ 35 BDSG) may be sent to wikiloops media UG (haftungsbeschränkt), to the contact address stated in paragraph 12.

11. Data storage periods & data backup handling

The storage of personal user data which has been collected by the platform will only last for as long as needed to fulfill the purposes stated in this document, or as long as the multitude of data storage periods as intended by legislation do allow.
Besides storing the data on the platforms webserver, the operator will create data backups and store these on local harddrives. These data backups are used exclusively to provide security backups in the event of a technical issue on the online server which might destroy the original data, and are a means to provide the continued service of the platform in such an event.

12. Contact information

wikiloops media UG (haftungsbeschränkt)
Herr Richard Kaiser,
Am Pferdekopf 7,
53925 Kall,
Germany
Email: datenschutz@wikiloops.com