Terms & Conditions

TERMS OF SERVICE

[The language below would be part of a pop-up on the Site that would cover both the Privacy Policy and the Terms of Service once the User opted in to the Site]

PLEASE CAREFULLY READ THE PROVISIONS OF THE PRIVACY POLICY AND THE TERMS OF SERVICE AS THEY ARE AVAILABLE AT THE HIGHLIGHTED LINKS NOTED ABOVE.  WHEN YOU OPT IN BY CHECKING THE BOX BELOW, YOU AGREE TO SHARE YOUR USER ID, NAME, EMAIL ADDRESS, CORPORATE ID FOR THE FOLLOWING PURPOSES: REGISTRATION FOR EVENTS, MAILINGS. YOU ALSO AGREE AND CONFIRM THAT YOU AGREE TO COMPLY WITH THE PROVISIONS OF THE PRIVACY POLICY AND TERMS OF SERVICE POLICY.  BOTH POLICIES ARE INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE.  IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THESE TERMS OF USE, DO NOT USE THIS SITE OR OUR SERVICE.

o  I agree to the collection and use of my personal data as described above and to abide by the provisions of the Terms of Service and Privacy Policies.

o  I do not agree to the collection and use of my personal data as described above and therefore agree not to access this Site.

TERMS OF SERVICE

  1. Use of Site and/or Service
  2. Registration Requirements
  3. Account Responsibility
  4. Privacy and Release of Information
  5. User Conduct
  6. Content
  7. Site Security and Conduct
  8. System and Network Security
  9. Intellectual Property Rights
  10. Notification of Claims of Infringement
  11. Representations
  12. Disclaimer of Warranty
  13. Links to Other Website
  14. Indemnity
  15. Limitation of Liability
  16. Consequences of Violation of Terms

 

Use of Site and/or Service.  This Website and Portal (“Site”) and the services provided (“Service”) are maintained and operated by German American Business Council of Michigan  (“us,” “we,” “our,” or “Company”) with its registered office at PO Box 1448, Brighton MI  4816, German American Business Council of Michigan has one goal: The German American Business Council of Michigan will promote and support its Members and the American & German business community in Michigan to succeed by creating added value through Education, Networking, Integration of New Companies into the Business Community, Assisting Business Development, and Fostering Trade and Investment between Michigan and Germany

Thus, we offer this Site for you to view information and documents from us (collectively, “Content”) using our interactive messaging capabilities (“Forums”), and to purchase our products and Services.  Please note that you must be of the age of consent in your jurisdiction to use our Services and interact on our Site.  If you breach any of the provisions in these Terms of Service (“Terms”), your authorization to use this Site or these Services automatically terminates.

We reserve the right to change these Terms from time to time. If such changes are considered material, we will inform you by email, and the changes will take effect one month after sending the email.  Your continued use of the Site or our Services after such changes will act as your agreement to accept these modified Terms.  You are responsible to return to this Site from time to time to review the most current Terms.

Registration Requirements.  You may view Content on the Site without registration.  However, in order to participate in Forums and use other advanced Services, you must register with German American Business Council using a valid email address.  In so doing, you agree that the information you supply will be accurate and that you will not supply the email address of, or register under the name of, another person.  We reserve the right to reject any username we deem offensive or inappropriate.  You may not register as a business or entity name.

Account Responsibility.  You are solely responsible for protecting your account from access by others.  We encourage you to select a hard-to-guess password and to not re-use that password across other platforms.

While you can maintain multiple accounts, we can and do track multiple accounts that originate from a single IP address as one account.  This means that if you violate the Terms severely enough to warrant being banned from the Site and you have multiple accounts, then all accounts from the same computer may also be banned.  For this reason, we recommend that you neither share your account information with others, nor share the computers you use to access the Site with others.

Privacy and Release of Information.  It is our policy to not release your personal data to any third party except when you instruct us to do so, or when it is legally required.  When law enforcement makes a lawful demand for personal data from us, we strive to limit the disclosure.  We will release only the specific data mandated by the relevant legal demand.  If compelled to disclose your personal data, we will promptly notify you and provide a copy of the demand unless we are legally prohibited from doing so.

User Conduct.  You agree not to use this Site for any of the following activities:

Offensive Posting

Posts of a patently offensive nature are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to:

Using vulgar, profane, or sexually explicit language

Using race, religion, sexual orientation, culture, ethnicity, handicap, nationality, or gender as a means of insult

Using sexual preference terms as a term of insult in any way, shape, or form

Using threatening, harassing, defamatory, hate-speech, or libelous language

Posting or requesting links to or material from pornographic, obscene, or hate-speech websites

Posting links to websites with potentially offensive content without a clear warning

Descriptions or details about any sexual act or sexual organs

 

Posting content from other websites

Any content you share or communicate via our Site must be your original work.  If it is owned by someone else, you must have authorization from the owner.  If you share or communicate content from another source, please include a link back to the original content.  Please refrain from sharing or communicating private messages without a user’s permission.

Flaming (Insulting Other Users)

Communications clearly insulting, calling out, provoking or harassing other users, individually or as a group, directly or indirectly, are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to: Name-calling (“You moron”) Direct insults (“Screw you”) Offensive orders (“Go kill yourself”) Insinuations (“Are you stupid?”) or insults towards family (“Your mom…”)

Trolling (Inciting Flames)

Communications intended solely to annoy and/or offend other users by going against the clear nature of the Forum are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to:

Provoking other users to respond with flames

Constant bickering/arguing

Making misleading topic titles

Asking obviously useless questions

Posting false information as fact

 

Illegal Activities

Communications that violate or incite others to violate the law are not allowed. This includes, but is not limited to, asking for or providing, in any way, shape, or form:

Illegal copies of copyrighted software

Methods of circumventing copyright protection

Illegal copies of copyrighted music, movies, videos, or any other type of media

Reprints of material from other websites

Methods of cheating in online games

 

Advertising

Communications that clearly advertise a service or product are not allowed.  Users may include a website address in a signature, request comments on their personal site in a social setting, or provide interesting or relevant links to another site.

Disruptive Communications

Communications that disrupt the Forums for other users, intentional or not, are prohibited.

Impersonation

Users may be immediately banned (along with any associated accounts) for impersonating other users by creating and/or using an account with a name clearly intended to impersonate, mock, or antagonize another user, or otherwise falsely claiming to be another user.

Harassment/Stalking/Privacy

Continual harassing behavior directed towards a certain individual or group with the intent of creating an intimidating, offensive, or hostile environment, with or without use of explicit or implicit threats is strictly prohibited.

Unauthorized Access

Accessing or attempting to access any user account not belonging to the rightful owner without permission is prohibited.

Bugs and Exploits

Using exploits or tricks in the Site code to gain privileges, access, or abilities not clearly intended by the board design is prohibited.

Usernames, Profiles, and Forms

Violating any of the above rules with a username, any part of the user profile (signature, quote, email, IM), or via feedback forms is prohibited.

Other

Any other activity that is clearly detrimental to the flow of conversation and normal activities of our Site’s users may be grounds for deleting the user’s account.

Content.

Ownership

Our sites include a combination of Content that we create, that our partners create, and that our users create.  All materials we publish on our Site, including, but not limited to written materials, photographs, graphics, images, illustrations, marks, logos, sound or video clips, and Flash animation, are protected by our copyrights and trademarks or those of our partners.  You may not modify, publish, transmit, participate in the transfer or sale of, reproduce, create derivative works of, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, or in any way exploit any of the Content on our Site in whole or in part.  If you would like to request permission to use any of the Content on our Site, please send an email to info@gabcmi.org.

Our Site is protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under the copyright laws of the United States and other countries.  All individual articles, materials, and other elements comprising this Site are also copyrighted works.

By sharing or communicating on this Site, you automatically grant us the right to use, copy, modify, adapt or publish the content that you post, including for purposes of advertising and publicity, on the Site and elsewhere and we are under no obligation to pay you for your posting.  By sharing or communicating content on this Site, you receive consideration in terms of the publication of your post and the goodwill surrounding your content.

You are solely responsible for all materials, whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, that you upload, post, email, transmit, or otherwise make available on our Site (“Your Content”).  You certify that you own all intellectual property rights in Your Content.  You hereby grant us, our affiliates, and our partners a worldwide, irrevocable, royalty-free, nonexclusive, sub licensable license to use, reproduce, create derivative works of, distribute, publicly perform, publicly display, transfer, transmit, distribute, and publish Your Content and subsequent versions of Your Content for the purposes of (i) displaying Your Content on our Sites, (ii) distributing Your Content either electronically or via other media, to users seeking to download or otherwise acquiring it, and/or (iii) storing Your Content in a remote database accessible by end users, for a charge.  This license shall apply to the distribution and the storage of Your Content in any form, medium, or technology now known or later developed, including print publication.

Accuracy

Our Site contains Content that we create as well as Content provided by third parties.  We do not guarantee the accuracy, the integrity, or the quality of the Content on our Site, and you may not rely on any of this Content.  Without limitation, we are not responsible for postings by users.

You agree that neither we nor our sponsors or affiliates are responsible for the accuracy of Your Content.  We do not control Your Content or the content posted by other users, and we do not guarantee the truthfulness or quality of any such Content.  You agree that while using our Site, you may be exposed to content that is offensive or objectionable, and that you will in no way hold us or our sponsors or affiliates liable in any way for any harm or loss that may come to you or others as a result of viewing such Content.

Offensive Content

You may be exposed to Content that you find offensive, indecent, or objectionable or that is inaccurate, and you bear all risks associated with using that Content.  We have the right, but not the obligation, to remove any Content that may, in our sole discretion, violate these Terms or that is otherwise objectionable.  We are not responsible for screening any user content before it is posted.

Site Security and Conduct.  Any Content we upload to this Site will be accessible to all users of the Site.  We have incorporated all reasonable and commercially available measures to protect the Site from unauthorized access.  Any unauthorized commercial use of the Service is expressly prohibited.  You agree to comply with all applicable local, state, national, and international laws and regulations and are solely responsible for all acts or omissions that occur under your user ID or password.

System and Network Security.  Violations of system or network security are prohibited, and may result in criminal and civil liability.  We will investigate incidents involving such violations and may involve and will cooperate with law enforcement if a criminal violation is suspected.  You must take reasonable security precautions in light of your use of the Service.  You are solely responsible for any breaches of security affecting the servers under your control.

Intellectual Property Rights.  The Service and this Site are protected to the maximum extent permitted by copyright and trademark laws and international treaties.  The Content of this Site, and related pages, is copyrighted property of German American Business Council, or other suppliers credited as the provider.  You may not decompile or disassemble, reverse engineer or otherwise attempt to discover any source code contained in the Service.  Without limiting the foregoing, you agree not to reproduce, duplicate, copy, sell, resell, or exploit for any commercial purposes, any aspect of the Site or the Service.

Notification of Claims of Infringement.  If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, or your intellectual property rights have been otherwise violated, please notify our agent for notice of claims of copyright or other intellectual property infringement at:

Please provide the following information:

  1. Identify the material on the Site that you claim is infringing in sufficient detail so that we can find it;
  2. Include the specific statement that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use you have identified is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law;
  3. Include the specific statement in which you declare, under penalty of perjury, that (a) the information you have provided is accurate, and (b) that you are the owner of the copyright interest involved or that you are authorized to act on behalf of that owner;
  4. Your address, telephone number, and email address; and
  5. Your physical or electronic signature.

 

We will remove the infringing content according to the procedures outlined in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.

Please note that, pursuant to 17 U.S.C. 512(f), any misrepresentation of fact or falsities in a written notification will automatically subject the complaining party to liability for damages, costs and attorneys’ fees incurred by us in connection with the written notification and your allegation of copyright infringement.

Representations.  You represent and warrant that you will not hold us responsible for the quality, safety, or accuracy of the Content on the Site.  We provide no warranty or guarantee regarding the accuracy, timeliness, performance, completeness or suitability of the information and materials found or offered on this website for any purposes.  You acknowledge that such information and materials may contain inaccuracies or errors and we expressly exclude liability for any such inaccuracies or errors to the fullest extent permitted by law.  If you are aware of any relevant errors, inaccuracies, or discrepancies, including pricing discrepancies please alert us at info@gabcmi.org

Disclaimer of Warranty.  ALL EXPRESS AND IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND NON-INFRINGEMENT OF PROPRIETARY RIGHTS ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.  TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, COMPANY DISCLAIMS ANY WARRANTIES:  (i) FOR THE SECURITY, RELIABILITY, TIMELINESS, ACCURACY, AND PERFORMANCE OF THE SITE AND THE SERVICE; (ii) FOR OTHER SERVICES OR GOODS RECEIVED THROUGH OR ADVERTISED ON THE COMPANY SITE OR THE SITES OR SERVICE, OR ACCESSED THROUGH ANY LINKS ON THE SITE; OR (iii) FOR VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS IN CONNECTION WITH THE SITE OR THE SERVICE.  YOU USE ANY INFORMATION OR MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK.  IT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO ENSURE THAT ANY PRODUCTS, SERVICES, OR INFORMATION AVAILABLE THROUGH THIS WEBSITE MEET YOUR SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS.

Links to Other Websites.  The Site may contain links and pointers to other websites that are maintained by third parties.  Such links do not mean that we endorse these third-party sites or any materials they contain.  Of course we do not control, and thus are not responsible for, the availability, accuracy, privacy policy, or currency of such third-party sites or any information, content, products or services accessible from such third-party sites.

Indemnity.  You agree to indemnify and hold us, our officers, subsidiaries, affiliates, successors, assigns, directors, officers, agents, service providers, suppliers and employees, harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorney fees and court costs, made by any third party due to or arising out of Content you submit, post or make available through the Service, your use of the Service, your violation of the Terms, your breach of any of the representations and warranties in these Terms, or your violation of any rights of another person or entity.

Governing Law.  You further consent that this Agreement is governed by and shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Michigan, U.S.A. without reference to its conflicts of law provisions.  The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods shall not apply to this Agreement.  You agree to submit to the personal and exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts located in Michigan for any disputes arising out the use of this Site.

This Agreement constitutes the entire agreement between the parties with respect to the subject matter that it describes. This Agreement supersedes all prior proposals, negotiations, conversations, discussions and agreements between the parties concerning the information it covers.

If, for any reason, a court of competent jurisdiction finds any provision or part of a provision of this Agreement unenforceable, that provision shall be enforced to the maximum extent permissible so as to affect the intent of this Agreement.  Any remaining provisions of the Agreement will continue to be enforced with full effect.

Limitation of Liability.  UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES ARE WE LIABLE FOR DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES (EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES), RESULTING FROM ANY ASPECT OF YOUR USE OF THE SITE OR THE SERVICE, WHETHER THE DAMAGES ARISE FROM USE OR MISUSE OF THE SITE OR THE SERVICE, FROM INABILITY TO USE THE SITE OR THE SERVICE, OR THE INTERRUPTION, SUSPENSION, MODIFICATION, ALTERATION, OR TERMINATION OF THE SITE OR THE SERVICE.  SUCH LIMITATION SHALL ALSO APPLY WITH RESPECT TO DAMAGES INCURRED BY REASON OF OTHER SERVICES OR PRODUCTS RECEIVED THROUGH OR ADVERTISED IN CONNECTION WITH THE OUR SITE OR THE SERVICE OR ANY LINKS ON THE SITE, AS WELL AS BY REASON OF ANY INFORMATION OR ADVICE RECEIVED THROUGH OR ADVERTISED IN CONNECTION WITH THE SITE OR THE SERVICE OR ANY LINKS ON THE SITE.  THESE LIMITATIONS SHALL APPLY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. In some jurisdictions, limitations of liability are not permitted and some of the foregoing limitations may not apply to you.

Consequences of Violation of Terms.  We may, without notice to you, suspend your Service or remove Your Content transmitted via the Site if we discover facts that lead us to reasonably believe the Site or Service is being used in violation of these Terms.  You agree to cooperate with our reasonable investigation of any suspected violation of these Terms.  We may attempt to contact you prior to your suspension; however, prior notification is not assured.

 

 

PRIVACY POLICY

German American Business Council of Michigan (also referred to as “we,” “our,” “us”) has one goal: The German American Business Council will promote and support its Members and the American & German business community in Michigan to succeed by creating added value through Education, Networking, Integration of New Companies into the Business Community, Assisting Business Development, and Fostering Trade and Investment between Michigan and Germany.

  1. What Information Do We Gather?
  2. What Do We Do With the Information We Collect?
  3. Who Can Use the Information We Collect and How?
  4. How Do We Protect the Personal Information We Collect?
  1. What Are Your Rights Regarding Your Personal Data?
  1. How Do You Opt-out of Personal Information Sharing with Our Business Partners?
  2. How Do You Correct and Update Your Personal Data?
  3. What is Our Privacy Policy If You Are an Underage Child?
  4. What Happens When You Link to a Third-Party Web Site?
  5. What Happens When We Update Our Privacy Policy?
  6. Your California Privacy Rights
  7. Your European Union Privacy Rights
  8. What If You Have Questions?
  9. What Information Do We Gather?

When you visit our Website and Portal (“Site”), we collect only the information and personal data you have agreed to provide to us that is necessary to identify your needs and to provide you with better service.  Through your use of the Site or registration as a new user, we may request personal data including, but not limited to:

  • Name, company and job title
  • Contact information including email address and cell phone number
  • Demographic information including postal code, product preferences and interests
  • Internet Protocol (“IP”) Address and other persistent identifiers
  • Other information relevant to customer surveys and offers

.

Some of this personal data, including name, company and contact information, will only be collected if you voluntarily provide it during the user registration process.  We may also track information such as the domain name and the name of the web page from which you entered our Site, and how much time you spend on each of our pages.  We collect information that is combined with other web visitors’ information, such as how many times visitors click on each web page and the methods by which our Site was found.

We may collect IP addresses and website usage information from you when you visit our Site via the use of “cookies.”  An IP address is a number that is assigned to your computer when you are using your browser on the Internet.  A cookie is a small file that is stored on the hard drive of your computer ready for future access when you return to our Site.  We use cookies to deliver web content specific to you and to keep track of your online order activity.  Cookies cannot pass viruses, harm your computer or pass on private information such as an email address without the computer user’s intervention.  Cookies contain session identification numbers that allow our systems to recall previous sessions for authentication efforts and assemble information from our gathered data.  You can configure your computer’s browser to alert you when a site is attempting to send you a cookie and allow you to accept or refuse the cookie. Further information on how to prevent cookies from being stored on your device can be found on http://www.allaboutcookies.org under the ‘manage cookies’ section. Alternatively, you can access further information by going to the help menu within your internet browser. To opt out of being tracked by Google Analytics across all websites visit http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

We use cookies to give you the best experience on our Site. If you continue without changing your cookie settings, we assume that you consent to our use of cookies on this device.  You can change your cookie settings at any time but if you do, you may lose some functionality on our Site.

  1. What Do We Do With the Personal Information We Collect?

You will be asked to provide personal data in certain fields on this Site that allow you to be able to use our Services.  The personal data we collect is used only for the purpose we state at the time of collection or for purposes contained below.  For example, our uses may include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • To process transactions. COMPANY uses personal data such as name, physical address, telephone number, email address, and company/institution to engage in interactions with you, including contacting you about your transactions with the site.
  • To process payments. We use financial/credit card and payment information to process your order and may need to share some of this information with delivery services, credit card clearing houses, and other third parties to complete the transaction.
  • To provide support or other services. COMPANY may use your personal data to provide you with support or other services that you have ordered or requested. COMPANY may also use your personal information to respond directly to your requests for information, including registrations for newsletters, webinars, or other specific requests, or pass your contact information to the appropriate COMPANY distributor or reseller for further follow-up related to your interests.
  • To provide information based on your needs and respond to your requests. COMPANY may use your personal data to provide you with notices of new product releases and service developments.
  • To provide online forums and social networks. Some services available on the websites may permit you to participate in interactive discussions, post comments, opportunities, or other content to a Forum, or otherwise engage in networking activities. Some of these services may be moderated; all may be accessed for technical reasons (for example, for improvements or fixes). COMPANY does not control the content that users post to the Forums or social networks. You should carefully consider whether you wish to submit personal information to these forums or social networks and tailor any content you submit appropriately and in accordance with the relevant terms of use. You should also review any additional terms and conditions that may govern your use of these services, including terms related to sharing your personal information and receiving communications.
  • To administer products. COMPANY may contact you if you purchase products to confirm certain information about your order (for example, that you did not experience problems in the download process). We may also use this information to confirm compliance with licensing and other terms of use and may share it with your company/institution.
  • To select content, improve quality, and facilitate use of the websites. COMPANY may use your personal data, including the information gathered as a result of site navigation and electronic protocols and cookies (including third-party cookies), to help create and personalize website content, improve website quality, track marketing campaign responsiveness, evaluate page response rates, conduct usability testing, and facilitate your use of the websites (for example, to facilitate navigation and the login process, avoid duplicate data entry, enhance security, keep track of shopping cart additions, and preserve order information between sessions).
  • To serve personalized advertising to you. We don’t share your personal data with advertisers without your consent. We allow advertisers to choose the characteristics of users who will see their advertisements, and we may use any of the non-personally-identifiable data attributes we have collected to select the appropriate audience for those advertisements. When you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement, there is a possibility that the advertiser may place a cookie in your browser and that your attributes meet the criteria the advertiser selected.
  • To assess usage of COMPANY products and services. COMPANY may track your usage of COMPANY products and services to determine your level of usage, and those usage statistics may be made available to COMPANY’s content licensors and your company/institution.
  • To communicate with you about events. We may communicate with you about events hosted or co-sponsored by COMPANY or one of our business associates. This may include information about the event’s content, event logistics, payment, updates, and additional information related to the event. Information you provide when registering for or participating in a conference managed or co-sponsored by parties, other than or in addition to COMPANY may be shared with those parties, and the treatment of such information is further subject to the privacy policies of those parties. COMPANY and its conference co-sponsors may contact you after the event about the event, subsequent iterations of the event and related events. Please note that COMPANY event organizers, co-sponsors, exhibitors, and other third parties may directly request your personal information at their conference booths or presentations. Providing your information to them is optional, and you should review their privacy policies to address your particular needs and concerns about how they will treat your personal information.
  • To update you on relevant COMPANY benefits, programs, and opportunities. COMPANY may communicate with you regarding relevant COMPANY benefits, programs, and opportunities available to you.
  • To engage with third parties. COMPANY may share your personal data with third parties in connection with services that these individuals or entities perform for or with COMPANY. These third parties are restricted from using this data in any way other than to provide services for COMPANY or for the collaboration in which they and COMPANY are contractually engaged (for example, hosting a COMPANY database or engaging in data processing on COMPANY’s behalf, or mailing you information that you requested). These third parties are carefully selected by COMPANY and obligated to keep your data secure. From time to time, we may also share your information with third parties whom we think might provide content, products, or services of interest to you.
  • To protect COMPANY content and services. We may use your personal data to prevent potentially illegal activities and to enforce our terms and conditions.  We also use a variety of technological systems to detect and address anomalous activity and to screen content to prevent abuse, such as spam.  These efforts may, on occasion, result in a temporary or permanent suspension or termination of some functions for some users.  By using our Site, you acknowledge and agree that we may access, retain and disclose the personal data we collect and maintain about you if required to do so by law or in a good faith belief that such access, retention, or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal process (e.g. a subpoena or court order) or law; (b) enforce our Terms of Service, this Privacy Policy, or other contracts with you, including investigation of potential violations thereof; (c) respond to claims that any content violates the rights of third parties; (d) respond to your requests for customer service; and/or (e) protect the rights, property or personal safety of COMPANY, its agents and affiliates, its users and/or the public. This includes exchanging information with other companies and organizations for fraud protection, compliance with applicable law, and spam/malware prevention, and similar purposes.
  • To get feedback or input from you. In order to deliver products and services of most interest to our customers, from time to time, we may ask members, customers, volunteers, and website visitors to provide us input and feedback (for example through surveys, usability studies, focus groups).
  • To protect COMPANY information assets as well as your own personal data. The COMPANY Information Security Program protects the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of COMPANY information assets by following a risk management approach based on policies, standards, guidelines, and procedures to meet security objectives while supporting business and operational goals.
  • To assist in Business Transfers. As we continue to develop our business, we may buy, merge, or partner with other companies. In such transactions, (including in contemplation of such transactions) user information may be among the transferred assets. If a portion or all of COMPANY’s assets are sold or transferred to a third-party, customer personal data (including your email address) would likely be one of the transferred business assets. If such transfer is subject to additional mandatory restrictions under applicable laws, COMPANY will comply with such restrictions.

To the extent that we collect certain demographic information about you, we may use this information in our market research, but we will do so only after we “anonymize” or “pseudonymize” the data, i.e., remove information that would confirm your identity.  We will not use your personal data, however, to send commercial or marketing messages to you unless we have a legal basis for doing so, such as your consent or a contract with us for which, in either case, you will have the ability to opt out of by sending an email to info@gabcmi.org .

This Site does not collect personal data when you browse the Site and request pages from our servers unless you voluntarily and knowingly provide such information to us.  This means that we will not know your name, your email address, or any other personal data just because you browse the Site unless you:

  • access the Site from a link in an email that we have sent to you;
  • have created a profile and you either log-in to your account or choose to be remembered via your cookie or your web-enabled mobile device.

In these cases we will know who you are based on the information you previously supplied to us.  When you request a page from our Site, our servers log the information provided in the HTTP request header including the IP number, the time of the request, the URL of your request and other information that is provided in the HTTP header.  We collect the HTTP request header information in order to make our Site functions correctly and provides you with the functionality that you expect to see.  We also use this information to personalize content presented to you, better understand how visitors use our Site and how we can better tune it, its contents, and functionality to meet your needs.  We only use your personally identifiable information for those activities listed at the time you submit your information to us.  For example, if you provide us with an email to inform you of special events, then that is what we will use your email address to do.  If we would like to use your personally identifiable information for an unrelated activity, we will first request your consent to do so.

  1. Who Can Use the Information We Collect and How?

We may provide your personal data to third parties, or third parties may collect personal data from you on our behalf if we have contracted with that third party to provide some part of the information or service that you have requested.  Other than those who act on our behalf and except as explained in this Policy, personal data you provide at this Site will not be transferred to unrelated third parties, unless we have a legal basis to do so.  However, please note that personal data provided to this Site is subject to disclosure pursuant to judicial or other government subpoenas, warrants or orders.  We will only provide this information after approximately two weeks following receipt of a valid subpoena or other legal process in a civil case.

  1. How Do We Protect the Personal Information We Collect?

Security of Personal Data

We are committed to protecting the security of your personal data. Depending on the circumstances, we may hold your information in hard copy and/or electronic form. For each medium, we use technologies and procedures to protect personal data. We review our strategies and update as necessary to meet our business needs, changes in technology, and regulatory requirements.  We take our security obligations seriously and so should you.  While we are responsible for maintaining the security of this Site, you must also access and use this Site in a manner that is responsible and secure.  We adhere to internationally recognized security standards and our information security management system relating to client confidential data is independently certified as complying with the requirements of ISO/IEC 27001: 2013.  In addition, we have implemented a series of policies, procedures, and training to address data protection, confidentiality, and security, and we update and review the appropriateness of these measures on a regular basis.

Storage and Transfer of Personal Data

Personal data collected by COMPANY may be stored and processed in your region, in the United States or in any other country where COMPANY, its affiliates or contractors maintain facilities, including outside the European Union. We take steps to ensure that the data we collect under this Privacy Policy is processed pursuant to the terms thereof and the requirements of applicable law wherever the data is located.

COMPANY also collaborates with third parties such as cloud hosting services and suppliers located around the world to serve the needs of our business, workforce, and customers. In some cases, we may need to disclose or transfer your personal data within COMPANY or to third parties in areas outside of your home country. When we do so, we take steps to ensure that personal data is processed, secured, and transferred according to applicable law.

If you would like to know more about our data transfer practices, please contact info@gabcmi.org.

Retention of Personal Data

COMPANY retains personal data for as long as necessary to provide the services and fulfill the transactions you have requested, or for other business purposes such as complying with our legal obligations, resolving disputes, and enforcing our agreements. We are required by law to keep some types of information for certain periods of time (e.g., statute of limitations).  If your personal data is no longer necessary for the legal or business purposes for which it is processed, we will generally destroy or anonymize that information.

  1. What Are Your Rights Regarding Your Personal Data?

We respect your right to access and control your personal data. You have choices about the data we collect. When you are asked to provide personal data that is not necessary for the purposes of providing you with our Products and Services, you may decline. However, if you choose not to provide data that is necessary to provide a Service, you may not have access to certain features, Sites, Products, or Services.

Access to personal data: In some jurisdictions, you have the right to request access to your personal data. In these cases, we will comply, subject to any relevant legal requirements and exemptions, including identity verification procedures. Before providing data to you, we will ask for proof of identity and sufficient information about your interaction with us so that we can locate any relevant data. We may also charge you a fee for providing you with a copy of your data (except where this is not permissible under local law).

Correction and deletion: In some jurisdictions, you have the right to correct or amend your personal data if it is inaccurate or requires updating. You may also have the right to request deletion of your personal data. Please note that such a request could be refused because your personal data is required to provide you with the products or services you requested, e.g. to deliver a product or send an invoice to your email address, or that it is required by the applicable law.

Portability: If you reside within the European Union, you have the right to ask for a copy of your personal data and/or ask for it to be ported to another provider of your choice. Please note that such a request could be limited to the only personal data you provided us with or that we hold at that given time and subject to any relevant legal requirements and exemptions, including identity verification procedures.

Marketing preferences: If you have provided us with your contact information, we may, subject to any applicable Spam Act or similar regulation, contact you via email, postal mail or telephone about COMPANY products, services and events that may be of interest to you, including newsletters.

E-mail communications you receive from COMPANY will generally provide an unsubscribe link allowing you to opt-out of receiving future email or to change your contact preferences. E-mail communications may also include a link to directly update and manage your marketing preferences. If you have an online account with COMPANY, You can also change your contact preferences through email communication. Please remember that even if you opt out of receiving marketing emails, we may still send you important Service information related to your accounts.

If you are in the EU/UK, you have certain additional privacy rights that are listed below in Section 12.

  1. How Do You Opt-out of Personal Information Sharing with Our Business Partners?

We may use third party analytics vendors to evaluate and provide us with information about the use of our Services and viewing of our content.  Some of the information you see on our Sites may be customized based on automated predictions about your interests, which predictions are generated from your visits over time and across different websites, using tools such as Google Analytics.  This information allows us to create content of greater interest to you and can also be used to serve ads based on your past visits to our Sites.  Note that you can opt out of a third-party vendor’s use of cookies, including use by Google, by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page (http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/).

For more information about how targeted Network Advertising works, please visit: http://www.youradchoices.com/ or http://www.networkadvertising.org/understanding-online- advertising.

You may opt-out of third party targeted advertising or analytics in two ways:  1) By directly notifying a Network Advertising service provider via its opt-out tools (Please see above), or 2) using your browser’s Do Not Track (DNT) settings to indicate that you do not wish to receive targeted advertising based on your overall internet usage.  For more information about DNT and how it works, please visit the Future of Privacy Forum’s website: http://www.allaboutdnt.com/.

We will make a good faith reasonable effort to honor your DNT browser settings for opting out of receiving targeted third party advertising based on your overall Internet usage.  Please note that various browsers frequently update technology or change their settings and business practices without advance notice, and we may not have the latest information on how to honor your preferences.  If you exercise either opt-out option – the cookie opt-out or the browser opt-out – you will continue to receive advertising, but such advertising may not relate to your specific interests, previous purchases, or search history.

However, you cannot opt-out of our contextual analytics and advertising, which is based on your usage of only our Services. We will continue to serve you contextual advertising.  We will also continue to monitor your usage and search or transaction history to provide us with analytics on how well our Services, features, and activities are functioning and used. We will also share this information in an aggregated or anonymized form (meaning that no one individual person can be identified) within  German American Business Council of Michigan

You can also opt out of our marketing emails at any time by contacting us at opt-out@gabcmi.org or by sending us a post card to “OPT OUT”, German American Business Council, PO Box 1448 Brighton, MI  4816

How Do You Correct and Update Your Personal Data?

We aim to keep all personal data that we hold accurate, complete and up-to-date. While we will use our best efforts to do so, we encourage you to tell us if you change your contact details. If you believe that the information we hold about you is incorrect, incomplete or out-of-date, please contact info@gabcmi.org.

You can change or correct your personal data at any time.  Just send an email with your old information and your corrections to ingo@gabcmi.org with “Correction” in the subject line.

  1. What is Our Privacy Policy If You Are an Underage Child?

We understand the importance of protecting the privacy of all individuals, especially the very young.  Our services are intended for United States audiences over the age of 18.  Our Site and its Services are not directed to children, and you may not use our Services if you are under the age of 13. You must also be old enough to consent to the processing of your personal data in your country (in some countries we may allow your parent or guardian to do so on your behalf). You must be at least 16 years of age to use the Site Forums.  Subscribing to our Services is restricted to adults who are either 18 years of age or older or as otherwise legally defined by the country of your residency.

  1. What Happens When You Link to a Third-Party Web Site?

If you click on a link and go to another site, you will be subject to that website’s privacy policy.  We encourage you to read the posted privacy policy statement at any website before submitting any personal data at all.

  1. What Happens When We Update Our Privacy Policy?

We may on occasion update our Privacy Policy.  Your acceptance of any minor changes to this Privacy Policy is indicated by your continued use of our Services.  If we make any material changes to our Privacy Policy, we will post a notice about the change at a prominent location on our Site.  We encourage you to periodically review our Site and this Privacy Policy for any changes.

  1. Your California Privacy Rights

If you are a California resident and have an established business relationship with us and want to receive information about how to exercise your third party disclosure choices, you must send a request to the following address with a preference on how our response to your request should be sent (email or postal mail).  You may contact us in two ways. Send an email to info@gabcmi.org

Alternatively, you may contact us at:

German American Business Council

PO Box 1448

Brighton, MI  48116

Attn:   Your California Privacy Rights

c/o Privacy Administrator

For requests sent via email, you must put the statement “Your California Privacy Rights” in the subject field of your email.  All requests sent via postal mail must be labeled “Your California Privacy Rights” on the envelope or post card and clearly stated on the actual request.  For all requests, please include your name, street address, city, state, and zip code.  (Your street address is optional if you wish to receive a response to your request via email. Please include your zip code for our own recordkeeping.) We will not accept requests via the telephone or by facsimile.  We are not responsible for responding to notices that are not labeled or not sent properly, or do not have complete information.

If you are a California resident under the age of 18, and a registered user of any site where this policy is posted, California Business and Professions Code Section 22581 permits you request and obtain removal of content or information you have publicly posted. To make such a request, please send an email with a detailed description of the specific content or information to gabcmi.org Please be aware that such a request does not ensure complete or comprehensive removal of the content or information you have posted and that there may be circumstances in which the law does not require or allow removal even if requested.

  1. Your European Union Privacy Rights

If you are in the European Union, under the General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation EU 2016/679) (also known as GDPR), you may have certain rights as a data subject.  A data subject is a person who can be identified by a name, identification number, location, online identifier, or other physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of the person.  Under the GDPR, personal data is information that relates to a data subject.  The processing of your data is either based on your consent or in case the processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party, or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract, cf. GDPR art. 6(1)(a)-(b).  If the processing is based on your consent, you may at any time withdraw your consent by contacting us at info@gabcmi.org.

In order to enter into a contract to use our Services, you must provide us with the required personal data. If you do not to provide us with all the required information, it will not be possible to deliver the Service.

To request information about or avail yourself of those rights, please send an email to infor@gabcmi.org with “GDPR Request” in the subject line.  In the email please describe, with specificity, the GDPR right you are requesting assistance with.  Please note additional information may be requested prior to initiation of a request and that COMPANY reserves the right to charge a fee with respect to certain requests.  Upon COMPANY’s completion of its review you will be notified if your request has been granted, denied, or exemptions apply.

The Data Controller and Processor for Personal Data

A Data Controller is a company that collects people’s personal data and makes decisions about what to do with it.  A Data Processor is a person or company that deals with personal data as instructed by a Data Controller for specific purposes and services.  The Data Controller’s information is as follows:

German American Business Council

PO Box 1448

Brighton, MI  48116

info@gabcmi.com

The Purpose and Legal Basis for Collection

Under the GDPR, there must be a lawful basis for processing personal data.  There are six lawful bases, and they are consent, contract, legal obligation, vital interests, public task, and legitimate interests.  As part of our compliance with the GDPR, we intend to use your personal data for the purpose of registration and communication.  Our lawful basis for collecting and processing your personal data For more information, see Section 2 of our Privacy Policy above.

The Legitimate Interest

In Company’s adherence with the GDPR, we have a legitimate interest which allows us to process your personal data.  This legitimate interest.

Recipients of Your Data and Categories of Data Collected

For more information, see Section 3 of our Privacy Policy above.

Data Protection Officer

Company is headquartered in Brighton, Michigan, USA.  COMPANY has appointed the following contact person Janina Luomala for you to contact if you have any questions or concerns about the Company’s personal data policies or practices.  COMPANY’s

Janina Luomala

German American Business Council

PO Box 1448

Brighton, MI  48116

info@gabcmi.com

 

GABCMI has its headquarters in Brighton, Michigan. Personal data we collect from you will be processed in Michigan.  The United States has not sought nor received a finding of “adequacy” from the European Union under Article 45 of the GDPR.  GABCMI relies on derogations for specific situations as set forth in Article 49 of the GDPR. In particular, GABCMI collects and transfers to the U.S. personal data only:  with your consent; to perform a contract with you; or to fulfill a compelling legitimate interest of GABCMI in a manner that does not outweigh your rights and freedoms.  GABCMI endeavors to apply suitable safeguards to protect the privacy and security of your personal data and to use it only consistent with your relationship with GABCMI and the practices described in this Privacy Policy.  GABCMI minimizes the risk to your rights and freedoms by not collecting or storing sensitive information about you.

The 8 Rights of Individuals

Under the GDPR, You will benefit from increased rights including:

  1. The right to be informed

The right to be informed encompasses the obligation to provide you with ‘fair processing information.’ It emphasizes the need for transparency over how your personal data is used.

  1. The right of access

Under the GDPR, you will have the right to obtain confirmation that your data is being processed, access to your personal data, and other supplementary information.

  1. The right to rectification

You are entitled to have your personal data rectified if it is inaccurate or incomplete.

  1. The right to erasure

The right to erasure is also known as ‘the right to be forgotten.’ You may request the deletion or removal of personal data where there is no compelling reason for its continued processing.

  1. The right to restrict processing

We are permitted to store your personal data, but not further process it without consent.

  1. The right to data portability

The right to data portability allows you to obtain and reuse your personal data for your own purposes across different services. You may move, copy or transfer personal data easily from one IT environment to another in a safe and secure way, without hindrance to usability.

  1. The right to object

You have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests or the performance of a task in the public interest/exercise of official authority (including profiling), direct marketing (including profiling); and processing for purposes of scientific/historical research and statistics.

  1. Rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling

The GDPR provides safeguards for you against the risk that a potentially damaging decision is taken without human intervention.

  1. What If You Have Questions?

If you have questions or concerns regarding this statement, you should first contact us via email at info@gabcmi.org

Cookie Policy

 

This site, like many others, uses small files called cookies to help us customize your experience. Find out more about cookies and how you can control them.

This page contains information on what cookies are, the cookies used by the German American Business Council of Michigan (“us,” “we,” “our,” or “Company”) website, how to switch cookies off in your browser, how to specifically switch off advertising cookies, and some useful links for further reading on the subject. If it does not provide the information you were looking for, or you have any further questions about the use of cookies on the Company website, please email info@gabcmi.org.

What are cookies?

Cookies are small text files that are stored by the browser (for example, Internet Explorer or Safari) on your computer or mobile phone. They allow websites to store things including your user preferences. Think of cookies as providing a ‘memory’ for the website, so that it can recognize you when you come back and respond appropriately.

How do we use cookies?

On our Site, you may encounter the following types of cookie:

Site performance cookies
Anonymous analytics cookies
Geotargetting cookies
Registration cookies
Advertising cookies
Third party advertising cookies

Site performance cookies

This type of cookie remembers your preferences for tools found on the Company’s website, so you don’t have to re-set them each time you visit. Examples include:

– Volume settings for our video player
– Whether you see new content first
– Video streaming speeds that are compatible with your browser

Anonymous analytics cookies:

Every time someone visits our website, software provided by another organization generates an “anonymous analytics cookie.”  These cookies can tell us whether or not you have visited the site before.  Your browser will tell us if you have these cookies and, if you don’t, we generate new ones.  This allows us to track how many individual users we have, and how often they visit the site.

Unless you are signed in to the Site, we cannot use these cookies to identify individuals. We use them to gather statistics, for example, the number of visits to a page. If you are logged in, we will also know the details you gave to us for this, such as your username and email address.

Geotargetting cookies

These cookies are used by software which tries to work out what country you are in from the information supplied by your browser when you click on a web page. This cookie is completely anonymous, and we only use it to help target our content – such as whether you see a country specific home page – and advertising.

Registration cookies

When you register with us, we generate cookies that let us know whether you are signed in or not.  Our servers use these cookies to work out which account you are signed in with, and if you are allowed access to a particular service. It also allows us to associate any comments you post with your username.  If you have not selected “keep me signed in”, your cookies get deleted when you either close your browser or shut down your computer.  While you are signed into either of the sites, we combine information from your registration cookies with analytics cookies, which we could use to identify which pages you have seen.

Advertising cookies

These cookies allow us to know whether or not you’ve seen a particular ad or a type of advertisement, and how long it is since you’ve seen it.  We also use cookies to help us use targeted advertising. We may use cookies set by another organization so we can more accurately target advertising to you.  These cookies are anonymous – they store information about what you are looking at on our site, but not about who you are.

Third party advertising cookies

Some content you see on the Site is provided by other organizations. Some of these organizations use their own anonymous cookies to track how many people have seen a particular ad, or to track how many people have seen it more than once.  The companies that generate these cookies have their own privacy policies, and we have no access to read or write these cookies. These organizations may use their cookies to anonymously target advertising to you on other websites, based on your visit to the Site.

Other third party cookies

On some pages of our website, other organizations may also set their own anonymous cookies. They do this to track the success of their application, or to customize the application for you. Because of how cookies work, our website cannot access these cookies, nor can the other organization access the data in cookies we use on our website.

How do I turn cookies off?

It is usually possible to stop your browser accepting cookies, or to stop it accepting cookies from a particular website. However, we cannot tell if you are signed in without using cookies, so you would not be able to post comments.

All modern browsers allow you to change your cookie settings. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. To understand these settings, the following links may be helpful, or you can use the Help option in your browser for more details.

Cookie settings in Internet Explorer
Cookie settings in Firefox
Cookie settings in Chrome
Cookie settings in Safari web and iOS.

If you are primarily concerned about third party cookies generated by advertisers, you can turn these off by going to the Your Online Choices site.

You can also visit the trade body representing these advertising platforms for more information: Network Advertising Initiative.

Useful links

If you would like to find out more about cookies and their use on the Internet, you may find the following links useful:

Microsoft Cookies guide
All About Cookies

The IAB has provided the following website to give information specifically about privacy issues around Internet advertising:
youronlinechoices.co.uk/uk

For further legal information about privacy issues, you may find these links useful:

Data Protection Act 1998
The Information Commissioner’s Office

If you would like to contact us about cookies please email us: info@gabcmi.org.