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We take the protection of your data seriously. In the Privacy Statement below, you can read in full about what exactly happens with your data, when you visit our website.

Privacy Policy

(As of: 20 November 2020) How do we handle personal data? We attach great importance to the protection and security of personal data. We will process your personal data in connection with this website in compliance with the relevant data protection regu-lations. We are most notably subject to the provisions set out in the European General Data Pro-tection Regulation (GDPR) and in the Federal Data Protection Act (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz – BDSG) insofar as we process personal data. We would like the users of our site to feel assured and this is why we wish to disclose our personal data handling practices and to provide you with detailed information about the processing of your data and about your rights under Art. 12, 13, 14 and 21 GDPR. This website data privacy state-ment outlines which personal data are collected on visits to our website at www.mewa.de and how we manage these data and information. Who is responsible for data processing and who is available for you to contact? The party responsible for data processing, referred to as the controller in the GDPR and in other data protection regulations, is as follows: MEWA Textil-Service AG & Co. Management OHG John-F.-Kennedy-Straße 4 65189 Wiesbaden Tel. (main office): +49 611 7601-0 Fax: +49 611 7601-361 email: info@mewa.de Website contact form MEWA Textil-Service AG & Co. Management OHG is part of the MEWA group of companies with sites in Germany and in other European countries. Contact details for our company data protection officer: MEWA Textil-Service AG & Co. Management OHG Data protection officer (Datenschutzbeauftragter) John-F.-Kennedy-Straße 4 65189 Wiesbaden email: datenschutzbeauftragter@mewa.de What are personal data? Personal data are pieces of information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. For what purposes do we process your personal data? And on what legal basis? We process personal data for specific purposes, as explained in detail below for your information. The extent to which, and the way in which, your data are processed will essentially depend on the specific services and functions offered on our website which you use. We mainly process data for the following purposes: • so that you can access and visit our website and we can protect our website and other systems from security risks; • so that you can contact us (contact form / email inquiries / live chat); • so that you can send us job applications online; • so that we can optimise our website content, making it user-friendly and tailoring it to your needs (including displaying advertisements in line with your interests here and on other websites). Further processing of your personal data beyond the cases mentioned in this data privacy state-ment will only take place in circumstances where it is our express entitlement or obligation under a statutory provision or where you have explicitly consented to the data processing. We will inform you of any changes of purpose in accordance with the legal requirements. (1) Accessing and visiting our website You can visit our website purely for information purposes without communicating any further per-sonal data. In this case, the only data which will be automatically saved when you visit our website are the technical access data transmitted by your browser, i.e. the name of your Internet service provider, the site from which you are referred to our site, the date and time of your visit, and the data identifying the browser / operating system used. The web server will also be required to save your IP address which may, under certain circumstances, allow reference to your personal identi-ty. We also use cookies in order to provide you with our services in the best possible way and to tailor our website to your needs, even if you are only looking for information (details about this and your options are summarised below in the section “Use of cookies and associated functions / technologies”). The access data will not be merged with data from other sources, nor will the data be evaluated for marketing purposes. The aforementioned access data will be stored in so-called server log files on our web server and will be required for technical reasons in order to provide a functional website and to ensure system security. In addition to the aforementioned purposes, we use access data for the sole purpose of improving the structure of our website and tailoring it to your needs purely for statistical purposes and without tracing your personal identity. If you visit our website in order to find out more about our range of goods and other services or to use our services, the temporary storage of access data and log files is based on Art. 6 (1) b) GDPR (legal basis), especially when used to take steps prior to entering into a contract. In this re-spect, Art. 6 (1) f) GDPR also serves as the legal basis for the temporary storage of access data and log files. Our legitimate interest in this regard is to provide you with a technically functioning and user-friendly website and to guarantee the security of our systems. The access data collected in the course of using our website are only stored for the period of time for which these data are required to achieve the aforementioned purposes. Your IP address is stored on our web server for a maximum of seven days. (2) Contact form / contact requests We collect and store personal data which you enter in the contact form provided on our website and send to us or when you contact us in any other way (e.g. by email or live chat). It is up to you to decide whether to provide us with information when making contact requests and, if so, which information. If you contact us by email / live chat, we will store the data you provide. We collect the following data entered in the contact form on our website: salutation, forename, surname*, company* and (where applicable) customer number, number of employees, postal address, email address*, telephone number, subject of consultation / inquiry* and your individual message / ques-tion. The data marked with an asterisk (*) are mandatory and we need this information to answer your inquiry. The other voluntary details enable us to classify and process your request to better effect. When you use the contact form on our website, the following technical access data will also be stored at the time of sending: date and time at which you sent the request and your IP ad-dress (cf. also section “Use of cookies and associated functions / technologies” below on the use of the live chat functions). If you contact us within the context of an existing contractual relationship or if you contact us in advance for information about our range of goods or other services, the data and information you provide will be processed for the purpose of processing and answering your inquiry request in ac-cordance with Art. 6 (1) b) GDPR (legal basis). The technical access data collected during the sending process will be stored for the purpose of providing contact options and in order to guaran-tee system security on the basis of Art. 6 (1) f) GDPR (legal basis), and this storage serves to safeguard legitimate interests. We store the personal data collected when you contact us in order to process your request and for the duration of this processing. The technical access data stored in this context will only be kept for the period of time for which these data are required for technical reasons, especially for the functional provision of the contact options and in order to ensure system security. Your IP address is stored on our web server for a maximum of seven days. (3) MEWA online applications You can send us your application documents online. To do so, you can either fill out a contact form with personal information (surname, forename, postal address, telephone numbers, date of birth and email address) and information about your preferred employment and career (school-leaving qualifications, training / higher education, professional experience, languages, IT skills and other skills) (see above) or you can enter this information in an online application form. The infor-mation collected on the online application form includes personal data (surname, forename, postal address, telephone numbers, date of birth, place of birth and email address) and information on the reason for applying for the job, education, vocational training, degree studies, practical experi-ence, language skills, IT skills and other skills. You can also upload your cover letter and résumé. The data collected from the online application form will be forwarded to the MEWA company which is advertising or filling the vacancy in any given case. This company will store the data and will be responsible for processing the relevant applications. The MEWA company advertising or filling the vacancy will generally store your application documents and your personal data relating to the application for a maximum of six months after completion of the application process, unless longer or shorter storage periods are required for legal or statutory reasons. Should you apply for a vacant position in sales, the data you enter in the online application form will be stored by Knowledge Network GmbH on behalf of the MEWA company advertising the position under a commissioned data processing agreement for the duration of the application procedure. If you wish, the data collected will also be stored for consideration in other job advertisements in the MEWA Group. You can issue the following declaration of consent during the online application process to allow your application to be considered for other posts which are advertised: “I hereby agree that my application may also be considered for other jobs advertised by compa-nies in the MEWA Group in Germany and in other countries for two years in accordance with the data privacy statement. Should I wish to withdraw my consent, I may do so with future effect at any time in an email to karriere@mewa.de. I have taken note of the further information on data protection and the handling of applicant data in the data privacy statement.” If you have issued a statement revoking your consent by email, your application data will be de-leted within the aforementioned period of six months after completion of the application proce-dure. The data you provide in the online application will be processed for the purpose of deciding on the establishment and execution of employment contracts on the basis of section 26 (1) BDSG (legal basis) or, where consent is granted, on the basis of Art. 6 (1) a) GDPR, section 26 (2) BDSG (le-gal basis). (4) Use of cookies and associated functions / technologies We use so-called cookies in some sections of our website in order to make it attractive to visitors and to enable the use of certain functions. Cookies are files which are stored on your hard drive or in your Internet browser cache when you visit our website. We also refer to web beacons and oth-er comparable storage technologies for tracking user activity as “cookies”. Web beacons are mostly transparent graphic images, usually no larger than 1 x 1 pixel, which are integrated into the website and will allow the detection of cookies on your devices. One way in which we use cookies is to store session-related information within the website. These cookies expire at the end of the session / browser session (so-called transient cookies) and are not stored permanently. Other cookies remain on your computer after the browser session and enable us to recognise your computer again on your next visit (so-called persistent / permanent cookies). Persistent cookies are automatically deleted after a specified period of time which may vary depending on the type of cookie. Cookies can be divided into the following main categories / types: Strictly necessary cookies Cookies for the necessary execution of spe-cific website functions Functional cookies Cookies which serve to enable the website services and functions and / or to increase the “usability” of the website Performance cookies Cookies used to measure the performance of our website and the website content Analysis / tracking cookies Cookies used to carry out analyses of data on the location, the interests of visitors and on similar subjects in order to obtain information on visitors to our website and the content re-quested Advertising / targeting cookies Cookies used for the purpose of placing notifi-cations and advertisements on websites across the Internet, especially to display notifi-cations and advertisements which match the surfing habits / interests of the user Messaging cookies Cookies for the use of messaging technolo-gies Social media cookies Cookies for the use of social media features, such as sharing, sending and recommending websites to other people You can, of course, also visit our website without using cookies. You can disable the use of cook-ies on your computer by changing the browser settings for cookies. The procedure for deactivat-ing cookies is routinely available through the “Help” function in your Internet browser. Please note, however, that these settings may affect the full availability and functionality of our website. For more detailed information on cookie settings and deactivation options, please see the explanatory notes below on the individual cookies specifically used when visiting our website and on associat-ed functions / technologies. We use the “CookieFirst” application on our website which is supplied by Digital Data Solutions B.V., Plantage Middenlaan 42a, 1018DH Amsterdam. This is a plug-in which can be used to ob-tain consent to the use of cookies and / or comparable technologies. CookieFirst itself does not collect any personal data. You can use CookieFirst to change the settings you have chosen at any time and to withdraw your consent to the use of unnecessary cookies and technologies at any time. CookieFirst can be opened by clicking on the CookieFirst icon, a green fingerprint at the bot-tom of the website. Alternatively, you can follow the link below: Some of the cookies we use on our website come from third parties who help us to analyse the impact of our website content and the interests of our visitors, to measure the capacity and per-formance of our website, to place targeted advertising and other content on our website or on oth-er websites, or to communicate with you. We use first-party cookies (only visible from the domain you are visiting) and third-party cookies (visible across domains and routinely set by third parties) on our website. The specific details are as set out below: Cookie type: Functional cookies Cookie name: viewport Term of validity: 1 day Description / explanation: Saves the current version of the page layout / page size. Examples: lg, xxs, xxl Cookie type: Functional cookies Cookie name: cookiefirst-id; cookiefirst-consent Term of validity: 1 year Description / explanations: CookieFirst enables the consent of the website visitor to be obtained to the use of cookies and / or comparable technologies. Cookie type: Functional cookies Cookie name: searchFilters + ItemId (the cookie name is generated dynamically based on the relevant search page and the selected filters) Term of validity: Session Description / explanation: These cookies store the search filters currently selected and do so indi-vidually for each user. A separate cookie is created for each search page. They save the selected search settings and thereby improve the user experience. Cookie type: Strictly necessary cookies Cookie name: tempFormData Term of validity: Session Description / explanation: Saves the data entered by the user in a form in this cookie in order to display them subsequently on the thank-you page. The above cookie-based data processing is carried out in the case of strictly necessary cookies on the basis of Art. 6 (1) b) GDPR (legal basis) for the supply of information and Art. 6 (1) c) GDPR (legal basis) in order to fulfil our legal obligations, most notably to provide you with a simple and documented option for granting or not granting your consent to cookies. The processing of data in respect of all other cookies is based on your consent pursuant to Art. 6 (1) a) GDPR (legal basis). Another clause which may be taken as the legal basis is Art. 6 (1) f) GDPR, i.e. the protec-tion of our legitimate interests. Our legitimate interests as referred to in Art. 6 (1) f) GDPR most notably constitute the ability to provide you with a top-specification, user-friendly website geared to your needs and to guarantee the security of our systems. (5) Social Media (SoMe) links Our website has integrated links to social media (SoMe) services, such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and Xing. After clicking on the various links or on the integrated SoMe icon you will be redirected to the site of the respective provider. Please note that we do not process your data in this context and that we are not responsible for the content of websites to which we publish links. If you follow a link to SoMe services, please refer to the policy on data usage and the data privacy statement issued by the respective provider. (6) Talkwalker – social data intelligence tool We use the “Talkwalker” tool provided by Talkwalker Sàrl, 12-16 Avenue Monterey, L-2163 Lux-embourg (“Talkwalker”). This tool allows us to monitor the social media and online news sites with a view to tracking mentions of our company and our brands and to learning what customers think about our promotions, products and brands. This helps us to optimise our marketing strategy and to become even more relevant to our (potential) customers. Talkwalker only processes publicly available personal data which include name, user name, user ID, geographic location, age, gender, marital status, consumer habits, hobbies and interests, pro-fessional and academic background, pictures, videos and other brand monitoring information pub-lished by individuals on publicly available social media platforms. The data are processed for the purpose of optimising our marketing strategy. This serves to safe-guard legitimate interests in accordance with Art. 6 (1) f) GDPR (legal basis). The service provider Talkwalker has a contractual duty towards us to maintain high data security standards. Further information can be found in the Talkwalker data privacy statement at https://www.talkwalker.com/author-privacy-policy How do we protect your data? We take precautions to ensure the security of your personal data and we have appropriate tech-nical and organisational measures in place to protect our website and other systems. Your data are most notably protected against loss, destruction, falsification, manipulation, alteration by unau-thorised persons, unauthorised access and unauthorised disclosure or distribution. Any data which you provide via our website will be transmitted over the Internet in encrypted form using SSL technology. Who receives your data and are they sent to a third country or to an international organisation? The only employees who will be privy to your personal data in the first instance are our employees who are engaged in technical, commercial or editorial duties. Your data may also be forwarded to employees at other companies in the MEWA Group if they need them for these and other rele-vant purposes (e.g. to answer your inquiry). If you are a customer of another national company, for example, an inquiry through our contact form would also be forwarded to this national compa-ny so that it can be duly processed and answered. We also use or instruct external service providers to perform the data processing operations out-lined above. If service providers receive your personal data under commissioned data processing arrangements, they are strictly bound by our instructions when handling your personal data. The categories of external recipients are listed below: • IT service providers, e.g. as part of their administration and hosting of our website or indi-vidual services / functions as well as for website analysis / measurement; • logistics service providers, where applicable, in order to be able to send you ordered goods or information brochures; • payment service providers and banks for the processing of payments; • debt collection agencies and legal advisers for the assertion of our claims. We do not send your personal data to countries outside the EU or outside the EEA or to interna-tional organisations as defined in Art. 4 (26) GDPR. What rights do you have as a data subject? Data subjects may assert the following legal rights against us or against our data protection officer at any time in writing or in electronic format, using the contact addresses provided (see above “Who is responsible for data processing and who is available for you to contact?”): Right of access to information: Under Art. 15 GDPR, data subjects are entitled at any time to re-quest confirmation as to whether or not personal data relating to them are being processed; if this is the case, data subjects are also entitled under Art. 15 GDPR to obtain information about these personal data and certain other information (such as processing purposes, categories of personal data, categories of recipients, envisaged storage period, their rights, the origin of the data) and a copy of the data in question. The restrictions set out in section 34 BDSG apply. Right to rectification: Under Art. 16 GDPR, data subjects are entitled to ask for personal data stored on systems to be rectified if they are incorrect or inaccurate. Right to erasure: Data subjects are entitled under Art. 17 GDPR to request the immediate erasure of their personal data. Instances in which the right to erasure does not apply include cases where the personal data need to be processed for certain purposes, such as to fulfil a legal obligation (e.g. statutory obligations to keep records) or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims. The restrictions set out in section 35 BDSG also apply. Right to restriction of processing: Data subjects are entitled under Art. 18 GDPR to request the restriction of the processing of personal data. Right to data portability: Under Art. 20 GDPR, data subjects are entitled to ask for personal data concerning them and provided by them to be issued to them in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. Right to object under Art. 21 GDPR: Data subjects have the right to object, on grounds relating to their particular situation, at any time to the processing of their personal data which is carried out on the basis of Art. 6 (1) e) (perfor-mance of a task carried out in the public interest) or Art. 6 (1) f) GDPR (legitimate interests of the controller); this also applies to any profiling based on these provisions. If the data subject objects, we will no longer process the relevant personal data unless we can demonstrate compelling legit-imate grounds for their processing which override the interests, rights and freedoms of the data subject, or if the data are processed for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims. This does not apply if we engage in direct marketing based on the above provisions. If objections are raised to the processing of personal data for the purposes of direct marketing, the personal data concerned will no longer be processed for these purposes – unreservedly and irrespective of any weighing of conflicting interests. Objections pursuant to Art. 21 GDPR may be set out in writ-ing or emailed to us or to our data protection officer at the contact addresses provided (see above “Who is responsible for data processing and who is available for you to contact?”). Right to withdraw consent: Data subjects have the right to revoke any declarations of consent which may have been issued under data protection law and to do so at any time with effect for the future. Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority: Data subjects are entitled under Art. 77 GDPR to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, especially in the Member State of their habitual residence, place of work or place of the alleged infringement, if they consider that the processing of their personal data infringes the GDPR. The right to lodge a complaint is without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy. The supervisory authority responsible for our company is as follows: Der Hessische Datenschutzbeauftragte, Gustav-Stresemann-Ring 1, 65189 Wiesbaden. Other concerns: If you have any further questions or concerns regarding data protection, please contact our data protection officer by email at datenschutzbeauftragter@mewa.de. Do you have a duty to provide data? In order to make our website available to you and to enable you to use the relevant services / functions (e.g. contact form, online purchase orders, etc.), we need you to provide the personal data required for these purposes. Without these data, it will not be possible to access our website content or to use the relevant services / functions. Are your data used in the context of automated decision-making / profiling? You have the fundamental right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated pro-cessing – including profiling – which produces legal effects concerning you or significantly affects you in a similar manner. It is important to note that these decisions may not be routinely based on special categories of personal data pursuant to Art. 9 (1) GDPR. We would like to point out that we do not use any such decision-making processes in the context of our website and the associ-ated data processing operations. Can changes be made to this data privacy statement? Further development of the Internet and of our website may also affect our data privacy state-ment. We reserve the right to revise this data privacy statement from time to time in the future in order to ensure that it complies with the current legal requirements or to reflect additions or changes to our website. The version of this data privacy statement which is applicable at the time of your visit can be accessed on each page under the link “Data privacy”. How do we handle customer data? In addition to this website-related data privacy statement, we also refer to our general information on the “Management of personal data” which outlines the policy governing the processing of per-sonal customer data in other respects and is also available in digital form under the following link: Please click here.