Privacy policy

We, the company USA Expansion Experts LLC, thank you for visiting our website. The secure handling of your data is particularly important to us. Therefore, we would like to inform you in detail about the use of your data when visiting our website.

1.
Each time our website is accessed, general data is collected. This information is stored in the server’s log files. The following data from the accessing system may be collected:

• IP address (if possible, this will be stored in an anonymized form)
• Domain name of the website from which you came
• Names of the accessed files
• Date and time of access
• Name of your Internet Service Provider
• as well as, if applicable, the operating system and browser version of your device

IP addresses, if stored at all, are kept for a period of 5 days. When using this data, we do not draw any conclusions about your person. The information collected is instead needed for the following purposes:

• Ensuring a smooth connection to the website
• Ensuring a comfortable use
• Evaluation of system security and stability
• other administrative purposes.

We reserve the right to statistically analyze anonymized data sets.

The legal basis for data processing is Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. f GDPR. The legitimate interest follows from the purposes for data collection listed above. The anonymously collected data of the server log files are always stored separately from all personal data provided by an affected person.

2.
We would like to inform you that providing personal data may be partially required by law (e.g., tax regulations) or may also arise from contractual obligations (e.g., information about the contractual partner). It may be necessary for the conclusion of a contract that an affected person provides us with personal data, which must subsequently be processed by us. The affected person is, for example, obliged to provide us with personal data if our company enters into a contract with them. Failure to provide the personal data would result in the contract with the person concerned not being concluded.

3.Use of a contact form
If you send us inquiries via the contact form, your details from the inquiry form, including the contact details you provide there, will be stored and processed by us for the purpose of processing the inquiry and for follow-up questions. Your data will only be used for the purpose of responding to and processing your question. Data processing is based on Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. a GDPR on the basis of your voluntarily given consent. You can revoke this consent at any time (right of withdrawal).

4. Transfer of data
Your personal data will not be transmitted to third parties for purposes other than those listed below. We will only share your personal data with third parties if:

• You have given your express consent pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. a GDPR ,
• the disclosure is necessary pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. f GDPR to assert, exercise, or defend legal claims, and there is no reason to assume that you have an overriding interest worthy of protection in the non-disclosure of your data,
• in the event that there is a legal obligation for disclosure pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. c GDPR , as well as
• this is legally permissible and necessary for the processing of contractual relationships with you pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. b GDPR.

5. Rights of the affected
You have the right:

• to request information about your personal data processed by us in accordance with Art. 15 GDPR . In particular, you may request information about the processing purposes, the category of personal data, the categories of recipients to whom your data has been or will be disclosed, the planned retention period, the existence of a right to rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, or objection, the existence of a right to lodge a complaint, the origin of your data, if it was not collected by us, as well as the existence of automated decision-making including profiling and, if applicable, meaningful information about its details;
• to request the correction of incorrect or completion of your personal data stored by us without delay in accordance with Art. 16 GDPR ;
• to request the deletion of your personal data stored by us, unless the processing is necessary for the exercise of the right to freedom of expression and information, for the fulfillment of a legal obligation, for reasons of public interest, or for the assertion, exercise, or defense of legal claims, in accordance with Art. 17 GDPR ;
• to request the restriction of processing of your personal data in accordance with Art. 18 GDPR , as far as the accuracy of the data is disputed by you, the processing is unlawful, but you reject its deletion and we no longer need the data, but you need them for the assertion, exercise, or defense of legal claims, or you have objected to the processing in accordance with Art. 21 GDPR ;
• to receive your personal data, which you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format or to request the transfer to another controller in accordance with Art. 20 GDPR ;
• to revoke your consent once given to us at any time in accordance with Art. 7 para. 3 GDPR . This means that we may no longer continue the data processing based on this consent for the future, and
• to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority in accordance with Art. 77 GDPR . You usually can contact the supervisory authority of your habitual residence or place of work, or the location of the alleged infringement, if the data subject considers that the processing of their personal data infringes the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

6. Right to object
If your personal data is processed on the basis of legitimate interests, you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data in accordance with Art. 21 GDPR to the extent that there are reasons arising from your particular situation, or if the objection is directed against direct advertising. In the latter case, you have a general right to object, which we will implement without specifying a particular situation. If you wish to exercise your right of withdrawal or objection, an email to info@usaexpansionexperts.com or contacting our address provided in the website’s imprint is sufficient.

7. Legal basis of processing
Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. a GDPR serves as the legal basis for our company for processing operations in which we obtain consent for a specific processing purpose. If the processing of personal data is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is a party, as is the case, for example, with processing operations necessary for the provision of a service or consideration, the processing is based on Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. b GDPR. The same applies to such processing operations required to carry out pre-contractual measures, such as in the case of inquiries about our services. If our company is subject to a legal obligation by which the processing of personal data is required, such as to fulfill tax obligations, the processing is based on Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. c GDPR. In rare cases, the processing of personal data may be necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or another natural person, Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. d GDPR. Ultimately, processing operations could also be based on Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. f GDPR. This legal basis applies to processing operations not covered by any of the aforementioned legal bases, if the processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by our company or by a third party, provided that the interests, fundamental rights, and freedoms of the data subject do not override.

8. Confidentiality of your customer access
If you have access to a protected area on our website that is secured by a password, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share the password with anyone.

9. Newsletter
We only send newsletters with promotional information with the consent of the recipients or based on a legal permission. Registration for our newsletter takes place via a double opt-in procedure: You will receive an email after registration in which you should confirm your registration. This confirmation is necessary to verify you as the owner of the email address. Registration for the newsletter is logged to be able to prove the registration in accordance with legal requirements. This includes storing the times of registration and confirmation as well as your IP address. Other data you provide when registering for the newsletter will be saved. We use your information, except for the email address, solely to personalize the newsletter, such as your name. You can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. You will find a link to unsubscribe in every newsletter email.

10. Links to other websites and reference to third-party websites
Our website/app may contain links to third-party websites or other websites operated by us from time to time. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and that we do not accept any responsibility or liability for these policies. Please check these privacy policies before providing personal data to these websites.

On this website, references to third-party websites are provided in the form of so-called links or references. Only when you click on such a link will data be transmitted to the link target. This is technically necessary. The transmitted data includes, in particular, your IP address, the time at which you clicked the link, the page on which you clicked the link, and information about your internet browser. If you do not want this data to be transmitted to the link destination, do not click the link.

11. Cookies
Our website uses cookies. A cookie is a text file created when visiting a website and temporarily stored on the system of the user of the website. If the server of our website is called up again by the user of the website, the browser of the website user sends the previously received cookie back to the server. The server can evaluate the information obtained through this process. For example, advertisements can be controlled or navigating a website can be facilitated through cookies. Cookies are also necessary to enable the functionality of our website operation (the legal basis is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR, the protection of the legitimate interests of the operator of this website – we only use cookies in agreement with Art. 5 para. 1 lit. a GDPR, i.e., in accordance with the principles of “lawfulness, fairness, transparency”).
If you wish to disable the use of cookies, you can do so through local settings in your internet browser, (e.g., Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, or Safari).

12. Google Analytics
Our website uses the analysis service Google Analytics. This web analysis service is operated by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (hereinafter referred to as Google). This analysis tool works based on cookies. A cookie is a text file sent when visiting a website and temporarily stored on the hard drive of the website user to enable analysis of the use of the website by you. The information stored by the cookie is usually transferred to a Google server in the USA and stored there. As part of IP anonymization, your IP address will be shortened by Google within a member state of the EU or another contracting state of the Agreement on the European Economic Area. On our behalf, Google will use the information provided to create a report on the use of the website. We have entered into a contract for data processing with Google. The IP address transmitted as part of Google Analytics will not be merged with other data from Google. If you want to prevent the use of cookies, you can do so by making local changes to your settings in the internet browser used on your computer (e.g., Safari, Internet Explorer, Opera, Firefox, etc.), i.e., the program used to open and display internet pages. Furthermore, you can prevent the collection and processing of your data by the Google cookie by downloading and installing a browser plugin offered by Google at the following link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de. You can prevent Google Analytics from collecting your data by clicking on the following link. An opt-out cookie will then be set, which will prevent future collection of your data when visiting this website: Disable Google Analytics. For more information about Google Analytics’ terms of use and privacy policy, please visit http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/de.html and https://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/. We point out that Google Analytics has been supplemented by the extension “anonymizeIp”. This ensures the anonymous collection of IP addresses.

13. New Relic Analytics
New Relic is a performance analysis service provided by New Relic Inc., 101 Second Street, 15th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105 (“New Relic”). Neither the data collection nor the evaluation is user- or usage-related with New Relic. Rather, the tool is solely used to measure and monitor the technical performance of www.usaexpansionsexperts.com as a website, for example, to determine whether sparwelt.de can be accessed and how quickly each page is displayed when accessed. For this purpose, New Relic collects data about www.www.usaexpansionsexperts.com, such as system data on add-ons used, usage times, browsers used, and hardware and software used (so-called “application data”). New Relic also uses one or more cookies in your browser. The application data is stored on New Relic’s servers and is used not only for analyzing the performance of the sparwelt.de website but also for cross-offer performance comparisons between different websites. For more information about New Relic, please visit www.newrelic.com. The privacy policy can be found at newrelic.com/privacy . You can also completely prevent the loading of New Relic plugins with add-ons for your browser, for example, with the script blocker “NoScript” (http://noscript.net/).

14. Google Maps
This website uses Google Maps to display interactive maps and to create driving directions. Google Maps is a map service provided by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California 94043, USA. By using Google Maps, information about your use of this website, including your IP address and the address entered as part of the route planner function, may be transmitted to Google in the USA. When you visit a page on our website that contains Google Maps, your browser establishes a direct connection to Google’s servers. The map content is transmitted by Google directly to your browser and integrated into the website. We, therefore, have no influence on the amount of data collected by Google in this way. We have no influence on the further processing and use of the data by Google.
If you do not want Google to collect, process, or use data about you via our website, you can disable JavaScript in your browser settings. In this case, you will not be able to use the map display.
For the purpose and scope of data collection and further processing and use of data by Google, as well as your rights and setting options for protecting your privacy, please refer to Google’s privacy policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=de).
By using our website, you agree to the processing of data collected about you by Google Maps Route Planner in the manner and for the purpose described above.

15. Google Fonts
This site uses so-called web fonts provided by Google for the uniform display of fonts. When you call up a page, your browser loads the required web fonts into your browser cache in order to display texts and fonts correctly.

For this purpose, the browser you use must connect to Google’s servers. This gives Google knowledge that your IP address has accessed our website. The use of Google Web Fonts is in the interest of a uniform and attractive presentation of our online offerings. This constitutes a legitimate interest within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR.

If your browser does not support web fonts, a standard font from your computer will be used. For more information about Google Web Fonts, please visit https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq and Google’s privacy policy: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/.

16. Vimeo
We use the provider Vimeo to embed videos. Vimeo is operated by Vimeo, LLC, headquartered at 555 West 18th Street, New York, New York 10011.

We use plugins from the provider Vimeo on some of our web pages. If you call up the internet pages of our website equipped with such a plugin, a connection to the Vimeo servers will be established, and the plugin will be displayed. This will transmit to the Vimeo server which of our internet pages you have visited. If you are logged in as a member of Vimeo, Vimeo will assign this information to your personal user account. When using the plugin, such as clicking the start button of a video, this information will also be assigned to your user account. You can prevent this assignment by logging out of your Vimeo user account before using our website and deleting the corresponding cookies from Vimeo.

For more information on data processing and Vimeo’s privacy policy, please visit https://vimeo.com/privacy.

17. Google Adsense
This website uses Google AdSense, a service for integrating advertisements from Google Inc. (“Google”). Google AdSense uses so-called “cookies,” text files that are stored on your computer and enable the analysis of your use of the website. Google AdSense also uses so-called web beacons (invisible graphics). Through these web beacons, information such as visitor traffic on these pages can be evaluated.

The information generated by cookies and web beacons about the use of this website (including your IP address) and the delivery of advertising formats are transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. This information may be passed on by Google to its contractual partners. However, Google will not merge your IP address with other data stored by you.

You can prevent the installation of cookies by setting your browser software accordingly; however, we point out that in this case, you may not be able to use all the functions of this website to their full extent. By using this website, you agree to the processing of the data collected about you by Google in the manner and for the purpose described above.

18. Google +1

Our website includes the “google+1” (Google Plus) plugin. This is provided and operated by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States (hereinafter: Google). You recognize this button by the “+1” sign on a white background. When you visit a website of our online presence that contains such a button, your browser establishes a direct connection to Google’s servers. The content of the “+1” button is transmitted by Google directly to your browser and integrated into the website. We, therefore, have no influence on the amount of data collected by Google with the button. According to Google, no personal data is collected without clicking on the button. Only for logged-in members are such data, including the IP address, collected and processed. If you do not want Google to associate the data collected through our web presence directly with your profile on Google+, you must log out of Google+ before visiting our website. You can also completely prevent the loading of the Google plugins with add-ons for your browser, such as the script blocker “NoScript” (http://noscript.net/). For the purpose and scope of data collection and further processing and use of data by Google as well as your rights and options for protecting your privacy, please refer to Google’s privacy policy for the “+1” button: http://www.google.com/intl/de/+/policy/+1button.html

19. Payment Service Providers
Through our services, you have the opportunity to initiate booking processes. If this is necessary for the fulfillment of the contract, data will also be passed on to our payment service providers or the credit institution responsible for processing the payment. The scope of the data is limited to the minimum necessary for the purpose of contract processing.

When paying by credit card or direct debit, the payment is processed via Stripe, the payment service provider Stripe Payments Europe Ltd, Block 4, Harcourt Centre, Harcourt Road, Dublin 2, Ireland. For more information on Stripe’s data protection, please visit https://stripe.com/de/privacy#translation.

20. Facebook plugins (Like button)
Plugins from the social network Facebook, 1601 South California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA, are integrated on our pages. You can recognize the Facebook plugins by the Facebook logo or the “Like button” (“Like”) on our page. An overview of the Facebook plugins can be found here: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/.
When you visit our pages, a direct connection between your browser and the Facebook server is established via the plugin. Facebook thus receives the information that you have visited our site with your IP address. If you click the Facebook “Like button” while logged into your Facebook account, you can link the content of our pages to your Facebook profile. This allows Facebook to associate the visit to our pages with your user account. We would like to point out that we, as the provider of the pages, do not receive any knowledge of the content of the transmitted data as well as its use by Facebook. For more information, please refer to Facebook’s privacy policy at http://de-de.facebook.com/policy.php

If you do not want Facebook to associate the visit to our pages with your Facebook user account, please log out of your Facebook user account. You can also completely prevent the loading of the Facebook plugins with add-ons for your browser, such as the “Facebook Blocker” (http://webgraph.com/resources/facebookblocker/).

21. Twitter
Functions of the Twitter service are integrated on our pages. These functions are offered by Twitter Inc., 795 Folsom St., Suite 600, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA. By using Twitter and the “Re-Tweet” function, the websites you visit are linked to your Twitter account and made known to other users. Data is also transmitted to Twitter in the process.

We would like to point out that we, as the provider of the pages, have no knowledge of the content of the transmitted data or its use by Twitter. For more information, please refer to Twitter’s privacy policy at http://twitter.com/privacy.

You can change your privacy settings on Twitter in the account settings at http://twitter.com/account/settings.

If you do not want Twitter to associate the data collected through our web presence directly with your Twitter account, you must log out of your Twitter account before visiting our website. You can also completely prevent the loading of the Twitter plugins with add-ons for your browser, such as the script blocker “NoScript” (http://noscript.net/).

22. Integration of the Trusted Shops Trustbadge
To display our Trusted Shops seal of approval and the reviews collected, as well as to offer Trusted Shops products to buyers after an order, the Trusted Shops Trustbadge is integrated on this website. This serves to protect our overriding legitimate interests in the optimal marketing of our offer. The Trustbadge and the services advertised with it are an offer from Trusted Shops GmbH, Subbelrather Str. 15C, 50823 Cologne, Germany. When the Trustbadge is called up, the web server automatically stores a so-called server log file, which contains your IP address, date and time of retrieval, transmitted data volume, and the requesting provider (access data) and documents the retrieval. This access data will not be evaluated and will be automatically overwritten at the latest seven days after the end of your visit to the site. Further personal data will only be transmitted to Trusted Shops if you decide to use Trusted Shops products after completing an order or if you have already registered for use. In this case, the contractual agreement between you and Trusted Shops applies.

Review reminder by Trusted Shops

If you have given us your express consent to this during or after your order, by activating a corresponding checkbox or by clicking on a button provided for this purpose, we will transmit your email address for the reminder to submit a review of your order to Trusted Shops GmbH, Subbelrather Str. 15c, 50823 Cologne (www.trustedshops.de), so that they can remind you by email of the possibility to submit a review. You can revoke this consent at any time by sending a message to the contact option described below or directly.

23. Trustpilot
Customer reviews are particularly valuable for transparency and optimization, so we offer you the opportunity to provide appropriate reviews about our service via a review service offered by Trustpilot at www.trustpilot.de. To this end, we use an interface to the independent review portal Trustpilot, operated by Trustpilot A/S, Pilestræde 58, 5, 1112 Copenhagen, Denmark. It is not possible for us to individually control or influence review invitations. Only in this way can a complete, independent, and uninfluenced customer review for our company and our services be guaranteed. The data provided to the Business App (name, first name, email address, and reference number) is passed on to our Business App by Trustpilot and is neither used by Trustpilot nor passed on to third parties. A review of our company can be carried out on the site de.trustpilot.com/review/. Submitting a review is voluntary. To submit a review or capture customer feedback, you need to create an account/user profile with Trustpilot. In addition to a review for the inviting company, reviews can also be submitted for any company on the Trustpilot review portal. In the case of a review without a prior invitation, however, a clear reference to a contractual relationship with the reviewed company is required. Further information can be obtained from Trustpilot. If a review is submitted by clicking on the link contained in the invitation, a user profile will be automatically created with Trustpilot after entering personal data, usually name and email address for verification. This implies acceptance of the privacy policy and terms and conditions of Trustpilot. These can be viewed on the Trustpilot website at: de.legal.trustpilot.com/end-user-privacy-terms. If you participate in this feedback system, your review will be published on our website as well as on the Trustpilot websites. Further details can be found in Trustpilot’s privacy policy and terms and conditions.

If you do not agree with this, an email to us is sufficient.

24. hCaptcha
We use hCaptcha (hereinafter referred to as “hCaptcha”) on this website. The provider is Intuition Machines Inc., 2211 Selig Dr, Los Angeles, CA 90026, United States (hereinafter referred to as “IMI”).
With hCaptcha, it is to be checked whether the data entry on this website (e.g., in a contact form) is carried out by a human being or by an automated program. For this purpose, hCaptcha analyzes the behavior of the website visitor based on various characteristics.
This analysis begins automatically as soon as the website visitor enters a website with activated hCaptcha. Various information is evaluated for the analysis (e.g., IP address, length of stay of the website visitor on the website, or user-made mouse movements). The data collected during the analysis is transmitted to IMI. If hCaptcha is used in “invisible mode,” the analyses are fully performed in the background. Website visitors are not notified that an analysis is taking place.
The storage and analysis of the data are based on Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. The website operator has a legitimate interest in protecting its web offers from abusive automated spying and from SPAM. Insofar as a corresponding consent has been requested, the processing is carried out exclusively on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR and § 25 para. 1 TTDSG, insofar as the consent covers the storage of cookies or access to information in the end device of the user (e.g., device fingerprinting) within the meaning of the TTDSG. The consent can be revoked at any time.
The data processing is based on standard contractual clauses contained in the data processing addendum to the IMI terms of service or the data processing agreements.
For more information on hCaptcha, please refer to the privacy policy and terms of use at the following links:
https://www.hcaptcha.com/privacy and
https://hcaptcha.com/terms.

25. Security notice
We secure our website and other IT systems through appropriate technical and organizational measures against loss, destruction, unauthorized access, unauthorized alteration, or unauthorized distribution of your data. However, complete protection against all dangers is practically not possible in every case despite all due care. Since complete data security cannot be guaranteed by us when communicating via email, we recommend the postal route for transmitting confidential information.

26. Changes to this privacy policy
We reserve the right to change this privacy policy if the legal situation or this online offering or the nature of the data collection changes. However, this only applies to statements regarding data processing. If user consent is required or parts of the privacy policy contain a provision of the contractual relationship with users, the change to the privacy policy will only be made with the user’s consent.

Please inform yourself about this privacy policy as needed, especially if you provide personal data.

27. Your contact person
If you have any questions regarding the collection, processing, or use of your personal data, if you wish to request information, correction, blocking, or deletion of data, as well as revocation of consents granted or objection to a particular use of data, please contact:

USA Expansion Experts LLC
1900 West Loop South
Houston, TX 77027
USA