Privacy Statement

Data Protection Notice

Bosch Thermotechnik GmbH (hereinafter "Bosch“ or "We“ or "Us") welcomes you to our internet pages and mobile applications (together also referred to as "Online Offers"). We thank you for your interest in our company and our products.

Bosch respects your data protection

The protection of your privacy throughout the course of processing personal data as well as the security of all business data is an important concern to us. We process personal data that was gathered during your visit of our Online Offers confidentially and only in accordance with statutory regulations.

Data protection and information security are included in our corporate policy.

Controller

Bosch is the controller responsible for the processing of your data; exceptions are outlined in this data protection notice.

Our contact details are as follows:

BOSCH Thermotechnik GmbH, Sophienstraße 30-32, 35576 Wetzlar, GERMANY; Tel.: +49 6441 418-0

Processing of personal data

Principles

Personal data consists of all information related to an identified or identifiable natural person, this includes, e.g. names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, contractual master data, contract accounting and payment data, which is an expression of a person's identity.

We process personal data (including IP addresses) only when there is either a statutory legal basis to do so or if you have given your consent to the processing or use of personal data concerning this matter, e.g. by means of registration.

Processed categories of data

The following categories of data are processed:

  • Communication data (e.g. name, telephone, e-mail, address)

  • Information provided by third parties (e.g. credit reference agencies or from public directories)

  • Product and installation information (e.g. installation address, serial number, type of device, date of installation),

  • Technical and connection data (e.g. IP address, data of the internet connection)

  • System data (e.g. events, errors, online data, sensor values, service forecasts)

  • Login credentials (e.g. id, username)

  • Settings (e.g. language, time zone)

  • Product registration data (e.g. details of installer, date of registration)

  • Device identifier (e.g. serial numbers, device ID)

  • Environmental data (e.g. temperature)

  • Location data (e.g. gps coordinates)

  • Calendar entries

  • Audio records

  • Camera and pictures

  • Messages

  • Information regarding your GDPR data subject request (e.g. type of request, information regarding your identity and/or communication details

Processing purposes and legal basis

We as well as the service providers commissioned by us process your personal data for the following processing purposes:

  • Provision of these Online Offers (Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 subpara. 1 lit. f GDPR, legitimate interest on our part in direct marketing but only to the extent permitted by data protection and unfair competition law).

  • Answering user requests within the scope of a chatbot. (Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 subpara. 1 lit. b, lit. f GDPR, fulfillment of contractual obligations or legitimate interest in the improvement of products / services).

  • Resolving service disruptions as well as for security reasons. (Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 subpara. 1 lit. f GDPR, fulfillment of our legal obligations within the scope of data security, and legitimate interest in resolving service disruptions as well as in the protection of our offers).

  • Safeguarding and defending our rights. (Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 subpara. 1 lit. f GDPR, legitimate interest on our part for safeguarding and defending our rights).

  • To fulfill our duty of product surveillance and for product safety. (Legal basis: art. 6 para. 1 subpara. 1 lit. f GDPR, our legitimate interest to warrant the safety of our products).

  • To safeguard our rights in connection with warranty and product registration questions. (Legal basis: our legitimate interest according to art. 6 para. 1 subpara. 1 lit. f GDPR).

  • To provide the core functionality of products connected with the Internet. (Legal basis: art. 6 para. 1. subpara. 1 lit. b GDPR).

  • Collection, planning and conducting of customer services. (Legal basis: art. 6 para. 1 subpara. 1 lit. b GDPR, contract)

  • for quality tests and quality improvement purposes. (Legal basis: art. 6 papa. 1 subpara. 1 lit. f GDPR, our legitimate interesst to improve our products and services)

Registration and central Bosch ID

If you wish to use or get access to benefits requiring to enter into the fulfillment of a contract, we request your registration. With your registration we collect personal data necessary for entering into the fulfillment of the contract (e.g. first name, last name, date of birth, email address, if applicable, details on the preferred payment method or on the account holder) as well as further data on voluntary basis, if applicable. Mandatory information is marked with an *.

You may register for our online offers exclusively using the central Bosch ID. The centralised Bosch ID was devised by Robert Bosch GmbH for the Bosch Group in order to allow for the joint users to benefit from offers of different group companies using centralised application data and increase data safety.

Robert Bosch GmbH, Robert-Bosch-Platz 1 70839 Gerlingen-Schillerhöhe, Germany (“RBG”) is responsible for the provision of this single sign-on service.

If you want to apply for a centralised Bosch ID, the General Terms of Use for the Registration and Use of a centralised Bosch ID and the Data Protection Notice of RBG shall apply.

After successful registration you may utilise the registration data used for the centralised Bosch ID also for registering for this online offer. To this end, we shall provide an RBG registration template for the centralised Bosch ID. RBG then shall confirm your authorisation and provide us with the master data required for using our offers (e.g. surname, first name, date of birth, company name, email address, telephone numbers, mail address). Your password shall not be communicated to us.

Concerning further data transfers within the Bosch Group associated with the centralised Bosch ID, please refer to the Data Protection Notice. You may cancel your user agreement concerning the centralised Bosch ID at any time by unregistering. To this end, please click on the following link: https://myaccount.bosch.com/BeaPUssWeb/unregistration

Obligation to Provide Personal Data

Please note, in the event, that a contract was concluded between you and us, you are obliged to provide us with those personal data, which are required for the conclusion, enforcement, termination of the contract as well as for the fulfilment of contractual obligations connected with the contract or of those we are legally obliged to process. Without the provision of these data, we will not able to conclude, execute or terminate a contract.

In the event, the data processing is required neither by law nor for the conclusion, execution or termination of a contractual relationship or the fulfilment of contractual obligations, the provision of your data is optional. Please note, some functions of our Online Offers or our services cannot be used, if you do not provide us with for the usage required personal data.

Log files

Each time you use the internet, your browser is transmitting certain information which we store in so-called log files.

We store log files to determine service disruptions and for security reasons (e.g., to investigate attack attempts) for a period of 60 days and delete them afterwards. Log files which need to be maintained for evidence purposes are excluded from deletion until the respective incident is resolved and may, on a case-by-case basis, be passed on to investigating authorities.

In log files the following information is saved:

  • IP address (internet protocol address) of the accessing device;

  • Internet address of the website from which the Online Offer is accessed (so-called URL of origin or referrer URL);

  • Name of the service provider which was used to access the Online Offer;

  • Name of the files or information accessed;

  • Date and time as well as duration of transmission;

  • Operating system and information on the internet browser used, including add-ons installed (e.g., Flash Player);

  • http status code (e.g., “Request successful” or “File not found”).

  • Size of transmitted data;

Using Voice Assistants and ChatBots

We offer you the opportunity to control our products conveniently via chat using text or voice assistants (speech-based communication), to request information or send support and service requests. For the connection with our products it is usually necessary to link our offer with your accounts of third party offers (e.g. Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Facebook Messenger etc.). In the course of this, personal data is also exchanged between the systems which are necessary for the operation of our offer and for the purpose of fulfilling the contract.

If you address voice commands or messages to our service by using one of your communication channels, these will be processed by us to fulfill the contract. After the final termination of the use of our offer, all personal data will be deleted at short notice. The recorded dialogues remain stored anonymously and serve to train the voice and chat assistant on the basis of these dialogues and thus to constantly improve the quality of the offer. Reverse engineering of the application by deletion of contents is therefore not in the sense of the remaining users.

Please note that the separation from one of our assistants and thus the deletion of your data there does not automatically delete the data in other Bosch applications or third-party applications (e.g. facebook Messenger, Google Assistant, Alexa etc.). The respective deletion only refers to this specific Bosch application.

Children

This Online Offer is not meant for children under 16 years of age.

Data transfer

Data transfer to other controllers

Principally, your personal data is forwarded to other controllers only if required for the fulfillment of a contractual obligation, or if we ourselves, or a third party, have a legitimate interest in the data transfer, or if you have given your consent. Particulars on the legal basis and the recipients or categories of recipients can be found in the Section -Processing, purposes and legal bases. Third parties may also be other companies of the Bosch group. When data is transferred to third parties based on a justified interest, this is explained in this data protection notice.

Additionally, data may be transferred to other controllers when we are obliged to do so due to statutory regulations or enforceable administrative or judicial orders.

Service providers (general)

We involve external service providers with tasks such as sales and marketing services, contract management, payment handling, programming, data hosting and hotline services. We have chosen those service providers carefully and monitor them on a regular basis, especially regarding their diligent handling of and protection of the data that they store. All service providers are obliged to maintain confidentiality and to comply to the statutory provisions. Service providers may also be other Bosch group companies.

Transfer to recipients outside the EEA

We might transfer personal data to recipients located outside the EEA into so-called third countries. In such cases, prior to the transfer we ensure that either the data recipient provides an appropriate level of data protection (e.g. due to a decision of adequacy by the European Commission for the respective country or due to the agreement based on so-called EU model clauses with the recipient) or that you have consented to the transfer.

You are entitled to receive an overview of third country recipients and a copy of the specifically agreed-to provisions securing an appropriate level of data protection. For this purpose, please use the statements made in the Contact section.

Duration of storage; retention periods

Principally, we store your data for as long as it is necessary to render our Online Offers and connected services or for as long as we have a legitimate interest in storing the data (e.g. we might still have a legitimate interest in postal mail marketing after fulfillment of our contractual obligations). In all other cases we delete your personal data with the exception of data we are obliged to store for the fulfillment of legal obligations (e.g. due to retention periods under the tax and commercial codes we are obliged to have documents such as contracts and invoices available for a certain period of time).

Usage of Cookies

In the context of our online service, cookies and tracking mechanisms may be used.

Cookies are small text files that may be stored on your device when visiting our online service.

Tracking is possible using different technologies. In particular, we process information using pixel technology and/or during log file analysis.

Categories

We distinguish between cookies that are mandatorily required for the technical functions of the online service and such cookies and tracking mechanisms that are not mandatorily required for the technical function of the online service.

It is generally possible to use the online service without any cookies that serve non-technical purposes.

Technically required cookies

By technically required cookies we mean cookies without those the technical provision of the online service cannot be ensured. These include e.g. cookies that store data to ensure smooth reproduction of video or audio footage.

Such cookies will be deleted when you leave the website.

Cookies and tracking mechanisms that are technically not required

We only use such cookies and tracking mechanisms if you have given us your prior consent in each case. We distinguish between two sub-categories with regard to these cookies and tracking mechanisms:

Marketing cookies and tracking mechanisms

General

By using marketing cookies and tracking mechanisms we and our partners are able to show you offerings based on your interests, resulting from an analysis of your user behaviour:

  • Statistics: By using statistical tools, we measure e.g. the number of your page views.

  • Conversion tracking: Our conversion tracking partners place a cookie on your computer ("conversion cookie") if you accessed our website via an advertisement of the respective partner. Normally these cookies are no longer valid after 30 days. If you visit certain pages of our website and the cookie has not yet expired, we and the relevant conversion partner can recognize that a certain user clicked on the advertisement and thereby was redirected to our website. The information obtained by means of the conversion cookie serves the purpose of compiling conversion statistics and recording the total number of users who clicked on the respective advertisement and were redirected to a website with a conversion tracking tag.

Please note that using the tools might include transfer of your data to recipients outside of the EEA where there is no adequate level of data protection pursuant to the GDPR (e.g. the USA). For more details in this respect please refer to the following description of the individual marketing tools.

  • Google Analytics Provider: Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA Function: Analyses user behaviour (page views, number of visitors and visits, downloads), UX testing

  • If you access our Online Offer using your Facebook Messanger, we use the service “Facebook Insights” of Facebook Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Irland. Further information regarding the processing of personal data is provided under https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms/information_about_page_insights_data

  • We use the web analysis tools of Sistrix, SISTRIX GmbH, Thomas-Mann-Str. 37, 53111 Bonn. This is an analysis tool to improve the search ability of our website in search engines. Here, we evaluate to what extent our site is search engine optimized. You can find out more at www.sistrix.de/sistrix/datenschutz/

Management of cookies and tracking mechanisms

You can manage your cookie and tracking mechanism settings in the browser and/or our privacy settings.

Note: The settings you have made refer only to the browser used in each case.

Deactivation of all cookies

If you wish to deactivate all cookies, please deactivate cookies in your browser settings. Please note that this may affect the functionality of the website.

Usage of our mobile applications

In addition to our Online Offers, we offer mobile applications ("Apps"), which you can download to your mobile device. Beyond the data collected on websites, we collect additional personal data through our apps that specifically result from the usage of a mobile device.

Processing of your location data

Our offers also include so-called location based services through which we provide you with special offers that are tailored to your respective location. To offer this app function, we collect the last three GPS locations delivered by the mobile device and your IP address when you consent. We do not create a movement profile. You can deactivate this function in the respective app's settings or in the settings of the operating system of your mobile device or pause it temporarily without affecting the basic functionality of the app.

Processing of the advertising identifier / advertising ID

For advertising purposes, we use, given your consent, the so-called "advertising identifier" (IDFA) for iOS devices and the so-called advertising ID for Android devices. These are not permanent identification numbers for a certain terminal device provided by iOS or Android. The data collected is not brought together with other device-related information. We use identification numbers to provide you with personalized advertisements and to analyze your usage. When you activate (for iOS devices) the option "no ad tracking" in the device settings under "Privacy" - "Advertisements" or (for Android devices) activate "deactivate interest-based advertisements" in the Google settings under "Advertisements", we can only perform the following measures: Measuring your interaction with banners by counting the number of displays of a banner without clicks ("frequency capping"), click rate, assessment of unique usage ("unique user") and security measures, fraud combating and troubleshooting. In the device settings, you are always able to delete your IDFA or advertising ID ("reset ad ID"); a new identification number is generated then which is not combined with data collected earlier. We advise you that you might be unable to use all functions of our app when you restrict the usage of the respective identification number.

App analysis

We need statistical information on the usage of our Online Offers to design it more user-friendly, to perform range measurements and market research. For this purpose, we use the app analysis tools described in this section.

The tool provider process data only as processors subject to our directives and not for their own purposes.

Following, please find information on each tool provider. In case such tools use tracing mechanism or create user profiles they are solely used by us if you prior consent to such use.

Google Analytics for mobile applications

Google Analytics is provided by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA ("Google"). We use Google Analytics with the additional function offered by Google to anonymize IP addresses. While doing so, Google already shortens IPs within the EU in most cases and only does so in the United States in exceptional cases, while always saving shortened IPs only.

Data processing by App Store operators

We do not collect data, and it is beyond our responsibility, when data, such as username, email address and individual device identifier are transferred to an app store (e.g., Google Play by Google, App Store by Apple, Galaxy Apps Store by Samsung) when downloading the respective application. We are unable to influence this data collection and further processing by the App Store as controller.

External links

Our Online Offers may contain links to third party internet pages – by providers who are not related to us. Upon clicking on the link, we have no influence on the collecting, processing and use of personal data possibly transmitted by clicking on the link to the third party (such as the IP address or the URL of the site on which the link is located) as the conduct of third parties is naturally beyond our control We do not assume responsibility for the processing of personal data by third parties.

Security

Our employees and the companies providing services on our behalf, are obliged to confidentiality and to compliance with the applicable data protection laws.

We take all necessary technical and organizational measures to ensure an appropriate level of security and to protect your data that are administrated by us especially from the risks of unintended or unlawful destruction, manipulation, loss, change or unauthorized disclosure or unauthorized access. Our security measures are, pursuant to technological progress, constantly being improved.

User rights

To enforce your rights, please use the details provided in the Contact section. In doing so, please ensure that an unambiguous identification of your person is possible.

Right to information and access:

You have the right to obtain confirmation from us about whether or not your personal data is being processed, and, if this is the case, access to your personal data.

Right to correction and deletion:

You have the right to obtain the rectification or completion of inaccurate personal data or deletion of your data as far as statutory requirements are fulfilled.

This does not apply to data which is necessary for billing or accounting purposes or which is subject to a statutory retention period. If access to such data is not required, however, its processing is restricted (see the following).

Restriction of processing:

You have the right to demand for – as far as statutory requirements are fulfilled – restriction of the processing of your data.

Objection to data processing based on the legal basis of “legitimate interest":

You have the right to object to data processing by us on grounds relating to your particular situation, at any time. We will no longer process the personal data unless we demonstrate compliance with legal requirements to provide provable reasons for the further processing which are beyond your interests, rights and freedoms or for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims.

Objection to direct marketing:

Additionally, you may object to the processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes as well as herewith related profiling at any time ("Objection to direct marketing"). Please take into account that due to organizational reasons, there might be an overlap between your objection and the usage of your data within the scope of a campaign which is already running.

Withdrawal of consent:

In case you consented to the processing of your data, you have the right to revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future. The lawfulness of data processing prior to your withdrawal remains unchanged.

Data portability:

You are entitled to receive data that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format or – if technically feasible – to demand that we transfer those data to a third party.

Right to lodge complaint with supervisory authority:

You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. You can appeal to the supervisory authority which is responsible for your place of residence or your state of residency or to the supervisory authority responsible for us. This is:

Der Hessische Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit

Prof. Dr. Michael Ronellenfitsch

Postfach 3163, 65021 Wiesbaden

or:

Gustav-Stresemann-Ring 1, 65189 Wiesbaden

Changes to the Data Protection Notice

We reserve the right to change our security and data protection measures. In such cases, we will amend our data protection notice accordingly. Please, therefore, notice the current version of our data protection notice, as this is subject to changes.

Exercise of your rights and contact information

If you wish to contact us, please find us at the address stated in the "Controller" section.

To assert your rights or to report a data protection breach please follow this link.

You can contact us as well under:

privacy.ttde@bosch.com

Data Protection Officer:

Data Protection Officer, Informationssicherheit und Datenschutz (C/ISP), Robert Bosch GmbH, Postfach 30 02 20 in 70442 Stuttgart, Germany.