Privacy Notice

California Consumer Privacy Act

ACCESSIBILITY: if you are having any trouble accessing this privacy policy or the website, please email us at privacy@continental.com.

1. Introduction

ContiTech AG (“us,” “we,” or “our”) collects and processes information about you as described in this Privacy Notice (“Notice”). We are committed to protecting the privacy of those with whom we interact. This Notice contains details about how we collect, use, and share Personal Information that we obtain from and about you when you interact with us. Please read this Notice carefully.

Applicability: This Notice does not apply to job applicants or our employees.

Whenever you interact with us on behalf of another individual or entity, such as by providing or accessing Personal Information about another individual, you represent that your interactions and exchanges comply with applicable data protection laws. You shall have sole responsibility for any violation of privacy laws as a result of a failure to inform the other individual about how their Personal Information will be processed or to obtain any necessary consent from such individual.

Changes: We may update this Notice from time to time. The current Notice will be effective when posted. Please check this Notice periodically for updates. If any of the changes are unacceptable to you, you should cease interacting with us. When required under applicable law, we will notify you of any changes to this Notice by posting an update on this website. When required under applicable law, we will seek affirmative consent from you before making material changes to the way we handle Personal Information previously collected from you. If you do not provide such consent, Personal Information will continue to be used in a manner that is consistent with the version of this Notice under which it was collected.

2. Sources of Personal Information

Personal Information refers to any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person or household.  

We collect information about you and how you interact with us in several ways, including:

• a. Information you provide to us directly. We collect the information you provide to us directly.
• b. Information automatically collected or inferred from your interaction with us. We automatically collect technical information about your interactions with us (such as IP address and browsing preferences).
• c. Information from public sources, including government entities from which public records are obtained and information you submit in public forums.
• d. Information from third parties. We may receive information about you and your interactions with us from third parties, such as from your employer or coworkers, third party service and content providers, credit reporting agencies, companies that provide or sell lists of potential purchasers, and others interacting with us.

We may combine information that we receive from the various sources described in this Notice, including third party sources and public sources, and use or disclose it for the purposes identified below.
 

3. Types of Personal Information We Collect

The types of information that we may have collected about you during the previous 12 months are (note the specific data we collect is a function of the specific interaction between us; simply browsing our website looking for information about our products and services does not require collecting information such as your name, whereas if you have ordered a product or service we generally require collecting your name and other contact information, such as an address, in order to fulfill your request):

• a. Identifiers, such as your name, alias, postal address, country of residence, unique personal identifier, online identifier, internet protocol address, email address, account name, phone number, social media identifiers (e.g., Twitter handle, Instagram name, etc.) social security number, driver’s license number, passport number, or other similar identifiers.
• b. Financial information, such as your bank account number, credit card number, debit card number, government-issued Tax ID, or any other financial information.
• c. Protected Class and Demographic information, such as age, race, gender, national origin, religion, sex, disability, citizenship, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, medical condition, political activity or affiliation, military or veteran status, education, or date of birth.
• d. Commercial information and preferences, including records of personal property, creditworthiness, products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies.
• e. Biometric information, such as fingerprints, facial scans, or iris scans.
• f. Internet or other electronic network activity information, such as your browsing history, search history, and information regarding your interactions with us (including interacting with us online, by the mobile application, and through advertisements).
• g. Geolocation information, such as longitude and latitude from your IP address.
• h. Audio, electronic, visual, thermal, olfactory or similar information, such as video recordings of our premises.
• i. Professional, employment, or education information, such as job title, business address, employment history, or other professional information.
• j. Education information that is not publicly available personally identifiable information as defined in the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act.
• k. Inferences drawn from any of the information we collect to create a profile about you reflecting your preferences, characteristics, psychological trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, abilities, and aptitudes.

Note that we generally try to match the information we collect from you to the information we require in order to provide you the information, products or services you request, and the above list is broad to simply capture the types of information required for many possible different interactions between us. Not all of the above information is captured for each interaction between us. Our core business is providing products and services and information about those products and services, as well as information that can help us improve those products and services, as opposed to collecting information about you and trying to monetize that information in a manner not related to the products and service we provide. Sometimes we do need to share information we collect with third party service provides in order to provide you the information, products or services you request (see Section 5 below for more details about sharing of information). Privacy expectations and regulations are changing, and we expect our use and handling of your information will change over time to meet those changes and expectations.

4. How We Use Your Personal Information

We may use each category of your information described above in the following ways:

• a. To enable interactions between you and us, such as to facilitate online purchases of our products; process shipping and returns; register and administer your account, provide you with and support your interactions with us; diagnose, repair and track service and quality issues; facilitate an order, download, return, or exchange; provide requested product information; communicate with you about your account or our data practices; install and configure changes and updates to programs and technologies related to interactions with us; authenticate those who interact with us; or to respond to your requests, complaints, and inquiries.
• b. For our own internal business purposes, such as to evaluate or audit the usage and performance of programs and technologies related to interactions with us; evaluate and improve the quality of your interactions with us and programs and technologies related to interactions with us; design new services; process and catalog your responses to surveys or questionnaires (e.g., customer satisfaction reviews); perform internal research for technological development and demonstration; conduct data analysis and testing; maintain proper business records and other relevant records.
• c. For legal, safety or security reasons, such as to comply with legal requirements; protect our safety, our property or rights of those who interact with us, or others; and detect, prevent, and respond to security incidents or other malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity.
• d. In a de-identified, anonymized or aggregated format. When converted to a de-identified, anonymized, or aggregated format, data no longer constitutes Personal Information and we may use this information for any purpose.
• e. For any other purposes for which you provide consent.
• f. For marketing. We may use your Personal Information to market our products or services or those of third parties, such as our business partners. We may use your Personal Information when you participate in marketing surveys, questionnaires, promotions, events or contests. We may audit aspects of our ad impressions. We may use your Personal Information for short-term transient use, including for contextual ad customization. We may use your Personal Information to enhance our content and to potentially send you commercial emails. 
• g. For our legitimate interests or those of a third party. A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.

5. With Whom Do We Share Your Information?

We may share your Personal Information with the categories of recipients described below:

• a. Affiliates and subsidiaries: We may share your Personal Information within the our group of companies, which includes parents, corporate affiliates, subsidiaries, business units and other companies that share common ownership for the purposes described above.
• b. Third party service providers: We may share your Personal Information with third party service providers working on our behalf in order to facilitate our interactions with you or request or support our relationship with you, such as hosting service providers, IT providers, operating systems and platforms, internet service providers, analytics companies, and marketing providers (e.g., we may share your email address with our outbound email marketing provider). We may contract with other companies to provide certain services, including shipping, identity verification, email distribution, market research, promotions management and payment processing. We provide these companies with only the information they need to perform their services and work with them to ensure that your privacy is respected and protected.
• c. Business Partners: We may also provide your Personal Information or provide access to your Personal Information to our business partners, including for third party marketing or as a sale. If legally required, we will seek your consent before engaging in such sharing.
• d. For legal, security and safety purposes: We may share your Personal Information with third parties such as law enforcement or other government agencies to comply with law or legal requirements; to enforce or apply our Terms of Use and other agreements; and to protect our rights and our property or safety of our users or third parties.
• e. In connection with a transaction: If we sell some or all of our assets, merge or are acquired by another entity, including through a sale or in connection with a bankruptcy, we will share your Personal Information with that entity.
• f. Your employer or coworkers: If you interact with us in connection with your employment, your employer, coworkers, or other individuals designated by your employer may view any Personal Information that we collect in connection with your use of or interaction with us.

We may also de-identity, anonymize, or aggregate Personal Information to share with third parties for any purpose.

6. Security and Retention

We maintain reasonable security procedures and technical and organizational measures to protect your Personal Information against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, disclosure, alteration, or use. But no security measures can be 100% effective, and we cannot guarantee the security of your information, including against unauthorized intrusions or acts by third parties.

7. Children’s Privacy

Interactions with us are intended for individuals 16 years of age and older. Our interactions are not directed at, marketed to, nor intended for, children under 16 years of age. We do not knowingly collect any information, including Personal Information, from children under 16 years of age. If you believe that we have inadvertently collected Personal Information from a child under the age of 16, please contact us at the address below and we will use reasonable efforts to delete the child’s information from our databases.

8. External Links

When interacting with us you may encounter links to external sites or other online services, including those embedded in third party advertisements or sponsor information, which we do not control. We are not responsible for the privacy practices and data collection policies for such third party services.  You should consult the privacy statements of those third party services for details.  

9. Terms of Use

The Legal Notice for interactions with us is incorporated by reference into this Notice, and can be found at: Legal Notice

10. Contact Info/Your Choices

If you have questions regarding this Notice, please contact us at:

• EMAIL:    privacy@continental.com
• PHONE:  (833) 656-0555

To opt-out of receiving promotional email messages from us, please click on the "Unsubscribe" link contained at the bottom of each email or by contacting us using the information above.

11. Your California Privacy Rights

If you are a California resident, this section applies. Pursuant to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (the CCPA), in the sections above we have provided a summary of the Personal Information we collected from consumers, the sources from which we collected the Personal Information, the business or commercial purpose for which the Personal Information was collected and the categories of third parties with whom we share consumer Personal Information. Under the CCPA, you have specific rights.

In general, we do not sell personal data, sharing personal data with third parties to the extent needed to provide you products or services (for example, sharing your address with a third party service that will deliver a product to you, using a third party credit card payment processor, or using a cloud service provider to host our data (that may include your personal data)). The CCPA has broad definitions of what type of activities constitute a sale. We are reviewing our websites and procedures to ensure we are not selling data under those broad definitions.

Your Rights

California residents have certain rights, subject to legal limitations, regarding the collection, use, and sharing of Personal Information. California residents may exercise the following rights via emailing us at privacy@continental.com, or by calling (833) 656-0555.

Right to Know. You have the right to request information about the categories of Personal Information we have collected about you, the categories of sources from which we collected the Personal Information, the purposes for collecting the Personal Information, the categories of third parties with whom we have shared your Personal Information, and the purpose for which we shared your Personal Information (“Categories Report”). You may also request information about the specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected about you (“Specific Pieces Report”).  

• Right to Delete. You have the right to request that we delete Personal Information that we have collected from you.
• Right to Opt Out. You have the right to opt out of the sale of your Personal Information.

We will not discriminate against you, in any manner prohibited by applicable law, for exercising these rights.

Verification: In order to exercise your rights, we will need to obtain information to locate you in our records or verify your identity depending on the nature of the request. If you are submitting a request on behalf of a household, we will need to verify each member of the household in the manner set forth above. We will use commercially reasonable verification techniques, designed to balance the need to ensure we are not providing your information to someone pretending to be you, while at the same time not making it too difficult for you to exercise your rights.

Authorized Agents: You may use an authorized agent to exercise your rights on your behalf. If you are making any of the requests above through an authorized agent, we will request written authorization from you and will seek to verify you as described above or we will accept a legal Power of Attorney under the California Probate Code to the authorized agent.

Timing: We will respond to Requests to Delete and Requests to Know within 45 days, unless we need more time in which case we will notify you and may take up to 90 days total to respond to your request.

12. How We Use Cookies and Automatic Data Collection Tools

We also collect information, via cookies, web beacons, pixels, tags or other tracking technologies, such as your Internet Service Provider and IP address, the date and time you access our website, the pages you accessed while visiting our website, and the Internet address from which you accessed our website. Some cookies exist only during a single session and some are persistent over multiple sessions over time. We use these technologies to remember user preferences, maximize the performance of our website and services, provide you with offers that may be of interest to you, measure the effectiveness of our email campaigns and to personalize online content. These cookies and other technologies may be used to track you across devices.

To provide you with more relevant and interesting experience, we may work with third party companies to display ads or customize the content on the website and on other websites. These companies may use cookies and similar tracking technologies as described in this Statement to gather information about your visits to the website, as well as your visits elsewhere on the Internet. These companies use this information to provide you with more relevant advertising known as interest-based advertising. The Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) offers a choice mechanism with respect to certain types of data collection and use by third parties available at www.aboutads.info. Opting out of interest-based advertising will not opt you out of all advertising, but rather only interest-based advertising from us or our agents or representatives.

Some browsers have incorporated Do Not Track (“DNT”) preferences. Most of these features, when turned on, send signals to the website you are visiting that you do not wish to have information about your online searching and browsing activities collected and used. As there is not yet a common agreement about how to interpret DNT signals, we do not honor DNT signals from website browsers at this time. However, you may refuse or delete cookies. If you refuse or delete cookies, some of our website functionality may be impaired. If you change computers, devices, or browsers, or use multiple computers, devices, or browsers, and delete your cookies, you may need to repeat this process for each computer, device, or browser. Please refer to your browser’s Help instructions to learn more about how to manage cookies and the use of other tracking technologies.

This Notice was last updated on 21 September 2020.