{"id":7489,"date":"2022-09-21T11:33:20","date_gmt":"2022-09-21T09:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/winheller.com\/blog\/en\/?p=7489"},"modified":"2023-05-31T11:18:13","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T09:18:13","slug":"privacy-germany-tracking-tools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/winheller.com\/blog\/en\/privacy-germany-tracking-tools\/","title":{"rendered":"Privacy in Germany: What to Consider When Using Tracking Tools"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wp-block-image is-style-rounded wp-duotone-263385-ffffff-1\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><a href=\"https:\/\/winheller.com\/blog\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/privacy-online-tracking-tools.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"400\" height=\"267\" src=\"https:\/\/winheller.com\/blog\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/privacy-online-tracking-tools.webp\" alt=\"Privacy in Germany: What to Consider When Using Tracking Tools\" class=\"wp-image-7490\" srcset=\"https:\/\/winheller.com\/blog\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/privacy-online-tracking-tools.webp 400w, https:\/\/winheller.com\/blog\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/privacy-online-tracking-tools-300x200.webp 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 400px) 100vw, 400px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>For some, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) means <strong>strengthening user privacy<\/strong> against data-hungry companies; for others, it is bureaucratic dallying that creates unnecessary costs for innovative companies. These differing opinions collide with each other, particularly in the field of online marketing, for which a <strong>variety of tracking tools<\/strong> exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Use of tracking tools in online marketing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Tracking tools in place include <strong>e-mail tracking<\/strong> using web beacons (also called tracking pixels) and mouse tracking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the case of e-mail tracking, the advertiser receives a <strong>notification<\/strong> when the user <strong>opens the newsletter<\/strong> sent to him, the <strong>time<\/strong> this occurs and the corresponding <strong>IP address<\/strong> of the user. Likewise, the advertiser can see which link the user clicks on, allowing conclusions to be drawn about the popularity of products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition, online providers are interested in whether their website is designed to be <strong>user-friendly<\/strong> and in which areas there is still room for <strong>improvement<\/strong> in order to promote their sales by making their offerings as accessible as possible. Mouse tracking tools, which track and <strong>record mouse movements<\/strong>, are primarily used for this purpose. With the information collected, user interactions with the particular website can be studied, and the website can be adjusted accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Advantages of tracking tools<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The goal of these tools is to collect as much information as possible about <strong>user behavior on websites<\/strong> or when <strong>using apps<\/strong>. After their analysis and evaluation, the aggregated data serve as a basis for <strong>placing advertisements<\/strong> oriented to the interests of specific user groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Hurdles in data protection<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Increased demands are placed on their use due to the possibility of linking different information with each other by means of tracking tools. On one hand, advertisers and website providers must provide users with <strong>comprehensive and transparent<\/strong> information about their use (e.g., in the privacy policy). On the other hand, <strong>consent<\/strong> must be obtained from the users in order to use the respective tracking tool, and this must be done <strong>prior<\/strong> to the data collection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Users can revoke consent<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>One crucial point that makes obtaining consent in online marketing unattractive is the fact that users can <strong>revoke their consent at any time<\/strong>. The consequence here would be that the collected data would have to be deleted and would thus be <strong>unusable for future advertising campaigns<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whether the requirement for consent can be circumvented by <strong>using IDs<\/strong> that merely provide information about users&#8217; behavior without directly identifying them must be decided on a case-by-case basis. However, this approach can only be recommended if the data collected is anonymized to a degree that the <strong>risk of future re-identification<\/strong> is unlikely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>High fines for data protection violations<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Since data protection violations in online marketing can be punished with <strong>fines<\/strong> and there is a great deal of legal uncertainty in this area, unknown tracking tools that promise a detailed breakdown of user behavior should not be used <strong>without consideration<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We can help you select a <strong>privacy-complian<\/strong>t tracking tool that meets your needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Continue reading:<br><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.winheller.com\/en\/business-law\/privacy-law.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Key principles of German data protection law<\/a><\/strong><br><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/winheller.com\/blog\/en\/new-fines-gdpr-violations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">New Model For Fines For GDPR Violations<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For some, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) means strengthening user privacy against data-hungry companies; for others, it is bureaucratic dallying that creates unnecessary costs for innovative companies. These differing opinions collide with each other, particularly in the field of online [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1153],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy-law"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/winheller.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/winheller.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/winheller.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winheller.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winheller.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7489"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/winheller.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7608,"href":"https:\/\/winheller.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7489\/revisions\/7608"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winheller.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/winheller.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winheller.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/winheller.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}