Privacy policy
SoftMaker takes the protection of your personal data very seriously. In this privacy policy, we first define some terms and then describe the following in particular:
- your personal data which we process and the purposes for doing so,
- the legal basis on which we process your data,
- how long we retain your data,
- how you can contact us if you have any questions regarding data protection at SoftMaker,
- and which rights you can assert against us with regard to your data.
Applicability
This privacy policy applies to the use of the website getfreepdf.com and its localized versions ("our websites").
Controller
The controller within the meaning of the GDPR and other data protection regulations is:
SoftMaker Software GmbH
Kronacher Str. 7
90427 Nuremberg
Germany
E-mail:
Website: www.softmaker.com
(hereinafter also referred to as "SoftMaker" or "we")
Provision of personal data
The provision of personal data is neither legally nor contractually required in order to use our websites. You are not obliged to provide personal data. If the data is not provided, however, it will not be possible to use our websites or it will only be possible to do so to a limited extent. Apart from two exceptions, the provision of personal data is also not required in order to conclude a contract. The aforementioned exceptions concern orders in our online store and participation in our discussion forums. For more information, see the sections "Orders in our online store" and "Provision of our discussion forums" below.
Provision of our websites
When you visit our websites, our system automatically collects and stores a range of information:
- the IP address and/or host name of your computer
- the name, language and version of your browser
- the operating system used for accessing our websites
- the referrer URL (the previously visited page)
- the date and time of your access
- the time zone difference to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
- the content of the request (specific page)
- the amount of data transferred
- the access status and HTTP status code
If the data is not provided, it will not be possible to access our websites or it will only be possible to do so to a limited extent.
Legal basis for data processing
The legal basis for processing this data is our legitimate interest in being able to offer our websites and operate them as required (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Purpose of data processing
The processing of the data by the system is required to enable delivery of the web pages to the user's computer.
To ensure operation and for protection against attacks (for example, DDoS), the data is also stored beyond the session duration.
Duration of storage
The log files of our websites are stored separately from other personal data and are deleted after 31 days.
Use of cookies
Like many other websites, our websites use "cookies". A cookie stores small amounts of data, for example, a "cookie ID". This is a unique string of characters that allows websites to associate page views with a specific browser. A particular browser can be identified by the cookie ID.
We use the following cookies:
Name: ref
Provider: SoftMaker
Purpose: Provision of campaign-specific content on our websites, for example, after clicking on a link in our newsletter.
Duration: 3 days
Name: couponcode
Provider: SoftMaker
Purpose: Provision of campaign-specific discounts on our websites, for example, after clicking on a link in our newsletter.
Duration: 3 days
Name: country
Provider: SoftMaker
Purpose: Provision of country-specific content on our websites, for example, after clicking on a link in our newsletter.
Duration: 3 days
Name: phpbb3_deforum_sid / phpbb3_enforum_sid
Provider: SoftMaker
Purpose: Ensures that the user's settings are preserved when accessing new forum pages.
Duration: 1 year
Name: phpbb3_deforum_u / phpbb3_enforum_u
Provider: SoftMaker
Purpose: Identification of users registered in the forum; differentiation between guests and registered users.
Duration: 1 year
Name: phpbb3_deforum_k / phpbb3_enforum_k
Provider: SoftMaker
Purpose: Saves a key which is used for automatically logging into the forum.
Duration: 1 year
Name: 55444ac18d470feac80ab39626791c1e
Provider: SoftMaker
Purpose: Ensures that the user’s settings are preserved when accessing new pages.
Duration: until the end of the session or 1 year at most.
Name: e4f210263e221ba719d3a988c1a33d72
Provider: SoftMaker
Purpose: Ensures that the selected display language is preserved when accessing new pages.
Duration: until the end of the session or 1 year at most.
Name: SoftMakerLogin
Provider: SoftMaker
Purpose: Saves a key which is used for automatically logging into the online store.
Duration: 10 years
Name: hide_banner
Provider: SoftMaker
Purpose: Determines whether certain elements are displayed or hidden.
Duration: 3 days
Name: secure_cart
Provider: SoftMaker
Purpose: Stores the contents of the shopping cart in the online store.
Duration: until the end of the session or 1 year at most.
Name: PHPSESSID
Provider: SoftMaker
Purpose: Stores the user's input in an online survey.
Duration: until the end of the session or 1 year at most.
Name: YII_CSRF_TOKEN
Provider: SoftMaker
Purpose: Technical cookie to prevent cross-site query spoofing in online surveys.
Duration: until the end of the session or 1 year at most.
You can delete cookies in your browser at any time, and you can configure all common browsers so that cookies are generally not stored. If you disable the setting of cookies, you will not be able to use all functions of our websites.
Legal basis for data processing
The legal basis for the processing of personal data using cookies, which are required for the functioning of the websites, is our legitimate interest in ensuring our online presence via our websites from a technical point of view and in designing them as required (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Registration for our newsletter and for obtaining products
You can register on our websites, for example, to receive our free newsletter or to obtain free or fee-based products. As we manage our customer data centrally in a list in the database of our online store, a customer account is created in our online store in the process.
For this purpose, you need to provide certain personal data. You can identify which personal data is involved by the input mask that appears during registration. In addition to the visible entries, your IP address and the date and time of access are collected and stored. We need this additional data to be able to subsequently trace the possible abuse of an e-mail address and thus for our legal protection.
Furthermore, we store which products you have obtained, including any associated product keys or serial numbers if applicable. This serves to increase the user-friendliness of our websites, as you can retrieve this information later in our customer center.
If the data is not provided, registration will not be able to take place.
Legal basis for data processing
The legal basis for processing this data is Article 6(1)(a) GDPR.
Purpose of data processing
The processing of data is required to distribute our newsletter and products and to enable the subsequent tracing of possible misuse of an e-mail address when registering or obtaining products, and thus serves our legal protection.
Duration of storage
The data will be stored for as long as is necessary to achieve the aforementioned purposes, unless laws or government regulations require a longer storage period. In any case, data is stored for as long as and to the extent that we are obliged to do so within the framework of the statutory retention obligations.
Orders in our online store
On our websites, you can place orders via our online store.
To place orders via our online store, you must have a customer account in our online store. To create a customer account, you can register with your data during the order process. For this purpose, you need to provide certain personal data. You can find out what personal data is involved under "Registering for the newsletter and for obtaining products" above.
When you place orders via our online store, our system records a range of personal data. You can identify which personal data is involved by the input masks that appear when placing an order. In addition to the visible entries, your IP address and the date and time of access are collected and stored.
Furthermore, we store which products you have obtained, including any associated product keys or serial numbers if applicable.
For the correct functioning of our online shop, it is also necessary to set certain cookies on your computer. For more information on these cookies, see "Use of cookies" above.
If the data is not provided, it will not be possible to place orders in our online shop.
Legal basis for data processing
The legal basis for processing this data are Article 6(1)(b) GDPR and Article 6(1)(c) GDPR.
Purpose of data processing
The processing of the data is necessary to fulfill contractual, legal and statutory obligations.
The storage of product keys and serial numbers serves to increase the user-friendliness of our websites, as you can retrieve this information later in our customer center.
Duration of storage
The data will be stored for as long as is necessary to fulfill all contractual, legal and statutory obligations. In any case, data is stored for as long as and to the extent that we are obliged to do so within the framework of the statutory retention obligations or for the period during which your personal data is required to maintain an existing contractual relationship (especially a product license agreement).
Distribution of our newsletter
On our websites, you can subscribe to a free newsletter. When you subscribe to the newsletter, the data from the input mask will be transferred to us and stored. In addition to the visible entries, your IP address and the date and time of access will be transferred to us and stored.
We will send a confirmation e-mail to the e-mail address you provided when subscribing as part of our double opt-in process. With this confirmation e-mail, we verify that you are the actual owner of the e-mail address and agree to receiving the newsletter. If you click on the confirmation link in the e-mail, you will be registered in our system with your personal data. For more information on this registration process, see "Registering for the newsletter and for obtaining products” above.
If you purchase products or services via our websites or obtain free products or services and provide your e-mail address, we reserve the right to use it in order to send you our newsletter. This serves our legitimate interest in contacting our users for advertising purposes, which predominates in the weighing of interests.
You can unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time. The newsletter contains a link to unsubscribe. You can also instruct us by other means, for example, by e-mail or contact form, to stop sending you our newsletter.
If the data is not provided, it will not be possible to send the newsletter.
Legal basis for data processing
If you have subscribed to the newsletter, the legal basis for the processing of the data is Article 6(1)(a) GDPR.
If you receive the newsletter after purchasing products or services or after obtaining free products or services, the legal basis for processing the data is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR.
Purpose of data processing
The processing of the data from the input mask serves the distribution of our newsletter.
The storage of the IP address as well as the date and time of access serves to document your consent to receive the newsletter and to be able to subsequently trace the possible misuse of an e-mail address and thus for our legal protection.
Duration of storage
The data will be stored for as long as is necessary to achieve the aforementioned purposes, unless laws or government regulations require a longer storage period.
Contact via e-mail or contact form
If you contact us by e-mail or via one of our contact forms, certain personal data will be collected and stored by us.
Contact via a contact form: You can identify which personal data is involved by examining the input mask that appears on the contact form. In addition to the visible entries, your IP address and the date and time of access will be collected and stored.
Contact by e-mail: If you contact us by e-mail, the personal data collected and stored by us will be the complete e-mail message that you sent us.
If the data is not provided, contact by e-mail or contact form will not be possible.
Legal basis for data processing
The legal basis for processing this data is our legitimate interest in being able to contact users of our websites electronically (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Purpose of data processing
The processing of the data from the input mask or from an e-mail message serves the processing of the contact.
The storage of the IP address as well as the date and time of access enable us to subsequently trace the possible misuse of an e-mail address and thus serve our legal protection.
Duration of storage
The data will be stored for as long as is necessary to achieve the aforementioned purposes, unless laws or government regulations require a longer storage period.
Rating customer service responses
The e-mail responses you receive from our customer service often include an option for rating the quality of the response by clicking on a link. If you click on this link, your web browser will open and access a page that will store your rating on our server.
In addition to your rating, the following data will be transferred to us and stored:
- Time and time zone of access.
- An ID that enables us to associate your rating with the customer service query and our response.
- Your shortened IP address.
If the data is not provided, customer service responses cannot be rated in this manner.
Legal basis for data processing
The legal basis for processing this data is our legitimate interest in receiving ratings of our customer service (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Purpose of data processing
The rating is processed in order to evaluate and improve the quality of our customer service.
The storage of the IP address, time and time zone of access serves to prevent abuse of the rating function.
Duration of storage
The data will be stored for as long as is necessary to achieve the aforementioned purposes.
Provision of our discussion forums
You can register in our discussion forums to post and exchange messages with other forum users.
For this purpose, you need to provide certain personal data. You can identify which personal data is involved by the input mask that appears during registration. In addition to the visible entries, your IP address and the date and time of access will be collected and stored.
If you post a comment in our discussion forums, your user name and the date and time of posting will be stored and published in addition to the content which was visible when you entered the comment. We also store your IP address. Even when caching posts as a draft or when creating messages for other forum users, the data which was visible when entering them and your IP address will be stored.
For the correct functioning of our forum software, it is also necessary to set certain cookies on your computer. For more information on these cookies, see "Use of cookies" above.
If the data is not provided, it will not be possible to use our discussion forums or it will only be possible to do so to a limited extent.
Legal basis for data processing
The legal basis for processing this data are Article 6(1)(b) GDPR and our legitimate interest in running a user forum (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Purpose of data processing
The purpose of data processing is to provide our discussion forums, to prevent their abuse and to provide legal protection if posts or messages contain infringing content.
Duration of storage
The data will be stored for as long as is necessary to achieve the aforementioned purposes, unless laws or government regulations require a longer storage period. Forum posts are stored and displayed indefinitely in the discussion forums.
Provision of the comment function in our blog
You can post comments in our blog.
For this purpose, you need to provide certain personal data. You can identify which personal data is involved by the input mask that is visible when entering the comment. In addition to the content that was visible when you entered the comment, the date and time of publication are saved and published. We also store your IP address.
If the data is not provided, it will not be possible to post comments in our blog.
Legal basis for data processing
The legal basis for processing this data is our legitimate interest in having blog posts commented on and in exchanging information with users of our blog (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Purpose of data processing
The purpose of data processing is to provide the comment function in our blog, to prevent its abuse and to provide legal protection if comments contain infringing content.
Duration of storage
The data will be stored for as long as is necessary to achieve the aforementioned purposes, unless laws or government regulations require a longer storage period. Comments are stored until the blog post that has been commented on is deleted from our websites.
Online surveys with LimeSurvey
We use the open source software LimeSurvey on our websites to provide our customers with online surveys. LimeSurvey is hosted on our own web servers. LimeSurvey does not transfer any data to servers beyond our control.
If a survey is accessed on our websites, personal data will be transferred to our system. This data will include at least your IP address as well as the date and time of access, as well as any other personal data if requested in the respective survey. You can identify which personal data is involved by the input mask that is visible when participating in a survey.
For the correct functioning of LimeSurvey, it is also necessary to set certain cookies on your computer. For more information on these cookies, see "Use of cookies" above.
If the data is not provided, it will not be possible to participate in online surveys on our websites.
Legal basis for data processing
The legal basis for processing this data is our legitimate interest in conducting surveys with our customers (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Purpose of data processing
The purpose of processing the data from the input mask is to understand the requirements of our users better and to improve our offers in a targeted manner.
The storage of the IP address as well as the date and time of access serves to prevent abuse of our online surveys.
Duration of storage
The data will be stored for as long as is necessary to achieve the aforementioned purposes, unless laws or government regulations require a longer storage period.
Website traffic statistics with Matomo
We use the open source software Matomo on our websites to collect traffic statistics. Matomo is hosted on our own web servers. Matomo does not transfer any data to servers beyond our control.
In order to improve data protection, we let Matomo shorten the IP addresses of visitors to our websites.
Matomo does not process any of your data without your consent. With your consent, Matomo stores the following statistics cookies on your computer, which enable us to analyze your use of our websites:
Name: _pk_id...
Provider: SoftMaker
Purpose: Used to associate multiple visits to our websites from the same device with a single record.
Duration: 13 months
Name: _pk_ses...
Provider: SoftMaker
Purpose: Cookie for the short-term storage of data.
Duration: 30 minutes
Each time a data subject visits one of our website pages that uses Matomo, the browser is prompted to transmit data to our servers for analysis purposes.
If you agree to the collection of traffic statistics by Matomo, the information generated by the cookies about your use of the website, such as
- the IP address and/or host name of your computer,
- the name, language and version of your browser,
- the operating system with which you are accessing the website,
- the referrer URL (the previously visited page),
- the date and time of your access,
will be transferred to our servers and stored there with the shortened IP address.
If the data is not provided, we will not be able to collect statistics with Matomo about your visits to our websites. You can continue to use our websites in this case.
You can prevent Matomo from processing information about your use of our websites by deselecting the following checkbox:
If you deselect the checkbox, the following cookie will be set with the value 0:
Name: stats_allowed
Provider: SoftMaker
Purpose: Saves whether you agree to the collection of data for website traffic statistics and the setting of statistics cookies.
Duration: 2 years
This prevents the future collection of your data when you visit our websites. The cookie is only valid in this browser for one of our websites at a time, and it is stored on your computer.
We respect your privacy: If you have enabled the option "Do Not Track" in your browser, your visit will not be tracked by Matomo, even if you have selected the aforementioned checkbox.
Legal basis for data processing
The legal basis for processing users' personal data is our legitimate interest in designing our online presence via our websites as required and in optimizing it for user behavior (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Purpose of data processing
The processing of data serves the collection of traffic statistics.
Duration of storage
The data will be deleted as soon as it is no longer needed for our record-keeping purposes. The generated statistics and underlying data will not be deleted.
Existence of automated decision-making including profiling
The personal data provided by you or collected by us on our websites will not be used for automated decision-making.
Categories of recipients
We commission various service providers to support us in the development of our software and customer service and in the provision of technical infrastructure. These service providers include, for example, software developers, external support employees and hosting providers. If such service providers act on our behalf, they may gain access to your personal data as recipients. In order to be able to respond quickly to customer service requests and crash reports, we also commission software developers and customer service providers in unsafe third countries for which there are no adequacy decisions of the EU Commission. However, all our service providers are also contractually obliged to comply with data protection via a data processing agreement or, in the case of unsafe third countries, via the EU's Standard Contractual Clauses. A copy of the EU's Standard Contractual Clauses can be found here.
Transfer of data to third parties
Unless otherwise stated above, personal data will not be transferred to third parties, except where:
- There is a legal obligation to pass on the data.
- A court of competent jurisdiction or a law enforcement authority orders the passing on of the data.
- It is necessary to pass on the data to assert, exercise or defend any legal claims.
Withdrawal of consent
Within the framework of the legal provisions, you have the option at all times of withdrawing your consent to the future processing of your personal data. To do so, please contact us via the e-mail address mentioned under "Contact details for inquiries regarding our privacy policy".
We would like to point out that the processing of your personal data, which we have carried out on the basis of your given consent until you withdraw it, shall not be affected by the withdrawal and shall remain lawful.
Right to access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, object to processing and data portability
Within the framework of the legal provisions, you have the right to obtain information from us about your personal data processed by us, as well as the right to demand rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, and the right to object to processing and data portability. The exact conditions under which you are entitled to the aforementioned rights can be found in Articles 15 to 21 GDPR and paragraphs 34, 35 and 37 BDSG (German Federal Data Protection Act). If you would like to exercise one or more of the above rights, please contact us via the e-mail address mentioned under "Contact details for inquiries regarding our privacy policy".
We would like to separately draw your attention to your right to object in accordance with Article 21 GDPR. According to the latter Article, you have the right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, at any time to processing of your personal data which is based on Article 6(1)(f) GDPR (data processing on the basis of a weighing of interests). This also applies to profiling based on this provision within the meaning of Article 4(4) GDPR; however, we do not conduct profiling with your data. If you object, we will no longer process your data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing, which outweigh your interests, rights and freedoms, or the processing serves to assert, exercise or defend any legal claims.
Right of appeal
Within the framework of the legal provisions, you have the right to submit complaints regarding data protection to a supervisory authority. The Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision, which you can reach via www.lda.bayern.de, is responsible for us. However, you can also contact any other supervisory authority.
Privacy policy regarding our use of PayPal
We have integrated the online payment service PayPal as one of the available payment options in our online store on our websites.
The European operating company of PayPal is PayPal (Europe) S.à.r.l. & Cie. S.C.A., 22-24 Boulevard Royal, 2449 Luxembourg, Luxembourg.
If a data subject chooses PayPal as a payment option during the order process in our online store, the data subject's data is automatically transferred to PayPal. By choosing PayPal as a payment option, the data subject consents to the transfer of personal data required for processing the payment. This information may include first and last name, address, e-mail address, IP address, phone number, ordered products including prices and other information required for payment processing and fraud prevention.
PayPal may share personal information with banks, credit agencies, affiliates and subcontractors.
A data subject may revoke his/her consent to the processing of personal data by PayPal at any time by serving notice of such revocation to PayPal. Such revocation does not affect personal data which must be transferred and processed for payment processing or which must be retained due to legal regulations.
PayPal's Privacy Policy informs you about the collection, processing and use of personal data by PayPal.
Contact details for inquiries regarding our privacy policy
If you would like to exercise your data protection rights, or if you have questions about this privacy policy or our data protection behavior, please contact us via e-mail at