stronger than one

Social Media Privacy Notice

Last updated: November 2026

This privacy policy applies to the social media presence of United VARs CLG:

The operation of our social media presence is an optional offer for our customers, members, partners, and other interested parties. However, you can always get information about our company, services, and offerings through alternative channels such as our website.

Controller

United VARs CLG
Balcke-Dürr-Allee 11
40882 Ratingen - Germany
Registered office: Suite 3, One Earlsfort Centre, Lower Hatch Street, Dublin 2, Ireland (Company No. 684357)
Email: info@united-vars.com
Phone: +49 2102 94 25 6160 (United VARs Office Ratingen / Germany)

Data Protection Officer:

We are not obliged to appoint a data protection officer. Any inquiries or legal requests regarding data protection can be directed directly to the controller at: marketing@united-vars.com

Risk Notice Regarding Conversion Tracking on Our Social Media Presence:

We are responsible for all personal data processing in connection with our editorial social media publications and campaigns. However, there is a divergence of data protection responsibility concerning conversion tracking during the operation of our social media presence. Our social media providers reserve the right in their terms of use to conduct website and service analytics for their own purposes, which are not under our authority. Data processing that enables the analysis of user behavior and, therefore, the creation of user profiles for social (advertising) networks may not always be traceable to us. We only receive aggregated usage statistics. We do not have the ability to enforce or influence the consent management required for conversion tracking under the provisions of the GDPR and the TDDDG. According to the case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union, we are jointly responsible with the social media provider for certain processing, in particular page statistics (Page Insights), under Article 26 GDPR. For LinkedIn, this is governed by the LinkedIn Page Insights Joint Controller Addendum.

You can exercise your data protection rights against us or directly against the social media provider. For further information, please refer to the usage and data protection policies of our social media providers:

Purposes, Legal Bases, Recipients, and Deletion

We maintain publicly accessible corporate profiles on social networks, which entail the following personal data processing:

  1. Social Media Operation (Hosting):
    We operate corporate profiles on social networks to ensure a broad online presence. It is in our legitimate interest to pursue targeted public relations and balanced marketing, taking into account the reasonable expectations of our customers and interested parties. The social media providers mentioned above process data as independent controllers or, for page statistics, as joint controllers with us (see the notice above). No further recipients, particularly third parties, are involved in the hosting process. Social media log files are regularly deleted after 90 days.

    The processing of personal data within the framework of social media operations (hosting) is based on our legitimate interests under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR.
  2. Insight Tag Conversion Tracking:
    For the purposes of usage evaluation and marketing, we receive aggregated usage statistics (insights) from our social media providers. Personal identification is not disclosed to us. However, we strongly emphasize the risk notice mentioned earlier for your information.
  3. Editorial Public Relations:
    We publish editorial content for public relations and networking, target-group communication, recruitment, and lead generation. This may include references to names, work-related details, as well as image, audio, and video data. We cannot guarantee comprehensive data protection for editorial content posted on our social media profiles. The indeterminate audience entails heightened risks of personality rights violations by third parties worldwide. Data is deleted upon the cessation of purpose. The internal social media code of conduct applies.

    The processing of personal data within the framework of editorial public relations on our social media profiles is based on voluntary consent according to Article 6(1)(a) GDPR. Consent can be withdrawn at any time without stating reasons. No disadvantages arise from refusal or withdrawal. The legality of the data processing already carried out remains unaffected by the withdrawal. In a business context, processing can also be based on our legitimate interests under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. Your right to object, based on your particular situation, remains unaffected.
  4. Dialogue Marketing (Call-to-Action) and Conversion Tracking:
    For the purposes of lead generation and increasing brand awareness, we use the sponsored content services of our social media providers for advertising campaigns, particularly so-called Lead Gen Forms. These are simplified web forms optimized for marketing purposes. When you, as an interested party, click on our social media campaign ad, a Lead Gen web form will be displayed to collect your lead for campaign use. The web forms are already pre-filled with your social media profile data to facilitate low-barrier use of our campaign content. We receive your name and contact information, such as email address and phone number, from the social media provider, as well as possibly references to your work. We process this data solely for the campaign purpose defined in the social media ads. If you give your separate, voluntary consent in the Lead Gen Form, we share these data with the UNITED VARS member company responsible for your country and best suited to your request, so that it can contact you by email or phone about the topic of the campaign. Member companies may be located outside the European Union, in countries where the level of data protection may be lower than in the EU. In this case, the transfer is based on your explicit consent under Article 49(1)(a) GDPR. Without this consent, your data is not shared with member companies. You can find an overview of our member companies at www.united-vars.com/en/members.

    We delete your data 24 months after our last contact with you, unless a business relationship has been established in the meantime, or earlier if you withdraw your consent. Member companies that receive your data with your consent are responsible for their own retention.

    Our social media ads campaigns involve conversion tracking, for which the social media provider assumes its own data protection responsibility. The social media provider collects your conversion user data for profiling its advertising network and creating key performance indicators (KPIs). These KPIs are necessary for billing our social media ads campaigns, such as Cost per Order (CPO) or Cost per Lead (CPL). We receive only anonymized metrics from the social media providers to assess the success of the ad campaigns.

    The processing of personal data to provide the campaign content you requested (e.g. a whitepaper download) is based on Article 6(1)(b) GDPR. Sharing your data with the member company is based on your consent under Article 6(1)(a) GDPR. You can withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future, e.g. by email to marketing@united-vars.com.
  5. Dialogue Marketing (General):
    For the purpose of general dialogue marketing, i.e. contacting you independently of a campaign or sending general company information (e.g. a newsletter), we ask for your consent in our sponsored content (checkbox). For some free content, such as whitepapers, your consent to general dialogue marketing is the consideration for providing the content free of charge. We state this clearly in the form. For this purpose, we process your name and contact details (usually email address and phone number). These data are not shared with further recipients, in particular third parties. The data is deleted immediately upon your withdrawal, or when the purpose ceases, i.e. after inactivity of the contact has been determined and recorded (e.g. bounce management). Mandatory statutory retention periods, in particular the regular statute of limitations of three years, remain unaffected.

    The processing of personal data within the framework of general dialogue marketing is based on your consent under Article 6(1)(a) GDPR. Consent can be withdrawn at any time without stating reasons. Withdrawing your consent does not affect content you have already received. The lawfulness of the processing carried out before the withdrawal remains unaffected.

Your Data Protection Rights

You have the right to access your data under Article 15 GDPR, the right to rectification under Article 16 GDPR, the right to erasure ("right to be forgotten") under Article 17 GDPR, the right to restrict processing under Article 18 GDPR, the right to data portability under Article 20 GDPR, and the right to object under Article 21 GDPR.

You may withdraw your consent to the processing of personal data at any time in accordance with Article 7(3) GDPR. The withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.

In the event of data protection violations, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority under Article 77 GDPR. The right to lodge a complaint exists regardless of other administrative or judicial remedies. The supervisory authority responsible for us is:

The State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of North Rhine-Westphalia (Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit Nordrhein-Westfalen)
Postfach 20 04 44
40102 Düsseldorf - Germany
Email: poststelle@ldi.nrw.de