Data Protection

The EVS operates in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation and all other statutory data protection provisions.

The protection of your privacy when using our web pages is important to us. In what follows, we provide information about the collection of personal data in this context. Personal data are any data that can be related to you personally, for example, name and surname, address, email addresses, or user behavior.

EVS reserves the right to update this privacy policy from time to time. Therefore, we recommend that it be read at regular intervals.

Contact Data

The controller within the meaning of Article 4(7) of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is

European Values Study
Tilburg University
Department of Sociology
PO Box 90153
5000 LE Tilburg
The Netherlands

For more information, please consult our imprint: http://www.europeanvaluesstudy.eu/page/imprint/

Some services of this webpage are undertaken by GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (Data Archive and Data Analysis, Cologne). More information about the data protection at GESIS is available here: https://www.gesis.org/en/institute/data-protection/.

Data Transfer and Usage Statistics

For technical reasons, when you access our website, your Internet browser automatically transmits data to our Web server. These data include, among other things, the date and time of access, the URL of the referring website, the accessed file, the amount of data transmitted, the browser type and version, the operating system, and your IP address. These data are stored separately from other data that you enter when using our website. It is not possible for us to assign these data to a specific person. They are analyzed for statistical purposes and then deleted.

Cookies

Cookies are used in order to expand the range of functions. This enables data to be temporarily stored on your computer. You can prevent this storage by changing your browser settings accordingly, and you can delete existing cookies at any time. If you deactivate the use of cookies completely, this may lead to restrictions in the range of functions of our webpages.

Google Analytics – Analytical tool for web statistics

The europeanvaluesstudy.eu website uses the analytical tool Google Analytics to monitor how readers use the website. Google Analytics is a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”).

EVS uses the analytical tool to collect and evaluate information on how visitors use the EVS website, with the aim of improving the functionality of the website. Visits to europeanvaluesstudy.eu are registered with anonymous information, which does not contain any identifiable personal data.

In line with normal practice, a user’s IP address is registered when visiting europeanvaluesstudy.eu. However, EVS has chosen to mask parts of this information, so that no identifiable personal data is registered. IP masking is a security measure used to control how Google Analytics uses and stores website visitors’ IP addresses. By default, Google Analytics uses the entire IP address of website visitors in the general geographic reporting. On europeanvaluesstudy.eu, IP masking is enabled, which means that Google Analytics removes the last eight-bit byte of visitors’ IP addresses before they are analyzed and stored.

Using cookies to monitor website usage

During website visits, cookies (information capsules) are stored as text files on your computer. The information collected by the cookie on your usage (including an anonymized version of your IP address) is sent to Google and stored on its servers. Google then uses this information to monitor website usage, draw up website activity reports for the website owner and provide other services related to the website activity and usage.

Google can also transfer this information to third parties where there is a legal obligation to do so, or if such third parties process the information on behalf of Google. Google will not combine your IP address with any other data it may have in its possession.

Preventing storage of your visitor data

Google Analytics’ guidelines on privacy protection entitle you to deny Google Analytics permission to store your visitor data. If you do not want Google Analytics to store your data, you can install “Google Analytics Opt-out“, which is an add-on function for your browser that will prevent storage of such data.

You can also prevent the use of cookies on your computer by adjusting the necessary browser settings. If you choose to do this, you should be aware that you may not be able to use all of the website’s functionality.

By using the website, you agree to Google processing data on you in the way and for the purpose as described above.

Emails

When you send us an email, your personal data are automatically stored. These have been transmitted on a voluntary basis and are stored for the purpose of processing or contacting you. There is no transfer of this personal data to third parties. Your email address is used only for the correspondence with you.

Social Media Data

Facebook Plugin

Our website uses social plugins (“plugins”) provided by the social network facebook.com, operated by Facebook Inc., 1601 S. California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA (“Facebook”). The plugins are identifiable by a Facebook logo (white letter f on blue background or a thumb up icon) or the notice “Facebook Social Plugin”. For a full list of all social Plugins, please see http://developers.facebook.com/plugins.

When you visit a page on our website that contains a social plugin, your browser establishes a direct connection to Facebook servers. Facebook directly transfers the plugin content to your browser which embeds the latter into the website, enabling Facebook to receive information about your having accessed the respective page of our website. Thus we have no influence on the data gathered by the plugin and inform you according to our state of knowledge: The embedded plugins provide Facebook with the information that you have accessed the corresponding page of our website. If you are logged into Facebook, your visit can be assigned to your Facebook account. If you interact with the plugins, for example by clicking “Like”, or entering a comment, the corresponding information is transmitted from your browser directly to Facebook and stored by it. Even if you are not logged into Facebook, there is the possibility that the plugins transmit your IP-address to Facebook.

For the information on the purpose and scope of data collection and procession by Facebook, as well as your rights in this respect and settings options for protecting your privacy, please visit Facebook’s privacy policy: http://www.facebook.com/policy.php. If you are a Facebook member and do not want Facebook to connect the data concerning your visit to our website with your member data already stored by Facebook, please log off Facebook before entering our website.

Google Plus Plugin

Our website uses the “+1 Button (“G+ 1″)” from the social network Google Plus which is run by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States. The plugins are identifiable by the “+1” on a white or colored background. According to § 13 TMG ( “Tele Media Act), we point out that during the visit of our pages the plugin establishes a direct link between your browser and the Google server This connection is made regardless the “G+ 1” button is clicked or not. If you are not a member of Google Plus, there is still the possibility that Google will identify and store your IP address. If you are a member of Google+ and clicking the “G+ 1” button while you are logged into your Google Plus account, Google is able to identify your visit of our website and link it with your account at Google. If you wish to avoid that, please log out from your Google Plus account. We point out that we (as the provider of our websites) don’t have any knowledge of the content of the data and the nature and extent of use by Google. For more information on purpose, scope, and use of the data collected by the company Google, please refer to the privacy policy of Google.

Twitter Plugin

We have also integrated the web messaging service twitter.com on our website. This is provided by Twitter, Inc., 1355 Market St, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA. If you use the “Tweet” function of Twitter on our websites, the respective website will be linked to your account on Twitter where it may be made public. This data is also transmitted to Twitter.

We are not aware of the content of the transmitted data and their use by Twitter. For more information, please consult the privacy policy of Twitter: twitter.com/privacy

Twitter gives you the option to set your own privacy settings here: http://twitter.com/account/settings

External Links

In order to provide you with the best possible information, you will find links to third-party webpages on our website. If not clearly recognizable as such, we draw your attention to the fact that the link is an external link. The EVS has no influence on the content and design of these pages of other providers. Therefore, the guarantees given in the present privacy statement do not, of course, apply there.

Please note that the integration of external content, for example, videos from the video platform YouTube, may lead to the use of trackers by other providers. For further information about this, see Google’s privacy policy.