{"id":923,"date":"2025-09-03T09:04:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-03T09:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/linkd-stars.com\/?page_id=923"},"modified":"2025-10-15T08:21:39","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T08:21:39","slug":"privacy-policy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/linkd-stars.com\/de\/privacy-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Datenschutzerkl\u00e4rung"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Privacy Policy<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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USE OF YOUR DATA<\/b>
<\/span>Linkdstars enables athletes (individual athletes, teams, clubs, associations, entertainers, online creators, companies, events) to create a profile that can be viewed by sponsors. The aim is to facilitate additional sponsorship opportunities. During profile creation, athletes may voluntarily provide data (e.g., descriptions, names, photos) that will be made available to potential sponsors. This data is also accessible to the Linkdstars team through a secure, access-protected backend system.<\/span><\/p>

Our principle in processing data is to share as little as necessary, but as much as helpful. Therefore, sponsors are provided with data that is useful for evaluating the attractiveness of a sponsorship. However, contact details will only be shared with the express consent of the user in individual cases. To enable communication without sharing external contact details, logged-in athletes and sponsors can message each other using a dedicated internal messaging system. Both Linkdstars and the partner are entitled to use the content independently for advertising purposes. The influencer grants Linkdstars and the partner a non-exclusive, geographically unlimited copyright usage right for this purpose and consents to the use of their image, name, and spoken word. This usage permission is valid for the duration of the campaign and for an additional two years after the campaign has ended.<\/span><\/p>

Sponsors and companies may also create profiles. During profile creation, marketing goals can be voluntarily provided to the Linkdstars team in order to optimize sponsorship matching and advice.<\/span><\/p>

The purpose of Linkdstars is to facilitate sponsorships and partnerships. For this reason, the Linkdstars team may contact you using the contact details stored in your profile or account. Your contact details will not be shared with third parties without your express consent or unless necessary for processing your data.<\/span><\/p>

AUTOMATED DATA PROCESSING<\/b>
<\/span>Data provided by athletes and sponsors may be used for automated matching. The goal is to automatically suggest relevant sponsorship opportunities to sponsors (or, conversely, suitable sponsors to athletes). For this purpose, the data may be enriched with additional datasets. For example, sports and locations stored in the Linkdstars system are associated with certain image and target group values. These values are linked to athlete profiles based on their stated sport and location. This allows the system to show sponsors athlete profiles that match their target audience.<\/span><\/p>

Profile data is also enriched with data from third-party providers. If the user voluntarily provides links to their Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or Twitter profiles, a connection to these platforms retrieves public data, such as the number of followers. These publicly available reach metrics are displayed on the Linkdstars profile. Users may also grant Linkdstars access to additional social media data, such as information about followers (e.g., age structure, origin, gender). This information is used to improve the accuracy of sponsor matches. If the user deletes their social media data, all related data will also be deleted.<\/span><\/p>

PROFILE VISIBILITY RESTRICTIONS<\/b>
<\/span>Athletes may adjust the visibility of their profile content at any time via their profile settings or by notifying the Linkdstars team. For example, they can restrict the visibility of sponsorship offers or hide their entire profile from unregistered users. If a visitor who is not logged in attempts to access the profile URL, they will see an error page, as if the URL were invalid.<\/span><\/p>

Linkdstars can also restrict the appearance of profile content in Google search results. This is done by instructing the Google crawler not to index the page. To enable this, the athlete must simply notify the Linkdstars team of their wish to disable indexing. Contact options for the Linkdstars team can be found under the “Contact” section of the website.<\/span><\/p>

DATA DELETION<\/b>
<\/span>All Linkdstars users can delete the data they have provided at any time. In the profile and account settings section, users will find a “Delete” button. Once this button is clicked, the profile data is immediately taken offline but will remain in the database for two weeks as a “soft delete.” During this time, users can still restore their profile. After two weeks, the data is permanently deleted.<\/span><\/p>

Uploaded images may remain in the website cache for a short time before they are permanently deleted. Data stored by third-party providers will be manually deleted by the Linkdstars team as quickly as possible.<\/span><\/p>

Linkdstars users can delete data on two levels: each user account can create multiple sponsorship profiles, and each profile can be assigned to multiple user accounts. Each dataset can be deleted individually. If a profile is linked to only one user account, we assume that deleting the user account also means deleting the associated profile. In such cases, both the user account and profile will be deleted.<\/span><\/p>

If multiple user accounts are linked to one profile, deleting a single user account will not delete the profile. In this case, we assume the other users will continue managing the profile (e.g., when a club profile is managed by several people, but one person leaves the club and deletes their user account).<\/span><\/p>

Please note that it may take some time for Google to remove a deleted profile from search results. We update our sitemap and inform Google that the profile page has been deleted, but Google may take several days to update its cache. Unfortunately, we have no control over this process.<\/span><\/p>

Certain data cannot be deleted due to legal obligations. Under \u00a7 147 of the German Fiscal Code (AO), we are required to retain business-relevant data for six to ten years. This includes documents such as invoices and business correspondence. In such cases, we comply with applicable laws and delete all data not covered by \u00a7 147 AO (e.g., Linkdstars profile data), while retaining the data specified in \u00a7 147 (1) AO internally and inaccessible to the public for the legally required retention period.<\/span><\/p>

If authorities (e.g., tax offices or law enforcement agencies) lawfully request access to or disclosure of data, we will comply with such requests.<\/span><\/p>

CONTACTING US<\/b>
<\/span>If you contact us (e.g., via contact form, email, phone, or social media), your information will be processed in accordance with Art. 6 (1)(b) GDPR to handle and respond to your inquiry. Inquiries submitted via the contact form are posted into our chat application “Slack,” in a channel accessible only to the Linkdstars team. This allows the team to coordinate internally on who should respond to your inquiry.<\/span><\/p>

Processed inquiries are regularly deleted.<\/span><\/p>

SOCIAL MEDIA<\/b>
<\/span>Linkdstars is present on various social media platforms. Our goal is to increase the visibility of the platform and to attract more sponsors and athletes. This helps our registered users receive more and better sponsorship offers. We also provide an opportunity via these platforms for users to learn more about Linkdstars and to contact us.<\/span><\/p>

When visiting the respective platforms, their terms of service and data processing policies apply. For communication with users who contact us through these platforms, we process their data accordingly.<\/span><\/p>

EMAILS \/ NEWSLETTERS<\/b>
<\/span>We only send newsletters with the recipients\u2019 consent or based on legal permission. Subscription to our newsletter follows a “double opt-in” process. After signing up, you will receive an email requesting confirmation of your email address. This confirmation is necessary to verify that you (and not a third party) initiated the subscription. For legal reasons, we log the newsletter subscription and confirmation process.<\/span><\/p>

The newsletter is sent and its performance measured based on recipients’ consent (Art. 6 (1)(a), Art. 7 GDPR in conjunction with \u00a77 (2)(3) German Unfair Competition Act [UWG]) or on legal permission under \u00a77 (3) UWG.<\/span><\/p>

In the footer of every newsletter, you\u2019ll find an option to unsubscribe. This option is also available in your account\u2019s notification settings or on the newsletter section of our website.<\/span><\/p>

When you receive a new sponsorship request, we will notify you by email. You can disable this notification in your Linkdstars account settings. Please note, however, that you may miss new sponsorship offers unless you log in regularly.<\/span><\/p>

Sponsorship recipients can be contacted via a contact request button on their profile. These requests are initially reviewed by the Linkdstars team before being forwarded to the recipient, allowing us to protect them from potential abuse.<\/span><\/p>

THIRD-PARTY PROVIDERS<\/b>
<\/span>To provide our services and in accordance with our legitimate interests (Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR), and in the interest of our users (to offer a comprehensive service and to facilitate more relevant sponsorships), we collaborate with the following third-party providers, with whom data is exchanged. Some of this data is transferred to non-European countries, especially the USA, in accordance with Art. 13 (1)(f) GDPR:<\/span><\/p>

Google:<\/b> To enhance user experience and generate additional sponsorship offers, we use Google Analytics based on our legitimate interest in analyzing and optimizing our online presence per Art. 6 (1) GDPR. Google Analytics is a data processing service by Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Google is certified under the Privacy Shield Framework and thus ensures compliance with European data protection laws.<\/span><\/p>

Google uses this data on our behalf to analyze website usage. Anonymized user profiles may be generated from this data. Personal data is deleted or anonymized after 14 months.<\/span><\/p>

To protect user privacy, we use Google Analytics with IP anonymization enabled, meaning user IP addresses are generally shortened. Google uses cookies to store the data. You can prevent data collection and processing by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on.<\/span><\/p>

Google Analytics is connected to our Google AdWords account. We also use \u201cremarketing tags\u201d on our website that store a cookie on a visitor\u2019s device, recording pages visited and potentially interesting content. Google also stores browser and system information and other usage data to create user profiles and serve relevant ads outside Linkdstars (\u201cremarketing\u201d).<\/span><\/p>

We also use Google\u2019s ad network to measure \u201cconversions\u201d (i.e., the effectiveness of ads). Another cookie is stored on the user\u2019s system for this purpose.<\/span><\/p>

Our goal with Google AdWords is to attract more sponsors to Linkdstars, who in turn purchase sponsorship opportunities listed on our platform. This directly supports the interests of registered athletes and Linkdstars’ business model (sponsorship mediation). The described measures allow us to use our marketing budget more effectively and thereby generate more sponsorships in the interest of our users.<\/span><\/p>

When our users post YouTube links, the corresponding videos are embedded on our platform. We also integrate Google Fonts (“PT Sans”), and the Google “ReCaptcha” service to prevent spam. You can opt out of all three services here.<\/span><\/p>

To send emails to our users, we use the paid version of Google\u2019s \u201cGSuite.\u201d All stored data, such as emails, are encrypted according to modern security standards. If you do not want<\/span><\/p>

If you don\u2019t want your emails to be stored in GSuite, feel free to call us so we can delete all email communication with you.<\/span><\/p>

To register on Linkdstars, we offer the option to sign up using your Gmail account. With your consent, Google shares personal data with us, such as your email address and name. You can delete this data along with your Linkdstars account at any time.<\/span><\/p>

With the <\/span>Google +1 button<\/b>, you can publish information globally. When using this button, you and other users receive personalized content from Google and its partners. Google stores both the information that you gave a +1 and the page you were viewing when you clicked +1. Your +1s may appear as endorsements alongside your profile name and photo across Google services, such as search results or your Google profile, as well as on other websites and ads. Google logs information about your +1 activities to improve its services for you and others.<\/span><\/p>

To use the +1 button, you need a globally visible public Google profile that contains at least the name you selected for the profile. This name is used across all Google services. In some cases, it may replace another name you\u2019ve used when sharing content via your Google account. Your Google profile identity may be visible to users who know your email address or have other identifying information about you. Google may also publish aggregated statistics about +1 activities or share them with users and partners, such as publishers, advertisers, or connected websites.<\/span><\/p>

More information about Google\u2019s privacy settings is available in Google\u2019s Privacy Policy. You can adjust your AdWords settings <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

Facebook:<\/b>
<\/span>Our website includes plugins from the social network Facebook (Facebook Inc., 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, California, 94025, USA). Facebook is certified under the Privacy Shield framework and thereby guarantees compliance with European data protection laws. You can recognize Facebook plugins by the Facebook logo or the “Like” button on our site. An overview of Facebook plugins is available here: <\/span>https:\/\/developers.facebook.com\/docs\/plugins\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>

When you visit our pages, a direct connection between your browser and the Facebook server is established via the plugin. This tells Facebook that you visited our site with your IP address. If you click the Facebook “Like” button while logged into your Facebook account, you can link content from our pages to your Facebook profile \u2014 for instance, to promote a sponsorship profile. However, this also allows Facebook to associate your visit to our site with your user account. Please note that we, as the website provider, have no knowledge of the content of the transmitted data or its use by Facebook. For more details, please refer to <\/span>Facebook\u2019s privacy policy<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

If you do not want Facebook to link your visit to our site to your Facebook account, please log out of your Facebook account.<\/span><\/p>

You can also register or log in to Linkdstars via your Facebook account. In doing so, a connection is established with your Facebook account, and necessary data for login and registration is exchanged. You may also link your Facebook page (or that of your club\/association\/event) to your Linkdstars profile. Our interface then automatically supplements your profile with additional reach information, such as follower count, which is displayed to profile visitors.<\/span><\/p>

We’re also working on enabling permission-based access to more audience data from your Facebook page so we can suggest relevant sponsors to you (and your profile to them). If you do not want these profile details to be read, you can unlink your Facebook page from your Linkdstars profile at any time.<\/span><\/p>

Instagram:<\/b>
<\/span>Our website includes features from Instagram (Instagram Inc., 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA, 94025, USA).<\/span><\/p>

You may link your Instagram page (or that of your club\/association\/event) to your Linkdstars profile. Our Instagram interface will automatically pull in additional reach information (e.g., follower count) and display it to visitors of your Linkdstars profile. You may also grant us permission to access audience data from your Instagram page to better match you with suitable sponsors. If you prefer not to share this data, you can disconnect Instagram from your Linkdstars profile or remove the link at any time in your profile settings.<\/span><\/p>

We’re also working on showing your Instagram posts directly on your Linkdstars profile or in the newsfeed of your sponsors. If you do not want your posts to appear, you can disable this feature in your profile settings at any time.<\/span><\/p>

If your Instagram account is set to “private,” your posts will not be displayed.<\/span><\/p>

You can adjust your Instagram privacy settings <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

Twitter:<\/b>
<\/span>Our site integrates features from Twitter (Twitter Inc., 1355 Market St, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA). Twitter is certified under the Privacy Shield agreement and thereby ensures compliance with European data protection rules.<\/span><\/p>

You can link your Twitter page (or that of your club\/association\/event) to your Linkdstars profile. Our interface will automatically retrieve reach information such as your follower count and display it to visitors of your profile. You may also grant us permission to access audience data from your Twitter page so we can recommend matching sponsors for you. If you don\u2019t want this information to be accessed, you can remove the Twitter link from your profile or disconnect it in your profile settings.<\/span><\/p>

We’re also working on displaying tweets from your Twitter account automatically on your Linkdstars profile or in your sponsors\u2019 newsfeeds. If you don\u2019t want your tweets to be displayed, you can disable this feature in your settings at any time.<\/span><\/p>

By using Twitter and the “retweet” function, the websites you visit are linked to your Twitter account and made visible to others. This also involves the transfer of data to Twitter.<\/span><\/p>

You can find more information in Twitter\u2019s privacy policy. Opt-out: <\/span>https:\/\/twitter.com\/personalization<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

LinkedIn<\/b>: Within Linkdstars, functions and content of the LinkedIn service\u2014offered by LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland\u2014may be integrated. LinkedIn is certified under the Privacy Shield framework and thereby commits to complying with European data protection regulations. On Linkdstars’ websites, for example, content such as images, videos, texts, or buttons may be embedded, allowing users to interact with this content or register with Linkdstars. If users are members of the LinkedIn platform, LinkedIn may associate the access of the above-mentioned content and functions with their LinkedIn profiles.\u00a0<\/span>You may also register and log in to Linkdstars using your LinkedIn account. To do so, necessary data such as your email or name will be transmitted from LinkedIn to us. You can find LinkedIn\u2019s privacy policy and an opt-out option <\/span>here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

Xing<\/b>: Functions and content from the Xing service\u2014offered by XING AG, Dammtorstra\u00dfe 29-32, 20354 Hamburg, Germany\u2014may be integrated into Linkdstars. This may include content such as images, videos, texts, and buttons allowing users to interact with the content or register with Linkdstars. If users are members of the Xing platform, Xing may associate the access of the above-mentioned content and functions with their Xing profiles.<\/span>You may also register and log in to Linkdstars using your Xing account. To do so, necessary data such as your email or name will be transmitted from Xing to us. You can find Xing\u2019s privacy policy here.<\/span><\/p>

Jetpack (WordPress Statistics)<\/b>: We use the Jetpack plugin, provided by Automattic Inc., 60 29th Street 343, San Francisco, CA 94110, USA, to analyze and optimize our blog. This tool analyzes visitor traffic to help us identify which blog content is most interesting to our users, enabling us to provide even more valuable information on the topic of sponsorship in the future.\u00a0<\/span>Jetpack uses cookies stored on your computer to analyze your usage of our blog. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the blog is stored on a server in the USA. From the processed data, user profiles may be created for analytical purposes only\u2014not for advertising purposes. You can find more information in Automattic\u2019s privacy policies and the notes regarding Jetpack cookies. You can disable cookies in your browser settings.<\/span><\/p>

MailChimp<\/b>: Our newsletters are sent via the email marketing platform MailChimp, operated by the U.S. provider Rocket Science Group, LLC, 675 Ponce De Leon Ave NE 5000, Atlanta, GA 30308, USA. MailChimp is certified under the Privacy Shield framework and thus commits to complying with European data protection laws. Further details can be found in MailChimp\u2019s privacy policy.\u00a0<\/span>MailChimp may use recipient data in pseudonymized form (i.e., without assigning it to a specific user) to optimize or improve its services, such as optimizing newsletter layouts or analyzing statistics. However, MailChimp will not pass on our newsletter recipients\u2019 data to third parties or use it to contact them directly. Each newsletter includes an option to unsubscribe, found in the footer. You can also manage your newsletter preferences in your account’s “Notification Settings” or in the newsletter section of our website.<\/span><\/p>

Pipedrive<\/b>: We use the CRM tool “Pipedrive” to manage our sales contacts. This service is provided by Pipedrive O\u00dc, Paldiski mnt 80, Tallinn, 10617, Estonia\u2014a subsidiary of Pipedrive US. We use Pipedrive to increase efficiency in sales and improve customer service. For instance, we can track which customers we\u2019ve already contacted and what was discussed. This helps us avoid redundant communication and better meet our customers\u2019 needs.\u00a0<\/span>You can learn more in Pipedrive\u2019s terms of service and privacy policy. If you do not want your data to be stored in Pipedrive, please contact us and we will delete your data as quickly as possible.<\/span><\/p>

Eversign<\/b>: To significantly simplify the conclusion of sponsorship contracts, we use the paid online software Eversign, which we offer to our users free of charge. With Eversign, users can digitally sign contracts in a legally secure manner. For this purpose, we must transmit the signer’s email address to Eversign, so they can receive a personalized signing link and the final signed document.\u00a0<\/span>Naturally, these contracts contain contractual information. Eversign does not actively analyze the contents we transmit. Eversign is operated by apilayer GmbH, H\u00f6rlgasse 12, 1090 Vienna, Austria. More information can be found in the terms of use and privacy policy. If you do not want your data to be shared with Eversign, simply let us know before your contract is created. As part of our new contract processing system\u2014into which we plan to integrate Eversign on our website around June 2018\u2014we also offer the option of completing contracts without Eversign, using traditional means with the sponsor or sponsored party.<\/span><\/p>

IBM<\/b>: Our web servers are hosted by IBM Cloud and located in Germany. The service provider is the IBM subsidiary SoftLayer Dutch Holdings B.V., Paul van Vlissingenstraat 16, 1096 BK Amsterdam, Netherlands. Using IBM Cloud enables us to offer our users the highest standards of data security.\u00a0<\/span>Additionally, we use IBM\u2019s “Watson Cognitive Services” software to analyze uploaded images in sponsorship profiles on behalf of our users. We transfer the images via an interface to the Cognitive Services, which return information about the image content. This information is used to “tag” the images so that sponsors (with prior consent from the athletes) can search for specific image content. Users may delete their images at any time, in which case the associated information is also deleted. IBM does not store the images; it only processes them for analysis purposes. More information can be found in IBM\u2019s privacy policy.<\/span><\/p>

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COOKIES<\/b><\/p>

We use so-called session cookies to optimize our online services. A session cookie is a small text file that is sent by the respective server when a website is visited and temporarily stored on your hard drive. This file contains a session ID, which allows various requests from your browser to be assigned to the same session. This enables your computer to be recognized when you return to our website. These cookies are used, for example, to retain the information you enter across multiple pages (e.g., during our multi-step registration process).<\/span><\/p>

We also use a small number of persistent cookies (also small text files stored on your device), which remain on your device and allow us to recognize your browser on your next visit. These cookies are stored on your hard drive and delete themselves after a specified time. Their lifespan ranges from 1 month to 10 years. This enables us to make our services more user-friendly, effective, and secure\u2014for example, by verifying that only you can edit the contents of your sponsorship profile.<\/span><\/p>

Our legitimate interest in using cookies under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR lies in making our website more user-friendly, effective, and secure. The cookies may store the following data and information:<\/span><\/p>