Data protection

This privacy policy informs users about the nature, scope and purpose of the collection and use of personal data by our company. The legal grounds to data protection can be found in the Austrian Telecommunications Act (TKG), the Austrian Data Protection Act (DSG) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Personal data is information that can be used to identify an individual, i.e. information that can be traced back to a person. This includes information such as first name, last name, address, postal address, IP address, telephone number or email address, as well as data relating to nationality, preferences, hobbies, memberships or the web pages that a person has viewed. Personal data will only be collected, used and transmitted by Blaguss where this is permitted by law or where the user has consented to the data collection.

Our company organises and arranges transportation services and provides related billing, settlement and other services. Data is collected, processed and used for these purposes (“legitimate interest”).

In general, our website can be used without entering personal data.

If your personal data is collected and processed in connection with the booking of a service, we use this data only for the purposes specified in the relevant contract.

Please note that when booking transportation services, the personal data of fellow travellers may also be collected. You should therefore ensure that all information provided by you which relates to third parties is provided with the consent of the third party concerned.

The website vib-wien.at collects, stores and processes your data for purposes of processing ticket orders, providing transportation, and for our other services. To provide these services, we require your first and last names and your email address. For online booking, your payment information is also required in order to process your payment.

We share personal data to the extent permitted by law only as necessary to process your booking or to implement the associated payment process.

The personal data needed for executing the contract and providing the bus transportation are shared with the relevant bus companies and other third parties (e.g. IT, transportation, payment processing and customer service providers) only to the extent required for registration and processing of your ticket purchase. In justified cases (e.g. damage to buses), we reserve the right to share customer data with the relevant bus transportation partners. Data shared in this way may be used by our service providers only to carry out their assigned tasks, and for no other purpose.

In connection with the use of online services, we pass on your data to our online system service providers (hosting system operators, internet booking engines, mid-office systems, web analytics service providers, global distribution systems and marketing service providers). Our system service providers help us to continuously improve our offers and services.

Personal data will only be collected and shared with government institutions and authorities when required by statutory provisions.

Any collection, processing and use of your personal data for advertising or market research purposes is carried out exclusively in accordance with the relevant statutory provisions. You may object to the use of your data in this context at any time. In the event that your data is used for the purposes of advertising, market research or opinion research, we will notify you of your right to withdraw your consent at any time, or provide a simple unsubscribe option (e.g. via web link).

In all other cases, data will only be transmitted in an anonymised form which cannot be associated with you as an individual. Personal data, including email addresses, will never be sold to third parties.

You are entitled to obtain information about the data stored about you, upon request and free of charge. Based on the principle of data minimisation in relation to the processing of personal data, only the minimum amount of data required to fulfill the corresponding legal basis will be stored (for example booking a trip).

In addition, you have the right to rectify inaccurate data and to block and erase your personal data, provided there is no legal obligation to maintain records, particularly with regard to data for billing and accounting purposes.

Furthermore, you have the right to the legally prescribed restriction of processing of your personal data as well as to so-called data portability.

When a user makes digital contact with our company by email, their details are stored for the purposes of processing the request as well as in the case of follow-up questions.

Our website gives you the option to initiate an online booking process. As part of that process, your data may be shared with one of the following payment service providers. The specific provider(s) for your ticket payment will be indicated during the booking process. Payments may only be made through the online payment process provided in the shop.

Our web shop is protected with SSL technology (see Data Security below). For credit card payments, your credit card number is not saved, and is forwarded directly to the payment services provider. When paying for a booked trip via direct debit, Blaguss records your full name, mailing address, date of birth, email address and bank account information. For payments via instant bank transfer and Paypal, no payment information is saved.

We use technical and organisational measures to protect the privacy of the users of our website and connected systems. We use the TLS 1.2 encryption protocol to ensure the secure transmission of personal data. This method is used successfully throughout the world wide web. All personal data (name, address, payment data, etc.) will be encrypted and thus transmitted securely via the internet. You will know that the page you are accessing is secure if the closed padlock icon is displayed in the bar at the bottom of your browser window.

Our websites may incorporate third-party content, such as videos from YouTube, maps from Google Maps, RSS feeds or graphics from other websites. This always presupposes that the providers of this content (hereinafter referred to as “third-party providers”) can identify the IP address of the user. Blaguss makes every effort to only use content from providers who use the IP address exclusively for the purposes of delivering content. However, we have no influence over whether third parties store the IP address, e.g. for statistical purposes. We will clarify this with you to the extent that we are aware of such storage.

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analysis service from Google Inc. (“Google”).

Google Analytics uses so-called “cookies”, which are text files stored on your computer that enable us to analyse the use of our web pages. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website concerned (including your IP address) is transferred to a Google server in the USA and stored there. Google uses this information to evaluate your use of the website, to compile reports on website activity for the website operator and to render services connected with the use of the website and the internet. If necessary, Google will also transmit this information to third parties if this is prescribed by law or if third parties process this data on behalf of Google.
Under no circumstances will Google make any connection between your IP address and other Google data.

You can prevent the cookies from being installed by means of an appropriate setting in your browser software. However, please note that in this case you may not be able to make full use of all the functions of this website.

By using this website you consent to the processing by Google of data collected on you, in the manner described above and for the aforementioned purpose.

If you do not want your IP address, language settings, end device, etc. to be subject to analysis, we recommend that you use the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. The Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on gives you more control over the data that Google Analytics collects about sites which you have accessed. The add-on informs the JavaScript (ga.js) of Google Analytics that no information about the website visit should be transmitted to Google Analytics.
If you wish to use this feature, download the add-on and install it on your current web browser. The Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on is available for Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari and Opera.

Our websites use social plug-ins (“plug-ins”) of the social network facebook.com, which is operated by Facebook Ireland Ltd. (“Facebook”).

Plug-ins can be recognised by the Facebook logo: white “f” on a blue tile, the term “Like” or a “thumbs up” sign. A list of all Facebook social plug-ins can be found here: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/.

When a user visits a website that contains such a plug-in, their browser establishes a direct connection to the Facebook servers. Clicking on the plug-in will redirect the user directly to Facebook. Blaguss therefore has no influence over the scope of the data that Facebook collects using this plug-in.

If the user is logged into Facebook, Facebook can assign the visit to their Facebook account. If users interact with the plug-ins, for example by pressing the “Like” button or posting a comment, the corresponding information is transmitted from the user’s browser directly to Facebook and stored there. If a user is not a member of Facebook, there is still a possibility that Facebook will learn and store their IP address.

The purpose and scope of data collection and the further processing and use of the data by Facebook as well as the related rights and settings options for protecting user privacy can be found in Facebook’s privacy policy:  https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/.

If a user is a Facebook member and does not want Facebook to collect data about them through this offer and to link it with the membership data stored by Facebook, they must log out of Facebook before visiting the website. Other settings and the withdrawal of consent with regard to the use of data for advertising purposes can be made within the Facebook profile settings: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads.

Remarketing refers to the placement of interest-based advertising using remarketing tags.  A remarketing tag is a JavaScript element that is placed in the source code of the website. When a user visits a page on this website that contains a retargeting tag, an online advertising provider (e.g. Google) places a cookie on that user’s computer and associates it with the corresponding target group lists for retargeting. This cookie is then used to place retargeting campaigns (“interest-based advertising”) on other websites.

Retargeting tags are used on this website.

Third parties, including Google, use these cookies to place ads based on a user’s previous visits to our site. These advertising partners do not collect personal information such as names, email addresses, postal addresses or telephone numbers. Users of our site may disable the use of cookies by Google by visiting the “Google Ads Settings” page. In addition, users may disable the use of third-party cookies (such as AdRoll) by visiting the “Network Advertising Initiative Consumer Opt Out” page and applying the appropriate settings.

• Google Ad Settings
• “Network Advertising Initiative” Settings and Opt Out

We explicitly emphasise that we have no influence at all on the content and the design of websites that we link.

Each time you access content on our website, general information is automatically stored (for example, length of time spent on individual pages). This data is not personal and is therefore processed in an anonymised form. Information of this kind is used for statistical purposes only and will be used by us to optimise our online offering.

We use cookies on this website. However, you are entitled to withdraw your consent to the use of these cookies at any time. If you remove cookies from our website or reject their use, you may not be able to use all the functions of this website. Please note, however, that disabling a cookie or a cookie category will not result in an existing cookie being deleted by a browser. This must be done separately within your own browser. You can find more information on the management and control of certain cookie types, as well as information on how they are deleted, at https://www.aboutcookies.org/.

What is a cookie?

A “cookie” is a small file consisting of a plain-text information string that a website transmits to the web browser of your computer hard drive, temporarily storing it for the duration of your visit to the website, or sometimes for longer, depending on the type of cookie. Cookies have different functions (for example, to differentiate between you and other users of the same website) and are used by most websites to ensure a higher-quality user experience.

Each cookie is unique to your web browser and contains anonymous information. Typically, a cookie contains the name of the domain from which it originated, the “lifetime” of the cookie, and a value (usually in the form of a unique, randomly generated number).

Types of cookies

Below are the main types of cookies that can be used by websites.

• Session cookies
  These are temporary cookies that remain in the cookie file of your web browser for the duration of your visit only, and are deleted when you close the browser.
   
• Permanent cookies
  These remain in the cookie file of your web browser even after the browser has been closed, sometimes for a year or more (depending on the exact lifetime of the cookie in question). Persistent cookies are used when the website operator may need to know your identity for longer than just a browsing session (for example, to store your username or site preferences).
   
• First-party cookies
  These are cookies that are stored on your browser and/or hard drive by the website you are visiting. They require you to be assigned a unique identifier in order to track your movements on the site. Website operators often use first-party cookies for session management and recognition purposes.
   
• Third-party cookies
  These are cookies that are used by third parties (for example social networks) to track your visits to various websites on which these third parties advertise. The website operator has no control over these third-party cookies.

The rapid development of the internet and of legal requirements make ongoing adjustments to our privacy policy necessary. We will make every effort to keep you up to date and to inform you of any changes on this page. 
If any parts or individual wording of this text fail to conform to the currently valid legal situation, or are no longer or not fully compliant therewith, this shall not affect the content or validity of the remaining parts of the document.