Privacy Statement for the Kärcher Home & Garden App (Version: January 2019)

The information below explains how your personal data is processed when you use the Kärcher Home & Garden app.

1. Kärcher Home & Garden App

Use of the Kärcher Smart Home Service provided by Alfred Kärcher SE & Co. KG, Alfred-Kärcher-Straße 28-40, 71364 Winnenden, tel.: +49 (0)7195/14-0, e-mail: info@karcher.com (hereinafter referred to as Kärcher) is only possible by means of the Kärcher Home & Garden app for smartphones with an iOS or Android operating system. You can contact the Kärcher Data Protection Officer at the address above or by e-mailing datenschutzbeauftragter@de.kaercher.com.

2. Downloading the App

You can download the Kärcher Home & Garden app free of charge from the Google Play store or the Apple App Store. To do so, you must open a customer account in either the Google Play store or the App Store, and enter your data there. However, this data is not collected by Kärcher, and Kärcher therefore has no influence over it and is not responsible for it.

You must also accept the Terms of Use of the app store in question in order to open a customer account. When you download the Smart Home app, you must also accept the associated Terms of Use with legally binding effect.

When downloading the app from an app store, the information needed for this is transferred to the app store, in particular your user name, e-mail address and customer number of your account, the date/time of downloading and the individual device ID. However, we have no influence over the collection of this data and are not responsible for it.

3. Setting up and Using the App

You must register in order to set up and use the app. To do so, you can either open a Kärcher user account or register via Google+ or Facebook.

When you create a user account with Kärcher, we will ask you for the following information:

  • E-mail address
  • Password

If you register via Google+ or Facebook, the following information is transmitted to Kärcher each time you login:

  • Facebook ID, first and surnames stored in Facebook, e-mail address (if you log in via Facebook)
  • Google ID, first and surnames stored in Google+, e-mail address, gender, URL of your profile picture, language, Google+ profile link, information on whether the account is a Google+ account (yes/no), domain information (if you log in via Google+)

This information is transmitted to Kärcher by the social media channels without Kärcher requesting it. Kärcher only stores your Facebook ID or Google ID and the e-mail address which you have stored there.

4. Using the App

When you use the Kärcher Smart Home app, we collect the following data transmitted by your mobile device to enable you to use the Kärcher Home & Garden app: The information is:

  • Your device identification (model name, device category, brand name)
  • Unique device ID (UUID (Universal Unique Identifier) for Android devices, IDFV (identifier for vendor) for iOS devices)
  • Date and time of device
  • Screen tracking (tracks movements in the app)
  • Access status/HTTP status code
  • Device IP address
  • Volume of data transmitted
  • App version
  • Browser
  • Operating system and version
  • Usage time (launch, use)
  • Country and language of the device
  • Crash reports
  • SSID of the home network and RSSID
  • Kärcher device list

When you use the Kärcher Home & Garden app to manage your Kärcher smart home devices, the following data is collected, depending on the type and scope of application of the device concerned:

  • General data for device management (e.g. device ID, device name, floor plans of the property concerned, voluntary information about your living environment)
  • Control information as entered by you (e.g. schedules, device settings)
  • Voluntary location-related information as entered by you (street and house number, as well as exact GPS coordinates if you use the "use my location" function)
  • Use of device functions (e.g. time and frequency of individual actions, period of use)

5. Use of Cookies

Cookies are stored on your end device when you use the app. Cookies are small text files stored on your end device which provide Kärcher with certain information. Cookies cannot execute programs or transmit viruses to your computer. Their purpose is to make the app more user-friendly and effective. You can delete cookies from your end device by default after using the app.

6. Local Storage

Kärcher uses local storage technology for temporary local storage of information from your Smart Home device. Local storage uses the storage capacity of your web browser. In other words, data is stored in your web browser. This data is stored on your browser for an unlimited period of time and updated each time you connect to the Kärcher Cloud. You can use your browser settings to check which data is stored in your browser's local storage and clear the local storage.

7. Payment Function

Additional information, such as payment information and your full address consisting of your street name and house number, place of residence with postcode, is stored to process your orders in the Kärcher online shop. For further information, please refer to the Kärcher Online Shop Privacy Policy in your country.

8. Kärcher Cloud

The Kärcher Cloud stores the data on a storage location of Amazon Web Services, Inc., 410 Terry Avenue North, Seattle WA 98109. Data is stored and processed on servers of Amazon Web Services in the European Union.

9. Kärcher Skill for Amazon Alexa

The Kärcher Skill for Amazon Alexa is accessible via the online service "Alexa" ("Alexa") of Amazon Europe Core S.à r.l., 5 Rue Plaetis, L-2338 Luxembourg ("Amazon"). Kärcher has no influence on any further processing of your personal data by Amazon. Information on how your personal data is handled at Amazon can be found in Amazon's privacy statement: https://www.amazon.de/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=footer_privacy?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201909010

For the establishment and use of the Kärcher Skill for Amazon Alexa it is necessary for technical reasons to forward certain data to Amazon.

  • The login of your Kärcher account
  • Tokens are used for identification and authentication (Access, Refresh)
  • Information on using the Kärcher Skill for Amazon Alexa (log file, date, duration, command)
  • Device address of the valve and the gateway used

After you have activated the Kärcher Skill for Amazon Alexa in the Alexa App, you can give voice commands to Alexa. In the case of valve requirements, the requested functions are activated (e.g. start watering, pause watering, reserve watering). Within Alexa, an acoustic voice output will then be played back to you about the status (e.g. watering started, watering paused, watering reserved) via your Alexa-compatible device. Kärcher is responsible for the processing of your personal data with the receipt of your personal data after transmission from Amazon to Kärcher; Kärcher's responsibility ends as soon as Kärcher has sent an answer in text form to Amazon for transmission to you.

Amazon forwards the following data to Kärcher for the execution of commands:

  • The individual "UserID" assigned to you by Amazon upon activation of the Kärcher skill
  • Questions or commands you have issued to the Kärcher Skill for Amazon Alexa

Analysis of your use of the Kärcher Skill for Amazon Alexa: The general use of the Kärcher Skill for Amazon Alexa is aggregated by a dashboard provided by Amazon Alexa. There is no individual personal or user-related evaluation. The general evaluation (e.g. quantity of use, points in time of use, errors during sue) is carried out for the purpose of optimising the Kärcher skill for Amazon Alexa for a better user experience.

The transmission of your personal data within the scope of using the Kärcher Skill for Amazon Alexa is encrypted using the industry standard Secure-Socket-Layer ("SSL") technology. The encryption protocol TLS is used for the encryption between the Kärcher Skill for Amazon Alexa and the cloud solution used for the valve.

10. Purpose of the Processing and Legal Basis

All the data is collected, processed and stored by Kärcher solely to provide the Kärcher Smart Home Service in accordance with Article 6, pPara. 1, lit. b) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council (General Data Protection Regulation). Kärcher reserves the right to process data for direct marketing purposes, provided that the other requirements for marketing communication are met.

Kärcher also uses the data collected on the Smart Home devices for the purposes of quality assurance and to improve the quality of its Smart Home products in accordance with Article 6, Para. 1, f) of the General Data Protection Regulation. In addition, Kärcher evaluates your use pattern and your information as to where and how you use the corresponding products in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f) General Data Protection Regulation on the basis of Kärcher's legitimate interest in the context of market research, to identify trends and to determine product recommendations. The data concerned is pseudonymised for this purpose. By using this data in this way, Kärcher does not draw any conclusions of any kind regarding individual users and in particular does not profile users.

Your data is not shared with third parties. However, Kärcher reserves the right to have the data processed by service providers on behalf of Kärcher. As the data processing is necessary for the performance of the contract concluded between yourself and Kärcher, performance of the contract is not possible without the processing of the data.

The processing of the personal data required for the Kärcher Skill for Amazon Alexa is carried out in accordance with Article 6 para. 1 lit. b) General Data Protection Regulation, as this processing is absolutely necessary to fulfil your request. The analysis of your use of the Kärcher Skill for Amazon Alexa is carried out in accordance with Article 6 para. 1 lit. f of the General Data Protection Regulation for the purpose of quality assurance and improvement of product quality.

11. Storage Period

Deletion of your user data
Upon termination of the contractual relationship, the data held at Kärcher is deleted provided that this does not conflict with any statutory retention obligations. This will happen if you delete your account or the Smart Home product is removed from your account.

Deletion of the data generated by your device
The data generated by the device will be available to you for a maximum period of 90 days and will then be pseudonymised by Kärcher. If you delete your account, the pseudonym assigned to the usage data will be deleted at Kärcher. Location data is only stored as GPS coordinates. These coordinates are shortened to two decimal places (i.e. inaccuracy about 1.11km). This means that it is no longer possible to draw any conclusions about the user.

Kärcher Skill for Amazon Alexa
If the Kärcher Skill for Amazon Alexa is deactivated, all tokens (Access & Refresh Token) used for identification and authentication for the Kärcher Skill for Amazon Alexa are deleted.

12. Processing of Data by Third Parties

Kärcher accepts no responsibility for the proper processing of data by Google, Apple or any other app store provider. Please refer to the data privacy statements of these providers. There is no exchange of data with these companies.

13. Your Rights, Questions and Information

You have the right to information as to whether and what personal data concerning you we store, to rectification or erasure, or to restrict the processing of your data, to object to the processing, and the right to data portability. As your personal data is processed for the performance of a contract, you can no longer use the services provided under the contract once you have objected to the processing of your personal data.

Right to object (market research/ direct marketing purposes). You may object at any time to the processing of your personal data for market research or direct marketing purposes. To object please send an e-mail to datenschutzbeauftragter@de.kaercher.com. After your objection, the personal data will no longer be processed for these purposes.

If you have any further questions regarding the processing of your data or if you would like information regarding the data concerning you that is stored in the Kärcher Cloud, you can contact the Data Protection Officer of Alfred Kärcher SE & Co. KG at the address provided above or by e-mailing datenschutzbeauftragter@de.kaercher.com.

14. Competent Supervisory Authority

As the data subject, you have the right, without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy, to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of your habitual residence, place of work or place of the alleged infringement if you believe that the processing of personal data relating to you infringes these data protection regulations.

If you have a complaint relating to the use of your personal data, you can also contact the competent supervisory authority of Kärcher, the Baden-Württemberg Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, Königstraße 10a, 70173 Stuttgart, tel.: +49 (0)711/615541-0, fax: +49 (0)711/615541-15, https://www.baden-wuerttemberg.datenschutz.de/ e-mail: poststelle@lfdi.bwl.de.

The online complaint form can be found at: https://www.baden-wuerttemberg.datenschutz.de/online-beschwerde