How We Keep Your Info Safe

When you chat with our AI support assistant, we want to make sure you know exactly how we use your information to help with your magical tonies® journey.

Who We Are

Name and contact details of the controller

tonies GmbH, Oststraße 119, 40210 Düsseldorf, Deutschland

Contact form: contact form

For enquiries in the United States, please refer to the following address: tonies US, Inc. Attn: Privacy 3000 El Camino Real, Building 4, Suite 200 Palo Alto, CA 94306 Contact: privacy.us@tonies.com

Depending on your location and the nature of your interaction with us, tonies GmbH and/or tonies US, Inc. may act as the controller (or equivalent legal role under applicable law) responsible for the processing of your personal information.

Contact details of the data protection officer

Herold Unternehmensberatung GmbH, Hafenstrasse 1 A, 23568 Lübeck, Deutschland

If you have questions regarding the processing of your personal information, you may contact our Data Protection Officer using the contact details above. 

What We Collect

When you interact with our AI support assistant, we process the following data:

• Information You Provide Voluntarily: Your messages during our chat, information you choose to share with us, and basic details (such as your name and email address). If you do not provide certain information, such as your name or email address (where requested), we may be unable to follow up on your inquiry or assist with account or order-specific questions.
• Chat Content and Support Records: We collect and store chat transcripts, support requests, and related communications generated through your interaction with the AI support assistant. These records may be reviewed by authorized members of our customer support team for quality assurance, training, troubleshooting, compliance, and customer support purposes.
• Technical Information: To ensure the functionality, performance, and security of the chat widget, we process technical information such as your IP address, approximate geographic location derived from your IP address, browser type and version, operating system, device type, timestamps associated with chat activity, and usage information relating to your interaction with the chat service. Additionally, the system records the referring URL (the page you were visiting when the chat started) and utilizes essential cookies, local storage, or similar technologies to maintain session continuity and functionality.
• Customer Account Information: If you are logged into your account or provide an order number or other identifying information, we may associate your chat with your customer account to assist you with account or order-related inquiries.

Please do not provide sensitive personal information (such as government-issued identification numbers, financial account information, payment card information, health information, or information relating to children) through the AI support assistant.  If any such information is necessary to resolve your inquiry, our Customer Happiness team will reach out to you directly.

How We Use It

To provide you with fast and efficient customer support, we use an AI-powered chatbot on our website. The AI support assistant is designed to assist you with common inquiries, such as answering FAQ, checking order status, and info regarding our return policies. Using the AI support assistant is entirely voluntary; you can always reach our human customer happiness team by submitting a request via our support center. Here are the use cases:

• Give you the best support for your Tonies and Toniebox
• Improve our AI chat by learning from common questions to provide better responses using anonymized data
• Create help tickets when you need our human team
• Spot common questions to improve our help center

Important note: We do not use your chat data for automated decision-making that has legal or similarly significant effects. Our AI is used solely to provide support suggestions. You always have the right to request a human agent to review your case.

Training transparency: Your chat is not used to train external AI systems. We may use anonymized data internally to improve how our chatbot works.

AI-generated responses may occasionally be inaccurate, incomplete, or outdated. You should not rely solely on information provided by the AI support assistant for decisions involving legal, financial, medical, safety-related, or other important matters.

Global Privacy Law Information

For EU Citizens: Legal Basis for using the chatbot

The processing of your data via the AI support assistant is based on our legitimate interest in providing efficient, modern customer service (Art. 6 para 1 lit. f GDPR). If your inquiry relates to an existing contract or order, the processing is based on the fulfillment of a contract (Art. 6 para 1 lit.b GDPR).

For individuals located outside the European Economic Area, including residents of the United States, we process personal information in accordance with applicable privacy and consumer protection laws. Depending on your jurisdiction, our processing may be based on our legitimate business interests, performance of a contract, compliance with legal obligations, your consent, or another lawful basis recognized under applicable law.

Where personal information is transferred internationally, we implement appropriate safeguards as required by applicable law, which may include contractual protections, data transfer agreements, and other recognized transfer mechanisms.

Who We Share With

• Our support team might review tickets to help you better
• We never sell your info – that's a promise
• Trusted partners like Zendesk help us run the chat safely

You can find more details regarding recipients in our General Data Protection Policy

We do not sell your personal information or use your personal information for targeted advertising or cross-context behavioral advertising through the AI support assistant.

Your messages may be processed by third-party service providers that assist us in operating the AI support assistant and customer support platform, subject to contractual confidentiality and data protection obligations.

We may disclose information to service providers, affiliates, professional advisers, auditors, regulators, law enforcement authorities, and other parties where necessary to operate our business, comply with legal obligations, protect our rights, or investigate fraud or security incidents.

Your Rights

• See your data – just ask and we'll show you
• Delete your chats – we can wipe the slate clean
• Fix mistakes – spotted something wrong? We'll correct it
• Stop anytime – you're in control. If you prefer contact with a human being that’s fine. Just click on “Contact us” and submit a request. 

You can find more details regarding your rights that you might have as a data subject under applicable data protection law in our General Data Protection Policy

Additional Rights for Certain U.S. Residents

Depending on your state or country of residence, you may have the right to request access to, correction of, deletion of, or portability of your personal information, as well as the right to object to or restrict certain processing activities. You may also have the right to appeal our decision regarding a privacy request where required by applicable law.

To exercise any privacy rights available to you, please contact us using the contact details provided above or through our General Data Protection Notice.

AI Transparency

This chat is powered by an automated AI system. This is not a human agent, but rather an AI assistant designed to help with your tonies®-related questions. Our human support team may review chat messages to improve the service or follow up on your requests when needed.

Data Retention

We retain chat transcripts and associated data only for as long as necessary to resolve your inquiry, provide customer support, improve our services, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, and protect our legal rights. Chat transcripts are automatically turned into a support ticket. Retention periods may vary depending on the nature of the inquiry, whether a support ticket is created, applicable legal requirements, and legitimate business needs. When personal information is no longer required, it will be deleted, anonymized, or securely de-identified in accordance with our retention policies.

Age Requirements

This chat is intended for use by parents, guardians, and adult customers. We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children through the AI support assistant. If we become aware that a child has provided personal information through the chat without appropriate parental involvement where required by law, we will take reasonable steps to delete such information.

If you are under the age of 16, or under the age required to provide consent under the laws of your jurisdiction, please have a parent or legal guardian assist you.

Keeping Things Secure

We use top-notch security to protect your information and work with trusted providers who meet our high standards.

Questions?

Got questions about this? Drop us a line at our contact form.

Updates

We might update this Privacy Notice from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or business operations. Any updates will be posted here, and the “Last Updated” date will be revised accordingly. Where required by applicable law, we will provide additional notice or obtain consent before implementing material changes. By continuing to use the AI support assistant after an updated version of this Privacy Notice has been posted, you acknowledge and accept the revised terms of this Privacy Notice to the extent permitted by applicable law. Where applicable law requires your consent for certain changes, we will obtain such consent before those changes take effect.
 

Last updated: 06/08/2026 - This applies to our AI chat only.