Your information is handled confidentially and securely by Thomann. Address and credit card information is transferred via a secure server and is encrypted; it thus cannot be seen by anyone but your contact person and the webmaster.  
 
Basically you are safe when shopping online if you consider the following:  
 
1. Secure server 
Please always check if the online shop you are buying from has a secure server before you enter sensitive information like credit card details etc.  
Thomann has had a secure server since 1998 which sends all information in an encrypted format over the internet. This means that all information from your desk is transferred in an encrypted format to the desk of your contact person and cannot be spied on. Credit card details are not saved on our system either and are deleted from email replies.  
 
2. Nosy people 
All information which is not sent via the secure server is sent unencrypted through the net and can be spied on theoretically by hackers. Generally there are only rare cases where information is taken and used (it can be compared to people standing at a motorway roadside and observing cars – such people do exist but the information they collect there is useless and it does not really matter to us that someone knows that a red car has driven by.)  
 
It is much more often the case that a nosy member of staff of a provider or at your work place secretly takes a look at your emails.  
 
3. Reliability  
There are hundreds of providers on the internet who, if at all, have a trade licence. They do not have a warehouse, dealer authorisation or official suppliers. 
 
Anyone can offer cheap prices, anyone can request payment in advance but not many can deliver brand new goods from official suppliers reliably and deliver high service standards as added value at a fair price.  
 
Reliable dealers offer general sale or return of at least 14 days – at Thomann it is even a 30 Days Money Back Guarantee. If a dealer does not offer sale or return you should be alarmed. (Either something is wrong with the dealer or with the goods.)  
 
4. References 
There are a lot of references where you can inform yourself about the reliability of an online provider. Forums like price grabber and Ciao sometimes do include unfair ratings or self-praise as well but provide a good overview on the particular branch. The Thomann Cyberstore has excellent references and therefore has been the number one for years for musicians all over Europe.