Privacy Policy

As a non-profit organization, we are obliged to treat any personal information gathered, processed or used through this website in compliance with the provisions of the European General Data Protection Regulation, the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG), and the Telemedia Act (TMG).
We shall not disclose any personal information, except when such disclosure is required by law, or if you have given prior agreement to disclosure.


Art und Umfang der verarbeiteten Daten

Cookies  

You can find an overview of the cookies used in our Consent Management Tool. You can access it and make cookie settings under this link.

Web analytics

Our website uses the analytics tool "Matomo". The Matomo version used on our website ensures that Internet Protocol (IP) addresses are anonymized.

As a result, it is not possible to track user IPs. A shortened version of your IP-address is only used to obtain a general geolocation, whereby your country of origin and your Internet provider are identified and saved.

The analytics tool Matomo works by placing a cookie, which will stay saved on your device as a little text document, or so-called “Persistent Cookie”, provided you have not deactivated this function in your browser. The cookie has a duration of two weeks and can recognize devices, which have previously visited the website, as well as undertake non-personalised analysis of behaviour on the website for statistical purposes.

With each visit to the website, additional access data will be stored: name of the visited website; data, date and time of accessing the website, quantity of data transferred, report of successful retrieval, type of browser and version, operating system installed on the device, referrer-link and the requesting provider.

Opt-out

Our configuration of Matomo does respect "Do-Not-Track" settings of your browser:

 

 

Respect of “Do not track”

We fully respect “Do not track” (DNT). Depending on the browser, DNT is either a switch in the program settings or a module (add-on or plug-in) for later installation. By activating this option, your browser signals to our website, that tracking options may not be activated without your explicit agreement. Accordingly, our server will deactivate all tracking-functions.

This means, that our websites are delivered without any code to the analytics tool Matomo. This ensures full privacy without you having to take any further action with respect to our internet presence.

Depending on your internet browser, there are different procedures for activating the “Do not track”-option. Please follow the links below:

Right to Object (§ 15 Abs. 3 TMG)  

It is possible to prevent analysis of user behaviour by blocking the setting of cookies by our website in your browser. Please refer to the program help to find out how to set this up in your browser.

You are informed that blocking cookies could cause malfunctions while using our website. Furthermore you have the option to activate the “Do-not-track”-option (DNT) on your web browser (Respect of Do not track). Provided the "Do not track"-option is activated in your browser, your data will not be used without permission.

Furthermore, you can prevent any form of user analysis by Matomo on this website by activating a “block-cookie” or “opt-out-cookie” (see above).

An analysis of your activities will continue for as long as you do not delete the cookie in your browser. If you have already activated the opt-out-cookie, this will be indicated in the following message and you will be able to re-activate the web analytics on this website.

Secure Data Transfer  

A secure SSL connection is used for accessing all Germanwatch online-forms and transmission of your data. You can identify this secure transfer through the closed lock in the status bar of your internet browser. Your data is encrypted on the way from your computer to us and can only be read again when it is on our server. A security certificate from Let's Encrypt, confirms the authenticity.

Online Forms  

Data submitted by you through the online forms of Germanwatch is used exclusively for association purposes, for fundraising and for sending you further information from Germanwatch. You can object to the use of your data at any time, e.g.by sending an e-mail to info@germanwatch.org (subject: objection).

If you donate to Germanwatch, apply for membership, order a gift certificate, publication(s) and/or subscription(s), or request information about climate & resource expeditions, we will use your contact and payment details in order to carry out the requested transaction.

Donation form:

The donation form is made available by the service provider Twingle.

We chose this provider to ensure the highest data security for your data. Twingle guarantees complete protection and legally compliant data storage. Twingle takes care of payment processing on our behalf through a secure and certified environment. Data related to donation transactions are always SSL-encrypted and stored in certified data centers in Germany. Processing of personal data is done according to BDSG (Federal Data Protection Act). Information about data security and data protection at Twingle can be found at twingle.de.

If you use the payment services provided by Twingle (PayPal), please refer the respective privacy policies of PayPal.

  • Donations per direct debit: If you donate via direct debit, your data will be transferred through an encrypted connection to our bank, the Social Economy Bank.
  • Donations per PayPal: If you donate via PayPal, after submitting the donation formula, you will be directed to the website of PayPal, where you can finish your donation. We do not receive any details of your bank account and are only informed about successful payment.

Newspaper “Weitblick”: We use the Double-Opt-In procedure for orders of Weitblick. This means that after ordering via the online form, you will receive an e-mail from us. Subscription is only activated following confirmation of the link in the e-mail. In this way, we can prevent unauthorized third parties from misusing your e-mail address and ensure that you only receive the content that you have actually ordered. You can unsubscribe from the newspaper “Weitblick” at any time. To do so, please send an e-mail to info@germanwatch.org (subject: “Unsubscribe Weitblick”, stating your address).


Newsletter „Germanwatch°Kompakt“ and „TopNews“: We use the software Newsletter2Go for the purposes of sending out our newsletters. By registering for our newsletter, you agree that your data may be transmitted to Sendinblue GmbH. Please refer to the Privacy Policy and the General terms and conditions of business of Sendinblue GmbH.

After registering online, you will receive an e-mail with a confirmation link. You will be only be added to the distribution list after you have activated the link. In this way, we can prevent unauthorized third parties from misusing your e-mail address and ensure that you only receive the content that you have actually ordered. You can unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time. For this purpose, every issue of the newsletter contains a link to un-subscribe. You can also remove your e-mail address from our distribution list here.

We chose to cooperate with Sendinblue GmbH located in Berlin, because they fulfil high standards of data privacy and protection. All activities are performed in compliance with the basic data protection regulation (DSGVO).

Material order: Any contact data provided via the order form on our website in connection with an order for publications, posters, postcards etc, will be used by us for the purposes of performing the transaction.

Event registrations via pretix: To register for events, functions and contents of the service pretix, offered by rami.io GmbH, Markgräfler Straße 16, 69126 Heidelberg, Germany, are integrated. This includes the ticket store, which is integrated via a JavaScript widget. If you use the login, pretix uses a technically necessary cookie to enable the order process and to remember which shopping cart belongs to you. The cookie is set as soon as you interact with the widget. pretix does not store IP addresses, browser information or other unnecessary metadata beyond the duration of your request. You can find more information about data protection at pretix here: https://pretix.eu/about/de/privacy.
Your registration data will be used by us to process the event.

Registrations via anmeldung.germanwatch.org: To register for events on the site anmeldung.germanwatch.org, functions and contents of the service pretix, offered by rami.io GmbH, Markgräfler Straße 16, 69126 Heidelberg, Germany, are used. This includes the ticket store, which is integrated via a JavaScript widget. When you buy a ticket, pretix uses a technically necessary cookie to enable the ordering process and to remember which shopping cart belongs to you. The cookie is set as soon as you interact with the widget. pretix does not store IP addresses, browser information or other unnecessary metadata beyond the duration of your request. You can find more information about data protection at pretix here: https://pretix.eu/about/de/privacy.
Your registration data will be used by us to process the event.

Social Networks  

Meta Platforms, Inc (Instagram or Facebook) and X (formerly Twitter): We may include content from platforms such as Facebook, Instagram or X on our website. These services are deactivated by our Consent Manager by default, but can be activated by users. These services are mainly based in the USA, but are subject to the usual data protection rules in EU and EEA countries. When this content is reloaded, the embedding technology may transmit basic data such as your IP address back to the social networks and platforms. We have no influence on how the platforms use the data, possibly also to create user profiles. Please find out about this directly from Facebook, Instagram or X and adjust your privacy settings there.

You can find out more about the data protection notices of the individual third-party providers under the following links:

Content from X: We integrate X content into the website via the Tweet plugin. To the privacy policy of X: https://twitter.com/de/privacy

Content from Facebook: We integrate Facebook content into the website via the Facebook plugin. To the Facebook privacy policy: https://www.facebook.com/privacy/explanation

Content from Instagram: Instagram's "Embed" function allows us to integrate images and videos from Instagram into our website. To the Instagram privacy policy: https://www.instagram.com/legal/privacy/

Use of Youtube in advanced privacy mode: We use the provider Youtube for integrating videos. Videos are covered by the advanced privacy settings. However, similar to many other websites, Youtube uses cookies to collect information from visitors to their website. YouTube uses this information for collecting video statistics, preventing fraud, and improving user experience, amongst other things. It also creates a connection with the Google DoubleClick network. Playing the video, could trigger further data processing operations. This is outside of our control . For more information about privacy on Youtube, please see their privacy policy at: http://www.youtube.com/t/privacy_at_youtube.

Integration of External Services  

betterplace.org: It is possible to collect donations through services provided by betterplace.org. Betterplace is a service from the gut.org non-profit corporation (Schlesische Straße 26, 10997 Berlin). Cookies may be set when using this service via our website. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer and saved by your browser for recognition purposes. You can object to future collection and storage of data at any time by making the appropriate adjustments in your browser. If cookies are deactivated, the functionality of this website may be limited. Please note that you will have to repeat the objection, if you change the settings in your browser or if you access the website via a different browser. Further information on data protection can be found in the privacy policy of betterplace.org at https://www.betterplace.org/c/datenschutz.

Map service CartoDB: We have also included maps provided by CartoDB on some pages When you open these maps, your IP address as well as information about your browser and your session are automatically transmitted to CartoDB (Brooklyn, NY/USA).

Podigee: We use the Podigee podcast hosting service from the provider Podigee  GmbH, Schlesische Straße 20, 10997 Berlin, Germany. The podcasts are  downloaded or streamed from Podigee. The use is based on our legitimate interests, i.e. interest in a  secure and efficient provision, analysis and optimisation of our podcast offer in accordance with Art. 6 (1) letter (f) GDPR. Podigee processes the IP addresses and device information to enable  podcast downloads / playbacks and statistical data such as to determine  the number of downloads. This data is anonymised by Podigee before they  are stored in the database, unless they are required for the provision  of the podcasts. Further information and options to object can be found in Podigee's data protection declaration:  https://www.podigee.com/en/about/privacy.

Data protection on our social media profiles

We do not collect any personal data from our social media profiles on Facebook, Youtube, X (Twitter) ourselves. However, we would like to point out that when using social media services, you are subject to their respective data protection regulations and that data may be transferred to these services.

Information on the German Lobby Register

A new legal framework for the transfer of donor data is given through the Lobby Register Legislation, which became active law in Germany on January 1st, 2022. If donations or other contributions exceed an amount of EUR 20,000 or the total value of EUR 20,000 in a full calendar year per one donor, the law stipulates to publish the annual sum of the donation, the name of the person or company/institution, as well as their place of residence or registered office in the lobby register. The names of the donors and the amounts of the donations are publicly visible in the lobby register, the place of residence is not.

Information and Objection

You can informally object to the use of your data at any time, e.g. by sending an email to ds@germanwatch.org (keyword: "Objection"). You also have a right to free written information about your data stored by us and its use and, under certain conditions, a right to correction, blocking or deletion of this data.

Technical and organizational Measures  

Germanwatch uses technical and organizational security measures to protect your data. Our measures are constantly improving in line with developing technology. Nevertheless, you are hereby notified, that protection of your data in open networks such as the internet cannot be completely guaranteed under the current state of technology.

Data Protection Officer 

Dirk Wolf | skriptura dialog systeme GmbH

If you have any questions regarding data protection, please write to us: datenschutz@germanwatch.org

Or to:
Germanwatch e.V.
Dr.Werner-Schuster-Haus
Kaiserstr. 201
D-53113 Bonn

- Last modification: 05.02.2024 -

Contact person

Real name

Dr. Gerold Kier
Administrative Director
+49 (0)228 / 60 492-12
kier@germanwatch.org