1.1 Collection of Personal Data 

(1) In the following, we inform you in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation “GDPR”) about the collection of personal data when using our digital services. Personal data refers to all data that can be related to you personally, for example: name, address, e-mail addresses, or user behavior. 

(2) The responsible party in accordance with Art. 4 (7) GDPR is: 

FUNKE Digital GmbH
Friedrichstraße 70
10117 Berlin

You can reach our data protection officer at: 

FUNKE Mediengruppe GmbH & Co. KGaA
Data Protection Officer
Jakob-Funke-Platz
145127 Essen
E-mail: datenschutz.digital@funkemedien.de

(3) All collected personal data is collected directly from you. If you order a gift or refer-a-reader subscription, your personal data will be collected from the relevant third parties (donors or intermediaries). 

(4) When contacting us by email or via a contact form, the provided data (email address, and potential name and telephone number) will be stored by us. We delete the data collected in this context after storage is no longer required, or will restrict its processing if legal storage obligations exist. 

(5) In certain cases, we use contracted service providers, such as accounting, hosting service providers, or marketing agencies. If we use your data for advertising purposes, we will inform you in detail about the respective processes. 

(6) All of the below information relates to the use of our digital services and applications that can be accessed via PCs, smartphones, tablets, and all other internet-enabled mobile or stationary devices. 

1.2 Your Rights 

You have the right to obtain information from the responsible party about the processing of your data, the right to correct or delete your data, the right to restrict the processing of your data, the right to object to the processing of your data, the right to data transferability, the right to withdraw your consent, and the right to lodge a complaint (with the relevant data protection supervisory authority). 

1.3 Additional Services and Offers 

(1) In addition to the purely informational use of our digital services, we offer various additional services to interested parties. In order to activate these services, additional personal data is generally required. The aforementioned data processing principles apply to this additional data. 

(2) In some cases, we use external service providers to process your data. These providers have been carefully selected and commissioned by us, are bound by our instructions, and are regularly monitored. 

(3) We may pass on your personal data to third parties if we offer participation in promotions, competitions, contracts, or similar services in conjunction with external partners. You will receive more detailed information about this process when you provide your personal data or in the description of the offer. 

(4) If our service providers or partners are based in a country outside of the European Union (EU) or the European Economic Area (EEA), we will inform you of the implications of this occurrence in the description of the offer. 

1.4 Objection to or Revocation of the Right to Process Your Data 

(1) If you have given your consent to your data being processed, you can withdraw this consent at any time. Such a revocation affects the permissibility of the processing of your personal data after you have expressed it to us. 

(2) Insofar as we process your personal data based on a balance between multiple interests, you can object to how it is processed. This is the case if, in particular, processing your data is not necessary for the completion of a contract with you. When making such an objection, we ask that you to explain why we should not process your personal data in the manner we have decided to do so. In the event of an objection to the way your data is being processed, we will evaluate the situation and will either stop processing your data, adapt the way we process it, or illustrate compelling legitimate grounds for continuing to process your data in the manner we had been processing it prior. 

2.1 Personal Data Collection When Using Our Digital Services for Informational Purposes  

If you only use our digital services for informational purposes, i.e. if you do not register or otherwise provide us with information, the only personal data we collect is your IP address, which your browser transmits to our server on the legal basis of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. We also collect the technical data required for the website display when you view our digital content. The technical data may vary depending on the browser. For more information, please contact your respective browser provider. 

2.1.1 Use of Cookies 

In addition to the aforementioned data, cookies are stored on your end device when you use our digital services. We distinguish between technically necessary cookies, which cannot be deselected, and cookies that require your consent to be activated. 

a) This website uses the following types of cookies, the scope and function of which are explained below: 

– Transient cookies (see b) 

– Persistent cookies (see c) 

b) Transient cookies are automatically deleted when you close your browser. Session cookies, which store a session ID that allows various requests from your browser to be assigned to the joint session, are included in this category. This allows your computer to be recognized when you return to our website. Session cookies are deleted when you log out or close the browser. 

c) Persistent cookies are automatically deleted after a specified period of time, which may vary depending on the cookie. You can delete these cookies at any time in the security settings of your browser. 

d) In addition to first-party cookies, third-party cookies offered by other providers are also used. We will inform you about the use of third-party cookies and about any collaborations with external service providers who provide services like web tracking or reach measurement for us in this privacy policy. 

We work with the following partners for these digital services. You can decide on your cookie and data collection and processing preferences in the cookie settings, which can be accessed here at any time: 

2.2 Social Media

We offer information on various social media platforms in order to be able to contact you as a user. We have no influence on the processing of personal data by the respective social media platform operator. When you visit our social media offerings, cookies are stored in your browser by the respective provider. The usage profiles obtained are used to show you personalized advertising (also across devices). Data processing may also affect people who are not registered as users with the respective social media platform. The processing of your personal data when you visit such a platform is based on our legitimate interests (customer communication, external presentation). The legal basis for this is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. Under certain circumstances, you may also have given a platform operator consent to data processing, in which case the legal basis is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR Detailed information on data processing in connection with the use of social media offerings, objection options and the assertion of information rights can be found in the respective data protection declaration of the corresponding platform operator.

2.2.1 YouTube

We use the provider YouTube, among others, for the integration of videos. YouTube is operated by YouTube, LLC, headquartered at 901 Cherry Ave, San Bruno, CA 94066, USA. YouTube is represented by Google LLC. with its registered office at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. When you access the website on which the YouTube plugin is integrated, a connection to the YouTube servers is established to display the video. This tells the YouTube server which of our websites you have visited. The legal basis is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a) GDPR.

Privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy

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2.2.2 Facebook

Provider: Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Data processing is carried out on the basis of an agreement on the joint processing of personal data in accordance with Art. 26 GDPR.

Facebook SDK: We have embedded the “Facebook SDK” on the website. We use the “Facebook SDK” exclusively for the “oEmbed Read” function. This function allows us to display content from the social media platforms operated by Facebook on the website. The legal basis is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a) GDPR.

Privacy policy: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/

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2.2.3 Instagram

We use “Instagram” on our website, a social plug-in from Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland (“Instagram”), to integrate content from the social platform Instagram on web pages of our website. Instagram is only loaded with your consent, which means that no data about you as a user is transferred to Instagram if you do not allow the integration. The legal basis is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a) GDPR.

Privacy policy: https://instagram.com/about/legal/privacy

2.2.4 Pinterest

On our website, we use social plugins from the social network Pinterest, which is operated by Pinterest Inc, 635 High Street, Palo Alto, CA, 94301, USA (“Pinterest”). When you visit a page that contains such a plugin, your browser establishes a direct connection to the Pinterest servers. The legal basis is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a) GDPR. Further information on the purpose, scope and further processing and use of the data by Pinterest as well as your rights and options for protecting your privacy in this regard can be found in Pinterest’s privacy policy: https://policy.pinterest.com/de/privacy-policy

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2.2.5 X

Functions of the Twitter service are integrated on our pages. These functions are offered by X Corp, 1355 Market Street, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA. By using X and the “Re-Tweet” function, the websites you visit are linked to your X account and made known to other users. Data is also transmitted to X in the process. The legal basis is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a) GDPR.

Privacy policy: https://x.com/de/privacy

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2.2.6 Snapchat

Provider: Snap Inc., 2772 Donald Douglas Loop North Santa Monica, CA 90405, USA

Privacy policy: https://values.snap.com/de-DE/privacy/privacy-policy.

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2.2.7 TikTok

Provider: TikTok Technoligy Limited; TikTok Technology Limited, 10 Earlsfort Terrace, Dublin, D02 T380, Irland 

Privacy policy: https://www.tiktok.com/legal/privacy-policy?lang=de.

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2.2.8 Einsatz von LinkedIn

Provider: LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland
Privacy policy: https://de.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy.

2.2.9 Einsatz von Xing

Provider: New Work SE, Dammtorstraße 30, 20354 Hamburg, Deutschland
Privacy policy: https://privacy.xing.com/de/datenschutzerklaerung.

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2.3 E-Mail-Newsletter

(1) Many of our digital services offer the option of subscribing to e-mail newsletters in which we inform you about our editorial content and current interesting offers. We may also place advertisements from our advertising partners in our newsletters. These are not interest-based advertisements from third-party networks, but only advertisements marketed directly by us. The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) f) GDPR, whereby our legitimate interest is the economic operation of our digital offering.

(2) We use the double opt-in procedure to register for our email newsletters. This means that your registration is only complete once your email address has been confirmed.

(3) The only mandatory information for sending an e-mail newsletter is your e-mail address. The provision of further, separately marked data is voluntary and is used to address you personally. After your confirmation, we will save your e-mail address for the purpose of sending you the e-mail newsletter.

(4) Mandatory information for sending an e-mail newsletter of the customer benefit programs are your e-mail address, title, first name, last name and your customer number – if you do not have your customer number at hand, we need your postal address to be able to identify you as a customer. The provision of further, separately marked data is voluntary and is used to be able to address you personally. After your confirmation, we will save your e-mail address for the purpose of sending you the e-mail newsletter. The legal basis is Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR.

(5) You can object to the sending of the email newsletter at any time. You will find a link to unsubscribe in every newsletter.

(6) Our newsletters may contain so-called “tracking pixels”, which are pixel-sized files that are retrieved from our server or the server of a service provider when the newsletter is opened. These tracking pixels do not contain any personal data and are only used to collect statistics on whether and which links contained in the newsletters are clicked. This information cannot be assigned to individual newsletter recipients.

2.4 Push-Notifications

2.4.1 Use of CleverPush

(1) CleverPush is a push notification service. We use it to send users of our website push notifications about new articles in selected subject areas.

(2) This service is provided by our partner CleverPush: CleverPush GmbH, Nagelsweg 22, 20097 Hamburg. You can find Cleverpush’s privacy policy here: https://cleverpush.com/en/privacy

(3) CleverPush does not collect any user data such as IP addresses or similar, which can be used to draw direct conclusions about the respective user. When registering for the notification mailing list, only a type of identifier, which varies from browser to browser, is sent to our servers. This identifier is assigned by the browser manufacturers (Google, Mozilla, Apple, etc.) and enables us to send the notifications to the respective browsers.

(4) Click here for the CleverPush FAQ: https://cleverpush.com/de/faq

(5) You can use the following link to deactivate push messages from CleverPush on your mobile device or PC: Deactivate push messages here.

Please be sure to execute the respective link on the exact device and in the exact browser with which you receive the unwanted push messages.

2.5 Contentpass

(1) On our website, we offer you a service for ad-free and tracking-free access. This service is called contentpass and is offered by Content Pass GmbH, Wolfswerder 58, 14532 Kleinmachnow, Germany. When you subscribe to the service, contentpass becomes your contractual partner. Further information on this service can be found at contentpass.net.

(2) In order to display and offer you this service on our website, contentpass processes your IP address on our behalf at the beginning of your website visit. For the registration and contract processing of contentpass and the associated data processing, contentpass is the controller within the meaning of the GDPR. We are solely responsible for processing your IP address. The processing is necessary for technical reasons in order to be able to display and offer you the contentpass service. For more information on data processing at contentpass, please read their privacy policy.

(3) The basis for the data processing of the IP address, as part of our order processing with contentpass, is our legitimate interest in offering you the opportunity to access our website without advertising and tracking and your legitimate interest in using our website practically without advertising and tracking [Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. f) GDPR, in conjunction with § 25 para. 2 no. 2 TDDDG]. In addition, we hereby fulfill the legal obligation to obtain legally compliant consent to data processing requiring consent [Art. 6 para. 1 lit. c) GDPR in conjunction with § 25 para. 2 no. 2 TDDDG].

(4) You can log in to your contentpass account here and register for contentpass here.

2.6 Competitions

(1) As part of participation in one of our competitions, the following personal data is collected (in some cases optional): Name, address, e-mail address, telephone number, date of birth

(2) The collection and processing of personal data serves to carry out the respective competition and, if applicable, to send prizes. Furthermore, the data will be used for interest-related advertising, provided that the relevant consent has been given. You have the right to revoke your consent at any time with effect for the future in accordance with Art. 7 para. 3 GDPR.

(3) Your data may be passed on to our competition service providers and sponsors and deleted if they are no longer required.

(4) Further data protection information can be found at Information pursuant to Articles 13 and 14 GDPR – competitions

3. Marketer

This website is marketed nationally by our advertising marketer FUNKE Sales GmbH (Jakob-Funke-Platz 1, 45127 Essen). Local and regional marketing is carried out by FUNKE MEDIEN NRW GmbH (Jakob-Funke-Platz 1, 45127 Essen). The advertising is optimized for you by collecting and processing your usage behavior and targeted to predicted interests. As a result, you as a user will see advertising that is more likely to match your areas of interest. A cookie is stored on your computer to record your usage behavior, but it will never be possible to identify you personally.

The content of this digital service is not aimed directly at minors and is therefore not an information society service within the meaning of Art. 8 para. 1 GDPR. Art. 8 GDPR is therefore not applicable (see also European Data Protection Board, Guideline 05/2020 on consent under Regulation 2016/679, para. 130).

Further information about the processing of your personal data can be found under the following links

5.1 Readers and interested parties

Information pursuant to Articles 13 and 14 GDPR – readers and interested parties

5.2 Marketer

Information pursuant to Articles 13 and 14 GDPR – Marketing

5.3 Competitions

Information pursuant to Articles 13 and 14 GDPR – competitions

5.4 Additional business

Information pursuant to Articles 13 and 14 GDPR – Additional transactions