Data Protection
Preamble
The Federal Ministry of Health takes the protection of your personal data very seriously. To this end, we have taken measures to ensure that data protection regulations are strictly adhered to, both by us and by the external service providers with whom we work.
Personal data refer to all information associated with an identified or identifiable natural person. A natural person is deemed to be identifiable if he or she can be directly or indirectly identified, especially by assignation to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, or online identification data.
More detailed information on the type of data collected, the purpose for which and the basis on which they are collected, how you can get in touch with the responsible agency and the data protection commissioner, as well as your rights regarding the processing of your personal data, can be found in this data privacy declaration.
As our website and other technologies employed continue to develop, changes in this privacy declaration may be required. Hence, we recommend that you reread the privacy declaration from time to time.
Access to the Website
A record of every visit to the Federal Ministry of Health’s website, as well as every file that is retrieved, is stored in a log file for a limited period of time and processed solely for the purpose of protecting the website and tracking access to it for security purposes.
The log file contains information on:
- the IP address used
- the type and version of your internet browser
- the operating system used
- the name of the page/file retrieved
- the date and time
- the amount of data transmitted
- whether the access/retrieval was successful.
Pursuant to Article 6 (1) (e) of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), in conjunction with Section 5 of the Act on the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI Act), we are obligated to store the data beyond the date of your visit. This is meant to protect the BMG's internet infrastructure/the Federal Government's communications technology from attack. The data are analysed and will be needed to instigate legal and criminal prosecution measures in the event of an attack on the Ministry's communications technology.
The data are stored, beyond the date of your visit, in log files, on the external servers of our service providers: DIMDI, 'Mittwald CM Service GmbH & Co. KG' and 'Hundertserver GmbH'.
Data that are recorded during visits to the Ministry's website are transmitted to third parties, in so far as we are legally obligated to do so, or in the event that the transmission becomes necessary for the purpose of legal or criminal prosecution measures owing to attacks on the communications technology of the Federal Government. No transmission of data takes place in other cases. The Federal Ministry of Health does not merge these data with other sources of data.
The Ministry statistically evaluates the user information as a means of optimising its website to better cater to the user’s needs. Detailed explanations on this aspect can be found in the Web Tracking/Web Analysis section of this data privacy declaration.
Contacting the Federal Ministry of Health
To get in touch with the Federal Ministry of Health by email, please use the following central email addresses:
If you use one of the above-mentioned channels to contact us, the data you have transmitted (such as your last name, first name, address), but at the very least your email address, as well as the information contained in your email (where applicable, personal data that you have communicated) will be stored for the purpose of contacting you and processing your request.
We wish to draw your attention to the fact that your data is processed based on Article 6 (1) (e) GDPR in conjunction with Section 3 of the Federal Data Protection Act (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz - BDSG) within the framework of performing the tasks incumbent on this Ministry. In order to deal with your request, it is necessary to process the personal data you have transmitted.
If you choose to use the contact form to communicate with us, it will be necessary to give your last name, first name, postal code and email address. A request transmitted by means of the contact form cannot be processed without these data. Disclosure of the rest of your address is optional but would allow us, if so desired, to process your request by mail.
We would like to draw your attention to the fact that the processing of the data and the content transmitted by means of the contact form take place based on your consent pursuant to Article 6 (1) (a) GDPR.
You may revoke your consent at any time. The lawfulness of processing based on your granted consent shall continue until such time as the revocation of such consent has been received.
The Federal Ministry of Health uses the services of Telemark Rostock Kommunikations- und Marketinggesellschaft mbH (Telemark Rostock), a multimedia communications centre, to answer citizens’ questions received by telephone, in electronic or in written form. Telemark Rostock only compiles, processes and uses personal data within the limits stipulated by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and by the Federal Data Protection Act. The company has instituted numerous technical and organisational measures to ensure adherence to the legal regulations.
This is also applies in the case of the other service providers, who are responsible for processing data on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Health, named in the following section.
Request handlers
We use external service providers (request handlers) for example to dispatch our newsletter and other publications. Separate agreements have been concluded with these service providers regarding the handling of requests so as to ensure the protection of your personal data.
We work together with the following service providers:
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DIMDI
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Scholz & Friends GmbH
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Mittwald AG
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THE BRETTINGHAMS GmbH
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Hundertserver GmbH
Voluntary Personal Information
In some areas of the Ministry's website, you have the possibility of providing personal information on a voluntary basis. We store and use the transmitted (personal) data exclusively for the purpose of processing your request. The data is not passed on to third parties.
Automatically stored log data (see Access to the Website) will be erased after a specific, limited period of time has elapsed.
Use of Cookies
Cookies are small text files that are stored when certain pages or certain functions are opened on your computer.
They can only be stored when the 'accept cookies' function has been enabled on your browser (e.g. Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Apple Safari).
The Federal Ministry of Health’s website can, for the most part, be used without accepting cookies. Cookies must only be enabled on your browser in order to use the long-term-care benefit assistant or to access the shopping basket when ordering informational material. The cookie transmitted in this context is a so-called session cookie, which is automatically removed from your computer when the internet session has ended. This takes place on the basis of Article 6 (1) (e) GDPR, in conjunction with Article 3 of the Federal Data Protection Act, to facilitate the demand-oriented provision of online information regarding the Ministry's tasks.
If cookies are enabled in your browser settings, two cookies from our web analysis provider (Siteimprove) will automatically be stored on your computer when you visit the website.
The information that is transmitted by the cookies concerns visitors' website usage and is stored and processed by Siteimprove on servers located in Denmark.
The following Siteimprove cookies are used on this website:
Name of the cookie: nmstat
Type: Persistent – expires after 1000 days
About the cookie: This cookie is used to document the behaviour of a visitor to the website. It is used to collect statistics on the use of the website, for example when the visitor last used the website. The cookie does not contain any personal data and is used purely for the purpose of website analysis.
Name of the cookie: siteimproveses
Type: Session cookie
About the cookie: This cookie is used to track the sequence of pages opened by a visitor during the course of his/her visit to the website. The cookie does not contain any personal data and is used purely for the purpose of website analysis.
Name of the cookie: Cookie Consent Tool (Cookiebot)
Type: Persistent
About the cookie: Allows website visitors to set or revoke consent for certain cookies. Cookiebot itself does not process this data, but only logs pseudonymised data for consents. We use www.cookiebot.com as a DSGVO-compliant consent solution for cookies and online tracking.
By using this website, the visitor agrees with the processing of his/her data for the above-mentioned purposes.
You may choose to object to your data being collected by Siteimprove Analytics by clicking on the following link. By clicking on the link, an opt-out cookie will be set that will prevent the collection of any of your data whenever you visit this website in the future.
Web Tracking/Web Analysis
In order to design and optimise this website to best cater to the user’s needs based on Article 6 (1) (e) of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in conjunction with Section 3 of the Act on the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI Act), Siteimprove solutions are used to collect anonymized usage data and store them in an aggregated manner. Subsequently, user profiles are created from these data using pseudonyms.
IP addresses are fully anonymized before the collected data are made accessible to the Federal Ministry of Health with the aid of Siteimprove Suite. It is not possible to de-anonymize the IP addresses or to link the IP addresses to collected data.
This information will be useful to the Federal Ministry of Health in evaluating the behaviour of visitors to its website, in preparing reports thereon and, finally, in improving the web experience for its visitors. Siteimprove will not transmit this information to third parties or use them for marketing or advertising purposes of any type.
Objection to Web Tracking
Pursuant to Article 21 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation, visitors to a website may object to the creation of user profiles based on their anonymously recorded visitor data, with the result that these may no longer be recorded in the future.
You may choose to object to your data being collected by Siteimprove Analytics by declining cookies.
Instructions for the Use of our Social Media Platforms
The internet platforms provided by social networks offer a federal authority excellent possibilities for communicating with, networking and cultivating the active participation of citizens. Consequently, the Federal Ministry of Health has decided to expand its own presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. We would be pleased if you also use these platforms to obtain information on our work and to share your opinions with us.
We wish to draw your attention to the fact that the Ministry has no control over the conditions for the use of the above-mentioned services and their operators. We, for our part, will always handle your data carefully but cannot accept liability for the conduct of social network operators or third parties.
We explicitly draw your attention to the fact that the operators of the social networks we use to communicate with you, store data, permanently, outside of Germany and use these data for commercial purposes. We are unable to tell the extent to which, and the duration for which, such data are stored.
The Ministry takes the discussions on data protection, which are taking place in the social networks, very seriously. We are keeping abreast of the debate and the investigations conducted by the competent authorities and we routinely examine whether we can maintain our social media presence under the current data protection conditions.
For the time being, we also ask you to carefully examine the personal data that you reveal when using social media. Please check your privacy settings regularly when suing social networks.
Check your Data
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You have the possibility of inspecting the data that is automatically transmitted from your browser to our server.
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No matter what internet browser you use, it is possible to have it show you whether cookies are set, and what they contain.
The website of the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and that of the Federal Office for Information Security provide more detailed information.
Your Rights
You have the following rights regarding your personal data, vis-a-vis the responsible entity:
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Right to information, Article 15 of the GDPR
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Right to correction, Article 16 of the GDPR
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Right to correction and erasure, Article 17 of the GDPR
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Right to restriction of processing, Article 18 of the GDPR
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Right to object to the collection, processing, and/or use, Article 21 of the GDPR
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Right to data portability, Article 20 of the GDPR
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Where the processing of personal data is based on your consent (Article 6 (1) (a) GDPR), you may revoke such consent at any time for the purpose in question. The lawfulness of processing your data based on your given consent continues until such time as the revocation of such consent has been received.
You may assert the above-mentioned rights at: poststelle(at)bmg.bund.de or poststelle(at)bundesgesundheitsministerium.de-mail.de.
Furthermore, you are entitled to make a complaint to the data protection supervisory authority (Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information).
Contact
The entity responsible for the processing of personal data is the:
Federal Ministry of Health
53123 Bonn
Phone: +49 (0)228 99441-0
Electronic mail: poststelle(at)bmg.bund.de
DE-mail: poststelle(at)bundesgesundheitsministerium.de-mail.de
If you have concrete questions on the protection of your data or need further information regarding the handling of personal data by the Federal Ministry of Health, please feel free to also contact the Federal Ministry’s data protection officer:
Federal Ministry of Health
- Data Protection Officer -
11055 Berlin
DSB(at)bmg.bund.de