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Data Protection

I. Address of the Controller

Niedersachsen Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation
Friedrichswall 1
30159 Hannover, Germany
Email: Leitung@mw.niedersachsen.de
www.mw.niedersachsen.de

The Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation is represented by the Minister, Mr Olaf Lies.

II. Address of the Data Protection Officer

Niedersachsen Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation
Friedrichswall 1
30159 Hannover, Germany
Email: Datenschutz@mw.niedersachsen.de

III. General information on data protection

If personal data (for example name or email address) is gathered on this website, it always will be on a voluntary basis where possible. As far as possible, the products and services can always be used without providing personal data. We would like to make you aware that data transmission via the internet (for example, through email communication) can be subject to security breaches. It is not possible to ensure the complete security of personal data against access by third parties. We use the personal data provided by you exclusively for the purpose of administering the websites and to respond to your requests (i.e. any enquiry you submit to us through the website). Your personal data will not be disclosed, sold or otherwise transferred to third parties unless this is necessary for the purpose of contract fulfilment. We hereby expressly prohibit the use by third parties of the contact details which appear under the Legal Notice section of this website to send unsolicited advertising and information material. The website’s operators expressly reserve the right to take legal steps in the event that unsolicited advertising (e.g. spam emails) is received in this way.

IV. Information about data processing

1. The purpose of processing personal data:

The Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation must process personal data for a variety of purposes. Data protection is an indispensable component of lawful administrative activities and a quality feature of citizen-oriented services. The legal framework for this can be found in the Niedersachsen Data Protection Act, the German Federal Data Protection Act and the European General Data Protection Regulation:

  • Where consent is obtained for the processing of your personal data, it is done in accordance with Article 6(1) Sentence 1 Letter (a) in conjunction with  Article  7 et seq.  of the GDPR, or on a legal basis pursuant to Article 6(1) Sentence 1 Letter (b) of the GDPR.
  • In the processing of your personal data, which is necessary for the fulfilment of a contract to which you are a party, Article 6(1) Sentence 1 Letter (b) of the GDPR serves as the legal basis.
  • Insofar as the processing of your personal data is necessary for the fulfilment of a legal obligation to which the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation is subject, Article 6(1) Sentence 1 Letter (c) of the GDPR serves as the legal basis.
  • If your vital interests or those of another natural person necessitate the processing of personal data, Article 6(1) Sentence 1 Letter (d) of the GDPR serves as the legal basis.

 

2. Role of the Data Protection Officer

The Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation has appointed a Data Protection Officer. The Data Protection Officer supports the organisational units of the ministry in assuring data protection.

The Data Protection Officer is also the point of contact for residents who have questions about data protection at the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation or who wish to report problems. Such questions and comments will be treated confidentially on request. If incoming communications are addressed or labelled accordingly, they will reach the Data Protection Officer directly.

The Data Protection Officer reports directly to the Minister of Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation and is independent in the performance of their statutory duties and is not bound by instructions from other employees or organisational units of the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation. In this respect, the Data Protection Officer is not involved in the internal ‘official channels’ of the authorities.

3. Storage period of your data

Your personal data will be deleted or blocked as soon as the purpose of the storage no longer applies. Data may also be stored if this has been provided for by the European or national legislation in EU regulations, laws or other provisions to which the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation is subject.

Data will also be blocked or erased when a storage period required by any of the aforementioned laws or regulations expires unless there is a need for continued storage of the data for the purpose of entering into or fulfilling a contract.

4. Information on the rights of data subjects

The right of access to information includes the right to request confirmation as to whether personal data concerning you is being processed by the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation. If this is the case, you have a right of access to this personal data and to the information listed in detail in Article 15 GDPR. If you would like to make use of this right to information, please contact our Data Protection Officer.

You have the right to obtain without undue delay the rectification of inaccurate personal data concerning you and to have incomplete personal data completed (Article 16 GDPR). If you would like to make use of this right to rectification, please contact our Data Protection Officer.

You have the right to demand that personal data concerning you be deleted immediately if one of the reasons listed in Article 17 GDPR applies (right to erasure):

  • Your personal data has been collected or otherwise processed for purposes for which it is no longer required.
  • You revoke your consent pursuant to Article 7(3) of the GDPR, on which the processing of your data was based pursuant to Article 6(1) Sentence 1 Letter (a) of the GDPR or Article 9(2) Letter (a) of the GDPR, and there is no other legal basis for the processing.
  • You also have the right to object to data processing at any time. We will then no longer process your data unless there are compelling legitimate grounds for such processing or the processing serves to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims. If you make use of the aforementioned rights, the controller will check whether the legal requirements are met. The personal data have been unlawfully processed.
  • The erasure of personal data is required to fulfil a legal obligation under Union law or the law of the Member States to which the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation is subject.
  • The personal data were collected in relation to services offered by the information society, according to Article 8(1) of the GDPR.

If one of the above reasons applies and you wish to request the erasure of personal data stored by the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation, please contact our Data Protection Officer. The Data Protection Officer shall promptly ensure that the erasure request is complied with immediately.

You have the right to request the restriction of the processing of your personal data if one of the conditions listed in Article 18 of the GDPR is met:

  • The accuracy of the personal data is contested by you, for a period enabling the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation to verify its accuracy.
  • The processing is unlawful, you refuse the deletion of your personal data and instead request the restriction of the use of your personal data.
  • The Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation no longer needs your personal data for the purposes of processing, but you need it to assert, exercise, or defend legal claims.
  • You have lodged an objection to the processing pursuant to Article 21(1) of the GDPR and it is not yet clear whether the legitimate reasons of the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation outweigh your interests, rights, and freedoms.

If one of the above conditions is met and you wish to request the restriction of the processing of your personal data stored by the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation, please contact our Data Protection Officer. The Data Protection Officer will arrange for the processing to be restricted.

You have the right to receive the personal data concerning you, which you or a third party has provided to the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation, in a structured, commonly accessible, and machine-readable format (Article 20 of the GDPR).

You have the right to transmit this data to another controller without hindrance from the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation, provided that the processing of the data is based on your consent pursuant to Article 6(1) Sentence 1 Letter (a) or Article 9(2) Letter (a) or on a contract pursuant to Article 6(1) Sentence 1 Letter (b) of the GDPR and the processing is carried out by automated means. This processing must not be required for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of the official authority vested in the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation.

You have the right, pursuant to Article 20(2) of the GDPR, to have your personal data transferred directly from the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing, and Digitalisation to another controller, provided this is technically feasible and as long as doing so does not adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others. To assert your right to data portability, please contact the Data Protection Officer.

5. Right of revocation

You have the right to object at any time, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to the processing of personal data concerning you. The Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation will then no longer process your personal data unless it can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms, or the processing serves to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims (Article 21(1) Sentence 2 GDPR). To exercise your right to object, please contact the Data Protection Officer directly.

 

6. Information on the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority

Without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy, every data subject has the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if the data subject considers that the processing of personal data relating to them infringes the GDPR (Article 77(1) GDPR). The data subject can exercise this right with a supervisory authority in the member state of their habitual residence, their place of work, or the place of the alleged infringement. The competent supervisory authority in Niedersachsen is:

 

The Data Protection Commissioner for the Federal State of Niedersachsen

Prinzenstraße 5

30159 Hannover, Germany

 

Tel: +49 511 120-4500

Fax: +49 511 120-4599

Email: poststelle@lfd.niedersachsen.de

 

As an independent body, the State Commissioner for Data Protection of Niedersachsen represents the interests of citizens in the processing of their data by authorities and other public bodies of the state, cities, municipalities, districts, and public corporations, institutions and foundations subject to state supervision. The State Commissioner monitors and advises public bodies in Niedersachsen on data protection issues.

The Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information monitors compliance with data protection by federal public bodies and, in particular, advises the Bundestag (German parliament) and the Federal Government on data protection matters.

The Virtual Data Protection Office also offers up-to-date and specialised information on the subject of data protection. The Virtual Data Protection Office is an online, central information and contact point for data protection issues, supported by numerous official data protection institutions, including the data protection officers of the Federal Government and all federal states.

 

7. Information on digital media services

The website www.nds.de contains digital media services. According to Section 1(1) of the German Telemedia Act (Telemediengesetz, TMG), digital media services are all electronic information and communication services, unless they are telecommunication services according to Section 3(61) TMG, telecommunication-based services according to Section 3(63) TMG or broadcasting according to Section 2 of the German Interstate Broadcasting Treaty. In principle, every website constitutes a digital media service.

Each time a user accesses a webpage from the www.nds.de website and each time a file is retrieved, the following data about this process is stored in a log file: Source IP – Date Time – Destination path relative to the domain – HTTP status code – Browser type and version, operating system and version. These data are not personal; therefore, we cannot trace which user has accessed which data.

  • The legal basis for the temporary storage of data and log files is Article 6(1) Letter (e), (3) of the GDPR in conjunction with Section 3 of the Niedersachsen Data Protection Act (NDSG). The temporary storage of the IP address by the system is necessary to enable the website to appear on the user’s computer. For this purpose, the user’s IP address must remain stored for the duration of the session. Log files are stored to ensure the website’s functionality. We also use the data to optimise the website and to ensure the security of our information technology systems. The data is anonymised by shortening the IP address in the cache (the working memory) of the web analysis service. In this respect, the IP address data is not stored for analytical purposes.
  • The data collected in order to display the website for the user is not stored beyond the end of the respective session. Any data stored in log files will be saved for a maximum of seven days. Storage beyond this is possible, but in this case, the IP addresses of the users are deleted or anonymised so that it is no longer possible to identify the web client which called up the website. The collection of data to display the website to the user and the storage of data in log files is technically necessary for the operation of the website. An exception applies if personal or business data (email address, name, address) is entered into the website by the user for the provision of services. The provision of this data by users is expressly voluntary. The services offered can also be used or paid for without providing such data or by providing anonymised data or a pseudonym, insofar as this is technically possible and reasonable.
  • We create anonymised statistics and analysis regarding access to our website. We use etracker to generate web statistics. In addition to the access to the webpage and the anonymised IP address, the following data is collected for this analysis:  Information on the end device, operating system and browser used; geo-information up to a maximum of city level; the URL called up with the associated page title and optional information on the page content; the website from which the individual webpage was accessed (referrer site including search engines and social media sites and reading of campaign parameters); the individual webpages within the website that were subsequently visited in the session; the time spent on the website; other interactions (clicks) on the website such as search terms entered, files downloaded, videos viewed, registrations, enquiries, items ordered, etc.; the frequency of visits to the website.

You can use all generally accessible webpages without cookies being installed. A session cookie is only installed when you access webpages that require you to log in. This cookie stores the identity of the browser session on your computer and is deleted from your computer at the end of the browser session. This information is no longer available in later browser sessions. Any reference to the identity of the user is excluded. Its use is necessary to prevent unauthorised interference with the existing connection.

8. Information about integrated social media

The Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation is active on social networks such as LinkedIn and YouTube. It operates under the ‘Invest in Niedersachsen’ brand.

The Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation processes the data of people who interact with the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation in order to perform editorial tasks on social networks. This requires temporary data storage by a service provider. The following data is stored on a server located in the European Union: profile and account name and picture, the nature of the request, the number of followers, the profiles followed by the profile, and its latest tweets. The data is stored for six months.

We would like to point out that the data is processed on the basis of Article 6(1) Sentence 1 Letter (e) of the GDPR in conjunction with Section 3 of the Niedersachsen Data Protection Act. Your personal data must be processed for the purpose of handling your request.

In addition, we expressly draw your attention to the fact that the services store the data of their users (such as personal information, IP address, etc.) in accordance with their data usage guidelines and use it for business purposes. The Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation has no influence on the collection of data and its further use by the social networks. There is no information on the extent to which, where and for how long the data is stored, to what extent the networks comply with existing deletion obligations, which evaluations and associations are made using the data and to whom the data is disclosed.

Information on what data is processed by LinkedIn and for what purposes it is used can be found in LinkedIn’s Privacy Policy.

Information about which data is processed by YouTube and for what purposes it is used can be found in the Privacy Policy of YouTube or Google.

Due to the fact that both companies are non-European providers that only have a European branch in Ireland, they are not bound by German data protection regulations according to their own interpretation. This concerns, for example, your rights to information, to the blocking or erasure of data, or the option to object to the use of usage data for advertising purposes.

9. This website works with the following providers:

 a) etracker

This website uses the analytics service etracker. The provider is etracker GmbH, Erste Brunnenstraße 1, 20459 Hamburg, Germany.

Usage profiles can be created from the data under a pseudonym. etracker uses technologies that can be used to recognise the user (such as cookies or device fingerprinting). The data collected with the etracker technologies will not be used to personally identify visitors to this website without the person concerned separately granting such consent and will not be merged with personal data about the pseudonym holder.

The use of this analytical tool is based on Article 6(1) Letter (f) of the GDPR. The website operator has a legitimate interest in the anonymised analysis of user behaviour in order to optimise both its website and its advertising. If a corresponding consent has been requested (for example, consent to the storage of cookies), the processing is carried out exclusively on the basis of Article 6(1) Letter (a) GDPR. Your consent may be revoked at any time.

You can object to the data processing described above at any time. The objection has no disadvantageous consequences.

Further information on data protection at etracker can be found here.

Order processing

Drive GmbH & Co. KG has concluded an Order Processing Agreement with the above-mentioned provider. This is a contract required by data protection law, which ensures that it processes the personal data of our website visitors exclusively in accordance with our instructions and in compliance with the GDPR.

 

b. Contact via the contact form, the callback service

You can contact the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation via this website using the form found here.

The contact form is transmitted via an encrypted https connection.

If you use the contact form for communication, you must provide your title, surname and first name, and your email address. If you use the callback service, it is necessary to provide a telephone number. Without this data, your request sent via the contact form cannot be processed. The processed personal data is used to prevent misuse of the contact form and to ensure the security of our IT systems.

If we receive a message from you via the contact form or email, we assume that we are authorised to reply by email. Otherwise, you must expressly inform us of another form of communication.

We would like to inform you that the data transmitted with the contact form and its content (which may also contain personal data transmitted by you) is processed on the basis of Article 6(1) Sentence (1) Letter (a) of the GDPR for the purpose of processing your request.

The processing is carried out by the employees of the Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitisation. Your data will only be stored to process your request and in accordance with legal and contractual requirements. Your data will be deleted after your question has been answered, or at the latest after the statutory and contractual deadlines.

If you do not agree with the processing of your data, you can cancel the contact process at any time. Your message will then not be sent.

10. Changes to the Data Protection Policy

The Ministry for Economic Affairs, Transport, Housing and Digitalisation reserves the right to amend the Data Protection Policy at any time with regard to applicable data protection regulations.