Website of the German Lost Art Foundation

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Privacy policy

1. Controller

Controller responsible for collecting, processing and using your personal data as defined by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in connection with the new German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG-neu) and other data processing requirements:

German Lost Art Foundation
Prof. Dr. Gilbert Lupfer
Executive Board
Humboldtstraße 12
39112 Magdeburg
Telephone: +49 (0) 391 727 763 0
Telefax: +49 (0)391 727 763 6
email: kontakt@kulturgutverluste.de

The German Lost Art Foundation takes data protection very seriously. It is committed to protecting your personal data as you visit our website and using it exclusively for the purposes mentioned below. In the following, we disclose information about how, to what extent and why we process personal data, and how cookies are used in connection with the website www.kulturgutverluste.de. It is possible to use most of our website without having to provide any personal data. If personal data are collected on our website (such as name, address or e-mail address), this is done on a voluntary basis wherever possible. Please note that data transfer via Internet (e.g. e-mail communication) is subject to security breaches. It is not possible to provide complete protection against unauthorized access by third parties.

2. Data Protection Officer

The Data Protection Officer of the German Lost Art Foundation is:

German Lost Art Foundation
Sebastian Hohmann
Data Protection Officer
Humboldtstraße 12
39112 Magdeburg
Telephone: +49 (0) 391 727 763 37
Telefax: +49 (0)391 727 763 6
email: sebastian.hohmann@kulturgutverluste.de

3. Competent supervisory authority

The competent supervisory authority for the German Lost Art Foundation is:

Bundesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit (German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information)
Graurheindorfer Str. 153
53117 Bonn, Germany
Central telephone number: +49(0)228 997799 0
Central e-mail address: poststelle@bfdi.bund.de

4. Handling of personal data and cookies

The term “personal data” describes all information that can be used to identify a person, i.e. information that can be traced back to a person. This includes a person’s name, e-mail address and telephone number. Furthermore, information about personal preferences, hobbies, memberships, or website viewing history also counts as personal data.

You are not legally or contractually required to provide your personal data, and it is not necessary for the purposes of contractual conclusion. Sharing of personal data is voluntary.

Whenever a user accesses the website of the German Lost Art Foundation and opens a file, data about this process are temporarily stored in a log file and processed. Prior to storage, each data record is anonymized by changing the IP address. It is therefore not possible to associate recorded data with a specific natural person.

The following data are stored whenever the website or a file is accessed:

  • Anonymized IP address
  • Date and time
  • Accessed web page/name of accessed file
  • Amount of data transmitted
  • Report if access/retrieval was successful.

When you use our contact form, the registration form for our mailing list, or the restitution notification form, we ask you to provide a number of personal details. These include your title, first name, last name, residential or business address, telephone number, fax number, e-mail address and/or your message. These details are always voluntary and are used by the German Lost Art Foundation entirely for the purpose of correspondence with you.

The information is encrypted by our web server and electronically forwarded to an email account at our Foundation.

Unless you voluntarily provide the required details, you may only be able to use the functions on our website to a limited extent. This depends, in particular, on whether the details are optional or whether they are essential to the use of a given function. If you do not provide the required details, you cannot contact us via the contact form, receive press invitations or information by e-mail via the mailing list and/or submit a restitution notification via this website.

Our website uses so-called cookies in several places. “Cookies” are small text files that are placed on your computer and stored by your browser. Cookies do not damage your computer and do not contain viruses. The cookies used on this website do not routinely contain any personal data.

You can set your browser to inform you when a website wishes to place a cookie on your computer. You can also grant or deny permission on a general or case-by-case basis, as well as activate the option to automatically delete cookies when closing your browser. The functionality of this website is not limited through the disabling of cookies, but this leads to the permanent display of a so-called cookie banner on the home page of the website.

The German Lost Art Foundation will not pass your data on to third parties without your written permission unless:

  • a subcontractor or vicarious agent, whom we deploy exclusively to provide the facilities or services requested by you, requires these data (unless you have been expressly informed otherwise, such auxiliaries are authorized to use the data only to the extent that is necessary in order to provide the relevant facility or service),
  • there is a legally binding court order or valid official directive, or
  • the data are required in order to prevent improper use of our facilities or services in a legally permitted manner.

This website is hosted by an external contractor (University Data Center of the Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg). If personal data are processed on this website, they are stored on the servers of the University Data Center of the Otto von Guericke University in Magdeburg. The external contractor has access to these personal data exclusively as part of the technical provision and administration of this website. The external contractor is obligated to comply with data protection regulations.

All data are located on servers within the Federal Republic of Germany. Your data are not used for other purposes, stored together with other data (profile creation) or disclosed to third parties.

5. Legal basis and purpose of the processing of personal data and the use of cookies

We process your personal data primarily on the basis of legitimate interests according to GDPR, Art. 6 (1) points a, e and f.

Personal data are processed for the purpose of providing this website and its functions, and displaying the same on your end device.

Provision of the website is based on the statutory tasks of the German Lost Art Foundation and serves public interest under the German government’s duty of information.

Moreover, personal data are processed in order to allow you to use various functions on our website. They include the contact form, the mailing list and the restitution notification function, among others.

Beyond this, personal data are analyzed only for statistical purposes and to improve our website. They are used to make our website more user-friendly, more effective and more secure.

This also applies to cookies used on this website. These allow our systems to recognize your browser and offer you services (recognition, storage of your preferences concerning the cookie banner).

6. Retention period for personal data and cookies

Your personal data are erased as soon as they have served their purpose. Files referring to access data (log files) are erased after no more than one week. Your personal data are only stored beyond those periods if the German Lost Art Foundation is obligated to do so by European, national or state legislation, or due to a legally binding court order or enforceable official directive.

Cookies remain stored on your end device until they are manually deleted or you enable the deletion of cookies upon closing your browser in your browser settings.

7. Use of Matomo (formerly Piwik)

This website uses the open source web analysis service Matomo.

Matomo uses cookies. These are text files that are saved to your computer and allow Matomo to analyze your use of the website (see clause 4). To that end, information about your use of this website that is collected by the cookie is stored on our server independently of other data. The IP address is anonymized before it is saved. Any site use information that is generated by the cookie is not disclosed to third parties.

The information is used in accordance with GDPR Art. 6 (1) point f, in order to analyze site use and to help us improve the user experience of our website. This information is not disclosed to third parties.

You can prevent cookies from being saved to your device by changing the relevant settings in your browser settings. Please note, however, that if you do, you may no longer be able to use all the functions of this website to their full extent. If you do not consent to your data being stored and used, you can subsequently disable these processes. If you choose to do so, an opt-out cookie is stored in your browser, preventing Matomo from storing user data. When you delete your cookies, the Matomo opt-out cookie is also deleted. This means that you will need to re-enable the opt-out option when you next visit our website.

You can access Matomo’s privacy policy at https://matomo.org/privacy/.

8. Use of social media channels

Based on GDPR Art. 6 (1) point f, our website uses plug-ins from the social media channels Facebook and Twitter, and we also operate a YouTube channel. This is to fulfill the statutory tasks of the German Lost Art Foundation and to serve public interest under the German government’s duty of information. Each site owner is itself responsible for compliance with data protection law. Data are not forwarded to Facebook or Twitter until you have enabled the relevant functions.

Facebook plug-ins (“Like” button and share function)

Our website pages contain plug-ins from the social media channel Facebook (www.facebook.com). This channel is provided by Facebook Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Dublin 2, Ireland (for Europe) and by Facebook Inc., 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA (for the USA).

You will recognize the Facebook plug-ins by the Facebook logo and the “Like” button on our site. An overview of Facebook plug-ins can be found here: http://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/. When you visit our website, the plug-in establishes a direct connection between your browser and the Facebook server. This means that Facebook is informed that you have visited our site using your IP address. If you click the “Like” button while you are logged into your Facebook account, you can link the content of our website to your Facebook profile. This enables Facebook to associate your visit to our site with your user account.

Please note that, as the site owners, we have no knowledge of the content of data transmitted to Facebook, or how they are used by Facebook. Further details on this point can be found in Facebook’s Data Policy, available at https://www.facebook.com/policy.php. If you do not want Facebook to associate your visit to our website with your Facebook user account, you will need to log out of your Facebook user account.

Twitter

Our website includes functions from Twitter. These functions are offered by Twitter Inc., 1355 Market Street, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA.

When you use Twitter and the retweet function, the websites you visit are associated with your Twitter account, and your site visit is announced to other Twitter users. This process involves sending data to Twitter, including information about the fact that you visited our site using your IP address.

So it follows that when you use Twitter’s share button, this information is saved to your Twitter user account and may be published on the Twitter platform. To prevent this from happening, you must either log out of Twitter before visiting our website or make the relevant changes to your Twitter user account settings.

Please note that, as the site owners, we have no knowledge of the content of data sent to Twitter, or how they are used by Twitter. Further details can be found in Twitter’s Privacy Policy, available at https://twitter.com/privacy?lang=en. To change your Twitter privacy settings, go to your account settings at http://twitter.com/account/settings.

YouTube

We also run a YouTube channel. YouTube is a service of Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland, which is a subsidiary of Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043 USA.

Please note that it is possible for user data to be processed outside the European Union, particularly in the United States. This may lead to an increased risk for users as, for example, it may become more difficult to access user data at a later stage. Moreover, we have no access to those user data. These can only be accessed by YouTube.

Google LLC is certified under the Privacy Shield and has therefore undertaken to comply with European data protection standards https://www.privacyshield.gov/participant?id=a2zt000000001L5AAI&status=Active.

You will find YouTube’s privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy.

9. Rights of data subjects

If the German Lost Art Foundation processes your personal data, you as the data subject have the following rights:

According to

  • GDPR Art. 7, the data subject shall have the right to withdraw his or her consent at any time. The withdrawal of consent shall not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal,
  • GDPR Art. 15, the data subject shall have the right to obtain information from the controller regarding their personal data being processed, and further information as permitted by the regulations,
  • GDPR Art. 16, the data subject shall have the right to obtain from the controller without undue delay the rectification of inaccurate personal data concerning him or her, and the right to have incomplete personal data completed,
  • GDPR Art. 17, the data subject shall have the right to obtain from the controller the erasure of personal data concerning him or her,
  • GDPR Art. 21, the data subject shall have the right to object, on grounds relating to his or her particular situation, at any time to processing of personal data concerning him or her unless the controller demonstrates compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override the data subject’s interests, rights and freedoms,

  • GDPR Art. 18, the data subject shall have the right to obtain from the controller restriction of processing where one of the following applies:

    • the accuracy of the personal data is contested by the data subject,
    • the processing is unlawful and the data subject opposes the erasure of the personal data and requests the restriction of their use instead,
    • the controller no longer needs the personal data for the aforementioned purposes, but they are required for the establishment, exercise or defense of legal claims,
    • the data subject has objected to processing pursuant to Art. 21 (1), but it has not yet been determined whether the controller’s compelling legitimate grounds for continuing to process the personal data override the data subject’s interests, rights and freedoms,
  • GDPR Art. 20, the data subject shall have the right to receive the personal data concerning him or her, which he or she has provided to the controller, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and have the right to transmit those data to another controller without hindrance, provided that the processing is carried out by the controller by automated means and is based on consent,
  • GDPR Art. 77, the data subject shall, without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy, have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of his or her habitual residence, place of work or place of the alleged infringement if the data subject considers that the processing of personal data relating to him or her infringes data protection regulations. The German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection is responsible for our organization (see clause 3).

Should you wish to exercise the above rights against the German Lost Art Foundation or if you have any questions regarding privacy issues, please contact our Data Protection Officer by letter, e-mail or fax (see clause 2).

10. Amendments to our privacy policy

To ensure the protection of your personal data, we will continuously update this privacy policy. We recommend that you reread this privacy policy from time to time to keep informed about how we protect your data and continually improve the content of our website. Should we make major changes in the way we collect, use and/or transfer the personal data you provide to us, we will bring this to your attention in the form of a clear and visible notice on our website. By using our website, you declare your consent to the provisions laid out in this privacy policy.