Privacy policy for our website

The following statement provides you with an overview of how The Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector ensures the protection of your data when you use our website, and explains what type of data are processed for what purpose and to what extent within our website and other linked websites, functions and content. In addition, we want to inform you about your rights in this regard.

The Privacy Statement applies regardless of which domains, systems, platforms and devices (e.g. desktop or mobile) the website appears.

We use terms such as “personal data” or their “processing” according to their definitions in data of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

In the course of further developments to our website and the technologies used to do so, changes to this Privacy Statement may become necessary. We therefore recommend that you re-read the Privacy Statement from time to time.

We reserve the right to make changes to this Privacy Statement in order to adapt it to comply with altered legal bases, or in the case of changes made to the service or the data processing. To the extent that user consent is required or components of the Privacy Statement contain regulations of the contractual relationship with the user, such changes will only be implemented with the consent of the user.

The Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector process data in the context of this website

• so that you can access its pages
• for sending newsletters
• in the use of contact forms
• when publications are ordered
• in the registration for events, and
• for statistical analysis

The personal data processed within the framework of this website includes master data (such as e-mail addresses for newsletter and contact form, names and addresses and e-mail addresses for ordering publications), usage data (such as the pages you have visited on our website) and content data (such as information entered on the contact form).

We collect these data in this respect on the basis of Article 6 Section 1 Letter e GDPR in combination with § 4 State Data Protection Legislation (LDSG) in order to be able to make this website available to you in the fulfilment of our duties in the public interest (PR work of the Press Office of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector).

We only process personal data within the framework of the relevant data protection provisions. This means that we only process your data when we have legal permission, particularly if the data processing is required for the performance of our duties (such as the processing of orders) and online services, or if such permission is legally prescribed or authorised or if we have the user’s consent for such.

Data is collected and exchanged between your browser and our server during each of your visits to our website. The Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector automatically collects and stores data (Logfile information) that your browser transmits to our server. These data are:

• the type and version of your Internet browser
• your operating system
• the accessed page
• the page you visited immediately before (Referrer URL)
• and the date and time of the server query

The Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector analyses the data specified above solely for statistical purposes to measure the level of demand for online services. The Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector has no possible means by which to attribute this data to a specific person. This data is not aggregated together with other data sources.

The IP numbers are gathered for the duration of your visit so as to facilitate responding to the queries. These IP numbers are stored for seven days. We collect these data in this respect on the basis of Article 6 Section 1 Letter e GDPR in combination with § 4 State Data Protection Legislation (LDSG) in order to be able to make this website available to you in the fulfilment of our duties in the public interest (PR work of the Press Office of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector).

Data logged when you access the website are only transferred to third parties to the extent that we are obligated by law or legal ruling to do so, or such transfer is necessary for the prosecution or criminal proceedings in the event of attacks on the Internet infrastructure of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector Such transfer does not occur under other circumstances.

In some places on the website you have the possibility to volunteer personal information: for example, on contact forms or when registering to receive our newsletter. We only store and use such (personal) data solely for the purpose for which you provided it. This data is not provided to third parties if this is not expressly declared.

All of the information that you receive at these places (such as newsletter) is also available to you at other sources without providing your data. For example, you can directly access newsletter content at Press Releases. You can also use means other than electronic contact facilities (e. g. e-mail or contact form) to contact us. To this extent the voluntary nature of providing personal data is ensured at all times. There are no disadvantages for you if you do not provide your data; in such cases you must at most revert to other means of information acquisition.

So-called session cookies are used in order for you to order publications. Session cookies are small units of information stored by an Internet service provider in the main memory of the computer of the individual accessing the website. A randomly generated unique identification number known as a session-ID is filed in a session cookie. In addition, a cookie also contains information regarding its origin and retention period. These cookies cannot store any other data. The session-ID is used to compile your orders into your online shopping basket. The session cookies are only stored for the duration of the current visit to our website. They are deleted when you finish using our website and you for example log out or close your browser. In this regard also we only process your personal data for the provision of the website on the basis of Article 6 Section 1 Letter e GDPR in combination with § 4 State Data Protection Legislation (LDSG).

All Internet browsers can control cookies. Most browsers are set up so that all cookies are accepted without asking the user. If you want to use the full functional capacity of the website then you should set your browser settings to accept session cookies. If you don’t want cookies to be stored on your computer then you should deactivate the corresponding option in your browser’s system settings.

If you do not accept all cookies

• no messages can be sent using the contact form and
• the online shopping basket cannot be used to compile different publications.

We do not use cookies for pseudonymous range measurement. You can generally reject the use of cookies that are used for range measurement and advertising purposes via the deactivation page of the Network Advertising Initiative and additionally this US website or this European website.

The newsletter provides information regarding the latest news from the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, Climate and the Energy Sector. It is created and sent by the online editorial staff of the Ministry of the Environment. The newsletter will only be sent to you if you register for it.

To register for the newsletter all you need to do is provide your e-mail address. This e-mail address and the newsletter list you have selected are stored on a server. We only use these data for sending the newsletter. The data sets for statistical evaluations are used for analysing the system performance. We do not pass your data on to third parties or use it for other purposes of our own.

Registration for our newsletter is conducted in what is called a Double-Opt-In process. This means that after registering you are sent an e-mail in which you are requested to confirm your registration. This confirmation is necessary so that no one can register with e-mail addresses that are not their own. The registrations for the newsletter are logged so as to verify that the registration process complies with the legal requirements. This includes the storage of the time of registration and of the corresponding confirmation.

By subscribing to our newsletter you agree to receive the newsletter and to the registration process described above.

You can withdraw this consent at any time. You can also delete your address at any time by using the “Delete Newsletter” form on the website, or unsubscribe from this service by using a corresponding link at the end of each newsletter. Your data will then be automatically deleted without delay.

For statistical purposes we analyse the visitor numbers to the newsletter. This process can include the transmission of data on clicking and reading conduct (access time, newsletter opening, duration of access, clicks on articles…). Allocation to the specific recipients of the newsletter is not possible. We only receive aggregated analyses (x people read Article y). Profiling also does not take place. The information is used for the technical and editorial improvement of our services.

The statistical collection and analyses as well as the logging of the registration procedure are conducted on the basis of Article 6 Section 1 Letter e GDPR in combination with § 4 State Data Protection Legislation (LDSG) in the fulfilment of our duties in the public interest and as verification of the received consent in accordance with Article 7 Section 1 GDPR in combination with  Article 5 Section 1 Letter b.

When you contact us (per contact form or e-mail) the user information is used for processing and handling the contact query, and as such for the performance of our duties in the public interest in accordance with Article 6 Section 1 Letter e of the GDPR in combination with § 4 State Data Protection Legislation (LDSG) . If you use the contact form for an order in accordance with Article 6 Section 1 Letter b of the GDPR in combination with § 4 State Data Protection Legislation (LDSG).

If you send us an e-mail it and your e-mail address are used only for the correspondence with you. In the case of orders the personal data you provide is only transferred to third parties for the transaction of the order (shipping company, or as needed other government authorities or institutions to the extent that they ship the ordered materials). Following the fulfilment of or response to the query your information is deleted or, as needed in file-related procedures, stored in accordance with the applicable data protection regulations for records management.

When an order for a publication is made the data required for order processing and for shipping is collected (name, address, e-mail address for contact). These data are only stored and used for processing the orders. The publications are sent by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, Climate and the Energy Sector itself and by a shipping company on behalf of the Ministry. To this end the data entered in the order form is forwarded to the shipping company. This data is not transferred to additional third parties. These personal data are deleted after 90 days; only a statistic of the ordered publications is retained.

1. Right to information: You have the right at any time to receive information on the stored data related to your person without the necessity of providing any forms or reasons. This also applies for the origin and recipients of such information, and for the purpose of data storage. You will receive this information free of charge (Article 15 GDPR). Information on this stored data is provided to you by the Internet editorial staff of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, Climate and the Energy Sector: webmaster@um.bwl.de.
2. Right of rectification, right of revocation and additional rights: You additionally have the right of rectification regarding incorrect data, the restriction of processing and the deletion of your personal data (Article 16 GDPR, Article 17 GDPR, Article 18 GDPR). In the event of the acceptance of unlawful data processing, you can submit a complaint at any time to the supervisory authority responsible for overseeing our activities, the State Officer for Data Protection. If you have provided us with consent, you are fundamentally entitled to revoke this consent for the future (Article 7 GDPR).
3. Right of objection: To the extent that we process your personal data not on the basis of your consent, but instead on the basis of legal circumstances as described in Article 6 Section 1 Letter e GDPR in combination with § 4 State Data Protection Legislation (LDSG), you are entitled at any time to object to the future processing of your personal data for reasons related to your particular situation (Article 21 GDPR).
4. Deletion of data: The data that we store are deleted as soon as they are no longer necessary for their intended purpose and their deletion is not impeded by any legal storage requirement obligations. To the extent that the user data are not deleted because they are required for other and for legally permissible purposes, the processing of such data is restricted. This means that the data are blocked and not processed for other purposes. This applies for example for the data of users of the Online Shop which is required to be stored for commercially-related or tax-related reasons.

You can use any Internet browser to show you if cookies have been stored and what information they contain. Detailed information on this is provided by the virtual data protection office of the national and state Data Protection Officers in Germany (in German only).

This website uses various Social Media services and other third party services. Some of these are designed so that data is only transferred following your consent or in the event of certain activities (sharing links).

If you activate the Social Media services, you must observe their data protection regulations.

The Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, Climate and the Energy Sector does not publish any relevant content exclusively on its Facebook page or X (formerly Twitter) channel. All relevant information can be accessed on the website of the Ministry of the Environment.

After receiving the active consent of the user, our website uses a social plug-in from the social network facebook.com. You can find the current Facebook data protection regulations here. You can avoid the transfer of your IP address by not activating the Facebook box or you can inhibit it once again after you have activated it using the data protection switch of the social plug-in.

We use the Facebook plug-in to inform the public regarding the work of the state government. The plug-in is operated by Facebook Ireland Ltd., 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland. The plug-in can depict interaction elements or content (e.g. videos, graphics or text contributions); these are characterised and identifiable by one of the Facebook logos (a white “f” against a rectangular blue backdrop, the terms "Like" or a “Thumbs up” symbol). You can examine the list and appearance of the Facebook Social plug-ins here.

Facebook is certified under the Privacy Shield agreement and subsequently provides a guarantee of compliance with European data protection law.

If you access a function of this website containing such a plug-in, we ask you for your consent (two-click-solution). Only then does your device construct a direct connection with the Facebook servers. The content of the plug-in is transmitted directly from Facebook to your device and integrated into the online presence. User profiles can be created from the processed data in this process. As such, we have no influence on the scope of the data that Facebook collects with the help of this plug-in, and we are therefore informing you regarding the state of our information.

The integration of the plug-ins provides Facebook with the information that you have accessed the corresponding website page. If you are logged into Facebook, Facebook can allocate the visit to your Facebook account. If you interact with the plug-ins, for example by using the “Like” button or leaving a comment, the corresponding information will be sent from your device directly to Facebook and stored there.

If you are not a member of Facebook, it is still possible for Facebook to ascertain and store your IP address. According to Facebook, in Germany only an anonymised IP address is stored. If you are a member of Facebook and you do not want Facebook to use this website to collect data and link it to your stored Facebook member data, you must log out of Facebook and delete your corresponding cookies before using our website. At all points at which services/offers from this website use services of Facebook or other social networks, you will be asked for your consent (two-click-solution). Other settings and objections to the use of data for advertising purposes are possible within the Facebook Profile Settings or via this US website or this EU website. The settings apply regardless of the platform, i.e. they are applied for all devices such as desktop computers or mobile devices.

The depiction of the X feed occurs without the transfer of the data to X.

While the Flickr box does indeed depict images from the Flickr account of the Baden-Württemberg state government, it taps this information from the Flickr RSS feed. As such, no user data is transferred to Flickr. A connection to Flickr exists only for loading and displaying the latest images from the Flickr stream.

Videos from the platform “YouTube” from the third-party provider Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA are integrated in our website. If you view video content on our website, information on user conduct is transferred (e. g. opening the video and the duration of viewing). The Google Privacy Statement is found here, and the possibility to opt-out is located here.

On our website use we a map from the service “Google Maps” from the third-party provider Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. If you use the map, information on user conduct (e. g. IP address, location data) is transferred if you have not deactivated this function. The Google Privacy Statement is found here, and the possibility to opt-out is located here.

In the interest of a needs-oriented design and the continuous improvement of our website, the website uses the web analysis tool “eMetrics Tracking” from the company WiredMinds AG, Stuttgart, for the statistical analysis of visitor access. We use “eMetrics Tracking” on the basis our legitimate interests (i.e. interest in the analysis, the optimisation and economically efficient operation of our website as defined by Article 6 Section 1 Letter e GDPR in combination with § 4 State Data Protection Legislation (LDSG)).

For this analysis, data such as the time of the visit, the pages visited, the duration of the visit and the regional origin of the visit are collected and processed in anonymised form. The usage profiles are created in anonymised from using pseudonyms. This can also involve the use of cookies that collect and store data in anonymised form. The identification of the visitor on the basis of the data collected is not possible.

You can object to the collection and use of your website visit data and thereby prevent website tracking. For this, please visit the following link: www.webstatistik-bw.de.

This objection (known as “Opt-Out”) applies for the browser used and is stored there using cookies.

For the quality assurance of our website we use the “Web Governance Suite” service from the third-party provider Siteimprove A/S, Sankt Annae Plads 28, 1250 Copenhagen, Denmark. This service collects and processes data that are published on our website. This can also include personal data. The collected data is not passed on to third parties.

We undertake organisational, contractual (for example with hosting service providers) and technical security measures in accordance with the latest state of technology in order to ensure that the provisions of the data protection legislation are complied with and to protect the data that we process against coincidental or intentional manipulation, loss, destruction or access by unauthorised persons.

These security measures include in particular the encrypted transmission of data between your browser and our server.

For further information regarding the handling of personal data in the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, Climate and the Energy Sector, please contact the Data Protection Officer of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment, Climate and the Energy Sector:  datenschutz@um.bwl.de. 

For precise details about the party responsible for the website, see the Imprint.