The Ministry for the Environment, Climate and Energy Sector of Baden-Württemberg (hereinafter referred to as: Ministry for the Environment) is active on the social network Facebook. With the following privacy notice, we would like to inform you about the data protection aspects of our presence on Facebook (hereinafter referred to as the "Facebook page"). The Facebook page is operated and managed by the Ministry for the Environment of Baden-Württemberg.
Below you will find information on
- The purposes of the use of the Facebook page,
- Alternative information and communication services,
- The relevant legal basis,
- The nature, scope and purposes of data processing by Facebook and the involvement of the Ministry for the Environment
- As well as your rights as a data subject
- And other sources of information.
Purpose of use
The Ministry for the Environment Baden-Württemberg uses the Facebook page to provide information about the policies of the state government as part of sustainable government communication, to create transparency about political decisions and to promote political dialogue with the citizens of the state as well as to receive feedback. (Article 6 (1) (e) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)) in conjunction with Section 4 of the Baden-Württemberg State Data Protection Act (LDSG)).
Nature and scope of use
Regular content of the posts includes:
- Current press releases
- Current news on the environment, nature conservation, climate and the energy industry
- Reports about meetings of the head of office
- Notes on and reports about events
- Information about offers from partners
- Presenting the position of the Ministry for the Environment with regard to current environmental policy developments
There is no correspondence or even consultation on individual cases. For this purpose, the Ministry for the Environment always refers to the contact of the Citizens' Officer or another competent contact person.
Responsibilities for editorial/technical support
Responsibility for editorial support lies with the Press and Public Relations Office of the Ministry for the Environment: pressestelle@um.bwl.de.
Alternative information and communication services and contact options
The Facebook page is merely an additional offer for the users of social media. The Ministry for the Environment Baden-Württemberg offers citizens and other interested parties alternative information and communication options that can be used instead of the Facebook page, without disadvantage:
- Website of the Ministry for the Environment at um.baden-wuerttemberg.de
- Other online services provided by the Ministry for the Environment, such as websites on specific topics, newsletters or the "My Environment" app.
The Ministry for the Environment Baden-Württemberg points out that the Facebook page is solely for information and communication purposes, but that no citizen service or other administrative tasks can be provided via it.
Other contact options
For all enquiries, you can generally contact our central inbox poststelle@um.bwl.de.
Telephone enquiries can be made via the head office (0711 126-0) or directly to our citizens' officer buergerreferent@um.bwl.de
Street address: Kernerplatz 9, 70182 Stuttgart, Germany
Postal address: PO Box 10 34 39, 70029 Stuttgart, Germany
Voluntary agreement
This usage concept is updated by us once a year with regard to utilisation.
Regarding data processing by the Ministry for the Environment, we refer to the General Data Privacy Declaration.
Legal basis of use
The use of the Facebook page and the associated processing of personal data by the Ministry for the Environment takes place on the basis of Section 4 State Data Protection Act (LDSG) (as a regulation within the meaning of Article 6(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)) and serves the performance of necessary tasks in the context of public relations work in accordance with the allocation of responsibilities of the state administration of Baden-Württemberg.
Processing of personal data by Facebook
The Facebook page is an online presence within the Facebook platform offered by Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland (hereinafter "Facebook").
Please note that your use of this Facebook page and its functions is your own responsibility. This applies in particular to the use of interactive functions (e.g. commenting, sharing, rating).
Facebook collects the personal data of visitors to the Facebook page and processes it in accordance with the Facebook Data Policy. This includes, in particular, interactions with the Facebook page, such as calling up posts, images, sharing them, clicking the "Like" button, as well as information about the user's device (hereinafter referred to as "visitor data"). For further information on the visitor data processed, please refer to About Page Insights on Facebook.
Visitor data may be used to display content or advertisements to visitors of the Facebook page according to their interest in certain posts on the Facebook page or their interactions with its content, such as clicking on the "Like" button.
For the above-mentioned purposes, so-called "cookies" are stored on the devices of visitors to the Facebook page, i.e. small files that store the above-mentioned information pseudonymously (i.e. without plain data, such as names or email addresses). Users can find details about cookies and the options for objecting to them in Facebook's Cookie Policy.
The visitor data is processed by Facebook in the USA, with Facebook assuring compliance with European data protection law. During the use of Facebook, data may be passed on to third parties, in particular the operators of these systems. The processing of this data can be seen in their Data Privacy Statements. We expressly point out that in this case of data transfer to third countries, the level of data protection in the third country may not have been established by the EU Commission in accordance with Article 45 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and that there are also no suitable guarantees in the meaning of Article 46 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It is therefore possible that the level of data protection in the third country is not equivalent to that in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). For example, it may be possible to use the data for commercial interests, to display specific advertising to users.
Processing of personal data by the Ministry for the Environment
The data you enter on our Facebook page, in particular your username and the content published under your account, may be processed by us insofar as we share or respond to your posts.
Otherwise, the Baden-Württemberg Ministry for the Environment only processes visitors' personal data to the extent necessary to process an enquiry or comment.
We delete users' comments on our posts after five calendar years at the latest (linked to the duration of a legislative term), unless there is a special public interest in keeping a post (Article 17 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)). Users are free to post their comment again.
Shared responsibility with Facebook and the rights of the data subject
The Ministry for the Environment and Facebook are jointly responsible for the processing of the personal data of visitors to the Facebook page pursuant to Article 4 (7) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and, for this purpose, the Ministry for the Environment has entered into a specific agreement with Facebook pursuant to Article 26 (1) sentence 2 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
This agreement stipulates that Facebook is primarily responsible for data processing and that the Ministry for the Environment has no access to the individual data of visitors, but can only retrieve aggregated statistics, such as gender or age distribution. Furthermore, Facebook undertakes to respect the rights of data subjects and to respond to requests for information, objection or deletion, for example.
The Ministry for the Environment therefore asks visitors to the Facebook page to contact Facebook directly in order to assert their rights as data subjects, with regard to the processing of their data by Facebook. For the above-mentioned reasons, the Ministry for the Environment may also only forward requests for information to Facebook, for example. In addition, the Ministry for the Environment observes the obligations incumbent upon it vis-à-vis the data subjects in accordance with the notes on the rights of the data subject in the General Data Privacy Declaration.
Furthermore, the Ministry for the Environment points out that, according to the agreement with Facebook, the Irish Data Protection Commission is the lead authority for the supervision of processing under joint responsibility. Visitors to the Facebook page have the right to lodge a complaint with the Irish Data Protection Commission, in addition to their local supervisory authority.
Use of social plug-ins from Facebook on the website
Active Facebook elements are integrated on our website via the so-called "two-click solution". These only become active with consent (click) and when a data connection to Facebook is established. When you leave or refresh the page, this connection is automatically disconnected again. Here you can find the current Facebook Data Policy.
Even if you are not logged in/registered with Facebook, Facebook stores a cookie on your computer when you access this page, which could possibly be used to track your behaviour on the internet. If you do not agree with this, delete the cookies stored in your browser after you have left a Facebook page or generally prohibit websites from storing cookies on your computer in the browser settings (see the "Help" section of your browser).
This cookie is also stored on your computer when you click on a Facebook "Like" button on other Facebook websites. Facebook also stores your current IP address when you visit a Facebook page or other website with the "Like" button. This also potentially enables temporary tracking of your surfing behaviour. On our website (um.baden-wuerttemberg.de), we therefore do not use social plug-ins such as the "Like" button. We have no influence on the storage of cookies. This is controlled exclusively by Facebook.
Deal with your data consciously. Remember that all your messages, pictures and comments remain stored on Facebook's servers. If you do not want Facebook to track your browsing behaviour, log out after each Facebook session. Delete the cookies stored on the computer or set your browser to do this automatically when you close your browser (please refer to the "Help" function of your browser). Another option is to use a separate browser for Facebook.
For example, if you normally surf the Internet with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, only use an alternative browser for Facebook, such as Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, Opera or similar.
Usage concept and evaluation
If you have any questions about our information services, you can contact us at pressestelle@um.bwl.de.
The concept on which the offer is based can be found in the usage concept. We evaluate this once a year with regard to whether and how it is used. We regularly raise users' awareness of the risks to their right to informational self-determination.
For more information on Facebook and other social networks and how you can protect your data, please also visit youngdata.de.