The Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment is active on the social network LinkedIn. With the following privacy notice, we would like to inform you about the data protection aspects of our presence on LinkedIn (referred to as the "LinkedIn account"). The LinkedIn account is operated and managed by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment.
Below you will find information on
- The purposes of the use of the LinkedIn account,
- Alternative information and communication services,
- The relevant legal basis,
- The nature, scope and purposes of data processing by the Ministry of the Environment and LinkedIn respectively
- As well as your rights as a data subject
- And other sources of information
Purpose of use
With the LinkedIn account, the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment supplements its other communication channels such as the Internet and other social media channels, press releases, newsletters (information services), print products and events.
The Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment uses the LinkedIn account to provide users with general information about the Ministry's policies and topics and to comment on current discourses and events relating to these topics.
The LinkedIn account also provides information about events that the Ministry of the Environment organises together with and for stakeholders of interest. The LinkedIn account is also used for networking and exchanging information with (specialised) experts from the sectors of interest to the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment. As a superordinate company page, it therefore also offers a platform for our employees registered there to report on their work and specialist topics.
In addition, the Ministry of the Environment presents itself as an employer and provides insights into (labour-related) topics that concern us as an authority. This area also includes the dissemination of information on job vacancies for the individual departments of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment.
For some target groups, the existing instruments are no longer sufficient. We can reach our network of journalists, politicians, specialised experts, partners and interested members of the public directly, quickly and on a daily basis via LinkedIn and enter into dialogue with them.
The LinkedIn account enables us to disseminate our messages and funding opportunities more widely, as well as strengthening our network and spreading the word about our work and support measures to the stakeholders relevant to us. We can enter into direct dialogue with experts in the field via LinkedIn and receive valuable feedback in order to fulfil and optimise our tasks.
Nature and scope of use
Regular content of the posts on LinkedIn includes:
- Current news on the environment, nature conservation, climate and the energy industry (including current press releases)
- Reports about meetings and events organised by the head of office and employees of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment
- Information about offers from partners and stakeholders
- Presenting the position of the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment with regard to current environmental policy developments
- Information on funding programmes and offers from the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment
- Information on the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment as an employer
There is no correspondence or even consultation on individual cases. For this purpose, the Ministry of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector always refers to the contact at the Citizens' Desk 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 of the Environment, Climate Protection and the Energy Sector: pressestelle@um.bwl.de.
Alternative information and communication services and contact options
The LinkedIn account is merely an additional offer for the users of social media. The Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment offers citizens and other interested parties alternative information and communication options that can be used instead of the LinkedIn feed, without disadvantage:
- Website of the Ministry of the Environment at um.baden-wuerttemberg.de/en/home
- Other online services provided by the Ministry of the Environment, such as websites on specific topics or the "My Environment" app
The Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment points out that the LinkedIn account is solely for information, communication and networking 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.
Telephone enquiries can be made via the head office (+49 711 126-0) or directly to our citizens' officer.
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 of the Environment, we refer to the General Data Privacy Declaration.
Legal basis of use
The use of the LinkedIn account and the associated processing of personal data by the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment takes place on the basis of Section 4 State Data Protection Act (LDSG) (as a provision 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 Baden-Württemberg state administration.
Processing of personal data by LinkedIn
The LinkedIn account is an online presence in the form of a company page within the platform, which is operated by LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company (hereinafter referred to as "LinkedIn"), Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company.
Please note that your use of the LinkedIn network offered here and its functions is your own responsibility. This applies in particular to the use of interactive functions (e.g. sharing, rating).
LinkedIn processes the data you voluntarily entered during registration, such as your name, e-mail address, telephone number and your payment and billing information, if you have registered for a premium service. Or the contacts in your address book if you have uploaded or synchronised it. LinkedIn also processes the personal information that you publish on your profile, such as education, professional experience, skills, photo or other demographic data, if you provide, post or upload this on the network's services.
On the other hand, LinkedIn also evaluates the content you share to determine what topics you are interested in, stores and processes confidential messages you send directly to other users, and can determine your location using geolocation data such as GPS or Galileo, information on wireless networks or via your IP address in order to send you advertising or other content.
When you visit, follow or engage with our LinkedIn company page, LinkedIn processes personal data to provide us with statistics and insights in anonymised form using analysis tools. This gives us insights into the types of actions that people take on our site (known as page insights). Data that you have already provided when registering or using LinkedIn will be processed. The Ministry of the Environment has no influence on the use of such tools by LinkedIn and has also not been informed about such potential use. The Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment is also only given access to anonymised, non-personal information about posting activity, such as the number of company page or link clicks on a particular post. This means that it is not possible for the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment to draw conclusions about individual members from the information in the page insights.
Finally, LinkedIn also receives information when you view content, for example, even if you have not created an account. This so-called "log data" may be the IP address, browser type, operating system, information about the website you previously visited and the pages you viewed, your location, your mobile provider, the end device you are using (including device ID and application ID), the search terms you used and cookie information.
Through LinkedIn buttons or widgets embedded in websites and the use of cookies, it is possible for LinkedIn to record your visits to these websites and associate them with your LinkedIn profile. This data can be used to offer content or advertising tailored to you. Content from LinkedIn is integrated in our website as passive elements and active elements protected via the so-called "two-click solution", in an exclusively privacy-compliant manner.
You have options to restrict the processing of your data in the general settings of your LinkedIn account. In addition, on mobile devices (smartphones, tablet computers) you can restrict LinkedIn's access to contact and calendar data, photos, location data and so on in the settings options there. However, this depends on the operating system used.
Information about which data is processed by LinkedIn and for which purposes can be found in the LinkedIn Privacy Policy.
The Ministry of the Environment has no influence on the type and scope of the data processed by LinkedIn, the way it is processed and used, or the transfer of this data to third parties.
This data is processed by LinkedIn, with LinkedIn assuring compliance with European data protection law.
During the use of LinkedIn, 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 privacy policies. 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 General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and that there are also no suitable guarantees in the meaning of Article 46 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 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 of the Environment
The data you enter on LinkedIn, in particular your name and the content published under your account, may be processed by us insofar as we may repost your posts on our company page, reply to them or write posts from us that refer to your profile or even answer your enquiries via Messenger. The data you freely publish and distribute on LinkedIn is thus included by the Ministry of the Environment in its offer and made available to its followers.
Otherwise, the Baden-Württemberg Ministry of the Environment only processes the personal data of visitors to the LinkedIn company page 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.
Use of social plug-ins from LinkedIn on the website
Active LinkedIn elements (known as social plug-ins) are integrated via the so-called "two-click solution". These only become active with consent (click) and when a data connection to LinkedIn is established. When you leave or refresh the page, this connection is automatically disconnected again.
Rights, usage concept, evaluation
If you have any questions about our information services, you can contact us at pressestelle@um.bwl.de. You can exercise your rights of access, restriction of processing, objection, rectification or erasure of data by contacting our data protection officer.
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.