Data privacy

1. Information on the collection of personal data

In the following we inform about the collection of personal data when using our website. Personal data are all data that can be related to you personally, e.g. name, address, email addresses, user behavior.

a) The responsible party in the sense of Art. 4 Para. 7 of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is

Ruhr Regional Association (RVR) Kronprinzenstrasse 6  45128 Essen Germany besserbereit@metropole.ruhr (see our legal notice)

You can reach our data protection officer at  DATENSCHUTZ@RVR.RUHR or via our postal address with the addition “the data protection officer”.

b) When you contact us by email, the data you provide (your email address, your name and telephone number if applicable) will be stored by us in order to answer your questions. We delete the data collected in this context after storage is no longer required, or restrict processing if there are legal storage obligations.

c) If we would like to use contracted service providers for individual functions of our offer or use your data for advertising purposes, we will inform you in detail about the respective processes below. In this context, we will also state the defined criteria for the storage period.

2. Collection and storage of personal data as well as type and purpose of their use

When you visit our website:

When you visit our website www.besserbereit.ruhr, information is automatically sent to our website’s server by the browser used on your end device. This information is stored temporarily in a so-called log file. Specifically, the following information is recorded without any action on your part and stored until it is automatically deleted:

We process the above data for the following purposes:

The legal basis for this data processing is Art. 6 Para. 1 Sentence 1 lit. f GDPR. Our legitimate interest follows from the above-mentioned purposes for data collection. Under no circumstances do we use the data collected for the purpose of drawing conclusions about your person.

Furthermore, we use cookies and analysis services when you visit our website. You will find more detailed explanations on this under sections 4 and 5 of this Data Privacy Statement.

3. Passing on of data

Your personal data will not be transferred to third parties for purposes other than those listed below. We will only pass on your personal data to third parties if:

4. Cookies

We use cookies on our website. These are small files that are automatically created by your browser and stored on your end device (laptop, tablet, smartphone, or similar) when you visit our site. Cookies do not cause any damage to your end device, do not contain viruses, Trojans, or other malware.

Information is stored in the cookie that is related to the specific end device used. This does not mean, however, that we are directly informed of your identity.

The use of cookies serves on the one hand to make the use of our offer more pleasant for you. For example, we use so-called session cookies to recognize that you have already visited individual pages of our website. Such session cookies are automatically deleted after leaving our website.

In addition, we also use other cookies to optimize user-friendliness; these are stored on your end device for a specified period of time. If you visit our site again to use our services, it automatically recognizes that you have already been to our site and remembers which entries and settings you have made so that you do not have to enter them again.

Most browsers accept cookies automatically. However, you can configure your browser so that no cookies are stored on your computer or so that a message always appears before a new cookie is stored. Completely disabling cookies may prevent you from using the features of our website fully, however.

5. Matomo

a) Scope of processing of personal data

We use the open source software tool Matomo (formerly PIWIK) on our website to analyze the surfing behavior of our users. The software sets a cookie on the user's computer (see above for cookies). If individual pages of our website are called up, the following data is stored:

The software runs exclusively on the servers of our website. A storage of the personal data of the users only takes place there. The data will not be passed on to third parties. The software is set in such a way that the IP addresses are not saved completely, but 2 bytes of the IP address are masked (e.g.: 192.168.xxx.xxx). In this way, it is no longer possible to assign the shortened IP address to the calling computer.

b) Legal basis for processing personal data

The legal basis for the processing of users' personal data is Article 6 (1) (f) GDPR.

c) Purpose of data processing

The processing of users' personal data enables us to analyze the surfing behavior of our users. By evaluating the data obtained, we are able to compile information about the use of the individual components of our website. This helps us to constantly improve our website and its user-friendliness. Our legitimate interest in processing the data in accordance with Article 6(1)(f) GDPR also lies in these purposes. By making the IP address anonymous, the interest of the user in the protection of their personal data is sufficiently taken into account.

d) Duration of storage

The data will be deleted as soon as they are no longer required for our recording purposes.

e) Possibility of objection and elimination

Cookies are stored on the user's computer and transmitted to our site. Therefore, as a user, you also have full control over the use of cookies. By changing the settings in your Internet browser, you can deactivate or restrict the transmission of cookies. Cookies that have already been saved can be deleted at any time. This can also be done automatically. If cookies are deactivated for our website, it may no longer be possible to use all the functions of the website to their full extent.

We offer our users on our website the option of opting out of the analysis process via our consent management tool by changing your settings there. In this way, another cookie is set on your system, which signals our system not to save the user's data. If the user deletes the corresponding cookies from their own system in the meantime, they must make the settings again.

You can find more information about the privacy settings of the Matomo software under the following link: https://matomo.org/docs/privacy/ .

6. Social media plug-ins

We currently do not use any social media plug-ins to link content of our pages to Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, and only link to these offers instead.

7. Embedding of YouTube video

a) We have integrated our own YouTube videos into our online offer, which are stored on www.YouTube.com and can be played directly from our website. YouTube (Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland) is a subsidiary of Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.

YouTube is used in the interest of an attractive presentation of our online offers. This constitutes a legitimate interest within the meaning of Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f GDPR. These videos are all integrated using the “extended data protection mode,” i.e. no data about you as a user is transferred to YouTube if you do not play the videos. Only when you play the videos will the data referred to in section 2 be transmitted. We have no influence on this data transfer.

b) By visiting the website, YouTube receives the information that you have visited the corresponding subpage of our website. In addition, the data mentioned under section 2 of this Data Privacy Statement is transmitted. This occurs regardless of whether YouTube provides a user account through which you are logged in or whether no user account exists. If you are logged in at Google, your data will be assigned directly to your account. If you do not wish your data to be associated with your YouTube profile, you must log out before activating the button. YouTube stores your data as user profiles and uses them for purposes of advertising, market research and/or demand-oriented design of its website. Such evaluation is carried out in particular (even for users who are not logged in) for the purpose of providing needs-based advertising and to inform other users of the social network about your activities on our website. You have the right to object to the creation of these user profiles; you must contact YouTube in order to exercise this right.

c) For more information on the purpose and scope of data collection and processing by YouTube, please see their data privacy statement. There you will also find further information on your rights and setting options to protect your privacy:  www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy . Google also processes your personal data in the USA and has committed itself to complying with the EU-US Privacy Shield ( www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework ).

If you use external links offered within the framework of our Internet pages, e.g. to the VRR website, this Data Privacy Statement does not extend to those links. If we offer links, we endeavor to ensure that these also comply with our data privacy and security standards. However, we have no influence on compliance with data privacy and security regulations by other providers. Therefore, please inform yourself on the corresponding websites of the other providers about the data privacy statements provided there.

9. Rights of persons concerned

You have the following rights in relation to the personal data concerning you:

10. Right of objection

If your personal data are processed on the basis of legitimate interests pursuant to Art. 6 Para. 1 Sentence 1 lit. f GDPR, you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data pursuant to Art. 21 GDPR if there are reasons for doing so that arise from your particular situation or if the objection is directed against direct advertising. In the latter case, you have a general right of objection, which will be recognized by us without indication of a special situation.

If you wish to exercise your right of revocation or objection, simply send an email to:

DATENSCHUTZ@RVR.RUHR

11. Data security

We use the common SSL (Secure Socket Layer) method in connection with the highest encryption level supported by your browser. As a rule, this is a 256-bit encryption. If your browser does not support 256-bit encryption, we use 128-bit v3 technology instead. You can tell whether an individual page of our website is being transmitted in encrypted form by the display of the closed key or lock symbol in the lower status bar of your browser.

We also use suitable technical and organizational security measures to protect your data against accidental or deliberate manipulation, partial or complete loss, destruction, or unauthorized access by third parties.

Our security measures are continuously improved in line with technological developments.

12. Currentness and amendment of this Data Privacy Statement

This Data Privacy Statement is currently valid and is dated October 2022.

It may become necessary to amend this Data Privacy Statement as a result of the further development of our website and offers above or due to changes in legal or official requirements.

The current Data Privacy Statement can be viewed at any time on this website at:

www.besserbereit.ruhr/en/footer/privacy-policy