Data Privacy on the Websites of the Helmholtz-Zentrum hereon GmbH

The responsible party decides on the purpose and type of processing of your personal data. In the following, we inform you of the personal data collected, stored, and processed by the responsible party, the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon (hereinafter: “Hereon”), when you use the website. The websites of the Hereon might include links to websites of third parties, which are not covered by this data privacy notice.

Postal address:

Personal data means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (‘data subject’); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person;

When processing personal data collected through the use of our website, we comply with the applicable legal provisions. The processing of your personal data depends on the use of our website and the contents and services offered thereon. Data processing can take place without your express consent if a legal basis exists, or if strictly necessary to render an offered service; otherwise, the use of the service or processing of your request or application would not be possible. Additionally, we only process personal user data with the users’ consent.

The Hereon uses your personal data for the following processing purposes:
collection, processing or use of your personal data otherwise takes place.

When accessing one of our websites (at www.hereon.de, www.baltic.earth, www.clm-community.eu, www.norddeutscher-klimaatlas.de, www.norddeutscher-klimamonitor.de, www.kuestenschutzbedarf.de, www.regionaler-klimaatlas.de, kofserver2.hzg.de, www.mossco.de, www.gerics.de, www.climate-service-center.de, www.klimanavigator.de, www.coastdat.de, www.noah-project.de, www.sheba-project.eu, alumni.hzg.de), we collect the following data about you: name of the accessed website, type and version of Internet browser used, date and time of page access, duration of website visit, IP address, name of the Internet provider, and the referring website from which the page was accessed. Additional collection of data can take place if the website offers additional services.

The purpose of data collection and processing exists in the access and use of the Hereon websites as well as safeguarding the functionality, optimisation, and safety of the websites. These data are also stored in the log files of our system, however they are stored separately from other personal data on the user.

The legal basis for data processing is the contract initiation or performance, or a justified interest pursuant to Article 6 (1) letter b, f of the GDPR. If we request your consent to perform certain services, the legal basis is Article 6 (1) letter a of the GDPR.

We will use your e-mail address to inform you about activities of the Hereon after an initial contact between you and us. You can receive a one-time notification e-mail via our newsletter if you have provided us with your e-mail address and we can assume that the contents of our newsletter may be interesting for you. The legal basis of the processing is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. f GDPR. In accordance with our data protection declaration, you may request at any time not to receive further e-mails (by e-mail to contact@hereon.de or via the link at the end of an e-mail). You will not incur any costs other than the transmission costs according to the basic tariffs. If you do not register for the newsletter after receiving the one-time information e-mail, you will not receive any further information about our newsletter. Your e-mail address will be deleted.

Based on your consent, you may subscribe to our newsletter, which informs you about current topics from the Hereon.

To subscribe to our newsletter we use the so-called double opt-in procedure. After your registration, we will send you an e-mail to your specified e-mail address in which we will ask you to confirm that you would like to receive the newsletter. If you do not confirm your registration, your information will be blocked and automatically deleted after one month. In addition, we store the IP addresses you used and the dates of registration and confirmation. The purpose of the procedure is to prove your registration and, if necessary, to clarify any possible misuse of your personal data.

Your e-mail address is the only mandatory information for sending the newsletter. The indication of further, separate data is voluntary and may be used to address you personally. We use the services of CleverReach GmbH & Co. KG as a processor for the administration and sending of newsletters (data recipient). We transfer personal data to CleverReach exclusively for the purposes of sending newsletters and managing e-mail distribution lists. We do not forward your data to third parties. Further information can be found in CleverReach's privacy policy: https://www.cleverreach.com/en/privacy-policy/
After your confirmation, we process your e-mail address for sending you the newsletter. The legal basis is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a GDPR.

You may revoke your consent to the sending of the newsletter at any time and cancel your subscription to the newsletter. You may revoke your consent by clicking on the link provided in each newsletter e-mail or by sending an e-mail to contact@hereon.de. After a cancellation, your personal data will be deleted.

On our website, we offer the opportunity to register for events and receive informational material, as well as to use certain website services such as the alumni portal. Here, we collect the personal data necessary to perform the respective process, such as your contact data. You agree to our transferring of said data to third parties if this is required to perform the services and associated processes, such as payment processing. Your data are transferred e.g. if an event is not organised by us, but rather by a third party.
Applications through our applicant portal.

We take appropriate technical and organisational security measures to protect your data against accidental or intentional manipulation, loss, and destruction, as well as to prevent unauthorised access. Our security measures are continuously improved in line with technological developments. This is realised through the use of, inter alia, encryption mechanisms; however, there cannot be a full guarantee of security.

Please note that, particularly when sending e-mails, the confidentiality of the contents are not guaranteed without additional encryption; if possible, we advise the use of alternative means of communication.

The personal data of data subjects are deleted or blocked from access as soon as the purpose of storage no longer exists. Data can also be stored to comply with legal provisions to which the Hereon is subject. Data will also be deleted or blocked from access after expiry of a legal storage duration, apart from those cases in which further storage is necessary for the conclusion or performance of a contract. In addition, your data are deleted whenever you exert your right to deletion, and we are similarly entitled to delete said data.

If you provide us with the personal data of third parties, i.e. of persons other than you, you must first ensure that the affected person is informed thereof and that a legal basis for data transfer exists, as well as in some cases get the affected persons consent.

The legal provisions or your consent provides the basis for our transferring of your personal data to external third parties or contractors for our processing purposes.

We use so-called cookies on different pages to make visiting our website more user-friendly and to enable the use of certain functions. These are small text files that are stored on your device. Some of the cookies that we use are deleted at the end of the browser session, i.e. after you close your browser (so-called session cookies). Other cookies remain on your device and allow us or our partner companies to identify your browser the next time you pay a visit (persistent cookies). You can configure your browser to be informed whenever a cookie is placed, to accept or reject them in certain cases, or to completely disable their use. If you do not accept cookies, some functions on our website may be restricted.
Technically necessary cookies allow you to navigate our website and use its functions. Without these cookies, the functionality of certain features, such as actions made by you during a visit (e.g. text entry), cannot be guaranteed when navigating between various parts of the website.

Functional cookies make it possible for a website to store certain provided information (e.g. user name, language selection, or location information) and enhance the opportunity to offer users personal functions. These cookies gather anonymised information and cannot trace your activities on other websites.

Performance cookies gather information about the use of a website, for example which pages a user visits most often or whether the website transmits an error notification. These cookies do not store any information that allows users to be identified. The collected data are compiled and anonymised. These cookies are exclusively used to improve website performance and thereby its user-friendliness.

If you do not wish for Hereon to gather and analyse information about your visit, you have the option to object thereto at any time, with future effect (opt-out).
An opt-out cookie is stored in the browser for the technical realisation of said objection. This cookie solely serves to represent your objection. Please note that opt-out cookies, for technical reasons, can only be used for the browser that was used when it was stored. If you delete cookies or use a different browser or device, you must deregister again.

For the statistical analysis of the number of individual page views on our website, we use the tools AWStats, Matomo (formerly PIWIK), and Webalizer. Said data are statistically analysed in AWStats and Webalizer. They are not compiled with data from other sources. The IP addresses are deleted after analysis is completed.

This website uses Matomo, open-source software for the statistical analysis of visitor accesses. Matomo uses so-called “Cookies”, which are text files that are stored on your computer and allow for an analysis of your use of the website. The “session cookies” used are text files that are stored on your computer. As soon as the web browser is closed, they are deleted. The information collected by the cookie on your use of our Internet offer is transferred to a server hosted in a German computer centre. The collected data are not transferred to third parties and serve to identify and improve relevant content of our Internet offer.

The IP address is anonymised immediately after processing and before storage. Matomo is configured pursuant to the recommendations of the Unabhängiges Landeszentrum für Datenschutz (ULD) [Independent State Centre for Data Protection], in line with the applicable data protection provisions. By using this website, you consent to the processing of the data collected on you, in the manner described, and only for the stated purpose.

When deactivating the web analysis, a “permanent cookie” is stored on your computer if your browser is configured accordingly. This cookie informs Matomo not to collect data on your browser.

Please note that the Matomo deactivation cookie is deleted if you clear the cookies stored in your browser. You also need to deactivate the web analysis again if you use a different computer or web browser.

You can request Hereon to confirm data processing of your personal data. If said processing takes place, you can request the following information from Hereon:

You reserve the right to request information about whether the personal data that affect you are transferred to a non-member country or international organisation. Within this context, you can request to be informed of the appropriate guarantees relating to the transfer pursuant to Article 46 GDPR. Your right to information can be restricted if it is expected to render impossible or significantly impair certain statistical purposes, and this restriction is necessary to fulfil said statistical purposes.

Rights of data subject – right of rectification
You have the right to request rectification and/or completion vis-à-vis the Hereon if the processed personal data that affect you are inaccurate or incomplete. The Hereon undertakes to immediately make these corrections. Your right to rectification can be restricted if it is expected to render impossible or significantly impair certain statistical purposes, and this restriction is necessary to fulfil said statistical purposes.

Under the following conditions, you can request the restriction of the processing of personal data that affect you:

If the processing of the personal data that affect you is restricted, these data may only be processed – storage is not affected by this – with your consent, to assert, exercise, or defend legal claims, to protect the rights of another natural or legal person, or for reasons of an important public interest of the Union or a member state.

If the processing is restricted in accordance with the aforementioned conditions, Hereon shall inform you before lifting said restriction .Your right to restrict processing can be restricted if it is expected to render impossible or significantly impair certain statistical purposes, and this restriction is necessary to fulfil said statistical purposes.

You have the right to request immediate deletion vis-à-vis the Hereon if the processed personal data that affect you are inaccurate or incomplete. The Hereon undertakes to immediately delete these data if one of the following reasons applies:

If the Hereon discloses personal data that affect you, and if it is obliged to delete said data pursuant to Article 17 (1) of the GDPR, the Hereon shall take, under consideration of the technology available and the costs of implementation, appropriate measures (also technical) to inform parties responsible for processing said personal data of your request as a data subject to delete all links to these personal data, as well as to delete copies or replications of these personal data.

The right to deletion does not apply if the processing is necessary to:

If you assert your right to correction, deletion, or processing restriction vis-à-vis the Hereon, the Hereon is obliged to inform all parties to whom the personal data that affect you have been disclosed of said data correction, deletion, or processing restriction, except for those cases in which this is impossible or associated with disproportionate effort. You reserve the right vis-à-vis the Hereon to be informed about these parties.

You have the right to, for reasons relating to your particular situation, at any time object to the processing of the personal data that affect you pursuant to Article 6 (1) letter e or f of the GDPR.
The Hereon shall halt the processing of personal data that affect you, unless it can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for said processing that outweigh your interests, rights, and freedoms, or the processing serves to assert, exercise, or defend legal claims.

If the personal data that affect you are processed for purposes of direct advertisement, you have the right to object to the processing of said data for this purpose at any time. If you object to processing for direct advertising purposes, the personal data that affect you will no longer be processed for these purposes.

You also have the right to, for reasons relating to your particular situation, object to the processing of personal data that affect you for statistical purposes pursuant to Article 89 (1) of the GDPR. Your right to objection can be restricted if it is expected to render impossible or significantly impair certain statistical purposes, and this restriction is necessary to fulfil said statistical purposes.

You have the right to withdraw your data protection consent declaration at any time. The legitimacy of the processing that took place up to the moment of revocation shall remain unaffected by said revocation.

Irrespective of other legal remedies, be they administrative or judicial, you have the right to submit a complaint to a supervisory authority, in particular in the member state of your domicile, workplace, or the location of an alleged infraction, if you are of the opinion that the processing of personal data that affect you infracts on the GDPR.