Privacy Policy

We will inform you below in accordance with the legal requirements of data protection law (in particular BDSG n.F. and the European General Data Protection Regulation 'GDPR') about the type, scope and purpose of the processing of personal data by our company. This privacy policy also applies to our websites and social media profiles. Regarding the definition of terms such as “personal data” or “processing”, we refer to Art. 4 GDPR.

Name and contact details of the person responsible
Our responsible party (hereinafter “responsible person”) within the meaning of Art. 4 No. 7 GDPR is:

Stadtpastoral Lingen
Holger Berentzen & Felix Hammer
Burgstrasse 21C
49808, Lingen (Ems), Deutschland
Telefon: 0591 / 96497221
E-Mail-Adresse: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Types of data, purposes of processing and categories of data subjects

Below we will inform you about the type, scope and purpose of the collection, processing and use of personal data.

1. Types of data we process
Usage data (access times, websites visited, etc.), contact data (telephone number, email, fax, etc.), communication data (IP address, etc.),

2. Purposes of processing according to Art. 13 Para. 1 c) GDPR
Optimize the website technically and economically, enable easy access to the website, optimize and statistically evaluate our services, make the website user-friendly, create statistics, avoid SPAM and misuse, process contact requests, provide websites with functions and content, security measures, uninterrupted, safer operation of our website,

3. Categories of data subjects according to Art. 13 Para. 1 e) GDPR
Visitors/users of the website, interested parties,

The affected persons are collectively referred to as “users”.

Legal basis for processing personal data

Below we inform you about the legal basis for processing personal data:

If we have obtained your consent for the processing of personal data, Art. 6 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Letter a) GDPR is the legal basis.
If the processing is necessary to fulfill a contract or to carry out pre-contractual measures at your request, Art. 6 Para. 1 Sentence 1 Letter b) GDPR is the legal basis.
If processing is necessary to fulfill a legal obligation to which we are subject (e.g. statutory retention obligations), Art. 6 Para. 1 Sentence 1 Letter c) GDPR is the legal basis.
If the processing is necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or another natural person, Art. 6 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Letter d) GDPR is the legal basis.
If the processing is necessary to protect our or a third party's legitimate interests and your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms do not outweigh this, Art. 6 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Letter f) GDPR is the legal basis.

Data transfer to third countries

The adoption of the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) created a uniform basis for data protection in Europe. Your data will therefore primarily be processed by companies to which GDPR applies. If the processing takes place by third-party services outside the European Union or the European Economic Area, they must meet the special requirements of Art. 44 ff. GDPR. This means that the processing is carried out on the basis of special guarantees, such as the determination of a data protection level that corresponds to the EU officially recognized by the EU Commission or compliance with officially recognized special contractual obligations, the so-called “standard contractual clauses”.
If we obtain your express consent to the transfer of data to the USA due to the ineffectiveness of the so-called “Privacy Shield” in accordance with Art. 49 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Letter a) GDPR, we point out the risk of secret access in this regard by US authorities and the use of the data for surveillance purposes, possibly without legal recourse for EU citizens.

Deletion of data and storage period

Unless expressly stated in this data protection declaration, your personal data will be deleted or blocked as soon as the consent given to the processing is revoked by you or the purpose for storage no longer applies or the data is no longer required for the purpose, unless further Retention is necessary for evidentiary purposes or is contrary to legal retention requirements. This includes, for example, commercial law retention obligations for business letters in accordance with Section 257 Paragraph 1 of the German Commercial Code (6 years) and tax law retention obligations for receipts in accordance with Section 147 Paragraph 1 AO (10 years). When the prescribed retention period expires, your data will be blocked or deleted, unless storage is still necessary to conclude a contract or to fulfill the contract.

Existence of automated decision making

We do not use automatic decision-making or profiling.

Provision of our website and creation of log files

If you only use our website for information purposes (i.e. no registration or any other transmission of information), we only collect the personal data that your browser transmits to our server. If you would like to view our website, we collect the following data:
• IP address;
• User's Internet service provider;
• Date and time of retrieval;
• Browser type;
• Language and browser version;
• Content of the retrieval;
• time zone;
• Access status/HTTP status code;
• Amount of data;
• Websites from which the request comes;
• Operating system.
This data will not be stored together with your other personal data.

This data serves the purpose of delivering our website to you in a user-friendly, functional and secure manner with functions and content as well as its optimization and statistical evaluation.

The legal basis for this is our legitimate interest in data processing in accordance with Article 6 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Letter f) of the GDPR, which also lies in the above purposes.

For security reasons, we store this data in server log files for a storage period of days. After this period has expired, they will be automatically deleted unless we need them to be retained for evidence purposes in the event of attacks on the server infrastructure or other legal violations.

We use so-called cookies when you visit our website. Cookies are small text files that your Internet browser places and saves on your computer. When you visit our website again, these cookies provide information to automatically recognize you. Cookies also include so-called “user IDs”, where user information is stored using pseudonymized profiles. When you access our website, we will inform you by referring to our data protection declaration about the use of cookies for the aforementioned purposes and how you can object to them or prevent them from being stored (“opt-out”).

A distinction is made between the following types of cookies:

• Necessary, essential cookies: Essential cookies are cookies that are absolutely necessary for the operation of the website in order to save certain functions of the website such as logins, shopping cart or user input, e.g. regarding the language of the website.

• Session cookies: Session cookies are required to recognize multiple uses of an offer by the same user (e.g. if you have logged in to determine your login status). When you visit our site again, these cookies provide information to automatically recognize you. The information obtained in this way is used to optimize our offers and to give you easier access to our site. When you close the browser or log out, the session cookies are deleted.

• Persistent cookies: These cookies remain stored even after the browser is closed. They are used to store the login, measure reach and for marketing purposes. These are automatically deleted after a specified period of time, which may differ depending on the cookie. You can delete cookies at any time in your browser's security settings.

• Third-party cookies (third-party cookies, especially from advertisers): According to your wishes, you can configure your browser settings and e.g. B. Decline to accept third-party cookies or all cookies. However, we would like to point out that you may then not be able to use all of the functions of this website. Read more about these cookies in the respective data protection declarations of the third-party providers.

Data categories: user data, cookies, user ID (including the pages visited, device information, access times and IP addresses).

Purposes of processing: The information obtained in this way serves the purpose of technically and economically optimizing our web offerings and enabling you to access our website more easily and securely.

Legal basis: If we process your personal data using cookies based on your consent (“opt-in”), then Art. 6 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Letter a) GDPR is the legal basis. Otherwise, we have a legitimate interest in the effective functionality, improvement and economic operation of the website, so that in this case Art. 6 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Letter f) GDPR is the legal basis. The legal basis is also Article 6 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Letter b) GDPR if the cookies are set to initiate a contract, for example when placing orders.

Storage period/deletion: The data will be deleted as soon as it is no longer required to achieve the purpose for which it was collected. If the data is collected to provide the website, this is the case when the respective session has ended.

Cookies are otherwise stored on your computer and transmitted from it 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 fully use all functions of the website.

Here you can find information about deleting cookies by browser:

Chrome: https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/95647

Safari: https://support.apple.com/de-at/guide/safari/sfri11471/mac

Firefox: https://support.mozilla.org/de/kb/cookies-und-website-daten-in-firefox-loschen

Internet Explorer: https://support.microsoft.com/de-at/help/17442/windows-internet-explorer-delete-manage-cookies

Microsoft Edge: https://support.microsoft.com/de-at/help/4027947/windows-delete-cookies

Objection and “opt-out”: You can generally prevent cookies from being stored on your hard drive, regardless of consent or legal permission, by selecting “do not accept cookies” in your browser settings. However, this can result in a functional restriction of our offers. You can opt out of the use of third-party cookies for advertising purposes via a so-called “opt-out” via this American website (https://optout.aboutads.info) or this European website (http://www.youronlinechoices.com/de /preference management/).

When you contact us via contact form, fax, post or email, your details will be processed for the purpose of processing the contact request.

The legal basis for processing the data, if you have given your consent, is Article 6 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Letter a) GDPR. The legal basis for the processing of data transmitted in the course of a contact request or email, letter or fax is Art. 6 Para. 1 Sentence 1 Letter f) GDPR. The person responsible has a legitimate interest in processing and storing the data in order to be able to answer user inquiries, to preserve evidence for liability reasons and, if necessary, to be able to fulfill his legal retention obligations for business letters. If the contact is aimed at concluding a contract, the additional legal basis for the processing is Art. 6 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Letter b) GDPR.

We may store your information and contact request in our Customer Relationship Management System (“CRM System”) or a comparable system.

The data will be deleted as soon as it is no longer required to achieve the purpose for which it was collected. For the personal data from the input mask of the contact form and those that were sent by email, this is the case when the respective conversation with you has ended. The conversation ends when it can be seen from the circumstances that the matter in question has been finally clarified. We store inquiries from users who have an account or contract with us for a period of two years after termination of the contract. In the case of legal archiving obligations, deletion takes place after their expiry: end of the commercial law (6 years) and tax law (10 years) retention obligation.

You have the option at any time to revoke your consent to the processing of personal data in accordance with Article 6 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Letter a) GDPR. If you contact us by email, you can object to the storage of your personal data at any time.

Contact by telephone

When you contact us by telephone, your telephone number is processed and temporarily stored or displayed in the RAM/cache of the telephone device/display in order to process the contact request and process it. The data is stored for liability and security reasons, to provide evidence of the call, and for economic reasons to enable a callback. In the case of unauthorized advertising calls, we block the phone numbers.

The legal basis for processing the telephone number is Article 6 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Letter f) GDPR. If the contact is aimed at concluding a contract, the additional legal basis for the processing is Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. b) GDPR.

The device cache stores the calls for days and gradually overwrites or deletes old data. When the device is disposed of, all data is deleted and the memory may be destroyed. Blocked telephone numbers are checked annually to determine whether blocking is necessary.

You can prevent the phone number from being displayed by calling with a hidden phone number.

YouTube videos

We have integrated YouTube videos from youtube.com on our website using the embedded function so that they can be accessed directly on our website. YouTube belongs to Google Ireland Limited, registration number: 368047, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland.

Data category and description of data processing: Usage data (e.g. website accessed, content and access times). We have integrated the videos in the so-called “extended data protection mode” without using cookies to record usage behavior in order to personalize video playback. Instead, video recommendations are based on the currently playing video. Videos played in an embedded player in enhanced privacy mode do not affect which videos are recommended to you on YouTube. When you start a video (click on the video), you consent to YouTube tracking the information that you have accessed the corresponding subpage or video on our website and using this data for advertising purposes.

Purpose of processing: Providing a user-friendly offer, optimizing and improving our content.

Legal basis: If you have given your consent (“opt-in”) to the processing of your personal data by the third party using “etracker”, then Art. 6 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Letter a) GDPR is the legal basis. The legal basis is also our legitimate interest in data processing for the above purposes in accordance with Article 6 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Letter f) GDPR. For services that are provided in connection with a contract, the tracking and analysis of user behavior is carried out in accordance with Article 6 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Letter b) GDPR in order to use the information obtained thereby to optimize services to fulfill the to be able to offer for contractual purposes.

Data transfer/recipient category: Third party providers in the USA. The data obtained is transferred to the USA and stored there. This also happens without a Google user account. If you are logged into your Google account, Google can assign the above data to your account. If you do not want this, you must log out of your Google account. Google creates user profiles from such data and uses this data for the purposes of advertising, market research or optimizing its websites.

Storage period: Cookies for up to 2 years or until the cookies are deleted by you as the user.

Objection: You have the right to object to the creation of user profiles by Google. Please contact Google directly via the data protection declaration mentioned below. You can opt out of advertising cookies here in your Google account:
https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated.

Please see YouTube's Terms of Service at https://www.youtube.com/t/terms and Google's Advertising Privacy Policy at https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads for more information

Use of Google cookies and their advertising technologies, storage period, anonymization, location data, functionality and your rights. Google’s general privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy.

Google Maps

We have integrated maps from “Google Maps” (provider: Google Ireland Limited, registration number: 368047, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland) on our website.

Data category and description of data processing: Usage data (e.g. IP, location, page accessed). Google Maps allows us to display the location of addresses and directions directly on our website in interactive maps and enables you to use this tool. When you access our website, where Google Maps is integrated, a connection is established to Google's servers in the USA. Your IP and location can be transferred to Google. Google also receives the information that you have accessed the relevant page. This also happens without a Google user account. If you are logged into your Google account, Google can assign the above data to your account. If you do not want this, you must log out of your Google account. Google creates user profiles from such data and uses this data for the purposes of advertising, market research or optimizing its websites.

Purpose of processing: Providing a user-friendly, economical and optimized website.

Legal basis: If you have given your consent to the third party processing your personal data using “Google Maps” (“opt-in”), then Art. 6 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Letter a) GDPR is the legal basis. The legal basis is also our legitimate interest in data processing for the above purposes in accordance with Article 6 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Letter f) GDPR.

Data transfer/recipient category: Third party providers in the USA.

Storage period: Cookies for up to 6 months or until deleted by you. Otherwise, as soon as they are no longer needed for processing purposes.

Possibility of objection and removal: You have the right to object to Google against the creation of user profiles. Please contact Google directly via the data protection declaration mentioned below. You can opt out of advertising cookies here in your Google account:
https://adssettings.google.com/authenticated.

You can find Google Maps' terms of use at https://www.google.com/intl/de_de/help/terms_maps.html and Google's advertising privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads Further information on the use of Google cookies and their advertising technologies, storage period, anonymization, location data, functionality and your rights. General data protection declaration from Google: https://policies.google.com/privacy.

Rights of the data subject

Objection or revocation against the processing of your data

If the processing is based on your consent in accordance with Article 6 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Letter a), Article 7 GDPR, you have the right to revoke your consent at any time. This does not affect the lawfulness of the processing carried out based on consent until its revocation.

If we base the processing of your personal data on the balance of interests in accordance with Article 6 Paragraph 1 Sentence 1 Letter f) GDPR, you can object to the processing. This is the case if the processing is not necessary to fulfill a contract with you, which is explained by us in the following description of the functions. If you exercise such an objection, we will ask you to explain the reasons why we should not process your personal data as we do. In the event of your justified objection, we will examine the situation and will either stop or adjust data processing or show you our compelling legitimate reasons on the basis of which we continue processing.

You can object to the processing of your personal data for advertising and data analysis purposes at any time. You can exercise your right to object free of charge. You can inform us about your objection to advertising using the following contact details:

Right to information
You have the right to request confirmation from us as to whether personal data concerning you is being processed. If this is the case, you have the right to information about your personal data stored by us in accordance with Art. 15 GDPR. This includes, in particular, information about the processing purposes, the category of personal data, the categories of recipients to whom your data has been or will be disclosed, the planned storage period, the origin of your data, if it was not collected directly from you.

Right to rectification
You have the right to correct incorrect data or to complete correct data in accordance with Art. 16 GDPR.

Right to deletion
You have the right to delete your data stored by us in accordance with Art. 17 GDPR, unless statutory or contractual retention periods or other legal obligations or rights to further storage conflict with this.

Right to restriction
You have the right to request a restriction in the processing of your personal data if one of the requirements in Article 18 Paragraph 1 Letters a) to d) GDPR is met:
• If you contest the accuracy of the personal data concerning you for a period enabling the controller to verify the accuracy of the personal data;

• the processing is unlawful and you refuse the deletion of the personal data and instead request the restriction of the use of the personal data;

• the controller no longer needs the personal data for the purposes of processing, but you need them to assert, exercise or defend legal claims, or

• if you have lodged an objection to the processing in accordance with Article 21 Para. 1 GDPR and it is not yet clear whether the legitimate reasons of the controller outweigh your reasons.

Right to data portability
You have a right to data portability in accordance with Art. 20 GDPR, which means that you can receive the personal data we store about you in a structured, common and machine-readable format or request that it be transmitted to another person responsible.

Right to complain
You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. As a rule, you can contact the supervisory authority in particular in the Member State of your place of residence, your place of work or the place of the alleged violation.

Data security

In order to protect all personal data that is transmitted to us and to ensure that data protection regulations are complied with by us and our external service providers, we have taken appropriate technical and organizational security measures. That's why, among other things, all data between your browser and our server is transmitted encrypted via a secure SSL connection.

As of: March 8, 2024