Our social media presence

Data processing by social networks

We maintain publicly accessible profiles on social networks. The specific social networks we use are listed below.

Social networks such as Facebook, X, etc., can generally analyse your user behaviour extensively when you visit their website or a website with integrated social media content (e.g., "like" buttons or advertising banners). Visiting our social media presences triggers numerous data-protection-related processing operations. In detail:

If you are logged into your social media account and visit our social media presence, the operator of the social media portal can assign this visit to your user account. Your personal data may also be collected even if you are not logged in or do not have an account with the social media portal in question. In this case, data collection occurs, for example, via cookies stored on your device or by recording your IP address. 

With the help of the data collected in this manner, the operators of the social media portals can create user profiles in which your preferences and interests are stored. This allows interest-based advertising to be shown to you both within and outside the social media presence in question. If you have an account with the respective social network, interest-based advertising can be displayed on all devices on which you are or have been logged in. 

Please note that we cannot track all processing activities on social media portals. Depending on the provider, additional processing operations may be carried out by the operators of the social media portals. For more details, please refer to the terms of use and privacy policies of the respective social media portals.

Legal basis

Our social media sites are designed to ensure the widest possible presence on the Internet. This is a legitimate interest within the meaning of Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. The analysis processes initiated by the social networks may be based on different legal grounds to be specified by the operators of the social networks (e.g. consent in the sense of Article 6 (1) (a) GDPR).

Controller and assertion of rights

If you visit one of our social media pages (e.g., Facebook), we are jointly responsible with the operator of the social media platform for the data processing operations triggered during this visit. You can exercise your rights (right of access, rights to rectification, erasure, limitation of processing, data portability and to loge a complaint) both against us and the operator of the social media portal in question (e.g., against Facebook).

Please note that despite the joint responsibility with the social media portal operators, we do not have full influence over the data processing operations of the social media portals. Our ability to act is largely governed by the corporate policies of the respective providers.

Retention period

The data we collect directly through our social media presence will be deleted from our systems as soon as you request us to delete it, revoke your consent to store it, or the purpose for storing the data no longer applies. Stored cookies remain on your device until you delete them. Mandatory statutory provisions – particularly retention periods – remain unaffected.

We have no control over the retention period for data of yours that is stored by the operators of the social networks for their own purposes. For details, please contact the social network operators directly (e.g., via their privacy policies; see below).

Your rights

You always have the right to request information about your stored data, its origin, its recipients and the purpose of its collection at no charge. You also have the right to object, a right to data portability and a right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority. You may also request the rectification, blocking, erasure, and, in certain circumstances, restriction of the processing of your personal data.