Data Privacy Statement of the Robert Koch Institute

Robert Koch Institute
Nordufer 20
13353 Berlin
Represented by its President

Contact:
Robert Koch Institute
The Centre for Biological Threats and Special Pathogens (ZBS)
ZBS 7 - Strategy and Incident Response
Nordufer 20
13353 Berlin
EFFO project team

Data Protection Officer
Email: Data Protection

Hosting and Operation:
Federal Centre for Information Technology (ITZBund)
www.itzbund.de

Realisation:
Materna Information & Communications SE

Design:
Aperto AG

Content Management System:
The realisation is carried out with the Government Site Builder, the content management solution of the Federal German administration, based on CoreMedia AG CMS.

General Information on Data Processing

Scope of the processing of personal data

The protection of personal data is a very important concern for the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). The Robert Koch Institute is a federal authority and as such subject to the provisions of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG). The use of the RKI website (https://effo.rki.de/EFFO/EN/Home/Homepage_node.html) is, as a matter of principle, possible without disclosing any personal data. When using contact forms and in the event of telephone contacts to RKI, personal data are processed. There is no automated decision making (so-called profiling).

Personal data are information which are associated with an identified or identifiable natural person. This includes data which allow conclusions concerning your identity. Further definition of the terms used (eg “processing”) can be found in Article 4 GDPR.

Since new technologies and the permanent further development of this website can lead to amendments to this Data Privacy Statement, we recommend that you re-read the Data Privacy Statement at regular intervals.

Duration of storage

The storage is carried out in conformity with the directive for the processing and administration of records in federal German ministries which is implemented within RKI as the registry directive (RegR).

Technical Provision of the Website, Statistics and Cookies

These web pages are hosted by the Informationstechnikzentrum Bund (ITZBund), the IT service provider for federal authorities. ITZBund creates usage statistics for the websites hosted by it. To do so, it uses the programme Matomo (previously PIWIK). The Data Privacy Statement of ITZBund can be found here.

The Robert Koch Institute receives statistical evaluations concerning the usage of the EFFO website from ITZBund. These evaluations do not include any personal data. The Robert Koch Institute uses these statistical evaluations exclusively for the purpose of analysis, maintenance and improvement of its internet presence.

Matomo uses so-called cookies, that is, small text files which are stored on your computer and allow for an analysis of the use of the web pages by you. These session cookies are stored only temporarily on your computer; as soon as the web browser is closed, they are once again deleted. The information generated by the cookie about the usage of our website is stored on the server of the provider in Germany and evaluated exclusively by ITZBund. The data collected are not shared with third parties and merely serve to identify and improve relevant contents of our website.
For every user access of the RKI website and for every retrieval of a file, data about this operation must be temporarily processed in a log file. Your IP address is neither collected nor stored in the access logs of the web servers of our hosting platform. Matomo is configured in accordance with the recommendations of the Independent Regional Centre for Data Protection (ULD) Schleswig-Holstein and complies with the applicable data protection provisions.

The following data are processed in detail with regard to every access / download:

• Date and time of the download (time stamp)
• Enquiry details and target address (log version, HTTP method, referrer, user agent string)
• Name of the retrieved file and transmitted data volume (requested URL including query string, size in byte)
• Notification about whether the download was successful (HTTP status code)

These data are retained by ITZBund for 30 days.

For the retrieval of individual pages so-called temporary cookies are used in order to facilitate navigation. These session cookies do not include any personal data and expire at the end of the session. Techniques such as Java applets or Active-X controls which allow for the tracking of the access behaviour of the user, are not used.

Withdrawal of consent of data collection by Matomo

Matomo supports the “Do not track” procedure of current web browsers. If you want to generally suppress the analysis of your behaviour on the internet, we recommend activating this option in your browser.

Electronic correspondence

The EFFO website gives you the opportunity to contact employees of the Institute, transmit information, make enquiries or obtain information about topics of the EFFO project.

As a rule, we use forms for these purposes. For reasons of data privacy the compulsory fields of the forms are restricted to the bare minimum required for answering enquiries. The personal data transmitted by you are used exclusively in order to answer your enquiry or to allow access to internal areas. They are not shared with third parties and are not used for any other particular purposes. Your data are transmitted through a Secure Socket Layer connection (SSL) in an encrypted form, so that they cannot be seen by unauthorised persons (https connection).

Contact forms

In email contact forms we collect the following data categories:
Compulsory field and automatically collected data: first name and name, email, subject, message, date and time as registered while mailing the form
Voluntary data: telephone number, fax number, institution, street, postal code, place

The storage of enquiries in electronic form is carried out in accordance with the deadlines applying to the storage of records of the registry directive of RKI – based on the registry directive for the processing and administration of records in federal ministries which supplements the joint rules of the procedure of the federal ministries (GGO).
The processing of your data is based on your consent and the duties of RKI in the public interest (Article 6 para 1 lit. a, lit. b, lit. e GDPR in conjunction with § 2, § 4 BGA Succession Act), more particularly the information of the public. You can withdraw your consent to any further processing at any time with effect from the future. If the data cannot be deleted due to storage periods, the data will be restricted in terms of processing. Further information can be found in the section "Your Data Privacy Rights".

Internal Areas (for specialist audience)

In the event of a personalised access to an internal area within https://effo.rki.de/EFFO/EN/Home/Homepage_node.html, the email address and the personal password are securely stored. The legal basis for the processing of your data is your consent during registration for the respective internal area (Article 6 para 1 lit. a GDPR). You can withdraw your consent to further processing at any time with effect from the future. When unregistering, your data are deleted. You can find further information in the section "Your Data Privacy Rights".

For other closed areas within www.rki.de RKI provides a user name and password; these data are not personal.

The login is not evaluated.

Contact by telephone / fax

You can also reach us via the telephone and fax numbers stated. In this case the following data categories are stored:
a) Telephone call: Name, telephone number, all contents
b) Telefax: Sender, name, device number, time of transmission, contents

The storage is carried out in the event of telephone calls by a telephone memo; in the event of faxes by retaining the printout. The duration of storage is governed by the deadlines applying to the storage of records in accordance with the registry directive of RKI – based on the registry directive for the processing and administration of records in federal ministries which supplements the joint rules of procedure of the federal ministries (GGO).

The processing of your data is based on your consent (Article 6 para 1 lit. a GDPR). You can withdraw your consent to further processing at any time with effect from the future. If deletion is not possible because of storage periods, the data will be restricted in terms of processing. Further information can be found in the section "Your Data Privacy Rights".

Your Data Privacy Rights (rights of data subjects)

Insofar as we process your personal data, you have the following data privacy rights:

• The right to obtain information at any time about the processing of your personal data (Article 15 GDPR),
• The right to rectify inaccurate data or complete incomplete data (Article 16 GDPR),
• The right to have data deleted or restrict their processing in accordance with the statutory provisions (eg in the event of withdrawal of your consent or unlawful processing) (Article 17, 18 GDPR),
• The right to withdraw, in the event of data processing based on consent, such consent with effect in the future (Article 7 para 3 GDPR),
• The right to data portability (an overview of your data may be made available in an electronic format to you) (Article 20 GDPR),
• The right to object to data processing which is carried out by RKI for reasons of a legitimate interest of RKI to exercise public duties or the exercise of official authority (Article 21 GDPR),
• The right to contact the Data Protection Officer of RKI (anchor link to the Data Protection Officer) and submit your requests (Article 38 para 4 GDPR) and
• The right to complain to the competent supervisory authority for data protection (the Federal Officer for Data Protection and Freedom of Information, Husarenstr. 30 - 53117 Bonn, +49 (0)228-997799-0, email: poststelle(at)bfdi.bund.de, www.bfdi.bund.de) (Article 77 para 1 GDPR).

Contents of other providers

The EFFO web pages contain links to other websites. On all pages, links to contents of web pages of third parties (“third party content”) have been created by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) (editorial office) to the best of its knowledge and belief and taking into account the highest possible care. They merely provide access to “third party content”. In this connection the trustworthiness of third party providers and the accuracy as well as lawfulness of the “third party content” has been given special attention.

However, since the content of web pages is dynamic and can change at all times, a permanent individual review of all contents provided with a link is not possible in each case. RKI does, therefore, expressly not appropriate the content of web pages of third parties which are linked with its own internet presence. The respective provider of the page to which a reference is made is exclusively liable for damage and legal infringements from the use or non-use of “third party content”. Any obligations to remove or block the use of information in accordance with general legislation is not affected. A corresponding liability is, however, only possible after knowledge has been obtained with respect to a concrete legal infringement. If such legal infringements become known, we will immediately remove such contents.

RKI does not control and has no influence on its operators complying with the data privacy provisions.

Social Media

RKI takes the current discussion about data privacy in social media very seriously. It is currently not finally clarified in legal terms whether and how far all networks offer their services in conformity with the European data protection provisions.

We merely draw explicit attention to the fact that the services used by RKI, Twitter and YouTube store the data of their users (eg personal information, IP address) in accordance with the data use guidelines and use them for commercial purposes in accordance with the same.

RKI has no influence on data collection and their further use by social media. There are no findings concerning the extent, the place and the duration of storage of the data, in how far the networks fulfil existing duties to erase, the evaluations and links carried out in respect of the data and the parties with which the data are shared.

Own contents

Insofar as the contents published on these pages include legal provisions, public notifications, recommendations or information, they have been created to the best of our knowledge and withthe greatest possible care. In the event of discrepancies, the current official version applies, however, exclusively in the way it has been published in the public promulgating organ provided for that purpose. Any legal indications, recommendations and information are non-binding. There is no legal counselling.

The Robert Koch Institute is not liable for damage or legal infringements arising out of the use or a failure to use the information provided.

Error Notifications

The editorial office kindly asks the users of https://effo.rki.de/EFFO/EN/Home/Homepage_node.html to draw its attention to illegal or inaccurate contents of third parties to which a link is maintained in the internet presence. In the same way we kindly ask you to inform us under the stated contact address if our own contents are not error-free, up to date, complete or comprehensible.

Copyright

The copyright for text and pictures lies with the Robert Koch Institute in the event of own contents. Texts, parts of texts, illustrations, tables or picture materials made available on the portal may not be duplicated, disseminated and exhibited without the prior consent of the Robert Koch Institute to the extent that they are protected by copyright.

Contact to the internet editorial office: webmaster
Contact to the Data Protection Officer: Data Protection

to the top