Privacy Policy

The Federal Government takes the protection of your personal data very seriously. With this privacy notice, we would therefore like to provide you with an overview of how the Ministry of Economy, Innovation, Digitalization, and Energy (MWIDE) ensures the protection of your data, what types of data are collected, for what purposes, and how they are used. As the Ministry continues to develop its website and implement new technologies to improve our services, changes to this privacy notice may be necessary. We therefore recommend that you review the privacy notice from time to time.
Individuals under the age of 16 should not provide us with any personal data unless consent has been given by a parent or legal guardian (Art. 8(1) GDPR). In such cases, the consent must be expressly stated in the message (Art. 8(2) GDPR). 

 

1. Responsibility for Data Processing

The Ministry of Economy, Innovation, Digitalization, and Energy (MWIDE) is the controller pursuant to Art. 4(7) of the GDPR

Berger Allee 25

40213 Düsseldorf

Email address: sozialplattform@mwide.nrw.de

 

2. Data Protection Officer

You can contact our Data Protection Officer at our mailing address by adding the note: “To the Data Protection Officer,” or by email at: datenschutzbeauftragter@mwide.nrw.de

 

3. Informational Use of Our Website and Contacting Us

a) Browser Data

When you visit our website for informational purposes, we automatically collect the following data and information that your browser transmits to us:

- Date and time of the request,

- Name of the accessed web service, the accessed resource, and the action taken,

- Request made by the client,

- Amount of data transferred,

- Indication of whether the request was successful,

- IP address of the requesting computer,

- Client information (including browser and operating system).

 

This data from the log files is used to defend against and analyze attacks, as well as to detect and resolve technical malfunctions, and is stored for up to 48 hours, accessible directly and exclusively to administrators. After that, it is only available indirectly through the reconstruction of backup tapes and is permanently deleted after six weeks. During the portal’s launch phase, which runs through July 15, 2021, log data will be retained for up to 14 days and will be directly and exclusively accessible to administrators to improve the resolution of technical issues. The collection of data necessary for the operation of the website is essential for the functioning of the website. The legal basis for this is Art. 6(1), sentence 1, lit. e of the GDPR in conjunction with § 3(1) of the DSG NRW.

 

b) Cookies

In addition to the aforementioned data, cookies are stored on your computer when you use our website. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your computer and associated with the browser you are using. This allows certain information to be transmitted to the entity that sets the cookie (in this case, us).

The most common types of cookies are explained below for your understanding:

Session cookies: While you are active on a website, a session cookie is temporarily stored on your computer; it contains a session ID to prevent you from having to log in again each time you change pages, for example. Session cookies are deleted when you log out or expire automatically once your session has ended. We handle so-calledfunctional cookiesin a similar manner:While you are active on the website, certain functions—such as language options—are controlled and stored via cookies. Persistent orlog cookies:A persistent or log cookie stores a file on your computer for the period specified in its expiration date. These cookies allow websites to remember your information and settings the next time you visit. This results in faster and more convenient access. Once the expiration date has passed, the cookie is automatically deleted when you visit the website that created it. These cookies are technically necessary or enhance the user-friendliness of a website.

Some elements of our website require that the requesting server can be identified even after changing pages. These cookies are deleted when you close your browser. The cookie that stores users’ consent status for cookies or similar functions on the current domain remains on your device for 30 days to remember your settings. Otherwise, the banner would interfere with the smooth use of the website by repeatedly prompting for consent.

The legal basis for the processing of personal data using these technically necessary cookies is Art. 6(1)(e) of the GDPR in conjunction with § 3(1) of the DSG NRW.

 

4. Social Platform

Pursuant to the Regulation on the Operation and Design of the Service Portal. NRW pursuant to Section 5a of the E-Government Act (Serviceportal.NRW Regulation), administrative services are offered electronically via Serviceportal.NRW (in their currently valid versions) and their technical and functional framework conditions are defined. The Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalization, and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (hereinafter referred to as “MWIDE”) is responsible.

The processing of your personal data within the Service Portal is carried out exclusively for the purpose of handling electronic applications and transmitting application data and the required documents to the competent authority. MWIDE is therefore solely responsible for the processing of personal data within Serviceportal.NRW. The data protection responsibilities of the agencies that receive personal data for transmission to the competent authority remain unaffected. The competent authority is thus the data controller for the processing of personal data within the meaning of Article 4(7) in conjunction with Articles 13 and 14 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). A corresponding notice is provided as part of the respective application process.

 

(1) Temporary Storage of Application Data

The Serviceportal.NRW allows for the temporary storage of electronic applications that have not yet been fully completed.

Application data is temporarily stored only if the user has identified themselves to Serviceportal.NRW via a permanent user account at Servicekonto.NRW (https://servicekonto.nrw/serviceaccount/). To do this, existing data from the user account that is required for the application form for the specific administrative service is imported.

Saved applications can be edited or deleted by the user. They are automatically deleted by Serviceportal.NRW no later than three months after the last edit.

 

(2) Disclosure of Data

Data processing within the Serviceportal.NRW is carried out in accordance with the agreed-upon security requirements as part of a data processing agreement by MWIDE’s service provider: IT.NRW (State Agency for Information and Technology North Rhine-Westphalia, Mauerstraße 51, 40476 Düsseldorf). MWIDE remains responsible for data processing.

 

5. Contacting Us via Email

We provide email addresses for you to contact the Ministry. If you use this method of contact, the provision of personal data is voluntary. This applies, for example, to inquiries via email. In addition to the data you enter, a timestamp, username, and your IP address are stored. We use the personal data you provide only for the purpose you specified and only within the state government or among the authorities, agencies, and institutions responsible for the respective service.

Individuals under the age of 16 should not submit any personal data to us unless consent has been given by their parents or legal guardians (those exercising parental responsibility) (Art. 8(1) GDPR). Such consent must then be explicitly stated in the message (Art. 8(2) GDPR). We do not request personal data from children or adolescents. We do not knowingly collect such data.

We delete any personal data we receive via email as soon as its storage is no longer necessary for the purpose you intended or in connection with related administrative procedures and the applicable retention requirements (Appendix to the Filing Regulations for the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalization, and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (AktO); Circular from the Ministry of the Interior and Municipal Affairs—51—17.05—dated July 25, 2016).

All emails sent from this website are sent only to the address you provide. The address will not be published and will be used only for the purpose, service, or function you have requested.

The legal basis for this processing of your personal data is Article 6(1), first sentence, letter b of the GDPR.

 

6. Data Security

The security of your personal data is of great importance to us. Comprehensive data protection agreements have been concluded with the service providers used for this website. For security reasons and to protect the transmission of confidential content—such as via our contact form—this site uses SSL or TLS encryption. You can recognize an encrypted connection by the fact that the browser’s address bar changes from “http://” to “https://” and by the padlock icon in your browser’s address bar. When SSL or TLS encryption is enabled, the data you transmit to us cannot be read by third parties.

 

7. Disclosure to Third Parties

We treat personal data as confidential. Aside from the circumstances already mentioned in the privacy policy: We do not disclose your personal data to third parties unless you have given your consent or we are legally obligated to do so. Data logged when accessing the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ website or collected for a specific service will only be transferred to third parties outside the state government to the extent that we are required to do so by law or by a court order or order from the public prosecutor’s office, or if the disclosure is necessary for legal or criminal prosecution in the event of attacks on the state government’s internet infrastructure.

 

8. No Liability for Third-Party Websites

Certain third-party services are accessible via links on our site. We refer you to the privacy statements and privacy policies on these websites. We assume neither liability nor responsibility for these statements and policies, which are not related to our website.

 

9. Your Rights as a Data Subject

Under the GDPR, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

- Right of access,

- Right to rectification,

- Right to erasure,

- Right to data portability,

- Right to restriction of processing,

- Right to object to processing,

- Right to withdraw consent.

 

You also have the right to file a complaint with a supervisory authority regarding the processing of your personal data.