German National Tourist Board (GNTB) – data protection declaration

Privacy Statement - Protection of your data is our concern

We are delighted that you are interested in our organisation and in our products and services. We would also like you to feel secure in the knowledge that your personal data is safely protected when you visit our websites. We take the protection of your personal data very seriously and observe the provisions of the German Data Protection Act as a matter of course.

We would like you to know which data we collect, when we collect it and how we use it. We have put in place technical and organisational structures to ensure that data protection provisions are observed both by ourselves and also by external service providers.

Consent

By using this website, you consent to your data being stored and used as described below. Changes to this privacy policy will also be announced on this page so that you are always aware of what data is stored by the GNTB and how it uses this data.

Where required by the applicable data protection legislation, we will specifically ask for your consent to the further processing of your personal data that has been collected on this website or that you have provided.

Personal data

Personal data is information about your identity. This includes details such as your name, address, telephone number and email address. You are not required to disclose personal data in order to use our websites. However, in certain cases, we need your name, address and other details so that we can provide you with the desired services.

The same also applies, for example, if we are sending you information, despatching goods that you have ordered or answering individual questions. In such cases, we will specifically draw your attention to the use of the data. In addition, we will only store and process data that has been supplied to us voluntarily or automatically.

Where you make use of our services, we will normally collect only the data we need to provide the service concerned. If we request further data from you, the information need only be supplied voluntarily. We will process personal data solely in order to provide the requested service and to safeguard our own legitimate business interests.

Purpose for which personal data is held

We will generally use the personal data you have made available to us to answer your enquiries, process your orders or ensure you have access to specific information or offers. We, or one of our appointed service providers, would like to use your personal data to enable us to support our relationship with customers by providing you with information on product offers that could be of use to you, or by carrying out online surveys. This enables us to provide a service that is better tailored to the needs of our customers.

It goes without saying that we will respect your decision if you do not wish to provide us with your personal data for customer relationship purposes (in particular for direct marketing or market research purposes).

Use of personal data for intended purpose only

We will collect, process and use the personal data you have provided online only for the purposes we have specified to you. We will not forward your personal data to any third party without your express consent.

Personal data will only be collected and forwarded to national institutions and authorities entitled to receive such information as required by relevant legislation or if GNTB is placed under such an obligation by a decision of the courts. Our employees and appointed service providers are under an obligation to maintain confidentiality and to comply with the provisions of the German Data Protection Act.

Non-personal data captured electronically

When our website is used, the following data is saved for organisational and technical reasons: the names of the pages visited, the browser and operating system used, the date and time of access, search engines used, names of downloaded files and their IP addresses.

This technical data is evaluated anonymously and exclusively for statistical purposes so that we can continue to optimise our websites and increase the attractiveness of the presentation on an ongoing basis. This anonymous data is stored separately from personal data on secure systems and cannot be traced to any individual person. Your personal data and privacy are therefore protected at all times.

Cookies

If you visit one of our websites it is possible that we will store some information on your computer in the form of a cookie. Cookies are small text files sent by a web server to your browser and saved on the hard disk of your computer.

No personal user data at all is saved in this process; it only involves internet protocol addresses. The purpose of this information is to allow our server to recognise your computer automatically when you next visit our websites; this will make navigation easier for you. Cookies allow us, for example, to customise a website to your interests or save your password so that you do not have to input it every time.

You can of course also view our websites without cookies. If you don't want to have your computer recognised by our system, you can prevent cookies being saved on your hard disk by changing the relevant setting in your browser to "Do not accept cookies". Please consult your browser instructions for details on how to do this in the browser you are using. If you do not accept cookies, this may restrict some of the functions available on our websites however.

etracker GmbH

This website collects and stores data for marketing and optimization purposes with technologies of etracker GmbH (www.etracker.com). From these data, user profiles can be created under a pseudonym. Cookies can be used. Cookies are small text files that are stored locally in the cache of the Internet browser of the site visitor. Cookies enable recognition of the Internet browser.

The data collected with the etracker technologies is not used to identify visitors to this website and will not be merged with personal data of the bearer of the pseudonym without the explicit consent of the person concerned. The data collection and storage can be revoked at any time with effect for the future.

E-newsletters and emails

The GNTB sends electronic newsletters with further information, for example about updated websites or special offers. If you register for this service, please note that the emails are generally sent without encryption. One of the resulting risks is that such data might be intercepted and viewed by third parties.

Opt-out policy

You can unsubscribe from GNTB newsletters at any time. Every newsletter contains a direct link allowing you to cancel your subscription easily and automatically.

Children

Persons under the age of 18 should not supply us with personal data without the consent of a parent or guardian. We do not request personal data from persons under the age of 18, neither do we collect such data, nor forward it to third parties.

Security

We have put in place technical and organisational security measures to protect your personal data against loss, destruction, manipulation and unauthorised access. All our employees and all third parties involved in data processing are obliged to comply with the German Data Protection Act and ensure confidentiality in the handling of personal data.

Where personal data is collected and processed, the transmission of the data is encrypted to prevent misuse of the data by third parties. Our security measures are revised on an ongoing basis to encompass new technological developments.

Changes to our data protection provisions

We reserve the right to amend our security and data protection measures if this is necessitated by technological developments. In this case, we will also adjust our data protection information accordingly. Please therefore ensure that you are referring to the most up-to-date version of our data protection declaration.

Links

This data protection declaration does not extend to the use of any external links that may be included on our websites. If we include links, we endeavour to ensure that they also comply with our data protection and security standards. However, we have no control over the compliance of other website providers with data protection and security provisions. We would therefore ask you to refer to the websites of the providers concerned for information on their own data protection declarations.

Right to information

You can obtain information at any time on the personal data about you that is held by us. If required, please write to the GNTB, for the attention of Mr Jochen Nehr, or send an email to jochen.nehr@germany.travel

Right of cancellation

In addition, you can at any time withdraw your consent to the collection and storage of your personal data by us. If required, please write to the GNTB, Beethovenstr. 69 in 60325 Frankfurt/M, for the attention of Mr Jochen Nehr, or send an email to jochen.nehr@germany.travel

Questions, suggestions, complaints

Should you have further questions on our data protection declaration and the processing of your personal data, you can also contact our data protection officer, Mr Ralph Bürger, directly at Deutsche Zentrale für Tourismus e.V., Beethovenstraße 69 in 60325 Frankfurt/M., Tel.: 69/97464-264 , Fax: 069/97464-6-264, email: datenschutz@germany.travel.
Mr Martin Siegmund, directly at Deutsche Zentrale für Tourismus e.V, Beethovenstrasse 69, 60325 Frankfurt am Main, Germany, tel. +49 (0)69 97464 255, fax +49 (0)69 97464-285, email: info@germany.travel is also your point of contact if you have requests for information, suggestions or complaints.

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