This website is operated by Aktion Deutschland Hilft e.V., Willy-Brandt-Allee 10-12, 53113 Bonn. Our aim is to raise awareness of our work and collect as many donations as possible for our aid projects.

We are solely committed to our charitable cause and do not wish to sell you anything. Nor do we sell personal data to third parties.

However, in order to make the best possible use of donations, we try to increase our reach and find out which advertising measures are successful and which are not. To this end, we also use various forms of reach measurement, but only if you have explicitly consented to this.

We only use your data for the intended purpose – for example, if you donate an amount to us, we arrange for the correct payment processing and accounting. For all our processes, we also determine how long the data is required and then delete it securely. If you have any complaints or problems, please contact us. You can find a detailed description of our data processing in the following sections.

When using our website, access data generated by visiting our pages is always collected for technical reasons. This mainly includes the IP address, the page visited, the date, the time and the amount of data transferred. In the event of automatically detected error situations, the type and version of the browser, the version of the operating system, technical information at the time of the error (stack trace) and the text from the form are also recorded, provided that the anomaly occurred when filling out a form.

Depending on your consent, data is collected for reach measurement. You can find a detailed description in the section:

• Cookies and tracking

We also refer to offers from other providers on our pages. You can find a description of the associated data collection in the section:
 

• Links to external offers

All other data collection depends on how you use our website. You can find a description of the data collection for the following processes in the corresponding sections:
 

• Social networks
• Contact forms
• Newsletters
• Donations and sponsorship
• Financial penalties
• Applications
• Photos

We use access data for the provision and secure operation of our website. Without this data, it is not possible to correctly call up and display pages.

We use all other data for the purposes you have explicitly or implicitly requested (e.g. sending you requested information or booking your donation). You can find a description of how the following processes are used in the relevant sections:

• Cookies and tracking
• Links to external offers
• Social networks
• Contact forms
• Newsletters
• Donations and sponsorship
• Financial penalties
• Applications
• Photos

The use of the technically necessary access data is based on a balancing of interests pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR: you request the display of our web pages and our server can only provide you with this display securely using the access data.

This data also helps us to guarantee the security of our systems. This includes the prevention and investigation of criminal offences through data analysis, which serves to detect possible misuse. We therefore base the processing on a balancing of interests pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR in order to protect our legitimate interests. This applies equally to security-related analysis systems (e.g. a Sentry instance from our service provider) that we use for the automated detection of anomalies. Data for error analysis is used exclusively for this purpose, is not linked to other personal data and is deleted once the purpose has been achieved.

In general, we assume that all data you actively transmit yourself (e.g. for establishing contact or processing donations) is based either on implicit consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR) or on a contractual relationship (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).

In addition, we process your personal data to fulfil legal obligations (e.g. regulatory requirements, commercial and tax law retention obligations). The legal basis for this is then the respective legal regulation in conjunction with Art. 6 (1) (c) GDPR.

In rare cases where the processing of special categories of personal data is necessary, we will obtain your consent in advance in accordance with Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR in conjunction with Art. 7 GDPR.

The legal bases for processing in the following processes can be found in the relevant sections:
 

• Cookies and tracking
• Links to external websites
• Social networks
• Contact forms
• Newsletter
• Donations and sponsorship
• Financial penalties
• Job applications
• Photos

To protect your data, we take effective state-of-the-art security measures to ensure confidentiality. Data exchange with our website is encrypted. You can recognise this by the abbreviation HTTPS (Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure) in the address bar of your browser. Both our employees and all persons acting on our behalf are also expressly obliged to treat personal data confidentially.

In general, we delete your data as soon as it is no longer required for the specified purposes and any statutory retention periods have expired. Verification and retention obligations arise from, among other things, the German Commercial Code, the German Fiscal Code and the German Money Laundering Act. The retention periods are up to ten years.

Donors are considered inactive if they have not donated or otherwise contacted us for ten years. Their data will then be deleted. Email communications are archived for three years after the last contact with a person and deleted after a further seven years, provided there has been no further communication in the meantime. As long as claims can be asserted against our association, we retain the associated data until the expiry of the relevant statutory limitation period. We retain personal data that is relevant to an existing legal dispute until the dispute has been resolved. Deletion rules for processing in the following processes can be found in the relevant sections:
 

• Cookies and tracking
• Links to external websites
• Social networks
• Contact forms
• Newsletter
• Donations and sponsorship
• Financial penalties
• Job applications
• Photos

Essentially, the only recipients of your data besides ourselves are the processors commissioned by us in accordance with data protection regulations. In some processes, we pass on your data if this is required by law or if we are authorised to do so (e.g. in the case of financial penalties).

Potential recipients of your data are listed below together with the respective purposes:

Type of data recipients	Purposes of data transfer
Call Center	Telephone thank-you calls and fundraising appeals on behalf of
Lettershop	Printing and mailing of thank-you letters, donation receipts and invitations on behalf of clients
Fundraising service provider	Support with donation accounting, donor services, address and distribution list maintenance, and the administration of monetary penalties on behalf of clients.
Marketing and fundraising agencies	Support with the website, mailing and fundraising appeals on behalf of the organisation.
Service provider Internet presence	Consent management, pseudonymised reach measurement, conversion tracking, etc. – for more details, see the section on cookies and tracking. In addition, the service provider monitors the security of the website using its own Sentry instance hosted in Germany.
Service provider newsletter	Delivery of newsletters, management of subscriptions, analysis of open rates
waste disposal company	Disposal of files and data carriers on behalf of
Lawyers	Legal services
Judge	Statutory notification of payment of a financial penalty

 

The data controller is:

Aktion Deutschland Hilft e. V.
Alliance of Aid Organisations
Willy-Brandt-Allee 10-12
53113 Bonn
Telephone: 0228 / 242 92 444
If necessary, please write to us or send us an email.

You can contact our data protection officer, Ms Karin Schuler, by email at datenschutz(at)aktion-deutschland-hilft.de.
(Please replace the above (at) with the @ symbol in your email to us.).

You can raise any data protection concerns at any time using the contact details provided. In particular, you can request information about your data stored by us. Upon request, we will send you your data stored by us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format that you can use for further processing.

You also have the right to request the correction of inaccurate data or, if the legal requirements are met, the correction, restriction or deletion of your data. You have rights of objection within the framework of the legal requirements, which are specified in more detail in Art. 13 and Art. 21 GDPR.

You can object to the use of your data for direct marketing or market research purposes at any time without formal requirements. If you wish to exercise your right to object to processing based on a balancing of interests (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR), we will review your objection immediately and inform you of the outcome.

You also have the right to contact the competent data protection supervisory authority:

State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information North Rhine-Westphalia
Kavalleriestraße 2-4
40213 Düsseldorf
 

When you visit our website for the first time, we ask you to accept or reject non-essential cookies. You can give your consent using the Piwik Pro consent management tool, but you can also revoke your consent at any time. In addition, you can use your browser settings to reject all cookies, including those that are technically necessary. However, this may mean that certain functions of the website are not available. We use cookies in the categories ‘Technically necessary’, ‘Statistics’, “Marketing” and ‘Functional’, the details of which are described below.

Technically necessary cookies are used to ensure the secure provision of our website. Their use is based on the exception formulated in Section 25 (2) TDDDG. According to this, we may store technically necessary cookies on your device without your explicit consent.

We only collect cookies from all other categories if you have given your consent via our consent banner. In this case, we base our processing on Section 25 (1) TDDDG in conjunction with Art. 6 (1) lit a GDPR.

You can find a list of all cookies, including their purpose and deletion periods, here.

With the exception of technically necessary cookies, we manage your consent or refusal using our consent management software Piwik Pro. Even after your initial selection, you can later object to the use of cookies with immediate effect for the future (see the ‘Privacy settings’ box at the bottom of the page).

When using some services – such as in the context of a survey – we ask for your express consent in each individual case to be able to track your visit on a personalised basis. If you do not give your consent, no personalised data will be collected. If you do give your consent, we rely on Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR.

1. Technically necessary cookies

Some features of the website, such as donations or privacy settings, cannot be displayed or used properly without the use of cookies. This also includes cookies set by our consent management software to ensure the website's compliance with data protection regulations.

 

2. Statistical cookies

We use statistical cookies for troubleshooting, website analysis and reach measurement. We use these to find out how our website is being used, whether certain content is well received, whether certain error messages occur frequently, etc. The information collected does not allow us to identify the user, as we only evaluate it in aggregate form. We use the information collected to optimise our website and make it as user-friendly as possible.

Piwik Pro Analytics
The Piwik Pro Analytics software from our consent management service provider, Piwik Pro, enables us to statistically evaluate user access to our website. The information generated in this way about the use of our website is stored exclusively on European servers belonging to Piwik Pro. A corresponding data processing agreement has been concluded.

Your IP address is only processed in truncated form and thus pseudonymised, so that we cannot trace it back to you. Further information on the terms of use and data protection regulations can be found on the Piwik Pro data protection page..

Google Analytics
We use the Google Analytics service provided by the US company Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA (Google). EU standard contractual clauses have been agreed with Google.

A cookie containing usage information is set on your computer. The cookie is transmitted to a server of the service provider, possibly in the USA, and stored there. You can find information on its use in Google's privacy policy here. The service allows us to perform usage analyses of our website.

We also use the AnonymizeIP() function to instruct Google to shorten IP addresses in order to exclude direct personal references. The data collected is provided to us by Google in such a way that we can statistically evaluate and analyse relevant website activities. The shortened IP address transmitted through the use of Google Analytics is not merged with other Google data.

 

3. Cookies for marketing purposes

We use marketing cookies to better measure the effectiveness of advertising measures and thus contribute to the economical use of resources. In particular, we try to advertise our services, our work and the projects and offers of our alliance partners in a way that is as relevant as possible to your interests.

In addition, we use such cookies to limit the likelihood of an advertisement being displayed and to measure the effectiveness of our advertising measures. This information may also be shared with third parties, such as ad networks. When you view certain advertisements, we benefit from small amounts that are credited to us and used for our charitable activities (conversion tracking).

Google Ads
We use the online advertising programme ‘Google Ads’ and, as part of this, conversion tracking. Google Ads is an internet advertising service that enables us to place online donation appeals in the form of advertisements in Google search engine results and to place them in the Google advertising network. The conversion tracking cookie is set when a user clicks on an advertisement placed by Aktion Deutschland Hilft in the Google search or advertising network. These cookies expire after a maximum of 90 days and are not used for personal identification. The information is transferred to a Google server in the USA and stored there. Google undertakes not to associate the data with other Google data under any circumstances. The following link takes you to Google's privacy policy and terms of use.

Bing Ads
We use the online advertising programme ‘Bing Ads’ and, as part of this, conversion tracking. Bing Ads is an internet advertising service that enables us to place online donation appeals in the form of advertisements in Microsoft search engine results and to place them in the Microsoft advertising network. The conversion tracking cookie is set when a user clicks on an Aktion Deutschland Hilft advertisement placed on the Microsoft search or advertising network. These cookies expire after a maximum of 90 days and are not used for personal identification. The information is transferred to a Microsoft server in the USA and stored there. Microsoft undertakes not to link the data with other Microsoft data under any circumstances. Further information can be found in the privacy policy for Bing Ads.

AWIN
We use components from the company AWIN on our website. AWIN is a German affiliate network and serves as an interface between merchants and sales partners (affiliates). Affiliate marketing is an Internet-based form of distribution that enables commercial operators of websites, known as merchants or advertisers, to display advertising that is usually remunerated via click or sale commissions.

AWIN places a cookie on your computer. This cookie only stores the identification number of the affiliate, i.e. the partner referring the potential customer, as well as the reference number of the visitor to a website and the advertising material clicked on. The purpose of storing this data is to process commission payments between a merchant and the affiliate, which are handled via the affiliate network, i.e. AWIN. You can view AWIN's applicable data protection regulations here.

Facebook Custom Audiences
We use the meta pixel (formerly: Facebook pixel) from Facebook Ireland Ltd to create so-called custom audiences, i.e. to segment groups of visitors to our online offering, determine conversion rates and then optimise them. This happens in particular when you interact with advertisements that we have placed with Facebook Ireland Ltd.

For this purpose, so-called meta pixels are integrated into our websites, which mark you as a visitor to our website in anonymised form, i.e. without identifying you as a person. If you are later logged into Facebook, a non-reversible and therefore non-personal checksum (hash value) from your usage data is transmitted to Facebook for analysis and marketing purposes. This allows Facebook to associate your visit to our pages with your user account. We can use the information obtained in this way to display Facebook Ads. The Facebook cookie is used for the Website Custom Audiences product.

For more information about the purpose and scope of data collection and the further processing and use of data by Facebook, as well as your settings options for protecting your privacy, please refer to Facebook's privacy policy, which you can access here via opt-out.

Hurra Communications GmbH
Hurra Communications GmbH
We use cookies in conjunction with technologies from Hurra Communications GmbH to obtain information about your usage behaviour on our website and to recognise your browser on subsequent visits using pseudonymous user profiles.

The IP addresses of visitors are shortened before storage in such a way that personal references are excluded and it is no longer possible to merge usage profiles and IP addresses. Further information can be found in the privacy policy of hurra.com.

 

4. Functional cookies

TrustedSite
Our website is certified by TrustedSite, a company based in Miami Beach, Florida. TrustedSite's security software continuously monitors our website for security issues such as malware, malicious links and phishing, and regularly checks that active and valid SSL encryption is in use. The software is used to protect our website from external attacks and to ensure the security of your data. For more information, please refer to TrustedSite's privacy policy.

The cookies used to utilise the service expire after 30 minutes. You can verify the validity of the certificate here.

We also refer to websites of other providers on our websites if we want to draw your attention to their content. These may include, for example, videos from YouTube that we ourselves provide there. When you access such third-party offers, we have no influence on how the provider handles your data. Please refer to their privacy policy for more information.

For your guidance, we usually mark links to externally hosted content with an external link symbol (small box with an arrow).

We also integrate useful services from other providers that we consider useful on our website. If data about you is collected, processed or used when you use these services, this only happens if you enter the data yourself or have given your consent. The contact person for this (‘controller’) is the respective provider. The privacy policy of the respective provider applies to the use and processing of your data.

Donation calculator
We use the services of Smare Stefan Banse Michael Mühl GbR, Hinter der Hage 25, 53501 Grafschaft, to display a donation calculator. The calculator loads without any tracking technology. Aktion Deutschland Hilft does not guarantee the accuracy of the calculations. The smart-rechner privacy policy is linked in the donation calculator.

Google Maps
This website uses Google Maps, a product of Google Inc. The embedded map will only load after you have given your consent. The terms of use for Google Maps can be found at Google Maps Terms of Use.

General note on embedded content:
For embedded content from social networks, please refer to the ‘Social Networks’ section of this privacy policy.

Our social media presence is intended to ensure the most comprehensive presence possible on the internet. We therefore link to these social media sites on our website. However, to give you better control over your personal data, we use the Shariff solution for social media buttons.

Our buttons only establish contact with the respective social network (and only then transfer data) when you click on the corresponding button (and not when you visit our site). If contact is established by clicking, these services collect data about you and your use. This also applies to embedded content, e.g. from Instagram, etc. This content is only loaded after you activate it by clicking on it. We base the transfer of your data to the respective network following your active click on Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a.

YouTube videos are embedded in extended data protection mode (YouTube no cookies), which means that no cookies are set.

You can find out more about the collection and use of your data by social networks on the respective social networks.

Below, we provide links to the privacy policies of the social networks on which Aktion Deutschland Hilft e.V. is present or to which links are provided.

• Facebook
• WhatsApp
• LinkedIn
• XING
• TikTok
• Instagram
• YouTube

When you send us an enquiry via the contact form, we only collect the data that you yourself provide to us. We will only store your personal data for the purpose of fulfilling your request, e.g. to answer your enquiries, send you the requested material or process your other requests. Your data will only be transmitted in encrypted form. You can recognise this by the addition of HTTPS in the address bar of the respective contact forms.

As already stated above, such data will be archived at the latest three years after the last contact with you and deleted after a further seven years, provided that there has been no further communication in the meantime.

If you have subscribed to our newsletter or given us your consent in another way, we will use your email address to inform you about campaigns and events organised by Aktion Deutschland Hilft e.V. We base this communication on Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR.

When you subscribe to one of our newsletters, you will receive a confirmation email with a link. Only by clicking on this link will you be added to the recipient list for the newsletter you have subscribed to (double opt-in procedure). The link is valid for 30 days and then expires. If the order is not confirmed by clicking on the link within this period, all data will be automatically deleted. If the order is successful, we will store your email address, your IP address(es), the date and time of the order or unsubscription and, if you have entered it, your first and last name. You can unsubscribe from newsletters at any time by using the link at the end of each newsletter.

The company Optimizely, Wallstraße 16, 10179 Berlin, provides the services of delivering newsletters, managing subscriptions and aggregated, non-personalised analysis of opening rates on our behalf.

If you would like to donate online, whether it be a one-time donation or a regular contribution, you can do so using our donation form. In order to ensure the legitimacy of the payment transaction, we require at least the following information, which you must enter yourself:

• Title and full name
• Email address
• Postal address
• Bank and payment details

The data you enter in the donation form is processed by our service provider, Wikando GmbH. Depending on the payment method you have selected, your data will also be forwarded to the relevant financial service provider for the purpose of executing the payment on the basis of Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR:

• For direct debit payments to our house bank
• For payments via PayPal to PayPal
• For credit card payments to Micropayment GmbH
• For payments via Google Pay or Apple Pay to Stripe Payments Europe Ltd.

We then use this data to record your donation, issue tax-deductible donation receipts and provide information about how your donation is used.

As a non-profit organisation, we also use your address data for fundraising purposes after weighing up the interests in accordance with Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR in order to send you information about our charitable and benevolent work (e.g. advertising for our own aid projects) in connection with fundraising, unless you have objected to this. We expressly assure you that your data will only be processed for these purposes and only by Aktion Deutschland Hilft. We do not sell or rent addresses of donors or supporters to other companies or other (including like-minded) organisations. You can object to this use at any time. You can also easily object by clicking on the link in every email.
Your data relating to donations and sponsorship will be stored together with information on the amount, frequency and purpose/project of your donation and retained for ten years until the expiry of the statutory retention period.

If you have donated offline and have not provided us with your contact details, we will transfer 1 cent back to you and ask you to provide us with your name and address if you would like to receive a proper donation receipt. You can then also provide us with your contact details online using the form provided for this purpose and using the identification number provided.

Find out what happens to your donation in this infographic.

We advertise publicly (television, posters) together with the alliance Entwicklung Hilft – Gemeinsam für Menschen in Not e.V. (Development Helps – Together for People in Need) to solicit your donations. For this purpose, both organisations operate a joint account that is managed by a trustee. The trustee monitors the incoming donations and allocates them to the two organisations on a pro rata basis according to a fixed agreement. If you donate to this account, your donation will be credited either to Aktion Deutschland Hilft or Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft, depending on how the trustee has allocated it according to the rules. After the allocation, you will receive a donation receipt from the organisation that received your donation if the donation is at least £50 (automatically) or, upon request, for smaller amounts as well.

If you donate online at spendenkonto-nothilfe.de, you will be asked to provide the same data on the same legal basis as on our own website, and our handling of your data will comply with our standard processes from the moment your donation is allocated by the trustee (see the section above entitled ‘Donations and sponsorship’).

If you have any questions about your donation to joint fundraising campaigns by Aktion Deutschland Hilft and Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft, you can contact either partner if you do not know to whom your donation was allocated. We will forward your enquiry to the other partner if we were not the recipient of your donation ourselves.

Aktion Deutschland Hilft and Bündnis Entwicklung Hilft have concluded a joint responsibility agreement in accordance with Art. 26 GDPR for this joint fundraising campaign. This agreement sets out the processes and the respective responsibilities of the partners with regard to fundraising, operation of the website spendenkonto-nothilfe.de, the trustee's tasks in collecting, booking and distributing donations, issuing donation receipts and handling your data in detail.

 

If you have been ordered by the court to pay a certain amount to us as a non-profit organisation, we will receive a court notification to this effect. We, in turn, must notify the court when we have received your payment.

Detailed information on how we handle your data in accordance with Art. 13 GDPR can be found in this document.

We look forward to receiving your application and offer you a secure way to send us your documents electronically and confidentially. Please only use our secure form to send us your application. We also store your documents within the organisation in an access-protected manner. Only persons involved in a possible job filling process have access to them. The use of your documents is based on Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR.

Your application documents will be deleted 3 months after completion of the recruitment process if you are not successful. However, you can also informally notify us that we should keep your documents on file for possible future vacancies.

Once we have received your documents, we will send you detailed information about how your data will be handled in accordance with Art. 13 GDPR.

We use photos to illustrate our charitable activities. The images used on the website come from our own collection or from paid sources for which we have paid a usage fee. The images are marked with a source reference.

If you are organising a fundraising campaign yourself, you have the option of uploading photos of the campaign. In this case, you must ensure and assure us that all persons depicted agree to this publication.

In general, photos or videos of persons published in the context of events or campaigns are duly checked by us for consent in accordance with Art. 6 (1) lit. a GDPR and the exceptions of the German Art Copyright Act (KunstUrhG) §22 and §23. If you still do not agree to a photo being published on the website, please let us know at datenschutz(at)deutschland-hilft.de. We will review the situation immediately. (Note: Please replace the above (at) with the @ sign in your email to us.)

If you apply via our website to take part in journalism competitions, we will process the data you provide.

Detailed information on how we handle your data in accordance with Art. 13 GDPR can be found this document.

Stiftung Deutschland Hilft is closely linked to the Aktion Deutschland Hilft association. The foundation supports projects run by the alliance organisations of Aktion Deutschland Hilft. It is a legally independent organisation. It collects its own data and does not transfer any data to the Aktion Deutschland Hilft database.