Privacy policy

The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia takes the protection of your personal data very seriously. With this privacy policy, we would therefore like to give you an overview of how we ensure the protection of your data, what type of data is collected for what purpose and how it is used. In the course of the further development of this website within the Landesportal network and the implementation of new technologies to improve our service for you, it may also be necessary to make changes to the data protection declaration. We therefore recommend that you read the privacy policy again from time to time.

Personal data is collected when you use our website. This is necessary for technical reasons in order to guarantee you all the functionalities of our website and the security of our offer (legal basis is Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. e GDPR).

The party responsible for processing your data is:

Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Berger Allee 25
40213 Düsseldorf
Telephone +49 (0) 211-61772-0

You can contact the Data Protection Officer of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia by email at datenschutzbeauftragter[at]mwike.nrw.de (datenschutzbeauftragter[at]mwike[dot]nrw[dot]de) or via the address:

Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Protection and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Data Protection Officer
Berger Allee 25
40213 Düsseldorf
Telephone +49 (0) 211-61772-0

You have the following rights vis-à-vis us with regard to your personal data:

• Right of access,
• Right to rectification or erasure,
• Right to restriction of processing,
• Right to object to processing.
• Right to data portability

Please contact us by email via the efre.verwaltungsbehoerde[at]mwike.nrw.de (efre[dot]verwaltungsbehoerde[at]mwike[dot]nrw[dot]de) mailbox or in writing via the contact details provided in the imprint to the Ministry.

You also have the right to complain to the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (www.ldi.nrw.de) about the processing of your personal data by us.

Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit Nordrhein-Westfalen

Kavalleriestraße 2-4
40213 Düsseldorf
Telephone: +49 (0)211 / 38424 - 0
Telefax: +49 (0) 211 / 38424-999

The website is hosted by IT.NRW.

Landesbetrieb Information und Technik Nordrhein-Westfalen (IT.NRW)
Mauerstraße 51
40476 Düsseldorf
Telephone: 0211 9449-01
Telefax: 0211 9449-8000

Every time the content of the website is accessed, data is temporarily stored there via so-called protocol or log files, which may allow identification. The following data is collected each time the website is accessed:

• Date and time of access
• Name of the Internet service accessed, the resource accessed and the action used
• Request made by the client
• Amount of data transferred
• Notification as to whether the access was successful
• IP address of the accessing computer
• Client information (including browser, operating system).

This data from the log files is used to defend against and analyze attacks on the portal and is stored for up to 48 hours directly and only accessible to administrators. After that, they are only available indirectly via the reconstruction of backup tapes and are permanently deleted after six weeks.

For your contact with the Ministry, we offer you various access options via contact forms or the use of email addresses. If you use these contacts, personal data is entered on an expressly voluntary basis (legal basis is Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. a GDPR).
This applies, for example, to inquiries via e-mail or contact form.

Here can be saved:

• Salutation
• Name
• First name
• E-Mail address
• Street
• House number
• Postcode
• City
• Telephone number
• Subject
• Your message
• Timestamp
• User
• IP-address

When you contact us by e-mail, the data you voluntarily provide must be stored so that we can respond to your request, so that we can respond to your request.

Persons under the age of 16 should not transmit any personal data to us unless the consent of their parents or legal guardians (holders of parental responsibility) has been granted (Art. 8 (1) GDPR). The consent must then be expressly noted in the message (Art. 8 para. 2 GDPR). We do not request personal data from children and young people. We do not knowingly collect such data.

We only use the personal data you enter for the purpose you have requested and only within the state government or the authorities, departments and institutions commissioned with the respective service.

We delete the personal data that we receive by email or post as soon as storage is no longer required for the purpose you have pursued or in connection with the administrative processes triggered by this and the applicable retention obligations.

Disclosure of personal data

Data logged when accessing the website or collected for a special service will only be transmitted to third parties outside the state government

• if we are obliged to do so by law or by order of a court or public prosecutor or
• if disclosure is necessary for legal or criminal prosecution in the event of attacks on the state government's Internet infrastructure.

We only use strictly necessary cookies that provide you with the basic functions of this website.

You can prevent the use of cookies by setting your Internet browser so that it does not accept cookies. How you do this depends on your browser.

Without the strictly necessary cookies, the website cannot be displayed to you.

The open source tool Matomo is used for the statistical analysis of the use of the website. Matomo is hosted by the state operating service provider IT.NRW.

Matomo is integrated using JavaScript with cookie-free tracking. The IP address as a personal date is anonymized. The use of cookies is generally deactivated.

Matomo is used to collect statistical data, such as website visits. However, no personal data is collected in the process.

In order to provide you with our newsletter, we need your e-mail address and information that enables us to ensure that you are the owner of the e-mail address provided and that you wish to receive the newsletter. Additional data is only collected if you provide it voluntarily. The newsletter is sent via a specialized provider as described below.

We use the Brevo service, provided by Sendinblue GmbH, Köpenicker Straße 126, 10179 Berlin, Germany, to send and analyze newsletters.

Brevo not only enables us to send newsletters, but also to analyze newsletter usage. The data you provide will be stored on the servers of Sendinblue GmbH in Germany.

Brevo offers functions for analyzing our newsletter campaigns. For example, we record:

• Opening behavior: Whether a newsletter was opened.
• Click behavior: Which links were clicked and how often this happened.
• Conversion rate: Whether actions or other predefined goals were achieved by clicking on certain links.

In addition, Brevo allows newsletter recipients to be segmented into categories, for example by age, gender or geographical location. This clustering helps us to tailor the content to the interests of the respective target group.

If you do not consent to your newsletter usage being analyzed, you can unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time. A corresponding unsubscribe link is included in the newsletter email.

Further information on Brevo's functions can be found here: Brevo newsletter software.

If you have subscribed to our newsletter, you can unsubscribe at any time using the following link

unsubscribe from the newsletter

Your data is processed on the basis of your consent in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR. You can withdraw this consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.

Your data provided for the newsletter will be stored for as long as you have subscribed to the newsletter. After you unsubscribe, this data will be deleted from the distribution list.

If necessary, your email address will be stored in a blacklist after you unsubscribe to prevent future mailings. This storage is based on our legitimate interest in complying with legal requirements in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. Data from the blacklist is used exclusively for this purpose and is not merged with other data. You can object to the storage if your interests outweigh our legitimate interest.

For more information on Brevo's privacy practices, please visit:

• Brevo's privacy overview
• Brevo Privacy Policy

We have concluded a data processing agreement (DPA) with Sendinblue GmbH for the use of Brevo. This contract ensures that Brevo processes your personal data exclusively in accordance with our instructions and in compliance with the GDPR.