Information on data protection

Responsible handling of personal data is a priority for the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (“the Ministry”). We want our users to know what the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture is collecting, when it is doing so and for what purpose.

The Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, a public authority within the Federal Republic of Germany which does not have legal capacity, operates a website hosted on the www.bmel.de domain. This website serves to provide information about the ministry’s activities and to give the public easy access to information.

We do not process personal data beyond what is necessary. What data we will need and process on what basis and for what purpose will much depend on the type of service you are using, and on the purpose for which the data are required.

We have taken technical and organisational measures to ensure that both we and our external service external service providers comply with the provisions governing data protection.

The processing of personal data at the Ministry is handled in accordance with the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Federal Data Protection Act.

Basic information

Responsibility and Data Protection Officer

Responsibility for the processing of personal data lies with the
Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture
Telephone: +49 30 / 1 85 29 - 0
Telefax: +49 30 / 1 85 29 - 42 62
E-mail: poststelle@bmel.bund.de

Addresses

Bonn Office

Visitor's address:
Rochusstraße 1, 53123 Bonn
Postal address: P.O. Box 14 02 70, 53107 Bonn

Telephone: +49 228 / 9 95 29 - 0
Telefax: +49 228 / 9 95 29 - 42 62

Berlin Office

Visitor's address:
Wilhelmstraße 54, 10117 Berlin
Postal address: 11055 Berlin

Telephone: +49 30 / 1 85 29 - 0
Telefax: +49 30 / 1 85 29 - 42 62

If you have any specific questions about the protection of your data at the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, please contact the Ministry’s Data Protection Officer:
P.O. Box 14 02 70
53107 Bonn
E-mail: bds@bmel.bund.de

Personal Data

"Personal data" comprise any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. An identifiable natural person is someone who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, and/or an online identifier.

Legislation governing the processing of personal data

The Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture processes personal data as it carries out the tasks of public interest that are assigned to it. These public duties particularly include public relations work, which also involves providing information for the public on this website. The processing of personal data in this context is based on Art. 6 (1) (e) General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in conjunction with the relevant national or European standards, or in conjunction with Section 3 of the Federal Data Protection Act. The same applies to applications made to the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, the processing of which requires the ministry to process personal data (e.g. applications for funding or for access to information under the German Freedom of Information Act, the Environmental Information Act or press law). Insofar as the processing of personal data is, in individual cases, required in order to fulfil a legal obligation, this is based on Article 6 (1) (c ) GDPR in conjunction with the relevant legal provisions under which the legal obligation arises.

Insofar as we obtain the consent of the data subject to process his/her personal data, this is based on Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR.

In individual cases, the processing of personal data required for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is a party is based on Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR. This also applies to processing operations necessary for the implementation of pre-contractual measures. As a contracting party under civil law, the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture is particularly active in the field of personnel recruitment and procurement.

In the event that vital interests of the data subject or another natural person make it necessary to process personal data, this is based on Art. 6 (1) (d) GDPR.

No automated decision making takes place.

Data processing in connection with visits to this website

Data capturing

Whenever a user accesses our website and whenever a file is accessed, data relating to this are temporarily processed in a log file. More specifically, the following data are stored for every single access/download:

  • Date and time (time stamp), IP address of the device or server used
  • Details of the request and target address (log version, HTTP method, referrer, user-agent string),
  • Name of the file accessed, volume of data transferred (URL including query string, file size in byte) and
  • confirmation as to whether the request was successful (HTTP status code).

We are obliged under Article 6 (1) (e) GDPR, in conjunction with Section 5 Federal Office for Information Security Act, to store data that is necessary to protect the Ministry’s internet infrastructure and the federal communications technology system from attack; data must be stored beyond the time of your visit. These data are analysed and may be used for legal and criminal proceedings in the event of an attack on the communications technology system. The data will be deleted as soon as it is no longer needed for the intended purpose.

Data collected from visits to the Ministry’s web resources and stored on log files are transmitted to third parties only when required by law, or if attacks on the federal communications technology system make it necessary to forward such data for purposes of legal action or criminal prosecution. Data will not be transferred for any other reason. The Ministry does not compile these data with data from other sources.

Cookies

Session cookies are small information units that a provider stores in the active memory of the visiting user’s computer. A randomly generated, unique ID number – known as a session ID – is stored in a session cookie. Cookies also contain information regarding their origin and the period of time for which they are to be stored on a computer. This type of cookie cannot store any other data. The session ID is used to group your orders together in your shopping basket.

Session cookies are valid for the duration of your visit to the website. Article 6 (1) (e) GDPR, in conjunction with Section 3 Federal Data Protection Act, provides the legal basis for the use of these session cookies as part of the Ministry's PR activities, which are designed to meet the demand for information about the Ministry’s work in the areas entrusted to it. This includes orders as part of contracts concluded on the basis of Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR.

Session cookies are deleted as soon as you end your session. As soon as you close your browser window or navigate to a different website, your shopping basket will be reset. This means that if you end your session before placing your order, you will have to fill your shopping basket again.

You can use any internet browser to be informed whenever a cookie is set and to see what information is stored in them. For more detailed information, visit the websites of the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information and of the Federal Office for Information Security.

Most browsers’ default settings will result in cookies being accepted automatically. It is, however, possible to disable the use of cookies or to change your browser settings to ‘session cookies only’, which means that all cookies are deleted as soon as you disconnect from the internet.

Web analysis

As part of its PR work and for the purposes of meeting demand for information about the work entrusted to the Ministry, the Ministry conducts use analyses for statistical purposes and in line with Article 6 (1) (e) GDPR in conjunction with Section 3 Federal Data Protection Act.

Matomo

We evaluate information on the use of our website in anonymous form for statistical purposes in order to provide demand-oriented information. For this purpose we use the web analysis service "Matomo" (formerly "PIWIK") on our websites.

Matomo is an Open Source software designed for optimising a website. It runs exclusively on the servers of our web provider Informationstechnikzentrum Bund (ITZBund), which is overseen by the General Customs Directorate. No cookies will be stored on your computer while this website analysis is being performed.

Whenever individual pages of our website are viewed the following data will be stored on our website’s servers:

  • two bytes of the IP address of a user’s accessing computer or similar device (anonymous)
  • the web page viewed
  • the website (referrer) which linked the user to the web page viewed
  • the subpages called up from the web page viewed
  • the time a user spends on the web page
  • the frequency and/or number of impressions of the web page

The exclusive purpose of this web analysis is to optimise our online presence. Your personal data will neither be analysed nor used for profiling or passed on to a third party. Given the anonymisation of IP addresses in this context, any user’s interest in having their personal data protected is duly taken account of.

Should you disagree with even the anonymised storage and analysis of the above details you may object to such storage and analysis at any time. In that case, an opt-out cookie will be written to your PC’s web browser meaning that Matomo will cease to collect any session data.

Use of OpenStreetMap

We use a map excerpt from OpenStreetMap on our website to display maps with practical examples and funding projects as well as the route to the Ministry, making it easier for you to plan your journey.

OpenStreetMap is an open source mapping tool. In order for the map to be displayed, your IP address is forwarded to OpenStreetMap. You can see how OpenStreetMap stores your data here and here on the OpenStreetMap data protection page.

We base the use of the aforementioned tools on Article 6 (1) (f) GDPR: data processing is carried out to improve the user-friendliness of our website and is therefore in our legitimate interest.

Processing of personal data of those contacting the ministry

You can contact both the BMEL and the Ministry's consumer guide for food, agriculture and health-related consumer protection via the Ministry's website. This is operated by the Federal Agency for Agriculture and Food (BLE) on behalf of the Ministry.

When you contact us, the personal data transmitted by you (e.g.: surname, first name, address, e-mail address), along with the information transmitted by you for the purpose of contacting us and processing your request, will be stored in the Ministry in accordance with the time limits of the Registry Directive, which supplements the Common Rules of Procedure of the Federal Ministries (GGO).

Please note that the processing of this personal data is based on Article 6 (1) (a) GDPR in conjunction with § 3 Federal Data Protection Act. Processing of the personal data you provide is necessary for the purpose of processing your request.

If we receive a message via the contact form or an e-mail from you, we assume that we are entitled to reply by e-mail. Otherwise, please expressly point out to us another way of communication.

Processing of personal data as part of social media use

The Ministry is active on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.
We expressly point out that these networks store the personal data of their users (e.g. personal information, IP address etc.) in accordance with their data usage guidelines and use them for business purposes. The Ministry has no influence on the collection and use of data by social networks. We are unable to ascertain the extent, the location and the duration of the data capture, the extent to which the networks meet obligations to delete data, what evaluations and links pertaining to the data are made, and to whom data are forwarded.

For information about the type of data processed by Twitter and for what purposes, consult their Privacy Policy (in German). For information about the type of data processed by Instagram and for what purposes, consult their Privacy Policy (in German). For information about the type of data processed by YouTube and for what purposes, consult their Privacy Policy (in German).

Processing of personal data in the context of provision of information

Use of the order function

If you would like to order a publication or information material from us, it is necessary that you provide us with the personal data we need to process the order.
The mandatory details required for processing are marked separately, further details are voluntary. The following details are required in all cases: name, address (street and house number, postcode and city) and a valid e-mail address. We transmit the personal data to our sales service provider IBRo Versandservice GmbH, Kastanienweg 1, 18184 Roggentin.

The legal basis for the processing and transmission of your personal data in relation to orders is Article 6 (1) (a) of the GDPR Regulation. Your personal data will be deleted as soon as they are no longer needed for processing.

Press service and press releases

In a newsletter function we offer a press service and the dispatch of press releases, with which you can inform yourself about current developments. You can find the overview here.
The e-mail address is mandatory to use the press service, and the e-mail address and the name of the editorial office or company are mandatory to have the press releases sent. Your personal data will not be transmitted to third parties. You can cancel the press service and/or press releases at any time.
Your personal data will then be deleted immediately.

Visitors

The BMEL regularly receives groups for information visits and individual visitors on specific occasions. In order to be able to grant them access to the BMEL premises, the BMEL must, for security reasons, collect the first and last names of participants in advance of the appointment in order to fulfil its duties under Article 6 (1) (e) GDPR in conjunction with Section 3 Federal Data Protection Act.

Other personal data, such as institution, type of school, class level, association or mobility restrictions, serve to better prepare for the visit to the BMEL and are optional. By providing this personal data, visitors consent to the processing of such data for the aforementioned purpose. The processing of this data is based on your consent in accordance with Article 6 (1) (a) GDPR. You can revoke this consent at any time. The lawfulness of the processing based on your consent remains unaffected until receipt of your revocation.

CCTV

The Ministry properties are monitored with video surveillance systems in outdoor areas in order to safeguard the householder's rights and for the purposes of averting danger and criminal prosecution. The data collected are processed on the basis of Article 6 (1) (e) GDPR in conjunction with § 4 Federal Data Protection Act. The image recording is permanently (24/7) automated. The video stream (video image without sound, recording time) is stored for a maximum of 8 days on internal file servers with specific access restrictions at the Berlin office.
The collected data will only be transmitted to criminal investigation authorities if this is requested in the context of a justified police measure or by judicial order for the above-mentioned purposes.

Your rights

You have the following rights with regard to the personal data concerning your person:

  • Right of access, Art. 15 GDPR
    The right of access confers on the data subject a comprehensive right of access to the data concerning his/her person and to certain important information-related criteria, such as the purposes for which it is processed or the duration for which it will be stored. The exceptions to this right regulated in Section 34 Federal Data Protection Act apply.

  • Right to rectification, Art. 16 GDPR
    The right of rectification includes the possibility for the data subject to have inaccurate personal data corrected.

  • Right to erasure, Art. 17 GDPR
    The right to erasure includes the possibility for the data subject to have data deleted by the party responsible. However, this is only possible if the personal data concerning his/her person are no longer needed, are processed unlawfully or if the relevant consent has been revoked. The exceptions to this right regulated in Section 35 Federal Data Protection Act apply.

  • Right to restriction of processing, Art. 18 GDPR
    The right to restrict the processing includes the possibility for the data subject to prevent further processing of personal data concerning his/her person for the time being. A restriction particularly occurs pending verification of the exercise of other rights of the data subject.

  • Right to data portability, Art. 20 GDPR
    The right to data portability includes the possibility for the data subject to obtain the personal data concerning his/her person from the person responsible in a standard, machine-readable format, in order to be able to forward them to another person responsible if necessary. According to Art. 20 (3) sentence 2 GDPR, however, this right does not apply if the data processing serves the performance of public tasks.

  • Right to object to collection, processing and/or use, Art. 21 GDPR
    The right to object includes the possibility for data subjects to object, in a particular situation, to the further processing of their personal data, insofar as this is justified by the exercise of public functions or of public or private interests. The exceptions to this right regulated in Section 36 Federal Data Protection Act apply.

  • Right to revoke consent, Art. 13 and 14 GDPR
    If personal data are processed on the basis of consent, the data subject may revoke such consent at any time for the purpose for which it was given. The lawfulness of the processing undertaken on the basis of this consent remains unaffected until receipt of the revocation.

You can assert the aforementioned rights in writing using the contact details set out in the Section on 'Responsibility and Data Protection Officer'.

Pursuant to Art. 77 GDPR, you also have the right to appeal to the data protection supervisory authority: the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI).

Contact details of the BfDI
The Federal Commissioner for Data Protection
and Freedom of Information
Graurheindorfer Str. 153
53117 Bonn
E-mail: poststelle@bfdi.bund.de

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