Privacy Policy

This privacy notice applies to the website fundamentals.weizenbaum-institut.de. Separate privacy notices apply to the other websites of Weizenbaum-Institut e.V.

We process personal data (hereinafter mostly referred to simply as "data") only to the extent necessary and for the purpose of providing a functional and user-friendly website, including its content and the services offered on it.

Under Art. 4(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, i.e. the General Data Protection Regulation (hereinafter "GDPR"), "processing" means any operation or set of operations performed on personal data, whether or not by automated means, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction.

With the following privacy notice, we inform you in particular about the type, scope, purpose, duration and legal basis of the processing of personal data, insofar as we decide on the purposes and means of processing either alone or jointly with others. We also inform you below about the third-party components we use, insofar as third parties process data under their own responsibility as a result.

Our privacy notice is structured as follows:

• I. Information about us as the controller

• II. Definitions

• III. Rights of users and data subjects

• IV. Information on data processing

The controller responsible for this website within the meaning of data protection law is:

Weizenbaum-Institut e.V.

Hardenbergstraße 32

10623 Berlin

Germany

Tel.: +49 30 700141-001

Email: info[at]weizenbaum-institut.de

Data Protection Officer:

Weizenbaum-Institut e.V.

Hardenbergstraße 32

10623 Berlin

Germany

Tel.: +49 30 700141-018

Email: datenschutz[at]weizenbaum-institut.de

For ease of reading and better understanding, we explain the terms used in the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). In this privacy notice we use, among others, the following terms:

Personal data means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (hereinafter "data subject"). An identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.

A data subject is any identified or identifiable natural person whose personal data is processed by the controller.

Processing is any operation or set of operations performed on personal data, whether or not by automated means.

The controller is the natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which, alone or jointly with others, determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data.

A processor is a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller.

A recipient is a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body to which personal data is disclosed, whether a third party or not.

Consent is any freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the data subject's wishes by which they, by a statement or by a clear affirmative action, signify agreement to the processing of personal data relating to them.

If your personal data is processed, you are a data subject within the meaning of the GDPR and you have the following rights against us:

You can ask us to confirm whether we are processing personal data concerning you. If such processing takes place, you can request information from us on the following: the purposes for which the personal data is processed; the categories of personal data being processed; the recipients or categories of recipients to whom the personal data concerning you has been or will be disclosed; the planned duration of storage of the personal data concerning you or, if specific information on this is not possible, the criteria for determining the storage period; the existence of a right to rectification or erasure of the personal data concerning you, a right to restriction of processing by us or a right to object to such processing; the existence of a right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority; all available information about the source of the data if the personal data was not collected from you.

You have a right to rectification and/or completion against us if the personal data processed concerning you is inaccurate or incomplete. We must carry out the rectification without undue delay.

Under the conditions set out in Art. 18 GDPR, you can request the restriction of processing of the personal data concerning you.

You can request that we erase the personal data concerning you without undue delay if one of the grounds listed in Art. 17(1) GDPR applies and the processing is not necessary for one of the reasons listed in Art. 17(3) GDPR.

If you have asserted the right to rectification, erasure or restriction of processing against us, we are obliged to communicate this rectification or erasure of the data or restriction of processing to all recipients to whom the personal data concerning you has been disclosed, unless this proves impossible or involves disproportionate effort.

You have the right to receive the personal data concerning you that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.

You have the right to object at any time, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to the processing of personal data concerning you that is based on Art. 6(1)(e) or (f) GDPR. We will then no longer process the personal data concerning you unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms, or the processing serves the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

You have the right to withdraw your consent under data protection law at any time. Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out on the basis of the consent before its withdrawal. How to withdraw consent given for embedding video content is described in Section IV under "YouTube videos".

Without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The supervisory authority responsible for us is the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Berliner Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit), Alt-Moabit 59–61, 10555 Berlin, Tel.: +49 30 13889-0, Email: mailbox[at]datenschutz-berlin.de.

Your data processed when you use our website will be erased or blocked as soon as the purpose of storage no longer applies, provided that no statutory retention obligations prevent erasure and no other information is given below for individual processing operations.

Registration is not required to use this website. There are no forms, newsletter sign-ups or user accounts for visitors.

We do not use cookies on our website. The service providers we use also do not set any cookies when our website is accessed.

Information on your device is accessed only to the extent described below under "YouTube videos" and "Display settings". We obtain your explicit consent before loading video content.

For technical reasons, in particular to ensure a secure and stable website, data is transmitted by your web browser to our web hosting provider. These so-called server log files record, among other things, the type and version of your web browser, the operating system, the website from which you came to our website (referrer URL), the page(s) of our website that you visit, the date and time of each access, and the IP address of the internet connection from which our website is used.

The data collected in this way is stored temporarily, but not together with other data about you.

This storage is based on Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in improving the stability, functionality and security of our website.

Deletion of the data follows the rules of the web hosting provider, unless further retention is required for evidentiary purposes. In that case, the data is wholly or partially exempt from deletion until an incident has been finally resolved.

Our web hosting provider is Hetzner Online GmbH, Industriestraße 25, 91710 Gunzenhausen, Germany. The servers are located in Germany; no processing takes place outside the European Union.

Images, illustrations and portrait photos on our website are delivered via a media server operated by MADEFUL GmbH, Lychener Str. 11, 10437 Berlin, which we have commissioned; the server is located in the European Union. When these files are retrieved, the data listed above under "Server data" is processed.

Fonts and code libraries are delivered from our own server; we do not use third-party content delivery networks.

The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in reliably providing the content of our website.

We use Plausible Analytics on our website. This is open-source software that allows us to analyse the use of our website. It processes the page(s) of our website that you visit, the website from which you came to our website (referrer URL), the date and time of access, the type and version of your web browser, the operating system, the device category and the screen size.

The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in analysing and optimising our website.

However, we use Plausible Analytics in such a way that your IP address is not stored. A hash value is generated from the IP address and browser identifier solely to distinguish returning visits from new ones within a single day; it is regenerated daily and not stored. The country of origin is also derived from the IP address. The software does not set cookies and does not access information on your device. No recognition takes place across several days or across different websites. Only aggregated statistics are stored; no link to an individual person is established at any time.

The software runs on a server located in the European Union, provided by MADEFUL GmbH, Lychener Str. 11, 10437 Berlin, which we have commissioned. No data is transmitted to the software's developer.

We embed videos from the YouTube platform in some articles on our website. YouTube is a service of Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland, a subsidiary of Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.

The videos do not play automatically. You first see a preview area with a notice about the data transfer; the video is only loaded once you explicitly start playback.

The preview image in this area is fetched from the image server i.ytimg.com as soon as the section containing the video scrolls into the visible part of the page. At this point, your IP address and information about your browser and operating system are already transmitted to Google. The legal basis for this is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; our legitimate interest lies in providing a meaningful preview of the respective video. No information on your device is accessed at this point.

If you start playback, your IP address, the date and time of the request, the page visited and the video ID, the type and version of your web browser, the operating system, the referrer URL, and device and playback information are transmitted to YouTube. If you are logged into a Google account at the same time, Google may associate the request with that account.

The legal basis for this is Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR in conjunction with Section 25(1) TDDDG (German Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act). By starting playback, you consent to the transmission of the data listed and to the storage of information on, and access to information on, your device.

The videos are embedded via the domain youtube-nocookie.com. According to the provider, information about users is only stored once playback has started.

We store your decision to load video content in your web browser's local storage under the keys "platformConsent" and "iframe-cookie-warning-accepted". Further videos will then be loaded without asking again. These entries remain on your device until they are deleted.

You can withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future by clearing your web browser's local storage for this website. You will find this function in your browser settings under the options for deleting site data. After withdrawal, videos will again only be loaded after explicit confirmation.

In this respect, we point out that user data may be processed outside the European Union, in particular in the USA. Google LLC is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. For transfers to companies certified under this framework, there is an adequacy decision of the European Commission dated 10 July 2023.

YouTube's privacy policy can be found at

https://policies.google.com/privacy

If you choose a light or dark display for our website, we store this setting in your web browser's local storage under the key "dark-mode". This is a function you have explicitly requested; the legal basis for storage is Section 25(2) No. 2 TDDDG. This information is not transmitted to us or to third parties. The entry remains on your device until it is deleted and can be removed via your browser settings.

We provide a PDF version of each article for download. The files are generated in advance and delivered from our own server. They are not generated at the time of retrieval or by involving a third-party provider. The information above under "Server data" applies to retrieval.

The share function lets you send a link to an article by email or pass it on to the networks X, LinkedIn and Facebook. These are links only; no code components from these providers are embedded. As long as you do not click one of these links, no data is transmitted to the providers. If you click a link, the privacy policy of the respective network applies.

For each article, we publish information about its authors, including name, portrait photo and work email address. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in the scholarly attribution of the articles and in enabling professional contact. Data subjects can object to publication under Art. 21 GDPR.

We use service providers to provide services and to process your data (so-called processing on behalf). The service providers process the data exclusively on the instructions of Weizenbaum-Institut e.V. and are obliged to comply with applicable data protection regulations. All processors have been carefully selected and are given access to your data only to the extent and for the period necessary to provide the services. We have commissioned MADEFUL GmbH, Lychener Str. 11, 10437 Berlin, with the technical implementation and operation of this website; it may use further processors based in the European Union to provide the service.

If you contact us by email using one of the addresses given in our legal notice (Impressum), the data you provide will be used to handle your enquiry. Providing this data is necessary to process and answer your enquiry – without it, we cannot answer your enquiry, or only to a limited extent.

The legal basis for this processing is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; if your enquiry concerns the initiation or performance of a contract, the legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in responding to the matter you have raised with us.

Your data will be deleted once your enquiry has been fully answered and no statutory retention obligations prevent deletion.

Our website is delivered exclusively over an encrypted connection (HTTPS using TLS). This protects the data transmitted between your device and our website from being read by third parties. In addition, we take technical and organisational measures to protect the data we process against accidental or intentional manipulation, loss, destruction and access by unauthorised persons. Our security measures are continuously reviewed and adapted in line with technological developments.

No automated decision-making, including profiling within the meaning of Art. 22(1) and (4) GDPR, takes place on our website. Nor is the data collected during use combined to create usage profiles.

Our website contains links to third-party websites. If you click such a link, you will be redirected to the respective website; the provider there will receive, among other things, your IP address. We have no influence on the data processing carried out by these providers. The privacy policy of the respective provider applies.

We will update this privacy notice whenever changes to our data processing or to the legal framework make this necessary. The version available on this page applies.

Last updated: September 2026