You can use the website of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) without disclosing any personal data. Personal information is collected, on this website, only to the extent technically required to provide certain services. For example, you need to provide a minimum of personal details if you sign up for a newsletter.

The following statement provides a complete overview of the purposes for which data are collected, of the types of data collected in each case and of the means by which the BMBF assures your data privacy.

Data processing on this website

Data are collected and exchanged every time a website is visited. The BMBF automatically collects and stores data that your browser transmits to our server. The data involved are as follows:

• your Internet browser type and version
• the operating system you are using
• the page you have loaded
• the page you visited previously (the referrer URL)
• the time of your server request.

The BMBF analyses this data solely by statistical means, aimed at measuring demand for its web offerings. The BMBF is not able to correlate such data sets with specific individuals. It does not combine such data in any way with data from other sources. In each case of a user visit, IP numbers are recorded only for the duration of the visit, and only for the purpose of responding to queries. They are deleted upon the end of the relevant session. Data logged during access to the BMBF's website are provided to third parties only to the extent required by law or a court order, or to the extent required for legal or criminal prosecution in the case of attacks on the BMBF's Internet infrastructure. Data are not disclosed for any other reason.

Data analytics

If you have given your consent in accordance with Article 6 (1) (a) of the GDPR, the BMBF, together with its service provider contracted for support and development “ITZBund”, will analyse information on your use of our website for statistical purposes as part of public relations work and for the purpose of providing information on tasks within the BMBF’s remit as needed.

It does so using the Matomo web analytics service.

The software uses permanent cookies to recognize visitors returning even after longer periods of time. This information is stored as a text file on the hard drive of the user’s computer. The cookie is valid for 13 months after which it deletes itself.

The software also uses session cookies. Session cookies are small information units that are stored by the provider of a website in the active memory of the visiting user’s computer. A randomly generated, unique ID number, a so-called session ID, is stored in a session cookie. A cookie also contains information on its origin and the period of time it is to be stored on a computer. These cookies cannot store any further types of data. The software uses session cookies to provide for the unambiguous identification of visitors.

The following data is stored when individual pages of our website are accessed:

• Two bytes of the IP address of the user’s retrieving system (anonymous)
• The accessed web page
• The website from which the user reached the accessed web page (referrer)
• The sub-pages loaded via the accessed web page
• The length of time spent on the web page
• How often the page has been accessed

The software is configured so that IP addresses are stored incomplete with 2 bytes concealed (e.g. 192.168.xxx.xxx). This makes it impossible for the shortened IP address to be linked to the retrieving computer, meaning that you remain anonymous as the user.

The relevant software runs only on the web servers of the service provider “ITZBund” on behalf of the BMBF. These are the only servers where information on your use of the website is stored. No data is disclosed to third parties.

If you want to modify your decision regarding use of the cookie for web analytics purposes and give your consent or withdraw it again, you can do this by changing your settings before continuing your visit. The default setting for web analytics is that they are disabled.

Open privacy settings

E-mails to the editorial staff

If you send an e-mail to our editorial staff, we will use your e-mail and your e-mail address solely for the purpose of corresponding with you. In our storage of such e-mail and e-mail addresses, we observe the applicable periods for document storage as set forth in the Registry Directive, which supplements the Joint Rules of Procedure of the Federal Ministries (GGO).

Right to information

At all times, you have the right to be informed as to which data has been saved with regard to you personally, the origin and recipients of such data and the purposes for its storage. Information about stored data is provided by the editorial staff for the BMBF's website (information@bmbf.bund.de). In addition, if you have any questions or complaints about these issues, you are welcome to contact the BMBF's Data Protection Commissioner Datenschutzbeauftragte des BMBF.

Reviewing your data

Any Internet browser can be set up to notify you whenever cookies are activated and to display their contents. Relevant detailed information is available on the websites of the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information and the Federal Office for Information Security (Bundesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz).