Privacy (GSS)

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1. General information and mandatory information

We take the protection of your personal data very seriously. We treat your personal data confidentially and in accordance with the statutory data protection regulations and this data protection notice. When you use this website, various personal data are collected. Personal data is data by which you can be personally identified. This privacy policy explains what information we collect and how we use it. They also explain how and for what purpose this is done. We would like to point out that data transmission on the Internet (e.g. when communicating by e-mail) can have security gaps. Complete protection of data against access by third parties is not possible.

In the following, we inform you about the processing of your personal data by us and the claims and rights to which you are entitled according to the data protection regulations. Which data is processed in detail and how it is used depends in particular on the business relationship between you and the German Bible Society. This data protection notice was created, adapted and supplemented with our own information using the data protection generator from eRecht24 Version 1.8 of 12.02.2020.

Who is responsible for data processing and whom can I contact?

The responsible body within the meaning of the DSG-EKD is:

German Bible Society
Balinger Street 31 A
70567 Stuttgart
Telephone: +49 711/7181 - 0
Email: info@gssbibles.com

Data protection officer required by law

We have appointed a local data protection officer for our responsible office. You can reach the local data protection officer at the following e-mail address: datenschutzbeauftragter@dbg.de

If you have any questions about data protection, please get in touch with the contact person at the German Bible Society:

Gisela Liedtke
Telephone: +49 711 7181 - 230
Email: liedtke@dbg.de

What sources and data do we use?

We process personal data that we receive from you in the course of your business relationship or other relationship with the German Bible Society. Relevant personal data are personal details (name, address and other contact details, date and place of birth), order data (e.g. purchases, donations, account details), data from the fulfilment of our contractual obligations (e.g. from sales contracts and other contracts).

Other data is collected automatically by our IT systems when you visit the website. This is mainly technical data (e.g. internet browser, operating system or time of page view). This data is collected automatically as soon as you enter our website. In addition, this may also be data about your use of the telemedia offered by us as well as other data comparable to the aforementioned categories (e.g. time of calling up our websites, apps or newsletters, pages clicked on by us or entries). We analyse this data on an anonymous basis to improve our offerings.

What do we process your data for and on what legal basis?

We process personal data in accordance with the provisions of the Data Protection Act of the Evangelical Church in Germany (DSG-EKD).

1. To fulfil contractual obligation
   Your personal data is processed for the performance of our contractual obligations based on the contracts concluded with you (e.g. purchases of licences) or pre-contractually in the context of concluding contracts.
   
   The legal basis for this is § 6 No. 5 DSG-EKD. 
2. To safeguard legitimate interests within the framework of a balancing of interests.
   
   Where necessary, we process your data beyond the actual performance of the contract to safeguard legitimate interests of us or third parties, such as in the following cases:
   
   Legal basis for this is § 6 No. 4 and No. 8 DSG-EKD
   
   Ensuring IT security and IT operations
   Prevention and investigation of criminal offences (e.g. fraud prevention)
   Providing tax advice, auditing and banking services
   Assertion of legal claims and defence in legal disputes
    
3. Based on your consens
   
   We use your personal data if you have given us your consent for certain purposes (e.g. to send our newsletter and to analyse website usage). We only make film recordings and publish them on our websites or on our YouTube channels if you give us your consent to do so.
   
   The legal basis for the processing is then § 6 No. 2 DSG-EKD.
   
   You can revoke your consent to the processing of personal data at any time. For this purpose, an informal communication by e-mail to us is sufficient. Please note that the revocation is only effective for the future. Processing that took place before the revocation is not affected by the revocation.
   
   
4. For the fulfilment of tasks in the interest of the church
   
   The German Bible Society is an ecclesiastical foundation under public law. It translates the biblical scriptures, develops and distributes innovative Bible editions and opens access to the message of the Bible for all people. Internationally, it is responsible for the scholarly editions of the Bible in the original languages. Through World Bible Aid, in cooperation with the United Bible Societies, it supports the translation and distribution of the Bible worldwide so that all people can read the Bible in their own language.
   
   Data processing in this context is based on the legal basis of § 6 No. 4 DSG-EKD.
   
   
5. Due to legal requirements or in the public interest
   
   We are also subject to legal obligations that require us to collect personal data (e.g. tax laws). The purposes of the processing include, among others, the fulfilment of control and reporting obligations under tax law.
   
   The legal basis for this is § 6 No. 1 and No. 6 DSG-EKD.
   
   

Who receives my data?

Within the German Bible Society, access to your data is given to those offices that need it to fulfil our contractual and legal obligations. Service providers employed by us may also receive data for these purposes. These include companies in the areas of IT services, postal services, financial services, printing services, telecommunications, advice and consulting, and public relations.

How long will my data be stored?

As far as necessary, we process and store your personal data for the duration of our business relationship. If the data is no longer required for the fulfilment of contractual or legal obligations, it is regularly deleted, unless its further processing is necessary for the following purposes:

• To comply with various storage and documentation obligations, which result from the German Commercial Code (HGB) and the German Fiscal Code (AO), among others. The periods specified there for storage or documentation are two to ten years. 
• For the preservation of evidence according to the statutory limitation periods, which, for example, according to §§ 195 ff. of the German Civil Code (BGB), are usually three years, but in certain cases can be up to thirty years.

What data protection rights do I have?

You have the right to receive information free of charge at any time about the origin, recipient and purpose of your stored personal data. You also have the right to demand the correction, blocking or deletion of this data. You can contact us at any time at the address given in the imprint for this purpose and for further questions on the subject of data protection. Furthermore, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority.

Supervision of compliance with data protection regulations in the ecclesiastical sector is the responsibility of the EKD Data Protection Commissioner. Responsible for our area is:

Commissioner for Data Protection of the EKD

Mr. Michael Jacob
Lange Laube 20, 30159 Hanover
Telephone: +49 (0)511 768128-0
Fax: +49 (0)511 768128-20
info@datenschutz.ekd.de

Right to data portability

You have the right to have data that we process automatically on the basis of your consent or in fulfilment of a contract handed over to you or to a third party in a common, machine-readable format. If you request the direct transfer of the data to another responsible party, this will only be done insofar as it is technically feasible.

Is there an obligation to provide data?

You only have to provide the personal data that is required for the establishment, implementation and termination of a business relationship or that we are legally obliged to collect. Without this data, we will generally not be able to enter into a business relationship.

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2. data collection on our website

Analysis tools and third-party tools

When visiting this website, your surfing behaviour may be statistically analysed. This is done primarily with cookies and with so-called analysis programs. Detailed information on these analysis programmes can be found in the following data protection information.

External hosting

This website is hosted by an external service provider (hoster). Personal data collected on this website is stored on the hoster’s servers. This may include, but is not limited to, IP addresses, meta and communication data, contact details, names, web page accesses and other data generated via a website.

The hoster is used for the purpose of fulfilling contracts with our potential and existing customers (legal basis is § 6 No. 5 DSG-EKD) and in the interest of a secure, fast and efficient provision of our online offer by a professional provider (legal basis is § 6 No. 4 and No. 8 DSG-EKD).

Our hoster will only process your data insofar as this is necessary for the fulfilment of its service obligations and will follow our instructions with regard to this data.

In order to ensure data protection-compliant processing, we have concluded a contract on commissioned processing with our hoster.

MyFonts

This site uses so-called web fonts, which are provided by MyFonts Inc, for the uniform display of fonts. When you call up a page, your browser loads the required web fonts into its browser cache in order to display texts and fonts correctly.

For this purpose, the browser you use must establish a connection to the MyFonts servers. This informs MyFonts that our website has been accessed via your IP address. The use of MyFonts Web Fonts is in the interest of a uniform and appealing presentation of our online offers. This represents a legitimate interest within the meaning of § 6 No. 4 DSG-EKD.

If your browser does not support web fonts, a standard font will be used by your computer.

Further information on MyFonts Web Fonts can be found at www.myfonts.com/help/ and in the MyFonts data protection declaration: www.myfonts.com/legal/website-use-privacy-policy/.

SSL or TLS encryption

For security reasons and to protect the transmission of confidential content, such as orders or enquiries that you send to us as the site operator, this site uses SSL or TLS encryption. You can recognise an encrypted connection by the fact that the address line of the browser changes from "http://" to "https://" and by the lock symbol in your browser line. If SSL or TLS encryption is activated, data cannot be read by third parties.

Encrypted payment transactions on this website

If, after the conclusion of a contract with costs, there is an obligation to transmit your payment data to us (e.g. account number in the case of direct debit authorisation), this data is required for payment processing. Payment transactions via the common means of payment (Visa/MasterCard, direct debit) are made exclusively via an encrypted SSL or TLS connection of the payment provider TeleCash. You can recognise an encrypted connection by the fact that the address line of the browser changes from "http://" to "https://" and by the lock symbol in your browser line. With encrypted communication, the payment data you transmit to us cannot be read by third parties.

Cookies

Our Internet pages use so-called "cookies". Cookies are small text files and do not cause any damage to your end device. They are stored either temporarily for the duration of a session (session cookies) or permanently (permanent cookies) on your end device. Session cookies are automatically deleted at the end of your visit. Permanent cookies remain stored on your end device until you delete them yourself or until they are automatically deleted by your web browser.

In some cases, cookies from third-party companies may also be stored on your terminal device when you enter our site (third-party cookies). These enable us or you to use certain services of the third-party company (e.g. cookies for processing payment services).

Cookies have various functions. Many cookies are technically necessary, as certain website functions would not work without them (e.g. the shopping basket function or the display of videos). Other cookies are used to evaluate user behaviour or display advertising. Cookies that are necessary to carry out the electronic communication process (necessary cookies) or to provide certain functions desired by you (functional cookies, e.g. for the shopping basket function) or to optimise the website are stored on the basis of § 6 no. 4 and no. 8 DSG-EKD, unless another legal basis is specified. The website operator has a legitimate interest in storing cookies for the technically error-free and optimised provision of its services.

Insofar as consent to the storage of cookies has been requested, the storage of the cookies in question is based exclusively on this consent (the legal basis is § 6 no. 2 DSG-EKD and your consent; consent can be revoked at any time.

You can set your browser in such a way that you are informed about the setting of cookies and allow cookies only in individual cases, exclude the acceptance of cookies for certain cases or generally and activate the automatic deletion of cookies when closing the browser. If you deactivate cookies, the functionality of this website may be limited. If cookies are used by third-party companies or for analysis purposes, we will inform you about this separately within the scope of this data protection notice and, if necessary, request your consent.

Server log files

The provider of the pages automatically collects and stores information in so-called server log files, which your browser automatically transmits to us. These are:

• browser type and browser vers
• ion Operating system used 
• Referrer URL (previously visited website) 
• Host name of the accessing computer 
• Time of the server request 
• IP address
  

This data is not merged with other data sources.

The collection of this data is based on § 6 No. 4 and No. 8 DSG-EKD. The website operator has a legitimate interest in the technically error-free presentation and optimisation of its website - for this purpose, the server log files must be collected.

Contact form

If you send us enquiries via the contact form, your details from the enquiry form, including the contact details you provide there, will be stored by us for the purpose of processing the enquiry and in the event of follow-up questions. We do not pass on this data without your consent.

The processing of this data is based on § 6 No. 5 DSG-EKD, insofar as your enquiry is related to the fulfilment of a contract or is necessary for the implementation of pre-contractual measures. In all other cases, the processing is based on our legitimate interest in the effective handling of the enquiries addressed to us (§ 6 No. 4 and No. 8 DSG-EKD) or on your consent (§ 6 No. 2 DSG-EKD) if this has been requested.

The data you enter in the contact form will remain with us until you request us to delete it, revoke your consent to store it or the purpose for storing the data no longer applies (e.g. after we have completed processing your enquiry). Mandatory legal provisions - in particular retention periods - remain unaffected.

Enquiry by e-mail, telephone or fax

If you contact us by e-mail, telephone or fax, your enquiry including all personal data resulting from it (name, enquiry) will be stored and processed by us for the purpose of processing your request. We do not pass on this data without your consent.

The processing of this data is based on § 6 DSG-EKD No. 5, insofar as your request is related to the fulfilment of a contract or is necessary for the implementation of pre-contractual measures. In all other cases, the processing is based on your consent (Section 6 No. 2 DSG-EKD) and/or on our legitimate interests (Section 6 No. 4 and No. 8 DSG-EKD), as we have a legitimate interest in effectively processing the enquiries addressed to us.

The data you send to us via contact requests will remain with us until you request us to delete it, revoke your consent to store it or the purpose for storing the data no longer applies (e.g. after we have completed processing your request). Mandatory legal provisions - in particular legal retention periods - remain unaffected.

3. eCommerce and payment providers

Processing of data (customer and contract data)

We collect, process and use personal data only to the extent that it is necessary for the establishment, content or amendment of the legal relationship & the legal relationship (inventory data). This is done on the basis of § 6 No. 5 DSG-EKD. which permits the processing of data for the fulfilment of a contract or pre-contractual measures. We collect, process and use personal data about the use of this website (usage data) only insofar as this is necessary to enable the user to use the service or to bill the user.

Data transfer upon conclusion of a contract for online shops, dealers and goods dispatch

We only transmit personal data to third parties if this is necessary for the processing of the contract, for example to the companies entrusted with the delivery of the goods or to the credit institution entrusted with the processing of payments. Further transmission of data does not take place or only if you have expressly consented to the transmission. Your data will not be passed on to third parties without your express consent, for example for advertising purposes. The basis for data processing is § 6 No. 5 DSG-EKD, which permits the processing of data for the fulfilment of a contract or pre-contractual measures.