WWF Germany takes the protection of personal data very seriously. For this reason, we would like to inform users of our website about which data is stored and how this data is used. 

This Privacy Policy applies to all WWF Germany websites. There may be another privacy policy on servers/websites accessed using external links.

Responsible Authority

WWF Germany 
A Civil Law Foundation
Reinhardtstr. 18
10117 Berlin
Phone: 030 311777-0
Fax: 030 311777-199
E-Mail: info(at)wwf.de 

Additional details can be found on the Legal Notice page.

Data Protection Officer

If you have any questions regarding the processing of your personal data, you can contact our Data Protection Officer in writing. 

WWF Germany 
Data Protection Officer
Reinhardtstr. 18 
10117 Berlin 
Phone: 030 311777-0 
datenschutz(at)wwf.de

Rights of Data Subjects and Right of Appeal to a Supervisory Authority

You have the right to receive information about your stored data from WWF at no cost. 

The following rights apply: 

  • Right of access to information – The right to know what data was collected and how it was processed
  • Right of data correction – The right to request the modification of personal data if it is not up to date
  • Right to data erasure – The right to have personal data deleted
  • Right to restrict processing – The right to limit the processing of personal data
  • Right to data portability – The right to transfer personal data directly from one system to another (in machine-readable form)
  • Right of objection – The right to revoke the consent given or to object to the processing of personal data (for example, in case of legitimate interest). 


Complaints against WWF Germany may be submitted to the supervisory authorities. 
The entity responsible for WWF Germany is: 

Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information 
Friedrichstr. 219 
10969 Berlin 
E-Mail: mailbox(at)datenschutz-berlin.de

Collection, Storage and Use of Data

Personal data is also collected, stored and used when you use our website.  Personal data refers to individual details about personal or factual circumstances of a specific or identifiable natural person, which provide information about their behavior or their characteristics. This includes your name, address, telephone or fax number, e-mail address, but also details about personal interests or your spending behavior, if these details can be assigned to you directly or indirectly. 

The provision of your personal data is neither required by law nor by contract for the use of our websites. 

We need some information from you so that you can subscribe to our newsletter, so that we can respond to your requests, and so that you can participate in petitions, campaigns or competitions or use the forms on the Donate&Help pages. This includes, for example, your name and address as well as your e-mail address, your date of birth, your bank details or credit card details. Your details will be used exclusively for the indicated purposes. If you have participated in a petition or campaign action and do not wish to receive any further information from us, your data required to complete the petition or campaign activities will be deleted after the petition or campaign activities have ended. 

We collect and process your data to collect the donations, sponsorships and memberships commissioned by you as well as to maintain the ongoing support relationship and to send you information about our current projects. Participating credit institutions only receive your data to the extent necessary to complete the collection of donations. For the technical implementation of data processing, we use external service providers in some cases.

Registration/Login

To use our services, such as participating in one of our campaigns or petitions, you may be required to register with your personal information, such as your first name, last name and e-mail address. The data will be used exclusively for the provision and use of our offers and services. Analysis or distribution to third parties is prohibited. As a registered user you can delete your account at any time. We also offer you the option of a simpler registration. For example, you can use your Facebook or Google user account. If you choose to sign up with your Facebook or Google account, you will first be directed to Facebook or Google in a pop-up window. There you will be asked to log in or register on Facebook or Google. If you are already logged in at that time, this registration request will be skipped. We will not know your access data. Facebook and Google only provide us with the data for registration. You can also use this option to speed up the entry of your data in a form. In this case, Facebook and Google will provide us with the data required to complete the form, provided that this data is available and you agree to this. Before sending the form, you can check the data again and correct it if necessary. WWF uses the login information provided by Facebook and Google solely to provide you with the relevant offer or service. Any further processing is excluded.

Legal Basis for the Use of Your Data

The processing of your data is based in particular on one of the following legal bases:

  • your validly obtained consent (article 6, paragraph 1a of the General Data Protection Regulations – DSGVO), which you may revoke at any time;
  • to establish or execute a contract or other responsibilities directly related to a contract (article 6, paragraph 1b of the General Data Protection Regulations – DSGVO);
  • for the protection of legal obligations (article 6, paragraph 1b of the of the General Data Protection Regulations – DSGVO);
  • to pursue the legitimate interests of WWF, unless your interests or fundamental rights prevail (article 6, paragraph 1b of the General Data Protection Regulations – DSGVO);

(The following list contains examples, but is not exhaustive).

Legal foundationsExamples of ProcessesExamples of Data Types
 Consent (which you may revoke at any time)Subscribe to our newsletterE-mail address, name
Performance of a ContractDonations, membershipsName, address, telephone number, payment methods
Legal ObligationsDisclosure of data to meet obligations to authoritiesPayment method, name
Justifiable interest (company management; ensuring the security of the company and established and operating companies; improving service; target group-oriented marketing)Fraud prevention investigations; customer surveys to improve service; targeting; trackingIP address, device ID, name, e-mail address

Data Recipient

In certain cases, your personal data may be disclosed to other companies or legal entities, in particular to service providers (such as hosting partners, social media companies, payment providers), campaign partners and government authorities (such as the tax office for tax-relevant information).

Transmission of your Data Abroad

WWF Germany operates globally. Some of your data will also be processed in countries outside the European Union (“EU”) or the European Economic Area (“EEA”).  In these cases, for example, we use contractual agreements with our business partners or service providers to ensure that an adequate level of data protection is guaranteed for your data, or we ask for your express consent.

Recording

Every time a user accesses a page from the WWF Germany website and every time a file is retrieved, data about this process is stored in a log file. Depending on the access protocol used, the log data record contains information with the following contents: 

  • IP address of the requesting computer,
  • name of the requested file,
  • date and time of the request,
  • access methods/functions requested by the requesting computer,
  • access status of the Web server (file transferred, file not found, command not executed, etc.) and
  • the URL from which the file was requested or the desired function was initiated,
  • operating system and browser type or browser settings. 


It is not possible for us to link the IP address and any personal data that may exist. The stored data is used exclusively for the purposes of identifying and tracking unauthorized access attempts/access to the web server and for statistical evaluations such as visitor numbers and page popularity. The evaluation is conducted only by employees authorized by us.

Use of Cookies

In order to make your visit to our website attractive and to enable the use of certain functions, we use so-called cookies on several pages. These are small text files that are stored on your device. Some of the cookies we use are deleted at the end of the browser session, i.e. after closing your browser (so-called session cookies). Other cookies remain on your device and enable us or our partner to recognize your browser on your next visit (persistent cookies). You can set your browser so that you are informed about the setting of cookies and decide individually whether to accept them or to exclude the acceptance of cookies for certain cases or in general. The failure to accept cookies may limit the functionality of our website.

Categories of Cookies

Absolutely necessary cookies are required so that you can navigate a website and use its functions. Without these cookies, certain features, such as actions during a visit (ex: text input), cannot be guaranteed even when navigating between website pages. 

Functional cookies enable a website to store information already provided (ex: user name, language selection or your current location) and improve the user’s ability to offer personal features. These cookies collect anonymous information and cannot track your movements on other websites.  

Performance cookies collect information about the use of a website – for example, which pages visitors visit most frequently and whether they receive error messages from a page. These cookies do not store any information that would allow the user to be identified. The information collected is summarized and made anonymous. These cookies are used exclusively to improve the performance of a website and thus its user-friendliness. 

Cookies for marketing purposes are used for the purpose of target-oriented advertising relevant to the user and adapted to the user’s interests. They are also used to limit the frequency of an ad and to measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. They record whether you have visited a website or not. This information may be distributed to third parties (ex: advertisers). To improve targeting and advertising, cookies are often linked to third-party functions.

Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics, a web analysis service of Google Inc. “(“Google”), for the demand-oriented design of web offers. WWF Germany only receives evaluations of data without any personal reference. 

Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States.


 IP anonymization has been activated on this website so that the IP addresses of users of Google within Member States of the European Union or in other signatory states to the Agreement on the European Economic Area are shortened in advance. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and shortened there.  On behalf of the operator of this website, Google will use this information to evaluate the use of the website by users, to compile reports about website activities and to provide the website operator with further services associated with the use of the website and the Internet. Google may also transfer this information to third parties if this is required by law or if third parties process this data on behalf of Google. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. 

You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser. However, we would like to point out that in this case you may not be able to use all features of this website to their full extent. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes established above. 

You can also prevent Google from collecting the data generated by the cookie and relating to your use of the website (including your IP address) and from processing this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available at the following link: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de

For more information about Google Analytics Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, please visit: https://www.google.com/analytics/terms/de.html and https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/6004245?hl=de

In those cases where the plug in cannot be used on smart phones, for example, you can also prevent it from being captured by Google Analytics by clicking on the following link.  When you visit this website, an opt-out cookie is set to prevent the future collection of your data: Deactivate Google Analytics

Google AdWords Conversion-Tracking

We partly use the on-line advertising program “Google AdWords” on our websites and in this context, we use conversion tracking. The conversion tracking cookie is set when a user clicks on an ad served by Google. These cookies expire after 180 days and are not used for personal identification. If the user visits certain pages of this website and the cookie has not yet expired, we and Google can see that the user has clicked on the ad and has been redirected to this page. Each Google AdWords customer receives a different cookie. Cookies cannot therefore be traced through the websites of AdWords customers. 

The information collected using the conversion cookie is used to generate conversion statistics for AdWords customers who have opted for conversion tracking. Customers see the total number of users who clicked on their ad and were redirected to a page with a conversion tracking tag. However, they will not receive any information that personally identifies users. Users who do not wish to participate in tracking can easily deactivate the Google Conversion Tracking cookie via their Internet browser under User Settings. These users are not included in the conversion tracking statistics. Learn more about Google’s Privacy Policy: https://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy/.

VG Wort Copyright Association

Our websites and our mobile website use the “Scalable Central Measurement Method” (SCM) from INFOnline GmbH to determine statistical parameters for ascertaining the copy probability of texts. This serves to determine the remuneration of legal claims of authors and publishers.


Anonymously measured values are collected. The access number measurement alternatively uses a session cookie or a signature (METIS counting pixels), which is created from various automatically transmitted information from your browser, to recognize computer systems. IP addresses are only processed in anonymous form. 

The procedure was developed with data protection in mind. The sole goal of the procedure is to determine the likelihood of copying individual texts. 

Individual users are never identified at any time. Your identity is always protected. You will not receive any advertising through the system.

Advertising

On WWF’s web pages, with the help of the following service providers

  • Criteo GmbH, Gewürzmühlstraße 11, 80538 Munich,
  • Sociomantic Labs GmbH, Paul-Lincke-Ufer 39/40, 10999 Berlin,
  • Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA,
  • Performance Advertising GmbH, ABC-Straße 21, 20354 Hamburg,
  • Rocket Fuel GmbH, Neuer Dovenhof, Brandstwiete 1, 20457 Hamburg
  • iAdvize Societe par actions simplifiees, 9 Rue Nina Simone, F-44000 Nates, Frankreich und 
  • Facebook Incorporated, 1601 S. California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA

Information about the browsing behavior of website visitors for marketing purposes and for the continuous improvement of our offers and services is collected and stored in anonymized and/or pseudo-anonymized form. With the help of a so-called “web bug”, page visitors can be identified technically and without personal reference and pseudo-anonymous profiles can then be created. The data is then stored on your computer in encrypted and compressed form using cookies. This cookie is only accessible to the visitor and the service provider. 

The service providers analyze the browsing behavior and can then display targeted product recommendations as personalized advertising banners on other websites. Under no circumstances can this data be used to personally identify the visitor to this website. The data collected will only be used to improve the offer. Any other use of the data or distributing it to third parties is prohibited. The data transmitted by the offer does not contain any personal data. 

You can object to the pseudo-anonymous analysis of your browsing behavior: 

Criteo and Facebook


If you no longer wish to receive personalized advertising from Criteo, you can unsubscribe by clicking the opt-out button at this Link  

If you would like to object to Facebook’s use of your profile for analysis and marketing purposes, you can do so at https://www.facebook.com/ads/preferences/?entry_product=ad_settings_screen

For more options to disable Rocketfuel, Criteo and Facebook, go to the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out platform or the Digital Advertising Alliance platform.

Sociomantic

If you no longer wish to receive personalized advertising from Sociomantic, you can unsubscribe by clicking the opt-out button at this Link.

Google

If you no longer wish to receive personalized advertising from Google, you can unsubscribe by clicking the opt-out button at this Link.

Performance Advertising

If you no longer wish to receive personalized advertising through Performance Advertising, you can unsubscribe by clicking the opt-out button at this Link


We would like to point out that this only blocks the advertisements displayed by the individual service provider. You can opt out of all personalized advertising by deactivating cookies in your browser.

iAdvize

On WWF’s websites we offer you additional support options with the help of the service provider iAdvize – via a small window at the bottom of the browser screen. iAdvize processes the data exclusively within the scope of order data processing for WWF Germany. 

Data for the iAdvize service is stored on your computer via cookies. Data is not stored on iAdvize servers until you start a communication process with one of our consultants. You can modify the local storage on your computer with the usual browser settings for cookie control.  

The consultant receives information about your visit to our website and the standard web data (ex: browser identification and operating system) so that you can receive assistance as quickly as possible. The data will only be collected, processed or used for the purpose of user support and will under no circumstances be distributed to third parties. 

For your future consultation and to further optimize our website and services, the communications activities are stored for 30 days. For quality assurance purposes, it is possible for team leaders to randomly monitor individual chats or listen in on phone calls. If you do not wish this, please inform your consultant.

Use of Social Plug-ins or the “Share” Function

WWF uses social plug-ins or “share” functions from the following providers on some of its Internet services:

  • Facebook Inc., 1601 South California Avenue, Palo Alto, CA 94304, USA
  • Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA
  • Twitter Inc., 1355 Market Street, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA
  • Tumblr Inc., 35 East 21st St, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10010, USA
  • Pinterest Inc., 808 Brannan St, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA

The plug-ins allow you to share content and images with other people. When using the plug-ins, WWF Germany would like to ensure that user data is only transferred if this is desired. We have therefore decided to use the so-called “2-click solution”.


By default, the plug-in is disabled. Only when you as a user click on one of the buttons, it is activated and a connection to the servers of the providers is established. With the second click you can then use the button. Additional explanations about the so-called “2-click solution” can be found here.

By using the plug-ins, the providers receive notification that you have visited our website. If you click one of the buttons while logged into your respective account, you can link to the contents of our pages on your profile. This allows the provider to assign the visit to our pages to your user account. We would like to point out that, as the provider of the website, we have no knowledge of the content of the data transmitted or how it is used by Facebook & Co.

Further information about the data protection of the individual providers can be found in their corresponding data privacy policy. Please follow the link under the provider name above.

Log-In via Facebook Connect

The “Connect Procedure” allows the user to sign up or register for WWF petitions using a social media account. If you log in with a user account via Facebook, Facebook will provide us with certain information about your Facebook account. Facebook will inform you of the exact scope of access and ask for your prior consent.

Social Media Stream

In our website’s social media stream, your participation in some of our campaigns is shown on social networks. All contributions that are created under a hashtag and made publicly accessible are recorded, aggregated and presented in our social media stream. The articles also contain personal data such as the profile picture, other published pictures, the user’s name and information in the posts. The data will be used exclusively for the above purposes. Analysis or distribution of the data to third parties is prohibited.

Data Storage

Personal data will be deleted if the storage is no longer necessary for the purposes described in this Data Privacy Policy and the statutory provisions do not provide for a longer retention period. Furthermore, your data will be deleted if you assert your right of deletion. We store personal data longer than required by law if it is covered by our legitimate interest and this is not prohibited.

Secure Data Transmission

Personal data that you provide to us via the forms on the Donate & Help page, when ordering a newsletter or making contact requests is transmitted to us via a secure connection in encrypted form. The security procedure used (SSL-Secure Sockets Layer) corresponds to the usual state of the art. WWF Germany uses – depending on your browser – the most secure standard encryption in Germany with up to 256 bits, as used by banks, for example. 

All WWF Germany employees who handle your data must comply with the data protection regulations. Access to the system is via an authorization procedure. SSL encryption (recognizable by https:// in the address line of the browser and a lock symbol in the status bar at the very bottom of the browser) is a protocol for encrypting data during transmission from the web server to the browser. This transmission offers particularly high security. During transmission, your personal data is encrypted between your computer and our SSL server using the SSL protocol.

Liability for Links

WWF Germany hereby expressly declares that no illegal content was discernible on the linked pages at the time the links were created. WWF Germany has no influence on the current and future design, content or authorship of the linked pages. Therefore, it hereby expressly dissociates itself from all contents of all linked pages that were changed after the link was posted. This statement applies to all links and references posted within its website. For illegal, incorrect or incomplete contents and in particular for damages arising from the use or non-use of information presented in this way, only the provider of the page to which reference was made is liable, not the person who merely refers to the respective publication via links.

Newsletter

We are pleased to offer you the WWF newsletter about current topics and our projects concerning environmental protection. Will we only use your e-mail address to send you the WWF newsletter if you give us your consent on our website or with one of our partners (co-registration). To receive our newsletter, it is sufficient to provide an e-mail address. The additional voluntary information about you is only used to personalize the newsletter. If you no longer wish to receive our newsletter, you can inform us at any time via the link inserted in every message sent by us or by sending an e-mail to info(at)wwf.de.nn.  

By registering for the newsletter, we also offer you the option of permitting WWF to evaluate your use of the newsletter in order to provide you with individualized topics. The evaluation will only take place if you have expressly agreed to this or until you have revoked your consent. 

Contact

If you have any questions or suggestions regarding data protection in general or our Data Privacy Policy, please contact WWF Germany’s Data Protection Officer by e-mail.