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Data protection information

The state government takes the protection of your personal data very seriously. That is why this privacy statement is designed to give you an overview of how the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Action and Energy (MWIKE) ensures the protection of your data, what kind of data is collected for what purpose, and how it is used.

Our approach to greater transparency and understanding:
We will begin by presenting our data protection information in brief, then in more detail. By doing this, we aim to help you see the essential facts at a glance, while at the same time providing you with all the necessary details. We hope this will help our data protection policy gain wider acceptance.

In brief

The MWIKE is responsible for processing data on this website. The overall purpose of processing data is to bestow our out-of-the-box award on one of the participating startups (the competition). Promoting startups is one of MWIKE’s main tasks and is in the public interest. But for the most part, we can only process the data you voluntarily give us to run the competition. The legal basis for processing is therefore Art. 6 (1) a) and e) GDPR. To host the competition, we also use external service providers to whom we send your data in compliance with data protection law.

We store your data primarily for the duration of the competition. But we also use them after the competition to get in touch with you for our business development activities. You can of course object to the processing of your data, demand information from us about the personal data stored and demand that they be corrected or deleted, and you have the right to data transferability. Simply contact us at presse@outofthebox.nrw.

If you have concerns, such as about how we process data, North Rhine-Westphalia’s State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (www.ldi.nrw.de), our supervisory authority, is available to hear your complaints.

This website uses cookies to enhance its appearance and user experience. You can also access our social media accounts (Facebook and Twitter) via links. We cannot influence their data privacy behaviour. For detailed information about data protection on a particular social media network, please refer to its data protection declaration.

In detail

Responsible entity
State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Action and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia

Berger Allee 25
40213 Düsseldorf

Data protection officer
You can contact the MWIKE’s Data Protection Officer by e-mail at datenschutzbeauftragter@mwike.nrw.de or by post at the following address:
Ministerium für Wirtschaft, Industrie, Klimaschutz und Energie des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen
Behördlicher Datenschutzbeauftragter
Berger Allee 25
40213 Düsseldorf

Purposes and legal basis of processing
General website use

Personal data are collected when you use our website. This is necessary for technical reasons, so that we can provide you with all of the features of our website and guarantee its security (the legal basis is Art. 6 (1) 1 e) GDPR).

Data processing to host the competition and for general contact purposes
If you provide us with personal data (via the nomination form, e-mails and other communication channels) for participation in the OUT OF THE BOX.NRW competition, this is done voluntarily and you consent to the processing of this personal data by us in accordance with Art. 6 (1) 1 a) GDPR for the purpose of running the competition and for subsequent contact as part of our activities as the ministry responsible for economic affairs.

The following details can be saved:

  • Title
  • Last name
  • First name
  • Phone number
  • E-mail address
  • Name of business
  • Place / headquarters of business
  • Legal form
  • Year of foundation
  • Business website address
  • Subject
  • Your message
  • Timestamp
  • User
  • IP address (anonymized)

Once the nomination and voting phase is complete, a preliminary jury consisting of members of the science, business, MWIKE and startup communities will review the application details and make an assessment based on the documents submitted. This is done so that the competition can be run properly, and is based on your consent. (The legal basis is Art 6 (1) 1 a) GDPR).

People under the age of 16 should not send us any personal data without the consent of their parents or guardians (holders of parental responsibility) (Art. 8 (1) GDPR). This consent must then be expressly noted in the message (Art. 8 (2) GDPR). We do not request personal data from children and young people. Nor do we knowingly collect such data.

Recipients and categories of recipients of personal data
We use the personal data you have entered only for the purposes mentioned above and only within the state government or the service providers, authorities, offices, institutions and other businesses appointed for the service concerned.

Evaluating nominations and publishing them on our website
If you are nominated as a startup for the out-of-the-box award and validate your nomination, the award office will review the application and release it for publication on our website. The award office reviews it to check the data and prevent abuse. The purpose of publishing the data on the website is to conduct a public voting phase.

The award office is the advertising agency responsible for the award, with which we have concluded an order processing contract in accordance with Art. 28 GDPR.

Award office:
vE & K Werbeagentur GmbH & Co. KG
Herthastraße 7
45131 Essen

Telephone: +49 (0)201/4 3772-63
Fax: +49 (0)201/4 3772-30
E-mail: awardteam@outofthebox.nrw.

Processing is done voluntarily (the legal basis is Art 6 (1) 1 a) GDPR).

Website hosting
MWIKE’s website for the OUT OF THE BOX.NRW competition is hosted by Hetzner Online GmbH.

Hetzner Online GmbH
Industriestr. 25
91710 Gunzenhausen
Germany
Tel.: +49 (0)9831 505-0
Fax: +49 (0)9831 505-3

Every time you access the website, data is temporarily stored there using log files, and these can potentially allow identification. The following data are collected each time the website is accessed:

  • Date and time of access
  • Name of the internet service addressed, the resource accessed and the action performed
  • Query made by the client
  • Volume of data transferred
  • A message about whether the retrieval was successful
  • IP address of the requesting computer (anonymized)
  • Client information (including browser, operating system)

These data from the log files are used to defend against and analyse attacks on the portal and to correctly deliver and optimise the contents of the website, and are kept directly and exclusively accessible to administrators for up to 48 hours. After that, they are only available indirectly by reconstructing backup tapes, and are finally deleted after six weeks.

Transmission of data in other cases
Data that has been logged when accessing the MWIKE website or collected for a special service will – apart from the aforementioned reasons – only be sent to third parties outside the state government for the following reasons:

  • insofar as we are obliged to do so by law or by court or public prosecutor’s order;
  • if sending it is necessary for civil or criminal prosecution in the event of an attack on the state government’s Internet infrastructure.

We would however like to expressly state that using the social media accessible via this website may also involve the transmission of personal data.

Criteria governing how long personal data is stored
We will delete your personal data as soon as its storage is no longer required for your purposes, or in connection with administrative processes initiated for those purposes, and the storage obligations these entail (annex to the rules of procedure for the business area of the North Rhine-Westphalia State Ministry of Economic Affairs, Industry, Climate Action and Energy (AktO); Circular of the Ministry of the Interior and Municipality – 51 – 17.05 – dated 25 July 2016).

Your rights as a data subject
You have the following rights vis-à-vis ourselves in relation to personal data concerning you:

  • Right to information,
  • Right of correction or deletion,
  • Right to restriction of processing,
  • Right to contest processing,
  • Right to data portability.

You can revoke your consent to the processing of personal data at any time. Please note that revocation shall only have effect for the future. Data processed before revocation is not affected.

To exercise these rights, please contact the online editorial department by e-mail: presse@outofthebox.nrw or in writing at the address provided in our legal details.

Right of appeal to our supervisory authority
You have the right to complain to the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (www.ldi.nrw.de) about the way we process your personal data.

Further Information
This data privacy declaration applies regardless of the domains, systems and platforms used by us and the terminals on which our services are offered.

We would like to point out that the operators of external websites linked from the portal may collect and evaluate the data of their website visitors.

This data privacy declaration may have to change as the MWIKE website evolves and new technologies are implemented to improve our service. We therefore advise you to read the data privacy declaration again from time to time. We will also ensure that the regulations on data privacy are observed by the external service providers involved.

If we intend to process personal data for another purpose, we will provide data subjects with information about this other purpose and any other relevant information before we proceed.

Use of cookies

This website uses cookies. Cookies are small text files which are placed on your computer and stored in your browser. They make our website more user-friendly and effective. You can prevent the use of cookies by setting your browser so that it does not accept them. You can also instruct your browser to inform you when cookies are set, to allow them only in particular cases, or to block cookies in certain cases or generally. You can also activate automatic cookie deletion when the browser is closed. These settings depend on your browser. When you visit the website or a page for the first time, you will be automatically informed about the use of cookies.

Web analytics

Visitor behaviour is not analysed, nor is the number of visitors statistically evaluated.

Social media

We maintain an online presence on social networks and platforms so that we can communicate with and inform our users. Links to these social media accounts are provided on our website.

Whenever you use social media relating to OUT-OF-THE-BOX.NRW, the data privacy regulations of the service concerned applies. We therefore expressly ask you to observe the relevant data privacy regulations before activation, because data will most likely be transferred directly from your computer to the operator of the social media every time you access them.

Which data are collected and how they are processed in particular cases is not fully known by any of the services. It is highly likely that at least the following data are recorded, even if you are not logged in:

  • IP address
  • Time of website visit
  • URL of the website on which the plug-in is used
  • Location-related information (for mobile devices)
  • Device-related information (e.g. the operating system used and browser information)
  • Previously visited websites for advertising purposes
  • Data from uninvolved third parties (e.g. E-mail addresses for recommendation)

Unless stated otherwise, it can be assumed for all services that the following technologies are used in plug-ins for data collection:

  • Cookies (e.g. permanent storage of your login data), this can also be done by third-party providers such as advertisers
  • Log files (storage of cookie data on the service's servers)
  • Analysis scripts (e.g. recording of click behavior on a page)
  • Forwarding posted links (primarily on Facebook and Twitter)
  • Local file storage (e.g. permanent caching of images)

Every service passes on personal data

  • to third-party providers appointed to supply outsourced services (e.g. newsletters) and
  • to public authorities, if they are legally obliged to do so or if legal infringement is suspected;
  • to new business owners in the event of a company purchase or insolvency.

The data privacy statements of linked social media are below. We have limited ourselves to the services used:

Facebook

  • Data Usage Policy: www.facebook.com
  • What is my data collected for?
  • User authentication
  • Localization
  • Targeted advertising (primarily on the pages of the service)
  • Analysis and research of user behavior
  • Statistics
  • Transfer to third parties: aside from the legal obligation to pass on data to the authorities, personal data is also passed on to advertisers in anonymised form.

You can adjust your "privacy settings" in your user account.

Twitter

  • Data Usage Policy: www.twitter.com
  • What is my data collected for?
  • User authentication
  • Localization
  • targeted advertising (primarily on the pages of the service)
  • Statistics
  • Transfer to third parties: Twitter is entitled to pass on personal data to third parties in anonymised form.

You can adjust your "data protection settings" in your user account.

Addresses of the respective plug-in providers and URL with their data protection information:
Facebook Inc., 1601 S California Ave, Palo Alto, California 94304, USA; www.facebook.com/policy.php; further information on data collection: www.facebook.com/help/186325668085084, www.facebook.com/about/privacy/your-info-on-other#applications as www.facebook.com/about/privacy/your-info#everyoneinfo. Facebook has submitted to the EU-US Privacy Shield, www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework.

Twitter, Inc., 1355 Market St, Suite 900, San Francisco, California 94103, USA; twitter.com/privacy. Twitter has submitted to the EU-US Privacy Shield, www.privacyshield.gov/EU-US-Framework.