Data protection for VIEW

We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting it through our privacy practices as described in this Policy. For this purpose, we have taken technical and organizational measures to ensure that the relevant laws are observed. Below you will find out what information we collect and how we handle it.

Data controller and contact details of our Data Protection Officer

RWE Supply & Trading GmbH („RWEST“), RWE Platz 6, 45141 Essen, E: info.view@rwe.com, T: +49 201 5179 1999 is the operator of this website and data controller pursuant to Art. 4 No. 7 EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). 

If you have any questions about data protection, please contact our data protection officer at:

RWE AG, Group Data Protection Officer, RWE Platz 6, 45141 Essen
E-Mail: dataprotection@rwe.com

Personal data

Personal data means any information that identifies a natural person, e. g. name, e-mail or IP address, website usage data.

We generally use your personal data to respond to your request, process your order, or provide you with access to specific information or offers. As part of a registration, contact request or similar, you can voluntarily provide us with your personal data. In this context, it may be necessary to transmit your data to a company of the RWE group. Your data will not be transmitted to external third parties unless necessary for the provision of the requested service/product. In such a case, this will be explicitly communicated to you.

If you wish, you may also provide us with personal information about applications that are embedded in our platform (e. g. contact forms or services that require the creation of user accounts). For the use of these applications, conditions may apply which deviate from this privacy policy. We will then explicitly notify you in the context of additional privacy clauses. According to Article 6 (1) lit. f GDPR, we are entitled to process personal data which is required to comply with a contract that we have with your company. As far as, in particular cases, we obtain your consent for processing your personal data, Article 6 (1) lit. a GDPR will serve as the legal basis.

Individual tasks and services are performed by carefully selected and commissioned service providers on the basis of order processing contracts pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR. Some of these companies are located outside the European Union and the European Economic Area. In these cases, a third-country transfer of your personal data takes place. The third-country transfer of personal data is carried out in full compliance with the Chapter V of the GDPR and the relevant national data protection legislation. In the absence of an adequacy decision by the European Commission pursuant to Art. 45 GDPR – a list of countries with an adequacy decision can be found here –, appropriate safeguards that ensure an adequate level of data protection are provided. As a standard procedure we enter into contracts with data importers that include standard data protection clauses also known as the “standard contractual clauses”. A copy of the model data protection clauses approved by the European Commission is available under: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law-topic/data-protection/international-dimension-data-protection/standard-contractual-clauses-scc_en.

Log files

When you visit our website or retrieve a file, data about this process will be stored in a log file on our Internet server. This means that when you visit our website, data is automatically collected and stored that your browser transmits to us.

This includes:

  • the domain name of the website that you came from
  • the pages you have visited on our website
  • names of the retrieved files 
  • date and time of a retrieval
  • name of the Internet Service Provider
  • as well as operating system and browser version of your PC (if applicable)
  • Hostname of the accessing computer (IP address)
  • language settings

This data is collected for security and statistical purposes as well as to optimize the quality of our website. It is not attributed to individual persons and will not be merged with other data sources. The data is stored for 6 months and then deleted. Your data will not be disclosed to third parties. Merely through an order of the competent national authorities we may in individual cases be obligated to disclose personal data, if this should be necessary for averting danger, criminal prosecution or for other legally regulated reasons.

IP addresses

We deliberately refrain from logging IP addresses in plain text on our websites. Your IP address will be pseudonymized by us before it is stored in our web server log file in a data protection-compliant procedure. The pseudonymized IP addresses are used by us, for example, to recognize and counteract attacks or to compile web statistics.

Web analysis and web optimization through cookies

We use cookies and tracking technologies on our websites. These serve the purpose of optimizing our websites and improving our services. In the following, we explain the implemented technologies and their functions.

When you visit one of our websites, we place information on your computer in form of cookies, which we automatically recognize the next time you visit our site. Cookies are text files that are stored in the Internet browser on the user’s computer system. Whenever a user accesses a website, a cookie can be stored on the operating system of the user. That cookie contains a definitive series of characters which enables unique identification of that browser the next time it accesses the website.

The use of cookies helps us to offer you unrestricted use of our website. They allow us to make your visit on our site as convenient as possible. For instance, cookies enable us to adapt a website to your personal interests.

On our websites, you have the option of viewing and editing our cookie settings here. However, please be aware that some technically essential cookies have to be set in order to maintain the functionality of our websites.

For the deployment and use of cookies, we also use commissioned processors pursuant to Art. 4 no. 8 GDPR. The processors may also receive access to your personal data that are captured and processed via cookies. 

You will find an overview of the cookies used on our websites as well as the processed data and relevant recipients right here.

RWEST uses the following categories of cookies:

Essential cookies

Essential cookies serve to safeguard a flawless operation of our website. They ensure the stability of the website. You can find information on the essential cookies we use on our cookie list, available here.

The data collected about you in this way is pseudonymized by technical measures to ensure it can no longer be traced back to you. This data is not stored with other personal details we collect from you. When you access one of our websites, you will be informed via a banner message about our use of cookies and also referred to this Privacy Policy. In addition, a reference will be made in this context to the method you can use to block the storage of cookies in your browser settings.

This processing of your aforementioned data is necessary to safeguard the legitimate interests of RWEST pursuant to article 6 para. 1f GDPR and is justified by balancing the respective interests in favor of RWEST. Without using this data, some functions of our internet presence cannot be offered. It is essential for this process that the browser is also recognizable after you have switched pages. RWE also has a legitimate interest in processing your aforementioned personal data; namely to communicate relevant information about our intentions and business activities by operating its own websites in accordance with their intended function. Your justifiable interest that the aforementioned data is not used for this purpose does not outweigh the legitimate interest of RWEST, since RWEST uses this data appropriately and in accordance with the stated purpose and you also have an interest in being able to access our website in a customer-friendly manner.

Analytical cookies

In addition, we use cookies on our website that enable us to analyze the browsing behavior of our users. Analytical cookies help us evaluate the website and thus measure and improve its performance. In this context we use cookies for the purpose of “audience measurement”. We use these cookies to create statistical profiles which cannot be traced back to individual users, but merely to groups. They are used to analyze visitor and click behavior as well as demographic characteristics of website users. We do not store this data together with any other, personal data that you provide us with.

When accessing our websites, our “cookie banner” with information on the use of analytical cookies is displayed, asking for your consent pursuant to article 6 para. 1a GDPR to process the personal data collected in this context. During this process, you are also referred to this Privacy Policy. The legal basis to process personal data for analytical purposes using cookies is your consent.

You have the right to withdraw your consent with future effect at any time, without this affecting the lawfulness of processing that occurred prior to that withdrawal. The easiest way to withdraw your consent is to set the relevant opt-out cookie via our cookie list here.

Convenience cookies

With convenience cookies we use marketing cookies and social media cookies. Marketing cookies help us to offer you personalized advertisements on and outside rwe.com that are tailored to your interests. Social media cookies allow you to connect directly to your social media account as needed. This approach makes it easier for you to share your website visit on social networks and share your experiences in that context. We also use these cookies to exchange data about you with the operators of social networks. This data also enables us to offer you advertisements tailored to your interests.

When you visit our websites, our so-called cookie banner informs you about the use of convenience cookies by referring to this data protection information. If you agree to the processing, click on this cookie category and thereby give your consent, which serves as a legal basis, in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a) GDPR.

The created usage profiles, including those exchanged with the operators of social networks, are pseudonymized and only then processed. This means that we can only assign the analyzed advertising interests to the pseudonym, but not to you personally.

Retention period

After collecting the information via cookies, it is stored by us for the following periods of time, and then automatically deleted.

Cookie-Category  Retention period 
Convenience cookies up to 2 years 
Essential Cookies 24 months 
Analytical Cookies 24 months 
Session Cookies
24 hours

 

Session cookies are small units of information which we store in the random-access memory of your computer. A randomly generated, unique identification number forms part of a session cookie and is called the Session ID. Each cookie also contains the details of its origin and storage period.

Corporate presence in social media

We use various social media to actively communicate with you. For this purpose, we have set up company websites in various social networks. Furthermore, we have included third party plug-ins on our website, especially social networks or other IT service providers. These plug-ins are forwarding or recommendation functions, display functions with which information that RWE shares about itself in social networks can also be displayed on our website and other third-party IT services that help to display information in a more understandable way. In order such plug-ins to work, their provider requires certain personal data about you (e.g. your IP address) and processes it.

In order to protect your privacy, this processing only takes place if you agree to it. Accordingly, you will not have access to the Plug-In until you agree to it. You declare your consent by allowing comfort cookies. The plug-in will only be loaded and data will only be passed on to the social network if you wish to do so by agreeing to the comfort cookies in the cookie banner.
To display the social media content in the newsroom we use the service "Flockler" from Flockler Oy Rautatienkatu 26 B 32, 33100 Tampere, Finland, which aggregates relevant social media channels and displays them on our website. By interacting with the respective content a connection to the Flockler servers is established. Your IP address will be transmitted. When loading the content, data is also passed on to the respective social media provider. This also applies if you are not logged in to the respective social media provider or do not have an account with them. The legal basis is your consent under Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a) GDPR, which you have given when registering with the social network or by accepting our convenience cookies. The privacy policy and further information about this service provider can be found at https://flockler.com/privacy-policy.

In certain cases we process your data with the provider of the social medium or plug-in on the basis of a joint control in accordance with Art. 26 GDPR. We would like to point out, that we have no influence on all data and data processing procedures collected by the provider of the respective social medium or plug-in, nor are we aware of the full scope of data processing, its purposes or storage periods. We also do not have any information about the deletion of the collected data by the respective provider. Therefore, in certain cases we have to forward inquiries addressed to us to the respective provider.

Below you will find a list of the social networks where we maintain a company presence or whose plug-ins we use. In addition, under the respective keywords you will find, if available, the agreement on joint control in terms of Art. 26 GDPR. We recommend reading the data protection information of the respective networks.

As far as we have information about the data processing procedures that concern you, we will inform you about it in the following:

1. Which of your personal data is used by us?

In the following a listing of the data which may are processed: inventory data (e.g. names, addresses), contact data (e.g. e-mail, telephone numbers), content data (e.g. entries in online forms), usage data (e.g. websites visited, interest in content, access times), meta/communication data (e.g. device information, IP addresses).

We would also like to point out that social media providers generally collect data about your usage behavior and interests.

2. What are the sources of the data?

The data usually comes from you. Whether and in which cases the social media also process your data from other sources is beyond our knowledge.

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

By presenting our company in social media, we would like to actively communicate with you and offer you the opportunity to inform yourself about our products and services in this way.

The plug-in providers will also use your data for market research and advertising purposes.

The legal basis is your consent under Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a) GDPR, which you have given when registering with the social network or by accepting our convenience cookies.

4. To whom will your data be passed on?

We pass the data on to other Group companies within the Group. We do not pass on data to third parties. However, we do not have any information about who the respective social network is passing on your personal data to.

5. How long will your data be stored?

How long the social media store your data for their purposes is beyond our knowledge.

6. Is there an obligation to provide your data?

There are no obligations to provide the data. However, if you do not provide the data, you may in certain cases not be able to take full advantage of our offer on social media or not use the simplified presentation of information by the plug-in.

7. Right to withdraw your consent

In addition you have the right to revoke your consent to the analysis and convenience cookies used by us here.

LinkedIn Insight Tag

We use the LinkedIn Insight tag on our website for conversion tracking (visit action evaluation) by LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company (Attn: Legal Dept., Wilton Plaza, Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland; "LinkedIn"). LinkedIn does not share any personal data with us, but only provides aggregate reports on website audience and ad performance. LinkedIn members can opt out of the use of their personal data for advertising purposes in their account settings.

You can find more information about cookies and LinkedIn's privacy policy at: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/cookie-policy and https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy

1. Which of your personal data is used by us?

The LinkedIn Insight tag places a unique LinkedIn browser cookie (conversion cookie) in your browser and allows the following data to be collected for this cookie: metadata such as IP address, timestamp and page events (e.g. page views). These cookies have a limited validity. If you visit certain pages of our website and the cookie has not yet expired, LinkedIn and we can recognise that you clicked on the ad and were redirected to that page. The LinkedIn Insight tag also allows LinkedIn to collect data about visits to our website, including URL, page views, IP address, device and browser characteristics, and timestamps.

2. What are the sources of the data?

All data that we collect in the form of cookies comes from you.

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

The information obtained with the help of the conversion cookie is used to create conversion statistics. Here, we learn the total number of users who clicked on one of our ads and were redirected to a page tagged with a conversion tracking tag.

When you call up our websites, you will be informed about the use of comfort cookies in our so-called cookie banner by being referred to this data protection information. If you agree to the processing, you click on this cookie category and thereby give your consent, which serves as the legal basis, in accordance with Art. 6 Para. 1 lit. a) GDPR.

4. To whom will your data be passed on?

We pass the data on to other group companies within the group. We do not pass on the data to third parties. However, we have no information about who the respective social network passes on your personal data to.

5. How long will your data be stored?

LinkedIn stores your data. For more information on data processing by LinkedIn, please see LinkedIn's privacy policy. https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy

6. Is there an obligation to provide your data?

There is no obligation to provide the data.

7. Right to withdraw your consent

In the context of the use of cookies, you have, in addition to the rights mentioned under point XIV, the right to revoke your consent regarding the analysis and comfort cookies used by us here.

Children

Children shall not submit personal information to RWEST websites without the consent of their parent or guardian. RWEST encourages all parents and guardians to instruct their children in a safe and responsible use of personal data on the Internet. In any event, RWEST will not knowingly collect, use, or otherwise disclose personally identifiable information about children in any way.

Security

RWEST takes precautions to ensure the security of your personal information. Your data is conscientiously protected against loss, destruction, falsification, manipulation and unauthorized access or disclosure.

Links to other websites

The RWEST websites contain links to other websites. As the provider of our websites, we are solely responsible for the content of our own online presence. This content is to be differentiated from contents created by other providers, which we do not adopt and we take no responsibility for. We have no control over whether the operators of the linked websites comply with the relevant data protection regulations. This Privacy Policy does not apply to websites of other providers, even if they are accessed via links on our website. Therefore, please observe the data protection provisions of the respective providers. We cannot assume any liability for external contents. If you find a relevant violation, an indication would be very appreciated. We will then examine the link and remove it, if necessary.

Questions and Comments

As a user of our website you are entitled to request – at any time within the scope of statutory provisions and at no cost to you – information on your personal data we process. If your personal data is incorrect, incomplete or the processing of the data is not lawful, you may request that we rectify, complete or restrict the processing of your data, or erase the data within the scope permitted by law. 
To assert your rights as well as to ask questions, make suggestions or express criticism concerning the data protection of RWEST you are welcome to contact us under dataprotection@rwe.com

Furthermore, you have the right to object at any time to the processing of your data based on balancing of interests or in the public interest if there are reasons for doing so which arise from your particular situation. This also applies to profiling based on these provisions.

 

Once you object, we will no longer process your personal data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms, or the processing serves to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

The objection can be addressed to:

RWE Supply & Trading GmbH, RWE Platz 6, 45141 Essen, E-Mail: dataprotection@rwe.com

In addition, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. When doing so, you may choose to approach the supervisory authority with jurisdiction over the place of your residence or the supervisory authority with jurisdiction over our establishment. You can find the contact details of the supervisory authorities under the following link: https://edpb.europa.eu/

The further development of the Internet also affects our data protection strategy. Changes will be announced in due time on this page.

 

RWEST 2021, Essen
(The above text is a translation from the German. In case of legal dispute, the German original shall apply)