Privacy Policy

WDR mediagroup GmbH (hereinafter referred to as “we” or “us”) operates several services accessible via the Internet (hereinafter referred to as “website”) such as www.wdr-mediagroup.com or www.meinradiospot.de.
In the following, we would like to inform you in a comprehensible and concise manner about the collection and processing of your data and your rights in this regard.

I. Data controller

WDR mediagroup GmbH
Ludwigstraße 11
50667 Cologne
E-mail: info@wdr-mediagroup.com

II. Data protection officer

WDR mediagroup GmbH
Datenschutz
Ludwigstraße 11
50667 Cologne
E-mail: datenschutz@wdr-mediagroup.com

III. General information on data processing

1. Scope and purposes of personal data processing
   We process personal data:
   a) To fulfil contractual obligations (Art. 6 [1] lit. b GDPR):
   Data is processed for the purpose of fulfilling contracts or implementing pre-contractual measures that are carried out at your request.
   b) On the basis of a legitimate interest (Art. 6 [1] lit. f GDPR):
   Where necessary, your data will be processed beyond the above purposes to protect legitimate interests:
   Improvement and further development of the offering,

Measures for business management and further development,

Ensuring IT security and IT operation of the website,

Assertion of claims and defence in legal disputes,

Measures for building and facility security (e.g. access controls),

Measures to ensure domestic authority,

Advertising or market and opinion research, provided you have not objected to the use of your data.
c) Based on your consent (Art. 6 [1] lit. a GDPR).

2. Data deletion and storage period

The personal data of the data subject will be deleted or blocked as soon as the purpose of storage ceases to apply. Data may also be stored if this is provided for in EU regulations, national laws or other regulations to which we are subject as the data controller, or if further storage of the data is necessary for the conclusion or fulfilment of a contract.

3. Disclosure of information (personal data) to third parties

We use specialised service providers in some cases to process your data. They only receive from us the personal data they need for their specific activities. We carefully select our service providers and monitor them regularly. They process personal data only on our behalf and strictly in accordance with our instructions on the basis of corresponding contracts for order processing.

Insofar as the service providers we use, who process personal data for us on our behalf and within the scope of our instructions as so-called processors in accordance with Art. 28 GDPR, are based outside the EU/EEA, we ensure that they have an adequate level of data protection before transferring data to them (e.g. adequacy decision by the EU Commission/ Conclusion of EU standard contractual clauses, etc.).

IV. Processing of personal data

1. Information collected automatically when you visit our website
   You may visit our website without providing any personal information. Each time the website is accessed, the web server automatically saves a so-called server log file, which contains, among other things, the name of the requested file, your IP address, the date and time of access, the amount of data transferred and the requesting provider (access data) and documents the access. These access details are:
   Your IP address

Name of the website/file accessed

Date and time of access

Amount of data transferred

Notification of successful retrieval

Browser type and version

Operating system used

Device used, including MAC address

Referrer URL (the previously visited page)
This access data is evaluated solely for the purpose of ensuring the smooth operation of the site, improving our offering, and enabling us to detect and track attacks. This serves to safeguard our legitimate interests in the correct presentation of our offer within the framework of a balancing of interests in accordance with Art. 6 (1) lit. f GDPR.

2. Data that you provide to us

You can contact us at any time using the contact options provided (form, e-mail, telephone). The data you enter will be transmitted to us, stored and used to process your request.
The data will be deleted as soon as it is no longer required for the purpose for which it was collected.

V. Newsletter

You can subscribe to our regular free e-mail newsletter, which we use to inform you about current topics by e-mail.

We use the double opt-in procedure for registration. This means that after registering, you will receive a confirmation e-mail from us asking you to confirm your registration by clicking on a link contained therein.

Newsletter registrations are logged in order to be able to verify the registration process. This includes storing the time of registration and confirmation as well as the IP address. Furthermore, changes to your data stored by the dispatch service provider of our newsletter will be logged.
The newsletter is sent on the basis of your consent (Art. 6 [1] lit. a GDPR) or, if consent is not required, on the basis of our legitimate interests in direct marketing, insofar as this is permitted by law, e.g. in the case of advertising to existing customers (Art. 6 [1] lit. f GDPR).

Newsletter analysis – Conversion tracking

Sending newsletters with our mailing service provider enables us to analyse the behaviour of newsletter recipients. Among other things, the analysis shows how many recipients opened your newsletter and how often links in the newsletter were clicked.
If you no longer wish to receive newsletters from us, you can unsubscribe at any time. To revoke your consent, simply send an informal e-mail or unsubscribe from the newsletter via the unsubscribe link. The lawfulness of data processing operations already carried out remains unaffected by the withdrawal of your consent.

VI. Cookies / Tracking

We use cookies, tools and similar technologies from third parties on our website. Cookies are text files that are stored in the Internet browser or by the Internet browser on the user’s terminal device. This automatically provides us with certain data, such as the IP address of the browser used and the operating system.
A cookie usually contains the name of the domain from which the cookie data was sent, information about the age of the cookie, and an alphanumeric identifier. Cookies serve, among other things, to make our offering more user-friendly, effective and secure.
If cookies are disabled for our website, it may not be possible to use all of the website’s functions to their full extent.

1. Technically necessary cookies

We use cookies that are necessary for the proper functioning and provision of our services. This refers, in particular, to the cookie for authorisation to set cookies, which concerns the settings you have made in the cookie consent tool when visiting our website or app, i.e. whether all cookie categories or only the cookie categories you have selected have been accepted.

2. Cookies for analytical purposes – Google Analytics

Provided you have given your consent in the cookie consent management tool, we use the Google Analytics analysis service from the third-party provider Google on our website.
Google Analytics uses methods that enable an analysis of your use of our website/app, such as cookies. The automatically collected information about your use is usually transferred to a Google server in the USA and stored there. With the help of web analytics, we can identify, for example, at what times our online offering or our content and the functions of our offerings are used most frequently. We can also identify areas that may need to be optimised. The statistics we collect enable us to improve our services and make them more interesting for users.
Google will use the information collected on our behalf to evaluate the use of our website by users, to compile reports on activities within our online offering and, if necessary, to provide us with further services associated with the use of this online offering and the Internet. Pseudonymous user profiles can be created from the processed data.
The legal basis for the use of Google Analytics is your consent in accordance with Art. 6 (1) lit. a GDPR or our legitimate interest in accordance with Art. 6 (1) lit. f GDPR.
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 downloading and installing the opt-out plug-in https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de. Google’s privacy policy can be found here: https://policies.google.com/privacy.

3. Changing your privacy settings

If, when you first visited our website, you expressly consented in our cookie consent tool to the use of all or some of the cookies/tools and technologies described above on our website for analysis and advertising/marketing purposes, you can revoke your consent at any time in the cookie settings with effect for the future.
If you use our services via our website, you can set your browser so that you are informed about the setting of cookies and only allow cookies in individual cases, that the acceptance of cookies is excluded in certain cases or in general, and that the automatic deletion of cookies is activated when you close your browser.

VII. Automated decision-making / profiling

When using our website or app and when using our content, users are not subject to a decision based solely on automated processing (including profiling) that has legal effects on users or significantly affects users in a similar manner.

VIII. Your rights

Among other things, you have the right to request the disclosure of information about the data we have stored (about you). Furthermore, under certain circumstances, you may request the correction or deletion of your data. Furthermore, you have the right to restrict the processing of your data and the right to receive the data you have provided in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.
If data processing is based on your consent, you may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future. If data processing is carried out on the basis of overriding legitimate interests, you may object to this data processing if your particular situation justifies it.
Every data subject also has the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority if they believe that there has been a breach of data protection regulations.
The supervisory authority responsible for us is:

Rundfunkdatenschutzbeauftragte
Stephan Schwarze
Kantstraße 71–73
04275 Leipzig.

IX. Current status and amendments to this privacy policy

This privacy policy is currently valid and was last updated in June 2023. Due to the further development of our website and the offers it contains, or due to changes in legal or regulatory requirements, it may become necessary to amend this privacy policy. The current privacy policy can be accessed here at any time.