Datenschutz

Privacy Policy

28.01.2026

Wenn Sie jetzt.de nutzen, verarbeitet die Süddeutsche Zeitung GmbH Ihre personenbezogenen Daten. Mit dieser Datenschutzerklärung informieren wir Sie, wie und warum wir Ihre Daten verarbeiten und wie wir gewährleisten, dass sie vertraulich bleiben und geschützt sind.

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We take data protection seriously: as a matter of principle, we only process personal data if this is necessary for the provision of a service or offer or if it is provided voluntarily by the user. We also use technical and operational security measures to protect personal data against accidental or intentional manipulation, loss, destruction or access by unauthorised persons. We regularly review and modernise these precautions.

Privacy policy for applications

If you have applied for a job with us, you will find the necessary data protection information here.

Data protection at a glance

What data do we collect?

  • Inventory data (e.g., names, addresses)
  • Contact details (e.g., email, phone numbers)
  • Content data (e.g., entries in online forms)
  • Payment data (e.g., bank details, invoices, payment history)
  • Contract data (e.g., subject matter of the contract, term)
  • Usage data (e.g., websites visited, interest in content, access times)
  • Meta/communication data (e.g., device information, IP addresses, ID)

How do we collect the data?

We collect the data that is generated when you access our digital offers automatically. Otherwise, we collect data based on your entries or messages or through the use of cookies or similar technologies.

What do we use the data for?

Do we share data?

If you have given your consent or we are otherwise legally authorized to do so, we will pass on your personal data to service providers (e.g., hosting, marketing, sales partners, payment service providers) for the above-mentioned purposes. In such cases, we comply with the legal requirements and, in particular, conclude appropriate contracts or agreements with the recipients of your data to protect your data.

We transfer personal data to other companies within our group of companies or grant them access to this data for administrative purposes. This transfer of data is based on our legitimate business and economic interests or takes place if it is necessary to fulfill our contractual obligations or if the consent of the data subjects or legal permission has been obtained.

Do we transfer data to third countries?

In order to use our digital services, it may be necessary to transfer certain personal data to third countries, i.e. countries where the GDPR does not apply. However, we only allow your data to be processed in a third country if the specific requirements of Art. 44 ff. GDPR are met and thus an adequate level of data protection is guaranteed in that country. This means that the third country must either have an adequacy decision by the European Commission or suitable safeguards in accordance with Art. 46 GDPR or one of the conditions of Art. 49 GDPR. Unless otherwise stated below, we use the currently valid [standard contractual clauses](https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/DE/TXT/HTML/? uri=CELEX:32021D0914&from=DE “current version of the standard contractual clauses”) for the transfer of personal data to processors in third countries.

How do we secure the data?

In order to protect your privacy and ensure a level of protection appropriate to the risk, we take technical and organizational measures in accordance with legal requirements, taking into account the state of the art, implementation costs, and the nature, scope, circumstances, and purposes of processing, as well as the varying likelihood and severity of threats to the rights and freedoms of natural persons. These measures ensure the confidentiality, integrity, availability, and resilience of your data. This includes, among other things, the use of recognized encryption methods (SSL or TLS) and pseudonymization.

However, we would like to point out that, due to the structure of the Internet, it is possible that the rules of data protection and the above-mentioned security measures may not be observed by other persons or institutions outside our area of responsibility. In particular, unencrypted data disclosed, e.g., by email, may be read by third parties. We have no technical influence on this.

When do we delete the data?

We delete or anonymize your personal data as soon as it is no longer required for the purposes for which we collected or used it.

However, we may still need to store your data until the expiry of the retention obligations and periods imposed by the legislator or supervisory authorities, which may arise from the German Commercial Code, the German Fiscal Code, and the German Money Laundering Act (usually 6 to 10 years). In addition, we may retain your data until the expiry of the statutory limitation periods (i.e., usually 3 years, but in individual cases up to 30 years) if this is necessary for the assertion, exercise, or defense of legal claims. After that, the relevant data will be deleted.

What rights do you have?

  • Information
  • Deletion
  • Correction
  • Objection

You can contact the data protection officer with your request by mail or by email at swmh-datenschutz@atarax.de.

This privacy policy is updated from time to time. The date of the last update can be found at the beginning of this information.

Privacy Manager

You can obtain an overview of all the tools and cookies we use as well as an option to withdraw your consent by clicking on Privacy settings at the bottom of the website you are visiting.

You will find detailed data protection information below.

How we make our content available to you

Cookies and similar technologies

If cookies, device identifiers, or other personal data are stored or accessed on your device for processing purposes, this is done on one of the legal bases of Art. 6 GDPR.

In order to be able to provide the telemedia service you have expressly requested, we also take into account the provisions of Section 25 of the German Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act (TDDDG), in particular the requirement under Section 25 (2) No. 2 TDDDG.

You can find an overview of the technologies used under Privacy settings.

Types and functions of cookies

Cookies are text files that contain data from visited websites or domains and are stored by a browser on users' devices. A cookie primarily serves to store information about a user during or after their visit to an online offering. The stored information may include, for example, language settings on a website, login status, a shopping cart, or video interactions. The term “cookies” also includes other technologies that perform the same functions as cookies (e.g., when user information is stored using pseudonymous online identifiers, also known as “user IDs”).

There are the following types of cookies and functions:

  • Temporary cookies (also known as session cookies): Temporary cookies are deleted at the latest after a user leaves an online offering and closes their browser.
  • Permanent cookies: Permanent cookies remain stored even after the browser is closed. This allows, for example, the login status to be saved or preferred content to be displayed directly when the user visits a website again. Similarly, the interests of users, which are used for reach measurement or marketing purposes, can be stored in such a cookie.
  • First-party cookies: First-party cookies are set and used by us to process user information.
  • Third-party cookies: Third-party cookies are mainly used by advertisers (so-called third parties) or other partners to process user information.
  • Strictly necessary (also: essential or necessary) cookies: These cookies ensure functions without which these digital offerings could not be used as desired. They may be absolutely necessary for the operation of a website, for example to store logins or other user entries, or for security reasons.
  • Analysis and statistics cookies: These cookies enable us to analyze the use of our digital offerings, in particular to measure reach—i.e., clicks, visits, and visitor numbers. The aim is to statistically determine the number of visits and visitors and their surfing behavior (duration, origin) and thus obtain market-wide comparable values. The information collected is evaluated in aggregate form in order to derive improvements and optimizations for our products.
  • Marketing and personalization cookies: Cookies are also used to store a user's interests or behavior (e.g., viewing certain content, using functions, etc.) in a user profile. Such profiles are used, for example, to display content to users that corresponds to their potential interests. This process is also referred to as “tracking,” i.e., tracking the potential interests of users. If we use cookies or tracking technologies, we will provide separate information about this in our privacy policy or when obtaining consent.

Technical provision and security

When our offer is used, we automatically employ essential technologies and process the following information:

  • Information about the accessing device and the software used
  • Date and time of access
  • Websites from which the user accesses our website or which the user visits via our website
  • IP address

The collection of these logs and their temporary storage and processing are necessary to ensure system security and integrity (in particular to ward off and defend against attempts at attack or damage) and are carried out in accordance with our legitimate interest (§ 25 (2) No. 2 TDDDG, Art. 6 (1) f GDPR).

The storage period for this log data is usually seven days; for reliable detection of AI bots, it is 30 days. From this point on, this specific server log data is anonymized based on our legitimate interest in statistical evaluation to assess AI bots and their impact on our content (Art. 6 (1) f GDPR).

The legal basis for the aforementioned data processing is our legitimate interest pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. f) GDPR.

Essential technology

The following tools and cookies are strictly necessary technologies, i.e., essential for providing our services as requested by the user.

The legal basis for the data processing described below is our legitimate interest pursuant to Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR.

Google Tag Manager

The Google Tag Manager service is an organizational tool that enables us to control services. The tool only uses the IP address to establish a connection to the server and to function technically. Otherwise, no personal data is processed by the tool itself. Tag Manager ensures that other services are only executed if the conditions (tags) specified in Tag Manager are met. This allows us to ensure, for example, that tools requiring consent are only loaded after you have given your consent. Tag Manager does not access the data processed by the tools.

Cookie Purpose Duration Type
consentUUID UniqueUserID to store the user's consent status 12 months Cookie
_sp_su Identification of users for sampling consent rates reporting 12 months Cookie
_sp_user_consent UniqueUserID to retrieve the user's consent status stored in our database if necessary Unlimited Local storage
_sp_local_state Determines whether a user has seen the consent banner so that it is only shown once unlimited local storage
_sp_non_keyed_local_state Information about the metadata and the user's UniqueUserID unlimited local storage

Deliver and present advertising

In order to display the adverts on our digital offers in the correct size and in a format supported by your device and to be able to redirect you to the corresponding target page when you click on the advert, we, our advertising marketers and the respective third-party provider process your IP address and information about your device type. This is an absolutely necessary technology, which is shown in the data protection settings under the special category "Provide adverts or content technically".

Name Purpose AdServer Type
adnxs Deliver ads Xandr Cookie
szdm_uxid Deliver ads AdSpirit Cookie

Abobe Typekit Web Fonts

We use Abobe Typekit from Adobe for standardised presentation. The provider is Adobe Systems Incorporated, 345 Park Avenue, San Jose, CA 95110-2704, USA (Adobe).

When you access this website, your browser loads the required fonts directly from Adobe in order to display them correctly on your device. In doing so, your browser establishes a connection to Adobe's servers in the USA. This gives Adobe knowledge that this website has been accessed via your IP address. No cookies are stored when the fonts are provided.

The legal basis for this data processing is your consent (Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. a) GDPR). Consent can be revoked at any time.

Data transfer to the USA is based on the existing adequacy decision and the standard contractual clauses of the EU Commission. Adobe is certified in accordance with the "EU-US Data Privacy Framework" (DPF). The DPF is an agreement between the European Union and the USA that is intended to ensure compliance with European data protection standards for data processing in the USA. Every company certified under the DPF undertakes to comply with these data protection standards. Further information on this can be obtained from the provider at the following link https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov/s/participant-search/participant-detail?contact=true&id=a2zt0000000TNo9AAG&status=Active

You can find more information about Adobe Fonts at https://www.adobe.com/de/privacy/policies/adobe-fonts.html.

You can find Adobe's privacy policy at https://www.adobe.com/de/privacy/policy.html

Push notifications

If you allow push notifications, you give your consent to receive the notification and for the statistical analysis with which we can recognise whether and when our push notifications were displayed and clicked on (Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. a) GDPR). This includes storing the time of registration and your browser ID or device ID.

Your data will be deleted as soon as you withdraw your consent.

You can revoke your consent at any time with effect for the future by clicking on the corresponding symbol in front of the address bar in your browser and deactivating the notifications.

Sharing content

You have the option of recommending content on our websites via the buttons placed on the content; on mobile devices via the native sharing function. We provide the social networks with content - and no personal data - that is used exclusively to display content. If you use the buttons, we merely link to the page of the respective social media provider. We do not process any of your personal data.

How we optimize our products

Further development of user-friendliness

We use cookies and tracking tools to optimize our digital offerings based on your usage. To do this, we measure the development of reach and the use of content and functions, and use A/B testing to determine which variants users prefer.

Usage analysis

We want to continuously develop and improve our products. To do this, we need to analyze usage. This serves to evaluate visitor traffic to our digital offerings and may include behavior, interests, or demographic information about visitors, such as age or gender, as pseudonymous values. With its help, we can see, for example, when our digital offerings are used most frequently or which functions are popular. This enables us to identify areas that need optimization.

In addition to usage analysis, we also use testing procedures to test different versions of our digital offerings or their components, for example, and to increase certain user actions or reactions if necessary.
For these purposes, profiles, i.e., data summarized for a usage process, are created and information is stored in a browser or on a terminal device and read from it. The information collected includes, in particular, websites visited and elements used there, as well as technical information such as the browser used, the computer system used, and information on usage times.

The IP addresses of users are also stored. We use an IP masking procedure (i.e., pseudonymization by shortening the IP address) for your protection. In general, no clear data of users (such as email addresses or names) is stored in the context of web analysis, A/B testing, and optimization, but rather pseudonyms, so that neither we nor the providers of the software used, who act as processors for us, know the actual identity of the users.

Kilkaya

To analyse the performance of our articles live, we use the analysis script from Kilkaya (Kilkaya AS, Åsveien 3, 1424 Ski, Norway). Kilkaya is an analysis tool that was specially developed for news sites with high traffic and helps us to optimise and prioritise our pages and articles. Kilkaya captures all traffic metrics in real time, such as page views, clicks, time spent on pages, unique users. The tool uses the IP address to establish the connection to the server and to be able to function technically. We use a user ID to count unique users. No further data is linked to this, so that you cannot be personally identified.

SZ personalization

To enable you to discover content of interest to you as quickly and directly as possible in our digital offering, we analyse which SZ offerings and SZ products (editorial texts, podcasts, newsletters, quizzes, games, purchases, events, etc.) you use, read or order from us. We create your profile from this collected behaviour and derive possible preferences and interests from it in order to be able to recommend further content and products to you on the one hand and to enable you to personalise our digital offering for yourself on the other.

In practice, this gives you the opportunity to

  • prioritise new articles, videos, podcasts, games and other content that match your interests.
  • If you explicitly order this, you will receive an annual review in which you can see how many and which articles you have read in the past year and share and compare them with other SZ readers.

We process the following personal data from you

  • Your subscription status, i.e. whether and which subscription you have ordered from us,
  • Your usage behaviour, i.e. when you use which articles, videos, podcasts, games and other content, how often and for how long,
  • A single sign-on ID (SSO ID) if you have registered with us and logged in, for example to be able to use certain services, or
  • a unique device ID if you use our digital services without being logged in,

We bring this data from the individual products together via a pseudonymised and cross-product ID so that we can improve the overall user experience with a cross-product analysis and provide you as a user with manual, semi-automated and fully automated content and offers from Süddeutsche Zeitung tailored to your needs.

Secondly, we determine the conversion rate in order to track which users have taken out which digital subscriptions via which channels (websites, apps) and calculate personalised values for our customers. To calculate customer values, we use the SingleSignOn ID (SSO ID) and merge this with usage data in our data platform.

We also process your email address in the following cases:

  • If you have subscribed to one of our newsletters, we can use your email address to determine whether you are already a subscriber and whether we should therefore play you subscription adverts or not.
  • If you are a new customer, we will greet you with a welcome email and recommendations (if explicit authorisation has been granted) based on your interests. In this case, we will link your Single Sign On ID to the email address you provided.

The data will be deleted after 90 days without activity or after cancellation.

The legal basis for data processing is your consent in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a) GDPR.

Participate in surveys

To find out how satisfied you are with our products, you can participate in our surveys. For each survey, you decide individually whether you want to participate and what information you want to give us.

To enable participants to interrupt a survey embedded in the website and continue it with the same browser, a session cookie is created when the survey participation starts. This also prevents the same survey from being displayed to you multiple times.

You can delete this cookie at any time in your browser's privacy settings. However, this will remove the option to continue a partially completed survey from the point where you left off and the protection against the survey being displayed again.

If personal data is collected in a survey, it will be deleted at the latest at the end of the year in which the survey and its evaluation were completed.

The legal basis for data processing is your consent in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a) GDPR.

Für unsere Umfragen verwenden wir das Online-Umfragetool easyfeedback unseres Dienstleisters easyfeedback GmbH, Ernst-Abbe-Straße 4, 56070 Koblenz. Informationen zum Datenschutz finden Sie hier.

When you contact us

Contacting us

When you contact us, we only collect personal data (e.g. name, e-mail address, telephone number) if you provide it to us voluntarily. This information is expressly provided on a voluntary basis. The purpose of processing your data is to process and respond to your enquiry. This is also our legitimate interest in data processing in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. f) GDPR.

In the case of a telephone enquiry, your data will also be processed by telephone applications and in some cases also via a voice dialogue system in order to support us in the distribution and processing of enquiries.

We will delete your data that we have received in the course of contacting you as soon as your request has been fully processed and no further communication with you is required or requested by you.

When we advertise our products

Newsletter

You will receive newsletters from us if you explicitly order them by providing your e-mail address. We will check the e-mail address you have provided by sending a confirmation e-mail to it ("double opt-in procedure") to ensure that you are really the owner of the e-mail address.

We process the email address to send and analyse the newsletter (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR). We analyse your clicks in newsletters with the help of so-called tracking pixels, i.e. invisible image files. These are assigned to your email address and are linked to a unique ID so that clicks in the newsletter can be clearly assigned to you. The purpose of the user profile is to be able to tailor the newsletter offer to your interests. We record when you read newsletters and which links you click on and use this information to create an interest profile.

You can unsubscribe from any newsletter at any time. There is a corresponding link in every newsletter for this purpose.

Your data will be deleted after cancellation of the newsletter at the end of the year in which you unsubscribed from the newsletter.

Newsletter - Data processing in detail

Data Purpose of processing Legal basis for processing Storage period
E-mail address Sending the newsletter Consent until cancellation
IP address for opt-in Proof of double opt-in Consent until cancellation
Time of DOI verification Proof of double opt-in In Consent until revocation
Salutation* Direct address Consent until revocation
First name* Direct address Consent until revocation
Last name* Direct address Consent until revocation
Usage data Further development and improvement of the service Consent until revocation
End devices Correct delivery of the newsletter Consent until revocation

*Voluntary information

Company presence in the social media

We maintain a presence on social media. Insofar as we have control over the processing of your data, we ensure that the applicable data protection regulations are complied with. Below you will find the most important information on data protection law in relation to our company websites.

In addition to us, we are responsible for the company websites within the meaning of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other data protection regulations:

  • Instagram (Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Irland); weitere Informationen zum Datenschutz finden Sie hier.

We process the data for statistical purposes in order to further develop and optimise the content and to make our offer more attractive. This data includes the total number of page views, page activities and data and interactions provided by visitors. This data is processed and made available by the social networks. We have no influence on the generation and presentation of this data.

Your personal data is also processed for market research and advertising purposes. For example, it is possible that user profiles are created based on your usage behaviour and the resulting interests. This allows, among other things, adverts to be placed within and outside the platforms that presumably correspond to your interests. Cookies are usually stored on your computer for this purpose. Irrespective of this, data that is not collected directly from your end devices may also be stored in your user profiles. Data is also stored and analysed across devices; this applies in particular, but not exclusively, if you are registered as a member and logged in to the respective platforms.
We do not collect or process any other personal data.

The processing of your personal data by us is based on your consent in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. a) GDPR.

As we do not have full access to your personal data, you should contact the social media providers directly when asserting your rights as a data subject, as they have access to the personal data of their users and can take appropriate measures and provide information.

Should you nevertheless require assistance, we will of course endeavour to support you. You can find our contact details here.

For a detailed description of the respective processing and the cancellation options, please refer to the information linked below.

When third parties advertise their products with us

In order to refinance our digital offerings, we market our advertising space - via our marketing service providers but also via third parties.

An overview of the third parties and how they process your data and for what purpose can be found in the data protection settings. As a SZ Plus subscriber, you will be shown fewer adverts. By reducing the amount of advertising, we ensure that the data we collect from SZ Plus subscribers is processed exclusively by us and by partners that we have checked. We oblige these partners to minimise data in accordance with European data protection regulations. Data collection via our verified advertising partners is thus reduced to a necessary minimum, for example in order to carry out reach measurements and quality improvements. These measures prevent unknown and unverified third parties from creating individual profiles of our digital subscribers based on their usage behaviour and using them for their own purposes.

Self-marketing of adverts

Our advertising marketers support us in marketing our advertising space by acquiring and displaying adverts.
We use the following marketers:

  • iq digital media marketing Gmbh, Toulouser Allee 27, 40211 Düsseldorf, Germany
  • Taboola Inc, Oneustonsq, 40 Melton Street, 13th Floor, London, NW1 2FD

We have concluded either an agreement within the meaning of Art. 26 GDPR with these third parties and the third parties they use in the context of marketing within the meaning of Art. 4 No. 10 GDPR, in which we have defined the respective responsibilities for the fulfilment of the obligations under the GDPR with regard to joint processing, or an order processing agreement within the meaning of Art. 28 GDPR.

In the case of joint responsibility, we are obliged to enable you to grant and withdraw consent under data protection law. We are also the central point of contact for you as a data subject. We forward data subject enquiries that we receive and that relate to joint processing to our marketers for response without delay. Irrespective of this, you can assert the rights to which you are entitled under the GDPR as a data subject both with and against us and with and against any other controller.

The legal basis for data processing is your consent in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a) GDPR.

External marketing by third parties

When you access our digital offerings, you will also be shown content from third parties who use our advertising space to place adverts. We refinance our offering by displaying these adverts. If such content is loaded, this is done from the servers of the respective third-party providers. This always involves the transmission of certain data to the third-party providers, in many cases including personal data. In addition, cookies or similar technologies are used for most of the third-party services used to load the content.

In order to provide advertising that is relevant and tailored to current interests, an attempt is made to draw conclusions about current interests based on the website visit and surfing behaviour. This user data is used to communicate advertising in the form of banners and other marketing methods - possibly based on the user's interests. For the purpose of retargeting (remarketing) of website visitors, as well as for the purpose of measuring success, cookies from third-party providers (so-called third-party cookies) are used and, if necessary, user profiles are created under a pseudonym. These can be analysed for advertising and monitoring purposes. It is not possible to draw direct conclusions about a person.

An overview of the third parties and how they process your data and for what purpose can be found in the privacy settings.

The legal basis for data processing is your consent in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a) GDPR.

In this context, data may also be transferred to third countries outside the EU with your consent in accordance with Art. 49 para. 1 lit. a) GDPR.

The publisher uses the Transparency and Consent Framework of IAB Europe 2.2 to manage this type of advertising in compliance with data protection regulations. This framework of the Interactive Advertising Bureau Europe ("IAB Europe"), an industry association for online marketing, defines and monitors the data protection-compliant display of advertising.

Advertising via the IAB TCF

IAB Europe has defined the following purposes for the processing of data, including the personal data of users, in order to manage advertising in compliance with data protection regulations:

Saving or accessing information on a terminal device (Purpose 1)
Cookies, terminal device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly generated identifiers, network-based identifiers) may be stored on or read from your terminal device together with other information (e.g. browser type and browser information, language, screen size, supported technologies, etc.) in order to recognise it each time it accesses an app or a website. This is done for one or more of the processing purposes listed here.
Most of the processing purposes explained in this notice are based on the storage of or access to information on your device when you use an app or visit a website. For example, it may be necessary for a provider or website operator to store a cookie on your device when you first visit a website in order to recognise it on your next visits (by retrieving this cookie each time).

Use of reduced data to select adverts (Purpose 2)
Adverts presented to you on this service may be based on reduced data, such as the website or app you are currently using, your approximate location, your device type or the content you are interacting with (or have interacted with) (e.g. to limit the frequency of adverts displayed to you).

*Examples

  • A car manufacturer wants to advertise its electric vehicles to environmentally conscious users who live in the city after hours. The advert is presented on a page with related content (e.g. an article about climate protection measures) after 6.30pm to users whose vague location suggests that they are in an urban area.
  • A major manufacturer of watercolour paints wants to run an online advertising campaign for its latest watercolour range. The aim is to diversify the target audience to reach as many amateur and professional artists as possible and to avoid showing the advert alongside inappropriate content (e.g. articles about painting a house). The number of adverts you are presented with is determined and limited to avoid them being shown too often.

Creation of profiles for personalised advertising (Purpose 3)
Information about your activities on this service (such as completed forms, viewed content) may be stored and combined with other information about you (e.g. information from your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to create or improve a profile about you (this may include, for example, possible interests and personal characteristics). Your profile may be used (including at a later date) to enable us to present you with adverts that are likely to be more relevant to you based on your potential interests.

*Examples

  • For example, if you read several articles about the best bicycle accessories in the trade, this information can be used to create a profile about your interest in bicycle accessories. Such a profile can be used or improved at a later stage on the same or another website or app to show you adverts for a specific brand of bicycle accessories. If you are also looking at a configurator for a vehicle on a luxury car manufacturer's website, this information may be combined with your interest in bicycles to refine your profile and lead to the assumption that you are interested in luxury bicycle equipment.
  • A clothing company wants to promote its new collection of high-quality baby clothes. It contacts an agency that has a network of high-income customers (e.g. high-end supermarkets) and asks the agency to create profiles of young parents or couples who can be assumed to be affluent and have recently had a baby, so that these can later be used to advertise in partner apps.

Use of profiles to select personalised advertising (Purpose 4)
Advertising displayed to you on this service may be based on your advertising profile. This advertising profile may include your activities (such as completed forms, viewed content) on this service or other websites or apps, possible interests and personal characteristics.

*Examples

  • An online retailer wants to advertise a limited range of running shoes. They want to target adverts to users who have previously viewed running shoes in their mobile app. Tracking technologies could be used to recognise that you have previously used the mobile app to search for running shoes so that you are shown the relevant adverts in the app.
  • A profile created for personalised advertising relating to a person who has searched for cycling accessories on a website may be used to present the relevant cycling accessories advertisement on another company's mobile app.

Creating profiles to personalise content (Purpose 5)
Information about your activities on this service (such as: completed forms, non-promotional content viewed) may be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users.
This is then used to create or complete a profile about you (this may include, for example, possible interests and personal characteristics). Your profile may be used (including at a later date) to show you content that is likely to be more relevant to you based on your potential interests, for example by changing the order in which content is shown to you to make it even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.

*Examples

  • You read several articles on a social media platform about how to build a tree house. This information can be added to a profile to record your interest in content about outdoor activities and do-it-yourself instructions (with the aim of enabling the personalisation of content so that you are presented with more blog posts and articles about treehouses and wooden cabins in the future, for example).
  • You watched three videos about space exploration on different TV apps. An independent news platform that you have not previously used creates a profile based on this usage behaviour and identifies space exploration as a topic of potential interest for future videos.

Use of profiles to select personalised content (Purpose 6)
Content presented to you on this service may be based on your personalised content profiles, which include your activities on this or other services (such as forms you submit, content you view), possible interests and personal characteristics, such as the changed order in which content is displayed to you, to make it even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.

*Examples

  • You read articles about vegetarian food on a social media platform and then use the cooking app of a company that is independent of the platform. The profile created about you on the social media platform is used to present you with vegetarian recipes on the home page of the cookery app.
  • You have watched three rowing videos on various websites. When you use your TV app, a video sharing platform that is independent of the websites recommends five more rowing videos that may be of interest to you, based on a profile that was created about you when you watched the online videos on these websites.

Measurement of advertising performance (Purpose 7)
Information about which adverts are presented to you and how you interact with them can be used to determine how much an advert has appealed to you or other users and whether the objectives of the advertising campaign have been achieved. The information includes, for example, whether you have viewed an advert, whether you have clicked on it, whether it has encouraged you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This information is helpful in determining the relevance of advertising campaigns.

*Examples

  • You clicked on an advert on a website operator's website about a "Black Friday" discount from an online shop and bought a product. Your click is linked to this purchase. Your interaction and that of other users is measured to find out how many clicks on the advert led to a purchase.
  • Sie gehören zu den wenigen, die in der App eines App-Betreibers auf eine Werbung, über einen Rabatt anlässlich eines besonderen Ereignisses (z.B. „internationaler Tag der Anerkennung“), eines Online-Geschenkeshops geklickt haben. Der App-Betreiber möchte Statistiken darüber erhalten, wie oft eine bestimmte Anzeige innerhalb der App, insbesondere die Anzeige zu einem besonderen Ereignis (z.B. „internationaler Tag der Anerkennung“) von Ihnen und anderen Benutzern angesehen oder angeklickt wurde, um dem App-Betreiber und seinen Partnern (wie Agenturen) zu helfen, die Anzeigenschaltung zu optimieren.

Measuring the performance of content (Purpose 8)
Information about what advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether (non-advertising) content has reached the intended target group and matched your interests, for example. This includes, for example, information about whether you have read a particular article, watched a particular video, listened to a particular podcast or looked at a particular product description, how much time you have spent on that service and the websites you have visited, and so on. This information helps to determine the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is displayed to you.

*Examples

  • You have read a blog post about hiking in the mobile app of an app operator and tapped on a link to a recommended similar post. Your interactions are recorded to show that the first post about hiking was useful to you and that it successfully encouraged you to read the similar post. This information is measured to determine whether more posts about hiking should be created in the future and where they should be placed on the home screen of the mobile app.
  • You were presented with a video about fashion trends, but you and several other users cancelled it after 30 seconds. This information will be used to evaluate the appropriate length of future fashion trend videos.

Analysing target groups through statistics or combinations of data from different sources (Purpose 9)
Based on the combination of data sets (such as user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data), reports can be created about your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content in order to identify common characteristics (e.g. to determine which target groups are receptive to an advertising campaign or to certain content).

*Examples

  • The owner of an online bookstore wants to analyse how many visitors have visited his website without buying anything, or how many have visited the website to buy the latest celebrity biography of the month, as well as the average age of visitors and how many of them are male or female, broken down by category. Data about your navigation on the website and your personal characteristics is then used and combined with other such data to create these statistics.
  • An advertiser wants to better understand the type of audience that interacts with their adverts. They commission a research organisation to compare the characteristics of users who have interacted with the ad with typical attributes of users of similar platforms across different devices. This comparison shows the advertiser that their target audience mainly accesses the advert via mobile devices and is likely to be between the ages of 45-60.

Development and improvement of offers (Purpose 10)
Information about your activities on this website, such as your interaction with adverts or content, can help to improve products and offers and to develop new products and offers based on user interactions, the type of target group, etc. This processing purpose does not include the development, supplementation or improvement of user profiles and identifiers. This processing purpose does not include the development, enhancement or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.

*Examples

  • Information about your activities on this offer, such as your interaction with adverts or content, can help to improve products and offers and to develop new products and offers based on user interactions, the type of target group, etc. This processing purpose does not include the development, enhancement or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
  • An advertiser is looking for a way to display adverts on a new type of device. It collects information about how users interact with this new type of device in order to determine whether it can develop a new mechanism for displaying adverts on this type of device.

Use of reduced data to select content (Purpose 11)
Content presented to you on this service may be based on reduced data, such as the website or app you are using, your approximate location, your device type or information about what content you interact (or have interacted) with (e.g. to limit how often you are shown a video or article).

*Examples

  • A travel magazine has published an article on its website about the new online courses offered by a language school to improve the travelling experience abroad. The travel school's blog posts are inserted directly at the bottom of the page and selected based on your approximate location (e.g. blog posts with the syllabus for the course of a language that is not the language of your country).
  • A mobile app for sports news has introduced a new section with articles about the latest football matches. Each article contains videos with highlights of the game hosted by an external streaming platform. If you fast-forward a video, this information can be used to play a shorter video afterwards.

Special processing purposes
The user has no choice for the following two special processing purposes, as these are absolutely necessary to provide the service.

  • Ensuring security, preventing and detecting fraud and troubleshooting: Your data may be used to monitor and prevent unusual and potentially fraudulent activities (for example, regarding advertising, advertising clicks by bots) and to ensure that systems and processes function properly and securely. The data may also be used to resolve problems that you, the website or app operator or the advertiser may have in delivering content and adverts and in your interaction with them.
    Example
    An advertising intermediary delivers adverts from different advertisers to its network of partner websites and apps. The advertising intermediary notices a sharp increase in clicks on adverts from a particular advertiser. He analyses the data regarding the source of the clicks and finds that 80% of the clicks are from bots and not humans.
  • Provision and display of advertising and content: Certain information (such as IP address or device features) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising and to enable the transfer of the content or advertising to your device.
    Example
    When you click on a link in an article, you are usually redirected to another page or another part of the article. To this end, 1°) your browser sends a request to a server linked to the website, 2°) the server responds to the request ("here is the article you requested") using technical information contained by default in the request sent by your terminal in order to properly display the information/images that are part of the article you requested. Technically, such an exchange of information is necessary to provide the content that is displayed on your screen.
  • Store and transmit your data protection choices: The choices you make in relation to the purposes and companies listed in this notice will be stored and made available to the companies concerned in the form of digital signals (e.g. a character string). Only in this way can both this service and the companies concerned respect the respective decisions.
    Example:
    If you visit a website and are given the choice of whether or not to consent to the use of profiles for personalised advertising, the decision you make will be stored and transmitted to the advertising providers concerned so that your decision is taken into account in the advertising presented to you.

Functions
For the following functions, personal data will be used for one or more of the above purposes if you consent to these purposes.

  • Matching and combining data from different data sources:__ Information about your activities on this service may be matched and combined with other information about you from different sources (e.g. your activities on another online service, your use of an in-store loyalty card or your responses to a survey) to support the purposes explained in this framework.
  • Linking of different devices:__ To support the purposes set out in this framework, it may be determined whether it is likely that your device is connected to other devices belonging to you or your household (e.g. because you are logged into the same service on both your mobile phone and your computer or because you use the same internet connection on both devices).
  • Identification of end devices based on automatically transmitted information: Your end device can be distinguished to support the purposes explained in this framework using information that it automatically transmits when accessing the Internet (e.g. the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you use).

Special functions
For the following special functions, personal data will be used for one or more of the above-mentioned purposes, provided that you consent to these purposes.

  • Use of precise geographical data: With your consent, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used to support the above purposes.
  • Active scanning of device characteristics for identification: With your consent, certain characteristics of your device may be queried and used to distinguish it from other devices (e.g. the fonts or plugins installed, the resolution of your screen) to support the above purposes.

What else you should know

Controller

Controller

Süddeutsche Zeitung GmbH

Hultschiner Str. 8
D-81677 Munich

Data Protection Officer

atarax group of companies

Luitpold-Maier-Str. 7
D-91074 Herzogenaurach
Phone: 09132 79800
Email: swmh-datenschutz@atarax.de.

Your rights

  • In accordance with Art. 15 GDPR, you have the right to request information about your personal data processed by us. In this context, you also have the right to receive a copy of your personal data processed by us in accordance with Art. 15 para. 3-4 GDPR.
  • In accordance with Art. 16 GDPR, you can immediately request the correction of incorrect or the completion of your personal data stored by us.
  • In accordance with Art. 17 GDPR, you can request the erasure of your personal data stored by us.
  • In accordance with Art. 18 GDPR, you can request the restriction of the processing of your personal data.
  • In accordance with Art. 20 GDPR, you can request to receive your personal data that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and you can request the transfer to another controller.
  • In accordance with Art. 7 para. 3 GDPR, you can revoke your consent once given to us at any time. This means that the processing carried out on the basis of the consent prior to the revocation was lawful and has the consequence that we may no longer continue the data processing based on this consent in the future.

Right to object

If your personal data is processed on the basis of legitimate interests in accordance with Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. f) GDPR or Art. 6 para. 1 sentence 1 lit. e) GDPR, you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data in accordance with Art. 21 GDPR. In the event of such an objection, we will no longer process your personal data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override the interests, rights and freedoms of the data subject or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
In the case of direct marketing, you have the right to object at any time to the processing of personal data concerning you. If you object to processing for direct marketing purposes, the personal data will no longer be processed for these purposes.

Right to lodge a complaint with the supervisory authority

You have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority against the processing of your personal data if you feel that your rights under the GDPR have been violated. As a rule, you can contact the supervisory authority of your usual place of residence, your workplace or our company headquarters.

Data protection information in the GTC

With this privacy policy, we fulfil the information obligations under the GDPR. Our General Terms and Conditions also contain data protection information. These explain in detail how your personal data, which we require to fulfil contracts and for the purpose of identity and credit checks, is processed.

Changes to the privacy policy

We reserve the right to change or adapt this privacy policy at any time in compliance with the applicable data protection regulations.