Privacy Policy

07.07.2025

Wenn Sie ein Angebot der Süddeutschen Zeitung nutzen, verarbeitet die Süddeutsche Zeitung GmbH Ihre personenbezogenen Daten. Mit diesen Datenschutzhinweisen 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.

How we make our content available to you

Cookies and similar technologies

Wir verwenden Cookies und ähnliche Technologien, um das beste Erlebnis bei der Nutzung unserer digitalen Angebote zu bieten. Wir verwenden sie zur Sicherstellung der Funktionalität, zur IT-Sicherheit und Betrugsprävention sowie zur Nutzungsanalyse, um die Reichweite messen und die Produkte optimieren zu können.

Eine Übersicht über die verwendeten Technologien und Widerrufs- bzw. Widerspruchsmöglichkeiten finden Sie unter Datenschutzeinstellungen in der Fußzeile der von Ihnen besuchten Website.

Werden zur Verarbeitung Cookies, Gerätekennungen oder andere personenbezogene Daten auf Ihrem Endgerät gespeichert oder abgerufen, erfolgt dies auf einer der Rechtsgrundlagen von Art. 6 DSGVO.

Um den von Ihnen ausdrücklich gewünschten Telemediendienst erbringen zu können, berücksichtigen wir darüber hinaus die Regelungen des § 25 Telekommunikation-Digitale-Dienste-Datenschutz-Gesetz (TDDDG), insbesondere die Erforderlichkeit nach § 25 Abs. 2 Nr. 2 TDDDG.

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.

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

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

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:

  • Meta Platforms (Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Irland); weitere Informationen zum Datenschutz finden Sie hier.
  • X (Twitter International Unlimited Company, One Cumberland Place, Fenian Street, Dublin 2, D02 AX07, Ireland); further information on data protection can be found here.

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.

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.

Joint controllers

We are joint controllers in the following cases.

Joint controlling with Meta Platforms

When you visit our Meta Platforms fan page, we are jointly responsible with Meta Platforms for the processing of your personal data. Below we inform you about the associated data processing on our fan page, which does not affect Meta Platforms' terms of use:

Contact details of the controllers and joint controllership pursuant to Art. 26 GDPR

Joint controllers:
the entity responsible for this website (see the information about us mentioned at the beginning)
and
Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, D2 Dublin, Ireland
According to the European Court of Justice (ECJ), we are jointly responsible with Meta Platforms for the processing of your personal data.

Appearance on the Meta Platforms fan page

Scope of data collection and storage

Data Purpose Legal basis
User interactions (posts, likes, etc.) User communication via social media Art. 6 para. 1 a GDPR
Meta Platforms cookies Target group advertising Art. 6 para. 1 a GDPR
Demographic data (based on age, place of residence, language or gender information) Target group advertising Art. 6 para. 1 a GDPR
Statistical data on user interactions in aggregated form, i.e. without personal reference (e.g. page activities, page views, page previews, likes, recommendations, posts, videos, page subscriptions incl. origin, time of day) Target group advertising Art. 6 para. 1 a GDPR

The promotional use of your personal data is particularly important for Meta Platforms. We use the statistics function to find out more about the visitors to our fan page. Using this function enables us to customise our content to the respective target group. In this way, we also utilise demographic information on the age and origin of users, for example, although we are unable to make any personal reference here. In order to provide the social media service in the form of our Meta Platforms fan page and to use the Insight function, Meta Platforms generally stores cookies on the user's end device. These include session cookies, which are deleted when the browser is closed, and persistent cookies, which remain on the end device until they expire or are deleted by the user. As a user, you can use your browser settings to decide for yourself whether and which cookies you wish to allow, block or delete. You can find instructions for your browser here: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Google Chrome mobile, Microsoft Edge, Safari, Safari mobile (links). Alternatively, you can also install so-called ad blockers, such as Ghostery.

According to Meta Platforms, the cookies used by Meta Platforms are used for authentication, security, website and product integrity, advertising and measurement, website functions and services, performance, analysis and research. Details of the cookies used by Meta Platforms (e.g. names of cookies, duration of function, content collected and purpose) can be viewed here by following the links provided there. There you will also find the option of deactivating the cookies used by Meta Platforms. You can also change the settings for your advertising preferences there.

You can also object to the collection and storage of data through the use of the above-mentioned cookies by Meta Platforms at any time with effect for the future via this opt-out link.
You can use the aforementioned link to manage your preferences regarding usage-based online advertising. If you object to usage-based online advertising with a specific provider using the preference manager, this only applies to the specific business data collection via the web browser you are currently using. Preference management is cookie-based. If you delete all browser cookies, the preferences you have set with the preference manager will also be removed.

Note on Meta Platforms Insights

We use the Meta Platforms Insights function for statistical analysis purposes. In this context, we receive anonymised data on the users of our Meta Platforms fan page. However, we use the filters provided by FacebMeta Platformsook to specify the categories of data according to which Meta Platforms provides anonymised statistics. Meta Platforms provides us with the following criteria or categories for analysing the activities of the website in anonymised form, provided that the corresponding information has been provided by the user or is collected by Meta Platforms:

  • Age range
  • Gender
  • Place of residence (city and country)
  • language
  • Mobile or stationary page views (YouTube additionally individual device types)
  • Interactions in the context of posts (e.g. reactions, comments, shares, clicks, views, video usage time)
  • Time of use
    This anonymised data is used to analyse user behaviour for statistical purposes so that we can better tailor our offers to the needs and interests of our audience.

We see our legitimate interest (Art. 6 para. 1 f GDPR) for data processing in the presentation of our company and our products and services for your information.

Disclosure and use of personal data

If you interact with Meta Platforms, Meta Platforms will of course also have access to your data.

Gemeinsame Verantwortung mit X

Wenn Sie uns auf X besuchen, sind wir gemeinsam mit X für die Verarbeitung Ihrer personenbezogenen Daten verantwortlich. Nachfolgend informieren wir Sie über die damit verbundene Datenverarbeitung auf unserer Fanpage:

Kontaktdaten der Verantwortlichen und gemeinsame Verantwortlichkeit nach Art. 26 DS-GVO

Gemeinsam für die Verarbeitung Verantwortliche:
SZ GmbH (siehe eingangs erwähnte Informationen zu uns)
und
Twitter Inc., 1355 Market Street, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA
Für die Verarbeitung Ihrer personenbezogenen Daten sind wir nach Ansicht des Europäischen Gerichtshofs (EuGH) gemeinsam verantwortlich.

Auftritt auf der X-Fanpage

Umfang der Datenerhebung und –speicherung

Daten Verwendungszweck Rechtsgrundlage
Userinteraktionen (Postings, Likes, etc) Nutzerkommunikation via Social Media Art. 6 Abs. 1 f DS-GVO
X-Cookies Zielgruppen-Werbung Art. 6 Abs. 1 f DSGVO
Demografische Daten (basierend auf Alters-, Wohnort-, Sprach- oder Geschlechtsangaben) Zielgruppen-Werbung Art. 6 Abs. 1 f DSGVO
Statistische Daten zu Userinteraktionen in aggregierter Form, d.h. ohne Personenbeziehbarkeit (z.B. Seitenaktivitäten, -aufrufe, -vorschauen, Likes, Empfehlungen, Beiträge, Viedeos, Seitenabonnements inkl. Herkunft, Tageszeiten) Zielgruppen-Werbung Art. 6 Abs. 1 f DSGVO

Die werbliche Nutzung Ihrer personenbezogenen Daten steht insbesondere für X im Vordergrund. Wir nutzen die Statistikfunktion, um mehr über die Besucher unserer Fanpage zu erfahren. Die Nutzung der Funktion ermöglicht es uns, dass wir unsere Inhalte an die jeweilige Zielgruppe anpassen können. Auf diese Weise nutzen wir etwa auch die demografischen Informationen zum Alter und der Herkunft der Nutzer, wobei hier kein Personenbezug für uns möglich ist. Um den Social-Media-Dienst in Form unserer X-Fanpage bereitzustellen und die Insight-Funktion zu nutzen, speichert X in der Regel Cookies auf dem Endgerät des Nutzers. Hierzu gehören Sitzungs-Cookies, die gelöscht werden, wenn der Browser geschlossen wird, und dauerhafte Cookies, die auf dem Endgerät verbleiben, bis sie ablaufen oder vom Nutzer gelöscht werden. Als Nutzer können Sie über Ihre Browsereinstellungen selbst entscheiden, ob und welche Cookies Sie zulassen, blockieren oder löschen möchten. Eine Anleitung für Ihren Browser finden Sie hier: Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Google Chrome mobile, Microsoft Edge, Safari, Safari mobile (Verlinkungen). Alternativ können Sie auch sogenannte Ad-Blocker, wie z.B. Ghostery installieren.

Die von X verwendeten Cookies dienen lt. Angaben von X der Authentifizierung, Sicherheit, Webseiten- und Produktintegrität, Werbung und Messungen, Webseitenfunktionen und –dienste, Performance sowie der Analyse und Forschung. Einzelheiten zu den von X verwendeten Cookies (z.B. Namen der Cookies, Funktionsdauer, erfasste Inhalte und Zweck) können Sie hier einsehen. Dort finden Sie auch die Möglichkeit, die von X eingesetzten Cookies zu deaktivieren.

Der Datenerhebung und Speicherung durch die Nutzung der o.g. Cookies von X kann zusätzlich, aber auch jederzeit mit Wirkung für die Zukunft über diesen Opt-Out-Link widersprochen werden.
Unter dem vorgenannten Link können Sie Ihre Präferenzen hinsichtlich nutzungsbasierter Online-Werbung verwalten. Wenn Sie bei einem bestimmten Anbieter gegen die nutzungsbasierte Online-Werbung mit Hilfe des Präferenzmanagers Widerspruch einlegen, gilt das nur für die bestimmte Geschäftsdatenerhebung über den gerade verwendeten Web-Browser. Das Präferenzmanagement ist Cookie-basiert. Ein Löschen aller Browser-Cookies führt dazu, dass auch die Präferenzen, die Sie mit dem Präferenzmanager eingestellt haben, entfernt werden.

Weitergabe und Nutzung der personenbezogenen Daten

Soweit Sie im Rahmen von X interagieren, so hat selbstverständlich auch X Zugriff auf Ihre Daten.

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.