We have put in place technical and organizational safeguards to ensure that we and our external service providers comply with the data protection provisions.

Personal data

It is not necessary to submit any personal information in order to use the websites of the Federal Ministry of the Interior.

What are personal data? Personal data means information (e.g. name, address, telephone number) that can be used to identify users. This does not include information that is not related to a user’s identity (e.g. number of users of a website).

Data collection and storage

When you contact us via the online form or e-mail, your data will be used for our correspondence with you, and we assume that you expect us to reply via e-mail. If you do not want a reply via e-mail, please indicate how you wish to communicate with us.

The information provided through the contact form is transmitted via an encrypted https connection.

Communication via e-mail may be less secure. For example, savvy Internet users may intercept and read e-mails sent to the BMI.

In addition to the data you entered, information submitted via the contact form will also include your IP address. This also happens when you send an ordinary e-mail. Before submitting the contact form, you will be asked to consent to the transmission and storage of your IP address. The IP address will be used only if needed for law enforcement and threat prevention purposes on the basis of applicable law.

Queries submitted by the public in electronic and paper form are retained in compliance with the retention schedules specified in the Registry Directive supplementary to the Joint Rules of Procedure of the Federal Ministries (GGO).

When ordering informational material or brochures you will be asked for your name and other personal information. Users are free to decide whether they want to share these data. Your data are stored on specially protected servers in Germany. Only a few authorized persons have access to these servers for carrying out technical and administrative maintenance.

Every time someone accesses our servers, data are collected for statistical and security purposes. These data, which are stored only for a limited time, include the IP address of your Internet service provider, date and time of access, and the specific target URL. These data are used exclusively to improve the BMI’s Internet service and are evaluated in a way that cannot be traced back to the users. In case of serious violations of its terms of use and of unlawful access or attempted access to its servers, the BMI nevertheless reserves the right to use individual data records to track personal information.

Sharing personal data with third parties

Data collected upon access to the website of the Federal Ministry of the Interior will be transmitted to third parties only if a law or court ruling obliges the BMI to do so, or if transmission is necessary for prosecution or law enforcement purposes in case of attacks on the BMI’s Internet infrastructure. Data are not shared for any other non-commercial or commercial purposes.

If you order anything from our website, the information you submit will be transmitted only to the company which will process your order and solely for this purpose. The personal data will not be transmitted to any other party.

Use of cookies

Cookies are used on the pages for ordering our brochures and where banners are displayed. These cookies are valid for the time you visit our website. This is necessary for the shopping cart feature and for displaying the banners. Most browsers accept cookies by default. However, storage of cookies can be disabled, or the browser can be set up to store cookies only for the period of the individual Internet connection.

Protection of minors

Anyone younger than 18 should not submit personal data to us without the consent of their parents or guardians. We do not request personal data from children and adolescents. We neither intentionally collect such data nor share them with third parties.

Privacy policy for social media

The Federal Ministry of the Interior takes the current discussion of data protection in social networks very seriously. Whether and to what extent all networks offer their services in accordance with European data protection law has not yet been fully assessed.

Therefore, we explicitly point out that the services Twitter and YouTube – also used by the BMI – store and use their users’ data (e.g. personal information, IP addresses, etc.) for business purposes in line with their privacy policies.
The BMI cannot influence the collection and further use of data by these social networks. Therefore, it is not aware of how many, where and for how long data are stored, whether the networks comply with their obligation to delete data, how the data are analysed and connected and with whom the data are shared.

Amendments of the privacy policy

Amending this privacy policy may become necessary as our website (technology) continues to develop. Therefore, we recommend that you read this privacy policy from time to time.

Beauftragter für den Datenschutz im BMI
Alexander Bröhl
Bundesministerium des Innern
Bundesallee 216-218
10719 Berlin
Tel.: 030186814607
E-Mail: alexander.broehl@bmi.bund.de