Privacy policy

  1. Name and contact details of the responsible party
    HELP International e. V.
    Wislader Weg 9
    58513 Lüdenscheid
    Tel +49 (0 23 51) 2 00 49
  2. Contact details of the data protection officer
  3. What rights do you have?
    - Right to access (Art. 15 GDPR)
    - Right to rectification (Art. 16 GDPR)
    - Right to erasure (Art. 17 GDPR)
    - Right to restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR)
    - Right to data portability (Art. 20 GDPR)
    - Right to object to processing (Art. 21 GDPR)
    - Right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR)
    - Right to revoke your consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of the processing carried out on the basis of the consent up to the revocation.
  4. Information on data processing related to our website
    1) Visiting our website
    When you visit our website for informational purposes only, i.e., if you do not otherwise provide us with information, we only process the personal data that your browser transmits to us. This includes:

    – The domain you accessed.
    – Your system's IP address,
    – The website from which the request comes (so-called "referrer"),
    – Your user-agent (type, version, operating system used),
    – Date and time (including time zone) of your request,
    – Access status (HTTP status code) of our server

    The aforementioned data is technically necessary for us to display our website, ensure stability and security, and optimize our services.

    The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, whereby our legitimate interest arises from the purposes mentioned above.

    We delete this data after seven days at the latest. Any storage beyond this period only occurs if the personal data is deleted or anonymized accordingly; for example, IP addresses are shortened in a privacy-compliant manner.

    We use IONOS SE, Elgendorfer Str. 57, 56410 Montabaur, as a data processor to operate our website.

    2) Cookies

    Please activate Javascript to see the list of all declared cookies and similar technologies.


    3) Contact form
    When you use our contact form, we process the data you provide, with only a valid email address being required; other information is voluntary, to respond to your inquiry.

    Data processing for the purpose of contacting us is based on Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR, provided your inquiry relates to the performance or execution of contracts concluded with you or the initiation of a contract. In other cases, the legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, whereby our legitimate interest arises from the purposes mentioned above.

    The personal data collected for the use of the contact form will be automatically deleted after we process your inquiry unless we are legally obliged to retain it or require the data to fulfill a contract.

    4) Email contact
    If you contact us by email, we store the personal data you provide to respond to your inquiry.

    During the transport and delivery of your email, log data is typically generated, which may include the IP address of the email server you use. These log data are necessary to ensure the proper operation of our email server and serve as evidence in case of server issues or security incidents.

    The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, with our legitimate interest arising from the purposes mentioned above. If the contact aims to conclude a contract or is made within an existing contractual relationship, the legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

    The data will be deleted once the inquiry is fully processed unless we are legally required to retain it or need the data to fulfill a contract. Log data on our email server is deleted after seven days at the latest.

    5) Newsletter (CleverReach)
    If you subscribe to our newsletter, we process the data you provide (e.g., your email address and optionally your name) to regularly send you information about our offers, promotions, and news.

    We use CleverReach, provided by CleverReach GmbH & Co. KG, Mühlenstr. 43, 26180 Rastede, Germany, to send our newsletters. Your data is transmitted to CleverReach via an API and stored there to enable the sending and analysis of the newsletter. CleverReach processes this data exclusively on our behalf and in compliance with contractual agreements and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

    Legal basis
    The processing is based on your consent pursuant to Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. You can revoke your consent at any time by using the unsubscribe link in each newsletter or by contacting us directly.

    Analysis and performance measurement
    As part of the newsletter distribution, we analyze how often the newsletter is opened and which links are clicked. We use this data to improve our content.

    Data transfer to third countries
    If CleverReach transfers data to a third country, this is based on appropriate safeguards implemented by CleverReach (e.g., EU standard contractual clauses). For more information, please refer to the privacy policy of CleverReach.

    6) Donation form (HTML form integration)
    For donations to projects and associations, we use PayPal as a payment service provider. If you use our donation form, we transmit the data you provide (e.g., name, donation amount, purpose) to PayPal to process the payment.

    PayPal is operated by PayPal (Europe) S.à.r.l. et Cie, S.C.A., 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg. PayPal processes this data as an independent controller under PayPal's privacy policy, which you can view at https://www.paypal.com/de/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full.

    Data transmission is based on Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (contract performance). Without providing your data, the payment cannot be processed.

    7) Donation button (browser window with PayPal website)
    For donations to staff members, clicking the respective button opens an external browser window where the payment is processed directly through PayPal. No data is transmitted from our website to PayPal in this process.

    The payment processing occurs solely on PayPal's platform, operated by PayPal (Europe) S.à.r.l. et Cie, S.C.A., 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg. For more information on data processing by PayPal, please refer to their privacy policy at https://www.paypal.com/de/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full.

    8) General notes on PayPal
    We point out that PayPal processes data as an independent controller. Data processing by PayPal is governed by their terms of use and privacy policy, over which we have no influence.

    9) Facebook
    We operate a Facebook page to draw attention to our products and services and to interact with you. For its operation, we share joint responsibility with Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland.

    We point out that Facebook collects information such as your IP address and other usage data when visiting our Facebook page. This information is used to provide us with statistics about the usage of the Facebook page. The data collected in this context is processed by Facebook Ltd. and may be transferred to countries outside the European Union, particularly the United States. This transfer and further processing in these countries may involve risks that we cannot assess or exclude as the page operator. Facebook provides only general information about the data it collects and how it uses it. The specific purposes, extent, and retention periods of the data processing are not fully disclosed to us. However, it is assumed that Facebook uses the data for advertising, creating user profiles, and market research.

    If you are logged into Facebook when visiting our page, Facebook can associate your activities with your account, possibly across websites. Based on this data, tailored content or advertising can be provided to you. To avoid this, log out of Facebook, disable the "stay logged in" feature, delete the cookies on your device, and restart your browser. This way, Facebook's information that can directly identify you is deleted, allowing you to use our Facebook page without revealing your Facebook identity. However, accessing interactive features (like, comment, share, messages, etc.) will prompt a Facebook login screen, at which point Facebook will again recognize you as a user.

    For more information about data processing by Facebook, refer to Facebook's privacy policy at https://www.facebook.com/privacy/explanation. For details about the data we receive, contact us or Meta Platforms Ireland Limited directly. For questions about Facebook's processing of your data, please contact Meta Platforms Ireland Limited directly.

    Legal basis
    The processing is based on our legitimate interest in improving our online presence (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). The statistical analysis of user behavior on our Facebook page is our legitimate interest. You can object to data processing at any time by contacting Meta Platforms Ireland Limited or us.

    Information
    Meta Platforms Ireland Limited shares responsibilities for this processing with us under the "Page Insights Controller Addendum" agreement, which you can view at https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms/page_controller_addendum. This defines the data processing purposes and responsibilities for the creation of Page Insights statistics.