Data protection regarding Social Media

Information on data processing pursuant to Art. 14 GDPR

The Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e.V. (MPG) takes the protection of your personal data very seriously. We process personal data that is collected when you visit our social media pages in compliance with the currently valid provisions under data protection law.

We neither publish nor disclose your data to any unauthorised third parties. In the following, we would like to inform you about the data we record, how it is processed and what rights you have in this regard. As the controller for these pages, we have entered into legally binding agreements with the operators of the respective social media platforms, which govern the terms of page usage. The terms of use of the respective operator, as well as the other conditions and guidelines listed at the end, are authoritative.

1.    Use of insights and cookies

The operators of the social media platforms also provide us with usage statistics (so-called analysis services or page insights data) for our pages on the social media platforms. These statistics are based on the actions and interactions of our followers (for example likes, shares, comments, etc., the number of followers, access data for specific page areas, the reach of a post, as well as demographic statistics about followers, including age, language, origin or interests). These statistics help us to:

  • Engage with our followers and interested parties,
  • Understand the use and reach of our posts,
  • Evaluate content and to identify usage preferences,
  • Tailor our pages on the social media platforms to be as target-group-oriented as possible.

Please note that we have no influence on or access to the creation and processing of these usage statistics and the underlying data, which is the sole responsibility of the operator of the respective social media platform.

The information stored in the cookies is received, recorded. and processed by the operator of the respective social media platforms. This also includes services provided by the operator or operator group of social media platforms, as well as services provided by other companies that use the social media platforms and that are visited by the user. In addition, other entities such as partners or third parties on the social media platforms may also use cookies to provide services to the companies advertising on these platforms. For more detailed information on the use of cookies by the operators, please refer to their cookie policy.  

2.    Purposes of the data processing

The data you enter on our pages on social media platforms, such as comments, questions, videos, images, likes, public messages, job preferences and selection, etc., are published by the operator of the social media platform. This data is only used or processed by us for the purposes stated below. We reserve the right to delete content should this be necessary. Additionally, we may share your content on our site and communicate with you through the platform as part of our engagement activities.

On the websites operated by us, you will find links to other social media platforms. You can recognise these links by the respective company logos. When you click on a link to a social media platform, a connection to the servers of the social media platform is established. This will transmit information indicating that you have visited our website. In addition, further data is transferred to the provider of the social media platform. This data may include, for example:

  • Address of the website on which the activated link is located
  • Date and time of accessing the website or activating the link
  • Information about the browser and operating system used
  • IP address

If you are already logged in on the relevant social media platform when you activate the link, the provider of this social media platform may be able to determine your username and possibly even your real name from the transmitted data and assign this information to your personal user account with the social media platform. You can exclude this possibility of assignment to your personal user account if you log out of your user account beforehand.

Establishing contact

You can contact us through our pages on social media platforms. We process your data to respond to your enquiry and, if necessary, to send you the requested information materials. Your data may be transmitted to the office responsible for handling your request, which could include third parties. Data will only be transferred if authorised under data protection law.

If you send us an enquiry on social media platforms, we may also refer you to other, secure communication channels that guarantee confidentiality, depending on the required response.

You always have the option of sending us confidential enquiries to the address provided in our legal notice.

Statistical analyses

The purpose of processing this information is to enable us, as the operator of the social media page, to obtain statistics (so-called page insights data) generated by the social media platform operator  based on visits to our site. This allows us to gain insights into the profiles of visitors who like our page or use applications on the page, enabling us to provide more relevant content and develop functions that may be of greater interest to them.
To better understand how we can reach our interested users, demographic and geographical analyses are created based on the information collected and made available to us. This allows us to offer targeted, interest-based content without gaining direct knowledge of the visitor's identity. Additionally, if visitors use social media platforms on multiple devices, the data can be recorded and analysed across devices if the visitors are registered and logged into their own profiles.

The compiled visitor statistics are only transmitted to us in anonymised form. We do not have access to the underlying data.

For further information on the processing of your personal data by the operators of the respective social media platforms as part of the creation and processing of usage statistics, please refer to the information on usage statistics provided on the following websites of the respective social media platforms:

No statistics are compiled for the Mastodon social media platform. Similarly, no statistics are compiled for Platform X and Xing.

3.    Legal basis of data processing

We operate these social media pages to present ourselves to users and other interested persons who visit our pages and to communicate with them. The processing of users' personal data is based on our legitimate interests in an optimised company and product presentation (Art. 6 para 1 letter f GDPR).

4.    Data recipients and categories of data recipients

We do not pass on data to third parties.

The servers of the social media platforms are located in the USA and other countries outside the European Union. The data may therefore also be processed by the provider of the social media platform in countries outside the European Union. Please note that companies in these countries are subject to data protection laws that may not offer the same level of protection for personal data as is the case in the Member States of the European Union.

Please note that we have no control over the scope, type, and purpose of data processing by the provider of the respective social media platforms. For more information on the use of your data by the social media platforms integrated on our website, please refer to the privacy policy of the respective social media platform:

5.    Duration of storage

We do not store data.

6.    General information

6.1.    Contact details of the controller

The controller as defined by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as well as other data protection laws and provisions under data protection legislation is:

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e.V. (MPG)
Hofgartenstraße 8
D-80539 Munich
Phone: +49 (89) 2108-0
Contact form: https://www.mpg.de/kontakt/anfragen
Internet: https://www.mpg.de

as the operator of the following social media websites:

As the operator of these pages, we, the Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften e.V., are jointly responsible with the operator of the respective social media platform within the meaning of Art. 4 No. 7 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

  • Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd. (Facebook, Instagram)
  • Google Ireland Ltd. (YouTube)
  • LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company (LinkedIn)
  • X Corp. (X)

Until further notice, the MPG is using the Mastodon instance https://wisskom.social of Informationsdienst Wissenschaft (idw) (address: Richard-Wagner-Str. 36, 95444 Bayreuth, e-mail: service@idw-online.de, Internet: https://idw-online.de/de/) 

6.2.    Contact details of the Data Protection Officer

The controller's Data Protection Officer is

MPG Data Protection Officer
Hofgartenstraße 8
D-80539 Munich
Phone: +49 (89) 2108-1554

6.3.    Rights of data subjects

As a data subject whose personal data is collected in connection with the above-mentioned services, you have the following fundamental rights, unless legal exceptions apply in individual cases:

  • Information (Art. 15 GDPR)
  • Rectification (Art. 16 GDPR)
  • Deletion (Art. 17 para 1 GDPR)
  • Restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR)
  • Data portability (Art. 20 GDPR)
  • Objection to processing (Art. 21 GDPR)
  • Withdrawal of consent (Art. 7 para 3 GDPR)
  • Right of appeal to a data protection authority (Art. 77 GDPR). For the MPG, this is the Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision, Postfach 1349, 91504 Ansbach

7.    Source of data

The data is not collected directly from the data subjects but is instead provided by the operators of the social media platforms.

  • Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd. (Facebook, Instagram)
  • Google Ireland Ltd. (YouTube)
  • LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company (LinkedIn)
  • X Corp. (X)
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