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About our newsletter and permissions

The following notes are about our newsletter, its content and procedures regarding registration, distribution and statistical evaluation. They also explain your right to appeal. By subscribing to our newsletter, you agree to receive it and to the procedures described. Please note, that these notes are additional to our general privacy policy.
 

Content of the newsletter


Newsletters, emails and other electronic notifications containing advertising material (called newsletter hereafter) will only be sent out on express consent of the recipient or their permission in legal terms. If registration for the newsletter involves a concrete description of its content, then this description is the basis on which the user agrees to receive the newsletter. In addition, the newsletter contains information about the public events schedule of the Museum für Naturkunde, publications from scientific research and public relations at the Museum für Naturkunde, as well as quizzes, raffles and links to content on our website, and, occasionally, on websites of partner organisations. 

Double-opt-in and registration recording

You subscribe to our newsletter in a two-step process known as double opt-in, which means that upon registration, you will receive an email requesting confirmation of the subscription. The confirmation is required to ensure that no one else can subscribe using your email address. A record of subscriptions to the newsletter is kept to fulfil the legal requirements for recording the subscription process. The record contains the time of subscription and confirmation as well as the relevant IP address. Any changes of data registered with MailChimp will also be recorded.

Use of the MailChimp service provider

The newsletter is sent via „MailChimp“, a newsletter distribution platform by US provider Rocket Science Group, LLC, 675 Ponce De Leon Ave NE #5000, Atlanta, GA 30308, USA.
The email addresses of our newsletter recipients as well as further data that will be described in these notes will be stored on MailChimp servers in the USA. MailChimp uses this information for distributing and evaluating the newsletter on our behalf. According to information published by MailChimp, the data will be used for optimising their own services, such as technical optimisation of the distribution process or the layout of the newsletter, as well as for commercial use by determining the recipients‘ countries of residence. However, MailChimp does not use the data of our newsletter subscribers to contact them directly and does not pass them on to third parties. 

We trust the reliability and data security of MailChimp, which has been certified in line with the Privacy Shield agreement between the US and EU. This means that MailChimp will abide by the EU data protection requirements. Furthermore, we entered into a Data-Processing Agreement with MailChimp – an agreement by which MailChimp is obliged to protect the data of our users and process their data on our behalf according to its own data protection regulations laid out in the agreement, which means in particular, not to pass on data to third parties. MailChimp’s data regulations can be viewed here.
 

Registration data

In order to subscribe to the newsletter, it is sufficient to enter your email address. Please enter also your first name and surname. These are only needed to personalise your newsletter. We only need your postal address if you have opted for receiving additional information from us by post. Details about your membership in the Förderverein, sponsorship of a collection specimen or seasonal ticket subscription are for internal information only to avoid double-posting. 

Statistical data collection and analysis

Our newsletters contain what is known as a web beacon or open tracker, a tiny invisible graphic in the bottom of your HTML email. It is downloaded from Mailchimp’s server when the newsletter is opened. During the download, technical information about your browser and operating system as well as your IP address and the time of the download/opening of the newsletter are collected. These are used for technical improvement of the service, as technical data or target group data can be analysed according to their reading behaviour, their download locations (identifiable through IP addresses) or download times.   
Statistical data collection also includes an analysis of when the newsletters are opened and which links are clicked upon. Although this information technically allows the tracking of individual newsletter recipients, we are not interested in watching the behaviour of individual users. Data analysis is used to recognise patterns in the reading behaviour of users and adapt contents accordingly or send different content to individual users. 

Online access and data management

In some cases, newsletter recipients will be directed to MailChimp websites. For instance, our newsletters will have a link so that users can download the newsletter directly from the website, in case they are not properly displayed in the email program. In addition, newsletter recipients have the option of editing their data, such as email addresses online. MailChimp‘s Privacy Policy is also only available on the MailChimp website.

In this context, we would like to point out that the MailChimp webpages use cookies to process person-related data that MailChimp, their partners and service providers (e.g.. Google Analytics) are interested in. We have no influence on their data collection. For further information, look at the MailChimp‘s Privacy Policy . In addition, we would like to make you aware of the choices you have to opt out of data collection for online advertising purposes. For more information, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ and http://www.youronlinechoices.com/ (for the European Economic Area).

Unsubscribe

You can unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time, i.e. withdraw your consent. This means that your consent to sending it via MailChimp, which involves statistical analyses, is also withdrawn. The two go together and cannot be separated. The unsubscribe link is found at the bottom of each newsletter.  

Legal basis – General Data Protection Regulation

In line with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which comes into force on May 25th 2018, we notify you that your consent to passing on your email addresses is based on Art. 6 Sect. 1 lit. a, 7 GDPR as well as § 7 Abs. 2 Nr. 3, and. Abs. 3 of the German Act against Unfair Competition (Gesetz gegen den unlauteren Wettbewerb, UWG). The use of the MailChimp service provider for sending out our newsletter, including data collection and analysis and subscription recording,  is based on our legitimate interest, as defined in   Art. 6 Abs. 1 lit. f GDPR. It is in our interest to have a user-friendly, secure newsletter distribution system that will promote our business interests as well as fulfil user expectations.
 
We would also like to point out that you now have the right to object to the future processing of your person-related data within the legal requirements of Art. 21GDPR at any time. This applies in particular to data processing for direct advertising.
 

This newsletter notification was based on a  template by Rechtsanwalt Dr. Thomas Schwenke.