Privacy policy

The controller responsible for data processing on this website is Freie Evangeliums-Christen Gemeinde Dortmund e.V., Königsheide 44, 44536 Lünen (for contact details, see the legal notice).

This website runs on its own virtual server, which we rent from the provider OVHcloud. OVHcloud processes data on our behalf (processing under Art. 28 GDPR). To send a page to you, your IP address is technically necessary.

Our server logs every request with date and time, the requested address, the result (such as “found” or “error”) and the browser identifier, so that we can detect errors and attacks. Your IP address is not stored. These logs are deleted automatically after 14 days. Errors on the server are recorded without personal data so that we can fix them.

The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in the secure, stable and trouble-free operation of this website.

Our mailboxes (addresses @fecg-dortmund.de) are hosted by Google Workspace, a service of Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland. If you email us or use the contact form, your message is stored there. The website also sends its emails through these mailboxes, such as registration confirmations, reminders and invitations for staff. Google processes the data as a processor on our behalf (Art. 28 GDPR) and not for its own purposes.

So that nothing is lost after a fault or mistake, we back up the database of this website every night. The backups contain everything stored there, such as event registrations, staff accounts and the details for the Telegram bot. Before a backup leaves our server it is encrypted; only those responsible in the church hold the key, not Google. We keep an encrypted copy in a shared storage area of our Google Workspace account, whose content Google cannot read. We use a backup only to restore the earlier state after damage.

We delete backups on our server after 14 days and the copies at Google after 30 days; they then stay in the bin for up to 30 more days until Google removes them for good. Details that are deleted therefore remain in these encrypted backups for up to two months and then disappear on their own. If we ever have to restore a backup, we delete such details again.

With Google, data may also be transferred to the USA. Google is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, for which the European Commission has found an adequate level of protection (Art. 45 GDPR); in addition, the European Commission's standard contractual clauses apply (Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR).

The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is to receive and answer messages reliably and to protect this website's data against loss. Where emails or backups contain details of our members or of people in regular contact with the church that indicate a religious affiliation, we process them under Art. 9(2)(d) GDPR and do not disclose them outside the church.

We count how often our pages are viewed, to see which content is needed and in which language. To do this, a counter is increased on our server each time a page is viewed: for the page viewed, the language of the page, the language set in the browser, the type of device (phone/tablet or computer) and – if you come from another website – only its name (e.g. “google.com”).

Only daily totals are stored. Your IP address, your browser identifier or any identifier that recognises you are not stored for this; no cookies are set, no scripts are loaded and no information is stored on or read from your device. The statistics do not allow any conclusions about individual people. Nothing is passed on to third parties.

The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in shaping what our website offers around what people actually need.

If you contact us by email, phone or the contact form, we process your details (e.g. name, contact details, content of your message) solely to deal with your request. Nothing is passed on to third parties.

Contact form: our server sends your name, email address and message as an email to the church's inbox at Google Workspace (see “Email and backups”), with your email address as the reply-to address so we can answer you. The website itself does not store the details, neither in a database nor in logs. To prevent misuse, the server counts in memory how many messages come from one IP address; the address is dropped after about an hour and never stored permanently. The form sets no cookies and uses no third-party services (such as captchas).

The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (answering your enquiry; for the misuse protection, the security of the website). We delete the data as soon as it's no longer needed for dealing with your request and no statutory retention obligations stand in the way.

Some events, such as a conference, require registration on our website. For this we store your name, your email address, how many adults (18 and over), teens (13 to 17) and children (up to 12) are coming, the language of the page and the time of registration in the database on our server. For children we store only the number, no names and no ages; the kitchen plans the food with totals, without names. We do not ask for anything else on the website, nothing about allergies or health either. If you register over the link for the church, we note that the registration comes from the church. If the church asks for a donation, we do not record whether or how much anyone gives. If you register by phone or in person, the church enters the same details for you; anyone without an email address gives a phone number instead.

We use these details only to allocate places, keep a waiting list and email you the confirmation, the link to change or cancel, if it applies the news that a place has become free and, if the church switches it on for the event, a reminder. We use a phone number only to call you about this event. At the entrance we note that you are there. Only church staff with access to the administration area see the list of participants; it can be printed for the entrance. Nothing is passed on to third parties. The emails are sent from our mailbox at Google Workspace (see “Email and backups”).

With the link in the confirmation you can change your name and the number of adults and children, or withdraw your registration at any time; when you withdraw, your details are deleted immediately. Without a link, a message to the church is enough. We delete all other registrations for an event automatically 30 days after it ends. To prevent misuse, the server counts, as for the contact form, only in memory how many registrations come from one IP address. Registration sets no cookies.

The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (taking part in the event at your request); for the misuse protection, Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (security of the website). The note that a registration comes from the church indicates membership of the church; we process it under Art. 9(2)(d) GDPR for internal use only.

We embed videos via the privacy-friendly youtube-nocookie.com domain. These videos are only loaded after your explicit consent; only then can a connection be made to servers of Google/YouTube (including in the USA).

The legal basis is your consent under Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. You can withdraw it at any time with effect for the future, without affecting the lawfulness of the processing carried out up to then.

This website sets no tracking or marketing cookies. For the embedded YouTube videos we use a simple consent system: your decision ('Load video') is stored only locally in your browser (local storage), not on our servers. Without this consent, the video is not loaded. You can withdraw your consent at any time by deleting your browser's site data for this website.

If you use the switch in the header to choose between the light and dark theme, this choice is also stored only locally in your browser (local storage) and is not sent to us. It only affects how the site looks and contains no personal data.

If you open a page without a language in the address (such as fecg-dortmund.de/gottesdienste), we send you to the German, Russian or English version – depending on the language setting your browser sends with every page request anyway. Nothing is stored in your browser for this, not even a cookie.

We use the Onest font. It is downloaded automatically when the website is built and delivered from our own server. No connection is made to servers of Google or any other provider.

Only members of the church whose account an administrator has created use the /verwaltung area; there is no self-registration. For these accounts we store name, e-mail address and role, the password only as an irreversible hash, and the chosen second factors: public keys of passkeys, the encrypted key of an authenticator app, and recovery codes only as a hash. Invitation and password links are sent by e-mail from the church's mailbox. For internal rotas, such as who leads the Bible study, we store the names of the people assigned. The rota appears only in the administration area and in the Telegram group chosen for it, never on a public page or in the calendar.

After sign-in we set a strictly necessary session cookie. It expires after 8 hours without activity and after 24 hours at the latest. When signing in with Google, a second necessary cookie that secures the request is added for a few minutes. These cookies do not require consent (Section 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG).

To protect against password guessing we keep sign-in attempts with e-mail address, time and a hash of the IP address (never the IP address itself) for 30 days. Sign-ins and changes to accounts and content are recorded in a log that is deleted after 12 months.

The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is that only authorised staff can change the content of this website. When someone stops serving, we delete the account and its data.

Instead of a password, staff can sign in with their Google account. For this we redirect them to Google (Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland); data may be transferred to the USA. Google is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

From Google we receive only the e-mail address, the confirmation that it belongs to the Google account, and a fixed identifier of that Google account. We use this information solely for signing in: only someone whose address already exists as an account gets in, and the account is bound to this identifier. We have no access to e-mail, calendar, contacts or any other data in the Google account. We do not pass the information on and do not use it for advertising.

Signing in with Google is optional; signing in with a password works too. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Google's own privacy policy applies to processing at Google: https://policies.google.com/privacy

The church runs a bot in the Telegram messenger. It answers questions about services, dates, the livestream and directions; members confirmed by an administrator also see the programme of the next service there. Telegram is a provider based outside the EU (Dubai, United Arab Emirates); there is no adequacy decision of the EU Commission for this country. Anyone who writes to the bot uses Telegram; the processing there is governed by Telegram’s privacy policy: https://telegram.org/privacy

We store only what the bot needs: your Telegram user id (a number, not your name or username), the language you chose and whether you turned on the Saturday evening reminder. For confirmed members, the name an administrator entered when creating the invitation link and the time of linking are added. We do not store the content of your messages, neither in the database nor in logs.

The purpose is to answer your questions and, only if you turn it on, to remind you of the service. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (our legitimate interest in answering your requests), for the reminder your consent under Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. Being confirmed as a member suggests that you belong to the church; it happens only with your explicit consent (Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR), which you give in the bot with “Yes, link”. You can withdraw both consents at any time.

Deletion: with the command /stopp in the bot we delete everything about you at once. The same happens if you block the bot in Telegram. An administrator can remove a membership at any time. Invitation links work for 7 days and only once; only an irreversible hash of them is stored.

You have the right of access (Art. 15 GDPR), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18) and data portability (Art. 20).

Right to object: you can object at any time, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to processing that we base on a legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR) (Art. 21 GDPR).

Right to lodge a complaint: you can complain to a data protection supervisory authority. The authority responsible for us is the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of North Rhine-Westphalia (LDI NRW) in Düsseldorf.