How we handle personal data.
This English translation is provided for convenience. Only the German version is legally binding.
Last updated: November 2026
This privacy policy explains which personal data are processed when you visit this website and when you contact us, for what purposes and on what legal basis, and what rights you have.
Alternative für Deutschland, Kreisverband Gütersloh
Address for service: AfD Kreisverband Gütersloh, c/o Manuel Golz, Lümernweg 193, 33378 Rheda-Wiedenbrück, Germany
Further postal address: Postfach 4109, 33275 Gütersloh, Germany
Email: info@afd-gt.net
Telephone: +49 1575 4791046
This website runs on a server operated by IONOS SE, Elgendorfer Straße 57, 56410 Montabaur, Germany, in a data centre in Germany. Operation and technical support are provided by a technical service provider commissioned by us. Data processing agreements pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR are in place or are being concluded with the parties involved. No data are transferred to countries outside the European Union.
Each time this website is accessed, the web server automatically processes the following access data:
This processing is technically necessary to deliver the website and serves operational security, in particular detecting and defending against attacks and analysing errors. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. The logs are deleted automatically after 7 days. They are kept for longer only where a specific security incident needs to be investigated, and only for that purpose. The data are not combined with any other data.
When you visit the public pages, no cookies are set and no information is stored on or read from your device unless it is strictly necessary to deliver the page. Consent under § 25(1) TDDDG (German Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act) is therefore not required. A short note informs you about this on your first visit. If you close it with “Got it”, your browser only remembers this choice in its local storage (entry “afd-hinweis”) so that the note does not appear again. This entry is never sent to us or to third parties and is required for the function you requested (§ 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG). The same applies if you switch on “Larger text” or “High contrast” at the top of the page: your browser remembers this display setting locally (entry “a11y”) so that it is kept on every page. Neither entry is transmitted. You can delete them at any time in your browser settings.
The exception is the non-public editorial area. There we set technically necessary session cookies for logged-in editors, which keep them signed in and protect forms against misuse (§ 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG, Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). They become invalid when the editor logs out or the session expires.
To find out which content is read and how visitors find us, we count page views. For this purpose, when you open a page your browser sends its address, the previously visited page (referrer) and, where applicable, a tag in the link (for example for QR codes on leaflets).
We store only a counter per day, page and type of source (for example “search engine”, “Facebook”, “QR code” or “direct”). The full referring address, your IP address, an identifier or any other characteristic that would allow conclusions to be drawn about you or your device are not stored. To limit misuse, the IP address is processed only as a non-reversible hash value for no longer than one minute. Counting takes place on our own server; no data are passed on to third parties.
The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in improving our website and assessing the effect of our public relations work.
If you write to us using the contact form, we process the data you enter: your name, email address, subject and message, and, if you choose to provide them, your town and telephone number.
Special category of data: As you are contacting a political party, your message may allow conclusions to be drawn about your political opinions. Such data are specially protected under Art. 9 GDPR. We therefore process them only with your explicit consent, which you give in the form (Art. 6(1)(a) and Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR). If your enquiry concerns membership or regular involvement, the processing is also permitted under Art. 6(1)(b) and Art. 9(2)(d) GDPR.
Purpose and recipients: Your details are used solely to deal with your enquiry and are forwarded to the relevant contacts in the district association or in the local branch for your town. They are not passed on to any third party outside the party. You will receive an automatic confirmation of receipt at the email address you provided. Replies from our editorial system are also sent to this address.
Protection against misuse: To fend off automated spam, your browser solves a small computational task in the background; no personal data are processed in doing so. We also check whether the domain of your email address can receive email (DNS lookup). We do not store your IP address in plain text, only as a non-reversible hash value so that repeated misuse can be detected. No third-party CAPTCHA service is used.
Storage period: Messages are deleted automatically from the editorial system after 180 days, and from the email inbox once the enquiry has been dealt with. If you withdraw your consent, we will delete your data without delay unless we are legally required to retain them.
Withdrawal of consent: You can withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future, for example by email to info@afd-gt.net. This does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.
If you contact us directly by email or telephone, we process your details in order to deal with your enquiry. Section 7 applies accordingly to the legal bases and storage period; here the processing of political opinions is based on Art. 9(2)(d) GDPR or on data that you have manifestly made public yourself.
Our email inbox is operated by STRATO AG, Otto-Ostrowski-Straße 7, 10249 Berlin, Germany. All emails sent by the website are also delivered via this provider, such as notifications and confirmations for the contact form and replies from our editorial system. A data processing agreement pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR is in place or is being concluded with the provider.
Membership application: Applications for membership are submitted via the website of the federal party (afd.de). The federal party’s privacy policy applies to the data processing there. Once an application has been received, the district association processes the details to carry out the admission procedure in accordance with the party statutes (Art. 6(1)(b) and Art. 9(2)(d) GDPR).
Donations: If you donate by bank transfer, we receive the payment details (name, bank details, amount, payment reference and, if you would like a donation receipt, your address). We process these to issue the donation receipt and to meet our legal obligations under the German Political Parties Act (Parteiengesetz) and tax law (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR). Accounting records are kept for ten years in line with the statutory retention periods. Under § 25(3) of the Political Parties Act, donations whose total value exceeds €10,000 in a calendar year must be published in the party’s statement of accounts, stating the donor’s name and address.
We send press releases by email to editorial offices and journalists. For this we process names, media outlets and business email addresses. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; our legitimate interest lies in informing the public about our work. You can object to receiving them at any time; a short reply to a press release is sufficient.
For people with editorial access, we process their name, email address, role, assigned town, a profile picture if provided, an encrypted secret for optional two-factor authentication and the content they create. This processing serves the administration of the website (Art. 6(1)(b) and (f) GDPR). The data are deleted once the access is no longer needed.
To protect these accounts, we log sign-in attempts with time, IP address and device type (browser and operating system). If someone signs in from a device not seen before, the person concerned receives a notification email. Changes to content are recorded in a change log with time, person and IP address. The change log is deleted after 30 days, the sign-in history and the list of known devices after three months. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR in conjunction with Art. 32 GDPR; our legitimate interest lies in protection against unauthorised access and in being able to trace changes.
This website contains links to other websites, for example to our pages on Facebook, Instagram and X, to the federal party’s YouTube channel, to the federal party and its partner organisations and to the council information systems of the local authorities. The buttons for sharing a post (via WhatsApp or Telegram) are also simple links. Merely visiting our website does not transfer any data to these providers. Only when you click a link do you leave our website; the respective provider is then responsible for any further processing.
To protect against data loss, the website’s database, which also contains messages from the contact form, and the uploaded images are backed up daily. The backups are kept on the same server outside the publicly accessible area. Only the most recent backup is retained; the previous one is deleted as soon as the new one has been created. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR in conjunction with Art. 32 GDPR.
Under the GDPR, you have the right of access (Art. 15), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18) and data portability (Art. 20). You can withdraw any consent you have given at any time with effect for the future (Art. 7(3)).
Right to object: Where we process data on the basis of Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, you may object at any time on grounds relating to your particular situation (Art. 21 GDPR). We will then no longer process the data unless there are compelling legitimate grounds for doing so.
To exercise your rights, an informal message to info@afd-gt.net or to the postal address above is sufficient.
You may lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority if you believe that the processing of your data infringes data protection law. The competent authority is the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of North Rhine-Westphalia (Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit Nordrhein-Westfalen), Kavalleriestraße 2–4, 40213 Düsseldorf, Germany, www.ldi.nrw.de.
Data transmitted between your browser and our server are encrypted (TLS). The editorial area can only be accessed with a personal password; two-factor authentication can be set up in addition. We continuously adapt our technical and organisational measures to the state of the art.
We will update this privacy policy if the website or the legal situation changes. The version published here at any given time applies.
