Privacy Policy

Thank you for your interest in our website and our services. For us, data is the basis for excellent service. However, our most important asset is the trust of our customers. Protecting customer data and using it only in the way our customers expect, is our number one priority. The following privacy notice is therefore intended to inform you about the processing of your personal data and your rights in this processing in accordance with the European General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR") and other applicable data protection regulations.

1. General information

1.1 Responsible for the operation of this website is METRO AG, Metro-Straße 1, 40235 Duesseldorf, Germany (hereinafter "METRO", "we" or "us").

1.2 If you have any questions about privacy and data protection, you can contact our data protection officer using the following contact details: METRO AG, Data Protection Officer, Metro-Straße 1, 40235 Duesseldorf, Germany, email: datenschutz@metro.de.

1.3 This privacy policy explains how we collect, process and use personal data in connection with the provision of our website. Personal data are individual details about your personal or factual circumstances. We process your personal data that we collect, store and use exclusively within the framework of the applicable legal regulations.

1.4 We have taken appropriate technical measures to ensure that your data is protected against unauthorized disclosure, unlawful use, alteration and destruction. METRO employees are required to comply with data protection regulations when handling (personal) data.

2. Processing of Personal Data and Transfer to Third Parties

2.1 Some personal data is collected automatically via your device (computer, mobile phone, tablet, etc.) when you use our website. The IP address currently used by your device, date and time, the typ of browser and operating system of your device and the pages accessed are recorded. This is done for the purposes of data security and to optimise our offer as well as to improve our website. Any other analysis, with the exception of statistical purposes, and that always in anonymous form, is only carried out within the scope of this privacy policy. This personal data is processed on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 s. 1 lit. f) GDPR. The protection of our website and the optimisation of our services constitute a legitimate interest of METRO.

2.2 If you contact us (for example via a contact form), we only collect, process and use the personal data that you have made available to us and that is necessary to process and respond to your enquiry. Legal basis for the processing is Art. 6 para. 1 s. 1 lit. b) GDPR.

2.3 You can register for our information offer via a separate form. Based on the selection of your search criteria, an individual information offer will be created. Upon entering your e-mail address and your consent to the use of your data, we will send you the information offer regularly to this address. The sending of our information takes place only with your consent and is based on Art. 6 para. 1 s. 1 lit. a) GDPR. You can opt out of receiving the information at any time via the respective link at the bottom of each message that you receive from us.

2.4 In order to enable the data processing procedures mentioned in this privacy policy, we use service providers as data processors within the meaning of Art. 28 GDPR, for example service providers for sending e-mails, maintenance and other services. These are both external service providers and service providers within METRO located in countries within and eventually outside the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). Through contractual arrangements, we ensure that these service providers process personal data in accordance with the GDPR in order to guarantee a high level of privacy, even if personal data is transferred to a country with a different level of data protection for which no adequacy decision by the EU Commission exists. No further transmission of personal data to other recipients takes place unless we are legally obliged to do so. For more information on appropriate security measures for international data transfer or a copy thereof, please contact our data protection officer.

3. Cookies

We use so-called cookies to make our services attractive to visitors and to enable the use of certain functions. These are small text files that are stored on your device. Some of the cookies we use are deleted after the end of the browser session, i.e. after closing your browser (so-called session cookies). Other cookies remain on your device and enable us to recognise your browser on your next visit (persistent cookies). You can configure your browser so that you are notified when you receive a cookie and you can decide on an individual basis if you want to accept them; you can also refuse cookies for certain cases or generally refuse them. For more information, see the help section of your browser. If you do not accept cookies, the functionality of our website may be limited. By accepting the respective categories in our "cookie banner" or on the cookie selection site, you also agree to the processing of your personal data through cookies. This personal data is processed on the basis of Art. 6 para. 1 s. 1 lit. a) GDPR. To learn more about cookies and other possible web tracking tools and the choices you have in this regard, please visit: http://youronlinechoices.eu/ (for users in the European Union).

4. Individual Services

4.1 Matomo: If you have activated performance/statistics cookies, we use the software "Matomo" (www.matomo.org) on this website, a service of the provider InnoCraft Ltd, 150 Willis St, 6011 Wellington, New Zealand. The software sets a cookie (a text file) on your computer, with which your browser can be recognized. If sub-pages of our website are called up, the user's IP address, shortened by the last two bytes (anonymized), the sub-page called up and the time of the call-up, the page from which the user reached our website (referrer), which browser with which plug-ins, which operating system and which screen resolution is used, the time spent on the website and the pages accessed from the sub-page called up are saved.

The processing of the data is based on Art. 6 para. 1 s. 1 lit. a) GDPR. You can revoke your consent at any time by deleting the cookies in your browser or changing your cookie settings.

For more information on the processing of data by Matomo, please visit: https://matomo.org/privacy/.

4.2 Google Analytics: If you have activated performance/statistics cookies, this website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland ("Google"). Google Analytics uses "cookies", which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website will usually be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States.

In the event that IP anonymization is activated on this website, however, your IP address will be truncated beforehand by Google within member states of the European Union or in other contracting states to the Agreement on the European Economic Area. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and shortened there. We use Google Analytics to analyze and regularly improve the use of our website. The statistics obtained enable us to improve our offer and make it more interesting for you as a user.

On behalf of METRO as operator of this website, Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage to the website operator.

The IP address transmitted by your browser as part of Google Analytics will not be merged with other data from Google. The data sent by us and linked to cookies, user IDs (e.g. user ID) or advertising IDs are automatically deleted after 14 months. The deletion of data whose retention period has been reached takes place automatically once a month.

You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that, if you do this, you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. You can also prevent the collection of data generated by the cookie and related to your use of the website (including your IP address) to Google and the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available at the following link: http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=en.

This website uses Google Analytics with the extension "_anonymizeIp()". This means that IP addresses are processed in a shortened form, thus excluding the possibility of personal references. Insofar as the data collected about you is related to a person, this is therefore immediately excluded and the personal data is thus immediately deleted.

We use Google Analytics to analyze and regularly improve the use of our website. The statistics obtained enable us to improve our offer and make it more interesting for you as a user. The legal basis for the use of Google Analytics is your consent pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 s. 1 lit. a) GDPR. Your consent can be revoked at any time with effect for the future and without giving reasons by contacting us as set out above. Any processing up to the time of the revocation remains unaffected.

4.3 Google Tag Manager: We use the service called Google Tag Manager from Google Ireland Limited ("Google"), Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland. We have concluded a data processing agreement with Google. In addition, so-called standard contractual clauses pursuant to Art. 46 GDPR have been established with Google as appropriate safeguards.

The Google Tag Manager is an auxiliary service and itself processes personal data only for technically necessary purposes. The Google Tag Manager takes care of loading other components, which by themselves may collect data. The Google Tag Manager does not access this data. If a deactivation has been made at domain or cookie level, this remains in place for all components that have been integrated with the Google Tag Manager.

It is in our legitimate interest to optimize the use of our website and to be able to integrate appropriate components for this purpose. The processing of your data is therefore based on Art. 6 para. 1 s. 1 lit. f) GDPR.

For more information on Google Tag Manager, please see Google's privacy policy: https://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy/

 Special data protection information for the company's social media channels can be found at https://www.metroag.de/en/data-privacy/social-media

5. Chatbot

Our website uses a chatbot provided by Zendesk Inc, 989 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA. When you activate the chatbot by starting the chat, a user ID is generated to provide the service. To this ID, the content of your input as well as the chatbot's responses are stored.

Participation in a chat is voluntary and possible without registration. You alone decide which personal data you disclose about yourself during the chat. However, you do not have to provide your name. The data you provide will be processed exclusively for the purpose of responding to your inquiries and quality assurance. There is no linking of the chat history with a specific application.

The legal basis for the processing is Art. 6 para. 1 s. 1 lit. b) GDPR or, in the case of quality assurance, Art. 6 para. 1 s. 1 lit. f) DSGVO. As far as possible, we will anonymize your input for the purpose of quality assurance. If this cannot be done, we have a legitimate interest in processing the collected data which is the continuous improvement of our service.

6. Provision of personal data and retention periods

The provision of your personal data is voluntary. You are not legally obliged to make your personal data available to us. If you choose not to make your personal data available to us, this has no consequences for you, except that you may eventually not be able to use our services. Personal data that you make available to us via our website will only be stored until the purpose for which it was processed has been fulfilled, until you tell us to delete your data or there is a statutory retention period. If the processing of your data is based on consent, we will delete your data if you withdraw your consent, unless we are required by law to retain the personal data.

7. Your rights

to exercise your rights under the GDPR to

·       obtain information about the processing of your personal data and a copy of this data (Art. 15 GDPR),

·       rectification of inaccurate and completion of incomplete personal data (Art. 16 GDPR),

·       erasure of your personal data and, if these have been made public, that METRO informs other controllers about the erasure request (Art. 17 GDPR),

·       restriction of processing of your personal data (Art. 18 GDPR),

·       data portability, so that your personal data is transmitted to you in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and the right to transmit this data to another controller without any hindrance from METRO (Art. 20 GDPR),

·       withdrawal of consent given; the withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal (Art. 7 GDPR) and

·       object to processing of your data (Art. 21 GDPR), you can contact METRO’s Data Protection Officer at any time. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority if you consider the data processing to be incompatible with the GDPR (Art. 77 GDPR).

Competent supervisory authority:

State Commissioner for Data Protection and Information Security of North Rhine-Westphalia (Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationssicherheit Nordrhein-Westfalen)
Home address: Kavalleriestraße 2-4, 40213 Duesseldorf, Germany
Postal address: Postfach 20 04 44, 40102 Duesseldorf, Germany
Telephone: +49 (0) 211 / 384 24 – 0
Fax: +49 (0) 211 /384 24 – 10
E-mail: poststelle@lfdi.nrw.de
Website: www.ldi.nrw.de

If your personal data is processed on the basis of legitimate interests pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 s. 1 lit. f) GDPR, you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data pursuant to Art. 21 GDPR, provided that there are grounds for doing so that arise from your particular situation. If you wish to exercise your right to object, simply send an e-mail to METRO's Data Protection Officer (see above).

8. Updates

We reserve the right to update this data protection notice from time to time. Updates to this data protection notice will be posted on our website.

 Last amended: August 2022