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Data protection

Information on data protection for using social media platforms

The German Patent and Trade Mark Office (DPMA) is strongly committed to data security on the Internet and data protection in general. The DPMA uses social media platforms to provide information about its work, get in touch with interested users and to promote the office as an employer.

However, we would like to point out that the social network services may collect personal data from users when they visit their pages, in particular by using cookies. The DPMA cannot assess to what extent the respective platform operator provides its services in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation. The DPMA can neither know which user data are collected, nor does it have access to these data or any influence on their further processing.

The DPMA may receive anonymous statistics on profile visitors and subscribers from the platform operators, however, no conclusions can be drawn from them about individual users. In particular, we cannot link the statistical data with the profile data of users. However, the DPMA may be able to see who has visited the DPMA website (e.g. if you have subscribed to a DPMA page or follow it as a “fan”), in particular the public information of your profile.

If you contact the DPMA via social media platforms (e.g. by direct messages or comments), the DPMA will process your disclosed personal data in accordance with our Data Protection Statement for the purposes of communication and our administrative activities.

In the event of new framework conditions for the social media presence of the DPMA, they will, of course, undergo a thorough examination by us. Irrespective of this, every user must carefully check which personal data he or she discloses on the various social media platforms. You can influence this by configuring your personal settings, among other things.

Please refer to the data protection policy of the respective provider for further information on the collected data, their storage and use.

Last updated: 27 March 2023