Privacy Policy

We take the protection of your personal data seriously. This privacy policy explains what happens to your personal information when you visit our website, contact us or use our services.

This policy has been prepared in accordance with the European Union General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG). The following information explains what data is collected, how it is used, and what rights you have.

Data controller: Sabah Ülkesi Kultur Sanat e.V. (Sabah Ülkesi Culture & Art Association)

Address: Colonia-Allee 3, D-51067 Köln, Germany

Phone: +49 221 492 240 – 141

Email: ks@sabahulkesi.org

Authorised representative: Ünal Ünalan (Chairman)

Register: Amtsgericht Köln, VR-Nr. [Register number]

Data automatically collected when visiting our website: Browser type and version, operating system used, referrer URL (which site you came from), pages accessed, date and time of access, IP address, internet service provider, device information (screen resolution, device type).

This data is required to ensure the secure and reliable operation of the website, to detect technical problems and to prevent security breaches. The IP address is stored temporarily and automatically deleted after the expiry of legal retention periods.

Cookie consents: When you set your cookie preferences, we store the following data to prove consent (GDPR Art. 7(1)): consent timestamp, anonymized IP address (last octet removed), User-Agent (browser type), consent status (accepted/rejected) and your cookie preferences (essential, analytics, thirdParty). This data is stored server-side in encrypted files and is used solely to prove lawful consent. The IP address is stored in anonymized form (e.g. 192.168.1.0 instead of 192.168.1.123).

Data collected through forms: Information you provide through course application forms, contact forms or other forms (name, surname, email address, phone number, date of birth, message content).

This data is used to process your request, communicate with you and provide our services. Form data is stored until your request is completed and then deleted in accordance with legal retention periods.

Email communication: Emails you send to us, your email address and message content are stored. This data is retained in accordance with legal retention periods (e.g. 6 years for business letters).

Data processing is carried out on the basis of the following legal grounds:

GDPR Art. 6(1)(a): Consent – for forms and cookie consent

GDPR Art. 6(1)(b): Contract performance – for providing services and processing requests

GDPR Art. 6(1)(f): Legitimate interest – for website security, technical functionality and improvements

GDPR Art. 6(1)(c): Legal obligation – for business letters and tax records

Personal data is stored only as long as necessary for the respective purpose:

Website log files: Maximum 7 days, may be stored longer in case of security breaches

Form data: 3 years after completion of request processing

Email communication: 6 years for business letters (HGB §257), 3 years for other emails

Cookie consents (server-side): 3 years after the last consent or withdrawal. This retention period is required to comply with the proof obligation under GDPR Art. 7(1). The anonymized IP addresses and timestamps are used solely to prove lawful consent.

Cookie consent status (browser localStorage): 1 year or until manually deleted by the user

After expiry of legal retention obligations, data is automatically deleted.

Your personal data may be shared with third parties in the following cases:

Hosting provider: Our website is hosted on Vercel Inc. (340 S Lemon Ave #4133, Walnut, CA 91789, USA). Vercel processes technical data such as IP addresses, access times, and server logs as part of the hosting services. This data is processed in accordance with Vercel's privacy policy (https://vercel.com/legal/privacy-policy). Vercel acts as a processor under GDPR Art. 28 and has committed to processing data in accordance with European data protection standards.

Email service provider: Resend (Resend Inc., 340 S Lemon Ave #4133, Walnut, CA 91789, USA) is used for email delivery. Resend may access email addresses and message content. This data is used solely for email delivery and is processed in accordance with Resend's privacy policy (https://resend.com/legal/privacy-policy). Resend acts as a processor under GDPR Art. 28.

Legal obligations: In case of legal obligations (e.g. court order, official investigation), data may be transferred to competent authorities.

Data is not sold to third parties for commercial purposes or used for marketing purposes.

You have the following rights under the GDPR:

Right of access (GDPR Art. 15): You can request information about which personal data is processed, its origin, recipients and the purpose of processing.

Right to rectification (GDPR Art. 16): You can request the rectification of inaccurate or incomplete data.

Right to erasure (GDPR Art. 17): You can request the deletion of your data under certain conditions ('Right to be forgotten').

Right to restriction (GDPR Art. 18): You can request the restriction of processing of your data under certain circumstances.

Right to data portability (GDPR Art. 20): You can receive certain data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.

Right to object (GDPR Art. 21): You can object to the processing of your data based on legitimate interest.

Right to withdraw consent: You can withdraw consent given at any time with effect for the future.

To exercise these rights, please contact us using the contact details provided above.

If you are not satisfied with our data processing practices, you can lodge a complaint with the competent data protection supervisory authority:

State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information North Rhine-Westphalia (LDI NRW)

Postfach 20 04 44, 40102 Düsseldorf, Germany

Website: https://www.ldi.nrw.de

Email: poststelle@ldi.nrw.de

Cookies and localStorage: Our website uses the browser's localStorage feature to store user preferences and consent status. Data is stored under the keys 'sabah-cookie-consent' and 'sabah-cookie-preferences'. This data is stored only in your browser and is not sent to the server. HTTP cookies are currently not used. For further details, please see our Cookie Policy.

Next.js and React: The Next.js framework may store temporary session data server-side. React accesses localStorage for the user interface. These technologies are used only for basic functionality.

Social media integrations: Our website contains links to Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter) and YouTube. These platforms may set their own cookies when you click on the links. For the data protection practices of these platforms, please consult their privacy policies.

Hosting: Our website is hosted by Vercel Inc. IP addresses and technical data are temporarily stored in server logs (maximum 7 days).

Hosting provider: Our website is hosted on Vercel Inc. (340 S Lemon Ave #4133, Walnut, CA 91789, USA). Vercel processes technical data such as IP addresses, access times, and server logs as part of the hosting services. This data is processed in accordance with Vercel's privacy policy (https://vercel.com/legal/privacy-policy). Vercel acts as a processor under GDPR Art. 28 and has committed to processing data in accordance with European data protection standards.

Email service provider: Resend (Resend Inc., 340 S Lemon Ave #4133, Walnut, CA 91789, USA) is used for email delivery. Resend may access email addresses and message content. This data is used solely for email delivery and is processed in accordance with Resend's privacy policy (https://resend.com/legal/privacy-policy). Resend acts as a processor under GDPR Art. 28.

Social media links: Our website contains external links to Instagram, Facebook, X (Twitter), and YouTube. These links are for redirection purposes only and do not set any cookies on our website. No embedded widgets or plugins are used. However, when you click on these links and are redirected to the respective platforms, these platforms may set their own cookies. For the data protection practices of these platforms, please consult their privacy policies: Instagram (https://help.instagram.com/519522125107875), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/privacy/explanation), X/Twitter (https://twitter.com/privacy), YouTube (https://policies.google.com/privacy).

This privacy policy may be updated due to legal requirements or changes to our services. In case of significant changes, we will publish a notice on our website.

Last updated: [Date]