Privacy Policy

We have designed this website to be privacy-friendly. It sets no cookies of its own and uses no advertising or cross-site tracking. Some embedded third-party content (such as YouTube videos) may, however, process data once you interact with it — this is explained below.

Last updated: 12 May 2026.

The German version is available at /datenschutz. For a German association, the German version should be treated as the authoritative version.

1. Controller

The controller responsible for the processing of personal data on this website within the meaning of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is:

Bürgerinitiative Umweltschutz Lüchow-Dannenberg e.V.
represented by the board (Vereins-Vorstand): Martin Donat
Rosenstraße 20
29439 Lüchow, Germany
Phone: 05841 – 46 84
Email: buero@bi-luechow-dannenberg.de

For questions specifically about data protection you can also write to dntc-info@posteo.com. Full company details are available in our imprint.

2. Your rights

Subject to the conditions of the GDPR, you have the right to:

• obtain information about the personal data we hold about you (Art. 15 GDPR);
• have inaccurate data corrected (Art. 16 GDPR);
• have your data erased (Art. 17 GDPR);
• restrict processing of your data (Art. 18 GDPR);
• receive your data in a portable format (Art. 20 GDPR);
• object to processing based on our legitimate interests (Art. 21 GDPR);
• withdraw any consent you have given, with effect for the future (Art. 7(3) GDPR).

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The authority competent for us is the State Commissioner for Data Protection of Lower Saxony (Die Landesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz Niedersachsen), Prinzenstraße 5, 30159 Hannover, Germany.

3. Hosting and server log files

This website is hosted by Vercel Inc., 340 S Lemon Ave #4133, Walnut, CA 91789, USA. When you visit the site, Vercel automatically processes technical information that your browser transmits, in particular: your IP address, the date and time of the request, the page requested, the referring URL, and your browser type and operating system. This data is necessary to deliver the website securely and reliably and to detect and prevent attacks.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (our legitimate interest in a secure, functioning website). Log data is stored only for a limited period and then deleted. Where Vercel processes personal data on our behalf, Vercel is used as a processor under Art. 28 GDPR. As Vercel is based in the USA, the transfer is safeguarded by Vercel's certification under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and/or the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

More information: vercel.com/legal/privacy-policy.

4. Usage statistics (Vercel Web Analytics & Speed Insights)

We use Vercel Web Analytics and Vercel Speed Insights to understand, in aggregate, how the website is used (e.g. page views, referring sites, country, device and browser type) and how fast pages load (technical performance metrics such as loading times). These tools do not set cookies, do not store any identifier on your device, and do not create user profiles or track you across other websites. Your IP address is processed only briefly to derive an anonymous, non-reversible hash and is not stored.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (our legitimate interest in operating, securing and improving the website). Because no information is stored on or read from your device, no separate consent is required for this processing.

5. Cookies and local storage

The public part of this website does not set any cookies and does not store data in your browser's local or session storage. The only exception is third-party content you actively load, such as YouTube videos (see section 8): once you interact with that content, the third-party provider may set its own cookies. The content-management area of the site (used only by our editors, who log in) uses a session cookie that is strictly necessary for the login.

6. Content delivery (Sanity)

Editorial content and images on this website are managed with and delivered through Sanity (Sanity.io, operated by Sanity AS and Sanity US Inc.). When images or content are loaded, technical request data such as your IP address is transmitted to Sanity as a technical necessity for displaying the page. Image assets may be served through Sanity's global asset CDN. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in an efficient, maintainable website). Where Sanity processes personal data on our behalf, Sanity is used as a processor under Art. 28 GDPR.

7. Fonts

This website uses the “Rubik” and “Poppins” typefaces. The font files are hosted on our own server (they are bundled with the site at build time); your browser does not connect to Google servers to load fonts, and no data is transmitted to Google for this purpose.

8. Embedded YouTube videos

On some pages we embed videos from YouTube (a service of Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland). We show local preview images or placeholders first, so no request is sent to YouTube/Google merely because a page with a video preview is displayed. Only when you press play is the video loaded from YouTube's enhanced privacy domain (youtube-nocookie.com). Even then, Google may process your IP address, device information and viewing behaviour, and may set cookies or similar technologies once the player is loaded. Google may also process this data in the USA.

We have no influence over the scope of this data processing. For details, please see Google's privacy policy: policies.google.com/privacy.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in offering attractive multimedia content). If you do not want any data sent to YouTube/Google, simply do not play the embedded videos.

9. Links to external services

This website contains links to external platforms (for example our podcast on Spotify and our social media profiles). These are ordinary links — no data is transmitted to those providers until you click the link and leave our site. Once you do, the privacy policy of the respective provider applies.

10. Contacting us

When you contact us by email (e.g. via an address shown on this website), we process the data you provide — in particular your email address, name and the content of your message — in order to handle your request. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR if your request relates to a contract or pre-contractual measures, otherwise Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in responding to enquiries). We delete this data once your request has been dealt with and no statutory retention obligations apply.

11. Newsletter and campaign updates

If we offer a newsletter or campaign updates and you sign up, we process the email address you provide in order to send you those messages. Sign-up uses a double opt-in procedure (you receive a confirmation email and must confirm). Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR (consent). You can withdraw your consent and unsubscribe at any time, for example via the unsubscribe link in each email or by contacting us; this does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal.

12. Donations

If you make a donation through this website, we and the payment service provider you choose process the data required to carry out the payment and to issue any donation receipt (for example name, contact details, payment details and the amount). Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of the donation transaction) and, where applicable, Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR (legal obligations). Data required for tax or accounting purposes is retained for the statutory retention periods (generally up to ten years) and then deleted.

13. Data retention

When someone merely visits the public website, we do not store our own visitor profiles and do not set our own cookies. Where personal data arises in the cases described above (for example technical hosting logs, email enquiries or CMS logins), it is processed or stored only for as long as necessary for the relevant purpose or as required by law, and deleted once it is no longer needed.

14. Data security

This website is delivered over an encrypted HTTPS/TLS connection. We take appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal data against loss, misuse and unauthorised access.

15. Changes to this privacy policy

We may update this privacy policy to reflect changes to our website or to legal requirements. The current version always applies; please refer to the “last updated” date above.