Privacy Policy

Last Updated: January 11, 2026

1. Introduction

At MATAN (matanline.de / matanline.com), operated by OFEK e.V.  Beratungsstelle bei antisemitischer Gewalt und Diskriminierung and Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der Juden in Deutschland e.V., protecting your privacy is one of our highest priorities. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and what rights you have regarding your personal data. We are committed to transparency and compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and all applicable German data protection laws.

If you have any questions or require more information about our Privacy Policy, please do not hesitate to contact us using the information provided at the end of this document.

This Privacy Policy applies only to our online activities and is valid for visitors to our website with regards to the information that they share and that we collect through matanline.de. This policy does not apply to any information collected offline or through channels other than this website, including our telephone support service which operates on a strictly anonymous basis.

2. Consent and Acceptance

By using our website, you hereby consent to our Privacy Policy and agree to its terms. If you do not agree with this Privacy Policy, please do not use our website or services. For users under the age of 18, parental or guardian consent is required before using our services or providing any personal information.

3. Information We Collect

We collect different types of information depending on how you interact with our website and services. The personal information that you are asked to provide, and the reasons why you are asked to provide it, will be made clear to you at the point we request your personal information.

3.1 Contact Form Submissions

When you send us a message through our website contact form, we collect the information you voluntarily provide, which may include your name, email address, phone number (if provided), the subject of your inquiry, and the contents of your message. This information is collected solely for the purpose of responding to your inquiry and providing you with the support or information you requested. We retain contact form submissions for up to twelve months to maintain a record of our communications and improve our services.

3.2 Newsletter Subscriptions

When you subscribe to our newsletter, we collect your email address and, optionally, your name. This information is used exclusively to send you our periodic newsletter containing updates about our services, resources for the Hebrew-speaking community in Germany, and relevant information. Your newsletter subscription data is stored securely and will not be shared with third parties without your explicit consent. You can unsubscribe from our newsletter at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any newsletter email or by contacting us directly.

3.3 Chat Service Communications

When you use our chat service to communicate with our team, we may temporarily store chat transcripts for quality assurance purposes and to help us improve our services. Chat conversations are treated as confidential and are stored securely. We retain chat transcripts for a maximum of six months, after which they are permanently deleted. Chat data is not shared with third parties and is used solely for internal service improvement and volunteer training purposes. You can request deletion of your chat transcript at any time by contacting us.

3.4 Telephone Support Service

Our telephone support service operates on a strictly anonymous and confidential basis. We do not record phone calls, collect caller information, or maintain any records that could identify individual callers. Phone conversations are completely private and anonymous. No personal data is collected through our telephone support service.

3.5 Automatically Collected Information

When you visit our website, certain information is automatically collected through standard web server technology. This includes your IP address, browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), date and time of your visit, referring and exit pages, and the pages you view on our website. This information is collected through log files and cookies as described in Section 5 below. Automatically collected information is used for analyzing trends, administering the site, tracking user navigation patterns, and gathering demographic information to improve our website and services.

4. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for various legitimate purposes in accordance with GDPR requirements. These purposes include providing, operating, and maintaining our website and services, ensuring that users can access the support and resources they need. We use your information to improve, personalize, and expand our website based on user feedback and usage patterns.

Understanding and analyzing how you use our website helps us develop new features, services, and functionality that better serve the Hebrew-speaking community in Germany. We use contact information to communicate with you directly or through our partners, including for customer service purposes, to provide you with updates and information relating to our services, and for newsletter communications when you have subscribed.

Your information also helps us find and prevent fraud, abuse, or misuse of our services. We may use aggregated, anonymized data for research purposes to better understand the needs of our community and improve support services. All data processing is conducted in accordance with GDPR principles of lawfulness, fairness, transparency, purpose limitation, data minimization, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity, and confidentiality.

5. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Like most websites, MATAN uses cookies and similar tracking technologies to enhance your experience and understand how our website is used. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your device when you visit our website. We provide you with clear information about our cookie usage through a cookie consent banner that appears when you first visit our website.

5.1 Essential Cookies

Essential cookies are strictly necessary for our website to function properly. These cookies enable core functionality such as security features, session management, and the cookie consent system itself. Without these cookies, our website cannot provide basic services. Essential cookies include session identifiers that maintain your connection to our website, security cookies that help protect against fraudulent activity, and cookies that remember your cookie consent preferences. These cookies are always active and cannot be disabled if you wish to use our website.

5.2 Functional Cookies

Functional cookies enhance your user experience by remembering your preferences and choices. These cookies store your language preference so the website displays content in your preferred language, remember your interface settings and customization choices, and help provide a more personalized experience during your visit. Functional cookies do not track your browsing activity on other websites. You can choose to disable functional cookies through our cookie consent banner, though this may affect certain features of the website.

5.3 Analytics Cookies

Analytics cookies help us understand how visitors interact with our website by collecting and reporting information anonymously. These cookies track page views, navigation patterns, time spent on pages, and user behavior flows throughout the website. The information collected is aggregated and anonymized, meaning it cannot be used to identify individual users. We use this data to analyze trends, measure website performance, and improve our services. Analytics cookies are optional and can be disabled through your cookie preferences without affecting core website functionality.

5.4 Marketing Cookies

Marketing cookies are used to support our newsletter and communication efforts. These cookies help us track newsletter sign-ups, measure the effectiveness of our email campaigns, and understand which content resonates with our community. Marketing cookies may track whether you’ve opened our emails or clicked on links within them. This helps us improve our communications and ensure we’re providing relevant, valuable content. These cookies are optional and you can opt out at any time through the cookie consent banner.

5.5 Managing Your Cookie Preferences

You have full control over which cookies you allow. When you first visit our website, a cookie consent banner appears allowing you to accept all cookies, reject optional cookies, or customize your preferences. You can change your cookie preferences at any time by accessing the cookie settings available on our website or through your web browser settings.

Most web browsers allow you to control cookies through their settings preferences. You can set your browser to refuse all cookies, accept only certain cookies, or notify you when a cookie is being set. Please note that if you disable or refuse cookies, some parts of our website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about managing cookies in specific browsers, please visit the help section of your browser or refer to resources such as www.allaboutcookies.org.

6. Third-Party Services and Links

Our website may contain links to external websites and references to third-party services that we believe may be helpful to our users. We provide these links as a convenience and to help you access additional resources and support. However, we have no control over the content, privacy policies, or practices of these third-party websites and services.

When you click on a link to a third-party website or interact with a third-party service, you leave our website and become subject to that organization’s privacy policy and terms of service. We are not responsible for the privacy practices, data collection methods, or content of any third-party websites. We strongly advise you to review the privacy policy of every website you visit and every service you use.

Our website does not currently use third-party advertising services. If this changes in the future, we will update this Privacy Policy accordingly and provide clear information about any advertising partners and how to manage related cookies and tracking.

7. Data Security

We take the security of your personal information seriously and implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your data against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. Our security measures include secure socket layer (SSL) encryption for data transmission, secure server infrastructure with regular security updates and patches, access controls that limit who can view or process personal data, regular security assessments and audits, and secure backup procedures to prevent data loss.

Despite our best efforts, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure. While we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal data, we cannot guarantee absolute security. We encourage you to use strong passwords if you create any accounts with us and to be cautious about sharing personal information online.

In the event of a data breach that is likely to result in a high risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify you and the relevant supervisory authority within 72 hours of becoming aware of the breach, as required by GDPR.

8. Data Retention

We retain your personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected and to comply with legal obligations. Our data retention periods are as follows: Contact form submissions are retained for twelve months to maintain a record of inquiries and support requests. Newsletter subscription data is retained for as long as you remain subscribed, and for up to six months after unsubscribing to honor any suppression requests and prevent accidental re-subscription.

Chat transcripts are retained for six months for quality assurance and service improvement purposes, after which they are permanently deleted. Telephone support records are not retained at all, as our phone service is completely anonymous and we do not record calls or collect caller information.

Cookie data is retained according to the specific cookie’s purpose and lifespan, typically ranging from session-based (deleted when you close your browser) to a maximum of twelve months. Log files and analytics data are retained for up to eighteen months for website improvement and security purposes.

After the retention period expires, personal data is securely deleted or anonymized so that it can no longer identify you. You can request early deletion of your personal data at any time by contacting us, subject to any legal obligations we may have to retain certain information.

9. Your Rights Under GDPR

Under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have several important rights regarding your personal data. We are committed to facilitating the exercise of these rights and will respond to all requests within one month.

You have the right to access your personal data. This means you can request copies of the personal data we hold about you. We will provide this information in a clear, structured format. In most cases, we provide this service free of charge, though we may charge a small administrative fee for excessive or repetitive requests.

You have the right to rectification, meaning you can request that we correct any information you believe is inaccurate or incomplete. If you notify us of inaccurate data, we will correct it promptly and, where possible, notify any third parties to whom we have disclosed the inaccurate data.

You have the right to erasure, sometimes called “the right to be forgotten.” Under certain conditions, you can request that we delete or remove your personal data. This right applies when the data is no longer necessary for the purpose it was collected, when you withdraw consent and there is no other legal basis for processing, when you object to processing and there are no overriding legitimate grounds, or when the data has been unlawfully processed.

You have the right to restrict processing of your personal data under certain circumstances. This means you can ask us to suspend processing of your data, for example, if you want us to establish its accuracy or the reason for processing it.

You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data where we are relying on legitimate interest as the legal basis for processing and there is something about your particular situation that makes you want to object. You also have the right to object to processing for direct marketing purposes, including profiling related to direct marketing.

You have the right to data portability, which means you can request that we transfer the data we have collected to another organization or directly to you in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format. This right only applies to automated information that you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.

You have the right to withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. This will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. You can withdraw consent by contacting us using the information provided at the end of this policy.

If you make a request to exercise any of these rights, we have one month to respond to you. In some cases, we may extend this period by a further two months if your request is particularly complex or we have received numerous requests. We will always inform you of any such extension and explain the reasons for the delay.

10. International Data Transfers

MATAN operates primarily within Germany and the European Union. Your personal data is stored and processed on servers located within the EU. We do not routinely transfer personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA). If we need to transfer data outside the EEA in the future for any reason, we will ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place in accordance with GDPR requirements, such as Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission, and we will inform you of such transfers.

11. Children’s Privacy

Protecting children’s privacy is particularly important to us. Our website and services are not intended for children under the age of 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 18. We encourage parents and guardians to monitor their children’s internet usage and to help enforce this Privacy Policy by instructing children never to provide personal information on our website without parental permission.

If you believe that your child has provided personal information on our website without your consent, or if you are aware that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under 18, please contact us immediately. We will take prompt steps to investigate and, if necessary, delete such information from our records as quickly as possible.

Parents and guardians should be aware that even though our telephone support service is anonymous, they should supervise and guide any interactions their children may have with support services to ensure their safety and wellbeing.

12. California Privacy Rights (CCPA)

If you are a California resident, you have specific rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). These rights include the right to know what personal data we collect about you and how it is used and shared. You can request that we disclose the categories and specific pieces of personal data we have collected about you over the past twelve months.

You have the right to delete personal data we have collected from you, subject to certain exceptions. You also have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal data. However, we want to clearly state that MATAN does not sell personal data to third parties and has no plans to do so in the future.

You have the right not to receive discriminatory treatment for exercising your CCPA privacy rights. We will not deny you services, charge different prices, or provide a different level of service for exercising your privacy rights.

To exercise these rights, please contact us using the information provided in Section 15. We will verify your identity before processing your request and will respond within 45 days, which may be extended by an additional 45 days if necessary.

13. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to update or modify this Privacy Policy at any time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make changes to this Privacy Policy, we will update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this document and post the revised policy on our website.

For significant changes that materially affect how we collect, use, or protect your personal data, we will provide additional notice through prominent website announcements or, if you have subscribed to our newsletter, through email notification. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically to stay informed about how we are protecting your information.

Your continued use of our website and services after changes are posted constitutes your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the revised policy, you should discontinue using our website and services and contact us to request deletion of your personal data.

14. Legal Basis for Processing

Under GDPR, we must have a legal basis for processing your personal data. We process your personal data based on the following legal grounds: consent, which applies when you voluntarily provide information through contact forms, newsletter subscriptions, or cookie preferences; legitimate interests, which includes our interest in operating and improving our website, preventing fraud, and ensuring network security, provided these interests are not overridden by your rights; contractual necessity when processing is necessary to provide services you have requested; and legal obligations when we must process data to comply with applicable laws and regulations.

You have the right to withdraw consent at any time when processing is based on consent. You also have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests. To exercise these rights, please contact us using the information provided below.

15. Contact Information and Data Protection Officer

For questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data protection practices, please contact:

Kompetenzzentrum für Prävention und Empowerment (MATAN)

Website: https://matanline.de/contact-us/

To exercise your GDPR rights or make privacy-related requests, please contact us through the above channels. We will respond to all requests within one month, though in complex cases we may extend this period by up to two additional months with notification.

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data unlawfully, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. In Germany, you can contact your local data protection authority (Landesdatenschutzbehörde) or the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Bundesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit).

Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information
Graurheindorfer Str. 153
53117 Bonn
Germany
Phone: +49 (0)228 997799-0
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.bfdi.bund.de

16. Supervisory Authority

Our lead supervisory authority for data protection matters is the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information:

Berliner Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit
Friedrichstr. 219
10969 Berlin
Germany
Phone: +49 (0)30 13889-0
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.datenschutz-berlin.de

By using our website and services, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy and consent to the collection, use, and processing of your personal data as described herein.

Last Updated: 12.01.26