Controller and data protection commissioner

Under section 2 of the Foreign Service Act, the Federal Foreign Office (headquarters) and the German missions abroad form one single federal authority.

Under Article 4 (7) of the GDPR, responsibility as controller for the processing of personal data lies with:

Auswärtiges Amt (Federal Foreign Office)
Werderscher Markt 1
10117 Berlin
Tel: +49 (0)30 18 17-0 / help desk: +49 (0)30 18 17-2000
Fax: +49 (0)30 18 17-3402

Contact the help desk

The Federal Foreign Office Data Protection Commissioner can be contacted as follows:

Datenschutzbeauftragte/r des Auswärtigen Amts
Auswärtiges Amt (Federal Foreign Office)
Werderscher Markt 1
10117 Berlin
Tel: +49 (0)30 18 17-7099
Fax: +49 (0)30 18 17-5 7099

Contact the Data Protection Commissioner

If you have questions about data privacy, you can also get in touch with the mission’s contact person for data protection matters. You can find out at the bottom of the page how to contact the mission’s contact person for data protection matters.

The data processed when you visit this website

Data collection

Each time a user accesses our website or calls up a file, data on this activity is temporarily stored and processed in a log file.

The tracking tool matomo, which is employed to analyse site use, is configured to ensure that no personal data is collected.

User IP addresses are also anonymised, which means that individual activity cannot be traced.

The tracking tool runs on our own servers in a secure network zone certified by the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) to ensure that no tracking data can be accessed by third parties.

If you do not want your activity on the website to be registered or analysed, you can activate the Do Not Track setting on your browser. A browser variable is transmitted that tells the tracking tool whether users wish their activity to be tracked or not.

To find out how to do this with your browser, enter in a search engine, for example: “activate Do Not Track [browser name]”

The following data is collected by the Javascript tracking tool:

• Request (file name), date and time of the request
• Browser type/version (e.g. Firefox 115.0)
• Browser language (e.g. English)
• Operating system used (e.g. Windows 11)
• Device type, model and make
• Screen resolution
• Plug‑ins used (e.g. Flash, Java)
• Referrer URL (previous page accessed by the user)
• Anonymised IP address
• Country and region from which the request originated
• Downloads
• Clicks
• Number of forms sent (depending on the goals defined)

Session cookies

Accessing individual pages generates so‑called transient cookies to facilitate navigation. These session cookies contain no personal data and are erased at the end of the session. Cookies are also used for the shopping cart. These also expire after use.

Technology that allows user access behaviour to be monitored is not used.

Purpose and legal basis for the processing of data

Your personal application data will be processed solely for the purpose of recruitment for the given vacancy.

The legal basis for such processing is Article 6 (1) b of the GDPR or Article 88 of the GDPR in conjunction with section 26 of the Federal Data Protection Act or Länder-specific legislation. Your data must be processed in order for us to take decisions on the recruitment of members of staff.

Processing for any additional purposes, for example inclusion in a pool of candidates or on a list for future vacancies, only occurs with your consent pursuant to Article 6 (1) a and Article 9 (2) a of the GDPR.

Storage of personal data

Your personal data will be stored after the recruitment process as follows:

• as a rule for six months if you have been unsuccessful in the recruitment process;
• for up to three years, if you have consented to be included in a pool of candidates or a list for future vacancies;
• for the duration of your employment contract, if you are successful in the recruitment process.

Your personal data will be deleted upon expiry of the storage period.

Your rights

(a) As a data subject, you have the following rights if the relevant conditions have been met:

• Right of access, Article 15 of the GDPR

• Right to rectification, Article 16 of the GDPR

• Right to erasure (right to be forgotten), Article 17 of the GDPR

• Right to restriction of processing, Article 18 of the GDPR

• Right to data portability, Article 20 of the GDPR

• Right to object to processing, Article 21 of the GDPR.

(b) If the processing of your personal data is based on your consent (e.g. for inclusion in a pool of candidates), you have the right to revoke this at any time without stating the grounds. Such withdrawal of consent does not affect the lawfulness of any use based on your consent prior to its withdrawal (Article 7 (3) GDPR).

(c) You also have the right to complain to a data protection supervisory authority about our processing of your personal data (Article 77 of the GDPR). The data protection supervisory authority responsible for the Federal Foreign Office and Germany’s missions abroad is the Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Bundesbeauftragter für den Datenschutz und die Informationsfreiheit).