Data collection for technical reasons
For technical reasons, your Internet browser automatically transmits the following data to our web server each time you access our website:

• IP address of the requesting computer
• Date and time of access
• Name and URL of the file accessed
• Amount of data transferred
• Access status (file transferred, file not found, etc.)
• Identification data of the browser and operating system used
• Name of the provider of the user's Internet access
• Website from which access is made.

This data is collected, processed, and used for the purpose of enabling the use of the website (connection establishment), system security, and technical administration of the network infrastructure. The data is not compared with other data sets or passed on to third parties, even in excerpts. The legal basis for processing is Art. 6 (1) e) GDPR in conjunction with § 3 LDSG.

We only collect and process your personal data if you request certain services and we need your data for this purpose, or if you have voluntarily given us your express consent to do so. The legal basis for processing is the processing for the performance of a contract pursuant to Art. 6 (1) b) GDPR, your declaration of consent, if you have given us this in accordance with Art. 6 (1) a) GDPR, or processing for the performance of tasks carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the state capital of Mainz in accordance with Art. 6 (1) e) GDPR in conjunction with § 3 LDSG.

You can do this, for example, when registering by filling out a corresponding form or sending us an email, ordering services, sending us inquiries or requesting materials, or registering, e.g., for one of our newsletters, when applying for an advertised position on our application portal, or when making an appointment online. Unless there are other legal grounds, we only use your personal data for the purposes for which you have given your consent. You can revoke your consent at any time with future effect. 

Within the scope of the portals of the Mainz Public Library, the Mainz City Library, and the Gutenberg Museum Library in Mainz, information about your use of the libraries is also processed using your respective library card. This processing is carried out within the framework of the user agreement between you and the state capital of Mainz, which is established when you apply for a library card, in accordance with Art. 6 (1) b) GDPR.

Some areas of the website link users to corresponding portals of other authorities, for example, the online portal of the Federal Office of Justice, or to other portals for communication with authorities, such as the rlpDirekt citizen platform, the KFZOnline online portal of emkom21, or the portals of the Association for Information Technology and Data Processing of Local Authorities in Rhineland-Palatinate. In these cases, the controllers named there are responsible and the respective data protection information applies.

The state capital of Mainz hosts videos (streaming since 9/2020, on demand since 5/2023) in compliance with the GDPR on the video platform 3Q (https://3q.video) with data storage in the EU.

Data that you enter into online forms (and only into these forms) on your device is encrypted and transmitted to the address specified in the form. To protect personal data entered into these forms from unauthorized access by third parties, all information is transmitted using 128-bit SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption.

Emails are currently forwarded to the state capital of Mainz without additional encryption techniques. All information sent may therefore be viewed by third parties during transmission. The integrity of the data is not yet guaranteed. However, we are currently preparing technical and organizational measures to ensure this in the future.

To be on the safe side, you should therefore not send any passwords, credit card numbers, or other sensitive information that you wish to keep confidential. In such cases, we recommend that you use other means of transmission.

We process and use personal data in accordance with the provisions of data protection regulations.

Insofar as personal data is collected, processed, and used within the scope of specialist applications of municipal offices and companies, the respective special legal regulations (e.g., Rhineland-Palatinate Registration Act, Social Security Code, Aliens Act) and/or the LDSG apply. 

We only process and use your personal data outside of the website if this is necessary for the fulfillment of tasks falling within the responsibility of the state capital, if it is required by law, or if you have given your consent. The relevant legal bases are Art. 6 (1) b), c) or e) GDPR, § 3 LDSG or Art. 6 (1) a) GDPR. We do not pass on the data to non-public bodies.

Further information on data protection can be found on the website of the State Data Protection Officer (link at the end of the paragraph "Rights of access and rectification, other rights regarding your stored data").

Within the state capital of Mainz, your data will be shared with those entities that require it to fulfill our contractual and legal obligations. As a matter of principle, we do not pass on data to non-public entities. However, some data is shared under strict contractual and legal conditions:

When service providers come into contact with your data, this usually takes place within the framework of what is known as commissioned processing of personal data. This is expressly provided for by law. In this case, the state capital of Mainz remains responsible for the protection of your data, alongside the processor where applicable. The service provider works exclusively in accordance with our instructions, which we ensure through strict contractual regulations, technical and organizational measures, and supplementary controls. 

The state capital of Mainz uses service providers as processors. These are service providers in the categories of IT services (e.g., for technical and administrative tasks, content management, server hosting, and usage analysis), telecommunications, consulting, and sales and marketing.
The data protection requirements for the processing of personal data in accordance with instructions are complied with.

We integrate various third-party applications within mainz.de. The collection and processing of personal data—insofar as any is collected—is the sole responsibility of the respective third-party providers of these applications. We do not store this data on the mainz.de web server. Please refer to the respective privacy policies for information on how your data is processed in connection with these applications. The following parties are particularly responsible for this:

• Industry database: gewusst-wo.de/Verlag Beleke GmbH and Verlag Schmidt Römhild KG
• Donation portal: bezahllotse.de/TraffGo Road GmbH
• Applying for a certificate of good conduct: www.fuehrungszeugnis.bund.de/Bundesamt für Justiz
• Information from the Central Trade Register: www.fuehrungszeugnis.bund.de/Bundesamt für Justiz
• Specialized procedures of the registry, legal, and regulatory office: xsta.ewois.de/ZIDKOR - Special-purpose association for information technology and data processing for municipalities in Rhineland-Palatinate
• Specialized procedures of the registration authority: kfzonline.ekom21.de/KommWis GmbH
• Video portal 3Q: 3q.video/de
• Civento application and process platform (generally under own responsibility, in individual cases AV contract)

We use cookies on our website. If you do not wish to take advantage of our cookies, you can refer to your browser's help function to find out how to set your browser to prevent it from accepting new cookies or to delete existing cookies. There you will also find out how you can block your browser from accepting all new cookies or which settings you need to make in order to receive a notification about new cookies.

The following cookies are used on the Mainz.de website:

PHPSESSID
The session cookie is used to store the anonymous user's preferred settings so that they are immediately available when the user visits the site again. This cookie is mainly used in forms to temporarily store entered data, for example, if the user makes an input error and receives an error message. This cookie is deleted as soon as the browser session is ended. The legal basis for processing is Art. 6 (1) e GDPR, §3 LDSG.

Storage period
We store data for as long as is legally necessary or required to provide a service requested by you from Mainz.de or as specified in a corresponding consent form.

The aggregated and anonymized statistics created from the technical data (log files) are stored for 12 months.

Rights of access and rectification, other rights regarding your stored data

You can request information about the scope, origin, and recipients of the stored data, as well as the purpose of storage, at any time and free of charge; in addition, in accordance with data protection regulations, you have the right to correct, delete, or restrict the processing of your data, the right to object to the processing, and the right to data portability. We would like to point out that you have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The competent supervisory authority is the State Data Protection Officer of Rhineland-Palatinate.

You can find more information in the section "How we handle your data and your rights."

Revocation of consent to the use of your data
You have the right to revoke your consent to the use of your data at any time. To do so, simply send an email to oberbuergermeisterstadt.mainzde or a letter to the following address:

State Capital Mainz
Office of the Mayor
City Hall Große Bleiche
Große Bleiche 46/Löwenhofstraße 1
55116 Mainz

Any data processing based on your consent is lawful until the time of revocation.

Validity of the general and specific data protection information
This general and specific data protection information is current and dated (February 24, 2026). We reserve the right to change the privacy policy at any time with future effect, in particular to adapt it to further developments of the website or the implementation of new technologies.

We use the open-source software Matomo for statistical evaluation and analysis of our websites. We have deactivated the tracking cookies in Matomo so that no cookies are sent to your computer. Your IP address is sent to Matomo in anonymized form only.

Matomo only collects data that your browser transmits to our web server for technical reasons (see above under "Data collection by our websites"). The state capital of Mainz uses the analysis data to optimize the content and design of the website and thus better fulfill its information mandate. The legal basis for the processing of personal data is Art. 6 (1) e) GDPR in conjunction with § 3 LDSG. 

You can object to this use here:

Social media channels are an additional platform for information provided by the state capital of Mainz. Please do not disclose any personal information about yourself, as this is not intended for public consumption.

We are available during our regular opening hours (see info section on Facebook). For urgent hazard reports and emergencies, please call the police (110) or fire department (112).

If you have any questions about a post, tweet, or toot, we will try to answer them as quickly as possible. This may take a little longer if we have to obtain the answers from our administration department. In such cases, we ask for your patience.

§ 1 Scope of this
disclaimer The following terms of use apply between users and the state capital of Mainz (hereinafter referred to as the "provider") for the use of information provided by the state capital of Mainz on social media services that refer to this declaration. Use is only permitted if you, as a user, accept these terms of use.

§ 2 Liability information regarding content on social media sites
The content of our social media sites is created with the greatest possible care. However, the provider does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of the content provided. The use of the content is at the user's own risk. Contributions identified by name reflect the opinion of the respective author and not always the opinion of the provider.

§ 3 External links
Our social media sites contain links to third-party websites ("external links"). These websites are subject to the liability of their respective operators. When the external links were first created, the provider checked the third-party content for any legal violations. At that time, no legal violations were apparent. The provider has no influence whatsoever on the current and future design and content of the linked pages. The inclusion of external links does not mean that the provider endorses the content behind the reference or link. Constant monitoring of external links is not reasonable for the provider without concrete evidence of legal violations. However, if legal violations become known, such external links will be deleted immediately.

§ 4 Obligations as a user
(1) As a user, you agree not to publish any posts/comments on our social media sites that violate these rules, morality, or otherwise violate applicable German law. In particular, you are prohibited from publishing offensive or untrue content; using content
protected by law, in particular by copyright and trademark law, without authorization;
engaging in anti-competitive activities; or
advertising without the express written consent of the provider.
This also applies to so-called surreptitious advertising, such as linking your own social media presence or website with or without accompanying text in comments or within posts.

(2) The provider has the right to delete posts and comments if they could contain a violation of the law.

(3) As a user, you undertake to check your posts and comments before publishing them to ensure that they do not contain any information that you do not wish to publish. Your posts and topics may be indexed by search engines and thus become accessible worldwide. Any claim against the provider for the deletion or correction of such search engine entries is excluded.

(4) If third parties or other users make claims against the provider for possible legal violations that a) result from content posted by you as a user on the provider's social media presence and/or b) arise from your use of the provider's social media presence as a user, you as a user agree to indemnify the provider against any claims, including claims for damages, and to reimburse the provider for any costs incurred as a result of the possible infringement. In particular, the provider shall be indemnified against the costs of the necessary legal defense. The provider is entitled to demand a reasonable advance payment from you as a user for this purpose. As a user, you are obliged to support the provider in good faith with information and documents in the legal defense against third parties. All further rights and claims for damages of the provider remain unaffected. If you as a user are not responsible for the possible legal violation, the aforementioned obligations do not apply.

§ 5 Copyright and ancillary copyright
(1) The content published on the provider's social media sites is subject to German copyright and ancillary copyright law. Any use not permitted by German copyright and ancillary copyright law requires the prior written consent of the provider or the respective rights holder. This applies in particular to the duplication, editing, translation, storage, processing, or reproduction of content in databases or other electronic media and systems. Third-party content and rights are identified as such. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of individual content or complete pages is not permitted and is punishable by law. Only the production of copies and downloads for personal, private, and non-commercial use is permitted.

(2) The presentation of the social media presence in external frames is only permitted with written permission.

§ 6 Other provisions
(1) In all other respects, the general terms of use of the respective social media platform apply. Please also note our data protection information on the respective social media sites for further information on the processing of your data by the provider on the respective platform.