Data protection notice

This Data Protection Notice provides information on the personal data we collect during your use of this website and the purpose for which we use this data.
You can access these data at all times under “Security and Data Protection”.

1. Data controller/contact

a) Data controller within the meaning of the data protection laws is:
Koelnmesse GmbH
Messeplatz 1
50679 Cologne
Germany

b) Data Protection Officer:
Koelnmesse GmbH
Data Protection Officer
Messeplatz 1
50679 Cologne
Germany
Germany
E-mail: datenschutz@expo2025germany.de

2. Personal data

a) Within the meaning of this Data Protection Notice, personal data are details about your personal and material circumstances.
These specifically include your name, date of birth, e-mail address, postal address and phone number.

b) Within the meaning of this Data Protection Notice, personal data also include information about your use of our website (access data).
Besides the access data, we will only store personal data if you provide them to us voluntarily, e.g. when submitting a contact query or subscribing to our newsletter.
Moreover, personal data will only be used to the extent necessary and only for the purpose to which you have given your consent or which is legally permissible.

3. Collection and use of your data

3.1 Collection of access data

When you access our website, your terminal device automatically transfers data for technical reasons.

The following data are stored separately from other data that you might transmit to us:

• date, time and duration of your visit to our websites
• IP address assigned to you by your Internet provider
• the web page visited
• the user tool (i.e. web browser, operating system) you have used to access the site
• the action you carried out on our website
• whether a site was successfully accessed or not
• what information was called up, including downloads
• from which server you accessed the website and the website from which you reached the current website
These data are exclusively stored for technical purposes and are not at any time associated with a specific person.

The handling of your personal data for the purposes of providing this website and of communicating via this website are carried out on the basis of our legitimate interest pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.

It is technically necessary for us to process specific personal data (e.g. IP addresses) to be able to provide this website to you.
Your communication with us requires the handling of specific personal data.

This required a balancing of interests involving weighing your personal data confidentiality against our need to provide this website and contact you.
Your interest in privacy was outweighed by our interests in both cases.
If this were not the case, we would be unable to provide this website to you or react to your contact queries.

3.2 Contact form
If you submit queries to us via our contact form, your details from the contact form including the contact data you have provided on it, i.e.

title
last name
first name
e-mail address

will be saved and processed for the purpose of processing your queries.

We collect these data in order to be able to accept and process your query, cf. Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

Insofar as we process your data, as described above, for the purposes of accepting and processing your queries, you are contractually obliged to provide us with these data.

Without these data we are unable to accept and process your queries.

4. Newsletter
Pursuant to Section 7(3) of the German law against unfair competition (“UWG”), we reserve the right to e-mail you information on the German Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka.
You can object at any time to the receipt of such information by e-mail.
Every e-mail contains information about how you can unsubscribe from the receipt of e-mails with future effect.

5. Information on cookies and targeting

5.1 We use browser cookies to collect information about your use of our website.
Cookies are small text files that are saved on your device and store specific preferences and data used to facilitate communication between our system and your browser.
A cookie usually contains the name of the domain from which the cookie data was sent as well as information about the age of the cookie and an alphanumeric identifier.
Cookies allow our systems to recognize the user’s device and make any existing default settings immediately available.
As soon as a user accesses the platform, a cookie is transferred to the hard drive of the respective user’s computer.
Cookies help us to improve our website and enable us to offer you a better service that is much more customized to your needs.
They enable us to re-detect your computer when you return to our website and thereby:
store information about your preferred activities on our website and, that way, orientate our website along your individual interests.
This includes, for example, advertising that corresponds to your personal interests.
to increase the speed with which your queries are processed;
The use of cookies is justified on the basis of our legitimate interest in a needs-based design and the statistical evaluation of our website and the fact that your legitimate interests are not overriding pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.

5.2 The cookies used by us only store the aforementioned data about your use of our website.
This is carried out not on the basis of an assignment to you personally, but by the allocation of an identification number to the cookie (“cookie ID”).
The cookie ID is not aggregated with your name, your IP address or similar data that would enable the assignment of the cookie to you.
You can find out how to prevent the use of browser cookies under Item 5.5.

5.3 Our website uses tracking technologies (for further details, refer to Item 6).
We use these technologies to make the Internet offer more interesting for you.
This technology enables Internet users who have already shown an interest in our website to be presented with advertising on the websites of our partners.
The display of these advertisements on our partners’ websites takes place based on the use of cookie technology and an analysis of previous user behaviour.
This analysis is carried out using a pseudonym and user profiles are not merged with your personal data.

If you wish to opt out of this tracking process, you can refuse to allow the setting of a cookie required by this process:

i.e. by means of a browser setting that disables the automatic setting of cookies in general.
To do this, please use the “Do not track” (“DNT”) option of your web browser.
You can use the following button to do so:
Enable Google Analytics opt-out
Please note that you must carry out this step individually for every one of your terminal devices and/or browsers.

5.4 We work together with business partners who support us in designing our Internet presence and the website to make it more interesting for you.
For this reason, cookies from these partner companies are also stored on your hard drive when you visit the website.
These are cookies that automatically delete themselves after a pre-set time.
The cookies from our partner companies are also only used with a cookie ID to collect data that enables our advertising partners to address you with advertising that could genuinely be of interest to you.
You can find out how to prevent the use of such cookies under Item 5.5.

5.5 In case you wish to decline the use of browser cookies, you can adjust your browser settings to not accept the storage of cookies.
Please note that in this case you may only be able to use our website on a limited basis or not at all.
If you only wish to accept our own cookies and not the cookies of our service providers and partners, you can select the setting “Block third-party cookies” in your browser.

6. Pseudonymous user profiles

6.1 Conversion tracking by third parties

The following conversion tracking by third parties may be used:

Ligatus Conversion Pixel
For more information on the privacy policy and cookie policy of Ligatus GmbH, Hohenstaufenring 30-32, 50674 Cologne, Germany, click here.

Outbrain Conversion Pixel
For more information on the privacy policy and cookie policy of Outbrain Inc., 39 West 13th Street, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10011, USA, click here.

“DoubleClick by Google” (Accuen Conversion Pixel)/Google Adwords Conversion Pixel
“DoubleClick by Google” is a service provided by Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA („Google“).
“DoubleClick by Google” uses cookies to present adverts that are relevant to you.
Here, a pseudonymous identification number (ID) is assigned to your browser to check which adverts were shown on your browser, and which adverts were called up.
The cookies contain no personal data.
The use of “DoubleClick” cookies only enables Google and its partner websites to place adverts on the basis of previous visits to our or other websites on the internet.

The information generated by the cookies is transferred by Google to a server in the USA for analysis and saved there.
Data will only be transferred by Google to third parties on the basis of legal regulations or in the context of a contract data processing agreement.

Google will not, under any circumstances, link your data with other data captured by Google.
You can prevent cookies from being saved by configuring the settings of your browser software accordingly; we would like to point out, however, that in this case you may not be able to use all the functions of our websites to their full extent.
Furthermore, you can prevent the capture of the data created by the cookies and data related to your use of the websites being sent to Google, as well as the processing of this data by Google, by downloading and installing the browser plug-in available at the following link under the “DoubleClick” deactivation add-on item.

For more information on Google’s privacy policy and cookie policy, click here.

Twitter Conversion Pixel
For more information on the privacy policy and cookie policy of Twitter, Inc., 1355 Market Street, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA, click here.

Seeding Alliance Conversion Pixel
For more information on the privacy policy and cookie policy of Seeding Alliance GmbH, Lichtstr.
25, 50825 Cologne, click here.
You can object at any time to the capture and storage of data in the context of Seeding Alliance GmbH with future effect.

Plista Pixel
For more information on the privacy policy and cookie policy of Plista GmbH, Torstrasse 33-35, 10119 Berlin, Germany, click here.
You can object at any time to the capture and storage of data in the context of Plista GmbH with future effect.

Adform Pixel
For more information on the privacy policy and cookie policy of Adform A/S, Wildersgade 10B, 1st floor, DK-1408 Copenhagen, Denmark, click here.
You can object at any time to the capture and storage of data in the context of Adform A/S with future effect.

LinkedIn Conversion Pixel
For more information on the privacy policy and cookie policy of LinkedIn Corporation, 1000 West Maude Avenue, Sunnyvale CA 94085, USA, click here.
You can object at any time to the capture and storage of data in the context of LinkedIn Conversion Pixel with future effect.

Facebook Conversion Pixel
For more information on the privacy policy and cookie policy of Facebook, Inc., 1601 Willow Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA, click here.
You can object at any time to the capture and storage of data in the context of Facebook Conversion Pixel with future effect.

Facebook Website Custom Audiences Pixel
We use the “Website Custom Audiences” pixel from Facebook, 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
Tracking pixels are integrated into our websites for this purpose.
When you visit our websites, the tracking pixel is used to establish a direct connection between your browser and Facebook’s server.
As a result, Facebook receives information from your browser including the fact that your terminal device has accessed our website.
If you are a Facebook user, Facebook can assign the visit to our websites to your user account.
We would like to point out that we, as the providers of the websites, have no knowledge of the content of the transmitted data or of how it is used by Facebook.

We can only select which segments of Facebook users (such as age, interests) should see the advertisements we run.
In doing so, we use one of two ways of working with “Custom Audiences”, where no datasets – in particular, none of our users’ e-mail addresses – are transferred to Facebook.
For more information about Facebook’s privacy policy, go to https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/.
Please click here if you do not wish any data to be collected using Custom Audiences.
Alternatively you can deactivate the Facebook pixel on the Digital Advertising Alliance website under the following link: http://www.aboutads.info/choices/

Taboola Conversion Pixel
For more information on the privacy policy and cookie policy of Taboola Inc., 28 West 23rd St., 5th floor, New York, NY 10010, USA, click here. For opt-out information, go to “Site Visitor Choices”.

AdTiger
AdTiger is a service for integrating advertisements from arejo GmbH, Schaperstrasse 14, 10719 Berlin, Germany.
For more information on AdTiger’s privacy policy and use of cookies including opt-out options, go to http://ads.adtiger.de/privacy.php?lang=1.

Google Analytics with Conversion Tracking
We use Google Analytics, a Web analysis service from Google Inc. (“Google”), including the function “Con- version Tracking”.
Google Analytics uses what are called “cookies” or text files that are stored on your terminal device and make it possible to analyse how you are using the website, the products that you view and any purchases that you might make.
This does not entail the collection of any personal data.
The information generated by the cookie (including your abbreviated IP address) are transferred to a Google server in the USA and stored there.

Google will use these data to evaluate them, to compile reports on the website activities and the products viewed or sold for the website operators and to provide additional services connected with the use of the website and the Internet.
If applicable, Google will also transmit these data to third parties, insofar as this is required by law or to the extent that these data are processed by third parties on Google’s behalf.
For more information about how Google uses your data, please refer to Google’s privacy policy: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/
If you do not want to allow the website analysis, you can disable Google Analytics using a browser add-on.
You can download this here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de.
Demographic characteristics and interests captured by Google Analytics
We use the “demographic characteristics” and “interests“ functions of Google Analytics.
These functions allow reports to be generated that contain statements about the age, gender and interests of website visitors.
These data stem from interest-based advertising from Google as well as from third-party providers’ visitor data.
It is not possible to assign these data to a specific person.
You can deactivate this function at any time via the ad settings in your Google account or generally prohibit the collection of your personal data by Google Analytics as shown in the item “Objection to data collection”.
The use of Google Analytics with Conversion Tracking takes place on the basis of our legitimate interest in a needs-based design, in the statistical evaluation and the efficient promotion of our website and based on the fact that your legitimate interests are not overriding pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.

6.2 Further tools for the purposes of marketing and optimization
Use of Google AdWords and Remarketing
We also place advertisements using Google AdWords to draw attention to our services outside the display network.
The corresponding advertisements are displayed by Google after a search query on the part of the user.

Cookies are subsequently employed on our website to track how many users were directed to our website through one of our advertisements.

The anonymous statistics that we gain from this process enable us to optimize our advertisements.
The cookie is stored by clicking on an advertisement.

We likewise use Google Analytics for the statistical evaluation of the data from AdWords.
The storage of the cookies can be prevented using the settings of your browser.

In this case your visit to our website also does not flow into the anonymous user statistics.
For further information about how Google uses your data, please refer to Google’s privacy policy under https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/ and https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads.

You can permanently deactivate the use of cookies for personalized advertising by Google by downloading and installing the corresponding plug-in provided under the following link: https://support.google.com/ads/answer/7395996?hl=de.
Our use of Google AdWords and Remarketing is grounded on our legitimate interest in promoting our website efficiently, as well as in monitoring the effectiveness of our advertisements, while ensuring that your legitimate interests are not overridden, pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.

Google Tag Manager
Google Tag Manager is a solution that enables us to manage various website tags via a single interface.
The Tool Tag Manager itself (which implements the tags) is a cookie-free domain and does not collect any personal data.
The tool triggers other tags which themselves could collect data under certain circumstances.
Google Tag Manager does not access these data.
If deactivation is carried out at domain or cookie level, this remains in force for all tracking tags that have been implemented using Google Tag Manager.

Facebook Insights
Our Facebook page serves the purpose of enabling us to actively communicate with our customers and interested parties.
We use this platform to provide information about our trade fairs and other events.
When you visit our Facebook page, your personal data can be automatically collected and stored for the purposes of market research and advertising.
These personal data are used with pseudonyms to create user profiles.
As a rule, cookies are placed on your terminal device for this purpose. The cookies store the visitors’ behaviour and users’ interests.
For further information from Facebook on Insights, go to the following link: https://www.facebook.com/help/pages/insights.
The use of the statistical information about the utilisation of the Facebook page made available by Facebook (“Facebook Insights”) takes place pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR as part of a balancing of interests for safeguarding of our predominant legitimate interest in optimizing the presentation of our services and in effective communication with customers and interested parties.
The data processing is carried out on the basis of an agreement between joint controllers pursuant to Art. 26 GDPR.
You can read this agreement here: https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms/page_controller_addendum.
Facebook is headquartered in the USA.
For a link to the opt-out option, click here: https://www.facebook.com/settings?tab=ads

Google Fonts
This website uses web fonts to represent typefaces.
These are provided by Google (http://www.google.com/web fonts/).
To accomplish this, your browser loads the required web font into the browser cache when the page is called up.
This is necessary in order for your browser to be able to display an optically improved representation of our text.
If your browser does not support this function, your computer will use a standard font for the display.
For more information on Google fonts, go to https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq?csw=1.
For general information on Google’s privacy policy, go to https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en.
Other active content (e.g. Javascript, ActiveX)
For security reasons, you can deactivate Javascript, ActiveX or other control elements and scripting languages in websites that contain executive elements in your browser at any time.
Our websites also remain navigable without the use of Javascript.

7. Shariff
We do not use any plug-ins of the social networks Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Xing themselves on our website.
Our buttons for sharing content via social media are implemented using the software “Shariff”, which first transmits the data to the respective network operator when you click the buttons.
If you would like to learn more about Shariff, click here.
Various data are not transferred to the respective social network until you click on the corresponding button.
These could include:

• date and time you visit the website
• website URL where the visitor is located
• URL of the website which the visitor previously visited
• Browser used
• Operating system used
• IP address of the visitor

Insofar as you are logged into the respective social network (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn or Xing) in parallel with your visit to our site, it is not excluded that the provider can associate the visit with your social network account.
When you use the plug-in functions (e.g. clicking on the “Like” button, posting a comment), this information is likewise transferred directly by your browser to the respective social network and possibly stored there.
Please consult the privacy policies of Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Xing to find out more about the purpose and scope of these networks’ data collection activities as well as their further processing and use of data.

8. Transfer of data

In principle, a transfer of your personal information without your prior express consent will only take place in the cases listed below:

• when it is required for the investigation of an unlawful use of our services or for the prosecution, personal data are transferred to the law-enforcement authorities and if necessary to injured third parties.
However, this only occurs when there are concrete indications of unlawful or abusive behaviour.
A transfer can also take place when it is necessary for the enforcement of terms and conditions of use or of other agreements.
We are also legally obliged to provide information to specific public authorities on request.
These are prosecutorial authorities, authorities that prosecute misdemeanours punishable by fines and the financial authorities.
These data are transferred on the basis of our legitimate interest in combating misuse, in the prosecution of criminal offences, in the safeguarding, assertion and enforcement of claims and the fact that your rights and interests with regard to the protection of personal data are not overriding pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.

• we rely on contractually bound external companies and external service providers (“processors”) for the provision of the services.
In such cases personal data are transferred to these processors in order to enable them to carry out the further processing.
These processors are carefully selected by us and regularly checked in order to ensure that your right to privacy remains protected.
These processors may only use the data for the specific purposes of the processing as specified by us and are additionally contractually obligated by us to handle your data exclusively in accordance with this privacy policy and the German data protection laws.

• in the context of the further development of our business, it is possible that the structure of Koelnmesse GmbH changes in that the legal form is changed or subsidiaries, business units or constituent parts are established, purchased or sold.
In such transactions, the customer information will be transferred along with the part of the company being transferred.
We will ensure that every such transfer of personal data to third parties to the extent described above shall take place in conformity with this privacy policy and with the relevant data protection laws.
A possible transfer of personal data is justified by our legitimate interests in the pursuit of adapting our business form to economic and legal factors as needed and the fact that your rights and interests with regard to the protection of personal data are not overriding pursuant to Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.

9. Changes of purpose
The processing of your personal data for purposes other than those described will only take place to the extent permitted by a legal regulation or subject to your consent for the change of purpose of the data processing.
In the event of further processing for purposes other than those for which the data were originally collected, we will inform you of these other purposes before the further processing and make all relevant information available to you.

10. Deletion of your data
We delete or anonymize your personal data as soon as they are no longer required for the purposes pursuant to the aforementioned items for which we collected them.
As a rule, we store your personal data for the duration of your user relationship via the website.
After the expiry of these periods of notice, the data are deleted, insofar as these data are no longer required due to legal retention periods, for criminal prosecution or for the safeguarding, assertion or enforcement of legal claims.
In this case, they are locked.
The data are then no longer available for further use.

11. Automatic case-by-case decision making or profiling measures
We do not use any automated processing steps for decision-making – including profiling – in connection with our website.

12. Your rights as data subject

12.1 Right to information
You have the right to request us at any time to provide you with information on the personal data concerning you that we process within the scope of Art. 15 GDPR.

You can submit this request by sending a postal letter or e-mail to the above-mentioned address.

12.2 Right to rectification of incorrect data
You have the right to request us to rectify without delay the personal data concerning you if they are incorrect.
To do so, please submit your request to one of the above-mentioned contact addresses.

12.3 Right to erasure
You have the right to obtain from us the erasure of the personal data concerning you on the grounds described in Art. 17 GDPR.
Specifically, these grounds lay out the right to erasure if the personal data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed; this also applies to cases of where the personal data have been unlawfully processed, an objection to the processing has been submitted or an obligation to erasure exists for compliance with a legal obligation in Union or Member State law to which we are subject.
With regard to the duration of data storage, please otherwise refer to Item 10 of this privacy policy.
If you wish to exercise your aforementioned rights, please get in touch using the contact addresses provided above.

12.4 Right to restriction of processing
You have the right to request that we restrict processing pursuant to Art. 18 GDPR.
This right shall apply, in particular, when the accuracy of the personal data is contested between the user and ourselves, for a period enabling us to verify the accuracy of the personal data as well as in cases where the user has an existing right to erasure but requests the restriction of processing instead of erasure;
further cases where this right applies are when the data are no longer needed for our purposes, but the user requires them for the assertion, exercise, or defence of legal claims as well as if the successful exercise of an objection is still disputed between us and the user.
If you wish to exercise your aforementioned rights, please get in touch using the contact addresses provided above.

12.5 Right to data portability
You have the right to receive the personal data concerning you that you have provided to us, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format pursuant to Art. 20 GDPR.
If you wish to exercise your aforementioned rights, please get in touch using the contact addresses provided above.

12.6 Right to object
Pursuant to Art. 21 GDPR, you have the right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, at any time to processing of personal data concerning you which is based on point (e) or (f) of Art. 6(1) GDPR.
We will discontinue the processing of your personal data, unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for processing that outweigh your interests, fundamental rights, and freedoms, or the processing is necessary for the establishment, exercise, or defence of legal claims.

12.7 Right to lodge a complaint
Furthermore, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority.
The competent supervisory authority is:
State Commissioner for the Protection of Data and Freedom of Information, North Rhine-Westphalia
P.O.B. 20 04 44
40102 Dusseldorf, Germany
Phone +49211/38424-0
Fax +49211/ 38424-999
E-mail poststelle@ldi.nrw.de

13. Changes to this privacy policy

The currently amended version of this privacy policy can be accessed constantly under “Security and data protection”.

Status as per: 1 April 2023