What happens to your answers

Our commitments

Your voluntary participation makes visible who uses leisure and cultural offers, who does not — and why. So that you know what you are agreeing to, here first are the six commitments by which we ask to be judged.

• Stored separately. Answers are stored separately from addresses.
• Analysed in groups only. Analysis is always by group, never individually.
• Voluntary. Taking part is voluntary; stopping has no consequences.
• No unsolicited emails. We write to you by post and never ask for bank details.
• Transmitted in encrypted form. Details on the Technology page.
• Documented transparently. The questionnaire and a methods report will be published — see Articles.

Why your answers cannot be traced back to you

Your access code serves only to avoid duplicate participation and to avoid writing to you a second time. It does not sit next to your answers in the same file.

The two are kept apart. The link between them is deleted once the survey is complete — after that, not even we can establish which questionnaire belonged to which address.

Aggregate analysis only

What is analysed is never an individual questionnaire but always a group: proportions, averages and comparisons — between age groups, city districts or frequency of cultural attendance, for instance.

If a group becomes so small that conclusions about individuals might be drawn, it is merged with a larger one or not reported at all. This is standard practice in official statistics and applies here in the same way.

What is collected, and how long it is kept

Collected

• Household characteristics
• Leisure behaviour and cultural participation
• Motivation and context of activities
• Reasons for use and non-use
• Preferences in genres, styles and activities
• Use of information and media
• Attitudes and values regarding culture and society
• In-depth questions on individual types of offer (cinema, theatre, concerts and so on)

Not collected

Name and telephone number. An email address only if you expressly agree to the panel question at the end of the questionnaire (see below).

Special categories (Article 9 GDPR)

A few questions touch on special categories of personal data — country of birth, state of health, and political attitudes. These are voluntary, are announced beforehand, your consent is obtained separately for each topic, and without consent they are skipped; details are in the privacy notice.

Retention of address data

Until the end of the field phase, at the latest until February 2028 — longer only if you agree at the end of the questionnaire to take part again

Retention of answers

Anonymised and kept indefinitely for academic analysis and for the verifiability of the results

Survey conducted by

Christian Sondergeld, privately and at his own expense

Country of birth, health and political attitudes

Collected only with separate, express consent (Article 9(2)(a) GDPR). Without consent the block of questions is skipped — participation remains complete

Analysis by

The same person — collection and analysis are in one pair of hands, with no institute in between

Disclosure

No disclosure of individual data — not even for payment. Aggregated results may be offered commercially in future; individuals are not identifiable in them. Results are reported in aggregate form only

The legally binding statements — controller, legal basis and your rights to information, rectification and erasure — are in the privacy notice.

The panel question at the end of the questionnaire

The name of the study contains the word “panel”. That means it is not meant to stop at a single survey. A second and a third wave are intended to show how cultural behaviour changes over the years, and how that change relates to what leisure and cultural providers offer. Such trajectories can only be identified if the same people answer again later.

That is why the panel question appears at the end of the questionnaire: would you be willing to take part again in about a year? You may simply say no — the questionnaire you have already completed counts just the same.

If you expressly agree, you leave an email address for that purpose. We need nothing more: no name, no telephone number, no exact address. The address is stored separately from your answers, used solely for the invitation to the next wave, and never merged with your answers. You can withdraw your consent at any time — an informal message is enough.

If you no longer wish to take part

Taking part is voluntary. You may stop at any time, without giving reasons and without any disadvantage. Simply close the window.

If you want answers you have already given to be deleted, a message to sondergeld@duesseldorfer-kulturpanel.de quoting your access code is enough. Once the dataset has been anonymised, assignment is technically no longer possible — from that point individual answers can no longer be removed either.

How to tell that a message is really from us

• Your invitation and your access code arrive by post — never by email, never by text message or messenger. You will receive an email only if you gave us an address yourself at the panel question.
• We never ask for bank details, passwords or identity document numbers.
• We never ask you to send your access code back to us.
• If in doubt, call us — the number is beside this text and on your letter. The two must match.