Privacy notice

In brief

• Taking part is voluntary. You may stop at any time; you suffer no disadvantage.
• Your address comes from official geodata of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia — not from the population register, not from an address dealer. We do not know your name.
• Address and answers are stored separately from the outset. The link between them is irretrievably deleted once the survey is complete.
• Analysis is by group only. Individual questionnaires are neither published nor passed on.
• You may object to the processing at any time — see the highlighted box further down.
• No tracking, no analytics services, no advertising — which is why you see no cookie banner here.

1. Controller

The controller for the processing of personal data within the meaning of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is:

Controller

Christian Sondergeld, private individual
Worringer Straße 40
40211 Düsseldorf
Germany

Contact for the study

sondergeld@duesseldorfer-kulturpanel.de · +49 211 566 92 534

Study management and analysis

Christian Sondergeld — controller, head of the study and analyst in one person

Data protection officer

No data protection officer has been appointed. Under Article 37 GDPR and § 38 BDSG there is no obligation to appoint one for the Düsseldorfer Freizeit- und Kulturpanel. Please address data protection matters to the address above.

Naming the controller and the contact details of the data protection officer is mandatory under Article 13 GDPR and under section 5.1 of the German guideline on handling addresses in market and social research.

2. Purpose of the survey

The Düsseldorfer Freizeit- und Kulturpanel is an academic population survey. It investigates how leisure and cultural offerings in Düsseldorf are used and judged, and what stands in the way of their use. The survey is conducted by Christian Sondergeld as a private individual; he also analyses the data himself. No company, client or public body is involved.

The panel and the doctorate. Christian Sondergeld is completing a doctorate at the University of Duisburg-Essen. The panel is organisationally not part of that project; a section of the data collected is, however, also analysed for the thesis. We name that here because it is a purpose of processing: the controller and the processing remain the same, only aggregated analyses go into the thesis, and no data is passed to the university — it is neither the sponsor nor the client of the panel, does not fund it and receives no access to the data.

The results serve research purposes and the information of cultural institutions, leisure providers and municipal bodies. Aggregated analyses — proportions, averages, comparisons between groups — are also intended to be offered commercially in future, for instance as a recurring report for cultural institutions. We state this expressly here, because consent is only valid if it knows the intentions that already exist at the time of collection.

This does not affect the following: your individual answers and your address are never contained in such reports and are neither sold nor passed on. Use for advertising, sales promotion or approaching individuals does not take place and is also excluded by the profession’s code of conduct.

“Market and social research activities must be strictly separated, in their organisation and conduct, from any kind of non-research activity.” — Guideline for online surveys, section 7.

3. Where your address came from

We did not receive your address from you. Under Article 14 GDPR we are therefore obliged to tell you its origin.

The sample is based on official geodata of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia. The land register is maintained electronically in the official land register information system (ALKIS). Individual geo-objects can be retrieved from it through the direct download service of the GEOportal.NRW. The publicly accessible service provides only the following geo-objects:

• Land parcels
• Buildings
• Actual land use
• Administrative units
• Cadastral districts

A cluster sample of addresses was drawn from these objects. Within every address drawn, all private households resident there were then included (full enumeration). Personal data plays no part in this random procedure.

The use of addresses from publicly accessible sources is based, under section 4.1 of the guideline on handling addresses, on Article 6(1)(f) GDPR.

The source used, precisely identified

So that you can verify the origin yourself, here are the full details of the dataset used:

Publisher

Geobasis NRW (Bezirksregierung Köln), Amtliches Liegenschaftskatasterinformationssystem ALKIS

Product

ALKIS ground plan data, simplified data exchange schema under the AdV product specification — object types land parcel, building structure and parcel use

File

202601_gru_vereinf_05111000_Duesseldorf_EPSG25832.gpkg

Data as at

1 April 2026

Obtained from

opengeodata.nrw.de — freely accessible, without registration

Why not the municipal street directory? Because residential buildings cannot be reliably distinguished there from other building uses. The aim, however, was to include residential buildings only — commercial, administrative and industrial addresses were not to be written to. The geodata contains the actual use of each parcel and permits exactly that distinction.

4. What data we process

Contact data

Postal address (street, house number, postcode, town), together with the number of households at that address and the access code assigned. No name, no telephone number. We collect an email address only if you expressly agree, at the end of the questionnaire, to be written to again for a later survey wave (see section 15).

Survey data

Your answers to the questions in the questionnaire. Collected are: details about your household and about you (who lives with you, qualifications, age, gender, district); your housing situation and surroundings (how long you have lived here, how you live, what your neighbourhood is like, how you get into town, how connected you feel to Düsseldorf); interests in and use of leisure and cultural offerings in all their breadth — stage and music, museums and libraries, cinema, neighbourhood festivals, parks and sport, offers outside the city and online — as well as what you do yourself; reasons for non-use (price, time of day, the journey, no one to go with, the feeling of not being the intended audience); who you go out with, how often your household does something outside the home together, who suggests it and who you talk to about it afterwards; leisure and culture in your childhood and youth; how you perceive individual offers (whom an offer addresses in your view, whether you feel you are meant, and whether it has changed in your view); employment, income and satisfaction; and finally your feedback on the questionnaire itself together with the question whether we may invite you again in about a year.

Technical data

When the portal and the questionnaire are called up, technical connection data arises at the host, including the IP address. It is not merged with your answers and is deleted after seven days.

Special categories (Article 9 GDPR)

Three short blocks of questions touch on special categories of personal data: country of birth (yours and your parents’), a self-assessment of your own state of health and of health-related limitations on going out, and political attitudes on cultural matters. Religious affiliation is not asked about. All these questions are voluntary: they are announced in the questionnaire on a separate transition page, your express consent is obtained there separately for each of the three topics, and without consent the questions concerned are skipped.

We identify these questions as special categories even where they sit unobtrusively among standard characteristics in the questionnaire. Information on health, data from which ethnic origin may emerge, and political opinion count as such under Article 9(1) GDPR regardless of how incidentally they are asked. Country of birth is not in itself a characteristic under Article 9; we nevertheless treat it as one, because the professional codes call for a broad reading. Anyone who does not wish to answer them gets through the questionnaire without disadvantage.

Where special categories of personal data are collected together with others, section 3.3 of the guideline on handling addresses requires an “additional transition question whose answer must be recorded”; anyone who declines to answer is to be taken on to the next block of questions.

5. Legal bases

Letter and access code

Article 6(1)(f) GDPR — legitimate interest in conducting academic social research on the basis of a random sample

Processing of your answers

Article 6(1)(f) GDPR; additionally Article 6(1)(a) GDPR insofar as you expressly consent in the questionnaire

Special categories of data

Article 9(2)(a) GDPR — your express consent, obtained separately in the questionnaire before the questions concerned; additionally Article 9(2)(j) GDPR in conjunction with § 27 BDSG (academic research)

Storage for later waves

Article 6(1)(a) GDPR — only with your prior consent

Further processing for research

Article 5(1)(b) in conjunction with Article 89 GDPR — further processing for research purposes is not considered incompatible with the original purpose

Our legitimate interest in detail: generalisable statements about a population presuppose a random sample. If it were restricted from the outset to people who had previously consented to the processing of their data, the results would be systematically biased — precisely at the expense of the groups that rarely answer anyway. Against this stands a slight intrusion: we use only publicly accessible address data without names, keep it separate from the answers, and delete it once the survey is complete.

What we expressly do not rely on: we do not base the processing on Article 6(1)(e) GDPR (“task carried out in the public interest”). That basis is not open to private research organisations. Consequently we also do not invoke the associated restriction of your right to object under Article 21(6) GDPR.

6. Your right to object

Under section 5.3.1 of the guideline on handling addresses, notice of the right to object must be given “in an intelligible form, separate from other information” — hence this set-apart box. Under section 6.4 of the same guideline, the addresses of people who forbid further contact are to be “deleted immediately”.

7. Separation, pseudonymisation and anonymisation

We describe this sequence precisely on purpose, because it determines from what point your answers can no longer be attributed to you.

1. Separate storage from the outset

   Address data and survey data are held in separate systems. An assignment is possible only through the access code, which is common to both.

2. During the survey: pseudonymous, not anonymous

   While that assignment exists, your answers too count in law as personal data. In this phase we therefore speak of pseudonymous and not of anonymous data. The assignment serves solely for quality assurance and to avoid duplicate participation.

3. After the survey: the link is broken

   As soon as the fieldwork and the associated quality checks are complete, the address data is deleted and the link between access code and answers is broken irrecoverably. From that point not even the study management can determine which questionnaire belonged to which address.

4. Coarsening of near-individual details

   Because the sample is designed at a fine spatial scale, rare combinations of characteristics could in theory point to individuals. Such details are aggregated or coarsened before analysis; very small groups are not reported separately.

“In online surveys, address data is to be stored a priori separately from the survey data” (guideline on handling addresses, section 6.2). “Pseudonymous data is not anonymous data” (ibid., section 3.4). On coarsening: ibid., section 3.4.1.

8. Recipients and processors

Individual data is not passed on. Neither your address nor your individual questionnaire leaves the study management. Even the information as to whether you took part is not passed on — it is itself personal data. Results are reported in aggregate form only.

Two processors under Article 28 GDPR are technically involved:

Survey software

None. The questionnaire is the study management’s own application and runs under the same address as this portal. No third-party survey platform is used; the processing of your answers takes place exclusively at the study management.

Hosting of portal and questionnaire

STRATO AG, Otto-Ostrowski-Straße 7, 10249 Berlin, Germany. The servers are located in Germany. A data processing agreement under Article 28 GDPR is in place with STRATO.

Telephone assistant

STRATO AG (product “STRATO SMART KI”). Callers to the study number are first answered by an AI assistant that records their request. Details are in section 16.

Printing and posting of the letters

No lettershop is commissioned. Printing and posting are carried out by the study management itself; your address does not leave the house for that purpose.

Transfer to third countries

For the portal, the questionnaire and the address management, no personal data is transferred to countries outside the European Union. For the telephone assistant, STRATO engages further processors; the authoritative list is the current register kept by STRATO.

Under section 6 of the guideline for online surveys, the provider is to be obliged to “take the necessary technical precautions so that third-party access to this data is not possible there or during data transfer”; temporary storage on the server is “to be ended at the earliest possible point”.

9. Retention periods

Address and access code

Until the completion of fieldwork and quality checks, at the latest until February 2028. In the event of an objection: without delay.

Answers on the survey server

Transfer to the analysis holdings and deletion from the web server at the earliest possible point after the end of the field phase.

Anonymised survey data

Kept indefinitely for academic analysis and for the verifiability of the results. After anonymisation it is no longer personal data.

Address where panel consent is given

Only with express consent at the end of the questionnaire; until the completion of the last panel wave or until your withdrawal — whichever comes first.

Email address for later waves

Only with express consent; until the completion of the last panel wave or until your withdrawal — whichever comes first.

Suppression notes

If you tell us that you do not wish to be contacted again, we store solely a suppression note with your postal address. The note is kept separately from all other data and serves only to rule out further contact permanently. It remains for as long as further survey waves are possible — at most until the panel ends; after that it is deleted.

10. Technical and organisational measures

Under Article 32 GDPR we take measures ensuring a level of protection appropriate to the risk:

• Encrypted transmission of all pages and of the questionnaire (TLS). Details under Technology.
• Separate systems for address and survey data.
• Access control: only the controller has access to addresses and answers — there are no other staff.
• Entry control through a password policy, screen lock and firewall.
• Physical access control to the rooms in which data carriers are kept.
• Availability control through virus protection, backups and secured archiving.
• Vetting of the processor (STRATO) before processing begins and regularly thereafter. Should further persons ever be involved, they will be bound to confidentiality and data protection beforehand.

Structured according to the guide to information security in market, opinion and social research (TeleTrusT/ADM/DGOF), chapter 4, and section 7 of the guideline on handling addresses.

11. Your rights

You have the following rights vis-à-vis us:

• Access to the data stored about you (Article 15 GDPR)
• Rectification of inaccurate data (Article 16 GDPR)
• Erasure (Article 17 GDPR)
• Restriction of processing (Article 18 GDPR)
• Data portability (Article 20 GDPR)
• Objection to the processing (Article 21 GDPR — see section 6)
• Withdrawal of consent with effect for the future (Article 7(3) GDPR). The lawfulness of processing carried out up to that point remains unaffected.
• Complaint to a supervisory authority (Article 77 GDPR)

No automated decision-making, including profiling (Article 22 GDPR), takes place.

We do not restrict these rights. Article 89(2) GDPR in conjunction with § 27(2) BDSG does permit exceptions for research purposes under narrow conditions. We do not invoke those exceptions, because the exercise of your rights does not impair the conduct of this study.

Competent supervisory authority

Authority

Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit Nordrhein-Westfalen (LDI NRW)
Kavalleriestraße 2–4
40213 Düsseldorf, Germany

Telephone

+49 211 38424-0

Email

poststelle@ldi.nrw.de

Website

www.ldi.nrw.de

In practice it is usually quicker if you come to us directly first — your right to complain of course remains unaffected by that.

12. Voluntary commitments

Beyond the statutory requirements we abide by the professional standards of German market and social research issued by ADM, ASI, BVM and DGOF. From these follow commitments that no law compels:

• No advertising. Advertising is not permitted on survey pages. These pages contain no advertising and no links to commercial offerings.
• No mixing with other purposes. The survey is not a preamble to selling, consultancy or recruiting members.
• No forwarding by name. We do not forward respondents to third parties — not even at their request and not even with their consent.
• Anonymisation as soon as the research purpose permits, and coarsening of details that could make individuals identifiable.
• Complete presentation of results. Results are not published selectively; interpretations are reported separately from the findings.
• Complaints procedure. Breaches of these professional standards can be reported to the German Council of Market and Social Research.

This self-commitment is more than a declaration of intent: it reduces the intrusiveness of the processing and is therefore part of the balancing of interests on which we base our legal ground.

13. Cookies, log files, no tracking

No analytics services are used on this survey portal. There is no audience measurement, no profiling, and no third-party services are embedded. For the same reason you see no cookie banner here: there is nothing to consent to beyond the technically necessary session handling.

In the questionnaire a single technically necessary session cookie is set (name: kp_sitzung). It keeps you signed in while you fill in the questionnaire so that the code does not have to be asked for on every page; it contains no answers and is not used to analyse your behaviour. It expires after two hours without input, and at the latest when you submit or break off the questionnaire. The legal basis is § 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG; no consent is required for it. Your progress itself is stored not in the cookie but on the server under your access code.

When these pages are called up, the host automatically stores access data in log files: page called, time, volume of data transferred, browser type, operating system and IP address. The legal basis is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR — the legitimate interest in secure and stable operation. The data is deleted after seven days and is not merged with the survey data.

14. Minors

Only people aged 18 and over take part in the survey. The letter is addressed to an address, not to a name; within the household, the adult who had their birthday most recently answers (last-birthday method). Minors are neither surveyed nor included in the analysis.

On household structure, adult respondents may give general information about the composition of their household — the number of children living there, for instance. Such information is limited to what is necessary to describe the household; no surveys of minors themselves, no information on their leisure behaviour and no personal individual characteristics are collected.

Guideline on surveying minors, sections 4.1, 4.2 and 11. The point is relevant here because all resident households are included at each address.

15. Repeat and follow-up surveys

The name of the study contains the word “panel”. A second and a third wave are planned, intended to establish how cultural behaviour changes over time and how that change relates to what leisure and cultural providers offer.

At the end of the questionnaire there is therefore the so-called panel question: you are asked whether you would be willing to take part again. Only if you expressly agree do we keep your address from the sampling frame for the next wave — and, if you volunteer it, an email address for the invitation. Without your agreement your address is deleted as set out in section 9. Your name and telephone number are not needed for this and are not collected.

Without this consent we treat your participation as a one-off survey and delete your address as described above. You can withdraw the consent at any time with effect for the future — an informal message to sondergeld@duesseldorfer-kulturpanel.de is enough. The email address is used exclusively for the invitation to further waves, stored separately from the survey data and not merged with your answers.

Guideline on handling addresses, section 5.2: “If consent is not given, this first interview counts as a one-off survey.” Consent without prior notice of the further use is invalid.

Your consents: proof and withdrawal

Up to four consents are requested separately in the questionnaire (text version EW-2026-10-01): the processing of your information on health, the processing of your information on political attitudes, the storage of your contact details for further waves, and receipt of the results report. Each is voluntary, each stands on its own, and none is a condition of any other.

At the end of the survey you receive an overview of your consents, which you can print or save as a PDF. We record the time and the wording of every consent so that we can demonstrate it under Article 7(1) GDPR; earlier text versions remain archived for that purpose.

Withdrawal at any time and without formality: a short message to sondergeld@duesseldorfer-kulturpanel.de, a call on +49 211 566 92 534 or a letter is enough. No reason is needed and you suffer no disadvantage. After a withdrawal we delete your contact details. The lawfulness of processing carried out up to the withdrawal remains unaffected.

16. Telephone assistant on the study line

Anyone calling the study number 0211-566 92 534 first speaks to an AI telephone assistant. It gives its name and states at the start of the call that it is an AI. It records the request and answers questions about the survey; decisions and replies come from the study management in person.

What is processed

Your telephone number, the time and duration of the call, and the content of the conversation, which is converted into text. A summary of the call is sent to the study management. No audio recording of the call is kept.

Purpose

Being reachable by telephone outside the hours in which the study management can answer in person, and preparing the personal call back.

Legal basis

Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. The legitimate interest is to be able to take calls rather than leave them unanswered. The call is made by you; you may write to us instead at any time.

No access codes

The assistant does not take access codes and never asks for one. If a code is mentioned anyway, it is not written into the call record. Call data is not combined with your questionnaire answers — the two are kept technically separate.

Processor

STRATO AG, Otto-Ostrowski-Straße 7, 10249 Berlin. A data processing agreement under Article 28 GDPR is in place. STRATO engages further processors for this service.

Retention

Call history and summary are deleted once the request has been dealt with, at the latest three months after the call. Contact details left for a call back are deleted after that call.

Your rights under section 11 apply to this data as well. If you would rather not have an AI take your request, please write to sondergeld@duesseldorfer-kulturpanel.de or by post to the address given in section 1.

The notice at the start of the call implements Article 50 of Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 on artificial intelligence: anyone interacting with an AI system must be informed of that fact.

17. Version and changes

We adapt this notice when the legal position, the technology used or the course of the study changes. The version in force at any time is on this page. You can print or save it at any time.

Version of this notice: 16 September 2026

Section 4.8.2 of the guideline on handling addresses requires that in online surveys the privacy notice must be “displayed on screen with the possibility of printing it” and must be “adapted in content to the respective survey method”. Participation is designed to take place online; this notice is the authoritative version for that mode and can be printed from the browser. If in an individual case participation is only possible by another route, you will receive the notice in a version adapted accordingly.