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Privacy Policy

This privacy policy explains how River of Life Church, a congregation affiliated with the Bund Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Gemeinden in Deutschland K.d.ö.R. (BEFG), handles personal data.

We follow the Church's Data Protection Ordinance (Datenschutzordnung), which is based on the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and adapted to the unique needs of church life.

1. Who Is Responsible?

River of Life Church
Freseniusstraße 18,
60320 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Email: hello@rol-frankfurt.com
Phone: +49 (0)156 79 700 096

River of Life Church utilizes the Strato.de web service to manage and maintain our presence on the World Wide Web. As part of Jesus’s Church, we are committed to maintaining honorable standards when handling your personal data.

We are responsible for data processing under GDPR and BEFG rules. Pastoral confidentiality is strictly maintained.

2. An Overview Of Data Collection

We collect two types of data:

A. Automatically Collected Data

  • Browser type and version
  • Operating system
  • Referrer URL
  • Pages visited and timestamps
  • Your IP address

B. Data You Provide Voluntarily

  • Names, emails, phone numbers
  • Messages or content submitted via forms or event registrations

We only collect data that is necessary for the function of the website or to respond to your inquiries.

We will never give, sell, or share your personal data with third-party entities for marketing purposes at any time.

3. How We Use Your Data

  • To operate and improve our website
  • To respond to your inquiries
  • To manage registrations for events, newsletters, or church-related activities
  • To fulfill legal or pastoral responsibilities

4. Legal Basis For Processing

In alignment with Article 6 GDPR, we process your data based on:

  • Consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR) – e.g., when you fill in a form
  • Legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR)– e.g., technical website functioning
  • Legal obligation – e.g., documentation of church events
  • Church-specific interests ­­­− e.g., member care or event coordination

5. Cookies

Our website uses cookies to enable proper functionality, such as navigation and language settings.

. These can be:

  • Essential cookies – Required for basic site function
  • Analytics cookies – To understand how visitors use the site

No tracking cookies or analytics tools are used without your explicit consent.

On your first visit, a cookie banner will appear allowing you to grant or withhold consent. You can change these settings in your browser at any time.

6. Data Retention

We store personal data only as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined above, or as required by applicable laws.

This may include:

  • To fulfill your requests (e.g. contact form or event registration)
  • To comply with legal or administrative requirements

After completion and required documentation ends, your data is securely deleted or anonymized.

7. Data Storage And Security

Here are the technical and organizational steps we take to keep your data safe:

  • Restricted access to personal data
  • Regular backups and data minimization

8. Who Has Access To Your Data

Your personal data is only accessed by:

  • Authorized church staff or volunteers
  • Our website hosting provider, (Strato AG, Pascalstraße 10, 10587 Berlin, Germany), under contract
  • External service providers, only when necessary and with proper data protection agreements

9. Processors And Third-Party Services

We use the following data processors:

  • Hosting Provider: STRATO AG, Pascalstraße 10, 10587 Berlin, Germany
  • Planning Center: Ministry Centered Technologies, Inc., California, USA

All processors are contractually obligated to comply with GDPR standards.

10. Use Of Planning Center

We use Planning Center, a service provided by Ministry Centered Technologies, Inc. (USA), to manage community life, groups, and events. When you interact with our church, certain personal data (e.g. names, emails, phone numbers, group affiliations) may be processed through Planning Center.

A. Controller and Processor Roles:

  • River of Life Church remains the Data Controller.
  • Planning Center acts as a Data Processor under Article 28 GDPR.

B. Data transferred to third countries

Planning Center stores data in the United States. We have signed Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) with Planning Center to ensure GDPR-compliant protections for international data transfers.

For more information on Planning Center's privacy policy, see:
https://www.planningcenter.com/congregant-privacy

11. Plug-Ins And Tools

We use the following plugins:

  • Youtube: YouTube LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., San Bruno, CA 94066, USA.

If you visit one of our pages featuring a YouTube plugin, a connection to the YouTube servers is established. Here the YouTube server is informed about which of our pages you have visited.

If you're logged in to your YouTube account, YouTube allows you to associate your browsing behaviour directly with your personal profile. You can prevent this by logging out of your YouTube account.

YouTube is used to help make our website appealing. This constitutes a justified interest pursuant to Art. 6 (1) (f) DSGVO.

Further information about handling user data, can be found in the data protection declaration of YouTube under https://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy.

  • Google Maps: Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA.

To use Google Maps, it is necessary to save your IP address. This information is generally transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there. The provider of this site has no influence on this data transfer.

The use of Google Maps is in the interest of making our website appealing and to facilitate the location of places specified by us on the website. This constitutes a justified interest pursuant to Art. 6 (1) (f) DSGVO.

Further information about handling user data, can be found in the data protection declaration of Google at https://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy/.

12. Church-Specific Data Protection Oversight

As a BEFG church, we are subject to church-specific oversight. If you have concerns, you may also contact our Church Data Protection Officer (Datenschutzbeauftragter)

13. Your Rights

You have the right to:

  1. Know if we process your personal data
  2. Access your data and receive a copy
  3. Correct inaccurate data
  4. Request deletion or restriction
  5. Object to processing based on legitimate interest
  6. Withdraw consent at any time
  7. File a complaint with a data protection authority

To exercise any of these rights, please contact:
hello@rol-frankfurt.com

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection authority (Art. 77 GDPR).

14. Changes To This Policy

We reserve the right to update this privacy policy as needed to remain compliant with legal and operational changes.

The latest version will always be published on this page.

15. Contact

If you have questions about this privacy policy or how we handle your data, please contact:

River of Life Church
Freseniusstraße 18,
60320 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Email: hello@rol-frankfurt.com
Phone: +49 (0)156 79 700 096

River of Life Church is a recognized church plant in the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches in Germany (BEFG).

Bund Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Gemeinden in Deutschland, K.d.ö.R., Gemeinde River of Life Church.

Copyright © 2025 River of Life Church. All rights reserved

Location

River of Life Church is a recognized church plant in the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches in Germany (BEFG).

Bund Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Gemeinden in Deutschland, K.d.ö.R., Gemeinde River of Life Church.

Copyright 2025 River of Life Church.

All rights reserved