Data protection notice

The Austrian Ombudsman Board processes personal data in order to fulfil the tasks assigned to it by the legal system. This concerns the following procedures in the Ombudsman Board's audit and control area:

• Complaint proceedings before the AOB pursuant to Art. 148a para. 1 and 4 B-VG
• Official review procedures pursuant to Art. 148a para. 2 B-VG
• Proceedings for the protection and promotion of human rights pursuant to Art. 148a para. 3 B-VG
• Proceedings concerning applications pursuant to Section 15 of the Home Victims' Pensions Act
• in the case of findings of maladministration, recommendations and suggestions for measures of official supervision pursuant to Art. 148c B-VG as well as reports (including attached comments by the commissions pursuant to Section 13 para. 2 of the Ombudsman Act 1982)
• for applications to the Constitutional Court pursuant to Art. 139 Para. 1 Z 5 and 6, Art. 148f and Art. 148i Para. 1 second sentence B-VG
• Proceedings concerning decisions made by the members of the Ombudsman Board as a parliamentary arbitration board pursuant to Section 57 of Annex 1 to the 1975 Rules of Procedure Act (Rules of Procedure for Parliamentary Committees of Inquiry - VO-UA)
• Proceedings concerning decisions on the appointment and dismissal of the members of the commissions as well as the chairperson, their deputy and the other members and substitute members of the Human Rights Advisory Council and the members of the Pension Commission
• Dealing with petitions and citizens' initiatives submitted to the National Council pursuant to Art. 148a para. 5 B-VG in conjunction with Section 100b para. 1 no. 1 lit. b of the National Council Rules of Procedure Act (GOG-NR)

The processing operations are necessary for the performance of the aforementioned procedures (conduct of proceedings, decision-making, communication, storage), i.e. for the fulfilment of legal obligations or the performance of statutory tasks in the (substantial) public interest. The legal basis for the processing (including special categories) of personal data, in addition to the aforementioned legal bases in which the tasks of the Ombudsman Board are defined, is Section 5 (2) of the Austrian Ombudsman Board Act 1982. This is a general order that the Ombudsman Board may process the personal data required for this purpose within the scope of its activities.

The following data is processed:

First name and surname, title, form of address or gender, function/professional title/field of activity, contact details (in particular address and e-mail address), date of birth, national insurance number, pleadings and enclosures, date of submission, case number, process (file history - all offices and persons involved, inspection comments), notes and memos, subject matter designations, text of settlement, reference numbers of other files, signature, correspondence, date of service or other data provided by the persons lodging the complaint.

Pursuant to § 2 Z 2 Federal Archives Act in conjunction with. § Section 2 para. 1 of the Federal Archives Ordinance and no. 3 of the Annex to Section 2 para. 1 of the Federal Archives Ordinance, documents that are created in the course of the Ombudsman Board's examination activities are considered archive records as soon as they are created. The same applies to documents that accrue directly to an Ombudsman in the exercise of his or her function or in his or her office (No. 5 of the Annex to § 2 para. 1 of the Federal Archives Ordinance). It follows from this that data obtained in the course of the AOB's auditing activities, even if they are personal data, may not be deleted (section 5 para. 8 of the AOB Act 1982).

The data is transmitted - in accordance with the procedural regulations - to the persons, authorities, courts, self-governing bodies and other institutions involved in the proceedings before the Ombudsman Board that are to be involved in the course of the proceedings or investigations.

The Austrian Ombudsman Board offers a newsletter on national and international activities of the Austrian Ombudsman Board. The following personal data is collected in connection with the monthly electronic newsletter:

• E-mail address

The data is stored in the internal database and is only used for the purpose of sending and managing the newsletter. You can unsubscribe from the e-mail newsletter at any time and free of charge by clicking on the "Unsubscribe" link at the end of the newsletter or by contacting us at the e-mail address provided below. However, any processing carried out on the basis of your consent prior to cancellation remains lawful. The data will not be passed on to third parties, but we use an e-mail dispatch service for our newsletter. If you withdraw your consent, you will be deleted from the respective mailing list.

The buildings used by the Austrian Ombudsman Board are video-monitored on the outside and video-recorded. The recordings are only analysed when necessary. Analyses are logged and carried out according to the dual control principle. Selected interior rooms are video-monitored in real time.

The purpose of video surveillance is the protection of persons and property, the prevention, containment and clarification of criminally relevant behaviour, insofar as this affects self-protection (protection of members, employees and property) and protection of responsibility (e.g. for bodies of other authorities and visitors), and the exercise of domiciliary rights.

The legal basis is the protection of legitimate interests (self-protection and responsibility protection).

The categories of data processed are image data, place and time of image recording.

The storage period is 72 hours, as permitted by law. If video recordings are saved for protection or preservation of evidence in a specific case, they will be deleted after any proceedings have been concluded. If necessary for evidentiary purposes (e.g. suspicion of a criminal offence, administrative assistance), your data will be forwarded to the relevant authorities. Your data will otherwise only be transferred to third parties if the Austrian Ombudsman Board is obliged to do so by law or by court order.

Personal data in or from job application documents are processed to process and review the application, carry out the selection procedure, establish contact and, if necessary, keep records in the event of consent.

The legal basis is the fulfilment of legal obligations (Public Procurement Act 1989, Civil Service Act 1979, Contractual Employees Act 1948), the fulfilment of (pre-)contractual measures and consent (record-keeping).

The following data (if provided) is processed:

Salutation, academic degree, first name and surname, title, e-mail address, telephone number, postal address, CV, letter of motivation, certificates, notifications.

The storage or deletion of the data is based on the provisions of § 20 of the Federal Equal Treatment Act, §§ 280 ff of the Civil Service Act 1979 (upon acceptance into the employment relationship) or - if consent has been given with regard to keeping records for one year - until revocation. You can revoke your consent to keep your application on file at any time. In this case, your personal data may only be stored within the scope of the applicable statutory retention obligations.

The data will be treated confidentially and only transmitted to third parties within the scope of legal obligations.

Please refer to the website www.jobboerse.gv.at/information for the relevant information regarding applications and contact via the job exchange of the Republic of Austria .

If you contact us by telephone, post or e-mail and/or make use of the consultation days, the data you provide (if specified, e.g. title, academic degree, first name and surname, e-mail address, home address, telephone number, content of the complaint and other information provided or submitted) will be stored by us for the purpose of processing the enquiry and in the event of follow-up questions or for the further handling of the complaint (see point 1.). We will not pass this data on to third parties without your consent.

The handling of the case or complaint is documented, the data is stored in the internal database and only used for the purpose of processing the case or complaint (see point 1.). The legal basis for this is Section 5 (3) of the Austrian Ombudsman Board Act 1982 or the fulfilment of (pre-)contractual measures or legal obligations (retention provisions).

Pursuant to § 2 Z 2 Federal Archive Act in conjunction with § Section 2 para. 1 of the Federal Archives Ordinance and no. 3 of the Annex to Section 2 para. 1 of the Federal Archives Ordinance, written material that arises in the course of the Ombudsman Board's investigative and monitoring activities is deemed to be archive material when it is created. The same applies to documents that accrue directly to an Ombudsperson in the exercise of her or his function or in her or his office (No. 5 of the Annex to § 2 para. 1 of the Federal Archives Ordinance). It follows from this that data arising in the course of the Ombudsman Board's investigative and monitoring activities, even if they are personal data, may not be deleted (section 5 para. 8 Ombudsman Act 1982).

The following data is processed for registration and access to the Austrian Ombudsman Board: First and last name, contact details (telephone number, email address), information on accessibility (optional), date and time of the visit, data of the registered group

The purposes are visitor management, access control, documentation (non-personalised statistics). The data is stored in the internal database for one year for documentation purposes.

The legal basis is the fulfilment of (pre-)contractual measures (e.g. bookings); safeguarding legitimate interests (access control to ensure security) or performing a task in the public interest (documentation).

In the case of group registrations, the data may originate from the person making the registration.

Your data will only be transmitted to third parties if the Austrian Ombudsman Board is obliged to do so by law or by court order.

When registering for participation in events/conferences/seminars of the Austrian Ombudsman Board, the personal data provided will be used and processed for the purpose of organisation, implementation and documentation as well as for information about the event in question and for future similar events of the Austrian Ombudsman Board. You can object to the invitation to future similar events at any time.

The legal basis is the fulfilment of a task in the public interest (public relations, documentation) or the protection of legitimate interests.

The following data (if provided) will be processed:

Salutation, academic degree, first name and surname, title, institution, e-mail address, telephone number, postal address, information on accessibility (optional), title and date of the event.

The data is stored in the file management system and deleted or archived in accordance with the office regulations.

Some events are organised in cooperation with external partners. In such cases, the invitation circle is determined jointly. The registration data may be made available to the cooperation partners if this is necessary for the organisation of the event. After the end of the event, these partners undertake to delete all personal data that they have received exclusively for the preparation and realisation of the event. The same applies vice versa for the Austrian Ombudsman Board. The obligations under the GDPR are fulfilled by the cooperation partner in whose area the data processing in question is carried out. Rights of data subjects can be asserted with and against any cooperation partner.

The Austrian Ombudsman Board also records events on photos or videos. This serves the purpose of reporting and providing information about the event as well as documentation (in fulfilment of a task in the public interest).

The photos and videos are stored in the file management system and deleted or archived in accordance with the office regulations. Selected photos and videos are published on the website of the Austrian Ombudsman Board. On specific request, photos are also passed on to third parties (in particular the media, cooperation partners and event participants).

Our website uses so-called cookies. These are small text files that are stored on your end device when you visit our website. Cookies are used to make interactions with websites and services easier and to ensure error-free use. They also enable us to improve our online service.

Most of the cookies used are so-called "session cookies", which are only stored on your end device for a short time and are automatically deleted at the end of your visit. Other cookies remain stored on your device until you delete them. These cookies make it possible to recognise a user when using the web application again. If you do not agree to the use of cookies, you can block or delete the use of cookies at any time. A variety of tools are available to you for this purpose (including browser controls and settings).

You can find more information on blocking cookies in the help function of your web browser. If cookies are deactivated, we cannot guarantee that all functions of the website can be used to their full extent.

For the cookie settings

To improve our online service, visitor statistics are analysed as required. For this purpose, we use the open source web analytics tool ‘AWStats’. AWStats uses cookies (see also the previous paragraph) to allow for an analysis of the use of the application. For this purpose, the information generated by the cookies is transferred to our IT service provider's servers and stored there for analysis purposes. The data is used exclusively for website optimisation.

Data used:

IP address (anonymised), date and time of access, pages/files accessed, referrer URL, browser type and version, operating system, duration of visit, files downloaded, HTTP status codes, authentication data for protected areas, search terms and search engines, robots/spiders, geolocation data.

The IP addresses of visitors are stored anonymously. The IP address is truncated before storage so that it can no longer be traced back to an individual.

You can object to data storage by AWStats by deactivating this function in your browser (so-called ‘do not track’).

During your visit to our website, the following information is automatically collected and stored in log files: your IP address, the page accessed, the name and version of your web browser, the referrer, and the date and time of the request. This data is not evaluated on a personal level.

The storage of data is necessary for security reasons in order to maintain the stability and data security of our operating system. The log files are stored for a maximum of 30 days and then automatically deleted. The log files are managed and deleted by the technical administrator or the hosting provider.

Videos from YouTube are embedded on this website. To be able to play the videos, the player and the video are loaded from YouTube. YouTube is a video portal operated by Google LLC (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA). When a video is accessed, data is transmitted to YouTube and Google, including the IP address, type of end device, screen resolution, browser and operating system. Detailed information on the collection and storage of data by YouTube can be found in Google's privacy policy.

The use of YouTube requires cookies, which you must first consent to via the cookie settings. No data will be transmitted to YouTube without your consent.

Videos from Vimeo are embedded on this website. In order to play the videos, the player and the video are loaded from Vimeo. Vimeo is a video portal operated by Vimeo.com, Inc. (330 West 34th Street, 5th Floor, New York, New York 10001, USA). When a video is accessed, data is transmitted to Vimeo, including IP address, type of end device, screen resolution, browser and operating system. Detailed information on the collection and storage of data by Vimeo can be found in Vimeo's privacy policy.

The use of Vimeo requires cookies, which you must first consent to via the cookie settings. No data will be transferred to Vimeo without your consent.

Our website contains various external links to other websites. Even though we check external links carefully, we would like to point out that we are not liable for the content and security of external, linked websites.

Rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection (Art. 15 to 21 GDPR). Special regulations apply to data processing in proceedings at the Austrian Ombudsman Board (see under 1.); your rights in this regard are subject to certain restrictions (Section 5 (4) to (12) of the Austrian Ombudsman Board Act 1982).

If the lawfulness of data processing is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal (Art. 7 para. 3 GDPR).

There is a right of appeal to the Parliamentary Data Protection Committee (§§ 35a ff. DSG).

Please contact the e-mail address: va(at)volksanwaltschaft.gv.at for the matters mentioned and for any other questions. If you wish to assert your data protection rights, please enclose suitable proof of identity.

The Austrian Ombudsman Board has appointed the Data Protection Officer and Deputy Data Protection Officers of the Parliamentary Administration as Data Protection Officers of the Austrian Ombudsman Board, who can be contacted via the e-mail address datenschutzbeauftragte(at)parlament.gv.at .

The data protection officer is the Ombudsman Board (Section 5 (3) of the Austrian Ombudsman Board Act 1982):