Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy Statement for the BMG Website

Welcome to the website of BMG which BMG Rights Management GmbH, Germany, (“BMG”) operates on behalf of all members of the BMG group of companies. Protecting our users’ personal data is an important concern for BMG. BMG is subject to statutory supervision by the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information. All of BMG’s activities on and in connection with our website “bmg.com” comply with the applicable German data protection legislation, in particular the Telemedia Act and the Federal Data Protection Act. This privacy policy informs you on how and for what purpose we process personal data in connection with your visit to, and use of, our website.

I. Collection and Processing of Personal Data

We collect and process personal data, i.e. information that identifies, or at least makes it possible to identify, you as a natural person (e.g. your name, your address or your e-mail) when you decide to actively communicate with us, when you subscribe to email newsletters or other services we may provide, and when you use our Online Client Platform (the “Platform”) as a writer, publisher or other contracting partner of BMG (jointly “BMG Partner(s)”) in the “my.bmg” section of our website (see sections I.1. and I.2. below). Furthermore, we collect and process certain technical data that results from you visiting our website (see section II. below).

1. The Public Section of the Website

There are certain data that you may – but by no means must – submit to us when using the public parts of our website.

    1.1 When you subscribe to newsletters or other services that we may offer our users from time to time you will obviously have to submit your email address as well as any other data necessary for the provision of the service. Also, there are means on our website to get in touch with us directly, especially our contact form, which in turn requires you to submit personal data, such as your name and your email address, but also the very content of your request.
    1.2 We collect, store and use such data in order to fulfil your corresponding request. Your data will not be collected, stored or used in any other way or for any other purpose. Hence, as an example, if you submit your email address via our contact form with a request for certain information, we will use only your email address to get back to you with – so we hope – the information you requested. Hence, you fully control the information you provide BMG about yourself and how it may be used.
    1.3 Should you no longer wish to receive a newsletter or other ongoing service, you may unsubscribe at any time.

2. Our Online Client Platform

The Platform under “my.bmg.com” is a service for BMG Partners who wish to stay fully informed and up to date on their royalty earnings. For BMG Partners we provide an online interface to our corresponding databases.

    2.1 To ensure that only you as a BMG Partner may gain access to the corresponding information we conduct an offline registration process. If you have decided to get in touch with the designated contact person and have received your login data, you may login to your account on the Platform.
    2.2 You are not required to submit any extra personal data before or while using the Platform (see section 2.3, though). Please, be aware, however, that the data you can retrieve on the Platform is personal and confidential. If you pass on your login data to anyone else, or if it gets passed on to anyone else, that person can access the data just as you can, unless and until you tell us to block your login data.
    2.3 While not being required to submit personal data through the Platform, you can edit certain personal data in the settings section of the Platform. We will store and use edited personal data to, as applicable, continue providing the services of the Platform for you and/or to fulfil our obligations towards you. For example, by informing us on a new postal address, you allow us to send you any statements or other documents we may owe you to that address, unless stipulated otherwise in your contractual documentation.

II. Log Files and Cookies

1. General and Error Log Files

When you visit our website, our webservers store certain data in log files.

    1.1 The general log files may tell us which Internet browser and operating system you were using and which (masked) IP address was allocated to your Internet access when you were visiting the site, the URL of the internet page from which you arrived at our website, the exact time when you accessed and left our website, the amount of data transmitted, and the pages you accessed on our website. The last octet (8-bit byte) of the IP address in the general log files will be masked, however, so that making the connection from the IP address to your specific Internet access is made absolutely impossible (i.e. not only for us but for anyone).
    1.2 Should our web server(s) detect an error in processing requests, it will send the corresponding information to an error log file. Those log files for technical reasons also record the client IP address from which the request was sent, i.e. your IP address if your request caused the error.
    1.3 We have no means, and no interest in, identifying you through the general or error log file data. We use the general log file data for statistical purposes. The information we can from time to time retrieve from the files relates to, for example, peak times of the use of our website, which information our users are most interested in on the website, how users navigate on our website and which browsers and operating system our users use. We use that information to improve the technical setup as well as the design of our website. The error log files are used to diagnose and fix the error.

2. Platform Log Files

In addition to the general and error log files, we keep log files of all logins to and logouts from, and downloads of documents from, the Platform under my.bmg.com in order to protect you and ourselves from any misuse of the service. For that purpose we also display the exact time and date of you latest login in the settings section of your account on the Platform which we store in our database.

3. Cookies

    3.1 Our website uses http cookies. A http cookie is a piece of text stored on your computer by your web browser. Cookies are sent as a field in the header of the http response by our web server(s). It is then sent back by your browser every time it accesses the respective web server.
  • • bmg.com uses session and persistent cookies in order to provide you with an easy and comfortable to use web service. They allow us to, for example, display the German contact information any time you visit our website if your first visit to the site came from Germany.
  • • The Platform under my.bmg.com uses session cookies (which are automatically deleted at the end of each session) that for example, allow us to identify you as the same user (but no more) over a session on our website and to “keep” certain data across more than one webpage so that you don’t have to reinsert the same data or set your personal settings over and over again. Also, my.bmg.com sets a persistent cookie to keep the particular language that you prefer so that you can use the Platform in that language without having to change your settings each time you access to Platform.
    3.2 Should you, however, wish to generally discontinue the use of cookies, you may use your browser settings to prevent the acceptance and storage of new cookies. To find out how this works with your browser, resort to the browser’s help function or contact the manufacturer. However, we recommend leaving the cookies functions switched on as only if you do will you retain the full benefit of the high level of user comfort we keep striving for. In addition, the use of the Platform requires us to be able to set cookies.

4. Web Analytics

Our website may use Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc., of Mountain View, CA 94043, U.S.A. („Google“). Google Analytics uses cookies (cf. section 3 above) that enable an analysis of your use of the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of our website (such as when you visited the website, the referrer URL, details on the configuration of your operating system, your browser and your access provider) are generally transmitted to, and stored on, a server of Google located in the U.S.A. As we are using Google Analytics’ “_anonymizeIp()” function, your IP address will be shortened within members states of the European Union or in other states of the European Economic Area. It is only in exceptional circumstances that your IP address is transmitted to the U.S.A. and shortened there. Google will use the information on our behalf to analyze your use of the website, to compile reports on website activity, and to provide us with additional services related to the use of the website as well as Internet use. The IP address collected within the framework of Google Analytics will not be combined with other Google data.

You will find further information on Google and Google Analytics at http://www.google.com, and Google’s Privacy Policy at http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacy/ or http://www.google.com/intl/de/privacypolicy.html#information.

As already explained above, you can use your browser settings to prevent the acceptance and storage of new cookies. Should you disagree with the analysis of your use of our website you can also deactivate Google Analytics and thus declare your objection to the collection and processing of the respective data. To do this, please download and install the browser plugin that Google provides for this purpose.

The plugin is available at http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de].

Once the plugin has been installed, it will prevent the recollection of the data related to your use of our website that has been generated by the cookie (including your IP address).

5. Social Media Plugins

On certain webpages of our website we may implement so-called social media plugins, in particular Facebook, Inc.’s “like” button, Google’s “+1” button and Twitter, Inc.’s Twitter buttons. When you visit a page that displays one or more of such buttons your browser will establish a direct connection to the respective Facebook, Google and/or Twitter server and load the button from there. At the same time Facebook, Google and/or Twitter will know that the respective page on our website has been visited.

We have no influence on the data that Facebook, Google and Twitter collect on the basis of the buttons. According to the available information, however, if you do not click on the respective buttons no personal data will be collected and stored unless you have logged onto to your Facebook, Google or Twitter account. In that case certain user data (including your IP address at the time) may be collected and linked to the account information already present at Facebook, Google or Twitter, respectively. If you wish to prevent this, please log out of your social media accounts before visiting our website.

In addition, clicking a button may also lead to a collection of certain data, such as the user’s IP address. Facebook, Google or Twitter may set cookies, as well, unless you have disabled the acceptance and storage of cookies in your browser settings (see above).

We receive no information from Facebook. Google or Twitter about which social media buttons you may have clicked or seen on our website, but, if at all, a summarized, non-person-related statistical report on the use of the buttons.

If you wish to obtain more information on the subject go to:

III. No disclosure of personal data

We will not disclose your personal data, be it by transmission or otherwise, to third parties except where

  • • such disclosure is necessary to fulfill existing obligations towards or assert and enforce claims against you;
  • • we are bound to do so by law;
  • • federal or competent state authorities, in particular law enforcement and/or data protection supervisory agencies, request such disclosure, if an inasmuch as such disclosure is necessary to counter dangers to public safety and order or for the investigation and persecution of criminal acts.

4. Security

BMG takes great care to ensure the security of personal data. Your data is conscientiously protected from loss, destruction, distortion/falsification, manipulation and unauthorized access or unauthorized disclosure through appropriate technical measures.

5. Right to Information

If you have questions concerning our privacy protection policy or how your personal data is processed, please feel free to contact our external Privacy Protection representative:

Bertelsmann AG
Data Protection Department
Hannes Oenning
Carl-Bertelsmann-Str. 270
D-33311 Gütersloh
Germany

Upon request, you will promptly be informed – in writing and pursuant to applicable legislation – which of your personal data, if any, was collected and stored during your visits to our website. Also, you may at any time have the data of your user account and, consequently, your personal data corrected, blocked or cancelled with the only exceptions of those data we need for the performance of our obligations and assertion of our rights towards you, if any, as well as the data we are required to keep stored pursuant to statutory provisions. In the latter case, however, the data concerned will be blocked.