Facebook, Instagram, X and co

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Social media and data protection

Welcome to the social media pages of the Warendorf Police. We would like to provide you with current and general information as well as insights into our day-to-day work. The world is colorful and diverse - and that's why we very much welcome the fact that social networks provide a platform for exchange and discussion. We look forward to engaging with you on Facebook, Instagram and X. On our pages you will find press releases and reports on current police operations, important general information, information on current checks and key areas of police work.

Please take note of the following information before you visit a fan page of the NRW police on Facebook, Instagram and X.

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Data protection information for social media

Police and data protection when using social media
The North Rhine-Westphalia Police take the protection of your personal data very seriously. On this page, in addition to information on the use of social media by the NRW police, we would also like to give you an overview of what data is collected by the respective providers for the use of social media.

Police NRW and social media

Social media have fundamentally changed our world and our actions and are increasingly shaping everyday police work.

Social networks are the number one source of information and the population's virtual thermometer. No television crew is ready to report faster than the people on the ground with their smartphones.

The police have been unable to ignore this trend in society as a whole and have been facing up to the major challenge of exploiting the highly competitive virtual information market for several years now. Of course, the aim is not to cut costs, increase profits and sales figures or win new customers. The police want to use social media, for example, to recruit new recruits or provide information in crisis situations.

At present, all police headquarters and some district authorities use social media. There is also a central YouTube channel for the NRW police.

How do you recognize the real police on social media

Unfortunately, there are of course also many social media posts that look deceptively similar to real police posts. Police press releases, images and emblems are used to give the impression that it is a police page. The NRW police are taking action against the operators of these pages using all the legal options available to them.

A police website can be recognized by the following features:

it has a uniform naming convention (NRW police and name/name abbreviation of the police authority).
it has a uniform address convention
- Facebook: facebook.com/Polizei.NRW.Behördenkürzel)
- Twitter@polizei_nrw_authority abbreviation
it is certified by the platform provider (tick in blue circle)
It has a police star with an authority logo.
Contact details outside the social network are provided

Important note

The NRW police expressly reserve the right to report comments that violate applicable law or morality to the platform provider and, if necessary, to have them removed from this page. In cases of criminal relevance, this will also result in criminal investigation proceedings. Comments that are not written in German will be deleted if necessary. If comments contain links and/or references to other sites, the NRW police reserve the right to report these to the platform provider and, if necessary, to delete them for security reasons.

Data protection in social media

Data protection in social media is important to the NRW police. You should therefore take the time to read the following data protection information before using the links to police services on social media.

Data protection information for X

By clicking on "Follow", you will become a follower of the police account, which will be visible to the administrators of the page as well as to your friends and possibly other users of X.

However, this information is neither analyzed by the administrators of the police account nor recorded elsewhere. The statistics that X makes available to the administrators of the police account are displayed in aggregated form and do not allow the administrators to draw any conclusions about personal data. In this context, please also note the data usage guidelines at https://www.twitter.com/privacy and make the appropriate privacy settings in your account! Please check exactly what information you publish!

What X learns:

What data X stores in detail and how the company uses this data is not exactly known. What is certain is that X not only stores data that is entered directly by users, but also records the actions of X users - presumably without gaps - and passes it on to third parties.

X also learns

the most important data of the computer system (log data) from which a user logs into the network - including IP address, processor type and browser version, including plug-ins and
every visit to websites (widget data) on which an X button is installed. The IP address is also transmitted. If the visitor to the third-party site is an X user and has already logged in to X from the same computer, X can also determine their identity

Data protection information for Facebook

By clicking on "Like", you become a fan of the police page, which is visible to the administrators of the page as well as to your friends and possibly other Facebook users. This applies in particular to "likes" or comments on our posts, which are also visible to non-registered visitors and non-fans of this fan page. Even if you are not or do not become a fan of this page, you can leave comments or "Like" information on our postings that are visible to others and the administrators of the fan page. However, this information is neither analyzed by the administrators nor recorded elsewhere. The statistics that Facebook makes available to the administrators are displayed in aggregated form and do not allow the administrators to draw any conclusions about personal data. In this context, please also note the data usage guidelines at https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/ and make the appropriate privacy settings in your account! Please check exactly what information you publish!

What Facebook learns:

What data Facebook stores in detail and how the company uses this data is not exactly known. What is certain is that Facebook not only stores data that is entered directly by users, but also records the actions of Facebook users.

Facebook also learns

the most important data of the computer system from which a user logs into the network - including IP address, processor type and browser version including plug-ins and
every visit to websites (widget data) on which a "Like" button is installed. The IP address is also transmitted. If the visitor to the third-party site is a Facebook user and has already logged in to Facebook from the same computer, Facebook can also determine their identity.

We are active for you on social media from Monday to Friday from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.. During this time, the social media team reads comments and messages and looks forward to interacting with you. Outside of these times, our social media channels are managed by the control center.

Important information:

Always call 110 in urgent cases.

We ask you not to publish any information about criminal offenses or personal data on social networks. If you would like to give a tip or report a crime, please use our online police station or go to the nearest police station. In appeals for witnesses or wanted notices, you will also always find the relevant police station with telephone contact details.

Netiquette

We ask everyone to remember that real people are communicating with each other here. To ensure a constructive exchange on our social media channels, the community agrees on the following common values and rules of conduct:

We respect our fellow human beings. We comment responsibly. We are constructive and polite.
We only comment on the current post topic.
Questions and ideas are welcome.
Differences of opinion are part of life. We argue on a factual level and don't get personal. We criticize opinions and actions, not people.
Before commenting/tweeting, we put ourselves in the other person's shoes. We check whether we would also say the sentence to a person's face in a conversation.
We stick to verifiable facts and are careful with assumptions, especially accusations.
We stand up for the Basic Law and an open, democratic society.
We express ourselves clearly and comprehensibly. Irony and sarcasm can easily be misunderstood if you cannot see/hear the other person.
We accept that "Du" has established itself as the common form of address in the German-speaking network and do not get annoyed if we are not addressed as "Sie".

The internet is not a legal vacuum!

We do not tolerate

Insults, abusive language and degrading statements,
illegal content, e.g. Incitement or instruction to commit crimes; statements harmful to minors; statements that violate personal rights or content that violates the copyrights or data protection of third parties,
inflammatory, racist, obscene, discriminatory or pornographic content,
misleading claims and untrue statements of fact,
content that is linked to viruses, Trojans or harmful websites or content that is linked to websites that contain viruses, Trojans or harmful content, Trojans or harmful websites or are otherwise likely to impair the use of the site or the user's IT system,
spam / copy&paste of own comments,
contributions with personal data, commercial contributions and third-party advertising,
links are not permitted and will be hidden or deleted by us. This is to prevent users from being redirected to fraudulent sites, e.g. through subsequent changes to stored websites.

As the police, we stand for law and order. You can and may expect the same from us on the Internet! In the case of comments that violate the law, we initiate appropriate proceedings, hide the comments and block the user. If you notice any possible legal violations on our pages, please inform us.

Users whose comments have been hidden or deleted or whose account has been blocked can informally enquire about the reason for the measure. To do so, please send an email to pressestelle.warendorf [at] polizei.nrw.de. In addition, the terms of use of the respective social network and our privacy policy apply.

We hope you enjoy the exchange of opinions!