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Data Protection Notice
Information on the processing of your personal data
This policy aims to inform any person interacting with Continental—customers, prospects, users of our online services, participants in contests, partners, suppliers, or any other third party—about how their personal data is collected, used, stored, and protected.
It applies to all personal data processing carried out, notably via our websites, mobile applications, digital platforms, forms, promotional events, as well as in the context of our commercial, marketing, supplier management, or after-sales interactions.
This policy reflects our commitment to ensuring responsible, transparent, and compliant processing in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and applicable national privacy laws.
We invite you to read it carefully to understand our commitment to protect your data and the rights you have.
- Personal data: any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (e.g., name, email address, phone number, customer ID, etc.).
- Processing: any operation performed on personal data, whether automated or not (e.g., collection, recording, organization, storage, modification, extraction, consultation, use, transmission, deletion, etc.).
- Data subject : any natural person whose personal data is processed by our group (e.g., customer, prospect, user, contest participant, etc.).
- Data controller : the entity that determines the purposes and means of processing personal data.
- Processor : any entity that processes personal data on behalf of the controller, according to its instructions.
- Consent : any freely given, specific, informed, and unambiguous indication of the data subject’s wishes by which they agree to the processing of their data.
- Supervisory authority : an independent public body responsible for ensuring compliance with data protection regulations.
Within the scope of this policy, the controller of your personal data is:
Continental Reifen Deutschland GmbH, Continental-Plaza 1, 30175 Hanover
We process your personal data mainly to manage your orders and our business relationship, for marketing operations such as contests you participate in, to ensure the security of our platforms and websites, to protect ourselves in case of disputes, or to comply with legal obligations. Below you will find details of the purposes for which we process your data, the corresponding legal bases, and the types of data we may process.
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Management of contracts, orders, deliveries, invoicing, performance of the service or supply of goods, after-sales service, sending quotes | Contract performance pre-contractual measures |
| Management of your claims (warranty) | Legal obligation or contract (if contractual warranty beyond the statutory warranty). Failing that, our legitimate interest in responding to your claims requests |
| Customer and prospect relationship management | Our legitimate interest in ensuring business relationship follow-up |
| Management of customer/member/franchisee training | Our legitimate interest in offering and managing training on our products and services |
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Sending newsletters and personalized commercial communications | Your consent or our legitimate interest if you are a professional or already a customer of a similar product/service |
| Management of our interactions on social media | Performance of the contract (the social media platform’s terms of use) or our legitimate interest (see details in our social media privacy policy) |
| Management of participation in contests, promotional offers | Contract performance (contest/promotion rules you accept by participating) |
| Loyalty program management | Performance of the contract (the loyalty program you participate in) |
| Management of internal and external events (registrations, organization, etc.) | Our legitimate interest in managing your participation in the event or your consent (voluntary provision of information) |
| Surveys, polls, questionnaires, feedbacks | Our legitimate interest in evaluating and improving our products/services |
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| User account management and authentication | Performance of the contract (necessary to provide you with access to our platforms and associated services) |
| Management of requests via forms (contact, information, white papers, chatbot, etc.) | LOur legitimate interest in providing a contact option, processing, and responding to your requests |
| Platform security management | Our legitimate interest in ensuring the security of our platforms |
| Management of cookies and trackers | Our legitimate interest in ensuring the operation of the site/platform/application for functional cookies, or your consent for optional cookies (see our cookie policy for details) |
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Recruitment management | Performance of pre-contractual measures or consent for retaining your application in our CV database (see our recruitment platform’s data protection policy for details) |
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Management of contractual and operational relationships with suppliers and partners | Contract performance |
| Supplier evaluation, compliance control | Our legitimate interest in evaluating suppliers, legal obligation for supplier compliance control |
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Dispute management | Our legitimate interest in defending our interests and rights in court |
| Management of GDPR rights requests | Legal obligation |
| Consent management | Legal obligation |
| Management of ethical or compliance alerts | Our legitimate interest or legal obligation (see our “Integrity” policy for details) |
| Audit and control management | Our legitimate interest or legal obligation |
In line with the data minimization principle, we collect and process the data depending on the context and for the purposes mentioned above. The categories of data include:
- Identity and contact data: name, first name, email, phone, date of birth, address.
- Data concerning our business relationship: customer ID, job title, professional activity, complaints, exchange tracking, meeting history, quotes, needs, specific expectations, expressed preferences, etc.
- Data necessary for managing your participation in our cashback offers, contests, surveys, and events, e.g., participation history, vehicle registration, your responses, your feedback, etc.
- Data concerning your vehicle, such as vehicle type, brand, and tire information.
- Payment or transaction data, e.g., order and payment history, bank details (RIB, IBAN), invoices.
- Data related to the use of our websites, platforms, and applications, such as login credentials, passwords, IP address, browsing data (pages visited, number of visits, etc.), preferences, cookie ID, security logs.
- Data concerning your application: CV, cover letter, exchange history, interview results.
- Data necessary to meet legal requirements, e.g., ID, reported facts, information required for investigations.
As part of our marketing activities, we may use profiling techniques to offer you personalized offers that may interest you. For example, if you have already purchased bicycle wheels, we may send you a promotion for compatible accessories, or if we know your vehicle type, we may offer you deals on tires suitable for that model.
This profiling is based on the analysis of your interactions with our services (purchases, browsing, expressed preferences) and aims to improve the relevance of our communications. It does not result in any automated decision-making producing legal effects concerning you or significantly affecting you within the meaning of Article 22 of the GDPR.
You may object to this processing or withdraw your consent at any time by contacting us using the contact details provided in this policy, or by clicking directly on the unsubscribe link included in every marketing communication we send you.
Most of the data we process is collected directly from you. This includes information you provide to us through online or paper forms, when purchasing products or services, participating in contests or events, or through any other direct interaction with us.
In some cases, your data may be shared with us by third parties, such as our distributors, partners, subsidiaries, or members of our networks from whom you purchased a product or service. This typically occurs when you request to claim the warranty on your tires. In such cases, we do not have direct contact with you: your distributor provides us with the necessary information to handle your request. We use this data solely to manage your warranty issue and do everything possible to help your distributor find a quick and fair solution.
We may also collect publicly available information online, for example on social media, as part of recruitment (on professional platforms such as LinkedIn) or in the context of B2B commercial activities (professional data made public by your company).
The provision of certain personal data is necessary, either because it is required to comply with a legal obligation or because it is necessary for the conclusion or performance of a contract with us. If you do not provide the requested data, we may not be able to conclude or perform the contract, and certain services will not be available to you.
The provision of data collected during your visit to our website (including cookies) for the purpose of measuring reach and using our online services is voluntary. The collection of data for other purposes is generally mandatory, unless expressly stated otherwise in the respective form or on the corresponding digital platform.
Your personal data is retained only for the period strictly necessary to achieve the purposes for which it was collected, in accordance with applicable legal and regulatory requirements in each country where we operate. This period may vary depending on the nature of the data, the purpose of processing, local legal obligations, and applicable limitation periods.
At the end of this period, your data is either deleted or irreversibly anonymized, unless a longer retention is required for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims, or to comply with a legal obligation.
The personal data we collect is processed only by authorized persons and entities, strictly in line with the purposes described in this policy. Depending on the case, recipients may belong to the following categories:
- Within our Continental Group
- Group subsidiaries or entities, where necessary for relationship management or product/service provision.
- Processors
- Technical providers (hosting, maintenance, IT security, electronic signature provider).
- Marketing service providers (communication agencies, email campaign managers, CRM tools).
- Logistics providers (delivery, order management).
- Customer relationship management providers (call centers, support services).
- Contest or event organization providers.
All our processors are contractually required to respect confidentiality, security, and compliance in personal data processing.
- Business partners
- Partners with whom we collaborate for joint offers, loyalty programs, or promotional operations, or any other business partners to whom we disclose your data, subject to your prior consent where required.
- Authorized third parties
- Administrative, judicial, or tax authorities, where required by law or in the context of legal proceedings.
- Legal advisors, auditors, or other third parties in the context of dispute management or audits.
In some cases, your personal data may be transferred to countries outside the European Economic Area (EEA), notably when we use providers or partners located internationally, or when certain group entities are established outside the EU.
When such transfers occur, we ensure they benefit from an adequate level of protection by implementing one of the following safeguards:
- An adequacy decision by the European Commission recognizing an equivalent level of protection in the destination country.
- Signature of standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission.
- Binding corporate rules (BCR) when the transfer is within our group.
Any other safeguard in accordance with Article 46 of the GDPR.
Continental uses technical and organisational security measures in order to protect the personal data you have made available to us from manipulation, loss, destruction or access by unauthorised persons. The security measures are continuously improved and adapted according to the state of the art.
In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you have several rights that you can exercise at any time regarding the use of your personal data:
- Right to information: to be clearly and transparently informed about how your data is collected and used.
- Right of access: to obtain a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Right to rectification: to request the correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
- Right to erasure: in certain cases, to request the deletion of your data.
- Right to restriction of processing: to request that the use of your data be temporarily suspended.
- Right to object: to object to certain processing, notably for direct marketing purposes.
- Right to data portability: to receive your data in a structured, readable format, or to transmit it to another organization.
- Right to withdraw consent: if you have given your consent for processing, you can withdraw it at any time. For example, if you no longer wish to receive commercial communications from us, by clicking the unsubscribe link directly in the communication received.
- Right to lodge a complaint: if you believe that, despite your requests to Continental, your rights have not been respected, you can contact the competent supervisory authority. You can find the list of competent authorities and their contact details via this link.
In some cases, notably for legal reasons or for the defense of legal claims, we may be required to retain certain data despite a request for erasure or objection.
For any questions regarding the protection of your data or to exercise your rights, contact our DPO:
By email:
dataprotection@conti.de
By mail:
DPO ContinentalContinental Reifen Deutschland GmbH,
Continental-Plaza 1,
30175 Hanover, Germany
This policy may be amended at any time to reflect legal, regulatory, or technical developments. The up-to-date version is available on our website.