Japanese Privacy Notice Audi MediaCenter / Press and Public Relations

In this privacy notice according to Article 13, 14 GDPR we are informing you as a visitor of our website about the processing of your personal data by AUDI AG, Auto-Union-Straße 1, 85057 Ingolstadt, Deutschland / Germany ("we" or “AUDI”) in the context of the Audi MediaCenter and the public relations work of AUDI AG, as well as in the context of your work as a journalist, photographer, influencer or other multiplier or your visit as a visitor.

The Audi MediaCenter website may contain links to external websites that are not covered by this privacy policy. The respective provider is responsible for processing personal data on these external sites. Please consult the provider regarding how your personal data are processed in connection with using external sites.

Information on our cookie policy can be found here.

Personal data means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural or, if forseen under local law, legal person, including, as the case may be, sensitive personal data as defined under the laws of the country where you are located at the relevant time (‘data subject’); a data subject is one that can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.

Processing means any operation or set of operations which is performed on personal data or on sets of personal data, whether or not by automated means, such as collection, recording, organisation, structuring, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction.

Controller means the natural or legal person which determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data.

The controller for the processing of your personal data is: 

AUDI AG, Auto-Union-Straße 1, 85057 Ingolstadt, Germany.

Tax identification number / Registration number: DE811115368 / HRB Nr./Commercial Register No.: 1 

Chairman of the Board: Gernot Döllner

If you wish to assert your data protection rights, please use the contact options at 

https://betroffenenrechte.audi.de/
https://gdpr.audi.com

There, you will find further information regarding how you can assert your data protection rights. You may also send your request 

• via mail: AUDI AG, DSGVO-Betroffenenrechte, 85045 Ingolstadt, Germany

We take data subject rights very seriously and will respond to any request that you might have as soon as possible. If you have any general questions about this privacy notice or the processing of your personal data by AUDI AG, please use the following contact option: 

E-Mail: info@audi-mediacenter.com

For matters concerning data protection, you can also consult our company data protection officer, using your own language: 

AUDI AG, Data Protection Officer, 85045 Ingolstadt, Germany

• Email: datenschutz@audi.de

• Telephone number: +49841 890

• Office address of the company data protection officer: AUDI AG, Data Protection Officer, Auto-Union-Straße 1, 85057 Ingolstadt, Germany

All the below described rights concerning the personal data and the processing thereof may be subject to limitations, according to the applicable EU and/ or national laws. Depending on your jurisdiction, as the data subject, you may be entitled to the following data protection rights. Please note: Your data protection rights under the local laws of the country where you are located at the relevant time may differ from the rights described below. Please see Annex 1 for additional, information, in particular on rights that you might have under local laws. Such rights apply, to the extent the legal requirements are met, in addition to your rights provided under the GDPR.

For more information about rights you may have in connection with our processing of your personal data, please click here:

https://betroffenenrechte.audi.de/
https://gdpr.audi.com

You have the right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data, by us and with whom we share your data, in a readily accessible manner, and in plain and clear language. We are implementing your right to be informed, also through this notice, the content of which may be updated from time to time.

You have the right to obtain confirmation as to whether or not personal data concerning you are being processed, and, where that is the case information on the data concerning you which are stored at AUDI and information regarding the data processing as well (i.e. purposes of data processing, envisaged period for which the data is stored, recipients or categories of recipients to whom the personal data is disclosed, data transfer performed by AUDI etc.), and to obtain a copy of the personal data stored concerning you. 

You have the right to obtain without undue delay the rectification of inaccurate personal data concerning you as well as the completion of incomplete personal data stored concerning you at AUDI.

You have the right to obtain the erasure of the personal data concerning you stored at AUDI without undue delay if the statutory requirements are met.

This may be the case, in particular, if

• Your personal data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected;

• The sole legal ground for the processing was your consent and you have withdrawn it;

• You have objected to the processing based on the legal ground of legitimate interests on grounds relating to your particular situation and we cannot prove that there are overriding legitimate grounds for the processing;

• Your personal data have been unlawfully processed; or

• Your personal data have to be erased for compliance with a legal obligation.

If we have shared your data with third parties, we will inform them about the erasure, insofar as required by law.

Please note that your right to erasure is subject to restrictions. For example, we are not required or allowed to delete data that we are still obligated to retain due to statutory retention periods. Similarly, data that we need for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims are excluded from your right of erasure.

You have the right to obtain, under certain conditions, restriction of processing (i.e. the marking of stored personal data in order to restrict their future processing). The requirements are, in particular: 

• The accuracy of your personal data is contested and AUDI must verify the accuracy of your personal data;

• The processing is unlawful, but you oppose the erasure of the personal data and instead request the restriction of the use of the personal data; 

• AUDI no longer needs your personal data for the purposes of processing, but you require the data for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or

• You have objected to the processing and the verification is pending whether the legitimate grounds of AUDIoverride yours.

In the event of a restriction of the processing, such data will be marked accordingly and will be – except for their storage – only processed with your consent or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or for the protection of the rights of another natural or legal person or for reasons of important public interest of the European Union or of a Member State or of the country where you are located at the relevant time, in each case only to the extent permitted under applicable data protection laws.

Please note that the restriction of the processing of your personal data may be also employed as an alternative to the erasure of your personal data, where permitted by applicable law.

To the extent that we automatically process your personal data provided to us based on your consent or a contract with you, you have the right to receive the data in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format and to transfer those data to another controller without hindrance from AUDI. You also have the right to have the personal data transferred directly from AUDI to another controller where technically feasible and provided that this does not adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others.

If we process your personal data on the basis of legitimate interests or in the public interest, you have the right to object to the processing of your personal data on grounds relating to your particular situation. In addition, you have an unrestricted right to object if we process your data for our direct marketing purposes. Please see our separate note in the "Information on your right to object" section.

In certain cases, we also grant you, beyond the privacy settings, an additional unlimited right to object within the scope of legitimate interests. We will inform you about this in connection with the respective feature or service.

If you have given consent to the processing of your personal data, you may withdraw it at any time. Please note that the withdrawal shall only be effective for the future. Processing that occurred before the withdrawal shall not be affected.

In addition, you have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority if you believe that the processing of your personal data is unlawful. The right to lodge a complaint is without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy. The address of the data protection supervisory authority responsible for AUDI is: 

Bayerisches Landesamt für Datenschutzaufsicht

Promenade 18

91522 Ansbach

Deutschland / Germany

However, you can also lodge a complaint with any other data protection supervisory authority competent for you within or outside the EU, in particular with the one in the Member state of your habitual residence, place of work or place of the alleged infringement. Please find hereinafter a link where you can find all contact details of the national authorities in all member states: https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/board/members_en.

See Appendix 1 "Additional rights of data subjects and further country-specific information" for contact details of national supervisory authorities and further country-specific information.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Japanese authority, PPC as below:

Personal Information Protection Commission, Government of Japan (PPC),

Kasumigaseki Common Gate West Tower 32nd Floor, 3-2-1, Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-0013, Japan

TEL: +81-3-6457-9680

We process your personal data in accordance with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and the German Federal Data Protection Act (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz, “BDSG”) and other local law for various purposes. The specific data processed and purposes of data processing primarily depend on the services we provide to you. We, in general, may process your personal data based on the following legal grounds for the following purposes. Please note: If the applicable local law of the country where you are located at the relevant time foresees additional requirements regarding the legal bases, we will comply with such additional requirements and will inform you accordingly. This in particular applies, where such local law requires (express) consent for the processing of your personal data.

Insofar as we process further data for other purposes or based on another legal basis, we will state this separately with the respective legal basis in section C. I. 

Within AUDI, those entities receive your data that they need to fulfil our contractual and statutory obligations and to safeguard our legitimate interests. Our service providers (so-called processors) that we utilise and engage may also receive data for these purposes. We will generally share your personal data with third parties only if this is necessary for the performance of the contract, if we or the third party have a legitimate interest in the disclosure, or if you have given your consent, subject to applicable local laws. In addition, data may be shared with third parties (including investigative or security authorities) to the extent we should be required to do so by law or by enforceable regulatory or judicial orders. Details of the processors we use and the other recipients who receive personal data are included in the following sections B. VI. 1., B. VI. 2., C. III. 1. and C. III. 2.

Service providers which are used and act on behalf of AUDI and that do not process data for any of their own purposes (so called “processors”) may receive data for the purposes mentioned above. We utilise processors of the following categories for the provision of specific services, who support us in the execution of our business processes. Specifically, this includes:

Third parties stated in Sec. C.III.2 may receive data for the purposes set out in section B. V. 

If we share your data with additional processors or third parties within the framework of individual services, we will inform you as provided in sections C. III. 1 and C. III. 2.

A transfer of data to third countries (i.e. countries that are neither members of the European Union nor of the European Economic Area) may take place, to the extent this is required for the provision of services to you, is required by law, or you have given us your consent (in the absence of any other appropriate safeguarding mechanism under applicable law). Please note: Under the applicable local laws of the jurisdiction where you are located at, a transfer to a third country might be defined as a transfer outside of the territory or country where you are located at the relevant time.

Under the same circumstances, we may also share your personal data with processors in third countries. 

Please note that not all third countries have a level of data protection recognised as adequate by the competent body of the country where you are located at the relevant time (e.g. the European Commission). AUDI AG will only transfer your personal data to third countries to the extent permitted by applicable law. Insofar as AUDI AG relies on appropriate safeguards in accordance with applicable law (e.g Standard Contractual Clauses or Binding Corporate Rules pursuant to Art. 46 (2) GDPR for third country transfers), AUDI AG will take such additional technical and/or organizational measures to the extent necessary to maintain an adequate level of protection of your personal data, as required under applicable laws. An adequate level of protection includes the implementation of reasonable security arrangements to prevent unauthorised access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification or diposal, or similar risks, and the loss of any storage medium or device on which personal data is stored.

You can obtain a copy from us of the specific applicable or agreed rules to ensure the adequate level of data protection. Please use the information in the Contact section for this purpose.

Details of data transfers to third countries, where relevant, are given in this section or in section C. III. 3. with regards to individual services

Your data will be submitted to the following recipients in third countries:

Your data will be transferred to the abovementioned recipients in a third country. All recipients are located within EU Member States, and the Japanese government has recognized the adequacy of the EU’s personal data protection standards.

We store your data as long as it is necessary for the provision of our services to you or we have a legitimate interest in the further storage, in particular for reasons of troubleshooting. 

In addition, we are subject to various retention and documentation obligations, which result, inter alia, from the German Commercial Code (Handelsgesetzbuch, “HGB”) and the German Tax Code (Abgabenordnung, “AO”). The periods specified therein for retention and documentation are up to ten years. Finally, the storage period is also assessed according to the statutory limitation periods, which can be up to thirty years, for example, according to Sections 195 et seqq. of the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch, “BGB”), with the regular period of limitation being three years. 

Under certain circumstances, your data may also need to be retained for a longer period of time, such as when a so-called legal hold or litigation hold (i.e. a prohibition of data deletion for the duration of the proceedings) is ordered in connection with administrative or judicial proceedings. 

We may also be subject to retention and documentation obligations in line with the local legislation of your country.

To the extent further details are possible, you will find further information on retention obligations in section C. IV. with regards to individual services.

As part of our business relationship, you only need to provide the personal data that is required to enter into and conduct a business relationship, or that we are required or permitted to collect by law. Without this data, we will generally have to refuse to enter into the contract or to execute the order, or will be unable to perform an existing contract and possibly have to terminate it. This means that the use of a service requires that you provide the specified data. Unless you provide the data completely and accurately, we cannot provide a service (e.g. the provision of our website) to you. If we are asking you for your consent to the processing of your personal data, such consent will always be voluntary. However, if you do not give your consent, we might not be able to provide a particular service. In case AUDI asks you for sensitive data, you are not obliged to share them and AUDI does not condition the provision of its services to the delivery of these data unless the relevant services cannot be provided without such data.

In general you can use the website for login without providing any personal data. However, some functionalities of the website (e.g. registration for any event) require the entry of personal data (see section C.II.2). 

Each time you access the website, your Internet browser automatically transmits certain information, which we store in so-called “log files”. 

In particular, the following information are transmitted automatically: 

• IP address (Internet Protocol address) of the terminal from which the online service is accessed;
• Internet address of the website from which the online service was accessed (the so-called “source URL” or “referrer URL”);
• Name of the service provider used to access the online offer;
• Name of the files or information retrieved;
• Date and time as well as duration of the retrieval;
• Transferred data volume;
• Operating system and information about the Internet browser used, including installed add-ons (e.g., Ad-Blocker);
• http status code (for example, “request succeeded” or “requested file not found”).

In the log files, the above data is stored without your complete IP address, so that it is not possible to trace back to your IP address.

We process the aforementioned data to enable you to visit our website using your end device. The legal basis for the data processing is Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR. Furthermore, we process this data based on our legitimate interests (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR) to offer you our services and to protect our IT infrastructure from attacks. If and to the extent we are required by law to further store the above-mentioned “log-files” data, we perform such storage to comply with our legal obligations (Art. 6 (1) (c) GDPR).

We process personal data which we receive from you within the scope of our business relationship as journalist, photographer, influencer or other multiplier, or as a visitor of our website Audi MediaCenter, in accordance with the provisions of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the German Federal Data Protection Act [Bundesdatenschutzgesetz, (“BDSG”)], for a variety of purposes.

The relevant personal data include:

• contact-/ organisational data (professional) (e.g. professional address, e-mail and telephone number of company, department)
• private contact data (e.g. title, sex, name, address, customer number, reporting date and, where applicable, required addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail address)
• IT-usage data
• Data entered when registering for events (e.g. date of birth, place of birth, ID number, passport information, special dietary needs and allergies)
• Data from test vehicle bookings (e.g. a copy of your driving license, information about the test vehicle (model, time period), information about traffic violations and penalty charge notices)

• Data on personal/professional circumstances and characteristics (e.g. tone of reporting, specialization in topical areas/departments, professional career – if publicly available)
• Recordings (video, photo, sound) when you are working with us for the production of these media files

We may also process press articles and other pieces published by you about test drives or other topics related to AUDI either online or offline and which are available in the public domain (e.g. Internet, TV, radio, newspapers and magazines as well as other press products).

If you are an employee or belong to a governing body (e.g. Board of Management member) of AUDI AG, we process your personal data in the Audi Media Center for our company’s public relations purposes. These include e.g. batch articles posted on social media channels or other media reports.

Newsletter registration: On the website you can subscribe to our newsletter or order other marketing information. We process the contact information provided and interests expressed by you for this purpose, subject to your consent being given (Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR). For the activation of the newsletter we use the so-called double opt-in procedure, i.e. we send you an e-mail to the given e-mail address with the request for confirmation of your consent. You may withdraw your consent for example by clicking the “unsubscribe” link included in each newsletter or contacting our customer service department. If you unsubscribe from the newsletter, your personal data will be deleted, unless we process your data on another legal basis, or if such data is subject to data retention requirements. The newsletter is dispatched by a processor.

Download basket: We also offer the option of collective download in a download basket. For the purposes of downloading a download basket, we process your email address for the duration of time the download basket is provided. 

In both cases, we store your data for technical administration and customer management, but only to the extent required for these purposes and only for the purpose defined on the website. We process your data with all due care and in compliance with all statutory security regulations to protect your data against unauthorized access and prevent abuse.

Contacting in the course of updates to digital services: AUDI AG is subject to various statutory and contractual requirements with which it must comply. These may result, for example, from contacting in the course of any updates in connection with digital services pursuant to Section 327 lit. f BGB (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch). The following personal data will be processed for this purpose Name, email, address. The legal basis for the associated data processing is compliance with a legal obligation within the meaning of Article 6(1)(c) GDPR or contractual obligations within the meaning of Article 6(1)(b) GDPR.

In addition we process - insofar as necessary in connection with personal data that we have obtained from publicly accessible sources and are permitted to process sources (e.g. press agencies, blogs, press reports, public websites, publicly accessible profiles in social media).

These include

• professional contact details (e.g. professional address, e-mail and telephone number of company, department)
• private contact data (e.g. title, sex, name, address, customer number, reporting date and, where applicable, required addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail address)
• IT-usage data
• Recordings (video, photo, sound)

Following on from the above, we process your personal data on the basis of the following legal bases for the following purposes:

Please note: If the applicable local law of the country where you are located at the relevant time foresees additional requirements regarding the legal bases, we will comply with such additional requirements and will inform you accordingly. This in particular applies, where local law requires (express) consent for the processing of your personal data.

Please observe your rights of objection when processing data for the purpose of direct marketing or for personal reasons and your right to withdraw consent (see section B.IV. "Which rights do you have?" and section B. IV. 10. "Information on your right to object").

In the context of our business relationship, you need to provide only the personal data that is required to enter into or conduct a business relationship or that we are required or permitted to collect by law. Without this complete and accurate data, we may not be able to offer you the complete service of our website and might be unable to perform under an existing contract (and possibly may have to terminate it).

If we are asking you for your consent to the processing of your personal data, such consent will always be voluntary. However, if you do not give your consent, we might not be able to provide a particular service, if the relevant service cannot be provided without such data.

Within AUDI AG, your data is provided to the respective departments that need such data for data processing (e.g. sales division AUDI training, sales Germany, IT) 

Third-party service providers engaged by us and working on our order to support data processing on behalf of AUDI AG and not for any of its own purposes (so-called “processors”) may also receive data for these purposes. This includes: 

Beyond this, we disclose your personal data to no further recipients or categories of recipients who are acting as controllers.

We transfer your data to other countries or third countries / exceptions exist if you work for companies of the AUDI or VW Group or independent dealers in third countries. In individual cases, personal data may also be passed on to authorities and courts in third countries. 

In addition, we also pass on your personal data to contract processors in third countries. 

These include:

Your data will be transferred to the aforementioned receipients in a third country. All recipients are located within EU member states, and the Japanese government has recognized the adequacy of the EU’s personal data protection standards.

We store your data as long as necessary for the provision of our services to you or do so if we have a legitimate interest in the continued storage. 

Personal data in publications in the Audi MediaCenter will be deleted from our servers at the latest two years after deactivation on the website. 
Contact details for registration will be deleted after a maximum of 15 years of inactivity. 
Data that we need for reporting to authors is deleted from the system 7 years after reporting.
The shopping cart will be stored for a maximum of 30 days and then deleted. You can delete the shopping cart by yourself at any time before the deadline. 
The deletion routines on the AMC's servers are automated.

In addition, we are subject to various retention and documentation requirements pursuant to, inter alia, the German Commercial Code (Handelsgesetzbuch – “HGB”) and the Tax Code (Abgabenordnung – “AO”). The retention and documentation periods specified therein last up to ten years. Finally, the storage period is also governed by statute of limitation periods, which can be up to thirty years, for example, pursuant to secs. 195 et seq. of the German Civil Code (Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch – “BGB”), whereby the general limitation period is three years.

Under certain circumstances, your data may need to be kept longer, e.g. if a legal hold or litigation hold (i.e. a ban on deleting data for the duration of the proceedings) is ordered in connection with official or judicial proceedings. 

We may also be subject to retention and documentation obligations in line with the local legislation of your country.

In order to keep the Audi MediaCenter offering up to date, user-friendly, and fully comprehensive, this website uses software from the web analytics provider Matomo that enables us to optimize our website to meet your needs. This data is used, for example, to simplify navigation – allowing us to further improve the user-friendliness of our services. The information generated in this process (including the IP address) is anonymized by default, making it impossible to track specific users. The information is only analyzed for reporting purposes after it has been anonymized.

We have implemented and maintain at all times encompassing technical and organisational measures (TOMs) to protect your data in accordance with the high standards of the GDPR and the standards required under other applicable local laws of the jurisdiction you may be located at. This includes, but is not limited to, pseudomysation and encryption, measures to ensure the ongoing confidentiality, integrity and availability of your data (including the ability to restore data in case of an incident). We are regularly reviewing our TOMs and apply enhancements where needed to keep your data safe and to comply with applicable laws. We have put in place appropriate procedures to deal with any personal data breach (i.e. a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal data transmitted, stored or otherwise processed) and will notify you as the data subject and relevant supervisory authority when we are legally required to do so.

We might update this privacy notice from time to time by making available updates to this privacy notice on our website.

Version: 08. July 2025