Counselling for migrants and refugees

You can use the Caritas online counselling service to easily and securely submit your questions about various help topics. If you wish, you can remain anonymous. The Caritas experts usually answer your enquiries within two working days.

You do not need an email address for counselling. To prevent unauthorised persons from reading your question and the counsellors' answer, Caritas has developed a secure counselling section. First log in anonymously. Then you can submit your question (similar to a normal e-mail) and can also receive the answer.

• Enter a new user name and password. Make a note of both, as you will need them to access the counsellors' answer later.
• Enter the postcode of your place of residence. Your enquiry will be forwarded to a counsellor in your area. This is helpful if you need an appointment at a counselling centre later on.
• If you voluntarily enter an e-mail address, you can reset your password if necessary. The system also informs you by e-mail that a reply to your request has been received. You can then read this after logging into the secure counselling platform.

You can use the Caritas online counselling service to easily and securely submit your questions about various help topics. If you wish, you can remain anonymous. The Caritas experts usually answer your initial enquiries within two working days.

Video instructions on how to use, register and log in to the online counselling system for counselling seekers and counsellors can be found on our YouTube channel.

Procedure of online counselling

You do not need an email address for counselling. To prevent unauthorised persons from reading your question and the counsellors' answer, Caritas has developed a secure counselling platform. For this, you must first register - this can of course also be done anonymously! Here you can write your question (similar to a normal e-mail, only secured), and you can also read the answer here once it has been submitted by the counsellor.

Ask a question

• Select the consultation area in which you want to ask a question. You will find an overview of the areas listed at www.caritas.de/onlineberatung. You may have already found your area and are already on the corresponding page.
• Click the red banner for online counselling and a new window will open. By doing so, you have established a secure connection with our counselling platform.
• Log in: Registration is quick and you can remain anonymous if you wish:
  >>> Enter a new user name and password. Make a note of both, as you will need them to access the counsellors' answer later.
  >>> Enter the postcode of your place of residence. Your enquiry will be forwarded to a counsellor in your area. This is helpful should you later wish to make an appointment at a counselling centre.
  >>> If you voluntarily enter an e-mail address, you can reset your password if you forget it.
• Write your question and click the arrow to send the message. Your question will be sent to a counsellor. You will find the answer in your mailbox within 48 hours on weekdays.

Get your answer

• Go back to the website of the counselling area where you submitted a question (overview www.caritas.de/onlineberatung).
• Click the red banner for online counselling and the counselling platform will open in a new window.
• Log in: You will need your user name and password (both of which you chose when you registered). You will then be back in the protected area of your mailbox.
• Read the answer: To do this, please select "My consultations" in the left-hand menu. You can then read your answer.

You can also download the manual for the new Caritas online counselling platform below. The manual is primarily aimed at the counsellors and explains all platform functions to them. However, it also explains the platform view of those seeking advice. So, anyone who wants to know more about how online counselling works will find the necessary details in the manual.

The protection of your data is of particular importance in personal counselling. To enable you to contact counselling centres anonymously and safely, we have developed an online counselling platform that ensures the highest level of discretion.

Counselling people in difficult situations requires the highest level of confidentiality. We at the Deutscher Caritasverband e.V. [German Caritas Association] are aware of this responsibility and have taken strict technical and organisational measures to provide a counselling platform where the security of your data is guaranteed. On behalf of the counselling centres that you can contact via the counselling platform, we inform you below about how your data is processed when using the online counselling platform:

Counselling areas

The online counselling is divided into different independent counselling areas. You can find an overview of the topics on which we can provide you with expert counselling at www.caritas.de/onlineberatung. Clicking the "Zur Beratung" [To the counselling section] button will take you to the subpage of the respective counselling area. In some cases, you can already select a location or a counselling centre, which you can then contact via the link to the counselling platform after registering.

Responsible office

A large number of counselling centres nationwide have commissioned the Deutscher Caritasverband e.V. [German Caritas Association] to provide a secure counselling platform through which those seeking advice can contact counselling centres. The responsible party in the sense of the Church Data Protection Act (KDG) is always the respective counselling centre you contact. The specific counselling centre responsible is displayed in the form at the time of your registration and depends on which counselling area and location you have selected.

Registration

In order to contact a counselling centre, you must first register. You will be asked to provide the following required information - you can also provide additional voluntary information:

Required information

When registering, you will be asked to enter a user name and password. You can use a pseudonym, which does not reveal your real name. In addition to these details, it may be necessary for you to enter a postcode, depending on the counselling area, if you have not previously selected a town. If you have selected a town on the page of a counselling area, this parameter is passed to the registration form and a counselling centre is displayed directly. If you enter the postcode in the registration form, suggestions for nearby counselling centres will be displayed.

Optional information

In addition, when registering, you can voluntarily provide additional information that may be useful for counselling. These details include your background (affected, relative, other), your age, your gender and specific information about your counselling topic. If you provide your email address, you will receive automated notifications as soon as there are new responses on the platform for you. Your email address cannot be seen by the counselling centre and is only used by the system to deliver automatic notifications.

Purpose and legal basis of data processing

The data you enter during registration will only be used to create an account on the counselling platform. The purpose of creating an account is to enable personal counselling by the selected counselling centre. When registering, you will be asked to agree to this privacy policy and the use of cookies (see below). Assuming you grant your consent, the processing of the data in the registration form and the processing of additional data that you provide to the selected counselling centre is based on your consent in accordance with Section 6 (1) lit. a KDG. The legal basis for this is your consent obtained during registration in accordance with Section 6 paragraph 1 lit. a KDG.

Recipients of the data

Your data can only be viewed by the selected counselling centre, the counsellors there and you yourself. On behalf of the counselling centre, your data is stored in encrypted form on the servers of Caritas Online Counselling, which are hosted by a trustworthy service provider located in Germany. The Deutscher Caritasverband e.V. [German Caritas Association] cannot view your data and only provides the technical infrastructure for the online counselling within the framework of processing as part of an order according to Section 29 KDG. The selected counselling centre is the responsible party, will process your messages and advise you on your concerns. Your data will never be passed on to third parties without your consent.

Communication via the counselling platform

Once you have registered, you can compose a message to the counselling centre and receive messages.

Purpose and legal basis of data processing

The data you transmit via the text input field will be processed by the selected counselling centre exclusively for the purpose of communicating with you and providing personal counselling on your topic.

Recipients of the data, scope of processing and data security

All communication is only visible to you and the responsible counselling centre. All data you transmit via the text input field is transmitted via a secure connection and stored in encrypted form on the contractor's servers. No other personal data is collected by the system; in particular, your IP address is not stored.

Use of cookies

When you log in to the guidance platform, the system saves various cookies on your device. Cookies are small text files that can be used to recognise a browser during a browser session. The cookies used by the platform are only used to maintain your login, to secure the system and to encrypt entries. The following cookies are stored by the platform on your device:

 Name Storage duration         Third-party access

 CSRF-TOKEN          Session          no

 keycloak        Session          no

 rc_token        Session          no

 rc_uid Session          no

 refreshToken Session          no

 useInformal   Session          no

 userRoles      Session          no

Rights of data subjects

As the counselling centre processes your personal data, you are a data subject in the sense of the Church Data Protection Act (KDG) and as such you have various rights. Please note that the counselling centre you have chosen is the controller within the meaning of the KDG and only it can access your personal data. Therefore, you must contact the respective counselling centre directly to assert your rights.

You have the following rights:

• Section 17 KDG: You can request information about your personal data processed by the counselling centre. In particular, you can request information about the processing purposes, the category of personal data, the categories of recipients to whom your data has been or will be disclosed, the planned storage period, the existence of a right to rectification, erasure, restriction of processing or objection, the existence of the right to lodge a complaint,
• Section 18, 19 KDG: You may request immediate rectification of inaccurate data or completion of your personal data stored by the counselling centre. You can demand the deletion of your personal data stored by the advisory body, if processing is not necessary to exercise the right to freedom of expression and information, to fulfil a legal obligation, for reasons of public interest or to assert, exercise or defend legal claims.
• Section 20 KDG: You can demand the correction of the processing of your personal data, insofar as the correctness of the data is disputed by you and the processing is unlawful.
• Section 22 KDG: You can request to receive personal data that you have provided us with in a structured, common and machine-readable format or request that it be transmitted to another responsible party.
• Section 8 para. 6 KDG: You can revoke your consent to the processing of data vis-à-vis the counselling centre at any time.
• Section 48 Paragraph 1 KDG: You can contact the Diocesan Data Protection Officer of the Catholic Church at www.datenschutz-kirche.de if you have any questions or complaints.

 Katholisches Datenschutzzentrum Frankfurt/M.
Haus am Dom 
Domplatz 3
60311 Frankfurt
Phone: +49 (0)69 80087188 00
Fax: +49 (0)69 80087188 15
E-Mail: info@kdsz-ffm.de

This privacy policy is provided by the German Caritas Association on behalf of the counselling centres. The counselling centres reserve the right to change this privacy policy in the future or to refer to their own privacy policies.

Please also note the general data protection regulations of caritas.de.