Privacy Policy

Last updated: April 2026 (added: YouTube video embeds, Google Maps embeds, Webmentions, clarified Cookies section)

1. Controller

The controller responsible for data processing on this website within the meaning of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is:


Email:

2. General Information on Data Processing

We take the protection of your personal data very seriously. We treat your personal data confidentially and in accordance with the statutory data protection regulations and this privacy policy.

As a rule, it is possible to use this website without providing personal data. If personal data (e.g. name or email address) is collected on this website, this is done on a voluntary basis where possible. This data will not be passed on to third parties without your explicit consent.

3. Data Collection When Visiting This Website

Server Log Files

When you visit this website, our hosting provider automatically collects and stores information in server log files that your browser transmits to us. This includes:

  • Your IP address
  • Date and time of the request
  • Content of the request (specific page)
  • Access status / HTTP status code
  • Amount of data transferred
  • Website from which the request originated (referrer)
  • Browser type and version
  • Operating system

This data is not merged with other data sources. The legal basis for this processing is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest). Our legitimate interest lies in the technically error-free presentation and optimisation of this website.

The server log files are stored for a maximum of 7 days and then deleted, unless further retention is required for security purposes.

4. Hosting

This website is hosted by Hetzner Online GmbH, Industriestr. 25, 91710 Gunzenhausen, Germany (https://www.hetzner.com). All data processing takes place on servers within the European Union, ensuring a high level of data protection in accordance with GDPR.

When you visit this website, Hetzner may process technical connection data (e.g. IP address) as part of server operations.

5. Interactive Map (Stadia Maps)

The photo map page (/photos/map) uses map tiles provided by Stadia Maps (Stadia Maps, LLC, https://stadiamaps.com). When you visit this page, your browser loads map tiles directly from Stadia Maps servers located in the European Union (tiles-eu.stadiamaps.com). This causes your IP address and browser information to be transmitted to Stadia Maps.

Stadia Maps does not track users across websites and processes data in accordance with GDPR. For details, see their privacy policy: https://stadiamaps.com/privacy-policy/. A Data Processing Addendum (DPA) is available at https://stadiamaps.com/legal/data-processing-addendum/.

The legal basis for this processing is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in providing an interactive map of photo locations). Map tile requests are only made when you actively visit the map page.

The map data is provided by OpenStreetMap contributors (https://www.openstreetmap.org/copyright, ODbL license) and processed into vector tiles by OpenMapTiles (https://openmaptiles.org).

6. Video Embeds (YouTube)

Individual posts may embed videos from YouTube. The provider is Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland (parent company: Google LLC, USA).

Embeds use YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com) with an explicit two-step consent pattern:

  1. Before consent, no content is loaded from Google servers — neither the video nor a thumbnail. A local placeholder is shown with an explanatory note and a “Load video” button. No data is transmitted to Google.

  2. Only when you actively click “Load video”, the video is loaded from youtube-nocookie.com and played. From that point on, YouTube processes data such as your IP address, browser information, and playback interactions. According to Google, in privacy-enhanced mode no personalisation cookies are set and data is only recorded upon playback. The legal basis for this processing is your explicit consent by clicking (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR).

As part of this embed, Google also processes data in third countries outside the EU, in particular the United States. The transfer is based on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. For further information, see Google’s privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy.

In the placeholder, you can choose between two options:

  • “Show once” — the video is loaded just for this single click. No information is stored on your device.
  • “Agree and remember” — your consent is stored as a yt-consent=1 entry in your browser’s local storage (localStorage) so that YouTube videos on this website load without prompting you again on future visits. This is neither a cookie nor a tracking technology; the entry only contains your consent decision and is only read by your own browser.

You can withdraw your consent at any time by deleting the yt-consent entry in your browser storage (browser settings → site data / “adrian-altner.de” → clear) or simply by leaving the page. Without consent, no data is transmitted to Google.

7. Map Embeds (Google Maps)

Individual posts may embed interactive maps from Google Maps. The provider is Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland (parent company: Google LLC, USA).

Embeds use an explicit consent pattern:

  1. Before consent, no content is loaded from Google servers. A local placeholder is shown with an explanatory note and buttons to load the map. No data is transmitted to Google.

  2. Only when you actively click “Show once” or “Agree and remember”, the map is loaded from Google’s servers. From that point on, Google Maps processes data such as your IP address and browser information. The legal basis for this processing is your explicit consent by clicking (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR).

Unlike YouTube, Google Maps has no privacy-enhanced mode. The consent placeholder is the only measure that prevents data transmission before your approval.

As part of this embed, Google also processes data in third countries outside the EU, in particular the United States. The transfer is based on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. For further information, see Google’s privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy.

In the placeholder, you can choose between two options:

  • “Show once” — the map is loaded just for this single click. No information is stored on your device.
  • “Agree and remember” — your consent is stored as a gmaps-consent=1 entry in your browser’s local storage (localStorage) so that Google Maps embeds on this website load without prompting you again on future visits. This is neither a cookie nor a tracking technology; the entry only contains your consent decision.

You can withdraw your consent at any time by deleting the gmaps-consent entry in your browser storage.

8. Cookies and Local Storage

This website does not set any cookies of its own and does not use any tracking or analytics tools (e.g. Google Analytics, Matomo, Plausible). There is no cross-site tracking and no profiling.

Information is only stored on your device if you actively click the “Agree and remember” button on a YouTube or Google Maps embed:

  • An entry (yt-consent or gmaps-consent) is placed in your browser’s local storage (localStorage). This is neither a cookie nor a tracking technology; the entry only contains your consent decision and is read only by your own browser. See sections 6 (YouTube) and 7 (Google Maps) for details.
  • Once you have consented, the respective third-party providers — in particular Google Maps — may set their own cookies in your browser. I have no influence over this; the providers’ privacy policies are linked in sections 6 and 7. YouTube is embedded in privacy-enhanced mode and, according to Google, does not set personalisation cookies before playback.

As long as you do not consent to any embed, neither cookies nor any other information are stored on your device.

9. Webmentions (IndieWeb)

This website supports the open web standard Webmentions (https://www.w3.org/TR/webmention/). Other websites can use it to notify me when they link to one of my posts — and via the bridge service Bridgy (https://brid.gy), likes and replies from Mastodon and Bluesky are also delivered as webmentions.

Receiving endpoint: In the <head> of every page, <link rel="webmention"> and <link rel="pingback"> point to the service webmention.io (Aaron Parecki, https://webmention.io), which receives and stores incoming webmentions on my behalf. These links are not fetched automatically by your browser; they are only evaluated by webmention sender software.

Display under posts: Likes, reposts, replies, and plain mentions are displayed underneath the respective post. The third-party data shown (display name, profile URL, avatar, where applicable reply text and timestamp) was published by the respective person on a third-party platform (e.g. Mastodon, Bluesky) and forwarded to webmention.io via Bridgy. The legal basis for displaying this data is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in a publicly traceable discourse around my own posts and in crediting the original authors). Anyone wishing to have their mention removed from this website may contact me at any time using the details in section 1.

Privacy for readers: The request to webmention.io is made only at build time on my server, not from the reader’s browser. Avatars are downloaded during the build and served locally from /images/webmention/. When you view a post, no data is transmitted to webmention.io or any other third party; all avatar images come from the same server as the post itself.

10. Contact

If you contact us by email, the data you provide (your email address and the content of your message) will be stored for the purpose of processing your inquiry and in case of follow-up questions. This data will not be passed on to third parties without your consent.

The legal basis for processing this data is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in responding to your inquiry) or, where your inquiry aims at concluding a contract, Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

You may object to the storage of your data at any time. In this case, the conversation cannot be continued. All personal data stored in the course of the contact will be deleted.

11. Your Rights

You have the following rights regarding your personal data:

  • Right of access (Art. 15 GDPR) – you may request information about the personal data we process about you.
  • Right to rectification (Art. 16 GDPR) – you may request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
  • Right to erasure (Art. 17 GDPR) – you may request deletion of your data under certain conditions.
  • Right to restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR) – you may request that processing of your data be restricted.
  • Right to data portability (Art. 20 GDPR) – you may request to receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
  • Right to object (Art. 21 GDPR) – you may object to processing based on legitimate interests at any time.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at the address provided above.

12. Right to Lodge a Complaint

You have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority. The supervisory authority competent for you depends on your place of residence or the location of the alleged infringement.

In Germany, the competent authority is typically the data protection authority of the federal state in which you reside. A list of all German supervisory authorities is available at:
https://www.bfdi.bund.de/DE/Service/Anschriften/Laender/Laender-node.html

13. Data Security

This website uses SSL/TLS encryption for security reasons and to protect the transmission of confidential content. You can recognise an encrypted connection by the padlock icon in your browser address bar and by the https:// prefix.

14. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to update this privacy policy to reflect changes in legal requirements or changes to our services. The current version of the privacy policy is always available on this page. Please check this page regularly.