Privacy­Policy

This page is a courtesy translation. The German version of this page is the legally binding version; in the event of any discrepancy, the German text prevails.

This notice explains which personal data is processed when you visit ergindigital.com, for what purpose, on which legal basis, and what rights you have. In short: this website does not use cookies and does not use any analytics or marketing services. Third-party content is loaded in exactly one place, and only with your consent: the Google Maps map on the home and contact pages. Otherwise, only the data technically necessary to deliver the website is processed, along with whatever you send me yourself via the contact form or by email.

1. Controller

The controller within the meaning of the GDPR is the owner, Fahreddin Ergin. Further details can be found in the Legal Notice. No data protection officer has been appointed, as the statutory requirements for doing so are not met.

2. Hosting and server logs

The website is operated on a server provided by Hetzner Online GmbH, Industriestraße 25, 91710 Gunzenhausen, Germany (data centre located in Germany), and is served there via the Coolify platform. On every visit, the server processes technically necessary data in log files (server logs): IP address, date and time, page requested, amount of data transferred, status code, referrer URL, and browser and operating system (user agent).

The legal basis is Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR. The legitimate interest lies in the secure and stable operation of the website as well as in defending against and investigating attacks. Logs are deleted after 14 days, unless they are needed for longer to investigate a specific incident. A data processing agreement under Art. 28 GDPR is in place with the hosting provider.

3. Cloudflare as processor

The domain ergindigital.com is delivered via the network of Cloudflare Germany GmbH, Rosental 7, 80331 Munich, Germany (parent company: Cloudflare, Inc., 101 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA). Cloudflare handles DNS, TLS encryption, caching, and protection against attacks. Every request to the website therefore passes through Cloudflare’s servers, where the IP address and the technical data described above are processed for delivery and security purposes.

The legal basis is Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR (security, availability and performance of the website). A data processing agreement is in place with Cloudflare; for any transfer to the USA, Cloudflare relies on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Cloudflare retains this data for as long as necessary to defend against attacks and for error analysis; details are governed by the data processing agreement (Data Processing Addendum) and Cloudflare’s privacy policy: www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy.

4. Cookies, consent, and Google Maps

This website does not use cookies and does not use any analytics, statistics, or marketing services. Fonts and graphics are loaded from my own server; there is no connection to Google Fonts, video platforms, or social networks. The only optional service is the Google Maps map (category "external media", see below). On your first visit, a banner asks for your choice; you can change it at any time via "Cookie Settings" in the footer.

Your choice is stored locally in your browser (localStorage, key "cookie-consent-v1"). If you adjust the display via the "Accessibility" icon (for example font size or contrast), your browser also stores that setting locally (key "a11y-prefs-v1"); "Reset" clears it again. These values never leave your browser and are necessary for the functionality you explicitly requested, within the meaning of § 25 (2) no. 2 of the German Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act (TDDDG). You can delete them at any time via your browser settings.

Google Maps (map shown only with consent) and links

On the home and contact pages I offer a map from the Google Maps service. The provider is Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland. The map is embedded as a two-click solution: when you open the page, you only see a placeholder served by my own server, and no connection to Google is established. Only when you click "Load map" is the map loaded from Google’s servers. In doing so, Google receives your IP address, information about your browser and device, and the page requested, and may set its own cookies; a transfer to Google LLC in the USA is possible. Google LLC is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (adequacy decision under Art. 45 GDPR).

The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6 (1)(a) GDPR, § 25 (1) TDDDG). If you select the checkbox "Always load maps on this website" or allow "external media" in the banner, I store your consent locally in your browser (localStorage, key "cookie-consent-v1"); without the checkbox it applies only to the map currently shown. You can withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future: via "Hide map and withdraw consent" below the map, or via "Cookie Settings" in the footer. Further information: Google’s privacy policy.

Independently of the map, this website contains links to Google Maps ("Open in Google Maps", "Get directions"). These are ordinary HTML links: no data is transmitted when the page loads; only when you actively click the link does Google Maps open in a new window, and Google’s privacy policy then applies.

5. Contact form and email

If you use the contact form, I process the information you enter (name, email address, optionally phone number and company, and your message) as well as the time of the request, in order to answer your enquiry and arrange an initial conversation. Your IP address is used briefly to limit abuse of the form (for example automated mass submissions); it is not stored together with your message.

The legal basis is Art. 6 (1)(b) GDPR (pre-contractual measures at your request) and Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR for protecting the form against abuse. The message is transmitted encrypted (TLS) to my own form endpoint on the server mentioned above; no third-party provider is involved. From there it is delivered to me by email.

The same applies if you email me directly: your information is used exclusively to process your enquiry and is not passed on without your consent. Emails to kontakt@ergindigital.com are stored on servers of Hetzner Online GmbH in Germany and are additionally copied to a mailbox with Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland (Gmail). Google is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework; the European Commission's adequacy decision therefore applies to any transfer to the USA.

Contact via WhatsApp

Next to the phone number you will find a WhatsApp icon. This is a plain link (wa.me): visiting this website does not establish a connection to WhatsApp and no data is transmitted. Only when you click the icon does WhatsApp open. The provider is WhatsApp Ireland Limited, Merrion Road, Dublin 4, D04 X2K5, Ireland. If you write to me via WhatsApp, WhatsApp processes your phone number, your profile name, the messages, and metadata such as the time and device information. According to WhatsApp, data is also processed within the Meta group of companies and in the USA. Using it is voluntary; phone, email, and the contact form are available to you without WhatsApp.

The legal basis for processing your message is Art. 6 (1)(b) GDPR (pre-contractual measures at your request). For the processing carried out by WhatsApp itself, WhatsApp’s privacy policy applies. Please do not send passwords or other confidential access credentials via WhatsApp.

Links to company profiles on social networks and platforms

In the footer and on the contact page you will find icons linking to my profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, YouTube, Telegram, Mastodon, Bluesky, Pinterest, DEV Community and Hashnode, as well as to my listings on MyHammer, Kleinanzeigen, MachDuDas, 11880.com and nebenan.de. These are plain links; the icons are loaded from my own server. Visiting this website does not establish a connection to these networks and no data is transmitted to them. Only when you click a link does the respective provider’s page open, and its own privacy notices then apply.

Phone calls and call recording

If you call me on my landline number, you will hear an announcement before the connection is made. In it, I inform you that the call is recorded so that I capture your request completely, and I refer to this privacy notice. I only hold phone calls with recording. If you do not agree, please hang up during the announcement; nothing will then be recorded. You can reach me just as well via WhatsApp on the same number or by email to kontakt@ergindigital.com, without any recording and with no disadvantage to your request. Recording only starts after the announcement. If you stay on the line after the announcement, you consent to the recording (Art. 6 (1)(a) GDPR). You can withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future (Art. 7 (3) GDPR), including during the call or by an informal message to kontakt@ergindigital.com; the recording will then be deleted.

If a call is recorded, the content of the call, your phone number, and the time and duration of the call are processed. The recording is stored on my own server in Germany and additionally delivered to me via a Telegram bot in my own Telegram chat. Telegram is provided by Telegram Messenger Inc., Commerce House, Wickhams Cay 1, Road Town, Tortola, British Virgin Islands. There is no adequacy decision from the European Commission for this country. There is therefore a risk that a level of data protection equivalent to that in the EU is not guaranteed there. The transfer is based on your consent (Art. 49 (1)(a) GDPR). If you do not want this transfer, hang up during the announcement and write to me via WhatsApp or email.

From a recording I automatically create a transcript, a translation into Turkish, and a short summary, so that I can accurately review the conversation later. Speech recognition runs on my own server in Germany; the audio recording itself does not leave it for this purpose. For translation and summarisation, I transmit the transcript text to the AI service Claude by Anthropic Ireland, Limited, 6th Floor, South Bank House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, D04 TR29, Ireland. Data may be transferred to the USA in the process; Anthropic states that it bases such transfers on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. The legal basis is your consent to the recording (Art. 6 (1)(a) GDPR). The transcript and translation are stored together with the recording, delivered to me the same way via Telegram, and deleted along with the recording (section 6). If you hang up during the announcement, neither a recording nor a transcript is created.

If you hang up during the announcement, nothing is recorded; via Telegram I only receive a notice with the phone number, time, and duration of the call, so that I can call you back. The phone number, time, and duration of a call are in any case processed by my phone line and my own server in Germany, because this is technically necessary for call routing and for returning your call (Art. 6 (1)(b) and (f) GDPR); I delete this connection data as soon as it is no longer needed for that purpose, at the latest after six months.

The announcement was created using an AI-generated re-creation of my own voice and speaks my own words.

Remote-support order, remote support via RustDesk, and online withdrawal

If you place an order via the form on the "Remote Support" page, I process the information you enter (name, email address, phone number, optionally company, operating system, your description, your confirmations, and the name you typed as a signature) as well as the date and time of receipt and an order number, in order to conclude and carry out the contract (Art. 6 (1)(b) GDPR). As with the contact form, the order is transmitted to me via my own form endpoint. In addition, this endpoint sends you a confirmation of receipt with the contract text to the email address you provided (Art. 6 (1)(c) GDPR in conjunction with § 312i (1) of the German Civil Code, BGB).

For the remote support itself I use the free software RustDesk. I operate the necessary relay server myself under fernwartung.ergindigital.com at Hetzner Online GmbH in Germany; no further remote-support provider is involved. When RustDesk starts on your device, it registers there with its RustDesk ID, a technical device key, and the IP address the connection comes from. The server logs sign-ins and connections with time, ID, and IP address. I delete the logs after 14 days, and stored ID entries 30 days after they were created. The legal basis is Art. 6 (1)(b) GDPR (carrying out the remote support) and Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR (operational security and abuse prevention). The RustDesk program files are also located on this server; when downloaded, it processes your IP address as described in section 2. To the extent that I have access to personal data during the session for which you are responsible, I act as your processor under § 7 of the remote-support contract.

If you withdraw from a contract via the "Withdraw from contract" page, I process your name, your email address, the details of the contract withdrawn, your optional note, and the date and time of receipt, in order to process the withdrawal and confirm its receipt to you (Art. 6 (1)(c) GDPR in conjunction with § 356a BGB). For both forms, your IP address is used briefly to limit abuse; it is not stored together with your information.

6. Retention period

Enquiries are deleted once they have been fully processed and no business relationship results, at the latest after twelve months. If an order comes about, I retain the correspondence for the statutory commercial and tax retention periods (six and ten years respectively). Server logs are deleted after the period stated in section 2. I retain remote-support orders, withdrawal declarations, and the corresponding confirmations of receipt as business records within these periods. I delete logs of the RustDesk server after 14 days, and ID entries 30 days after they were created (section 5). I retain call recordings and the transcripts created from them for as long as they are necessary to document the respective matter; a fixed period cannot be given, as this depends on the matter. Following a withdrawal or at your request for deletion, I delete them without delay, unless a statutory retention obligation prevents this.

7. Recipients

Recipients of personal data are the processors named in this notice: Hetzner Online GmbH (hosting, form endpoint, email, and the RustDesk server for remote support) and Cloudflare (delivery of the website). Google is also a recipient (copy of the email mailbox in a Gmail account; Google Ireland Ltd / Google LLC, certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework). For recorded phone calls, Telegram (delivery to me) and Anthropic (translation of the transcript) are also recipients, see section 5. Data is passed on to other third parties only if you have consented (for example when loading the Google Maps map, see section 4) or where there is a legal obligation to do so.

8. Your rights (data subject rights)

You have the following rights vis-à-vis the controller:

• Access to the data stored about you (Art. 15 GDPR)
• Rectification of inaccurate data (Art. 16 GDPR)
• Erasure, unless a retention obligation prevents this (Art. 17 GDPR)
• Restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR)
• Data portability (Art. 20 GDPR)
• Objection to processing based on Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR, for reasons arising from your particular situation (Art. 21 GDPR)

An informal message to kontakt@ergindigital.com is sufficient to exercise these rights.

9. Right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority

You have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR). The authority responsible for the controller is the Hessian Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Hessischer Beauftragter für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit), Gustav-Stresemann-Ring 1, 65189 Wiesbaden, Germany. You may also contact the supervisory authority of your own place of residence.

10. Encryption

The website is accessible exclusively via HTTPS with TLS 1.3. Data you send via the contact form is transmitted encrypted the entire way.

11. Consumer dispute resolution

I am not willing or obliged to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board (§ 36 (1) no. 1 VSBG).

12. Changes

This privacy policy will be adjusted whenever the technology used or the legal situation changes. The version published on this page applies.

Last updated: 30. September 2026