Privacy Policy (Datenschutzerklärung)

Last updated: November 9, 2026

1. Controller

Tim Balke, Prager Straße 60, 39218 Schönebeck, Germany.
Email: cartelwatchingsupport@protonmail.com. See also the Legal Notice (Impressum). We are not required to appoint a data protection officer.

2. Hosting (Cloudflare)

This website is hosted as a static site on Cloudflare Pages (Cloudflare, Inc., 101 Townsend St, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA). When you visit, Cloudflare processes technically necessary server log data (in particular IP address, time, requested URL, user agent) to deliver and secure the site. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in a secure and stable operation). Data may be transferred to the USA; Cloudflare is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework and also uses Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs).

3. Fonts

The fonts used (Inter, Playfair Display, Source Serif 4) are loaded locally from our own server. No requests are made to Google Fonts or other third-party font providers.

4. Newsletter (Kit)

For our newsletter “The Open Wire Briefing” we use Kit (Kit Inc., USA, formerly ConvertKit, kit.com). When you sign up, your email address is transmitted directly to Kit and processed and stored there to send you the newsletter. Legal basis for processing: your consent under Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. Sign-up uses double opt-in: you receive an email with a confirmation link; you are only subscribed after clicking it. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link in every email and withdraw your consent with effect for the future.

Transfers to the USA: Kit stores and processes the data in the USA. At the time of this notice, Kit, Inc. is not (any longer) actively certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework (status “Inactive – Lapse” on dataprivacyframework.gov). The transfer therefore relies on the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) under Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR, which form part of Kit’s Data Processing Addendum (DPA) (kit.com/dpa). Further information: kit.com/privacy and Kit help on GDPR.

5. Ko-fi

This site links to our Ko-fi page (ko-fi.com/cartel_watching). No Ko-fi script or widget is loaded; Ko-fi graphics are hosted on our own server. Personal data is only transferred to Ko-fi if you click the link and visit the Ko-fi site.

6. Your rights

You have the right of access (Art. 15 GDPR), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20), and to object to processing based on Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (Art. 21). You may withdraw consents at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, for example the Landesbeauftragter für den Datenschutz Sachsen-Anhalt, Leiterstraße 9, 39104 Magdeburg (datenschutz.sachsen-anhalt.de).