1. Responsible Party

The party responsible for processing data on this website is:

Andreas Gebert
Waldburgstraße 22
70563 Stuttgart
Germany
admin@talestone.com

2. General Information

We take the protection of your personal data seriously. Personal data is processed in accordance with the applicable data protection regulations, in particular the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

This website is hosted in Germany.

3. Hosting

This website is hosted by:

ALL-INKL.COM
Hauptstraße 68
D-02742 Friedersdorf
Germany

ALL-INKL.COM also hosts our email mailbox and our Matomo installation at analytics.noqtis.com. We have a data processing agreement with ALL-INKL.COM for these services. We do not use an additional content delivery network or reverse-proxy provider in front of this website.

When you visit this website, technical data such as IP addresses, browser information, operating system, and access times may be processed automatically by the hosting provider in server log files to ensure the stability and security of the website.

The processing is carried out on the basis of Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in secure and reliable website operation).

Server access logs are retained for seven days.

More information:
https://all-inkl.com/datenschutzinformationen/

4. SSL / TLS Encryption

This website uses SSL/TLS encryption to protect transmitted data and confidential content. You can recognize an encrypted connection by the “https://” address and the lock symbol in your browser.

5. Contact Form and Email

You can contact us at admin@talestone.com or use our contact form. The form requires an email address and a message; your name is optional. These details are forwarded by email to admin@talestone.com so that we can respond. Your email address is used as the reply address. The form does not store message contents in a website database or send an automatic reply.

We process enquiries to respond to your request on the basis of Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Where your enquiry concerns a contract or steps taken at your request before entering into a contract, Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR applies. The legitimate interest is to receive and answer enquiries about TaleStone. Providing these details is voluntary; the form cannot submit a message without an email address and message.

Ordinary contact enquiries are deleted no later than three months after they have been fully dealt with, and earlier when they are no longer needed for follow-up questions. Correspondence needed to comply with legal retention obligations or to establish, exercise or defend legal claims is retained separately for as long as required for that purpose.

When you submit the form, it requests a temporary session cookie named talestone_contact. This cookie is restricted to the contact endpoint and is used to validate a security token. It is configured as a session cookie, with Secure, HttpOnly and SameSite=Strict protections. The token expires after one hour. Browser session restoration may keep a session cookie beyond closing a window.

The form also checks a hidden spam field and temporarily records a hashed network address together with submission timestamps to limit repeated attempts. The hash is used for abuse prevention, not visitor analytics. Message contents are not stored in this limiter. Timestamps outside the one-hour window are removed when a later submission reaches the limiter; this is not a scheduled deletion after exactly one hour.

The purpose is to protect the contact service against forged submissions and abuse. Associated personal data processing is based on our legitimate interest under Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. The session cookie supports the contact service you request.

Fonts and article illustrations are served with this website. Loading these assets does not require a request to Google Fonts or an external image service. We link to external sources; following a link opens the destination website, whose privacy information then applies.

8. Website Statistics

With your consent, we use Matomo at analytics.noqtis.com (website ID 5) to understand visits, page views and link clicks. This involves processing usage information such as visited pages, browser and device information, referral information and the IP address needed for the connection. Our integration removes query parameters and fragments from the page and referral URLs before passing them to Matomo. Contact-form contents are not passed to Matomo by our integration.

The tracker is loaded only after you choose “Allow statistics”. You can decline statistics and use the entire website. You can change or withdraw your choice at any time using “Privacy settings” in the footer. Withdrawal stops future tracking and removes this website’s Matomo analytics cookies; it does not affect the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal. Optional analytics processing is based on Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR; storing and accessing analytics cookies is based on your consent under § 25(1) TDDDG.

Matomo masks the last two bytes of visitor IP addresses and uses the masked address for visit enrichment, including approximate location information. Masking reduces identifiability; it does not mean all analytics data is anonymous.

Automatic deletion is configured for visitor raw data older than 180 days and aggregated reports older than 24 months. Basic metrics and monthly and yearly reports are excluded from that report deletion and may therefore remain beyond 24 months. Cleanup is scheduled weekly, so deletion takes place in the next scheduled cleanup rather than exactly at the age threshold.

Our tracker sets visitor and referral cookie lifetimes to 180 days and the session cookie lifetime to 30 minutes. Browser settings may shorten these periods. Your statistics choice and its expiry time are stored separately in this browser’s local storage for up to 180 days. Clearing the website’s browser data removes the saved choice. Preference storage is used to respect your requested privacy choice under § 25(2)(2) TDDDG; the associated processing is based on our legitimate interest in managing that choice under Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.

9. Ratings, Private Feedback and Accounts

You can rate posts with Like or Dislike. Only the total numbers of likes and dislikes are public. After rating, you may send private feedback and optionally provide a display name and email address. Your text, name and email are stored in the website database and are accessible only through the site owner’s protected administration area. They are not published as comments or forwarded to our analytics integration.

When you start rating, a cookie named talestone_voter stores a random signed browser identifier for up to 180 days so that another rating from the same browser updates its existing vote. The database stores a keyed hash of this identifier, the post identifier, your rating, timestamps and any optional feedback you submit. A separate session cookie named talestone_voting validates submissions with a security token that expires after one hour. Both cookies are restricted to the API path and use Secure, HttpOnly and SameSite=Strict protections. Merely loading the rating totals does not create these cookies.

For abuse prevention, we keep keyed hashes of network addresses with temporary attempt counters outside the public website directory. Voting and feedback limits use a one-hour window; expired counters are removed on a later submission. Network addresses are not stored with your feedback. Private feedback, display names and email addresses are automatically deleted after twelve months from the latest feedback submission. Cleanup runs daily, so removal takes place at the next daily run after that period. Ratings are retained. The site owner can also delete feedback, names and email addresses earlier, separately from the rating. To ask about your feedback or request deletion, contact admin@talestone.com.

This website does not provide public comments, user registration or a newsletter subscription.

10. Your Rights

Under the GDPR, you have the right to:

  • request access to your stored data
  • request correction of inaccurate data
  • request deletion of your data
  • request restriction of processing
  • object to processing
  • request data portability

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory data protection authority.

For privacy-related inquiries, contact:
admin@talestone.com

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to update this privacy policy to comply with legal requirements or changes to our services.

The current version is always available on this website.