This policy explains which personal data is processed when you visit www.alker.io, when you get in touch and when we work together. The short version for the website: it sets no cookies, uses no tracking or advertising tools, embeds no third-party content and measures visits only with a cookie-free statistics tool.
Controller
Jürgen Alker, Friedensallee 54a, 22765 Hamburg, Germany
E-mail: mail@alker.io · Phone: +49 40 288 033 09
Legal notice: https://www.alker.io/imprint
Hosting
The website and our contact management system (see "When we work together") are hosted by Vercel Inc., 440 N Barranca Avenue #4133, Covina, CA 91723, USA. When you open a page, the server automatically processes the data your browser sends: IP address, date and time, the page requested, the referring page, browser type and operating system. This is technically necessary to deliver the website and to keep it secure, for example against attacks. Vercel processes this data on our behalf under a data processing agreement and keeps log data only for a short period.
Legal basis: Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is a secure and working website.
Website statistics
We use Fathom Analytics (Conva Ventures Inc., Box 37058 Millstream PO, Victoria, BC V9B 0E8, Canada) to understand how the website is used, for example which pages are read. Fathom sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device and does not create user profiles. Your IP address is only used in anonymised form and is not stored, so you cannot be identified. Data of visitors from the EU is processed in the EU. We only receive aggregated statistics.
Legal basis: Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is to improve the website. You can object at any time. Further details: https://usefathom.com/privacy
Cookies and storage in your browser
The website sets no cookies. If you pause the animated type on the home page, this choice is saved in your browser (local storage) so the animation stays paused on your next visit. Nothing is sent to us. This only happens at your request and is strictly necessary for this function (Section 25 (2) no. 2 TDDDG). You can delete it at any time in your browser settings.
Fonts
All fonts are served from this website itself. No connection is made to font services of third parties.
Links and our LinkedIn profile
The website links to our profile on LinkedIn, to our newsletter on Substack and to a CV on Google Docs. These are plain links: no content, buttons or scripts of these services are embedded, and no data is transferred to them until you click a link. From then on, the privacy policy of the respective provider applies.
If you visit our profile, LinkedIn processes your data, usually also for advertising purposes and sometimes outside the EU. LinkedIn is provided by LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland.
Legal basis: Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is to present our work and to communicate with people who follow it. Privacy policy: https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy
Newsletter and writing
New pieces are published via Substack (Substack Inc., San Francisco, USA). If you subscribe, you do so on Substack, and Substack's own privacy policy applies: https://substack.com/privacy. Substack is responsible for the subscription, the sending of the newsletter and any measurement of opening and click rates. You can unsubscribe at any time via the link in every newsletter.
Contacting us
If you write to us by e-mail, call us or send us a message, we process the information you provide, such as your name, e-mail address, phone number and message, to answer your enquiry. We delete the data once it is no longer needed, unless statutory retention periods apply.
Legal basis: Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR where your enquiry relates to a contract or its preparation, otherwise Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is to answer your enquiry.
Our e-mail runs on Google Workspace (see below). If you choose to contact us via WhatsApp, Signal or Slack, the respective provider also processes metadata of the communication, such as the fact and time of contact; the provider's privacy policy applies. You can always reach us by e-mail or phone instead.
When we work together
For projects with clients and partners we process contact and project data, such as names, e-mail addresses, positions, documents, notes and meeting details, to prepare and carry out our work together, and contract and billing data for invoicing. We receive this data from you, from your company or, for business contact details, from publicly available sources such as company websites and LinkedIn.
We manage our business contacts in a contact management system we have developed ourselves and use only internally. It contains names, contact details, company and position details, notes and the history of our contact. We import this data from our own accounts: our Google Workspace account, our WhatsApp account and data exports of our own LinkedIn network. The data therefore comes from our own communication with you or from information you have made available on LinkedIn.
Legal basis: Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR for our contracts, Art. 6 (1) (c) GDPR for statutory retention and tax obligations, and Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR for contact persons at client and partner companies. Our legitimate interest is the smooth handling of our business relationships.
For this we use the following services. Where a provider processes data on our behalf, we have concluded a data processing agreement with it (Art. 28 GDPR).
- Google Workspace (Gmail, Google Meet): Google Cloud EMEA Limited, 70 Sir John Rogerson's Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland
- Apple iCloud (file storage): Apple Distribution International Ltd., Hollyhill Industrial Estate, Hollyhill, Cork, Ireland
- Asana (project management): Asana, Inc., 633 Folsom Street, Suite 100, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA
- DocuSign (electronic signatures): DocuSign, Inc., 221 Main Street, Suite 1000, San Francisco, CA 94105, USA
- Vercel (hosting of our contact management system): see "Hosting"
- Neon (database of our contact management system): Neon, LLC, a Databricks company, San Francisco, CA, USA. The data is stored in an EU region (AWS, Frankfurt, Germany). Our data processing agreement with Neon includes the EU Standard Contractual Clauses (https://neon.com/dpa).
- Unipile (connection of our WhatsApp account to our contact management system): Unipile SAS, 168 rue de la Rotonde, 42153 Riorges, France
If a client or partner invites us to a video call on another platform, such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams, the inviting party is responsible for that platform. We also pass on data to tax advisors, banks and authorities where this is required by law or necessary for the contract.
Transfers to countries outside the EU
Some of the providers named above are based in the USA or Canada. Transfers to Canada are based on the adequacy decision of the European Commission. Transfers to the USA are based on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the provider is certified under it, and otherwise on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses or, in the case of DocuSign, on Binding Corporate Rules (Art. 47 GDPR).
Do you have to provide data?
You can read this website without providing any personal data beyond what your browser sends automatically. Providing data when you contact us is voluntary; without it we cannot answer. For a project, the data needed to carry out the contract is required. We do not use automated decision-making or profiling within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR.
How long data is kept
We keep personal data only as long as it is needed for the purposes above. We keep business contact data as long as the contact is part of our active professional network, and delete it earlier if you object or ask us to. Business records are kept for as long as commercial and tax law requires, in Germany six, eight or ten years depending on the type of document (Section 257 HGB, Section 147 AO).
Your rights
Right to object: where we process your data on the basis of legitimate interests (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR), you can object at any time for reasons arising from your particular situation (Art. 21 GDPR).
You have the right to access your data, to have it corrected or deleted, to restrict its processing and to data portability (Art. 15 to 20 GDPR). You can withdraw any consent you have given at any time with effect for the future. To exercise these rights, write to mail@alker.io.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. The authority responsible for us is: Der Hamburgische Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit, Ludwig-Erhard-Straße 22, 7. OG, 20459 Hamburg, Germany, https://datenschutz-hamburg.de
Changes
We update this policy when the website or the services we use change. The current version is always available on this page.