Privacy policy

Last updated: 7 October 2026

This English version is provided for your convenience. The German version (Datenschutzerklärung) is authoritative.

This website sets no cookies, uses no tracking and loads no content from other providers. Personal data is only processed when you open the website and when you write to us. Below you can read what data this is, what we use it for, how long we keep it – and what rights you have.

Controller

The controller responsible for processing personal data on this website within the meaning of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR; Datenschutz-Grundverordnung, DSGVO) is:

This privacy policy applies to the website vonwesternhagen.com and to enquiries you send us via the form or by email.

We have not appointed a data protection officer because we are not legally required to do so. Please send any questions about data protection to our management at info@vonwesternhagen.com.

No cookies, no tracking, no third-party content

This website sets no cookies and stores nothing in your browser’s local storage (localStorage). We do not use analytics, statistics or tracking services. Fonts, graphics, stylesheets and scripts are served from our own web server; maps, videos, social media plug-ins and other third-party content are not embedded. The scripts on the website only serve to operate and display it (enquiry form, coat-of-arms animation).

Hosting and server log files

Our website is hosted by ALL-INKL.COM – Neue Medien Münnich, owner René Münnich, Hauptstraße 68, 02742 Friedersdorf, Germany (“ALL-INKL”). The servers are located in Germany. We have concluded a data processing agreement with ALL-INKL in accordance with Art. 28 GDPR; ALL-INKL processes the data only on our instructions.

Whenever a page or file is requested, your browser necessarily transmits data to our web server. The server stores this data in log files (server log files):

• IP address of the requesting device,
• date and time of the request,
• page or file requested and amount of data transferred,
• status code of the response (for example “page found” or “not found”),
• the page visited before (referrer), if your browser transmits it,
• browser type and version and operating system (user agent).

Purpose: we need this data to deliver the website, to keep it stable and secure, to find errors and to detect and fend off attacks. We do not analyse the log files for marketing purposes, do not create user profiles from them and do not combine them with other data.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in providing the website securely and without errors.

Retention: the log files are deleted automatically after 7 days. Entries that we need to investigate a specific security incident are kept until the incident has been resolved.

Enquiry form and email

You can write to us using the enquiry form or by email. We process the details you give us. In the enquiry form, these are:

• Required details: your name, your email address and your message,
• Optional detail: the area your enquiry relates to,
• technical data: the language in which you filled in the form and, for spam protection, the time taken to fill in the form,
• date and time of the enquiry.

If you email us, we process the details you give us – such as your name, your email address and what your request is about.

How your enquiry is processed: the form transmits your details to our web server at ALL-INKL. A program on this server forwards them by email to our mailbox info@vonwesternhagen.com (see Email mailbox with Google Workspace). We do not keep a copy of your enquiry on the web server.

Purpose and legal basis: we use your details to answer your enquiry and to clarify any questions. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (pre-contractual measures taken at your request) where your enquiry relates to a contract in which you yourself become our contractual partner; otherwise – for example if you enquire on behalf of a company – Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in answering your enquiry.

For how long we keep enquiries, see Retention periods.

Spam protection

To fend off automated mass enquiries, we only use our own methods without third parties and without cookies: a field that is invisible to people and only filled in by bots, a check of the time between opening and submitting the form, and a limit on the number of enquiries per internet connection. We do not use captcha services such as Google reCAPTCHA.

For this limit, the server does not store your IP address itself, only a pseudonymised check value derived from it (a hash). It is no longer used 60 minutes after your last enquiry and is deleted automatically no later than about one hour after that. We do not include your IP address in the email containing your enquiry.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in protecting the form against misuse.

Email mailbox with Google Workspace

We run our mailbox info@vonwesternhagen.com on Google Workspace. The provider is Google Cloud EMEA Limited, 70 Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Dublin 2, Ireland (“Google”). Emails you send us, our replies and the enquiries from the form are therefore stored and processed on Google’s servers.

Google processes this data as our processor under Art. 28 GDPR on the basis of Google’s data processing terms (Cloud Data Processing Addendum) and only on our instructions. The legal basis for using Google Workspace is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; our legitimate interest lies in reliable and secure email communication. The processing of your details as such is based on the legal bases set out under Enquiry form and email.

Transfers to the USA: it cannot be ruled out that Google also processes data on servers in the USA or in other countries outside the EU. Google LLC (USA) is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. Transfers to certified companies are covered by the European Commission’s adequacy decision of 10 July 2023 (Art. 45 GDPR). The General Court of the European Union upheld this decision on 3 September 2025 (Case T-553/23); an appeal against it is pending before the Court of Justice of the European Union (Case C-703/25 P). As an additional safeguard, Google’s data processing terms provide for the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses (Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR).

Fonts

We use the typefaces “Source Serif 4” and “Inter”. The font files are stored on our own web server and loaded from there. There is no connection to Google Fonts, Adobe Fonts or any other font provider; the only data involved is that described under Hosting and server log files.

Links to other websites

Our website contains links to other websites, for example to the websites of the areas presented here. Only when you click such a link does your browser open the provider’s website and transmit, among other things, your IP address to it. As a rule, the provider does not learn which of our pages you were on – your browser only transmits our domain. The respective provider alone is responsible for the processing on the linked website; their privacy notices apply. We ourselves do not receive any data in this process.

Recipients and transfers to third countries

Within our company, only the people who need your data to handle your enquiry have access to it. Outside our company, data is only received by:

• our processors ALL-INKL (website hosting, processing of the form and sending of emails) and Google (email mailbox), which process the data only on our instructions,
• authorities or courts, where required by law.

We do not sell data. A transfer to countries outside the European Union or the European Economic Area is only possible in connection with our email mailbox at Google; the safeguards for this are described under Email mailbox with Google Workspace.

Retention periods

We only keep personal data for as long as is necessary for the respective purpose or required by statutory retention obligations. After that we delete it; until a retention period has expired, we restrict processing to that purpose.

• Server log files: 7 days; entries needed to investigate a specific security incident, until it has been resolved.
• Check value (hash) derived from the IP address to limit enquiries: 60 minutes after the last enquiry; deleted no later than about one hour after that.
• Details from the enquiry form on the web server: not stored – the server only forwards them by email.
• Enquiries and correspondence that do not lead to a contract: 6 months after the last contact.
• Offers and business correspondence relating to a contract (commercial and business letters): 6 years (§ 257 of the German Commercial Code, Handelsgesetzbuch, HGB; § 147 of the German Fiscal Code, Abgabenordnung, AO), starting at the end of the calendar year in which the document was created. The legal basis for this retention is Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR.

If you ask us to delete an enquiry earlier, we will do so unless a retention obligation prevents it.

Your rights

With regard to the personal data concerning you, you have the following rights against us:

• access to the data we process (Art. 15 GDPR),
• rectification of inaccurate data and completion of incomplete data (Art. 16 GDPR),
• erasure, unless a statutory retention obligation prevents it (Art. 17 GDPR),
• restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR),
• data portability – receiving the data you have provided to us in a common, machine-readable format (Art. 20 GDPR),
• objection to certain processing (Art. 21 GDPR, see below).

To exercise your rights, an informal message is sufficient – the easiest way is an email to info@vonwesternhagen.com. To make sure your data does not reach unauthorised persons, we may ask you to prove your identity.

Your right to object under Art. 21 GDPR

Where we process your data on the basis of Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interests), you have the right to object to this processing at any time on grounds relating to your particular situation. We will then no longer process the data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, rights and freedoms, or the processing serves the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

You can send your objection informally to info@vonwesternhagen.com or to our postal address.

Right to lodge a complaint

If you consider that the processing of your data infringes data protection law, you can lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR), in particular in the EU member state of your habitual residence, your place of work or the place of the alleged infringement. The authority responsible for us is:

Brandenburg Commissioner for Data Protection and Access to Information
(Die Landesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz und für das Recht auf Akteneinsicht Brandenburg)
Stahnsdorfer Damm 77
14532 Kleinmachnow, Germany
www.lda.brandenburg.de

You are, of course, also welcome to contact us first.

Provision of data and automated decisions

You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide personal data to us via this website. However, the technical data transmitted when you open a page, in particular your IP address, is necessary for us to deliver the website to you. Without the details marked as required in the enquiry form we cannot process your enquiry.

There is no automated decision-making, including profiling, within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR.

Changes to this privacy policy

We update this privacy policy when our website, our processing activities or the legal situation change. The version published here applies (last updated: 7 October 2026). In case of doubt, the German version (Datenschutzerklärung) prevails.