Privacy Policy

This English version is a translation provided for convenience; the German version of this privacy policy is legally binding.

This privacy policy informs you about which personal data is processed when you visit the website www.ib-theis.de and when you contact us, for what purposes and on what legal basis this happens, and what rights you have (Art. 13 GDPR). In short: this website sets no cookies, uses no analytics or advertising services, and loads nothing from third-party servers. Processing is limited to the server log files with truncated IP addresses and to the data you send us yourself when you contact us.

Controller

The controller responsible for data processing on this website is IB Theis GmbH, Grünstraße 85, 40667 Meerbusch, Germany, represented by its managing director and shareholder Dipl.-Ing. Gregor J. Theis. Phone: +49 171 6701288, e-mail: info@ib-theis.de. The complete details are in the legal notice.

No data protection officer has been appointed: the requirements of Art. 37 (1) GDPR and Section 38 (1) of the German Federal Data Protection Act (Bundesdatenschutzgesetz, BDSG) are not met. In particular, we do not, as a rule, employ at least 20 persons on a permanent basis in the automated processing of personal data. For all questions about data protection, you can reach us at the contact details given above.

Principles

We process personal data only to the extent necessary to deliver this website or to handle an inquiry. The legal bases are Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR (initiation and performance of a contract) and Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR (legitimate interest in secure, trouble-free operation and in responding to inquiries). We delete data as soon as the purpose no longer applies; statutory retention periods remain unaffected. No automated decision-making, including profiling (Art. 22 GDPR), takes place. We do not base any processing on consent (Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR); a withdrawal of consent is therefore not applicable.

Hosting and server log files

This website runs on IB Theis GmbH’s own server on our own premises in Meerbusch, Germany, not with a hosting provider or in a cloud. We administer the server ourselves; no service provider is involved, and no processing on our behalf (Art. 28 GDPR) takes place.

Each time a page or file is requested, the web server stores in a log file: the truncated IP address, the date and time of the request, the address requested (URL), the HTTP status code, the amount of data transferred, the previously visited page (referrer) if your browser transmits it, and the user agent (browser type and version, operating system). The IP address is truncated before it is written to the log file: for IPv4 by the last octet (to /24), for IPv6 to the /64 prefix. The truncated address can no longer be attributed to an individual connection. We do not combine the log data with other data.

The purposes of logging are delivering the pages, the stability and security of the server (detecting and defending against attacks and malfunctions), and error analysis. The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR; our legitimate interest is the secure and trouble-free operation of the website. No evaluation for marketing purposes and no audience measurement takes place. This also applies to requests for the RSS feeds and for the health check response /ok.html, which we use to monitor the availability of the server. The log files are rotated daily and deleted after 30 days.

All requests are transport-encrypted via HTTPS. We obtained the TLS certificate through Hetzner; obtaining the certificate does not transmit any visitor data to Hetzner or to the issuing certificate authority.

No cookies, no tracking, no external resources

This website sets no cookies and stores nothing in your browser, the language switch, too, is an ordinary link. It uses no analytics or advertising services, no social media plugins, no video embeds, and loads no resources (fonts, images, scripts, stylesheets) from third-party servers. The only exception is the map page, which you reach only by a deliberate click (see “Map view”). Since no information is stored on or read from your device, consent under Section 25 (1) of the German Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act (Telekommunikation-Digitale-Dienste-Datenschutz-Gesetz, TDDDG) is not required; therefore there is no consent banner. No audience measurement takes place.

The pages contain no executable JavaScript code; the syntax highlighting of the code blocks in the Insights is computed when the pages are generated, not in your browser. References to external websites are ordinary links, not embeds: only when you click such a link does your browser leave our website; from then on, the privacy policy of the respective provider applies.

Map view (OpenStreetMap)

On the contact page we show a map preview as an image from our own server; no data is transmitted to third parties. Only when you click the link “Load interactive map” does a subpage open on which a map from OpenStreetMap is embedded. When that subpage loads, your browser fetches map tiles from servers of the OpenStreetMap Foundation (St John’s Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge, CB4 0WS, United Kingdom), and your IP address is transmitted to them. The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR; our legitimate interest is showing directions that you have explicitly requested by clicking. The United Kingdom is a safe third country under the EU Commission’s adequacy decision. Details: OpenStreetMap Foundation privacy policy. If you do not want to load the map, use the preview or the address on the contact page.

Fonts

The Poppins font is delivered as a WOFF2 file from our own server; there is no connection to Google Fonts or other font services, and no data flows to third parties. Poppins is licensed under the SIL Open Font License 1.1; the license text is available at /fonts/OFL.txt.

Contact by e-mail, phone, and vCard

The contact page offers mailto and tel links as well as a vCard file for download. When you click one of them, your browser opens your mail or phone application; the website transmits nothing in the process. The vCard is a static file containing our own contact details. It contains no visitor data, and its retrieval shows up in the server log just like that of any other file. There is no contact form.

If you send us an inquiry or call us, we process the data you provide in doing so: name, e-mail address, phone number, company, and the content of the inquiry. This applies to project inquiries as well as to partner and unsolicited inquiries and to feedback on articles. The purpose is handling the inquiry, initiating a contract, and performing a contract. The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR (pre-contractual measures and contract) or Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR (other inquiries; our legitimate interest is responding to the inquiries addressed to us). Providing your data is voluntary; without contact details, however, we cannot answer your inquiry.

We store the data until the inquiry has been dealt with. Inquiries that do not lead to an order are deleted no later than six months after the last contact. If an order results, we retain the related correspondence in accordance with the retention periods under commercial and tax law (Section 257 of the German Commercial Code, Handelsgesetzbuch. HGB; Section 147 of the German Fiscal Code, Abgabenordnung, AO).

Our mail server is located on the same premises as the web server and is operated by us; no e-mail provider is involved, and no processing on our behalf takes place. Please note that unencrypted e-mail offers no confidentiality in transit; for confidential content, please use the phone or an encryption method agreed with us.

RSS feeds and Insights

If you subscribe to one of our feeds (/insights/index.xml, /en/insights/index.xml, /feed.xml), your feed reader retrieves the file from our server at regular intervals. Each retrieval is a page request like any other: the information on server log files applies, nothing else. If you use a third-party feed service for this, that service’s privacy policy applies to it. There is no comment function; feedback on articles reaches us by e-mail.

Recipients and transfer to third countries

We do not pass personal data on to third parties unless we are legally obliged to do so. We do not use processors for this website or for our e-mail. No transfer to countries outside the European Union or the European Economic Area takes place; the web and mail servers are located in Meerbusch, Germany.

Your rights

You have the right to obtain from us access to the data stored about you (Art. 15 GDPR), rectification (Art. 16 GDPR), erasure (Art. 17 GDPR), restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR), and data portability (Art. 20 GDPR). To exercise these rights, send an e-mail to info@ib-theis.de or write to the postal address given in the legal notice.

Insofar as we process your data on the basis of Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR, 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 that override your interests, rights, and freedoms, or the processing serves the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims. An e-mail to info@ib-theis.de is sufficient to object.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, in particular in the member state of your habitual residence, place of work, or place of the alleged infringement. The authority responsible for us is the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of North Rhine-Westphalia (Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit Nordrhein-Westfalen, LDI NRW), Kavalleriestr. 2-4, 40213 Düsseldorf, Germany, phone +49 211 38424-0, e-mail poststelle@ldi.nrw.de, www.ldi.nrw.de.

Changes to this privacy policy

We will update this privacy policy when the technology of this website or the legal situation changes. The version published on this page applies; the date of the last review is shown at the end of the page.

Last reviewed: October 10, 2026