Welsing Translations
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Privacy notice

Last updated: 2 November 2026

This privacy notice applies to welsing-translations.de, including visits via www.welsing-translations.de. It explains how personal data is processed when you visit the website or contact me.

1. Controller

The controller responsible for processing your personal data is:
Maria Welsing
Welsing Translations
Alfersesch 19
48712 Gescher
Germany

Email: mwelsing@t-online.de
Telephone: +49 2542 956640

If you have questions about data protection or wish to exercise your rights, you can contact me directly.

2. Providing the website

When you open a page, your browser sends technical data to the web server. This includes your IP address, the requested address and the connection data needed to transmit the page. Processing this data is necessary to deliver the website to you.

The legal basis is Article 6(1)(f) of the GDPR. My legitimate interest is in providing a functioning and secure website.

The website runs on a self-administered root server provided by netcup GmbH, Emmy-Noether-Straße 10, 76131 Karlsruhe, Germany. The server is located in Germany. As hosting provider, netcup supplies the server infrastructure and receives the data needed to provide and operate it. You can find further information in netcup’s privacy notice (in German).

Alexander Welsing is responsible for technical administration and may access server data needed for operation in the course of that work.

3. Access and error logs

The web server keeps access logs containing:

  • the IP address of the connection, without truncation;
  • the date and time of the request, including time zone;
  • the HTTP method, requested address, including any URL parameters, and HTTP version;
  • the HTTP status and size of the response;
  • the previously visited page, if your browser sends it as the referrer;
  • the browser’s user agent, which may contain browser and operating system information;
  • the username used when accessing a password-protected area.

Error logs may also be created when technical errors occur or login attempts fail. These may include the IP address, time, requested address, username and details of the error. The logs are not anonymous.

The logs are used to troubleshoot problems and detect misuse and attacks on the server. The legal basis is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. The legitimate interest is the secure and reliable operation of the website.

Retention

Access and error log files are rotated daily. In addition to the current file, up to 14 archived files are kept; the oldest archive is deleted at each subsequent rotation. With daily rotation, this is approximately 14 to 15 days including the current file.

Empty files are not rotated. Existing archives can therefore be retained for longer if no further entries are added. No additional fixed maximum retention period is currently configured.

4. Access to protected areas

HTTP Basic Authentication is used for certain protected areas of the website. When you access such an area, your browser sends your username and password to the server over an encrypted HTTPS connection. The server checks those credentials. Passwords are stored as hashes in the password file.

The username may be logged together with the access data described in section 3. The standard access log format does not include the password.

Your browser may retain your credentials for subsequent requests to the protected area. The website does not set a login cookie for this purpose.

Credentials are checked on the basis of Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. My legitimate interest is to restrict access to protected content to people with valid credentials. Server-side credentials are retained for as long as the relevant access is provided. The rotation rules in section 3 apply to logged usernames.

5. System and security logs

The server firewall logs certain blocked connections. These entries may contain IP addresses, timestamps and technical connection data such as ports or protocols. System logs are also generated, for example when services change state or operational errors occur.

System logs are additionally stored in a central logging system (Grafana Loki) on the same server. This system is also operated by Alexander Welsing in Germany. Web server access and error files are not directly ingested into it. System or firewall entries may nevertheless contain connection data.

The legal basis is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. The processing serves the legitimate interest in identifying operational problems and protecting the server against unauthorised access.

Retention

The local firewall log file and other local system log files are rotated weekly, with up to four archives in addition to the current file. With regular rotation, this corresponds to approximately four to five weeks. Empty files are not rotated, so archives may be retained for longer when there are no new entries.

The local system journal is limited by disk-space thresholds. No fixed maximum retention period is currently configured for it.

Logs additionally stored in Grafana Loki have a retention period of 30 days. Automatic deletion is enabled and runs periodically, with a configured deletion delay of two hours. The Loki retention period does not also apply to the local system journal or other log files.

No additional backups are made of the server logs. They are not passed on to external logging or analytics services.

6. Contact by email or telephone

If you email or call me, I process the contact details you provide and the content of your enquiry. For emails, this also includes any attachments and the technical data needed for delivery.

The data is processed to respond to your enquiry. Where the enquiry concerns a translation assignment or steps before entering into an agreement, the legal basis is Article 6(1)(b) GDPR. For other enquiries, it is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR; my legitimate interest is responding to messages addressed to me.

The published address mwelsing@t-online.de uses an email mailbox provided by Telekom Deutschland GmbH. The provider processes the data needed to provide the mailbox and deliver messages. Further information is available in Telekom’s privacy notices (in German).

I retain enquiries for as long as necessary to handle them. Where a message relates to an assignment, is subject to statutory retention duties or is needed to establish, exercise or defend legal claims, further retention depends on those purposes and periods. The data is then deleted.

There is no contact form on this website. An email link opens your own email application; it does not itself send a message through the web server.

Contacting me and providing your details is voluntary. I may be unable to respond without the information needed to handle your enquiry.

7. Website analytics and external links

Optional Plausible Analytics

Website analytics is optional. Only if you select “Allow” do I load the Plausible Analytics script from plausible.a-wels.de. Without your consent, the script is not loaded and no analytics requests are sent to that service. You can use the website without agreeing. The server logs described in sections 3 and 5 are separate from optional analytics.

I use a self-hosted installation of Plausible to understand use of the website and improve it. It runs on the server in Germany described in section 2 and is technically administered by Alexander Welsing. This website does not use Plausible’s hosted cloud service; analytics data is not sent to the software developer’s cloud service.

Information collected after consent

The information processed includes the page visited, date and time, referring page, any campaign parameters, browser, operating system, device type and approximate location (for example, country). Plausible also measures scroll depth and time spent actively viewing pages, and records clicks on external links and downloads, including the destination URL.

The server receives the IP address and browser user agent with the analytics request. Plausible uses these details, the website domain and a rotating random value to create a daily identifier for counting visits. It does not set analytics cookies or store a persistent visitor identifier in your browser, and is not used here for advertising or tracking across websites or devices.

The Plausible statistics database does not store full IP addresses or full user-agent strings. It stores event and session records from which statistics are calculated. Separately, web server access and error logs may contain IP addresses and user-agent strings; the information and rotation rules in section 3 apply to those logs.

Consent and withdrawal

The legal basis for optional analytics is your consent under Article 6(1)(a) GDPR. Consent to storing or accessing information on your device for analytics is obtained under section 25(1) TDDDG. “Allow” covers this single purpose of website analytics under both provisions. Merely continuing to use the site, scrolling or closing the browser does not grant consent.

You can change your choice or withdraw consent at any time through “Analytics settings” in the footer of any main website page, or using the button below. Select “Do not allow” to withdraw. This stops new analytics requests; if the tracker has already loaded, the page reloads to remove it. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal, and cannot undo requests already sent.

Analytics is off unless you have given valid consent.

Saving your choice

Your choice is saved in this browser’s local storage under welsing_analytics_consent, together with the consent version, time of the choice and expiry time. No unique visitor identifier is created for this preference, and the record is not sent to Plausible. Both permission and refusal are valid for 180 days. An expired or outdated record is removed when the consent control next reads it, and a new choice is requested. Clearing browser data also removes the choice. If your browser cannot save the choice, analytics remains off on that page and a message is displayed.

The choice applies to this browser and hostname and to both language versions. Other browsers, devices or the other hostname require their own choice. An earlier opt-out is honoured as a refusal, never as consent.

Storing and reading this necessary preference serves to remember and respect your expressly requested choice (section 25(2)(2) TDDDG). My legitimate interest in respecting that choice is the basis under Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. Where the record serves to demonstrate consent, Article 6(1)(c), read with Articles 5(2) and 7(1) GDPR, also applies. The preference is not used for analytics.

Retention of analytics data

The database tables containing analytics events and sessions currently have no automatic age-based deletion rule. Statistics are kept until they are separately deleted; the 180-day validity of your choice does not set the retention period for analytics records. Your data protection rights, including erasure where applicable, are described in section 8. The retention information in section 3 applies to web server logs.

For general information about the software, see Plausible’s data policy. It describes the developer’s software or service; the self-hosted setup and consent requirement for this website are described here.

Other external links

The link to my LinkedIn profile is an ordinary link. Simply visiting this website does not connect you to LinkedIn through it. You leave this site for the external service only when you click the link; its operator is responsible for processing data there. The same applies to the other external links. This website does not embed advertising services, externally loaded fonts or social media plugins.

8. Your rights

Subject to the applicable legal requirements, you have the following rights in relation to the controller:

  • access to your personal data under Article 15 GDPR;
  • rectification of inaccurate data and completion of incomplete data under Article 16 GDPR;
  • erasure of your data under Article 17 GDPR;
  • restriction of processing under Article 18 GDPR;
  • data portability under Article 20 GDPR, where its requirements are met.

Right to object: Where processing is based on Article 6(1)(f) GDPR, you may object under Article 21 GDPR on grounds relating to your particular situation.

Where processing is based on your consent, you may withdraw it at any time with effect for the future. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing before it was withdrawn.

Visiting this website does not involve automated decision-making with legal or similarly significant effects within the meaning of Article 22(1) and (4) GDPR.

Complaint to a supervisory authority

Under Article 77 GDPR, you 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 the place of the alleged infringement.

For non-public bodies in North Rhine-Westphalia, you may contact:
Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit Nordrhein-Westfalen
Postfach 20 04 44
40102 Düsseldorf
Germany
Telephone: +49 211 38424-0
Email: poststelle@ldi.nrw.de
Website: www.ldi.nrw.de
Information on lodging a complaint (in German)