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Privacy Policy

We are delighted that you are interested in the Bavarian Starlights. Protecting your personal data is important to us. This policy informs you about the nature, scope and purpose of the processing of personal data on this website. Terms such as "personal data" or "processing" are defined in Art. 4 GDPR.

Controller

The controller within the meaning of the GDPR is the operator of this website, Bavarian Starlights (unregistered association), represented by the board member named in the Imprint (Gerhard Maier). Contact for data protection matters: president@bavarian-starlights.com as well as the address given in the Imprint.

Cookies and consent

This website does not use tracking or marketing cookies and does not embed any services that recognise you across different websites. Our analytics (Matomo, see the section below) runs cookieless and anonymised. This is why we do not need a cookie banner and do not obtain consent for cookies.

We use exclusively technically necessary storage to remember settings that you yourselves have made. Under Section 25(2)(2) TDDDG, this does not require consent and contains no personal data:

  • Language selection (cookie "lang"): stores the language you have chosen (de/en/cs) so that the page loads in the correct language. Stored for up to 12 months, evaluated exclusively locally.
  • Font size (localStorage "fontsize"): remembers the text size you have selected using the font-size slider. Remains in your browser and is not transmitted to us.

Hosting

This website is hosted by Hetzner Online GmbH, Industriestr. 25, 91710 Gunzenhausen, Germany. Hetzner processes, on our behalf, the data generated when the website is accessed (see "Server log files"). We have concluded a data processing agreement (DPA) with Hetzner pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in a secure and reliable provision of the website (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

Server log files

When the website is accessed, the server automatically collects data and temporarily stores it as "server log files" (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR):

  • page/file accessed and amount of data transferred
  • date and time of access
  • referrer (previously visited page), if transmitted
  • browser and operating system used
  • IP address (generally shortened/anonymised)

This data serves the secure, trouble-free operation of the website and is deleted after a maximum of 7 days. If data must be retained for evidentiary reasons, it is exempt from deletion until the incident has been finally clarified.

Fonts

All fonts are delivered locally from our own server. There is no connection to Google Fonts or other third-party providers; no data is transmitted to third parties for this purpose when the page is loaded.

Contacting us

If you contact us by e-mail, telephone or via the contact form, we process your information in order to respond to your enquiry (Art. 6(1)(b) and (f) GDPR). The contact form on the Contact page does not store any data on this website; instead it opens your own e-mail program with the message already prepared. We retain enquiries only for as long as is necessary for processing them, or until the expiry of statutory retention periods.

Registering for a club night

On our Schedule page you can register as a guest for a particular club night. We process the name you provide, your e-mail address, the number of people, the dance level and the date you selected — solely in order to plan the evening and welcome you (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).

To make sure nobody can register using someone else's address, we first send a confirmation e-mail. Only clicking the link inside makes the registration valid; the link is valid for 48 hours. If it is not used, the data is deleted automatically. We use the service Resend (Resend, Inc., USA; resend.com) to send this e-mail. A data processing agreement is in place and the transfer to the USA is covered by standard contractual clauses.

Registrations are stored on our own server (see the Hosting section), not with third parties. 30 days after the club night in question we automatically delete the e-mail address; all that remains is how many guests attended, which we need in order to plan our evenings.

Our members' responses are managed on a page that is not linked publicly and can only be reached via an internal access link. It stores the selected name and the response for upcoming dates (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR — legitimate interest in organising club activities).

Enquiries about a beginners' course

On our Learn Square Dance page you can leave your contact details so that we can tell you when a beginners' course starts. We process your name and e-mail address and — only if you choose to provide them — your phone number, town and your message, plus whether you would prefer a course or a club night — solely in order to get back to you (Art. 6(1)(a) and (b) GDPR).

We also record which channel brought you to us (for example “facebook” if you followed a link from there). That information is part of the link you clicked; it works without any cookie and creates no connection to an advertising network.

Double opt-in applies here too: your enquiry only becomes valid once you click the link in the confirmation e-mail. The link is valid for 48 hours; if it is not clicked, the details are deleted automatically. We use the same service Resend described above to send it.

The list is kept on our own server (see Hosting), not with third parties. We contact you personally and will remove you at any time on request — an informal message is enough. Entries untouched for two years are deleted automatically.

E-mail forwarding

For our addresses at @bavarian-starlights.com and @bavarian-starlights.de we do not operate our own mailboxes, but instead use e-mail forwarding via the service Forward Email (Forward Email LLC, USA; forwardemail.net). Incoming messages are forwarded to the mailboxes of the persons responsible; for president@ and secretary@ delivery is made to a Google mailbox (Google Workspace/Gmail, Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland). This may involve a transfer to the USA, which is safeguarded by the Standard Contractual Clauses and/or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in reachable, functioning communication (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

Google Maps

On the Directions page you can optionally load a map from Google Maps. The provider is Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland (parent company: Google LLC, USA).

To protect your data, the map is initially disabled. A connection to Google is established only once you activate the map yourself by clicking on it, thereby giving your consent pursuant to Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. Only then is your IP address transmitted to Google; this may involve a transfer to the USA (safeguarded by the EU-US Data Privacy Framework). Without clicking, no data is sent to Google. Details: policies.google.com/privacy.

Linked social networks

We do not embed any active social media plugins, "like" buttons or pixels. Our pages contain only links to our Facebook page (Meta Platforms Ireland Limited) and to WhatsApp (WhatsApp Ireland Limited). Merely loading our pages does not transmit any data to those services. Only when you click one of these links do you reach the respective service, whose own privacy policy then applies.

Analytics with Matomo

To statistically evaluate the use of our website, we use the open-source software Matomo, which we host ourselves on our own server in Germany (analytics.bavarian-starlights.de). No data is transmitted to third parties for this purpose. In addition to page views, we also record — anonymously — which contact and referral links are clicked (e.g. phone, WhatsApp, e-mail or the route directions), in order to understand which offerings are used.

We have deliberately configured Matomo in a privacy-friendly way: it sets no cookies (cookieless), IP addresses are processed shortened/anonymised. There is no cross-site recognition; the evaluation is anonymous and does not allow any conclusions to be drawn about you personally. For this reason, no consent is required – the legal basis is our legitimate interest in a needs-based, statistically evaluated design of our website (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

Retention period: The data collected with Matomo is automatically deleted after no more than 180 days.

Objection (opt-out): You can object to the anonymous analytics at any time. Simply activate the option below – this sets only a technically necessary cookie that stores your objection so that you are no longer counted. Please note: if you delete your browser cookies, this opt-out cookie is removed too and must be set again.

Your rights

You have the right at any time to access (Art. 15), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20), as well as a right to object to processing based on legitimate interests (Art. 21 GDPR). Any consent given may be withdrawn at any time with effect for the future. Please contact the address given above for this purpose.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority. The competent authority is the Bayerisches Landesamt für Datenschutzaufsicht (BayLDA), Promenade 18, 91522 Ansbach.

Retention period & currency

We store personal data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes stated or as required by statutory retention periods; it is then deleted or its processing restricted. As this website continues to develop, this policy may be amended – the version published here shall apply in each case.