Privacy Policy
1. Controller
Niklas Klein, Hasenheide 8, 10967 Berlin, Germany. Email: niklas@spatz.vet
We delete personal data as soon as the purpose of processing no longer applies, unless statutory retention obligations require otherwise.
2. Hosting and server log files
Our website is hosted by Railway Corporation, with servers located in Amsterdam (EU); Railway itself is based in the USA and also provides the CDN. Each time the site is accessed, the IP address, timestamp, page requested, referrer, and browser/operating system are recorded in log files – for technical delivery of the site and IT security (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Transfers to the USA are covered by a data processing agreement as well as EU Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.
DNS resolution is handled by Cloudflare, Inc. (USA), exclusively for name resolution and not as a proxy – website traffic itself does not pass through Cloudflare.
We do not use cookies.
3. Web analytics (Umami)
We use the open-source service Umami, self-hosted on our own Railway infrastructure – no data is transmitted to third parties. Umami sets no cookies and builds no re-identifiable user profiles; your IP address is not stored permanently. Purpose: measuring reach and improving our service. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. No consent under Section 25 TDDDG (German Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act) is required.
4. Data on listed veterinarians
Our directory publishes information about veterinary practices and clinics – including name, address, contact details, areas of specialisation, and ratings. Where this information relates to natural persons (for example in the case of sole practitioners), it constitutes personal data.
This data comes from publicly accessible sources, in particular Google Maps and, where available, the websites of the respective practices. It is not collected from the data subjects themselves (information obligation under Art. 14 GDPR). The purpose is to provide a directory that helps pet owners find suitable practices; the legal basis is our legitimate interest together with the public interest in this information (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). The data is stored for as long as the listing exists.
Listed individuals may at any time request access, rectification, or erasure of their listing, or object to the processing under Art. 21 GDPR – an informal message to niklas@spatz.vet is sufficient.
5. Google reviews and the names of their authors
Alongside practice listings, we display reviews from Google Maps, including the author name supplied by Google – as required by Google's terms for displaying this content. This too constitutes personal data that we do not collect from the data subjects themselves (Art. 14 GDPR). The source is Google Maps and the Google Places API; the reviews were originally published publicly on Google by their authors.
The purpose is to transparently present existing experiences with the listed practices; the legal basis is our legitimate interest in providing an informative directory (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Reviews are served entirely from our own servers. Visiting our website therefore establishes no connection to Google, and none of your data is transmitted to Google.
If you would like your name or your review removed from our presentation, or wish to object to the processing under Art. 21 GDPR, an informal message to niklas@spatz.vet is sufficient. Please note that removal on our site has no effect on the publication on Google itself – for that, please contact Google directly.
6. Contacting us by email
If you write to us by email, we store your details in order to handle your enquiry (Art. 6(1)(f) or (b) GDPR) and delete them once they are no longer needed.
7. Third-party content
Fonts are served from our own server; no connection is made to external font providers.
Map views (for example the locations of veterinary practices) use map data from OpenStreetMap, with the tiles hosted by us on our own Railway infrastructure – no data is transmitted to an external map service. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License (ODbL).
8. No other data collection at present
There is currently no contact form, no registration or login, and no review submission feature. Should any of these be introduced, we will update this policy beforehand.
9. Your rights
You have the right to: access (Art. 15 GDPR), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20), objection to processing based on Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (Art. 21), and withdrawal of consent with effect for the future (Art. 7(3)).
10. Right to lodge a complaint
You may lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority at any time. The authority responsible for us is the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Berliner Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit), Alt-Moabit 59–61, 10555 Berlin, Germany, mailbox@datenschutz-berlin.de, tel. +49 30 138890.
11. AI-generated summaries
For directory listings, we automatically generate short summary descriptions based on the public review data described in sections 4 and 5. We use Google's Gemini API, processed via an EU server location – no data is transferred to third countries outside the EU/EEA. We have a data processing agreement in place with Google.
The purpose is to give pet owners a quick, understandable overview; the legal basis is our legitimate interest in an informative, user-friendly directory (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Automatically generated summaries are labeled as such on the website.