Privacy Policy

This is an English translation for convenience. The legally binding version is the German original.

Controller

The controller responsible for the data processing on this website is the provider named in the legal notice.

Hosting & Server Logs

The website is operated on the provider's own servers in Germany (Hetzner Online GmbH, Gunzenhausen). When the site is accessed, technically necessary data is processed (IP address, time, requested resource, user agent). Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR (DSGVO) (legitimate interest in stable operation). Logs are deleted after a maximum of 14 days.

When signing up for the notification distribution list, the email address is stored via the delivery service provider Resend (Resend Inc., 2261 Market Street #4471, San Francisco, CA 94114, USA). Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a DSGVO (consent). The consent can be withdrawn at any time by email to the address named in the legal notice — the entry is then deleted.

Resend processes personal data on the basis of the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and a data processing agreement.

Payment Processing (Stripe & PayPal)

Purchases in the Kontor are processed via the payment service provider Stripe (Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd., 1 Grand Canal Street Lower, Grand Canal Dock, Dublin, Ireland). When a purchase is started, the payment form is loaded by Stripe directly on the page; in the process, connection data as well as the payment and contact data entered in the form (e. g. email address, card details) are transmitted directly to Stripe. For this, Stripe sets technically necessary cookies for fraud prevention. Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b DSGVO (performance of a contract) as well as lit. f (fraud prevention). Before clicking "Buy", no data is transmitted to Stripe.

A transfer to third countries (in particular the USA) may take place; Stripe bases it on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Details: stripe.com/de/privacy.

During the payment process, PayPal can additionally be selected as a payment method. If PayPal is selected, a redirect to PayPal takes place (PayPal (Europe) S.à r.l. et Cie, S.C.A., 22-24 Boulevard Royal, L-2449 Luxembourg); the data required for payment is processed there. In this respect, PayPal is an independent controller and processes the data for its own purposes (including payment processing and fraud prevention). Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b DSGVO (performance of a contract) as well as lit. f (fraud prevention). A transfer to third countries may take place; PayPal bases it on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. Details: paypal.com/de/legalhub/privacy-full.

Contact Form

Data submitted via the contact form (name, email address, subject, message) is used exclusively to respond to the inquiry and is not disclosed to third parties. Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b and f DSGVO. After the conversation has concluded, the data is deleted, unless statutory retention obligations apply.

AI Chat "Speak with Menelaus"

The website offers an optional AI feature that lets you write in the voice of the novel's character Menelaus. The text you enter, together with technical connection data, is transmitted to and processed by Cloudflare to generate the reply (Cloudflare, Inc., 101 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA; "Workers AI" service). No user account is created and no IP address or other identifier is stored with the conversation. To improve the feature, the question you enter and the generated answer are stored without identifiers, analysed, and deleted after 90 days at the latest.

Legal basis: Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f DSGVO (legitimate interest in an interactive offering around the books); use is voluntary. A transfer to third countries (USA) may take place; Cloudflare bases it on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. To protect against automated misuse, a cookie-free bot check (Cloudflare Turnstile) may be used.

The conversation history is stored locally in the browser of your own device (in what is called local storage), so it remains readable after navigating away or reloading. This data never leaves the device and is automatically removed after 30 days. The "History" button lets you view past conversations and delete them completely at any time; clearing your browser data removes them as well. There is no server-side memory beyond an individual conversation.

Please do not enter personal or sensitive data into the chat — the feature does not need it.

Fonts & Cookies

This website uses exclusively locally embedded fonts — on its own server: "EB Garamond", "Cinzel" and "Great Vibes", each under the free SIL Open Font License. No Google Fonts or other external font services are loaded; therefore, no font-related data is transmitted to third parties when the page is accessed. No cookies are set that are not necessary for technical operation. The Menelaus chat stores your own conversation history locally in the browser (up to 30 days, deletable at any time) and uses Cloudflare Turnstile to protect against automated misuse; the former stays on the device, the latter serves security, and neither sets tracking cookies. Therefore, there is no cookie banner.

Data Subject Rights

There are rights to access (Art. 15 DSGVO), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20) and objection (Art. 21). Requests can be sent informally to the email address named in the legal notice.

There is also the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 DSGVO).

As of: June 2026