Legal
Privacy Policy
Datenschutzerklärung gemäß DSGVO / Art. 13 GDPR · Compliant with India’s DPDP Act, 2023
Last updated: July 2026
1. Data Controller (Verantwortlicher)
The controller responsible for the processing of your personal data on this website is:
Although German Notes is registered and operated in India, we offer services to students in the European Union and Germany. Accordingly, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR / DSGVO) applies to our processing of personal data belonging to EU residents under Art. 3(2) GDPR.
2. What Data We Collect and Why
2.1 Enrollment & Contact Forms
When you submit an enrollment or contact form we collect your name, email address, phone number, and stated learning goal. We use this data to respond to your inquiry, confirm your batch placement, and manage our student relationship.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR — processing is necessary for the performance of a contract or pre-contractual steps at your request.
2.2 User Account
If you create an account, we store your name, email address, and encrypted password (or, if you sign in with Google, your Google profile name and email). Account data is used to authenticate you and give you access to your course materials and progress.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR — contract performance.
2.3 Placement Assessment
When you take our free placement test we store your answers and result to recommend the correct course level and, if you are logged in, to record your progress.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR — our legitimate interest in placing students in the right course.
2.4 Server & Access Logs
Our hosting provider automatically logs standard access data (IP address, browser type, pages visited, timestamps) for security and technical purposes. Logs are retained for a maximum of 30 days.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR — legitimate interest in securing our infrastructure.
3. Third-Party Services
3.1 Google Sign-In (OAuth)
We offer “Continue with Google” as an optional sign-in method. When you use it, Google shares your name and email address with us. We do not receive your password or other Google account data. Google’s own privacy policy applies to the authentication step.
3.2 Hosting — Contabo
Our website and database are hosted on servers operated by Contabo GmbH, Munich, Germany. Contabo processes data on our behalf as a data processor under a Data Processing Agreement. All data is stored within the European Union.
3.3 Email
We send transactional emails (enrollment confirmations, password resets) using our own mail server. We do not use third-party marketing platforms for automated campaigns without your explicit consent.
3.4 IP Geolocation (Currency Display)
On your first visit, we look up the country associated with your IP address using a third-party geolocation service (ip-api.com) so that we can show prices in the correct currency (EUR or INR). We store only the resulting currency code in a cookie for 7 days — we do not store your IP address ourselves.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR — our legitimate interest in displaying accurate, relevant pricing without requiring you to select a currency manually.
3.5 Website Analytics — Google Analytics
We use Google Analytics (provided by Google Ireland Limited, a subsidiary of Google LLC) to understand how visitors use our site — for example, visitor counts, approximate country/city, pages viewed, device type, and referring websites. Google Analytics sets cookies on your device and only runs after you actively accept this in the cookie banner shown on your first visit (see Section 7). We have enabled IP anonymization, so your full IP address is not stored by Google.
Because Google processes data on servers outside the European Economic Area, this transfer is safeguarded by Google’s Standard Contractual Clauses and/or its certification under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. Data is retained in Google Analytics for up to 14 months before automatic deletion.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR — your consent, given via our cookie banner. You may withdraw consent at any time by rejecting cookies when the banner reappears, or by clearing your browser’s cookies for this site, which will show the banner again on your next visit.
4. Data Retention
We retain personal data for as long as necessary to provide our services or as required by law:
- Account data: retained until you delete your account or request erasure.
- Enrollment / lead data: retained for up to 3 years for business and accounting records.
- Assessment results: retained for the duration of your active account.
- Server logs: maximum 30 days.
5. Your Rights under the GDPR / DSGVO
You have the following rights regarding your personal data:
- Right of access (Art. 15 GDPR): Request a copy of the data we hold about you.
- Right to rectification (Art. 16 GDPR): Ask us to correct inaccurate data.
- Right to erasure (Art. 17 GDPR): Request deletion of your data where we no longer have a legal basis to retain it.
- Right to restriction (Art. 18 GDPR): Ask us to restrict processing in certain circumstances.
- Right to data portability (Art. 20 GDPR): Receive your data in a machine-readable format.
- Right to object (Art. 21 GDPR): Object to processing based on legitimate interests.
- Right to withdraw consent: Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time without affecting the lawfulness of prior processing.
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at hello@germannotes.org. We will respond within 30 days.
6. Compliance with India's DPDP Act, 2023
As German Notes is based in India and serves students in India, we also comply with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act) for our Indian users. Under the DPDP Act, German Notes acts as the Data Fiduciary and you, as our user, are the Data Principal.
Notice (Section 5, DPDP Act): This Privacy Policy is our notice to you describing what personal data we collect, why we collect it, and how you can exercise your rights — see Sections 2 and 3 above for the full list, including our use of your IP address for currency display (3.4) and our website analytics (3.5).
Legal basis:Where you actively submit data to us (enrollment forms, account creation, the placement test) or accept cookies for Google Analytics (3.5) via our cookie banner, we rely on your consent. For a single limited, low-risk technical use — detecting your country to show accurate pricing (3.4), which does not set any cookie on your device — we rely on the “certain legitimate uses” recognised under Section 7 of the DPDP Act, namely that this data is processed only for the specified purpose you would reasonably expect when voluntarily visiting our website.
Your rights as a Data Principal include the right to access information about the personal data we hold and how it is processed, the right to correction and erasure of your personal data, the right to grievance redressal, and the right to nominate another individual to exercise these rights on your behalf in the event of your death or incapacity.
Grievance Officer: For any complaint or grievance under the DPDP Act, contact us at hello@germannotes.org. We will acknowledge and address grievances within 30 days.
7. Cookies
Strictly necessary cookies — for example, to maintain your logged-in session, remember your currency preference (see 3.4), and remember your cookie consent choice — are set automatically. No consent banner is required for these under DSGVO.
Analytics cookies— set by Google Analytics (see 3.5) — are non-essential and are only set after you click “Accept” on the cookie banner shown on your first visit. If you click “Reject,” or take no action, these cookies are never set and no data is sent to Google. We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.
8. No Automated Decision-Making
We do not use your personal data for automated decision-making or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects.
9. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in our practices or legal requirements. We will post the updated policy on this page with a revised date. For significant changes we will notify registered users by email.
10. Contact
For privacy-related questions or to exercise your rights, contact us at: hello@germannotes.org
Also see our Terms of Service.