Privacy Policy

1. Controller

The controller responsible for data processing on this website is Niels Hegmans (heimseiten.de). Full contact details are in the imprint.

2. Server log files

When you visit this site, our hosting provider automatically collects and stores standard server log files that your browser transmits. These may include: the requested file, date and time of access, the amount of data transferred, your browser type and version, your operating system, the referring URL, and your (often shortened) IP address.

This data is processed to operate the site securely and reliably (e.g. to detect and defend against attacks). The legal basis is Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in secure operation). Log data is not merged with other data and is deleted after a short retention period.

3. Hosting

This site is hosted on a server in Germany. The hosting provider processes the above log data on our behalf as a processor (Art. 28 GDPR). The transfer to the server is encrypted via HTTPS.

4. Cookieless analytics (Matomo)

To understand how this site is used and to improve it, we run Matomo — a privacy-friendly, self-hosted web-analytics tool — on our own server. It is configured for maximum data protection: it sets no cookies, your IP address is anonymised, and it honours your browser’s “Do Not Track” setting (with Do-Not-Track enabled you are not counted at all). No data is shared with third parties or used for advertising. Because the analytics is cookieless and IP-anonymised, no consent banner is required (legal basis: Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR — our legitimate interest in understanding and improving the site). To opt out, tick the box below: your choice is stored in this browser’s local storage (key hs_notrack, not a cookie), and the analytics script is then not loaded on this device at all.

Disable analytics on this device (opt-out)

5. Cookies & local storage

This website does not use cookies. It uses your browser's localStorage to remember purely functional settings: your chosen colour theme (light/dark), your chosen language and the point where read-aloud was paused. If you use the learning features on the Thought Lab page, your progress is stored there as well: which experiments you have tried, your quiz and question-of-the-day answers, the letters you enter in the crossword puzzles (these can be cleared in the puzzle itself with “Start over”) and your streak. This information stays on your device, is never sent to us or anyone else, and you can clear it at any time via your browser settings – the learning progress also directly on the Thought Lab page.

The hands-on features of the Thought Lab store the following in the same way, only on your device: your predictions and completed tasks in the experiments (ae-auftraege), your progress at the Bern patent office, i.e. rejected patent files and completed levels of the clock game (ae-patentamt), your best score in the cuckoo-egg detector (ae-kuckuck), the curiosities you have found, the pages you have visited and the spots you have examined with the detective magnifier (ae-fundstuecke), whether the sound of the light clock is switched on (ae-klang), your settings and completed tasks in “A world with slow light” (ae-p8-licht) and your answers in “The great debate” (ae-p8-debatte). The learning progress itself is stored under ae-lernen; the crossword puzzles also remember your display setting (cc-arrow-prefs). None of this is ever transmitted; you can clear it via your browser settings. The button for clearing progress on the Thought Lab page only clears the learning progress.

6. Fonts and images

All fonts (Inter, Fraunces) and all photographs are stored on our own server and delivered directly from it. Apart from our own privacy-friendly Matomo analytics server (cookieless and IP-anonymised), we deliberately do not use Google Fonts, content delivery networks, maps, video embeds or social-media plugins, so no personal data is shared with third parties while you browse.

7. External links

This site links to external pages (for example Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons) as sources. These pages are only contacted if you actively click a link, at which point the privacy policy of the respective provider applies.

8. Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and to object to processing, as well as the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. To exercise these rights, please contact us using the details in the imprint.

Last updated: 2026. As this site uses only cookieless, privacy-preserving analytics, this policy rarely needs to change.