Privacy Policy

Who is responsible for your data (Controller)

Expat Germany Guide ("we", "us") is the data controller responsible for the personal data you share on this website. We are an independent editorial service based in Berlin, Germany, and we process personal data in line with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG).

For any privacy question or request, contact us at hallo@expatgermanyguide.com or write to Expat Germany Guide, Torstraße 114, 10119 Berlin, Germany.

What personal data we collect

We keep data collection to the minimum needed to run the site and send you what you asked for:

• Email address — when you request the free relocation checklist PDF or subscribe to the monthly guide newsletter.
• Optional status — you may tell us whether you are a student, employee, family arrival or other, so we can send more relevant guides. This field is optional.
• Technical request data — PocketBase, our hosting provider, automatically logs the time, IP address and user agent of form submissions for security and abuse prevention, as is standard for any web service.
• Analytics — we may use privacy-respecting analytics to understand which articles are read. No cross-site tracking or advertising profiles are built from your visit.

Why we process your data (Legal basis)

Under Article 6 of the GDPR, we rely on the following legal bases:

• Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) — you give us your email voluntarily to receive the checklist and newsletter. You can withdraw consent at any time by clicking unsubscribe or emailing us.
• Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) — delivering the PDF you requested is the performance of a request you initiated.
• Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)) — logging basic request data to protect the service from abuse and keep it secure.

Where your data is stored

Your email address is stored in our PocketBase database, hosted on servers located in the European Union. We do not transfer your personal data outside the EU/EEA. Data is stored only for as long as you remain subscribed, plus a short period to confirm deletion, unless we must keep it to comply with a legal obligation.

Cookies and tracking

This website uses only the cookies strictly necessary for the site to function. We do not use advertising cookies, cross-site tracking cookies, or third-party marketing pixels. If we add privacy-respecting analytics in the future, it will be configured to work without cookies or with anonymised data, and we will update this page.

Your GDPR rights

Under the GDPR you have the following rights over your personal data:

• Access — request a copy of the data we hold about you.
• Rectification — ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Erasure ("right to be forgotten") — ask us to delete your data.
• Restriction — ask us to limit processing in certain circumstances.
• Portability — receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Objection — object to processing based on legitimate interests.
• Withdraw consent — withdraw your consent at any time without affecting processing that already took place.
• Complain — lodge a complaint with the competent German supervisory authority, the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (datenschutz-berlin.de).

How to exercise your rights

Email hallo@expatgermanyguide.com with your request. We will respond within one month, as required by the GDPR. We may ask you to confirm your identity before acting on a request, and we never charge a fee unless a request is clearly unfounded or excessive.

Third parties and processors

We share your data only with the technical processors that run this website and deliver email on our behalf, all under EU data-protection contracts (Article 28 GDPR). We never sell your email address or share it with advertisers.

Children

This site is not directed at children under 16, and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If you believe a minor has given us their email, contact us and we will delete it.

Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy to reflect changes in the law or our practices. The "last updated" date above will always show the most recent revision. Material changes will be highlighted on the site.