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Your Family in the Cosmos

Privacy Policy

Protecting your personal data — and the data of your relatives — is central to me at GalaxyRoots. This privacy policy informs you about how I process personal data when you use my website and the visualization app, in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG).
Contents
  1. Data Controller
  2. Core Principle: Your Data Stays With You
  3. Which Data Is Processed?
  4. Hosting & Server Log Files
  5. Fonts (local)
  6. Cookies & Local Storage
  7. GEDCOM File Processing
  8. Protection of Living Persons
  9. Contact via Email
  10. Your Rights
  11. SSL Encryption
  12. Changes to This Policy

1. Data Controller

The data controller responsible for data processing on this website is:

Hendrik van Triest
Philipp-Zorn-Str. 24
50735 Köln
Germany
Email: datenschutz@galaxyroots.com

2. Core Principle: Your Data Stays With You

GalaxyRoots is a purely client-side application. Your genealogical data (GEDCOM files) is processed exclusively locally in your browser or on your mobile device.

I have no access at any time to the contents of your family trees. There is no cloud storage, no database upload, no server sync. If you use GalaxyRoots offline (e.g. in airplane mode), the entire visualization still works.

3. Which Data Is Processed?

3.1 When Visiting the Website

Technically necessary, the following data is collected by the hosting provider (see Section 4) when visiting the website:

Legal basis: Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in secure and stable website operation).

3.2 When Using the App

GEDCOM files that you load locally in your browser are not transmitted to my server. They remain in your device's memory and are automatically discarded when you close the browser tab.

4. Hosting & Server Log Files

The website is hosted by:

Netlify, Inc.
512 2nd Street, Suite 200
San Francisco, California 94107, USA

Netlify collects the data mentioned in section 3.1 in so-called log files. Data processing is based on Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in technically faultless provision).

Netlify is based in the USA. The transfer to the USA takes place on the basis of the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and Netlify's participation in the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. Details on data protection at Netlify: https://www.netlify.com/privacy/.

Log files are typically deleted automatically after 30 days.

5. Fonts (local)

The fonts used on this website — "Cormorant Garamond", "Cormorant", and "DM Mono" — are loaded locally from my server. No connection to Google servers takes place.

The font files were downloaded under the SIL Open Font License and reside in the /fonts/ directory next to the website pages.

Legal basis: Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in consistent typographic display).

6. Cookies & Local Storage

This website sets no cookies and uses no tracking technologies. No data is permanently stored in the browser. There is no analysis of your usage behavior.

7. GEDCOM File Processing

When you load a GEDCOM file into the app (via drag-and-drop or file selection), it is processed exclusively in your browser's memory. No transmission to a server takes place.

When you close the browser tab or the app, all data is automatically discarded. No persistence of any kind takes place.

8. Protection of Living Persons

GalaxyRoots automatically detects living persons in your GEDCOM file (persons without a death date and a birth year after 1925) and masks their personal data in the visualization (places of birth and death).

When sharing or publishing screenshots of your visualization, responsibility for the protection of third-party data lies with you. Consent from living relatives for the documentation of their data must, where required, be obtained by you yourself.

9. Contact via Email

If you contact me by email, your data (email address, name, content of the message) will be stored for the purpose of processing your request. There will be no transfer to third parties.

Legal basis: Art. 6 (1)(b) GDPR (pre-contractual measures) or Art. 6 (1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in answering).

Your inquiry will be deleted as soon as it has been completely processed and no statutory retention obligations stand in the way.

10. Your Rights

As a data subject, you have the following rights under GDPR:

To exercise your rights, an informal email to datenschutz@galaxyroots.com is sufficient.

The supervisory authority responsible for me is the data protection authority of the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. A complete list of all German data protection authorities can be found at www.bfdi.bund.de.

11. SSL Encryption

This site uses SSL/TLS encryption for security reasons. You can recognize an encrypted connection by the fact that the browser's address bar starts with "https://" and the lock icon is displayed.

When SSL encryption is activated, the data you transmit to me cannot be read by third parties.

12. Changes to This Policy

I reserve the right to adapt this privacy policy so that it always corresponds to current legal requirements or to implement changes to my services in the privacy policy. The new privacy policy then applies for your renewed visit.

Last updated: 24 April 2026