Privacy / Datenschutzerklärung
Updated 19 September 2026
Stark Quantum is a static site. Every page is a file generated ahead of time and served as it is. This page describes only what the site actually does; it does not list practices that do not apply here.
Last updated: 19 September 2026.
Controller
The controller within the meaning of Article 4 (7) GDPR is:
Christian Stark
Maxstr. 14
52070 Aachen
Germany
Email: info@starkquantum.com
The controller is a private individual operating a non-commercial publication. No goods or services are sold, no advertising is run, and no revenue is generated, so there is no payment processing, no customer data, no marketing, and no advertising or commercial profiling anywhere on this site.
No data protection officer has been appointed, because the site does not meet the thresholds in Article 37 GDPR or section 38 BDSG.
Purpose of processing
The site exists to publish and deliver a static editorial archive: essays, short source-tied briefs, a glossary, and the Reality Board. Personal data is processed only to the extent that delivering those pages, counting visits in aggregate, and answering email require it.
What is not here
There is no Google Analytics, and nothing on this site follows you across other websites. There are no advertising pixels, no third-party embeds, no social widgets, no comment system, and no newsletter. Visits are counted in aggregate by a self-hosted tool, described under Visitor statistics below.
No cookies are set by this site, including by that statistics tool.
Fonts, stylesheets, and images all come from this site. The one script loaded from another hostname is the statistics script, and that hostname is operated by the controller as well.
There is no user account, no login, and no payment processing. Personal data is never sold, and it is not used for advertising or profiling.
Storage on your device
One value, and only if you use it.
If you change the theme with the control in the header, the site writes your
choice to localStorage under the key sq-theme. This is stored in your
browser, never transmitted to the server, and never read by anyone else. It
exists so the page does not change appearance as you navigate.
Setting the theme back to automatic deletes the value. Clearing your browser’s site data also removes it.
This is storage strictly necessary to provide a function you explicitly requested, so it is permitted under section 25 (2) no. 2 TDDDG without consent. To the extent any personal data is involved, the legal basis is Article 6 (1) (f) GDPR — the legitimate interest in presenting the site as the reader configured it.
Nothing else is written to your device. No other localStorage key, no
sessionStorage, no IndexedDB, no cookie.
Visitor statistics
Visits are counted with Umami, an open-source statistics tool that the
controller runs on the controller’s own server. Every page loads its script
from umami.homomorphicprivacy.com, a hostname the controller operates. No
outside analytics company is involved.
For each page view the script sends the address of the page, the referring page if your browser supplies one, your browser, operating system and device type, screen size, and browser language. The server derives an approximate location from your IP address; the IP address itself is not stored. To tell one visit from another without cookies, Umami computes an identifier from technical data such as the IP address and the browser, combined with a value that changes periodically. That identifier cannot be used to recognise you on other websites.
The script sets no cookies and writes nothing to your device. It reads one
value from your browser’s local storage, umami.disabled, which exists only
if you have switched the counting off yourself.
The figures are used in aggregate only, to see which pages are read and how readers arrive. They are not combined with other data, not used to build profiles, not used for advertising, and not shared with anyone. The legal basis is Article 6 (1) (f) GDPR: the legitimate interest in understanding, in aggregate, how the site is used. Like everything else here, the script is delivered through Cloudflare, described below.
You may object at any time under Article 21 GDPR by writing to
info@starkquantum.com. Blocking the script with a browser extension also works; the site behaves exactly the same without it.
Server log files
The web server that delivers this site records ordinary access data: the requesting IP address, the date and time, the requested path, the HTTP status code, the amount of data transferred, the referrer if the browser sends one, and the user agent string.
This is technically required to deliver the site and to identify faults and abuse. The legal basis is Article 6 (1) (f) GDPR; the legitimate interest is operating the site securely and reliably. Logs are not combined with other data, not used to build profiles, and not used to identify individual readers. They are kept only as long as needed for that purpose and are then overwritten or deleted.
Delivery through Cloudflare
The site is delivered through Cloudflare as a content delivery network and reverse proxy, which is what makes it reachable and protects it against attack. Requests therefore pass through Cloudflare’s infrastructure, and Cloudflare processes connection data — including your IP address — on the controller’s behalf as a category of recipient.
Legal basis: Article 6 (1) (f) GDPR, the legitimate interest in secure and reliable delivery. Where data is transferred outside the EU or EEA, the transfer is based on the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses.
Cloudflare’s own privacy information is published at cloudflare.com/privacypolicy.
The archive search
The search in the header runs entirely in your browser. It fetches one file
from this site, /search-index.json, containing the titles and summaries of
everything published here, and searches that file locally. Your query is
never transmitted and is not logged, because it never leaves your device.
If you write to info@starkquantum.com, your message, your address, and anything else you choose to include are processed in order to read and answer it. The legal basis is Article 6 (1) (b) GDPR where the message concerns a possible or existing agreement, and otherwise Article 6 (1) (f) GDPR, the legitimate interest in answering correspondence.
Messages are kept only as long as needed to deal with the matter and are then deleted, unless a statutory retention period requires otherwise. Your address is not added to any mailing list, because there is no mailing list.
Links to other sites
Briefs and essays link to primary sources: preprints, code repositories, and technical pages published by laboratories and companies. Following such a link means visiting a third party’s server under that party’s own terms and privacy practices, over which this site has no control and for which it accepts no responsibility.
No automated decision-making
There is no automated decision-making in the sense of Article 22 GDPR and no profiling. Nothing on this site evaluates you or reaches a decision about you.
Your rights
Under the GDPR you have the right to:
- access the personal data held about you (Article 15);
- rectification of inaccurate data (Article 16);
- erasure (Article 17);
- restriction of processing (Article 18);
- data portability (Article 20);
- object to processing based on legitimate interests, on grounds relating to your particular situation (Article 21).
To exercise any of these, write to
Where processing relies on consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time with effect for the future, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out beforehand.
Right to complain to a supervisory authority
You have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority under Article 77 GDPR. The authority responsible for this controller is:
Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit Nordrhein-Westfalen (LDI NRW) — www.ldi.nrw.de
You may also complain to the supervisory authority where you live or work.
Changes to this notice
If what the site does changes, this page changes with it, and the date at the top is updated.