Privacy policy

1. Controller

The controller responsible for data processing on this website is:

Ali Mert Özdemir (Formschwung)

Petersburger Straße 71

10249 Berlin, Germany

Email: formschwung.studio@gmail.com

2. The short version

This website sets no cookies, uses no analytics or tracking tools and loads no third-party content. Fonts are delivered together with the website.

We process personal data in only two cases: technically when you visit a page (domain lookup and server logs at our service providers), and when you contact us, through the request form or by email. The service providers involved are named below.

3. Hosting with Netlify, domain with Cloudflare and server logs

This website is hosted by Netlify, Inc. (USA). When you visit a page, Netlify processes technically necessary data in server logs, in particular IP address, date and time, requested URL, referrer, and browser and operating system details. This keeps the website secure and stable.

The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is providing the website securely and without errors.

We have a data processing agreement with Netlify under Art. 28 GDPR; it is part of Netlify's subscription terms. Netlify, Inc. is based in the USA. The transfer of data there rests on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, under which Netlify, Inc. is certified (adequacy decision of the European Commission of 10 July 2023). Should that decision cease to apply, the EU standard contractual clauses that are part of the agreement with Netlify apply instead.

According to Netlify, server logs that contain IP addresses are kept for up to 30 days.

Our domain formschwung.com is managed at Cloudflare, Inc. (USA). Cloudflare answers the domain name lookup (DNS) that lets your device find this website. Cloudflare does not host this website, and visits to it do not pass through Cloudflare. We have a data processing agreement with Cloudflare; it is part of Cloudflare's subscription terms. Transfers to the USA rest on Cloudflare's certification under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and, where needed, on EU standard contractual clauses in our agreement. The legal basis for the domain lookup is also Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.

4. Request form (Netlify Forms)

When you use our request form, we process your answers: industry, project type, your description, scope, timing, budget, name, company, email address and website, plus the language of the page and, if you choose to tell us, how you found us. Required fields are marked in the form.

Submissions are handled by Netlify Forms. Netlify stores the request and forwards each submission by email to our studio inbox: formschwung.studio@gmail.com. The email is delivered to our mailbox, a free Gmail account provided by Google Ireland Limited (Dublin, Ireland); Google's terms of service and privacy policy apply to it. Google may also process data in the USA; Google LLC is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

Netlify checks every submission automatically for spam. For this it uses the service Akismet of Automattic Inc. (USA) as a sub-processor, so the content of your request, and possibly technical connection data, is analysed automatically. Netlify's other sub-processors, for example for email delivery, infrastructure and logging, are listed at netlify.com/legal/subprocessors. We do not use automated decision-making or profiling.

We use the data only to answer your request and prepare an offer. The optional answer about how you found us is also used to see which channels bring requests. We don't use it for marketing and don't pass it on to third parties for advertising. The service providers that receive and store your request are named in this policy.

The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (steps prior to entering a contract). Providing the data is voluntary; without the fields marked as required we cannot prepare an offer. Requests that do not lead to a contract, even if we sent you an offer, are deleted at the latest six months after our last contact with you. If a contract is concluded, we keep the contract, the related correspondence (including the offer) and the invoices for as long as the law requires, usually six, eight or ten years depending on the document (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR, in particular § 147 German Fiscal Code and § 14b German VAT Act), and then delete them.

To answer requests and prepare offers, we use an AI assistant (Claude, provided by Anthropic). For this, the assistant reads requests and emails in our studio inbox, including your name, email address and the other details you send us, and turns them into draft replies and project notes. It accesses the inbox through the service Composio (Composio, Inc., USA); data may be processed in the USA in the course of this. The assistant sends nothing on its own: every reply is checked and approved by a person before it is sent. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (steps prior to entering a contract) and Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (our interest in answering requests quickly and completely).

5. Contact by email

If you write to us by email, we process your email address, your message and the technical data of the email, such as date and time. We use them only to answer you and, if it comes to a contract, to prepare and carry it out.

The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR where your message concerns a contract or steps prior to one, otherwise Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (our interest in answering enquiries). The same deletion periods apply as for request-form submissions (section 4).

6. Cookies and storage on your device

This website sets no cookies and stores no information on your device. That's why there is no cookie banner.

7. Fonts

The fonts Geist and Geist Mono (this website) and Newsreader, Instrument Sans, Archivo, Instrument Serif, Surdina Mono, Gloock and Schwelle Mono (the concept demo sites under formschwung.com/work/) are self-hosted and delivered together with the pages. There is no connection to Google Fonts or any other font provider.

8. Your rights

You have the right to:

• access the data we hold about you (Art. 15 GDPR)
• have inaccurate data corrected (Art. 16 GDPR)
• have your data erased (Art. 17 GDPR)
• restrict processing (Art. 18 GDPR)
• receive your data in a portable format (Art. 20 GDPR)
• object to processing based on Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (Art. 21 GDPR)

9. Right to lodge a complaint

An email to formschwung.studio@gmail.com is enough for any request.

You can also lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, in particular in the EU member state where you live, work or where the alleged infringement took place. The authority responsible for us is the Berliner Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit (Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information), Alt-Moabit 59-61, 10555 Berlin, Germany, datenschutz-berlin.de.

Last updated

October 2026