Privacy and Cookie Policy
Last updated: 11 August 2026
Neue Gotha respects your privacy and is committed to handling personal data lawfully, fairly, and transparently. This Privacy and Cookie Policy explains who is responsible for personal data, what information we process, why we process it, how long we retain it, who may receive it, and the rights available to individuals under the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (“GDPR”) and applicable national data-protection and electronic-communications law.
1. Who is responsible for your personal data?
The controller responsible for the processing described in this policy is:
- Legal name: Neue Gotha Historical Register gUG
- Trading or project name: Neue Gotha
- Postal address: Musterstraße 12, 10115 Berlin, Germany
- Email: editor@neuegotha.de
- EU/EEA representative: Not applicable (the controller is established in Germany).
- Data Protection Officer: No Data Protection Officer has been appointed. Privacy enquiries are handled through editor@neuegotha.de.
Questions about this policy or requests concerning personal data may be sent to the email or postal address above.
2. Scope of this policy
This policy applies to personal data processed through https://neuegotha.com, correspondence with the Neue Gotha editorial office, material submitted for editorial consideration, and editorial or archival records concerning identifiable living individuals.
It does not govern independent third-party websites or services linked from this website. Those providers are responsible for their own privacy practices.
3. Personal data we process and why
| Processing activity |
Personal data |
Purpose |
Legal basis |
Retention |
| Website delivery, logging, and security |
IP address; date and time of access; requested page or file; referring page; browser, operating-system, and device information; error and security-event data |
Deliver the website, maintain availability, diagnose faults, prevent abuse, and protect the website and its users |
Article 6(1)(f) GDPR — our legitimate interests in operating a secure and reliable website. Where processing is required by law, Article 6(1)(c) GDPR may also apply. |
Routine access and error logs are retained for 14 days. Records isolated for investigation of a suspected security incident may be retained for up to 90 days after the incident is resolved, or longer where required for legal claims. |
| Editorial correspondence and enquiries |
Name, contact details, message content, correspondence history, and any documents or other information voluntarily provided |
Respond to enquiries, assess corrections or submissions, maintain editorial records, and protect legal rights |
Article 6(1)(f) GDPR — our legitimate interests in conducting editorial work and responding to correspondence; Article 6(1)(b) GDPR where processing is necessary to take steps at an individual’s request before entering into a contract; Article 6(1)(c) GDPR where retention or disclosure is legally required |
Correspondence is ordinarily retained for 24 months after the matter closes. Material required to document an editorial decision, resolve a dispute, meet a legal obligation, or establish, exercise, or defend a legal claim may be retained for the applicable limitation period. |
| Editorial, genealogical, and archival records |
Names; titles and styles; dates and places associated with public or genealogical events; family relationships; jurisdictions, offices, and public roles; images; biographical information; source and citation information; and correspondence relating to accuracy or provenance |
Research, document, preserve, verify, correct, and publish material concerning dynastic, genealogical, heraldic, and institutional history |
Article 6(1)(f) GDPR — our legitimate interests and those of readers, researchers, and institutions in maintaining an accurate historical and genealogical reference work, subject to a documented necessity and balancing assessment. Applicable national rules implementing Article 85 GDPR concerning freedom of expression and information may also apply. |
For as long as the information remains relevant to the legitimate editorial or archival purpose, subject to accuracy review, correction, restriction, erasure, and applicable archiving or legal requirements |
| Cookie-consent and language preferences |
Consent choice, language preference, cookie identifiers, and related technical information |
Remember privacy choices, demonstrate consent where required, and provide the language selected by the visitor |
Article 6(1)(f) GDPR for strictly necessary preference and consent-management functions; Article 6(1)(a) GDPR for optional storage, access, or associated processing based on consent |
As stated in the cookie table below |
| Optional external services |
IP address, page URL, device and browser information, language choice, and service-interaction data, depending on the provider |
Provide optional translation, embedded content, analytics, or similar features actually enabled on the website |
Article 6(1)(a) GDPR — consent. Non-essential services remain disabled until consent is given. |
As described for each service and by the relevant provider |
We do not use personal data for solely automated decisions that produce legal effects or similarly significant effects concerning individuals.
4. Editorial and archival information obtained from other sources
Neue Gotha is an editorial and historical reference project. Some information in the register may concern identifiable living individuals and may not have been collected directly from those individuals.
Depending on the record, information may be obtained from official gazettes and public registers; archives and libraries; published books and scholarly works; institutional publications; reputable news sources; publicly accessible websites; submissions from the individual concerned or their authorised representative; family representatives; and other documented sources.
The categories of information may include the categories listed under “Editorial, genealogical, and archival records” above. The material may be made available to website visitors and may be indexed by search engines. Neue Gotha seeks to use relevant, proportionate, and appropriately sourced information and to distinguish documented fact from uncertainty or editorial interpretation.
Individuals may contact the editorial office to request access, correction, contextualisation, restriction, or erasure. Requests are assessed under the GDPR and applicable national law, taking into account accuracy, source integrity, the public interest, freedom of expression and information, archival considerations, and the rights and freedoms of other people. No provision of this policy removes a right granted by applicable law.
Neue Gotha does not intentionally publish special-category personal data or information concerning criminal convictions about living individuals unless a specific lawful basis and any additional legal condition have been identified and documented.
5. Cookies and similar technologies
Cookies are small text files stored on, or read from, a visitor’s device. Similar technologies may perform comparable functions. Some are strictly necessary for a website or a service expressly requested by the visitor. Others, including many analytics, advertising, social-media, translation, or embedded-content technologies, require prior consent under applicable EU electronic-communications rules.
Neue Gotha does not place or access non-essential cookies, or activate non-essential external services, before valid consent has been given. Visitors may accept or reject optional purposes separately and may withdraw consent at any time by selecting the permanently available “Cookie settings” control. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing that was lawful before withdrawal. Strictly necessary technologies cannot be disabled through the consent tool, but they may be controlled through browser settings where technically possible.
The following table reflects the technologies currently deployed on the website. It is updated whenever a plugin, host, analytics tool, embedded service, or cookie configuration changes.
| Name |
Provider |
Purpose |
Category |
Duration |
Third-party access |
| _scc_session |
Neue Gotha / managed hosting and site-control provider |
Maintains a short-lived session for website security and site-control functions |
Strictly necessary |
Browser session |
The contracted hosting or site-control provider may access the identifier when providing technical support |
| _tccl_visit |
Neue Gotha / managed website-analytics provider |
Distinguishes a single website visit and reduces duplicate counting within the same session |
Analytics — disabled until consent |
30 minutes |
Yes; the contracted analytics provider processes the identifier on Neue Gotha’s behalf |
| _tccl_visitor |
Neue Gotha / managed website-analytics provider |
Assigns a pseudonymous visitor identifier used to produce aggregated website-usage statistics |
Analytics — disabled until consent |
12 months |
Yes; the contracted analytics provider processes the identifier on Neue Gotha’s behalf |
| googtrans |
Neue Gotha / Google Translate |
Stores or applies the visitor’s language selection for the translation feature |
Functional — disabled until consent |
12 months |
Google may receive technical and service-interaction data when Google Translate is activated |
| ng_gt_default_applied |
Neue Gotha / website translation plugin |
Records whether the website’s default translation setting has been applied |
Functional — disabled until consent |
24 hours |
No direct vendor access is assumed; Google may receive data if activation causes Google Translate to load |
| eu_cookies_bar_consent |
Neue Gotha / locally hosted EU Cookies Bar plugin |
Stores the visitor’s cookie choices and prevents the banner from being shown unnecessarily |
Strictly necessary |
6 months |
No, provided the consent plugin remains locally hosted and does not transmit consent records to its developer |
| wordpress_test_cookie |
Neue Gotha / WordPress |
Checks whether the browser supports cookies when an authorised user visits the sign-in page |
Strictly necessary |
Browser session |
No; the cookie is processed by Neue Gotha and its contracted host |
Authorised editorial users may receive WordPress authentication, security, or preference cookies when they sign in. wordpress_logged_in_[hash] maintains an authenticated session for up to two weeks when “Remember Me” is selected; wordpress_sec_[hash] protects administrative access for the session; and wp-settings-[user_id] stores an editor’s interface preferences for up to one year. These internal cookies are processed solely for editorial access and site administration.
6. Google Translate, web fonts, and other external content
Where enabled with the visitor’s consent, Neue Gotha may use Google Translate to provide machine-generated translations. Activating the service may cause the visitor’s browser to connect to Google and disclose technical information such as the IP address, requested page URL, browser or device information, and language or service-interaction data. Machine translations may contain errors and do not replace the original editorial text.
Website fonts are hosted locally by Neue Gotha and do not require a connection to Google. Google Translate remains an optional external service that is activated only after the visitor provides consent.
Information about Google’s processing is available in the Google Privacy Policy and Google’s explanation of how it uses information from sites and applications that use its services.
Embedded material from another website may allow that provider to process personal data as if the visitor had visited the provider directly. Non-essential embeds remain blocked until consent is obtained. Each enabled provider is identified in this policy and in the consent interface.
7. Recipients of personal data
Personal data may be disclosed only where necessary to:
- hosting, content-delivery, backup, website-maintenance, email, security, and consent-management providers acting under contract;
- translation, analytics, media, or other external-service providers selected by the visitor through the consent interface;
- professional advisers, insurers, auditors, or other specialists where necessary to protect legal or operational interests;
- courts, regulators, law-enforcement bodies, or public authorities where disclosure is required or permitted by law; and
- the public and search engines where personal data form part of a lawfully published editorial or archival record.
8. International data transfers
Some service providers may process personal data outside the European Economic Area. Where the GDPR restricts such a transfer, Neue Gotha relies on an applicable European Commission adequacy decision or appropriate safeguards under Article 46 GDPR, such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses, together with supplementary measures where required.
Cloudflare and Google may transfer limited technical information to recipients in the United States. Where the recipient is validly certified, the transfer is based on the European Commission’s adequacy decision for the EU–US Data Privacy Framework. Where that mechanism is unavailable or does not cover a transfer, the relevant provider’s European Commission Standard Contractual Clauses and supplementary technical and organisational measures are used. Information about the applicable safeguards, including how to obtain a copy, may be requested from editor@neuegotha.de.
9. How long we retain personal data
We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this policy, including security, editorial integrity, source verification, dispute resolution, and compliance with legal obligations. The specific periods or criteria are stated in the processing and cookie tables above.
When a retention period ends, information is deleted or anonymised unless continued retention is required by law, is necessary for legal claims, or is justified by a documented editorial or archival purpose. Encrypted rolling backups are retained for 35 days and are then overwritten automatically, unless a backup has been isolated for incident recovery or a legal hold.
10. Security
Neue Gotha uses appropriate technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal data against accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised disclosure, or access. No method of internet transmission or electronic storage is completely secure, and absolute security cannot be guaranteed.
11. Your data-protection rights
Subject to the conditions and limitations in the GDPR and applicable national law, an individual may have the right to:
- obtain confirmation as to whether personal data concerning them are processed and request access to those data;
- request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data;
- request erasure of personal data;
- request restriction of processing;
- object, on grounds relating to their particular situation, to processing based on legitimate interests;
- receive personal data they provided in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format and transmit those data to another controller where the right to portability applies;
- withdraw consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before withdrawal; and
- lodge a complaint with a competent data-protection supervisory authority.
To exercise a right, contact editor@neuegotha.de. Please identify the information or record concerned and the nature of the request. We may request information reasonably necessary to verify identity and protect personal data from unauthorised disclosure. Requests are normally answered within one month, subject to any extension permitted by law.
Where a request concerns published editorial or archival content, applicable rights may be limited where necessary and proportionate to reconcile data protection with freedom of expression and information or other rights recognised by law. Each request will be assessed individually.
12. Complaints
We encourage individuals to contact us first so that we can try to resolve a concern. Individuals also have the right to complain to the supervisory authority in the EU or EEA country of their habitual residence, place of work, or the place of the alleged infringement.
For this Berlin-based controller the supervisory authority is the Berliner Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit, Alt-Moabit 59–61, 10555 Berlin, Germany; telephone +49 30 13889-0; email mailbox@datenschutz-berlin.de; website https://www.datenschutz-berlin.de/.
13. Children
The website is intended as a general historical and reference resource and is not directed specifically at children. We do not knowingly request personal data directly from children for an online service requiring parental consent. If you believe a child has provided personal data inappropriately, please contact us.
14. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy when our processing activities, service providers, technologies, or legal obligations change. The current version will be published on this page with a revised “Last updated” date. Where required, we will provide additional notice or request renewed consent before introducing a new processing purpose.
