Privacy Policy

1. Location search and weather data

When you search for a location, your browser sends the text you typed to our server, but only when you press Enter or the “Search” button; nothing is sent while you type. Our server forwards this text to the geocoding service Nominatim of the OpenStreetMap Foundation, St John’s Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge, CB4 0WS, United Kingdom, and receives matching places with their coordinates. For the chosen location, our server requests hourly weather data from PVGIS, a service of the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), and sends it the coordinates rounded to two decimal places (0.01°, about 1 km), not the exact location.

Both requests are made by our server, not by your browser: Nominatim and PVGIS receive the search text or the coordinates, but not your IP address. Our server keeps the answers in memory only and deletes them automatically: search results after one day, weather data after 30 days. The deletion runs every hour, so an entry can remain up to one hour longer; a server restart deletes everything. In addition, your browser may keep the answers in its own cache: search results for up to one day, weather data for up to 30 days. The requests are not written to a log. To limit mass requests for weather data, the server counts them per IP address in memory only; the address is never written to disk or a log and is forgotten at most 20 minutes after the last request. Legal basis is our legitimate interest in providing the calculation you requested (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

The chosen location, that is its name and its coordinates, becomes part of the page address (URL), so that a link reproduces the calculation. It therefore ends up in your browser history and in every link you share, for example via “Copy link”.

2. Satellite map

The satellite map in the roof section first shows a placeholder; nothing is loaded from Esri. Only when you press “Load satellite image” does your browser load aerial images from Esri (Environmental Systems Research Institute, Inc., 380 New York Street, Redlands, CA 92373, USA), and again whenever you move the map, until you hide the image. Esri thereby receives your IP address, the usual browser information and the map section shown, which corresponds to the selected location. Esri is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.

Legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you give by pressing the button, for the current page view only; after a reload the placeholder appears again. You can withdraw your consent at any time, with effect for the future, by pressing “Hide satellite image”: the page then removes the image, shows the placeholder again and loads nothing more from Esri. The compass works without the satellite image. The map software Leaflet is delivered by our own server.

3. Feedback

Below the result you can send us a message: an idea, an error or anything else. Only when you press “Send message” does your browser transfer to our server: the text of your message, the type you chose (idea, error, other), the language of the page, the identifier “web” (it shows that the message comes from the website), the time at which you opened the form and, only if you enter it, your email address. We use the time only to recognise automated submissions; it is not stored. The form also contains a field that visitors do not see; it is sent empty, and a submission in which it is filled in is discarded as automated. Your inputs to the calculator, such as the address or the roof, are not sent.

We store the message in this server’s database and forward it by email through our own mail server to our mailbox info@twelve-digital.de, which is hosted by Google Workspace (Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland). We do not store your IP address with the feedback; it is only held briefly in memory to limit mass submissions. An email address you provide is used solely to reply to your message, not for advertising.

The legal basis is our legitimate interest in receiving and answering feedback on our product (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR); providing an email address is voluntary. The database entry is deleted automatically twelve months after receipt. We keep the email in our mailbox and any correspondence arising from it for as long as your request is open. On request we delete both immediately. An informal message to info@twelve-digital.de is enough.