Privacy Policy

1. Controller

The controller responsible for data processing on this website is: Melanie Beck factorytoolkit, Wiesneckstr. 21, 79256 Buchenbach, Deutschland. Contact: info@factorytoolkit.com, phone: +49 (0)7661/9045659.

2. Overview of processing activities

We process personal data only to the extent required to operate this website and provide our product (a personalised shopfloor management package as a download). Specifically: (a) technical provision of the website including server logs, (b) the configurator — running entirely locally in your browser, (c) checkout and payment processing via Stripe, (d) generation of your package with strictly time-limited server storage, (e) a permanent proof of purchase (kit key entitlement), (f) the legally required logging of your consent to the expiry of the right of withdrawal including the contract confirmation, (g) receiving withdrawal declarations via the online withdrawal function, (h) an optional marketing consent, (i) emailing the contract confirmation and download link, (j) cookieless usage analytics, and (k) encrypted data backups. Sections 3 to 13 describe each processing activity with its purpose, legal basis and retention period.

This website does not use cookies. For usage analytics we use a deliberately cookieless tool without cross-device recognition (section 12) — no consent banner is required for this.

3. Provision of the website and server logs

When you visit this website, our hosting provider Railway (see section 14) processes technically necessary connection data (in particular IP address, date and time of access, requested URL, user agent) to deliver the website and to ensure system security and stability (server logs).

The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR (legitimate interest in the secure and stable operation of the website). Log data is not merged with other data sources and is automatically deleted after a short period as part of the hosting provider's log rotation.

4. Configurator — local processing in your browser (localStorage)

In the configurator you enter operational data (e.g. company name, industry, workstation and area names, shift model, KPI targets). During configuration this input is processed exclusively locally in your browser and cached as a draft in your browser's localStorage so your entries survive accidentally closing the tab. Before you start checkout or generation, this data is NOT transmitted to our server.

The data remains on your device until you delete the draft via the "Discard" function in the configurator or via your browser settings. To the extent this involves any processing of personal data by us at all, the legal basis is Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR (steps prior to entering into a contract at your request).

5. Checkout and payment processing (Stripe)

The purchase of the kit is handled by Stripe (Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd., 1 Grand Canal Street Lower, Dublin, Ireland; and Stripe, Inc., USA) as payment provider and merchant of record ("Stripe Managed Payments"): Stripe processes the payment and handles invoicing and VAT; the seller and your contracting partner for the kit remains us. When you trigger the paid download, you are redirected to a payment page hosted by Stripe; you enter your payment details (e.g. card data) directly there. They are processed solely by Stripe — we never receive full payment details.

When you start checkout, we store your configuration and — if provided — your email address and the declarations you gave during checkout (optional marketing consent, withdrawal consent) server-side as a checkout draft so your package can be generated automatically once payment is confirmed. This draft is automatically deleted no later than 24 hours after creation. If your visit originated from an advertisement, we additionally store the campaign identifiers contained in the page address (UTM parameters, click identifier such as "gclid") in the checkout draft and, after the purchase, in the entitlement record (section 7) to measure the success of our own advertising campaigns — the legal basis in this respect is Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR; nothing is stored on your device for this and no data is shared with advertising networks.

After a successful purchase, Stripe sends us a purchase confirmation (including an order identifier, a payment reference and the email address provided at checkout) so we can send you the contract confirmation, release generation, provide the package to you and link the purchase to your kit key (section 7). The internal mapping of order to generation job is automatically deleted no later than 48 hours after creation; the download link and kit key contained in it are already purged after their first delivery to you.

The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR (performance of a contract or pre-contractual steps). Where Stripe processes data outside the EU/EEA, this is based on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses or an adequacy decision (EU-US Data Privacy Framework). Details: https://stripe.com/en-de/privacy.

6. Generation and provision of your package

To create your personal package (Excel workbooks, PDF guide, print templates), your configuration is processed on our server. The finished package is stored there temporarily so you can retrieve it via a download link known only to you. The generation job and the package are automatically deleted no later than 48 hours after creation. Your configuration is not stored permanently.

You receive a copy of your configuration as the file config.json inside the ZIP package — it stays with you and later allows you to regenerate an updated kit. For support purposes, the generated files carry a product version and a random job short reference (no personal data).

The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR (performance of a contract).

7. Permanent proof of purchase (kit key entitlement)

With your purchase you receive a permanent kit key that lets you regenerate your kit for free at any time — including with a changed configuration. To manage this entitlement we store an entitlement record on the server containing: the kit key exclusively in cryptographically hashed form (SHA-256 — the key CANNOT be reconstructed from the stored hash), the order identifier and payment reference of the purchase, the email address provided at checkout, the company name provided at purchase, the purchase date, a counter of free regenerations (observation only, no cap), where applicable the campaign identifier of the purchase (section 5), and the declarations described in sections 8 and 10. The plain-text key is not stored by us permanently; it only resides in the internal order mapping (section 5) until its one-time delivery to you (max. 48 hours) and is purged afterwards.

The company name is stored to bind your kit to you as the original purchaser: every free regeneration uses the original company name (protection against sharing the key). In the event of a refund or chargeback the entitlement is revoked; the kit key then becomes invalid. We delete revoked entitlement records once the applicable objection and evidence periods have expired.

We store this data for as long as the entitlement exists, i.e. until the contractual purpose ends or you request deletion (see section 15); deleting the entitlement record renders the corresponding kit key unusable. The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR (performance of a contract — honouring your permanent right to regeneration) and Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR (legitimate interest in preventing misuse and fraud).

The kit key itself is included in your ZIP package (file Kit-Schluessel.txt), in your confirmation email and — for convenient reuse on the same device — in your browser's localStorage. Treat it like a licence key.

8. Withdrawal consent and contract confirmation (Sections 356 (6), 312f BGB)

Because the kit is digital content supplied immediately, before the paid purchase we obtain your express consent to immediate performance and your acknowledgement of the associated expiry of the right of withdrawal (Section 356 (6) of the German Civil Code (BGB); details in our withdrawal policy). We store these declarations for evidentiary purposes together with the time of your click, the time of receipt on our server and the source in your entitlement record (section 7) for the record's retention period.

Immediately after the purchase we send you the statutory contract confirmation (Section 312f BGB) by email, documenting your declarations; we also log the time of dispatch in the entitlement record.

The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) (c) GDPR (legal obligation to confirm and keep evidence) in conjunction with Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR (legitimate interest in being able to demonstrate consent).

9. Online withdrawal function (Section 356a BGB)

If you exercise your right of withdrawal via the online withdrawal function on our withdrawal page (/widerruf), we process the data you provide (name, email address, optionally an order/purchase identifier) together with the date and time of receipt in order to receive your withdrawal, send you the legally required confirmation of receipt by email and process the reversal (together with Stripe).

We retain your withdrawal declaration permanently as a legally relevant record for as long as required for evidence and processing. The legal bases are Art. 6 (1) (c) GDPR (legal obligation to provide the withdrawal function and confirm receipt), Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR (reversal of the contract) and Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR (keeping evidence).

10. Marketing consent (optional)

During checkout you may optionally and voluntarily consent to us informing you about new factory tools by email. The checkbox is NOT ticked by default; without your active consent, no promotional contact takes place. If you give consent, we store it together with the time and source in your entitlement record (section 7). Product information emails are not yet being sent at present.

You can withdraw this consent at any time with effect for the future — informally by email to info@factorytoolkit.com or via the unsubscribe link in every promotional email; we note the time of withdrawal in the entitlement record. The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR (consent).

11. Email dispatch (contract confirmation, download link, confirmations of receipt)

After a purchase we send the contract confirmation (section 8) and — once your package has been created — the download link including your kit key to the email address provided at checkout. If you use the online withdrawal function, we send the confirmation of receipt to the address provided there (section 9). If you voluntarily provide an email address in the free mode, we use it solely to send the download link.

Dispatch is handled by the provider Resend (Resend, Inc., USA) as a processor. The legal bases are Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR (performance of a contract) and Art. 6 (1) (c) GDPR (statutory confirmation obligations). Where Resend processes data outside the EU, this is based on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

12. Usage analytics (PostHog, cookieless)

For usage analytics and to improve our offering (e.g. to see at which configurator step visitors drop off), we use the analytics tool PostHog (PostHog, Inc., San Francisco, USA) in its EU cloud variant; the analytics data is processed on servers in Frankfurt am Main, Germany (AWS eu-central-1).

The integration is deliberately cookieless: no cookies are set and no identifiers are stored on your device. We process information transmitted technically with each page view (IP address, browser type/user agent, referrer, pages visited, approximate region) as well as usage events (e.g. the configurator step reached). To count unique visitors, a daily-rotating, non-reversible identifier is computed server-side; recognition beyond one day or across other websites does not take place. Permanent storage of the full IP address in the analytics data is disabled. No usage profiles are created for advertising purposes, no session recordings are made, and no data is shared with advertising networks.

The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR (legitimate interest in statistical analysis of usage and improvement of our offering). In our assessment, no access to information on your device within the meaning of Section 25 TDDDG takes place; a consent banner is therefore not required. Analytics data is stored only as long as needed for statistical analysis.

You can object to the analytics at any time (Art. 21 GDPR): on our opt-out page (/analytics-optout) you can permanently disable analytics for your browser. To honour your objection, an opt-out marker is stored in your browser's localStorage — this is the only storage involved.

13. Data backups

To protect against data loss, we regularly create encrypted backups (AES-256) of the permanent data stores: the entitlement records (section 7, including the declarations stored there) and the withdrawal declarations (section 9). The backups are kept outside the hosting environment on an encrypted storage medium of the controller and rotate automatically: daily snapshots are deleted after 30 days, monthly snapshots after 12 months. Short-lived data (checkout drafts, order mappings, generation jobs and packages) is NOT part of the regular backups — the deletion periods in sections 5 and 6 apply to it without restriction.

If you request deletion of your data (section 15), we delete the active records without undue delay. Copies contained in existing encrypted backup snapshots are not edited individually but expire via the rotation (after 12 months at the latest); in the event of a restore, we ensure that previously deleted records are not reactivated.

The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR (legitimate interest in ensuring the integrity and availability of data, cf. Art. 32 GDPR).

14. Hosting, processors and service providers

We use the following service providers:

Railway (Railway Corp., USA) — hosting of the website and the generation service; server location EU (West Europe region). Acting on our behalf, Railway processes the data described in sections 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9. A data processing agreement pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR is in place with Railway; where processing takes place outside the EU, it is based on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

Stripe (Stripe Payments Europe, Ltd., Ireland; Stripe, Inc., USA) — payment processing as merchant of record (section 5). To that extent, Stripe processes payment data under its own responsibility.

Resend (Resend, Inc., USA) — email dispatch (section 11) as a processor.

PostHog (PostHog, Inc., USA) — cookieless usage analytics (section 12) as a processor; data processing on servers in the EU (Frankfurt am Main). Where access from the USA cannot be ruled out, processing is based on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc., USA) — domain registrar and DNS service for our domain. Cloudflare only answers DNS queries for name resolution (which, for technical reasons, briefly involves IP addresses of the querying DNS resolvers); the website traffic itself does NOT pass through Cloudflare (no proxy/CDN).

15. Your rights

You have the following rights against us regarding your personal data: access (Art. 15 GDPR), rectification (Art. 16 GDPR), erasure (Art. 17 GDPR), restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR), data portability (Art. 20 GDPR) and objection to processing based on Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR (Art. 21 GDPR — for the usage analytics most easily via the opt-out page, section 12). You may withdraw any consent you have given at any time with effect for the future (Art. 7 (3) GDPR). To do so, simply contact info@factorytoolkit.com.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority regarding the processing of your personal data (Art. 77 GDPR), e.g. with the authority of your habitual residence or with the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

16. No automated decision-making

No automated decision-making, including profiling, within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR takes place.

17. Changes to this privacy policy

We will amend this privacy policy whenever the processing changes (e.g. new services or features). The version published on this page applies; you will find the effective date at the top of the page.