Privacy policy

Last updated: 10 October 2026

This English version is a courtesy translation. The German version is the legally binding text.

1. Controller

Sven Reumer
Email: earthguides.ch@gmail.com

2. General

EarthGuides is a private travel project that is partly financed by advertising (see section 9). When you visit this site, only the data required to operate the site, measure its reach and display advertising is processed. We ourselves do not carry out any profiling and do not sell any data; for data processing by Google AdSense, see section 9.

3. Hosting

This site is delivered via Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc., San Francisco, USA), through a worldwide network of servers (content delivery network). When you open the site, Cloudflare automatically processes technical access data (including IP address, date and time of access, requested file, browser used) in server log files. This data is used for the technical delivery of the site and for detecting abuse. More information: cloudflare.com/privacypolicy.

To measure reach, we use Cloudflare Web Analytics. When you open the site, a small script from Cloudflare is loaded that collects statistical usage data (including the page viewed, referring page, country, browser, device type and load times). According to Cloudflare, it sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device and does not build profiles of individual visitors. The data is only evaluated in aggregated form. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in anonymous reach measurement. More information: cloudflare.com/web-analytics.

4. Map material

The interactive maps load map tiles from Esri (ArcGIS Online). Opening a map connects to Esri’s servers, transmitting your IP address and the map section being displayed. No cookies are set.

Links to individual places lead to Google Maps on request. This connection is only established when you actively click such a link.

5. Local storage in your browser

The following data is stored exclusively locally on your own device (localStorage) and is never transmitted to us:

• Which places you have already marked as visited (per guide)
• Your saved places (“My places”, places you saved with the heart)
• Your theme setting (light/dark)
• If you use the Travel AI without our proxy: your own Groq API key that you entered yourself

You can remove this data at any time via your browser settings or the corresponding delete buttons on the site itself.

6. Travel AI (chatbot)

If you use the Travel AI, your message is sent to Groq Inc. (USA) for processing — either via an intermediary service we operate (Cloudflare Worker) or, if you have stored your own API key, directly from your browser.

If the request goes through our intermediary service, Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc., USA) briefly processes your IP address in order to enforce a rate limit (protection against abuse). This counting data is automatically deleted after a short time and is not stored permanently.

The chat history is kept only in your browser’s memory for the duration of the open session and is not stored permanently when you close the chat window or reload the page.

7. Suggestions and feedback

If you suggest a place or send feedback through the form, the details you type in yourself (e.g. country, place, name of the spot, description, link) are stored in a storage service run by Cloudflare (Workers KV; Cloudflare, Inc., USA) so that we can review them and, where appropriate, add the place to a guide. Only what you write into the form is stored: neither your IP address nor a cookie. Please do not enter any personal data. Suggestions are deleted automatically after 90 days at the latest. For each new suggestion, a notification containing these details is forwarded by email (via Cloudflare Email Routing) to the site operators.

To determine the position of a suggested place, the address you entered (with place and country) is sent from our server to the map service OpenStreetMap (Nominatim). Your IP address is not passed on, because the request is made from our server. The result (coordinates) is stored together with the suggestion.

To protect against abuse, your IP address is processed briefly when you submit, only in hashed form (as a shortened check value, not in plain text), for a request limit; this value is discarded after one hour at most. Alternatively you can still send suggestions by email; the privacy policy of your email provider then applies as well.

8. Cookies

This site itself does not set any cookies of its own. Google AdSense (see section 9) and the other embedded third-party providers may, within their respective areas of responsibility, set their own cookies as technically required.

9. Advertising

This site uses Google AdSense, an advertising service of Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland). AdSense may use cookies and similar technologies to deliver ads — partly based on earlier visits to this or other websites (interest-based advertising). In the process, data such as your IP address, device information and usage behaviour may be processed, including by Google itself and its advertising partners.

You can object to personalised advertising:

• Via Google’s ad settings
• Via aboutads.info (for users in the USA) or youronlinechoices.com (for users in Europe)
• Via your browser’s cookie settings, which can generally block advertising cookies

Further information is provided by Google in the notice How Google uses data when you use our partners’ sites or apps.

10. Your rights

You have the right to:

• Access to the data processed about you
• Rectification of incorrect data
• Erasure of your data, unless a retention obligation prevents it
• Objection to certain processing

To do so, please contact the address given above.

11. Changes

This privacy policy will be updated whenever the services used or the features of the site change. The version that is current at the time of your visit applies.