Legal

Privacy policy

This is a translation for your convenience. Only the German version is legally binding.

Last updated: 20 October 2026 · applies to the website ts-rethwisch.de

This privacy policy explains which personal data we process via the website ts-rethwisch.de, for what purpose and on what legal basis. We comply with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) and the German Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act (TDDDG). Our principles:

We only collect data for clearly defined purposes and only as much as is necessary for them.
This website sets no cookies, uses no tracking and loads no content from third-party servers. WhatsApp and LinkedIn are included only as plain links – data only flows once you click on them yourself.
We protect your data with appropriate technical and organisational measures.
You can view, correct or have your data deleted at any time.

1. Purpose, data, legal basis and storage period

1.1 Contact by phone, post, email or enquiry form

Which data: name, town or postcode, phone number and/or email address, location of the system (home, farm, solar farm, business), topic and content of your enquiry – only what you tell us yourself.
Purpose: answering your enquiry or fault report, calling you back, arranging an on-site appointment.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (pre-contractual measures at your request); for general enquiries Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in answering).
Storage period: until the enquiry has been dealt with; if no order results, after [6] months at the latest.

The enquiry form sends your details in encrypted form to our web server, which forwards them as an email to our mailbox info@ts-rethwisch.de. Nothing is stored on the web server itself. To protect against spam, the form contains an invisible check field – without third-party services such as Google reCAPTCHA. Providing the details is voluntary; however, without a name and a way to reply (phone or email) we cannot answer.

1.2 Quotes, orders and customer support

Which data: name, address, phone number, email address, details of the system (e.g. inverter, meter cabinet, grid connection, monitoring access), contract and invoice data.
Purpose: preparing the quote, carrying out the order, coordination with the grid operator, service and warranty.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (contract) and Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR (legal obligations).
Storage period: for the duration of the order and the warranty; thereafter in accordance with statutory retention periods (up to 6 or 10 years under Section 257 of the German Commercial Code and Section 147 of the German Fiscal Code).

1.3 Providing the website (server log files)

Which data: IP address, date and time of access, page or file requested, amount of data transferred, browser and operating system, referrer URL (if transmitted).
Purpose: delivering the website, stability and security, defending against attacks. The data is not analysed for statistical or advertising purposes.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in secure operation).
Storage period: [7] days, then deleted or anonymised – except in the event of a specific security incident.

1.4 Contact via WhatsApp

You can reach us via the WhatsApp messenger service. The provider is WhatsApp Ireland Limited, Merrion Road, Dublin 4, D04 X2K5, Ireland, a company of the Meta group. On our website, WhatsApp is only included as a link; only when you click on it does WhatsApp or the wa.me page open, and WhatsApp’s privacy policy applies.

Which data: your phone number, your WhatsApp profile name and picture (if shared), the content of messages and any photos or documents you send us.
Purpose: processing your enquiry, arranging appointments, exchanging photos (e.g. meter cabinet, roof).
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (enquiry/order) or Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in fast communication chosen by you).
Storage period: we delete chats once the enquiry has been dealt with; content relevant to an order is transferred to the customer file (see 1.2).

Message content is end-to-end encrypted, so WhatsApp cannot read it. However, WhatsApp receives metadata (e.g. who communicates with whom and when, device data, IP address) and may also transfer this to Meta Platforms Inc. in the USA. Meta is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (adequacy decision of the EU Commission, Art. 45 GDPR). We use WhatsApp Business on a company device [und gewähren der App keinen Zugriff auf das Adressbuch]. If you do not wish to use WhatsApp, you can reach us at any time by phone, email or via the enquiry form.

WhatsApp privacy information: www.whatsapp.com/legal/privacy-policy-eea

1.5 Our company page on LinkedIn

We operate a company page on the professional network LinkedIn. The provider for users in the EU is LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company, Wilton Plaza, Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland. On our website, LinkedIn is only included as a link – no LinkedIn plugins, buttons or content are loaded. LinkedIn’s privacy policy only applies after a click.

When you visit our LinkedIn page, interact with it (e.g. follow, comment, send a message) or see our content there, LinkedIn processes personal data and provides us with anonymised statistics (“Page Insights”). We are jointly responsible with LinkedIn for these statistics (Art. 26 GDPR); the details are governed by LinkedIn’s joint controller agreement (“Page Insights Joint Controller Addendum”). In it, LinkedIn has undertaken to fulfil the information obligations and to implement data subject rights. We ourselves only see aggregated figures, not data on individual visitors.

Purpose: presenting our business, contact with customers, partners and applicants.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in public relations and communication).
We treat messages you send us via LinkedIn as described under 1.1. LinkedIn may transfer data to LinkedIn Corporation in the USA, which is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

LinkedIn privacy policy: www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy · Joint controller agreement: legal.linkedin.com/pages-joint-controller-addendum

1.6 “Solar growth in your area” search

When you enter a postcode or town in the search, this search term is sent to our own web server and matched there against data that our server previously downloaded from solarzubau.de (source: German Core Energy Market Data Register of the Federal Network Agency). For a postcode, our server asks the OpenPLZ API (openplzapi.org) once which municipality it belongs to and caches this mapping. Only the postcode is transmitted – not your IP address and no other data about you. Your browser does not connect to solarzubau.de or OpenPLZ.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in an informative service). The search term is not stored and not linked to you as a person; like any page request, it only appears briefly in the server log files (see 1.3).

2. Cookies

This website does not use cookies and stores nothing in your browser. Details can be found in our cookie policy.

3. Disclosure of data

We do not sell data and do not pass it on for advertising purposes. The only recipients are:

Hosting provider: IONOS SE, Elgendorfer Str. 57, 56410 Montabaur, Germany – operates the web server and the email mailbox. A data processing agreement pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR is in place; the servers are located in Germany or the EU.
Grid operators, authorities, the Core Energy Market Data Register and cooperation partners: only within the scope of an order, insofar as necessary for carrying it out, coordinating with the grid operator or registering your system (Art. 6(1)(b) and (c) GDPR).
WhatsApp and LinkedIn: only if you contact us via these services yourself or visit our LinkedIn page (see 1.4 and 1.5).
Tax adviser: invoice data as part of bookkeeping.
Authorities on a legal basis: if we are legally obliged to do so.

Our website itself does not transfer data to countries outside the EU or EEA. When using WhatsApp or LinkedIn, a transfer to the USA is possible; both providers rely on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (see 1.4 and 1.5).

4. Security

We protect personal data with appropriate technical and organisational measures. These include:

end-to-end TLS encryption (https) with HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS),
security headers (including Content Security Policy and protection against embedding in third-party pages),
no external scripts, fonts or embedded services that send data to third parties when the page is loaded,
email protection via SPF, DKIM and DMARC [beim Hoster einrichten],
access to enquiries for our team only.

5. Third-party websites

This privacy policy does not apply to third-party websites that can be reached via links on our site (e.g. WhatsApp, LinkedIn, our partners, legal texts, the supervisory authority). Please refer to their own privacy policies to find out how they handle your data.

6. Changes to this privacy policy

We update this policy when the website or the legal situation changes. The version published here applies.

7. Your rights

You have the right at any time

to know which data we store about you, why and for how long (access, Art. 15 GDPR),
to have incorrect data corrected or completed (Art. 16 GDPR),
to have your data deleted, unless there is an obligation to retain it (Art. 17 GDPR),
to have the processing restricted (Art. 18 GDPR),
to receive your data in a common format (data portability, Art. 20 GDPR),
to withdraw consent at any time with effect for the future (Art. 7(3) GDPR).

Right to object (Art. 21 GDPR): Where we process data on the basis of Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, you may object to this at any time on grounds relating to your particular situation. We will then no longer process the data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds.

An informal message to the contact details under No. 9 is sufficient. So that we do not disclose data to unauthorised persons, we may need to identify you clearly.

8. Complaint to the supervisory authority

If you are not satisfied with how we handle your data, you can lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR). The authority responsible for us is:

Bavarian State Office for Data Protection Supervision (BayLDA)
Promenade 18, 91522 Ansbach, Germany
www.lda.bayern.de

9. Contact details of the controller

Technik-Service Rethwisch
Owner: Felix Rethwisch
Altbachweg 18
86859 Igling, Germany
Phone: +49 151 19600684
Email: info@ts-rethwisch.de
Website: ts-rethwisch.de
WhatsApp: +49 151 19600684
LinkedIn: Technik-Service Rethwisch

No data protection officer has been appointed, as the legal requirements (Section 38 BDSG) are not met. There is no automated decision-making, including profiling (Art. 22 GDPR).