(Impressum und Datenschutzerklärung)
Last updated: 09/14/2026
1. Legal Notice (Impressum)
Information pursuant to § 5 DDG (German Digital Services Act)
Wolf Brüning
Hannenstieg 28
22175 Hamburg
Germany
Contact
Email: hey@wolfbruening.de
Other forms of contact see: Contact
VAT
Small business pursuant to § 19 UStG. No VAT is charged and no VAT identification number has been issued.
Responsible for editorial content pursuant to § 18 (2) MStV
Wolf Brüning, address as above.
Professional and freelance activity
This website is operated by a single individual. It presents personal opinions and professional writing, and it advertises training and workshop services. No contracts can be concluded on this website; enquiries are handled by email or phone afterwards. Training and workshop services are offered to organisations (B2B).
Dispute resolution
I am neither obliged nor willing to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board (Verbraucherschlichtungsstelle).
Liability for content and links
The content of this website has been created with care, but I assume no liability for its accuracy, completeness or timeliness. This website contains links to external websites over whose content I have no control. Responsibility for the content of linked pages lies solely with their respective operators. Such links were checked for legal violations at the time of linking; no violations were apparent. If I become aware of any legal violation, I will remove the link concerned without delay.
Copyright
Unless stated otherwise, the content and works on this website are subject to German copyright law. Reproduction, editing, distribution or any kind of use beyond the limits of copyright law require my written consent. Quotations with a clear source reference and a link are welcome.
2. Privacy Policy
This privacy policy explains what personal data is processed when you visit this website, why it is processed, on what legal basis, and what rights you have. It is written to meet the requirements of Articles 13 and 14 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and § 25 of the German Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act (TDDDG).
2.1 Controller
The controller responsible for data processing on this website is:
Wolf Brüning
Hannenstieg 28
22175 Hamburg
Germany
Contact
Email: hey@wolfbruening.de
Other forms of contact see: Contact
I am not required to appoint a data protection officer.
2.2 Your rights at a glance
You have the following rights regarding your personal data:
- Access (Art. 15 GDPR): to know whether and what data about you I process.
- Rectification (Art. 16 GDPR): to have inaccurate data corrected.
- Erasure (Art. 17 GDPR): to have your data deleted, unless I am legally required to keep it.
- Restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR).
- Data portability (Art. 20 GDPR): to receive data you provided in a machine-readable format.
- Objection (Art. 21 GDPR): you may object at any time to processing based on legitimate interests (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR), on grounds relating to your particular situation. If you object, I will stop that processing unless I can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests.
- Withdrawal of consent (Art. 7 (3) GDPR): where processing is based on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time with effect for the future. Withdrawal does not affect the lawfulness of processing carried out before it.
- Complaint (Art. 77 GDPR): you may lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the EU member state of your residence, place of work or the place of the alleged infringement.
To exercise any of these rights, simply email me at hey@wolfbruening.de.
The supervisory authority responsible for me is: Der Hamburgische Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit, Ludwig-Erhard-Str. 22, 20459 Hamburg, Germany, datenschutz-hamburg.de
2.3 General notes
Voluntary provision. You are not legally or contractually required to provide personal data on this website. If you do not use the contact form or write to me, you simply cannot receive a reply.
Encryption. This website uses TLS encryption (https) to protect data in transit.
No automated decision-making. I do not use automated decision-making or profiling within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR.
Processors. Where service providers process data on my behalf, this is done under a data processing agreement pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR.
2.4 Hosting and server log files
This website and my email account are hosted by:
ALL-INKL.COM – Neue Medien Münnich, Inh. René Münnich, Hauptstraße 68, 02742 Friedersdorf, Germany
The hosting provider acts as a processor on my behalf under a data processing agreement pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR. The servers are located in Germany.
Each time this website is accessed, the web server automatically records data that your browser transmits. This includes:
- a shortened IP address,
- date and time of the request,
- the page or file requested and the amount of data transferred,
- the HTTP status code,
- the referring URL,
- browser type, browser version and operating system.
IP addresses are shortened before they are written to the log. The last two blocks are replaced with zeros, so that the address 11.22.33.44 is stored as 11.22.0.0. Full IP addresses are not stored in the log files, and the shortened addresses cannot be traced back to an individual visitor.
This data is processed to deliver the website, to keep it stable and secure, to detect and trace technical faults and misuse, and to produce access statistics. It is not merged with other data sources.
Legal basis: Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR. My legitimate interest lies in the technically secure, stable and efficient operation of this website and in understanding how it is used.
Retention: log files are kept for up to 190 days and are then deleted.
This server-side logging takes place without cookies and without accessing information stored on your device, so it does not require your consent.
2.5 Cookies and similar technologies
Cookies are small text files stored on your device. Related technologies, such as identifiers held in local storage, work in a comparable way. This website uses:
Technically necessary cookies. WordPress, the content management system behind this website, sets cookies that are required for basic operation, for example to keep me logged in as the site administrator. These cookies are stored on the basis of § 25 (2) no. 2 TDDDG, because they are strictly necessary to provide a service you have expressly requested, and processed under Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR (legitimate interest in a functioning website).
Analytics and embedded videos. This website currently does not display a consent banner. Google Analytics (section 2.7) and embedded YouTube videos (section 2.8) are loaded together with the page, without asking you first. Cookies and similar identifiers belonging to these services may therefore be stored on your device, or read from it, as soon as you open a page. The processing is based on Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR, on my legitimate interest in understanding how this website is used and in presenting my articles with the video material they refer to. Please note that German supervisory authorities take the view that storing and reading information on your device for these purposes requires your consent under § 25 (1) TDDDG.
How to prevent this. Until then you can:
- configure your browser to block or delete cookies, in particular third-party cookies,
- install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout,
- use a browser or extension that blocks tracking scripts, or
- object to the processing under Art. 21 GDPR by emailing me at hey@wolfbruening.de.
None of these steps affect your ability to read this website.
2.6 Contact form and contact by email
Contact form. The contact form on https://systems-of-design.com/contact/ asks for your name, company, email address and your message. The form is operated with the WordPress plugin Fluent Forms; no data is transmitted to the plugin’s manufacturer. Submissions are stored in the database of this website on my hosting provider’s servers in Germany and are also sent to me by email. The date and time of submission are recorded. Recording of IP addresses is switched off. There is currently no captcha or comparable spam protection on this form.
Email, LinkedIn, Bluesky. If you contact me by email or via the messaging functions of the social networks linked on this site, the data you send me is processed for the purpose of handling your enquiry. When you use a social network, that network’s own privacy policy applies to the transmission of your message; I have no influence over it.
Purpose and legal basis:
- If your enquiry concerns training, workshops, speaking or another possible engagement: Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR, since processing is necessary to take steps prior to entering into a contract.
- For all other enquiries: Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR, based on my legitimate interest in responding to messages addressed to me. Where your enquiry is aimed at concluding a contract at a later stage, Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR applies as above.
Recipients. Your message is stored on the servers of my hosting and email provider, ALL-INKL.COM – Neue Medien Münnich (see section 2.4), acting as a processor on my behalf under a data processing agreement pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR. The data is not passed on to anyone else.
Retention. I keep your enquiry until it has been dealt with conclusively and no further questions arise, and delete it afterwards, typically within 6 months. If a contract results from your enquiry, the associated documents are kept for the statutory retention periods under commercial and tax law (§ 257 HGB, § 147 AO — generally six or ten years). You can ask me to delete your data at any time, subject to those statutory periods.
Cloudflare Turnstile. This form is protected against automated submissions by Cloudflare Turnstile, a service provided by Cloudflare, Inc., 101 Townsend St., San Francisco, CA 94107, USA. When the form is displayed, Turnstile analyses technical characteristics of your browser and your interaction with the page in order to distinguish human visitors from bots. Your IP address and this technical information are transmitted to Cloudflare. Legal basis: Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR, based on my legitimate interest in protecting this form from misuse. Cloudflare processes data in the EU and in the United States on the basis of standard contractual clauses pursuant to Art. 46 GDPR; Cloudflare, Inc. is certified under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework. Further information: https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/.”
2.7 Web analytics: Google Analytics
This website uses Google Analytics 4, a web analytics service provided by Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland (“Google”).
When it runs. Google Analytics is loaded together with every page of this website. As explained in section 2.5, this website currently does not ask for your consent beforehand. Section 2.5 also lists the ways in which you can prevent this processing.
What is processed. Google Analytics uses cookies and similar technologies that allow the analysis of your use of this website. This typically includes the pages you visit, the duration and sequence of your visits, the referring page, approximate location derived from your IP address, and technical information such as device type, browser and operating system. A pseudonymous identifier is assigned to your browser. IP addresses are shortened by Google within the EU before any further processing (IP anonymisation), so that they cannot be traced back to you directly.
Purpose. I use this information to understand which articles are read, how visitors find this website and how it can be improved.
Legal basis: Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR, based on my legitimate interest in understanding which articles are read and how this website is found and used. You can object to this processing at any time under Art. 21 GDPR (see section 2.5). Please note the qualification regarding § 25 (1) TDDDG in section 2.5.
Transfer to third countries. Google processes data in the EU but transfers data to servers of Google LLC in the United States. Google LLC is certified under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, for which the European Commission has issued an adequacy decision under Art. 45 GDPR. In addition, Google’s standard contractual clauses pursuant to Art. 46 GDPR apply. Despite these safeguards, it cannot be entirely ruled out that US authorities may access this data.
Data processing agreement. I have concluded a data processing agreement with Google pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR.
Retention. Data associated with cookies and identifiers is deleted automatically after [GA RETENTION SETTING, e.g. 14 months].
Opt-out. You can prevent the collection of your data by Google Analytics with the browser add-on available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout, or by any of the other means listed in section 2.5.
Further information: Google’s privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy and Google’s information on how it uses data from sites that use its services at https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
2.8 Embedded content: YouTube and other services
Some articles contain embedded videos from YouTube, operated by Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland.
When they load. Embedded videos are loaded together with the page that contains them. As explained in section 2.5, this website currently does not ask for your consent beforehand.
What happens when a video loads. As soon as the embed is loaded, YouTube receives your IP address and information about the page you are viewing, and may store and read cookies or similar identifiers on your device — even if you do not start the video. If you are logged into a Google account, YouTube can assign your visit to that account. I have no influence over the scope of this processing. Section 2.5 lists the ways in which you can prevent it.
I use YouTube’s extended data protection mode (youtube-nocookie.com) where technically possible. According to YouTube, no cookies are then set for the purpose of personalised advertising before you play the video.
Legal basis: Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR, based on my legitimate interest in presenting my articles together with the video material they refer to. You can object at any time under Art. 21 GDPR. Please note the qualification regarding § 25 (1) TDDDG in section 2.5.
Transfer to third countries: as described in section 2.7 (EU–US Data Privacy Framework, standard contractual clauses).
Further information: https://policies.google.com/privacy.
2.9 What this website does not do
Apart from the services named above, this website loads no external resources. All fonts, scripts and images are delivered from my own web server; no connection to Google Fonts or a comparable service is established. The links to LinkedIn and Bluesky are ordinary hyperlinks, not plugins: nothing is transmitted to those platforms until you click and visit them, where their own privacy policies apply.
This website also has no comment function, no user accounts and no newsletter.
2.10 Changes to this privacy policy
I update this privacy policy whenever changes to this website or to the services used make it necessary. The current version always applies and is available at this address.