Privacy Policy for lechten.gitlab.io

This privacy policy explains the collection of personal data during your visit of HTML pages (mostly presentations) under the domain lechten.gitlab.io.

First of all, you do not need to expose any personal data to access lechten.gitlab.io. Personal data are neither collected nor even asked for. Furthermore, these pages neither embed ads, nor trackers, nor social media plugins, and they are served without the use of cookies. However, most pages are served as HTML presentations by web servers operated by GitLab, and your web browser quite likely shares lots of data with GitLab’s web servers, most notably your IP address but also other technical information which can be used to uniquely track you. GitLab explains their use of such data in their privacy policy.

Besides, some pages embed external web resources (e.g., JavaScript, images, videos), and your browser shares its characteristics with their origin servers as well. In particular, if you access a multiplexed presentation (most likely via a QR code), your browser needs to contact servers beyond my control that may track you (cdn.socket.io to download a JavaScript library and reveal-js-multiplex-ccjbegmaii.now.sh to synchronize master and client presentations). You are of course free not to access such presentations.

In addition, depending on your jurisdiction, your internet service provider (ISP) may be required by law or misguided by monetary incentives to record your IP addresses or browsing behavior. On top of that, thanks to the Snowden revelations we know that most foreign intelligence services collect all Internet data that they can acquire, including our browsing behavior.

The good news is that you do not need to be tracked in any of the above ways if you choose so, in particular under lechten.gitlab.io, as explained subsequently.

First, if you do not want to be tracked when surfing the web in general, you need to learn and apply techniques for digital self-defense. Luckily, appropriate privacy enhancing tools are available as free software. Personally, I perform my “random” browsing protected by the Tor Browser, which I recommend (here in German, here in English). The HTML pages served under lechten.gitlab.io are even usable under the higher-than-default “Safer” security settings in Tor Browser.

Alternatively, you can download all material and use that locally and offline afterwards. (As mentioned above, some pages include web resources from external servers, which will not be available for offline use. When your browser fetches such resources, those requests can again be tracked on the web, which is why the Tor Browser might be your first choice.)