This policy explains which personal data we process when you visit moscowvibes.com, for what purposes and on which legal basis. It applies to visitors from the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and elsewhere. The GDPR is the main standard we follow. For cookies and similar technologies we also follow Section 25 of the German Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act (TDDDG).
Controller
The controller within the meaning of the GDPR is:
Erdal Özcan
Jahnstr. 5, 63322 Rödermark, Germany
Email: info@netvee.de
Full provider details are in the Legal Notice. We do not have a data protection officer because we are not required to appoint one.
Overview
We keep data collection to a minimum. This website has no user accounts and no paid content. We process data in these situations:
- Hosting and server log files when you open any page
- Your cookie choice (consent management)
- Messages you send us through the contact, error-report or cooperation forms or by email
- Optional services that run only after you agree in the cookie banner
- Your email address if you subscribe to our newsletter
- Questions you type into the question box or search (stored without any identifier)
- Functions that run in your browser: web app, read-aloud, saved places
- Links to partners and payment services that you choose to click
- Anonymous page view counts
Hosting and server log files
This website is hosted by Hostinger International Ltd. (61 Lordou Vironos Street, 6023 Larnaca, Zypern (Cyprus)). When you open a page, the server automatically processes technical data: your IP address, date and time of the request, the requested address, the referring page, the amount of data sent, the HTTP status, and your browser and operating system as reported by your browser. We need this data to deliver the website, keep it stable and secure and detect abuse. The legal basis is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in a secure and working website). Log data is kept only as long as needed for these purposes and is then deleted or anonymised according to the retention rules of the hosting provider.
A data processing agreement under Article 28 GDPR is in place with the hosting provider. The provider may process data in data centres inside and outside the EU. Where data is transferred to countries without an adequacy decision, the provider relies on appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses.
Page cache
To make pages load quickly, we use a caching plugin that stores finished copies of our pages on our own server. This does not involve additional personal data. The plugin can optionally use the CDN and optimisation services of QUIC.cloud. When these are active, your IP address and request data are transmitted to QUIC.cloud so that it can deliver and optimise content, and this may involve servers outside the EU. The legal basis is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in a fast and reliable website).
Cookie banner and consent management
We use our own consent tool to ask for your permission before we load services that are not strictly necessary. It stores your choice in a cookie named mvps_consent (180 days). The cookie contains your selection, the version of our settings and a random identifier. If logging is enabled, we also keep a record of your choice with the time, the random identifier, the selection and the settings version, so that we can prove that consent was given. The record does not contain your IP address, your name or your email address. Legal basis: Article 6(1)(c) GDPR in connection with Article 7(1) GDPR (duty to prove consent) and, for the cookie itself, Section 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG (strictly necessary). You can change or withdraw your choice at any time using the link “Cookie settings” in the footer or the round button at the bottom of the page. Details are in the Cookie Policy.
Contact forms and email
If you use our contact, error-report or cooperation form, or write to us by email, we process the data you provide (name, email address, your message, optionally a web address or company name) to read and answer your request. The legal basis is Article 6(1)(b) GDPR if your request concerns a contract or pre-contractual steps, and otherwise Article 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in answering enquiries). The forms send your message by email; we do not store it in the website database. To prevent abuse, the form counts submissions per visitor using a one-way hash of the IP address, which is kept temporarily (usually about one hour). We do not store the IP address itself for this. The legal basis for this abuse protection is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. We delete messages when your request has been dealt with, unless statutory retention duties apply, for example for business correspondence.
Features that work in your browser
Some tools save data only in your own browser and do not send it to us. Saved places and the trip planner use the browser’s local storage, and the map consent flag is stored locally after you load a map. We use this storage only to provide the function you ask for (Section 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG). You can delete this data in your browser settings.
The question box on the website searches the texts of this website on our server. To improve our guides, we store the questions typed into the question box and the search without IP address and without any identifier, for 180 days. Entries that contain an email address, a web address or a long number are discarded. Please do not type personal data into these boxes. The legal basis is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in improving our content). To prevent abuse, requests are counted per visitor with a one-way hash of the IP address, kept temporarily.
If we test two versions of a button label, your browser remembers which version it showed you (local storage). We only count views and clicks per version, without any identifier.
Maps (OpenStreetMap)
Our maps use the open-source library Leaflet, which is hosted on our server. The map tiles come from the OpenStreetMap servers operated by the OpenStreetMap Foundation. They are loaded only after you click “Load map”. The same applies to the map in our app (if enabled) and in the trip planner. When you click, your IP address and browser data are sent to the tile server, which is needed to display the map. To our knowledge, the tile server does not set cookies for this. If you use a link such as “Open the location in OpenStreetMap”, you leave our site and the OpenStreetMap privacy policy applies. The legal basis is your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR and Section 25(1) TDDDG), which you give by clicking. More information: OpenStreetMap Foundation Privacy Policy.
Affiliate links and travel partners
Some links lead to travel partners such as hotel, flight, tour or car-rental providers that we reach through the affiliate network Travelpayouts. If you click such a link, you leave our website. The partner and the network may set cookies and process your data to credit a booking to us. This happens on their websites under their own privacy policies. We do not receive your personal data, only anonymised or aggregated reports about clicks and commissions.
Travelpayouts widgets (for example search forms for hotels or flights) load scripts from the provider and are only loaded after you agree to “Advertising and partner offers”. When they load, your IP address and browser data are transmitted to the provider and its partners. Legal basis: your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR and Section 25(1) TDDDG). Plain affiliate links do not load anything until you click them. Please see the privacy information of Travelpayouts and of the partner you choose.
We take part in the Amazon Associates programme. Links to Amazon contain our partner tag. If you click one, Amazon sets cookies and processes data under its own privacy notice (Amazon Privacy Notice) to credit a purchase to us. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
To see which boxes and articles are useful, we count clicks on partner links on our own server as anonymous totals per article and box. We do not store your IP address itself. A one-way hash of it is kept for a short time only to avoid counting the same click twice. The legal basis is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in improving our content).
More on how we earn money: Affiliate and Advertising Disclosure.
Embedded content and social plugins
Some pages can embed content from other providers: Google Maps (Google Ireland Limited). This content is blocked until you agree to “External content” (or “Advertising and partner offers” for advertising-related plugins). When it loads, your IP address and browser data are sent to the provider, which may set cookies and track you across websites under its own privacy policy. Legal basis: your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR and Section 25(1) TDDDG). You can withdraw it at any time via “Cookie settings”.
Support link (PayPal)
The “Support” link is an ordinary link to PayPal. Nothing from PayPal is loaded on our pages. If you click the link and tip us, the payment is processed by PayPal under its own privacy statement. We only see the information PayPal reports to us about the payment (such as your name and the amount). We process this information to record the payment and to meet statutory accounting and tax duties (Article 6(1)(c) GDPR).
Newsletter
If you subscribe to our newsletter, we process your email address, the time of your sign-up, the place where you signed up (pop-up, box below an article or sign-up page) and a reference to the consent text you agreed to. We do not store your IP address for this. The purpose is to send you travel tips and news about this website by email. The legal basis is your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR; Section 7(2) No. 3 of the German Act against Unfair Competition, UWG).
We use the double opt-in procedure. After you sign up we send you one email with a confirmation link. Only when you click it and confirm on the page that opens is your address added to the list. Sign-ups that are not confirmed are deleted after 7 days. Each newsletter contains an unsubscribe link, and you can withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future. The legal basis of the confirmation email is the same consent and our legitimate interest in proving it (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
The confirmation email is sent from our own server or the email service of our hosting provider. For sending the newsletter itself we may use an email service provider to which we transfer the confirmed addresses. This provider acts as our processor under a data processing agreement and is named in the sign-up form or on request.
After you unsubscribe, we keep your address and the time of the unsubscription on a block list so that you are not added again by mistake and so that we can prove that we respected your wish (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR). You can ask us to delete it completely at any time. Otherwise we store your address until you unsubscribe. The sign-up box and pop-up count anonymous views and sign-ups to show us which placement works. No personal data is stored in these counts. The pop-up remembers in your browser (local storage) that you closed it or signed up so that it does not appear again and again.
Read-aloud function
The button “Listen to this guide” reads the text of a page aloud. It uses the speech function built into your browser or device. We do not receive any data about what you listen to. Depending on your browser and the voice it uses, your browser or device provider may process the text to create the speech (for example, some voices in Chrome may be provided online by Google). In that case the processing is done by that provider under its own privacy terms and not by us. The function stores your chosen reading speed in your browser (local storage).
Anonymous page view counts
To understand which articles are most useful to our readers, we count how often an article is viewed and how often the “play pronunciation” button of a local tip is used. For this we store only a daily total per article. We do not collect or store IP addresses, device or user identifiers, and we do not set cookies or use local storage for this purpose. The daily totals are kept for 35 days. Search engine bots and logged-in editors are not counted. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in improving our content (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Moscow Mode app
Our web app (“Moscow Mode”) lets you save places, plan a day and use the guide offline. The following data is stored only in your browser (local storage) on your device and is not sent to us: your saved places, your plan, your progress through the day’s plan, your chosen travel phase and interests (only if you pick them), the places you marked as visited, notes you write, an address you enter yourself (for example your hotel) and an offline copy of the guide. You can delete it in your browser settings or under “My data” in the app.
If you use the function “Use my location” or “Near me”, your browser asks for permission first. Your position is used only in your browser to sort places by distance or to plan a route. It is not sent to or stored by us.
Buttons that open a place in a navigation app (Yandex Maps, 2GIS, Google Maps, Apple Maps, OpenStreetMap) are ordinary links. They send nothing until you tap them. After the tap you leave our app, the provider receives the data your browser sends to it (for example the place and your IP address) and its own privacy policy applies. Some of these providers (Yandex, 2GIS) are based in Russia, for which there is no EU adequacy decision. We therefore transmit nothing to them ourselves, and the link opens only when you tap it.
To work offline, the app can store pages and data of this website on your device using a service worker (a browser cache). You can delete it in your browser settings. The app can show a map; its tiles are loaded from OpenStreetMap only after you click to load the map (see the maps section). If you agree to “Statistics” in the cookie banner, the app counts anonymous usage events (for example how often a place was opened) without any identifier. The built-in assistant in the app answers questions from the texts of this website and does not store your question.
If you create a “My Moscow Story”, photos you add are scaled down and stored only in your browser (IndexedDB). Information such as the location saved in a photo is removed in the process. Nothing is uploaded and nothing is published automatically. If you share or print the story, you decide where it goes. You can move your trip to another device with a file or a code that you copy yourself. We do not receive this data.
AI-assisted content
We use AI tools to help prepare the articles on this website. Only information about places and topics is entered into these tools. No personal data of visitors and no content of messages you send us is passed to AI services. How we create and check articles is described in our Editorial Policy.
Website verification and webmaster tools
To prove that we operate this website and to see how it performs in search, we use this webmaster tool: Google Search Console (Google Ireland Limited). For the verification we place a small meta tag in the page source. It does not load any script, does not set a cookie and does not send any data from your browser to the provider.
The provider gives us aggregated information about how the website appears in its search results (for example search queries, impressions and clicks). We do not receive information that identifies individual visitors. Where the provider processes personal data about its own search users, it does so under its own privacy policy:
Google Search Console: https://policies.google.com/privacy
The legal basis for our use of this tool is our legitimate interest in a technically sound and findable website (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Recipients and transfers to third countries
Recipients of data are our hosting provider and, depending on your choices and the functions you use, the providers named above, for example QUIC.cloud, the OpenStreetMap Foundation, Google, Travelpayouts and its partners, Amazon and PayPal. Some of them, such as Google, are based in or transfer data to the United States. Such transfers rely on an adequacy decision (EU-US Data Privacy Framework) where the recipient is certified, or on standard contractual clauses. We do not sell personal data.
Storage periods
We store personal data only as long as needed for the purpose. Server logs are handled by the hosting provider as described above. Messages are deleted when the matter is closed. Consent records are kept as long as needed to prove consent, up to three years. Cookies have the durations shown in the Cookie Policy.
Your rights
You have the right to: access your data (Article 15 GDPR); have it corrected (Article 16); have it erased (Article 17); restrict processing (Article 18); receive your data in a portable format (Article 20); and withdraw consent at any time with effect for the future (Article 7(3)). Withdrawing consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal. To exercise your rights, write to info@netvee.de. We may need to confirm your identity.
Right to object (Article 21 GDPR). Where we process data on the basis of legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR), you can object at any time on grounds relating to your particular situation. We will then stop processing unless we can show compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, or the processing serves to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
Complaints
You have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, in particular in the EU member state of your habitual residence, place of work or place of the alleged infringement. The authority responsible for us is the data protection authority of the German federal state where the controller is based. A list is available from the German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection. If you are in the United Kingdom, you can also contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Obligation to provide data, automated decisions
You are not obliged to provide personal data. However, without the technical data described in the section on hosting and server log files, the website cannot be delivered. We do not use automated decision-making or profiling that has legal or similarly significant effects.
Security
This website uses encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS). You can recognise this by the lock symbol in your browser.
Children
This website is aimed at adult travellers and is not directed at children under 16. We do not knowingly collect data from children.
Changes
We update this policy when the website, the services we use or the law change. The current version is always the one on this page. Last updated: October 2026.
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