Privacy policy

The controller within the meaning of the GDPR is Valerian Huber (Alpin-Code), hereinafter "we" or "Inkmate".

For full provider details, see the imprint (in German).

Contact for privacy requests: privacy@inkmate.shop

Inkmate processes five clearly separated categories of data:

2.1 Shop data (merchant)

• Shopify shop domain (e.g. my-shop.myshopify.com)
• OAuth access token (stored encrypted, used only for Shopify API calls)
• Plan (free / basic / pro / business)
• Brand kit data (logo, colors, typography)
• Product, order and customer metadata from the shop, only as far as needed to generate print documents

2.2 End customer data (the shop's customer who scans the QR code)

• Identifier of the scanned QR code and of the landing page opened
• Timestamp of the scan
• IP address only in pseudonymized form: we store a hash (HMAC-SHA-256 with a secret server key, i.e. salted), never the IP address in plain text. Scans before 25 September 2026 still carry a simple SHA-256 hash without a key.
• Session identifier: a hash of the IP hash and the user agent, so that repeated visits in the same session are assigned to the same A/B variant
• Device type (mobile / desktop / tablet), browser and operating system, derived from the user agent; the full user agent is not stored
• Referrer (the referring page, if the browser sends it)
• A country of origin supplied by the network is only used for geo-targeting the landing page and is not stored
• If the browser sends "Global Privacy Control" or "Do Not Track", the IP hash, session identifier and referrer are not stored; for counting, only the time, device type, browser and operating system remain. The IP hash, session identifier and referrer are deleted after the plan's retention period. The link "Disable tracking" in the privacy notice of every landing page explains this and gives the merchant's contact address for an objection.

2.3 Service telemetry

• Request latency, error counters (rolling 5 min, anonymized)
• App health metrics (retrieved by our central operations hub) and technical error reports without real names

2.4 Waiting list on this website

• Email address; you confirm it via a link in an email
• optional: what fits your shop best
• Referrer (the referring page, if the browser sends it)
• Page of sign-up, language, and time of sign-up and confirmation (proof of consent)
• to prevent abuse: a shortened hash of the IP address (combined with the day, not the address itself) and the browser identifier (user agent)
• Campaign details from the link you came through (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_content), if the link contains them. They are only transmitted with the sign-up and are not stored on your device.
• The legal basis is your consent given with the sign-up (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR); you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in the email.
• The sign-up is stored by the central service of alpin-code (internal.alpin-code.de, servers at Hostinger in Frankfurt); the confirmation email and the launch message are sent by Resend. How long the details are kept is stated under 5. Retention period.

2.5 Feedback from the app

Using the "Help" entry in the app navigation (form on the help page) you can send us a message. We transmit your text, the type of feedback you selected, the page of the app you were on (without identifiers), the app version and the window size to our feedback server. To this server we do not transmit your name, your email address or an identifier of your shop or device; if you write such details into the text yourself, we receive them. Please do not include data about your customers (names, addresses, orders) in the text. The feedback goes to Valerian Huber (Alpin-Code) and is stored on servers operated by Alpin-Code in Germany. We use the AI assistant Claude by Anthropic Ireland, Limited to evaluate feedback. Your feedback may therefore be transmitted to Anthropic and also processed in the USA; according to Anthropic, such transfers are safeguarded, among other things, by EU standard contractual clauses. The purpose is to find errors and improve the app; the legal basis is our legitimate interest in doing so (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). We delete feedback, including the technical details, no later than 90 days after receipt. You can object to this processing under Art. 21 GDPR.

So that we can reply, Inkmate additionally stores the feedback together with your shop and the language of the app; to reply, we use the email address stored in your Shopify shop. These details are not sent to the feedback server. The legal basis is handling your request about using the app (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). Each piece of feedback is a separate message; we delete these details no later than 90 days after its receipt. If we reply to you by email, that correspondence is kept outside this storage; we delete it as soon as your request has been dealt with.

• Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR): for the app's functions: generating print documents, creating discount codes, rendering landing pages.
• Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR): for aggregated scan statistics without personal reference, app health monitoring and abuse prevention.
• Consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR): for signing up for the waiting list (2.4). You can withdraw consent at any time.

Inkmate uses the following service providers. Shopify runs the platform on which Inkmate operates and is an independent controller in doing so. The others process data on our behalf (Art. 28 GDPR); the full list with purpose and location is in Annex 1 of our data processing agreement.

Inkmate does not transmit any shop or customer data from the app to AI providers and does not call any AI within the app itself. In our work processes we use the AI assistant Claude from Anthropic Ireland, Limited. For requests sent to us by email or form, it therefore cannot be ruled out that your details are transmitted to Anthropic and also processed in the USA; according to Anthropic, it safeguards such transfers with, among other things, EU standard contractual clauses. Please do not send us data about your customers in requests. If a shop owner connects their own AI (e.g. Claude or ChatGPT) with an API key, that AI reads data from their shop on their behalf and through the shop owner's account; the shop owner's own contract with the respective AI provider applies to this.

For shops that install Inkmate, Inkmate processes their customers' data as a processor. The agreement for this under Art. 28 GDPR, including sub-processors and technical and organizational measures, is available under Data processing agreement (AVV/DPA).

• Waiting list: A sign-up that is never confirmed is deleted 30 days after the last sign-up. A confirmed one remains until you unsubscribe. After you unsubscribe, only the proof of consent is kept for 3 years (Art. 7(1) GDPR), then it is deleted. If you request deletion, we delete immediately.
• Shop data: As long as the app is installed. After uninstalling, Shopify sends the deletion request after 48 hours; Inkmate then permanently deletes all data of the shop, including the invoices. So export your invoices before uninstalling.
• Scan logs: The identifiers of a scan (hashed IP address, session identifier) are deleted after the retention period of the booked plan: 7 days (Free), 90 days (Basic), 365 days (Pro), 1,095 days (Business); the privacy notice on every landing page states the same period. After that, only details without an identifier remain for counting (time, device type, browser, operating system).
• Invoices: Stored unalterably as long as the app is installed. The legal retention obligation (GoBD / Section 147 AO) lies with the shop owner as the issuer of the invoice: Inkmate deletes the invoices together with the other shop data 48 hours after uninstalling (see above).
• Feedback from the app: 90 days after receipt, on our feedback server and in Inkmate itself (see 2.5).
• Backup copies: The app's data is backed up daily: locally on the app server (Hostinger, EU) for 14 days and encrypted (AES-256) off-site at Hetzner Online GmbH, data centre Falkenstein (Germany), for 35 days with a deletion lock. Deleted data may therefore remain in backup copies for up to 35 days until these are overwritten in the regular cycle; it is not restored from them.

You have the right at any time to access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection. You have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent data protection supervisory authority.

Please send requests to privacy@inkmate.shop. We reply within one month at the latest.

inkmate.shop (marketing site): no tracking cookies. For audience measurement we use two cookieless tools. Vercel Web Analytics stores nothing on your device; it records page views, referrer, device type and country, the visitor identifier is a hash that changes daily and cannot be traced back to the IP address, and there is no tracking across devices or websites. Umami is run by us on analytics.alpin-code.de to evaluate the reach of our websites in a uniform way. Umami sets no cookies and stores nothing on your device; it records the pages viewed, the page you came from, browser, operating system, device type and country. Umami itself does not store an IP address; the access log of the upstream server contains it to defend against attacks and is deleted after eight days at the latest. The legal basis in each case is our legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR); consent is not required for this. Object here, valid for both measurements on this device and in this browser:

api.inkmate.shop (app + landing pages): only technically necessary session cookies (authentication, A/B test bucket). No third-party tracking. In the app's admin interface (not on landing pages), Umami measures without cookies which pages shop owners open, self-hosted on analytics.alpin-code.de, without cookies and without a profile of individual persons.

We reserve the right to amend this privacy policy. Changes are published with a new "last updated" date.