The Ground Squirrel Café

Datenschutz

Last updated: August 2026. This is not legal advice - if you add new tools or services to the site (analytics, a newsletter, a contact form, etc.), please update this page accordingly.

Who is responsible

Evelyne Buttet, Sonnhalde 42, 6013 Eigenthal, Switzerland - evelyne.buttet@bluewin.ch

(Shown as an image rather than plain text to reduce automated address/email harvesting - see the Impressum for the same details.)

This website is operated from Switzerland and personal data is processed in accordance with the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP). Where visitors from the EU/EEA are concerned, we also aim to comply with the GDPR.

What this website does - and doesn't - do

The Ground Squirrel Café is a static website: there is no user login, no database and no contact form. We set no cookies, we don't profile you, and we don't track you across websites or over time. The only content from a third party that can set cookies are the interactive trip maps in a few journal posts - and those are loaded only if you click to load them; see "Interactive maps" below. We don't know who you are unless you choose to email us or place an order.

We do count page views, using a privacy-friendly analytics service that works without cookies and without personal data - see "Visitor statistics" below.

The one thing this site stores in your browser is your shopping basket, and only once you put something in it. See "Shop and payments" below.

Hosting

This site is hosted on GitHub Pages (GitHub, Inc., 88 Colin P. Kelly Jr. St, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA). Like any web server, GitHub's infrastructure automatically records standard technical access data for security and operational purposes (e.g. IP address, browser type, date and time of the request) when you load a page. We have no access to these server logs ourselves. See GitHub's Privacy Statement for details.

Visitor statistics (Simple Analytics)

To find out how often our pages are read - and nothing more - we use Simple Analytics, a privacy-focused analytics service by Simple Analytics B.V., Amsterdam, the Netherlands. To do this, a small script is loaded from scripts.simpleanalyticscdn.com on every page.

What this means for you:

  • No cookies and no other storage on your device. Nothing is written to or read from your browser for analytics purposes, which is why this site shows no cookie banner.
  • No personal data and no profiles. Simple Analytics does not store your IP address, does not use device fingerprinting, and does not create a persistent identifier. Individual visitors are not recognised - neither between pages, nor on a later visit, nor across other websites.
  • What is recorded is limited to aggregate, non-identifying information about the page view itself: the page visited, the referring website or campaign parameters, and coarse technical details such as country, device type, browser and operating system.
  • Where. The data is processed and stored on servers in the European Union.
  • Do Not Track. If your browser sends a "Do Not Track" signal, Simple Analytics does not count your visit.

We only ever see aggregate statistics, such as "this journal post was read 120 times last month". Details are described in Simple Analytics' privacy policy and their data protection information.

Legal basis. Because no personal data is processed, no consent is required for these statistics. Insofar as the loading of the script and the associated transmission of technical connection data (in particular your IP address, which is necessary for any web request and is not stored by Simple Analytics) is nevertheless regarded as processing of personal data, we rely on our overriding legitimate interest in understanding the reach of our content and in operating our website in a needs-based way (Art. 31 para. 1 FADP; Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR). You can object to this at any time using the contact details above, or by enabling "Do Not Track" in your browser.

Contact by email

If you write to us - for example via the "Get in touch" / "Say hello" links on this site - this opens your own email program with our address filled in. Your message is sent directly to our inbox and is not stored on any server we operate beyond normal email retention. We only use the information you send us to answer your inquiry.

Shop and payments

Your basket. When you add something to your basket, that selection is saved in your own browser using local storage - not a cookie. It holds only product identifiers and quantities, no personal data. It stays on your device, is never sent to us while you browse, and you can clear it at any time by emptying your basket or clearing your browser's site data.

Starting checkout. When you press "Checkout", your basket contents and the delivery country you picked are sent to a small function we operate on Cloudflare Workers (Cloudflare, Inc., 101 Townsend Street, San Francisco, CA 94107, USA). Its only job is to create the payment session. Like any web server, Cloudflare handles technical data such as your IP address in the process. See Cloudflare's Privacy Policy.

Paying. You are then taken to a checkout page hosted by Stripe (Stripe Payments Europe Ltd., Dublin, Ireland, and Stripe, Inc., USA). The email address, name, delivery address and payment details you enter there are collected and processed by Stripe. We never see or store your card details. We do receive what we need to fulfil the order: your name, email address, delivery address, and what you bought. See Stripe's Privacy Policy.

Fulfilment. Prints and stickers are produced to order by our print partner Prodigi (Prodigi Group Ltd., United Kingdom), who dispatch directly to you. To do that, we pass on the delivery address and the items ordered - nothing else, and only for the purpose of shipping your order. See Prodigi's Privacy Policy.

Why and how long. We process this data to perform the purchase contract with you (Art. 31 para. 2 lit. a FADP; Art. 6 para. 1 lit. b GDPR) and keep order records for as long as Swiss bookkeeping obligations require.

Interactive maps (Google My Maps)

Some journal posts show an interactive map of a trip, hosted by Google (Google Ireland Ltd., Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland, and Google LLC, USA).

These maps are not loaded automatically. What you see at first is a placeholder on our own server; the map itself is only requested after you click "Load the interactive map". Until you do, no data whatsoever is sent to Google - no request, no IP address, and no cookie of Google's can reach your device. This is why these maps do not require a consent banner.

If you do load a map, your browser connects directly to Google. In doing so, Google receives your IP address and technical connection data, and may store or read cookies and similar identifiers on your device; if you are signed in to a Google account, Google can associate the visit with that account. Data may be transferred to the USA. We have no influence over this processing and receive no data from it ourselves. Your choice applies to that one map on that one page only - it is not remembered, so nothing is stored on your device for it, and each map has to be loaded again on your next visit.

Legal basis. Loading a map, and the resulting transfer of data to Google, happens only on your explicit request; we rely on your consent, which you give by clicking the button and can simply withhold by not clicking it (Art. 31 para. 1 FADP; Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a and Art. 49 para. 1 lit. a GDPR). See Google's Privacy Policy.

This site links out to platforms such as Instagram, Etsy, and Eduki. At the end of every journal post there are also "pass it on" links to Facebook, X (Twitter), Pinterest, WhatsApp and your own email program. These are plain hyperlinks, not the platforms' share buttons: no script of theirs runs on this site, nothing is loaded from them, and no data reaches them unless you click - which is why they need no consent banner either. Once you follow such a link and are on their platform, that platform's own privacy policy and cookie practices apply - we have no influence over them. We recommend checking the respective provider's privacy policy directly:

Content management

Journal posts, shop listings, and other content on this site are edited by Evelyne and Frank through a git-based content management system (Decap CMS), authenticated via GitHub. This login is only used by the site's operators - it has no effect on visitors and does not process any visitor data.

Your rights

Under the Swiss FADP (and, where applicable, the GDPR), you have the right to request information about, correction of, or deletion of personal data we hold about you - for example, emails you've previously sent us. To exercise any of these rights, use the contact details above.

Changes to this policy

We may update this privacy policy if the way this website works changes - for example, if we add a newsletter, analytics, or new third-party tools in the future. The current version always applies.