Privacy policy

Key points at a glance

• 4French does not use advertising or analytical cookies and does not track reach.
• We host fonts, images, and short videos ourselves. When the page loads, your browser does not request any third-party services such as font or analysis providers.
• Videos from YouTube only load once you have given your consent.
• We process personal data if you write to us, sign up for the newsletter, use the search function, or if it is necessary for the secure operation of the site.

Controller

Firat Taskaya, e-mail: kontakt@4french.de. Further information can be found in the Legal Notice.

Hosting and website provision

The website and its server functions are operated by Lovable Labs Incorporated, 1 Lincoln St, Boston, MA 02111, USA (“Lovable”). The site is delivered via the global network of Cloudflare. The database and file storage (Lovable Cloud) are located in Ireland.

With every access, these servers process technically necessary data: IP address, date and time, accessed address, previously visited page, browser and device information, and status messages. This is necessary to deliver the site and protect it against attacks. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in secure operation (Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR). How long the providers retain their logs depends on their policies.

Lovable processes the data on our behalf. Because data processing in the USA cannot be ruled out, the EU Commission's standard contractual clauses apply. An IT service provider that technically maintains the website for us also works on our behalf.

Cookies and storage in your browser

During your first visit, we will ask you what your browser is allowed to store. You can change or revoke your selection at any time under “Privacy Settings” at the bottom of every page.

Necessary. We need these entries so that the site functions securely or because you are explicitly using a feature. No consent is required for this (§ 25 para. 2 no. 2 TDDDG):

• __cf_bm (Cloudflare cookie, 30 minutes): distinguishes humans from automated access and protects the site from attacks.
• __dpl (our host's cookie, 24 hours): ensures that your browser loads the appropriate version of the website during your visit.
• 4f.consent (browser storage): your selection in the privacy settings.
• 4f.theme (browser storage): light or dark design, if you switch it yourself.
• Session storage for the scroll position when navigating back. It is deleted when you close the tab.
• Only for the editorial team: Login data after logging in.

Convenience. Only with your consent (§ 25 para. 1 TDDDG, Art. 6 para. 1 lit. a GDPR):

• 4f.last: last listened to episode and timestamp, so you can continue listening later.
• 4f.weg: the path you last selected in the guide.

External media. Only with your consent: YouTube videos load without further prompting (see next section).

Entries in browser storage remain on your device and are not transmitted to us. You can delete them at any time via your browser's website data settings.

YouTube videos

The episodes are embedded as videos from YouTube. The provider is Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland. We use the enhanced privacy mode (youtube-nocookie.com).

Before you give your consent, the site does not load anything from YouTube. The preview images are stored on our servers. Only when you click on “Load video” in the player or allow “External media” in the privacy settings will your browser connect to YouTube. In doing so, Google receives data such as your IP address, browser and device information, the page accessed, and your use of the player. YouTube may also store cookies or similar identifiers in your browser. Google may transfer data to the USA. Google LLC is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, § 25(1) TDDDG). You can withdraw it at any time in the privacy settings for the future. More information can be found in Google's Privacy Policy.

Contact form

If you write to us using the form, we will store the chosen method of contact, your name, your email address, your message, and, depending on the method, further details such as topic, timeframe, institution, medium, or company. A copy of the inquiry is sent by email to our inbox. You will also receive a short confirmation of receipt at your email address, without the content of your message. Sending is handled by the email service of our hoster, Lovable.

We only use the data to process your inquiry. The legal basis is your consent in the form (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). If it concerns a collaboration, for example as a guest, it is additionally Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

Please do not send us any health information that we do not need for the reply. We cannot provide a diagnosis via the form. If you send us such information anyway, we will only use it to answer your inquiry (Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR).

We will delete your inquiry as soon as it has been processed and there are no legal retention obligations preventing this.

Newsletter

If you sign up for our newsletter, we will store your email address, the selected edition (patients or professionals), and the timestamps of registration, confirmation email, confirmation, and, if applicable, unsubscribing. You will immediately receive an email in which you confirm the registration (double opt-in). Sending is handled by the email service of our hoster, Lovable. Only after your confirmation will we send you editions once the newsletter starts. If you do not confirm the registration, we will automatically delete your address 30 days after the last confirmation email.

The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). You can withdraw it at any time by email to kontakt@4french.de or via the unsubscribe link in every edition.

Protection against abuse

To prevent automated abuse of our forms and search, we create a hash value from your IP address, the current date, and a secret key. It is not possible to reverse-calculate the IP address from this, and the next day the same address results in a different value. We do not store the IP address itself for this purpose. The hash value is stored with your inquiry or newsletter registration and deleted with it. For the search, we delete it after about one day. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in secure operation (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

Search and "Ask the Podcast"

The standard search runs in your browser. If it finds nothing, we send the search term to our server without reference to your person and count it. This way, we see which topics are still missing. Only the term, how often it was searched for, and when it was last searched are saved.

With "Ask the Podcast," your question goes to our server. So that we can also find suitable sections using other words, our server sends the text without an IP address or other identifier to the AI service of our hoster, Lovable. There, a language model from Google calculates a number sequence from it, with which we search for suitable sections in the conversation. We do not store your question. Only if neither the page nor the conversation finds anything do we count the term as described above.

The legal basis is our legitimate interest in offering you a good search function and identifying gaps (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Please do not enter names or personal health information into the search.

Specialist literature

When you load the latest studies for an episode, our server queries the literature database PubMed of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Data about you is not transmitted, only the search term of the episode.

Links to other sites

Links to YouTube, Spotify, Instagram, TikTok, PubMed, and other sites are normal links. You only leave 4French when you click on one of them. The privacy policies of the respective providers then apply.

Recipients and transfer to third countries

Your data is only received by service providers that we need for operations:

• Lovable (USA) for hosting, database, e-mail delivery, and the AI search service, with Cloudflare (USA) for delivery and Google for the language model
• our IT service provider for technical support
• Google/YouTube, when you load videos

For transfers to the USA, the EU Commission's standard contractual clauses or the provider's certification under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework apply. We do not sell data and do not pass it on for advertising purposes.

How long we store data

• Contact inquiries: until they are processed and no retention obligations remain
• Newsletter subscriptions: until you withdraw your consent. Unconfirmed registrations and cancellations are automatically deleted after 30 days
• Search terms without results: without reference to you personally, until we clear the statistics
• Server logs: according to the providers' specifications
• Browser storage: until you delete it or revoke your consent

Your rights

You have the right to information, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, and data portability (Art. 15 to 20 GDPR). You can revoke your consent at any time for the future (Art. 7 (3) GDPR). Simply write to us at kontakt@4french.de.

You can also lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, for example, the authority in your federal state (Art. 77 GDPR).

Right to object

If we process data on the basis of our legitimate interests (Art. 6 (1) lit. f GDPR), you can object at any time for reasons arising from your particular situation (Art. 21 GDPR). We will then no longer process the data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that outweigh your interests, or we need them to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

Obligation to provide and automated decisions

You do not have to provide us with any data. However, we cannot answer an inquiry without a name, e-mail address, and message. We do not make automated decisions within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR.

As of: October 29, 2026