What A Time To Be Alive

Privacy statement

In short: WATTBA does not track you. We count anonymously how many people read which articles, without cookies and without storing your IP address. Below you can read exactly what we do.

Who is responsible?

WATTBA is responsible for the processing of data on this site. Questions about privacy? Write to editorial@wattba.eu.

Visitor statistics

We want to know which articles are read and how people find us. To do this we measure with our own software on our own server. No Google Analytics or other external service is involved.

This is what we measure per page visit:

  • which page you view;
  • which site you came from (only the name of the site, for example “google.com”, never the full link);
  • any campaign code in the link, such as utm_source;
  • the type of device: mobile, tablet or desktop (based only on the width of your screen);
  • how long the page was open and visible;
  • how far you scrolled down the page.

This is how we handle it:

  • We use no cookies for this and store nothing in your browser.
  • We do not store your IP address, not even in shortened form.
  • To avoid counting a visitor twice in one day, we generate an anonymous daily code. It is generated with a secret key that changes every day and is then discarded. This means we cannot recognise you, nor follow you from day to day.
  • We do not share this data with anyone and we do not sell it.

The aim is to gain insight into how the site is used and to improve our articles. The legal basis is legitimate interest: because the data is anonymous and we measure little, this has hardly any effect on your privacy.

Cookies

WATTBA uses functional cookies only. These are the cookies the site currently uses:

  • wattba-session: a technical cookie the site needs to work properly. It contains a random code and no personal data. Retention: 2 hours.
  • XSRF-TOKEN: a security cookie that protects forms against misuse. It contains a random code. Retention: 2 hours.
  • thema: remembers whether you want to see the site in light, dark or automatic mode. This cookie is only set if you choose the colour theme yourself. Retention: 1 year.

WATTBA itself sets no tracking or advertising cookies. No partner ads are currently shown on this site.

Videos from YouTube

Some articles include a video from YouTube. We do not load it in advance: you first see a still image of the video, which is stored on our own server. Your browser does not yet make contact with YouTube.

Only when you click the video does your browser load the player from YouTube. We use youtube-nocookie.com for this, YouTube’s more privacy-friendly variant. From that moment YouTube (Google) receives your IP address, sees that you are watching the video on WATTBA, and may use its own cookies or similar techniques. Google’s privacy terms apply to that. If you do not click, nothing happens.

Server traffic and security

Our server (Hetzner, in Germany) processes your IP address so that we can deliver the pages to you and to prevent misuse, for example by limiting the number of requests. This IP address does not end up in the visitor statistics. Hosting is within the European Union.

Email to the editorial team

If you email us, we use your email address and message only to reply. We do not keep them longer than necessary.

AI

We never send visitors’ data to AI services.

Your rights

You may request access to your data, ask for correction or deletion, and object to processing. To do so, write to editorial@wattba.eu. The visitor statistics are anonymous, so we cannot link them to you. Do you disagree with how we handle your data? Then you can lodge a complaint with the Dutch data protection authority, Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens.

Last updated: 24 October 2026