Privacy policy

This policy applies to koboldtouch.com in all of its language versions (English, French, Spanish, German and Italian). The publisher of the site is the data controller. The publisher's identity is given on our About and Contact pages, and every privacy request goes through the contact page at /contact/.

It does not cover the websites of retailers or other third parties you reach through our links. Those sites apply their own privacy policies.

You can read the whole site without giving us your name or email address. We process only the following data:

• Technical data needed to deliver the pages (IP address, browser user agent, time of the request), processed by our hosting provider for security and delivery.
• Audience measurement data (pages viewed, approximate location, device and browser, referring site, clicks on affiliate or shop links), only if you accept analytics cookies.
• Your consent choice, stored in your own browser so that we do not ask you again on every page.
• The content of your message and your email address if you write to us through the contact page, used only to answer you and kept no longer than needed for that exchange.

To understand which reviews and guides are useful and to improve the site, we use two audience measurement tools, and only with your consent.

Google Analytics 4 is loaded through Google Tag Manager, both provided by Google Ireland Limited (Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland) and its parent company Google LLC (United States). It measures pages viewed, approximate location (country, region, city derived from the IP address, which GA4 does not store), device type, browser, referring site, and clicks on affiliate or shop links, which we record as an event called affiliate_click.

Microsoft Clarity, provided by Microsoft Corporation, produces heatmaps and session replays that show how pages are scrolled and clicked, so we can fix layouts that do not work. Clarity masks sensitive text by default, so what you type is not recorded.

The legal basis is your consent under Article 6(1)(a) GDPR and, for visitors in Germany, Section 25(1) TDDDG for storing and reading information on your device. You can withdraw that consent at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal.

Nothing used for measurement runs before you decide. Google Consent Mode v2 is set to denied by default: no _ga or _ga_<ID> cookie is set and Microsoft Clarity is not loaded until you click Accept in the cookie banner. If you click Decline, both stay off.

Without consent, Google may still receive cookieless pings that contain no identifier (for example, that a page was viewed with consent denied). They cannot be used to recognise you from one visit to the next.

Your choice is stored in your browser's local storage under the key kt-consent. You can change it at any time with the Cookie settings link in the footer of every page. Clearing your browser data also resets it.

Here is what may be stored on your device:

• kt-consent (local storage, KoboldTouch): remembers your consent choice. Strictly necessary, so it does not require consent (Section 25(2) TDDDG in Germany).
• _ga and _ga_<ID> (Google Analytics 4): distinguish visitors and sessions, up to 2 years. Only after consent.
• _clck and _clsk (Microsoft Clarity): link page views of the same visitor (about 1 year) and of the same session (about 1 day). Only after consent.
• CLID and MUID (Microsoft Clarity and Microsoft): identify the browser across visits, about 1 year. Only after consent.

Google Analytics 4 data is kept for 14 months, after which it is deleted automatically. Microsoft Clarity data is kept according to Microsoft's retention rules for Clarity. Hosting logs are kept for a short period set by our hosting provider, for security and troubleshooting. Messages sent through the contact page are kept as long as needed to deal with your request.

Some links on KoboldTouch are affiliate links, in particular to Amazon (Amazon Associates programme) and to other retailers. If you buy after clicking one, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.

When you click such a link, you leave our site. The retailer may then set its own cookies and process your data under its own privacy policy, which we neither control nor see. We only know, through the affiliate_click event if you accepted analytics, that a link was clicked.

Commissions never influence our rankings, scores or verdicts.

The site is hosted by Vercel Inc. (United States). Like any web server, Vercel records technical logs (IP address, user agent, requested page, time) to deliver the pages and protect the site against abuse. Cloudflare, Inc. may act as a content delivery network and proxy in front of the site, for speed and security, and processes the same kind of technical data.

The legal basis is our legitimate interest in running a secure and reliable website (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).

Google, Microsoft, Vercel and Cloudflare may process data in the United States. These transfers rely on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, under which these companies are certified, and, where it does not apply, on the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.

We do not sell your data and do not share it with anyone other than the providers named in this policy.

Under the GDPR you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Access: find out whether we process data about you and obtain a copy.
• Rectification: have inaccurate data corrected.
• Erasure: have your data deleted.
• Objection: object to processing based on our legitimate interest.
• Withdrawal of consent: at any time, through the Cookie settings link in the footer.
• Portability: receive the data you provided in a structured, commonly used format.
• Complaint: lodge a complaint with the data protection supervisory authority of the country where you live or work, or where you believe an infringement took place.

Write to us through the contact page at /contact/. We answer within one month. As we do not run accounts, most analytics data is pseudonymous and stored by Google and Microsoft. To act on it, the quickest route is usually to withdraw consent and clear your cookies.

We update this policy when our tools or the law change. The date at the top shows the latest version. If a change requires your consent again, the cookie banner will ask you.