Privacy

Privacy Policy

This privacy policy explains how personal data is processed when you visit TELLUSMACHINE. It is written for a static, browser-based visualization that is intended to be hosted on Vercel.

1. Controller

Sandro Vogel
Klingsorstr. 66
12167 Berlin
Germany

Email: sandrovogel@pm.me

2. What TELLUSMACHINE Does Locally

TELLUSMACHINE renders a WebGL visualization in your browser. Interaction state such as rotation, zoom, opened panels, selected layers, meditations, and audio state is handled in memory during your visit.

The site does not ask you to create an account, does not provide a contact form, and does not intentionally collect content entered by you.

3. Cookies, Analytics, and Local Storage

TELLUSMACHINE does not use advertising cookies, analytics cookies, tracking pixels, fingerprinting scripts, localStorage, sessionStorage, or IndexedDB.

Because no non-essential cookies or comparable tracking technologies are used by the site itself, the site does not display a cookie banner.

4. Hosting and Technical Access Data

When you visit the website, technically necessary access data may be processed to deliver the page and keep the service secure and stable. This may include your IP address, date and time of access, requested URL, referrer URL, user agent, status codes, and error data.

The website is intended to be hosted on Vercel Inc. As hosting provider, Vercel may process technically necessary access data and security logs. Vercel may process data in the United States and other countries outside the European Economic Area. Where required, such transfers should be based on appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses or other legally recognized mechanisms.

5. Live Public Data Feeds

TELLUSMACHINE attempts to load public telemetry where available. USGS earthquake feeds are requested directly by your browser. NOAA SWPC, IERS, and NASA/JPL telemetry are requested through narrow same-origin Vercel API routes so the browser does not need to contact CORS-limited provider endpoints directly.

If these live feeds are unreachable, TELLUSMACHINE falls back to clearly labeled simulation, compiled, or model data. For same-origin API routes, Vercel may receive ordinary technical request metadata, and upstream public data providers receive the server-side request from Vercel rather than a direct browser request from you.

Compiled and model layers, including population, ocean currents, tectonic activity, deep-time markers, the OpenStreetMap-derived subsea network snapshot, Epoch AI data-center and model snapshots, OpenAlex research aggregates, the Wikidata exchange-point and launch-site snapshot, lightning, orbital context, CO2 indicators, and the inactive FIRMS/fire meditation, do not create additional browser requests beyond the static site files. The visitor's browser does not contact OpenStreetMap, Overpass, Epoch AI, OpenAlex, OurResearch, Wikidata, or the Wikimedia Foundation for these layers; the source data was obtained at build time and is served as part of the static site. Animated network signals, exchange pulses, procedural ascent streaks, compute pulses, model-scale positions, research lights, and the procedural spatial directions used by “The Visitors” do not inspect or transmit visitor traffic, prompts, AI use, publications, location, or other activity.

6. Purposes and Legal Bases

The legal basis for delivering the website, protecting it from abuse, and processing technically necessary access data is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. The legitimate interest is providing a secure, stable, and functional public website.

The legal basis for live public data requests is Article 6(1)(f) GDPR. The legitimate interest is displaying current planetary telemetry as part of the visualization. The site does not use those requests for advertising, profiling, or cross-site tracking.

Where processing is required to comply with legal obligations, the legal basis is Article 6(1)(c) GDPR.

7. Recipients

Recipients of personal data may include technical hosting and infrastructure providers, currently expected to include Vercel. When live feeds are enabled by your browser, USGS may receive technical request data directly from your browser. NOAA, IERS, and NASA/JPL live requests are routed through same-origin Vercel API functions, so those upstream providers receive the server-side request from Vercel.

8. Retention

TELLUSMACHINE itself does not create user accounts and does not store visitor-submitted content. Hosting and public-data-provider logs are retained according to the respective provider's operational, security, and legal retention practices.

Technical access data controlled by the site operator is retained only as long as necessary for operation, troubleshooting, security, and abuse prevention, unless longer retention is legally required.

9. Your Rights

Subject to the statutory requirements, you have the right to request access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability, and objection to processing. Where processing is based on consent, you have the right to withdraw consent with effect for the future.

Because the site does not use accounts or contact forms, these rights mainly concern technical access data and hosting-related records.

10. Right to Lodge a Complaint

You have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority. In Berlin, the competent authority is the Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information.

11. Automated Decision-Making

TELLUSMACHINE does not use automated decision-making, including profiling, within the meaning of Article 22 GDPR.

12. Sources and Transparency

The interface and legal notice list the major live, compiled, and modeled data sources used by the visualization. Source status is shown in the application as live, simulation, compiled, or model data where applicable. OpenStreetMap attribution and ODbL terms, Epoch AI attribution terms and citations, the OpenAlex and Wikidata CC0 dedications, exact Wikidata infrastructure queries, and NASA/JPL SBDB close-approach provenance are stated in the legal notice or downloadable data snapshots. “The Visitors” labels its directions as procedural and its radial distance as non-linearly compressed; “The Handshake” and “The Doorways” label their pulses and ascent streaks as procedural and do not represent live activity. NASA FIRMS fire data is not requested in the current public build.

13. Changes to This Policy

This privacy policy may be updated if the application, hosting setup, data sources, or legal requirements change. The current version is published on this page.

Last Updated

July 24, 2026