Privacy policy

Updated: October 2026 · English translation of the German notice.

1. Data controller

Frerich United Ventures GmbH, An der Ronne 48, 50859 Köln
Email: ai@tomfrerich.de

2. What we process and why

Account: Email address and password (stored only as a hash). When signing in with GitHub: email addresses, username, user ID, profile name and profile image URL.
Content: Your products, conversations, drafts, demos, files, profile details, feedback and AI requests. Everything remains private until you approve a version for publication. A published version is visible to everyone at sourmelon.de together with your handle; display name, pitch and background appear only if you make your profile public yourself.
Server logs from api.sourmelon.de: IP address, browser, timestamp and requested path. Deleted after 30 days.

The legal basis is providing the platform (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR); for server logs, our legitimate interest in secure operation (Article 6(1)(f)).

3. Service providers

Hetzner Online GmbH, Germany: hosting.
IONOS SE, Germany: sending confirmation and password emails.
Anthropic, PBC, USA: AI for conversations and the Sour Check. Your inputs and product details are transmitted, not your name or email address. No use for training; deleted after 30 days. Transfers to the USA are based on EU standard contractual clauses.
GitHub, only when you sign in with it. GitHub, Inc. is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.

4. Cookies and local storage

No cookies, tracking, analytics or external fonts. Your browser’s local storage holds only the session, products, drafts, profile and your language and design preferences.

5. Retention period

Until you request deletion. Deleting an account also deletes all associated data.

6. Your rights

You have rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, data portability, objection and withdrawal of consent (Articles 15 to 21 and Article 7(3) GDPR). Contact ai@tomfrerich.de informally. Complaints may be directed to the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information North Rhine-Westphalia, www.ldi.nrw.de.

Optional melon guide

The tour plays prepared audio only after a click. Narration was created with ElevenLabs. Playback does not send your text input to ElevenLabs for speech generation. The local sourmelon:guide-seen:v1 setting records whether the welcome was shown. On later visits, the guide stays off until you activate it.

Optional dictation uses your browser’s speech recognition. Audio may be sent to its speech recognition provider. It starts only after your click and microphone permission. SOURMELON does not store an audio recording or send the transcript to its server. The transcript stays in the open guide for review and topic selection. You can type or use the topic buttons instead.