Hey! Webstudio does not collect or process user data. Websites are deployed to cloudflare which is using distributed network and does not have specific location where website is hosted. Alternatively you can export website with CLI and host it Germany.
When you export website with CLI it becomes completely decoupled from webstudio cloud
Additionally you can self-host the website builder along with any projects if you need to.
Cool! Thank you. I'm going to look into Cloudflares privacy stuff. Self-Hosting is an option but I like the peace of mind that a strong and reliable CDN brings 😄 Especially for my customers
Could you let me/us know what solution you go with in relation to privacy laws ?
Sure 🙂 I try to find out more tomorrow before the LTD runs out but can't promise anything. I hate this privacy shit 😄
It's not that simple unfortunately. It's one thing what they say they do and what they actually do. In the end, they will comply to U.S law and not german law. Every company that is not located in an EU country is a problem for german data privacy law. But to be honest, the same problem applies to Webflow, they use Fastly as a CDN and are located in the U.S.
My understanding is: You can use all those services if you get the consent from the users. Which is a problem since you need to serve the website to get the consent.
As I said, it's a major pain in the ass. Especially with small to medium businesses. They don't give a shit about data privacy. They don't collect user data. Heck, most of them don't even use analytics. They just want their website published. On top of everything, in Germany we have specialized (bloodsuckers) lawyers that are actively looking out for those things and the fines are quite high.
Cloudflare offers a "Data Processing Addendum" but I'm not shure if my customers can sign that with Cloudflare. They are not the customers, Webstudio is. I don't know... I have to dig a little deeper. Maybe I stick to self-hosting at first. Maybe use the cloud for my personal site...
Disclaimer: I'm no expert in data privacy shit. Please correct me if I'm wrong
the big problem is that it is american as I understand - they are in this regard controlled by the american government in this respect who claims the right to the data if the company is american - that is what I have been told - bunny.net or fastfront.io would be the way to go - but just buy the pro version and then use hetzner and coolify maybe ? but that of course changes the deal in regard to hosting ... I will be using it for myself - so I dont really care since it will probably not be for money.
you can pay your way out of it - by paying for enterprise level stuff - but that I do NOT believe is what Webstudio is using - then you have to pay for a solution where the data never leaves the eu region .... but ultimately - if the company is owned by americans - we are not in compliance ... although ... that would be unrealistic as so many are using Cloudflare
but it is frustrating 🙂 especially since ALL solutions are build with the lowest hanging fruits which doesnt work in the EU - and perjhaps especially in Germany. But the intention is good and I agree with the legislation .... but the practical side ...
Exactly. To be honest, for me personally I like my data privacy in Germany but it's not practical for small businesses
did you read that article about the german shopify owner - it is weird if he should be the only one ... do you know about this ? The extent of this policing ?
it would be nice if webstudo had a basic cms or blog system and used bunny.net 🙂 probably not happening though - which is weird ... do they not want EU-people to use the product in the same way as today with Cloudflare ? Would be a huge step in relation to other alternatives ... divhunt has a cms and german based hosting - I cannot remeber if they have brought in the lawyers yet to vet it
How I understand it (as a German web designer) looking into it quite a bit since 2018 with start of GDPR:
Since the Privacy Shield is not working, transferring personal data from the EU to the U.S. must now rely on alternative legal mechanisms. It became since 2020 more of a grey area to transfer transatlantic data to Europe/Germany (Court of Justice of the European Union, July 16, 2020).
The Data Processing Addendum or in German SCC/SVK (Standardvertragsklauseln) would be useful to get an agreement between us, Webstudio and Cloudflare/other third-parties.
Also, Cloudflare storing tracking cookies without the user's consent is strictly illegal in Germany (so it's a question if they store only technical necessary cookies or tracking cookies).
The question is also if Cloudflare anonymize the IP addresses of users (which is an absolute must in Germany/Europe).
Hey everyone,
I read your conversation and had similar concerns earlier.
Would it help to have an option to publish directly to a Git repo instead of a custom URL?
That way, you could easily self-host (e.g., with Coolify and than deploy it to your custom server or similar) and still use the cloud builder without needing to export code manually. You’d have full control while keeping the workflow smooth.
so that you don't have to deal with self-hosting the builder but can still publish to any hosting you want from the builder publish button
Just came in to say that putting Cloudflare in the same basket as Google, just because they are both US companies, is a big mistake. Cloudflare is very privacy-focused, and they do their uttmost to comply with the GDPR. Their Web Analytics solution, for example, totally anonymises the data, and does no cross-site tracking.
I'm very much against private data collection, and try to educate my customers as much as possible on how to avoid "free" Google and Microsoft products, but I do recommend Cloudflare.
Thanks for your perspective.
Thanks for all your input 🤝 nice community here I see.
Well, I bought the LTD just for support and will use it at first for fun side projects. We‘ll see.
Publishing to a git repo would indeed be very nice for the self hosting route.
I will update my journey regarding data privacy in this thread
Welcome and thanks for your support!
Welcome to the community 🙌
