Privacy Policy

Your privacy is our priority

Data Collection

We collect minimal data necessary to provide our Services:

  • URLs - The long URLs you submit for shortening
  • Short Codes - The generated or custom short codes
  • QR-codes - the generated QR-codes
  • Securely hashed IP Addresses - Temporarily stored for rate limiting purposes only
  • Contactform - The data you include on our contactpage is saved for the time it takes to resolve the issue
  • E-mail address - In case you choose to create an account with an e-mailaddress
  • Click Statistics - When enabled by you, anonymous visit metrics (timestamp, country, device type, ...) are recorded per short URL or QR-code

We employ a robust security model to protect your information. Highly sensitive identifiers are irreversibly hashed or immediately anonymized before storage. All other data categories—including IP addresses, device characteristics, and QR code content—are protected using field-level encryption at rest. This ensures that personal or technical identifiers remain unreadable in our database and are only processed when strictly necessary for providing your services and statistics. We do not perform any profiling or automated decision-making based on this data.


Data collected from link and QR code visitors

Depending on the services used and the choices made by the link or QR code creator, fearly.eu may collect the following categories of data about visitors who click a shortened URL or scan a QR code:

  • Timing and frequency of visits
  • IP address and derived location data (country, region, city, network organization)
  • Device and browser characteristics (brand, model, type, operating system, browser, language)
  • Traffic source information (referrer, UTM parameters)
  • Technical indicators (bot detection, VPN/proxy/Tor usage, visit uniqueness)

Such data is only collected where the link or QR code creator has explicitly enabled statistics collection. This processing is based on the consent of the link creator (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). fearly.eu acts as data controller for this processing. To ensure maximum security, all collected data fields are protected using field-level encryption at rest and are never shared with third parties. Link and QR code creators only have access to aggregated, high-level statistical reports and cannot identify individual visitors.

Visitors whose data is collected in this way may contact us to exercise their GDPR rights, including access, rectification, and erasure.


QR code content storage

Content encoded in a QR code — such as a URL, text, Wi-Fi credentials, or contact information — is stored on our servers to enable the creator to view, share, and edit it at a later time. This content may include sensitive information at the creator's discretion. Sensitive fields are protected using field-level encryption at rest.


What We Don't Collect

  • No cookies for tracking
  • No third-party analytics (Google Analytics, etc.)
  • No personal information, except what you explicitly share with us.
  • No browsing history or behavioral data

Data Storage

All data is stored on EU-based servers and is subject to GDPR regulations. We use industry-standard encryption for data in transit (SSL/TLS) and at rest.

Data Retention

Shortened URLs are stored indefinitely unless they expire or are deleted. Rate limiting data is automatically purged after a short time.

COOKIES

We use only essential functional cookies:

  • Theme cookie: Stores your dark/light mode preference.
  • Session cookie: Maintains your login session and is used for security reasons.

We do not use tracking, analytics, or advertising cookies. No third-party cookies are placed. You can disable cookies in your browser settings, but this will prevent login functionality and theme preferences from being saved.

Your Rights

Under GDPR, you have the right to:

  • Access your data
  • Request deletion of your data
  • Export your data
  • Object to data processing
  • You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Belgian Data Protection Authority (GBA): www.dataprotectionauthority.be

Contact

For privacy-related inquiries, please contact us at:

Last updated: 12 March, 2026