Operator

Represented by: Gianluca Jahn

Contact

Telephone: 0155 63252373
Email: contact@humanitr.ee

Responsible for the content according to § 18 (2) MStV

Gianluca Jahn, Edmund-Weber-Straße 200, 44651 Herne

Contact point under the Digital Services Act

The single point of contact for the authorities of the member states, the European Commission and the European Board for Digital Services (Art. 11 DSA) and for users (Art. 12 DSA) is the email address contact@humanitr.ee. A person answers there, not a chatbot. We communicate in German and English.

Reporting illegal content

Members can publish their own texts on their profile, such as a nickname, a short description and wishes for the future. If you think content on humanitree is illegal, please report it by email to contact@humanitr.ee (Art. 16 DSA). So that we can check it, your report should contain:

• an explanation of why you think the content is illegal,
• the exact address (URL) of the page with the content,
• your name and email address (not needed for reports of child sexual abuse material),
• a statement that you believe the information in your report is accurate and complete.

We confirm receipt, review the report promptly, carefully and objectively, and tell you our decision together with the ways to challenge it. If we remove or block content, the member concerned is told the reasons (Art. 17 DSA). Which content is not allowed and how we proceed is set out in the terms of use.

Consumer dispute resolution

We do not take part in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board and are not obliged to do so.

About the content

humanitree summarises the state of research and technology to the best of our knowledge and names the sources of every entry. Progress figures are estimates and may change with new results. The content is general information, not advice. In particular, the medical content does not replace advice, diagnosis or treatment by a doctor.

Use of artificial intelligence

The texts on humanitree, including the descriptions of the technologies, the ongoing reports on research progress and the translations, are researched, written and translated with the help of AI systems (Claude by Anthropic). The person named above as responsible for the content holds the editorial responsibility. Every report names its sources.

The paintings of the eras, the backgrounds, the icons of the technologies and other illustrations were made with AI image generators (Leonardo.Ai and Google Gemini). They are illustrations and do not show real scenes. The portrait of Nikola Tesla on the start page is an AI-edited version of a public-domain photo. All other photos of people are real photographs (see the credits).

Image credits and licences

Photos of people and logos of organisations come mostly from Wikimedia Commons. They are under free licences, mostly Creative Commons, or in the public domain. The author, licence and source of every picture are in the lists below. The pictures were cropped and scaled down. Logos and trademarks belong to their owners; their use does not imply any connection with humanitree.

The short biographies of people come from Wikipedia and are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Every person links to the Wikipedia article with all its authors.

Icons: Game Icons by Lorc, Delapouite and other designers, licensed under CC BY 3.0; Microsoft Fluent Emoji, © Microsoft Corporation, MIT licence; Lucide Icons, ISC licence. Flags: flag-icons, © Panayiotis Lipiridis, MIT licence.

Data protection

How we process personal data, which service providers we use for it (hosting, database, email) and which cookies humanitree sets is explained in the privacy policy.

Liability for content

The content of our pages was created with the greatest care. However, we cannot guarantee that it is correct, complete and up to date. As a service provider we are responsible for our own content on these pages under the general laws (§ 7 (1) DDG). Under §§ 8 to 10 DDG, however, we are not obliged to monitor third-party information that is transmitted or stored, or to look for circumstances that point to illegal activity. Obligations to remove or block the use of information under the general laws remain unaffected. Liability in this respect is only possible from the moment we become aware of a specific infringement. As soon as we become aware of such infringements, we will remove the content at once.

Liability for links

Our pages contain links to external websites of third parties whose content we cannot influence. We therefore cannot accept any liability for that content. The provider or operator of the linked pages is always responsible for their content. The linked pages were checked for possible legal violations at the time of linking; no illegal content was recognisable then. Permanent checks of the linked pages are not reasonable without concrete evidence of an infringement. As soon as we become aware of infringements, we will remove such links at once.

Copyright

The content and works created by the site operator on these pages are subject to German copyright law. Copying, editing, distributing and any kind of use beyond the limits of copyright law require the written consent of the respective author or creator. Downloads and copies of this site are only permitted for private, non-commercial use. Where content on this site was not created by the operator, the copyrights of third parties are respected, and third-party content is marked as such. Should you nevertheless notice a copyright infringement, please let us know. As soon as we become aware of infringements, we will remove such content at once.

Third-party content under free licences (see image credits and licences) may be used under the terms of its licence.

This is a translation; the German version of this imprint is authoritative. Created with the imprint generator of WebsiteWissen.com, the guide to website building, homepage builders and shop systems. Legal text by Kanzlei Hasselbach.

Controller

The controller responsible for processing personal data on humanitree is:

Gianluca Jahn Webentwicklung, represented by Gianluca Jahn, Edmund-Weber-Straße 200, 44651 Herne, Germany. Email: contact@humanitr.ee, telephone: +49 155 63252373.

We have not appointed a data protection officer because there is no legal obligation to do so. For any question about data protection, please write to the email address above.

The essentials

• You can browse the technology trees without an account. We then only process the technical data that every website needs to deliver its pages.
• For an account we need your email address and a password. Everything else on your profile is optional.
• There is no advertising, no analytics or tracking and no third-party cookies for advertising or analytics.
• We do not sell data. It only goes to the service providers we need to run the site: hosting, database, email delivery and the bot check.

Visiting the website

When you open humanitree, your browser sends technically necessary data to the server: your IP address, the date and time, the address requested, the page you came from and details of your browser and operating system. We need this data to deliver the pages and to keep the site running and secure, for example against attacks.

The legal basis is our legitimate interest in a secure, working website (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR). The logs are processed by our host Vercel (see service providers); they are kept only briefly and then deleted automatically. The connection is encrypted (TLS, shown by “https” in the address bar).

Cookies

humanitree only sets its own cookies that are technically necessary or store a setting you chose yourself. No consent is needed for these (§ 25 (2) no. 2 TDDDG). We set no cookies for advertising or analytics. The only third-party embed is the bot check on the pages for registering, signing in and resetting your password (see protection against abuse): where Cloudflare stores or reads information in your browser for it, this is strictly necessary for the sign-in you asked for (§ 25 (2) no. 2 TDDDG).

• Sign-in: keeps you signed in until you sign out, for at most 30 days.
• Language: remembers the language you chose, for one year.
• Introduction: remembers that you closed the introduction so it does not appear on every visit, for one year.
• Visit, only for signed-in members: recognises when a new visit begins so we can show what has changed since the last one. It expires after six hours.
• Day, only for signed-in members and in the browser's storage rather than a cookie: the date of your last visit, so that the first visit of a day counts for your experience points.

The legal basis for the related processing is the user agreement for sign-in and visit (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR) and our legitimate interest in convenient use for language and introduction (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR).

Account

For an account we collect your email address and a password. We store the password only as a value that cannot be turned back; nobody can read it in plain text. The account also has a username, the address of your profile, and the time of registration.

We use this data to run your account, sign you in and provide the personal features: followed technologies, reports marked as read, your profile and your friendships. For this we also store when your last visit began, so we can show what has changed since.

The legal basis is the user agreement (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR). The data is kept as long as your account exists. If you have your account deleted, we delete the account data and everything on your profile within 30 days, unless the law requires us to keep it. It disappears from backups as soon as they are overwritten in the regular cycle.

Protection against abuse

So that programs cannot create accounts in bulk or try out passwords, we check, when you register, sign in or ask for a password reset email, whether a person is sending the form. For this we use Cloudflare Turnstile (see service providers). Your browser sends your IP address and technical characteristics such as the browser type to Cloudflare; usually you do not have to click anything. According to Cloudflare, it uses this data only to detect bots.

We also count, and limit, how often accounts are created, sign-ins are attempted or password reset emails are requested from one IP address or for one email address. For this we store only a non-reversible check value of these addresses, for at most one day.

The legal basis is our legitimate interest in the security of the accounts and the service (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR).

Public profile

Your profile can be opened by anyone at humanitr.ee/ followed by your username, even without an account. It shows your username and what you enter yourself: nickname, portrait, background picture, short description, date of birth, favourite tree, favourite scientists, topics, most wanted breakthrough, favourite discovery, wishes for the future and the technologies you follow. As your portrait you pick a picture of a scientist from the trees; you cannot upload photos of your own.

Your profile also shows your level, your medals and the stamps other members have pressed on your profile, each with their username.

All of this is optional; anything you leave empty does not appear. Please consider what you want to show publicly, especially your date of birth. Publishing it is the feature you use by filling it in, so the legal basis is the user agreement (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR). You can change or remove every detail at any time.

Friendships

You can send another member a friend request if you know their exact username. There is no member list, and the answer to a request does not reveal whether a name is taken. Only you can see your friend list. Once a request is accepted, you and your friend see a few key facts about each other: since when the account exists, the favourite tree and the number of followed technologies.

Your friends also see what you did in the last 90 days: when you start following a technology, earn a medal, finish a quiz very well or without a mistake, or reach a new level. And they can compare themselves with you: level, experience points earned, medals, quiz results, days in a row, followed technologies and favourite scientists. We delete these activity entries after 90 days.

Every member has an invitation link. If you register through a member's link, we store who invited you. The inviting member only sees how many members joined through their link, no names; the number gives their invitation medals. If either account is deleted, the link between them goes.

We keep requests and friendships until one side withdraws or ends them or an account is deleted. The legal basis is the user agreement (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR).

Experience points, medals and quizzes

Members collect experience points and medals: for the first visit of a day, for quizzes, and when a technology they have followed for a while is achieved. The points unlock more places for favourite scientists. For this we store every credit and every unlock with its date, your medals, your best result in each quiz, and since when you follow a technology.

During a quiz we store the questions and your answers on our server, so that it is marked there; we delete these runs after one day. Quizzes can also be played without an account; we then store the run without any link to a person and only count how many quizzes are started from one IP address (as a non-reversible check value, for at most one day, see protection against abuse).

The legal basis is the user agreement (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR), and for the count without an account our legitimate interest in preventing abuse (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR). Points, medals and results are kept as long as your account exists.

Stamps

Members can press a stamp on another member's profile, from a fixed choice of shapes, motifs and colours, with no text of their own. We store who pressed which stamp on which profile and when. The stamp is visible to everyone on that profile, with the username of the member who pressed it. You decide who may stamp your profile: every member, friends only, or nobody. You can remove any stamp from your profile, and every member can remove their own.

The legal basis is the user agreement (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR). A stamp is kept until it is removed or one of the two accounts is deleted.

Browser notifications

If you switch them on in the settings and your browser allows it, we notify you of news about technologies you follow, of friend requests and of stamps on your profile, even while humanitree is not open. For this we store the delivery address your browser assigns, two keys that encrypt the messages, and the language. The messages are delivered by the notification service of your browser's maker, depending on the browser Google, Mozilla, Apple or Microsoft, also to the USA. It receives the delivery address and the encrypted message but cannot read its content.

The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR, § 25 (1) TDDDG). You can withdraw it at any time by switching notifications off in the settings or in your browser; we then delete the delivery address. Otherwise it is kept until your account is deleted or the service reports it as no longer valid.

Emails

We only send you emails your account needs: to reset your password when you ask for it, and about changes to this policy or the terms of use. We send no newsletters and no advertising. The emails go out through Resend (see service providers), which receives your email address and the message. The legal basis is the user agreement (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR).

Contacting us by email

When you write to us, we process your email address, your name if you give it, and the message, to deal with your request. The legal basis is the user agreement for questions about your account (Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR) and otherwise our legitimate interest in answering (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR). We delete the messages once the matter is settled, at the latest after three years, unless the law requires us to keep them.

Reports of illegal content

When you report content to us under the Digital Services Act (see the imprint), we process your details to review the report, confirm its receipt, tell you our decision and document it. We only tell the member concerned your name where that is strictly necessary. The legal basis is our legal obligation under Art. 16 and 17 DSA (Art. 6 (1) (c) GDPR). We keep the records as long as questions or an objection can be expected, at most one year after the decision.

Service providers and transfers to the USA

To run the site we use service providers that process data on our behalf and on our instructions. We have a data processing agreement with each of them (Art. 28 GDPR).

• Vercel Inc., USA: hosting and delivery of the website, server logs.
• Supabase, Inc., USA: database and sign-in, that is account, profile and friendship data. The database runs on servers in the EU (Frankfurt am Main).
• Resend, USA: sending the emails about your account, such as password reset emails.
• Cloudflare, Inc., USA: Turnstile, the bot check when you register, sign in or ask for a password reset email.

The notification services of the browser makers (see browser notifications) are not processors of ours but part of your browser; they only receive encrypted messages.

Access from the USA cannot be ruled out for any of the four. For the USA there is an adequacy decision of the European Commission (EU-US Data Privacy Framework). Where a provider is certified under it, the transfer is based on it (Art. 45 GDPR); otherwise on the European Commission's standard contractual clauses (Art. 46 (2) (c) GDPR), which are part of the data processing agreements.

humanitree's content is made with the help of AI (Claude by Anthropic, see the imprint). Anthropic receives no data of visitors or members.

No analytics, no advertising

We use no analytics or statistics tools, no advertising networks and no social media plugins. Fonts and images are served from our own server; opening the pages makes no connection to Google or any other provider. The only exception is the bot check: on the pages for registering, signing in and resetting your password, your browser loads it from Cloudflare (see protection against abuse). If you switch on notifications, your browser also connects to its maker's notification service (see browser notifications). Links to other websites, such as sources or Wikipedia, are plain links: data only goes to the other provider when you click a link, and their privacy policy then applies.

Your rights

You have the right of access to your stored data (Art. 15 GDPR), to rectification (Art. 16 GDPR), to erasure (Art. 17 GDPR), to restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR) and to data portability (Art. 20 GDPR). Just write to contact@humanitr.ee.

Right to object: where we process data on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR), you can object at any time on grounds relating to your particular situation (Art. 21 GDPR). We will then stop processing the data unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, or the processing serves to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

You can also lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR), for example the one responsible for us: Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit Nordrhein-Westfalen, Kavalleriestraße 2-4, 40213 Düsseldorf, Germany, www.ldi.nrw.de.

Required details, minimum age, automated decisions

Without an email address and a password we cannot create an account; everything else is optional. Accounts are for people aged 16 and over. There is no automated decision-making or profiling within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR.

Changes to this policy

We update this privacy policy when humanitree or the law changes. The version published here applies. We inform members of significant changes by email. This is a translation; the German version is authoritative.

Scope and provider

These terms of use apply to the use of humanitree at humanitr.ee, in particular to members' accounts. The provider is Gianluca Jahn Webentwicklung, represented by Gianluca Jahn, Edmund-Weber-Straße 200, 44651 Herne, Germany (see the imprint). Members' own terms do not apply.

The service

humanitree shows in technology trees how far research and technology have come in different fields, with sources for every entry. The trees can be browsed without an account. A free account adds personal features: an overview of the changes since the last visit, followed technologies, a public profile and friendships.

humanitree is free. We keep developing it and may change, add or discontinue features. There is no claim to a particular feature or to constant availability, but we strive for smooth operation.

humanitree's content

The content summarises the state of research to the best of our knowledge. Progress figures are estimates; the texts are written with the help of AI and editorially supervised. They are general information, not advice, in particular not medical advice. You are responsible for decisions you make on this basis.

Account

Registering concludes a free user agreement between you and us under these terms. The following applies:

• Accounts are for people aged 16 and over. Each person may have only one account.
• The email address must be yours and reachable; we use it for messages about your account.
• Keep your password secret. If you notice that someone else is using your account, please tell us at once.
• The username must not infringe the rights of others, such as trademark or name rights, must not be offensive and must not suggest that you are someone else or speak for humanitree.

Rules for your own content

On your profile you can publish texts of your own that everyone can see (see the privacy policy). You are responsible for them. Content is not allowed if it

• breaks the law, for example insults, defamation, incitement to hatred, threats or criminal depictions,
• demeans or harasses people or attacks them for their origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age,
• contains personal data of others without their consent,
• infringes the rights of third parties, such as copyright, trademark or personality rights,
• is or links to advertising or spam,
• is pornographic or glorifies violence.

It is also not allowed to disrupt humanitree technically, to get around security measures, to fetch the pages automatically on a scale that impairs operation, or to use other people's accounts.

So that we can show your profile, you grant us the simple, free right to make your content publicly available on humanitree for as long as it is on your profile. We acquire no further rights.

Moderation

We do not check content in advance or automatically. We act when content is reported to us (see the imprint, reporting illegal content) or we learn of a violation in another way. A person reviews every report; we use no algorithms or automated decisions for this.

If content breaks the law or these terms, we may remove it or restrict its display, warn the member and, for serious or repeated violations, suspend or terminate the account. We choose the mildest measure that suffices and take into account the rights and legitimate interests of everyone involved, especially freedom of expression.

We inform the member concerned of every measure, with the reasons (Art. 17 DSA). You can object to the decision within six months by email to contact@humanitr.ee; a person then reviews it again and you are told the result. You can go to court at any time.

Liability

We are liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, for injury to life, body or health and under the Product Liability Act. For slight negligence we are only liable if we breach an essential contractual obligation, that is an obligation whose fulfilment makes use possible in the first place and on whose observance you may regularly rely; liability is then limited to the foreseeable, typically occurring damage. Otherwise liability is excluded. These rules also apply to the people we engage to perform our obligations.

Members are responsible for the content they publish.

Term and termination

The user agreement runs for an indefinite period. You can end it at any time without notice by email to contact@humanitr.ee. We can terminate it by email with two weeks' notice. The right to terminate without notice for good cause remains unaffected, for example for serious or repeated violations of these terms. When the agreement ends, we delete your account and profile (see the privacy policy).

Changes to these terms

We may change these terms when humanitree, the law or case law changes. Members receive the new version by email at least four weeks before it takes effect. If you do not agree, you can close your account before then. If you keep using it after the new version takes effect, the new version applies; the email points this out separately.

Final provisions

German law applies. If you are a consumer habitually resident in another country, the mandatory consumer protection rules of that country remain unaffected. We do not take part in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board and are not obliged to do so. Should a provision be invalid, the others remain valid. This is a translation; the German version is authoritative.