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What We Mean by EU-Only
When we say EU-only, we mean it concretely: every service and provider we rely on to run Inclutra is headquartered, operated, and hosted within the European Union. This applies to our servers, our database, our AI transcription provider, our email infrastructure, our payment processing, and our backups.
We do not use US-based cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud, or Microsoft Azure. We do not route data through non-EU jurisdictions. We do not rely on services that are subject to US surveillance laws such as FISA 702 or the CLOUD Act.
This is not a partial commitment or a best-effort policy. It is a deliberate architectural decision that affects every vendor and infrastructure choice we make.
Why We Made This Choice
Data sovereignty matters. European data protection law, particularly the GDPR, sets a high standard for how personal data must be handled. But legal compliance alone is not enough if the underlying infrastructure is controlled by entities outside EU jurisdiction. By choosing EU-only providers, we ensure that the protections guaranteed by European law are backed by infrastructure that operates under the same legal framework.
Trust requires consistency. Many services claim GDPR compliance while routing data through US-owned infrastructure or relying on standard contractual clauses that have been repeatedly challenged in court. We avoid this ambiguity entirely. Our customers, many of whom operate in the public sector, education, and accessibility, need to know exactly where their data lives and who can access it.
Supporting European technology. We believe in contributing to a strong European technology ecosystem. Every vendor choice is a vote for the kind of digital infrastructure we want to see in Europe. We choose to invest in European companies that share our values around privacy, transparency, and accountability.
Our Infrastructure
Our application servers and database run on Hetzner infrastructure in Nuremberg, Germany. Backups are stored in a separate Hetzner datacenter in Frankfurt, Germany. Hetzner is a German provider and both locations are subject exclusively to EU law.
For AI-powered transcription and translation, we use Gladia, a French company that processes audio data in EU-based infrastructure. Raw audio is never stored by Gladia or by Inclutra.
Our transactional email infrastructure runs through Lettermint, a European provider. Our monitoring and analytics tools are also provided by EU-based companies, and we evaluate every new tool or service against our EU-only policy before adoption.
Payments
We currently accept payment exclusively via SEPA bank transfer. This is a direct consequence of our EU-only commitment: the dominant credit card processing providers (Stripe, PayPal, Braintree) are US-based companies subject to US jurisdiction.
We are actively monitoring the European payment processing landscape and will add more payment methods as EU-based alternatives mature. Until then, SEPA transfer ensures that your payment data stays entirely within the European banking system.
We understand this adds a small amount of friction compared to one-click card payments. We believe the trade-off is worth it, and our customers in the public sector and education consistently tell us they agree.
Last updated: 2026-03-12.