Last updated: July 2026
These terms govern the use of the short link service at ctx.ink and the redirect domain ctx.re. Your contracting party is:
Philipp Ecker Unterhüttensölden 11 94481 Grafenau Deutschland
Any differing terms of the user do not become part of the contract unless we expressly agree to their application.
The service shortens web addresses into short links, forwards requests for those short links to the stored destination, and provides anonymised analytics about those requests. The scope of functions follows from the version of the service available at the time.
Use is currently free of charge. There is no entitlement to permanent gratuity; we will announce the introduction of paid features with reasonable notice, and existing functions remain available to existing accounts until you accept a corresponding offer.
Short links can be created to a limited extent without an account. Those links are valid for one hour and are then switched off automatically. This is a security measure, not a restriction that could be lifted on request.
An account is required for the full scope of functions. The contract of use is concluded when you register. The information you provide on registration must be accurate; registering under another person’s name is not permitted.
You are responsible for protecting access to your account — in particular your email inbox, your passkeys and your API keys. If you become aware that third parties are using your account, please notify us without delay.
The service is aimed at persons with full legal capacity as well as businesses and organisations. Minors may use it only with the consent of their legal guardians.
You are responsible for the short links you create and for their destinations. In particular, it is prohibited to create short links leading to content or offerings of the following kinds:
Also prohibited are automated bulk access outside the provided interface, circumventing technical limits such as rate limiting, and any action that impairs the availability or security of the service.
Short links conceal their destination. That is exactly what makes them attractive for deception, and exactly why we react far more strictly here than to other breaches: anyone using the service for phishing or distributing malware loses access without prior notice.
A key-based interface is available for automated access. Keys must be kept secret and must not be passed on to third parties. The same obligations apply to actions carried out via your key as to actions carried out via the user interface.
The number of requests is limited. We may adjust these limits where operations require it. The interface may change; we will announce material changes that break backwards compatibility with reasonable notice.
Destination addresses are checked automatically against malware and phishing directories when a link is created and after every update of our blocklists. No further review of content takes place; there is no general monitoring obligation under Art. 8 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act).
Where a breach is suspected, we may, in proportion to its severity and the available evidence:
We will inform you of measures taken against your links or your account, stating the reason, unless we are legally prohibited from doing so or it would jeopardise the investigation of ongoing abuse. You may object: the warning page and the block page of every affected link link directly to the objection form. We will review the objection and inform you of the outcome, provided you left an address.
We accept reports of unlawful content via the report button on the relevant warning or blocking page and at [email protected]. Automatically, a report leads at most to the warning page, never directly to a block — otherwise reporting could be misused as a weapon against other people’s links.
We endeavour to keep the service running as smoothly as possible, but we do not owe any particular level of availability. Maintenance, disruptions at upstream providers and circumstances beyond our control may lead to interruptions. We will announce planned maintenance in advance where possible.
Please bear this in mind when using the service: a short link printed on materials or packaging can no longer be changed. For permanent uses of that kind we recommend a domain of your own, under your own control.
Rights in the content you submit remain with you. You merely grant us the right to store it and to process and display it to the extent necessary to provide the service — for example the destination address for redirection and the preview details for display in messengers.
Analytics for your short links are collected in anonymised form; details are set out in the privacy policy. Individual clicks are retained for 90 days by default, aggregated figures beyond that. You can download your analytics as CSV or JSON at any time and retrieve them via the interface.
Where personal data of third parties is processed through your short links, you are the controller under data protection law and we are your processor. We will provide the agreement required under Art. 28 GDPR on request.
We are liable without limitation for intent and gross negligence, and for damage arising from injury to life, body or health. We are likewise liable without limitation under any guarantee we have assumed and under the German Product Liability Act.
In cases of ordinary negligence we are liable only where an obligation is breached whose fulfilment makes the proper performance of the contract possible in the first place and on whose observance you may regularly rely (a cardinal obligation). In such cases liability is limited to the foreseeable damage typical for this type of contract at the time it was concluded.
Liability is otherwise excluded. These limitations also apply to our legal representatives and vicarious agents.
We are not responsible for the content of the destinations short links lead to; that content originates from our users. Our responsibility as a service provider is governed by Articles 4 to 6 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065.
If a short link you create infringes the rights of third parties, you shall indemnify us against claims asserted against us by third parties on that basis, including reasonable costs of legal defence. This does not apply where you are not responsible for the infringement. We will inform you of such claims without delay and will consult you before making any acknowledgement.
The contract runs for an indefinite period. You may end it at any time without notice — while signed in under “Settings → Delete account”, or by sending us an informal message to [email protected]. After the request your access is locked; the account and its data are deleted for good after 30 days. You may cancel the request at any time within that period.
We may terminate the contract with 30 days’ notice. The right to terminate for cause remains unaffected; cause exists in particular where there is a serious breach of section 4.
What happens to your short links depends on the workspace: if you are its only member, it is deleted along with all links and analytics — those links then no longer redirect. If there are other members, the workspace remains, ownership passes to another member and the links keep working; only your person is removed. Your remaining data is deleted in accordance with the privacy policy. Please save any analytics you need beforehand — the full data export is available under “Settings”.
We may amend these terms where this is necessary due to a change in the law, in case law of the highest courts, or in the scope of functions, and where this does not unreasonably disadvantage you.
We will inform you of changes at least 30 days before they take effect, by email or within the application. If you do not agree to the change, you may terminate the contract without notice before it takes effect. Your silence does not constitute consent.
With an account you can connect a domain of your own and have your short links served under it. The redirect, warning and preview pages retain the design and marking of the service.
This requires that you are authorised to dispose of the domain. You are responsible for:
For a connected domain we request TLS certificates on your behalf from a certificate authority (currently Let’s Encrypt) so that delivery is encrypted. By connecting the domain you authorise us to do so. Please note that requests to a custom domain reach our servers directly; details of the processing are set out in the privacy policy.
Sections 4 and 6 apply unchanged to short links on a custom domain. We may refuse or disable a domain, in particular where verification fails, the domain is listed in a malware or phishing directory, or it is used abusively. You can remove a connected domain at any time; after that, short links on that domain no longer redirect.
The law of the Federal Republic of Germany applies, excluding the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods. If you are a consumer habitually resident in the European Union, the mandatory consumer protection provisions of your country of residence remain unaffected.
If you are a merchant, a legal person under public law or a special fund under public law, the place of jurisdiction is Grafenau, Germany.
We are neither willing nor obliged to participate in dispute resolution proceedings before a consumer arbitration board (§36 VSBG).
Should any provision of these terms be invalid, the validity of the remaining provisions remains unaffected. The statutory rules take the place of the invalid provision.