About this Website

This is the personal website of freelance journalist and writer Fabian A. Scherschel from Duisburg, Germany. I’ve been recording podcasts since 2006 and became a full-time journalist in 2012. I have lived in Australia, in London, Hanover and Hamburg. These days, I reside in Düsseldorf and write mostly about the interaction between digital technology and politics.

Photo by GegenWind, Copenhagen

I work in both German and English languages and I’m proficient as a writer, reporter, editor, podcast host and also producer. I’ve hosted stages at conferences in front of thousands of people and I’ve given interviews on national primetime news.

My main areas of expertise are IT security, data privacy and computer operating systems. In the past I’ve also been a court reporter and legislation analyst. My stories tend to be informed by the needs of the consumer or citizen rather than those of corporations or the state.

Sometimes, I write about literature, movies or video games and I like to dabble in programming and graphic design. In the past, I have designed logos and other graphics for several open source organisations. I am also an avid photographer and can provide documentary footage to go along with my stories.

License my Work

You can hire me to both report on the news and to write long form stories in English, German or both. I can work quickly, if need be, or really dig into a subject matter. Due to my experience with in-depth technical stories and risky investigative work, I am not afraid to take on very challenging projects. Whether you need a one-off story or are looking for someone to help out over a longer period of time, feel free to contact me. I am willing to travel and also work from your office, just be aware that I value my freedom and therefore will remain a freelancer. I am not looking for a permanent job.

If you want to license any of the writing or the photographs that appear on this website, I am ready to talk terms. It is very important, however, that you contact me before republishing my work anywhere else. I reserve the right to take legal action against any unauthorised use of material appearing on this website.

Contact

If you want to get in contact with me about this website, because you want to hire me for a job or because you want to send me information for a story, you have several options. The easiest and direct way is to email me:

contact@fab.industries
PGP Key: AF4D8080F2F3982E

PLEASE BE ADVISED

I do not appreciate being put on mailing lists (PR lists or otherwise) without my express consent. The above email address is only to be used for correspondence addressed to me personally – e.g. feedback to something I wrote, a story you want me to cover or if you want to hire me. Do not send me any kind of unsolicited business offers or advertisements. If you want to put me on a PR list, ask first.

I take my job as a journalist very seriously. That means I will not publish “guest posts” or articles you’ve written. I will not put advertising in my articles (hidden or in plain sight) and my audience is not for sale.

NON-COMPLIANCE WITH THESE RULES WILL LEAD TO YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS (OR YOUR WHOLE DOMAIN) BEING PERMANENTLY BLACKLISTED WITHOUT WARNING.

You can send documents and letters to the following PO box:

Fabian A. Scherschel
FAB INDUSTRIES
Postfach 10 23 04
40014 Düsseldorf
GERMANY

My VAT identification number: DE322313341

Secure Contact Form for Whistleblowers

I maintain a secure end-to-end encrypted contact form that you can use to send me information and documents anonymously. If you want to know more about the system, what technology I am using and why I created it, please read this blog post. It also explains some basic security precautions you should probably keep in mind.

→ Secure Contact Form

Do not endanger yourself. I appreciate the courage of all whistleblowers but your safety should always come first. Use common sense, practice basic operational security and always try to provide for plausible deniability.

Privacy Notice

This site is static and largely runs without server-side scripts. The only way for visitors to interact with it is via the comments section, which embeds a script that sends and retrieves comments and reactions stored on GitHub Discussions.

This site stores a text file in your web browser (also known as a cookie) to remember that your have acknowledged the cookie consent banner that points you to this page when you first visit the site. Additionally, the comment script stores cookies for the domain https:\\giscus.app to remember your GitHub identity once you’ve used the commenting system.

I some blog posts, I sometimes embed third party scripts to make it more convenient for you to access content. Please use the provided links to inform yourself about these companies and how they use the data they collect about you: YouTube, Rumble, Twitch, X, Spotify & Datawrapper. If you do not want these embeds to affect you, please use the mechanisms built into your browser or a script blocker like the Privacy Badger from the EFF.

This site does not log visitors. My hosting provider Netlify stores some rudimentary data (like the IP used to visit its servers) for 30 days for analytical purposes, mostly to give my some idea how many people read my stuff and what country they are visiting from.