Privacy Policy

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This is the privacy policy for the In.Vlotho app, which can be downloaded for the Android™ operating system. This privacy policy will be updated if new features added to the app, or behaviour of the app changes. This page should be reviewed by users of the app regularly, for example when updating the app.

What data is processed by and stored in the app?

The user can allow the app to access the current device location. In this case, the location will be processed on the user’s device to determine the following:

  • Is the current location within the city?
  • If so, in which district?
  • Are there any points of interest nearby?

This information will be displayed in the app, and is used to offer additional app functionality. The user’s location is not tracked over time.

The user can sign in to the app. In this case, information available via the existing user account is used as follows:

  • Given name and family name, to create and suggest a public pseudonym for the user. This pseudonym can be changed by the user. Changing the pseudonym will not be applied retroactively.
  • A unique string (“user ID”). This user ID will be used to identify the user when accessing the server.
  • The username of the existing account that is used to sign in. This username is used to allow access to the same data (including the user ID) after signing out of the app, then signing in again. If this username is a mail address, it will not be used to contact the user.

Certain user-initiated interactions within the app are being recorded quantitatively, to be able to show the user their personal score.

What data is stored on a server?

When first signing in to the app, the username and user ID (see above) are associated and stored on a server. This association is necessary to allow access to the same data after a new sign-in. While the user is signed in to the app, the interaction quantities are stored and regularly updated in association with the user ID. Signing in is optional.

On top of the user’s personal data, aggregated quantities (for example, “the number of POI visited by all app users last month”) are stored in an anonymous fashion that does not allow identifying any specific user.

For certain interactions, additional data is being stored. In each case, these interactions are voluntarily initiated by the user:

  • Visiting a random location that is suggested daily: User ID, time of visit, the user’s current pseudonym are being stored in association with the approximate (~100m) location. Reason for storing this is to be able to share this information with other users of the app.

What stored data is made available to other users?

On top of the anonymous, aggregated values, the following data can be shown to other users of the app:

  • Visit of a random location that is suggested daily. A visit is shown to other users only if the location is still being suggested (24 hours), and only some of the visits are shown at any time.

In all cases, the information being displayed consists of the pseudonym chosen by the user in combination with an “avatar”. The “avatar” is a graphical representation that is based on the unique user ID, but doesn’t allow access to other user information (including but not limited to the username of the account).

View or delete stored data

Regarding data that is only stored within the app: this data is being stored indefinitely. To delete this data, the user can use functionality provided by the Android™ operating system (Settings>Apps; exact steps depend on the OS version) an/or uninstall the app.

Regarding data that is stored on a server: public data is made available for at most 30 days, much less in most cases. Personal data are stored indefinitely to allow users to use the app from different devices over time.

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