Privacy statement: Xplore app

Last updated: 30 October 2026

This statement explains how the Xplore mobile app for iPhone and Android handles your personal data. The privacy policy for this website is here.

1. Data controller

Daniel Feile
Planckstr. 6
51145 Köln (Cologne), Germany
Email: xploremobileapp@gmail.com

2. Data we collect

• Account data (optional): username, email and password. The password is stored only as a bcrypt hash.

• Sign in with Apple (optional): if you sign in with Apple, we store:

  • Apple’s stable user identifier.
  • Your name, only as Apple provides it on your first sign-in.
  • An Apple refresh token, used only to revoke the connection when you delete your account.

  Apple’s “Hide My Email” is supported.

• Sign in with Google (optional): if you sign in with Google, Google confirms your identity to us. We store:

  • Google’s stable user identifier.
  • Your email address.
  • Your name, as Google provides it.

  We don’t store any Google access or refresh token, and we get no access to your Google account beyond this sign-in.

• App usage data: collections, visits, wishlists, friend connections and purchase entitlements (via RevenueCat).

• Home base (optional): if you set a home base in Settings, we store the place’s name, its coordinates and its country. If you add earlier homes, we also store each one with the months you lived there. We use your home base only to calculate the distances shown in your Journey (“km travelled”).

• Location data: with your permission, we use:

  • a one-time reading of your current location when you choose to start a trip from where you are;
  • the GPS coordinates and capture time embedded in photos you select for photo matching.

  Coordinates are reverse-geocoded to a country or region to match photos to places. We do not track your location in the background or continuously.

• Photo metadata: when you opt into photo matching, we read the location and timestamp (EXIF) of the photos you select, plus a photo reference that only works on your device. The photos themselves stay on your device. We receive only this metadata, never your image files.

• Trip data: the trips you create, including stop names, addresses, coordinates and dates. If you share a trip with a link, anyone who has the link can see the trip details and your username.

• Push notifications (optional): if you allow notifications, we store a push token for your device and its platform (iOS or Android), so we can send you notifications such as new cards or features. We don’t use notifications for advertising from third parties.

• Usage statistics (first-party): for each day you open the app, we record the date together with your user ID, or with your random install identifier if you use the app as a guest. We use this only in aggregate, e.g. to count daily and monthly active users and to understand retention. It never leaves our own servers, and no analytics provider is involved.

• Technical data: a guest session identifier (UUID) so you can use the app without an account, and your IP address in server logs. The IP address is only held briefly and is not stored.

3. Data we do NOT collect

We collect:

• no advertising identifiers
• no cross-app or cross-site tracking
• no third-party analytics
• no cookies
• no biometrics
• no microphone access
• no contacts
• no device fingerprinting

We only access your camera or photo library for photos you explicitly select. We never upload your photo files, only their location and timestamp metadata. We only use photo library write access to save a video you export, such as your Year in Review, to your device.

4. Purpose and legal basis (GDPR Art. 6)

• Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)): account management, including sign-in with Apple or Google, the app’s core functionality, your home base and the distances calculated from it.

• Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)):

  • guest sessions, security and friend features;
  • first-party usage statistics, which we need to understand how the app is used and to improve it. We only evaluate them in aggregate.

• Your consent (Art. 6(1)(a)):

  • access to your location and photo library;
  • push notifications.

  Your operating system asks for this consent, and you can withdraw it at any time in your device settings. You can also turn notifications off in the app under Settings.

5. Third-party processors and services

• RevenueCat (US): purchase and subscription management.
• Railway.app (EU): application and database hosting.
• Resend (US): transactional email, e.g. password reset.
• Apple Maps / MapKit (US): place search and nearby suggestions. It receives your search text and, when you use “nearby”, your current location.
• Google Maps SDK for Android (Google, US/Ireland): on Android, maps are displayed with Google Maps. Google receives technical data needed to load the map, such as your IP address and the map area being displayed. More information: Google Privacy Policy.
• Expo push service (650 Industries, Inc., US): delivers push notifications. It receives your device’s push token and the notification content.
• Apple Push Notification service (US) and Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google, US): the operating-system services that deliver notifications to iPhones and Android devices. They receive the push token and the notification content.
• Apple / Google (US): app distribution, Sign in with Apple and Sign in with Google.

All transfers are protected by Standard Contractual Clauses. Where a provider is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, the transfer is also covered by that certification.

Card images are loaded through our own server, so the services that host the images (Firebase Storage, Unsplash) don’t receive any data about you.

6. Links to Booking.com

In trips, Xplore can show a “find a stay” link for each overnight stop. The link opens Booking.com with the place and your trip dates already filled in, and with Xplore’s affiliate ID, so we may earn a commission if you book.

• No data is sent to Booking.com until you tap the link.
• Once you tap it, Booking.com’s own privacy policy applies.
• We don’t receive any information about you or your booking from Booking.com.

7. International data transfers

Your data is mainly processed in the EU. Transfers to processors and services in the US (RevenueCat, Resend, Apple, Google, Expo) are governed by Standard Contractual Clauses and, where available, the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework.

8. Data retention

• Account, trip, home base, photo-match and social data: kept until you delete them or delete your account.
• Usage statistics: linked to your account until you delete it. Guest usage days are linked only to a random install identifier.
• Push token: removed when you turn notifications off, or when the push service reports that the device is no longer registered.
• Guest data: kept until the guest session is purged.
• Server logs: not stored.
• Purchase records: kept as required by German commercial law (about 10 years).

9. Your rights under the GDPR

You have the right to:

• access your data
• have it corrected
• have it erased
• restrict its processing
• data portability
• object to processing based on legitimate interests (Art. 21)
• withdraw your consent

We respond to requests within 30 days. Write to xploremobileapp@gmail.com.

In the app you can also:

• delete your account (Profile › Settings), which erases your data and revokes the Apple connection;
• remove individual matched photos;
• use “Forget all photo data” to erase all photo-match records and the thumbnails cached on your device;
• change or remove your home base;
• turn notifications off.

10. Supervisory authority

You can complain to the German Federal Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (BfDI), or to the data protection authority of your EU member state. For a controller based in Cologne, that is the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information North Rhine-Westphalia (LDI NRW).

11. Security

We protect your data with:

• bcrypt password hashing
• secure token storage on your device (Keychain / Keystore)
• HTTPS/TLS encryption in transit
• infrastructure in the EU
• strictly limited access

12. Automated decision-making and profiling

We do not profile you. Photos are matched to places by comparing the photo’s GPS coordinates with place locations, which is a simple distance calculation. Proposed matches are shown to you to confirm or reject, and have no legal or similarly significant effects. Usage statistics are only evaluated in aggregate and are not used to make decisions about you.

13. Children’s privacy

We collect as little data as possible, and accounts are optional. We recommend parental guidance for children (GDPR Art. 8).

14. Changes to this statement

Updates are posted in the app and on this page. We notify you of material changes in the app or by email.