Privacy Notice

This section explains what data we process, where it comes from, why we use it and on what legal basis. We only process what we need to run LocalSpots.

Purposes of processing, personal data collected, source and legal basis:

Location on your phone. The App requests location access while you use it, on the map’s first open or when you tap Locate me. Your position stays on your phone to move the map, show the blue dot, choose a city and prefill a start pin inside that city. If you use that pin, it is sent as an ordinary start point, without identifying it as your device’s position. There is no background location tracking.

What we don’t collect. We don’t ask for your name. Email signup requires a password, which we store only as a scrypt hash. We never store its plain text. There is no free-text trip brief: you tap the map and pick from fixed choices. A start pin may be your hotel or home, so choose it with that in mind. Your language, theme and city choices stay on your phone. localspots.io sets no cookies unless you accept analytics, and keeps your cookie choice in your browser’s local storage. The App has no analytics. The only report it sends us on its own is a crash or error report, described above. Google’s map and sign-in software may collect usage and diagnostic data under Google’s own policies.

Legal bases. We rely on the following:

1. Performance of a contract. What we need to provide the App you asked for, including steps you ask us to take before you sign up. Without this data we can’t provide the service.
2. Legitimate interest. Our interest in keeping the service secure and working, balanced against your privacy. You can object to this processing (Section 6).
3. Consent. For marketing emails and website analytics. You can withdraw consent at any time, without affecting processing that took place before.

Data retention. We keep your data for these periods:

1. Account data (email, password hash where applicable, favourites, saved addresses, places on your own map, interest tags, itineraries, extra uses, marketing choice): until you delete your account. Verification and reset codes expire after 15 minutes. Failed sign-in and per-IP counters use one-hour windows. To prevent repeated account creation from resetting allowances, we retain a keyed account pseudonym and abuse counters for up to 25 hours after account deletion. They contain no email, provider subject, itineraries or purchased balance.
2. Shared trips: until the organiser deletes the trip. Deleting your account removes your membership and email, while the trip remains for its other members.
3. Google-derived directions between stops: seven days.
4. Purchases: Apple’s transaction ID, the pack and its dates stay after you delete your account, no longer linked to you, so the same purchase can’t be credited twice.
5. Analytics data: for the retention period set in our Google Analytics account.
6. Crash and error reports: 30 days.
7. Suggested places: until the curator adds or dismisses them. Deleting your account removes the link between a suggestion and you.

Exceptions. We keep data longer only where the law requires it, to evidence our compliance with the law, or while an issue, claim or dispute about it is unresolved.

Deleting your account. You may delete your account in Profile → Account. Delete account removes your email, favourites, personal itineraries, unused extra uses and other account data, and signs out every phone signed into the account. Trips with other members remain for them, with another member becoming the organiser. We also attempt to revoke Apple’s refresh token. The short-lived abuse counters described above and unlinked purchase/refund records remain for their stated purposes. Deleting the App doesn’t delete your account.

Location of servers. Our servers, database and logs are hosted on Google Cloud in the Netherlands. Crash and error reports are stored by Sentry in Germany. Some of our service providers (Section 4) may process data in other countries, including the United States.

Cross-border data transfer. Where your data leaves the EEA or the UK for a country without an adequate level of protection, the transfer relies on (i) the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and its UK Extension, (ii) the EU Standard Contractual Clauses, with the UK Addendum where relevant, or (iii) European Commission adequacy decisions or UK adequacy regulations.

Age restriction. LocalSpots is for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly collect personal data from anyone under 18.

Notify us. If you believe someone under 18 has signed up, write to privacy@localspots.io and we will delete their account and data.

You have the right to:

1. Access. Ask what data we hold about you, why, for how long and who receives it.
2. Rectification. Ask us to correct or complete inaccurate data.
3. Erasure. Ask us to delete your data. You can also delete your account yourself (Section 2.3).
4. Restriction. Ask us to limit how we use your data, for example while you contest its accuracy.
5. Objection. Object to processing based on our legitimate interest. We will stop unless we have compelling grounds or need the data for legal claims.
6. Withdraw consent. At any time, for marketing emails or analytics, without affecting earlier processing.
7. Complaint. Complain to the Dutch Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens, the data protection authority where you live or work in the EU, or, in the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office.
8. Portability. Receive the data you gave us in a structured, machine-readable format, or have it sent to another provider, where we process it based on contract or consent.

How to use your rights. Write to privacy@localspots.io. We respond within one month. For complex or numerous requests we may extend this by two months, and we will tell you why within the first month.

Reasons for updates. We update this Notice and its effective date when our data practices or the law change.

Communication on updates. If a change is significant, we will tell you by email or in the App before it takes effect.