Privacy Policy

Last updated: November 2026 This English version is a translation for your convenience. The German version is legally binding. 1. Controller Dennis Schöpp Georg-Friedrich-Str. 3 76131 Karlsruhe Germany Email: infoat.dennis.schoepp@gmail.com Please send questions about data protection and all requests about your data to this email address. 2. Principles Nightflare has no ads and does not sell data. We use no third-party tracking, analytics or advertising services, no cookies and no advertising ID. To improve the app, we only count anonymously how often features are used (see "Anonymous usage statistics"), and you can turn that off. You only need to provide the essentials: everything except signing in (Google account, Apple ID or email address) is optional. 3. What data we process, why and on what legal basis • Sign-in: with your Google account (name and profile picture from the account, email), on iPhone with your Apple ID (name if you share it, and email, optionally an anonymous relay address from Apple) or with just your email address (you enter your name yourself). Firebase Authentication sends you an email with a confirmation link that you must open within three days, and stores the address with a random password that exists only as a hash. If you later sign in on another device, you have an email set a password of your own. The email is not visible to others. Purpose: sign-in via Firebase Authentication, Google Sign-In and Sign in with Apple. Legal basis: contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). You can change your name and profile picture in the app; a picture you choose is stored in your profile, heavily downscaled. • Profile: display name, profile picture, invite code, number of your friends, check-ins, places, cities and reviews, and your badges. Other users see this in the app. Your individual check-ins and your friends list are only visible to your friends, and only as long as your profile is shared with them (on by default, can be turned off anytime under Account). Group members who are not your friends only see your name in the app unless you allow group members to see your profile under Account. Legal basis: contract. • Language setting: your app language is stored on your device and in your profile so that notifications from friends reach you in your language. Legal basis: contract. • Phone number (optional): only for matching contacts, stored privately and additionally as a hash so friends can find you through their contacts. Legal basis: consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). • Contacts (optional, after a notice and your permission): the numbers are converted into hash values on your device; only these are looked up to find friends. Names and contacts are neither uploaded nor stored. A hash of a phone number is not anonymization, which is why we use it only for this matching. Legal basis: consent. You can withdraw it anytime in your system settings. • Location (only while using the app, with your permission): for flares, on the map and when checking in. It is sent with a flare to the recipients you choose (not in Ghost Mode) and stored in your private check-in history. To search for venues and determine a venue's city, coordinates are sent to Overpass servers and Photon (see section 5). So that the map loads faster, the app already loads the venues around you when you open it (only with your permission and only while the app is open). In Europe, the US and Canada they come from our own copy of the OpenStreetMap data on Firebase Hosting (Google); only the map section of about 25 x 20 km you are in is requested, not your exact location. Elsewhere the app asks Overpass servers, for which your location is rounded to about 2 km. The venues found stay stored on your device. Legal basis: consent and contract. There is no background location access. • Flares: place, message, optionally two photos (heavily downscaled), time, how long you are visible on the map, and the reactions to it. Visible to the friends you choose and to all members of chosen groups, even if they are not your friends. Anyone who taps "I'm in" is visible by name to the creator. Flares are visible for 6 hours (up to 8 hours if you want to stay visible on the map that long). 24 hours after a flare starts, the app of its creator or of a recipient deletes it from the database, including photos, as soon as one of these apps is opened next; there is no server that deletes at a fixed time. Your flares are deleted at the latest when you delete your account. Legal basis: contract. • Events: title, description, music tags, place and time, visible to selected groups or publicly to all users on the map. For public events, the exact location becomes visible shortly before the start if the creator chooses so. Public events can be reported, details in the Terms of Use. Legal basis: contract. • Venue reviews: visible to all users with your name. Legal basis: contract. • Invitations: whose friend code you redeemed first. From this, the inviter counts how many people they brought to Nightflare (Wingman badge); this number is visible in their profile, your name is not. Legal basis: contract. • Groups: name, member list, invite code. Members do not have to be friends with each other. Legal basis: contract. • Private places (private map): name and location, visible only to you or also to your friends, never public. Up to 30 of them are cached on your device for faster display. Legal basis: contract. • Friend requests and blocked users: who sent you a request, whom you blocked. Legal basis: contract. • Push notifications: a push token of your device so friends can send you notifications. Reminders are scheduled locally on your device. Legal basis: contract. • Early Supporter purchase: we only store that you supported and at which tier (visible as a heart badge). Payment is handled entirely by Google Play or, on iPhone, Apple's App Store; we receive no payment data. Legal basis: contract. • Reports and bans: reports you submit or that concern you, and for bans from public events their number and time. If you report a venue as closed or open again, your user ID is kept in that venue's list of votes for up to 30 days; your own report is only remembered on your device. Purpose: abuse prevention, moderation and an up-to-date map. Legal basis: legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR) and legal obligations (Art. 6(1)(c)). • Anonymous usage statistics: the app counts how often features are used (for example app opened, flare lit, with photo, shared, event created, review posted), at which hour and on which weekday flares are lit, and in which language the app is used. Only daily totals without any reference to you are stored: no account ID, no name, no device ID, no location and no content, and nothing is stored on your device for this. During transmission, Google as our processor briefly handles your IP address and sign-in for technical reasons; we do not store them. Purpose: improving the app and seeing which features are used. Legal basis: legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). You can object at any time by turning off "Anonymous usage statistics" under Profile > Account. • Crash reports (only with your consent): if the app crashes, it asks on the next start whether a report may be sent. It contains the error text with the technical trace (stack), app and Android version, device model, day and language, but no account ID, name or content. Without your consent nothing is sent and the report is deleted from your device. Purpose: fixing bugs. Legal basis: consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you can refuse at any time by tapping "Don't send". Kept for at most 24 months. • Development feedback (optional): what you write in the feedback form, your star rating, app version, language and the day, without name, account or device. Please do not include personal data. Purpose: finding bugs and improving the app. Legal basis: legitimate interest. • Technical data: when using Firebase and the map services, technical data such as your IP address is processed briefly. Legal basis: legitimate interest in secure operation. • Stored on your device: cache of private places, time of your last flare and of notifications, your language setting, whether you have seen the welcome message and whether anonymous statistics are turned off, as well as the times at which you open the app and which reminders you responded to (only for planning reminders; this data does not leave your device). This remains until you clear the app data or uninstall the app. Legal basis: Section 25(2) No. 2 TDDDG (German Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act), as it is necessary for the features you use. 4. How long we store data Flares (see above) and events expire. Your profile, check-ins, reviews, group memberships and everything else remain until you delete your account. We delete reports once they have been handled, at the latest after 12 months, and development feedback at the latest after 24 months. The anonymous usage statistics contain no personal data and are kept. When you delete your account, we remove all your data except records we are legally required to keep (currently none). 5. Recipients and service providers • Google Ireland Limited: Firebase Authentication and Cloud Firestore (database in Frankfurt, also for statistics and feedback), Google Sign-In, Google Play billing. • Expo (650 Industries, Inc., USA): sending push notifications (push token, message content). • Apple Distribution International Ltd. (Ireland), only when using an iPhone: Sign in with Apple, delivery of push notifications (Apple Push Notification service) and purchases via the App Store. • Komoot GmbH (Photon) and the operators of the Overpass servers (overpass-api.de, overpass.private.coffee, overpass.kumi.systems): searching for clubs and bars and by name. The coordinates of your map section or your search term and your IP address are transmitted. • OpenFreeMap: map tiles (map section and IP address). • unpkg.com and cdn.jsdelivr.net: delivery of the map library (IP address). Where required, data processing agreements are in place with these providers. Where data is transferred to the USA, this is based on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or the European Commission's standard contractual clauses. There are no other recipients. We do not sell data. 6. Your rights You have the right to access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and to object to processing based on legitimate interests (for example to the anonymous usage statistics, switch under Account). You can withdraw consent at any time with effect for the future. Just send us an email. You can also lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, for example the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of Baden-Württemberg. 7. Deleting your account and data In the app: Profile > Account > "Delete account". This deletes your profile, number, flares, check-ins, reviews, your own events and places, and removes you from friends lists and groups. Reactions to other people's flares and events disappear when those expire. To delete only your check-ins and reviews, use Profile > Account > "Reset progress"; your account then remains. Without the app: send us an email with the subject "Delete account" from the email address you sign in with; we delete within 30 days. Instructions are also available at nightflare.web.app/delete-account. 8. Automated decisions Public events are automatically hidden after 10 reports from different users, and posting public events is blocked temporarily or permanently. You can contest this by email, and we will then review it manually. Beyond that, there are no automated decisions and no profiling. 9. Age Nightflare is only for people aged 18 and over. We do not knowingly process data of minors. 10. Changes We update this policy when the app or the law changes. The current version is always available in the app and at nightflare.web.app. The German version is legally binding; the English version is a translation.