Privacy policy

For the Vidarte iPhone app and the website vidarte.app · Last updated: [publication date]. The German version is legally binding.

In short: Vidarte has no accounts, ads, tracking or analytics tools. What you save and plan stays on your iPhone. Our server stores no data about you. It only counts anonymously how often links to a venue are tapped, and you can turn that off.

This policy covers all processing of personal data by us, in the app, on the website and when providing our services.

1. Controller

More details are in the legal notice. We have not appointed a data protection officer because we are not required to. For privacy questions, write to the address above.

2. The app

No account, everything local

You don't need to sign up for Vidarte. Your saved list, your day and trip plans, visited marks, chosen places and settings are stored on your device only. We receive none of it. If you delete the app, this data is gone.

Loading exhibition data and photos

On launch and occasionally in the background, the app loads the current data (exhibitions, venues, galleries, photos) from our server at vidarte.app. Your IP address is processed as technically necessary to deliver the data. No personal data from the app is sent. The server keeps no access logs. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in keeping the app up to date (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). See section 3 for details on the server.

Anonymous click count

So that we can show museums and galleries how many visitors find them through Vidarte, the app counts how often the exhibition link, website, route and share buttons are tapped for each venue. It only sends totals per day, venue and type, in a batch when the app goes into the background. Only these totals are stored, without IP address, device identifier, browser details or sequence. They cannot be traced back to you. The legal basis is our legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). You can turn counting off at any time in Settings.

Location

If you allow it, the app uses your approximate location to show venues near you and distances. This is calculated on your iPhone; your location is not sent to us and not stored. You can withdraw permission at any time in your iPhone settings (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR).

Notifications

Reminders about saved exhibitions and notices about new exhibitions at saved venues are local notifications scheduled by your iPhone itself. The app checks for new exhibitions on the device using the downloaded data. There are no push notifications from a server. You can turn both off in the app or in your iPhone settings.

Calendar

Adding a plan to your calendar opens your iPhone's calendar sheet with a prepared event. The app does not read your calendar and does not learn whether or where you save the event.

If you add all days of a trip at once, the app asks for the iPhone permission to add events only (“Add Events Only”). Vidarte then only creates events for your planned museum days (title, date, time, venue name and address). This permission does not let the app read your calendar, and none of it is sent to us. You can revoke it at any time in your iPhone settings (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR).

Sharing

When you share an exhibition or venue, the app creates a link to vidarte.app and passes it to your iPhone's share sheet. Anyone opening the link sees a page on our server that uses no cookies, scripts or third-party content. If Vidarte is installed, the app opens instead.

Maps and routes

The map in the app is provided by Apple (MapKit). Apple processes the data needed to display the map and look up addresses under Apple's privacy policy. When you tap Route or open a plan in a maps app, Vidarte passes the destinations to Apple Maps or Google Maps at your request; their privacy policies apply there.

Venue and gallery websites

Exhibition and venue links open the venue's website in a browser window inside the app (Safari). The operators of those websites are responsible for them and their privacy policies apply. We add a note to these links saying the visit came through Vidarte (utm_source=vidarte). It contains no information about you.

App Store, purchases and subscriptions

The app is distributed through Apple's App Store. If you buy a subscription or unlock in the app, you buy it from Apple. Apple handles payment, billing, renewal, cancellation and refunds and processes your Apple ID and payment details for this under its own privacy policy. We receive no names, addresses or payment details from Apple, only aggregated sales figures. The app checks on your device, via Apple, whether a subscription is active.

If you have agreed on your iPhone to “Share with App Developers”, Apple gives us anonymised crash and usage statistics that do not identify you. You can change this under Settings › Privacy & Security › Analytics & Improvements.

Test versions (TestFlight)

Before launch we distribute test versions through Apple's TestFlight service. If you install a test version, Apple gives us your name and email address if we invited you, as well as your device model, iOS version, crash reports and any feedback you send through TestFlight, including screenshots. We use this only to improve the app and delete it when the test ends (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Apple's terms also apply to TestFlight.

In test versions only, the app shows a page with possible prices for some features. Nothing is charged and the feature continues as normal. Through the anonymous click count we count how often this page appears, which offer is tapped and whether the price seems right, as totals that cannot be traced to you or your device. If you turn off anonymous click counting, this is not sent either.

3. Our server and this website

The website, share pages and app data are served by our own server at Hetzner Online GmbH, Industriestr. 25, 91710 Gunzenhausen, Germany, located in Germany. We rent storage and computing capacity there under a data processing agreement (Art. 28 GDPR). When you visit, your IP address is processed as technically necessary to deliver the page or data (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

• The server keeps no access logs. Error messages contain no IP addresses.
• To limit abuse of the click count, the server keeps a form of the IP address made unreadable with a random key that changes on every restart in memory for at most one minute. It is never stored.
• The website uses no cookies, analytics tools or third-party content. Fonts and photos are served from our own server.
• All connections are encrypted with TLS (HTTPS). Certificates come from Let's Encrypt; no visitor data is shared in the process.

4. Contact by email, phone or post

If you write to us, for example through the feedback button in the app, or call us, we process your details (such as name, email address, phone number and the content of your message) as needed to reply and deal with your request. We use them only for this and delete them once the matter is closed and no retention obligation applies (Art. 6(1)(b) and (f) GDPR).

Our mailbox is hosted by Proton AG, Route de la Galaise 32, 1228 Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland, which is covered by an EU adequacy decision. Letters are received for us by the mail service Postflex in Greven, Germany, and forwarded to us.

5. Museums, galleries and other business partners

When we work with venues, galleries, service providers or other partners, we process their contact persons' data (such as name, company, contact, contract and payment details and correspondence) to prepare, perform and settle contracts (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR), to meet legal obligations such as commercial and tax record keeping (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR) and in our legitimate interest in running the business properly (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). We only pass it on where needed for these purposes, for example to banks or tax advisers.

6. Legal bases

We process data under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), supplemented by the German Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG). Each section states which basis applies:

• Consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR): you have consented to processing for a specific purpose, for example by allowing location access.
• Contract and requests (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR): processing is needed to perform a contract with you or answer your request.
• Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR): the law requires us to process the data, for example to keep records.
• Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR): processing serves our legitimate interests and your interests do not override them.

7. Recipients and transfers outside the EU

We only pass on data where this policy describes it, for example to our server provider or email provider. We have the required agreements with providers who process data on our behalf.

Apple and Google also process data outside the EU, in particular in the USA, when you use their services (App Store, maps, routes). They are responsible for this themselves and base transfers to the USA on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, recognised as adequate by the European Commission on 10 July 2023, or on the Commission's standard contractual clauses. More information is available at dataprivacyframework.gov and from the European Commission. Switzerland (Proton) is covered by an adequacy decision.

8. Retention and deletion

We delete personal data once the purpose no longer applies, consent is withdrawn or no other legal basis remains, unless the law requires us to keep it longer. Where several periods apply, the longest one counts. Data we only keep because we have to is not used for anything else. Under German law the main periods are:

• 10 years: books and records, annual accounts and inventories (§ 147(1) no. 1 AO, § 257(1) no. 1 HGB).
• 8 years: accounting vouchers such as invoices and receipts (§ 147(1) no. 4 AO, § 14b(1) UStG, § 257(1) no. 4 HGB).
• 6 years: other business records such as business letters sent and received (§ 147(1) nos. 2, 3, 5 AO, § 257(1) nos. 2, 3 HGB).
• 3 years: data needed for possible warranty or similar claims, for the regular limitation period (§§ 195, 199 BGB).

Periods of one year or more start at the end of the calendar year in which they were triggered. For ongoing contracts, that is the end of the contract.

9. Security

We take appropriate technical and organisational measures in line with the state of the art to protect your data against loss, misuse and unauthorised access. These include encrypted connections, a secured server with restricted access and, above all, collecting as little data as possible (data protection by design and by default).

10. Your rights

Under the GDPR, in particular Art. 15 to 21, you have these rights:

• Right to object: you can object at any time, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to processing based on Art. 6(1)(e) or (f) GDPR. You can always object to processing for direct marketing. We do not do direct marketing.
• Withdrawing consent: you can withdraw consent at any time with effect for the future.
• Access: you can ask whether and what data we process about you and request a copy.
• Rectification: you can ask us to correct inaccurate data or complete incomplete data.
• Erasure and restriction: you can ask us to delete data or restrict its processing.
• Data portability: you can receive data you gave us in a common, machine-readable format or have it sent to another controller.
• Complaint: you can lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, in particular in the member state where you live or work or where the alleged infringement took place. The authority responsible for us is the Data Protection Commissioner of Lower Saxony (Landesbeauftragte für den Datenschutz Niedersachsen), Prinzenstraße 5, 30159 Hannover, Germany.

Just write to hallo@vidarte.app. As we store almost nothing about app users, we can usually only tell them that we hold no data about them.

11. Changes

When the app, the website or our processing changes, we update this policy. The version published here applies. If a change requires action from you, such as consent, we will let you know. Addresses of other companies in this policy may change; please check them before getting in touch.

Parts of this policy are based on the German template of the free Datenschutz-Generator.de by Dr. Thomas Schwenke.