Privacy policy

1. Controller

The controller is the operator of Gluti. Name, address and contact details are in the legal notice.

For privacy questions, reach us at hey@gluti.app or via “Send feedback” in the app.

This policy applies to the Gluti app (iOS and Android) and to the website gluti.app.

2. Without an account

You can use Gluti without signing in and browse all checked places. We don’t create a profile about you. To load the published places, the app sends requests to our database (see section 9). For technical reasons this transmits your IP address. Our service provider logs such requests briefly to keep the service secure. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in a secure and working service (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

On your device the app stores your settings (light or dark mode, language, preferred navigation app), that you confirmed the notice on first launch, whether you were asked about notifications and whether you turned them on, and (if you are signed in) your login session and a cache for profile pictures. This data stays on your device and is removed when you delete the app.

3. With an account

If you create an account, we store your email address and an encrypted password, your display name, your profile picture, your favourites, your ratings, the places you suggest including reasoning, sources and proof, your photos of places, your reports about places, as well as your points total, the individual point events and the level you last saw.

An email address is required for an account. We send it the sign-up confirmation and links to reset your password. Everything else is optional. The legal basis is the performance of the user agreement (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).

Ratings, suggested places and photos of places are visible to others: the rating as part of the summary (share of votes, chosen highlights and gluten-free dishes named), the place and a photo only after review by the Gluti team. Your email address and your name do not appear.

If you turn on notifications, we store an identifier of your device for push notifications (token), the platform (iOS or Android) and which notifications you want with your account. There are four kinds, which you can turn on and off separately: we let you know when a place you suggested has been reviewed, at most once a day when there are newly checked places within the radius of your place (section 5), when a new guide is published, and occasionally with news from Gluti, for example about new features of the app. News contains no advertising. It is preselected as soon as you turn on notifications, and you can turn it off at any time. For new places, the notification names your place and the number, but no individual place. No notification contains anything about your health. The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you give by turning them on and allowing them on your device. You can withdraw it at any time by turning notifications off in the settings of the app or your device. The identifier is deleted when you sign out and when you delete your account.

4. Gluten status

In your profile you can state how gluten affects you, for example coeliac disease or gluten sensitivity. This is information about your health and therefore a special category of personal data under Art. 9 GDPR.

Providing it is voluntary. The sole legal basis is your explicit consent (Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR), which you give by ticking the box on the selection page and saving. We store the time of your consent as a record. The app works fully without it.

We use it only to pre-select the level filters in “Discover” and on the map for you. It is shown to no one, included in no analysis and not passed on, not even within the Gluti team.

You can withdraw your consent at any time by choosing “Prefer not to say” in your profile or by deleting your account. Withdrawal takes effect for the future.

5. Location

If you allow it, the app determines your location to sort places near you and centre the map. Your location is used only on the device and is not transmitted to us or stored.

You can revoke the permission in the system settings at any time. Without it, the app shows an overview instead of your surroundings.

In your profile you can optionally set a place, such as your town, with a radius. We store its name, centre point and radius in our database and remember up to when you have seen the new places there. This serves only to show you newly checked places within that radius under “Discover” and, if you turn it on, to send you a notification about them at most once a day (section 3). Only you can see this place. The Gluti team doesn’t analyse it either. You can change or remove it in your profile at any time; it is deleted with your account. The legal basis is the performance of the user agreement (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).

6. Photos

For a profile picture, as proof for a suggested place or as a photo of a place, you can take a photo or choose one from your library. The app asks for access to the camera or photos for this and only uploads the picture you select. Before uploading, it scales the picture down and removes the metadata stored in it (EXIF), including where it was taken.

At first, only the Gluti team sees photos of places. It decides on each photo individually: it either becomes visible to everyone on the place, including without an account, and is then publicly accessible, or it remains proof that only the team sees, or it is deleted. Approved photos appear without your name. The legal basis is the performance of the user agreement (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).

7. Reports

Only the Gluti team sees reports about places (“Report a problem”). Your name does not appear, and your text is not published anywhere in the app. The legal basis is the performance of the user agreement (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).

You can report illegal content to us by email, even without an account (Art. 16 Digital Services Act). We process your name, your email address, the reported content and your reasoning. We confirm receipt and tell you our decision. The legal basis is compliance with our legal obligations (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR in conjunction with Art. 16 DSA).

8. Contact by email

If you email us, for example via “Send feedback”, we process your email address, your name if you provide it and the content of your message in order to reply. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in answering enquiries (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR), or for questions about your account the performance of the user agreement (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).

9. Services we use

Supabase (Supabase Inc., USA): database, sign-in and storage for profile pictures and photos of places. The servers are in Frankfurt am Main (EU). The data named in sections 3 to 7 is stored there. Supabase processes it on our behalf under a data processing agreement (Art. 28 GDPR). If Supabase accesses the data from the USA, for example for maintenance or support, the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses apply.

Hostinger: email, that is the mailbox hey@gluti.app and sending the emails for sign-up, confirmation and password. Hostinger processes your email address and the content of the emails on our behalf under a data processing agreement (Art. 28 GDPR). If Hostinger uses service providers outside the EU for this, the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses apply.

Google Maps and Google Places (Google Ireland Limited or Google LLC, USA): map display as well as name, address, opening hours, rating and photos of places. When you open the map or a place page, your IP address is transmitted to Google; searching also transmits your input and the map centre. Data may be transferred to the USA; Google LLC is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. The legal basis is the performance of the user agreement (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR), as Gluti does not work without the map and place data.

Firebase Cloud Messaging (Google Ireland Limited or Google LLC, USA): sending push notifications if you have turned them on (section 3). For this, Google receives your device’s identifier and the text of the notification and processes them on our behalf, under Firebase’s data processing terms (Art. 28 GDPR). On the iPhone, Google delivers the notification via Apple’s push service. Data may be transferred to the USA; Google LLC is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. We do not use any other Firebase services, such as analytics.

If you tap “Start route”, Gluti opens the navigation app you chose with the destination. When you share via “Share the app” or “Share place”, your operating system passes the text to the app you choose. What happens there is governed by their privacy policies; we don’t learn which app you choose.

You download Gluti from Apple’s App Store or Google Play. Apple or Google process data in their own responsibility.

If you live in Switzerland, the same applies to transfers to the USA: Google LLC and Cloudflare are also certified under the Swiss-US Data Privacy Framework, and the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) also recognises the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses.

10. Retention

Your account data is stored as long as your account exists. If you delete it in the settings, your profile, profile picture, favourites, points, gluten status, your town, your push notification identifiers, your open suggestions, your photos of places unless they are shown on a place, and your open reports are deleted.

Places you submitted remain if they were published or rejected. They are then no longer linked to you, and your reasoning and proof photos are removed. Photos shown on a place also remain there, without any link to you. Your ratings remain as part of the summary, without any link to you; they can no longer be changed or deleted afterwards. Reports that have already been reviewed are kept as a record of changes to the place, without any link to you and without your text.

Logs at our database provider are deleted automatically after a few days. We keep emails and reports under the DSA as long as we need them to handle them and to document our decision, and delete them afterwards unless statutory retention obligations apply.

11. Your rights

You have the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection (Art. 15 to 21 GDPR). You can withdraw any consent you have given at any time.

Right to object: where we process data on the basis of our legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR), you may object at any time on grounds relating to your particular situation (Art. 21 GDPR).

You can delete and withdraw directly in the app. For anything else, write to us at hey@gluti.app or via “Send feedback”.

You can also lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority. The authority responsible for us is the Hessian Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (HBDI) in Wiesbaden.

If you live in Switzerland, the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) also applies. It gives you comparable rights, and you can lodge a complaint with the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) in Bern.

There is no automated decision-making, including profiling (Art. 22 GDPR). Places and reports are reviewed by people on the Gluti team.

12. No ads, no tracking

Gluti includes no advertising networks, creates no advertising profiles and uses no analytics or tracking services.

13. This website

This website (gluti.app) is delivered via Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc., USA). When you visit it, Cloudflare processes technically necessary data such as your IP address, date and time, the page requested and details about your browser and device, in order to deliver the site and protect it against attacks. Cloudflare acts on our behalf under a data processing agreement (Art. 28 GDPR). The legal basis is our legitimate interest in a secure and functioning website (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Data may be transferred to the USA in the process; Cloudflare is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

The app loads the list of guide articles from this website. The same applies as when you visit the website.

The website does not use any analytics or tracking services and does not embed third-party content such as fonts, maps or videos.

If you open a shared place (gluti.app/ort/…), our server requests only the public details of that place from the database (Supabase). It does not pass on any data about you.

If the place has a cover photo from the community, your browser loads it directly from Supabase. Supabase then receives your IP address and details about your browser and device, as when images load in the app (section 9).