Privacy Policy

This English version is provided for convenience. The German version is the legally binding one.

1. Controller

Jan O. Portugall, Staffelsgasse 25, 53347 Alfter - Oedekoven, Email: info@etappe.app

2. This Website

This website is purely an informational page about the “Etappe” app. It uses no cookies, no analytics or advertising tracking, and embeds no third-party content (no external fonts, maps, or scripts), with one exception that only you trigger: the street map on the pages of the checked trips (see below).

Poll about an Android version: on the home page you can tell us by email whether you would use Etappe on Android. The website itself collects nothing in the process; the button merely opens your email program with a preset subject. If you send the email, we store it with your sender address until a decision about an Android version has been made, and we count it. We never publish names or addresses; if we state a result, it is only as a number. There is no reply, no newsletter, and no sharing. The legal basis is your consent, given by sending the email (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR); you can have the email erased at any time via the address given above.

Maps on the pages of the checked trips and on the Nordkap page: we draw the route map ourselves from the public-domain data of Natural Earth; it is hosted on our server and loads nothing from outside. Only when you tap “Load street map” does your browser load map tiles from OpenStreetMap (OpenStreetMap Foundation, St John’s Innovation Centre, Cowley Road, Cambridge, CB4 0WS, United Kingdom). In doing so, your IP address and the usual details of your browser are transmitted to their servers; the OpenStreetMap Foundation’s privacy policy applies (osmfoundation.org/wiki/Privacy_Policy). The legal basis is your consent given by the click (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). Without the click no connection is made, and the page does not remember your choice.

Some App Store links on this website carry a campaign identifier so that Apple can show us, in aggregate, which route led to the app being downloaded; etappe.app itself collects no data in the process.

3. Server Log Files

When you access the site, our hosting provider processes technically necessary access data (including IP address, date/time, file retrieved, browser/device type). The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (secure, trouble-free operation). The data is not merged with other sources and is erased after a short time.

Hosting provider (processor): IONOS SE, Elgendorfer Str. 57, 56410 Montabaur.

4. The “Etappe” App

The trip data recorded in the app (e.g., trips, places, photos, documents, journal) is stored locally on your device. We do not operate a server of our own for this and have no access to this data.

• Optional: syncing between your devices through your personal iCloud (Apple); your home country, home location, base currency, the exchange rate table, and the time zone settings are additionally stored in the iCloud key-value store of your Apple account — the same private iCloud as the database. Apple’s privacy policy applies.
• No user account, no registration, no disclosure to third parties.
• Location data and photo access are used only when you use a feature (e.g., current location, a photo in the journal, recording a journey), and do not leave your device — with one exception: the coordinates of a place you set, for the time zone lookup (see below).
• Map display: When you open a map, the app loads map data through Apple Maps (MapKit). The displayed map section is transmitted to Apple in the process; Apple’s privacy policy applies. Without an open map, no such request takes place.
• Place search: When you search for a place or an address while setting a location, the app sends your search term and the visible map section to Apple Maps to obtain suggestions and coordinates. The app does not store any search queries; Apple’s privacy policy applies.
• Place names for coordinates: When you import a GPX file for a journey, the app queries Apple Maps for the place names of the track’s start and end points to prefill the fields. Only these two coordinates are transmitted, not the entire track; Apple’s privacy policy applies.
• Time zone for coordinates (from app version 1.3): In trips whose countries have a different time than your home, the app asks Apple Maps for the time zone of a place when you set it — on the map, by location, or from a photo. Only the place’s coordinates are transmitted. You can switch this lookup off in the settings under “Look up time zone online”; offline or switched off, the time zone comes from a table in the app. Apple’s privacy policy applies.
• Navigation: When you open a route in your chosen route planner (Apple Maps, Google Maps, Waze, or TomTom Go), the app hands the destination or its coordinates over to that app. From then on, the respective provider’s privacy policy applies; Etappe itself transmits nothing to its own or third-party servers in the process.
• Country file: When you explicitly tap to do so, the app downloads the signed country file from etappe.app. This generates the server log files described under section 3; no data from the app is transmitted.
• Checked trips: under “New trip › Load from Etappe”, the app downloads the list of checked trips and the trip you choose, including its cover image, from etappe.app when you tap, never on its own, and not at all in offline mode. Here too, only the server log files described under section 3 are generated. If you submit a trip via “Share › Send to Etappe”, it reaches us as an email from your mail app; we use it only to check it and, with your consent, to publish it with the credit you provide. On request we delete it.
• Exchange rates: Etappe retrieves exchange rates from frankfurter.dev (European Central Bank reference rates) — only when you tap “Refresh Rates” or import countries, never at launch and never in the background. Only what every request technically requires (IP address) is transmitted; no data from the app, no account, no key, no identifier. Frankfurter is an open-source service (project lineofflight/frankfurter); according to its own statement, it stores neither personal data nor IP addresses nor requests. The public instance runs behind Cloudflare (caching and overload protection), where only aggregated access counts are generated. The information provided by frankfurter.dev applies.
• There is no transmission to travel providers, intermediaries, ad networks, or analytics services. The app contains no tracking or analytics components.

5. In-App Purchase

The app is free and fully usable for 14 days after the first launch. After that, the full version can be permanently unlocked through a one-time in-app purchase (no subscription).

• The purchase is processed exclusively through Apple’s App Store. We receive no payment data and no personal details about the buyer; Apple’s privacy policy applies.
• The device stores only whether the full version is unlocked, as well as the date of the first app launch (in the device’s keychain) for calculating the trial period. Neither leaves your device.

6. Your Rights

You have the rights of access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability, and objection (Art. 15–21 GDPR), as well as the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. To do so, contact the address given above.