Privacy Policy

1. Who is responsible

The data controller for the Koffee app and this website is Bradley Chapman, trading as Koffee, in Ireland. Privacy law requires us to name the person responsible for your data. Contact us about anything in this policy at hello@koffee-app.com.

2. What we collect

Koffee resizes photos on your phone before uploading them. This removes the location and camera details that phones embed in photo files.

3. What stays on your phone

Some features work without sending anything to us: unsent drafts and logs waiting for a connection, coffee reminders, home screen widget data, and the character and friends list Koffee shares with our other apps on your phone, described in section 12. Deleting the app removes them.

4. Who can see what

• Private logs are visible only to you.
• Posted logs are shown to other members according to your profile and post settings, in feeds, on your profile, on cafe pages and on friends' maps. New logs are posted by default. Change this under Settings › Privacy defaults › Post New Logs to Social, or choose for each log.
• Exact locations of cafes may appear on public posts unless you turn on Hide Exact Public Locations. Your private map keeps working either way.
• Tags. If a friend tags you in a post, your username appears on it to the post's audience.
• Countries on our website. koffee-app.com shows which countries coffee has been logged in on Koffee. We work this out automatically from the place on public, approved posts and show country names only, never who posted, exactly where, or how many. Private Journal logs are never used.
• Cafe owners. A cafe's owner or manager can use our owner portal once we've checked that they run the cafe. They see totals and averages worked out from public, approved posts logged at their cafe (ratings, drinks, tags, prices members entered, and the weekday and rough time of day), plus the captions of those posts. They never see usernames, profiles, photos, exact times or who posted, and breakdowns that could describe one person are held back until at least three members have logged there. Private Journal logs are never used.
• Your profile (username, display name, photo, and posted logs) is visible to other members according to your profile privacy setting.

5. Why we use it

We don't make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects.

6. Usage stats and crash reports

Usage statistics are available in newer versions of Koffee and are off until you say yes, either when asked or in Settings › Privacy defaults › Share Usage Stats. If you turn them on, Koffee sends counts of a fixed list of actions (such as completing onboarding, logging a coffee, sharing a post, following someone or sending an invite) to Google Analytics for Firebase. They never include your coffees, notes, photos, places, names or messages. Advertising features and the advertising identifier are switched off. Turning the setting off stops collection and resets the analytics identifier on your phone.

Crash reports are sent to Firebase Crashlytics when the app crashes or hits certain errors. They include technical details about your device, the app and the error, and are used only to fix problems.

7. Photos and moderation

Post and profile photos are checked for unsafe content with Google Cloud Vision SafeSearch before they're published. Photos it's unsure about may be held for a person to review. Comments and captions may be checked for explicit language. When you report something, we review the reported content and related account information. We keep moderation records as described in section 10.

8. Service providers

We use a small number of providers to run Koffee. They process data for us under contracts that require them to protect it:

• Google (Firebase and Google Cloud): sign-in, database, photo storage, server functions, push notifications, App Check, Remote Config, Crashlytics, Analytics (only if you opt in) and Cloud Vision.
• Apple: TestFlight and App Store distribution, Sign in with Apple, Apple Maps search and directions on iPhone, and push notification delivery to iPhones.
• Google Sign-In: if you choose to sign in with Google.
• Google Play: distribution of Koffee for Android, and Play Integrity checks that help keep the app secure (App Check). Android's built-in location services may also turn map coordinates into a town name.
• Our website host (Cloudflare): to serve this website and store owner portal accounts and cafe figures.

On Android, Koffee also uses public OpenStreetMap services that don't work under a contract with us: Photon by komoot for cafe and place search, the Overpass API when Photon can't answer, and OpenFreeMap for map tiles. They receive search text and map coordinates, never your name or account, and handle them under their own privacy policies.

We may also share information if the law requires it, to protect someone's safety, or with a buyer if Koffee is ever sold, in which case this policy would continue to apply to your data. We don't sell or rent personal data.

9. International transfers

Our providers may process data outside the European Economic Area, including in the United States. Where they do, we rely on safeguards the law recognises, such as the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses. Contact us for more information.

10. How long we keep data

• Your account and content: while your account is open. Delete individual logs and posts at any time.
• When you delete your account: we delete your profile, posts, comments, likes, saved cafes and photos from Koffee's active systems. Copies may take a short time to clear from our providers' systems.
• Notification tokens: removed when you sign out, delete your account, or the token stops working.
• Moderation and safety records: kept for up to 12 months after the matter is closed, or longer if needed for a legal claim or required by law.
• Crash reports: kept by Firebase Crashlytics for 90 days, after which Google starts removing them from its systems.
• Usage statistics: Google Analytics keeps the detailed records for at most 14 months, the longest its retention setting allows. Reports that only show totals, and don't identify you, can be kept longer.
• Emails to us: kept as long as needed to deal with your request, then deleted within 24 months unless we need them for a legal reason.

11. Your rights and choices

• In the app: edit your profile, change privacy defaults, keep logs private, hide exact locations, block accounts, and turn usage statistics on or off.
• Export: download a readable copy of your profile, private logs, posts and saved cafes from Settings › Account & Privacy.
• Delete: delete your account from Settings › Account & Privacy. You'll be asked to confirm your sign-in first. If you can't use the app, see our delete-account page.
• Permissions: turn location, photos and notifications on or off in your iPhone or Android settings at any time.
• Your legal rights: under data protection law you can ask to access, correct, delete, restrict or port your data, and object to processing based on legitimate interests. Email hello@koffee-app.com and we'll reply within one month. Withdrawing consent doesn't affect processing that happened before.
• Complaints: you can complain to Ireland's Data Protection Commission or the data protection authority where you live. We'd appreciate the chance to help first.

12. Kards and Koffee: The Game

Kards and Koffee: The Game are separate apps from us, each with its own privacy policy: Kards and Koffee: The Game. They work offline and don't send anything to us. This section covers what the Koffee app shares with them, and the character programme.

Your pixel character

Making a pixel character in Koffee is optional. If you make one, it's saved on your phone. While Show my character to friends is on, it's also saved to your account so the people who follow you can see it. That setting is on when you first make a character, and you can turn it off at any time when you edit your character. Turning it off removes it from your account. Your character is drawn from Koffee's own artwork, never from a photo.

Koffee also keeps a copy of your character, and the name you give it, in a storage area on your phone that only our apps can open, so Kards and the game can use it.

Bringing your Koffee friends into the games

This is off until you turn it on, in Settings › Account & Privacy or from the game. While it's on, Koffee saves a list in that same storage area on your phone and refreshes it when you open Koffee. The list holds your own Koffee username, usual drink and character, and, for up to 40 mutual friends (people you follow who follow you back) who show their character to friends:

• their Koffee username and character;
• their most-ordered drink from their public posts;
• how many coffees they've posted publicly in the last 30 days, and when they last posted one;
• which of Koffee's built-in profile characters they use, if any.

It never includes photos, places, captions, emails or private Journal logs. Koffee: The Game uses it to bring those friends into your cafe, and Kards to have them drop by the card table. Neither app uploads it. Turning the setting off, or signing out of Koffee, deletes the list. Legal basis: your consent, for your own list, and our legitimate interest in letting friends who chose to show their character to each other see it in our apps.

If a friend uses the games: you're only in their list while you follow each other and you show your character to friends. To leave their games, turn off Show my character to friends. You'll be gone the next time their Koffee refreshes the list.

Character programme

If you volunteer to become a named character in Koffee: The Game (see Terms, section 10), we use your email, the name you choose for your character, your usual drink, any appearance notes you share, and the storylines you ask us to avoid, to create and keep your character. We don't use your photos, location or Journal. Legal basis: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time. We remove your character within the time set out in the Terms, then delete your character details. We keep a record of your consent and withdrawal for up to six years afterwards, to show we had permission.

13. Your posts and our marketing

We only show members' posts, photos or names on this website, in app store listings or on social media with that member's permission, and we'll remove them if you change your mind.

14. This website

This website doesn't use analytics or advertising trackers. Our host processes standard technical data, such as IP addresses and request logs, to deliver the site and keep it secure. If you email us from the website, we receive what you send.

Owner portal for cafes. If you create an owner portal account, we keep your name, email address and password (stored only as a salted hash), and what you send when asking for access to a cafe: the cafe, your role, a phone number, a website and your message. We use them only to check that you run the cafe, to give you access, and to contact you about it. Signing in sets one essential cookie that keeps you signed in for up to 14 days; there are no other cookies. Your browser also keeps a small note that you're signed in, so the site can show a link back to your portal; it holds nothing secret and is cleared when you sign out. To keep out automated sign-ups, the sign-in page asks Cloudflare Turnstile to check that a person, not a bot, is using it; Cloudflare runs that check for us and sees your IP address and browser details to do it. If you ask to try Plus, we keep that request and when your plan ends. We keep a short record of sign-ins and approvals for security. To close your account and delete these details, email us from the address you signed up with.

15. Age limit

Koffee is for people aged 16 and over, and characters in Koffee: The Game are for people aged 18 and over. If you think someone younger has given us personal data, contact us and we'll delete it.

16. Security

Data is encrypted in transit, access to Koffee's systems is restricted, and server rules limit who can read and write each piece of data. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach puts your data at risk, we'll tell you and the regulator as the law requires.

17. Changes and contact

We'll update this policy when Koffee's features, providers or legal duties change. If a change is significant, we'll tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect. The date at the top of this page shows the latest version.

Questions or requests: hello@koffee-app.com.