Privacy policy and legal notice

Who is responsible?

M. Bena (private individual)
8405 Winterthur, Switzerland
Email: info@benaapps.ch
Website: www.benaapps.com

This policy is based on the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP). If you play in Liechtenstein, the EEA General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) also applies; the rights listed below (access, correction, deletion) are yours in any case.

This English version is a translation for your convenience. In case of doubt, the German version is authoritative.

The data we have

• Email address: for signing in. You receive a login link; there is no password.
• Profile: your display name and your colour. Both are visible to other signed-in players (leaderboard, activity, teams). Guests without an account do not see player names. In your profile you can switch off “Show my detective name in the app”: other players then see you everywhere as “Secret detective”, without name, picture and code; your points and rank still count.
• Leaderboard on benaapps.com: On the public leaderboard at www.benaapps.com you appear with your player name, points, number of finds and number of badges only if you want to: for that you switch on “Show me on the benaapps.com leaderboard” in your profile (off by default). Without your consent you appear at your place only as “Secret detective”, with points and number of finds, without name, picture or badges. Never included: location and e-mail address. The list is regenerated from time to time; if you switch it off or delete your account, your name is gone with the next update.
• Finds: your photo of the roundabout, the time, the points, the features of the roundabout (e.g. artwork, water) and the place where the photo was taken. Other players see the photo, but not your exact location.
• Location: when you log a find or make a report, the app reads your GPS location to check that you really were at the roundabout. If it is missing, the location can be taken from the photo (EXIF) if the photo is no more than 24 hours old. Otherwise we do not store your location.
• Photos: they are made smaller on your phone, and location data contained in the image is removed.
• Profile picture (optional): you can choose a picture of your own or one of the roundabout avatars provided as your profile picture. A picture of your own is cropped on your phone and reduced to 256 × 256 pixels; location data and other metadata are removed. Optionally, you can choose an image style (comic, pop art, neon); this filter runs only on your device, without AI and without any third-party service – only the finished picture is stored. All players see it next to your name (leaderboard, activity, gallery). You can change or remove it at any time; it is deleted together with your account. Anyone who reports a profile picture is recorded with the reported content (see below); the game admins can remove a profile picture. Without a picture, you see your initial.
• Reactions and ratings: your emoji reactions to finds and your star ratings (1 to 5) for roundabouts.
• Reports: when you report a new or incorrect roundabout: location, photo, note and distance from the reported spot. The game admins see all reports.
• Pioneer number: every account receives a consecutive number in order of sign-up. Those who are among the first players are pioneers; we record this so that we can check it later (e.g. if we ever introduce a fee). Only the game admins see this number, not other players; you cannot change it. It is never given to anyone else and is deleted together with the profile when the account is deleted.
• Player code: a short code of letters and numbers (e.g. “K7Q3MX”), calculated from your account’s internal identifier. It is shown in your profile so that you can identify yourself to us if you have a question, and says nothing about you or about the number of players.
• Reported content and blocks: when you report a photo, a profile picture or a player, we store the reason, the text and who made the report; the game admins see it. Players you have blocked are only visible to you.
• Feedback: when you send feedback in the app (e.g. “Bug in the app”, “Idea or wish”, “There’s no roundabout here at all”): the type chosen, your free text (1000 characters at most), for feedback about a roundabout that roundabout, the app version, a short note about your device (operating system and browser, e.g. “Android · Chrome”, without model or serial number), the time and, optionally, a photo or screenshot (made smaller, without the place where it was taken). The game admins see it together with your player name and mark the feedback as done. Please don’t write sensitive information in the text.
• Blocking and removal by the game admins: in the event of a violation (e.g. offensive photos, harassment, cheating), the game admins can block or remove your account. When blocking, we store the time and an optional reason; only the game admins and you can see it. You can then no longer sign in or submit anything; finds and photos are kept until you are unblocked. When removing, all your data is deleted as when you delete your account (profile, login, finds, photos, reactions, ratings, reports, feedback).
• Invitations: you can invite other players, with a personal invitation link (to share via WhatsApp, text message, etc.) or by email. We store who invited whom: your player profile, the invited email address, whether it was by link or by email, and the date. Your invitation link is a random code that expires after 14 days or 10 sign-ups. Only the game admins see the list. The invited person’s email address is deleted as soon as their account is deleted; your own entries disappear together with your account. Only invite someone by email with their consent.
• Activity: per calendar week, only the note “opened the app”, without time, device or location. The game admins only see totals of this (active players per week).
• Error reports and usage figures: to spot problems in the app quickly, the app automatically reports errors to our own database (Supabase, Zurich), without any third-party service: shortened error text, place in the program code, app version, a short note about the device (operating system and browser, e.g. “Android · Chrome”), the time and whether you were signed in or not. Never photos, location, email address or player name. Identical errors are added up, with at most 20 reports per day and device. We also count every day how many times the app is started. For this, the app generates a random key once on your device (it has nothing to do with your account, your email address or an advertising ID and is used only to limit the reports and to count devices). This also works without signing in. The game admins only see error lists and totals of this. These entries are deleted automatically after 90 days.
• Technical data: when you access the app, the servers see your IP address as well as information about your browser and device (log files).
• Visit counts: each day we anonymously count how many devices use the app (each device once per day): only the day, “app” and whether the visit came from ourselves (game management, test accounts, devices marked as internal), as a number. No IP address, no device identifier, no cookie, no profile and no link to your account. On your device the app only stores today’s date (localStorage) so that it does not count more than once a day; there is no identifier.
• Country of sign-up: when you sign up, we store once the country you sign up from (e.g. CH). We do not store your IP address. Only the game management sees the country, as a count per country.
• On your device: the app stores locally whether you have already seen the welcome page, as well as the language you have chosen. The language and time zone of your device are used only in the browser (e.g. to start the leaderboard with your country); they are not stored or sent.

No tracking, no advertising, no third-party analytics services (we record errors and usage figures ourselves, see above), no sharing for advertising purposes.

Why we need it

So that you can sign in, collect roundabouts, see points and leaderboards and make reports, and so that we can detect cheating (finds without a visit) and abuse. Nothing more.

Who processes the data

• Supabase (database, sign-in, photo storage): servers in Zurich, Switzerland.
• Brevo (sending login and invitation emails): provider in the EU. This is where your email address and the message are.
• Cloudflare (hosting the app, Cloudflare Pages): servers worldwide, operator in the USA. Your IP address is transmitted when you access the app.
• OpenStreetMap (map images from tile.openstreetmap.org): your device loads the map images directly from there and transmits its IP address and the map section shown.
• Wikimedia Commons (images of artworks in roundabouts, only where available): your device loads the image directly from commons.wikimedia.org and transmits its IP address.
• cdnjs (Cloudflare) and jsDelivr (program libraries) as well as Google Fonts (Nunito font): your device loads these files from these services at start-up, transmitting your IP address.

With Cloudflare, Google and others, data may reach the USA, where data protection is not equivalent everywhere. This is done on the basis of standard contractual clauses or the provider’s certification under the Swiss-US Data Privacy Framework.

How long we keep it

As long as you have an account. If you delete it, the profile, profile picture, finds, photos, reactions, ratings, reports, feedback and invitations are deleted. The service providers’ technical logs are deleted according to their retention periods.

Delete account: in the app, at the very bottom of your profile (“Delete account”). This happens immediately and permanently. It also works without the app: how to delete your account. Access, correction or deletion of data: info@benaapps.ch (reply within 30 days). Complaints: FDPIC or the data protection authority of your country.

Children

You can only play with an invitation. Under the age of 16, only with your parents’ consent.

Legal notice

Roundabout Detective (Kreisel-Detektiv)
M. Bena
8405 Winterthur, Switzerland
Email: info@benaapps.ch

Roundabout and map data: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL.

Facts about roundabouts (artwork, sculpture, fountain, monument in the roundabout): information from OpenStreetMap, © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL; the source is linked for each entry. The images come from Wikimedia Commons and, depending on the image, are under their own licence (for example CC BY-SA or public domain). The author and licence are shown with each image.

Changes

If the app changes, we will update this policy. The date at the top shows the current version.