Privacy policy
Note on this translation. This is a translation provided for your convenience. Only the German version is legally binding. Where the two differ, the German wording prevails. References to German statutes (TDDG, UWG) are given with their German abbreviations, since only those have legal force.
1. Controller
Robert Oestmann
Barmbeker Straße 27a
22303 Hamburg
Germany
Email: datenschutz@delikaasy.app
We have not appointed a data protection officer, as the statutory requirements for doing so are not met. For any question concerning data protection, please contact us at the address above.
2. Principles
We process personal data only where this is necessary to provide the application or where you have consented. We do not sell personal data and do not disclose it to third parties for advertising purposes.
This notice covers the app and the website together, because both are operated by the same controller. Sections 3.1 to 3.16 concern the app; section 3.17 describes what additionally happens when you visit the website. A user account exists only in the app — the website has no sign-in.
Your data is processed on servers within the European Union. One exception is the generation of the textual profile summary (section 3.7) — but only taste values without a name and without an identifier go there. Details on this and on the recipients can be found in section 4.
3. What data we process
3.1 Account data and registration
Registration takes three steps: you enter your email address, we send a six-digit confirmation code to that address, and after you enter the code you set a password. The code proves that the address is yours — without this step an account could be created on somebody else’s address.
| Data | Required/optional |
|---|---|
| Email address | required |
| Password (stored only as a cryptographic hash) | required for registration by email |
| Username | required |
| First name, last name | optional |
| Profile picture | optional |
| Country | optional |
| Language | optional |
Purpose: provision and administration of your user account, authentication, attribution of your ratings and lists.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of the user contract). For the confirmation code additionally Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR — our legitimate interest lies in preventing accounts on other people’s addresses.
On the dispatch of the confirmation code and other account messages, see section 3.13.
3.2 Minimum age
The application is intended exclusively for adults. By registering you confirm that you have reached the age of 18.
We do not collect a date of birth or any age data for this purpose. The confirmation is a contractual declaration, not a stored item of data. This achieves the same purpose without additional processing (Art. 5(1)(c) GDPR).
3.3 Signing in with Google
Alternatively, you can sign in with your Google account. Google then transmits your email address, your name and, where available, your profile picture to us. We do not receive a password.
The provider is Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland. Signing in may involve a transfer of data to Google LLC in the USA; Google is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR. Using this sign-in option is voluntary — registration by email is equally available.
We do not currently offer any further sign-in services, in particular “Sign in with Apple”. Should we introduce them, we will amend this section beforehand.
3.4 Content you create
Ratings: overall rating, ratings of individual taste dimensions (intensity, sweetness, saltiness, acidity, umami, bitterness, creaminess, juiciness, degree of ripeness), selected aroma notes, storage details and an optional free-text comment.
Other content: watchlist (wishlist), saved articles, “helpful” marks on other users’ ratings.
Product submissions: if you submit a cheese, we process the name you provide and up to three photos you upload.
Error reports: if you report a correction using the “Data incorrect?” function, we process your message, the corrected value and an optional image attachment.
Purpose: provision of the core functions, display of your contributions, improvement of the product database.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.
Visibility: ratings including the free-text comment are visible to other users together with your username and profile picture. First and last name are not shown publicly. Watchlist, saved articles, product submissions and error reports are private.
3.5 Camera, photos and barcode scanner
Camera: for the barcode scanner the application requests access to the camera. The camera image is evaluated exclusively on your device and is neither stored nor transmitted to us. Only the recognised digit sequence of the barcode is transmitted, in order to look up the corresponding cheese.
Photos: for your profile picture, for product submissions and for image attachments to error reports you select images through the iOS picker. We receive only the images you select, not access to the rest of your photo library. Selected images may contain the place and time of capture if your device writes them into the image file.
Legal basis: your consent given through the iOS permission prompt (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR) and Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR for processing the images you provide. You can withdraw the permissions at any time in the iOS settings; the remaining functions stay usable.
3.6 Usage behaviour within the application
We record which products you view (including frequency and time), which articles you read and how far you scroll through them.
Purpose: personalisation of your recommendations and of the home screen, awarding of points in the collection and progress system, avoidance of repetition in the feed.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR, in so far as it concerns the recommendation function you requested.
You can deactivate personalised recommendations in the settings. The application will then show you general content that is not tailored to you.
This processing is to be distinguished from the analytics described in section 3.11: it takes place on our own servers and serves the service you signed up for.
3.7 Taste profile and automated evaluation
From your ratings, your watchlist and your usage behaviour we calculate a personal taste profile. It comprises statistical preference values for milk type, cheese type, texture, region of origin, degree of ripeness and pairing suggestions, as well as an automatically generated textual summary of your profile.
Purpose: delivery of suitable product recommendations — the core function of the application.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.
This evaluation constitutes profiling within the meaning of Art. 4(4) GDPR. It does not lead to decisions producing legal effects or similarly significant effects within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR — it concerns solely the order and selection of the product suggestions displayed.
Textual summary. Once you have rated at least five cheeses, we generate a short description of your taste. For this we use the AI model Google Gemini. Only the following is transmitted:
- the number of cheeses you have rated
- the preference values calculated from your ratings for milk type, cheese type, origin, texture, taste dimensions and average ripening time
- the derived proportions described in section 3.8
No detail that points to you leaves our servers — neither your first name nor your last name, neither your username nor your email address, neither your account identifier nor your rating texts. The model receives figures without a person and does not know your name.
That the summary nevertheless addresses you by name has a simple reason: the model writes a placeholder where the salutation goes, and we insert your name afterwards, on our own server — by that point it is long out of the picture.
The provider is Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland, acting for Google LLC, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA. Processing takes place on servers outside the European Union. In so far as the transmitted values are to be regarded as personal data despite the absence of an identifier, the transfer is based on standard contractual clauses pursuant to Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR; Google is additionally certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. The transmitted details are not stored permanently by the provider.
The finished summary is visible to you alone. For more on the use of AI in the application, see section 3.15.
3.8 Derived dietary characteristics
From your rating behaviour we derive two proportions: how high the share of low-lactose or lactose-free cheeses is among your ratings, and how high the share of cheeses made from raw milk is. Both values are only formed where they are clearly pronounced, and feed exclusively into the summary described in section 3.7.
These are statistical preferences that we calculate from your own ratings — not statements you have made to us about your health. Nevertheless, such proportions may in individual cases permit inferences. We therefore treat them with the same care as special categories of personal data within the meaning of Art. 9(1) GDPR:
- They are not shown to other users and are not published.
- They are not used for advertising, for pricing or for decisions about your account.
- They are not passed on to any recipient other than the provider of the summary named in section 3.7 — and there without any detail that points to you.
- They are deleted together with your account.
Purpose: exclusively the textual summary of your taste profile.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR — the summary forms part of the service you signed up for.
If you do not want these proportions to be formed, please contact datenschutz@delikaasy.app. We will then remove them from your profile and generate your summary without them.
3.9 Points, ranks and awards
We award points and distinctions for activities within the application. In doing so we process your points total, your rank, your sign-in streak, the date of your last sign-in and your device’s time zone. We need the time zone so that a “day” for the sign-in streak ends where you are.
If you collect a point while offline, the event remains stored on your device until the next connection and is then submitted.
Purpose: operation of the collection and progress system.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.
Your placement: once enough accounts exist, we show you your own placement by points (“#12 worldwide”). For this your points total is compared with that of all accounts. There is no public leaderboard showing other users’ names — you see only your own figure, and nobody sees yours.
3.10 Map of cheese shops and location data
On the map of specialist cheese shops we can show you shops near you. For this the application requests your location as soon as you use the map function.
Your position is processed exclusively on your device in order to calculate distances and sort the shops. It is not transmitted to us and not stored. We request the location only approximately (accuracy at kilometre level).
Legal basis: your consent given through the iOS permission prompt (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). You can withdraw the permission at any time in the iOS settings. The map function remains usable, without distance information.
Map material: the map is displayed via Apple’s MapKit. Your device retrieves the map tiles directly from Apple; Apple thereby receives technically necessary connection data. Apple’s privacy policy applies in this respect. We receive no information from Apple about which sections you have viewed.
3.11 Analytics, session recording and error diagnosis (PostHog)
Only with your consent. Before you consent, the measurement tool is not even started: it places no identifier on your device, establishes no connection and holds back no events that would be submitted later.
If you consent, we record with PostHog:
- which areas of the application you open, how long you stay there and at which point you leave the application;
- which buttons you press, which searches return no result and whether a scanned barcode was found;
- which technical errors and crashes occur, as well as measurements of the application’s speed (among others via Apple’s MetricKit);
- technical details about your device: model, operating system version, application version, device language and region, the text size you have set, light or dark mode, and whether accessibility features such as VoiceOver or “Reduce Motion” are active. We need these details in order to attribute errors to a particular device configuration;
- session recordings: a sequence of images of what was visible on screen. All input fields are permanently masked — what you type is not legible in the recording. Displayed content such as cheese images and product details remains visible so that an error report stays comprehensible.
If you are signed in, this data is attributed to your account identifier. Your IP address is truncated by the provider before storage and is not stored permanently.
The provider is PostHog, Inc., 2261 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94114, USA. We use the European instance exclusively (eu.i.posthog.com); the data is stored in the European Union.
Purpose: detecting and fixing errors, understanding usage, improving the application.
Legal basis: your consent pursuant to Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR in conjunction with § 25(1) TDDG. Consent is voluntary; without it the application is fully usable and you suffer no disadvantage.
Withdrawal: you can withdraw your consent at any time in the settings under “Anonymous usage statistics”. Upon withdrawal, measurement stops immediately, the tool is shut down, and the identifier stored on your device together with any unsent events is deleted.
3.12 In-app messages and push notifications
We show you notices within the application, for instance when a cheese you submitted has been approved. For this we store the type, content and read status of the message.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.
Push notifications. When you switch notifications on, your device generates an identifier (device token) that allows Apple to deliver a message to your installation specifically. We store this identifier together with your user ID, the language you have selected and your device's time zone. We need the time zone so as not to disturb you at night.
Purpose: to inform you of events that concern you — the status of a cheese you submitted, an award you have earned, a rank you have reached. In addition, the “Cheese of the Week”: an editorial recommendation that does not relate to your account but is the same for all recipients. It can be deselected individually in the settings without losing the other notifications. We do not send paid recommendations via notifications; sponsored content appears in the feed only and is labelled as such there.
Legal basis: your consent, Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. You give it twice: once to iOS and once via the switch in the application's settings.
Withdrawal: at any time via the same switch or in the iOS settings. We then send nothing further. We delete the device token as soon as Apple reports it as invalid, and at the latest when your account is deleted.
Recipient: Apple Inc., One Apple Park Way, Cupertino, CA 95014, USA. Delivery necessarily runs through the Apple Push Notification service; the title and text of the message are visible to Apple in the process. Apple Inc. is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.
Log: we record which notification was sent to you and when, and which ones we withheld — for instance because you had deselected the category or the weekly maximum had been reached. This serves as evidence that we observe your settings. We also record whether and when you tapped a notification. This tells us which kind of message holds value for you and which merely disturbs; categories that hardly anyone opens are switched off. For the retention period see section 5.
What we do not do: we do not send advertising by this route, and we do not pass the identifier to anyone other than Apple for the purpose of delivery.
3.13 Email dispatch
Messages to your email address — the confirmation code on registration, the code for resetting your password and the advance notice before deletion of an inactive account (section 5) — are sent via the mailbox of our own domain at STRATO AG, Otto-Ostrowski-Straße 7, 10249 Berlin. The servers are located in Germany.
No open or click tracking takes place; the messages contain no tracking pixels.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.
3.14 Newsletter
If you subscribe to the newsletter, we use your email address to send it. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR. You can unsubscribe at any time via the unsubscribe link or in the settings. As long as no newsletter is published, the switch in the settings merely records your consent; nothing is sent.
3.15 Use of artificial intelligence
We use AI systems in three places:
- Preparation of the product database. Details on cheese varieties are automatically compiled and supplemented from publicly available sources. Every record is reviewed and approved by us before publication. No personal data is processed in this context.
- Summary of your taste profile (see 3.7). This summary is visible to you alone.
- Summary of the taste impressions of a cheese drawn from all users’ ratings. This summary is aggregated and permits no inferences about individual persons.
We do not use AI systems that engage in dialogue with you, evaluate your emotions or categorise you on the basis of physical characteristics. Images in the application are not generated by AI.
We do not take automated decisions producing legal effects or similarly significant effects within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR.
3.16 Technically necessary processing
When our servers are accessed, connection-related data is processed (IP address, time, resource requested, status code). This is technically necessary in order to deliver the application and to fend off attacks.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest lies in secure and undisturbed operation.
Storage period: as a rule 30 days, then automatic deletion.
3.17 The website delikaasy.app
When our website is accessed, our hosting provider Railway Corporation, San Francisco, California, United States, processes the connection data named in 3.16. Delivery takes place via servers within the European Union. As the company is established in the United States, access from a third country cannot be ruled out; to that extent the transfer is based on standard contractual clauses pursuant to Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR.
The domain delikaasy.app is registered with STRATO AG, Otto-Ostrowski-Straße 7, 10249 Berlin. The registrar does not process any data of visitors to this website.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.
We embed no third-party content — such as fonts, maps or videos — from external servers. The Inter typeface is bundled at build time and served from our own server; when the page is loaded, no request goes to Google Fonts or a content delivery network. Beyond the analytics described below, we set no cookies that are not necessary for operation.
The website has no sign-in and no user account. Sections 3.1 to 3.16 therefore do not concern it.
3.17.1 Consent management
So that we can observe your decision about the analytics described below, we store that decision in your browser’s local storage under the key delikaasy.einwilligung. What is stored: the version of the consent, a random identifier, the time of your decision, and whether you consented to analytics. The entry remains on your device and is not transmitted to us. It expires after six months; we then ask again.
Purpose: observing and documenting your decision.
Legal basis: § 25(2)(2) TDDG — the storage is strictly necessary in order to provide the service you requested; consent is not required for it. For documenting your consent: Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR in conjunction with Art. 5(2) and Art. 7(1) GDPR.
3.17.2 Analytics with Google Analytics
On the website we use Google Analytics 4, a service of Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland. With it we record which pages are opened, how long they are read, which source visitors come to us from and at which point they leave the page. We additionally record which sections of the page are read and which buttons are pressed — for instance the click on the waiting list, the opening of a legal text or a change of language version. We do not pass on free text; what you type into the waiting list input field is not transmitted to Google.
The service is loaded only after your express consent. Before you consent, no script from Google is loaded, no cookie is set and no connection to Google is established. Nor do we use the anonymised advance signals offered by Google (“cookieless pings”).
Where consent has been given, Google sets the following cookies:
| Name | Purpose | Storage period |
|---|---|---|
_ga |
distinguishing visitors | 2 years |
_ga_<measurement ID> |
session state for counting visits | 2 years |
According to Google, your IP address is used only for coarse location determination and is not stored. Advertising features, Google Signals and cross-device profiling are switched off, and there is no link to Google Ads. Google’s retention period for the event data is 14 months.
Purpose: understanding usage, improving the content and structure of the website.
Legal basis: your consent pursuant to Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR in conjunction with § 25(1) TDDG.
Data transfer to the USA: Google Ireland Limited may transfer data to its parent company Google LLC in the United States. The transfer is based on the European Commission’s adequacy decision on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework of 10 July 2023, which Google LLC has joined, supplemented by standard contractual clauses pursuant to Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR. We point out that despite these safeguards, access by US authorities cannot be entirely ruled out and that effective legal remedies against it may not be available to you. Your consent also extends to this transfer (Art. 49(1)(a) GDPR).
Withdrawal: you can withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future — using the “Cookie settings” button in the footer of every page. Upon withdrawal we stop measurement immediately and delete the cookies set by Google. The lawfulness of processing carried out until then remains unaffected (Art. 7(3) GDPR).
A complete list of all stored items with names, lifetimes and providers can be found in our cookie policy at delikaasy.app/en/cookies.
Consent on the website and consent in the application are two separate decisions: they are different services on different devices. Consent on the website starts no measurement in the app, and vice versa.
3.17.3 Waiting list
If you join the waiting list on the website, we process your email address in order to inform you about the launch of the application.
We use the double opt-in procedure: after signing up you receive a message with a confirmation link; only once you have followed it do we add you to the list. If confirmation does not follow, we delete the address after 14 days. To document consent we store the time and IP address of the sign-up and of the confirmation.
Dispatch is handled by Resend (Plus Five Five, Inc.), 2261 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94114, USA, as a processor pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR; delivery takes place via the provider’s European infrastructure. No open or click tracking takes place; the messages contain no tracking pixels.
Purpose: information about the launch of the application.
Legal basis: your consent pursuant to Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR in conjunction with § 7(2)(3) UWG; for the documentation data, Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR in conjunction with Art. 7(1) GDPR.
Storage period: until withdrawal, at the longest until the launch of the application and the conclusion of the launch communication. You can unsubscribe at any time via the unsubscribe link in every message or informally at kontakt@delikaasy.app.
4. Recipients and processors
| Recipient | Seat | Purpose | Place of processing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supabase, Inc. | USA, EU instance used | database, authentication, file storage | European Union |
| STRATO AG | Germany | dispatch of account messages (section 3.13), domain registration | Germany |
| PostHog, Inc. | USA, EU instance used | analytics, session recording, error diagnosis, only with consent (section 3.11) | European Union |
| Google Ireland Ltd. | Ireland | signing in with a Google account (section 3.3) | EU, possibly USA |
| Google Ireland Ltd. / Google LLC (Gemini) | Ireland / USA | textual profile summary, without name or identifier (section 3.7) | outside the EU |
| Apple Inc. / Apple Distribution International Ltd. | USA / Ireland | delivery of the application via the App Store, beta distribution via TestFlight, map material (section 3.10) | EU/USA |
| Google Ireland Ltd. / Google LLC (Analytics) | Ireland / USA | analytics for the website, only with consent (section 3.17.2) | EU, possibly USA |
| Railway Corporation | USA, servers in the EU | hosting and delivery of the website | European Union |
| Resend (Plus Five Five, Inc.) | USA, EU infrastructure used | dispatch of waiting-list and confirmation emails (section 3.17.3) | European Union |
Note on the beta phase: for as long as the application is distributed via TestFlight, Apple additionally processes details of your participation as a tester as well as crash and usage data. Apple’s privacy policy also applies in this respect.
Contracts pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR are in place with all processors. Where a transfer to third countries takes place, it is based on an adequacy decision or on standard contractual clauses pursuant to Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR together with supplementary protective measures.
Beyond this we disclose your data only where we are legally obliged to do so.
5. Storage periods
| Data | Period |
|---|---|
| Account data | until the account is deleted |
| Ratings and comments | until the account is deleted; individually deletable on request |
| Watchlist, saved articles, marks | until the account is deleted |
| Usage behaviour and taste profile | until the account is deleted or personalisation is withdrawn |
| Derived dietary characteristics | until the account is deleted or you object |
| Product submissions and photos | until the account is deleted; approved product data remains in the product database without any personal reference |
| Points, ranks and awards | until the account is deleted |
| Device token for push notifications | until withdrawal, until Apple reports the token as invalid, at the latest until the account is deleted |
| Log of push notifications sent | 90 days |
| Analytics (PostHog) | 12 months |
| Session recordings (PostHog) | 30 days |
| Profile summary at Google (Gemini) | no permanent storage by the provider; we store the result in your profile |
| Connection data | 30 days |
| Consent on the website (local storage) | 6 months, then asked again |
| Analytics for the website (Google Analytics) | 14 months |
| Waiting list of the website | until withdrawal; unconfirmed sign-ups 14 days |
After your account has been deleted, your personal data is deleted unless statutory retention obligations prevent this.
Inactive accounts. If you have not signed in for 24 months, we regard your account as inactive. We then inform you by email and delete the account including all associated personal data if you do not sign in within 30 days of that message. Your ratings remain in anonymised form as part of the product rating; from then on no inference about you is possible.
5a. Are you obliged to provide data?
You are under no statutory or contractual obligation to provide us with personal data. However, without the details marked as required in section 3.1 we cannot set up a user account; the personalised functions are then unavailable. All other details are optional, and their absence brings you no disadvantage.
6. Your rights
You have the right at any time to:
- access to the data stored about you (Art. 15 GDPR)
- rectification of inaccurate data (Art. 16 GDPR)
- erasure (Art. 17 GDPR)
- restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR)
- data portability in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format (Art. 20 GDPR)
- object to processing based on legitimate interests (Art. 21 GDPR)
Your right to object: you have the right, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to object at any time to processing of personal data concerning you which is based on Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.
Furthermore:
- withdrawal of consent given with effect for the future (Art. 7(3) GDPR)
Please contact datenschutz@delikaasy.app for this. We reply within one month.
Deleting your account: you can permanently delete your account yourself at any time in the settings of the application under “Delete account”.
Right to lodge a complaint: you may lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority. The competent authority for us is:
Der Hamburgische Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit
Ludwig-Erhard-Straße 22, 20459 Hamburg
https://datenschutz-hamburg.de
7. Data security
Transmission between the application and our servers is encrypted (TLS). Access to records is restricted to the respective authorised user accounts by access rules at database level (row level security). We store passwords exclusively as a cryptographic hash.
8. Changes to this privacy notice
We adapt this privacy notice when the application or the legal situation changes. The current version is available in the application under “Settings → Data & Security” and at delikaasy.app/datenschutz. In the event of material changes we will inform you within the application.