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Privacy Policy - Collectery

Version 2026-09-04 · Last updated: 4 September 2026 · Deutsche Fassung

This policy explains what personal data the Collectery mobile app (the "App") and the website collectery.de collect, why, and your rights over it. It is written to meet the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

1. Who is responsible (Controller)

Henri Irmscher - Appentwicklung
Seckbacher Landstr. 66
60389 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Email: privacy@collectery.de

Data protection contact: Henri Irmscher, privacy@collectery.de. There is no statutory obligation to appoint a data protection officer.

2. What we collect

Account and identity

• Your email address and a one-time login code, or a sign-in identifier from Apple or Google when you use those sign-in methods (we never receive your password).
• Profile details you choose, such as username, display name, and avatar image.

Content you create

• Photos you capture or upload, and the AI-stylized cards and 3D models generated from them.
• Card details you add, such as title, notes, and, only if you enable it, the place name and GPS coordinates where an item was found.
• Visibility settings (private, friends, public) you assign to your cards and profile.

Social activity

• Who you follow and who follows you, follow requests, and the cards you post to your feed.
• Reports you send about someone else's card, and reports other people send about yours (see section 7).
• Your block list: the accounts you have blocked and when you blocked them. Only you can read your own list; the blocked person is not told and never sees it (see section 7).

Purchases

• Your Collectery Plus subscription status and related transaction identifiers, and records of credit purchases used for 3D generation.
• Purchases are processed through RevenueCat and the Apple App Store / Google Play. We do not receive your full payment-card data. RevenueCat receives your Collectery account id so a purchase can be matched to your account.
• A ledger of the credits and subscription allowances you were granted and used, so we can show you a correct balance and refund a failed generation.

Push notifications (only if you enable them)

• A push token that identifies your device to the notification service, the device platform, and your per-category notification preferences.
• The small amount of event data needed to compose a notification, such as the username of a person who followed you, the status of a 3D model you requested, or the fact that one of your cards was reported and hidden. Notifications never contain your photos or card content.

Advertising (only with your consent)

• A device advertising identifier (Apple IDFA / Google Advertising ID) and ad-interaction data, used to show and reward rewarded video ads. On iOS this requires your App Tracking Transparency permission; in the EU/UK it requires your consent via the Google consent message.
• When you finish a rewarded video, your Collectery account id is sent to Google as part of the reward verification, so the reward can only be credited once and to the right account.

Diagnostics (only with your consent)

• Crash reports and error logs, processed through Sentry, and sent only if you enable crash reporting under Settings → Send crash reports. A crash report contains the error, the app version, and basic device and operating-system information. It is pseudonymous, not anonymous: it can carry a device identifier and your IP address.
• Optional product usage analytics (which features and screens you use, funnel steps such as card creation or purchases), processed through PostHog (EU hosting) and sent only if you opt in under Settings → Share usage analytics. Events use a random pseudonymous identifier stored on your device and are not linked to your account, email, or username. They are pseudonymous, not anonymous: PostHog also processes your IP address. We do not send your photos, card titles, location, or other content in analytics events.

Technical data

• IP address and basic device and operating-system information, processed as a necessary part of delivering an internet service and keeping it secure.
• Counters we need to enforce our limits, for example how many AI cards you created today. This counter runs on the UTC calendar day, not your local one.

3. How AI generation works

When you choose to cut out an object or generate an AI card or 3D model, the relevant photo is processed by our own AI models. These models run in an isolated GPU environment that we rent from Runpod, Inc. and pin to data centers in the EU/EEA. Processing is transient: images are transferred through short-lived signed links, are not kept by the infrastructure provider beyond the processing itself, and are never used to train AI models. Free "local" looks are composed entirely on your device and are not sent anywhere. Only the images you actively submit for AI processing leave your device for that purpose.

You start every AI generation yourself, by tapping the button that says what it will do and what it costs. We therefore process the photo to perform the contract you asked for (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR), not on the basis of consent, and you can simply not use the feature.

On-device cutout (Google ML Kit). The free cutout runs entirely on your phone. To do that, your device downloads a segmentation model from Google once. Google can see that a device asked for the model, together with the technical data any download involves, such as your IP address. Your photo never leaves your device for this.

Labelling. AI-generated card images carry a visible label in the App and, in the shared image file, the same information in the metadata (XMP/IPTC). Photos, on-device cutouts, and the free local looks are not AI-generated and are not labelled.

4. Sharing a card by link

You can create a share link for one of your cards. The link looks like collectery.de/c/<token> and opens a public page.

• No account is needed to open it. Anyone who has the link can see the card, and can pass the link on.
• The page shows the card image, the 3D model if the card has one, the title, the creation date, and, from your profile, your display name, your username, and your avatar.
• We count how often the page was opened, so we can show you that number. We do not build a visitor profile and the page is set to noindex, so it should not turn up in search engines.
• Turning the link off. You can switch a share link off at any time in the App. The page then stops working immediately. The image and model files themselves are delivered through signed links that stay valid for up to 30 minutes, so a copy someone already loaded can still be reachable for that long. Plan for that: a link you have handed out cannot be un-handed-out.
• Legal basis: performance of the contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). You choose to create the link.

5. Your profile, visibility, and search

Please read this carefully, because "private" does less than the word suggests.

• Your username, display name, and profile picture are visible to every signed-in Collectery user, and they can be found through the in-app search. This is also true when your account is set to private.
• A private account limits your cards and your follower and following counts. It does not hide your profile itself.
• If you do not want to be findable under your real name, choose a username and display name that do not contain it, and do not use a photo of yourself as your avatar. You can change all three at any time in the App.
• Legal basis: performance of the contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). Collectery is a social app; being findable is how following works.

6. Location and place names

• Location is off unless you turn it on for a card.
• If you use "use my location", your device's coordinates are sent to Apple (on iOS) or Google (on Android) to be turned into a readable place name. If you type an address instead, the text you typed is sent to the same service to be turned into coordinates. Apple and Google are independent controllers for that lookup and apply their own privacy policies.
• The resulting place name is shown with the card to everyone who is allowed to see the card, including anyone with a share link. Coordinates are stored with the card but are not displayed.
• You can remove the place from a card at any time by editing it.
• Legal basis: performance of the contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR), triggered by you.

7. Reports and moderation

Anyone using the App can report a card. This is the notice-and-action mechanism required by the EU Digital Services Act, and it involves personal data on both sides.

• What we store for a report: the account id of the person reporting, the reported card, the reason chosen, the free text added, and the time.
• Automatic hiding. The first report hides the reported card automatically, before any human has looked at it. This is an automated step to limit harm quickly. It is not an automated decision with legal effect in the sense of Art. 22 GDPR, because a person reviews every case afterwards and the card comes back if the report was unfounded.
• The owner is told. The person whose card was hidden receives a push notification, if they have notifications enabled, and can appeal (see the Terms).
• Where the report goes. To review reports quickly, each report is also forwarded to a private moderation channel we run on Discord. The message contains the card title, the username of the card owner, the card id, the reason, and the free text. It does not contain the reporter's identity or the card image.
• Blocking. You can also block another person from their profile. We store one row per block: who blocked whom, and when. A block only affects the two of you, and it removes any follow between you: you stop seeing each other's cards, profile details, and follower counts. The blocked person is not told and cannot see that they were blocked, not even in a data export. You can see and lift your blocks under Settings, Blocked people; lifting one deletes the row. Legal basis: performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR) and our legitimate interest in a safe service (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
• Legal basis: compliance with a legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR together with the Digital Services Act) and our legitimate interest in a safe service (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

8. Why we use your data and the legal basis

9. Who receives your data

We do not sell your data. Two different kinds of recipient exist, and the difference matters for your rights.

9.1 Processors (they act only on our instructions)

These providers process data on our behalf under a data processing agreement (Art. 28 GDPR). They may not use it for their own purposes.

9.2 Independent controllers (they decide for themselves)

These companies receive data because a feature you use runs through them. They act as their own controller, under their own privacy policy, and we cannot instruct them. Exercise your rights against them directly.

We may also disclose data where the law requires it, for example to law enforcement on a valid legal basis.

10. The website collectery.de

The website, the public card pages under /c/<token>, the download page, and these legal pages are hosted by Hostinger on shared hosting in the EU/EEA.

• When you open a page, the server writes an access log entry containing your IP address, the time, the page requested, the referrer, and your browser's user agent. This is the technical minimum for delivering a web page and defending against attacks.
• The website uses no cookies, no tracking, and no third-party resources. Fonts are served from our own domain, and the 3D viewer used on card pages is served from our own domain as well, so opening a page does not tell anyone but our host that you were there. There is no consent banner because there is nothing to consent to.
• Card pages send a no-referrer header and are marked noindex.
• Legal basis: legitimate interests in a working, secure website (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

11. Advertising and Collectery Plus

The App shows rewarded video ads through Google AdMob. Before serving ads in the EU/UK we ask for your consent through Google's consent message, and on iOS we ask for App Tracking Transparency permission. You can review or withdraw your ad consent at any time in the App under Account → Manage ad consent.

One rewarded video unlocks two AI cutouts, or one AI card generation, depending on where you started it.

Collectery Plus does not make the App ad-free forever. A subscription includes a set amount of AI cards, AI cutouts, and 3D models per billing period, and while that amount lasts you create without ads. Once it is used up, AI card generation continues the free way, with a rewarded video, unless you buy credits. The included amount expires at the end of each period and does not carry over.

More on how Google uses data: policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

12. International transfers

Some recipients (for example Google, Apple, RevenueCat, Discord) may process data on servers outside the EU/EEA, including the United States. Where that happens, the transfer is safeguarded by an EU adequacy decision where the provider is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and, where needed, by the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses together with additional safeguards where appropriate. Section 9 names the basis for each recipient.

Our AI processing runs on infrastructure rented from Runpod, Inc., a US company. We pin this processing to data centers in the EU/EEA, transfer content only through short-lived signed links, and do not have it retained after processing. For any residual access from outside the EU/EEA, Runpod's Data Processing Agreement with the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses applies.

13. How long we keep it

We keep personal data only as long as necessary for the purposes above:

• Account and content (profile, cards, photos, 3D models): for as long as your account exists. You can delete your account and all associated data, or export your data, at any time in the App under Settings → Account.
• Share links: the token and its view count live as long as the link does. Turning the link off deletes the token; already signed media links keep working for up to 30 minutes.
• Content reports and moderation decisions: up to 12 months after the case is closed, so we can answer an appeal (possible for six months) and recognise repeat abuse. Reports that lead to a legal case are kept until it ends.
• Push notifications: your push token is deleted when you sign out or delete your account, and tokens that have been inactive for about 9 months are deleted automatically. Your notification preferences are kept for as long as your account exists.
• Server and access logs (Supabase, Hostinger): up to 30 days, then deleted or overwritten. Kept longer only for a specific security incident, and only for that incident.
• Backups: database backups are kept for up to 30 days on a rolling basis and are then overwritten. Content you deleted therefore disappears from the backups within 30 days at the latest. Backups are only ever restored as a whole, after a failure.
• Proof of a deletion: when you delete your account we keep a minimal record that a deletion happened, with the internal account id and the date and no content, for up to 3 years. We need it to show a supervisory authority that we acted on your request (Art. 5(2) GDPR).
• Consent records (which version of these documents you accepted, and when; your analytics, crash, and advertising choices): for as long as your account exists and up to 3 years afterwards, so we can demonstrate the consent was given.
• Crash and error diagnostics (Sentry): up to 90 days, and only if you enabled crash reporting.
• Product usage analytics (PostHog): up to 12 months, and only if you opted in. You can withdraw consent at any time under Settings → Share usage analytics; this stops further collection immediately.
• Advertising: advertising identifiers are used only transiently to serve ads; a record of your consent choices is kept for as long as needed to demonstrate compliance.
• Purchases: kept while your account is active. Where the law requires us to retain transaction records, for example under German tax and commercial law (§ 147 AO, § 257 HGB), we keep the necessary records for the statutory period of up to 10 years. Those records survive a deletion of your account, because we are not allowed to erase them.

14. Deleting your account

• Deleting removes your profile, your cards, your photos, your 3D models, your share links, your follows, and your push tokens.
• A running Collectery Plus subscription is not cancelled by this. It is a contract with Apple or Google, and only you can cancel it, in your App Store or Google Play account. Cancel it before you delete the account, or you keep paying for a service you can no longer reach.
• Unused credits and any remaining subscription allowance expire without compensation.
• What we must keep is listed in section 13: accounting records and the minimal proof that the deletion happened.

15. Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to:

• access the personal data we hold about you (Art. 15);
• have inaccurate data corrected (Art. 16);
• have your data erased (Art. 17, also directly in the App);
• receive your data in a portable format (Art. 20, also directly in the App);
• restrict processing (Art. 18);
• object to processing based on our legitimate interests (Art. 21), including the social notifications;
• withdraw any consent at any time, without affecting prior processing (Art. 7(3));
• lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. Ours is Der Hessische Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit (HBDI), Gustav-Stresemann-Ring 1, 65189 Wiesbaden, Germany.

To exercise these rights, contact privacy@collectery.de. We answer within one month of receiving your request. If a request is complex or you send several, we may extend this by up to two further months and will tell you why within the first month (Art. 12(3) GDPR).

Checking who you are. If we have reasonable doubt that a request really comes from you, we may ask for information that lets us confirm it, usually a message from the email address on the account (Art. 12(6) GDPR). We ask for the least we can, never for a copy of an identity document, and we use what you send only for that check.

What the in-app export contains. The export includes your profile, your cards and their images and 3D models, your card details and places, your purchase and credit history, your consent records, and your social graph. The social graph contains the usernames of the people who follow you and the people you follow. Those usernames are other people's personal data: you may keep them for yourself, but please do not publish or otherwise re-use them.

You can turn push notifications on or off per category at any time in the App under Settings → Notifications, or disable them entirely in your device's system settings. Disabling notifications does not limit any other App feature.

You can turn optional usage analytics on or off at any time under Settings → Share usage analytics. Crash reporting can be toggled separately under Settings → Send crash reports.

16. Children

The App is not directed to children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 16; if you believe a child has provided us data, contact us and we will delete it.

17. Automated decisions

We do not use your data for profiling or for automated decisions that produce legal effects for you within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR. The automatic hiding of a reported card described in section 7 is a temporary protective measure, and a person reviews every case.

18. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the App evolves. Each version carries a version number, shown at the top. When we change something that matters, we ask you to look at the new version in the App before you carry on.

19. Contact

Questions about this policy or your data: privacy@collectery.de.

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