Privacy Policy

In short

• No ads, no tracking, no third-party analytics tools, no selling of data.
• Our servers are located in Germany and run by us.
• Only friends you choose can see your location, either precise or approximate.
• Raw location points are deleted automatically after 48 hours.
• You can delete your account in the app at any time. Everything goes with it.

Controller

Jordy van Geneijgen
Kleiner Graben 10, 29664 Walsrode
Email: admin@jvg-it.de

Account and sign-in

You sign in with your email address, on iPhone also with Apple. With “Sign in with Apple” we receive an identifier for your Apple account and the email address you share with us (optionally an anonymous relay address from Apple). With email sign-in we send a link and a code to the address you enter.

Legal basis: providing the app (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).

Profile

Display name, username, profile photo, a short bio and possibly a badge. Other users can find you by username and see this profile. Photos you explicitly add to your profile as memories are visible to your friends.

Location

If you allow it on your device, the app records your location while it is open and, if you choose “Always” or “Allow all the time”, also in the background — that is, even when the app is closed or not in use. This includes coordinates, accuracy, time and speed.

From this we derive:

• Raw location points: deleted automatically after 48 hours.
• The revealed map (fog) and territories: only which map cells you have visited, not when or in which order. Kept until you delete your account. If you hide friends from your territories, we store that for your own view only; they are not told.
• Trips: when you travel by bike, car or train, we derive start, end, distance, average and top speed and the start and destination area from your location points. We do not store the route itself. Only you can see your trips, and you can delete them one by one.
• Speed records: for each district we store your highest speed so far and the day. You and friends you share your precise location with can see them. They are kept until you delete your account.
• Your latest location: visible only to friends you share it with, either precise or approximate, including how long you have been at a place; friends with precise access also see your current speed while you are on the move. Change this any time under Profile → Friends & visibility; ghost mode pauses everything.
• Live location: time-limited, or until you arrive after tapping “Head out” for a hangout.
• Standstill: if you stay at a place for a while, the app turns GPS off and notices via a radius of about 100 m when you leave. Friends then see “here since …”.
• Refresh on request: friends you share your precise location with can request a fresh position when they open your profile on the map. Your device is woken briefly by a silent notification and sends your current location once. At most every two minutes per friend; can be turned off under Profile → Location & Privacy.
• Keeping it current: if your device stays still for a long time, our server briefly wakes it every few hours with a silent notification, and it reports again that you are still there — otherwise your location would disappear for your friends.
• Battery level: together with your location the app sends your battery level and whether the device is charging. Friends who can see your location see this too, so they know why you might go offline soon.
• Corners: places you create, with name, description and coordinates.

My places

If you turn on “My places”, the app uses your location points to detect places where you spend time regularly, and for how long. This is optional and off by default. Detection, visits and durations stay on your device only; the app deletes visits older than 90 days automatically.

You can make a place you have named “visible to friends”, one place at a time. The app then sends that place’s name, symbol and centre point to our server – no visits, no times. Only friends who permanently see your precise location can see it, and not while you are in ghost mode. If you turn it off or forget the place, we delete it from the server.

Places you name are saved with your account: name, symbol, centre point, whether you live there and whether you shared it – no visits, no times. That way they are back after signing in again or on a new device. Only you can see them (unless you share a place with friends as described above). If you forget a place or delete all, we delete them from your account too; they are also deleted with your account.

Under Profile → My places you can turn detection off, forget individual places or delete everything; uninstalling the app removes the visits on the device as well.

Location (legal basis)

Location tracking is based on your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR), given through your device’s location permission. You can withdraw it at any time in your device settings (iPhone: Settings → Corner → Location; Android: Settings → Apps → Corner → Permissions → Location). Data already stored remains until its deletion period ends.

Friends, groups and suggestions

We store friendships, requests, groups and crews (with their own chat and leaderboard) and blocked people. Suggestions (“People you may know”) are based on mutual friends only; we do not use other sources such as your address book.

Hangouts, chat and photos

When you start a hangout or plan one for a later day, we store place, time, vibe, your message and who you invite, plus replies, chat messages and photos. Photos are downsized before upload. A hangout’s chat and photos are visible only to the host and invitees; people who declined can only read.

For planned hangouts we remind the host and invitees who have not declined with a notification on the day itself and about an hour before it starts. For this we remember when we sent the reminders.

Direct chats and voice messages

We store messages, photos, stickers and voice messages in direct chats so they reach your devices and the recipient; only the two of you can see them. We also store when each of you last opened a chat (“Opened”).

For voice messages the app uses the microphone only while you record. On iPhone, a transcript is also created on your device (Apple speech recognition, on-device only); the recording is not sent to any speech service for this. The transcript is stored with the message.

Spontaneous plans with friends

These features only use your location when you trigger or turn them on yourself:

• I have time now: you pick friends and a duration (up to four hours). We store until when you are free and notify only the friends you selected; your friends see the hint on your pin. The entry is deleted one hour after it expires.
• Nearby radar: only if you and a friend have both turned it on and see each other precisely, the server compares your latest positions every two minutes. If you are no more than 300 m apart, you both get a notification. It stays quiet at a hangout (within 50 m) and between neighbours who are both at home. For this the server derives an approximate home from your night-time location points (midnight to 6 am) and updates it daily; nobody else sees it. We store that you turned it on, this home and, per pair, when the last notification was sent. If you turn it off in your profile, we delete the home immediately.
• Home safe: when you start it, the app sends the point you marked as home and the friends you selected to the server. It checks your latest position every minute; once you have arrived, your friends are notified and we delete the entry including its coordinates, at the latest after six hours.
• Weekend challenge: on Friday evening you get a task for the weekend, for example uncovering new map tiles or collecting the most time in an area. For this we store your standing on Friday and the result on Sunday evening; friends you compete with for an area see the comparison.

New features on trial

We first try out new features on a trial basis. For this, the app records when you use such a feature: which feature, which action (for example “started”), your account and the time – no content, no places, no messages. In “New in Corner” you can also optionally say whether you like a feature. Both are only evaluated in aggregate, to decide which features stay.

The legal basis is our legitimate interest in an app that keeps the features people actually use (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). The data stays on our servers and is deleted with your account.

Reports and moderation

When you report a person or message we store the report, the reason and the text of the reported message, and notify our moderators. This protects all users (legitimate interest, Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

When you report a problem or an idea we store your description, a screenshot if you add one, and the app version, device type, operating system and language so we can reproduce the bug. You see our reply in the app.

Notifications

For push notifications and (on iPhone) Live Activities we store a device token. Delivery goes through the Apple Push Notification service, on Android through Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging. You can turn notifications off in your device settings.

Technical data

When the app talks to our servers, IP address, time and requested address are logged. We use these logs only for debugging and to fend off attacks; they are overwritten automatically once they reach a fixed size. On your device the app stores sign-in data, settings and a cache so it starts quickly.

Beta analytics (optional)

During the beta the app asks once whether you want to take part in analytics. Only if you agree, it sends: battery level over time (also derived from location points that are sent anyway, without the places themselves), start-up time, map frame rate, error messages, which screens you use and for how long, whether location tracking is running, and app version, operating system and device type. No messages, no photos, no extra location data.

The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). You can withdraw it at any time in your profile under “Beta analytics”; we then delete the collected data immediately. Otherwise we delete it after 90 days. The data stays on our servers and is not shared.

Who receives data

• Hetzner Online GmbH, Germany: runs our servers (data centre in Germany).
• Apple Inc. (on iPhone): Sign in with Apple, notification delivery, and addresses and place search via Apple Maps, for which coordinates or search terms are sent to Apple. Apple also processes data in the USA under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.
• Google LLC (Android only): notification delivery via Firebase Cloud Messaging, for which Google receives a device token and the notification content. Google also processes data in the USA under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.
• OpenFreeMap: serves the map tiles and sees your IP address and which map area the app loads, but not your location.
• Other users only see what you show them through friendships, sharing and hangouts.

Retention

Raw location points: 48 hours. Beta analytics: 90 days (immediately if you withdraw consent). Everything else: until you delete it or delete your account. Deleting your account removes your profile, location data, friendships, messages, photos and device tokens. Reports are kept without a link to your account as far as needed for moderation.

Your rights

You have the right to access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection, and to withdraw consent. Contact us at the address above. You can delete your account yourself under Profile → Delete account.

You may also lodge a complaint with a data protection authority, for example the State Commissioner for Data Protection of Lower Saxony.

Age

Corner is intended for people aged 16 and over.

Changes

We update this policy when the app changes. Last updated: 2026-11-05.