Privacy Policy - ClimbSync

Introduction

ClimbSync is operated by Benjamin Orthner, an individual based in Austria. We are committed to protecting your privacy in accordance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Austrian data protection laws.

ClimbSync is actively developed, and features and processing details may change over time. We update this policy whenever such a change affects how we handle your personal data.

Data Controller

The data controller responsible for your personal data is:

Benjamin Orthner
Quellenstraße 22/40
1100 Wien
Austria
Email: contact@climbsync.app

Data We Collect

3.1 Account Information

Email address (required for account creation)
Authentication provider data (if signing in via Google or Apple)
Account creation and last login timestamps
Billing identifiers and purchase metadata processed by RevenueCat when billing support is enabled (a pseudonymous App User ID derived from the ClimbSync account identifier, plus store purchase and entitlement data). ClimbSync does not transmit or prefill your account email address or display name as RevenueCat customer attributes. RevenueCat may collect contact details that you enter directly during its checkout.

3.2 Profile Information (Voluntary)

Display name (publicly visible to other users)
Real name (visible according to your profile visibility settings)
Profile picture/avatar and avatar visibility settings
Short bio description and bio visibility settings
Climbing grades (boulder and sport) and grade visibility settings
Preferred home city / home gym and related visibility settings
Profile preferences such as language and unit/time formatting

3.3 Social Contact Information (Optional, Friends Only)

Phone number (international format)
WhatsApp number/username
Signal number/username
Telegram username
Instagram username
Contact visibility controls, including optional friend-exclusion settings

3.4 Activity Data

Climbing session plans and participation data (gym, date, time, duration, notes, visibility)
Session invitations/plans, poll votes, and plan outcomes
Friend connections, friendship history, and block-list state
Favorite gyms and related discovery interactions
Notification preferences and in-app notification interactions
Profile statistics and insight aggregates generated from your activity

3.5 Technical Data

Device type and operating system version
App version and platform (iOS/Android/Web)
Security and reliability logs (e.g., request/error/rate-limit telemetry)
Product analytics events used to improve app flows (e.g., onboarding/session/search usage)

3.6 Contact Discovery and Address Book Matching (Optional)

If you enable Contact Discovery, we store a protected phone matching key derived from your phone number and the last four digits for display/conflict handling; we do not store the raw discovery phone number in the Contact Discovery table.
When you explicitly choose to import contacts, phone numbers from your device address book are sent to ClimbSync temporarily so the backend can compare them against opted-in ClimbSync users.
Address-book contact names stay on your device/in-app session state for display; they are not stored as backend contact profiles by Contact Discovery.
Non-matching imported contacts are not retained as contact records, and ClimbSync does not automatically invite them or use imported contacts for marketing.
If the same discovery number is claimed by more than one account, matching for that number is paused until the conflict is resolved.

3.7 Session Chats

We store the messages you send, including replies, reactions and mentions, with the sender, session and time. We keep track of who can access each chat, which messages you have read and your notification settings so the chat works across your devices. Temporary typing and online status show when participants are active, and attendance updates appear in the conversation.
If a message is reported, we keep the reported message, its quoted reply if visible to the reporter, and report details and moderation notes. We do not copy the surrounding conversation into the report.

3.8 Session Photos and Topo Images

We store session photos and outdoor topo images you upload, together with their session, uploader, upload time and technical metadata needed to process and display them.
If you report an image, we retain the exact reported image, report details and moderation notes so moderators can review the same publication even if it is later replaced or removed.

3.9 Pre-account Coverage Votes

Before account creation, you may submit a country and optional city where you want ClimbSync coverage. We store this with a random installation identifier that is hashed before storage. We do not collect an email address for this vote.

3.10 Website, Web App and Browser Storage

We do not use cookies on our website or in the web app.
The website and web app keep a small amount of data in your browser’s local or session storage, only to provide features you use: your sign-in session in the web app, settings such as language, theme and map style, the contents of your merch cart, and cached map and app data so pages load quickly. You can delete this data at any time in your browser settings.
Website visits are counted with Vercel Web Analytics, which records aggregated page views without cookies and without storing an identifier on your device.
Product analytics events in the web app are sent only while you are signed in and are linked to your account ID. In the web app we do not keep an analytics identifier in browser storage.
Maps in the web app are provided by Mapbox. Mapbox’s map library stores a random identifier in your browser’s local storage and sends anonymous map-usage events to Mapbox (see section 10).
Country flags, map data and other static files are delivered from our own domains. Content from third-party services is loaded only where section 10 says so, for example Instagram images on gym pages.

3.11 Web Purchases

If you buy Founding Supporter on the web, you enter your payment details, name, email address and billing country directly with Link, a Stripe service, which processes the payment as merchant of record. We do not receive your full card or bank details.
Stripe and RevenueCat tell us the purchase and its status. We keep a purchase record linked to your account: the order reference, the time of purchase, the amount and currency paid, and the status of the confirmation email, any withdrawal and refund, and any payment dispute. We use your account email address to send the purchase confirmation and, if you withdraw, the acknowledgement.

3.12 Group Links

When you create or join a group link, we store its name, who created it, and who joined and when. Signed-in people who open the link see its members’ display names, usernames and profile pictures, as your avatar visibility allows. The public link page shows only the link name, its creator and the number of members.

Abuse reports and moderation records: if you report a user or content for a safety issue, we store the report (the reason, the optional description you provide, and a snapshot of the reported content as it was visible to you at the time), together with a log of the moderation actions we take. Reports are only visible to the service operator.

Purpose and Legal Basis

We process your data for the following purposes:

4.1 Contract Performance (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR)

Providing the core ClimbSync service
Account creation and authentication
Enabling session sharing with friends
Managing friend connections, blocks, and profile visibility controls
Delivering session chat messages and notifications and providing the chat features you use
Storing and displaying session photos and outdoor topo images you choose to share
Processing a web purchase, confirming it by email, and handling withdrawals and refunds
Letting people who share a group link find each other and send friend requests

4.2 Legitimate Interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR)

Improving app functionality and user experience
Operating product analytics and telemetry for feature development and service reliability
Debugging and fixing technical issues
Fraud prevention, abuse prevention, and security
Investigating chat reports and protecting users from abuse
Investigating image reports and protecting users from harmful or unlawful content
Using pre-account coverage votes to decide where to expand gym coverage and prevent duplicate voting
Counting aggregated website visits to understand how the website is used
Handling payment disputes and preventing payment fraud

4.3 Consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, where required)

If we introduce processing that requires consent as legal basis (for example, optional marketing communication), we will request separate explicit opt-in before that processing starts.
At the current development stage, core app analytics and service operations are not consent-gated and are processed under contract/legitimate-interest bases as described above.

4.4 Optional Contact Discovery

Contact Discovery is optional and can be turned off. It is used only to help you find people from your contacts who also opted in to phone-based discovery.
Device contacts are accessed only after platform permission and your explicit import action. Imported phone numbers are processed for matching and are not used for automatic invitations or marketing.

4.5 Legal Obligation (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR)

Providing the contract confirmation, withdrawal information and withdrawal acknowledgement that consumer law requires for web purchases, and keeping the records tax and commercial law require.

Data Storage and Security

Your data is stored on servers provided by Convex, Inc., which uses secure data centers in the European Union. We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data, including:

Encryption of data in transit (TLS/SSL)
Encryption of data at rest
Server-side access controls
Secure authentication mechanisms

Messages are encrypted during transfer and in storage. Access in the app is restricted by session membership and blocking rules. Our servers process message content to deliver chats and notification previews, and authorized moderators can review reported evidence. This protection is different from end-to-end encryption: ClimbSync’s systems can access message content to provide these features. Session photos and topo images are stored privately and delivered through time-limited access links after an authorization check. They are encrypted during transfer and at rest. Authorized moderators can access an exact reported image while its evidence-retention period remains active.

Data Sharing

We do not sell your personal data. We share your data only as follows:

With other ClimbSync users according to your visibility settings (public sessions can be visible to other users, for example through shared session links; friend-only content is visible only to accepted friends)
Contact links are friends-only by default and may be hidden from selected friends using your contact visibility controls
Blocked users are restricted from seeing your activity as defined by product access rules
With service providers used to operate the app (e.g., infrastructure, mapping, authentication/email delivery, and subscription billing/support) under appropriate contractual safeguards
When required by law or legal process
Friends can see your friend list. Non-friends may see mutual friends, mutual-friend counts, and total friend counts unless blocked or limited by product controls. You can opt out of appearing in non-mutual friend lists and friend suggestions.
Private or otherwise hidden session participants may still be represented through anonymous participant counts, aggregate session time ranges, and anonymous coordination placeholders where needed for session coordination.
Contact Discovery match results are shown only to opted-in users performing an import, and only for reciprocal opted-in matches. Imported non-match contacts are not shared with other ClimbSync users.
Session chats are available to participants admitted before the session ends who remain marked as attending or possibly attending. This includes people who join later but before that deadline: they can see earlier messages still available in the chat. Chats are not included in public session previews. Leaving a session or being marked as unavailable or having missed it removes your chat access but does not remove messages you already sent. Blocking limits what blocked users can see from each other within ClimbSync.
Session photos and topo images are available only through authenticated session features to people authorized to view that session content. Removing or replacing an image stops new access to that publication, although a previously issued time-limited link may remain usable until it expires.

International Data Transfers

Your data is primarily stored in the EU. In case of transfers outside the EU/EEA (e.g., to Convex, Inc. in the USA), appropriate safeguards are in place, including Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) as approved by the European Commission.

Data Retention

We retain your personal data for as long as your account is active and as needed to operate the service securely. Current retention approach includes:

Session chat retention

Chat messages: available until the chat expires, normally seven days after the session ends. We then delete chat content from the active service, aiming to finish within 24 hours. Deleting the session starts cleanup earlier.
Report evidence and notes: normally up to 90 days from submission, shortened to 30 days after the report’s first resolution if earlier. An unresolved investigation may receive further extensions of up to 30 days each, with a recorded reason.
Limited moderation records: while a report is unresolved and for up to 365 days after its first resolution, to review decisions and repeated abuse. These records contain identifiers, decisions, reason categories and dates, without message text or free-text evidence.
Deleting a message does not erase evidence already reported. Account deletion removes your chat content and associated chat reports through our deletion process. Anonymous message placeholders may remain. These chat rules replace the general report-retention rules in this policy. Backup and delivered-notification copies are addressed separately.

Session image retention

Session photos: retained until they are removed or retired because the session, participation or uploader account is deleted or no longer permits the photo to remain available.
Outdoor topo images: normally available until seven days after the session ends, then retired and scheduled for deletion.
Reported image evidence and notes: normally up to 90 days from submission, shortened to 30 days after the report’s first resolution if earlier. An unresolved investigation may receive further extensions of up to 30 days each, with a recorded reason. Linked account deletion may end this retention earlier.
Limited moderation records: while a report is unresolved and for up to 365 days after its first resolution. These records contain identifiers, decisions, reason categories and dates, without the reported image or free-text evidence.

Pre-account coverage votes

The raw vote, including the hashed installation identifier, is retained for up to 90 days after the latest vote from that installation for the same area. We then delete the raw row and may keep only anonymous country/city totals for product planning.

Group links

A membership is kept until you leave the group, are removed from it or delete your account. A group link is deleted together with its creator’s account.

Core account/profile/session data: retained while your account remains active, then deleted when your account is deleted (subject to short technical backup windows).
Billing and purchase data: when you delete your account, we remove our local billing and purchase records. Purchase and payment history held by RevenueCat, Stripe (including Link), Apple, or Google is subject to their own retention policies and legal obligations and is not deleted by us. Active subscriptions are not cancelled by account deletion; you must cancel them through your store settings.
Raw product analytics events: retained for a limited period (currently 90 days) for reliability and product analysis.
Certain aggregated service metrics (including daily/monthly rollups) may be retained longer to understand product performance trends and system health.
Deleted data may remain temporarily in providers’ backup systems until those backups expire under the providers’ retention schedules.
Contact Discovery phone matching data is retained while Contact Discovery is enabled and removed when you turn it off or delete your account. Imported address-book phone numbers are processed transiently for matching and are not stored as backend contact records.
Legal acceptance evidence for Terms and Privacy versions may be retained for up to three years after account deletion as minimal legal evidence (document type, version, content hash, acceptance time, source, locale/platform/app version where available).
You can delete your account at any time in the app (open Settings, then Account, then Delete account), or request deletion by email at contact@climbsync.app. See https://www.climbsync.app/legal/account-deletion for the steps and details of what is deleted and what is retained.
Abuse reports and moderation records may be retained after the reporting or reported account is deleted, to the extent necessary to prevent abuse, keep the service safe, and comply with legal obligations. When a reporter deletes their account, their identity is removed from the retained report.

Your Rights (GDPR)

Under the GDPR, you have the following rights:

Your account export includes your own retained chat messages and chat notification settings, including after you leave a session. It excludes deleted or expired messages and other people’s messages. The export feature does not limit your data-protection rights or your ability to contact us about your personal data.

Right of Access (Art. 15): Request a copy of your personal data
Right to Rectification (Art. 16): Correct inaccurate data
Right to Erasure (Art. 17): Delete your account and data
Right to Restriction (Art. 18): Limit how we use your data
Right to Data Portability (Art. 20): Receive your data in a portable format
Right to Object (Art. 21): Object to processing based on legitimate interests (including product analytics/telemetry).
Right to Withdraw Consent (where consent is used): Withdraw consent at any time for consent-based processing.

To exercise these rights, contact us at contact@climbsync.app. We currently handle objection/rights requests manually via support. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Austrian Data Protection Authority (Österreichische Datenschutzbehörde).

Third-Party Services

ClimbSync uses the following third-party services:

We use Convex to host chat data. For push notifications, we send device delivery identifiers, session information and, where applicable, a sender name and message preview through Expo and Apple’s or Google’s notification services. Your device settings control how previews appear on screen. Hiding previews on your device does not prevent notification providers from processing the notification content.

Editing or deleting a message, or the chat expiring, does not recall a notification already delivered to someone else’s device. Copies saved by recipients, such as screenshots or exports, are outside ClimbSync’s control. Backup and notification-provider retention are separate from the chat’s availability in the app.

We use Cloudflare R2 to store and deliver private image objects. The storage bucket uses R2’s EU data-location jurisdiction. Cloudflare may process limited account, security and delivery data as described in its privacy terms. Privacy: https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/ · Data Processing Addendum: https://www.cloudflare.com/cloudflare-customer-dpa/

Convex (database, authentication, storage) - Privacy: https://convex.dev/privacy
Mapbox (map display, place search and static map images; in the web app, Mapbox’s map library stores a random identifier in your browser’s local storage and sends anonymous map-usage events that Mapbox uses to count map loads and compile usage statistics) - Privacy: https://www.mapbox.com/legal/privacy
RevenueCat (purchase processing, receipt validation, entitlement management, and billing support; ClimbSync sends a pseudonymous App User ID but does not transmit or prefill your account email address or display name as customer attributes; RevenueCat may collect contact details you enter directly during checkout) - Privacy: https://www.revenuecat.com/privacy
Google/Apple (OAuth authentication) - Their respective privacy policies apply
Resend (transactional email delivery for auth/account flows and purchase confirmations) - Privacy: https://resend.com/legal/privacy-policy
Sentry (error monitoring and crash diagnostics) - Privacy: https://sentry.io/privacy/
PostHog Cloud EU (product analytics and feature flags, when enabled) - Privacy: https://posthog.com/privacy
Meta Platforms (Instagram content on gym pages: when a gym has its Instagram feed enabled, post thumbnails load directly from Meta's content delivery network, which receives your IP address and standard request metadata; Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd. is the recipient and participates in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework for onward transfers) - Privacy: https://privacycenter.instagram.com/policy
Vercel (hosting and delivery of our website and web app, and aggregated website visit statistics without cookies) - Privacy: https://vercel.com/legal/privacy-policy
Cloudflare (delivery of public static files such as map data and country flags from static.climbsync.app; Cloudflare receives your IP address and standard request metadata) - Privacy: https://www.cloudflare.com/privacypolicy/
Stripe and Link (payment for web purchases; Link, a Stripe service, is merchant of record and processes your payment, tax and receipt data as an independent controller under its own privacy policy; ClimbSync sends a pseudonymous user ID with the checkout) - Privacy: https://stripe.com/privacy · https://link.com/privacy

Children's Privacy

ClimbSync is not intended for children under 16 years of age. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 16. If you believe we have collected data from a child, please contact us immediately.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes through the app or by email. The "Last updated" date at the top indicates when this policy was last revised.

For material changes, we may require renewed in-app acceptance before continued use of protected app areas.

Contact

For questions or concerns about this privacy policy or your personal data, please contact: