Privacy Policy for the “Boo” app

Last updated: 14 November 2026

In short

• Boo is a journal with one question a day. You can write alone or in small groups.
• We only store what the app needs to work: your email address, your name, your avatar, your answers and what you do in groups.
• Nobody but you sees your personal answers. Group answers are seen only by the group's members, and only after they have answered themselves.
• No tracking, no ads, no analytics tools, no selling of data.
• You can delete your account in the app at any time. Then everything is gone.

1. Who is responsible?

The controller for data processing in the Boo app is:

Michaela Lehr Bergmannstraße 104 10961 Berlin Germany Email: boo.support@geildanke.com

We do not have a data protection officer because the law does not require one. ⚠ Check: true as long as fewer than 20 people regularly work with personal data (§ 38 BDSG).

For any privacy question, just write to boo.support@geildanke.com.

2. What data we process and why

2.1 Sign-in with an email code

You sign in without a password: you enter your email address and receive a 6-digit code by email. The code is valid for at most [CODE VALIDITY, e.g. 1 hour] and can be used only once.

• Data: email address, time of sign-in, technical sign-in data (session token, account ID).
• Purpose: create your account, sign you in, protect your account.
• Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (contract – the app cannot work without an account).
• Sending the emails: through the email service of united-domains GmbH (see section 4).

We do not send newsletters or ads. You only get sign-in codes.

2.2 Your profile

• Data: your name (or nickname – you decide what to enter) and your avatar. The avatar is a drawn character you pick in the app. We only store which character and colour you chose. We do not upload photos.
• Purpose: make you recognisable in the app and in your groups.
• Visible to: you and the members of your groups.
• Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

2.3 Your answers and books

• Data: your answers to the daily questions, the date, the question they belong to, your books (e.g. your journal, Rauhnächte), the question depth you chose and when you started a book.
• Purpose: keep your journal and show you earlier answers again (e.g. from the same day last year).
• Visible to: personal answers only to you. Group answers: see 2.4.
• Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

We do not read your answers, analyse them, use them to build profiles about you or to train AI models. ⚠ Check: please confirm this stays true (also no access except for reports, section 2.7, or technical debugging).

What you write is up to you. Boo does not ask for especially sensitive data such as health, religion or sexual orientation. Think about what you share – above all in groups, where others read along.

2.4 Groups

• Data: the group's name and symbol, the join code, who created the group, who is a member and since when, your answers in the group.
• Purpose: write together in a group book.
• Visible to: members of the group only. You see the others' answers only once you have answered for that day yourself – and the other way round.
• Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

Good to know:

• Anyone with the join code can join the group. Share it only with people you want in it.
• If you leave a group (or are removed), we delete your answers in that group, along with the reactions to them and your reactions in that group. The other members no longer see them, and you can no longer read the group's answers.
• If you delete your account and you created a group, the group passes to the member who has been in it longest. If you are the only member, the group is deleted.

2.5 Reactions

• Data: which reaction you gave to which group answer, and when.
• Visible to: members of the group.
• Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

2.6 Feedback on questions

If a question doesn't fit you, you can tell us.

• Data: which question, 1 to 3 reasons (e.g. “too deep”, “unclear”), an optional short note, your account ID, time.
• Purpose: improve the questions.
• Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Our legitimate interest is making the questions better. Giving feedback is voluntary.
• You cannot view your feedback later; other users never see it.

2.7 Reporting answers

If an answer in a group hurts you or breaks the rules, you can report it.

• Data: who reported, whose answer was reported, a copy of the reported text, the reason, an optional note, time and status.
• Why a copy? So we can review the report even if the answer has been changed since.
• Purpose: protecting users, handling reports, enforcing our rules.
• Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (our legitimate interest in a safe app and in protecting users) and Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR where the law requires us to handle reports (Art. 16 Digital Services Act). ⚠ Check: whether and how far the DSA applies.
• Who sees it? Only us. The reported person does not learn who reported them. ⚠ Check: whether the affected person is told about an action taken (statement of reasons, Art. 17 DSA) is not decided yet.
• Retention: we delete the report and the copied text 6 months after the report is closed. If you delete your account, a report you made stays without any link to you. A report about you stays until that period ends, so we can still trace abuse.

2.8 Blocking

• Data: whom you blocked.
• Purpose: answers and reactions of the blocked person are no longer shown to you. The blocked person is not told.
• Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

2.9 Age confirmation

Boo is for people aged 16 and over. At sign-up you confirm that you are at least 16.

• Data: the time of your confirmation (not your date of birth).
• Purpose: show that we asked about age.
• Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in being able to show that we respect the age limit).

2.10 Language

• Data: the language you use the app in (German or English).
• Purpose: show you questions in your language – also in groups with members who use another language.
• Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

2.11 Notifications

The daily reminder stays on your device. If you turn it on, your iPhone itself schedules a notification at the time you chose. The time is stored only on your device.

Group notifications are sent by us. If you allow them, the app registers a push token for this one app install with Expo and stores it with us under your account (push_tokens), together with your notification settings (which events, quiet hours, your time zone). When somebody writes a page in one of your groups, leaves a feeling on your page, or joins, we send the group's name, that person's name and — for a page — the question of the day to the Expo Push Service, which passes it on to Apple's notification service. We never send the text of an answer in a notification. Legal basis: performance of the contract, Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR, for a function you switched on.

The token is deleted when you sign out, when you delete your account, and as soon as Expo reports that the install is gone. You can take back the notification permission at any time in the iOS settings, and you can switch the events off individually in the app.

2.12 Data on your device

The app stores on your device only what it needs to work: your sign-in, whether you have seen the introduction, the reminder time and, if set, your language. This is strictly necessary for the function you asked for (§ 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG). There are no tracking cookies or similar techniques.

2.13 App updates

We ship small improvements and fixes through Expo's “EAS Update” service (see section 4) straight into the app, without an App Store update.

• Data: when checking for updates, the app sends technical data to Expo: IP address, app version, platform, a random installation ID. No account or content data.
• Purpose: fix bugs quickly, keep the app current and secure.
• Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in a working, secure app).

⚠ Check: exactly which data EAS Update sends and how long Expo keeps it.

2.14 Server logs

When the app talks to our server, technical logs are created: IP address, time, requested function, error messages, device type/app identifier.

• Purpose: operation, security, debugging, preventing abuse (e.g. too many sign-in attempts).
• Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR.
• Retention: 7 days.

2.15 When you write to us

If you email us or use the contact form on our website, we process your email address, your name if you give it, and the content to reply to you (Art. 6(1)(b) or (f) GDPR). The contact form sends your message to us as an email through united-domains (section 4) and stores nothing itself; to keep spam out, your IP address is held in memory for at most one hour. We delete the message once the matter is settled, at the latest after 12 months, unless the law requires us to keep it.

2.16 Beta test via TestFlight

While Boo is distributed as a beta through Apple's TestFlight, Apple may share the following with us: your email address (if we invited you by email), crash reports, feedback and screenshots you send through TestFlight, and device model and iOS version. We use them only to fix bugs and improve the app (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). Apple's privacy policy applies to TestFlight itself.

2.17 What we don't do

• No tracking, no ads, no advertising IDs.
• No third-party analytics or statistics services, no third-party crash analytics.
• No selling or sharing of your data for advertising.
• No automated decisions or profiling within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR.

3. Do you have to provide data?

We need your email address for an account. Without it you cannot use Boo. Name and avatar are needed by the app, but you can use a nickname. Everything else (groups, feedback, reports, reminder) is optional.

4. Who receives your data

We do not pass your data to third parties, except to these service providers who work for us (processors under Art. 28 GDPR) and are bound by our instructions:

Also:

• Members of your groups see your name, avatar, group answers and reactions (see 2.4).
• Apple distributes the app through the App Store and TestFlight. Apple is responsible for that itself; Apple's privacy policy applies.
• Authorities receive data only where the law requires us to (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR).

⚠ Check: a data processing agreement (DPA) must be in place with every processor.

5. Transfers outside the EU

• Supabase: our data is stored in a data centre in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, inside the EU (region eu-central-1). Our contracting party is Supabase Pte. Ltd. in Singapore; Supabase, Inc. in the USA helps with support and operations. Access from there is possible. This is covered by the EU Standard Contractual Clauses in Supabase's data processing agreement.
• Expo (USA): the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, in which 650 Industries, Inc. participates.
• united-domains: no transfer; emails are sent from Germany.

You can ask us for a copy of the safeguards (boo.support@geildanke.com).

6. How long we keep data

⚠ Check: what happens to accounts that are not used for a long time? Currently: nothing. See open-questions.md.

If the law requires us to keep data longer (e.g. invoices, if purchases come later), we keep it only as long as required.

7. Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app at any time: Me → Delete account.

We then immediately delete:

• your account and your email address,
• your profile (name, avatar),
• all your answers – personal and in groups,
• your reactions and other people's reactions to your answers,
• your memberships, books, blocks and your question feedback.

Exceptions:

• Groups you created pass to another member (see 2.4).
• Reports stay until their period ends (see 2.7); reports you made stay without a link to you.
• Backups still contain the data for up to 7 days until they are overwritten automatically.

Deleting only the app from your iPhone does not delete your account.

8. Your rights

You have the right to:

• access your data (Art. 15 GDPR),
• rectification of wrong data (Art. 16 GDPR) – you can change your name and avatar yourself in the app,
• erasure (Art. 17 GDPR) – easiest via “Delete account”,
• restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR),
• data portability (Art. 20 GDPR) – on request you get your data in a common format (⚠ Check: there is no in-app export yet; request by email),
• withdraw any consent with effect for the future (Art. 7(3) GDPR), where we process data based on consent.

Right to object (Art. 21 GDPR): where we process data based on our legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR), you can object at any time on grounds relating to your particular situation. We then stop, unless we have compelling grounds that override your interests, or the data is needed to establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

For any of this, just write to boo.support@geildanke.com. So that we don't hand data to strangers, please write from the email address you use to sign in to Boo.

9. Complaints to a supervisory authority

You can complain to a data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR), for example the one where you live or the one responsible for us:

Berlin Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (Berliner Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit) Alt-Moabit 59–61, 10555 Berlin, Germany https://www.datenschutz-berlin.de

But we'd much rather sort it out with you directly first.

10. Minimum age 16

Boo is only for people aged 16 and over. If we learn that someone is younger, we delete the account. If you believe a child under 16 is using Boo, write to boo.support@geildanke.com.

11. Security

The connection between the app and the server is encrypted (TLS). Access rules in the database make sure each person can only read the data they are allowed to see. The app contains no keys with full database access.

12. In-app purchases (later)

There are currently no purchases in Boo. If we offer purchases through Apple later, Apple handles the payment; we receive no payment data. We will update this policy before that.

13. Changes

When the app or the law changes, we update this privacy policy. The current version is always in the app and at https://boo.geildanke.com/privacy. For important changes we let you know in the app.