Privacy Policy

In short

• No tracking, no ads, we never sell your data.
• Only your friends see your posts and stories.
• Servers in Germany. You can delete your account in the app at any time.

1. Controller

Günter Lepuschitz
Neuer Weg 3, 3422 Altenberg, Austria
Email: lepo@lepo.at
Contact form: needle.at/kontakt.html

No data protection officer has been appointed, as this is not legally required. For privacy questions, just write to the email address above.

2. Data we process

• Account data: username, email address, password (only as an encrypted hash), display name, bio, profile picture, accent colour, app language, sign-up date, invite code.
• Security: if two-factor sign-in is enabled, the secret key (encrypted) and recovery codes (only as a hash); password reset codes (briefly); briefly, the number of failed sign-in attempts.
• Content: posts, stories, comments, likes, who viewed your stories, direct and group chat messages, uploaded images, groups (name, emoji, members, admins).
• Relationships: friendships, requests, blocked users, invitations and badges.
• Moderation: reports (who reported what and why), hits of the automatic filter with a short text excerpt, warnings, bans with reason and duration, and appeals.
• Support: support tickets and your messages via the contact form.
• Technical data: IP address, time and requested address in server logs; the IP address is also held briefly in memory to fend off attacks.

We do not collect location data, contacts from your address book, health or payment data, or advertising identifiers. The app contains no analytics or advertising SDKs.

3. Purposes and legal bases (GDPR)

• Providing Needle. (account, content, friends, chats, groups, account emails): performance of a contract, Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.
• Security, abuse and spam prevention, moderation (automatic filter, reports, bans, server logs): legitimate interest in a safe platform, Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, and legal obligations, Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR (e.g. the Digital Services Act).
• Support and contact form: Art. 6(1)(b) or (f) GDPR.
• Applying as a tester: consent, Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, which you can withdraw at any time by email.

4. Who sees your data

• Friends: only users you are friends with see your posts, stories, bio and badges.
• All signed-in users: username, display name and profile picture (e.g. in search).
• Chats: direct messages are seen only by the recipient, group messages by all members of the group. Group members also see the username and profile picture of other members, even if they are not friends.
• Needle team: moderators see reported content. Admins and the owner can view all posts, comments and profiles for moderation. The team only sees direct and group messages if they were reported or flagged by the automatic filter.
• Authorities: only where we are legally required to, or where there are indications of criminal offences threatening the life or safety of persons.

5. Service providers and international transfers

• Hetzner Online GmbH, Germany – servers and database (processor under Art. 28 GDPR). All data is stored in Germany.
• Google (Gmail) – sending emails (e.g. codes, confirmations, replies). Google processes your email address and the content of the email, including in the USA, based on the EU adequacy decision for the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, under which Google is certified, and standard contractual clauses.
• Apple – distribution of the app via the App Store or TestFlight. Apple's privacy policy applies; we only receive anonymous statistics from Apple.

We do not sell your data or share it for advertising.

6. Automated decisions

An automatic filter checks text for abusive terms, links and spam before it is sent. It can block a text and, after several violations within one day, automatically ban your account for a limited time. You can always ask for a human to review the decision (appeal in the app or by email), express your point of view and contest the decision (Art. 22 GDPR). Images are not analysed automatically.

7. Retention

• Stories disappear after 24 hours and are deleted automatically shortly afterwards.
• Password reset codes expire after a short time.
• All other account and content data is kept until you delete it or your account.
• Reports, filter hits and bans are kept as long as the account exists, so that repeated violations can be detected.
• Server logs are deleted after 14 days at the latest.
• Database backups are deleted after 30 days at the latest. Deleted data may remain in a backup until then.
• Tester applications are deleted at the end of the test phase at the latest; contact form conversations once the request is resolved and no retention obligations apply.

8. Deleting your account

You can delete your account at any time in the app under Profile → Settings → Delete account. Your profile, posts, stories, comments, likes, messages (including in groups), images, friendships, reports and moderation data are removed from the database immediately. Groups you created remain for the other members.

9. Children

Needle is for users aged 14 and over. We do not knowingly collect data from children under 14 (in the USA: under 13). If we learn of such an account, we delete it. Parents can contact us by email.

10. On your device

The app stores your sign-in securely in your iPhone's Keychain and, for the widgets, a small preview (e.g. number of unread messages) in a protected area on the device. The app accesses the camera and photos only when you take or choose a photo yourself. Our website does not use cookies for tracking or advertising.

11. Your rights

You have the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and to withdraw consent. You can object at any time to processing based on legitimate interests. Write to lepo@lepo.at; we reply within one month.

You can also lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority; in Austria this is the Datenschutzbehörde, Barichgasse 40–42, 1030 Vienna, www.dsb.gv.at.

12. Notice for users in the United States

• We do not sell personal information and do not share it for cross-context behavioural advertising (as defined under California law). There is no targeted advertising.
• The categories of data, their sources (you and your use of the app), purposes and recipients are described in sections 2 to 5. You can request access, correction and deletion; we will not discriminate against you for exercising these rights.
• Do Not Track: we do not track you across other websites or apps, so such a signal changes nothing.
• Needle is not directed at children under 13 (COPPA).
• Your data is processed in Germany, i.e. outside the United States.

13. Changes

If Needle changes, we will update this policy. We will inform you about material changes in the app.