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Privacy Policy

Last updated: 14 November 2026 · Version 4.4 · applies to this website and the YearAtlas app. In case of doubt, the German version prevails.

1. Controller

The controller responsible for processing personal data within the meaning of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is:

Folkert Eggen
Sole proprietorship “YearAtlas”
Münzweg 8
20097 Hamburg
Germany
Email: [email protected]
Phone: +49 173 2622608

No data protection officer has been appointed, as the legal requirements for doing so (Section 38 BDSG, Art. 37 GDPR) are not met. Please send any data protection questions directly to the address above.

2. Summary

3. This website

3.1 Hosting and server log files

When you visit this website, our hosting provider automatically processes technical information transmitted by your browser: IP address, date and time of access, page requested, browser and operating system, and the referring page. This is necessary to deliver the website securely and reliably and to protect it against attacks.

Provider: Cloudflare, Inc., 101 Townsend St., San Francisco, CA 94107, USA (“Cloudflare Pages” service). The website is delivered through the provider's global network of data centres, usually from the one closest to you. A data processing agreement under Art. 28 GDPR is in place. For transfers to the USA, see section 6.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in a secure and functional website).
Retention: We do not keep access logs ourselves and have not enabled logging in our account. Cloudflare processes the data only as long as necessary to deliver the site and fend off attacks, and then deletes it according to its own schedules; Cloudflare does not state a fixed period for this.

3.2 Waiting list

If you join the waiting list, we process your email address to invite you personally when YearAtlas launches. The waiting list is not a newsletter: it does not lead to any other promotional email. You can subscribe to the newsletter separately (3.3).

Double opt-in: After signing up you receive an email with a confirmation link. You are only added once you confirm. To be able to prove your consent, we store the time of sign-up and confirmation and the IP address used.

Service provider: We use Brevo, provided by Sendinblue GmbH, Köpenicker Straße 126, 10179 Berlin, Germany. Brevo processes the data on servers within the European Union and is bound by our instructions under a data processing agreement (Art. 28 GDPR). More information: Brevo privacy policy.

Legal basis: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR); logging the consent is based on Art. 6(1)(c) in conjunction with Art. 7(1) GDPR (duty to demonstrate consent).
Retention: until the launch invitation has been sent, at most six months after YearAtlas launches, or until you withdraw — whichever comes first. We keep proof of consent for up to three years after the end of the year in which the consent ends (standard limitation period).
Withdrawal: at any time via the unsubscribe link in every email or informally by email to [email protected]. This does not affect the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.
Voluntary: Providing your email address is voluntary; without it we simply cannot invite you.

3.3 Newsletter

If you subscribe to the newsletter – on the home page, on the “News” page or by ticking the box when joining the waiting list – we process your email address to send you news from the development of YearAtlas roughly every two weeks. The newsletter is independent of the waiting list: you can choose one without the other and end each separately.

Double opt-in: After subscribing you receive a separate email with a confirmation link. You only receive the newsletter once you confirm. To be able to prove your consent, we store the time of subscription and confirmation and the IP address used.

No tracking of reading behaviour: We do not analyse whether or when you open the newsletter or which links in it you click. We have switched off the measurement features provided for this at Brevo.

Service provider: Brevo (Sendinblue GmbH, Berlin), as described in section 3.2. The data is processed on servers within the European Union.

Legal basis: your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, Section 7(2) no. 2 of the German Unfair Competition Act, UWG); logging the consent is based on Art. 6(1)(c) in conjunction with Art. 7(1) GDPR (duty to demonstrate consent).
Retention: until you unsubscribe. After that you receive no further issues; your address is only kept at Brevo marked as “unsubscribed” so that it is not contacted again by mistake (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). On request we delete it completely. We keep proof of consent for up to three years after the end of the year in which the consent ends (standard limitation period).
Withdrawal: at any time via the unsubscribe link in every issue or informally by email to [email protected]. This does not affect the lawfulness of processing before withdrawal.
Voluntary: Providing your email address is voluntary; without it we simply cannot send you the newsletter.

3.4 Fonts

The fonts used on this website are hosted on our own web server. No connection to Google or other font providers is made when you visit the site.

3.5 Cookies and browser storage

This website does not set cookies or store information in your browser. There are no analytics or marketing tools, so no consent banner is required. Should this change, we will update this policy beforehand and obtain your consent where necessary.

3.6 Share and follow buttons

The buttons for sharing (e.g. WhatsApp, LinkedIn) and for following our profiles (LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, X, TikTok) are plain links. Only when you click one does the respective provider's page open, and its privacy policy applies. No data is sent to these providers before that.

3.7 Contact by email

If you email us, we process your address and the information you provide in order to respond. Emails to [email protected] are forwarded to our mailbox by Cloudflare (see 3.1); Cloudflare does not store the messages permanently.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR where your enquiry relates to a contract, otherwise Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in answering enquiries).
Retention: until your enquiry has been dealt with, unless statutory retention obligations apply.

3.8 Our social media profiles

We maintain profiles on LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok. If you visit them, interact with our posts (e.g. like, comment, share) or send us a message there, we process the information you make visible to us (e.g. your profile name and the content of your message) in order to reply and stay in touch. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in communicating with interested people (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

When you visit our profiles, the providers process data themselves, for example for statistics and advertising, under their own privacy policies and in some cases outside the EU. We only receive aggregated statistics from the providers, no information about individual persons. For the page statistics on Facebook and Instagram we are joint controllers with Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (Art. 26 GDPR); Meta publishes the essential content of this arrangement on its website.

You can exercise your rights (e.g. access, erasure, objection) with us and with the respective provider. Providers: LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company (LinkedIn), Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (Instagram, Facebook), Twitter International Unlimited Company (X) and TikTok Technology Limited (TikTok), each based in Ireland.

3.9 Video on the home page

The explainer video on the home page is hosted on our own web space at Cloudflare (see 3.1), not on YouTube or any other video service. It is only loaded when you click "Play". This creates only the usual technical access data, as with any page visit (3.1); no cookies are set and no data is passed on to any other provider.

4. The YearAtlas app

4.1 Core principle: your data stays with you

All content you create in the app — calendar entries, stays, locations, activities, goals, financial entries, passport and visa data, documents, emergency documents, receipts, photos, notes, reminders and your profile — is stored in an encrypted database on your device (SQLCipher, AES-256). The database key is kept in the device's protected key storage (keychain on Apple devices, Android Keystore on Android devices) — on Apple devices with iCloud Keychain turned on, additionally in your iCloud, end-to-end encrypted by Apple, so that your data stays readable on a new device restored from an iCloud backup. We never receive this key.

Without an account, this content is not transferred to us or to third parties (for place names see 4.6, for error reports 4.13). Optionally, you can lock the app with Face ID or Touch ID, or on Android with fingerprint or face unlock; the biometric check is carried out solely by your device's operating system — we receive no biometric data.

4.2 Account (optional)

You only need an account if you want to sync your data between several of your own devices (4.3) or — with the Team plan — use shared calendars (4.5). You can sign in either:

Data processed: account ID, email address, display name; for each sign-in (session) the IP address, device type and operating system, the country derived from it and timestamps; a public key for encryption (4.4); if you allow notifications, your device's notification token (push token); the time of your consent under 4.14, so that it remains verifiable.
Purpose: sign-in, protection against misuse, sync and delivery of notifications.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of the contract for use of the app); for security logs Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in secure operation).
Voluntary: An account is not required. Without an account, only sync between devices and shared calendars are unavailable.
Deleting your account: at any time in the app under Settings → “Account & my devices” → “Delete account”. This deletes your account, your public key, all synced data and files on the server, your entries in shared calendars, calendars in which you are the only member, invitations you created or accepted, your notification tokens and your record with our subscription service provider RevenueCat (4.12). It does not cancel a running subscription — that continues with Apple or Google until you cancel it there. If you signed in with Apple, we also revoke the connection with Apple. The data on your device remains until you delete it yourself.

4.3 Sync between your own devices

With an account, your content (4.1) is synced between your devices so that it is identical and up to date on all your devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac and Android). Sync starts after you sign in and can be turned off at any time under Settings → “Account & my devices”.

Every record and every file is encrypted on your device (XChaCha20-Poly1305) before it leaves the device — with a key that only your devices have. This also applies to particularly sensitive information, such as health details in emergency documents. The server only holds unreadable data. All the server can see is:

Device-specific settings (e.g. app lock, location, notifications, language, light/dark) are not synced. Files are synced up to 50 MB per file; larger files stay on the device only.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

4.4 Keys and recovery

Your private key is stored in your device's protected key storage — on Apple devices, if iCloud Keychain is turned on, also in your iCloud, end-to-end encrypted by Apple; on Android devices only in the device's Android Keystore. We never receive it. Our server only holds your public key and a sync key wrapped with your key (and therefore unreadable for us).

The recovery code that the app shows after confirmation with Face ID, fingerprint or your device passcode is your key itself. It is not stored anywhere on our side. Please keep it safe: without the key and without the code, even we cannot restore encrypted data.

4.5 Shared calendars (Team plan)

With the Team plan you can share calendars with other people. Entries (e.g. presence, notes, reminders, appointments, documents) and calendar names are encrypted on your device; only the members of the respective calendar can read them.

So that the server can check permissions and send notifications, the following information is stored there unencrypted: which accounts are members of which calendar and which team, role, chosen colour, display name, type and time of an entry, author, for entries “only for selected people” the IDs of these people, and for documents the file size. Invitation links are valid for 7 days; the key they contain is encrypted and cannot be read by the server. The app remembers each member’s public key on first contact. If the server later delivers a different one, the app warns you and releases nothing for that key until you have checked it; to do so, you can compare a safety number with the member.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR. Other members see your display name and your entries in shared calendars because you deliberately share them.

Team seats: Whoever pays for the Team plan can invite up to five more people to their team; they use the features of the Team plan without a subscription of their own. For this, the server stores who belongs to which team and who pays for it, the team name and open invitations (valid for 7 days, single use). Only a non-reversible check value (hash) of the invitation code is stored. The paying person sees the members' display names and email addresses; members only see display names.
Whether the Team plan is active is checked by our server with RevenueCat (4.12) using the account ID of the paying person, and the end of the paid period is noted with the team. If the subscription ends, nothing is deleted: shared calendars remain readable; new entries and invitations are only possible again after renewal.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

4.6 Device permissions

The app only asks for system permissions when you want to use the related feature. You can revoke any permission at any time in your device settings.

Motion data is not used. Data from these permissions stays on the device or, with an account, is only synced encrypted (4.3).

4.7 Notifications

Reminders and appointments you create yourself are scheduled locally on your device. For shared calendars, our server sends a general message (e.g. “News in a shared calendar”) to your device via the Apple Push Notification service when other members make changes. Calendar names and content are not sent to Apple. On Android devices these notifications are not yet active (4.15). Notifications can be turned off per calendar.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.

4.8 Exchange rates

For currency conversion, the app retrieves current reference rates of the European Central Bank via the public interface api.frankfurter.dev. No content from the app is transmitted — for technical reasons the service only receives your device's IP address.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in working currency conversion).

4.9 Backups and export

The app automatically creates backups on your device and lets you export a complete calendar file. These files only leave the device if you share them yourself via the share function or save them to a folder of your choice (e.g. AirDrop, email, your own cloud storage). We never receive them. Automatic backups are encrypted with a key that exists only on your device. Exported calendar files are protected by a password you choose yourself (at least 10 characters); a file without a password is only created if you explicitly confirm this. Without the password, a protected file cannot be opened, not even by us.

4.10 Example mode

Example mode works with made-up example data in a separate database on the device, kept apart from your real data.

4.11 Storage on the device

The app only stores information on your device that is strictly necessary for the features you want (e.g. your content, settings, sign-in, keys). The legal basis is Section 25(2) No. 2 TDDDG (German Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act); no separate consent is required for this.

4.12 Subscriptions (in-app purchase)

The basic features of the app are free. The Standard, Premium and Team plans are subscriptions that you take out in the app via Apple's App Store or, on Android devices, via Google Play. The respective store handles purchase, payment, renewal, cancellation and refunds under its own responsibility; Apple's privacy policy or Google's privacy policy applies. We receive no payment details, no name and no address from the store. You can cancel at any time in your Apple ID settings or under “Subscriptions” in Google Play (in the app under Settings → Membership → “Manage plan”).

To determine which plan you are entitled to, we use the service RevenueCat. The following is processed:

With an account, your subscription is therefore available on all your devices; without an account, “Restore purchases” restores it via your Apple ID or Google account. RevenueCat notifies our server of changes to a subscription (e.g. purchase, renewal, cancellation) so that the status of a Team plan is correct immediately (4.5).

Founding member offer: The offer applies to the first 100 subscriptions. To count them, our server stores for each founder subscription only a non-reversible check value (hash) derived from the store's transaction ID, the product and the time — without any link to your account or to you as a person.

Purpose: unlocking and restoring the purchased plan, checking team seats, counting the founding member offer.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of the subscription contract).
Voluntary: Without a subscription you use the free plan; the app then only asks RevenueCat to confirm that there is no subscription and loads current prices.

4.13 Error reports (Sentry)

If an error or crash occurs in the app, it sends a technical error report to our service provider Sentry so that we can find and fix the error. The report only contains: the error message and the place in the program code, device model, operating system and app version, and the time. It contains no content from the app, no account identifier, no name, no email address, no device or advertising identifier, no screenshots and no recording of your input. For technical reasons, Sentry receives your device's IP address when the report is sent. Reports are stored in a data centre in Frankfurt am Main (EU).

Turning it off: at any time in the app under Settings → Legal → “Send error reports”.
Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in an error-free, secure app).
Retention: at most 90 days.

4.14 Particularly sensitive data (Art. 9 GDPR)

The app does not ask for health data or other special categories of personal data. However, you may store content yourself that contains such information — for example a living will or a lasting power of attorney among your emergency documents. Without an account, this content stays exclusively on your device. With an account, it is transmitted and stored only end-to-end encrypted during sync (4.3) and, if you share it in a shared calendar (4.5); neither we nor our service providers can read it.

Legal basis: To the extent that this constitutes processing of special categories of personal data by us, your explicit consent (Art. 9(2)(a) in conjunction with Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you give in the app when signing in by ticking a separate box.
Withdrawal: at any time with effect for the future by turning off sync and no longer sharing content; you delete the data stored with us by deleting your account (4.2). The lawfulness of processing carried out until then remains unaffected.
Voluntary: Without consent you can use the app fully, just without an account.

4.15 Features not yet active

The following features are prepared in the app but currently not active. We will update this policy before we turn them on:

5. Recipients and service providers

We only share personal data where necessary for the purposes described. We do not sell data. All service providers processing data on our behalf are contractually obliged to protect your data at least as well as described in this policy.

6. Transfers to third countries

Appwrite Code, Inc., RevenueCat, Inc. and Functional Software, Inc. (Sentry) are based in the USA. Transfers there are based on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (Module 2, controller to processor), which are part of our data processing agreements with these providers (Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR). Where Appwrite Code Ltd. in Israel, part of the Appwrite group, has access, this is permitted under Art. 45 GDPR, as an adequacy decision of the European Commission exists for Israel (Decision 2011/61/EU, most recently confirmed in January 2024). You can request a copy via the address given in section 1. Where sub-processors of Appwrite, Apple or Google transfer data to the USA, this is based on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework or the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (Art. 46 GDPR). Your content from sync and shared calendars is always end-to-end encrypted and cannot be read by these parties. For our website service provider: Cloudflare, Inc. is also based in the USA. Cloudflare is certified under the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, so an adequacy decision of the European Commission applies to the transfer (Art. 45 GDPR). In addition, our data processing agreement with Cloudflare includes the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses (Art. 46(2)(c) GDPR). Brevo processes waiting-list data within the European Union.

7. Retention

Statutory retention obligations (e.g. under commercial and tax law) remain unaffected.

8. Security

All connections to this website and to the app are encrypted with TLS. Content is encrypted on the device with SQLCipher and additionally end-to-end encrypted during sync. The keys required for this are sealed so that your device only accepts keys that come from you or from members already known to it; even an attacker with access to our server could not slip you a foreign key. The app lock with Face ID, Touch ID, fingerprint or face unlock provides additional protection if someone has access to your unlocked device.

9. Minimum age

YearAtlas and the waiting list are intended for people aged 16 and over. Younger people may only create an account or join the waiting list with the consent of their parents or guardians (Art. 8 GDPR).

10. No automated decisions, no tracking

We do not make automated decisions within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR and do not create profiles. Calculations such as the 183-day indicator run exclusively on your device and serve only your own orientation. This website and the app contain no advertising and no tracking across other companies' apps or websites.

11. Your rights

You have the following rights regarding personal data concerning you:

For any request, an email to [email protected] is sufficient.

Right to object (Art. 21 GDPR): Where we process data based on legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR), you may object at any time on grounds relating to your particular situation.

Right to lodge a complaint: You can lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR), for example the authority responsible for us: Der Hamburgische Beauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit, Ludwig-Erhard-Straße 22, 20459 Hamburg, Germany.

12. Changes to this policy

We update this privacy policy when our data processing changes — in particular before we turn on any of the features listed in 4.15. The current version applies and can be found on this page and in the app under Settings.