Privacy policy
The data controller is poqui's developer, an individual established in Italy, identified as the seller of poqui on the App Store (in the European Union, with the trader details Apple shows on poqui's App Store page). Contact: hello@poqui.app. No data protection officer is appointed.
The short version. poqui has no accounts. When you press “What's here?”, your phone sends your current coordinates and your language to our server so we can compose a story about that place; we don't keep your coordinates. The names of the street, area and town, and of nearby landmarks, go on to AI models through OpenRouter, which write the story, and the app asks for your agreement before the first one is sent. Your postcards and your story history live on your phone; our server keeps counters and, for 60 days, a list of the stories your random ID has heard.
What we process, and why
- Location (only when you press the button, type a place or open the morning story): coordinates, approximate accuracy, and place names your iPhone resolves on-device. Used to find sources and compose the story. Coordinates are not stored; a story is cached by its map cell (a ~150 m square, no user data) for up to 45 days so the next person at the same spot gets it faster.
- Story composition (AI): to write the story we send the name of the street, area and town where you are, how accurate the position is, the names of nearby venues, the titles of stories you already heard at that spot (so you get a new one), the sources found nearby (public Wikipedia/Wikidata excerpts) and your language to OpenRouter, Inc. (USA), which routes the request to Google (Gemini) or, as a fallback, OpenAI. We configure OpenRouter to use only providers that do not train on our data, and we send no identifier. To read the story aloud, its text is sent through OpenRouter to a speech provider; readings are cached by their text, never by person.
- Questions (Ask poqui, only if you use it): the text of your question is sent with the story's sources to the same AI providers to answer it. Answers are cached for 7 days by story and question, never by person. poqui never receives audio: iOS turns a spoken question into text on your iPhone where the language supports it, otherwise on Apple's servers under Apple's privacy policy.
- Anonymous app identifier: a random ID created on install. It counts your free stories, questions and the cities you ask poqui to write, restores purchases and, so that each story is counted once, keeps for 60 days the IDs of the stories it has heard. A story ID stands for a place (a ~150 m map square) while that story is cached. We never use this to follow you and never combine it with anything else. The ID is not linked to your name, email or contacts (we never ask for them).
- Purchases: handled by Apple and RevenueCat (the anonymous ID, subscription status, transaction IDs and, if you came from an Apple Ads ad, which campaign and search brought you). We never see your payment details.
- Security: your IP address, as a one-way hash, to apply rate limits.
- Feedback (only if you send it): your words, the story ID, the app version, the iPhone model, the language and whether you are on Plus. Not linked to your ID. It reaches our inbox by email.
- Reports: if you tap “Report an error”, we receive the story ID and your note.
- Notifications (only if you opt in): the morning story is scheduled on your iPhone. If we switch on server push, a push token and the anonymous ID go to OneSignal, Inc. (USA) to deliver it.
- On your phone only: your story history, postcards, listening progress, settings and, if you give it, your first name (used only to greet you). None of these is sent to us, except that when you press again at a spot, the titles of the stories you already heard there go with the request so you get a new one.
Legal bases
- Composing stories and answers (including sending place names and questions to the AI providers), counting the free allowance and restoring purchases: performance of our contract with you (Article 6(1)(b) GDPR); sending place names and questions to the AI providers also needs your agreement in the app, which you can withdraw at any time in poqui › Settings › Permissions › AI stories.
- Location, microphone and notifications: your consent, given in the iOS prompts and revocable at any time in iOS Settings, without affecting what was done before.
- Rate limits, abuse prevention, keeping the service up, and handling feedback and error reports: our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
Who else handles your data
OpenRouter, Inc. (USA) and the AI and speech providers it routes to (Google, OpenAI); RevenueCat, Inc. (USA); Vercel Inc. (our hosting); Upstash, Inc. (our counters store); Cloudflare, Inc. (USA) and Google LLC (email: feedback, and what you write to hello@poqui.app, reach our inbox through them); and, if server push is switched on, OneSignal, Inc. (USA). Each processes data only for the purposes above, under a data processing agreement or its published terms, and provides the same or equal protection of your data as this policy describes and as the App Store Review Guidelines require. Apple is an independent controller for purchases and for speech recognition.
Transfers outside the EEA rely on the EU–US Data Privacy Framework where the recipient is certified under it, and otherwise on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses. Ask us which applies to a given recipient.
What we don't do
No accounts, no email, no ads, no selling of personal data, no sharing for advertising, no raw coordinates stored on our servers, no tracking across apps or websites.
Retention
Coordinates: not retained after the story is composed. Story cache: up to 45 days, keyed by place, not by person. Stories heard by an ID: 60 days. Answers to questions: 7 days, keyed by story and question. Anonymous ID and daily counters: 90 days rolling; a lifetime count of stories heard per ID is kept until you ask us to delete it. Hashed IP addresses: up to 48 hours. Error reports: 180 days. Feedback: 12 months. Purchase records: as required by Apple and RevenueCat.
Your rights (GDPR)
You can ask to access, correct or delete the data we hold against your anonymous ID, to restrict or object to its processing, and to receive it in a portable form, and you can withdraw consent at any time. Write to hello@poqui.app with your Support ID (poqui › Settings › Access). Deleting the app deletes your local history and postcards. You can also complain to the Italian supervisory authority, the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, or to the authority where you live.
Children
poqui is not directed at children under 14. If you believe a child has sent us data, write to us and we will delete it.
Changes
We'll update this page and the date above when anything changes.