Privacy policy
Updated 27 October 2026. Covers the Peplos iPhone app and its TestFlight beta, the account in the app, «Написать нам» (Write to us) messages, player photos, the expert cabinet and the waitlist on this website.
Who is responsible
Mikhail Mitrushin, Paphos, Cyprus. Contact: [email protected].
In short
Without an account, what you find and where you walk stays on your phone. The app has no ads and no analytics, and does not track you across other apps and websites. We do not sell data. Only what is described below reaches a server: your progress while you are signed in, messages, photos and reports, route points when you plan a route, and requests for the map, places and updates. The app is in Russian only, so its buttons are named here in Russian with a translation.
The Peplos app
Location
The app asks for it when you tap «Начать запись» (Start recording) or the «Где я» (Where am I) arrow, plan a route, or create a place in the expert cabinet. Recording runs only between «Начать запись» and «Остановить запись» (Stop recording) and continues with the screen off; iPhone then shows a blue indicator at the top. Your location clears the fog, marks the places you find and drives the navigator. If you have already allowed access, the app reads the last known position at launch to choose the country: Cyprus or the French Riviera.
What stays on the phone
The fog, as cells of about 10 by 10 metres, with no times; the cells are saved in the order you uncovered them. The places you found and when. Your track on an expert route or a nature trail, as points, with the start time and the time at each stop. The planned route, country, hero, achievements and settings. Whom you hid with «Скрыть автора» (Hide author). If you are signed in, the account email, nickname and sign-in key. Without an account, all of this stays only on your phone. With an account, finds, fog and achievements are also kept in it, as described below.
How to erase it from the phone
«Я» → «Начать сначала» (Me → Start over) erases the fog, finds and tracks on routes and trails. ✕ removes the planned route. «Выйти из аккаунта» (Sign out) removes the sign-in, and «Показать скрытых авторов» (Show hidden authors) under player photos in a place card clears the hidden list. Achievements, country, hero and settings go only when you delete the app.
Walking routes
When you ask for a route, and when you leave it and the app plans a new one, the start and end points go to the Valhalla routing server run by FOSSGIS e.V. in Germany, which also sees your internet address. No name, phone number or account is sent.
Map
Apple Maps draws the map. Apple receives requests for map tiles of the area you view and your internet address, under Apple’s privacy policy.
Places, stories and updates
The app loads places, routes, photos and story recordings from our Supabase server in Ireland. It sees your internet address and keeps it in technical logs for up to 7 days. On every launch the app checks for updates with Expo (USA), which receives your internet address, a random install number, the current update number and, if the app crashed, the text of the last error. The voice of the stories and the navigator is pre-recorded and stored in the app or on our server. If there is no recording or no connection, speech synthesis on the phone reads the text. Your voice and data are not sent anywhere for this.
TestFlight beta
While Peplos is in beta, it is installed through Apple’s TestFlight. Apple shares with us crash reports, information about installs and launches, and the feedback you send through TestFlight, with a screenshot if you attach one. If we invited you by email, we see your name and email. This is covered by Apple’s privacy policy and the TestFlight terms.
Trial subscription
The subscription is a trial for now: no money is charged and no payment details are needed. Whether you took it is stored only on the phone.
Legal basis
Location, route planning, the map and loading places are needed to do what you ask the app to do (Article 6(1)(b) of the EU General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR). Update checks, error text and TestFlight reports are our legitimate interest in fixing the app (GDPR Article 6(1)(f)).
Account (optional)
What we receive
Your email, password and nickname. The Supabase sign-in service stores the password, only in encrypted form; we never see it. For each sign-in it also keeps your internet address and details of the app you signed in from. Other players see the nickname under photos you add.
What the account stores
The places you found and when, achievements, and the fog as cells of about 10 by 10 metres, without times. The fog shows where you have been. When you sign in, what is already on the phone moves into the account. Route tracks, planned routes and settings are not synced.
Why and legal basis
So your progress is not lost and is there on a new phone, as you ask by creating an account (GDPR Article 6(1)(b)).
Where it is stored and who sees it
In a Supabase database in Ireland. Only you see your progress. The owner of Peplos and the owner’s AI assistant, described below, can access the database.
How long and how to delete
We keep it while you have an account. «Начать сначала» (Start over) erases finds and fog on the phone and in the account. If the account is also signed in on another phone, sign out there first, or that phone will put its finds and fog back into the account. «Выйти из аккаунта» (Sign out) deletes nothing: the data stays on this phone. «Удалить аккаунт» (Delete account) in the «Я» (Me) card permanently deletes your account email, nickname, finds, fog, achievements, photos and «Скрыть автора» (Hide author) choices from the server. Photo files are erased at the next storage clean-up. Your «Написать нам» (Write to us) messages, with the reply email and screenshot if you left them, and your reports on other people’s photos remain, no longer linked to the account. Copies of your messages are also kept in Linear, the service where we plan work on the app, with your nickname and reply email. We delete messages, screenshots and Linear tasks on request. An expert account cannot be deleted this way: write to us. What stays on the phone and how to erase it is described in “How to erase it from the phone”.
If someone else uses your phone
Before handing it over, tap «Выйти из аккаунта» (Sign out), then «Начать сначала» (Start over), and remove the planned route with ✕: it starts where you were. This erases finds, fog and tracks from the phone only; your account keeps them. Achievements stay on the phone and will move into the next person’s account when they sign in. Only deleting the app removes them.
Messages from the app
What we receive
Your message and its type: a bug, an idea or a review. A screenshot if you attached one; it may show the map with your path. A reply email if you left one. If you are signed in, the field is pre-filled with your account email, and you can clear it. The app adds its version and update, your phone’s system and its version, screen size, where the form was opened, the open place, the game country and a random install number. If you are signed in, the server links the message to your account. In the messages table the server keeps only a fingerprint of your internet address, not the address itself. The app does not attach your location to the message.
Why
To fix bugs, consider ideas and reply to you if you left an email. The install number and the address fingerprint let us filter out messages that are sent too often or repeated.
Legal basis
Our legitimate interest in fixing the app and protecting it from spam (GDPR Article 6(1)(f)). You send the message and the email yourself.
Where the data is stored
In a Supabase database in Ireland. A copy of the message becomes a task in Linear, with the screenshot, email, nickname (if you are signed in) and phone details. Linear’s servers are in the United States, and Linear processes the data under its data processing agreement. The owner of Peplos and the owner’s AI assistant can access the tasks.
How long
Up to 12 months after we reply or fix the issue, then we delete it by hand. Sooner if you ask, together with the Linear task and the screenshot. Deleting your account unlinks the messages from it.
Player photos in the app
What we store
The photo you uploaded and a smaller copy, the place it belongs to, the date, your nickname and the moderation decision, with a short description of the photo and any text visible in it. If a photo is reported: the reason, the comment, the reporter’s account if they were signed in, and, for guests, the email they chose to leave. If an author is blocked for breaking the rules: the block and a note. If you are signed in: whom you hid with «Скрыть автора» (Hide author).
What we do not store
The location, phone model and time from the file: the phone and the server strip them before saving.
Why and legal basis
To show your photo to other players, as you ask when you upload it (GDPR Article 6(1)(b)). To check photos and handle reports: our legitimate interest and our duties under the EU Digital Services Act (GDPR Article 6(1)(f) and (c)).
Who else sees the photo
After the check, the photo, with your nickname and the date, is visible to anyone who opens the place card, including people without an account. You can add a photo only to a place you found, so the photo shows that you were there. Google: before a photo is shown, the Gemini model checks it. Google processes it under the paid Gemini API terms and its data processing agreement: it does not use it for training and keeps it for up to 55 days for abuse monitoring. Google’s servers may be outside the EU, including in the USA. Photos are stored with Supabase in Ireland. When a photo waits for a human decision, because of a report, AI doubt or the author’s request, we get a Linear task and, if urgent, a Telegram message. They contain neither the photo nor any names.
People in photos
If you see yourself in someone else’s photo, tap «Пожаловаться» (Report) under it and choose «Это я на фото» (It’s me in the photo), or write to [email protected]. We will remove it.
How long
A shown photo stays until you delete it or your account. A rejected or removed photo is kept for about 30 days so the decision can be challenged, then deleted. Reports are deleted with the photo.
Expert cabinet
Who it is for
For experts who add their own places and routes to Peplos. They sign in with an email and password.
What everyone sees
The expert’s name and their published places and routes, photos, videos and voice recordings are visible to all app users. By default a new place goes where the expert is standing, so the app asks for location when a place is created. Cabinet files are kept in open storage: anyone with the link can download them as soon as they are uploaded, even before publication. Videos are uploaded as they are: the file may keep the location and time of filming and the phone model. Before uploading, check that the video shows nothing you do not want to show.
Legal basis and how long
Our agreement with the expert (GDPR Article 6(1)(b)). We keep the materials while they are published, and after that for as long as we agree. To delete the cabinet and materials, write to us.
Waitlist on this website
What we collect
Your email, your city if you chose one, the page language, the tag of the link you came from, and the date you joined.
Why
To invite you to the beta and tell you when Peplos launches. We do not send third-party ads or sell your data, and we share it with no one beyond the services named in this policy.
Legal basis
Your consent, which you give by pressing “Join the waitlist” (GDPR Article 6(1)(a)).
Where the data is stored
In a Supabase database in Ireland. Only Peplos editors and the owner’s AI assistant can access it.
How long
Until the app launches and for 12 months after that, then we delete it by hand. Or sooner, if you ask us to delete it.
Your rights
You can ask what data we hold about you, get a copy, including in a machine-readable format to move it to another service, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to its use, and withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing consent does not affect what we did before. Write to [email protected]; we reply within a month. If you think we are breaking your rights, you can complain to the Commissioner for Personal Data Protection of Cyprus.
The owner’s AI assistant
The owner of Peplos runs the project with an AI assistant, Claude by Anthropic (USA). The assistant sorts messages and tasks in Linear and, when the owner asks, works with the Supabase database. So it can see messages with screenshots and reply emails, and in the database account emails and nicknames, progress, photos, reports and the waitlist. Anthropic does not use this data to train its models: this is turned off in the owner’s Claude settings.
Who we share data with
Supabase, Linear, Google, Expo and Cloudflare handle data only on our instructions, under their data processing agreements, and must protect it at least as well as this policy describes. Apple (the map and TestFlight) and FOSSGIS (route planning) receive only what is described above and are responsible for it themselves, under their own privacy policies. Emails to [email protected] and our replies are kept by the Proton mail service in Switzerland, which the EU recognises as giving adequate data protection.
Transfers outside the EU
Expo, Linear, Google and Cloudflare are in the USA. Supabase keeps the data in Ireland, but the company and some of its subcontractors are outside the EU. Transfers and access from there rely on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses or the EU–US Data Privacy Framework. Anthropic is in the USA too.
Children
Peplos is not meant for children under 14. If a child under 14 created an account without a parent’s consent, write to us and we will delete it.
Changes
If this policy changes, we update the date at the top. We will announce important changes in the app.
Website and cookies
This website sets no cookies and uses no analytics. It runs on Cloudflare Pages, so Cloudflare sees visitors’ internet addresses.