Privacy Policy
Last updated: 23 September 2026
Pebi ("we," "our," or "us") respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information when you use the Pebi mobile application (the "App").
1. Information We Collect
Location Information
- When: While you use the app to capture photos at landmarks. If you enable background location, we also use it to detect when you arrive in a new country or come near a landmark you haven't collected yet.
- What: Your precise GPS coordinates.
- Why: To verify you are physically at a landmark (the core of the app), to show your distance to landmarks, and — if enabled — to send arrival and nearby-landmark notifications.
- Storage: The location of each postcard is stored together with that photo, linked to your account, so your visit can be verified and shown on your map. Country-visit history is likewise stored to your account. This data is retained until you delete the postcard or close your account. When you share a postcard, the capture coordinates and the distance from the landmark are part of that postcard and are visible to anyone who can see it, including visitors to a public share link. Your live location is never shown to other users.
Camera and Photos
- When: When you choose to take photos within the app
- What: Photos you capture of landmarks and travel experiences
- Why: To build your personal travel collection and share with the community
- Storage: Photos are stored securely in your personal account using encrypted cloud storage
- Embedded metadata: The app removes the metadata embedded in a photo file (EXIF, including any GPS tags) before upload. The location and time shown on a postcard are stored as separate fields, only for as long as that postcard exists.
- On-device processing: Screening for inappropriate content and the face detection used to keep people out of landmark cover images run entirely on your device using Apple's frameworks. Only a numeric score reaches our servers; no facial data is stored or transmitted.
Account Information
- When: When you create an account using Apple Sign In or Google Sign In
- What: Basic profile information (name, email as provided by Apple or Google), and the authentication tokens from your sign-in provider. We receive your name and email from Apple or Google, not from you directly; Apple lets you hide your real email address.
- Why: To create and maintain your personal travel profile.
- Storage: Stored securely on our servers with encryption.
- Deletion feedback: if you tell us why you are leaving when you close your account, we keep that text separately from your account and it is not linked back to you.
Social and Community Content
- What: Content you create in the app — comments, likes, the accounts you follow, and any reports or blocks you submit.
- Why: To power the social features and to keep the community safe (moderation). Reports and blocks are used to review and act on objectionable content and behaviour.
Notifications
- What: A device push token, if you allow notifications.
- Why: To send notifications such as a postcard from someone you follow, achievement unlocks, or arrival nudges.
Usage and Diagnostics
- What: How you use the app (feature interactions, sessions), crash and performance data, and your device model, OS version and app version. A per-installation identifier groups these events.
- Why: To keep the app reliable and to improve it. This data is sent to our own systems, is associated with your account, and is never sold or shared with advertisers.
- Operational logs: Our servers keep request logs that include your account identifier and IP address, used to diagnose problems and to detect abuse. The app contains no third-party analytics or advertising software.
App Store Ad Measurement
- When: Once, the first time you sign in after installing Pebi.
- What: The app asks iOS for a one-time attribution token and we pass it to Apple's attribution service (Apple Ads). Apple tells us whether your install came from one of our Apple Ads campaigns and, if it did, which campaign, ad group, keyword and ad, your App Store country or region, whether it was a download or a re-download, whether the ad was tapped or only viewed, and when, where Apple provides that. If your install didn't come from our ads, that is all we learn.
- Why: To see which of our ads bring people who actually use Pebi, so we stop paying for the ones that don't.
- Storage: Kept with your account and deleted when you close it. It is never used to show you ads or shared with anyone. Pebi does not read your device's advertising identifier and learns nothing about your activity in other apps or websites. You can object at any time by writing to support@pebi.app, and we will delete the record.
Technical and Security Information
- What: Your IP address and basic device information when you sign in, and device-integrity checks (Apple App Attest).
- Why: To protect your account and the service from fraud and abuse.
2. How We Use Your Information
- Location Verification: Confirming you're at landmarks to validate your visits
- Personal Collection: Building your private travel photo gallery and collections
- Community Features: Enabling you to share travel experiences with followers (only if you choose)
- Achievements: Tracking landmark visits for your personal achievement progress
- Notifications: Sending the notifications you have enabled (arrivals, postcards from people you follow, achievements)
- Safety & Security: Moderating content, acting on reports and blocks, and protecting accounts from fraud and abuse
- App Improvement: Usage and diagnostics data (linked to your account, not sold or shared with advertisers) to keep the app reliable and improve it
- Ad Measurement: Learning which of our App Store ads lead to people using Pebi (see "App Store Ad Measurement" above)
Content moderation and reporting
Every photo is screened for nudity and other prohibited content by automated checks on your device and on our servers. Content that is flagged, or that another user reports, is held from public view until a person has reviewed it; we aim to act on reports within 24 hours. We may remove content and suspend or close accounts that break our Terms of Service. If we remove your content we will tell you why, and you can contest the decision by writing to support@pebi.app.
Where the law requires it, we report content and the associated account information to the competent authorities, including child sexual abuse material, which we report to the relevant reporting body (such as the US National Center for Missing & Exploited Children) and to law enforcement. We may preserve such content and account records for as long as those obligations require, even after an account is deleted. This processing is based on our legal obligations and on our legitimate interest in keeping the service safe.
3. Information Sharing
We do NOT sell, trade, or rent your personal information to third parties.
We may share information only in these limited cases:
- With your consent: When you choose to share photos or experiences publicly
- Legal requirements: If required by law, to protect our rights, or to report illegal content to the authorities as described under "Content moderation and reporting" above
- Service providers (processors): With companies that operate parts of our infrastructure on our behalf, under data processing agreements. They are:
- Microsoft Azure (France Central) — application servers, database and cache
- Cloudflare — network security, content delivery and encrypted object storage for photos, in the EU
- Grafana Labs (Grafana Cloud, EU region) — operational logs and metrics
- Apple — push notification delivery
Microsoft, Cloudflare, Grafana Labs, Apple and Google are US-headquartered. Where they access data from outside the EU, the transfer relies on their certification under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and, in addition, the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses. You can request a copy of the safeguards by writing to support@pebi.app.
4. Data Security
- All data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest
- We use Apple Sign In and Google Sign In for secure authentication
- Photos and personal data are stored on secure, encrypted cloud servers
- Authentication tokens are stored securely on your device using iOS Keychain
- We regularly review and update our security practices
5. Your Rights and Choices
Location Access
You can disable location access anytime in iOS Settings > Pebi > Location. The app will still work but cannot verify landmark visits.
Photo Access
You control which photos you take and share. You can delete your photos anytime from your profile. Postcards you upload appear on your profile and in the feed unless you switch your account to private.
Account Deletion
You can delete your account in the app under Settings → Account & Privacy → Pause or Delete Account, or by contacting us at support@pebi.app. Pausing hides your profile and postcards from other users and is reversible; deleting is permanent. Deletion removes your account, postcards, photos, locations, comments, follows and push tokens from our systems, disables any public share links, and purges cached copies from our content delivery network. It takes effect immediately; encrypted backups age out within 35 days at most. Deletion is permanent and cannot be undone.
6. Data Retention
- Photos and their location: A postcard and the capture location stored with it are kept until you delete that postcard or close your account.
- Country-visit history: Retained while your account is active; deleted when you close your account.
- Account info: Retained while your account is active; deleted upon account closure.
- Usage, diagnostics and operational logs: Retained for up to 30 days, then deleted.
- Security records (sign-in attempts, abuse detection): Retained for up to 90 days.
- Ad measurement record: Retained while your account is active; deleted upon account closure. The attribution token itself expires after 24 hours.
- Backups: Encrypted database backups are kept for up to 35 days for disaster recovery; data you delete disappears from backups within that window.
- Device identifiers and integrity checks: the per-installation identifier and the App Attest key reference are kept while the app is installed and deleted when you close your account.
- Preserved safety records: where the law requires us to preserve reported illegal content and account records, we keep them for as long as that obligation lasts, even after account closure.
7. Children's Privacy
Pebi is intended for users 13 years and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we discover we have collected information from a child under 13, we will delete it immediately. If you believe a child under 13 is using Pebi, write to support@pebi.app and we will close the account and delete its content.
8. International Users
Pebi is designed for global travel experiences. Your data is processed and stored in the European Union (EU). If you're outside the EU, please note that your information will be transferred to and processed in EU data centers, which operate under GDPR protections. Where one of the providers listed in section 3 accesses data from outside the EU, that access is covered by the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.
9. Your European Privacy Rights (GDPR)
The data controller is Pebi OÜ, Estonia (details in section 13).
Legal bases. We process your data on the following grounds under Article 6 GDPR:
- Performance of a contract: your account, postcards, photos and their locations, collections, achievements, and the social features you use.
- Consent: background location for reminders and push notifications, withdrawable in iOS Settings. Foreground location while capturing is necessary to perform our contract, since a postcard cannot exist without a verified location.
- Legitimate interests: keeping the service secure and free of abuse, diagnosing reliability problems, and measuring which of our App Store ads bring people who use Pebi, balanced against your rights and limited to what is needed.
- Legal obligation: retaining and reporting illegal content and the associated account records where the law requires it.
We use automated screening to detect nudity and other prohibited content in photos. A positive score holds a postcard from public view; it does not close your account by itself. Before any content is permanently removed or an account is suspended, a person reviews the case, and you can contest the outcome by writing to support@pebi.app.
If you're in the European Economic Area, you have the right to:
- Access your personal data
- Correct inaccurate personal data
- Request deletion of your personal data
- Object to or restrict processing of your data
- Data portability
- Withdraw consent at any time, without affecting processing that happened before
- Lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. Our lead authority is the Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate (Andmekaitse Inspektsioon, aki.ee); you may also contact the authority in your own country.
We respond to requests within one month. If a personal data breach is likely to put your rights at risk, we will notify the supervisory authority within 72 hours and inform you without undue delay.
10. Your California Privacy Rights (CCPA)
If you're a California resident, you have additional rights:
- Right to know what personal information we collect
- Right to delete your personal information
- Right to opt-out of sale of personal information (we don't sell data)
- Right to non-discrimination for exercising your rights
We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined by California law, and we do not use sensitive personal information for purposes requiring a limitation right.
11. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy occasionally. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top and notify you of significant changes through the app.
12. Contact Us
If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or your data:
Email: support@pebi.app
We have not appointed a Data Protection Officer, which the GDPR does not require for a company of our size. Privacy questions and rights requests go to support@pebi.app and are handled by Pebi OÜ directly.
13. Company Information
Pebi OÜ
Registration Number: 17273096
Email: info@pebi.app
Controller: Pebi OÜ, a private limited company registered in Estonia under registry code 17273096; our registered address is on file with the Estonian Business Register. Contact for all privacy matters: support@pebi.app.
This policy is written to meet the App Store's privacy requirements, the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), the CCPA (California Consumer Privacy Act) and COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act).