CriticatPrivacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Criticat collects, uses and shares personal information. Criticat is currently operated by Romanos Ioannidis and Christos Daskalakis. Privacy questions can be sent to criticat.app@gmail.com.
1. Who is responsible for your data
Romanos Ioannidis and Christos Daskalakis jointly determine how Criticat processes personal data and are the current data controllers for the service. Criticat is not currently operated by a separate company or institution.
2. Minimum age
Criticat is intended for users aged 16 or older. We collect the user's year of birth as part of the profile. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under the permitted age, we may restrict or delete it.
3. Information we collect
Account and profile data: user ID, email address held through Firebase Authentication, username, year of birth, locality/cities, and optional profile photo, gender, professional background, favourite architectural styles/movements and favourite landscape types.
Reviews and community activity: review photographs, star ratings, tags, styles, movements, landscape types, vibes, reasons, comments, timestamps, reactions such as agree/disagree, reports, blocks, badges, levels, columns, counters and messages attached to gifted columns.
Location: precise foreground location when creating/submitting a review and when using map functions that show your current position. No background location tracking is used.
Image metadata: captured or selected images may include technical metadata such as EXIF information, which can include capture details and location information.
Technical data: Firebase Analytics may collect app opens, sessions and app-update information. Firebase Crashlytics may collect crash stack traces, device model, operating-system version, app version and a Crashlytics installation identifier. Firebase Cloud Messaging uses a device token to deliver push notifications.
Maps and places: Google Maps is used for map display. Text entered in the city field is sent to Google Places to return suggestions; the selected place ID and coordinates may be stored in your profile.
4. How we use information
We use personal information to create and authenticate accounts, operate profiles and community features, place reviews on maps, display and organize user-generated content, operate badges and columns, send notifications, prevent abuse, investigate reports, maintain security, diagnose crashes, understand general app usage and improve Criticat.
We may also analyse contributions for research, statistical and spatial analysis and to create aggregate or de-identified datasets and derived outputs. The Terms of Use also grant intellectual-property permissions that can support future research, commercial datasets and machine-learning or AI uses.
5. Legal bases where GDPR applies
We process data needed to provide Criticat on the basis of our agreement with you. We rely on legitimate interests, where permitted, for service security, moderation, diagnostics, improvement, research and statistical analysis. Device permissions such as location, camera and notifications are requested through your device. Where applicable law requires consent for a specific activity, we rely on that consent.
6. What other users can see
Criticat is designed around community contributions. Reviews, review photographs, ratings, comments and the location attached to a displayed review may be visible to other users through the community map and related screens.
Basic profile information including username, columns, contributor level, locality, featured reviews and favourite architectural/landscape types may be visible to other users. Badges are visible only to you. Your personal review map is private by default.
7. Service providers and sharing
Criticat uses Google Firebase and Google Cloud services for authentication, database storage, image storage, notifications, analytics, crash reporting and security; Google Maps and Google Places for mapping and place search; Google Sign-In for authentication; and Sign in with Apple for authentication.
We do not currently use advertising SDKs, payment SDKs or third-party advertising identifiers. We do not currently sell personal user profiles to advertisers or AI companies.
We may disclose information where required by law, to respond to valid legal requests, to protect users, investigate abuse or enforce our Terms.
8. International processing
Criticat uses Google Firebase/Cloud infrastructure configured in Europe where applicable. Google, Apple and related service providers may process limited technical or service data in other countries under their applicable transfer safeguards.
9. Retention and deletion
Account and profile information is generally kept while your account is active. You can delete individual reviews in the app.
If you delete your account, the Firebase authentication account and Criticat user profile are deleted. Existing reviews may currently remain after being de-linked from your profile and attributed to the generic "Stray Cat" user. Those reviews may still include the review photo, text and location.
Criticat does not intentionally maintain separate deleted-account backups. Google/Firebase and other service providers may retain limited backup, security, analytics or diagnostic information according to their own retention practices. Aggregate or de-identified information may be retained where it no longer identifies you.
10. Your privacy rights
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict or obtain a copy of your personal data, object to certain processing, and withdraw consent where processing is based on consent. You may also complain to your competent data-protection authority.
To exercise a privacy right, contact criticat.app@gmail.com. We may ask for reasonable information to verify that the request concerns your account.
11. Security
We use Firebase authentication, application security controls and access restrictions intended to protect personal information. No online service can guarantee absolute security.
12. Changes to this Policy
We may update this Policy as Criticat develops. If a change materially affects how personal data is processed, we will provide additional notice or request consent where required by law.
13. Contact
Criticat Romanos Ioannidis & Christos Daskalakis criticat.app criticat.app@gmail.com