Privacy Policy — Still Here

Last updated: September 30, 2026
Effective date: September 30, 2026

This is the English version of the Still Here Privacy Policy, provided for international users and review purposes. The Vietnamese version is available at /privacy. If there is any discrepancy, the Vietnamese version prevails.

This Privacy Policy (the "Policy") describes how Still Here ("we", "the app", "the service") collects, uses, stores, shares and protects your information when you use the Still Here mobile application and related services.

Still Here is a location-based, community-contributed map app with gamification mechanics: users visit real places/events to "check in", contribute photos and descriptions, earn points, complete quests, compete in seasonal rankings, receive badges, customize the app's theme colors, help keep the map of places "alive", and propose corrections to places and events through community proposals and voting. Because of this nature, some information you provide (photos, descriptions, places you create) will be displayed publicly to other users — see Section 6.

By creating an account or using the service, you confirm that you have read and understood this Policy.

1. Data Controller

If you are in a jurisdiction with applicable data-protection laws (e.g. GDPR/EEA), the entity above acts as the data controller.

2. Quick Summary

• We collect account information, your location, check-in photos and descriptions, usage data and technical data to operate the service.
• We support Google Sign-In via Firebase Authentication; in that case we receive your email, name and avatar from your Google account (Sections 3.2 and 7).
• We do not sell your personal data.
• The app offers rewarded ads (entirely optional): an ad is shown only when you actively choose to watch it. Ads are served by third-party partners (AppLovin and participating ad networks) that process certain device data such as the advertising identifier — see Sections 3.7 and 6.2.
• Content you post (photos, descriptions, places/events you create) may be displayed publicly.
• You can delete your account directly in the app; your identifying data is then anonymized (Section 9).
• The service uses location only in the foreground (while the app is open); it does not track your location in the background.
• From your check-in history we compute your attachment (bond) to each place in order to unlock certain permissions and send relevant rescue notifications. Only you can see your own bond levels (Section 3.4).
• Your last known location is not shown in regular admin screens; an administrator can view it only for a legitimate reason, and every such access is logged (Section 3.4).

3. Information We Collect

3.1. Information you provide when creating and managing an account

• Username (account) and email address (required). Your username is used only for signing in and is not shown publicly.
• Display name (optional) — your public name in the app; if you have not set one, the app shows a default name such as "Sterer#xxxx". We keep a name-change history (previous usernames and display names with the time of change) to handle impersonation and violations; only administrators can see it.
• Password — stored only as a bcrypt hash; we never store your plaintext password.
• Phone number (optional) and its verification status, if you use phone verification. (Note: in the current version the phone feature may be temporarily hidden; the codebase still supports SMS OTP verification when enabled.)
• One-time passwords (OTP) sent by email (or SMS) to verify ownership of your email/phone and to reset your password.
• Preferences: display language (Vietnamese/English), notification on/off settings.

3.2. Information when you sign in with Google

When you choose "Sign in with Google", authentication is handled via Google Firebase Authentication. We receive the following from your Google profile:

• Email address and email-verified status;
• Display name;
• Profile picture (URL);
• Google account identifier (Google account ID / UID).

We use this information only to create and authenticate your Still Here account. Our use of data received from Google complies with the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements — see Section 7.

3.3. User-generated content (may be public)

When using core features, you create content that we store:

• Check-ins: one or more photos, a text description, geographic coordinates and the check-in time. When you add more photos to an existing check-in, the app sends your location at the moment of capture to verify that you are still there; we do not store the location or time of each added photo.
• Places, events, customs you create or suggest (name, description, coordinates/province, radius, photos, type, ethnic group, etc.).
• "Quirky" marks, content reports, and contribution suggestions (new place/event types, historical sites/heritage, or software bug reports). When you create a historical site/heritage item through a check-in, that check-in's photo and description become a suggestion awaiting admin review.
• Edit proposals and votes: when you propose changing the name, date or location of a place/event, we store the proposal, your reason (if any) and each participant's for/against vote. A proposal is shown publicly together with the display name of the person who opened it; individual votes are not public (only vote totals are shown).
• Voice-entered descriptions: if you use voice input, your speech is converted to text by your device/operating system speech-recognition service; we store only the resulting text in the description, not any audio recording.

Important: Photos, descriptions, and the places/events/customs you create may be displayed publicly on the map, the discovery page, check-in feeds and to other users. Please do not include sensitive information you do not want to be public.

3.4. Location data

• We collect your approximate/precise GPS location while you are using the app (foreground — "when in use") to: find nearby places/events, verify the validity of a check-in, display the map, and send "rescue" notifications for nearby places. Along with the coordinates, the app sends the GPS accuracy reported by your device so distances can be judged more fairly when the signal is weak.
• We store your last known location and its update time to power location-based features. This data is not shown in user lists or user profiles in the admin panel; an administrator can view it only for a legitimate request (e.g. assisting authorities searching for a missing person), must enter a reason, and every view is recorded in the security log (who viewed it, when, why, and from which IP address).
• Attachment (bond) to places: from your check-ins, the system counts the number of distinct days and months you have visited each place (or the number of occurrences of a recurring event you attended), together with your first and most recent visit, to assign a bond level. Only check-ins within a recent period (currently 24 months) are counted. Bond levels unlock certain permissions (voting on proposals, emergency rescue) and let us send you rescue/early-warning notifications even when you are not nearby. Only you can see your own bond levels; we do not show anyone a list of the people bonded to a place.
• Location-spoofing protection: the system computes movement velocity between updates to detect simulated locations (GPS spoofing); this uses your location and time data to ensure fairness.
• You can revoke location access at any time in your operating-system settings; location-based features will then stop working.

3.5. Technical, device and security data

• IP address, user-agent string, device/operating-system type.
• Platform (Android/iOS) and app build number, sent with every request so the server can remind or require you to update when your version is too old, and inform you of maintenance. We count users per app version in aggregate form (kept for up to 60 days) to decide when to stop supporting old versions.
• Device and OS information when you submit a bug report.
• Push notification tokens for your devices (up to 5) to deliver notifications.
• Security audit logs: sensitive events such as successful/failed sign-ins, OTP sending/failures, sign-in lockouts, account ban/deletion, issuing and using account recovery links, and every administrator access to sensitive data (viewing a last known location, exporting check-in lists, changing verification status) — together with IP and user-agent — to detect fraud, provide accountability and investigate incidents.
• Operational metrics: aggregated, anonymous data about performance and traffic (response time, number of sign-ins/registrations, active realtime connections) for system monitoring.

3.6. Quest, ranking and customization (gamification) data

To operate the gamification features, we store:

• Quest progress: the quests you are working on or have completed per period (onboarding, daily, surprise, campaign, holiday), progress counters for each action, completion time and rewards granted.
• To compute quest progress, the app records certain in-app actions — including the opening of certain screens (e.g. the discovery pages, a place/event detail, the ranking board, your check-in list). This data consists of quest counters only, not a detailed browsing log.
• Seasonal ranking data: your tier, per-round/division results (score, rank, number of check-ins, rescues, explorations, quirky marks in the round), promotion/demotion history and any ranking-restriction status (in case of violations).
• Customization (cosmetic) data: your cosmetic-point balance, the list of theme colors you own, the color currently equipped and your color trials (colors tried this month, the running trial's expiry). The color you use is visible only to you.
• Achievements awaiting celebration: promotions, titles, completed quest sets or newly unlocked privileges are kept temporarily so the app can show a celebration screen when you open it.
• Your bond to each place — see Section 3.4.

3.7. Rewarded-ads data

Rewarded ads are an optional feature: an ad is shown only when you actively choose to watch it in exchange for an in-app benefit (an extra check-in, a place rescue, a boost buff, or a theme-color unlock).

• Reward sessions we store: the reward type, the related place (if any), a random session token, the session status, confirmation/consumption times, and the confirmation data the ad network sends to our server (server-side verification) — to grant rewards correctly and prevent fraud.
• Data processed by ad partners: ads are served by AppLovin MAX, possibly through mediated ad networks (e.g. Google AdMob, Meta Audience Network). When displaying an ad, these partners may collect and process the device advertising identifier (GAID/IDFA), IP address, device information and ad-interaction events — under their own privacy policies (see Section 6.2).
• We pass the ad network only a random session token to reconcile the reward; we do not send your name, email, content or location to the ad network.
• You can reset or delete your advertising identifier and limit ad personalization in Android/iOS settings; on iOS, any tracking is subject to the operating system's App Tracking Transparency mechanism.

3.8. Device permissions the app requests

You may deny or revoke any permission in your OS settings; the corresponding features will then be unavailable.

4. How We Use Information

We use information to:

1. Provide the core service: create and manage accounts, check-ins, maps, discovery of places/events/customs.
2. Authenticate and secure: sign-in, issue and refresh sessions, verify email/phone, reset passwords.
3. Power location features: show nearby content, verify distance on check-in and when adding photos, compute bond levels, send place-rescue notifications to people nearby and to people bonded to that place.
4. Community proposals: determine who is eligible to open a proposal and to vote (based on check-ins and bond levels), count votes and apply name/date/location changes once consensus is reached.
5. Gamification: compute place life points, track quest progress and grant quest rewards, ranking scores, reputation, badges, tiers and seasonal leaderboards (rounds/divisions), cosmetic points and theme-color unlocks.
6. Rewarded ads: create a reward session when you choose to watch an ad, verify the view via the ad network's server-side confirmation, apply daily limits and grant the corresponding reward (Section 3.7).
7. Notifications: send in-app and push notifications (according to your settings).
8. Safety and content moderation: filter prohibited keywords and automatically screen text content with AI; handle community reports; hide violating content.
9. Abuse prevention: rate limiting, brute-force protection, location-spoofing detection, duplicate/spam content prevention.
10. Transactional communication: send OTP codes and emails necessary for account operations.
11. Operation and improvement: system monitoring, debugging, aggregate analysis of performance and usage; reminding or requiring you to update when your app version is too old, and announcing maintenance.
12. Account support: handling your requests, including recovering your account when you have lost access to both your password and your email (Section 9).
13. Legal compliance: meet legal obligations and valid requests from competent authorities.

Legal basis (where GDPR or equivalent applies)

• Performance of a contract: operating your account and the features you request.
• Consent: location access, microphone, push notifications, watching rewarded ads (each view is initiated by you; you can withdraw at any time).
• Legitimate interests: security, fraud prevention, moderation, service improvement.
• Legal obligation: retaining and providing data where required by law.

5. When We Collect

• When you register, sign in (including Google Sign-In) or verify your account.
• When you check in, add photos, create content, mark, report, contribute, open a proposal or vote.
• When you grant location/camera/microphone permission and use the related feature.
• Automatically as you interact with the service (technical data, security logs, operational metrics).

6. Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell your personal data. We share only in the following cases:

6.1. Public content for other users

Photos, descriptions, check-ins, and the places/events/customs you create may be shown publicly together with your display name (not your username or email), badges and achievement stats. If you participate in the seasonal ranking, your display name, tier, score, rank and certain per-round activity stats (check-ins, rescues, explorations, quirky marks) are also publicly visible to other users. Proposals you open are shown with your display name, and a place/event's former names (after a change made through a proposal) may appear in that place's name history.

We do not make public: your last known location, your bond levels with places, individual votes, the theme color you use, or your username and email.

6.2. Service providers (data processors / sub-processors)

We use reputable third parties to operate the service. Each receives only the data necessary for its function:

Ad partners process data under their own policies: AppLovin, Google, Meta.

Some providers may process data outside Vietnam (see Section 11).

6.3. Administrators and moderation staff

Administrators may review related content, reports, suggestions and proposals to handle violations and ensure community safety. We may delegate part of the moderation work to moderation staff: each staff member is granted only the permissions needed for their tasks (e.g. handling reports, reviewing suggestions), cannot view users' locations or export data, and cannot approve content they submitted themselves. Sensitive actions by administrators and staff are recorded in the security log.

6.4. Legal requests

We may disclose information when we believe it is necessary to comply with the law, an order from a competent authority, to protect the rights and safety of users or ourselves, or to investigate fraud/abuse.

6.5. Business transfers

In a merger, acquisition or asset transfer, data may be transferred to the successor, with a commitment to continue complying with this Policy.

7. Google User Data and "Limited Use"

Still Here's Google Sign-In feature uses Google API Services via Firebase Authentication.

• We request only the minimal scopes: basic profile information (name, avatar) and email address.
• Data received from Google is used only to create, sign in to and manage your Still Here account.
• We do not transfer Google user data to third parties other than the service providers necessary to operate this feature.
• We do not use Google user data for advertising purposes.
• We do not sell Google user data.

Still Here's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

You can revoke Still Here's access to your Google account at any time at your Google Account permissions page.

8. Data Retention

We retain data only for as long as necessary for the purposes above:

• Account data and content: kept until you delete your account (see Section 9).
• Sessions: access tokens expire after 15 minutes; refresh tokens last up to 30 days and are revoked when you sign out, change your password, or are locked out.
• OTP sessions: automatically expire and are deleted after about 10 minutes.
• Security audit logs: automatically deleted after 90 days.
• In-app notifications: automatically deleted after 90 days.
• Achievements awaiting celebration: automatically deleted after 90 days (only items from the last 30 days are shown).
• Account recovery links: valid for 30 minutes, single use; the issuance record (who issued it, the reason, time of use, IP address) is automatically deleted after 90 days.
• App version statistics: the number of users per app version is kept as aggregate counts for up to 60 days.
• Bond levels: not additional collected data but recomputed from your check-in history; only check-ins within the counted period (currently 24 months) are used.
• Proposals, votes and name history: kept as part of the history of the related place/event, for cross-checking and reverting when needed.
• Check-in description edit history: when you edit a check-in description, we keep the previous version for 24 months and then delete it automatically. This data is never shown publicly; it is used only to review reports, complaints, or lawful requests from competent authorities.
• Content reports you submit: the report record (the reported item, reason, description, timestamp) is kept even after you withdraw the report — we mark it as "withdrawn" rather than deleting the record. This is necessary for anti-spam limits to work correctly (if records were deleted, someone could submit and withdraw repeatedly to bypass the limits) and so administrators can cross-check when handling complaints. A withdrawn report is no longer in effect: it does not count toward the automatic-hiding threshold and is no longer in the moderation queue.
• Photos: kept until the related check-in is deleted.
• Rewarded-ad sessions: incomplete sessions expire automatically after a few minutes; session records are kept as part of your account data for statistics and fraud prevention.
• Quest progress and ranking data: kept per quest period/season and for the lifetime of your account, to display history and ensure fairness.
• Some aggregate logs (e.g. logs of events that failed to qualify) may be kept in minimal form to assess reputation and detect spam.

9. Your Rights and How to Exercise Them

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have rights to: access, correct, delete, restrict or object to processing, and data portability.

You can do the following directly in the app:

• View and edit your profile, change your username and display name (each can be changed once every 30 days).
• Review your own activity: check-ins (grouped by place, with your bond level), quirky marks, reports, suggestions, badges, privileges; hide/unhide or edit the description of your own check-ins, and save your own check-in photos to your device.
• Change email (with verification), change password, change/verify phone (when enabled).
• Toggle notifications, change language.
• Revoke location/camera/microphone permissions in your OS settings.

Account & Data Deletion

Option 1 — in the app: go to Profile → Edit profile → Delete account and confirm with your password. This is the fastest way.

Option 2 — on the website (no app install needed): visit the Delete account page, sign in with your account/email and password to verify, then press the delete button. The account is deleted immediately.

Option 3 — if you cannot sign in (e.g. you forgot your password): email stillhereapp1505@gmail.com from your registered address with the subject "Account deletion request". We process such requests within 30 days.

What happens on deletion: we do not perform a full hard delete; instead we anonymize — your email and phone are replaced with anonymous values (deleted_*), your password is scrambled, your location and push tokens are removed, the account is set to inactive and you can no longer sign in. This preserves the integrity of community history references (e.g. previous check-ins) while removing your identifying information.

Exception — check-in description edit history: if you have edited a check-in description, the edit history record (the previous content and the IP address at the time of the edit) is kept until the end of its 24-month window even after you delete your account, and is then deleted automatically. We keep this on the basis of our legitimate interest in handling abuse reports, complaints and requests from competent authorities — if it were erased the moment an account is deleted, deleting an account would become a way to erase evidence of violations. This data is never shown publicly.

Where legally required (e.g. a full erasure request under GDPR), an administrator may perform a complete deletion of check-in data and delete images from storage.

Other requests (a copy of your data, complaints, withdrawing consent beyond the app's scope): please contact stillhereapp1505@gmail.com. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the competent data-protection authority in your place of residence.

Recovering an account when you have lost both password and email

If you forgot your password and can no longer access the email you registered with (so the "Forgot password" feature cannot help), contact stillhereapp1505@gmail.com. After verifying through our support channel that you are the account owner, we send you an account recovery link to the Still Here website:

• The link works once, expires after 30 minutes and can be revoked at any time; the page shows only your username and a partially masked email.
• You set a new password and may switch to a new email — the new email must be verified with an OTP sent to that address.
• When you finish, all existing sessions are signed out. Issuing and using the link are recorded in the security log.

10. Data Security

We apply reasonable technical and organizational measures, including:

• bcrypt password hashing; we do not store plaintext passwords.
• Session tokens are signed and refresh tokens are stored hashed, with rotation and reuse detection to prevent session theft.
• Transport encryption (HTTPS/TLS), with HSTS enabled in production.
• HTTP protection via Helmet, a controlled CORS allowlist, and request size limits.
• Rate limiting and tiered sign-in lockout against password guessing.
• Real file-type checking for uploaded images; check-ins and suggestions only accept images uploaded by the submitting user.
• Least-privilege permissions for moderation staff, re-checked on every request so that revoking a permission takes effect immediately.
• Security logging to detect and investigate anomalies, and to account for every access to sensitive data.

However, no system is perfectly secure. You are responsible for keeping your login credentials confidential.

11. International Data Transfers

Some of our service providers (e.g. Google, Cloudflare, Resend, Mapbox, OpenAI, Expo, AppLovin and its ad networks) may store and process data on servers outside Vietnam. When transferring data across borders, we take reasonable measures to protect your data consistent with this Policy and applicable law.

12. Children

The service is not directed to users under 16 years of age (under Vietnamese law, a person under 16 is considered a child; we therefore require users to be at least 16). We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under the applicable age. If you believe your child has provided us information without appropriate consent, please contact us so we can delete it.

13. Website Privacy (Landing Site)

The Still Here landing website may use basic technical cookies and traffic analytics at a minimal level to operate and improve the site. If we use a third-party analytics tool (e.g. Google Analytics), we will update the details and the cookie-consent mechanism in this section.

14. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. For material changes, we will update the "Effective date" at the top and, where appropriate, notify you in the app. Your continued use of the service after changes take effect means you accept the updated Policy.

15. Contact

For any questions, requests or complaints about privacy, please contact:

• Privacy email: stillhereapp1505@gmail.com
• Support email: stillhereapp1505@gmail.com
• Operator: GLD Solutions (household business)
• Address: 28 Duong 3, Khu pho 66, Tang Nhon Phu Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam