Thank you for your interest in our app "Cruising". Protecting your privacy is very important to us. Below we provide detailed information about how we handle your data.
The data controller within the meaning of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is:
Tomes Leander Schuch
Poststraße 38
38440 Wolfsburg
Germany
Email: support@cruising-app.de
To provide the app's features, we process the following categories of data:
When you register, we store your email address, a chosen display name, your profile picture, and your internal User ID.
We store information about the vehicles you add in the app (make, model, horsepower, year, drive type, photos). This data serves your personal statistics and is displayed to other users in your profile, unless you have restricted this.
Data you actively create:
To show you unlockable achievements (milestones), we automatically evaluate derived metrics from your driving history, for example your number of drives, total distance driven, top speed, or the duration of individual drives. These metrics and the achievements themselves are stored on your profile. Your achievements and their progress are visible to other users of the app, like the rest of your profile.
During Free Drives, we additionally evaluate your device's accelerometer and gyroscope to compute driving-style metrics (e.g. acceleration/braking behavior, number of corners, a rough "calm" or "dynamic" assessment) and to detect GPS inaccuracies while stationary. If your device has a barometer, we also use it to determine elevation gain more precisely than GPS alone. Only these computed metrics are stored, never raw sensor data. Unlike GPS, accessing these motion sensors does not require a separate permission.
From the coordinates of all your recorded drives, navigations, and timed route runs, we automatically calculate which approximately 1×1 km map tiles you have already driven through. This overview is shown as your personal exploration map on the Map screen and in your recap, and is visible only to you.
You can optionally enable live location sharing in the map settings. While this feature is turned on, your current position (latitude, longitude, heading, and speed) is continuously transmitted to all your confirmed friends during an active drive recording (Navigation, Free Drive, or a timed route run). Access is restricted to your friends on the server side. Your shared position is automatically removed as soon as the drive ends or you turn the feature off again; it is never permanently stored or archived.
In the settings you can optionally choose to have a Free Drive start automatically as soon as your phone connects to a Bluetooth device you selected (for example your car's hands-free system). For this, the app requests the Bluetooth permission ("Nearby devices") and reads the list of devices already paired with your phone (name and address). The app does not search for new devices. Your selection (device addresses and the vehicle assigned to each) is stored only locally on your device and is not transmitted to our servers. The feature is switched off by default and also works while the app is not open. After the automatic start, the information on location data & GPS in section 3 applies to the recording; the drive is only recorded from a speed of 5 km/h.
The main function of the app is recording drives. For this purpose, we access your device's GPS sensors.
What is recorded? Latitude, longitude, altitude, speed, heading, and timestamp.
When is it recorded? Recording only occurs when you actively record a drive (Circuit, Sprint, or "Free Drive") or center your position on the map. If you have enabled the optional Bluetooth auto-start, recording also starts automatically as soon as your phone connects to a device you selected (see 2 h); until you exceed 5 km/h, the location is only read to detect movement and nothing is saved.
For what purpose? To measure your driving time, verify checkpoints, create speed diagrams (telemetry), and, in the "Free Drive" function, to record the entire distance you have covered. This precise route data is stored on our servers, provided you actively choose to save it at the end of the drive.
To provide the app, we use services from external providers:
We use services from Google (Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland) for our backend infrastructure:
The data is preferably stored on servers in the EU (e.g., Frankfurt), but may be distributed internationally within the Google Cloud infrastructure due to technical reasons. Google Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
For the visual representation of maps, routes, and navigation, we use the Mapbox API (Mapbox, Inc., 740 15th Street NW, 5th Floor, Washington DC 20005, USA). When you open the map in the app, a direct connection to Mapbox's servers is established. For technical reasons, your IP address and location data are transmitted to Mapbox to load the map material onto your device. As Mapbox is a US company, this may involve a transfer of your data to the USA. This transfer relies on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses or, where certified, the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, to ensure an adequate level of data protection. Mapbox Privacy Policy: https://www.mapbox.com/legal/privacy
To display current weather information and a forecast, we query the Open-Meteo weather API. Only the coordinates of the relevant location are transmitted - no user identifier, no other personal data. The service is used anonymously, without an API key. More information: https://open-meteo.com/en/terms
If you have set a brand for a vehicle in your garage, we load the matching manufacturer logo once from a public, free delivery service (jsDelivr, which serves content hosted on GitHub) and then store it permanently on your device. For technical reasons, your IP address is transmitted to jsDelivr, but no other personal data. The logos themselves are trademarks of their respective vehicle manufacturers.
You control who sees your data:
Processing is carried out in accordance with Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of a contract to provide app features) and Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in security checks, fraud prevention, and community features).
Data is only shared with third parties if this is technically necessary (Google Firebase / Mapbox) or if we are legally obliged to do so (e.g., law enforcement in case of suspicion of illegal racing according to § 315d StGB).
You can delete your account at any time in the settings ("Delete Account").
You have the right to access, rectify, delete (provided there is no legal obligation to retain), and restrict the processing of your data. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority.
If you have any questions regarding data protection, please contact: support@cruising-app.de