Privacy policy

Who is responsible

Vink is made by Manuel Pettersson, a private individual in Sweden, who is responsible for the personal data in Vink (the data controller under the EU General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR). You reach him at support@vinkapp.se.

What Vink keeps

Vink keeps only what it needs to do its one job: let your family know that you are fine, and tell them when you might not be.

• Your account. When you sign in with Apple, Vink receives an identifier Apple creates for Vink alone, and the name you choose to share. Vink does not store your email address.
• Your mobile number, if you add it. It is used to text you, and the people who watch over you can see it so they can call or text you.
• Your SMS contacts. The names and mobile numbers of people you add so that Vink can text them about you. These people have not signed up for Vink themselves; see the section about them below.
• Your daily wave. Your check-in time and time zone, when you waved each day, reminders and alerts that were sent, who acknowledged an alert, requests for help, pauses, and requests from watchers to check in.
• Who watches over whom. The connections between you and the people who watch over you, or whom you watch over.
• Your iPhone's notification address (a push token), so that Vink can send you notifications.
• A record of what was sent. For every text and notification: its kind, when it was sent and whether it arrived. The record holds only the last four digits of a phone number, and never the message text.

What Vink does not do

• No advertising, and no selling or sharing of your data for marketing.
• No analytics, tracking or third-party code in the app or on this website. This website sets no cookies.
• No location, no access to your address book, photos or health data.

Why Vink uses your data

Your data is used to provide the service you signed up for: recording your daily wave, showing it to the people you have chosen, and alerting them when it does not arrive. That is the legal basis for it (GDPR article 6.1 b, a contract with you).

SMS contacts' names and numbers are used so that someone can be reached if you might need help. That is in your interest and theirs (GDPR article 6.1 f, legitimate interest). They can object at any time, and Vink then stops texting them.

Who can see your data

• The people who watch over you see whether and when you waved, your history, your pauses, requests for help and your mobile number. When a connection ends, they lose access at once.
• The people you watch over see your name.
• Your SMS contacts receive only the text messages described below.
• The developer can see the data when that is needed to run Vink or to help you.

Vink uses three companies to run the service:

• Amazon Web Services stores the data on servers in Ireland, in the EU.
• Twilio sends the text messages. Twilio is based in the United States, so phone numbers and message texts pass through the US. The transfer is covered by Twilio's data protection terms, which include the EU standard contractual clauses.
• Apple handles Sign in with Apple and delivers notifications to your iPhone.

If you are someone's SMS contact

If you got a text from Vink without using the app, someone added your name and number as one of their SMS contacts. You can get a text if their daily wave does not arrive and nobody in their family responds, if they ask for help, when they pause or resume their daily wave, and if they delete their account.

Vink stores only your name, as they wrote it, and your number. To stop the texts, ask them to remove you, or write to support@vinkapp.se.

How long Vink keeps it

Your data is kept until you delete your account, which you do in the app under Settings. Deleting the account deletes everything about you. Two things remain for a while:

• Backups of the database are kept for 90 days, then removed.
• Server logs are kept for 30 days, then removed.

The record of sent messages keeps its rows after a deletion, but nothing in them points to you any more.

How your data is protected

All traffic between the app, this website and the servers is encrypted. The servers are reachable only by the developer, and the database is not open to the internet.

Your rights

You have the right to see the data Vink has about you, to correct it, to have it deleted, to object to how it is used, and to receive it in a portable format. Write to support@vinkapp.se.

If you think Vink handles your data wrongly, you can complain to the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection, Integritetsskyddsmyndigheten (IMY), or to the authority in your own country.

Children

Vink is not meant for children, and does not knowingly collect data about children under 13.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the new version is published here with a new date at the top.