Spotineo privacy policy
Last updated: 7 October 2026
What this page covers. The Spotineo app for iPhone and iPad, from version 5.0, its widget, and polls with friends: creating them in the app as well as voting on the web page spotineo.madebyaks.com/en/v/….
What it does not cover. Simply browsing madebyaks.com and spotineo.madebyaks.com, and support emails, are described on the AKS websites privacy page.
In short
- Spotineo works without an account and without advertising. It does not track you across apps or websites.
- Your places, lists, ratings, visits, draws and photos are stored on your device. We do not receive them, with one exception: the three places you choose to put into a poll.
- The main exchanges with the outside are searches for places, maps and routes, sent to Apple Maps; usage measurement, which contains nothing you type and which you can turn off; and the polls you decide to start, kept for 48 hours.
- The Spotineo+ subscription is paid for and managed through Apple. We know neither your identity nor your payment method.
Who is responsible
Spotineo is published under the AKS brand (Made by AKS) by Akmal AHMED, the controller of the processing described here. He is identified in the legal notice.
For any question about your data: support@madebyaks.com.
1. What stays on your device
Spotineo stores on your iPhone or iPad:
- your places: name, address, location, type of cuisine, rating, note, favourite, photo;
- your lists, moods and filters;
- your visits and your draw history, with the feedback you give after an outing;
- your settings, the first name you use for polls and the poll you are following;
- the status of your subscription, read from the App Store, and the date your discovery period started.
This information is not sent to us and we have no access to it, except what you choose to send in a poll (section 7). The widget and shortcuts read the same data on the device.
Backups. This data is part of your device backup, to iCloud or to a computer, according to your Apple settings. You can also export your places to a file from the Me tab: the file does not contain your photos, and you alone decide where it goes.
Deletion. You delete a place, a list or a mood from the app. Deleting the app erases all of its data from the device, with one exception: the start date of the discovery period stays in the device keychain, so that reinstalling does not start a new period. This date contains nothing else and does not leave your devices. Backups you have made remain subject to your Apple settings.
2. Your location
Spotineo asks for access to your location only while you are using the app, and only if you agree. It is used to search for places around you, work out distances, show where you are on the map and prepare a route.
Your location is neither stored by the app nor sent to AKS. It is sent to Apple when you start a nearby search or a route (see below).
You can withdraw this permission at any time in Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services. Spotineo keeps working with the places you have saved.
3. Maps, place search and routes: Apple Maps
Spotineo relies on Apple Maps to search for a place, suggest places around you, show a map or a street-level view, look up an address and estimate a route. To answer, Apple receives what you are searching for, the area concerned, the location of the places to display and, for a nearby search or a route, your location.
Apple handles these requests as a separate controller, under its own privacy policy. Apple states that these requests are associated with random identifiers that are not tied to your Apple Account. AKS receives none of this information.
When you tap “Start”, Spotineo opens the navigation app you chose (Apple Maps, Google Maps, Waze or Citymapper) and passes it the destination only. What follows is up to that app.
4. Photos, camera and express import
- Photo of a place. The photo you choose or take is stored on your device. The camera is requested only if you choose to take a photo. Spotineo only accesses the images you select yourself, not the rest of your photo library.
- Express import. The text of a screenshot is read directly on your device. The image is not sent to anyone. Only the place names you keep are then searched in Apple Maps.
5. Next-day reminder
If you allow it, Spotineo schedules a notification on your device the day after an outing to ask how it went. This notification is created and displayed by your device: no server is involved.
6. Usage measurement
To understand which features are used and which cause problems, Spotineo counts certain events, such as “the app was opened”, “a draw was made” or “the offer screen was shown”.
What is sent.
- the name of the event and a few details chosen from a closed list: the source of the draw, the number of active filters, a duration range, a range for the number of saved places, the plan concerned;
- usage information computed by the measurement tool: the start of each session, the date of first use, the number of sessions and days of use, session length, the time and day of the event;
- technical information: device model, system and app version, language, region, time zone, screen size, display and accessibility preferences;
- an identifier fingerprint. It is computed on your device from the identifier iOS assigns to apps from the same publisher, then transformed a second time by the provider. The original identifier does not leave your device. The fingerprint stays the same from one event to the next: it shows that several events come from the same installation, without saying who you are.
To work, the tool reads this identifier and keeps its session counters on your device.
What Spotineo never puts in it. No place name, no address, no location, no photo, no first name, no text you have typed.
Provider. TelemetryDeck GmbH (Germany), acting on our behalf. TelemetryDeck states that it hosts this data in the European Union and does not store IP addresses.
What it is used for. Only to produce statistics on how Spotineo is used. This data is not combined with any other, is not used for advertising and is not passed on to anyone.
Legal basis. Our legitimate interest in improving the app.
Your choice. Measurement is on by default. You turn it off in the Me tab › Privacy › “Anonymous usage data”: no further event is then sent.
Retention. TelemetryDeck does not, to date, apply a fixed deletion period to these events: it states that it expects to delete them after 7 to 10 years, without committing to it.
7. Polls with friends
A poll helps you and the people close to you choose between three places. Nothing is sent until you choose to share a poll.
If you create a poll. Spotineo sends our voting service the names of the three places and their neighbourhood or town — never the street — and your first name if you choose to give it. The service returns a link, which you share yourself with whoever you want.
If you vote. From the web page or from the app, you enter a first name and choose a place. Nothing else is asked for: no account, no email address, no location. A nickname works just as well as a first name.
Who sees what. Anyone who has the link can see the three places, the first name of the person who created the poll, the voters’ first names and their choices. The link contains a random identifier that is hard to guess, and the page asks search engines not to index it. It is not, however, protected by a password: anyone who receives it can view the poll. Share it only with the people concerned.
Duration. A poll becomes inaccessible 48 hours after it is created. It is then erased from our database, with all its votes, by an automatic task that runs every hour. So that the database can be restored after an incident, our hosting provider keeps technical copies that may contain an erased poll for up to 30 days; they are not accessible to the public. A poll can receive up to 50 votes.
Technical data. To route your request and limit abuse, our hosting provider processes your IP address: it is used to count, over a one-minute window, the number of polls created and votes cast from the same address. We do not write it to our database and have not enabled any log of calls to the service. The hosting provider may keep its own technical data, under its policy.
In your browser. The voting page sets no cookies. After a vote, it remembers your first name in your browser’s local storage to prefill it next time. You erase it by clearing the site’s data in your browser. The page contains no analytics tool and no advertising.
In the app. Spotineo remembers on your device your first name and the poll you created, so it can show its result.
Hosting provider. Cloudflare, Inc. (United States), which provides the voting service and its database on our behalf.
Legal basis. Providing the service you ask for when you create a poll or vote in one; for limiting abuse, our legitimate interest in protecting the service.
Deleting a poll or a vote before it expires. Write to support@madebyaks.com with the poll link and, for a vote, the first name used. If there is doubt about who is making the request, we may ask you for clarification before acting.
8. Spotineo+ and purchases
Subscriptions are sold, billed and managed by Apple, with your Apple Account. Spotineo asks the App Store, from your device, whether a subscription is active, and keeps that information on the device only.
Apple provides us with sales reports: product purchased, date, country, amount. These reports contain neither your name, nor your email address, nor your payment method.
9. What Spotineo does not do
- No account, no email address requested.
- No advertising, no advertising identifier, no tracking across apps or websites.
- No sale or transfer of data.
- No access to your contacts or your calendar. For photos, only those you select.
10. Sharing and reviews
When you share a place, a result or a poll link, your device’s share sheet opens: the content goes to the app you choose, without passing through us.
Spotineo may invite you to rate the app. The prompt and the review are handled by Apple.
11. Who receives what
| Recipient | Role | What it receives |
|---|---|---|
| Apple (Maps) | Separate controller | Searches, areas, place locations; your location for nearby searches and routes |
| Apple (App Store) | Separate controller | Your purchases and the management of your subscription |
| TelemetryDeck GmbH, Germany | Processor | Usage measurement events, if measurement is on |
| Cloudflare, Inc., United States | Processor | Poll content, first names, votes; technical connection data |
| The navigation app you choose | Separate controller | The destination of the route |
12. Transfers outside the European Union
Cloudflare operates a global network and may process data outside the European Union, including in the United States. Cloudflare is certified under the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework and otherwise relies on the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses. Apple may also process data outside the European Union, under its own policy.
You can ask us for details of these safeguards at support@madebyaks.com.
13. How long
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Data stored on your device | Until you delete it or delete the app |
| Start date of the discovery period | In the device keychain, including after the app is deleted |
| Poll and votes | 48 hours, then automatically erased within the following hour; technical restore copies at the hosting provider for up to 30 days |
| IP address used to limit abuse | One-minute counting window at the hosting provider; no copy in our database |
| First name remembered by the voting page | In your browser, until you clear the site’s data |
| Usage measurement events | No fixed period at TelemetryDeck to date (see section 6) |
14. Your rights
You can ask for access to your data, its correction or deletion, the restriction of its processing, and you can object to processing based on our legitimate interest. Write to support@madebyaks.com: we reply within one month.
In practice:
- the app’s data is on your device: you view, change, export and delete it yourself;
- you object to usage measurement by turning it off in the app. Events already sent carry neither your name nor your contact details, and we have no tool to find a person’s events from their identity. If you write to us about this, we look into what can be done with the provider;
- for a poll, give us its link: it is the only way to find it. You can also ask to receive, in a reusable format, the first name and choice you recorded in it.
If you believe your rights are not being respected, you can lodge a complaint with the CNIL, the French data protection authority (cnil.fr), or with the data protection authority of your country.
15. Minors
Spotineo asks for no information about age and offers no adult-only content. A minor can take out a subscription only with the agreement of their legal guardian, under the conditions set by Apple.
16. Changes to this policy
We update this page when the way Spotineo works changes. The date at the top shows the latest revision.