Privacy policy

1. Who is responsible

ça va? is made by Jan-Peter Dhallé, in Flanders (Belgium). He is responsible for your data: the ‘controller’ under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

For anything about your data, write to hallo@usecava.app.

2. What ça va? sees on the phone of the person who lives alone

About every two hours, when there is internet, ça va? looks at what Android noted since the last time. It sends only this to the server:

• when the phone was last unlocked and when its screen was last used (on Android 8: when an app was last opened, without saying which);
• how many steps were taken since the last time; the server only uses this to know whether someone walked (50 steps or more) and keeps only the time;
• when the charger was plugged in, and when someone opened the ça va? app or tapped the question or the widget;
• the battery level and whether the phone is charging;
• whether Android still lets ça va? see what it needs (usage access, notifications, working in the background), and how far the setup has come;
• when pairing: the phone's make and model, the Android and app versions, and the phone's language.

ça va? never reads messages, photos, contacts, calls or what someone does on the internet. It does not know which apps are used or where someone is, and it does not use the camera or the microphone. The QR code for pairing is scanned by Google Play services' code scanner on the phone itself; ça va? receives only the code.

We keep no history: only the latest sign of life and what the phone last said about itself. From that, the family sees how things are, when the phone was last used, the battery, and what ça va? cannot see.

3. What we keep about those who keep an eye out

Those who keep an eye out sign in with Google. From Google we keep only a fixed code for your Google account, your name and your email address as Google confirmed it. No profile photo, no contacts, nothing else from your Google account.

We also keep:

• whom you look out for, what you call them (‘Mum’), and whether you manage the circle or follow along;
• what you do in the app that the others need to know: that you are following it up, that all is well, the chosen durations;
• your phone's language, so messages reach you in your language;
• the messages for your app;
• your sign-in. Of the key your app receives for it, we keep only an irreversible fingerprint (a hash).

4. What we keep about those without the app

Those who keep an eye out can add someone without the app, such as a neighbour. For that person we keep their name, email address, what they call the person who lives alone, their language, and who added them.

That person only gets an email when it has been quiet for a long time, and then what happens next: that someone is following it up, or that all is well again. Whoever adds someone asks them first. That person can stop the emails themselves with the link at the bottom of each one, and those who manage the circle can remove them: either way we erase the email address and any emails not yet sent.

5. This website

This website sets no cookies, counts no visitors and shows no ads. It loads nothing from other companies, not even its fonts. Vercel stores and serves the website; like any web server, Vercel processes technical data such as your IP address to deliver and protect the pages.

6. Why we may do this

The GDPR only allows using data for a reason the law recognises. For ça va? these are:

• Contract (Article 6(1)(b)): your account, your circles and the messages you receive. Without this data we cannot provide the service you ask for.
• Legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f)): the signs of life from the phone of the person who lives alone, and the name and email address of those without the app. The interest is that this person and their family can be at ease, and that a long silence is noticed. We keep it as small as possible: only times, no content, and the person knows and wants ça va? to keep an eye out (see the terms of use).
• Legitimate interest, and our duty to be able to show that we comply with the GDPR: security (such as failed codes per IP address, for one day) and the log of exports, erasures and administration.

What the app may read on the phone is chosen by the phone's user in Android (usage access, physical activity, notifications), and can always be switched off again. ça va? keeps no health data: no steps, no heart rate, only when the phone was used. There is no marketing.

7. Who helps us

We sell no data and give it to no one to use for anything else. These companies process data on our behalf, each only for their part:

• Cloudflare runs the server. The database with accounts, circles, messages and the log is in the European Union (Cloudflare D1, EU jurisdiction). Each circle's state (the latest sign of life, what the phone reported) is in a ‘Durable Object’ that Cloudflare places close to its first user: for families in Belgium that is usually in Europe, but this is not yet fixed. Server logs use codes instead of names: never names, email addresses or messages.
• Resend sends the emails to those without the app, from hallo@usecava.app, from Ireland. Resend receives the email address, the subject and the text.
• Google lets you sign in with your Google account and then gives us your code, name and email address. Google is responsible for your Google account itself, under Google's privacy policy.
• Vercel serves this website. Vercel receives no data from the app.

These companies are American. Where data may leave the European Union, this happens under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.

ça va? uses no ads, no statistics on visitors or use, no error reports to other companies, and (not yet) push messages through Firebase: the apps fetch their messages from the server themselves.

8. How long we keep data

Every fifteen minutes, the server clears out by itself what is too old:

• messages in the app: 30 days;
• copies of sent emails (address, subject, text): 30 days;
• sign-ins in the app: until they expire after 90 days, or until you erase your account;
• pairing codes: valid for 24 hours, erased a day later;
• failed attempts with a code, with the IP address: 1 day;
• the log of exports, erasures and administration: 2 years. It holds codes, not names or email addresses.

Your account and a circle's state stay as long as they are used. A circle is erased completely, with everything about the phone of the person who lives alone, as soon as the last person keeping an eye out leaves or erases their account.

Cloudflare keeps server logs for a few days. On the phones, the app keeps only what it needs to work, such as the sign-in; that disappears when you remove the app.

9. Your rights

You may always know what data we have about you, have it corrected or erased, object to its use or have it restricted, and take it with you in a file.

In the app you do this yourself: you download all your data as a file, and you erase your account. You then leave every circle. If you were a circle's only manager, whoever joined first after you manages it from then on; if nobody is left, we erase the whole circle. We take your name and email address from Google each time you sign in: correct them there.

The person who lives alone and those without the app have no account: write to hallo@usecava.app. We answer within a month, and sometimes first ask you to confirm that it really is about you.

If you are not satisfied with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Belgian Data Protection Authority, Drukpersstraat 35, 1000 Brussels, www.dataprotectionauthority.be. We would like to hear it first ourselves.

10. Security

All traffic between the apps and the server is encrypted. We keep keys and codes only as irreversible fingerprints. Each circle is kept apart, and only those who belong to it can see it. Anyone who tries too many wrong codes has to wait an hour.

11. Children

ça va? is made for adults and their family. An account is for people aged 16 or over. We do not knowingly keep data about children.

12. Changes

If anything changes in how ça va? handles data, we update this page and the new date appears at the top. We announce important changes in advance.