Privacy Policy

1. About this policy and contact details

This policy explains how SacraView handles data about visitors, contributors and people appearing in photographs. For privacy questions or account or content removal, contact sacraview@gmail.com; no account is required. The data controller’s name or company details have not yet been published in this version. This controller information is incomplete and needs to be added.

2. Account and sign-in

When you sign in with Google, we receive your account identifier, name, email address, its verification status and, if provided, profile picture. We store your account role, sign-in sessions and technical authentication data. We request only the openid, email and profile permissions; we do not request access to Gmail messages, contacts or Drive. Google authentication tokens are stored encrypted.

Session data may include an IP address, browser information and sign-in time. When registering by email, you provide a name and email address; we store a password hash rather than the password in plain text. We send address verification emails and, at your request, password reset emails. Password sign-in is unavailable until the email address is verified. Verification links expire after 1 hour; single-use reset links expire after 30 minutes. An account is required to contribute and save personal bookmarks; the public atlas can be browsed without signing in.

3. Contributions, photographs and public access

We handle the place details, coordinates, descriptions, photographs, attribution, licences, drafts, edit history, moderation decisions and problem reports you provide. Permission records contain account, submission and photo identifiers, the text, version, language, chosen licence and time. Drafts, email addresses, original files and permission records are not shown to visitors; authorised administrators and moderators may access them as needed.

Approved place content and optimised photographs are public and can be saved by others. With the SacraView permission, public credit is shortened to the first name and surname initial, or a chosen pseudonym is shown; credit for other authors and Creative Commons works follows the permission. Your private Likes and Want to visit selections are linked to your account; only aggregate counts are public.

4. Photo metadata and sensitive information

EXIF, IPTC and XMP metadata are removed from public optimised photographs. Private originals may retain the location and time of capture and device details; remove them before uploading if you do not wish to provide them. Avoid unnecessary identifiable people, especially children, and information about other people’s religious beliefs. An author’s permission to use a photograph is not consent from the people pictured to process their data. You may request removal of your image or sensitive information.

5. Location and maps

Your current location is obtained only when you press Use my location and grant browser permission. We do not continuously track your movements. You can select coordinates on the map or enter them manually; when saved they become the submitted place’s location and are public once the place is approved. Do not mark your home or another private location unless it is an atlas site. Town names are entered manually; no external address lookup service is used.

When an OSM map is opened, your browser requests map images directly from tile.openstreetmap.org. The OpenStreetMap Foundation may receive your IP address, browser information, the website’s origin address and requests revealing the area viewed. We do not send this provider place descriptions, photographs or account details. Get directions opens Google Maps with the place’s coordinates only when clicked; Google’s privacy policy then applies.

6. Purposes and legal bases

Managing your account, requested bookmarks and contributions is necessary to provide the service and perform the contract (GDPR Article 6(1)(b)). Security, abuse prevention, moderation traceability and minimal permission and dispute evidence rely on legitimate interests in protecting the platform, authors and others, taking their rights into account (point (f)). Point (c) applies to specific legal obligations. Optional access to your device location relies on your permission; you can revoke it in your browser and enter the location manually.

We publish the atlas content you request under the Terms of Use and the permission granted for the work. This is not blanket consent to process personal data for any purpose. We do not create profiles of religious beliefs, sell personal data or use them to target advertising. Automatic photo optimisation and translation do not decide your rights; people make moderation decisions.

7. Cookies and browser storage

We use cookies essential for authentication and sign-in protection with the sacraview prefix; on HTTPS their names may start with __Secure-. Sessions are configured to last up to 8 hours and may be renewed while you use the account; temporary sign-in cookies expire sooner. Signing out invalidates the session. Your language choice is stored in the localStorage entry sacraview.language until you change the language or clear browser data. You can block cookies, but sign-in may fail. Analytics, advertising and marketing trackers are not enabled. Google and OSM describe their own data processing in their policies.

8. Providers and international processing

The website, database and photographs are hosted on a Hostinger VPS in Vilnius, Lithuania (EU / EEA). Access is restricted according to purpose. Descriptions are translated on our server using a local model, without sending them to an external translation service. Google participates in sign-in and, if you choose, directions. We send account emails through Gmail SMTP: Google receives the recipient address, subject and message text containing the private verification or reset link. These emails contain no photographs, place descriptions or account passwords. If you email the contact Gmail address, Google processes the message and contact details you provide. The OSM map provider is described above. Data may also be supplied to authorities when lawfully required.

Hostinger’s Data Processing Addendum (DPA) covers VPS. Section 9.1 provides European Commission standard contractual clauses (SCCs) for transfers outside the EEA to countries without an adequacy decision. Subprocessors are listed in Appendix 3.

For international transfers, Google cites adequacy decisions, the EU–US Data Privacy Framework (DPF) and SCCs where needed. We use Google sign-in and an ordinary Gmail mailbox for contact and sending account emails, rather than a Google Workspace or Google Cloud business environment.

OSM uses a global map tile cache network; EEA-only processing or specific SCC safeguards for this network have not been confirmed. The VPS region also does not establish the locations of every Hostinger auxiliary operation or provider backup. For explanations or copies of applicable safeguards, contact us or the provider using the documents below.

Hostinger · DPA ↗Hostinger ↗Google ↗Google · SCC / DPF ↗OpenStreetMap Foundation ↗

9. How long we keep data

Account and personal bookmark data are kept while you use the account and they are needed for the service. Drafts and submission history are kept while needed for the contribution and its review; public content is kept while published under the permission. Administrators handle account closure and erasure requests manually; there is no automatic deletion of all records after inactivity. You can request content removal when closing an account. Simply hiding a photograph during moderation does not delete it.

After removal, non-public data remaining in backups are no longer used publicly and are replaced within 90 days, unless there is a specific legal basis for retention. Minimal consent, security or dispute evidence may be retained while necessary for a specific claim or legal obligation; we explain the reason and period for longer retention when responding to a request. Technical logs are limited in size and rotated; no single retention period in days applies to every log.

10. Your rights and requests

You may request access to your data, a copy, correction, erasure, restriction of processing and, where applicable, data portability. You may object to processing based on legitimate interests and withdraw consent without affecting lawful processing before withdrawal. Rights apply subject to GDPR conditions and exceptions. Email sacraview@gmail.com with the account or content link; we do not ask you to send your password. Where necessary, we will request proportionate verification of identity or authority to act.

We respond without undue delay, normally within one month. For complex requests this may be extended by a further two months, with notice and reasons within the first month. You may complain to Lithuania’s State Data Protection Inspectorate (vdai.lrv.lt), or an EU supervisory authority in the place of your habitual residence, work or the alleged infringement.

VDAI ↗

11. Security and children’s data

We use HTTPS, access roles, private storage for originals and restricted database access. No system can guarantee absolute security. The service is not specifically directed at children; we do not seek to collect their data or religious beliefs. Do not upload sensitive data about others without an appropriate legal basis. Report vulnerabilities, unlawful publication of your image or children’s data to the contact address.

12. Changes to this policy

Before materially changing how we process data, we will update this information and request separate consent where required. Reading the policy or using the website is not in itself consent to new purposes. A link to this version and its informational translations is retained; the Lithuanian original can be opened on the same page.