3.1 Creating an account

You can create an account to track your trips and follow others. When you register for an account we ask you to provide some basic information about yourself, such as:

• Name

• E-mail address

• Hometown

• Password

You can also use your Facebook, Apple or Google account to register. If you do so, we may gain access to public profile information such as your name, e-mail address and Apple, Facebook or Google ID.

We process this data as it is necessary to deliver Polarsteps to you (legal basis: the performance of the agreement).

3.2 Using Polarsteps with an account

As a registered user, you can start using Polarsteps. It is up to you how you use Polarsteps. You can automatically track your route and add photos and videos. Or you can manually enter the places you have been. You can share your trips with everyone, or just your friends or keep it entirely to yourself. And if you regret sharing certain information, you can delete it. Don’t want to track your travels? Feel free to use Polarsteps just to keep in touch with friends and family on the road. You are in control. We will explain this in detail below.

Depending on how you use Polarsteps, we process the following data:

• Your personal info, such as your name, hometown, biography text and e-mail address

• Your location

• Your added content, such as trips, steps, reviews, photos, videos, venues, likes, comments, tips and more

• Your searches

• Whom you follow and who follows you

• Technical information to make Polarsteps work well, such as your IP-address, device type, browser type, screen size and preferred language

• Booking information such as check-in and check-out times and the accommodation name and address, if you choose to add this to your trip

We process this data as it is necessary for the performance of the agreement.

You can delete all of your added content whenever you like. When you do, it will no longer be visible to others and be deleted from our servers. You can also delete your entire account. When you do, we will delete all of your data 90 days after, so please download your data beforehand. If you haven’t used Polarsteps for more than six years we will send you two reminders to ask you if you still want us to keep your data. If there is no response, we will permanently delete your account. You can choose to add booking information to your trip, by forwarding your booking e-mail. Polarsteps makes use of an AI model to identify and extract the relevant information from your booking e-mail, after which the e-mail is deleted within 30 days. Your data is not used to train the AI model.

Finding your friends

You can find out which friends of yours are using Polarsteps by giving us access to your contact list (your phone address book). In case you opt to do so, we collect and process the following data:

• The e-mail addresses of your contacts

The legal basis is the performance of the agreement with you. We use this information to show you which friends of yours already have a Polarsteps account, and to let these friends know that you have joined. We are only using the e-mail addresses of your local contacts, which will be sent to our servers periodically in order to find matches with our existing users. We do not store this information on our servers and we do not use this information for any other purpose. You can stop sharing this data with us at any time by revoking the Contacts permission in your devices setting.

Location data

With Polarsteps you can track your trips and the places that you visited. To make this possible we process your location data. For each individual trip you can choose if you want to enter locations manually or track your route automatically.

• Manual - if you prefer not to automatically track your route, you can manually add content and all the places you have been. You can add photos and videos and tip the places you liked best. You will still have a diary of your travels, however your route will not be tracked in full detail and you will miss some functionalities that require continuous location access. The legal basis is performance of the agreement with you.

• Automatic - for a better experience, you can have us track your route automatically. When you do, you will be able to see and share every step on the way. When we know your location we can also send you recommendations for places to see and things to do near you. People that you have granted access to your trip (see “Sharing your travels”) may be able to see your live location. We will only track your route with your consent.

You can also grant us access to your location for other purposes than tracking your route. With your (specific and separate) consent, we will collect your location when you open the app or occasionally in the background, to suggest adding a trip when it looks like you’re travelling. If you have given such consent, we only store your last known location and we never store your full location history (route).

If you don’t want to share your location anymore you can withdraw your consent, and deny us access through your device settings.

Sharing your travels

Polarsteps is a community. We allow you to not only keep track of your travels for yourself, but to share them with whomever you like.

You can change the sharing settings for a specific trip at any time. For every individual trip, you can choose with whom you want to share your experience:

• Only me - This trip, including all details like your current location, is only visible for you

• My followers - Only people that follow you and people that you’ve shared your secret link with, are able to see the details of your trip. People can only follow you after you have accepted them as followers. You can change this in your account settings, to allow anyone to follow you without accepting them.

• Public - Inspire fellow travelers! Everyone can see your trip and details. Content shared with everyone can be used in our travel guides. Content is shared with everyone when you set the privacy level of a trip to public or when you choose to set an individual tip (such as a restaurant review) to public. For instance, a photo taken by you in Hyde Park can be used in our guide about London if you have set the privacy level of that trip to public. Your first name and bio photo will also be visible with the Hyde Park photo.

The legal basis is the performance of the agreement with you.

Think carefully about which data you share and who you share it with. By default your trip is only visible to your followers. Please be aware that when you set your trip to public, anyone may be able to see your live location. Share responsibly!

3.3 Using Polarsteps without an account

You can view public trips and trips for which you have received a secret link without a Polarsteps account. To facilitate this, Polarsteps processes only the necessary technical information, such as your IP-address, phone type, browser type, screen size and preferred language. The legal basis is the performance of the agreement with you.

3.4 Ordering our products

You can order a travel book or other product to remember your trip. To create this book and to send it to you, we process the following data:

• Your account details

• The contents of your travel book

• Shipping information, your address

• Payment and billing information

• Gift card code and value (see below)

This is necessary for the performance of the agreement with you, for creating and delivering your order. We retain shipping and payment information as part of your account settings, so that if you order another book in the future, you don’t need to enter your details again.

3.5 Gift cards

You can order a gift card to give a travel book or other product to a friend. You can order a gift card on our website and enter the e-mail address of the person you want the gift card to be sent to. We will then send this person a unique code. With this unique code, the recipient can pay for the full value or part of the value of a product the person wishes to purchase. To order this gift card and to deliver the unique code, we process the following data:

• Your account details

• The e-mail address to which you wish to send the gift card

• The gift card code and value

• Payment and billing information

This is necessary for the performance of the agreement with you, to generate your gift card code, facilitate the payment and to provide your friend with the unique code needed to use the gift card. We retain payment information as part of your account settings, so that if you place another order in the future, you don’t need to enter your details again.

3.6 Curated experiences

Polarsteps offers various ways to curate and personalize your traveling experiences. For example, to analyze your previous trips or to generate new ones. You can choose whether you want to make use of these options or not.

Polarsteps only processes the data about your travels. This concerns the content in your trips, including the destinations you travel to and the descriptions you provide. Your content is only visible to others, such as to your mutual followers, when you have given your consent. For example, if you want your trips to be included in recommendations for your mutual followers.

For these purposes, Polarsteps also generates aggregated and anonymized datasets about traveling experiences, such as trips, steps and tips. These aggregated datasets are used to enhance the experience of other travelers. For instance, Polarsteps can help you find new and unique places to visit, depending on what percentage of users visited a certain place. Or if you have visited many mountainous places, Polarsteps may suggest other places to visit that are fit for mountain activities. The aggregated data we use for this is in no way traceable back to you. For these purposes, Polarsteps can make use of an AI model. Your data is not used to train other AI models. Only Polarsteps uses the data to provide and improve the services described here.

The legal bases for these purposes are as follows:

• We provide you with your own personalized Polarsteps curations if you provide us with your consent;

• We provide you with personalized itineraries using Polarsteps AI if you request us such a personalized itinerary, based on the necessity to perform the contract with you;

• We include personal data of your trip in recommendations for others with your consent;

• We create anonymized statistical datasets about traveling experiences based on our and our users’ legitimate interests.

3.7 Improving, securing and optimizing Polarsteps

Polarsteps is constantly in development. We need certain data to optimize your experience and to improve the services. This concerns, for example, the following data:

• How you interact with the App or Website, such as search terms, pageviews and messages

• Device information, such as hardware model, OS version, unique ID, browser type, language and WiFi information

• Location data (on city level)

• Information collected by cookies and similar technologies

• Crash data

The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest to improve the App, by analyzing how the App is used, what problems are encountered and what improvements are necessary. We will limit this processing as much as possible, for instance by pseudonmizing the data.

3.8 Cookies

When you visit our App or Website, small text files are stored on your computer, smartphone or other device. These files are called cookies. Cookies help us to function, analyze and personalize the website. We do not make use of tracking cookies to personalize content or show advertisements. For detailed information on the use of cookies, see our cookie settings under 'Cookies' in the footer of our Website.

3.9 Social Media

If you follow us on social media or communicate with us or about us on social media, we may have access to a part of your public profile data. Polarsteps also follows social media channels and may have access to public profile information by doing so.

We do this in order to increase our social media activity, respond to queries, and analyze customer satisfaction. The legal basis for this is our legitimate interest to improve our services.

3.10 Customer satisfaction surveys

Polarsteps conducts customer surveys in several ways. If you contact support or make a purchase, you may receive an invitation to participate in a customer satisfaction surveys. For this purpose we process information such as your e-mail address, the reason for sending you a survey and the results of the survey.

We use the results to improve the quality of our services and products. The legal basis is the performance of the agreement with you.

3.11 Mailings

You can subscribe to our mailings. For this, we need your name and email address. The legal basis for this is your consent. With your consent, we can also personalize our mailings as described in 3.6. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking on the ‘unsubscribe’ button in each email. If you are no longer subscribed, we will remove your name and email address from our mailing list. You may also receive mails which are necessary for the performance of the agreement with you, such as a confirmation of your account creation, password reset request or changes to our legal documentation.

We can send you in-app notifications about general updates about Polarsteps. With your consent, we may also send personalized in-app messages. You can change your preferences in your account settings at any time.

3.12 Support

You can contact our support department for any issues related to our services. When you do, we process your account details and the contents of your issue, in order to answer your request, on the basis of the performance of the contract with you.

3.13 Polarsteps Research Community

Polarsteps organizes research projects to collect feedback to improve its products and services, for instance by asking feedback through e-mail or via a video interview. You can take part in such research in various ways.

First, you can sign up to the Polarsteps Research Community via the registration form. When you register, we process the personal data you provide in the registration form, which includes your name, e-mail address, date of birth, and country of residence. We can complement this information with data on how you make use of our App or Websites, if you consent to this, such as via our cookie banner. Based on this information, we can invite you to a specific research project. The legal basis for the processing is the performance of contract based on your registration to the Research Community. Participation is always voluntary, and you may leave the Research Community at any time.

Second, we can ask you to take part in a specific Research Project based on how you interact with the App or Website. The legal bases for these processing activities are: 1) your consent to analyse how you make use of our App or Website and to select you as a potential participant or 2) our legitimate interest to invite you to a research project. Participation is always voluntary, and you may opt-out at any time.

When you take part in a Research Project via a video interview, we process your audio and video recordings, based on the performance of contract, and information on the answers you provide.

We store this data for a maximum of 3 years.

3.14 Contracting partners

We sometimes make use of contracting partners, such as IT providers. We may need to process some personal data of our contacts with such partners. We do this for the performance of the contract with these partners.

3.15 Protection of rights

Lastly, we may need to process your data to protect our rights or the rights of third parties and to enforce our Terms of Service or policies, for instance to protect our intellectual property rights when they are violated. We may also share your data as part of a business sale, merger, investment, change in control or transfer of Polarsteps. The legal basis for this are our legitimate business interests.