Privacy Policy

This privacy policy applies to the Serica app for iOS and Android and to the Serica web app at getserica.com (together hereby referred to as "Application"), created by Halil Öncen (hereby referred to as "Service Provider") as a Freemium service. This service is intended for use "AS IS".

Information Collection and Use

Account information: to create an account, the Service Provider asks for your email address, first name, last name and a password. If you sign in with Google or Apple, the Service Provider receives the email address of that account (with Apple, this can be a private relay address) and your name, and does not receive your Google or Apple password. The Service Provider also stores your profile photo if you add one, your language, how you sign in, whether your email address is verified and your subscription status. When you buy Premium, the Service Provider receives records of your purchase and its renewals from its payment service provider. This information is used to create and run your account, sign you in, provide Premium features and contact you.

Content you add: the Application stores the content you create so that it can show it to you and to the people you choose to share it with. This includes:

Journeys and collaborative journal entries: their text, date, mood, tags and location, and the photos, videos and audio recordings you attach.
Guides you create, and the collaborative journals you create or join, including their name, description, cover image, members and the members' roles.
The email addresses of people you invite to a collaborative journal, including people who do not have a Serica account. An invited person who has a Serica account receives an invitation email and a notification that show your name, the journal's name and their role.
Time capsule messages: anyone who has your time capsule link can leave you a message with their name, and optionally choose a date when it unlocks, without creating an account. These messages are stored with your account, and the sender's name appears in the notification you receive.

The Application also collects some information automatically when you use it. This information may include:

Your device's Internet Protocol address (IP address) and browser or device information (user agent), which the Service Provider saves in a log of your account activity, such as sign-ups, sign-ins and changes to your account and content
The pages of the Application that you visit, including their web address, the time and date of your visit, the time spent on those pages, and the taps and clicks you make
Recordings of your sessions in the Application, which may include what appears on your screen, and reports of errors that occur
The time of your last activity in the Application
The operating system and browser you use on your device

The pages you visit, your taps and clicks, session recordings and error reports are collected by an analytics service provider that works on the Service Provider's behalf. It also receives how you installed the app (on Android, the campaign information in the store link you used) and your subscription purchase and renewal events (product, price, currency and store). When you are signed in, this information is linked to your account. It is used to understand how the Application is used, to measure the Service Provider's campaigns, to find problems and to improve the Application.

Location: the Application asks for your device's location only while you are using it, and only when you open the location picker for a journey or collaborative journal entry that has no location yet, or tap the button that finds your location on a map. It does not access your location in the background. Depending on your device and the permission you grant (precise or approximate), the location can be precise. When you confirm a location, the Application stores the exact latitude and longitude of the point you confirmed, together with a place name that you can edit. If you confirm without moving the map, this point is your device's position. You can instead move the map or search for a place. Location is used in the following ways:

Tagging your memories: the location you confirm is saved with the journey or entry, shown as its place name, and used to place it on your map, to filter and search your entries and to suggest places you saved before.
Maps and place search: to show maps, your device loads map images directly from CARTO, which receives your IP address and the map area you view. When the map is centred on your position (when you use the button that finds your location, or when the location picker opens for an entry without a location), this is the area around your position. To turn the point you select into a place name, and to find places you search for, your device sends the coordinates of that point or the text you type to OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service, together with your IP address and app language. The search box on the map screen also searches your own entries, and the text you type there is sent to Nominatim as well.
People you share with: the location of a journey you share by link, or of an entry in a public collaborative journal, including its coordinates, is available to anyone who has the link. Every member of a collaborative journal can see the location of all of its entries, on their own map and in their location suggestions.
The Application does not use your location for advertising or for personalized content. It only suggests places you saved before.

Device permissions: with your permission, the Application uses your camera, microphone and photo library so that you can add photos, videos and audio recordings, and sends you notifications, such as reminders and updates about time capsule messages and collaborative journals. If you turn on the screen lock, your PIN is saved only on your device, and biometric checks such as Face ID, Touch ID or fingerprint are done by your device. The Application only learns whether the check succeeded.

Cookies and device storage: the Application uses a cookie to keep you signed in and a cookie to remember your language. The analytics and notification service providers, and the ad measurement services if you allow them, also keep identifiers in cookies or in your device's or browser's storage. Unsaved journey and guide drafts, including the location of a journey draft, and your screen lock settings are kept in your device's or browser's storage.

The Service Provider may use your email address to send you password reset codes, collaborative journal invitations and updates, and important notices about your account or the Application. The Service Provider may also occasionally email you news about Serica, such as new blog posts.

Sharing and Visibility

Your journeys are not visible to other users unless you share them. Your information becomes visible to other people in these cases:

Shared journeys: when you share a journey, anyone with its link can see its text, photos, videos and other attachments, date, mood, tags and location, including its coordinates.
Public collaborative journals: when the owner makes a collaborative journal public, anyone with its link can see the journal's name, description and cover image, the names, profile photos and roles of its owner and members, and all of its entries with their text, attachments, date, mood, tags, location and author.
Collaborative journal members: everyone in a collaborative journal, whatever their role, can see all of its entries with their locations, the names, email addresses, profile photos and roles of the owner and all members, and the email addresses of pending invitations.
Collaborative journal invitations: anyone who opens an invitation link can see your name, the journal's name, description and cover image, and the invited email address.
Guides: if you turn off Private on a guide you create, every signed-in Serica user can see its name, content and cover image, and your first and last name.
Time capsule link: anyone who has your time capsule link can see your first and last name.
Uploaded files: photos, videos and audio recordings are stored at long, randomly generated web addresses. Anyone who has the address of a file can open it without signing in.

You can stop sharing a journey, make a collaborative journal you own private again, or make a guide private again at any time. People who have already saved the content or the address of a file may still have it.

Third Party Access

The Application relies on third-party services to work. Each of them receives the information it needs to provide its service, and some of them receive it directly from your device, together with your IP address.

Please note that these third-party services have their own Privacy Policy about handling data. Below are the links to the Privacy Policy of each third-party service named in this policy, with what it is used for:

OpenStreetMap Nominatim: map place names and place search. It receives the coordinates of the points you select, the text you type in place search boxes, your IP address and app language.
CARTO: map images. It receives your IP address and the map areas you view.
Cloudflare: storage of the photos, videos, audio recordings and images you upload.
Google: Sign in with Google, delivery of the emails the Service Provider sends you, the fonts used in those emails, purchases through Google Play, delivery of push notifications on Android and, if you allow it, ad measurement with Google Analytics for Firebase and Google Ads.
Apple: Sign in with Apple, purchases through the App Store and delivery of push notifications on iOS. When you delete your account, the Service Provider asks Apple to revoke Serica's Sign in with Apple access where possible.
Meta: ad measurement with the Meta SDK, if you allow it.
TikTok: ad measurement with the TikTok Business SDK, if you allow it.

The Service Provider also uses service providers that host the Application and its database, analyze how the Application is used, deliver notifications, and process payments and subscriptions on its behalf. Depending on the service, they receive your account information, such as your account identifier, email address, name, language and subscription status, and the usage information described above. In a web browser, push notifications are delivered through your browser's push service.

The Service Provider may disclose User Provided and Automatically Collected Information:

as required by law, such as to comply with a subpoena, or similar legal process;
when they believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect their rights, protect your safety or the safety of others, investigate fraud, or respond to a government request;
with the third-party services and service providers described above, to the extent needed for them to provide their services. The Service Provider shares information only with third parties that provide the same or equal protection of user data as stated in this Privacy Policy, and service providers that work on its behalf may use it only to provide their services to the Service Provider.

Ad Measurement

The iOS and Android apps use the Meta SDK, the TikTok Business SDK and Google Analytics for Firebase to measure which of the Service Provider's ad campaigns lead people to install and use Serica. Ad measurement is on by default and you can turn it off at any time, as described below. On iOS the system also asks whether you allow tracking (App Tracking Transparency); that answer decides whether your device's advertising identifier is shared. The web app does not use these services.

What is shared: device identifiers, namely your device's advertising identifier (on iOS only if you allow tracking) and an identifier that is the same for the Service Provider's apps on your device (IDFV on iOS, Android ID on Android); identifiers these services assign to your app installation; basic device and app information; your IP address; and app events such as installing and opening the app, signing up or signing in, viewing the Premium page, creating your first journey or collaborative journal, and buying a subscription with its price and currency.
What is never shared: your journal entries, photos, videos, audio recordings, locations, and the content of your collaborative journals and time capsule messages.
Purpose and legal basis: measuring and improving the Service Provider's ad campaigns, based on the Service Provider's legitimate interest in knowing which of its campaigns work. These companies process the information under their own privacy policies and may process it in other countries, including the United States.
Turning it off: you can turn ad measurement off at any time in Profile > General, or in the ad measurement setting shown in this section when you open this policy in the app (no sign-in needed). The app then stops sending ad measurement events right away; some background requests of these services may continue until you close the app, and none of them start on later launches. Turning off Tracking in iOS Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking only stops sharing your advertising identifier. Information already sent is kept according to these companies' own policies.

Opt-Out Rights

You can limit the information the Application collects:

Location: you can refuse or withdraw location permission in your device or browser settings at any time. You can still choose a location by moving the map or searching for a place (your search text is sent to Nominatim as described above), or save entries without a location.
Notifications: in the iOS or Android app, you can turn push notifications off in Profile > General or in your device settings. In a web browser, turn them off in your browser's site settings.
Camera, microphone and photo library: you can refuse or withdraw these permissions in your device settings. You can still use the Application without adding media.
Emails: if you do not want to receive news emails, contact the Service Provider at [email protected].
Ad measurement: turn it off in Profile > General, or in the Ad Measurement section of this policy when you open it in the app. Turning off Tracking in iOS Settings > Privacy & Security > Tracking only stops sharing your advertising identifier.
Uninstalling: uninstalling the Application stops it from collecting information from your device, but it does not delete your account or the information stored with it. To delete them, see the Data Retention and Deletion section below.

Data Retention and Deletion

The Service Provider keeps your account information and the content you add for as long as your account exists. Activity records, which include IP addresses and browser or device information, are also kept while your account exists and are deleted with it. You can delete your account and the data linked to it at any time:

In the Application: open Serica on your phone or at getserica.com, sign in, go to Profile, tap Delete Account and confirm.
On the account deletion page, which also explains what is deleted and what is kept: https://getserica.com/delete-account
By email, if you cannot sign in: email [email protected] from the address registered to your Serica account with the subject "Delete my account". The Service Provider will confirm that the request comes from the account owner and delete the account within 30 days.

When your account is deleted:

Your account and its records are deleted right away. This includes your profile, your journeys and entries with the locations attached to them, guides you created, time capsule messages left for you, your activity history, the purchase records the Service Provider received for you, collaborative journals you own (for every member, including their entries) and your entries and memberships in other people's collaborative journals.
Uploaded photos, videos and audio recordings are moved to a deleted files area and permanently erased within 30 days. Files that another account's content still uses are not removed.
Purchases are processed by Apple or Google, and they keep their purchase records under their own policies. Deleting your account does not cancel a subscription bought through the App Store or Google Play. Cancel it in your App Store or Google Play account so you are not charged again.
If your subscription is still active, later notices about it from the payment service provider, such as its renewal or expiry, are kept without your name, email address or account identifier.
Information that the third-party services and service providers described in this policy have already received is not removed by deleting your account. It is kept according to their own retention practices.

If you want other information deleted, for example a time capsule message you left for someone without having an account, please contact the Service Provider at [email protected].

Children

The Service Provider does not use the Application to knowingly solicit data from or market to children under the age of 13.

The Application does not address anyone under the age of 13, and it does not ask for your age. The Service Provider does not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children under 13 years of age. If the Service Provider discovers that a child under 13 has provided personal information, the Service Provider will delete it from their servers. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your child has provided us with personal information, please contact the Service Provider ([email protected]) so that they will be able to take the necessary actions.

Security

The Service Provider cares about keeping your information confidential. The Application sends information over encrypted (HTTPS) connections. No method of storing or transmitting information over the internet is completely secure, and the Service Provider cannot guarantee the security of your information. Shared links and file addresses can be opened by anyone who has them, so share them with care. On your device, you can turn on the screen lock to require a PIN or a biometric check to open the Application.

Changes

This Privacy Policy may be updated from time to time for any reason. The Service Provider will notify you of any changes to the Privacy Policy by updating this page with the new Privacy Policy. You are advised to consult this Privacy Policy regularly for any changes, as continued use is deemed approval of all changes.

This privacy policy is effective as of 2026-10-15

Your Consent

By using the Application, you are consenting to the processing of your information as set forth in this Privacy Policy now and as amended by us. You can withdraw your consent at any time: turn off device permissions and news emails as described in Opt-Out Rights, stop using the Application and uninstall it, or delete your account as described in Data Retention and Deletion. To ask the Service Provider to stop any other processing of your information, contact [email protected]. You can turn off ad measurement separately, as described in Ad Measurement.

Contact Us

If you have any questions regarding privacy while using the Application, or have questions about the practices described in this policy, please contact the Service Provider, Halil Öncen, by email at [email protected]