Privacy

About this translation

This English text is a convenience translation. If anything is unclear, the German version applies.

Controller

The controller for data processing in the CELL app is:

Carl Schade, Trautmansdorfstraße 111, 48153 Münster, Germany

Email: datenschutz@cellsocial.de

Which data we process

Account: email address and password. The password is stored securely by Firebase Authentication; we cannot read it. During the test phase also the invite code you signed up with.

Profile: first and last name, relationship status and, if you upload them, profile and banner pictures. Optional: city and age.

Verification: whether you are verified and your age. We store your date of birth only on the server. We don't store your phone number or ID number – only a check value calculated from them that cannot be reversed, so that each person can have only one profile. CELL never stores ID photos or your selfie.

Content: photos, videos, posts, stories, highlights, comments, likes and tags, as well as messages in chats and groups (text, photos, videos, voice messages, locations, contacts and polls).

Cells: Cells you start or join, your role in them and your posts, comments and likes there. Anyone who starts a business or official Cell also provides the details needed to review it.

Relationships and safety: friendships and requests, blocked people, reports and your requests to support.

Feedback on the test version: your text, a screenshot if you like, plus device model, system version and app version added automatically.

Notifications: a technical address of your phone so we can send you notifications if you turned them on.

Technical data such as your IP address arises when you access our service providers' services (see below).

What we need it for

To provide the app and run your account and the features (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).

To make sure every profile belongs to a real person aged 16 or over and that each person has only one profile, we check phone number, ID and a selfie (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). Without verification you can only look around in CELL.

Matching your face with your ID photo involves biometric data. This only happens with your explicit consent (Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR), which you give by tapping “Start verification”. You can withdraw it at any time for the future, but then verification isn't possible.

To keep the app safe, prevent abuse, handle reports, provide support and fix bugs in the test version (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, our legitimate interest).

For phone notifications only with your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). You can turn them off at any time in Settings.

We don't sell your data

We do not sell your data and do not build advertising profiles.

Ads only appear in public Cells. They are based solely on the Cell's topic, not on your personal data. There are no ads in the private part of CELL (feed, chats, profiles).

Service providers

Google Firebase stores accounts, content, photos, videos and voice messages (Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Storage) and runs our server functions (Cloud Functions, in Frankfurt). The provider is Google Ireland Limited or Google LLC. Data may be transferred to countries outside the EU, protected by standard contractual clauses or the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

Verification is carried out by Didit as our processor: confirming your phone number by SMS, checking your ID and matching it with a selfie. Didit tells us the result. Of that, we only store what is listed above under “Verification”. How long Didit keeps the verification data is explained in Didit's privacy policy.

For phone notifications we use Expo's push service as well as Apple's and Google's services. We deliver app updates via Expo (EAS Update), which involves technical data such as your IP address.

We send support replies by email via mailbox.org, an email provider with servers in Germany.

Who sees your content

Only your friends see your posts, stories and highlights. You can also hide stories and highlights from individual friends. Only the participants of a chat see its messages.

Content in public Cells is visible to everyone on CELL, in closed Cells only to members. Only members can see a Cell's full member list.

Messages are encrypted in transit but are not end-to-end encrypted.

Voice messages, shared locations and shared contacts are part of the message and visible to everyone in the chat. You only send a location when you choose to; it is not updated live. The app asks for camera, microphone and location access only when you use them.

Read receipts (two ticks in one-to-one chats) work both ways only. You can turn them off in the settings; then you also can't see whether others have read your messages.

Place on posts: you can add a place to a post. It is plain text and visible to everyone who can see the post. If you use "Use current place", the app asks for your location once and stores only the place name, not the coordinates.

Online status: while the app is open it stores a timestamp about once a minute that only your friends can read. There is no "last seen" time. You can turn the status off in the settings; then you also can't see who is online.

How long we store data

We store your data as long as your account exists. Anything you delete yourself, such as a post or a story, is immediately no longer visible to anyone.

With “Delete account” in Settings we delete your profile, your posts with comments, stories, highlights and story archive, friendships, notifications, block list and your login. We also remove all photos, videos and voice messages you uploaded – including those in chats – as well as your verification data (date of birth and check values).

Text messages you sent to others remain visible to them, shown as sent by “Deleted account”. Hand over or delete your own Cells beforehand in the Cell's settings.

Reports, support requests and feedback are kept only as long as needed to process them.

Your rights

You have the right of access (Art. 15), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20) and objection (Art. 21 GDPR). You can withdraw consent at any time with effect for the future.

Just write to us at datenschutz@cellsocial.de. You can also lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, for example in the federal state where you live.

Age

CELL is for people aged 16 and over. During verification Didit reads your date of birth from your ID. We store it only on the server; it is not visible to others. We use it only to check the minimum age and to show your age correctly if you choose to show it in your profile.

This website

When you visit this website, our hosting provider Google Firebase Hosting processes technically necessary data such as your IP address, date and time and the page requested, in order to deliver the site and protect it against attacks (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). This website sets no cookies, uses no tracking and loads no content or fonts from third-party servers.

Changes

If something important changes, we will update this policy and tell you in the app. As of: November 2026.