Privacy Policy – Skene

Last updated: June 6, 2026

1. Introduction

Welcome to Skene.

Skene is a social platform designed to help people discover and participate in real-world activities such as climbing, sports, and other shared experiences. We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal data transparently and responsibly.

This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and what rights you have regarding your data.

Data Controller: Chestburster Ltd Email: mail@skene.life

2. Information We Collect

We may collect the following types of information when you use Skene.

Account Information

When you create an account, we may collect:

• Name or username
• Email address
• Profile picture (optional)
• Authentication information when signing in via third-party services (Google or Apple)
• Age verification status

Profile Information

Information you choose to add to your profile, such as:

• Interests and activity preferences
• Bio or description
• Location (if provided)
• Preferred climbing grade systems
• Status text (a short free-text status shown on your profile until it expires, optionally broadcast to your followers)

Activity Data

When you create or participate in activities, we collect:

• Activity details (title, description, category, time, location)
• Participation records (join requests, invitations, roles)
• Activity drafts (stored temporarily, automatically deleted after 7 days, maximum 5 drafts)

Social Data

When you interact with other users, we collect:

• Follow relationships (who you follow and who follows you)
• Per-follow notification preferences (which of a followed user's updates you choose to be notified about)
• Block relationships
• Group memberships
• Share links you create and their usage statistics (click counts)

Messages and Chat Data

When you use the messaging features, we collect:

• Text messages, image messages, and shared locations in conversations
• Message reactions
• Read status and timestamps
• Conversation membership and roles (member, admin)
• Per-conversation notification preferences
• Link previews for URLs shared in chat (the linked page's title, description, thumbnail, and site name, cached per URL — see Section 4)

Places

When you create or interact with places (climbing gyms, outdoor crags, etc.), we collect:

• Place name, coordinates, and address
• Place follows (which places you follow for notifications)

Reports

If you report another user, activity, or place, we collect:

• The report reason and any details you provide
• The identity of the reporter and the reported entity

Matchmaking Data

If you use the matchmaking feature, we collect:

• Your activity preferences (category, region, time range, difficulty level)
• Matching scope preferences (all users, followers, or group members)

Matchmaking requests are temporary and have a defined expiration time.

Usage Data

We automatically collect certain data to improve the service:

• Device type and operating system
• App version
• Log data and diagnostics
• Recent searches (up to 15, including search terms, coordinates, and addresses)
• Activity statistics (categories used, time patterns, frequency, duration patterns, grades used, places visited)
• Recent invitees (users you have recently invited to activities)
• Favorite categories

App Preferences

We store your in-app settings:

• Visual theme and font preferences
• Language preference
• Notification preferences (per-category notification settings, including which of your own activities and status updates are broadcast to your followers)
• Default activity visibility settings

Push Notification Tokens

If you enable push notifications, we store:

• Device push notification token
• Platform (iOS, Android, or web)
• Token update timestamps

Push notifications are optional and can be disabled at any time in your device or app settings.

Location Data

If you allow it, Skene may collect approximate location information to help show nearby activities and users.

Location access is optional and can be disabled at any time in your device settings.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the collected information to:

• Create and manage your account
• Match you with relevant activities and people
• Deliver push notifications you have opted into
• Improve the functionality and reliability of the app
• Provide customer support
• Prevent abuse and maintain platform safety

We do not sell your personal data.

We do not use your data for advertising.

4. Third-Party Services

Skene relies on the following categories of third-party services:

Authentication Provider

We use a third-party authentication service to manage sign-in and account security. This service processes your email address, name, profile picture, and OAuth tokens when you sign in via Google or Apple.

Backend and Database Provider

All app data (activities, profiles, settings, social connections) is stored and processed by a third-party serverless database provider.

Push Notification Service

Push notifications are delivered through a third-party notification service that receives your device token and notification content.

Map and Geocoding Services (MapTiler)

All map tiles (including standard, satellite, terrain, and topographic views), map fonts, sprites, and location search (geocoding) are provided by MapTiler AG. When you use the map or search for a location, MapTiler may receive:

• Map viewport coordinates and zoom level
• Search queries entered in location search
• IP address (as part of standard HTTP requests)

MapTiler does not receive your account identifiers, username, or personal profile information.

See MapTiler's Privacy Policy for details.

Weather Data (MET Norway)

Weather forecasts shown in the app are sourced from MET Norway (the Norwegian Meteorological Institute) via their public locationforecast API. Our backend acts as a caching proxy in front of MET Norway, which means:

• Your IP address is never transmitted to MET Norway.
• Only truncated coordinates (4 decimal places) of activities and places you view are sent — these are venue coordinates, not your personal real-time location.
• No account identifiers, user names, or device information are sent to MET Norway.

Weather data is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by MET Norway. See MET Norway's licensing and crediting policy for details.

GIF, Sticker and Meme Provider (Klipy)

When you open the in-chat GIF / sticker / meme picker, search queries and a pseudonymous user identifier are sent to Klipy (Klipy.com) to fetch and personalise results. Specifically, Klipy receives:

• Your search query (free-text you type into the picker)
• A pseudonymous, hashed user identifier (derived from your account id; Klipy never receives the raw account id, email, or username)
• IP address (as part of standard HTTPS requests to api.klipy.com / static.klipy.com)
• Locale (two-letter country code)

The media itself (the picked GIF / sticker / meme) is fetched from Klipy's CDN, then re-uploaded to Skene's storage so future renders inside the chat do not contact Klipy again.

Klipy receives no account identifiers, no message content, and no information about who you are sending the media to. See Klipy's Privacy Policy for details on their processing.

Link Previews and Embedded Video

When you or another participant shares a web link in chat, Skene's backend fetches that link server-side to generate a preview (title, description, thumbnail, and site name). For YouTube and Vimeo links, our backend queries the provider's public oEmbed API instead of scraping the page. Because our backend performs this fetch, the linked website receives a request from Skene's servers — not your IP address — for this step.

However, two parts of this feature do involve your device contacting third parties directly:

• Preview thumbnails are loaded from the linked site's (or video provider's) own servers onto the device of everyone who views the message. That host therefore receives the viewer's IP address as part of a standard image request.
• Inline video playback: if you tap a shared YouTube or Vimeo link to play it inside the app, the provider's video player is embedded directly. YouTube/Vimeo then receive your IP address and may set cookies or otherwise process your data under their own privacy policies.

We cache the fetched preview metadata (title, description, thumbnail URL, site name) keyed to the URL. No account identifier is stored alongside it.

Error and Crash Reporting

We use a third-party error monitoring service to detect and diagnose crashes and errors. This service may collect:

• Error messages and stack traces
• Device type, operating system, and app version
• A user identifier to correlate errors with accounts (no passwords or message content are sent)

This data is used solely to improve the stability and reliability of the app.

Each third-party provider processes only the data necessary to provide their functionality and is subject to their own privacy policy.

We do not use any analytics or advertising services.

5. Data Storage and Security

We take reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data from unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction.

However, no internet service can guarantee absolute security.

6. Data Retention

We retain your data only for as long as necessary to provide the service or comply with legal obligations.

Specific retention periods:

• Activity drafts: Automatically deleted after 7 days
• Matchmaking requests: Automatically expire after their defined time window
• Recent searches: Rolling window of up to 15 entries, replaced as new searches are made
• Push notification tokens: Updated or removed when you disable notifications or uninstall the app
• Messages and chat data: Retained for the lifetime of the conversation. When you delete your account, your messages in shared conversations are anonymized (content removed, sender disassociated). Messages in conversations with no other participants are permanently deleted
• Reports: Retained as long as necessary for moderation and legal compliance
• Account data: Retained until you delete your account

If you delete your account, we will delete or anonymize your personal data within a reasonable time period unless retention is required by law.

7. Automated Decision-Making

Skene does not perform automated profiling or automated decision-making that produces legal or similarly significant effects.

Account suspensions and terminations are decided by a human moderator after reviewing reports — they are never applied automatically. If your account is suspended, you may contact us to appeal.

8. Your Rights (GDPR)

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), you have the following rights under the General Data Protection Regulation:

• The right to access your personal data
• The right to request correction of inaccurate data
• The right to request deletion of your data
• The right to restrict or object to processing
• The right to data portability
• The right to withdraw consent at any time
• The right not to be subject to solely automated decision-making with significant effects (see Section 7)
• The right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority

For users in Finland, the relevant supervisory authority is the Office of the Data Protection Ombudsman (Tietosuojavaltuutetun toimisto).

Legal Basis for Processing

We process your personal data on the following legal bases:

• Contractual necessity — To provide the service you have signed up for (account creation, account management, activity participation, messaging, social features)
• Consent — When you enable optional features such as location access or push notifications. You may withdraw consent at any time without affecting your ability to use the core service
• Legitimate interest — To improve the service, maintain platform safety, and prevent abuse

International Data Transfers

Some of our third-party service providers are based in the United States. When your data is transferred outside the EEA, it is protected by appropriate safeguards such as the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs).

To exercise your rights, please contact us using the details below.

9. Cookies and Web Storage

The web version of Skene uses browser local storage (localStorage) to store authentication tokens and app state. We do not use tracking cookies or third-party cookies.

10. Children's Privacy

Skene is not intended for individuals under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

If we become aware that we have collected data from a minor, we will delete it and terminate the account.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When significant changes are made, we will notify users through the app or by email and update the "Last updated" date.

If you continue to use the Service after being notified of changes, you accept the updated policy. If you do not agree with the changes, you may delete your account.

12. Contact

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, you can contact us at:

Email: mail@skene.life