Your practice is personal.

The short version

• You can use KUUME without an account. Your practice history, reflections and saved rituals then stay on your phone.
• With an account, we store your email address and the practice sessions you choose to sync.
• We show no ads, do not sell personal data and do not track you across other apps or websites.
• The KUUME app does not ask for your location, contacts, microphone, camera or photos.
• Usage data is off unless you turn it on in the app. Even then it is a few named events, never your reflections, recordings, location or contact details.
• You can download your data and delete your account at any time.

Who is responsible

The data controller is [data controller name not configured], [postal address not configured]. For anything about your data, email support@kuume.app.

What we collect and why

On your phone only

Your practice history, the reflections you write after a ritual, saved rituals, downloaded ritual files and their offline permissions stay on your phone. We cannot read them. Deleting the app or its data removes them. The app also creates a random installation ID on your phone; it only leaves the phone as described under synced sessions.

Your account (optional)

If you create an account, our sign-in provider stores your email address, a random user ID, your password as a one-way hash if you choose a password, and technical sign-in records such as sign-in times and the IP address used. We also keep your account settings: a display name if you set one, your language, your analytics choice (off by default) and whether the account is active. We use this to give you an account and keep it secure. Legal basis: our agreement with you (GDPR article 6(1)(b)).

Synced practice sessions

When you are signed in and sync a published ritual, we store the ritual version, the options you chose, when you started, whether you used text or audio, your installation ID and the playback events: phases started, completed or skipped, pauses, interruptions such as a phone call, technical error codes, and your position and volume at the last save. We use this to show your history on your devices and to recover a session. Playback time describes the guidance, not your time in the heat or water. Draft previews never sync. A ritual’s creator sees only totals for their rituals (starts, finished rituals and listeners), and only for groups of at least 10 listeners; never who listened. Legal basis: our agreement with you.

Usage data (optional)

Usage data is off by default. If you turn it on in the app (My practice, Your account, Usage data) while KUUME collects usage data, the app sends a few named events from your account: a ritual was opened, its files were ready or failed to download (with a general reason such as “network”), a session started, paused, ended or completed, a phase started, or an organizer’s page was opened. Each event holds only the ritual and version, a random ID for that one ritual run, the phase number and activity, text or audio mode, your platform, the app version and the time. It never holds your reflections, recordings, location or contact details, and never every second of a session. In KUUME Studio we then also note when you submit a ritual for review or publish one. We use this to see where rituals get stuck and whether downloads fail. Legal basis: your consent (article 6(1)(a)). Turning usage data off stops it and deletes the events already stored.

Following creators

If you follow a creator, we store which creators you follow and when, so the app can show them under My practice. Only you can see this list: creators are not told who follows them and nobody sees follower lists. Legal basis: our agreement with you.

Journal entries

Reflections you write in the app stay on your phone. The current app does not send them to us. If KUUME later offers to save journal entries to your account (mood before and after, a note, the sauna time and temperature you report), it will be off until you choose it, and we will ask for your explicit consent because mood notes can relate to health. Creators never see journals.

Private gatherings

If you plan a sauna visit with others, we store its title, note, venue, date, time and time zone, an optional group size, who organized it, who joined, their replies and the name each person chose to show in that gathering. Members see those names (or “Guest”) and replies, never account IDs. Invitation links are stored only as a one-way hash together with their expiry and number of uses. Legal basis: our agreement with you.

Reports about places

If you report a problem with a listed place, we store the place, the kind of problem, what you write and, only if you add it, an email address for follow-up. A report is not linked to your account. To spot repeated reports we keep a keyed one-way hash of your network address, not the address itself. The email address and the hash are deleted when we handle the report. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in accurate listings (article 6(1)(f)).

Reports about rituals

If you report a problem with a published ritual, we store the ritual and version, the kind of problem, what you write and, only if you add it, an email address for follow-up. A report is not linked to your account. To spot repeated reports we keep a keyed one-way hash of your network address, not the address itself. The email address and the hash are deleted when we handle the report. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in safe and lawful content (article 6(1)(f)).

Creators in KUUME Studio

For invited creators we store the creator profile (name, biography, languages and, if you add them, tradition, portrait, website and support link), ritual drafts, uploaded files (voice recordings, music and cover images) with technical details such as size, checksum and duration, the rights and consent you declare for each file, review decisions and notes, a log of editorial actions, which version of the creator terms you accepted and when, and your progress through the Studio welcome tour. Your public creator page shows only the profile an editor has approved: your name, biography, languages and, if you add them, your tradition, portrait, website and a support link to a service such as Ko-fi or Patreon. Published rituals show your name. Legal basis: our agreement with you, and our legitimate interest in showing who approved what and which rights apply (article 6(1)(f)).

The letter

Letters from the sauna, our occasional email letter, is separate from your account. We store your email address, language, the exact consent wording and version you agreed to, when you asked to join, confirmed or unsubscribed, confirmation and unsubscribe links as one-way hashes, and whether each email was delivered, bounced or marked as spam. We only send the letter after you confirm your address. Legal basis: your consent (article 6(1)(a)), which you can withdraw at any time with the unsubscribe link.

The city or area field is optional. If you fill it in, we store it with your sign-up and use it only to choose which sauna events to mention in your letter. In our own statistics an area only appears once at least five confirmed subscribers have named it. Signing up again with the same address replaces the area, or removes it if you leave the field empty.

Support

If you email us, we use what you send to answer you and keep it only as long as needed for that.

Security and technical data

When your device talks to our servers, our hosting providers process your IP address and request details to deliver the service, limit abuse and keep it secure. Our own logs record the request path without its parameters, the result and a request ID. They do not contain your email address, sign-in tokens or reflections. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in a secure service.

Cookies and storage

This website sets essential cookies only when you sign in to KUUME Studio: kuume-access and kuume-refresh keep you signed in for up to 30 days, and kuume-invitation, kuume-gathering and kuume-auth-return remember an invitation for up to 24 hours while you sign in. The browser version of the app keeps its sign-in in session storage. The phone app keeps sign-in tokens in the phone’s secure storage. We use no advertising cookies. Google Analytics sets its cookies only if you accept them (Measuring visits).

Measuring visits to this website

We count visits to this website with Umami, an open-source tool we run ourselves on Railway in the EU. It sets no cookies and stores nothing on your device. For each page it records the page address without personal links or search text, the address of the website you came from, your browser, type of device, screen size, language and country. Your IP address and browser details are turned into a visitor code that changes every month; the IP address itself is not stored. We also count a few actions: a search in Find (the town, country or place name searched, only when it matched saunas), which sauna pages are opened, presses on Book, letter sign-ups, and presses on the app store links. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in knowing how people find KUUME (GDPR article 6(1)(f)).

When you press Book or Website on a sauna page, the link passes through KUUME so we can count it. We keep only the number of presses per sauna per day, nothing about you.

If you accept in the banner, Google Analytics also counts your visit. It sets the cookies _ga and _ga_S4NJ9QV2K9, which last up to 13 months, and Google receives your IP address and browser details. We have turned off Google signals and every advertising feature, and Google keeps the data for 14 months. If you decline, Google Analytics is not loaded and nothing else on the site changes. You can change your answer at any time with Privacy choices at the bottom of every page. Legal basis: your consent (GDPR article 6(1)(a)). Google may access the data from the United States under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.

Google Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools show us which searches lead to KUUME, as totals. They receive nothing from this website.

What we do not collect

On the Find website, Near me asks for your permission to use your location. Exact coordinates stay in your browser and are used to calculate distances. They are not sent to the places API or stored in your search address. Map tiles are requested through KUUME: these requests reveal the area you are viewing to our server. Our map provider, OpenFreeMap, receives tile requests from our server, not your browser.

No location collected by the KUUME app (Find works by searching listed places; distance is measured on your device from a city you pick), no contacts, no microphone or camera access in the KUUME app, no photos, no data from Apple Health or Google Fit, no advertising identifiers, no payment details, and no analytics unless you turn on usage data.

Who processes data for us

• Supabase runs sign-in, the database and file storage in the EU (Frankfurt, Germany). It also sends sign-in emails today.
• Railway runs our application servers in the EU (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), including Umami, the tool we use to count visits to this website.
• Google (Google Ireland Ltd) runs Google Analytics for the visitors who accept it.
• Resend will send the letter and sign-in emails once we switch it on. Until then it receives nothing.
• Expo builds the app. It does not receive personal data from the app.

These providers process data only on our instructions under data processing agreements. Some of them are based in the United States; where data may be accessed from outside the EU/EEA, the transfer relies on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses or the EU–US Data Privacy Framework. Apple and Google distribute the app under their own privacy terms. We do not sell personal data or share it with advertisers.

How long we keep it

• Account and synced sessions: until you delete them or your account. The detailed playback events of a session are deleted 90 days after its last event; the session itself (ritual, choices, start, end and last position) stays.
• Usage data: 180 days after it arrives, and at once when you turn usage data off. Follows: until you unfollow or delete your account.
• Your data downloads: a download file you request is deleted 7 days after it is ready. We keep a note that you asked until you delete your account.
• After you delete your account: access stops immediately. We then delete your profile, sessions, playback events, journal entries, follows, usage data, gathering memberships, uploaded files, download files and sign-in identity, normally within minutes and at the latest within 30 days. A deleted creator’s published rituals are withdrawn; review and rights records are kept without the person’s name where we need them to show rights and approvals.
• Gatherings you organized: canceled when you delete your account; their invitation links stop working. An expired or revoked invitation link is deleted 30 days after it stopped working, once the gathering has taken place or was canceled.
• Place and ritual reports: the optional email address and the address hash until the report is handled; the report itself is kept without them as part of the listing’s correction or the ritual’s review history.
• Creator terms acceptances: kept as long as the creator’s rituals may be offered and the creator agreement requires, as a record of the license; the link to the account is removed when the account is deleted.
• Creator files and invitations: uploads that never finish are deleted after 24 hours, and files that were never published and that no draft uses any more are deleted 30 days later. A creator invitation that was never accepted is deleted 30 days after it expired or was withdrawn.
• Log of editorial and account actions: 12 months. Records of publication, rights decisions and consent are kept as long as the content is available and the creator agreement or license requires, because they show who approved what and under which rights.
• The letter: until you unsubscribe. Afterwards we keep a minimal record of your consent history and that you unsubscribed, so that we respect your choice and can show that you had agreed. Confirmation links are deleted once they expire.
• Records that make a retried request safe: deleted after 7 days.
• Server logs: a short period, at most 30 days.
• Backups: our database provider’s backups and our own encrypted backups can contain deleted data until they are rotated out, at the latest 30 days later.
• Offline copies on your phone: stop working when their permission expires, at most 30 days after download.

Your rights

You can ask for access to your data, a copy of it, correction, deletion, restriction or data portability, and you can object to processing based on legitimate interests. You can download your data yourself in KUUME Studio under Account → Download my data, and delete your account at any time. Otherwise email support@kuume.app; we answer within one month. If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Norwegian Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet) or the authority where you live.

Security

All connections are encrypted. Each person’s data is separated by strict access rules in the database, including for our own staff tools. Invitation and letter links are stored as one-way hashes, queued emails are encrypted, and editors who publish content must use two-step verification.

Children

KUUME is made for adults, and we do not knowingly collect data from children.

Changes

We update this notice when KUUME changes. The date at the top shows the latest version, and we tell you about important changes in the app, on this website or by email before they apply.