Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

LivingScore ("we", "us", "our") is committed to protecting your personal data in accordance with the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (nFADP) and, where applicable, the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). This policy explains what data we collect, why, and how we use it.

If you provide us with information about other individuals (for example by saving an address associated with another person), you must ensure that the data is accurate, that those individuals are aware of how their data will be used, and that they have given their consent where required. You are welcome to share a copy of this Privacy Policy with them.

2. Data Controller

The data controller responsible for your personal data is LivingScore, Switzerland. For data protection enquiries, contact us at support@livingscore.ch.

3. How We Collect Your Data

We collect data primarily directly from you — through account registration, addresses you save, preferences you set, and communications you send us. In some cases we may also receive data from third parties (for example, your email address and name from Google or Facebook if you use social login) or from publicly available sources. Technical data is collected automatically when you use the Service.

4. Data We Collect

• Account data — email address, hashed password, authentication provider (Google or Facebook if used), account tier, and registration date.
• Address data — your home address and any wish-list addresses you save. These are used solely to compute and display location scores.
• Scoring preferences — priority cards and category weights you select. These are stored to personalise your scores across sessions.
• Billing data — subscription plan, billing period, and payment status. Payment details (card numbers) are handled exclusively by Stripe and never stored on our servers.
• Behavioural data — addresses you search, scores you view, map interactions, comparisons you run, and features you use. This data helps us personalise your experience and improve the Service.
• Technical data — IP address, browser type, device type, and session timestamps collected automatically via server logs. This data cannot identify you on its own, but may be linked to your account if you are signed in.
• Communications — messages you send to our support team, including content and metadata.

5. How We Use Your Data

4.1 Providing and personalising the Service

We use your saved addresses, priority card selections, and behavioural data to compute personalised location scores and tailor the content you see — for example, surfacing addresses similar to those you have previously scored or saved.

4.2 Automated scoring

Location scores are computed automatically by our scoring engine using your saved address coordinates, your chosen priority weights, and pre-computed parameter datasets. No human reviews individual score outputs. The score reflects the algorithmic output of publicly available Swiss data sources and is not a personal assessment of you as an individual.

4.3 Subscription and billing

We use your account and billing data to manage your subscription, process payments via Stripe, issue invoices, and enforce tier-based access controls.

4.4 Transactional communications

We send operational emails you require or that are necessary for the Service: account confirmation, password reset, billing receipts, subscription renewal reminders, and material policy change notices. These are not marketing emails and cannot be opted out of while your account is active.

4.5 Service security and fraud prevention

We analyse usage patterns and technical data to detect, prevent, and respond to abuse, fraud, unauthorised access, and other security threats. Automated systems flag anomalous behaviour; in serious cases we may take manual action including account suspension or referral to authorities.

4.6 Service improvement

Aggregated and anonymised usage data informs decisions about feature development, scoring methodology updates, and platform performance improvements.

4.7 Legal compliance

We process data as required to meet our obligations under Swiss and EU law, including tax, accounting, and anti-money-laundering requirements.

We do not sell, rent, or share your personal data with third parties for their marketing purposes.

6. Profiling and Automated Decision-Making

We may automatically evaluate certain characteristics about you based on your data ("profiling") for the purposes described in Section 5. This includes analysing your saved addresses, search behaviour, and priority card selections to identify your preferences and personalise your experience, as well as detecting unusual usage patterns for fraud and abuse prevention.

Location scores are computed entirely by automated algorithms without human review of individual outputs. These scores do not constitute a legal or similarly significant decision about you as a person — they are informational estimates about geographic locations, not assessments of individuals.

Where we use automated processing that could produce legal effects or similarly significant impacts on you, we will inform you separately and ensure the measures required by applicable law are in place, including the right to request human review.

7. Legal Basis for Processing

• Contract performance — processing necessary to deliver the Service you signed up for (sections 4.1–4.4).
• Legitimate interests — fraud prevention, security, service improvement, and business continuity (sections 4.5–4.6).
• Legal obligation — compliance with applicable Swiss and EU law (section 4.7).
• Consent — where you have explicitly opted in (e.g. optional marketing communications, if offered in the future).

8. Third-Party Services

• Stripe — payment processing. Data transferred to Stripe is governed by Stripe's Privacy Policy.
• Swisstopo — Swiss federal geocoding API used to resolve addresses. Only address strings are transmitted; no personal identifiers are sent.
• Mapbox — map rendering in the browser. Mapbox may receive your IP address and map interaction data. Subject to Mapbox's Privacy Policy.
• Google / Facebook OAuth — if you choose to sign in with a social account, we receive only your email address and display name from the provider. We do not receive your social account password or other profile data.
• Resend — transactional email delivery. Your email address is shared solely for the purpose of delivering emails you have requested or that are operationally necessary.

All third-party service providers are contractually required to process data only for the agreed purposes and in accordance with applicable data protection law.

9. Cooperation with Authorities

We may disclose your personal data to Swiss or foreign administrative, judicial, or law enforcement authorities where we are legally required to do so, or where we have reasonable grounds to believe that disclosure is necessary to prevent fraud, abuse, or illegal activity, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of LivingScore, our users, or the public. We will notify you of such disclosure where legally permitted to do so.

10. Business Transactions

In the event of a merger, acquisition, restructuring, sale of assets, or other corporate transaction, your personal data may be transferred to or shared with the acquiring or successor entity as part of the transaction. You will be notified of any such transfer and any material change to how your data is processed as a result. The acquiring entity will be required to honour the commitments in this Privacy Policy or provide you with prior notice of any changes.

11. Data Retention

We retain your account and address data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we will delete your personal data within 30 days, except where retention is required by law (e.g. billing records are retained for 10 years under Swiss accounting law). Anonymised and aggregated data derived from your usage may be retained indefinitely for analytical purposes.

12. Data Security

Passwords are stored as bcrypt hashes and never in plain text. All data in transit is encrypted via TLS. Access to production databases is restricted to authorised personnel only. We follow industry-standard security practices and conduct periodic security reviews. In the event of a data breach that poses a risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify you and the relevant supervisory authority as required by law.

13. Your Rights

Under the nFADP and GDPR, you have the following rights regarding your personal data. These rights may be subject to legal limitations and exceptions.

• Right of access — you may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you, including information on how it is processed.
• Right to rectification — you may request correction of inaccurate or incomplete data.
• Right to erasure — you may request deletion of your personal data where it is no longer necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, or where you withdraw consent. Note that certain data must be retained for legal reasons.
• Right to restriction — you may request that we limit processing of your data in certain circumstances (e.g. while accuracy is disputed).
• Right to data portability — you may request your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format to transfer to another service provider.
• Right to object — you may object to processing based on our legitimate interests. We will cease processing unless we demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests.
• Right to withdraw consent — where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw it at any time with effect for the future.
• Right to lodge a complaint — you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) at edoeb.admin.ch. EU residents may also contact their local supervisory authority.

To exercise any of these rights, email support@livingscore.ch. We will respond within 30 days. We may ask you to verify your identity before processing your request.

14. Cookies and Local Storage

LivingScore uses a single authentication token stored in localStorage to keep you signed in across sessions. We do not use advertising cookies, third-party tracking cookies, or behavioural profiling cookies. Mapbox and Stripe may set their own cookies when rendering maps or processing payments, subject to their respective privacy policies.

15. International Transfers

Your data is stored on servers within the European Economic Area. Where data is transferred outside the EEA (e.g. to Stripe or Mapbox infrastructure in the US), we ensure adequate safeguards are in place through Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission, or equivalent mechanisms recognised under Swiss law. A list of the countries to which data may be transferred is available on request.

16. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated to registered users by email at least 14 days before taking effect. The current version is always available at livingscore.ch/privacy. Continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

17. Contact & Complaints

For any privacy-related questions or requests, contact us at support@livingscore.ch. If you are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Swiss Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC) at edoeb.admin.ch, or with the data protection authority of your EU member state if applicable.