Privacy policy

Who we are

QuoteGeek ("we") is operated by the QuoteGeek team, UK. Contact us via thecorrections form on every page.

What we process and why

• Reference content about public figures (names, public identifiers, attributed quotes, verification findings) -- lawful basis: legitimate interests (a legitimate interests assessment is on record; a summary is available on request). We publish only what public sources support, and we correct fast.
• Corrections and complaints you send us (your name, contact details, message) -- lawful basis: legitimate interests (operating a corrections process). Kept 24 months, then deleted.
• API keys (your email address) -- lawful basis: contract (providing the API service).
• Server logs (IP, user agent) -- security and abuse prevention; rotated within 30 days.
• Aggregate usage measurement (pages viewed, referrer, device type, approximate country and region from IP, and actions such as copying or saving a quote, picking a mood or opening a search result) -- lawful basis: legitimate interests (knowing which pages are worth improving). Two tools do this, and neither sets a cookie:
  • Google Analytics, with device storage switched off: no cookie or identifier is written to your device, and your visits cannot be linked to one another or to you. Retained 14 months.
  • Our own analytics (Umami), which we run ourselves and share with no one. To tell one visit from the next, it groups the pages a browser views using a scrambled one-way code made from your IP address and browser details, and that code changes every month. Your IP address itself is not kept. Individual visit records are kept for about three months, then deleted (backup copies last up to two weeks longer). After that we keep only monthly totals that can't identify anyone, such as views per page; anything fewer than five visitors saw in a month is counted as "other", and region and city are dropped.
  Both tools are given cleaned-up page addresses: of the part after a "?", only campaign tags (such as utm_source, which says which link brought you here) are kept, and the part after a "#" never is. When you search, what you searched for is recorded only if it is plain words; anything else, such as an email address or a phone number, is left out.

Stop counting my visits

You can opt out of both tools at any time, for free. The switch below saves one setting in this browser, and both tools check it before counting anything. If your browser sends Do Not Track, our own analytics already leaves you out.

QuoteGeek Moods

When you tell QuoteGeek Moods how you feel, on the website, in the browser extension or in the app, we handle a little more:

• What you say or type about your mood is sent once to our text classification provider (TypeSafe) to pick a mood. We never store it or log it. TypeSafe handles it under its own terms, which let it keep what it is sent for as long as it needs to provide its service (it does not train models on it). In the app, speech is turned into text on your phone where the phone can do that itself; otherwise your phone's own speech service (usually Google's) does it and may send the audio to its servers to do so, under that service's terms. On the website, your browser's speech service does the same. No audio reaches QuoteGeek.
• An anonymous app identifier, created when you first open the app. With it we keep the moods you set (and any film or series picked up from what you said), the quotes you were shown and saved, your time zone (so your day starts at your midnight) and when you last used the app. Watch links go to the store for your country, worked out for each request from the country our CDN reports for your connection or, failing that, from your phone's region setting; we don't keep it. The identifier isn't linked to your name, email or phone number. Lawful basis: contract (providing the app). Your daily mood and quote history is kept for 400 days, then deleted. If the app isn't used for 400 days, the identifier is deleted along with your saved quotes and Plus status (only the purchase record described below is kept).
• Plus purchases are handled by Google Play and our subscription provider (RevenueCat). The app creates a random purchase identifier on your phone and sends it to RevenueCat instead of the app identifier. It is kept with the app's encrypted backup, so a purchase survives a move to a new phone, and on our server it is linked to your current app identifier. RevenueCat tells us whether that purchase identifier has Plus, which plan it is (monthly or yearly) and until when. We never see your payment details.
• The purchase record. When an app identifier is deleted, its purchase identifier is only unlinked from it. We keep the purchase identifier, a scrambled check value made from a secret that only your phone (or its encrypted backup) holds, and when it was created, linked and last checked. This is a pseudonymous security record: it is kept so that no one else can ever use that purchase identifier, and it is not linked to any deleted app identifier. Lawful basis: legitimate interests (keeping purchases safe from misuse).
• Deleting your data. In the app, go to More and choose Delete my QuoteGeek data. This asks our server to delete your app identifier, with your moods, history, saved quotes and Plus status. When QuoteGeek confirms, it has deleted them from our server, which can't be undone, and the phone has cleared its copy or is still clearing it: if it can't straight away, the app tells you and tries again each time it opens. Until QuoteGeek confirms, the app keeps your data hidden on the phone and keeps asking when it opens or comes back on screen. Meanwhile you can choose to use the app as a new device: your old data stays hidden, and the app keeps asking QuoteGeek to delete it. If the phone's storage is damaged and it loses what it needs to ask, it can't ask again, and the old data stays hidden on the phone. The app can't confirm a deletion if it never reaches QuoteGeek again; uninstalling the app removes its copy from your phone. Deletion requests don't count as using the app, so an identifier that is never used again is still deleted under the 400-day rule above. To confirm deletions, our server keeps a scrambled, one-way fingerprint of the deleted identifier's secret and the day it was deleted, for 400 days, and nothing else; it can't be linked to you, your purchases or anything else we hold. Homepages and frames paired with the app are unpaired and go back to their own mood. Only the purchase record described above is kept, unlinked, so you can restore a purchase afterwards. If your phone backed up app data before you deleted, that backup may still hold the old identifier; once QuoteGeek has confirmed the deletion, it no longer works. Because the identifier is anonymous, we can't match a request sent through the corrections form to it, so the in-app option is the way to delete app data.
• Uninstalling the app removes its identifiers from the phone. If your phone backs up app data, an encrypted copy stays in that backup (so a reinstall or a new phone can restore it) until the backup is replaced or deleted. Records that Google Play and RevenueCat hold about your purchases are theirs, kept under their own terms; deleting data here does not delete them.
• Homepages, frames and the browser extension use a private random code. We keep a scrambled copy of that code, the mood and any film or series chosen for it, its time zone, whether it is paired with the app, and when it was last used; all of this is deleted after 400 days without use. On the website, your browser keeps only the code, in its own storage. The extension also keeps a copy of the last card it showed (the quote and its artwork details, the mood and any film or series, and whether it is paired), so it works offline; uninstalling the extension removes it. This storage is strictly necessary for the feature you asked for, so we don't ask for consent.

What we don't do

No advertising cookies, no sale of personal data, and no cookie banner -- because we set no cookies at all. Our analytics store nothing on your device, except the stop-counting setting if you ask for it, which is why we are not asking your permission to count visits. Some outbound book/film links are affiliate links -- they are labelled where they appear and involve no data sharing beyond the click.

Your rights

Access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection, portability. Use thecorrections form; we respond within one calendar month. For QuoteGeek Moods app data, use Delete my QuoteGeek data in the app (see above). Erasure requests concerning pages about public statements get a documented public-interest assessment -- we tell you the outcome and reasoning either way. You may complain to the ICO (ico.org.uk).

Recipients and transfers

Hosting and CDN suppliers, Google (for the cookieless analytics described above), and for QuoteGeek Moods our text classification provider (TypeSafe), Google Play and our subscription provider (RevenueCat), all under standard processing terms; no other recipients. Analytics data may be processed outside the UK, including in the United States, under the provider's standard transfer safeguards. Retention is as stated per category above.