Privacy policy

1. Data controller and contact

FluElles determines the purposes and means of the processing carried out for its app and website. For any question or to exercise your rights, write to hello_fluelles@fluelles.fr. A reasonable check of your identity may be requested to prevent a third party from accessing your data.

2. Data processed

Depending on the features used, FluElles processes account and profile data: last name, first name, email address, phone number, confirmation that you are at least 16 (your date of birth is checked at sign-up but not kept), date of acceptance of the terms of use, stated gender, account type, photo, language, city, postal code, country, chosen or authorised location, donation preferences and verification status.

In addition: requests and transactions, availability, events, messages and attachments, posts, comments, reactions, Instants (view photo and optional selfie), selfie reactions, favourites, blocks, reports, impact statistics, notification identifiers, social sign-in data, security logs and technical information needed to run the service.

FluElles does not ask for any medical diagnosis or cycle tracking. However, a request for period products or free text may indirectly reveal a need related to menstruation. Do not enter unnecessary medical details. This information is used neither for targeted advertising nor to build a health profile.

For organisation accounts (associations and establishments), FluElles also processes: the display name chosen by the organisation, its official name, its SIRET, RNA or EU VAT number and the result of its automatic verification, the name of the contact person (never displayed), the pickup address, opening hours, products offered, stock levels and the maximum number of pickups per day. For reservations at a collection point: the first name of the person reserving, the product, a pickup code, dates and status (active, handed over, expired, cancelled). To confirm an organisation's identity, FluElles also processes, as applicable, its email address (if it belongs to an official domain) or the documents sent (company registration extract or declaration receipt, and a declaration signed by the contact person); these documents are stored privately, viewed only by the FluElles team and deleted as soon as a decision is made.

3. Purposes and legal bases

• Creating the account and providing the requested features: performance of the terms of use.
• Managing requests, transactions, messages, events and content: performance of the service requested by the user.
• Using location, camera, microphone, photos or optional notifications: consent given through the phone's permissions, which can be withdrawn in its settings.
• Securing FluElles, preventing spam and fraud, moderating and measuring stability: legitimate interest in protecting users and the service.
• Processing payments and keeping the required records: performance of the payment and legal obligations, in particular accounting.

4. Mandatory and optional data

Fields presented as mandatory are needed to create the account, keep it secure or provide the requested feature. Without them, FluElles cannot carry out the action concerned. Photo, precise location, media, suggestion notifications and community content remain optional. Email and phone verification may be required to make a request or a secure transaction.

5. Location

Location is used to calculate proximity to donors, events or collection points. You can enter an area manually or withdraw location permission in the phone's settings. A person's exact address is not intended to be displayed publicly.

For the donor search, your location (your phone's, otherwise your profile address) is only used to find verified people within 5 km. It is never shown to others: they only see a rounded distance ("less than 1 km", "about 3 km"), calculated from a point deliberately shifted by a few hundred metres. To prevent abuse, only the approximate search area of the day is kept, for 2 days at most.

FluElles stickers and cards: when a FluElles sticker or card is scanned (NFC chip or QR code), only the number of scans per sticker and per day is recorded, with no information about the person scanning (no identity, location or device). These counters are deleted after 13 months. Organisations only see the date of their stickers' last scan. To pick up a kit by scanning a sticker, the phone's location is checked at that moment (being within 300 m of the point) and is never stored; the organisation sees the pickup (first name, product, time) and can dispute it for 24 hours.

The address of a collection point, entered by an organisation, is public: it is where people come to collect products. An organisation never sees the address of the people who reserve, only their first name.

6. Media, messages and ephemeral content

Media are hosted separately from the main database, which keeps the metadata and addresses needed to display them. Stories expire after 30 minutes. Ephemeral messages expire after 7 days and other ephemeral posts after the chosen duration, between 1 hour and 30 days. Reported content may be kept longer when necessary for safety, moderation or the defence of rights.

The FluElles Instant replaces stories in recent versions of the app. An Instant contains a photo of the view and, if you choose, a selfie taken right after, together with the number of tries, the optional “solidarity” label, a short optional caption and how long after the daily notification it was shared. It is only visible to people who also shared an Instant on the same day, expires when the next Instant rings (at the latest at 10 pm the next day) and is then deleted with its photos. Selfie reactions to an Instant are visible to the same people; they can be removed by the person who reacted or by the person who posted the Instant, and are deleted with it. To apply this rule, FluElles records for 3 days the days on which you shared an Instant. The 10 pm Mosaic brings together the day's Instants and remains visible until the next Instant to the same people.

7. Notifications

FluElles uses a notification identifier to alert you to a message, request, transaction, event or useful information. Suggestion notifications can be turned off in the app. All notifications can be turned off in the phone's settings.

For the FluElles Instant, a daily notification tells you when to share and, at 10 pm, another one announces the Mosaic to the people who shared that day. They are suggestion notifications and can therefore be turned off in the app. The person who posts an Instant is notified when someone new reacts to it with a selfie. If you have added someone to your favourites, you may be notified when they share their Instant, at most once a day; this notification is also part of the suggestions.

8. Recipients and service providers

Only authorised people and the users to whom information must be shown receive the necessary data. Depending on the feature used, FluElles relies in particular on Scalingo for hosting, MongoDB for the database, Cloudinary for media, Expo for notifications, Brevo for emails, Google and Apple for some sign-in or map features, and Stripe for payments.

Some providers may process data outside the European Economic Area. In that case, the transfer must be covered by an adequacy decision, standard contractual clauses or another safeguard recognised by the GDPR. FluElles does not sell personal data.

To verify an organisation's number, FluElles queries the French government's public business directory (API Recherche d'entreprises) or, for an EU VAT number, the European Commission's VIES service. Only the number entered is sent to them.

9. Retention periods

• Account, profile and non-ephemeral content: for the life of the account or until deleted.
• Inactive account: automatically deleted with its data after 3 years without signing in. A warning email is sent 30 days before; signing in again is enough to keep the account.
• Sign-in sessions: 30 days maximum by default, unless revoked earlier.
• Verification and reset codes: 10 minutes.
• Technical notification tickets: 30 days maximum by default.
• Anti-abuse limits: duration of the security window, then automatic deletion.
• Payment data: period required by legal obligations; it is separated from the account when the account is deleted.
• FluElles Instant: photos, selfies and selfie reactions until the next Instant (at the latest 10 pm the next day), then deleted with the Instant; days on which you shared: 3 days.
• Reservations at a collection point: 12 months after the reservation, then deleted; pickup code: 5 hours; daily pickup counters: 3 days.
• Organisation identity documents: deleted as soon as a decision is made (confirmation or refusal); confirmation valid for 12 months. Organisation account whose identity is not confirmed: removed from the map 30 days after sign-up, then permanently deleted 30 days later, after several reminders by notification and email.

Deleting the account from the app deletes the associated operational data and anonymises the financial records that must be kept. See the account deletion procedure (in French).

10. Security and abuse prevention

FluElles applies in particular HTTPS encryption, authentication, access control, rate limiting, file validation, moderation, blocking and reporting. As no measure removes all risk, please report any unusual activity promptly to the contact address.

11. Automated decisions

FluElles does not take decisions producing legal or similarly significant effects based solely on automated processing. Automatic checks may nevertheless refuse an action that is clearly dangerous, repetitive or contains private contact details. Such a refusal can be challenged with the FluElles team.

For collection points, some automatic checks apply: an organisation's number is verified in the official directory (without a recognised number, the organisation remains "unverified" and can only offer walk-in pickup); two unused pickup codes within 90 days pause reservations for 30 days, without affecting person-to-person donations; an organisation reported by several different people is suspended as a precaution, then reviewed by the FluElles team, who can reinstate it. An organisation must confirm its identity within 30 days of signing up (code received on an official-domain email, which the FluElles team checks really belongs to the organisation, or documents reviewed by the FluElles team); the official directory is checked again every month and an organisation listed as closed or struck off is removed from the map.

12. Your rights

Depending on the legal basis and your situation, you can request access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection or portability of your data. Where processing is based on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time without affecting earlier processing. A reply is given within the legal deadline, in principle one month.

To exercise these rights, contact hello_fluelles@fluelles.fr. You can also lodge a complaint with the French data protection authority, the Commission nationale de l'informatique et des libertés (CNIL), or with the authority of your country of residence.

13. Cookies and website analytics

The public FluElles website currently uses no advertising cookies and no audience measurement tool. If non-essential trackers are added, they will be preceded by information and, where required by law, by your consent.

14. Changes to this policy

This policy may change when features, providers or applicable rules change. The update date is shown at the top of this page; additional information will be provided in the app in the event of a significant change.

This translation is provided for convenience. In case of discrepancy, the French version prevails.