Privacy policy

Version: 2026-09-29 · Applies to wohnalert.com, the WohnAlert app (web, iOS, Android) and all e-mails and notifications sent by WohnAlert

In short

• The website can be read without an account. Housing push alerts on every page and device require registration or login first. The app, e-mail alerts and Premium also require an account with e-mail address and password.
• There are no advertising networks, no Google-Analytics-style services and no advertising cookies. Our own pseudonymous visitor statistics run only with your consent and can be switched off at any time.
• Your data is stored on a server in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The operator is a company in the USA; for e-mail delivery and push notifications we use the service providers named individually below.
• You delete your account yourself in the app – together with search profiles, household details and e-mail alerts.

1. Controller

Appstria LLC has no establishment in the EU. The GDPR applies to us because we offer our service to people in the EU and EEA (Art. 3(2) GDPR). For all privacy matters you can reach us directly at the e-mail address above. A data protection officer is not legally required and has not been appointed.

2. Where your data is stored (hosting)

Website, API and database run on a virtual server of DigitalOcean, LLC (101 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10013, USA) in the Frankfurt am Main data centre. Encrypted database backups are kept in the same provider's object storage, also in Frankfurt, and deleted after 90 days; local backups on the server are kept in a staggered way for up to one year. DigitalOcean is a processor (Art. 28 GDPR) under its data processing agreement with standard contractual clauses. Fonts, images, the map library and scripts are served from our own server – simply reading the website transmits your IP address to nobody but us.

3. Visiting the website and the app (server logs)

Each request is logged by the web server: IP address, time, requested URL, bytes transferred, status code, referring page, browser identification and browser language. The IP address is truncated before it is written (IPv4 without the last octet, IPv6 to the /32 prefix), so it can no longer be attributed to a connection. Purpose: technical operation and defence against attacks; legal basis Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR. Logs are deleted automatically after 14 days. The web server's error log may in individual cases of technical faults contain a full IP address; it is deleted after 14 days as well. To fend off request floods the server additionally keeps the IP address in memory for a few minutes.

For the same purpose our application keeps a sender's IP address in memory only – for alert sign-ups, travel-time queries, visitor statistics and the cancellation form for up to one hour, the target address of an alert sign-up for up to 24 hours; none of it is stored. It also writes a technical log (journal) without IP addresses and without search profiles, addresses or workplace coordinates; when switching notifications on fails it contains the browser identification. It is capped at a fixed size and overwrites itself continuously, usually within a few weeks. Login attempts at the operator's admin panel – including failed ones – are stored with full IP address, time, the e-mail address entered and a shortened browser identification for 180 days to detect attacks on the operator access (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

4. Cookies, local storage and consent

Website and app set no cookies. They use your browser's local storage (localStorage) for settings and for your session. This is necessary for the service (§ 25(2) no. 2 German TDDDG, § 165(3) Austrian TKG 2021) and needs no consent:

The exceptions are the identifier wa-besucher for our visitor statistics (section 5) and the two session markers wa-sitzung and wa-spur-letzte in session storage (sessionStorage, gone when the browser is closed): they are created only after your consent. The operator's admin panel uses its own session cookie that only affects the operator.

5. Visitor statistics (only with consent)

We would like to know where visitors come from, which pages they look at and at which point they open the app, create an account or choose Premium. For that we ask for your consent on your first visit. If you say yes, your browser creates a random identifier (wa-besucher) and reports per page view: identifier, page or app view, referring page on the first request, language, a coarse device label (such as “Chrome · iPhone”) and events such as “listing viewed” (with title and provider), “alerts switched on”, “Premium page opened”. No IP address is stored, no fingerprint is built, no third party is involved.

If you create an account or a notification subscription we link the identifier to it so we can see which path led to the sign-up. Events are deleted after 90 days, immediately when you delete your account. Legal basis is your consent (§ 25(1) TDDDG / § 165(3) TKG 2021, Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). If you say no or nothing at all, nothing is created and nothing is reported – the service works exactly the same.

Change your decision on visitor statistics

6. Account

An account is required for the app, housing push alerts on all pages and devices, e-mail alerts and Premium. We store:

• E-mail address and a password – the password only as a salted scrypt hash that even we cannot reverse; an optional first name; your language; time of registration and last use; a failed-attempt counter with a temporary lock (10 attempts, 15 minutes) against password guessing.
• Sessions: one random login token per device (stored by us only as a SHA-256 hash) with a shortened browser identification and timestamp. Sessions end when you log out, change your password, delete your account or after twelve months without use.
• Your search profile (section 7) and your saved listings with application status and notes, so they are the same on all devices.
• Household details, if you enter them voluntarily: first and last name, phone, number of persons, children, housing-entitlement certificate (WBS) status and level, income bracket, move-in date, pets, special housing needs and accessibility, free notes. They serve only to prepare application texts and to recognise suitable listings. Details on accessibility or special housing needs may reveal health information; they are expressly voluntary, and by entering them you consent to their storage (Art. 9(2)(a) GDPR). You can clear any field at any time.
• Your Premium status (until when, whether gifted) and the time of the last profile e-mail.

Legal basis is the user contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR); for the voluntary household details your consent. Forgotten password: on request we send a link with a one-time token to your address; we store only its hash, and the link is valid for 60 minutes.

7. Search profile, radius and travel time

Your search profile (city, districts or neighbourhoods, maximum rent, rooms, size, WBS, type of housing, providers, outdoor space) is stored with your account and your notification subscription so we only report matching flats. Two features need a location:

• Radius: you type an address; our server queries the geocoding service Photon run by komoot GmbH (Potsdam, Germany) and passes it the text you entered – not your IP address. We keep the text you typed and the answer in a cache on our server without any link to you, so the same address is not queried again. We store the resulting coordinate in your search profile; the place name as your setting stays on your device only.
• Travel time to work: our server sends the coordinate of your workplace (rounded to about ten metres) to the open routing service Transitous (transitous.org, run by the Transitous community on MOTIS) to compute public-transport travel times to all flats. Only coordinate and time are transmitted; we cache the result for 7 days without linking it to your account and delete it afterwards.

Legal basis is performance of the contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR) – you trigger both queries yourself by entering a location.

8. Notifications

Push notifications (browser and app)

A housing push subscription requires an account: on the website and in the app you must register or log in first. Every active housing subscription is linked to your account. Older subscriptions without an account do not receive housing alerts until linked after login. When you switch notifications on, your browser or phone creates a subscription and hands it to us. We store: the address at your device's push service and two keys that encrypt the message for exactly this device (for the iOS/Android app the device token), your search profile, language, plan, time of sign-up, of the last delivery and of the last heartbeat, a failure counter, a random subscription key for your links, start and end of a trial, the origin of the subscription (website or app), a referral code and – with your consent – the visitor-statistics identifier. A subscription we send messages to that does not respond for 14 days is deleted; one the push service reports as invalid is deleted immediately. A subscription without an account association receives no messages and is therefore kept until you switch it off or ask us to delete it. “Switch notifications off” deletes the subscription completely. In digest mode you receive one daily summary instead of individual messages.

Delivery necessarily runs through the push service of your browser or operating system vendor: Google (Chrome, Android; Firebase Cloud Messaging), Apple (Safari, iOS; Apple Push Notification service), Mozilla (Firefox) or Microsoft (Edge). These services learn that and when a message goes to your device; with web push they cannot read its content, which is encrypted for your device. With the iOS/Android app Apple or Google see the message text (district, rent, rooms, size, link). This involves a transfer to the USA, based on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework under which Google, Apple and Microsoft are certified, or on standard contractual clauses. Legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you withdraw by switching off.

Alerts by e-mail and weekly e-mail

Premium users can additionally have alerts sent to an e-mail address. We store the address, search profile, language, time of sign-up, confirmation and last message, the number of messages sent today, a failure counter, a random unsubscribe key, the link to your account and – with your consent – the visitor-statistics identifier. Nothing is sent without confirmation (double opt-in); an address not confirmed within 14 days is deleted. Every alert e-mail contains an unsubscribe link that deletes the address and search profile at once.

Account holders also receive e-mails that belong to the contract: registration confirmation, password link, a welcome e-mail with examples for your search profile and notes on the end of a trial (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). The weekly e-mail with new listings for your search profile is sent only on request: for accounts created on or after 20 September 2026 it is off until you switch it on in the app under Alerts (consent, Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). Older accounts receive it as long as they do not switch it off (legitimate interest in informing you about new listings for your own search, Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, § 7(3) German UWG); you can object at any time. Switching off works in the app under Alerts or with one click in any weekly e-mail.

Recipient: E-mails are sent on our behalf by Resend, Inc. (2261 Market Street #5039, San Francisco, CA 94114, USA) as processor under standard contractual clauses. Resend learns your address, subject and content of the e-mail. Our e-mails contain no tracking pixels and load no fonts from third-party servers. Photos of the flats are on our server; if your mail client loads images they come from wohnalert.com.

9. Map

The map of flats shows tiles from OpenFreeMap (openfreemap.org, a non-profit project; map data © OpenStreetMap contributors). On the website and in the app the map is loaded only when you click; the tile server then receives your IP address and browser identification, as with any image request. The map library itself is served from our server. Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (interest in showing the map you asked for).

10. Other features

• Referrals: an invitation link contains a random code of your subscription; if someone signs up through it we count the referral. We learn who invited you only via that code, not via names or addresses.
• Testimonials: if you submit a review with first name and district and agree to publication, we show it in the app and on wohnalert.com. We note the push subscription of your device so that each device can submit at most one review per day. Reviews stay until you ask for their removal – write to us for that.
• Reporting a listing: we store your report (reason, listing, your free text, time and the push subscription of your device, allowing at most ten reports per device and day) to check the source; handled reports are deleted after 90 days.
• Error reports: if switching notifications on fails, the app reports the failed step, the browser's error message and the browser identification to us; this goes only into the technical log (section 3) and serves solely to fix the problem (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
• Cancellation: the details from the cancellation form (address, date, optionally reference and reason) are used to carry out and confirm the cancellation (Art. 6(1)(b) and (c) GDPR); nothing is stored in our database for this, the confirmation goes by e-mail to you and to us.
• Contact by e-mail: what you write to us is kept while the matter is handled, and for up to three years if it concerns a contractual question.

11. Public listing data

The listings shown come from the public offer pages of housing companies. They contain no data about you. Contact details of provider staff are only taken over as the providers publish them themselves (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).

12. Recipients and transfers to third countries

Your data reaches only the named service providers for the named purpose: DigitalOcean (hosting, Frankfurt), Resend (e-mail, USA), the push services of Google, Apple, Mozilla and Microsoft (USA), komoot (geocoding, Germany), Transitous (travel times), OpenFreeMap (map tiles). We do not sell data and do not pass it on for advertising.

The controller itself is located in the USA and accesses the data stored in Frankfurt from there as far as operation requires. For companies that are not certified, the USA is not regarded as a country with an adequate level of data protection. We protect your data through encryption in transit and of backups, access limited to the operator and storage exclusively in Germany; for transfers to US service providers we rely on the EU Commission's standard contractual clauses or, where the provider is certified, on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. A copy of the clauses is available on request.

13. Retention

14. Deleting your account and data

In the app under Profile → Security → Delete account (confirm with your password). This immediately deletes: account, password hash, sessions, search profile, household details, saved listings, e-mail alert subscriptions with their delivery log, the delivery log of your account e-mails and the visitor-statistics events. Push subscriptions on your devices remain without an account association; housing alerts stop. Remove the subscription with “Switch notifications off” in the app or in your device settings. Without access to the app write to info@appstria.com – instructions under Delete account.

15. Your rights

You have the right of access (Art. 15 GDPR), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20) and objection to processing based on legitimate interests (Art. 21), as well as the right to withdraw consent at any time with effect for the future. Write to info@appstria.com, ideally from your account's address. Older, paused subscriptions without an account are anonymous to us; we can only provide information about it if you send us the subscription address.

You can lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, in particular in the EU member state where you live. In Austria that is the Datenschutzbehörde (Barichgasse 40–42, 1030 Vienna); in Germany the data protection commissioner of your federal state – the Federal Commissioner keeps a list.

16. No automated decisions, no children

There is no automated decision-making or profiling within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR; the search profile serves only to send you fewer unsuitable alerts. The service is aimed at adults looking for a flat; persons under 16 may not create an account.

17. Changes

We update this policy when the service changes. The current version is always at wohnalert.com/en/privacy.html (German original: wohnalert.com/datenschutz.html); the date at the top shows the version. We inform account holders of material changes by e-mail.

This English version is provided for convenience. The German version is the legally binding one.