Coinchi

Privacy policy – Coinchi

This translation is for information only. The German version is legally binding.

As of: November 3, 2026

1. Controller

Ivan Pervushin, Marxstr. 10b, 45527 Hattingen, Germany
E-mail: ivan@pervushin.de · further details in the legal notice

2. General

This privacy policy provides information about the processing of personal data when you use the "Coinchi" app and the associated website coinchi.co. Personal data is processed only to the extent necessary to provide the content and functions (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR) or where consent has been given (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR).

3. Data processed

Account data: When you register, your e-mail address, first and last name (mandatory) and a password (stored exclusively as a cryptographic hash) are stored.

Receipts and recipes: Photos of receipts and recipes that you take or upload in the app are processed to recognise the data they contain. The photo files are deleted automatically after 30 days (see section 10); the receipt data read from them remains stored until you delete it or your account.

Barcode scan: Scanned barcodes are stored for you as a scan history. To look up the product, our server queries the barcode in public product databases (Open Food Facts and related projects, UPCitemdb); no data about you is transmitted in the process. We query barcodes without a match again later (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).

Ingredients photo: A photo of an ingredients list is transmitted for text recognition in the same way as a receipt photo (section 4) and is not stored without your express approval.

Contributions to the product catalogue: If you take an ingredients photo for an unknown barcode, we store the barcode, the product name read from the photo, the recognised ingredients and allergens, and the photo permanently and without any link to your account. Afterwards, the name, ingredients and allergens are visible to all users; the photo remains internal and is used to check and improve the catalogue. The app points this out before the photo. The legal basis is your consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR). Photograph only the packaging, not people or documents. Because the contribution is not linked to your account, please tell us the barcode at the contact address if you wish to withdraw consent or request deletion.

Product translation: Product names, but not information about you, are transmitted to the service provider named in section 4 for translation into your app language and are stored as a translation table.

Community prices: Coinchi relies on scanned receipts helping all users with price comparison. For this purpose we use the receipt items of all users in two ways:

In our database, these entries remain linked to your account so that you can delete them; to other users they appear without any link to you. Please note that store, branch and date together may in individual cases allow inferences to be drawn, for example by people who know when and where you shop. The purpose is price comparison for all users, plausibility checks and the improvement of the app. The legal basis is our legitimate interest and that of the community in a shared price comparison (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). You can object to this at any time (Art. 21 GDPR, e-mail to the controller) or delete individual receipts. If you delete a receipt or your account, its items no longer feed into price comparisons, suggestions and analyses; cached analyses are recalculated after 15 minutes at the latest.

Shared recipe videos: If you share a video to the app, it goes to the service provider named in section 4 for speech and image recognition and is not stored by us. Share only videos that you are allowed to use.

Coins: For receipt scans, barcode scans, corrections and contributions to the product catalogue, we store the action, points and time against your account until you delete it (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). For contributions, the entry contains neither the barcode nor the product.

Usage data: When the API is called, technically necessary connection data (IP address, time, endpoint called) is processed.

4. AI-based text recognition (OCR)

To recognise products, prices and recipe contents, the uploaded images or texts are transmitted to the API of MiniMax (api.minimax.io). The transmission is encrypted (TLS). According to its API privacy policy (as of 30 March 2026), the provider is Nanonoble Pte. Ltd., Singapore (MiniMax group); according to the provider, the data is stored in a data centre in the USA and processed there by it or by service providers. The provider states that it bases the transfer to these third countries on standard contractual clauses and on a cloud data centre certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework (Art. 46 GDPR). You can obtain a copy of the safeguards on request from the controller. Please photograph only receipts on which no card or account numbers are legible. The processing is based on Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of a contract — recognition is the core function of the app). This applies to the receipt scan as well as to the recipe scan in the shopping lists (photo of a recipe from which ingredients for a shopping list are recognised).

5. Contacting us

If you write to us by e-mail, we store your e-mail address and message in order to answer your enquiry (Art. 6(1)(b) or (f) GDPR). The message is delivered to us via our e-mail provider (lima-city, web hosting and mail service provider in Germany). A contact form is also available in the web app.

6. Households and shared content

In the app you can create household profiles and invite other registered users by their e-mail address (role: admin, member or viewer). An invitation is an offer: the invited person becomes a member, and sees the content of the household, only once they accept the invitation in the app; until then they see only the name of the household, the role and who invited them. If they decline, the invitation is deleted; we delete unanswered invitations after 30 days. We do not tell the inviting person whether an account exists for an e-mail address. Alternatively, you can join a household yourself using an invitation code. Members of a household see the content shared in the household (receipts and their content, shopping lists, analyses) as well as the name or e-mail address of the other members; receipt photos can be retrieved only by the owner and active household members. For traceability and security, the app logs changes in the household (e.g. invitation, joining, declining, removal of a member, change of role) with the time and the user involved, initially also with the IP address and browser/device identifier (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR); the IP address and identifier are removed after 90 days, while the rest of the log entry remains until the account or household is deleted. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (use of the household function at your request). Share content only with people you trust; you can remove members or leave the household at any time. When your account is deleted, your memberships, shopping lists and receipts are removed; this also applies to receipts that you have shared with household members. A household you created is also deleted.

7. Sign-in with Google

Signing in with Google is voluntary; you can instead register with an e-mail address and password. You are redirected to Google only if you choose "Continue with Google". The recipient or provider is then Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland; Google processes data under its own responsibility (including your IP address and your Google sign-in) and may transfer it to Google LLC in the USA. For Google LLC there is an adequacy decision of the EU Commission (EU-US Data Privacy Framework, Art. 45 GDPR), insofar as it is certified under it. From Google we receive your name, e-mail address, Google account ID, the indication whether the e-mail address is verified, and the address of your profile picture (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). This address is not stored and the profile picture is not loaded or displayed in the app; no request is therefore made to Google servers. Instead, the app shows an avatar with your initials.

8. Error monitoring (Sentry)

For error monitoring we use a self-hosted Sentry instance (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR; legitimate interest: stable and secure operation). When an error occurs, the error message, the technical environment (e.g. browser, operating system) and the address of the page called are transmitted; in addition, performance data (page address, loading times) is sent for about 10% of page views on the web. In the case of display errors in the web app, your user ID is also sent; we do not transmit your e-mail address or user name; for technical reasons the instance receives your IP address when the data is sent. The events are deleted automatically after 30 days.

9. Hosting

The app data is stored on servers of Hetzner Online GmbH (Germany). A data processing agreement is in place with the provider.

10. Retention period

Account and receipt data is stored until the account is deleted or you remove the data in the app. The photo files of your receipts are deleted automatically after 30 days; the data read from them remains until the account is deleted. Contributions to the product catalogue, including the photo, remain stored until you withdraw consent or the entry is removed. Receipt items that are used as community prices are deleted together with the respective receipt or your account. As proof of your consent, we store the time and version of the terms accepted (Art. 6(1)(c) in conjunction with Art. 7(1) GDPR). Connection data (IP address) in the web server logs is deleted after 14 days at the latest, application logs after 7 days; IP address and browser/device identifier in household log entries after 90 days, error events in Sentry after 30 days. We delete messages sent via the contact form after 12 months at the latest. When the program is updated, we create a backup copy of the database; these backups are deleted after 14 days, so that deleted accounts are no longer contained there either at the latest by then (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, data security).

11. Your rights

You have the right of access (Art. 15), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20) and objection (Art. 21 GDPR). You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, e.g. the one responsible for us, the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information of North Rhine-Westphalia (Kavalleriestraße 2–4, 40213 Düsseldorf, www.ldi.nrw.de). You can use access and data portability (JSON export) as well as the deletion of your account together with all data directly in the app; alternatively by e-mail, see Delete account and data.

It is best to address requests concerning your rights by e-mail to ivan@pervushin.de, if possible from the e-mail address of your account; otherwise we may request reasonable proof of identity. We answer requests without undue delay, at the latest within one month of receipt (Art. 12(3) GDPR). For complex or numerous requests, the period may be extended by a further two months; we will inform you of this within the first month.

12. Voluntariness, withdrawal, automated decisions

E-mail address and password are required to create an account; without them the account cannot be created. Where you have consented to processing, you can withdraw your consent at any time with effect for the future (e-mail to the controller); the lawfulness of the processing carried out until then remains unaffected. A decision based solely on automated processing with legal effect within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR does not take place; the automatic text recognition provides suggestions that you can correct. The app can be used from the age of 16.

13. Cookies, local storage and audience measurement

This website (coinchi.co) sets no cookies and loads no content from third-party providers. Fonts and images are delivered exclusively from this server.

Audience measurement with Umami: To see which pages are read, we use the open-source software Umami on our own infrastructure at analytics.pervushin.de (Hetzner, Germany). No cookies are set and nothing is stored on or read from your device; consent under § 25 TDDDG (German Telecommunications Digital Services Data Protection Act) is therefore not required. The page visited, time spent, referring page, country, browser, operating system and device type are recorded. Your IP address is not stored but is used only transiently, together with browser details and a random value that changes daily, to form a visit identifier that cannot be traced back to you. There is no cross-site tracking and no link to your Coinchi account. The data is not transmitted to the manufacturer Umami Software, Inc. The legal basis is our legitimate interest in data-minimising audience measurement (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR); you can object under Art. 21 GDPR. The measurement concerns only this website, not the web app and not the apps.

The web app (app functions after sign-in) stores only technically necessary information in your browser (§ 25(2) no. 2 TDDDG; consent is not required for this): sign-in cookie "refreshToken" (httpOnly, 7 days), CSRF protection "csrfToken" (httpOnly, session) and local storage entries for account data, active household and offline cache. The access token is held in working memory only.

14. Changes

This policy is amended as necessary. The current version is available at this address.