Privacy Policy

1. Controller

The controller for the processing of personal data on this website is:

For data protection questions you can reach us at info@houselinc.com.

2. Scope of this part

This part applies to visits to the marketing website www.houselinc.com. For use of the HouseLinc app on iOS, Android and on the web at app.houselinc.com, part 2 of this policy applies.

3. Hosting and server log files

This website and our email mailboxes are hosted by IONOS SE, Elgendorfer Straße 57, 56410 Montabaur, Germany. IONOS processes the data on our behalf under a data processing agreement pursuant to Art. 28 GDPR.

When you open the website, the server automatically processes access data transmitted by your browser: IP address, date and time of access, page requested, volume of data transferred, referrer as well as browser and operating system details. This processing is technically necessary to deliver the page and to ensure its stability and security; the legal basis is our legitimate interest under Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR. We do not analyse the log files for advertising or analytics purposes and do not combine them with other data. They are deleted as soon as they are no longer required for these purposes.

4. Contact form

If you use our contact form, we process the details you provide: name, email address, selected topic and your message. We use this information solely to answer your enquiry.

The legal basis is Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR where your enquiry is aimed at a contract, and otherwise our legitimate interest in responding to enquiries under Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR.

Your message reaches us by email and is stored in our mailbox at IONOS until the matter is concluded and no statutory retention obligations stand in the way.

To protect against automated bulk enquiries we limit the number of submissions per IP address. Your IP address is held briefly in the server's memory for this purpose and is not stored permanently. The form also contains a hidden field that only automated scripts fill in.

5. Newsletter

For our German-language newsletter we use Brevo SAS, 7 rue de Madrid, 75008 Paris, France, as a processor; processing takes place on servers within the European Union.

The sign-up form on our newsletter page is embedded directly from Brevo. When you open that page your browser therefore loads resources from Brevo's servers, in the course of which your IP address and technical browser details are transmitted to Brevo.

Sign-up uses the double opt-in procedure: after entering your email address you receive a confirmation email, and only after your confirmation do we add you to the distribution list. We store your email address, the time of sign-up and confirmation, and delivery status information such as whether a message could be delivered.

The legal basis is your consent under Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR. You can unsubscribe at any time via the unsubscribe link in every message or by email to info@houselinc.com; your data is then removed from the distribution list.

6. Cookies and local storage

This website uses only technically necessary cookies and comparable storage techniques, for example to retain your language choice. We use no advertising or tracking cookies, run no third-party analytics and embed no social media plug-ins.

7. Minors

Our services are aimed at adults. The contact form and the newsletter are not intended for persons under 18, and we do not knowingly collect data from minors. If we become aware that such data has been sent to us, we delete it.

8. Partner references

Our partners page contains links to third-party offerings. These are mere references; when you click them you leave our website and the privacy notices of the respective provider apply. We transmit no personal data to our partners in doing so. For individual references we receive a commission if a contract is concluded there; this is recognisable from an identifier parameter in the target address.

9. Your rights and right to lodge a complaint

The rights described in part 2, section 15 apply equally to the processing on this website: access, rectification, erasure, restriction, data portability, objection and withdrawal of consent given.

A message to info@houselinc.com is sufficient to exercise them. Independently of this, you can lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority; the authority responsible for us is the Bavarian Data Protection Authority (BayLDA), Promenade 18, 91522 Ansbach, Germany.

1. Controller

The controller for the processing of personal data in the HouseLinc app is Houselinc GmbH, Kaiser-Ruprecht-Str. 6, 63755 Alzenau, Germany, represented by the managing director Florian Zen-Eldin, registered at the Munich Local Court under HRB 307374.

For data protection questions you can reach us at info@houselinc.com.

2. Scope

This part applies to use of the HouseLinc app on iOS, Android and on the web at app.houselinc.com as well as the associated web.app addresses.

For visits to the marketing website www.houselinc.com, part 1 of this policy applies.

3. What data we process

We process in particular the following categories of personal data.

• —Account data such as your email address and your password in hashed form.
• —Profile data such as your name and voluntary details for the financial profile, for example bank details, tax ID, marital status and income.
• —Property data such as address, purchase details, costs, loans, insurance policies, energy data, documents and photos.
• —Contact details of third parties that you record yourself, for example of tenants, tradespeople, service providers or property managers.
• —Tenancy agreement data, receipts and invoices, assets as well as travel and hospitality receipts.
• —Analyses you generate such as PDF reports, for example financial profiles or property exposés.
• —Your subscription status.

If you record data of tenants, service providers or other third parties in the app, you are yourself responsible for ensuring that this processing is permissible under data protection law. HouseLinc merely provides the technical platform for this.

4. Purposes and legal bases

We process your data for the following purposes.

• —To set up your account and provide the core functions of the app, such as property management, document storage and report generation, on the basis of Art. 6 (1) (b) GDPR, because the processing is necessary to perform the user agreement.
• —For AI-assisted receipt recognition and document matching on the basis of your consent under Art. 6 (1) (a) GDPR.
• —For the security and stability of the app, such as crash reports, performance measurement and device integrity checks, on the basis of our legitimate interest under Art. 6 (1) (f) GDPR.
• —To fulfil legal retention obligations for payment records from web purchases on the basis of Art. 6 (1) (c) GDPR.

5. Where your data is stored and how it is protected

The data you record in the app, including documents and photos, is stored with Google Cloud in the europe-west3 region in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Our database, file storage and server functions are located there. Sign-in via Firebase Authentication runs on Google infrastructure, which for technical reasons may also be located outside the EU.

Your data is transmitted encrypted via TLS. Stored data is encrypted with AES-256, with the keys managed by Google.

6. Access by HouseLinc

Houselinc GmbH and the developers we commission technically have the ability to access all content stored in the app, including uploaded receipts, documents and photos. This access takes place via an administration console and via server functions.

We access your data only where there is a specific reason, for example when you ask us for support, for error analysis, to counter misuse and security incidents, or where we are legally obliged to do so. We do not analyse your content for advertising purposes, create no usage profiles and do not sell your data to third parties. Access by our staff to customer data is currently not logged automatically.

7. Artificial intelligence: receipt scanning and document matching

From the Investor plan onwards, the app offers to read receipts automatically and to assign documents automatically. Use of this function is voluntary, you can switch it off again at any time in the settings, and you can record receipts and documents manually at any time.

The data flow is as follows. Text recognition first takes place locally on your device. Your photo or PDF does not leave your device for this purpose. Only the text recognised in the process is transmitted to a cloud function in the europe-west3 region in Frankfurt and evaluated there with Google's Gemini 2.5 Flash language model via Vertex AI in the Frankfurt region.

In doing so, metadata is stored such as the model used, the prompt version, the time and your confirmation of the proposed values. The transmitted text itself is not stored permanently. Under the applicable contractual terms for Vertex AI, Google does not use the transmitted data to train its models.

Before the function becomes active we obtain your consent via a dialogue in the app. The proposed values are always suggestions only, which you must review and confirm yourself before saving. In line with the transparency obligations under Article 50 of the EU Artificial Intelligence Act, we inform you in the app that you are interacting with an AI system.

8. Further services and recipients

We use the following processors and recipients to operate the app.

• —Google Cloud EMEA Limited and Google Ireland Limited respectively for Firebase Authentication, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Storage, Cloud Functions, Firebase Hosting, App Check as well as Crashlytics and Performance to operate the app and for error and performance analysis.
• —Google LLC for the Google Maps Platform, which we integrate exclusively through our own HouseLinc server proxy, for address search, geocoding and Street View images of your properties.
• —RevenueCat Inc. for managing your subscription and assigning your subscription status to your account.
• —Stripe Payments Europe Limited for payment processing if you take out a subscription via the web checkout.
• —Apple and Google respectively as operators of the relevant app store if you take out a subscription via the App Store or Google Play.
• —The providers jsDelivr, Cloudflare and cdnjs as well as unpkg as content delivery networks through which the web app loads technically necessary program libraries.
• —Firebase Authentication for sending verification and password reset emails.

9. Payments and subscriptions

HouseLinc never receives your payment data such as card numbers or bank details. If you take out your subscription via the Apple App Store or Google Play, Apple or Google respectively is your contracting party for the purchase, and cancellation and refunds are handled through their subscription management. If you take out your subscription via the web checkout, RevenueCat Inc. and Stripe Payments Europe Limited handle the payment, and we receive only your subscription status and transaction metadata.

10. Transfers to third countries

Where data is transferred to recipients outside the European Union, for example to Google LLC, to RevenueCat Inc. based in the USA or to the content delivery networks mentioned, we base this on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the respective recipient is certified under it, and additionally on the European Commission's standard contractual clauses. Google LLC is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

11. Device access and local storage

The app requests access to your camera and to your photo library or files only when you actively wish to upload a receipt or a document. We use Face ID or Touch ID exclusively if you activate the optional app lock in the settings.

On your device the app stores an offline cache of your own data as well as the app lock setting. This local data is deleted when you sign out or delete your account.

12. Crash and performance data

For error analysis and quality assurance we use Firebase Crashlytics and Firebase Performance on iOS and Android. Error messages, stack traces, device type as well as operating system and app version are recorded, but no user ID. This data is stored for 90 days.

13. Partner links

The app contains contact details and links to partners from our network. These are mere links or contact details. HouseLinc transmits no data to these partners. For individual references we receive a commission if a contract is concluded with the partner.

14. Retention and deletion

We store your data for as long as your account exists. If you delete your account in the app after re-entering your password, your profile, properties, assets, folders, receipts, trips, reports and uploaded files as well as your login account are deleted immediately and permanently. Recovery by you is not possible afterwards; any residual data in backup copies is overwritten in the course of the respective backup cycle.

After account deletion the following remain: your subscription record with RevenueCat or the respective store under their own retention periods, and crash reports already stored until the 90-day period expires. We retain payment records from web purchases for ten years due to statutory retention obligations.

Your own statutory retention obligations, for example for tax-relevant receipts, remain with you. Please therefore export the documents relevant to you before deleting your account.

15. Your rights

Under Articles 15 to 21 of the General Data Protection Regulation you have the right to access, rectification, erasure and restriction of the processing of your data as well as the right to data portability and the right to object to processing. Where you have consented to processing, you can withdraw that consent at any time with effect for the future. Automated individual decision-making within the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR does not take place at our company.

To exercise your rights, please contact info@houselinc.com. We will answer your request within one month.

16. Right to lodge a complaint

You have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority about our processing of your data. The authority responsible for us is the Bavarian Data Protection Authority, Promenade 18, 91522 Ansbach, Germany. You may also contact any other supervisory authority of your choice.

17. No disclosure for advertising purposes

We do not pass your data to third parties for advertising purposes, do not track your behaviour across different services and use no advertising cookies in the web app. Your browser stores only technically necessary information in order to keep you signed in and to manage your session.

18. Changes to this policy

We may adapt this privacy policy, for example if our functions or the legal requirements change. We will inform you about material changes in the app.