Belong Nordic, Privacy Policy
Belong Nordic comes in two versions and they handle your data differently. The iPhone app keeps everything on your device and sends us nothing. The web app needs an account, so the situation you enter is stored on our servers and synced to your browser. This policy explains both.
Who we are
Belong Nordic is made by Belong Europe ApS, a company registered in Copenhagen, Denmark, CVR number 46649044. For the web app we are the data controller for the personal data described below. You can reach us at hello@belongeurope.com.
The iPhone app: everything stays on your device
Your residence history, any penalties, your language and test progress, your practice history, any documents you attach and which country you are tracking are stored only on your device. They are not sent to us, to any server we control or to any third party. If you delete the app, that data goes with it.
Your What if scenarios are not stored at all. The sandbox runs on a copy of your situation held in memory while the sheet is open, and it is discarded when you close it.
Signing in on the iPhone is optional. If you sign in on the You tab so one subscription unlocks both the iPhone app and the web app, two things reach us and nothing more: your email address and, if you have an App Store subscription, Apple’s signed confirmation of it. Your tracker data still stays on your device, signed in or not.
The web app: saved to your account
The web app needs an account so you can open your tracker in any browser. When you sign up we store your email address and the situation you enter on our servers, so it is there when you sign in again. We use it only to run your account and show you your tracker. We do not sell it, we do not use it for advertising, and we share it only with the service providers below. You can edit or clear your entries at any time, and you can ask us to delete your account and its data.
What we collect
On the iPhone, nothing personal unless you choose to sign in, in which case we hold your email address and your subscription status. The app has no analytics, no advertising, no tracking and no third-party software development kits that collect data about you. For the web app we hold only what the account needs: your email address, the tracker information you enter and the billing status of your subscription. We do not build an advertising profile of you.
News
The News tab is live, and apart from signing in and checking your subscription it is the only part of the app that reaches the network. When you open it, Belong Nordic fetches The Local’s immigration feed for the country you are tracking, directly from feeds.thelocal.com. That is an ordinary web request, so The Local’s servers see standard technical information such as your IP address, exactly as they would if you opened their site yourself. We add no identifier to the request, we do not tell them who you are, and we receive nothing back about you. Filtering the stories to citizenship and immigration happens entirely on your device.
Feeds exist for Denmark, Sweden and Norway. There is no Finland edition, so tracking Finland fetches nothing at all.
If you turn on news notifications, iOS decides when to check for new stories in the background, and that check makes the same request. The preference is stored on your device only. Tapping a story opens it on The Local’s own site, where their privacy policy applies and some articles may require a subscription.
Practice
The citizenship test questions in the Practice tab are bundled inside the app. Practising works fully offline: your answers, your scores, your mistakes deck, the schedule that decides when a question comes back and your run of days are written to your device and never sent anywhere. Opening an official preparation page is a normal link that leaves the app and opens in your browser.
Documents you attach
On the Path tab you can attach a document to a requirement — a language certificate, a residence permit, a payslip, a test result — with a name and, if you want, an expiry date. This is an iPhone feature, and what you attach stays on your iPhone.
The files are written inside the app’s own storage with iOS file protection switched on, so the system keeps them encrypted and unreadable while your iPhone is locked. They are never uploaded, we never see them, and they are not part of anything a Belong Nordic account syncs. Removing a document deletes the file, and deleting the app deletes all of them.
One thing worth knowing: because they live in the app’s storage, they are included in your own iPhone backup if you back your device up to iCloud or to a computer. That backup is yours, held under Apple’s protection, and we have no access to it. You decide what to attach, and since these can be sensitive papers it is worth attaching only what you actually need.
Reminders and alerts
The daily practice reminder and the alerts for dates in What’s coming are local notifications. Your iPhone schedules them from information already on it, so they use no server of ours, no push service and no device token. Nothing about them reaches us: not that you switched them on, not when one fires, not whether you opened it. The settings are stored on your device.
News notifications are the exception, because checking for new stories needs the network request described above.
Subscriptions and payments
Belong Pro is an optional auto-renewable subscription at 199 DKK per year, with a 7-day free trial. On the iPhone, purchases are handled by Apple through your Apple Account and we never see your payment details. On the web, payments are handled by Stripe: you enter your card details directly with them, we never see or store your full card number, and Stripe tells us only what we need to manage the subscription, such as whether it is active and the last few digits of your card. Apple’s and Stripe’s own privacy policies govern those transactions.
One subscription unlocks both apps. To link them, the iPhone app sends us Apple’s signed confirmation of your subscription: it says the subscription is genuine, active, and when it expires. It contains no payment details.
Service providers
To run the web app we use a small number of providers who process data on our behalf: a hosting and database provider that stores your account, an email provider that sends your sign-in codes and links, and Stripe for payments. They act under agreements requiring them to protect your data and use it only to provide their service to us. We use no third-party analytics or advertising services.
Where your data is stored, and for how long
Web app data is stored on servers in the European Union or in countries offering an equivalent level of protection. Payment data handled by Stripe may be processed outside the European Economic Area under the safeguards Stripe maintains. We keep your account data for as long as your account is open; if you delete your account we remove your tracker data and keep only the limited billing records the law requires. If you only use the iPhone app and never sign in, we hold nothing about you, so there is nothing to retain.
Language and appearance
Your choice of the app’s available languages, and of the Midnight or Mediterranean look, is a setting stored on your device. It is not a profile and it is not sent anywhere.
Diagnostics
If you have turned on Apple’s optional analytics sharing in iOS Settings, Apple may send us crash and performance reports in a form that does not identify you. We use them only to find and fix problems. You can turn this off at any time in Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements.
Your data and your rights
For the iPhone app your tracker information stays on your device and never reaches us, so we hold no copy to export or erase, and you stay in full control through the app. For any account you hold — on the web or signed in on the iPhone — you have the rights the GDPR gives you: access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection, and a copy in a portable form. To exercise any of these, or to delete your account, contact us and we will respond. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority, or, since we are established in Denmark, to the Danish Datatilsynet at datatilsynet.dk.
Children
Belong Nordic is made for adults navigating their own immigration and nationality path. It is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect anything from them.
Changes to this policy
If we change how the app handles data, we will update this page and its effective date, and we will say so in the app when the change is material.
Contact
Questions about this policy: hello@belongeurope.com.