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 — though your documents and your practice never leave the 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.
Two things are deliberately not part of your account: the documents you attach and your practice history, including the run of days Today’s five keeps. Both stay in the browser you used, are never uploaded, and do not follow you to another browser or computer. They are filed under the account you were signed in with, so you only ever see your own.
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.
The tracker information is what you type into the app: when your residence began, whether you hold permanent residence, your language and test progress, the trips you log, and any fines or penalties you record so the app can work out whether they delay you. You choose what to enter, and you can change or clear any of it at any time.
Signing in on the web sets one cookie, belong_session. It carries a signed token with your email address so the site knows you are signed in, it lasts up to 60 days, and scripts cannot read it. It exists to run your account and nothing else: we set no analytics, advertising or tracking cookies. Signing out deletes it.
News
The News tab shows The Local’s immigration feed for the country you are tracking, from feeds.thelocal.com. The two versions fetch it differently, and the difference is worth stating.
On the iPhone, the app requests the feed directly, and filtering the stories to citizenship and immigration happens entirely on your device. 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. Apart from signing in and checking your subscription, it is the only part of the iPhone app that reaches the network.
On the web, your browser asks our server and our server fetches the feed, so The Local sees our server and not you. The only thing sent is which country you are tracking.
In both versions we add no identifier to the request, we do not tell The Local who you are, and we receive nothing back about you.
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 come with the app rather than from a server, and on the iPhone practising works fully offline. In both versions 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 own device and never sent anywhere; on the web they stay in your browser and are not part of your account. 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. Wherever you attach it, the file stays on the device you attached it on, and we never receive it.
On the 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. Removing a document deletes the file, and deleting the app deletes all of them.
On the web, the files are stored by your browser on your own computer, in the storage it keeps for this site, and each one is filed under the account that added it. You only ever see your own. Removing a document deletes it, clearing this site’s data in your browser deletes all of them, and the Path tab has a control that removes them all at once. Because they never leave that browser, they do not appear in another browser or on another device, and there is no copy of them anywhere else.
A computer can be shared, so signing in with a different account on the same browser clears what the previous account left there — documents, tracker and practice alike — rather than leaving one person’s papers on a machine they have walked away from. If you share a computer with someone who also uses Belong Nordic, each of you signing in will clear the other’s, so keep your own copies.
In both versions they are never uploaded, we never see them, and they are not part of anything a Belong Nordic account syncs.
One thing worth knowing about the iPhone: 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.
The web app has no reminders or alerts at all. What’s coming is a list you look at when you open it, and nothing is sent to you.
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.
Deleting your account removes what we hold. It does not touch what is on your iPhone or in your browser, because we cannot reach it: remove your documents in the app, or clear this site’s data in your browser, if you want those gone too.
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. The same is true of the documents you attach and your practice history in either version: they never reach us, so there is nothing on our side to export or erase, and removing them is done in 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.