Krater
Krater Privacy Policy
Version 2, 29 September 2026
Who we are
Krater is run by Thomas Bijvoets, a sole proprietorship (ditta individuale) registered in Rome, Italy. He is the controller of your personal data under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
- Business: BIJVOETS THOMAS, P.IVA 18706061001
- Address: Via Federico di Donato 18, 00151 Roma, Italia
- Contact, including privacy requests: support@joinkrater.com
Krater has no data protection officer, because the law doesn't require one for a business of this size and kind.
What this policy covers
This policy covers the Krater iPhone app, for members and for guests who browse without an account, the website joinkrater.com, and emails you send us.
Everyone agrees to this policy before using Krater: members when they create an account, guests in the app when they continue as a guest, and visitors to joinkrater.com by using it.
It does not cover YouTube itself. When you open a video, it plays in the YouTube app or website under Google's own privacy policy. Purchases through the App Store are covered by Apple's privacy policy.
What we collect
We collect what you give us to run your account and library, plus the technical data any online service needs. We don't buy data about you, and we don't sell yours.
| Kind | What it includes |
|---|---|
| Account | Email address, password (stored only as a secure hash), sign-in codes, your confirmation that you're 18 or older, which version of the terms you accepted and when, and for each signed-in device its IP address and device type |
| Profile | Username, display name, bio, location (only if you type one), profile picture, favourite videos and creators, your settings, and your ring and tag choices |
| Library and activity | Videos you add, ratings, reviews and notes, watch status and dates, hearts, what's public or private, your lists with their titles, descriptions and order, who you follow, what you like, who you block, and a record of your adds for the monthly allowance |
| Krappy | Your questions, what Krappy works out from them (search terms, filters, the videos it showed), and cost and timing figures; short-lived cached answers |
| Notifications | Your in-app notifications, your push token, your device's time zone (for quiet hours) and whether you allowed notifications |
| Subscription | Your plan and its history, a random billing ID, and your purchase status. Apple handles payment; we never see card details |
| Reports and moderation | Reports you make, reports about your content, and moderation decisions and notices |
| Support | Emails you send us |
| Technical logs | IP address, device or browser type and time of each request, kept by our hosting and network providers |
| On your device | Your sign-in session, a few preferences, the subscription provider's cache, and cached images |
We also keep daily totals of how often features are used, per plan (for example, how many Krappy questions of each kind). These totals contain nothing that identifies you or your device.
Guests who browse the app without an account give us no account data and see no ads there; only the technical logs apply. Visitors to joinkrater.com can see ads (see Advertising and tracking).
Why we use it, and on what legal basis
Every use of your data rests on one of the legal bases in Article 6 of the GDPR.
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Running your account, library, lists, social features and Krappy | Contract: it's the service you signed up for |
| Your subscription and the features of your plan | Contract |
| Push notifications | Your consent, given through the iPhone's permission prompt |
| Personalised ads | Your consent, through Google's consent message |
| Non-personalised ads for free members | Legitimate interests: ads pay for the free plan |
| Ads on joinkrater.com that use cookies, personalised or not | Your consent, through Google's consent message, where the law asks for it; elsewhere, legitimate interests: ads pay for Krater |
| Limited ads on joinkrater.com, without cookies, where you have not consented | Legitimate interests: ads pay for Krater |
| Security, preventing abuse and fraud, rate limits | Legitimate interests |
| Handling reports, moderation and notices | Legal obligation under the EU Digital Services Act, and legitimate interests in a safe community |
| Keeping pseudonymous billing records for refunds and chargebacks | Legitimate interests |
| Improving Krater: daily usage totals, cost monitoring, and question logs kept for 90 days | Legitimate interests |
| Answering support emails | Contract, or legitimate interests if you're not a member |
| Requests from authorities | Legal obligation |
Where we rely on legitimate interests, you can object at any time (see Your rights). You can withdraw consent at any time too; that doesn't affect what happened before.
Krappy and AI
Krappy sends your question to two AI providers, Google (Gemini) and Anthropic (Claude), and never sends who you are.
What they receive
- Most questions go to Google's Gemini, which works out what you're asking; if Gemini is unavailable, Anthropic's Claude does it instead. Greetings, picks from the videos Krappy has just shown, corrections and answers Krappy has already given go to neither. For a follow-up, it also gets your previous question and the titles Krappy showed you.
- Answers, ranking and recommendations go through Anthropic's Claude. For personal recommendations, Anthropic receives the titles of videos you rated with your star ratings, including private ones, because the recommendations are for you.
- Ask about this video sends the video's notes or summary together with your question.
- Video summaries are made by Gemini watching public YouTube videos. No personal data is involved.
What they never receive: your email address, username, member ID, or anything about other members.
Training and retention
- Neither provider trains its models on this data under the paid business terms we use.
- Anthropic deletes it within 30 days. If a request is flagged for breaking its usage policy, it may keep it for up to 2 years.
- Google keeps it for a limited period to detect abuse. We have switched off Google's optional request logging.
- On our side, the text of your questions is deleted after 90 days.
Krappy's answers can be wrong, so don't rely on them for important decisions. Krater makes no automated decisions about you with legal or similarly significant effects; moderation decisions are always made by a person.
What other members and guests can see
Your ratings and reviews are public by default, and you can make any of them private.
- Your profile: your username, display name, profile picture, bio, location, ring and tag, favourite videos and creators, public lists, when you joined, how many members you follow and follow you, and how many public reviews, lists, likes and ratings you have, with how your public ratings are spread across the stars, are visible to signed-in members. If your library is public, so are how many videos and watchlist items it holds.
- Ratings and reviews: at sign-up you choose who sees them by default, with Everyone preselected. You can change that default in Settings and set each rating or review to public or private. A public review shows under your name even when your library isn't browsable.
- Your library: others can only browse it if you make it public in Settings.
- Private items are seen by you alone. They count towards community ratings and totals only when at least five members contribute, and then only inside the total.
- Guests without an account see catalogue information only, never member content or names.
- Blocking: once either of you blocks the other, neither can see the other's profile details, lists, reviews or activity.
- Moderation: if a moderator hides your profile, others see only your username and the default picture. Hidden content is visible to you alone.
- Notifications you trigger show your name and the video or list involved to the member who receives them.
Who receives your data
We use the providers below to run Krater. They process data on our behalf, under contracts that limit its use to providing their service to us.
| Provider | What it receives | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | All account and app data | Database, sign-in, file storage and server functions. The database is in Ireland; server functions run in the region nearest each request, which can be outside the EU |
| Cloudflare | Network traffic, including IP addresses | Secure network delivery and our website |
| Krappy questions (Gemini); video IDs (YouTube API, no member data); your device's IP when thumbnails load from YouTube; support emails (Google Workspace); ad requests (AdMob in the app, AdSense on joinkrater.com) | AI, video information, our support inbox, and ads | |
| Anthropic | Krappy questions and, for recommendations, titles and ratings (see Krappy and AI) | AI answers and recommendations |
| Resend | Your email address and sign-in codes; internal alerts that can quote reported text | Sending emails |
| Expo | Your push token and the notification text, which can include another member's name and a video or list title | Delivering push notifications |
| Apple | Push notifications via Apple's push service; purchases under your Apple Account | Notifications and payments |
| RevenueCat | A random billing ID, purchase receipts from Apple, and the device and app details its software sends | Managing subscriptions |
We may also disclose data when the law requires it, or to a buyer if Krater is ever sold, under this same policy. We never sell your data.
Transfers outside the EU
Several providers are based in the United States or process data worldwide, so your data can leave the EU.
- Every provider's contract with us includes the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.
- Some, including Google, Cloudflare and Expo, are also certified under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, which the European Commission has recognised as adequate.
- For Switzerland, where some server functions can run, the Commission has recognised its protection as adequate.
You can ask us for a copy of the safeguards that apply to a provider.
How long we keep it
We keep your data only as long as the purpose needs it. A daily cleanup job deletes each kind of data when its period ends.
| Data | Kept for |
|---|---|
| Account, profile, library, lists, follows, likes, blocks, and your age and terms confirmation | Until you delete your account |
| Notifications | 12 months; moderation notices and report outcomes 2 years |
| Text of your Krappy questions | 90 days; cost and timing figures are kept without the text |
| Cached Krappy answers | Up to a day; shared answers to common questions, such as how-to questions, 90 days |
| Reports and moderation records | 2 years after the report is resolved |
| Billing records, under a pseudonym | 2 years after you delete your account |
| Push tokens | Until you sign out on that device or delete your account |
| Support emails | 12 months after your request is resolved |
| Technical logs | 7 days at our hosting provider |
| Backups | Up to 10 days, then overwritten |
Deleting your account. In the app, go to Settings, then Delete account. It removes your account, profile, library, lists, follows, likes, blocks, notifications, push tokens and the text of your Krappy questions straight away.
These remain, for the reasons above:
- billing records under a pseudonym, for 2 years;
- reports about your content and moderation records, for 2 years;
- your add history and cost figures, without anything linking them to you;
- backups, for up to 10 days, then overwritten;
- the subscription provider's record under your random billing ID, and your purchase history at Apple.
Deleting your account does not cancel an Apple subscription. Cancel it first in your iPhone's Settings, under your name, then Subscriptions.
Advertising and tracking
In the app, only signed-in free members see ads, from Google AdMob; guests and Pro and Hacker members see none there. The public pages of joinkrater.com can show ads from Google AdSense to everyone who visits them. Whether ads are personalised is your choice.
- In the app, before any ad, Google's consent message asks whether you agree to personalised ads. Krater never asks to track you across other companies' apps and websites, so your iPhone's advertising identifier is never used.
- If you say no, you still see ads, but not personalised ones. Google still uses your device information, an approximate location from your IP address, and how you interact with ads, to deliver them, limit repeats, measure them and prevent fraud. Ads are limited to content suitable for teenagers and older.
- Changing your mind: Krater's Settings has a Privacy choices option that reopens Google's consent message. Upgrading to Pro or Hacker removes ads at once.
- Google acts as its own controller for advertising data. How Google uses information from apps that show its ads: policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
On joinkrater.com. The public pages can show ads from Google AdSense to every visitor, member or not and whatever their plan, since the pages don't know who you are.
- Before any ad, in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland, Google's consent message asks whether you agree to cookies and personalised ads. In the US states whose privacy laws require it, Google's message lets you opt out of the sale or sharing of your information for ads. Elsewhere, Google may show personalised ads without asking first.
- Cookies: third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to joinkrater.com or other websites. Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to joinkrater.com and/or other sites on the Internet. Google explains the cookies it uses for ads at business.safety.google/adscookies.
- Ad partners: besides Google, ad networks that Google has certified can serve ads through AdSense. Google lists them, with a link to each, at support.google.com/adsense/answer/94149.
- If you say no, you may still see limited ads, which Google doesn't personalise and which use no cookies. Your browser still keeps its usual copy of Google's code and of the ads, and Google uses your IP address to deliver them.
- Opting out: you can opt out of personalised advertising in Google's Ads Settings, at adssettings.google.com, and of other companies' use of cookies for personalised ads at aboutads.info. A Privacy and cookie settings link on every page with ads reopens Google's message.
The app has no other analytics or tracking. Krater sets no cookies of its own on joinkrater.com; Google's are described above.
Push notifications
Krater only sends push notifications after you allow them in the iPhone's prompt, which appears the first time someone likes your review or follows you and you see it in the app.
- We don't send them between 22:00 and 08:00 in your time zone, which is why we store your device's time zone.
- They travel through Expo and Apple's push service to reach your phone.
- You can turn them off in Krater's Settings, or for Krater in your iPhone's Settings, under Notifications.
YouTube
Krater uses YouTube API Services to show video information and thumbnails, in the app and on joinkrater.com. By using Krater, you also agree to be bound by the YouTube Terms of Service. Google's handling of data is described in the Google Privacy Policy.
- Krater never connects to your YouTube or Google account and can't see your YouTube history.
- Video information we store is refreshed, or deleted when a video disappears from YouTube, within 30 days, as YouTube requires.
- Thumbnails load directly from YouTube's servers, so Google sees your device's IP address when they appear.
Subscriptions and payments
Apple takes your payment, so we never see your card or bank details.
- RevenueCat keeps track of your subscription using a random billing ID, never your email or username.
- After you delete your account, we keep your plan history for 2 years under a pseudonym, so refunds and chargebacks can be handled without naming you.
- You manage or cancel your subscription with Apple: in your iPhone's Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions.
Reports and moderation
Every report is reviewed by a person, and nothing is removed automatically.
- A report stores who reported, what was reported, the reason and any details. The reported item disappears for you straight away.
- Our moderators are notified by email, with up to 140 characters of the reported text. Your identity as the reporter is never shared with the author.
- If content is hidden, its author gets a notice in the app saying what was hidden and why, and can contest the decision by emailing support@joinkrater.com. The reporter is told whether the item was kept or hidden.
- Reports and moderation records are kept for 2 years after resolution.
- If a report shows a threat to someone's life or safety, we may pass it to the police, as the EU Digital Services Act requires.
Your rights
Under the GDPR you control your data, and most of these rights you can use in the app yourself.
| Right | How |
|---|---|
| See what we hold | Email us, and we send you a copy |
| Correct it | Edit your profile and library in the app, or email us |
| Delete it | Settings, then Delete account, or email us |
| Take it with you | Email us, and we send your data in a machine-readable format |
| Restrict or object to a use | Email us; for uses based on legitimate interests, we stop unless we have compelling reasons |
| Withdraw consent | Turn off notifications or change your ad choices in Settings, at any time |
Write to support@joinkrater.com from the email address on your account, so we can confirm it's you. We answer within one month, or three if a request is complex, and we'll tell you if so.
You can also complain to the Italian data protection authority, the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, or to the authority in the EU country where you live.
Age
Krater is for people aged 18 and older. You confirm this when you sign up or continue as a guest; we don't ask for or store your date of birth. If we learn that a member is under 18, we delete the account.
Security
We protect your data with encryption in transit, strict access rules and automated checks.
- All traffic between the app and our servers is encrypted.
- Database rules let each member reach only what they're allowed to see, and automated tests check those rules before every change.
- Passwords are stored only as secure hashes, and only the owner of Krater can access the systems.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach puts your data at risk, we'll tell you and the Garante as the law requires.
Changes to this policy
When this policy changes, we update this page and its version date. For changes that affect how your data is used, we tell you in the app before they take effect.
| Version | Date | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | 27 September 2026 | First published |
| 2 | 29 September 2026 | joinkrater.com: using it means accepting the terms and this policy; its ads from Google AdSense, Google's cookies and your choices; YouTube API Services there too |