Legal
Privacy Policy
Last updated 26 October 2026
neopats is a private, invitation-only community for expats and second-home owners. This policy explains what personal information we collect, why, who can see it, and the choices you have. We’ve tried to write it in plain language.
The short version
- We don’t sell your data. Not to advertisers, not to anyone.
- Your circle is private. Only approved members of your circle can see what you share there.
- Your home stays private. Other members only ever see an approximate location, never your exact address, and never whether you’re at home or away.
- Your contact details are yours. They’re shared only with members you accept as connections.
- You’re in control. You can download your data, leave a circle or delete your account at any time.
1. Who we are
neopats is operated by [LEGAL ENTITY NAME], [REGISTERED ADDRESS] (“neopats”, “we”, “us”). We are the controller of the personal information described in this policy. You can reach us at phil@skala.world.
This policy covers the neopats website and the neopats app.
2. What we collect
Information you give us
- Account details: your name, email address and how you sign in (email and password, Google or Facebook). Passwords are handled by our sign-in provider and are never visible to us. If you sign in with Google or Facebook, we receive only your name and email address.
- Your profile: your home country, the languages you speak, an optional “About me”, an optional profile photo, optional photos of your home, and, if you choose, whether you own or rent.
- Your home location: the pin you place on the map when you join, so we can confirm your home is within the circle and show approximate distances. See section 4.
- Contact details for connections: an email address, and optionally a mobile or WhatsApp number and other contact notes, which are shared only with members you accept as connections.
- What you post: questions, answers, tips, recommendations of local people and businesses, comments, prices you’ve paid, notices, and your votes in circle decisions (which are secret).
- Invitations: if you invite someone by email, we use their email address only to send the invitation and delete it once the invitation is accepted, expires or is cancelled. Invitations sent by text message go from your own phone; we don’t receive the number.
- Circle requests: if you ask us to set up a circle, we keep your name, email address and what you tell us about the place, so we can review the request and reply.
- Reports and blocks: if you report a problem or block a member, we keep the details needed to deal with it.
- Messages to us: anything you send us by email.
Information collected automatically
- Technical and security information: such as your IP address, device and browser type, and records of sign-ins and errors. We use it to keep the service working and secure and to prevent abuse.
- On your device: the app stores some information on your phone or computer (for example, recently viewed tips, so they work offline, and whether you prefer the map or the list). This stays on your device.
We don’t use advertising or tracking cookies. If we ever add analytics that use cookies, we’ll ask for your consent first. Our website loads its fonts from Google Fonts, which means your browser connects to Google’s servers.
Information about people who aren’t members
Members can recommend local tradespeople and businesses. These listings include business contact details and members’ experiences. If you’re listed and would like your listing corrected or removed, email us and we’ll respond promptly.
3. How we use it, and our legal basis
Under European data protection law (the GDPR), we need a legal basis for each use of your information:
| What we do | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Create your account, place you in your circle, show your profile and posts to your circle, share contact details with your connections, send invitations and service emails | Providing the service you signed up for (contract) |
| Review circle requests and membership approvals | Providing the service (contract), and our legitimate interest in keeping circles trustworthy |
| Keep the service secure, prevent spam and abuse, handle reports and moderate content | Our legitimate interest in a safe community |
| Understand how the service is used so we can improve it | Our legitimate interest, using the minimum data needed |
| List local businesses recommended by members | Our and our members’ legitimate interest in sharing trusted recommendations (listed businesses can object) |
| Optional extras, such as profile and home photos | Your choice to add them; you can remove them at any time |
| Meet legal obligations, such as tax records for contributions or responding to lawful requests | Legal obligation |
We don’t use your information for advertising, and we don’t make decisions about you based solely on automated processing.
4. Your home location
Your exact home pin is stored securely on our servers and is never shown or sent to other members. We create a fixed approximate location, shifted 250–500 metres in a random direction, and that is the only location other members see. Distances are rounded (for example, “~1 km”). You can choose not to appear on the map at all.
neopats never records or shows whether you’re currently at home, on the island or away.
5. Who can see what
| Who | What they can see |
|---|---|
| Members of your circle | Your name, profile, approximate location (unless you’ve hidden it from the map), and what you post in the circle |
| Your connections | The contact details you’ve chosen to share, once you’ve both accepted the connection |
| Your circle’s host and admins | The same as members, plus membership requests, reports about content in the circle, and circle settings. They can’t see your contact details or exact home location. |
| neopats (the operator) | Account information needed to run the service and support you, such as your sign-in email. Access is limited and logged. |
| The public | Nothing. Circles aren’t visible to search engines or anyone outside them. |
6. Who we share it with
We don’t sell your personal information, and we don’t share it with advertisers. We share it only with service providers that help us run neopats, under contracts that require them to protect it and use it only on our instructions:
- Google Cloud and Firebase: hosting, database, file storage and sign-in. Member data is stored in the European Union.
- Brevo: sending emails such as invitations and notifications.
- Google Maps: displaying maps.
- Google or Meta (Facebook): only if you choose to sign in with them.
- AI service providers: to summarise and translate public local news for your circle. We send them the public articles, not your personal information.
We may also disclose information if the law requires it, to protect someone’s safety, or as part of a merger or sale of neopats, in which case this policy would continue to apply.
7. International transfers
We store member data in the European Union. Some of our service providers are based in, or may access data from, other countries, including the United States. When that happens, we rely on recognised safeguards such as the European Commission’s Standard Contractual Clauses or the EU–US Data Privacy Framework.
8. How long we keep it
- While you’re a member: we keep your account information for as long as your account is open.
- If you leave a circle: you’re removed from its member list and map straight away, your home location for that circle is deleted, and your connections from that circle end. Your posts stay, shown as “Former member”, so the circle’s shared knowledge isn’t lost.
- If you delete your account: we delete your profile, photos, home location, contact details, connections and activity records within 30 days. Your posts stay, shown as “Former member”, with no link back to you. Backups are overwritten within a further 30 days.
- Email invitations: the invitee’s address is deleted as soon as the invitation ends.
- Reports and security records: kept for as long as needed to handle the issue and protect the community.
9. Your rights
Depending on where you live, you have the right to:
- access the personal information we hold about you, and get a copy in a portable format;
- correct information that’s wrong;
- delete your information;
- object to, or ask us to restrict, how we use it;
- withdraw consent where we rely on it.
Most of this you can do yourself in the app, under More → Your data and membership, where you can download your data, leave a circle or delete your account. For anything else, email phil@skala.world. We’ll reply within one month.
You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority. In Greece, that is the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (dpa.gr); elsewhere in the EU, it’s the authority in the country where you live.
10. Security
We protect your information with encryption in transit, strict access rules that are enforced on our servers, two-step verification for administrators, and logging of administrative actions. We remove location data embedded in photos before other members can see them. No system is perfectly secure, so we also ask you to use a strong password and keep your sign-in details private.
11. Children
neopats is for adults. You must be at least 18 to join, and we don’t knowingly collect information from children.
12. Changes to this policy
We’ll update this policy as neopats grows. If we make a significant change, we’ll tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.
13. Contact us
Questions or requests about your privacy: phil@skala.world.