Privacy Policy

Parki is an app where drivers in Istanbul share the free and occupied parking spots they see. This page explains which personal data we process, why, who we share it with and your rights.

1. Data we process

• Account: your e-mail address and account ID. If you sign in with Google or Apple, that provider passes your e-mail address, account ID and, if you shared it, your name to our sign-in service (Supabase). We do not keep your password in readable form.
• Profile: your display name (from the sign-in provider or typed by you; kept in the sign-in account) and, if you choose, your Istanbul district, a short "about" text and your profile privacy choices. These are not shown to other users.
• Location: only while the app is open. The location of a spot you report; your position at that moment for proximity checks when you park or leave; and, if "free spots near me" notifications are on, your last position kept for at most 30 minutes. No location is collected in the background.
• Saved places and follows: the name and location of places you save as Home, Work or favourite; parking spots and areas you follow (the area's centre and radius).
• Motion detection: on Android, if you allow it, your phone's physical activity (walking or being in a vehicle) is processed only on your phone to notice that you left your parking spot, and is not sent to the server. If you confirm that you left, the location and speed at the start, the end and the moment of confirmation are sent for the departure record.
• Reports and contributions: your free/occupied reports, your confirmations of other reports and their times, notes you add, parking records, points records, level, invite information, complaints you send and accounts you block.
• Photos: photos you choose to add to a report and, if you want, your profile photo.
• Support messages: messages you write to us in the app and the administrator's reply.
• Notifications inbox: parking alerts, points notices and announcements sent to you, and whether you have read them.
• Device: your phone's push notification address, a random installation key the app creates for this installation (the server keeps only its digest) and your app language; technical logs without personal content for troubleshooting.
• IP address: to limit excessive requests, your IP address is used briefly in the server's memory only; it is not written to the database or to the app's logs.

2. Why we process it

• To create and protect your account and let you sign in.
• To show parking status on the map and notify you of free spots near you.
• To check the accuracy of reports, calculate points and levels and prevent abuse.
• To remind you where you parked and show the way back to your car.
• To show you your saved places, notify you about the spots and areas you follow, answer your support messages and deliver announcements to your notifications inbox and, if you allow notifications, to your phone.

Legal basis (Turkish Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698, Article 5/2; for users in the EU, GDPR Article 6): account, map, parking record, report, follow, points and support processing is needed to provide the service described in the terms of use (performance of a contract); preventing abuse, security and improving the service rely on our legitimate interest; where the law requires it, that legal obligation. Your phone asks separately for location, camera, photo, motion and notification permissions; without one, only that feature does not work. You can withdraw permissions in your phone settings at any time.

3. What other users see

• The location and status of a spot you report is visible to everyone on the map; who reported it is not shown.
• Your notes are visible only to you and to administrators.
• Your photo is shown to users looking at that spot only if it shows a parking place and no recognisable face. Street photos may show parked cars and their licence plates. The check is made automatically by AI and, when needed, by an administrator. Access to the photo ends after at most 7 days.

4. Service providers we share data with

We do not sell your data or share it for advertising. To run the app we use the services below. They process data only on our behalf and on our instructions. Some of their servers are outside Türkiye (European Union and United States). For transfers abroad we are in the process of signing, under Article 9 of Law No. 6698, the standard contracts published by the Turkish Personal Data Protection Board with these providers; meanwhile their own data processing agreements and security measures apply. Single transfers you start yourself, such as signing in with Google or Apple, fall under Article 9/6.

• Supabase (sign-in and database)
• Render (application server, Frankfurt)
• Google Maps and Apple Maps (map and address search)
• Expo, Google Firebase and Apple (push notifications)
• OpenAI (only the automatic check of report photos)
• Google and Apple (if you sign in with them)

5. Retention

• Account, profile, report, parking record, points, saved place, follow and support data is kept while your account is open.
• A free-spot report is shown on the map for at most 2 hours; its record is kept for estimates and abuse checks while your account is open, and who reported it is never shown.
• Access to report photos ends after at most 7 days.
• The last position kept for "free spots near me" is valid for at most 30 minutes and is deleted when you turn the option off.
• Notifications inbox entries are shown for 30 days.
• Technical server logs are kept for at most 30 days.
• When you delete your account, your sign-in identity is usually removed within 15 minutes and the other data linked to your account within 7 days at most, starting about 24 hours later; backups drop it automatically within 30 days at most. A record we are legally required to keep is kept only for that period.

6. Your rights

Under Article 11 of Law No. 6698 you may ask whether your data is processed, request information about it and its purpose, learn who it was transferred to, ask for correction or deletion and for those recipients to be informed, object to a result against you that comes only from automated analysis (for example a photo rejected by AI), and claim compensation for damage caused by unlawful processing. We answer your request free of charge within 30 days at most. You can delete your account and data in the app (Profile → Settings → Account and privacy → Account deletion) or as described on the Delete Account page. For other requests, write to the address below; you may also complain to the Turkish Personal Data Protection Board.

7. Children

Parki is not designed for children under 13 and does not knowingly collect data from children under 13. If you are under 18, use the app with your parent's or guardian's knowledge and permission.

8. Security and changes

Data is encrypted in transit and access is limited by authorisation. When we update this policy we publish it here with a new date and announce important changes in the app.

9. Contact

Data controller: İrfan Harun İlkhan, İstanbul, Türkiye. Contact: parkiturkiye@gmail.com