Schwarzer Regen GmbH · Costio · GDPR

Privacy Policy.

Information pursuant to Art. 13 GDPR on the processing of personal data in the Costio app. The app is designed “offline-first”: photos, voice recordings and calculations are processed exclusively on your iPhone. There are no user accounts, no tracking and no advertising.

I. In Brief

Costio is designed to minimise the processing of personal data to what is technically necessary. The AI analysis of photos, speech recognition and the creation of cost estimates run entirely on the device. This content is not transmitted to us or to third parties and is not stored on servers.

A transfer of data to third parties takes place only in three clearly defined cases: the optional weather display (Open-Meteo), the one-time download of the AI models (Hugging Face) and the purchase and subscription handling via the Apple App Store. These cases are described individually below.

II. Controller

The controller within the meaning of the GDPR and national data protection law is:

A data protection officer is not appointed as required by law. For data protection matters, please contact the address above.

III. Data Processed on the Device

The following data is processed exclusively locally on your device and does not leave the device:

• Photos (camera / photo library): to recognise rooms and building elements for the cost estimate. Access occurs only after your authorisation.
• Voice recordings (microphone): for speech recognition of the dictated scope of work. Processing is carried out by a local model on the device; no cloud transcription takes place.
• Calculation and company data: prices, line items, company details and logo entered by you to create the PDF documents.

This data is not transmitted to Schwarzer Regen GmbH or to third parties. It remains in your device's storage and can be removed by you at any time by deleting the content or the app. The legal basis for providing the features is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (performance of a contract).

IV. Location Data · Weather Display (Open-Meteo)

If you use the weather display on the home screen, approximate location coordinates are transmitted to the weather service Open-Meteo (api.open-meteo.com) in order to retrieve local weather data. No names, accounts or identifiers are transmitted, and no location data is stored by us.

The purpose is to display the local weather as a convenience feature. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in a useful feature). You can revoke the location permission at any time in the iOS settings; the app remains fully usable without the weather display.

V. One-Time Download of the AI Models (Hugging Face)

To enable the photo and voice features, the app downloads AI models once from the provider Hugging Face, Inc. (huggingface.co, USA). For technical reasons, your IP address is transmitted to the provider in the process. No photo, voice or calculation data is transmitted.

As the provider is based in the USA, this constitutes a transfer to a third country. The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(b) and (f) GDPR (provision of the feature). After the download, the models work permanently offline; no renewed connection is required for the analysis.

VI. Purchase and Subscription (Apple App Store)

The purchase and management of the subscription take place exclusively via the Apple App Store. Payment processing is handled by Apple; we receive no payment data and no credit card information. Apple's privacy policy applies in this respect.

VII. Recipients of the Data

Beyond the services named in sections IV–VI (Open-Meteo, Hugging Face, Apple), no data is passed on to third parties. No analytics or tracking tools are used, and no data is processed or sold for advertising purposes.

VIII. Your Rights

Within the statutory requirements you have the right to access (Art. 15), rectification (Art. 16), erasure (Art. 17), restriction of processing (Art. 18), data portability (Art. 20) and a right to object (Art. 21 GDPR). Since the app content is stored exclusively locally, you can view and delete it yourself at any time.

IX. Right to Lodge a Complaint

You have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority. The authority responsible for Schwarzer Regen GmbH is:

X. Data Security

Data transfers (model download, weather request, App Store communication) are encrypted via the TLS/SSL protocol. The content stored locally is protected by the security mechanisms of the iOS operating system.