Privacy

Short version: an email address to log you in, plus whatever you choose to type and a log of changes made on the site. No advertising, no tracking across other sites, and nothing sold. Anonymous page counts only. Other members who are signed in can find you in Discovery by your name, unless you switch Discovery off. The details are below.

Who is responsible

Kimchi Tours is run by Svidt (CVR 35104542) in Denmark. Svidt decides what is kept here and why, which makes it the data controller. Questions about your data: privacy@kimchi.tours.

What's stored

Your email address: required, because it is how you sign in. You get a code by email; there is no password.

The monthly newsletter: a switch in your profile, off until you turn it on. While it is on, your email address is used to send it to you. Turn it off in your profile at any time, or write to hello@kimchi.tours and it is done by hand.

Your tour: the events on it, the events you have starred and the name you gave it, so it follows you between devices.

Your own stops: if you add a stop the catalogue does not have, its name, its dates, its place (a city from our list and its country, never closer) and the link and note you give it. It sits on your tour: your friends see it, and nobody else does. A share link never carries it. Deleting it deletes it, and it goes with your account.

Trips you plan together: a trip's name, its stops and who is in it. You can invite only friends, and nobody is in a trip until they press Join. Everyone in it sees and edits its stops, and sees the names of everyone in it (an invitation shows the name and who is in it, to decide), including your own stops that you put on it. Nothing on the trip is shown to anybody outside it. Removing a friend or blocking someone takes you out of every trip you share with them, and a trip ends when its last member leaves.

Your name: required in your profile, because everything social here is attributed to it. Your friends see it, and other members see it where described below; no other member sees your email. A name that was set to friends only, before names were always shown in Discovery, stays so until you next change something in your profile, and your profile says so.

Anything optional you fill in: current base, countries visited, your socials (a handle on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, X or LinkedIn, or a website), a line on what you do with up to three fields from the catalogue's own, a short status message for your friends. All of it can be left blank, and you can clear it at any time. Your status message is for your friends only, always: up to 80 characters, shown at the top of your Friends list and on your member card with how long ago you posted it. Nobody else sees it, and it is not public whatever your other lines say. We keep only the latest one and when it was posted, and it goes with your account. Each of the others is a line of your profile that says who sees it: your friends, or Discovery (below), or where you have chosen to be met as an organiser (below). The note to friends is gone. What you wrote in the note is kept for you alone, shown to nobody, and you can delete it in your profile.

Stamps in your passport: if you are stamped at a Kimchi Stamp booth, we keep which event, which city, and the date. That is a record of you having been somewhere in person, so it is treated as the most sensitive thing here: only you and the Kimchi Tours desk can see it, none of your friends sees it, and it is in no map. No total names anyone: a holder sees how many stamps were pressed at the event, a partner how many were pressed at its events for members who have Discovery on, and a sponsor of the stamps is told how many were pressed at the event. The book is not shared, listed or searchable. A gold stamp is only ever issued in person, at a Kimchi Stamp booth; an ink one is your own word that you were there, given and taken back on the passport page. They are deleted with your account, except that the desk's log keeps the line that a gold stamp was pressed or taken back, with the event and your account id (the desk's log, below). Your passport no longer asks for the business you travel for or prints it; what you filled in before is kept for you alone, shown to nobody, and deleted with your account or when you ask.

Your travel journal: the journal is closed and its page is gone, but if you opened it while it was there, what it kept is still held: a page for each stamp, for each stop on your tour once its dates had passed, and for each base you had had since you opened it, along with whatever you wrote on its pages: notes, tips, people's details, and the stickers you placed. It is yours alone. It is not shown to anyone, not to your friends and not to the Kimchi Tours desk, and there is no way to share it. It is deleted with your account, and sooner if you write to privacy@kimchi.tours and ask.

Tours you follow by code: the older mechanism, no longer handed out. Authors are shown a number and never a name. A friend is different and is described just below: it is not anonymous, in either direction.

Friends: a friendship goes both ways, and each of you sees the same things of the other. From your invite link, which works for 7 days, whoever opens it is asked to accept, and accepting makes you friends: holding your code is your consent. From Discovery it is a request: they see your name and membership number, and nothing else until they accept. Declining sends you no message. A friend always sees every line of your profile, whether it is set to Friends Only or All Members: your name, what you do, your fields, your base, the countries you have visited and your socials, as far as you have filled them in; and your tour, always, while Discovery is on. Your membership number goes with your name; it never changes, which is how somebody knows a renamed account is still you. Hiding a friend changes only what you see, and they are not told. Removing one ends it for both of you. Your requests are yours alone. So is your list of friends, with one exception: on your member card, described below, a friend sees the friends the two of you have in common, people they already know. A member who can see you in Discovery sees only how many friends the two of you have in common: a number, never who. No other member sees any of it. The Kimchi Tours desk sees one overview of it: a map with each member as a dot at their base, marked with their membership number, and a line between every two friends. It shows no names.

The desk's log: the Kimchi Tours desk keeps a log of what is done on it, so that a mistake can be traced and abuse answered. It covers, for example, a mute, a removal from the Travel map or a ban, a closed report, a stamp pressed or taken back, a partner added or removed, and every change to the catalogue. Each line has the time, what was done, what it was done to, the id of the account that did it and sometimes a detail, such as an event's name or the reason the desk wrote. The log holds no email address of its own: a barred address appears in it only as a code made from the address, and the desk can see the address behind an account id only while that account exists. Saving your tour changes the count shown on an event; that used to add lines under your account id, and no longer does. The lines already written stay. Only the desk reads the log. When an account is deleted its lines stay, and the id on them then belongs to nobody. Nothing removes old lines automatically.

The desk's member list: the Kimchi Tours desk can look a member up by email address, membership number or part of a name, and page through every member, and each row shows the address, name, membership number, base, join date, the organisers the member belongs to and any sanction.

Who else sees it

Enable Discovery, the switch at the top of your profile, is on for every account, and everything in this section is while it is on. Switch it off and the site is yours alone: nobody sees you anywhere, not in Discovery, on a map, on a member card, in a friend's list or on a trip you share, and you are counted in no number, how many people are going included, except that a stamp pressed for you still counts in the number pressed at its event (Stamps, above). Your friendships, requests and trips are kept, paused, and come back as they were when you switch it on again. While it is off you see no maps and nothing of other members either. The Kimchi Tours desk's overview, described above, is the desk's own and does not change with it.

Your email: no other member, ever. Your friends: what is described above. While Discovery is on you are in Discovery, the list of members, under your name: your name is always shown there, and of the other lines of your profile only those you set to All Members. Discovery means other members who are signed in and have Discovery on themselves, never somebody who is not signed in. A new account's name, what you do and your fields are in Discovery from the moment you continue past the welcome, and every other line is for friends; skip the welcome and you join it with your name alone once you add a name in your profile. You change any line in your profile. Your name is also seen by a member you send a request to. Beyond that:

The World map shows every member with a base and Discovery on as a small grey dot near their city, to members who are signed in with Discovery on. It carries no name, no membership number and nothing that says who, and it is drawn at the city, never closer: the place comes from our list of cities, never from the words you typed, and a city we do not know puts the dot on your country. A city with one member shows one dot. The countries you have visited join a count of their own: a number per country, never a name.

Your member card opens from your name. Anyone who can already see your name in a list can open it: your friends, anybody with a request between you, and other members while you are both in Discovery. It shows a face drawn in their browser from your account id (never your email, and nothing is uploaded or sent), your name and membership number, and then each line of your profile: what you do, your fields, your base with the date you set it (their browser also works out how far it is from their own base), the countries you have visited and your socials. A friend sees every line; anybody else sees only the lines you set to All Members. A friend also sees the friends you have in common and the events you have in common; nobody else does, and nobody but a friend sees your tour.

On that same map, your friends see a dot on your city, with your name, when you last changed it and your socials if you added any. It is the same line they already read beside your name in their list. Nobody else sees it, and removing a friend, by either of you, removes it for them.

Other members whose paths cross yours are told only how many members cross theirs, as one number: never who, so not your name or membership number, and not which event, which city or which days, or the tour itself. You are counted only while you are both in Discovery, and "based where the other is going" counts only a base set to All Members. Discovery lists you with your name and the lines you set to All Members, and members can search it by your base and what you do only while those lines are set to All Members. A friend sees the crossing itself, the event, the city and the days, whatever your switches say, but only where your plans meet theirs, never the rest of your tour. The map also counts, for anyone who allows it, how many members will be in a city the week they are: a number, never a name.

If you work with an organiser whose events carry a partner tag, you can switch on Show me as an organiser. It starts off, and only people the Kimchi Tours desk has linked to that organiser (or who accepted an invitation from anyone on its team with desk access) are offered it. While it is on, members who are signed in can find you from that organiser's events, and in Discovery by its name, and ask to be friends: they see your name, membership number and the organiser's tag. Nothing else is opened by it: what you do, your fields, base and countries keep their own settings, and your tour stays with your friends. The organiser's own profile, which its partners fill in on their desk (a logo, a line about it and up to four socials), is shown to anyone who opens its partner tag, signed in or not: it is about the organiser, not about you.

A share link hands someone the catalogue's events on your tour as it is now (Copy link), never your own stops: it carries no name and does not update. Older follow-code links, no longer handed out, still show your tour as you edit it until you stop sharing.

An invite link is your traveller code in a URL. Anyone holding it can accept it, and accepting makes the two of you friends. While it works, anyone holding it sees your display name on the invite, signed in or not; a signed-in member also sees your face. You each see every line of the other's profile and the other's tour, always, while Discovery is on. Either of you can undo it at any time. A link works for 7 days and then stops working; the next one you copy carries a new code.

Suggesting an event sends what you typed, along with your email if you are signed in.

Reporting a problem with the site sends what you wrote, the page you were on (never the codes in the address bar), the size of your window, the map tab you had open, your browser's name and your account, so it can be found and answered. If you delete your account, the report stays without your name.

An address barred from signing up after abuse is kept with the reason, so it stays barred, and nothing else about it. Write to us to have it lifted.

Blocking and reporting a member: a block is kept as a pair of accounts, yours and theirs, so that it holds; the person is not told. A report adds the reason you picked and the note you wrote, up to 500 characters, and is read by the Kimchi Tours desk; it blocks the person too, and they are not told who reported them. If the desk mutes an account (no suggestions), takes it off the Travel map and out of friendships, or bans it from signing in, it keeps that level, the reason it wrote and the date, with the account, until it lifts it. Blocks and reports go when either account is deleted, and the level the desk set goes with its account.

Who processes it

The site runs on Vercel (hosting) and Supabase (database and sign-in). Resend sends the email: your sign-in codes and, if you turn it on, the newsletter, so it sees your address and what it sends you. They process this data to run the service and for nothing else. Like any host, Vercel and Supabase see the network address of each request and keep ordinary server logs. Vercel serves pages from servers around the world, and several of the companies named in this section are based outside the EU, so data about you can be handled outside it. Map outlines come from Natural Earth.

Vercel also counts page views and performance timings for us: first-party, no cookies, no tracking across other sites, and nothing tied to your account.

The sign-in library comes from our own host. Only if that fails does your browser fetch the same file from jsDelivr, a public content network, which then sees your network address too.

The sign-in window runs a bot check from Cloudflare (Turnstile), so that nobody can use the code emails to flood an inbox. It runs only when you open that window, out of sight unless something looks wrong, when a Cloudflare box appears under the email field for you to tick. It tells us nothing about you beyond passing or failing. What Cloudflare itself collects is in their Turnstile Privacy Addendum.

"Use my location" sends your coordinates elsewhere, and only when you press it: your browser asks your permission, then they go to OpenStreetMap to be turned into a city name. They're rounded to about a kilometre first, they aren't stored, and nothing is sent if you don't use the button.

If you are a partner

Your access: when you are given partner access by the Kimchi Tours desk, or you accept an invitation from someone on the organiser's team with desk access, we keep which organiser you speak for, whether you have desk access or the tag only, and when it was given. An invitation you have not answered is kept until you accept or decline it or the team withdraws it, with the access offered and who sent it, and it goes with either account. Anyone on an organiser's team with desk access can invite friends to it, four people at most, invitations counted, each either shown with the organiser's tag or given its desk too; a friend joins only when they accept, and can leave at any time. The others on the team read your name and membership number only if you are their friend or have Discovery on. You sign in with your own email address, like any member.

What you publish: an event you post goes live at once for everyone, signed in or not, under the organiser's name and partner tag, and so does the organiser's profile (a logo, a line about it and up to four socials). Both are about the organiser, not about you. The events are also copied into the offline copy of the catalogue that the page loads first, which is kept on GitHub with the site's code, and both into the backups below. The organiser's name and handle can also appear in the site's own posts on X and Instagram, which go out through Buffer. A partner sees how many members starred, saved or put its events on a tour, and how many Kimchi Stamps were pressed at them, never who.

What the desk keeps: the desk's log, above, names the account behind each change you make. The desk can also keep private notes on an organiser: a contact name and email, what was agreed and how reliable we find it. Partners cannot read them. When you add an event in a city the catalogue does not know yet, the desk asks OpenStreetMap's Nominatim where it is, and the city and country go with the request, from your browser, so OpenStreetMap also sees your network address.

How long, and how to get rid of it

Your data is kept while the account exists. Sign out offers to clear this browser's copy; that is local only and leaves the account untouched.

What deleting an account removes: use the Delete my account button in the sign-out window, or ask us, and your sign-in, profile, tour, starred events, own stops, friends, requests, blocks, your place in the trips you are in (a trip with others in it stays for them), stamps, journal pages, partner access and any team invitation you sent or were sent go, with any report you made or were named in. It asks you to confirm twice and it cannot be undone. The only member with desk access for an organiser cannot delete their account until another member has desk access. The next paragraphs say what it does not reach.

What stays: the desk's log lines, by account id, among them the lines that a stamp was pressed or taken back at an event. A suggestion you sent stays without your email address, and a report about the site without your name. The events and the profile you posted for an organiser are the organiser's and stay. If an issue of the newsletter was sent to you, the list on our computer that stops one going out twice still holds your address until you ask us to take it out. A few closed copies, kept from past changes to the database so that a change could be undone, may still hold account ids (who followed whom before friendships, or what a switch was set to, for example) and, for organisers the desk removed, contact notes; a deletion does not reach them, and they stay until they are dropped by hand. The companies named above keep their own logs under their own terms. And the backups, next.

Backups: about once a day, every table the site uses is copied as files to one computer of ours, and that folder is synced to a cloud drive (Apple's iCloud Drive). The copies hold what the tables hold, the desk's log and notes included and the addresses that sit in them (on suggestions, on barred addresses and in organiser contacts), but not the sign-in accounts: the sign-in service holds those, and may keep backups of its own, for the period its plan sets. The files are plain, so what the site keeps for you alone, such as your passport and your journal, is in them in plain form. Each copy is deleted when it is 30 days old, on the computer and in the cloud drive, so an account you delete stays in the copies taken before you deleted it for 30 days at most. The deleting happens after each backup that works, so it waits if the computer is off or a backup fails. Apple's iCloud Drive may keep a deleted file for up to 30 days more, in its own recently-deleted folder.

To see what is held, correct it, or delete the account and what is attached to it, email privacy@kimchi.tours and it will be done, apart from the backups and the other records named above. You can also complain to your data protection authority. In Denmark, Datatilsynet.

Cookies

No tracking or advertising cookies. Your tour, favourites, theme and sign-in session are kept in this browser's own storage because the site does not work without them. Also kept there, for convenience only: the email you last asked a code for, to fill the box next time, and a few settings, such as which panels are open and whether Discovery is on. Nothing there is used to follow you anywhere else.

Last updated 15 October 2026.