1. Akito’s Commitment to Privacy

At Akito, we value your privacy and are committed to protecting it. We believe in being transparent about how we collect, use, and safeguard your personal data. Our default settings are designed with your privacy in mind: we never sell your data, and your trips are only visible to your followers unless you choose otherwise. You have full control over who can follow you and access your content.

This Privacy Policy explains why we collect your personal data, how we process it, and the rights you have regarding your information. It also outlines how you can exercise those rights and manage your privacy preferences at any time.

2. About Akito

Akito helps you plan, document, and enhance your international mobility experience. Through our mobile application, you can organize your trips, discover activities, connect with others, and much more. In order to provide these features, we may process certain personal data about you—including, in some cases, sensitive data such as your location.

All data we collect is handled in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Akito SAS is the data controller responsible for the processing of your personal information in connection with the use of our mobile app and website.

If you have any questions about how we handle your personal data, you can contact us via our support center.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on 12 April 2025. You may download a PDF version of this document for your records. Should we make substantial changes to the content of this Privacy Policy, we will notify you accordingly.

3. Personal Data Collection and Processing

3.1 Creating an account

To help you personalize your experience and access key features, Akito allows you to create a user account. During registration, we collect some basic personal information, including:

• Your full name

• Email address

• Country and city of residence

• A password of your choice

You also have the option to sign up using your Apple or Google account. If you choose this method, we may receive limited profile information from the selected provider, such as your name, email address, and a unique identifier (Apple ID or Google ID).

We collect and process this data in order to create and manage your account, and to provide you with access to Akito’s services. This processing is necessary for the performance of our contract with you.

3.2 Using Akito with an account

Once you’ve created an account, you can start using Akito to plan, document, and share your international mobility experience. How you use Akito is entirely up to you. You can create and customize trips, add notes, recommendations, and media, or simply keep a private diary of your mobility journey. You’re also free to connect with others and remain in full control of your visibility settings at all times.

You decide:

• Whether to track your movements or enter locations manually

• Whether your trips are shared with your followers, with the public, or kept private

• What content you upload and whether you want to delete it later

We’ll explain all of this in detail below.

Depending on how you use Akito, we may process the following categories of personal data:

This data is processed so we can deliver Akito’s core features and offer you a personalized experience. The legal basis for processing is the performance of the agreement between you and Akito.

Location Tracking

To help you remember and organize your travels, Akito offers two ways to input location data:

Manual Location Input

If you prefer not to share your real-time location, you can manually enter destinations you’ve visited. You can also enrich these stops with tips, comments, and media. In this case, Akito will not collect continuous geolocation data, and you retain control over each entry.

Legal basis: Performance of the agreement

Automatic Location Tracking

For a more dynamic experience, you can allow Akito to track your location in real time. This lets you automatically map your route, receive nearby activity suggestions, and share your live journey with selected followers. Your real-time location is only tracked if you give explicit consent.

You may also grant background location access so that Akito can detect when you’re likely traveling and suggest starting a trip. This is only done with your prior, separate consent, and we only retain your last known location, not your full route history.

You can revoke location permissions at any time in your device settings.

Connecting With Friends

To help you connect with fellow students or friends who are already using Akito, you may choose to sync your contacts from your phone’s address book. If you choose to do this, we temporarily process:

• The email addresses from your contact list

This data is used only to identify which of your contacts already have Akito accounts and to notify them that you’ve joined. We do not store this data on our servers and do not use it for any other purpose.

Legal basis: Performance of the agreement.

You can stop this sync at any time by revoking the contacts permission in your device settings.

Sharing Your Trips

Akito gives you full control over your privacy. For every trip you create, you choose how visible it is:

Visibility Setting Who Can See Your Trip Only me Just you – fully private My followers Only users you've approved as followers Public All Akito users and external visitors (some content may appear in Akito’s travel guides or community feed)

You can update your sharing settings at any time, even after a trip is published. When setting your trip to public, keep in mind that your name and profile photo may appear next to any content you share, and your live location might be visible if enabled.

We encourage you to share responsibly and review your privacy settings regularly.

Legal basis: Performance of the agreement

Deleting Your Data

You may delete any trip or piece of content at any time. When you do, it will no longer be visible to others and will be deleted from our servers.

If you delete your account, all associated data will be permanently deleted after 90 days. You will have the option to download your data beforehand.

In cases of prolonged inactivity (more than six years), we will contact you twice to confirm whether you'd like us to keep your data. If we receive no response, your account and all personal data will be permanently deleted.

3.3 Personalized user experience

Akito offers a variety of features designed to help you personalize and enrich your mobility experience. For example, you can explore insights from your past trips, receive suggestions for new destinations or activities, and discover relevant content from other students around the world. These features are entirely optional—you decide whether to use them or not.

Akito processes data related only to your mobility journey—such as the destinations you visit, the content you add (e.g. photos, reviews, tips), and the descriptions you provide within your trips. This information is only visible to others if you choose to share it, for example, by allowing your trips to appear in recommendations for your followers or in public travel inspiration sections.

To make recommendations more useful, Akito may generate aggregated and anonymized datasets. These datasets are built from shared user content and include travel patterns, popular cities, activity types, and tips. They are never linked to your identity and cannot be traced back to you. These insights help us improve your experience and assist others in discovering places aligned with their interests—like suggesting nature-focused destinations to users who enjoy outdoor activities.

To provide some of these experiences, Akito may rely on a proprietary AI model that analyzes anonymized data. This model is used only internally to improve app features such as suggested destinations or planning assistance. Your personal data is never used to train external AI systems, and Akito does not sell or license user data to third parties for AI training or commercial use.
 

Legal Bases for Processing

We rely on the following legal bases to deliver these personalized features. You can activate or deactivate these personalization features at any time through your profile or privacy settings.

3.4 Akito experience improvements

At Akito, we are continuously working to improve the app and provide you with a better, more personalized experience. To achieve this, we may collect and analyze certain usage data to understand how the app is used, identify technical issues, and determine what features or improvements are most valuable to our users.

This may include:

• Your interactions with the app, such as the pages you view, search terms you use, features you engage with, and messages you send

• Technical data about your device, such as hardware model, operating system version, device identifiers, language settings, and browser type

• General location data, such as your city, which helps us localize content and optimize suggestions

• Diagnostic and crash reports, which help us fix bugs and improve performance

• Information from cookies and similar technologies, if you use Akito through our website

We rely on our legitimate interest as the legal basis for this type of data processing. This includes our interest in improving the stability, usability, and overall performance of Akito.

Where possible, we apply privacy-friendly measures —such as pseudonymization or aggregation —to reduce the impact on your privacy. None of this data is used to identify you personally.

3.5 Cookies

When you use the Akito mobile app or visit our website, small data files known as cookies and similar technologies may be stored on your device (computer, smartphone, or tablet). These technologies help us ensure the proper functioning of our services, understand how users interact with our platform, and support the delivery of relevant content — including advertising.

Akito uses cookies and tracking tools for the following purposes:

·      Ensuring technical performance and security (e.g., logins, page loading)

·      Analyzing usage and behavior to improve app functionality

·      Displaying ads, including those tailored to your profile or interests (when you have consented to such personalization)

We partner with third-party advertising networks that may use cookies or mobile identifiers (such as the IDFA or GAID) to display relevant ads inside the app. You can control or withdraw your consent to ad personalization at any time via your device settings or within the app’s privacy preferences.

We will never use these technologies without your prior consent, in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and applicable French laws.

For more information, please refer to our full Cookie Policy, which explains the types of cookies we use and how to manage or disable them.

3.6 Social Media

When you interact with Akito on social media platforms—such as by following our official accounts, mentioning us in a post, or sending us a message—we may have access to certain information from your public profile, depending on your privacy settings on those platforms.

This may include your name, username, profile photo, and any content you choose to share publicly when engaging with us.

We use this information to:

• Respond to your questions or feedback

• Monitor how Akito is discussed and perceived

• Strengthen our presence and communication on social media

• Better understand our community’s needs and satisfaction

This processing is based on our legitimate interest in engaging with our users and continuously improving our services and brand communication.

Please note that we do not collect or store this data independently outside the respective social media platforms, and we only access publicly available information in accordance with each platform’s terms of use.

3.7 Mailings

You can choose to subscribe to Akito’s email updates to receive news, tips, product updates, or content related to international mobility. To do so, we ask for your name and email address, and we only send these communications based on your explicit consent.

If you’ve agreed, we may also personalize these emails based on your activity and preferences within the app—for example, suggesting destinations, highlighting new features, or promoting relevant partnerships.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the “Unsubscribe” link included in every email. Once unsubscribed, your name and email will be promptly removed from our mailing list.

In addition to marketing emails, you may still receive essential service communications related to your use of Akito.

These include:

• Account creation or verification emails

• Password reset messages

• Notifications about changes to our terms or privacy policy

These are sent on the legal basis of performance of the contract, and are necessary for your use of the app.

We may also send in-app notifications to inform you of relevant updates or community news. With your consent, these notifications can be personalized to reflect your interests and travel activity.

You can manage your preferences for both email and in-app notifications at any time from your account settings.

3.8 Customer surveys

At Akito, we regularly conduct user satisfaction surveys to better understand your needs and improve the quality of our services. You may receive an invitation to participate in a survey, for example, after contacting our support team or interacting with certain features of the app.

To facilitate these surveys, we may process:

• Your email address

• The context in which the survey is sent (e.g., support request, app usage)

• Your responses and feedback provided during the survey

Participation is entirely optional. The insights collected help us identify areas for improvement, enhance your experience, and guide the development of new features.

The legal basis for this processing is the performance of our agreement with you, as surveys are part of our commitment to continuously enhance the services we provide.

3.9 Support

If you reach out to our support team for assistance with the Akito app or related services, we will process the information necessary to handle your request and provide a solution.

This may include:

• Your account details (such as name, email address, and user ID)

• The content of your message, including any information you voluntarily share when describing the issue

This processing is carried out on the basis of the performance of our contract with you, as responding to support inquiries is an essential part of providing our services.

Your information is used exclusively to address your request and is not shared with third parties, unless necessary to resolve the issue (e.g., technical service providers under confidentiality agreements).

3.10 External partners

To operate and improve Akito, we may collaborate with trusted external partners, such as IT service providers, cloud infrastructure hosts, analytics tools, and customer support platforms. In the context of these partnerships, we may process limited personal data related to our contacts within these organizations —such as names, email addresses, or professional roles.

This processing is carried out strictly for the performance and management of our contractual relationships with these partners and service providers. The data is used only for operational purposes, such as communication, coordination, and service delivery.

All partners we work with are bound by confidentiality agreements and must comply with applicable data protection laws, including the GDPR.

3.11 Rights protection

In certain situations, Akito may need to process your personal data to protect our legitimate interests or those of third parties. This includes actions such as:

• Enforcing our Terms of Use or other policies

• Investigating and responding to violations of our rules

• Protecting our intellectual property rights or preventing fraudulent or harmful behavior

Additionally, in the event of a business transaction —such as a merger, acquisition, investment, restructuring, or the transfer of Akito’s operations or assets—we may need to share or transfer relevant personal data as part of that process. Where possible, we will ensure that such data is handled in a secure and confidential manner and, where applicable, that affected users are informed.

The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest in protecting our business, enforcing our rights, and facilitating strategic business operations.

4. Personal data sharing

At Akito, we share your personal data only when necessary to provide our services, improve your experience, and support our platform sustainably—including through the display of advertisements. While we do not sell your personal data, we do use it responsibly and transparently in collaboration with trusted partners.

Advertising

Akito displays both targeted and non-targeted ads within the app. This means:

• We may use your personal data—such as your location, language, app activity, and profile preferences—to show you relevant ads tailored to your interests (targeted ads).

• If you decline consent for personalized advertising, we may still show non-targeted ads, which are based on general information such as your country, device type, or time of day.

We work with third-party advertising partners (such as mobile ad networks) who may receive limited data to help deliver, measure, and optimize the ads you see. These partners are contractually required to process your data in accordance with applicable privacy laws and may not use it for their own commercial purposes.

You can manage your preferences for ad personalization through your device settings or directly within the app (where available).

Aggregated Insights

We may also generate and share anonymous, aggregated data about student mobility trends—for example:

·      Popular destinations and cities among exchange students

·      Most visited universities or travel routes

·      Activity trends within the app across countries or time periods

These insights are fully anonymized and cannot be traced back to any individual. We may share these analytics with partners, universities, or institutions for purposes such as academic research, international program planning, or mobility improvement efforts.

The legal basis for this processing is our legitimate interest in improving the app, contributing to the international education ecosystem, and supporting our platform’s sustainability through responsible data use.

5. Data Security

At Akito, we take the protection of your personal data very seriously. We implement appropriate technical and organizational measures to safeguard your information against unauthorized access, accidental loss, misuse, disclosure, or alteration.

Our systems are designed with data security in mind, and we continuously review and update our protections to align with industry best practices and legal requirements.

6. Users rights

At Akito, we believe that you are in control of your personal data. Most of your information can be easily managed directly within the app:

• You can view, edit, or delete individual information by accessing the settings

• You can download a copy of your data or delete your account entirely through your account settings

• If you’ve given us consent for specific features—like location tracking or personalized ads —you can withdraw your consent at any time from the app settings or your device preferences

In accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), you also have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you

• Request corrections to inaccurate or incomplete data

• Request deletion of your personal data

• Restrict or object to certain types of data processing

• Request the transfer (portability) of your data to another service

To exercise any of these rights, you can contact us at: support@akito-app.com

If you believe your data rights are not being respected, you also have the right to file a complaint with the relevant Data Protection Authority, such as the CNIL in France.