Privacy Policy

This translation is provided for ease of understanding. The German version is legally binding.

This Privacy Policy informs you about which personal data we process in operating the platform Caraplace (caraplace.ch), for what purposes, who receives it and what rights you have. The Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (DSG) together with the Data Protection Ordinance (DSV) is authoritative.

1. Controller

Manuel Meyer, sole proprietorship
Bleumatthalde 3, 5073 Gipf-Oberfrick, Switzerland
E-mail: info@caraplace.ch

For all questions regarding data protection and the exercise of your rights, please contact this address.

2. Overview: What is Caraplace?

Caraplace is a platform on which providers list parking and storage spaces for motorhomes, caravans and similar vehicles. Seekers can view listings without an account and contact providers directly. Caraplace acts solely as an intermediary; we are not involved in rental or usage contracts and do not process rental payments.

3. Which Data We Process, for What Purpose and for How Long

3.1 Visiting the Website (all users)

• Data: IP address, date and time, page accessed, referrer, browser and operating system type (server logs).
• Purpose: Delivery of the page, operational security, error analysis, prevention of misuse.
• Retention: Server logs are deleted after no more than 90 days, unless they are required to investigate a specific incident.

3.2 Cookies

We use technically necessary cookies: a session cookie for login, a cookie that remembers your chosen language (German, French, Italian or English) for one year, and – if you start a listing without an account – a draft cookie that links your listing draft to this device. The draft cookie is valid for 30 days from the last edit; unclaimed drafts and the details entered in them are deleted automatically after that. The session cookie becomes invalid at the end of the session or upon logout. These cookies contain no profile data. In addition, we set exactly one origin cookie that is not linked to any person (see below). We use no advertising cookies and no third-party cookies, do not embed any social media plugins and do not pass on any cookie data to third parties. You can block cookies in your browser; however, logging in as a provider will then not be possible.

For Place me (the spot map), technically necessary cookies are added that keep your own entries on this device without an account: your vehicle profile (type and dimensions, one year), your saved list (spot numbers, one year) and your vehicle avatar (name, type, colour, one year). These cookies contain only what you entered yourself; when you create an account they are transferred to it and then deleted. A cookie (cp_tour, one year) remembers whether you have seen the introduction: only the day of your first visit and how the introduction ended; this day is counted, as the number of days since your first visit and without any identifier of your device, in our anonymous usage statistics. Your last search is kept only in your browser’s session storage (not a cookie, never sent to us).

Origin cookie: If you arrive via one of our campaign links (e.g. caraplace.ch/yt from a video, or the link in one of our ads on Google or Meta), via an address containing the “utm_source” parameter or directly from a video platform (your browser then sends us its address as the referrer, see 3.1), we set the cookie cp_src. It contains only the abbreviation of the channel (“youtube”, “google” or “meta”) – no identifier, no timestamp, no characteristic of your device – and is deleted after 30 days. Its sole purpose is to count, in our anonymous usage statistics, which channels bring visits, searches and accounts; the abbreviation is attached to the events we count anyway (retained for 90 days), is not stored in your account and is only evaluated as totals per channel (e.g. how many accounts a channel brought), not for individual persons. If you block cookies, only this count is lost.

3.3 Account (Providers)

• Data: E-mail address, password (stored only as a cryptographic hash), display name or name, optionally telephone number, time of registration and of last login.
• Purpose: Provision of the account, management of your listings, delivery of requests and important notifications regarding the account (e.g. confirmations, expiry of a listing, amendments to the Terms of Use).
• Retention: Until you delete your account or we close it due to prolonged inactivity or a breach of the Terms of Use. After deletion, the data is removed from the backups within 30 days. We retain payment records for 10 years for accounting reasons (see 3.7).

3.4 Listings and Images

• Data: Details of the space (type, size, facilities, price, availability, description), location (address or position on the map selected by you), uploaded images, the contact details you have chosen to publish (e.g. name, telephone number, e-mail).
• Purpose: Publication of the listing on Caraplace, findability via search and map, contact by seekers. Listings are public; the details you have released are visible to all visitors and to search engines. You decide yourself which contact details appear in the listing.
• Images: Upon upload, we remove embedded metadata (e.g. GPS coordinates of the camera) as far as technically possible and generate reduced-size preview versions.
• Drafts without an account: If you start a listing without logging in, we store the draft (including details, location and images) and link it to your device via a cookie (see 3.2). Drafts not linked to an account are automatically deleted, together with their images, 30 days after the last edit. If a draft stays untouched for two days, we send a single reminder with a link to continue – to your account’s email address or, without an account, to the contact address entered in the draft. Without an address, there is no reminder.
• Retention: For as long as the listing is active. Deactivated or expired listings remain stored in your account for 6 months for reactivation and are deleted thereafter; you can delete them yourself earlier at any time.

3.5 Location and Map Display

• Geocoding: In order to position your space on the map, the address you enter (street, postcode, town — without your name) is transmitted to the geocoding service Nominatim of the OpenStreetMap Foundation and converted into coordinates. This request is made via our server; your IP address is not transmitted to Nominatim in the process.
• Map tiles: The map on Caraplace is displayed using map tiles from OpenFreeMap (Hyperknot Software Kft., Hungary), based on OpenStreetMap data. When the map is loaded, your browser retrieves these tiles directly. In doing so, OpenFreeMap receives your IP address, the requested map sections, the referrer URL and browser information; according to its own privacy policy, OpenFreeMap does not log IP addresses by default and sets no cookies, but uses Cloudflare as a content delivery network. Hungary is an EU member state; under the Federal Council’s Data Protection Ordinance, the EU member states are deemed to be countries with an adequate level of data protection. Further information: OpenFreeMap Privacy Policy.
• Countries visited: If you use «Near me», we determine from your device position which country you are in and store the country code with your account – that you were in that country, never where within it and never how often. The coordinate itself is not stored. This is what the country ovals on the vehicle avatar are made of. Without an account none of this happens; with the account these entries are deleted.
• Retention: We do not store any personal data from the use of the map. The location coordinates of a listing are stored together with the listing (see 3.4).

3.6 Contact Requests to Providers

• Direct contact: If you use the telephone number or e-mail address displayed in the listing, communication takes place outside Caraplace; we have no knowledge of it.
• Contact form: If you use the contact form of a listing, we transmit your message together with your name and e-mail address (and optionally telephone number) by e-mail to the provider. The provider replies to you directly; from that point on, communication takes place outside the platform. The provider is itself responsible for the further handling of your data.
• Purpose: Delivery of your request, protection against spam and misuse (rate limiting).
• Retention: We do not permanently store the content of contact requests. Technical metadata (time, listing, IP address hashed with a secret – not reversible) is retained for a maximum of 90 days for the prevention of misuse.

3.7 Paid Listings and Payments

Where a fee is charged for placing a listing, payment is made via the payment service provider Stripe (card, TWINT).

• Data: You enter your payment details (card number, TWINT details) directly with Stripe; we do not receive complete card details. We receive from Stripe a transaction ID, the amount, the time, the payment status, the payment method and, where applicable, the last four digits of the card as well as billing details (name, e-mail, country).
• Purpose: Processing of the fee, issuing of the payment receipt, accounting, fraud prevention.
• Retention: We retain payment receipts and invoicing data for 10 years in accordance with the statutory retention obligations under commercial law.

3.8 E-mails to You

We only send you e-mails that are necessary for operation (registration confirmation, password reset, forwarding of requests, payment confirmation, expiry of a listing, important changes). We send promotional newsletters only if you have expressly consented; you can unsubscribe at any time via the link in the e-mail or by sending a message to info@caraplace.ch.

3.9 Moderation and Prevention of Misuse

• Data: Listing content, reports from users, account and log data.
• Purpose: Review of reported content, enforcement of the Terms of Use, detection of fraudulent listings, suspension of accounts.
• Retention: We retain suspension and incident data for as long as is necessary to prevent repeated misuse, for a maximum of 2 years after the suspension.

4. Legal Bases

As a private controller, we do not require any specific justification under Swiss data protection law, provided the processing complies with the principles of the DSG (lawfulness, good faith, proportionality, purpose limitation, transparency, data security). By analogy, we rely on:

• the performance of the contract with you (account, publication of listings, processing of fees);
• our overriding interest in secure operation free from misuse (logs, moderation, fraud prevention);
• legal obligations (accounting, disclosure to authorities);
• your consent, insofar as we expressly obtain it (e.g. newsletter).

5. Recipients and Processors

We disclose personal data only insofar as this is necessary for the purposes stated:

We do not sell personal data and do not disclose it to third parties for advertising purposes.

6. Disclosure Abroad

Our data is stored in Switzerland as a matter of principle. Exceptions:

• Stripe (USA/EU): In the course of payment processing, data may be transferred to the EU (Ireland) and to the USA. Since 15 September 2024, the Federal Council has recognised an adequate level of data protection for US companies certified under the Swiss-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. Stripe, Inc. is certified accordingly. In addition, Stripe’s standard contractual clauses apply. Details: Stripe Privacy Policy.
• OpenFreeMap (Hungary/EU): Your IP address reaches OpenFreeMap or Cloudflare servers when the map is loaded; the EU member states have an adequate level of data protection recognised by the Federal Council.

7. Data Security

Transmission is encrypted (TLS/HTTPS). We store passwords exclusively as a hash. Access to the server and database is restricted to the operator and protected by keys or strong passwords. Backups are stored in encrypted form in Switzerland. Should a breach of data security occur despite these measures that is likely to result in a high risk to you, we will inform the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC/EDÖB) and, where necessary, you personally.

8. Your Rights

Under the DSG, you have the right to:

• information on which personal data we process about you (Art. 25 DSG); we generally respond within 30 days and free of charge;
• rectification of inaccurate data;
• erasure of your data, insofar as no retention obligation prevents this (you can delete your account and your listings yourself at any time);
• data disclosure / portability in a commonly used electronic format (Art. 28 DSG);
• objection to individual processing operations and withdrawal of consent given, with effect for the future.

Please address your request to info@caraplace.ch. To prevent misuse, we may require proof of identity. You may also lodge a complaint with the FDPIC/EDÖB (www.edoeb.admin.ch).

9. No Automated Individual Decisions, No Profiling

We do not make any automated decisions with legal effect for you and do not create any personality profiles.

10. Minors

Caraplace is aimed at persons of legal age. Legal age is required for an account.

11. Amendments

We may amend this Privacy Policy if our data processing or the legal situation changes. The version published on caraplace.ch at the relevant time applies. In the event of material amendments, we will inform registered providers by e-mail.

Version dated: 27 September 2026