Effective date: 13 September 2026 · Last updated: 15 September 2026
com.mtgtechnical.sipjournalThis privacy policy applies solely to the Android application Sip Journal
(package com.mtgtechnical.sipjournal, referred to here as "the App"), published on
Google Play by mtgtechnical ("we", "us", "our"). It describes what data the App
collects, how it is used and stored, who processes it, and how you can delete it.
In short: the App needs an account so your coffee journal can be saved, and what you save is stored with Google's Firebase services and kept private to your account. There are no ads and no analytics, and we do not sell or share your data. When the App crashes or something fails, it sends a crash report so we can fix it, unless you turn crash reports off in Profile. You can delete your account and everything in it at any time.
To use the App you create an account, either with an email address and password or with Google Sign-In. Accounts are managed by Firebase Authentication, a Google service.
When you sign up with an email address, we send you a message to verify it. The App asks our
website (sipjournal.mtgtechnical.com, hosted by Vercel) to send it,
passing the sign-in token Firebase Authentication gave it; the website reads your email address
from Firebase Authentication and sends the message through Brevo, an email
delivery service. The link in it opens a page on our website that marks your address as
verified. If our website cannot send the message, Firebase Authentication sends its own.
When you ask to reset your password, the App sends the email address you typed to our website in the same way. If it belongs to an account that signs in with a password, the website sends the reset message through Brevo. Its link opens a page on our website where you choose a new password; the website passes it to Firebase Authentication, which stores it, and keeps no copy of it. If our website cannot send the message, Firebase Authentication sends its own.
In Profile (your avatar on the Journal screen) you can optionally enter a first name, last name, up to two letters to show on your avatar, your coffee experience, and a location. All of these are free text that you type yourself, and all are optional. This profile location is only the text you type.
The content you create in the App is saved to your account so that it is there whenever you sign in:
You can give a coffee in the Bean Finder a rating from one to five stars. Your rating is visible to everyone signed in to the App: it is shown on that coffee's page with your first name from Profile, or, if you have not added a first name, the letters on your avatar, and the date you rated it. It never shows your email address. The App also uses the ratings to show each coffee's average. You can change or remove your rating at any time, and it is deleted with your account.
When you log a tasting you can choose to add where you had it. If you do, the entry stores the place's name and address (when known), its map coordinates, and whether you chose it by searching, from nearby cafés, from your current location or by dropping a pin. The App shows these locations back to you on your entries and on your journal map.
The App reads your device's location only on the screen where you choose where a tasting happened, and only if you allow location access. If you have already allowed it, the App takes one position as soon as you open that screen for a tasting that has no location yet; if you have not, it asks only when you tap Use my location. The App uses that position to centre the map and to look for cafés nearby, which means sending it to the Overpass API (see below). It never tracks your location in the background, and nothing about your position is saved to your account unless you choose to add it to an entry or set it as Home.
You can set a Home place, so a tasting at home is one tap. If you do, your profile stores its map coordinates and address. You can move it at any time, and it is deleted with your account.
When you create a custom equipment item you may attach a photo to it. The App only accesses a photo when you pick one yourself using the system picker, and only the photo you pick. The App saves a small square copy of it, without its metadata (such as where it was taken), in Cloud Firestore under your account. The App does not access your photos at any other time.
From version 1.3.2, the maps in the App are Google Maps, drawn by Google's Maps SDK for Android. While a map is on screen, the SDK sends Google requests for the map areas you view, together with your IP address, your device's model and Android version, the SDK's version, an identifier the SDK creates to count its active users, how you move and zoom the map, and crash details if the SDK itself fails. Google uses this to provide and improve its maps, under Google's Privacy Policy. The App does not turn on Google's location features and gives Google none of your account or journal; the App's own crash report setting (below) does not cover the SDK's crash details.
Place search (and, before version 1.3.2, the maps) uses free services built on OpenStreetMap data. They are separate from your account and receive no account information, but like any website they receive your IP address with each request:
If the App crashes, or an action fails (for example a save that could not complete), the App sends a crash report to Firebase Crashlytics, a Google service, so we can find and fix the problem. A report contains the technical details of the failure (the error type and code, where in the App it happened, and which action was being performed), your device model, Android version, the App version, and an installation identifier created by Crashlytics. Crash reports do not include your name, email address, account identifier, journal entries, notes, locations or photos. Crashlytics keeps crash reports for 90 days. Crash reports are on unless you turn them off: Profile → Crash reports. Turning them off stops new reports and deletes any not yet sent.
To protect your account and data from requests that do not come from the genuine App, the App uses Firebase App Check with Google Play's Play Integrity API. When the App talks to Firebase, Google checks that the request comes from an unmodified copy of the App installed from Google Play and issues a short-lived token. This check involves information about your device and App installation, processed by Google; it is not used to identify you and is not stored with your account.
To provide Firebase services, Google may process technical data such as your IP address and information about your device and app installation. This is handled by Google as described on Google's Firebase privacy and security page. We do not use it to track or profile you.
We use the data above only to provide the App to you:
We do not use your data for advertising, and we do not use it for anything unrelated to running the App.
The App is built on Google Firebase. Google acts as our service provider (processor), hosting and processing the data on our behalf:
eur3 multi-region.Two more service providers handle the emails that verify your address and reset your password (section 1):
The App also shows reference content that we curate: the bean finder catalogue, brew guides, and the equipment catalogue. This is shared, read-only content that is the same for every user, and it contains no personal data.
Your data is private to your account. The database's security rules restrict each user's data to that user: when you are signed in, you can read and change only your own profile, journal entries, beans, recipes and equipment, and no other user can read yours.
Data travelling between the App and Google's servers is encrypted in transit using HTTPS (TLS).
We keep your account information and the content you save for as long as you have an account. It is kept until you delete it or delete your account, as described below. Crash reports are deleted automatically after 90 days.
You can delete your account in either of two ways:
Step-by-step instructions, and the full list of what is deleted, are on the Delete your Sip Journal account page.
The App is not directed at children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, contact us at support@mtgtechnical.com and we will delete it.
We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Any changes will be posted on this page with a revised "Last updated" date above.
If you have questions about this privacy policy or the App's data practices, contact mtgtechnical at support@mtgtechnical.com.