Terms of use

4.1 How the platform works and your data
Genius Loci is a platform that connects you with heritage content created by Project Owners (cities, museums, organisations). Here is how your data is used depending on how you use the platform:

If you explore without an account:

You may freely scan medals and view content without creating an account. In this case, we collect only anonymous technical data: which places were scanned, reading time, which content was viewed, and your GPS coordinates (if you share them). No personal data is collected or shared.

If you create an account:

To fully enjoy the experience – collecting and saving your discoveries, accumulating points, leaving comments and claiming rewards – you must create an account. When you create an account, you provide personal information (such as your username, email and possibly your city and country). You understand and agree that the following information is accessible to Genius Loci and is shared with the Project Owners whose content you view: your username, points accumulated, content viewed, and where applicable your city and country.

We never sell your personal data. Project Owners are not permitted to use your data outside the framework of Genius Loci and its associated services.

4.2 Access to content

Heritage content is accessible by scanning a physical medal (QR) or by using the digital map.

4.3 Geolocation

Some features require your GPS location to be enabled. Your geolocation is used to:
– Allow you to access content via the digital map
– Verify your physical presence at a location in order to validate the collection of points (proof of presence)

We ask for your authorisation to enable geolocation. You may withdraw this authorisation at any time via your device settings. If you decline geolocation, you can still scan medals manually, but some features will not be available.

Your location is used during the session. A timestamp and, where applicable, an approximate GPS location may be associated with the scan interaction in order to validate the collection of points. Genius Loci does not track users in real time and does not store continuous location data.

4.4 Points system and leaderboard

Each medal scanned or place discovered earns you points. These points are displayed on a public leaderboard visible to other users.

The information displayed on the leaderboard is: your username (which you choose freely), your number of points, and possibly your city and country if you have chosen to provide them in your profile. It is your responsibility to decide whether you use your real name or a pseudonym as your username.

Sessions without an account may also appear on the leaderboard under an anonymous identifier. These entries are not linked to any personal data.

4.5 Comments

When a Project Owner enables the comments feature, you may leave a comment on the content. Your comments must comply with our Charter (see section 7).

Any user may report content they consider unlawful or inappropriate directly on the platform or by contacting us at hello@geniusloci.com. Reported content may be reviewed and, where appropriate, removed by Genius Loci or by the relevant Project Owner within a reasonable time.

Genius Loci reserves the right to remove any content that does not comply with these terms and conditions or applicable law.

4.6 Rewards

Some Project Owners may offer rewards or gifts linked to your exploration (for example, when you complete a trail). As explained in section 4.1, your profile information is shared with Project Owners as part of the normal operation of the service, which enables them to award you these rewards. Sessions without an account may not be eligible for rewards, as we are unable to guarantee full tracking of your progress without an account.

4.7 Account and security

You are responsible for the confidentiality of your login credentials. Sharing your password is prohibited. You must notify us immediately in the event of any unauthorised use of your account.

4.8 Minimum age

You must be at least 16 years old to create an account. If you are under 16, you may view content without an account and take part in trails under the supervision of an adult (parent or legal guardian). In this case, the account of the accompanying adult is used to collect points, rewards and other account-related features.

4.9 Newsletter

When you create your account, you may choose to subscribe to our newsletter. This subscription is optional and is not a condition for using the platform. You may unsubscribe at any time via the link in each email or by contacting us at hello@geniusloci.com.

5.1 Definitions

For the purposes of these terms and conditions: “Genius Loci Content” means the text, graphics, images, music, audio, video, works of authorship of any kind, and the information or other materials that are displayed, generated, provided or otherwise made available by Genius Loci on the platform. “User Content” means any content that you create or publish on the platform. “Organisation Content” means content published on behalf of an organisation. Collectively, these elements are referred to as “Content”.

5.2 Your content and your warranties

You are solely responsible for the content you publish on the platform. You represent and warrant that:

You own your content or you have all the rights necessary to publish it and to grant us the licence rights described below.
Your content does not infringe, misappropriate or violate the intellectual property rights of any third party (patents, copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, moral rights), nor anyone’s image or privacy rights.
Your content does not violate any applicable law or regulation, and does not breach any agreement you have with a third party.

5.3 Licence granted to Genius Loci

By publishing content, you grant Genius Loci a non-exclusive, transferable, worldwide and royalty-free licence, with the right to grant sub-licences, to use, host, cache, store, reproduce, transmit, publicly display, publish, distribute and modify (for formatting purposes only) your content, solely for the purpose of operating the platform. You retain all your rights in your content.

5.4 Organisation Content

If you publish content on behalf of an organisation (city, museum, etc.), ownership of that content may be defined by your agreement with that organisation. In the absence of such an agreement, the organisation is presumed to hold the rights.

5.5 Sharing of content

The content you publish is intended to be viewed by Visitors/Adventurers. You understand and agree that these users will be able to view and, if you allow it, comment on your content. You grant Genius Loci all the rights necessary to make your content available to platform users and to enable those users to view and interact with it.

5.6 Licence granted by Genius Loci to users

Subject to your compliance with these terms and conditions, Genius Loci grants you a limited, non-exclusive and non-transferable licence, with no right to sub-license, to view and access the Genius Loci Content solely within the scope of your authorised use of the platform and solely for personal and non-commercial purposes.

5.7 Removal of content

You may request the deletion of your content. However, certain technical copies may remain temporarily in our systems (caches, backups). See section 10 (Termination) for further details.

5.8 Monitoring of content

Although we are not obliged to monitor access to or use of the platform, or to review or modify any content, we have the right to do so for the purpose of operating the platform, ensuring compliance with these terms and conditions and complying with applicable laws. We reserve the right to remove or disable access to any content, at any time and without notice, if we consider that content to be inappropriate or in breach of these terms and conditions. We have the right to investigate breaches of these terms and conditions. We may also consult law enforcement authorities and cooperate with them to prosecute users who violate the law.

5.9 Medals and installation

The installation of physical medals in public or private space is entirely your responsibility. You must obtain the necessary authorisations and take care not to damage the environment or the property of others.

5.10 Adventurers’ data

As a Project Owner, you receive certain information relating to the activity of Adventurers on your trails (such as username, points, content viewed and, where applicable, city and country). This information enables you to manage your trails, analyse their use and, where applicable, award rewards.
As part of the operation of the platform, Genius Loci transmits certain data to Project Owners in their capacity as data recipients. This data is shared exclusively in order to ensure the operation of the service, the management of trails, statistical analysis and the awarding of any rewards.
Project Owners undertake to use this data only within this strict framework, and in accordance with the applicable laws on the protection of personal data, in particular the GDPR and the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (nFADP). Any use outside this framework requires the prior and explicit consent of the Adventurer concerned.

In the event of failure to comply with these obligations, Genius Loci reserves the right to suspend the Project Owner’s access to Adventurers’ data.

The medals and content hosting are subject to a one-time cost, clearly indicated at the time of purchase. This cost includes content hosting.

The price of medal packs may change. The applicable price is the one displayed at the time of your purchase. Current rates are available on our site.

Genius Loci Pro is a complementary tool offered on a subscription basis, providing advanced features (dashboards, statistics, route creation, medal geolocation, audio file hosting, and more). The details and pricing of Genius Loci Pro are available on our website. For any questions, contact us at hello@geniusloci.com.

As the products and services offered by Genius Loci are personalised (in particular the creation of digital spaces, the generation of unique QR codes and the production of custom-made medals), any confirmed order is considered firm and final.

By confirming their order, the customer acknowledges that production and configuration of the service begin immediately and waives, to the extent permitted by law, any right of withdrawal or refund in accordance with Article 16 of the European Consumer Rights Directive.

However, if the customer encounters a difficulty or is not satisfied with an element of the service, they are invited to contact us. We undertake to examine each situation carefully and to seek an appropriate solution wherever possible.

8.1 Ownership of the platform
The platform, its design, its features, its source code and the Genius Loci content (excluding user content and organisation content) are the exclusive property of Genius Loci SA, protected by Swiss copyright law, international law and any other applicable intellectual property legislation. The Genius Loci trademark may not be used without our written consent.

8.2 Ownership of published content
The heritage content published on the platform (texts, images, audio, video and any other media) is the property of its respective authors and/or of the Project Owners who created it. Genius Loci hosts and protects this content on behalf of its owners. Any reproduction, reuse or distribution of this content without the authorisation of its owner is prohibited.

8.3 Database protection
All content published on geniusloci.com and geniusloci.pro constitutes a database protected by Swiss copyright law and by European Directive 96/9/EC on the legal protection of databases.

8.4 Prohibition of automated extraction
It is strictly prohibited for any person, company, artificial intelligence, robot, crawler or automated tool to: index, scrape, extract, reproduce, reuse, train AI models on, or exploit in any form whatsoever all or part of the platform’s content or its database, without the prior written authorisation of Genius Loci SA and/or the owner of the content concerned.

This prohibition applies regardless of the method used (direct access, API, cache, aggregation or any other technique). Any violation may give rise to civil and criminal proceedings, as well as a claim for damages, by Genius Loci and/or the owners of the content concerned.

9.1 Data controller
Genius Loci SA, Chemin de Grassiaz 1, 1112 Echichens, Switzerland (hello@geniusloci.com) is the controller responsible for the processing of your personal data.

9.2 Data collected
For users without an account:
Anonymous technical data only: places scanned, reading time, content viewed, GPS coordinates (if shared).

For Visitors/Adventurers with an account:
Username (pseudonym), email address, profile data you provide (city, country), points accumulated, content collected, comments, and geolocation data (with your authorisation, per session).

For Content Creators and Project Owners:
Name, email address, billing information, published content. If you also use the platform as an Adventurer, the data described abo

ve for Visitors/Adventurers also applies.

9.3 Legal bases for processing
We process your data on the following legal bases:
– Performance of the contract: management of your account, provision of the service, sharing of data with Project Owners within the scope of the service, display of the leaderboard
– Consent: geolocation, newsletter subscription
– Legitimate interest: improvement of the platform through anonymised analytics (Plausible), security of the service
– Legal obligation: retention of billing data in accordance with Swiss law

9.4 Cookies and analytics
We use only cookies that are strictly necessary for the operation of the platform (maintaining your login session). We do not use any advertising or tracking cookies.

For usage analytics, we use Plausible, a tool that does not set any cookies and does not collect any personal data. We also record usage data in our own systems for the purpose of operating the service.

9.5 Data sharing
We do not sell your personal data. We share your information only in the following cases:
– With the Project Owners whose content you view, within the scope of the normal operation of the service (see section 4.1)
– To comply with a legal obligation

Project Owners are required to use your data only within the scope of Genius Loci and its associated services (see section 5.10).

9.6 Language detection
The platform may read your device’s language settings to adapt the display. This information is used solely for technical purposes and is neither stored nor shared.

9.7 Your rights
In accordance with the GDPR and the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (nLPD), you have the right to:
– Access your personal data
– Correct inaccurate data
– Request the deletion of your data
– Request the portability of your data
– Object to the processing of your data (in particular for processing based on legitimate interest)
– Request the restriction of the processing of your data
– Withdraw your consent at any time (without affecting the lawfulness of processing carried out before the withdrawal)
– Lodge a complaint with the competent authority
– You may ask us for the list of Project Owners who have had access to your data.

To exercise these rights, contact us at hello@geniusloci.com. We will respond to your request within 30 days.

9.8 Data retention
We retain your personal data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we will delete your personal data within 90 days, subject to our legal retention obligations (in particular billing data, retained in accordance with Swiss law).

Anonymised and aggregated data (usage statistics, route attendance) may be retained indefinitely, as it does not allow any individual to be identified. This data remains accessible to Project Owners for consulting their statistics.

9.9 International data transfers
Your data is hosted in Switzerland with Infomaniak (Switzerland). If you subscribe to our newsletter, your email address is processed by Mailchimp (Intuit, United States) under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. No other personal data is transferred outside Switzerland or the European Economic Area.

You may delete your account at any time by contacting us at hello@geniusloci.com. Certain technical copies of your content (caches, backups) may remain temporarily. We may suspend or delete your account in the event of a breach of these terms and conditions, without notice or compensation.

We value your feedback and suggestions. By communicating them to us, you agree that Genius Loci may use them freely to improve its services, without any obligation of compensation or attribution.

Genius Loci assumes no liability for content published by users or Project Owners, including any errors or omissions in such content.

As part of the Service, Genius Loci may offer automated translations of content in order to facilitate access to and understanding of it. These translations are provided for indicative purposes only, may contain inaccuracies, and the original content prevails.
Genius Loci shall not be held liable for errors or inaccuracies relating to geolocation, nor for any damage resulting from users’ travel, visits or physical interactions at the locations.

Except in the event of wilful misconduct or gross negligence, neither Genius Loci nor any of its subsidiaries, officers, employees or agents shall be liable for any indirect, consequential, exemplary, incidental, special or punitive damages, including loss of profits or data, arising from your use of the platform, even if Genius Loci has been advised of the possibility of such damages.

Genius Loci is not liable for any damage, loss or injury resulting from hacking, intrusion or other unauthorised access to or use of the platform, your account or the information contained therein.

In no event shall Genius Loci’s total liability exceed the amount you have paid to Genius Loci during the 12 months preceding the claim.

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Genius Loci, as well as its subsidiaries, affiliates, partners, employees, directors and agents, from any claim, damage, obligation, loss, liability, cost or debt, and expense (including attorneys’ fees) arising from your use of the platform, any breach of these terms, or the publication or use of your user content.

In the event of force majeure (unforeseeable events beyond our control, such as natural disasters, infrastructure failures, governmental decisions), Genius Loci is released from its obligations for the duration of the event.

You use the platform at your own risk and of your own free choice. The platform is provided “as is” and “as available”, without warranty of any kind, whether express or implied, including warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, non-infringement or performance.

Genius Loci acts as a technical platform and does not warrant: that the platform will operate without interruption, will be secure or will be available at any particular time or place; that any error or defect will be corrected; that the platform is free of viruses or other harmful components; that the results of using the platform will meet your requirements; nor the accuracy, reliability or completeness of the content published by users or Project Owners.
Nothing in these terms is intended to exclude or limit any liability that cannot be excluded or limited under applicable law, in particular in the event of wilful misconduct or gross negligence.

These terms and conditions are governed by Swiss law. Any dispute, controversy or claim arising out of or in connection with these Terms, including their validity, invalidity, breach or termination, shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Lausanne, Switzerland.

Genius Loci reserves the right to modify, develop or discontinue at any time all or part of the Service, including its features, its pricing or the introduction of experimental features (in particular those related to artificial intelligence)

We may modify these terms and conditions at any time. In the event of significant changes, we will notify you by email or via the platform. The changes will take effect 30 days after their publication.

By continuing to use the platform after this period, you accept the new terms and conditions.

You may contact us regarding the service or these terms and conditions at the following address:

Genius Loci SA, Chemin de Grassiaz 1, 1112 Echichens, Switzerland or by email at hello@geniusloci.com