This is a courtesy translation: the French version is the only legally binding one.
Last updated: 1 September 2026. This policy explains what data RingFollow processes when you report a ring, why, who can access it, how long it is kept and how to exercise your rights (Regulation (EU) 2016/679, the “GDPR”, and the French Data Protection Act, loi Informatique et Libertés).
1. Data controller
GIBIS SARL, a French limited liability company with a share capital of €271,300 (SIREN 313 659 302), 249 route de Lyon, 38160 Chatte, France — gibis@gibis.fr — +33 (0)4 76 38 31 01. GIBIS publishes and operates RingFollow.
The departmental hunters' federation (FDC) that receives your report is the controller for the processing it then carries out for its own purposes (verification, monitoring restocking, running its network). For that processing, please contact the federation directly.
2. Data processed
| Category | Data | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Report | Photo(s) of the ring or the animal — recompressed on upload, with EXIF metadata removed (including the position recorded by the camera); ring number, colour and type; federation marked on the ring; species; sex; circumstances; date the bird was shot; municipality or postcode. | Required |
| Location | GPS coordinates of the place of recovery, only if you tap “Record my position”. Otherwise, only the municipality is recorded. | At your initiative |
| Contact details | Hunting licence number, name, phone number, email address. | Optional |
| Technical | Timestamp, technical identifier of the entry, interface language. Your IP address is used briefly to limit abuse (rate limiting) and appears in the hosting provider's logs; it is not stored with the report. | Required |
| On your device only | Drafts waiting for a connection, contact details remembered for next time, your game bag, preferences (language, options). This information stays in your browser and is only sent to us when you submit a report. | Stored locally |
3. Purposes and legal bases
| Purpose | Legal basis |
|---|---|
| Linking the ring to its original release and calculating, for each release, the recovery rate, the dispersal and the time to recovery of restocking birds. | Legitimate interest of GIBIS (monitoring the quality of its birds) and of the federations (monitoring restocking) — Art. 6(1)(f). |
| Having the federation check and validate the report, and weeding out duplicates and incorrect reports. | Legitimate interest — Art. 6(1)(f). |
| Confirming by email that your report has been recorded, letting you know when it is validated, and sending you news and invitations from your federation. | Your consent, given by filling in the optional contact details — Art. 6(1)(a). You can withdraw it at any time (section 9). |
| Publishing anonymous statistics (by department, charts, distances). | Legitimate interest — no personal data is published. |
| Security of the service, change log, abuse prevention. | Legitimate interest — Art. 6(1)(f). |
4. Automatic reading of the ring
An automatic reading (artificial intelligence) suggests the number and colour from your photos. You check and correct these suggestions before sending, and a person at the federation validates every report. No decision producing legal effects concerning you is taken solely by automated means (Art. 22 GDPR).
5. Who has access to your data
- GIBIS: authorised staff, to run the service and monitor its releases.
- The departmental hunters' federation responsible for the ring or for the place of recovery: authorised staff and volunteers, whose access is limited to their own department. The federation sees the full report, including contact details.
- ACCAs and hunting clubs, through their private page: only the ring, species, sex, municipality and date of recovery — never your name, licence, phone number, email address, photos or exact position.
- The public (Statistics page, badges): aggregates by department and map points rounded to about 1 km, with no names or ring numbers.
Your data is never sold, rented out or used for advertising.
6. Processors and transfers outside the European Union
- Cloudflare, Inc. (United States) — hosting of the application, database and photos stored in data centres in Western Europe, automatic ring reading, protection of federation access, backups.
- Resend, Inc. (United States) — sending confirmation emails and reports to federations.
These providers act on the instructions of GIBIS under data processing agreements. Any transfers to the United States are covered by the European Commission's standard contractual clauses and, where applicable, by the Data Privacy Framework.
7. Retention periods
| Data | Period |
|---|---|
| Report (ring, species, place, date) and photos | Five hunting seasons after the recovery, the duration of the restocking monitoring study; after that, kept in anonymised form (contact details and licence number removed) for statistical purposes. |
| Optional contact details (licence, name, phone number, email address) | Three years after your last report or your last contact with the federation, or until you withdraw your consent. |
| Change log | Five years. |
| Federation and breeder accounts | For as long as the authorisation lasts, then one year. |
| Access requests and invitations (name, email address, organisation, role, person who made the introduction) and date of first login to the accounts | For the duration of the relationship: as long as an account opened through the request is active, otherwise one year after the last message; requests not followed up or revoked are deleted after one year; deletion on request at gibis@gibis.fr. |
| Emails sent | Thirty days in the email provider's logs. |
| Drafts and local data | On your device, until you delete them (browser settings). |
8. Security
Encrypted connections (HTTPS), federation access protected by a one-time code sent by email and limited to their department, a log of every change, daily backups, and deletion of a report carried through to its photos. No cookies or trackers on the public application; the federation console uses a strictly necessary authentication cookie.
9. Your rights
You have the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection and data portability, as well as the right to withdraw your consent at any time for the optional contact details, without affecting the report itself.
To exercise these rights: gibis@gibis.fr or by post to GIBIS SARL, 249 route de Lyon, 38160 Chatte, France, stating the ring number and the date of the report (and the reference given in the confirmation email, if you received one). We reply within one month; proof of identity may be requested if there is reasonable doubt.
You may also lodge a complaint with the CNIL, the French data protection authority — 3 place de Fontenoy, TSA 80715, 75334 Paris Cedex 07, France — cnil.fr.
10. Changes to this policy
Any substantial change is published on this page with its date. Version of 1 September 2026.