Privacy Policy — mobile apps of Coudenberg Palace, managed by asbl Palais de Charles Quint
Last updated: 28 August 2026
This policy covers the three mobile applications published by the asbl Palais de Charles Quint:
| Application | iOS identifier | Android identifier | Uses location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Stone, mortar, chisel! | brussels.coudenberg.pmc | com.coudenbergforkids.pmc | No |
| In Search of the Treasure of the Golden Fleece | brussels.coudenberg.tor | com.coudenbergforkids.tor | No |
| Quest of the Golden Key | brussels.coudenberg.qgk | brussels.coudenberg.qgk | Yes — on the device only, see section 4 |
In short: these apps ask for no name, no e-mail address and no account. They collect no personal data about the people who play them, show no advertising, and contain no analytics or tracking software. Game progress stays on the device and is erased when you reset the game or delete the app. One app, Quest of the Golden Key, needs your location to show you on a map of Brussels; that location is used on your device and is never sent to us.
1. Who we are
The apps listed above are published by the asbl Palais de Charles Quint, Rue Royale 2-4, 1000 Brussels, Belgium, which is the data controller for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (“GDPR”). The apps were developed on our behalf by Typi Design, which acts as a processor.
2. What the apps do not collect
None of the apps has registration, login or a user profile. We do not ask for, and the apps do not transmit to us:
- names, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers or postal addresses;
- photographs, audio or video;
- contacts, calendar entries or any other content on the device;
- advertising identifiers (IDFA, Android Advertising ID) or any other persistent identifier used for tracking;
- the answers given, the progress made or the play behaviour of the person using the app.
The apps contain no advertising network, no analytics SDK, no social-media plug-in and no third-party tracking code. Stone, mortar, chisel! and In Search of the Treasure of the Golden Fleece request no device permissions at all. Quest of the Golden Key requests only access to your location while you use it (section 4).
3. Information stored on the device
So that a visitor can interrupt a trail and continue it later, each app saves the following in its own private storage on the device itself:
- which answers have been given for each mission, including any text typed into an answer field;
- which missions have been completed;
- whether the game has been finished;
- the number of missions in the game and the chosen interface language.
This information never leaves the device: it is not sent to the museum, to the developer or to anyone else, and it is readable only by the app that wrote it. You can erase it at any time with the app’s reset the game button, or by uninstalling the app.
4. Location — Quest of the Golden Key only
Quest of the Golden Key is a city game played outdoors in central Brussels. To show you where you are on the map and to tell how far you are from the next stop, the app asks for permission to use your location while you are using the app (approximate and precise location; it never uses background location).
Your position is read by the device, held in the app’s memory while the map is open, and used there to draw your position and to calculate distances. It is not stored on the device, and it is not transmitted to the museum, to the developer or to any third party. If you refuse the permission, the app tells you that the game needs your position; you can grant or withdraw it at any time in your device settings.
The map itself is displayed with Google Maps. Loading map tiles means your device contacts Google, which processes that request under its own privacy policy — see policies.google.com/privacy. The other two apps contain no map and no location code.
5. Information processed when an app connects to the internet
The apps carry no game content of their own; they download the questions, texts and images when they start.
a. Our content server. Each app requests its content from apps.coudenberg.brussels, a server operated for the asbl Palais de Charles Quint. Like any web server it records the technical data that every internet request necessarily contains: the IP address of the device, the date and time, the address requested, and the interface language of the app (English, French or Dutch), which is part of the request so that the correct texts are returned. These logs are used only to operate and secure the service and to produce aggregate visit counts; they are not linked to a person and are not used for profiling. Legal basis: our legitimate interest in providing and securing the service (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR).
b. App updates. The apps can receive over-the-air updates through the Expo Application Services platform (Expo / 650 Industries, Inc.). When an app checks for an update, that platform receives the device’s IP address and technical characteristics of the installation (platform, app version, update identifier) needed to serve the right update file. See expo.dev/privacy.
c. Google Maps. In Quest of the Golden Key only, as described in section 4.
d. The app stores. Downloading and updating the apps is handled by Google Play and the Apple App Store under their own privacy policies (Google, Apple). These stores may give us anonymous, aggregated statistics, such as the number of installations per country, from which we cannot identify individual users.
Each app also checks whether a network connection is available, in order to show a message when it is offline. That check happens entirely on the device.
6. Children’s privacy
Stone, mortar, chisel! and In Search of the Treasure of the Golden Fleece are designed for children visiting Coudenberg Palace, usually accompanied by a parent, a teacher or a guide, and are distributed under the Google Play Families programme and Apple’s Kids Category. They were built so that no personal data of a child is needed to play:
- no personal information is requested or collected from children;
- there is no advertising, no in-app purchase and no external commercial content;
- there is no chat, no sharing of user-generated content and no social network connection;
- anything a child types in the game stays on the device.
Quest of the Golden Key is a family game played outdoors and requires location access, so it is intended to be played with an accompanying adult. The same rules apply: no personal information is requested, and nothing typed in the game leaves the device.
If you believe that a child has nonetheless provided us with personal data — for example by writing to us — please contact us at the address in section 10 and we will delete it.
7. Sharing and transfers
We do not sell, rent or trade any data, and we share nothing with advertisers or data brokers. Data is shared only with the service providers strictly necessary to run the apps — hosting of the content server, the update platform, Google Maps and the app stores named above — and where required by law. The content server is hosted in the European Union; transfers to the other providers are governed by those providers’ own safeguards for transfers outside the EEA.
8. Retention and security
Game progress is kept on the device until you reset the game or uninstall the app. Location data is not retained at all. Server log data is kept for a limited period, no longer than twelve months, and is then deleted or anonymised. All connections between the apps and our server use encrypted HTTPS.
9. Your rights
Under the GDPR you have the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction and objection, and the right to data portability, in respect of personal data we hold about you. Because the apps collect no data that identifies you, we are in practice unable to link stored information to a person, and we may be unable to act on a request without additional information from you. You may exercise your rights by writing to the contact address below. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Belgian Data Protection Authority (dataprotectionauthority.be), Rue de la Presse 35, 1000 Brussels.
10. Contact
asbl Palais de Charles Quint
Rue Royale 2-4, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
info@coudenberg.brussels
+32 2 563 61 79
www.coudenberg.brussels
11. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy, for instance when an app changes. The date at the top of this page indicates when it was last revised. Substantial changes will be announced on this page.