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Privacy Policy

Version 2026-10-26 · Last updated: 26 October 2026

This policy explains how Force International BV handles personal data when you use NextICS: the NextICS app for iPhone and Android, the NextICS web app at web.nextics.com and the website nextics.com. It replaces the privacy policy of 13 December 2021.

1. Who we are and how to contact us

Force International BV (besloten vennootschap; in French: SRL), Olenseweg 160, 2260 Westerlo, Belgium, enterprise number and VAT number BE 0647.631.485, is the controller of the personal data described in this policy ("we", "us", "our").

How to contact us — for questions about this policy and to exercise your data protection rights:

  • by e-mail: support@nextics.com;
  • by post: Force International BV, Olenseweg 160, 2260 Westerlo, Belgium.

Everywhere this policy says "contact us", it means these channels.

2. What this policy covers

This policy covers:

  • the NextICS mobile app (iPhone and Android), including test versions distributed through Apple TestFlight or Google Play testing;
  • the NextICS web app at web.nextics.com;
  • the website nextics.com;
  • the Premium plan and the NextWallet.

You can sign in to NextICS with SignInOnce or with your phone number. SignInOnce, CID Global and OrderSignup are also services of Force International BV; how they handle your SignInOnce account and persona data is described in the SignInOnce privacy notice on www.signinonce.com. This policy describes how that data is used for NextICS.

From NextICS you can open other apps ("NextApps"), some of which are operated by other companies of the Force International group or by partners. Those apps handle your data under their own privacy policies (section 3.13).

3. What we process, why, and on what legal basis

The legal bases below are those of Article 6(1) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): contract (b) — needed to provide what you asked for; legal obligation (c); legitimate interest (f) — our interest, balanced against yours; and consent (a).

3.1 Your account and signing in

  • With SignInOnce: your name, display name and handle, e-mail address, your SignInOnce account identifier, your plan (Free or Premium), and, if you add them, a profile picture and a short bio. SignInOnce records sign-in events, for example the time, the app you signed in to and the IP address used.
  • With your phone number: your phone number, a display name and handle, and, if someone invited you, who invited you. We send a one-time code by SMS (section 3.2). A phone account has no e-mail address. Your phone number is not shared with SignInOnce; if you later link your phone account to SignInOnce, CID Global only learns that your phone number was verified, not the number itself.
  • Presence: NextICS records when you were last active. People you chat with see "Online" or "Last seen …".
  • Why and legal basis: to create and run your account, let you sign in and show your status in chats (contract); to keep NextICS working and to detect and prevent misuse and unauthorised access (legitimate interest).

3.2 SMS codes and protection against misuse

  • What: to send a sign-in code, we pass your phone number and the code to our SMS service: IrisCall, a messaging service of our group, which hands the message to a telecom partner for your country, or Smstools (Xtreme Internet Solutions, Belgium). We store the code only in a form that cannot be read back (a cryptographic hash). To stop abuse, we record sign-in attempts with your phone number and IP address in hashed form.
  • IrisCall messages inside NextICS: where IrisCall needs to send you a code or a message, it can deliver it as a message inside NextICS instead of an SMS. For that, IrisCall asks NextICS whether a phone number belongs to a NextICS user who was active in the last 30 days, and whether the message was read. Codes delivered this way are removed from the message once they have expired.
  • Why and legal basis: to let you sign in (contract) and to protect accounts and the service against misuse (legitimate interest).

3.3 Chats, posts and communities

  • What: the content you create and share: direct, group and channel chats and their attachments, reactions, stickers, forwarded and quoted messages, contacts you share, posts, replies, likes, reposts and mentions, the people you follow and your follow requests, the groups, channels and communities you join, and the notifications about them.
  • Photos and files you send or use as a profile picture are uploaded to our servers and stored in CherryFile, our file storage in Belgium. Before storing a photo we remove its embedded metadata, such as the GPS location and camera details. Your profile picture can be seen by everyone; other media can only be opened by people who have access to the chat or post.
  • Location — only when you share it: if you choose "Share location" in a chat, your current position is sent to that chat as a map link with precise coordinates. Opening the link sends the coordinates to Google Maps or Apple Maps. NextICS does not track your location in the background.
  • Communities and stories shown in the Social tab come from BNSense, a separate service of our group, which handles them under its own privacy policy (section 3.13).
  • Who sees it: public posts can be seen by other NextICS users; chat messages by the people in the chat; community content by the members of that community.
  • Why and legal basis: to provide these features (contract).

3.4 Notifications on your phone

  • What: if you turn on notifications, we store your device's notification token, and we send notifications through Apple Push Notification service (iPhone) or Google Firebase Cloud Messaging (Android).
  • What a notification contains: by default, a chat notification shows the sender's name (or the group name) and the first part of the message, up to 180 characters, and may include a picture from the chat and the sender's profile picture through a link that expires after 30 minutes. Apple or Google carry this content to your device. You can turn message previews off in Settings → Notifications; a notification then only says "New message". Codes sent to you through IrisCall are never shown in previews.
  • On iPhone: to show the sender's name and picture with a chat notification, the app shares the sender, their picture and the message with iOS on your device (Siri suggestions and Communication Notifications). This stays on your device under Apple's controls.
  • Why and legal basis: to notify you about your chats and account (contract). You can turn notifications off at any time in the app or in your phone's settings.

3.5 The NextWallet

  • What: your NextWallet; the amounts you owe and their status; the amounts credited to you through NextICS (amount, source and reference); and the records of each settlement.
  • Accounts you link: if you link an external account to your NextWallet, we store the link, its label and the balances we last read. A read-only access key for an exchange account is kept in the CID Global vault, not in the NextICS database, and is used only to read your balances from that exchange. For a public blockchain wallet address, we read its balance through a public blockchain gateway operated by Cloudflare, which receives the address. You can remove a link at any time.
  • Why and legal basis: to show your NextWallet and settle open amounts (contract), and to keep the related accounting records (legal obligation).

3.6 The Premium plan and payments

  • What: whether you have Premium, when it started, renews or ends, your order, payments and invoices.
  • How you pay: by bank transfer with a payment reference, or in the NextPay payment screen (pay.nextics.com, a service of our group). The order is recorded in our accounting system (Puxeo). When you pay in the NextPay screen, it receives your SignInOnce sign-in so that the payment is linked to your account. The company that sells Premium to you is named on your order and invoice.
  • Why and legal basis: to provide Premium (contract), and to keep accounting records as Belgian law requires (legal obligation).

3.7 Referrals and invitations

  • What: who invited you, and the Marketeer Profile through which you joined, if any. On Android, the first time you open the app after installing it from Google Play, the app reads the invitation code in the Play install link (Google Play Install Referrer) so that the invitation is credited. A link you opened before installing is kept for at most 30 days so that it can be completed after installation. We share your account identifier and display name with our Marketeer Profile service to credit the invitation.
  • Why and legal basis: to credit invitations and referrals under the program you joined (contract).

3.8 AI assistants in NextICS

  • What: NextICS offers chats with AI assistants (for example HorAion, KoioAI and Fortuna). When you write in such a chat, the text of your message is sent to our agent service, which may use an AI model from an AI provider acting as our processor. We send the conversation text, not your name or e-mail address. Please do not include personal data that your question does not need.
  • Why and legal basis: to answer you (contract).

3.9 Support and your requests

  • What: what you send us through the channels in section 1, and what we did with it.
  • Why and legal basis: to answer you and handle your request (contract, or steps you ask for before a contract); to keep a record of notices you give us, such as a withdrawal, a cancellation, a complaint or a data protection request, and of how we handled them (legal obligation, and our legitimate interest in being able to prove it).

3.10 Misuse and the law

  • What: information about content or accounts that break the law or our rules, and the measures we take.
  • Why and legal basis: to handle reports of illegal content as the EU Digital Services Act requires (legal obligation), and to protect users and the service (legitimate interest). Measures against content or accounts can be contested and are then reviewed by a member of our team.

3.11 The app on your device

  • Permissions — always asked first, and only when you use the feature:
    • Camera: to scan QR codes (to add contacts, open links and pay) and to take photos you send in chats and posts. Scanning happens on your device; camera images are not sent to us unless you send a photo.
    • Photos: to choose pictures to send, to set your profile picture, or to read a QR code from a saved picture.
    • Location (only while using the app): only when you share your location in a chat (section 3.3).
    • Notifications: section 3.4.
    • Face ID / fingerprint: if you turn on biometric unlock, your fingerprint or face is checked by your device's operating system. The app only learns whether the check succeeded. We never receive biometric data.
    • The app does not use the microphone and does not access your address book. The Contacts screen lists NextICS users, not the contacts on your phone.
  • Stored on your device: the data that keeps you signed in (in your device's secure storage; in the web app, in your browser's storage), your settings, your notification token, and an invitation code you opened, until it is used.
  • App updates: the app downloads updates from our own update server at api.nextics.com.
  • What the app does not contain: no third-party analytics, advertising or crash-reporting tools.
  • App stores and test versions: if you get the app from the Apple App Store or Google Play, or a test version through Apple TestFlight or Google Play testing, the store handles your data under its own privacy policy. Test versions: Apple or Google may share with us the feedback, screenshots and crash reports you choose to send through TestFlight or Google Play, together with technical information about your device.

3.12 Server logs and the website nextics.com

  • What: when you use the app or open a page of nextics.com, our servers receive technical data so they can answer: your IP address, the date and time, the address requested, and your browser or app type. We use IP addresses to limit the rate of requests and block abuse.
  • Why and legal basis: to deliver the service and keep it working and protected against abuse (legitimate interest).

3.13 NextApps and connected services

When you open a NextApp from NextICS, that app receives what it needs to sign you in: for example your SignInOnce sign-in, your account identifier, or a sign-in session shared inside NextICS. This applies to CID Global, NextPay, BNSense, eTicketBooker, VAIOX, Puxeo, Brandologic and the other NextApps listed in the app. Some NextApps open in your browser. Each NextApp handles your data under its own privacy policy. Services of our group that work with your NextICS chats (for example VAIOX, the AI assistants of section 3.8 and IrisCall) can read and send messages in the chats they take part in, but cannot change your money, identity or settings.

3.14 Legal requirements and legal claims

We use or disclose personal data where the law requires it, for example at the lawful request of a court or a public authority (legal obligation), and where needed to establish, exercise or defend legal claims (legitimate interest).

4. No sale, no advertising profiles, no marketing without your say

  • We do not sell personal data.
  • We do not use third-party analytics or advertising tools in the app, the web app or on nextics.com, and we do not build profiles of you for advertising.
  • We do not currently send newsletters or marketing messages. If we start, we will ask for your consent first where the law requires it, and every message will let you unsubscribe.

5. Who receives your data

We share personal data only as far as needed for the purposes in section 3:

  • Our hosting: the NextICS platform, our file storage (CherryFile), SignInOnce, CID Global, our accounting system and the website nextics.com run on the Octera cloud in Belgium (GIG.tech, Brussels).
  • Apple and Google, for notifications (section 3.4) and for app distribution and test versions (section 3.11).
  • IrisCall and its telecom partners, and Smstools, for SMS codes (section 3.2).
  • Cloudflare, for reading the balance of a public wallet address you link (section 3.5); exchanges whose accounts you link, at your request (section 3.5).
  • The AI provider used by our AI assistants, as our processor (section 3.8).
  • Companies of our group that provide parts of NextICS: NextPay (payments), Puxeo (accounting), the Marketeer Profile service (referrals), BNSense (communities and stories), IrisCall (messaging) and the NextApps you open (sections 3.3, 3.6, 3.7 and 3.13).
  • Other NextICS users, for content you choose to share (section 3.3).
  • Our accountant and professional advisers, under a duty of confidentiality, and public authorities and courts where the law requires it (section 3.14).

Processors act only on our instructions and under a contract that protects your data.

6. Transfers outside the European Economic Area

Our own platform, databases and file storage run in Belgium, and we do not intend to transfer your personal data outside the European Economic Area (EEA). Some providers we use are, or belong to, groups based outside the EEA:

  • Apple and Google (notifications, app stores and test versions);
  • Cloudflare (public wallet balance reads);
  • the AI provider of our AI assistants;
  • the telecom partner that delivers an SMS to a phone number outside Belgium may be located in the country of that number.

Where personal data leaves the EEA through such a provider, this happens only with a safeguard the GDPR recognises: an adequacy decision of the European Commission (for example the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, for a US company certified under it) or the European Commission's standard contractual clauses. You can contact us for information about the safeguard that applies.

7. How long we keep your data

Data How long
Account, profile and content you created (chats, posts, reactions, follows, photos and files) As long as your account exists. When you delete your account (section 8), it is hidden and you are signed out immediately; 30 days later this data is permanently deleted, unless you sign in again within those 30 days to cancel. Your account record is then kept only in anonymised form. Your name stays visible in existing chats as "Deleted account".
Messages and posts you delete yourself Hidden immediately; their text is permanently removed when your account is deleted
Phone number Until your account is deleted
Sign-in attempt records (hashed phone number and IP address) 12 months
Notification tokens Until you sign out, turn notifications off, or delete your account
Sign-in events (SignInOnce) 90 days
Server and website access logs 90 days
Orders, invoices, payments, settlements and commission records 7 years, as required by Belgian accounting law, or longer where tax law requires it
Linked external accounts and read-only access keys Until you remove the link or delete your account
Notices and requests you send us As long as needed to handle them and to prove how we handled them, and at most 7 years after the matter is closed

Where the law requires us to keep data longer, or where data is needed for a legal claim, we keep it for that purpose only and for as long as needed. Deleted data may remain in backup copies for a limited time, until those copies are overwritten.

8. Your rights

Under the GDPR (Articles 15 to 22) you have the right to:

  • access your personal data and receive a copy;
  • have incorrect data corrected and incomplete data completed;
  • have your data erased, where the GDPR provides for it (we cannot erase accounting records we must keep by law);
  • restrict the processing of your data in the cases the GDPR provides for;
  • receive the data you gave us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and have it transmitted to another controller (data portability);
  • object at any time, on grounds relating to your situation, to processing based on our legitimate interest. You can always object to direct marketing;
  • not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing that has legal or similarly significant effects on you (section 9).

Delete your account in the app: Settings → Account → Delete account. See section 7 for what happens next.

We tell the recipients of your data about any correction, erasure or restriction, unless that is impossible or would take disproportionate effort, and we tell you who they are if you ask.

Consent. Where we rely on your consent, you can withdraw it at any time, as easily as you gave it. This does not affect processing before the withdrawal.

How to exercise your rights. Contact us through the channels in section 1. We may ask you to confirm your identity, for example by signing in, before we act on a request. We answer within one month. If a request is complex, or we receive many, we may extend this by up to two more months; we tell you within the first month if we do. Exercising your rights is free, unless a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.

Complaints. You have the right to lodge a complaint with the Belgian Data Protection Authority (Gegevensbeschermingsautoriteit / Autorité de protection des données, www.dataprotectionauthority.be), or with the supervisory authority of the EU country where you live or work or where an infringement took place. We would appreciate the chance to deal with your concern first, but you do not have to contact us before going to the authority.

9. Automated decisions

We do not make decisions about you based solely on automated processing that have legal or similarly significant effects on you. The automatic settlement of an open amount from amounts credited to you in your NextWallet is a calculation you agreed to, not an assessment of you. We do not use automated content moderation.

10. Minimum age

NextICS is for people aged 18 or over. We do not knowingly process data of anyone under 18. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18, we close it and delete the data, except data we must keep by law.

11. Security

Connections to nextics.com, the app's servers and SignInOnce are encrypted (HTTPS). Photo metadata is removed before storage, sign-in codes are stored only in hashed form, and the app hides its screen in your phone's app switcher. We take technical and organisational measures to protect personal data in line with the risk. No system is completely secure. If a personal data breach is likely to result in a high risk to you, we will inform you without undue delay, as the GDPR requires.

12. Cookies and similar technologies

nextics.com. The website does not use cookies for analytics, advertising or tracking, and loads no third-party scripts. WordPress, which runs the website, sets cookies only for our own staff when they sign in to manage the website. If cookies or similar technologies that need your consent are ever added, we will update this page and ask for your consent first.

The app and the web app. The app and the web app store only what is needed to keep you signed in, to remember your settings and to complete an invitation (section 3.11). Signing in through SignInOnce sets the cookies needed to keep your sign-in session, and NextApps opened inside NextICS share that session. These are strictly necessary and do not need your consent. NextApps may use their own cookies; their own cookie information applies. Signing out of NextICS clears these.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy, for example when we add a feature or a provider. The version and date at the top show when it last changed. We tell you in NextICS before a change that materially affects how we use your data takes effect. Earlier versions are available on request through the channels in section 1.