Reporting illegal content

Version 7 · Last updated 5 September 2026

Use this page to tell us about content on Relocat that you believe is illegal or breaks our Terms of Service. This page is our notice and action mechanism under the Digital Services Act.

1. Who can report

Anyone can send us a notice. You do not need a Relocat account, and you do not need to be affected by the content yourself. Individuals and organisations can both report. (Art. 16(1) DSA)

Notices are sent by email to privacy@relocat.org. This channel is electronic, free of charge and open to everyone, and a person reads it.

You can also report a Community Map profile from inside the app, on the profile itself.

2. What your notice must contain

Your notice must contain four things. Please give all four, because we cannot act on a notice we cannot check. (Art. 16(2) DSA)

  • Why the content is illegal. Explain, in enough detail for us to follow your reasoning, why you believe the content breaks the law or our rules.
  • Where the content is. Give the exact electronic location: the address of a guest link, or the display name and city of a Community Map profile.
  • Your name and your email address. You may leave both out if your notice concerns an offence under Articles 3 to 7 of Directive 2011/93/EU on child sexual abuse and exploitation.
  • Your good faith statement. Confirm that you believe, in good faith, that the information in your notice is accurate and complete.

3. What we can act on

Your vault is encrypted on your device before it reaches us. We hold ciphertext, and we cannot read a file, a filename or the name of a safe. No law requires us to build scanning, indexing or decryption of vault content, and we will not build it. (Art. 8 DSA)

A notice about a stored file therefore leads to action on the account, on the share or on the guest link, and not on the content itself. (Art. 6(1)(b) DSA)

We can:

  • hide, reject, remove or quarantine a Community Map photo, display name or profile
  • revoke a share with another user
  • delete a guest link, so that its address stops working
  • suspend an account, which ends access from every device on it
  • delete an account

A notice about an encrypted item usually does not give us knowledge of an illegality, because we cannot verify what the item holds. A notice about a guest link that you have opened yourself, and whose content you can evidence, can give us that knowledge. (Art. 16(3) DSA)

4. Confirmation of receipt

If your notice carries an email address, we confirm receipt to that address without undue delay. (Art. 16(4) DSA)

We tell you the outcome at the same address once we have decided.

5. How we decide

A person decides every report. Software sorts the moderation queue and can show an advisory hint to the moderator. It can never approve, hide, remove, quarantine or suspend anything on its own.

We apply and enforce our rules diligently, objectively and proportionately. We have regard to the fundamental rights of everyone involved, including the person who provided the content. (Art. 14(4) DSA)

We record every decision, the reason for it and, for a photo, the advisory scores the moderator saw.

6. The statement of reasons you receive

If we restrict something you provided, we send you a statement of reasons at your account email address. This covers a removed or hidden Community Map photo, a hidden profile, and a suspended or terminated account. (Art. 17(1) and 17(2) DSA)

We send the same statement where we reject a photo before anyone else could see it.

The statement names the measure and its territorial scope and duration, the facts we relied on, whether automated means were used, the legal ground or the contractual ground with our reasons, and the redress open to you. (Art. 17(3) DSA)

7. Complaints about our decisions

Write to privacy@relocat.org if you believe a decision is wrong. Tell us the measure, the date and why you disagree. A person reads every message and looks at the decision again.

Articles 20 and 21 of the Digital Services Act do not apply to micro and small enterprises. Relocat is run by one person with no employees, so we operate no formal internal complaint handling system and no certified out of court dispute settlement body. (Art. 19 DSA)

You can complain about us to the Digital Services Coordinator, which sits at the Bundesnetzagentur in Bonn and acts independently. (§ 20 DDG) It remains your point of contact throughout the complaint, even if it passes your file to another authority.

8. Threats to life or safety

If we learn of information that raises a suspicion of a criminal offence involving a threat to the life or safety of a person, we promptly inform the law enforcement or judicial authorities concerned. (Art. 18 DSA)

In Germany that report goes to the Bundeskriminalamt, which acts as the central receiving body and forwards the file to the competent prosecuting authority. (§ 13 DDG)

9. Terrorist content

The Community Map is open to every registered user, and registration is automatic. What appears on it therefore counts as information disseminated to the public, while your encrypted vault does not. Regulation (EU) 2021/784 on terrorist content covers the Community Map for that reason.

We do not allow terrorist content on the Community Map. We remove it when we find it or learn of it, and we suspend the account behind it.

Authorities send removal orders electronically to privacy@relocat.org, which is also named on our Imprint page. We act on a valid removal order within one hour of receiving it. (Arts. 3(3) and 15(1) of Regulation (EU) 2021/784) In Germany these orders are issued by the Bundeskriminalamt. (§ 1(1) TerrOIBG)

10. Reporting by email

Send your notice to privacy@relocat.org and include the four elements listed in Section 2 in the body of the email. You may attach a screenshot. If an element is missing, we write back and ask for it.

11. Statement of reasons template

We use these fields for every statement of reasons. (Art. 17(3) DSA)

  • Measure. What we did, and to which content or account.
  • Scope and duration. Where the measure applies, and whether it is temporary or permanent.
  • Facts. The facts and circumstances we relied on, including whether we acted on a notice from a third party.
  • Automated means. Whether automated means were used to detect the content or to take the decision.
  • Ground. The legal ground and why the content is illegal, or the clause of the Terms of Service and why the content breaks it.
  • Redress. How to reach us, and that you can complain to the Digital Services Coordinator at the Bundesnetzagentur.

12. Version

Version 7 (September 2026): first publication of this page. Notices are received by email, which is an electronic means under Article 16(1) of the Digital Services Act. It carries the notice and action mechanism under Article 16 of the Digital Services Act, the statement of reasons under Article 17, the report route for threats to life or safety under Article 18, and the contact point for terrorist content removal orders under Regulation (EU) 2021/784.