TrackHound Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy describes how TrackHound ("App") handles information when you use the app. It covers the iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and Android versions. Where a platform differs, it says so.
1. Data We Process
- Location data: with your permission, your device location is used to show your position on the map, to plan routes from where you are, and to record a ride if you start one. Routing runs on your device. Your position is not sent to us, and it is not sent to anyone for advertising or tracking. When the app needs the name of a place you are at, or which country you are riding in, that coordinate is passed to the operating system's own geocoding service.
- Searches you type: a destination search is answered from a region pack you have downloaded whenever it can be. When it cannot, the text you typed is sent to the operating system's geocoding service, and on Android to Photon (photon.komoot.io) if the system has no answer for it. Only the text goes. No coordinate travels with it, so a search does not reveal where you are. Searches shorter than two characters, and anything that parses as a coordinate or a map link, are not sent at all. Recent searches are kept on your device so you can pick them again, and you can clear them in the app.
- Contacts: if you choose to pick a destination from Contacts, the app reads that contact's first postal address and turns it into coordinates using the operating system's geocoding service. It does not read or store any other contact data.
- Calendar: if you choose to ride to something in your calendar, the app reads the titles, times and locations of your upcoming events so it can offer the ones with somewhere to go. Titles and times stay on your device. To put an event's address on the map, that address is passed to the operating system's own geocoding service, the one your phone already uses for its own addresses, and never to Photon. The app only ever reads your calendar. A leave by reminder is handed to your calendar app pre-filled, for you to save or discard, so nothing is written, changed or deleted without you doing it.
- Map tiles and region packs: map style tiles come from OpenFreeMap (tiles.openfreemap.org). Region packs you choose to download come from our release storage. Like any download, these requests show the server your IP address and which area you asked for. Routing itself runs entirely on your device against the data you have downloaded, so no route request is ever sent anywhere.
- Routes and waypoints: routes you create, waypoints you set, favourites you save, recorded rides and your preferences (vehicle, route style, units) are stored on your device. They are not synced to us or to anyone else.
- Purchases: TrackHound Pro is sold through Apple's App Store or Google Play, whichever you installed from. The store handles the payment and tells the app what you are entitled to. We never see your payment details. To check an entitlement the store identifies your device or account to itself, which is why the Google Play listing notes a device identifier.
- Diagnostics: system logs are written through the platform's own logging (Apple's unified logging, or Android's logcat) and stay on your device. The app can also assemble a settings diagnostic report, which stays on your device unless you choose to send it to us. There is no crash reporting service and no advertising SDK in the app, and no analytics at all in the Android version. The iOS version carries one measurement SDK, described next.
- Counting which ads work (iOS, from version 1.16.19): the iOS app includes Google Analytics for Firebase, for one job only, which is telling us whether an ad actually brought a rider in. It reports that the app was opened for the first time, plus coarse facts like device model, language and country, and an app instance identifier Google generates. No advertising identifier is collected and you will never see a tracking permission prompt, because the part of the SDK that reads one is not in the app at all. Ad personalisation and the two advertising consent signals are switched off, so this is counting, not profiling, and nothing is used to target ads at you. None of it involves where you ride: no route, no position and no trip is sent. The Android version has none of this.
2. How Data Is Used
Data is used only to run the app: showing your position, planning and showing routes, turning an address you chose into a point on the map, recording a ride if you asked for one, and managing the regions you have downloaded. Nothing is profiled, and nothing is used to advertise to you. Routing happens entirely on your device.
3. Data Sharing
We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it for advertising. The app contains no advertising SDK and no cross-app tracking. Four outside services see anything at all, and only what is described above: OpenFreeMap serves map tiles, Photon answers an Android search the system could not, the operating system's own geocoding service turns addresses into coordinates, and on iOS Google Analytics for Firebase counts first opens so we can tell which ads work. Each is governed by its own terms.
4. Data Retention
Data stored on your device (routes, waypoints, favourites, recorded rides, recent searches, preferences and downloaded regions) stays there until you remove it in the app or uninstall the app. Addresses sent for geocoding are used to answer that one request and are not retained by us. We hold no account and no server-side copy of your data, because there is no account to hold.
5. Security
We rely on the protections the platform provides, including app sandboxing on Apple platforms and Android. Every request the app makes to a network leaves over HTTPS. Because there is no account and no server of ours holding your data, the usual target is not there to attack.
6. Your Data and Deleting It
There is no TrackHound account, so we hold nothing of yours to hand over or erase. Everything the app keeps is on your device: clear recent searches, favourites, saved routes and recorded rides in the app, delete a downloaded region from the Regions screen, or uninstall the app to remove all of it at once. If you have sent us a diagnostic report and want it deleted, write to the address below and we will delete it.
7. Children's Privacy
TrackHound is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect personal data from children.
8. Policy Changes
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The effective date at the top indicates the latest version.
9. Contact
Privacy requests and support: michelstorms@icloud.com, or https://michelstorms.com/