Privacy policy

The short version

No accounts. There's nothing to sign up for, and Choo! never asks for your name, email or phone number.
No ads, analytics, crash reporting or tracking. The app contains no advertising or analytics code and doesn't use Apple's advertising identifier.
Your exact location stays on your phone. It's used to show spots near you and to keep a Lock Screen Live Activity up to date, and it's never sent to us. To show trains moving on the map, the app asks the Choo server about the part of the map on screen, rounded to about half a kilometre. While the map is following you, that's roughly where you are. The server doesn't record it.
Your spots stay on your phone, unless you follow one on your Lock Screen (the server is told where it is, to keep that Live Activity up to date, and forgets it when it ends) or send an issue report (see below).
Issue reports are only sent when you tap Send. They help put things right, and contain no account or contact details.

Who we are

Choo! is made by Andrew Bennet, an independent developer in the UK, who is responsible for the data described here. You can get in touch at hello@choo.express.

What stays on your phone

Your location. If you allow it, Choo! uses your location on the phone to show where you are on the map, to show and refresh the spots near you, and, while you follow a spot on your Lock Screen, to keep that Live Activity running and up to date as you walk there. Choo! never sends your location itself to the Choo server or anyone else. It does send the part of the map you're looking at, rounded, as described below. You can turn it off in Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services; Choo! still works, but won't know which spots are near you.
Your spots (their names, where they are and how they're set up), and the times you tap "A train just passed", which Choo! uses to fine-tune each spot's timings. They're kept in the app and shared with its own widgets.
Notifications about unusual trains are scheduled on your phone from the times the app already has. No push notification service is involved.
A short recording for issue reports. So that a problem can be looked into afterwards, the app keeps the last two hours of what it received from the server and what it showed on screen (up to about 20 MB), in its caches on your phone. Older parts are deleted as it goes. It only leaves your phone if you send an issue report.

Deleting the app deletes all of this.

What the app sends, and to whom

To show train times, the app has to ask for them. These requests are about trains and places on the railway, not about you, and they don't include your location, your name or any identifier for you or your phone, apart from a followed Live Activity's push token (below).

Who	What the app sends	Why
The Choo server (ours, hosted by Fly.io in London)	For each of your spots: the stations either side and how far along between them it is, or for a Tube spot, the station and line. While you watch a spot: the area of the map around it. While you look around the map: the part of it on screen, rounded to about half a kilometre, to show the trains there. When you add a spot: where you put it, to find the nearest railway line. The id of a train you tap. The app's build number.	To answer with the trains passing your spots, where they are now, and their journeys; and to check your version of the app still works with the server.
The Choo server, while you follow a spot on your Lock Screen	That spot: where it is, its directions and how they're set up, and your phone's time zone and clock setting. The Live Activity's push token from Apple. The app's build number.	To keep the Live Activity up to date through Apple's push service while the app isn't running. The server keeps this on its disk only until the Live Activity ends (at most 45 minutes), then deletes it.
Transport for London (TfL Unified API)	A station and line, only if the Choo server can't answer for a Tube spot.	To get Tube, DLR, Overground and Elizabeth line times directly.
OpenStreetMap (public Overpass servers)	The place on the map where you're adding or watching a spot (not your own location).	To find the nearest railway line and its shape.
Wikipedia	The name of a type of train, e.g. "Class 450".	To show a picture and a line about that type of train.
Apple (Apple Maps)	Map tiles, and anything you type into search.	To draw the map and find places and postcodes. Apple handles this under its own privacy policy.

IP addresses

Like any request on the internet, each one carries your internet (IP) address, which the service receiving it can see. The Choo server uses it only to limit how many requests one address can make, so the service stays up for everyone. It's held only in the server's memory for that, never logged, and discarded when the server restarts or needs the room. The one exception: while you follow a spot on your Lock Screen, the server keeps a short hash of the address with that Live Activity, on its disk, to limit how many one address can start, and deletes it when the Live Activity ends. The server doesn't keep a log of the requests themselves. Fly.io, which hosts the server, processes requests to deliver them, under its own privacy policy. TfL, OpenStreetMap's servers, Wikipedia and Apple see your IP address when the app contacts them, under their own policies.

Issue reports

If something looks wrong, you can choose "Report an Issue" (from Settings, from a spot or a train, or by shaking your phone). Nothing is sent until you write a note and tap Send. If it can't be sent straight away (no signal on a footbridge, say), it's saved on your phone and sent the next time Choo! opens.

A report contains:

the last two hours of what the app received from the Choo server (and from TfL, if it asked) and what it showed on screen, including when you opened spots and trains, and the positions of spots and of the map that those requests already contained;
your note, and the spot and train it's about, if you pick them;
a screenshot of the app, unless you choose "None";
your saved spots, with their names, where they are and how they're set up;
the app's version and build, your iPhone's model, its iOS version, and its language, region and time zone setting.

It doesn't contain your location as such, an account, your name or contact details, unless you type them into the note. Please don't. But the screenshot can show where you are on the map, and if the map was following you, the parts of the map in the requests above are near where you were.

Reports are kept on the Choo server's disk, as sent, so they can be read to find and fix problems. They're read only for that. When all the reports kept together pass 300 MB, the oldest are deleted to make room. They aren't shared with anyone else. If you'd like a report deleted sooner, email us with roughly when you sent it and what your note said, and we'll delete it.

Children

Choo! is made for grown-ups to use with children, not for children to use on their own. It doesn't collect personal data from anyone, children included.

This website

This website has no cookies, no analytics and no tracking, and loads nothing from other companies' servers: no fonts, scripts or embeds. The animations run in your browser and send nothing back. The site is hosted by GitHub Pages: GitHub sees your IP address when your browser asks for a page, as any web host does, and logs it for security, as its privacy statement describes.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask what personal data we hold about you, and ask us to correct or delete it. In practice the only thing we might hold is an issue report you chose to send, which we can find from when you sent it and what it said. Email hello@choo.express. If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.

Changes

If Choo! ever starts sending anything new, this page will change first, and the date at the top will say when.

Your trains, not your data.