This policy covers two things: the Whistlestop app, and this website. They are different. The app has no accounts, no analytics, no advertising, and no microphone access. It does not identify you, and we keep no record of where you have driven. The website counts visits using Google Analytics, and some posts embed video from other services. The last sections of this page describe both.
Location
The app uses your location and direction of travel to determine what is ahead of you. This is calculated on your phone, continuously while a tour is running, including when the app is in the background. Background access is what allows a tour to continue while you are using Maps.
To identify nearby places, the app sends your coordinates to Wikipedia's public geosearch API and to Apple's geocoder. Those requests are received by the Wikimedia Foundation and by Apple, and are governed by the Wikimedia privacy policy and Apple's.
Our own servers also receive a coordinate, but only rounded to approximately one kilometer, never your exact position. This occurs when the app looks up historical markers as you drive, and when you tap “Where are we?”. The coordinate is used to answer that single request and is not stored, so we hold no record of where you have driven.
Information our servers receive
Writing a story and reading it aloud is performed by our API rather than on the phone, so that the credentials for those services are not stored in the app. These requests contain the text to be processed: an article excerpt, a list of candidate place names, or a finished story to be spoken. They also contain the rounded coordinate described above when the request is a marker lookup or a “Where are we?”. None of this identifies you.
Each request additionally carries two random identifiers and, as with any web request, your IP address. The first identifier is generated when you install the app and is discarded if you delete it. The second is stored in the device keychain and persists across reinstallation, so that a subscription is not lost with the app. Neither is Apple's advertising identifier. Neither is associated with a name, an email address, or an account, because none exist. They are used for two purposes: to prevent a single device from consuming a disproportionate share of capacity, and to count the stops included in your plan.
Text submitted for writing and speech is processed by OpenAI under its API data policy, which states that API content is not used to train its models.
Subscriptions
If you subscribe, Apple processes the payment and we do not receive your card details. Our server stores a record that the subscription exists: the plan, the date it started, and Apple's transaction identifier, associated with the keychain identifier described above. This is what allows the app to determine what you are entitled to, and what allows a subscription to work on your other devices.
Information stored on your device
Your travel log, your favorites, the stops you have already heard, and your settings are stored on the device and are not uploaded. They are included in your iCloud device backup if you use one, subject to Apple's terms. Deleting the app deletes them.
Microphone
The app contains no recording code and never requests microphone permission. Nothing said in your vehicle is captured, processed, or transmitted.
Children
The Family focus changes which places are selected and how their stories are written. It collects no additional information. The app is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect personal information from them. There are no accounts, no profiles, and nothing for a child to register for.
This website
This website uses Google Analytics to measure traffic: which pages are read, which links visitors arrive from, and the general category of device and browser used. We use this to decide which guide pages to expand. It sets two cookies containing a random number, so that one visitor reading four pages is not counted as four visitors. Our host also keeps standard server logs.
Your IP address is received by Google as part of this. Google Analytics uses it to estimate a country and region and does not store it. What is returned to us is aggregate data: pages, counts, countries, and referrers. There is no advertising on this site and no ad network receives anything from it. None of it is associated with a name, an email address, or your activity in the app. Google's handling of this data is governed by its privacy policy.
Some journal posts embed a video. The player is a frame served by the video's host, a service such as YouTube or Vimeo, so loading one gives that company your IP address and lets it set its own cookies, in the same way that visiting their site would. Two things limit that. We request the privacy-preserving player each of them offers, and the frame is not loaded until you scroll to it, so a post you do not read that far into loads nothing at all. Each company handles what it receives under its own privacy policy.
To avoid being counted by Google Analytics, any content blocker will prevent its script from loading, and Google publishes a browser opt-out add-on. No part of the site depends on it. None of this applies to the app, which contains no analytics of any kind.
If you sign up to be notified about the launch, we store the address you entered and the date you entered it, in our own database. We store nothing else, and no third-party mailing service receives it. It is used to tell you the app is available and for no other purpose.
If you contact us through the support form, we store your email address and your message in the same database in order to reply. Support messages are kept until the matter is resolved and are then deleted. We do not add you to any mailing list as a result of contacting us.
Deleting your information
Everything held on the phone, including your travel log, favorites, and settings, is removed when you delete the app. What remains on our side is a subscription record if you have one, a running count of stops against the identifiers described above, and a log of which requests were made and whether they succeeded. None of this contains your name, your email address, or any location you have visited. Also retained are a launch-list address or a support message, if you sent either, and we will delete either on request. Email support@whistlestop.guide and state which. Because there are no accounts, that email address is the only identifier we can match a request against.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes materially, the date at the top of this page will change and the app release notes will say so.
Contact
Questions about this policy can be sent to support@whistlestop.guide. The terms you agree to when you use the app are a separate document: the terms of service.