Privacy

We understand that precise location data is sensitive information. Therefore, the privacy of our users is our utmost concern. We have taken various steps in the development of the Android application and website to protect the privacy of our users. These features include the blackout radius, aliases, and the option to delete your data. This page will outline the data we collect and these features in greater detail.

Data Collected

When the tracking switch is activated, the app collects location (GPS) and accelerometer data. This data is stored locally (on the device) alongside a timestamp and the trip ID. When the upload button is pressed, the app attaches this data to a unique user ID before sending it off to the server. 

The user ID is a randomly generated string of 32 hexadecimal characters, created when a user uploads data or sets an alias (see below) for the first timeSince it is randomly generated, the device or person who uploaded the data cannot be recovered from the user ID. Thus, all data is uploaded anonymously.

The data you upload is stored on a remote server and made visible to anyone on the map website. Additionally, individuals or organizations may request the raw data.

Users Id vs. Aliases

Users may create an alias to view, download, or delete their data from the remote server. This alias will be connected to your user ID. It may be used in the alias filter on the website or included in communications to identify your data. The alias can be set or updated in the settings menu, but it must be unique. After attempting to set its value, you will receive either a success message or an error message indicating whether it has been updated. You can see your current alias in the settings menu as well. The list of aliases is kept on the server, but it is not made publicly available. 

You are not required to set an alias, however, if you wish to delete your data, you must provide an alias since the generate random user ids cannot be attributed (not even by the app creators) to anyone in particular.

Note that your data will be visible on the map website together with the other data regardless of the alias. Setting an alias only enables filtering for your specific alias.

Blackout Radius

The blackout radius is intended to prevent your home or place of work from being discovered. When uploading to the server, the app will ignore some data around both the starting and ending points of each trip. The amount of data removed is controlled by the blackout radius. After pressing the upload button, the app looks at the beginning of your trip and finds the first instance in which you are farther than the blackout radius away from your starting point. It will only start uploading data from that point onwards. Similarly, it finds the last time when you were at least that far away from your destination, and it only uploads the data until that moment. This obscures the actual starting and ending points of your trip on the map. The radius (in meters) can be changed in the settings menu. The default value is 50 m, but you can choose any value from 0-500 m. There are two important factors to note with this feature. Firstly, your entire trip will still be shown to you in the app, it only affects which data is sent to the server (and publicly visualized). Thus, you must check the map website if you are concerned about the data that you have uploaded. Secondly, there may still be data that shows up in the blackout radius. Since it only removes data from the start and end of your trip, if you rode past your destination in the middle of your trip, that data would still be shown.

Below is an example of how the blackout radius works. Pictured are four trips that either started or ended at this gazebo in a park, but the data on the server stops short of the actual start/destination.  In this case, the blackout radius was set to 30 meters, and its effect can be visualized by the red circle overlayed on the image. In the app, it would still show all of the lines going to the gazebo.

Deleting Data

You may delete your data from the remote server at any time. This can be performed through the app's settings menu under "Delete Remote Data". This will remove all location and accelerometer records corresponding to that alias (and corresponding user ID) from the database. This includes records that were uploaded under a previous alias from the same device. Your alias is also deleted.  Local data can be deleted from the settings menu to free up local storage in your device

You will also be allowed to request to download your data using a Download Request Form. Include your alias if you wish to only receive your data prior to having it deleted.