How View on computer stays private
View on computer lets you pair your phone with a browser to see your coverage map on a bigger screen. Pairing is end-to-end encrypted and designed so nothing about your walks is ever readable by anyone but you, including me.
Your walks travel encrypted. A relay server passes
an encrypted blob from your phone to your browser, but it never has
the key to read it.
What's protected
- Your walks travel encrypted. The relay that connects your phone and browser can't read them.
- The key only lives on your phone and the browser you're scanning from. It's generated fresh for each pairing and never sent anywhere in the clear.
- Nothing is stored on the relay after your computer receives it. The encrypted blob is deleted as soon as it's downloaded, or after 10 minutes, whichever comes first.
What to watch for
- Pair in a private place. The QR code contains the encryption key, so don't let strangers photograph it while it's on screen.
- Use the CityWalker scanner, not your camera app, so the key never enters another app.
- Your computer keeps a local copy of what you've received, stored only in that browser. Use "Remove cached map from this browser" in the sidebar to clear it.
There are no accounts and nothing is archived. A successful pairing
deletes the relay's copy, so there's nothing left to look back on
later, by me or anyone else.
For how CityWalker handles data more broadly, see what data CityWalker collects.