Privacy Policy

Last updated: April 2026

CityWalker is built as a tool to help you track your walking progress and street coverage. This page explains our policies regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of personal data when you use the app.

1. Information Collection and Use

CityWalker is designed with a privacy-first approach. Your location data is yours alone.

• Location data: The app requires access to your device's GPS (Fine Location) to record your walks and calculate which streets you have covered. This collection occurs only during active walk recording.
• Foreground service: To ensure your walk is recorded accurately even when the app is in the background or your screen is off, we use a Foreground Service. A persistent notification is shown while tracking is active.

2. Data Storage

All location data, walk history, and city progress are stored locally on your device in a private database. No coordinates, paths, or personal behavioural patterns are transmitted to any external server.

3. Third-Party Services

The app interacts with the following services:

• Cloudflare Workers (CityWalker proxy): Requests for a city's street data are routed through a Cloudflare-hosted proxy that caches Overpass API responses for performance. Cloudflare may log your IP address and the request URL for security and abuse-prevention purposes. No GPS coordinates, walk history, or personal information are sent.
• OSMDroid / OpenStreetMap tile servers: Display map tiles. Tile servers may receive your IP address. Your walk history is not transmitted.
• Overpass API (overpass-api.de and mirrors): Backup endpoints used when the proxy above is unavailable. Requests contain only city queries. No GPS coordinates or personal information are included.
• Nominatim (OpenStreetMap): Resolves city names to map boundaries. Requests contain only city names.
• Google Play Services (FusedLocationProvider): Provides device location while a walk is being recorded. Google's own privacy policy applies to this service.
• Firebase Crashlytics (optional, off by default): If you turn on crash reporting in Settings, anonymized crash reports, including stack traces, device model, Android version, and app version, are sent to Google Firebase. No GPS coordinates, walk history, or personal identifiers are included. You can turn this off at any time in Settings.

4. Permissions

• Fine and Coarse Location: Required to track movement during walks and to detect which area of a multi-region city you are currently in (used to highlight the matching area in the region picker).
• Background Location (Foreground Service - Location): Allows walk recording to continue when the app is in the background or the screen is off. A persistent notification is shown while tracking is active.
• Foreground Service - Data Sync: Used to download a city's street data in the background when you start a walk before the city has finished loading.
• Notifications: Required on Android 13+ to display tracking and download notifications.
• Internet: Required to download map tiles and street layout data.
• Wake Lock: Keeps the CPU active during walk recording so GPS samples are not dropped.
• Vibrate: Used for short haptic feedback (for example, confirming a walk has started or finished).

5. Importing Walks (GPX)

You can optionally import walks from GPX files (for example, exported from Strava, Garmin, or Komoot). When you import a GPX file:

• The file is read directly from your device's storage using Android's standard file picker.
• All processing, including matching the route against city streets, happens entirely on your device.
• No GPX file contents are transmitted to CityWalker, Cloudflare, or any third party.

6. Children's Privacy

CityWalker does not address anyone under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from children.

7. How to Delete Your Data

All data is stored locally on your device. There is no remote server to delete data from.

To delete everything:

1. Open CityWalker
2. Go to Settings
3. Scroll to the About section
4. Tap Delete All Data
5. Confirm deletion

This permanently removes all cities, street data, walk history, GPS tracks, coverage progress, and app preferences.

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. You are advised to review this page periodically for any changes.

9. Contact

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, contact us at [email protected].