Privacy Policy

Rail Journeys of a Lifetime(“we,” “us”) makes an offline, GPS-triggered audio guide for scenic rail journeys. The app was built to need as little of your data as possible — there is no account system and no server collecting information about you. This policy explains, in plain terms, exactly what that means.

The short version

• No account, no login, ever. You never create an account or give us your name or email to use the app.
• Your location never leaves your phone. Location is read on-device, in the moment, to work out where you are on the line and play the right story. It is never uploaded, stored by us, or shared with anyone.
• No ads in the app, no profiling, no identifiers. The app shows no advertising and we never sell data. It reports anonymous usage counts (which journeys and screens are used) that you can switch off in Help; see below. The one advertising-related component a build may include is an install signal to Meta so we can measure our own ads (details below).
• The only data that leaves your phone: an anonymous crash report if the app crashes, anonymous purchase-receipt validation when you buy, anonymous usage counts unless you switch them off, an anonymous install signal to Meta in builds that include its SDK, and ordinary content-download requests (details below).

Location

The app asks for location permission so it can detect your position and direction of travel and trigger the correct audio story as you pass each place. All of this happens locally on your device. Your location is not transmitted to us or to any third party — we operate no backend that could receive it. You can revoke location access at any time in your device settings; the GPS-triggered narration will not work without it, though browse mode still will.

Purchases

Journeys and the Rail Journeys Pass are one-time purchases made through Apple's App Store or Google Play. Those transactions are handled entirely by Apple or Google under Apple's Privacy Policy or Google's Privacy Policy. The app learns only that a purchase was completed so it can make your content available; we never see your payment details. To unlock what you bought and support Restore Purchases, the app validates store receipts through RevenueCat, a purchase-infrastructure service acting on our behalf. RevenueCat receives an anonymous app-generated identifier and receipt data — never your name, email, location, or payment details (see revenuecat.com/privacy).

Crash reports

If the app crashes, a crash report is sent to us. A crash report contains technical details only, such as the app version and build, device model and operating system version, device state at the time, a random installation identifier, and a technical trail of recent app activity. Crash reports do not include your GPS location, the content you listen to, payment details, or information that directly identifies you. They are processed by Sentry solely to diagnose and fix software problems.

Anonymous usage statistics

Public release builds count how the app is used so we can see which journeys and screens matter and what to improve: which journeys are opened, searched for, previewed, bought, downloaded and ridden, and which screens are opened. These counts carry no account, no name, no email, no location, no advertising identifier and no device identifier. A search sends only the journeys it matched, never the words you typed. Each app session gets a random number that exists only in memory and is discarded when the app closes, so sessions cannot be linked to you or to each other. The counts are processed by Aptabase, an open-source analytics service, on our behalf, and are not sold or shared. You can switch this off at any time in Help under “Share anonymous usage statistics”. Test builds and builds without an analytics key send nothing.

Advertising measurement

Public release builds of the app (from version 1.0.5) include the Meta (Facebook) SDK so that, when we advertise the app on Meta platforms, Meta can tell us in aggregate how many installs those ads produced. The SDK automatically reports two events, that the app was installed and that it was opened, together with basic device details (device model, operating system version, app version, language and time zone) and an anonymous identifier it generates. That is all it reports: no location, no listening activity, no purchases and no custom events.

We keep this as narrow as the platforms allow. The app never collects the Apple advertising identifier (IDFA) or the Android Advertising ID, and advertiser tracking is switched off in the SDK. On iOS we do not ask for App Tracking Transparency permission, so Meta receives only Apple's aggregate, privacy-preserving attribution (SKAdNetwork). For users Meta locates in California, the signal is processed under Meta's Limited Data Use terms. Meta processes this data under its own Privacy Policy; you can review and limit how Meta uses activity from apps in your Meta account settings (“Your activity off Meta technologies”).

This website

This site sets no cookies, runs no analytics and makes no third-party requests, except journey-film posters and the video player, which load from our video CDN (Bunny) and receive standard request data such as your IP address. The app likewise downloads journey packages and streams preview films from the same CDN; those requests carry standard request data such as your IP address, used solely for content delivery. There are no cookies, so there is no cookie banner. If you email us, we use your address only to reply.

Children

The app is intended for a general audience and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children — or, outside the crash reports described above, from anyone.

Changes to this policy

If we make material changes to this policy we will update this page and the date at the top of it. Because the app collects almost no personal data, changes are likely to be rare and editorial. This version adds the advertising measurement described above.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email support@railjourneysofalifetime.com.