The developer collects no data about you. There's no account, no advertising, no analytics and no tracking. Nothing you put into Backtrail is sent to the developer.
What stays on your devices
- Your location history, recorded routes, waypoints and trip notes.
- Your Medical ID, emergency contacts and emergency plans.
- Your incident log and Kids' Photos. These stay on the device they were made on (Kids' Photos on your iPhone) unless you share them, and aren't in any backup. Kids' Photos are deleted after a day.
- Your settings, activities and safety check-up.
- Where a hard fall or a fall into water happened, marked on the walk you were recording. Backtrail uses this only to help you, and it goes wherever that walk goes.
During a walk, your iPhone also sends your Apple Watch where your car or starting point is, how far and which way it is, and your turn-back and dark times, so the Watch face and Smart Stack can show the way back. Lock Screen and widget glances show distances, directions and times only, never your Medical ID or emergency contacts.
Your iPhone and Apple Watch share these with each other through Apple's own connection between them. Like any app's data, most of them are also in your iPhone's own backups to iCloud or a computer, if you use those. Otherwise they go nowhere unless you turn on Backtrail's iCloud Backup, or use one of the features listed under What leaves your devices.
iCloud Backup, if you turn it on
iCloud Backup is off until you turn it on in Me, then iCloud Backup. It stores your plans, routes and walks, waypoints, trip note, Medical ID, contacts and settings, with your iPhone's name, in your own iCloud account, end-to-end encrypted with keys kept in your iCloud Keychain. It backs up about once a day, when you leave Backtrail. Neither the developer nor Apple can read it. Apple's privacy policy covers iCloud.
A walk or plan you delete in Backtrail leaves the backup the next time Backtrail backs up. Turn iCloud Backup off to stop backing up; your last backup stays in iCloud until you delete it. To remove it, tap Delete Backup from iCloud in Me, then iCloud Backup, or delete Backtrail's data in Settings, then your name, then iCloud, then Manage Account Storage. Deleting the app doesn't remove the backup.
What leaves your devices, and only when you use it
Each service below sees your device's internet address and that the request comes from Backtrail, plus only what its entry describes.
- Topo map tiles. To show and save maps, Backtrail downloads map tiles from Ordnance Survey (Great Britain), the US Geological Survey, Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand, NSW Spatial Services and Geoscience Australia. Those services see which map squares were requested. The map on Now follows you, so when you open Backtrail with signal this shows roughly where you are, or where you were looking. Backtrail sends them nothing else. Apple's map, which Backtrail shows under the topo maps and where there are none, is provided by Apple under Apple's privacy policy.
- Find Each Other. While you're in a group, your name, position and battery level go straight to the other iPhones in it nearby, every few seconds, encrypted, phone to phone, with no server or internet. Close up, iPhones with Ultra Wideband also measure the distance and direction between them. Only phones that joined with your group's code, from its QR code or the link you share, can read them. Everyone in the group sees your name.
- Tide times. In the US, New Zealand and Ireland, Backtrail works out tide times on your iPhone from data that comes with the app, from NOAA (the US government's tide service), Toitū Te Whenua Land Information New Zealand and Ireland's Marine Institute, so nothing is sent for them. On other coasts, approximate tide times come from Open-Meteo (below). About once a week (daily while a check is failing), right after a sea forecast downloads, Backtrail also checks its estimates by asking Open-Meteo and NOAA about three fixed US tide stations, which sends nothing about you or where you are.
- Sea conditions and approximate tides. When you plan a trip on the water, and when you open tide times or get ready for a coastal walk with no tide station near, Backtrail asks Open-Meteo, an independent weather service, for the waves, swell, water temperature and sea level there: where the trip or walk starts, or where you are if you haven't picked a route or are looking up tides where you are. That sends that location to Open-Meteo.
- Fires and flood warnings. When you plan a walk or a trip, Backtrail checks official sources for known fires and flood warnings near where it starts, or near where you are if you haven't picked a route. For New South Wales (with the ACT) and Queensland it downloads each state's whole list, so those services, and Amazon Web Services, which hosts Queensland's, learn only that you're checking somewhere in or near that state. For places in or near the US (including southern Canada and northern Mexico) it asks the National Interagency Fire Center's map service, which Esri runs, and for places in or near England (including Wales, southern Scotland, Northern Ireland and the east of Ireland) the Environment Agency, which also sends the outlines of nearby flood areas. Those two are told only which grid square the place is in, about 5.5 km north to south and 2 to 5 km east to west, never the exact place.
- Weather. When you plan a walk, get ready for a route or open the Weather screen, Backtrail asks Apple Weather for the forecast where the walk starts, or where you are if there's no route, which sends that location to Apple. Apple's privacy policy covers it, and nothing goes to the developer.
- Messages and calls. When you tell someone your plan, send a quick message or call for help, the text or call goes through the Messages and Phone apps on your iPhone or Apple Watch, to the people and numbers you choose. Messages Backtrail writes for you include your exact position, a map link and your battery level, and you see them before they're sent. A trip note also links to a trip card on Backtrail's website, where the person you told can see your plan and add a calendar reminder for when to call. The plan is written into the link after the “#”, a part browsers never send to a website, so the site never receives it. The calendar reminder holds the plan without its notes. If they choose to open your starting point in a maps app, or to add the reminder to Google Calendar, that service receives those details.
- Health. If you turn on Save Walks to Health, finished walks are saved in the Health app as Hiking workouts with their route, distance and climb, and, for walks recorded on Apple Watch, heart rate and active energy. Apple's Health privacy applies. While one of these walks records on Apple Watch, Health measures your heart rate, distance and energy for the workout, and Backtrail shows your heart rate on your Watch and iPhone. Backtrail reads nothing else from Health and doesn't send any of it anywhere.
- Backtrail Plus. Buying Plus, and checking it's yours, goes through the App Store under Apple's privacy policy. Apple gives the developer sales totals, not who bought it.
- Siri and Spotlight. Your guides, waypoints, routes and plans are listed in Spotlight on your iPhone, and that index stays on your iPhone. When you ask Siri about them, Apple handles the request under Apple's privacy policy. Nothing goes to the developer.
- Translation. Help in Another Language translates your phrases and Medical ID on your iPhone with Apple's Translation. The first time you use a language, your iPhone downloads it from Apple; your words aren't sent anywhere.
- Apple Intelligence. The pack check runs on your iPhone with Apple's on-device model. Your trip details don't leave your iPhone for it.
- Links. Links to official sources, such as avalanche centres, tide tables and fire and flood pages, open in Safari, where that site's own privacy policy applies.
- Crash reports. If you choose to share analytics with app developers in your iPhone's settings, Apple may pass anonymous crash reports to the developer.
Children
Backtrail doesn't knowingly collect information from anyone, including children.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new date.
Contact
Sean Henley · seanhenley@gmail.com