Privacy Policy

DarkStops does not require an account. Most app content stays on your iPhone; this policy explains the limited information that leaves it and the choices you control.

What we collect

DarkStops does not require an account and does not ask for your name. Your shortlist and the places you mark as visited are stored locally on your device. The one time we ask for your email address is if you choose to report a problem with a place, explained below.

Location

If you allow it, DarkStops reads your location to sort places by distance and to centre the map on you. It is used on your device and never sent to us or anyone else. Turning on alerts for new places also stores a deliberately coarse anchor (rounded to a cell of roughly seven miles) on your device, so the app can tell whether a newly added place is near you. You can refuse or withdraw location access at any time in iPhone Settings; the map and search keep working without it.

These are the categories DarkStops declares on its App Store listing. Each is explained in the sections above and below:

• Crash data
• Performance data
• Device identifier
• Purchase history
• Location
• Email address (only when you send a report)
• What you write in a report
• Other diagnostic data
• Anonymous product interactions (only when you opt in)

The email address and message in a place report are linked to the reporter so we can reply. Purchase, diagnostic and optional product-interaction data are not linked to your identity. None of these categories is used to track you across other apps or websites.

Optional anonymous analytics

After the welcome card, the app asks whether you want to share anonymous product interactions. The default is off. If you opt in, we send events such as opening the app, selecting a place, opening directions, using filters, or adding a place to Shortlist or Visited. These events may include a catalogue place identifier, result counts and broad action categories. We also receive redacted JavaScript error diagnostics so we can identify and group app problems; error messages and code variables are removed before transmission.

We never include what you searched for, a place you searched for, your coordinates, report text, email address or place description. Session replay, advertising tracking, person profiles and location enrichment are disabled. You can stop future collection at any time in Settings > Privacy > Anonymous Analytics. Anonymous events are processed in the EU and deleted after 12 months.

Reporting a problem with a place

Our place listings come from public sources and our own research, so some of them will be wrong. If you tap Report on a place, the app sends us what you wrote, the reason you picked, which place it was, your email address, and the app and iOS versions. Nothing else is attached, and the app sends nothing at all unless you fill the form in and tap send.

Your email address is used for one thing: replying to you if we need more detail. It is not added to a mailing list, not used for marketing, and not shared with anyone. Reports reach us as an email and are never published, shown to other people in the app, or used to build a profile of you.

Service providers

RevenueCat manages purchases and restores. It receives an anonymous identifier and your purchase history so the app knows whether your premium unlock is active.

PostHog Cloud EU receives the optional anonymous product interactions and redacted JavaScript error diagnostics described above only after you opt in. It is not used for advertising or cross-app tracking.

Cloudflare hosts this website and delivers place reports to our inbox as email. It sees the report you send and the network address it came from; the address is used only to stop the form being abused and is never attached to the email we read.

Place photographs are not bundled in the app — it loads them from this website as you browse, so each request reaches Cloudflare with your network address, exactly as opening a web page does. Nothing identifying you is sent with the photograph request. If you opted into analytics, a separate product event may record the catalogue identifier of a place you selected or opened.

Tracking

DarkStops does not track you. We do not use advertising identifiers, we do not build advertising profiles, we do not share data with data brokers, and we never sell your data.

Your data and your rights

The in-app Reset Local Data action removes your lists, preferences and analytics choice from the device; deleting the app also removes local content. Turning off Anonymous Analytics stops future events, while events already sent expire after 12 months. You can restore purchases at any time from Settings > Restore purchases (and a Restore button on the paywall). If you want a place report, its email address, or identifiable provider data deleted sooner, contact us via the support page and we will handle the request where the record can be identified.

Children

DarkStops is not directed at children and does not knowingly collect information from children.

Changes

If this policy changes we will update this page and the date above. Continued use of the app means you accept the current version.