In short
- No account. You never sign up, sign in or give us your name or email to use Shoal.
- Location only while you use the app, on your iPhone, to show nearby stops and pick your city. We do not store it or send it to us.
- Your favourites, saved trips and reminders stay on your iPhone and, if you use iCloud, in your own private iCloud storage. We cannot see them.
- No tracking. Shoal never asks to track you across apps and websites, and has no analytics SDK.
- Ads are non-personalised and are served by Google AdMob. They never receive your location, stops, lines or trips from Shoal. You can remove them with a one-time purchase.
Who we are
Shoal (“we”, “us”) is an independent transit app for iPhone. For any privacy question, write tosupport@getshoal.app.
Location
Shoal asks for your location only while the app is in use (“While Using the App”). It never asks for background (“Always”) location. Your location is used on your iPhone to find the stops near you, to measure walking distances and to choose your city’s timetable. Shoal does not keep a history of where you have been and does not send your location to us.
When you plan a trip with a city’s online journey planner, the start and end points of that trip (which can be your current position) are sent to that planner to get an answer, as described underTransit data. Planning on your iPhone sends nothing. You can say no to location, or turn it off at any time in iOS Settings; you can still search stops and plan trips by name.
Camera
The camera is used only while you scan a stop sign’s QR code or stop number. The image is read on your iPhone and nothing is recorded, stored or sent.
Favourites, saved trips and settings
Saved stops, lines, services, sets, trips and reminders are stored on your iPhone. When iCloud is on for Shoal, they sync between your devices through your own private iCloud database, which is under your Apple Account and which we have no access to. Data the app shares with its own extensions on your iPhone (such as widgets) stays in an App Group container on the device.
If you add your own developer key for a city’s live data, it is stored in your iPhone’s Keychain and used only to request that city’s data.
Deleting the app removes its data from your iPhone. To remove synced data, delete Shoal’s data in iOS Settings › your name › iCloud › Manage Storage.
Notifications
Departure reminders are local notifications: they are scheduled by Shoal on your iPhone. We do not run a push notification server and do not receive your reminders. You can turn notifications off in iOS Settings at any time.
Transit data and the services Shoal talks to
To show timetables and live times, Shoal downloads each city’s timetable to your iPhone and asks the city’s transport data services for live departures, vehicle positions, alerts and, where available, trip plans. These requests contain what is needed to answer them (for example a stop, a line or the ends of a trip), and never your name or an account.
- Some of these requests go through a small relay that we run on Cloudflare, which adds the app’s access keys and caches public answers so the operators’ limits are respected. The relay does not store your requests. Cloudflare, as our hosting provider, processes them and may keep short-lived operational logs (such as the IP address and the requested address) for security and troubleshooting.
- Other requests go straight from your iPhone to the operator’s service, which, like any web server, receives your IP address.
- Maps, and searching for places and addresses, use Apple Maps (MapKit), covered byApple’s privacy policy.
The data sources, their licences and attribution for each city are listed on theCities page. Shoal is not affiliated with or endorsed by any of them.
Advertising
Shoal shows a few ads, served by Google AdMob. Every ad request asks fornon-personalised ads, and Shoal never shows Apple’s “Allow to track” prompt, so the advertising identifier (IDFA) is not available to Google or to us. Shoal gives the ad service only the ad slot and its size: never your location, stops, lines, trips or anything you save.
Even for non-personalised ads, Google’s software in the app collects some information to deliver ads, limit how often you see them, measure them and prevent fraud. According to Google this can include your IP address (which it uses to estimate a general location such as your city), device and app information (such as the model, operating system version and an identifier specific to this app), how you interact with ads, and diagnostic data. Google is responsible for that processing; seehow Google uses information from apps that use its servicesand Google’s privacy policy.
Remove ads is a one-time in-app purchase. Payment is handled entirely by Apple; we never see your payment details. Once bought, no ads are requested at all, on every device signed in to your Apple Account.
Analytics and crash reports
Shoal contains no analytics or tracking SDK. If you have chosen to share analytics with app developers in iOS Settings, Apple may give us aggregated, anonymous usage statistics and crash reports. You can turn this off in Settings › Privacy & Security › Analytics & Improvements.
Children
Shoal is a general-audience app and is not directed at children under 13. It does not knowingly collect personal information from children.
Your choices and rights
Because we hold no account or personal profile about you, there is nothing for us to export or delete. You control everything the app keeps: location and notification permissions in iOS Settings, your saved items in the app and in iCloud, and the app itself. Depending on where you live (for example under the GDPR, the UK GDPR, the Australian Privacy Act or US state laws) you have rights over your personal information; for anything Google processes for ads, use Google’s tools linked above. Write to us with any question or request.
This website
getshoal.app is a static website hosted on Cloudflare Pages. It sets no cookies, has no analytics and loads nothing from third parties. Your theme choice (light or dark) is remembered in your browser only.
Changes
If this policy changes, we will update it here and change the date at the top. Significant changes will also be noted in the app’s release notes.