Privacy policy

Gowalko · last updated 24 September 2026

Gowalko is a self-guided walking-tour app. This policy describes exactly what the app collects, why, who else sees it, and how to get rid of it. It is written against the code that runs the service, and it is kept in the same repository as that code so the two cannot drift apart.

The short version. We collect an email address so you can sign in, your location while you are using the map or walking, which stops you have reached, your quiz answers, and a record of anything you buy. There is no advertising, no analytics, no crash reporting and no tracking of any kind — no third-party SDK in the app collects anything. You can delete your account and everything in it from inside the app at any time.

Who we are

Gowalko is operated by Gowalko. We are the data controller for everything described here.

For anything in this policy, including a request to access, correct or erase your data, write to support@gowalko.com.

What we collect, and why

What	Why	Kept
Your email address, your display name, and a hash of your password	To create your account and let you sign in on more than one device. We never store the password itself.	Until you delete your account
If you sign in with Google: the email address and account identifier Google gives us	The same thing — it is an alternative way to sign in. We do not receive your Google password, and we ask Google for nothing else.	Until you delete your account
Which walk kinds you say you are interested in	To order the list of walks. It reorders and never hides anything.	Until you delete your account
Your precise location, while the app is open or a walk is running	To draw where you are on the map, to tell you when you have arrived at a stop, to find places near you, and to plan and re-plan a route. See below for exactly when it leaves your phone.	Not stored, except the starting point of a walk you build (see below)
Which stops you have reached, if you turn on “Back up my walks”	So a walk survives reinstalling the app. Off by default. It is stored against a random identifier created the moment you switch it on — not against your account, and not against anything identifying your phone. It contains no coordinates.	Until you use “Forget this device”
Your answers to stop quizzes	To mark them and to remember you have answered. Answers only — the app does not send us a score, because a score we cannot check is one we must not store.	Until you delete your account
That you agreed to these terms and this policy: which edition (the date at the top), when, whether it was on the sign-up form or the in-app prompt, and the app's own device label. Not your IP address.	To be able to show that you agreed, and to ask again when either document changes. You cannot create an account with an email address without ticking the box; a Google or Apple sign-in asks before the app can be used.	Until you delete your account
What you search for in the app	To answer the search. It is sent to our server as an ordinary request and is not kept as a profile.	Not stored
Server access logs — the ordinary record of requests reaching our servers, including your IP address	To operate and secure the service: finding faults, and spotting abuse. We rely on our legitimate interest in keeping the service working and unabused; you can object to this at the address above.	A limited period, then deleted
Purchase receipts, what you are entitled to, and invoices	To unlock what you paid for and to keep a proper record of the transaction. We never see your card details — Google Play takes the payment.	Invoices are kept for the statutory accounting period even if you delete your account, and are detached from it when you do (see below)

Location, specifically

Location is the most sensitive thing here, so it is worth being precise about it rather than covering it with one line.

The app asks for location when you start a walk or open the map, never at launch, and you can browse every walk and every place without granting it.
It uses foreground location only. When a walk is running with the screen off, that is a foreground service you can see in your notification shade, started while the app was open. The app does not ask for “allow all the time” background location.
Your position is sent to our server only when it is needed to answer something: to find places near you, to work out which city you are in, to build a walk from where you are standing, and to recalculate a route when you leave the one you were following.
Those requests are answered and not logged as a history. We do not keep a trail of where you have been.
The one exception: if you build your own walk, the starting point you chose is stored with that walk, because the walk would not otherwise exist. Deleting the walk removes it.
Nothing about your location is ever sold, shared for advertising, or used to build a profile.

Who else receives anything

Google Play — takes the payment if you buy something and tells us the purchase is genuine. We never see your payment details.
Google Sign-In — only if you choose it, and only to prove the email address is yours.
OpenFreeMap — serves the map tiles. Like any map, your device requests the tiles it needs directly, so that service sees your IP address and roughly which part of the world you are looking at.
Open-Meteo — supplies the weather shown on a walk page. It receives the name of the city, never your position.
A partner whose offer you open: only if you tap a partner offer, such as a travel eSIM plan. Your browser then opens the partner's own website, which sees that visit the way any website does. We send the partner nothing about you. On our side we count the tap by offer, screen, day and platform, with nothing that identifies you.
Our email provider — delivers the only two messages this service ever sends, and it receives your email address and the contents of that message in order to do so. The first is a six-digit code confirming the address is yours, sent when you create an account and again if you ask for another. The second is a link to reset a forgotten password, sent only when you ask for one. We send no newsletters, no marketing and no notifications by email.

That is the complete list. There is no analytics provider, no crash-reporting service, no advertising network and no data broker.

Where your data is held, and when it leaves Europe

Your account, your purchases and anything else this service stores live on our own servers, in the United States. We do not copy them anywhere else.

Two of the companies above are American, so using those parts of the app sends data to the United States:

Google — for Play Billing if you buy something, and for Google Sign-In if you choose it. Google is certified under the EU–US Data Privacy Framework, which is the legal basis for that transfer. If you never buy anything and sign in with an email address instead, neither happens.
Your device and the map — map tiles are requested by your phone directly from OpenFreeMap, so that service sees your IP address. That is true of any map in any app.

The weather service and our email provider are European. Nothing else leaves our servers at all.

About the machine-written descriptions. Some place descriptions, narration and quiz questions in this app are written by an AI model from public map data, before anybody walks anywhere. Nothing about you is ever sent to it. It never sees your location, your account, your searches or your answers — it runs on our side while content is being prepared, not while you are using the app.

Your rights

If you are in the EU or UK, the GDPR gives you the right to:

see what we hold about you, and get a copy of it;
correct anything wrong — your name and email are editable in the app, and we will fix anything else on request;
have it erased — built in, and immediate, below;
restrict how we use it while a complaint or a correction is being sorted out;
take it with you — we will send you your account data in a machine-readable file on request;
object to any use we base on a legitimate interest, which here is only the server logs;
complain to your national data-protection authority. You do not have to raise it with us first, though we would rather you did.

Why we are allowed to hold it

To perform our contract with you — your account, your purchases, and showing you where you are on a walk.
Because the law requires it — keeping invoices.
Our legitimate interests — server logs, for keeping the service working and unabused.
Your consent — two things, and only two: access to your device's location, and "Back up my walks". Both are off until you turn them on, and you can withdraw either at any time — location in your phone's settings, the backup with "Forget this device" in the app. Withdrawing stops any further use; it does not make what happened before it unlawful.

Do you have to give us any of this?

No, and most of the app does not ask. You can browse every city, every place and every walk, and read every description, without an account and without giving us anything at all. An email address is required only if you want an account — to buy something, to answer a quiz, or to keep your preferences — because there is no way to have an account without one. Location is required only to place you on the map and tell you when you have arrived; if you refuse it, everything else still works.

Erasure is built in and immediate: More → Delete my account in the app. There is a page describing exactly what that removes. For anything else, write to us and we will answer within 30 days.

Children

The app is not directed at children and we do not knowingly collect anything from a child under 13.

Changes

If this policy changes materially we will update the date at the top, and the app will ask you to read and agree to the new edition the next time you open it. Until you do, you can still delete your account from the app.