Privacy Policy

The short version

Homeward does not collect, store, or share your personal data. There are no accounts, no analytics, and no trackers. There is no server, and nothing is ever sent to us. A location leaves your iPhone only for Apple Maps: the area you look at when you pick a spot on the map, and a spot’s coordinates when you name it, to suggest what’s nearby (see Maps, below).

Your location

Homeward points from where you are to a place you’ve saved, so it has to know where you are. iOS asks your permission the first time. Your position is used on the device, in memory, to draw the arrow and work out the distance. It is never recorded, there is no history of where you have been, and it is never uploaded — only the spots you choose to save are kept, as below.

The iPhone app uses your location only while it is on screen. The Apple Watch app can keep using it with your wrist down while you ride, until you arrive or tap Stop. You can turn location off for Homeward at any time in Settings, though the arrow can’t point without it.

Your places

The places you save are kept in the app’s own storage on your device. Each is a point on the map, the time you set it, and a name if you give it one. The app also keeps your appearance and distance-unit choices. When you have an Apple Watch paired, the place the arrow points to is passed directly between your iPhone and your watch through Apple’s Watch Connectivity, so either one can point there. The names you give places stay on your iPhone.

This data is included in your device backup like any app’s data, and it is deleted when you delete the app. You can delete any saved place from the app at any time.

Maps

When you pick a place on the map, the map is Apple Maps. Apple loads the map for the area you’re looking at, and shows your own position on it.

When you name a spot — as you mark it, or later from your places — Homeward offers names of places nearby (a shop, a park, a trailhead) so you can name it with a tap. To find them, the iPhone app sends the spot’s coordinates to Apple Maps, once, as the naming sheet opens. That spot is often where you are standing. Nothing else from Homeward goes with it: not a name, not your other places. Without a connection the app simply doesn’t suggest names.

Both are handled by Apple under Apple’s privacy policy. Homeward does not see or keep anything Apple Maps sends or receives beyond the names you pick.

Purchases

The optional tips in Settings are processed entirely by Apple through the App Store. We never receive your payment information. Tips support development and unlock nothing. Every feature of the app is free, and there are no subscriptions and no ads.

Analytics and tracking

Homeward contains no third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking software, and no third-party SDKs that collect data. We do not use the Advertising Identifier (IDFA) and we do not track you across apps or websites. The app’s privacy manifest declares no collected data types and no tracking domains.

Children

Homeward collects no data from anyone. It is an arrow.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Email arrouse88@gmail.com.