Privacy Policy

Your data, in plain English

Effective November 14, 2026

This policy explains what the Arkeedo app and this website collect, why, who else handles it, and how to delete it. We've tried to write it the way we'd explain it to a friend.

1. Who we are

Arkeedo ("we", "us") makes the Arkeedo app, which plays GPS-triggered audio stories made by local storytellers. We're a small, independent team. For anything about your privacy, email hello@arkeedo.com.

2. What we collect

Your account

You need an account to start a tour. When you sign in we receive:

• Your email address. If you use Sign in with Apple and choose "Hide My Email", we receive a private relay address from Apple instead of your real one.
• How you signed in: Apple, Google, or an emailed sign-in code.
• Your name, only if Apple or Google shares it with us when you sign in. We don't ask for it otherwise.
• A random account ID, which our systems use to tell accounts apart.

We don't use passwords, so we never store one.

Your location, during a tour only

When you tap Start Tour, the app asks to use your location. While the tour runs, your phone compares your position with the tour's stops, and when you're close enough to one, its story starts. That comparison happens on your phone. We don't upload a running trail of where you go.

• iPhone: if you allow location "Always", stories keep playing while your phone is locked. The app only does this while a tour is running, and iPhone shows its location indicator while it does. Tapping Stop ends it.
• Android: the app keeps the screen on during a tour instead and doesn't use location in the background.

When no tour is running, the app doesn't use your location at all.

When a story plays

Each time a story starts by itself because you reached its stop, we save a short record:

• the tour and the stop
• the date and time it played
• your position at that moment, and how far you were from the stop
• your account ID, so the record is linked to you

The record is saved on your phone first and uploaded once you have signal, so plays heard in a dead zone aren't lost. Sometimes, such as when the phone itself wakes the app at a stop, there is no position to save, and the record holds only the stop and the time. Stories you play again with the replay button aren't recorded.

If you make tours

If you're an invited storyteller using our creator tool, we also store the tours you make: titles, descriptions, map points, scripts, cover images, audio and route files. Published tours are visible to everyone using the app.

Technical logs

Like almost every online service, the providers that run our servers (see section 6) automatically keep basic logs when your phone or browser connects to them, such as your IP address, the time, and the type of device or browser. We use these logs only to keep the service running and secure. The app has no analytics or advertising tools built in.

Payments

Arkeedo is free right now, so we don't collect any payment details. If paid tours arrive, we'll update this policy before they do.

3. What stays on your phone

Some things are saved only inside the app's private storage on your phone, and are never uploaded:

• Tour progress: which stories you've heard on a tour, so you can resume after a break. It's ignored after 24 hours and cleared when you finish the tour.
• Downloaded tours: the audio and route lines you save for offline use. You can remove a download from the tour's page.
• Your sign-in, so you stay signed in. Signing out removes it.

The only item that leaves your phone is the list of story-play records waiting to upload, described above. Deleting the app removes everything stored on the phone.

4. What we don't do

• We don't show ads, and we don't share your data with advertisers.
• We don't sell your personal data, to anyone.
• We don't track your location when no tour is running, and we don't build a history of your movements.
• We don't access your contacts, photos, camera, microphone or files.
• We don't follow you across other apps or websites. This website sets no cookies and runs no tracking scripts.

5. Why we use it

• To play the stories: your location starts each story at the right place, in the right order.
• To run your account: your email lets you sign in and lets us reply when you contact us.
• To let you resume a tour if the app closes or you take a break.
• To pay storytellers fairly: counts of how often their stories are played help us pay the people who make the tours.
• To improve tours: seeing where stories start, and how close to the stop, tells us when a stop is in the wrong place or needs fixing.
• To keep things safe and working: preventing abuse and fixing problems.

Storytellers may see totals for their own tours, such as how many times a stop was heard. Those totals don't say who you are.

6. Who else handles it

We use a few trusted services to run Arkeedo. They handle data on our behalf, or because you chose to use them:

• SupabaseOur database, accounts and file storage. Your account, your story-play records and the tour audio live here.
• ResendSends the sign-in code emails, so it receives your email address.
• Apple and Google sign-inIf you choose them, Apple or Google confirms who you are and shares your email (and your name, if you allow it) with us. Their own privacy policies apply to your Apple or Google account.
• Apple Maps (iPhone) and Google Maps (Android)Draw the map inside the app. They load map images for the area on your screen. Your position is shown as a dot on your phone.
• OpenStreetMap-based routing (router.project-osrm.org and routing.openstreetmap.de)Used to draw a tour's route line along the roads. The app sends them the tour's stop locations, not yours.
• Google Maps navigationWhen you tap Navigate with Google Maps, the app opens Google Maps with the tour's route. Google Maps then uses your location for directions under Google's own privacy policy.
• Your GPX appWhen you download a GPX route, you choose which app opens it (for example Calimoto, REVER or Garmin). That app's own privacy policy applies.
• ExpoDelivers app updates. Each time the app opens it checks Expo's servers for a newer version, which sends your IP address, device type and app version.
• CloudflareHosts this website and forwards email sent to hello@arkeedo.com. It receives your IP address when you visit, and the emails you send us.
• Google FontsSupplies the headline font on this website, so your browser sends your IP address to Google when a page loads.
• ElevenLabsStorytellers use it to turn their written scripts into narration. It receives scripts only, never any listener data.

Our providers may store and process data in the United States and other countries. We may also share information if the law requires it, to protect people's safety, or if Arkeedo is ever merged or sold, in which case this policy would still apply to your data.

7. How long we keep it

• Your account is kept until you delete it.
• Story-play records stay linked to your account until you delete your account. After that we keep only an anonymous version (see below), because storytellers' counts depend on it.
• Sign-in emails are kept in Resend's delivery logs for a limited time, under their own retention schedule.
• Backups: our providers keep routine backups, which are overwritten on their normal schedule.

8. Deleting your account

You can delete your account at any time:

• In the app: tap the Account icon, then Delete account.
• By email: write to hello@arkeedo.com from the email address on your account. We'll delete it within 30 days and let you know when it's done.

What is deleted: your account, your email address, your name (if we had it), your sign-in connection to Apple or Google, and your profile.

What stays, without your identity: for each story you heard, we keep only that a stop on a tour was heard, and when. We remove your account ID and the position you were at, so the record can no longer be connected to you. Storytellers' counts stay correct this way.

Deleting your account doesn't delete the app or what's stored on your phone. Delete the app to remove those too. If you own tours in our creator tool, the app can't delete your account on its own. Email us instead, and we'll remove your tours or keep them, whichever you choose, and delete your account. More detail is on the Delete account page.

9. Your choices and rights

• Location: you can change Arkeedo's location permission at any time in your phone's Settings. Without location, stories can't start by themselves.
• Access, copy or correct: email us and we'll send you a copy of the data linked to your account, or fix anything that's wrong.
• Delete: see section 8.

Depending on where you live (for example the EU, the UK or California), the law may give you extra rights, such as objecting to how we use your data or complaining to a data protection authority. We honour these requests from everyone, wherever you live. Email hello@arkeedo.com and we'll reply within 30 days.

10. Security

Data travels between the app and our servers encrypted (HTTPS). Our database has access rules so that each listener can read only their own story-play records, and nobody can change or erase them from the app. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your data and will tell you if a breach affects you.

11. Children

Arkeedo isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect data from them. If you think a child under 13 has created an account, email us and we'll delete it.

12. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top of this page. If a change is significant, such as collecting something new, we'll tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.