Privacy Policy
Train Radar shows live train positions across Europe. We designed it to work without accounts and without collecting personal profiles. This policy explains, specifically and honestly, what data the app processes, why, where it is stored, and what your rights are under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the UK GDPR.
1. Who is responsible
The data controller for Train Radar is the app's publisher, contactable at support@trainradar.co. Full legal details are on the Impressum page.
2. The short version
- No account, no registration, no email address, no name.
- The app identifies your device with a random anonymous identifier — we cannot link it to you.
- Your device location is used on the device only, to centre the map. It is never sent to our servers.
- We use Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics (Google) for usage statistics and crash reports, RevenueCat for subscription status, and Apple's AdServices for anonymous install attribution.
- We do not sell data. There are no third-party ads and no advertising trackers.
- This website sets no cookies and loads no third-party resources.
3. What the app processes, and why
3.1 Anonymous device identifier
On first launch the app generates a random identifier for your device. It is not derived from your hardware, phone number or any Apple account and is not shared across apps. We use it to store your followed trains and your subscription status on our backend. Legal basis: performance of the service you request (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).
3.2 Followed trains and push tokens
When you follow a train, we store on our server: your anonymous device identifier, an Apple push token, the followed train's identifier, and — while a Live Activity is running — an ActivityKit push token. This is the only way to deliver arrival, platform and disruption notifications and to update the Live Activity on your Lock Screen. These records are deleted when you unfollow, when the journey ends, or when Apple reports the token invalid. Legal basis: performance of the service (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).
3.3 Subscriptions (RevenueCat and Apple)
Purchases are made through Apple. We never see your payment details, Apple ID or invoice address — Apple processes the payment under its own privacy policy. To know whether your device has an active Train Radar subscription, we use RevenueCat (RevenueCat, Inc., USA) as a processor: it receives the anonymous app-user identifier and Apple's purchase receipt, and tells our backend whether the entitlement is active and until when. RevenueCat's privacy policy: revenuecat.com/privacy. Legal basis: performance of contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR).
3.4 Analytics and crash reports (Firebase)
The app uses Firebase Analytics and Crashlytics (Google Ireland Ltd. / Google LLC) to understand which features are used and to fix crashes. Events are aggregate and feature-level (for example "train detail opened"); they never contain your location, your followed trains' identities as a journey profile, or any account data. Crash reports contain device model, OS version and stack traces. Google acts as our processor under the Google Ads Data Processing Terms (business.safety.google/adsprocessorterms); transfers outside the EU/UK are covered by the EU Standard Contractual Clauses and the EU–US Data Privacy Framework. Legal basis: legitimate interest in improving and stabilising the app (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
3.5 Apple Search Ads attribution (AdServices)
To know whether an install came from an Apple Search Ads campaign, the app asks Apple's AdServices framework for an attribution token and our backend redeems it with Apple once. The result is campaign-level only (for example "install came from campaign X in country Y") and is keyed to the anonymous device identifier — it does not identify you and involves no cross-app tracking, so the app does not show an App Tracking Transparency prompt. Legal basis: legitimate interest in measuring our own marketing (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
3.6 Location
If you grant location permission, the app uses your position on the device only to centre the map and show nearby trains. Your location is never transmitted to our servers or to any third party. The permission is optional; the app works fully without it.
3.7 Server logs and security
Like every web service, our API briefly processes your IP address to deliver responses and to protect the service (rate limiting, abuse prevention). Requests pass through Cloudflare (Cloudflare, Inc.) as a reverse proxy/CDN; our backend is hosted by Hetzner Online GmbH in Falkenstein, Germany (EU). IP addresses are not stored in our application database and are not linked to the anonymous device identifier. Legal basis: legitimate interest in operating the service securely (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR).
3.8 Train data (not personal data)
Positions, delays and journey histories of trains are public-transport operating data from official railway sources, not personal data. Journey history used by the replay feature is kept for 30 days and then deleted automatically. It describes trains, never users.
4. Overview table
| Data | Purpose | Where | Retention |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anonymous device identifier | Follows, subscription status | Our server (Hetzner, DE) | Until you delete the app's data or request deletion |
| Push / Live Activity tokens + followed train ids | Notifications, Live Activities | Our server (Hetzner, DE) | Deleted on unfollow, journey end, or token invalidation |
| Subscription entitlement | Unlock premium features | RevenueCat (US), our server | Life of the subscription record |
| Analytics events, crash reports | Product improvement, stability | Google Firebase | Per Firebase retention settings (max. 14 months for analytics) |
| Apple Search Ads attribution (campaign-level) | Marketing measurement | Our server (Hetzner, DE) | Kept as an aggregate campaign record |
| IP address | Delivery, security | Cloudflare edge, server logs | Short-lived logs; not stored in our database |
| Encrypted database backups | Disaster recovery | Cloudflare R2 (EU jurisdiction), encrypted | 30 days |
5. What we do not do
- No sale or rental of data, to anyone, ever.
- No third-party advertising, no ad networks, no cross-app tracking.
- No profiling or automated decision-making with legal effect.
- This website uses no cookies, no analytics and no external scripts or fonts.
6. Your rights
Under the GDPR and UK GDPR you have the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, data portability, and the right to object to processing based on legitimate interest. Because our records are keyed only to an anonymous identifier, email us from within the app's Settings → Support (which can include your device identifier) or provide it manually so we can locate your records. Write to support@trainradar.co — we answer within one month. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority.
Deleting the app removes the identifier from your device; on request we delete every server-side record associated with it.
7. Children
Train Radar is not directed at children and processes no data that could identify a child. There is no age gate because no personal profile is created.
8. Changes
If we change what the app processes, we will update this policy at this address and update the effective date above before the change ships.
9. Contact
support@trainradar.co · Legal details: Impressum