Privacy policy

Controller

The controller responsible for processing within the meaning of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is:

For any question about data protection, and to exercise the rights listed below, an email to info@tailways.app is enough.

The essentials

• Tailways can be used without an account. Dogs and walks then stay on the device.
• The app always loads the map from OpenFreeMap, also without an account. OpenFreeMap then sees the device’s IP address and the part of the map shown.
• With an account, we back up dogs and walks, including the recorded track points, on our server and share them with the members of the user’s own household.
• No advertising, no tracking, no analytics, no crash reports.

This website and our server

For every visit to tailways.app and every request the app makes to our server, our web server writes a log entry: IP address, time, request method, requested path, status code, size and duration of the response, and the request headers, such as the identifier of the browser or the app. It removes request parameters before writing, so that no location ends up in the log.

The pages of this website set no cookies, contain no scripts and load nothing from other servers.

The legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR: our legitimate interest in running the server securely and in detecting errors and abuse.

The app without an account

Without an account, the app stores dogs, walks and the recorded track points on the device only. These data are excluded from the operating system’s backup. We receive none of it.

Map: the app loads map images, fonts and map symbols directly from OpenFreeMap (Hyperknot Software Kft., Hungary). OpenFreeMap receives the device’s IP address, the app’s technical identifier and which parts of the map are loaded. When the map follows the user’s position, this shows roughly where the device is. How OpenFreeMap processes these data is described in its privacy policy.

Location: the app reads the device’s location to show it on the map and to record walks. On Android devices with Google Play services, those services determine it. Which data Google receives depends on the device’s settings and is governed by Google’s privacy policy; we have no influence on it.

Sharing and photos: a walk postcard leaves the device only when someone shares it or saves it to the photo library; it then goes to the app chosen for that. The app reads a dog photo from the photo library only on request.

The legal basis for loading the map is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR: our legitimate interest in showing a map without serving map data ourselves.

The app with an account

Signing in: an email address is all an account needs. The app sends it to our server together with the language set in the app, and we send a six-digit code to that address. The code is valid for 10 minutes.

For the account we store the email address, the language for our emails, a self-chosen display name if one is set, and the household the account belongs to.

Sessions: after signing in, the app receives access keys. On the server we store only check values (hashes) of them, no IP address and no device identifier. An access key is valid for 12 hours, a renewal key for 90 days after it was last used.

Backup: with an account, the app sends dogs (name, breed, date of birth, weight), walks (start, end, distance, duration, which dogs came along, removed stretches) with all recorded track points (position, accuracy, speed, time), and a random identifier of the installation to our server. This starts when signing in; there is no separate switch for it.

From these, our server works out which terrain a walk went through, which walks in the household happened together, and which areas of the map the household has already explored. We delete these derived data together with the walk.

Dog photo: before uploading, the app removes all of the photo’s metadata, including location, and scales it down to at most 1280 pixels on its long side. All members of the household see the photo.

Snaccs and Jaccpots: so that they can appear nearby, the app sends the current location to our server, on Android also during a recording in the background. The server does not store this request, and the location is removed from the log.

We store collected Snaccs and Jaccpots with the walk they were collected on, together with the time of collecting. Because a Snacc or Jaccpot is tied to a fixed place, it roughly reveals where the walk went.

Loop suggestions: for accounts that have this feature enabled, the app sends the chosen starting point to our server to work out round walks. We store neither the starting point nor the loops worked out.

Out-on-a-walk notice: during a recording, the app tells the other members of the household which dogs are out right now and since when, without any place. The notice lapses 10 minutes after the app’s last sign of life and is deleted when the walk ends.

The legal basis for processing with an account is Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR, because we need the data to provide the features the account was created for.

Household

Members of a household see each other’s walks with the full route, the shared dogs, and the other members’ display names and email addresses.

Invitations: whoever invites someone enters that person’s email address. The invitation email names the inviting person’s email address. An invitation is valid for 14 days. We delete it 30 days after it expires, so 44 days after it was made, even if it was accepted, declined or withdrawn before then, or the invited person has deleted their account. If an expired invitation is withdrawn later, or replaced by a new one to the same address, this period starts only then. If the inviting person’s account or the household is deleted first, the invitation is deleted with it.

When someone joins or leaves, our server moves the walks concerned in one job. We delete finished jobs 7 days after they finish.

Whoever leaves a household keeps copies of the dogs. Walks that stay with the household then show “a former member” instead of a name.

Emails

We only send emails that belong to using the app: the sign-in code, the code for a new email address, after a change a security notice to the previous address (it names the new one), and invitations to a household. No advertising, no newsletter.

To send them we use the email service Sweego (Mindbaz SAS, France) as a processor. It receives the recipient’s address and the content of the email.

Recipients

• Hosting: our database and our web server run on a rented server at Hetzner in Germany (processing on our behalf).
• Sending emails: Sweego (Mindbaz SAS, France), see “Emails”.
• Map: OpenFreeMap (Hyperknot Software Kft., Hungary), directly from the app, see “The app without an account”.
• Location on Android devices with Google Play services: Google, through those services.
• The other members of the user’s own household, see “Household”.

Beyond that we pass on no data, and we sell none.

Transfers to third countries

Our server and our email service process the data in the European Union.

According to its own statement, OpenFreeMap may use Cloudflare (USA) as a content delivery network. The IP address may then reach the USA when the map loads.

Google’s terms apply to the location service provided by Google, also to any processing outside the European Union.

Retention and deletion

• We keep the account and the backed-up data until they are deleted in the app or the account is deleted.
• An account can be deleted in the app under Settings. Deletion happens at once and for good; sign-in codes and sessions are deleted with it.
• If the household has other members, what remains after an account is deleted is: walks that stay with the household on request (“Leave them with the dog”), with no link to the deleted person; the dogs and their photos with the household; of walks taken along, only an empty identifier, so that other devices delete them too; collected Snaccs and Jaccpots only as an anonymous count; on handed-over walks, the random identifier of the installation that recorded them; derived map areas until our server’s next calculation run.
• If the deleted account was the only member of its household, we delete the household with all its data.
• We delete the log entries written when someone opens tailways.app or the app contacts our server, at the latest 14 days after they are written.
• We do not currently make backup copies of the database.
• On the device, the data stay until they are deleted in the app or the app is uninstalled.

Rights of the people concerned

Every person concerned has the right of access (Art. 15 GDPR), rectification (Art. 16 GDPR), erasure (Art. 17 GDPR), restriction of processing (Art. 18 GDPR), data portability (Art. 20 GDPR) and to object to processing based on legitimate interests (Art. 21 GDPR).

An email to info@tailways.app is enough. We provide a copy of the backed-up data on request; the app has no export function yet.

The account and the backed-up data can be deleted in the app at any time.

Permissions granted, for example for location, can be withdrawn at any time in the device’s settings.

The app works without an account and without providing personal data. An account needs an email address; without one there is no backup and no shared household.

There is no automated decision-making, including profiling (Art. 22 GDPR).

Right to complain

Every person concerned can complain to a data protection supervisory authority (Art. 77 GDPR). The authority responsible for us is the Saxon Data Protection and Transparency Commissioner (Sächsische Datenschutz- und Transparenzbeauftragte).

No advertising, no tracking

Tailways contains no advertising and no tools for analytics, tracking or crash reports, neither third-party nor our own. There are no push messages through third-party services.

This website sets no cookies.

App permissions

• Location (precise and approximate): for the user’s own position on the map and for recording walks, while the app is in use or a recording is running.
• Foreground service and notifications: so that a recording keeps running with the screen locked and is visible as a notification.
• Internet: for the map and the account.
• Photos: only when a dog photo is chosen or a postcard is saved.
• No access to the camera, contacts, or location in the background without a running recording.

Last updated

Last updated: 17 October 2026. We update this policy when the app or our service providers change.