WhatTown

WhatTown: Privacy Policy

Last updated: 11 October 2026

Developer: Algoris

Contact: algoris.eu@gmail.com

This Privacy Policy describes how the WhatTown app for Android (Polish name: CoToZaMiasto, package name com.algoris.whattown) handles information. The app is developed by the developer named above ("the developer", "we").

Summary

  • WhatTown has no user accounts, no advertising and no analytics. We do not sell your data or use it for advertising.
  • Your trips, notes and photos are stored only on your device. The developer has no access to them.
  • To display the name of the town you are in, your location is converted into a place name by the geocoding service built into your phone (on most Android phones, provided by Google).
  • If you use “Rebuild trips from photos”, the place saved in the photos you pick is converted into a town name by the same service. Only town names and times are saved.
  • The app asks Google Play whether a newer version is available. Updates are handled by Google Play.
  • If the app crashes, a crash report is sent to Firebase Crashlytics, a service provided by Google. The report contains technical information only, without your location, place names or anything you enter in the app.

What the app does

WhatTown detects when you start turn-by-turn navigation in Google Maps or another navigation app and shows a small overlay with the name of the town or area you are currently in. Each drive can be saved as a list of towns with times, which you can browse later, group into journeys and supplement with notes and photos.

Information processed on your device

  • Location. While the overlay is active, the app receives your location periodically: about every 15 seconds, once you have moved at least 200 metres. The overlay turns on automatically during navigation in Google Maps or another navigation app, when you plug in a charger (only if you switch that on), or when you turn it on by hand. An overlay started by the charger switches itself off, and saves no trip, if the phone does not move within ten minutes. The app does not use your location while the overlay is off.
  • Trip history. For each drive, the app saves a file listing the towns you passed through, with the date and time, and the distance driven. Trip files do not contain coordinates: the distance is added up on the phone from successive positions, and only the total is saved. While the overlay is on, the towns are also written to a working file, so that a drive interrupted by the phone shutting down or the app being killed is not lost; that file is deleted as soon as the drive is saved.
  • Notes, overnight stops and photos that you add to a stop. Photos you select in the system photo picker are copied into the app's private storage together with any metadata embedded in them, which may include the place where the photo was taken. The app has no access to your other photos.
  • Trips rebuilt from photos. If you choose “Rebuild trips from photos”, the app reads the date and the place saved in the photos you pick in the system photo or file picker and saves a trip made of town names and times, just like a recorded one. The coordinates from the photos are used only to look up the town name and are not saved, and these photos are not copied into the app. Android hands the place saved in a photo to an app only after you allow access to photos and videos, so the app asks for it when you start this feature. It still reads only the photos you pick and never browses your gallery.
  • Reminders that you pin to a town: the town name and your text. The app only compares them with the town name the overlay already shows, so they cause no extra location or network requests.
  • Notifications. With notification access, the app only checks which app posted a notification and the notification's category, to recognise a navigation notification (Google Maps, Yanosik and any other app that marks its notification this way). It does not read, store or send the content of any notification.
  • Settings, such as the overlay position, text size and whether the overlay starts automatically.

This data is stored in the app's private storage, which other apps cannot access. It is not sent to the developer, except as described in the next section.

Information that leaves your device

Place names (reverse geocoding)

To turn coordinates into a town name, the app uses Android's built-in Geocoder service. On devices with Google Play services, this service is provided by Google, which receives the coordinates in order to return an address. Your position itself is determined by Android location services, which may use GPS, Wi-Fi and mobile networks depending on your device settings. The developer does not receive this data. Google's processing is covered by the Google Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy.

The same service is used when you rebuild trips from photos: for each photo you pick, the place saved in it is sent to the service to get the town name.

Crash reports (Firebase Crashlytics)

The app uses Firebase Crashlytics, provided by Google, to learn about crashes and fix them. When the app crashes, it sends a report that contains:

  • technical details of the error (the stack trace);
  • the device model, Android version and app version, and technical details about the state of the device at the time of the crash (for example, available memory and storage);
  • a random installation identifier generated by Crashlytics, which is not linked to your name, Google account or advertising ID;
  • the most recent technical log entries for the current session (up to about 64 KB), describing app events such as the overlay starting, the screen turning off while the overlay is shown, or a place name being found. They do not contain your location, place names, file names or anything you enter in the app.

Crash reports do not include your trip files, notes or photos. Crashlytics keeps crash reports for 90 days. More information: https://firebase.google.com/support/privacy.

Diagnostic function

The app includes a diagnostic function intended for troubleshooting together with the developer. When you trigger it, the app creates a diagnostic report in Crashlytics with the recent log entries described above and a snapshot of the app's technical state (whether notification access is still working and how long ago the last notification event arrived, whether the overlay is shown, and whether Android is restricting the app to save battery), which is sent the next time you open the app. The snapshot does not contain the names of other apps or the content of any notification. It can also open your email app with a message to the developer, but only in test builds that write a technical log file to the device. The published version does not write one. Any such email is sent only if you choose to send it.

App updates (Google Play)

The app asks Google Play whether a newer version of WhatTown is available: when you open the app, and also once a drive has been saved, so that an app you mostly use while driving can still tell you about an update. If there is one, the app either lets Google Play offer the update straight away or, after a drive, shows a quiet notification that opens that same Google Play offer. You can turn that notification off in Android settings, in the “App updates” channel. The check is a conversation between the app and the Google Play app on your device; the developer receives nothing from it and Google Play handles it under Google's privacy policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy.

Showing a route in Google Maps

„Maps” next to a day of a journey (and “Show whole journey in Maps”) opens Google Maps with a route through the towns of that day. The town names are part of the address the app hands to Google Maps; the app itself sends nothing anywhere, and nothing is added to your trip files. What happens next is governed by Google Maps: https://policies.google.com/privacy.

Sharing a trip

If you choose to share a trip, the trip file is passed to the app you select in the Android share menu (for example, your email app). What happens to it next is governed by that app.

Sharing a photo

If you tap “Share” while viewing a photo, the app passes that photo to the app you select in the Android share menu. It is the copy stored by the app, so it keeps any metadata embedded in it, which may include the place where the photo was taken. The app itself sends nothing; what happens to the photo next is governed by the app you chose.

Saving a backup

If you choose “Save a backup”, the app writes all of its data (trips, journeys, notes, photos and reminders) into a single ZIP file, in the place you pick yourself (for example Downloads or a cloud drive). Nothing is sent anywhere by the app; where that file then goes, and who can read it, is up to you. Restoring from such a file only adds data to this phone and never overwrites or deletes what is already here.

Sharing a journey album

“Share as an album” turns one journey into a single HTML file (the timeline, your notes and copies of the photos attached to the stops, all inside that one file) and hands it to the app you pick in the Android share menu. The app itself sends nothing; what happens to the file afterwards is governed by the app you chose and by whoever you send it to.

Device backup

The app allows Android backup. If backup is turned on in your device settings, Android may include the app's data in your device backup stored in your Google account. Backups are managed by Android and Google; the developer has no access to them.

What is included depends on the kind of backup:

  • Backup to your Google account covers trips, journeys, notes, reminders and settings, but not the photos you attached to stops and not the diagnostic log file. Photos are left out because this kind of backup is limited to 25 MB per app; a few camera photos would use up that limit and the backup would stop running altogether.
  • Transferring to a new phone (cable or Wi-Fi, during setup of the new device) covers everything, including the photos, but not the diagnostic log file.

What we don't do

  • We don't show ads and don't use analytics or advertising identifiers.
  • We don't sell your data or share it with third parties other than the service providers described above.
  • The app doesn't require an account and doesn't ask for your name, email address or contacts.
  • The app doesn't track your location while the overlay is off.

Permissions

The app asks for the permissions below. You can revoke any of them in Android settings; the related feature will then stop working.

  • Display over other apps: to show the town name on top of Google Maps or another navigation app.
  • Notification access: to detect when navigation in Google Maps or another navigation app starts and ends.
  • Location (precise and approximate): to determine the town you are in.
  • Background location ("Allow all the time"): to receive location updates while the navigation app, not WhatTown, is on screen.
  • Notifications: to show the ongoing notification displayed while the overlay uses your location, and the occasional notice that a newer version is available.
  • Photos and videos (location saved in photos): asked only when you use “Rebuild trips from photos”, to read the place saved in the photos you pick. Without it Android removes that place before the app can read it. The app doesn't read any photo you haven't picked.

Legal basis (users in the European Economic Area)

The developer is the controller of the personal data contained in crash reports, diagnostic reports and emails you send to the developer. We process this data on the basis of our legitimate interest in keeping the app stable and fixing errors (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR) and, for emails, in responding to your request. Data processed only on your device is not collected by the developer.

Google acts as our data processor for Firebase Crashlytics. Data may be processed outside the European Economic Area, including in the United States; Google protects such transfers with appropriate safeguards, such as the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

How long data is kept

  • Data on your device: until you delete it in the app, clear the app's data or uninstall the app. Deleting a trip also deletes its notes and photos; deleting a journey removes only the grouping, and its trips remain.
  • Crash and diagnostic reports in Crashlytics: 90 days.
  • Emails with diagnostic logs: only as long as needed to resolve the issue.

Your rights

You have the right to access, rectify and erase your personal data, to restrict or object to its processing, and to data portability. To exercise these rights, contact us using the details below. Because crash reports are not linked to your identity, we may ask for details that help us find them, such as your device model and the approximate time of the crash.

You can delete all data stored by the app at any time by clearing its storage in Android settings (Apps → WhatTown → Storage → Clear storage; names may differ between devices) or by uninstalling the app.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority. In Poland, this is the President of the Personal Data Protection Office (UODO): https://uodo.gov.pl/en.

Children

The app is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, we will publish the updated version on this page and update the "Last updated" date.

Contact

Algoris
Email: algoris.eu@gmail.com