Privacy Policy

World on Foot · Effective July 2, 2026

World on Foot is a GPS audio walking-tour app. The short version: we use your location to tell you about places around you, and we do not store it, sell it, or use it to build a profile of you. There are no accounts, and we don't ask for your name or email to use the app.

Information we handle

Location. With your permission, the app uses your device's location to find points of interest near you and to start audio narration as you move. Your location is processed on your device to choose nearby spots. To deliver specific features, limited location data is sent to third-party services only to fulfill your request in real time: (a) to look up nearby landmarks, approximate coordinates are sent to Wikipedia's geosearch service; (b) to draw walking routes, the start and end coordinates are sent to our routing provider; (c) map tiles are loaded from OpenStreetMap based on your current map view. We do not store your location on our servers, tie it to your identity, sell it, or use it to build a profile or advertising dataset.

Audio narration. To speak descriptions of places, the text to be narrated (such as the name and description of a nearby landmark) is sent to our text-to-speech provider, ElevenLabs, to generate audio. Generated audio is cached on our servers by place, language, and voice — keyed to the content, not to you.

Anonymous technical data. To operate the service and prevent abuse, our servers process anonymous technical identifiers (such as a randomly generated in-app ID used only for rate-limiting) and aggregate, non-identifying counts (for example, how many narrations were generated). This is not linked to your name, email, or an account.

Feedback you send. If you email us feedback from within the app, we receive what you choose to include (which may include your email address and the app version and language), used only to reply and improve the app.

Purchases. The app is currently free. If paid subscriptions are offered later, purchases are handled by Apple and our subscriptions provider (RevenueCat); we receive only an anonymous entitlement status, never your payment details.

How we use information

To show and narrate places near you, draw walking routes, display maps, generate and cache audio, and to operate, secure, and improve the service and prevent abuse. We do not use your information for advertising, and we do not sell it.

Third-party services

The app relies on these services, each with its own privacy practices: OpenStreetMap (map tiles), Wikipedia / Wikimedia (nearby-landmark lookup), OpenRouteService (walking routes), ElevenLabs (audio generation), and Netlify (hosting and backend). If and when paid features launch, Apple and RevenueCat handle subscriptions. Only the limited data described above is shared with these providers, and only to deliver the feature you requested.

Region availability

The app is unavailable in certain regions and will not function there.

Children's privacy

World on Foot is intended for a general audience, including teenagers. It is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. The app has no accounts and does not collect names, emails, or contact details. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us personal information, please contact us and we will address it.

Data retention and security

We keep cached audio and aggregate, non-identifying operational data for as long as needed to run the service. We use reasonable technical measures to protect information. No method of storage or transmission is perfectly secure.

Your choices and rights

You can turn off location permission at any time in your device settings; some features will not work without it. Depending on where you live (for example, California's CCPA or the EEA/UK GDPR), you may have rights to access or delete personal information. Because we have no accounts and do not store location tied to your identity, we hold very little personal information about you. Contact us with any request and we will respond as required by law. We do not sell or share personal information as those terms are defined under California law.

Changes

We may update this policy. We will post the new version here with a new effective date.

Contact

Questions or requests: privacy@worldonfoot.com