TourBook
TourBook — Privacy policy
Effective date: 2026-10-22
Controller: Beda Föhn, Switzerland, foehnetics@gmail.com
In short
TourBook is a logbook that keeps your data on your phone. There is no TourBook account, no TourBook server, no advertising, no analytics and no tracking. The developer receives none of your logbook data; what Google Play reports to the developer about purchases and app crashes is described below.
What stays on your device
Everything you record — tours, routes, peaks and places, partners, tags, notes, photos, GPX tracks, statistics and settings — is stored in the app's private storage on your device. Android's own cloud backup of app data and Android's device-to-device transfer of app data (when you set up a new phone) are both switched off for this app; the app's backups are made only where you choose (below).
When the app talks to the internet
The app works offline. It contacts the following services only for the
purpose named, and sends them only what that purpose needs. Like any internet
request, each one also reveals your device's IP address to the service, and
it names the app and its version (TourBook/<version> with a link to this
site), as the services' usage policies ask — nothing about you.
| Service | When | What it receives |
|---|---|---|
swisstopo map tiles (wmts.geo.admin.ch), OpenStreetMap (tile.openstreetmap.org) | While a map is shown | The map area being displayed (tile coordinates) |
swisstopo height service (api3.geo.admin.ch) | When you place a point in Switzerland on the map — including "Pin at my position", which places your current position | That point's precise coordinates |
OpenStreetMap Nominatim (nominatim.openstreetmap.org) | When a GPX track or a destination is added, to suggest the region. Region detection is on by default; it can be switched off in the settings, and then no request is made | One coordinate of that track or place, rounded to a grid of 0.02° (about 2 km) before it is sent |
GitHub (github.com, *.githubusercontent.com) | When you open the region & elevation pack screen or download a pack, when a point you place on the map gets no elevation and the app offers the elevation pack for that region, and once per app session before the first region lookup, to read whether the lookup is still wanted by the service | The request for the public pack list or pack file |
Google sign-in (accounts.google.com) | Only if you connect Google Drive: the sign-in page opens in your browser | What you enter there, under Google's terms |
Google (oauth2.googleapis.com, www.googleapis.com) | Only if you connect Google Drive for backups | See below |
None of these requests carries your name, your tours or any identifier created by the app — except the Drive backups you choose to make, which are described below.
Each of these services keeps its own server logs of the requests it receives (typically the IP address, the time and the request itself, which for the height service and Nominatim includes the coordinates named above). Those logs are governed by each provider's own privacy policy; the developer has no access to them.
Your position and Google Play services
To find your position on the map, the app uses Android's location service through Google Play services (the *fused location provider*). Depending on your device's location settings — for example Google Location Accuracy — Google may use Wi-Fi, mobile network and sensor signals to determine the position. That processing is Google's and is governed by Google's privacy policy and your device settings; the app itself receives only the position.
Google Drive backups (optional)
If you choose to connect Google Drive, you sign in with Google and grant
the app the drive.file permission plus your e-mail address. With
drive.file, the app can only see and change files it created itself — it
cannot read anything else in your Drive. Backup archives (your logbook
database, photos and tracks) are uploaded to a visible TourBook folder in
your own Drive. Each archive is tagged in Drive with a random identifier of
your logbook, a random identifier of the device that uploaded it, and its
number of tours, so the app can keep this logbook's newest backups and one
per week and per month, and remove the others without touching another
device's.
Your e-mail address is shown on the backup screen so you can
see which account holds your backups; it is stored only on your device. The
sign-in token is kept in the device's secure storage. You can disconnect at
any time in the app; you can also revoke access in your Google account
settings. Google's handling of your Drive data is governed by Google's
privacy policy.
The app's use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Backup archives are not encrypted
A backup archive holds your whole logbook — tours, places, tracks, partners' names, notes and photos. Archives that leave the device — uploaded to Google Drive, copied to the backup folder you pick, or sent through Android's share sheet — are not encrypted. Anyone who can open the file can read it, so keep them where only you have access. Optional encryption of archives is planned but not yet available.
Device permissions
- Location (approximate and precise): only while you use the app, to show your position on the map and to place a point where you stand. Your position is not stored unless you save it into a tour or place, and it is never sent anywhere except as listed above.
- Internet: for the services listed above.
- Network state: to tell whether the device is online and, for Drive uploads set to Wi-Fi only, whether it is on Wi-Fi. Nothing is sent for it.
The app asks for no other permission. Photos need none: Android's photo picker hands the app only the photos you pick, and only those are copied into the app.
Purchase and crash reports through Google Play
You buy and install TourBook through Google Play. Google handles the purchase, the payment and the installation under its own terms and privacy policy; the developer never sees your payment details. For each sale Google gives the developer an order record (such as the order number, the date, the price and the country). If your device shares usage and diagnostics data with Google, Google also gives the developer aggregated statistics and reports of crashes and "app not responding" events (Android vitals: device model, Android version and the app's technical state at the time — never the content of your logbook). The developer uses order records only for accounting and crash reports only to find and fix faults.
Sharing and export
The app shares data only when you ask it to — exporting a backup, a GPX file or a selection of tours through Android's share sheet or a folder you pick. Where it goes is your choice.
Reporting a problem. "Report the problem" on the crash screen and on the error log opens your own mail app with a message to the developer already written: the app's version and build, startup timings, the session's error log (what failed, the statements involved, never the values they carried — no tour names, notes or other logbook content) and the recorded crashes. You see the message before you send it, and nothing leaves the device unless you do.
International transfers
Some of the services above are outside Switzerland and the EU: Google (Drive, sign-in, Play services' location) and GitHub (the packs) process requests in the United States, the OpenStreetMap Foundation (Nominatim and the OpenStreetMap tiles) in the United Kingdom. A request reaches them only when you use the feature named above, under that provider's own terms and safeguards — see Google's privacy policy, GitHub's privacy statement and the OSMF privacy policy. swisstopo is in Switzerland.
Deleting your data
Uninstalling the app deletes everything it stored on the device. Inside the app, tours can be deleted individually, and Settings offers deleting the whole database. That deletes the database, the photos and tracks, what an earlier restore kept aside, and the backup archives kept in the app's own storage, and it signs out of Google Drive (revoking the app's access when the device is online). It does not delete the copies in the backup folder you picked or on Google Drive — those are yours to delete there. Downloaded region and elevation packs and a few device preferences (such as whether region detection is on) stay on the device.
Legal bases (GDPR)
Where the EU General Data Protection Regulation applies, the processing described above rests on these bases:
- The features you use — map tiles, the height service, the packs, the location of your position: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR, providing the app you bought; the location permission itself is granted by you in Android.
- Region detection (on by default): Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, the legitimate interest in suggesting a tour's region without typing; you can object at any time by switching it off in the settings.
- Google Drive backups: Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR, your consent when you connect Drive; you withdraw it by disconnecting in the app or revoking access in your Google account, without affecting backups made before.
- Order records: Art. 6(1)(b) and (c) GDPR, the sale and the developer's statutory bookkeeping duties.
- Crash reports: Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR, the legitimate interest in an app that works.
Your rights
Under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (Art. 15–21 GDPR) and the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (nDSG/revFADP, Art. 25 ff.) you have the right to access, rectify and erase your personal data, to restrict or object to its processing, and to receive it in a portable format. Your logbook never reaches the developer, so for it you exercise these rights directly in the app — every record can be viewed, edited, exported (backup, GPX, a selection of tours) and deleted — and towards the services listed above for what they receive. For the order records and crash reports Google passes on, and for any other question, contact the developer at the address below. You may also lodge a complaint with a data protection supervisory authority, in Switzerland the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (FDPIC).
Children
The app is not directed at children.
Changes
A changed version of this policy is published at this address with a new effective date.
Contact
Beda Föhn, foehnetics@gmail.com