Hello Tour Guide Privacy Policy
Who We Are
Hello Tour Guide, the iOS app that plays GPS-triggered audio driving and walking tours, is operated by DigiVentures LLC ("we", "us"), which is the controller of the personal data described in this policy. Our company website is digiventuresgroup.com. You can reach us at support@hellotourguide.com or through https://hellotourguide.com/support. We are not required to appoint a Data Protection Officer; privacy questions go to the support address above. We process personal data following the principles of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): lawfulness, fairness and transparency, purpose limitation, data minimisation, accuracy, storage limitation, integrity and confidentiality (Article 5).
Our Approach
We collect only what the app needs to work, we do not sell personal data, and we do not use advertising or cross-app tracking. The app has no third-party advertising or analytics SDKs, never reads the Apple advertising identifier (IDFA), and does not ask for App Tracking Transparency permission because it does not track you.
Location and Navigation
During a tour the app uses your device location (iOS "While Using the App" permission, which you can decline or change in iOS Settings) to show your position, trigger stories near stops and give spoken directions. Tour playback and stop triggering run on your device and your location is not uploaded continuously. When the app needs a route that its offline routing data cannot supply, such as the first route from your position or a re-route after leaving the planned road, it sends the route request to our API with the start, end and any waypoint coordinates (up to 25 points), the travel mode and the tour. Our API forwards that request to our hosted routing server (routing.hellotourguide.com) and, only if that server cannot answer, to a fallback routing provider (Interline's Valhalla routing service, reached through RapidAPI). Those recipients see the coordinates in the request. We keep a routing log that records the tour, the outcome, timings, a pseudonymous hash of your install identifier, and the start and end points rounded to about 1 km; it does not keep your exact route. Downloaded tours work offline and then make no routing requests. If you end or pause a tour, location updates stop.
Device Identifier and App Access
The app creates a random installation identifier and stores it in the iOS Keychain, where it survives reinstalling the app. It lets us recognise your free preview allowance and your purchases without an account. The app exchanges it for a short-lived access token each time it talks to our API. Each request also carries technical details such as app version, build, iOS version, device model and preferred languages so that we can serve compatible content. Our hosting provider, Cloudflare, sees your IP address when you connect, as every internet service does; we use the IP address to derive a country for language requests and to limit abusive request rates, and we do not store it with your search queries.
Optional Sign in with Apple
You can browse, preview, buy and play tours without an account. Where the app offers it, you may sign in with Apple. If you do, Apple gives us a stable Apple user identifier and, if you allow it, your email address or an Apple private-relay address. We link your installation to that account, which helps us support you and associate your purchases. We never see an Apple password. We do not claim that signing in syncs saved itineraries between devices.
Purchases
Tours are bought as one-time in-app purchases through Apple. Apple processes the payment; we never receive your card or billing details. After a purchase the app sends Apple's signed transaction record to our API so we can verify it with Apple's certificates and unlock the tour for your installation. We store the product, the transaction identifiers and the time of purchase. If the app offers it, you may redeem a promotion or creator code; if you do, we record that redemption (the code is stored hashed) against your installation. You can restore purchases on any device signed in to your Apple ID.
Free Preview Usage
The app counts the seconds of preview narration you have played for each tour and sends that figure with your installation identifier, so reinstalling the app does not reset your remaining preview. Driving and navigation time are never counted. The stationary Listen preview plays a tour's stories without using your location.
Language Interest
If you ask for a narration language that a tour does not yet offer, the app tells us the tour, the language you chose, your device's preferred languages, the app version and your installation identifier. We derive your country from your IP address on our server; the app does not send your location. We use it to decide which translations to produce next and to tell you in the app when your language is released.
Tour Search
When you search the catalog with three or more characters, the app sends the query text, the number of results, your language setting and the app version to our server. The request carries no installation identifier, account, location or access token, and the stored record has no column that could identify you. The request's IP address is used only for short-term rate limiting and is not written to the search record. We use the queries to decide which tours to build.
Notifications
Push notifications are optional and off until you ask for them, for example by choosing "Notify Me" on a tour that is not released yet. iOS asks for permission first. If you agree, the app registers an Apple Push Notification service token with us together with the tours you are waiting for. We use it only to tell you when a tour you asked about is available or to deliver a silent background update, and we send no marketing notifications. If you turn the notification off, remove the wait or revoke the permission in iOS Settings, the token is removed or stops working and is deleted.
Shared Itineraries
If the app offers it and you choose to share an itinerary, the app uploads the tour, the stops you selected, the title you typed (the only free text), the travel mode and language, and optionally a start point and a route line. We create a public link that anyone who has it can open, and we link the share to your installation to limit abuse. Do not put personal information in the title or choose a private start point you do not want shown.
Diagnostics
If the app crashes, stalls during playback or detects a serious fault, and only if you switch on “Share crash reports automatically” in Settings, it can upload a diagnostic bundle: the app's recent event log (about 15 minutes before and 2 minutes after the event), the app and iOS version, the device model, and your installation identifier. Before upload the app removes access tokens, passwords and email addresses and rounds coordinates to about 1 km. Uploads are limited per day and, in the production app, a bundle that still contains precise coordinates is rejected by our server. You can also send a report yourself under Settings, Diagnostics, Send diagnostics; it produces a short reference code you can quote to support.
Who Receives Data
We do not sell personal data. Recipients and processors are: Cloudflare, Inc. (hosting of our API, database, file storage and downloads; it processes the data we store and the IP addresses of connections); Apple Inc. (in-app purchases, Sign in with Apple, push notification delivery and the App Store); our hosted routing server at routing.hellotourguide.com; and Interline via RapidAPI as the fallback routing provider, which receives route-request coordinates as described above. We use these providers under their terms, which include data protection commitments, and only for the purposes in this policy. Map data comes from OpenStreetMap contributors and is served from our own infrastructure, so your coordinates are not sent to OpenStreetMap. We may disclose data if the law requires it.
Legal Bases
Under GDPR Article 6 we rely on: performance of a contract (6(1)(b)) to deliver tours, directions, previews and purchases you request, including routing and installation identifiers; consent (6(1)(a)) for device location, push notifications, Sign in with Apple and sharing an itinerary, which you can withdraw at any time in iOS Settings, in the app or by writing to us; our legitimate interests (6(1)(f)) in keeping the service secure and reliable, preventing abuse, fixing faults with diagnostics, and understanding demand for tours and languages, which we balance against your interests by minimising and pseudonymising the data; and legal obligation (6(1)(c)) to keep minimal purchase proof where tax or accounting law requires it. We do not process special categories of personal data and do not make automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects.
Retention
We keep data only as long as needed. These are our standard periods, which we may adjust: routing logs 90 days; tour search queries 90 days; client event logs 30 days; automatic diagnostic bundles 30 days; diagnostic reports you send us 90 days; crash diagnostics 180 days; push tokens until you turn alerts off or revoke permission, or after 180 days without use (tokens Apple reports as invalid are removed after 30 days); language-interest records 12 months; preview usage records 12 months; shared itineraries 90 days; installation records after 12 months of inactivity; creator attributions 12 months; administrative audit records 12 months, with personal identifiers removed; account data until you delete your account. After account deletion we keep only minimal, de-identified proof of a purchase where the law requires it. Your device location is not stored on our servers.
International Transfers
Our service is hosted in the United States and on Cloudflare's global network, and our providers may process data in the United States and other countries. When personal data of people in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland is transferred to a country without an adequacy decision, we rely on appropriate safeguards under GDPR Articles 44 to 49, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses or a recipient's participation in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. You can ask us for a copy of the safeguards that apply.
Your Rights
Depending on where you live, including under GDPR Articles 12 to 22, you have the right to be informed about our processing, to access your data, to have it corrected, to have it erased, to restrict or object to processing, to receive it in a portable format, to withdraw consent, and not to be subject to solely automated decisions. You can delete your account and its server records yourself in the app under Settings when signed in ("Delete account"). Otherwise email support@hellotourguide.com; we answer within one month and may need to verify that the request concerns your installation or account, for example with a diagnostics reference code. Because most of our data is tied to a random installation identifier rather than to your name, we may be unable to find data we cannot link to you. Exercising your rights is free and does not affect how we treat you. We do not sell personal data or share it for cross-context behavioural advertising.
Account Deletion
When you delete your account in the app, we remove your account record and sign-in links; the purchases, promotion redemptions, preview usage, language-interest records, push registrations and subscriptions, availability watchlists, tester enrolments, feature-targeting entries, client event logs and creator attributions tied to your installations; the installation records themselves; shared itineraries and diagnostic reports tied to your installations; and we ask Apple to revoke the Sign in with Apple token. We keep only minimal, de-identified proof of purchase where the law requires it, and creator payout records keyed by Apple's transaction identifier. Your purchases remain in your Apple account and can be restored with Apple's Restore Purchases. Deleting the app removes the data stored on your device.
Children
Hello Tour Guide is a general-audience travel app and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13, or under the age of digital consent in your country (16 in some EU countries). If you believe a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.
Security
The app talks to our servers over encrypted HTTPS connections. The installation identifier is kept in the iOS Keychain, access to the app's API requires a short-lived token, purchases are verified against Apple's certificates, and diagnostics are redacted before upload. No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
Complaints
If you think we have handled your personal data unlawfully, please contact us first so that we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the data protection supervisory authority in the country where you live, work or where you think a violation occurred. A list of EU authorities is at edpb.europa.eu.
Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy as the app changes. The date at the top shows the latest version; the app keeps an offline copy under Settings, Privacy Policy. We will tell you in the app or on our website before material changes take effect.
Contact
DigiVentures LLC, Hello Tour Guide. Email support@hellotourguide.com. Support: https://hellotourguide.com/support. Company website: digiventuresgroup.com.
This marketing website
This site publishes tour information and travel guides. It has no account registration, newsletter form, web checkout, advertising trackers, or analytics scripts installed by Hello Tour Guide. It does not use browser storage for visitor profiles.
Hosting
Cloudflare hosts the website and delivers its media. When you visit, Cloudflare processes connection information, such as IP addresses and request details, to deliver and protect the site. See Cloudflare’s privacy policy for its handling of information.
External websites
Links to park resources, photographers, and other external sites take you to services with their own privacy practices. Those links do not load third-party content into this site merely because they appear on a page.
Published contributions
Published contributor credits contain the approved public name and source or profile link. Private permission evidence and contact details are not included in website pages.