Privacy Policy

With your permission, Departly uses your device location to (1) show the bus stops nearest you and (2) power the optional get-off reminder, which alerts you as you approach your destination stop. Because a get-off reminder must reach you even after you put your phone away, while a reminder is active Departly keeps checking your location in the background — including when Departly is not on screen or your device is locked (iOS shows the blue location indicator while it does), and stops as soon as the reminder ends. Distance-to-stop calculations for nearby stops and reminders happen on your device. If a walking route is requested, its endpoints are sent to Apple Maps as explained below. Location is also shared if you separately enable Live Bus or open an Uber booking link. You can use route search and live arrivals without granting location access.

Live Bus (optional crowdsourcing). If you choose “I’m on this bus — share live position”, Departly uploads your projected position along that route to the app’s iCloud (CloudKit) public database so other riders can see a live bus. The report includes the route, position along it, timestamp, speed, heading and location-accuracy information. It does not upload your raw latitude/longitude pair, name or email. However, the projected point can reveal a precise location. CloudKit also attaches an app-container-scoped creator identifier that other clients can read and that stays stable across trips. Reports can therefore be linked to one another through this identifier; they are pseudonymous, not anonymous. Departly uses this information for the Live Bus feature, not cross-app tracking.

Sharing duration and controls. Sharing continues after you leave the route screen, switch apps or lock your device, with the blue background-location indicator. Stop it using the route’s sharing control or the app’s “Sharing your live position” banner. A sharing session has a two-hour limit. If “Detect when I get off” is enabled, suspected off-board detection pauses uploads; sharing may resume if the detector determines you are still aboard. Each trip starts only when you choose to share. After this disclosure is updated in the app, you must accept the revised consent before starting your next share.

Visibility and deletion. Departly hides reports from its live display after about 90 seconds. This is a client-side freshness filter, not automatic deletion from CloudKit. On stop or pause, the app attempts to delete its report. Deletion is best-effort; an interrupted session or failed network request can leave a report stored in the public database. The app retains the last session’s record token to retry cleanup on a later app launch or before a new share. There is no guaranteed 90-second server retention limit.

Motion & Fitness (optional, for the get-off reminder). When a get-off reminder is active, Departly can use your device’s motion activity (whether you appear to be in a vehicle or on foot), together with speed and your distance from the route, to notice when you have likely gotten off and ask whether to end the reminder. This is processed entirely on your device, is never sent anywhere or stored, and the feature can be turned off in Settings (“Detect when I get off”). Departly works fully without granting Motion access.

To show arrivals, service alerts and station crowding, Departly requests public route, stop, rail-line and estimated-arrival data from Hong Kong government open-data services (DATA.GOV.HK) and, in Singapore, from the Land Transport Authority’s DataMall service (datamall2.mytransport.sg). These requests contain only the route, stop or rail line you are viewing, plus — for DataMall — an application key that identifies Departly, not you. Departly does not attach your location, account or an identifier of you to these transit requests. As with any internet request, the service can receive connection information such as your IP address. Macau has no live arrival feed, so Macau times come from the bundled timetable on your device and need no request at all.

Departly also periodically downloads updated route, stop, station and fare reference files from our own server (mwsupplylimited.github.io) so the trip planner and fares stay current without an app update. These are plain public transit-data files. Departly does not attach your saved journeys, location or an account identifier to the download; the hosting provider can receive ordinary connection information such as your IP address.

When you type an address or place in Plan a Trip, Departly uses Apple’s Maps service to turn what you type into a location. The text you type, together with a coarse map region for the area you are browsing — Hong Kong and Macau, or Singapore (to keep results local) — is sent to Apple to return matching places; Apple handles this request under Apple’s privacy policy. Departly does not attach your name, account or identifier to the search. Places you save as Home, Office or recent destinations are kept on your device (and synced via your own iCloud, below); you can remove any of them at any time.

To request walking directions, walking distances or road-travel estimates, Departly sends the start and end coordinates of the requested segment to Apple Maps. Depending on the journey, an endpoint may be your current location, a place you selected or a public transit stop. Apple handles these requests under its privacy policy. Departly does not attach your name or app account identifier to them.

The taxi comparison on a trip shows an optional Book button. If — and only if — you tap it, Departly opens an Uber link that carries that trip’s pickup and drop-off coordinates in the web address, so Uber can pre-fill the journey. Nothing is sent unless you tap Book; Departly attaches no name, account or identifier, uses no Uber SDK, and receives nothing back. Uber then handles the request under its own privacy policy.

Your favourite routes and stops, your saved places (Home / Office / recent destinations), your reminder history and any items you unlocked before the token system was retired are stored on your device and, if you are signed into iCloud, synced through your own private iCloud (CloudKit) account so they appear on your other devices. This data is held in your personal Apple account; we cannot read it.

Your choice. From version 2.2.1, Departly requires both your advertising device-access choice and Apple’s separate tracking permission before starting Unity LevelPlay (ironSource), Unity Ads and bundled Ad Quality. Ad partners may share device identifiers to measure ads across apps and websites. You can refuse either permission and continue using all free features. Apple’s permission does not change the advertising privacy preferences Departly sends. Earlier versions could start advertising without these two permission gates.

Data used by advertising services. The providers disclose device and user identifiers, connection and approximate-location information, ad interactions and other usage, purchase-related information, device characteristics and performance or diagnostic information. This information is used for advertising, measurement, fraud prevention and service operation. An ad report you choose to submit can also provide customer-support information. Departly does not pass your saved journeys, search text, precise location, name or email to these ad SDKs. Their collection differs from Departly’s separate product analytics below. See Unity’s privacy policy for provider handling and privacy choices.

Advertising preferences and measurement. We ask ad partners not to personalise ads or sell/share your information. Departly sends these preference settings before starting its advertising services; providers apply them under their supported privacy frameworks. Apple’s tracking permission does not change these settings. Ad partners may still share device identifiers for measurement across apps and websites, so the app separately asks for Apple’s App Tracking Transparency permission. The App Store privacy label includes the advertising services’ tracking use of Device ID.

Changing your choice. Open Settings > Advertising choices to turn off advertising device access and see the Apple permission status. You can change Apple’s tracking permission in iOS Settings. Departly removes its ad views and stops further app ad requests when a required permission is off; it checks Apple permission again on return and before ad actions. Advertising SDKs already started during that session may remain active until you fully quit and reopen Departly. Restarting prevents their initialisation while either permission is off. Turning device access back on after withdrawal also takes effect after restarting. This does not delete information already processed by providers. Departly Pro removes all ads. Development builds and TestFlight keep advertising dormant in normal use. Departly does not request rewarded video ads.

To understand which features are used and where to improve, Departly sends product-usage events through TelemetryDeck, such as opening the app, setting a get-off reminder, viewing a paid feature or completing a purchase. Departly’s event fields contain fixed feature and outcome labels or public product identifiers; they do not contain your name, email, route, search text, places or precise location. The SDK also sends a hashed device identifier, a session identifier and app, device, operating-system and locale information to help count usage and diagnose differences between app versions. Departly does not supply an advertising identifier or an account identity to TelemetryDeck. See TelemetryDeck’s privacy policy for details.

Departly Pro is sold either as an auto-renewable subscription or as Departly Pro Lifetime, a one-time purchase that does not renew and does not expire. There is also the one-off 7-day Macau Tourist Pass. Payments are handled by the App Store. Departly reads verified transaction information, including product and transaction identifiers, purchase dates and entitlement status, to provide and restore access. Departly does not receive your card or bank details.

Tokens have been retired. Departly used to offer a virtual in-app token, earned or bought, that could unlock individual Pro features. It is no longer possible to earn, buy or spend tokens, and the token packs have been removed from sale. Nothing you already unlocked is taken away: extra favourite slots you bought remain yours permanently, and any feature pass still running keeps its remaining time. Those entitlements stay in your own private iCloud account, as before, and are readable only by you.

Referrals have been withdrawn. Invite codes existed only to credit tokens, so they went with the token system. Departly no longer offers the feature or starts its referral-writing workflow. Earlier versions wrote a referral code, an app-container-scoped iCloud user identifier and a timestamp to the app’s public CloudKit database. Those records may remain there; retiring the feature did not establish that they were deleted. These identifiers did not include your name, email or payment details, but were not anonymous or confined to private iCloud storage.

• No Departly account, sign-up or login; iCloud features use your Apple account.
• No selling of your data.
• Departly does not upload your reminder history as a public trip log. Optional Live Bus reports are stored in the public CloudKit database and can be linked across trips by their creator identifier; hiding a report after 90 seconds does not delete it. Apple Maps directions, private iCloud sync and Uber booking links handle the information described above.
• Advertising requires a separate device-access choice and Apple tracking permission from version 2.2.1. Product analytics remains separate and is not used for advertising tracking. Refusing advertising permissions keeps all free transit features available.

Departly is suitable for general audiences and is not directed at children under 13.

Questions about this policy: mwsupplylimited@gmail.com