Privacy Policy
Overview
Longdog Apps ("we", "us", "our") builds native Apple-platform apps, including Ernie's Hikes, BP Rage Tracker, Total Recall, Pocket Flight Planner, Radar, NOTAM Decoder, PHILenGIS, a personal project not published on the App Store, and Ottawa Parks. This policy explains what data our apps collect, how it's used, and the choices you have. Whether it's your location, your health readings, or your flight plans, that data is personal — this policy, and the apps themselves, are built with that in mind.
Data we collect
Depending on which app and features you use, our apps may collect:
- Location data (Ernie's Hikes, Pocket Flight Planner, Radar) — GPS coordinates recorded while you actively track a hike, your approximate location used to center the map and local weather in Pocket Flight Planner, or your approximate location sent with each scan in Radar so it can request nearby aircraft.
- Health & fitness data (Ernie's Hikes) — workout sessions (e.g. heart rate, duration) via HealthKit, only when you start a hike from the Apple Watch companion app.
- Blood pressure readings (BP Rage Tracker) — systolic, diastolic, pulse, which arm was used, and any notes you manually enter when logging a reading.
- Flight plans (Pocket Flight Planner) — routes, waypoints, altitudes, and names you create and save for your own reference.
- Hike or reading content — routes, photos, titles, and notes you choose to save, export, or share.
- Device & diagnostic data — crash logs and performance data used to fix bugs, collected through Apple's standard app diagnostics.
Total Recall is the exception: it doesn't collect any personal data at all. It fetches public recall data from the Government of Canada's open data feed, and the only thing it stores is which recalls you've favorited — saved locally on your device and never transmitted anywhere.
Radar works differently from our other apps: to show you nearby aircraft, it sends your approximate location as part of each request to airplanes.live, a third-party public flight-tracking data provider, so it can return traffic within range of you. That location is used only to fetch that response and is not stored by us, associated with an account, or linked to any other data we hold. Radar does not otherwise log or retain your location history.
NOTAM Decoder is also an exception: it doesn't collect any personal data. It fetches published NOTAM and AIRAC aeronautical data to decode and display, and doesn't require an account, your location, or any personal information to work.
Ottawa Parks doesn't collect any personal data either. It fetches the public parks & greenspace inventory from the City of Ottawa's open data service and caches the results locally on your device for faster, offline-friendly loading — nothing is transmitted anywhere beyond that request, and the app doesn't require an account or your location to work.
We do not use third-party advertising SDKs, and we do not sell your data to anyone, ever.
How your data is stored
Your hikes and readings are stored in your personal iCloud account via Apple's CloudKit framework. This means your data is encrypted in transit and at rest under Apple's infrastructure, syncs privately between your own devices, and is never stored on servers we operate ourselves. Total Recall's favorites and Pocket Flight Planner's saved flights are stored only in each app's local storage on your device and are not synced or transmitted anywhere. Radar doesn't store hike-style history at all — each scan is a live request made while you use the app, with nothing saved afterward.
Community sharing (optional, Ernie's Hikes)
If you choose to share a hike publicly, only the details you explicitly select are shared. Shared locations are approximated (geohashed) rather than exact, and shared content is subject to moderation to keep the community safe and on-topic. BP Rage Tracker has no public sharing feature — readings stay private to your iCloud account unless you export them yourself.
Your choices
- Location access can be granted, restricted to "while using the app," or denied entirely in iOS Settings — Ernie's Hikes' manual tracking features still work without background location, Pocket Flight Planner works without it too (just without map centering or local weather), and Radar will ask you to enter a location manually instead of scanning around you.
- HealthKit permissions can be reviewed and revoked at any time in the Health app.
- You can delete any hike, reading, or saved flight, or your entire account's data, directly within the app.
- You can export your BP Rage Tracker history as CSV or plain text at any time, entirely under your control.
- You can remove any recall from your Total Recall favorites at any time, right from the list.
Children's privacy
Our apps are not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, we'll update the date above and, for material changes, note it within the app.
Contact
Questions about this policy or your data can be sent to ernie at longdogapps.com.