Privacy Policy
Last updated 26 July 2026 · Applies to Ryokōya for iPhone and this website
The short version. Ryokōya records where you walk, because that is the entire product. That data lives on your iPhone, and in your own iCloud account if you switch on backup. There is no Ryokōya server holding your trips. There are no analytics, no advertising, no third-party SDKs of any kind, and nothing is ever sold or shared with data brokers.
Who is responsible
Ryokōya is made and operated by Zubonaru Apps, a sole developer. If you need to reach a human about anything on this page, write to support@ryokoya.app.
What the app collects, and why
This table is the same list filed as Ryokōya's App Privacy details on the App Store. Everything here is used to make the app work. None of it is used for tracking, advertising, or profiling, and none of it is shared with third parties.
| Data | Why | Where it goes |
|---|---|---|
| Precise location | The product itself: detecting arrivals and departures, drawing your route, and recognizing neighborhoods. Collected in the background during a trip you started. | Your device. Your iCloud, if backup is on. |
| Motion & step count | Telling walking from riding, knowing when you have genuinely stopped, and counting steps for your trip stats. Read from the iPhone's motion sensors, not from Health. | Your device. Your iCloud, if backup is on. |
| Photos | Matching pictures you took during a trip to the places you took them, so your journal fills itself in. Only photos from the trip's own time window are read. | Your device. Your iCloud, if backup is on. |
| Your own writing | Notes, Moments, and corrections you make to a place's name. | Your device. Your iCloud, if backup is on. |
| Name & email address | Your account, created through Sign in with Apple. Used to greet you and to keep your trips yours. | Your device only. |
| Apple user identifier | The anonymous ID Apple gives the app so it can recognize you when you sign in again. | Your device only. |
| Purchase state | Knowing which city packs and subscriptions you own, so the app can unlock them. Handled entirely by Apple's StoreKit. | Handled by Apple. Ryokōya never sees payment details. |
Where your data actually lives
On your iPhone. Every trip, route, photo copy and stamp is stored in the app's own storage on your device.
In your iCloud, if you choose. Turning on Trip Vault backup copies your trips into your own iCloud account, using Apple's CloudKit. It counts against your iCloud storage, not ours, and we cannot read it. If you leave backup off, nothing leaves the device.
There is no Ryokōya account server. Signing in with Apple happens between your iPhone and Apple. No password, token, or trip of yours is ever sent to a server we control, because there isn't one.
Sign in with Apple
Sign in with Apple is the only way to create an account. If you use Hide My Email, we only ever see Apple's private relay address. Because the app has no backend, it never receives or stores an Apple authorisation token — so there is no token for us to revoke, and nothing about your Apple ID is retained beyond the anonymous identifier described above.
Background location, specifically
Ryokōya asks for Always location access. That sounds like a lot, and it is worth being precise about what it means here:
- Location is recorded only while a trip you started is running. When no trip is active, Ryokōya is not following you.
- It runs in the background because the entire promise is that you can put the phone away. Foreground-only access would mean holding your phone up for the length of a walk.
- Your iPhone shows the location indicator whenever it is being used, and you can revoke access at any moment in iOS Settings.
Diagnostic logs
The app writes technical logs to your device to help diagnose tracking problems. These contain precise location history. They never leave your iPhone automatically — there is no upload path. If you choose to send a log while reporting a problem, you export and send it yourself, and you can read it first.
Third parties
The app contains no third-party SDKs. No analytics, no crash reporters, no advertising, no attribution. A small number of services are contacted directly, and only for what they do:
- Apple — Maps, WeatherKit, iCloud, Sign in with Apple and StoreKit, under Apple's own privacy policy.
- Wikipedia and OpenStreetMap — for public information about neighborhoods and opening hours. They receive a query, never your identity or your trip.
- Peecho — only if you order a printed book. You are handed to their checkout for payment and shipping; Ryokōya never sees your card or your address.
- eSIM partners — only if you tap an eSIM offer in Plan It, which opens their site in your browser.
Nothing is ever sold, and no data is shared with data brokers.
What we deliberately leave out
Share cards are made to be posted in public, so they withhold the first and last stop of every trip and anywhere marked as a hotel. In practice that is where you live and where you sleep, and ranking places by how long you stayed would otherwise surface exactly those. Your own private trip summary still shows everything — it is your record.
Deleting your data
In the app: Settings → Delete Account. This erases your iCloud backup first and then everything on the device — trips, routes, photo copies, favorites, plans and stamps. If your iCloud backup cannot be reached, the deletion is cancelled and nothing is removed, so that you are never told your data is gone while a copy still exists.
Deleting the app without deleting your account leaves your iCloud backup in place, so you can restore it later on a new phone. Purchases are held by Apple and can always be restored.
Children
Ryokōya is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect their data.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, export or erase your personal data. Because your data sits on your own device and in your own iCloud, you can exercise all of these directly: the app exports trips as PDF and email, and deletes everything on request. If you would like help, write to support@ryokoya.app.
This website
ryokoya.app sets no cookies, runs no analytics, and loads no third-party resources — no hosted fonts, no scripts, no tracking pixels. The typefaces are the ones already on your device. Our host records standard server logs for security and reliability.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that affects you, the date at the top changes and the app will say so before the change takes effect.
Contact
Zubonaru Apps — support@ryokoya.app