Peak Explorer · app and website

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 27 September 2026

In short

Peak Explorer has no account, no advertising, no analytics and no tracking. We never sell data.
We run no server for the app. Your maps, hikes, routes and emergency contacts stay on your iPhone and, if you keep Save to iCloud on, in your own iCloud account, which we cannot access.
Health data (heart rate, calories, cadence) stays on your iPhone and in Apple Health. The app never copies it to iCloud and never sends it to us or to anyone else.
A few features have to go online. When you use them, your device contacts Apple (maps, place names, map downloads, purchases, iCloud) and public weather services (the point you want a forecast for, or the map area you are looking at). These services also see your IP address.
This website uses no cookies, no scripts and no analytics. Our host, Netlify, keeps standard server logs.

1. Who is responsible

The data controller is Eduard Fartade, an individual developer.

Address: Via Niso 46, 00040 Ardea (RM), Italy
VAT number (P.IVA): 01755250550
E-mail: peakexploreroffline@gmail.com

In this policy, "we" and "us" mean Eduard Fartade. We have not appointed a data protection officer, because the law does not require one for an activity like ours.

This policy covers the Peak Explorer app for iPhone and Apple Watch, and this website (peakexplorerapp.netlify.app). It explains what the app and the website do with personal data, as required by the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Italian Personal Data Protection Code (Legislative Decree 196/2003, as amended by Legislative Decree 101/2018).

2. What stays on your iPhone

Peak Explorer is built to work offline, so almost everything it handles is stored and processed on your iPhone, inside the app's private storage, which iOS protects and other apps cannot read. This includes:

the hikes and rides you record: GPS points with position, elevation and time, plus heart rate, calories and cadence when they are available;
the routes you plan or import, and the planner draft you are working on;
your settings, the app language, and the last position of the map;
your body weight, read from Apple Health to estimate calories;
the emergency contacts you add, and the last position shown on the Emergency Location screen;
the country map packs you download.

We do not receive any of this. It stays until you delete it in the app or delete the app, with the exceptions explained in sections 6 (the copy in your iCloud) and 8 (the trial date). Like all app data, it is included in your iPhone backups (iCloud Backup or a computer), according to your backup settings.

3. Location

The app asks for access to your location only while you are using it ("While Using the App"). It never asks for "Always" access and does not use background location, significant-change monitoring or geofencing, except for one case: while a recording is running, iOS lets the app keep receiving your location in the background so the track is complete, and shows the location indicator on screen. Recording stops using location as soon as you finish.

Your position is used on your device to:

show where you are on the map and in the 3D view;
record your hikes and rides;
start a planned route from where you are;
show your coordinates on the Emergency Location screen;
get the weather forecast for where you are, if you switch on the weather layer.

Your position is never sent to us. It leaves your device only in the cases described in section 5. You can refuse or withdraw location access at any time (see section 14): the app will still show maps, trails and routes, but it cannot show your position or record.

4. Health, Apple Watch and motion

On iPhone

With your permission, given in Apple's Health permission sheet the first time you start a recording, the app:

reads your heart rate (to show live beats per minute and your effort zone while recording), your date of birth (only to estimate your maximum heart rate as 220 minus your age, which sets the effort zones), your body weight and your active energy (to estimate the calories you burn);
writes, when you save a hike, a workout with its distance, active energy and GPS route, so it appears in Health and Fitness.

Allowing Health access is optional: if you don't, the Health-based features (heart rate, effort zones, calorie estimates from your weight and saving workouts to Health) are not available. Recording and the rest of the app work without it.

On Apple Watch

When you record with the Apple Watch app installed, whether you start on the watch or on the iPhone (the iPhone opens the watch app and starts its session automatically), the Apple Watch app reads heart rate, active energy, step count and cycling cadence, and sends heart rate, calories and cadence to your iPhone over Apple's direct iPhone–Watch connection. Your iPhone saves the workout; the watch session is then discarded to avoid a duplicate. Samples that Apple Watch itself measured during the session may remain in Health, as happens with other workout apps. The watch also receives your estimated maximum heart rate from the iPhone to show effort zones.

Motion sensors

While recording, the app reads the barometer (relative altitude) to calculate accurate elevation gain. The optional Glass Reflections effect uses the gyroscope to move a reflection on the cards as you tilt the phone; it is off by default. Motion readings are used on the spot and are not stored separately.

Our commitments on health data

Health data is used only to provide the features above. From version 1.1 (the first version published on the App Store) onward, the versions of the app distributed through the App Store and TestFlight do not write it to any log file; earlier test builds, distributed only through TestFlight, wrote some of it to a log file kept on the iPhone, which version 1.1 and later delete (see section 9).
It is never copied to iCloud by the app: heart rate, calories and cadence are removed from the iCloud copy of your hikes and stay on your iPhone and in Health.
If you use iCloud Backup, iOS includes the app's data in your device backup, as it does for every app, and if Health is turned on in your iCloud settings, Apple syncs your Health data, including the workouts the app saves. These are Apple's services, not copies made by Peak Explorer, and we cannot access them.
It is never sent to us, never shared with third parties, never used for advertising, marketing or profiling, and never sold.
The body weight read from Health is kept in the app on your iPhone for the calorie estimate and is not synced.
If you choose to export a hike as a GPX file, the file includes the heart-rate values of that hike, and you decide where it goes.

5. What leaves your device, and who receives it

The app contains no analytics, advertising or crash-reporting code. Its only third-party library, the MapLibre map engine, draws the topo map from files already on your iPhone. Data leaves your device only in the cases below. Every request is encrypted (HTTPS).

Recipient	What is sent	When
Weather: only while the weather layer is on (it is off until you switch it on)
MET Norway (Norwegian Meteorological Institute), Norway	The coordinates of one point, rounded to about 11 meters, and its altitude.	When you view the forecast for where you are (your position, refreshed after you move about 2 km or when the forecast expires) or for a point you tap on the map.
EUMETSAT (intergovernmental organization, Darmstadt, Germany)	The rectangle of map shown on screen, enlarged about 1.8 times in each direction, and a time. Not your GPS position, although if the map is centered on you it shows roughly where you are.	Lightning over Europe, Africa, the Middle East and the Atlantic, when the area you view is covered.
NOAA, U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (nowCOAST and National Weather Service), USA	The rectangle of map shown on screen, enlarged about 1.8 times in each direction, and a time. Not your GPS position, although if the map is centered on you it shows roughly where you are.	Lightning over the Americas, the Atlantic and the Pacific (including East Asia and northern Australia), also when the area you view reaches west of the Greenwich meridian in Europe or Africa (for example Portugal, Spain, Ireland, the United Kingdom, western France or Morocco); radar when you look at the United States.
Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canada	The rectangle of map shown on screen, enlarged about 1.8 times in each direction, and a time. Not your GPS position, although if the map is centered on you it shows roughly where you are.	Radar, when you look at Canada or areas near it, including the northern United States.
EUMETNET OPERA radar, downloaded from CloudFerro cloud storage, Poland	No location: the whole European radar image is downloaded and cut to your area on your iPhone.	European radar.
Dipartimento della Protezione Civile (Italian Civil Protection Department), Italy	No location: the whole Italian radar image is requested from the Department, then downloaded from its cloud storage (Amazon Web Services, Milan, Italy).	Italian radar.
Apple
Apple Maps (MapKit)	The map area you are viewing, to load map images and labels.	Whenever the map uses an Apple Maps style: Standard (the style a new installation starts with), Hybrid or Satellite. The Topo (Offline) style draws from your downloaded packs and sends nothing to Apple Maps.
Apple place names	The coordinates of a point you tap.	When you open the forecast for a spot the map has no name for, to show a place name.
App Store	Download requests for map packs; purchase and restore requests.	When you download a country (iOS can also update packs you have downloaded in the background), buy the app or restore a purchase.
iCloud	Your hikes, routes, settings, emergency contacts and planner draft, stored in your own iCloud account (see section 6).	Only if Save to iCloud is on.
What you choose to send
Messages, Phone and the share sheet	Calls and text messages from the Emergency Location screen, and the GPX files or images you share.	Only when you tap Send, call, or pick where to share. They go through the apps on your iPhone and your mobile carrier.

Each of these services also receives your device's IP address and the technical information that every internet request carries, such as the app name and version (the "user agent"), language settings and the time of the request. The weather services are independent public data providers, not our processors: they handle this information under their own policies (MET Norway, EUMETSAT, NOAA, Government of Canada, Civil Protection Department, CloudFerro), and we receive nothing from them. Apple processes the data it receives as an independent controller under the Apple Privacy Policy.

6. iCloud

The Save to iCloud setting (in the app's Settings, under iCloud) is on by default and works when your iPhone is signed in to iCloud. Its purpose is to bring your data back if you reinstall the app or move to a new iPhone with the same Apple Account. When it is on:

your hikes and saved routes are copied as files to the Peak Explorer folder in your iCloud Drive, which you can see in the Files app;
your settings, app language, the list of routes shown on the map, your emergency contacts (names and phone numbers) and the planner draft (waypoints, departure time, areas to avoid) are stored in the app's iCloud key-value storage in your account.

Heart rate, calories and cadence are removed before anything is copied. Your weight, the last emergency position, the last map position, and trial and purchase data are never copied to iCloud.

iCloud is a service Apple provides to you under your agreement with Apple. The data is stored in your account and we have no access to it. Turning Save to iCloud off stops new copies but deletes nothing already in iCloud. To delete the copy, remove the Peak Explorer folder in the Files app (iCloud Drive), or delete the app's data in the iCloud storage settings of your iPhone (Settings › your name › iCloud › Manage Storage; the wording can vary between iOS versions).

7. Emergency Location and contacts

You can add up to three contacts. If you choose them from your contacts, iOS gives the app only the name and phone number you pick: the app has no access to your address book and does not ask for the Contacts permission. You can also type a contact by hand.
Contacts are stored on your iPhone and in its backups and, if Save to iCloud is on, in your iCloud (see section 6); never on our servers.
The last position fix is kept on your iPhone, so the screen can show it when GPS cannot get a fresh one.
A text message is prepared in Messages with your coordinates, altitude, time, accuracy and battery level, and is sent only when you tap Send. If your device cannot send text messages, the text is copied to the clipboard instead. Calls go through the Phone app.
The suggested emergency number is chosen on your iPhone from built-in country borders. The app does not send anything to emergency services, or to us.

8. Purchases and free trial

Purchases are processed by Apple. We never receive your name, your Apple Account or your payment details. The app asks the App Store, on your device, whether the purchase exists; no receipt is sent to us.
A copy of the purchase status is kept in the Keychain on your iPhone, on this device only, so the app opens unlocked even offline.
The start time of the free trial is stored in the Keychain on your iPhone and is not synced through iCloud Keychain. It stays there even if you delete the app, so reinstalling does not restart the trial. It is just a date, not linked to your identity. It is removed when the iPhone is erased and set up as new but, like other Keychain items, it is included in encrypted backups (including iCloud Backup) and comes back if you restore one, also on a new iPhone. If the Keychain is unavailable, the date is kept in the app's own storage instead.
Apple gives developers aggregated sales and download reports. It also shares crash reports and usage statistics, but only from people who have chosen to share them with app developers in their iPhone settings (Settings › Privacy & Security › Analytics & Improvements). These reports do not identify you to us; we use them to understand sales and fix problems.

9. Diagnostic log and caches

From version 1.1 (the first version published on the App Store) onward, the versions of Peak Explorer distributed through the App Store and TestFlight keep no diagnostic log: they write no log file on your iPhone, discard any log lines sent by the Apple Watch app and, when the app starts, delete the log file left by an earlier test build, if there is one.

Earlier test builds of version 1.0 were distributed only through TestFlight and never on the App Store. They kept a small technical log file in the app's private storage on the iPhone, with events such as GPS positions, heart-rate and weight readings, calorie values, track names, the name of the device that measured your heart rate (which can include your name, for example "Anna's Apple Watch") and messages from the Apple Watch app. The file was limited to 256 KB and was not visible in the Files app; like other app data, it could be included in iPhone backups made while it existed. It is deleted automatically the first time version 1.1 or later starts, or when you delete the app.

A log with the same kind of events is written only by development builds, which we install on our own test devices with Apple's developer tools and never distribute. No version of the app sends a log off your devices.

The app also keeps caches on your iPhone: map data, weather images and forecast responses (whose addresses contain the coordinates or map area requested), and 3D terrain textures. Processed radar frames are deleted after six hours. Downloaded weather images and forecast responses stay in a size-limited cache (up to about 320 MB). iOS can clear these caches at any time, and all of them are deleted with the app. GPX files you open in Peak Explorer from other apps are imported as routes, and the incoming copy is then deleted.

10. When you write to us

If you e-mail us, we receive your e-mail address, your message and anything you choose to include, such as your device model or a screenshot. We use them only to answer you and to keep a record of the conversation. The messages are stored in our Gmail mailbox, provided by Google under its own terms; Google’s servers may be outside the European Economic Area (see section 13). Please do not send health data or precise positions unless they are needed to solve your problem.

11. Purposes and legal bases

Processing	Purpose	Legal basis
Location, maps, recording, planner, weather, Emergency Location, iCloud copy	Providing the features you choose to use	Performance of the contract for the use of the app (GDPR Art. 6(1)(b)). Access to your location and sensors happens only through the iOS permissions you grant.
Health data	Heart rate, effort zones, calorie estimates, saving workouts	Your explicit consent, given in the Apple Health permission sheet (GDPR Art. 9(2)(a) and 6(1)(a)). You can withdraw it at any time.
Names and numbers of your emergency contacts	Letting you reach the people you chose in an emergency	Legitimate interest, yours in being able to reach them and ours in offering the feature (Art. 6(1)(f)). We never receive these details, so we cannot inform the people concerned ourselves (Art. 14(5)(b)); they stay on your devices and, if Save to iCloud is on, in your iCloud.
Trial date and purchase status on your iPhone	Applying the free trial once per device and unlocking the app you bought	Performance of the contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) and our legitimate interest in the trial not being restarted by reinstalling (Art. 6(1)(f)).
Support e-mails	Answering your requests	Performance of the contract or steps you ask us to take (Art. 6(1)(b)); legitimate interest in keeping a record (Art. 6(1)(f)); legal obligations where they apply (Art. 6(1)(c)).
Apple's aggregated reports	Understanding sales and fixing problems	Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)).
Website server logs	Delivering and securing this website	Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f)).

Under Article 5(3) of the ePrivacy Directive (Article 122 of the Italian Privacy Code), information may be stored on or read from your device without consent only where this is strictly necessary to provide a service you have asked for. The app stores information on your iPhone only to provide the features you use and the trial you asked for: the trial date, for example, is written only after you tap Start Free Trial. Nothing the app stores on your device is read by us. We do not use your data for profiling or automated decision-making, and we do not sell or rent it.

12. How long data is kept

On your iPhone: until you delete it in the app or delete the app. The trial date stays in the Keychain until the iPhone is erased and set up as new, and comes back if you restore a backup that contains it. Processed radar frames are deleted after six hours, and the weather cache is limited to about 320 MB.
In your iCloud: until you delete it (see section 6).
In Apple Health: until you delete it in the Health app.
Support e-mails: for as long as needed to deal with your request, and then no longer than 24 months after our last exchange, unless the law requires us to keep them longer or we need them to establish or defend a legal claim.
Website server logs: Netlify's Data Processing Agreement states that the logs of the systems supporting its services are kept online for 90 days and offline for one year, for security.

13. Transfers outside the EEA and to international organizations

Most processing happens on your iPhone. MET Norway is in Norway, which is part of the European Economic Area, where the GDPR applies. The OPERA radar image is stored in Poland, and the Civil Protection Department is in Italy (its radar files are served from Amazon Web Services in Milan).

EUMETSAT is an intergovernmental organization based in Germany, NOAA is an agency of the United States government, and Environment and Climate Change Canada is a department of the Government of Canada. While the weather layer is on, each time you view an area their services cover, and again whenever the data is refreshed (for lightning, every 5 to 15 minutes), your device sends them the map area, a time and your IP address directly. We do not receive this data and do not pass it on ourselves. As an international organization and as public bodies of countries outside the EEA, they handle it under their own rules rather than the GDPR, and no EU adequacy decision covers them. The requests contain no GPS position, no name and no account or device identifier; the only identifier they carry is your IP address. If you do not want these services to receive it, keep the weather layer off.

Apple may process data outside the EEA, as explained in the Apple Privacy Policy. This website is hosted by Netlify, Inc., in the United States, which processes server logs as our processor under its Data Processing Agreement, relying on the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework, under which Netlify, Inc. is certified, and on the EU Standard Contractual Clauses included in the same agreement.

E-mails you send us are stored by Google (Gmail), which may process them in the United States. For these transfers Google relies on the EU–U.S. Data Privacy Framework and the EU Standard Contractual Clauses.

14. Permissions and how to change them

Location: iPhone Settings › Privacy & Security › Location Services › Peak Explorer. You can choose "While Using the App" or "Never", and turn Precise Location off.
Health: in the Health app, tap your profile picture, then Apps › Peak Explorer, and turn each data type on or off. This also covers the Apple Watch app.
Motion & Fitness: iPhone Settings › Privacy & Security › Motion & Fitness.
iCloud: in Peak Explorer, Settings › iCloud › Save to iCloud, or in iPhone Settings › your name › iCloud.
Emergency contacts: no permission is needed; remove a contact on the Emergency Location screen.

Withdrawing a permission or your consent does not affect what was done before.

The exact wording of these menus can vary between iOS versions.

15. Children

Peak Explorer is not directed at children. If you are under the age at which you can consent on your own to the processing of your data in your country (14 in Italy; between 13 and 16 in other European countries), ask a parent or guardian before allowing access to Health data. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children; in fact, as explained above, we receive no personal data from the app. If you believe a child has sent us personal data by e-mail, write to us and we will delete it.

16. Security

Data stored by the app is protected by iOS app sandboxing and data protection. Data in iCloud and in Health is protected by Apple. Every network request made by the app uses HTTPS. This website is served only over HTTPS and loads nothing from other sites.

17. Your rights

Under the GDPR (Articles 15 to 22) you have the right to access your personal data, to have it corrected or erased, to restrict or object to its processing (including processing based on our legitimate interest), to data portability, and to withdraw your consent at any time.

Right to object. You can object at any time, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to processing based on our legitimate interest (the trial date, the emergency contacts feature, support records, Apple's aggregated reports and website logs), by writing to peakexploreroffline@gmail.com.

Because the app keeps your data on your devices and in your own iCloud, you can exercise most of these rights directly: view, edit and delete hikes, routes and contacts in the app; export your tracks as GPX files; delete the app, its iCloud data and its Health data. After the free trial, if you have not bought the app, its maps and features are locked, but your hikes and routes are not: tapping the locked app opens the purchase page, where the "Your Hikes and Routes" section lets you open each of them, export it as a GPX file, rename it or delete it. Emergency contacts can always be removed on the Emergency Location screen, which stays available, and you can delete everything by deleting the app. For the data we do hold (such as e-mails) or for any question, write to peakexploreroffline@gmail.com. We reply within one month, which can be extended by two further months for complex requests, as the GDPR allows. We may ask you for information to confirm your identity.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority: in Italy, the Garante per la protezione dei dati personali, Piazza Venezia 11, 00187 Rome (www.garanteprivacy.it), or the authority of the EU country where you live, work, or where you believe the infringement took place.

18. This website

This website is hosted by Netlify, Inc., which acts as our processor. When you visit a page, Netlify's servers process technical data needed to deliver it: your IP address, the date and time, the page requested, your browser's user agent and the referring page. This is used to deliver the site and protect it from abuse (legitimate interest, Art. 6(1)(f)). See the Netlify Privacy Policy.
The website sets no cookies, uses no local storage, runs no JavaScript, and contains no analytics, advertising, social media plugins or embedded content from other sites. Fonts and images are served from this website itself, not from Google Fonts or any other third party.
Links to other websites (such as OpenStreetMap or Apple) take you to sites with their own privacy policies. E-mail links open your own e-mail app.

19. Changes to this policy

If the app or the website changes the way it handles data, we will update this policy and the date at the top of this page. Where a change is significant, we will also mention it in the app's update notes.

20. Contact and language versions

For any privacy question or request: peakexploreroffline@gmail.com, or by post to Eduard Fartade, Via Niso 46, 00040 Ardea (RM), Italy.

This policy is available in English and in Italian. The two versions have the same content. If they ever differ, the Italian version prevails for users resident in Italy and the English version for everyone else; in any case, anything unclear is interpreted in the way most favorable to you.