Leyline Privacy Policy

Leyline – Places & Routes · Last updated 12 October 2026

Who we are

Leyline is made by Joel Mulder, an independent developer in the Netherlands. For anything about privacy, email dev@joelmulder.com.

What the app records

With your permission, Leyline uses your iPhone's location services and motion sensors to record:

• your location while you move (GPS points), and the places where you stay;
• your activity as your iPhone reports it (still, walking, cycling, in a vehicle);
• what you add yourself: place names, icons, home and work, and corrections to your timeline;
• only if you import from Photos: where and when your photos were taken, read from the photos' location data, turned into places and trips from before you used the app. The photos themselves are never looked at or copied; photos that put you somewhere else at the same time (most likely someone else's, in a Shared Library) are left out. You can remove this history again (Settings → Your data → Import history);
• technical logs about the app itself, such as battery use and how tracking behaved, to find bugs.

All of this is stored in a database inside the app on your iPhone. You can export it (Settings → Your data → Prepare export) or delete it (Settings → Your data → Delete all data) at any time.

What leaves your phone, and when

• Apple Maps. To show maps, to give places a name and address, to search for an address and to draw routes along roads (and, for a photo import, to find each area's time zone and country and the airports a flight most likely used), the app uses Apple's MapKit. This sends the coordinates involved to Apple, under Apple's privacy policy.
• Bug reports and feedback you send. When you send a bug report or feedback, it goes to Joel through the app's report service (see below), by email to dev@joelmulder.com, or wherever you choose to share it. Each time, you choose what goes in, and the app shows you exactly what that is before the report is made: for an interface bug, only your description, a screenshot if you keep it, and the app version and iPhone model, with no location information; for a problem with a trip or place, also the exact locations around the one you pick (30 minutes either side); or, for major problems, your whole history. The last two also include the app's activity log (with rough locations, about 100 m); for an interface bug that's an optional extra.
• Daily battery summary. Part of taking part in the closed beta: once you agree on the beta screen, the app sends a short summary of how much battery it used once a day (minutes of GPS, wake-ups, battery drain, your tracking settings, app version and iPhone model). During this early testing phase only, it also says whether Leyline is allowed to record: location and motion permission, whether tracking is on, and its state, and how often the app was swiped away (a count). It contains no places or positions. It is marked with a random ID made on your iPhone, so summaries from the same phone can be compared; the ID isn't linked to your name, Apple ID or device. Measuring battery use is the main purpose of the beta, so it can't be switched off on its own. To stop it, withdraw your agreement in Settings → Data sharing: Leyline then stops recording until you agree again. You can also delete the app at any time.
• The report service. Battery summaries and bug reports sent from the app go over an encrypted connection to a small relay run by Joel on Cloudflare (Cloudflare Workers), which stores them in a private repository on GitHub that only Joel can read. The relay keeps nothing itself. Ask at dev@joelmulder.com to have what you sent deleted.
• "Share my data for testing". Only if you agreed to it on the consent screen and then choose to share. You decide in Settings which parts are included (timeline, GPS points, motion, place names, diagnostics), and you pick where it goes with the iPhone share sheet.
• TestFlight. While you test a beta through TestFlight, Apple shares crash reports and the feedback you submit in TestFlight with the developer, under Apple's TestFlight terms.
• Your iPhone backup. Like other app data, Leyline's database is part of your iPhone backup (iCloud Backup or your computer) if you have backups turned on.

Nothing else is sent. Leyline has no analytics, no advertising, no third-party tracking code and no account.

How data you send is used

Reports and shared data are used only to find and fix problems in Leyline and to make tracking more accurate. They are never sold or shared with anyone else, and never used for advertising. They are kept only as long as they are needed for that, and deleted on request.

The beta waiting list on this website

While the beta is invite only, you can leave your email address on the Leyline page of this website to hear when it opens to more people. Only the address is kept, with the date and your browser's language, and only to send you that one invitation. It is stored in Joel Mulder's own account with Cloudflare, which hosts this website, and is never shared, sold or used for anything else. It is deleted once the invitation has been sent, or when the beta opens to everyone, or earlier if you ask: email dev@joelmulder.com. You leave it by choice, and you can change your mind at any time.

Your choices and rights

• You can change or withdraw location and motion permission at any time in the iPhone Settings app.
• You can turn off sharing options, stop recording at chosen places, and delete everything from within the app.
• Under the GDPR you can ask what data you have sent us, and have it corrected or deleted: email dev@joelmulder.com. You can also complain to the Dutch data protection authority (Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens).

Children

Leyline is not meant for children under 16, and we do not knowingly receive data from them.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted here with a new date. If a change affects what leaves your phone, the app will tell you before it happens.

Map data © Apple and its partners. Demo routes © OpenStreetMap contributors and ProRail.