Privacy Policy

Who we are

Trekosa is a community walk-discovery app for dog owners, run by Trekosa Limited, company number 17446018, registered in England and Wales. We are the data controller for the personal data described here. This policy explains what we collect, why, and your rights over it. For any privacy request, contact us at privacy@trekosa.com.

What we collect

• Account: your email address and, if you set one, a display name. If you sign in with Google, the name and email address Google gives us. If you sign in with Apple, the name and email address Apple gives us, and a sign-in token from Apple.
• Invite: if you joined by somebody’s link or code, which one, so we know how our community grew. You do not need one to join.
• Home area: your postcode, and a coarse area derived from it (an approximate area, never a precise address). Your postcode sets which walks we show near home; you can view or change it any time in your Profile.
• Your dogs: what you tell us about each one. Their name, breed, age and size, and what they find difficult, like other dogs, traffic or livestock. This is what we match walks against.
• About you: anything you tell us about the people who walk, so walks fit you as well as your dog. Who usually comes (on your own, two of you, family, a pushchair), how confident you feel, anything on the ground that stops you (like stiles, steps or rough ground) and anything you add in your own words. All of it is optional, and we use it only to match walks.
• What you say at sign-up: you can answer the sign-up questions out loud instead of tapping. While you speak, the sound from your microphone is sent to a speech service that turns it into text and sends the words back. No recording is made, by us or on your phone: the sound passes through and only the words arrive. The words are then read by an AI service to fill in the answers, and you see everything it filled in, and can change it, before anything is kept. What we store is the text you confirmed. Talking is optional and you can type or tap every question instead. We also keep a record of how your sign-up went: which screens you saw, whether you talked, typed or tapped, what was suggested and what you confirmed, so we can make the questions better.
• If you take part in research: what you tell us in an interview, a walk diary or a survey, so we can decide what the app should ask new owners. We keep those answers without your name, and taking part is voluntary.
• Walks and check-ins: routes you draw or keep, which suggested walks you keep or pass on and any reason you give, and what you report about a walk afterwards.
• Beta feedback: anything you write to us in the app, and any screenshots you choose to attach. We also record which screen you sent it from and which version of the app you were on, so we know which part of the app you meant.
• Referrals: the code you invite people with, and who joined using it. If you invite somebody, your display name is shown to them on the page they land on, so they can see who the invitation came from. Nothing else about you is shown, and if you have not set a display name, no name appears.
• Waiting list: we no longer have one, because anybody can create an account. If you asked us to keep you a place while it was open, we still hold the email address and postcode you gave us, anything you told us about your dog, and where the link came from. We use them to decide which areas to build next, and for nothing else. Ask us and we will delete your entry.
• Location: your device location when you tap the locate button, to place the pin that walks are found around, and once when you open the check-in sheet on a walk, so we can offer "I'm here" if you are. If you follow a walk with Further, your phone keeps watching where you are until you press Stop, including with the screen off, so it can tell you if you leave the path or a turn is coming; a notification shows the whole time it is on. That position stays on your phone and is never sent to us. We do not keep a log of where you have been.
• Your last search near home: when you search close to your home area, we keep that one search’s settings (how far, how long, and your dog’s limits) and how many walks it found around your home area. Each search near home replaces the last, and it holds no pin. We use it to tell you, once, if a search that found few walks for your dog would find more now.
• How the search box is used: when you use the search box, we note what it led to: whether it found anything, what kind of result you picked (a town, a park, a postcode), whether you looked at a list of walks and whether you kept one. We never keep what you typed, where you searched or who you are. It tells us when the search box is letting people down.
• Notifications: only if you say yes when the Android app offers them. Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging then gives that phone a code that lets us reach it, and we keep the code, which phone it is and when it was set up. A notification only ever tells you that another walker reported livestock, a loose dog, flooding or a blocked path on a walk you keep: the walk’s name, what they reported and the date. It never says where you are or anything about your dog. To stop them, switch off "Changes on your walks" in your phone’s settings. Signing out on a phone stops us sending to it, and deleting your account deletes the code.
• If you buy Further: you pay Google Play or the App Store, never us, so we never see your card or bank details. We keep which plan you have, whether it is active and when it renews or ends, so the app can switch Further on, and the store’s own reference for the purchase (its order or transaction number), so we can find it if you get in touch. We also keep a log of what the store tells us happened (bought, renewed, cancelled, refunded). Deleting your account deletes your plan and the store’s reference, and leaves the log with nothing that links it to you.
• On your phone: map areas and your map settings are stored on your device so the app works away from signal, and you can remove them in Menu then Settings. Your phone tells us which areas it holds, its map settings, which version of the app it runs, and whether it is the Android app, the iPhone app or the website, with a short description of the phone or browser. We use that to tell you when an area needs updating and to see where people use Trekosa. We also note which of those you signed up on. That report never carries your position, your walks or anything about your dog.
• If something goes wrong: when the app hits an error it sends us what happened: the error message, which screen, the app version and the kind of phone or browser. A few per session at most, and nothing about where you are or your dog.

Why we use it

To run your account, show walks near your home area, personalise recommendations, and maintain the shared community map. In the law's terms: running your account is performing our agreement with you; improving the app, fixing errors and keeping the shared map useful are our legitimate interests; marketing emails, notifications and the microphone are by your consent, which you can withdraw at any time.

Emails about your walks are different: when the ground changes on a walk you keep, and when new walks for your dog turn up near your home area. They are on unless you turn them off, at sign-up or in Menu then Settings, and every one has a link to stop them. We never send one just because time has passed, and never about places you searched away from home.

Cookies

We use a cookie to keep you signed in, which needs no permission. On the public pages of the site, and only if you say yes, we also use Google Analytics to count visits: which pages are read, roughly where in the world from, on what kind of device, and which site or campaign sent you. It sets cookies of its own that last up to two years.

Google Analytics is never used inside the app or on these two policy pages. We send it the address of the page with anything after the question mark removed, apart from campaign tags, so a referral or sign-in code never reaches it. Advertising features are switched off, and Google is never told who you are or anything about your dog. If you say no, nothing is loaded from Google at all.

If you say yes and then create an account, we keep the random Analytics ID from your browser with your account. We use it for one thing: to tell Google a sign-up happened when you confirm your email in a different browser from the one you signed up in. We never store it if you said no. We also keep a plain count of how many people said yes and how many said no on the cookie note, with nothing that identifies anyone.

Children

Trekosa is for adults. You need to be 18 or over to create an account, and we do not knowingly hold data about anyone younger. If you think we do, email privacy@trekosa.com and we will remove it.

Sharing a walk you drew

When you save a walk you drew, we offer a copy of it to other households, and that is switched on by default. You can turn it off as you save, or at any time afterwards, from the status pill on the walk.

Your own walk is never published. What other households see is a separate copy with a few hundred metres trimmed from each end, so it does not start or finish where yours does, with the distance recalculated and the visible start moved to a public place like a car park. This is deliberate: your walk very often starts at your front door.

A share link is different. It shows the walk exactly as you walk it, including where you really set off and any words you add to it, so send it only to people you would tell anyway. You can stop a link working at any time from the same status pill.

Your rights

You can see and change most of what we hold from Profile and Settings in the app.

In the app, open Settings and choose Download a copy of my data for everything we hold about you, apart from three things. The lines of walks you drew, and the records the app stores send us when you buy something, are not in the file yet: email us and we will send them. The code your phone uses to get our notifications is left out on purpose, so nobody who gets hold of the file could send messages to your phone. Or choose Delete my account to close it and have your personal data removed. Anything you told other walkers about a walk stays, without your name. If you would rather ask us, email privacy@trekosa.com. A person handles those, and we will come back to you within one month. You can also ask us to correct anything that is wrong, or to restrict or object to how we use it.

When you ask us to delete your account, your personal details are removed. Walks and check-ins you contributed stay, with your name taken off them, because other households may have kept a walk or relied on a report, and pulling those out would leave holes in what they are standing on.

If you signed in with Apple, we also ask Apple to end that sign-in when you delete your account. For that one purpose we keep the sign-in token from Apple, and it is removed with the rest of your account.

You can withdraw consent for marketing emails whenever you like, in Menu then Settings, and for notifications in your phone’s settings. If you are unhappy with how we handle your data, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.

How long we keep it

While your account is open, and then until you ask us to delete it. Beta feedback and any screenshots attached to it are kept while we are still acting on them.

Research answers are different, because they are not part of your account: an interview, a diary or a survey is kept without your name for six months while we decide what the app should ask, and then deleted. You can tell us to stop at any point and we will remove what you gave us.

Sharing & storage

Your data is never sold. It is stored in the United Kingdom, in London, with Supabase (database, sign-in and file storage), and served by Vercel (hosting) and Cloudflare (the map areas your phone downloads). We only share it further where needed to run the service or where required by law.

Some parts of the app talk to other services to work. Map tiles come from Ordnance Survey, and aerial imagery from Esri, fetched for your phone by our own service on Cloudflare, so Cloudflare sees your device's IP address and those two providers see which part of the map is being looked at, not who is looking. When you enter a postcode, our servers ask postcodes.io where it is, and when you search for a place by name, they ask Ordnance Survey. When you tap "Get me there" or "Plan the journey", we hand the starting point, and how you said you are travelling, to whichever maps app you choose. How you travel is kept on your phone, not sent to us. If you are getting a lift, "Share the spot with your driver" puts a map link to the drop-off point in a message you send yourself, and we do not see who you send it to. Behind the scenes, our servers use openrouteservice to follow paths between the points you tap, Open-Meteo for conditions, and Resend to deliver the emails we send you.

If you answer the sign-up questions out loud, two more services are involved for as long as you are speaking. Deepgram turns the sound into text, and Anthropic reads the text to fill in the answers. Neither is told who you are: they receive what you said and your dog's name, and nothing that identifies you, though your phone talks to Deepgram directly, so Deepgram sees its internet address while you speak. Both are in the United States, and the transfer is covered by the standard clauses UK law provides for. If you would rather they were not involved at all, tap or type your answers instead. On some Android phones the phone’s own speech service, usually Google’s, turns the sound into text instead of Deepgram.

If you turn on notifications, Google delivers them through Firebase Cloud Messaging. Google receives the code for your phone and the words of each notification, so it can carry them to your phone. Google may handle them outside the United Kingdom, and that transfer is covered by the same standard clauses. If you never say yes, Google is not involved.

If you buy Further, Google Play or the App Store takes the payment under their own terms, and RevenueCat checks the purchase with the store for us and tells us when it renews, ends or is refunded. RevenueCat knows the purchase and a number that stands for your Trekosa account, not your name or email address. It is in the United States, under the same standard clauses, and keeps its own record of the purchase after you delete your account here; email us and we will ask it to delete that too.

If you say yes to Google Analytics on the public site, Google receives your device's IP address and the pages you read there, to count them for us. Google may handle this outside the United Kingdom, under the same standard clauses. The details and the switch are under Cookies above.

Signing in with Google involves Google. We ask Google for two things only, your name and your email address, and we use them to create your account and to reply if you write to us. We never post to your Google account, and we never read anything else in it. You can also sign in with an email address and a password instead, and Google is not involved at all if you do.

Terms of Use