Introduction
My Bus Edinburgh (app identifier: “uk.org.rivernile.edinburghbustracker.android”), authored by Niall Scott, is an Android application for showing live transport departure times in Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom.
The application was started in 2009 for the author’s university dissertation project. Since then, the application has continued to be worked on as a hobby project. There are no commercial interests in this project. The author does not make any money from this project – including, but not limited to: advertising, sale of data, up-front payment of the application, in-app purchases, etc.
The only benefit the application developer sees from this application is the use of it as a portfolio item, to showcase the author’s work when seeking to obtain work as a professional Android software developer.
The application project is open source and is available at https://github.com/NiallScott/MyBusEdinburgh
TL;DR; the author has no interest in your personal data and the application only uses data which is essential to delivering functionality.
Use of data
This application does not directly collect any personal identifiable information. There is no login/sign-in functionality in this application, so there is no way to attribute any use of the application to any sort of user account. Nor does the application at any point ask the user to input any personally identifiable information.
By using the application, there may be some incidental collection of personal identifiable information, as outlined below;
- IP address. Whenever the application performs a request over a digital network, such as Wi-Fi or over the mobile network, this request may be logged by the service provider to which the request was made. They may log this request for a variety of reasons, such as determining service mis-use and/or analytics. Due to the way the internet works, this is unfortunately unavoidable. If you are concerned about your IP address being logged while using this application, then please use the application over a Virtual Private Network (VPN). See the list of external providers at the end of this document as an example of where this application makes its network requests.
- Device location. This is used by the Stop Map and Nearest Stop features in the application and is entirely processed on-device. Any and all locations which are determined through usage of the application are not sent to the application author. However, a note should be made here that the Stop Map feature makes use of Google Maps, where there can be access to the device’s location so that the device location is highlighted on the map. As such, Google’s privacy policy should be consulted. To opt out of the application from determining your device’s location, simply do not grant location permission access to the application when prompted (Android 6.0 Marshmallow and above).
- Basic device information, such as make/model/Android version. While the application does not routinely collect any analytics metrics, the application does collect metrics in the event of an application “crash” or some other exceptional event, i.e. when the application unexpectedly stopped, or an unhandled situation is encountered. These events assist the author in determining the cause of negative quality issues and providing a fix in a future release. The minimum of data is collected by Firebase Crashlytics (part of Google) and sent up to Crashlytics where the crash data can be inspected on a web console by the author. The application itself does not insert any personally identifiable information here. However, as Firebase Crashlytics is used here, you should consult the Firebase Crashlytics privacy document if you wish to learn more. It is not possible to opt-out of this – however, any data collected here is low-risk and cannot be used to identify you as an individual.
External providers
As noted previously in this document, some external providers are used. These are only used where essential in providing the application’s functionality.
- My Bus Tracker, provided by The City of Edinburgh Council. It is from here where this application obtains the live departure times, stop and service data. Each time you request live departure times, this service may log your IP address.
- Firebase Crashlytics, to log abnormal application events, such as crashes. This helps the author to resolve issues as quickly as possible.
- Google Maps, covered under the Google privacy policy. This provides the Stop Map functionality.
- Google Play Services, covered under the Google privacy policy, used to assist in providing some application functionality.
- Google Play, used to deliver the application to user’s devices.
Disclaimer
The author has taken great care to create this document to make sure it’s accurate and comprehensive. Any errors or omissions are not intended and will be considered for amendment when the issue is brought to the author’s attention.
Additionally, the application has been developed with great care to make sure it delivers good functionality and respects user’s privacy. As stated in the introduction of this document, there is no incentive for the author to collect personal identifiable information. As such, you can use this application in confidence that your privacy is respected.
However, due to the nature of software, there are time when issues may occur. Please bring any issues to the attention of the author.
While the best of endeavours will be made, the author is unable to take any ultimate responsibility and usage of the application is at your own risk.
Contact
riverniall at gmail dot com