The short version
Leeway has no account, no sign-up and no server of mine. I do not receive your addresses, your alarms, your routine, your location or your name, because there is nowhere for them to be sent. Everything the app knows is stored in a single file on your iPhone.
Three things do leave your phone, all to Apple, and each is listed below: a route lookup, an optional weather lookup, and a version check. None of them carry an identifier for you.
What stays on your phone
The app keeps one file in its own private storage area. It holds:
- Your home and work addresses and their coordinates
- Your work start time, workdays, and how early you want to arrive
- Your morning routine — the items and how long each takes
- Your alarms, their modes, sounds and repeat days
- The plan for your next workday, including the drive time last measured
- A history of your mornings: planned and actual departure times, used to adjust future estimates
- Whether you have an active subscription
This file is covered by your device passcode and by iOS app sandboxing. If you have iCloud Backup or encrypted local backups turned on, Apple’s backup of your device may include it, under Apple’s terms rather than mine. Deleting the app deletes the file. Settings → Reset Leeway clears it without deleting the app.
What leaves your phone
Route lookups
To work out the drive, the app asks Apple Maps how long it takes to get from one coordinate to another at a given departure time. That request contains your two coordinates and a time. It does not contain your name, your email, a device identifier or an account, because the app has none of those. Apple handles the request under Apple’s privacy policy.
On the free plan this happens when you choose to spend your monthly check, plus a small number of setup checks when you first add or change a route. On Premium it happens the night before each workday and again as the alarm approaches.
Weather, if you turn it on
If you enable “Add door time for rain and frost”, the app asks Apple’s WeatherKit about conditions near your home so it can add a few minutes for scraping or an umbrella. This is off unless you switch it on, and the app works fully without it.
Version checks
At most once a day the app asks Apple’s public App Store lookup service whether a newer version of Leeway has been released. The request contains the app’s bundle identifier and your store region. It contains nothing about you, and no response is stored beyond the version number.
That is the complete list. There is no analytics service, no crash reporter, no advertising network and no third-party SDK in the app. If that changes in a future version, this page changes first and the change is named in the release notes.
Permissions, and what happens if you say no
| Permission | What it is for |
|---|---|
| Alarms | Ringing through Silent and Focus. Required — without it the app cannot do its job. |
| Notifications | Passive alarms and the bedtime plan. Optional; interactive alarms still ring. |
| Location, while in use | Only when you tap “Use my current location” while setting an address. The app does not track you, does not ask for background or always-on location, and never records where you are. |
| Calendar, read only | Reading the start time of your first meeting, so an early one can move your alarm. Optional. The app reads start times only and writes nothing. |
Each of these can be withdrawn in iOS Settings at any time. The app degrades rather than breaking: refuse location and you type your address instead; refuse calendar and it uses your normal start time.
Payments
Subscriptions are sold by Apple through the App Store. Apple processes the payment and tells the app, on your device, whether a subscription is active. I never see your card details, your billing address, your Apple Account or your name. The app has no payment server and verifies your subscription on the device itself.
Apple’s handling of your purchase is covered by your agreement with Apple. Refunds are handled by Apple, not by me.
What is never collected
- No name, email address or phone number
- No account, because there is no sign-up
- No advertising identifier, and no tracking across apps or websites
- No analytics, usage telemetry or crash reports
- No contacts, photos, microphone or health data
- No background location and no location history
- Nothing is sold, rented or shared with any third party, because nothing is collected to share
This website
This site is static. It sets no cookies, has no analytics and no tracking pixels. The traffic calculator on the home page runs entirely in your browser — the numbers you type are never sent anywhere.
Two things are loaded from elsewhere: the two typefaces come from Google Fonts, which will see your IP address as part of serving them, and your host keeps ordinary server logs.
Your rights
Data-protection law gives you rights to see, correct, export and delete the personal data an organisation holds about you. In Leeway’s case those rights are satisfied by the design rather than by a request form: the data is on your phone, you can see and change all of it in the app, and Settings → Reset Leeway or deleting the app erases it. I cannot produce a copy of your data or delete it on your behalf, because I do not have it.
This applies equally under Saudi Arabia’s Personal Data Protection Law, the EU and UK GDPR, and the California Consumer Privacy Act. If you believe something here is wrong, write to me at the address below.
Children
Leeway is a commuting tool intended for adults and is not directed at children. It collects no personal data from anyone, including children.
Changes to this policy
If the app starts doing something this page does not describe, this page is updated before that version ships, and the date at the top changes. Material changes are named in the App Store release notes rather than slipped in quietly.
Contact
Leeway is made by Hamad Qadi in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, who is the data controller for the little data involved.
Email support@hamadqadi.com. I read all of it.