THE SMALL PRINT

Privacy, in plain language.

How Amblemark handles information when you use the website, contact us or explore with the app.

Last updated: 23 October 2026

Amblemark is in development. The app information below describes the current app design and controls; we will update this page if those practices change. Features shown in previews may not be available in every beta build.

Who to contact

For questions about this notice or information you have shared with Amblemark, email amblemark@proton.me.

Location in the app

With your permission, Amblemark uses location and compass information to show nearby places, point toward a selected place and determine eligible discoveries. Foreground discovery runs while the app is open after you choose a starter region and enable location. You can pause discovery.

Two optional features are off by default: precise background discovery can continue for up to two hours after you leave the app; experimental passive discovery uses iOS region monitoring to notice possible encounters near unlocked places, subject to the required location permission. Passive mode can briefly request precise location to assess a possible encounter or refresh nearby monitored areas. The two-hour limit applies to the continuous precise session; separately enabled passive monitoring can continue beyond it. A coarse encounter alone does not earn a stamp; qualifying precise evidence or your confirmation of a recognised candidate is needed.

You control location access, including Precise Location and background authorization, through iPhone Settings. Disabling permissions limits location-dependent features. Optional local notifications can be disabled separately.

Information kept on your phone

The app stores your collection progress, place encounters, timestamps, approach-distance and qualification information, discovery candidates, preferences and local notification state. When passive discovery is enabled, the app also stores monitored-area centres, including a recent device location used to refresh nearby coverage. These centres have no explicit seven-day expiry, and disabling passive discovery does not erase them. These records support discovery decisions, collection progress and the controls you choose. The current discovery experience does not create a continuous movement trail or new route history.

Unconfirmed candidates and near misses expire from review after seven days and are pruned as the app processes its saved data. This is not guaranteed deletion from an inactive file at an exact time. Earned discoveries and progress remain on the device until the app's data is deleted. Older route records, if present from an earlier version, can remain as local recovery archives; they are not newly recorded routes.

Local diagnostics

The app keeps a local diagnostic summary of permission changes, discovery modes, accuracy and qualification outcomes, interruptions and notification events. These summaries contain timestamps but not a route or coordinates. The app keeps up to 250 recent entries and prunes entries older than seven days when diagnostics are loaded or recorded. The saved file is rewritten when another entry is recorded, so an inactive file can retain older entries longer. They are not automatically uploaded; you choose whether to share a diagnostic summary using the iOS share sheet. This diagnostic file is separate from the progress journals and is not explicitly excluded from device backups.

Storage and recovery limits

Real and practice journals are separate. The app uses iOS file protection for stored journals; current journals remain accessible to the app after the device has first been unlocked following a restart, including for permitted background activity.

Progress journals are excluded from device backups. There is no Amblemark account, cloud progress sync or server copy from which we can restore your collection. Deleting the app or changing or losing your device can lose progress. iOS offloading is different from deleting an app and may retain its data.

App services and external links

Amblemark does not include an advertising or analytics SDK, an Amblemark account service, or an Amblemark server that receives your location or collection journal. Place artwork and reference photographs are bundled with the app. Apple MapKit supplies map features, and opening maps or external links can involve Apple or the destination website handling connection and location information under their own practices.

See Apple Maps & Privacy. iOS and App Store diagnostics and distribution are governed by Apple's services and applicable device settings. For TestFlight beta testing, Apple automatically collects crash logs and usage information; this collection cannot be opted out of while testing. See TestFlight & Privacy. These service flows are separate from an Amblemark location upload.

This website

The website’s sample stamp controls run in your browser. They do not ask for your location, record visits or save your app collection. We have not added advertising trackers, a mailing-list form or custom analytics. The website code does not set cookies or use browser storage for the stamp interaction.

The site is hosted using OpenAI Sites and Cloudflare infrastructure. Requests necessarily include connection information such as IP address, requested page, browser information and request time; hosting providers may process logs or essential cookies to deliver and secure the service. Their retention and processing are governed by their policies, rather than the app’s local-journal settings: OpenAI privacy policy and Cloudflare privacy policy. External links have their own privacy practices.

Email support

If you email us, we receive your email address, message and any attachments you choose to send. We use them to respond and investigate the issue. Email is handled through Proton and your email provider. We retain support correspondence as needed to handle and follow up your request; ask us if you want it deleted. Service-provider retention and backups may differ. Please send only the information needed for your request. You can ask us about access, correction or deletion of information you have sent; contact us using the address above. We cannot remotely access or erase the app’s local journal.

Your choices

You can pause discovery, disable optional background modes and notifications, change iOS permissions, or stop using the app. These actions do not erase existing saved records. Deleting the app through iOS removes its app-container data, subject to iOS behavior; offloading may retain it. Keep the recovery limitations above in mind. If you have a privacy concern or complaint, email us so we can respond.