NYC Like a Local Privacy Policy
The short version. NYC Like a Local is free and supported by ads. The ads are non-personalized: they are chosen from context, not from a profile of you, and the app never asks to track you across other apps. You don't need an account, your saved places, home base and settings stay on your phone, and we do not receive your location. We do not sell your personal information.
Who we are
NYC Like a Local is published by Offsheet LLC ("we", "us"). This policy explains what information the app handles and why. Questions: nyclikealocal@offsheet.nyc.
Information that stays on your device
The app stores the following only on your phone. We never receive it, and deleting the app deletes it.
- Home base. The starting point you confirm for planning your day, as an address label and map coordinates.
- Saved places and your chosen language.
- Settings, such as whether guide audio plays automatically and whether you have seen the welcome introduction.
You can clear your home base at any time from the My day screen.
Location
Location access is optional and the app works without it. If you allow it, your phone's location is used only while the app is open, to set a home base or show how far you are from your next stop. It is held in memory, not saved, never sent to us, and never used in the background.
Services provided by your phone's operating system
- Maps. The maps shown in the app are drawn by your phone's built-in map service (Apple Maps on iPhone, Google Maps on Android), which loads map images for the area shown.
- Address lookup. When you type a home-base address, or use your current location to set one, the app asks your phone's built-in address service (Apple on iPhone, Google on Android) to convert between the address and map coordinates.
These services are operated by Apple or Google under their own privacy policies.
Links that open other apps and websites
When you choose to get directions, the app opens Apple Maps or Google Maps with the destination, and your starting point if you have set one. Other links you tap, such as MTA service status, a venue's schedule page, or a photo's source on Wikimedia Commons, open in your browser. Those apps and sites handle information under their own policies.
Photos in the app
Place photos are either licensed from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each photo, or taken by our own editors. They are included in the app itself, so viewing them does not contact our servers.
Editor accounts
Visitors never need an account. A separate sign-in exists only for editors we authorize to add photos. For those editors we process their name and email address (from Google sign-in or the account we create for them), and the photos, captions and descriptions they choose to publish. Photos are resized and stripped of camera and location metadata before upload, and are stored on Amazon Web Services in the United States.
Advertising
The app shows labelled banner ads from Google AdMob, in the Explore list only. Ads never change which places the guide recommends or the order it shows them in, and they never appear inside directions or route steps.
Every ad request is for non-personalized ads, and the app does not use Apple's App Tracking Transparency or your device's advertising identifier for personalization. To choose, measure and protect ads, Google's advertising software in the app collects:
- your IP address, which may be used to estimate your general location (city level, not your precise location);
- device and app identifiers, such as an identifier limited to this app's developer, and on Android the advertising ID;
- information about the ads you see and how you interact with them, such as views and taps;
- diagnostic and performance information about the app and the ads software.
Google processes this data as described in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services and the Google Privacy Policy. Non-personalized ads can still use data for frequency capping, aggregated reporting, and preventing fraud and abuse.
Consent in the EU, UK and Switzerland. If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland, the app shows Google's consent form before any ad is requested, and only requests ads if your choices allow it. You can change your choices at any time from Ad privacy choices in the app's settings.
The app contains no analytics software of our own, and we do not track you across other companies' apps or websites.
Children
The app is a general-audience travel guide, not directed at children. Ads are limited to content rated suitable for general audiences with parental guidance. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.
Your choices and rights
Information the app stores stays on your device, so you control it directly: change or clear it in the app, turn off location access in your phone's settings, or delete the app. For ads, use Ad privacy choices in settings (EU, UK and Switzerland), reset or delete your device's advertising identifier in your phone's privacy settings, or see Google's ad settings at adssettings.google.com. Editors can ask us to access or delete their account information and published photos at nyclikealocal@offsheet.nyc. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under laws such as the GDPR or the CCPA; contact us to exercise them.
Changes to this policy
We will post any change on this page with a new effective date. Material changes will also be noted in the app's release notes.