Privacy Policy

Altika app — last updated: 23 September 2026

Altika (“the app”) is published by Jamel El Abdellaoui. This page explains what data the app uses, what leaves your device, and why. It covers Google Play, App Store and test versions; version-specific additions are identified below.

1. Data the app uses

Location (precise and approximate)

Used to identify the peaks around you, orient the augmented-reality view, centre the map, fetch the weather for a targeted point, and compute a route when you ask for one. Processing happens on your device. The publisher neither stores nor consults your position. Some features do send coordinates to third-party services or to the Altika server — never your identity (see section 2).

Recorded hiking tracks

If you start a recording, the GPS track (points, distance, ascent) is written locally only, in the app's private storage. It leaves the device only if you export it deliberately (shared GPX file, backup to a folder you choose).

Camera

Used only for augmented reality: displaying peak names over the live image. The stream is processed in real time on the device and is neither recorded nor transmitted. If you deliberately take a photo, it is stored locally. Audio is never captured: the RECORD_AUDIO permission, which the camera component declares by default, is explicitly removed from the app's manifest.

Sensors (compass, accelerometer, gyroscope)

Read continuously during augmented reality to orient the view. These readings never leave the device and are not retained.

Crash reports

The published version includes Firebase Crashlytics (Google) to diagnose crashes and fix bugs. What is then transmitted: the crash stack trace, technical device information (model, Android version, app state) and a Firebase installation ID. This data does not identify you personally and is never used for advertising. See the Firebase data disclosure.

Audience measurement

The published version includes Google Analytics for Firebase, solely to know how many people install the app, which features are actually used, and whether a promotional campaign works. The app sends only two things: the names of the screens you open, and the purchase event for the full version (amount and currency). Firebase automatically adds an installation identifier, the device model, the Android version, the country and the language.

What is never sent: no location, no name of any summit or route you looked at, no hiking track. These measurements are never used for targeted advertising or to build advertising audiences: audience sharing to Google Ads is turned off, and the app shows no advertising at all.

No advertising identifier is collected. The app explicitly removes the Android advertising identifier permission (AD_ID) and the related attribution permissions from its manifest — permissions that Google's measurement module would otherwise add on its own. Neither Google nor Meta can read it. An install is attributed to the campaign that brought it through the Play Store install referrer: a label we put in our own ads, which identifies nobody. See the Firebase data disclosure.

Advertising campaign measurement (Meta)

Nothing is sent to Meta without your agreement. You are asked once, when the app starts; until you tap Accept, Meta's measurement module sends no event and reads no identifier. You can change your mind at any time in Settings › Privacy › Ad measurement. The legal basis for this processing is your consent (GDPR, art. 6(1)(a)), and withdrawing it is as easy as giving it.

If you accept, the app sends Meta Platforms Ireland Limited (Facebook App Events), on Android as well as on iPhone, two events and nothing else: app opening (installation and sessions) and the purchase of the full version (amount and currency). The module adds a pseudonymous installation identifier of its own, technical information about the device, the operating system and the module version, and the connection exposes your IP address to the recipient.

The purpose is advertising measurement, and nothing else: knowing which ad helps people discover Altika, so we do not pay for the ones that do not. The app shows no advertising and no advertising audience is built from your data.

What is never sent to Meta: no advertising identifier (neither AD_ID on Android nor IDFA on iPhone — collection is turned off), no location, no hiking track, no summit or route name, no photo. The module's automatic purchase logging is disabled: only the purchase event described above is sent. See Meta's privacy policy.

On iPhone, Apple additionally provides signed, aggregated SKAdNetwork attribution reports, which cannot link anyone to an ad click. Our server forwards them to Google Analytics to count installations by ad network; received reports are kept there for 30 days, after which only technical deduplication keys remain to prevent double counting. See Google's SKAdNetwork documentation.

One-time purchase

Full unlocking is a one-time purchase handled by Google Play Billing. Payment information is handled by Google Play; the publisher never receives it and has no access to it. See Google's privacy policy.

2. What leaves your device, and to whom

To display maps, download terrain, name peaks, provide weather and compute routes, the app queries online services. These requests contain geographic coordinates or a tile name — never your name, e-mail address or any account identifier.

Each service handles these requests under its own privacy policy. All communications are encrypted (HTTPS).

3. What is stored on your phone

Only in the app's private storage: your preferences, downloaded terrain and map regions, your track history, the routes you create, and the photos you take.

Android automatic backup is disabled for this app (allowBackup=false): this data is not copied to a Google cloud. Uninstalling the app deletes it permanently.

4. What we do not do

• No user account, no sign-up, no e-mail address requested.
• No advertising inside the app, no advertising audience built from your data.
• No selling or renting of your data; transmissions to measurement services are described above.
• No marketing profiling, no resale to data brokers.
• No advertising identifier is read or transmitted, on either platform.
• No advertising measurement without your prior agreement, and that choice can be withdrawn in the app settings.

5. Children

Altika targets a general audience and is not designed for children. We do not knowingly collect data about anyone under 13.

6. Your rights (GDPR)

Because your personal data is local to your device, you keep direct control of it: uninstalling the app deletes all local data, and GPX export lets you take it with you at any time.

For crash reports (Crashlytics) and audience measurement (Google Analytics for Firebase and Meta on iOS), you may request access, rectification or erasure of data concerning you by writing to the address below; we reply within 30 days. You may also lodge a complaint with your national data-protection authority (in France, the CNIL).

7. Changes

Any change to this policy will be published on this page with a new update date. Significant changes will be noted in the app's release notes.

8. Contact

For any question about this policy: contact@altika.app