Privacy policy
Effective 26 September 2026
The short version
- Your location is used only on your phone to start stories near landmarks. It is never sent to us.
- No accounts, no names, no email addresses, no ads, no tracking SDKs.
- We receive anonymous listening statistics (which story was played) tied to a random ID, not to you.
Who we are
Hearitage (“we”, “us”) is a walking audio guide app for Android, starting with Sarajevo. This policy explains what the Hearitage app and this website do with your information. If you have any questions, write to privacy@virtual-tour-guide.xyz.
Location
Hearitage needs your location to notice when you walk near a landmark and start its story automatically. With your permission, it also does this in the background, so the guide keeps working with your phone in your pocket. While background tracking is active, Android shows an ongoing notification.
Your location is processed entirely on your device. We do not send it to our servers, store it, or share it with anyone. You can change or withdraw location permission at any time in your phone’s settings. Without it, stories will not start automatically near landmarks.
Anonymous listening statistics
When a story plays, the app sends us a small event so we can learn which places and stories people enjoy. Each event contains:
- which landmark and which narration was played,
- whether it started automatically (nearby) or because you tapped it,
- the story length you chose (simplified, standard or extended),
- a random identifier generated by the app when it is first installed, and the time the event reached us.
The random identifier is not linked to your name, phone number, advertising ID, Google account or any other account. We do not store IP addresses with these events. If you are offline, events wait on your phone and are sent later. Reinstalling the app (or clearing its data) creates a new identifier.
We use this information only to improve the guide and its content, and we keep it only as long as it is useful for that.
Data stored on your phone
To work offline, the app downloads and keeps on your device the city content (landmarks, stories, routes, facts and audio), your settings (such as language and story length), and a local history of which stories you have heard. This stays on your phone. Uninstalling the app or clearing its data removes it.
Services the app connects to
- Our content server (
api.virtual-tour-guide.xyz): the app downloads the city guide from it and sends the anonymous statistics described above. - OpenStreetMap map tiles: the map images are loaded from the OpenStreetMap Foundation’s tile servers, which receive your IP address and the map area being displayed, as with any website. See the OSMF privacy policy.
- Walking directions: when you tap “Take me there”, the destination is handed to your maps app (for example Google Maps). What that app does is governed by its own privacy policy.
- Voice: stories without a recording are read by your phone’s built-in text-to-speech engine.
We do not sell your information, and we do not use advertising, analytics or crash-reporting services from third parties.
Other permissions
The app may ask to show notifications. This is used for the notification Android requires while the guide runs in the background. The app also uses standard Android permissions that let background work run reliably (for example, keeping the device awake briefly and checking network status).
This website
This website does not use cookies, analytics or trackers. The icon font is loaded from Google Fonts, which receives your IP address when you visit. If you tap a language to hear a sample voice, that sample is produced by your own browser.
Children
Hearitage is a general-audience travel guide. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children, and the app does not ask anyone for personal information.
Your rights
Because we do not collect data that identifies you, we usually cannot link any statistics to you. Depending on where you live (for example under the EU GDPR), you may still have rights to access, correct, delete or object to the processing of personal data. Our basis for the anonymous statistics is our legitimate interest in improving the guide. Location is only used with the permission you grant on your phone. To exercise a right, or if something here is unclear, email privacy@virtual-tour-guide.xyz. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.
Changes
If we change how the app handles data, for example by adding paid features or accounts, we will update this page and its effective date before the change reaches the app.