LostIsh Privacy Policy

Last updated 8 November 2026

Who we are

LostIsh is a driving app that builds loop routes and guides you round them. It is run by David Pack ("we", "us"). We are responsible for the personal information described here. You can contact us at lostish.app@gmail.com.

What we collect

• Your location. The app uses your phone's location to show you on the map, follow the route and give turn-by-turn directions. This happens on your phone while you drive.
• Your start point. When you build a route, the place you are starting from is sent to our server, along with the drive length and style you chose.
• Rerouting. If you leave your route, your position, direction of travel and the current route are sent to our server so it can work out a way back.
• Your ratings. If you rate a drive or a stretch of road, we receive your star rating, the stretches you marked good or bad, the route line, and simple drive figures (distance, time, average speed, number of reroutes and the style of drive). These are saved against a random device ID that the app makes for your phone. It is not your name or email.
• Your account (optional). You can sign in with Google, Apple or an email address and password, or use the app as a guest. Sign-in is handled by Google Firebase Authentication, which holds your email address (and name, if you use Google or Apple) and a password protected by Firebase. Our own server receives only a random user ID and the sign-in method, not your email or name. Guests are identified only by the random device ID.
• Your achievements (accounts only). To keep them if you change phone, your account stores how many drives you have finished, the names of roads you have driven and places you have passed (used to count discoveries), and which achievements you have earned. It is not a map of your journeys and has no times or exact positions. Guests keep these on their phone only.
• Feedback (optional). If you send us feedback, we receive your message, the email address if you choose to give one for a reply, your account ID if you are signed in, your device ID, and your app and phone details if you leave that box ticked. It is emailed to us and kept so we can fix problems and improve the app.
• Convoys. When you start or join a convoy, we keep a short code, your username, and whether you are ready, for 24 hours. Sharing your live position with the convoy is OFF unless you switch it on. If you do, only the people in that convoy can see your latest position while you drive. Only the latest point is held, it is hidden after 15 minutes without an update and removed after 30, and it is deleted when you finish, leave or switch sharing off. We do not keep a history of it.
• Convoy walkie-talkie. When you hold the talk button, the app uses your microphone and sends your voice, in short pieces, through our server to the other people in your convoy. The microphone is only used while you hold the button. The pieces are held in the server's memory for a few seconds so that someone whose connection stutters, or who joins mid-sentence, does not miss it. They are never written to disk, never recorded and never kept.
• SOS. If you press SOS, everyone in your convoy sees that you need help, along with your username and your latest position. It clears when you cancel it, when you leave or finish the convoy, or after 30 minutes.
• Profile. Everyone signed in picks a username. We keep your username, one of our built-in avatars, and an optional short bio, so that people in the same convoy see them instead of any real name. They are not shown to anyone else, there is no search, and photos cannot be uploaded.
• Garage (beta). Any vehicles you add (nickname, make and model, optional number plate, icon and colour, and an optional photo of your car) are kept on your phone only. They are not sent to us. The exception is whether a vehicle is a car or a motorbike, which is sent with route requests so we can pick suitable roads, and is not saved against your device ID. If you add a photo, please hide your number plate first; LostIsh does not edit or check photos.
• Beta sign-up form (website only, not the app). If you ask to join the beta on lostish.app, the form collects your Gmail address, your first name (optional) and your tick-box confirmations. It is run with Google Forms, so Google processes it under its own privacy policy. We use it only to add you to the Google Play test and to contact you about it. We delete it when the test ends, or sooner if you ask.
• Free Premium tester sign-up (website only, not the app). If you sign up on lostish.app to be one of the first 50 free Premium testers, our own server stores your email address, whether you use Android or iPhone, and the date you signed up. We use it only to contact you about the test and to give you your free Premium month. You can ask us to delete it at any time by emailing lostish.app@gmail.com. We delete it after the free month has been given or sooner if you ask.
• Voice command. If you set up "Hey Google" (or Siri on iPhone) to open the convoy walkie-talkie, your phone's assistant handles what you say under its own privacy policy. LostIsh only receives the request to start talking. Your voice is then used exactly as described for the convoy walkie-talkie above: it is not recorded or kept, and the microphone stops when you stop speaking or after 30 seconds.
• Offline maps. To keep the map working where there is no signal, the app can download map tiles for the area around your route and store them on your phone. These come from OpenFreeMap, which can see your phone's IP address and the area requested. The saved tiles stay on your phone and can be cleared by clearing the app's storage.
• Speed cameras. When a route is ready, the line of the route is sent to our server so it can find the known fixed speed cameras along it. We do not keep the route or link it to you. The camera positions come from OpenStreetMap, so some cameras may be missing.
• Rain warnings. While you navigate with voice on, about every ten minutes the app asks MET Norway (api.met.no), a weather service, for the forecast at your position, rounded to about a kilometre. They can see your phone's IP address and that rounded position, nothing else about you. The warning is spoken on your phone. You can switch it off in Settings, Rain warnings.
• Traffic and road closures. When you start a drive, and about every ten minutes after that if you have Premium, the app asks our server whether there are road closures or heavy traffic on your route. Our server gets this from HERE (here.com), under HERE's own terms. HERE is sent the map areas your route passes through from our server, so it does not see your phone, your name or your account. We do not keep the route.
• Tank range. If you enter how far your vehicle goes on a tank, it stays on your phone. The only thing sent to us is a request to show fuel stations along your route.
• Crash reports. If the app crashes, a report is sent to Google Firebase Crashlytics so we can find and fix the fault. It contains your phone model, Android version, the app version, the state of the app and the technical details of the crash, plus a random installation ID that Crashlytics makes. It does not contain your name, email, or your location.
• On your phone only: your settings, the drive in progress (so you can continue it), and ratings waiting to be sent.

What we don't do

We don't sell your information. We don't show adverts. The app has no analytics or tracking tools. The only thing it reports on its own is crashes, described above. We don't see your contacts, and our own server does not store your name or email.

Why we use it

We use your information to build routes, guide you, find a way back when you go off route, and to understand which roads drivers enjoy so our routes get better. Using your location to run the app is the service you asked for. Ratings are optional: you choose whether to give them.

Who else is involved

• Map pictures. The map is drawn from map data provided by OpenFreeMap and OpenStreetMap contributors. To show you the map, your phone asks their servers for map tiles, so they can see your phone's IP address and the area you are viewing. The route preview screens use Mapbox maps, which may collect usage data under Mapbox's own privacy policy.
• Location services. Your phone's location comes from Google Play services on your device.
• Our server. Our routing, ratings and convoy server runs on a virtual private server rented from IONOS, a hosting company, in a data centre in the United Kingdom, which we set up and run ourselves. It holds what is described above as being sent to or kept by us. Its web address is api.lostish.app. Like most servers, it keeps short technical logs (such as the time of a request and the IP address it came from) for security and fixing faults.
• Hosting. IONOS looks after the physical machine our server runs on, and so can technically reach the hardware it is stored on. We rely on their own security and privacy terms for that.
• Sign-in. Google Firebase Authentication (a Google service) processes your email address, sign-in details and technical data such as IP address to run sign-in. Google's privacy policy applies to that processing.
• Crash reports. Google Firebase Crashlytics (a Google service) receives the crash reports described above, under Google's privacy policy.
• Voice directions. These are spoken by your phone's own text-to-speech. We don't send what is said anywhere.

How long we keep it

Ratings are kept so that we can improve the routes. Because they are tied to a random device ID and not to your name, we can delete them if you ask and give us that ID (it is shown at the bottom of this page). When you rate a stretch of road, that rating is also added to anonymous road scores: a count of good and bad ratings for each short piece of road, with nothing that links it to you, your phone or your drive. These scores can't be traced back to you, so they are kept when your own ratings are deleted. This is how roads that drivers dislike get used less. Start points and rerouting positions are used to answer your request and are not kept as a record of where you have been. Technical server logs are kept for a short time. Our database is backed up every night to the same server, and each backup is deleted after 14 days. This means something you ask us to delete can stay in an old backup for up to 14 days.

Convoy codes, usernames and ready states are removed after 24 hours. Live positions, voice pieces and SOS alerts are described in the Convoys, walkie-talkie and SOS items above.

Moving information abroad

Some providers we use, such as Google (sign-in), Mapbox and OpenFreeMap, may handle information outside the UK, under their own privacy policies. Our own server is hosted by IONOS in the United Kingdom; if where it is hosted changes, we will update this page.

Your choices and rights

• You can switch location off for LostIsh in your phone's settings. Navigation will not work without it.
• You can switch spoken directions and rain warnings off in Settings.
• You can turn off the microphone for LostIsh in your phone's settings. Everything else will still work, but you will not be able to talk in convoys.
• You can use the app without rating anything.
• Under UK data protection law you can ask to see the information we hold about you, ask us to correct or delete it, object to how we use it, and ask us to restrict it. Contact us at lostish.app@gmail.com and include your device ID (and the email you signed in with, if any).
• If you are unhappy with how we have handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk).

Keeping it safe

We take reasonable steps to protect the information we hold, but no system is completely secure. Please keep your phone secure too.

Who the app is for

LostIsh is for people who are old enough to hold a driving licence. We don't knowingly collect information from children.

Drive safely

Please never hold or touch your phone while driving or riding; in the UK that is illegal. Use voice and the walkie-talkie hands-free. Set up your route before you set off, and obey road signs and conditions over what the app says.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the app changes. The date at the top shows when it was last updated. If a change is important, we will tell you in the app.

Delete your data

You can delete your account in the app (Settings, then Delete account) or follow the steps on lostish.app/delete-account.html. To ask us to delete your information by email instead, email lostish.app@gmail.com with your device ID (shown at the bottom of the privacy page in the app) and the email you signed in with, if any.