Whencee Privacy Policy
Effective 27 August 2026
The short version: Whencee has no accounts, keeps no history, and on passphrase-protected maps cannot read your data at all. Everything below is the long version of that sentence.
What Whencee is
Whencee is a live-location map for small groups. You create or join a "map" (a room) with a 6-character code, and everyone in that room sees each other's position and a shared chat while the room exists.
What we collect, and for how long
- No accounts. There is no sign-up, no email, no phone number, no password for you as a person. A random device identifier is generated on your device so the room can tell its members apart; it is never shown to other members (they see a per-room alias) and identifies no real-world person.
- Location is shared only while you are in a room and have granted permission, only with the people in that room, and it stops the moment you leave the room or close the app. The server holds only your latest position. There is no track, no trail, no history.
- Chat messages live in the room (the most recent 60) and nowhere else.
- Everything dies with the room. When the last person leaves, the room file (positions, chat, everything) is deleted from the server. Abandoned rooms are deleted automatically within minutes. There are no backups of room data and no logs of its contents.
End-to-end encryption
On a passphrase-protected map, names, positions, chat messages and meeting points are encrypted on your device (AES-256-GCM; the key is derived from the passphrase, which never leaves your device) and decrypted only on the devices of the people in your room. The server stores and relays ciphertext it cannot read. What any server can still see is metadata: which room codes are active, when devices sync, and the IP addresses requests come from. Maps created without a passphrase are not encrypted, and the app says so when you create one.
What we do not do
- No selling or sharing of data with anyone. There is nothing retained to sell.
- No advertising, no analytics, no trackers, no third-party SDKs that phone home. The map imagery is loaded from OpenStreetMap's public tile servers, which receive the standard web requests needed to draw the map (tile coordinates and your IP), governed by the OSMF privacy policy.
- No background tracking outside a room. The apps use background location only while you are in a room you joined, with a visible notification (Android) or system indicator (iOS), and it ends when you leave.
Your choices
- Deny location and you can still join a room, read and use the chat, you simply see no one's position (and they are told you are not sharing yours).
- Leave a room and your presence, position and messages are removed; when the last member leaves, the whole room is deleted.
- Nothing persists that could identify you afterwards.
Children
Whencee is not directed at children under 13 and collects no personal information from anyone.
Changes and contact
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted at this address with a new effective date. Questions: donshappelle@donshappelle.com.