Privacy Policy

The essentials

Along Cast is operated by Mark Pasternak, the controller responsible for the personal data handled by Along Cast. For privacy questions and requests, email support@alongcast.com.

Along Cast does not require an account and has no advertising. Route forecasts need coordinates and times. The service also uses a persistent app-installation identifier to authenticate requests, limit abuse, and manage features you enable. That data is device-linked, not anonymous.

Sharing and upcoming-trip monitoring are separate choices. Usage and stability analytics is optional and off by default. You can opt in or withdraw in Settings → Sharing & Privacy → Improve Along Cast.

This page covers the app, its service, and this website. The website previews the next beta; feature availability can differ in the TestFlight build currently offered.

Why we use data

We process the data necessary to provide the features you request under the app's terms: route forecasts, and monitoring or sharing only when you enable them. This is the contractual basis for providing those services.

Authentication, bounded request counts, and short operational logs support our legitimate interest in keeping the service secure and available. We use support messages to answer the request you made; they are not added to a marketing list.

Optional feature-use and stability analytics relies on your consent. You can withdraw it at any time. We process the minimum information needed to handle privacy requests to meet our legal obligations. These are separate purposes; enabling one optional feature does not enable another.

On your iPhone

Your settings, recent places, local trip information, and cached forecasts and road data are stored on your device. Driving-pace adjustments used to refine an estimate are calculated on the device.

Location permission lets the app use your position for current conditions, a starting point, and active-trip features. You can change this permission in iPhone Settings or plan with places you select yourself. Removing permission can interrupt location-dependent features.

Deleting the app removes its local settings and cached files from that iPhone. It does not revoke an existing shared link or immediately delete server records. Stop monitoring and revoke links while connected before removing the app if you want those features to end.

Forecasts & the service

Route-weather requests send coordinates for the relevant places or route checkpoints and the times a forecast is needed. Road requests send a geographic area. These are used to return forecasts, warnings, road reports, and cameras. Responses are cached to reduce repeated provider requests.

Apple’s App Attest helps verify the app installation. The server stores an installation identifier, authentication records, creation and last-use times, and request counts used to protect the service. These records are not your Apple ID, but they can link requests from the same installation.

The service receives network information, including an IP address, when a device connects. Application request logs record the request type, response status, and duration. The request logger omits query strings; this does not make every service record anonymous.

For push delivery, the app registers an Apple Push Notification service token with the backend after device registration. A token identifies where Apple should deliver a push. Registering it does not grant notification permission or enable trip monitoring.

Usage & stability data

Improve Along Cast is off by default. If you opt in, it sends a limited set of feature-use and stability events to the Along Cast service to improve reliability and understand feature use: for example, a route becoming ready, a recommendation being accepted, a drive or share starting, location availability, and crash, hang, or launch metrics.

Allowed fields include categories such as travel mode, app version, and performance ranges. The event format excludes coordinates, place names, shared links, and free-text messages. Events are stored against the installation identifier, so they can be linked to the same device registration.

Turn it off in Settings → Sharing & Privacy → Improve Along Cast to stop new collection and clear queued events on the phone. This does not recall an upload already in flight or delete events already stored on the server. You can also request deletion; otherwise, earlier uploads follow the retention period below. We record the notice version and time of your opt-in with accepted events. Your choice does not limit core app features.

This app setting is separate from Apple’s TestFlight diagnostics and feedback.

Optional trip monitoring

Where monitoring is offered, you enable it separately for an upcoming trip. The service stores the chosen route checkpoints and encounter times, travel mode, departure and arrival, and journey identifiers linked to your device registration. It compares forecasts and, for Swedish driving trips, nearby road reports, and may send a notification about a material change.

Monitoring uses the selected plan. It does not collect a live location trail or automatically change your route or arrival estimate. See the check schedule and notification help.

When the service receives a cancellation, replacement, or trip-start request, it ends monitoring and removes the stored route inputs and pending alert content. Monitoring also expires at departure. Offline cancellation can remain pending until the server receives it. An alert already accepted by Apple may still arrive.

Minimal ownership and lifecycle records remain to prevent delayed requests from restarting an ended trip. Backup copies may temporarily contain earlier inputs; the restore procedure ends restored monitoring registrations before serving traffic.

Optional sharing & live location

Sharing creates a page on share.alongcast.com. It can contain your planned route, departure and arrival information, weather, road context, and trip summary. Anyone who has the link can open it or forward it. A hard-to-guess, unlisted link is not a password-protected page.

Before upload, starting and ending coordinates are coarsened to roughly a 500-metre grid and the route line is trimmed near its endpoints. This reduces precision; it does not guarantee that a home, destination, or person cannot be inferred. Shared pages do not display driving speed.

Live location is a separate choice. It sends position updates while active, including information about accuracy and timing. The service keeps the latest accepted precise location frame and replaces it as new updates arrive. The shared page can show location age, route progress, and connection status. A reduced-detail trail and trip recap can remain after live sharing ends.

Live updates depend on location permission, connectivity, and iOS allowing the app to run. They can pause or stop. Ending live sharing removes the active precise frame; it does not necessarily remove the trip page or recap.

To remove access to the entire page, open Settings → Shared drive links and revoke the link. Once the server confirms revocation, it blocks new page requests and removes the location-bearing content and cached map. An offline revocation can remain pending. Copies already opened, saved, or forwarded cannot be recalled.

Links expire seven days after creation. We request that search engines do not index shared pages, but cannot control copies published elsewhere.

How long data is kept

Local settings, trips & caches

On your device until removed or replaced by the app, or its local data is deleted. Device backups are managed separately by your iPhone settings and Apple.

Usage & stability events

Server maintenance deletes telemetry received more than 90 days ago. Turning off Improve Along Cast stops future collection and clears the local queue. Earlier uploads and their opt-in records expire together, or can be removed after a verified deletion request.

Device registration & push token

Device registrations are scheduled for deletion after 180 days without a successful authenticated request, together with their owned device-linked remnants.

Shared-drive content

Available for up to seven days from link creation unless revoked earlier. Confirmed revocation clears its location-bearing content; maintenance deletes expired records.

Monitoring route inputs

Removed when monitoring ends. Expiry cleanup runs periodically, so departure-time removal is not necessarily instantaneous.

Usage counters & ended-monitoring records

Daily request counts are kept for 30 calendar days; monthly totals for the current month and two preceding months. Ended-monitoring ownership and cancellation records are removed after seven days. These records do not contain monitored route inputs.

Operational backups

The release retention policy keeps at most seven copies and expires snapshots seven days after creation, checked hourly. Removed inputs can remain in a backup until it expires. Restored backups must be scrubbed before the service resumes.

App backend logs have a seven-day retention target, with hourly rotation and cleanup. Routine support correspondence is deleted within 12 months after resolution; unneeded location screenshots are removed sooner. A specific legal obligation or dispute may require a limited record to be kept longer.

Deletion jobs run periodically. An outage can delay cleanup; retention is checked before the service resumes. Provider-held records follow the provider's own terms described below.

Providers & website visits

The app uses these services to provide the features you request:

• Along Cast’s backend is hosted by DigitalOcean in Frankfurt, Germany. It processes app requests, caches provider responses, and stores the records described above.
• Open-Meteo supplies forecasts through the backend. SMHI supplies Swedish weather warnings. Trafikverket supplies Swedish road reports and camera listings. Open-Meteo's published policy permits request logs containing coordinates and states that individual API logs are removed after 90 days.
• Apple MapKit supplies maps, place search, and routing. These services communicate with Apple. When you open a journey in Apple Maps, the endpoints and travel mode are passed to Apple Maps.
• Apple Weather can supply weather alerts outside Sweden or as a fallback. It communicates with Apple.
• Trafikverket camera images load from the provider’s image service, which receives the network information needed to return an image.
• Apple Push Notification service handles remote notification delivery. Departure reminders and Route Pulse notifications are generated on the device; upcoming-trip monitoring uses server-delivered notifications where available.

Email sent to our support address is handled through Gmail. Google receives your email address, message, and any attachments; we use them to handle your request and reply. See Google’s privacy policy.

Turning off the app’s road layer stops that layer’s requests. Separately enabled trip monitoring has its own road checks; stop monitoring to end those checks.

This marketing website has no advertising, analytics scripts, or cookie-based tracking in its page code. Fonts and artwork are served with the site. The hosting service still receives ordinary connection information to deliver pages. Following an external link takes you to that service’s own terms and privacy practices.

The backend is in Germany, but Apple, Google, and other providers may process data in other countries. DigitalOcean's processing agreement describes its international-transfer safeguards. Contact us for information about the applicable arrangements for your request.

Provider information: Open-Meteo, SMHI, Trafikverket, and Apple privacy.

TestFlight & feedback

Apple collects beta-testing information such as crashes, usage, and installation details and makes relevant information available to the developer. Joining through a public invitation does not by itself share your name or email with the developer; feedback can include an email address you provide.

If you send a report, its comments, attachments, and supplied contact details are used to investigate the problem and respond. Check screenshots for private information before sending. Read Apple’s TestFlight privacy information for its handling of beta data.

Your choices & rights

You can turn off Improve Along Cast, change location and notification permissions in iPhone Settings, stop trip monitoring, and revoke shared links. These controls have different effects; disabling notifications alone does not cancel server monitoring.

Depending on the processing and applicable law, you may request access, correction, deletion, restriction, or a portable copy of your personal data, and object to processing. Where consent is the legal basis, you may withdraw it without affecting earlier lawful processing.

Send a privacy request to support@alongcast.com. Because no account is required, we may need enough information to locate a record and verify that it belongs to you. Do not send device credentials or passwords in a support message.

You can also complain to IMY, the Swedish Authority for Privacy Protection, or your local data-protection authority. Along Cast’s route suggestions are advice; they do not make legally binding decisions for you.

Changes to this page

We update this page as the product or data practices change and show the revision date at the top. Along Cast is a general travel-planning app and is not directed at children. For questions about a change, use Support.