HamTraqr Privacy Policy

Effective September 3, 2026

The short version. HamTraqr sends your position to a server you choose — normally one run by your own club. It does not send it to us. We operate no service that receives your data through this app, we have no access to the server you connect to, and the app contains no analytics or advertising of any kind.

1. What HamTraqr is

HamTraqr is an app for amateur radio operators and volunteers working public-service events — races, parades, emergency exercises. It shows the positions of trackers on a map and lets participants exchange messages during an event.

2. The app connects to a server you choose

Before you can use the HamTraqr mobile app, you enter the address of a HamTraqr server, and the app talks only to that server. These servers are run independently — most often by the club running the event you are helping with. The software is open source and anyone may install it.

This matters for your privacy. Everything you share through the app is held by whoever operates the server you connected to. They decide who can see it and how long it is kept. They are the people to ask about it — not us. Most HamTraqr servers publish their own privacy policy at /privacy.php on the same address you entered into the app.

3. What the app keeps on your device

Your server address, an access token for the event you have joined (held in the device's secure storage), and small display preferences such as which map sections you have open. Cached map tiles are stored so the map still works without a signal. All of this stays on the device and is removed when you uninstall the app.

4. What the app sends, and when

Nothing is sent until you join an event, and location is sent only while you have turned location sharing on. When you do, the app sends to your chosen server:

• the name you enter, and your amateur radio callsign if you give one;
• your position — latitude and longitude, with the accuracy and the time of the GPS fix, while sharing is on, including in the background if you allow it;
• your app version, operating system version, device model, and whether you are on WiFi or cellular, so event organisers can tell a stale fix from a fresh one and diagnose a tracker that has gone quiet;
• messages you send, with any photo or voice recording you attach.

Your server also sees the internet address you connect from, as any web server does.

5. Location in the background

If you allow background location, the app keeps reporting while your screen is off — that is the point of it during an event, when your phone is in a pocket. A persistent notification is shown the entire time this is active, so it can never happen silently. Turn sharing off in the app, or revoke the permission in your device settings, and it stops immediately.

6. Position data on the amateur radio network

APRS* is an open radio system by design. If your position is transmitted over the air — by your own radio, or by an event configured to relay app positions onto the APRS network — it can be received by anyone in range and appears on public websites such as aprs.fi. This is a property of amateur radio, not of this app, and neither we nor your club can withdraw it once transmitted. If you do not want your position public, do not transmit it.

7. What we receive: nothing

The app contains no analytics, crash reporting or advertising of any kind, and there is no identifier shared with other companies for tracking. We run no server that this app reports to. We cannot see who uses HamTraqr, which servers they connect to, or where anybody is.

Two things the app does contact besides your server: it checks general internet reachability to tell "offline" from "server down", and it opens links you tap — such as a map data source or aprs.fi — in your browser, which those sites see as an ordinary visit.

8. Children

HamTraqr is a tool for licensed radio operators and event volunteers. It is not directed at children, asks no age-related questions, and collects nothing from anybody who has not deliberately joined an event.

9. Deleting your data

Uninstalling removes everything held on your device. Anything already sent to a server is held by that server's operator, so a deletion request goes to them; their privacy policy on the same address gives their contact details.

10. Changes

If this policy changes materially, the updated version is published here with a new effective date before the change takes effect in a released version of the app.

11. Contact

Questions about the app itself: support@hamtraqr.com.
Questions about data held by a particular server: contact that server's operator.

*APRS is the Automatic Packet Reporting System.