Going Around Privacy Policy
Going Around (formerly Airborne) is an iPhone app that shows public illness surveillance data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and its partners. It is made by Jordan Tenenbaum, an individual developer. This policy explains what happens to information when you use the app. The short version: the developer does not collect any information about you.
What Going Around does not do
- No accounts or sign-in.
- No analytics, crash reporting, advertising or tracking.
- No third-party software development kits (SDKs).
- No push notifications.
- No server run by the developer. Going Around never sends anything to the developer.
- No health information. Going Around does not ask for, read or store your health data.
Your location
Going Around asks for location access "While Using the App" so it can show illness data for your state and county. It works with Approximate Location (Precise Location off). If you don't allow location access, you can still use the app by choosing National data.
When you open or return to the app, or tap the map's location button, Going Around may ask your iPhone for one location fix (at most about every 30 minutes). It does not track your location continuously and never checks your location in the background.
- Your exact coordinates are sent only to Apple's geocoding service, through iOS, to find your state and county. Apple handles that request under its own privacy policy.
- Going Around saves the last place it found (place name, coordinates, state and county) on your iPhone in the app's settings, so it can show your area right away next time. This stays on your device and is included in your device backups like other app data.
- If you turn off location access for Going Around, the app deletes the saved place the next time it checks your location, usually when you next open it.
Public data downloads
To show illness data, Going Around downloads public reports directly from these organizations:
- CDC (data.cdc.gov, www.cdc.gov and gis.cdc.gov)
- Delphi Epidata at Carnegie Mellon University (api.delphi.cmu.edu and delphi.cmu.edu)
- Public forecast files on GitHub (raw.githubusercontent.com)
Requests for local data include your state and county name (and, for some data, your HHS region number) so the server can return the right numbers. As with any web request, these organizations' servers see the request and your device's IP address. Their own privacy policies apply. Going Around doesn't send them anything else about you, and the developer receives nothing.
If Background App Refresh is on, Going Around may download the same public data in the background so it is up to date when you open the app. In the background it uses the saved state and county; it does not check your location.
Maps
The map uses Apple Maps. Map tiles for the area you view are loaded from Apple under Apple's privacy policy.
Data stored on your iPhone
Going Around keeps copies of the public reports it downloaded (which include your state and county) in the app's storage on your iPhone, so it can show recent data quickly, including when you're offline. Deleting the app removes them.
Children
Going Around is not directed to children. It does not collect information from anyone, including children.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted at this address with a new effective date.
Contact
Questions about privacy: airborneapp@icloud.com