Privacy policy

1. Who we are

Travelling In Time is an educational app for iPad and iPhone, made and operated by Travelling In Time Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17321950, registered office 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ, United Kingdom).

Contact: privacy [at] travellingintime [dot] com

2. What we collect

We collect only the following, and only on the device:

• GPS location — used in real time for the map and SatNav-style directions. During active SatNav or CarPlay navigation the app also uses location in the background; it does not use location in the background at any other time. Location data is processed on the device. It is never sent to us, never stored by us, and never associated with any account. To draw the map and plan routes, the device shares location with Apple Maps (see Third-party services below).
• Per-child settings — the nickname you choose for the child, age band, reading level, and parental-consent toggles. All stored on the device.
• Game progress — coins, gems, achievements, streaks, and visit history. Stored on the device.
• AI prompts and responses — produced entirely on the device by Apple's on-device language model. The 10 most recent prompt and response pairs per child are retained locally so a parent can audit them. Older entries are discarded automatically.
• Full Access status — whether the family has Full Access (through a subscription, a Lifetime purchase, an earlier paid-app purchase, or a school's device management). This is a single yes/no state cached on the device so the app works offline. It contains no payment details and no identity.

3. What we do not collect

We do not collect, store, transmit, or sell:

• Names other than the nickname you enter for the per-child profile
• Email addresses, phone numbers, postal addresses, or contacts
• Photos, microphone audio, or motion data
• Browsing history, device fingerprints, or advertising identifiers
• Usage analytics, crash reports containing personal data, or any third-party telemetry

The app contains no advertising and no third-party advertising SDKs.

4. How AI features work

The app uses Apple's on-device language model (FoundationModels, also known as Apple Intelligence) to:

• Generate short quizzes about historic places
• Voice short narrations as your child passes a landmark
• Rewrite longer descriptions at your child's chosen reading level

These features are gated behind parental consent on first launch. A parent can revoke consent at any time in Settings → Privacy.

Every prompt and response is processed only on the device. Nothing is sent to our servers because we do not operate any. A safety filter checks every output for child-appropriate tone before it is shown or spoken. A rolling audit log of the 10 most recent AI calls per child is visible at Settings → Privacy → "What does the AI do?" so a parent can see exactly what was generated.

5. Children's privacy

The app is designed for children aged 6 to 12. We aim to comply with the following children's privacy frameworks:

• Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA, United States) — no personal information about a child is collected, used, or disclosed. Game progress, settings, and the AI audit log are stored only on the device under parental control.
• General Data Protection Regulation, including Article 8 (UK GDPR and EU GDPR) — verifiable parental consent is captured on first launch before any AI feature is enabled.
• United Kingdom Age Appropriate Design Code (ICO) — data minimisation is the default, no profiling, no behavioural advertising, and child-specific privacy defaults are applied at the highest setting.
• California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act (AB 2273) and CCPA / CPRA — no sale, no sharing for cross-context behavioural advertising, no targeted advertising.
• Apple App Store Kids Category guidelines — no third-party advertising, no third-party analytics, and purchases only behind a parental gate in the Grown-up Area.

If you believe a child has been able to use the app without your consent, or you wish to delete any per-child profile, email privacy [at] travellingintime [dot] com or follow the deletion steps below.

6. How long we keep your data

All data is stored locally on the device. The AI audit log keeps only the 10 most recent calls per child and discards older entries automatically. We do not retain data on any server because no data is sent to any server.

If you email us for support, we keep that correspondence for up to 24 months so we can help with any follow-up, after which it is deleted.

7. How to delete your data

Because the app stores nothing on our servers, deletion is fully under your control:

• Open Settings → Privacy → "What does the AI do?" and tap to wipe the AI interaction history, or
• Delete the app from the device — iOS removes all local app data (settings, progress, AI history, and audit log) automatically.

If you have signed in to Game Center, achievements and scores remain on Apple's servers under your Apple ID. Apple's Privacy Policy and Apple Support describe how to remove those records.

8. Third-party services

The app integrates with the following services. We do not control them. Their use is governed by their own published policies:

• Apple MapKit — your current location is sent to Apple Maps for map rendering and routing.
• Apple Intelligence (FoundationModels) — runs on the device per Apple's published policy.
• Apple Game Center — optional, used only if the device is signed in to Game Center.
• Apple App Store (StoreKit) — subscriptions and purchases are processed entirely by Apple under your Apple ID. We receive only a signed confirmation that Full Access is active; we never receive your name, payment card, billing address or Apple ID. Apple's privacy policy governs the purchase.
• School device management — if a school deploys the app through mobile device management, the device may carry a configuration flag that grants Full Access. Nothing about the pupil or the device is sent to us.
• Wikipedia (Wikimedia Foundation) — to enrich a historical place, the app fetches that place's public Wikipedia article summary and images over the internet. The request contains the place name and the historical site's own coordinates (for example, the location of a monument) so the correct article can be found. Your device's GPS position is never sent to Wikipedia. No account, identifier, or personal data is sent. As with any web request, Wikimedia receives your device's IP address; their privacy policy governs how they handle it. In Encyclopedia Mode, which only a grown-up can switch on (it needs Face ID, Touch ID or the device passcode), the app fetches the full public Wikipedia article for a place instead of the summary; the request is the same and still carries no identifiers.

We do not integrate Google Analytics, Firebase, Crashlytics, Mixpanel, OneSignal, Sentry, Amplitude, or any similar third-party tracker. Apart from Apple (Maps, Intelligence, Game Center and the App Store) and Wikipedia as described above, the app makes no outbound network calls, and no analytics, diagnostics, or usage data is ever sent to us or to any third party.

This website (not the app) uses Ahrefs Web Analytics to count visits: which pages are viewed, the referring site, and the visitor's country, browser and device type. It sets no cookies, stores nothing on your device, and does not build a profile of you. The app itself plays no part in this and sends nothing to the website.

9. Cookies and similar technologies

The app does not use cookies, web pixels, or other web-tracking technologies. No in-app web view is used for content that contains tracking. This website does not set cookies either; its visit counting (section 8) is cookieless.

10. International users

The app is distributed worldwide through the App Store. Because no personal data leaves the device, there is no cross-border data transfer to address. We do not maintain personal data about any user, including users in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, the United States, or California.

11. Your rights

Depending on where you live you may have legal rights including the right to access, rectify, delete, or restrict the use of personal data. Because we do not hold any personal data about your child on our servers, the most effective route to exercise those rights is to wipe the AI interaction history in Settings → Privacy → "What does the AI do?" or to uninstall the app. If you believe we hold personal data about you or your child anyway, email privacy [at] travellingintime [dot] com and we will investigate.

If you are in the United Kingdom, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

12. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, the new version will appear on this page and in the app with an updated effective date. If a change materially reduces your rights or expands what we collect, we will display a notice in the app on the next launch after the change.

13. Contact

For questions, requests, or concerns about privacy:

Email: privacy [at] travellingintime [dot] com
Subject line: Privacy Policy — Travelling In Time

We aim to reply within 30 days.