Wayleaf privacy policy
Last updated: 31 October 2026
Wayleaf (拾跡 WAYLEAF) is an app made and offered by 呂紹民 as an individual; the developer name on Google Play is SHAOMINGLU ("I" and "me" below). This policy explains what data Wayleaf uses, where it is kept, and when the app goes online. It applies to the Android app from version 1.0.0.
In short
- Wayleaf has no sign-up and no server of mine.
- Your check-ins, photos, trips and tracks stay on your phone. I don't receive them and can't see them.
- The app contains no advertising, analytics, crash reporting or push messaging services.
- When you look at the street map or a place's photo, your phone downloads them from their providers (section 3).
1. Where your data is kept
On your phone, in storage only Wayleaf can read:
- Check-ins: date, place and your notes.
- Photos you choose as proof: Wayleaf keeps a compressed copy and a thumbnail. The original stays in your gallery; Wayleaf never changes or deletes it.
- Trips and tracks: places recorded in travel mode, and places in Timeline or GPX files you import.
- Your own lists and places, places you want to go, and the name on your journal's cover.
- Offline maps you download, and place photos you have viewed (cache).
Uninstalling Wayleaf deletes all of this. Before changing phones, export a backup in Settings > Backup and restore.
2. How location is used
Only in the cases below, each started by you, and only with "while using the app" location permission:
- Check in here: when you tap it, Wayleaf gets your current location once to see whether you are within the place's range.
- Travel mode: while it is on, your notification bar shows "Wayleaf · Recording a trip" and Wayleaf records the way you go, to light up the map cells you passed and find places you may have visited. It stops when you tap "Stop recording" or the days you chose are over, and also when the phone restarts or the app is closed.
- Your own places: when you pick a spot on the map and tap "My location", the map moves to where you are.
- Photo locations: when you add a check-in from a photo, the system asks whether Wayleaf may read the photo's location. If you allow it, Wayleaf reads where the photo was taken to see whether it was within range. Wayleaf doesn't read photos you didn't choose.
- Imported files: Google Timeline, Takeout or GPX files you export yourself and give to Wayleaf are processed on your phone only.
Locations stay on your phone and are never uploaded. Wayleaf doesn't get your location when the app isn't open and travel mode is off. The Android 1.0 app has no nearby reminders and never asks for "allow all the time" location; if a later version adds them, this policy will be updated first.
3. When the app goes online
- Street map: when you switch the map to the street map or download an offline map, Wayleaf downloads map tiles from OpenFreeMap (openfreemap.org). These requests carry your IP address, the map area requested, and the app's name and version. They contain none of your check-ins or tracks. The world overview map and the built-in lists are inside the app and need no network.
- Place photos: when you open a place, Wayleaf downloads its photo from Wikimedia Commons (upload.wikimedia.org, thumb.wikimedia.org) or Taiwan's Bureau of Cultural Heritage (data.boch.gov.tw) and keeps it on your phone. These requests carry your IP address, the photo's address, and the app's name and version. They contain none of your check-ins or tracks.
- Links you tap: a photo's source, this policy and other links open in your browser.
- Sharing and saving: share cards, backup files and GPX files go to your phone's share menu or "Save to" screen only when you tap share or save. Where they go and who sees them is up to you (saving to Google Drive, for example, falls under Google's privacy policy). A share card shows only place names, dates and the positions of public places on a small map: no tracks, no notes, and none of the places you added yourself.
For how OpenFreeMap, Wikimedia and the Bureau of Cultural Heritage handle requests, see their own privacy policies or terms. Apart from the above, Wayleaf sends data nowhere.
4. What I don't do
- No sign-up or sign-in.
- No ads, analytics, tracking, crash reporting or push messaging.
- No selling, renting or sharing of any data.
- No Google Places data: places are matched by coordinates against Wayleaf's built-in public lists only.
5. Permissions
| Permission | Used for | When it is asked |
|---|---|---|
| Location (while using the app) | Check in here, travel mode, "My location" when picking a spot | The first time you use one of them |
| Photo locations | Reading where the photos you choose were taken | The first time you check in with a photo |
| Notifications | The notice while travel mode records; one note on the evening of 31 December about your year (only if notifications are already allowed and you have check-ins that year) | When you start travel mode |
| Foreground service (location) | Travel mode keeps recording with its notice showing while the app is not on screen | Not asked (granted at install) |
| Network | Downloading street maps and place photos | Not asked |
| Run at startup | Re-scheduling notifications after the phone restarts | Not asked |
6. Deleting your data
- Check-ins, your own places and lists, trips and tracks, and offline maps can all be deleted in the app.
- Uninstalling Wayleaf deletes all of its data on your phone.
- Backup files, GPX files and share cards you saved elsewhere are yours to delete.
- I don't hold any of your data, so there is nothing to request deletion of.
7. Children
Wayleaf is not designed for children under 13, and it collects no one's personal data.
8. Changes
When this policy changes, the "Last updated" date above changes. Before adding any feature that sends data off your phone (such as syncing between devices), this policy will be updated and the app will tell you.
9. Contact
呂紹民 (SHAOMINGLU on Google Play), developer of Wayleaf
Email: leon@oharalab.com