Privacy Policy
Altika app — last updated: 31 August 2026
In one sentence: Altika has no user account, no advertising and no ad tracking. The publisher only receives anonymous usage statistics — never your locations, never your tracks. Everything you record stays on your phone.
Altika (“the app”) is published by Jamel El Abdellaoui. This page explains what data the app uses, what leaves your device, and why. It covers the version published on Google Play.
1. Data the app uses
Location (precise and approximate)
Used to identify the peaks around you, orient the augmented-reality view, centre the map, fetch the weather for a targeted point, and compute a route when you ask for one. Processing happens on your device. The publisher neither stores nor consults your position. Some features do send coordinates to third-party services or to the Altika server — never your identity (see section 2).
Recorded hiking tracks
If you start a recording, the GPS track (points, distance, ascent) is written locally only, in the app's private storage. It leaves the device only if you export it deliberately (shared GPX file, backup to a folder you choose).
Camera
Used only for augmented reality: displaying peak names over the live image.
The stream is processed in real time on the device and is neither
recorded nor transmitted. If you deliberately take a photo, it is stored
locally. Audio is never captured: the RECORD_AUDIO
permission, which the camera component declares by default, is explicitly removed
from the app's manifest.
Sensors (compass, accelerometer, gyroscope)
Read continuously during augmented reality to orient the view. These readings never leave the device and are not retained.
Crash reports
The published version includes Firebase Crashlytics (Google) to diagnose crashes and fix bugs. What is then transmitted: the crash stack trace, technical device information (model, Android version, app state) and a Firebase installation ID. This data does not identify you personally and is never used for advertising. See the Firebase data disclosure.
Audience measurement
The published version includes Google Analytics for Firebase, solely to know how many people install the app, which features are actually used, and whether a promotional campaign works. The app sends only two things: the names of the screens you open, and the purchase event for the full version (amount and currency). Firebase automatically adds an installation identifier, the device model, the Android version, the country and the language.
What is never sent: no location, no name of any summit or route you looked at, no hiking track. These measurements are never used for targeted advertising or to build advertising audiences: audience sharing to Google Ads is turned off, and the app shows no advertising at all.
The Google measurement module does, however, declare access to your device's Android advertising identifier, and may use it to link an install back to the campaign that brought it. That is its only use here. This identifier is yours: you can reset or delete it at any time from Android Settings › Security & privacy › Privacy › Ads. See the Firebase data disclosure.
One-time purchase
Full unlocking is a one-time purchase handled by Google Play Billing. Payment information is handled by Google Play; the publisher never receives it and has no access to it. See Google's privacy policy.
2. What leaves your device, and to whom
To display maps, download terrain, name peaks, provide weather and compute routes, the app queries online services. These requests contain geographic coordinates or a tile name — never your name, e-mail address or any account identifier.
| Service | Why | What is sent |
|---|---|---|
| altika.app (publisher's own server, OVH — European Union) | Worldwide basemap, satellite imagery, route and loop computation | Coordinates or tile name. No account, no profile. Technical server logs (IP address, timestamp) are kept for at most 14 days (daily rotation) and then deleted. |
| Google Analytics for Firebase (Google) | Audience measurement and crash reports | Screen name, purchase event, installation identifier, device model, Android version, country. Never a location or a place name. |
| Google Maps | Basemap | Coordinates of the displayed area |
| IGN / Géoplateforme and regional public mapping services | Topographic maps and aerial imagery (France, Spain, Switzerland, Austria…) | Tile name |
| Open-Meteo | Weather for the targeted point | Point coordinates |
| Nominatim / OpenStreetMap | Place search, only when you submit a search | The text you type |
| Overpass / OpenStreetMap | Peak names for a downloaded area | Geographic bounding box |
| Amazon S3 (elevation-tiles-prod, public dataset) | Worldwide terrain | Tile name only |
| GitHub / jsDelivr | Peak records and photos (public data) | File name only |
| GraphHopper | Route computation outside the areas covered by our own server, at your request | Start and end points |
| NASA GIBS / Copernicus | Fallback satellite imagery | Tile name |
| Wikimedia Commons / Wikipedia | Peak photos and records | Page or file name |
| Météo-France | Link to the avalanche risk bulletin | Opens an external link in your browser |
Each service handles these requests under its own privacy policy. All communications are encrypted (HTTPS).
3. What is stored on your phone
Only in the app's private storage: your preferences, downloaded terrain and map regions, your track history, the routes you create, and the photos you take.
Android automatic backup is disabled for this app
(allowBackup=false): this data is not copied to a Google cloud.
Uninstalling the app deletes it permanently.
4. What we do not do
- No user account, no sign-up, no e-mail address requested.
- No advertising inside the app, no ad tracking, no advertising audience built from your data.
- No selling, renting or sharing of your data for commercial purposes.
- No marketing profiling, no resale to data brokers.
5. Children
Altika targets a general audience and is not designed for children. We do not knowingly collect data about anyone under 13.
6. Your rights (GDPR)
Because your personal data is local to your device, you keep direct control of it: uninstalling the app deletes all local data, and GPX export lets you take it with you at any time.
For crash reports (Crashlytics) and audience measurement (Google Analytics for Firebase), you may request access, rectification or erasure of data concerning you by writing to the address below; we reply within 30 days. You may also lodge a complaint with your national data-protection authority (in France, the CNIL).
7. Changes
Any change to this policy will be published on this page with a new update date. Significant changes will be noted in the app's release notes.
8. Contact
For any question about this policy: contact@altika.app