Privacy Policy

Goton for iPhone · Last updated 4 November 2026

Overview

Goton has no accounts, no analytics, no advertising and no tracking. What you keep in Goton stays on your device and in your own iCloud, and is shared only with the friends you choose. The developer cannot see any of it.

For live train times, and to update your trip on the Lock Screen while Goton is closed, Goton uses Goton's server, run by the developer. It receives what it needs about the trips you follow, for as long as it needs them, and nothing that names you. It is described below.

No accounts

Goton needs no sign-up or login.

No analytics, tracking or advertising

The app contains no analytics, no crash-reporting service, no advertising and no third-party SDKs. It does not track you across apps or websites. Its privacy manifest declares no tracking domains.

Goton's server

Goton's server is rented from DigitalOcean in London. Goton sends it:

• An install ID: a random number Goton makes the first time it opens, kept on your device. It is not linked to your Apple Account, your name or your phone number; deleting Goton and installing it again makes a new one. The server uses it to share its capacity fairly between apps and to know which phone a Lock Screen update goes to.
• The app's version.
• Your searches and your trips, when it is asked about them: the two stations and the time you search from, and for a trip its stations, dates, times and train service. It also asks for a country's list of stations, a station's direct destinations, and the line a train follows on the map; these name stations and routes, not you. The server uses them to look the train up in the railways' public data. They see the server, not you.
• For Lock Screen updates and notifications: each trip you keep, from when you save it, with the alerts you have chosen for it in Settings, and the codes Apple gives Goton so that the server can update them through Apple's push service: one for each trip on your Lock Screen, one that lets the server start one, and, if you allow notifications, one for notifications.
• For a friend's trip you follow: their trip, as above, the alerts you have chosen for that friend, and their name as Goton shows it, so that an alert can say whose train it is.

How long the server keeps it:

• A trip it follows, and a friend's name with it: until 1 hour after the train arrives, or until it is cancelled or you delete the trip.
• Your phone's registration and its codes: until 30 days pass with no request from Goton, or until Apple reports a code no longer valid. Turning off Live Activities for Goton deletes them the next time Goton runs.
• Its logs: the access log keeps your network address and the addresses Goton asked for, which can include the install ID and a trip's ID, for 7 days. The server's own log keeps the address and result of each request, and the trip ID of each update it sends, until newer lines replace them.

The developer uses this only to run Goton, does not combine it with anything else, and does not sell or share it.

Your trips

The trips you save, and your past trips in History, are stored on your device and, when you are signed in to iCloud, in your own iCloud account (Apple's CloudKit, in your private database), so they appear on your other devices. A trip holds its two stations, their times and time zones, the train service and its operator, its stops and the line it follows, the train model and the one you picked, if any, and the latest live status your device received. Only you can read them there: the developer cannot. If you are not signed in to iCloud, they stay on your device only.

Goton also keeps the stations you searched for recently, on this device only.

Your saved trips are also a file in the Files app, under On My iPhone › Goton, which you can open or share.

Friends

You can share your upcoming trips with friends who also use Goton.

• Inviting a friend: when you choose a contact, or type an email address or phone number, Goton sends that address to Apple to find out whether it belongs to an Apple Account. The invitation is a link that you send yourself, by Messages, Mail or another app you choose. The addresses of the people you invite are kept with your share in your iCloud.
• What your friends see: your upcoming trips — stations, dates and times, the train service, its operator and the live status your device received — and your Goton name and picture, if you set them. Past trips are never shared.
• What you see: your friends' upcoming trips, names and pictures, which are kept on your device. Their live status comes from their device, through iCloud. For each friend's trip you follow, Goton asks its server to follow it too, with their name, so that you can be told when it leaves and arrives.
• Stopping: you can stop sharing with a friend, or remove a friend, at any time. They are not told.

Your profile

You can give Goton a name and a picture. Both are optional. They are kept on your device and in your iCloud, and your friends see them. If you set no name, your friends see the name of your Apple Account.

Contacts

If you allow access, Goton reads your contacts on your device: to let you choose a friend, and to find your own contact card when you choose Fill From Contacts, by matching the name or email address of your Apple Account. Your contacts are not uploaded. Only the address you choose for an invitation leaves your device, as described under Friends.

Camera and photos

Goton uses the camera only when you choose Take Photo, and your photo library only through Apple's photo picker, which gives Goton just the photo you pick. The picture is used as your profile picture. If you choose Save to Photos for a trip picture, Goton asks to add it to your photo library; it can only add, not read.

Location

Goton asks for your location only while you use the app, and only to centre the map on nearby stations and order station suggestions by distance. Your location is used on your device. Goton does not send it to the developer, to your friends or to any data source, and keeps no location history. You can decline location access and still search for and save trips.

Maps, timetables and live train times

Goton uses Apple's MapKit for the map, the town shown under a station, the map in a trip picture, and station search and journey times where Goton's server has none. It uses them as you use the app and stores none of their data: nothing from MapKit is kept by Goton or sent to the developer. Apple handles these requests under its own privacy policy.

Live train times come through Goton's server, described above, from each country's public railway data. Your device does not ask for them itself. When you search in a country Goton's server does not cover, Goton downloads that country's railway stations from OpenStreetMap directly. The request names only the country, and nothing that identifies you.

The live status your device receives for your trip is kept with the trip, so that your friends see it without asking for it themselves.

As with any internet request, Apple and OpenStreetMap can see your device's network address.

Live Activities

The trip shown on your Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island is created on your device. While Goton is closed, Goton's server keeps it up to date through Apple's push service, as described above. Your friends' trips can appear there too. In Goton's Settings › Live Activities you can turn them off for your trips or for your friends' trips, and in Manage Friend for one friend.

Notifications

After you save a trip, Goton asks whether it may send you notifications. If you allow them, Goton's server sends the alerts you have chosen in Goton's Settings:

• My Trips: your train's stops and details when they are ready, before it leaves; its platform when it is announced or changes; when it is cancelled or delayed; and 5 minutes before you arrive. Each can be turned on or off.
• Friends Trips: when a friend's train you follow leaves and arrives. You can choose None or Basics for all friends, and for each friend in Manage Friend.

You can turn all of Goton's notifications off in Settings › Goton › Notifications.

Spotlight and Siri

Goton adds your upcoming trips, not your friends', to Spotlight on your device: stations, their codes, operator, date and time, so you can find them by searching. Siri can open them ("Show my trip in Goton"). This index stays on your device, and a trip leaves it when it arrives or you delete it.

Sharing a trip picture

When you tap Share on a trip, Goton draws a picture on your device: the two stations, times, train, distance, the operator's mark, a map from Apple, and your Goton name, or your Apple Account's first name if you set none. It leaves your device only if you send or save it.

Apple and iCloud

Your trips, profile and shares are stored by Apple in iCloud, under Apple's Privacy Policy. The developer has no access to them.

Beta testing through TestFlight

If you use Goton through Apple's TestFlight, Apple may share crash reports and any feedback or screenshots you choose to send with the developer, under Apple's TestFlight terms. They are used only to fix the app.

Children

Goton does not ask anyone's age, and collects nothing beyond what this policy describes, from anyone, including children.

Deleting your data

Your data is on your device and in your iCloud, and you can delete it yourself at any time:

• One trip: in My Trips or History, swipe left on the trip and tap Delete. It is deleted from your devices, your iCloud and Goton's server, and your friends no longer see it.
• A friend: in Friends, tap the gear, choose the friend, and tap Remove Friend, or set their access to None.
• Your name or picture: in your Goton profile, clear your name, or tap your picture and choose Delete.
• Everything in iCloud: deleting the Goton app removes its data from that device, but not from your iCloud. To delete Goton's data from iCloud, go to Settings › [your name] › iCloud › Manage Account Storage › Goton, and choose Delete Data.
• Access to location, contacts, the camera and notifications: go to Settings › Goton.
• Everything at once: Settings › Account data › Delete all data deletes your trips, friends, profile, recent stations and settings, on this device and in iCloud. Delete all trips, and Delete trips added in the last 24 hours, are there too.
• A copy of your trips: Settings › Account data › Export trips makes a spreadsheet of your trips that you can save or send.
• A Live Activity: it ends on its own after the trip arrives, or you can swipe it away on the Lock Screen.

What Goton's server holds is deleted on its own, on the schedule above: deleting a trip deletes it at once, and turning off Live Activities for Goton the next time Goton runs. To ask for it to be deleted sooner, write to the address below.

This website

goton.app uses no cookies, no analytics and no tracking, and loads nothing from other websites. Its server keeps no record of your visit.

Policy updates

Changes to this policy will be published, with a new date, before the versions they affect are released.

Responsibility and contact

Goton is developed by TRIII LTD, which is responsible for this policy.

Questions may be directed to hola@gotton.app.