Privacy Policy for Massar

Last updated: September 30, 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Massar ("we", "our", or "us") handles your data when you use our passenger application.

Massar is a community-driven service. It is not affiliated with any government entity, public agency, or official transport service. Bus positions are shared voluntarily by drivers, and by passengers on board who choose to share them.

1. Information We Collect

No account, no personal profile

• No account creation is required to use the app.
• We do not collect your name, phone number, email address or contacts.

Your location

• On your device: the app uses your location to show nearby stops, the "my location" button and your position on the map. This stays on your phone.
• Trip planning: when you ask for a trip, the app sends your current position and your destination (a stop, a point on the map, or a place you searched) to our server, which computes the trip. To draw walking directions, our server forwards the start and end points of each walk to an OpenStreetMap routing service. When you search for a place, the search text is forwarded to an OpenStreetMap search service (Nominatim).
• Your position and destination are used only to answer that request. We do not store them, link them to you, or build a location history. Walking routes are kept in a short-lived cache (up to 24 hours) that contains coordinates only, without any identifier.
• Following a trip: when you start a trip, the app follows your position on your phone to move through the steps and alert you before your stop. On Android this continues with the screen off, as a foreground service with a visible notification, until you end the trip. Your position is not sent to our server for this.
• Sharing the bus you ride (optional): during a trip, when you are on a bus whose driver doesn't share it, the app asks whether you want to share the bus's position with other passengers. Only if you agree, it sends your position every few seconds while you are on board, with a random identifier created for that ride only. The position is shown to other passengers as the bus, labelled "shared by a passenger"; it is not stored and disappears at most 2 minutes after you get off. Your choice is remembered and can be changed in Settings.
• Which bus you follow: when you follow a bus, the app tells our server which one, so its driver can see how many passengers follow it. Only the count is used; it is not linked to you.
• Our server does not know who you are: requests carry no account and no device identifier. Like any web service, it briefly sees your IP address, which is used only to prevent abuse (rate limiting) and is not stored with your requests.

Problem reports (optional)

• If you use Report a problem, the app sends the kind of problem, the stop, line or bus concerned, your message if you write one, the app language and version. Reports have no account or device identifier.
• For "the stop is in the wrong place", you may choose to send your current position (where you say the stop really is). It is sent only with that report.

Advertising

• The app shows ads through Google AdMob. Google may collect and use your device's advertising identifier and related data to show ads and measure them, as described in Google's privacy policy (https://policies.google.com/privacy). You can reset or delete the advertising identifier in your Android settings.

Data you see in the app

• Bus locations: shared voluntarily by drivers using the Massar Driver app, and by passengers on board who choose to share them.
• Route and stop information: maintained by the Massar team.

Saved on your phone

• Lines, stops and routes are saved on your phone so the app works without a connection. The home screen widget keeps the stop you pinned and its next buses on your phone.

Usage counts

• Our server counts how many passengers have each line open, per hour (a number, with no identifier), to show the Massar team how the service is used.

2. How We Use Information

We use the information above only to show real-time transit data, plan your trips, fix the problems you report and improve the service. We do not:

• Track your usage patterns
• Store your search history or trips
• Sell or share your information, except the trip-planning requests forwarded to OpenStreetMap services as described above

3. Third-Party Services

• OpenStreetMap routing (FOSSGIS) and Nominatim: receive coordinates and place-search text from our server, never from your phone directly, and never with an identifier of yours.
• OpenFreeMap: serves the map background to your phone.
• Google AdMob: ads, as described above.

4. Data Retention

• Trip requests are not stored. Walking routes are cached for up to 24 hours without any identifier.
• Positions you share from a bus are not stored.
• Problem reports are kept until the Massar team has handled them, and deleted 180 days after they are resolved.
• Hourly usage counts (numbers only) are kept up to 400 days.
• Driver-shared bus positions are kept in memory only while the bus is sharing (see the Massar Driver privacy policy).

5. Your Rights

As a passenger, you have the right to:

• Use the app anonymously
• Refuse location access (you can still browse lines, stops and live buses; trip planning needs your position)
• Request information about our data practices
• Contact us with privacy concerns

6. Security

• All data transmission uses encrypted connections (HTTPS/WSS).

7. Contact Us

For privacy questions, contact: privacy@massardz.com

This policy applies to Massar app version 1.0 and above.