Privacy
Signal Walk Privacy Policy
Last updated: July 3, 2026
This policy separates what happens in the Android app, on this website, in email communications, and through optional third-party services.
Overview and scope
Signal Walk is a local-first Android field instrument. During a Walk Capture, the app reads supported wireless, motion, environmental, cellular, and location-quality signals and organizes them into a timed session.
Signal Walk does not automatically upload session content. Optional map and AI-related features can make third-party network requests. Separately, the public website is delivered by GitHub Pages, and the developer receives information you voluntarily send by email.
The Signal Walk Android app
What the app reads and stores
Depending on your device, Android version, settings, and permissions, the app may read:
- Counts and signal strength of nearby Bluetooth advertisements and Wi-Fi broadcasts, not traffic or message content
- Cellular network type and signal strength, not calls or contacts
- Motion and available pressure, light, proximity, and magnetic-field sensor readings
- Location-fix availability and accuracy
- Battery and device-capability status used to describe the session
Saved sessions contain session metadata, events, and generated insight text in the app’s private internal storage. Current saved-session files omit raw Bluetooth MAC addresses, Wi-Fi SSIDs and BSSIDs, precise latitude and longitude, and full cell-tower identifiers.
Precise location and masked identifiers
Some explicit live views and snapshot exports may show masked Bluetooth or Wi-Fi identifiers such as ••:••:XX. If you enable precise location for the live map, coordinates may be held in memory during the active session to draw a path and event markers. Current saved-session files and report exports omit precise coordinates.
Exports
The app writes a file only after you request it. Saved-session reports provide Detailed, Redacted, and Summary-only modes. Detailed includes more telemetry but continues to omit precise coordinates, raw Bluetooth MAC addresses, raw Wi-Fi BSSIDs, and full cell identifiers. Redacted removes network identifiers, raw sensor magnitudes, and precise coordinates. Summary-only contains minimal metadata, counts, and top labels.
A live snapshot can include the current SSID, masked identifiers, counts, and visible sensor readings. A recorder export can include per-sample counts, sensor values, and location-quality metrics, but not precise coordinates or raw Bluetooth or Wi-Fi identifiers.
Information the Android app does not collect
- Your name, email address, or account information
- Message, call, Bluetooth-content, or network-traffic content
- Contacts, photos, videos, or audio
- Background location, microphone data, or camera data
- Data from other apps or the Android Advertising ID
The app has no advertising SDK and no developer-operated behavioral analytics, crash-reporting, cloud-inference, or session backend. It does not sell personal information. Google ML Kit’s separately described diagnostics and usage measurement still apply.
Website and email communications
This public site is hosted through GitHub Pages. GitHub and infrastructure providers involved in hosting, DNS, content delivery, security, or email may process ordinary request or message data such as IP address, browser information, request time, sender address, and message contents as needed to provide their services.
The website intentionally uses no analytics, advertising pixels, or tracking cookies. Dismissing the Early Access announcement stores one versioned preference in your browser’s local storage; it is not used to track activity across sites.
When you voluntarily email Signal Walk or request closed-test access, the developer receives your sender address and the information you include. This may include a preferred name or nickname, Google Play account email, phone model, Android version, country or region, testing interests, accessibility needs, support details, feedback, or bug reports.
This information is used to administer the Google Play closed test, send enrollment instructions, provide support, respond to privacy or security requests, and review bug reports and compatibility feedback. Correspondence is not combined with local Signal Walk session content because the developer does not receive your local sessions.
Testing and support correspondence is retained only as long as reasonably necessary to administer the testing program, resolve the request, maintain appropriate security or support records, and meet applicable legal obligations.
When an approved tester is added in Play Console, Google receives the tester account information and processes it under Google’s terms and privacy practices.
Third-party services used by optional app features
MapLibre and OpenFreeMap
Signal Walk uses MapLibre for maps. Online map imagery is off by default, and the map begins in a field-grid or offline mode. After you opt in to online imagery or request an offline region, the configured OpenFreeMap provider can receive your IP address and requested style, tile, or region resources. These requests can reveal the approximate area viewed or cached. Signal Walk does not receive that provider data or send session histories to the map provider.
Google ML Kit, AICore, and Gemini Nano
Optional AI summaries use Google’s ML Kit GenAI client on supported devices. After you initiate the feature and accept its disclosure, Google infrastructure may download a compatible Gemini Nano model. Signal Walk is designed for on-device inference with no cloud-inference fallback. Its prompt is built from a sanitized session summary that excludes raw SSIDs, BSSIDs, Bluetooth addresses, precise coordinates, private paths, and account data.
ML Kit may contact Google for model delivery, compatibility checks, diagnostics, and usage measurement, and may collect device and app information, installation or similar identifiers, SDK/model configuration, feature events, performance and reliability measurements, input/output size metadata, errors, and configured language. Google handles that information under its Privacy Policy. You can decline AI summaries without affecting normal captures, exports, or maps.
Storage, backup, and deletion
Session data is stored in the app’s private internal storage. It can be deleted in the app and is removed when Signal Walk is uninstalled. Android backup is disabled for app data.
- One session: Sessions → open the session → overflow menu → Delete session → confirm
- All sessions: Sessions → overflow menu → Delete all sessions → confirm
- Offline map region: Live map → overflow menu → Delete offline region → Delete cached region
Files exported outside Signal Walk must be deleted separately from their destination.
Children’s privacy
Signal Walk is not directed to children under 13, and the developer does not knowingly collect personal information from children.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, the date at the top will be updated. Significant changes may also be noted in Google Play release information.
Contact
Privacy: privacy@signalwalk.com. Support and closed test: support@signalwalk.com. Security reports: security@signalwalk.com.