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Tunearby Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 1, 2026

Tunearby helps you find nearby AM and FM radio stations and over-the-air TV channels. This policy covers the Tunearby app for iOS and Android and the website at tunearby.com. Tunearby is published by Allen Walker, an independent developer.

Jump to: the app · the website · your choices

There is no account, no advertising, and no sale of personal data. The app contains no analytics or tracking code, and we run no server that stores or processes personal data. The app does make a few ordinary internet requests, described below: to download its station catalog from a public storage bucket we own, to draw maps and, only if you use it, to search for a city. The website counts visits with a cookieless counter, and its web server keeps standard request logs for 30 days.

The short version

• We do not sell your personal information and we do not build profiles of you.
• Your exact coordinates stay on your device (the app) or in your browser's memory (the website). The map does load tiles for the area on screen from OpenFreeMap, which can reveal your general area, and the website sends a rounded position with a city-name search.
• The app downloads its station catalog from Google Cloud Storage on first launch, checks for an updated catalog each time you open it, and works offline in between. The first launch needs an internet connection.
• Every internet request necessarily shows the server your device's IP address. The services we use, and what they say they keep, are listed below.
• The website sets no cookies. Its visits are counted by GoatCounter without cookies, and its web server logs each request, including your IP address, for 30 days.

The Tunearby app (iOS and Android)

Location

With your permission, Tunearby reads your device's location while the app is open to show the radio stations and TV transmitters near you. It works with precise or approximate location, whichever your device allows. By default it refreshes your position every five minutes so the list follows you as you drive; you can change the interval or turn this off in Settings, but that setting is not saved, so live tracking is on again the next time you launch the app. The app asks only for "while in use" access and never reads your location in the background.

Your coordinates are used to query the station database stored on your device. The app never sends them to us or to anyone else (your phone's operating system may use its own location services to work out where you are). The map is centered on your location, so the map tiles your device requests reveal the general area on screen; see Maps below. If you decline or later withdraw location access, the app keeps using the last location saved on your device, or New York City if it never had one, until you pick a city in Settings.

The station catalog

The station catalog (about 6 MB to download, about 24 MB on your device, briefly twice that while an update is being applied) is not built into the app. The first time you open Tunearby it is downloaded from a public Google Cloud Storage bucket we own, at storage.googleapis.com/tunearby-catalog, so the first launch needs an internet connection. After that, stations, the TV lineup and On Air listings work offline. The app checks a small manifest file at that address when it opens and at most every six hours while in use, and downloads a newer catalog in the background only when one has been published. Earlier versions of the app shipped with the catalog built in and made no such request.

These are ordinary HTTPS requests with no account, identifier, location or search text attached. Like any internet request, they let the server see your IP address and your device type. Google Cloud, our infrastructure provider, serves the files and processes those requests on our behalf under Google Cloud's terms. We have not turned on access logging for the bucket, so we keep no record of who downloads the catalog.

City search (optional)

If you choose a custom location in Settings and type a city name, the text you type is sent to Geoapify (api.geoapify.com) to return matching U.S. and Canadian cities and their coordinates. The request includes an API key that identifies the Tunearby app, not you, and, as with any request, your IP address. Your GPS location is not included. Geoapify states that for each request it keeps the request details, including what you typed and your IP address, for access control, usage counting and troubleshooting; that this data is generally held for no more than 24 hours for successful requests; and that it may log IP addresses when errors occur. Geoapify is an EU company whose API is served through Cloudflare. See the Geoapify Privacy Policy. If you never use the city search, no request is made.

Maps

Maps are drawn with map tiles, fonts and styles loaded from OpenFreeMap (tiles.openfreemap.org), a free map service. Each request lets OpenFreeMap see your IP address and, through the tile addresses, the area of the map on screen, which is usually near your location. Your coordinates themselves are not sent, and no account, key or identifier is attached. OpenFreeMap states that it uses no cookies or tracking and does not keep IP addresses in its regular server logs, though it may log them for up to 30 days while investigating abuse or a security incident, and that it may serve requests through Cloudflare, whose own policy then applies. See the OpenFreeMap Privacy Policy.

Information stored on your device

The app saves these on your device, in its own private storage:

• your last location (the last GPS fix, or the city you picked, with that city's name);
• whether you use GPS or a chosen city;
• whether TV stations are mixed into the radio lists;
• your light or dark choice;
• the downloaded station catalog.

It does not save your search radius, your band and format filters, or the live-tracking setting. None of this is sent to us. The map keeps a cache of the tiles it has shown, and the operating system may cache recent city-search results. On Android the app opts out of Google's app backup, so none of this is copied to your Google account. On iOS the downloaded catalog can be included in your device or iCloud backup, if you use one, under Apple's terms; your saved location and settings are marked to stay out of backups. Uninstalling the app deletes the data from your device.

Links and phone numbers

Links to station sites, network sites, the Wikipedia source for TV subchannel listings, the Creative Commons license and the map credits open only when you tap them, in an in-app browser (Safari View on iOS, Chrome Custom Tabs on Android) or, if none is available, your default browser. After that, the other site's privacy policy applies. Tapping a phone or text number, whether a station's number or the call-in or text line of a show that is on air, opens your phone or messaging app. Calling or texting shares your number with whoever answers that line, not with us. These numbers come from the stations' and shows' published contact details.

Third-party services

We send the providers above only what is described here: catalog download requests, typed city text, and map tile requests. We never send your identity, an account, or your exact coordinates, and we choose providers that publish limits on what they keep. Some of them are based in, or host data in, the European Union.

What the app does not do

• No user accounts, sign-in or profiles.
• No advertising or ad networks.
• No analytics, crash reporting, telemetry or tracking code in the app. Apple and Google may give us aggregate download and crash statistics, and feedback you choose to send through them, under their own policies.
• No background location.
• No personal data sent to us. The only server of ours the app contacts is the public catalog bucket described above.

The tunearby.com website

The website is a lighter version of the app that runs in your browser: it downloads the station catalog from tunearby.com itself and answers every station lookup on your device. It behaves like the app, with these differences.

Location in your browser

When you open the site, your browser asks whether to share your location. If you allow it, the position is held only in the page's memory while it is open; it is not written to storage and not sent to us. If you decline, or your browser cannot provide a location, the site uses New York City or a city you type.

City search

When you type a city name, the text you type is sent to Photon (photon.komoot.io), an OpenStreetMap geocoder run by komoot, together with the position currently in use (your location if you allowed it, otherwise the city you picked or the New York default), rounded to a tenth of a degree, about five to seven miles, so that nearby matches are listed first. Your exact coordinates are never sent. Photon publishes no privacy or logging statement and says it throttles heavy use. komoot's privacy policy covers komoot's own site and apps and does not mention Photon; it says komoot keeps server-log IP addresses for 90 days, so assume Photon may log your IP address.

Maps

The website loads its maps from OpenFreeMap as described above. The page opens a connection to tiles.openfreemap.org each time it loads, and the map tiles for the area on screen are fetched as soon as the catalog has loaded, even if you never open the map on a phone.

Visit counting

We count visits with GoatCounter, which uses no cookies and stores nothing in your browser (it only reads a browser setting if you have used its own opt-out). Each page load tells it the page address, including any query string, the page title, the address of the page you came from, your screen width, and, as every web request does, your IP address and browser identification. GoatCounter states that it keeps only totals (pages, referrers, browser and operating system, language, country derived from the IP address, and screen size) and that it does not store IP addresses in its statistics. To count a returning visit only once, it keeps a temporary mapping from your IP address and browser identification to a random ID in memory for up to eight hours after your last visit. See the GoatCounter privacy policy. Browser tracking protection and ad blockers block the counter; the site works without it. The counter is not loaded on this privacy page.

Server logs

The website is served from Google Cloud Run. Like any web server, it records each request (IP address, browser identification, page requested, time and the referring page) in request logs that are kept for 30 days and then deleted automatically. We use them only to keep the site running and secure, and we do not combine them with anything else.

Stored in your browser

The site sets no cookies. It stores one preference in your browser's local storage (which map bands, AM or FM, are shown), and your browser caches the site's files and the catalog as it does for any website. Clearing site data for tunearby.com removes all of it.

Links

Links to station, network and other websites open in a new tab. After that, the other site's own policy applies.

Where the station data comes from

Station, transmitter and coverage data come from public FCC records. TV network and subchannel names are partly from Wikipedia, used under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; they ship inside the catalog, and neither the app nor the website contacts Wikipedia unless you tap a credit link. None of this data is about you.

Retention, deletion and your choices

• The only personal data we hold is the website's server logs (IP address, browser, page, time), which are deleted automatically after 30 days. The app sends us no personal data, and visit counts are totals. To ask us to remove log entries sooner, email us with the IP address they would be recorded under.
• Location permission can be withdrawn at any time in your device or browser settings. Revoking it stops new readings; the app's last saved location stays on your device until you pick a city in Settings or uninstall the app.
• Data stored on your device is deleted by uninstalling the app or by clearing the site's data in your browser.
• Whatever country you are in, you can ask what data of yours we hold, ask us to delete it, or object to the visit counter, at the email below.

Security

Every request the app and the website make themselves uses HTTPS. A website you open by tapping a link may not. The app checks the downloaded catalog's size and checksum to catch an incomplete or corrupted download. We keep no database of user data.

Children

Tunearby is not directed to children under 13 and does not knowingly collect personal information from anyone, beyond the routine web-server logs described above.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top and post the revised version at this URL. We will not make a material change, such as adding analytics to the app, without noting it here. October 1, 2026: the app now downloads its catalog instead of bundling it, TV stations were added, and the website's visit counter and server logs are described.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Email eawalker@protonmail.com.