Privacy policy
Last updated 5 November 2026. This is the whole policy, in plain English.
Who is responsible
Life Map is made by Paul Berry, trading as PJB Devlab, an independent developer in the UK, who is the controller of the personal data described here. Paul Berry is registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), the UK's data protection regulator, as a data controller: registration reference ZC291906. You can check this on the ICO's public register. Contact: lifemap.hq@gmail.com.
The short version
- Life Map doesn't record your location. It keeps a copy of the Google Timeline file you choose to import, on your phone.
- A Google sign-in is needed to use Life Map. It gives Life Map your name, email address and an account ID.
- Some things do leave your phone, listed in full below: the spot being named when Life Map looks up a place name, the map area you're looking at, crash reports (which you can turn off), and, only if you switch them on, an encrypted cloud copy and encrypted shared links.
- The cloud copy and shared links are encrypted on your phone first. Life Map's servers store them but can't read them.
- Your data is never sold. On the free plan one small banner shows; it never sees your places. Life Map Plus has no banner.
What leaves your phone, where it goes, and why
| What | Goes to | Why | Kept for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Your Google name, email address and account ID; a random ID for each installation; sign-in times | Google Firebase Authentication (run from Google's US data centres) and Life Map's server (Google Cloud, London) | To give you an account that's yours alone, keep your cloud copy and links yours, and warn you when a new phone signs in | Until you delete your account. Google then removes sign-in records from its backups within 180 days, and keeps sign-in IP addresses for a few weeks. |
| The coordinates of a place being named (not who you are, the date or the rest of your history). Home and Work are marked private. | Life Map's server (London), which asks Geoapify (an EU company, EU data centres) | To show place names instead of coordinates | Geoapify keeps each request no longer than 24 hours. Business names may be kept in Life Map's shared cache, with no link to any person or time; Home and Work lookups are never cached. For a "Not right?" search, the businesses found around a map square of about 100 metres are kept in a shared cache for up to 30 days, with the day of the search but no link to any person and not the exact spot. |
| The map area on screen, and your phone's internet address, when map pictures load | OpenFreeMap (in the app) and the OpenStreetMap Foundation (on this website), which may use a content-delivery network such as Cloudflare | To draw maps | Set by each provider (OpenFreeMap says 7 days for its server logs) |
| Crash reports: where in the app's code it went wrong, the phone model and Android version, and random installation IDs. Never your places, days, names or photos. | Google Firebase Crashlytics (may be processed in any Google data centre) | To find and fix crashes | 90 days. Nothing is sent until you've seen the choice on the sign-in screen; you can turn crash reports off there or on the You tab, and reports not yet sent are then deleted. |
| Cloud copy, if you switch it on: your history, changes and photos, encrypted on your phone | Life Map's storage (Google Cloud, London). The key that opens it is in a hidden Life Map folder in your own Google Drive. | So you can bring everything back on a new phone | Until you delete it or your account. Deleted copies wait 30 days in a trash only Life Map's server can reach, then go. Before each upload the server also notes the copy's file name and size for a few hours (to keep uploads within fair limits); that note goes once the copy arrives, or within a day. |
| Shared links, if you make one: only what you chose to share, encrypted on your phone | Life Map's storage (Google Cloud, London). The key is only in the link itself. | So the people you send the link to can see it | Until the link expires (7, 30 or 90 days, your choice) or you stop it, then removed within a day |
| On the free plan only: the banner advert's request (your phone's advertising ID and internet address, and what Google's consent message lets it use). Never anything about your places or days. | Google AdMob | One banner pays for the free plan. In the UK and EU you're asked first, and can change your choice in You › Settings › Ad choices. | Set by Google; see Google's advertising policy |
| Life Map Plus purchases: Google Play's purchase token and whether the subscription is active | Google Play, and Life Map's server (London) | To switch Plus on for your account and keep it on while you pay | Until you delete your account (deleting stops any renewing subscription first). After deletion, a note that the account was deleted (its account ID, the time and, if any part of the clean-up has to be tried again, which part; nothing else about you) is kept for 30 days after the clean-up finished, so a request still on its way can't bring the account back. Google Play keeps its own purchase records. |
| Technical server logs (may include internet addresses) | Google Cloud (London) | To keep the service running and secure | 30 days |
| Usage counters for fair-use limits on place names | Life Map's server (London) | To keep the free service affordable | About 2 days |
On your phone, Life Map keeps your imported history, your changes, notes, reviews, photos you add and place names. It isn't included in Android's own backup or phone-to-phone transfer, and only the Google account it belongs to can open it on that phone.
Our legal reasons (lawful bases)
- Running Life Map for you (contract): your account, place names, maps, Life Map Plus purchases, and the cloud copy and shared links you ask for.
- Consent: the banner advert on the free plan, where the law asks for it (the UK and EU). You choose in Google's consent message, and can change your mind at any time.
- Legitimate interests: crash reports (to fix the app), security records such as which phones use your account, server logs, and fair-use counters. You can object at any time; crash reports can simply be turned off.
- Legal obligations: where the law requires us to keep or disclose something.
Who processes it for Life Map
Google (Firebase and Google Cloud: sign-in, server, storage, crash reports; Google Play for purchases; AdMob for the banner on the free plan), Geoapify (place names), and the map-picture providers above. Life Map doesn't sell or share your data with anyone else. Google and Geoapify act under data-processing terms. Some of Google's processing happens outside the UK, in the US; Google says it relies on the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and standard contractual clauses for this.
Your rights
You can ask to see the personal data Life Map holds about you, have it corrected or deleted, restrict or object to its use, or get a copy to take elsewhere. Much of this is built in: export your history (You › Keep a copy), stop any shared link, sign out everywhere else, and delete your account in the app or on this website. Deleting your account stops any Life Map Plus subscription Life Map has recorded, with Google Play, first (so you aren't charged again; check Google Play › Payments & subscriptions afterwards), then removes your cloud copies, shared links and account records. The history on your phone stays unless you choose to erase it too. For anything else, email lifemap.hq@gmail.com; you'll get a reply within one month.
If you're unhappy with how your data is handled, please tell us first. You can also complain to the UK Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that matters, the app will tell you. The date at the top shows the latest version.