Solent Companion
Privacy policy
Last updated: [date] · Contact: hello@solentcompanion.com
Solent Companion helps leisure sailors see big ships, tides, tide gates and local notices in the Solent. We built it to need as little of your data as possible.
What stays on your phone
- Your location. Used to show where you are on the map and, in Underway mode, to give advisory alerts. It is never sent to us. We keep no location history.
- Your boat details (name, draft, length), your margin, gate depths and settings. Stored only on your phone. Uninstalling the app deletes them.
- Saved copies for offline use: the last ships list, tides, notices, and the last map view (an area of the Solent). They stay on the phone, aren't included in Android backups, and are deleted when you uninstall.
What the app fetches, and who sees what
The app has no accounts and no sign-in.
| Service | What the app asks for | What that service can see |
|---|---|---|
| Our server ([backend domain]) | Ships in the Solent (one fixed area for everyone), tide predictions for every Solent station, local notices | Your IP address; standard server logs kept for [n] days. No location, and it can't tell which station you look at: the app fetches them all. |
| MapTiler (map tiles) | Map images for the area on screen | Your IP address and the map area you're viewing, under MapTiler's privacy policy. |
| OpenSeaMap (seamark tiles) | Seamark images for the area on screen | Your IP address and the map area you're viewing, under OpenSeaMap's policy. |
| The authorities' websites | Only when you tap "Read the full notice" | What any website sees when you open it in your browser. |
Because map tiles are fetched for the area you're looking at, the map providers can infer roughly where you're browsing. That's how online maps work; we don't add anything to those requests.
What we don't collect
No analytics, no advertising, no crash reporting, no contacts, photos or other files. We don't sell or share data.
Notifications
Underway mode posts advisory alerts and a notification while it's running. You can turn notifications off in Android's settings; Underway then can't alert you, and the app says so.
If you join the closed test
When you use the sign-up form to join the test, we keep your email address and what you tell us (your phone model, how often you sail, and if you choose to add them, your name, where you sail, your boat and how you heard about the test) to add you to the Google Play test and to ask for your feedback. We don't add you to any mailing list or share your details. If you arrived through a link with a short tag on the end (for example from a club or social post), we keep that tag so we can see which routes people find us by. We delete them when the test ends, or sooner if you ask.
The form is sent to a small Cloudflare service that turns it into an email to us. It doesn't store your details or set cookies, and Cloudflare, like any web service, sees your IP address when you send the form.
Google Play handles installing the test version; Google's own privacy policy applies to that.
This website
This website uses no cookies, no analytics and no web fonts or other third-party content. It is hosted on GitHub Pages, which, like any web host, sees your IP address when you visit.
Children
The app isn't aimed at children under 13.
Changes
We'll update this page and the date above if anything changes.
Disclaimer
The app shows this before you first use it, and you can read it again in Settings:
This app is an aid, not a navigator. Ship positions can be minutes old. Tide figures are predictions. Depths come from your own chart. Keep a proper lookout, monitor VHF 12, and use your own judgement and charts at all times.
In full:
Solent Companion is an aid to situational awareness for leisure sailors. It is not a navigation system, a substitute for official charts, Notices to Mariners or VTS broadcasts, or a collision avoidance system.
- Ships come from AIS, which can be delayed, incomplete or wrong; not every vessel transmits. Moving Prohibited Zones are drawn from the published rules and the reported AIS data, and may not match the zone a ship is actually keeping.
- Tides are predictions; weather, pressure and surge change actual heights.
- Tide gate clearance depends on the charted depth and draft you enter.
- Notices may be summarised, late or incomplete; the authority's own notice always applies.
- Alerts are advisory. They can be late, missed or wrong, for example with a poor GPS fix, no data connection, or notifications turned off.
Always keep a proper lookout, monitor VHF 12 in the Southampton area, follow the Collision Regulations and the harbour authorities' instructions, and use your own judgement and charts.