GoLynQ is made by Vidēre Research, LLC in Maui, Hawaii. This page explains what GoLynQ Meet, GoLynQ Help (on the web and on iPhone), GoLynQ Learn and this website share, with whom and for how long. It adds the details of these apps to the Vidēre Research privacy policy, which covers all our apps and websites.
- No account. GoLynQ never asks for your email address, phone number or real name.
- Your location is shared only when you choose, only with the people you choose, and is deleted automatically.
- Your contacts, settings and medical information stay on your device.
- We don't sell your information. The websites show ads from Google AdSense; you can turn off personalized ads (see Advertising and cookies).
No account
GoLynQ Meet and GoLynQ Help sign you in anonymously with Google Firebase, so the server can tell your device's location apart from everyone else's. That anonymous ID is not linked to your name, email address or phone number. You pick the display name other people see, and it can be anything.
What stays on your device
These are stored only in your browser or in the app, and never sent to our server:
- your emergency contacts in GoLynQ Help, your quick message and your medical information;
- your settings, the circles you joined and the people you blocked;
- your GoLynQ Learn scores and streaks;
- in the web versions, a copy of the app and the map images you've viewed, so they open offline.
Deleting the app, or clearing the site's data in your browser, deletes them.
GoLynQ Meet: what others can see
Nothing is shared until you turn GPS on. While it's on:
| Everyone nearby | Your circle | Your live location link | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Display name, icon, color | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Position | Rounded to about 150 m (500 ft) by default; exact only if you turn that off | Exact | Exact |
| Accuracy, altitude, speed, heading | Only with an exact position | Yes | Yes |
| Your help message | While you ask for help | While you ask for help | Yes |
| Path taken while asking for help | No | No | Yes |
| Circle chat messages | No | Yes, kept 7 days | No |
| A meeting point you set | No | Yes, for a day | No |
A circle is private: only people who have its invitation link or QR code can see it. Your live location link is only seen by the people you send it to.
GoLynQ Help: what leaves your phone
| When | What | To whom |
|---|---|---|
| You send an alert | Your message, location and live link | The people you choose, through your own Messages or WhatsApp |
| During a help signal, with the live link on | Your position, accuracy, altitude, battery, path, name and message; your medical information is end-to-end encrypted | GoLynQ's server, shown on your live link |
| During a help signal | Your position, name and message | Your circle, and people nearby using GoLynQ Meet if you allowed it in Settings |
| While "Always share" is on | Your position and name | Your circle |
| During a check-in | Your contacts' phone numbers, your name, last position and live link | GoLynQ's server, and Twilio only if a text message has to be sent because your phone can't |
Encryption
Circle chat messages and the medical information on GoLynQ Help's live links are end-to-end encrypted. The key is part of the invitation or live link, so only people who have the link can read them; our server can't. Circles created before encryption was added keep unencrypted messages, and the chat says so. All connections use HTTPS.
When your information is deleted
- Turning GPS off, leaving a circle or switching circles removes your position from those places right away.
- Closing the app without turning GPS off: you turn gray after 20 minutes and disappear after 4 hours, and your position is deleted from the server automatically soon after.
- Live location links end when you tap "I'm OK", and expire 24 hours after the last position.
- Check-ins are deleted from the server when they end, and at the latest about a day after they were set.
- Circle chat messages are deleted after 7 days, and meeting points after a day.
- Notifications, if you turn them on: your device's notification address, your choices, your circles and your area (to about 5 km, or 3 miles) are kept until you turn them off, or for a month after you last opened the app.
- Reports you send about another user are kept only as long as we need them to deal with the report.
Services GoLynQ uses
Each of these receives only what it needs to do its job, and handles it under its own privacy policy:
- Google Firebase: hosting, the database for shared locations, circles and check-ins, anonymous sign-in, notifications, and App Check, which uses Google reCAPTCHA to keep automated scripts out.
- Google Analytics: anonymous statistics about which pages and features are used, so we know what to improve.
- Google AdSense: ads on the websites (see below).
- OpenStreetMap and Esri: the map and satellite images. The map images you view are requested from them.
- OpenStreetMap Nominatim: turns a position into the nearest address. GoLynQ Learn also uses it to identify each mystery location, along with Open-Meteo for its weather, Wikimedia for pictures and flagcdn for flags. Those requests are about the game's locations, not yours.
- Twilio: sends a GoLynQ Help check-in text message, only when one has to go out.
- Apple: notifications in the GoLynQ Help iPhone app.
- PayPal and Venmo: if you choose to donate, you pay on their sites; we only see what they report about the payment.
Advertising and cookies
The GoLynQ websites show ads from Google AdSense, which helps keep GoLynQ free.
- Third-party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites.
- Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this site and/or other sites on the Internet.
- You can opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google's Ads Settings. You can also opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalized advertising at www.aboutads.info.
- Learn more about how Google uses information from sites that use its services.
Visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland are asked for consent before personalized ads are shown. Google Analytics also uses cookies; you can block them with Google's opt-out browser add-on or your browser's settings. GoLynQ itself uses your browser's local storage, not cookies, to remember your settings.
Your choices
- Turn GPS off at any time to stop sharing your location and remove it from the server.
- Keep "approximate location for everyone nearby" on, or share only with a private circle.
- Turn notifications off in Settings to delete your notification address.
- Clear the site's data in your browser, or delete the app, to remove everything stored on your device.
- Ask us about your information, or ask us to delete it, through our contact form.
Children
GoLynQ isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal information from them. If you think a child has given us personal information, contact us and we'll delete it.
Changes and contact
If the apps start sharing something new, we'll update this page and its date before they do. Questions about privacy go through our contact form. For everything else, including your rights under the law where you live, see the Vidēre Research privacy policy.
GoLynQ Help and GoLynQ Meet's help signal are not emergency services and don't replace them. See the software disclaimer.