This is an English translation of the Vietnamese original. If the two versions differ, the Vietnamese version prevails.
Buddy is developed and operated by Steve Tran, based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Send any question about your personal data to contact@stevetran.work.
GPS coordinates, heading, speed of travel and the accuracy of each reading. Positions are sent every 5, 15 or 30 seconds, as chosen by whoever created the trip, and every 5 seconds while an SOS alert is active. We collect it only while you are in an open trip — including when the screen is off or the phone is locked, because that is when the group most needs to see you. Purpose: to show you on the group’s map and to work out distances between members. The server only relays coordinates to people on the same trip and never writes coordinates to disk. As soon as you leave the group or the trip closes, the app stops sending.
Sent only when the trip creator turns on “Show speed & battery” for that trip. Purpose: so the group knows who is about to run out of battery on the road. This is not written to disk either.
The name you type in each time you join a trip, so the group can recognise you on the map. Buddy does not ask for an email address, phone number, password or account sign-up. Avatars are a built-in icon set inside the app and are never uploaded to the server.
The first time you open the app, your phone is given a random ID that stands in for an account. It lets you get back into the same trip after the app has been closed, and stops anyone else from raising or cancelling an SOS alert on your behalf. The accompanying authentication token is stored on the server only as a one-way hash.
Trip name, the 6-character join code, the destination (as text), the trip’s settings, start and end times, the member list and any open SOS alerts. Purpose: to keep the trip running and let you rejoin if the app is closed part-way through.
Lifecycle events of a trip (created, joined, left, closed) plus a few aggregate numbers, so we can tell whether the system is working correctly. Who performed each action is stored as a one-way hash, so it cannot be traced back to any device; this log contains no coordinates, no names and no trip codes.
The app uses Google Analytics for Firebase to learn which screens are opened and which features are used (creating a trip, joining by code or QR, leaving a trip, turning on SOS), along with the trip’s numeric settings such as how often positions are sent. Google also collects general technical information on its own: device model, operating system, app version, language, and country/region estimated from the network address, tied to a random ID for that app installation. We never send Google your coordinates, name, trip name or trip code, and we have disabled advertising IDs (IDFA on iPhone, Advertising ID on Android) along with every ad-personalisation signal. You can switch this off entirely in Settings → Data → “Share usage statistics”; your opt-out is kept even if you reset the device. This data is processed by Google under Google’s own policies.
Buddy does not collect your contacts, photos, calendar, microphone or health data. The app also has no push notifications, so it collects no push tokens, and it embeds no advertising SDK of any kind. The only measurement tool is Google Analytics for Firebase as described above, and it is not used for advertising.
We do not sell, rent or trade location data with advertisers or data brokers.
The server runs this clean-up once a day, so data may remain for up to 24 hours past the 15-day mark. After deletion we keep only the operations log and trip summary figures, to count trips, participants and average duration — nothing that can be traced back to a specific person.
Under Vietnam’s Decree 13/2023/ND-CP on personal data protection (and the GDPR if you are in the EU), you have the right to access, correct, delete and restrict processing of your data, to withdraw consent, and to request a copy of your data.
Stop sharing immediately: tap “Leave” on the map screen. The app stops sending your location the moment you leave. You can also let the trip close on its own at the time limit the creator set (24 hours at most) — when time is up, the whole group stops sharing together.
Revoke location permission: in your phone’s Settings, at any time. Buddy still opens and you still receive SOS alerts from others in the group — you just won’t appear on the map. This is deliberate: declining to share your location should not mean missing out when a teammate is in trouble.
Uninstalling the app removes your device ID and current trip session from your phone.
In the app, Settings → Data offers two options: “Clear data on this phone” (removes saved and recently left trips from your phone) and “Reset this device” (removes your profile, settings and every trip from your phone and gives it a new device ID). Both affect only the data on your phone; what is stored on the server is deleted on the schedule in Section 4. To request access to, or earlier deletion of, the data on the server, email contact@stevetran.work, including the trip code involved if you remember it; we reply within 30 days.
All data travels over TLS-encrypted connections. Device authentication tokens are stored only as one-way hashes; we do not keep the originals. Server access is limited to a small number of operators.
What protects you most is a design decision: location coordinates are never written to disk. There is no route log and no backup containing where you went — not even we can reconstruct where you have been.
No system is perfectly secure; if an incident affects your data, we will notify you within 72 hours of discovering it.
Buddy is for people aged 13 and over. Anyone under 16 needs the consent of a parent or guardian before sharing their location.
When a change affects how we use your data, we update the effective date at the top of this page and post a notice on the home page at least 14 days in advance. Previous versions are archived and available on request by email.
Questions about personal data and general support: contact@stevetran.work