Privacy
policy

Who we are

Widgeling is made by Dave Ellis and published on the App Store by The Racing Line Software Limited, a company in the United Kingdom ("we", "us"). We're responsible for the information described in this policy. You can reach us at dave@theracingline.app.

The short version

• There's no account and nothing to sign up for.
• There are no analytics, crash-reporting or advertising SDKs in the app, no tracking and no third-party ads.
• Your calendars, reminders, contacts, photos and Health data are read on your device to draw your widgets. Widgeling never uploads them, and Health data never syncs.
• Your designs sync only through your own private iCloud database, which we can't see.
• Only Widgeling Pro's live data comes through our own data service. It receives only what each widget needs, never your name, email address or Apple Account, and we never sell it or use it for advertising.

Your designs and iCloud

Everything you make in Widgeling - designs and their saved versions, themes, saved places, trackers (habits, counters, water and mood logs), to-do lists, flashcards, the addresses of news feeds you add, and which photos you've chosen - is stored on your device.

If you're signed in to iCloud and iCloud sync is on, it's also kept in Widgeling's private database in your iCloud account, using Apple's CloudKit. That backs it up and brings it to your other devices. The private database belongs to your Apple Account: we have no access to it. Apple stores and protects iCloud data under Apple's privacy policy. The photos themselves aren't stored there, only which ones you chose.

Your iPhone also sends your designs, and small copies of the photos in them, straight to your paired Apple Watch so they can show there. You can turn iCloud sync off in Widgeling's Settings, under Sync and data.

Calendars, reminders, contacts and photos

Widgeling asks for each permission only when a design needs it.

• Calendars and reminders: calendar widgets read your events, and reminder widgets read your reminders and let you tick them off, all through iOS on your device.
• Contacts: birthday widgets read birthdays from your contacts, on your device.
• Photos: photo widgets read the photos you pick, or for On this day, photos from your library taken on today's date, on your device. Widgeling keeps smaller copies in its own storage on your device so your widgets can show them.

None of this is uploaded to us or anyone else. You can change each permission in iOS Settings at any time.

Health

If you add a health widget and allow access, Widgeling reads steps, distance, activity and sleep from Apple Health on your device (on Apple Watch, from the watch). It keeps a summary in storage on your device that only Widgeling and its widgets can read, so your widgets can show it.

Health data is never uploaded, never sent to us and never synced, not even to your own iCloud. It's used only to draw your widgets - never for advertising or anything else. If you log water with a Widgeling widget, the entry is saved with your trackers and, if you've allowed it, written to Apple Health too.

Location

Weather, sky, travel and air quality widgets can use your current location, if you allow it, or places you save. Saved places (a name and coordinates) sync with your designs. Sunrise, sunset, moon phases and other sky details are worked out on your device. A few lookups need to send coordinates:

• Apple Weather (Pro): the place's coordinates go to Apple's WeatherKit to fetch the forecast.
• Apple Maps: searching for a place sends your search text, naming a place sends its coordinates, and travel time widgets send the start and end points, all to Apple.
• Air quality and pollen (Pro): your location, rounded on your device to about 1 km, goes to our data service (see below).

Apple handles its requests under its own privacy policy, and we never receive them.

News feeds

News widgets show headlines from the RSS or Atom feeds you add. Your device fetches each feed, and the pictures in it, directly from the website that publishes it, the way a web browser would. That website sees an ordinary request from your device, including its IP address, and its own privacy policy applies. We don't see which feeds you read.

Widgeling Pro and our data service

Widgeling Pro's live data - air quality and pollen, stock, crypto and currency prices, sports, and flight status - comes through Widgeling's own data service, which runs on Cloudflare Workers. (Apple Weather forecasts come straight from Apple.) The service holds the data providers' keys so the app never has to, and it fetches each item once and shares it, rather than once per person. Apart from setting up App Attest (below), the app only contacts it for Pro features.

What the app sends

• What your Pro widgets show: the stock symbols, cryptocurrencies, currencies, teams or competitions (and any team names you search for), and flight numbers with their dates.
• For air quality and pollen: your location, rounded on your device to about 1 km before it's sent.
• Your subscription: the signed transaction the App Store gives the app, so the service can check you have Pro. Apple signs it, and it holds purchase details such as the product, dates and transaction numbers - not your name, email address or Apple Account.
• A random identifier that Widgeling makes on each device. It isn't tied to your Apple Account, and it's used only to stop the service being overused.
• An App Attest assertion: a signature made on your device with Apple's App Attest, which proves the request comes from the real Widgeling app. It doesn't identify you. Apple Watch doesn't support App Attest, so the watch doesn't send one.
• Push registration: if your Pro widgets or Live Activities follow things that change (stocks, crypto, teams or flights), the app registers an Apple push token with the service, along with those items, so it can tell your widgets to refresh when something changes.

Like any connection over the internet, the request also comes from your device's IP address. Our service doesn't record it.

What the service keeps, and for how long

• Shared data cache: each item's data - a stock price, a team's fixtures, a flight, the air quality for a 1 km grid cell - is cached so everyone who follows it shares one copy. Cache entries aren't linked to anyone. They're refreshed every minute to every few hours depending on the data (air quality and pollen hourly), and kept up to two days longer as a fallback if a provider is down.
• Subscription status: when Apple tells the service that a Pro subscription has started, renewed, lapsed or been refunded, it keeps the status and dates under the subscription's original transaction number, so widgets keep working after a renewal and stop when Pro ends. There's no name, email address or Apple Account in it. It's deleted 400 days after it last changed.
• Usage counters: counts for the random identifier, so nobody can overload the service (including a daily limit on flight lookups). They're deleted about a day after the last request.
• Push registrations: the push token, the items to watch, which Apple push environment to use and the subscription's original transaction number, so pushes stop when Pro ends. No location, device details or random identifier. Widget registrations are deleted 35 days after the app last renewed them, and Live Activity registrations after 12 hours or when the match or flight ends - sooner if your subscription ends or the token stops working.
• App Attest keys: the public half of the key your copy of Widgeling creates, and a counter, so later requests can be checked. They identify an installation of the app, not you, and aren't linked to anything else.
• Logs: the service logs only which endpoint was called, the result and how long it took - never IP addresses, tokens, locations or the items you asked for. Cloudflare keeps these logs for a few days.

We use this information only to provide the Pro features you've asked for and to keep the service secure and working. We never sell it, use it for advertising or combine it with anything else to build a profile of you.

Data providers

When an item isn't already cached, our service fetches it from a data provider: licensed sources of market prices, currency exchange rates, sports data, flight status, and air quality and pollen. The provider receives only the item - a symbol, a team, a flight number or a 1 km grid cell - from our service, never from your device, and nothing about you.

The Racing Line banner

If you don't have Pro, Widgeling shows a small banner for The Racing Line, another app by the same developer. It's built into the app: there's no ad network, nothing is tracked or sent when it's shown, and tapping it simply opens The Racing Line's page on the App Store.

Purchases

Widgeling Pro is sold through the App Store, and Apple handles the payment. We never see your payment details. The app checks your subscription with the App Store on your device, and Apple tells our data service when a subscription renews, lapses or is refunded (see Subscription status above). Apple also gives us sales and subscription reports that don't include your name or contact details.

Crash reports and support emails

The app contains no analytics or crash-reporting code. If you've chosen to share analytics with app developers in iOS Settings (Privacy & Security, then Analytics & Improvements), Apple may send us crash reports and usage statistics that don't identify you. You can turn this off at any time.

If you email us from Widgeling's Settings (Help, then Contact support), you can choose to add diagnostics: the app and system versions, your device model, how many designs and placed widgets you have, your plan, whether iCloud sync is on and your region setting. They're in the email for you to see before you send it. We use your email address and anything you send only to reply to you.

Who else is involved

• Apple: iCloud and CloudKit (your designs), WeatherKit (forecasts), Apple Maps (place search, place names and travel times), the App Store (purchases and subscription notices), the Apple Push Notification service (widget and Live Activity updates), App Attest, and crash reports if you share them. See Apple's privacy policy.
• Cloudflare: hosts our data service and handles requests to it, including IP addresses, on our behalf. It runs on Cloudflare's global network, so requests may be handled outside the UK, under Cloudflare's safeguards for international transfers. See Cloudflare's privacy policy.
• Data providers: receive only the items requested, from our service, as described above.
• Websites of news feeds you add: receive ordinary requests from your device when it fetches their feeds.

We don't share your information with anyone else, and we don't sell it.

How long things are kept

• On your devices: until you delete it in the app, or delete the app.
• In your iCloud: until you delete it, in the app or in iOS Settings.
• Our data service: cached data for minutes to hours, plus up to two days as a fallback; usage counters for about a day; push registrations for up to 35 days (12 hours for Live Activities); subscription status for 400 days after it last changed; logs for a few days.
• Emails: only as long as we need them to help you.

Your choices, and deleting your data

• Permissions: change access to Location, Calendars, Reminders, Contacts, Photos and Health in iOS Settings (Privacy & Security) at any time.
• iCloud: turn off iCloud sync in Widgeling's Settings, under Sync and data. Your designs then stay on that device only.
• Delete everything: in Widgeling's Settings, under Sync and data, Delete all data removes every design, theme, place, tracker and photo set from that device and from iCloud.
• Deleting the app: removes everything Widgeling keeps on that device. To remove the copy in iCloud as well, open iOS Settings, tap your name, then iCloud, manage your iCloud storage and delete Widgeling's data.
• Pro: cancel at any time in your Apple Account settings. When Pro ends, the service deletes your push registrations; the subscription status record expires as described above, or email us and we'll help remove it sooner.

Your rights

Under UK data protection law (UK GDPR) and similar laws elsewhere, you have rights over personal data a company holds about you, such as seeing it, correcting it or having it deleted, and you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk). Most of what Widgeling uses never reaches us, and what our data service keeps isn't tied to your name or Apple Account, so we may need your help to find it. If you have questions, email us and we'll help.

Children

Widgeling is rated 4+. It doesn't ask anyone for their name, age or contact details, and nothing in it tracks or advertises to children. Pro is bought through the App Store, where Family Sharing's Ask to Buy lets a parent approve purchases.

Changes to this policy

If anything here changes, we'll update this page and the date at the top. If a change ever meant collecting more about you, we'd ask for your permission in the app first.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email dave@theracingline.app.