Privacy Policy

Effective September 12, 2026

FerryOrNot is developed by Chowen Labs, LLC (“we,” “us”). We built FerryOrNot to be useful without collecting your personal information. There are no accounts and no sign-in, and we do not maintain a profile of you.

By design, your trips, routes, and location stay on your device and are never sent to our servers. Our relationship with your app is one-directional: our servers send information to the app (such as ferry schedule predictions) and never receive personal data from you. The comparison of ferry-versus-driving is computed entirely on your device.

Information we collect

Location. With your permission, FerryOrNot uses your device’s location to estimate driving times to and from ferry terminals and, if you enable it, to send an optional reminder as you approach a terminal. When you commit to a sailing, the app may ask for “Always” access so it can keep watching your drive while the app is closed. This runs on your phone; your location is shared with Apple Maps to calculate routes and traffic, and no location is sent to Chowen Labs. We do not store your location on our servers or use it to identify you. You can grant, limit, or revoke location access at any time in iOS Settings.

Ferry pass. If you link a Washington State Ferries pass, you scan it with the camera or pick a screenshot; the pass number, barcode, and route stay in the app’s storage on your phone (and in your device backups). To check remaining rides, the app sends the pass number from your phone directly to WSDOT’s Wave2Go website; Chowen Labs never receives it. While a trip is active, the barcode may appear on your Lock Screen. Delete a pass in the app to remove it.

Notifications and alarms. Leave-by reminders, dock alerts, and the optional backup alarm are scheduled on your phone by the app itself. They do not go through our servers.

Purchases. Subscriptions are processed by Apple through the App Store. Apple handles all payment information — we never receive your card or payment details. We receive only the subscription status needed to unlock features on your device, along with Apple’s standard aggregate sales reports.

Trip details you enter. The origin and destination you choose, and any saved commutes, are stored on your device so the app can plan your trip. We do not receive them.

Third-party data the app retrieves

To do its job, FerryOrNot fetches ferry schedules, vessel status, drive-up space, terminal cameras, traffic, and marine conditions from third parties — including the Washington State Department of Transportation / Washington State Ferries, Apple Maps, and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration / National Weather Service. These requests are for public transit, traffic, and weather data and do not include information that identifies you.

Other services the app contacts from your phone: Apple Maps (routes, addresses), Google Maps (only if you tap “Open in Google Maps”; your origin and destination go in that link), WSDOT (schedules, cameras, fares, tolls), NOAA, and fueleconomy.gov (your vehicle’s year, make, and model, for fuel cost).

How our servers work

Chowen Labs operates servers that analyze publicly available vessel-tracking data to predict a more realistic daily ferry schedule. Your app downloads these predictions to sharpen its estimates. That is the only role our servers play: they publish schedule data to you. They do not collect, receive, or store any information about you, your device, or your trips.

Retention and deletion

We hold no personal data about you, so there is nothing for us to delete. Everything the app stores is on your device and is removed when you delete the app.

What we don’t do

We do not use third-party advertising, we do not track you across other apps or websites, and we do not sell or rent your data. FerryOrNot contains no ad or analytics SDKs.

Diagnostics

If you opt in through iOS (“Share With App Developers”), Apple may provide us with aggregate, anonymized crash reports and app analytics to help us improve the app. This is controlled entirely by your iOS privacy settings and contains no information that identifies you.

Beta testing

Beta feedback you send through TestFlight is handled by Apple and read by us to fix bugs.

Security

Network requests use standard encryption (HTTPS/TLS). Because we don’t collect personal data on our servers, there is no account data for us to lose.

Children

FerryOrNot is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from children.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the app evolves; the “Effective” date above reflects the current version. Material changes will be reflected here before they take effect.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email ferryornot@chowenlabs.com.