Helmer
Privacy Policy
In short. Helmer collects no personal data. There are no user accounts, no analytics, no tracking, no advertising and no third-party SDKs. Your position, speed and anchor-watch data never leave your device.
Who is responsible
Michael Beutler, Switzerland — an individual developer, not a company.
Questions about this policy: support@iperka.com
Location data
Helmer asks for location access so it can show your position on the chart, your GPS speed, the 300 m and 150 m shore zones of Art. 53 of the Swiss Inland Navigation Ordinance (SR 747.201.1) around your boat, and — if you arm the anchor watch — how far your boat has drifted.
- Location is read from your device’s GPS and processed entirely on the device.
- It is never transmitted to me, to a server, or to any third party.
- If you arm the anchor watch, Helmer stores the anchor position, the alarm radius and the drift trail in the app’s local storage on your device, so the alarm survives an app relaunch or a phone restart. Disarming the anchor watch clears it.
- Background (“Always”) location access is used only for the anchor-drift alarm, so it can keep watching your boat while your phone is locked. You can decline it and still use every other feature.
You can revoke location access at any time in Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → Helmer.
Settings stored on your device
Preferences such as your speed unit (km/h or knots), cruise speed, route options and which chart layers you show are stored locally on your device. They contain no personal information and are not synced to any cloud service.
Deleting your data
All data Helmer holds is local to your device. Deleting the app removes it completely. There is nothing for me to delete on my side, because I never receive anything.
Network connections
Helmer has exactly one network connection:
Wind measurements from MeteoSwiss. To show current wind and storm warnings,
Helmer downloads the public 10-minute wind measurement files published as Swiss
Open Government Data at data.geo.admin.ch, operated by the Swiss federal
administration. The app downloads the nationwide measurement file and
selects the relevant stations locally — it does not send your position, your
identity, or any information about you in the request. As with any request on
the internet, your device’s IP address is technically visible to that server;
its handling is governed by the Swiss federal administration’s own privacy
notice. Wind data is cached on your device so the app keeps working out on the
water without a signal.
Helmer contains no other network code. It has no backend, and I operate no server that Helmer talks to. Lake geometry, shore zones, harbours, fuel stations, restricted areas and ship routes are bundled with the app and need no connection.
Maps
The chart is rendered with Apple’s MapKit framework. Map tiles, search and points of interest are provided by Apple Maps and handled under Apple’s Privacy Policy. I receive no data from this.
Notifications
The anchor-drift alarm uses local notifications only, including Apple’s critical alerts so the alarm can break through Silent mode and Do Not Disturb. There is no push server and no device token — notifications are scheduled by the app on your device.
App Store privacy label
Helmer is declared as “Data Not Collected” on the App Store, which matches what is described above.
Children
Helmer collects no data from anyone, including children, and contains no ads, no in-app purchases and no user-generated content.
Your rights
This policy is written to satisfy the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Because no personal data about you is collected, transmitted or stored by me, there is no data set on which to exercise access, correction, deletion or portability rights. You are welcome to contact me at support@iperka.com with any question about this.
Changes to this policy
If a future version of Helmer changes how data is handled, this page will be updated and the “last updated” date above will change. Material changes will also be noted in the App Store release notes.