Privacy

Location

Backlaner asks for your location so it can show where you are, plan a route, and speak the next turn. On iPhone, if you allow location all the time, the app can keep doing that while the screen is locked during a drive. The phone’s location is sent to the routing service to calculate the road. It is not sold, and it is not used to advertise to you.

You can refuse location. You can still type a start and a destination. You can change the permission later in the iPhone Settings app, under Backlaner.

Reports

If you report traffic, a hazard, a closure, police, a speed van, or a camera, Backlaner stores the place, the type, an optional note, and when it expires. A fixed camera, red light camera, bus lane camera, or average-speed zone stays on the map. It is shown lighter until two other phones confirm it. “Not there” removes one confirmation. To count each phone once, Backlaner stores a short hash of a random id kept on the phone. The hash is not your name and it is not tied to a trip. Do not put your name, phone number, or anyone else’s private details in a note.

Places

When you search for a place and choose it, Backlaner can keep the place itself: the name, category, address, coordinates, postcode, and how many times it was chosen. That record has no name for you, no phone id, and no link to a trip. Home, Work, a house number, a plain street, and a postcode with no place name are not stored.

Names and coordinates that came from OpenStreetMap, including through Photon and Nominatim, are stored so search can answer from Backlaner first. That part of the table is a database derived from OpenStreetMap © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence. A copy of those rows is at /api/places/odbl.

TomTom search results are not copied. Their terms (clause 11.4 and 11.6.1, checked 1 November 2026) allow only a short cache on your phone, not a database of names or coordinates shared with other people. If a result exists only at TomTom, Backlaner counts the words you typed so the gap can be checked later, and stores nothing TomTom sent.

You can add a missing place or suggest an edit, including that it has closed. Those wait until two people agree, the same way a camera report does.

Home, Work, and favourites

Home, Work, and any extra places you star are stored only on this phone. On the iPhone app they are also kept in the app’s private preferences, still on the device. Logistics destinations and delivery notes are saved on this device too. When you search for a destination or plan a drive, the search text or coordinates are sent to the service that supplies the results or route. Your saved delivery list is not uploaded as a shared list. Delete local data in Settings removes these saved destinations.

Sponsored places

A business can pay to show a branded pin and a short offer. The offer is labelled Sponsored. It only pops up when the car is stopped or moving under about 10 mph, and the route changes only if you tap the button. Backlaner counts how many times each offer was shown and how many times it was tapped. Those are totals for the business. They are not tied to you, your phone, or your trips.

Fuel and charger prices

If you add a fuel or charging price, Backlaner stores the station, the price, the time, and a short hash of a random id kept on this phone. The hash is only used to limit how many prices one phone can send. It is not your name, and it is not tied to your trips. Prices older than about three days are shown in grey. You can turn the fuel pop-up off in Voice help.

On this phone

Trip history, Home, Work, favourites, planned drives, and a saved parking spot stay in this browser. A destination suggestion such as “Heading home?” is worked out from those trips on the phone. It is not sent to a server. You can pause history, clear it, export it, or delete the data saved on this phone from Settings.

Voice

If you tap the microphone, or turn on hands-free, the words you say are recognised on the phone. They are not sent to a paid speech service. A command such as “navigate to Croydon” is turned into a place search, the same as typing it.

What this app does not do

Backlaner does not track you across other companies’ apps or websites. It does not use advertising identifiers. It does not build a profile of your journeys for sale. Speed limits come from OpenStreetMap. Camera locations come from OpenStreetMap and from Transport for London safety-camera sites (London Safety Camera Partnership), plus reports people post in the app. Powered by TfL Open Data. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database rights 2016. Geomni UK Map data © and database rights 2019. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Other services

When you arrive, or near the end of a preview, Backlaner may ask Wikimedia Commons or Mapillary for one photo of that place. The photo is shown on your phone and is not saved as part of your trips. Map data in the fallback picture is © OpenStreetMap contributors. Mapillary photos are CC BY-SA.

Maps are drawn from OpenStreetMap-based tiles. Routes are calculated by a public Valhalla routing service. Place search uses public geocoders. Those services receive the coordinates or the search text needed to answer. Their own privacy notices apply to that request.

Contact

For privacy questions or help with Backlaner, email hello@backlaner.com.