Privacy.

The app

Location

Location access is optional, and ParkKing asks for it only while you’re using the app. Your location is used on your iPhone to centre the map and find nearby curbs, and it is never sent to us. Looking up the address of a curb you check, including one ParkKing picks from your location, uses Apple’s MapKit (see Apple services). Without location access, you can still search any Toronto address.

Stored on your iPhone

These stay on your iPhone and aren’t sent to us. Apart from the parking data, they’re also included in your iPhone’s backups, such as iCloud Backup. Deleting the app removes them from your iPhone:

• Recent searches and favourite places
• Your settings, the time you’re checking and the last map position
• Where you parked, while you’re parked
• The parking data

The App Attest key described below is kept in your iPhone’s Keychain rather than with the app’s other data, so it may remain on your iPhone after you delete ParkKing. It stays on that iPhone and doesn’t move to a new one.

Parking data and updates

ParkKing downloads its parking data, built from City of Toronto Open Data, from our server at data.parkking.joeyhershkop.com, which runs on Cloudflare. It does this the first time you open the app, then checks for updates at most every 12 hours, or whenever you tap Check for Updates in Settings. Automatic checks don’t use cellular data or Low Data Mode.

These requests only ask for the latest data. They don’t include your location, your searches or the curbs you look at: every lookup happens on your iPhone.

So that only the real ParkKing app can download the data, the app uses Apple’s App Attest. It creates a key on your iPhone, and every data download carries that key’s identifier. Our server keeps the identifier and the key’s public half to check the app’s later requests, and deletes them about 13 months after they were last used. They’re never attached to your usage data.

Anonymous usage data

Unless you turn it off, ParkKing sends anonymous information about how the app is used. To turn it off, open Settings in the app and go to Privacy → Share Anonymous Usage Data. Anything not yet sent is dropped.

We use this data to fix problems, improve the app and estimate how much ParkKing users save. We don’t sell it or share it for advertising. It is stored with Cloudflare. Crash and performance reports are deleted after 180 days, and usage events after 24 months. Because usage data has no identifier, we can’t find or delete one person’s data. Like any web request, Cloudflare handles your IP address to deliver it, but our server doesn’t store it.

Emails you send us

If you tap “Rules look wrong? Tell us” or Contact Support, your email app sends us your message, including any details it fills in about the curb. We use it only to reply and to fix the data. Support email is handled by Gmail (see Where data is processed).

Apple services

The map, address search, address lookups and walking routes use Apple’s MapKit. That means some information goes to Apple, not to us:

• What you type when you search, to suggest places.
• The coordinates of the curb you check, including one ParkKing picks from your location, to look up its address.
• When ParkKing suggests a nearby place to park, the coordinates of that spot and of the place you’re checking, to work out the walking route between them.
• The area of the map on screen, to load the map.

Apple handles this under Apple’s Privacy Policy.

Directions

If you tap Directions, the destination (its address, or its coordinates) goes to Apple Maps, Google Maps or Waze, whichever you choose. If Google Maps or Waze isn’t installed, its website opens in your browser instead. That app’s or website’s privacy policy applies.

Children

ParkKing isn’t directed at children under 13 and doesn’t knowingly collect their personal information.

This website

parkking.joeyhershkop.com has information about ParkKing, support and this policy.

• Hosting. The website runs on Cloudflare Pages. Like any web host, Cloudflare may process technical logs, such as your IP address, browser and request times, to deliver pages and block attacks.
• No analytics, ads or cookies. Nothing is saved in your browser beyond its ordinary cache.
• Fonts. The pages load the Inter typeface from Google Fonts, so your browser requests it from Google’s servers.

Where data is processed

• Cloudflare. Cloudflare, a US company with servers around the world, runs the server that delivers the parking data and receives usage data, and hosts this website.
• Google. Email to parkkingsupport@gmail.com is handled by Gmail, a Google service.
• Apple. MapKit requests go to Apple, as described under Apple services.

So your information may be processed and stored outside Canada, including in the United States, where the law may let authorities there access it.

Your rights and contact

ParkKing is operated by Joseph Hershkop, who is responsible for the personal information described in this policy. For anything about privacy, email parkkingsupport@gmail.com.

• Your emails. Emails you’ve sent us are the only information we hold that identifies you. To ask for a copy, to correct them or to have them deleted, email us from the same address.
• Usage data. ParkKing sends usage data with your consent, which you can withdraw at any time: open Settings in the app and go to Privacy → Share Anonymous Usage Data. Because it has no identifier, we can’t find what has already been sent.
• Complaints. If you’re not satisfied with our answer, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada or, if you live in Quebec, the Commission d’accès à l’information.

Changes

If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new effective date.