Privacy Policy

Last updated: 18 September, 2026

My Finds ("the App"), also known as Metal Detecting Tracker, is developed by Hugo Heriz-Smith. The App is available for iPhone and Android. This policy covers both versions; where they differ, the difference is noted under "On iPhone" / "On Android".

Summary

The App is designed with privacy in mind. Your session data, finds, and photos are stored locally on your device. The App does not use advertising SDKs and adds no analytics of its own, does not track your behaviour, and does not share your personal information with third parties. The only data that leaves your device is described below: map-area requests for optional map features, lookups to your device's built-in geocoding service (for place search, and to work out which country or county a location is in), anonymous crash reports, and (on Android) the technical information Google's map component collects in order to display the map.

Information We Collect

Location Data

When you start a hunt session, the App records your GPS coordinates to map your path and log where you make finds. To ensure accurate tracking, the App continues recording your location in the background while a session is active — for example, if you switch to another app or lock your device. Background location tracking only occurs during an active hunt session that you have started, and stops immediately when you end the session. The App does not track your location at any other time.

Photos

You may use the camera to photograph your finds.

On iPhone: these photos are stored locally within the App and also saved to your device's Photos library. If you have iCloud Photos enabled on your device, photos in your library may sync to iCloud according to your device settings — this is controlled by iOS, not by this App.

On Android: photos you take for a find are stored within the App's private storage on your device. While the Save Photos to Gallery setting is on (it is on by default), photos taken with the camera are also saved to your device's photo gallery in a "My Finds" folder, with the find's location embedded in the photo's metadata — the same information a normal camera photo would carry. Turn the setting off and photos stay only in the App's private storage. Photos you add from your gallery are never modified.

Hunt and Find Records

The App stores details about your detecting sessions and finds, including locations, timestamps, categories, notes, and depth information. All of this data is stored locally on your device.

How We Use Your Information

Your data is used solely to provide the App's functionality:

• Displaying your hunt paths on the map
• Recording and organising your finds
• Calculating session statistics (distance, duration)
• Showing optional map layers such as public rights of way, historic maps, historic sites, protected areas, Roman roads, and LiDAR terrain
• Offering field boundaries from open land-parcel data when you set up a permission
• Suggesting the Finds Liaison Officer responsible for the area where a find was made

Subscriptions

On iPhone: the App offers an optional Pro Access subscription (monthly or annual). All payments are processed by Apple through the App Store. We do not collect, store, or have access to your payment information. Subscription management, including cancellation, is handled through your Apple ID settings. Subscriptions auto-renew unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period.

On Android: the App offers the same optional Pro Access subscription (monthly or annual). All payments are processed by Google through Google Play. We do not collect, store, or have access to your payment information. Subscription management, including cancellation, is handled through the Subscriptions section of your Google Play account. Subscriptions auto-renew unless cancelled before the end of the current period.

Cloud Sync and Backups

The App does not currently offer cloud sync — your data stays on your device. You can create a backup file from within the App at any time; that file is saved where you choose and never leaves your device unless you share, upload, or transfer it yourself. If a future version adds cloud sync, this policy will be updated before it launches.

Third-Party Services

Map data services (both versions)

Several optional map features fetch data for the area of the map you are looking at. When you use one of these features, the App sends the visible map region coordinates to the relevant service. No personal information, no identifiers, and none of your finds or session data are transmitted in these requests, and the fetched data is cached on your device:

Overpass API (part of OpenStreetMap) — public rights of way. See the Overpass API documentation and OpenStreetMap Foundation Privacy Policy.

MapTiler Cloud — the Historic Maps overlay (historic map imagery from the National Library of Scotland). See MapTiler's Privacy Policy.

Environment Agency — the LiDAR Terrain overlay (elevation data for England).

Mapterhorn — the LiDAR Terrain overlay for Wales and Scotland (open terrain tiles carrying the Welsh and Scottish national LiDAR surveys); the App requests individual map tiles by their coordinates. See Mapterhorn's attribution page.

Historic England and Natural England data services — the historic sites and protected areas overlays (scheduled monuments, listed sites, SSSIs and similar designations).

Cadw, via DataMapWales — scheduled monuments in Wales for the protected areas overlay.

Historic Environment Scotland — scheduled monuments in Scotland for the protected areas overlay.

Open land-parcel data — the permission field editor's Select Fields mode, which offers registered field parcels ready to take as a boundary: PDOK (the Dutch government's open-data service) in the Netherlands, and planning.data.gov.uk (Land Registry title boundaries published by the UK government) in England. On iPhone only at present.

The Roman roads overlay is drawn from a dataset bundled inside the App, so it involves no network request.

Geocoding (both versions)

In a few places the App uses your device's built-in geocoding service (provided by Apple on iPhone and Google on Android) to turn a place name into a location, or a location into a place:

• Place search — if you use the map's place search, the name you type is sent to the geocoding service to locate it on the map.
• Which country you are detecting in — when a session starts (and when finds are imported from photos), the App looks up which country the location falls in, so that it can offer the right category and coin suggestions for that region, and show times in the right time zone on session reports.
• Suggesting a Finds Liaison Officer — when you prepare a find for reporting to the Portable Antiquities Scheme, the App looks up which county the find's location falls in, so that it can suggest the Finds Liaison Officer for that area. The list of officers itself is bundled inside the App.

These lookups send a single place name or coordinate to the geocoding service and use the answer only for the purpose described. They are handled by Apple or Google under their own privacy terms, and the App stores nothing about them beyond the result.

Crash reporting (both versions)

The App uses Firebase Crashlytics, a crash reporting service provided by Google LLC, to collect anonymous crash reports. When the App encounters a technical error, Crashlytics receives diagnostic information including the device type, operating system version, and the state of the App at the time of the crash. These reports do not contain your personal data, location history, photos, or find records. For more information, see the Firebase Crashlytics documentation and Google's Privacy Policy.

Google Maps (Android only)

The Android version displays its maps using the Google Maps SDK for Android, provided by Google LLC. While the map is on screen, Google's map component communicates with Google's servers and collects certain technical information on Google's behalf: request and device information (such as operating system and SDK versions), your IP address, a pseudonymous identifier tied to the Maps SDK, map interaction events (such as panning and zooming), and crash diagnostics from within the SDK itself. This collection is carried out by Google and governed by Google's Privacy Policy. The iPhone version uses Apple Maps, which is provided by iOS itself and covered by Apple's privacy terms.

Data Storage and Security

All your data is stored locally on your device, in the App's private storage. The App does not transmit your personal data to any external servers — the only network traffic is the map-area requests, geocoding lookups, and crash reports described above.

Analytics and Tracking

The App uses Firebase Crashlytics (both versions) to collect anonymous crash reports, which help us identify and fix technical issues. These reports contain device type, operating system version, and the state of the app at the time of a crash. They do not contain your personal data, location history, photos, or find records. No other analytics, behavioural tracking, or advertising SDKs are used. On Android, the Google Maps component collects the technical information described above as part of displaying the map; the App itself adds no analytics.

Data Retention and Deletion

Your data remains on your device until you delete it. You can delete individual finds, hunt sessions, or photos within the App. Uninstalling the App will remove all locally stored data. Your phone's own backup system (Google device backup on Android, iCloud device backup on iPhone) may include the App's data in your device backup, according to your device settings. Those backups are encrypted and managed by your device and your Google or Apple account, not by the App. Backup files you have created remain wherever you saved them, and are yours to keep or delete.

Children's Privacy

The App does not knowingly collect information from children under 13. The App does not require account creation and stores all data locally on the device.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Any changes will be reflected in the "Last updated" date at the top of this page.

Contact

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or your data, please contact:

Hugo Heriz-Smith
Email: hugo@heriz-smith.com