Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy applies to the GeoTime application by Matthew Carroll, currently available as a web app, on iOS and on Android.

Your location

  • GeoTime collects nothing about you by default, and no account is needed to use it.
  • It uses your device's location, only while it is running, to work out your timezone and nearby town on your device. Your location is never sent to our server.
  • The app uses maps drawn by Google Maps, so, as with any map, Google supplies the map of the area being shown, which is usually the area around you. We do not transmit your actual coordinates to Google Maps.

Ships

  • For ships on your list, the app fetches the ship's time and position, and while you are on a ship's wi-fi it checks which ship you are aboard.
  • Those requests name only the ship, never you, your location or your device.

Sharing your time

GeoTime can show you what time it is for someone else — a partner in another country, a parent on a cruise — on your world clock list and your home-screen widget. This is entirely optional. Nothing in this section happens, and no record of you exists on our server, unless and until you tap “Share your time” or enter somebody's code.

What our server keeps

  • An account under a random identifier, and a random key for each of your devices. The server stores only a scrambled form of each key, so its records cannot be used to act as you. None of it is tied to your email address, phone number, your device's own hardware identifiers, or any account you hold elsewhere.
  • Your name, which you choose. The people you share your time with see it above your clock, and the people you follow see it in their list of who can see their time.
  • What time it is where you are, and nothing more. In practice that is a timezone name such as America/Vancouver — or, aboard a ship, that ship's name and how many hours its clock is from UTC.
  • No history. When your main device sends an update, the old one is removed, so there is no record of where you have been.
  • Dates only, never places — when your account, devices and shares were created and last used — so you can tell your devices apart and so an account unused for a long time can be removed.

What the people you share with see

  • By default, only how many hours your clock is from theirs — a number, with no region attached.
  • With “Share my exact timezone” on, the timezone by name, for example “Vancouver” or “Los Angeles”. The sharing screen shows you a preview of what they will see.
  • If you share your exact timezone while aboard a ship, they see the ship's name. The ship's position is public.
  • Whoever you share with can rename you on their own device. Those labels, like the names you give the people you follow, never leave the device they were set on.

Following, and stopping

  • Sharing codes are single-use and stop working after 24 hours.
  • Following someone does not let them see your time: if you both want to see each other's clocks, you share yours with them too.
  • A share can be removed at any time: removing somebody from your list stops their time reaching you, and removing a follower stops your time reaching them.

More than one device

  • You can use the same account on a tablet, or a browser on your computer, by linking it. Your existing device has to approve the new one before it can see anything.
  • The time you share with others comes from your main device.
  • For each linked device, the server records what kind it is (“iPhone”, “Chrome on macOS”), whether it is your main device, and when it was last used, so that you can recognise each one and remove it under “Your devices”.

Who runs the server

The server is a small application run by us on Cloudflare's network, which processes the requests on our behalf. Nothing is sold, shared with advertisers, or used to build a profile, and there is no analytics or tracking in the app at all.

Deleting your data

  • In GeoTime, open the Sharing card, tap Delete my sharing data at the bottom, and confirm. That deletes your account, every device linked to it, your name, your current time, and every share you are part of, immediately and permanently.
  • You will stop seeing the people you follow, and the people who follow you stop seeing your time. Nothing is retained after deletion, and there is no backup copy to ask us for.
  • You can do this from any of your linked devices, including a browser linked at geotime.app. To remove just one device and keep the rest, tap Remove or Unlink beside it under “Your devices” instead.
  • If you no longer have any device with GeoTime on it, nothing we hold can be matched to you: there is no email address, phone number or password on the account, so we have no way to tell which one was yours.
  • If you have never tapped “Share your time” or followed anybody, there is nothing on our server to delete.

Last updated 29 September 2026.

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