Privacy Policy
Effective 6 October 2026
LOC IQ is made by Chris Mahlke. This policy explains what LOC IQ does with information on your iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch.
The short version: LOC IQ has no accounts, no ads, no analytics, and no tracking, and I never receive any information about you. To find your city, it asks the U.S. Census Bureau, sending your location rounded to about 11 meters.
What LOC IQ uses, and where it stays
Your location. With your permission, LOC IQ uses your location while the app is open to find the city you're in and to mark where you are on its outline. It asks for your location to within about 100 meters, or less precisely if you turn off Precise Location. It never uses your location in the background. Your Apple Watch asks separately and uses its own location in the same way. If you don't allow location, LOC IQ can't load a city, and offers a button that opens its page in Settings.
The last city. The last city LOC IQ loaded, with its figures, its outline, and your location rounded to about 11 meters, is saved in a file on your device so the app can open straight to it. The file is excluded from iCloud and computer backups.
Watch face complications. On Apple Watch, the complications read a small separate record: the city's name, population, and outline, and when LOC IQ last showed it. It holds no location. The complications never use your location or the network.
Settings. Your appearance and language choices, and whether you've seen the app's hints, are stored on your device only. The translations are built into the app, so choosing a language sends nothing anywhere.
Shared cities. When you share a city, the text holds only the city and its figures, never your location, and goes only where you choose to send it.
Information that leaves your device
Finding your city (U.S. Census Geocoder). LOC IQ sends the Census Geocoder your location rounded to about 11 meters. The geocoder returns the Census codes for your city and county.
Figures and outlines (U.S. Census Bureau). LOC IQ asks the Census Bureau's data service for your city's figures, and its boundary service for your city's outline, using only those Census codes. To find the cities that border yours, it sends the boundary service a rectangle around your city's outline, worked out from the outline, never from your location. When you look at a bordering city, its Census codes are sent to load its figures.
Like any web request, these reveal your device's IP address to the Census Bureau, which handles it under the Census Bureau's privacy policy. I don't receive it.
Nothing else leaves your device. LOC IQ contains no third-party analytics, advertising, or tracking code, and does not share or sell any information. The diagnostic messages it writes stay on your device and never include your location.
This product uses the Census Bureau Data API but is not endorsed or certified by the Census Bureau.
Children
LOC IQ is suitable for all ages and collects no personal information from anyone, including children.
Deleting your information
Everything LOC IQ stores is on your device. Deleting the app (and the watch app) deletes it all. You can also turn off location access at any time in the Settings app.
Changes
If this policy changes, the new version will be posted on this page with a new effective date.
Contact
Questions about this policy: open an issue on GitHub. You'll need a free GitHub account.