DalmaPrivacy
Effective: 15 October 2026 Who: Alexander Bricken, the developer of Dalma ("we").
The short version
Three things leave your phone. What you type into search goes to Apple Maps to find addresses, with a rough box around the city map in use. When you tap Download for London or San Francisco, your phone asks Apple for that city's map, so Apple can see which city's map was fetched. Once a city's map is on your phone, iOS may later fetch a newer version of it from Apple on its own. That also tells Apple only which city's map it is. And when you share a place to Dalma from another app, the shared address or place name goes to Apple Maps, or the shared link is fetched once, with no cookies, from its own site and from any site it redirects to. Dalma never sends your position, your logbook places or your notes. While a bearing is set, iOS may show the destination's name, distance and bearing on your own paired Apple Watch, Mac or CarPlay, as it does for any Live Activity. If you use Dalma on Apple Watch, your iPhone sends the watch the destination's name, the distance and the bearing, and the watch uses its approximate location only to find north. Neither leaves your devices. We have no server, no accounts and no analytics, so we never see where you are, where you have been, what you searched for, or what you wrote.
What Dalma uses, and where it stays
- Your location. Dalma uses your position to point the needle and measure the straight-line distance to where you are going. It also uses it to check that you are standing in a place before it joins your logbook. While a bearing is set, Dalma keeps measuring in the background, and iOS shows the blue location indicator while it does. Your location is processed on your phone and is never sent anywhere.
- The compass and motion sensors. Heading comes from the phone's sensors, only while the compass is on screen. It is never stored or sent.
- Your logbook. The places you keep, their names, your notes, visit dates and your journeys are stored in a database on your phone. It is excluded from iCloud backups, so it stays on this device.
- Search. Searches run over the city map on your phone and your logbook. To find addresses, Dalma also sends Apple Maps what you type, once it is at least three characters long, with a rough box around the area the city map in use covers, or with no box at all. Nothing is sent before you type. Text that could still be the start of one of your bookmark names stays on the phone. Dalma never sends your position, your logbook places or your notes. The request leaves from your phone, as any Maps request does, and Apple handles it under Apple's own privacy policy. We never receive it.
- Tapping the map. A point you tap on the map stays on your phone. Dalma doesn't look up what is there.
- Places shared from other apps. When you pick Dalma in another app's share sheet, Dalma reads what you shared to find one place. A shared address or place name goes to Apple Maps as text, with no area and no position. A shared web page or short map link is fetched once, with no cookies. A link that redirects, as a short link does, is followed, so the site it leads to is asked too. Each request carries only the address it asks for, and leaves from your phone as it would from a browser. One share fetches at most three links. An address or place name found on a page goes to Apple Maps the same way. A link or text that already holds coordinates is read on your phone, and nothing is sent. The place Dalma finds stays on your phone. We never receive any of it.
- The Lock Screen. While a bearing is set, the Lock Screen and the Dynamic Island show the name of where you are going, the straight-line distance and the bearing, and, when water is in the way, the line that names the bridge. Your phone draws them itself, and nothing is sent to us. As it does for every app's Live Activities, iOS may show the same on your own paired Apple Watch, Mac or CarPlay. They never carry your coordinates or your notes, and they go when the bearing does.
- Apple Watch. If you use Dalma on Apple Watch, your iPhone sends the watch the destination's name, the distance and the bearing, and the watch uses its approximate location only to find north. Neither leaves your devices. Your iPhone sends it straight to your own paired watch, never to us, and never sends a coordinate or a note. The watch app stores none of it, and its location is never stored or sent.
City maps
- New York City ships in the app. Its map is on your phone from the start.
- London and San Francisco come from Apple, after a tap. When you tap Download for one of them, your phone asks Apple for that city's map, and Apple sends it. The request carries no position, no place and no note. Apple can see which city's map was fetched, and nothing else from us. Nothing is downloaded until you tap, and the size shows before you do.
- Which city you are in is worked out on your phone, by comparing your position with each city's area, which ships in the app. Nothing is asked of anyone to decide it. When you stand inside London or San Francisco without its map, Dalma may offer it. If you answer Not now, that is kept on your phone as a count and a date, never as a place.
- Once a city's map is on your phone, it is read from there, and it works without a signal. iOS may later fetch a newer version of it from Apple on its own, without a tap. That request, too, names only the city, and carries no position, no place and no note. Dalma doesn't start it.
- Removing a city's map. In Settings, open City packs and tap Remove beside the city. Places you kept there stay in your logbook. New York City's map stays with the app.
What we collect
Nothing. Dalma sends nothing to us. Apart from what your iPhone tells your own Apple Watch, the only things it sends anyone are the requests described above: the search text, to Apple Maps, to which Dalma adds nothing but the rough box around the map area; the request for a city's map, or for a newer version of one, to Apple, which names only the city; and, when you share a place to Dalma, the shared address or place name, to Apple Maps, or one fetch of the shared link, from its own site and any it redirects to. Dalma adds no identifier, no position and no usage data to any of them. It contains no advertising, no tracking and no third-party analytics.
If you choose to share crash reports and app analytics with developers in your iPhone's settings, Apple collects those under Apple's own privacy policy. They don't include your logbook.
Sharing and export
Dalma never sends your places or your notes to anyone. Another app can share a place to Dalma, as described above. You can export your logbook as a GeoJSON or GPX file from Settings. The file goes wherever you send it through the share sheet. We never receive it.
Deleting your data
Remove a place from the logbook inside the app. Remove a downloaded city's map in Settings, under City packs. Delete the app to erase everything Dalma stored, the downloaded maps included.
Children
Dalma collects no data from anyone, children included.
Third-party content
Dalma's city maps are made from OpenStreetMap data (ODbL 1.0) and the Protomaps basemap, and drawn with MapLibre Native. New York City's comes inside the app. London's and San Francisco's come from Apple, first when you tap Download, and after that when iOS fetches a newer version. Every map is read from your phone, and nothing else is fetched from the internet except the address search and a shared place's lookup, both above.
Changes
If a later version changes any of this, for example by adding a way to send a bearing or a place to someone, we will update this policy and the App Store privacy details before that version is released.