Privacy Policy

Sunset Chasing Taiwan · Last updated: 1 September 2026

Sunset Chasing Taiwan is a guide to more than a hundred sunset spots around Taiwan. It was built to be private by default: there is no account to create, so it never learns who you are, and nothing about you is sold to anyone. This policy explains exactly what the app does, what leaves your phone, and what doesn't.

Information stored on your device

Up to three small items are saved in the app's own storage on your device. They stay there and are not transmitted to us:

• Purchase status — a flag recording whether you have unlocked the full set of spots.
• Daily alert settings — only if you turn alerts on: the region and the time of day you chose.
• Dismissed banner — a flag recording that you tapped “No thanks” on the alert offer, so it stops asking.

That is the complete list. There are no saved favourites, no history, and no profile. You can erase it at any time by clearing the app's data in your device settings, or by uninstalling the app.

Location

The app asks for your location only when you ask it to — when you tap “Nearest to me” in the sort menu, or “Use my location” on the map. Nothing else in the app requests it, and if you never tap either, you will never be asked. You can also skip the permission entirely and simply tap the map to say where you are.

When you do, your coordinates are used on your phone to work out how far away each spot is, so the list can be put in order and a dot can be drawn on the map showing where you are. That is the whole of it. Specifically, your location is:

• never sent to us, or to the weather service, or to anyone else;
• never written to storage — it is held in memory only, and is gone the moment you close the app;
• never put in a web address, a notification, or a purchase record.

Because it never leaves your phone, there is nothing for us to keep, share, or hand over. Refusing the permission costs you only that one sort option; every other part of the app behaves exactly the same.

The daily alert still does not use your location — it asks you to pick one of six regions from a menu instead. See below.

The live sky score

To score the sky, the app fetches a weather forecast and the sunset time for the spots, from one service:

• Open-Meteo — the forecast at each spot's location for that evening's sunset hour, and the sunset time itself.

The coordinates sent are those of the sunset spots, not yours. They are fixed values built into the app, identical for every user, and they are already public — each spot is a named, mapped place. The app asks for all of them in a single request when it opens, so the request does not reveal which spots you looked at either.

To be complete: as with any request your phone makes to any website, Open-Meteo can see the IP address the request came from, which gives a rough indication of your region. That is inherent to how the internet works rather than something the app sends deliberately, and the service receives nothing else about you.

Daily sunset alerts

Alerts are off until you turn them on. If you do, you choose a region and a time of day, and the app notifies you when a sunset there is actually worth the trip — naming the spot and its score. On a grey week you will hear nothing, which is the point: a notification every evening regardless of the sky is a notification people learn to ignore.

Delivery is handled by OneSignal, and three things are stored there:

• A push delivery address issued by your device. This is an anonymous address for a single install of the app on a single device. It contains no name, email, phone number or account, it is not an advertising identifier, and it cannot be used to look you up anywhere else.
• The region you picked — one of six, chosen by you from a menu. This is how the app answers “what’s good near me” without ever asking your device where you are.
• The time of day you picked.

That is everything. There is no record of which spots you open, whether you tapped a notification, or anything else.

Tap Turn it off in the app and it stops immediately, and the record stops being used. If you uninstall the app without turning alerts off, delivery stops working and the record is discarded automatically.

Notifications travel through the push service your device uses — on Android that is Google — which is how every app on your phone delivers a notification.

Payments

If you unlock the full set of spots, the transaction is handled by Google Play Billing. We never receive or store your payment card details. Google processes the payment and shares limited purchase information with us as needed to confirm it. Google's handling of that data is governed by the Google Privacy Policy.

Confirming a purchase is genuine, and remembering it, is handled by RevenueCat. It receives an anonymous identifier for your installation of the app and the receipt Google issues — never your name, email or card details. That record is what restores your purchase if you reinstall the app or move to a new phone, and what tells the app to lock the spots again if you take a refund.

There are three ways to buy: monthly, yearly, or a one-time lifetime purchase. The two monthly and yearly plans renew automatically until you cancel, which you do in Google Play rather than here. Prices are shown in your own currency before you commit to anything.

Analytics

The app contains no advertising and no advertising trackers, and no data about you is ever sold or shared for marketing.

It does include Google Analytics for Firebase, which records a small set of events so we can see which parts of the app are worth improving. Being specific, because "we use analytics" tells you nothing — this is the complete list:

• A spot was opened, and which one. Spots are public places, not people.
• The map or the list was opened.
• The forecast day was changed, and to which day.
• “Show nearest” was tapped.
• A purchase was started or completed, and which plan. Never the amount, the payment method, or any identifier from the transaction.
• Daily alerts were switched on, and for which region.

That is everything. What is not recorded: your location, anything you type into the search box, your photographs, and anything that could identify you — because the app has no account and never learns who you are.

Google Analytics assigns an anonymous identifier to each installation, and receives the standard technical information any such service does: device model, operating system version, country, and the app version. You can stop all of it by declining analytics collection in your device settings, and the app works identically either way. Google's privacy policy.

This policy covers the app only. The separate website at sunsetchasingtaiwan.com does carry advertising and has its own privacy policy; nothing on that site is part of the app, and the app never loads it.

The two services the app uses

Being specific, because "we use third parties" on its own tells you nothing:

• RevenueCat handles purchases. When you buy, it receives an anonymous identifier for your install and the receipt Google issues, so the app knows on your next launch — and on a new phone — that you have already paid. It receives no name, no email and no card details; Google handles the payment itself. If you never buy anything, it still checks once per launch whether this install owns a purchase, and the answer is no. Their privacy policy.
• OneSignal delivers the daily alert, and only if you turn alerts on. It receives the anonymous push address your device issues, plus the region and time you picked. If you never turn alerts on, it is never given anything. Their privacy policy.

Neither one is told where you are or anything you type.

Hosting

The app itself, and all of its photographs, are installed on your phone — so browsing the spots, the ratings and the transit times sends no request anywhere at all, with or without a signal.

Two things are fetched while you use it: the weather forecast described above, and the street map, which is a single file of map data we host ourselves on Cloudflare. Like virtually every website, those providers may automatically log technical request data such as IP address and timestamps, for security and reliability. That is standard server logging, is not used by us to identify you, and the map file is the same for every user — what you look at on the map is not recorded.

Photographs

All photographs in the app were taken by the app's author at the spots shown. They are stored inside the app and are not fetched from any third-party service, so viewing them sends no request anywhere.

Children

The app is intended for general audiences and is not directed at children under 13. It has no account system and collects no information that identifies anyone, children included.

Deleting your data

There is no account, so there is nothing to close. Two things can exist, and both are removable at any time without asking us:

• Turn alerts off — tap “Turn it off” in the app. That stops the delivery address, region and time being used, and the record is discarded. If you uninstall the app without turning them off, delivery stops working and the record is discarded automatically.
• Your purchase record — held so the app can restore what you bought on a new phone. Ask us at the address below and we will delete it. Note that deleting it means the app can no longer recognise the purchase, so you would need to use Google Play's own restore to get your access back.
• Everything on your device — clear the app's data in your device settings, or uninstall the app. That removes the stored flags and settings listed above.

To request deletion of anything held about you, email sunsetchasingtaiwan.app@gmail.com. We will confirm within 30 days.

Your choices

• Use it offline — the spots, write-ups, ratings, transit information and photographs are all installed with the app and work without a connection. Only the live sky score and the street map need the internet.
• Skip the location permission — tap the map to set where you are instead. Distance sorting works exactly the same either way.
• Questions or requests — contact us at the address below.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the “Last updated” date at the top. Material changes will be reflected here before they take effect.

Contact

If you have any questions about this privacy policy or your data, contact:
Sunset Chasing Taiwan
Email: sunsetchasingtaiwan.app@gmail.com