Privacy Policy
The short version: You can use Compiss without an account. Your precise personal location is used on your device to find nearby toilets and is never uploaded to Compiss or attached to anything you post. If you choose to add a missing public toilet, we receive the map pin you deliberately place for that facility. Signing in is optional. If you sign in, we store an account identifier, the username you pick, and whatever you choose to contribute. You can permanently delete your account and associated data from the app or request deletion on the web.
Your location
Compiss asks for your location so it can work out which public toilet is nearest and point you toward it. That calculation happens on your device. Your precise coordinates are:
- used only while you're using the app, to calculate distance and direction;
- never uploaded to Compiss as your personal location;
- never stored as your movements, and never attached to your ratings, notes, photos, or condition reports.
On the web finder, your browser uses your precise location to calculate distance and direction. It sends Compiss only a coarse area cell, roughly 5 km across, so the website can return toilets in that area. Compiss does not receive the precise coordinates reported by your browser and does not store the coarse request as a location history.
This is true whether or not you have an account. When you rate a toilet, what we record is which toilet you rated — not where you were when you rated it.
If you submit a missing public toilet, you place a pin on a map and send us those coordinates as the toilet's location. The form starts near your current position for convenience, but you can move it, and we use the submitted point only to review and display that facility. Community-added toilets are labelled in the app.
Maps and directions
On Android and in the web finder, the map is drawn using MapLibre and map tiles from OpenFreeMap. Loading a map sends OpenFreeMap your IP address and the tile coordinates for the area visible on screen. Depending on the map's zoom level, those tile coordinates may describe an area precise enough to infer your current position. Compiss does not send OpenFreeMap your raw GPS coordinates. OpenFreeMap handles those requests under its privacy policy.
If you ask for directions, Compiss opens your chosen maps app, or Google Maps from the web finder, with the destination toilet. That service then handles your location and route under its own privacy terms. Compiss does not receive the route.
Searching for a place
Compiss lets you search for a postcode, town, or station. To turn the words you type into a place, the search text is sent to the platform's geocoding provider: Apple Maps on iPhone, the geocoding service supplied by your Android device, or OpenStreetMap's Nominatim service on the web. Compiss does not receive or store your search.
Compiss does not add your current location to that search request. The compass, toilet list, filters, and bundled toilet records work without a connection; place search, maps, and community features require one.
Using Compiss without an account
The compass, toilet data, filters, and average cleanliness scores work without an account. In this mode we do not create a Compiss profile for you.
Your accessibility profile stays on your device. It is used only to compare your selected requirements with the toilet data and is never uploaded.
If you choose to sign in
On iPhone, Compiss uses Sign in with Apple. We request an account identifier and no name or email scopes. On Android, Compiss uses Sign in with Google. Google supplies Firebase Authentication with an account identifier and may include the email address, display name, and profile-photo URL associated with the selected Google Account. We use that provider information only to authenticate you; your chosen Compiss username is the only account name displayed to other users. We never receive your Apple or Google password.
Once signed in, we store:
- the username you choose — shown publicly on everything you post;
- your ratings — a score from 1 to 5, and an optional written note;
- your photos — the images you upload of toilet facilities;
- public toilets you submit — the facility name, the map location you choose, optional notes and facilities, your username, and moderation status;
- your live condition updates — a structured choice such as open, closed, busy, or out of order, plus whether your phone placed you within 250 metres at the time. Your coordinates are never sent;
- your block list — so people you've blocked stay blocked across your devices;
- reports you file, so we can act on them.
- feedback you send us — the score, optional comment, app version, and your account identifier if you are signed in.
We do not build a profile of you, track you across apps or websites, or sell anything to anybody. There is no advertising and no analytics in Compiss.
Photos and location data
Photos taken on a phone normally carry hidden EXIF metadata, and that usually includes the exact GPS coordinates of where the photo was taken. Compiss re-encodes every image on your device before it is uploaded, which discards all of that metadata. The coordinates never leave your phone, and we never receive them.
Before that metadata is discarded, your phone does one thing with it: it works out how far the photo was taken from the toilet it is being posted to, and sends us only that distance. This helps our moderators spot photos that are not of the place they claim to be. What we receive is a number of metres and nothing else — never a location, and never anything that says where you have been.
When you submit a live condition update, your phone also checks whether you are within 250 metres of that toilet. We receive only a yes-or-no result, which changes how much weight the update carries. We do not receive your distance, coordinates, or route. The public sees only the combined condition and its freshness, never your account or individual update.
Photos you upload are visible to other signed-in Compiss users, alongside your username. Please photograph the facilities only — never people, and never anything that identifies someone.
Moderation
Toilet additions, photos, and notes are submitted by other people using Compiss, and we have zero tolerance for objectionable content.
- Every toilet addition, photo, and note is checked before it is made public.
- Every photo and note can be reported, and its author blocked.
- Reported content disappears from your view immediately.
- Content that is reported by several people is hidden from everyone automatically.
- We review reports and remove objectionable content within 24 hours, and remove the accounts of people who post it.
To report something urgently, email support@compiss.app.
Who processes your data
Compiss is run by Punk Labs. We use the following providers to run the service:
- Google Firebase — authentication, database, Cloud Functions, photo storage, and Android moderator notifications. Our database, functions, and photo storage are configured in Google's London region where the service supports regional selection; authentication is a global Firebase service.
- Cloudflare — hosts this website, serves coarse-area toilet requests, and delivers the internal emails that alert us to reported content.
- Apple Maps or your Android geocoding provider — turns a place search into map coordinates.
- OpenFreeMap — supplies map tiles on Android and in the web finder.
Your rights
Under UK and EU data protection law you can ask for a copy of your data, ask us to correct it, or ask us to erase it.
You can delete your account in the app. Open the Account screen, choose Delete account, and confirm. Your authentication account, Compiss username and profile, toilet submissions, ratings, notes, photos, live condition updates, block list, reports, and account-linked feedback are removed from our live systems. This cannot be undone.
If you no longer have the app, or want to request deletion of particular data without deleting your account, use our account and data deletion page. Verified requests are completed within 30 days. Deleting Compiss does not delete your Apple or Google Account.
Toilet data
The core list of public toilets is bundled inside the app and read locally on your phone. UK records come from toiletmap.org.uk under CC BY 4.0. Outside the UK, records come from OpenStreetMap contributors under the ODbL. Approved community additions are fetched from Firebase while you are online and carry a Community added label. See About & data for full attribution and details of the changes Compiss makes.
Children
Compiss is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them. Because signed-in users can submit toilet additions, photos, and notes, the app carries an age rating that reflects user-generated content.
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes, we'll update this page and the "last updated" date above.
Contact
Privacy questions, data requests, or content you want taken down: support@compiss.app.