Privacy policy

Last updated 8 November 2026

LastBar is a crowdsourced map of mobile network coverage, operated by CLC Agency. This policy explains what the app collects, what it is used for, how long it is kept and how you can stop or delete it. LastBar has no accounts and never asks who you are. The terms of use are part of this policy, and this policy of them.

What is collected

When collection is on, the app records a reading at the interval you choose. A reading holds:

• Your location, with its accuracy, at the moment of the reading.
• The mobile network you are on: carrier, network type (2G to 5G), whether voice and data are available.
• On Android: signal strength and the identity of the cell towers in range.
• Now and then, the download speed and latency of your connection.
• Battery level and whether the phone is charging, to keep the app's battery use low.
• The app version, your phone's platform (Android or iOS) and a random device id.

What is never collected

• Your name, email address, phone number or contacts.
• Your phone's IMEI, or your SIM's IMSI or ICCID.
• The content of your calls, messages or browsing.

The device id is a random number made by the app on first launch. It is not derived from your phone or SIM, and resetting it in the app gives you a new one that cannot be linked to the old.

What it is used for

Readings from everyone are combined into map cells of roughly 0.1 km², per carrier and network type. Only these combined cells are shown on the map and sent to other users. A cell shows a quality score, a reading count and the date of its last reading, to the day. It never shows a device id or the time of an individual reading. Within a map cell, the app may also be told a spot of about 50 m where signal was measured best, worked out from several accurate readings, so that Find Signal can guide you closer. A spot is not shared with partners or in exports.

Your individual readings are location data about you, and we treat them as personal information under the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). They are used only to build the coverage map and to detect faulty or abusive data.

Confirming and adding points of interest

Near a point of interest, such as water or a shelter, you can say that it is still there or that it is not. A vote sends the point, your vote and its reason, whether you were within 50 metres or within the distance the app allows, the time, and your random device id. It does not send your position. Votes are counted per point, and the counts and the date of the last confirmation are shown to everyone with the point, never who voted.

If you add a point, the app sends its position and the accuracy of your phone's location there, its kind, the name and description you typed, whether the water is safe to drink if you said, the time, and your random device id. We review a point before it is shown. Once approved, the point, its name and its description are shown to everyone, as "Added by LastBar users", and never with your device id. Do not type anything personal into a name or a description. You can delete a point you added from the app for a short time after it reached us; after that, ask us.

Background location

If you choose background collection, the app records readings while it is closed or not in use, so that the map covers the places you travel through. On Android a notification is shown for as long as collection runs. You can switch to "Only while app is open" or turn collection off in Settings at any time, and the map keeps working.

How long it is kept

• Individual readings are deleted after 18 months.
• Votes on points of interest count for 12 months, and are kept after that with no position in them. Points you add are kept while they are of use on the map.
• Combined map cells are kept, as they cannot be traced to a person.
• Readings not yet uploaded stay on your phone for at most 90 days.

Deleting your contributions

In the app, open Settings, then Data and privacy, then "Delete my contributions". Your device and all of its readings are erased from our servers within 24 hours, and the map cells they contributed to are recalculated without them. You can also export your own readings as a CSV file from the same screen. Your votes on points of interest and the points you added stay, no longer linked to any device, as they hold no personal information.

Advertising and purchases

The free version shows ads served by Google AdMob. We request non-personalised ads unless you have given consent where the law requires it. Google may process your IP address and device information to serve and measure ads, under Google's privacy policy. Readings are never shared with advertisers.

On an iPhone, before any ad is shown, the app asks through iOS whether it may track you. If you allow it, Google may use your iPhone's advertising identifier to serve and measure ads, which stay non-personalised. If you don't, Google can't, and in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland the app then shows no ads and asks for no consent. You can change your answer at any time in your iPhone's settings, under Privacy & Security, then Tracking.

To learn which of our ads on Facebook and Instagram lead to people installing LastBar, the app tells Meta once, after you first set it up, that it was installed. On Android this message includes your phone's advertising id and the note Google Play keeps of the ad you came from. On an iPhone it includes no advertising id, even if you allow the app to track you. Like any message over the internet, it also carries your IP address and basic details of your phone, such as its model and system version. Meta receives nothing else from the app: no readings, no location, nothing of what you do in the app, and nothing after that first message. The app does not send it in Europe, including the European Union, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. Meta processes it under Meta's privacy policy. You can reset or delete your advertising id in your phone's settings.

The Pro purchase is handled by the App Store or Google Play, and by RevenueCat, which confirms that the purchase was made. We receive no payment details. Pro removes all ads.

This website

If you accept it in the notice that this website shows, we use Google Analytics to count the visits to the website, the clicks on its links to the app stores, and, on the pages that give codes for LastBar Pro, which store's code was copied, redeemed or marked as used, but never the code itself. Google Analytics sets cookies in your browser, and Google processes your IP address and information about your browser and device, under Google's privacy policy. Until you accept, and if you decline, nothing is sent to Google and none of these cookies is set. Your choice is kept in your browser for 12 months. You can change it at any time under "Cookie settings" at the foot of every page, and declining there removes the cookies of Google Analytics.

Besides these, the website sets only the cookies it needs to work: one that holds a session and one that protects its forms. Neither is used to follow you or is shared with anyone. Google Analytics measures the website only. The app has no analytics.

Who the data is shared with

Individual readings are not sold or shared. They are stored on servers we rent from a hosting provider, which processes them on our behalf. Combined map cells are public to users of the app. Map images come from a map tile provider, which sees your IP address and the area you are viewing. Map images and the files of combined map cells, cell towers and points of interest are delivered through a content delivery network, which likewise sees your IP address and the area they are for. Combined, anonymous maps of where the app was used and where it measured signal may be shared with search and rescue and other safety organisations. They contain no device identifiers. Combined map cells, each the summary of what at least two phones measured in an area of about 0.1 km², with no device identifier and no time of day, may also be shared with partners under a signed agreement, such as navigation and outdoor apps, fleets and researchers.

Partners may send us readings, and reports on points of interest, that their own devices or users took, which they promise to have collected with their users' consent. We keep them as we keep the readings of the app, apart by partner, under the same rules, and they are combined into the map only once we have checked them. A partner's device is known to us by an identifier of the partner's, never by a name, number or account. When an organisation applies for access to the partner API, we keep the details it gives (its name, country and website, and the name, role and email of the person who applies) and the time and IP address from which the partner agreement was accepted, as the record of that agreement.

Security

All communication with our servers is encrypted. The key that identifies your device is kept in your phone's secure storage and is stored on our servers only in hashed form.

Your rights

You may ask what we hold about your device, have it corrected or deleted, and object to its processing. As there are no accounts, we identify your data by the device id shown in the app under Settings, then Diagnostics. You may also lodge a complaint with the Information Regulator of South Africa, or with the data protection authority of your country.

Children

LastBar is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect data from them.

Contact

CLC Agency
Information Officer: Willem Van Zyl
info@clc.agency

Changes to this policy

When this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. A change that affects what is collected is also announced in the app before it takes effect.