Legal

Privacy Policy

Tip Atlas is built to collect as little as possible. This page explains, in full, what the app itself stores on your device, and what Google AdMob collects and does when it serves the ads that keep the app free.

Effective August 13, 2026

1. Overview

Tip Atlas ("the app") is developed and maintained as an independent iOS app. This policy applies to the app available on the Apple App Store and to this website. It describes what information the app collects directly, and what information is collected by Google AdMob, the third-party advertising service the app uses to display ads.

2. Information the app collects directly

Tip Atlas has no accounts, no sign-in, no analytics SDK, and makes no network requests of its own. The only piece of information the app stores is:

  • Your selected country — saved locally on your device as selectedCountryCode using Apple's standard UserDefaults storage, so the app can remember your last-used tipping-culture preset between launches.

That value never leaves your device. We do not operate a server, we do not receive it, and we cannot see it. Bill amounts, tip percentages, split counts, and round-up choices are calculated on-device each time and are never saved or transmitted anywhere — closing the app clears them.

3. Advertising through Google AdMob

Tip Atlas is a free, ad-supported app. It displays banner and interstitial ads using Google AdMob, a service operated by Google LLC. When an ad is requested or shown, Google AdMob — not us — collects and processes data to select and serve that ad. This can include:

  • Device identifiers, such as Apple's Identifier for Advertisers (IDFA), where permitted
  • IP address and coarse, network-derived location
  • Device and app information (device model, OS version, language, time zone)
  • Ad interaction data (impressions, clicks, and the ads you've been shown)

App Tracking Transparency

On iOS, apps must ask permission before tracking you across other companies' apps and websites. The first time Tip Atlas would use tracking-based advertising, iOS shows the App Tracking Transparency (ATT) prompt. You can allow or deny this at any time:

  • If you allow tracking, AdMob may show ads personalized using cross-app and cross-site activity.
  • If you deny tracking, AdMob instead serves non-personalized, contextual ads, and does not use the IDFA for tracking.

You can change this decision anytime in iPhone Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking.

Google's own disclosures

Because AdMob is operated by Google, its collection and use of data is governed by Google's own policies, not ours. For full detail, see:

4. What we don't collect

Beyond the one local preference above, and whatever AdMob collects for ad serving as described in Section 3, we do not collect:

  • Your name, email address, phone number, or any account or registration data
  • Precise location
  • Payment or financial information — the bill amounts you type stay on your device and are never transmitted
  • Analytics, crash reports, or usage tracking of our own
  • Photos, contacts, health, or biometric data

5. Data sharing

We do not sell, rent, or share the locally stored country preference with anyone — it never reaches us in the first place. Google AdMob acts as an independent third-party service and processes ad-related data under its own privacy policy, separate from anything we control.

6. Data retention

We have no server and retain nothing. Your device keeps selectedCountryCode until you change your selected country or delete the app, at which point it is removed along with all other app data. Data collected by Google AdMob is retained according to Google's own retention policies, linked above.

7. Security

The one preference the app stores lives inside Apple's sandboxed app storage on your device, protected by standard iOS app security. Since we operate no servers and transmit no data of our own, there is no server-side data of ours to secure or breach.

8. Your choices and rights

  • Ad tracking: allow or deny it anytime in iPhone Settings → Privacy & Security → Tracking.
  • Ad personalization: review or limit it at adssettings.google.com.
  • Local data: deleting the app removes the one preference it stores, immediately and completely, since nothing is kept elsewhere.
  • EEA / UK / California residents: because we hold no personal data ourselves, requests to access, correct, or delete data collected for advertising should be directed to Google, as the party that actually processes it — see the links in Section 3.

9. Children's privacy

Tip Atlas is a general-audience utility (App Store age rating 4+) and is not directed at children. We do not knowingly collect data from children, and the app collects no personal information of any kind directly. If you believe a child has provided us information, contact us using the details below and we'll address it.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as the app changes — for example, if we add a new feature or change how ads are configured. The effective date at the top of this page will always reflect the latest version. Continuing to use the app after a change means you accept the updated policy.

Questions

Contact us about this policy

If anything here is unclear, or you'd like to ask about how Tip Atlas or Google AdMob handles data, reach out directly.

Email info@smelty.com.au