Privacy policy

TrenchDocs collects no personal data. There is no account, no server, no analytics, no advertising and no tracking. Everything you record stays on your own device.

Who is behind the app

TrenchDocs is developed and published by Bjerkestrand Utvikling, org. no. 838460682, proprietor Bjørnar Bjerkestrand, registered in Norway. Privacy enquiries go to support@byggjournal.com.

What you record

Projects, trenches, lines, installations, depths, backfill and anything else you enter are stored in a database inside the app's own storage area on the device. Photos and attachments are stored as files in the same place, and the database keeps track of the file names.

None of this is transmitted to the publisher, and none of it is shared with third parties. The publisher has no technical means of reading, retrieving or restoring the content, because it never leaves the device unless you share it yourself.

If you enter information about other people, such as a client's name or an address in a project, you or your company decide what is recorded and who it is sent on to.

Location

The app asks for location only while it is in use. It is used when you place a point on the line or an installation where you are standing, when you choose to show where you are on the map, and when you take or add a photo, so the photo gets the position where it was taken. When you open a trench or an area that has nothing on the map yet, the app reads the position once to show the map where you are.

Positions are stored with the records on the device, like the rest of the content, and are not sent out of the app. They are what the phone reports, with the uncertainty the phone itself reports — not a survey.

The app never asks for location in the background and does not follow you when you are not using it. You can withdraw access at any time in Settings and still use the app — you then place points with the crosshair on the map.

Camera and photos

The app asks for access to the camera and photo library only when you choose to take or add a photo. The image is copied into the app's own storage and stays there. It is not uploaded anywhere.

Each photo is saved again from the image itself, without metadata: no location, no time and no details about the phone are kept in the image file. The position the phone reported when the photo was taken is a field in the app's database, not something hidden in the image. Share a photo on its own, and no coordinates travel with it.

Attachments

An excavation plan, a utility locating survey and other files you attach to a trench are copied into the app's storage and kept as they are. The app does not read them. Remove an attachment in the app and the copy is deleted; your own file is not touched.

The background map — the only thing that goes over the network

The app uses Apple's maps, and in Norway the map from the Norwegian Mapping Authority (Kartverket) — both on screen and as the background in the report. Outside Norway the line in the report is drawn without a background map. This is the only network traffic the app has.

What is sent is a request for a particular map area, together with the device's IP address — as any request on the internet needs a sender. Which area is fetched depends on what is shown on screen, or where the trench in the report lies.

No records, photos, measurements or notes go with the request. The map providers do not see what you document, and they receive nothing from the app's database. How each provider handles the IP address is up to them, not the publisher, and the publisher receives nothing from them.

What the app does not collect

• No name, email address or account details — there is no sign-in
• No usage statistics, tracking or analytics
• No crash reporting to third parties
• No advertising identifier, and no sharing of data across apps or companies
• No contacts and no microphone
• No location data sent off the device

That is why the App Store lists the app as “Data Not Collected”.

Export and sharing

The app can make four kinds of file from your content: a PDF report, a spreadsheet (CSV), a map file (GeoJSON) and a full backup as a ZIP file. All of them go through the iOS share sheet, so you choose where the file ends up. Nothing is sent anywhere automatically.

If you email a file, upload it to a project archive or save it in a cloud service, the terms and privacy policy of the service you chose apply. From that moment the file is outside the app's control, and its content is your responsibility.

iCloud Backup

If iCloud Backup is turned on for the device, the app's content is included in the backup, like the content of other apps. The copy sits in your own iCloud account with Apple, not with the publisher. That processing is under Apple's terms, and you control it yourself in Settings.

App Store purchases

The subscription is bought, renewed and cancelled with Apple. The app asks Apple's purchase system on the device whether the subscription is active, and uses the answer only to know whether recording and editing should be open. No information about the purchase is sent to the publisher or any third party.

Purchases and downloads are handled by Apple. The publisher receives payouts and sales figures from Apple in aggregate, without anything that identifies an individual buyer. If you have chosen to share usage and crash data with developers in iOS settings, the publisher receives this from Apple as anonymised, aggregated statistics. You can turn it off under Settings → Privacy & Security → Analytics & Improvements.

This website

This website uses no cookies, no visitor statistics and no content loaded from other sites. The company hosting the server keeps ordinary technical logs of traffic, including IP address and time. These logs are used for operation and security, not to follow individual visitors.

Your rights

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) gives you the right of access, rectification, erasure and data portability. Because the publisher holds no information about you, you exercise these rights directly in the app: you see all the content there, you correct it, you export it in open formats, and you delete it — item by item or a whole project at a time. To remove everything at once, delete the app from the device; the database, photos and attachments go with it.

If you still believe your privacy has not been respected, you can contact the publisher at support@byggjournal.com, and you can complain to the Norwegian Data Protection Authority (Datatilsynet) or the supervisory authority where you live.

Children

The app is made for professional use and is not aimed at children. In any case it collects no information about any user.

Changes

If the way the app handles data changes, this policy is updated before the change takes effect, and the date at the top is set to the new one. Earlier versions are available on request.