Privacy policy

Who runs Docent

Docent is a small service made in Nairobi, Kenya. In this policy, "Docent", "we" and "us" mean the people who run it. You can reach us at the email address at the end of this page.

Your location

Docent asks for your location when you use Get directions, when you start directions from a shared route, when you answer an Ask where they are link, or when you share your trip live.

Your phone works out where you are. Docent uses it on your phone to draw the map and to know which step is next. To find a route, the app sends your starting point and your destination to our server, which passes them to a routing service. We do not keep them.

You can refuse location access. Get directions then cannot start from where you are, but shared routes still play.

Routes and links

When you share a route, the whole route (the line, the stops, the landmarks, the steps and any notes) is packed into the link itself. We do not store routes on a server. Anyone who has the link can open the route, so share it only with people you want to have it.

A route to your home is personal. Think about the notes you add, such as gate descriptions, before you send the link.

What stays on your phone

Routes you open are saved in your browser or in the app, so you can open them again and replay them without data. The route you are making is saved there too, so you do not lose it if you close the page. Your voice setting is saved the same way.

Docent does not send this data to its own servers. You can remove saved routes on the My routes page, or clear it all by clearing the site data in your browser or uninstalling the app. The app turns off Android cloud backup, so this data is not copied to your Google account.

Sharing your trip live

If you choose Share my trip live, your position is sent every few seconds through Supabase Realtime to the people who open your live link. Positions pass through and are not saved. Sharing stops when you tap Stop sharing, finish the trip or close Docent.

Voice

Spoken directions are made by your phone's own text to speech. Docent does not use the microphone and does not send any audio anywhere.

Services we use and what they see

Docent is built on a few outside services. Each one sees only what it needs to do its job.

OpenFreeMap

Map tiles. Your phone downloads the map for the area you are looking at, so OpenFreeMap sees your internet address and that area.

Photon (Komoot) and Nominatim (OpenStreetMap)

Place search and place names. When you search, the words you type go through our server to these services. When you drop a pin, or a guest sends you their location, its coordinates go the same way so the place can be named. They see the search or the coordinates, not your internet address.

Google

Only when you paste a Google Maps link. Our server opens that link at Google to find the place it points to. Google sees the link, not your internet address.

Routing by FOSSGIS (routing.openstreetmap.de) or OpenRouteService

Routes. They receive the start, the destination and any stops through our server, not your internet address.

Vercel

Hosting. Vercel runs our website and server and keeps short technical logs of requests, including internet addresses and page addresses, to keep the service working and safe. A route link carries the route inside its address, so these short logs can include it.

Supabase

Live sharing only. It passes live positions between phones while a trip is being shared and does not store them.

We do not use advertising or tracking cookies, and we do not sell or rent data to anyone.

Children

Docent is not aimed at children under 13. A parent or guardian should decide whether a child uses directions or shares their location.

Your rights

Under the Kenya Data Protection Act 2019 you have the right to be told how your personal data is used, to see it, to have wrong data corrected, to have data deleted, and to object to its use.

Because Docent does not keep your location or your routes on a server, most of your data is already in your hands on your phone. If you have a question or a request, email us and we will help.

You can also complain to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner in Kenya.

Changes to this policy

If we change how Docent uses data, we will update this page and the date at the top. For a big change, we will also show a note in Docent.

Contact

Questions about privacy, or a request about your data: