Tickalot Privacy Policy

Updated 27 October 2026

Tickalot is an app for shopping, packing and sightseeing lists. It has no user accounts and runs no analytics. Until you buy "Remove ads", the Android app shows ads from Google AdMob.

What the app keeps, and where

• Your lists live in a database on your phone. The web version keeps them in your browser.
• A shared list also goes to Google Firebase (Cloud Firestore, Sydney region), so the people who get the link can see and edit it. The link alone opens the list. A list you keep to yourself stays on your phone.
• An item photo is shrunk to a small picture and saved inside the item. Firebase receives it only once the list is shared.
• Aisles of a store found online are saved in Google Firebase under the shop's OpenStreetMap id, and each person who picks that shop sees them. They record the aisle of each section and how often people ticked one section ahead of another in that shop. They carry no details about you.
• A store you add yourself, and the store chosen for each list, stay on your phone.

Signing in to Firebase

For a shared list, the app signs in to Firebase Authentication anonymously. Firebase hands the app a random user id. No name, email or phone number is tied to that id. The app uses the id only so the database accepts its edits.

Ads

• Google AdMob serves the ads in the Android app. To choose and count them, Google gets your advertising ID, your IP address, the phone model and how you interact with the ads. Google's own policy covers that data: https://policies.google.com/technologies/ads. How Google uses data from apps that carry its ads: https://policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.
• Your lists stay out of the ads. The app sends AdMob no list, item, photo or place.
• In the EEA, the UK and Switzerland the app asks for your consent before it loads an ad. You can change the answer under "Ad privacy choices" in Settings.
• Less personal ads follow once you turn off ad personalisation in the phone's Google settings, or delete the advertising ID there.
• The website carries no ads.

Purchases

You pay for "Remove ads" through Google Play, and Google holds the payment details. The app learns only that your Google account owns the purchase. It stores that fact on the phone.

Phone permissions

• Microphone only while you dictate items. The Android speech service (Google) turns your voice into text. The app keeps the text and drops the sound.
• Camera only while you photograph an item or an aisle sign. The phone itself reads the text on the sign, and the app keeps only the aisle numbers.

Where the app connects

• Google Firebase for shared lists, as described above.
• Wikipedia and Wikidata when you build a "things to see" list. They get the name of the town you type.
• Wikimedia Commons for the photos of places.
• OpenStreetMap (Nominatim) when you search for a store. It gets the text you search for.
• Coles and Woolworths when a shopping list opens, for their online prices. Their sites get the item names in English, at most once a day. The website asks Woolworths only.
• Google Maps opens when you tap a route or a place.
• Google AdMob for ads, as described above, until you remove them.
• Google Play to sell the "Remove ads" purchase and check it.
• GitHub, in the version installed from GitHub only, to look for a newer version.

Deleting your data

• Lists on your phone are gone once you delete them or uninstall the app.
• A shared list stays in Firebase for the other people who hold its link. To get it removed from Firebase, email its link to the address below.

Children

The app isn't aimed at children under 13.

Contact

Email workbench.soft@gmail.com.